Unknown County GaArchives Biographies.....Callaway, William A. 1804 - 1865
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 February 3, 2005, 11:00 pm

Author: J. H. Campbell

WILLIAM A. CALLAWAY.

  The subject of this brief notice was born in Wilkes county, Georgia, about the
year 1804. His parents were pious members of the Baptist church. The author
heard him relate his christian experience in substance as follows: "From his
earliest recollection, his father kept up family worship. When taken down with
his death sickness, these exercises were suspended for several days. One
morning, however, all the family, white and black, were summoned into his room.
(William was then perhaps fifteen years old.) The sick man was propped up in
bed—was much emaciated, and breathed and spoke with difficulty. He informed his
family that 'the time for his departure was at hand,' and that he confidently
expected that day to 'depart and be with Christ.' He then read a chapter as
usual, and offered such a prayer as none but a dying Christian can make. To each
of the servants he then addressed a few parting words, and then to his children
in their turn, ending with William, who was the oldest. That scene, and those
words of his dying father, were never forgotten. Before sunset that father's
soul was with his God. He grew up to manhood, and became a married man, before
his conversion; was what the world calls moral, as he never indulged in profane
swearing, drunkenness, nor any of the grosser vices. Yet he was fond of gay
company, and delighted in the ballroom and the dance. Often, amid scenes of
frivolity and mirth, would that death-bed scene and the faithful warning of his
dying father recur to his mind, and drive him to retirement and prayer. He had
been married two or three years to his first wife, a Miss Pope, and had removed
to Henry county, Georgia, where he was engaged in farming, when he was fully
aroused to a sense of his lost condition as a sinner, in the sight of God. By
what means he was awakened is not remembered by the writer. But one night he had
become so troubled that he could not sleep, and retired from his house for
prayer. While thus engaged, Christ was revealed in him as the hope of glory, and
his heart was made to rejoice in God, his Saviour. He promptly returned to the
house, and told his wife of the gracious change he had experienced. But he could
not stop there. He had a brother, living about sixty miles distant, to whom he
must communicate the joyful intelligence without delay. Next morning he took his
breakfast before daybreak, and set off on horseback to see his brother. Before
he slept, he had related his Christian experience to his brother, and they had
joined in prayer together. It was not long ere that brother was also rejoicing
in hope."

  More than thirty years have elapsed since the writer heard the foregoing
relation, which was given on the occasion of his ordination to the ministry. He
believes it to be substantially correct, though his memory may be at fault in
some particulars. His visit to his brother, as above related, strikingly
illustrates his character. He was eminently a man of decision and promptness.
Whatsoever his hand found to do—whether relating to things temporal or
spiritual—he did with his might.

  In 1833, he was ordained at McDonough—B. H. Willson and J. H. Campbell, the
presbytery. As a licentiate, he had been active and useful, and now his
influence was felt in all the regions around. He was one of the four ministers,
who were delegates in the Constitution, and were connected with the early
history of the Central Association, and performed his full share of the labor
which devolved upon them, in consequence of the great revivals which were
experienced in that body in those times. Day and night, for weeks and months
together, was he engaged in protracted meetings. And yet he seemed to know no
weariness. His person was tall and rather slender; his countenance exceedingly
benign; his voice musical, and his elocution easy and natural. As a public
speaker he was always pleasant and sometimes powerful. His sermons were short
and his exhortations animated. And then he could sing so sweetly! All these
things combined rendered him popular as a preacher, and especially qualified him
as a revival preacher.

  In secular affairs, his attention was given mostly to farming and merchandise,
in both of which callings he was quite successful. Indeed, his native good
sense, his sound judgment, his probity and his energy qualified him for almost
any undertaking, and would have been a guarantee of success in any business to
which he might have turned his attention.

  The writer having been intimately associated with Callaway for several years
as a member of the same church and Association, most heartily adopts and
indorses the following notice of him, written by Rev. E. B. Teague for the
"Christian Index:"
  “Brought to a knowledge of the truth in early manhood, he soon consecrated
himself to the service of the Master in the work of the ministry. Endowed with
good abilities and unusual solicitude for souls, he overcame in a great measure
the deficiencies of early training by making full proof of his ministry in
unwearied and incessant labors. He will long be remembered in Middle Georgia as
the modest and amiable coadjutor of such men as Sherwood and Dawson, in the many
labors by which they sought to build up the cause of Christ in the Central and
neighboring Associations. Not the least of the services of this good man was the
nerve manifested in the advocacy of the scriptural independence of the churches,
assailed at one time in that region by the influence of eminent brethren. Though
but a licentiate, he exhibited the cairn courage of a veteran. It is interesting
to read in this connection the special blessing of God on his ministry in the
midst of obloquy and reproach. At a later period he labored with much
earnestness and success in Western Georgia. Few men have been the instrument in
winning a larger number of souls to Christ.

  "His theory always was that a man must take care of his family, and that the
necessary secularization is not incompatible with or opposed to the successful
prosecution of the great work of preaching the gospel. Accordingly, he provided
well for a very large Family, and preached more than most men do. The estimable
character of that large family is testimony to his uprightness, sincerity and
wisdom. Perhaps most ministers, towards the close of life, if they do not
indorse, yet look with leniency on this theory. Unfortunate with all the rest of
us of late years, his life and labors had so conciliated his acquaintance, that
we trust those of his children who are yet young, and his beloved wife, will
never want friends or a helping hand.

  "Brother Callaway was a man of marked traits of character. So sensitively pure
and conscientious was he, that any apprehension that his fellow-laborers were
actuated by questionable motives, so damped and fettered him that he was
unmanned. He read men's motives with unerring accuracy. On the other hand,
unbounded confidence in those about him developed unwonted energies and kindled
him into unwonted fervors.

  " He was in theology a moderate Calvinist, and singularly free from all
extravagance of views on all subjects—eminently a safe and prudent man. No man
was more instinctively discreet in all things. He rarely or never did anything
imprudent or ill-timed. Constitutional modesty often induced him, in our larger
gatherings, to withhold the assistance for which his eminent wisdom fitted him.
He was, therefore, less widely known than he deserved to be. In protracted
meetings and associations he preferred a subordinate place, delighted if he
might occupy himself in hortatory discourse after his brethren had preached, or
when occasion offered in the conference and prayer meetings. On these occasions
he often became the soul of the meeting, enchaining the riveted -attention of
his brethren find going right home to the conscience of the impenitent by the
simplicity, fervency and affectionateness of his address, backed by a confidence
on their part that knew no limits.

  "No temptation could ever induce him to offer any strange fire before the
Lord. He always spoke and acted just as he felt, in the pulpit and out of it. If
cold, you could scarcely wring a word of exhortation or a sermon from him; if in
season, he manifested the utmost alacrity. Heartlessness and form froze up his
spirit and sealed his lips. He felt powerfully that God is a spirit, and seeks
such to worship him as worship in spirit and in truth.

  "His pulpit abilities were good, his address grave, decorous and tender. "We
often heard the remark that 'he was in preacher shape.' With early training,
exclusive occupation in the ministry and extensive reading, he might have been
great.

  "But he is gone!—gone up to join 'the general assembly and church of the first
born.' Distrustful of himself, and feeling the effects of late years, as he
often said, of relaxation from the ministerial work in consequence of the
partial failure of his voice and nervous derangement, he was much comforted
during the last six months of his life, especially during his long and painful
illness by clear and precious views of the adaptation of the Saviour to all our
wants. Retired upon his farm, in a neighborhood somewhat out of the way, he
interested himself very actively in the spiritual wants of his neighbors. They
had become greatly attached to him. He was indeed beloved wherever he lived,
confided in to the last degree, ‘a living epistle, known and read of all men.'
He passed away in quiet and holy triumph, lingering in memory with the brethren
with whom he had labored and to whom he was fondly attached. The writer records
with inexpressible feelings the prayerful and tender interest in him and his.
May the spirit of the father imbue his two sons in the ministry, Revs. S. P. and
J. M. Callaway. Alas! my brother, very pleasant hast thou been to me!"

  He was called to his reward in heaven in June, 1865.


Additional Comments:
From:

GEORGIA BAPTISTS: HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL
BY
J. H. CAMPBELL,
PERRY, GEORGIA.


MACON, GA.: J. W. BURKE & COMPANY. 1874.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by
J. H. CAMPBELL,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.


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