The name Eichbaum sounds quite teutonic. The German name translated into English means "oak tree." And German was indeed his ancestry, but by two generations removed. John D. Eichbaum's grandfather was a manufacturer of glass-ware who had left Germany and immigrated to Ireland where John D.'s father, William A. Eichbaum, was born in Dublin in April of 1787. From there William had come to Pennsylvania around 1820 but quickly moved to Tennessee, where in 1825 he married Catharine M. Stearns, a teacher in the Nashville Female Academy. Eventually, William D. became the principal bookseller and stationer in town and also the agent for Alexander Campbell's Millennial Harbinger. When Alexander Campbell visited Nashville in 1855, he dined at the home of William, an aesthetically sensitive individual, who also wrote a good prose and even entered the annals of Tennessee art history as a cartographer and engraver. He was active in many civic undertakings, such as the Nashville Horticultural and Historical Societies and became valued as the treasurer of several associations during his day. In a manuscript sketch of his life, John D. characterizes his father as a stalwart member of the Christian church and as a friend of Sunday schools. William A. is also memorialized by his son as "one of the kindest and most affectionate of fathers." He died on 1 January 1873.

The father must have cultivated in his son not merely a religious sensibility but also a scientific curiosity and a great love for books, as also Boll's article witnesses. John D., who was born on 9 December 1825 in Nashville, graduated when still very young with honors from the University of Nashville. He quickly joined Franklin College as its professor of classics and languages and while there was the co-editor of the scientific journal the Naturalist. But he relinquished this position after only a few years of teaching because he felt a stronger call to be a preacher. The youthful looking Eichbaum was in the words of David Lipscomb "an earnest, clear-headed student of the Bible and a speaker of force and power." With brother J. J. Trott he travelled the roads of Tennessee as the state's evangelist, but also itinerated in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, and South Carolina. He settled for several years in Warren and, later, in Franklin County, Tennessee, while continuing his evangelizing in the mountain country of his home state. Despite his many talents, John D. was a self-denying, humble individual, even with ascetic inclinations. To David Lipscomb's regret, brother Eichbaum was for a while, together with many others, pulled by Jesse B. Ferguson, with whom he edited the Christian Magazine, into the darker world of spiritism and mysticism, a sphere which, however, could not keep a hold over him. In his fiftieth year the long-time bachelor married Miss May Gregg, a union that was blessed with two daughters, both of whom attended the Nashville Bible School when Boll was a student there. Eichbaum died in his seventy-fourth year on 4 June 1898 in the city in which he was born.

Here now follows the article by Robert H. Boll about John D. Eichbaum, published in James A. Harding's Journal The Way.

Editor

Not long ago it was my good fortune to meet with an old brother that had been personally acquainted with some of the old pioneer preachers. He related to me stories and experiences of the days when for the first time in his country the pure gospel was preached to sinners; how wonder and enthusiasm and joy followed in its wake; how indignation and hatred, falsehood and slander, pursued its bold heroes.

"Do you know anything about Brother Eichbaum?" he asked me one day.

"Brother J. D. Eichbaum? Yes, I knew him well. He died last year."

"So he is dead. I knew him many years ago, and heard him preach often in our neighbourhood. Brother Eichbaum was a great man in his way.

"He was of small stature, dark-complexion, quick and fiery in his movements, and a great walker. Often did he walk all day long to get to some poor little backwoods schoolhouse to preach to the eager crowds that assembled there to hear him.

"His memory was very fine. One day -- I was teaching at ____, Tenn., at the time -- he came to me and asked me for the keys of the library. He looked over the books and after a while returned the keys. A week or two after there pulled up a wagon, and two large boxes /75/ were put off. The wagoner knew nothing of who it was that had sent them; he only knew he had received orders to carry the two boxes of books to the ____ school, and that he had been paid. The boxes stayed there for a week. Then Brother Eichbaum called again.

" `Why didn't you put these books in the library?' he asked.

" `I didn't know they belonged there.'

" `Why, I sent them out myself,' said Brother Eichbaum. `You remember, I went into the library. I looked over the titles of your books there, and I have sent you two hundred others.

"He didn't send any book we already had.

"He delighted greatly in taking long walks, even when he was holding meetings. Often did he start out after an early breakfast and walk till time for the forenoon sermon, which meant from six to ten miles, if not more; but he was always punctual. Though people often knew not where he was when they started to the meetinghouse, they always found him promptly at his post when time came for preaching. He had taken a long morning walk one day while holding a meeting in our neighborhood, and was hurrying back, to his appointment, when by the road he saw a man cutting wheat.

" `Going to preaching?' he shouted to the man.

" `Waal, yes, I'd sure like to go,' answered the man, wiping his face with a red bandanna. `They tell me that little feller from town is jes' a-tearin' up stumps over there. I'd like mighty well to hear him. Air you a-goin'?'

" `Yes, I am going. Put up your cradle and let us go together,' answered Brother Eichbaum.

" `Can't do it. I've got to cut this `ere wheat first. It's jes' a little patch, but I can't get it done by time to go to church.'

" `Well, I'll help you. Got another cradle?

" The man got another cradle and Brother Eichbaum hopped over the fence. The two toiled together till the wheat was cut. Then the farmer went to the house, washed, and put on a clean shirt, and they were off.

"As they entered the meetinghouse, the man, still unsuspecting, followed Brother Eichbaum into the house, where the congregation had already assembled and were singing, walked up to the front behind him, and it was not until he saw Brother Eichbaum step up on the platform that it dawned upon him who his companion was. He turned aside and took the nearest seat, the first time, probably, that he had sat in the "amen corner" in his life. During that meeting the old fellow became interested and obeyed the gospel.

"Brother Eichbaum was wonderfully eloquent. When he first began his sermons his eyes were cast down, he seemed timid and nervous. For a while his remarks were dry and tiresome; the audience thought they would be bored. Suddenly his eyes lighted up, a flush came over his face, and from that moment unsurpassed eloquence poured from his lips and thrilled to their innermost depths the hearts of the spellbound hearers. Many a sinful soul trembled as he thus reasoned of righteousness and temperance and judgment to come; many a sinner saw for the first time the horror of his condition; many a sectarian, the error of his way.

"A strange thing, the like of which never before or since has come under my notice, happened during one of his meetings. He had been preaching for about an hour in his wonderful strain, and the sermon was nearing its close. He stepped off the rostrum and approached the audience during the exhortation. He walked halfway down the aisle, still speaking, when, unconsciously, the whole congregation rose to their feet, left their seats, and clustered around him, and he stood in the midst of the throng and talked to them, I know not how long. I was in the crowd, and when he ceased I found myself close to him. How I got there I can't say."

Thus spoke the brother. I sat and meditated. It is not necessary, I thought, that a man should be eloquent in order to do the best of preaching. Some men are eloquent; some, apt to teach. Some have power to do good one way; some, another. Our bodies and spirits belong to God. Let every man use his talents, be they few or many, little or great; for God hath set every member into the body; some are feet, some hands, some eye, some tongue; and the weak ones are worthy of double honor. This man preached the gospel, and preached it well. His powers belonged to God and were used in his service.

I thought of him as he was in the zenith of his glory, and the light of his talents shone forth undimmed in the work of his Master. What power for good he must have had! How he must have been loved and exalted by them that knew him!

Again, there came before my mind the picture of an old, gray-headed man; poor and lonely, his mind shattered, the brightness of his eye faded. No longer sat eloquence enthroned on his lips, and men had forgotten the burning /76/ words that had fallen thence. And as I sighed, my eyes fell upon the western sky, where the sun, though bright at noon, had now sunk behind dark masses of somber, purple-bordered cloud. That was the picture of Brother Eichbaum's life.

And a bright thought: There dwells a God beyond that looks at the sun from the other side, where gloom and cloud cannot hide its glory; and we hope and trust that God's eye delighted in our brother's last years as he did in his early days, when in strength and vigor he labored. May he rest in peace and his memory be blessed.