Born: King William County, Virginia, May 8, 1860.
Died: Louisville, Kentucky, April 19, 1933.

The subject of this sketch occupies a unique position among the Disciples. He is the last prominent representative of the Old School of Oratory which was fashionable in the days of Henry Clay, and even Henry Clay, if living, would not be ashamed of Dr. Powell's style. Of course, there is no stereotyped style of oration. Bishop Whately defines the true orator as the man who by honorable means can carry his point, and according to this, Dr. Powell is a true orator. Indeed, it is doubtful if there is another preacher among the Disciples who is capable of wielding more immediate influence in a single discourse.

Dr. Powell was born in King William County, Virginia, May 8, 1860, and is therefore just now in the period of his mature and strongest intellectual manhood. He received the B.L. degree from Christian University, at Canton, Missouri, in 1881, and later the LL.D. from Transylvania University and the University of Kentucky. But while his academic scholarship is good, he is really what is styled a self-made man, and this fact is, perhaps, the parent of that independent character which has given him his unique position among the preachers of his day.

He does his own thinking, and while he is courteous and kind to those who differ with him, his very nature rebels against the dogmatism of ignorance and the despotism of intolerance.

He has been married twice; first, to Miss Lida Smoot, of Maysville, Kentucky, May 11, 1887, who died February. 16, 1907. He was again married in 1909 to Dr. Anna M. D. Gordon, of Mungeli, C. P. India.

He has held pastorates at Lynchburg, Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, Gordonsville, Virginia, Norfolk, Virginia, and at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, and Maysville, Kentucky. But his most distinguished pastorate is the one he now holds, at First Christian Church, Louisville, Kentucky, where he has been located since 1887.

His ministry at Louisville is another evidence of the power of a long pastorate. While his services are sought in many directions, he seldom leaves his local work for even the most inviting call of a general character. Of course he has had numerous calls to other inviting fields, but he has persistently turned all these down, and has now served about thirty years at one church. What that church is today, he, by divine favor, has made it, and what he is today, that church, with God's blessing, has made him. It is this mutual helpfulness which is so desirable, and which comes about only in a long pastorate.

Another element in Dr. Powell's success is his giving the pulpit the first place in all his life work. He has not spoiled his sermons by denuding them of strength in order to enable him to play hide and seek with literature. He has published only two books, neither of which is very pretentious, but both of which are within his pulpit ministrations, "Savonarola, or the Reformation of a City," and a volume of sermons entitled "The Victory of Faith."