Jones, Thomas Hall
4/4/1881
1859-1880 |
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Thomas Hall Jones was born in Montgomery, Alabama, September 12, 1859. He came with his parents to New Orleans in 1861 and was mainly educated in the public schools of the city. He was converted at the Sea Shore Avenue Quarterly Conference, New Orleans, in the fall of 1877; was admitted on trial in the traveling connection by the Louisiana Conference, December 1880; appointed to Lafourche Mission; and died April 4, 1881. Brother Jones’ conversion was very clear and powerful, and he began at once to lead his young friends to Christ, and was instrumental in the conversion of several at the same meeting in which he found Christ as his own Savior. From the first hour of his conversion he felt called to preach and began at once to prepare for the work. He entered Centenary College and remained there several months until failing health compelled him to desist from regular study. For some time in imperfect health, he studied and preached as he was able, serving the Lafourche Mission as a supply during the most of 1880. In improved health, he was admitted on trial and preached for two or three months, but the insidious disease which had been preying upon him for several years developed suddenly, and in great suffering returning from an appointment about a month before his death, he took his room and bed with but little hope of recovery. His last days and hours were peaceful, and he met death in full possession of his mental faculties with the utmost tranquility and in the assured hope of eternal life. As a preacher he bid fair, had he lived, to have become a useful and successful minister of the Gospel. He had greatly endeared himself to the people if his charge, and, in his brief ministry among them, had accomplished much good. He had a good mind, was fairly educated, and was fully consecrated to the work. A young man of singular purity and beauty of character, he has gone, not empty-handed, into the presence of the Lord. He did what he could. While we mourn his early death, we are sure that he has not lived in vain. |
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| Source: Journal Louisiana Conference Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1882 | |
