Oliver Rufus Blue

Oliver Rufus Blue

• Father: Neil Blue b. 9 December 1793, d. 24 June 1877
• Mother: Eliza Powers d. 1854

• Oliver Rufus Blue was born on 24 March 1822 in Alabama.
• He married Ann (?) say 1846.
• The following appeared on 11 August 1877 in The Southern Christian Advocate: Neil Blue, Montgomery, Ala., father of Rev. O. R. Blue, Ala. Conference, born of Scottish parentage, Richmond Co., No. Carolina, Dec. 9, 1793; married Eliza dau of Matthew and Olive R. Powers, Robison Co., No. Carolina, Jan. 8, 1818; settled in Montgomery, Ala. March 15, 1819; died June 24, 1877. "He lived and moved in the happy medium between rashness & timidity."
• John Howard Blue and Mary Wood Cook appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1880 in Montgomery, Alabama. Other members of the household included Oliver Rufus Blue, John Howard Blue Jr., Mary Ellen Blue and Ann (?)
• He was a Methodist Episcopal elder, according to the 1880 census.
• Oliver Rufus Blue died on 8 January 1893 at age 70.
• He was interred at Oakwood Cemetery, Montgomery, Alabama.
• A biographical sketch appears in History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography (1921): Rufus Oliver Blue Methodist minister, was born March 24, 1822, in Montgomery, died January 8, 1822, in Greensboro, and is buried in Oakwood cemetery, Montgomery; son of Neil and Eliza (Powers) Blue (q. v.) He was educated in Montgomery, and when seventeen years of age joined the Methodist church in that city. "His conversion, October 9, 1839, was of that positive, clear, and joyous type so often found among the older Methodists." (General Conference Minutes, 1893.) He was licensed to exhort, March 23, 1843, and to preach, October 12, 1843. On January 6, 1844, he was "admitted on trial" into the Alabama conference. His first appointment was the Lafayette circult, but before the end of the year he was transferred to the Montgomery station. While still an undergraduate he served the Montgomery, Mobile, Talladega, and Eufaula stations, and in 1850 was appointed presiding elder of the Montgomery district. He served as a minister for forty-nine years filling "the most prominent stations and districts in the conference." "During that long period he maintained his prominence in the conference, and his life and labors contributed as much as those of any one man to the progress of Methodism in Alabama, both in its spiritual work and in the institutions, educational and benevolent, which it established and maintained." (Minute, supra.) He represented the Alabama conference in seven General conferences. Twice, in the absence of the bishop he was elected to preside over the Alabama annual conference. Married: in 1848 at Columbus, Ga., to Ann Eliza Howard, born December 3, 1825, and died October 22, 1891. Children: John Howard, m. Mary Wood Cook, parents of Dr. John Howard Blue (q. v.); 2. Annie Judy, d. at the age of 18; 3. Marie, d. young; 4. Eliza, d. in infancy. Last residence: Greensboro.

• Last Edited: 6 May 2011