A Biographical Sketch of the Life and Character of Joseph Charless: In a Series of Letters to his GrandchildrenCharless, Charlotte Taylor Blow
History
A Biographical Sketch of the Life and Character of Joseph Charless: In a Series of Letters to his Grandchildren
Charless, Charlotte Taylor Blow
Charless, Joseph, 1772-1834; Printing -- Missouri -- Saint Louis -- History
account of him from my own personal knowledge and intercourse with him.
My relations to Mr. Charless were intimate for about eight years,
I being, during that time, the Pastor of the Church in which he was a
Ruling Elder. This official connection necessarily brought me in
frequent intercourse with him, and as it was hardly possible to know
such a man at all, without wishing to know him better, our intercourse
soon ripened into friendship, which continued while he lived.
How well do I remember the first time I saw Mr. Charless, and the
impression he made upon me. I had just come to St. Louis, from
Virginia, to visit Westminster Church, with a view of settlement as its
Pastor, if we should be mutually pleased. Being comparatively young
and inexperienced, I felt much diffidence in undertaking the charge of
a Church in a large city. It would have taken little to have
discouraged me and made me abandon the thought; when I saw St. Louis, I
felt so unfit to labor in such a place, that I was more than half
regretting that I had listened to the invitation. As soon as he
learned that I had arrived he called to see me. And there was
something so cordial and winning in his manner, he was so frank and
kind, that I at once felt that I could give him my confidence, and that
with such men I would love to live and labor. It was Mr. Charless,
more than all others in St. Louis, that induced me to make it my home.
It would be easy for me to fill sheets with my recollections of
personal kindnesses shown me. I never went to him discouraged or
dispirited that he did not impart some of the cheerful hope, which was
so characteristic of his own mind. I never sought his advice when
perplexed, or in doubt, that he did not, by his wise counsel, throw
light on the matters presented. But I will not dwell on these things,
yet I can never forget them. I have had other friends who were very
dear to me, but never such a friend as Mr. Charless; and what he was to
me in our peculiar relations, such he was also to many, many others, in
the various relations of life. But while so true and valuable a
friend, I do not think I ever knew a man who made fewer declarations or
professions of friendship.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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