Alexander Talley

The Reverend Dr. Alexander Talley was the first pastor of the First Methodist Church of Pensacola.

Alexander Talley
Died	1835 Vicksburg, Mississippi
Occupation	Pastor, First Methodist Church Christian missionary
Religion	Methodist

Talley hailed from a large family, and several of his siblings were also preachers. Talley was ordained a minister on January 15, 1814, at Fayetteville, North Carolina.

On December 7, 1821, the Mississippi Conference of the Methodist Church established a mission to Pensacola, and appointed Rev. Dr. Talley as the mission's first pastor. Talley had previously been sent in 1819 as a missionary to Alabama; however, he fell ill after a time and retired to Mount Vernon, Alabama, on the Alabama River, where he practiced medicine.

He served as pastor at the Pensacola mission for approximately a year before retiring again to Mount Vernon, Alabama. He later worked as a missionary to the Choctaw Indians, between 1827 and 1834. Talley died of cholera in 1835 in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Frank W. Hoskins' The History of Methodism in Pensacola, Florida describes Talley:

While he was not as elegant and eloquent as some others in the pulpit, yet he was a popular and a successful preacher. His piety was commanding and impressive ... He was rather below the ordinary stature, being about five feet and seven inches high, with full chest, and weighing about 140 pounds. His hair was black, and he was of a bilious temperament. He had a custom, when not engaged in conversation, of walking back and forth across the floor and whistling between his teeth with an abstracted air, as if engaged in meditation. He gained the respect and confidence of the children wherever he went. I recollect well how I was in constant dread of being expelled from the Church by him for wearing a ruffled collar around my neck when I went to the house of God. He found favor with the children and the adult population as well. His influence was marked and wholesome.