Missionary to Wiregrass Georgia: W. I. Patrick and His 1894-1895 Diary.

Missionary to Wiregrass Georgia: W. I. Patrick and His 1894-1895 Diary. By Robert G. Gardner. Macon, GA: Georgia Baptist Historical Society, 2005, 215 pp.

Robert G. Gardner has, at the age of eighty-two, editorial skills that will impress seasoned historians and should cause those entering the discipline of historical research to marvel. Gardner's latest work Missionary to Wiregrass Georgia: W. I. Patrick and his 1894-1895 Diary is a stellar achievement for the simple fact that, apart from his editorial annotations, the diary of missionary W. I. Patrick would hardly be understood and certainly would be underappreciated.

The diary itself is rather uneventful and has no discernable storyline. The typical entry consists of the text from which Patrick preached, a brief description of his feelings and/or the results, and a financial tally of money received (this being necessary to report as an associational missionary). For example, his entry on December 15, 1894, reads: "Preached from 1st Thes 2 = 4 used before. This church in a cold state but we had a rite good meeting. Theay have a little old pole house to worship in & pungeon benches to sit on yet many of them well off" (112). The reader who desires to know what became of this church will find no help from Patrick as his next entry records another text, mentions good feelings, and notes that he received $4.85.

The lack of information from Patrick, however, is supplemented by Gardner's extensive research. When Patrick received news that his eight-year-old daughter had been bitten by a rattlesnake, he noted only that he decided to stay and preach the next day (77). Gardner anticipated the reader's concern for her outcome and noted that the daughter, Lois, survived the snake bite and lived to age eighty-one (84, fn. 19). Gardner's decision to retain the habitual misspellings of Patrick authenticates the material and reminds the reader that educational acumen was not always a priority of the frontier missionary.

The editorial comments provided by Gardner may seem tedious at times (i.e., whether Patrick preached on one occasion at Brisly, Bristy, or Brisby, see 56, fn. 43), but such is the habit of one gifted with an eye for detail and knowledgeable enough to know that details are the stuff of accuracy. Conversely, some of Gardner's insights into the diary are entertaining. On one occasion, Patrick mistakenly wrote out his text and title as "John 1st = 10 = 11 The Sins of God" (61) to which Gardner quipped, "For the sake of his orthodoxy and in light of his text, one might be allowed to hope that he meant Sons" (68, fn 12).

The book will appeal to those who appreciate the bare minimum in firsthand historical accounts, but it is also useful reading for a young pastor or missionary who is more likely to identify with the ordinary person than the great. In a day when bookshelves are stocked with information on growing one's church beyond the 2,000-member plateau, W. I. Patrick's recollections of speaking to a crowd of "three men & a little boy" (50), preaching with a headache (46) or a toothache (127), and his choice of property for a new church being soundly rejected (61) seems appropriate reading for those who believe the first will be last, and the last will be first--Reviewed by Tony Chute, assistant professor of church history, California Baptist University, Riverside, California.