Robert Wilson January

Robert Wilson January

• Robert Wilson January was born circa 1798 in Fayette County, Kentucky.
• He married Harriett Harris Postelthwait circa 1819.
• William Houston January . and Matilda A. (?) appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1850 in Murfreesboro, Rutherford County, Tennessee. Other members of the household included Robert Wilson January, Harriett Harris Postelthwait, Joseph January, James Orville January, Emma M. January and Lucy M. January.
• He was a missionary and Baptist preacher, according to the 1950 census.
• Lizzie Wood Powell wrote while being treated for cancer by Dr. R. W. January in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to her mother Evelina Wood on 10 March 1855, ". . . Mr Powell has been around to the boarding house where most of the Dr's patients board, & he has been giving me a description of them. most of them are even with not a friend to tend them, looking so dirty, so many soiled cloths, & a great many come without rags. . . . Dr January has had five new cases to come in this week. The old man has his hands full. The landlord of the hotel where the patients are staying has accumulated a good deal of the Dr's powders by stealing them from the sick, & has gone to Eastern Tennessee & introduced him-self as a student of Dr J's, & we heard he had six cases. . . ."
        Minimal punctuation added by the transcriber to enhance readability.
• Robert Wilson January appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1860 in Murfreesboro PO, Rutherford County, Tennessee. The family also was enumerated in Gibson County in 1860.
• Robert Wilson January and Harriett Harris Postelthwait appeared in the US federal census of 1 June 1860 in Trenton PO, Gibson County, Tennessee. Other members of the household included Emma M. January, A. J. Bomar, Lucy M. January and Hatty Bomar. R.W., Harriett and Emma also were enumerated in Rutherford County in 1860.
• He was a medical doctor, according to the Rutherford County 1860 census, and a doctor and farmer according to the Gibson County Census of the same year.
• Robert Wilson January died on 19 May 1866 in Gibson County, Tennessee.
• From A History of Kentucky Baptists from 1769 to 1885:
       Robert W. January was called to the ministry, and labored a short time with zeal and success, within the limits of Bethel Association. He was born in Fayette county, Ky., in 1798. At about the age of twenty-one years, he was married to Harriet Postlewait, in Lexington. He made a profession of religion, in early life, and united with the Cumberland Presbyterian church. By this community, he was set apart to the ministry, and labored under its auspices a number of years. About the year 1838, his view on the subject of Baptism underwent a change, and he united with the Baptist church at Union, in Logan county. Here he was ordained to the ministry, the same year, by James Lamb and Dudley Robinson. He was appointed missionary within the bounds of Bethel Association, in 1840, and was the first who filled that position, under the appointment of a local board. He labored in that capacity a little less than six months, and reported to the board, that he had ridden 1,833 miles, preached 196 sermons, delivered seventy one exhortations and six temperance lectures, organized six temperance societies, aided in constituting two churches and witnessed 160 conversions - surely he must have wasted but little time.
       In 1841, he moved to Davidson county, Tenn., and, two years later, to the adjoining county of Rutherford. "For the first ten years after Elder January removed to Tennessee, says Dr. Hillsman, in Borum's Sketches, "he was one of the most active, zealous, and useful members in Concord Association, both as an evangelist and a pastor." During this period he claimed to have discovered a remedy for cancer, and commenced treating patients for that direful disease. In his practice he gained considerable notoriety. But his medical practice interfered with his ministry, and about the year 1856, he desisted from preaching altogether. In 1863, he moved to Gibson county, Tenn., where he died, May 19, 1866."

• Last Edited: 3 Mar 2012