The Choctaw Freedmen

AN OAK TREE

On the southeastern slope, near the Academy,
A pretty Oak,
That strong and stalwart grows.
With every changing wind that blows,
is a beautiful emblem of the strength, beauty and eminent usefulness
of an intelligent and noble man.

"He shall grow like a Cedar in Lebanon; like a tree planted
by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season."

ALICE LEE ELLIOTT
1846-1906

THE

Choctaw Freedmen

AND

The Story of

OAK HILL INDUSTRIAL ACADEMY

Valliant, McCurtain County

OKLAHOMA

Now Called the

ALICE LEE ELLIOTT MEMORIAL

Including the early History of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indian Territory
the Presbytery of Kiamichi, Synod of Canadian, and the Bible
in the Free Schools of the American Colonies, but
suppressed in France, previous to the
American and French Revolutions

By

ROBERT ELLIOTT FLICKINGER

A Recent Superintendent of the Academy and
Pastor of the Oak Hill Church

ILLUSTRATED BY 100 ENGRAVINGS

Under the Auspices of the

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF MISSIONS FOR FREEDMEN

Pittsburgh, Pa.

ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS

IN THE YEAR 1914 BY THE AUTHOR

IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS AT WASHINGTON, D. C.

Journal and Times Press, Fonda, Iowa

TABLE OF CONTENTS

[Introduction]

[List of Portraits]

[Index]

OAK HILL CHAPEL

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

INTRODUCTION

[TOP]

"The pleasant books, that silently among
Our household treasures take familiar places,
Are to us, as if a living tongue
Spake from the printed leaves, or pictured faces!"

The aim of the Author in preparing this volume has been to put in a form, convenient for preservation and future reference, a brief historical sketch of the work and workers connected with the founding and development of Oak Hill Industrial Academy, established for the benefit of the Freedmen of the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, by the Presbyterian church, U. S. A., in 1886, when Miss Eliza Hartford became the first white teacher, to the erection of Elliott Hall in 1910, and its dedication in 1912; when the name of the institution was changed to "The Alice Lee Elliott Memorial."

Some who rendered service at Oak Hill Academy, bestowed upon it their best work, while superintendent, James F. McBride and Matron, Adelia M. Eaton, brought to it a faithful service, that proved to be the crowning work of their lives.

The occasion of receiving a new name in 1912, is one that suggests the eminent propriety of a volume, that will commemorate the labors of those, whose self-denying pioneer work was associated with the former name of the institution.

Another aim has been, to place as much as possible of the character building work of the institution, in an attractive form for profitable perusal by the youth, in the homes of the pupils and patrons of the Academy. As an aid in effecting this result, the volume has been profusely illustrated with engravings of all the good photographs of groups of the students that have come to the hand of the author; and also of all the teachers of whom they could be obtained at this time. The portraits of the ministers and older elders of the neighboring churches have been added to these, to increase its general interest and value.

In as much as Oak Hill Industrial Academy was intended to supply the special educational needs of the young people in the circuit of churches ministered to by Parson Charles W. Stewart, the pioneer preacher of the Choctaw Freedmen, and faithful founder of most of the churches in the Presbytery of Kiamichi, a memorial sketch of this worthy soldier of the cross has been added, that the young people of the present and future generations may catch the inspiration of his heroic missionary spirit.

"All who labor wield a mighty power;
The glorious privilege to do
Is man's most noble dower."

The ministers of the neighboring churches, in recent years, have been so helpfully identified with the work of the Academy, as special lecturers and assistants on decision days, and on the first and last days of the school terms, they seem to have been members of the Oak Hill Family. The story of the Academy would not be complete, without a recognition of them and their good work. This recognition has been very gratefully accorded in a brief history of the Presbytery of Kiamichi and of the Synod of Canadian.

The period of service rendered by the author, as superintendent of the Academy from the beginning of 1905 to the end of 1912, eight years, was one of important transitions in the material development of Indian Territory.

The allotment of lands in severalty to the Indians and Freedmen was completed in 1905, and the Territorial government was transformed into one of statehood on Jan. 1, 1908. The progress of their civilization, that made it possible for the Indians in the Territory to become owners and occupants of their own homes, supporters of their own schools and churches and to be invested with all the powers and duties of citizenship, is briefly reviewed in the introductory chapters.

The author has endeavored to make this volume one easily read and understood by the Choctaw Freedmen, in whose homes it is expected to find a place, and be read with interest and profit many years.

He has done what he could to enable as many of you as possible to leave the impress of your personality on the world, when your feet no longer move, your hands no longer build and your lips no longer utter your sentiments.

The hope is indulged that every pupil of the Academy, whose portrait has been given an historic setting in this volume, will regard that courteous recognition, as a special call to make the Bible your guide in life and perform each daily duty nobly and faithfully, as though it were your last.

A life on service bent,
A life for love laid down,
A life for others spent,
The Lord will surely crown.

Whilst other denominations have rendered conspicuous and highly commendable service in the effort to educate and evangelize the Indians and Freedmen, in this volume mention is made only of the work of the Presbyterian church. This is due to the fact the Presbyterian church, having begun missionary work among the Choctaws at a very early date, it was left to pursue it without a rival, in the particular section of country and early period of time included in the scope of this volume.

Such as it is, this volume is commended to him, whose blessing alone can make it useful, and make it to fulfil its mission of comfort and encouragement, to the children and youth of the Freedmen who are sincerely endeavoring to solve the problem of their present and future destiny.

Fonda, Iowa, March 15, 1914.R. E. F.

PART I

[TOP]

GENERAL FACTS

RELATING TO THE INDIANS OF INDIAN TERRITORY, THE CHOCTAW FREEDMEN AND PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF MISSIONS FOR FREEDMEN.

"In history we meet the great personalities, who have crystallized in their own lives, the hopes and fears of nations and races. We meet the living God, as an actor, and discover in passing events, a consistent purpose, guiding the changing world to an unchanging end."—W. A. Brown.

"Four things a man must learn to do,
If he would make his record true;
To think without confusion, clearly;
To act from honest motives purely;
To love his fellowmen sincerely;
To trust in God and heaven securely."
—Vandyke.

"The study of history, as a means of cultivating the mind and for its immediate practical benefit, ever since the days of Moses, who wrote the pioneer history of Israel, and Herodotus, the father of profane history, has formed a necessary part of a liberal and thorough education."—History of Pocahontas County, Iowa.

I

INDIAN TERRITORY

EARLY HISTORY OF THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES—OPENING OF INDIAN TERRITORY—OKLAHOMA—CLEAR CREEK, OAK HILL, VALLIANT.

[TOP]

"Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests and see whether we, also, in our day and generation may not perform something worthy to be remembered."—Daniel Webster.

Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, was a part of the public domain, that was reserved for several tribes of Indians whose native hunting grounds were principally in the Southern states. While they remained in their native valleys they proved a menace to the safety of the frontier settlers, and in times of war were sure to take sides against them. Thomas Jefferson in his day advised that they be located together on some general reservation. This was gradually effected during the earlier years of the last century.

The official act of congress constituting it an Indian Reservation did not occur until 1834, but a considerable number of the Choctaws, Chickasaws and of some other tribes were induced to migrate westward and locate there previous to that date. Other leading tribes that were transferred to special reservations in Indian Territory were the Cherokees, Creeks and Seminoles.

THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES

The Choctaw Indians recently occupied lands in the states bordering on the Gulf of Mexico. In 1820 a considerable part of them, ceding their lands in Georgia, were located on a reservation in the Red River valley west of Arkansas. In 1830 they ceded the remainder of their lands in Alabama and Mississippi and all, together with their slaves, were then transferred to their new reservation in the southeastern part of Indian Territory.

The Chickasaws, who originally occupied the country on the east side of the Mississippi river, as early as 1800 began to migrate up the valley of the Arkansas. In 1805, 1816 and in 1818 they ceded more of their lands and more of them migrated westward, many of them going to the country allotted to the Choctaws. In 1834, when the last of their lands in the Gulf states were ceded, they were located on a reservation south of the Canadian river, west of the Choctaws. These two tribes lived under one tribal government until 1855, when they were granted a political separation.

The Cherokees, previous to 1830, occupied the upper valley of the Tennessee river, extending through the northern parts of Georgia and Alabama. In 1790 a part of the tribe migrated to Louisiana and they rendered important services in the army of Gen. Jackson at New Orleans in the war of 1812.

In 1817 they ceded a part of their native lands for others and the next year 3,000 of them were located in the northwestern part of Arkansas in the valleys of the Arkansas and White rivers. In 1835 the remainder of them were located just west of the first migration in the northeast part of Indian Territory.

The Creek Indians originally lived in the valleys of the Flint, Chattahoochee, Coosa and Alabama rivers and in the peninsula of Florida. About the year 1875, a part of them moved to Louisiana and later to Texas. In 1836 the remainder of the tribe was transferred to a reservation north of the Canadian river in Indian Territory.

The Seminoles were a nation of Florida Indians, that was composed chiefly of Creeks and the remnants of some other tribes. After the acquisition of Florida from Spain in 1819 many slaves in that section fled from their masters to the Seminoles. The government endeavored to recover them and to force the Seminoles to remove westward. These efforts were not immediately successful, Osceola, their wily and intrepid chief, defeating and capturing four of the generals sent against them, namely, Clinch, Gaines, Call and Winfield Scott. He was finally captured by his captors violating a flag of truce. In 1845 they were induced to move west of the Mississippi and in 1856, they were assigned lands west of the Creeks in the central part of Indian Territory.

These five tribes, the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, Creeks and Seminoles, were the most powerful in numbers. After their settlement in Indian Territory, they made considerable progress in elementary education and agriculture, their farm work being principally done by their slaves previous to the time they were accorded their freedom in 1865. As a result of their progress in the arts of life, during the last half of the last century, these were often called "The Five Civilized Tribes, or Nations."

In 1900 when the last census was taken of them in their tribal form their numbers were as follows: Choctaw nation, 99,681; Chickasaw, 139,260; Cherokee, 101,754; Creek, 40,674; Seminole, 3,786.

The Osage Indians were early driven to the valley of the Arkansas river. They were conveyed to their reservation west of that river, in the north part of Indian Territory, in 1870. The supplies of oil and other minerals found upon their reservation have caused some of the members of this nation to be reputed as quite wealthy.

Other tribes that were located on small reservations in the northeast part of the Territory were the Modocs, Ottawas, Peorias, Quapaws, Senecas, Shawnees and Wyandottes.

During this early period the Union Indian agency established its headquarters at Muskogee, and it became and continued to be their principal city, during the period of their tribal government.

OPENING OF INDIAN TERRITORY

On April 22, 1889, 2,000,000 acres of the Creek and Seminole lands were opened to white settlers, and there occurred an ever memorable rush for lands and a race for homes. An area as large as the state of Maryland was settled in a day. On that first day the city of Guthrie was founded with a population of 8,000, a newspaper was issued and in a tent a bank was organized with a capital of $50,000. Oklahoma and other cities sprang up as if in a night.

On June 6, 1890, the west half of Indian Territory was created a new territory, called Oklahoma, with its capital at Guthrie, and with later additions it soon included 24,000,000 acres.

On June 16, 1906, President Roosevelt signed the enabling act, that admitted Oklahoma, including Oklahoma and Indian Territories, as a state, one year from that date. On November 6, 1906, occurred the election of members to the constitutional convention, that met at Guthrie January 1, 1907. The first legislature met there January 1, 1908. Two years later the capital was moved to Oklahoma City.

ELLIOTT HALL—1910

The growth, progress and advancement of the territory of Oklahoma during the sixteen years preceding statehood in 1907 has never been equaled in the history of the world, and in all probability will never be eclipsed. This was due to the mild and healthful climate of this region, and a previous knowledge of its great, but undeveloped agricultural and mineral resources. So great has been the flow of oil near Tulsa, in the north central part of the state, it has been necessary to store it there in an artificial lake or reservoir.

OKLAHOMA

The surface of Oklahoma consists of a gently undulating plain, that gradually ascends from an altitude of 511 feet at Valliant in the southeast to 1197 feet at Oklahoma City, and 1893 at Woodward, the county seat of Woodward county, in the northwest. The principal mountains are the Kiamichi in the southern part of Laflore county, and the Wichita, a forest reserve in Comanche and Swanson counties.

Previous to statehood Indian Territory was divided into 31 recording districts for court purposes. In 1902 when Garvin was founded it became the residence of the judge of the southeastern judicial or recording district, and a small court house was built there for the transaction of the public business. In 1907, when McCurtain county was established, Idabel was chosen as the county seat. The location of Oak Hill Academy proved to be one and a half miles east of the west line of McCurtain county. In 1910 the population of McCurtain county was 20,681, of Oklahoma City 64,205; and of the state of Oklahoma, 1,657,155.

CLEAR CREEK

During the period immediately preceding the incoming of the Hope and Ardmore Railroad in 1902, the most important news and trading center, between Fort Towson and Wheelock, was called "Clear Creek." Clear Creek is a rustling, sparkling little stream of clear water that flows southward in a section of the country where most of the streams are sluggish and of a reddish hue. The Clear Creek post office was located in a little store building a short distance east of this stream and about three miles north of Red river.

A little log court house, for the administration of tribal justice among the Choctaws of that vicinity, a blacksmith shop and a Choctaw church were also located at this place. These varied interests gave to Clear Creek the importance of a miniature county seat until Valliant and Swink were founded.

OAK HILL

During this early period the oak covered ridge, extending several miles east of Clear Creek, was known as Oak Hill and the settlement in its vicinity was called by the same name.

When the first church (1869) and school (1876) were established among the Freedmen in this settlement, the same name was naturally given to both of them. It has adhered to them, amid all the changes that have occurred, since the first meetings were held at the home of Henry Crittenden in 1868.

VALLIANT

Valliant was founded in 1902, and was so named in honor of one of the surveyors of the Hope and Ardmore, a branch of the Frisco railway. It is located in the west end of McCurtain county eight miles north of Red river. It has now a population of 1,000 and a branch railroad running northward.

The country adjacent to the town consists of beautiful valleys and forests heavily set with timber, principally oak, walnut, ash and hickory, and with pine and cedar along the streams. The soil is a rich sandy loam, that is easily cultivated and gives promise of great agricultural and horticultural possibilities. It is in the center of the cotton belt and this staple is proving a very profitable one. The climate is healthful and the locality is unusually free from the prevalence of high winds.

The Choctaw Church, Clear Creek.

The Choctaw Court House, Clear Creek.
Both buildings ceased to be used about 1899.

II

[TOP]

INDIAN SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES

BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR.—EFFECTS OF THE CIVIL WAR.—TRANSFER OF THE FREEDMEN'S WORK.—THE INDIANS MAKE PROGRESS TOWARD CIVILIZATION.—WHEELOCK ACADEMY.—SPENCER ACADEMY.—DOAKSVILLE AND FORT TOWSON.

"God, who hath made of one blood all nations of men and determined the bounds of their habitation, commandeth all men everywhere to repent."—Paul.

Rev. Alexander Reid.
Spencer Academy, 1849-1861.

Rev. John Edwards.
Wheelock Academy, 1853-61; 1882-95.

When Columbus landed on the shores of America, the Indians were the only people he found occupying this great continent. During the long period that has intervened, the Indian has furnished proof, that he possesses all the attributes which God has bestowed upon other members of the human family. He has shown that he has an intellect capable of development, that he is willing to receive instruction and that he is capable of performing any duty required of an American citizen.

Considerable patience however has had to be exercised both by the church in its effort to bring him under the saving influence of the gospel, and by the government in its effort to elevate him to the full standard of citizenship. Results are achieved slowly. His struggles have been many and difficult. He has needed counsel and encouragement at every advancing step.

In the former days, when the Indian supported his family by hunting, trapping and fishing, he moved about from place to place. This was finally checked in Indian Territory by the individual allotment of lands in 1904. He has thus been compelled by the force of circumstances, to change his mode of life. He has gradually discovered he can settle down on his own farm, improve it by the erection of good buildings, and either buy or make the implements he needs for cultivating the soil.

The great commission to the church to "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," will not be completed until the American Indian and the Freedmen, who were his former slaves, have been brought under its uplifting influence.

The Presbyterian church throughout all its history has been the friend and patron of learning and inasmuch as the evangelistic work among the Indians and Freedmen, has been largely dependent on school work for permanent results, it began to establish schools among the Indians at a very early date. The work among the five civilized tribes was begun many years before they were transported from the southern states to Indian Territory. Some of these missionaries migrated with them and continued both their school and church work in the Territory. Rev. Alfred Wright, who organized the Presbyterian church at Wheelock in December, 1832, and died there in 1853, after receiving 570 members into it, began his work as a missionary to the Choctaws in 1820.

The aim of the government in its educational work among the Indians, as elsewhere in the public schools of the country, has been mainly to make them intelligent citizens. The aim of the church, by making the Bible a daily textbook, is to make them happy and hopeful Christians, as well as citizens. In the early days there was great need for this educational work, and in the Presbyterian church it was carried forward by its foreign mission board, with wisdom, energy and success.

In 1861 the Presbyterian church had established and was maintaining six boarding schools with 800 pupils and six day schools among the Indians in the Territory. Two of these schools, Spencer and Wheelock Academies, were located in the southern part of the Choctaw Nation.

In 1840 the Presbytery of Indian was organized and in 1848 the Presbytery of the Creek Nation. In 1861 these included an enrollment of 16 churches with a communicant membership of 1,772.

EFFECTS OF THE CIVIL WAR

At the outbreak of the civil war in 1861, all of these schools and churches were closed, and the next year the Presbyterian church became divided by the organization of the Southern Presbyterian church, under the corporate name, "The Presbyterian Church in the United States."

At the close of the war it was left to the Southern branch of the church to re-establish this school and church work in the Territory. It undertook to do this and carried parts of it alone for a number of years. The task however proved to be too great; the men and means were not available to re-open the boarding schools, and to supply the churches with ministers. The arrangement was accordingly made for the foreign mission board of the Presbyterian church, to resume its former work as fast as workers could be obtained.

In 1879, four ministers returned and opened six churches among the Choctaws, Creeks and Cherokees.

In 1882 Spencer Academy was re-opened at Nelson, by Rev. Oliver P. Starks, a native of Goshen, New York, who, for seventeen years previous to the Civil War, had been a missionary to the Choctaws, having his home at Goodland.

The Indian Mission school at Muskogee was also re-opened that year by Miss Rose Steed.

In the fall of 1883 the Presbytery of Indian Territory was re-established with a membership of 16 ministers, 11 churches, 385 communicants and 676 Sunday school scholars.

In 1884 Wheelock Academy was re-opened by Rev. John Edwards, who for a couple of years previous, had been located at Atoka. This was a return of Edwards to the educational work among the Choctaws. From 1851 to 1853 he served at Spencer Academy, north of Doaksville, and then from 1853 to 1861 had charge of Wheelock Academy, as the successor of Rev. Alfred Wright, its early founder.

In 1883 two teachers were sent, who opened a school among the Creek Freedmen at Muskogee, known as the "Pittsburgh Mission." A teacher was also sent to the Freedmen among the Seminoles.

After a few years the Pittsburgh Mission was transferred from Muskogee to Atoka, where it supplied a real want for a few years longer. In 1904 when adequate provision was first made for the Freedmen in the public schools of that town this mission was discontinued.

TRANSFER OF THE FREEDMEN'S WORK

During this same year, 1884, the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen, Pittsburgh, Pa., received the voluntary transfer from the Southern church of all the work it had developed at that date among the Choctaw Freedmen. This transfer was made in good spirit. The motive that prompted it was the conviction and belief the Presbyterian church could carry it forward more conveniently, aggressively and successfully.

The work that was transferred at this date consisted of Rev. Charles W. Stewart, Doaksville, and the following churches then under his pastoral care, namely: Oak Hill, Beaver Dam, Hebron, New Hope and St. Paul (Eagletown).

Parson Stewart had been licensed about 1867 and ordained a few years later. With a true missionary spirit he had gone into these various settlements and effected the organization of these churches among his people. During the next two years he added to his circuit two more churches, Mount Gilead at Lukfata and Forest, south of Wheelock, and occasionally visited one or two other places.

INDIANS MAKE PROGRESS TOWARDS CIVILIZATION

About the year 1880 the social and moral condition of the Indians in Indian Territory was described as follows:

"About thirty different languages are spoken by the Indians now in the territory. The population of the territory, though principally Indians, includes a lot of white men and negroes, amongst whom intermarriages are frequent. The society ranges from an untutored Indian, with a blanket for his dress and paganism for his religion, to men of collegiate education, who are manifesting their christian culture and training by their earnest advocacy of the christian faith.

"The Cherokees were the first to be brought under direct christian influence and they were probably in the lead of all the Indians on the continent in civilization, or practice of the useful arts and enjoyment of the common comforts of life."

"In 1890, the year following the opening of the first land in the territory to white settlers, the mission work in the territory was described as "very interesting and unique." The Indian population represented every grade of civilization. One might see the several stages of progress from the ignorant and superstitious blanketed Indian on the western reservations to the representatives of our advanced American culture among the five civilized nations. Our missionaries have labored long and successfully and the education, degree of civilization and prosperity enjoyed by the Indians are due principally, if not solely, to the efforts of consecrated men and women, who devoted their lives to this special work. Although their names may not be familiarly known among the churches, none have deserved more honorable mention than these faithful servants of the Master, who selected this particular field of effort for their life work."

"Events are moving rapidly in Indian Territory. Many new lines of railroad have been surveyed, and when they have been built, every part of the Territory will be easily accessible."

"A new judicial system with a complete code of laws has recently been provided, and with liberal provision for Indian citizenship and settlement of the land question it is safe to predict a speedy end to tribal government."

"This means the opening of a vast region to settlement, the establishment of churches and the thorough organization of every form of christian work. For this we must prepare and there is no time to lose. Our churches and schools must be multiplied and our brethren of the ministry must be fully reinforced by competent educated men trained for christian work. What the future has in store for the whole Territory was illustrated by the marvelous rush into and settlement of Oklahoma Territory during the last year."

"A wonderful transformation has taken place. The unbroken prairie of one year ago has been changed to cultivated fields. The tents of boomers have given place to well built homes and substantial blocks of brick and stone. Unorganized communities have now become members of a legally constituted commonwealth. Here are found all the elements of great progress and general prosperity and the future of Oklahoma Territory is full of great promise."

"Here the Presbyterian church has shown itself capable of wrestling with critical social problems and stands today as the leading denomination in missionary enterprise. Every county has its minister and many churches have been organized. Others are underway. With more ministers and liberal aid for the erection of churches the Presbyterian church will do for Oklahoma what it has done for Kansas and the Dakotas."

In 1886 the mission school work among the Indians was transferred from the care of the foreign to the home mission board. Those in charge of the school work of Spencer Academy at Nelson resigned that work and the school was closed.

In 1895 the Mission school work at Wheelock Academy was undertaken and continued thereafter by the Indian Agency, as a school for orphan children of the Indians.

WHEELOCK ACADEMY

Wheelock Academy for nearly four-score years was the most attractive social, educational and religious center in the southeast part of the Choctaw nation. It was located on the main trails running east and west and north and south. But when the Frisco railway came in 1902, it passed two miles south of it, and a half dozen flourishing towns were founded along its line.

There remain to mark this place of early historic interest the two mission school buildings, a strongly built stone church 30 by 50 feet, a two story parsonage and cemetery. The church is of the Gothic style of architecture, tastefully decorated inside and furnished with good pews and pulpit furniture.

REV. ALFRED WRIGHT

Among the many old inscriptions on the grave stones in the Wheelock cemetery, there may be seen the following beautiful record of the work of one, whose long and eminently useful life was devoted to the welfare of the Choctaw people:

SACRED

to the memory of the

REV. ALFRED WRIGHT

who entered into his heavenly rest

March 31, 1853, age 65 years.

Born in Columbia, Connecticut, March 1, 1788.

Appointed Missionary to the Choctaws 1820.

Removed to this land October, 1832.

Organized Wheelock Church December, 1832.

Received to its fellowship 570 members.

AS A MAN

he was intelligent, firm in principle,

prudent in counsel, gentle in spirit,

kindness and gravity,

and conscientious in the discharge of every

relative and social duty.

AS A CHRISTIAN

he was uniform, constant, strong in faith,

and in doctrine, constant and fervent in prayer,

holy in life, filled with the spirit of Christ

and peaceful in death.

AS A PHYSICIAN

he was skillful, attentive, ever ready to relieve

and comfort the afflicted.

AS A TRANSLATOR

he was patient, investigating and diligent,

giving to the Choctaws in their own tongue the

New and part of the Old Testament,

and various other books.

AS A MINISTER

his preaching was scriptural, earnest, practical,

and rich in the full exhibition of Gospel truth.

He was laborious, faithful and successful.

Communion with God, faith in the Lord Jesus,

and reliance upon the aid of the Holy Spirit,

made all his labor sweet to his own soul

and a blessing to others.

In testimony of his worth, and their affection,

his mourning friends erect this

Tablet to his Memory.

"There remaineth therefore a rest to the people

of God."

REV. JOHN EDWARDS

Rev. John Edwards, the successor of Rev. Alfred Wright, was a native of Bath, New York. He graduated from the college at Princeton, New Jersey, in 1848, and from the theological seminary there in 1851. He was ordained by the Presbytery of Indian Territory December 11, 1853.

He became a teacher at Spencer Academy, north of Fort Towson, in 1851, and continued until 1853, when he became the successor of Rev. Alfred Wright as the stated supply of the Choctaw church and superintendent of the academy at Wheelock. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 he passed to California and after teaching two years in San Francisco, served as stated supply of various churches during the next twenty years, having his residence during the latter part of that period at Oakland.

In 1882 he returned and resumed work among the Choctaws, locating first at Atoka. In 1884 he re-opened the academy at Wheelock, and continued to serve as its superintendent until 1895, when it became a government school. He remained the next year in charge of the church. He then returned to California and died at San Jose, at 75, December 18, 1903.

In 1897, Rev. Evan B. Evans, supplied the Choctaw church at Wheelock one year. As its membership of 60 consisted principally of students living at a distance, and they were absent most of the year, the services were then discontinued. A few years later the services were resumed at the town of Garvin, where another stone church was built in 1910, during the efficient ministry of Rev. W. J. Willis.

SPENCER ACADEMY

Rev. Alexander Reid, principal of Spencer Academy, was a native of Scotland, and came to this country in his boyhood. He graduated from the college at Princeton, N. J., in 1845, and the theological seminary there, three years later. He was ordained by the Presbytery of New York in 1849 and accepting a commission to serve as a missionary to the Indians of the Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory, was immediately appointed superintendent of Spencer Academy, ten miles north of Fort Towson.

He was accompanied by Rev. Alexander J. Graham, a native of Newark, New Jersey, who served as a teacher in the academy. The latter was a roommate of Reid's at Princeton seminary, and his sister became Reid's wife. At the end of his first year of service he returned to Lebanon Springs, New York, for the recovery of his health, and died there July 23, 1850. Rev. John Edwards immediately became his successor as a teacher.

Alexander Reid while pursuing his studies, learned the tailor's trade at West Point and this proved a favorable introduction to his work among the Choctaws. They were surprised and greatly pleased on seeing that he had already learned the art of sitting on the ground "tailor fashion" according to their own custom.

The academy under Reid enjoyed a prosperous career of twelve years. In 1861, when the excitement of war absorbed the attention of everybody, the school work was abandoned. Reid, however, continued to serve as a gospel missionary among the Indians until 1869, when he took his family to Princeton, New Jersey, to provide for the education of his children.

While ministering to the spiritual needs of the Indians his sympathies and interest were awakened by the destitute and helpless condition of their former slaves. In 1878 he resumed work as a missionary to the Choctaws making his headquarters at or near Atoka and in 1882 he was appointed by the Foreign Mission Board, superintendent of mission work among the Freedmen in Indian Territory. In this capacity he aided in establishing neighborhood schools wherever teachers could be found. In order that a number of them might be fitted for teaching, he obtained permission of their parents to take a number of bright looking and promising young people to boarding schools, maintained by our Freedmen's Board in Texas, Mississippi and North Carolina. He thus became instrumental in preparing the way, and advised the development of the native Oak Hill School into an industrial and normal boarding school.

In 1884, owing to failing health, he went to the home of his son, Rev. John G. Reid (born at Spencer Academy in 1854), at Greeley, Colorado, and died at 72 at Cambridgeport, near Boston, July 30, 1890.

"He was a friend to truth, of soul sincere, of manners unaffected and of mind enlarged, he wished the good of all mankind."

UNCLE WALLACE AND AUNT MINERVA

Uncle Wallace and Aunt Minerva were two of the colored workers that were employed at Spencer Academy, before the war. They lived together in a little cabin near it. In the summer evenings they would often sit at the door of the cabin and sing their favorite plantation songs, learned in Mississippi in their early youth.

In 1871, when the Jubilee singers first visited Newark, New Jersey, Rev. Alexander Reid happened to be there and heard them. The work of the Jubilee singers was new in the North and attracted considerable and very favorable attention. But when Prof. White, who had charge of them, announced several concerts to be given in different churches of the city he added,

"We will have to repeat the Jubilee songs as we have no other."

When Mr. Reid was asked how he liked them he remarked,

"Very well, but I have heard better ones."

When he had committed to writing a half dozen of the plantation songs he had heard "Wallace and Minerva" sing with so much delight at old Spencer Academy, he met Mr. White and his company in Brooklyn, New York, and spent an entire day rehearsing them. These new songs included,

"Steal away to Jesus."
"The Angels are Coming,"
"I'm a Rolling," and "Swing Low."

"Steal Away to Jesus" became very popular and was sung before Queen Victoria.

The Hutchinson family later used several of them in their concerts, rendering "I'm a Rolling," with a trumpet accompaniment to the words:

"The trumpet sounds in my soul,
I haint got long to stay here."

These songs have now been sung around the world.

When one thinks of the two old slaves singing happily together at the door of their humble cabin, amid the dreary solitudes of Indian Territory, and the widely extended results that followed, he cannot help perceiving in these incidents a practical illustration of the way in which our Heavenly Father uses "things that are weak," for the accomplishment of his gracious purposes. They also serve to show how little we know of the future use God will make of the lowly service any of us may now be rendering.

These two slaves giving expression to their devotional feelings in simple native songs, unconsciously exerted a happy influence, that was felt even in distant lands; an influence that served to attract attention and financial support to an important institution, established for the education of the Freedmen.

NEW SPENCER ACADEMY

In the fall of 1881 the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions re-established Spencer Academy in a new location where the postoffice was called, Nelson, ten miles southwest of Antlers and twenty miles west of old Spencer, now called Spencerville.

Rev. Oliver P. Stark, the first superintendent of this institution, died there at the age of 61, March 2, 1884. He was a native of Goshen, New York, and a graduate of the college and Theological Seminary at Princeton, N. J. In 1851, he was ordained by the Presbytery of Indian which, as early as 1840, had been organized to include the missions of the American Board.

As early as 1849, while he was yet a licentiate, he was commissioned as a missionary to the Choctaws, and, locating at Goodland, remained in charge of the work in that section until 1866, a period of seventeen years. During the next thirteen years he served as principal of the Lamar Female Seminary at Paris, Texas. His next and last work was the development of the mission school for the Choctaws at Nelson, which had formed a part of his early and long pastorate.

Rev. Harvey R. Schermerhorn, became the immediate successor of Mr. Stark as superintendent of the new Spencer Academy and continued to serve in that capacity until 1890, when the mission work among the Indians was transferred from the Foreign to the care of the Home Mission Board. The school was then discontinued and he became pastor of the Presbyterian church at Macalester. After a long and very useful career he is now living in retirement at Hartshorne.

These incidents, relating to the work of the Presbyterian church among the Indians, especially the Choctaws, have been narrated, because the men who had charge of these two educational institutions at Wheelock and Spencer Academies, were very helpful in effecting the organization of Presbyterian churches, the establishment of Oak Hill Academy and a number of neighborhood schools among the Freedmen in the south part of the Choctaw Nation.

DOAKSVILLE AND FORT TOWSON

Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, an early Presbyterian missionary to the Choctaws, was located at Doaksville near old Fort Towson. He secured the erection of an ample church building and rendered many years of faithful service. He died and was buried in the cemetery at that place in 1870.

Doaksville, though no longer entitled to a place on the map, is the name of an important pioneer Indian village. Here the once proud and powerful Choctaws established themselves during the later twenties, and were regarded as happy and prosperous before the Civil War.

Fort Towson was built by the government to protect them from incursions on the part of the wild Kiowas and Comanches, who still roamed over the plains of Texas. The name of Ulyses S. Grant was associated with it just before the Mexican war. The generous hospitality of Col. Garland, who died there after a long period of service, is still gratefully remembered.

During its most prosperous days, which were long before the Civil War, a considerable number of aristocratic Choctaws, claiming large plantations in the neighboring valleys, dwelt there near each other. Some were men of culture and university education, while others were ignorant and superstitious. Some had previously enjoyed the acquaintance and friendship of Andrew Jackson and Zachary Taylor, and greatly appreciated the privilege of manifesting their chivalrous spirit. Berthlett's store, now used as a stable, was a noted trading establishment and place of social resort. Its owner was a native of Canada, who had come to live among the Choctaws.

While living in this beautiful country, where they were paternally protected from poverty at home and the encroachments of enemies abroad it has been said they were so addicted to private quarrels and fatal combats, that there was scarcely a Choctaw family that did not have its tragedy of blood. These fatal tribal feuds, however, seldom occurred except on gala days, and the preparations therefor included a supply of "fire-water."

The old Doaksville cemetery occupies the slope of a hillside near a little stream skirted with timber. Some of the leading pioneers of the Choctaw nation were buried here. The marble tablets that mark their graves were brought by steam boat from New Orleans, up the Mississippi and Red rivers to a landing four miles south. Some of the graves are walled and covered with a marble slab, while others are marked by the erection over them of oddly shaped little houses. In the early days, the full-bloods were in the habit of burying with the body some favorite trinket or article of personal adornment. Many of the grave stones attest the fact that the deceased while living enjoyed a good hope of a blessed immortality through our Lord Jesus Christ.

III

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THE BIBLE AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN CIVILIZATION AND EDUCATION

THE BIBLE A POWER IN THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER.—THE ARCHITECT GREATER THAN THE CATHEDRAL.—THE BIBLE THE BASIS OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.—VALLEY OF DIAMONDS.—IMPORTANCE OF CHRISTIAN TEACHERS.

"From a child thou hast known the HOLY SCRIPTURES, which are able to make thee Wise unto Salvation."

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for instruction; That the man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works."—Paul

Whilst our religious educational institutions where unsectarian instruction in the Bible is fundamental, have been producing good results of the highest order, those educational institutions where only secular instruction is given, have been contributing a very small proportion of the world's consecrated moral leaders. Of 1,600 home missionaries, 1,503 received their training in Christian educational institutions. Of 600 foreign missionaries, 551 received their training in Christian educational institutions.

It is not correct to say that one standard of education is as good as another. Fourteen American colleges, recently established in China by the Christian Missionaries, though only meagerly equipped, but manned by those of un-questioned Christian character, and teaching the plain saving truths of the Bible, have become educational centers, from which have gone out the leaders in a peaceful revolution that occurred there in 1912, that have brought the boon of civil and religious liberty to one-fourth of the population of the world. Under the beneficent influence of a few Christian leaders this ancient empire has been lifted off its hinges and a new life and spirit of progress have been infused into a civilization, hoary with centuries of stagnant heathenism. In this wonderful transformation, effected by trained Christian teachers, the church and the world have seen the fulfillment of the Bible prediction, "A nation shall be born in a day."

Training for a noble Christian life is many times better than training merely to make a living. The demand for good and true men, to serve as leaders in church and state was never greater than at present. The aim of the church is to supply the world with capable leaders that are "Christ-led and Bible-fed."

A right education knows no limit of breadth. It includes a knowledge of the Infinite as well as the finite. It recognizes the fact that finite things can not be rightly understood without knowing their relation to the Infinite. Our Lord Jesus, who came into the world to make known the will of the Father, "holds in his girdle the key to all the secrets of the universe, and no education can be thorough without the knowledge of Him."

Christian schools are established for the culture of souls. Their aim is to develop men and women as persons to the full extent of their powers for the sake of their contribution to the personal welfare and progress of society.

THE BIBLE A POWER IN THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER

All things being equal the thorough Christian makes a better mechanic, a better farmer, a better housekeeper, teacher, doctor, lawyer or business man, than one who is not a Christian. It is the work of a Bible school of instruction to equip its graduates with the very best elements of character and progress, and send them forth tempered and polished for the conquest of the world.

The young have characters to be molded, ideals to be formed, capacities to be enlarged, an efficiency that may be increased, an energy to be centralized, and a hope and faith to be strengthened. The Bible, in the hands of the tactful and faithful Christian teacher accomplishes all of these results, by its precepts and interesting biographies.

The Bible, furnishes the young correct ideals of a noble and useful manhood. The common greed for money, position and outward appearance is weighed in the balance and found wanting.

The Bible is the fountain of all true character, and furnishes the means for the betterment of one's self. It furnished the principles and ideals that enabled Washington, Lincoln, Frances Willard, Queen Victoria, Gladstone and others, to achieve greatness as statesmen, rulers or national leaders; and enabled Gary, Judson, Moffat, Livingstone and others to invade dark, dangerous continents that they might become heralds of gospel light and liberty where they were most needed. "Buy the truth, sell it not, and the truth shall make you free," was the ringing message they proclaimed to men, women and children.

THE ARCHITECT GREATER THAN THE CATHEDRAL

A tourist, visiting the famous cathedral at Milan, expressed his great surprise at the wonderful vision and perfect ideal of the man, who designed it. A guide remarked, that the mind of the architect, who wrought out the hundred striking features of the design, was greater than the magnificent cathedral. This led another to remark, "Only a mind inspired by Christ could have designed this wonderful building," How true! The love of Christ constrains his people to bring to his service and worship their noblest powers of mind and body.

When the tourist viewed the works of art, which included some of the world's most famous statuary and paintings, he found the master pieces of Michael Angelo, the sculptor, were Moses and David, both of them characters from the Bible; and the most wonderful paintings were those of the person of our Lord Jesus, the only Redeemer of the world.

Hayden and Handel, two of the world's most famous musical composers, were inspired to write their great choral masterpieces, the "Creation" and the "Messiah" as a result of their careful study of the sacred scriptures.

The best the world has produced in law, literature, poetry, music, art and architecture has been the embodiment of ideals, that have received their inspiration from reading God's Holy Word, and experiencing saving knowledge of the redeeming work of His blessed Son.

Abraham continues to be the "father of the faithful;" Moses, author of the Pentateuch, continues to be the world's greatest lawgiver and leader of men; Joshua effecting the conquest of Canaan on the principle, "Divide and Conquer," continues to be the inspirer of successful military strategists; David author of Psalms, continues to be the world's greatest poet; Joseph, Daniel and Isaiah, continue to be the best ideals for rulers and their counselors; Nehemiah, the best representative of a progressive and successful man of affairs; Peter and John, the most noted examples of loyalty to truth; Paul, the most zealous advocate of a great cause; and our Lord Jesus continues to be the ideal of the world's greatest teachers and benefactors.

THE BASIS OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

"The Bible, the basis of moral instruction in the public school," was the interesting theme of an address it was the privilege of the author to deliver at a teachers' institute forty years ago, when engaged in teaching in central Pennsylvania. The conviction then became indelibly impressed, that the Bible is really the basis of the American public school system. The fact is now noted with a good deal of interest, that the legislature of Pennsylvania in 1913, enacted a law, distinctly recognizing this fact, and providing that at least ten verses from the Bible shall be read every school day, in the presence of the scholars in every public school within the bounds of the state. Every teacher refusing to comply with this law is subject to dismissal.

Every state in the Union should have a law of this kind. The Bible is not merely the book of books, it is the only one that has correct ideals for young people. It awakens the desire for more knowledge and inspires the courage to do right.

THE VALLEY OF DIAMONDS

Ruskin, in "The Ethics of Dust", referring to the valley of diamonds, remarks that "many people go to real places and never see them; and many people pass through this valley of diamonds and never see it."

One great object to be attained in the education of the mind is to awaken an earnest desire for truth. All real life, whether it be in the school, shop or field, consists in using aright the true principles of life, that are found in the Word of God. Every human heart, that has been illuminated by this Word of Truth, finds that along the pathway that leads to God, there are hidden the gems and jewels of eternal truth, that prevail in every department of life. These gems are hidden only from the careless and indifferent. Those that make a diligent search are sure to find them. This longing desire for truth is not only the mark of a good student, but the assurance also that such a one, if circumstances are favorable will continue to make progress after school days have ended.

Many pupils, during their youthful school days, fail to perceive the real mission of their education. They do not then fully appreciate the real gold of truth, that cultivates in them "those general charities of heart, sincerities of thought, and graces of habit, which are likely to lead them, throughout life to prefer frankness to affectation, reality to shadows, and beauty to corruption." This enlightenment is pretty sure to come to them later, if the Bible has been their daily text book.

THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER

The acceptance of the Bible as the Word of God should be regarded as essential, on the part of all teachers of children and youth.

If the Bible is the great fountain of saving truth and the highest authority on human conduct, and it is to be used as a daily text book, then, it naturally follows, the teacher should be "a workman approved unto God, apt to teach and rightly dividing the word of truth." Persons who do not believe in the Bible do not care to teach it, and when they are required to do so, they are pretty sure to vaunt their unbelief. The influence of such teachers tends to establish unbelief instead of awakening a longing desire for more truth.

Emerson in one of his essays, after pressing the fact that the soul is the receiver and revealer of truth, states an undeniable fact, when he says:

"That which we are, we shall teach, not voluntarily but involuntarily. Thoughts go out of our minds through avenues, which we never voluntarily opened. Character teaches over our head. The infallible index of true progress is found in the tone the man takes. Neither his age, nor his breeding, nor his company, nor books, nor actions, nor talents, nor all together can hinder him from being deferential to a higher spirit than his own. If he has not found his home in God, his manners, his form of speech, the turn of his sentences, the build, shall I say of all his opinions, will involuntarily confess it, let him brave it out how he will."

The longings of the human heart are unsatisfied, until the soul finds its home in God, its creator and preserver. Teachers that ignore this fact, lack one thing that is vitally important. Our Lord Jesus, the great teacher, expressed its relative importance when he said: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you."

A RAILROAD PRESIDENT

James J. Hill, a prominent railroad president recently made this important statement:

"We are making a mistake to train our young people in various lines of knowledge for undertaking the big tasks of life, without making sure also that those fundamental principles of right and wrong as taught in the Bible, have become a part of their equipment. There is a control of forces and motives, that is essential to the management of the vast affairs of our nation, which comes only through an educated conscience; and to fail to equip young men, who are to manage the great affairs of the future, with this control and direction, is a serious mistake of the age and bears with it a certain menace for the future."

In a recent issue of the Assembly Herald there appeared the following very pertinent paragraphs on this subject, credited to the Synod of Tennessee:

"In common with all good citizens, we rejoice in the progress of the cause of popular education in our land. The intelligence of our citizenship is a bulwark to the country. But unless the education of the future citizen is complete and symmetrical, the body politic becomes a body partly of iron and partly of potter's clay. The education of the head and the hand without the heart is not enough.

"The popular education has no place for the heart in all of its splendid equipment. This is not a reflection on the fine system. It is merely the statement of a melancholy fact. The average state school, high or low, is absolutely colorless as to religion. Even the morality that is taught is not the morality of the Christian religion, but of philosophical ethics that differ but little from the ethics of the pagan.

"Our state schools have no place for the God of the Bible, nor for the Bible of the only living and true God. The poetry of Homer and Horace are sufficiently honored, but the finer poetry of Moses, Job and David are unknown in the courses of study of our schools, except now and then as specimens of Oriental song. The wise sayings of Plato and Socrates are reckoned worthy of profound study, while the vastly greater sayings of our Lord Jesus and Paul are unknown. Cicero and Demosthenes are commended as great models of public address, while Isaiah and Ezekiel are seldom mentioned in the four years of college life, or in the longer years of the secondary schools.

"That education is incomplete and inadequate for life's best, which does not include the whole man, and put first things first. If the heart be not educated and the conscience be not enlightened, the best trained hand may strike in a wrong manner, and the best trained mind pronounce wrong judgments.... Our citizenship must be Christian if it is to promote a Christian civilization."

IV

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THE AMERICAN NEGRO

RELIGIOUS INSTINCT.—LOYAL AND PATRIOTIC.—THE FREEDMAN.—HOMELESS AND ILLITERATE WHEN EMANCIPATED.—FIRST SCHOOLS DURING THE CIVIL WAR.—FREE NEGROES AND COLLEGE GRADUATES.—50th ANNIVERSARY.

"All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee and glorify thy name." David.

RELIGIOUS INSTINCT

In commendation of woman's loyalty and sense of obligation to our Lord Jesus, it has been said of her, "She was last at his cross and first at his grave, she staid longest there and was soonest here." In recognition of this fact when he rose from the dead he appeared first to one of them, Mary Magdalene.

To the credit of men of African descent, it may be said, that one of them performed the last act of kindness to our Lord Jesus, and the first individual conversion, of which we have an account in the book of Acts, relates to another one.

Simon, who assisted Jesus to bear his cross to the place of crucifixion, was a native of Cyrene in North Africa. The eastern church canonized him as Simon, the Black one, because his was the high and holy honor of bearing for the weary Christ, his cross of shame and pain. Our Lord Jesus was not long in the black man's debt. A few hours later, he paid it back by bearing for him all his weary burdens, on the very cross the African had borne for him. That was a good start for the Black man.

Philip, directed by an angel of the Lord to go south and join himself to the chariot occupied by the Eunuch, a man of great authority under the Queen of Ethiopia, found him reading the prophet Isaiah. Explaining the scriptures to him the eunuch confessed his faith in Jesus, was baptized with water found at the roadside and resumed his journey, homeward from Jerusalem, rejoicing. The record of this Black man's conversion is the first one of an individual in the book of Acts.

The religious trait of the American Negro has often been the subject of favorable comment. He has never, in all his history, been swayed by the false teachings of infidels, atheists or anarchists.

Dan Crawford, a Scotch missionary, the successor of Livingstone in the central part of the dark continent, recently stated he had discovered the fact, that the most ignorant and degraded natives of central Africa, have a religious instinct, that includes a belief in one God and the immortality of the soul.

Penetrating the jungles of the interior beyond the reach of a previous explorer, he found a tribe of nearly nude cannibals. He saw one of them eating human flesh. Meeting Ka la ma ta, their chief, the next day in the presence of several hundred of his tribe, he made special inquiry in regard to their knowledge of God. The result was an astounding surprise.

Kalamata, gave their name of God as Vi de Mu ku lu the Great King. When further questioned he said:

"We know there is a God for the same reason we know where the goats went on a wet night, when we see their deep foot-prints in the mud. We see the sun and the sun sees us. We see the wonderful mountains and the flowing streams, and both tell us there is a God. He is the one who sends the rain. No rain, nothing to eat; no God, no anything."

Concerning a future life he expressed the thought, the body is the cottage of the soul. The dead do not really die. When one dies they do not say, "he departed", but "he has arrived."

The American Negro, like his native ancestor, has always manifested this religious instinct.

Under the influence of a natural instinct the bee invariably builds its cell in the same form for the next brood and the storage of honey for it; the butterfly prepares the cradle and food for offspring it never sees, and the migratory birds follow the sun northward in the spring and southward on the approach of winter. All this is natural instinct.

Religious instinct is something very different from the natural instinct of any creature. It is a natural power possessed by man alone, and has its sphere in the human conscience. Paul, writing to the Romans in regard to the barbarians of his day, observed, "God is manifest in them, for the invisible things of God, even his eternal power and God-head, are clearly seen by the things that are made."

LOYAL AND PATRIOTIC

The Negro in America has always been loyal and patriotic. He has rendered a voluntary service in the army and navy of the United States that is worthy of special commendation. The records of the war department show that the number of colored soldiers, participating in the several wars of this country was as follows:

Revolutionary War, 1775-17813,000
War of 18122,500
Civil War, 1861-1865178,975

In the war with Spain in Cuba in 1898 the first troops that were sent to the front were four regiments of colored soldiers, and the service they rendered was distinguished by bravery and courage.

THE FREEDMAN, HOMELESS AND ILLITERATE

In 1860 the number of Negroes that were in a state of slavery was 3,930,760. In 1910 their number in the southern states had increased to 9,000,000; and in the northern states to 1,078,000.

The Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln was issued January 1, 1863, but it was preceded by a preliminary one on September 22, 1862, that gave the public a notice of 100 days of the coming event.

The Act of Emancipation that severed the relation binding them to their masters, left them in a very forlorn and deplorable condition. They were homeless and penniless in a country, that had been rendered more or less desolate, by the ravages of war and bloodshed. No provision had ever been made for the spread of intelligence among them. It has been estimated that only about five per cent of them at that time could read and write. Their homeless and illiterate condition rendered them comparatively helpless and dependent.

In 1885 the number of voters enrolled among the Freedmen was 1,420,000 and of these as many as 1,065,000 were then unable to read and write. These illiterate voters then represented the balance of power in eight southern states and one sixth of the national electoral vote. This was a matter of vital importance to the nation as well as the states.

In 1900 the percentage of the Freedmen that could read and write had been increased to 55.5 per cent and in 1910 to 69.3 per cent.

At this latter date however only 56.3 per cent of their children, of a school age, were enrolled as attending school, which left more than one million yet to be provided for.

FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOL

The first day school among the Freedmen was established at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, by the American Missionary Association on September 17, 1861. This school became the foundation of Hampton Institute, to which the ragged urchin wended his way on foot and slept the first night under a wooden pavement, that has since been known as Booker T. Washington.

In 1862 similar schools were established at Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Newport News, Virginia; Newbern and Roanoke Island, North Carolina, and Port Royal, South Carolina. In December of that year Gen. Grant assigned Col. John Eaton the supervision of the Freedmen in Arkansas, with instruction to establish schools where practical.

After the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, schools for the Negroes began to be established in those parts of the south occupied by the Federal armies, General Banks establishing the first ones in Louisiana.

In 1865 the Freedman's Bureau was established, and it made the maintenance of schools one of its objects until 1870, when it was discontinued. The work has since been left to the supervision of the several states, aided by the generosity of the friends of Christian education through the missionary agencies of their respective churches.

It is estimated that since 1870 the Freedmen, who constitute nearly one half the population of the southern states have received for the support of their schools, only one eighth of the public funds appropriated for the maintenance of common schools. In the rural districts teachers only are furnished, and these are supplied on the condition the Freedmen in the district build, furnish and maintain the school building, the same as they do their church buildings.

The number of free Negroes in the United States in 1860 was 487,970. The states having the greatest number of them were Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.

A few of these had become graduates of colleges before the war and were thus fitted for intelligent leadership. The beginning and increase in number of these colored college graduates has been as follows; In 1829, 1; in 1849, 7; in 1859, 12; in 1869, 44; in 1879, 313; in 1899, 1,126; and in 1909, 1,613. About 700 of them have graduated from our northern colleges the largest number having attended Oberlin college at Oberlin, Ohio, and Lincoln University at Oxford, Pennsylvania. In 1910 the whole number that had graduated was 3,856.

50th ANNIVERSARY

The 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation was observed by a number of the states in September, 1913. In Pennsylvania it consisted of an exposition at the city of Philadelphia, that lasted one month. The exhibit, showing the progress of the negroes from their infantile condition of 50 years ago, was characterized as "wonderful", and the occasion, one for devout thanksgiving and encouragement on the part of those, who have labored patiently and faithfully for their civil, social, moral or religious development.

The Presbyterian was the only one of the white churches that attempted an exhibit of its work at this exposition. Its exhibit consisted of photographs of churches and schools, and accounts of the results of the work. It included specimens of industrial work done in the schools by the sewers, cabinet workers and other artisans. It was under the direction of Rev. John M. Gaston, field secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen.

V

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THE PROBLEM OF THE FREEDMAN

DIFFERENT STANDPOINTS.—REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS.—13th, 14th AND 15th AMENDMENTS.—NEGRO SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES.—DISFRANCHISEMENTS.—RESULTS CONTRARY TO EXPECTATION.—PROVIDENTIAL LEADING OF JOSEPH, ISRAEL, NEHEMIAH AND DANIEL SUGGESTIVE.—A DIVINE MISSION.—THE FREEDMAN'S FRIENDS.—FRIENDLY COUNSELS.—THE GOLDEN RULE.

"Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before thy face."

"Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people."

The "Problem of the Negro" is an old and familiar phrase. It relates to the fact, that, however many and great have been the benefits derived from his labor and loyalty, the best management of him has been a troublesome problem to the statesmen of this country, ever since the declaration of independence, and especially the Freedman, since his emancipation.

Like a prism or cube, this problem has several sides, but unlike these symbols, its various sides are unlike each other. The solution of it has always appeared to be different when viewed from different angles of vision. Observers in one part of our country unite in saying, "this is the best way to solve this problem," while others in another section insist, they know a better way. The statesman views it from one point of view, the labor leader from another and the Christian philanthropist from still another standpoint.

The first part of this problem, the one relating to the fact of his freedom, has already been solved. The solution of this introductory part of the problem caused preliminary struggles in Kansas and other places, including the Civil War. It served to bring out that which was noblest and best in Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederic Douglass, Henry Ward Beecher, Horace Greeley, Charles Summer, Abraham Lincoln and others.

The parts that remain to be solved relate to his uplift from ignorance, poverty and degradation, to the attainment of the ability to support himself, by a fair chance in the labor market, and the enjoyment of approved educational, religious and political privileges.

He has been accorded the right to own property, and is enjoying that right to the full extent of his ability to acquire and hold it.

He has been accorded limited educational and religious privileges, and has made a very commendable progress along both of these lines.

It is at this point we reach the difficult and unsolved part of the problem.

The intelligent and prosperous portion of them in the South, though native and loyal Americans, are discriminated against, and denied rights and recognitions, that are accorded other nationalities, though illiterate. The popular reason assigned, for locally withholding from all of them certain privileges of citizenship, is the fact that a great number of them continue to be illiterate.

In several of the states the Freedman is denied the privilege of enjoying the instruction of competent white teachers in their state and public schools, and in all of them he is prohibited from attending white schools, as in Pennsylvania and other northern states. The discriminations against them are so general, that it is almost impossible for any of them to acquire skill as workmen, or become fitted to serve their own people in the professions, except from those of their own number, or institutions of learning provided specially for them.

REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS

During the last forty years, the Freedmen have been counted as a part of the population, in apportioning the districts for the election of Representatives in the Congress of the United States. This inclusion of their number, in the arrangement of the districts, has enabled the states to which they belong, to have a considerable number of additional congressmen, that they would not have had, if the districts had been arranged according to the white population, which alone has been permitted to vote.

Since 1910 the additional number of Congressmen representing the suppressed vote of the Freedmen, has been 32 in a total of 82 members. These additional representatives, based on the population representing the suppressed vote of the Freedmen, have come from the different states as follows: Alabama, 5; Arkansas, 2; Florida, 1; Georgia, 6; Louisiana, 4; Mississippi, 5; North Carolina, 4; South Carolina, 4; Texas, 1. Total, 32.

This is an unexpected and a rather anomalous condition. It places the Freedmen in this country on a plane somewhat similar to that accorded the Philippines and Porto Ricans, as regards the matter of government and participation therein.

It also, however, suggests the goal towards which education, religion and consequent material prosperity are gradually uplifting the race. This goal is clearly expressed in the following amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION

Article XIII. Section I. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.—(Ratified Dec. 18, 1865.)

Article XIV. Section I. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law, which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for president and vice-president of the United States, representatives in congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion, which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.—(Ratified July 28, 1868.)

Article XV. Section I. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

Section 2. The congress shall have power to enforce this article (or these articles) by appropriate legislation.—(Ratified March 30, 1870.)

NEGRO SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES

As a result of these amendments two negroes, one free born, the other a Freedman were elected to the United States senate, namely, Hiram R. Revels, 1870-1871; and Blanche K. Bruce, 1875-1881, both from Mississippi.

Twenty others have enjoyed the privilege of serving as representatives in congress, during the thirty-two years intervening between 1869 and 1901. The first of these was Jefferson Long of Georgia, who served alone in 1869 and 1870. During the next four years 1871 to 1874, there were four representatives, representing Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and South Carolina, the last having two colored representatives during this entire period. Their number was then reduced to two representatives, and finally to none since 1901, save that there were three during the terms commencing 1877, 1881 and 1883. Their last representatives were George W. Murray of South Carolina, 1893 to 1897; and George H. White of North Carolina, 1897 to 1901.

Five of these twenty representatives were re-elected and served terms of four years; three served six years, and Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina enjoyed the unusual privilege of serving ten years, 1875 to 1885. Eight of them were from South Carolina, four from North Carolina, three from Alabama and one from Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Virginia.

DISFRANCHISEMENTS

During the seventies and eighties the Freedmen were to a considerable extent disfranchised by means of "election devices, practices and intimidations."

Since 1890, when Mississippi took the lead, a number of the states have passed laws restricting the right of suffrage on their part to such tests as the payment of their annual taxes, previous to a certain date; ownership of a certain amount of land or personal property, the ability to read and write the constitution of the state or of the United States, and the "Grandfather Clause" which permits one unable to meet the educational or property tests to continue to vote, if he enjoyed that privilege, or is a lineal descendant of one that did so, previous to the date mentioned therein, usually 1867.

The following states have enacted laws containing the "Grandfather Clause:" South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and in 1910, Oklahoma. This part of the Oklahoma statute reads as follows:

"But no person who was on January 1, 1866, or at any time prior thereto, entitled to vote under any form of government, or who at that time resided in some foreign nation, and no lineal descendant of such person shall be denied the right to register and vote because of his inability to so read and write such Constitution."

RESULT CONTRARY TO EXPECTATION

This historic record, of representation in the highest legislative council of the nation, is very suggestive. That the Freedmen should have been accorded the largest number of representatives just after the dawn of freedom, when their general condition has always been described as extremely deplorable, that this number should have been gradually diminished with the spread of intelligence among them; and that finally they should have no representative during the last thirteen years, when their progress in education and material prosperity has been, at their fiftieth anniversary, declared to be "wonderful," certainly does not seem to be in accordance with what one intuitively would expect to be the natural order of things.

It is quite natural the present order of things should awaken and develop a feeling of protest on the part of the Freedmen, for they appreciate rights and privileges as well as other races and nations.

Their segregation, enforced on all alike in cities, public places and conveyances results also in many disappointing and humiliating experiences to those who are leaders among them.

The existing order is, however, an expression of local public sentiment and of the wisest statesmanship of those, who claim to be the best friends of the Freedman, because they live nearest to him and know better than others how to provide for his needs, including rights and privileges.

He enjoys the privileges of public protection to life, property and the pursuit of happiness, but to a considerable extent is denied the privilege of representation in making laws and exercising the power of government.

These historic facts relating to the gradual curtailment of the privilege of representation in legislation and government have been noted, not merely because they form an important part in a full statement of the negro problem, but as a prelude to the following facts, and suggestions to the Freedmen.

PROVIDENTIAL LEADING

The history of the negro in America has been one of providential leading and apparently to enable him to work out his own destiny. From the time the Dutch slave ship in 1619 landed the first importation, consisting of 20 slaves, at Jamestown, Virginia, to the present time, every important event or change in his condition has come to him from others, who without aid or suggestion from him have been moved to act for him.

The experience of Joseph, in passing through the pit and the prison, on the way to his real mission, the experience of Israel in Egypt from the death of Joseph until the time of their deliverance at the Red Sea, and the experience of Nehemiah and Daniel, captives at Babylon, who were there providentially led and prepared for the most signal services of their lives, seem like historic parallels flashing from inspired Bible story, their comforting and prophetic light on the servile and dark experiences of the negro in America.

In all of these instances the persons were subject to the control of others, the way seemed dark, trying and utterly disappointing, and the opportunities, that prepared the way for important transitions, came unsought and in ways wholly unexpected. The things that proved of greatest importance in every instance were the intelligence, integrity, patience and piety of the individual.

The God-fearing integrity of Joseph was expressed when he resisted a great temptation by saying, "How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"

Israel in Egypt submissively and obediently undertook to make the full tale of brick when unsympathetic taskmasters withheld the usual and necessary amount of straw.

Nehemiah, a captive cup-bearer of a heathen prince, won his confidence and when honorably permitted to return and rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, nobly answered his idle opposers, "I am doing a great work I cannot come down to you."

Daniel, when a captive youth, "purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the King's meat or the wine which he drank," or be swerved from his fidelity to the living and true God by threats of the lion's den. When the lives of the wise men of Babylon were in danger of being suddenly taken by royal command, he is introduced to King Nebuchadnezzar with the significant words, "I have found a MAN of the captives of Judah that will make known to the King the interpretation." He was a man whose power of vision enabled him to forecast the future correctly and possessed the courage to act prudently. Though a captive and denied many privileges, he proved himself an intelligent and trustworthy man and, serving as a special counsellor of five successive heathen kings, achieved for himself the worthy reputation of being the greatest statesman of his age.

All of these men discovered, that their imprisonment or captivity was a part of the divine plan, that providentially led and prepared them for their real mission, which in each instance proved to be one of prominent usefulness.

All of them were true patriots, but none of them were "office seekers" or "corrupt politicians." They loved more than any other their own native land, because of its sacred literature and religious institutions, but they were loyal and true to those who ruled over them in a foreign land. If any of them had manifested a political ambition, the divine plan, in regard to their promotion and usefulness, would have been immediately frustrated, and the memory of their names would have perished with their generation.

A DIVINE MISSION

May we not believe that God had a plan and purpose, in bringing the negro to the christian colonies, that established our government on the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty. His condition during the period of servitude, which lasted 246 years, was perhaps in many places but little worse than that of most of his kinsmen in Africa, during this same period; while now, at the end of the first fifty years of freedom, the condition and prospects of the intelligent and prosperous ones among them, are declared to be better than those enjoyed by their kinsmen, any where on earth.

THE FREEDMAN'S FRIENDS

The Freedman has hosts of friends, who are interested in his welfare. He has interested neighbors, amongst whom he lives, and also friends at a distance. Both are trying to solve the problem of his true relation to American institutions and privileges. While both have been co-operating together to a considerable extent and in a very commendable manner for the betterment of his condition, it remains to note however that if one is considered by the other as moving too slowly, or too rapidly, one acts as a gentle spur or check to the other.

This is the harmonizing process that is now going on among the friends of the Freedman. He is scarcely regarded as a participating factor in this harmonizing process. There are times when to him every new event seems to be one moving him in the wrong direction. His natural impulse, on experiencing these apparently adverse movements, is to raise the voice of bitter complaint against one set of his friends. When this is done in a personal or partisan way it is offensive and always does more harm than good. This method of procedure should therefore never be approved or adopted.

FRIENDLY COUNSELS

A respectful protest against a wrong and an appeal to have it removed, addressed to the person or body having the power to remove it, is an inherent right and a proper method of procedure whenever deemed advisable.

"Love thy neighbor as thyself" should be regarded as a fundamental principle by every Freedman. When the herdmen of Abraham and Lot had a little trouble over cattle and pastures, Abraham, who had received all the land by promise and Lot was really a troublesome intruder, discovered the greatness of his soul and settled the difficulty by saying to Lot,

"Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren.

"Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself from me, if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left."

Do not become impatient. Your friends at a distance, especially those in the churches, are generously endeavoring to help you to climb the ladder of progress, until a larger proportion of the race has been uplifted to the plane of an enlightened christian civilization.

That the Freedman, notwithstanding his wonderful progress during the last fifty years, is still in an infantile condition, is freely confessed. It was eighty years from the time the helpless babe was uplifted from the river, before Moses was called to be the leader and deliverer of Israel. The uplift from the river and training in his case came from the gentle hands of others. This fact is quite significant.

The Freedman who, avoiding the worthless and corrupt politician and over zealous office seeker, makes a good success of his farm and co-operates cordially with his friends and neighbors in effecting the educational and moral uplift of his race, will be happiest while he lives and do most to hasten the day, when political privileges, now temporarily withheld, will be restored to those who are found capable and worthy of their enjoyment.

If you happen to live in a state where your neighbor does not wish you to be a politician and hold office, do not worry. There are thousands of citizens every year and in all parts of our land, who do not vote and merely because they do not care to do so.

The voice of protest, against the useless and corrupt politician, is now heard in all parts of our land. In many of our cities, he has already been relegated to the junk heap, by the adoption of the commission form of government. Two of the states, Kansas and Oklahoma, are now vying with each other, to see which shall be first to adopt the same system in the management of the public affairs of the state, and thus dispense with a lot of unnecessary public officials.

"A public office is a public trust" and affords an opportunity to render a useful and honorable service, but holding public office is not essential to the happiness and prosperity of any of us. An over eager desire to hold public office often suggests nothing more, than an effort to find employment for the idle. The better way, as in the cases of Saul and David, kings of Israel, and of Washington and Grant, commanders-in-chief of our armies, is to let the office seek the man.

THE GOLDEN RULE

"As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them."

The application of the Golden Rule to this part of this problem, suggests that every man is entitled to recognition according to his worth.

"Our country can fulfil its high mission among the nations of the earth, conferring lasting benefits on ourselves and all mankind, only by guaranteeing to its humblest citizen his just right to life, liberty, protection from injustice, the enjoyment of the fruits of his own labor and the pursuit of happiness in his own way, as long as he walks in the path of rectitude and duty and does not trespass upon the rights of others," declares ex-President Roosevelt.

"Morality, and not expediency, is the thing that must guide us," is the emphatic declaration of President Woodrow Wilson. The false assumption that "the end justifies the means has come from self-centered men, who see in their own interests the interests of the country, and do not have vision enough to read it in wider terms, the universal terms of equity and justice."

VI

[TOP]

VOICES FROM THE BLACK BELT

"If any man hear my voice and open the door."

In a discussion of the Negro problem it is eminently appropriate the Freedman and his neighbor be accorded the privilege of expressing their respective views. The thoughts expressed in this chapter have been gleaned principally from the columns of the Afro-American, a colored weekly, published by the faculty of Biddle University, Charlotte, North Carolina.

The problem of the negro relates to his capacity for improvement and self-support. Is the American negro, after centuries of slavery, that kept the race in an infantile condition, capable of development and self support?

Over this question the people of our country have expressed differing opinions, many insisting that the servant condition is the better one for the American negro. The Presbyterian Standard, published at Charlotte, N. C., a section of country in which the latter sentiment still prevails, recently bore this testimony to their progress.

"While it is true of them as a mass that they are an infantile race, it is not true of them in many individual cases. There are thousands of them, who have advanced wonderfully during the last fifty years. They have made progress in every line. They are owning more farms every year, and in our cities they are buying homes, which sometimes would do credit to a more enlightened people. Their churches are not only built in better taste, but their preachers are becoming better educated, and are exerting a stronger moral influence than ever before."

This frank statement fairly represents the sentiment of the thoughtful christian people of the south. Some who have thought otherwise have been led to admit that, "while great advance has been made by a race only fifty years old, it is still in its infancy and therefore in the servant condition." Nor is it any exception in this respect.

Through adversity and hard treatment, the Irish people who first came to this country were largely in a servant condition. They accepted it. They became our domestics and built our railroads. But "Pat" is not on the railroad now. He is found occupying the seat of the chief justice, or serving as private secretary of the president and filling many other positions of honor and influence throughout the country.

What is thus true of the Irishman, is also true of other Europeans, who came to this country. It is an honor to them, that they truly appreciated their condition, accepted it and, through an honest and valiant struggle, rose above that condition to something better.

The American negro is now making it evident, that he is no exception to this general law of progress, under favorable conditions. It is neither necessary nor prudent to blind their eyes in regard to their real condition and status. Their best friends are those who encourage them to accept the situation in which they have been placed by an over ruling providence, and, through a noble endeavor, worthy of divine favor, rise to something better.

Their friends assist them best by aiding and encouraging them to make this noble endeavor, without which they cannot rise. The mass of the people must have native teachers and preachers to serve as leaders. This suggests the need of two kinds of educational facilities. A common industrial education, that will enable the mass of the people to achieve success in their daily avocations; and some special educational facilities of a higher grade, to prepare the needed supply of teachers, preachers and other leaders.

The mass of the people need an education, the scope of which will reach their physical, mental and spiritual natures. Their greatest need is instruction in the Bible, that it may exert its saving power on their early lives and animate them with noble aspirations.

THE CRY OF THE BLACK BELT

"They shall cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors and he shall send them a Saviour and a great one and he shall deliver them."—Isaiah.

The following appeal in behalf of the Freedmen, by Rev. A. W. Verner, D. D., president of Scotia Seminary, Concord, North Carolina, one of the five normal schools of the Presbyterian board, especially intended for girls, is so well and forcibly expressed, we are sure it will be appreciated by every reader.

"The urgent call from the black belt is the cry of souls in distress, the cry of humanity. Fifty years of unprecedented progress, in every line of industrial and intellectual pursuits and religious development, on the part of a considerable number of the colored people, show clearly, that the negro is capable of receiving and using to good advantage the education and training of the christian school."

"Industrial education, that lacks genuine christian culture, does not provide leaders of the right character to redeem the race, and many of our friends in the south do not care to open to the negro the doors of opportunity, to develop and manifest the best that is in him. It is therefore to the christian church of the north and to individuals, who have come to recognize the bond of human brotherhood, to whom this infant race still makes its appeal."

"The sad and degraded condition of great masses of the race in many localities of the south, ought to be an appeal, silent indeed but sufficiently strong, to awaken the sympathy of every one, capable of being touched by the cry of needy humanity. As a representative of the great Presbyterian church, that has called me into a very important and necessary field of her work, I earnestly appeal to our people to do more for the establishment and fostering of christian schools among the great masses of the black belt."

"The christian church and the christian school have something to give, that can be gotten nowhere else. The public school where established and industrial training where available are good and necessary. But the christian school is still needed and very greatly, to give moral and spiritual ballast to the individual. The leaven of gospel power and purity is needed, to give moral strength to the character and the highest degree of usefulness in life."

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

"Christian education is not narrow, it takes in every phase of training that is essential to produce a well developed and useful life. It touches and tints industrial training with a brighter and richer glow. It quickens the faculties of the mind, adds keenness to the power of perception, forms permanent habits of industry and strengthens the will or purpose to do right.

"Christian education emphasizes the fact that it is not merely book learning—storing the mind with knowledge of facts or training the hands to work, but includes moral elevation, as well as intellectual development. It includes everything that tends to make the life purer, better and more useful. It begets and fosters a spirit of hopefulness. It develops that patience and perseverance that is needed for the best performance of every day's duties.

"Christian education emphasizes personal purity, purity of the family life and the sacredness of the marriage relation. Its whole trend and effect is upward. Its genius is moral, spiritual, industrial, domestic, social and individual elevation. It creates a hunger and thirst for higher and better things. It is the mountain summit from whose height one gets a broader vision, a clearer view of the possibilities and demands of life and a truer conception of all human relations.

"This is the provision that must be made for our black brother. Nothing less will meet his needs. A great responsibility rests with negro leaders who have attained a good degree of intelligence and refinement, but a greater responsibility still rests upon the people of richer blessing and greater power.

"If the spirit of true democracy, which declares, 'opportunity for every one, according to his capacity and merit,' and the spirit of Christianity, whose principle is, 'Help for the weaker as the stronger is able to give it,' be exercised toward the negro, many of the difficulties will vanish, better conditions will prevail and more desirable results will be secured."

This cry of humanity from the black belt of our land is very touching and suggestive. It suggests the negro's greatest and most urgent needs, the Bible, the Bible school and the christian teacher.

It is the silent appeal of Joseph while passing through the pit and the prison in the land of Israel's enslavement. Beyond these dark and unpleasant experiences there awaited for Joseph a career of great usefulness in the land of his previous imprisonment.

Let us recognize the fact that God has a great use for the Freedman in this our native land, because he has providentially brought him here and increased his number so greatly.

A spirit of true patriotism, as well as the tie of christian brotherhood, prompts the lending of a helping hand and an encouraging word, while he solves the problem of his own destiny of great usefulness in the home, the school, the church, in the shop, on the farm and in the fields of professional opportunity and business activity.

It may be truly said of the Freedmen that they represent the poor of this world, of whom the Lord Jesus said, "Ye have the poor always with you, Me ye have not always. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto Me."

VII

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UPLIFTING INFLUENCES

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT.—AN HISTORIC COMPARISON.

"Look unto the rock whence ye were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye were digged."—Isaiah 51:1.

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT

The historic incidents, having an uplifting influence that occurred among the Choctaw Freedmen of Indian Territory, from the time of their first instruction in the Bible to the establishment and present development of Oak Hill Industrial Academy, when briefly summarized, seem like a reproduction on a miniature scale of those greater events that occurred among the Christian nations of Europe and America preceding the adoption of their systems of public instruction.

I. THE CHOCTAW FREEDMEN

Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, a generous hearted missionary to the Indians, having charge of a church building at Doaksville, encourages the slaves in the vicinity to meet in it occasionally on Sabbath afternoons, for the purpose of receiving instruction in the Bible and shorter catechism.

This Bible instruction does not result in the organization of a church at that place, but opportunity is given for the manifestation and development of the religious instinct of a number of persons, amongst whom there are two young men, who were destined later to become influential leaders among the enslaved people whom they represented.

After their emancipation, one locates on the west bank of the Kiamichi river and later becomes known as Parson Stewart, the organizer and circuit rider of a sufficient number of churches, at the time of his decease in 1896, to form the Presbytery of Ki a mich i.

The other, accompanied by several personal friends, migrates fifteen miles eastward and founds a home in the Oak Hill neighborhood. In the course of a short time he is visited by the parson and his home becomes a house of worship, where a church is organized and Henry Crittenden is ordained as its ruling elder.

A Sunday school for Bible instruction follows the establishment of public worship, and two years later it is followed by the establishment of a week-day school, for the benefit of all the children and youth in the neighborhood. Eight years later, when the trained missionary teacher arrives, the inspiration of a new life is infused into the church and Sunday school, and the week-day school becomes an important industrial academy, where the Bible is the basis of the moral and religious instruction. In 1905 they receive an allotment of lands that they may become independent owners of their own homes. In 1908 statehood brings the rural public school and in 1912, an intelligent Freedman is entrusted with the management of the Industrial Academy, church and farm.

This sequence of events includes the dark period of slavery and illiteracy followed by instruction in the Bible, the light of the world; the development of the native preacher of the gospel as a leader, the organization of the church, followed by the Sunday school, the week-day school, the academy, normal, public school and finally a native superintendent of the academy and independent ownership of land.

II. THE EUROPEANS AND AMERICANS

THE DARK AGES

The period from the 8th to the 12th centuries of the christian era has been classed by historians as the "Dark Ages" of the world, because of the general prevalence in Europe of ignorance, superstition and barbarism. Some of the leading events that occurred during this gloomy period, immediately following the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, tended almost wholly to check the spread of intelligence and the prosperity of the people, rather than to promote their welfare. The Scriptures were neglected and the clergy as well as the people became worldly, ignorant, selfish and superstitious.

THE SARACENS AND NORMANS

These unfavorable events included, at the beginning of this period, the invasion of Palestine and southern Europe including Spain, its most western state, by the Mohammedans of Arabia, often called Saracens and Infidels, who were fanatically inflamed with a passion to destroy with the sword all the people of the world, who would not obey Mohammed, their prophet. During the next century Germany, Britain, Holland and France, then called Gaul, were ruthlessly invaded by conquering hordes of the adventurous and barbarous Normans, who came from Norway, Sweden and Denmark, countries north of the Baltic Sea.

THE CRUSADERS OR CROSS-BEARERS

These invasions were followed by the period of the Crusaders, 1096 to 1271, when as many as seven great armies or multitudes of people were assembled at the call of the popes, and wearing crosses on their shoulders, marched through the intervening countries to Palestine. Their object was to rescue the city of Jerusalem and the holy sepulchre from the infidels. The first crusade was organized in France, and it enlisted an army of 800,000. Godfrey, duke of Lorraine, was placed in command, and the multitude was arranged for the march in three divisions. Peter, the hermit, a wrong-headed monk, was appointed leader of the first division and experienced an inglorious and irreparable defeat on the way. Godfrey, after the siege and conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, was chosen King to rule over Palestine and the holy city, as his kingdom. At the time of his coronation he made the noble remark, that,

"He could not bear the thought of wearing a crown of gold in that city, where the King of Kings had been crowned with thorns."

The brave soldier and manly man, who gave expression to this noble sentiment, died the next year.

Under weak and unskilful chiefs the crusaders while on the way wandered about like undisciplined bands of robbers, plundering cities, committing the most abominable enormities, and spreading misery and desolation where-ever they passed. There was no kind of insolence, injustice and barbarity of which they were not guilty. The seven successive crusades drained the wealth of the fairest provinces and caused the loss of a prodigious number of people.

Those of the first crusade, that remained in Palestine, were divided by sordid ambition and avarice, and in 1187 Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, the most valiant chief of the Mohammedan warriors, recaptured Jerusalem and subsequent crusaders were not able to regain it.

FIRST RAYS OF LIGHT

The first rays of light, that serve to dispel the darkness of prevailing night, may be briefly summarized in the following leading events.

In 901 Alfred the Great, king of England, founds a seminary at Oxford to promote the study of sacred literature. Later it becomes a university, the first one in Europe, and it is still distinguished as one of the greatest institutions in the world for publishing the Scriptures in a form suited for the use of preachers and christian teachers. Two centuries later the second university is founded at Cambridge, England.

About 1170 Peter Waldo of Lyons, France, committing to memory such portions of the Scriptures as he could obtain, and taking for his favorite saying, the command of our Lord to the rich youth, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me," commences to preach the gospel, as the Apostles had done, in the homes of the people and in their market places. As he attracts followers, who also commit portions of the Scriptures, he sends them out like the seventy, two and two, to preach the Word of God. They are called Waldenses, after the name of their leader, and oppose corrupt doctrines and practices with the plain truths of the Word of God. They oppose the crusades, as fanatical expeditions on the part of those who were not Jews, and therefore were unjust and unlawful. They insist the church consists not merely of the clergy or priests, but includes the whole family of believers.

The advocacy of these principles and by laymen, causes them to be excommunicated, then anathematized and finally to be condemned by a council at Rome in 1179. Peter Waldo, their leader, flees from land to land, preaching as he goes and dies in Bohemia in 1197.

In 1215, King John of England, yielding to the insistent demand of the barons, issued the Magna Charta, (Great Charter) the first grant of English constitutional liberty, pledging the right of trial by jury and protection of life, liberty and property from unlawful deprivation. It is immediately denounced by the pope, Innocent III, who absolves the king from all obligation to keep the pledges therein expressed and solemnized by the royal oath.

In 1366 John Wiclif, a graduate of Oxford and member of the English Parliament, presents to that body indisputable reasons, why, without the approval of the Parliament, not even the king of England could make their lands subject to a tax claimed by a foreign sovereign, representing the papacy. As a religious leader, he instructs his followers, called "poor priests," to pass from village to village and city to city, and to preach, admonish and instruct the people in "God's Law." He accomplishes the translation of the Latin Vulgate into the English of his day, that his countrymen might have the Scriptures in their own language.

Charles V, king of France, has the scriptures translated into the French language, for the enlightenment of his people.

During this 14th century seventeen universities are founded and they include the one at Geneva in Switzerland, Heidelberg in Germany and Prague in Bohemia.

BIDDLE UNIVERSITY,
CHARLOTTE, N. C.

BETHESDA MISSION,
WYNNEWOOD, OKLA.

THE MORNING STAR

In 1401 John Huss of Bohemia, the Morning Star or John Baptist of the Reformation, appears as "the voice of one crying in the wilderness." His mother, left a widow in early life, gave him to the service of the Lord as he lay in the cradle, and later, like Hannah of old, took him to the school at Prague.

LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, CHESTER COUNTY, PA.
campus from south
hospital&heating plant
campus from north
university houston library chapel

When he became a preacher he found the Lord's vineyard a desert, the ministers of religion, the priests, ignorant, worldly and dissolute, and the popes of that period no better than the priests. The people, designedly chained to the basest superstitions and following the example of their leaders, have cast aside the restraints of chastity and morality. His heart touched with pity at the sight of the religious destitution of the people, his anger, like that of Moses "waxed hot" against those, who should have given them the gospel of their salvation. Encouraged by the example of Wiclif to make known the truth, he affirms the supreme authority of the scriptures, proclaims against the abuse of the clergy and endeavors to regenerate the religious life of both priests and people. His glowing zeal for the honor of God and the church move the people in a way until then unknown; but the priests, unwilling to reform or longer endure his piercing protests, falsely accuse him of heresy. In 1416, after fifteen years of self denying and heroic service, he is condemned at Constance and suffers martyrdom at the stake. A century later Luther, who imbibed his heroic spirit, said of him, "The gospel we now have was born out of the blood of John Huss."

THE FIRST PRINTED BIBLE

The art of printing is invented and the Vulgate, a Latin Bible, is the first book printed. It is issued in 1450 and is printed on a hand press at Mentz, Germany. Previous to this event and date all books were in the form of costly manuscripts and their number could be increased, only one copy at a time, by penmen called copyists.

The mariners compass is invented and in 1492 Columbus discovers America, and thirty years later Magellan sails around the world.

During this 15th century the universities of Glasgow and St. Andrews are founded in Scotland, Mentz and eighteen others, on the continent.

III. THE REFORMATION

MARTIN LUTHER

"Arise, shine, for thy Light is Come."

In 1517, Martin Luther, the apostle of the German nation, a man of learning and undaunted courage, whose equal had not been known since the days of Paul, appears as the valiant and steadfast leader of the Reformation in Germany. In 1530 he becomes the founder of the Evangelical Lutheran church, and aided by Melancthon, succeeds in translating and giving to the German people the Bible in their own language, and in preparing the Augsburg confession that has since served as a standard of faith and bond of union for the Lutheran churches in Europe and America.

Emotion and imaginative piety have become the hand-maids of superstition; and patriotism, lacking courage, has covered its face. He writes hymns and patriotic songs, that inspire the German heart with loyalty to the truth and devotion to their Fatherland.

JOHN CALVIN

In 1527, John Calvin, a man of great learning and glowing eloquence with burning zeal for the honor of his Master, appears as the leader of the Reformation in France, but nine years later, joins Farrel, the successor of the zealous but fallen Zwingli, in Switzerland, and becomes head of the university at Geneva. He secures the adoption of a constitution, that gave and also limited the authority of the church to spiritual, and of the state to temporal matters; and thus prepares the way for the separation anew of church and state, and the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty.

Educated for the priesthood, he is assigned a parish and there obtained a copy of the Scriptures. When he discovered the erroneous teaching and practices of the church of Rome, he resigns his charge and completes a course in law and another in theology in the University of Paris. He becomes a man void of fear and is borne onward on the wings of a living faith. Following the example of Paul in his letters to the churches, and of Augustine, bishop of Hippo (391-446) in North Africa, he undertakes to state in a systematic form the great facts and doctrines of the Bible, as one of the best means of opposing and overcoming prevailing errors and corrupt practices in church and state.

He feels the Spirit of God moving him to blazon triumphantly, the thought of God's sovereignty and man's utter dependency, in order to dash in pieces the prevalent self righteousness. His writings, by emphasizing the supreme authority of the Divine Word, have tended to raise the moral standard of individuals and communities, and by emphasizing the moral law, to lessen the distinction between the "sins" of the Bible and "crimes" of the civil law. Their tendency has been to make the moral law the rule for states as well as persons.

Presbyterianism, or government of the church by ruling elders and presbyters as in the apostolic period, and Republicanism, government by representatives, are advocated with transcendent ability, and success. After the death of Luther in 1546, Calvin exerts a great influence over the thinking men of that notable period in Switzerland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, England and Scotland. The young preachers, sent out from the university at Geneva, establish 2,150 reformed congregations in these countries, and in 1564, the last year of his life, the confession of the reformed churches in France is officially recognized by the state.

An ardent and effective friend of civil liberty, he makes the city of his adoption the nursery of a pure, noble civilization; and the little republic of Geneva becomes the sun of the European world. Animated by his example and principles, William, prince of Orange, in 1580, establishes the Dutch Republic in Holland, and it becomes "the first free nation to put a girdle of empire around the world."

Bancroft, the historian, in summarizing the influences that contributed to American Independence makes this creditable reference to Calvinism.

"We are proud of the free states that fringe the Atlantic. The Pilgrims of Plymouth were Calvinists, the best influences in South Carolina came from the Calvinists of France. William Penn was a disciple of the Huguenots; the ships from Holland, that in 1614 brought the first colonists to Manhattan (New York), were filled with Calvinists. He that will not honor the memory and respect the influence of Calvin, knows but little of the origin of American Liberty."

WILLIAM TYNDALE

In 1530 Henry VIII aided by William Tyndale, the new translator of the New Testament and Pentateuch, and in 1547 Edward VI, his successor, promote the establishment of the Reformation in England. A change of rulers in 1553 leads to the martyrdom of Archbishop Cranmer, bishops, Latimer and Ridley, and of John Rogers, the zealous reformer—four of the noblest men England ever produced.

It was the noble-hearted, youthful Tyndale who, when he came to perceive that the Word of God was the gift of God to all mankind and all had a right to read it, that declared to one of the clergy opposing him, "If God spares my life, ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scriptures than you do."

JOHN KNOX

In 1560, John Knox, a pupil of Calvin, establishes the Reformation in Scotland and under his leadership the church of Scotland from the first adopts the system of doctrines and the forms of worship and of government established at Geneva.

HUGUENOTS OF FRANCE

In 1557, Admiral Coligny, taken prisoner at the battle of St. Quentin, is confined at Gaud in Spain. Securing a copy of the Scriptures he reads it, and, after his release, becomes the enthusiastic leader of the Hu gue nots of France. They represent the most moral, industrious and intelligent of the French people, but those who love the "Mass", which involves no moral obligation, hate them on account of their chaste and devout lives. In 1572, when a bloody persecution arises against them, they begin to emigrate to England, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and the Colonies of North America.

It was Fenelon, one of the preachers of the Huguenots in France under the feudal system, about the year 1710, that gave utterance to the patriotic sentiment, emphasized in this country since the rise of the great trusts, "That governments exist and have a right to exist, only for the good of the people, and that the many are not made for the use and enjoyment of one."

THE BIBLE

In 1559 the Puritans protest against the act of uniformity passed by the English Parliament, imposing uniformity in religious worship.

The Bible has now come to be regarded as of so much importance to the clergy and people, that as many as fifty-five learned men during this 16th century devote their time and attention to its exposition and illustration; and twenty-seven new universities are established.

The Reformation is an insurrection or revolution against ecclesiastical monarchy and absolute power in the church, or spiritual matters. It establishes freedom of inquiry and liberty of mind in Europe. The Bible and theology occupy the attention of the greatest minds, and every question, whether philosophical, political or historical is considered from the religious point of view.

THE INQUISITION

In 1235, Pope Gregory IX, establishes the Inquisition, a cruel court of inquiry for the suppression of those who question the authority of the papacy to rule over them in the church. It becomes very active in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. It is not suppressed in France until 1834, after a period of six centuries.

In 1540, Ignatius Loy o la, an illiterate Spanish soldier and priest, with papal authority, organizes the society of the Jesuits, to require Christians to renounce whatever opinions may separate them, and, accepting the doctrines and worship of the Roman Catholic church to acknowledge the pope as Christ's sole vicegerent on earth.

The Inquisition had previously proved a bloody court but this order is intended to make it more effective in suppressing freedom of thought and action in matters relating to education and religion.

The events that occur during the period of the Inquisition are harrowing to relate. The historians of that period have recorded, among others, the following executions and massacres.

The duke of Alva, a Spanish general and persecutor who died in 1582, condemned 36,000 of his countrymen to be executed.

On the night of August 24, 1572, the anniversary of St. Bartholomew, Charles IX, of France, by offering his sister in marriage to the prince of Navarro, a Huguenot, assembles at the nuptials in Paris five hundred of the most prominent of the Huguenots, including Admiral Coligny, their venerable leader, and, at a given signal an unparalleled scene of horror ensues. Before the break of day, these noble leaders and 10,000 of their faithful followers, in Paris that night, are ruthlessly slaughtered. The horrid carnage, against these defenceless friends of truth and right, is extended to Lyons, Orleans, Rouen and other cities until 50,000 are massacred at this particular time. The total loss of France by the Inquisition has been estimated at 100,000 persons.

It is estimated that, during a period of seven years Pope Julius II effected the massacre of 200,000 persons. The Irish massacre at Ulster in 1641 cost Ireland the loss of more than 100,000 of her best citizenship. It is estimated that during a period of thirty years as many as 900,000 persons suffered martyrdom for the truth at the hands of the secret order of Jesuits. During the entire period of persecution by the papacy, a vast multitude, numbering many millions in addition to these, were proscribed, banished, starved, suffocated, drowned, imprisoned for life, buried alive, burned at the stake or assassinated.[1]

These dark historic events illustrate the price that had to be paid for letting the light shine when darkness prevailed in the high places of the world. Every martyr for the truth was a torch bearer, whose light was extinguished. The countries that suffered the greatest loss of their best citizenship received a check of more than a century's growth. The hand on the dial of progress was turned backward wherever the blighting inquisition was felt. Its blighting effects may yet be seen in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and other countries where the papacy exerts a controlling influence. Men, whose deeds are evil and they are unwilling to repent, hate the light and endeavor to suppress it, by killing the torch bearer, "lest their deeds should be reproved."

A knowledge of these conditions that prevailed at the time is necessary to enable one to appreciate the importance and greatness of the work of the Reformers and their faithful followers during the 16th century in giving the Bible to the people at the risk of their lives.

INDEPENDENT OWNERSHIP OF LAND

In 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers, bringing with them the Bible as a precious treasure, establish a colony at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, where they hope to enjoy civil and religious liberty to a fuller extent than they were able to do elsewhere. Other colonies are established along the Atlantic coast, from New England to Georgia, but no one of them exerts a moral influence, quite so potent as this one, in the events and councils that precede the laying of the foundations for this great government.

They now enjoy individual or independent ownership of lands, a privilege they did not enjoy under the feudal system that had its rise in the 10th century and was continued until the French Revolution in 1799. Under the feudal system the land was owned by dukes, earls and barons, who, as members of the House of Lords, alone participated in the government.

The orators of the pulpit, commonly called preachers of the gospel, aside from the academies, colleges and universities, are the principal teachers of the people, and for the purpose of instruction, they use but one book—the Bible.

In 1635 other colonies of Puritans, under Roger Williams and Thomas Hooker settle Rhode Island and Connecticut, respectively; and religious liberty is accorded Rhode Island by its charter in 1663.

WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY

In 1648, the Westminster Assembly, convened by the Long Parliament five years previous, and composed of 10 Lords, 20 Commoners and 121 Clergymen, representing the churches in England, Scotland and Ireland, to prepare a statement of the doctrines of the Bible, that might form the basis of religious liberty and a bond of union of the Protestant churches, completes its work, by publishing a Confession of Faith, Form of Government, Larger and Shorter Catechisms. This confession does not give rise to any new denominations nor result in any union; but it is received and adopted as the standard of faith by all the branches of the Presbyterian church in England, Scotland, Ireland and America. This confession is a natural sequence of the authorized King James Version of the Bible in 1611.

In 1704, the newspaper is established in America; and the first postoffice, in 1710.

RISE OF METHODISM

In 1738 John and Charles Wesley, young preachers of the Church of England, having spent three years as missionaries among the Moravians in Georgia, return to London, where, preaching the gospel as a proclamation of free forgiveness to sinners, and with it, repentance and faith in Christ, they soon find the pulpits of that city closed against them. Supported by Lady Huntington and aided at the first by George Whitefield, the most gifted of their early associates and the first Methodist to preach in the open air, they lay the foundations that soon develop into the Methodist church, by establishing now congregations and organizing them into classes, each under a local leader, who by means of weekly testimonies, exhortations and corrections was to look after the moral conduct and promote the spiritual life of the members.

SUNDAY SCHOOLS AND MISSIONARY SOCIETIES

In 1782 when there are a sufficient number of printed Bibles available for use, Robert Raikes of London makes the suggestion and Sunday schools are established, that the people in every worshipping congregation may co-operate with their preachers in instructing the young and rising generation in the great truths contained in the Bible.

From 1792 to 1800, the three great modern missionary societies of England are organized, and during the next ten years the first two are organized in this country.

In 1804, the British and Foreign Bible Society, and in 1816, the American Bible Society, are established in London and New York, to promote the multiplication and circulation of the Bible.

CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

In 1776 the Declaration of Independence and American Revolution develop brave and patriotic leaders like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, John Witherspoon and others, who fight the battles and solve the problems of civil and religious liberty in America. Liberty and independence become familiar watchwords.

In 1787 when the Constitution of the United States is adopted, civil and religious liberty is assured. Protection is to be given to religion but there shall be no taxation for its support in church or school, and public education is left to the several states.

Those, who framed this remarkable Constitution and thus prepared the way for America to become the land of "Liberty Enlightening the World," expressed their sentiments in regard to the urgent need of general instruction in the Bible, in the ordinance for the government of the Northwest—the country north of the Ohio, as follows: "Religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."

In 1841 Congress makes provision for grants of unoccupied lands in the states for the better support of the public schools and the establishment of state universities.

In 1862 Congress makes provision by further grants of unoccupied lands for the establishment of State Agricultural Colleges. About this same period Normal Schools are established in the states and they gradually take the place of many of the Academies previously established by Christian people.

In 1863 Abraham Lincoln in order to maintain the Union "one and inseparable," becomes the emancipator of 4,000,000 slaves; and America becomes "the land of the free" as well as "the home of the brave."

The Boston News Letter, the first American newspaper is established in 1704, and the New England Courant, the second one in 1720. The first Colonial post office is established in 1710. In 1765, when the Stamp Act was passed, there are forty newspapers published in America; and one of the most influential of these is the Philadelphia Gazette, by Benjamin Franklin, the man who "wrested the lightning from heaven and scepters from tyrants."

The religious papers of the Presbyterian church are established a half century later, and as follows: The Herald and Presbyter, at Cincinnati in 1830; the Presbyterian at Philadelphia in 1831; and the Interior, now Continent, at Chicago in 1870. As a civilizing agency the press not only rivals but increases many fold the power of the pulpit.

The public press, especially the religious newspaper, noting the progress of events relating to the extension of the Redeemer's Kingdom becomes a very potent factor in promoting an enlightened Christian civilization.

UPLIFTING INVENTIONS

During the 19th century civilization receives a general and wonderful uplift as a result of many important inventions, that, to a greater or less extent, are enjoyed by all the people. They include the steam engine, steamer, railway, telegraph, telephone, phonograph, cylinder printing press and folder, electric light and motor, gasoline and kerosene engines, cotton gin, spinning jenny, sewing machine, mower, reaper, steam thresher and separator, mammoth corn sheller, tractor, gang plow, typewriter, automobile, bicycle, aeroplane, vaccine, serum and wireless telegraph.

THE COMPARISON.

The intelligent American citizen of the present time is the product of all these forces, to the extent he has come under their uplifting influences. He is the product of centuries of enlightened struggle and successful effort. If the early Roman was proud of his history and privileges as a citizen much more profoundly thankful may be the American of this twentieth century.

The forces that have given him the uplift from the Dark Ages include the Bible in his own language, the faithful preacher of the Gospel, the Evangelical Reformer, the brave Military Leader, the God-fearing Statesman, the Church, Sunday school, the public, high and Normal school, the Academy, Christian College, Agricultural College, University, ownership of land, civil and religious liberty.

What these institutions have done for the intelligent American citizen they are now beginning to do for the Freedman, as he is brought under their uplifting influence. They suggest both to him and his friends, the greatest or most important needs of the Freedmen.

[1] See Cottage Bible on Revelation XVII 6.

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THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

IT EMPHASIZES THE BIBLE AS FUNDAMENTAL IN EDUCATION.—A ZEALOUS MISSIONARY ORGANIZATION.—AS CATHOLIC IN SPIRIT AS THE GOSPEL.

"Walk about Zion, tell the towers thereof; mark ye well her bulwarks, that ye may tell it to the generation following."—David.

The Presbyterian Church has always stood for Religion and Education—Religion as the basis of true education, and Education as the promoter of positive practical religion.

CHRISTIAN LEADERS.

The Presbyterian Church wishes to see the young people of every generation provided with the best means for their intellectual and spiritual progress. It wishes to see them prepared, not merely for active and successful participation in the onward work of the world, but also in full and hearty sympathy with the great work of Christ and his people, for the spiritual salvation of the nations. It knows there is no good reason, why a stirring leader of men should not be a Christian; nor why a Christian should not be eminently successful, in taking his place among men as a forceful factor in the life of the world.

The Presbyterian Church believes in the system of state schools from the primary, public and high schools, to the University. These schools provide for general education. Millions of children would never be in school, were it not for these state provisions and for compulsory public education. These schools are however not all perfect, since they do not provide for moral and religious training, the great underlying principles of reverence and righteousness, that must enter into every life in order to fit it for the performance of Christian and patriotic duty.

The Presbyterian church takes a patriotic interest in our whole public school system, and believes that all the children should be trained in those that are under public direction, so that all the children and youth of the nation shall be a united, intelligent and patriotic body, fitted for good citizenship.

At the same time it believes in special church institutions of higher learning, that shall be adapted to train our young people for intelligent leadership in the church, and enable them to become doubly useful in the home, social circle and in public life. Our Christian academies and colleges are valuable institutions. These furnish to the church and the world the greatest number of ministers, missionaries, college presidents and Christian statesmen. Parents everywhere, find these Christian institutions furnish the best advantages, and that they are the safest and most economical. No institutions furnish higher or more profitable culture. They combine all that is best in real culture and education of the intelligent faculties, with a true religious conception of life; so that all who yield to their best influences go forth from them pure-hearted, stronger and better prepared to engage in life's duties successfully; for they take with them the personal assurance of the gracious presence and abiding blessing of our Father in Heaven.

In a christian educational institution, the spirit of the instructor is one that regards the student, as of more value than the subject taught. Its aim including the christian college, is not research, the work of a university, but to make men. The ordinary branches that are taught are regarded as instrumentalities, for making a well trained man of the student.

The key to success in the battle of life, is found in the struggle, which insures control of one's self. This is the secret of a good education. In an important sense, all education must be self-education. Professor Huxley gave good emphasis to this thought when he wrote: "Perhaps the most valuable result of all education, is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson which ought to be learned, and, however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson he learns thoroughly." An eminent educator used to say to his class: "He, who will become a scholar, must learn to command his faculties."

The Presbyterian church honors God and exalts him to the throne of absolute supremacy over all his creatures. It honors Him by using the instrumentalities he has appointed. It receives the Bible, as the very word of God, and adopts it as the only rule of faith and practice.

The Presbyterian church from the beginning has been a zealous missionary organization. At the meeting of the First General Assembly arrangements were made to send the gospel to "the regions beyond,"—the frontiers and the various tribes of American Indians. The agencies, then organized as committees, have become the great Boards of Home and Foreign Missions, that now receive and distribute, each, more than a million dollars annually.

A ZEALOUS MISSIONARY ORGANIZATION.

It is gratifying to know that the colored people, although emotional and demonstrative, have nevertheless an intelligent appreciation of the views and methods of the Presbyterian church.

A prominent minister of a southern church is quoted as having said: "The Presbyterian church can do for the colored people of the south what no other church can do."

FABLE OF PERSIAN TENT.

There is a Persian fable that tells of a young prince who brought to his father a nutshell, which, when opened with a spring, contained a little tent of such ingenious construction, that when spread in the nursery the children could play under its folds; when opened in the council chamber the King and his counsellors could sit beneath its canopy; when placed in the court yard the family and all the servants could gather under its shade; when pitched upon the plain, where the soldiers were encamped, the entire army could gather within its enclosure. It possessed the qualities of boundless adaptability and expansiveness.

This little tent is a good symbol of our Presbyterian system. It is all contained within the nutshell of the Gospel. Open it in the nursery, and beneath its folds parents and children sit with delight; spread it in the court yard, and beneath its shadow the whole household assembles for morning and evening worship; open it in the village and it becomes a church, under whose canopy the whole town may worship. Open it upon the plain, and a great sacramental army gathers under it. Send it to the heathen world, and it becomes a great pavilion, that fills and covers the earth.

The Presbyterian church is as Catholic as the Gospel in its spirit of brotherly love, and readiness to co-operate with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ. It recognizes the ordination of the Episcopalian and the baptism of the Baptist. It joins cordially with those who would place the crown upon the brow of Jesus by singing only the Psalms of David, and responds with an approving echo to the hearty "Amen" of the Methodists. It is capable of an expansion, that will include all shades of our common humanity, and is working valiantly to usher in the day, when the prayer of our Lord Jesus shall be fulfilled: "That they may be one; as Thou, Father art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me."

"The Presbyterian church stands," says Rev. W. H. Roberts, D. D., "as it has stood during its entire history, for the unconditional sovereignty of God, for the Bible as the only infallible rule of faith and life, for simplicity of worship, representative government, a high standard of christian living, liberty of conscience, popular education, missionary activity and true Christian Catholicity."

President Benjamin Harrison said of it: "The Presbyterian church has been steadfast for liberty, and it has kept steadfast for education. It has stood as stiff as a steel beam for the faith delivered to our fathers, and it still stands with steadfastness for that essential doctrine—the inspired Word. It is not an illiberal church. There is no body of Christians in the world, that opens its arms wider to all who love the Master. Though it has made no boast or shout, it has yet been an aggressive missionary church from the beginning."

LINCOLN UNIVERSITY.

Lincoln University in Chester county, Pennsylvania, was established in 1854 under the leadership of Rev. John M. Dickey, D. D., pastor of the Presbyterian church of Oxford, for the classical and theological education of negroes. The extent and thoroughness of the courses of instruction at this institution have been amply justified by the success of its graduates; many in the ministry, and others, in founding similar institutions of a high grade in the south, as at Columbia, S. C., Salisbury, N. C., Holly Springs, Miss., and a number of other places. Its aim is to furnish trained professional leaders, and it is accomplishing this object in splendid form. Established before the Freedmen's Board, it has continued to be maintained without its aid.

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THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF MISSIONS FOR FREEDMEN.

ORGANIZED IN 1865.—- WOMEN ENLISTED IN 1884.—BOARDING SCHOOLS.—TRAINS CHRISTIAN LEADERS.—WORTHY OF GENEROUS SUPPORT AND ENDOWMENT.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath appointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted and preach deliverance to the captives."—Luke.

The emancipation of 4,000,000 slaves, at the close of the Civil War, was the sudden opening of a new and a vast field of opportunity and duty, before the Christian churches of this land.

The education and moral elevation of the Freedmen became, in both church and state, a very serious and vital question. Ever since the foundation of the government, the church, through the voluntary establishment of academies and colleges, has been co-operating with the civil government, in the effort to develop in all parts of our land an intelligent christian citizenship.

The Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen was organized as a committee in 1865, the last year of the Civil War. In 1882 this committee was made and incorporated as a Board. Its work then assumed a more permanent form and the contributions to its work began to be greatly increased. The contributions received that year were $68,268.08. In 1913 the amount received to be applied to this work was $323,899.29. The amount of property held by it and used for educational and church purposes is $1,831,610.09. The office of the board is at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

REV. E. P. COWEN, D. D.
Secretary and Treasurer

REV. JOHN GASTON
Associate Secretary
Presbyterian Board
of Missions for Freedmen

THE LATE MRS. V. P. BOGGS
Secretary
Women's Department,
Freedmen's Board

WOMEN ENLISTED IN 1884

In 1884 the interest of the women of the Presbyterian church was enlisted in behalf of the women and girls among the Freedmen. The progress of the work of the Women's Missionary societies, in establishing and maintaining educational institutions, is worthy of special mention.

During their first year they contributed $3,010; the second, $7,966; the third, $17,075; and in 1913, $85,236.09.

In raising this last amount 675 Sunday schools and 1082 Young People's societies co-operated with 3591 Women's societies.

To the women, almost entirely, is due the establishment and maintenance of most of the boarding schools now supported by the board. The names of some of the most consecrated workers and liberal contributors have been commemorated in the names of most of these institutions. That this fact may be noted and as a matter of general information, the following list of twenty-four of them is given.

LIST OF BOARDING SCHOOLS

I. FOR MALES ONLY

II. SEMINARIES FOR GIRLS ONLY

III. CO-EDUCATIONAL

In addition to those in these boarding schools, 112 teachers are employed in the maintenance of this same number of day schools.

In his last annual report, April 1, 1913, Rev. E. P. Cowan, D. D., secretary of the Board submitted the following interesting summary of its work.

"The Freedmen's Board has ever kept in mind the one great fact that its work is, first, last and all the time, missionary work. We have aimed from the very beginning to follow a course that would commend itself to every man's conscience in the sight of God. We have always sought the counsel and advice of good men on the field, at times nearer our work than ourselves, and better able to judge of its condition. We have endeavored to exert such an influence over the people among whom we have labored, so that no one could object to it except he were a heathen or an infidel. As a consequence, all the opposition we have met with in all these years has been as nothing, compared with the sympathy and encouragement we have received from good men.

"We have this year issued our forty-eighth annual report. This annual report shows that we have now in connection with our church, four colored Synods, composed of sixteen colored Presbyteries, in which there are four hundred and four church organizations, with twenty-six thousand, one hundred and thirty-two communicants, two hundred and eighty-nine ordained ministers of the Gospel, and thirteen hundred and seventeen ruling elders.

"Within these Presbyteries, there are one hundred and thirty-six schools, and in these schools there are 16,427 pupils, taught by 448 teachers, all of whom are professing Christians, and by a rule of the Board, members of the Presbyterian church.

"In all these schools, the Word of God and the Shorter Catechism are regularly and daily taught. On the mind and heart of every living soul that passes in and out of our schools, there is impressed the fundamental and far-reaching truth, that the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, and that the Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him.

"These churches and schools, and ministers and teachers—588 workers in all—are housed in 470 buildings, of which 300 are church buildings, 70 are manses, and 100 are school buildings. The value of these buildings is estimated at $1,561,000. The cry comes up to us without ceasing for either more room, or better accommodations. Should we answer these cries promptly, and without regard to the question as to where the money is to come from, we should be hopelessly overwhelmed with debt within one year."

TRAINS CHRISTIAN LEADERS

The Freedmen are naturally religious and hitherto their churches have been their principal social centers. Under uneducated leadership, the only kind possible at first, their church life was characterized by a loose moral standard, poor business methods and boisterous worship. In many places it still lacks a realization of the real needs of the race.

"The true standard bearers of better things have been the relatively few ministers and churches that have been noted for their educated ministry, restraint in worship, rigid morals and careful supervision."

The wisdom of the policy of training capable christian leaders, was emphasized at the last General Assembly at Atlanta, by Rev. H. A. Johnson, D. D., in the following pertinent paragraph:

"The vital need of the negro people is a trained christian leadership. Their problem can never be solved by elementary education for the masses, or industrial training for those who enter the trades and till the farm. They must have thoroughly trained christian teachers and ministers of the Gospel and should also have the other professions represented among their leaders. The men, who are conspicuous leaders among the negroes in industrial training are publicly saying that they expect such organizations as the Presbyterian church to furnish the ministers and teachers for their people, while they furnish the farmers, the carpenters and other tradesmen. The task of furnishing this trained leadership is being bravely attempted by our Board within the limitations of their available resources. Every intelligent student of the problem must realize how supremely important is this phase of the work."

WORTHY OF GENEROUS SUPPORT AND ENDOWMENT

The Board of Missions for Freedmen of the Presbyterian church merits the intelligent sympathy and cordial co-operation not only of our whole church but of all the friends who favor christian education among the dependent colored people in the south part of our land.

It educates ministers and teachers, and supports them in their work. It builds academies, seminaries and colleges, and aids in the erection of churches and manses. Its 24 boarding schools, having normal and industrial departments, are distributed so that there is one or more in every southern state.

It now owns and controls school, church and manse properties that represent a value of one and a half million dollars.

Its permanent investments, that bring an annual income for the promotion of its work however, are yet only $200,202.50. In these days of big business, the evidence of unusual prosperity, it ought to have an endowment of one million dollars.

Education is the most costly of all philanthropic enterprises. The following reason recently expressed for a large endowment of the College Board applies with equal force to the Freedmen's Board.

"A million dollar corporation is now considerably more than twice as efficient, as an instrument to accomplish results than one of a half million. In this day of large things the men who are interested in education, prefer to employ as their agent, an organization whose resources are large enough to place its permanent and financial stability beyond question. A bank with a million dollars of capital has considerable advantage over one having only a quarter of a million. The law, 'To him that hath shall be given,' still prevails among the children of men."

The members of the Freedmen's Board have been selected, because of their manifest interest in the educational and spiritual welfare of the colored people; and they are conscientiously striving, to the best of their ability, to promote the interests of the Freedmen, in behalf of the great body of generous hearted christian people whom they represent.

The work of the Freedmen's Board has hitherto by its charter been limited to the Freedmen in southern states. At the next General Assembly, an effort will be made to extend its work, so as to include the negroes in the northern states.

X

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SPECIAL BENEFACTORS.

GEORGE PEABODY.—JOHN F. SLATER.—DANIEL HAND.—EMILINE CUSHING.—ANNA T. JEANES.—CAROLINE PHELPS STOKES.—JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER.—NEGRO PHILANTHROPISTS.

"He loveth our nation and hath built us a synagogue."

The educational needs of the Freedman have called forth several large benefactions from individual contributors. George Peabody of Danvers, Massachusetts, in 1867 and 1869, established a fund of $3,500,000 for the promotion of general education in the South. One half of this amount happened to prove unavailable. A large part of the remainder was used in the establishment and endowment of the Peabody teachers college for whites at Nashville, Tennessee, leaving only a small part of it for use among the Freedmen.

In 1882, John F. Slater of Norwich, Connecticut, created a trust fund of $1,000,000, for the purpose of uplifting the emancipated population of the southern states and their posterity. The income of this fund, now increased to $1,500,000, is used to promote normal and industrial education.

In 1888 Daniel Hand of Guilford, Connecticut, gave the American Missionary Association of the Congregational church $1,000,000, and a residuary estate of $500,000 to aid in the education of the Negro.

In 1895 Miss Emiline Cushing of Boston left $23,000 for the same object.

In 1907 Miss Anna T. Jeanes of Philadelphia, Pa., left an endowment fund of $1,000,000 to aid in maintaining elementary schools among the Freedmen. Booker T. Washington was named as one of two trustees of this fund. Its distribution contemplates a three fold plan. First, something additional is to be secured from the school authorities. Second, the co-operative efforts of the people are essential. Third, the effectiveness of the school is improved and its neighborhood influence widened by the introduction of industrial features. In 1911, the income from this fund was so widely distributed as to reach the work in as many as 111 counties in 12 different states; and summer schools were aided in six of them.

In 1909 Miss Caroline Phelps Stokes created a fund of $300,000 for the erection of tenement houses in New York City; and the education of negroes and Indians, through industrial schools.

From 1902 to 1909, John D. Rockefeller gave $53,000,000 to establish a fund for the promotion of general education in the United States. The schools of the Freedmen have received from this fund $532,015.

NEGRO PHILANTHROPISTS

The Freedmen have fallen heir to the estates of some free negroes, that became wealthy. It is interesting to note the following ones.

Tommy Lafon of New Orleans, a dealer in dry goods and real estate, in 1893, left for charitable purposes among his people, an estate appraised at $413,000.

Mary E. Shaw of New York City, left Tuskeegee Colored Institute $38,000.

Col. John McKee of Philadelphia, at his death in 1902, left about $1,000,000 worth of property for education, including a provision for the establishment of a college to bear his name.

Anna Marie Fisher, of Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1911, having an estate of $65,000 left $26,000 for educational institutions.

The successful achievement of these four free Negroes and their generous regard for the welfare of their kin-folks, suggest the possibilities of which they are capable, as financiers and philanthropists, when circumstances are favorable.

PART II

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OAK HILL INDUSTRIAL ACADEMY

"It is said that the Athenians erected a statue to Æsop, (564 B. C.), who was born a slave; or as Phaedrus phrases it:

"They placed the slave upon an eternal pedestal,"

"Sir, for what the enfranchised slaves did for the cause of constitutional liberty in this country, the American people should imitate the Athenians and, by training the slave for usefulness, place him upon an eternal pedestal. Their conduct has been beyond all praise.

"They have been patient and docile; they have been loyal to their masters, to the country, and to those with whom they are associated; but, as I said before, no other people ever endured patiently such injustice and wrong. Despotism makes nihilists; tyranny makes socialists and communists; and injustice is the great manufacturer of dynamite. The thief robs himself; the adulterer pollutes himself; and the murderer inflicts a deeper wound upon himself than that which slays his victim.

"If my voice can reach this proscribed and unfortunate class, I appeal to them to continue, as they have begun, to endure to the end; and thus to commend themselves to the favorable judgment of mankind; and to rely for their safety upon the ultimate appeal to the conscience of the human race."—John J. Ingalls, U. S. Senate, 1890.

THE NATIVE OAK HILL SCHOOL

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1876-1886

CHURCH ORGANIZED JUNE 29, 1869.—SUNDAY SCHOOL IN 1876.—SCHOOL HOUSE, 1878.—OLD LOG HOUSE, 1884.—APPEAL FOR ACADEMY.

"The vineyard which thy right hand hath planted."
"Who hath despised the day of small things?"

As the preaching of the gospel and the organization of a church preceded the establishment of the school, the following facts in regard to the church are first noted.

THE OAK HILL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

The Oak Hill Presbyterian church was organized about June 29, 1869, with six members, namely, Henry Crittenden, who was ordained an elder, Teena Crittenden, his wife, J. Ross Shoals and his wife Hettie Shoals, Emily Harris and Reindeer Clark.

The services at first were held in the home and later in an arbor at the home of Henry Crittenden, one mile east of the present town of Valliant, and now known as the home of James and Johnson Shoals. After a few years the place of meeting was transferred to an arbor about two miles southwest of Crittenden's, and two years later, 1878, to the Oak Hill schoolhouse, a frame building erected that year on the main east and west road north of Red river. It was located on the southwest quarter of section 27, near the site on which Valliant was located in 1902. It is reported, that Henry Crittenden was the principal contributor towards the erection of this building. His cash income though meager was greater than others and he gave freely in order that a suitable place might be provided both for public worship and a day school for the neighborhood.

Parson Charles W. Stewart of Doaksville, a representative of the last generation of those who were slaves to the Indians, was the minister in charge from the time of organization until the spring of 1893, when he retired from the ministry. He was succeeded at Oak Hill by Rev. Edward G. Haymaker, the superintendent of the academy, who continued a period of eleven years. He was succeeded by Rev. R. E. Flickinger, whose pastorate of nearly eight years was eventfully ended at the dedication of the new colored Presbyterian church at Garvin, on October 3, 1912. Rev. William H. Carroll, relinquishing his work on that same day as the first resident pastor of the Garvin church became the immediate successor at Oak Hill.

Those who served as elders of the Oak Hill church and are now dead were Henry Crittenden, J. Ross Shoals, Robert Hall, Jack A. Thomas and Samuel A. Folsom. The elders in 1912 are James R. Crabtree, Matt Brown and Solomon H. Buchanan.

In 1912 a site for a new chapel, intended only for the uses of the local congregation, was purchased in a suburb on the west side of Valliant. The trustees chosen at this time were Mitchell S. Stewart, formerly an elder, Matt Brown and James R. Crabtree. They were duly authorized to incorporate and manage the erection of the new church building.

THE NATIVE OAK HILL SCHOOL

The Negroes who were slaves of the Indians, about the year 1880 were enrolled and adopted as citizens, by the tribes to which they respectively belonged, and they then became entitled to a small part of their public school funds. The amount accorded the Choctaw Freedmen was about one dollar a year for a pupil that was enrolled as attending school. This made possible the employment of a teacher for a short term of three months in the vicinity of a few villages, where a large enrollment could be secured, but left unsupplied the greater number living in the sparsely settled neighborhoods.

Our Board of Missions for Freedmen, ever since its organization, has made it the duty of every negro minister commissioned by it, to maintain a school in their respective chapels several months each year, in order that the children of the community might have an opportunity to learn to read the Bible.

The first native teacher in the Oak Hill congregation was J. Ross Shoals, one of the elders of the church, who had a large family and principally of boys. His work was that of a Bible reader or Sunday School teacher. About the year 1876 he began to hold meetings in the south arbor on Sabbath afternoons for the purpose of teaching both old and young to read the Bible with him. Nathan Mattison succeeded him the next year at the same place as a Sabbath school teacher.

In 1878, George M. Dallas, a carpenter, was employed to build a small frame school house on the southwest quarter of section 27, and after its completion he taught that year the first term of week day school among the colored people of that section. Others that succeeded Dallas, as teachers in this frame school house, were Mary Rounds, Henry Williams and Lee Bibbs.

OLD LOG HOUSE

In 1884, Henry Williams transferred the day school to the "old log house" on the northeast quarter of section 29, a mile and a half northwest of the school house. The motive for this change was the fact there was no supply of good water near the school house, while at the new location there was a good well and a large vacant building available for use.

Robin Clark, its owner and last occupant was an active member of the Oak Hill church.

After occupying this building one or two years he moved to another one near Red river and generously tendered the free use of this one for the Oak Hill school. In 1885 Henry Friarson, another native teacher, taught the school in this same "old log house."

All of these native teachers did the best they could, but deeply felt their insufficiency for the task laid on them, by the pressure of an urgent necessity. All had personal knowledge of the existence and unusual privileges afforded the children and youth of the Choctaws at Wheelock and Spencer Academies. It was also easy for them to see that as farmers they succeeded as well in securing good results from the cultivation of the soil as many of their Choctaw neighbors, and this fact tended to increase their desire to have a "fair chance" and equal share in the matter of educational privileges for their children.

The Oak Hill church and school happened to be near the center of the widely scattered group of a half dozen churches that formed the monthly circuit of Parson Charles W. Stewart. All who were interested in securing a good mission school approved this location as the most convenient for all of them, and, heartily uniting in an appeal for one, pledged their united support of it, when it should be established.

APPEAL FOR OAK HILL

The appeal of the Choctaw Freedmen was presented to the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen by Rev. Alexander Reid and Rev. John Edwards, the missionaries in charge of the Indian work at Spencer and Wheelock Academies, respectively.

In the early days many of the old Negroes were located near these educational institutions and they were sometimes sent by their masters to work for the missionaries. These men living in their midst had opportunity to witness their extreme poverty, utter ignorance and general degradation. They also heard their personal appeals for the light of knowledge and Bible truth. Their sympathetic interest was awakened and began to manifest itself towards them.

They were occasionally accorded the privilege of attending religious services, and at Doaksville, during the ministry of Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, were permitted to hold occasional Sabbath afternoon meetings in the Choctaw church. Primers, catechisms and testaments were sometimes presented to them, and in this way a few of them learned to read the Bible. The kindly interest of these missionaries won their esteem and confidence and awakened in many of them an abiding love and affection for the Presbyterian church.

It is related that when one of them was asked to unite with another church because it was "more free" he replied, "You are too free for me, I need a stricter church. I believe in staying by the old missionaries. They were our friends when we were slaves. They treated us well and did us good, and I mean to stay by their church as long as I live."

SLAVERY AMONG INDIANS

The state of religion among all of the people, both Indians and Negroes, was low, "very low". One of the missionaries described that of the Negroes as being like that of the Samaritans. "They fear the Lord and serve their own gods. As their fathers did, so do they. Their condition is bad, morally and religiously."

It could not easily have been otherwise. The tendency of slavery, under the most favorable conditions has always been in the direction of a low standard of morals and life. Slavery to untutored Indians, in a sparsely settled timber country, suggests the most deplorable condition imaginable. Such a slave lacking the example of intelligence and uprightness, often common among white masters, was subjected to generations of training in every phase of depravity and had no incentive whatever to live a better life.

When, however, these slaves of the Indians were accorded their freedom and became entitled to a part of the public school fund of the Choctaws, they manifested an earnest desire to have ministers and teachers sent them, that they might have churches and schools of their own.

Their great need was a boarding school where the boys and girls especially those in the remote and neglected rural districts, could be taken from their homes and trained under the personal supervision of christian teachers, to a higher standard of living, and, some at least, become fitted to serve as teachers of their own people.

XII

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ERA OF ELIZA HARTFORD

1886-1888.

THE HEROIC PIONEER.—FEBRUARY 14, 1886.—BOARDING SCHOOL, APRIL 15th, 1886.—PRISCILLA G. HAYMAKER.—NEW SCHOOL BUILDING IN 1887.—ANNA E. CAMPBELL.

"I'll go where you want me to go."

The story of Oak Hill as an Industrial Academy, begins with the work of Miss Eliza Hartford of Steubenville, Ohio, the first white teacher in the "Old Log house". She was commissioned by the Freedmen's Board in January, 1886, and was sent in response to the appeal of the colored people of the Choctaw Nation.

The missionaries, Reid and Edwards, had commended as the most favorable location for such an educational institution the rural neighborhood occupied by the Oak Hill church, two miles east of Clear Creek in the valley of Red river.

They referred to this as a "pivotal location" for such a school, and wrote, "Here we want to see a good school established that shall grow into a normal academy. The location is central and healthful. If in charge of white teachers, such a school will attract scholars from all the other settlements."

HEROIC PIONEER

Oak Hill, like other schools of its kind, had its early period of heroic effort and self-sacrificing toil, before the usual comforts and conveniences of civilized life could be enjoyed. This was true of the entire period of service on the part of Miss Hartford, February 1886 to August 1888.

When she arrived at Wheelock, where she met a friend, Miss Elder, engaged in teaching the Indians, Rev. John Edwards served as an aid, in making a tour of inspection over the field, of which she was to be the missionary teacher and physician. This journey was made on horseback, which was the most speedy and comfortable mode of travel, over the rough and winding trails through the timber at that time.

As a result of this survey and a call at the home of Henry Crittenden, an elder of the Oak Hill church and a "local trustee of the neighborhood, under the Choctaw law," it was decided that the "old log house" was the best place to establish the school; and the best place for her to live was at the home of the colored elder, Henry Crittenden, three miles east. She was expected to make her daily journeys on horseback; and, in connection with the work of the school, to visit the people at their homes, furnish medicines for the sick and give instruction in regard to their care.

In her description of the old log house Miss Hartford states, "The windows are without sash or glass and the roof full of holes. The chimneys are of hewn stone, strong and massive. The house is of hewed logs, two stories in height and stands high in the midst of a fine locust grove. The well of water near it seems as famous as Jacob's well."

Eliza Hartford.

Anna E. Campbell.

Priscilla G. Haymaker. Rev. Edward G. Haymaker.

At the request of Mr. Edwards the colored people in the vicinity, after repairing the roof and windows, cleaned, scrubbed and whitewashed the inside of this old log house, and thus prepared it for its new and noble era of usefulness.

The Girls' Hall, 1889-1910.

FEBRUARY 14, 1886

On Sabbath, February 14, 1886, one week after the arrival of Miss Hartford, her first meeting was held and a Sunday school was organized under her leadership. At its close a prayer-meeting was held in which she read the scriptures, the hymns and a sermon.

The Old Farm House.
The Pioneer Home of a Choctaw Chief, Leflore, and of the Oak Hill School.

On Tuesday, February 16, 1886, the school was opened with seven pupils. The opening exercises consisted in the reading of a chapter by the new teacher, the singing of a hymn and prayer by elder Henry Crittenden. The latter was profoundly impressed with the fact that, in the auspicious opening of the school that morning, the colored people of that section were realizing the answer to their oft repeated prayers, the fulfilment of their long delayed hopes.

The new teacher had never heard such a prayer in any school she ever attended. He thanked Our Heavenly Father, "That the prayers of his people were answered. In their bondage they had cried unto Him and He had heard their cry. In their ignorance and darkness they had asked for light and the light had come." He prayed for the teacher that "God would give her wisdom and enable her to be faithful." He prayed for the children and their parents that, "they might be able to see and appreciate what God had done for them," and for the school, "that it might abide with them and become an uplifting power to them and their children."

On the following Monday the number of the pupils had increased to fourteen. The chills were prevalent and frequently half the pupils would be seen huddling around the log fire in the chimney fireplace, and making a chattering noise with their teeth.

A BOARDING SCHOOL

On April 15, 1886, Miss Hartford began to live at the school building and some of the pupils brought their corn-meal so they might live "wid de teacher," and Oak Hill became a boarding school with an enrollment of 24 pupils.

At a prayer meeting of the women held soon after this event, it was decided to build a kitchen at the west end of the log house so "de chillen might have a place to bake and eat their corn bread." While they were building this kitchen a man who saw them said to Miss Hartford, "It makes the men feel mighty mean to see the women doing that work." She repeated to him the following words from the third verse of the fourth chapter of Paul's epistle to the Philippians: "I entreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which labor with me in the gospel, whose names are in the book of life." The result was very gratifying. He got his team, hauled the rest of the materials and then helped them to complete it. This improvement increased the facilities and also the general interest in the school.

In September 1886 pupils began to arrive from distant places and whilst some of them were retained in the building others were located among the friends in the neighborhood. In February following, all the available room in the log house was occupied and the work of the school proving too great for one teacher, another one was requested. The institution had now acquired the name, "Oak Hill Industrial School."

PRISCILLA G. HAYMAKER

In April 1887, Miss Priscilla G. Haymaker, of Newlonsburg, Westmoreland county, Pa., arrived to aid in the management of the school, and this event was the occasion for another thanksgiving on the part of the people. At a meeting then held they decided to build a house that could be used for a school house and chapel, using the materials in the Oak Hill school building of 1878. The men agreed to donate all the work they could, and, with ox teams, delivered the lumber in the old building. The Board gave $50.00 and Rev. John Edwards $25.00 towards the purchase of new lumber. It fell to the lot of Miss Hartford and Elder Henry Crittenden to pay some of the balances due on this building, and their contributions were remarkably large ones for those early days.

Miss Hartford, at the time this building was undertaken, was given special permission to solicit money to furnish the new school building, to fit up the "old log house" for a boarding house, and scholarships of $15.00 each. She went east and returning in August found the new building ready for the desks.

Miss Haymaker solicited and received the promise of a large bell that had been used by her father on the old farm at Newlonsburg, Pa., that the people might rejoice over the possession not merely of a chapel and school building, but one "wid a bell."

The time appointed for opening the fall term was now near at hand and yet the old log house was not ready for the boarders, that were expected soon to fill it, owing to the fact no workmen could be found to do the work. Miss Hartford and Miss Haymaker, with the help of a boy, made the bedsteads and tables with their own hands, the latter manifesting considerable skill in the use of the saw and hammer. On September 1st the boarders began to arrive and on the 15th, 60 pupils were enrolled of whom 36 were boarders. Every boarder was expected to bring 12 bushels of corn, and with scholarships of $15.00 each, there was no danger of starving. The girls were required to do the housework and the boys to provide the wood. Miss Haymaker was not used to roughing it and before the close of November she was compelled to return to her home, broken in health.

ANNA E. CAMPBELL

Miss Anna E. Campbell of Midway, Pa., who had previously been sent for, arrived at Oak Hill two days after the departure of Miss Haymaker, and with her the long expected bell, from the old home of the latter. The following Sabbath, the first one on which they were called together for worship by the clarion tones of the new bell, was another glad day for the people, and they extended to Miss Campbell a very cordial welcome, as the new assistant of Miss Hartford. She remained until the end of the term, June 15th, 1888.

Miss Campbell held temperance meetings every Saturday and some objected to them, because "dey was teachin de risin generashun dat it was wrong to drink whiskey or use tobacco, while de Bible said it was good for de stomik." During this second term six of the pupils, repeated the Catechism and nine united with the church.

During the summer of 1888 Miss Hartford remained alone to take care of the homeless children, and maintain the Sunday school and prayer meeting. Other parents began to call and plead for room for their children. Believing the time had come when another and a larger building was necessary in order to receive them, she rode a long distance to confer with a carpenter, in regard to the erection and cost of a frame building for boarders. He arranged to call and make an estimate, but while she waited for him, her health began to fail. The exposures, burdens and privations proved too great for her, single handed and alone, and she felt constrained to return to her home. She was unable to return to Oak Hill and died at Richmond, Ohio, July 9, 1901. Miss Campbell was also unable to return and the school was left without a teacher.

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EARLY REMINISCENCES

ELIZA HARTFORD.—PRISCILLA G. HAYMAKER.—ANNA E. CAMPBELL.—THE NIGHT SCHOOL.—HARDSHIPS AT OAK HILL.

"Books are keys to wisdom's treasures;
Books are gates to lands of pleasure;
Books are paths that upward lead;
Books are friends. Come let us read."

The following reminiscences, gleaned from letters written by these three heroic young lady teachers, will be read with interest. They discover in their own language, their feelings of hopefulness and loyalty while coping with unexpected embarrassments and unusual privations. Single handed and alone they penetrated the wilds of Indian Territory to a secluded spot, where they were a half day's ride from their nearest white friends, and thirty-five miles from the railway.

Holding aloft the Bible, the true standard of the cross, they rallied the ignorant and uncivilized natives appreciatingly around it, more worthily and long before our famous explorers decorated the North Pole with the American flag.

The mail was carried once a week from Clarksville to Wheelock, ten miles east, the nearest post office.

TEACHING ELIZABETH WASHING

At the end of her first year, March 19, 1887, when she was still working alone, having school, Sunday school, preaching and boarding house all in the old log house, Miss Hartford wrote to a friend, as follows:

"This ought to be a resting day for me, but I am always tired on Saturday. This has been my wash day and I will give you my experience with a girl of fifteen, who is very ignorant about the simplest things relating to work. It is useless to tell Elizabeth how to do any work, unless one goes with her and shows her every change. Today I had her wash her own clothes by my side, while I washed mine, to show her how, and how speedily she ought to do her own work. The only way to succeed in having them work is to work with them."

"These poor Freedmen have a just claim on the church. They are far below their white brothers and sisters, but they are not to be blamed for it. Slavery has made them so, and we must do something to lift them up. This however, will not be done by sending them to expensive schools, to make ladies and gentlemen of them, but where they will learn to work thoughtfully and be taught the pure religion of the Bible. The worst ones among them are very religious in their way."

A "FEELIN' MEETIN'"

"On last Sabbath we had an example of the way they like to do things. Their old black preacher always preaches on the Sunday school lesson. He comes early to hear what I say and then 'enlarges on de subject in de afternoon.' I cannot tell you how hard it is sometimes to sit still and listen to the old man's explanations. Last Sabbath he dwelt a long time 'on de fact Rebecca was a shameful deceiver an dat Jacob was another one.'"

"In the afternoon, after two hours of preaching services he concluded, 'as it was still early in de day' they would sing a hymn and any who wished to jine de church could come 'for'ud and give us der hand.'"

"As soon as they started to sing, a woman fell in some sort of spell. She was sitting near me on the same bench. Instantly it occurred to me they were getting up one of their 'feelin' meetin's', as they call them, and I was frightened half out of my wits. Fearing they would get to shouting and pounding each other, I ran out as fast as I could. There were about fifty of them packed in one little room sixteen feet square and I was up in front. It was one of the friendly tribe that shouted, and had I been wise, I would have known what was coming. My flight spoiled the meeting, but if you would appreciate my feelings just imagine you are alone in a small room with fifty darkies and fifteen or twenty of them commence shouting and breaking benches. I had a severe headache and have not felt well all week."

"After I ran out the people laughed and the poor woman recovered quite suddenly. By the time I was safe in my own room the meeting was dismissed. I was nervous and discouraged. I called the old preacher to my room and gave him a lecture. He said he did not believe in shouting and had no idea of any one doing so. I am afraid some of the shouting ones will be offended but I could not help it. It was the first time I have felt afraid since I came here."

"The school children think it was the 'best meetin' they were ever at.' They say 'Miss Hartford did look so funny when she got scared.' I tell them they may laugh at me but not at the poor woman who shouted. I tell them that shouting and falling in fits is not religion, that the poor woman was probably a good christian, but her shouting and spells do not make her one."

"'Mamma says,' said one of them, 'that she first took religion wid one of them spells and dey allus' come when she gits happy.'"

"Poor things! I tell you this to show you in what a sad state they are. They have had enough preaching to make them think they are religious, but have had no real Bible teaching, and there are ten thousand of them in this nation. The Board has concluded to send Miss Haymaker here and I am glad."

Mrs. M. E. Crowe.

Carrie E. Crowe.

Anna T. Hunter.

Martha Hunter.

BOTHERSOME "BREDDERIN"

The Board talks about sending a new preacher here, I hope they will send a strong healthy consecrated white man. A sickly man has no business here. Common sense and grit are needed more than learning. It will be no easy task for a white preacher to manage these black Presbyterians. I suspect it will require more tact and will power to manage this set, than one of our city churches.

A half dozen old fellows claiming to be elders tried to run 'de Sunday School and de teacher' until I read to them a letter from Dr. Allen, secretary of the Board. Not one of them can read, but they take great pride in being elders. Some were appointed elders in other churches and they think that makes them elders here. It will be a sad day to them when they learn they are not elders here, and I fear they will not then be willing to remain as members.

I have written you a long letter and it is all about the darkies; but no doubt you are expecting that.

James McGuire and Others, 1901.

HARD WORK AND MISERABLE LIVING

"I am not so strong, in fact feel ten years older than one year ago. I fear I cannot stand the heat this summer. I said 'heat' but do not mean that exactly. This climate is rather pleasant, if we could only provide comforts. It is the constant hard work and miserable way of living that makes it so bad.

No white person could eat what these women prepare,—bread, always of corn, and fat pork, swimming in grease. Give them flour, they stir in a lot of soda and serve you biscuit as green as grass. They have no idea of better cooking and will not take the pains to do better. We are going to teach them to cook, scrub and wash clothes.

Write soon and tell me whether you called on mother, when you were in Steubenville.

Your Friend, Eliza Hartford."

Six months later when she returned from a short visit to her mother she writes:

"The weeds were so high I could scarcely see the house. I had to pay forty dollars from my own earnings on lumber hauled for the new school building, but which Elder Crittenden says, was taken by thieves. I paid it to save our credit and am glad I had it to give.

"We have now nineteen boarders. I am almost worked to death and it takes all my patience to stand it."

BETSY BOBBET

A letter dated January 6, 1888, bears the stamp, "Oak Hill Industrial Academy." A change in her assistants had taken place in November previous and she writes:

"Miss Haymaker before leaving had miserable health and I have had a hard time since my return. I think Miss Campbell will do well. The attendance now ranges from 45 to 60 and I am not able to do anything except the school work. Four of the children have had chills and fever, and I have had to rise at night to care for them. I have been trying to do the work of three people and not complain. Still I'd like to grumble a little, if I could find the right one to talk to. I am beginning to feel a little like Josiah Allen's wife, when she said, 'Betsy Bobbet, you're a fool, or else me.'

Still I had rather be regarded foolish, by working hard for the good of others, than take advantage of another.

Pray for me for I need your prayers.

Eliza Hartford."

MISS HAYMAKER'S EVENTFUL JOURNEY.

Miss Priscilla G. Haymaker made her first journey to Oak Hill about the first of April, 1887. She passed by way of St. Louis to Texarkana, Arkansas, 50 miles east of Clarksville, over the Iron Mountain railway. This part of the journey was made during the night, and most of the time she was the only lady in the car. The crowd on the train was one of ruffians, who spent the time playing cards, drinking whiskey and showing their revolvers.

The conductor said to her, "Lady you have a rough crowd to ride with to night, but I will not leave you long." He was as good as his word. He sat in the seat with her when in the car and returned promptly when required to be absent.

At Clarksville she found the driver from Wheelock awaiting her arrival at the hotel. As early as four o'clock the next morning everything was in readiness for making the trip to Wheelock in a covered wagon. It soon began to rain and continued raining all day. It was 8 o'clock at night when the team arrived at Wheelock.

The cordial welcome extended by Rev. John Edwards, Superintendent, and his wife and the teachers at Wheelock Academy, was one not soon to be forgotten. It was greatly appreciated and enabled her to feel she had gotten back again to a place of civilization.

Miss Haymaker, the first assistant of Miss Hartford, April to November 1887, was a native of Newlonsburg, Pa., daughter of George R. and Priscilla Haymaker.

On October 1, 1890, she returned to Oak Hill and served as the principal teacher in the Academy the next six years. In the fall of 1892 she was joined by her brother Rev. E. G. Haymaker, who then became superintendent. On October 13, 1896, she became the wife of John Blair of Chambersburg, Pa., and they still reside there.

MISS CAMPBELL'S TRIP FROM CLARKSVILLE.

Miss Anna E. Campbell, the successor of Miss Haymaker arrived at Clarksville, the same day the latter passed through that place on her way home in November, 1887.

The proprietor of the hotel called her very early the next morning and informed her he had secured a mule team driven by a negro to take her to Oak Hill. When she was leaving the hotel he solicitously inquired,

"Do you carry a gun?"

"No I haven't any weapon except a little pocket knife," she answered. He then said, "In going into Indian Territory you ought to have a gun, you may need it."

Mr. Moore, the railway agent, a man from Ohio, noticing by the check of her trunk, that she came from Pennsylvania, was very courteous and gave his name. He charged the driver to protect the lady at the risk of his own life; all of which he solemnly promised to do, by promptly answering, "Yes sah, dat I will."

The bell and two barrels of clothing for Oak Hill were put on the wagon and they made the load a pretty good one for the team. After driving northward all day it began to grow dark and they had not yet reached the ferry across Red River. The crossing was made however without accident.

When the landing had been completed the driver remarked:

"I don't reckon we will get dar, 'coz I doesn't know de way now."

Fortunately there were several houses not very far away on the bluff along the river, and after a few inquiries, a white family was found that very kindly gave Miss Campbell shelter for the night.

The woman at once offered her a sniff of snuff as a token of good will. When the snuff was very politely declined, she laconically remarked:

"Well, some folks don't."

Miss Campbell arrived at Oak Hill, ten miles distant from the ferry, the next day, after experiencing a "stuck fast" in the mud on the way.

Miss Campbell was a native of Midway, Washington county. Pa. She became the assistant of Miss Hartford in November, 1887, two days after the departure of Miss Haymaker and remained until June 15, 1888. At that time she expected to return about the first of October following. But when her trunk had been packed for that purpose circumstances arose at home that made it necessary for her to remain and take care of her parents, both of whom were aged and infirm. On March 7, 1905, she became the wife of James H. McClusky and now lives on a well cultivated productive farm near Monongahela, Pa.

MISS HARTFORD'S NIGHT SCHOOL.

On requesting Alexander M. Reid, D. D., of Steubenville, Ohio, the early home of Eliza Hartford to obtain and send a photo of her, he reported her death at Richmond, Ohio, July 9, 1901; and stating that a photo could not be found among her relatives, sent instead the following beautiful incident, growing out of her work as a teacher of night school in that place before she came to Oak Hill.

MATTHEW FINDING HIS OPPORTUNITY

Rev. Charles C. Beatty, D. D., a former Moderator of the General Assembly who had become almost totally blind, at the close of a prayer meeting held in the Second Presbyterian church, said to Miss Hartford, "Could you not name one of your boys here to lead me home?"

She replied, "Yes, here is Matthew Rutherford; he will lead you home."

On the way home Dr. Beatty asked Matthew, what he was doing: He replied, "I dig coal in the day time and go to the school of Miss Hartford at night."

When near home Dr. Beatty inquired, "Matthew, how would you like to go to school and get an education?" He said, "I would like it very much."

Dr. Beatty then said, "Matthew, you may quit digging coal and go through the school and High School. Then if you have a good standing, I will send you to college. If the Lord should then seem to be calling you to be a minister, I will enable you to pursue your studies at Allegheny Seminary."

Matthew, who was a native of England and exceedingly grateful for this recognition and counsel, quit the mines and entered school. He graduated from Washington and Jefferson college in 1884, and from the theological Seminary, three years later. Since 1896 he has been the highly esteemed pastor of the third Presbyterian church, Washington, Pa., and Bible instructor in the college since 1900. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1909.

This incident serves to illustrate the readiness of the friends of Christian Education to aid young people of limited means, who are trying to educate themselves; and the care they also take to know they are worthy. It also shows the importance of young people industriously and economically doing what they can to help themselves. That is their best recommendation.

If young Rutherford, while working in the mines, had indulged in spending his evenings at places merely of amusement or entertainment as many do, he would have missed the golden opportunity of his life. The unexpected and gracious offer came to him, while he was attending night school and the weekly prayer meeting. It was while he was taking advantage of these opportunities for intellectual and moral improvement, within his reach, that he found the true and faithful friend, whose assistance he most needed.

HARDSHIPS AT OAK HILL.

Miss Hartford, before coming to Oak Hill, spent several years as a teacher among the Mormons at Silver City, Utah. This was a period when missionary work was difficult and dangerous. She resigned that work on account of the failing health of her aged mother.

She patiently and hopefully endured many privations and hardships in faithfully and energetically carrying forward the work entrusted to her. These were greatest at Oak Hill than elsewhere.

At Oak Hill she was unable to relieve the natural conditions that produce malarial troubles. She felt very deeply the loneliness of dwelling in the wilderness, where there was no white person in the neighborhood to render assistance in time of special need, or sympathetic friend to express a word of comfort and encouragement. Then she could not avoid the incessant strain of continuous work and worry under surroundings and limitations, that could not be removed and tended to produce that nervous exhaustion, which results in complete prostration. This nervous strain was increased by every advancing step in the progress of the work. Relief from this malady is not found in the use of medicines, but in a complete change of scenes, diet and employment. She and her two faithful helpers were compelled to seek this form of relief.

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EARLY TIMES AT FOREST.

FOREST CHAPEL.—LIFTING THE COLLECTION.—PRIMITIVE MID-WEEK MEETINGS.

"I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times."

The following reminiscences of early times at Forest church are narrated for their intrinsic as well as historic interest. The first one reveals an order of service, that is very general in the colored churches. It is one that affords the deacon, if he be a man so disposed, to spontaneously introduce considerable native wit and humor into the part of the service entrusted to him; and if he does, it very naturally prepares the way for unexpected shouts of joy and gladness on the part of those who are emotional or subject to the sudden impulse of ecstatic delight.

FOREST CHAPEL.

Forest Chapel, as is suggested by its name, was located in the large and dense oak forest along Red river eight miles south of Wheelock. Its post office has been successively, Wheelock, Fowlerville, Parsons and since 1906 Millerton. The Forest church was organized by Parson Stewart about 1886, and was served by him once a month the next seven years. In 1898 it became a remote part of the field of Rev. William Butler of Eagletown, who also endeavored to visit it once a month.

The chapel was a lonely, dingy and dilapidated building, inside as well as outside. It was about 20 by 30 feet and was built entirely of rough lumber. The side walls consisted of one thickness of wide inch boards, nailed at the top and bottom, and having a thin strip over the cracks on the outside. The roof was covered with long, split, oak clapboards, that invariably look black and rough at the end of a year. The pulpit consisted of a box-like arrangement that stood on a small platform at the center of one end. The seats consisted of a half dozen rough benches without backs, that could be arranged around the stove in cold weather, or in three fold groups for a picnic dinner, the middle one being used for a table on such occasions and the other two for seats around it. No paint or even white wash ever found a place on this building. It was the largest and best building in the neighborhood, and the popular resort for all of their social gatherings.

The leading men of the congregation consisted of two elders, both venerable and devout survivors of the slavery period, neither of whom could read, and a deacon, who was one of the only two of the older people who could read a little.

LIFTING THE COLLECTION

It was regarded as the duty of the deacon to "lift the collection" at the Sabbath services. This gave him a very prominent part in the services, for the collection is not lifted by passing the hat or basket, but each contributor, after the general call brings their offering and lays it either on the pulpit or a little stand near it. However novel this arrangement may at first appear to those unaccustomed to it, it must be remembered that a method somewhat similar to this was in use in the Temple in Jerusalem, when our Lord Jesus, taking his seat opposite the treasury, saw the poor widow cast in her two mites and commended her very highly.

It was not unusual for the deacon to announce before hand the amount needed and then, as the offerings are presented, to state the amount received from time to time, until finally the whole amount is obtained. This part of the service was always enlivened by singing some soul-stirring songs, that everybody could sing. Occasionally it would take the form of a good natured rivalry, as to which could appear the most happy and joyous, the deacon, vociferously announcing from time to time as their offerings came in, the latest result of the collection, or, the people, whose merry singing would occasionally develop into a shout of ecstatic enjoyment, on the part of one or more of their number.

PRIMITIVE MID-WEEK MEETINGS

The early preachers, having monthly appointments, were always very faithful in exhorting and encouraging the elders of their distant congregations to maintain regular Sabbath services, for the study of the Bible and Catechism, and a mid-week meeting for praise and prayer. The people were encouraged to attend all these meetings and cordially co-operate with the elders in making them interesting and instructive.

The older generation at Forest was one that had a foretaste of slavery in their early days, but not a day of school privileges, except as the Bible was read or taught at their meetings on the Sabbath. The lack of school privileges in the neighborhood and its remote seclusion from the outside world, had the effect of leaving these colored people to continue their primitive ways and methods of doing things, to a later date than in many other more highly favored communities.

The following narrative contains an account of the mid-week meetings held at Forest about the year 1897 when Miss Bertha L. Ahrens, a white missionary teacher of our Freedmen's Board opened a mission school in the chapel. It shows how the people, that lived in the gross darkness of utter ignorance, groped for the light and earnestly endeavored to extend it, when the gospel was first presented to them.

The mid-week meetings are held regularly when not prevented by rain or cold weather. The people live in little shanties scattered through the timber near springs of water and are poorly clad. In good weather they "begin to gather" about 8:30 p. m. and continue to "gather" until 9:30, when Elder "B." taking his place at the left of the pulpit, "reckons that they's all here that's going to com." Elder F. sits down beside him and neither of them can read. Deacon L. who serves as chorister, occupies a shortseat in front of the pulpit. The wives of the elders, the lady missionary and other leading sisters occupy seats—a bench—at the right of the pulpit.

The meetings are opened by the deacon, who reads two lines of a hymn and, winding out a tune, the people unite in singing them. Two more lines continue to be read and sung until the hymn has been completed.

When the deacon is not present Elder "B." says: "Will some of you select something to sing?" If no brother is present, who can read, a sister or the missionary, or perhaps one of her school boys, may "line out" a hymn and may even "raise it" but the tune must be one "the old folks can sing." If the one who "raises the tune" breaks down with it, any one may pick it up and go on with it to the end of the two lines that have been "lined out."

The missionary's organ is in position ready for use, but it must be silent in the prayer meeting, and also at the preaching service. It is a new and troublesome innovation. It takes the prominence in the singing, that belongs to the officers of the church. The missionary cannot wind and slur the tunes on it, the way the old folks have learned to sing them, and it robs the singing of its old-time sweetness and power. The organ therefore remains silent.

After the first hymn, Elder "B." who never allows any one else, not even the preacher, to lead the prayer meeting, now calls on some one to "read us a lesson from the Bible." This was an innovation introduced into the prayer meeting after the arrival of the lady missionary. It is at first merely tolerated, comments and explanations are strictly forbidden. These restrictions in regard to the Bible in the meeting were due to the influence exerted by the wife of Elder "B." who had been the first real leader of the church and was still regarded as a "mother in Israel, whose opinions should be respected." She felt that God had taught her by visions and dreams, and believed he would teach others the same way. Elder "F." however, is not satisfied till he and others have heard the "Word of God" and permission to read it is given.

"Down to pray," is the next request of the leader, and the voice of every one present is expected to be heard in this part of the meeting. A sister, whose seat is near a window, begs the Lord to "come this-a-way, just a little while, to lay his head in the window and hear his servant pray." A brother near the front door responds approvingly, "Yes sir," and bids him, "Walk in, and take a front seat." The prayer of a devout sister after one or two petitions, becomes an earnest exhortation to all the sinners to repent and be saved.

Some seemed to believe their prayers have to travel long journeys and are better long than short. Some prayers are chanted with a pleasing variety of the voice, while others are agonized by using many repetitions. All are witnessed to by "amen" and similar words of attestation; for these are "live christians", and have no use for "dead meetings."

Elder "F." who sits beside the leader, sometimes insists on "making some remarks." If the leader whispers to him "make it short," and he does not give good heed, the starting of a familiar hymn is the method adopted to "bring him down."

At a meeting held on the forenoon of Christmas, Elder "F." was feeling too happy and grateful to restrain himself. His theme was "Our Wonderful Saviour," and he began to exhort sinners to open their hearts to him. He became so absorbed in the greatness and importance of his theme as not to heed the usual whisper of the leader or even the starting of the familiar hymn. The situation is one of embarrassment to the leader. The one that proves equal to it is Elder "B.'s" wife. She walks over to him, grabs him by both arms and pushes him down on his seat, saying, "Bud, you talks too much, sit down now and keep still." She laughs as she says this, the elder smiles as he sits down, and the meeting proceeds in good form.

The usual way of closing the mid-week meeting was about as follows: Elder "B." says, "Well we's done about all we can do. Let us sing something and go home." If elder "F." does not call for the new hymn, they have recently learned from the organ.

"Lord dismiss us with thy blessing," they stand and sing a familiar one. Elder "B." then says: "Amen!" and dismisses the congregation with a wave of his hand.

In the Sunday school the attitude of the people toward the Bible, the organ and the lady missionary was altogether different. Here she is the recognized leader, both in the singing and Bible instruction. As they profit by her instruction, and listen a few times to some of their familiar hymns on the organ, the younger people manifest pleasure and delight and the early prejudices of the older ones are gradually forgotten.

The first elders of Forest church were Simon Folsom, Charles Bibbs and Lee Bibbs. Charles Bashears was soon afterward added to their number and died in 1912. His wife exerted a leading influence in the earlier years of this church.

The allotment of lands in 1905 made it necessary to move Forest church to another location; and in 1909, it was moved about two miles east in the valley of Red river.

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ERA OF JAMES F. McBRIDE

1888-1892

GIRL'S HALL IN 1889.—ADDITIONAL SCHOOL ROOM.—McBRIDE DIES JAN. 29, 1892—MRS. McBRIDE.

"Seest thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings, he shall not stand before mean men."

ERA OF SUPT. McBRIDE

About October 1, 1888 Mr. and Mrs. James F. McBride arrived to take charge of the work as superintendent and matron. Their arrival was the occasion of another joyful meeting on the part of the colored people who came to see the "suptender, and express their great joy over the new start that was to be given the school."

Mrs. McBride at a later date, referring to the appearance of things on the day of their arrival at this, their new home, wrote:

"I can still see how the old log house looked as we drove up; so dilapidated. A broken down porch ran along the front of it, and we had to climb over an old rail fence to get to it. Our first meal was corn bread made with water—without salt—and stewed dried peaches."

When the school opened they were assisted by Miss Carrie Peck, Celestine Hodges and Mary Grundy.

A new era was now inaugurated in the management of the school. Ownership as yet extended only to the farm buildings, which consisted of the old log house, and barn, purchased from Robin Clark, and the new school building. The first effort was now made to utilize two small fields of cleared land and the neighboring timber to raise stock and crops for the local support of the school.

GIRLS' HALL

In 1889 a commodious Girls' Hall was built having ample facilities for carrying and boarding a considerable number of students. The enjoyment of anything like ordinary home comforts on the part of the teachers began with the occupancy of this building. It became the home of the family of the superintendent, teachers and the girls; and the old log house was fitted up for occupancy by the boys. An additional room was also added to the school building.

As the patronage of the school increased Mr. McBride felt there was need for a suitable Boys' Hall. He made the plans for it and, enlisting the interest of the women of Indiana, they provided the money for it. On January 29, 1892, after three and one half years of faithful service and before his hopes could be realized by merely starting the work on the new building, his death occurred and the progress of the improvement work was again arrested.

Mr. McBride was educated at Hanover, Indiana, and had previously taught in several other schools. He was an active christian worker and had been ordained a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church. He anticipated the future needs of the school by planting fruit trees, that, during these later years, have borne bountiful crops of fruit.

The other assistants of Mr. McBride were Mary Coffland, principal in 1889 and assistant principal 1890 to 1892; Miss Priscilla G. Haymaker, who returned to serve as principal in 1890 and continued until 1896. Other assistants were Anna McBride, Bettie Stewart, colored, and Rilla Fields who served from the fall of 1891 to the spring of 1895.

MRS. J. F. McBRIDE

During the next eight months the management of the institution devolved upon Mrs. McBride; and she continued to serve as matron until the spring of 1899, a period of eleven years. She gave to this institution many of her best years for service, and the best work of her life. She became specially interested in a number of young people at Oak Hill and aided them to attend other schools of our Board. She is now living at Coalgate, Okla.

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ERA OF REV. EDWARD G. HAYMAKER

1892-1904

A TERM ANNOUNCEMENT.—BOYS' HALL 1893.—LAUNDRY AND SMOKEHOUSE, 1895—MR. AND MRS. HAYMAKER.—MRS. McBRIDE.—OTHER HELPERS.—ANNA AND MATTIE HUNTER.—MRS. M. E. CROWE.—PRAYING FOR WATER.—APPEAL FOR HOSPITAL.—CARRIE E. CROWE.

"Learning is wealth to the poor,
An honor to the rich,
An aid to the young,
A support and comfort to the aged."

ERA, 1892-1904.

On October 1, 1892, Rev. Edward Graham Haymaker became superintendent and continued to serve in that capacity until the spring of 1904.

The following extracts, from a circular announcement, sent out in script form, for one of the early years of this period, are full of historic interest.

"Oak Hill Industrial school for colored children is situated 5 miles north of Red river and 25 miles east of Goodland, the nearest R. R. station. School opens Oct. 2nd and will continue for a term of six months. It is important that all who attend be on hand at the opening. The sum of $10.00 for citizens and $12.00 for non-citizens will be charged which must be paid in advance, or assurance given for its payment. The price of tuition has been raised by the Board as the Choctaw fund seems to be cut off. It only amounts to 1 cent a meal or 3 cents a day for board and 1½ cents for lodging. Cheap enough. The Board pays the large part of the bill.

Shoes must in all cases be provided by parents and guardians. Girls will be provided with other articles of clothing as far as possible, but no such provision can be made for boys. Books for all will be provided free, and all will be required to work certain hours each day. Boys will not be allowed to use tobacco.

A course of study has been arranged and pupils completing the course will be given a diploma, which will admit to any of the higher schools under the Board.

E. G. Haymaker, superintendent."

BOYS' HALL

During this period a Boys' Hall was erected in 1893, a laundry and smokehouse in 1895. In 1902 the school building was moved from the oak grove at the railway to its present position on the campus and the height of it increased.

Most of the pupils were boarders and most of them were girls. The girls were encouraged to learn to sew that at Christmas they might be the wearers of a new calico dress made with their own hands.

All were required to read the Bible and encouraged to commit the shorter catechism, the World's briefest and best commentary on the Bible.

MR. AND MRS. HAYMAKER

Rev. E. G. Haymaker was a native of Newlonsburg, Westmoreland County, Pa. He graduated from Washington and Jefferson College in 1885 and from the Western Theological Seminary at Pittsburgh, in 1890. In 1887 he was licensed by the Presbytery of Blairsville, and in 1890 was ordained by the Presbytery of Kittanning. After serving Midway and Union churches, Cowansville, Pa., two years, on Oct. 1, 1892, he became superintendent of Oak Hill and continued until the spring of 1904, eleven and a half years.

Mrs. Haymaker, who became matron of the Boys Hall in 1894, was a native of Pennsylvania and was educated in the public schools and Wilson Female College at Chambersburg. She was a teacher at Wheelock Academy at the time of her marriage in 1894.

During the period of service on the part of these and all previous helpers the necessaries of life had to be hauled long distances. The daily supply of water had to be hauled one and a half miles. The nearest post office most of the time was at Wheelock, ten miles east. Previous to 1902, when Valliant was founded the nearest trading stations were Paris and Clarksville, Texas, and from 1889 to 1903 Goodland, twenty-eight miles west. All the surfaced lumber in the Girls' and Boys' Halls, built in 1889 and 1894 had to be hauled from Paris.

Travel over the rough crooked trails and unbridged streams in the timber, whilst not unhealthful in good weather, was always a slow, tedious experience, rather than a source of pleasure. To live at Oak Hill meant to enjoy a quiet secluded home, so far removed from the currents of the world's activity, as to be almost unaffected by them.

Mrs. McBride continued to serve as matron until 1899, a period of ten years. The school had then a history of 13 years. On reviewing the signs of improvement and progress among the colored people that might be attributed to the good influence of the Oak Hill school, she wrote as follows:

"The community has greatly changed since this school was established. When Mr. McBride and I went to the field murders were common in the neighborhood of Oak Hill, but they are rare now. The people are now improving their places, cultivating more land, planting orchards and building board houses, having several rooms. They have more stock than formerly and their outlook seems hopeful; but alas! their religious life is sadly neglected. One half the pupils are from Presbyterian families, and those who come from other denominations learn to love our church, its doctrines and form of worship."

Parson Stewart of Doaksville, who had been the faithful pastor of the Oak Hill church from the time it was founded in 1869, continued to serve it once a month until the spring of 1893, a period of 24 years. He was then at the age of 70 honorably retired from the active ministry, and the superintendent of the academy, became his successor in the pastorate of the Oak Hill church.

OTHER HELPERS.

The other assistants, during the period Mr. Haymaker was superintendent were as follows:

Principals: Anna T. Hunter, 1895 to 1901; Sadie Shaw, 1898-9; Carrie E. Crowe, 1901 to 1903; Verne Gossard, 1903 to 1904.

Assistant Teachers: Mattie Hunter, 1895 to 1901; Mrs. Mary Scott, 1901-1903; Jessie Fisher, 1903 to 1904; Rilla Fields, 1892 to 1895; Howard McBride, 1892-93.

Assistants in the Cooking Department: Mary Gordon, 1894-5; Fannie Green (Col.), Josephine McAfee (Col.), Sadie Shaw, 1897, Lou K. Early, Josie Jones, Lilly E. Lee, Mrs. Martha Folsom (Col.), 1902-3, and Mrs. Emma Burrows, 1903-4.

Matrons: Mrs. M. E. Crowe, 1899-1903; Carrie Craig, 1903-04.

ANNA F. and MATTIE HUNTER

of Huntsville, Ohio, were educated, Mattie in Indianapolis and State Normal at Terra Haute, Indiana, and Anna in similar schools in Ohio.

Anna taught at Wheelock, I. T., from 1885 to 1890, under the Home Mission Board, and then three years under the Freedmen's Board at Atoka. In 1895 she became a teacher at Oak Hill and, serving one year as an assistant, served four years as principal 1896 to 1901, being absent in 1898.

Mattie was an assistant at Oak Hill from 1896 to 1901, having previously taught at Wheelock two years, 1889 to 1891.

The work of these sisters at Oak Hill was greatly appreciated. A number of the views of the early days, that appear in this volume are due to their thoughtfulness, and skill in the use of a Kodak.

MRS. M. E. CROWE.

Mrs. M. E. (Rev. James B.) Crowe in 1899 became the successor of Mrs. McBride as matron of the Girls' Hall and continued until the spring of 1903. It seemed to her like the dawning of a new era in the life of a Choctaw Negro girl, when she entered a Christian training school like Oak Hill. After an opportunity for observation she wrote as follows:

"It gives us no small satisfaction to see the rapid improvement during the first year on the part of those who come to our school. It is very gratifying to witness the surprise of their parents, when they return after the lapse of a few months. This work may seem small when compared with the great South; but these Choctaw Negroes are ours now to mould as we will. The time is near when this country will be thrown open to white settlers; the hordes,—both white and black—will then pour into this section and our opportunity will be gone if we do not seize it now. We have had this year the clearest evidence of God's approval of this work. Oak Hill needs much in the way of facilities. We are thankful for every word of sympathy and the help received this year from societies and friends. I would like to speak of individual pupils; of the transformation we see going on in their characters, and also of their efforts to profit by the instruction given."

Rev. James B. Crowe, in 1887 had charge of the Presbyterian church of Remington, Indiana. In 1890 he was appointed by the Freedmen's Board to serve the colored people at Caddo and Atoka. Anna and Mattie Hunter were then teaching at Atoka, and Mrs. Crowe became a teacher at Caddo. In 1893 her health failed and, returning to the North he died soon afterward. Later Mrs. Crowe became matron at Oak Hill. She is now living at Hartford, South Dakota.

PRAYING FOR WATER

"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want."

When Oak Hill became a boarding school and a heavy draft was made on the old well, that at the first had attracted the school there, it "went dry." After this unexpected occurrence it never furnished an adequate supply of water for the school and stock. During all of the 90's great inconvenience was experienced in securing and keeping on hand an adequate supply during term time. When the supply was exhausted the work in the laundry and kitchen had to stop, until a new supply was obtained.

The nearest sources of supply, during this "lack of water" period, were Clear Creek and a large spring near it, both one and a half miles distant. At first two barrels were used to haul water and the team had to make daily trips during term time. Later a long water tank, that held a wagon load, was substituted for the barrels. Hauling water in barrels kept two boys out of school a considerable part of their time. They did not seem to care, yet the feeling prevailed that it was not right.

In the fall of 1899 when Mrs. M. E. Crowe became matron, the lack of water was so distressing it was made the subject of prayer. Mrs. F. D. Palmer, a secretary of the Board visited the school at this period and after an address, the question was asked, "How many will join in prayer for water to be given Oak Hill?" Quite a number responded and, at the ringing of the retiring bell, a circle of prayer would form in the girls' sitting room and sentence prayers were offered for that one object.

About three weeks later, Mrs. Palmer met the women of the First Presbyterian church, Wilkinsburg, Pa., and, among other needs of the schools visited, referred to the urgent need for water and a cook stove with a large oven at Oak Hill. At the close of her address an elderly lady, Mrs. Rebecca S. Campbell, arose in the back part of the room and said, "My sister-in-law, Anna E. Campbell, taught in that school some years ago; and I will give one hundred dollars for a good well and wind wheel for it, that it may be a useful and worthy memorial of a dear son, Frank Campbell, who died at thirty in 1900, and of Annie's work in 1888."

The Endeavor society added fifty dollars for a large cook stove that would serve as an oven.

In this reminiscence, the faithful teacher, the circle of prayer, the visit of the secretary, the address, and the presence at the meeting of a woman with a responsive heart and offering, seemed links in a chain of providential circumstances, that made those who were interested feel sure the school at Oak Hill was "precious in the sight of the Lord." Their prayer for water had been heard and the answer was assured.

In 1903 this difficulty was overcome by placing an aeromoter over the well, sunk the previous year, to do the pumping for the stock. The stock then enjoyed the free range of the timber and consisted of considerable herds of cattle and hogs.

APPEAL FOR HOSPITAL

"Ask and it shall be given you."

In the early spring of 1903, writes Mrs. M. E. Crowe, matron, one of the girls became ill and feared she was going to die. A special bed was made for her in my own sitting room.

After her recovery Mrs. Crowe wrote Mrs. Mary O. Becker, Mexico, N. Y., a personal stranger but previous contributor to the school, soliciting her aid to provide a hospital or separate room for the care of sick girls.

A favorable response was received. A partition was removed to make a long room and provide for a stove. Soon afterwards there was received from the Women's Missionary Society represented by Mrs. Becker, three single beds, bedding, gowns, slippers, sponges, water-bottles and all the other articles necessary for the complete equipment of a sick room, including three changes of clothing for the sick.

The promptness of this response and the generosity of the donation, awakened feelings of heartfelt gratitude, on the part of the recipients.

A few years afterwards Mrs. Crowe related this incident to a group of ladies at Mitchell, South Dakota, standing in the recess of a bay window.

The pastor of the church, now an evangelist, was busy in an adjoining room, separated only by a curtain. The reference to Mrs. Becker attracted his attention. At the close of her remarks he entered the room and stepping to the window, pointed to some pictures and said:

"These pictures at your side are of Mrs. Becker's home and son. She helped me to get an education. That may not have meant much to others but it meant a great deal to me. It was a fulfilment of the promise.

"I will guide thee with mine eye."

Mrs. Crowe further states, "Many that were under my care became christians and I know that many of them are now doing great good.

"One, when leaving for home at the close of the term, remarked, "All things are going to be different with me at home, but I'm goin' to try to live a christian."

"They need to be taught how to live as well as to die; So many have died. They are not careful of their feet.

"They are unable to get good books at reasonable prices, and the shoddy stuff they do read only tends to make them dreamy and careless."

CARRIE E. CROWE.

Carrie E. Crowe, principal teacher at Oak Hill 1901 to 1903, and again in 1905, is one to be remembered as having devoted her best years and noblest gifts to the educational work among the Freedmen. It was during the early 80's and through the influence of her cousin Mrs. R. H. Allen, D. D., whose husband was then in the beginning of his work as secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen, she was led to consecrate herself to this greatly needed work.

Her first commission was as leading teacher in Scotia Seminary, Concord, North Carolina. During one of the vacations while here, she and Miss D. J. Barber developed a new school at Hendersonville, North Carolina that was continued a number of years under the care of our Freedmen's Board and the personal direction of Sadia L. Carson.

During another vacation she developed a school at Nebo, Marion county, N. C. This school came to be known as the Boston Mission. While she was caring for it, her father, who was a Colporteur of the American Tract Society, and her mother came and made their home with her. The maintenance of this school was not pleasing to all the people of that community; and when a total abstinence organization was effected and some regarded it as a menace to the local illicit manufacture of intoxicating liquors, the ill feeling was manifested by the complete destruction and loss of their home. Her parents were so distressed over this destructive work of the "white caps" and the seriousness of the loss sustained that both died a few months later at Durham, N. C.

After the experience of these great trials that came in quick succession, she was requested to open a day and Sunday school and visiting Mission, among the operatives of the Pearl Cotton Mills at Durham. When failing health made it necessary to relinquish this work, it was extended to the other mills at that place and continued by the women of the Southern Presbyterian church, at whose request this work had been originally undertaken.

On resuming work under our Freedmen's Board the first year was spent at Nottoway, near Burkeville, Nottoway county, Virginia.

The next year, 1897, the Mary Holmes Seminary, destroyed by fire at Jackson Jan. 1, 1895, was rebuilt and re-opened at West Point, Miss., by Rev. Henry N. Payne, D. D. and she became the principal teacher in that institution. On March 6, 1899, their principal building was again destroyed by fire. After three years of faithful service and another sad experience that tended to impair her health, she became in 1901 principal at Oak Hill Academy, Indian Territory, but after two years, by special request, returned and resumed her former position as leading teacher at West Point, taking with her two pupils from Oak Hill, Lizzie Watt and Iserina Folsom.

In the fall of 1905 she returned to Oak Hill Academy and remained until the month of February following, when she was called to the bedside of the late Mary Holmes at Rockford, Illinois.

Her work since that date has been limited to more healthful localities, namely Gunnison, Utah, and the Spanish Mission in Los Angeles, California. At both of these places she served under commissions issued by our Board of Home Missions.

She is now enjoying the rest of a quiet and frugal life in retirement at Escanto, California, within easy distance of a brother and wife, whose kindness is constant, and having as a companion, a friend, who is as a sister in their modest home.

Her last teaching among the Freedmen was at Oak Hill Academy and she seemed to have a special interest in the young people of that section. This interest was awakened by the fact that during her first term of service at West Point several girls were sent there from the vicinity of Oak Hill, which was then represented as a new country, without previous educational and good church privileges.

She had the earnest desire to follow these girls when they returned to their home communities to see to what extent their christian training at West Point would tend to elevate and ennoble their own lives and through them the lives of others.

This is the desire of every friend of Christian education. It cannot be given too great emphasis. Pupils that give assurance they will "make good" find that there are friends somewhere, when their need is known, ready to "help them to help themselves." It ought to be a source of constant and life-long encouragement to every pupil, specially aided by friends in any of our christian educational institutions, to know that the personal interest of their teachers and friends follows them through life to see and know, that they have profited by their youthful christian training. They are expected to be teachers and leaders in thought and action in their respective communities.

XVII

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BUDS OF PROMISE

1884 to 1904.

FAVORED YOUTHFUL CHOCTAW FREEDMEN.

"And Hannah took Samuel to the Temple of the Lord and said to Eli, the priest; I have lent him to the Lord as long as he liveth."

The object of this chapter is to note the names and careers of a number of the young people that during the early days, were sent or encouraged to attend other educational institutions. As early as 1884, two years before Miss Hartford came to Oak Hill, Rev. Alexander Reid, of Atoka took the lead in arranging for two young men to go to Biddle University, Charlotte, North Carolina, and five young ladies to Scotia Seminary, at Concord, North Carolina. Later the teachers at Oak Hill aided and encouraged others to attend these and other christian institutions of learning established elsewhere by our Freedmen's Board. The present is an opportune time for noting the results, in the way of increased happiness and added usefulness to these young people by one or more years of special training in youth.

In 1884 Richard D. Colbert of the Beaver Dam church was sent to the preparatory school at Biddle University and remained till June 1887. After his return he taught school eleven years. He was then licensed by the Presbytery, and has been preaching the gospel ever since that time.

In 1884 Henry Williams of Doaksville, (Fort Towson) was sent to Biddle University and remained three years. On his return he became a teacher of public school and in 1892 married Annie Ball.

In 1884 Celestine Hodges a daughter of Samuel and Charlotte Hodges, Wheelock, was sent to Scotia Seminary and remained four years. On her return in 1888, she became a teacher and has been teaching most of the time since, serving the first two years as an assistant at Oak Hill.

She became custodian of the buildings, after the departure of Miss Hartford, and was teaching the Oak Hill school, when Mr. McBride arrived a month or so after its opening. Two years later she founded a school and Sunday school along Sandy Branch, that a few years later developed into the church, that bears that name. She is now located upon and improving her own farm southwest of Antlers.

In 1884 Susan Homer, daughter of Wiley Homer, Grant, was sent to Scotia Seminary and remained two years. On her return she served as a teacher until she married Albert Brown. She is now a widow, occupying and improving her own farm, near Grant.

In 1884 Marie Jones and her sister Fannie Jones, daughters of the late Caroline Prince (1911), and Virginia Shoals, daughter of J. Ross and Harriet Shoals, all from the Oak Hill church, were sent to Scotia Seminary.

Marie Jones after spending some time at school engaged in teaching and later became the wife of Mr. Sands, a Methodist minister, now located at Kingston, New York.

Fannie Jones remained at Concord, going to school and working in the city until 1898, when she located at St. Louis, where she became the wife of Mr. McNair, and taught school a number of years. She is now occupying the old home near Oak Hill.

Virginia Shoals, now Mrs. Perry, returned in 1901. She has taught school several years and is now living on her own allotment of land near Red River, where she has founded and is endeavoring to maintain a christian home.

Rev. Wiley Homer.

Rev. William Butler.

Rev. and Harriet Stewart Edwards.

Rev. and Maria Jones Sands.

Mary Homer (B. 1873) a daughter of Wiley Homer, Grant, after completing a course at Oak Hill attended a Choctaw government school, 1890 to 1894. She engaged in teaching until her marriage to Martin Shoals. She is now improving her own farm and educating her children at Oak Hill.

Hattie Homer (B. 1876), a sister of Mary, after attending a Choctaw government school at Grant 1890 to 1894 and completing a course at Oak Hill, taught school until she became the wife of Nick Colbert, an elder of the Beaver Dam church, after his decease she married Bud Lewis and is now occupying and improving her own farm.

Harriet Stewart (B. 1873), and Fidelia Perkins, daughter and step-daughter of Parson Stewart, in 1892 were taken by Mrs. Emma F. McBride, matron, to the Mary Allen Seminary at Crockett, Texas. They remained until Harriet was promoted to the senior and Fidelia to the junior class. Both of them engaged in teaching.

Harriet Stewart after teaching a few years in 1898 became the wife of Rev. Pugh A. Edwards, a minister of the A. M. E. church and is now occupying and improving her own farm near Hugo.

Fidelia in 1900 married Thomas H. Murchison, and located at Garvin, where she and her husband have taken a very active part in promoting the work of the Presbyterian church. She served as one of the first superintendents of the Sunday school and he as an elder. She is now serving her sixth year as teacher of the public school at Millerton. She is a good penman, an acceptable teacher and is making a record of commendable usefulness.

BUDS OF PROMISE
Favored Young Choctaw Freedman.

Martha Jones, a daughter of Caroline Prince, and Nannie Harris a daughter of Charles B. Harris, in 1893, were sent to Crockett, Texas.

Nannie Harris contracted consumption and died the next year after returning from the school, and Martha Jones going with one of her teachers, located at Frankfort, Kentucky.

Johnson Shoals, son of J. Ross and Hattie, was an early pupil at Oak Hill, and an assistant teacher at that institution during the last term, 1912-1913. He has enjoyed a four years' course of study at Tuskeegee, and four years at the Iowa State Agricultural college, Ames, Iowa. During the last four years he has been working on the old home farm during the summer and teaching school during the winter, which is an ideal plan for the average young man to pursue in early life.

Malinda A. Hall in 1900, after completing the grammar course at Oak Hill Academy, was sent by Mrs. Edward G. Haymaker to Ingleside Seminary at Burkeville, Virginia, where she graduated in 1904. She has taught public school one or more years. Commencing in February 1905 she rendered five years of faithful and efficient service as teacher of domestic science and superintendent of the christian Endeavor society at Oak Hill Academy. In 1911 she became the wife of William Stewart and they are now improving their own new farm home south of Valliant.

Edward D. Jones, a class mate of Malinda Hall and native of Bluff, Okla., after completing the grammar course in 1900, graduated from Jackson college, Jackson, Miss., five years later, and in 1909 from the Medical school at Raleigh, N. C. He has since been engaged in the practice of medicine in his native state and is now located at Nowata, where he has acquired an extensive and lucrative patronage.

In 1903 when Carrie E. Crowe returned to Mary Holmes Seminary at West Point, Miss., she was instrumental in having Lizzie Watt and Iserina Folsom, both Oak Hill pupils, follow her to that institution.

Lizzie Watt was from Arkansas. Going with her mistress to spend some time at Winona Lake, Ind., she there met Mrs. M. E. Crowe, matron at Oak Hill. So great was the interest awakened she became a pupil at Oak Hill that fall, and remained until she was encouraged to go to the Mary Holmes Seminary. When last heard from, through the head of that institution, she was teaching and doing well.