| Notes |
- BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF P. L. COBB
By Cora Crosby Cobb
Pharaoh Lee Cobb was born March 3, 1866, in St. Clair, Tennessee, a small village in Hawkins County. It was a rural community with no great fame to boast of, but its values were sound. Its citizens knew the importance of an education and supported an Academy whose teachers imparted high ideals to the boys and girls.
St. Clair Academy had been built in 1873 by Mr. Cobb's father and other men in the community. The respect for education instilled in the younger generation became evident when Mr. Cobb assumed his first job at the age of sixteen-a teacher in Greene County. This job was followed by other teaching jobs in Hawkins County. After teaching in the County schools, he was elected Superintendent of Schools in Hawkins County, served two years, and then went to Emory and Henry College for one year. He taught a year in the Morristown High School, was elected Principal of City Schools, but then went to the University of Tennessee as assistant to the University's Dean, T. W. Jordan, in the Latin Department. He took the B.A. degree in 1892 and was asked to remain at the University to teach; but as the call to preach had long been in his heart, he joined the Holston Conference of The Methodist Church and was assigned to a "shoe string circuit" of five churches at Pulaski, Virginia. These were fruitful years for him. He was in twenty-four revival meetings where 1,900 people professed conversion.
He then went to the Vanderbilt Theological Department. During these years he served as pastor of the New Shops Church and after that as Chaplain of the State Penitentiary. On graduation, Mr. Cobb joined the staff of the Board of Missions as assistant to Dr. W. R. Lambuth, later Bishop Lambuth.
His main assignments were to the work of the young people of the Epworth Leagues and Sunday Schools. During the development of the missionary interest among the young people, a plan of procedure was inaugurated in the Holston Conference that came to be known as "The Holston Plan." Due to his wide experience as Secretary of Young People's Work and to his position as Secretary of the Board of Missions in the conference, Mr. Cobb was able to render a large service in developing this Plan and in carrying its spirit into other conferences.
In three years, through the efforts of the Epworth Leagues, the Presiding Elders, and the leaders and pastors of the Conference, the payment on the Missionary Assessment was raised from forty-two percent to one hundred percent. Under this Plan, Holston thus became the first conference in the Church to pay its Missionary Assessment in full. Honor has always been given to the courageous men whose efforts brought about this great success. From Holston the Plan was extended to other Districts and Conferences and became the beginning of a great advance in the Missionary interest of the general Church.
Other Presiding Elders throughout the Church became interested in paying their Missionary Assessments in full. The first to succeed was Dr. W. F. McMurray of Missouri. The next year three Districts paid in full, among them the Chattanooga District, with Dr. Frank Richardson as Presiding Elder. In a short time sixty Districts had reached that goal, and the entire Church had felt the influence of this new movement.
In 1900 Mr. Cobb was married to Miss Cora Nell Crosby of Boston, and in 1902, with an infant son, they took an appointment to the American work in Monterrey, Mexico, and later in Mexico City. These were for the Cobbs rich, happy years which colored all the rest of their ministry with a keen missionary interest.
After returning to the States in 1907, Mr. Cobb held the following appointments:
Bramwell.WV, 1907-1911 Highland Park, Chattanooga, TN, 1911-1915 Knoxville, TN, District Presiding Elder, 1915-1919 Morristown, TN, 1919-1920
Secretary of the Missionary Centenary and Christian Education Movement, in Nashville, 1920-1926
Clinton, TN, 1926-1928
Big Stone Gap, VA, District Presiding Elder, 1928-1932
Galax,VA, 1932-1936
Ridgedale, Chattanooga, 1936-1940
South Pittsburg, TN, 1940-1942, where he was retired
Sequatchie, TN, Circuit, 1942-1945, served as Supply Preacher
Hixson, TN, 1945-1947, served as Supply Preacher
Daisy, TN, 1947-1950, served as Supply Preacher
In 1951 he and his wife of fifty-one years moved to Nashville to retire a second time, but he continued to serve informally for several years as a visiting pastor while a member of Hobson Church in East Nashville.
Of this list of appointments, all were important, but three were outstanding in their results: First, while in the Knoxville District during the years of the Missionary Centenary, Mr. Cobb's experience with the board of Missions resulted in the District's being given a quota of $60,000, which was $10,000 more than the quota of any other District. By the thorough organization of forces, even in the smallest churches, the District pledged $96,000.
Second, as a result of this leadership he was called to Nashville in 1920 to administer the Spiritual Life Department of the Christian Education and Centenary Movements and did a successful, constructive piece of work. He published a booklet of daily devotional messages for use in the home called Keep the Home Fires Burning, which might well have been a suggestion for the later publication The Upper Room. He also assisted Dr. Crawford in the development of a pamphlet called "Official Board No. I."
After two years at Clinton, Tennessee, where the present building was erected, and where the daughter, Margaret, suffered her serious automobile accident, Mr. Cobb was placed on the Big Stone Gap, Virginia, District, his third outstanding appointment. The contribution made here was in the general upbuilding of all the interests of the Church among the fine rural people of the region. During the fourth and last year on the District, nearly 1,800 people were received into the churches, which, according to Curtis Haley,
Editor of "The General Minutes," was the largest number received in any District in the Church. A close second was the Abingdon District, with Dr. E. E. Wiley, Presiding Elder, and the third was the Hickory District in western North Carolina. A result of the intensive work in the Church Schools along educational lines was the giving of 859 credits in Standard Training Schools. The presiding Bishop, Dr. Ainsworth, said Mr. Cobb's report was the best he had ever received from any District.
A personal interest in Mr. Cobb's life during these years of traveling was a knowledge and appreciation, through definite study, of birds and flowers. By the time he was fifty years old, he knew nearly all of the species of the flowers and birds of the East Tennessee region and found great pleasure in them.
The years following Big Stone Gap were spent in successful pastorates until his retirement at South Pittsburg in 1942, at the age of 76 years. He then continued to serve as a "Supply Preacher" among rural people in the Chattanooga District for another nine years. Finally, after his "second retirement," in 1951, he served as a visiting minister at Hobson in Nashville until 1955. During the years, Mrs. Cobb has served 13 years as President of the Holston Conference Woman's Missionary organizations and four years as Secretary of Young People's work in the national woman's work.
The Cobbs have four children and ten grandchildren.
These have been especially happy years for the Cobbs, with many loyal friends and many rich spiritual experiences.
|
Abt 1866 - 1957 (~ 91 years)