TORREY, REUBEN ARCHER (28 Jan. 1856-26 Oct. 1928), fundamentalist

pastor, prohibitionist, administrator, social reformer, author, editor,

revivalist and worldwide evangelist was considered by many to be the successor

of Dwight L. Moody. He was among the first clergymen to establish and advance

fundamentalism in North Carolina.

Torrey was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, attended Yale University and

its divinity school, and entered the pastorate in Garrettsville, Ohio as a

liberal. He left the pastorate to study at Leipzig and Erlangen in Germany;

but, unlike others who became even more liberal in German universities, Torrey

returned to America and became more conservative. He took up pastorates in

Minneapolis in the 1880's, contributing there to the fundamentalist foundations

upon which W.B. Riley soon built and Riley's successor, Billy Graham, later

built. Riley was to come to North Carolina in 1922 and debate Darwin with NC

State College entomologist Zeno P. Metcalf at the Pullen Memorial Baptis~ Church

in the midst of the Tarheel tangle with evolutionary legislation.

While in Minneapolis, Torrey came to the attention of Dwight L. Moody,

who invited him to Chicago in 1889 to be the first superintendent of Moody's

Chicago Training Institute (later called Moody Bible Institute), which had been

co-founded by then Asheville's W.J. Erdman. In 1894 Torrey assumed the pastorate

of the Chicago Avenue Church (later Moody Memorial Church) and wore both school

and church hats until 1908 and 1906, respectively. During the same period he

served as president of the socialist-sounding International Christian Workers

Association. In 1899, when Moody became too ill to continue his Kansas City

revival, he turned to Torrey to complete it. And it was Torrey who took the

fundamentalist movement worldwide in 1902 after some Australians invited him

there in lieu of Moody who by then had died. Torrey's worldwide preaching tours

to Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, India, China, Japan, England, Scotland,

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While Torrey had a profound influence on many Tarheel clergymen,

the influence was reciprocal. It was to Leonard G. Broughton of Wake County

and Amzi c. Dixon of Shelby that Torrrey turned for chapters in his

1901 book Hov to Praoote and Conduct a SUccessfu1 Revival. Broughton,

himself a convert of Dixon, had been baptized by Confederate wartime revivalist

W.R. Gwaltney of Taylorsville and contributed the chapter "Organizing for

Revival Work." Broughton is best known for his influence upon Straton, Bob

Jones Sr., and former Southern Baptist Convention president R.G. Lee. A.C. Dixon

contributed the chapter "The After-Meeting." Dixon's best known converts were

Charles B. Aycock, Charles Alderman, James Y. Joyner and Locke Craig.

When Torrey's ministry became less regional and more worldwide in scope,

he took with him as his songleader and primary associate a Moody Bible Institute

musician, Charles Alexander, who had introduced Moody's millenarian message

into Marshall, Bryson City, Waynesville and the Cherokee Indian Reservation

at least a decade before Torrey advanced it at Montreat. Notwithstanding his

statewide and worldwide appeal, it was only with reservations that the Pres-

byterian-protecting Princeton president, Woodrow Wilson, consented to allow

Torrey to preach to his student body. Torrey himself had set such sanctional

precedents by forbidding D.L. Moody's Presbyterian prize-fighting fundamentalist

Billy Sunday from addressing the students at Moody Bible Institute because

of Sunday's flamboyance (although it was.Torrey who spoke at the funeral

service of Julian Carr's favorite and equally flamboyant revivalist, Sam Jones).

Yet Sunday is better remembered than Torrey in North Carolina for his campaigns

which received the notorious support of Josephus Daniels, various Reynolds

family members and J.B. Duke. Nevertheless, Torrey conducted his own revivals

throughout the state, notoriously in Wilmington in 1910. Not many years later,

Wilmington's Presbyterian cotton magante James Sprunt would welcome the Torrey-

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trained songleader, Alexander, back to the state with Alexander's successor

employer J. Wilbur Chapman, the mentor of Billy Sunday.

Torrey's influence in North Carolina was not restricted, however, to

Montreat, 'Hle Revival subscribers, Princeton Seminary graduates returning

to the North State, his.revival campaigns.or his Asheville neighbors. In 1910,

A.C. Dixon, who had succeeded Torrey as the pastor of Moody Memorial Church,

was asked by California oilman,Lyrnan Stewart, to produce a series of booklets

designed to accent the fundamentals of the faith. Editor Dixon asked Torrey

to contribute to this series; and, when Dixon left the project to pick the

plum pastorate of Spureon's Tabernacle in London, Torrey became Dixon's suc­

cessor and the supervisor of the largesse Stewart had committed to the project.

Between 1910 and 1915, thousands of these booklets, entitled '!he Fwldamentals,

were sent throughout North Carolina to pastors, Sunday school superintendents

(two of whom were Needham Broughton and future Governor Joseph Melville Broughton,

who taught a Sunday School class at Washington's First Baptist Church before

Jimmy Carter did) and educators. North Carolina's pre-Scopes trial of Wake

Forest's president William Poteat was one fundamentalist flower nurtured

by this Dixon-Torrey-Stewart effort (A.C. Dixon had been asked to be the

president of Wake Forest in 1882 while Poteat was tutoring there, but he had

declined in favor of a pastorate in Baltimore).

From 1912-1924 Torrey became involved in another project of Lyman Stewart,

the then recently established Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA), patterned

after Torrey's own Moody Bible Institute. While serving as the dean and as

an instructor in that institution (Stewart retained the presidency), Torrey,

along with Arnzi Dixon whom he invited there to deliver annual lectures, exerted

strong influence upon a prosperous young orange-growing student named Charles E.

Fuller. Fuller, later to be ordained to the ministry by representatives of

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Torrey back in Minneapolis. Torrey, a near neighbor and contemporary of

Aimee Semple McPherson in California, never reciprocated the attentions.

Through his long career,Torrey could boast of having preached to over

15 million people, including Carolinians. One memoirist portrayed Torrey as

humorless and that he never made a congregation laugh. Another said, "On the

street he usually wore a high hat, and he always talked as if he had one on."

And yet the Yale and German trained Torrey often used the Sam Jones-Billy Sunday

spoof of educated clergymen as D.D.'s, Ph.D.'s, LL.D.'s, Litt.D.'s and A.S.S.'s.

His choirs, like the later Graham's, numbered as high as 4,400 singers. One

biographer boasts that prohibitionist Torrey once preached to over 7,000

inebriates, gathered after a Saturday night spree and serenaded by his 1,400

voice choir itself, in the imagery of inerrancy, "drunk on the Holy Ghost."

Originally a Congregationalist, by the time of his death Torrey eschewed

denominational labels in the quite interdenominational fundamentalist movement,

and preferred to call himself an "Episcopaleopresbygationalaptist."

Biographies of Torrey are generally popular and anecdotal. He was

married to Clara B. Swift of Ohio. She bore him five children: Edith Clare,

Mrs. Blanche Wiggs, Reuben Archer, Elizabeth, and Mrs. Margaret Parker.

Torrey's published works include How I Bring Ken to Christ ( 1893) r Baptism

With the Holy Spirit ( 1895), "What the Bible Teaches ( 1898), Divine Origin of the

Bible ( 1899), How to Praoote and Conduct a Successful Revival ( 1901), How to

WOrk for Christ (1901), Revival Addresses (1903), Talks to Ken (1904), Studies

in the Life and Teachings of Our Lord ( 1909) , The FundaJIElltal Doctrines of the

Christian Faith ( 1919) , Is the Bible the Inerrant Word of God? ( 1922) , How to Get

the Gold OUt of the Word of God (1925) and Lectures on the First Epistle of

John, published posthumously in 1929.

SEE: G.T.B. Davis, Torrey and Alexander ( 1905); R. Harkness, Reuben Archer

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EDITIDBY VVTLLJAM: 5. L \{)~1£6 T--Z

The University of North Carolina Press

Chapel Hill and London

\lagd.1lcne Mary De Rossen (b. ~Feb. 176~) of Wilming­ ton, were the parents of Eliza, Anthony, john De Rossen. Lewis D., and M.Jry Fullerton.

L SEE: Walter Clark, ed., State Records of North Carolina, vols. 11-15 (1895-98), 20 (1904), 2-t (1905);.Mae B. Graves, comp., New Hnnouer County Abstracts of Wills (1981); Eliza­ beth F. McKoy, Early Wilmington Block by Block from 1733 On (1967); Catherine De Russet Meares. comp., Annals of the De Rasset Family· Huguenot Immigrants to the Province of North Carolina Early in the Eightcenth Cent11ry (1906?); Wil­ liam L. Saunders, ed., Colonial Records of Nor/Ir Carolina, vol. 7, 10 (1890); Alexander M. Walker, cornp.. New Hano­ ver Co1111ty Court Minutes: {Part 1/,1738-1769 (1958), Part 2, 1771-1785 (1959), Part 3, 1736-1793 ( 1960), and Part 4, 1794-1800 (1962).

WILLIA~! S. S~tlTH, JR.

Toomer, John De Rossett (13 .\1,1r. 1784-27 Sept. 185oJ, attorney, legislator. and superior court judge, was born in Wilmington, the sun of Henry and \!agdalene Mary De Rossen Toomer. Henry Toomer, who moved from South Carolina tu ~Vilmingtun with his father, [oshua Toomer, in 17-t7, was a member of the Wilmington Safety Committee in 1775 and 177b. \1<1gd.1lene, his third wife, was the daughter of Dr. vloscs john and \!ary Ivy De Russett. Af­ ter attending The Univcrsitv of >:orth Carolina, John D. Toomer beg;m to practice la"· in Wilmington. In 1815 he was countv attornev. He moved tu Cumberland Countv and was li~·ing in Favettcville in 1S2-t. . The General Assernblv elected Toomer J superior court

judgL' on IS DL'C. JS 1 S to fill a vacancv created when se,·­ eral superior court judgL'S were sent to the state supreme court. but he rL'>ignL·d in IS 19. Eight :•ears later, in 1827. he w;i,; elected to the Gt.'nL·r,11 As.;emblv tn replace Robert Str.mgL', who h,1d n•,;ignL'd. 1\rp<>inll'd an associate jus­ tice of the surremL' court bv the !!'"·emor on S \1.1y \S2'l, Tt'<H11L'r resigned on I December of the same year. in June 1:-\:;:; lu- \.\'llS .1 dckg~1tt.' ltl the consntutional convention. H,· w,i, t'iecll'd J judgL' of the superior court on 7 Jan. 1-;:;;­ and served until lf--10, when he rL·sigr1l'J because of ill health. Sometime after this he moved from Faycttcviilc tL' rittsburo, wh,•re ht.' died. In Wilmingt<'n on 9 Dec. 1805 Tt>t'mer married ;\!aria J

Rhett Swann, whu wa,; born on 13 \l,1v 1787 in >:cw 1-1.mo\'er Countv to John and Sarah \l~1ore Swann. Sarah was the d,1ughter l,f Brigadi.:r GenL'r.:tl James Moure. The children n.1med in Tt1omt'r's will were John, Henrv, Dun­ can, Fredl'rick, Lucy, Eliza (m. Thomas Hill), Sarah Ann (m. Albert Torrence), and i\l,1rv (m. ~Varren Winslow).

Both Toomer and his wife ":ere buried in Pittsboro.

SEE: Carrie L. Broughton, comp., Marriage mrd Death No­ tices from tire Ral.:iglr Register and North Carolina Staff Ga­ =ette, 16 Dec. 1805, 18 Oct. 1856; Chatham County Will Book C; john L. Chenev, Jr., ed., North Carulirra Govern­ ment, 1585-197.f (1975); Crockette W. Hewlett, comp., "Attorneys of 1'ew Hanover Co.," 1976 (photocopy, Wil­ mington Public Library); Ida B. Kellam records (Wilming­ ton); Leora H. McEachern and Isabel M. Williams, eds., Wilnrington-Nt"lv Hanover Safety Committee Minutes, 1774- 1776 (1974); Wilmington Daily Herald, 30 Sept. 1856; New Hanover County Court Minutes, 19June1799 (microfilm, Cape Fear Technical Institute Library); New Hanover County Deed Book P; New Hanover County Will Book AB; St. James Church Register, Wilmington.

IDA 8. KELLA~t LEORA HIATT MCEACHER:«

Torrey

Toon, Thomas Fentress (10June1840-19 Feb. 1902), farmt'r, teacher, soldier, and superintendent of public in­ struction, was born in Columbus Countv, the son of An­ thomr and Mary McMillan Fentress Too~. He attended coun.ty schools ·and Wake Forest College. When the Civil War began during his senior year, he enlisted inlme­ diately but completed the term and was graduated with high honors. On receiving his diploma, Toon joined the Columbus

Guards i':o. 2, which later became a part of the Twentieth i':orth Carolina. He was elected first lieutenant in his company, and a month later his men chose him captain. Toon's command served in various campaigns of Robert D. Jackson, Jubal Early, and john B. Gordon, during which his distinguished performance led to his elevation to colo­ nel in 1863. At Sputtsylvania General R. D. Johnston was injured, and Toon was temporarily promoted to brigadier general; he returned tu the rank of colonel when Johnston was well enough to resume command. Wounded several times during the war, Toon was permanently removed from tht' fighting ranks during the attack on Fort Stedman in March 1865. After the war he returned to Columbus Countv, where

he had a many-sided career in teaching, farming: and working for the Atlantic Coast Line Railway system. He also served as countv school examiner, mavor of Fair Bluff, and member of the state legislature (lower house, 1881-82; senate, 1883-8-*). In January 1866 Toon married Carrie E. Smith, the

daughter of Alva Smith of F.1ir Bluff. They had two sons and thrt'e daughters. After his wife's death Toon married, in 1891, Rebecca Cobb Ward and mo,·ed to Lumberton in RL1besun Countv. Wt:ll known in her own right, the new \!rs. Tt\On \\'JS chosen first superintendent of Robeson B.:tpti>t V\'pmen's \l1ssion.ir\' Lnion at the time of its cre­ ation m 1890 and servt'd for five ye.irs. Her husband t;:iught at thL' RobeS<'n Institute.

In 1900 :\t,rth Carnlin,1 elected a~ its governor Ch1rles Il. A\-coc!.., \\'ho planned to rev,1mp and drasticall\· im­ pr<WL' thL' st,1te's education system. Aycock callt>d T. F. Tuon to Raleigh to become st,1tt' superintendent of public instructiLln. ThesL' t\\'t> mt.'n and Charil's D. Mcl,·er made plans to cam·ass the st,lte in order to g.1in support for the "DL•d.iratron against Illitt'racy." During the strenuous campaign Toon contracted an illness that ended his career in 1902. Ht! \\'JS a Democrat and a Baptist. Of him his church people said: he was "a humble and faithful ser­ ,·ant of His \!aster and Lord. an exemplary father and companion and a statesman of rare merit."

SEE: Edgar W. Knight, P11blic School Education in North Carolina (1916); Robert C. Lawrence, Tlr.: Stat.: of Rcibesorr ( 1939); Lumberton Robesorrian, 26 Feb. 1951; Minutes of tire Baptist State Convention (1902); C. Beauregard Poland, Ticentieth-Century Statcsnrerr: North Carolina Political Lt'aders, 1900-1901 (n.d. [portrait]); Raleigh News and Ob­ sen•a, 20 Feb. 1902; Ezra). Warner, Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders (1959); Who Was Who in America, 1897-1942 (1981); Marcus). Wright, General Of­ ficers of the Confederate Army (1911). v" MAUD THOMAS SMITH

Torrey, Reuben Archer (28 Jan. 1856-26 Oct. 1928), evangelist, author, and Fundamentalist, was born in Hoboken, N.j., the son of Reuben Slayton and Elizabeth Ann Swift Torrey. He was graduated in 1875 from Yale University, where he also received a divinity degree. As a liberal theologian he was a pastor in Garrettsville, Ohio, but left tu study theology at Leipzig and Erlangen, Ger-

Torrey

many. Unlike others who became even more liberal in German universities, Torrey returned home more conser­ vative. In the 1880s he took up pastorates in Minneapolis and contributed to the Fundamentalist foundations soon to be built upon by W. B. Riley and later by Riley suc­ cessor Billy Graham.

In Minn.ea polis Torrey came to the attention of Dwight Moody, who invited him to Chicago in 1889 to be the first superintendent of Moody's Chicago Training Institute­ later called the Moody Bible Institute-which had been ccfounded by Asheville's W. J. Erdman. In 1894 he also became pastor of the Chicago Avenue Church, later Moody Memorial Church. When Moody became too ill to continue his Kansas City revival, he asked Torrey to com­ plete it. In 1902 Torrey took the Fundamentalist move­ ment worldwide when he succeeded the late Moodv on a preaching tour to Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, In­ dia, China, Japan, England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and France.

Even earlier Torrey had begun to influence Tar Heel thought when in June 1896 he addressed the Southern Students' Conference, attended bv a number of '.'forth Carolinians. By 1900 he was a fa~iliar figure in 'forth Carolina, in part through attendance at the annual Mon­ treat Bible Conferences in Black Mountain. Begun in 189/, these meetings were modeled in part on Tar Heel James H. Brookess Fundamentalist '\iagara Bible Conferences in which Torrey plaved a supporting role. Torrey's ad­ dresses at Montruat were circulated in '\orth Carolina and the Southeast through \Vestl>n R. Caless The R,·;•i;•11I, a prernillenial prohibitionist promotional periodirn] pub­ lished at vtontn-at. Torrcv established a conference center in Pcnnsvlvania but in 19'26 settled in Asheville and con­ tinued his work from there. His published addresses accented the Iund.irncntals of

his faith, especially creationism, the second corning of Christ, and an inerrant Bible. One '\orth Carolinian whom Torrey influenced was Salisbury's young First Bap­ tist prohibitionist pastor, Ralph E . .\:eighbor, who later was one of the founders of the Fundamentalist Baptist Bible Union and of the northern separatist General Asso­ ciation of Regular Baptist Churches. \\"hen Torrey's minis­ try became worldwide in scope, he took with him as his song leader and associate a Moody Bible Institute musi­ cian, Charles Alexander, who had introduced Moodv's millenarian message to Marshall, Bryson City, Wayn-es­ ville, and the Cherokee lndian reservation at least a de­ cade earlier than Torrcv advanced it at Montreat. Torrey's influence in. North Carolina was not restricted

to Montreat, subscribers to The Rcriral, or :'forth Carolin­ ians attending Princeton Seminary who heard him speak when university president Woodrow Wilson reluctantly permitted him to preach to the student body. Torrey suc­ ceeded Amzi Dixon, a Shelby native and world renowned evangelist, as editor of a series of booklets subsidized by a wealthy Californian to accent Fundamentalism. Between 1910 and 1915 thousands of booklets entitled The Funda­ mentals were sent to pastors, Sunday school superinten­ dents, and others throughout North Carolina. The state's 1920s conflict over the teaching of evolution was one of the fruits of this activity. From 1912to1924 Torrey became involved with the

Bible Institute of Los Angeles, patterned after his own Moody Bible Institute. Torrey was dean of the Los Ange­ les institute, where he and Amzi Dixon delivered annual lectures. The new medium of radio was adopted and in time produced "The Old Fashioned Revival Hour," to which young Billy Graham listened in Charlotte and through which Jerry Falwell was converted in Virginia. It was when he left California in 1926 that Torrey chose

46

Asheville as his retirement home. He then conducted re­ vivals at the First Presbyterian Church and around North Carolina and the Southeast. Torrey married Clara B. Swift of Ohio, and they had five children: Edith Clare, Blanche, Reuben Archer, Elizabeth, and Margaret. Torrev's published works include How I Bring Men to

Christ (1893), Baptism with the Holy Spirit (1895), What the Bible Teaches (1898), Di<•ine Origin of the Bible (1899), How to Promote and Conduct a Successful Revival (1901), How to Work for Christ (1901), Rcoiual Addresses (1903), Talks to Men (190-1), Studies in the Life and Teachings of Our Lord (1909), The Fundomcntal Doctrines of the Christian Faith (1919), ls the Bil>le the Inerrant World of God? (1922), and How to Get the Gold out of the Word of God (1925).

SEE: American Liicrarv Yearbook, vol, 1 (1919); Charlotte Ob­ scnxr, 27 Oct. 1928; G. T. B. Davis, Tom'tf and Alexander (1905); Greensboro Dail11 Neu», 27 Oct. 1928; R. Harkness, Reuben Archer Torrey: The l\1an, His Mcssasc (1929); Erwin L. Lucker. cd., Lutheran Cvclopcdia (195-l); Nat. Cuc. Am. Bi<'S·· vol. 21 (1931); Ernest R. Sandeen, The Root~ of F1111da­ mcntalism (1970); \'\"110 I \'as Who 11111011g i\111crican A uthors, \'01. 2 ( 19/6).

JA~1ES LUTZ\\'ElLER

Tessy, Janos. S1·c Schonwald, Johann Tossy.

Totten, Henry Roland 16 .Vo;•. 1892-9 Fct: 7y;-~). bot,1- ni,t and f'n>i,•,;,;,ir, \\·,1,; burn in \1.1tthL·\\·s, the "'n l1f \'\'illi,1m Tlwuphilus .ind )L·,1111wttl' Fr.in(L'> B.uh.1111 TotlL'n. !k ,1ttl'ndl'd th<! Y,1dJ..i11 C>lll'gi.ilL' Jn<,titutl' ,ind in 19U \\·as gr.1du,1ted fnm1 The Lni,··l'f,ity ,,f '\nrth C1nilin.i, Imm which he ,1bu rL'CL'in•d the \L\. (191.J) and l'h.D. (1'123) dq~rl'L'S. His gr.idu.1te \\'llrk \\',J,; under the dirL'C­ tiun of l'miL'SSt>r \\'. C. CoJ..er. T<>ttl'n w,1,; .111 in,tructor in but.in\' in Ch,1pel Hill bl'l\\'l'l'n 191.J and ]917. follo\\'ing l'nlistment in the Resef\ L' Officer Tr,1ining Corps in Wnrld War l, he was cnmmis:;ioned Sc'Ctmd lieutenant (1917), was stationL'd at Camp Jackson, S.C., with the field artil­ lery ( 1917-11\), and sen·ed in France ( 1918-19). He was a gr.idu;ite studl'nt at the Cni,·ersit:; ,,f Paris in 1919. Totten rl'tained his army resef\·e commission; he entered World War II as a captain Jnd rose to lieutenant colunL·I. Rl'lum­ ing to his post as instructor in botany in 1919, he became assistant professor (1923-'25), .issl'Ciate professor (19'25- 29), and professor (l 9'29-63). He retired in 1963. A dedicated teacher of general botany, pharmacog-nosy,

dendrology, and taxonomy, Professor Totten helped train two generations of pharmacists. His research interests were in the fungi, fems, and vascular flora, while his pri­ mary interest was in the taxonomy of the woody plants of the southeastern Cnited States. His outstanding publica­ tions include Trees of the So11thcastcrn States (1916, 1937) with W. C. Coker and "Fagacease" for the Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas (1968). A member of many professional organizations, he was particularly active in the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Societv, North Carolina Academy of Science, Association of Southeastern Biolo­ gists, and Southern Appalachian Botanical Club. A leader in wildflower preservation, he also was influential in the establishment of garden clubs in 1 orth Carolina. After the retirement of W. C. Coker, Totten became di­

rector of the arboretum on the university campus, and it was his interest and efforts that helped procure the site of the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill. He won numerous awards for teaching and for distinguished contributions to the training of pharmacists and received an honorary doctorate of laws from Atlantic Christian Col-

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