John W. Holcomb

HOLCOMBE, John -According to a dispensation of Providence we were called to witness the death of our aged but very highly esteemed citizen and dearly beloved brother, John Holcombe, who departed this life on Saturday morning, the 9th inst., after three short days confinement to his bed. Elder John Holcombe was a native of South Carolina and was born December 10, 1797. He emigrated to Kentucky when but a youth and shortly after to the State of Indiana where, at the age of twenty-three years, he married a lady by the name of Dorathy Wilbanks, on the 24th day of July 1823. They becoming one flesh were the parents of sixteen children, eleven of whom are surviving, and are noted for their honesty, industry and economy; and to these qualities are added benevolence, soberness and truth. All these, wielded by superior ability, make them ornaments to the best society. Elder John Holcombe professed a hope in Christ before he was married and joined the Regular Baptist Church in southern Indiana, and in the Salem association. Afterwards he moved to Fulton county, Illinois and commenced preaching in the bounds of the Spoon River Association. About the year 1832 he emigrated to Washington county, Arkansas, was ordained an Elder, and set apart for the work of the West Fork Church of Regular Baptist in the year 1840. In the year __ he constituted Shiloh church upon fourteen members and the Lord, through him, making his labors efficient, it was increased to one hundred and twenty-four members, he being its pastor from its constitution until his death. Thus he labored in the ministry in the vineyard of the Lord for over forty years, in season and out of season always abounding in the work of the Lord, preaching some of the time to four churches, riding eighty miles per week, and never asking or ever receiving a single dollar for all his services. He organized many churches, ordained many Elders and baptized a great many persons, while all the time the Lord prospered the labors of his hands in the accumulation of money and goods and gave him a benevolent heart, so that he contributed freely to the erection of churches and school-houses, maintaining associations and feeding the poor and needy generally. He was admired by all for his integrity, his firmness and the tenacity that he displayed in contending for and practicing out the doctrine and discipline of the primitive Baptist, never having belonged to any other organization, never faltering under the pressure of the isms of men. A.G. Smith, Springdale, Ark., Dec. 14, 1876. Bentonville Advance and Fayetteville Sentinel pl.case copy. [Fayetteville Democrat 12/23/76]