D. W. Key

Daniel Webster Key served as pastor of the Washington church from  January 1906 to  February 1912. The church elected him to serve as pastor Oct 15, 1905. On Nov 5, 1905, he accepted the call of the church effective Jan 1, 1906, from his home in Greenville, SC. On Feb 4, 1906, Dr. Key, his wife Sallie Key, and his daughter Carrie Lou Key were received into the membership of the church. In 1907, with expenses paid the books showed a balance of $132.46. During 1909-1910 the tracker-action pipe organ was installed. On Jan 7, 1912, Dr. Key resigned his pastorate effective Feb 1, 1912. On Jan 21, 1912, the church accepted his resignation, effective Feb 15, 1912.

DANIEL WEBSTER KEY.

Within recent years there has been noted in Baptist circles a wholesome interchange between the Southwestern part of the Southern Convention with the Eastern part in ministers. The subject of this sketch has the distinction of having been probably the first native Texan to come Eastward to the old South region and give his life to the work of the ministry.

Born April 14, 1854, in Panola county, Texas, Daniel Webster Key was reared in Clinton, Tennessee. He went through the high school at Clinton and graduated from Carson and Newman College with the first honor of his class in 1879, taking the degree of A.B. Teaching for a year in the college, he went to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1880, where he spent two years.

Mr. Key began his ministry as pastor of the Mt. Carmel and St. Matthews churches in Orangeburg county, South Carolina, in 1882, receiving ordination in that year at Mt. Carmel church. After two years he removed to Williston, South Carolina, where he had a happy and most successful and useful pastorate for about eight years. During this pastorate he preached at Rosemary and other country churches and was most useful to denominational interests in the entire countryside. While at Williston he helped to establish one of the early Baptist high schools in the State, and was elected the first principal of this school, until he secured as his successor, Col. F. N. K. Bailey, now president of the Bailey Military Institute for boys at Greenwood, South Carolina.

In 1892 Mr. Key married Miss Sarah Mclntosh Norwood and removed to Society Hill, Darlington county, where he was pastor of the Welsh Neck church for two years. There he was one of the founders of the Welsh Neck Associational School, which finally evolved into the Coker College at Hartsville, South Carolina. He accepted a call to the Rutherford Street church, Greenville, South Carolina, at the close of the year 1894, and entered upon its pastorate at once. While in Greenville he served as trustee of both Purman University and Greenville Female College, and also lectured and taught in each institution.

For a time he was associate editor of the Baptist Courier. He was president of the South Carolina State Convention two years, 1901 and 1902, and was both popular and efficient as a presiding officer. .He was active in starting the Board of Ministerial Education and in founding Connie Maxwell Orphanage at Greenwood, and the Baptist Ministers' Mutual Benefit Association, all of South Carolina. He had positions offered him in connection with schools and colleges and various denominational agencies, but he adhered to the pastorate.

When Furman University was temporarily without a president, Dr. Key canvassed the State of South Carolina for students for the institution and for the College for Women at Greenville. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by Carson and Newman College. After eleven years of distinguished service as pastor of the Rutherford Street church, in which he greatly endeared himself both to the church and the entire community, and during which time a new house of worship was built in a central location and the name of the church changed to Central Baptist church, Dr. Key retired from its pastorate.

In 1905 he accepted the call of the church at Washington, Georgia, and from that time until now, 1916, he has been a highly valued member of the Georgia Baptist ministerial fraternity. His removal from South Carolina left an almost poignant sense of loss in the hearts of the brotherhood of that State. Scarcely a man, out of the many fine spirits who served South Carolina Baptists in the ministry, was held in more universal esteem for his own sake and for the sake of his great interest in every work of the kingdom. Both in counsel and in active deeds Dr. Key made for himself a place in South Carolina Baptist life which will remain fresh and beautiful as long as any persons live who were conversant with his worth and work.

Eleven more years have now passed of this honored servant of the Master. He has won for himself among Georgia Baptists the same warm esteem and confidence of the brotherhood which he had in the Palmetto State. During his six years' pastorate at historic Washington, he led the church forward in improving its property and in maintaining an aggressive life. He made frequent visits to the churches of the Association to help them in their August meetings or in the general meetings, speaking in behalf of whatever interests there are in our Baptist co-operative work. Indeed, one of the outstanding gifts of Dr. D. W. Key is his ability to enter with his whole heart and energy into the whole life of the whole Baptist body, wherever there may be an opportunity for it to express itself. And this is not less true with the remotest and smallest church and its needs than in the greatest conventions and counsels of the denomination.

Early in 1912, Dr. Key accepted the pastorate of Monroe Baptist church, where he is still in charge. During his service at Monroe he has led the congregation in building a commodious house of worship, costing about $28,000.

Dr. Key has been a frequent contributor to the denominational press. His articles have invariably been informing and attractive. There is a sweet reasonableness in his method of writing and speaking which wins to him both the reader and hearer. His tract, "What is Russellism?" published by the Christian Index and later by the Sunday School Board at Nashville, has had a large and useful circulation.

Since his ordination, in 1882, Dr. Key has been continuously and most usefully engaged in high and useful service and during all that while he has never held a pastorate to which he would not be welcomed back again. Very few vacations have come to this busy and honored man of God. Most of the vacations granted by his churches have been spent in helping other pastors in evangelistic meetings. He has been an earnest and influential advocate of Women's work, Young People's work, Sunday-schools, missions, colleges, and indeed everything to which our Baptist body is committed. He has been in frequent demand for sermons and addresses at college and school commencements and for public service in connection with civil life in the communities where he has lived.

Dr. Key is not yet an old man, but it can be said of him that his life has been full of good deeds and that the measure is being heaped up more and more in each succeeding year. Scholarly and gifted as a thinker and sermonizer, he has coveted no gift that did not aid him in a fuller service to his brethren. He has won from all who know him love, because he has an unusual gift for loving others. As he grows in years this distinguished brother is growing rich and beautiful, both in happy memories of the past and in those services for men which enrich at once those who receive and him who gives. No religious body has in its possession a more priceless gift than the allegiance and service of such men as Dr. Daniel Webster Key.

Biography of D. W. Key

He was born Apr 14, 1854, in Panola County, TX, the son of Isaac Miller Key, who died Apr 2, 1862, and Lodeema C. Hoskins. He was known in his family as "Webster." He earned an A.B. degree at Carson-Newman College and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He died Mar 12, 1927.