CALDWELL COUNTY, NC - OBITUARIES - William Connolly, 8 Jan 1859 ----¤¤¤¤---- This is the obituary for William Connolly who died in 1859 in Caldwell County. It was published in the February 10, 1859 Southern Christian Advocate. I obtained a copy of the Sandor Teszler Library at Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC. "WILLIAM CONNOLLY, my father, was born in Lancaster co., Va, Oct. 27dd 1775. At the age of 6 or 7 his father moved to Orange co., and after a stay of 10 years he again moved to Charlotte co., where my father grew up and married in his 24th year, and in the following fall moved to Montgomery co., N. C.; soon after which he was awakened, and after his conversion joined the M. E. Church on the 22d day of April, 1798, and was soon after appointed to lead the class, in which capacity he served the church in Montgomery 10 years. At the expiration of this time he moved to Burke co., N. C., where he served the church as leader in the society at Littlejohn’s 2 years; after which he moved to Wilks (sic) co., N. C. and purchased land in the valley of the Yadkin, in a place and at a time when Methodism was esteemed the very quintessence of fanaticism, if not the great latter-day apostacy (sic) predicted in the Apocalypse. Here he opened his doors, and invited circuit preaching; and the sturdy pioneers of Methodism accepted the invitation, and his house was many years a regular preaching place in the Morganton circuit. In a short time, a society was organized for which he was appointed leader, and about the same time he was license to exhort, and thus served the church in that place and in the surrounding country nearly 40 years; and in this and other places together he served the church as leader and exhorter nearly 50 years, laboring usefully and acceptably. He was a regular attendant on the means of grace in public and private, and while he was not blessed with literary advantages and attempted no display, yet his was a light that shone steadily in the church for over 60 years; enjoying that fixed religious principle that sustained him in his career through all the diversity of fortune and circumstance, maintaining an unwavering confidence in God and devotion to religion to the extreme of old age. He closed his earthly career on the 8th of Jan. 1859, in his 85th year, after a brief illness of only three days; during which his mind was too much deranged and his powers too much enfeebled to leave any great amount of verbal testimony in his last hours. But his long life of earnest piety, together with his peaceful death, are his epistles, read and known of all men. It is upon such evidence as this that an aged and heartbroken widow, bereaved and sorrowing children, on whose hearts the memory of his tenderness is printed, can set the foot of their confidence and feel that their loss is his eternal gain. M. A. CONNELLY" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: James Connolly ----------------------------------------------------------------------