Gaston B. Cashwell

Who was Gaston B. Cashwell?

Gaston Barnibus Cashwell was an early Pentecostal leader in the southern United States. He was born in Sampson County, North Carolina. His importance lies in bringing several Holiness movements into the Pentecostal camp.

G. B. Cashwell first became a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and later joined the Holiness Church of North Carolina in 1903. In November 1906, he traveled to Los Angeles to visit the Pentecostal revival at the Azusa Street mission. In early December, he had an experience that he believed to be the baptism in the Holy Spirit and the evidence of speaking in tongues. Upon returning to Dunn, North Carolina, on December 31, 1906, Cashwell preached the Pentecostal experience in the local Holiness church. Interest in the Pentecostal experience was so great that he rented a local tobacco warehouse and began a month-long crusade. A revival broke out in North Carolina, especially in the holiness movement. Most of the ministers of the Pentecostal Holiness Church, the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church and the Holiness Free Will Baptist Churches were swept into Pentecostalism by this revival. Over the next six months, he toured the south preaching "Pentecost".