OBITUARY from February 19, 1873, Birmingham Iron Age
DIED, at the residence of his son-in-law, Mr. George Barton, on Sunday, the 15th inst., the REV. BENJAMIN TARRANT, at the advanced age of eighty-one years.
The subject of this notice was born in South Carolina, but removed with his father, the Rev. James Tarrant, to Jones Valley in 1819. He was one of a large and respectable family connexion, many of whom reside in this county at the present day. He served his country in the war of 1812 and was a pensioner of the United States at the time of his death. He had also been a member of the State Legislature, during the time that the Capital was at Tuskaloosa.
But his greatest distinction was that of a Methodist preacher, in which capacity he served his church for the space of about thirty years. Having been converted from infidelity when more than fifty years old, he became a zealous and widely known minister of the Gospel and was distinguished for his zeal and usefulness in calling sinners to repentance. With his own hand he received more than six hundred members into the church and was present at the conversion of thousands. His last sermon was preached at the Turkey Creek Camp-meeting in 1872, since which time he was seldom able to attend church; but declined gradually, till on the evening of the Holy Sabbath, he fell asleep. He had survived most of his contemporaries, and having passed his four-score years, the silver cord was gently loosed, and with an unfaltering trust he walked through the valley and shadow of death, not fearing any evil.
