"GONNA' DO SOMETHING THE DEVIL HAS NEVER DONE" - Preacher Stout Omni-Presence 120 Years Ago

(03/16/2026)

Rev. Marcellus and Hannah Slider Stout (Photo courtesy of Velma Wood) By Bob Weaver Preacher Stout was a well-known figure in the Hur community during the first part of the 20th century. In 1898 a newspaper account said Marcellus W. Stout came to the Hur circuit about five years ago to be the preacher at the Hur Methodist Protestant Church. "And some time after his arriving he began courting and finally married Miss Hannah, daughter of Joseph Slider." "He being badly afflicted, having but one leg, and being on a very meager salary, strong and able bodied men prophesied that he would either starve or go the poor house," said the writer. "But just to show what pluck and perseverance will do, his father in-law gave him a small tract of woods-land on which he built a small house and has since enlarged it," on Barnes Run. "He went to work with his own hands to clearing out his land and raising grain, the result that he has been selling bushels of corn for three successive years." The writer asked, "If a man with one leg can raise corn for sale, what ought an able bodied man do?" There is a well-told story about one-legged Preacher Stout conducting a revival at the Bryner Chapel Church at Joker about 1915. Preaching in front of a packed house, Rev. Stout was agitated when members of the congregation drifted from his sermon and began talking with each other. He abruptly stopped his sermonizing, calling the house to order, and said, "I'm going to do something the devil has never done in this church - LEAVE!" He then marched down the aisle, got on his horse and went home to Barnes Run, never to return. Rev. Marcellus W. Stout (1862-1926) and his wife Hannah Slider (1871-1919) married in 1893, Hannah the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Slider, came to Calhoun from Doddridge and Tyler County. The 1910 census lists eight children, Delta, Charley, Erio, Joseph, Hattie, Eddie, Mary and Bertie. They are buried in the Mt. Zion Cemetery.

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