Pike-Coffee County AlArchives Obituaries.....Lightfoot, Mathias April 4, 1928
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Alice Folmar Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00033.html#0008183 March 24, 2017, 5:44 pm

Obituary Collection of Kathlyn J Folmar
LIGHTFOOT, Mathias  (12-15-1853 – 4-4-1928) – Pike County / Coffee County

	Mathias Lightfoot was born on Big Creek, near Victoria, Coffee Co., Ala., on
Dec. 15, 1853, of Wesley and Sallie Snider Lightfoot.  After a lingering illness
of several years, he entered into glory from Brundidge, Ala. [Pike County], on
April 4, 1928.
	At the tender age of three, he was left without the guiding hand of an earthly
father.  His mother, however, was with him till he was 12 years old, then she,
too, entered into rest; but she left the little craft headed toward the
sheltering hills of the other shore.  Just before she went away, he joined the
M.E. Church South at Little Oak, Ala., and consecrated his young life to God
upon her alters.  In early manhood, he came under the influence of Professor
John L. Foster, and under the inspiration of this devout man, he chose teaching
as his profession and taught for a time in the schools of Little Oak.  Seeking
means for better equipping himself for his life’s work, he went to Troy, Ala.,
and found profitable employment.  When he had saved up enough to venture out, he
went to Florence, Ala., to enter the State Normal School, but a strange
providence turned the course of his life.  After one night in Florence, he went
to Atlanta and entered a business college.  Probably God wanted to intrust him
with more money than he could make as a teacher.  He finished his course and
came to Brundidge, Ala., and on December 15, 1886, formed a business partnership
with Col. E. B. Wilkerson.
	On November 20 of the following year, he entered into another, a dearer and
more sacred partnership when he took as the companion of his life Miss Mary Ella
Snider of Little Oak, Dr. E. M. Turner officiating.  God blessed this union with
one child, Tupper, who is following in the footprints of his father, as he
followed Jesus.  At the quarterly conference which met at old Clay Hill Church
the day before his marriage, Brother Lightfoot was elected superintendent of the
Sunday School for Brundidge, which position he filled faithfully till 1923, when
Tupper was elected to assist him.  Gradually Tupper took over the work of the
Sunday School and is now its superintendent.
	One year from the formation of the business partnership in Brundidge, in 1886,
Brother Lightfoot bought his partner’s interest and went into business for
himself.  Since then he has been one of the outstanding men of this section in
religion and business and all matters that concern the public weal [well-being].
	In 1900, he assisted in organizing the Brundidge Banking Company, of which
institution he was made president, a position he held till the day of his death.
 God crowned his labors with success, and he worshipped God with his money.  His
Kingdom investments were limited only by his bank balance.  When he found that a
little money had accrued, that he could spare from his business, he was ready to
make another gift, and he proceeded to add it to his savings account in the
skies.  He proceeded on the theory of Dr. Hall:  “What I give alive, I carry
with me dead.  And experience tells me that what I leave behind I lose.  I will
carry that treasure with me by giving it, which the worldling loses by keeping
it.  While his corpse shall carry nothing to the grave but the windingsheet, I
shall be richer underground than I was above it.”  If this be true, then only
the arithmetic of Heaven can compute his wealth today.
	His gifts were many, and comparatively large.  He cast his bread upon the
waters of religion,  Christian education, and general benevolence; but in all
this he was modest.  He did not let his left hand know what his right hand was
doing, and the public never knew the extent of his charities.  His munificent
gift made possible this beautiful new Methodist church in Brundidge.  He helped
to build Bethel in Little Oak, and practically every church built in this
section in recent years, whatever the denomination, carried a gift in some
amount from Mr. Lightfoot.
	He gave largely to Christian education and missions.  For quite a number of
years, he contributed to the support of Dr. Smell of Soo Chow Hospital and Rev.
A. C. Bowen, missionary to China.  He took a great interest from the beginning
in the Layman’s Missionary Movement and went as a delegate to the Layman’s
Missionary Conference which met in Chattanooga in 1908.  As long as his health
would permit, he attended the sessions of his annual conference and served on
the Board of Missions.  He went as a delegate to the general conference of 1914,
which met in Oklahoma City.
	He served as a trustee of the old A.C.F. College at Tuskegee and of the old
Southern University at Greensboro, Ala., during the last years of their history,
cooperating morally and financially with Drs. Massey, Hosmer, Sledd and Rush.
	Brother Lightfoot was one of the most considerate men for the interests of
others that this writer has ever known.  He ripened and sweetened into a saint
of which this world was not worthy.  In his passing, the militant hosts of our
Zion have lost a most valiant and valuable man.  We deplore his loss; but school
was out, it was vacation time, and God wanted his child who had been away 75
years in the schools of time to come home; and we could not say him nay.  This
man of God will live a long time in the hearts of his people.  May God give him
the desire of his heart, that his mantle fall upon the shoulders of his son. –
F. F. Ellisor




Additional Comments:
As a child, Mr. Lightfoot lived with his parents and siblings at Gainer’s Store
(later named Henderson) in the Eastern Division of Pike Co., Ala.  His parents
were Wesley and Sarah “Sallie” Lightfoot, and his siblings included Joshua,
Allen, Henry, and Jesse – and Mathias was next in the birth order … possibly
other children were born, also.  In 1880, when he was 24, he was living with his
brother “J.L.” near Henderson in Darby’s Beat and was teaching school.  In 1910,
he was a bank president, and in 1920 was listed in the census as a banker.  He
married on 11-20-1887 to Mary Ella Snider of Little Oak, Pike Co., and they had
the one son Tupper.  Mr. Lightfoot died in Brundidge and was buried in Brundidge
City Cemetery.

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