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Centennial Encyclopaedia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Containing Principally the Biographies of the Men and Women, Both Ministers and Laymen, Whose Labors during a Hundred Years, Helped Make the A. M. E. Church What It Is; Also Short Historical Sketches of Annual Conferences, Educational Institutions, General Departments, Missionary Societies of the A. M. E. Church, and General Information about African Methodism and the Christian Church in General; Being a Literary Contribution to the Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Formation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Denomination by Richard Allen and others, at Philadelphia, Penna., in 1816:
Electronic Edition.

Wright, Richard R. (Richard Robert), b. 1848

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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
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(title page) Centennial Encyclopaedia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Containing Principally the Biographies of the Men and Women, Both Ministers and Laymen, Whose Labors during a Hundred Years, Helped Make the A. M. E. Church What It Is; Also Short Historical Sketches of Annual Conferences, Educational Institutions, General Departments, Missionary Societies of the A. M. E. Church, and General Information about African Methodism and the Christian Church in General; Being a Literary Contribution to the Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Formation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Denomination by Richard Allen and others, at Philadelphia, Penna., in 1816
Richard R. Wright, Jr., A.M., B.D., Ph.D.
387, [5] p., ill.
Philadelphia
Book Concern of the A. M. E. Church
1916
Call number Folio BX8443 .W8 (Rare Book Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

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Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998

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Revision History:

1816
1916
CENTENNIAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA
OF THE
African Methodist Episcopal Church


Containing principally the Biographies of the Men and Women, both Ministers and Laymen,
whose Labors during a Hundred Years, helped make the A. M. E. Church what it is;
also short Historical Sketches of Annual Conferences, Educational Institutions,
General Departments, Missionary Societies of the A. M. E.
Church, and General Information about
African Methodism and the Christian Church in General
Being a Literary Contribution to the Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the
Formation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Denomination by
Richard Allen and others, at Philadelphia, Penna., in 1816

BY

RICHARD R. WRIGHT, Jr., A. M., B. D., Ph. D.

Author of "The Negro in Pennsylvania," "The Teachings of Jesus," Editor of The Christian Recorder
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF


ASSISTED BY
JOHN R. HAWKINS, A.M., LL. B.
Financial Secretary of the A. M. E. Church; formerly Secretary of Education, A. M. E. Church
ASSOCIATE EDITOR

INTRODUCTION BY
BISHOP L. J. COPPIN, D.D., LL.D.
Thirtieth Bishop of the A. M. E. Church; Author of "Relation of Baptized Children to the Church," "Key to Scriptural Interpretation,"
"Observations of Persons and Things in South Africa," "Fifty-two Suggestive Sermon Syllabi," Etc.

PHILADELPHIA, PA., U.S.A.

Page 2

COPYRIGHTED
BY R. R. WRIGHT, JR.
1916

PRINTED BY
BOOK CONCERN OF THE A. M. E. CHURCH
631 PINE STREET. PHILADELPHIA, PA.
1916

Page 3

Preface

        THE manuscript for "Encyclopaedia of African Methodism" is completed. The purpose of the Encyclopaedia is to present in some sort of literary form the work of the men and women, both ministers and laymen, who have helped to make the Church what it is, and especially those now living who receive the inheritance of the fathers and upon whose shoulders rests the responsibility of passing the church down to a new century. The book is not a history of original research, nor history at all in the technical sense. It is prepared in such a way as makes it practically impossible to verify all statements contained therein. This verification will be made largely by criticisms received from those who will carefully read the book. Most of the material in the biographical part is largely autobiographical, taken from blank forms filled out by the subjects concerned, or from sketches furnished by themselves or some one who knew them, all of which has been edited as carefully as the time would allow. The files of the Christian Recorder, the various histories of the Church, the encyclopaedias by Bishops Wayman and Simpson, and other books have been called into service where possible.

        Our aim has been to present facts, and nothing but facts. We have not attempted to eulogize or to criticise, only to give the facts and let them tell their own story.

        Though the work has been in the making for more than two years, the greater part of the biographical matter came into the editor's hands less than three months before the time to go to press, making it impossible to as thoroughly organize it as he had hoped and still present the book by the time of the General Conference as he promised.

        But the book is given out merely as a beginning There should be collected and printed the biography and picture of every man and woman who has done anything creditable toward building our great Church, not so much for their sakes, but for the sake of the future, and the inspiration of the Church.

        The second part of the book deals with the Church in general, its history, location, laws, doctrines, statistics, etc., as well as items of interest pertaining to the religious life of the race.--Editors.

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Introduction

By Bishop L. J. Coppin

        A COMPLETE history of the Negro in America, is unwritten and unwritable. Much that would be most interesting and valuable, went to the grave with those who had no possible means of transmitting it except by the uncertain and unreliable method of tradition.

        Much that comes down to us through the maze, either written or by tradition is, indeed, somber and sad.

        It becomes the historian of the present day to throw side lights upon the dark past, by exhibiting some of its better products, lest the skeptical continue to ask "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"

        A story which reveals a reniassance a hundred years ago among the oppressed of African descent, cannot fail to be valuable contribution to the literature of our times. But what is more, if much of the story is in autobiography, it is a living voice, divested of the speculative aspect of that which speaks alone for the past ages.

        There are but a few remaining who saw Richard Allen, but their children are legion.

        The Centennial Encyclopaedia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, gives historical data, that has a direct bearing upon the earliest organized movement by the man of color, to vindicate his right to the title of man.

        The Toussaint L'Ouverture movement began in 1791; the Richard Allen movement in 1787.

        What could be expected at this early date of a people without education, or wealth, or even freedom and a name? The right of Christian marriage and Christian baptism was denied the man of color in those days.

        A glance at facts and figures revealed by the "Centennial Encyclopaedia" cannot fail to convince the most stubborn unbeliever, that our claim to manhood recognition is legitimate and just. That evidences of innate qualities to warrant aspiration to the highest and best in human possibilities are not wanting in our race variety; and that the progress of fifty years of freedom is without a parallel in the records of history, is also manifest.

        Should any one ask for a reason for giving those facts, the only true answer is, it would be a crime not to give them. They are not complete. They could not be complete in a single volume. The broadest opportunity has been given for contributions by writers from every section and corner of the Church. Many have availed themselves of the opportunity, and many more will be inspired, when they see this volume, to prepare for the next, when the work by another will be taken up where this leaves off.

        This first work of its kind on so large a scale, should go into the home of every man and woman, in whose veins flows a drop of blood that represents faith in the possibilities of the race, and a desire to inspire posterity with noble ambition. Especially should the African Methodist Episcopal Church consider it an obligation to see to it, that the work is given the largest possible circulation.

        The Editor-in-Chief, Dr. R. R. Wright, Jr., and the Assistant Editor, Professor John R. Hawkins, are themselves examples of the best hope of the race, and a guarantee of the intrinsic value of the work.

        These sons of African Methodism, one a minister, the other a layman, both born upon soil that, in the past, offered the greatest impediment to race advancement, but who stand as unchallenged samples of what is purest and brightest in morals and intellect, have placed the race under a debt of gratitude, for this latest accomplishment in race literature of a historical nature.

        The lessons would be incomplete if the mechanical work did not also represent race progress. Coming as it does from our Book Concern presses, the volume presents an additional claim upon those for whom it speaks; a claim, the answer to which should be a demand for future editions.

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One Hundred Years of African Methodism

        BEGINNING May 3, 1916, and continuing three weeks, there was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Centennial General Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which, among other things, celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of its organization. The sessions were held in Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, upon ground purchased by that church in 1794, perhaps the oldest piece of real property owned by a Negro organization in this country.

        The history of this church dates back to 1787, when a number of persons of African descent, imbued with the spirit of independence then in the American atmosphere, and led by Richard Allen, a colored local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, withdrew from St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, because the white Christians desired to segregate them in the gallery of the church, and otherwise place a badge of inferiority upon them. They established a society of their own, in which any person, regardless of his color, could enjoy the worship of God with freedom from restriction or segregation. Soon Negroes of other Pennsylvania localities, and of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland followed the example of the Philadelphians, and formed distinctively African congregations--often with the encouragement of the whites. In 1816 representatives, sixteen in all, from Bethel African Church in Philadelphia, and African churches in Baltimore, Md., Wilmington, Del., Attleboro, Penna., and Salem, New Jersey, met in Philadelphia and formed a church organization or connection under the title of "The African Methodist Episcopal Church." (The term "African" was then prevalently used to designate the people of color, just as the terms "Negro" and "colored people" are now used). They adopted the polity and doctrine of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with some slight changes, and elected one of their number, Richard Allen, as their bishop.

        During the first fifty years, the church was confined almost entirely to the Northern States, as it was not allowed to operate among the slaves in the South, though in Charleston, New Orleans, and one or two other places, there were small organizations among free Negroes. In Boston, Newport, New Bedford, New York, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Washington, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, Sacramento and other Northern and Western cities, where there were a hundred or more Negroes, a church was organized. During this period many of the ministers of this church were active in the anti-slavery movement and "Underground Railroad," and much of the actual work of receiving and transporting escaped slaves was done by them.

        The emancipation of the slaves opened up a great field for the Church, which it was not slow to seize. Before the Civil War was over, hundreds of preachers and teachers had been sent as missionaries to the South, the first going from New York in 1863. Many of these became prominent in religious, business and political life. The first United States Senator of African descent was Rev. Hiram R. Revels, of Mississippi, who was an A. M. E. minister. Others went to Congress and became otherwise prominent. But the great majority confined their labors to the organization of the Church among the recently emancipated people and the results were little short of remarkable, as the people flocked to their standard in greater numbers than they could be efficiently cared for.

        The following table will show something of the growth of the Church from the beginning, which, as will be seen, has been greatest during the past fifty years. It is compiled from the best data at hand.

        
  1816. 1836. 1866. 1896. 1916.
No. of churches 7 86 286 4,850 7,500
No. of bishops 1 2 3 9 16
No. of conferences 2 4 10 52 81
No. of schools 0 0 1 20 24
No. of ministers 7 27 265 4,365 6,650
No. of local preachers         6,400
No. of members 400 7,594 73,000 518,000 650,000
Value of property $25,000 $125,000 $825,000 $8,630,000 $12,500,000
Paid for pastors' support (estimated).   1,126 85,593 956,875 2,000,000

        In 1816, the Church was established in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, with about only 400 members. In 1836 it was also in Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, and the Island of Hayti, and had 7,544 members. In 1856, it spread to Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Louisiana, Kentucky and Canada and had bout 20,000 members. In 1863, its first missionaries went to the South, and large accessions were made, so that in 1866, it had churches in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama, and a membership exceeding 73,000. In 1896 it had covered every Southern State and planted missions in Liberia, Bermuda and in South Aemrica, and the membership was 518,000. In 1916, there were missions also in Jamaica, South Africa, Nova Scotia, and the total

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membership is more than 650,000 members, 6,650 traveling ministers, and 6,400 local preachers, 15 active bishops and 1 retired bishop. There are 81 annual conferences, 7,500 churches, 2,750 parsonages, 24 schools, with property, the total value of which is more than $12,500,000.

        In 1844, plans were laid for the first school--a manual labor school--near Columbus, Ohio, and in 1863, one of its bishops bought Wilberforce University, now the oldest and one of the largest Negro institutions of higher learning in America. Since then an institution of learning has been established by the Church, in nearly every State in the South: Allen University, Columbia, S. C.; Morris Brown University, Atlanta, Ga.; Edward Waters College, Jacksonville, Fla.; Payne University, Selma, Ala.; Campbell College, Jackson, Miss; Lampton College, Alexandria, La.; Paul Quinn College, Waco, Tex.; Shorter College, Little Rock, Ark.; Turner College, Shelbyville, Tenn.; Kittrell College, Kittrell, N. C.; Western University, Quindaro, Kans.; Wayman Institute, Harrodsburg, Ky. Besides these institutions there are several high school sand elementary schools, both in America and in foreign countries. All of these institutions except Western University, Wilberforce and Kittrell College are named for some one of the forty-one bishops who have served the church since 1816.

        In 1824, the first missionaries went to Hayti; in 1848 the Missionary Department was originated and in 1864 put into actual operation. In 1891, the first bishop visited West Africa; in 1898, the first bishop went to South Africa. Today there are more than a hundred missionaries and native workers in these foreign lands, where there are a half dozen schools and the membership numbers more than 25,000 persons. Many of the native sons and daughters of Africa have been brought to America and educated in the Church schools to return to their home for work among their kinsmen.

        In 1841, the first magazine was published, but did not last very long. In 1852, "The Christian Recorder," a weekly newspaper was established as the official organ and has been maintained ever since. Other weekly publications are the "Southern Christian Recorder," Columbus, Ga.; "The Western Christian Recorder," Kansas City, Mo., also "The Women's Missionary Recorder" (monthly), Columbia, S. C.; "The Voice of Missions" (monthly), New York; the "A. M. E. Review" (quarterly), Philadelphia; and numerous other publications for Sunday school and young people's society and local church work.

        In 1872, the Financial Department, or central treasury, now located in Washington, D. C., was established to collect one dollar, called Dollar Money, from each member, for general purposes. The first year, 1872-3, the income was $20,801. It has steadily increased until it is more than $210,000 for the present year, 1915-16. This money pays the salaries of the bishops and general officers, pensions for widows, of bishops and ministers, children under fourteen years of age of deceased bishops and ministers, superannuated ministers. A part of it, together with the collections from the missionary department, pays for the missionaries, and ministers whose salaries are below the average, for education and other general purposes. (See Financial Department).

        In 1882, the Sunday School Department was organized. By it, all of the literature of the A. M. E. Sunday schools is edited and published. There are now 275,000 pupils, teachers and officers enrolled in the A. M. E. Sunday schools of the country, and the Sunday school department employs more than 60 persons in writing and publishing its literature. In 1892, the Church Extension Society was established, and from a small beginning has extended the church by aiding small societies to build churches, and rescuing debtburdened churches from sale to the amount of more than $381,000 both in this country and in foreign countries.

        The A. M. E. Church has successfully solved the problems of Negro organization from the religious side. In nearly every city in the country, there are churches, and in the larger cities, property valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars. The biggest problem before the church today is that of ministerial training. There must come into the ministry about 500 new preachers each year. The necessity for training is greater today than in the past, when the appeal was simple, as the experience and opportunity of the people were meagre. But with increasing education, increasing wealth, travel, business, and other interests, the religious appeal to the Negro must change. To meet this changed condition is the greatest problem of this Church. Ministerial education will occupy a large part of the constructive work of the future.

        The General Conference which met in Philadelphia to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary probably drew together the largest number of talented Negroes ever assembled at one place and time in the history of the country. The six hundred and fifty delegates comprised both ministers and laymen from every State in the Union, where there is any considerable Negro population, from West Africa, South Africa, Canada, South America, and the West Indies, and represented the popular leaders of the Negro race. See list of delegates to the Centennial General Conference in the Appendix.

Page 7

What Has African Methodism To Say For Itself

By J. T. Jenifer
Historian of the A. M. E. Church.

"Having obtained help of God, we continue until this day,"--Acts xxvi, 22.


        STANDING, as it were, at the threshold of the Centennial of African Methodism, when the A. M. E. Church proposes to celebrate the one hundred years of its existence, we may, with a degree of propriety, raise the question--

What Has African Methodism to Say for Istelf?

        African Methodism did not spring from a spirit of ignorant obstinacy, neither was it a child of fanaticism and self-conceit, as has been sometimes charged. It arose as a protest against repression and ostracism at the altars of God. It entered its protest in 1787 with a purpose to erect its own altars and to encourage free religious thought and action.

        It sprang from a sense of duty, prompted by piety and pity. Its underlying motive was to save souls; to enlighten, evangelize and to lift up mankind. The founders saw their race ostracised, segregated, enslaved and crushed. They inscribed as an insignia upon their denominational banner--

"God Our Father, Man Our Brother, Christ Our Redeemer."

        The chief advice sent abroad by the founders of African Methodism to their race variety and neglected brethren, whom they saw enslaved, ostracised and crushed, was, to be good; to cheeish self-reliance; self help and with friendly aid, to cultivate the spirit of manly independence, with ths exercise of free relig these virtues they were to win.

        These purposes and messages were seriously needed by the American colored man, but the times were not very propitious. The colored people then had few churches and no schools; to educate them was a crime.

        In those days, every prospect to the black man, save the visions of faith, was dark. The slave clanked his chains in the land; the attempt to flee towards freedom, was to risk the sound of the bloodhounds' bray through the woods, and that upon American territory, under the sanction of the law.

        It was out of the sentiment of these times, that the United States Supreme Court, through its Chief Justice, Rodger B. Taney, decided that colored men had no rights which white men were bound to respect.

        It was at such times, pervaded by such sentiments, that, in 1816, sixteen pious and earnest men, loyal to God and religious liberty, met at Philadelphia in April, and organized the African Methodist Episcopal Church. They were Daniel Coker, Richard Williams, Henry Harding, Edward Williamson, Stephen Hall, Nicholson Gilliard, from Maryland; Richard Allen, Clayton Durham, Jacob Tapsico, James Chapman and Thomas Webster, from Philadelphia; Peter Spencer, from Delaware; Jacob Marsh, William Anderson, Edward Jackson, of Pennsylvania, and Peter Cuff, of New Jersey, making sixteen.

        These men organized the first conventional General Conference, which has become the mother of seventy-nine annual conferences. To preside over and superintend the work of the Church, when assembled in General Conference, they have elected and consecrated thirty-nine bishops.

        Thus, it is seen that the work has spread and is recognized among the other religious world powers, as co-partners in the world's evangelization.

        Richard Allen was the leader of those immortal sixteen founders, but

Who was Richard Allen, and What Did He Do?

        Every period in the history of the world's advancement has had its chief character to champion great principles and to lead on important reforms. These characters are the pioneers of new departures for the betterment of the condition of mankind. Sometimes these characters come from the summit of society, but, more frequently, they spring from the rank and file of the plain people--generally from obscurity, the cradle of genius. All parts of the globe have been their birthplaces; every race variety has produced them.

Page 8

        They have come in their times and at the places that great emergencies demanded of them, and, in a majority of cases, whatever has been the special line of their effort, by the things which these leaders make possible to others, they have builded better than they knew, and counseled wiser than they understood. These facts indicate that behind all proper advancement is the one, eternal- ever-present, infinitely wise, and all controlling first cause; and that first cause is God, the Ruler of the universe.

        Among these characters, who have been raised up to lead on a great religious reform, was one of our own race variety, a Negro, Richard Allen, of Philadelphia, Pa.

Who Was Richard Allen, and What Did He Do?

        In 1760, there lived in Philadelphia, Pa., on Fourth Street, near Spruce, in a house of one Benjamin Chew, a man and wife, both held as slaves. On the 14th day of February, these two had born unto them a son, whom they called Richard. The parents of Richard, with three other slaves, were sold into Delaware, to one Mr. Stokely.

        In 1777, Richard embraced religion and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, at seventeen years of age. At that time the Methodist Church was as unpopular as its colored member. In 1782, Richard was licensed to preach, being twenty-two years old.

        Such was his thirst for liberty, he purchased his freedom and returned to Philadelphia in 1786, and joined St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church, where, where he was permitted to preach to the colored people at the 5 o'clock meetings. Richard Allen was the first colored man licensed to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church in this country. He was the traveling companion of Bishop Asbury, and tradition says that he was present at the organization of the historic Christmas Conference held in Lovely Lane, Baltimore, Md., 1784.

        Through Richard's influence, the colored members of St. George's Church greatly increased; so much that their white brethren were greatly annoyed and began to feel that their colored brethren were in their way. Tradition says that the first evidence of this was that "the officers passed a rule compelling their colored members to sit but one in a pew, and that next to the wall."

        This plan did not work well, for the building soon became lined with colored members. They then said that they should go into the gallery. This order was complied with, then they went up next to the pulpit and, when things waxed warm, as was often the case with Methodists in those days, the colored brethren became a little noisy. They were then ordered to the rear gallery, where many of them refused to remain.

        In 1787, the colored people of Philadelphia, connected with St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church, met to consider the unkind treatment received at the hands of their white brethren.

        Caste in the church was so intense, and prejudice at the altar of God so arrogant, that while at prayers, the colored brethren were pulled off their knees and ordered to the back part of the house. Richard Allen said, "If you will wait until prayers are over, I will bother you no more."

        For this, and other unkind treatment, they resolved to withdraw from their white brethren. A committee, consisting of Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, William Gray and William Wilcher, were appointed to select and purchase a lot with a view of building a house where they might worship God with the freedom which their conscience dictated.

        Richard Allen bargained for a lot on the corner of Sixth and Lombard Streets. But, a majority of his committee having selected a lot on Locust Street, those who came out of St. George's Church decided to erect a house upon it. Richard Allen assisted them, and when they began to build, after prayer, he took out the first shovel of dirt from the foundation. At the meeting of the little society, to choose what religious society they should connect themselves with, all but Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, decided in favor of the Church of England--the Episcopal.

        The house was finished and dedicated, and Richard Allen was invited to become the pastor, but he refused, saying: "I am a Methodist, I think that the doctrines and simple forms of spiritual worship of the Methodist suit the colored people best." Having himself bargained for the lot on the corner of Sixth and Lombard Street sand paid for it, Richard Allen purchased Simms' old blacksmith shop, hauled it on the lot, and fixed it up as a house of worship.

        Those of the Methodist faith soon gathered about him, and the "Allenites" as they are called, increased in numbers daily. Then began a tedious series of expensive lawsuits, and perplexing opposition from their white brethren, who tried to get their property. Finally, a victory was gained in the courts, a charter obtained from the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, a new house of worship was erected, which in 1794 was opened, dedicated by Bishop Asbury, and called "Bethel." This was the origin of African Methodism.

        Twenty-nine years after, in 1816, a convention of colored Methodists from several States, who were having similar grievances, assembled at Philadelphia, in April, organized the first General Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church its connectional form, and Richard Allen was elected and ordained bishop, being the first Negro bishop in America.

What Has African Methodism to Say for its Origin?

        I believe that God led the sainted Allen to consider the wretched condition of his people, under the weight of neglect, ostracism and religious repression, to provide for them and coming generations, a place of divine worship--a place where they might find freedom from caste in the sanctuary of God, and where the gospel of Christ, unhampered, might be preached in its fullness, and its richness to all persons, without regard to race or color.

        These were times that tried men's souls; times when, for a gathering of colored people to be found assembled without the presence of a white man, was considered a conspiracy and a crime. Yet, with undaunted courage, true to his convictions, this holy man of God, with heavenly zeal, launched his little craft upon the waters, lashing and heaving with caste and color prejudice in society, church and state, with an intensity that swept all before it, which bore the impress of Africa. Is it to be thought out of order, therefore, that Richard Allen and his followers should refuse to submit to such treatment at the altar of God, with the lessons of the war of the Revolution so vividly in their memories? The struggle of 1776 for national independence had opened a new era in the political world. The people of this country had lately

Page 9

passed through a hot conflict with England for civil and political liberty.

        The spirit of liberty was pervading the air. Eleven years had only served to justify the wisdom of the struggle for Colonial independence. Hence, such times were not favorable for pulling people from their knees, while at prayer in the house of God. African Methodism had its origin, therefore, in stirring times in politics as well as in religion.

        Upon these troubled waters, with opposition and misrepresentations without any anxiety within, one hundred and twenty-nine years ago, in November, this small African Methodist bark set sail down the century, with her canvas unfurled to heavenly breezes, and her colors at the masthead. "God our Father, Christ our Saviour, Man our Brother," she has come to us, the African Methodist Episcopal Church of today.

        Many and marvelous have been the changes in the politics and in the religion of the country, affecting the nation and race. All who knew Richard Allen have joined him in the better land. None of the founders of our beloved Zion are here. Generation has followed generation, and millions have passed through our Zion, brushed the dews of Jordan and joined the hosts in the heavenly Canaan.

        The Allen movement was not the impulse of an obstinate individuality; it was the promptings of pity, patriotism and piety, exerted through manly independence. Such an independence as protests against caste at the altar of God, and demands free religious thought, action and worship. What event in the early history of the colored people has given to the American Negro higher incentives and more encouragement in efforts at self-help, than the spirit and achievements of Richard Allen and his followers?

        There were times in its history, when there were no church or school houses among its followers, no books nor connectional journals, but, her altar fires never were suffered to go out.

        In many places the religious leader was the pious patriarch of the plantation; the leader of the community by his devout and Godly speech. With these, "the mother in the cabin" who held and encouraged the community prayer meeting, nurtured the infant churches until the circuit preacher arrived.

        The log hut used for the church house, few and far between, in which, at stated periods, were held religious meetings, did much to encourage and unite the people, as well as to strengthen the cause. In connection with these were the grove camp meetings in the summer season, where the multitudes gathered for miles around. It was here they assembled, inspired by the enchantments of nature; refreshed by cooling breezes, permeated with the fragrance from foliage and flowers of the fields beyond. It was amid the simplicities that the feelings of the soul were inspired for edifying worship and devotion and, under these conditions, the preacher of the occasion, often without culture or book knowledge, but having a strong grip upon his faith in God, inspired by visions of spiritual things, proclaimed with power, the plain and pointed truths of the gospel, and Christian duty, as he believed and felt.

        It was in these temples the people worshiped with devout hearts, conscious of the nearness of the omnipresent and gracious God. It is easy to surmise that visions of the heavenly country were opened to the view of those pious and plain people, who with pathos, harmony and melody, chanted the stanzas:


                         "There is a land of pure delight,
                         Where saints immortal reign;
                         Infinite day excludes the night,
                         And pleasures banish pain."

        Looking away from their burdens and sorrows, they saw


                         "Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood
                         Stand dressed in living green,
                         Where generous fruits that never fail
                         On trees immortal grow."

        It was along these lines, where the altar fires were kept continually burning. It was in these epochs of the Church history, where its sturdy stock was nurtured, whose heredity gave to the A. M. E. Church of today the material composed of men and women, who under better conditions and appliances, are inspired to such noble endeavors, and to accomplish such marvelous achievements.

The Spread Aboard

        From Philadelphia, its cradle, in 1787, African Methodism went to Baltimore and organized in 1816. William Lambert, a Missionary from Philadelphia, planted the African Methodist banner on Mott Street, in New York City, in 1819.

        David Smith, a young Evangelist of Maryland, planted a mission seed in Georgetown; organized Israel Church in a rope walk on Third Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, N. W., Washington, D. C., on November 14, 1828. Crossing the Allegheny mountains westward, he became acquainted with James and George Coleman and Abraham Lewis, at Pittsburgh, Pa., converted them, and planted a mission there in 1834.

        Bishop Morris Brown organized the Ohio Conference, our Western work, at Hillsboro, Ohio, in 1830, and the Canada Conference at Toronto, in 1840.

        Rev. William Paul Quinn, who joined the Philadelphia Conference May, 1833, was a member of the Pittsburgh Conference in 1840, and on September 5th, was appointed over the Pittsburgh circuit. On October 2, 1840, Bishop Morris Brown organized the Indiana Conference, at Blue River; N. J. Wilkerson, secretary. William Paul Quinn was put in charge of Brooklyn circuit, Ill., and was also given the oversight of all the circuits of the Indiana Conference. In the same year, 1840, he was appointed by the General Conference as the general missionary, to "plant the A. M. E. Church in the far West."

        He reported to the General Conference of 1844, as follows:

        "A brief outline of the rise and progress of the missions in the West, viz.: Number of colored inhabitants of the State of Illinois, 1800; churches established, 47; communicants, 1080; local preachers, 47; traveling preachers, 20; traveling elders, 7; lay members, 2000; Sunday schools, 40; pupils in schools, 920; teachers, 40; Sunday school scholars, 2000; Sunday school teachers, 200; teachers in public schools, 100; temperance societies, 40; camp meetings held, 17. Our people," reported he, "in these States are chiefly employed in agricultural pursuits."

        This report, it is thought, induced the General Conference, in May, 1844, to elect and ordain William Paul Quinn a bishop of the A. M. E. Church.

        The Missouri Annual Conference was organized at Louisville, Ky., September, 1855, with Rev. D. A.

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Payne, D. D., presiding. Rev. John M. Brown, then pastor at New Orleans, secretary.

        Bishop Quinn had sent Rev. J. M. Brown to New Orleans before the war. He organized the St. James A. M. E. Church, and two other missions in that city.

Far East to New England

        Rev. Charles Burch carried African Methodism to New England and planted a mission at New Haven, in 1830. Rev. Noah C. W. Cannon organized it on Anderson Street, Boston, Mass., in 1830, and from thence it spread over the New England States.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Far West

        African Methodism on the Pacific Coast was planted by several local preachers, among whom were James Roswell Brown, of Washington, D. C.; Uriah Stokes, of Baltimore; Barney Fletcher and Jeremiah B. Saunderson, of Massachusetts. Rev. Thomas M. D. Ward, of the New England Conference, was assigned to the oversight of the mission field on the Pacific Coast, in 1854.

        The California Annual Conference was organized April 6, 1865, in the Powell Street A. M. E. Church, Bishop J. P. Campbell, presiding; J. B. Saunderson, secretary. At this session, James H. Hubbard, Peter R. Green and John T. Jenifer were ordained deacons--the first Negroes ordained on the Pacific Coast.

The Advent of African Methodism in Arkansas and Indian Territory

        The first African M. E. Society in the State of Arkansas was organized by Local Deacon Nathan Warren, at Little Rock, in 1866, in the home of Mother Lucy Elrod, and her husband, Anthony Elrod, was the first class leader and steward. Revs. Peter Donty and Levi F. Carter were the first pastors.

        The Arkansas Annual Conference was organized at Little Rock, November 9, 1868. Rt. Rev. J. P. Campbell presiding. Willitm A. Rector, a layman, acted as secretary.

        African Methodist Missionary work among the Indians in the Indian Territory, was begun when Aaron T. Gillett was sent from the Arkansas Annual Conference as a missionary in 1870.

        Elder James F. A. Sisson, a white brother, was transferred from the Georgia A. M. E. Conference and was appointed as presiding elder by Bishop John M. Brown, over the Pulaski District, which included the Indian Territory, also. This brother labored assiduously with George T. Rutherford, Granville Ryles and others, to spread the African M. E. Church among the several Indian tribes.

        Bishop T. M. D. Ward organized the Indian African M. E. Conference on October 25, 1879, in the home of Brother Billy Kile, at Yellow Springs, Indian Territory. Thus Ham began in an organized way to evangelize Japhet.

The Advent of African Methodism Southwestward

        It is evidenced by many facts that the spirit and fame of African Methodism had reached as far South as South Carolina in the early thirties. It is this fact that drew Rev. Morris Brown North to be ordained deacon in 1817, but the influence of American slavery and its pernicious laws prevented this species of Negro Christianity spreading in Southern territory.

        But, "God's clock struck the hour," as Dr. Ransom has put it. The War of the Rebellion came; slavery was shot to death; emancipation came and the Southern territory was made fertile soil for African Methodist gospel seed.

        The Baltimore Conference, by resolution offered by Elder A. W. Wayman, resolved to enter with missionaries the Southern field in 1863. Revs. James Lynch and J. D. S. Hall, of New York Conference, were appointed, and who sailed from New York on May 29, 1863. They commenced their operations at Hilton's Head, having as their co-laborers Rev. Wm. G. Stewart and Thos. W. Long. These were followed soon after by Bishop Wayman and Rev. Elisha Weaver, who went as far as Savannah, Ga., in 1865. Richmond had fallen. (See Handy's History.) Bishop D. A. Payne, with Elders James A. Handy, Licentiates; James H. A. Johnson and T. G. Stewart, organized at Charleston, S. C., in the colored Presbyterian Church, the South Carolina Conference of the A. M. E. Church. They were joined several days after by Elder Richard H. Cain and A. L. Stanford, of New York, and George A. Rue, of New England.

        One year later, May 9, 1866, Bishop D. A. Payne, with Elder Handy at their head, with twelve preachers, left Wilmington, N. C., for Savannah, Ga., to hold the first session of the South Carolina Conference, at which forty itinerant preachers were ordained. Fourteen elders and seven superintendents were appointed to oversee the work. Elders Henry McNeal Turner and A. L. Stanford, for Georgia; Elder Richard H. Cain and A. T. Carr, for South Carolina, and Elder Charles H. Pierce, for Florida.

        From these beginnings have grown and spread the gigantic and vigorous branch of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the South and West. Thus far, we have traced the foot-steps of the pioneers over the four cardinal points of the North American continent.

Our Foreign Field

        The pioneers were not contented to confine the spirit of the Church of Richard Allen to the American continent, they had the courage to carry it abroad. Rev. Daniel Coker, one of the original sixteen founder fathers, carried African Methodism to West Africa, with the original colony in 1819, where we now have churches, missions, conference, preachers, schools and a resident bishop.

        The Baltimore Conference sent accredited missionaries to Hayti in 1827 in the person of Scipio Beans. In 1830, the little church at Samana, Santo Domingo, sent Rev. Jacob Robinson and Isaac Miller with accredited petitions to be recognized by the African M. E. Church in America.

        Rev. C. W. Moselle, an accredited missionary of the A. M. E. Church, with his sainted wife, labored from 1876 to 1884 at Port au Prince, Hayti, preaching and teaching. John Hurst, now bishop, with George Dorce, Joseph Meves and Jean Bullot, were sent to Wilberforce University to be trained under the department of missions for the foreign fields.

        Rev. R. A. Sealy, D. D., of Georgetown, Demarara, has been superintendent of the A. M. E. Mission work for many years in the West Indies.

        Bishop C. S. Smith was assigned to the oversight of the West Indian work in 1900, and held sessions of conferences at Georgetown, and with British America and South America in 1901.

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        Bishop B. F. Lee, visiting Demarara, S. A., in 1899, finding young Peter Luckie, a promising young man, induced him to go to Wilberforce University. He was educated under the Missionary Department and returned to that field a graduated missionary gospel minister.

South Africa

        When the Ethiopians of South Africa heard of the A. M. E. Church, St. Peter's Church, in Pretoria, South Africa, of which Rev. Joseph M. Kanyane was pastor, sent Rev. J. M. Duane, in 1896, to the A. M. E. General Conference at Wilmington, N. C., praying recognition and membership. He was received by Bishop H. M. Turner and Missionary Secretary H. B. Parks and Rev. Joseph S. Flipper, at Atlanta, Ga., July 12, 1896, into the A. M. E. connection in due form. Then Bishop Turner went to South Africa and organized the Cape Colony South African Annual Conference in 1896 with 7175 members. Now they have churches, conferences, schools, pupils and resident bishop. Hence it is seen that African Methodism, since its birth, has spread with efficiency and acceptance from east, west, north and south.

        The islands of the sea sought the light also, as they caught the joyful sound. Under the influences of the grace of God, as administered to thousands at the hands of African Methodist preachers and bishops, the great South has arisen since freedom in her might, in response to the call to a higher, stronger and efficient manhood and womanhood.

        Thus we have traced very scantily the initial steps of the pioneers of African Methodists, as they sought to reach, enlighten, evangelize and lift up the benighted sons of Africa.

        Conscious always of forces seeking to oppose and destroy, they seldom assembled in conference preliminary services without opening with the hymn:


                         "And are we yet alive
                         And see each other's face?
                         Glory and praise to Jesus give
                         For His redeeming grace."

        Nor were they ever unmindful of the weighty responsibility involved in the momentous task they had undertaken, as they evidenced it when at nearly every business meeting was heard:


                         "A charge to keep I have,
                         A God to glorify;
                         A never dying soul to save,
                         And fit it for the sky."

An Exemplary Incentive for Organized Effort

        The purpose in mind of the founder father of African Methodism, as stated above, was, among other things, to exemplify in the black man the power of self-reliance, self-help by the exercise of free religious thought with executive efficiency. Hence, her spirit and practices have been, at all times and places, to encourage fraternal and economic organizations among the colored race; so that, upon any proper occasion, she throws open her churches and halls for funerals, anniversaries and conventions.

        But note, we are far from making the claim that the African Methodist Episcopal Church has been the sole agency in the religious and educational enlightenment and uplift of the colored race variety. We do not forget the vast and efficient work along these lines of the Zion A. M. E. Church, the Baptist Church, the Methodist Episcopal, the C. M. E., the Congregational, the Presbyterian and Catholic churches--branches of the Church of Jesus Christ.

        James Varick, of the Zion; Miles, of the C. M. E. Church, with other founders and leaders, live in history and heaven, as well as Richard Allen and his compeers.

Executive Efficiency

        The closing decade of its century of connectional activities shows no decline, but is characterized by evidences of broadened and more efficient efforts and results.

        1. IN HER DEPARTMENT OF MISSIONS there is greater zeal for the cause of missions, local and foreign, in the churches and the conferences. The devout women of the church are intensely active, holding up the hands of the wide-awake secretary at its head. More moneys are raised, both for home and foreign fields; more missions planted, and its laborers better provided for.

        The secretary visits the foreign fields, and gives the connection a mission lesson book and ably edited "Voice of Missions." Hence, we are more and yet more enlightened, awakening to the fact that we are our brother's keeper.

        2. THE CHURCH EXTENSION. The people are becoming more and more enlightened as to the usefulness and power of this arm of the church. More funds are given, more poor missions and feeble churches aided, more embarrassed debt-burdened valuable property relieved and saved. And the realty in property values belonging to the connection is evidenced in this department, as in none other. And the church has shown good judgment in letting its present Secretary, Dr. B. F. Watson, remain long enough as its manager to gain, by experience, that efficiency, without which no executive head can reach the requirements, nor his departments its possibilities. Never have there been such surprising amounts raised by single efforts in cash, rallies to clear off mortgage debts, as are being done today.

        3. THE DEPARTMENT OF CONNECTIONAL EDUCATION evidences a similar spirit. In addition to the twenty-four connectional schools, two more in Georgia, and two in Africa, are recorded. Morris Brown University, of Atlanta, Ga., has its new Flipper Hall, and Wilberforce University its new Girls' Dormitory, costing $55,000.

        In Georgia, at Morris Brown, and at Waco, Texas, Bishop Smith, with his co-workers, surprised us all by the cash raised to clear those schools of their indebtedness. Now, Bishop John Hurst, with his forces, is putting new life in Edward Waters College, at Jacksonville, Florida. Thus, the Georgia regulars and Wilberforce veterans and the Florida fliers have set the connection a pace.

        There is an increase of pupils in all of our connectional schools. Their graduates are snatching honors from other leading colleges. The church is no longer dependent solely upon other scholastic sources to supply her faculties with instruction in the higher branches, but she now furnishes them for her own and other schools.

        The writer is sure that Dr. A. S. Jackson, A. M., Commissioner of Connectional Education, will come to the General Conference in 1916 reporting larger amounts collected for education.

        4. THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE. In spite of the limited fields of employment open to our people,

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and the hard times, with a few exceptions each annual conference session reports an increase of dollar money. If it were possible to show the aggregated amounts raised in all the local charges, we should scarcely credit the correct amounts stated. But it is interesting to note that these labors result, not simply in cash raising, but large increases in membership as well. Evidencing the fact that cash for revenue and grace, do not antagonize each other when a righteous purpose is back of them.

        5. THE PUBLISHING DEPARTMENT. The Book Concern, the oldest, mooted in 1817, has not grown with equal efficiency in comparison with the growth of connectional intelligence. Yet it has remained through the vicissitudes, giving us the Discipline, Hymn Books and Christian Recorder, with other books, helping the church to tell its own story, until now, under the management of Rev. J. I. Lowe, D. D., new vitality and efficiency are seen, so that with the scholarly R. R. Wright, B. D., Ph. D., editing the Recorder; R. C. Ransom, D. D., editing the A. M. E. Review; Editors G. W. Allen, D. D., of the Southern Christian Recorder; J. Frank McDonald, D. D., with the Western Recorder; the Georgia African Methodist, Paul Quinn Weekly, the House of Protection and the Chicago Recorder, together with the number of books bought and read, the world has evidences that the African Methodist Episcopal Church is not dying nor retrograding from mental stagnation.

        6. THE JUVENILE DEPARTMENT. Our Sunday schools are more largely attended, have better trained instructors and efficient superintendents, better graded system of lesson studies and superior class of music. The moneys raised under the management of this department have enabled its efficient Secretary-Treasurer, Ira T. Bryant, LL. B., to erect the most completely equipped and largest printing house among colored people in the United States.

        Akin to this in purpose and work is the Allen Christian Endeavor, with its literature and organ, The Endeavorer, under its efficient manager, Rev. Julian C. Caldwell, D. D., by which we are enabled to husband the youthful energy, ambition and tact in service for Christ and the church.

        There are three additional events in the history of African Methodism, which evidence that it is moving in the spirit of progress, we note among the above, viz.:

        1. Rev. J. W. Rankin, Missionary Secretary, visited the foreign field, West Africa, in 1914; also that he, with Bishop Hurst, visited Jamaica in 1915, and planted the A. M. E. Church by receiving into the connection representatives of several denominations.

        2. The Missionary Congress at Chicago, thus inaugurating a new missionary propaganda.

        3. The Educational Congress, held at Atlanta, Ga., July 8, 1914, under the joint management of the Sunday School Union and the Allen Christian Endeavor; Ira T. Bryant and Julian C. Caldwell, secretaries.

        Now, we may raise, at this point, the question--has there been good judgment shown, such as to justify the undertaking of the father founders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church? Let a few statistical facts answer:

African M. E. Church Came Out 1878; Founded, 1816.

        
Members in the United States 620,000
Missionary Field 25,000
Bishops ordained 39
Active Bishops 13
Pastors 6,554
Local preachers 6,437
Number of churches 6,000
Number of parsonages 2.748
Sunday school members 231,828
Teachers and officers 5,851
Books in Library 150,000
Church schools in United States 16
Church schools in West Indies 2
Church schools in West Africa 3
Church schools in South Africa 3
Students in Missionary Schools 4,725
Annual conferences 79
Publishing Houses 2
Newspapers 6

        The A. M. E. Church raises, per annum, for trustees and stewards' departments, $2,472,298.42; raises, annually, for missions, home and foreign, $75,000; for education, $1,000,000; according to the United States Census, has church property valued at $11,303,882.

        The Church is operating in the United States, Canada, West Indies, South and West Africa, Hayti and San Domingo, and South America.

-- From the A. M. E. Review, January, 1916.

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Chronology of African Methodism

By R. R. Wright, Jr.

Page 17

Centennial Encyclopaedia of the African Methodist Episcopal Church

        ALLEN, RICHARD, the first bishop of the A. M. E. Church, was born February 14, 1760, a slave of Benjamin Chew, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At an early age he, with his father, mother and three other children, was sold into the state of Delaware, where, on a farm in the neighborhood of Dover, he was brought up. About 1777 he was converted and soon afterwards, about 1780, began to preach. His religion was of such a genuine sort that it affected every department

[ILLUSTRATION]
BISHOP RICHARD ALLEN.

of his life. As a result his master permitted prayer meeting and preaching in his house, and was himself converted. The master showed his conversion by making it possible for his slaves to become free. Accordingly Richard Allen and his brother bought their freedom for $2000 Continental money. Richard Allen left his master and began to stir for himself, with a job of cutting cord wood; then he was employed at $50 (Continental money) a month in a brick yard; then he worked as a day laborer; then as a teamster hauling salt during the Revolutionary War from Rehobar, Sussex County, Delaware. During all of this time he preached whenever he could. After he had acquired experience he began to travel from place to place preaching. Like Paul, he worked with his hands for his own support as he preached. In the fall of 1783 he was in Wilmington, Delaware; later and until spring of 1784 he traveled and preached in New Jersey; later in 1784 he traveled and preached in Pennsylvania, going to Radnor, Lancaster, York and other points. Thence he went to Baltimore, where, December, 1784, he was present at the first general conference of Methodism in America, and met the leaders. In 1785 he traveled and preached with Rev. Richard Watcoat on Baltimore Circuit, and held meetings in "Methodist Alley," Baltimore, Maryland. Bishop Asbury recognized Richard Allen's talent and frequently gave him assignments to preach. The latter part of 1785 found him again at Radnor. In February, 1786, he came to Philadelphia and preached at St. George Methodist Church and at different places in that city where there was then a large colored population. He said, "I soon saw a large field open in seeking and instructing my African brethren, who had been a long forgotten people, and few of them attended public worship." He started prayer meetings in Philadelphia and soon had 42 members. As early as 1786 he proposed a separate place of worship for the colored people, but the whites opposed this, and only three colored brethren favored the plan. But because of Allen's power the number of colored worshippers at St. George grew very large, and soon they were separated from the whites, who did not want them with them or away from them. The crisis came one Sunday morning when the sexton ordered the colored people to the gallery. But some made a mistake in the seats. Bishop Allen thus narrates it, "He told us to go, and we would see where to sit. We expected to take the seats over the ones we formerly occupied below, not knowing any better. We took those seats. Meeting had begun, and they were nearly done singing, and just as we got to the seats, the elder said, 'Let us pray.' We had not been long upon our knees before I heard considerable scuffling and low talking. I raised my head up and saw one of the trustees, H-- M--, having hold of the Rev. Absalom Jones, pulling him off of his knees, and saving, 'You must get up--you must not kneel here.' Mr. Jones replied, 'Wait till prayer is over.' Mr. H-- M-- said, 'No, you must get up now, or I will call for aid and force you away.' Mr. Jones said, 'Wait until prayer is over and I will get up and trouble you no more.' With that he beckoned to one of the other trustees, Mr. L-- S-- to come to his assistance. He came, and went to William White to pull him up. By this time prayer was over, and we all
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went out of the church in a body, and they were no more plagued with us in the church." Thus began the movement for an independent African Church. In 1787 the "Free African Society" was started by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. Later Absalom Jones began the African Protestant Episcopal Church of st. Thomas, but the majority of the people remained Methodist and stayed with Richard Allen, worshipping in a house. The first property bought was on Lombard Street near 6th. But this property was not accepted by the majority of the committee. So Richard Allen kept it. After Allen and Jones separated, Allen purchased an old building used as a blacksmith shop and moved it on this lot. On July 1794 this church was dedicated by Bishop Asbury. In this church there was organized a Sunday school and a day and night school, and regular ministers were sent by the Methodist Conference. In 1799 Bishop Asbury ordained Richard Allen deacon, and in 1816 he was ordained elder.

        Other African churches had begun in much the same way in other parts of the country. Many of these were, like Bethel, under the Methodist Conference, but were dissatisfied. The organizing genius of Richard Allen got many of these together and in April, 1816 they held their first convention in Philadelphia and formed the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Richard Allen was elected bishop and ordained April 11, 1816. He served until his death, March 26, 1831. In 1817 he published the first discipline. Richard Allen was a man of independent character as shown by his conception of religion, by his purchasing his freedom, by his unwillingness to have others support him, by his unwillingness to travel as a preacher's assistant in the South and sleep in his carriage at night, by his resentment of the treatment of his people at St. George. He was a thrifty man. As a slave he did more work than other slaves; he always could find work; he seemed to have been a good trader; he owned several teams when Bethel was established though he had been in Philadelphia but a short while. He was a man of strict integrity; when a slave he delivered a message, his word was taken and he did not have to bear a note with his master's signature. When the first property was purchased for the African Church, though a majority of the committee wanted to give up the property and did do so, Allen had given his word, and therefore kept it. And this should ever be remembered in connection with the oldest piece of property owned by any Negro organization in the country--the first bond on it was Richard Allen's word.

        His remains lie buried in Bethel Church, Philadelphia.

        Abington, Rev. C. W., third son of Peter and Lucinda Abington, was born near Roanoke, Va., March 22, 1872. His father died before he was four years old, and the responsibility of providing for six small children fell upon the widowed mother, thus the boy was early in life taught the value of self help and self reliance. His uncle, Rev. William Frantz, both a preacher and a teacher, adopted him, but on account of poor health could not long keep him. Finally Rev. P. M. Onley, of Cumberland City, Md., took charge of him. Young Abington had evidenced signs of ability and Elder Onley and his wife, endeavored to give him the best training possible. But Mr. Onley was stricken with paralysis, and in 1885 young Abington began to shift for himself. He went first to Knoxville, Tenn., then to Chattanooga, where he continued his studies along with his work. He was converted in 1892 and joined Warren Chapel A. M. E. Church, Chattanooga, and despite the aversion to the ministry he was unable to resist. He was licensed to exhort shortly after his conversion by Rev. Jas. T. Gilmore, and licensed to preach by Rev. Dr. T. B. Caldwell. After studying some time in Chattanooga he entered Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Ga., from which he graduated with honors in the class of 1898, and at once was given a mission on Ft. Wood, Chattanooga, and in his

[ILLUSTRATION]
REV. C. W. ABINGTON.

few months'stay he remodeled and beautified the church building, organized a choir and elevated the church service. At the annual Conference in 1898 he was transferred to the Oklahoma Conference and stationed at Guthrie, Okla., remaining five years, adding many people to the church and building the first pressed brick church owned by colored people in Oklahoma, also purchasing the property adjoining the church for a parsonage. To him was due also the credit for the Y. M. C. L. in Guthrie. He was transferred in 1904 to the Central Texas Conference and stationed at Metropolitan Church, Austin, Texas, a church erected by Bishop Grant. It was burdened with debts, many dating back fourteen years, and the building had also become almost a total wreck. But in a short while all of the old debts were discharged, confidence built up, the building entirely remodeled and provided with all modern improvements and comforts including an adequate heating plant, and the citizens of Austin, without regard to denomination, gave substantial recognition of his splendid services. At the close of his five years he was given what was then said to be the greatest ovation ever accorded a retiring minister in Austin, regardless of race variety. From Austin Rev. Abington was transferred to the Northeast Texas Conference and stationed at Bethel Church, Dallas, which was erected by Bishop Armstrong. He remained at Dallas for five years, being more popular at the end than at the beginning. The Dallas Express, a local journal, said of his pastorate, "it is conceded to be the most
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successful administration, viewed from every angle, in the history of the church, and this verdict is acquiesced in by persons who have held membership in the church for more than thirty years. Each year the church has extended its influence in the community. Aside from paying the mortgage debts and buying the house and lot adjoining the church property, and paying for it excepting one note, $150.00, not yet due, the building has been completely renovated and equipped with all modern conveniences and is unexcelled for beauty and comfort." Five hundred and thirty-seven members were received during the five years, most of whom were converted in the church meetings, and $24,569.05 was raised for all purposes, and the largest pipe organ in any colored church in the State was installed.

        From Dallas Rev. Abington was sent to Corsicana, where he is doing the same kind of work, being now in his second year. The Rev. Mr. Abington is a hard student, an eloquent and convincing preacher, a methodical pastor, a tireless worker and a lover of humanity. He received the degree of D.D. from Paul Quinn College in 1908. He was a delegate to the general conferences of 1912 and 1916, and a member of the Missionary Board.

        Adams, Revels Alcorn, was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, February 28, 1869; the son of Rev. Henry Page and Caroline V. Adams, both of Mississippi, the

[ILLUSTRATION]
REV. R. A. ADAMS

former having come from Kentucky, and the latter from Virginia. His boyhood and youth were fraught with many discouraging circumstances.

        After completing the common school courses of his native State, he pursued the theological course at Payne Theological Seminary; then went into the active ministry, serving with success the various charges to which he has been appointed, adding large numbers to the church. Among others, he has served as pastor the leading charges in the following cities in Mississippi: Clarksdale, Brookhaven, Jackson, Natchez and Greenville; also Avery Church, Memphis, Tennessee. It was while serving the last named church, with a salary of $1800.00, that Dr. Adams answered the call to the work of an evangelist, in which he has been so eminently successful. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Tanner, January 15, 1892, and elder by Bishop W. B. Derrick, December 10, 1896. For about ten years he resisted the voice within which called him and found excuses in favor of refusing the evangelistic field, but eventually he humbled himself to the will of God, and as a result into his life has come the joy of doing service for humanity and helping thousands to find the peace which world giveth not.

        The following are some results of his evangelistic campaigns: at Natchez, Miss., 376 converts; Detroit, Mich., 600; Zanesville, Ohio, 140; Cincinnati, Ohio, 160; Boston, Mass., 84; Chicago, Ill., 800; Kansas City, Kansas, 250; Kansas City, Missouri, 300; Charleston, W. Va., 400. Dr. Adams also lectures on Social Purity, Sex Hygiene and Eugenics, and is a student of sociology. He is corresponding secretary of the New Evangelical Association, president of the National Home Purity League, editor of the Home Purity Magazine, author and publisher Cyclopedia of African Methodism in Mississippi and the new sensational book, "The Negro Girl," and composer of several musical productions.

        Dr. Adams signs; also plays the piano, organ, cornet and violin, and directs his own choirs in evangelistic campaigns.

        Alexander, Connie C., was born of slave parents, but devoted Christians, in Pulaski County, Arkansas, October 20, 1881. His mother, with whom he is now living and whom he supports, is a loyal Christian. His father, who died in 1912, was one of the industrious farmers in Arkansas, and had been a class-leader in

[ILLUSTRATION]
CONNIE CALVIN ALEXANDER

the African Methodist, Episcopal Church for thirty-five years.

        Mr. Alexander's education was received in the public schools in Pulaski County, near Little Rock, Arkansas, in the tribal schools in the Indian Territory (now Eastern Oklahoma), Philander Smith College, Little Rock, Arkansas, and the High School, Kansas City, Missouri. He was converted August 20, 1900, afterward joining the A. M. E. Church.

        In 1912 he was licensed to preach by the Rev. L. E. Nelson, of the North East Oklahoma Conference of the A. M. E. Church.

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        Alexander, Wellington Grenville, was born at Orange, Orange Co., Va., December 25, 1860, the first of seven children of Lewis and Celia Alexander, members of the A. M. E. Church. The family early after the war removed to the District of Columbia, where he attended the Government School, a Quaker school, the city public schools and Howard University. He also studied in and graduated from the Chautauqua Scientific and Literary Circle, Bishop J. H. Vincent, chancellor.

        Young Alexander professed religion and joined Mt. Pisgah A. M. E. Church during the pastorate of the

[ILLUSTRATION]
DR. W. G. ALEXANDER.

Rev. Jno. P. Cox, filling the positions of organist of the choir, teacher and superintendent of the Sunday School, class leader, trustee, steward and local preacher. He joined the Baltimore Conference May 9, 1879, holding its session at Union Bethel, now Metropolitan, under Bishop J. M. Brown. His first appointment was Queen Anne Circuit, Anne Arundel Co., Md. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Payne at Easton, Md., May, 1881, and elder by Bishop Payne, May, 1883. He has held the following appointments:

        West River, Md.; Frederick, Md.; Emanuel, Portsmouth, Va.; St. John, Montgomery, Ala.; St. John, Birmingham, Ala.; St. James, Columbus, Ga.; Bethel, Atlanta, Ga.; Stewart, Macon, Ga.; Campbell Chapel, Americus, Ga., and built the church at West River, Md., costing $3000; reduced the mortgage indebtedness at Frederick, Md., of $3000, one half; lifted mortgage at Portsmouth of $1000, at which place he built and furnished a parsonage costing $5500, paying over two-thirds of its cost; renovated the church at Montgomery at a cost of $2300, paying quite two-thirds of its cost. At St. James, Columbus, he paid $1700 on a debt of $3000; at Big Bethel, Atlanta, he reduced the mortgage of $32,000 to $17,000, tore down and rebuilt this great structure at an additional expense of $21,000, leaving only $3000 of this extra cost due. At St. John, Birmingham, Ala., he secured the deeds of this property by compromise suit, securing a two-story parsonage almost as a gift, which was improved, and on completion was worth $3500 to the Connection. He removed the debt of $1800 on Steward Church, Macon; Ga.; purchased the triangular lot adjoining, paying $1000 cash for it; secured by suit property of Armistead Bryant, valued at $4000. At Campbell Chapel, Americus, he remained six months, reducing the indebtedness $750. He has received into the church by revivals, etc., 3750; baptized 1800; was a delegate to the General Conference at Philadelphia, Pa., May, 1892; Wilmington, N. C., May, 1896; Columbus, O., May, 1900; Chicago, Ill., May, 1904; Philadelphia, 1916.

        Morris Brown College conferred upon him the degree of A.M., Wilberforce University, Ohio, the degree of D.D. Wellington, Jr. studied at Morris Brown College and Lincoln University; Florence was graduated as a trained nurse from Morris Brown College; Grant studied at Morris Brown College.

        He has been a contributor to the Christian and Southern Recorders, Voice of Missions, Voice of the People, New York and Atlanta Age, People's Advocate, Colored American. The following pamphlets have been written:

        "Living Words," "The Triumphant March of African Methodism," "The Man in the Pulpit, what he should be, what he should know." He has delivered the following addresses: "Richard Allen, the Pioneer in Negro-American Achievement," "The Negro-American in the Civilization of the Caucasian," "The Literary beauties of the Bible for lovers of Literature," "Payne, Crummall, Douglass, modern masters of the pulpit and platform," "The pulpit and the schoolroom in Negro-American Uplift," "Lectures on Biblical Archeology."

        He has set to music three of Bishop D. A. Payne's lyrics, which appear in his book, "Domestic Education." He is a Mason and Knight of Pythias.

        He was curator of Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Va., for four years; a director of the Anti-Saloon League; a member of the World's Congress of Religions, Chicago, Ill.; of the Southern Sociological Congress; the National Geographic Society; president of the Southern Race Congress, Macon, Ga. For ten years he was dean and professor in Turner Theological Seminary, Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Ga. He served as Presiding Elder of the South Atlanta, Rome and Valdosta Districts A. M. E. Church, and fraternal messenger to the General Conference of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, Little Rock, Ark. He was elected to organize Young People's Christian Endeavor Societies throughout the A. M. E. Connection, but declined that he might rebuild the wrecked Big Bethel Church, Atlanta, Ga. He was elected president of Payne University, A. M. E., Selma, Ala., but declined He was voted for for Bishop at the General Conference at Columbus, Ohio.

        His wife, Mrs. Harriet Alexander, to whom he was married in Washington, D. C., May 9, 1876, has faithfully and courageously kept up with the work of her husband, and is a leading member of The Colored Women's Federation and other civic league clubs, and the Eastern Star Chapter. They own their own home at Atlanta, Ga.

        Dr. Alexander has lectured by invitation to such schools as Gammon Theological Seminary, Atlanta University, Clark University, Morris Brown University, Spelman. Atlanta Baptist College, Tuskegee, Hampton, Tallahassee, Edward Waters, Jacksonville,

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Payne, Selma, Montgomery Normal and Industrial Institute, Montgomery Girls' Industrial and the Huntsville Normal Agricultural College.

        Allen, Rev. George Wesley, son of George and Margaret Allen, one of ten children, was born August 10, 1854, in Lee County, Alabama. Parents were members of A. M. E. Church.

        Began attending school in 1867, and attended irregularly twenty years. He received much of his instruction from professors in colleges and high schools for whites, who taught him privately, as he was prohibited from attending their schools because he was colored. Received the degree D. D. from Payne University, and Wilberforce University.

        Was converted July, 1867, and joined M. E. Church (South) the same year, there being no A. M. E. Church near.

        He held almost every office in the church, steward, trustee, class leader, exhorter, local preacher, Sunday school teacher, pastor, presiding elder and general

[ILLUSTRATION]
REV. G. W. ALLEN, D.D.

officer. Was licensed to preach in 1878 at Enon, Alabama, by Rev. Cain Rogers, P. E.; ordained deacon December, 1892, at Eufaula, Ala., by Bishop A. Grant; ordained elder December, 1894, at Union Springs, Ala., by Bishop A. Grant. Joined Annual Conference at Opelika, Ala., under Bishop W. J. Gaines, December, 1890.

        Has held the following appointments: Phoenix City Mission, four years; Salem Circuit, two years; St. Peters and Grant Chapel, three years; presiding elder of Montgomery District, four years; presiding elder of Union Springs District, six months, until General Conference of May, 1904, at Chicago, when he was elected editor of Southern Christian Recorder, succeeding Rev. G. E. Taylor. He has built the following churches: Bethel, Bullock Co., Ala.; Gaines Chapel, Girard, Ala.; Grant Chapel, Phoenix City; St. Peters, Lee County, Ala.; aided in the erection of several others. He has been a delegate to General Conferences in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and is a member of the Centennial General Conference of 1916. He was voted for the bishopric in May, 1912.

        Married Mrs. Phoebe Harvey Allen of Stewart Co., Ga., March 2, 1876. They have eight splendid children, all of whom they have given a first-class education, and in this respect are greatly to be complimented. The seven sons and one daughter are: Griffin A. Allen, M. D., 37 years, finished Tuskegee; at Meharry, as pharmacist and physician; also finished Girard City High School in Girard, Ala.

        William W. Allen, age 35, finished at Girard City High School and Georgia State College at Savannah, Ga., and was business manager of the Southern Christian Recorder, and a member of the General Conferences of 1908, 1912 and 1916.

        James L. Allen, age 33, finished at Girard City High School and Georgia State College.

        John S. Allen, age 31, finished at Girard City High School, and took a college course at Clark University and Lincoln University of Missouri.

        Alexander J. Allen, A. B., age 29, finished at Girard High School; finished college course at Clark University; is in senior year and class for B. D. at Yale University.

        

[ILLUSTRATION]
MRS. G. W. ALLEN

        Nimrod B. Allen, A. B., B. D., age 27, finished Girard City High School; finished college course at Wilberforce University, and B. D. at Yale University.

        Marion A. Allen, A. B., age 24, finished Girard City High School and college course at Atlanta University.

        Bertha Lee Allen (only living daughter) finished at Columbus, Ga., and at Atlanta University, and is now studying in Boston, Mass.

        Contributed to many newspapers and magazines. He was manager of the Columbus Progressive Age, Columbus Messenger, editor and manager of the East Alabama Messenger, and is now editor of the Southern Christian Recorder.

        Addressed graduating classes at Columbus City High School, Payne University and others. Connected with A. F. and A. M. and International order; K. of P. and some local societies. Was W. M., secretary and treasurer in A. F. and A. M. He is a Republican and was representative in the Alabama Legislature two years and was elected a second time but counted

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out by Democrats. Dr. Allen lives in his own home and has been actively associated with the Orphan Home and Y. M. C. A. of Columbus, Ga.

        Allen, Mrs. Phoebe C., wife of Rev. G. W. Allen, D. D., editor of the Southern Christian Recorder. Miss Phoebe C. Harvey and Prof. G. W. Allen were united in matrimony March 2, 1876. Rev. C. S. Smith, (now Bishop) performed the marriage ceremony near Eufaula, Ala.

        Allen, Miss Mattie A., former district superintendent of S. S. of Phila., was born October 31, 1872, at Bensalem, Pa. One of twelve children born to Leroy and Lucy Allen. At an early age was converted in the Bensalem A. M. E. Church. Been an active worker in the church and Sunday school, filling office as

[ILLUSTRATION]
MISS MATTIE A. ALLEN

teacher and superintendent. She was District Superintendent of the Philadelphia District Sunday Schools of the Philadelphia Conference for six years, from 1909 to 1915. She was educated in the Bensalem public schools; also took a course in training for nurses.

        Alston, Lewis Markfield, was born in Charleston, S. C., September 10, 1859. After receiving a common school training in the public school, he served at trade in the George S. Hacker Door Sash and Blind Factory, and upon completion of his trade, was employed as a mechanic, serving as apprentice and tradesman for a period of thirty-five years.

        In the year 1883, January 10, he was joined in matrimony at the age of twenty-three, to Miss Maggie Jeanette Motte, by the Rev. J. F. Dart.

        He joined Emanuel A. M. E. Church, Charleston, S. C., May 24th, 1883, and was fellowshipped and appointed a steward by the Rev. L. R. Nichols the next year. He was elected clerk of the church during the pastorate of Dr. W. W. Beckett; appointed a class leader during the pastorate of the late Dr. J. H. Welch. He has been frequently elected a delegate to district conferences and was the delegate from Emanuel Church to the last Electoral College, from which he was elected a lay-delegate to the Centennial General Conference in Philadelphia, 1916. He is now in his twentieth year as clerk of Emanuel Church, under the

[ILLUSTRATION]
LEWIS MARKFIELD ALSTON

pastorate of Rev. A. E. Peats, and is a prominent factor in the community and church life of the city of Charleston, S. C. His wife, Mrs. Maggie J. Motte Alston, is a stewardess and president of the South Carolina Conference Branch of the W. H. & F. Society.

        Alston, Mrs. Maggie J., President Conference Branch of Women's Home & Foreign Missionary Society, South Carolina Conference, was born in

[ILLUSTRATION]
MRS. MAGGIE J. ALSTON

Charleston, S. C., February 17, 1860, the daughter of William and Jeannetta Motte Alston. She attended Simonton and Avery Normal Institute of Charleston; became a member of Emanuel A. M. E. Church during the pastorate of the late Bishop M. B. Salter; became
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a Sunday School teacher at the age of sixteen years, and is still serving in that capacity. She has served her Church in many ways and is now an active member of the Stewardess' Board.

        Sister Alston is so deeply interested in the affairs of her Church that she has attended the Annual Conference Sessions for the past twenty-eight years. At the Annual Conference held at St. George, S. C., 1905, she was made President of the W. H. & F. M. Society of the South Carolina Conference Branch. During that time she has held conventions yearly and raised more than nine hundred dollars for the cause of missions.

        In 1908 she attended the General Conference at Norfolk, Va. In 1911 attended the Quadrennial Meeting of the W. H. & F. M. Society at Birmingham, Ala. In 1912 she attended the General Conference at Kansas City, Mo., and in 1915 the Quadrennial Meeting of the W. H. & F. M. Society in New Orleans, La.

        Becoming a member of the old Emanuel Church under Rev. (later Bishop) Salter's pastorate, she served the following pastors: Revs. L. R. Nichols, B. H. Williams, N. B. Sterrett, W. W. Beckett, J. H. Welch, H. W. B. Bennett, and A. E. Peets, and raised, during Drs. Welch and Bennett's pastorates, $1,892.73 on the new Emanuel, and to use her own expression, "feels neither tired nor weary but will work until she awakes in Christ's likeness." At the age of 22 she was married to Mr. L. M. Alston, a member of Emanuel Church. The two have lived together happily and served in the Church together for 34 years.

        Alston, Rev. W. R., was born in Marion, S. C., in 1853; was converted and joined the church at the age of 16. He attended the public schools of Marion and received his later education under the direction of H. T. Haynes, of Charleston, who afterwards became Secretary of State for South Carolina during Governor Chamberlain's administration, and the Rev. J. B. Middleton, a noted minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

        He taught school for a number of years. While engaged in teaching he was licensed to preach by the late Rev. William E. Johnson, who at the time was the leading character of the A. M. E. Church in South Carolina. In February, 1880, he was admitted into the South Carolina Conference on trial, ordained a deacon under the missionary rule by the late Bishop John M. Brown, and appointed pastor of the Centerville Station. In 1883 he was ordained an elder by the late Bishop William F. Dickerson, in Morris Brown Church, Charleston, S. C.

        In 1885, when the rebellion led by the afore-mentioned Rev. William E. Johnson occurred, which resulted in the birth of the Reformed Methodist Union Church of South Carolina, the Rev. W. R. Alston combatted the Rev. Johnson and his followers in defense of African Methodism. He met the enemy on the Britton Neck Circuit, and by argument, persuasion and preaching, took back the St. Wright Church with a large membership. This Church had gone over to the "Johnson faction," as it was then called.

        The A. M. E. Church at Florence was about to be captured when the Rev. Alston urged the Presiding Elder, the late Rev. D. J. Lites, to convene the ministers of the Marion District in extra session of the District Conference. At this District Conference, held in Marion, Rev. Alston said: "Mr. Chairman and brethren, I move that eighty dollars of money we have in hand to purchase a District personage be paid to this white lady, who will give us deeds and titles for our church property at Florence and then we can forbid the 'Johnson faction' making further entry thereon." By this act the A. M. E. Church was held fast in Florence and more permanently established.

        Later he was called by the officers of St. John Church, at Marion, to assist them in preventing the "Johnson faction" from making inroads on the Church there, for the Rev. Johnson, himself, was holding services in the Graded School building and making heavy attacks on the A. M. E. Church in his efforts to have the people of St. John follow him. Rev. Alston, through a prominent white attorney of the town, J. Monroe Johnson, procured an injunction restraining the rebel ministers from further use of the school building. He then preached to and pleaded with the members of St. John Church in full congregation assembled, which put an end to the spirit of rebellion, then apparently burning in many of them, as a result

[ILLUSTRATION]
REV. W. R. ALSTON

of the eloquence and brilliancy of Rev. William E. Johnson, whose influence as a preacher and Presiding Elder in the A. M. E. Church prior to his rebellion was deeply felt by ministers and laymen alike. In after years, when the Rev. Johnson was ordained Bishop of the church founded by himself, he often referred to Rev. Alston in most laudable terms on account of the latter's work in resisting the advance of the "Johnson faction" in defense of African Methodism.

        The subject of this sketch has been a successful pastor in the thirty-five years of his ministry and has never had his character marked by an Annual Conference. He has pastored sixteen charges within that period of time, most prominent among which were Centerville, Florence, Mt. Zion and Beaufort Stations. He served for a number of years as Recording Secretary of the South Carolina Conference. At the adjournment of that Conference, at Walterboro, S. C., December, 1913, he was re-assigned to his charge, Mt. Zion Church, in the Beaufort District. One week afterwards, Bishop Coppin asked him to transfer to the

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Piedmont Conference and fill a vacancy by accepting the pastorate of Bethel Church in the City of Laurens, which charge he now holds.

        Amos, Rev. Adolphus A., was born in Barbados, West Indies, October 12, 1873. He attended the public schools when only five years of age. He spent six years in the public schools and four years in college. His father was a minister of Wesleyan Methodist Church.

        Converted at only twelve years of age he joined the church which his father was pastoring, being licensed to preach January, 1888.

        Soon afterward he went trading with the Royal Mail Boats between Europe and America, Brazil and Central American ports, but at length he ceased traveling and landed in America April, 1900. Here he visited and joined the A. M. E. Church, in which he was ordained deacon by Bishop Gaines, July 5, 1908. He first pastored St. Luke's A. M. E. Mission; then served as a supply at St. John's Church; then St. James Mission. He was ordained Elder by Bishop Gaines May 21, 1911, and is now serving as pastor for the second term at the Emmanuel A. M. E. Church in New York. This church he has had incorporated with the intention of erecting a suitable place for worship. In seventeen months he had twenty-five converts and fifty-seven additional members and raised over $1357, and has a Sunday School of fifty-three scholars.

        Anderson, Rev. Boyle C., was born in Shelbyville, Co., Ky., 1861; moved to Cincinnati the same year, then in 1865 to St. Charles, Missouri, then to Sturgeon, Boone Co., Mo., and later to California, returning in 1888. Was licensed to preach by Rev. W. B. Ousley in 1888. Ordained Elder at St. Joseph, Mo., by Bishop B. T. Tanner in 1899.

        Attended Wilberforce and graduated in Class of 1896.

        Has assisted in building and repairing many of the churches he has pastored. Before he became a member of the Conference he organized a church at Centralia, Mo., his sister having given a lot. Held the following appointments: Chillicothe, Mo., 1897; Clarksville Circuit, 1900; Salisbury and Utica Circuit in 1902; Wentsville, 1903-6-7; Canton Circuit, 1903-9-10; Breckinridge, 1904; Canton and La Grange, 1911-12; Frankford and Salt River, 1913-14, where he renovated the church and put in new electric lights.

        Anderson, H. P., was born in Salisbury, Pa., his father having been transported here in the early forties via "The Underground Railway." His early religious impressions were received from a Quaker family for whom his father worked. Losing his father early in life, young Anderson supported his mother and sister at firs