Life goes on at Careby Hall, the old house built by William E. Hatcher “upon the brow of a noble hill” overlooking the village of Fork Union, Va., about 35 miles west of Richmond.
It was Hatcher’s summer home, which after his Richmond pastorate became the year-round seat of the Hatchers. It was here at a “house party” for fellow preachers that the idea germinated to begin a school at Fork Union. In 1898 it provided education for the immediate area, developed into a boarding school for boys and later added the military feature. Today Fork Union Military Academy, a short distance from Careby, is one of the finest prep schools of its kind in the nation.
Fred Anderson
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Life indeed goes on at Careby. Today it is occupied by the current president of the academy, Rear Adm. J. Scott Burhoe, former superintendent of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Some years ago an industrious and creative couple restored the old house. Another family, whose son was enrolled at the academy, purchased it, and in time, they gave it to the school to once again become the official residence of the academy’s president.
It was in Carbey a century ago, on Aug. 24, 1912, that Hatcher died at age 78, which in the early 20th century was considered old age. He had labored hard to the very last. He supervised the growth and development of the academy, and raised funds for every worthy Baptist cause, including “the Orphanage, the College” and his academy, which he called “the pet” of his “evening years.” He frequently appeared in print in the Religious Herald. A platform master able to mix humor and pathos, he was still in great demand as a speaker for church anniversaries, homecomings and building dedications.
Hatcher was known as “the great Baptist commoner.” He loved to be with the people he dubbed “the best” on the planet and he was referring to the country people, es-pecially the country Baptists. He was one of them—born in 1834 “beneath the shadow of the Peaks of Otter” in rural Bedford Coun-ty, Va. Like other Baptist young men of promise he was fortunate to enroll in Richmond College, the Baptists’ “New Jerusalem” where many of those young men were “fitted up for the gospel ministry.”
In the 1850s the Baptist college opened the world to the country boy. In a day when seminaries were not prerequisite, he went straightway into pastorates: Manchester, across the river from Richmond; a church in Baltimore; First Baptist of Peters-burg, Va.; and finally the great Grace Street Baptist Church of Richmond, where he remained for 26 years to the day.
It was while at Grace that Hatcher became widely known among both Southern and Northern Baptists. Of course he was identified with the Southern Baptist Conven-tion, but after the Civil War he was among the voices of reconciliation, speaking before many Northern audiences. He also was considered as a president of the new Baptist World Alliance, and although this did not happen, he was a champion of the new organization.
Indeed he made friends with Bap-tists all around the world. The celebrity-status Baptists of the times were the foreign missionaries and he knew most of those who passed through the Richmond headquarters of the SBC’s Foreign Mis-sion Board. He was entertained in the London home of the greatest evangelist of the time, Charles Spurgeon. He made one of those “grand tours” of Europe and called upon his friend, George Boardman Taylor, the pioneer missionary from Virginia to Italy. He was a cousin of the eminent Jeremiah Bell Jeter, one of the greatest Baptist figures in 19th-century America, and wrote Jeter’s biography. He also “discovered” John Jasper, the celebrated black Baptist preacher in Richmond, wrote his biography and thereby propelled Jasper into the national arena. One of his “boys” at the academy was Ah Fong Yeung of Guangzhou, China, who became a noted Baptist educator in that country. In Richmond the Hatchers kept a guestroom known as “the preachers’ room” for the parade of minister-friends who stayed with them.
Hatcher was a leader. He served as president of the Baptist General Association of Virginia in the 1880s and delivered the annual sermon before the SBC in 1893, an honor which for old-time Southern Bap-tists was tantamount to being knighted. He chaired the board of trustees of his alma mater at the time its young president, Frederic Boat-wright, shared his vision of relocating the school to Richmond’s far suburbs. Hatcher championed the move and persuaded fellow trustees to follow suit. Today the University of Richmond occupies its grand site due in large part to Hatcher.
Hatcher was the man who defended William H. Whitsitt, the beleaguered president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, when the SBC was in turmoil over Whitsitt’s views regarding the orgins of Baptists. He engineered a deal at one of the SBC’s annual meetings which might have brought an end to the controversy; but when the deal fell apart, he helped his friend secure a position on the University of Richmond’s faculty.
In those final days of a hot August in 1912, Hatcher as usual was taking the train all over Virginia. He spoke before three district associations, and in Northern Virginia, at the now extinct Potomac Baptist Association, he preached on “Leadership in the Kingdom of God.” A young minister who was present told a friend: “It would take me 200 years to be able to preach a sermon like that.”
As usual, he raised an offering for a worthy cause, which that day was a new church’s building fund. The church in rural Prince William County, Va., soon would become known at Hatcher’s Memorial Baptist Church—one of two Virginia congregations named in his honor.
Early on the morning of Aug. 24, he collapsed at Careby and died. Grace Church requested that the body be buried in Hollywood Ceme-tery in Richmond.
Life does go on. The academy developed beyond the founder’s imagination, and all of those organizations and institutions for which he labored continue. In 1981 this columnist began portraying Hatcher for church services. On Sunday, Sept. 16, I will appear for my 400th engagement as the old preacher. The place will be appropriate. It will be where the first Hatcher portrayal was given—Hatcher Memorial Baptist Church in Richmond, which will be celebrating its 90th anniversary.
Yes, life goes on!
Fred Anderson ([email protected]) is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies.