It is to be regretted that of many of our eminent preachers we do
not have detailed information. This is true of Lewis Everingham.
However, he was educated in part at Mercer University and about
the year 1838 he removed, with a wife and four children, from
Marion County, Georgia to Blakely and became pastor of the church
at that place, teaching school for the support of his family and
that his pastorate was closed by his death in 1846. The committee
on deceased ministers of the Bethel Association in their report,
the next session said of him:
"Lewis Everingham may be justly said to have been a man of God."
Of a meek and quiet spirit, like his Master, and amiable almost
to a fault, he would submit to be made the subject of imposition
himself, rather than, in a single instance, to do an injury to
another man. One of the highest commendations is, that those who
knew him best loved him most. As a Christian, he was in private
what he professed to be in public. Among his own neighbors--and
here, perhaps, is the best test of his worth--he was not esteemed
merely, but loved, and endeared to the affections of all. As a
minister of the Gospel his heart glowed with a holy ardor for the
salvation of sinners. His deepest regret on a dying bed was
that he had not done more for his Master. His last sermon on
earth was a funeral sermon, in which, as the brethren attest,
he spoke with unusual fervor and force, as with the Holy Ghost
shed down from above. In one short week after, he ceased from
his labors, and now rests in the bosom of his Lord. As a testimony
of her love, the church has erected a marble monument in his memory."
Rev. T. Muses writes:
"The church at Blakely was much blessed and strengthened under his
administration. Mercer never sent out a more faithful minister
than he was. He lived soberly, righteously and godly every day;
was a man of strong mind and was regarded by all as a sound and
able preacher. His influence in the section in which he lived
was considerable, and in his still and quiet way he did a vast
deal of good. He never murmured at the necessity of secular
employment, but often said that it would afford the greatest
pleasure if he were so situated as to give his whole time to
the preaching of Christ and His crucified."