JAMES CALVIN SMITH
1941 - 1946
James Calvin Smith was born at
Troy, Tennessee, November 2, 1908. In 1909 he was baptized by Dr.
T. P. Pressly, his uncle. He grew up in the Troy congregation under
the ministry of Dr. Pressly, by whom he was received on profession of faith
at the age of twelve.
His mother was Sunie Montgomery
Pressly, youngest daughter of Rev. David Pressly, D.D., and Sarah Brown
Peden of Starkville, Mississippi. His father was William Alexander
Smith, son of James Graham Smith and Sarah Elizabeth Allen of Troy.
His education was begun in
the public school of Troy. He was a student in Bryson College from
September 1926 to the spring of 1929. In the fall of 1929 he matriculated
in Erskine College, and graduated in the spring of 1930. He taught
High School Algebra one year in the school of Simpsonville, South Carolina.
In the fall of 1931 he entered Erskine Theological Seminary, receiving
his certificate of graduation in 1933.
He was licensed by the Second
Presbytery in Atlanta, Georgia, at the spring meeting, April 25, 1933,
and by the same Presbytery, on October 18 of the same year, he was ordained
to the full work of the ministry at Clinton, South Carolina.
He began his ministry at Ora,
South Carolina, where he served four years, June 1933, to June 1937.
In the latter year he went to Mount Zion and Elsberry, Missouri, in June,
and continued in this field till April, 1941, when he was transferred to
the Tennessee and Alabama Presbytery, to take up the work at Bethel A.R.P.
Church at Oak Hill, Alabama. After about five years at Oak Hill,
April, 1941, to February, 1946, he accepted a call to Monticello, Arkansas,
February, 1946, where he also supplied Shady Grove and Hickory Springs.
In November 1950, he resigned from his pastorate of the Monticello Church
to accept the pastorate of the Bartow, Florida Associate Reformed Presbyterian
Church.
Calvin Smith was an active
and useful man in the Gospel ministry, a preacher of a sound and helpful
Gospel, edifying to his people. His power of song was a large asset,
both to his congregation and to the meeting of his Presbytery and Synod.
While in swimming at Bonclarken,
less than a month after he entered upon his work as a minister, he went
under the water and was under several minutes. He was rescued unconscious
by Revs. Charles E. Edwards and W. M. Blakely, with the help of others,
and was resuscitated after considerable effort. Evidently God had
a work for him to do.
In the Ora A. R. P. Church,
on June 26, 1935, he married Miss Hattie Mae Blakely. Mrs. Smith
was the daughter of W. M. Blakely and Nannie Thompson Blakely. Her
college education was received in Due West. Before marrying she taught
at Calhoun Falls, South Carolina. They had two daughters, Nancy Suzanne
(Mrs. Robert Elliott) and Harriett Elizabeth (Mrs. Earl Linderman.)
Mrs. Smith died in 198? Rev. Smith presently resides in Gastonia,
North Carolina.
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