USA > North Carolina > Historical papers of the North Carolina Conference Historical Society and the Western North Carolina Conference Historical Society > Part 15
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W. E. Pell, reported $10,000 raised for missionary purposes during the year. In 1860 the amount reported was slightly less than this.
What would be of more interest to us than the money raised for missions during this period would be the missions themselves that were established, and the character of the work done. Unfortunately we have very little material for this part of our history. The principal source of information with regard to these missions to which I have access has been the Minutes of the Conferences, and not much infor- mation can be had from this source.
There is evidence that even before the organization of the Mis- sionary Society in 1820 there were in North Carolina charges known as missions. In the appointments of the South Carolina Conference for 1813 there appears the Cape Fear Mission with Hugh McPhaill as .the preacher. At the close of that year 111 white, and S colored, members were reported from that charge. After that it disappears from the list of appointments, and I take it that it proved to be an unpromising mission.
In a copy of the Richmond Christian Advocate dated March 17, 1859, I have found a reference to another mission that was in exis- tence about the same time as this Cape Fear Mission, but it was at the opposite end of the state. The Rev. Nicholas Talley, at that time one of the old preachers, was giving in the South Carolina Advo- cate some reminiscences of his itinerant life, and a paragraph from one of his articles was quoted in theNorth Carolina Christian Alto- cate in which he gave an account of the first Conference held in Fayetteville. It was at the close of the year 1813. The paragraph in question may not have any special bearing upon the subject we are here considering, but because of its peculiar interest to North Carolina Methodists I give space to it:
"At the close of 1813, our conference met in Fayetteville, N. C. The place of meeting was in the parlor, in the residence of Brother Lumsden, which, though much altered, I believe still stands. Bishops Asbury and McKendree were both in attendance. Bishop Asbury con- ducted the examination of the young men for office and membership in open conference. We were arranged in a half circle before him, and separately questioned not only in reference to doctrine and religious experience, but also as to our manner of life, our hours of study, what we had studied, our rising in the morning, our prayers, etc."
At that conference Nicholas Talley was received into full con- nection, and his appointment was to Buncombe. He was sent to that charge, it is said, "to change a mission into a circuit." No doubt some of those who have worked on our Conference Board of Missions for some years would like for the Bishop to select a few bright young men and send them to certain mission charges with the understand- ing that they were to change those missions into circuits, and so get them off the Mission Board. Buncombe had been one of the appointments in the South Carolina Conference since 1806, and for the past two years there had been a very noticeable development of the work, the membership having doubled. It does not appear whether the young preacher succeeded in making the charge self-sustaining
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or not, but the probability is that he did. The name does not appear again in the appointments. In its place there appears the Upper French Broad charge, and I take it that the name of the charge was changed with the forward step made when it ceased to be a mission.
This charge, though referred to as a mission, is not so designated in the appointments. From this it would appear that not all charges being supported as missions were then called missions in the list of appointments; how many and what other missions there were in the state at that time, we have no means of knowing.
The earliest missions were doubtless supported from the funds being raised by Bishop Asbury. "In 1812 Bishop Asbury began to call on the people for subscriptions for the support of ministers where. they could not otherwise be sustained. All these subscriptions were entered in a small memorandum book, and the money was used in the destitute regions of the regular work and in new circuits on the western frontier. This fact may explain the reason why the annual reports designate 1812 as the date of the origin of the Domestic Missions of Episcopal Methodism."
After the organization of the Missionary Society there was no charge in the state designated as a mission in the list of appoint- ments for a number of years. The first charge so designated was King's Mountain. It appears as King's Mountain Mission in the Lincolnton District. South Carolina Conference, in 1833. After three years it ceased to be designated as a mission. In 1837 we find Currituck Mission in the Norfolk District, Virginia Conference. Besides these we cannot give the names of any missions to white people in the state during the first two decades of our organized mission work.
During this period, however, the Methodist Church in North Carolina, as in other southern states, was doing a mission work among the slaves that deserves consideration. From the earliest days of Methodist history in this country the spiritual interests of the slaves had received attention at the hands of the preachers and other Christian workers. The following paragraph from Bishop McTyeire's History of Methodism gives briefly the plan of work that was fol- lowed:
"As a general rule negro slaves received the gospel by Methodism from the same preachers and in the same churches with their masters, the galleries, or a portion of the body of the house, being assigned to them. If a separate building was provided, the negro congregation was an appendage to the white, the pastor usually preaching once on Sunday for them, holding separate official meet- ings with their leaders, exhorters, and preachers, and administering discipline, and making returns of members for the Annual Minutes. But the condition of the slave population segregated on the rice and sugar and cotton plantations appealed for help. The regular ministry did not reach the river deltas of the low country, a malarial region in which few white people are found. For twenty years before, missionaries to the slave population had been going through the regions most accessible: but in 1829 a system of plantation service and instruction was inaugurated by the South Carolina Conference."
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One of these early plantation missions was established along the Cape Fear River. In the list of appointments for 1833 there appears a Mission to Slaves on Cape Fear, with E. Leggett as the preacher. This mission was continued for three years, and then it disappears from the list of appointments for a number of years. In its place there appears in 1836, the Waccamaw Neck Mission, which was also a mission to the slaves, and may have embraced a part of the territory which had been included in the Cape Fear Mission. This mission was continued for at least thirty years, and a remarkable fact brought out by a study of its history is that twenty-eight of these thirty years were covered by the ministry of three men. It seems that the time limit did not apply to missions of this kind, and when a man was found who was peculiarly adapted to such work he was continued in the same field longer than four years.
One of the two men who formed this mission in 1836 was James L. Belin, a pioneer in mission work among the slaves. The following from his memoir will give some idea of the type of men serving these missions: "Brother Belin was a pure-hearted, good man, a plain, experimental preacher, very devotional in spirit, and zealous for the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom. His charity to the poor was a marked feature of his character; and while all must admire him and honor his memory for a noble display of this Christian virtue, there are many who, as recipients of his favors, will feel bound to bless his name as a benefactor. It is his memorable dis- tinction to have led the way in preaching to the blacks. This he did in 1819, by preaching on the SpringZeld and Brook Green plantations of Mr. Robert Withers and Major Ward. In 1836, he and Rev. T. Huggins formed Waccomaw Mission, on which he for some time labored, and to the support and advancement of which he devoted not only his energies of mind and body, and all his personal influence, but he also contributed freely of his means while living; and finally, to this worthy and long cherished interest he bequeathed well-nigh the whole of his property." He continued to serve this mission for four years and possibly longer, but for a number of years before his death he was on the superannuate list. He died in 1859.
Another name that must be associated with the history of this mission is that of John A. Pinick. In 1840, while still a young man, having been in the Conference only four years, he was appointed to the mission, and he was continued in this field of labor until 1854, a period of fifteen years. Two years later he was sent back to the same work, and died during that year. I quote from his memoir: "Our brother was no ordinary missionary. His ministry for nearly sixteen years in the same field of labor attests his worth, and the confidence reposed in him by his brethren. Deeply impressed by the importance of his station, there was no shrinking from its responsi- bilities; and the vigor and freshness of his ministry, where there was so little of human applause to stimulate, proves that his heart was in the work. As a chatechist he excelled. 'Apt to teach,' he labored to simplify the truth, and fix it in the heart as well as the memory of the catechumens. Nor was he wanting in pastoral duty, ready always to admonish or encourage: in many a negro cabin has he prayed with
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the sick and dying, and spoken cheering words of the better land and blessed Saviour. None were too high to be uninfluenced by his godly life; none too low to be overlooked in this discharge of duty; he won the confidence of the Master, and the abiding affection of the slave."
At the close of the year 1858, after the death of Pinick, Charles Betts was one of the two preachers appointed to the Waccamaw Mis- sion, and he continued to serve the work for seven years, until 1866. I have not had access to the Minutes of the South Carolina Confer- ence after that year.
Besides these two missions in the Wilmington section there were a few other plantation missions to the slaves in the state, but we have very little information in regard to them. In the Raleigh Dis- trict there was an Eno Colored Mission and a Tar River Colored Mis- sion; in the New Bern the Snow Hill and Edgecombe Colored Mis- sions; in the Washington Districts, an M. T. Devereux Plantation Colored Mission and a Roanoke Colored Mission; in the Norfolk Dis- trict, a Durant's Neck and Pasquotank Colored Mission. Few of these seem to have been permanent. This does not mean that the slaves were neglected or that work amongst them was unsuccessful. At the beginning of the Civil War there were in the North Carolina Conference over twelve thousand colored members while the white membership numbered less than thirty thousand. Generally, how- ever, it was found in this conference that the colored people could be served most effectively in the same pastoral charge with the white people.
In a number of the towns of the state, however, there were estab- lished separate charges for the colored people. Among these were the following: Raleigh Colored Mission, Andrew Chapel in New Bern, Purvis Chapel in Beaufort, Avent Chapel in Washington, Evans Chapel in Fayetteville, Elizabeth City Colored Mission, and Edenton Colored Mission. In most of these places the colored membership was larger than the white. Andrew Chapel in New Bern had a mem- bership of nearly a thousand when Centenary had less than three hundred. There was only one other negro congregation in the state as large as this one, and that was in Wilmington where there was a membership of nearly a thousand colored members served as a part of the Front Street charge. Men of prominence, in some cases, served these missions. The Raleigh Colored Mission was served one year by James Reid, and for two years in succession by William E. Pell. The Mission in Edenton was served for four years in succession by William J. Norfleet. A young man who seemed especially successful in this kind of mission work was John L. Newby, a native of Pasquotank County. In 1860 he was appointed to the colored mission in Raleigh, where, it is said, "he was blessed by having the work of the Lord to prosper in his hands." During the year his charge was visited with a revival of great power, and the Church was more than usually prosperous in all her interests. In 1861 he was appointed to Evans Chapel in Fayetteville, and again to the same charge the year fol- lowing, dying there during the year. Here again the Church under his ministry was blessed with a gracious revival.
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We return now to the consideration of missions to the white peo- ple during this period. From 1840 to 1850, so far as indicated by the minutes, there were only seven such missions in the state. The only city mission that had been established was in Raleigh. This seems to have been a very weak one, only about thirty members being reported, and there was practically no increase in membership dur- ing this decade. The only other mission in the Raleigh District was the Tar River Mission. The location of this mission is in doubt. It must not be confused with the Tar River Circuit which was a separate charge. In the New Bern District there was a Lenoir Mis- sion, and along the coast there were three, viz .: Currituck, Hatteras, and Cape Lookout. In the western part of the state there was estab- lished just at the close of this decade a Blue Ridge Mission, and mention might be made also of a mission to the Indians served at times in connection with the Waynesville Circuit. It was known as the Euchota Mission. About one hundred and thirty Indians were enrolled as members.
At the end of another decade, in 1860, we find that two of these missions had been discontinued, viz., Tar River and Lenoir. The other five were still classed as missions. The Raleigh Mission had increased in membership from 31 to 75. The Hatteras membership had grown from 142 to 479, but it was still a mission. The Cape Lookout membership had increased from 26 to 101. There had been a slight falling off in the Currituck membership, the number reported being 202. The Blue Ridge, with no report in 1850, had a membership of 197 in 1860.
To these five missions there had been added during the decade seven others, as follows: In the western part of the state, Sauretown, Little River, South Mountain, John's River, and Rocky River; in the eastern, Johnston, Contentnea, Neuse, and Ocracoke and Ports- mouth. There were a few other missions appearing in the appoint- ments for a year or two. It will be noticed that they were nearly all in the mountains or in the eastern part of the state. There were very few mission charges in the central and Piedmont sections.
Before another decade had passed the General Conference took action which made a great change in the manner of conducting our missionary work. The Missionary Society, with its auxiliaries and branches, and with its Board of Managers directing its affairs, was discontinued, and the work hitherto conducted by this Society was placed in the hands of two Boards, a Foreign Mission Board and a Domestic Mission Board. It was provided at the same time that each Annual Conference should have charge of the Domestic Missions within its own bounds, these to be under the control of a Conference Board of Domestic Missions. One tenth of the money collected for Domestic Missions was to be forwarded to the Treasurer of the Parent Board, together with any surplus that might be on hand after the appropriations to the conference missions had been paid. We find accordingly the North Carolina Conference, at its ensuing session, appointing a Board of Missions composed of an equal number of ministers and laymen. It was at this same General Conference that a resolution was passed providing for lay representation in General
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and Annual Conferences, and that was the beginning of a more active part by the laymen in the affairs of the Church. The year following a resolution was passed in the Annual Conference extending to T. H. Shelby, Esq., Treasurer of the Conference Mission Board, and also the lay members, an invitation to take seats within the bar of the Conference.
In discontinuing the Missionary Society, and in the appointing of Mission Boards to act as agents for the Church, our fathers were returning to the original conception of the Church's relation to the work of missions. It is no longer a society with a membership embracing a part of the Church conducting the work of missions, but it is now the whole Church, acting through its appointed agents, doing the work. Under this plan we might expect the membership of the Church as a whole taking a more active interest in missions, and within a few years we see evidence of more business-like methods being adopted in the work of Domestic Missions. Four years later the two general Boards were consolidated by the General Conference, but this did not affect materially the Conference Board.
For a number of years after the Conference Board of Missions was constituted no reports were made by it to the Conference, or if made they were not recorded, and during those years we know noth- ing as to the charges that were being aided by the Board. In 1879, however, there was recorded in the Minutes of the Conference a report from the Board of Missions that contains a list of the Mis- sions in the Conference at that time, and a brief report from each mission. These missions were sixteen in number, and were as fol- In the Salisbury District, Pilot Mountain, Roaring River, and Hunting Creek; in the Shelby District, Columbus, South Mountain, and Upper Broad River; in the Charlotte District, Calvary and North Charlotte; in the Fayetteville District, Lillington and White Sulphor Springs; in the Wilmington District, Waccamaw and Coharrie; in the New Bern District, Swift Creek and Straits; in the Washington District, East Halifax and Portsmouth, Ocracoke and Hatteras. The only charges in this list that are known to have been mission charges twenty years before are South Mountain and the charges on the coast. It will be noticed that the only city mission that the Con- ference was supporting at the earlier date, the one in Raleigh, had disappeared from the list. In its place is found in the appointments for the year we are now noticing Person Street station, a self-sus- taining charge, having 248 members, and paying a salary of $700. The only city missions appearing in this list are the two in Charlotte, Calvary and North Charlotte. Most of these missions were very weak. One had thirty members and paid $19.18 on salary. Another had forty-seven members and paid $33.18 on salary. Portsmouth. Ocracoke and Hatteras, while reporting 520 members, paid only $126 .- 71 on salary. The average salary paid was $181, while the average salary paid in the Conference that year was $573. There were re- ported from these missions an average of nine infants baptized dur- ing the year, and seven adults. The average for the Conference was fourteen infants and twenty-four adults. The appropriations for this year are not given, but the amount raised for Domestic Missions was
lows:
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$2,668, and this would give an average appropriation to the sixteen missions of $161, making the average salary received by the mis- sionaries $340. Of these sixteen missions eight were in the bounds of the present Western North Carolina Conference, and eight were in the bounds of the present North Carolina Conference.
The number of mission charges has gradually increased from year to year since then. Ten years later, when the Conference was divided, there were thirty-five mission charges. In the same terri- tory today, the transferred territory not being included, there are 149 mission charges, 74 in the North Carolina Conference and 75 in the Western North Carolina Conference.
This increase in the number of mission charges is due, in part, to the rapidly growing town population during these years. In 1880 we had only sixteen mission charges in the state, and there were very few towns in which there was needed more than one Methodist Church. But as the towns grew new churches were estab- lished, and in most cases these had to be given help in the beginning from the Mission Board. In 1886 we had only three city mission charges in the state. Three years later we had three times that number. . These were Central and Brooklyn, Raleigh; Carr, Durham; Burkhead, Winston; Church Street, Charlotte; Forrest Hill, Concord; Campbellton, Fayetteville; Bladen Street, Wilmington; St. Johns, Goldsboro. To the six remaining in the North Carolina Conference after the division, there were added during the next ten years the following: Hancock Street, New Bern; Market Street, Wilmington; North and South Rocky Mount; West Durham; Epworth, Raleigh; North and South Henderson. Of these twelve city mission charges that had been established by 1900, two have been discontinued, five have become self-sustaining, and five are still mission charges. The number of such missions has continued about the same for the past twenty years, the number now being twelve.
The point is sometimes made that the country circuit, once strong enough to take care of itself, has been so weakened by the movement to town that it must now call upon the Mission Board for help. That may be true in some Conferences. It has not been true to any large extent in the North Carolina Conference. Many of our strong country churches have been weakened by the loss of families moving to town, but very few circuits that were once strong and have not been divided, are now receiving help from the mission fund. It is true we have many mission charges in the country now where a few years ago we had none, but these are nearly all new charges, or charges that have been weakened by the transfer of one or more churches to other charges. The call from country charges and small towns for missionary money in recent years has rather been due to the demand for intensive work. That requires smaller circuits, in many cases stations, and that often means weaker charges financially, at least for a season. But all this, if wisely managed, in the end means a strengthening of the whole work, and the missionary money that is needed in order to carry out these plans should always be provided. It is money well spent.
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We not only have many mission charges now where there once was none, but we have many charges now receiving mission aid which, with the strength they now have, would not have been regarded as charges in need of help a few years ago. Twenty years ago it was the policy of our Conference Board not to make an appropriation to a charge that was paying a salary of six hundred dollars, and only in exceptional cases would an appropriation be allowed that would make the salary paid and the appropriation com- bined more than six hundred dollars. If that. policy were followed today there would not be much need for mission money. There are very few charges unable to pay as much as six hundred dollars. A majority of the mission charges are paying that much, and some of them are paying as much as one thousand dollars. That. the Board has been justified in changing its policy in this particular it will be readily agreed. We are a long way from the time when the maximum salary for all preachers was fixed by the church at one hun- dred and fifty dollars. The churches are now urged to provide the most liberal support for their pastors, and for a number of years the aver- age salary has been increasing. It has come about that the salary paid by the weaker charge, while a great deal larger than it used to be, is relatively small. With the average salary in the Conference something like a thousand dollars, weaker charges with salaries of five and six hundred dollars cannot be provided for, and if they could be the great Methodist Church ought not to be willing for its representatives on these charges to have to live on such a meager salary in these days of high prices.
This enlargement of our missionary work of course could not have been accomplished without a continued increase in mission funds. Fifty years ago the North Carolina Conference was contribut- ing (in round numbers) for domestic missions $2,000 annually. Ten years later it was contributing $7,000. In 1890, the first year after the division of the Conference, the North Carolina Conference con- tributed a little over $5,000. There was little increase in the amount raised for the next ten years, a little less than $2,000 per annum for that period and one-half of this amount was paid by transferred territory. Beginning in 1900 there was a marked increase in the amounts raised for Domestic Missions, the annual sum raised being doubled within a decade. I give the figures for these years: 1900, . $7,075; 1901, $8,377; 1902, $9,234; 1903, $10,191; 1904, $10,975; 1905, $11,688; 1906, $11,866; 1907, $12,135; 1908, $11,664; 1909, $13,378; 1910, $14,277.
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