LIFE
OF
CHARLES T. WALKER, D. D.,
(“THE BLACK SPURGEON.”)
PASTOR MT. OLIVET BAPTIST CHURCH, NEW YORK CITY.
BY
SILAS XAVIER FLOYD, A. M.
WITH AN
INTRODUCTION
BY
ROBERT STUART MacARTHUR, D. D.
NASHVILLE, TENN.:
NATIONAL BAPTIST PUBLISHING BOARD.
1902.
Copyrighted 1902,
By Silas Xavier Floyd, A. M.
[Illustration: DR. CHARLES T. WALKER, 44 YEARS OF AGE.]
INTRODUCTION.
There is no species of literary composition more difficult than the
writing of a good biography. Biographers are under a great temptation
at times to create, or at least to magnify, the virtues of their
subjects; and the temptation is not less on other occasions to deny, or
greatly to minify, their vices. The biographies of Holy Scripture are
models of biographical literary production. Inspired writers neither
extenuate the defects nor magnify the excellencies of their subjects;
extenuating nothing on the one hand, they do not, on the other, set
down aught in malice. The excellence of the inspired writings in this
regard differentiates them from the uninspired writings of any country
or century.
But while to biographize is a confessedly difficult task, it is at
the same time universally admitted to be a form of literary production
of great value, when properly executed. A biography is generally
understood to be the history of the life, actions and character of a
particular person; it is that form of history proper whose subject
is described in the facts and events of his individual experience.
Carlyle, in his “Sartor Resartus,” says: “Biography is by nature the
most universally profitable, universally pleasant of all things.” He
also elsewhere says: “There is no heroic poem in the world but is at
bottom a biography, the life of a man.” He has frequently expressed the
idea that history is biography; that the history of any nation is the
story of the lives of its great men. In a profound sense this statement
is literally true. We thus see that peculiar ability is required
accurately to write the life of any representative man. His forbears
for many generations ought to be accurately known; his environment, in
all its essential characteristics, ought to be thoroughly mastered.
The times partly make men, and men partly make their time; each acts
and reacts upon the other. Neither can be exhaustively described
independent of the other.
The difficulty of writing good biographies is so great that
comparatively few great biographies have been written. All the world
is familiar with the unique biography of Johnson by Boswell. It has
excited hearty laughter, while it has imparted valuable information.
Lockhart’s Life of Scott and Lady Holland’s Life of Sydney Smith, fill
almost a unique place in biographical literature. G. Otto Trevelyan’s
Life of Lord Macaulay and Hallam Tennyson’s Life of his father are
among the more recent and valuable illustrations of the biographical
literature of modern times.
The word biography comes from two Greek words, _bios_, life, and
_graphein_, to write. In order that there should be a good biography,
it is necessary, therefore, that there should be a life nobly lived,
and a writer competent to describe it in fitting terms. In the
biography of Rev. Charles T. Walker, D. D., by Rev. Silas X. Floyd, D.
D., both these conditions are excellently met. By his careful literary
training, his wide experience as a writer, and his intimate knowledge
of the history of Dr. Walker, Dr. Floyd is eminently fitted to write a
readable account of Dr. Walker’s life and work. He has been associated
in newspaper, pastoral and evangelistic work with Dr. Walker for the
past twenty years. When Dr. Walker was business manager of the Augusta
Sentinel, Dr. Floyd was its editor; and when Dr. Walker resigned the
pastorate of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Augusta, Ga., Dr. Floyd
became his successor. He thus has had unusual opportunities to study
Dr. Walker’s public and private life day by day for nearly a quarter of
a century. Dr. Floyd is a graduate of Atlanta University, Georgia, from
which institution he received the degree of A. M., three years after
his graduation. For three years he was employed by the International
Sunday School Convention as one of its Field Workers in the South. He
is at present in the employ of the American Baptist Publication Society
as a Missionary for Georgia and Alabama. The degree of “Doctor of
Divinity” was conferred upon him by Morris Brown College, Atlanta, Ga.,
June 4, 1902.
There is probably no other Negro in the United States, and perhaps
no other in the world, who is a better subject for a biography than
Charles T. Walker. Many will affirm that Booker T. Washington is the
most prominent representative of his race in America; doubtless, in his
special department of effort for his people, he is the representative
Negro. But all intelligent men, black or white, familiar with the
facts, will say that Dr. Walker is the ablest Negro preacher and pastor
in the United States. His racial characteristics are so strongly
emphasized that the most bitter opponent of his race cannot attribute
his acknowledged ability as thinker, writer and preacher to any
interfusion of white blood in his veins. He is a Negro in every drop
of his blood. Dr. Walker had careful training as a preparation for
the work of the gospel ministry. Too many men, both white and black,
rush into the ministry with quite inadequate preparation. The time has
come when the apostolic injunction, “Lay hands suddenly on no man,”
must be literally obeyed. This injunction is especially important in
its relation to preachers and pastors of Negro churches. They are the
natural and powerful leaders of their people. This is a transition
period for the millions of the Negro race in America. Tremendously
important racial problems are now demanding solution. Whites and
blacks, both North and South, must have great patience with one another
in the presence of these pulsing problems. Right solutions will
eventually come; and all men must remember that no question is settled
truly until it is settled rightly.
Dr. Walker has been an earnest student ever since his school days. He
has traveled widely, read extensively and thought profoundly. In all
these respects he has set a good example to all preachers and pastors.
There is no standing still in professional life. If a man does not
advance, he must retrograde; if he does not grow up, he must grow down.
Every preacher is like a man on a bicycle--he must go on constantly or
go off speedily.
Dr. Walker’s ministry in New York has been remarkable for pulpit power
and for practical results. His ministry in this city is a distinct
accession to the pulpit force of the entire church, irrespective of
denominational divisions and creedal distinctions. Perhaps in the
entire history of the city no pastor of any church ever had so many
accessions to the membership of his church in the same length of time
as Dr. Walker has had.
A great future still awaits his ministerial labors. Marvellous
possibilities are before his race in America. Booker Washington, Dr.
Walker, and a few great Negroes, are wisely training their people
for a noble future; they are teaching their people that the time for
pitying them, and coddling them, as well as for abusing, not to say
lynching, them has passed, never to return. They must take their place
as men and women among the men and women of the hour. They are to be
neither babied nor bullied; neither petted nor pampered; they ought
only to expect and demand simple justice; on their behalf these great
leaders demand nothing more, and they will be satisfied with nothing
less. To deny them simple justice would be an unspeakable reproach to
the dominant race in America. Dr. Walker’s greatest days as preacher
and pastor are still in the future. That he and his race may worthily
perform their whole duty, and grandly attain their high destiny is the
sincere desire of every true man, earnest patriot, and devout Christian.
This volume ought to be widely circulated and generally studied. It
will give genuine inspiration to all men, white or black, who are
struggling for higher and better things for time and eternity. Its
general circulation will greatly help the Negro toward the realization
of his laudable ambitions as a man, a citizen and a churchman.
Robert Stuart MacArthur.
Study, Cavalry Baptist Church, New York.
DEDICATION.
To
THE YOUNG MEN OF THE NEGRO RACE IN AMERICA
This Volume Is Respectfully Dedicated by
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
For the combination of shrewd common sense, fine executive ability,
ready speech, genial acceptance of conditions, optimistic faith in the
future of his race and self-sacrificing zeal in their behalf, Booker
T. Washington stands easily first among the nine million Negroes of
America. The greatest claim that has yet been made by the Negro in
English Literature, according to the most competent critics, has been
made by Paul Laurence Dunbar, who, for the first time in our language,
has given literary interpretation of a very artistic completeness to
what passes in the hearts and minds of a lowly people. The greatest
claim that has been made by the Negro in the field of scholarship has
been made by W. E. Burghardt DuBois, Ph. D., the eminent sociologist.
But not more certain is it that Washington stands first in the list
of Negro educators, and Dunbar first in the list of Negro poets and
literary men, and DuBois first among scholars, than that the Rev.
Charles T. Walker, D. D., who is popularly called “The Black Spurgeon,”
stands first among eminent and successful Negro preachers.
Dr. Walker’s father died the day before Dr. Walker was born. His
mother died when he was only eight years old. The first seven years
of his life he was a slave. Becoming an orphan one year after
emancipation, the years of his youth and young manhood were years of
great hardship and privation. In this respect, his early life resembled
that of other distinguished men of humble origin who have been a power
in the world, and whose names have an honorable place on the pages of
history. The prophetic reference to Christ, “Though thou be little
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto
me that is to be ruler in Israel,” has been paralleled in human lives
by a host of men whose names and deeds are recorded in history, sacred
and profane. From the anointing of the Bethlehemite shepherd boy as
King of Israel to the present time, history has furnished innumerable
illustrations of the providential selection of men from obscure
localities and unpretentious surroundings for great responsibilities
and important fields of influence. Again and again, in the history of
our own country, we have had memorable examples of men who have left
an undying influence, whose early life was without friends, and whose
heritage was void of patrimony. Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield,
Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, George W. Childs, Henry Wilson,
Stephen Girard, Horace Greeley, and a host of others were such men.
One of the most profitable uses of history is the narrative of such
lives. Having this in mind, it is safe to say that there is no species
of writing of more value than biography. It inspires the young to
nobler purposes, develops higher resolves, and proves an incentive to
the laudable imitation of men who in prominent positions have proved
true to principle and duty. It is in this spirit and with this thought
in mind, that I undertake to write the story of the life of Dr. Walker.
I confess to a great degree of admiration for the man; I glory in
his career; I thought that the story of his life ought to be told; I
believe that the telling of his life story will do much to encourage,
inspire and incite to new endeavor thousands of young colored men all
over the land, who need to be encouraged and inspired, and who, because
of the peculiar environments of American civilization, find so little
to incite them to high resolves, honest endeavors and upright lives.
If, therefore, the story of Dr. Walker’s life as told by me shall
encourage, inspire or incite one single human being, I shall have my
reward.
Silas Xavier Floyd.
Augusta, Ga., February 1, 1902.
[Illustration: THE HOUSE IN WHICH CHARLES T. WALKER WAS BORN. STILL
STANDING NEAR HEPHZIBAH, GA.]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
PARENTAGE AND BIRTH 19
Ancestry--Character of Dr. Walker’s Father--Dr. Walker’s
Uncles--Dr. Walker’s Birth--Character of Dr. Walker’s
Mother--W. A. Clark’s Tribute--A Generation of
Preachers--Dr. Walker the Greatest of Them All.
CHAPTER II.
EARLY CHILDHOOD 25
Richmond County During the Slave Period--The Hardships of
Slavery--The Evils of Slavery--Dr. Walker Becomes an
Orphan--His Strange Conversion--Joins Franklin Covenant Baptist
Church.
CHAPTER III.
THE STUDENT PERIOD 29
First Taught by His Mother--Yankee Teachers--Enters the Augusta
Institute--Dr. Joseph T. Robert--Dr. Walker’s Struggles--Ready
to Leave School--Students Come to Rescue--Others Interested--Mr.
Bierce’s Narrative--Dr. Walker’s Failure to Graduate--His
Ordination.
CHAPTER IV.
EARLY PASTORATES 35
The Call to Franklin Covenant Baptist Church--Other
Calls--Strange Custom of Negro Preachers--Dr. Walker Teaches
School--Some of His Early Pupils--His Marriage--The Work at
LaGrange.
CHAPTER V.
THE WORK AT AUGUSTA 39
The Call to Central Baptist Church--The Unholy Wrangle Prior to
His Call--His First Sermon--New Life for a Time--The
Troubles Renewed--Central Baptist Church Sold--Tabernacle
Baptist Church Organized--New Church Dedicated--Wonderful
Record--The Pastor Goes North--Justin Dewey Fulton’s
Commendation--Dr. Walker’s Report on His Return.
CHAPTER VI.
OTHER WORK AT AUGUSTA 47
Business Manager of the Augusta Sentinel--Founder of the Walker
Baptist Institute--A Dream for the Future--Director-General
of the Negro Exposition--The Exposition--Lends a Helping Hand
to Many.
CHAPTER VII.
INFLUENCE IN GEORGIA 55
Offices Held--Public Addresses--Interest in Public
Affairs--As an Evangelist--Securing Competent Leaders for
Churches and Schools--Dr. Walker’s Unselfishness.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE VISIT TO THE HOLY LAND 59
Provision for the Trip--Traveling Companions--Itinerary--Preaches
at Mount Olivet Baptist Church on His Way--His Return--His
Account of the Journey--On the Lecture Platform.
CHAPTER IX.
A COLORED MAN ABROAD 69
Extracts From Dr. Walker’s Writings--Tribute to the Sea--First
Sabbath at Sea--Spurgeon’s Tabernacle--A Storm on the
Mediterranean--Manners and Customs of the East--The Testimony
of the Mountain--Drifting on Life’s Ocean--Anarchy--Warning.
CHAPTER X.
AS A NATIONAL FIGURE 77
First National Baptist Convention--Dr. Walker one of the
Founders--His Reply to Rev. H. C. Bailey--Resolutions
Adopted--A National Leader--At Indianapolis--“A Strong Man in a
Crisis”--Receives His Degree--Offices Held in National Baptist
Convention--Chaplain U. S. V.--Vice President International
Sunday School Convention--Calls to Other Churches.
CHAPTER XI.
CHAPLAIN U. S. V. 83
At San Luis, Cuba--Great Crowds Hear Account of
Experiences--Resolutions Passed.
CHAPTER XII.
AS AN EVANGELIST 88
Sphere Limited--Powers as an Evangelist--The New York
Campaign--At Atlanta--In Kansas City.
CHAPTER XIII.
LEAVES AUGUSTA--GOES TO NEW YORK 98
Resignation of Augusta Church--Efforts to Retain Him--Last
Sunday Night in Augusta--Mt. Olivet Church--His
Success--Officers of Mt. Olivet Church.
CHAPTER XIV.
COLORED MEN’S BRANCH Y. M. C. A. 108
Movement Started--Adopted by City Association--Secretary
Coles--Obituary--Board of Management--Mr. Dugas--Miss
Connelly--A Perpetual Monument to the Founder.
CHAPTER XV.
CALLED TO AUGUSTA AGAIN 115
The Recall--Mass Meeting in New York--Letter of Dr.
Bitting--Speech of Col. Powell--Mass Meeting at
Augusta--Dr. Walker’s Decision.
CHAPTER XVI.
EXTRACTS FROM SERMONS 125
What Hath God Wrought--Go Forward--Infallible
Proofs of the Resurrection.
CHAPTER XVII.
EXTRACTS FROM ORATIONS AND ADDRESSES 138
Eulogy on President McKinley--Reply to Hannibal Thomas--The
Golden Rule as an Individual Motto--An Appeal to Cæsar--Colored
Men for the Twentieth Century.
CHAPTER XVIII.
EXTRACTS FROM NEWSPAPERS 155
The Examiner--Sun--World--Journal--Tribune--Times--Augusta
(Ga.) Chronicle--Fall River (Mass.) Evening News--Georgia
Baptist--Augusta Chronicle--Georgia Baptist.
CHAPTER XIX.
ANECDOTES 171
“The Black Sturgeon”--Reading and Counting for Negroes--Praying
for Money--Praying for Converts--About Jay Birds--Early
Religious Impressions--Electing a Church Treasurer--Dr.
Walker’s Complexion--The Negro a Novelty.
CHAPTER XX.
APPEARANCE, MANNERS, HABITS 178
Description--Still a Rustic--Democratic--Remarkable
Memory--Shy--His Sermons--The Bible and the Newspaper--Hunting
and Fishing--Love for Little Children.
CHAPTER XXI.
TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS 184
Patience--Motto of Dr. Walker’s Life--The Faithful Minister and
His Trials--Humility--Gratitude--Other Characteristics--Not
a Perfect Man.
CHAPTER XXII.
CONCLUSION 191
God’s Best Gift to Man--The Magnetism of Goodness--Scope of
Influence--Goodness is Communicable--The Real Forces of Life.
LIFE OF
CHARLES T. WALKER, D. D.
CHAPTER I.
PARENTAGE AND BIRTH.
It has long been a mooted question as to which State in the Union
produces the best class of Negroes. Though there are no scientific
data from which to draw definite conclusions, it is very generally
agreed that the best Negroes--the most intellectual, most industrious,
wealthiest, and the best behaved Negroes--come either from Virginia
or Georgia. If that be true, then, if one is so fortunate as to be a
native Georgian with Virginia ancestors, or _vice versa_, he ought to
be considered a Negro of superior birth, to say the least. Viewed in
this light, Charles Thomas Walker was born to superiority. In 1773, a
family of Negroes was brought from Virginia to Burke County, Georgia,
by the grandfather of the late Col. A. C. Walker, who was a prominent
Georgia planter and politician and who for many years was a member of
the Georgia legislature. In 1880, Col. Walker, writing of the Negro
Walkers who had descended from the family brought to Georgia by his
grandfather, said: “As slaves, they were noted for their admirable
qualities, and as freedmen they have sustained their reputation.”
Charles Thomas Walker was the fourth in descent from this family. His
father was a man of the name of Thomas Walker, and was one of three
brothers. Thomas Walker was his master’s coachman--a position which
only the best and most trustworthy slaves were allowed to hold, and
a position which the slaves themselves always considered as a place
of honor. The fact, also, that he was a deacon in the church of which
he was a member attests the esteem in which he was held by the other
slaves. Two of Charles T. Walker’s uncles, Joseph T. Walker and Nathan
Walker, were both Baptist ministers. The Franklin Covenant Baptist
Church, about five miles from Hephzibah, Ga., and only a short distance
from the Burke County line, was organized for the colored people in
1848. In 1852 or 1853, this church, though its membership was made up
of slaves, raised the necessary amount and purchased the freedom of
the Rev. Joseph T. Walker, at that time their pastor, in order that he
might devote himself entirely to his church work and to the preaching
of the gospel in the counties of Richmond, Jefferson and Burke. In this
work, Rev. Joseph T. Walker continued until the close of the war. The
Rev. Nathan Walker, though a licensed preacher before the war, was not
ordained to the ministry until 1866, when he succeeded his brother as
pastor of the Franklin Covenant Baptist Church.
In 1848, Thomas Walker was married to a young woman of the name of
Hannah Walker. To them eleven children were born--six females and five
males. On the 5th day of February, 1858, near Hephzibah, Richmond
County, Ga., about sixteen miles southwest of Augusta, their youngest
child--Charles Thomas Walker--was born. Thomas Walker, the father, was
buried the day before Charles was born, having died of pneumonia. Mrs.
Hannah Walker survived her husband eight years, dying in Augusta, Ga.,
in 1866. It is related of her that she was a woman of unusual piety and
strength of character, being a devout member of the Franklin Covenant
Baptist Church, of which her husband was a deacon. She had high hopes
and fond expectations for her youngest child, and longed to live to see
him make a great and good man of himself, and especially so, because
of the sad death of his father which occurred only two days before the
child was born. God willed otherwise, and took her home to be with him
and to watch from the “high and uplifted” battlements of glory the
career of her son.
The following tribute to Mrs. Hannah Walker is taken from “Under the
Stars and Bars; or Memories of Four Years’ Service with the Confederate
Army.” This book was written by Mr. Walter A. Clark, Treasurer
of Richmond County, Ga. Mr. Clark was a prominent officer in the
Confederate Army; he is a graduate of Emory College (Georgia), and a
literary man of great merit; he is a nephew of the late Col. Walker,
already quoted in this book, was reared along with the black Walkers
and knows whereof he speaks. His tribute to Mrs. Walker is no less a
credit to the memory of the deceased than it is a testimony of the
goodness of heart and magnificent manhood of the writer.
“My heart prompts me to pay its earnest tribute to one whose memory
the sketch above recalls--dear old Aunt Hannah. How her name brings
back to my heart and life to-day the glamour of the old, old days that
will never come again--days when to me a barefoot boy, life seemed
a long and happy holiday! I can see her now, her head crowned with a
checkered handkerchief, her arms bare to the elbows, her spectacles
set primly on her nose, while from her kindly eyes there shone the
light of a pure white soul within! She was only an humble slave, and
yet her love for me was scarcely less than that my father and mother
bore me; and when, on a summer’s day in 1861, my brother and myself
left the old homestead to take our humble places under a new born
flag, there was not a dry eye on the whole plantation, old Aunt Hannah
wept in grief as pure and deep as if the clods were falling on an own
child.
“Long years have come and gone since she was laid away in the narrow
house appointed for all the living. No marble headstone marks the
spot, yet I am sure the humble mound that lies above her sleeping dust
covers a heart as honest and as faithful, as patient and as gentle, as
kindly and as true, as any that rests beneath the proudest monument
that art could fashion or affection buy. She reared a large family
of children, the Rev. Charles T. Walker, ‘The Black Spurgeon,’ among
them, and transmitted to them all a character for honesty and virtue
marked even in those, the better days of the Republic.
“Wisely or otherwisely, in the order of Providence, or in the order of
Napoleon’s ‘heavier battalions,’ we have in this good year of our Lord
(1900) not only a New South, but a new type of Aunt Hannah. The old
is, I fear, a lost Pleiad, whose light will shine no more on land or
sea or sky.”
The Walker family produced a number of able and successful
preachers--some say more, some say less. As already shown, two of Dr.
Walker’s uncles--Joseph T. Walker and Nathan Walker--were ministers.
The latter is still living, venerated and honored, at the good old age
of 85. He was one of the founders of the Walker Baptist Association,
and was for more than twenty years its moderator, retiring about ten
years ago on account of the infirmities of old age. The Association
was named in honor of the Rev. Joseph T. Walker. The Walker Baptist
Institute at Augusta, named also for the Rev. Joseph T. Walker, was
founded by this Association and has been for many years supported
by it. In all respects the Walker Baptist Association is to-day the
leading Association in Georgia. An older brother of Dr. Walker, the
Rev. Peter Walker, now retired on account of age, was, in his day, a
man of great force and power in the pulpit. A nephew of Dr. Walker, the
Rev. Prof. Joseph A. Walker, son of Rev. Peter Walker, was up to the
time of his death, about eight years ago, the honored and successful
Principal of Walker Baptist Institute. Besides these, there are two
first cousins of Dr. Walker who are among Georgia’s most distinguished
clergymen--the Rev. W. G. Johnson, D. D., Pastor of the First Baptist
Church, Macon, Ga., who is Secretary of the Walker Baptist Association,
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Walker Baptist Institute, and
a member of the Board of Trustees of the Atlanta Baptist College; and
the Rev. R. J. Johnson, Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Millen,
Ga., and Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the Walker Baptist
Institute. Other cousins in the ministry are the Rev. Samuel C. Walker,
Augusta, Ga., Rev. A. J. Walker, Millen, Ga., Rev. T. W. Walker,
Wrightsville, Ga., Rev. Solomon Walker, Savannah, Ga., Rev. Matthew
Walker, Savannah, Ga., an elder in the C. M. E. Church, and Rev.
Nathan Wilkerson, Waynesboro, Ga. In addition to these, there are many
of this family who were once in the ministry of earth, but who have
long since gone to join the ministry on high.
Descended from a generation of preachers, Dr. Walker towers above
them all like Saul among his brethren. So great is his fame and so
celebrated has he made the name of Walker that the other members of the
family find it a passport in many places for them to make it known that
they belong to the generation of Walkers.