The Tupelo journal., 1906-03-30
TupELo MISSISSIPPI FRIDAY MARCH 80 1906
pEN.plTURES OF THE OLDEN Time
BY COL w L. CLAYTON.

-. q
great patriot, ever having in
view obedience to law and order.
remember another very re-
markable Cumberland Presbyte-
rian preacher, who lived out west
of old Richmond in 1856 and
sometime previous and subse-
quent thereto by the name of
Walker NJ. Allen. He was a
tall spare made man, with coarse
close cut, black hair, with a
piercing, intelligent eye. He
was a self made man, possessing
a classical education, and was a
fine preacher. He lived in the
McGaughy neighborhood, and |
think organized the Cumberland
Presbyterian church in that com
munity, but Of that | am not GER
tain. He was also a great lover
of controversy on the subject of
Baptism. He was quite critical,
and | remember in those early
days to have read a series of
articles by him and Elder B. F.
Manier on the subject Of bap-
tism. He left this country
about the beginning of the war
and moved to Marshall, Texas,
where he was an honored min
lister for many years, having died
only a few years ago. Again, |
remember, and shall never for
get while the ages roll, still anoth
er Cumberland Presbyterian
minister, my own dear brother
Benjamin l.. Clayton, who began
preparing for the ministry in the
early fifties. He lived at that
time near my fathers old home
near Mooresville, then in old It
awamba county He'was a very
timid man, never having much
opinion Of his own capasity, and
averse to putting himself forward
He had been preaching many
years before he could be induced
to come out at all to preach before
Presbytery, and it was always
q great task for him. He was a
man Of good mind. but limited
education, possessing as warm
and tender heart as any man |
have ever known or heard preach.
He possessed the unbounded con-
Efidence of his pafishioners, and NO
man ever knew Ben Clayton but
to honor and love him. He preaced
out at old Bethlehem, near the
place where Eugene Curtiss now
lives for very many years, and |
feel sure he accomplished much
good. He. was a very earnest,
warm hearted preacher: leading
every body to believe that he
had his people on his heart. He
did not write his sermons, but
studied them carefully, delivered
them in a plain and simple style,
yet as he warmed up under the
inspiration of the delivery, the au-
dience forgot that they were not
listening to an eloquent minister.
But the charm Of his life and in
tluence was in the home. His
home life was a benediction to all
who come in contact with it. |
have myself spent much time
with him in the bosom of his
family and on the farm and in
the woods and on the trout
streams fishing together, and
he was ever as kind as a loving
mother, as gentle as a woman
and as reverent as a Bishop. And
when the birds sang and the
squirrels jumped from limb to
limb, and the flowers bloomed,
and the leaves of autumn fell,
and he walked or rode amid the
tall trunks Of the primeval for
est, he showed himself, a great
lover of nature and Of natures
+! God. Memory carries me back to
the fifties to this brother coun-
try home on old Boguefalah and,
| / then see him, with benignant
Icountenance, sitting in the midst
7 of his family, opening the old
| family bible. and calling the
wife and children around his
knees that they might hear the
word read and the prayer by
which they were commended to
heaven. 1t was comely sight to
behold. But the scene changes.
| look again, when twenty years
have rolled their circles around,
and see him in another home and
at another place, and the wife of
his youth is gone, and he him
self looks toward that city which
| have so often heard him speak
of in his sermons, realizing at
the same time that his feet were
passing over the brink. But the
gospel which he so earnestly
commended to others, and which
| had been his hope in life, now
proved to be his solace in death;
and SO with an unWavering trust
ae was enabled to wrap the dra-
perry Of his couch about him and
lie down to pleasant dreams. =
| Brother. the rest thou SO Of