| Notes |
- From the FindAGrave page for William Elbert Munsey:
David Munsey, father of Dr. Munsey, was by nature no ordinary man. After he deserted his family, he went to Georgia, married again in the lower walks of life, straightened up, was relicensed to preach— for he had been a local preacher—and was so good a preacher that he sometimes preached to packed audiences. Occasionally presiding elders would send him to take their places in the pulpit at their quarterly meetings when they could not attend. But it seems that this second probation was not more successful than the first.
The Rev. H. W. Bays gives the following account of an interview with Mr. Munsey in his last days:I met David Munsey, father of the famous W. E. Munsey, in September, 1869, in the little village of Clayton, Rabun County, Ga. He was then an old man, but straight and finely built. He was poorly clad. I was standing in the store of Mr. Newton McConnell, in Clayton, when a tall, poorly clad old man came in and asked for some tobacco. Before I had learned his name I was struck with the inherent force of his utterance and with the marks of intelligence in his face. As soon as he had gotten the tobacco he left without a word, and his step was as light and springy as that of a boy of fifteen years. Learning who he was, I followed him to the street, hailed him, and told him who I was. He seemed glad to meet me, and yet saddened at the meeting. We stepped behind an old building near by and had a hasty conversation. I said to him: "You are the father of William E. Munsey." He replied: "Yes, sir; and I am proud of him." He then drew from the inner pocket of his well-worn coat a neat little photograph of that great preacher, and added: "Here, sir, is a small picture of my son Elbert which he sent me not long ago, and here is a letter from him asking me to go and live with him, and I am going as soon as I can." I think that Dr. Munsey lived at that time in Baltimore. In our conversation he mentioned the facts that Elbert was fond of books in his early boyhood and that he had tried to put books into his hands. I begged him to go to his son, and he said that he would; but he never did, for he was murdered by a negro not long after the interview. He was at that time miller in a little grist mill, and was perhaps accustomed to lodge in the mill. While standing in the door of his mill after night a negro man approached him and shot him fatally. This killing took place near Clayton, Ga., in the winter of 1870. There was something in David Munsey's make-up which f1lled me with regret and at the same time with admiration. He must have been six feet and three or four inches in height, and at the time of the above interview he was as straight and erect as an Indian. His speech was measured, his grammar correct, and he spoke with a force rarely heard in private conversation. His head was oval and well balanced on his shoulders; his legs and arms were long and well-shaped; his eye was deep sky-blue, large and of a somewhat melancholy cast.[Holston Methodism, Volume 5, 1913, submitted by C. Danielson]
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1816 - 1872 (55 years)
