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 CHARLOTTE, N. C. 
 
 Btainrtral KbhttaztB 
 
 From Colonial Days 
 to 1893 
 
 JOS. BLOUNT CHESHIRE 
 
 Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina 
 
 1921 
 
OLD ST. PETER'S CHURCH 
 
 1862-1892 
 
St. Peter's Church 
 
 Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 J[ Short History of the Parish 
 
 from Its Origin to the Consecration 
 of the Church in 1862 
 
 The within Address was delivered, in part, in the old St. Peter's 
 Church, Charlotte, Tuesday, September 27, 1892, being the last occasion 
 of my officiating in it, just before it was pulled down to give place to 
 the present structure. — Jos. Blount Cheshire. 
 
OPH 
 
 Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 Observer Printing House, Inc. 
 
 1921 
 
St Peters Church 
 
 Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 C7 
 
 'HE history of the Church in this community goes back but a 
 few years. There are, however, some facts of an earlier 
 date, which have a bearing upon the subject, and which may 
 be briefly mentioned, before we take up the story of St. 
 Peter's Church, Charlotte. 
 
 In our Provincial ecclessiastical system, Mecklenburg County con- 
 stituted a parish by the name of St. Martin's (Act of 1768 : c. x). In 
 1766, the Rev. Andrew Morton was sent over from England by the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel as Minister for Mecklenburg 
 County. Upon his arrival at Wilmington, he learned that the inhab- 
 itants of this county were all "Covenanters and Seceders," who, he 
 was informed, elected Presbyterian elders upon the vestry in order that 
 no provision might be made for the support of an Episcopal clergyman. 
 Upon this Mr. Morton very prudently changed his destination for a 
 more favorable field, and, with the consent of Governor Tryon, became 
 the minister of St. George's Parish, Northampton County. 
 
 Mr. Morton's information as to the election of vestrymen in Meck- 
 lenburg must have been erroneous, for at the time of his arrival in 1766 
 Mecklenburg had not been constituted a parish, though it had been 
 made a county in 1762. 
 
 One thing may be mentioned here which shows that there was not 
 in colonial days that bitterness of feeling against the religious estab- 
 lishment of this Province which our later writers have alleged. Our 
 laws were so adjusted, and I believe intentionally, that, as the above 
 incident shows, it was impossible to impose the services or ministry 
 of the Episcopal Church upon any parish where the people did not 
 desire them. There was no part of the Province therefore in which the 
 establishment of the Church was ever effected except by the action of 
 the people themselves, through their elected representatives, just as 
 there were no laws for the establishment of the Church except those 
 passed by the people themselves through the General Assembly of the 
 Province. 
 
 When the first serious outbreak of the Regulation took place, in 
 P* 1768, all the Presbyterian ministers in North Carolina united in a 
 
 O Pastoral Letter to their people, and in an Address to Governor Tryon, 
 
 ^> the most zealous in ecclesiastical affairs of any of our governors ; and 
 
 . -j both in the Pastoral Letter and in the Address they declare, in effect, 
 
 0- 
 
4 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 that under his administration they enjoyed all the blessings of civil 
 and religious freedom. And to show that this was not merely the lan- 
 guage of flattery, it is only necessary to turn to the "Instructions for 
 the Delegates of Mecklenburg County," to the Provincial Congress of 
 1775) preserved among the papers of Jno. McKnitt Alexander, and in 
 his handwriting. It has always seemed doubtful to my mind whether 
 these "Instructions" were actually given to the delegates. In fact, I 
 incline to think that they were not. But they may at any rate be taken 
 to express the general sentiment of the Mecklenburg Presbyterians, 
 and they were drawn up by a man who was as fair a representative of 
 the best elements of the population of this county as any who could 
 be named. 
 
 The thirteenth paragraph or section of this document is in these 
 words : "You are instructed to assent and consent to the establishment 
 of the Christian religion as contained in the Scriptures of the Old and 
 New Testaments, and more briefly comprised in the Thirty-Nine 
 Articles of the Church of England, excluding the Thirty- Seventh Article, 
 together with all the Articles excepted and not to be imposed on Dis- 
 senters by the Act of Toleration, and clearly held forth in the Confes- 
 sion of Faith compiled by the assembly of divines at Westminster, to 
 be the religion of the State," etc. If at this time of excitement and 
 of resentment against England there had been any strong and general 
 feeling that our Colonial Church establishment had been an injustice 
 and an oppression of the people, a representative Mecklenburg Pres- 
 byterian, even supposing these instructions to have expressed only Mr. 
 Alexander's own opinions, would not thus have laid down as the basis 
 of a religious establishment for the independent State of North Caro- 
 lina, that very statement of doctrine which he looked upon as the 
 special characteristic of the English and Colonial Church, putting it 
 even before his own Westminster Confession. 
 
 Another curious fact illustrates this absence of any popular feeling 
 of resentment against the Episcopal Church, in the period immediately 
 following the Revolution, on account of its previous legal establish- 
 ment in the Province. In the Hillsboro Convention of 1788, Mr. Henry 
 Abbott, an eminent Kehukee Baptist preacher, who was a member of 
 that Convention from Camden County, referring to the suggestion that 
 it would be possible for the proposed Federal Government, through its 
 treaty-making power, to impose an established religion upon the peo- 
 ple of the United States, one of the many absurd objections made in 
 that Convention against the Federal Constitution, said that if there 
 were to be an established Church in this State he would prefer the 
 Episcopal Church, though he was opposed to any Church establishment 
 by law. 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 5 
 
 To come somewhat nearer our subject, we find a curious and inter- 
 esting local memory which connects the name of the late Bishop Green, 
 of Mississippi, with Charlotte. During the first years of his ministry, 
 while rector of St. Matthew's Church, Hillsboro, he was called to the 
 pastorate of the congregation just formed in this place. Perhaps it 
 would be more correct to say that he was called to be the preacher for 
 the congregation worshiping in what afterwards became "The First 
 Presbyterian Church of Charlotte." As in so many other towns in 
 North Carolina during the early past of this country, so in Charlotte, 
 the people had erected a Church (upon the site of the present First 
 Presbyterian Church), for the common worship of the community, with 
 no distinct ecclesiastical principles, and unconnected with any denomi- 
 national organization. Mr. Green, then a popular young man and an 
 attractive preacher, was among the first, if not the first minister, invited 
 to take charge of this Church, probably by the influence of some person 
 in the congregation who had a preference for the form of service of 
 the Episcopal Church. He declined, and I believe a Universalist preacher 
 was then called, and perhaps officiated for a short while, before the 
 congregation became by a natural and perhaps necessary transition, 
 or evolution, an organic part of the Concord Presbytery.* 
 
 The first recorded service by a minister of our Church in Charlotte 
 was held in that old Church, during the time it was the place of com- 
 mon worship for the community. Bishop Ravenscroft, in his Conven- 
 tion Address, 1825, mentions having spent the first Sunday in Novem- 
 ber, 1824, in Charlotte, and adds that he "preached in the Church there." 
 In a private letter to the Rev. Robert Johnston Miller, written from 
 Charlotte the next day, Monday, November 8, he refers to the same 
 service more fully. "I preached here yesterday on the invitation of 
 Dr. McCrie, but with rather a costive consent, as I thought, from Mr. 
 Caldwell, who after I had closed came up into the pulpit, and requested 
 the patience of the people for a short discourse. This I sat and heard, 
 but refrained from all mixture with them. They are very jealous, but 
 they appear to have it all their own way." 
 
 Bishop Ravenscroft does not seem to have visited Charlotte again. 
 Whether there were any members of the Church here at that time, I 
 do not know. 
 
 The first attempt to establish the services of the Church here, and 
 to gather a congregation, was made by the Rev. John Morgan, who 
 became rector of St. Luke's Church, Salisbury, and of Christ Church, 
 Rowan, about the end of the year 1832, and extended his services occa- 
 sionally as far as Charlotte. The first Episcopal visitation was made 
 Tuesday, June 25, 1834, when Bishop Ives accompanied Mr. Morgan 
 
 *Mr. John Wilkes is under the impression that Bishop Green told him that 
 he preached once in Charlotte about this time. There are circumstances which 
 make me doubt this. 
 
6 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 from Salisbury, held his first service here, and confirmed four persons. 
 In his report at the Convention of 1834, Mr. Morgan mentioned three 
 "new communicants" at Charlotte. As in 1835 he reports the number 
 of communicants as reduced to two, it is probable that the three new 
 ones in 1834 constituted the whole number. Unfortunately we have no 
 contemporary records, except the brief mention of the Bishop's address 
 and these references in Mr. Morgan's report. Some record of baptisms 
 and of communicants may have been made by Mr. Morgan, for our 
 oldest parish register contains entries of both, written in a later hand, 
 and possibly copies from an earlier record made by Mr. Morgan. 
 
 The first names associated with the Church in Charlotte, as I find 
 them in the register, are the notable ones of Wilson, Alexander, Polk, 
 and Caldwell. To these were soon added Lowrie, Abernethy, Gibbon, 
 and Davidson. The Wilsons were from a more eastern section of the 
 State, and were of English descent, and brought up in the Church. 
 From their connection with the Hendersons, Wilsons, and Martins, the 
 Alexanders were also associated with the Churchmen further east. 
 The Abernethys represent a strain of stubborn Scotch Episcopalians, 
 who for several generations adhered to the Church, after being deprived 
 of its ministry and ordinances. The Gibbons were Churchmen from 
 Philadelphia, who had lately removed to Charlotte. It is unnecessary to 
 inquire how the others had come into the Church — Davidsons, Polks, 
 Caldwells, etc. They may be taken to represent the fact that among 
 the Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of Ireland (and the Scotch-Irish were 
 pure Anglo-Saxon) Churchmen and Presbyterians stood together for 
 many years in heroic defense of their common race and liberties, and 
 were more or less mingled together in their natural and ecclesiastical 
 descendants. 
 
 Mr. Morgan continued to officiate in Charlotte a few Sundays in 
 each year, until 1835, when he was succeeded by the Rev. Moses Ashley 
 Curtis, sent by Bishop Ives to act as missionary in Mecklenburg and 
 Lincoln Counties. Bishop Atkinson, in his address to the Convention 
 of 1863, referring to the presence of Dr. Curtis at the consecration of 
 this Church, September 23, 1862, says that to his "early labors our 
 Church in Charlotte owed its origin." Our journals seem to show 
 that in this Bishop Atkinson was mistaken. Mr. Morgan had labored 
 here from 1832 to 1835, had baptized children and adults, presented 
 candidates for Confirmation, and gotten together a handful of people, 
 few in number but of notable character and of commanding influence, 
 who were for many years the strength and dependence of the parish 
 afterwards formed. Mr. Curtis remained in this field less than two 
 years, and though he reports that a Church had been organized in 
 Charlotte, we do not find any trace of that organization after his 
 departure. 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 7 
 
 The parish when admitted into the Convention in 1845 was a new 
 organization, dating only from the preceding Christmas. But Dr. Curtis 
 certainly consolidated the work begun by Mr. Morgan, and gave it 
 some forward movement. His ability and personal piety, his sweetness 
 of character, and his attainments in music and in natural science, made 
 an impression upon the community, and left a memory behind him. 
 When I came into this parish, in i88r, the oldest of my parishioners, 
 Miss Sarah Davidson, loved to speak to me of Dr. Curtis, and still 
 recalled the pleasure afforded her and other members of the little con- 
 gregation by his periodical visits. She was herself a musician, and 
 often has she spoken to me of his taste and skill as a performer upon 
 the flute, and of the delightful hours they spent making sweet concord 
 with the blended strains of piano and flute. And it may not be amiss 
 to call your attention in passing to the place which Dr. Curtis occupies 
 in the history of our Diocese and of our State. Not only did his life 
 illustrate the best qualities of the parish priest and the pastor of Christ's 
 flock, but his influence extended beyond the bounds of his own parish, 
 in the development of a higher and more correct taste in Church music, 
 and in the diffusion of the knowledge and enjoyment of God's works 
 in the beauties and wonders of the vegetable world around us. His 
 original musical compositions are of a high order, and are still heard in 
 our churches occasionally upon some notable festival, while his choir 
 in St. Matthew's Church, Hillsboro, sang the best music from the 
 oratorios and masses of the old masters of the heavenly art long before 
 the days of our music festivals and philharmonics. It was his hand 
 which unrolled and recorded the botanical riches of our State, not only 
 for the scientist, but for the farmer and the woodman, for you and me. 
 His name is everywhere known, where the science of Botany is studied, 
 as* one of America's most diligent and accurate botanists; and in some 
 departments, as of the Fungi, he is a high original authority. The State 
 of North Carolina has shown, though very inadequately, its appreciation 
 of his labors, by publishing at the public expense both his general 
 catalogue of our Flora, and also his popular and familiar "Woody 
 Plants," the latter, I believe, more than once. It is gratifying to us to 
 be able to enroll his name in the honored list of our ministers in 
 Charlotte. 
 
 I find no account of any other minister officiating for this feeble 
 flock until the Rev. Edward M. Forbes took up his residence in Lincoln- 
 ton, soon after the Convention of 1841, and extended his labors into 
 Mecklenburg County and Charlotte. The first record of a baptism by 
 him in this place is not until October, 1842, though he must have been 
 coming here for a year before that time. He was a very different man 
 from Dr. Curtis, but was well able to do good work for the Church. 
 Untiring zeal and enthusiasm, coupled with a singular power of arous- 
 
8 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 ing the interest of the young and the ignorant, and an equal facility in 
 imparting instructions, made him a most active and efficient missionary. 
 He was able to give but little of his time to this part of his field, and 
 therefore he could make but little impression here ; but in Lincoln 
 County, and even beyond, in Burke, he laid the foundation of great 
 success, if he could have followed it up ; and it seems to have been a 
 misfortune to the Church, and a great mistake on his part, when he 
 was induced to abandon this most promising field, and remove to the 
 State of Alabama. But though his work did not have any very great 
 visible results in Mecklenburg, yet he left a vivid impression upon the 
 memory of those brought in contact with him. Preaching out at Long 
 Creek several years ago, I was approached by a county Justice of the 
 Peace, who lived in the neighborhood, who told me that he had long 
 been favorably inclined toward the Episcopal Church, by reason of 
 having been acquainted from his boyhood with the Prayer Book, a copy 
 of which had been given to his father nearly fifty years before, by 
 "a little man who used to preach near the old Capps Mine." Upon 
 inquiry this little man proved to have been the Rev. Mr. Forbes, who 
 was quite small in stature, though ever a valiant champion of the truth. 
 Mr. Forbes and Bishop Ives both mention this appointment at Capps 
 Hill, and Bishop Ives once visited the place with Mr. Forbes, and 
 preached there (1843 : 25). 
 
 August 4, 1841, Bishop Ives visited Charlotte, and confirmed one 
 person. On this visitation he mentions that he was accompanied by 
 his "young friend and presbyter, the Rev. Mr. Cheshire." It has grati- 
 fied me personally to meet now and then, in this or an adjoining county, 
 those who had a pleasant recollection of the Bishop's companion ; and 
 one lady whose first Prayer Book was given to her, before she was a 
 member of the Church, by this young presbyter. I need hardly add 
 that this Mr. Cheshire was not myself, though upon my first visit to 
 Charlotte, before I was myself in Holy Orders, I met an old lady, who 
 insisted that she remembered me distinctly as Bishop Ives' companion 
 uponj his visitation through this section in the summer of 1841 ! 
 
 When Mr. Forbes removed to Alabama, in the beginning of 1844, 
 his work in Lincoln and the adjoining counties was taken up by the 
 Rev. Aaron F. Olmstead, who was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop 
 Ives in St. Luke's Church, Lincolnton, on the Seventh Sunday after 
 Trinity — July 20, 1844. Mr. Olmstead had been a year in the diaconate, 
 and had during that time been assisting Mr. Forbes in the work which 
 was now put under his charge. He was a most faithful and devoted 
 priest, but after two years of labor he was compelled to remove from 
 this part of the country for want of support. His services in Charlotte 
 were, as had always been the case, very infrequent, and it was impos- 
 sible that in so extended a field of work he could do much at any one 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 9 
 
 point. But during his term of service here the register shows that he 
 baptized a number of persons ; and the parish of St. Peter's Church, 
 Charlotte, was organized and admitted into union with the Diocesan 
 Convention. (See the Journal of 1845 : 9.) A subscription was at once 
 started for the purpose of raising funds to build a Church, and with 
 such success that a small brick structure was erected during the years 
 1845-46, which was consecrated by Bishop Ives the Third Sunday after 
 Trinity — June 28, 1846. In his address to the Convention of 1847, after 
 mentioning this consecration, the Bishop adds : "The Church here is a 
 neat and sufficiently commodious brick building, for which the con- 
 gregation are mainly indebted to the indefatigable exertion of Mr. 
 Jeremiah Murphy, the classical teacher of the place, and warden of the 
 Church."* 
 
 The parish organization dated from December 20, 1844. On that 
 day a meeting was held at the house of William Julius Alexander, Esq., 
 by the Churchmen of Charlotte, and a congregation was formed under 
 the canons of the Diocese. Mr. Jeremiah W. Murphy seems to have 
 been the leader in this movement, and he, with Wm. J. Alexander, 
 Wm. R. Myers, and Miles B. Abernethy, were elected the first vestry. 
 Mr. Murphy was warden, and was chairman of the meeting, and the 
 vestry completed its organization immediately after its election by 
 appointing Wm. R. Myers, secretary. The next year the first delegates 
 were appointed to the Convention of the Diocese — Wm. J. Alexander, 
 Jeremiah W. Murphy, Wm. F. Davidson, and Dr. E. Dallas William- 
 son. Mr. Murphy seems to have made the entries in the Parish Regis- 
 ter, and to have kept the record of the meetings, both of the congrega- 
 tion and of the vestry, as long as he remained in the parish. All the 
 entries in the Register are in his handwriting down to May, 1847. The 
 earlier entries of Baptisms and of Communicants, in the time of Mr. 
 Morgan and Mr. Olmstead, may have been copied by him from memo- 
 randa made by those clergymen at the time ; but it is quite possible that 
 he made the entries from verbal information obtained from persons in 
 the congregation. This, however, is merely conjectural. 
 
 It appears from the entries in the Vestry Book that the contract 
 for the Church, or Chapel, as it is called, was made by the Hon. Green 
 W. Caldwell, a member of the building committee, acting for the vestry, 
 
 *Mr. Murphy had three sons who took Holy Orders — Joseph W., William, 
 and Reginald Heber. I think that Mr. Jeremiah Murphy lived in Llncolnton 
 before coming to Charlotte, and that he was actively concerned in building the 
 church there. After he left Charlotte he lived for awhile in Lexington, and there 
 also he was instrumental in building a church. My father sent him a contribution 
 towards the church in Lexington, and a letter highly commending his zeal and 
 activity in building up the Church wherever he went. Mr. Murphy was so much 
 pleased with this letter that, as long as it lasted, he made his scholars copy it for 
 their writing exercise. He said he did so because of the excellence of the chirog- 
 raphy ! 
 
io St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 and that Mr. Murphy, who was most active in raising the money, was 
 directed to pay it over to the contractor upon Mr. Caldwell's order. 
 
 This church, the first St. Peter's, stood upon the lot on the north 
 side of West Trade Street, opposite the Mint, occupied during my time 
 in Charlotte by the residence of Mr. David W. Oates. It was a small 
 structure, about twenty by forty feet in size, and had a cross on the 
 gable end to mark its sacred character, though it made little other 
 pretence to anything specially ecclesiastical in its construction. It was 
 sufficient for the accommodation of the little congregation when it was 
 built, but its diminutive size, and the enthusiastic devotion with which 
 it was regarded by its builders, and especially by the good old Irishman, 
 Mr. Murphy, gave occasion to some humorous sallies at its expense. 
 (After the property was sold, and its use entirely changed, the gable 
 end and wall could still be distinguished upon one side of the residence 
 erected on the lot. And I am under the impression that some part of 
 the foundation and walls are still standing, having been incorporated 
 with the larger and handsomer dwelling-house afterwards erected upon 
 the site by Mr. Oates. This church is said, by a very generous estimate, 
 to have seated one hundred fifty persons, and it answered the pur- 
 poses of the congregation for about ten years. 
 
 Up to this time, and for a good many years afterwards, it was 
 with great difficulty that even the infrequent ministrations of the clergy 
 of the Church had been maintained in Charlotte, and the faithful mem- 
 bers of the Church in the parish were obliged to keep the light shining 
 upon the altar by the help of lay readers, and the diligent instruction 
 of their households. In his address to the Convention, 1840, Bishop 
 Ives speaks of having- examined the children of one family (probably 
 that of Wm. J. Alexander, Esq.) in the Church Catechism during his 
 visit to Charlotte, and adds : "In this examination a striking illustra- 
 tion was furnished of how much may be done by the Christian mothers 
 for the salvation of their children, even when deprived of the stated 
 ministrations of the Gospel." This spirit of faithfulness to the Church, 
 under the many discouragements of their situation, characterized all 
 this period of our parish history. For several years there was no 
 minister at all in charge of the struggling parish. The services were 
 kept up by lay-readers — first Mr. Murphy, then by Mr. John H. Bryan, 
 Jr., son of the eminent lawyer and Churchman of the same name, so 
 long connected with Christ Church, Raleigh. Mr. Bryan represented 
 the parish in the Convention of 1847, the first convention attended by 
 a delegate from Charlotte. We now find new names appearing upon 
 the parish records — Lucas, Williams, and Jones — whose representatives 
 are still with us. Mr. Wm. A. Lucas soon followed Mr. Bryan in the 
 office of lay-reader, and kept the Church open and the congregation 
 together when no minister could be had. 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. ii 
 
 One thing should not be forgotten in speaking of these early days 
 of the parish, namely :< the attention paid to the religious instruction of 
 the slaves, indicated by the frequency with which their names appear 
 among those receiving the ministrations of the Church. A large pro- 
 portion of the baptisms recorded in the parish register is of slaves ; and 
 as a rule their master's and mistresses seem to have acted as their God- 
 fathers and God-mothers. Doubtless they enjoyed also their full share 
 of the care and interest of the ministers, and had their place and part 
 in his instructions, as well as in the worship of the household and of 
 the sanctuary. 
 
 In 1847, the Rev. John Haywood Parker, rector of St. Luke's 
 Chur'ch, Salisbury, visited Charlotte at the request of the Bishop ; and 
 for several years continued his ministrations at infrequent intervals, 
 having upon his hands part of the time, besides the parish in Salisbury, 
 the Churches in Rowan County and at Lexington. The reputation 
 which he left in his community was not different from that won for 
 him elsewhere, by his purity of character, and by his generous, gentle, 
 and loving spirit. During this same period the Rev. Oliver S. Prescott 
 and the Rev. R. E. Parham are mentioned as having favored the parish 
 with occasional services. 
 
 The Rev. Thos. S. W. Mott assumed charge of St. Luke's, Lin- 
 colnton, and St. Peter's, Charlotte, in March, 1852; and though the 
 arrangement was supposed at the time to be only temporary, he con- 
 tinued several years to officiate, having his residence in Lincoln County, 
 and coming to Charlotte, as I am informed, only once a month. Up 
 to this time the growth of the Church in Charlotte had been exceed- 
 ingly slow. There had never been a resident minister here, and it 
 was seldom, if ever, that the congregations enjoyed the services of 
 a minister for more than four or five times during the year. "The 
 fifth Sunday" seems to have been their usual portion. It seemed to 
 be thought that Lincoln County, with its larger number of inhabitants 
 of English descent, and with the remnants of Parson Miller's old con- 
 gregations — White Haven, St. Peter's, and Smyrna — scattered about 
 through the country, offered a more promising field than the Scotch-. 
 Irish settlements of Mecklenburg. So there was usually a minister 
 resident in Lincoln County, and the Church there seemed to be more 
 prosperous than upon this side of the river. The number of com- 
 municants in Charlotte, which had been four in 1834, three in 1835, 
 seven in 1842, ten in 1844, fourteen in 1845, and sixteen in 1851, was 
 only fifteen when Mr. Hewitt made his first report in 1855, Mr. Mott 
 having left this Diocese and gone to Mississippi in 1854. 
 
 The first resident minister in Charlotte was the Rev. Horatio H. 
 Hewitt, who removed from Wadesboro to this field in 1854, taking 
 charge of St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, and St. Luke's, Lincolnton. 
 
12 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 When he came to Charlotte, a new era for the town was just begin- 
 ning. The South Carolina Railroad from Columbia to Charlotte had 
 been built but a few years, and the North Carolina Railroad from Golds- 
 boro to Charlotte was nearly completed. Up to this time Salisbury had 
 been the chief town in the State west of Raleigh. It was becoming 
 quite apparent, in 1855, that Charlotte must take that position, and Mr. 
 Hewitt saw the importance of the crisis for the Church. He felt that 
 the parish could not grow without increased accommodation for the 
 congregation. In his first parochial report (1855 : 33), he says: "This 
 large and growing town demands the especial sympathies of every 
 liberal hearted Churchman in the Diocese. Its population, according 
 to the best and latest estimate, has increased to nearly three thousand 
 souls ; and yet we have not church accommodation in it for more than 
 one hundred fifty souls. From the interest which is manifested in 
 our services, we have every reason to believe that the growth of the 
 Church is greatly retarded for want of a larger building. There are 
 so few members, however, that it would be impossible for them to 
 undertake, alone, the responsibility of erecting one equal to the 
 importance of [or ?] the wants of the parish. Those who desire the pros- 
 perity of our Zion, and have it in their power to aid us, will confer a 
 lasting benefit by forwarding their contributions either to me or to 
 W. F. Davidson, Esq., Charlotte." 
 
 The project, thus suggested by Mr. Hewitt in 1855, was taken up 
 with spirit by members of the congregation at the time of Bishop Atkin- 
 son's visitation, Easter, 1856. Mr. Hewitt, during the year 1856, visited 
 several parishes both in this Diocese and in South Carolina, soliciting 
 funds for the proposed Church. No record has been preserved of the 
 sums raised here or elsewhere, but the subject is referred to more than 
 once in the parochial reports of the rectors of the parish, and some 
 facts of interest have in this way been preserved. In his report in 
 1857, Mr. Hewitt says that $1500.00 had been raised by the congrega- 
 tion, and that he had received §377.70 from the parishes at Salisbury, 
 Fayetteville, and Wadesboro, in this Diocese, and Cheraw and York- 
 ville, in South Carolina. The old church lot, extending through from 
 Trade to Fifth Streets, had risen very much in value with the increas- 
 ing population and prosperity of the town, and it, with the chapel upon 
 it, was disposed of to the contractor for the new building at the price 
 of $1200.00. The new Church was, therefore, begun with something 
 over $3000.00 as a building fund. 
 
 There was some difference of opinion among the members of the 
 vestry in regard to the location of the new church. There was a natural 
 regret felt by many at leaving the old place, and disposing of the con- 
 secrated building, and of so convenient and ample a property, which 
 would have afforded abundant room for all future parish needs. 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 13 
 
 On the other hand, it was urged, that the former location was 
 inconvenient for the great majority of the congregation, and moreover 
 that it would be impossible to build the new Church, without making 
 use of the money which could be realized from the sale of the lot on 
 Trade Street, which was much larger than the parish could have need 
 of for many years to come. A smaller lot, it was thought, would serve 
 present purposes ; and it could be left for the future larger and stronger 
 congregation to provide for the necessities of future work. The out- 
 come was that the old lot was sold, as has been stated, and a new one 
 purchased on the corner of Tryon and Seventh Streets. The new site 
 was only ninety-nine feet square, being half of a regular city lot. This 
 may have been the wisest thing at the time, but we have since found 
 the inconvenience of so small a lot. 
 
 May 20, 1857, there was a grand celebration in Charlotte of the 
 anniversary of the "Mecklenburg Declaration," and the special feature 
 of the occasion was an address of great power and eloquence by Dr. 
 Hawks. The next day, May 21, Bishop Atkinson laid the cornerstone 
 of the new Church, "and a beautiful and appropriate address [was] 
 delivered by Dr. Hawks." There were present of the clergy, besides 
 Bishop Atkinson, Mr. Hewitt, Dr. Hawks, and the Rev. Messrs. Mc- 
 Cullough and Gibson, of South Carolina. 
 
 To sum up briefly what I have been able to learn in regard to the 
 building of this church, I may say that, in 1858, Mr. Hewitt gave up 
 the work, and removed to Maryland, and Mr. Mott, having returned 
 from Mississippi, resumed charge of the parish. In his parochial report 
 of 1858, he says that the Church was nearly completed, and would 
 probably be ready for use the second or third Sunday of June in that 
 year ; that it had so far cost $6,000.00, and that thee was a debt upon 
 it of $1500.00. It appears, therefore, that in addition to the $3000.00 
 with which the work was begun, the congregation must have raised 
 among themselves, or by contributions from outside, the sum of $1500.00 
 between the Conventions of 1857 and 1858. Bishop Atkinson made his 
 first visitation, and held his first service in the new church, October 
 10, 1858. In 1859, Mr. Mott reports that by the exertions of the mem- 
 bers of the Church, and through the generous aid of the citizens of 
 Charlotte not of our communion, "and especially in consequence of the 
 generous response of our Christian brethren in South Carolina and 
 Georgia to his personal appeals, the debt had been so reduced that he 
 is not without hopes of cleaning it entirely off during the Conventional 
 year next ensuing." In i860, Mr. John Wilkes, Senior Warden (Mr. 
 Mott having resigned the rectorship and left the parish) reports that 
 Mr. Mott had raised in Maryland and New York the sum of $563.50 
 towards paying off the debt, by which it had been so much reduced 
 that they hoped soon to extinguish it altogether, and to complete the 
 outside walls. Finally, in his Address to the Convention of 1863, Bishop 
 Atkinson has the following passage : 
 
14 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 "On the twenty-third of September [1862], I consecrated St. Peter's 
 Church, Charlotte. This was a subject of congratulation; The former 
 Church had been so small that it was scarcely possible that a self-sup- 
 porting congregation could be gathered together in it. The new build- 
 ing, much more spacious and appropriate to the worship of God, had 
 brought a heavy burden of debt on a feeble congregation, which they 
 were gradually paying off, but which seemed likely to encumber them 
 for some years longer; when the liberality of John Wilkes, Esq., 
 induced him to discharge what remained due, and thus enable me to 
 consecrate the church. On that occasion Messrs. T. G. Haughton and 
 Staudemayer read Prayers, and Dr. Curtis, to whose early labors our 
 congregation in Charlotte owed its origin, read the sentence of conse- 
 cration of the new building, which attested its progress, and I preached 
 the sermon. The Rector, Mr. Everhart, and Messrs. George B. and 
 William R. Wetmore, and Mr. Roberts, also took part in the services." 
 
 I must here say a few words about this Church built in 1857-58, 
 which we are now about to abandon for a new structure. And in the 
 first place we must all remember that such removals, with whatever 
 of regret and sadness they may be accompanied, are necessary and 
 right. The welfare of the congregation demands a more commodious 
 and expensive place of worship. As in 1855 it was found that the 
 growth and work of the Church demanded a larger and more attrac- 
 tive edifice, so we have come to feel that we cannot exert the influ- 
 ence we should exert in the community, nor do the work providentially 
 laid upon us, within the narrow walls of the Church built more than 
 thirty years ago. Doubtless it was a sad day for many of our brethren 
 and fathers, our predecessors in this parish, when they beheld the lit- 
 tle Chapel, which had first received and sheltered their feeble flock, 
 sold, and its consecrated walls converted to secular uses. And it is 
 certain that the falling bricks from these walls will knock sadly against 
 many hearts in this congregation. Many infants and adults have here 
 been washed in the cleansing waters of God's regenerating sacrament, 
 and many of them have in due course knelt at this rail to renew and 
 ratify their Baptismal vows, and to seek the gracious gifts of the 
 Spirit. Here have men and women been blessed in the holy estate of 
 Matrimony; and into these doors we have brought our dead, and strug- 
 gled to realize, in the midst of the agony of our bereavement, the 
 blessedness of the Christian's triumph over death. The bread of life 
 has for a third of a century been broken at this altar, and here has the 
 word of God been spoken — with however much of ignorance and weak- 
 ness — by God's appointed servants, and has not been here spoken alto- 
 gether in vain. Our hearts must feel a touch of sadness at the thought 
 of standing no more within these walls, though we may at the same 
 time realize the- necessity and the advantage of the change, by which 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 15 
 
 this building is to pass away, in order to be succeeded by another more 
 suited to our present wants. I do not envy that person who is without 
 such a sentiment for places associated with so many holy emotions and 
 heavenly hopes. 
 
 And I will go a step further, and say that I have never entertained 
 any desire to see this building overturned, merely because I hoped for 
 a more beautiful and attractive structure to replace it. Whatever faults 
 this building may exhibit, it is a great mistake for anyone to suppose 
 that it is without architectural merit. There have been times when I 
 feared that it was quite possible that we might in place of this erect a 
 building much less correct and appropriate as an example of Church 
 architecture. Indeed, this building possesses some points of no incon- 
 siderable interest from a historical and architectural point of view. 
 The design and plans, from which this Church was built, were not 
 prepared by an architect, but by one of the vestry of the parish at the 
 time, Col. William A. Williams. It may, therefore, be lacking in many 
 technical points of construction. But at the same time it presents an 
 interesting illustration and example of the development of Church 
 architecture in America. Suffer me to enlarge a little upon this point. 
 
 Church architecture in America, as a distinct branch of the art, 
 is the development of the last fifty or sixty years. It took its rise in 
 the study of the Gothic architecture of our mother Church of England. 
 However far it may have departed from the original, and however 
 much within the past few years it may have wandered off in the direc- 
 tion of Italian and Byzantine models, it is still a fact that its first origin 
 and development was in the forms of the so-called Gothic architecture 
 of the English Church. The pointed arch, the long nave, the sharp 
 roof, with its open-timber construction, or with real or imitation vault- 
 ing — these and other characteristics of the Gothic style have come to 
 be commonly understood as denoting a building intended for ecclesias- 
 tical purposes ; and almost all denominations, making any attempts at 
 churchly effect in their buildings, have followed our lead in this direc- 
 tion. And I am inclined to think that just so far as churches, of what- 
 ever denomination, shall continue to be places set apart for the wor- 
 ship of Almighty God, the preference for the essential features of this 
 style of building will continue. When, instead of being places of divine 
 worship by the people, churches become merely audience chambers for 
 listening to eloquent or sensational speakers, or for entertainments of 
 so-called sacred music ; or develop into social parlors, or religious club- 
 houses, with kitchens, and pantries, and dining-rooms, there is no tell- 
 ing what startling developments we may see in their architecture. The 
 Grecian, the Italian, the Byzantine, being essentially secular in their 
 origin and purpose, lend themselves much more readily to such •uses. 
 The English Gothic, on the contrary, though exhibiting many varieties 
 
16 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 during its long course of development, prosperity, and decay, was from 
 first to last essentially religious in its whole spirit. It was the faith and 
 love and hope of our ancestors, and their sense of the divine glory and 
 beauty and dignity of worship, expressed in wood and stone. It was 
 meant for worship, and it caught the spirit of the men who worked it 
 out; and it is, and always shall be for us, the architecture of the 
 Church, because, as a matter of fact, it is religious through and through. 
 Like all true art it makes the beholder feel the spirit and meaning of 
 the artist, whether he have skill in the mystery himself or not. 
 
 Now it is a very remarkable fact, that this English Gothic archi- 
 tecture was introduced into America, not by an architect, but by an 
 amateur, and he a clergyman. When Bishop Hopkins, in the early 
 days of his ministry, was rector of Trinity Church, Pittsburgh, Pa., it 
 became necessary for the congregation to build a new church. A little 
 while before this time, he had borrowed from a traveling Englishman 
 a large work on Gothic architecture, illustrated with many plates of 
 plans, elevations, sections, and other details of construction and orna- 
 mentation in this style. Being himself an artist and draughtsman of 
 no ordinary skill, and becoming much interested in the subject so 
 graphically displayed in this work, Mr. Hopkins made careful and 
 accurate copies of many of these plates while the books remained in 
 his possession, and mastered, as far as time permitted, the principles, 
 methods, and rules of construction, as laid down therein. When con- 
 fronted with the problem of building a new church, he desired to have 
 it constructed in this ancient style, after the example of the temples of 
 our Mother Church ; but being unable to find any architect competent 
 to prepare the plans, he was forced to undertake to be the architect 
 himself ; and the church was built from plans drawn by himself, down 
 to the minutest details of construction and ornament, even the paint- 
 ing of the ceiling being designed and executed by him, so far as to 
 show the painters how it must be done. 
 
 This church, built by Mr. Hopkins in 1825, was the first church 
 in the United States designed to be purely Gothic throughout, so far 
 as the knowledge and means of the builders would permit. 
 
 As defective as this work was, judged by later standards, it at- 
 tracted most favorable attention at the time; and the architect was 
 frequently called upon to furnish suggestions, plans, or other assistance, 
 by parishes in all parts of the country, when a new church was to be 
 built. So numerous were these applications, and so favorable the im- 
 pression made upon Churchmen by his attempt to revive this ancient 
 style of church building, that he 'was induced to think that a short 
 manual upon the subject might prove interesting and valuable, espe- 
 cially to his brethren of the clergy. He began, therefore, to prepare 
 a short treatise of an elementary character ; and, in order to provide 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 17 
 
 it with the necessary plates of plans and illustrations, he learned the 
 art of drawing upon the lithographic stone. In 1836, several years 
 after he had become Bishop of Vermont, he brought out his "Essay on 
 Gothic Architecture," "designed chiefly for the use of the Clergy." 
 To this essay he added lithographs, all drawn upon the stone by him- 
 self, of Trinity Church, Pittsburgh, with some of the plans and details, 
 together with several designs for churches in the same general style, 
 but of different sizes and of varying cost, in order to meet the necessi- 
 ties of larger or smaller parishes. He also gave pictures of a notable 
 old English Church, and of several ecclesiastical monuments in that 
 country, by way of illustrating the subject of his essay. 
 
 I was so fortunate as to pick up a copy of this first American pub- 
 lication upon Gothic architecture, at a second-hand bookstore in Balti- 
 more a few years ago ; and I was at once struck with the resemblance 
 between Bishop Hopkins' designs and the older Gothic churches which 
 I had seen in various parts of the country. Without having any special 
 knowledge of the subject, I was yet familiar in a general way with the 
 course of development of Gothic architecture, from the simple and 
 severer forms of the Early English, to the more elaborate and beautiful 
 buildings of the Decorated Gothic in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 
 turies ; and then through the stately Perpendicular to the Debased 
 Gothic, or the Tudor styles. In looking at Bishop Hopkins' designs, 
 and observing the point at which the art had been taken up in America, 
 I was surprised and interested to find, that he had begun with the late, 
 debased style ; and that the subsequent progress of Gothic architecture 
 in our country has been but a tracing backward of the lines of its 
 original development to the earlier and more beautiful and purer forms 
 of the Decorated and the Early English. The depressed arch, struck 
 from two centers, the perpendicular tracery in the windows, the low 
 roof, the battlemented side walls, are all characteristic of the later stages 
 of the art, and all these are found in Bishop Hopkins' book. It was 
 as if the highest and purest art could not be understood or appreciated 
 at first, until the taste and judgment had been cultivated and developed; 
 and so the debased style was first accepted by the untrained mind, and 
 then, as time and study and practice revealed the true principles of the 
 art, taste and the true critical judgment revived, and gradually led us 
 back to the earlier and better work of the medieval builders. 
 
 Now if this be so, the very defects of our earlier American churches 
 have an interest and value, as illustrating the steps by which we have 
 attained to better things ; and these defects reflect honor and not dis- 
 credit upon the designers and builders of these older churches, because 
 they are the evidence of a taste, and skill beyond their day, which, with 
 whatever of defect and error, was still steadily aspiring and mounting 
 upward. These battlemented walls, and false ceilings, and long mul- 
 
1 8 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, 'N. C. 
 
 Honed windows (of the old St. Peter's Church) are marks of progress, 
 and evidence of the attainments of the generation preceding us. 
 
 This church, in which we shall probably meet but a little while 
 longer, is one of those built under the influence of Bishop Hopkins' 
 essay. A better type of that style is the Chapel of the Cross, Chapel 
 Hill, my first parish Church, which is almost an exact reproduction 
 of one of Bishop Hopkins' designs. St. James' Church, Wilmington, 
 was another in much the same style, though recent changes and addi- 
 tions have greatly altered its appearance. It must be said, however, 
 that our St. Peter's represents an advance upon Bishop Hopkins' 
 designs. We have here the lancet windows of the earlier style, and the 
 pure Gothic arch in doorways and chancel. And although the battle- 
 mented walls and pinnacled buttresses were retained, yet the roof is 
 raised to a steeper pitch, and the pinnacles, except upon the corner 
 buttresses, were either given up, or else have been demolished. Colonel 
 Williams does not remember what models he followed in preparing the 
 plans, but, whatever they may have been, and whether he had seen 
 Bishop Hopkins' essay or not, his plans represented that first stage of 
 American Gothic architecture, when it had begun to be modified by 
 advancing knowledge and the increasing appreciation of the earlier 
 English forms. 
 
 I say, therefore, that this Church has in my eyes a distinct interest 
 and value, as marking a certain stage in the progress of our Church 
 architecture, and I have always felt that, where the eye can see in this 
 building nothing of beauty or significance, it is because the mind is 
 not furnished with the knowledge necessary to supplement the vision. 
 In order that we may see, there must be the eye to mark and the mind 
 to receive and apprehend, as well as the object to be seen. And I 
 should rejoice were it possible, while building our larger and more 
 beautiful church, to preserve this older one, that it might be for some 
 subordinate parish use, and might stand as an evidence of the piety and 
 devotion of the years and of the brethren passed away. 
 
 For the present I have done. I only proposed to myself in the first 
 instance to tell briefly the story of the old church edifice, and to speak 
 a word in its honor before it is leveled with the dust. In setting about 
 it, earlier incidents presented themselves, and I have thought it might 
 be as well to gather them up for your attention. 
 
 Let us remember, in closing, that change and decay are incident to 
 our present existence, and because a thing is old and passing away is 
 no reason why it should not be honored. If it has done its work in 
 its day, it has won a title to our respect and grateful memory. Well 
 would it be for priest and for people, for me and for you, if we could 
 feel that we have done our duty in God's service as well as this house 
 which we now dismantle. 
 
St. Peter's Church 
 
 Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 Thirty IJears of Its Life and IDork 
 
 1863-1893 
 
 As in the case of hospitals, so in the case of orphanages, the Church 
 has set the example and led the way in this beautiful charity, both in 
 the city of Charlotte and in the State of North Carolina. 
 
 — Jos. Blount Cheshire 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 St Peters Church 
 
 Charlotte, N. C 
 1863-1893 
 
 My Dear Brethren : 
 
 Last fall, at the request of your rector, I promised 
 to consecrate St. Peter's Church on Whitsunday of this 
 year. At that time neither of us was aware of the date 
 of Whitsunday, 1921. I was surprised and interested to 
 find, only a few weeks ago, that it is the fortieth anni- 
 versary of my acceptance of the call to this parish, and 
 my first service, on the Fourth Sunday after Trinity — 
 May 15, 1881. That service was, of course, in the build- 
 ing which was pulled down in the fall of 1892, to be 
 replaced by your present parish church. 
 
 In that old St. Peter's Church, I held my last service 
 in the evening of Tuesday, September 27, 1892, just 
 thirty years and four days after its consecration — Sep- 
 tember 23, 1862. At that last service I delivered an 
 address upon the history of the Church in Charlotte 
 and St. Peter's Parish, from the beginning of our church 
 work in Charlotte down to the consecration of that old 
 church. Having been requested by your rector, the Rev. 
 Edwin A. Penick, Jr., to give this evening a further 
 account of the work of this parish, I propose to take 
 up the story at that date, 1863, and to give as best I 
 may, the story, or some part of the story, of its later life. 
 — Jos Blount Cheshire 
 
St. Peters Church, Charlotte 
 
 Thirty IJears of Its Life and IDork 
 
 *T the consecration, September 23, 1862, of the church preced- 
 ing our present building, the Rev. George M. Everhart was 
 rector of the parish. He resigned in February, 1866, on 
 account of ill health, though he lived to do good work for 
 many years longer. It was in February, 1867, that the Rev. Benj. S. 
 Bronson became rector, the services of the church during the interval 
 having been regularly maintained, as far as possible, by that ever-faith- 
 ful layman, Mr. John Wilkes. Mr. Bronson continued rector until 
 November 1, 1878. From March 25 to October 1, 1879, the Rev. Zina 
 Doty was rector. The Rev. John K. Mason succeeded him January 9, 
 1880, and resigned February, 1881. 
 
 As already stated, I accepted the rectorship May 15, 1881, and con- 
 tinued in charge until my consecration as Assistant Bishop of the 
 Diocese, October 15, 1893. The Rev. Charles C. Quin was my assistant, 
 though without official connection with the parish, from the first of 
 March, 1882, to the end of the year 1883; and the Rev. Chas. N. F. 
 Jeffery was regular assistant in the parish during 1892. 
 
 It is impossible in the time at my command to do more than con- 
 sider briefly some special aspect of the life of the parish. I cannot 
 write the history of thirty years with any fullness. I purpose, there- 
 fore, to consider St. Peter's Church in its relation to the development 
 and extension of the work and influence of the Church in this part of 
 the Diocese. 
 
 The true measure of the real life and power of any local church 
 is not what it does in the development of its own congregational inter- 
 ests, but the power that goes out from it into the life of the world 
 around it. This diffusive power may result in drawing into the sphere 
 of its own life and organization, the material upon which its influence 
 is exerted, and thus cause it to develop into a larger and more powerful 
 parish, extending its bounds and increasing its beneficent activities. 
 And this is ordinarily one important result of vigorous parochial life ; 
 and it is a result of very great value and importance. St. Peter's 
 Parish has shown much vitality of this kind. The small congregation 
 of 137 communicants, whom I found here in 1881, worshiping in the 
 old church, has now grown to a body of 627 communicants, occupying 
 and employing for its worship and its internal activities these extensive 
 and beautiful buildings. This growth of itself is highly creditable to 
 
22 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 rector and people. But there are even more important results of the 
 vigorous life of a parish, seen in the development and extension of 
 church life beyond parochial limits, so that the parish becomes a center, 
 from which seeds of other organizations are scattered abroad; and 
 other parishes, churches, and institutions develop, and extend the life 
 in wider fields of activity and influence. In this latter kind of work 
 St. Peter's Parish has, in my judgment, shown a vitality, power, and 
 fecundity, more remarkable and more valuable than in its own parochial 
 growth. "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
 minister" ; and His Church best shows itself to be His when it follows 
 His example. The true honor of this parish does not lie in its own 
 handsome church and large, well-equipped parish home and numerous 
 congregation, but in the extension of the life and service of the Church 
 in other churches and congregations and institutions, which have, in 
 whole or in part, sprung from it, and been planted and watered, tended 
 and augmented by the love and service of its people. This part of the 
 parish history I desire to present, and however inadequately I shall do 
 so, I believe I can do something of value in recalling and recording 
 this aspect of your parochial life. 
 
 The period over which our survey will extend begins in the trying 
 time of war. The Confederate war so totally absorbed all the energies 
 of our people that there was little opportunity for anything else. But 
 it is very greatly to the honor of our Church and Diocese, that all 
 available resources were employed in meeting the special spiritual needs 
 of the time. Bishop Atkinson mentions in his address to the Conven- 
 tion of 1863, that the liberality of Mr. John Wilkes had paid off the 
 debt still resting upon St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, so that he had 
 been able to consecrate it the preceding September. The same generous 
 layman, early in 1864, so far as I can make out the date, started one 
 of the most noble enterprises ever undertaken in this community. He 
 formed the Protestant Episcopal Church Publishing Association, for 
 the purpose of publishing religious literature for the soldiers of the 
 Confederate Army. When in 1892 we pulled down the old church that 
 we might erect our present structure, I found in the old tower a mass 
 of printed matter entirely composed of religious treatises of a popular 
 character, sermons, tracts, and short articles, rather poorly printed on 
 dingy paper, with the imprint of the Protestant Episcopal Church Pub- 
 lishing Association on the title page of each. I had never heard of 
 such an association, and in the hurry of those busy times, when rector, 
 vestry, and people were greatly pressed with the burden of our own 
 work in endeavoring to push on the building of the church, I did not 
 think enough about those dingy old pamphlets to make any inquiry 
 about them. And a very few months afterwards I was chosen Bishop, 
 and the many matters thus crowded upon me put the whole thing out 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 23 
 
 of my mind. Fortunately, however, with a sort of instinct for preserv- 
 ing whatever seemed to have any bearing on the history and work of 
 the Church or Diocese, I selected one copy of each of the publications 
 found in the old tower, tied them up securely, and put them among my 
 books and papers. When in 1910 I came almost accidentally, and cer- 
 tainly quite without ever having entertained any such purpose, to write 
 the history of the Church in the Confederate States, I learned for the 
 first time of this noble enterprise, and the very great work of this 
 Protestant Episcopal Church Publishing Association in providing reli- 
 gious literature for our Southern soldiers ; and then, calling to mind 
 the bundle of old tracts, etc , found in the church tower, I hunted it up ; 
 and was gratified to find that I had nearly a complete set of the pub- 
 lications of the Association. 
 
 So far as I have been able to discover, the Association consisted 
 on its business side of Mr. John Wilkes alone ; and with him was asso- 
 ciated his rector, the Rev. George M. Everhart, as editor of the various 
 publications. I cannot sufficiently lament the fact that I knew nothing 
 of this until after the death of both Mr. Wilkes and Mr. Everhart. 
 Mrs. Wilkes, when I talked with her on this matter, could remember 
 nothing of anyone being associated with Mr. Wilkes in the work, and 
 had herself been accustomed to read and correct the proofs of the 
 Church Intelligencer, which after the summer of 1864 was published by 
 the Association. This paper had failed, and was discontinued early in 
 1864. Up to that date it had been published in Raleigh by the Rev. 
 Thos. S. W. Mott. After being discontinued for about six months, 
 Bishop Atkinson earnestly pressed Mr. Wilkes to revive it. He did so, 
 first with the Rev. Mr. Everhart as editor ; and then under the very 
 able conduct of the Rev. Fordyce M. Hubbard, D. D., professor of 
 Latin in the University of North Carolina, but no less distinguished 
 in the literature and, learning of his native language. 
 
 It is impossible at this day to ascertain the extent of the work of 
 this Publishing Association. It must have been very considerable. 
 Orders came for their publications from all the States, from Virginia 
 to Mississippi, and one issue of the Church Intelligencer contains 
 acknowledgements of over ten thousand dollars received on orders for 
 tracts to be sent to the soldiers. Even allowing for the depreciation 
 in the Confederate currency, this indicates quite an extensive sale, and 
 certainly there was no more useful work than this of supplying the 
 men in camp with interesting and edifying reading. 
 
 Another most interesting incident of the same period, is that 
 through the instrumentality of Mr. Wilkes, St. Peter's Parish par- 
 ticipated in the importation of Bibles and Prayer Books from England 
 for use in the South, and specially for the soldiers. About the middle 
 of the year 1864 six parishes united in supplying funds for the purchase 
 
24 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 of five bales of cotton at Wilmington. These were shipped on the 
 S. S. Cornubia, ran the Blockade, were sold in England, and the pro- 
 ceeds were used to have an edition of the Prayer Book of the Church 
 in the Confederate States, printed by Eyre & Spottiswood, in London, 
 and also to buy Bibles. These were successfully run through the 
 Blockade to Wilmington, and were distributed throughout the Diocese, 
 and to our North Carolina soldiers in the Army. Eyre & Spottiswood 
 printed two other editions of the Confederate Prayer Book for a Rich- 
 mond publisher, but all these seem to have been aboard a steamer which 
 was captured or destroyed in attempting to pass through the blockading 
 fleet. So far as is known, the only Confederate Prayer Books used 
 in the South during the War, were those brought in by this combination 
 of North Carolina Parishes. 
 
 These items of church work during the period of the Confederate 
 War, make a most interesting and creditable record, and reflect honor 
 upon the parish. The Rev. Mr. Everhart, who was rector during this 
 period, was a man of striking personality and ability. He seems to 
 have given a distinct impulse to the growth of the parish, and to the 
 influence and reputation of the Church in this rather difficult field. 
 He was faithfully supported in his work by a small but notable group, 
 chiefly the following men and their families : John Wilkes, William R. 
 Myers, William F. Davidson, John G. Bryce, William A. Williams, 
 William A. Lucas, Dr. Moses M. Orr, and others. 
 
 A new era in our secular history begins with the years following 
 the Confederate War, and a new era in our parish life seems associated 
 with the same years, and the new conditions. In February, 1867, the 
 Rev. Benjamin S. Bronson became rector of the Parish, and the course 
 of development of our church work and church life was, it seems to 
 me, more influenced by him than by any other man who has held the 
 position, certainly up to the year 1893, when I left this parish. I am 
 all the more careful to say this because his administration was not 
 eminently successful. He was not a good administrator. I think I 
 must say that he failed in many, if not most of the enterprises which 
 he undertook. But he had vision. He looked at things largely. He 
 aspired and he attempted and he struggled, and when he did not suc- 
 ceed, he at least put ideas into other men's minds. He opened up vistas 
 of achievement and of progress, and he laid some good and solid foun- 
 dations upon which those who followed him might build. He was not 
 satisfied with merely parochial activity and the gathering of a congre- 
 gation within the walls of his parish church. He looked upon the 
 parish as an instrument of useful service in the community and for the 
 community. He felt that the Church must lift up its eyes and view 
 the needs of the world and the opportunities for ministering to those 
 needs. 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 25 
 
 One of the great needs in the South after the war was good schools. 
 Mr. Bronson's first and most ambitious enterprise was a school, pro- 
 jected on a large and generous scale, to be built and sustained as a 
 permanent church institution. I am not prepared to give a history of 
 this enterprise, but something must be said about it. Mr. Bronson was 
 a native of the State of Maine and a graduate of Yale College. He 
 came to North Carolina as a teacher, and was ordained by Bishop 
 Atkinson in May, 1854. His early ministry had been passed in Bertie 
 and the adjoining counties. Wherever he lived he made many warm 
 friends and admirers. He was the best classical scholar I have known 
 among the clergy of the Diocese, and a man of warm and generous 
 nature. While struggling to establish the school in this parish, the 
 family of a deceased friend and parishioner, Mr. Lewis Thompson, of 
 Bertie, gave him a considerable sum of money, several thousand dol- 
 lars, toward his work. The school had been begun as a parochial enter- 
 prise, and was called St. Peter's School. Immediately upon coming 
 into the parish he had interested the vestry in his plans. The vestry 
 had authorized and been responsible for his first purchase of land, and 
 had taken title to property, borrowed money, given mortgages, and 
 generally borne a very considerable part in the enterprise. After this 
 gift from the Thompsons, a development in Mr. Bronson's purposes 
 appears. He had visited distant parts of the State and country, seek- 
 ing support in his enterprise, and he proceeded to expand his plans. 
 The name was changed from St. Peter's School to The Thompson 
 Institute, and preparations were made for giving it a Diocesan char- 
 acter, and for conveying all the property, whether in the hands of the 
 vestry or of Mr. Bronson, to a board of trustees of the Thompson 
 Institute. 
 
 This was in 1872, and seems to have been the culmination of the 
 effort. Possibly the financial troubles of 1873 helped to check the 
 progress of the school. The vestry seem to have taken no part in it 
 after this, and the Thompson Institute failed. Mr. Bronson taught for 
 some years himself, and employed other teachers. He burned brick, 
 and put up the building now known as "Thompson Hall," of the Thomp- 
 son Orphanage. He gave it much time and thought and labor. Doubt- 
 less it was a disadvantage to him in his parochial and pastoral wo r k, 
 and caused restlessness and dissatisfaction both to him and his people. 
 But it had its value in helping to create in the parish a sense of respon- 
 sibility for things beyond merely congregational interests. 
 
 Another enterprise, small at first, but now one of our great local 
 institutions, had its beginning under Mr. Bronson. Several ladies of 
 St. Peter's Church had become interested in an old woman, whose 
 destitute and feeble condition made her entirely dependent upon their 
 charity. At first they merely supplied her with necessary food and 
 
26 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 clothing. But finally, being turned out of her lodging for non-payment 
 of rent, these good ladies were obliged to rent a small house, and to 
 provide for her entire support. This put into their minds the idea of 
 providing a place for the care of the poor and helpless. Whether Mr. 
 Bronson suggested this I do not know, but it was quite in line with 
 his ideas of Church work, and he took it up with enthusiasm and urged 
 it on, and offered to give the brick for such a building. He had been 
 burning brick for his school building, and in a small way had been 
 selling brick to help on his work. At this time Miss Hattie Moore lived 
 in a house which stood on the spot now occupied by the chancel of St. 
 Peter's Church. For a good many years she carried on a school for 
 small children. She had organized a society among her scholars for 
 such good work as they could do, and called it the "Busy Bees." She 
 proposed that these Busy Bees should raise the money to buy a lot 
 for "St. Peter's Home and Hospital." The vestry and Ladies' Aid 
 Society also took up the matter, and a beginning was made. A lot was 
 bought, and was paid for by Miss Hattie Moore's "Busy Bees" ; and in 
 1877, in connection with his presence in Charlotte for the Diocesan 
 Convention of that year, Bishop Atkinson laid the cornerstone of "St. 
 Peter's Home and Hospital." 
 
 While Mr. Bronson's chief thought was for developing church work 
 in permanent institutions, he was not wholly neglectful of parochial 
 expansion. For a while he had carried on a Mission Sunday School in 
 the brick schoolhouse, which used to stand near the corner of Tenth 
 and D Streets, in that part of Charlotte then called Mechanicsville. 
 
 Like many other good men, Mr. Bronson failed in his efforts to 
 establish his school. While a fine scholar, and not without talent and 
 inspirational power as a teacher, 'he was very greatly lacking in con- 
 structive and administrative ability. He could see and design, and lay 
 out great and admirable plans, but he lacked method, attention to detail, 
 and the patient, persistent, plodding quality necessary to carry out 
 design into accomplishment. And all his thought and effort and time 
 being absorbed in his school, or much the greater part of it, his parochial 
 and pastoral work suffered. And so there came about a want of 
 sympathetic co-operation between rector and people, or at any rate 
 between rector and vestry. There was mutual unrest, and about the end 
 of 1878 Mr. Bronson resigned. 
 
 One of the most interesting and notable events connected with his 
 rectorship was the Confirmation, and then some years later, the 
 Ordination to the Ministry, of the Rev.' Edwin A. Osborne, whose 
 beloved presence with us makes it impossible for me to say what his life 
 and work have meant to the Church in Charlotte, and to the whole 
 Diocese during the forty-four years which have passed since his Ordi- 
 nation in May, 1877. 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 2.7 
 
 I do not think it is unjust to the Rev. Zina Doty and the Rev. 
 John K. Mason, who in succession followed the Rev. Mr. Bronson, to 
 say that, so far as I can learn, nothing of special importance marked 
 their brief rectorships. Neither of them remained more than about a 
 year. Mr. Doty, I believe, remained less than twelve months. He 
 did not impress the people as a man of ability. The only thing I 
 remember to have heard about him is that, having spoken of St. Mark 
 as an apostle, and someone saying to him that St. Mark was not an 
 apostle, he maintained that he was, and proposed to prove it by refer- 
 ence to Appleton's Encyclopedia! 
 
 Mr. Mason was an able man, admired and beloved, and became one 
 of the distinguished men of the Church in the United States. But while 
 in Charlotte he was in bad health, and he felt obliged to resign after 
 a short service. 
 
 Some time in the spring of 1881, Mr. Mason having left Charlotte, 
 I was called to be his successor. Bishop Lyman, only a few weeks 
 before, had expressed to me his desire that I should not leave Chapel 
 Hill. I therefore replied by return mail, declining the call to this 
 parish. I had been put in charge of the Chapel of the Cross, Chapel 
 Hill, by Bishop Atkinson, when he had ordained me on Easter Day, 
 1878; and I had my first service there on the Third Sunday in May 
 of that year. I had told- the Bishop that it was my desire to serve 
 wherever he might put me. In declining the call to Charlotte, I only 
 acted upon the principle which I had adopted. Such calls as I had 
 received — only two or three, as far as I remember — I had declined 
 without really giving them any serious consideration. A few days 
 after receiving and declining this call to Charlotte, I had a letter from 
 Bishop Lyman saying that he desired me to accept this call to Charlotte. 
 I wrote him that only a few weeks before he had told me that he wished 
 me to remain in Chapel Hill, and so I had declined. He replied at 
 once, saying that a call to Hillsboro and a call to Charlotte were two 
 very different things, and that he had written the vestry at Charlotte 
 to repeat their call, and he would see that I should go to them. In the 
 meantime, however, the vestry of St. Peter's had extended an invitation 
 to the Rev. Nathaniel Harding, of Washington; but in a very short 
 time, Mr. Harding also declined. Whereupon the invitation to me was 
 renewed. I wrote that I would be with them for Sunday, May 15, and 
 give them my decision. Late Saturday night I reached Charlotte, and 
 was cordially received by Mr. John Wilkes, who entertained me during 
 my brief visit. The next day, May 15, being the Fourth Sunday after 
 Easter, I had service and preached in St. Peter's Church, and announced 
 to the congregation that I had accepted the call of the vestry, not 
 because I had any desire to come, but in deference to the judgment and 
 wishes of those whom I felt I ought to regard. I may say here that 
 
2& St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 I never accepted of my own volition a call to a parish. Bishop Atkinson 
 placed me in Chapel Hill at my ordination. Bishop Lyman sent me to 
 Charlotte. Here I remained until made Bishop. Such calls as I 
 received while at Chapel Hill or in Charlotte, I declined. I preferred to 
 do the work assigned to me. 
 
 While preparing to remove to Charlotte, I was told by some per- 
 sons that St. Peter's was a hard parish to get on with, the most diffi- 
 cult in the Diocese. I say this only that I may add that I found it 
 altogether otherwise. I was received with the utmost kindness, cour- 
 tesy, and consideration, and during my twelve and a half years as 
 rector, had as little trouble or discomfort of any kind, in my relations 
 with vestry and people, as is to be expected in this imperfect state of 
 existence. 
 
 I am not sure that I remember accurately the names of all the 
 vestrymen at the time of my coming. But, during the early period 
 of my incumbency it seems to me as I look back on those days, that 
 they were a rather remarkable body of men. Mr. John Wilkes was my 
 Senior Warden as long as I remained Rector. Col. Hamilton C. Jones 
 was Junior Warden for most of that time. Then there were Gen. Thos. 
 F. Drayton, Col- John P. Thomas, Judge Wm. M. Shipp, Mr. Baxter 
 H. Moore, Dr. M. A. Bland, Mr. John S. Myers, and a little later on, 
 Mr. Thos. H. Haughton, Mr. Joseph G. Shannonhouse, and Mr. Piatt 
 D. Walker, now Judge in the Supreme Court, with others. Of course 
 I cannot name all. Of those who were members of the vestry in 1881 — 
 only Mr. John S. Myers and Dr. M. A. Bland remain. 
 
 From this time I must necessarily speak in the first person. The 
 rector represents and leads the parish, if in any degree he does his 
 work. I beg, however, that you will not think what I shall have to 
 say of the work of the parish, however often the personal pronoun may 
 appear, I consider as my own, except as I was representing the people 
 of the parish and acting as their leader and representative, doing the 
 work with and by their co-operation, sympathy, and support. 
 
 I found in the parish 137 communicants. The parish church stood 
 upon a lot ninety-nine feet square. The Church owned St. Peter's 
 Home and Hospital, a one-story, four-room building, and the lot upon 
 which it stood. That was the whole of our parochial possessions. 
 Across Sugar Creek stood the old brick school building erected by Mr. 
 Bronson, with some eighty acres of land. The title was in Mr. Bronson, 
 and a debt — I do not now remember how much — encumbered the prop- 
 erty. Shortly after coming to Charlotte, Mr. Bronson wrote me that 
 I could have the property for any church work, if I would assume 
 the indebtedness resting upon it. I felt too seriously the importance 
 of my parochial and pastoral work to be willing to burden myself at 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 29 
 
 that time with additional responsibilities, and I declined Mr. Bronson's 
 offer. 
 
 The first matter which I recall as attracting my attention in con- 
 nection with the interests of the parish after I assumed charge, had 
 to do with St. Peter's Home, as it was then called. The building had 
 been erected a few years earlier, as has been mentioned, just before 
 Mr. Bronson's departure. A good woman was in charge, under the 
 direction of a committee of the ladies of the parish. It was used for 
 the temporary care of such destitute and sick persons as could not be 
 otherwise provided for. It was supported by voluntary contributions, 
 obtained upon no general system of method, and in the early summer 
 of 1881, it seemed perilously near absolute failure for want of funds 
 to meet its current expenses. The good ladies who had it in charge 
 were in great distress and perplexity. Some of their Presbyterian 
 friends suggested that one of their Presbyterian societies was prepared 
 to relieve them of the burden and to take over this work. I am 
 inclined to think that this offer proved a very healthy and effective 
 stimulus to the struggling enterprise. Renewed efforts were made to 
 raise funds for its support, and at this time upon a more systematic 
 plan. 
 
 There was a retired clergyman then residing in Charlotte, the Revr. 
 Lucian Holmes, who I believe, had come in the closing period of Mr. 
 Bronson's school, as a teacher, and had afterwards supported himself 
 for some years by teaching a small private school for boys. He was 
 a kind and amiable man, and was very good about visiting the inmates 
 of St. Peter's Home and Hospital, and felt much concerned for its 
 maintenance and success. While the ladies were endeavoring to secure 
 contributions for its support, Mr. Holmes, during this summer of 
 1881, with a degree of energy and persistence which I never knew him 
 to manifest in any other matter, went about through the community, 
 not only among our own church people, but generally to all whom he 
 was able to interest, representing the good work done by having this 
 refuge for the sick and suffering, and soliciting not contributions at 
 that time, but subscriptions for regular monthly contributions for its 
 support. He was quite successful in this effort, and secured many 
 subscriptions, mostly for small sums, but in the aggregate enough to 
 put the work upon a much securer basis than before. This was the 
 first regular income ever proA)ided, and for many years this monthly 
 subscription was the chief dependence for meeting the current expenses. 
 It is an interesting and pathetic circumstance that this good friend and 
 benefactor, the Rev. Lucian Holmes, eight or ten years later, died in 
 St. Peter's Hospital, and owed the comfort and attendance of his last 
 days to the institution which he had helped according to his ability. 
 From these small beginnings grew the present St. Peter's Hospital, the 
 
30 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 first in this State, so far as I know, founded and sustained entirely 
 by individual benevolence. I can only indicate thus briefly the good 
 works which have sprung out of the life of this parish. 
 
 In entering upon the work of the parish, I could not fail to observe 
 the large negro population of Charlotte. In the old Parish Register 
 are many entries of Baptisms of negroes, and there had been a num- 
 ber of negroes confirmed and communicants before the abolition of 
 slaven', as was the case in most of our Southern parishes. It is grati- 
 fying to me to know that the vestry of the parish were deeply interested 
 in this matter. A number of entries in the record of the proceedings of 
 the vestry, show them as co-operating zealously with the Rev. Mr. 
 Bronson in efforts to provide services and a clergyman for the colored 
 people of the city, and later on endeavoring to secure a place for such 
 services. At one time, in 1876, the Bishop sent a colored clergyman to 
 Charlotte, in an effort to gather up the few who remained, and to 
 organize some systematic Christian work among the negroes. This 
 effort had failed. When I became rector the only colored communicant 
 whom I found, was a woman named Annie Wilson, who was employed 
 to act as sexton of the Church, and who communed regularly with the 
 rest of the congregation. 
 
 I proposed to the Bishop that he should send me an unmarried 
 young clergyman, who could live in my house, that by his help I might 
 do church work among the negroes, as the demands of my parochial 
 work were too great to allow me to undertake it alone. Bishop Lyman 
 then sent me the Rev. Chas. C. Quin, who was ordained February 22, 
 1882, and reached Charlotte, March 2. He was a member of my family 
 while he remained in Charlotte. The Bishop gave $200.00 a year from 
 the missionary funds, and I gave him $50.00 and his board and lodging. 
 This was all the remuneration he received. He was of a singularly 
 cheerful, amiable, and modest demeanor, unselfish and docile, always 
 willing to do what was assigned to him; and I believe he was as gen- 
 erally acceptable in the parish as he was in my family circle, where we 
 all became much attached to him. As he had not been called to supply 
 any want in the parish, but only to do extra-parochial work under my 
 direction, and by his ministrations in the parish to compensate for such 
 time and energy as I might bestow upon outside work, I did not feel 
 it right to burden the parish with any part of his support. But having 
 in Mr. Quin one who could supply my place during any brief absence, 
 I felt more free to undertake such work outside the parish as might 
 seem desirable and urgent. 
 
 Our first effort to reach the colored people was by having a ser- 
 vice in, I think, the Police Court, on East Trade Street, near the old 
 "Carolina Central Railroad" crossing. This one experiment satisfied 
 me that we could do nothing without a place- of our own. Some time 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charix>tte, N. C. 31 
 
 during 1882 I was able to purchase the lot on Mint Street, just beyond 
 the railroad tracks, on which the Church of St. Michael and All 
 Angels now stands. On that part of the lot now occupied by the 
 chancel of the church, was a very shabby and dilapidated frame dwell- 
 ing-house of three or four rooms. By knocking out most of the par- 
 titions, and with some very moderate repairs, we secured space for the 
 accommodation of a small congregation, and we made some very sim- 
 ple and rude arrangements for altar, lectern, etc. We began our ser- 
 vices in May. We were never able to find any remnants of the old 
 colored members who had been communicants in St. Peter's Church. 
 We had to work with and upon wholly new material. The Rev. Mr. 
 Quin was absolutely faithful, zealous, and diligent, but he really had 
 no aptitude whatever for work among the negroes. He was a native 
 of New York, born and educated there, though of Irish parentage. He 
 never, I think, was able to enter into any sympathetic relations with 
 his little negro congregation. Fortunately, however, shortly before this 
 time a young colored man, James E. King, who was an intelligent and 
 very faithful Churchman, had removed with his wife from Wilmington 
 to Charlotte, and opened a barber's shop in the city. He became at 
 once our chief assistant and support in the work. At this time I had 
 my second Sunday service in the afternoon, and I usually took part in 
 the evening service at our colored mission, which we called the "Church 
 of St. Michael and All Angels." We raised some money in Charlotte, 
 a little perhaps from individuals in other parts of the Diocese. We 
 succeeded in paying for our lot, and then I gave Mr. Quin letters to a 
 number of clergymen and friends of mine in New York and Connecticut, 
 and he undertook the very ungrateful task of soliciting money for the 
 church which we proposed to build. His efforts were so far successful 
 that in 1883 we were able to build so much of the proposed church as 
 was needed at that stage of the work, namely, the nave up to the 
 crossing of the transepts. This afforded ample space for the work at 
 that stage. About the time this was accomplished, towards the end of 
 1883, the Bishop sent the Rev. Primus P. Alston, a young colored dea- 
 con, just ordained the preceding spring, to take charge of the work, 
 as the Rev. Mr. Quin had been called to Calvary Church, Wadesboro. 
 The work had now been fairly started, and ceased to be part of St. 
 Peter's Parish, though the Rev. Mr. Alston carried on the work under 
 my direction. 
 
 At this time, however, while Mr. Quin was with me, I had been 
 using him in another direction. Some time during 1881 I had visited 
 Monroe, having learned that there were a number of members of the 
 Church there. According to my best recollection I found on my first 
 visit seven communicants living in that town, though I think there 
 must have been two or three others. They had some years before that 
 
32 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 time attempted to form a congregation, and had rented a room over 
 a store, and had it furnished with benches and with one or two old 
 articles of chancel furniture, given them, I believe, by St. Peter's 
 Church, Charlotte. The Rev. Mr. Boyle had held monthly services 
 there while rector of Calvary Church, Wadesboro ; and even earlier. 
 Bishop Atkinson had visited the place and administered confirmation 
 to several persons. In 1881, however, the little congregation had 
 become discouraged ; no services had been held there for some time, and 
 they felt that it was useless to continue their efforts. I proposed to 
 them that they should continue to rent the room or hall over the store, 
 and I promised, if they would do so, to give them at least a monthly 
 service on a weekday, and that I would try to arrange for a regular 
 monthly Sunday service, as soon as possible. This proposition they 
 very gladly accepted. The principal members of the little congregation 
 were the two brothers, Samuel S. and Chas. M. T. McAulay, formerly 
 from Chapel Hill, and their families, and Mr. Jas. F. Payne and Mrs. 
 Payne, from Virginia. Before the arrival of the Rev. Mr. Quin, I had 
 been giving this little flock a monthly visit and service on a weekday 
 and night. After he came we kept up a monthly Sunday service dur- 
 ing his stay in Charlotte. When he left for Wadesboro, at the end of 
 1883, I resumed my monthly visits and services on weekdays. This 
 continued until January, 1885, when I was able to turn the little con- 
 gregation over to the Rev. Edwin A. Osborne, as will appear later on. 
 The services thus maintained for two years or more by the clergy of 
 St. Peter's Chutfch, had prevented the abandonment of this work, and 
 had organized the beginning of a small but promising mission. 
 
 While these matters of parochial enterprise, outside the ordinary 
 routine, claimed my attention, the internal work of the parish was pro- 
 ceeding uneventfully, but, on the whole, well. It has been said that the 
 country is happy which has no history, and the best parochial work 
 has perhaps the least of the extraordinary to record. As I recall those 
 days, my most distinct impressions seem to be of a few aged parish- 
 ioners, too feeble to attend the public worship of the Church, to whom 
 it was my privilege to minister in private. Three of them were indeed 
 notable women. Mrs. William R. Myers was a true mother in Israel. 
 I always felt that in my visits and services with her I gained much more 
 than I could bestow. For many years, helpless and suffering, she not 
 only manifested the sweet and gentle character of the Christian matron 
 and was an example to all, but she had also a great deal of patriarchal 
 quality: "She commanded her children after her." It was good to 
 see how her prevailing influence over a large family circle seemed to 
 lose nothing of its power for good, though she was herself dependent 
 upon their care. One of the very few funeral sermons I have ever 
 written was prepared and preached when she was laid to rest. And 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte;, N. C. 33 
 
 with her I remember another name inseparably associated with the 
 early history of the parish as I knew it, Mrs. Mary Jourde Lucas, who 
 died February 22, Ash Wednesday, 1882, in her eighty-eighth year. 
 Fifty years before this she had been organist in Christ Church, Raleigh, 
 and it was she who harmonized and wrote out the music of our State 
 song, "The Old North State," from the melody which Miss Lou Taylor, 
 a young lady of Raleigh, had caught from a strolling band of Swiss 
 bell ringers, and played by ear, and for which Judge Gaston had writ- 
 ten the words, ever since so inseparably associated with it. She and 
 her family, children and grandchildren, have for the greater part of the 
 life of this parish, been among its most faithful and useful members. 
 And a third, Miss Sarah Frew Davidson, also a cultivated and talented 
 woman, of strong mind and character, stands out in my memory as 
 one intimately associated with the parish from its very beginning, in 
 the days of the Rev. John Morgan and the Rev. Moses A. Curtis — 
 but time and space forbid that I further indulge these, to me, most 
 interesting memories. Many others would claim like tribute of praise 
 for what they had been to the Church, and for what they were to me, 
 did time and space permit. 
 
 I must mention the little four-room "Home and Hospital" — how 
 deeply are its memories engraved upon my mind ! Its inmates were 
 as a rule, the "waifs 1 ! and strays" of life, drifting in from the railroads, 
 or from the lower, often from the very lowest, strata of the community. 
 Here many a helpless and hopeless life found a few days or a few 
 weeks of peace and rest, and unaccustomed comfort and tenderness. 
 And some, I believe, found the supreme help and lasting peace and 
 hope, before they went hence and were no more seen. Others beside 
 myself, good women and men of St. Peter's, know what a blessing 
 even that little unfurnished, unpretentious house was in those days ; 
 and what an honor it was and is to the people and the parish, who thus 
 were the pioneers in Charlotte in providing for the sick, the needy, and 
 *he destitute. 
 
 What I had soon learned in the parish concerning Mr. Bronson's 
 work, or rather of his spirit and ideas of church work, had a good deal 
 of influence in the development of my own plans and purposes ; for 
 though not immature in years and in character, I felt that I had much 
 to learn, if I would meet the demands of the parish. In looking about 
 for some aggressive work in the city, I learned of his attempt to estab- 
 lish a Sunday School in the brick schoolhouse at the corner of D and 
 Tenth Streets. Obtaining permission to use this building, I secured 
 the co-operation of several members of the congregation, and in Decem- 
 ber, 1881, began a Sunday School here. This was carried on with some 
 success for several years, and then the building was destroyed by fire, 
 
34 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 which caused a temporary cessation of the work, but its reorganization 
 after a few months, upon a larger scale, as will be told in due time. 
 
 In May, 1883, the Diocesan Convention was held in St. Peter's 
 Church. It was one of the most notable Conventions in the history of 
 the Diocese. For many years earnest endeavors had been made to 
 erect a new Diocese within the State of North Carolina. In 1877, at 
 a Convention, also held in this Church, a resolution for the creation 
 of such a Diocese had been carried by a good majority, but those 
 opposed to it had, at an adjourned session of the Convention held in 
 Raleigh, induced Bishop Atkinson to withhold his consent. Now, how- 
 ever, in 1883, all opposition proved unavailing, and final action was 
 taken for the erection of the Diocese now known as the Diocese of 
 East Carolina. 
 
 Another important Diocesan event marked this Convention of 1883. 
 This was the organization of the Diocesan Branch of the Woman's 
 Auxiliary. On the twenty-second of March, 1882, a meeting of the 
 women of the parish was held in the church, and a parish branch of 
 the Auxiliary was formed with twenty-four members. The leader in 
 this movement was Mrs. John Wilkes. As the Diocesan Convention 
 of 1883 drew on, Mr. Wilkes corresponded with the Bishop, with a 
 view of organizing a Diocesan branch. The Bishop thereupon author- 
 ized Mrs. Wilkes to endeavor to effect such an organization. By 
 Mrs. Wilkes's efforts a number of vfomen from other parishes, some, 
 I believe, representing parochial branches already formed, attended the 
 Diocesan Convention, and after the conclusion of one of the daily ses- 
 sions of the Convention, these women met, the Bishop made an address 
 to them upon the Woman's Auxiliary and the important work it was 
 designed to do, I added such information and advice as I could, and 
 the Diocesan branch of the Woman's Auxiliary was formed, with Mrs. 
 Wilkes as Diocesan Secretary, and head of the organization, by the 
 Bishop's appointment. This not only took place in this parish, but it 
 was distinctly the work of Mrs. Wilkes, a member of St. Peter's Church, 
 who for a number of years continued to be the inspiring and guiding 
 force in the work of the Auxiliary in this Parish, and throughout this 
 Diocese. 
 
 Up to this time there had been no effort made to extend the Church 
 into the surrounding country. St. Peter's and the colored congrega- 
 tion of St. Michael's, numbering in all about 175 communicants, repre- 
 sented the whole work of our communion in this large and prosperous 
 county. Col. Hamilton C. Jones had spoken to me several times of a 
 friend of his, living in the country, in Long Creek Township, who had 
 a Prayer Book, given him by the Rev. Edwin A. Osborne, and who 
 had been much impressed by reading it, and had frequently expressed 
 a desire to see and talk with me. Colonel Jones had offered to take 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 35 
 
 him to see me, but he seemed to be a little shy about coming, and 
 always put it off until his next visit. How long this might have con- 
 tinued to be his attitude, there is no knowing, but happening to enter 
 Colonel Jones's office one day, in the early part of the year 1883, so 
 far as I can remember the date, I found this man, Columbus W. McCoy, 
 talking with the Colonel about going to see me, but still putting it off. 
 I had some conference with him, and he told me that he and several of 
 his neighbors, some of them Presbyterians and some of no religious 
 profession, would be pleased to have me come out and preach in their 
 neighborhood. Afterwards I visited him in his home, and I suggested 
 to him that he might come into Charlotte on Sundays and attend the 
 Church service. He did so once or twice, each time accompanied by one 
 or another of his country friends. He still, however, insisted that there 
 were a number of good men near him, who, for one reason or another, 
 were not in real connection with the congregations about them, and who 
 had expressed to him a desire that I should come and preach in their 
 neighborhood. I therefore made an appointment with him for Sunday 
 afternoon, November 18, 1883. He came in to the 11.00 a. m. service 
 at St. Peter's, took dinner with me, and then drove me out to "Beech 
 Cliff School House," about a mile beyond Whitley's Mill on Long Creek. 
 I found quite a large congregation awaiting me, mostly men. I 
 explained to them that our usual method of public worship was with the 
 use of a printed form, so that the congregation as well as the minister 
 might join audibly and unitedly in the worship of God; and I said that 
 I hoped in time to lead them in that form of worship. But I added, 
 that the essential thing was not the form but the spirit ; and I desired 
 them to join with me in the hymns and in the Lord's Prayer, and also 
 in the Apostles' Creed, with their voices, if possible, but at least in heart 
 and mind. A few did join with me, and one incident I never forgot, 
 and it often recurred to my mind in after days, and encouraged me in 
 moments of depression. Near me stood a tall fine looking man of about 
 fifty years of age, Mr. Robt. D. Whitley, who had never made any 
 religious profession, though a man of really noble character. He came in 
 after days to be my dear and valued friend, one of the finest natures I 
 have ever known. He was then unknown to me. When I asked the 
 people to kneel down and join me in saying the Lord's Prayer, he was 
 one of those who did so. He kneeled down upon his knees and with 
 an earnest sincerity deeply affecting, repeated it with me, petition by 
 petition. I remained with Mr. McCoy until Tuesday, preaching again 
 Monday evening. December 16 I repeated my visit, preaching as 
 before on Sunday afternoon and Monday evening, and visiting the peo- 
 ple during Monday. After this visit on the third Sunday in December, 
 I discontinued my services, on account of the roads and the weather, 
 until the following May, when monthly services, Sunday afternoon and 
 
36 St. Peter's Church, Chareotte, N. C. 
 
 Monday evening, were resumed. August 12, Tuesday, assisted by the 
 Rev. Edwin A. Osborne and the Rev. Geo. B. Whetmore, D. D., I be- 
 gan a series of services, morning and evening, concluding Sunday after- 
 noon, August 17. During this time we baptized sixteen people, mostly 
 children, and at the end fourteen adults gave in their names as can- 
 didates for Confirmation, and eleven persons, with one exception 
 fathers and mothers of families, signed a petition to be organized as a 
 congregation by the name of St. Mark's Chapel, under the Canons of 
 the Diocese. The Bishop visited the mission October 24 following, con- 
 firmed sixteen adults, of whom thirteen were heads of families, and 
 October 25 organized St. Mark's Mission, in accordance with the peti- 
 tion presented to him. Members of St. Peter's Church attended, both 
 at the visitation of the Bishop and at the mission services in August, 
 and were much gratified at seeing this good work among the good peo- 
 ple of the count}-. Though Mr. Columbus McCoy had formerly been 
 a Presbyterian, as well as some others then confirmed, yet Mr. Robt. 
 D. Whitley and Mr. Albert McCoy had never before made any Chris- 
 tian profession, and Captain Gluyas, though he had attached himself 
 to Hopewell Church, had always been a Churchman at heart, having 
 been born and brought up as such in Cornwall, England. 
 
 I have thus given very briefly and inadequately the story of how 
 St. Mark's Church, Mecklenburg, came into being. It was really the 
 most interesting experience of all my ministry, and the people of that 
 congregation soon became, and I am thankful to say they remain, among 
 the best of my friends in all the Diocese. It would be unjust to con- 
 clude this account without saying that the preaching of the Rev. Mr. 
 Osborne during our services August 12 to 17, was the greatest element, 
 humanly speaking, in the interest and success of those meetings. 
 
 By the organization of St. Mark's Mission, Mecklenburg County, 
 a point was reached at which I had aimed for some time past. I had 
 now for two years or more been in charge of St. Paul's, Monroe, for 
 the greater part of that time without any help in keeping up the ser- 
 vices. Xow, by joining St. Paul's, Monroe, with St. Mark's, Mecklen- 
 burg, it seemed practicable to bring another man into the field. That 
 man I wished to be the Rev. Edwin A. Osborne, and I was fortunately 
 able to arrange for a stipend sufficient to give him a very meager sup- 
 port. But he was of that rare kind who look not for reward, but for 
 opportunity, and he came to the call of the work. In January, 1885, I 
 turned over to him these two missions, and sought new ways of 
 extending the work of the Parish. In him I found a friend and a 
 co-laborer who has meant more to me from that day to this, than I can 
 hope to express in words. He was frequently with me in our services, 
 and priest and people enjoyed and profited by his ministrations, in the 
 church and in the Parish. He was, in effect, a faithful, valued, and 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 37 
 
 unpaid assistant in many ways to me, always prompt to help on the 
 work of the Church. St. Peter's, Charlotte, and St. Mark's, Mecklen- 
 burg County, hardly seemed to us separate fields, so great was our 
 common interest in both, and so entire the sympathy and harmony with 
 which we worked together. I do not remember that one single expe- 
 rience of dissension or unpleasant difference ever occurred during all 
 the years we thus lived and worked together. This is a happy memory, 
 and I think worth recording in the history of the parish. 
 
 Mention has been made of a Sunday School begun in December, 
 1881, in a disused public school building at the corner of Tenth and D 
 Streets. This was carried on for some years, chiefly by the Misses 
 Lucas, Miss Bessie Myers, Miss Laura Orr, and Miss Kate Shipp. Some 
 interest was created, and a number of children attended from that part 
 of Charlotte, then commonly spoken of as Mechanicsville. After two 
 or three years, I forget the exact date, the schoolhouse, in some way, 
 took fire and was totally destroyed. This, of course, put an end to our 
 Sunday School, as we could find no other suitable place for it. But it 
 seemed to me there was need of some place of religious worship and 
 instruction in that section of the City. I, therefore, thought I would 
 purchase the lot where the schoolhouse had stood, and build a small 
 Chapel. The property belonged to the City School Board. It con- 
 sisted of six of the eight lots which made up the entire square, each lot 
 99 feet by 198 feet. The two lots on Ninth Street, one fronting 99 feet 
 on D Street, and the other 99 feet on C Street, were both built upon 
 and occupied, the other six lots occupying the whole Tenth Street side 
 of the square and 297 feet on C and D Streets. The whole was cov- 
 ered with a growth of small scrub oaks, forming a very pretty grove. 
 I applied to the proper authorities, and asked their price for the lot 
 at the corner of Tenth and D Streets. They declined to sell a single 
 lot, but said they would sell 'the whole six lots for $1500.00. All the 
 property I possessed, except the house in which I lived, was a lot in 
 the town of Tarboro, worth I supposed about $500.00. I calculated that 
 I could, therefore, make the one-third cash payment required; and I 
 applied to Col. Hamilton C. Jones and Mr. Piatt D. Walker, and asked 
 them if they would agree to help me, if necessary, by making the 
 deferred payments of $500.00 each, at one and two years. They agreed 
 to do this. I thereupon sold my lot in Tarboro for $500.00, and paid 
 that amount to the City Treasurer, taking his receipt, with a statement 
 that it was a payment on account of those six lots, and that I was to 
 receive a deed, when the remaining $1,000.00 had been paid. To finish 
 this part of my story I may say that I did not have to call upon Colonel 
 Jones and Judge Walker. A lost deed in the chain of title made it 
 impossible at the time for the proper city authorities to make me a 
 title, so that I was not called on for the deferred payments for two 
 
38 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 or three years. In the meantime I sold off a lot, or two half lots, at 
 an advanced price, and was able to pay the balance myself ; and even- 
 tually I disposed of the rest of the property at a profit of $1500.00. So 
 while I thought I was giving away $500.00, the only piece of property 
 which I owned 'except my residence, in the end I made a profit of 
 $1500.00. I ma} r add that the lot which I then conveyed to the Trustees 
 of the Diocese for the site of St. Martin's Chapel, was a few years ago, 
 with my consent, sold for $3000.00, and that $3000.00 paid for the land 
 on which the present St. Martin's Church stands. 
 
 As soon as I had made the first payment and taken the receipt, 
 with memorandum of the contract of sale, I began the building. It was, 
 a simple rectangular chapel, twenty by forty feet, built of brick, with 
 an open roof, and very pretty timber trusses. The roof was after a 
 design I had had prepared for the Church I built in Durham in 1880-81. 
 The plans were drawn by the assistant professor of architecture in 
 Cornell University, but I found myself unable to use them in Durham. 
 They were on a larger scale than suited my little St. Martin's Chapel, 
 but Mr. John Wilkes had the roof built by his men ; and Dick Grimes, 
 his veteran boss carpenter, scaled the plans down, and made a beautiful 
 job of it. I understand that these beautiful timber roof-trusses still 
 support the roof of St. Martin's Church, but are boxed in, so that the 
 fine work does not show. They had to be pieced out so as to be used 
 in the present larger building, and .therefore it was necessary that they 
 should be boxed. Mr. Wilkes had this part of the work done, and then 
 made a gift of it to my new enterprise. I called the new Chapel St. 
 Martin's, because under our Colonial Church Laws Mecklenburg County 
 was St. Martin's Parish. How I raised the money to build the Chapel 
 I do not remember. An old college friend of mine gave me one hun- 
 dred dollars, my father gave me the same, and others gave me smaller 
 sums. After finishing the walls, floor, and roof, it remained for some 
 time unfinished in other respects, with oiled paper for window-glass. 
 It was finished gradually as the money could be raised. 
 
 The Chapel being sufficiently furnished to be occupied, was at once 
 used for Sunday School and for Sunday night service. To have some- 
 one with special responsibility for this work, St. Martin's Guild was 
 organized, March 16, 1887. The first members were Jonn K. P. 
 Xeatherry, David A. Henning, Miss Laura Orr, Miss Bloss Lucas, and ' 
 Miss Kate Shipp, Miss Lucas being appointed secretary of the Guild, 
 and Air. Henning, treasurer. August 21 following, the Chapel was 
 used for the first time. A Sunday School was organized, with Mr. 
 Xeatherry as superintendent, and I said Evening Prayer. From this 
 time the Sunday School and services were kept up until after my 
 departure from the Parish. Under the Rev. Francis M. Osborne, the 
 work developed into an independent parish. When the removal was 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 39 
 
 made to the present site, and the cornerstone of the Church was laid, 
 it was called at my suggestion — which met general approval — The 
 Wilkes Memorial, in memory of Mr. John Wilkes, who had during his 
 long residence in Charlotte done so much for the interests of the 
 Church and for every good work as far as it lay in his power. 
 
 While St. Martin's Chapel was thus making its beginning, and I 
 had other missionary attempts also on hand, demanding a good deal of 
 time and thought, one of the most considerable enterprises which this 
 Diocese has ever attempted, took its rise here in Charlotte, having its 
 roots in the work of St. Peter's Parish. The property of the old 
 "Thompson Institute" was still held by the Rev. Mr. Bronson ready 
 to be used in some Church work. He had offered it to me upon my 
 becoming rector of the parish, as has been mentioned. He now made 
 the like offer of the property to the Rev. Mr. Osborne. Mr. Osborne 
 resided in Charlotte, and gave two Sundays each month to St. Mark's 
 and two to Monroe. These congregations being small did not require 
 more than a day or two each week for all ordinary pastoral work, so 
 that the greater part of his time was spent in Charlotte. He had, 
 therefore, leisure for some important work here. He came to me with 
 Mr. Bronson's letter, and proposed that we should accept Mr. Bron- 
 son's offer, and establish an Orphanage to be maintained as a Diocesan 
 institution. I replied that I had too much parochial and missionary 
 work on hand to think of assuming additional responsibilities, but I 
 assured him of my hearty sympathy with him, and promised my cordial 
 co-operation if he would assume the leadership and responsibility in 
 the work. Thereupon he wrote to Mr. Bronson unfolding his plans, 
 and Mr. Bronson at once entered enthusiastically upon the project of 
 using the school property for the establishment of the "Thompson 
 Orphanage and Training Institution." During the Convention at Tar- 
 boro, in May, 1886, Mr. Bronson, with his legal adviser, the late Hugh 
 F. Murray, Esq., of Wilson, in conference with Mr. Osborne and my- 
 self, went carefully over the questions involved, and agreed upon the 
 terms and conditions of the Deed, by which Mr. Bronson conveyed the 
 property to the Trustees of the Diocese, to be used in the establishment 
 of the proposed institution. This deed was accepted by the Conven- 
 tion, and of the six Managers called for by the deed, three were from 
 Charlotte — the Rev. Mr. Osborne, the Rector of St. Peter's Parish, and 
 Mr. Baxter H. Moore. Of the subsequent history of this institution 
 I need not speak. You know well Mr. Osborne's faithful labors in 
 founding and carrying it on, and the large and generous part taken by 
 this parish in all stages of that work. At that time the Masonic 
 Orphanage at Oxford was the only orphanage in North Carolina. That 
 had been founded by the Masonic Order, but was largely supported by 
 a public grant of money from the State. The Thompson Orphanage 
 
40 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 was the first in this State established by a religious organization, and 
 supported wholly by voluntary contributions. As in the case of hos- 
 pitals, so in the case of orphanages, the Church has set the example 
 and led the way in this beautiful charity, both in the city of Charlotte 
 and in the State of North Carolina. 
 
 This brings us back to the subject of our Church hospitals. The 
 ladies of St. Peter's had gradually been enlarging and improving St. 
 Peter's Home and Hospital, until it became more truly worthy of the 
 name of hospital, and in the course of time the other name "Home" 
 was omitted. Perhaps that had never been properly a part of the 
 name, though it was for some time its popular designation. The board 
 of managers were earnest and faithful women, and all did their work 
 well. I think no one will deny, however, to Mrs. John Wilkes the credit 
 of being chiefly responsible for the great improvements made in its 
 enlargements and more adequate equipment. She was for many years 
 treasurer of the Board, and she not only managed the finances with 
 prudence and ability, but she raised very considerable sums of money 
 for it among her friends and acquaintances in New York. Having been 
 so successful in her efforts for St. Peter's Hospital, she began to form 
 plans for a similar institution for our numerous and needy negro pop- 
 ulation. For several years she gathered funds for this purpose, and 
 early in 1887 she unfolded her plans to me, and enlisted my co-opera- 
 tion in carrying them out. 
 
 On the lot diagonally opposite the Church of St. Michael and All 
 Angels, stood a chapel formerly used as a school by members of the 
 First Presbyterian Church, who still owned the property. St. Michael's 
 Church stood indebted to Mrs. Wilkes' Good Samaritan Hospital Fund 
 for $400.00, borrowed for the purpose of finishing the work on the 
 part of the Church which had been built in 1883. The Rev. Primus 
 P. Alston was much interested in his parish school, carried on in the 
 dilapidated old building which had been on the Church property when 
 we purchased it; and he was very desirous of obtaining the disused 
 Presbyterian chapel above referred to. I, therefore purchased the lot 
 and chapel from the Board of Deacons of the First Presbyterian Church, 
 paying, I think, $700.00 for the whole. Bishop Lyman gave me $300.00, 
 and I obtained $310.00 from the sale of a lot given me for the purpose 
 by the Rev. Jas. Saul, of Philadelphia, who had purchased it some 
 years before as a site for a Church for our negro work. The rest I 
 raised, mostly from personal friends. The chapel was moved over to 
 the lot behind St. Michael's Church, and was converted into a school- 
 house. The lot, by agreement with Mr. and Mrs. Wilkes, I conveyed 
 to the Trustees of the Diocese, in trust for the establishment of a 
 hospital for negroes, to be called, "The Good Samaritan Hospital," 
 under certain regulations as to control and management specified in 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 41 
 
 the deed. And under this deed the Good Samaritan Hospital was estab- 
 lished and has been carried on. In consideration of this conveyance, 
 Mrs. Wilkes credited St. Michael's Church with $400.00 on the debt 
 due The Good Samaritan Hospital Fund. September 23, 1891, assisted 
 by the Rev. Edwin A. Osborne and the Rev. Primus P. Alston, I for- 
 mally opened the Good Samaritan Hospital in a short s'ervice drawn 
 up for the occasion ; and thus was begun the first work of this kind 
 for our colored people in North Carolina, as far as I am informed. 
 
 I have now completed my account of the several Church enter- 
 prises which in greater or less measure took their rise from the life of 
 St. Peter's Parish, and represent, at least in some degree, the contribu- 
 tion of the parish to the good work of God beyond its own parochial 
 borders. And that external influence, the developing of life going out 
 into new forces and institutions, has not ceased. I have told the story 
 only so far as I bore a part in it. Since that time this form of vitality, 
 this copious fecundity, has not diminished, but rather increased. St. 
 Martin's Chapel is now a vigorous, self-supporting parish ; another such, 
 The Church of the Holy Comforter, represents the Church in another 
 section of the city ; St. Andrew's Chapel and the Chapel of Hope are 
 centers from which other parishes may develop. Others in time to come 
 will write the story of these new developments. I have confined my 
 purpose to the thirty years from 1863 to 1893, and especially to the last 
 half of that period. And I venture to think that it is rather a remark- 
 able example of development. I do not know anything just like it in 
 our Diocese. St. Martin's Chapel; St. Mark's, Mecklenburg; St. Paul's, 
 Monroe ; St. Michael's, Charlotte ; St. Peter's Hospital, and the Good 
 Samaritan Hospital, and then some good part in the establishment and 
 maintenance of the Thompson Orphanage (for St. Peters directly and 
 indirectly had some part in that good work), that is a gratifying page 
 in our Diocesan history. I wish I had been able to tell the story better 
 and more fully. But well or ill done, it is, I think, worth the doing. 
 I have been glad to point out, and to follow for a little way the begin- 
 nings of these various diverging streams of Church life, because I 
 believe in time to come it is just these small beginnings which will be 
 interesting and valuable to the student of our history. I especially 
 regret that I have been able to dwell so little upon the personal side of 
 my work in Charlotte. Many noble men and women I have known as 
 my friends, some in high places of honor, others of humble status and 
 obscure lives, but whose lowly spirits were sweet to know, and who 
 unconsciously helped and blessed those who tried to help them, more 
 than they realized. 
 
42 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 Another thing ought to be said. I have dwelt upon our successes, 
 i. e., upon those undertakings which prospered, and whose fruits are 
 now visible. But it must not be supposed that we always saw our 
 efforts thus blessed. Were I to tell you the story of my own failures 
 while rector of this parish, it would perhaps double the length of this 
 address. As 1 look over the imperfect record of my work in this parish 
 and in this part of the Diocese, I am amazed to see how many things 
 I attempted, and how many times I failed, and all my pains and labor 
 seemed wasted. Against each success I think I could put two failures. 
 Early in my rectorship I made a visit to the Church people, very few 
 in number, then to be found in the town of Rockingham, and I endeav- 
 ored to establish regular services there. For a year or two, perhaps 
 longer, I made a monthly visit to Mooresville, for service and for min- 
 istering to a few church people in that vicinity. For a good many years 
 I maintained regular monthly services on a week night at a schoolhouse 
 near Mount Mourne, and upon one occasion enjoyed there a visitation 
 from the Bishop, and presented seven candidates for Confirmation, and 
 gathered a small band of communicants. For two or three years I had 
 services and preached regularly at Davidson College, and had the Bishop 
 there to confirm a class of ten persons, several of whom, four I think, 
 were students in the College. I took steps to organize a congregation 
 at that place, and was prepared to build a church, though eventually T 
 concluded not to do so. This stirred up a good deal of excitement 
 among some of our Presbyterian brethren ; and a professor in the col- 
 lege, who by some chance happened to be a Churchman, had to resign, 
 it being discovered that the statutes of the College required all mem- 
 bers of the Faculty to subscribe the Westminster Confession ; though 
 it seems that the requirement had not been very rigidly enforced. I 
 mention these matters, as they are a part of the record of my experience 
 as rector of the parish, and to show that whether in success or in failure, 
 St. Peter's was endeavoring to let its light shine. The Rev. Mr. 
 Osborne and I had great ideas of Church extension, and from Charlotte 
 up to Mooresville we worked and preached pretty diligently, each 
 encouraging and helping the other. As I ride over that railroad now, I 
 look out and see here and there a country schoolhouse, or a big oak, 
 or a shady grove, where we gathered a little company and endeavored 
 to do what we could to lead them in worship, and to preach the truth, 
 as this Church hath received the same. And these were most interest- 
 ing and happy days. I believe few clergymen have more thoroughly 
 enjoyed their work, in spite Qf all our failures and disappointments, 
 than we did in those days. One old countrywoman out near St. Mark's, 
 speaking of my work in the country, said to me, "You don't ramble 
 enough." I did not feel that the criticism was just. I thought that I 
 rambled a good deal. And I am rambling now, and must stop. 
 
St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 43 
 
 Now I must draw tq an end. My people of St. Peter's were very- 
 good and indulgent to me, and so far as I was aware did not often 
 complain. The work of the parish was, I believe, on the whole not 
 greatly neglected. I had on principle adopted the plan of stimulating 
 internal growth by external effort. Only two summers, those of 1882 
 and 1883, did I take a month's vacation, and then the services were 
 fully kept up by the Rev. Mr, Quin, without any cost to the parish. 
 I did, however, make a practice during most of my time in Charlotte, 
 to take two or three, possibly four Sundays during the summer, besides 
 week days, for missionary work, mostly in Mecklenburg and Iredell 
 Counties. During these absences sometimes Mr. Osborne kindly sup- 
 plied my place, sometimes lay readers read the service. For one year 
 the Rev. Mr. Jeffery was my assistant in the parish, and we jointly 
 had the cure of both St. Peter's, Charlotte, and St. Mark's, Mecklen- 
 burg County, and supplied the services in both. I do not think the 
 parish greatly suffered. In 1893 I reported 263 communicants, not a 
 very great numerical increase over the 137 of 1881. But we must be 
 credited with some part of the growth in the Church of St. Michael 
 and All Angels, Charlotte, in St. Mark's, Mecklenburg, and in St. Paul's, 
 Monroe. We had also St. Martin's Chapel, and St. Peter's Hospital, 
 and the Good Samaritan Hospital, and much work of the parish had 
 gone into the Thompson Orphanage. The efforts of the parish had 
 been directed outwardly, not inwardly. Reckoning by the communicant 
 list, a gain of 92 per cent, in twelve years seems no great growth ; but 
 when all other elements of life and influence and usefulness are taken 
 into the account, and the position of the Church in the community, and 
 its equipment for service, are considered, it will appear that there had 
 been solid and healthful growth from 1881 to 1893. And it may be 
 added that, with the exception of Trinity Church, Asheville, no other 
 Church of the Diocese, of an equal communicant list in 1881, showed 
 so great an increase during the same twelve years. 
 
 And how gratifying has been the growth since that time! In 1881 
 I found only the old St. Peter's Church and the little four-room "Home 
 and Hospital"; also the defunct "Thompson Institute." Now we have 
 St. Peter's Church and Parish House, St. Martin's Church and Rectory, 
 The Church of the Holy Comforter, the Church of St. Michael and 
 All Angels, with its schoolhouse and its rectory, St. Andrew's Chapel, 
 and the Chapel of Hope, St. Peter's Hospital, the Good Samaritan 
 Hospital, and our great Diocesan institution, The Thompson Orphanage, 
 to say nothing of the good work done by St. Peter's Parish beyond the 
 limits of our parochial boundary. We have six resident clergymen, 
 including our good Brother Osborne, now retired from active service, 
 but whose influence is still potent for good. And I have ordained to 
 the Holy Ministry from Charlotte since I became Bishop, five white 
 
44 St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, N. C. 
 
 candidates and five colored. White : The Revs. Royal G. Shannon- 
 house, William E. Callender, Francis M. Osborne, Cyprian P. Willcox, 
 and Henry C. Smith. Colored : The Revs. Jas. E. King, Eugene Hen- 
 derson, Robert N. Perry, John E. G. Small, and Arthur Myron Cochran. 
 And now I have done. This shall be the last page. It has been 
 interesting to me to write down these memories, and very pleasant to 
 go over them with you. Very few remain of those who welcomed me 
 forty years ago, but there are some, even of my early vestrymen : Mr. 
 John Myers, Dr. M. A. Bland, Mr. Jos. G. Shannonhouse, and Judge 
 Piatt D. Walker. And there are more of the younger people, among 
 these my friend, Mr. Heriot Clarkson, who then a boy of thirteen, was 
 the first person whom I presented to the Bishop for Confirmation, as 
 Rector of St. Peter's Church, Charlotte. 
 
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