From my earliest memories I can recall the annual visits of Bishop Cheshire to the home of my parents. As very young boys my brothers and I were fond of looking at him, for with his flowing white beard and rather stocky figure, he appeared a perfect embodiment of Santa Claus. He readily gained our confidence with his frank and open manner and his keen understanding of the sort of things children were interested in. As I grew older he won my complete affection and admiration. With his many relatives and friends throughout North Carolina, I felt particularly honored when he wrote me letters from England during his visit there in 1920. The multiplicity of such personal attentions was one of his characteristics which gained for him the lasting affection of his people.
Although I have felt inadequate to the task of writing Bishop Cheshire's life, I have found the work a labor of love and a distinct privilege. Some persons will undoubtedly be disappointed that more stories of and about the Bishop have not been included. The use of many of his anecdotes has purposefully been avoided, since most of them are much more delightfully told by the Bishop himself in his charming volume of reminiscences, Nonnulla. My primary object has been to present his accomplishments as deacon, priest, and bishop. His work in these periods of his career merits preservation in some permanent form for its own sake as well as for the benefit of future churchmen. Also, an attempt has been made to portray the Bishop's dynamic personality and its striking influence upon the character of his work and of his human contacts.
I wish to gratefully acknowledge the kind assistance given me by Mr. Joseph B. Cheshire, Miss Sarah Cheshire, and Mr. James W. Cheshire in reading this work and for the generous loan of invaluable manuscripts. I also wish to express my appreciation to my wife, Emily Dewey, for her untiring help in criticizing and reworking the manuscript, and to Bishop Edwin Anderson Penick and Rev. Alfred S. Lawrence for reading the work.
Lawrence F. London
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
December 1, 1940.
Contents
| PAGE | ||
| FOREWORD, BY BISHOP EDWIN A. PENICK | [v] | |
| PREFACE | [vii] | |
| CHAPTER | ||
| I | YOUTH AND MANHOOD | [1] |
| II | DEACON AND PRIEST | [18] |
| III | SAINT PETER'S PARISH | [27] |
| IV | ELECTION TO THE EPISCOPATE | [46] |
| V | FIRST YEARS IN THE EPISCOPACY | [55] |
| VI | MAN AND BISHOP | [77] |
| VII | HISTORIAN | [88] |
| VIII | WORK AMONG THE COLORED PEOPLE | [99] |
| IX | DEVELOPMENT AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE BISHOP'S WORK | [109] |
| NOTES | [127] | |
| PUBLISHED WRITINGS OF JOSEPH BLOUNT CHESHIRE | [131] | |
| INDEX | [135] | |