USA > Alabama > History of the Protestant Episcopal church in Alabama, 1763-1891 > Part 12
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The father of the revived mission work among the Negroes of Alabama was the Rev. J. S. Johnston, who had become rector of Trinity Church, Mobile, in 1880. In May, 1882, as chairman of a special com- mittee to which was referred a portion of Bishop Wil- mer's address dwelling upon the Church's responsi- bility to the Negro, Mr. Johnson vigorously and clearly outlined the necessary steps to be taken in leading the Negro to true and acceptable worship of God. Premising that worship necessitated intelli- gence, he insisted that no lasting work could be done that did not seek the co-ordinate development of mind and soul. He soon created the opportunity to exemi- plify his theory. On the afternoon of November 19, 1882, he brought the Bishop to a hired room where he met the few members of the old organization. Steps to- wards reorganization were taken then and there. On the following Friday the Rev. Chester Newell, hear- ing of the proposed undertaking, gave the Bishop a
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lot at Kushla, a small neighboring village, the pro- ceeds of sale (ultimately about $300) to be applied to the erection of a new church of the Good Shepherd. With about twelve hundred dollars available (given by friends in New York) the building was begun. So soon as work actually commenced help came from outside sources. Within a year six thousand dollars had been expended in the purchase of the ground, the erection of church, rectory, and school-house, and the purchase of suitable furniture. The most liberal con- tributors to the support of the school, then and there- after, were Mr. William Butler Duncan, of New York, and the Rev. Dr. Saul, of Philadelphia. The day- school was named in honor of the latter. A Negro man became lay-reader, and held services. Mr. Johnston preached regularly and frequently. At the end of the year there were fourteen communicants and six candidates for confirmation, a day-school of thirty- nine pupils, and a Sunday school of one hundred.
The Rev. Joseph L. Tucker, rector of Christ Church, maintained nominal supervision of the mission for about one year. Then it became evident that this temporary arrangement must give way to the settle- ment of a minister-in-residence, who could give his entire time and attention to the work. The Bishop had said that the building should be attractive, the service in great part choral, and all things adapted to the characteristics of the people, and that, in his opinion, the offices of the Prayer Book were peculiarly suited to the Negro's needs, and could rubrically be so rendered as to adapt them to his tastes. Accord- ingly he sought a minister that would conduct the
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services at the Good Shepherd in accordance with his views.
Such a one was found in the person of the Rev. A. Wallace Pierce, son of the Bishop of Arkansas. Mr. Pierce took charge in May, 1885. The day-school had increased to nearly sixty pupils, who were taught by two of the deaconesses from the Church Home, but the Sunday-school had not increased, and the number of communicants was only ten; and of these six were newly confirmed. The new minister at once established a ritual never before or since equalled in the diocese, introducing the Eastward Position, Eu- charistic and Vesper Lights, Eucharistic vestments, Choral celebrations of the Holy Communion and daily Offices, and Incense. He gave himself entirely and unreservedly to the work, living in the rectory and going in and out among the Negroes with as much freedom as if he were a missionary in Darkest Africa -perchance with more. On account of thus placing himself on the social plane of his congregation he soon met with several rebuffs froin former friends. In order to prevent possible repetition of such disagree- able incidents he cut himself off entirely from the society of his own race, abjured diocesan meetings, and was approached by individual clergymen with great difficulty. His doctrine was as high as his ritual was elaborate, and his self-sacrifice was carried far beyond necessity and the highest wisdom. But whatever it was possible to do for the welfare of his people he did, and for seven years he gave every energy of body, mind, and soul to the material and
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spiritual advancement of his congregation. In the day-school an industrial department was added, and the girls were taught to sew, wash, iron, cook, and generally to prepare to earn their own living honestly and virtuously. In 1892 Mr. Pierce moved to another sphere of labor.
Mr. Pierce was succeeded by the Rev. Joseph L. Berne, who conducted the services along the lines pursued by his predecessor, but adopted other methods of pastoral care. The change did not prove of ad- vantage to the work. Congregations dwindled week by week, the Sunday-school fell off two-thirds, and few of the pupils in day-school and Sunday-school came to Confirmation. In 1896 it was determined that the prosperity, almost the continuance, of the work demanded the ministrations of a clergyman who could enter into his people's mode of thought. In that year a Negro priest, the Rev. James J. N. Thomp- son, took charge. Subsequent growth has been en- couraging, the communicants having been increased in a single year by twenty-five and the parishioners by one hundred per cent.
It had never been the Bishop's desire to attempt the organization of Negro congregations in the rural districts. He contended that the only reasonably hopeful fields were the cities and larger towns, where, as with whites so with blacks, the mind is more open to conviction and to the formation of new habits. Yet for many years no other place followed Mobile's lead; no other place, because no other clergy- man. Not until 1891 was the second Negro congre-
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gation in Alabama founded-that of St. Mark's, Bir- mingham. The Rev. J. A. Van Hoose fathered the work, and its success has been due to his own personal interest. This work is still in the experimental stage, but if the past is the criterion of the future the wisdom of its methods and the energy manifested in their ap- plication make sure a success equal at least to that achieved in Mobile. Valuable gifts have been made, and a large brick building for an industrial school is completed. The entire property owned by St. Mark's mission, Birmingham, is valued at sixteen thousand dollars. That of the mission of the Good Shepherd, Mobile, is valued at twelve thousand dollars.
CHAPTER VIII. THE ORPHANS' HOME.
W HEN the Convention of 1865 met in Greens- boro Bishop Wilmer was able to announce the successful beginning, at Tuskaloosa, of the Church Home for Orphans, the purchase of suitable property and the possession of certain funds for investment.
Within ten days after the Convention's adjournment the prospect for the orphans was gloomy. Lee had surrendered, Davis had been captured, and Watts arrested-the President, the General, and the Gov- ernor-and the Confederate bonds and certificates which constituted the bulk of subscriptions to the Orphans' Home were worthless. The support of the orphans had been swept away, save a few bales of cotton into which the Bishop had wisely converted four thousand dollars of Confederate money. On the proceeds of this cotton, together with what personal solicitation secured from the small pantries and smoke- houses of the surrounding country, the institution was supported nearly three years.
Early in 1867 the Church Home property in Tuska- loosa, which had cost thirty thousand dollars in Con- federate money, was sold for two thousand dollars in gold; and right glad the Bishop was to make the sale. Litigation of a. tedious and expensive nature had arisen almost the day the property was purchased, and when the sale was effected, the title made per-
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fect, and the lawyers were satisfied, fifteen hundred dollars remained. With this the orphans were re- moved to Mobile and settled in a two-room house on a lot given by St. John's parish. Two of the three deaconesses had for the last two years been engaged in conducting a girls' school at Spring Hill, and the orphans had been in charge of the other deaconess and the probationers; but the work of the Sisterhood was henceforth to be concentrated on the Home. The school was rented out and the sisters came into town.
The enterprise was commenced with difficulty, and at first met every possible discouragement. The Bishop's wisdom in bringing the orphans to Mobile was seriously questioned. The city was impover- ished. The Church already owned a fourth interest in the Protestant Orphan Asylum, and Churchmen could not see the necessity for a distinctly Church home for orphans. Outside of Mobile, however, the removal gave great satisfaction. Orphans were sent in abundance from the interior; but strangely enough the communities that sent the orphans uniformly forgot to send any money along with them. The congre- gations in the interior believed in the economic prin- ciple of division of labor-they would undertake to supply orphans if Mobile would agree to support them. The Bishop felt this inequality and attempted, but unsuccessfully, to make the inland towns feel it. One of the reasons why he had established the school at Spring Hill was to provide revenue for the Home; but the revenue was insignificant and the load proved too heavy for the deaconesses in charge.
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Race, creed, and denomination of parents were not the criteria of admission into the Home. The orphan was an orphan, whether it was a legitimate child or an illegitimate, and it demanded succor whether it was of Italian or of American descent. Only two things were pre-requisite to admittance: That neither parent was living, and that the child was destitute. The Home was a venture based on faith in God and confidence in humanity. At the outset the faith was exercised, the trial was met successfully, and the reward has continued uninterruptedly and in over- flowing measure to the present day. A butcher, not a Churchman, died and left three children for whom there were no relatives to provide. By the Bishop's direction the children were brought to the Home and were there carefully nurtured until they were able to go forth to earn their own living. The butchers of Mobile felt that such kindness to one of their number was a kindness to all, and they manifested their ap- . preciation in a manner possibly without parallel. In the many years that have passed they have supplied the Homes with all the fresh meat that they use, and have never for a day wavered in their generosity. Money is invariably offered; it is invariably refused .*
Not only to the butchers but to the entire city did the Home commend itself by its breadth of spirit, and not only the butchers but the entire city made ready and generous response. Given more freely to worldliness and grosser vices than any other city in the state,
* It is worthy of note that not one of the five orphanages in Mobile ever has to pay for fresh meat.
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Mobile has ever manifested a zeal and liberality to- wards institutions of beneficence that no other city in the state has even remotely approximated. Much has been forgiven her because she has loved much. Her very pleasure seeking she has turned into an instru- ment of mercy. The mad revelry of Shrove Tuesday, or "Mardi Gras," gave opportunity for a "Bazaar," which turned into the treasury of the Church Home about two thousand dollars annually .* Once in every year a society of train-men ran an excursion to Biloxi, Miss., and gave the proceeds to the orphans' homes in the city, the Church Home's share being one-fourth. Besides these organized benefactions individual gifts were large and constant.
But while all praise should be given the people of Mobile for their liberal contributions to this institu- tion, the building of the endowment fund must be credited entirely to the economy of the deaconesses, which left a surplus from the yearly receipts, and to the sagacity of the Bishop in administering the funds thus saved. While the entire income was not more than three thousand dollars a year, one-half of this sum sufficed to support sixty persons.
The remainder, except what was put in real estate, was invested, as it came to hand, in interest-bearing securities. At first the money was lent on individual notes. Then, as the amount grew larger, it was lent
* In justice to the interior parishes it should be stated that not a few of them-notably Montgomery, Selma, Greensboro, Tuskaloosa-were liberal contributors, especially of articles for sale, to these Bazaars.
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to private banking houses. Then when the solvency of the banks became doubtful the investment was changed to bonds of the county of Mobile. Only six thousand dollars was thus invested; and when the en- dowment grew beyond this it was invested in Ala- bama bonds, the Bishop as fiduciary preferring secu- rity to income. Alabama bonds were then at a dis- count, on account of the vast increase of the public debt in reconstruction times ; but some men had con- fidence in the State's power of recuperation, in the stability of her credit, and in the inevitable apprecia- tion of her bonds. Fortunate was it for the Church and the Church Home that the Bishop of Alabama was one whose faith in Alabama had not been shaken. The first bonds that Bishop Wilmer bought for the Church Home cost .from one-half to three-fourths of their face value, and bore from two to seven per cent. The latter bonds, known as "Class A," were the most profitable investment; for they increased regularly in the rate of interest, and, from paying three and four per cent on the investment when they were purchased, are now paying eight and ten per cent. The apprecia- tion of these securities was remarkably rapid, a bond that cost only $490 in 1879 costing $822 three years later. It was certain that these bonds would go to par, and at every opportunity the Bishop increased his holdings. . Every batch, almost every bond, cost more than the last purchase. After 1887 all bonds were bought at a premium.
Meanwhile the Home was enlarged in scope, a new department for boys was opened in another street, and -15
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several lots were purchased to meet the hygienic demands of the present and the certain develop- ment of the future. Yet by virtue of the liberality of Mobile, the frugality of the deaconesses, and the sagacity of the Bishop, it came to pass that one day in 1896 Bishop Wilmer was able to announce to the people of Alabama that the Church Homes for Orphans had completed their endowment fund of $40,000, and that this amount was securely invested in registered bonds of the State of Alabama.
CHAPTER IX.
THE CASE OF HAMNER HALL.
T is a wide-spread delusion that the letter and the spirit of any law or agreement stand in such rela- tionship to each other that obedience to the spirit is possible only through disobedience to the letter. Always the letter must yield to the spirit, and justice to generosity. They who contend for exact obedience to the letter are termed formalists, and they who are unwilling to pay for generosity to one person by in- justice to another are looked upon as hard-hearted.
These reflections are occasioned by a review of the many sharp conflicts and wide divergences of opinion and mutual recriminations that arose and held sway in diocesan Conventions through twenty years and more concerning the proper disposition of the Hamner Hall property in Montgomery. Through this period the property in question was developing legally and justly from an institution for the education of the young Churchmen of Alabama into the bulk of the Episcopal Endowment Fund, and through the same period uninformed amiability and illogical sentiment were enacting anew, and with the old-time result, the role of Dame Partington. The physical laws that govern tides and storms are not more clearly the laws of God than are those moral laws by which this meta- morphosis was guided.
We have already seen that Hamner Hall was opened
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as the diocesan school for girls in October, 1860, and that the school was immediately successful. But for two years the work was handicapped by lack of suit- able buildings, the present structure not being ready for occupancy till 1862. According to the original contract no rent was chargeable for this time, and into so much confusion did the Civil War throw all busi- ness that no attempt was made to collect payment of rent for the next three years. When the War ceased and satisfactory terms could not be made with Mr. Shepherd, the school was transferred to Prof. H. P. Lefebvre, who took charge in October, 1865, and con- ducted it in a thoroughly satisfactory manner till his death, four years later.
Meanwhile, in 1863, the trustees of Hamner Hall borrowed from the trustees of the Bishop's Fund the sum of $4,968. It was from this loan that all subse- quent complications arose. The Hamner Hall trustees were empowered by the incorporating act of the Legis- lature to sell or dispose of the property belonging to the corporation, and to borrow money and pledge the property of the corporation as security for the debt. The sum that they borrowed under such authority was for the purpose of making final payment for the erec- tion of the school-building. This debt was not secured by mortgage, the simple notes of the trustees being deemed ample security; nevertheless the property was liable, both morally and legally, for the payment of the loan.
On this debt no payment, whether of principal or
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of interest, was ever made by the trustees of Hamner Hall.
The creation of the debt immediately altered the responsibility of the trustees. Originally holding the property in trust for a girls' school, but subsequently in the execution of their trust incurring a debt, they thenceforward held the property in trust for two sepa- rate and distinct objects: Ist, The payment of the debt; 2nd, The education of the girls of Alabama. The original trust was displaced by the debt. whose payment now became, both legally and morally, the superior obligation. No transaction could now, either legally or morally, ignore the full payment of the debt with accrued interest. Failure to grasp this point of even worldly ethics was the cause of much of the ensuing discussion.
Seven years passed, and the indebtedness remained unsettled. Throughout this time no interest was paid to the trustees of the Bishop's Fund; and Hamner Hall enjoyed the benefit of nearly five thousand dol- lars that had been given to endow the Episcopate and thus relieve parish treasuries. Considerable restless- ness began to appear, culminating in 1870, when the Rev. Horace Stringfellow, D. D., who had recently become rector of St. John's Church, Montgomery, proposed to his vestry that St. John's parish buy the Hamner Hall property and make it a parish school. Dr. Stringfellow had viewed with much dissatisfaction the closing of. the school after Prof. Lefebvre's death; no one had been found worthy to undertake its man- agement; and Dr. Stringfellow determined to explore
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its possibilities under parochial instead of diocesan auspices. St. John's vestry agreed to Dr. String- fellow's proposition, a special committee of the Con- vention agreed with the vestry, and the Convention with its committee; the trustees of Hamner Hall looked favorably on a plan that promised to re-open the school, relieve them from further responsibility, and settle their indebtedness to the trustees of the Bishop's Fund; and the trustees of the Bishop's Fund felt that this transfer, by which the security for the debt would be increased, was the only escape from the alternatives of loss of their loan to Hamner Hall, or alienation of Hamner Hall from educational pur- poses. So with the free consent and glad approval of all concerned a quadrilateral agreement was made to the following effect: The vestry of St. John's Church bought Hamner Hall from its trustees. As payment the vestry assumed the debt of the trustees of Hamner Hall to the trustees of the Bishop's Fund. As secur- ity for the payment of this debt the vestry gave the trustees of the Bishop's Fund their note for five thou- sand dollars with interest, the note being payable in five years, and the mortgage being foreclosable, not simply upon failure to pay the principal at maturity, but also upon the first default in annual interest. The school was not to be diverted from the educational and charitable purposes to which it had been dedi- cated.
Two things in this agreement must be held in view: Ist, The only legal effect of the transfer was to make the ve-try of St. John's Church the trustees of Hanı-
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ner Hall. The conditions of the trust were not changed by the change of trustees. The self-imposed trust for education was still subordinate to the state- imposed trust for the payment of a debt contracted in the execution of the original trust. 2nd, The Con- vention acted with generosity towards St. John's Church, and injustice towards the Bishop's Fund, in agreeing that five thousand dollars should be accepted in full payment for a debt that amounted to seven thousand five hundred dollars. Every other parish in the State must contribute towards the difference.
However, as the event proved, it mattered not how much or how little was conceded. Hamner Hall was conducted as a girls' school two years longer, and during that time St. John's paid the interest on the debt. But in 1873 the girls' school was declared a failure, and Hamner Hall was converted into a boys' school, Francis K. Meade, of Virginia, becoming principal. Thereafter St. John's defaulted in interest every year. Still the trustees of the Bishop's Fund were lenient, and even when, in 1875, the principal fell due and was not paid, no foreclosure was made.
Four years passed, and still the debt was unsettled, and still the interest, which itself might have been at work, was unpaid. Finally, in 1879, a settlement was made, which, it was thought, was final. The parties to the agreement were the rector and delega- tion of St. John's, on the one hand-Dr. Stringfellow, Joel White, John L. Cobbs, Charles T. Pollard, Pow- hatan Lockett, and Josiah Morris-and a special com- mittee of the Convention, on the other,-the Rev. R.
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H. Cobbs, the Rev. S. U. Smith, A. Benners, and Henry D. Clayton. Their settlement was adopted by the Convention. It was as follows: The trustees of the Bishop's Fund accepted from the vestry of St. John's parish a conveyance of the entire Hamner Hall property, including the Bishop Cobbs Orphans' Home, in satisfaction of the mortgage debt and accrued inter- est; but in consideration of the sum expended by St. John's parish in erecting the Orphans' Home, St. John's was to retain the use of that portion of the property till it should be needed as the residence of a future bishop. The debt for which St. John's was legally liable was seven thousand dollars, and Ham- ner Hall was accepted in lieu thereof. So, after many years, the Bishop's Fund had come into absolute pos- session of a piece of property whose immediate value was certainly not greater than the debt, and whose prospective value was purely conjectural. The trus- tees of the Bishop's Fund had apparently made a losing investment in lending Hamner Hall money.
During the seven years that now elapsed (1879- 1886), the Hamner Hall property was a veritable white elephant to the Bishop's Fund. A six-years' contract was made with the Rev. George M. Everhart, D. D., who undertook to revive the girls' school. No rental was charged the first year, and the entire rental of the next two years was expended in repairs. Sub- sequently still larger amounts were allowed for repairs, and at the expiration of the lease the property had cost more than the rental had yielded. Nevertheless in 1885 the lease was renewed for a term of four years
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at an annual rental of $560, but the " extraordinary repairs" that were paid for out of this sum reduced the net income considerably. So, until 1887, the Hamner Hall property was a dead expense to the- Bishop's Fund, and money that should have been helping the parishes pay the Bishop's salary was ex- pended for the benefit of a school that was really a private venture and in no way under diocesan super- vision. The Bishop's Fund had not found in Hamner Hall a Golconda; but now it began to dawn upon the trustees, and, a little later, upon others, that in the end the investment might be made profitable. Mont- gomery was growing, and from a straggling town of twelve thousand souls of whom one half were Negroes, bade fair to be the leading city of Alabama. In every part of the town property values were growing health- ily. This growth of population and appreciation in values was most marked in the southwestern portion of the city, in the vicinity of Hamner Hall, and this. property now came to be looked upon as having great financial possibilities. Very shortly it was valued at several times its original cost. To its ultimate value none dared set a limit.
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