Wayne County NcArchives Obituaries.....Everitt, David B. 1885 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Guy Potts http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00017.html#0004214 April 4, 2015, 11:35 pm Autobiography of Charles Force Deems Dr. Deems gives us a most interesting insight into his life on the Everittsville circuit (1855-56) in a letter to the "Raleigh Christian Advocate" of April 15, 1885, written on the occasion of the death of one of his most faithful friends and co-workers: "A few weeks ago a North Carolina paper brought us the announcement of the death of David B. Everitt in Goldsboro. My whole family felt a sudden sorrow. The younger members had so often heard their parents speak in loving terms of the man who bore the name that they felt a claim to be his friends. "When I quit the presidency of Greensboro Female College in 1854 I was sent to Everittsville circuit. I think that was its name, although it embraced Goldsboro. There I met David B. Everitt. His plantation was some miles from the village which bore his name, where he lived near a little church which was one of the preaching appointments on the circuit. We were not long in becoming friends. We were as unlike in body and mind as two men could well be, and perhaps therefore we loved each other. He was very large, bluff, loud of speech, sometimes boisterous, but gentle of heart as a woman. He was a thorough Methodist; perhaps he was considered by some a bigoted Methodist; but he was simply a brave, conscientious, earnest soul - a soul that had been converted. He no more doubted it that he doubted his birth. Converted under Methodism, he knew no other way. But he was not bigoted; he had friends in other churches and he loved and honored them - but he was a Methodist. I know men of that type among Baptists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians, and it is always a charming type to me. These men do not deny the good that is in other churches, but they are not familiar with it, while they do know the good that is in their own. In them what superficial observers take for ignorance is mere innocence. Of all guile, malice, meanness, and uncharitableness, David B. Everitt was as free as any man I ever knew. "And then, I think he had a great desire to know the truth. This was shown in whatever interested him. Many things did not interest him; they lay beyond his circle of thought; but if anything did attract his attention he was earnestly solicitous to go to the bottom of it. He could listen wonderfully and question closely. "He was very ardent in his friendships, and steadfast. Within three miles of him were two other men, his intimates, William Carraway and David McKinne. Such another trio I never knew and probably never shall know. They were so large and so loud. I venture a sketch to show the characteristics of these men. I remember the first time I saw them together. They had gone down to Indian Springs, where the new preacher was to hold forth. We four started together for Everittsville and brought up at William Carraway's. In the after-dinner conversation the talk turned on some question of the yield of crops on their several plantations. It waxed warm. Sometimes all three talked together. Carraway roared, McKinne bellowed, and Everitt yelled. They were all red in the face, and their faces were very large. It was an unhappy moment for me. I had never been in Mr. Carraway's house before, Mr. McKinne I had just met, and Mr. Everitt was a recent acquaintance. What should I do? If those 'bulls of Bashan" locked horns what was I? I could not prevent a general fight. And just from church! And all official members of the church of which I was pastor! At last I ventured very meekly to suggest, in most modest terms, that the 'brethren' might all be right, or if all wrong, was it really a question for neighbors, members of the same church, to be excited about? At this suggestion they all looked at me, and then at one another, and then burst into roars of laughter that literally jarred the house. They were accustomed to 'chaff' one another in this free, rough manner, and it never had occurred to them that a stranger might take it for quarreling. When they saw from my face that I did regard it seriously, the ludicrousness of the situation was too much for them. Mt. Everitt laughed until tears ran down his face. "After that, how often I have seen tears on those great faces, when those three men have engaged with me in prayer for the spiritual improvement of the neighborhood or the conversion of some special neighbor! And they have all crossed the flood before me! "Gentlest at heart of them all, perhaps, was David B. Everitt. How much I have desired in the last two years to see him! And I was planning to enjoy that pleasure when the news of his death came. I have seen no notice of his last hours and heard nothing. It is not needful that I should. Such a man's life, of gentleness and force, of cheerful sobriety, of fixed principle, of humble, happy faith, is the testimonial most precious to his friends. May some other in his church be raised to take his place, and may his children be Christians after the manner of their father! Very dear to me forever will be the cherished name of David B. Everitt. Charles Force Deems Church of the Strangers March 31, 1885 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/wayne/obits/e/everitt2841ob.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ncfiles/ File size: 5.7 Kb