CLEVELAND COUNTY, NC - BIOGRAPHIES - Thomas Dixon, Senior ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Cindy McCachern mccachern@worldnet.att.net ==================================================================== From Biblical Recorder Volume 74. Organ of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. Number 49. Hight C. Moore, Editor. J. S. Farmer, Business Manager. Raleigh, North Carolina, Wednesday, June 9, 1909. Price: $1.50 a year payable in advance. Thomas Dixon, Senior. (Born December 20, 1820; Died May 1, 1909.) He was a Southen Gentleman of the Highest Type, a Preacher of Righteousness to Multitudes, the Baptizer of Six Thousand Converts, the "Patriarch of a Great Baptist Tribe in the King's Mountain Region," and the Father of Famous Sons and Daughters. His Body Reposes in the Graveyard of New Prospect Church, Cleveland County, to Which He Ministered for Fifty-seven Years. The Story of a Worthy Life. A Sketch of Thomas Dixon, Sr., by his son A. C. Dixon. Two weeks before Father's death, I had the pleasure and profit of spending three days with him in Raleigh; and, while we sat together for hours under the great oaks in Capitol Square, I encouraged him to talk of the past, which he was fond of doing. This refreshed my memory with the facts of his early life, which I had heard him relate many times before, and I am cetain that I have recorded eveything just as he told me. Thomas Dixon was born on a farm in York County, South Carolina, Decembe 24, 1820. His mother was the daughter of Colonel Hambright who fought with the colonial forces at the battle of King's Mountain during the Revolution. At fourteen years of age he one day forgot his coat and left it in the field after the day's work was done. But before retiring he remembered it and went into the field after it. While walking along in the dark there came over his soul such a sense of sin as he never had before. He felt that he was lost forever, because he was so wicked that God could not save him. He knelt down in the dark and tried to pray, but no relief came. So distressed that he could not sleep, he lay awake in bed that night praying and toward morning there came into his soul a flood-tide of peace. Next day the world appeared more beautiful and he was very happy. But it did not occur to him that he had "got religion," as the people of that day phrased it. " Near his humble home was Antioch church, where the plain country people gathered in large numbers once a month to hear their pastor, a Mr. Pearsley, preach sermons full of Scripture and Christian experience. During a revival young Thomas went up to the "mourners' bench" and tried to "get religion" like some of his neighbors. But he got nothing more than he had. So he decided to join the church, if they would recieve him, on what experience he had received the night he prayed in the field. He was quite surprised to find that they were not only willing to receive him for baptism, but expressed surprise that he had not joined the church before. In the Sunday-school he learned to read and devoured the New Testament, reading it through many times. The earnest young plow-boy attracted the attention of Deacon Hardin, the superintendent, who invited him to open the school with prayer every Sunday. His familiarity with the Bible gave him good language, so that his prayers and talks were, for the most part, biblical in thought and word. Some expressed the conviction that he ought to be licensed to preach, while others opposed, saying: "Thomas is a good little boy but he can't preach." Pastor Pearsley, howeve, believed in him and invited him to "exercise his gifts in public." One day after he had made a brief talk in which thee was scarcely anything but quotations from the bible, good Deacon Hardin gave him a cordial handshake, as he said: "My dear young brother. You do right to use much Scripture and my advice is never to make a point that you cannot prove by Scripture. And never talk too long." Deacon Hardin's advice moulded my father's ministerial life. Many of his semons were two-thirds Scripture and I never knew him to reach over thirty minutes. Finally, the brethren were unanimous in their desire to give the boy exhorter a license to preach, when to their surprise he coolly informed them that he did not want it, for he thought he could preach just as well without it. Since they could not find chapter and verse in the Bible authorizing licenses to preach, they let him have his way, while they rather admired his independence. His diligent reading fo the Bible filled him with thoughts that burned for expression and the people soon discovered that there was among them a young evangelist with a soul on fire with a passion for truth and souls. When it was announced that young Dixon was to preach, there was a crowd to hear; and, while he preached, sinners sometimes sobbed aloud and cried for mercy. He was at length "ordained" and became pastor of a little struggling church in the woods near "Catawba" Creek. His remembrance of that church is that one of its best members was a deaf mute who was devoted to his pastor, though he could not hear a word he said, and the richest member was given to peiodical drunks, which greatly distressed pastor and people. Calls to camp-meetings and other work soon drew him from this obscure corner to a larger field. Having married Miss Amanda Elizabeth McAfee, daughter of a wealthy planter in South Carolina, he took his young bride to Shelby, N.C., and radiating from this point as centre for more than fifty years, he preached in the destitute regions of Cleveland and surrounding counties in homes, school-houses, in groves under bush arbors, organizing fifteen or twenty churches and building as many church houses. At first his young wife went with him to all his appointments and listened admiringly, though, as I have heard him say, she heard some of his sermons so often that she knew them by heart. She was a woman of keen intellect, and very fond of reading. Five or six miles from Shelby, near Buffalo Creek, was a high hill covered with a grove of oak and hickory. On his hill the farmers had established their cemetery and built a log-house in which to hold funeral services. A prominent member fo the community died, and it was evident that the little log- house could not hold the people who would attend the funeral. Slabs were hauled from a neighbor's saw-mill and rough benches without backs were made and placed in the grove. As the trees did not cover them sufficiently to protect the people from the very warm rays of the sun, a number of forked posts about seven feet high were placed in rows and poles laid in the forks. This frame-work was covered with the boughs of trees in full leaf and underneath was a cool refreshing shade. Such a "brush arbor" was made for this funeral and nearly everybody in the community was there. The people were deeply moved by the sermon which glorified Christ as the Saviour from all sin in time and eternity and dwelt upon the joys of heaven. The young preacher announced that he would preach again the following day and again the next day until the meeting had "protracted" for two weeks, and more than forty converts were ready for baptism. The forty or more converts were baptized in the nearby stream and a church was organized which they named "New Prospect." The young evangelist was elected pastor, and with the exception of one year when he was in the West, my father remained pastor of New Prospect Church fifty-six years, and during his absence of a year the people still regarded him as their pastor. For nearly two generations he preached in this church salvation by grace through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, magnified the Bible as the very Word of God, deciding all questions by an appeal to it pages, exalting righteous living and cleaving with the sword of the Spirit drunkenness, lying, lust, and every other sin in the calendar. There were many church trials, for if a member got drunk, swore or was discovered in any known sin, he or she was held to account for it in the presence of the whole assembled church. If there was repentance and confession, the church rejoiced and voted to forgive the erring brother or sister; while they pledged themselves to holier living; but, if there was not confession, they sorrowfully voted to withdraw the hand of fellowship until there were proofs of repentance. With all these church trials, if there was ever a church quarrel which resulted in divisions, I never heard of it. As a matter of fact, though the church was Congregational in polity, Father was a sort of loving dictator among his people. He was slow to give his judgment in any case, but when he spoke, his word was usually law. They had such confidence in his knowledge of the Scriptures and his wisdom, that they were willing to follow almost blindly his advice. A similar process was followed in fifteen or twenty destitute sections. First a meeting in a house, or school-house, then the "brush arbor" with the slab seats for the multitudes, then the organization of a church, the election of the evangelist as pastor, which position he usually held until he had raised the money and errected a plain country meeting-house. Another pastor would then be elected, and Father would pass on to a new field. It could not be said of Thomas Dixon that he never discussed or mentioned politics in the pulpit, and yet it is within bounds to say that he elected and defeated many a political candidate. He had only to intimate in private conversation his intention to vote for a certain candidate, and nearly every member of his churches would follow suit. Woe to the candidate with a shady character! He could not count on many votes in the precincts where "Preacher Dixon's" churches were located, and churches that influenced were in almost every district in the county. In missionary, temperence, and educational movements, Thomas Dixon was a pioneer. While he was a very young Christian, a traveling preacher came to Antioch church and delivered a strong sermon on Foreign Missions, which opened a new world to his vision. One of the good deacons was so opposed to the new- fangled notions that he could not sit through the semon. Rising and moving toward the door, he said to his wife in a voice loud enoug to be heard by all: "Come, let's get out of here." But the young Bible enthusiast saw at a glance that the points of the sermon had been proved by scripture and he became an ardent advocate of Foreign Missions, though the majority of the older brethren were anti-missionary in spirit and utterance. He was one of the few who organized a society within the Association for the promotion of Foreign Missions, while the majority of the older pastors and laymen would not permit a discussion of the subject in the regular sessions of the body. When the "Sons of Temperance appeared," the popular young preacher was among the first to enlist unde the banner of total abstinence, though the movement was very unpopular in pulpit and pew. In some churches were deacons who were distillers and the decanter with sugar bowl and glasses beside it was on almost every sideboard. To be a teetotaler was to be branded a hair-brained fanatic. The young preacher, however, had learned in childhood the evil of strong drink and he detemined to make no compromise. A "Union Meeting" composed of delegates from several churches met in the "Little Bethel" Church a few miles from Shelby. Thomas Dixon was among the early arrivals on Sunday morning. A deacon met him and invited him to walk with him to the spring. As they walked along, the deacon said: "Brother Dixon, it it true that you have joined the Sons of Tempeance?" "Yes," was the prompt reply, "it is true." "I am sorry to hear it," said this father in Israel, "for many people here have declared that they will not hear a Son of Temperance preach." "Well, I cannot help it," answered the young man. As they returned from the spring, the pastor of "Little Bethel" Church met them and took Thomas aside to learn of him whether this report of his having joined the Sons of Temerance was true, saying that he could hardly believe it. When assured that it was literally ture, and that he meant to stand by his principles, the pastor expressed his great sorrow, saying that the people certainly would not hear him preach. "All right," said the intrepid tee-totaler, "I am willin for you to put it to a vote, and if the majority vote against my preaching, I shall keep silence; but if the majority vote for me to preach, I shall do so." The pastor went into the pulpit and said: "All who are opposed to Brother Dixon's preaching here to-day, will please stand-up." Just one man rose, and he was a bloated drunkard. "The people don't understand you sir," exclaimed the solitary voter. "Put the question again." The pastor rose and repeated in a loud voice: "All who are opposed to Brother Dixon's preaching here to-day, will please rise to their feet." One other man rose, making only two opposed to the proposition. The majority were evidently in favor of hearing the young preacher, who preached to them an earnest gospel sermon without referring to the subject of temperance at all, thus deeply impressing them with the fact that the great issue was not total abstinence, important as that is, but salvation. His lack of educational advantages Thomas Dixon always lamented, and he resolved to help so far as possible every enteprise for Christian education. I shall never forget the evening when Mr. Gouger, Principal of the Shelby High School was sitting on our front porch talking with Father, whom I overheard saying to the teacher: "It is my purpose to send my children to college, and give them the best education possible." The vision of going to college thrilled my boyish soul, and I resolved to study harder, that I might be well prepared for that great event. Father economized in everything except the education of his children. For that, no expenditure was too great. The man who influenced Thomas Dixon more than any other man in his early years was Rev. Drury Dobbins, whom he regarded as the greatest preacher he ever heard. Mr. Dobbins was a white-haired, dignified, veneable man who wore two eye-glasses and deeply impressed the younger men with his wisdom and eloquence. The old preacher was evidently fond of his younger brother, for they often went on preaching tours together, and when they entered the pulpit, Mr. Dobbins would say to the young man, "Now go ahead with one of your inch- and-a-half sermons;" then he would follow with an elaborate and eloquent discourse. Father raised the money and erected a marble monument in his honor which now stands in front of "Sandy Run" Church, where Mr. Dobbins preached for many years. Another preacher father admired and loved was Rev. James Webb, whom he regarded as a truly great preacher. Mr. Webb preached the funeral sermon of Rev. Drury Robbins, and the text was "The charriots of Israel and the horsemen thereof," and father was fond of referring to that sermon as the most melting sermon he ever heard. "If there was a dry eye in the house," he said, "I did not see it." Photograph taken in May 1909 of the sons and daughters of Thomas Dixon, Sr.: Thomas Dixon, New York; Amzi Clarence Dixon, Chicago; Frank Dixon, Washington; Mrs. J. Ernest Thacker, Norfolk, Va.; Dr. E. Delia Dixon Carroll, Raleigh, NC.