Part 2

in the South. The total number of schools planted in the Southern States is fifty-four. Six of these are chartered institutions, fairly entitled to the rank of Colleges. Sixteen are Normal and Training Schools. Thirty-two are common schools, scattered throughout nine different States. In these schools are 246 instructors and 8,616 pupils.

In analyzing these figures, we find not a few encouraging facts. One school has been added to the total number under the care of the Association during the last year. Two new schools stand in the list of Normal Institutes. Normal work was begun by the A. M. A. in 1866; now we have sixteen well furnished schools, one great purpose of which is to instruct instructors.

Large additions have been made to the accommodations of our schools during this year. Three school buildings, and two buildings used for industrial training, have been erected. Tougaloo rejoices in the completion of the two Ballard buildings, one used for class rooms and the other for industrial training. These two buildings were erected by the students, under the direction of the Superintendent of Mechanical Training, who was also the architect. The saving in expense of building was not less than $3,000, and the Industrial classes were thus given the best instruction in this department.

The Girls’ Industrial School at Thomasville, Ga., has just entered its new and commodious home. This building accommodates forty boarding pupils, and contains furnished rooms for teachers, two offices, dining-room, reception room, kitchen and laundry, and all the appointments of a complete boarding school.

The Academy at Pleasant Hill, Tenn., a school established for the mountain people, has just dedicated a new and commodious building, to be used both for school and church purposes.

At Williamsburg, Ky., we have added an Industrial Department to the course of study, and an unused factory has been purchased and fitted up for the accommodation of the classes. These mountain boys who become skillful in the use of carpenter’s tools in this school will scarcely be satisfied to occupy the poor log cabins in which their fathers and grandfathers have lived for generations. Missionary influences radiate from a carpenter’s shop now as in our Lord’s day. At Grand View, Tenn., the people themselves have rented an additional building for school purposes. The enrollment had already outgrown the accommodations of the old quarters. At Straight University, New Orleans, a neat Industrial building has been erected. In addition to these new buildings which have been put up this year, the Cassedy school building at Talladega has been materially enlarged, to meet the growing needs of this department. At Avery Institute, Charleston, S.C., the damage wrought by the earthquake has been repaired. There was serious interruption of the school work here, as the Institute could not be opened for months, and it was difficult even then to gather the usual number of pupils, on account of financial losses and the intense excitement of the public mind incident to the earthquake. The enrollment shows an attendance of ninety-two less than last year.

Notwithstanding these extensive enlargements, pupils have been turned away from several of our institutions because of lack in school accommodations and in teaching force. In one school the Principal tells us of a boy who applied for admission to the school. He could not take him. In a few days a leading business man of the city called to intercede in the boy’s behalf, but every corner of the school was full. “If there is a case of sickness or removal for any cause, will you not promise to let that boy have the first chance?” pleaded his earnest friend. But this boy was only one of many such boys and girls. At another Institution the Principal reported at one time during the year that there were twenty-five families who were waiting for an opening in the school, that they might send one or more pupils there.

In a school-room fitted to accommodate fifty-two pupils if every desk were full, I counted ninety-six, and the teacher reported shortly afterwards that one hundred and eight were present. It goes without saying that it is impossible to do the best sort of school work under such circumstances as these, and the A. M. A. seeks to do only the best work.

One of three things is evidently true in reference to the educational work of the Association: We must either sacrifice the character of the work, or reduce the amount of work done, or have more money. Which shall it be?

Industrial training holds a still more important place than ever in the course of instruction in our schools. The new Industrial buildings at Williamsburg, Tougaloo and Straight are already occupied with interested classes.

There are now taught at Tougaloo, in industrial branches: Farming, Tinning, Blacksmithing, Wagon-making, Carpentering, Painting, the use of Steam Power in Sawing and otherwise. The boy who completes a course of instruction in the wagon-making department can build, iron, paint and prepare for market, wagons or carriages, beginning with iron in the bar and timber in the rough.

The Industrial training for girls shows similar advancement. The work has been better systematized, and regular grades in housekeeping and sewing have been established. Kitchen gardening, which is the æsthetic name for all sorts of unæsthetic household work, has been introduced into several of our schools. In one instance the A. M. A. missionary has been invited to organize classes for Industrial training in the white public schools of the city, on account of her superior skill in teaching in this line.

The Connecticut Industrial School for Girls, already mentioned, which began its existence under the baptism of a fiery persecution at Quitman, rejoices in the great enlargement of its facilities for industrial training. Unlike the prophet’s experience, we can say that “the Lord was in the fire.”

Let us turn a moment now to note the record of the year’s work in our six chartered institutions.

ATLANTA UNIVERSITY has wrought throughout the year, under various embarrassments. No one has yet been found to take up the large responsibilities of the Presidency so successfully borne by the lamented President Ware. The schools of the prophets and the various fields of labor have been diligently scanned, but no Elisha has been found upon whom her Elijah’s mantle should fall.

The iniquitous Glenn Bill disturbed the quiet of the scholastic life of the University. It is not necessary to refer at length to the barbarous propositions of this bill. It failed to pass; but the bitter agitation, the obtrusive visits of politicians and the excited state of public feeling, have been a terrible tax upon the strength of those who were already burdened with the regular work of the University. Notwithstanding these discouragements, Atlanta University has increased the enrollment of pupils from 291 of last year to 413. “The wrath of men shall praise Him,” is a truth that is always true.

FISK UNIVERSITY has enjoyed a year of marked prosperity. The character of the work done here is of a high order. A scholarly French prelate of the Romish Church, who had visited many institutions in this country, recently found his way to Fisk University. He took in hand the classes in Latin and Greek, and put them through an exacting and exhaustive examination. He afterwards said to a friend that the work done in the class rooms at Fisk University was as good as that of any American school which he had visited. This is unsought testimony of high value. Fisk is constantly broadening and deepening her work. Here, too, the enrollment shows a decided increase over that of last year. The names in the catalogue number 437, as against 384 last year—a gain of 53. During the year there has been a quiet work of grace among the students, both hopeful and helpful.

TALLADEGA COLLEGE.—Among those who took the title of B. D. upon examinations at Talladega’s last commencement was a young clergyman who, during several years of successful ministerial labor in a large church, carried on systematic study and prepared himself for these examinations. Talladega College lays great emphasis upon thorough scholarship. The course of study includes Normal Training, College Preparatory, College and Theological Departments. The Intermediate and Primary grades of the Normal department have outgrown their accommodations, and the building has been enlarged to accommodate them. The industrial departments are an important feature of the school work at Talladega. The Winsted farm offers fine advantages for agricultural training, and the large Slater shop furnishes the students with opportunity for thorough knowledge of mechanical industries. The President writes: “Talladega aims at thoroughness and seeks to cultivate the hand, head and heart.” The enrollment in this college shows a slight increase over that of last year.

STRAIGHT UNIVERSITY, at New Orleans, gathers among its students many from that bright and interesting people known as Creoles, who have so often furnished characters for song and story. The Romish influence is very strong at New Orleans, but during an interesting revival with which the school was blessed this year, not a few children of these Catholic homes professed Christ. One of these desired to join the University Church. Her parents gladly consented, saying that if their child could live a better Christian life in that church than in their own, they were rejoiced that she should take this step. The religious interest in the school this year has been deep and genuine.

The regular course of training at Straight includes Normal instruction, and teachers educated here are found in many Southern cities. At Vicksburg, Miss., the Superintendent of the colored public schools, having eleven teachers under his direction, is a graduate of Straight and is an honor to his Alma Mater. The year just closed showed an enrollment of 518 pupils in this school. Industrial classes have been organized as a part of the regular school work. In the Law Department at Straight we have the remarkable phenomenon of white and colored students sitting down side by side in the same classes. The whites come from the best Southern families, and are there because the instruction in the Straight Law Department is so excellent. A diploma from this department admits a student to the practice of law in the State, without examination.

TOUGALOO, MISS., is situated only eight miles from the capital of the State. There has been added to the former course of study at Tougaloo a department of Biblical instruction during the year. The purpose of this department is to fit the students for more efficient and intelligent Christian work. The industrial departments of Tougaloo are especially complete and have been already mentioned. The appropriation of $3,000 from the State was almost the only one in the whole list of appropriations voted by the Legislature for school purposes which was not reduced this year. This fact is remarkable testimony to the value of the school by those who see its immediate results. Rev. G. S. Pope, who has been connected with Tougaloo as its President for many years, has been transferred to the general missionary work in the Tennessee mountains. His services as President of Tougaloo have been characterized by great energy and faithfulness.

TILLOTSON INSTITUTE, at Austin, Texas, is the only important school we have in that great empire of the Southwest. This is the youngest child among the chartered institutions of the Association, but even this child is crying out for enlarged accommodations. The enrollment of the school shows a considerable increase over that of last year, and the promise for the year now opening is still larger. One building only answers all the purposes of this institution. Here are the school rooms, the teachers rooms, the President’s residence and office, dormitories, rooms for industrial training of girls, library, chapel, dining room, kitchen and laundry, and it is not a large building either. Are not these facts potent arguments for a new building? An industrial department has been added to the Tillotson this year and a Superintendent of Mechanical Training has been appointed.

In addition to this goodly list of large institutions we point with pride to Berea and Hampton, planted by the Association. Howard University also receives support in its department of Theology.

Such is the brief record of the educational work in the South during the year. Thoreau paid a splendid tribute to John Brown when he said of him in reference to his neglect of the schools: “He let his Greek accent slant in the wrong way in order to set upright human souls.” But these heroic teachers of the A. M. A. are straightening Greek accents, solving mathematical problems, and teaching the spelling book and the alphabet, for the same grand purpose, that they may set upright human souls. Salvation is the guiding purpose of this educational work. This purpose is not forgotten amid the rush and fret of school cares and duties.

CHURCH WORK.

Number of Churches 127 Number of Missionaries 103 Number of Church members 7,896 Added during the year 1,197 Scholars in our Sunday-schools 15,109

These statistics show a substantial gain over last year. Seven new churches have been organized during the year. These are situated as follows: Decatur and Riverside Plantation, Ala.; Hammond, La.; University Church at New Orleans; Petty, Texas; Combs, Ky.; and Andersonville, Ga. The hills and valleys of the old prison pen at Andersonville doubtless sometimes echo with the songs, and with the prayers of these Negro disciples, loyal to the heart’s core to New England Congregationalism.

Five churches have been dropped from the list this year, as changed conditions of communities made it unwise to continue them.

There has been during the year a quiet Christian work throughout the South, which has borne gratifying fruits, over 1,000 having confessed Christ for the first time. The Sunday-school enrollment has increased by nearly 2,000. The contributions of these churches also show a healthful increase. They contributed this year for benevolence, outside of their own work, $2,322.51, and for their own church purposes, $16,014.50, making a grand total of $18,337.01. This was an increase over the previous year of $610.96 in their benevolences, and $3,075.61 in the total. This is an average contribution of $2.32 per member for every man, woman and child in these churches. The average membership of these churches, planted among a humble people who have no Congregational trend nor training, stands at the encouraging number of 62 for each church, while the average membership for each Congregational Church west of the Mississippi is only 43. And these people in the South are loyal Congregationalists. Although “a wild olive tree and graffed in among the branches, they already partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree.” The old argument urged by their Baptist brethren that the Bible tells of John the Baptist, but no where of John the Congregationalist, has lost its power to shake their faith in the church of Paul and John Robinson. An old black man recently arose in a prayer-meeting and most solemnly, with eager voice and emphatic gesticulation, exclaimed: “I am a Congregational, and I mean to continue a Congregational till I get up yonder,

‘Where congregations ne’er break up, And Sabbaths never end.’”

They have found Congregationalism in their old hymn book, which is the next thing to their Bible.

At the annual meeting in Cleveland in 1882, in the report of the Committee on Church Work, is found the following: “The rate of progress during the last seventeen years has been uniformly constant, about five churches per year. * * The question now comes, whether it is not quite time to change the rate by doubling it; at least to quicken the pace.” Do the facts show that this suggestion has been followed? Since 1882 fifty-five churches have been organized, an average of eleven per year for the five years since 1882—more than double the old rate of five per year; another illustration of our Lord’s words, “Be it unto you according to your faith.” In 1882, 709 were added to the churches; in 1887, 1,197 were added. But the advancement in the Sunday-school work in our churches is still more remarkable. The total Sunday-school enrollment, as it appears in the annual report of 1882, was 7,835, but we are able to report this year an enrollment of 15,109, an increase in these five years of 7,274, or nearly 100 per cent.

These years have witnessed marvelous progress in systematic care for the children and youth by the churches of the Association.

The year just closing has been a year of building activity in the church work. Five new meeting houses have been erected; four of these are among the mountain people and one among the freedmen. One new feature in our church work is the organization of two churches composed principally of Congregationalists from the North, who have taken up their residence in the South. They needed help and organized under the care of the Association. Although we have no great Pentecostal baptism to record this year, we reverently speak our thanks “that the Lord has added to the church almost daily, such as are being saved.”

MOUNTAIN WORK.

When the Executive Committee of the American Missionary Association “decided to offer these mountain people the aid of our system,” probably even this far-seeing committee did not fully realize the magnitude of the work, nor the grand possibilities of the field. The few feeble churches that then existed are scarcely recognized now in the larger work that has grown up independently of them and miles away. Indeed, in entering this region in 1882 we were only putting the plow into the field, which had been already turned by pioneer laborers of the American Missionary Association. Before the war a brave man had pushed his way back into these mountain fastnesses in Christ’s name. He went under commission from this Association. He opened a school; his work was successful. Into his school he put a library for the use of his pupils. In this library there was a volume of Wesley’s sermons and, among these, one against the sin of slavery. This book got into the hands of a pro-slavery family. It was told that the preacher was teaching anti-slavery doctrine. Excitement in this back mountain region was intense. A mob was organized. They seized this missionary, bound him, beat him, and took him some two miles over the mountains and threw him into a cabin, and left two men as guards at the doors, while they, with their habitual delay, went to their homes for their dinner. They intended to return and inflict sorer punishment and perhaps hang him. Two mountain lads, brothers, heard of this outrage. They were pupils of this godly school-master and loved him. Each one, unknown to the other, went by a different path to the cabin with his rifle on his shoulder. They took out their teacher, cut the cords that bound him, and while he and his terrified wife at his side climbed the mountain, pushing their way to the Ohio river, these stalwart mountain lads kept back the mob with the threatening use of their unerring rifles. This missionary and his heroic wife finally reached the river and escaped. Now for the wonderful climax to that history. We have recently organized a Congregational Church where these thrilling scenes occurred. Among the original members who united in the bonds of freedom-loving Congregationalism were these two men who when boys defended this teacher at the risk of their own lives. A neat little church stands near this prison cabin of the past, and the bell that hangs in its belfry, whose tones fall now upon no slave’s ear, was contributed by the wife of this first missionary to this mountain region. Such was the heroic beginning of the Association’s work among these mountains. God had not forgotten during the years that passed, the tears and blood and prayers of these brave sufferers for Christ’s sake.

This mountain work now is divided into two well-defined fields, both important. The field in Kentucky has for its base the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, which has been built since our present missionary force began their work in this region. The central point of this work is Williamsburg. Here we have a large and prosperous academy and church. Eleven whole counties are easily reached from this center and only one of these has as yet been occupied. In addition to the work at Williamsburg, there are two primary schools and five organized churches and constantly increasing numbers of missionary stations in this field. Chapels have been erected in S. Williamsburg and Woodbine and are used for public service. A pastor has been settled over the church at Williamsburg and has taken up the work with great efficiency. The General Missionary has been relieved from the pastoral duties which he has borne before, and has larger opportunity for outside work which is pressing upon him. “Can we not have at least one pastor for each county?” is the painfully urgent plea of one of the faithful workers in this field.

The other field of mountain work lies along the Cumberland Mountains in Tennessee. Its base is the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, and the work extends far back into the mountains. Twenty-two counties are here accessible to our pastors and teachers. We have in this field two flourishing schools, one at Grand View and the other away up on the Cumberland plateau, at Pleasant Hill. Besides these schools, there are also churches at Grand View, Pleasant Hill, Pomona, Robbins, Slick Rock and Helenwood. Last year a new school was taken under the care of the Association at Sherwood, Tenn. We have thus surrounded this vast mountain region with our missionary forces. A General Missionary has been put into this field during the past year and the work opens upon him with constantly increasing magnitude. These people are Americans in every sense of the word, ninety-eight per cent of the population of some counties having been born where they still live. Those who come into the region from other parts of the same State they call foreigners. A missionary in writing recently from this field says: “I asked how many of them in the meeting had Bibles in their homes, and out of fifteen or eighteen families represented only two of them had Bibles.” Another missionary asked a girl seventeen years old if they had a book in her house. “A book, what is a book?” was the astonishing question. A book was described to her. “Oh! yes,” she said, “I believe there was one in the cabin before grandmam died, but it was lost so long ago I plumb forgot how it looked.”

This is _our_ work. Only the edges of this great field have been gleaned. Will you not let us send our harvesters right into the heart of this ripening grain to gather in the name of our God?

INDIAN WORK.

The Indian work is chiefly in Nebraska and Dakota. The following is the summary for the year:

Churches 5 Church members 370 Added during the year 43 Schools 18 Pupils in Schools 608 Missionaries and Teachers 61

The report shows an encouraging increase in church membership. This means the redemption of souls from heathenism.