Born: Charleston, South Carolina, 1781.
Died: Illinois, 1861.
Mr. Palmer, in his early manhood, was a carpenter. Before his conversion it was his custom to work seven days in the week. He cared nothing for God. The church nearest his home in Tennessee belonged to the Presbyterians.
One of its members was a good Christian woman who was a neighbor of the Palmer family. She often invited them to go to meeting with herself and family, but Mr. Palmer always replied: "I am too busy." One Sunday morning she stopped and first asked Mrs. Palmer to go with them. She replied: "I'll go if Henry will; you ask him." So she went out to his shop and said: "Won't you go to church with me to-day?" He replied: "No, I haven't time." Then she said: "Henry, some time you'll have time to die," and left him. That proved the alarm-bell to him. Shortly he went into his residence and said: "Wife, let's go to church." They went, and kept going.
They together read the Bible and prayed. In due time they wished to unite with the church. As they objected to being sprinkled, the Presbyterian minister immersed them. Just before he was baptized he took his tobacco from his pocket and threw it far away, saying: "I read in the Bible that we must put away all filthiness of the flesh." As he continued to study the Bible, he found that he could not subscribe to the Westminster Confession of faith; so in kindness he withdrew and united with the Baptists.
He came to Illinois first in 1819, and for a time was associated with the "Christian Settlement" that had been formed the year before in Lawrence County, seven miles northwest of Vincennes, Indiana. The locality is now known as Allison Prairie. The settlement was founded and the church there formed by the good people of the Christian Denomination. Mr. Palmer was then formally affiliated with them.
He left there and went to Indiana, but returned to Illinois in 1835 and settled on Crow Creek, in Marshall County. There he bought a farm, on which he made his home to the close of his life. Thereafter, his course was that of the brave and self-sacrificing pioneers. He traveled and preached far and near. He was one of the strongest preachers of the period, and most of the infant churches of central Illinois were helped by his able, Scriptural sermons. He was present and helped in the formation of the General Christian Missionary Society at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1849. In 1850 he was at Shelbyville, and assisted in organizing the State Missionary Society and was chosen its first president. He taught O. A. Burgess the way of the Lord, baptized him and induced him to become a preacher.