The life of every good man is a benefaction to the human race. But we come now to sketch the character of one who was not only good but great.During the last quarter of the past century Basil Manly, Senior, removed from the eastern part of North Carolina and settled in Chatham county, about three miles north west of Pittsboro. He subsequently removed one mile nearer the town, to the top of a high hill, which to this day is known as Oak Mount. The mansion house was burned in 1840; but the view from the summit, the present residence of Robt. G. Eubanks, is as extensive and as picturesque as of yore.
Mr. Manly was a man of sound judgment, and of great industry and energy. He was greatly respected by his fellow citizens, and was, for years, the presiding justice of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions. The justices presiding at the spring term of 1794 were Basil Manly, Henry Lewis Lutterloh and Patrick St. Lawrence. Mr. Manly was not wealthy, but he owned a good family farm, and some negro slaves; and he made enough money to support his family in comfort and educate his children. Of these there were six, two daughters and four sons. Miss Julia and Maurice Ford died early. In a clump of stately elms and tall cedars with tangled briers and vines near the site of the older homestead, stand three plain, granite headstones bearing simply the name - nothing more - "B. Manly," "M. F. Manly" and "J. A. Manly." The bright, fresh, pure and beautiful violets that are growing over these graves, point to a resurrection.
The other daughter, Louisas married Mr. Thompson, and after his death she married Mr. P. M. Powell and removed to Richmond county, where she still lives in a green [great?] old age, loved and venerated. She is step mother to our neighbor and friend R. Jas. Powell.
The boys were Charles, Basil, and Mathias. They sat at the feet of that eminent instructor, the elder Bingham, in the academy of Pittsboro, and were prepared for college by him. Charles and Mathias graduated at our University at Chapel Hill, studied law and remained at Chapel Hill in the State. The one became Governor of North Carolina, the other became one of her Supreme Court Judges. The one was an Episcopalian, the other a Catholic. But we are now more particularly concerned with Basil, the preacher and Baptist. He was born at Oak Mount, on the 29th day of Jan., 1798. He was a sprightly and interesting lad and a great favorite will all, but especially so of a pious old negro servant of the family, who used to lecture "Mas Baz" on his boyish sports and freaks [pranks?] . Tradition has it that Basil, as was going through a corn field, when he was about 16 years old, he heard the voice of some one as if in prayer. On approaching the spot he found his colored friend upon his knees, in the bushes, at the end of the row. He listened. The prayer was loud and earnest. He was praying for "Mas Baz," and particularly that the Lord would make a good preacher of him. The boy turned and crept away. The petition had come from the heart and had reached the heart. Perhaps the poor darkey never knew that his prayer was heard by this young master as also in the high courts of heaven. His name was forgotten of men, but is doubtless remembered of God. When the accounts of man are adjusted for eternity, God will know how much to pass to the credit of his sable servant, for the glorious influences that had their origin in that corn field!
Basil was converted and joined the Baptist church at Rock Spring. He was baptized in Haw River in 1816, at the old Red Field Ford, by the Rev. R. T. Daniel. A few months after his baptism he made his first public exhortation and prayer at the house of William Marsh, in the Hickory Mountain region. He was licensed to preach by the Rock Spring church in April, 1818.
Immediately thereafter, he removed to South Carolina, which, in connection with Alabama, was to become the field of his future labors and triumphs. He preached his first sermon in Beaufort, and remained there one year, under the tuition and guidance of the elder Dr. Brantly, who was president of the Beaufort college and through whose influence he had gone to South Carolina. It was here that a friendship sprang up between these two very remarkable men and co-laborers that was terminated only by death. Mr. Manly is known to have said late in life that he owed more, under God, for what he was and what he had done, to Dr. Brantly than to any other man.
At the close of this year 1819, Dr. Brantly left Beaufort for Augusta, and his young friend, Manly, joined the junior class of South Carolina college, at Columbia, from which institution he was graduated in 1821 with first honros, when honors were given to such men as Preston and Pettigrew.
The young minister settled at Edgefield, built up a church and became its pastor. Here he remained four years, during which time he married Miss Sarah Murry Rudulph, a woman of noble qualities, both of head and heart. She was a help-meet for such a man, a blessing and a comfort to him till death bore him hence.
From the beginning of his ministry Mr. Manly showed that he was no ordinary man. His fine intellect, broad culture, fervent and cheerful piety and great industry, early placed him in the very first ranks. In March 1826, he was called to the pastorate of the First Baptist church of Charleston, as the successor of the learned and venerated Richard Furman, D. D., of revolutionary fame, who had died the previous August. It was a great compliment to Mr. Manly that he should have been called as the successor of one so great and so loved, but it is still higher praise that he proved himself equal to the occasion, and soon became as much loved and honored as was his illustrious predecessor.
In 1837, Dr. Manly, (for he was now a D. D.,) became president of the University of Alabama, located at Tuscaloosa. He at once became the controlling spirit of the institution. Under his wise guidance it entered upon a course of unwonted prosperity. His presidency continued with undiminished popularity and success for eighteen years. It was during his presidency that Dr. Manly bore a conspicuous part in the movements which led to the organization of the Southern Baptist convention, in 1846, and in the establishment of the Baptist Theological Seminary, Greenville, 1858. Enfeebled health caused him to resign the presidency and to return to Charleston, as the pastor of the Wentmouth Street Baptist church.
After four years of fruitful toil in this field he was recalled to Alabama as State Evangelist, a position for which he seemed to be particularly fitted and the duties of which he filled with the most glorious and wide spread results. In January 1861, on account of the impending war, he retired from this to[?] kind, congenial and blessed work, and became pastor of a church in Montgomery; removing thence two years later again to Tuscaloosa where his son, Rev. Chas. Manly, D. D., was preaching and teaching.
It goes without saying that Dr. Manly's heart was with his own loved southland in the struggle that was now going on; and it was saddening even to the now venerable man of God to see the cause for which he had so prayed go down in defeat.
In 1864, Dr. Manly was stricken with paralysis. He lingered, obtained a partial recovery from the stroke, and even preached again, now and then. But his life-work was done. He removed from Tuscaloosa to Greenville, S. C., in 1867, and spent the remnant of his days with his elder son, Rev. Basil Manly Jr., D. D., who was a Professor in the Theological Seminary, an institution he had been so instrumental in founding. Here the good man awaited the approach of death in peaceful resignation, content to live, yet willing to die. His only prayer now was "They will be done." The end came on the 21st of Dec. 1868. He had just passed the Psalmist's allotted period of three score and ten, as he reached the brink of the river. The aged pilgrim threw down his staff, and was borne gently across the dark waters.
Dr. Manly was an exceedingly lovable man, in all the relations of life. He was genial, cordial, sympathetic, full of tenderness and affection. His family government was firm but eminently paternal. His authority was absolute and undisputed, but it was the authority of a parent and not of a ruler. In social intercourse he was instructive and charming. He had wit and humor. No one enjoyed more keenly an innocent pleasantry than he. His jokes never bordered on coarseness or vulgarity, and never wounded. But it was in the pulpit that he shone with preeminent lustre. His sermons were emotional but not sensational. Always well prepared for the discussion of a subject, he never failed to instruct and to please his audience. The pathos of some of his sermons was irresistible and overwhelming. No preacher ever touched with more tenderness the chords of sorrow, pity, grief or love, than he. Talking him all in all, Dr. Manly was one of the most devoted, useful and distinguished preachers with which the Spirit of God has ever blessed the Baptist denomination. - Pittsboro Home.
======= [From Biblical Recorder, May 5, 1886; "Chatham Worthies," p. 1. On-line edition. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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