Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 71:1 (Spring 2009)
Article: Mr. Machen’s protégé
Author: Barry G. Waugh

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WTJ 71:1 (Spring 2009) p. 21

Mr. Machen’s protégé

Barry Waugh

Barry Waugh, who holds a Ph.D. from Westminster Theological Seminary, lives with his family in Greenville, S.C., where he studies and writes about church history. He dedicates this article to Grace Mullen, archivist of the Montgomery Library of Westminster Seminary where she has served for more than thirty years. Without Grace’s casual comment, “There are many letters in the Machen collection between Hodges and himself,” this article would not have been written.

In a letter from Mary (Minnie) Gresham Machen to her son J. Gresham Machen she inquired about the welfare of his “protégé.”1 The letter was written early in Machen’s career at Princeton Theological Seminary, and the protégé might be assumed to be one of his students, a faculty member, or a family acquaintance, but none of these was the case. The protégé, who most often addressed his letters to “Mr. Machen,” was an alcoholic named Richard Hodges. Mrs. Machen’s use of “protégé” to describe Hodges reflects her discreet concern as a lady to keep her son’s association with Richard a private matter between mother and son, while Hodges use of “Mr.” reflects the respect for and social distance he perceived between himself and Dr. Machen. This article will survey their relationship, which spanned more than twenty-two years, by using more than three hundred letters sent between them as well as correspondence with Machen’s family members and other persons involved with Richard’s care.

I. Who Was Richard Hodges?

The little that is known about Richard Hodges is scattered throughout the correspondence between Dr. Machen and himself. Some of Machen’s biographers have mentioned Hodges briefly either by name or description, including N. B. Stonehouse’s pages telling about “R.H.,” and the briefer mentions by D. G. Hart and S. J. Nichols.2 Richard Hodges was raised in Richmond, Virginia, where as an adolescent he witnessed the War Between the States and the

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burning of the city in April of 1865. His father was an architect and the family’s religious background was Roman Catholic.3 In one letter, Hodges mentioned his “army boots,” which may indicate that he served in the military sometime before his acquaintance with Dr. Machen, and his interest in veterans and their gatherings may also confirm an earlier military service.4 The exact time of his first meeting with Machen is not known, but their relationship developed through the F...

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