Mark Perrin Lowrey was an American clergyman, soldier, and educator. He served as a Southern Baptist preacher from 1853 to 1861. He also served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Because of his involvement with religion in the army, Lowrey was at one point called the "Preacher General."
Background
Mark Perrin Lowrey was born on December 30, 1828 in McNairy County, Tennessee, United States. He was the ninth in a family of eleven children. His father, Adam Lowrey, who was born in Ireland, and his mother, Margaret Doss, of English descent, were of good stock but uneducated.
When Mark was but a few years of age his father contracted cholera while on a trip to New Orleans, and died. Living in a comparatively newly settled country, his mother widowed and impoverished. When he was fifteen he moved with his mother to the village of Farmington in Tishomingo County, Mississippi.
Education
Lowrey didn't have formal education.
Career
Mark Lowrey enlisted in the 2nd Mississippi Regiment and went to Mexico in 1847 though his organization did not arrive in time to see active service in the Mexican War. For several years he earned his livelihood as a brick-mason, but at the age of twenty-four he decided to enter the ministry. He was ordained by the Farmington Baptist Church in 1853 and until the outbreak of the Civil War held pastorates, served as a missionary, and improved his education as best he could. It is said that he frequently boarded the district school teacher in order to learn from him at night.
Entering the Confederate army, Mark served for a while in the fall of 1861, as colonel of the 4th Regiment of sixty-day volunteers. The regiment suffered much from sickness and at the end of their term of enlistment the men were mustered out. In 1862 Lowrey raised and organized the 32nd Mississippi Regiment, of which he was elected colonel. He was wounded in the arm in the battle of Perryville, served with great distinction at the battle of Chickamauga, and was promoted to brigadier-general October 4, 1863. He commanded a brigade in Hardee's corps, and later a division, until his resignation from the army, March 14, 1865.
At the conclusion of hostilities Lowrey returned to Mississippi, where he served for a while as state missionary and did much to reorganize and revive churches that had suffered from the war.
He edited the Mississippi Department of The Baptist from 1870 to 1877.
He was a well-respected man, and in 1872, while he was preaching in Jackson, the state legislature asked him to become a United States senator. He declined, saying, "I can not sacrifice the commission I hold as a minister of the gospel even for a commission as United States Senator." That year he also declined an offer from the Southern Baptist Convention to become executive secretary of the Foreign Mission Board because he believed that Mississippi offered a safer environment for his children than did Richmond, Virginia.
In 1873 he founded Blue Mountain Female Institute (later Blue Mountain College). He served there as president and as a professor of history and moral science until his death. It exercised considerable influence in the field of education for women in Mississippi and continued under the control of the Lowrey family until 1920 when it was taken over by the Mississippi Baptist Convention. From 1872 to 1876 Lowrey was a member of the board of trustees of the University of Mississippi. His prominence and influence in the Baptist denomination in his state are attested by the fact that he was president of the Mississippi Baptist Convention from 1868 to 1877.
Achievements
Mark Perrin Lowrey was distinguished for his service as a Confederate brigadier-general during the American Civil War. Lowrey also served as president of the Mississippi Baptist Convention. He made a great contribution to female education by establishing Blue Mountain Female Institute (later renamed Blue Mountain College).
Religion
Lowrey was a Southern Baptist preacher. He preached actively to the men of his command and at one time baptized fifty within a two-week period. After the war, Lowrey returned to his work as a Baptist preacher. Lowrey returned to Mississippi, resumed his pastoral duties, and worked to reorganize Baptist churches that had suffered from the war.
Politics
As Mississippi moved toward secession, Lowrey attempted to remain politically neutral, but he was nevertheless asked to lead men into war because of his prior military service, slim as it was.
Views
Opposed to human bondage and owning no slaves, Mark saw himself solely as defending his home and family from invasion by Union forces.
Personality
Confederate soldiers remembered him as the Fighting Parson of the Army of Tennessee, declaring that he would "preach like hell on Sunday and fight like the devil all the week."
Connections
In 1849 Lowrey married Sarah Holmes, daughter of Isham Holmes, a farmer living near Rienzi, Mississippi.
Father:
Adam Lowrey
Mother:
Margaret Doss Lowrey
Wife:
Sarah Raleigh Holmes Lowrey
1827-1898
Daughter:
Modena Lowrey Berry
1850-1942
Daughter:
Margaret E. Lowrey Anderson
1852-1953
Daughter:
Janie Lowrey Graves
1854-1944
Daughter:
Linnie Lowrey Ray
1856-1941
Son:
William Tyndale Lowrey
1858-1944
Son:
Mark Booth Lowrey
1860-1930
Son:
Perrin Holmes Lowrey
1860-1941
Son:
Bill Green Lowrey
1862-1947
Son:
Joseph Johnston Lowrey
1866-1965
Daughter:
Sallie Leavell Lowrey Potter
1873-1954
Friend:
J. B. Gambrell
In 1869 Mark and a friend, Dr. J. B. Gambrell decided to start a school for girls.
