EV. NELSON MILLAR was born at Gosport, near Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1798, and died September 12, 1825, in the twenty-eighth year of his age. He had received good training, his educational advantages being in many respects superior. He was converted at an early age, and soon felt called to preach. He was an attractive speaker, and was ordained in 1819, becoming a member of the Eastern Virginia Conference. This Conference was organized the previous year, and the first regular session thereafter was held at Cypress chapel, in Nansemond county, Virginia, on the 25th, 26th and 27th of May, 1819, with Rev. Nelson Millar as secretary. Such was his zeal and earnestness in the work of the Church, that he traveled not only in Virginia and North Carolina, but in some of the Northern States, everywhere arousing the people by his eloquence and enthusiasm. He was the means of bringing many to a knowledge of their fallen state, and of leading them to a better life.

      In 1824, he was elected to the Virginia State Legislature, where he took a prominent part as a speaker and discharged the duties of the office so satisfactorily that [105] he was re-elected for a second term; but he died a short time before the Legislature again convened. In 1825, Reuben Potter paid a visit to Virginia. During this visit he delivered a fine eulogy on the death of the young minister, Nelson Millar. This was pronounced, at the time, by good judges, to be one of the ablest productions of the kind. It was read with great interest in all parts of the denomination, as the Elder's reputation was well known throughout the Church. His death was a great loss, and much regret was expressed by his co-laborers in all parts of the country where he had visited and labored.

[LCM 105-106]