USA > North Carolina > Historical papers of the North Carolina Conference Historical Society and the Western North Carolina Conference Historical Society > Part 10
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and therefore recommend that the matter be left for the ensuing year to the District Conferences and at the next Annual Conference the Board will have a proper plan digested for adoption." There were 762 schools reported that year, with 4,943 officers and teachers, and 42,196 pupils.
In 1883 the committee made a report providing for a plan of District Sunday School Conferences, which seems to have been a step in the direction of the splendid organizations now provided for under the plan of the General Sunday School Board. The next year each district reported having held a meeting along the lines sug- gested by the committee.
In 1885 the name of Rev. R. F. Bumpas takes the place of Rev. V. A. Sharpe as a member of the Board. James Wilson presented a resolution passed by the Warrenton District Conference requesting the appointment of a Sunday School agent for this Conference as contem- plated in answer to question 2, paragraph 60 of the Discipline. No evidence of such appointment is found.
In 1861 the new Quadrennial Board is announced as follows: Clergy-J. E. Thompson, chairman; J. H. Hall, J. D. Buie, W. L. Grissom, W. M. Bagby, J. C Hartsell, secretary; Alpheus McCullen, J. T. Lyon, R. L. Warlick, P. L. Herman, T. P. Ricaud, B. B. Culbreth, J. C. Thomas. Lay: J. W. Hayes, J. H. Southgate, C. H. Ireland, G. C. Montgomery, G. W. Sparger, J. W. Biggerstaff, W. H. Phifer, J. M. Lamb, D. B. Nicholson, J. W. Bryan, John Hadley, E. C. Glenn, I. L. Wright.
In the report for 1SS6 is found the following: "Resolved, That we will use our influence to secure the contribution of ten cents per capita by our Sunday School children, to be devoted to the payment of our missionary debt." The report makes mention of District Sun- day School Conferences, Circuit Conferences and Children's Day. All along there is commendation of our literature, but a call for more emphasis is upon doctrines. A special table appears for the Sunday School statistics this year; it shows that $10.080 was raised by the Sunday Schools for all purposes; $874 of this was given to missions.
The desire for separate meeting places for the Sunday School as expressed in 1887 was not primarily for the benefit of the school, but that "they may in no way interfere with the Church services."
In 1888 appears this significant paragraph in the report of the Committee on Church Property: "The time has come in the history of our Church when it is necessary that we should have in our cities and towns, rooms especially furnished and equipped in order to insure the largest measure of success in the Sunday School work."
In 1890 the new Quadrennial Board was appointed as follows: Clergy: A. R. Raven, chairman; L. L. Johnson, secretary; J. T. Lyon, F. B. McCall, J. G. Johnson, J. G. Nelson, J. O. Guthrie. Lay: G. S. Prichard, J. H. Southgate, J. M. Lamb, D. B. Nicholson. J. W. Bryan, J. F. Norman, John Hadley. The Conference boundary had been changed that year and the report shows that there were 564 schools, 4.186 officers and teachers. 34,088 scholars. The sum of $354 was raised that year on Children's Day.
In 1891 two members were added to the Board, these being J. E.
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Thompson and C. W. Bynum. Nothing of particular note appears in 1892.
In 1893 a very important memorial went from this Conference to the General Conference asking that a parent Sunday School Board be created to take the place of the General Conference Sunday School Committee, and that the parent Board be directed to prepare a course of reading and study for Sunday School teachers and older scholars. Another memorial was presented, coming from the Durham District Conference and looking to some changes in the manner of electing superintendents and teachers and in supervising the work, but it failed to pass the committee on memorials.
The new Quadrennial Board appointed in 1894 was constituted as follows: Clergy: F. B. McCall, T. J. Gattis, W. J. Crowson, J. O. Guthrie, J. G. Johnson, J. T. Lyon, J. D. Pegram, R. P. Troy, J. R. Sawyer. Lay: J. P. Hunt, James Fitzgerald, J. M. Lamb, W. B. Harper, Dr. J. L. Nicholson, W. L. Arendell, J. Y. Olds, G. S. Prichard, J. M. Benson.
In 1895 the Board offered to donate funds not in excess of $50 to schools having no library, conditioned on the school receiving such aid raising an equal amount.
In 1896 it was urged that provision be made for holding a joint Conference of Sunday School and Epworth League workers.
In 1897 Dr. James Atkins. Sunday School Editor, and Dr. L. F. Beaty, assistant editor, were present at the Sunday School anniver- sary. The report of the Board shows that there were held that year four district and seventeen circuit Sunday School conference. Chil- dren's Day observance and offering are referred to.
The Quadrennial Board appointed in 1898 was as follows: Clergy : J. T. Draper, T. J. Gattis, W. H. Puckett, W. W. Rose, J. W. Martin, W. J. Crowson, R. H. Willis. J. Sanford, F. B. McCall. Lay: Geo. S. Baker, W. H. McCabe, C. W. Bynum, J. T. Johnson, J. L. Nicholson, G. S. Pritchard, J. M. Leigh, D. B. Zollicoffer, L. G. Roper.
In 1899 Children's Day offerings amounted to $283.00.
In 1900 there were 610 schools; 5,007 officers and teachers; 39,148 scholars. The schools paid $2,705 for missions that year and $251.66 for Children's Day.
In 1901 Dr. James Atkins made a Sunday School address before the Conference. It is in this year that the name of L. G. Roper first appears as treasurer of the Board; he continued to hold this position with rare faithfulness until his death in 1915. In 1901 first mention is made of the Teacher Training Circles which were beginning to be formed and the next year the coming of Prof. H. M. Hamill in the interest of this work is noted.
Properly speaking it is in 1902 that the new era of Sunday School prosperity began in this Conference. In that year the Home Depart- ment is first mentioned in our records; Teacher Training Circles are reported and new emphasis is laid upon Children's Day. The Quad- rennial Board appointed that year was as follows: Clergy: K. D. Holmes, chairman; J. A. Daily, J. Sanford, L. S. Etheridge, J. J. Porter, W. H. Townsend, L. L. Nash, H. A. Humble, W. E. Hocutt.
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Lay: B. W. Ballard, J. A. Long, C. W. Bynum, F. L. Bundy, W. B. Cooper, Secretary; G. S. Prichard, G. D. Best, T. W. Mason, L. G. Roper, Treasurer.
The first mention of the Cradle Roll Department in our Confer- ence appears in 1903. In this year the request is made for the appointment of a District Sunday School manager to co-operate with the members of the Board residing within the districts. The plan evidently met with little success.
The presence of Dr. James Atkins and of Dr. H. M. Hamill, Superintendent of Teacher Training, is noted at the Conference of 1904. Plans for an institution to be held in the summer of 1905 were tentatively announced. The meeting was held at Wrightsville at the time appointed and met with such favor that similar meetings were held in 1906 and 1907 at the same place.
In 1906 the Quadrennial Board was appointed. The following were named: Clergy: W. P. Constable, K. D. Holmes, E. R. Welch, J. A. Daily, H. A. Humble, F. A. Bishop, W. E. Hocutt, B. E. Stanfield, J. W. Bradley. Lay: G. S. Prichard, chairman; J. A. Long, W. B. Cooper, sceretary; B. W. Ballard, C. W. Bynum, R. B. Boyd, L. G. Roper, treasurer; C. S. Wallace, F. L. Bundy.
In 1902 Mr. W. B. Cooper had been elected secretary of the Board and it is interesting to note how the Children's Day offering steadily increased during the two quadrenniums in which he served in that capacity. In 1902 the offerings were $300; 1903, $500; 1904, $800; 1905, $1,000; 1906, $1,100; 1907, $1,350; 1908, $1,519; 1909, $1,694. In the last named year every charge reported an offering for Chil- dren's Day and this record has been maintained every succeeding year since that time with the possible exception of one or two charges. No small part of the credit for this record as well as the record of many other advanced steps is due to the man who has served the Board and the Conference so unselfishly for eight years as secretary and six as chairman; I refer to Mr. W. B. Cooper, of Wilmington. He has in season and out of season put much of his own money, time and consecrated interest into the Sunday School forward movement of the North Carolina Conference. There is one man in the bounds of this Conference to whom we owe quite so much.
The first mention of employing a full time Sunday School Field Secretary who should carry on the work as it is contemplated today is in the report of the Board of 1906. The recommendation was made several successive years before the appointment was actually made. In 1909 Dr. W. B. North, one of our ablest and most highly esteemed pastors, was appointed to the field and after a year of earnest work he returned to the pastorate. In November, 1911, the writer was called to take up this work, and it has been my joy and task during these five years to labor with the Quadrennial Boards of 1910 and 1914 and through them with the presiding elders, pastors, and people. The two Boards appointed during this time were as follows:
1910: Clergy: A. L. Ormond, Wm. Towe, V. A. Royall, J. H. . Frizelle, J. L. Cuninggim, H. A. Humble, J. W. Bradley, J. H. Shore, W. E. Brown. Lay: J. A. Long, L. G. Roper, Treasurer; J. B.
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Atwater, C. S. Wallace, E. J. Cheatham, J. W. Moore, C. G. Moore, C. F. Bland, secretary; W. B. Cooper, chairman.
1914 (Present Board): Clergy: Walter Patten, V. A. Royall, J .. H. Shore, H. A. Humble, J. H. McCracken, B. E. Stanfield, William Towe, E. H. Davis, J. M. Daniel. Lay: W. E. Sharpe, L. G. Roper, treasurer; J. B. Atwater, C. S. Wallace, E. J. Cheatham, E. H. Gibson, Dr. M. Bolton, C. F. Bland, secretary; W. B. Cooper, chairman.
Mr. Roper having died during the summer of 1915, Mr. C. R. Pugh was appointed that year to succeed him; Mr. E. J. Cheatham was elected treasurer of the Board. In 1916 Mr. C. F. Bland moved from the bounds of the Conference and his successor is to be appointed during the session of Conference about to convene.
In 1909 Dr. H. M. Hamill was present at the Conference session. In 1911 a mid-summer meeting was held at Trinity College for Sun- day School workers; Dr. Hamill, Mrs. Hamill and Rev. C. D. Bulla, the newly elected Superintendent of the Wesley Bible Class Depart- ment, were present as the visiting speakers.
In the spring of 1913 the first special Sunday School edition of the Raleigh Christian Advocate was published and among articles published was a personal letter to the writer from the late dis- tinguished Bishop Alphus W. Wilson, in which he magnified the Sunday School and the home as the great agencies at work in the formation of the character of the youth of the land.
In 1914 the General Conference at Oklahoma City enacted the chapter which is destined to advance Sunday School interests more than all previous legislation combined.
The rest is recent history. The past five years have witnessed a steady growth and advancement along all lines of the work; member- ship, finances, gifts to missions and support of other benevolences by Sunday Schools, and particularly by organized Bible Classes, have increased steadily; but beyond these things have been the inau- guration of systematic plans for the general building up of the schools in such matters as improved equipment, training of teachers, organi- zation of the districts, formation of Wesley Bible Classes for adults and teen age members and a general setting up of the Standard of Efficiency for schools in country, town and city.
Three notable things stand out and will be worthy of note by future historians of North Carolina Conference Sunday School history. These things point with raised hands to better things and tell of the coming of a glad tomorrow for this good people, who are generous, kind, co-operative and to whom this historian owes no small debt of gratitude for many fine courtesies and opportunities of service during the past five years. These three things are:
First. Effective District Sunday School organizations with the Presiding Elders as leaders, supported by a strong staff of volunteer workers, holding the positions of president, vice-president, secretary, treasurer, superintendents of Wesley Bible Classes, of Teacher Train- ing work, of Elementary work and of Home Department work. The work being done by many of these men and women is already note- worthy.
Second. The formation of the Wesley Bible Class Federation at
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Hay Street, Fayetteville, January 19-20, 1916, when more than 300 of the choicest workers of our Church came together as representatives of the Wesley Bible Classes of the North Carolina Conference. Plans were then made which have proved to be effective and will become more so after the next meeting of the Federation which is called to meet in April, 1917, in the city of Rocky Mount; the city which gave to the Federation its first president, Capt. W. H. Newell.
Third. The launching of plans for the training of Sunday School officers and teachers in our Church schools and colleges. This work has been carried forward sufficiently already to make sure of its permanency and ultimate success. The work at Trinity College under the leadership of President W. P. Few, Prof. W. W. Peele, Dr. E. W. Knight and Prof. E. C. Brooks is being taken note of throughout Southern Methodism. One hundred and forty-six students are this year engaged in the Standard Teacher Training Course of the Church; this is in addition to the three hour course which naturally has a limited clientele at this time, but is destined to grow in power and patronage.
Looking back for one hundred years and seeing the hills which our people have climbed in matters of equipment, lesson courses, teacher training, organized Bible class work, evangelism and the other things which have been striven for, shall we not feel afresh that the spirit of Francis Asbury continues to ride in Carolina and that his fondest dreams as preacher, teacher and prophet are being realized as we obey with gladness, with zeal, intelligence and conse- cration the command of our Saviour who said, "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, and lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world?"
George Washington Ivey
REV. MARION T. PLYLER*
OR a full half-century among the plain yoemanry of Western North Carolina moved a brave yet gentle circuit-rider with body of oak and heart of gold, known to thousands, at his death, as "Uncle Ivey," but known to us in this paper as George Washington Ivey. With- out a break and without a stain, that strong body and knightly soul passed through fifty-two years of devoted service, filled with heroic deeds and heaven-born aspirations. No road was too rough, no day was too cold, no congregation was too small to keep back this itinerant Methodist preacher, and he went with a cruse of well-beaten oil. But better still, at all times George Washington was so genuine and true that men trusted him without reserve and received him again and again as a man sent from God. The common people heard him gladly and quoted his words long after he had passed on. Even unto this day, in places where he labored, St. Paul is not quoted as often as he.
A body built for strength, slightly stooped, and weighing around two hundred pounds; a large, full, square-built face, with high-arched forehead and deep set eyes; a wide mouth and a ruddy countenance, betokening health and fine vigor, differentiated George Washington Ivey from the crowd. Once he moved or spoke, his individuality became the more pronounced. The tones of his voice and the unex- pected turn of a phrase caught the ear. Soon the impact of his personality left men feeling that he was in a class all his own. The odd melted away into the unique and the unique became the effective. Often one sally of his wit would puncture a sham, and one thrust of his rapier would leave an antagonist prostrate by the way.
George Washington Ivey, son of Benjamin Ivey and Mary Shankle, came of a good, substantial stock, and grew to manliood among a sturdy, industrious, God-fearing people. Inevitably, both heredity and environment had much to do with the making of the man. These, along with a unique personality, render possible the life-story before us.
The Iveys can trace their ancestral name back to the Norman name "St. Ivo," in France. The St. Ivos went across to England with William the Conqueror, and afterwards became the Iveys, the Ives, the Iversons, etc. The Ivey crest and coat of arms have a place in the books, and are in possession of some members of the family. By the time of the American Revolution, the Iveys were playing no mean part in North Carolina. Jacob Ivey, David Ivey, Reuben Ivey, Elisha Ivey, and Henry Ivey served in the North Caro- lina Line. Curtis Ivey was promoted to lieutenant February 1, 1779; later he filled positions of trust, in 1788 being a member of the Con- vention at Hillsboro.
Owing to the decided indifference toward anything English and the little care given to the preservation of family records, we have
*Annual address before the North Carolina Conference Historical Society, 1917.
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not been able to follow the Ivey line back of the Revolution, though the presumption is in favor of one common ancestry in the settle- ment about Norfolk, Virginia.
In the report of the first census (1790), Benjamin Ivey, of Ran- dolph County, North Carolina, had a family of eight. This Benjamin Ivey is buried in an old country burying-ground near Farmer, Ran- dolph County, North Carolina. Of his children we know the names of four: Kinchen; Rebecca, who married Thomas Kerns; Benjamin, who settled in Stanley (Montgomery); and Isaac, who migrated to Louisiana and died there.
Benjamin Ivey, of Stanley (Montgomery), born in 1800, married Mary Shankle, daughter of George Shankle, and spent his days in Stanley. Three sons and four daughters filled with joy and a sense of obligation the home of Benjamin Ivey. Elizabeth, the oldest, married Martin Carter, of Mount Pleasant; Sarah joined her future with Rev. L. A. Whitlock, of Stanley, an honored local preacher; Mary listened to the wooings of A. Simpson, of Salisbury, North Car- olina, as did her sister, Annie, to Moses Dry, of Cabarrus County, North Carolina. Isaac Tyson, the youngest, died in the Civil War; John Reese left a large family in Stanley to cherish his memory; and George Washington went out to spend and be spent as an itinerant Methodist preacher.
Benjamin Ivey, strong of body, weighing more than two hundred pounds, devoted to his church, being an exhorter in a day when the office counted for something, an esteemed and well-to-do citizen, owner of a few slaves (as was his father before him), closed a useful life in 1858, honored and respected by a large circle.
Mary Shankle, daughter of George Shankle, the wife of Benjamin Ivey, belonged to a robust, prosperous, and influential family. George Shankle, born in 1754 in North Carolina, of German parentage, served in the Revolution. On January 7, 1833, a pension was allowed him for service rendered as minute man and soldier during the war. Two of his sons, Henry and Levi, the latter a local Methodist preach- er, counted among the well-to-do, and honored for their lives of prob- ity and influence, lived well into the last century.
So, when Benjamin Ivey and Mary Shankle met and married, two vigorous life-currents joined to blend into one stream of in- fluence across the years. Though many of the dates incident to the family happenings have escaped the chronicler, we need not be ignorant of the main current of events. In the eternal order, and certain as the inevitable, is the outflow from such a well-spring.
No proper estimate, however, can be made of George Washington Ivey without holding well in mind the character of the people among whom he grew to manhood and the sort of folks to whom he min- istered for a full half-century; for the best of his life was spent in behalf of a type, found in Western North Carolina, scarcely to be duplicated under the shining sun.
Both the character of the country and the qualities of the people contributed to the making of a noble breed. Not the nobility of crowns and coronets, but the royalty of character and high integrity
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held sway among this people who believed "an honest man is the noblest work of God."
The pioneers found in the wide, rolling, well-watered valleys of the Upper Cape Fear, of the Yadkin, and of the Catawba, and along their numerous tributaries, a wild, luxuriant native flora, the habitat of the red man and the wild animals. The heavy growth of pine, oak, hickory, poplar, gum, and numerous other trees, made a clearing in the woods no child's play. Tough muscles, strong backs, and brave hearts were needed to fell the trees, to keep back the Indians, and to subdue the wild beasts.
Into this land, from Germany, England, Scotland, and Wales, and from Virginia and Pennsylvania, came the people to subdue this promising heath and make it their own. By far the larger portion of those who came were Germans and Scotch-Irish from Pennsylvania. Along about 1750 the migration was in full swing from Lancaster, York, and adjacent counties. They came in swarms by "hundreds of wagons from the northward."
With all the elements for making permanent settlements, they came. The Bible, the school teacher, and the minister, formed an important part of the company. Every available article possible for home and farm was stowed away in the capacious wagons before the caravans moved.
The Scotch-Irish were stern and virile, noted for their hatred of sham and pretense, the foe of oppression and tyranny, subject to no king but God and conscience. The German settlers were indus- trious and economical, lovers of home and rural life, tenacious of custom and slow to change. These were set down side by side, and both were liberty-loving and God-fearing, a people among whom labor was dignified and honorable in a time when hard labor and unresting toil were the lot of life.
Even in the early days of the subject of this sketch, railroads were not yet and the shallow streams did not permit of boats. Wagons were the only means of communication with the older sec- tions of the coast towns, such as Norfolk, Fayetteville, and Charles- ton. Life was lived largely independent of the world in general. Utterly impossible, therefore, would it be to estimate properly George Washington Ivey apart from the very warp and woof of this life. To be a citizen of the world, at home under any sky, living aloof from the people of his time, little identified with any special spot of earth, could not be with one such as he, so genuinely one with the rural life of Western North Carolina. Birth, breeding, temperament, and labor made him an organic part of the people among whom he spent his many fruitful years. Every fiber of his being, all the processes of his mind, and the movements of his body accorded well with the motto of the Old North State: "Esse, quam videri." A genuineness free from gloss and pretense marked all the going of his feet, and made effective appeal to those who knew him best.
Along with the condition found and the life lived by the men who pioneered this region must be considered the religious forces at work in all this section, to estimate properly any man who was a normal product of this hardy, heroic, and energetic people. Especi-
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ally true is this of George Washington Ivey, who grew up in the Valley of the Yadkin, a region so rich with the traditions of the Methodist seed-sowers since the days of Francis Asbury.
The whole course of the Yadkin and of the Pedee, as it is known in South Carolina, was covered in the early day by the Yadkin, Salisbury, and the Pedee circuits. The Yadkin Circuit, formed in 1780, extended from the Blue Ridge to the South Carolina line. Salisbury circuit was severed from the Yadkin in 1783. The Pedee Circuit appears in the Minutes for the first time in 1786, and it embraced the Lower Yadkin and Pedee valleys, though the preachers of this circuit ranged as far north as Salisbury. So this Montgomery section of the State knew of the labors of all those early pioneers who were appointed to these early wide-extended circuits in the days when the itinerants knew no limits in their labors save the extent of human habitation.
Jesse Lee and Isaac Smith were on the Salisbury Circuit in 1784; Joshua Hardy and Hope Hull in 1785, with Richard Ivey, pre- siding elder. In 1786 Jeremiah Masten and Hope Hull were on the Pedee, with Beverly Allen, presiding elder. Others, such as Henry Bingham, Reuben Ellis, etc., of whom the world was not worthy, could be mentioned; but these are enough to indicate the character of the early Methodist seed-sowers in the Valley of the Yadkin, making possible the rich, full harvest of these last times.
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