Sketches Of
Tennessee's Pioneer Baptist Preachers
WILLIAM CATE
(pages 101-106)
In the old cemetery at Jonesboro is a slab erected by the
Baptist church of that place and inscribed: "In memory of Rev. William
Cate, born June 17, 1807; died February 2, 1860. For twenty-five years he was an
energetic and efficient minister of the Baptist faith, whose labors in the
sacred cause of Christ are all imperishable monument to his memory. 'Mark the
perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace.'
"
William, the son of John and Mary Cate, was born in
Jefferson County, Tennessee, being the sixth son in a family of
Young Cate grew to manhood with few advantages of an
education. In his twenty-third year he was married to Mary Thornburg, of his
native county. November 10, 1837, he and his companion "went down into the
water" together and were baptized, uniting with the Rocky Valley Church.
The same church licensed him to preach, and January 1, 1838, he made his
"first lecture as a licentiate." He was ordained to the full work of
the ministry, January 24, 1840, Elders James Lankford and
Robert G. Kimbrough
constituting the presbytery.
In 1841, under appointment of the Baptist State Convention,
he went to Washington County and commenced his labors as "missionary"
in the bounds of the Holston Association. At the close of his first year on this
field he reported to the board, "protracted meetings held, 23; sermons
preached, 200; addresses delivered, about the same; number of conversions
witnessed, 500."
In 1842 he organized the Jonesboro, Elizabethton, and
Blountville churches, and later the New Salem, Rogersville and Bristol churches.
The same year (1842) he became pastor of the Jonesboro Church, and continued
pastor eighteen years (till his death), building for the Baptists of the town
two houses of worship. When he commenced his work in Jonesboro there was but one
Baptist in the place - the territory having been "pre-empted," so to
speak, by people of other faiths. At the close of his pastorate the Baptists
were 170 strong. Meanwhile he had baptized thousands of people in the bounds of
the Holston, and had canvassed nearly the whole of East Tennessee as collecting
agent for church-building, missionary, and educational enterprises. He was the
inspiring genius and principal founder of the Holston Baptist Female Institute,
Jonesboro, where many of our Baptist young women of other days received their
education. Having no children of his own to educate, and believing that the
thorough education of Baptist young people, especially our Baptist girls, would
be a pillar of strength to the denomination, he took the field, and with much
sacrifice of time, energy, and vital force, raised several thousand dollars for
the above institution, and erected a number of handsome buildings.
When the Baptists were struggling to get a foothold in
Knoxville (1850), and the First Church meeting-house was about to be sold for
debt, William Cate was employed as financial agent and saved the building from
going under the auctioneer's hammer. When William Cate commenced his work as
missionary, the cause of missions in Tennessee was languishing and the workers
were discouraged; but his dauntless courage and unprecedented success, and the
widespread revivals of 1841 to 1845 inspired hope and put new life in all the
associations connected with the State Convention.
Referring to Elder Cate and his labors as missionary for
the Holston Association the venerable and now lamented
William A. Keen said:
"No man ever stirred up so much interest, or aroused such fierce
opposition, or made so deep an impression upon the people as did William Cate.
He was a full Baptist, and preached the gospel fearlessly, attacking the very
stronghold of the enemy. From the very start his preaching was a sensation. He
proclaimed the duty of Baptists to go up and possess the land, and led the way.
But every step of the way was opposed and every foot of the territory was
stoutly contested by Pedobaptist opponents. Every day was a battle, but every
battle was a victory; for the hand of the Lord was with him."
William Cate was not robust, nor was he particularly
striking in his personal appearance. On the contrary, he was lean and swarthy,
and had a weak voice. But his dress was neat, his figure tall and straight, his
eyes were dark and piercing ,and his voice, though weak, was pathetic and
spiritually magnetic. In a scholastic sense he was not educated, but he had a
trained mind. His style was not that of a popular preacher, still he was
popular. He was not a "revivalist," in the popular sense, and yet be
was a wonderfully successful soul-winner. He never failed to command attention
and sometimes produced upon his hearers, a profound impression. "He was
pious, determined, persevering. He knew no discouragement, but with faith in God
he planned and executed his plans, confidently expecting that if he failed today
he would succeed tomorrow."
When the Baptist banner was first uplifted in the old
historic town of Jonesboro, it seemed presumptions to some that such a thing
should be done, and not a little disturbance was thereby occasioned in certain
quarters. Wm. G. Brown "Parson" Brownlow, he was called - preacher and
politician, and editor of the Whig, gave the Baptists some hard knocks in
his paper, and wrote a book against them. Among the caricature pictures in the
book was one representing William Cate baptizing a female in Cherokee Creek. The
pictures in the book were not overly modest, nor its arguments formidable - it
is of interest only as a sword or other weapon of war, captured from the enemy,
is of interest to the old soldier after the war is over.
One of the marked characteristics of William Cate was his
modesty, he always shrank from occupying distinguished or popular pulpits. On
his collecting-agency trips he rarely got far from his base of operations, East
Tennessee, but on one occasion he got as far as Baltimore, and was urged by the
distinguished Dr. Richard Fuller to preach for him on a Sabbath. Brother Cate
reluctantly consented. and did the best be could. To his surprise and
encouragement he overheard one of the old members, say, "Well, thank God!
we have heard the gospel preached in Dr. Fuller's pulpit once more."
As an illustration of the strong prejudice the
"agent" or money-getter had to encounter in Brother Cate's day, take
the following. On the Dumplin Church records of December 7, 1851, is the copy of
a "notice" posted on a tree close by the church-house and addressed to
"Mr. William Cate." The notice reads as follows: "It is generally
believed you had better not come to this camp-meeting at Dumplin, lest you cause
sinners to be lost; for they have no confidence in you. They believe you are not
seeking souls, but money. Now for the cause of God and your good, you had better
stay away." It is gratifying to note that the Dumplin Church branded the
notice as a "base falsehood and a foul slander," and endorsed Elder
Cate as a "successful minister of the gospel and an efficient agent in
raising funds for benevolent purposes."
Elder Cate, with his usual painstaking accuracy, had kept a
detailed account of himself in a diary and had preserved many papers and records
with a view to writing a history of the Cate family, which has in it a score or
more of preachers; but after his death these documents were turned over to
Professor Starkweather, then of Jonesboro, who took them with him to Rochester,
N. Y., with the intention of writing a biography of Elder Cate; but the war
coming on, the work was abandoned and the records have not been recovered.
In 1860 the beloved Cate left the field where he had sown
and reaped so bountiful a harvest, and went to Fayetteville,
"So fades the summer cloud away;
So sinks the gale when storms are o'er;
So gently shuts the eye of day;
So dies a wave along the shore."
Burnett, J .J. Sketches of Tennessee's Pioneer Baptist Preachers. Nashville, Tenn.: Press of Marshall & Bruce Company, 1919.
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