PLYMOUTH CHURCH, MINNEAPOLIS, ONCE A BENEFICIARY OF THE A. M. A.
Dist. Sec. Roy, in his address before the General Association of Minnesota, at Minneapolis, reported from official documents the early beneficiary relation between the Plymouth Church of that city and this Association. It appears that the Church, having been organized in 1857, had Rev. Norman McLeod commissioned as acting pastor in 1858, with $200 a year pledged. Under him the first church edifice was erected. It was a frame structure, 32×62, that cost $2,300, of which $300 was furnished by the “Building Fund.” The Church had then fifty members. In 1860 Rev. H. M. Nichols was commissioned at the same rate for the same Church. During his first year of service that new meeting-house was burned by the incendiarism of the saloon interest. A young man from New England in three years had run down to delirium tremens. Mr. Nichols was with him at his death, and on the Sabbath, referring to this affair in a temperance sermon, charged the murder upon the liquor traffic of the town. The liquor sellers were present, and “were infuriated like mad hounds.” Fifty ladies of the town waited upon the rum-sellers, begging them to abandon their traffic. They were answered by a flow of free rum that fired the crowd to do their desperate work of burning the church by using kerosene and burning fluid for kindling. An indignation mass meeting was held and a vigilance committee of fifty was appointed to act. “The town,” says Mr. Nichols, “will be cleared of liquor.” A revival was also reported for that same year. But just as Mr. Nichols was about to start east to solicit aid in rebuilding, he and his two children and a brother-in-law, with his two children, were drowned in Lake Calhoun.
In 1861 Rev. W. B. Dada was commissioned. The A. M. A. report speaks of the place as an “important field,” and mentions another revival as enjoyed there. The first man labored eight months; the second, seven months; the third, nine. This has proven a good investment, as the contribution of this Church the last year to the A. M. A. was $508, and this is about the annual offering, and its total of church benefaction the last year was $35,263. In these years it has been a very mother of churches. It was this Church that, in 1873, entertained the meeting of the American Board, which had come to hold its anniversary upon the field of its first mission among the Sioux Indians.
At that time, 1860, there were also two other churches in Minnesota under the A. M. A., those of Traverse de Sioux and Brooklyn; and in the West there were seventy white churches under the commission of this Association. Among them, those of Charlotte, Mich., Sandwich, Ill., and Waterloo, Iowa.
We take the following from the Atlanta Constitution. We publish the whole of the article, from beginning to end, in order that there may be no opportunity for drawing wrong inferences. The Constitution is edited by Mr. Grady. We consulted the editorial columns to see if any editorial remarks had been made upon the incident. We did not find any. Surely the man who made that famous speech at the New England Dinner recently in New York could not have been in his office. If he were, and allowed such an incident as this to go unnoticed, very ugly inferences indeed must be drawn in reference to that New England Dinner speech. Just what is the New South, anyway?
“Something of a sensation was created at Tillman’s tent service, corner Hunter and Lloyd streets, yesterday afternoon. Early in the afternoon two white teachers in the Clark University entered the tent with eight or ten negro girls, who are students at the school, and seated themselves. Soon after the party entered the tent, ladies and gentlemen began arriving and in a short time the tent was crowded. Every seat except those reserved for the colored people was taken and many persons were standing up. One of the ushers, with a view to supplying seats for some who were standing, went to the negro girls and asked them to move to the seats set apart for their race. The girl to whom the usher spoke referred him to one of the teachers. Up to that time the usher did not know that the negroes and the two white women were together, but turning to one of them he asked her to have the negro women move to the seats provided for their race.
‘Why should they move?’ asked the teacher.
‘Because they are in seats reserved for the white ladies and gentlemen, and there are plenty of them standing. Those seats over there are for colored people and those women can take them.’
‘Well, I don’t know that there is any distinction as to color in a church and they won’t move,’ answered the teacher.
The usher seeing that a scene was probable if he insisted upon the negro women moving, sought Patrolman Whitley, who was near the tent, and telling him that the tent belonged to the Rev. Mr. Tillman, asked him to remove the women. The patrolman entered the tent and approaching the party, repeated the request.
‘Well, we are satisfied with these seats,’ said the teacher.
‘I can’t help that,’ said the patrolman, ‘this tent belongs to Mr. Tillman and he wants these seats. Over there are seats for those negro girls. You ladies can remain here, but they must move.’
‘What difference does color make?’ asked the teacher.
‘I don’t know, only I know they must move. Now if they don’t go I will have to take you all out, and if I take you out I’ll make cases in police court against you. I am sorry to disturb you, but it is my duty.’
The two teachers and the negro girls held a consultation in a low tone a few minutes, and then arising from their seats swept out. When outside the tent one of the teachers called Patrolman Whitley to her and said:
‘I was never treated so shamefully before. I never knew before that one’s color made any difference in a church before the Lord.’
‘I don’t know what it does before the Lord,’ answered the patrolman, ‘but down South here it makes a difference. In this section we have nothing like social equality, and never will, in church or out of church.’”