This reverend gentleman was born in Randolph county, N.C., April 26th, 1823. He professed religion at the old Cave Spring camp ground in Overton county, Tenn., in 1840. Early in life he acquired a thirst for a liberal education. He wisely believed that such an education would furnish him with resources that would endure as long as his life should last; that it would cause him to form habits that time would improve but not destroy, and with Sidney Smith, he concluded that a high order of education, rightly used, would render sickness tolerable, solitude pleasant, life more dignified and useful, and death less terrible. By many struggles and privations, he succeeded in going through the curriculum of Alpine Academy, Overton county, Tenn. In that school the late lamented Dr. B. W. McDonnold and he were classmates. As boys, not being robust in body, they avoided the ruder sports of their stronger schoolmates and formed each other's companionship in play. Their attachment accumulated strength as they strolled along the sides of the mountains, and freely conversed about their hardships and youthful aspirations. Neither of them sought the applause of men, and each shrank from that spurious religion whose prominent characteristics are talk and pretension and outward observance, often accompanied by uncharitable censure. "They were full of mercy and good points, without partiality and without hypocrisy." It was their delight to try to do some good to others, and never to let a day pass without an effort to make some one happier, and thereby they actually increased their own happiness.

Rev. Q. D. Elder joined Sparta Presbytery in 1851, and in 1852 he was ordained as a Cumberland Presbyterian minister. He was married in 1849 to Miss Minnifred M. Ledbetter, by whom he had eight children, four of whom are still living. His first wife died in 1872, and in 1873 he married Miss Emma J. Williams, by whom he had three children, still living. When he was in association with the members of his family, or with any of the brethren of his church whom loved, and heart was answering heart, then his soul became an indwelling spirit of power animating his very features, blending them in unison and harmony. Yes, his soul became not as a spark but as a flame from heaven, purer than Promethean fire, vivifying and energizing his breathing form.

He removed to Kentucky in 1865, when he became president of Burksville College. He resigned teaching for the purpose of giving his whole time to the ministry. He conducted many successful revivals and organized several churches in the bounds of Cumberland presbytery. He was pastor of Liberty congregation in Taylor county, Ky., about fifteen years. When he took charge of it there were only fifteen members on the roll, but by holding a revival under the influence of God's help and blessing, he largely increased the membership. The old log church was replaced by an edifice then the finest in the county, and the congregation became the strongest in the county.

He removed to California in 1888, and took charge of the Farmington and Salida congregations. He removed to Greer county, Oklahoma Territory, in 1890, and did much evangelistic work. In this county he has organized five churches, one of them being at Mangum, the county seat.

He was moderator of our last Greer county presbytery held at Yelldell. When the chairman on the usual Committee on Education read the report, he was critically attentive. At the recess of presbytery, during a cheerful social conversation with a few friends, the report on Education being mentioned, he said: "I most heartily approve of the report inasmuch as it contains statements and arguments in favor of a most highly educated gospel ministry. I think that the time will come when preachers of the enlightening gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be so profoundly learned, that they will become established authority on all purely scientific subjects. In my varied journeyings through life I have been irresistably inclined to notice that the special difference between a highly educated and a smatteringly educated preacher is in the greater power of reflection as well as originality of thought. I am thoroughly convinced that the thorough disciplining of the minds of the young men being trained for the ministry, in systematic theology and certain literary branches as now taught in our justly widely celebrated Cumberland University, will affect the whole tone, character, and even the bodily deportment of every one of them. There is a wonderful magnetic power existing in the thorough training of young men amid an association of highly refined and cultured teachers and professors." He also highly commended the literary institutions, Trinity University, Tehuacana, and Texas Female Seminary, located at Weatherford, which were favorably mentioned in the report.

His son, Prof. Jeff. Elder, now of Salida, California, is a graduate of the law department of Cumberland University. This affectionate son ever strives faithfully to adopt his good father's sound advice, namely, "Daily attendance to the religious culture of your heart and to the best cultivation of your intellect." At the present time this son is in Greer county engaged in settling his deceased father's affairs.

The deceased looked upon all his children as a heritage and a gift from God. He settled with his last wife and three children on a claim in Greer county situated near Mount Walsh. There he cultivated a farm that in case of his death, his wife and children might have a home and a support. His motto was "Omne bonum Dei donum" (every good is God's gift.) He always avowed faith in the marvelous comprehensiveness of God's gracious promise, "That no good thing shall be withhold from them who walk uprightly."

In the early part of last May he took a severe cold while attending to the burial service of one of the good elders of his church. Those present who had often heard him preach previously, and heard him while standing at that grave, affirm "that he was more brilliantly eloquent than ever before." Shortly after attending to this solemn service he was taken sick with pneumonia. He remained very sick, and was partly delirious for several days, and then revived a little. But on the evening of May 15th he became very feeble, and beckoned for his wife to come close to him, when he said to her, "Trust in the Lord and he will succor thee." He took some medicine but it afforded him no relief. About eleven o'clock of the night of the 15th, he lifted up his head and while looking upwards, calmly died. He was seventy years of age, when his soul left for heaven. Being a Free Mason he was buried with Masonic rites and honors in the Mount Walsh cemetery in the presence of a large concourse of friends. He leaves a brother, now a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, to mourn his loss. This brother now resides at Alvord, Wise county, Texas.

[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, August 31, 1893, page 111]