GEORGIA BAPTIST: HENRY HOLCOMBE, D. D.
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Barbara
Walker Winge [barbarawinge@yahoo.com], courtesy of Oldbuck
Press, Inc. [obsales@aol.com]

SOURCE; GEORGIA BAPTIST: HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, Jesse
H. Campbell, [1847] 1993, published by Oldbuck Press, Inc.,
PO Box 1623, Conway Arkansas 72034, pp. 29-38.    A copy of
this book can be purchased for $21.00 postage paid from the
publisher.

Henry Holcombe was the son of Grimes and Elizabeth Holcombe,
and was born in Prince Edward county, VA, September 22,
1762.  While he was yet a child, his father removed with his
family to South Carolina, where (to use his own words) “at
eleven years of age, he completed all the education he ever
received from a living preceptor.”

… He entered into the service of his country, determined,
with every patriot of that day, to live free or die.  His
ardor and intrepidity, soon raised him to command. Here, as
well as in every other station in which he was found in
after life, he acquitted himself well, and gave the fullest
proof that the trust reposed in him by his fellow soldiers
was not misplaced.

While an officer in the army, he was led to those
reflections which inclined him to renounce the pomps and
vanities of the world, and to seek for happiness in the calm
contemplations of Bible truth….  Immediately after his
baptism, he received a license according to its forms, to
proclaim to others the truths of which he had become so
fully convinced himself….

Early in 1800 the Baptist conceived it their duty to form
themselves into a church of their order.  Accordingly Dr.
Holcombe, with his wife and ten others, signed a pledge, in
which they agreed to endeavor to keep house for the Lord, as
soon as the necessary arrangements could be made.

On the 11th September following, he buried with Christ in
baptism the first white person who had ever received that
holy rite in Savannah, and on the 26th of November of the
same year, they were regularly constituted into a church, of
which Dr. Holcombe was chosen pastor.  This “little one has
become a thousand and this small people a great nation.”

On the 22d of May, 1824, after an illness of only one week,
he took his departure hence, “to be with Christ, which is
far better…”




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