John Newton Hall
By Ben StrattonJohn Newton Hall was considered the leading Baptist preacher in west Kentucky at the turn of the 20th century.
Hall was converted as a 14-year-old boy during the Civil War. Six years later he surrendered to preach and was ordained in 1871 by Hopewell Baptist Church in Carlisle County. He would go on to pastor the First Baptist churches of Arlington, Fulton and Milburn, Ky., as well as numerous rural congregations in the Jackson Purchase. In west Tennessee, he also served the First Baptist churches of Bolivar, Dyersburg, Martin, Newburn and Trezevant.
Widely recognized as the most outstanding pulpiteer in the region, Hall was in constant demand to preach revival meetings, Bible Institutes and associational annual sermons. He estimated he had preached an average of over 600 times a year (11+ a week).
In 1890 he preached the annual sermon for the West Union Baptist Association. He read 1 Cor. 11:22 (“Despise ye the church of God”) and dealt with the doctrines and origin of the Baptists. After the sermon, the associational clerk noted in the minutes “For two hours and 10 minutes the congregation gave most careful attention, but this is not surprising when J.N. Hall is the speaker.” His excellent public speaking ability also enabled Hall to excel at religious debates. He held over 100 debates during his lifetime with men from nearly every religious denomination.
Early in his ministry, Hall realized the importance of the Baptist periodical. For many years he had worked with J.B. Moody in editing the Baptist Gleaner newspaper at Fulton. When overwork forced him to sell out to the Western Recorder, he edited the “Gleaner Department” in that paper for two years. In 1898 he purchased the American Baptist Flag newspaper from D.B. Ray. He moved the paper to Fulton and shortened its name to the Baptist Flag. By 1900 the Baptist Flag had a circulation of 14,000 and had a great influence throughout the south. During the Whitsitt controversy, the Flag was considered the leading anti-Whitsitt newspaper and did much to help Kentucky side against Whitsitt.
Another great need that Hall helped to meet in Baptist life was ministerial education. He was convinced that a theological school needed to be established for the young preachers in west Kentucky and Tennessee. In 1893, he worked with A.S. Pettie, pastor of First Baptist Church of Mayfield, to start a Bible Institute in Fulton, but it never got off the ground. However, in 1901 the Beulah and Weakley County Baptist associations voted to start a school in Martin, Tenn., and named it the Hall-Moody Bible Institute in honor of J.B. Moody and J.N. Hall, two giants among the Baptists in the Jackson Purchase. Moody became the theology professor and Hall himself gave the first $500 to go toward his salary. The preacher boy fellowship on campus chose the name “J.N. Hall Society of Religious Inquiry.”
The Hall-Moody Bible Institute trained multitudes of preachers (including several men who became early professors at Mid-Continent Baptist Bible College in Mayfield). It finally closed in 1927, and the property was purchased by the University of Tennessee. Nevertheless, even today, a portrait of J.N. Hall hangs in the administration building of the University of Tennessee-Martin.
As Baptists grew rapidly in west Kentucky after the Civil War, Hall realized that new district associations were needed. In 1893 he led in the establishment of the West Kentucky Baptist Association, composed of Missionary Baptist churches in Carlisle, Hickman and Fulton counties. Hall was elected the first moderator of this new association and served continually in that capacity until his death in 1905.
J.N. Hall died on Dec. 4, 1905. He is buried in the Fulton City cemetery. His flat gravestone reads “Elder J.N. Hall” and contains the words to one of his life verses — Jude 1:3: “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
=================== [From Ben Stratton, https://www.kentuckytoday.com. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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