Greenbrier County, West Virginia - 160th Anniversary Booklet - Part 8 *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. *********************************************************************** Historical Booklet - Greenbrier County 160th Anniversary - 1778-1938 Published 1938 Transcribed by Lori Samples SIXTY-TWO YEARS...GOING HIS FULL LENGTH FOR GOD Among all those stalwart figures that stand out against the background of our pioneer past none is more impressive and none exerted a wider and more lasting influence than Dr. John McIlhenney, for sixty-two years pastor of the Old Stone church at Lewisburg. John McIlhenney was born in the Waxhaws, South Carolina, March 22, 1781. Upon his graduation from Liberty Academy at Lexington, Virginia (now Washington and Lee University) he applied to Lexington Presbytery for licensure in the Presbyterian ministry. He was licensed to preach by that Presbytery in 1808, and came immediately to his field of labor on these "western waters." His own description of his coming to his chosen field of labor suggests the wide scope of the ministry which was to distinguish him as one of the great pioneers of this region: "In February, 1808, I started from Lexington to fulfill the commission that had been given me. The first family that I visited in the field of my mission was that of Mr. William Haynes in the Gap, in Monroe County, and in his house I delivered by first sermon on the west of the Alleghenies. On the next Sabbath I preached at Union in the court house. On the following Sabbath I preached in this house (Old Stone Church). the next place at which I preached was at the house of Major William Hamilton, on Muddy Creek. I next preached at Major Andrew McClung's, on Sinking Creek. On the following Sabbath I preached in the house of Mr. John Handley, in the immediate neighborood of the place where Spring Creek church now stands. On Monday, the morning after preaching at Mr. Handley's, I started for the Ohio. The way, then, as now, was down the valley of the Kanawha, then almost a wilderness. I spent a short time on the Ohio, and returning in April, preached at Lewisburg, and passed on to Lexington." For twenty-six years, until 1834, Dr. McIlhenney served both the Lewisburg and Union churches, and, resigning the pastorate of the Union church at that time, continued his ministry in the Old Stone church until his death in 1871. But Dr. McIlhenney's influence and ministry reached far beyond the bounds of the Lewisburg and Union congregations. there were at least eight places in Greenbrier and Monroe counties, in addition to his regular appointments, where he preached with fair regularity, and frequent journeys carried him far beyond the limits of that territory. Dr. Samuel Houston describes the larger field of his labors as extending "from Lexington on the east to the Ohio on the west and north and south for one hundred miles." Travel even on horseback was often difficult, but Dr. McIlhenney managed to reach effectively a large part of the vast region in which he was the only minister of the Presbyterian church. Dr. McIlhenney is described as a man of striking appearance, of boundless energy, of fine physical strength and courage. He had a large capacity for friendship. All classes of people trusted him and loved him. He was a man of strong convictions and of great spiritual power. His preaching was said to be clear, sound, simple, unadorned; and it must have been attractive, as tradition relates that Col. William McClung often walked the twenty miles from his home on Big Clear Creek to Lewisburg to hear him preach. Dr. McIlhenney was a man of vision. He saw the future greatness of this country in which he chose to invest his life and claimed that future for the God he served. Thirty years after he came out to his frontier field the Presbytery of Greenbrier was formed, a factual evidence of his constructive work. The original churches of this Presbytery were: Lewisburg, Spring Creek, Union, Oak Grove, Head of Greenbrier, Tygart's Valley, Anthony's Creek, Parkersburg, Point Pleasant, Hughes' River, Carmel, Huntersville, Charleston, Muddy Creek. This list of churches indicates the progress and extent of the pioneer work, even at that early day, in which Dr. McIlhenney was the principal builder. Today the Greenbrier region is dotted with other churches which were established by him or are the outgrowth of his labors. But, with all his prodigious labors as pastor and evangelist, Dr. McIlhenney found time for other constructive work. At Lewisburg he founded a school work which has made that place a center of education for more than a century and a quarter. The present Greenbrier College and Greenbrier Military School are lineal descendants of the educational work he founded. Of his educational work he once wrote: "With me it is a problem whether I have done more good by teaching or preaching." Toward the end of his life Dr. McIlhenney estimated that he had preached 7,800 sermons, and there were additional thousands of marriages, baptisms and funerals. On horseback he went, following the trails over the mountains, wherever there was good to be done or service to be given. He was a hard rider, because, he said, he would rather finish his journey and let his horse rest than to "sit on him all day." One who knew him said, "He seemed always in a hurry to do good." In the sixty-two years of his ministry Dr. McIlhenney wrote a brilliant chapter in the religious history of this country. His life was a glorious example of the "evangelical cavalry service" which made so large a contribution to our country in the early days of its development. A plain marble shaft marks the place of his burial on the grounds adjacent to the Old Stone Church at Lewisburg. The shadow of his devoted life still lies across these hills and valleys, and its image is stamped on the souls of our people. He was a great man, going his full length for God. NEXT: STILL STANDS THE SCHOOLHOUSE