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The Choctaw Freedmen
[Illustration: OAK HILL]
AN OAK TREE
On the southeastern slope, near the Academy,
A pretty Oak,
That strong and stalwart grows.
With every changing wind that blows,
is a beautiful emblem of the strength, beauty and eminent usefulness
of an intelligent and noble man.
"He shall grow like a Cedar in Lebanon; like a tree planted
by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season."
[Illustration: ALICE LEE ELLIOTT 1846-1906]
THE
Choctaw Freedmen
AND
The Story of
OAK HILL INDUSTRIAL ACADEMY
Valliant, McCurtain County
OKLAHOMA
Now Called the
ALICE LEE ELLIOTT MEMORIAL
Including the early History of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indian
Territory the Presbytery of Kiamichi, Synod of Canadian, and the Bible
in the Free Schools of the American Colonies, but suppressed in France,
previous to the American and French Revolutions
BY
ROBERT ELLIOTT FLICKINGER
A Recent Superintendent of the Academy and
Pastor of the Oak Hill Church
ILLUSTRATED BY 100 ENGRAVINGS
Under the Auspices of the
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF MISSIONS FOR FREEDMEN
Pittsburgh, Pa.
ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS
IN THE YEAR 1914 BY THE AUTHOR
IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS
AT WASHINGTON, D. C.
Journal and Times Press, Fonda, Iowa
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. GENERAL FACTS
Introduction--List of Portraits
I Indian Territory 7
II Indian Schools and Churches 15
III The Bible, An Important Factor in Civilization 31
IV The American Negro 39
V Problem of the Freedman 46
VI Voices From the Black Belt 59
VII Uplifting Influences 65
VIII The Presbyterian Church 84
IX The Freedmen's Board 90
X Special Benefactors 96
II. OAK HILL INDUSTRIAL ACADEMY
XI Native Oak Hill School and Church 101
XII Era of Eliza Hartford 107
XIII Early Reminiscences 114
XIV Early Times at Forest 124
XV Era of Supt. James F. McBride 131
XVI Era of Rev. Edward G. Haymaker 134
XVII Buds of Promise 146
XVIII Closed in 1904 154
XIX Reopening and Organization 155
XX Prospectus in 1912 162
XXI Obligation and Pledges 169
XXII Bible Study and Memory Work 173
XXIII Decision Days 183
XXIV The Self-Help Department 185
XXV Industrial Education 196
XXVI Permanent Improvements 202
XXVII Elliott Hall 210
XXVIII Unfavorable Circumstances 216
XXIX Building the Temple 227
XXX Success Maxims and Good Suggestions 241
XXXI Rules and Wall Mottoes 259
XXXII Savings and Investments 272
XXXIII Normals and Chautauquas 275
XXXIV Graces and Prayers 279
XXXV Presbyterial Meetings and Picnics 282
XXXVI Farmer's Institutes 287
XXXVII The Apiary, Health Hints 294
XXXVIII Oak Hill Aid Society 300
XXXIX Tributes to Workers 308
XL Closing Day, 1912 325
III. THE PRESBYTERY AND SYNOD
XLI Presbytery of Kiamichi 335
XLII Histories of Churches 345
XLIII Parson Stewart 351
XLIV Wiley Homer 360
XLV Other Ministers and Elders 370
XLVI Synod of Canadian 382
IV. THE BIBLE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOL
XLVII The Public School 391
XLVIII A Half Century of Bible Suppression in France 418
[Illustration: OAK HILL CHAPEL]
[Illustration: ELLIOTT HALL--1910]
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Alice Lee Elliott Frontispiece
Elliott Hall 11
Choctaw Church and Court House 14
Alexander Reid, John Edwards 15
Biddle and Lincoln Universities 70
Rev. E. P. Cowan, Rev. John Gaston, Mrs. V. P. Boggs 91
Eliza Hartford, Anna Campbell, Rev. E. G. and Priscilla G. Haymaker 108
Girls Hall, Old Log House 109
Carrie and Mrs. M. E. Crowe, Anna and Mattie Hunter 116
James McGuire and others 117
Wiley Homer, William Butler, Stewart, Jones 148
Buds of Promise 149
Rev. and Mrs. R. E. Flickinger, Claypool, Ahrens, Eaton 160
Reopening, 1915, Flower Gatherers 192
Mary I. Weimer, Lou K. Early, Jo Lu Wolcott 193
Rev. and Mrs. Carroll, Hall, Buchanan, Folsom 224
Closing Day, 1912; Dr. Baird 225
Approved Fruits 256
Planting Sweet Potatoes and Arch 257
Orchestra, Sweepers, Going to School 274
Miss Weimer, Celestine, Coming Home 275
The Apiary; Feeding the Calves 294
Log House Burning, Pulling Stumps 298
Oak Hill in 1902, 1903 299
The Hen House, Pigpen 295
The Presbytery, Grant Chapel 352
Bridges, Bethel, Starks, Meadows, Colbert, Crabtree 353
Crittenden, Folsom, Butler, Stewart, Perkins, Arnold, Shoals, Johnson 378
Teachers in 1899, Harris, Brown 379
Representative Homes of the Choctaw Freedmen 406
The Sweet Potato Field 407
INTRODUCTION
"The pleasant books, that silently among
Our household treasures take familiar places,
Are to us, as if a living tongue
Spake from the printed leaves, or pictured faces!"
The aim of the Author in preparing this volume has been to put in a
form, convenient for preservation and future reference, a brief
historical sketch of the work and workers connected with the founding
and development of Oak Hill Industrial Academy, established for the
benefit of the Freedmen of the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, by the
Presbyterian church, U. S. A., in 1886, when Miss Eliza Hartford became
the first white teacher, to the erection of Elliott Hall in 1910, and
its dedication in 1912; when the name of the institution was changed to
"The Alice Lee Elliott Memorial."
Some who rendered service at Oak Hill Academy, bestowed upon it their
best work, while superintendent, James F. McBride and Matron, Adelia M.
Eaton, brought to it a faithful service, that proved to be the crowning
work of their lives.
The occasion of receiving a new name in 1912, is one that suggests the
eminent propriety of a volume, that will commemorate the labors of
those, whose self-denying pioneer work was associated with the former
name of the institution.
Another aim has been, to place as much as possible of the character
building work of the institution, in an attractive form for profitable
perusal by the youth, in the homes of the pupils and patrons of the
Academy. As an aid in effecting this result, the volume has been
profusely illustrated with engravings of all the good photographs of
groups of the students that have come to the hand of the author; and
also of all the teachers of whom they could be obtained at this time.
The portraits of the ministers and older elders of the neighboring
churches have been added to these, to increase its general interest and
value.
In as much as Oak Hill Industrial Academy was intended to supply the
special educational needs of the young people in the circuit of churches
ministered to by Parson Charles W. Stewart, the pioneer preacher of the
Choctaw Freedmen, and faithful founder of most of the churches in the
Presbytery of Kiamichi, a memorial sketch of this worthy soldier of the
cross has been added, that the young people of the present and future
generations may catch the inspiration of his heroic missionary spirit.
"All who labor wield a mighty power;
The glorious privilege to do
Is man's most noble dower."
The ministers of the neighboring churches, in recent years, have been so
helpfully identified with the work of the Academy, as special lecturers
and assistants on decision days, and on the first and last days of the
school terms, they seem to have been members of the Oak Hill Family. The
story of the Academy would not be complete, without a recognition of
them and their good work. This recognition has been very gratefully
accorded in a brief history of the Presbytery of Kiamichi and of the
Synod of Canadian.
The period of service rendered by the author, as superintendent of the
Academy from the beginning of 1905 to the end of 1912, eight years, was
one of important transitions in the material development of Indian
Territory.
The allotment of lands in severalty to the Indians and Freedmen was
completed in 1905, and the Territorial government was transformed into
one of statehood on Jan. 1, 1908. The progress of their civilization,
that made it possible for the Indians in the Territory to become owners
and occupants of their own homes, supporters of their own schools and
churches and to be invested with all the powers and duties of
citizenship, is briefly reviewed in the introductory chapters.
The author has endeavored to make this volume one easily read and
understood by the Choctaw Freedmen, in whose homes it is expected to
find a place, and be read with interest and profit many years.
He has done what he could to enable as many of you as possible to leave
the impress of your personality on the world, when your feet no longer
move, your hands no longer build and your lips no longer utter your
sentiments.
The hope is indulged that every pupil of the Academy, whose portrait has
been given an historic setting in this volume, will regard that
courteous recognition, as a special call to make the Bible your guide in
life and perform each daily duty nobly and faithfully, as though it were
your last.
A life on service bent,
A life for love laid down,
A life for others spent,
The Lord will surely crown.
Whilst other denominations have rendered conspicuous and highly
commendable service in the effort to educate and evangelize the Indians
and Freedmen, in this volume mention is made only of the work of the
Presbyterian church. This is due to the fact the Presbyterian church,
having begun missionary work among the Choctaws at a very early date, it
was left to pursue it without a rival, in the particular section of
country and early period of time included in the scope of this volume.
Such as it is, this volume is commended to him, whose blessing alone can
make it useful, and make it to fulfil its mission of comfort and
encouragement, to the children and youth of the Freedmen who are
sincerely endeavoring to solve the problem of their present and future
destiny.
Fonda, Iowa, March 15, 1914.
R. E. F.
PART I
GENERAL FACTS
RELATING TO THE INDIANS OF INDIAN TERRITORY, THE CHOCTAW FREEDMEN AND
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF MISSIONS FOR FREEDMEN.
"In history we meet the great personalities, who have crystallized in
their own lives, the hopes and fears of nations and races. We meet
the living God, as an actor, and discover in passing events, a
consistent purpose, guiding the changing world to an unchanging
end."--W. A. Brown.
"Four things a man must learn to do,
If he would make his record true;
To think without confusion, clearly;
To act from honest motives purely;
To love his fellowmen sincerely;
To trust in God and heaven securely."
--Vandyke.
"The study of history, as a means of cultivating the mind and for
its immediate practical benefit, ever since the days of Moses, who
wrote the pioneer history of Israel, and Herodotus, the father of
profane history, has formed a necessary part of a liberal and
thorough education."--History of Pocahontas County, Iowa.
I
INDIAN TERRITORY
EARLY HISTORY OF THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES--OPENING OF INDIAN
TERRITORY--OKLAHOMA--CLEAR CREEK, OAK HILL, VALLIANT.
"Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers,
build up its institutions, promote all its great interests and see
whether we, also, in our day and generation may not perform
something worthy to be remembered."--Daniel Webster.
Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, was a part of the public domain, that
was reserved for several tribes of Indians whose native hunting grounds
were principally in the Southern states. While they remained in their
native valleys they proved a menace to the safety of the frontier
settlers, and in times of war were sure to take sides against them.
Thomas Jefferson in his day advised that they be located together on
some general reservation. This was gradually effected during the earlier
years of the last century.
The official act of congress constituting it an Indian Reservation did
not occur until 1834, but a considerable number of the Choctaws,
Chickasaws and of some other tribes were induced to migrate westward and
locate there previous to that date. Other leading tribes that were
transferred to special reservations in Indian Territory were the
Cherokees, Creeks and Seminoles.
THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES
The Choctaw Indians recently occupied lands in the states bordering on
the Gulf of Mexico. In 1820 a considerable part of them, ceding their
lands in Georgia, were located on a reservation in the Red River valley
west of Arkansas. In 1830 they ceded the remainder of their lands in
Alabama and Mississippi and all, together with their slaves, were then
transferred to their new reservation in the southeastern part of Indian
Territory.
The Chickasaws, who originally occupied the country on the east side of
the Mississippi river, as early as 1800 began to migrate up the valley
of the Arkansas. In 1805, 1816 and in 1818 they ceded more of their
lands and more of them migrated westward, many of them going to the
country allotted to the Choctaws. In 1834, when the last of their lands
in the Gulf states were ceded, they were located on a reservation south
of the Canadian river, west of the Choctaws. These two tribes lived
under one tribal government until 1855, when they were granted a
political separation.
The Cherokees, previous to 1830, occupied the upper valley of the
Tennessee river, extending through the northern parts of Georgia and
Alabama. In 1790 a part of the tribe migrated to Louisiana and they
rendered important services in the army of Gen. Jackson at New Orleans
in the war of 1812.
In 1817 they ceded a part of their native lands for others and the next
year 3,000 of them were located in the northwestern part of Arkansas in
the valleys of the Arkansas and White rivers. In 1835 the remainder of
them were located just west of the first migration in the northeast part
of Indian Territory.
The Creek Indians originally lived in the valleys of the Flint,
Chattahoochee, Coosa and Alabama rivers and in the peninsula of
Florida. About the year 1875, a part of them moved to Louisiana and
later to Texas. In 1836 the remainder of the tribe was transferred to a
reservation north of the Canadian river in Indian Territory.
The Seminoles were a nation of Florida Indians, that was composed
chiefly of Creeks and the remnants of some other tribes. After the
acquisition of Florida from Spain in 1819 many slaves in that section
fled from their masters to the Seminoles. The government endeavored to
recover them and to force the Seminoles to remove westward. These
efforts were not immediately successful, Osceola, their wily and
intrepid chief, defeating and capturing four of the generals sent
against them, namely, Clinch, Gaines, Call and Winfield Scott. He was
finally captured by his captors violating a flag of truce. In 1845 they
were induced to move west of the Mississippi and in 1856, they were
assigned lands west of the Creeks in the central part of Indian
Territory.
These five tribes, the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks and
Seminoles, were the most powerful in numbers. After their settlement in
Indian Territory, they made considerable progress in elementary
education and agriculture, their farm work being principally done by
their slaves previous to the time they were accorded their freedom in
1865. As a result of their progress in the arts of life, during the last
half of the last century, these were often called "The Five Civilized
Tribes, or Nations."
In 1900 when the last census was taken of them in their tribal form
their numbers were as follows: Choctaw nation, 99,681; Chickasaw,
139,260; Cherokee, 101,754; Creek, 40,674; Seminole, 3,786.
The Osage Indians were early driven to the valley of the Arkansas river.
They were conveyed to their reservation west of that river, in the
north part of Indian Territory, in 1870. The supplies of oil and other
minerals found upon their reservation have caused some of the members of
this nation to be reputed as quite wealthy.
Other tribes that were located on small reservations in the northeast
part of the Territory were the Modocs, Ottawas, Peorias, Quapaws,
Senecas, Shawnees and Wyandottes.
During this early period the Union Indian agency established its
headquarters at Muskogee, and it became and continued to be their
principal city, during the period of their tribal government.
OPENING OF INDIAN TERRITORY
On April 22, 1889, 2,000,000 acres of the Creek and Seminole lands were
opened to white settlers, and there occurred an ever memorable rush for
lands and a race for homes. An area as large as the state of Maryland
was settled in a day. On that first day the city of Guthrie was founded
with a population of 8,000, a newspaper was issued and in a tent a bank
was organized with a capital of $50,000. Oklahoma and other cities
sprang up as if in a night.
On June 6, 1890, the west half of Indian Territory was created a new
territory, called Oklahoma, with its capital at Guthrie, and with later
additions it soon included 24,000,000 acres.
On June 16, 1906, President Roosevelt signed the enabling act, that
admitted Oklahoma, including Oklahoma and Indian Territories, as a
state, one year from that date. On November 6, 1906, occurred the
election of members to the constitutional convention, that met at
Guthrie January 1, 1907. The first legislature met there January 1,
1908. Two years later the capital was moved to Oklahoma City.
The growth, progress and advancement of the territory of Oklahoma during
the sixteen years preceding statehood in 1907 has never been equaled in
the history of the world, and in all probability will never be eclipsed.
This was due to the mild and healthful climate of this region, and a
previous knowledge of its great, but undeveloped agricultural and
mineral resources. So great has been the flow of oil near Tulsa, in the
north central part of the state, it has been necessary to store it there
in an artificial lake or reservoir.
OKLAHOMA
The surface of Oklahoma consists of a gently undulating plain, that
gradually ascends from an altitude of 511 feet at Valliant in the
southeast to 1197 feet at Oklahoma City, and 1893 at Woodward, the
county seat of Woodward county, in the northwest. The principal
mountains are the Kiamichi in the southern part of Laflore county, and
the Wichita, a forest reserve in Comanche and Swanson counties.
Previous to statehood Indian Territory was divided into 31 recording
districts for court purposes. In 1902 when Garvin was founded it became
the residence of the judge of the southeastern judicial or recording
district, and a small court house was built there for the transaction of
the public business. In 1907, when McCurtain county was established,
Idabel was chosen as the county seat. The location of Oak Hill Academy
proved to be one and a half miles east of the west line of McCurtain
county. In 1910 the population of McCurtain county was 20,681, of
Oklahoma City 64,205; and of the state of Oklahoma, 1,657,155.
CLEAR CREEK
During the period immediately preceding the incoming of the Hope and
Ardmore Railroad in 1902, the most important news and trading center,
between Fort Towson and Wheelock, was called "Clear Creek." Clear Creek
is a rustling, sparkling little stream of clear water that flows
southward in a section of the country where most of the streams are
sluggish and of a reddish hue. The Clear Creek post office was located
in a little store building a short distance east of this stream and
about three miles north of Red river.
A little log court house, for the administration of tribal justice among
the Choctaws of that vicinity, a blacksmith shop and a Choctaw church
were also located at this place. These varied interests gave to Clear
Creek the importance of a miniature county seat until Valliant and Swink
were founded.
OAK HILL
During this early period the oak covered ridge, extending several miles
east of Clear Creek, was known as Oak Hill and the settlement in its
vicinity was called by the same name.
When the first church (1869) and school (1876) were established among
the Freedmen in this settlement, the same name was naturally given to
both of them. It has adhered to them, amid all the changes that have
occurred, since the first meetings were held at the home of Henry
Crittenden in 1868.
VALLIANT
Valliant was founded in 1902, and was so named in honor of one of the
surveyors of the Hope and Ardmore, a branch of the Frisco railway. It is
located in the west end of McCurtain county eight miles north of Red
river. It has now a population of 1,000 and a branch railroad running
northward.
The country adjacent to the town consists of beautiful valleys and
forests heavily set with timber, principally oak, walnut, ash and
hickory, and with pine and cedar along the streams. The soil is a rich
sandy loam, that is easily cultivated and gives promise of great
agricultural and horticultural possibilities. It is in the center of the
cotton belt and this staple is proving a very profitable one. The
climate is healthful and the locality is unusually free from the
prevalence of high winds.
II
INDIAN SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES
BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR.--EFFECTS OF THE CIVIL WAR.--TRANSFER
OF THE FREEDMEN'S WORK.--THE INDIANS MAKE PROGRESS TOWARD
CIVILIZATION.--WHEELOCK ACADEMY.--SPENCER ACADEMY.--DOAKSVILLE
AND FORT TOWSON.
"God, who hath made of one blood all nations of men and determined
the bounds of their habitation, commandeth all men everywhere to
repent."--Paul.
When Columbus landed on the shores of America, the Indians were the only
people he found occupying this great continent. During the long period
that has intervened, the Indian has furnished proof, that he possesses
all the attributes which God has bestowed upon other members of the
human family. He has shown that he has an intellect capable of
development, that he is willing to receive instruction and that he is
capable of performing any duty required of an American citizen.
Considerable patience however has had to be exercised both by the church
in its effort to bring him under the saving influence of the gospel, and
by the government in its effort to elevate him to the full standard of
citizenship. Results are achieved slowly. His struggles have been many
and difficult. He has needed counsel and encouragement at every
advancing step.
In the former days, when the Indian supported his family by hunting,
trapping and fishing, he moved about from place to place. This was
finally checked in Indian Territory by the individual allotment of lands
in 1904. He has thus been compelled by the force of circumstances, to
change his mode of life. He has gradually discovered he can settle down
on his own farm, improve it by the erection of good buildings, and
either buy or make the implements he needs for cultivating the soil.
The great commission to the church to "go into all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature," will not be completed until the American
Indian and the Freedmen, who were his former slaves, have been brought
under its uplifting influence.
The Presbyterian church throughout all its history has been the friend
and patron of learning and inasmuch as the evangelistic work among the
Indians and Freedmen, has been largely dependent on school work for
permanent results, it began to establish schools among the Indians at a
very early date. The work among the five civilized tribes was begun many
years before they were transported from the southern states to Indian
Territory. Some of these missionaries migrated with them and continued
both their school and church work in the Territory. Rev. Alfred Wright,
who organized the Presbyterian church at Wheelock in December, 1832, and
died there in 1853, after receiving 570 members into it, began his work
as a missionary to the Choctaws in 1820.
The aim of the government in its educational work among the Indians, as
elsewhere in the public schools of the country, has been mainly to make
them intelligent citizens. The aim of the church, by making the Bible a
daily textbook, is to make them happy and hopeful Christians, as well as
citizens. In the early days there was great need for this educational
work, and in the Presbyterian church it was carried forward by its
foreign mission board, with wisdom, energy and success.
In 1861 the Presbyterian church had established and was maintaining six
boarding schools with 800 pupils and six day schools among the Indians
in the Territory. Two of these schools, Spencer and Wheelock Academies,
were located in the southern part of the Choctaw Nation.
In 1840 the Presbytery of Indian was organized and in 1848 the
Presbytery of the Creek Nation. In 1861 these included an enrollment of
16 churches with a communicant membership of 1,772.
EFFECTS OF THE CIVIL WAR
At the outbreak of the civil war in 1861, all of these schools and
churches were closed, and the next year the Presbyterian church became
divided by the organization of the Southern Presbyterian church, under
the corporate name, "The Presbyterian Church in the United States."
At the close of the war it was left to the Southern branch of the church
to re-establish this school and church work in the Territory. It
undertook to do this and carried parts of it alone for a number of
years. The task however proved to be too great; the men and means were
not available to re-open the boarding schools, and to supply the
churches with ministers. The arrangement was accordingly made for the
foreign mission board of the Presbyterian church, to resume its former
work as fast as workers could be obtained.
In 1879, four ministers returned and opened six churches among the
Choctaws, Creeks and Cherokees.
In 1882 Spencer Academy was re-opened at Nelson, by Rev. Oliver P.
Starks, a native of Goshen, New York, who, for seventeen years previous
to the Civil War, had been a missionary to the Choctaws, having his home
at Goodland.
The Indian Mission school at Muskogee was also re-opened that year by
Miss Rose Steed.
In the fall of 1883 the Presbytery of Indian Territory was
re-established with a membership of 16 ministers, 11 churches, 385
communicants and 676 Sunday school scholars.
In 1884 Wheelock Academy was re-opened by Rev. John Edwards, who for a
couple of years previous, had been located at Atoka. This was a return
of Edwards to the educational work among the Choctaws. From 1851 to 1853
he served at Spencer Academy, north of Doaksville, and then from 1853 to
1861 had charge of Wheelock Academy, as the successor of Rev. Alfred
Wright, its early founder.
In 1883 two teachers were sent, who opened a school among the Creek
Freedmen at Muskogee, known as the "Pittsburgh Mission." A teacher was
also sent to the Freedmen among the Seminoles.
After a few years the Pittsburgh Mission was transferred from Muskogee
to Atoka, where it supplied a real want for a few years longer. In 1904
when adequate provision was first made for the Freedmen in the public
schools of that town this mission was discontinued.
TRANSFER OF THE FREEDMEN'S WORK
During this same year, 1884, the Presbyterian Board of Missions for
Freedmen, Pittsburgh, Pa., received the voluntary transfer from the
Southern church of all the work it had developed at that date among the
Choctaw Freedmen. This transfer was made in good spirit. The motive that
prompted it was the conviction and belief the Presbyterian church could
carry it forward more conveniently, aggressively and successfully.
The work that was transferred at this date consisted of Rev. Charles W.
Stewart, Doaksville, and the following churches then under his pastoral
care, namely: Oak Hill, Beaver Dam, Hebron, New Hope and St. Paul
(Eagletown).
Parson Stewart had been licensed about 1867 and ordained a few years
later. With a true missionary spirit he had gone into these various
settlements and effected the organization of these churches among his
people. During the next two years he added to his circuit two more
churches, Mount Gilead at Lukfata and Forest, south of Wheelock, and
occasionally visited one or two other places.
INDIANS MAKE PROGRESS TOWARDS CIVILIZATION
About the year 1880 the social and moral condition of the Indians in
Indian Territory was described as follows:
"About thirty different languages are spoken by the Indians now in
the territory. The population of the territory, though principally
Indians, includes a lot of white men and negroes, amongst whom
intermarriages are frequent. The society ranges from an untutored
Indian, with a blanket for his dress and paganism for his religion,
to men of collegiate education, who are manifesting their christian
culture and training by their earnest advocacy of the christian
faith.
"The Cherokees were the first to be brought under direct christian
influence and they were probably in the lead of all the Indians on
the continent in civilization, or practice of the useful arts and
enjoyment of the common comforts of life."
"In 1890, the year following the opening of the first land in the
territory to white settlers, the mission work in the territory was
described as "very interesting and unique." The Indian population
represented every grade of civilization. One might see the several
stages of progress from the ignorant and superstitious blanketed
Indian on the western reservations to the representatives of our
advanced American culture among the five civilized nations. Our
missionaries have labored long and successfully and the education,
degree of civilization and prosperity enjoyed by the Indians are due
principally, if not solely, to the efforts of consecrated men and
women, who devoted their lives to this special work. Although their
names may not be familiarly known among the churches, none have
deserved more honorable mention than these faithful servants of the
Master, who selected this particular field of effort for their life
work."
"Events are moving rapidly in Indian Territory. Many new lines of
railroad have been surveyed, and when they have been built, every
part of the Territory will be easily accessible."
"A new judicial system with a complete code of laws has recently
been provided, and with liberal provision for Indian citizenship and
settlement of the land question it is safe to predict a speedy end
to tribal government."
"This means the opening of a vast region to settlement, the
establishment of churches and the thorough organization of every
form of christian work. For this we must prepare and there is no
time to lose. Our churches and schools must be multiplied and our
brethren of the ministry must be fully reinforced by competent
educated men trained for christian work. What the future has in
store for the whole Territory was illustrated by the marvelous rush
into and settlement of Oklahoma Territory during the last year."
"A wonderful transformation has taken place. The unbroken prairie of
one year ago has been changed to cultivated fields. The tents of
boomers have given place to well built homes and substantial blocks
of brick and stone. Unorganized communities have now become members
of a legally constituted commonwealth. Here are found all the
elements of great progress and general prosperity and the future of
Oklahoma Territory is full of great promise."
"Here the Presbyterian church has shown itself capable of wrestling
with critical social problems and stands today as the leading
denomination in missionary enterprise. Every county has its minister
and many churches have been organized. Others are underway. With
more ministers and liberal aid for the erection of churches the
Presbyterian church will do for Oklahoma what it has done for Kansas
and the Dakotas."
In 1886 the mission school work among the Indians was transferred from
the care of the foreign to the home mission board. Those in charge of
the school work of Spencer Academy at Nelson resigned that work and the
school was closed.
In 1895 the Mission school work at Wheelock Academy was undertaken and
continued thereafter by the Indian Agency, as a school for orphan
children of the Indians.
WHEELOCK ACADEMY
Wheelock Academy for nearly four-score years was the most attractive
social, educational and religious center in the southeast part of the
Choctaw nation. It was located on the main trails running east and west
and north and south. But when the Frisco railway came in 1902, it passed
two miles south of it, and a half dozen flourishing towns were founded
along its line.
There remain to mark this place of early historic interest the two
mission school buildings, a strongly built stone church 30 by 50 feet, a
two story parsonage and cemetery. The church is of the Gothic style of
architecture, tastefully decorated inside and furnished with good pews
and pulpit furniture.
REV. ALFRED WRIGHT
Among the many old inscriptions on the grave stones in the Wheelock
cemetery, there may be seen the following beautiful record of the work
of one, whose long and eminently useful life was devoted to the welfare
of the Choctaw people:
SACRED
to the memory of the
REV. ALFRED WRIGHT
who entered into his heavenly rest
March 31, 1853, age 65 years.
Born in Columbia, Connecticut, March 1, 1788.
Appointed Missionary to the Choctaws 1820.
Removed to this land October, 1832.
Organized Wheelock Church December, 1832.
Received to its fellowship 570 members.
AS A MAN
he was intelligent, firm in principle,
prudent in counsel, gentle in spirit,
kindness and gravity,
and conscientious in the discharge of every
relative and social duty.
AS A CHRISTIAN
he was uniform, constant, strong in faith,
and in doctrine, constant and fervent in prayer,
holy in life, filled with the spirit of Christ
and peaceful in death.
AS A PHYSICIAN
he was skillful, attentive, ever ready to relieve
and comfort the afflicted.
AS A TRANSLATOR
he was patient, investigating and diligent,
giving to the Choctaws in their own tongue the
New and part of the Old Testament,
and various other books.
AS A MINISTER
his preaching was scriptural, earnest, practical,
and rich in the full exhibition of Gospel truth.
He was laborious, faithful and successful.
Communion with God, faith in the Lord Jesus,
and reliance upon the aid of the Holy Spirit,
made all his labor sweet to his own soul
and a blessing to others.
In testimony of his worth, and their affection,
his mourning friends erect this
Tablet to his Memory.
"There remaineth therefore a rest to the people
of God."
REV. JOHN EDWARDS
Rev. John Edwards, the successor of Rev. Alfred Wright, was a native of
Bath, New York. He graduated from the college at Princeton, New Jersey,
in 1848, and from the theological seminary there in 1851. He was
ordained by the Presbytery of Indian Territory December 11, 1853.
[Illustration: THE CHOCTAW CHURCH, CLEAR CREEK.]
[Illustration: THE CHOCTAW COURT HOUSE, CLEAR CREEK.
Both buildings ceased to be used about 1899.]
[Illustration: REV. ALEXANDER REID.
Spencer Academy, 1849-1861.]
[Illustration: REV. JOHN EDWARDS.
Wheelock Academy, 1853-61; 1882-95.]
He became a teacher at Spencer Academy, north of Fort Towson, in 1851,
and continued until 1853, when he became the successor of Rev. Alfred
Wright as the stated supply of the Choctaw church and superintendent of
the academy at Wheelock. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 he
passed to California and after teaching two years in San Francisco,
served as stated supply of various churches during the next twenty
years, having his residence during the latter part of that period at
Oakland.
In 1882 he returned and resumed work among the Choctaws, locating first
at Atoka. In 1884 he re-opened the academy at Wheelock, and continued to
serve as its superintendent until 1895, when it became a government
school. He remained the next year in charge of the church. He then
returned to California and died at San Jose, at 75, December 18, 1903.
In 1897, Rev. Evan B. Evans, supplied the Choctaw church at Wheelock one
year. As its membership of 60 consisted principally of students living
at a distance, and they were absent most of the year, the services were
then discontinued. A few years later the services were resumed at the
town of Garvin, where another stone church was built in 1910, during the
efficient ministry of Rev. W. J. Willis.
SPENCER ACADEMY
Rev. Alexander Reid, principal of Spencer Academy, was a native of
Scotland, and came to this country in his boyhood. He graduated from the
college at Princeton, N. J., in 1845, and the theological seminary
there, three years later. He was ordained by the Presbytery of New York
in 1849 and accepting a commission to serve as a missionary to the
Indians of the Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory, was immediately
appointed superintendent of Spencer Academy, ten miles north of Fort
Towson.
He was accompanied by Rev. Alexander J. Graham, a native of Newark, New
Jersey, who served as a teacher in the academy. The latter was a
roommate of Reid's at Princeton seminary, and his sister became Reid's
wife. At the end of his first year of service he returned to Lebanon
Springs, New York, for the recovery of his health, and died there July
23, 1850. Rev. John Edwards immediately became his successor as a
teacher.
Alexander Reid while pursuing his studies, learned the tailor's trade at
West Point and this proved a favorable introduction to his work among
the Choctaws. They were surprised and greatly pleased on seeing that he
had already learned the art of sitting on the ground "tailor fashion"
according to their own custom.
The academy under Reid enjoyed a prosperous career of twelve years. In
1861, when the excitement of war absorbed the attention of everybody,
the school work was abandoned. Reid, however, continued to serve as a
gospel missionary among the Indians until 1869, when he took his family
to Princeton, New Jersey, to provide for the education of his children.
While ministering to the spiritual needs of the Indians his sympathies
and interest were awakened by the destitute and helpless condition of
their former slaves. In 1878 he resumed work as a missionary to the
Choctaws making his headquarters at or near Atoka and in 1882 he was
appointed by the Foreign Mission Board, superintendent of mission work
among the Freedmen in Indian Territory. In this capacity he aided in
establishing neighborhood schools wherever teachers could be found. In
order that a number of them might be fitted for teaching, he obtained
permission of their parents to take a number of bright looking and
promising young people to boarding schools, maintained by our Freedmen's
Board in Texas, Mississippi and North Carolina. He thus became
instrumental in preparing the way, and advised the development of the
native Oak Hill School into an industrial and normal boarding school.
In 1884, owing to failing health, he went to the home of his son, Rev.
John G. Reid (born at Spencer Academy in 1854), at Greeley, Colorado,
and died at 72 at Cambridgeport, near Boston, July 30, 1890.
"He was a friend to truth, of soul sincere, of manners unaffected
and of mind enlarged, he wished the good of all mankind."
UNCLE WALLACE AND AUNT MINERVA
Uncle Wallace and Aunt Minerva were two of the colored workers that were
employed at Spencer Academy, before the war. They lived together in a
little cabin near it. In the summer evenings they would often sit at the
door of the cabin and sing their favorite plantation songs, learned in
Mississippi in their early youth.
In 1871, when the Jubilee singers first visited Newark, New Jersey, Rev.
Alexander Reid happened to be there and heard them. The work of the
Jubilee singers was new in the North and attracted considerable and very
favorable attention. But when Prof. White, who had charge of them,
announced several concerts to be given in different churches of the city
he added,
"We will have to repeat the Jubilee songs as we have no other."
When Mr. Reid was asked how he liked them he remarked, "Very well, but
I have heard better ones."
When he had committed to writing a half dozen of the plantation songs he
had heard "Wallace and Minerva" sing with so much delight at old Spencer
Academy, he met Mr. White and his company in Brooklyn, New York, and
spent an entire day rehearsing them. These new songs included,
"Steal away to Jesus."
"The Angels are Coming,"
"I'm a Rolling," and "Swing Low."
"Steal Away to Jesus" became very popular and was sung before Queen
Victoria.
The Hutchinson family later used several of them in their concerts,
rendering "I'm a Rolling," with a trumpet accompaniment to the words:
"The trumpet sounds in my soul,
I haint got long to stay here."
These songs have now been sung around the world.
When one thinks of the two old slaves singing happily together at the
door of their humble cabin, amid the dreary solitudes of Indian
Territory, and the widely extended results that followed, he cannot help
perceiving in these incidents a practical illustration of the way in
which our Heavenly Father uses "things that are weak," for the
accomplishment of his gracious purposes. They also serve to show how
little we know of the future use God will make of the lowly service any
of us may now be rendering.
These two slaves giving expression to their devotional feelings in
simple native songs, unconsciously exerted a happy influence, that was
felt even in distant lands; an influence that served to attract
attention and financial support to an important institution, established
for the education of the Freedmen.
NEW SPENCER ACADEMY
In the fall of 1881 the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions
re-established Spencer Academy in a new location where the postoffice
was called, Nelson, ten miles southwest of Antlers and twenty miles west
of old Spencer, now called Spencerville.
=Rev. Oliver P. Stark=, the first superintendent of this institution, died
there at the age of 61, March 2, 1884. He was a native of Goshen, New
York, and a graduate of the college and Theological Seminary at
Princeton, N. J. In 1851, he was ordained by the Presbytery of Indian
which, as early as 1840, had been organized to include the missions of
the American Board.
As early as 1849, while he was yet a licentiate, he was commissioned as
a missionary to the Choctaws, and, locating at Goodland, remained in
charge of the work in that section until 1866, a period of seventeen
years. During the next thirteen years he served as principal of the
Lamar Female Seminary at Paris, Texas. His next and last work was the
development of the mission school for the Choctaws at Nelson, which had
formed a part of his early and long pastorate.
=Rev. Harvey R. Schermerhorn=, became the immediate successor of Mr. Stark
as superintendent of the new Spencer Academy and continued to serve in
that capacity until 1890, when the mission work among the Indians was
transferred from the Foreign to the care of the Home Mission Board. The
school was then discontinued and he became pastor of the Presbyterian
church at Macalester. After a long and very useful career he is now
living in retirement at Hartshorne.
These incidents, relating to the work of the Presbyterian church among
the Indians, especially the Choctaws, have been narrated, because the
men who had charge of these two educational institutions at Wheelock and
Spencer Academies, were very helpful in effecting the organization of
Presbyterian churches, the establishment of Oak Hill Academy and a
number of neighborhood schools among the Freedmen in the south part of
the Choctaw Nation.
DOAKSVILLE AND FORT TOWSON
Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, an early Presbyterian missionary to the Choctaws,
was located at Doaksville near old Fort Towson. He secured the erection
of an ample church building and rendered many years of faithful service.
He died and was buried in the cemetery at that place in 1870.
Doaksville, though no longer entitled to a place on the map, is the name
of an important pioneer Indian village. Here the once proud and powerful
Choctaws established themselves during the later twenties, and were
regarded as happy and prosperous before the Civil War.
Fort Towson was built by the government to protect them from incursions
on the part of the wild Kiowas and Comanches, who still roamed over the
plains of Texas. The name of Ulyses S. Grant was associated with it just
before the Mexican war. The generous hospitality of Col. Garland, who
died there after a long period of service, is still gratefully
remembered.
During its most prosperous days, which were long before the Civil War, a
considerable number of aristocratic Choctaws, claiming large plantations
in the neighboring valleys, dwelt there near each other. Some were men
of culture and university education, while others were ignorant and
superstitious. Some had previously enjoyed the acquaintance and
friendship of Andrew Jackson and Zachary Taylor, and greatly appreciated
the privilege of manifesting their chivalrous spirit. Berthlett's store,
now used as a stable, was a noted trading establishment and place of
social resort. Its owner was a native of Canada, who had come to live
among the Choctaws.
While living in this beautiful country, where they were paternally
protected from poverty at home and the encroachments of enemies abroad
it has been said they were so addicted to private quarrels and fatal
combats, that there was scarcely a Choctaw family that did not have its
tragedy of blood. These fatal tribal feuds, however, seldom occurred
except on gala days, and the preparations therefor included a supply of
"fire-water."
The old Doaksville cemetery occupies the slope of a hillside near a
little stream skirted with timber. Some of the leading pioneers of the
Choctaw nation were buried here. The marble tablets that mark their
graves were brought by steam boat from New Orleans, up the Mississippi
and Red rivers to a landing four miles south. Some of the graves are
walled and covered with a marble slab, while others are marked by the
erection over them of oddly shaped little houses. In the early days, the
full-bloods were in the habit of burying with the body some favorite
trinket or article of personal adornment. Many of the grave stones
attest the fact that the deceased while living enjoyed a good hope of a
blessed immortality through our Lord Jesus Christ.
III
THE BIBLE AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN CIVILIZATION AND EDUCATION
THE BIBLE A POWER IN THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER.--THE ARCHITECT GREATER
THAN THE CATHEDRAL.--THE BIBLE THE BASIS OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL
SYSTEM.--VALLEY OF DIAMONDS.--IMPORTANCE OF CHRISTIAN TEACHERS.
"From a child thou hast known the HOLY SCRIPTURES,
which are able to make thee Wise unto Salvation."
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
instruction; That the man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished
unto all good works."--Paul
Whilst our religious educational institutions where unsectarian
instruction in the Bible is fundamental, have been producing good
results of the highest order, those educational institutions where only
secular instruction is given, have been contributing a very small
proportion of the world's consecrated moral leaders. Of 1,600 home
missionaries, 1,503 received their training in Christian educational
institutions. Of 600 foreign missionaries, 551 received their training
in Christian educational institutions.
It is not correct to say that one standard of education is as good as
another. Fourteen American colleges, recently established in China by
the Christian Missionaries, though only meagerly equipped, but manned by
those of un-questioned Christian character, and teaching the plain
saving truths of the Bible, have become educational centers, from which
have gone out the leaders in a peaceful revolution that occurred there
in 1912, that have brought the boon of civil and religious liberty to
one-fourth of the population of the world. Under the beneficent
influence of a few Christian leaders this ancient empire has been lifted
off its hinges and a new life and spirit of progress have been infused
into a civilization, hoary with centuries of stagnant heathenism. In
this wonderful transformation, effected by trained Christian teachers,
the church and the world have seen the fulfillment of the Bible
prediction, "A nation shall be born in a day."
Training for a noble Christian life is many times better than training
merely to make a living. The demand for good and true men, to serve as
leaders in church and state was never greater than at present. The aim
of the church is to supply the world with capable leaders that are
"Christ-led and Bible-fed."
A right education knows no limit of breadth. It includes a knowledge of
the Infinite as well as the finite. It recognizes the fact that finite
things can not be rightly understood without knowing their relation to
the Infinite. Our Lord Jesus, who came into the world to make known the
will of the Father, "holds in his girdle the key to all the secrets of
the universe, and no education can be thorough without the knowledge of
Him."
Christian schools are established for the culture of souls. Their aim is
to develop men and women as persons to the full extent of their powers
for the sake of their contribution to the personal welfare and progress
of society.
THE BIBLE A POWER IN THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER
All things being equal the thorough Christian makes a better mechanic, a
better farmer, a better housekeeper, teacher, doctor, lawyer or business
man, than one who is not a Christian. It is the work of a Bible school
of instruction to equip its graduates with the very best elements of
character and progress, and send them forth tempered and polished for
the conquest of the world.
The young have characters to be molded, ideals to be formed, capacities
to be enlarged, an efficiency that may be increased, an energy to be
centralized, and a hope and faith to be strengthened. The Bible, in the
hands of the tactful and faithful Christian teacher accomplishes all of
these results, by its precepts and interesting biographies.
The Bible, furnishes the young correct ideals of a noble and useful
manhood. The common greed for money, position and outward appearance is
weighed in the balance and found wanting.
The Bible is the fountain of all true character, and furnishes the means
for the betterment of one's self. It furnished the principles and ideals
that enabled Washington, Lincoln, Frances Willard, Queen Victoria,
Gladstone and others, to achieve greatness as statesmen, rulers or
national leaders; and enabled Gary, Judson, Moffat, Livingstone and
others to invade dark, dangerous continents that they might become
heralds of gospel light and liberty where they were most needed. "Buy
the truth, sell it not, and the truth shall make you free," was the
ringing message they proclaimed to men, women and children.
THE ARCHITECT GREATER THAN THE CATHEDRAL
A tourist, visiting the famous cathedral at Milan, expressed his great
surprise at the wonderful vision and perfect ideal of the man, who
designed it. A guide remarked, that the mind of the architect, who
wrought out the hundred striking features of the design, was greater
than the magnificent cathedral. This led another to remark, "Only a mind
inspired by Christ could have designed this wonderful building," How
true! The love of Christ constrains his people to bring to his service
and worship their noblest powers of mind and body.
When the tourist viewed the works of art, which included some of the
world's most famous statuary and paintings, he found the master pieces
of Michael Angelo, the sculptor, were Moses and David, both of them
characters from the Bible; and the most wonderful paintings were those
of the person of our Lord Jesus, the only Redeemer of the world.
Hayden and Handel, two of the world's most famous musical composers,
were inspired to write their great choral masterpieces, the "Creation"
and the "Messiah" as a result of their careful study of the sacred
scriptures.
The best the world has produced in law, literature, poetry, music, art
and architecture has been the embodiment of ideals, that have received
their inspiration from reading God's Holy Word, and experiencing saving
knowledge of the redeeming work of His blessed Son.
Abraham continues to be the "father of the faithful;" Moses, author of
the Pentateuch, continues to be the world's greatest lawgiver and leader
of men; Joshua effecting the conquest of Canaan on the principle,
"Divide and Conquer," continues to be the inspirer of successful
military strategists; David author of Psalms, continues to be the
world's greatest poet; Joseph, Daniel and Isaiah, continue to be the
best ideals for rulers and their counselors; Nehemiah, the best
representative of a progressive and successful man of affairs; Peter and
John, the most noted examples of loyalty to truth; Paul, the most
zealous advocate of a great cause; and our Lord Jesus continues to be
the ideal of the world's greatest teachers and benefactors.
THE BASIS OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM
"The Bible, the basis of moral instruction in the public school," was
the interesting theme of an address it was the privilege of the author
to deliver at a teachers' institute forty years ago, when engaged in
teaching in central Pennsylvania. The conviction then became indelibly
impressed, that the Bible is really the basis of the American public
school system. The fact is now noted with a good deal of interest, that
the legislature of Pennsylvania in 1913, enacted a law, distinctly
recognizing this fact, and providing that at least ten verses from the
Bible shall be read every school day, in the presence of the scholars in
every public school within the bounds of the state. Every teacher
refusing to comply with this law is subject to dismissal.
Every state in the Union should have a law of this kind. The Bible is
not merely the book of books, it is the only one that has correct ideals
for young people. It awakens the desire for more knowledge and inspires
the courage to do right.
THE VALLEY OF DIAMONDS
Ruskin, in "The Ethics of Dust", referring to the valley of diamonds,
remarks that "many people go to real places and never see them; and
many people pass through this valley of diamonds and never see it."
One great object to be attained in the education of the mind is to
awaken an earnest desire for truth. All real life, whether it be in the
school, shop or field, consists in using aright the true principles of
life, that are found in the Word of God. Every human heart, that has
been illuminated by this Word of Truth, finds that along the pathway
that leads to God, there are hidden the gems and jewels of eternal
truth, that prevail in every department of life. These gems are hidden
only from the careless and indifferent. Those that make a diligent
search are sure to find them. This longing desire for truth is not only
the mark of a good student, but the assurance also that such a one, if
circumstances are favorable will continue to make progress after school
days have ended.
Many pupils, during their youthful school days, fail to perceive the
real mission of their education. They do not then fully appreciate the
real gold of truth, that cultivates in them "those general charities of
heart, sincerities of thought, and graces of habit, which are likely to
lead them, throughout life to prefer frankness to affectation, reality
to shadows, and beauty to corruption." This enlightenment is pretty sure
to come to them later, if the Bible has been their daily text book.
THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER
The acceptance of the Bible as the Word of God should be regarded as
essential, on the part of all teachers of children and youth.
If the Bible is the great fountain of saving truth and the highest
authority on human conduct, and it is to be used as a daily text book,
then, it naturally follows, the teacher should be "a workman approved
unto God, apt to teach and rightly dividing the word of truth." Persons
who do not believe in the Bible do not care to teach it, and when they
are required to do so, they are pretty sure to vaunt their unbelief. The
influence of such teachers tends to establish unbelief instead of
awakening a longing desire for more truth.
Emerson in one of his essays, after pressing the fact that the soul is
the receiver and revealer of truth, states an undeniable fact, when he
says:
"That which we are, we shall teach, not voluntarily but
involuntarily. Thoughts go out of our minds through avenues, which
we never voluntarily opened. Character teaches over our head. The
infallible index of true progress is found in the tone the man
takes. Neither his age, nor his breeding, nor his company, nor
books, nor actions, nor talents, nor all together can hinder him
from being deferential to a higher spirit than his own. If he has
not found his home in God, his manners, his form of speech, the turn
of his sentences, the build, shall I say of all his opinions, will
involuntarily confess it, let him brave it out how he will."
The longings of the human heart are unsatisfied, until the soul finds
its home in God, its creator and preserver. Teachers that ignore this
fact, lack one thing that is vitally important. Our Lord Jesus, the
great teacher, expressed its relative importance when he said: "Seek ye
first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things
will be added unto you."
A RAILROAD PRESIDENT
James J. Hill, a prominent railroad president recently made this
important statement:
"We are making a mistake to train our young people
in various lines of knowledge for undertaking the big tasks
of life, without making sure also that those fundamental
principles of right and wrong as taught in the Bible, have
become a part of their equipment. There is a control of
forces and motives, that is essential to the management of
the vast affairs of our nation, which comes only through
an educated conscience; and to fail to equip young men,
who are to manage the great affairs of the future, with this
control and direction, is a serious mistake of the age and
bears with it a certain menace for the future."
In a recent issue of the Assembly Herald there appeared the following
very pertinent paragraphs on this subject, credited to the Synod of
Tennessee:
"In common with all good citizens, we rejoice in the progress of the
cause of popular education in our land. The intelligence of our
citizenship is a bulwark to the country. But unless the education of
the future citizen is complete and symmetrical, the body politic
becomes a body partly of iron and partly of potter's clay. The
education of the head and the hand without the heart is not enough.
"The popular education has no place for the heart in all of its
splendid equipment. This is not a reflection on the fine system. It
is merely the statement of a melancholy fact. The average state
school, high or low, is absolutely colorless as to religion. Even
the morality that is taught is not the morality of the Christian
religion, but of philosophical ethics that differ but little from
the ethics of the pagan.
"Our state schools have no place for the God of the Bible, nor for
the Bible of the only living and true God. The poetry of Homer and
Horace are sufficiently honored, but the finer poetry of Moses, Job
and David are unknown in the courses of study of our schools, except
now and then as specimens of Oriental song. The wise sayings of
Plato and Socrates are reckoned worthy of profound study, while the
vastly greater sayings of our Lord Jesus and Paul are unknown.
Cicero and Demosthenes are commended as great models of public
address, while Isaiah and Ezekiel are seldom mentioned in the four
years of college life, or in the longer years of the secondary
schools.
"That education is incomplete and inadequate for life's best,
which does not include the whole man, and put first things first. If
the heart be not educated and the conscience be not enlightened, the
best trained hand may strike in a wrong manner, and the best trained
mind pronounce wrong judgments.... Our citizenship must be Christian
if it is to promote a Christian civilization."
IV
THE AMERICAN NEGRO
RELIGIOUS INSTINCT.--LOYAL AND PATRIOTIC.--THE FREEDMAN.--HOMELESS AND
ILLITERATE WHEN EMANCIPATED.--FIRST SCHOOLS DURING THE CIVIL WAR.--FREE
NEGROES AND COLLEGE GRADUATES.--50th ANNIVERSARY.
"All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship
before thee and glorify thy name." David.
RELIGIOUS INSTINCT
In commendation of woman's loyalty and sense of obligation to our Lord
Jesus, it has been said of her, "She was last at his cross and first at
his grave, she staid longest there and was soonest here." In recognition
of this fact when he rose from the dead he appeared first to one of
them, Mary Magdalene.
To the credit of men of African descent, it may be said, that one of
them performed the last act of kindness to our Lord Jesus, and the first
individual conversion, of which we have an account in the book of Acts,
relates to another one.
Simon, who assisted Jesus to bear his cross to the place of crucifixion,
was a native of Cyrene in North Africa. The eastern church canonized him
as Simon, the Black one, because his was the high and holy honor of
bearing for the weary Christ, his cross of shame and pain. Our Lord
Jesus was not long in the black man's debt. A few hours later, he paid
it back by bearing for him all his weary burdens, on the very cross the
African had borne for him. That was a good start for the Black man.
Philip, directed by an angel of the Lord to go south and join himself to
the chariot occupied by the Eunuch, a man of great authority under the
Queen of Ethiopia, found him reading the prophet Isaiah. Explaining the
scriptures to him the eunuch confessed his faith in Jesus, was baptized
with water found at the roadside and resumed his journey, homeward from
Jerusalem, rejoicing. The record of this Black man's conversion is the
first one of an individual in the book of Acts.
The religious trait of the American Negro has often been the subject of
favorable comment. He has never, in all his history, been swayed by the
false teachings of infidels, atheists or anarchists.
Dan Crawford, a Scotch missionary, the successor of Livingstone in the
central part of the dark continent, recently stated he had discovered
the fact, that the most ignorant and degraded natives of central Africa,
have a religious instinct, that includes a belief in one God and the
immortality of the soul.
Penetrating the jungles of the interior beyond the reach of a previous
explorer, he found a tribe of nearly nude cannibals. He saw one of them
eating human flesh. Meeting Ka la ma ta, their chief, the next day in
the presence of several hundred of his tribe, he made special inquiry in
regard to their knowledge of God. The result was an astounding surprise.
Kalamata, gave their name of God as Vi de Mu ku lu
the Great King. When further questioned he said:
"We know there is a God for the same reason we know where the goats
went on a wet night, when we see their deep foot-prints in the mud.
We see the sun and the sun sees us. We see the wonderful mountains
and the flowing streams, and both tell us there is a God. He is the
one who sends the rain. No rain, nothing to eat; no God, no
anything."
Concerning a future life he expressed the thought, the body is the
cottage of the soul. The dead do not really die. When one dies they do
not say, "he departed", but "he has arrived."
The American Negro, like his native ancestor, has always manifested this
religious instinct.
Under the influence of a natural instinct the bee invariably builds its
cell in the same form for the next brood and the storage of honey for
it; the butterfly prepares the cradle and food for offspring it never
sees, and the migratory birds follow the sun northward in the spring and
southward on the approach of winter. All this is natural instinct.
Religious instinct is something very different from the natural instinct
of any creature. It is a natural power possessed by man alone, and has
its sphere in the human conscience. Paul, writing to the Romans in
regard to the barbarians of his day, observed, "God is manifest in them,
for the invisible things of God, even his eternal power and God-head,
are clearly seen by the things that are made."
LOYAL AND PATRIOTIC
The Negro in America has always been loyal and patriotic. He has
rendered a voluntary service in the army and navy of the United States
that is worthy of special commendation. The records of the war
department show that the number of colored soldiers, participating in
the several wars of this country was as follows:
Revolutionary War, 1775-1781 3,000
War of 1812 2,500
Civil War, 1861-1865 178,975
In the war with Spain in Cuba in 1898 the first troops that were sent to
the front were four regiments of colored soldiers, and the service they
rendered was distinguished by bravery and courage.
THE FREEDMAN, HOMELESS AND ILLITERATE
In 1860 the number of Negroes that were in a state of slavery was
3,930,760. In 1910 their number in the southern states had increased to
9,000,000; and in the northern states to 1,078,000.
The Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln was issued January 1,
1863, but it was preceded by a preliminary one on September 22, 1862,
that gave the public a notice of 100 days of the coming event.
The Act of Emancipation that severed the relation binding them to their
masters, left them in a very forlorn and deplorable condition. They were
homeless and penniless in a country, that had been rendered more or less
desolate, by the ravages of war and bloodshed. No provision had ever
been made for the spread of intelligence among them. It has been
estimated that only about five per cent of them at that time could read
and write. Their homeless and illiterate condition rendered them
comparatively helpless and dependent.
In 1885 the number of voters enrolled among the Freedmen was 1,420,000
and of these as many as 1,065,000 were then unable to read and write.
These illiterate voters then represented the balance of power in eight
southern states and one sixth of the national electoral vote. This was a
matter of vital importance to the nation as well as the states.
In 1900 the percentage of the Freedmen that could read and write had
been increased to 55.5 per cent and in 1910 to 69.3 per cent.
At this latter date however only 56.3 per cent of their children, of a
school age, were enrolled as attending school, which left more than one
million yet to be provided for.
FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL
The first day school among the Freedmen was established at Fortress
Monroe, Virginia, by the American Missionary Association on September
17, 1861. This school became the foundation of Hampton Institute, to
which the ragged urchin wended his way on foot and slept the first night
under a wooden pavement, that has since been known as Booker T.
Washington.
In 1862 similar schools were established at Portsmouth, Norfolk, and
Newport News, Virginia; Newbern and Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and
Port Royal, South Carolina. In December of that year Gen. Grant assigned
Col. John Eaton the supervision of the Freedmen in Arkansas, with
instruction to establish schools where practical.
After the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, schools for the
Negroes began to be established in those parts of the south occupied by
the Federal armies, General Banks establishing the first ones in
Louisiana.
In 1865 the Freedman's Bureau was established, and it made the
maintenance of schools one of its objects until 1870, when it was
discontinued. The work has since been left to the supervision of the
several states, aided by the generosity of the friends of Christian
education through the missionary agencies of their respective churches.
It is estimated that since 1870 the Freedmen, who constitute nearly one
half the population of the southern states have received for the
support of their schools, only one eighth of the public funds
appropriated for the maintenance of common schools. In the rural
districts teachers only are furnished, and these are supplied on the
condition the Freedmen in the district build, furnish and maintain the
school building, the same as they do their church buildings.
The number of free Negroes in the United States in 1860 was 487,970. The
states having the greatest number of them were Pennsylvania, New York,
Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.
A few of these had become graduates of colleges before the war and were
thus fitted for intelligent leadership. The beginning and increase in
number of these colored college graduates has been as follows; In 1829,
1; in 1849, 7; in 1859, 12; in 1869, 44; in 1879, 313; in 1899, 1,126;
and in 1909, 1,613. About 700 of them have graduated from our northern
colleges the largest number having attended Oberlin college at Oberlin,
Ohio, and Lincoln University at Oxford, Pennsylvania. In 1910 the whole
number that had graduated was 3,856.
50th ANNIVERSARY
The 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation was observed by a
number of the states in September, 1913. In Pennsylvania it consisted of
an exposition at the city of Philadelphia, that lasted one month. The
exhibit, showing the progress of the negroes from their infantile
condition of 50 years ago, was characterized as "wonderful", and the
occasion, one for devout thanksgiving and encouragement on the part of
those, who have labored patiently and faithfully for their civil,
social, moral or religious development.
The Presbyterian was the only one of the white churches that attempted
an exhibit of its work at this exposition. Its exhibit consisted of
photographs of churches and schools, and accounts of the results of the
work. It included specimens of industrial work done in the schools by
the sewers, cabinet workers and other artisans. It was under the
direction of Rev. John M. Gaston, field secretary of the Presbyterian
Board of Missions for Freedmen.
V
THE PROBLEM OF THE FREEDMAN
DIFFERENT STANDPOINTS.--REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS.--13th, 14th
AND 15th AMENDMENTS.--NEGRO SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES.--
DISFRANCHISEMENTS.--RESULTS CONTRARY TO EXPECTATION.--PROVIDENTIAL
LEADING OF JOSEPH, ISRAEL, NEHEMIAH AND DANIEL SUGGESTIVE.--A DIVINE
MISSION.--THE FREEDMAN'S FRIENDS.--FRIENDLY COUNSELS.--THE GOLDEN
RULE.
"Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy
throne; mercy and truth shall go before thy face."
"Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach
to any people."
The "Problem of the Negro" is an old and familiar phrase. It relates to
the fact, that, however many and great have been the benefits derived
from his labor and loyalty, the best management of him has been a
troublesome problem to the statesmen of this country, ever since the
declaration of independence, and especially the Freedman, since his
emancipation.
Like a prism or cube, this problem has several sides, but unlike these
symbols, its various sides are unlike each other. The solution of it has
always appeared to be different when viewed from different angles of
vision. Observers in one part of our country unite in saying, "this is
the best way to solve this problem," while others in another section
insist, they know a better way. The statesman views it from one point
of view, the labor leader from another and the Christian philanthropist
from still another standpoint.
The first part of this problem, the one relating to the fact of his
freedom, has already been solved. The solution of this introductory part
of the problem caused preliminary struggles in Kansas and other places,
including the Civil War. It served to bring out that which was noblest
and best in Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederic
Douglass, Henry Ward Beecher, Horace Greeley, Charles Summer, Abraham
Lincoln and others.
The parts that remain to be solved relate to his uplift from ignorance,
poverty and degradation, to the attainment of the ability to support
himself, by a fair chance in the labor market, and the enjoyment of
approved educational, religious and political privileges.
He has been accorded the right to own property, and is enjoying that
right to the full extent of his ability to acquire and hold it.
He has been accorded limited educational and religious privileges, and
has made a very commendable progress along both of these lines.
It is at this point we reach the difficult and unsolved part of the
problem.
The intelligent and prosperous portion of them in the South, though
native and loyal Americans, are discriminated against, and denied rights
and recognitions, that are accorded other nationalities, though
illiterate. The popular reason assigned, for locally withholding from
all of them certain privileges of citizenship, is the fact that a great
number of them continue to be illiterate.
In several of the states the Freedman is denied the privilege of
enjoying the instruction of competent white teachers in their state and
public schools, and in all of them he is prohibited from attending white
schools, as in Pennsylvania and other northern states. The
discriminations against them are so general, that it is almost
impossible for any of them to acquire skill as workmen, or become fitted
to serve their own people in the professions, except from those of their
own number, or institutions of learning provided specially for them.
REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS
During the last forty years, the Freedmen have been counted as a part of
the population, in apportioning the districts for the election of
Representatives in the Congress of the United States. This inclusion of
their number, in the arrangement of the districts, has enabled the
states to which they belong, to have a considerable number of additional
congressmen, that they would not have had, if the districts had been
arranged according to the white population, which alone has been
permitted to vote.
Since 1910 the additional number of Congressmen representing the
suppressed vote of the Freedmen, has been 32 in a total of 82 members.
These additional representatives, based on the population representing
the suppressed vote of the Freedmen, have come from the different states
as follows: Alabama, 5; Arkansas, 2; Florida, 1; Georgia, 6; Louisiana,
4; Mississippi, 5; North Carolina, 4; South Carolina, 4; Texas, 1.
Total, 32.
This is an unexpected and a rather anomalous condition. It places the
Freedmen in this country on a plane somewhat similar to that accorded
the Philippines and Porto Ricans, as regards the matter of government
and participation therein.
It also, however, suggests the goal towards which education, religion
and consequent material prosperity are gradually uplifting the race.
This goal is clearly expressed in the following amendments to the
Constitution of the United States.
AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION
Article XIII. Section I. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place
subject to their jurisdiction.--(Ratified Dec. 18, 1865.)
Article XIV. Section I. All persons born or naturalized in the
United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens
of the United States, and of the state wherein they reside. No state
shall make or enforce any law, which shall abridge the privileges or
immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state
deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process
of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several
states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole
number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But
when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors
for president and vice-president of the United States,
representatives in congress, the executive and judicial officers of
a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any
of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of
age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged,
except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of
representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion, which the
number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male
citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.--(Ratified July 28,
1868.)
Article XV. Section I. The right of citizens of the United States to
vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any
state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2. The congress shall have power to enforce this article (or
these articles) by appropriate legislation.--(Ratified March 30,
1870.)
NEGRO SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES
As a result of these amendments two negroes, one free born, the other a
Freedman were elected to the United States senate, namely, Hiram R.
Revels, 1870-1871; and Blanche K. Bruce, 1875-1881, both from
Mississippi.
Twenty others have enjoyed the privilege of serving as representatives
in congress, during the thirty-two years intervening between 1869 and
1901. The first of these was Jefferson Long of Georgia, who served alone
in 1869 and 1870. During the next four years 1871 to 1874, there were
four representatives, representing Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and
South Carolina, the last having two colored representatives during this
entire period. Their number was then reduced to two representatives, and
finally to none since 1901, save that there were three during the terms
commencing 1877, 1881 and 1883. Their last representatives were George
W. Murray of South Carolina, 1893 to 1897; and George H. White of North
Carolina, 1897 to 1901.
Five of these twenty representatives were re-elected and served terms of
four years; three served six years, and Joseph H. Rainey of South
Carolina enjoyed the unusual privilege of serving ten years, 1875 to
1885. Eight of them were from South Carolina, four from North Carolina,
three from Alabama and one from Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi
and Virginia.
DISFRANCHISEMENTS
During the seventies and eighties the Freedmen were to a considerable
extent disfranchised by means of "election devices, practices and
intimidations."
Since 1890, when Mississippi took the lead, a number of the states have
passed laws restricting the right of suffrage on their part to such
tests as the payment of their annual taxes, previous to a certain date;
ownership of a certain amount of land or personal property, the ability
to read and write the constitution of the state or of the United States,
and the "Grandfather Clause" which permits one unable to meet the
educational or property tests to continue to vote, if he enjoyed that
privilege, or is a lineal descendant of one that did so, previous to the
date mentioned therein, usually 1867.
The following states have enacted laws containing the "Grandfather
Clause:" South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Virginia, North Carolina,
Georgia and in 1910, Oklahoma. This part of the Oklahoma statute reads
as follows:
"But no person who was on January 1, 1866, or at any time prior
thereto, entitled to vote under any form of government, or who at
that time resided in some foreign nation, and no lineal descendant
of such person shall be denied the right to register and vote
because of his inability to so read and write such Constitution."
RESULT CONTRARY TO EXPECTATION
This historic record, of representation in the highest legislative
council of the nation, is very suggestive. That the Freedmen should have
been accorded the largest number of representatives just after the dawn
of freedom, when their general condition has always been described as
extremely deplorable, that this number should have been gradually
diminished with the spread of intelligence among them; and that finally
they should have no representative during the last thirteen years, when
their progress in education and material prosperity has been, at their
fiftieth anniversary, declared to be "wonderful," certainly does not
seem to be in accordance with what one intuitively would expect to be
the natural order of things.
It is quite natural the present order of things should awaken and
develop a feeling of protest on the part of the Freedmen, for they
appreciate rights and privileges as well as other races and nations.
Their segregation, enforced on all alike in cities, public places and
conveyances results also in many disappointing and humiliating
experiences to those who are leaders among them.
The existing order is, however, an expression of local public sentiment
and of the wisest statesmanship of those, who claim to be the best
friends of the Freedman, because they live nearest to him and know
better than others how to provide for his needs, including rights and
privileges.
He enjoys the privileges of public protection to life, property and the
pursuit of happiness, but to a considerable extent is denied the
privilege of representation in making laws and exercising the power of
government.
These historic facts relating to the gradual curtailment of the
privilege of representation in legislation and government have been
noted, not merely because they form an important part in a full
statement of the negro problem, but as a prelude to the following facts,
and suggestions to the Freedmen.
PROVIDENTIAL LEADING
The history of the negro in America has been one of providential leading
and apparently to enable him to work out his own destiny. From the time
the Dutch slave ship in 1619 landed the first importation, consisting of
20 slaves, at Jamestown, Virginia, to the present time, every important
event or change in his condition has come to him from others, who
without aid or suggestion from him have been moved to act for him.
The experience of Joseph, in passing through the pit and the prison, on
the way to his real mission, the experience of Israel in Egypt from the
death of Joseph until the time of their deliverance at the Red Sea, and
the experience of Nehemiah and Daniel, captives at Babylon, who were
there providentially led and prepared for the most signal services of
their lives, seem like historic parallels flashing from inspired Bible
story, their comforting and prophetic light on the servile and dark
experiences of the negro in America.
In all of these instances the persons were subject to the control of
others, the way seemed dark, trying and utterly disappointing, and the
opportunities, that prepared the way for important transitions, came
unsought and in ways wholly unexpected. The things that proved of
greatest importance in every instance were the intelligence, integrity,
patience and piety of the individual.
The God-fearing integrity of Joseph was expressed when he resisted a
great temptation by saying, "How can I do this great wickedness and sin
against God?"
Israel in Egypt submissively and obediently undertook to make the full
tale of brick when unsympathetic taskmasters withheld the usual and
necessary amount of straw.
Nehemiah, a captive cup-bearer of a heathen prince, won his confidence
and when honorably permitted to return and rebuild the wall of
Jerusalem, nobly answered his idle opposers, "I am doing a great work I
cannot come down to you."
Daniel, when a captive youth, "purposed in his heart not to defile
himself with the King's meat or the wine which he drank," or be swerved
from his fidelity to the living and true God by threats of the lion's
den. When the lives of the wise men of Babylon were in danger of being
suddenly taken by royal command, he is introduced to King Nebuchadnezzar
with the significant words, "I have found a MAN of the captives of Judah
that will make known to the King the interpretation." He was a man whose
power of vision enabled him to forecast the future correctly and
possessed the courage to act prudently. Though a captive and denied many
privileges, he proved himself an intelligent and trustworthy man and,
serving as a special counsellor of five successive heathen kings,
achieved for himself the worthy reputation of being the greatest
statesman of his age.
All of these men discovered, that their imprisonment or captivity was a
part of the divine plan, that providentially led and prepared them for
their real mission, which in each instance proved to be one of prominent
usefulness.
All of them were true patriots, but none of them were "office seekers"
or "corrupt politicians." They loved more than any other their own
native land, because of its sacred literature and religious
institutions, but they were loyal and true to those who ruled over them
in a foreign land. If any of them had manifested a political ambition,
the divine plan, in regard to their promotion and usefulness, would have
been immediately frustrated, and the memory of their names would have
perished with their generation.
A DIVINE MISSION
May we not believe that God had a plan and purpose, in bringing the
negro to the christian colonies, that established our government on the
fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty. His condition
during the period of servitude, which lasted 246 years, was perhaps in
many places but little worse than that of most of his kinsmen in Africa,
during this same period; while now, at the end of the first fifty years
of freedom, the condition and prospects of the intelligent and
prosperous ones among them, are declared to be better than those enjoyed
by their kinsmen, any where on earth.
THE FREEDMAN'S FRIENDS
The Freedman has hosts of friends, who are interested in his welfare. He
has interested neighbors, amongst whom he lives, and also friends at a
distance. Both are trying to solve the problem of his true relation to
American institutions and privileges. While both have been co-operating
together to a considerable extent and in a very commendable manner for
the betterment of his condition, it remains to note however that if one
is considered by the other as moving too slowly, or too rapidly, one
acts as a gentle spur or check to the other.
This is the harmonizing process that is now going on among the friends
of the Freedman. He is scarcely regarded as a participating factor in
this harmonizing process. There are times when to him every new event
seems to be one moving him in the wrong direction. His natural impulse,
on experiencing these apparently adverse movements, is to raise the
voice of bitter complaint against one set of his friends. When this is
done in a personal or partisan way it is offensive and always does more
harm than good. This method of procedure should therefore never be
approved or adopted.
FRIENDLY COUNSELS
A respectful protest against a wrong and an appeal to have it removed,
addressed to the person or body having the power to remove it, is an
inherent right and a proper method of procedure whenever deemed
advisable.
"Love thy neighbor as thyself" should be regarded as a fundamental
principle by every Freedman. When the herdmen of Abraham and Lot had a
little trouble over cattle and pastures, Abraham, who had received all
the land by promise and Lot was really a troublesome intruder,
discovered the greatness of his soul and settled the difficulty by
saying to Lot,
"Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and
between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren.
"Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself from me, if
thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if
thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left."
Do not become impatient. Your friends at a distance, especially those in
the churches, are generously endeavoring to help you to climb the ladder
of progress, until a larger proportion of the race has been uplifted to
the plane of an enlightened christian civilization.
That the Freedman, notwithstanding his wonderful progress during the
last fifty years, is still in an infantile condition, is freely
confessed. It was eighty years from the time the helpless babe was
uplifted from the river, before Moses was called to be the leader and
deliverer of Israel. The uplift from the river and training in his case
came from the gentle hands of others. This fact is quite significant.
The Freedman who, avoiding the worthless and corrupt politician and over
zealous office seeker, makes a good success of his farm and co-operates
cordially with his friends and neighbors in effecting the educational
and moral uplift of his race, will be happiest while he lives and do
most to hasten the day, when political privileges, now temporarily
withheld, will be restored to those who are found capable and worthy of
their enjoyment.
If you happen to live in a state where your neighbor does not wish you
to be a politician and hold office, do not worry. There are thousands of
citizens every year and in all parts of our land, who do not vote and
merely because they do not care to do so.
The voice of protest, against the useless and corrupt politician, is now
heard in all parts of our land. In many of our cities, he has already
been relegated to the junk heap, by the adoption of the commission form
of government. Two of the states, Kansas and Oklahoma, are now vying
with each other, to see which shall be first to adopt the same system in
the management of the public affairs of the state, and thus dispense
with a lot of unnecessary public officials.
"A public office is a public trust" and affords an opportunity to render
a useful and honorable service, but holding public office is not
essential to the happiness and prosperity of any of us. An over eager
desire to hold public office often suggests nothing more, than an effort
to find employment for the idle. The better way, as in the cases of Saul
and David, kings of Israel, and of Washington and Grant,
commanders-in-chief of our armies, is to let the office seek the man.
THE GOLDEN RULE
"As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them."
The application of the Golden Rule to this part of this problem,
suggests that every man is entitled to recognition according to his
worth.
"Our country can fulfil its high mission among the nations of the earth,
conferring lasting benefits on ourselves and all mankind, only by
guaranteeing to its humblest citizen his just right to life, liberty,
protection from injustice, the enjoyment of the fruits of his own labor
and the pursuit of happiness in his own way, as long as he walks in the
path of rectitude and duty and does not trespass upon the rights of
others," declares ex-President Roosevelt.
"Morality, and not expediency, is the thing that must guide us," is the
emphatic declaration of President Woodrow Wilson. The false assumption
that "the end justifies the means has come from self-centered men, who
see in their own interests the interests of the country, and do not have
vision enough to read it in wider terms, the universal terms of equity
and justice."
VI
VOICES FROM THE BLACK BELT
"If any man hear my voice and open the door."
In a discussion of the Negro problem it is eminently appropriate the
Freedman and his neighbor be accorded the privilege of expressing their
respective views. The thoughts expressed in this chapter have been
gleaned principally from the columns of the Afro-American, a colored
weekly, published by the faculty of Biddle University, Charlotte, North
Carolina.
The problem of the negro relates to his capacity for improvement and
self-support. Is the American negro, after centuries of slavery, that
kept the race in an infantile condition, capable of development and self
support?
Over this question the people of our country have expressed differing
opinions, many insisting that the servant condition is the better one
for the American negro. The Presbyterian Standard, published at
Charlotte, N. C., a section of country in which the latter sentiment
still prevails, recently bore this testimony to their progress.
"While it is true of them as a mass that they are an infantile race,
it is not true of them in many individual cases. There are thousands
of them, who have advanced wonderfully during the last fifty years.
They have made progress in every line. They are owning more farms
every year, and in our cities they are buying homes, which sometimes
would do credit to a more enlightened people. Their churches are not
only built in better taste, but their preachers are becoming better
educated, and are exerting a stronger moral influence than ever
before."
This frank statement fairly represents the sentiment of the thoughtful
christian people of the south. Some who have thought otherwise have been
led to admit that, "while great advance has been made by a race only
fifty years old, it is still in its infancy and therefore in the servant
condition." Nor is it any exception in this respect.
Through adversity and hard treatment, the Irish people who first came to
this country were largely in a servant condition. They accepted it. They
became our domestics and built our railroads. But "Pat" is not on the
railroad now. He is found occupying the seat of the chief justice, or
serving as private secretary of the president and filling many other
positions of honor and influence throughout the country.
What is thus true of the Irishman, is also true of other Europeans, who
came to this country. It is an honor to them, that they truly
appreciated their condition, accepted it and, through an honest and
valiant struggle, rose above that condition to something better.
The American negro is now making it evident, that he is no exception to
this general law of progress, under favorable conditions. It is neither
necessary nor prudent to blind their eyes in regard to their real
condition and status. Their best friends are those who encourage them to
accept the situation in which they have been placed by an over ruling
providence, and, through a noble endeavor, worthy of divine favor, rise
to something better.
Their friends assist them best by aiding and encouraging them to make
this noble endeavor, without which they cannot rise. The mass of the
people must have native teachers and preachers to serve as leaders. This
suggests the need of two kinds of educational facilities. A common
industrial education, that will enable the mass of the people to achieve
success in their daily avocations; and some special educational
facilities of a higher grade, to prepare the needed supply of teachers,
preachers and other leaders.
The mass of the people need an education, the scope of which will reach
their physical, mental and spiritual natures. Their greatest need is
instruction in the Bible, that it may exert its saving power on their
early lives and animate them with noble aspirations.
THE CRY OF THE BLACK BELT
"They shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors
and he shall send them a Saviour and a great one and he
shall deliver them."--Isaiah.
The following appeal in behalf of the Freedmen, by Rev. A. W. Verner, D.
D., president of Scotia Seminary, Concord, North Carolina, one of the
five normal schools of the Presbyterian board, especially intended for
girls, is so well and forcibly expressed, we are sure it will be
appreciated by every reader.
"The urgent call from the black belt is the cry of souls in
distress, the cry of humanity. Fifty years of unprecedented
progress, in every line of industrial and intellectual pursuits and
religious development, on the part of a considerable number of the
colored people, show clearly, that the negro is capable of receiving
and using to good advantage the education and training of the
christian school."
"Industrial education, that lacks genuine christian culture, does
not provide leaders of the right character to redeem the race, and
many of our friends in the south do not care to open to the negro
the doors of opportunity, to develop and manifest the best that is
in him. It is therefore to the christian church of the north and to
individuals, who have come to recognize the bond of human
brotherhood, to whom this infant race still makes its appeal."
"The sad and degraded condition of great masses of the race in many
localities of the south, ought to be an appeal, silent indeed but
sufficiently strong, to awaken the sympathy of every one, capable of
being touched by the cry of needy humanity. As a representative of
the great Presbyterian church, that has called me into a very
important and necessary field of her work, I earnestly appeal to our
people to do more for the establishment and fostering of christian
schools among the great masses of the black belt."
"The christian church and the christian school have something to
give, that can be gotten nowhere else. The public school where
established and industrial training where available are good and
necessary. But the christian school is still needed and very
greatly, to give moral and spiritual ballast to the individual. The
leaven of gospel power and purity is needed, to give moral strength
to the character and the highest degree of usefulness in life."
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
"Christian education is not narrow, it takes in every phase of
training that is essential to produce a well developed and useful
life. It touches and tints industrial training with a brighter and
richer glow. It quickens the faculties of the mind, adds keenness to
the power of perception, forms permanent habits of industry and
strengthens the will or purpose to do right.
"Christian education emphasizes the fact that it is not merely book
learning--storing the mind with knowledge of facts or training the
hands to work, but includes moral elevation, as well as intellectual
development. It includes everything that tends to make the life
purer, better and more useful. It begets and fosters a spirit of
hopefulness. It develops that patience and perseverance that is
needed for the best performance of every day's duties.
"Christian education emphasizes personal purity, purity of the
family life and the sacredness of the marriage relation. Its whole
trend and effect is upward. Its genius is moral, spiritual,
industrial, domestic, social and individual elevation. It creates a
hunger and thirst for higher and better things. It is the mountain
summit from whose height one gets a broader vision, a clearer view
of the possibilities and demands of life and a truer conception of
all human relations.
"This is the provision that must be made for our black brother.
Nothing less will meet his needs. A great responsibility rests with
negro leaders who have attained a good degree of intelligence and
refinement, but a greater responsibility still rests upon the people
of richer blessing and greater power.
"If the spirit of true democracy, which declares, 'opportunity for
every one, according to his capacity and merit,' and the spirit of
Christianity, whose principle is, 'Help for the weaker as the
stronger is able to give it,' be exercised toward the negro, many of
the difficulties will vanish, better conditions will prevail and
more desirable results will be secured."
This cry of humanity from the black belt of our land is very touching
and suggestive. It suggests the negro's greatest and most urgent needs,
the Bible, the Bible school and the christian teacher.
It is the silent appeal of Joseph while passing through the pit and the
prison in the land of Israel's enslavement. Beyond these dark and
unpleasant experiences there awaited for Joseph a career of great
usefulness in the land of his previous imprisonment.
Let us recognize the fact that God has a great use for the Freedman in
this our native land, because he has providentially brought him here and
increased his number so greatly.
A spirit of true patriotism, as well as the tie of christian
brotherhood, prompts the lending of a helping hand and an encouraging
word, while he solves the problem of his own destiny of great usefulness
in the home, the school, the church, in the shop, on the farm and in the
fields of professional opportunity and business activity.
It may be truly said of the Freedmen that they represent the poor of
this world, of whom the Lord Jesus said, "Ye have the poor always with
you, Me ye have not always. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the
least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto Me."
VII
UPLIFTING INFLUENCES
FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT.--AN HISTORIC COMPARISON.
"Look unto the rock whence ye were hewn, and to the
hole of the pit whence ye were digged."--Isaiah 51:1.
FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT
The historic incidents, having an uplifting influence that occurred
among the Choctaw Freedmen of Indian Territory, from the time of their
first instruction in the Bible to the establishment and present
development of Oak Hill Industrial Academy, when briefly summarized,
seem like a reproduction on a miniature scale of those greater events
that occurred among the Christian nations of Europe and America
preceding the adoption of their systems of public instruction.
I. THE CHOCTAW FREEDMEN
Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, a generous hearted missionary to the Indians,
having charge of a church building at Doaksville, encourages the slaves
in the vicinity to meet in it occasionally on Sabbath afternoons, for
the purpose of receiving instruction in the Bible and shorter catechism.
This Bible instruction does not result in the organization of a church
at that place, but opportunity is given for the manifestation and
development of the religious instinct of a number of persons, amongst
whom there are two young men, who were destined later to become
influential leaders among the enslaved people whom they represented.
After their emancipation, one locates on the west bank of the Kiamichi
river and later becomes known as Parson Stewart, the organizer and
circuit rider of a sufficient number of churches, at the time of his
decease in 1896, to form the Presbytery of Ki a mich i.
The other, accompanied by several personal friends, migrates fifteen
miles eastward and founds a home in the Oak Hill neighborhood. In the
course of a short time he is visited by the parson and his home becomes
a house of worship, where a church is organized and Henry Crittenden is
ordained as its ruling elder.
A Sunday school for Bible instruction follows the establishment of
public worship, and two years later it is followed by the establishment
of a week-day school, for the benefit of all the children and youth in
the neighborhood. Eight years later, when the trained missionary teacher
arrives, the inspiration of a new life is infused into the church and
Sunday school, and the week-day school becomes an important industrial
academy, where the Bible is the basis of the moral and religious
instruction. In 1905 they receive an allotment of lands that they may
become independent owners of their own homes. In 1908 statehood brings
the rural public school and in 1912, an intelligent Freedman is
entrusted with the management of the Industrial Academy, church and
farm.
This sequence of events includes the dark period of slavery and
illiteracy followed by instruction in the Bible, the light of the world;
the development of the native preacher of the gospel as a leader, the
organization of the church, followed by the Sunday school, the week-day
school, the academy, normal, public school and finally a native
superintendent of the academy and independent ownership of land.
II. THE EUROPEANS AND AMERICANS
THE DARK AGES
The period from the 8th to the 12th centuries of the christian era has
been classed by historians as the "Dark Ages" of the world, because of
the general prevalence in Europe of ignorance, superstition and
barbarism. Some of the leading events that occurred during this gloomy
period, immediately following the decline and fall of the Roman Empire,
tended almost wholly to check the spread of intelligence and the
prosperity of the people, rather than to promote their welfare. The
Scriptures were neglected and the clergy as well as the people became
worldly, ignorant, selfish and superstitious.
THE SARACENS AND NORMANS
These unfavorable events included, at the beginning of this period, the
invasion of Palestine and southern Europe including Spain, its most
western state, by the Mohammedans of Arabia, often called Saracens and
Infidels, who were fanatically inflamed with a passion to destroy with
the sword all the people of the world, who would not obey Mohammed,
their prophet. During the next century Germany, Britain, Holland and
France, then called Gaul, were ruthlessly invaded by conquering hordes
of the adventurous and barbarous Normans, who came from Norway, Sweden
and Denmark, countries north of the Baltic Sea.
THE CRUSADERS OR CROSS-BEARERS
These invasions were followed by the period of the Crusaders, 1096 to
1271, when as many as seven great armies or multitudes of people were
assembled at the call of the popes, and wearing crosses on their
shoulders, marched through the intervening countries to Palestine. Their
object was to rescue the city of Jerusalem and the holy sepulchre from
the infidels. The first crusade was organized in France, and it enlisted
an army of 800,000. Godfrey, duke of Lorraine, was placed in command,
and the multitude was arranged for the march in three divisions. Peter,
the hermit, a wrong-headed monk, was appointed leader of the first
division and experienced an inglorious and irreparable defeat on the
way. Godfrey, after the siege and conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, was
chosen King to rule over Palestine and the holy city, as his kingdom. At
the time of his coronation he made the noble remark, that,
"He could not bear the thought of wearing a crown of gold in that
city, where the King of Kings had been crowned with thorns."
The brave soldier and manly man, who gave expression to this noble
sentiment, died the next year.
Under weak and unskilful chiefs the crusaders while on the way wandered
about like undisciplined bands of robbers, plundering cities, committing
the most abominable enormities, and spreading misery and desolation
where-ever they passed. There was no kind of insolence, injustice and
barbarity of which they were not guilty. The seven successive crusades
drained the wealth of the fairest provinces and caused the loss of a
prodigious number of people.
Those of the first crusade, that remained in Palestine, were divided by
sordid ambition and avarice, and in 1187 Saladin, sultan of Egypt and
Syria, the most valiant chief of the Mohammedan warriors, recaptured
Jerusalem and subsequent crusaders were not able to regain it.
FIRST RAYS OF LIGHT
The first rays of light, that serve to dispel the darkness of prevailing
night, may be briefly summarized in the following leading events.
In 901 =Alfred the Great=, king of England, founds a seminary at Oxford to
promote the study of sacred literature. Later it becomes a university,
the first one in Europe, and it is still distinguished as one of the
greatest institutions in the world for publishing the Scriptures in a
form suited for the use of preachers and christian teachers. Two
centuries later the second university is founded at Cambridge, England.
About 1170 =Peter Waldo= of Lyons, France, committing to memory such
portions of the Scriptures as he could obtain, and taking for his
favorite saying, the command of our Lord to the rich youth, "If thou
wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and
thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me," commences to
preach the gospel, as the Apostles had done, in the homes of the people
and in their market places. As he attracts followers, who also commit
portions of the Scriptures, he sends them out like the seventy, two and
two, to preach the Word of God. They are called Waldenses, after the
name of their leader, and oppose corrupt doctrines and practices with
the plain truths of the Word of God. They oppose the crusades, as
fanatical expeditions on the part of those who were not Jews, and
therefore were unjust and unlawful. They insist the church consists not
merely of the clergy or priests, but includes the whole family of
believers.
The advocacy of these principles and by laymen, causes them to be
excommunicated, then anathematized and finally to be condemned by a
council at Rome in 1179. Peter Waldo, their leader, flees from land to
land, preaching as he goes and dies in Bohemia in 1197.
In 1215, King John of England, yielding to the insistent demand of the
barons, issued the Magna Charta, (Great Charter) the first grant of
English constitutional liberty, pledging the right of trial by jury and
protection of life, liberty and property from unlawful deprivation. It
is immediately denounced by the pope, Innocent III, who absolves the
king from all obligation to keep the pledges therein expressed and
solemnized by the royal oath.
In 1366 =John Wiclif=, a graduate of Oxford and member of the English
Parliament, presents to that body indisputable reasons, why, without the
approval of the Parliament, not even the king of England could make
their lands subject to a tax claimed by a foreign sovereign,
representing the papacy. As a religious leader, he instructs his
followers, called "poor priests," to pass from village to village and
city to city, and to preach, admonish and instruct the people in "God's
Law." He accomplishes the translation of the Latin Vulgate into the
English of his day, that his countrymen might have the Scriptures in
their own language.
=Charles V=, king of France, has the scriptures translated into the French
language, for the enlightenment of his people.
During this 14th century seventeen universities are founded and they
include the one at Geneva in Switzerland, Heidelberg in Germany and
Prague in Bohemia.
THE MORNING STAR
In 1401 John Huss of Bohemia, the Morning Star or John Baptist of the
Reformation, appears as "the voice of one crying in the wilderness." His
mother, left a widow in early life, gave him to the service of the Lord
as he lay in the cradle, and later, like Hannah of old, took him to the
school at Prague.
[Illustration: BIDDLE UNIVERSITY, CHARLOTTE, N. C.]
[Illustration: BETHESDA MISSION, WYNNEWOOD, OKLA.]
[Illustration: CAMPUS FROM NORTH]
[Illustration: UNIVERSITY HOUSTON LIBRARY CHAPEL]
When he became a preacher he found the Lord's vineyard a desert, the
ministers of religion, the priests, ignorant, worldly and dissolute, and
the popes of that period no better than the priests. The people,
designedly chained to the basest superstitions and following the example
of their leaders, have cast aside the restraints of chastity and
morality. His heart touched with pity at the sight of the religious
destitution of the people, his anger, like that of Moses "waxed hot"
against those, who should have given them the gospel of their salvation.
Encouraged by the example of Wiclif to make known the truth, he affirms
the supreme authority of the scriptures, proclaims against the abuse of
the clergy and endeavors to regenerate the religious life of both
priests and people. His glowing zeal for the honor of God and the church
move the people in a way until then unknown; but the priests, unwilling
to reform or longer endure his piercing protests, falsely accuse him of
heresy. In 1416, after fifteen years of self denying and heroic service,
he is condemned at Constance and suffers martyrdom at the stake. A
century later Luther, who imbibed his heroic spirit, said of him, "The
gospel we now have was born out of the blood of John Huss."
THE FIRST PRINTED BIBLE
The art of printing is invented and the Vulgate, a Latin Bible, is the
first book printed. It is issued in 1450 and is printed on a hand press
at Mentz, Germany. Previous to this event and date all books were in the
form of costly manuscripts and their number could be increased, only one
copy at a time, by penmen called copyists.
The mariners compass is invented and in 1492 Columbus discovers America,
and thirty years later Magellan sails around the world.
During this 15th century the universities of Glasgow and St. Andrews are
founded in Scotland, Mentz and eighteen others, on the continent.
III. THE REFORMATION
MARTIN LUTHER
"Arise, shine, for thy Light is Come."
In 1517, Martin Luther, the apostle of the German nation, a man of
learning and undaunted courage, whose equal had not been known since the
days of Paul, appears as the valiant and steadfast leader of the
Reformation in Germany. In 1530 he becomes the founder of the
Evangelical Lutheran church, and aided by Melancthon, succeeds in
translating and giving to the German people the Bible in their own
language, and in preparing the Augsburg confession that has since served
as a standard of faith and bond of union for the Lutheran churches in
Europe and America.
Emotion and imaginative piety have become the hand-maids of
superstition; and patriotism, lacking courage, has covered its face. He
writes hymns and patriotic songs, that inspire the German heart with
loyalty to the truth and devotion to their Fatherland.
JOHN CALVIN
In 1527, John Calvin, a man of great learning and glowing eloquence with
burning zeal for the honor of his Master, appears as the leader of the
Reformation in France, but nine years later, joins Farrel, the successor
of the zealous but fallen Zwingli, in Switzerland, and becomes head of
the university at Geneva. He secures the adoption of a constitution,
that gave and also limited the authority of the church to spiritual, and
of the state to temporal matters; and thus prepares the way for the
separation anew of church and state, and the enjoyment of civil and
religious liberty.
Educated for the priesthood, he is assigned a parish and there obtained
a copy of the Scriptures. When he discovered the erroneous teaching and
practices of the church of Rome, he resigns his charge and completes a
course in law and another in theology in the University of Paris. He
becomes a man void of fear and is borne onward on the wings of a living
faith. Following the example of Paul in his letters to the churches, and
of Augustine, bishop of Hippo (391-446) in North Africa, he undertakes
to state in a systematic form the great facts and doctrines of the
Bible, as one of the best means of opposing and overcoming prevailing
errors and corrupt practices in church and state.
He feels the Spirit of God moving him to blazon triumphantly, the
thought of God's sovereignty and man's utter dependency, in order to
dash in pieces the prevalent self righteousness. His writings, by
emphasizing the supreme authority of the Divine Word, have tended to
raise the moral standard of individuals and communities, and by
emphasizing the moral law, to lessen the distinction between the "sins"
of the Bible and "crimes" of the civil law. Their tendency has been to
make the moral law the rule for states as well as persons.
Presbyterianism, or government of the church by ruling elders and
presbyters as in the apostolic period, and Republicanism, government by
representatives, are advocated with transcendent ability, and success.
After the death of Luther in 1546, Calvin exerts a great influence over
the thinking men of that notable period in Switzerland, France, Germany,
Holland, Italy, England and Scotland. The young preachers, sent out from
the university at Geneva, establish 2,150 reformed congregations in
these countries, and in 1564, the last year of his life, the confession
of the reformed churches in France is officially recognized by the
state.
An ardent and effective friend of civil liberty, he makes the city of
his adoption the nursery of a pure, noble civilization; and the little
republic of Geneva becomes the sun of the European world. Animated by
his example and principles, William, prince of Orange, in 1580,
establishes the Dutch Republic in Holland, and it becomes "the first
free nation to put a girdle of empire around the world."
Bancroft, the historian, in summarizing the influences that contributed
to American Independence makes this creditable reference to Calvinism.
"We are proud of the free states that fringe the Atlantic. The
Pilgrims of Plymouth were Calvinists, the best influences in South
Carolina came from the Calvinists of France. William Penn was a
disciple of the Huguenots; the ships from Holland, that in 1614
brought the first colonists to Manhattan (New York), were filled
with Calvinists. He that will not honor the memory and respect the
influence of Calvin, knows but little of the origin of American
Liberty."
WILLIAM TYNDALE
In 1530 Henry VIII aided by William Tyndale, the new translator of the
New Testament and Pentateuch, and in 1547 Edward VI, his successor,
promote the establishment of the Reformation in England. A change of
rulers in 1553 leads to the martyrdom of Archbishop Cranmer, bishops,
Latimer and Ridley, and of John Rogers, the zealous reformer--four of
the noblest men England ever produced.
It was the noble-hearted, youthful Tyndale who, when he came to perceive
that the Word of God was the gift of God to all mankind and all had a
right to read it, that declared to one of the clergy opposing him, "If
God spares my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the
plow to know more of the Scriptures than you do."
JOHN KNOX
In 1560, John Knox, a pupil of Calvin, establishes the Reformation in
Scotland and under his leadership the church of Scotland from the first
adopts the system of doctrines and the forms of worship and of
government established at Geneva.
HUGUENOTS OF FRANCE
In 1557, Admiral Coligny, taken prisoner at the battle of St. Quentin,
is confined at Gaud in Spain. Securing a copy of the Scriptures he reads
it, and, after his release, becomes the enthusiastic leader of the Hu
gue nots of France. They represent the most moral, industrious and
intelligent of the French people, but those who love the "Mass", which
involves no moral obligation, hate them on account of their chaste and
devout lives. In 1572, when a bloody persecution arises against them,
they begin to emigrate to England, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and
the Colonies of North America.
It was Fenelon, one of the preachers of the Huguenots in France under
the feudal system, about the year 1710, that gave utterance to the
patriotic sentiment, emphasized in this country since the rise of the
great trusts, "That governments exist and have a right to exist, only
for the good of the people, and that the many are not made for the use
and enjoyment of one."
THE BIBLE
In 1559 the Puritans protest against the act of uniformity passed by the
English Parliament, imposing uniformity in religious worship.
The Bible has now come to be regarded as of so much importance to the
clergy and people, that as many as fifty-five learned men during this
16th century devote their time and attention to its exposition and
illustration; and twenty-seven new universities are established.
The Reformation is an insurrection or revolution against ecclesiastical
monarchy and absolute power in the church, or spiritual matters. It
establishes freedom of inquiry and liberty of mind in Europe. The Bible
and theology occupy the attention of the greatest minds, and every
question, whether philosophical, political or historical is considered
from the religious point of view.
THE INQUISITION
In 1235, Pope Gregory IX, establishes the Inquisition, a cruel court of
inquiry for the suppression of those who question the authority of the
papacy to rule over them in the church. It becomes very active in Italy,
France, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. It is not suppressed in France
until 1834, after a period of six centuries.
In 1540, Ignatius Loy o la, an illiterate Spanish soldier and priest,
with papal authority, organizes the society of the Jesuits, to require
Christians to renounce whatever opinions may separate them, and,
accepting the doctrines and worship of the Roman Catholic church to
acknowledge the pope as Christ's sole vicegerent on earth.
The Inquisition had previously proved a bloody court but this order is
intended to make it more effective in suppressing freedom of thought and
action in matters relating to education and religion.
The events that occur during the period of the Inquisition are harrowing
to relate. The historians of that period have recorded, among others,
the following executions and massacres.
The duke of Alva, a Spanish general and persecutor who died in 1582,
condemned 36,000 of his countrymen to be executed.
On the night of August 24, 1572, the anniversary of St. Bartholomew,
Charles IX, of France, by offering his sister in marriage to the prince
of Navarro, a Huguenot, assembles at the nuptials in Paris five hundred
of the most prominent of the Huguenots, including Admiral Coligny, their
venerable leader, and, at a given signal an unparalleled scene of horror
ensues. Before the break of day, these noble leaders and 10,000 of their
faithful followers, in Paris that night, are ruthlessly slaughtered. The
horrid carnage, against these defenceless friends of truth and right, is
extended to Lyons, Orleans, Rouen and other cities until 50,000 are
massacred at this particular time. The total loss of France by the
Inquisition has been estimated at 100,000 persons.
It is estimated that, during a period of seven years Pope Julius II
effected the massacre of 200,000 persons. The Irish massacre at Ulster
in 1641 cost Ireland the loss of more than 100,000 of her best
citizenship. It is estimated that during a period of thirty years as
many as 900,000 persons suffered martyrdom for the truth at the hands of
the secret order of Jesuits. During the entire period of persecution by
the papacy, a vast multitude, numbering many millions in addition to
these, were proscribed, banished, starved, suffocated, drowned,
imprisoned for life, buried alive, burned at the stake or
assassinated.[1]
These dark historic events illustrate the price that had to be paid for
letting the light shine when darkness prevailed in the high places of
the world. Every martyr for the truth was a torch bearer, whose light
was extinguished. The countries that suffered the greatest loss of their
best citizenship received a check of more than a century's growth. The
hand on the dial of progress was turned backward wherever the blighting
inquisition was felt. Its blighting effects may yet be seen in Italy,
Spain, Portugal, Ireland and other countries where the papacy exerts a
controlling influence. Men, whose deeds are evil and they are unwilling
to repent, hate the light and endeavor to suppress it, by killing the
torch bearer, "lest their deeds should be reproved."
A knowledge of these conditions that prevailed at the time is necessary
to enable one to appreciate the importance and greatness of the work of
the Reformers and their faithful followers during the 16th century in
giving the Bible to the people at the risk of their lives.
INDEPENDENT OWNERSHIP OF LAND
In 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers, bringing with them the Bible as a precious
treasure, establish a colony at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, where they
hope to enjoy civil and religious liberty to a fuller extent than they
were able to do elsewhere. Other colonies are established along the
Atlantic coast, from New England to Georgia, but no one of them exerts a
moral influence, quite so potent as this one, in the events and
councils that precede the laying of the foundations for this great
government.
They now enjoy individual or independent ownership of lands, a privilege
they did not enjoy under the feudal system that had its rise in the 10th
century and was continued until the French Revolution in 1799. Under the
feudal system the land was owned by dukes, earls and barons, who, as
members of the House of Lords, alone participated in the government.
The orators of the pulpit, commonly called preachers of the gospel,
aside from the academies, colleges and universities, are the principal
teachers of the people, and for the purpose of instruction, they use but
one book--the Bible.
In 1635 other colonies of Puritans, under Roger Williams and Thomas
Hooker settle Rhode Island and Connecticut, respectively; and religious
liberty is accorded Rhode Island by its charter in 1663.
WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY
In 1648, the Westminster Assembly, convened by the Long Parliament five
years previous, and composed of 10 Lords, 20 Commoners and 121
Clergymen, representing the churches in England, Scotland and Ireland,
to prepare a statement of the doctrines of the Bible, that might form
the basis of religious liberty and a bond of union of the Protestant
churches, completes its work, by publishing a Confession of Faith, Form
of Government, Larger and Shorter Catechisms. This confession does not
give rise to any new denominations nor result in any union; but it is
received and adopted as the standard of faith by all the branches of the
Presbyterian church in England, Scotland, Ireland and America. This
confession is a natural sequence of the authorized King James Version of
the Bible in 1611.
In 1704, the newspaper is established in America; and the first
postoffice, in 1710.
RISE OF METHODISM
In 1738 John and Charles Wesley, young preachers of the Church of
England, having spent three years as missionaries among the Moravians in
Georgia, return to London, where, preaching the gospel as a proclamation
of free forgiveness to sinners, and with it, repentance and faith in
Christ, they soon find the pulpits of that city closed against them.
Supported by Lady Huntington and aided at the first by George
Whitefield, the most gifted of their early associates and the first
Methodist to preach in the open air, they lay the foundations that soon
develop into the Methodist church, by establishing now congregations and
organizing them into classes, each under a local leader, who by means of
weekly testimonies, exhortations and corrections was to look after the
moral conduct and promote the spiritual life of the members.
SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND MISSIONARY SOCIETIES
In 1782 when there are a sufficient number of printed Bibles available
for use, Robert Raikes of London makes the suggestion and Sunday schools
are established, that the people in every worshipping congregation may
co-operate with their preachers in instructing the young and rising
generation in the great truths contained in the Bible.
From 1792 to 1800, the three great modern missionary societies of
England are organized, and during the next ten years the first two are
organized in this country.
In 1804, the British and Foreign Bible Society, and in 1816, the
American Bible Society, are established in London and New York, to
promote the multiplication and circulation of the Bible.
CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
In 1776 the Declaration of Independence and American Revolution develop
brave and patriotic leaders like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson,
Samuel Adams, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, John
Witherspoon and others, who fight the battles and solve the problems of
civil and religious liberty in America. Liberty and independence become
familiar watchwords.
In 1787 when the Constitution of the United States is adopted, civil and
religious liberty is assured. Protection is to be given to religion but
there shall be no taxation for its support in church or school, and
public education is left to the several states.
Those, who framed this remarkable Constitution and thus prepared the way
for America to become the land of "Liberty Enlightening the World,"
expressed their sentiments in regard to the urgent need of general
instruction in the Bible, in the ordinance for the government of the
Northwest--the country north of the Ohio, as follows: "Religion,
morality and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the
happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever
be encouraged."
In 1841 Congress makes provision for grants of unoccupied lands in the
states for the better support of the public schools and the
establishment of state universities.
In 1862 Congress makes provision by further grants of unoccupied lands
for the establishment of State Agricultural Colleges. About this same
period Normal Schools are established in the states and they gradually
take the place of many of the Academies previously established by
Christian people.
In 1863 Abraham Lincoln in order to maintain the Union "one and
inseparable," becomes the emancipator of 4,000,000 slaves; and America
becomes "the land of the free" as well as "the home of the brave."
The Boston News Letter, the first American newspaper is established in
1704, and the New England Courant, the second one in 1720. The first
Colonial post office is established in 1710. In 1765, when the Stamp Act
was passed, there are forty newspapers published in America; and one of
the most influential of these is the Philadelphia Gazette, by Benjamin
Franklin, the man who "wrested the lightning from heaven and scepters
from tyrants."
The religious papers of the Presbyterian church are established a half
century later, and as follows: The Herald and Presbyter, at Cincinnati
in 1830; the Presbyterian at Philadelphia in 1831; and the Interior, now
Continent, at Chicago in 1870. As a civilizing agency the press not only
rivals but increases many fold the power of the pulpit.
The public press, especially the religious newspaper, noting the
progress of events relating to the extension of the Redeemer's Kingdom
becomes a very potent factor in promoting an enlightened Christian
civilization.
UPLIFTING INVENTIONS
During the 19th century civilization receives a general and wonderful
uplift as a result of many important inventions, that, to a greater or
less extent, are enjoyed by all the people. They include the steam
engine, steamer, railway, telegraph, telephone, phonograph, cylinder
printing press and folder, electric light and motor, gasoline and
kerosene engines, cotton gin, spinning jenny, sewing machine, mower,
reaper, steam thresher and separator, mammoth corn sheller, tractor,
gang plow, typewriter, automobile, bicycle, aeroplane, vaccine, serum
and wireless telegraph.
THE COMPARISON.
The intelligent American citizen of the present time is the product of
all these forces, to the extent he has come under their uplifting
influences. He is the product of centuries of enlightened struggle and
successful effort. If the early Roman was proud of his history and
privileges as a citizen much more profoundly thankful may be the
American of this twentieth century.
The forces that have given him the uplift from the Dark Ages include the
Bible in his own language, the faithful preacher of the Gospel, the
Evangelical Reformer, the brave Military Leader, the God-fearing
Statesman, the Church, Sunday school, the public, high and Normal
school, the Academy, Christian College, Agricultural College,
University, ownership of land, civil and religious liberty.
What these institutions have done for the intelligent American citizen
they are now beginning to do for the Freedman, as he is brought under
their uplifting influence. They suggest both to him and his friends, the
greatest or most important needs of the Freedmen.
[1] See Cottage Bible on Revelation XVII 6.
VIII
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
IT EMPHASIZES THE BIBLE AS FUNDAMENTAL IN EDUCATION.--A ZEALOUS
MISSIONARY ORGANIZATION.--AS CATHOLIC IN SPIRIT AS THE GOSPEL.
"Walk about Zion, tell the towers thereof; mark ye well her
bulwarks, that ye may tell it to the generation following."--David.
The Presbyterian Church has always stood for Religion and
Education--Religion as the basis of true education, and Education as the
promoter of positive practical religion.
CHRISTIAN LEADERS.
The Presbyterian Church wishes to see the young people of every
generation provided with the best means for their intellectual and
spiritual progress. It wishes to see them prepared, not merely for
active and successful participation in the onward work of the world, but
also in full and hearty sympathy with the great work of Christ and his
people, for the spiritual salvation of the nations. It knows there is no
good reason, why a stirring leader of men should not be a Christian; nor
why a Christian should not be eminently successful, in taking his place
among men as a forceful factor in the life of the world.
The Presbyterian Church believes in the system of state schools from the
primary, public and high schools, to the University. These schools
provide for general education. Millions of children would never be in
school, were it not for these state provisions and for compulsory public
education. These schools are however not all perfect, since they do not
provide for moral and religious training, the great underlying
principles of reverence and righteousness, that must enter into every
life in order to fit it for the performance of Christian and patriotic
duty.
The Presbyterian church takes a patriotic interest in our whole public
school system, and believes that all the children should be trained in
those that are under public direction, so that all the children and
youth of the nation shall be a united, intelligent and patriotic body,
fitted for good citizenship.
At the same time it believes in special church institutions of higher
learning, that shall be adapted to train our young people for
intelligent leadership in the church, and enable them to become doubly
useful in the home, social circle and in public life. Our Christian
academies and colleges are valuable institutions. These furnish to the
church and the world the greatest number of ministers, missionaries,
college presidents and Christian statesmen. Parents everywhere, find
these Christian institutions furnish the best advantages, and that they
are the safest and most economical. No institutions furnish higher or
more profitable culture. They combine all that is best in real culture
and education of the intelligent faculties, with a true religious
conception of life; so that all who yield to their best influences go
forth from them pure-hearted, stronger and better prepared to engage in
life's duties successfully; for they take with them the personal
assurance of the gracious presence and abiding blessing of our Father in
Heaven.
In a christian educational institution, the spirit of the instructor is
one that regards the student, as of more value than the subject taught.
Its aim including the christian college, is not research, the work of a
university, but to make men. The ordinary branches that are taught are
regarded as instrumentalities, for making a well trained man of the
student.
The key to success in the battle of life, is found in the struggle,
which insures control of one's self. This is the secret of a good
education. In an important sense, all education must be self-education.
Professor Huxley gave good emphasis to this thought when he wrote:
"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education, is the ability to
make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done,
whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson which ought to be
learned, and, however early a man's training begins, it is probably the
last lesson he learns thoroughly." An eminent educator used to say to
his class: "He, who will become a scholar, must learn to command his
faculties."
The Presbyterian church honors God and exalts him to the throne of
absolute supremacy over all his creatures. It honors Him by using the
instrumentalities he has appointed. It receives the Bible, as the very
word of God, and adopts it as the only rule of faith and practice.
The Presbyterian church from the beginning has been a zealous missionary
organization. At the meeting of the First General Assembly arrangements
were made to send the gospel to "the regions beyond,"--the frontiers and
the various tribes of American Indians. The agencies, then organized as
committees, have become the great Boards of Home and Foreign Missions,
that now receive and distribute, each, more than a million dollars
annually.
A ZEALOUS MISSIONARY ORGANIZATION.
It is gratifying to know that the colored people, although emotional and
demonstrative, have nevertheless an intelligent appreciation of the
views and methods of the Presbyterian church.
A prominent minister of a southern church is quoted as having said: "The
Presbyterian church can do for the colored people of the south what no
other church can do."
FABLE OF PERSIAN TENT.
There is a Persian fable that tells of a young prince who brought to his
father a nutshell, which, when opened with a spring, contained a little
tent of such ingenious construction, that when spread in the nursery the
children could play under its folds; when opened in the council chamber
the King and his counsellors could sit beneath its canopy; when placed
in the court yard the family and all the servants could gather under its
shade; when pitched upon the plain, where the soldiers were encamped,
the entire army could gather within its enclosure. It possessed the
qualities of boundless adaptability and expansiveness.
This little tent is a good symbol of our Presbyterian system. It is all
contained within the nutshell of the Gospel. Open it in the nursery, and
beneath its folds parents and children sit with delight; spread it in
the court yard, and beneath its shadow the whole household assembles for
morning and evening worship; open it in the village and it becomes a
church, under whose canopy the whole town may worship. Open it upon the
plain, and a great sacramental army gathers under it. Send it to the
heathen world, and it becomes a great pavilion, that fills and covers
the earth.
The Presbyterian church is as Catholic as the Gospel in its spirit of
brotherly love, and readiness to co-operate with all who love our Lord
Jesus Christ. It recognizes the ordination of the Episcopalian and the
baptism of the Baptist. It joins cordially with those who would place
the crown upon the brow of Jesus by singing only the Psalms of David,
and responds with an approving echo to the hearty "Amen" of the
Methodists. It is capable of an expansion, that will include all shades
of our common humanity, and is working valiantly to usher in the day,
when the prayer of our Lord Jesus shall be fulfilled: "That they may be
one; as Thou, Father art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one
in us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me."
"The Presbyterian church stands," says Rev. W. H. Roberts, D. D.,
"as it has stood during its entire history, for the unconditional
sovereignty of God, for the Bible as the only infallible rule of
faith and life, for simplicity of worship, representative
government, a high standard of christian living, liberty of
conscience, popular education, missionary activity and true
Christian Catholicity."
President Benjamin Harrison said of it: "The Presbyterian church has
been steadfast for liberty, and it has kept steadfast for education.
It has stood as stiff as a steel beam for the faith delivered to our
fathers, and it still stands with steadfastness for that essential
doctrine--the inspired Word. It is not an illiberal church. There is
no body of Christians in the world, that opens its arms wider to all
who love the Master. Though it has made no boast or shout, it has
yet been an aggressive missionary church from the beginning."
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY.
Lincoln University in Chester county, Pennsylvania, was established in
1854 under the leadership of Rev. John M. Dickey, D. D., pastor of the
Presbyterian church of Oxford, for the classical and theological
education of negroes. The extent and thoroughness of the courses of
instruction at this institution have been amply justified by the success
of its graduates; many in the ministry, and others, in founding similar
institutions of a high grade in the south, as at Columbia, S. C.,
Salisbury, N. C., Holly Springs, Miss., and a number of other places.
Its aim is to furnish trained professional leaders, and it is
accomplishing this object in splendid form. Established before the
Freedmen's Board, it has continued to be maintained without its aid.
IX
THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF MISSIONS FOR FREEDMEN.
ORGANIZED IN 1865.--WOMEN ENLISTED IN 1884.--BOARDING SCHOOLS.--TRAINS
CHRISTIAN LEADERS.--WORTHY OF GENEROUS SUPPORT AND ENDOWMENT.
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath appointed me to
preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the
broken-hearted and preach deliverance to the captives."--Luke.
The emancipation of 4,000,000 slaves, at the close of the Civil War, was
the sudden opening of a new and a vast field of opportunity and duty,
before the Christian churches of this land.
The education and moral elevation of the Freedmen became, in both church
and state, a very serious and vital question. Ever since the foundation
of the government, the church, through the voluntary establishment of
academies and colleges, has been co-operating with the civil government,
in the effort to develop in all parts of our land an intelligent
christian citizenship.
The Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen was organized as a
committee in 1865, the last year of the Civil War. In 1882 this
committee was made and incorporated as a Board. Its work then assumed a
more permanent form and the contributions to its work began to be
greatly increased. The contributions received that year were
$68,268.08. In 1913 the amount received to be applied to this work was
$323,899.29. The amount of property held by it and used for educational
and church purposes is $1,831,610.09. The office of the board is at
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
[Illustration: THE LATE MRS. V. P. BOGGS
Secretary Women's Department, Freedmen's Board]
[Illustration: REV. E. P. COWEN, D. D.
Secretary and Treasurer]
[Illustration: REV. JOHN GASTON
Associate Secretary Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen]
WOMEN ENLISTED IN 1884
In 1884 the interest of the women of the Presbyterian church was
enlisted in behalf of the women and girls among the Freedmen. The
progress of the work of the Women's Missionary societies, in
establishing and maintaining educational institutions, is worthy of
special mention.
During their first year they contributed $3,010; the second, $7,966; the
third, $17,075; and in 1913, $85,236.09.
In raising this last amount 675 Sunday schools and 1082 Young People's
societies co-operated with 3591 Women's societies.
To the women, almost entirely, is due the establishment and maintenance
of most of the boarding schools now supported by the board. The names of
some of the most consecrated workers and liberal contributors have been
commemorated in the names of most of these institutions. That this fact
may be noted and as a matter of general information, the following list
of twenty-four of them is given.
LIST OF BOARDING SCHOOLS
I. FOR MALES ONLY
Biddle University, Charlotte, North Carolina.
Harbison Agricultural College, Irmo, South Carolina.
II. SEMINARIES FOR GIRLS ONLY
Scotia, Concord N. C.
Mary Allen, Crockett, Texas.
Ingleside, Burkeville, Va.
Mary Holmes, West Point, Miss.
Barber Memorial, Anniston, Ala.
III. CO-EDUCATIONAL
Allendale Academy, Allendale, S. C.
Albion Academy, Franklinton, N. C.
Alice Lee Elliott Memorial, Valliant, Okla.
Arkadelphia Academy, Arkadelphia, Ark.
Boggs Academy, Keyesville, Ga.
Brainard Institute, Chester, S. C.
Emerson Industrial Institute, Blackville, S. C.
Fee Memorial Institute, Nelson, Ky.
Gillespie Normal, Cordele, Ga.
Haines Industrial, Augusta, Ga.
Kendall Institute, Sumpter, S. C.
Mary Potter Memorial, Oxford, N. C.
Monticello Academy, Monticello, Ark.
Cotton Plant Academy, Cotton Plant, Ark.
Coulter Memorial Academy, Cheraw, N. C.
Redstone Academy, Lumberton, N. C.
Swift Memorial College, Rogersville, Tenn.
In addition to those in these boarding schools, 112 teachers are
employed in the maintenance of this same number of day schools.
In his last annual report, April 1, 1913, Rev. E. P. Cowan, D. D.,
secretary of the Board submitted the following interesting summary of
its work.
"The Freedmen's Board has ever kept in mind the one great fact that
its work is, first, last and all the time, missionary work. We have
aimed from the very beginning to follow a course that would commend
itself to every man's conscience in the sight of God. We have always
sought the counsel and advice of good men on the field, at times
nearer our work than ourselves, and better able to judge of its
condition. We have endeavored to exert such an influence over the
people among whom we have labored, so that no one could object to it
except he were a heathen or an infidel. As a consequence, all the
opposition we have met with in all these years has been as nothing,
compared with the sympathy and encouragement we have received from
good men.
"We have this year issued our forty-eighth annual report. This
annual report shows that we have now in connection with our church,
four colored Synods, composed of sixteen colored Presbyteries, in
which there are four hundred and four church organizations, with
twenty-six thousand, one hundred and thirty-two communicants, two
hundred and eighty-nine ordained ministers of the Gospel, and
thirteen hundred and seventeen ruling elders.
"Within these Presbyteries, there are one hundred and thirty-six
schools, and in these schools there are 16,427 pupils, taught by 448
teachers, all of whom are professing Christians, and by a rule of
the Board, members of the Presbyterian church.
"In all these schools, the Word of God and the Shorter Catechism are
regularly and daily taught. On the mind and heart of every living
soul that passes in and out of our schools, there is impressed the
fundamental and far-reaching truth, that the chief end of man is to
glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, and that the Word of God,
which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments,
is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him.
"These churches and schools, and ministers and teachers--588 workers
in all--are housed in 470 buildings, of which 300 are church
buildings, 70 are manses, and 100 are school buildings. The value of
these buildings is estimated at $1,561,000. The cry comes up to us
without ceasing for either more room, or better accommodations.
Should we answer these cries promptly, and without regard to the
question as to where the money is to come from, we should be
hopelessly overwhelmed with debt within one year."
TRAINS CHRISTIAN LEADERS
The Freedmen are naturally religious and hitherto their churches have
been their principal social centers. Under uneducated leadership, the
only kind possible at first, their church life was characterized by a
loose moral standard, poor business methods and boisterous worship. In
many places it still lacks a realization of the real needs of the race.
"The true standard bearers of better things have been the relatively
few ministers and churches that have been noted for their educated
ministry, restraint in worship, rigid morals and careful
supervision."
The wisdom of the policy of training capable christian leaders, was
emphasized at the last General Assembly at Atlanta, by Rev. H. A.
Johnson, D. D., in the following pertinent paragraph:
"The vital need of the negro people is a trained christian
leadership. Their problem can never be solved by elementary
education for the masses, or industrial training for those who enter
the trades and till the farm. They must have thoroughly trained
christian teachers and ministers of the Gospel and should also have
the other professions represented among their leaders. The men, who
are conspicuous leaders among the negroes in industrial training are
publicly saying that they expect such organizations as the
Presbyterian church to furnish the ministers and teachers for their
people, while they furnish the farmers, the carpenters and other
tradesmen. The task of furnishing this trained leadership is being
bravely attempted by our Board within the limitations of their
available resources. Every intelligent student of the problem must
realize how supremely important is this phase of the work."
WORTHY OF GENEROUS SUPPORT AND ENDOWMENT
The Board of Missions for Freedmen of the Presbyterian church merits the
intelligent sympathy and cordial co-operation not only of our whole
church but of all the friends who favor christian education among the
dependent colored people in the south part of our land.
It educates ministers and teachers, and supports them in their work. It
builds academies, seminaries and colleges, and aids in the erection of
churches and manses. Its 24 boarding schools, having normal and
industrial departments, are distributed so that there is one or more in
every southern state.
It now owns and controls school, church and manse properties that
represent a value of one and a half million dollars.
Its permanent investments, that bring an annual income for the promotion
of its work however, are yet only $200,202.50. In these days of big
business, the evidence of unusual prosperity, it ought to have an
endowment of one million dollars.
Education is the most costly of all philanthropic enterprises. The
following reason recently expressed for a large endowment of the College
Board applies with equal force to the Freedmen's Board.
"A million dollar corporation is now considerably more than twice as
efficient, as an instrument to accomplish results than one of a half
million. In this day of large things the men who are interested in
education, prefer to employ as their agent, an organization whose
resources are large enough to place its permanent and financial
stability beyond question. A bank with a million dollars of capital
has considerable advantage over one having only a quarter of a
million. The law, 'To him that hath shall be given,' still prevails
among the children of men."
The members of the Freedmen's Board have been selected, because of their
manifest interest in the educational and spiritual welfare of the
colored people; and they are conscientiously striving, to the best of
their ability, to promote the interests of the Freedmen, in behalf of
the great body of generous hearted christian people whom they represent.
The work of the Freedmen's Board has hitherto by its charter been
limited to the Freedmen in southern states. At the next General
Assembly, an effort will be made to extend its work, so as to include
the negroes in the northern states.
X
SPECIAL BENEFACTORS.
GEORGE PEABODY.--JOHN F. SLATER.--DANIEL HAND.--EMILINE CUSHING.--ANNA
T. JEANES.--CAROLINE PHELPS STOKES.--JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER.--NEGRO
PHILANTHROPISTS.
"He loveth our nation and hath built us a synagogue."
The educational needs of the Freedman have called forth several large
benefactions from individual contributors. George Peabody of Danvers,
Massachusetts, in 1867 and 1869, established a fund of $3,500,000 for
the promotion of general education in the South. One half of this amount
happened to prove unavailable. A large part of the remainder was used in
the establishment and endowment of the Peabody teachers college for
whites at Nashville, Tennessee, leaving only a small part of it for use
among the Freedmen.
In 1882, John F. Slater of Norwich, Connecticut, created a trust fund of
$1,000,000, for the purpose of uplifting the emancipated population of
the southern states and their posterity. The income of this fund, now
increased to $1,500,000, is used to promote normal and industrial
education.
In 1888 Daniel Hand of Guilford, Connecticut, gave the American
Missionary Association of the Congregational church $1,000,000, and a
residuary estate of $500,000 to aid in the education of the Negro.
In 1895 Miss Emiline Cushing of Boston left $23,000 for the same object.
In 1907 Miss Anna T. Jeanes of Philadelphia, Pa., left an endowment fund
of $1,000,000 to aid in maintaining elementary schools among the
Freedmen. Booker T. Washington was named as one of two trustees of this
fund. Its distribution contemplates a three fold plan. First, something
additional is to be secured from the school authorities. Second, the
co-operative efforts of the people are essential. Third, the
effectiveness of the school is improved and its neighborhood influence
widened by the introduction of industrial features. In 1911, the income
from this fund was so widely distributed as to reach the work in as many
as 111 counties in 12 different states; and summer schools were aided in
six of them.
In 1909 Miss Caroline Phelps Stokes created a fund of $300,000 for the
erection of tenement houses in New York City; and the education of
negroes and Indians, through industrial schools.
From 1902 to 1909, John D. Rockefeller gave $53,000,000 to establish a
fund for the promotion of general education in the United States. The
schools of the Freedmen have received from this fund $532,015.
NEGRO PHILANTHROPISTS
The Freedmen have fallen heir to the estates of some free negroes, that
became wealthy. It is interesting to note the following ones.
Tommy Lafon of New Orleans, a dealer in dry goods and real estate, in
1893, left for charitable purposes among his people, an estate appraised
at $413,000.
Mary E. Shaw of New York City, left Tuskeegee Colored Institute $38,000.
Col. John McKee of Philadelphia, at his death in 1902, left about
$1,000,000 worth of property for education, including a provision for
the establishment of a college to bear his name.
Anna Marie Fisher, of Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1911, having an estate of
$65,000 left $26,000 for educational institutions.
The successful achievement of these four free Negroes and their generous
regard for the welfare of their kin-folks, suggest the possibilities of
which they are capable, as financiers and philanthropists, when
circumstances are favorable.
PART II
OAK HILL INDUSTRIAL ACADEMY
"It is said that the Athenians erected a statue to AEsop, (564 B.
C.), who was born a slave; or as Phaedrus phrases it:
"They placed the slave upon an eternal pedestal,"
"Sir, for what the enfranchised slaves did for the cause of
constitutional liberty in this country, the American people should
imitate the Athenians and, by training the slave for usefulness,
place him upon an eternal pedestal. Their conduct has been beyond
all praise.
"They have been patient and docile; they have been loyal to their
masters, to the country, and to those with whom they are associated;
but, as I said before, no other people ever endured patiently such
injustice and wrong. Despotism makes nihilists; tyranny makes
socialists and communists; and injustice is the great manufacturer
of dynamite. The thief robs himself; the adulterer pollutes himself;
and the murderer inflicts a deeper wound upon himself than that
which slays his victim.
"If my voice can reach this proscribed and unfortunate class, I
appeal to them to continue, as they have begun, to endure to the
end; and thus to commend themselves to the favorable judgment of
mankind; and to rely for their safety upon the ultimate appeal to
the conscience of the human race."--John J. Ingalls, U. S. Senate,
1890.
THE NATIVE OAK HILL SCHOOL
1876-1886
CHURCH ORGANIZED JUNE 29, 1869.--SUNDAY SCHOOL IN 1876.--SCHOOL HOUSE,
1878.--OLD LOG HOUSE, 1884.--APPEAL FOR ACADEMY.
"The vineyard which thy right hand hath planted."
"Who hath despised the day of small things?"
As the preaching of the gospel and the organization
of a church preceded the establishment
of the school, the following facts
in regard to the church are first noted.
THE OAK HILL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
The Oak Hill Presbyterian church was organized about June 29, 1869, with
six members, namely, Henry Crittenden, who was ordained an elder, Teena
Crittenden, his wife, J. Ross Shoals and his wife Hettie Shoals, Emily
Harris and Reindeer Clark.
The services at first were held in the home and later in an arbor at the
home of Henry Crittenden, one mile east of the present town of Valliant,
and now known as the home of James and Johnson Shoals. After a few years
the place of meeting was transferred to an arbor about two miles
southwest of Crittenden's, and two years later, 1878, to the Oak Hill
schoolhouse, a frame building erected that year on the main east and
west road north of Red river. It was located on the southwest quarter
of section 27, near the site on which Valliant was located in 1902. It
is reported, that Henry Crittenden was the principal contributor towards
the erection of this building. His cash income though meager was greater
than others and he gave freely in order that a suitable place might be
provided both for public worship and a day school for the neighborhood.
Parson Charles W. Stewart of Doaksville, a representative of the last
generation of those who were slaves to the Indians, was the minister in
charge from the time of organization until the spring of 1893, when he
retired from the ministry. He was succeeded at Oak Hill by Rev. Edward
G. Haymaker, the superintendent of the academy, who continued a period
of eleven years. He was succeeded by Rev. R. E. Flickinger, whose
pastorate of nearly eight years was eventfully ended at the dedication
of the new colored Presbyterian church at Garvin, on October 3, 1912.
Rev. William H. Carroll, relinquishing his work on that same day as the
first resident pastor of the Garvin church became the immediate
successor at Oak Hill.
Those who served as elders of the Oak Hill church and are now dead were
Henry Crittenden, J. Ross Shoals, Robert Hall, Jack A. Thomas and Samuel
A. Folsom. The elders in 1912 are James R. Crabtree, Matt Brown and
Solomon H. Buchanan.
In 1912 a site for a new chapel, intended only for the uses of the local
congregation, was purchased in a suburb on the west side of Valliant.
The trustees chosen at this time were Mitchell S. Stewart, formerly an
elder, Matt Brown and James R. Crabtree. They were duly authorized to
incorporate and manage the erection of the new church building.
THE NATIVE OAK HILL SCHOOL
The Negroes who were slaves of the Indians, about the year 1880 were
enrolled and adopted as citizens, by the tribes to which they
respectively belonged, and they then became entitled to a small part of
their public school funds. The amount accorded the Choctaw Freedmen was
about one dollar a year for a pupil that was enrolled as attending
school. This made possible the employment of a teacher for a short term
of three months in the vicinity of a few villages, where a large
enrollment could be secured, but left unsupplied the greater number
living in the sparsely settled neighborhoods.
Our Board of Missions for Freedmen, ever since its organization, has
made it the duty of every negro minister commissioned by it, to maintain
a school in their respective chapels several months each year, in order
that the children of the community might have an opportunity to learn to
read the Bible.
The first native teacher in the Oak Hill congregation was J. Ross
Shoals, one of the elders of the church, who had a large family and
principally of boys. His work was that of a Bible reader or Sunday
School teacher. About the year 1876 he began to hold meetings in the
south arbor on Sabbath afternoons for the purpose of teaching both old
and young to read the Bible with him. Nathan Mattison succeeded him the
next year at the same place as a Sabbath school teacher.
In 1878, George M. Dallas, a carpenter, was employed to build a small
frame school house on the southwest quarter of section 27, and after its
completion he taught that year the first term of week day school among
the colored people of that section. Others that succeeded Dallas, as
teachers in this frame school house, were Mary Rounds, Henry Williams
and Lee Bibbs.
OLD LOG HOUSE
In 1884, Henry Williams transferred the day school to the "old log
house" on the northeast quarter of section 29, a mile and a half
northwest of the school house. The motive for this change was the fact
there was no supply of good water near the school house, while at the
new location there was a good well and a large vacant building available
for use.
Robin Clark, its owner and last occupant was an active member of the Oak
Hill church.
After occupying this building one or two years he moved to another one
near Red river and generously tendered the free use of this one for the
Oak Hill school. In 1885 Henry Friarson, another native teacher, taught
the school in this same "old log house."
All of these native teachers did the best they could, but deeply felt
their insufficiency for the task laid on them, by the pressure of an
urgent necessity. All had personal knowledge of the existence and
unusual privileges afforded the children and youth of the Choctaws at
Wheelock and Spencer Academies. It was also easy for them to see that as
farmers they succeeded as well in securing good results from the
cultivation of the soil as many of their Choctaw neighbors, and this
fact tended to increase their desire to have a "fair chance" and equal
share in the matter of educational privileges for their children.
The Oak Hill church and school happened to be near the center of the
widely scattered group of a half dozen churches that formed the monthly
circuit of Parson Charles W. Stewart. All who were interested in
securing a good mission school approved this location as the most
convenient for all of them, and, heartily uniting in an appeal for one,
pledged their united support of it, when it should be established.
APPEAL FOR OAK HILL
The appeal of the Choctaw Freedmen was presented to the Presbyterian
Board of Missions for Freedmen by Rev. Alexander Reid and Rev. John
Edwards, the missionaries in charge of the Indian work at Spencer and
Wheelock Academies, respectively.
In the early days many of the old Negroes were located near these
educational institutions and they were sometimes sent by their masters
to work for the missionaries. These men living in their midst had
opportunity to witness their extreme poverty, utter ignorance and
general degradation. They also heard their personal appeals for the
light of knowledge and Bible truth. Their sympathetic interest was
awakened and began to manifest itself towards them.
They were occasionally accorded the privilege of attending religious
services, and at Doaksville, during the ministry of Rev. Cyrus
Kingsbury, were permitted to hold occasional Sabbath afternoon meetings
in the Choctaw church. Primers, catechisms and testaments were sometimes
presented to them, and in this way a few of them learned to read the
Bible. The kindly interest of these missionaries won their esteem and
confidence and awakened in many of them an abiding love and affection
for the Presbyterian church.
It is related that when one of them was asked to unite with another
church because it was "more free" he replied, "You are too free for me,
I need a stricter church. I believe in staying by the old missionaries.
They were our friends when we were slaves. They treated us well and did
us good, and I mean to stay by their church as long as I live."
SLAVERY AMONG INDIANS
The state of religion among all of the people, both Indians and Negroes,
was low, "very low". One of the missionaries described that of the
Negroes as being like that of the Samaritans. "They fear the Lord and
serve their own gods. As their fathers did, so do they. Their condition
is bad, morally and religiously."
It could not easily have been otherwise. The tendency of slavery, under
the most favorable conditions has always been in the direction of a low
standard of morals and life. Slavery to untutored Indians, in a sparsely
settled timber country, suggests the most deplorable condition
imaginable. Such a slave lacking the example of intelligence and
uprightness, often common among white masters, was subjected to
generations of training in every phase of depravity and had no incentive
whatever to live a better life.
When, however, these slaves of the Indians were accorded their freedom
and became entitled to a part of the public school fund of the Choctaws,
they manifested an earnest desire to have ministers and teachers sent
them, that they might have churches and schools of their own.
Their great need was a boarding school where the boys and girls
especially those in the remote and neglected rural districts, could be
taken from their homes and trained under the personal supervision of
christian teachers, to a higher standard of living, and, some at least,
become fitted to serve as teachers of their own people.
XII
ERA OF ELIZA HARTFORD
1886-1888.
THE HEROIC PIONEER.--FEBRUARY 14, 1886.--BOARDING SCHOOL, APRIL 15th,
1886.--PRISCILLA G. HAYMAKER.--NEW SCHOOL BUILDING IN 1887.--ANNA E.
CAMPBELL.
"I'll go where you want me to go."
The story of Oak Hill as an Industrial Academy, begins with the work of
Miss Eliza Hartford of Steubenville, Ohio, the first white teacher in
the "Old Log house". She was commissioned by the Freedmen's Board in
January, 1886, and was sent in response to the appeal of the colored
people of the Choctaw Nation.
The missionaries, Reid and Edwards, had commended as the most favorable
location for such an educational institution the rural neighborhood
occupied by the Oak Hill church, two miles east of Clear Creek in the
valley of Red river.
They referred to this as a "pivotal location" for such a school, and
wrote, "Here we want to see a good school established that shall grow
into a normal academy. The location is central and healthful. If in
charge of white teachers, such a school will attract scholars from all
the other settlements."
HEROIC PIONEER
Oak Hill, like other schools of its kind, had its early period of heroic
effort and self-sacrificing toil, before the usual comforts and
conveniences of civilized life could be enjoyed. This was true of the
entire period of service on the part of Miss Hartford, February 1886 to
August 1888.
When she arrived at Wheelock, where she met a friend, Miss Elder,
engaged in teaching the Indians, Rev. John Edwards served as an aid, in
making a tour of inspection over the field, of which she was to be the
missionary teacher and physician. This journey was made on horseback,
which was the most speedy and comfortable mode of travel, over the rough
and winding trails through the timber at that time.
As a result of this survey and a call at the home of Henry Crittenden,
an elder of the Oak Hill church and a "local trustee of the
neighborhood, under the Choctaw law," it was decided that the "old log
house" was the best place to establish the school; and the best place
for her to live was at the home of the colored elder, Henry Crittenden,
three miles east. She was expected to make her daily journeys on
horseback; and, in connection with the work of the school, to visit the
people at their homes, furnish medicines for the sick and give
instruction in regard to their care.
In her description of the old log house Miss Hartford states, "The
windows are without sash or glass and the roof full of holes. The
chimneys are of hewn stone, strong and massive. The house is of hewed
logs, two stories in height and stands high in the midst of a fine
locust grove. The well of water near it seems as famous as Jacob's
well."
At the request of Mr. Edwards the colored people in the vicinity, after
repairing the roof and windows, cleaned, scrubbed and whitewashed the
inside of this old log house, and thus prepared it for its new and noble
era of usefulness.
[Illustration: ELIZA HARTFORD.]
[Illustration: ANNA E. CAMPBELL.]
[Illustration: PRISCILLA G. HAYMAKER.]
[Illustration: REV. EDWARD G. HAYMAKER.]
[Illustration: THE GIRLS' HALL, 1889-1910.]
[Illustration: THE OLD FARM HOUSE.
The Pioneer Home of a Choctaw Chief, Leflore, and of the Oak Hill School.]
FEBRUARY 14, 1886
On Sabbath, February 14, 1886, one week after the arrival of Miss
Hartford, her first meeting was held and a Sunday school was organized
under her leadership. At its close a prayer-meeting was held in which she
read the scriptures, the hymns and a sermon.
On Tuesday, February 16, 1886, the school was opened with seven pupils.
The opening exercises consisted in the reading of a chapter by the new
teacher, the singing of a hymn and prayer by elder Henry Crittenden. The
latter was profoundly impressed with the fact that, in the auspicious
opening of the school that morning, the colored people of that section
were realizing the answer to their oft repeated prayers, the fulfilment
of their long delayed hopes.
The new teacher had never heard such a prayer in any school she ever
attended. He thanked Our Heavenly Father, "That the prayers of his
people were answered. In their bondage they had cried unto Him and He
had heard their cry. In their ignorance and darkness they had asked for
light and the light had come." He prayed for the teacher that "God would
give her wisdom and enable her to be faithful." He prayed for the
children and their parents that, "they might be able to see and
appreciate what God had done for them," and for the school, "that it
might abide with them and become an uplifting power to them and their
children."
On the following Monday the number of the pupils had increased to
fourteen. The chills were prevalent and frequently half the pupils would
be seen huddling around the log fire in the chimney fireplace, and
making a chattering noise with their teeth.
A BOARDING SCHOOL
On April 15, 1886, Miss Hartford began to live at the school building
and some of the pupils brought their corn-meal so they might live "wid
de teacher," and Oak Hill became a boarding school with an enrollment of
24 pupils.
At a prayer meeting of the women held soon after this event, it was
decided to build a kitchen at the west end of the log house so "de
chillen might have a place to bake and eat their corn bread." While they
were building this kitchen a man who saw them said to Miss Hartford, "It
makes the men feel mighty mean to see the women doing that work." She
repeated to him the following words from the third verse of the fourth
chapter of Paul's epistle to the Philippians: "I entreat thee also, true
yokefellow, help those women which labor with me in the gospel, whose
names are in the book of life." The result was very gratifying. He got
his team, hauled the rest of the materials and then helped them to
complete it. This improvement increased the facilities and also the
general interest in the school.
In September 1886 pupils began to arrive from distant places and whilst
some of them were retained in the building others were located among the
friends in the neighborhood. In February following, all the available
room in the log house was occupied and the work of the school proving
too great for one teacher, another one was requested. The institution
had now acquired the name, "Oak Hill Industrial School."
PRISCILLA G. HAYMAKER
In April 1887, Miss Priscilla G. Haymaker, of Newlonsburg, Westmoreland
county, Pa., arrived to aid in the management of the school, and this
event was the occasion for another thanksgiving on the part of the
people. At a meeting then held they decided to build a house that could
be used for a school house and chapel, using the materials in the Oak
Hill school building of 1878. The men agreed to donate all the work they
could, and, with ox teams, delivered the lumber in the old building. The
Board gave $50.00 and Rev. John Edwards $25.00 towards the purchase of
new lumber. It fell to the lot of Miss Hartford and Elder Henry
Crittenden to pay some of the balances due on this building, and their
contributions were remarkably large ones for those early days.
Miss Hartford, at the time this building was undertaken, was given
special permission to solicit money to furnish the new school building,
to fit up the "old log house" for a boarding house, and scholarships of
$15.00 each. She went east and returning in August found the new
building ready for the desks.
Miss Haymaker solicited and received the promise of a large bell that
had been used by her father on the old farm at Newlonsburg, Pa., that
the people might rejoice over the possession not merely of a chapel and
school building, but one "wid a bell."
The time appointed for opening the fall term was now near at hand and
yet the old log house was not ready for the boarders, that were expected
soon to fill it, owing to the fact no workmen could be found to do the
work. Miss Hartford and Miss Haymaker, with the help of a boy, made the
bedsteads and tables with their own hands, the latter manifesting
considerable skill in the use of the saw and hammer. On September 1st
the boarders began to arrive and on the 15th, 60 pupils were enrolled of
whom 36 were boarders. Every boarder was expected to bring 12 bushels of
corn, and with scholarships of $15.00 each, there was no danger of
starving. The girls were required to do the housework and the boys to
provide the wood. Miss Haymaker was not used to roughing it and before
the close of November she was compelled to return to her home, broken in
health.
ANNA E. CAMPBELL
Miss Anna E. Campbell of Midway, Pa., who had previously been sent for,
arrived at Oak Hill two days after the departure of Miss Haymaker, and
with her the long expected bell, from the old home of the latter. The
following Sabbath, the first one on which they were called together for
worship by the clarion tones of the new bell, was another glad day for
the people, and they extended to Miss Campbell a very cordial welcome,
as the new assistant of Miss Hartford. She remained until the end of the
term, June 15th, 1888.
Miss Campbell held temperance meetings every Saturday and some objected
to them, because "dey was teachin de risin generashun dat it was wrong
to drink whiskey or use tobacco, while de Bible said it was good for de
stomik." During this second term six of the pupils, repeated the
Catechism and nine united with the church.
During the summer of 1888 Miss Hartford remained alone to take care of
the homeless children, and maintain the Sunday school and prayer
meeting. Other parents began to call and plead for room for their
children. Believing the time had come when another and a larger building
was necessary in order to receive them, she rode a long distance to
confer with a carpenter, in regard to the erection and cost of a frame
building for boarders. He arranged to call and make an estimate, but
while she waited for him, her health began to fail. The exposures,
burdens and privations proved too great for her, single handed and
alone, and she felt constrained to return to her home. She was unable to
return to Oak Hill and died at Richmond, Ohio, July 9, 1901. Miss
Campbell was also unable to return and the school was left without a
teacher.
XIII
EARLY REMINISCENCES
ELIZA HARTFORD.--PRISCILLA G. HAYMAKER.--ANNA E. CAMPBELL.--THE NIGHT
SCHOOL.--HARDSHIPS AT OAK HILL.
"Books are keys to wisdom's treasures;
Books are gates to lands of pleasure;
Books are paths that upward lead;
Books are friends. Come let us read."
The following reminiscences, gleaned from letters written by these three
heroic young lady teachers, will be read with interest. They discover in
their own language, their feelings of hopefulness and loyalty while
coping with unexpected embarrassments and unusual privations. Single
handed and alone they penetrated the wilds of Indian Territory to a
secluded spot, where they were a half day's ride from their nearest
white friends, and thirty-five miles from the railway.
Holding aloft the Bible, the true standard of the cross, they rallied
the ignorant and uncivilized natives appreciatingly around it, more
worthily and long before our famous explorers decorated the North Pole
with the American flag.
The mail was carried once a week from Clarksville to Wheelock, ten miles
east, the nearest post office.
TEACHING ELIZABETH WASHING
At the end of her first year, March 19, 1887, when she was still working
alone, having school, Sunday school, preaching and boarding house all
in the old log house, Miss Hartford wrote to a friend, as follows:
"This ought to be a resting day for me, but I am always tired on
Saturday. This has been my wash day and I will give you my experience
with a girl of fifteen, who is very ignorant about the simplest things
relating to work. It is useless to tell Elizabeth how to do any work,
unless one goes with her and shows her every change. Today I had her
wash her own clothes by my side, while I washed mine, to show her how,
and how speedily she ought to do her own work. The only way to succeed
in having them work is to work with them."
"These poor Freedmen have a just claim on the church. They are far below
their white brothers and sisters, but they are not to be blamed for it.
Slavery has made them so, and we must do something to lift them up. This
however, will not be done by sending them to expensive schools, to make
ladies and gentlemen of them, but where they will learn to work
thoughtfully and be taught the pure religion of the Bible. The worst
ones among them are very religious in their way."
A "FEELIN' MEETIN'"
"On last Sabbath we had an example of the way they like to do things.
Their old black preacher always preaches on the Sunday school lesson. He
comes early to hear what I say and then 'enlarges on de subject in de
afternoon.' I cannot tell you how hard it is sometimes to sit still and
listen to the old man's explanations. Last Sabbath he dwelt a long time
'on de fact Rebecca was a shameful deceiver an dat Jacob was another
one.'"
"In the afternoon, after two hours of preaching services he concluded,
'as it was still early in de day' they would sing a hymn and any who
wished to jine de church could come 'for'ud and give us der hand.'"
"As soon as they started to sing, a woman fell in some sort of spell.
She was sitting near me on the same bench. Instantly it occurred to me
they were getting up one of their 'feelin' meetin's', as they call them,
and I was frightened half out of my wits. Fearing they would get to
shouting and pounding each other, I ran out as fast as I could. There
were about fifty of them packed in one little room sixteen feet square
and I was up in front. It was one of the friendly tribe that shouted,
and had I been wise, I would have known what was coming. My flight
spoiled the meeting, but if you would appreciate my feelings just
imagine you are alone in a small room with fifty darkies and fifteen or
twenty of them commence shouting and breaking benches. I had a severe
headache and have not felt well all week."
"After I ran out the people laughed and the poor woman recovered quite
suddenly. By the time I was safe in my own room the meeting was
dismissed. I was nervous and discouraged. I called the old preacher to
my room and gave him a lecture. He said he did not believe in shouting
and had no idea of any one doing so. I am afraid some of the shouting
ones will be offended but I could not help it. It was the first time I
have felt afraid since I came here."
"The school children think it was the 'best meetin' they were ever at.'
They say 'Miss Hartford did look so funny when she got scared.' I tell
them they may laugh at me but not at the poor woman who shouted. I tell
them that shouting and falling in fits is not religion, that the poor
woman was probably a good christian, but her shouting and spells do not
make her one."
"'Mamma says,' said one of them, 'that she first took religion wid one
of them spells and dey allus' come when she gits happy.'"
"Poor things! I tell you this to show you in what a sad state they are.
They have had enough preaching to make them think they are religious,
but have had no real Bible teaching, and there are ten thousand of them
in this nation. The Board has concluded to send Miss Haymaker here and I
am glad."
BOTHERSOME "BREDDERIN"
The Board talks about sending a new preacher here, I hope they will send
a strong healthy consecrated white man. A sickly man has no business
here. Common sense and grit are needed more than learning. It will be no
easy task for a white preacher to manage these black Presbyterians. I
suspect it will require more tact and will power to manage this set,
than one of our city churches.
A half dozen old fellows claiming to be elders tried to run 'de Sunday
School and de teacher' until I read to them a letter from Dr. Allen,
secretary of the Board. Not one of them can read, but they take great
pride in being elders.
[Illustration: MRS. M. E. CROWE.]
[Illustration: CARRIE E. CROWE.]
[Illustration: ANNA T. HUNTER.]
[Illustration: MARTHA HUNTER.]
[Illustration: James McGuire and Others, 1901.]
Some were appointed elders in other churches and they think that makes
them elders here. It will be a sad day to them when they learn they are
not elders here, and I fear they will not then be willing to remain as
members.
I have written you a long letter and it is all about the darkies; but no
doubt you are expecting that.
HARD WORK AND MISERABLE LIVING
"I am not so strong, in fact feel ten years older than one year ago. I
fear I cannot stand the heat this summer. I said 'heat' but do not mean
that exactly. This climate is rather pleasant, if we could only provide
comforts. It is the constant hard work and miserable way of living that
makes it so bad.
"No white person could eat what these women prepare,--bread, always of
corn, and fat pork, swimming in grease. Give them flour, they stir in a
lot of soda and serve you biscuit as green as grass. They have no idea
of better cooking and will not take the pains to do better. We are going
to teach them to cook, scrub and wash clothes.
"Write soon and tell me whether you called on mother, when you were in
Steubenville.
"Your Friend,
Eliza Hartford."
Six months later when she returned from a short visit to her mother she
writes:
"The weeds were so high I could scarcely see the house. I had to pay
forty dollars from my own earnings on lumber hauled for the new
school building, but which Elder Crittenden says, was taken by
thieves. I paid it to save our credit and am glad I had it to give.
"We have now nineteen boarders. I am almost worked to death and it
takes all my patience to stand it."
BETSY BOBBET
A letter dated January 6, 1888, bears the stamp, "Oak Hill Industrial
Academy." A change in her assistants had taken place in November
previous and she writes:
"Miss Haymaker before leaving had miserable health and I have had a
hard time since my return. I think Miss Campbell will do well. The
attendance now ranges from 45 to 60 and I am not able to do
anything except the school work. Four of the children have had
chills and fever, and I have had to rise at night to care for them.
I have been trying to do the work of three people and not complain.
Still I'd like to grumble a little, if I could find the right one to
talk to. I am beginning to feel a little like Josiah Allen's wife,
when she said, 'Betsy Bobbet, you're a fool, or else me.'
"Still I had rather be regarded foolish, by working hard for the
good of others, than take advantage of another.
"Pray for me for I need your prayers.
"Eliza Hartford."
MISS HAYMAKER'S EVENTFUL JOURNEY.
Miss Priscilla G. Haymaker made her first journey to Oak Hill about the
first of April, 1887. She passed by way of St. Louis to Texarkana,
Arkansas, 50 miles east of Clarksville, over the Iron Mountain railway.
This part of the journey was made during the night, and most of the time
she was the only lady in the car. The crowd on the train was one of
ruffians, who spent the time playing cards, drinking whiskey and showing
their revolvers.
The conductor said to her, "Lady you have a rough crowd to ride with to
night, but I will not leave you long." He was as good as his word. He
sat in the seat with her when in the car and returned promptly when
required to be absent.
At Clarksville she found the driver from Wheelock awaiting her arrival
at the hotel. As early as four o'clock the next morning everything was
in readiness for making the trip to Wheelock in a covered wagon. It soon
began to rain and continued raining all day. It was 8 o'clock at night
when the team arrived at Wheelock.
The cordial welcome extended by Rev. John Edwards, Superintendent, and
his wife and the teachers at Wheelock Academy, was one not soon to be
forgotten. It was greatly appreciated and enabled her to feel she had
gotten back again to a place of civilization.
Miss Haymaker, the first assistant of Miss Hartford, April to November
1887, was a native of Newlonsburg, Pa., daughter of George R. and
Priscilla Haymaker.
On October 1, 1890, she returned to Oak Hill and served as the principal
teacher in the Academy the next six years. In the fall of 1892 she was
joined by her brother Rev. E. G. Haymaker, who then became
superintendent. On October 13, 1896, she became the wife of John Blair
of Chambersburg, Pa., and they still reside there.
MISS CAMPBELL'S TRIP FROM CLARKSVILLE.
Miss Anna E. Campbell, the successor of Miss Haymaker arrived at
Clarksville, the same day the latter passed through that place on her
way home in November, 1887.
The proprietor of the hotel called her very early the next morning and
informed her he had secured a mule team driven by a negro to take her to
Oak Hill. When she was leaving the hotel he solicitously inquired,
"Do you carry a gun?"
"No I haven't any weapon except a little pocket knife," she answered. He
then said, "In going into Indian Territory you ought to have a gun, you
may need it."
Mr. Moore, the railway agent, a man from Ohio, noticing by the check of
her trunk, that she came from Pennsylvania, was very courteous and gave
his name. He charged the driver to protect the lady at the risk of his
own life; all of which he solemnly promised to do, by promptly
answering, "Yes sah, dat I will."
The bell and two barrels of clothing for Oak Hill were put on the wagon
and they made the load a pretty good one for the team. After driving
northward all day it began to grow dark and they had not yet reached the
ferry across Red River. The crossing was made however without accident.
When the landing had been completed the driver remarked:
"I don't reckon we will get dar, 'coz I doesn't know de way now."
Fortunately there were several houses not very far away on the bluff
along the river, and after a few inquiries, a white family was found
that very kindly gave Miss Campbell shelter for the night.
The woman at once offered her a sniff of snuff as a token of good will.
When the snuff was very politely declined, she laconically remarked:
"Well, some folks don't."
Miss Campbell arrived at Oak Hill, ten miles distant from the ferry, the
next day, after experiencing a "stuck fast" in the mud on the way.
Miss Campbell was a native of Midway, Washington county. Pa. She became
the assistant of Miss Hartford in November, 1887, two days after the
departure of Miss Haymaker and remained until June 15, 1888. At that
time she expected to return about the first of October following. But
when her trunk had been packed for that purpose circumstances arose at
home that made it necessary for her to remain and take care of her
parents, both of whom were aged and infirm. On March 7, 1905, she became
the wife of James H. McClusky and now lives on a well cultivated
productive farm near Monongahela, Pa.
MISS HARTFORD'S NIGHT SCHOOL.
On requesting Alexander M. Reid, D. D., of Steubenville, Ohio, the early
home of Eliza Hartford to obtain and send a photo of her, he reported
her death at Richmond, Ohio, July 9, 1901; and stating that a photo
could not be found among her relatives, sent instead the following
beautiful incident, growing out of her work as a teacher of night school
in that place before she came to Oak Hill.
MATTHEW FINDING HIS OPPORTUNITY
Rev. Charles C. Beatty, D. D., a former Moderator of the General
Assembly who had become almost totally blind, at the close of a prayer
meeting held in the Second Presbyterian church, said to Miss Hartford,
"Could you not name one of your boys here to lead me home?"
She replied, "Yes, here is Matthew Rutherford; he will lead you home."
On the way home Dr. Beatty asked Matthew, what he was doing: He replied,
"I dig coal in the day time and go to the school of Miss Hartford at
night."
When near home Dr. Beatty inquired, "Matthew, how would you like to go
to school and get an education?" He said, "I would like it very much."
Dr. Beatty then said, "Matthew, you may quit digging coal and go through
the school and High School. Then if you have a good standing, I will
send you to college. If the Lord should then seem to be calling you to
be a minister, I will enable you to pursue your studies at Allegheny
Seminary."
Matthew, who was a native of England and exceedingly grateful for this
recognition and counsel, quit the mines and entered school. He graduated
from Washington and Jefferson college in 1884, and from the theological
Seminary, three years later. Since 1896 he has been the highly esteemed
pastor of the third Presbyterian church, Washington, Pa., and Bible
instructor in the college since 1900. He received the degree of Doctor
of Divinity in 1909.
This incident serves to illustrate the readiness of the friends of
Christian Education to aid young people of limited means, who are trying
to educate themselves; and the care they also take to know they are
worthy. It also shows the importance of young people industriously and
economically doing what they can to help themselves. That is their best
recommendation.
If young Rutherford, while working in the mines, had indulged in
spending his evenings at places merely of amusement or entertainment as
many do, he would have missed the golden opportunity of his life. The
unexpected and gracious offer came to him, while he was attending night
school and the weekly prayer meeting. It was while he was taking
advantage of these opportunities for intellectual and moral improvement,
within his reach, that he found the true and faithful friend, whose
assistance he most needed.
HARDSHIPS AT OAK HILL.
Miss Hartford, before coming to Oak Hill, spent several years as a
teacher among the Mormons at Silver City, Utah. This was a period when
missionary work was difficult and dangerous. She resigned that work on
account of the failing health of her aged mother.
She patiently and hopefully endured many privations and hardships in
faithfully and energetically carrying forward the work entrusted to
her. These were greatest at Oak Hill than elsewhere.
At Oak Hill she was unable to relieve the natural conditions that
produce malarial troubles. She felt very deeply the loneliness of
dwelling in the wilderness, where there was no white person in the
neighborhood to render assistance in time of special need, or
sympathetic friend to express a word of comfort and encouragement. Then
she could not avoid the incessant strain of continuous work and worry
under surroundings and limitations, that could not be removed and tended
to produce that nervous exhaustion, which results in complete
prostration. This nervous strain was increased by every advancing step
in the progress of the work. Relief from this malady is not found in the
use of medicines, but in a complete change of scenes, diet and
employment. She and her two faithful helpers were compelled to seek this
form of relief.
XIV
EARLY TIMES AT FOREST.
FOREST CHAPEL.--LIFTING THE COLLECTION.--PRIMITIVE MID-WEEK MEETINGS.
"I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times."
The following reminiscences of early times at Forest church are narrated
for their intrinsic as well as historic interest. The first one reveals
an order of service, that is very general in the colored churches. It is
one that affords the deacon, if he be a man so disposed, to
spontaneously introduce considerable native wit and humor into the part
of the service entrusted to him; and if he does, it very naturally
prepares the way for unexpected shouts of joy and gladness on the part
of those who are emotional or subject to the sudden impulse of ecstatic
delight.
FOREST CHAPEL.
Forest Chapel, as is suggested by its name, was located in the large and
dense oak forest along Red river eight miles south of Wheelock. Its post
office has been successively, Wheelock, Fowlerville, Parsons and since
1906 Millerton. The Forest church was organized by Parson Stewart about
1886, and was served by him once a month the next seven years. In 1898
it became a remote part of the field of Rev. William Butler of
Eagletown, who also endeavored to visit it once a month.
The chapel was a lonely, dingy and dilapidated building, inside as well
as outside. It was about 20 by 30 feet and was built entirely of rough
lumber. The side walls consisted of one thickness of wide inch boards,
nailed at the top and bottom, and having a thin strip over the cracks on
the outside. The roof was covered with long, split, oak clapboards, that
invariably look black and rough at the end of a year. The pulpit
consisted of a box-like arrangement that stood on a small platform at
the center of one end. The seats consisted of a half dozen rough benches
without backs, that could be arranged around the stove in cold weather,
or in three fold groups for a picnic dinner, the middle one being used
for a table on such occasions and the other two for seats around it. No
paint or even white wash ever found a place on this building. It was the
largest and best building in the neighborhood, and the popular resort
for all of their social gatherings.
The leading men of the congregation consisted of two elders, both
venerable and devout survivors of the slavery period, neither of whom
could read, and a deacon, who was one of the only two of the older
people who could read a little.
LIFTING THE COLLECTION
It was regarded as the duty of the deacon to "lift the collection" at
the Sabbath services. This gave him a very prominent part in the
services, for the collection is not lifted by passing the hat or basket,
but each contributor, after the general call brings their offering and
lays it either on the pulpit or a little stand near it. However novel
this arrangement may at first appear to those unaccustomed to it, it
must be remembered that a method somewhat similar to this was in use in
the Temple in Jerusalem, when our Lord Jesus, taking his seat opposite
the treasury, saw the poor widow cast in her two mites and commended her
very highly.
It was not unusual for the deacon to announce before hand the amount
needed and then, as the offerings are presented, to state the amount
received from time to time, until finally the whole amount is obtained.
This part of the service was always enlivened by singing some
soul-stirring songs, that everybody could sing. Occasionally it would
take the form of a good natured rivalry, as to which could appear the
most happy and joyous, the deacon, vociferously announcing from time to
time as their offerings came in, the latest result of the collection,
or, the people, whose merry singing would occasionally develop into a
shout of ecstatic enjoyment, on the part of one or more of their number.
PRIMITIVE MID-WEEK MEETINGS
The early preachers, having monthly appointments, were always very
faithful in exhorting and encouraging the elders of their distant
congregations to maintain regular Sabbath services, for the study of the
Bible and Catechism, and a mid-week meeting for praise and prayer. The
people were encouraged to attend all these meetings and cordially
co-operate with the elders in making them interesting and instructive.
The older generation at Forest was one that had a foretaste of slavery
in their early days, but not a day of school privileges, except as the
Bible was read or taught at their meetings on the Sabbath. The lack of
school privileges in the neighborhood and its remote seclusion from the
outside world, had the effect of leaving these colored people to
continue their primitive ways and methods of doing things, to a later
date than in many other more highly favored communities.
The following narrative contains an account of the mid-week meetings
held at Forest about the year 1897 when Miss Bertha L. Ahrens, a white
missionary teacher of our Freedmen's Board opened a mission school in
the chapel. It shows how the people, that lived in the gross darkness of
utter ignorance, groped for the light and earnestly endeavored to extend
it, when the gospel was first presented to them.
The mid-week meetings are held regularly when not prevented by rain or
cold weather. The people live in little shanties scattered through the
timber near springs of water and are poorly clad. In good weather they
"begin to gather" about 8:30 p.m. and continue to "gather" until 9:30,
when Elder "B." taking his place at the left of the pulpit, "reckons
that they's all here that's going to com." Elder F. sits down beside him
and neither of them can read. Deacon L. who serves as chorister,
occupies a shortseat in front of the pulpit. The wives of the elders,
the lady missionary and other leading sisters occupy seats--a bench--at
the right of the pulpit.
The meetings are opened by the deacon, who reads two lines of a hymn
and, winding out a tune, the people unite in singing them. Two more
lines continue to be read and sung until the hymn has been completed.
When the deacon is not present Elder "B." says: "Will some of you select
something to sing?" If no brother is present, who can read, a sister or
the missionary, or perhaps one of her school boys, may "line out" a hymn
and may even "raise it" but the tune must be one "the old folks can
sing." If the one who "raises the tune" breaks down with it, any one
may pick it up and go on with it to the end of the two lines that have
been "lined out."
The missionary's organ is in position ready for use, but it must be
silent in the prayer meeting, and also at the preaching service. It is a
new and troublesome innovation. It takes the prominence in the singing,
that belongs to the officers of the church. The missionary cannot wind
and slur the tunes on it, the way the old folks have learned to sing
them, and it robs the singing of its old-time sweetness and power. The
organ therefore remains silent.
After the first hymn, Elder "B." who never allows any one else, not even
the preacher, to lead the prayer meeting, now calls on some one to "read
us a lesson from the Bible." This was an innovation introduced into the
prayer meeting after the arrival of the lady missionary. It is at first
merely tolerated, comments and explanations are strictly forbidden.
These restrictions in regard to the Bible in the meeting were due to the
influence exerted by the wife of Elder "B." who had been the first real
leader of the church and was still regarded as a "mother in Israel,
whose opinions should be respected." She felt that God had taught her by
visions and dreams, and believed he would teach others the same way.
Elder "F." however, is not satisfied till he and others have heard the
"Word of God" and permission to read it is given.
"Down to pray," is the next request of the leader, and the voice of
every one present is expected to be heard in this part of the meeting. A
sister, whose seat is near a window, begs the Lord to "come this-a-way,
just a little while, to lay his head in the window and hear his servant
pray." A brother near the front door responds approvingly, "Yes sir,"
and bids him, "Walk in, and take a front seat." The prayer of a devout
sister after one or two petitions, becomes an earnest exhortation to all
the sinners to repent and be saved.
Some seemed to believe their prayers have to travel long journeys and
are better long than short. Some prayers are chanted with a pleasing
variety of the voice, while others are agonized by using many
repetitions. All are witnessed to by "amen" and similar words of
attestation; for these are "live christians", and have no use for "dead
meetings."
Elder "F." who sits beside the leader, sometimes insists on "making some
remarks." If the leader whispers to him "make it short," and he does not
give good heed, the starting of a familiar hymn is the method adopted to
"bring him down."
At a meeting held on the forenoon of Christmas, Elder "F." was feeling
too happy and grateful to restrain himself. His theme was "Our Wonderful
Saviour," and he began to exhort sinners to open their hearts to him. He
became so absorbed in the greatness and importance of his theme as not
to heed the usual whisper of the leader or even the starting of the
familiar hymn. The situation is one of embarrassment to the leader. The
one that proves equal to it is Elder "B.'s" wife. She walks over to him,
grabs him by both arms and pushes him down on his seat, saying, "Bud,
you talks too much, sit down now and keep still." She laughs as she says
this, the elder smiles as he sits down, and the meeting proceeds in good
form.
The usual way of closing the mid-week meeting was about as follows:
Elder "B." says, "Well we's done about all we can do. Let us sing
something and go home." If elder "F." does not call for the new hymn,
they have recently learned from the organ.
"Lord dismiss us with thy blessing," they stand and sing a familiar one.
Elder "B." then says: "Amen!" and dismisses the congregation with a wave
of his hand.
In the Sunday school the attitude of the people toward the Bible, the
organ and the lady missionary was altogether different. Here she is the
recognized leader, both in the singing and Bible instruction. As they
profit by her instruction, and listen a few times to some of their
familiar hymns on the organ, the younger people manifest pleasure and
delight and the early prejudices of the older ones are gradually
forgotten.
The first elders of Forest church were Simon Folsom, Charles Bibbs and
Lee Bibbs. Charles Bashears was soon afterward added to their number and
died in 1912. His wife exerted a leading influence in the earlier years
of this church.
The allotment of lands in 1905 made it necessary to move Forest church
to another location; and in 1909, it was moved about two miles east in
the valley of Red river.
XV
ERA OF JAMES F. McBRIDE
1888-1892
GIRL'S HALL IN 1889.--ADDITIONAL SCHOOL ROOM.--McBRIDE DIES JAN. 29,
1892--MRS. McBRIDE.
"Seest thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before
kings, he shall not stand before mean men."
ERA OF SUPT. McBRIDE
About October 1, 1888 Mr. and Mrs. James F. McBride arrived to take
charge of the work as superintendent and matron. Their arrival was the
occasion of another joyful meeting on the part of the colored people who
came to see the "suptender, and express their great joy over the new
start that was to be given the school."
Mrs. McBride at a later date, referring to the appearance of things on
the day of their arrival at this, their new home, wrote:
"I can still see how the old log house looked as we drove up; so
dilapidated. A broken down porch ran along the front of it, and we
had to climb over an old rail fence to get to it. Our first meal was
corn bread made with water--without salt--and stewed dried peaches."
When the school opened they were assisted by Miss Carrie Peck, Celestine
Hodges and Mary Grundy.
A new era was now inaugurated in the management of the school. Ownership
as yet extended only to the farm buildings, which consisted of the old
log house, and barn, purchased from Robin Clark, and the new school
building. The first effort was now made to utilize two small fields of
cleared land and the neighboring timber to raise stock and crops for the
local support of the school.
GIRLS' HALL
In 1889 a commodious Girls' Hall was built having ample facilities for
carrying and boarding a considerable number of students. The enjoyment
of anything like ordinary home comforts on the part of the teachers
began with the occupancy of this building. It became the home of the
family of the superintendent, teachers and the girls; and the old log
house was fitted up for occupancy by the boys. An additional room was
also added to the school building.
As the patronage of the school increased Mr. McBride felt there was need
for a suitable Boys' Hall. He made the plans for it and, enlisting the
interest of the women of Indiana, they provided the money for it. On
January 29, 1892, after three and one half years of faithful service and
before his hopes could be realized by merely starting the work on the
new building, his death occurred and the progress of the improvement
work was again arrested.
Mr. McBride was educated at Hanover, Indiana, and had previously taught
in several other schools. He was an active christian worker and had been
ordained a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church. He anticipated the
future needs of the school by planting fruit trees, that, during these
later years, have borne bountiful crops of fruit.
The other assistants of Mr. McBride were Mary Coffland, principal in
1889 and assistant principal 1890 to 1892; Miss Priscilla G. Haymaker,
who returned to serve as principal in 1890 and continued until 1896.
Other assistants were Anna McBride, Bettie Stewart, colored, and Rilla
Fields who served from the fall of 1891 to the spring of 1895.
MRS. J. F. McBRIDE
During the next eight months the management of the institution devolved
upon Mrs. McBride; and she continued to serve as matron until the spring
of 1899, a period of eleven years. She gave to this institution many of
her best years for service, and the best work of her life. She became
specially interested in a number of young people at Oak Hill and aided
them to attend other schools of our Board. She is now living at
Coalgate, Okla.
XVI
ERA OF REV. EDWARD G. HAYMAKER
1892-1904
A TERM ANNOUNCEMENT.--BOYS' HALL 1893.--LAUNDRY AND SMOKEHOUSE,
1895--MR. AND MRS. HAYMAKER.--MRS. McBRIDE.--OTHER HELPERS.--ANNA AND
MATTIE HUNTER.--MRS. M. E. CROWE.--PRAYING FOR WATER.--APPEAL FOR
HOSPITAL.--CARRIE E. CROWE.
"Learning is wealth to the poor,
An honor to the rich,
An aid to the young,
A support and comfort to the aged."
ERA, 1892-1904.
On October 1, 1892, Rev. Edward Graham Haymaker became superintendent
and continued to serve in that capacity until the spring of 1904.
The following extracts, from a circular announcement, sent out in script
form, for one of the early years of this period, are full of historic
interest.
"Oak Hill Industrial school for colored children is situated 5 miles
north of Red river and 25 miles east of Goodland, the nearest R. R.
station. School opens Oct. 2nd and will continue for a term of six
months. It is important that all who attend be on hand at the
opening. The sum of $10.00 for citizens and $12.00 for non-citizens
will be charged which must be paid in advance, or assurance given
for its payment. The price of tuition has been raised by the Board
as the Choctaw fund seems to be cut off. It only amounts to 1 cent a
meal or 3 cents a day for board and 1-1/2 cents for lodging. Cheap
enough. The Board pays the large part of the bill.
"Shoes must in all cases be provided by parents and guardians. Girls
will be provided with other articles of clothing as far as
possible, but no such provision can be made for boys. Books for all
will be provided free, and all will be required to work certain
hours each day. Boys will not be allowed to use tobacco.
"A course of study has been arranged and pupils completing the
course will be given a diploma, which will admit to any of the
higher schools under the Board.
"E. G. Haymaker, superintendent."
BOYS' HALL
During this period a Boys' Hall was erected in 1893, a laundry and
smokehouse in 1895. In 1902 the school building was moved from the oak
grove at the railway to its present position on the campus and the
height of it increased.
Most of the pupils were boarders and most of them were girls. The girls
were encouraged to learn to sew that at Christmas they might be the
wearers of a new calico dress made with their own hands.
All were required to read the Bible and encouraged to commit the shorter
catechism, the World's briefest and best commentary on the Bible.
MR. AND MRS. HAYMAKER
Rev. E. G. Haymaker was a native of Newlonsburg, Westmoreland County,
Pa. He graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in 1885 and from
the Western Theological Seminary at Pittsburgh, in 1890. In 1887 he was
licensed by the Presbytery of Blairsville, and in 1890 was ordained by
the Presbytery of Kittanning. After serving Midway and Union churches,
Cowansville, Pa., two years, on Oct. 1, 1892, he became superintendent
of Oak Hill and continued until the spring of 1904, eleven and a half
years.
Mrs. Haymaker, who became matron of the Boys Hall in 1894, was a native
of Pennsylvania and was educated in the public schools and Wilson Female
College at Chambersburg. She was a teacher at Wheelock Academy at the
time of her marriage in 1894.
During the period of service on the part of these and all previous
helpers the necessaries of life had to be hauled long distances. The
daily supply of water had to be hauled one and a half miles. The nearest
post office most of the time was at Wheelock, ten miles east. Previous
to 1902, when Valliant was founded the nearest trading stations were
Paris and Clarksville, Texas, and from 1889 to 1903 Goodland,
twenty-eight miles west. All the surfaced lumber in the Girls' and Boys'
Halls, built in 1889 and 1894 had to be hauled from Paris.
Travel over the rough crooked trails and unbridged streams in the
timber, whilst not unhealthful in good weather, was always a slow,
tedious experience, rather than a source of pleasure. To live at Oak
Hill meant to enjoy a quiet secluded home, so far removed from the
currents of the world's activity, as to be almost unaffected by them.
Mrs. McBride continued to serve as matron until 1899, a period of ten
years. The school had then a history of 13 years. On reviewing the signs
of improvement and progress among the colored people that might be
attributed to the good influence of the Oak Hill school, she wrote as
follows:
"The community has greatly changed since this school was
established. When Mr. McBride and I went to the field murders were
common in the neighborhood of Oak Hill, but they are rare now. The
people are now improving their places, cultivating more land,
planting orchards and building board houses, having several rooms.
They have more stock than formerly and their outlook seems hopeful;
but alas! their religious life is sadly neglected. One half the
pupils are from Presbyterian families, and those who come from other
denominations learn to love our church, its doctrines and form of
worship."
Parson Stewart of Doaksville, who had been the faithful pastor of the
Oak Hill church from the time it was founded in 1869, continued to serve
it once a month until the spring of 1893, a period of 24 years. He was
then at the age of 70 honorably retired from the active ministry, and
the superintendent of the academy, became his successor in the pastorate
of the Oak Hill church.
OTHER HELPERS.
The other assistants, during the period Mr. Haymaker was superintendent
were as follows:
Principals: Anna T. Hunter, 1895 to 1901; Sadie Shaw, 1898-9; Carrie E.
Crowe, 1901 to 1903; Verne Gossard, 1903 to 1904.
Assistant Teachers: Mattie Hunter, 1895 to 1901; Mrs. Mary Scott,
1901-1903; Jessie Fisher, 1903 to 1904; Rilla Fields, 1892 to 1895;
Howard McBride, 1892-93.
Assistants in the Cooking Department: Mary Gordon, 1894-5; Fannie Green
(Col.), Josephine McAfee (Col.), Sadie Shaw, 1897, Lou K. Early, Josie
Jones, Lilly E. Lee, Mrs. Martha Folsom (Col.), 1902-3, and Mrs. Emma
Burrows, 1903-4.
Matrons: Mrs. M. E. Crowe, 1899-1903; Carrie Craig, 1903-04.
ANNA F. and MATTIE HUNTER
of Huntsville, Ohio, were educated, Mattie in Indianapolis and State
Normal at Terra Haute, Indiana, and Anna in similar schools in Ohio.
Anna taught at Wheelock, I. T., from 1885 to 1890, under the Home
Mission Board, and then three years under the Freedmen's Board at Atoka.
In 1895 she became a teacher at Oak Hill and, serving one year as an
assistant, served four years as principal 1896 to 1901, being absent in
1898.
Mattie was an assistant at Oak Hill from 1896 to 1901, having previously
taught at Wheelock two years, 1889 to 1891.
The work of these sisters at Oak Hill was greatly appreciated. A number
of the views of the early days, that appear in this volume are due to
their thoughtfulness, and skill in the use of a Kodak.
MRS. M. E. CROWE.
Mrs. M. E. (Rev. James B.) Crowe in 1899 became the successor of Mrs.
McBride as matron of the Girls' Hall and continued until the spring of
1903. It seemed to her like the dawning of a new era in the life of a
Choctaw Negro girl, when she entered a Christian training school like
Oak Hill. After an opportunity for observation she wrote as follows:
"It gives us no small satisfaction to see the rapid improvement
during the first year on the part of those who come to our school.
It is very gratifying to witness the surprise of their parents, when
they return after the lapse of a few months. This work may seem
small when compared with the great South; but these Choctaw Negroes
are ours now to mould as we will. The time is near when this country
will be thrown open to white settlers; the hordes,--both white and
black--will then pour into this section and our opportunity will be
gone if we do not seize it now. We have had this year the clearest
evidence of God's approval of this work. Oak Hill needs much in the
way of facilities. We are thankful for every word of sympathy and
the help received this year from societies and friends. I would like
to speak of individual pupils; of the transformation we see going on
in their characters, and also of their efforts to profit by the
instruction given."
Rev. James B. Crowe, in 1887 had charge of the Presbyterian church of
Remington, Indiana. In 1890 he was appointed by the Freedmen's Board to
serve the colored people at Caddo and Atoka. Anna and Mattie Hunter were
then teaching at Atoka, and Mrs. Crowe became a teacher at Caddo. In
1893 her health failed and, returning to the North he died soon
afterward. Later Mrs. Crowe became matron at Oak Hill. She is now living
at Hartford, South Dakota.
PRAYING FOR WATER
"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."
When Oak Hill became a boarding school and a heavy draft was made on the
old well, that at the first had attracted the school there, it "went
dry." After this unexpected occurrence it never furnished an adequate
supply of water for the school and stock. During all of the 90's great
inconvenience was experienced in securing and keeping on hand an
adequate supply during term time. When the supply was exhausted the work
in the laundry and kitchen had to stop, until a new supply was obtained.
The nearest sources of supply, during this "lack of water" period, were
Clear Creek and a large spring near it, both one and a half miles
distant. At first two barrels were used to haul water and the team had
to make daily trips during term time. Later a long water tank, that held
a wagon load, was substituted for the barrels. Hauling water in barrels
kept two boys out of school a considerable part of their time. They did
not seem to care, yet the feeling prevailed that it was not right.
In the fall of 1899 when Mrs. M. E. Crowe became matron, the lack of
water was so distressing it was made the subject of prayer. Mrs. F. D.
Palmer, a secretary of the Board visited the school at this period and
after an address, the question was asked, "How many will join in prayer
for water to be given Oak Hill?" Quite a number responded and, at the
ringing of the retiring bell, a circle of prayer would form in the
girls' sitting room and sentence prayers were offered for that one
object.
About three weeks later, Mrs. Palmer met the women of the First
Presbyterian church, Wilkinsburg, Pa., and, among other needs of the
schools visited, referred to the urgent need for water and a cook stove
with a large oven at Oak Hill. At the close of her address an elderly
lady, Mrs. Rebecca S. Campbell, arose in the back part of the room and
said, "My sister-in-law, Anna E. Campbell, taught in that school some
years ago; and I will give one hundred dollars for a good well and wind
wheel for it, that it may be a useful and worthy memorial of a dear son,
Frank Campbell, who died at thirty in 1900, and of Annie's work in
1888."
The Endeavor society added fifty dollars for a large cook stove that
would serve as an oven.
In this reminiscence, the faithful teacher, the circle of prayer, the
visit of the secretary, the address, and the presence at the meeting of
a woman with a responsive heart and offering, seemed links in a chain of
providential circumstances, that made those who were interested feel
sure the school at Oak Hill was "precious in the sight of the Lord."
Their prayer for water had been heard and the answer was assured.
In 1903 this difficulty was overcome by placing an aeromoter over the
well, sunk the previous year, to do the pumping for the stock. The stock
then enjoyed the free range of the timber and consisted of considerable
herds of cattle and hogs.
APPEAL FOR HOSPITAL
"Ask and it shall be given you."
In the early spring of 1903, writes Mrs. M. E. Crowe, matron, one of the
girls became ill and feared she was going to die. A special bed was made
for her in my own sitting room.
After her recovery Mrs. Crowe wrote Mrs. Mary O. Becker, Mexico, N. Y.,
a personal stranger but previous contributor to the school, soliciting
her aid to provide a hospital or separate room for the care of sick
girls.
A favorable response was received. A partition was removed to make a
long room and provide for a stove. Soon afterwards there was received
from the Women's Missionary Society represented by Mrs. Becker, three
single beds, bedding, gowns, slippers, sponges, water-bottles and all
the other articles necessary for the complete equipment of a sick room,
including three changes of clothing for the sick.
The promptness of this response and the generosity of the donation,
awakened feelings of heartfelt gratitude, on the part of the recipients.
A few years afterwards Mrs. Crowe related this incident to a group of
ladies at Mitchell, South Dakota, standing in the recess of a bay
window.
The pastor of the church, now an evangelist, was busy in an adjoining
room, separated only by a curtain. The reference to Mrs. Becker
attracted his attention. At the close of her remarks he entered the room
and stepping to the window, pointed to some pictures and said:
"These pictures at your side are of Mrs. Becker's home and son. She
helped me to get an education. That may not have meant much to
others but it meant a great deal to me. It was a fulfilment of the
promise.
"I will guide thee with mine eye."
Mrs. Crowe further states, "Many that were under my care became
christians and I know that many of them are now doing great good.
"One, when leaving for home at the close of the term, remarked, All
things are going to be different with me at home, but I'm goin' to
try to live a christian."
"They need to be taught how to live as well as to die; So many have
died. They are not careful of their feet.
"They are unable to get good books at reasonable prices, and the
shoddy stuff they do read only tends to make them dreamy and
careless."
CARRIE E. CROWE.
Carrie E. Crowe, principal teacher at Oak Hill 1901 to 1903, and again
in 1905, is one to be remembered as having devoted her best years and
noblest gifts to the educational work among the Freedmen. It was during
the early 80's and through the influence of her cousin Mrs. R. H. Allen,
D. D., whose husband was then in the beginning of his work as secretary
of the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen, she was led to
consecrate herself to this greatly needed work.
Her first commission was as leading teacher in Scotia Seminary, Concord,
North Carolina. During one of the vacations while here, she and Miss D.
J. Barber developed a new school at Hendersonville, North Carolina that
was continued a number of years under the care of our Freedmen's Board
and the personal direction of Sadia L. Carson.
During another vacation she developed a school at Nebo, Marion county,
N. C. This school came to be known as the Boston Mission. While she was
caring for it, her father, who was a Colporteur of the American Tract
Society, and her mother came and made their home with her. The
maintenance of this school was not pleasing to all the people of that
community; and when a total abstinence organization was effected and
some regarded it as a menace to the local illicit manufacture of
intoxicating liquors, the ill feeling was manifested by the complete
destruction and loss of their home. Her parents were so distressed over
this destructive work of the "white caps" and the seriousness of the
loss sustained that both died a few months later at Durham, N. C.
After the experience of these great trials that came in quick
succession, she was requested to open a day and Sunday school and
visiting Mission, among the operatives of the Pearl Cotton Mills at
Durham. When failing health made it necessary to relinquish this work,
it was extended to the other mills at that place and continued by the
women of the Southern Presbyterian church, at whose request this work
had been originally undertaken.
On resuming work under our Freedmen's Board the first year was spent at
Nottoway, near Burkeville, Nottoway county, Virginia.
The next year, 1897, the Mary Holmes Seminary, destroyed by fire at
Jackson Jan. 1, 1895, was rebuilt and re-opened at West Point, Miss., by
Rev. Henry N. Payne, D. D. and she became the principal teacher in that
institution. On March 6, 1899, their principal building was again
destroyed by fire. After three years of faithful service and another sad
experience that tended to impair her health, she became in 1901
principal at Oak Hill Academy, Indian Territory, but after two years, by
special request, returned and resumed her former position as leading
teacher at West Point, taking with her two pupils from Oak Hill, Lizzie
Watt and Iserina Folsom.
In the fall of 1905 she returned to Oak Hill Academy and remained until
the month of February following, when she was called to the bedside of
the late Mary Holmes at Rockford, Illinois.
Her work since that date has been limited to more healthful localities,
namely Gunnison, Utah, and the Spanish Mission in Los Angeles,
California. At both of these places she served under commissions issued
by our Board of Home Missions.
She is now enjoying the rest of a quiet and frugal life in retirement at
Escanto, California, within easy distance of a brother and wife, whose
kindness is constant, and having as a companion, a friend, who is as a
sister in their modest home.
Her last teaching among the Freedmen was at Oak Hill Academy and she
seemed to have a special interest in the young people of that section.
This interest was awakened by the fact that during her first term of
service at West Point several girls were sent there from the vicinity of
Oak Hill, which was then represented as a new country, without previous
educational and good church privileges.
She had the earnest desire to follow these girls when they returned to
their home communities to see to what extent their christian training at
West Point would tend to elevate and ennoble their own lives and through
them the lives of others.
This is the desire of every friend of Christian education. It cannot be
given too great emphasis. Pupils that give assurance they will "make
good" find that there are friends somewhere, when their need is known,
ready to "help them to help themselves." It ought to be a source of
constant and life-long encouragement to every pupil, specially aided by
friends in any of our christian educational institutions, to know that
the personal interest of their teachers and friends follows them through
life to see and know, that they have profited by their youthful
christian training. They are expected to be teachers and leaders in
thought and action in their respective communities.
XVII
BUDS OF PROMISE
1884 to 1904.
FAVORED YOUTHFUL CHOCTAW FREEDMEN.
"And Hannah took Samuel to the Temple of the Lord and said to Eli,
the priest; I have lent him to the Lord as long as he liveth."
The object of this chapter is to note the names and careers of a number
of the young people that during the early days, were sent or encouraged
to attend other educational institutions. As early as 1884, two years
before Miss Hartford came to Oak Hill, Rev. Alexander Reid, of Atoka
took the lead in arranging for two young men to go to Biddle University,
Charlotte, North Carolina, and five young ladies to Scotia Seminary, at
Concord, North Carolina. Later the teachers at Oak Hill aided and
encouraged others to attend these and other christian institutions of
learning established elsewhere by our Freedmen's Board. The present is
an opportune time for noting the results, in the way of increased
happiness and added usefulness to these young people by one or more
years of special training in youth.
In 1884 Richard D. Colbert of the Beaver Dam church was sent to the
preparatory school at Biddle University and remained till June 1887.
After his return he taught school eleven years. He was then licensed by
the Presbytery, and has been preaching the gospel ever since that time.
In 1884 Henry Williams of Doaksville, (Fort Towson) was sent to Biddle
University and remained three years. On his return he became a teacher
of public school and in 1892 married Annie Ball.
In 1884 Celestine Hodges a daughter of Samuel and Charlotte Hodges,
Wheelock, was sent to Scotia Seminary and remained four years. On her
return in 1888, she became a teacher and has been teaching most of the
time since, serving the first two years as an assistant at Oak Hill.
She became custodian of the buildings, after the departure of Miss
Hartford, and was teaching the Oak Hill school, when Mr. McBride arrived
a month or so after its opening. Two years later she founded a school
and Sunday school along Sandy Branch, that a few years later developed
into the church, that bears that name. She is now located upon and
improving her own farm southwest of Antlers.
In 1884 Susan Homer, daughter of Wiley Homer, Grant, was sent to Scotia
Seminary and remained two years. On her return she served as a teacher
until she married Albert Brown. She is now a widow, occupying and
improving her own farm, near Grant.
In 1884 Marie Jones and her sister Fannie Jones, daughters of the late
Caroline Prince (1911), and Virginia Shoals, daughter of J. Ross and
Harriet Shoals, all from the Oak Hill church, were sent to Scotia
Seminary.
Marie Jones after spending some time at school engaged in teaching and
later became the wife of Mr. Sands, a Methodist minister, now located at
Kingston, New York.
Fannie Jones remained at Concord, going to school and working in the
city until 1898, when she located at St. Louis, where she became the
wife of Mr. McNair, and taught school a number of years. She is now
occupying the old home near Oak Hill.
Virginia Shoals, now Mrs. Perry, returned in 1901. She has taught school
several years and is now living on her own allotment of land near Red
River, where she has founded and is endeavoring to maintain a christian
home.
Mary Homer (B. 1873) a daughter of Wiley Homer, Grant, after completing
a course at Oak Hill attended a Choctaw government school, 1890 to 1894.
She engaged in teaching until her marriage to Martin Shoals. She is now
improving her own farm and educating her children at Oak Hill.
Hattie Homer (B. 1876), a sister of Mary, after attending a Choctaw
government school at Grant 1890 to 1894 and completing a course at Oak
Hill, taught school until she became the wife of Nick Colbert, an elder
of the Beaver Dam church, after his decease she married Bud Lewis and is
now occupying and improving her own farm.
Harriet Stewart (B. 1873), and Fidelia Perkins, daughter and
step-daughter of Parson Stewart, in 1892 were taken by Mrs. Emma F.
McBride, matron, to the Mary Allen Seminary at Crockett, Texas. They
remained until Harriet was promoted to the senior and Fidelia to the
junior class. Both of them engaged in teaching.
Harriet Stewart after teaching a few years in 1898 became the wife of
Rev. Pugh A. Edwards, a minister of the A. M. E. church and is now
occupying and improving her own farm near Hugo.
Fidelia in 1900 married Thomas H. Murchison, and located at Garvin,
where she and her husband have taken a very active part in promoting the
work of the Presbyterian church. She served as one of the first
superintendents of the Sunday school and he as an elder. She is now
serving her sixth year as teacher of the public school at Millerton. She
is a good penman, an acceptable teacher and is making a record of
commendable usefulness.
[Illustration: REV. WILEY HOMER.]
[Illustration: REV. WILLIAM BUTLER.]
[Illustration: REV. AND HARRIET STEWART EDWARDS.]
[Illustration: REV. AND MARIA JONES SANDS.]
[Illustration: FAVORED YOUNG CHOCTAW FREEDMAN.]
Martha Jones, a daughter of Caroline Prince, and Nannie Harris a
daughter of Charles B. Harris, in 1893, were sent to Crockett, Texas.
Nannie Harris contracted consumption and died the next year after
returning from the school, and Martha Jones going with one of her
teachers, located at Frankfort, Kentucky.
Johnson Shoals, son of J. Ross and Hattie, was an early pupil at Oak
Hill, and an assistant teacher at that institution during the last term,
1912-1913. He has enjoyed a four years' course of study at Tuskeegee,
and four years at the Iowa State Agricultural college, Ames, Iowa.
During the last four years he has been working on the old home farm
during the summer and teaching school during the winter, which is an
ideal plan for the average young man to pursue in early life.
Malinda A. Hall in 1900, after completing the grammar course at Oak Hill
Academy, was sent by Mrs. Edward G. Haymaker to Ingleside Seminary at
Burkeville, Virginia, where she graduated in 1904. She has taught public
school one or more years. Commencing in February 1905 she rendered five
years of faithful and efficient service as teacher of domestic science
and superintendent of the christian Endeavor society at Oak Hill
Academy. In 1911 she became the wife of William Stewart and they are now
improving their own new farm home south of Valliant.
Edward D. Jones, a class mate of Malinda Hall and native of Bluff,
Okla., after completing the grammar course in 1900, graduated from
Jackson college, Jackson, Miss., five years later, and in 1909 from the
Medical school at Raleigh, N. C. He has since been engaged in the
practice of medicine in his native state and is now located at Nowata,
where he has acquired an extensive and lucrative patronage.
In 1903 when Carrie E. Crowe returned to Mary Holmes Seminary at West
Point, Miss., she was instrumental in having Lizzie Watt and Iserina
Folsom, both Oak Hill pupils, follow her to that institution.
Lizzie Watt was from Arkansas. Going with her mistress to spend some
time at Winona Lake, Ind., she there met Mrs. M. E. Crowe, matron at Oak
Hill. So great was the interest awakened she became a pupil at Oak Hill
that fall, and remained until she was encouraged to go to the Mary
Holmes Seminary. When last heard from, through the head of that
institution, she was teaching and doing well.
Iserina Folsom, daughter of Moses and Martha Folsom, after her return
from West Point in 1905, married Amos Ward, a farmer, and lives at
Grant.
Samuel A. Folsom of the Forest church, and early pupil at Oak Hill, in
1903-5 spent two years at Biddle University. On his return he taught one
year at Oak Hill Academy, aided in the erection of the temporary Boys'
Hall after the fire of Nov. 8, 1908; and, serving as foreman of the
carpenters, made it possible for the superintendent to erect Elliott
Hall in 1910, by employing only the labor of students and patrons of the
academy. On becoming a member and elder of the Oak Hill church, he
enjoyed the privilege of representing the Presbytery in the General
Assembly at Denver in May, 1909. Returning later in search of health he
died there at 29, Jan. 11, 1912.
George Shoals, in 1903-05, spent two years at Biddle University. Since
his return he married Redonia Grier and they are now improving their own
farm near Grant.
George Stewart, 1903-5 spent two years at Tuskegee. In 1910 he married
Ara Brown, an Oak Hill student, and they are now industriously and
successfully improving their own farm near the academy at Valliant.
In 1904, when the Pittsburgh Mission at Atoka was closed, Mrs. O. D.
Spade, one of the teachers, took Lucretia C. Brown, a pupil of eight
years, to her home at Bellefontaine, Ohio, and enabled her to graduate
from the Grammar and High schools of that city in 1910. In 1912, after
rendering one year of earnest and faithful service as assistant matron
at Oak Hill Academy, she became the wife of Everett Richards, one of the
older students at Oak Hill that year; and they are now improving and
enjoying their own farm home near Lukfata. When their home was gladdened
by the birth of their first born on Christmas night, 1913, they named
it, Lucian Elliott, in honor of Mrs. Spade, her youthful benefactress.
Samuel S. Bibbs and Henry D. Prince in 1904 went to Biddle University
and remained one year. Henry, after supporting his venerable mother
until her decease in 1911, is now industriously engaged in improving his
own farm near the academy. S. S. Bibbs in 1912 married Fannie McElvene,
and is now located at Broken Bow, where he is making a good record in a
new section of the country.
On March 4, 1906, James Stewart and Mary Garland, two previously
promising Oak Hill students, were married at the academy. They are now
industriously and earnestly developing a comfortable home on their own
farm.
These incidents relating to the special education of the first young
people among the Choctaw Freedmen are quite suggestive and interesting.
These young people may be said to represent buds of promise found in the
wilderness, where the wild flowers bloom that are cared for only by a
Heavenly Father's eye. They are transplanted for a time, where they may
receive Bible instruction, industrial training and a foretaste of the
privileges of an enlightened christian civilization. They are then
returned to the wilderness with the Bible in hand, like the Huguenots
and Pilgrim Fathers, when they first came to America, to become the
standard bearers of truth, purity and industry, founders of prosperous
christian homes, and intelligent promoters of the best interests of
their people.
Their education and training was the first intelligent effort to provide
a supply of competent native teachers and preachers for the colored
people in the south part of the Choctaw Nation. However humble their
station and limited their attainment, they represent the first
generation of native teachers.
It was also an effort to introduce into the homes of the people on their
return, correct ideals of an intelligent christian civilization. It was
the day of small things and of humble beginnings.
It is encouraging to note that in all instances where they remained long
enough in school to make sufficient progress, they became teachers and
Sunday school superintendents on their return to their own
neighborhoods. Some of them are still teaching and one after teaching
eleven years has made a good record as a faithful minister of the
gospel.
[Illustration: THE PRESBYTERY OF KIAMICHI, GARVIN, OKLA., APRIL, 1914.]
[Illustration: WILEY HOMER, HIS PEOPLE AND CHAPEL AT GRANT, 1904.]
[Illustration: REV. T. K. BRIDGES.]
[Illustration: REV. W. J. STARKS.]
[Illustration: W. R. FLOURNOY.]
[Illustration: DOLL BEATTY.]
[Illustration: REV. P. S. MEADOWS.]
[Illustration: JAMES R. CRABTREE.]
Those that have married have in most instances become the founders of
prosperous christian homes, and the most influential leaders in their
several communities. By their industry, frugality and piety, they are
proving themselves, in a very commendable way, to be "the salt of the
earth and the light of the world," among their own people.
Several of them died soon after their return from school. This is a
disappointment that is more deeply felt in Mission work than elsewhere.
The proportion of short lives in this list is perhaps no greater than
would be found in similar lists taken from other sections of the
country. Good health and the disposition to take good care of it are
very important assets, on the part of those who are encouraged to take
special courses of training in missionary educational institutions.
These incidents were not without their influence on the mind of
Alexander Reid in leading him to approve the plan of establishing a
boarding school for the Freedmen in Indian Territory and Oak Hill as the
most needy and favorable location for it. The Board was maintaining
missions at Muskogee and Atoka, but those locations were not then
attractive. One of his last acts in 1885, his last year, was the
purchase of the Old Log House from Robin Clark for the use of the
school.
The fact this emigration to distant schools continued, after the
establishment of Oak Hill as a boarding school, awakens a little
surprise. Only a very limited number of them in later years, remained at
Oak Hill to complete the Grammar course. The good old rule of local
prosperity "Patronize Home Industries," or institutions, seemed to have
been forgotten. The sentiment began to prevail that any school abroad
was better than one at home. The general prevalence of this sentiment
tended to put a slight check upon the successful development of the work
at Oak Hill. It was bereft of the presence and co-operation of its older
and best trained pupils, just when their example of self-control and
habits of study were beginning to exert a good influence over the new
ones.
XVIII
CLOSED IN 1904
In the spring of 1904, as there was no one available to manage it, the
school was closed, and a student was entrusted with the care of the
buildings, stock and crops.
As this was the year the land in Indian Territory was allotted to the
Indians and their former slaves, individually, Mr. Haymaker remained
until he secured the allotment of two tracts of forty acres each, on
which the buildings of the academy were located, one to a graduate
student and the other to a friendly full blood Choctaw woman; with the
understanding that, when the restrictions should be removed, the
allottees or owners would sell them to the Board of Missions for
Freedmen, to be held and used as a permanent site for the institution.
In August Miss Bertha L. Ahrens of Grant, a missionary teacher of the
Board, became the custodian of the buildings and other property
belonging to the institution.
A few days later, Solomon Buchanan, a former student from Texas,
returned and making his home there, began to take care of the stock and
crops. His general efficiency, manifest interest and good staying
quality enabled him to become ever since a very valuable helper, during
term time.
XIX
REOPENING AND ORGANIZATION
1905.
TWO-FOLD ORGANIZATION OF THE WORKERS.--NEW FEATURES--CHARACTER
BUILDING.--VISIT OF MRS. V. P. BOGGS.
"Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can."--Wesley.
After two weeks of voluntary service in the vicinity of the Academy,
visiting churches, schools, institutes and towns, making the trips
through the timber with a team of faithful but superannuated mules, and
delivering addresses in as many as eight different places, during the
month preceding, the academy was re-opened for a three months term in
February, 1905, under the management of Rev. and Mrs. R. E. Flickinger
of Fonda, Iowa. They had for their assistants, Miss Adelia M. Eaton,
Fonda, Iowa, matron, Miss Bertha L. Ahrens, principal, Miss Malinda A.
Hall and Henry C. Shoals, assistants in the cooking and farming
departments, and Solomon Buchanan, a volunteer student accompanist and
general helper.
TWO FOLD ORGANIZATION OF THE WORKERS
The moral and religious instruction was organized after the following
manner. The Bible was supplied and read by all as a daily text book in
the school. The lady principal served as superintendent of the Sunday
school, and as organist and chorister at all the other meetings. The
assistant superintendent took charge of the primary department of the
Sunday school, the matron, the Bible class; the assistant matron, the
intermediate class, and the general management of the work among the
Christian Endeavorers, selecting and aiding the leaders in their
preparation for and conduct of their meetings on Sabbath evenings, in
which all the students were required to participate. Mr. Buchanan served
as organist for the Sunday school and accompanist on the piano at the
other meetings.
The superintendent, in addition to attending and participating in the
Sabbath school and Endeavor meetings, which were held on Sabbath
mornings and evenings, conducted the preaching service on Sabbath
morning, the Bible memory meetings at 2:30 on Sabbath afternoons and the
mid-week service, which was held on Friday evenings.
VOICE CULTURE.
The training and development of their youthful voices, for efficient
participation by song or story in religious meetings on their return
home, was made a distinct aim and object at the Friday evening meetings.
This special vocal training was based on the fact, that in all the
recorded instances of the manifestation of divine or spiritual power, it
has been communicated through the use or instrumentality of the human
voice. The annual results, of this training of their voices for a sacred
use, were a very gratifying surprise to all the patrons of the school.
The superintendent also conducted the family worship at which all of the
students and teachers were present. It consisted in the daily reading of
the Scriptures and prayer immediately at the close of the morning and
evening meals. Twice a week the young people united in repeating a Psalm
or other appropriate selection and the Lord's Prayer.
He also invariably attended and participated by a word of encouragement
in the Sunday school and Endeavor meetings.
CHARACTER BUILDING
It was the constant endeavor of the superintendent to make the hours
spent together on Sabbath afternoons and Friday evenings, not only the
most instructive and profitable of all the week to the students, in the
matter of their character building, but also the most joyous and happy
to all of them. All cares and troubles were forgotten, while repeating
responsively and cheerily together many of the most thrilling and
comforting passages of the Bible, or singing merrily the beautiful
hymns, plantation melodies, sacred anthems and patriotic glees, that
enlisted mutual attention and interest. The joyous blending of their
many happy, youthful voices, sometimes soft and low, then rising and
swelling with all possible animation into full chorus, while singing
together the "Beautiful Story" that "Never Grows Old" and "Must be
Told," "Break Forth into Joy," "Before Jehovah's Throne," "Hail to the
Flag," "Freedom's Banner" and similar familiar selections, are sweet and
blessed treasures of the memory, that are invariably recalled with
pleasure and delight.
NEW FEATURES
In addition to the branches that had been previously taught,
arrangements were now made for special instruction in voice culture and
vocal music, one hour a week for all the pupils; and the young men in
agriculture, horticulture, house-painting, carpentry and masonry.
The aim of these new departments was to awaken an intelligent interest
and make every one familiar with the principles that would enable them
to make
The Farm,
The Garden,
The Orchard,
The Dairy,
The Cattle,
The pigs and Poultry,
all a source of greatest profit to them as owners.
An earnest effort was also made to check the stream of migration to
distant schools, by bringing the work at Oak Hill to such a degree of
efficiency as to meet the real needs of every young person in its
vicinity.
This was successfully accomplished by a voluntary and gratuitous
establishment, on the part of the superintendent and principal, of
Normal and Theological departments, that were maintained as long as
there was any real need for them; the former until the fall of 1907, the
last year under territorial rule preceding the establishment of county
normal institutes; and the latter in 1910, when the last licentiate was
ordained to the full work of the gospel ministry.
VISIT OF MRS. V. P. BOGGS, SECRETARY
The late Mrs. V. P. Boggs, secretary of the Women's Department of the
Freedmen's Board was a welcome visitor in the fall of 1907. Her
observations were afterwards summarized in a printed report as follows:
"Since the reopening of Oak Hill Academy in February 1905 it has
had an era of prosperity that promises permanency. Many improvements
have been made, new buildings for farm purposes have been erected,
much of the land has been re-fenced and is gradually being brought
under a higher state of cultivation, and there is a general
improvement in the appearance of the entire premises, that reflects
credit on the management, as well as upon the boys who do the work.
The literary work progresses under well trained teachers, and a
normal department has been added that teachers may be better fitted
to supply the schools, which it is hoped will be maintained in the
south part of the Territory. The home department is managed, to the
comfort and happiness of all by the wife of the superintendent, who
'looketh well to the ways of her household.' The matron's duties,
which include the general management of all matters relating to the
work in the Girls' Hall, including the sewing, laundry and kitchen
departments, are performed with conscientiousness and enthusiasm. A
former graduate student is rendering very efficient service in the
cooking department."
"The property of the Board, farm and buildings, is the most
attractive and prosperous in appearance in that region. The location
is beautiful, the buildings good for that section are well painted,
the ground well fenced and in good order. Some good farm buildings
have been erected by the students and they have painted other large
buildings in a very workmanlike manner. Considerable land has been
redeemed from a state of wildness. Thrift and order are apparent
everywhere indoors and out."--V. P. Boggs. Secretary Woman's
Department.
SUCCESSION OF HELPERS.
The succession of helpers during the eight years, 1905 to 1912,
inclusive, when Rev. R. E. Flickinger was Superintendent, was as
follows:
Assistant Superintendent: Mrs. Mary A. Flickinger, Feb. 1, 1905, to Aug.
1, 1909.
Principals: Miss Bertha L. Ahrens, Feb. 1, 1905,-Feb. 1, 1911, having
been previously custodian of the premises from Aug. 1, 1904; Mrs. W. H.
Carroll, Feb. 1, to May 27, 1911; Rev. W. H. Carroll, Oct. 1, 1911, to
June 13, 1912.
Matrons: Adelia M. Eaton, Feb. 1, 1905, to June 5, 1908; Mrs. John
Claypool, 1908-09; Mary I. Weimer, 1909-1911; Jo Lu Wolcott, Feb. 27 to
June 13, 1912.
Assistant Teachers: Carrie E. Crowe, Oct. 1, 1905 to Jan. 31, 1906; Mrs.
Sarah L. Wallace, Feb. 1 to Mar. 31, 1906; Mary A. Donaldson, April 1 to
May 31, 1906; Rev. W. H. Carroll, Oct. 28, 1907, to May 28, 1908, and
Oct. 25, 1909, to Apr. 28, 1910; Samuel A. Folsom, Oct. 26, 1908, to May
28, 1909; Solomon H. Buchanan, Nov. 15, 1910, to 1911; Mrs. W. H.
Carroll, Oct. 16, 1911, to June 13, 1912.
Assistants in the Cooking Department and Sewing Room: Malinda A. Hall,
Feb. 1, 1905, to June 30, 1909, and Nov. 15, 1910, to June 15, 1911;
Mrs. Virginia Wofford, 1909; Ruby Moore and Ruby Peete, 1909 to 1910;
Lucretia C. Brown, 1911 to 1912; Ora Perry, 1912.
Pianist and Librarian: Solomon H. Buchanan, 1905-1912, except 1909.
Foremen, Carpenters: Samuel A. Folsom and Edward Hollingsworth in 1910.
Whilst the great need of the colored people in the South is the
opportunity for intellectual, manual, moral and religious training, to
all of which they are readily responsive and make encouraging
improvement, it remains a fact, that the material development of the
southern states depends in a great measure upon the general education
and intelligence of the colored people; and that a manifestation of
prejudice against their general education through public or mission
schools is sinful, impolitic and unpatriotic.
It is only a few years since the report was made that in Florida 64.5
per cent, in South Carolina, 69.5, and in Louisiana, 76.4 per cent of
the children of school age were unprovided for with school privileges.
Under favorable conditions it is a delightful work to supply a need for
which there is so great and urgent a demand, and such manifest
appreciation, and, that means so much in promoting the intelligence and
thereby increasing the happiness and prosperity of so many of the common
people, whose general education tends to make our nation greater.
[Illustration: MRS. MARY A. FLICKINGER.]
[Illustration: MRS. JOHN CLAYPOOL.]
[Illustration: BERTHA L. AHRENS.]
[Illustration: ADELIA M. EATON.]