Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire: His Life and Work

by Lawrence Foushee London

While in the process of establishing St. Michael's, Cheshire was at the same time engaged in another missionary enterprise. He found in a section of Charlotte, known as Mechanicsville, a number of families who were members of the Episcopal Church but were not connected with St. Peter's parish. Seeing an opportunity to extend the work of the parish, he determined to bring the services of the church to these people. He began by establishing a Sunday school in an abandoned schoolhouse in this section. The Sunday school gradually expanded into a little mission, which he called St. Martin's. Not long after the mission was started, the building in which the services were held was destroyed by fire. Not permitting this misfortune to discourage him, he began almost at once to lay plans for the erection of a chapel on the same location.

After negotiating with the Charlotte school board, he was able to buy the property for fifteen hundred dollars, to be paid in three installments. Cheshire himself paid the first installment of five hundred dollars, while two of his parishioners guaranteed the remainder. He procured his part of the cost by selling a lot in Tarboro which his father had given him. When the land was bought, he began the work of raising money for the erection of a chapel. His loyal friend, Mr. John Wilkes, came forward as usual and supported him generously with both time and money. Other friends came to his assistance, and work was soon started on the building. Cheshire organized the Guild of St. Martin to help him in carrying forward the work on the chapel. Some time before it was completed, he began to hold a service in the little church every Sunday night. This service was in addition to three others which he held each Sunday at St. Peter's. Thus, Cheshire had literally built from the ground up the mission of St. Martin's. It maintained a steady growth and in time became one of the larger parishes of the Diocese.

There seems to have been almost no limit to Cheshire's missionary fervor. He was not content to confine his labors to the bounds of Charlotte. Shortly after coming to St. Peter's he visited Monroe, and there he found a number of churchmen who at one time had been served by the rector at Wadesboro. At the request of these churchmen Cheshire gave them a monthly service, being assisted for a time by Mr. Quin. In 1885 the work at Monroe was turned over to Rev. Edwin A. Osborne. During his rectorate at St. Peter's Cheshire also held services from time to time at Rockingham, Mooresville, Mount Mourne, and Davidson College. He did not, however, succeed in establishing a permanent mission at any one of these places. If he had had more time to devote to this distant missionary work, he might have met with better success.

In the fall of 1883 there came to Cheshire an opportunity to do what he later characterized as "the most entirely gratifying and successful work of all my missionary undertakings."[17] Columbus W. McCoy, of Long Creek Township, Mecklenburg County, invited Cheshire to hold a service in his community, stating that a number of people in his neighborhood had manifested an interest in the Episcopal Church. McCoy had formerly been a Presbyterian, but having become acquainted with the Book of Common Prayer, he expressed a desire to join the Episcopal Church. Cheshire accepted the invitation, and on November 18 held his first service there in the community schoolhouse. He passed the night with Mr. McCoy and spent the next day in visiting the people of the neighborhood. He felt that "very little can be accomplished in a new field by merely having a service, even a Sunday service, unless time is given to personal familiar visiting from house to house, to know the people, and to establish some influence among them."[18] He held a second service that night, and returned to Charlotte the following morning. This same procedure was followed in his subsequent visits.

In December Cheshire went again to Long Creek, but in consequence of bad weather, he did not return again until the spring. Beginning in May, 1884, he held monthly services in the Long Creek community. Observing the growing interest of the community in the church, he decided to hold a series of services for them from August 12 through the 16th. He secured the assistance of Rev. Dr. George B. Wetmore and Rev. Mr. Osborne. The services were held in Beach Cliff Schoolhouse and were so well attended that part of the congregation was forced to sit out-of-doors. Cheshire and his assistants took turns in preaching in the morning and evening. In the afternoons they visited those families who had shown an interest in becoming members of the church. In the course of the week they baptized sixteen persons, for the most part children, and at the end of the services fourteen adults signified their desire to be confirmed. At the close of the week's preaching Cheshire was presented with a petition signed by eleven persons who asked that they be organized as a mission under the name of St. Mark's Chapel. This was indeed a successful conclusion to the week's work.

On October 25 Bishop Lyman visited Long Creek and confirmed sixteen persons. Following the confirmation he organized the congregation as a mission to be known as St. Mark's. Cheshire continued his monthly visits to the new mission until January, 1885, at which time he turned this work over to Rev. Edwin A. Osborne, who had already taken charge of Cheshire's congregation in Monroe. Upon assuming this work Mr. Osborne moved from Henderson County to Charlotte. During the remainder of Cheshire's rectorate at St. Peter's, he and Mr. Osborne became intimate friends and co-operated generously in each other's work.

Although Cheshire devoted most of his time and energy to St. Peter's parish and its missions, he did not neglect his duty to the Diocese. He attended all of the diocesan conventions and took an active and significant part in their deliberations. Probably the most important action taken by any convention during his ministry was that relating to the division of the Diocese. The question of dividing the church in North Carolina into two dioceses had been discussed from time to time by the conventions since the election in 1873 of Bishop Lyman as assistant bishop. Bishop Atkinson had favored a division at one time, but when the question was placed squarely before the convention of 1877, he came out strongly against it. The large number of clergy and laity who favored division dropped the proposal for the time-being out of deference to Bishop Atkinson, who, they felt, did not have much longer to serve. Upon his death in January, 1881, the question was again brought forward. At the convention of 1882, held in Calvary Church, Tarboro, Dr. M. M. Marshall, rector of Christ Church, Raleigh, introduced resolutions declaring the sentiment of the people on division and calling for a committee to consider proposals for the erection of a new diocese. The convention approved Dr. Marshall's resolutions, and the Bishop appointed a special committee to report upon the subject.

After some study of the proposal this committee submitted a majority report calling for a division of the Diocese. Bishop Lyman, who during Bishop Atkinson's life-time had advocated the formation of a new diocese, now reversed his position. Upon hearing the report of the special committee, the Bishop delivered "an impassioned attack upon the report."[19] The opposition of the Bishop led to a long and, at times, acrimonious discussion. When the question was finally voted upon, the committee's report was adopted by a large majority of the clergy and laity. The convention appointed a committee of clergymen and laymen to confer with the Bishop upon the details of the division, to obtain his consent, and to report to the next diocesan convention. Cheshire was made a member of this committee.

St. Peter's parish, Charlotte, was host to the diocesan convention of 1883. The most pressing and important business of this convention was the question of forming a new diocese. On the second day the Committee on Conference with the Bishop made its report. The committee stated that after a consultation with the Bishop it found that he was opposed to a division of the Diocese because he felt that one bishop in good health could do the work for the entire state, and that the church in North Carolina was not financially able to support two bishops and two diocesan organizations. The Bishop told the committee, however, that he would consent to the erection of a new diocese provided a large majority of clergy and laity desired it, the line of division to be satisfactory to him, and the permanent funds to be divided equally between the two dioceses. Following the report the convention voted on the question: forty-two clergymen voted for division, and eleven against; twenty-nine parishes voted for, and ten against. Cheshire voted for the creation of a new diocese, as he had done in the convention the year before.

When the question of a territorial division came up for discussion, Cheshire moved that the new diocese be composed of the counties of Hertford, Bertie, Martin, Pitt, Greene, Wayne, Sampson, Cumberland, and Robeson, and all that part of the state located between those counties and the Atlantic coast. Cheshire later withdrew his motion when the special Committee on a Line of Division presented an amended report which embodied in substance his recommendation. The convention unanimously adopted the amended report. Cheshire was in favor of placing the counties of Edgecombe and Halifax in the eastern Diocese and retaining Cumberland in the old Diocese. When he saw, however, that Bishop Lyman would not give up Edgecombe and Halifax, he recommended that Cumberland should be included in the new division. This was the arrangement finally adopted.