Notes
Studied under the noted minister Thomas Craighead for 14 years. According to Sources and Sketches of Cumberland Presbyterian History, vol. 15, he was licensed or ordained to preach on April 9, 1813. was one of the organizers of The Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and was a popular preacher in the area.
Cumberland Presbyterian Church Archives 1978 Union Avenue Memphis, Tenn.

"For The Banner of Peace
McMinnville, Sept. 19th, 1849
Brother Cossitt -
It becomes my duty to inform you, and by your permission, the readers of the Banner, of the death of Betsy Emaline Ferrill and Sarah McSpadden. The first, the eldest daughter, the other the wife of Rev. Samuel McSpedden. Both are supposed to have died from Cholera, Betsey E. Ferrill, Aug. 2nd, 1849, and one week after she was followed by her step-mother, who died Aug. 9th 1849.

Sister Ferrill was born Nov. 9th, 1819, in Warren Co., Tenn. She was married to (word missing) James Ferrill in 1844, with whom she lived till her death. Being religiously trained, it was natural enough that she would be seriously inclined from childhood. Frequently her seriousness amounted to deep conviction, for sin, and though she never made a public profession of religion she used sometimes to express to her most intimate friends, a trembling belief that God had, for Christ's sake, pardoned her sins. Naturally retiring in her disposition, inclined to scrutinize her own character with a (word missing), approaching severity, she did not readily lay hold of the glimmerings of hope that sometimes, despire her doubts, shone upon her mind. Of course, she was not so happy as those whose faith lays strong hold upon the Savior and his precious promies but it is perhaps safer to be too careful than too confident.

As sister Ferrill drew near the hour of death, her faith grew stronger and her evidence brighter so that she left the pleasant assurance to her friends that all was well in death.

Speaking of her mother, she said: she hoped to meet her in glory. She exhorted her husband to be faithful in the duties of religion and all her friends to try to meet her in heaven.

To her aged father she said: You have brought us up carefully, and now I feel that I shall soon be at rest. Your race is almost won and glory to God! it will not be long till we shall all be safely housed in heaven."

She has left two small children. May God take care of them, and comfort the bereaved husband.

Sister Sarah McSpeddin, daughter of Samuel Scott, was born in Washington Co., Va., June 2nd, 1788. In her seventeenth year she married John McReynolds. They emigrated to Tenn. and settled in this (Warren) co. on the place where she died and where he also died, about twenty years after their marriage.

She married her second husband Andrew Smith, in Dec. 1828, some five or six years after the death of Bro. McReynolds. With him she lived till April 1840 when he was killed by lightning in the same house in which her first husband died. In Jan. 1841, she was married to Rev. Samuel McSpedden, with whom she lived until her death.

It has perhaps become an error of the present day to say too much about the dead; but touching the character of sister McSpedden, it is to say, that she was an excellent woman. Kind, unassuming and affable in her disposition, and domestic in her habits, she made an agreeable companion and a good wife. her house was a resting place for the servant of God. Frequently, during an acquaintance of a few years, have I had the pleasure of receiving her hospitality.

But we must say more than this or be guilty of palpable neglect. She was a Christian. The date of her profession of religion we have not been able to learn, but she, together with her first husband, became connected with the C.P. Church at Short Mountain soon after they emigrated to this country. Though not noisy in her religion, she led a peacable and quiet life, all her course being consistent with the christian character.

During her last illness, (though her disease allowed her but little time to converse) she gave ample evidence that a christian life will secure a happy death. She spoke of death with calmness, expressing a confidence that all was well. Said she had long been looking for death, and now that it was come, she felt that she was ready. May all of us feel that when we die! A numerous circle of of children and relatives mourn her death; among the rest, prominently appears her husband, bowed under the weight of many years and worn with long and hard service in the church, and now doubly inflicted in the loss of a daughter and a wife. May that Gospel which he has preached with so much comfort to others, be a source of rich and abundant consolation to him in his afflictions - and sweeten his declining years."