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Moses Williams, the tireless horseback preacher By Bill Miller Oct 09, 2022 12:15 AM A A Gale force winds and misty rain had been blowing from the northwest most of the night. “The ship rolls tremendously sometimes,” Moses Williams wrote in his diary, “and her deck is almost constantly flooded. The sea breaks over the bulwarks with great force, yet no danger is apprehended as yet. But all our safety depends on the arm of the Lord.” It was late spring 1853. The Rev. Moses Allen Williams was nearly four months south of New York and approaching Cape Horn, the stormy southern tip of South America. He had hesitated to sail on this little wooden ship, the John Marshall. His friends said the ship had a bad reputation, might not be safe, and he certainly wouldn’t be comfortable. However, he was being sent on a mission by the Presbyterian Church to Valparaiso, a seaport on the western coast of Chile. They were paying his passage, and this was the best he could afford. Sailing for just over four months, the 41-year-old contented himself with daily prayers, reading the Bible in Greek, and studying Spanish grammar. His assignment was to set up a school where he would teach English and religion. Grandson of a regimental captain in the American Revolution and the youngest of three sons of a Pennsylvania farmer, Moses was raised in a deeply religious family. His father, Benjamin, was ruling elder in the local Presbyterian Church and urged his sons to enter the clergy. They all did. By the time Moses was ready to begin his religious studies the family had little extra money available. He had to rely on a donation from one of the members of the church. After graduating from college in 1839, he went south, intending to teach religion and do some occasional preaching. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister while in Georgia in 1846. A year in a South Carolina seminary was followed by a year of teaching, before he entered the Princeton Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1849. He was hired as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in November 1849. “Mr. Williams was a godly man and an excellent pastor, but only a moderate preacher,” said a subsequent pastor. The chief complaint was that Moses wrote out long and elaborate sermons and then read them to the congregation word for word. “It was impossible for him to speak without notes, or even commit his discourses to memory.” In 1853, suffering declining church membership and dissatisfaction with his performance, Moses resigned. “O, God,” Moses wrote in his diary, “forgive the imperfect manner in which my labors have been performed.” That was when he learned of a search for a Presbyterian missionary and teacher who would set up a school in Chile. He applied, was accepted, and after sailing to Valparaiso, he spent three years in South America. Alone in a strange land, his heavy work load began to break him. With his health deteriorating he asked and received a transfer. “I left Valparaiso in the fall of 1856,” he said, “arriving in San Francisco after a delightful voyage of 42 days.” In the spring of 1857, the Presbyterian Board tasked him with finding locations for new churches. Riding a mule, he preached from Napa, California, through Sacramento and north to the goldfields of Northern California and Southern Oregon. In 1857, he established a Presbyterian congregation in Jacksonville and then returned to Napa. “There I married one of the best and handsomest women the Lord ever made.” She was the recently widowed Amelia Jacks. They married in July 1858 and returned to Jacksonville to stay. Here, the “moderate preacher” found his calling. Although he never had a church of his own, for the next 39 years he was the tireless, horseback minister who married the young, buried the dead and preached whenever and wherever asked. By the time of his death in 1897, his dedication and service to Southern Oregon residents of all faiths had earned him the honorary title, “Father Williams.” He rests with his wife in Jacksonville’s Historic Cemetery. Writer Bill Miller is the author of six books, including “Silent City on the Hill: Jacksonville Oregon’s Historic Cemetery.” Reach him at [email protected].