MOUNTAIN WORK.
This work has gone forward the past year with marked success. In Kentucky, Rev. J. T. Ford, having taken the pastoral charge of the church at Williamsburg, Rev. A. A. Myers was at liberty to give himself to more extended missionary work; and, as might be expected, he has gone into it with a will. He has organized three new churches; one at Jellico, with 11 members; one at Pleasant View, with 13 members, and one at Rockhold, with 15 members. Under his superintendency the Jellico church has erected a good, commodious house, but it needs a bell. The congregations number from 250 to 300, and the pastor, Rev. E. W. Bullock, reports the interest as increasing.
Pleasant View Church has also put up a house of worship, now complete except seats. At Rockland, stone is on the ground. Mr. Myers using his own team to haul it, himself being teamster, and the lumber is all ready to begin work. A chapel is soon to be erected at South Williamsburg, where there are hundreds around the mills who cannot be induced to attend church up town. Eleven Sunday-schools, with an enrollment of 1,200 and an average of 750, have been maintained. These schools extend from Jellico on the State line to the northern part of Whitley County along the railroad. Besides these, several students from the Academy have conducted Sunday-schools at their homes, reporting an enrollment of 160.
Day schools have been kept at Woodbine, Rockhold, Dowlais and Jellico with marked success.
The Williamsburg Academy has had an enrollment of 203. The reputation and influence of this school are extending far and wide. The teachers, imbued with the missionary spirit, have been a power in the church and in the community as well as in the school. The question whether our schools could be kept up if colored students were admitted, has been squarely met and answered, and right at our central station, Williamsburg, we have had colored pupils during the past two terms. When they were first admitted, there was a stampede of the white scholars, reducing the number of pupils from 120 to 40, but as they had a chance to think the matter over, and they saw the school going right along as if nothing had happened, and that it was going to keep right along, they began to come back again, with still others to join them, so that the school closed with a larger enrollment than the previous year. The excitement caused a discussion that found its way into the newspapers of the State, and gave the school such an advertisement as could not have been secured by years of ordinary work. We shall have no more trouble with the color question in Whitley County. It has been settled, and settled right.
In Tennessee, the Independent Church at Sherwood, and its pastor, Rev. A. B. Smith, have entered our fellowship by joining the Central South Association. On the Cumberland plateau, Pastor B. Dodge has secured the organization of a church with 16 members, which is associated with his church at Pomona. An organ and hymn-books were furnished by the Pilgrim Church, Cambridgeport, Mass. The people have subscribed $300, chiefly in lumber, toward a much-needed chapel for church and day school. At both these points day schools have been maintained. At Grand View, the first year of the Academy has proved a success, and now a church has been organized in association with it, both to be under the care of Rev. C. B. Riggs.
The school work of Mrs. St. Clair in Scott County has been remarkable. Three years ago there were 27 saloons and two Sunday-schools in the county, one school held in Mrs. St. Clair's tent and the other in a blacksmith shop; now there are three saloons and 25 Sunday-schools, and the good people are praying with much confidence that their prayers will be answered for three less saloons and three more Sunday-schools. Mr. R. F. Taft, of Worcester, Mass., was sent down to help in this field. His labors were wonderfully blessed. Two churches, one at Robbins, the other at Helenwood, were organized. He is not able to continue in our service, but, in speaking of what has been accomplished, he has this to say: "Wherever I went the people were so eager to hear the Gospel that it was a joyous work to me. All came together, natives and Northerners, and our colored brethren. If the A. M. A. has accomplished nothing more, it has broken down the line of color, and to-day all mingle together in seeking after the pearl of great price." The work of Mr. Taft has been taken up by Rev. W. E. Barton, a recent graduate of Berea College, who finds already so much on his hands that he is crying for help.