The Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MEC, S; also Methodist Episcopal Church South) was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). The denomination also supported several women's colleges, although they were more like finishing schools or academies until the twentieth century. Adrian, Michigan. The 1844 dispute led Methodists in the South to break off and form a separate denomination, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MEC,S). Minutes, reports, and financial records are among the papers of these organizations, reflecting both Brasher's leadership and involvement and the activities of the organizations themselves. By 1808, General Conference threw up its hands, finding the subject unmanageable, and gave each Annual Conference the right to enact its own rules relative to slaveholding. Counties in N.C. represented in the collection include Alamance, Ashe, Bladen, Burke, Caswell, Catawba, Chatham, Cleveland, Dare, Davidson, Durham, Forsyth, Gates (also Va.), New Hanover, Iredell, Lincoln, Perquimans (also Va.), Randolph, Rowan, Yadkin, and Wake. This collection does not include complete runs of any set of bound minutes, correspondence, or other documentation for any N.C. county or district. Delegates from the southern conferences met at a Convention at the Fourth Street Church in Louisville, Kentucky, May 119, 1845 and organized the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. William Preston Few (1867-1940) served as President of Trinity College from 1910-1924, and President of Duke University from 1924-1940. Sixteen years before the Southern states seceded, the Annual Conferences in the South withdrew from the denomination and formed the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Among its first members were Mr. Brodie and wife, Martin Frazier, Dr. Adam Clark and wife, David Reise and wife, a Mr. Avard and wife, a Mrs. Anthony, Mr. and Mrs. John Skelton, and a Mr. Cardwell and wife. Subjects of interest include religious aspects of race relations and segregation, African American religion and churches, Gullah dialect and culture, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the Lake Junaluska, N.C. retreat. on the Internet. The statistics for 1859 showed the MEC,S had as enrolled members some 511,601 whites and 197,000 blacks (nearly all of whom were slaves), and 4,200 Indians. Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 The Index Cards to Few's Papers were apparently created by Few's office and catalog the holdings in the office files. Although Zoar was mentioned as a separate church in the records of the Philadelphia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church as early as 1811, it was administered by St. George's, which supplied its pastors. 0 Linear Feet (Summary: 1 reel of microfilm (75 ft.)), West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. In addition, the series includes bound journals of annual conference meetings for the N.C. Conference of the MECS (1838-1913), as well as bound volumes of district conference minutes and quarterly conference minutes for, among other districts, the Durham, Elizabeth City, Raleigh, and Wilmington Districts of the N.C. Conference of the MECS (1866-1939). The American Civil War resulted in widespread destruction of property, including church buildings and institutions, but it was marked by a series of strong revivals that began in General Robert E. Lee's army and spread throughout the region. In the 1930s, the MEC and the Methodist Protestant Church, other Methodist denominations still operating in the South, agreed to ordain women either as local elders and deacons (the MEC) or full clergy (the Methodist Protestant Church). They were caught, in effect, between church rules and state laws. [Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Archives, A&M 2632, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia. Castor Methodist Episcopal Church South (Castor, La.) I am looking for materials on the relationship between the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in its formative years in Tennessee, 1866-1900, including the founding conference of the CME Church at First Methodist Church in Jackson TN in Dec. 1870. For more information about United Methodist church records in New Jersey, visit the United Methodist Church of Greater New . [CH-ME A1 Box 3] Standish Corner first appears in 1847 on a circuit with North Gorham. There are photographs of Riddick as well as photographs of his daughters Judith, Lucie, and Bettie. The Correspondence and Transcriptions of Tape Recordings Series reveal Brasher's reflections on scripture and provide accounts of congregational reactions to his preaching. Leete, John Paul, and missionaries in Eygpt, India, China, and Japan. He escaped, but his colleague George Dougherty was nearly drowned under a pump. Eventually, the northern and southern branches of the denomination found they could no longer live together, and the church split, a schism that took almost a century to repair. In or about 1972 a project was begun. Methodist conferences even before the first General Conference spoke out against slavery, suggesting that clergy who held slaves should promise to set them free. Includes biographies of clergy and accounts of religious and family life in rural north Alabama. Disagreement on this issue had been increasing in strength for decades between churches of the Northern and Southern United States; in 1845 it resulted in a schism at the General Conference of the MEC held in Louisville, Kentucky. The Correspondence Series and the Methodist Episcopal Church, Alabama Conference Series in particular contain letters concerning the rivalry between the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; and the eventual unification of the two organizations. Mason Crum (1887-1980) served on the faculty in the Department of Religion at Duke University from 1930 to 1957, specializing in race relations and Christianity, as well as the social history of the Gullah community of the South Carolina Sea Islands. Methodist Episcopal Church, South: A collection of hymns for public, social, and domestic worship. A church was built in 1849, briefly with its own pastor, but mostly on a circuit. The growing need for a theology school west of the Mississippi River was not addressed until the founding of Southern Methodist University in Texas in 1911. in 1870, most of the remaining African-American members of the MEC,S split off on friendly terms with white colleagues to form the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, now the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, taking with them $1.5 million in buildings and properties. Photographs are of the Sea Islands, Lake Junaluska, Mason Crum's family, former slave Charles Baxter, and images relating to the Washington Duke family and Durham. The John C. Kilgo Records and Papers contain correspondence, sermons, lectures, articles, newspaper clippings, memorabilia, printed matter, and scrapbooks pertaining to Kilgo's career as an educator, as President of Trinity College, and as a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Boatman Family Papers, also housed in the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, contains correspondence from John Lakin Brasher and other members of the Brasher family. For the next 94 years, the two strands of the Methodist Episcopal Church operated separately. Among the correspondents are: William Hayes Ackland, Alice Mary Baldwin, John Spencer Bassett, Julian S. Carr, Robert D.W. Conner, Angier Buchanan Duke, Benjamin Newton Duke, James Buchanan Duke, John Carlisle Kilgo, and Edward R. Murrow. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South ( MEC, S; also Methodist Episcopal Church South) was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). The first series, Conference Minutes, includes minutes from the year 1867 to 1881 and 1886 to 1917. If it came to evangelizing the South or upholding the Wesleyan antislavery position, anti-slavery had to go. We recognize in the license system a sin against society. The American Methodism Project Internet Archive A free, digitized collection of interdisciplinary and historical materials related to American Methodism, including published minutes of meetings, local church histories, magazines, papers and pamphlets, books, reference works, and dissertations. Sixteen years before the southern states seceded, the southern Annual Conferences withdrew from the denomination and formed the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South series contains Board of Missions Financial Statements, resolutions, addresses, and related materials. The National Records Series comprises national-level records from the MEC (1820-1952) and the MECS (1857-1939), including correspondence and financial records from the American Mission in North Africa of the MEC (1909-1952), especially correspondence to and from Joseph Cooksey, Edwin Frease, and Joseph Purdon (1909-1925). Material directly related to Duke University is scanty. Major subjects include Myers' activities as a clergyman, his reflections on theological issues, and his involvement in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was the son of Washington Duke, older brother of James B. Duke, husband of Sarah Pearson Angier Duke, and father of Angier Buchanan Duke and Mary Duke Biddle. National records include correspondence and financial records from the American Mission in North Africa, MEC (1909-1952). The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the earliest of these predecessor denominations, founded in the United States in 1784 while Wesley was still living. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South series contains Board of Missions Financial Statements, resolutions, addresses, and related materials. However, not all of the materials or names referenced on the index cards can be found in the William Preston Few Records and Papers. The two independent black denominations both sent missionaries to the South after the war to aid freedmen, and attracted hundreds of thousands of new members, from both Baptists and Methodists, and new converts to Christianity. Bailey Kenneth K. "The Post Civil War Racial Separations in Southern Protestantism: Another Look." The southern church accommodated it as part of a legal system. There are also bound volumes of N.C. Conference, MECS, district conference minutes (1866-1939); financial, administrative, and legal records for the Board of Missions and Church Extension of the Western N.C. Conference, MECS (1909-1952); bound journals of annual conference meetings of the N.C. Conference, MECS (1838-1913); as well as some district, conference, and national records for non-N.C. conferences and for the MECS and the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). The MEC,S did not ordain women as pastors at the time of the 1939 merger that formed the Methodist Church. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South was organized at that time. The offspring denomination was the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Transcripts of Tape Recordings Series contains transcripts of camp meetings. Finally, his second wife brought slaves to the marriage, but he disclaimed ownership of them. In 1922, twelve adults and two children led by the Rev. Duke, Candler, and Perkins maintain a relationship with the United Methodist Church. They include: Correspondence, Subject Files, Bound Volumes, Oversize Materials, Index Cards to Few Papers, and Additions. Subjects include Kilgo's educational philosophy, family affairs, Duke family philanthropy and the financial state of Trinity College, union of Methodist churches, Kilgo's election as bishop, and controversies in which he and the College were involved, including the Gattis vs. Kilgo controversy and the John Spencer Bassett Affair concerning academic freedom. Smith, William A. Erwin, and William B. Umstead. The Rev. Following the American Revolution, most of the Anglican clergy who had been in America went back to England. West Virginia University. By 1795, according to Conference historian Dr. A.V. Methodist Episcopal churches, South, 1818-1963, Alabama Format: Manuscript/Manuscript on Film Language: English Publication: Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 2005 Physical: 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm. The cultural differences that had divided the nation during the mid-19th century were also dividing the Methodist Episcopal Church. The number of free blacks increased markedly at this time, especially in the Upper South. Also includes earlier and later sketches, especially typescript or handwritten articles, essays, or sermons on Methodism in N.C. Historical Church Records of the Western Pennsylvania United Methodist Church, 1825 to the Present, including a brief history of predecessor denominations and 2022 clergy appointments. They began to argue for better treatment of slaves, saying that the Bible acknowledged slavery but that Christianity had a paternalistic role to improve conditions. Individual items of interest include Myers' reminiscences at the the 1960 alumni reunion and a copy of a poetic tribute to B. N. Duke by Wilbur F. Tillett of Vanderbilt University in 1928. Brasher's administrative role in religious organizations and in church-affiliated educational facilities is well-represented in the Correspondence Series as well as in the Iowa Holiness Association Series and the Methodist Episcopal Church, Alabama Conference Series. In 1874 at the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South held in Louisville, Kentucky, a Board of Commissioners was appointed to meet with a similar board from the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). The Printed Material Series contains many of these serials with articles by Brasher as well as tracts he wrote. Several General Conferences struggled with the issue, first pressing traveling elders to emancipate their slaves, then suspending those rules in states where the laws did not permit manumission. ), 1876-1924 [RG4090] LOUP COUNTY. The records and papers are organized into ten series. The church in 1881 opened Holding Institute, which operated as a boarding school for nearly a century in Laredo, Texas. [citation needed][clarification needed]. In 1924, Few directed Trinity College's transition to Duke University and remained as President of Duke University until his death in 1940. In 1844 when the Methodist Episcopal Church separated into the MEC and the MEC, South, Missouri officially went South. For nearly 100 years, the Methodist Episcopal Church was divided into northern and southern wings. and traditional Methodist music all within the frame of the 1982 Hymnal and Common Prayer." Holder shares in the . Meadville, Pennsylvania. Although the entire collection dates from 1784-1984, the bulk of the material dates from 1800-1940. Catherine Healy, rector of St. Paul & the Redeemer Episcopal Church in Chicago, Illinois, partnered with a local nonprofit, Community Charging, to provide an accessible and affordable charging station on the city . The merger of the United Brethren and Evangelical Church in 1946 featured its own setback. Brasher's biographical writings and other works in the Family Biography Subseries, and the Transcriptions of Tape Recordings Series also provide a small but rich glimpse into the traditional lore, customs, and folkways of the rural upland South. The Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in the U.S. in 1784. UMC.org is the official online ministry of The United Methodist Church. As the church was hoping for emancipation, the society was growing more committed to slavery. Pedestrians and parishioners, predominantly women, stroll the sidewalk and enter the building, which is adorned with a simple stone tablet inscribed "Bethel Church." Known as "Mother Bethel," the church was founded in the 1790s by . For individual churches of the same name, see, Last edited on 15 February 2023, at 15:44, Methodist Episcopal Church, South (disambiguation), Learn how and when to remove this template message, American Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Category:American Methodist Episcopal, South bishops, All the Divisions in American Methodism, A Look Back in Time from 1771 until 1939 and "Union", Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME Church) By Edward A. Hatfield, History of the great secession from the Methodist Episcopal Church By Charles Elliott, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Methodist_Episcopal_Church,_South&oldid=1139523183. Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church South Baltimore. Grace Methodist Episcopal South Records, 1866-190, with Reisterstown, Maryland from 1867 to 1905. The Methodist Episcopal Church South, which had more slaves as members than any other Christian denomination, decided in 1866 to authorize its bishops to organize those members into a "separate . EMBED (for wordpress.com hosted blogs and archive.org item <description> tags) . Hiram Earl Myers was a clergyman, theologian, and educator. Some dissenting congregations from the Methodist Protestant Church also objected to the 1940 merger and continue as a separate denomination, headquartered in Mississippi. Most of the material concerns the religious career of John L. Brasher; the Holiness (Santification) movement in the Methodist Church, particularly in Alabama; Holiness education and the administration of the John H. Snead Seminary in Boaz, Alabama and Central Holiness University (later John Fletcher College) in University Park, Iowa; and camp meetings in the South, particularly Alabama, and the Midwest. The bulk of this correspondence is from Few's office files as President of Trinity College and Duke University. Sermons are organized in folders grouped alphabetically by bible book and arranged within each folder numerically by chapter and verse. Some records are held by local churches or annual conferences. West Virginia University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Institution. Clergy records 1784-2022 for the Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Protestant, Evangelical, United Brethren, Western PA Methodist; Western PA Evangelical United . And after 1792, slavery began to grow more popular in the Deep South. This column appears in the February 2013 issue of the SC United Methodist Advocate. There they could build larger churches that paid decent salaries; they gained social prestige in a highly visible community leadership position. It was generally a segregated system, and racial segregation was established by law for public facilities under Jim Crow rules conditions in the late 19th century, after white Democrats regained control of state legislatures in the late 1870s. 1549 University Ave. | P.O. The CME Church is a branch of Wesleyan Methodism founded and organized by John Wesley in England in 1844 and established in America as the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1784. The backcountry famers that the church wanted to attract suddenly became more supportive of the practice of slavery. Some of these biographies were published in Glimpses: Some Personal Glimpses of Holiness Preachers I Have Known, and with Whom I Have Labored in Evangelism, Who Have Answered to Their Names in the Roll Call of the Skies. The denomination remained divided on the subject of slavery, with some northern Methodists becoming more convinced of slaverys evil and some southern Methodists more convinced that it was a positive good. The John C. Kilgo Records and Papers contain correspondence, sermons, lectures, and articles, both manuscript and printed, along with newspaper clippings, memorabilia, and scrapbooks pertaining to Kilgo's career as an educator, as President of Trinity College, Durham, N.C., and as a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Asbury himself made a personal compromise. English. Much smaller and poorer were Randolph-Macon College in Virginia, with its two affiliated fitting-schools and Randolph-Macon Woman's College; Emory College, in Atlanta (as the infusion of Candler family money was far in the future); Emory & Henry, in Southwest Virginia; Wofford, with its two fitting-schools, in South Carolina; Trinity, in North Carolinasoon to be endowed by the Duke family and change its name; Central, in Missouri; Southern, in Alabama; Southwestern, in Texas; Wesleyan, in Kentucky; Millsaps, in Mississippi; Centenary, in Louisiana; Hendrix, in Arkansas; and Pacific, in California. Bound with records of Eliot Maine Methodist Episcopal Church. Due to declining enrollment and lack of funds, the school was closed in 1925. I remained on the battlefield eleven days, nursing the sick, ministering to the wounded, and praying for the dying. The Richard B. Arrington series and Alexander H. Sands, Jr., series document the personal and financial interests of Benjamin N. Duke's private secretaries in New York, NY. The Printed Material Series includes promotional literature for camp meetings; descriptions of facilities; and hymnals (some shape-note) used in these services. There is also some personal correspondence dating from 1885. Among the wounded were many Federal soldiers. The William Preston Few Records and Papers contain correspondence from Few's office files as President of Trinity College and Duke University, reports, clippings, copies of speeches and manuscripts, memorandum books, bound volumes, index cards that catalog Few's office files, and other types of printed material. Flowers dealing with the aftermath of the deaths of James B. Duke and William Preston Few. These locations include Charlotte, Edenton, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina and Charlottesville, Richmond, and Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, Virginia. Counties in N.C. represented in the collection include Alamance, Ashe, Bladen, Burke, Caswell, Catawba, Chatham, Cleveland, Dare, Davidson, Durham, Forsyth, Gates, New Hanover, Iredell, Lincoln, Perquimans, Randolph, Rowan, Yadkin, and Wake. Throughout the collection, information on church history abounds. Applicants for employment in our mission fields, whether men or women, are expected to possess all the qualifications requisite for success at home. There are a number of speeches that give Few's opinions about education and the development of Duke University while he was President. The files are arranged in six series. Major subjects include education; philanthropy; the development of Trinity College from its beginning in Randolph County, N.C., to Duke University; the development of the Duke Endowment; Trinity and Duke departmental operations; the school's relationship with the Methodist Church; and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Black Methodist church in the United States. Contains letters and printed material concerning the separation and reunification of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Correspondence makes up a large part of the collection. I have neither bought nor sold a slave, he told the General Conference, and in the state where I am legally a slaveholder, emancipation is impracticable.. For nearly 100 years, the Methodist Episcopal Church was divided into northern and southern wings. Includes biographies of clergy and accounts of religious and family life in rural north Alabama. Sixteen years before the Southern states seceded, the Annual Conferences in the South withdrew from the denomination and formed the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He also inherited a slave through his first wife who would also be free to leave whenever he was able to provide for himself. During the early nineteenth century, Methodists and Baptists in the South began to modify their approach in order to gain support from common planters, yeomen, and slaves. Other southerners felt that any denunciation of slaveholding by Methodists would damage the church in the South. Member Records contains record books noting vital statistics from baptismal, marriage and donation records of church members. The denomination's publishing house, opened in 1854 in Nashville, Tennessee, eventually became the headquarters of the United Methodist Publishing House. Phone: 1-304-293-4040 Pisgah Presbyterian Church records of Ross Co., Ohio : general early records and index Family History Library. See Abingdon Press and Cokesbury. J.R. Rosemond under the name of Silver Hill Methodist Episcopal Church. Other southerners felt that any denunciation of slaveholding by Methodists would damage the church in the South. Also included in this collection are papers with biographical information about Riddick and his letters of reference dated 1835-1899, a few miscellaneous financial papers dated 1830-1899, and a few miscellaneous printed materials collected by Riddick. The Pictures Series includes some photographs of the schools with which Brasher was associated and of the attending students. The John Lakin Brasher Papers, 1857-1993 and undated (bulk 1917-1970) are comprised of church-related and personal correspondence; records of the Iowa Holiness Association; records of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Alabama Conference; religious writings and speeches (including sermons, diaries and manuscripts of published works); printed material (tracts, religious brochures, serials, and hymnals); photographs (including many of camp meetings); transcriptions of tape recordings; legal papers; financial papers; and miscellany. Individual items of particular interest are letters from R.L. The N.C. Conference Records Seriescomprises primarily bound volumes of quarterly conference minutes that document the administrative life of circuits, charges, churches, missions, and stations of the N.C. Conference, MECS, in the eastern and central counties of North Carolina, particularly Bladen, Caswell, Chatham, Dare, Durham, Gates, New Hanover, Perquimans, and Wake, but also including other counties (1784-1974). I'll be sharing college, Methodist, and local history, documents, photographs, and other interesting stories on this blog, which I've been keeping since December 2007. South Standish. After the Civil War, when African American slaves gained freedom, many left the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. It instructed numerous students from Mexico during its years of operation.[7]. The CME Church was organized December 16, 1870 in Jackson, Tennessee by 41 former slave members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Methodist Episcopal Church ( MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. Of note is a record book initially titled, Colored Members of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church 1857, which includes a list of "Trinity Colored [Class] Leader, 1857", and a list of members of free . today as the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. One of the prominent speakers in the debate was William Capers, who was the leader of South Carolinas delegation and a future bishop. A. Godfrey's home to organize a congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South . At a meeting in Charleston, it was decided to establish a congregation in Greenville, and in 1866 John Wesley's congregation was organized by the Rev. Some recovered in the late 19th century, but demand decreased as public education had been established for the first time by Reconstruction-era legislatures across the South. Box 6069 The seven Scrapbooks contain clippings of Kilgo's articles and sermons, pages cut from the Bible and hymnals, book reviews, and other items. Major subjects include Myers' activities as a clergyman, his reflections on theological issues, and his involvement in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. West Virginia University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Institution. The motion asking Andrew to desist from serving as a bishop ultimately passed, 111-69. Payne Theological Seminary, founded by the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1894, is dedicated to the preparation of African American and other leaders for ministry in the traditions of liberation, reconciliation, social justice, and the dignity of all humankind. Resolved, That the time has now come when the church, through its press and pulpit, its individual and organized agencies, should speak out in strong language and stronger action in favor of the total removal of this great evil. There are photographs of Riddick as well as photographs of his daughters Judith, Lucie, and Bettie. Transcripts of his sermons appear in the Writings and Speeches Series, Sermons Subseries as well as in the Transcriptions of Tape Recordings and in some of the published articles (Printed Material Series, Serials Subseries) and manuscripts of his books (Printed Material Series, The Way of Faith). The colleges were in scarcely better condition, though philanthropy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries dramatically changed their development. Basic Archives Guidelines and Publications Resource Links Celebrating History Manual for Annual Conference Commission on Archives and History . The collection consists of correspondence; texts of sermons and Sunday School lessons; prayers given in Duke Chapel; records of sermons, baptisms, and marriages; notes on sermon topics; photographs; pamphlets; blueprints; and other printed material. However, some sermons are dated (1834-1844) and include title information with the location the sermon was given. Church History 46 ( December 1977): 45373. The Oversize materials series contains documents from the preceding series in the collection stored in oversize containers.