Dr. George Washington Sheafor was a Baptist evangelist and pastor who lived during the years that the United States was growing, the population was moving westward, and new territories and states were being added. His teaching and preaching ministry spanned seventy-six years, beginning in 1892 through his death at age 96 in 1968. His pioneer ministry began in Arizona while it was still a territory. As a young man he worked on a ranch taming wild horses off the range and preached to some of the ranch hands with whom he worked. He attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois, and was mentored by Dwight L. Moody, the great evangelist of his day. He also studied the life and teachings of Andrew Murray and patterned his life after this great English teacher and preacher. He began preaching revival meetings in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. During his pastoral ministry, he served in Comanche and Brownwood, Texas; Lawton, Oklahoma; and in Lancaster, Texas. Dr. Sheafor's pastoral ministry changed in 1941 when he became a Bible teacher at the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. His name is synonymous with the teaching of Bible prophecy. In all of his teaching and preaching, Dr. Sheafor majored on the wonderful promises that God has given to every born-again believer. He presented the joy and the glory to be experienced by every believer in the Rapture, the Second Coming of Jesus, and the New Heaven and New Earth. His wealth of knowledge concerning prophecy was inimitable and he was loved and admired by all who heard him speak, including many of the professors at Dallas Theological Seminary and Dr. W. A. Criswell, pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas for all of the twenty-three years that Dr. Sheafor taught the class that now bears his name.

GEORGE WASHINGTON SHEAFOR

A TEACHER OF GOD'S PROMISESBy OSCAR HOLLIS DAVIS

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2010 Oscar Hollis Davis
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-4949-6

Contents

Preface.............................................................9Introduction........................................................15The Sheafor Family..................................................17The Crawford Family.................................................31His Early Life......................................................37His Pastoral Years..................................................51First Baptist Church, Comanche, Texas...............................63Coggin Avenue Baptist, Brownwood, Texas.............................67Camp Travis, San Antonio, Texas.....................................70First Baptist Church, Lawton, Oklahoma..............................72First Baptist Church, Bartlesville, Oklahoma........................86First Baptist Church, Lancaster, Texas..............................91His Later Years.....................................................93First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas.................................98Sheafor Bible Class.................................................100Stories Told About Dr. Sheafor......................................106Death of Ann Crawford Sheafor.......................................113Death of George W. Sheafor..........................................115A Life to Remember..................................................121Appendix A: Teachers of the Sheafor Class...........................123Rev. Howard Laing...................................................125Dr. Bruce K. Waltke.................................................128Dr. James T. Draper.................................................131Dr. Richard D. Land.................................................134Dr. Lamar E. Cooper.................................................138Dr. E. Ray Clendenen................................................142Dr. John Shanks.....................................................145Rev. Oscar Hollis Davis.............................................148Appendix B: Writings of Dr. Sheafor.................................153Appendix C: Pictures of Dr. Sheafor.................................163Appendix D: Article from Texas Baptist Standard.....................169Notes...............................................................171

Chapter One

THE SHEAFOR FAMILY

As we begin the life of George W. Sheafor, it is best to look back at his Sheafor family ancestors. The Sheafor name, with its distinctive spelling, is probably of German origin. Each time this particular "Sheafor" spelling was found, it meant that the person descended from this specific Sheafor family line in some way. The following ancestors were researched and special emphasis was given to George's father because this was the home in which he was raised.

Peter Sheafor, Sr.: great-great grandfather, 1754-1826.

Peter Sheafor, Jr.: great grandfather, 1781-1818.

Lorenzo S. Sheafor: grandfather, 1809-1890.

Peter Messick Sheafor: father, 1835-1916.

PETER SHEAFOR, SR. (1754-1826)

Peter Sheafor, Sr. (the great-great grandfather of George) was born of German parents in 1754 in Somerset County, New Jersey. Ship records were not located to identify the first Sheafor to emigrate from Germany to America; however, it very possibly could have been Peter's father, Johann Schiffbauer Sheafor. Peter was living in Somerset County when he signed up as a Private in the local Continental Militia and served until the end of the American Revolution.

After the war, Peter returned to Hillsborough Township in Somerset County and married Catherine Coolbaugh (also found in reference as Katherine Kahlbach) in 1778. Four of their ten children were born in New Jersey. The first child was named Peter, Jr. and was George's great grandfather. In 1789, Peter, Sr. moved his family to Lexington, Kentucky, where six more children were born. He lived there for fourteen years. After Ohio became a state in 1803, Peter moved his family again, this time to Butler County, Ohio. The 1820 Census showed that the occupation of this family was in agriculture and also manufacturing of some kind.

Peter's Will indicates he was a successful farmer. When the Estate sale was held, some of the items sold revealed his rural way of life. There were four sheep, a cow, and two hives of bees, which indicated he raised most of the food for his large family. There was a spinning wheel to make linen from flax and a large wool spinning wheel, which suggested that most of their clothing was made at home by his wife, Katy, and their four daughters. Peter lived in Ohio until his death on 27 September 1826 at age seventy-two. He was buried in the nearby Amanda Cemetery in the Lemon Township of Butler County, Ohio. Nothing was found concerning his church relationship.

PETER SHEAFOR, JR. (1781-1818)

Peter Sheafor, Jr. was born in Somerset County, New Jersey in 1781 and married Sarah (Sally) Watts on 2 December 1802 in Mercer County, Kentucky. They had four children. Lorenzo was the second child and the older of the two sons. Lorenzo was George's grandfather. Peter served as a Private during the War of 1812. When his military service was over in 1814, he moved his family from Kentucky to Butler County, Ohio to be near his father and siblings. On 2 May 1818, Peter died at age thirty-seven; however, the cause of his death at such an early age is unknown. Since the 1820 Census was the first to list occupations, his business or place of employment is not known. He was buried in the Amanda Cemetery.

LORENZO DOW STUBBLEFIELD SHEAFOR (1809-1890)

Lorenzo was born on 12 March 1809 in Sweet Springs, Mercer County, near the city of Danville, Kentucky. In 1814, his parents moved to Amanda, Butler County, Ohio. When Lorenzo's father, Peter, Jr. died at the untimely age of thirty-seven, Lorenzo was only age nine. As the oldest son, it became his responsibility to help support his mother and three siblings.

At age twenty-five, Lorenzo married Catherine Poke Messick on 10 July 1834 in Butler County, Ohio. Catherine, born in Delaware on 12 October 1811, was twenty-two when they married. They continued to live in Butler County for nineteen years. The first of their nine children, Peter Messick Sheafor born 23 October 1835, was George's father. On the 1850 Census, Lorenzo's occupation was listed as a butcher. Lorenzo moved his family west in 1853 to Fairfield, Jefferson County, in Southeast Iowa. On the 1860 Census, he was shown as a farmer.

During these early to mid 1800's, the Westward movement of American families continued. Kansas, which derived its name from the Kansa Indian tribe of the Plains Native Peoples, was a section of the vast area known as the Louisiana Purchase, which had become part of the United States in 1803. Great national unrest began to develop in 1825 when the Kansa and Osage tribes were forced to give up some of their eastern Kansas lands to make way for tribes from the East, such as the Shawnee, Kickapoo, and others who were being uprooted from their homes and resettled in the Kansas area. By 1846, nineteen reservations had been established. With the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act by Congress in 1854, this area became known as the Kansas Territory. When this occurred, the struggle known as the "Early Civil War" began. Proslavery people in Missouri began the effort to elect pro-slavery representatives to the Territorial Congress,...