Dr.
Chester Bullard 1809 - 1893
Dr. Chester Bullard was born March 12, 1809, at Framingham,
Mass., a community twenty-one miles west of Boston. At nine years
of age he was removed to Staunton, Va., and at about seventeen
to Montgomery County, Va.,.
During 1831, he began the study of medicine with Dr. D. J. Chapman
of Giles County, Va., later practicing for a living, while preaching
a great deal. Chester Bullard, being a clear thinker, avoided
the speculative doctrines of the day. His preaching presented
in a clear, simple way the gospel truths. So new were they, and
so foreign to the religious thought of the time, that it was two
years before Dr. Bullard had a convert. By 1836 be had planted
six churches. Among these were Alleghany in Montgomery County,
and Shiloh in Pulaski County.
At what time in his life he moved to Snowville, Va., is not known.
At that place was a church known as Cypress Grove, which Bullard
soon won over to the Restoration Plea. He built his home, "Humility,"
on the opposite hill near the church. This church was the second
that Bullard established. For many years Snowville was known as
"The Jerusalem" of Southwest Virginia.
Doctor Bullard was married four times. His first wife was Eley
K. Pierce, of Montgomery County; his second, Adeline Stone, of
Lunenburg County; his third, Mary Dunkum, of Albemarle, the mother
of William S. Bullard, and his last wife was Elizabeth Craig,
of Pulaski County. He had only three children.
After a long and useful ministry, he died February 27, 1893, lacking
fourteen days of reaching the age of eighty-four. He was buried
at noontime, March 1st, on Chester's Hill, overlooking the town
of Snowville, and his old home, "Humility."
Sources:
The Plea and the Pioneers in Virginia
Frederick Arthur Hodge
Richmond: Everett Waddey Co., 1905
pp. 200-205
http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/cbullard/BULLAR3.HTM
Sketches of Our Mountain Pioneers
J. W. West (author and publisher)
Lynchburg, VA, 1939
pp. 21-28
http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/cbullard/BULLAR2.HTM
Christian Standard, vol. XXIX, no. 16, April
22, 1893, pp. 307-308.
http://www.therestorationmovement.com/bullard.htm