A Golden Era

Erasmus Zerulus Franklin Golden.

Can you imagine learning to write that across your school slate? Superfluous though it seems today, E.Z.F. Golden took his somewhat excessive name with him on a path that was meaningful, passionate, and consequential to people across a swath of Southern states. Proud though he probably was of each section of his appellation, Golden went by his initials as a general rule.

Born on a mid-May day in 1853 near McIntyre in Wilkinson County, GA, E.Z.F. Golden was one of at least eight children whose births were celebrated in the home of William Harvey and Elizabeth Manderson Golden. He was, according to a daughter, actually the third to the youngest of fifteen children born to his father who married E.Z.F.’s mother after the loss of his first wife. The 1860 U.S. Census shows Erasmus (spelled Evasing by the census taker) as the second of three sons coming after four daughters to that union. Four years lapsed between son Andrew and Erasmus so a child may have been born who died in that period. Father Golden was a farmer, and the family lived in a farming community in the county’s Bloodworth district. Evenso, Bess Golden Dunston said her grandfather was a farmer-teacher and a great reader who named all his children for scholars.

Subsequent nineteenth century census reports are missing for E.Z.F. though by the turn of the century we see the adult Erasmus married to the former Mattie Elizabeth Ross of the respected Ross family in Georgia’s peach district. Born in Carsonville, GA, on New Year’s Day 1858, Mattie was the daughter of Dr. Benjamin Lafayette and Louisa Frances Mangham Ross. Family tradition says the dashing, mustachioed Erasmus met Mattie when she accompanied her father to a Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Savannah in 1881; nuptials were on 25 July 1883 in Houston County. Their first child, daughter Louise, was born in 1885, and from there regular additions followed—Bessie, E.Z.F. Jr., Ross, Lafayette, Marye/Marie, and a son who died as an infant in 1897. All six children, said Dunston, “lived to be good citizens and good Baptists.” The last federal census to list Erasmus was in 1920. He and Mattie lived in Pleasant Grove, FL, with daughter Bessie, then 28. E.Z.F. died in Leon County on 3 July 1927.

In the interim—that segment known as “life”—E.Z.F. and Mattie Golden knew a full one. A graduate of Mercer University in 1876, E.Z.F. was ordained at Liberty Baptist Church in Wilkinson County around the time he was graduated. The presbytery consisted of E. J. Coats, G. B. Hughes, and J. M. Hall with Coats preaching “a most able and interesting” ordination sermon. While at Mercer, Golden gathered bouquets of good wishes from those who taught and knew him. He was a student under the presidency of Archibald Battle whose nephew Henry remembered hearing his uncle speak with glowing words of Golden. Said Henry: “… long before I had grown to manhood, the name E. Z. F. Golden wore in my imagination a very tender and lustrous halo. … I seem to hear again the words of my uncle … extolling him as a student and Christian young gentleman almost without a peer. I matriculated at Mercer years later, but the fragrance of his college life, in class room and family circle, lingered to inspire and delight.”

In subsequent years of the nineteenth century, Golden served churches in Georgia’s Bethel, Ebenezer, Mercer, New Sunbury, Piedmont, and Rehoboth associations, and in the first decade of the twentieth century pastored in Hephzibah and Western associations. His ecclesiastical leadership encompassed Irwinton, Bethel, Central/Atlanta, Cuthbert, Hephzibah, Louisville, South Macon, Thomasville, and West Point churches in Georgia.Golden was instrumental in organizing Valence Street church in New Orleans, moving from there to Texas for several months.

In his four years at Thomasville, which began in 1879, Golden persuaded the congregation to build a parsonage in the rear of the church and started the people towards long-range plans for a new church building before the roof of the old building fell into such a state that it had to be replaced. Wherever he went he inspired enthusiasm and activity that lead to attempts towards the best programs and progress for Christian expansion. He was often called on to perform wedding ceremonies, too, and online lists of marriages repeat his name frequently in Glynn County between 1889 and 1904. The Goldens moved there in 1887 as he became pastor at Brunswick. According to the church history, his annual salary was $750 and pastoral garb of the day was a tall beaver hat, a frock coat, a white shirt, and black tie.

By 1894 Golden was pastor at Cuthbert where his salary increased to $1,000 a year in a congregation with a membership of 150. A sermon by Golden published in the 13 September 1894 Christian Index was accompanied by a line drawing of him—a handsome man with large, soft eyes, close cut dark hair, a thick mustache, and Burnside-type sideburns. The next year the church purchased a pastorium for $1,700, indicating a booming time as the church had long wanted to make this move. The next year, however, those attending the January conference voted to read out loud in February the names of members in arrears on their pastor’s salary pledges. After he’d been there four years, the church had a new building completed—constructed in front of the 1852 wooden structure—with a cornerstone engraved with the name of the pastor and the building committee. On 12 June 1898, Golden preached at the opening services in the new building and the next month he resigned, effective 1 November.

While at Cuthbert, Golden voiced his opinion on the subject of allowing female students at his alma mater. Wrote Golden in June 1895: “When a woman has determined from choice or necessity to enter business or professional life she should be freely admitted to all the means of preparation and qualification. She should not be discriminated against on account of sex. As she must succeed or fail on her own account she should have an equal chance. The University courses should be open to her. Any woman wishing to study law, pedagogy, business etc., should be admitted.” That was as far as he could stretch his feministic bounds. Golden was against women mixing with undergraduate men because co-education would stir up much opposition and because the “physical development of the sexes require different conditions.” Besides that, women should be prepared for their expected positions in the “refinements of home.” Apparently the university was quite pleased with his opinion as he was awarded an honorary D.D. degree that year.

When Golden left Cuthbert, appreciative notes were published in the Macon Telegraph and the Index. “No one,” wrote the Index editor, “has contributed more of his time and substance than did Mr. Golden towards its (the new building’s) successful beginning and completion. It will ever stand as a living monument of his very faithful pastorate … Mr. Golden has many strong friends not only in his own but other churches here, as well as the people generally, who will regret to see him leave.”

Golden then sought to fulfill his lifelong dream of operating a denominational newspaper and he opened the Baptist Mirror which published on Thursdays. His aspirations were dashed as hoped for support from the Christian Index was not forthcoming and the paper’s cashier absconded with their funds leading to a folded pursuit. This was not his first writing endeavor for in 1896 he had published Uncle Tommy Muse: a pioneer preacher of southwest Georgia, but journalism was not to be his career at this juncture.

Returning to the pastorate, Golden served churches in Georgia, including one at West Point where his ministry brought increased mission activity as he and Mattie launched full force into evangelistic efforts. Mattie organized the Royal Ambassadors in 1910, the first such group for young boys in the state, and reorganized the Young Women’s Auxiliary. The church history extols the goodness of the Golden years: “A two week revival was planned during Dr. Golden’s pastorate,” wrote H. E. Barkley. “At the end of the two weeks, spirits were still high and crowds were overflowing the sanctuary. So, the revival was extended another week and moved to the City Auditorium to accommodate the crowds. … dish pans were used as offering plates.”

One of the most memorable events in the couple’s life must have been the wedding of oldest daughter Louise. According to Barkley, Mattie Golden started planning that wedding at the child’s birth. By the time Louise married James C. Ramsey on 24 February 1910, the event was “the most unusual and elaborate wedding to be held in the church and probably the Chattahoochee Valley.” Continued Barkley: “There was some dissension between the pastor and his wife over whether the minister should wear formal clothes during the ceremony or a business suit. Dr. Golden refused to wear formal clothes because it was not in the best Baptist tradition and despite repeated pleas from his wife he stuck to his guns … Highlights of the wedding included a ‘cupid’ dressed in pink tights, complete with bow and arrow, who ‘shot’ the couple with no unfortunate results. As the wedding party left the church, legend says a flock of white doves were released. … Apparently a lot of money had been spent on clothing for the bridesmaids and flower girls, for there was a lot of marching in and around the church that day. A long music program preceded the actual ceremony with solos, duets, and four-man choruses, as well as music from a hand-pumped organ. The ceremony itself was of little note but afterwards, the wedding party and guests walked on a ‘white covering’ that began in the church aisle and extended to the parsonage next door. The porch was enclosed with green blinds and the entire ceiling of each room was covered with smilax with mistletoe hanging in little clusters.”

That fall Golden took a congregation in Enterprise, AL, followed by a pastorate in Arcadia, FL, where his journalistic expertise was employed again as Golden was several years editor and business manager of the Florida Baptist Witness. The demanding position for a turn as pastor at Leesburg, FL. In retirement Golden supplied the church at Williston, FL, until he died. He was buried on 4 July 1927 in Lone Oak Cemetery in Leesburg though later his body was removed to the Ross family burial lot in Oaklawn Cemetery in Fort Valley, GA, to lie by the side of his mother who outlived him eleven years. His exaggerated name takes up two full lines across the substantive granite marker. His dear Mattie lived until 22 August 1938.

When Golden passed, his death was mentioned multiple times in the Christian Index as Baptists sought to commemorate a life well spent. A telegram prompted the first notice, published on 7 July 1927; he was called a “beloved man” who endeared himself to countless people. Henry W. Battle wrote: “I think of him as having completed a flawless life, and fallen on sleep when the tired and pain-racked body, long tossed on troubled waters longed for relief; I think of him as laying down a crown of thorns to put on a crown resplendent with precious stars of redeemed spirits; I think of him as entering, with inexpressible joy and fadeless vigor, upon a sphere of service beyond the reach of mortal comprehensions; I think of him as kneeling at the Savior’s feet, and mingling with the fathers who have gone before. Who would call him back?” Battle described Golden as a scholar, a gentleman, and an unostentatious “good minister of Jesus Christ” who left a priceless heritage and example worth imitating.

Charles M. Brittain, another Mercerian, remembered Golden as “the old school type which is rapidly passing away” and a man easy to know and easy to love. “He was warm and affectionate in his make up,” said Brittain. “His sympathetic manner of greeting friends and even strangers, was a quality possessed rarely by men in public today … He faithfully and powerfully preached the word of God as long as he could stand in the pulpit. He possessed a keen spiritual insight into all things that related to the work of his beloved denomination. … Our hearts are sad at the passing of Dr. Golden. His character like his name was golden. His public messages were golden, and now he passes on to receive at the hands of his Master, whom he loved and served so well, a golden crown.”

Contributed by Arlette Camp Copeland; information compiled by A.Copeland and Peer Ravnan

Sources: A History of Mercer University 1833-1953, p. 404; The Christian Index 26 October 1876, 13 September 1894, 6 June 1895, 7, 14, and 21 July 1927, 11 and 18 August 1927; History of the First Baptist Church of Cuthbert, Georgia 1831 to 1981, unnumbered pages; Links of God History of the First Baptist Church West Point, Georgia, pgs. 81-84; The Macon Telegraph, 26 July 1898 and 1 November 1898; Mercer University Catalogues and Triennial Registers; N.W. Ayer & Son’s Newspaper Annual 1898, p. 114; U.S. Census, 1860, 1900, 1910, 1920; One Hundred Years of the First Baptist Church Brunswick, Georgia 1855 1955, pgs 9-12; Thomas County 1865-1900, p. 163.