Rev. Alexander Coke Smith

Excerpt from Twentieth Century Sketches of the South Carolina Conference, M. E. Church, South By Rev. Watson B. Duncan A.M. Published by the State Company, Columbia South Carolina, 1901

REV. A. COKE SMITH, A. M.. D. D.

Alexander Coke Smith, son of Rev. William H. Smith and Mary I. Smith, was born in Sumter County, S. C. Sept. i6, 1849. No boy was ever more greatly blessed along the line of home influence than he. With such parents, it would have been difficult for him to have been anything but a good boy. He had access to the common schools of the community in his early years. With a good preparatory work thus done, he entered Wofford College in October, 1868, from which institution he graduated in June, 1872. His college record was one of great success and popularity. "Coke Smith" was always a favorite in college and the friendships then formed have deepened as the years have gone by.

In December of the same year in which he graduated, he was admitted into the South Carolina Conference and was sent to Cheraw. The next year he was sent to Washington Street, Columbia, where he remained three years. In December, 1876. he went to Buncombe Street, Greenville, where he remained four years. During the years 1881, 1882 and 1883 he was at Trinity Church, Charleston. At the Conference of 1883 was sent to the Columbia District as Presiding Elder. In June, 1886, was elected to the chair of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Wofford College, which place he filled for four years.

At the General Conference of 1890 held in St. Louis he was elected one of the Missionary Secretaries of the Church. This place he resigned in July of the same year to accept the Chair of Practical Theology in Vanderbilt University. After remaining there for two years he resigned this place to return to the pastoral work. At that

time. 1892, Rev. W. E. Evans having left the Methodist Church, the pulpit of Granby Street Church, Norfolk, fell vacant and he was invited to fill the vacancy until Conference. When Conference convened in Norfolk in 1892 the oflicial body of that Church requested Bishop Hendrix to transfer him to the Virginia Conference and station him at Granby Street, which the Bishop did. Under his pastorate Epworth Church, Norfolk, one of the most beautiful church edifices in the South, was built.

In November, 1895, he was sent to Court Street, Lynchburg. Va., where he successfully labored for four years, after which he was returned to Epworth Church, Norfolk, where he is serving his second term.

On December 22, 1875, Dr. Smith was married to Miss Kate Kinard, of Newberry, S. C. Of the children born of this marriage the following are still living : Mary Louise, Francis Osgood, Edward Ehrlich, Alice Glenn, Isabel McLeod, Henry Kinard, Catherine Coke, and a baby for whom the parents have, up to this writing, been

unable to find a name.

Dr. Smith when a member of the South Carolina Conference was often a delegate to the General Conference of our Church. He was also elected as a delegate from the Virginia Conference in 1894 and also in 1898, and at the latter Conference was chairman of the Committee on Epworth League. As a preacher Dr. Smith ranks with the foremost of our land. His sermons evince great thought and wide range of information. But the most salient characteristic is the magnetic influence he wields over his audience. His eloquence is at times sublime, but it is never studied or rapid word-painting. The

secret of Dr. Smith's pulpit power is in his sympathetic soul. He loves his fellowman and shares his sorrows and his joys with a depth that one rarely finds.

In the social circle Dr. Smith has few equals, being unaffected in manner and possessing a sense of humor and a resource of anecdote that make him the centre of attraction, wherever he goes. Appreciating his worth, Virginia Methodists, both preachers and people, have not failed to honor him with their confidence and their love.