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New Albany, but in each case soon came back, to his
old home. During the years of the civil war men's
minds were so absorbed with the condition and pros-
pects of the country that very little interest was taken,
even by churches, in religious matters, so that he was
obliged to supplement his meager salary by clerking
in a store at Mitchell. But in 1865 he again went back
to Bedford and took up the work of the pastorate.
In the years following he preached for a good many
churches in both Indiana and Illinois. Mr. Jacob
Garrett of Greene county gave him a farm--an ac-
count of admiration and friendship--to which he
moved in 1872, and wrote: "We are comfortably fixed
and well satisfied and do not intend to move any
more." But he continued preaching wherever there
was a call, and many of the churches were strength-
ened by his instruction and example, and hundreds of
men and women were brought to Christ through his
labors. His last pastorate was at Orleans; he died in
1879 and the funeral sermon was preached by his
old friend and fellow-worker, the Rev. R. M. Parks,
in whose family Elder Robertson had spent many
pleasant hours. A commemorative poem was written
by the Rev. W. Sanders.
Next to Elder Robertson as a founder and leader in
the Association was the Rev. R. M. Parks, just men-
tioned. lie was born in Indiana in 1815; united with
the church in 1833, and he. and Miss Jane T. Short
were married in 1842. He began preaching in 1842
and was ordained in 1843. Having been a teacher in
early life he was constantly encouraging young men
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and young women to seek a liberal education. Many
now occupying places of responsibility refer their first
impressions and impulses to his suggestions and per-
suasions while pastor of the churches to which they
belonged. And what was his theory was also his
practice, for he gave to each of his children a college
education. His family lived alternately in three dif-
ferent educational centers--Greencastle, Franklin and
Bloomington--but wherever they were the children
were enjoying the educational advantages afforded.
He and his wife gave more than $1,000 to Franklin
College when it was making its most earnest strug-
gles to get on. He died at Bedford, his old home, in
1890, remembered and loved by the many churches
which he served, and some of which he assisted in
their organization. He had the privilege of baptizing
more than one thousand persons who had been led to
accept Christ through his ministry. His children who
still survive--Mrs. Lou Richards of Anderson, Mrs.
Viola P. Edwards of Bedford, Mrs. Theo. P. Hall of
Franklin, and the Dr. R. M. Parks, M. D., of Louis-
ville, Kentucky--all bear testimony to the worth of
their father's precepts and example, by their own ex-
alted ideals of life.
Among the laymen of the Association none holds a
worthier place than William N. Matthews, late of Bed-
ford. lie was born in London, England, in 1844; at
the age of five years he came with his parents to
America, settling first in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the
father found employment as superintendent of a stone
quarry. They next moved to Gosport, Indiana, where
