“I have been for many years the bookkeeper and general clerk in the law office of Governor Seay. I was, I am quite confident, the first Negro in Alabama, if not in the entire South, to operate on the typewriter, and now I think, I am the first Negro to manage the Edison phonograph for busi-purposes.”
I know of no ex-slave and ex-slaveholder, between whom there is more confidence on one side and high regard on the other, than exist between Governor Seay and Addison Wimbs. This means for Brother Wimbs quietness of spirit and solid worth, as well as a conservative, genial soul in Governor Seay.
THE ST. PHILLIP STREET CHURCH, SELMA.
This church was organized about the year 1845. The church was composed of the white membership and the church which was composed of the colored membership, agreed to build together, with the understanding that the former should occupy the upper story and the latter should occupy the basement. This agreement was kept until some time after the close of the war, when the white brethren bought the claims of the colored church, paying $2,000 for possession of the basement. Their first colored pastor was the Rev. Samuel Phillips, a man who had received his liberty as a reward for his services in the Mexican war. Deacon A. Goldsby told the writer that Bro. Phillips was a very earnest, worthy man. Nothing is known of the time and place of his birth, and nothing special is said of his death.
The Rev. John Blevens, who was born in Madison county, Ala., was the next pastor, and served from 1866 to 1878. Under his administration the present property on St. Phillip street was obtained. The Rev. Mr. Blevens was followed by Rev. G. J. Brooks, who, after a short pastorate, resigned, and was followed by Rev. W. A. Burch, from Philadelphia, Pa. Mr. Burch gathered a larger congregation than any other previous pastor, and did more than any other man in teaching the people to give for the support of the church. After two years, he was called to a pastorate in Boston, Mass., and was followed in the Selma pastorate by the writer, who remained with the church during 1882-87. Except the addition of about 350 members and the secession of the Tabernacle Church, nothing transpired that merits mention. The writer was followed by Rev. S. S. Sisson. At this writing, the Rev. C. J. Hardy, late of Florida, is their successful leader, under whose strong administration they have just completed a two-story brick structure on Sylvan Street. Their property is worth not less than $20,000—finest colored church edifice in Alabama.
It is worthy of mention and praise that the Selma University came to its birth under the fostering care of this church. In the old frame building on St. Phillip street the sainted Woodsmall began to turn upon the negro Baptists of Alabama the morning light, the early dawning, of our denominational school. And this church gave him quarters, fuel and lights without money and regardless of costs, so that in May, 1878, it was reported that the school had paid out nothing for these things. What a good deed is set down to their credit on high! But, in addition to this, they organized a missionary society, which gave regular contributions for support of teachers and other workers in the school.
Deacon A. Goldsby related the following to the writer: “Forty or fifty years ago we organized a prayer band to pray for our freedom. We met outside of the little town, under a large oak tree, on every Friday night. That we might know when a friend came beneath the tree, we agreed upon a password, which was ‘The hindering cause.’ Each uttered this softly as he came under the boughs of the tree, and was answered by any other who had come ahead of him. Then he seated himself in the bushes to await the hour for united supplications.”
If in years to come the University should desire a picture of itself as it made its advent from the world of hope to the world of fact, it may paint this: A frame structure, the roof of which is supported by a row of upright posts extending the whole length of the building, which is seventy-five or eighty feet in length. On the morning for opening, there enters this building a white man, whose face bears signs of suffering, but is all aglow with the rays of faith and love. He is the faculty. Also, there enters a short, fat, brown-skinned young man, with high, broad forehead. He has heard of the purpose to begin a school on this day at this place, and, hungering for learning, he has come up to enter. This teacher and this student usher in our beloved institution.
It was good for the denomination that our lot was cast among such a people, and that we had in Bro. Woodsmall a man who did not faint in “the day of small things.”
