Hughes, Rev. Thomas Bayles 1836-1917

HUGHES, HOLT, TAYLOR, BARTON

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes
Date: 10/30/2016 at 14:58:00

The Grinnell (IA) Herald
Aug. 14, 1917

REV. T.B. HUGHES

The Rev. Thomas Bayles Hughes was born in Fayette county, West Virginia, January 29, 1836, and died at Pasadena, Calif., July 28th, 1917, aged 81 years, 6 months and 8 days. He was the eldest son of Francis T. and Phoebe J. Hughes. The log house where he was born still stands at the foot of a West Virginia mountain. He had slight schooling. His boyhood was spent on the mountain farm, his father and mother being descendants of the Welsh immigrants who in the early days were stranded in the hills of the middle south. He was converted among the Baptists and was for a time a member of the Baptist church. The days were full of theological controversies. He walked seven miles and worshipped for a period in a little Methodist church. Here he found a theology and type of religious life that appealed to him. He became a Methodist, all the family in due season followed him into that communion. One of his brothers, Francis M. Hughes, became a member of the West Virginia Conference and had a brief but useful ministerial career. Another brother, Robert, has been for more than fifty years a local preacher.

When Thomas B. Hughes felt the call to the ministry, he and a young friend hired a mountain cabin and for many months the two candidates studied together, earning a modest living by digging and selling ginseng. He joined the West Virginia Conference in the spring of 1857. His salary for the first four years was $100 a year. The fifth year the Civil war having taken the men into the two armies, he received for his year's services $17.50. Being assigned duty to the Glenville Circuit, he there met Miss Louise Holt. He and Miss Holt were married in April, 1861, their married life thus extending through a period of more than fifty-six years. There have been seven children, six of whom have lived to manhood and womanhood. Bishop Matthew Simpson Hughes of Portland, Oregon; Bishop Edwin Holt Hughes, of Malden Mass.; LeRoy H. Hughes of Los Angeles, Calif.; Dr. William Hughes, Mrs. W.B. Taylor of Bloomfield, Ia., and Mrs. Effie B. Barton, of Anaconda, Mont. The two sisters, LeRoy and their mother were at their father's bedside when death came.

He held the leading appointments in the West Virginia Conference, serving three churches in Wheeling a full term, and also being pastor at Morgantown and Parkersburg. He was Presiding Elder of the Buckhannon District from 1876 to 1880, and was head of his conference delegation in the General Conference in Cincinnati in 1880. In 1885 he transferred to the Iowa Conference and was stationed at Grinnell, where he served five years and was then appointed Presiding Elder the Oskaloosa District which he served for six years (several words are cut off here) appointed to Bloomfield, which he served four years and while there built one of the finest churches in the District, largely through his personal efforts. Later he served pastorates at Albia, Sigourney and Agency. In 1907, after fifty years in the active ministry, he asked for the retired relation. He ahs since resided at Grinnell, Ia., and at Pasadena, Calif., where he was a member of his son's, Rev. Matthew S. Hughes, congregation till he was elected to the episcopacy.

The Missouri Wesleyan University gave him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in the year 1903.

He was a man of marked appearance, being tall and stately in bearing, and of natural dignity. As a preacher he was methodical and logical, yet with a strain of genuine emotion. Literally thousands of people were converted and brought into the church under his ministry. Everywhere his character commanded respect. He had a voice of remarkable range and sympathy, and even when he was more than eighty of age he could readily preach in the largest auditoriums. The years which he and his wife have had in the retired relation have been ideal. Surrounded by scores of friends and freed from material care, they have modestly rejoiced in the honors paid to their ministerial sons by the church of their own love.

Funeral services were held in Pasadena, Cal., Tuesday, July 31st, at which addresses were made by Dr. W.G. Wilson of the Iowa Conference, Dr. C.V. Cowan, a former member of the Iowa Conference, and Dr. W.C. Wilson, formerly of the West Virginia Conference. Dr. W.C. Wilson and Dr. Hughes were the last of a class of fourteen who were admitted to their conference in the year 1857.

The body was brought to Bloomfield for burial. Funeral services were held in the Methodist church Saturday, August 4th, at 3:30 in the afternoon, conducted by the pastor, Rev. H.B. Scoles, assisted by several members of the Iowa Conference. Addresses were made by Rev. J.W. Lambert Rev. C.L. Stafford, D.D., and Rev. W.P. Stoddard, D.D.

The members of the family present were the widow, Mrs. T.B. Hughes, Bishop Matthew S. Hughes, Bishop Edwin H. Hughes, LeRoy H. Hughes and Mrs. W.B. Taylor. The body was laid to rest in the I.O.O.F. cemetery, Rev. U.B. Smith of Ottumwa reading the burial service of the church.