- Schools and Colleges - Taken from Page #263 **** A new institution was established at Holmesville, eight miles east of Magnolia, by H Walter Featherstun, called Kavanaugh College. It began its first session on September 29, 1884. H W Featherstun was appointed president.
Changes in Colleges - Taken from Page #458 H.W. Featherstun resigned the presidency of Edward McGehee College at Woodville, and Professor J A Monroe, M. A., a graduate of Trinity College, North Carolina, was elected President.
Taken from 36 Methodism in the Mississippi Conference, 1894 - 1919 By J Allen Lindsey
Chapter I, The Year was 1895, Taken from Page #6 Colleges Edward McGehee College at Woodville closed its session with a commencement program on June 9th. Fifty - three young ladies had attended its classes that year. There were five teachers, Miss Ruth Featherstun of Yazoo City and Miss Ethel Lewis of Woodville received B. S. Degrees. A. B. Degrees were conferred upon Miss Carolean Collens and Miss Julia Roldan. Dr H W Featherstun resigned the presidency of the school and Professor A J Monroe was elected to succeed him.
Chapter XVI, The Year was 1885, Taken from Page #286 Commencements The commencement at Kavanaugh College was held June 28 - July 3. The sermon was preached by J E Thigpen of Hazlehurst, and the annual address was delivered by Honorable T R Stockdale. The college as located at Holmesville, Pike County, and came into existence though the guiding hand of H Walter Featherstun.
Taken from Page #17 , Interesting Gleanings Much space in the New Orleans Advocate this year was devoted to debating “holiness, the second blessing, and entire sanctification.” The Reverend H Walter Featherstun of Yazoo City had a book published by the Pearl Press, N A Mott, publisher. It contained 100 pages, sold for 40 cents, and was entitled, Second Blessing versus Holiness.
There were also numerous articles in the Advocate issues of the year maintaining the position that the Mississippi Conference was run by political “rings,” that certain preachers were always provided for, and that some preachers had to be moved to make room for the “Conference Pets.”
Chapter II, The Year was 1895, Taken from Page #29 Interesting Facts An eight - page weekly paper, “The Mississippi Prohibitionist,” published the first issue at Jackson on March 21, 1896. The editor - in - chief was the Reverend H Walter Featherstun. The W C T U editor was Mrs Clara B Drake, wife of the Reverend J P Drake. The business manager was the Reverend R W Bailey.
Newspaper article 21 Feb 1891 Rev. H. Walter Featherstun has been appointed to the pastorate of the Methodist Church in place of his father lately deceased. His duties as pastor will in no wise conflict with the presidency of Edward McGehee College.
Newspaper Article 19 Sept 1889 Clarion Ledger (Jackson, MS) Vol.: 53, Issue: 33 Page: 4. Rev. H. Walter Featherstun, President of Kavanaugh College, has prepared for publication 'The Life of Preston Cooper: The Prophet Preacher of Mississippi.' The celebrated mineral well that bears his name is one of Mr. Cooper's prophecies.
Mississippi Annual Conference, One Hundred and twentieth Session, pp. 95-97
H. Walter Featherstun, D.D. Henry Walter Featherstun was born Jul 10, 1849, in Warren County, Mississippi, and departed this life in Jackson, Mississippi on Sunday afternoon, July 24, 1932, having reached the age of 83 years and fourteen days. His father was the Rev. Francis Marion Featherstun, long time an outstanding and useful member of the Mississippi conference; and his mother was Mary Eliza Rundell Featherstun, a woman of Christian culture and spiritual devotion. Four years after his birth his father entered the conference and for more than three-quarters of a century his home was in the 'moving tents' of Israel's advancing hosts.
Dr. Featherstun became a local preacher at the early age of eighteen years and for sixty-five years he proclaimed 'The Glorious Gospel of the Blessed Son of God.' His call to preach involved the necessity of preparing for the ministry and he went to a Dr. Abernathy's private school near Clarksville, Tennessee where he made rapid progress in his studies.
Soon after his return from school, together with Warren C. Black, James J. Smylie, and George Bancroft, he was admitted into the traveling connection of the Methodist ministry at a session of the Mississippi Conference which was held at Meridian, in December, 1871. Long since it was his to sing: 'my company before is gone and I am left alone with thee,' for other members of his class went to their reward many years ago. Bishop H.H. Kavanaugh presided over the Conference when he was admitted on trial and ordained him a local deacon on Sunday, December 17, 1871. Two years later, having completed the four year' conference course in two years, he was ordained traveling elder by Bishop William M. Wrightman and Brandon on Sunday, December 14, 1873.
His first appointment was rolling Fork, where he remained two years and was then sent to Brookhaven. It was while he was pastor at Brookhaven that he was married to Miss Emily Edwards White, of Vicksburg, the Rev. Dr. Charles K. Marshall performing the ceremony. With rare artistic culture and beautiful consecration she aided him in all his ministry for fifty-eight happy years. God blessed their home with seven children; one dying in infancy and Mrs. Emmie May Vaughan and Mrs. Juliette Featherstun Flemming likewise preceded him to the Father's House. With his devoted wife those of his immediate family who remain to cherish his memore are: Mrs. Dr. J.F. Tatum, Meridian; Walter M. Featherstun and Mrs. Judge J. Morgan Stevens, Jackson; Mrs. L.B. McLaurin, Birmingham, a sister, Mrs. Irene Phillips, and a half sister, Miss Mamie Featherstun, Memphis.
The annual conference roll for the first time in a long number of years will not carry the name of Featherstun, though his grandson, H.W. F. Vaughan, bears the honor of the ministry in which he wrought so well. Rev. Lewis R. Featherstun, the father of Mrs. J.t. Leggett, entered rest at the parsonage in Yuba City, California, October 19, 1883; and his father, Rev. Francis Marion Featherstun, died at Woodville, Mississipi January 30, 1891. While he was pastor in California, his mother and seven children of his father's household died with yellow fever during the terrible epidemic at Vicksburg in 1878. With this great burden of sorrow added to by death of his preacher brother, Rev. Lewis R. Featherstun, he turned again to remain until the end.
Dr. Featherstun's ministry fell in an eventful period in the history of Methodism. The Church grew, widened her borders, consolidated her gains and enriched her faith and he made no small contribution to her progress. His appointments were as follows: Rolling Fork, 1872-73; Brookhaven, 1874; Rolling fork, 1875-76. From the conference at Natchez in 1876 he transferred to California and severed Trinity, Santa Anna, San Luis Obispo, Carpenteria, and Sacramento, in the Los Angeles and Pacific Conferences. Returning to Mississippi he was assigned to Summit for the year 1884. In the fall of 1884 he opened Kavanaugh College at Holmesville and remained its president until 1890 when he became president of Edward McGehee College for women at Woodville, Mississippi, where he remained until the conference of 1894. Three years of his presidency of the school at Woodville he was also pastor of the local Methodist church--suceeding his father as pastor in 1891. After eleven years of school work he returned to his loved employ, the full-time pastoral ministry, and was a Yazoo City 1895-96; Central, Meridian, 1897-98; Brookhaven district, 1899-1900; Moss Point 1901-1902; Main Street, Hattiesburg, 1903-1904; Crystal Springs, 1905-1906; Columbia, 1907-1908, Natchez district 1909-1911; (Vicksburg and Natchez districts merged into the Port Gibson districk in 1911); newton, 1912, Newton district, 1913-1914; Port Gibson 1915-1918; Utica, 1919; Waynesboro 1920-1921; and Bay St. Louis 1922. As was characteristic of his life and ministry he thought more of others than himself and December 2, at the Conference held at Crystal Springs in 1922, at his own request, he was placed on the superannuate roll. Ten years his ministry was in that honorable relation and he continued the same devotion to Christ loyalty to the Church and love for his brethren that had crowned the fifty-one years of his active ministry.
Dr. Featherstun was a Methodist to the manner born and he had definite convictions, but his ministry was adored with consideration for and brotherliness toward those of other denominations. He was not a bigot, but a brother. The first revival he ever held was for a Baptist congregation, and the last church he preached in was the First Presbyterian at Jackson. His pastoral ministry was of the didactic type, and he was enthusiastic in the cause of civic and social welfare. Long and nobly did he lead in the cause of temperance reform and no hardships could swerve him from the course he set out to pursue. He was a member of the General Conference held at Memphis in 1894; and at Asheville, N. C. in 1910. He served on the General Epworth League board, was a college president for eleven years and was always interested in the young people; he was an author of ability and contributed valuable articles to the church press and his books, 'Christ and Our Poets:, and 'Christ and Our Novelists' had a wide sale. Several months he was in age and feebleness extreme and waited within the shadow of the valley; his room was often an 'upper room' where the World of God, the great hymns of the Church, unquestioned assurance and prayers from his own heart made the hours one of veritable benediction. Ministered to in affection and a most beautiful devotion by loved ones, attended by skilled physicians and made comfortable by patient nurses, he came up to his coronation hour of the Lord's Day afternoon with an unblemished record and a triumphant faith. The horsemen and the Chariot of God came and he left to be with the Bishop of his soul and join the triumphant Church of the First Born.
The funeral services were conducted fromthe Galloway Memorial Church, Jackson, on Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock, by Rev. J.T. Leggett, presiding elder, who was assisted by Revs. B.F. Jones, J.G. Galloway, J.A. Smith and J. L. Decell, and his body was laid to rest beneath flowers of beauty to wait the resurrection morn. Among the many friends who attended the services were the following preachers who in addition to those who had part inthe service were present to respect the memory of a true brother: G.H. Thompson, J.L. Sutton, J.C. Chambers, T.O. Prewitt, O. S. Lewis, V.R. Landrum, P.H. Grice, J. L. Alford, c.W. Crisler, A.J. Boyles, C .E. Downer, M. K. Miller and Dr. T. J. Bailey.
The ranks of the Mississippi Conference Brotherhood have again been broken, but not forever!
By J. L. Decell
Taken from The New Orleans Christian Advocate. New Orleans, Louisiana September 28th, 1876
From Vicksburg to Los Angeles By Reverend H Walter Featherstun.
Mr Editor; At noon on that great day - the first centenary of American Independence - with my wife and baby. I went aboard the beautiful steamer Capitol City, at the Vicksburg Elevator, bound for St. Louis, en route for my new field of labor - Los Angeles, California. The day was hot, but when the boat got under way, we enjoyed it finely. On we steamed up earth’s grandest river, past islands and towns, plantations, and cottages, reaching Memphis at twilight on the fourth day. There we staid twenty hours; and we saw the city park, Elmwood Cemetery, State Female College, numbers of the handsomest residences I ever saw. The Memphians have done honor to themselves in erecting that exquisite monument to Mattie Stephenson, the Yellow Fever Martyr. It bears the beautiful legend; “She died for us.” State Female College has by far the most comfortable accommodations for boarders and the best study hall and recitation room arrangements I have ever seen in any school. A very pleasant hour was spent with the editor of the Western Methodist. On we go again past cities, towns, and islands, stopping a few hours at Cairo, in the Egypt of the West, being in Alexander County of which Themes, now almost deserted, was once the capital - strange coincidence - history repeats itself. I hope the oriental Egypt had a better looking Thebes, and a prettier Cairo. On we go, the fourth commandment notwithstanding; but we made Sunday as much a Sabbath as we could, the Reverend John T Wheat, D. D., of Memphis, a Protestant Episcopal Clergy-man with a big soul and liberal views, preaching a fine sermon at eleven o’clock A. M., and the writer making an attempt at eight o’clock P. M. The passengers attended well. We pass towns and villages, rocks and bluffs, too numerous to mention. St. Louis is reached on Monday at ten o’clock A. M. After seeing the city and Shaw’s Garden, we left on Tuesday, at eight o’clock P.M., on the St. Louis, Kansas City, and Northern Railroad for Omaha, with assurance of no change of cars - notwithstanding we do change, so much for the ferocity of railroad agents. “Reader; If you come to California, do not come on that railroad.”
We reached Omaha, on the edge of the plains, in twenty - four hours, all covered with dust and soot; spent the night at a little Yankee hotel “over in Council Bluffs,” and got aboard a Union Pacific Railroad Emigrant Car the next day at three o’clock P.M. bound for Ogden, Utah. We found the Emigrant Car quite roomy and comfortable, from the fact that we could cook at will, which we did on a little kerosene stove borrowed of a clever fellow - passenger, arranging our own bed, and live at ease, together with the facts that we have neither dust nor soot, and nave time to see the sights. Such sights! Such sights! Plains with no green or dark fringe in the horizon, all covered with long grass, until we sweep over the Black Hills, when we find sage brush and alkali, and antelopes galloping over the hillocks; coyotes slipping through the grass, jack rabbits looking like miniature calico mules all run to ears, prairie dogs, with more ostensible curiosity than a whole academy full of girls, the grand little owl, whose very gravity makes one laugh; and last, but biggest, the snow - capped mountains. Down we sweep through Echo and Weber Canyons - such rocks, such cliffs, and beetling crags!
I can’t tell it, reader, go and see for yourself, here we are at Ogden, in the land of Mormonism. Yonder rolls the wonder of America Great Salt Lake, with the Wasatch Mountains looking down into its billowy bosom. We now dash into the desert - Oh! The alkali and the sand, the glare and the heat - desert, desert, desert, till we climb the bold Sierras. Up, up, up, past saw - mill and flume, ice depot, and station, stopping at Truchee, a mountain - top town, picturesque and pretty. On again, through thirty - three miles of snow - shed, around Donnor Lake and Capt Horn. Eureka! We see the land of gold, the occidental Ophir; Down we glide into the far - famed valley, and get on board a jaunty little steamboat at Sacramento. On we float down the Sacramento, and through the Bay of “Frisco” passing grand grain farms, vast orchards, rocky islands, and various water crafts, we land in San Francisco. We were bored at St. Louis by railroad agents, we were bored at Ogden by a biped donkey employed by an eating - house to act as an ass; but worse -bored than every by hotel runners in San Francisco. San Francisco, or “Frisco” as they call it for short, is the biggest young city in the world, here we stay a day and look, but don’t see half of the city. We are honored by a call at the hotel from Brother C Chamberlain, formerly of the Mississippi Conference, and Brother Wick B Parsons, the genial, jolly editor of the Methodist. He is a layman and a fine editor. All aboard! We glide out from the “Frisco” pier on the upper, cabin deck of the Steamship Senator though the Golden Gate, and out on the green waves of the old Pacific. Over the billows we roll, and oh! How sick I get. Old ocean may be very poetic, but I’d take mine on land just now if I could. Forty - eight hours we roll, and I don’t find a bit of poetry in it, but fell decidedly more so as we land and board the cars at Santa Monica, and roll over the plain through orange groves and vineyards to that far - famed “Eden of the West” Los Angeles.
Mr Editor, here were are. We have seen it all, except what we passed while asleep; and now I have told as much as I can, unless you surrender your paper to me a few weeks. The End. Los Angeles, August 18, 1876. (Note - In 1876, the Civil War had been over eleven years, the transcontinental railroad had been completed only seven years.
|
1849 - 1932 (83 years)
[2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] 
