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Burton was principal and Misses Carrie Graves and
Mary Montonya were the assistants. (More will be
said of this school under the head of Education.)
At the twenty-eighth anniversary the Circular took
up the question, "Why can't Baptists commune with
other denominations?" Those who knew the writer
of the letter (the Rev. Wright Sanders) need not be
told with what emphasis he gave the reasons why they
cannot.
The minutes for 1873 give the names of thirty
churches, and they aggregate 2,053 members. Beaver
Creek leads in the number of members, and Scotland
church is next. The resolutions passed indicate that
the Association is in co-operation with all the mission-
ary and educational movements of the times; the or-
dained ministers at this time were the Revs. J. M.
Stalker, H. Burton, T. C. Phipps, T. N. Robertson, A.
J. Essex, L. W. Bicknell, W. H. Lemonds, N. Wil-
liams, W. Sanders, I. Carothers, J. W. Thomas, J. M.
Rendell, V. T. Baker, G. W. Terry and J. Cornelius.
At the session in 1875 but ten churches reported; ten
are named that do not "have regular preaching, and
some do not meet for worship at all; deplorable, sad !"
In the minutes for 1890 this record is found�"In
addition to the above (contributions) Sister Jane
Parks, in memory of her late husband, the Rev. R.
M. Parks, gives $50 to the Missionary Union, $100
to the Home Mission Society, $50 to the Woman's
Mission Society of the West, and $50 to the
Franklin College fund."
Among the ministers of the Association Elder T.
Page 281
N. Robertson clearly holds the place of patriarch.
Most of the following brief sketch of his life is taken
from a sketch written in 1879 by Mrs. Viola P. Ed-
wards of Bedford. He was born in North Carolina
in 1802; in his third year his parents emigrated to
Cumberland county, Kentucky, and in 1816 they
moved to Washington county, Indiana. He had but
slight public school advantages; he was in Lane's
Academy in Kentucky for two years. His father and
mother were Baptists, and in his nineteenth year he
was baptized into the membership of the Clifty church,
Washington county, by Elder Abram Stark. He was
married in 1823 and for several years had a struggle
with himself between the sense of duty to give him-
self to the work of the ministry and the inclination to
engage in business. His business was anything but
satisfactory; at one time the civil officer exposed all
his property for sale to satisfy creditors, and all was
sold except his Bible and hymn-book, but as nobody
would bid for these he was allowed to keep them�
the very things he needed most, and could make the
most use of. He says: "After I was stripped of all
my property I concluded to submit my condition to
the churches and abide by their advice." They were
prompt to tell him that he should give himself en-
tirely to the work of the ministry; accordingly in 1841
he moved to Bedford and began a long and successful
career as pastor. He visited all parts of that portion
of the State and in many places had remarkable power
in leading the ungodly to accept Christ as Savior and
Master. Once he moved to Bloomington and once to
