Red River is one of the oldest Baptist churches in Tennessee, and the
Bourne Spring at that date, was called Prince’s Spring, and the little
log church building was known as Prince’s meeting house. After its
removal to Robertson county it took its name from its nearness to Red
River. In the early days most of the churches took their names from the
streams nearest which they were located, as Spring Creek, West Fork,
Red River, etc. Rev. Horace Carr named the church he loved so well,
from the New Testament. Hebrews 12: 22, in which Moses said, “But ye
are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem,” etc.
CHAPTER V.
“THE MAN WHO SPEAKS, MAY, IF HIS MESSAGE IS GREAT ENOUGH, AND GREATLY
DELIVERED, RANK ABOVE THE RULERS OF HIS TIME.”
It seems that a love for the ministry, was inherent in the Carr
family, and it is also a noticeable fact, that few, if any of them,
have departed from the Baptist faith; beginning with Uncle Horace,
and descending to his two sons, Altheus and William, on down to his
grandson, Rev. Thomas Carr, of Kansas, son of the late Calvin Carr, of
Cheatham county.
Altheus, the fourth son of Uncle Horace, and Aunt Kitty, was born near
Port Royal, Tenn., in the early 50’s. He was obedient to his parents
from his early childhood.
While a day laborer on the farms around Port Royal, he manifested a
thirst for knowledge, and while his plow team rested their noon hours
rest, he was not idle. He could be seen lying around under the shade
trees, either with a book in his hand or a pencil and paper.
By saving his wages, and receiving financial aid from friends, he was
enabled to take a theological course at Fisk’s University, Nashville,
Tenn.
He was a negro of commanding appearance, and polite address, and after
the death of his father, September, 1877, he was pastor of Mount Zion
Church continuously for nine years. In his early twenties he was
married to Miss Lou Gaines, daughter of Aunt Eliza Gaines, of whom I
shall speak later.
After his marriage, he purchased five acres of land adjoining the Mount
Zion lot, on which he built a comfortable three room cottage. It was
here that he and his thrifty wife raised a large and interesting family
of seven daughters, all of whom died young.
In his cottage he had his private study, in which he prepared some
very able sermons, and after he thought he had his subjects well in
hand, he often went to a valley near his home, on Sulphur Fork Creek,
and delivered them, with the fine old elms and sycamores his silent
listeners.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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