USA > North Carolina > Lives of the bishops of North Carolina from the establishment of the episcopate in that state down to the division of the diocese > Part 15
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Just prior to the war, the Church Intelligencer, a religious newspaper, had been established in Raleigh by the Reverend Messrs. Thomas S. W. Mott and Frederick Fitz Gerald, making its first appearance on March 14, 1860. Later, upon the ap- pointment of Mr. Fitz Gerald as Chaplain in the Confederate Army, Mr. Mott conducted the publication alone till the Spring of 1864. In the Fall of 1864, it was removed to Charlotte, and there edited by the Reverend Messrs. Fordyce M. Hubbard and George M. Everhart, who jointly had charge until April, 1866, when Mr. Everhart retired, leaving Doctor Hubbard as sole editor. The latter continued it a few years longer and then it was forced to suspend. More than ten years later (May 10, 1879), the Reverend William S. Bynum began the publication of the Church Messenger in Winston-Salem. He edited it some months, and, in July, 1880, it was placed under a board of edi- tors, consisting of several clergymen; but a few weeks there- after (August 24, 1880), the Reverend Charles J. Curtis be- came editor and remained in charge of it until 1882, if not later. It, too, finally passed out of existence. Later a monthly publi-
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cation called the Messenger of Hope was issued at the Thompson Orphanage in Charlotte. The last mentioned publication be- gan its career toward the end of the year 1887, with the Rev- erend Edwin A. Osborne (then superintendent of the orphanage) as editor. During the years 1893 and 1894, the Reverend Scott B. Rathbun was editor; and, after his retirement, Mr. Osborne again took charge. In June, 1898, when Mr. Osborne left the orphanage to become Chaplain of the Second North Carolina Regiment of United States Volunteers in the War with Spain, the Reverend Walter J. Smith succeeded him as editor of the Messenger of Hope, as well as superintendent of the institution where it was published, and filled both stations for many years. During the session of the Convention of the Diocese of North Carolina in 1909, the Reverend Alfred R. Berkeley offered a resolution (it being a substitute for one theretofore presented by a committee) providing for the appointment of a special committee, to confer with similar committees from the Diocese of East Carolina and the Missionary Jurisdiction of Asheville, whose duty it should be to take under advisement the desir- ability of having one Church paper for both dioceses and the Jurisdiction of Asheville. The committees were accordingly ap- pointed; and under their recommendation the Messenger of Hope (North Carolina ) and the Mission Herald (East Carolina ) were consolidated under the name and title of the Carolina Church- man, with the Reverend Thomas P. Noe, of Wilmington, as editor-in-chief. The Carolina Churchman made its first appear- ance in October, 1909. This consolidation of papers occurred at a later date than the time when the present history professes to end, but the importance of the matter may justify this addi- tional paragraph on the subject.
In the six years immediately following the war, the Church in North Carolina lost by death a number of her leading lay- men, among these being George E. Badger (May 11, 1866), for many years a vestryman of Christ Church at Raleigh, and formerly Judge, Secretary of the Navy, and United States Sen-
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ator, whose reply to the pro-Roman pronouncements of Bishop Ives has already been mentioned. Another "shining mark" struck by the arrow of death (January 15, 1870) was Thomas Ruffin, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Caro- lina, a jurist of national reputation, and a vestryman of Saint Matthew's Church at Hillsborough. Of these two profound lawyers and devoted Churchmen it is needless here to speak, as their records are written in the history of the State and Nation. Yet one there was-more incessant in his labors for the Church than both-who died during the same period (January 8, 1868), and of whom a few words may well be said, as he never sought political honors, and is not so well known to the present gen- eration. This was Charles T. Haigh, of Fayetteville. He had been a communicant of Saint John's Church, in that town, for nearly fifty years. As early as 1836, he was elected a mem- ber of the Committee on Missions, and (with one year's inter- mission) served thereon until his death. For many years he was also treasurer of the Diocese. The Diocesan Convention of 1868 passed formal resolutions in honor of his memory, and Bishop Atkinson (addressing that assemblage) said of the de- ceased: "A better officer could nowhere be found, and a better man scarcely, if at all. He was an excellent specimen of that type of human character which mankind everywhere respects. and which certainly seems to me deserving of great respect, the high-toned English gentleman-for he was thoroughly English, not only in birth and education, but in taste and sympathy, and in the best characteristics of that people." A few years after Mr. Haigh's death, another veteran member was lost to the Church when George W. Mordecai, for many years senior war- den of Christ Church in Raleigh, passed away on the 19th of February, 1871. Of the latter gentleman Bishop Atkinson said : "He often took part in the proceedings of this Convention, where no one was listened to with more respect; he was, since I have known this Diocese, one of its Trustees, a leading mem- ber of its Standing Committee, one of the most active, liberal
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and judicious vestrymen of his own important parish, a wise and judicious counsellor to me in my official character, and the friend under whose hospitable roof I mainly spent my time when at Raleigh."
As heretofore shown in these pages, the Church had labored with commendable zeal to improve the religious condition of slaves in ante-bellum times; and, after the war, under condi- tions in some respects less favorable, the work was still mam- tained. Owing to the evils of carpet-bag rule-when self-inter- ested adventurers came South, advocating social equality and seeking to inflame the negroes against their late masters and best friends-the work was much retarded, yet even then pro- gressed to a considerable extent. In addressing the first Dio- cesan Convention which assembled after the close of the war, Bishop Atkinson referred to the old and new relations existing between the races in these words: "One of the chief cares and labors of a good many men, and of a still larger number of the women, of the South, was the welfare of the servants; and, under the system of slavery in these States, the African race made a progress, during the last hundred years, not only in numbers and physical comfort, but a progress from barbarism to civilization, from heathenism to Christianity, to which the history of the world offers no parallel. But the system was no doubt defective-better adapted to the early stage of a people's progress from the savage state than that which they have now reached; at any rate God, in his providence, has definitely set it aside. The future of that people is very obscure; and there is, in the judgment of many, great danger even of their extinc- tion as a race. What, then, must we do as Christian men and women ? We must continue our care for them; we ought even to increase it. We have surely been, in some degree, delinquent in the past ; let us resolve, in God's strength, not to be so for the future." Referring to the same race, later on in this ad- dress, the Bishop says: "We must keep in mind their general
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faithfulness in the hour of trial. We must allow for occasional instances of what seems to us folly, or perversity, or ingratitude. We must practice towards them the apostolical injunctions which are so strikingly enjoined, 'be pitiful, be courteous.' Their distresses, in their new condition, are likely to be many and great. Let us be ready to relieve them accordingly as God has given us the means. They are, as a race, peculiarly sensible of courtesy, or the absence of it. They show it abund- antly themselves, and they are very much wounded when it is denied to them. They feel contempt or rudeness more than a serious injury. Let us inflict none of these on them. Let us make them feel what is, I believe, most true-that their best friends are among ourselves, and that to us they must look for counsel, and aid, and protection. But, above all, let us remem- ber that part of our duty in which, I fear, we have been most deficient-providing for them sound religious instruction. They are in great danger of falling into the hands of mischievous and, sometimes, no doubt, malevolent fanatics, which would be a great calamity to them as well as to us. Let us endeavor to avert it by doing what is at any rate our duty-by giving them the true doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ, in view of the vain janglings of false teachers. Let us raise up colored congrega- tions in our towns, and let our clergy feel that one important part of their charge is to teach and to befriend the colored people; and especially to train, as far as they are permitted to do so, the children of that race."
It would be difficult to find nobler utterances than those above quoted, or ones better calculated to promote kind feelings between the races. And, while the good Bishop thus preached love and forbearance, he also realized that mixed congregations were not to be considered, whatever might be the views of "mis- chievous and malevolent fanatics" on the subject. He not only favored separate churches for the negroes, as indicated above, but, to the Diocesan Convention of 1866, he recommended that these congregations should be placed under well-instructed
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clergymen of their own race whenever possible. As to the edu- cation of the newly freed race, he said: "The practical ques- tion is not whether they shall be taught, but by whom they shall be taught. Teachers they have already, and will continue to have. Shall they be such as will impart sound instruction, and be under our own direction, or shall they be such as chance or fanaticism may send? Who can doubt what should be our course in this respect, whether we regard the claims of duty or wisdom." Of the effect which he believed education would have, in a spiritual way, he further said: "The Word of God was written in order that it may be read; and to say, either by our action or by our refusal to act, that a large class of the com- munity shall not read it, seems very like profanity. If read, it should be, as far as possible, with the commentary which the Creeds and the Liturgy of the Church give, securing it thereby from the fatal misinterpretations which ignorant and fanatical persons attach to it."
The above recommendations in the Bishop's address were re- ferred to a special committee consisting of the Reverend Fordyce M. Hubbard, the Reverend N. Collin Hughes, Sr., the Reverend William C. Hunter and the Reverend Joseph Blount Cheshire, Sr., of the clergy, together with Mr. George W. Mordecai, Gen- eral William R. Cox, and Mr. John H. Haughton, of the laity. This committee, after taking the matter into consideration, made their recommendations in a series of resolutions (duly adopted by the Convention) as follows :
"RESOLVED, That this Convention commend the people of color to the continued kindness and good will of the churchmen of this Dio- cese ;
"RESOLVED, That it is the sense of this Convention that separate houses of worship should be provided, as soon as practicable, for the colored people; that there should be separate Sunday-Schools and separate congregations for them ; and that the attention of the Clergy of this Diocese be directed to the importance of seeking out suitable colored men for Catechists, Sunday-School teachers, and Lay Readers; and giving them, as far as they may, personal instruction to fit them for these positions, in the hope that, under God's providence, many of
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them may be ultimately qualified to become the spiritual teachers and pastors of their race ;
"RESOLVED, That we heartily approve and earnestly recommend the mental and moral training of the colored people in such a manner and to such degree as the conditions of affairs may justify."
In 1868, Bishop Atkinson announced that a normal and train- ing school, for the education and instruction of colored teachers and ministers, had been established near Raleigh, under the superintendence of the Reverend J. Brinton Smith, D.D. The institution here alluded to-Saint Augustine's School-has been a strong factor in the betterment of the race for which it was established. Up to the present time the heads of this institu- tion have all been white clergymen of the Church. After the death of Doctor Smith, in 1872, he was succeeded by the Rev- erend John E. C. Smedes, a gentleman of fine scholarship and many lovable qualities. The latter gave place, in 1884, to the Reverend Robert B. Sutton, who served acceptably some years and then resigned his charge, owing to the infirmities of age. In 1891 he was succeeded by the Reverend A. Burtis Hunter, whose personal worth and administrative ability are still demon- strated in the management of that excellent institution. One of the features of instruction at Saint Augustine's is of an indus- trial nature, among the courses there taught (in addition to religious and scholastic training) being improved agriculture, dairying, carpentry, brick-making, stone-masonry, weaving. dress-making, laundry work, cooking, etc. Many of the build- ings on the premises, including Saint Augustine's Chapel, Saint Agnes Hospital, and the Benson Library, were erected by stu- dents out of granite which they themselves quarried. In connee- tion with the hospital is also a school for training nurses which is doing good work.
In 1866, owing to ill health, Bishop Atkinson spent six months in Europe, reaching England in June, and returning to America in December. He was accompanied on this tour by Mrs. Atkinson. In all places visited by him he was received with the high consideration due his office. Before taking leave
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of North Carolina, he addressed a communication to the Dio- cesan Convention, asking it to take under consideration the advisability of electing an Assistant Bishop, or dividing North Carolina into two Dioceses, but neither of these measures was adopted at that time. In the matter of the proposed election of an Assistant Bishop, the Diocesan Convention which as- sembled at New Bern, May 30th-June 4, 1866, decided to have such an election, and adjourned to meet in special session at Goldsborough in the following November. Before November came, however, a letter was received from Bishop Atkinson- then in England-stating that he had so far recovered his health and vigor as to render the election of an Assistant Bishop unnecessary. In consequence of this turn of affairs, the special meeting at Goldsborough was not held, and it was seven years before an Assistant Bishop was elected.
As already stated, Bishop Atkinson was the recipient of many tokens of consideration while abroad. Almost immedi- ately upon his arrival in Europe, a communication was ad- dressed to him by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England, inviting him to take part in the consecration of some Colonial Bishops of the Anglican Church. This he could not do, being in Paris when the consecration took place, but a similar invitation was later accepted by another American Bishop, then in Europe, the Right Reverend Henry John White- house, of Illinois.
During Bishop Atkinson's European tour in 1866, he at- tended (in October of that year) a congress of the Anglican Church, at York, among other Americans present being Bishops Whitehouse, of Illinois, and Stevens, of Pennsylvania. Bishop Atkinson was also present when the Archbishop of Canterbury laid the corner-stone of the Cathedral at Inverness, and thereby "visibly scaled the closer union between the powerful and pros- perous Church of England and its long oppressed sister in Scotland."
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While Bishop Atkinson was in Europe, Bishop Green, of Mississippi, who was a native of Wilmington, confirmed a few persons while visiting his old home; and Bishop Atkinson him- self, while stopping in Baltimore, administered the same rite to upwards of thirty, by request of the Bishop of Maryland.
It was on Christmas Eve, 1866, that Bishop Atkinson again reached his home in Wilmington, on his return from Europe. In addressing the Diocesan Convention of 1867, he once more discussed the election of an Assistant Bishop. Should it turn out that the Diocese could not support two Bishops, and it should be thought expedient that a younger man should fill the Episco- pate in North Carolina, Bishop Atkinson expressed a willing- ness to resign. Of the latter step he said that-while he had been assured that this would be painful to the Diocese, and though it would certainly be so to himself personally-he was willing to make the sacrifice if the interests of the Church de- manded it. A sacrifice it would indeed have been thus to re- sign, for Bishop Atkinson was not a man of large means. The committee to which the address was referred unanimously re- ported that it could not entertain for a moment such a propo- sition. The report also said that a separate Diocese could not then be set up, as a canon of the American Church required each new diocese to contain a certain number of self-supporting parishes. In this report, the committee expressed the opinion that an Assistant Bishop should be chosen so soon as provision could be made for his support.
In September, 1867, there was held in Lambeth Palace, the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, a Council of Bishops of the Anglican Church throughout the world. At the request of his Diocesan Convention, Bishop Atkinson attended the deliber- ations of that august assemblage, leaving America in the Sum- mer and returning in December. Speaking of the personnel of this great body of Church dignitaries, he later said: "The Catholic character of the Church-its adaptation to all sorts and conditions of men-was made strikingly manifest when
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one looked around him and saw in what mutually remote quar- ters of the earth, in what different states of intelligence and civilization, amid what varied races those men lived and labored, who met together for the first time in those ancient halls at Lambeth to consult how they might best advance the kingdom of Christ. There were those present who were spending their strength and periling their lives among the most degraded heathen tribes of Africa; others from among the savages of Borneo; others accustomed to the political turmoils of the democracy of America; while others, again, sat in the front ranks of the peers of England. Some were of world-wide repu- tation as theologians; some were eminent for historical re- search; and some distinguished for brilliant eloquence. But all were agreed in accepting for their own guidance, and for the instruction of others, that doctrine of Christ which is plainly taught in Holy Scripture and was believed by the early Church."
The above was the first of the great Lambeth Conferences, which are now held about every ten years. Another assemblage, organized in 1908, and with a time of meeting very close to that of the Lambeth Conference, is known as the Pan-Anglican Congress. The latter body is not only composed of Bishops and other clergy, but also of the laity-men and women alike.
After the close of Bishop Atkinson's duties in connection with the Lambeth Conference of 1867, two of his former parish- ioners from Baltimore urged him to spend the Winter as their guest in Italy, but a sense of duty to his Diocese forced him to decline.
To the Diocesan Convention of North Carolina in 18CS, Bishop Atkinson again recommended the election of an Assist- ant Bishop; and, as an appendix to the Convention Journal for that year, there was a lengthy report on the subject of Bishops of the different classes, as recognized by usages in the Christian Church from the earliest times down to the period immediately following the foundation of the Episcopate in America. In conclusion this report said that, while the Church
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was now in need of more Bishops, the number could not then be increased in North Carolina without an amendment of ex- isting canons by the General Convention. The committee mak- ing this report was composed of the Reverend Messrs. Alfred A. Watson, Joseph Blount Cheshire, Sr., and Benjamin S. Bronson from the clergy; and, from the laity, Armand J. De- Rosset, M.D., and Mr. Richard H. Smith. At the Diocesan Convention of 1871 there was submitted a committee report asking that the General Convention be memorialized to au- thorize the election of Suffragan Bishops. This report also learnedly dealt with precedent and usage concerning the Episco- pate in the earlier days of the Church. The committee which prepared it consisted of the Reverend Messrs. Benjamin S. Bronson, Joseph Blount Cheshire, Sr., and Edward M. Forbes, with two laymen, General James G. Martin and Mr. Richard H. Smith. When the next General Convention met, it refused to authorize the election of Suffragan Bishops, but provided that an Assistant Bishop might be elected in any Diocese whose extent of territory made it impracticable for one Bishop ade- quately to perform the duties of the Episcopate therein. Under the authority thus conferred, the Diocesan Convention, at Fay- etteville on May 30, 1873, elected the Reverend Theodore Bene- dict Lyman, D.D., to the office of Assistant Bishop. Of Bishop Lyman a separate sketch will later be given herein.
At the Diocesan Convention of 1874, the Reverend Angelo A. Benton submitted a list of the old colonial parishes of the Church of England in North Carolina; and the result of his researches (compiled from legislative statutes) was printed in the Convention journal for that year. At the same time a committee was appointed consisting of the Reverend Matthias M. Marshall, the Reverend Edward R. Rich and the Honorable William H. Battle, LL.D., and charged with the duty of collect- ing "as much of the colonial history in reference to the Church in this Diocese as possible, and the date of the organization of the older parishes, and make a report to the next convention
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of a list of parishes in the order of their organization." The same layman who moved the appointment of this committee, Colonel Sewall L. Fremont, of Wilmington, later moved (mo- tion being carried) that the above committee "be requested to ascertain the date of the admission of the several existing parishes to representation in the Convention of this Diocese, and report the list, in the order of their seniority, to the next Convention." The report of the latter committee, through its chairman, Doctor Marshall, will be found in the journal of the Diocesan Convention of 1877. In the same report is a recommendation that the office of Historiographer be created. This recommendation being adopted, Doctor Marshall was unanimously elected Historiographer of the Diocese, and re- mained in that office until May 14, 1884, when he declined re- election and was succeeded by the Reverend Joseph Blount Cheshire, Jr. After the latter became Bishop, the Honorable John Steele Henderson, LL.D., was elected Historiographer. Mr. Henderson held this position until May 13, 1909, when he asked to be relieved from further service and was succeeded by Marshall DeLancey Haywood, author of the present work.
A resolution was passed by the Diocesan Convention, in 1877, making it the duty of the Rector of each parish throughout the Diocese to write or cause to be written a history of his parish for preservation in the archives of the Diocese. To the Con- vention of 1878 Doctor Marshall reported a list of the parish histories which had been forwarded to him, up to that date, together with others which had been promised. These histories, together with the ones later sent in, form a valuable manuscript collection. When the Diocese of East Carolina was established, all parish histories dealing with churches in that section were turned over to its Historiographer, Colonel James G. Burr.
Some brief histories, relative to parishes in the three dioceses . throughout the State of North Carolina, have already been published in pamphlet form or as articles in periodicals, and among them we may mention the following:
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Historical Notices of St. James' Parish, Wilmington, North Carolina, by the Reverend Robert Brent Drane, of Wilming- ton, 1843.
Sketch of St. James's Parish, Wilmington, being the com- pletion of the above mentioned work of Doctor Drane, by a member of the vestry (Colonel James G. Burr), pamphlet 1874, and re-published serially in the Church Messenger (Charlotte, North Carolina), March 31st-May 16th, and addenda, June 30, 1881.
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