Houston-Terrell County GaArchives Biographies.....Langley, Thomas 1834 - 1890 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Lucy Gray Lucygray1@cox.net September 5, 2004, 8:15 pm Author: History of Baptist Denomination in Georgia Rev Thomas E. Langley was born near Forsyth, Georgia, August 16, 1834 and died at Chipley Florida, March 30, 1890. He was the oldest son of Elder Jeremiah Langley and his wife, Caroline, daughter of Deacon Edward Callaway of Monroe County, GA. The advantages of a collegiate course were denied him; but under the instructions of James H. Durham at Perry, GA, he became a very proficient Latin and Greek scholar. He professed conversion under the ministry of Dr. B.F. Tharpe at Perry and was baptized by him there October 1852. He was ordained at Forsyth, January, 1857 under the imposition of the hands of Elders J.H. Campbell, W.C. Wilkes and J.H. Corley. His first pastorate was that of the church at Knoxville, Crawford County, commencing in 1857, (at which time he was teaching with Rev. W.C. Wilkes, in Monroe Female College Forsyth) and running through four years. In 1858, in answer to a call from the church at Fort Valley, he thither , and served that church till the close of 1860. He then settled on his farm in Terrell County, and became pastor of Dawson and Smithville churches where he preached for ten years. For three years of this time he preached at Fort Gaines Church. In order to extend his labors, he preached also to Sharon Church, near Brown's station and other churches in Terrell county whenever the opportunity offered. After a useful ministerial career of thirteen years in his native State, the leadings of Providence induced him, in 1870 to make his home in West Florida. He took charge of the churches at Greenwood and Campbellton churches, and served them without intermission until now (1880). He has been Moderator of the West Florida Association, every successive year since he went to that State. These facts speak well for his merit, and for the just and generous appreciation of that merit by his brethren. He was married Miss Lavinia Norwood of Houston County, Georgia, September 25, 1851. Ten children were born to them five girls and five boys, seven of whom are living. The fourth and ninth (girls) were called from earth in infancy, thus escaping the sins and sorrow of mortal ife. Adoniram Judson, the eldest, was born at his maternal grandfather's Houstong County, July 6th 1852 and died of congestion of the brain, while on a visit to the place of his birth, October 27, 1868. He was an extraordinary youth, distinguised for manliness of charcter, precocity and brillancy of intellect and great moral worht. Though not a member of any church, he knew by experience what has been termed "the miracle of the new birth" and had expressed a purpose to unite himself with the "the visible house of God" by public profession of faith. To the family that loved him with all the fervor which the human heart can feel, his death was a terrible shock. Dark was the day to this loving household when the telegram flashed tidings of their loss -- not his-- to the home (ever after less a home because he was not in it) at Dawson, Georgia. Brother Langley was tall, erect and well formed in person, striking in presence, and agreeable in manners. He possessed a high order of intellectual ability, strong devotion to his family, great zeal in promoting the cause of the Master. As a public speaker he was logical and profound; with him, speech is an arrow that flies straight to the mark at which he aims. From his early days of ministerial labor, his time was much engrossed by the care of churches, and this has led him to study the Bible, for the most part to the exclusion of auxiliary works--a point in which, more than many of his contemporaries, he resembles our Baptist fathers in the ministry. Drinking not from human streams but from the divine fountain, and drinking there no shallow draughts, he seeks in th epulpit to commend himself--not to every man's taste and imagination, as the manner of some is -- but, after apostolic patterns, to every man's understanding and conscience. He is true, as a pastor, to the welfare of his flock. His promptness never suffers him to fail in filling his appointments, except from providential causes. "A want of back-bone" has never been a fault of his; he is a firm, ardent and rigid exounder of the doctrines of the Church of Christ in its original purity and simplicyt. Such characteristics render him a "burning and a shining light," in the ministry, and have enabled him to accomplish great good. He has done vastly more in upholding and upbuilding the denomination than any other man that West Florida has ever known. No "Mr. Facing-both-ways" could have wrought such a work there, or anywhere else. Additional Comments: Source:HISTORY OF THE BAPTIST DENOMINATION IN GEORGIA; BIOGRAPHICAL COMPENDIUM AND PORTRAIT GALLERY OF BAPTIST MINISTERS AND OTHER GEORGIA BAPTIST, 1881, Jas. P. Harrison & Co., Atlanta, GA, Additional Comments: His wife, Lavinia Ann Norwood Langley was born Feb. 29, 1832 in South Carolina. They were married Sept. 25, 1851 in Houston Co, GA. When Thomas Edward moved his family to Dawson, Georgia, his mother, sister, Octavia, and brother, Ryland Holmes, left Forsyth to live with them. According to his dairy he had the responsibility to go to Forsyth to sell the property, slaves owned by his mother, and help them move from the area in which his mother, Caroline, had lived most of her life. Ryland Holms died December 31, 1861 and Octavious who had married J.G. Ellison December 19, 1865, died February 24, 1871 and Grandmother Caroline Langley died July 12, 1879. Thomas Edward and Lavinia moved their family to Orange Hill by 1872 when Lavinia Octavia Langley was born July 31, 1872. According to Grandmother (Lavinia Octavia) they later lived in Greenwood,(Jackson Co GA) returned to Orange Hill for a brief time before settling in Chipley. They bought the plantation owned by the former minister and uncle, D.P. Everett. This was still owned by their daughter, Kate Langley Jordan Wilson, when she died June 3, 1950. Her daughter, Lucile Larrick, sold it later. Thomas Edward Langley married Lavinia Anne Norwood, daughter of Lorenzo Dow and Catherine McLaughlin Norwood of Perry (Houston Co GA) Sept 25, 1851. They had ten children: Adorinam Judson born July 6, 1852; died Oct 27 1868 Willie Jerome born September 22, 1853 Joshua C. Langly born November 1855 Theodosia O born June 13, 1857 Everetta Langley born August 2, 1858 Edward Ryland born March 12, 1862 Catherine Caroline born February 9, 1864 Thomas Lorenzo born January 31, 1866 Little Pinkie born January 25, 1869 Lavinia Octavia born July 31, 1872 Becoming the first pastor of the First Baptist Church of Chipley around 1887 he remained the minister until his health became so poor and eventually died on Sunday, March 30, 1890. Octavia lived with Laviania Anne at her home on Sixth Street after Octavia married J. Nix Daniel on June 10, 1891. After the Daniel home was built on North Fifth Street, Lavinia Anne lived with them until her death March 4, 1905. 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