The Rev. Dr. E. F. Rockwell: A man for all seasons

Iredell County has been blessed with a wide variety of interesting citizens, one of whom is today’s subject. The Rev. Elijah Frink Rockwell, D.D., was not born in Iredell County, but he left his mark here.

Born in Lebanon, Conn., in 1809, he was a Yale graduate, class of 1834. At the time of his graduation he was 25 years old, having taught for some time to earn money to further his education. He first came to North Carolina in 1835 to be a principal at the Donaldson Academy in Fayetteville. After two years in the classroom he felt the calling to the ministry and decided to study theology at the seminaries of Columbia, S.C., and Princeton, N.J. He was 30 years old when he was first licensed to preach in June 1839.

After becoming a licentiate of the Presbyterian Church, he came to Statesville in 1840 and was ordained and installed as the pastor at First Presbyterian Church — then known as “Fourth Creek Presbyterian Church” — in the spring of 1841. He remained pastor at Fourth Creek for about nine years, leaving to become a professor of chemistry and geology at Davidson College. He later also taught Latin at Davidson before returning to Statesville in 1868 to take charge of the Concord Female College — now known as Mitchell Community College.

Concord Female College was the Presbyterian church’s female equivalent of Davidson College, which was also associated with the Presbyterian Church. The young men of Davidson took the A.T. O. Railroad to Statesville to attend teas, receptions and other social events here and the young ladies of the Female College took the A.T. O. to Davidson to attend dances and other social activities there.

Altogether, the Rev. Rockwell was president of Concord Female College for three years, after which he and Prof. H. T. Burke ran a private classical boys’ school.

The Rev. Rockwell resumed ministerial duties in 1872, when he became the pastor of Fifth Creek, Bethany and Tabor Presbyterian churches. He lived within walking distance of Fifth Creek Church.

After retirement from the active ministry around 1884, he became a student again, pursuing studies that interested him, particularly local history. Even though he was not a native to these parts, at the time of his passing it was said that “no man knows so much as he did of the local history of Iredell County.”

In his obituary in The Landmark, the statement was made that “It is to be regretted that he never put this knowledge into enduring form — the greater part of it died with him.” His writings and some of his sermons are still scattered, some of them in the Presbyterian Archives, some at Davidson College and some can be found within the pages of microfilmed newspapers and journals. He was conferred the well-deserved honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity by the University of North Carolina in June 1882.

Besides contributing local history pieces to The Landmark, he also wrote for scholarly journals — about Crowfield Academy, Clio’s Nursery, a history of distillation in Iredell County, the Battle of Ramsour’s Mill, the Battle of Cowpens, the political situation in Rowan County in 1774, a history of Fourth Creek Church, etc. According to one source, he penned more than 100 articles on important subjects and at least that number on lesser subjects, such as the shooting of the buffalo on the Sabbath, printed later in this column.

It is some measure of the respect in which he was held that the Rev. Rockwell was the person chosen to deliver the historical address in Statesville during the centennial celebration of our nation’s independence on July 4, 1876.

The Rev. Rockwell had been sick with a severe cold for a week in April 1888, when he presided at a congregational meeting at Fifth Creek Church because the regular pastor, the Rev. T. J. Allison, was absent. His cold turned into bronchial pneumonia and he died at his home a week after the meeting, on April 15, 1888. He was 79.

There were two funeral services held, the first at Fifth Creek Church, where there was a standing-room-only crowd, and then another at First Presbyterian Church in Statesville. At the time of his death, he was believed to have been the oldest member of Concord Presbytery.

He was buried first in 4th Creek Burying Ground across the street from the church, then later his wife had his body removed to Oakwood Cemetery. The Rev. Rockwell was married twice. He had no children by his first wife, Margarette Kirkland McNeil, but was survived by his second wife, Elizabeth Holmes Brown (died in 1902), and by their son, Joseph Huntington Rockwell (1868-1940). These last two are also buried at Oakwood.

Here is part of a short article by the Rev. Rockwell which was printed in the “North Carolina Presbyterian,” year unknown: “Not long after this year [1750] in the first settlement of the Scotch Irish in western North Carolina in what is now Iredell county, Mr. Alexander Reed … was six miles from home at church, leaving some small children, the oldest only ten years. In the absence of the parents a large buffalo came near the house, when the little boy took his father’s gun, put it through between the logs of the cabin and shot the monster dead. The father, though, chastised the little fellow, the next morning, for violating the Sabbath in shooting the animal which offered himself to be shot.”

In other words, the father did not mind that this son had shot a buffalo, but reprimanded the lad because the boy had shot the animal on a Sunday.

How times have changed.