STOCKTON.--Whereas, it has pleased God in his infinite love and wisdom to remove from our midst our dearly beloved brother and coworker, Rev. E. J. Stockton; be it
  Resolved, That we in submission bow to his sovereign will, realizing our loss to be his great gain; and we know that as his earthly tabernacle was dissolved, he had a mansion, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; be it further
  Resolved, That we tender his bereaved wife and family our heartfelt sympathy, and that we commend them to "Him who doeth all things well;" and that a copy of these resolutions be furnished the family, and that a copy be sent to "The Cumberland Presbyterian" for publication, and a page of our society book be reserved for a copy of same.
                                   Lillian Fraley Dysart,
                                   George Leslie Orr,
                                   Willie Horne,
                                                  Committee.
Marlow, I.T.
[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, July 3, 1902, page 30]

STOCKTON.--Rev. E. J. Stockton passed to his eternal reward at 8 p.m., May 23, 1902, receiving the fulfillment of the promise, "Thou shalt come to thy grave in full age like as a shock of corn cometh in his season." He was born in Blount county, East Tennessee, March 4, 1818; brought by a widowed mother to Jackson county, Ala., in the spring of 1820, the youngest of five children. His mother died seven years later, leaving the children to be distributed among the neighbors. He grew up without any educational advantages, and in his young manhood served as a United States soldier in the Creek and Seminole wars in Alabama and Florida, 1836-1838. He professed religion in October, 1839, at a camp meeting held at Mt. Ancient, now Goose Pond, in Jackson county, Ala.; joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church at that place in March, 1840. In the following May he was made a ruling elder, and in September, 1842, was sent by his congregation as a representative to Jackson Presbytery, the first one he had ever seen. At that presbytery, being much concerned about a call to the ministry, at his request Father Hunter preached on the call of the ministry, as a result of which, after a three years' struggle, he presented himself and was received as a candidate for the holy ministry. He was licensed to preach by the presbytery at its spring session in 1843, near Guntersville, Marshall county. He and Rev. J. J. Burdine rode the circuit together the next fall and winter, preaching at about thirty appointments, receiving as compensation for their services $7.50 each. He was ordained to the whole work of the ministry by Jackson Presbytery at its spring session in 1845, after a rigid examination lasting twenty-four hours, at Bolivar, Jackson county, Ala. He went to school to Rev. W. D. Chadick for six months after licensure, and after his ordination for five months to Rev. G. A. Collier. He studied theology and the literary sciences in the saddle and by the roadside as he rested during frequent journeys, and by a dim rush light in an open fireplace by night, and thus acquired a good English education. He was married four times; the father of thirteen children, four of whom and his devoted wife survive him. He came to Marlow, I.T., in June, 1894, and though in poor health and much enfeebled, he entered heartily into the work of the ministry, traveling long distances, preaching with a zeal and power that few young men show. For three years he stood almost alone in this frontier country until the increasing infirmities of his years forced him to retire in 1897 from the active discharge of the duties of the pastorate, since which time he preached at every opportunity. Such in brief is the life story of a great man, but no one save God can recount the history of the ministry covering sixty years. He touched thousands of lives, and never a one that he did not lift toward God. A man of great natural powers, he cultivated them, in spite of every adversity, until he became a giant among men; the possessor of a scholarship that had been ripened by sixty years of intelligent toil and original research, his knowledge of God's word was marvelous, and as a teacher of truth he was the peer of any man I have ever known; but great as were these attainments they tell not the secret of his great life. Towering above all else was his love for God and for men, the love that constrained him to give his life fully and freely for Christ and the church. He loved men and gave himself for them. No slight thing ever kept him from the work that he loved with such passionate fervor. Floods of water, extremes of weather, difficulties that to most men would have been insurmountable, only led him to greater effort. He was known as a model of promptitude. For fifteen consecutive years he answered to every roll call of his presbytery and whenever it was at all possible he was always in his place. It was my privilege to be an inmate of his home for more than a year, a privilege that seems inestimable to me now, for under God it has shaped my life more fully for him and his cause then anything else could have done. I shall carry the memory of that holy home and that saintly character with me always. It is a very precious thought to me that the closing work of that long, beautiful, useful life was the preparation of a young man to preach the gospel that he loved so well, and upon him he poured out all his treasures; loved him, cared for him, guided him, bore patiently and tenderly with him and led him up toward God. And so it was with hundreds. Universally loved and respected, hundreds of hearts were bowed down with sincere grief when he left us. We loved him well, and because we did we are glad that at last he has entered into life. For years a great sufferer, he is free from pain; after a long life filled with labor, he is resting now, and has entered, a good and faithful servant, into the joy of his Lord. A true man, a great preacher, a devoted servant of the church has gone home; and in our hearts there is that that tells us that we shall not see his like soon again.

"There is no death; the stars go down
  To rise upon some fairer shore,
And bright in heaven's jeweled crown
  They shine forever more.
"There is no death; an angel form
  Walks o'er the earth with silent tread;
He bears our best loved things away,
  And then we call them dead.
"Born into that undying life
  They leave us but to come again
With joy we welcome them, the same
  Except in sin and pain.
"And ever near us, though unseen,
  The dear immortal spirits tread,
For all the boundless universe
  Is life--there are no dead."

                                          --F. A. BROWN.

[Source: The Cumberland Presbyterian, July 10, 1902, page 63]

Name: Stockton, E. J.
Occupation: retired
Presbytery: Chickasaw
Place of Residence: Marlow, I.T.
Date: May, 1902
Age: 84
[Source: Minutes of the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, May 1903, page 183a]

Stockton Family Information