FIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.
A TOUR OF A MONTH THROUGH THE SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES.
[We omit the mention of the Midway Church and School and the organization of the church at Cypress Slash, as an account of them is given elsewhere by Rev. Floyd Snelson.]
At Savannah, the Beach Institute and the mother church, with her four or five daughters settled in the suburbs, were found to be in a prosperous condition. Pastor Markham and Principal Koons, with their corps of lady teachers, are making a decided impression upon that city.
Thence to Orangeburgh, S. C., where Rev. W. L. Johnson is pastor, and also principal of a large school, in which his wife is assistant. Mr. Johnson had been trained up at the North, in the Dutch Reformed way, as a protégé of the Rev. Dr. E. P. Rodgers of New York. The visitor gave from his big map a lesson upon the geography of our country. As a guest of Rev. Dr. Cooke, President of the Claflin University, he had an opportunity to become acquainted and favorably impressed with that fine institution of our Methodist brethren. In Charleston, a Sabbath was given to the Plymouth Church, now happy under the new pastorate of Rev. Temple Cutler, and one day to the Avery Institute, under Prof. A. W. Farnham, who is reproducing the style of his own Alma Mater, the Oswego Normal. It was a delight to witness the orderliness and accuracy of that training. It is only common fame that this Institute stands ahead of every other in the city. It has a corps of six teachers, and scholars enough to work them hard. Our lady missionary, Miss H. E. Wells, I found getting hold of her peculiar work quite hopefully; as also Miss Douglass, at Miller’s Station, Ga. I think this arm of our service will prove equal to the anticipation of its friends.
In North Carolina, I went first to Wilmington, where is the nourishing Williston Normal School, with its consort church, and all under the management of Rev. D. D. Dodge and his wife, and Misses Warner, Fitts, Goodwin and Phelps. Besides the several young teachers under training here, there is also a class of preachers in the old time churches who are getting brushed up. Two nights had to be given to talks before the school and congregation. Thence up to Dudley, where Rev. David Peebles and his wife, lately Miss Anna M. Day, of the Washington School at Raleigh, have charge of the church and school in the large and comely structure which serves a double purpose. Besides a half dozen candidates for the teaching profession, one young man is pursuing Latin with reference to a full classical course. This church numbers seventy-five members, and makes a specialty of temperance and music. It has to meet in the community a theological coloring taken from the Hard-shell Baptists and the Quakers. In the Ku-Klux times a good many Freedmen came in here for safety.
At Beaufort I found the church and school making headway under Mr. Michael Jerkins, a graduate of the Theological Department of Howard University. At Morehead City, a town once of great expectations, now blighted, our school and the city lie dead side by side.
At Woodbridge our school is under the care of Mr. W. H. Ellis, a graduate of Williams, who was recently licensed to preach by Mr. Peebles’ church, of Dudley. Last year, in this school, under the excellent Miss Waugh, a revival was enjoyed which enlisted more than a score of the scholars as disciples of the Great Master. Mr. Ellis ministers the word on the Lord’s day, and a church fellowship must soon be gathered here. At this place, at North River near Beaufort, and at Dudley, some years ago, the A. M. A., with funds specially provided, purchased several hundred acres of land to be sold to the Freedmen. Not all of this has yet been taken up. The highest ideal of such an investment has not been realized at these points. Nevertheless, I find that the Freedmen almost everywhere are making advance in securing homes and farms.
At Goldsboro’, a fine railway centre, we found an urgent call for a church and school movement, which must soon be set forward. Chapel Hill, the location of the State University, offers a similar opening.