Mecklenburg County NcArchives Obituaries.....Martin, Rev. William 1889
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The Daily News
12 Jan 1889

Death of Mr. Martin

Rev. William Martin, who was born in Mecklenburg County on March 9, 1807, died 
in Columbia on the 10th. He was the oldest Methodist preacher in that State. 
Mr. Gonzales, the News and Courier's correspondent says that Mr. Martin's 
ancestors were signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. Members 
of his family had fought under Braddock and served in every subsequent war in 
this country. In his semi-centennial sermon preached before the South Carolina 
Conference on December 12, 1887 and printed by the Conference are found 
interesting reminiscences of Mr. Martin's life.

His family was Presbyterians but having been converted while a lad at a 
Methodist camp meeting he joined that church in 1825. He was soon licensed to 
exhort and on December 1, 1827, became a preacher before he had attained his 
majority. He was recommended to the South Carolina Conference at Camden and 
was admitted on trial and appointed for 1828 to the Broad River circuit, now 
the North Georgia Conference.

In 1829 he went to an Alabama circuit with headquarters at Columbus, Ga., a 
town then without a church. Thence he visited the Ashbury mission in the Creek 
Nation. In this year he aided in clearing the ground and setting up the wooden 
pillars for the first church in Talbutton, Ga. Returning to South Carolina, 
Mr. Martin was in January, 1830, ordained a deacon by Bishop Soule. His long 
and varied service subsequently cannot be described in detail, but one fact 
will show how great a space in time his ministry has encompassed. 

In 1828, when Mr. Martin was admitted to the South Carolina Conference on 
trial, that Conference embraced the States of South Carolina, Georgia, and 
Florida, a large section of North Carolina, and the Creek Nation in Alabama. 

Some of the works of Mr. Martin were the following: He assisted in building 
every Methodist church in Columbia; he was the founder of the famous Wayside 
Hospital, where so many Confederate soldiers were tended, and devoted himself 
to its charge; he was for three years the president of the Columbia Female 
College, for one year chaplain of the Lunatic Asylum, and for eight years 
chaplain of the Penitentiary; eight years he spent in mission service among 
the Negroes.

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