Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II, Part 54

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Mississippi > Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II > Part 54

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*Memorial address, Rt .- Rev. W. E. Adams, D. C. L., 1887.

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At length in the thirty-sixth year of his episcopate he asked that an assistant be given him, and at the meeting of the fifty-fifth annual* council an effort was made to afford the Bishop the needed assistance. On the 19th of April, 1882, the council met in Christ church, Vicksburg, and on the third day of its session proceeded to the election of an assist- ant bishop, voting by orders and parishes. The Rt. Rev. W. F. Adams, D. C. L., now bishop of Easton, was the first choice of the clergy, but this choice failed of confirmation by the laity. The Rev. Dr. Alex. I. Drysdale was then nominated by the clergy, but this nomination was also rejected by the laity. A third attempt resulted in the election of the Rt .- Rev. J. H. D. Wingfield, missionary bishop of northern California. Bishop Wingfield, however, being unable to sever his connection with his important jurisdiction, declined the election.

A special council was then called by the Bishop, which met in St. Andrew's church, Jackson, November 28, 1882, and unanimously elected the Rev. Hugh Miller Thompson, S. T. D., to be assistant bishop of the diocese of Mississippi. Dr. Thompson accepted his elec- tion and was consecrated on St. Matthias' day, February 24, 1883, in Trinity church, New Orleans, Bishop Green being the corsecrator and the bishops of Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Arkansas and Michigan assisting.

Bishop Thompson is too well known to make necessary, and this not the place for, any distinctly personal sketch of that distinguished prelate and scholar. Suffice it to say now that his accession to the episcopate was like the infusion of new blood into the diocese, and yet nothing about him was more admirable than his filial regard for the aged bishop, and his absolute subordination to his every wish. On May 8, 1884, however, the Bishop transferred the administration of the diocese to his coadjutor, and retired to Sewanee, where as chancellor of the University of the South, he continued to reside, making brief annual visitations to his diocese, until he was called to his reward. Upon the death of Bishop Green, February 13, 1887, Bishop Thompson became bishop of the diocese.

It remains now to give some brief account of the diocese as it is to-day.

We have seen that in the primary convention of 1826 only four parishes were repre- sented, viz., those of Natchez, Woodville, Church Hill and Port Gibson. Of these places Natchez is the only one which even now can properly be called a city, and nothing is more remarkable as an illustration of the changed aspect of many things since the war than the decadence of prosperous parishes drawing their support from the neighborhood settlements of wealthy planters, now planters no more, and the coming into prominence of railroad towns and cities as the centers of educational and religious effort.

The parish of Natchez, the oldest and most important in the diocese, attained its great- est growth under the Rev. Alex. Marks, for thirteen years rector of the parish, a member of the standing committee of the diocese, dean of the convocation of Natchez and deputy to the general convention. He entered into rest on August 28, 1886. The parish numbers now some three hundred and fifty families and four hundred and eleven communicants, owning also besides the church a large and commodious rectory and a parish building used for school and other purposes. The Rev. F. A. De Rosset, who succeeded Mr. Marks, is the present rector.

One of the first parishes of any note, added to the courageous and faithful four compris- ing the primary convention, was the parish of Christ church, Vicksburg, which appears first upon the journal of the convention of 1839. The Rev. Dr. George Weller, then rector, reports the number of communicants as twenty-seven, and says "at present we worship in a

*Changed from convention to council in 1869.

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large room over a storehouse, but active exertions are making for the erection of a handsome church, the corner-stone of which was laid by Bishop Polk, during his visitation of that year, on February 19, 1839. The parish now and for twenty-five years, under the care of the ven- erable rector, the Rev. Henry Sansom, D. D., numbers nearly two hundred communicants and four hundred and fifty souls. Its church, chapel and rectory are complete and commodious, and the parish is a power for good in the city of Vicksburg.

The increasing membership of Christ church which kept pace with the growth of the city led to the formation of the parish of the church of the Holy Trinity, Vicksburg, which was organized September 29, 1869, and soon became one of the leading parishes of the dio- cese. To the untiring energy of its first rector, the Rev. W. W. Lord, is due the massive and imposing edifice in which the congregation now worships. This, by far the most beautiful church building in the diocese, was completed in 1874, at a cost of about $70,000. Dr. Lord was succeeded by the Rt. - Rev. W. F. Adams, D. D., now bishop of Easton, under whom the parish grew and flourished. The present rector is the Rev. Nowell Logan, who succeeded Bishop Adams in 1888.

St. Andrew' church, Jackson, was organized in 1838, and admitted into union with the council in 1843. This parish, including within its limits the state capital, is one of the most important in the diocese. St. Paul's, Columbus; St. Mark's, Raymond, and St. Paul's, Gre- nada, were admitted into union with the convention in 1840, and Christ church, Holly Springs, in 1842. Other important points now occupied by parishes of later date are Aberdeen, Biloxi, Greenville, Meridian, Oxford, Yazoo City, etc.

Our space does not permit us to give more than a very general view of the statistics and present condition of the diocese.

The diocese of Mississippi is co-terminous with the state, and therefore covers some forty thousand three hundred and forty square miles. The number of families reported in the journal of 1891 as attached to the church is one thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight em- bracing some seven thousand souls. The communicants reported are three thousand and sixty- six, and confirmed persons, three thousand four hundred and forty-six; but as these figures cover only the reports from parishes, and some of these very defective, they do not fairly rep- resent the strength of the church in the state. The proper total of communicants, could it be ascertained, would be found not far from four thousand.

The number of clergy reported in 1891 is thirty-two, parishes and missions seventy- seven, church edifices fifty-six, rectories and parish buildings twenty-five. The contributions for all purposes during the last year as reported were $45,028.94, and the total value of church property reported by the parishes, $328,155. To this should be added the property of the diocese, including the bishop's residence on Battle Hill, near Jackson. Here on the very site of the old residence of Bishop Green, destroyed by the Federal troops, during the war, is situated the Episcopal residence where Bishop Thompson dispenses a hospitality as refined and generous as it is scriptural. The residence and ground occupy about twenty acres, forming a gentle eminence called Battle Hill, upon the side of which looking toward Jackson is to be built a stone chapel in memory of Bishop Green; most of the material being now on the spot.

The present officers of the dioceses are the Rt .- Rev. Hugh Miller Thompson, S. T. D., LL. D., bishop, whose residence, as we have seen, is at Battle Hill, Jackson; the Rev. Henry Sansom, D. D., president of the standing committee; the Rev. Nowell Logan, secretary and registrator; Mr. A. M. Leigh, treasurer; Hon. William G. Yerger, of Greenville, chan- cellor; the Rev. William Cross, secretary, and Dr. G. W. Howard, treasurer of the missionary

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committee, and Messrs. R. L. Saunders, Q. O. Eckford and Frederic Speed, trustees of the Episcopal fund and church property.

In bringing to a close this brief and imperfect sketch, we can not do better than to quote the language of one of our bishops. Bishop Thompson in his latest charge to the clergy and laity of the diocese, summing up the progress of the diocese in the first septennate of his administration, says:

"It seems fitting, in this seventh anniversary of presiding in this council, to make you an address and charge, as it were, instead of the usual council sermon. One need not believe in the doctrine of mystic numbers to be impressed with the passage of a period of seven years of his life in a new office and responsibility, and to desire to review somewhat and take account of his work in them. Seven years and a month ago the fifty-sixth annual council met in Grace church, Canton, and I presided, for the first time, in the diocese of Mississippi. *

* * * Seven years ago, including the bishop and assistant, and the Rt. - Rev. Dr. Adams, there were in the diocese twenty-seven clergy. Of these six were non-residents, leaving twenty-one as our actual working force. There are now twenty six priests, seven deacons and the bishop. Thirty-four in all, of whom but two are not engaged actively in the work. There have been ten churches built during these years where none existed before, three of them brick. Nine churches have been restored, enlarged, completed or cleared of debt. Two have been built to take the place of others burned; each a great improvement upon its pre- decessor. Seven rectories have been built or purchased. One parish building, creditable to any parish in the church, has been erected at Natchez, and a very neat and sufficient one at Biloxi. A residence for the bishop has been built in this city, and above all a church school for girls, by the devoted faithfulness of one clergyman, has been established, worked to a high prosperity, and housed in perhaps the most elegant and perfect school building in the state.

"Seven years ago there was no missionary board and no missionary fund. A canon creat- ing such a board was passed in the council of 1883. No funds came to be administered till 1884. At that date we began our present system of pledges, and since then we have dis- pensed, in support of missionaries, in educating candidates, in helping in church building- the purposes for which the board exists-something over $10,000. During the same period the obligations of the diocese to its episcopate have been, in contrast to a long previous experience, promptly met, at least, at every year's close, and all in the face of my first year's experience, the loss by a treasurer's failure of all our diocesan funds. Certainly there has been a bracing up of our diocesan administration, a confidence and feeling of strength on which we may congratulate ourselves, and take courage for the future.

" Thus have we endeavored to follow the growth of the 'vine planted in the wilderness' so many years ago. It will be seen that the church has kept pace steadily with the state, sharing the fortunes of the commonwealth in the evil days as in the good. But the hand of man can not really come near to do her evil, for she is of God. Her boughs are 'like the goodly cedar whose branches shall extend to the sea and her boughs to the river'; and she must increase and prosper, until in His good time shall come to pass the saying that is writ- ten, ' the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.'"

The Presbyterian church in Mississippi began its existence as an organized body in Mis- sissippi in the first decade of the present century. Prior to this date, during the long predominance of the French and Spanish authorities in the region known as west Florida, in which Mississippi was included, no toleration was extended to the professors of Protestant

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Christianity. After the requisition of this region by the United States, and the erection by congress of a part of it, first into the territory of Mississippi, in 1798, and subsequently, in 1817, into the state of Mississippi, all such obstructions were removed, and representatives of the different Protestant denominations poured rapidly into the country. The first settle- ments were made in the southwestern section of the territory, in the counties bordering on, or contiguous to, the Mississippi river, in what was called the Natchez district. The northern part of the territory was claimed and occupied by the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians. Many of the emigrants came from the Carolinas, and were of Scotch and Scotch- Irish descent, strongly tenacious of their Presbyterian traditions and usages. Others of a kindred type came from the Western states, and some from New England.

The first stage in the history of the church may be said to extend from 1800 to 1815, and may be called the pioneer period. The effort to organize the Presbyterian material in Mississippi began in 1801, when this frontier region was visited by three clergymen-the Rev. William Montgomery, the Rev. James Hall and the Rev. James Bowman-under a com- mission from the synod of Carolina. They made their way on horseback, through the wilderness, to Mississippi. These ministers spent part of a year in the territory, exploring the country, preaching in the different settlements, and gathering the Presbyterian popula- tion into congregations. They were followed in 1803 by the Rev. Joseph Bullen, a native of Massachusetts, and for many years a pastor in Vermont, who had been sent out by the New York Missionary society to establish a mission among the Indians in the northern part of the territory. After spending four years in this work, Mr. Bullen removed with his family into the southern settlements, where he had purchased a tract of land, about twenty miles northeast of the town of Natchez. Here, besides cultivating his farm, he occasionally taught a school, and statedly held religious services among the neighboring communities. In 1804 he constituted, in regular form, the first Presbyterian church in Mississippi, at Uniontown, in Jefferson county, under the name of the Bethel church. From this date till 1812 the work of organizing congregations into regular churches was carried on by Mr. Bullen and other ministers who had come into the territory, until the number had reached eight. Four ministers were in the field supplying these flocks with the means of grace-the Rev. Joseph Bullen, the Rev. James Smylie, the Rev. Jacob Rickhow and the Rev. William Montgomery.

The second stage in the progress of the church may be noted in 1815, when the above- named ministers and churches were constituted by an act of the synod of Kentucky into a new and independent presbytery, to be known as the Mississippi presbytery. The first meeting of this presbytery was held at the Salem church on Pine ridge, in Adams county, on the 6th of March, 1816. The territory assigned to the Mississippi presbytery was origi- nally of immense extent, and in some directions without limit. It embraced a large part of Alabama, the whole of Mississippi and Louisiana, and portions of Arkansas and Texas. In 1817 that part of the Mississippi territory which now constitutes the state of Mississippi, was by act of congress admitted into the Union as a sovereign state. From this fact it will be seen that the population of Mississippi had been largely increased. The interior of the state had been penetrated by immigrants, and the section previously occupied by Indians had been, after their removal, rapidly peopled by settlers. Presbyterian communities and churches were multiplied in proportion to this increase of population. As the result of these changes within the twenty years succeeding the creation of the Mississippi presbytery the vast field originally included in that body was subdivided by the carving of new presbyteries out of its territory until 1835. Instead of being the sole ecclesiastical judiciary of the Presbyterian order in the Southwest it found itself reduced to the position of one of a numerous sister-

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hood of presbyteries. The period now uuder consideration was one of great activity in the Presbyterian church. The obligation to carry the gospel to parts beyond was fully recog- nized, and the work of propagating religion was prosecuted in every available direction. Besides the care of organized churches missions were maintained among the Indians, plans for the religious instruction of the slave population were adopted in all the presbyteries, and special attention was given to the founding of schools of learning. The records of the Missionary society of the Mississippi presbytery abound in traces on the part of its agents of a zeal and a hardihood in enduring labor and trial that were truly apostolic. The work of these men was that of quarrying stones from a mass of shapeless rock for the rearing of a future temple. One of them, the Rev. John H. Vancourt, in his report, made in 1823, gives this notice of his visit to Jackson, now the seat of government of the state Mis- sissippi: "On the 29th of May I arrived at Jackson. This town now contains about a dozen families. There are likewise several settled in the country around within a few miles of the town. There are in the town three members of the Presbyterian church and several Presbyterian families. There is no regular preaching here of any kind. The pious mourn over the loss of religious privileges and ardently desire to have some one to break unto them the bread of life. I preached three times to this people." It is, perhaps, not claiming too much to say that at this early date the Presbyterian church was the forerunner of all others in the work of popular education in Mississippi. As an evidence of its zeal and of its actual achievement in this department it may be mentioned that in 1829 the presbytery of Mississippi resolved to establish within its bounds an institution of learning of the highest order then existing in the country. This project was consummated in 1830 by the inauguration of Oakland college in a rural district in Claiborne county, about four miles distant from the town of Rodney, on the Mississippi river. The Rev. Jeremiah Cham- berlain, D. D., was installed as its first president, under whose administration the institution rapidly attained a respectable maturity. After preserving its useful mission for more than forty years, Oakland college was constrained through loss of funds consequent upon the Civil war, to close its doors. Its property was purchased by the state of Mississippi for the pur- pose of founding the Alcorn university for colored young man. The funds of Oakland college, after the payment of its debts, were devoted to the establishing of the Chamberlain- Hunt academy at Port Gibson, an institution of a high order, which has ever since con- tinued to maintain a vigorous existence. During its whole history Oakland college was sus- tained entirely by the contributions of private individuals, mostly Presbyterians, in Mississippi.

The church reached the third stage of its history in 1835, when by act of the general assembly of the Presbyterian church in the United States of America, the present synod of Mississippi was formed. Under this act it attained organic completeness, presenting in a gradation of courts the development of the Presbyterian idea of church order. The synod of Mississippi was composed of all the presbyteries lying within the bounds of the state of Mississippi (except two on the northern border, which from contiguity were attached to the synod of Memphis), together with those belonging to the state of Louisiana. The synod of Mississippi has ever since constituted a bond of union among the churches of the state, exercising within constitutional limits the power of review and control over all the presby- teries. Under this arrangement, from 1835 to 1861, the church continued to expand and prosper .. Its ministry and eldership included in them men of marked ability, and its policy was distinguished by zeal and activity in every department of evangelical work. The doc- trinal complexion of the churches was strictly in harmony with the standards of Presby-

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terianism, as formulated by the Westminster assembly of divines, and has continued to be so until the present time. This conservatism was evinced when, in 1837, the rupture which divided the Presbyterian church in the United States of America into the old school and new school parties occurred. The synod of Mississippi on that occasion, with the exception of a single presbytery, decided to adhere to the old school party. In this connection it remained, being annually represented in the general assembly of that body, through com- missions from its presbyteries, till the secession of the Southern states, and the opening of the Civil war threw such obstacles in the way of fellowship with the Northern section as required the churches within the bounds of the Confederacy to dissolve their connection with it and organize themselves as a distinct corporation, under a general assembly of their own.

This change of relation marks the fourth and final stage of the Presbyterian church in Mississippi. The Presbyterian Church South was regularly constituted under the title of the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America, by the convening of a gen- eral assembly, composed of commissioners from the presbyteries of the seceding states, at Augusta, Ga., on the 4th of December, 1861. Representatives from most of the presbyteries belonging to Mississippi were present at this meeting. The reasons which justified the act of severance were published to "all the churches of Jesus Christ throughout the earth" in an able address prepared by the Rev. Dr. Thornwell, of South Carolina. The separation thus created between the Presbyterian Church North and South, survived the reunion of the states at the close of the war, and has been maintained till the present day. It is main- tained, however, solely as an organic arrangement and in consistency with the most cordial fraternal relations between the two bodies. After the extinction of the Confederacy the title of the Southern church was changed to that of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Of this body the churches of Mississippi have, since 1861, formed a constituent part.

The disastrous effects of the Civil war in the state of Mississippi was as apparent in the department of religious life and work as they were in all others. For the first fifteen years after that great convulsion the Presbyterian church, in common with all other denominations, was enfeebled by the exhaustion and embarrassed by the confusion which prevailed throughout the country. Its resources were enormously reduced by the extinction of slavery and the general depreciation of property. Agriculture was impeded by the introduction of a new and experimental system of labor. The survival of debts, where assets and incomes had disappeared, involved the leading landholders largely in bankruptcy. The unsettled state of society and the absence of means of livelihood arrested immigration, and in fact, led to a considerable drifting of population away from the state. As the result, the strong churches at the commercial centers became weak; and the rural churches, which were depend- ant for their support upon planting neighborhoods, unable to maintain an organization by their own efforts, sank into the position of missionary stations or became extinct. Happily this season of depression has passed away. Within the last decade a marked revival in the enterprise and prosperity of Mississippi has been witnessed. The state has become inter- laced by a system of railways, new marts for traffic have spung up in every direction, some of them rapidly reaching imposing dimensions, the relations of capital to labor have been adjusted to new conditions, manufactories have been introduced, new industries have been inaugurated, and a new commonwealth is rising out of the wreck of the old. The stimulus of this healthful reaction has been felt by the churches, and the Presbyterian church has kept pace with the others in the attempt to meet the moral and religious wants created by the new era. It may be said to have guided itself, at the close of the century, with the missionary

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armor which it wore and wielded so effectively at the beginning of it. It is aiming to raise its fallen sanctuaries, and to plant new ones in infant settlements, to increase the ranks of its ministry, and by a wide system of evangelistic work, supplemental to that of the local pastor- ate, to convey the influence of Christian doctrine and ordinance into every destitute portion of the state.

The territory of the state is divided, ecclesiastically, into 1. The presbyteries of Chick- asaw and north Mississippi, in connection with the synod of Memphis. 2. The presbytery of Tombeckbee. 3. The presbytery of central Mississippi. 4. The presbytery of Missis- sippi. 5. Parts of the presbyteries of Louisiana and New Orleans, including the southern counties of the state, to the Gulf of Mexico. These presbyteries report as having under their care some two hundred churches, and about eighty-five ministers, with several licentiates, and a number of candidates for the ministry. In addition to these, there are in Mississippi, at least, six colored churches and four or more colored ministers of the Presbyterian order, besides two licentiates and five candidates.

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Biographical and historical memoirs of Mississippi, embracing an authentic and comprehensive account of the chief events in the history of the state and a record of the lives of many of the most worthy and illustrious families and individuals, Vol. II, Part 54

Author: Goodspeed Brothers Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Goodspeed Brothers
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, Goodspeed
Number of Pages: 1314