Alexander Chambers was born in
Rockbridge County, Va., May 15, 1756, where he resided until twenty-three
years of age, when he married and moved to North Carolina. In 1790 he
removed to East Tennessee, remaining four years; thence to Kentucky, where
he resided three years. In 1797 he moved to Illinois, and two years
thereafter returned to Kentucky, where he
remained until the summer of
1809, when he came to Indiana, and located on White River, in Jefferson
County, where he resided for about forty-eight years.
The exact date of his
conversion is not known, but it was during his first residence in Kentucky,
where he united with a Baptist Church, and retained his connection until his
removal to Indiana. Here he, and a few others who came at the same time,
commenced holding prayer-meetings, and were soon visited by Elder Jesse
Vawter, wo constituted them into a church in 1811.
Brother Chambers was a leading
member, and in 1816 was licensed to preach, which he did at his own church,
and in new settlements in Jefferson and Clark counties. In 1823 he was "set
apart" to the work of the ministry, and engaged in pastoral labor to a
considerable extent, though compelled to work at secular employment to
support his family. His pastorates at White River covered a period of about
ten years, and his labors were well received there and at other points where
he preached.
It is seldom a man enters the
ministry so late in life as did Elder Chambers, he being sixty-seven years
of age at the time of his ordination; but he was permitted to labor many
years in the Master's service, passing to rest the 20th day of June, 1857,
in the 102d year of his age.
As illustrative of the wild
state of the Northwest Territory when Brother Chambers first entered it, the
following incident, which occured during his trip to Illinois, in 1797, is
inserted:
"On that trip he got lost from
the company of movers, under the following cirumstances: He went out to
shoot a buffalo from a herd that was in view, and after having killed one
and taken the carcass as much as he could carry--it being about sunset--he
missed the trail, there being no roads. Darkness set in; he traveled all
night and for sixteen days wandered alone in a then entire wilderness. The
company, after stopping one day searching for him, moved on, supposing he
had been killed by the Indianas. On the seventeenth day the Indianas found
him, nearly starved, when they took him to their camp and placed him in the
care of an old squaw, who fed and nursed him several day. They then sent two
of their warriors with him to his family, from whom he had been absent about
twenty-seven days."
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