The Value Of A Horse
The close of the Civil War found J. H. Halbrook a federal prisoner at Camp Douglass, Illinois. Upon his release he returned to his home in Tennessee and married a fine Chrisitan girl he had courted before enlisting in the Confederate army. Joe was not a Christian at the time of his marriage, but Margaret soon converted him and before long he began to preach. Realizing his need for an education, he sold the farm he had acquired through hard work so as to enroll in T. B. Larimore's school at Mars' Hill, Alabama. After two years at Mars' Hill, he settled at New River, Fayette County, Alabama.
While living at New River, Brother Halbrook farmed for a living and preached through Fayette and the adjacent counties of Northwest Alabama, making more extended tours in the less busy seasons. All he had left from his Tennessee farm was his horse and buggy and these were his means of carrying the gospel to the remote areas of that rough hill country. F.D. Srygley said, "Except for the tours to Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, he has traveled almost exclusively on horseback and in buggy." (Smiles and Tears, p. 153.)
Shortly before moving to Florida in 1890, where he spent his last days, a tragedy befell "Poor, pure Bro. Halbrook," as one sympathetic brother expressed it. His horse died and he was without the means of obtaining another. The attitude manifested by Brother and Sister Halbrook regarding this loss, which under the circumstances must have been a devastating blow, helps us to see the kind of men and women it was that upheld the plea for apostolic Christianity in the latter days of the last century.
News of Brother Halbrook's loss reached Nashville and was duly reported in the Gospel Advocate, the reporter saying:
J.H. Holbrook, of New River, Alabama, had the misfortune to lose his only horse by death recently. This leaves him entirely without conveyance. He had made all his arrangements to spend this year in evangelistic work indestitute fields, and this misfortune will greatly hinder this good work unless the brethren come speedily to his relief. We know Bro. Holbrook to be a worthy man and a good preacher. He has established many churches. He has spent his life preaching in destitute places, mainly at his own expense and at great sacrifice of the comforts and even the necessaries of life. We trust that he will be enabled to continue the good work. (Gospel Advocate, Jan. 29 1890, p.74.)
This issue of the Advocate had hardly reached New River before J. H. Halbrook wrote a letter disclaiming desire for public help. The letter, strangely enough, reached Nashville in time to appear in the next week's adition. He wrote:
While my loss is almost irreparable, for me, and while I thank you a thousand times for your kindness, I think I can get along without making a public appeal for help, and it is so humiliating to me to ask the brethren for help. I hope you will make no more mention of me in the Advocate. Bro. John McCaleb has kindly proposed to loan me his mule till I can do better, and I think I can get along some way. (Ibid., Feb. 5, 1890, p. 90.)
However, some money had already been forwarded to Brother Halbrook, and while the Advocate agreed to say no more on the subject, two subsequent letters from Margaret Halbrook were printed. In the first she said:
I am not going to give up. If the Lord will only bless us with common health, I hope we will be able to do more for the cause of our blessed Lord than we have ever done before. It may be for our good to suffer loss. When we see earthly things fast passing away, we draw nearer to God, ever trusting in him. Mr. Holbrook is off on a trip to Walker County, though not very well. It is as you say, We are laboring in a hard place, but the power of the gospel is needed here if anywhere. You know the cause has been long established here, but not faithfully practiced. If we would only go to work in earnest, all of us; the cause of Christ would run and be glorified. Did you ever know of anyone who was in the habit of reading the Bible every day and of carrying everything to God in prayer, ever going astray? (Ibid., Feb. 12, 1890, p. 99.)
If these letters are a good commentary on a humble preacher and his devoted wife, laboring for the Lord under trying circumstances, it is also a good commentary on some others as well. In spite of Brother Holbrook's sincere protest, and their evident willingness to bear their burden, brethren did come to his aid. In the February issue of the Advocate, Margaret reported that some money had been received and said, "We will buy a horse pretty soon if the Lord wills."
-707 S. Appletree, Dothan, Alabama