Shortly after he began religious work, and in 1876 he was ordained to take charge of the pastorate at Tullahoma, Tenn. Five or six years after this he came to Alabama to take charge of the Dexter Avenue Church. Mr. McEwen, since his entrance into Alabama, has been intimately connected with all our state operations, educational and missionary, and no man among us has been more successful as a church financier. He has bestowed special care upon the education of his children, all of whom he has reared for the most part without their mother’s aid, as she died when they were young. The Dexter Avenue Church building was constructed under his leadership. McCall, Rev. E. A., at present pastor in Columbus, Ga., the son of Rev. H. A. McCall, was born May 15, 1855, in Russell county, Alabama. In 1872 he was baptized into the Hawkinsville Baptist Church by the hands of his father. In September, in the twentieth year of his age, he was set apart to the work of the gospel ministry by Revs. A. Gachet, S. Fantroy, J. Daniel, J. H. Davis and H. A. McCall. It will be seen that he entered the sacred office at a very early age--at an age rather soon in most cases--rather early for the good of the minister as well as for the good of the people and the cause. But though in youth he was possessed of very poor educational advantages, by talent, push, courage, ambition, observation and application to books, he has made surprising advances. He is strictly a self-made man. He speaks with ease and performs well on the organ. He has had a wide range of operation, having been pastor at different times of eleven different churches, some of them equaling the best pastorates in the country. Among them the church at Union Springs may be mentioned. No man in Alabama is more companionable than he. McCord, Rev. C., of Selma, was set apart to the work of the gospel ministry by the St. Phillip Street Church while the writer was pastor in 1884. He started the study of books late in life, but by associating with men of advanced ideas and close application to books he is now considerably ahead of the masses of the ministry. He is a sober, judicious man, peaceable and ever ready for work. Maddox, Rev. J. D., the son of Daniel and Tabitha Maddox, was born in Barbour county, Ala., near Midway, in 1854. His father was sold away from him when he was only three days old, and his mother when he was three years old, and hence he came up without knowing anything either of father or mother. This friendless condition early impressed him with the desire to obtain the friendship of God, which in his eleventh year, he sought and found. He was baptized into the Rama Church by the Rev. Mr. VanHoose (white) during the same year.