Born: South Carolina, 1797.Died: Secor, Illinois, 1888.
Born: South Carolina, 1797.
Died: Secor, Illinois, 1888.
The family of James Robeson moved from South Carolina to Kentucky on horseback in 1798, settling at the present site of Hopkinsville. There he grew to manhood on a farm on a part of which the courthouse now stands. He attended such schools as were within reach at that time, and afterward a select school conducted by Barton W. Stone. In 1813 he became a Christian under the ministry of Mr. Stone, and shortly thereafter entered the ministry.
About this time, Mr. Stone and Clement Nance, Sr., were starting on a preaching tour from New Albany to Crawfordsville, Indiana. Young Robeson accepted an invitation to accompany them. On the return trip they stopped overnight at the home of Mr. Nance, and, according to the custom of the time, had preaching. Young Robeson said to the girls in the Nance family that they should not tell any one that he was a preacher. But they, with true girlish impulse, spread the report quickly and widely. That evening he was impressed to preach his first sermon before a large audience and in the presence of Messrs. Stone and Nance.
This was the beginning of a laborious and fruitful ministry that reached through a period of seventy years. He traveled with Mr. Stone not a little, preaching from house to house and holding series of meetings in the fall season. During these earlier years, Mr. Robeson was profoundly impressed by the beautiful spirit and strong life of Mr. Stone. These preaching tours reached into Tennessee and Missouri also.
In 1822, Mr. Robeson was married in Kentucky to Miss Jane A. Earle. They were the parents of eleven children. In 1835 he sold his lands in Kentucky and freed his twenty slaves, giving the State his bond for $100,000 for their maintenance. Coming to Illinois, he settled in Tazewell County on a piece of land that is now the north edge of Eureka. After a short residence in Washington, he moved to a point eight miles southeast of Eureka and there started a town that he named Bowling Green. Here he was engaged in merchandising. But he held to his preaching constantly and faithfully in all the regions around his places of residence. Much of his preaching was in the hewed-log schoolhouses, so he came to be called the hewed log preacher.
In the earlier years of his ministry he was opposed to a preacher's receiving money for their public services, but later he came to see the Scripture teaching on the subject. Reverses in his secular business probably accentuated this. In 1841 he was elected to the State Legislature. He declined a second term on the ground that no preacher has time to so use. He was associated with Ben Major and Thomas Bullock in leading the movement that resulted in the organization of Woodford County from slices of McLean and Tazewell Counties in 1841.
In 1857 he sold his farm and moved to Secor. Thereafter, he was engaged in evangelistic work for about eight years under the auspices of the McLean County Co-operation. In the later years of his life he was known as "Uncle Jimmy Robeson." He was one of God's elect. In his sermons the love of God for man predominated. He was a fine exhorter. Many, many great audiences were moved to tears by his persuasive pleadings. Sitting in a chair, he preached his last sermon at the age of ninety-one. He was nnighty in prayer, his supplications now melting his hearers into tears, now lifting them to the gates of glory. His courage equaled his pathos.
On one occasion, at Money Creek, twelve miles southwest of Lexington, McLean County, he conducted a very successful meeting. Among the number was a wife whose husband swore that he would shoot any man who baptized her. His neighbors said he was a dangerous man and tried to dissuade Mr. Robeson. He replied: If she comes, I will baptize her, knowing that I will be doing my Master's will." A great concourse of people assembled at the usual place on the banks of the Mackinaw the next Sunday. The husband was there with his gun in hand. Mr. Robeson first offered one of his powerful prayers that touched and subdued all hearts. The wife was baptized without disturbance. A short time thereafter, Mr. Robeson baptized the husband at the same place.