The Life of J.W. McGarvey
BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE
John William McGarvey came from Scotch-Irish Stock in Hopkinsville, Kentucky on March 1. His parents were John McGarvey and Sara Ann Thomson. The two had 4 children in 4 years of marriage before his death. After some time, she married Dr. Gordon Saltonstall who was a widower of her older sister. He had nine children. To this marriage six more were to be born making for a grand total on nineteen children altogether. The family was a blend of cousins, step children
Dr. Saltonstall objected to raising his children in the slave state of Kentucky. In 1839 he sold his possessions and settled his family in Tremont, Tazewell county Illinois. Once here J.W. as well as his many brothers, sisters, and cousins were to be sent to school. He studied under a teacher which was an English teacher who happened to be of great ability. The teacher’s name was James Kellogg and he conducted a private school of great standing so our man McGarvey received a great education right from the start. Farm labor (his father made his fortune in the hemp business) gave J.W. a strong, healthy body while Kellogg gave him a keen and inquiring mind. He was mischievous and was a favorite in the home group.
A note of praise could now be given to Dr. Saltonstall, J.W.’s step-father, who, as a good man and great parent, made long term plans for the lad’s education and very wisely carried out to completion his plans for the education of the lad. In 1847 he took the lad and a brother on a steamship on the Illinois river and the Mississippi and Ohio rivers for Bethany College in Virginia. The group stopped at Cincinnati for books and needed supplies for his entire college course. He also provided clothes for daily use as well as a full-dress suit AND a silk hat for school purposes.
COLLEGE DAYS
McGarvey began his college school days at Bethany College in April, 1847. After the long trip and arrival at Bethany he settled in and prepared himself for his oncoming collegiate days.
John W. McGarvey was a very diligent, precise, painstakingly accurate student. He became very well known to the Campbells. He often ate at their table and was known for reading the Scriptures to a now blind and aged Thomas Campbell. McGarvey excelled at Bethany, graduated in three and one-half years. His graduation was on July 4, 1850. He received first honors and delivered the Greek speech. While there, he took great interest in the chapel lectures on the Bible as delivered by Alexander Campbell. After an excellent examination he received a New Testament with his name engraved. It was lost in a house fire.
In 1848 he was baptized into Christ by Professor Pendleton and decided to spend his life preaching Christ. He carried this on in highest fidelity for over sixty-three years. There is no record-oral or written that his zeal ever grew cold till death’s cold hand took him from this earth. This is an example to follow for each of us who follow him as he followed Christ.
WORK IN MISSOURI
These Missouri years were not productive in the sense that he wrote books or engaged in great public enterprises, but they were very important years for him in that during this period he made the plans for his life, and prepared himself to carry out these plans. During them his ideals took shape and his character developed. His college course had lasted a little more than three years. No ministerial training had been included. The influence of Bethany College had awakened in his mind the impulse to preach but it had given him no special equipment for the task. A similar situation existed for those Bethany graduates that decided to become a doctor, or a lawyer or perhaps, a gospel preacher. There is a vast difference in becoming a practicing Christian and a gospel preacher. Special tools are needed, not even enough to mention the vast amount of Bible knowledge that was required to do such a job properly.
His special training had to be acquired in some other way. Young McGarvey recognized this and set out to acquire the knowledge and tools that would make his job a proper one. He began by teaching at a young boy’s school for one year.
“John McGarvey had now fully determined to be a preacher, but he felt unprepared for the work, for he realized that his knowledge of the Scripture was insufficient; that he was deficient in general knowledge; and that he lacked experience in public speaking. He was solicited by a popular and successful evangelist to travel with him and to learn to preach by hearing and observing him. Many had learned to preach in this way, but McGarvey believed that this would make him a mere imitator, and would afford him no opportunity for real study.
Many years afterwards he was accustomed to remark that if he had received at Bethany the courses of instruction given by him and others in The College of the Bible, he would have been prepared to take the field at once. Instead of going with the evangelist, therefore, he reached a decision to teach a private school and to spend the hours that he could spare from it for private study. Accordingly, he opened a school for boys in Fayette, Missouri, and during his leisure hours reviewed much of his Latin courses, carefully studied the Greek New Testament, the entire Bible with the aid of commentaries, and in addition did some general reading. Whenever the opportunity came to him, he took part in the meetings of the church and thus gradually acquired experience as a public speaker. This continued for two years, from the autumn of 1850 to September, 1852, at which time he was formally called by the church to become its minister and hands were laid upon him in ordination by Alexander Procter and Thomas M. Allen.”[1]
McGarvey devoted two Sundays a month at Mount Pleasant while making appointments for the other two. By doing this he was able to develop his public speaking deficiencies. He also used his leisurely time to study his Latin and Greek lessons from Bethany as well as to study the entire Bible under commentaries. He spent much time reading and meditating upon the scriptures and he gradually grew in grace and knowledge.
The two undevoted Sundays were spent at other churches evangelizing and doing the work of an evangelist. At that time there rarely was a preacher spending all his time at one church. It wasn’t done so in those days. The pay was very meager and to make up for it a lot of time was spent before brethren and doing work with local churches. McGarvey was not trying to pile up riches but to hopefully provide for himself without having to take a full-time job outside the church as so many did merely to survive. He did struggle though: “For many years my preaching fell so far below my ideal that many times, after what I considered a failure, I felt that I had missed my calling.”[2]
His sermons were always constructed of scriptural topics and the most effective of them were of biographical or historical. He was able to use the material and to make scriptural arguments, of which he had the highest confidence.
In the autumn of 1852, McGarvey and his close friend Alexander Proctor held a gospel meeting at Dover, Lafayette county. The two men alternated in speaking and found that they worked really well together. Sometime later, McGarvey was invited to become the minister of the Dover church. He accepted and in January, 1853, he gave up his school at Fayette and for the remainder of his Missouri days, Dover was his home.
Shortly after he moved to Dover, he became aware of a young lady by name of Ottwayana Frances Hix. She was a girl aged 18, with a bright face, perfect form, High School education and was also a sweet singer. McGarvey found this combination most desirable and the two were wed on March 23, 1853. The marriage ceremony was held by his dear friend Alexander Proctor.
His evangelizing and working with local churches often took him on long journeys. This was in both summer and winter. He left an account of a twenty- mile trip made on a Saturday to reach a church when the temperature was twenty degrees below zero. He had no injury from it except that he felt chilled for quite some time. He decided not to make such trips any further during winter.
LEXINGTON LABORS
In 1862 McGarvey left Missouri to move to what would become his permanent home-Lexington, Kentucky. The old Main Street Christian Church called him to the pulpit. From that date until October 6, 1911 he resided in Lexington. He had a career at Lexington which lasted forty-nine years and it was one that he was especially suited for. He had his experience from Dover to assist him in his new endeavors. He had his opportunity. He had found his area of specialty. He knew what was necessary to be a successful gospel preacher and he used all his experience and talents to fulfill the call made to him. He remained with the Main Street church until 1869 when the Broadway Christian Church was organized. Of this congregation he remained in its service until 1881. By that date the size of the congregation and his duty as a professor had become too much so he resigned as preacher at that time.
EXECUTIVE ENDEAVORS
He was a member of the Kentucky Christian Missionary Board for forty years. He was chairman for quite a few years. For most of his educational life he was a member of the Kentucky Christian Educational Society which made it possible for hundreds of men to educated for ministry. He had been on the Board of Hocker College. Because he was a member a lot of Christians sent their children to be educated there.
PROFESSORSHIP AND CONTROVERSY
In 1865, McGarvey’s service to the Main Street congregation when he became a professor in the College of the Bible of Kentucky University. The buildings had been destroyed by fire at the Harrodsburg site and instead of rebuilding at that site it was deemed beneficial to move the college to a more central location in Lexington. Transylvania University which was dying out so the school was asked to occupy the site and College of the Bible was born. It was not a state-owned school but privately owned by Christians. John Bowman was at the helm of the school as Regent. Each school had its own President. Robert Milligan was President over the College of the Bible while McGarvey was Professor of Sacred History. McGarvey the Preacher was becoming McGarvey the professor and it was with the applause of many among the brotherhood.
Bowman brought the school far beyond what the individual Christians who were the true owners and bad blood developed between the two. This was after Bowman said that the church was among the many sects. That set off the battle which McGarvey got involved in. Bowman openly declared the school was based on more-broader base with more liberal ideas. McGarvey started firing Broadsides through the Apostolic Times to the point where he was removed as professor of Sacred History. The University was losing progress due to the controversy and made concessions which made Robert Graham president and McGarvey as professor again. They were using the Main Street for classrooms at this time.
LANDS OF THE BIBLE
In 1879 a group of his former students advanced him the money for a trip through the Bible lands. When he returned he was going to write a book about the trip. It was a very successful trip if you don’t take into consideration the time he almost drown while there. Thankfully he was saved by a companion. Lands of the Bible is his greatest commercial success. It was a great favorite of his to tell stories about the trip.
AS AN AUTHOR
This area is probably where he had the greatest success of all his endeavors. He started by writing a fabulous commentary on the book of Acts while the Civil War raged around him. He also wrote a second commentary on Acts at a later time. I can list his books and not attempt to write the story of each book as that would double, maybe triple the size of this small article. Some of his books are the famous Fourfold Gospel, Commentaries on Matthew/Mark, Romans, Corinthians & Thessalonians, The Eldership, Jesus and Jonah, and a good number of others. He was a prolific author creating so many good books that are still in print today.
ARTICLES and COLUMNS
McGarvey was an editor of the Apostolic Times. He wrote a column on Biblical Criticism in the Christian Standard. He also wrote in the Millennial Harbinger, American Christian Review and a large number of articles in Lard’s Quarterly. This writer has discovered several journals that McGarvey wrote extensively for and it is my intention to make a new book of these rare articles. They are quite large because the papers were Quarterlies and also to remove articles from the Apostolic Times which are also very rare. It is an exciting project.
ON THE SOCIETY AND INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
Here we run into some supposed inconsistencies in the life of McGarvey. As noted earlier, he was a member of several societies such as the American Christian Missionary. When he was faced with the fact that it was a human organization doing the work of the church he basically said “So, I don’t see a problem with that” or something similar. He had an exchange with David Lipscomb on the societies that he did not say too much too. Perhaps that needs to be published?
On instrumental music he was in absolute opposition to it as being an addition to God’s word. He disliked it so much so as to move his membership to another congregation when it was introduced where his family worshipped.
John W. McGarvey died on October 6, 1911. One of the saddest things was that instrumental music was used at the building where his funeral was being carried out.
Bibliography
Life of McGarvey-Deweese
Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Mvmnt.
Brother McGarvey
Autobiography of J.W. McGarvey
[1] Brother McGarvey page 64
[2] Brother McGarvey page 68