JAMES HARVEY GARRISON.

      Was born on the 2nd day of February, 1842, near Ozark, in what was then Greene (now Christian) county, Missouri. His maternal grandfather, Robert E. Kyle, was an Irishman, who migrated to this country soon after the revolution, and located in Virginia. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and died of sickness contracted in the army. His paternal grandfather, Isaac Garrison, was a North Carolinian, who migrated to East Tennessee about the beginning of the past century. His parents, James and Diana, (Kyle) Garrison, moved from Hawkins county, East Tennessee, about the year 1835, and located in Southwest Missouri at the place above mentioned. In his early youth he attended school at Ozark, and became an expert in reading and spelling at a very early age. When eleven years of age, his parents moved to a new and then unsettled part of the country, near where Billings is now located. Here, school advantages were scant, and hard work in opening a new farm took the place of study for a few years. At the age of fifteen he made a public profession of religion and united with the Baptist church, of which his parents and grandparents before him were members, and began to take an active part in religious meetings. About this time a Yankee school-teacher, C. P. Hall, came into the neighborhood and taught an excellent school for several terms, of which the subject of this sketch was a constant member, missing only a part of one term to teach a district school when he was sixteen years of age. The outbreak of the war found him again at Ozark, attending a high school, taught by the Yankee teacher referred to above. The excitement following the firing of Sumpter caused the discontinuance of the school, and he identified himself with a company of Home Guards, whose rendezvous was Springfield. After the battle of Wilson's Creek, he enlisted in the 24th Missouri Infantry Volunteers, was soon promoted to the rank of First Sergeant, and was wounded quite severely on the evening of the second day of the battle of Pea Ridge, Mo., in March, 1862. He raised a, company for the 8th Missouri Cavalry Volunteers, as soon as be was able for active duty, and was commissioned as Captain, September 15, 1862. He continued his services in the Union Army until the close of the war, participating in several battles, acting as Assistant Inspector General of his brigade for more than a year, and being promoted to the rank of Major, for meritorious service, during the last year of the war.

      When mustered out of the army in St. Louis, 1865, he entered Abingdon College, in Abingdon, Illinois, and graduated in 1868, as Bachelor of Arts. One week after his graduation he married Miss Judith E. Garrett, of Camp Point, Illinois, who graduated in the same class with him, and has been to him all that a faithful and affectionate wife can be to her husband. He entered college with the purpose of devoting himself to the law, but during his college course he had surrendered his denominational name and allegiance and had identified himself with the Restoration, a fact which changed all his plans. He at once began preaching, and in the autumn of 1868 located with the church at Macomb, Ills., to share its pulpit with J. C. Reynolds, who was publishing and editing the Gospel Echo at that place. A partnership was formed with Bro. Reynolds, beginning January 1, 1869, by which he became one of the editors and publishers of that magazine. This was the beginning of his editorial career which continues to the present. In 1871, The Christian, of Kansas City, Mo., was consolidated with the Echo, and Mr. Garrison removed to Quincy, Ills., where he published the consolidated paper under the title of Gospel Echo and Christian at first, and later as The Christian. In the year 1873 a joint stock company was organized and incorporated as the "Christian Publishing Company," and The Christian was moved to St. Louis, and was issued from that city from January 1, 1874, under the auspices of the publishing company, with J. H. Garrison as editor-in-chief. He has resided in St. Louis ever since, except nearly two years spent in England, when he was minister of the church at Southport in 1881 and 1882, and almost two years were spent in charge of the work in Boston in 1885 and 1886. His connection with the Christian-Evangelist, however, has never ceased. His temporary absences from the office were the result of ill-health, brought on by too close confinement to office work. He is also author of the "Heavenward Way," "Alone With God," "Half Hour Studies at the Cross," "A Modern Plea for Ancient Truths," and "Helps to Faith;" he is also editor of "The Old Faith Re-stated" and "The Reformation of the Nineteenth Century." All of his work, either as [449] editor, or author, is in the very highest, purest and best sense, purely Christian and always reflects the spirit and teaching of the Word of God. He is a representative of that class of men who are in every sense conservative in matters of Scriptural teaching and aggressive in methods of work for the conversion of men. His aims and ideals are of the very highest. His editorials have ever warned his brethren against narrowness and pointed the Churches of Christ to that broad liberal spirit so manifest in the life and teaching of the Christ. He breathes a pure spiritual atmosphere and is endowed with a deeply religious nature. But few men in this great brotherhood have reached a more honored or more useful position and whose lives have been of greater service to the cause of our blessed Master.

[COC 449-450]