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NURTURED in the bloody
scenes of the Revolution, Mr. Wilson was pre-eminently a man of peace.
"No cases come to court from that part of Mecklenburg," was said
significantly of Rocky River and Philadelphia, while he was pastor of
these two large and flourishing congregations, numbering, at his death,
more members than any other pastoral charge in the Synod, and composing
originally but one congregation, by the name of Rocky River. His early
years were spent at the place of his birth, about six miles east of
Charlotte, in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, within the bounds of
Sugar Creek congregation. The event of his birth took place in the year
1769. His father was from England, and in early life was engaged in
mercantile business in Philadelphia. From that city he removed to North
Carolina, married, and settled in Mecklenburg county, and was actively
engaged with the citizens of that section of country, that Tarleton, in
his Campaigns, says was "more hostile to England than any other part of
America" in carrying on the struggle for Independence. He died before
the British army encamped at Charlotte in 1780, leaving three children.
When the ravages of the enemy in South Carolina, particularly about the
time of Buford's Massacre, drove the inhabitants from their houses to
seek refuge in North Carolina, the families on the Waxhaw found refuge
in Mecklenburg, and widow Jackson, with her son Andrew, resided for a
time at the house of widow Wilson. The two boys, Andrew and John M.,
were of about the same age, and worked and played together, full of the
spirit of independence, little conscious of the part they would
afterwards act, one in the church, and the other in the state. The place
in which Andrew Jackson passed his early years was claimed by North
Carolina for a long time; but is within the bounds of South Carolina, as
now settled by the mutual agreement of the States.
The congregation of Sugar
Creek had for its pastor Rev. Joseph Alexander, who was one of the five
pastors that regularly served their congregations during the distressing
scenes of the war, between the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers. His compeers
in service, Hall, Balch, McCaule and McCorkle, were no common men. In
their congregations the regular instructions in the sanctuary, and the
religious education of children, were less neglected than in those
congregations around that were served by missionaries, and supplies sent
out by the Synod of New York and Philadelphia.
An incident in the early life of Mr. Wilson
was often referred to by his mother. When just beginning to walk, he
strayed away to amuse himself, in a distant part of the yard enclosing
the house. After a little time he was seen sitting on the ground
apparently greatly pleased with some object lying by his side. His
mother's approach but pleased him the more, in his dangerous sport. With
breathless haste she seized him, quick as thought, and pressed him to
her bosom, overcome with emotion; for he was drawing his hand over the
folds of a large rattlesnake, apparently delighted with the smooth skin
and bright colors of the reptile. his preservation was considered
providential; and the thoughts and reflections connected with it had an
influence on his future life. A pious mother could scarcely refrain from
devoting such a boy to God's peculiar service, with an energy that must
affect, not only her own, but also the mind and heart of her child. And
we are not surprised to find that he was encouraged in early life to
commence a literary course of study.
The intended college at Charlotte had been
denied a charter by the king, though no money or any peculiar privileges
had been sought from the government, and the colonial legislature had
twice granted the request of the people of Mecklenburg, who were anxious
for the education of their sons : and the invasion of North Carolina by
Cornwallis, in 1780, had broken up the institution which was in active
operation under Dr. McWhorter, from New Jersey, without State patronage,
under the name of Liberty Mall. After the departure of time invading
army, the exercises of the institution to supply the place of a high
school and measurably of a college, were resumed under the directions of
Dr. Henderson, a physician of eminence. At this school, when twelve
years old, Mr. Wilson commenced his classical education. For want of
funds the dumber of teachers was small, and the public attention was so
drawn by the efforts to establish Mount Zion College at Winnsborough,
South Carolina, under the talented president, the Rev. T. H. McCaule,
that little was done for the Charlotte school except what might be
accomplished by the enterprise of a few individuals.
his literary course was completed at Hampden
Sydney College, in Prince Edward county, Va., then having for its
President., that noted, and eminently successful preacher, John B.
Smith, D.D., whose name is connected with that great revival of religion
in 1788, and onward, the influence of which was felt in Virginia and
Carolina, in bringing multitudes into the church, some few of whom still
remain, just on the horizon of Life—and in raising up a host of
preachers, whose labors have done much to spread the influence of the
gospel over the South and West. For a classmate, he had Moses Waddel,
afterwards distinguished as a divine and teacher of youth, having
trained some of the most eminent men in South Carolina both in Church
and State; and contested with him the first distinction at the
graduation of the class.
Having heartily embraced the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ, as containing the principles by which he would be
governed, and the truths by which he hoped to be saved, he devoted
himself to the work of the ministry of reconciliation; and chose as his
preceptor in Theology, that pioneer of domestic missions in North
Carolina, the Rev. James Hall, D.D., of Iredell county, whom he had
known from his youth.
The Presbytery of Orange, at that time
embracing all North Carolina, in time summer of 1793, gave him license
to preach the gospel as a probationer; and according to a good custom of
sending candidates on missions, the revival of which would be
advantageous to time church, the ministers, and the community at large,
he was sent by the commission of Synod, on a missionary excursion of
many months through the counties in the lower part of the State. He then
made his residence for some years in Burke county, in the midst of a
shrewd, intelligent population, of Scotch-Irish origin, from among whom
but few churches had at that time been gathered; and was ordained pastor
about the year 1795. With the people of Burke county, he remained till
the year 1801, when he accepted a call from the congregation of Rocky
River and Philadelphia. While resident in Burke county, his labors, as a
minister, were eminently successful in raising the standard of piety, in
planting new churches, and adding to the numbers of the old ones; and
when he left the county, he carried with him the high respect of the
community at large, and the reverence of Christians.
While resident in Burke he was united in
marriage with Miss Mary Erwin, the daughter of Alexander Erwin, of that
county, and found in her an amiable, pious, and intelligent companion,
and pastor's wife, for more than thirty years. he survived her about
five years. The
congregation to which he removed in 1801, and in the service of which he
spent his manhood and his age, originally formed but one, and that among
the oldest in the Presbytery of Concord, or in the State. The precise
date of the first settlements in that part of Mecklenburg included in
the bounds of Rocky River congregation cannot now be known, but as early
as 1755 a request for supplies from Rocky River appears upon the records
of the Synod of New York. Mention is made of the destitute state of the
neighborhoods of North Carolina, but the names of places are not given.
But in 1755 "Synod appoint Mr. Clark to take a journey into Virginia and
North Carolina, to supply the, vacancies there for six months, betwixt
this and next Synod, particularly at Rocky River and Sugar Creek, at the
Hawfields, Eno, Hico, and Dan Rivers." The Rev. Alexander Craighead
retreating from the incursions of the Indians that were laying waste the
frontiers of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, after Braddock's
defeat, in 1755, visited this country, to which part of his flock had
retreated from the Cowpasture. The time of his first visit cannot be
precisely ascertained. In January, 1758, the Presbytery of Hanover
holding its session at Capt. Anderson's, in Cumberland county, Virginia,
directed Mr. Craighead to visit Rocky River on the second Sabbath of
February. In the April following a regular call was presented from Rocky
River for Mr. Craighead's services, which he accepted; an order was
taken for his installation by Mr. Martin. This order not being carried
into effect, the Rev. W. Richardson was directed, in September, to
attend to the installation, while on his way to the Cherokee Indians.
This it appears was attended to.
In the year 1761, in the list of places
supplicating supplies from the Synod of New York and New Jersey, Rocky
River has a place, and the naive of Daniel Caldwell, one of the first
settlers, was on the list of members of Synod.
The first regular supply after Mr. Craighead
of whom there is any account, was the Rev. Hezekiah James Balch, of
Revolutionary memory, who by order of Synod was ordained in 1769, to
accept a call from Carolina by the Presbytery of Donegall, by which he
had been licensed as probationer in 1768.
Rocky River was one of
the seven congregations that covered the region of country represented
in the convention at Charlotte, of Declaration memory, and was no
disinterested spectator of the doings and catastrophe of the
Regulation.. The first settlers in the bounds of the congregation were
all of the Scotch-Irish race, that landed in Pennsylvania, and after
tarrying a short time there, or in Maryland, found their way to North
Carolina. As was usual, they came in a company: Col. Robert Harris, on
Reedy Creek his brother, Samuel Harris, on Clear Creek; Andrew Davis, on
Reedy Creek; Moses Shelby, on Clear Creek; Wm. White and his two
brothers, James and Archibald, on or near Rocky River.
David Caldwell, on Caldwell's Creek; and
Adam Alexander on Clear Creek. Others probably carne with these, but
their names are not known. As the tide of emigration was turned by the
Indian depredations to the peaceful streams of Carolina, the settlements
rapidly increased and formed a vigorous, active and independent part of
the county. The Morrison family cave early to Rocky River from Scotland,
making a short sojourn in Pennsylvania. There were three brothers, two
of them lived to a great aye. The descendants of the Harris, Alexander
and Morrison families have been numerous; of the latter, nine have
entered the ministry, and others are preparing.
When the conflict was going on between the
governor and those Regulators that lived in Granville, Orange and
Guilford, the people composing this congregation, in the mass, favorable
to their fellow-citizens and kinsmen in those counties, were not,
nevertheless, united as to the course to be pursued. Not having felt all
the provocations and impositions of the people of Orange and Guilford,
they sympathized deeply, but were not prepared to resist the governor by
force of arms. The orders of the governor for the militia of the western
counties, to send their proportion of men to march under the command of
General Waddel, called out Capt. Adam Alexander, one of the first
settlers. how many of his militia company went with him is not known.
That he was unnwilling to shed the blood of the Regulators, is readily
seen by reverting to the course he pursued in persuading Waddel to
retreat across the Yadkin, instead of engaging in battle or continuing
his march to meet the governor.
But other citizens of Rocky River were more
decided in their feelings and course, and openly espoused the cause of
the Regulators, refusing to serve against them, and acting decisively
for them. General Waddel, who was ordered to rendezvous at Salisbury,
and wait for the militia to meet him on the 2d of May, was at his post
with a considerable force, and delayed his march, to join the Governor,
till he should receive the supply of ammunition expected at Charleston,
South Carolina. A
convoy of three wagons, loaded principally with powder, was on the way,
with a small force for a guard; passing through Mecklenburg county
unmolested and unsuspecting, they were encamped for the night, on the
Salisbury road, about three miles \vest of where Concord town now
stands, Cabarrus being then part of Mecklenburg county, when a plan was
suddenly proposed for the destruction of the powder, and as suddenly
executed. Nine persons from the Rocky River congregation,—James,
William, and John White, three brothers, and soles of James White, one
of the first settlers on Rocky River; William White, a cousin of theirs;
Robert Caruthers, Benjamin Cochran, Robert Davis, son of Andrew Davis,
one of the first settlers on Reedy Creek; James Ashmore, and Joshua
Hedley, with William Alexander, of Sugar Creek congregation, and perhaps
one or two others, bind themselves with a singular and awful oath, to
assist each other in the enterprise on hand, and keep the secret of
their participation while there might be danger in the acknowledgment;
and then blacking their faces and hands, and otherwise disfiguring
themselves as Indians, about the breaking of day they seized upon the
convoy, and permitting the drivers and their teams to go on unharmed
with the guard, pouring out the powder upon the ground in one large
pile, and laying a train, they set fire. The explosion was felt for many
miles. Some thought it thundered; others that the earth quaked.
This event, With the unwillingness expressed
by the militia to kill their countrymen, disheartened Gen. Waddel from
forming a junction with the Governor. The secret for a time was well
kept, notwithstanding the rewards offered for discovery, and the threats
of condign punishment from the Governor and officers of the crown. At
last one, under bodily fear, revealed the names of his fellow actors,
and put them all to great trouble for a time, and inflicted lasting
sufferings upon himself in his own reflections. The Declaration of
Independence relieved them from further apprehension till the invasion
by Cornwallis. The leader of the party was William Alexander, who, to
distinguish himself from others of the same surname in the numerous
class of Alexanders, was called Black Billy to the day of his death. His
bones lie in Sugar Creek grave-yard.
Adam Alexander was one of the members of the
convention that issued the famous declaration of independence, and
served as colonel of the militia. During the war he was frequently in
service. Moses Shelby lived upon the farm, and built the house occupied
by Rev. Mr. Wilson, while pastor of the congregation. His family, part
of them at least, were born in Maryland previous, to the emigration- to
Carolina. John Query, one of the convention at Charlotte, belonged to
the bounds of Rocky River. He, Adana Alexander and Moses Shelby, lived
in the bounds of what is now Philadelphia, called for a time, Clear
Creek. The two former were both elders in the church.
These few facts are mentioned to show the
patriotism of the charge to which Dr. Wilson ministered the greater part
of his active life. He labored with and for the men who acted in the
Revolution, and for their children. And if the men that pitched their
tents in this part of Cabarrus were like their descendants that meet at
Rocky River and Philadelphia, as members of the church, they were men
that loved their Bibles and Catechisms, and feared God.
Mr. Balch preached at Rocky River and Poplar
Tent until removed by death, after a service of about six or seven
years. About the year 1778, Robert Archibald was ordained as pastor, and
continued for a number of years to preach at Rocky River and Poplar
Tent, and teaching a classical school at Poplar Tent, in which some
eminent men were educated.
During a vacancy in the church, after Mr.
Archibald ceased to preach, the Rev. James Hall, of Iredell, and Rev.
Joseph D. Kilpatrick, were sent by the Presbytery to hold a communion
with the church. Those seasons were then preceded and followed by days
of preaching to the great. congregations that would generally collect;
and were often, as in this case, followed by special blessings. Although
the church was without a pastor, a precious revival accompanied and
followed this meeting, which resulted in great accessions to the church;
and was one of the most blessed of the numerous revivals enjoyed by
Rocky River church.
Mr. Alexander Caldwell, son of the venerable
David Caldwell, was ordained as the pastor of these churches, 1793, and
served them with great acceptance, until the year 1797. To superior
mental endowments, and great acquirements, he added a fine person,
portly gait, engaging manners, and eminent Christian character. But in
the inscrutable providence of God, he was afflicted with the greatest of
human maladies, and his fine powers and superior acquirements all ran to
waste under the influence of a disturbed intellect. Archibald, his
predecessor, of whom an account will be given in another place, a man of
talents, was wrecked on the shoals of false doctrine and ungoverned
appetites. For him, the congregation mourned in abasement, as for a
fallen star. But
they wept for Caldwell, in compassion and amazement, as they beheld the
ruins of a powerful intellect, unstained by crime, inoffensive from
moral pollution, walking among them like the sun eclipsed, dimmed but
unfallen. The first
symptom of the disease was melancholy, and through the remainder of his
life, which was protracted to the year 1841, an air of pensive sadness
hung upon his features. Studious, philosophic, cheerful, and devotional,
he spent his time in adding manuscript to manuscript; always harmless,
and peculiarly attentive to the private duties of a Christian, he
attracted the attention, and awakened the sympathies of his whole circle
of acquaintances. His immense collection of manuscripts exhibited
reading, investigation, logical discussion; but a vein of disorganizing
madness ran through the whole. One cannot reflect without emotion, upon
the happy change that, in all human probability, death must have wrought
upon his diseased mind, when his mortality was put off, and his
immortality put on in the presence of God.
Mr. Wilson, the successor of Air. Caldwell,
after an interval occupied by supplies, received his dismission from
Quaker Meadow, and his calls to Rocky River and Philadelphia, at the
same Presbytery, Sept., 1801. His ministerial course was worthy of the
age in which he was born, and the instructors by whose instrumentality
he was fitted for the work of his Lord's vineyard. If there be truth in
the proverb that "he is the best fisherman who catches most fish,"
Wilson was among; time best of preachers and pastors. A brother
minister, well acquainted with the circumstances, says—"It is believed
that no such country congregation, as Rocky River, can be found south of
Pennsylvania; and Philadelphia is among the largest in the .Presbytery
of Concord. Since his death, each church has its pastor, which might
have been so long before that event, but for the attachment to him as a
roan and a Minister."
A successor to Mr. Wilson says of him—"I
have formed a very high estimate of his learning, piety, and successful
labors as a minister of .Jesus Christ; and this estimate I have formed
almost exclusively from intercourse with the people of his former
charge, and the fruits still visible of his long-continued labors among
them. 'I'o this day his opinions and example are often referred to, as,
after the Bible, of paramount authority, and that by almost all classes
in the community. It is no doubt owing, in a great measure, to Dr.
Wilson's training, that Rocky River congregation is (perhaps I might
say) noted for the following particulars, viz.
1st. General, constant, and punctual, as
well as respectful attendance upon the stated public means of grace. All
the families attend church.
"2d. Their system, union and harmony of
action in managing congregational affairs, especially in financial
concerns. "3d. The
very manifest intelligence, especially of the older people, and
particularly in religious knowledge.
4th. The attention which is universally paid
to the Catechisms and other doctrinal instructions of the church."
"It was his custom," says the author of a
sketch of his life, "regularly to hold examinations in the various
sections of his congregations, in which the adults were examined in the
doctrines and precepts of the Bible, and the children were catechised in
the most condescending and affectionate manner. Such examinations were
instrumental in diffusing a spirit of improvement, removing prejudices
against the truth, increasing the amount of scriptural knowledge, and
securing steadfastness in the faith of Christians. Hence, perhaps, few
congregations can be found where there is more knowledge respecting the
doctrines of religion, compared with their attainments on other
subjects, than those to which he ministered."
His manner of preaching, free from all
harshness, was strikingly characterized by a tenderness that reached the
hearts of those for whom it was felt. He never pretended a fervency
which he did not feel; and reverence for God appeared both in the matter
and manner of his sermons. He valued men's souls, and feared his God.
"He trusted in God to make him faithful and successful in his work. This
dependence upon God for success, so far from relaxing his diligence,
stimulated him to greater activity in preaching the gospel, and was the
ground of his encouragement amid all his labors." "His zeal did not rise
and sink, as the outward appearances of usefulness were bright or
forbidding. But his life presented a uniformity of untiring effort,
which seemed to flow from an unshaken confidence in the presence and
blessing of God. This strong and humble reliance upon God proved how
deep and abiding was the impression of the magnitude and responsibility
of his ministry. Dr. Wilson earnestly desired and confidently expected
success in his work,—and he was not forsaken to the curse of those who
do the word of God deceitfully."
He regarded an unwillingness to submit to
the decision of pious, judicious, and disinterested arbitrators, as
evidence of a bad cause, or proof of malignity inconsistent with the
spirit of true religion. He believed that the members of the church are
competent to settle their differences by friendly reference to each
other, and that they are bound to do so by the laws of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So judicious and affectionate were his counsels on this subject,
and such the weight of his influence, that it was comparatively rare for
suits to be taken by the members of his churches to the civil courts.
After laboring with his people some eleven
years, he yielded to their solicitations to open an academy for the
education of young men, particularly as some of the members of his
charge wished to educate their sons for the ministry. He opened his
academy about a mile from his house, in 1812, and had a flourishing
school while he continued to teach, which was about twelve years. Most
of his pupils entered public life, and twenty-five became ministers of
the gospel. The following is a list:—Rev. Messrs. Jas. Morrison, N. R.
Morgan, Thomas Alexander, John Silliinan, John M. Erwin, Robert King,
James B. Stafford, R. H. Morrison, Elam J: Morrison, Hugh Wilson, Samuel
L. Watson, Thomas Davis, Cyrus Johnston, Henry N. Pharr, J. Le Roy
Davies, Win. B. Davies, C. Le Roy Boyd, James Stafford, Alexander E.
Wilson, James E. Morrison, Robert Hall, John H. Wilson, Dion C. Pharr,
Wm. N. Morrison, A. R. Pharr. In about fifteen years fifteen young men
from Rocky River entered the ministry, many of whom could not have
received a classical education but for Dr. Wilson's academy. His
students loved him, venerated and obeyed him; and under the discipline
of his school felt impelled to efforts after goodness and excellence.
Punctual in his attendance on the
judicatories of the church, in which he was an active and beloved
member, his last visits from home were in attendance on the Presbytery
in Morganton, in the fall of 1830, and on the Synod, whose sessions were
held soon after in Hopewell. From peculiar excitement, he slept little
during these meetings, and returned hone laboring under a degree of
exhaustion from which he never recovered. Dr. Morrison, the author of a
short memoir of him that appeared in the Watchman of the South, who had
been one of his pupils and had grown up under his ministry, says—" It
was our privilege to visit him not long before his death. Apparently
impressed with the belief that the interview might be the last, he
voluntarily and tenderly spoke of his prospects. He stated distinctly,
and perhaps repeated it, that in facing death, he had no transporting
views or rapturous feelings, but a firm and sustaining hope of heaven,
founded solely on the merits of Christ. He alluded to the labors of his
life, only to praise God for the tokens of his grace; expressed entire
submission to the divine will in reference to his dissolution, and a
joyful expectation of spending eternity in the presence and work of the
Redeemer. Nothing could be more animating than the confidence be
expressed in our Lord Jesus Christ."
His death, confidently expected by himself,
came at last somewhat unexpectedly to his family, as he himself had
intimated that it probably would. The last evening of his life, he sat
up till his usual hour, conversing cheerfully with his family, showing
no special symptoms of his immediate dissolution, and having walked
about that day. About three o'clock in the morning, he called to his son
Isaac, complaining of being cold, and uttering a few broken incoherent
expressions, became speechless. About nine o'clock on the morning of
Saturday, the 30th of July, 1831, his spirit passed away from earth to
meet his Saviour in paradise.
Dr. Robinson, of Poplar Tent, his long-tried
and valued friend, his school-mate at Charlotte, his fellow student of
theology, with Dr. Hall, of Iredell, and his near neighbor and co-laborer
in the ministry for many years, reached his house on Saturday afternoon,
according to a previous appointment, to spend the night and preach at
Rocky River on the following Sabbath.
A large part of the Philadelphia
congregation assembled with the congregation of Rocky River on Sabbath,
and paid the last attention to the remains of the beloved pastor. The
immense church of Rocky River being too small for the assembly, the
corpse was placed in front of the stand or tent, in the beautiful grove
occupied by the congregation for sacramental meetings, and the people
gathered around. In that grove, sacred from recollections of communion
services from time immemorial, and now hallowed by the first funeral
rites of a pastor, they listened, with emotions unutterable, to the
funeral discourse of the venerable man, who had come to visit, not to
bury his friend; and then followed to the grave the remains of the
minister under whose instruction the greater part of them had grown up
to years of discretion, and many had obtained hopes of acceptance with
God.
Of his nine children,
five were sons; of these, two became ministers of the gospel. One, John
Wilson, the successor of Dr. Hall, is still living. The other, Alexander
E. Wilson, died in Africa. On account of an impediment in his speech,
supposing that he could not be useful as a preacher, he had pursued the
study and commenced the practice of medicine; but feeling the desire to
spend and be spent in the labors of the gospel ministry increasing upon
him, he gave up the very fair prospects by which he was surrounded in
the pursuit of his profession, and devoted himself to the cause of
missions in Africa, to which country the successor of Dr. Wilson, the
Rev. Daniel Lindley, had turned his attention as the field of labor for
which he would exchange the flourishing congregation of Rocky River. In
company with his pastor, Mr. Wilson sailed to Africa. After many
difficulties, the mission was established among the Zulu tribes with
fair prospects; but the unhappy war between the natives and the
colonists broke up the mission. Mr. Wilson was called by the providence
of God to bury with his own hands his beloved wife, who had accompanied
him from Richmond, Virginia, afflicted yet not dispirited by her death.
The devoted woman having cheerfully encountered hardships to which she
was unaccustomed, and as it appears unequal, just entered the little
cabin built for her residence as a missionary, and found that in the
mysterious providence of God, her life must end just when she supposed
her missionary usefulness had commenced. Committing all things to the
hand of Him whom she served, she was joyful in death, and sent to her
relations and friends in America the cheering message that she was glad
she had come to Africa, though she was to find so early a grave. After a
visit to his native State, Mr. Wilson returned to Africa, and commenced
the work of a missionary, with unabated zeal, on the Western coast. His
race was short, being called to his reward on the day * * * of * *
* , he laid his bones in the soil of his intended field of labor, the
offering from Rocky River, and the earnest of future blessings in that
debased land. "To
comprehend how great a work Dr. Wilson performed, we should be able to
tell into how many families he bore the words of instruction anal
consolation, to how many souls he was the instrument of salvation, to
how many minds he was the means of unsealing the fountains of knowledge;
and not only how many ambassadors of Christ he was blessed of God in
raising up, but how great their influence shall be for good on earth. *
* * * No doubt, generations will pass before the witnesses of his useful
ness below shall cease to meet him on high, and when the register shall
be completed on earth, it will be remembered in Heaven."
"In the new grave-yard north of Rocky River
church, to the left of the entrance stands the marble which marks the
grave of this great and good man." The inscription upon the grave-stone
of the only minister whose ashes repose with the congregation of Rocky
River, is Sacred to
the memory of the learned, pious,
and venerable minister of the gospel, Rev.
John M. Wilson, D.D., who departed this life, July
30th, 1831, aged 62 years, for about 30 years the
able, and faithful, and beloved pastor of Rocky River
and Philadelphia churches. They that be wise shall
shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they
that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.
Dr. Wilson was about the ordinary height in
person, of a remarkably pleasant, cheerful countenance; with a clear,
blue, penetrating eye, and a fine forehead. Calmness, decision, and
energy, were clearly indicated by his looks and movements. He was a rare
combination of decision and force, with benignity and amiability.
Says one who sat long under his ministry,
"It was amazing how he would hold the attention of his audience from
beginning to the end of his sermon, using so little gesture, often
manifesting deep feeling, seldom any excitement." |
