EV. WILLIAM H. BOYKIN was killed in Norfolk, Virginia, in the month of January, 1865, at the age of mature manhood.

      At the Association held at Raleigh, North Carolina, May 11, 1849, Rev. W. B. Wellons assisted in the ordination of Rev. William H. Boykin." The ordination took place at the Christian church, on May 13th. Rev. Wm. H. Boykin as a licentiate had been assisting in the great, revival conducted by Dr. Wellons at Newbern, which resulted in the organization of a Christian church in that city. Afterwards he became pastor of the Newbern [277] church. Later Elder Boykin located in Norfolk county, and at the Eastern Virginia Conference at Providence, in 1852, he served on the committee on the ministry and ordination. This committee recommended the ordination of Rev. Robert H. Holland, who was solemnly set apart by the presbytery composed of Revs. Mills Barrett, Joshua Livesay, Wm. B. Wellons, and Wm. H. Boykin. Elder Boykin was also appointed a fraternal messenger to the North Carolina and Virginia Christian Conference.

      At the Conference at Cypress chapel in Nansemond county, Virginia, in 1853, he preached the introductory sermon from Psalm 50:2, "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined." He was chairman of the committee on Sabbath schools, and was chosen itinerant for the ensuing year to preach at Union, Providence, Bethlehem, Cypress, Holy Neck, Damascus, Antioch, Hebron, Pleasant Ridge, Jerusalem (Berkley), and Spring Hill. He was also appointed fraternal messenger to the North Carolina and Virginia Conference. At this time he contributed much for publication, and below will be found a selection, "What the Bible Reveals."

      In 1855, he attended the North Carolina and Virginia Conference at New Providence, in Alamance county, North Carolina, and was enrolled as a fraternal delegate. In 1856, he was pastor of Spring Hill church, in Sussex county, Virginia, and was a delegate from the Eastern Virginia Conference to the Southern Christian Convention, at Union, in Alamance county, North Carolina. He was appointed on the committee on organization of churches, and also on the committee to consider the propriety of establishing a Southern Book Concern. This year his Conference met at Bethlehem in Nansemond county, and he was chairman of the committee on Sabbath schools again. In 1857, he was present at Bethlehem in Alamance county, North Carolina, as a [278] messenger from the Eastern Virginia Conference, and in 1858, he was a delegate from his Conference to the Southern Christian Convention at Cypress chapel, Virginia. He offered the following resolution: "Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to draw up some plan to raise a fund to aid in the support of the superannuated and worn out ministers of the Christian Church, South." He had been appointed by the Stockholders of the Graham Institute as agent to increase the capital stock of the company, and he gave notice to all present at the Convention that in due time he would call upon them.

      At the Conference at Providence, in Norfolk county, in 1859, he served on the committee on the ministry and ordination. He offered a resolution, commending Rev. W. B. Wellons, D. D., editor of the Christian Sun; in it is stated, "We pledge ourselves to sustain him in his efforts to place the Christian Church in her true light before the public." And he was chosen to preach the introductory sermon at the next Conference, which met in 1960, at Cypress chapel in Nansemond county. He preached from Neh. 6:3. He served on the committees on the ministry and ordination, and on Sabbath schools, being chairman of the latter. He had charge of Providence and Liberty. The next Conference was held at Hebron. "The church at Providence, in Norfolk county, one of the standard churches of the Conference, was during the first year of the war, under the pastoral care of Elder Wm. H. Boykin, one of the most brilliant and useful ministers of the Conference. Soon after the evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederate forces in the spring of 1862, the church was seized for the use of the colored people and its pastor excluded from the pulpit. It was thus used until near the close of the war, when it was abandoned, with most of its pews and pulpit gone, the windows broken and some of the sash and blinds [279] removed, and a part of the floor taken up. In this condition it was again taken possession of by the former congregation. Elder Boykin, after his ejection from the church, removed to the city of Norfolk and preached for some time in the Methodist Protestant church, until January, 1865, when he was cruelly murdered by some unknown person, at an early hour in the night, as he was passing on the street from his place of business to his home." At the Conference at Holy Neck, in 1865, resolutions of respect state that he was "zealous and faithful of good works," and that whilst the war-cloud was at its height and its terrible fury made all wait in anxious suspense as to the result, "the midnight assassin, with cruel design and deadly aim, pointed the fatal bullet that closed his labors on earth and opened to him the gates of the eternal city."

      The following is one of the many short poems by him:--

[LCM 277-280]