Childhood
Charles Hadley Stevens was born on January 10, 1892, to David Samuel and Mary Holt Stevens. Wilson’s Mill, North Carolina, was their home until his family moved to Durham, North Carolina, when he was three and two years later to Greensboro, North Carolina. Before his eighth birthday, Charles found himself hard at work in a textile mill to help supplement his family’s income. It was during this time that Mary Stevens, Charles’ mother, died. His mother was spiritually instrumental in those early years of his life. She read Foster’s Story of the Bible to her children. Charles later said that he “believed God called him into the ministry when he was three years old,” in part, due to these readings. However, he did not have a “definite conversion experience” until several years later.
A year after his mother’s death David Stevens once again moved his family. This time it was back to Wilson’s Mill, North Carolina. Buies Creek Academy is where, during this time, Charles Stevens began his first schooling. After only a year and half, Charles was prepared for college. He then enrolled at Wake Forest University. Here he was honored in his studies, ran track, and became “convinced of the Lord’s call to Christian service," according to professor William Thompson.
Read more about this topic: Charles Stevens (pastor)
Famous quotes containing the word childhood:
“... all the cares and anxieties, the trials and disappointments of my whole life, are light, when balanced with my sufferings in childhood and youth from the theological dogmas which I sincerely believed, and the gloom connected with everything associated with the name of religion, the church, the parsonage, the graveyard, and the solemn, tolling bell.”
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