USA > North Carolina > Historical papers of the North Carolina Conference Historical Society and the Western North Carolina Conference Historical Society > Part 7
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Besides these men of great prominence there was a large num- ber of less reputation, but of great usefulness, among whom I may mention William Barringer, William E. Pell, Ira T. Wyche, D. B. Nicholson, W. H. Bobbitt, Joseph Wheeler, J. H. Brent and R. T. Hefflin. These men and their co-laborers wrought well and built
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wisely on the foundations already laid for Methodism in North Carolina. We entered into their labors, and by the blessing of God a great church has risen up to bless the world with its saving power, and contribute its ever accelerating force to the complete evangel- ization of the world. May no untold event impede her progress, as with "the Angel having the everlasting gospel to preach, flying in the midst of heaven," she spreads her wings for kindred flight to bring the world to Christ.
In 1860 the whole white membership of this Conference was about fifteen thousand. Since then we have acquired from the Vir- ginia Conference the membership east of the Roanoke River, and lost to the Western North Carolina Conference all west of the east- ern boundary of Rockingham, Guilford, and Randolph Counties. The loss is as great as the acquisition, but this Conference now numbers 84,245 souls, a gain of 69,245 in fifty-three years. These figures show that we have not been idlers in the Master's vineyard, and how- ever much we may deplore the lack of greater individual usefulness, we may rejoice in the prosperity which has attended our labors as a whole, and in which we have all been permitted to have a part.
In 1860 the whole church had but one Foreign Mission-that in China. There was no assessment for missions, but a dependence on voluntary contributions for this purpose, paid almost entirely by the rich. Church education depended on private gifts, and had not been thought of as objects to be included in, and supported by, regular contributions levied for the purpose.
Of all the men who composed the Conference in 1860, but one survives, our loved and venerable brother, Dr. A. D. Betts. The others having served their generation, by the will of God have fallen on sleep and have been gathered to their fathers. They are inter- ested in those who have succeeded them and from their high place in glory survey with satisfaction the progress we have made. May this Conference never lack for men of their heroic mould-men of consecrated spirits, who will spend and be spent for the glory of their Lord, and the salvation of men!
Historical Sketch of the Sunday School Work of the N. C. Conference
M. W. BRABHAM*
T SEEMS appropriate that in this year which celebrates the one hundredth anniversary of the death of Bishop Francis Asbury, that the theme for the North Carolina Conference Historical Society should be relative to the Sunday School history of a section traversed by that man of God who is so often referred to as the founder of the first Sunday School in North America. And while other schools claim to have an earlier history than that of the Asbury school established at the house of Thomas Crenshaw in Hanover County, Virginia, in 1786, no one has yet been able to point to a man who was more zealous in beginning religious work for the improvement and development of the childhood of our land than this knight of the saddlebags.
The North Carolina Conference Sunday School work is consider- ably older than the Historical Society under whose auspices we meet tonight. And that the North Carolina Conference was not formally organized until 1838 does not mean that this territory is without Sun- day School history prior to that time. Certainly the history of Metho- dism is as old in North Carolina, and especially in its eastern section, as in any part of America. Much of our early history is recorded in the archives of the South Carolina and Virginia Conferences, since those Conferences embraced most of our present territory for a long time; this, however, does not make the work there any older than here, and does not necessarily mean that it was any more developed there than here. So when Bishop Asbury says in his Journal of 1790 that "our Conference resolved upon establishing Sunday Schools for poor children, white and black," he is referring to the preachers who lived in North Carolina as well as those of South Carolina, although the session of the Conference convened in Charleston. And it is entirely fair to assume that the preachers assigned to this territory returned to their work in 1791 resolved to push forward this cause in harmony with the resolutions which they had voted to adopt.
So while a young Methodist woman, Miss Hannah Ball by name, was in 1769 establishing a Sunday School at High Wycombe, England, and later in 1780 suggesting to Robert Raikes, of Gloucester, the idea which he adopted and put on the market with such signal suc- cess, there were foundations being laid and beginnings being made in the coastal regions of the Carolinas, Virginia and of Georgia by Francis Asbury looking to the extension of this plan which has been so blessed of God.
Asbury's belief in the religious training of the young was evi- denced time and again in the legislative enactments suggested by him.
* Annual address before the North Carolina Conference Historical Society, 1916.
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In 1784, when the Methodist Episcopal Church was formally organized in Baltimore, the following was made a part of the organic law of the Church:
"Question 5. But what shall we do for the rising generation? Who will labor for them? Let him who is jealous for God and the souls of men begin now.
"1. Where there are ten children whose parents are in the Society, meet them at least an hour every week.
"2. Talk with them every time you see any at home.
"3. Pray in earnest for them.
"4. Diligently instruct and vehemently exhort all parents at their houses.
"5. Preach expressly on education."
And in 1787 the General Minutes contain the following question and answer:
"What can we do for the rising generation?
"Let the elders, deacons and helpers class the children in proper classes, as far as practicable; meet them as often as possible, and commit them during their absence to the care of proper persons, who may meet them at least weekly; and if any of them be truly awakened, let them be admitted into the society."
In 1789 Bishop Asbury urged the preachers to give minute instruc- tion as to the care of children. In 1796 the Bishops urged the people in the cities, towns and villages to establish Sabbath Schools wherever practicable for the benefit of the poor. This is the first recorded legislation appearing in the Book of Discipline which uses the term "Sabbath School."
With the emphasis and impetus thus given, it is natural that Sunday Schools should have been found springing up in various parts of our Methodism. With Bishop Asbury going about in his spirit of evangelism and love for the young, it is not dealing in doubt at all to say there were Sunday Schools in North Carolina prior to the year 1800. But owing to the fact that pastors were not required to report to the Quarterly Conferences concerning this subject until 1832, the records and references are very meagre.
However, in the search for first hand information made in various sections of our Conference, I have found several bits of valuable historical record with direct reference to the Sunday Schools, in which we are particularly interested at this time. It is worthy of note that we have the record of two schools which possibly ante-date those of any other denomination in this state. I will refer to several of our early schools during the course of this paper, using them to some extent, at least, as types of what existed in other places in our Conference.
The oldest school in our Conference, of which I have been able to find authentic record, was on the old Bladen Circuit, which in 1817 extended from the Little Pee Dee River on the south and west, to the Cape Fear River on the north, and embraced all of Horry and part of Marion counties in South Carolina, all of Robeson, Columbus, Bruns- wick, Bladen and Cumberland counties in North Carolina. Rev. John
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Oliver was a local preacher for more than sixty-seven years. While a young man, he moved from Moore County into the lower end of Robeson County, living near the present town of Marietta. In his "Scraps of History" he gives the following facts: "The Old Church known as Grantham's was organized in 1800. In 1817 they built an- other small meeting house which was situated hard by the residence of my father. This was called Grantham's New Church. Here they had a better day and a more prosperous season. They prospered so greatly here that they soon organized a Sunday School. This was the first Sabbath School ever organized in the community and primary spelling books were used exclusively by the children."
The Sunday School records of Hay Street, Fayetteville, have been preserved in a more or less complete form from the year 1819. There is some evidence which would indicate that the school had been organized before that time, but the best evidence shows that it had its real beginning on November 21, 1819. The school was opened on that day with prayer by the pastor, Rev. Nicholas Talley. It is of interest that there were more males present than females, there being 33 of the former and 20 of the latter. The superintendent was Joshua E. Lumsden and Geo. W. McDonald was his assistant; a short while later Beverly Rose appears as superintendent. The teachers in this school during its early days were as follows: Thomas Roper, John Robeson, John Howell, Sr., John Howell, Jr., Geo W. McDonald, Mrs. Eliza Lumsden, Miss P. Terry, Miss Saltenstall, Miss Helen Lumsden, Miss Love, Mr. Harrison, Mr. Wells and Miss Mary Smith.
I shall make further reference to the Hay Street Sunday School, but it is in order at this time to bring in other evidence to show that the Sunday Schools were beginning to make themselves felt at this early period in the educational life of the state. It must be remem- bered that the public schools were not then in existence as now; edu- cational advantages, especially for the poor, were limited and many learned their first words of reading and their first lines of writing in the Sunday Schools of North Carolina.
In 1811 Governor Benjamin Smith sent a message to the House in which we see an indirect influence of the Methodist revivals and Sun- day Schools of that period. "In these (public) schools," he says, "subject to proper superintendence, the rising generations might be brought up in the true principles of the Christian religion, which in- cludes the purest morality, and would prevent that multiplicity of crime, now too frequently perpetrated in the country."
William Capers was the founder of the first Mission to the Slaves; he had been stationed in Wilmington and it is more than likely that he followed the spirit of his denomination and endeavored to carry forward the religious education of the colored people there as well as of the white. There are no records in existence as far as I can discover, to give the exact date of the first Sunday School in Wilming- ton, but in 1818, several years after William Capers served there, a bill was introduced into the House of Commons by the members from Wilmington "to prevent all persons from teaching slaves to read or write, the use of figures excepted." The bill was rejected, but was again introduced in 1825 and 1830, and was finally passed in 1831.
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In 1824 a writer from Edgecombe County in the Raleigh Register of December 3, making an appeal for the common schools, includes the following plea: "Are we Christians? From many of our neigh- bors and friends and relatives, the Book of Life is shut! To them it speaks no language, neither of terror or consolation! and may they not some day, like Montezuma, when the sacred Volume was handed to him by a Spanish priest, because he could not read and know its contents-dash it with contempt to the earth ?"
In 1825 a memorial from the Sunday Schools of Orange County, a territory in which Asbury had traveled extensively, was sent up to the House of Commons and referred to the Committee on Education. It is interesting to note the appeal herein made and the statements as to the way the schools are carried on. I give herewith the bill as introduced on December 14th, 1825:
"To the Honourable, the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina, convened in the city of Raleigh-The memorial of sundry citizens of Orange County, composing the officers of the Sunday School Union of said county and other citizens of the same.
"The undersigned feeling a deep interest in the youth of our State and more especially of the children of the indigent and ignorant, beg leave to present to your honourable body the subject of Sunday Schools as an object of legislative aid, and particularly to solicit such aid as in your wisdom may be deemed best, to support and extend the schools under the care of the Sunday School Union of our county. In doing this, they feel it their duty to present to your honourable body, a brief view of the origin, design and effect of these institutions, that you may be better prepared to pass upon the merits of their petition." Then follows a statement showing the historical development of the Sunday Schools in the time of Robert Raikes. The petition continues : "The design of the Sunday School is to instruct the young and ignorant children of the indigent, and others indis- criminately, in reading and spelling, and in sound morals and in the first principles of natural and revealed religion. The instructors are persons of tried integrity and experience; the whole course of instruc- tion tends to the improvement of the moral character of the young. The labors of the teachers are entirely gratuitous. In our own country these institutions have an existence in almost every State of the Union, and have been invariably attended with marked advantage to the young. The Sunday School Society of Orange County has under its care twenty-two schools in which are instructed from 800 to 1,000 children, many of whom, the children of the poor, would other- wise have been brought up in utter ignorance and vice, have been taught to read and trained to habits of moral reflection and conduct. The schools have been heretofore supplied with books for the most part by the charity of the public, and it is to furnish the necessary books that your memorialists pray for such aid as that the sum of twenty-five cents per annum may be paid for every Sunday School scholar under their care, out of the public taxes, in such a manner and to such person for their use as in your wisdom you may deem best. And your memorialists would further pray a similar provision for all
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the Sunday Schools formed or which may be formed within the limits of our county and throughout our state."
The Committee to whom this was referred reported as follows: "That it is inexpedient to grant the prayer of the petitioners and therefore recommend its rejection." A similar bill was introduced again in 1827 and was indefinitely postponed.
Coon, in his Public Education in North Carolina, (Volume 1 p. 522-525), quotes form a writer in "The Raleigh Register" for May 12, 1831, an article which shows both directly and indirectly the influence which the Bible and Sunday School were having upon the public school idea in the State. After setting forth the need for a system of public school education, he proceeds to show how the distribution of Bibles and other religious literature has awakened a desire among many to be able to read its contents.
"In the second place," the correspondent says, "the uneducated and poorer classes of our people have recently had their attention incidentally indeed, yet powerfully and impressively, directed to the subject of education. An impression very general if not co-extensive with our boundaries, has been made upon a large proportion of our community in favor of the subject under consideration. To 'The Bible Effort,' which has been in progress nearly two years, we are in- debted for this propitious circumstance. The distribution of thirty or forty thousand copies of the Holy Scriptures among our destitute families, and often where not even a Spelling Book or an Almanac was ever seen, has, I believe, under these disadvantages excited in a great many instances, an earnest desire to become acquainted with their contents. And this desire will cause many of them to hail with lively joy the establishment of (public) schools for their children; that their offspring may obtain ready access to the Volume, which though it contains intelligence more valuable than a globe of gold, is nevertheless at present to them a 'sealed Book.' I readily admit that this is not the great object for which friends of the Bible have been putting forth their vigorous and persevering exertions; but it has I believe, been the necessary consequences of their successful efforts to spread the Word of life over our land in all its length and breadth, and whilst every benevolent mind and every friend of learning and of Christianity must be gratified with this happy result, it is highly important that we should avail ourselves of our present ad- vantages to urge forward with increasing confidence and zeal, the cause of moral and intellectual improvement."
He then asks that consideration be given to the plan of having one public school teacher serve two or even six communities, giving three or one day to each school, depending on the number of schools given to his care. To strengthen his contention as to the feasibility of such a plan, he shows how one day given to the Sunday-school has had beneficial results.
"I infer with certainty," he says, "that all the children in North Carolina could in this way obtain a knowledge of the fundamental branches of education; for in Sabbath Schools, a great number of children and youths have been educated, who never enjoyed any other literary advantages. This fact is of itself a practical demonstration
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that the plan which I have proposed, if generally adopted, would be of incalcuable advantage to the interest of learning in our state.
Reference has been made to these documents in order to clearly set forth the fact that Sunday Schools were not only in existence in large numbers in our territory prior to the time when the Quarterly Conference records include this item, but also to show that they were actively engaged in supplementing the general education of our people as well as supplying a channel for religious training.
In discussing some of the characteristics of the work of these early schools, I have in mind the general type of school, such as that established at Edenton Street, Raleigh, in 1827. This school has long been known for its high educational standards and today it stands as the foremost school in the Conference in several respects, notably in its material equipment. Other schools which I have in mind are those founded at Washington, Olivet, Hay Street, Fayetteville and Front Street, Wilmington.
Early Methodist Sunday Schools did not seem to consider it a burden to meet for a period longer than one hour; evidence is in hand to show that these early schools met for two sessions and each session was for two or more hours. At Hay Street on November . 28, 1819, the record calls attention to the absence of Mr. John Howell from the afternoon session.
These schools were supervised by a Visiting Committee. This committee was appointed once a year and a regular schedule was made showing which two of the visitors were to inspect the school each succeeding Sunday. In Fayetteville there were sixteen mem- bers on this committee and the records of the school note the presence of some of the members from time to time, and also call attention to the absence of them when they failed to make their appearance. The duties of this committee do not seem to have been clearly set forth anywhere. It is likely that they made an annual report, thus being the forerunners of the Advisory Committee now provided for in our Discipline.
The suggestion made in 1787 that the "elders, deacons, and helpers should class the children in proper classes," is the first evidence of the effort to divide the pupils according to their needs. Our records show that the schools were divided into classes called First, Second and Third. These divisions were made on the basis of age, a division which the modern Sunday School has not been able to get away from to any great extent.
The emphasis in early schools was placed upon teaching the people to read and write; this feature continued in some localities even until late in the last century, there being those alive today who testify that they learned their first lessons of any kind in the Sunday School. The spelling book and primers of the old type had their place and no one will question the good judgment of the Church in thus supplying a need which was not otherwise being met. It was in a vital sense another evidence of the ministry of the Church to the people, meeting their needs in a more advanced manner than the state.
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The use of the Sunday School library is being revived today and the usual type of book is better than many found in the Sunday Schools of the last century, but we have no new thing introduced when we start a library in the Church. In 1819 regular lists of books were delivered to the pupils, including Bibles, Testaments, Dible Question Books, Spelling Books, and Catechisms. In the earliest reports of schools to the Quarterly Conference, the question invari- ably appears as to the number of volumes in the library. The num- ber of volumes reported number from eighty-five to more than three hundred. These libraries are the forerunners of the splendid col- lections of books found in some of our schools today. The essential difference is that today the emphasis is being laid upon books for the officers and teachers constituting a Workers' Library, rather than upon books for pupils. The best libraries, however, contain books of both kinds.
The use of reward cards dates back nearly a hundred years. One school has preserved for us some of the rules governing the use of these reward tickets. There are but few of us perhaps who have not received at some time in our Sunday School life some of the little red, blue or green tickets with Bible verses. But it is doubt- ful if many of us have ever used them in exchange for clothing as one of the following rules indicates:
"Rule No. 5. The Scholars in the Third, Second and First Classes shall receive tickets according to the diligence which they manifest in their studies.
"Rule No. 6. All scholars who do not attend school and cannot give a satisfactory reason for their absence, shall forfeit for one Sunday one ticket, two Sundays two tickets, and three Sundays all the tickets which they may have received.
"Rule No. 7. All scholars who shall have received ten of the tickets specified in the preceding rules shall receive in exchange for the same, one ticket of general approbation, the value of which shall be twenty cents to be paid by the Sunday School Society in books, clothing or such other articles as the Society may deem proper.
"Rule No. 8. All scholars who shall go out of the Church in time of worship without permission, shall forfeit one ticket."
A personal letter from Rev. W. H. Moore, D.D., makes reference to this matter and several other things pertaining to the Sunday School at Washington, and I am glad to quote his letter in this con- nection :
"I grew up in Washington, N. C., to which my father moved in 1845, and was a regular attendant upon the Methodist Sunday School. Edmond Hoover, who afterward became a local preacher, was superintendent of the Sunday School, and was succeeded by John A. Arthur, who was continued up to the beginning of the Civil War, when he was in turn succeeded by Warren S. Mayo. The school opened with singing and prayer and the recitations were from the Bible. We used the Wesleyan Catechisms Nos. 1, 2, 3, according to the advancement of the scholar, and in addition reward tickets were given to those who learned a certain number of verses in the Bible. The tickets were red and green; six green ones were ex-
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changed for a red one, and with a certain number of red ones, we could purchase a book. The Catechisms contained an excellent body of divinity, and together with the Psalms and chapters from the New Testament learned by heart, were of great service to me in after life. In all my reading I have not found a better body of elementary divinity than in the Catechisms we used. The school opened at 9 a. m. and closed at 10:30, giving the children time to go home for any needful purpose and return for preaching at eleven o'clock. The school being in town ran all the year and was attended by every child of Methodist parentage."
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