05/18/2026
This was found in a church history written in the 1960s by Miss Mary Budd Holmes, daughter of Rev. Holmes.
“During its long history, the church has sent only one son into the ministry. He, the Reverend William Denham, was the brother of Mrs. Elizabeth Denham Wallace.
His early training and a godly home began soon to manifest itself, for at the early age of eight years he received a Bible for reciting perfectly the Westminster shorter catechism. When about seven years old, after being reproved for some minor disobedience, he turned to his mother and said, “don’t you know that no minor man, since the fall, is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but doth daily break them in thought, word, and deed?”
He united with the church and entered Davidson College when he was 16 years old. He graduated from Union Theological Seminary in New York in the spring of 1911. This seminary is now affiliated with Columbia University.
He did home mission work in South Georgia and then accepted a call to the Bethel Church in Virginia. He served for six years and developed the spiritual life of the people greatly.
While still a young man, William Denham became seriously ill in June 1917. He finally died May 27, 1918. One wonders if he died of the deadly flu that raged across the country about the same time.
He was laid to rest in the church yard at Bethel among the people he loved so well.”
