Theodore Cleon Schilling (1853 - 1910)

Born 23 Jan 1853 in Washington Parish, Louisiana

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 2 Mar 1910 at age 57 in Pike County, Mississippi

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Biography

Theodore was born in 1853. He died in 1910.^[1]

Theodore married Angeline Dorcas James (1857–Deceased)

Marriage: 3 February 1876

Children of Angeline Dorcas James and Theodore Cleon Schilling

1. Lucian E Schilling (1880–1947)
2. Theodore E Schilling (1880–Deceased)
3. Percy Ethan Schilling (1882–1970)
4. Eustace Cleon Schilling (1884–1950)
5. Maggie C Schilling (1887–Deceased)
6. Ernest V Schilling (1889–Deceased)
7. Julie A. Schilling (1892–1983)
8. Arthur Lee Schilling (1894–1946)
9. Amy R Schilling (1896–Deceased)
10. Ethel Mae Schilling (1899–1974)

^[2]

Abstract history of the Mississippi Baptist Association for one hundred years by Schilling, T. C., 1853- 1908

The following biography was prepared by Elder W. F. Yar- borough, pastor of the First Baptist Church, Jackson, Miss. :

No history of the Mississippi Association would be complete without some notice of the life and labors of this faithful serv- ant of God.

Rev. T. C. SCHILLING

T. C. Schilling was born in Washington parish, La., January 23, 1853. He professed religion at seventeen years of age, being baptized into the fellowship of Mt. Hermon church of Louisiana.

He received his early education in the neighborhood schools. Prominent among his instructors was Prof. W. H. Dixon, an Englishman, and a man of scholarly attainments and fine teaching ability. Later he enjoyed a course of instruction under the lamented M. S. Shirk, of Osyka, one of the ripest scholars of all that section. Some years after his marriage and his ordination to the ministry, he was induced to undertake a course of study in Mississippi College. Accordingly, in the fall of 1880, he moved to Clinton and entered the college, but was forced after a short time, by serious and continued illness in his family, to give up his cherished undertaking and return home, to take up whatever work the Lord might open to him.

Though frustrated in his plans for a college education, he had already learned one of the main lessons intended for the college student— that of continuous application to his studies. He has never ceased to be a student, especially of the Book, and has been able to hold his own with many men of better advantages as a master of clear, concise and forceful expression, and as an exponent of Bible doctrines. Service in his early life as bookkeeper and school teacher proved very helpful as a factor in his preparation for his life work.

He was married February 3, 1876, to Miss Angie D. James, who has proved herself a faithful and devoted wife. Blessings on these faithful and self-sacrificing preachers' wives, who "stay by the stuff," rear the children and bear the burdens, through winter's storms and summer's sun, while their husbands are giving their lives to make the world better and to lift souls to heaven. Truly theirs is the harder lot and theirs ought to be the greater glory, though they are the faithful ones whose toils and tears and sacrifices are unknown to the world.

Bro. Schilling was licensed to preach in 1873 and ordained in 1876, the presbytery being composed of Elders W. J. Fortinberry, C. F. Crawford, "W. H. and E. M. Schilling. His ministerial labors have been mainly in Amite and Pike counties, Miss., he has also served a number of churches in Louisiana. In an unexpected and providential way, his life became linked with the little village of Gillsburg, Amite County, and eternity alone will reveal the value of his contribution to the religious and educational interests of that community. This inland village came to be known far and near through the Gillsburg Collegiate Institute, founded in 1882 by Mr. W. A. Gill, whose generous giving and unselfish deviation to the public good entitle him to rank among the world's benefactors.

In the fall of 1882 Bro. Schilling was unexpectedly called to the pastorate of Jerusalem Baptist church, two miles distant from Gillsburg. During the following year, while serving this church, he was invited by Mr. Gill to preach on Sunday afternoons of the same year at Gillsburg, for which service Mr. Gill himself paid. So satisfactory was the service rendered that at the beginning of the next year, January 3, 1884, Bro. Schilling found himself a resident of Gillsburg as pastor of the Gillsburg Baptist church, largely through the influence of Mr. Gill. The best twenty years of his life he gave to this place, nineteen of them as pastor of the church.

For seventeen years he was Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Gillsburg Institute, and in this position was usually foremost in procuring new teachers. He rendered valuable service in writing for the papers and in soliciting pupils for the institution. For this latter work, he had fine opportunities, as he went among the surrounding churches in evangelistic labors and as pastor (for Gillsburg was not a fulltime church). Among others, he served such strong churches as Ebenezer, Liberty and East Fork. His work has been greatly blessed, but especially so at Gillsburg, where he labored for so many years. Here he touched many lives for good and baptized many happy converts into the membership of the church. As a student of the Gillsburg Institute, it was the writer's privilege to sit under his ministry for two years, and it gives him pleasure to testify that he was "a good minister of Jesus Christ,' ' as he faithfully, earnestly and conscientiously broke the bread of life to perishing men and women. For twenty-six consecutive years, he has ministered to churches in Amite County.

December 16, 1903, Bro. Schilling moved to Magnolia, Miss., from which place he continues to serve surrounding churches. For twenty-four years his time has been fully occupied, and, although past the age when many preachers are said to pass the deadline, he continues in demand with the churches. For a number of years, he was a member of the Convention Board. His painstaking and systematic methods are manifest in his habit of keeping a record of all his work from the first, such as days of service, miles traveled, sermons preached, baptisms administered, marriage ceremonies performed, funerals conducted, etc. He has gathered a fairly good collection of books, which he knows how to use to the best advantage, and his continued usefulness is accounted for by the fact that he continues to study. As long as a minister of the Word can bring out of God 's storehouse treasures new and old, there will be a place for him among the churches. Too many pastors with churches widely separated allow their habits of study to become completely demoralized.

During his busy ministry, he has found time to read a number of denominational papers and to contribute valuable articles to some of them. He seems still in the vigor of a useful life, with the prospects before him of filling his remaining years with some of the best work of his life.

God be praised for the "old guard" of faithful country pastors, the worth of whose services will never be known till the books are opened up yonder.

W. F. Yarborough.

"Theodore Cleon Schilling was born near what is now called Murdock on the Kentwood & Eastern Railroad, in Washington Parish, La., January 23, 1853; baptized at Mt. Hermon Church October 1869; licensed to the ministry September 27, 1873, by the Osyka Baptist Church; Ordained at Mt. Hermon Baptist Church October 8, 1876. He was educated mainly in the common schools of the country, but afterward attended Shirk's Academy in Osyka, Miss., and Mississippi College. He married Miss Annie D. James ( two sentences missing) For twenty years he was related to the Gillsburg Collegiate Institute in Amite County as the pastor of the church there, and Secretary of Board of Trustees of the Institute, and was active in support of the school. In December 1903, he moved to Magnolia, Miss., from which place he continued serving the country churches until the time of his call home to his reward. He lived and labored as a minister one-third of a century within a few miles of where he was born. He baptized approximately one thousand souls on their profession of conversion. Through and through this section he traveled many thousand miles, preached several thousand sermons, and there were few indeed in all this territory who had not heard the gospel from this consecrated servant of God. During the last years of his life, he compiled and published the Centennial history of the old Mississippi Baptist Association and much valuable biographical data.

Sources

1. ↑ [1] Findagrave : Theodore Cleon Schilling, Memorial # 163955341
2. ↑ https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/L1XN-FVZ

• Abstract history of the Mississippi Baptist Association for one hundred years by Schilling, T. C., 1853- 1908
• *"United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFPF-7VK : 12 December 2017), Cleon Shilling in entry for Valzaine Shilling, 1860.

• "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDX2-PTH : 14 August 2017), Theadore C Schilling, Edward Dykes, Washington, Louisiana, United States; citing enumeration district ED 194, sheet 168B, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), roll 0473; FHL microfilm 1,254,473.

• "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M9XZ-N7Y : accessed 13 January 2019), Theodore C Schilling, Beat 5 (part south of Osyka & Liberty roads), Amite, Mississippi, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 29, sheet 9A, family 155, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,240,799.