EARLY PASTORATES.
The Rev. Mr. Walker soon became noted as a preacher in and around
Augusta. Possessing a fair knowledge of the Bible, and at all times
an earnest and enthusiastic speaker, the people literally crowded to
hear the “boy preacher,” as the Rev. C. T. Walker, on account of his
age and youthful appearance, was called for a good many years after he
entered the ministry. October 1st, 1877, he was called to the pastorate
of the Franklin Covenant Baptist Church, near Hephzibah, and assumed
the duties of the office on the first day of January, 1878. This was
the church of which he was a member, of which his father had been a
deacon, and of which, before him, two of his uncles had been pastors.
Calls to other churches followed in rapid succession, and by the time
he reached his twenty-first birthday, February, 1879, he was pastor of
the four following churches: Franklin Covenant Baptist Church, near
Hephzibah, Ga.; Thankful Baptist Church, Waynesboro, Ga.; McKinnie’s
Branch Baptist Church, Burke County, Ga., and Mount Olive Baptist
Church, in the suburbs of Augusta, Ga. If it seem strange that one man
should be the pastor of so many churches, it may be stated that it is
customary in the country districts of the South for one preacher to be
in charge of several churches. He will give about one Sunday in every
month to each church. Sometimes the churches served by one pastor are
all in the same county. Sometimes they are separated by many miles. Of
course, no real pastoral work can be done in this way. Of necessity the
people suffer; no continuous, well-organized spiritual training can be
kept up. But, as a rule, the country churches are unable to properly
pay their pastors, and but for this system which allows one minister to
pastor several churches, there are many churches which would be without
any pastor. Even under the present system it is very difficult for the
majority of pastors to secure anything like proper remuneration.
The Rev. Mr. Walker, nevertheless, was not to be doomed to the drudgery
of pastoring several churches at one and the same time. After a little
more than one year’s service, he resigned all of his other churches
to become pastor of the First Baptist Church at LaGrange, Ga., in the
early part of 1880.
It was with very great regret that the churches which he had been
serving consented to his withdrawal. Two of them voted to increase his
salary if he would decide to continue to serve them. He had done good
service, and these struggling churches felt that it would be difficult
to find any one who would be able to serve as well, as faithfully, and
as acceptably as he had done. Hence, they objected to his removal.
Especially was it hard for him to withstand the entreaties of his
home church. The members of the Franklin Covenant Baptist Church held
a mass meeting protesting against the withdrawal of their pastor and
urging him to remain with his own people. When he announced to them his
final decision, to the effect that he felt that the Lord was calling
him to the new field of labor and that he would obey what he believed
to be the call of the Holy Spirit, the whole congregation broke down
in tears. It was a sad and trying experience in the life of the young
preacher.
During the summer months of 1876, 1877, 1878 and 1879, the Rev. Mr.
Walker taught school in the Franklin Covenant Baptist Church building.
That is another thing that is peculiar to the rural districts of the
South. In many places, perhaps in the majority of places, the public
schools are conducted in church edifices, the States having no funds
for buildings for schools and the people, as a rule, the white people
as well as the colored people, being too poor to erect separate
school buildings, find it convenient to use the church building for
school purposes. As a school-teacher he was successful, so far as the
conditions of the time and his own attainments warranted. It must be
confessed, none the less, that he taught school as a means of support
and to help him in paying his own expenses while attending the Augusta
Institute.
June 19th, 1879, Rev. Mr. Walker was married to Miss Violet Q.
Franklin, of Hephzibah, Ga. To them four children were born. Three
children are dead. One son is still living--Master Jonathan Walker, a
lad yet in his teens. One daughter, Mrs. Alberta Walker Hughes, left
a daughter at her death, and this grandchild is pet of Dr. Walker and
wife.
Dr. Walker remained in LaGrange for nearly three years. While there
he was a busy, active, energetic, influential and successful pastor.
It was while there that he gave promise of his future eminence as a
soul-stirring, soul-saving evangelist. He conducted two of the most
eventful revivals ever held in Western Georgia. More than four hundred
souls were savingly converted, and more than three hundred were added
to the church which he pastored. After these meetings, he received
many invitations to conduct series of meetings in the leading Georgia
cities, and accepted as many as he could well afford to accept without
injury to his own work at LaGrange. At LaGrange he also established
a school for Baptists, and was instrumental in having a large frame
building erected for this purpose. The school finally grew into the
LaGrange Academy, a large and influential Baptist High School. It was
at LaGrange, also, that he read law for nearly two years under Judge
Walker, one of the ablest members of the Georgia bar, and, though he
was never admitted to the bar, it is evident that his legal learning
has stood him in good stead in the exposition of many a Scripture
passage, and, though the law may have lost a brilliant expounder, it
is certain that a great leader and teacher was saved to the church and
religion.