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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC HORAA
3 1833 02342 418 4
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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REV. C. O. BOOTHE, D. D. Author of "Plain Theology."
THE
CYCLOPEDIA
OF THE
Colored Baptists of Alabama
THEIR LEADERS AND THEIR WORK
BY
CHARLES OCTAVIUS BOOTHE, D. D., ) Author of " Plain Theology for Plain People."
BIRMINGHAM : ALABAMA PUBLISHING COMPANY. 1895
Allen County Public Library Ft. Wayne, Indiana
A6
Ble
MAY 1 1 '78
Sprat
-
7663476
COPYRIGHT 1895 BY REV. C. O. BOOTHE, D. D.
AUBURN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES AUBURN, ALABAMA 36830
INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
REV. C. O. BOOTHE
Frontispiece
REV. J. Q. A. WILHITE 12
HON. A. H. CURTIS 19
MRS. A. A. BOWIE 26
REV. L. S. STEINBACK IN THE ACT OF BAPTISM 33
MRS. D. S. JORDAN
36
SHILOH CHURCH, BIRMINGHAM
Facing
45
REV. F. R. KENNEDY
56 66
MRS. M. D. DUNCAN
75
MISS H. MARTIN.
82 91 99
REV. J. L. FRAZIER.
106
REV. W. T. BIBB ..
110
SIXTEENTH STREET CHURCH, BIRMINGHAM.
.Facing
120
REV. S. L. BELSER.
129
DR. U. G. MASON
136
REV. J. P. O' RILEY
144 151
REV. J. H. EASON.
158
MISS A. L. BOWMAN
165
REV. M. TYLER ..
172
MRS. REBECCA PITTS. 179
REV. W. C. BRADFORD
186
REV. H. WOODSMALL
194
REV. J. E. WILSON. 203
REV. L. S. STEINBACK 212
ST. LOUIS STREET CHURCH, MOBILE. Facing
221
REV. T. W. WALKER 228
REV. J. W. JACKSON 238
FIRST CHURCH, SELMA 244
MISS JOANNA P. MOORE, NASHVILLE Facing 249
REV. C. J. HARDY 254
REV. S. L. Ross. 259
DEXTER AVENUE CHURCH, MONTGOMERY. Facing 262
REV. C. L. PURCE
265
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAP.
PAGE.
Autobiography of the Author 9
Preface
13
I .- Introduction
17 3
II .- The State Conventions.
37
HI .- Associations 55
MISS ELLA KNAPP
IV .- Biographic Sketches. ' 111
Biographic Supplement 223
V .- Summary 237
Final Remarks 263
..
REV. J. P. BARTON.
REV. W. R. PETTIFORD
REV. P. S. L HUTCHINS
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR.
OSSIBLY some one may desire at some time and for some reason to know something of the author of this book. and therefore he submits the following short statement :
LINEAGE AND NATIVITY .- His great-grandmother was born on the west coast of Africa and was brought a slave to Virginia, where his grandmother was born. Ere his grandmother had reached her maturity of womanhood, she was sold into Geor- gia, where his mother was born. While his mother was still a child, she and her mother were carried to Mobile county, Ala., by a Mr. Nathan Howard. In this county, on a lonely looking sand hill amid pine forests, on June 13, 1845, the writer made his advent into this world. (In this year, 1845, the Baptists of America divided.)
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS .- Stored away in my earliest mem- ories I find : (1) The songs and family prayers of my step- grandfather, a pure African, who had not only learned to read : his Bible and hymn book, but had also learned the rudiments of vocal music sufficiently well to teach the art of singing. (2) The tender and constant attention of an old white lady (the only white person on the place), who took my hand as she went out to look after the nests of the domestic fowis and to gather a dish of ripe fruit. (3) A Baptist church in the forest, where white and colored people sat together to com- mune and to wash each other's feet. (4) The saintly face and pure life of my grandmother, to whom white and black went for prayer and for comfort in the times of their sorrows. (5)
10
COLORED BAPTISTS OF ALABAMA.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR.
11
A tin-plate containing the alphabet, from which at the age of 3 years, I learned the English letters. (6) The death of the old white lady, and the severing from dear grandmother and the old home. (7) My introduction at the age of 6 years to the family of Nathan Howard, Jr., where things were not altogether as tender toward me as at the old home, and where I came more into associations with books and with life's sterner facts. The teachers who boarded here at my new home be- came my instructors, and so I was soon reading and writing fairly well. Here, listening to the reading of the Bible, I was .. drawn toward it, and began to read it for myself. The gospel story bound me to it with cords which nothing has been able to break. At the close of my eighth year I began to seek the Lord by prayer and supplication, and have, from that time to this, continued my secret devotions and strivings after truth. My association with Col. James S. Terrel, the brother of Judge S. H. Terrel, of Clark county, Miss., at the age of 14, as office boy in his law office, gave me a still broader range of books. I think I can say that the Colonel and I really loved each other.
I am not sure that I know just when I was regenerated, as my childhood prayers were often attended with refreshing seasons of love and joy. . But my life was too often very un- christian, breaking out into the wildest rages of bad temper, which was followed by weeping and remorse. In 1865, how- ever, I reached an experience of grace which so strengthened me as to fix me on the side of the people of God. I went at once to reading the scriptures in public and leading prayer meetings ; notwithstanding this, I was not baptized until March, 1866, by Rev. O. D. Bowen, of Shubuta, Miss. I was ordained in the St. Louis Street Church, Mobilc, December, 1868, by Revs. Charles Leavens and Philip Gambrell.
I taught school for the Freedmen's Bureau in 1867 ---
taught various schools under our public school system. I have been pastor of the First Colored Baptist Church, Meridian, Miss., Dexter Avenue Church, Montgomery, and held various State positions. The only time I have spent at school was spent in Meharry, the medical department of the Central Tennessee College.
C. O. BOOTIIE.
1
-
Rev. J. Q. A. Wilhite, Pastor Sixth Avenue Baptist Church, Birmingham, Ala.
PREFACE.
'HIS effort to give substantial and favorable testimony in the interest of the men and work of the Colored Baptists of Alabama grows out of certain aims and purposes, such as : 1. The desire to produce a picture of the negro asso- ciated with the gospel under the regime of slavery. Such a picture will serve to turn our eyes upon the social, moral and religious forces of the dark times and their fruits in the negro's life.
'2. The desire to make comparisons-to compare the colored man of 1865 with the colored man of 1895. Such a comparison will help the black man himself to see whether or not he is a growing man or a waning man. It will also serve to show the same thing to the friend and to the foe. " Appeals to Pharoah and to Cæsar" are not so wise as appeals to facts, which prove the negro to be man just as other races are man. The book is not all history, nor is it all biography ; it is something of both and it is more. It gives certain informa- tion which can neither rank as history nor as biography : it is Ethe record of special operations in the denomination in differ- ent sections of the State with a view to showing the mental status now prevailing. I have been engaged with the book for the past seven years, during which time I have searched and gleaned as best I could ; I have not tried to obtain everything, nor have I had space to talk of every person who deserved honorable mention. 'To do this would require too large a book. I could not do more than get enough together to " round out " my testimony. Where I have spoken of anything that touches
14
COLORED BAPTISTS OF ALABAMA.
PREFACE.
15
our white brethren or the white people, it has been in tenderest love for them, though my language has been plain and seem- ingly bold. I think I can risk the statement that I have no "race prejudice :" all men are in a sense my brethren and I am brother to all men-akin to Christ, akin to me.
If a brother among us deserving mention should not appear, remember that many failed to report to me as I desired them to do, and that I felt I could not do more than give what would make a full showing of our State. Those names that came after the work was done had to be put into a supplement.
It will be seen, therefore, that the purpose which gives birth to this little book is not a desire to present a " vain show " of names, appealing to pride for the sake of gain ; but, that it is an humble aim to accomplish some good. It is an attempt to answer the questions: " From whence have we come? What have we done? What have we attained to? What are the possibilities before us ?" The book is intended to be a simple statement of facts ; which facts, it is believed, will be a sufficient apology for their appearance in book form. The reader may expect faults in arrangement and errors in composition, but it is to be hoped that the sweetness and beauty of the flower will not be rejected because of the thorns upon the stem which bears them. I have not tried to tell everything. If I speak of individuals, it is with a view to giving some of their best things, best deeds, etc. "Straws show which way the wind is blowing," it is said ; hence only enough of each biographical sketch is given to show the status and trend of the person spoken of. We are too young, as a people, to make lengthy biography. Coming times will give us this form of literature. It will be remembered that this short period suffices to give only a nucleal point in the matter of writings. I have churned the milk with an eye to obtain- ing the butter-the richest and best we have. My selection of
material may not be the very best, but something is better than nothing, and I have done the best I could under the circumstances.
With these prefatory remarks, I present you the rose with Bits thorns, trusting that God will give sweetness and beauty to the former and allow the latter to do no harm. I cheerfully record my debt of gratitude to my faithful wife, Mattie Alice, who has been in this labor, as in all others, my abiding, sure support.
Xi
HISTORY
OF THE
:
COLORED BAPTISTS OF ALABAMA.
-
1. INTRODUCTION.
ORIGIN.
N turning to the subject under consideration it seems fitting that we should first review those facts and events which gave us our denominational existence. Such a course, it seems to the writer, will serve to give us a proper " setting." It is not definitely known just when, where and by whom, Baptist principles were first propagated upon the American continent ; it is, however, an historic fact that these principles assumed organic form in Providence, R. I., in 1639, in the constitution of a Baptist church under Roger Williams as pastor. Other churches soon followed, out of the union of which there early rose Associations, Conventions and Missionary Societies.
In 1620, nineteen years before the organization of the church in Providence, the African was brought into Virginia as a slave. The North and the South joined heartily in the work of binding their black brother with the chains of cruel
.
18
COLORED BAPTISTS OF ALABAMA.
bondage. Thus the naked savage was taken from his freedom and from his gods and chained'to the chariot wheels of Cliris- tian (?) civilization to be coerded, dragged into new observa- tions, new experiences, and a new life.
CHANGES.
In order to give a glancing look at the progress and decline of slavery in the North, and at the sort of fruit the gospel was bearing in the soul and conduct of the slave, I copy the fol- lowing from the " Baptist Home Missions in America " (Jubilee volume) :
" By 1776 there were about 300,000 slaves in America. In 1793 there were comparatively few slaves to be found in the Northern States. * *
* In 1790 there were 697,897 slaves in the United States ; of this number there were 17 in Vermont, 158 in New Hampshire, 2,759 in Connecticut, 3,707 in Pennsylvania, 11,423 in New Jersey, and 20,000 in New York. * Before 1830 slavery disappeared from all the Northern States. In Vermont it was abolished in 1777; in Massachusetts in 1780; while acts for the gradual emancipa- tion of slaves were passed in other States-in New York, 1799; in New Jersey, 1804. The final act of abolition in New York being passed in 1817, declaring all slaves free on July 4, 1827.
"The native African, fresh from his fetich worship, and incapable of comprehending even common religions statements, seemed an unpromising subject even for the Christian philan- thropist. But, though degraded, he is recognized as human, sinful, accountable, in need and capable of redemption through Christ. The obligation to bring him to a knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ, is practically recognized by many Christian ministers as well as by many pious masters and mistresses. At family devotions in many Christian households
-
Hon. A. H. Curtis, Ex.Senator to Alabama Legislature from Perry County.
20
COLORED BAPTISTS OF ALABAMA.
INTRODUCTION.
21
the domestics are called in to hear the Scriptures read and bow reverently as prayer is offered to God. On Sunday in the same meeting house master and slave listen to the same sermon. Those who give evidence of conversion are received into the church on relation of their experience after baptism, and sit with their masters at the Lord's table.
" The First Colored Baptist Church of Savannah, Ga., dates its organization from 1788. Other colored Baptist churches appear in various parts of the country ; in Ports- mouth, Va., in 1798; the Second African of Savannah, in 1803; the Abysinian Church of New York City, in 1803; the African or Independent Church, Boston, Mass., in 1805; First African of Philadelphia, Pa., in 1809; the First African of St. Louis, in 1827 ; the Ebenezer of New York City, in 1825 ; the Union Church of Philadelphia, and a church in the Dis- triet of Columbia, in 1832." One in Mobile in 1839, of which in 1848, it is said : " They have a fine house of worship built by themselves, and some excellent leaders or licensed preachers among them."
We have it on good authority, that in 1850, there were in America about 150,000 negro Baptists. Thus we see that in 230 years the gospel of Christ, though hampered by the insti- tution of slavery, had done much to redeem the fetich wor- shiper from his midnight darkness and consequent spiritual ruin-had done much to induce the black man to obtain and retain God in his knowledge.
Often we come upon plants which refuse to give out their sweetness so long as their parts are unbroken and unbleeding, but which will quickly yield up their odors when bruised. So it is with men. It is worthy of notice that these dark days of slavery gave birth to some strong colored preachers. Among others, the following are mentioned by their white brethren : Rev. George Leile, of South Carolina, who visiting Savannah,
Ga., about 1782 or 1783, baptized the famous Rev. Andrew Bryan, of whom the Savannah Association, (white) in 1812, made the following mention : _ " The association is sensibly affected by the death of the Rev. Andrew Bryan, a man of color, and pastor of the First Colored Church in Savannah. "This son of Africa, after suffering inexpressible persecutions in the cause of his Divine Master, was at length permitted to adischarge the duties of the ministry among his colored friends Fin peace and quiet, hundreds of whom through his instrumen- stality were brought to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus."
In 1820, the Board of the Baptist General Convention of America adopted as their missionaries Revs. Collin Teagueand Lot Cary, brethren of color, from the Baptist church of Rich- mond, Va. These men sailed from Norfolk, Va., to Liberia, Africa, in January, 1821. Rev. Thomas Paul, who was pastor of the church in Boston from 1805 to 1830, is spoken of after fa very praiseworthy manner. Touching our own State, we sbegin at Mobile.
MOBILE.
The rise of the work in the Southern section of Alabama appears in the following, copied from Brother Holcombe's work, and originally written for the Christian Indes, March 10, 1836 :
" About 120 years ago a few Frenchmen came here and made the first little opening in the pine forest. Previously to 1817 it was occupied principally as a place of deposit and trade with the Indians. Now its population is not far from 10,000. Eighteen years ago a single steamboat found her way Ato this port, now forty- five are employed in the Mobile trade. The Baptist church was constituted March, 1835, by J. G. Collins, R. L. Barnes and P. Stout with ten members. Rev.
.
22
COLORED BAPTISTS OF ALABAMA.
INTRODUCTION.
23
G. F. Heard was called to begin the pastorate February 14, 1836. " At that time they had no house of worship, but met in the court house, and for a time they met in the house belong- ing to the African Baptist Church. The African Church is in a prosperous condition ; their number is about 90."
In this city and county the colored people had more liberty and better treatment than in any other section of the State. The free people and those who hired their time often supported schools for the education of their children. Revs. Win. Dossey, P. Stout, A. Travis, J. H. Schroebel, Mr. Haw. thorne and Mr. Spence (all white) are mentioned as pioneers and fathers of the work at this point. Near this old French town, June 13, 1845, the writer was born, and in this county and city he spent the first fourteen years of his life, and many years since. For some years prior to the late civil war, the Stone Street and St. Louis Street churches (colored) were both noted for their numbers and their financial strength.
STONE STREET CHURCHI.
This is the " mother church." The father of the Rev. J. B. Hawthorne, in the early part of their history, served them as pastor, receiving a regular salary of thein. At the close of the war, Mr. Spence was their pastor, since which time they have been under the leadership of the Rev. B. J. Burke, a man who in many regards is as strong as he is peculiar. This church, however, has not done much in the way of missions, and not a great deal for education. One of the peculiar customs of the pastor is to " bless children." Standing in the pulpit, he holds the child up in his arms while he prays God's blessings upon it.
A case of discipline which came up in this church many years ago, led to the formation of the St. Louis Street Church, and I am sorry to say gave birth to a very bitter sec-
tional feeling between the two bodies, which feeling has long been a blight to the Baptist cause in South Alabama.
This church is stubbornly set against all secret societies, so that no secret society people are allowed in its membership. The pastor is elected for life. For the support of its poor it has a fund which is called the " Church Treasury."
ST. LOUIS STREET CHURCH. -
This church was for many years especially noted for its missionary enterprise. To this church Alabama owes many of her pioneer preachers. The late Rev. Charles Leavens, who was pastor just after the close of the war, sought to send a pioneer, an organizer, into every section of the State. Their present houseef worship cost, I am told, about $24,000, and is a two-story brick structure. Since the war their pastors have been : Revs. Charles Leavens, I. Grant, A. Butler, C. C. Richardson, and the present occupant, Rev. Mr. Frazier. This church seems now in full sympathy with its past missionary arecord, over which no one rejoices more than the writer, since it is from this church that he, under God, received his com- mission to preach the gospel of the Son of Righteousness.
ST. ANTHONY STREET CHURCH-NOW FRANKLYN STREET.
This church deserves honorable mention. Rev. A. F. Owens led to the purchase of the property on St. Anthony street, and served as pastor for several years-1878 to 1889. Rev. A. N. McEwen, the present pastor, advised the church to sell and purchase at a more desirable point. They are now buying a building on Franklyn street. This church has had an earnest class of workers, who have made great and painful sacrifices for the cause.
24
COLORED BAPTISTS OF ALABAMA.
INTRODUCTION.
25
UNION CHURCHI.
This church is another secession from Stone Street. It, too, has some strong people in it. Rev. A. F. Owens is-pastor.
There are other churches around worthy of mention. So much is said only to show the rise and progress of the Baptist cause in this section of Alabama. The great need here is more brotherly love, instead of the bitter prejudice which withers every hope of united effort. Of course, many of the the good people are already free from its fearful influence, but far too many are still slaves to it.
.. Among the founders, or ante bellum members of the col- ored Baptist work in Mobile, we find the names of Rev. Charles Leavens and wife, James Somerville, Judge Europe, Thomas Sawyer, Rev. B. J. Burke, and Crawley Johnson.
HUNTSVILLE, MADISON COUNTY.
Here is where our Statehood was born, the Constitution being formed here in 1819. Huntsville is our State's first capital. Taking Mr. Hosea Holcombe as authority, the first Baptist church organized in Alabama was constituted within a few miles of Huntsville, in 1808. Their constitutional membership was eleven, and Rev. John Nicholson was their . first pastor. The first negro Baptist church constituted in this section of the State was the African Baptist Church of Huntsville, organized about the year 1820. I say 1820, for the reason that in 1821 they are recorded as entering into the Flint River Association, with seventy-six members. Rev. William Harris, "a free colored man," is mentioned as their first pastor. It seems that Brother Harris soon fell under the influence of a white preacher, William Crutcher, and became established in the faith of the Primitive Baptists. Over
seventy years have passed away, and still Rev. Bartlett Harris, a grandson of Rev. William Harris, is preaching the " election of grace." Instead of seventy-six Missionary mem- bers, there are now about two thousand Primitives. The Rey. W. H. Gaston is the leading educator among them. He Is a man of quiet and humble spirit, and is now trying to establish a school at Huntsville. How we Missionaries nnt ed a school in Madison county ! Our little Missionary church seems bound hand and foot. At this writing, Rev. Oscar Gray is pastor, and he seems to do as well as circumstances allow. Perhaps I cannot close this notice of Madison county more profitably than by directing the attention of the reader to the vast consequences, in the form of false views and false practices, which came of one man's decisions. Rev. William Harris decided to follow Mr. Crutcher, and now thousands of people walk in sis track as anti-Missionaries.
PERRY AND HALE COUNTIES.
At Salein Church, near Greensboro, the Alabama State Convention (white) was organized October, 1823, not quite forty-five years before the organization of the Colored Baptist Convention in 1868, and its first anniversary was held at Marion, in Perry county.
Reference is made to these facts in order to introduce other facts bearing a closer relation to ourselves. . Within a circle of twenty-five miles of Marion-and Greensboro, is near this point-some of the mightiest influences in support of Baptist views have risen up and gone forth upon the colored Baptists of Alabama. The colored people of Marion, and throughout the country around, are hardly less noted for their feffnement than they are for their Baptistic opinions. In this section arose those colored men of power and of pioneer
INTRODUCTION.
Mrs. A. A. Bowie, Instructress In Dressmaking, Selma University.
fame-Revs. James Childs, the first pastor of the Marion Church (colored) ; Henry Stevens, first pastor of the Greens- boro Church, and John Dosier, so long pastor of the church in Uniontown. This point, till right recently, has been the educational center of our white brethren, and here in Marion, the first colored State Normal school began, as the result of the influence of the late Hon. A. H. Curtis, of Baptist fame.
MONTGOMERY CITY AND COUNTY.
Baptist principles manifested themselves in this part of Alabama about 1818-19 in the constitution of the Elim Church, near the city of Montgomery, and Messrs. J. Mcle- more, S. Ray, and W. J. Larkin, arc mentioned as pioneers.
A STRAW WHICH shows WIch WAY THE WIND BLOWS.
In Dr. RREy's " History of Alabama Baptists," we have the following : '" A negro slave, named Caesar, a bright, smart, robust fellow * was ordained to preach. His ability * was so marked, and the confidence which he enjoyed was so profound, that Rev. James McLemore would frequently have Cæsar attend him upon his preaching tours. He was some- times taken by Mr. McLemore into the pulpit, and never failed of commanding the most rapt and respectful attention."
To the credit of the Alabama Association, it is written that they bought this man and gave him his liberty that he might preach among them the gospel of Christ ; and it is said, fthat though he was as black as a crow, he traveled alone and unharmed on the mission of life. Thus the negro appears in the foundation of gospel operations in Central Alabama. Here also appear the victories of the gospel leaven, the triumphs of the love of God over those hearts wherein Christ was king.
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