EV. ROBERT RAWLS was a member of the Eastern Virginia Christian Conference.

      In 1843, he was in attendance upon the Conference at Holy Neck, as a licentiate or unordained preacher. At this Conference, it was ordered that he be ordained, and accordingly Rev. Robert Rawls was set apart to the services of the gospel ministry, at Holy Neck chapel, Virginia, on Monday the 21st of August. In 1846, the Conference was held at Union, in Southampton county, and Elder Robert Rawls is spoken of as "well engaged" and doing much good. He was pastor of the church at Holy Neck in 1849; he was very much beloved, and the church greatly prospered under his administration. To the Conference at Providence in Norfolk county, in 1852, he reported by letter, and was still pastor of Holy Neck. In 1858, he attended the Conference at Cypress chapel, and was appointed on the committee on itinerancy for the ensuing year. He attended the Conference at Bethlehem in 1857, and at the Conference at Providence, in 1859, he served on the committee on the ministry and [240] ordination. In 1860, he was pastor of the churches at Barrett's and Ivor.

      In 1865, he was at the Conference at Holy Neck, and was chairman of the committee on education. (The report is appended to this sketch, being written by him.) For three years the Conference had not been held, but a committee of Elders, of which Mr. Rawls was one, the other two being Revs. W. B. Wellons and M. B. Barrett, reported that in 1863 Rev. T. W. Joyner was ordained by consent of the Conference committee, and recommended that he be received as an Elder in the Conference.

      In 1868, he attended the Conference at Bethlehem, in Nansemond county, and in 1870, he was requested by the Conference to confer with the brethren of Ivor church in order for its "permanent establishment." In 1871, he attended the Conference at Berkley, Virginia, to which he rendered his ministerial report. At Liberty Spring, in Nansemond county, he reported to the Conference, in 1881. This year (1881), he asked for a certificate of membership, his being lost, and the Secretary was instructed to issue a Certificate of Membership to him. In 1883, he reported by letter to the Conference at Union, in Southampton county. He lived to an advanced age.

      Report of the committee on education;--

      "We have witnessed with heart rending sorrow the effects of ignorance upon a Christian community, weakening it in its undertakings, frustrating its best directed efforts, and paralyzing the noble arm of Christian benevolence. The sable mantle of ignorance still spreads her solemn drapery over the land. In vain we talk of educating the heathen, reforming the African, civilizing the Arabian, when the monster ignorance is at our very doors, howling through our streets and sweeping like [241] an angel of death through our thoroughfares, it would be well for us to remember, Christian brethren, that education like benevolence should commence at home. The dark cloud of war, that like an angry tempest swept over our land for four long and weary years, demolishing every thing that was fair, and laying even the proud temple of literature in the dust, may have been some excuse for our supineness. But now the war has passed away and the sunshine of peace appears, we should all unite in one mighty effort to push forward the rolling car of literature. Oh! let our hills be shining with colleges and our valleys with schools of learning, that the rising generation, may compare with the fairest of the world. May the Great Ruler above incline our hearts to the great work that is now spread out before us, to educate the rising generation.

      "We grieve to say, that during the war, Graham College, the pride of the denomination, suspended its operations, and the edifice erected at so much expense and so much labor, was sold to pay the outstanding debts of the College, and is an entire loss to us. And Holy Neck Female Seminary, the school which has been fostered by this Conference, has also been suspended, and while the building owned by the stockholders is still in good order, we hear of no efforts to resume the exercises of the school."

"Robert Rawls, Chairman."

[LCM 240-242]