Rev. M. B. Feemster was born Feb. 9, 1804, and died Jan. 9, 1884, having well nigh reached the end of four score years. His native place as Yorkville, S.C. On his mother's side he was related to the great Dr. Benj. Rush, of Philadelphia, a signer of the declaration of American independence. His mother, after the death of his father, moved to Franklin County, Tenn. When a boy 12 years old he went on foot with a cousin, Silas J. Feemster, who entered the ministry of the Independent Presbyterian Church, Washington College, in East Tennessee, of which Dr. John W. Doak was then president. At the age of 16 years he received his degree of Bachelor of Arts from Dr. Doak. After coming home from college he became acquainted with the theology of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and united with that church. In the spring of 1827 he was licensed to preach by the Tennessee Presbytery, and in the fall of 1828, the year that the old Cumberland Synod was dissolved, he was ordained. In 1825 he was married to Miss Martha King, who survived him three years, dying Oct., 1887, after a long, patient, steadfast, Christian life. The life of this good man was spent in the active work of the ministry and in teaching, for which he was eminently fitted. To have received from Dr. Doak the testimonials of a Bachelor of Arts, when under 16 years of age, plainly indicated an intellectual power above mediocrity. To the end of his life he was a great student. Both in the pulpit and in private conversation he evinced a rare elegance in language. He was never coarse, vulgar or slangy anywhere. While manifesting always a high order of culture and elegance in the use of the English language, it is said that he often uttered such thought-laden sentences in the pulpit that his audience were spell-bound before him. The spiritual element of power in his ministry was great. He was one of the few men of earth whose modesty was excessive, otherwise he would have been more widely known. But he left his impress well made on one of the best presbyteries of the church. Rev. J. T. Borah, of Rienzi, Miss., who knew him intimately through many years in the ministry, in a notice of his death said: "More than forty years ago he moved to Mississippi. Here his splendid powers and organizing capacities contributed largely in building up the church, and to giving tone to the sentiment of general society, which was polished and full of refinement before the war. In a word he was eminently a great man. His deep piety, his sound judgment, with his great power as a reasoner gave him wonderful force as a preacher, and secured to him the confidence and respect of all around him. Led by his solemn convictions of duty to enter the ministry he threw his whole heart and soul into its accomplishment; but to do this he often had to blend with his ministerial labors those of the teacher, for which he was amply qualified. In Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, numbers of young men aspiring to the ministry enjoyed the advantages of his fine instruction, some of whom became widely known as popular and useful men."

[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, November 19, 1896, page 654]

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