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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire, by
-Lawrence Foushee London
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire
-       His Life and Work
-
-Author: Lawrence Foushee London
-
-Release Date: November 10, 2022 [eBook #68887]
-
-Language: English
-
-Produced by: Chris Pinfield and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
-             at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
-             generously made available by The Internet Archive)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BISHOP JOSEPH BLOUNT
-CHESHIRE ***
-
-Transcriber's Note:
-
-Obvious printer errors have been corrected. Hyphenation has been
-rationalised.
-
-Small capitals have been replaced by full capitals. Italics are
-indicated by _underscores_.
-
-
-
-
- Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire
-
-
- [_Photograph by Bayard Wootten_
- BISHOP JOSEPH BLOUNT CHESHIRE
- _From a portrait by Mrs. Arthur Nash, in the possession of Miss Sarah
- Cheshire, Raleigh, North Carolina._]
-
-
-
-
- Bishop
- JOSEPH BLOUNT CHESHIRE
- His Life and Work
-
- BY LAWRENCE FOUSHEE LONDON, PH.D.
- _Historiographer of the Diocese of North Carolina_
-
- Chapel Hill
- THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
- 1941
-
-
-
-
- COPYRIGHT, 1941,
- BY THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
-
-
- DESIGNED BY STEFAN SALTER
- MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
- BY THE AMERICAN BOOK-STRATFORD PRESS, INC., NEW YORK
-
-
-
-
-_Foreword_
-
-By EDWIN A. PENICK, Bishop of North Carolina
-
-
-One of the many characteristics for which Bishop Cheshire is remembered
-by his friends and admirers was his uncompromising adherence to the last
-letter of truth. An inaccurate or careless remark often brought forth
-from him a startling correction. His own historical papers were loyal to
-such facts as patient research could discover. His official documents
-were models of lucidity and precision. His counsel was penetrating and
-true and bracing like fresh air in a stuffy room. His conversation,
-particularly when he was describing the very human traits of men and
-women he had known, was full of delightful surprises because of his
-breathtaking forthrightness. He even carried in his pocketbook an exact
-paper pattern of a huge mountain trout he once caught as documentary
-evidence of his best fish story.
-
-This characteristic of Bishop Cheshire must have been in the author's
-mind when he wrote the following pages. I believe that the good Bishop
-would approve this biography for its restraint and disciplined
-faithfulness to the record of a true life.
-
- Ravenscroft
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- February 10, 1941.
-
-
-
-
-_Preface_
-
-
-From my earliest memories I can recall the annual visits of Bishop
-Cheshire to the home of my parents. As very young boys my brothers and I
-were fond of looking at him, for with his flowing white beard and rather
-stocky figure, he appeared a perfect embodiment of Santa Claus. He
-readily gained our confidence with his frank and open manner and his
-keen understanding of the sort of things children were interested in. As
-I grew older he won my complete affection and admiration. With his many
-relatives and friends throughout North Carolina, I felt particularly
-honored when he wrote me letters from England during his visit there in
-1920. The multiplicity of such personal attentions was one of his
-characteristics which gained for him the lasting affection of his
-people.
-
-Although I have felt inadequate to the task of writing Bishop Cheshire's
-life, I have found the work a labor of love and a distinct privilege.
-Some persons will undoubtedly be disappointed that more stories of and
-about the Bishop have not been included. The use of many of his
-anecdotes has purposefully been avoided, since most of them are much
-more delightfully told by the Bishop himself in his charming volume of
-reminiscences, _Nonnulla_. My primary object has been to present his
-accomplishments as deacon, priest, and bishop. His work in these periods
-of his career merits preservation in some permanent form for its own
-sake as well as for the benefit of future churchmen. Also, an attempt
-has been made to portray the Bishop's dynamic personality and its
-striking influence upon the character of his work and of his human
-contacts.
-
-I wish to gratefully acknowledge the kind assistance given me by Mr.
-Joseph B. Cheshire, Miss Sarah Cheshire, and Mr. James W. Cheshire in
-reading this work and for the generous loan of invaluable manuscripts. I
-also wish to express my appreciation to my wife, Emily Dewey, for her
-untiring help in criticizing and reworking the manuscript, and to Bishop
-Edwin Anderson Penick and Rev. Alfred S. Lawrence for reading the work.
-
- _Lawrence F. London_
-
- Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- December 1, 1940.
-
-
-
-
-_Contents_
-
-
-                                                                    PAGE
-
-     FOREWORD, BY BISHOP EDWIN A. PENICK                               v
-
-     PREFACE                                                         vii
-
-CHAPTER
-
-   I YOUTH AND MANHOOD                                                 1
-
-  II DEACON AND PRIEST                                                18
-
- III SAINT PETER'S PARISH                                             27
-
-  IV ELECTION TO THE EPISCOPATE                                       46
-
-   V FIRST YEARS IN THE EPISCOPACY                                    55
-
-  VI MAN AND BISHOP                                                   77
-
- VII HISTORIAN                                                        88
-
-VIII WORK AMONG THE COLORED PEOPLE                                    99
-
-  IX DEVELOPMENT AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE BISHOP'S WORK                109
-
-     NOTES                                                           127
-
-     PUBLISHED WRITINGS OF JOSEPH BLOUNT CHESHIRE                    131
-
-     INDEX                                                           135
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-_Youth and Manhood_
-
-
-It was eleven o'clock one morning in the middle of September, 1869, when
-Joseph Blount Cheshire stepped into a classroom to teach a course in
-Latin. Before him sat six boys, several of them older than himself. He
-was only nineteen years old, and he was about to begin his first job.
-The school was St. Clement's Hall at Ellicott City, Maryland, and the
-assignment for that day was one in Sallust. About all young Cheshire
-could recall of that particular passage was its being one of the most
-difficult he had ever tried to translate. He was faced with the
-alternative of bluffing his way through or frankly confessing to the
-boys that he was thoroughly unprepared to teach the assignment. So,
-boldly facing his class, he declared: "Young gentlemen, it is many years
-since I last looked into Sallust, and this passage, Caesar's speech, I
-remember as the most difficult passage in this book. I am not prepared
-to deal with it today, but I will endeavor to be ready for you
-tomorrow."
-
-This was a rule of life which he followed consistently, to deal frankly
-and honestly with every situation, no matter what it might cost him
-personally. Complete fearlessness was one of Bishop Cheshire's most
-pronounced characteristics. In his announced views on public questions,
-in the administration of his diocese, and in his historical writings,
-his courage was often manifested. His was not, however, a character
-which could be described in a few striking phrases. The man can best be
-understood by observing his deeds as they developed from early youth
-until the end of a long life of four score and two years.
-
-In the mid-nineteenth century the quiet little town of Tarboro, North
-Carolina, was like many other small towns to be found in the Old South.
-It was one of the oldest places in the state, having been founded in the
-colonial period and given the distinction of a borough town. Tarboro
-contained a fairly large number of old established families and a few
-persons of some prominence in the state. Not the least of these was the
-Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church, a man
-who exemplified in his life and work the best traditions of the
-Episcopal clergy.
-
-Dr. Cheshire came of an old North Carolina family which for several
-generations had lived in the Albemarle section. One of his ancestors was
-Joseph Blount, who was a member of the first vestry of St. Paul's
-parish, Edenton. His parents, John Cheshire and Elizabeth Blount, lived
-in Edenton, where he was born in December, 1814. He received his
-education at the Edenton Academy and at the Episcopal School for Boys.
-The latter school had just been founded by Bishop Ives and was located
-in Raleigh on the site where now stands St. Mary's Junior College. After
-completing his course at the Episcopal School, he took up the study of
-law in Raleigh under the supervision of Thomas P. Devereux. In 1836 he
-was admitted to the bar, but he evidently did not find the law congenial
-to his tastes, for he soon abandoned it. He decided to enter the
-ministry, and in 1838 began his studies for that field of work under the
-direction of Bishop Ives.
-
-During his preparation for the ministry he made the acquaintance of the
-botanist and clergyman, Dr. M. Ashley Curtis. The interest which Dr.
-Curtis stimulated in him for plants and flowers bore abundant fruit. The
-beautiful grounds surrounding Calvary Church stand today as a living
-expression of his love for flowers and shrubs.
-
-By February, 1840, Dr. Cheshire had advanced sufficiently far in his
-theological studies to be ordained deacon by Bishop Ives. The Bishop
-placed him in charge of the parishes at Halifax and Windsor. The next
-year he was ordained priest and was given Calvary Church, Tarboro, in
-addition to his other work. Shortly after taking over this work he
-organized a mission at Scotland Neck, which in time became Trinity
-parish. Three parishes and a mission was a large assignment for a young
-clergyman, but Dr. Cheshire was not daunted by the extent of his duties.
-From the first his chief interest was in the work at Tarboro. In
-consequence of this and the desire of the Calvary Church people for more
-of his time, he gave up the church at Halifax in 1848 and the one at
-Windsor the following year. He retained his work at Scotland Neck,
-however, until 1869. His pastorate at Calvary Church continued for more
-than half a century. During this long rectorship a beautiful new church
-was built, to which he himself contributed generously.
-
-Dr. Cheshire will probably be best remembered in the history of the
-American Episcopal Church for the part he played in healing the breach
-between the northern and southern branches of the church following the
-close of the Civil War. He waged a determined fight in the diocesan
-convention of 1865 to send deputies to the General Convention to be held
-that fall in Philadelphia. The advocates of reconciliation were
-successful, and Dr. Cheshire was elected one of the deputies to the
-General Convention. At Philadelphia he used all his influence in helping
-to bring about the reunion of the church.
-
-Two years after he took charge of Calvary parish, Dr. Cheshire was
-married to Elizabeth Toole Parker, daughter of Theophilus Parker, his
-senior warden, and Mary Toole Parker. The next most important event in
-his life was the birth of his son and namesake, Joseph Blount, who was
-born on March 27, 1850. In the course of time Dr. and Mrs. Cheshire had
-five other children, Theophilus Parker, John, Elizabeth, Annie Gray, and
-Katherine Drane. John and Elizabeth, however, died in their second year.
-
-Joseph Blount was born in the house built many years before by his
-grandfather, Theophilus Parker. His father and mother had lived in it
-since their marriage and had come into its possession after the death of
-his grandfather. When Joseph was born his parents' household consisted
-of themselves, his grandmother, an aunt, and two cousins. With the
-subsequent births of his brothers and sisters his family was indeed a
-large one. The give and take of a large family probably played some part
-in the development of the tolerant and unselfish character which so
-distinguished him in manhood.
-
-Young Cheshire received his earliest education under the direction of
-his mother, who taught him reading, writing, and something about
-numbers. He did not attend a formal school until he was nine years old.
-However, he found himself to be "quite as far advanced in the knowledge
-of books as the most forward" of his companions. The school he first
-attended in Tarboro was taught by Rev. and Mrs. Owen. It was while
-attending this school that he and Richard Lewis met one another and
-formed a friendship which grew and continued for more than three-score
-years.
-
-In the fall of 1861 Cheshire entered the Tarboro Male Academy, whose
-sole teacher at that time was Mr. Frank S. Wilkinson, a graduate of the
-University of North Carolina. In this school Wilkinson took boys of
-every age, from beginners to those preparing for college. Cheshire later
-tells us that Wilkinson was devoted to the profession of teaching,
-laboring "faithfully to interest his pupils, and give them the best that
-he had himself." The school usually numbered between thirty and
-thirty-five boys, but when it included as many as forty, Wilkinson
-engaged an assistant. During Cheshire's attendance at the Academy, Mr.
-William Henry Johnston was employed as an assistant. He was also a
-graduate of the University and, as Cheshire says, "a very good scholar
-after the standards of the day." In this small school, which never
-boasted more than two teachers at any one time, Joseph Cheshire prepared
-himself for college.
-
-Since the summer climate of Tarboro did not agree with Dr. Cheshire's
-health, he purchased in 1850 a home in Franklin County, about four miles
-from Louisburg. This place was named Monreath and on it stood an old,
-well-built house surrounded by one hundred and sixty acres of land. Here
-the Cheshires spent their summers. These pleasant vacations at Monreath
-caused Joseph to lose about two months of school each year, since the
-fall term began the middle of July. Therefore, in the summer of 1864 he
-asked his father if he could not attend the Louisburg Academy from July
-to September. His father readily agreed, and each day young Cheshire
-walked the four miles into Louisburg to conjugate Latin verbs and pursue
-the other fields of learning which made up the curriculum of the average
-classical school of that day.
-
-During the Civil War the Cheshires did not suffer from molestation by
-the enemy or from severe deprivation as did many southern families. They
-gave shelter and comfort to many refugees from the eastern part of the
-state, which was occupied by federal troops. Writing of his impressions
-of the war years, Cheshire observed: "It is strange that almost all my
-memories of those tragical days seem to be of bright and happy
-experiences. I do not remember any atmosphere of gloom or depression.
-The spirit of all was brave and buoyant."[1] The abolition of slavery
-did not greatly affect the economic status of his family, since his
-father owned only a few domestic servants whom he had inherited.
-
-Cheshire's religious education began, of course, at home. Every Sunday
-afternoon he and his brother stood before their mother with the Negro
-children and repeated their assigned part of the catechism. He did not
-attend Sunday school until after he had learned all the catechism, that
-is, all but the "Desire." He later remarked that he never learned it "so
-as not to forget it," and that it was the only thing he ever tried to
-remember and failed.
-
-By the fall of 1865 Cheshire was ready to enter college. It had been
-originally planned that he should go to the University of North
-Carolina. But when the time arrived his father did not have the money to
-send him. Dr. Cheshire, however, had already decided not to send his son
-to the state University; he did not think the environment there would be
-suitable for a boy of fifteen, for a good many young soldiers, fresh
-from the careless life of the army, were entering the University that
-fall. Cheshire's best friend, Dick Lewis, and several others of his
-class-mates went in the fall of 1865 to Mr. Graves' school in Granville
-County. He was left in a class by himself at the Tarboro Academy, where
-he continued his studies under the direction of Mr. Wilkinson.
-
-During this period of study at the Academy Cheshire wrote an amusing and
-original essay on the subject of honesty. Launching into his subject
-with the statement that there had already been so much written upon it
-that it was about worn out, he declared that he chose the topic for want
-of a better one. This introduction was succeeded by the following:
-
- "I have been thinking for a long time what else to say about 'Honesty,'
- but can't think of a single thing which some other boy has not said in
- his composition since I have been going to school: and I think that I
- had better practice what I have here attempted to preach, and tell you,
- Mr. Wilkinson, that it is Monday morning, and that composition never
- entered into my head Saturday, and so you need not expect much. Instead
- of a composition I will give you an account of my doings Saturday
- evening, which I hope you will take as an equivalent."
-
-Cheshire then gave an interesting description of a delightful horseback
-ride he had had with a young lady. He concluded his essay by saying: "I
-hope this will be taken as a composition. If it is not I hope you will
-return it as there is enough clean paper on it to write another one."[2]
-The composition is not only worth quoting for its originality, but also
-because it brings out a pronounced characteristic of the later man.
-Complete honesty with himself as well as others, under all conditions,
-was one of his most outstanding qualities.
-
-Joseph continued his studies under Mr. Wilkinson until February, 1866.
-By that time Dr. Cheshire had secured sufficient funds with which to
-send his son to college. He was still opposed to sending him to the
-University for the reason already mentioned and because he felt the fate
-of that institution at the time was most uncertain. He decided,
-therefore, to send Joseph to Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut.
-Trinity was an excellent school, under the management of the church, and
-Dr. Cheshire was personally acquainted with its president.
-
-Before his son left home for college, Dr. Cheshire told him that he must
-decide while in school what he wished to do for his life's work. He
-explained that since he had other children to educate, he would not be
-able to help him after graduation. His father went on to say that it
-would be a great happiness to him if his son should decide to go into
-the ministry, but that was something he must determine for himself.
-Cheshire later remarked that this was the only time in his memory that
-his father ever spoke to him of the possibility of making the ministry
-his life's work.
-
-In late February of 1866 young Cheshire left home for Hartford. An
-inexperienced boy, having traveled little beyond his section of the
-state, he now set out to enter a strange school among people with whom,
-less than a year ago, his people had been at war. Such a prospect would
-have filled an older heart with trepidation. He traveled as far as New
-York with a stranger who had been in Tarboro on business, and from
-thence he went alone to Hartford.
-
-Cheshire was allowed to enter the Freshman class with conditions only in
-Greek and Latin composition, which was a tribute to the work done under
-Mr. Wilkinson that fall. He learned upon arriving at school that he was
-the first man from the Confederate States to enter Trinity since the
-close of the war. He was treated kindly by his fellow students, and
-never complained of any hostility or unfriendliness on the part of the
-northern boys. His closest friends, however, were among a group of
-students from Maryland.
-
-Shortly after he entered college, his father wrote to President Kerfoot
-asking him to suggest someone on the faculty who would be willing to act
-as an advisor and friend to his son. Dr. Kerfoot proposed Rev. William
-W. Niles, Professor of Latin at Trinity, who gladly took Cheshire under
-his care. In time the two became fast friends. Professor Niles and his
-wife often entertained him and always made him feel at home in their
-house. Under Professor Niles' direction Cheshire was prepared for
-confirmation, and in May, 1866, he was confirmed in the college chapel.
-In later years he said of the Nileses: "I can never be sufficiently
-grateful to Professor Niles and his good wife.... I enjoyed from that
-time—from my Freshman days in college to the end of their lives, the
-friendship and confidence of these most admirable people."[3]
-
-Dr. Cheshire had a good deal of difficulty in maintaining his son at
-college. The years immediately following the war were hard ones for
-almost all southerners, and the Cheshire family was no exception. When
-Cheshire came home for the Christmas holidays of 1867, his father told
-him that he would be unable to send him back to college. He accepted
-this decision as final, and wrote his roommate, Robert F. Bixby, that he
-was not returning to college after the holidays. Not long afterwards,
-Dr. Cheshire received a letter from Professor Pynchon, a member of the
-Trinity faculty, who informed him that a friend, who wished to withhold
-his name, would be happy to advance the necessary money for his son's
-monthly board if that would be sufficient to make his return to college
-possible. After talking the matter over with his son, Dr. Cheshire
-accepted the generous offer, since he believed he would be able to repay
-the full amount by the end of 1868. In this way young Cheshire was able
-to resume his work at Trinity, receiving each month through Dr. Pynchon
-the money for his board. As he had anticipated, Dr. Cheshire was able to
-repay the whole debt at the end of 1868. Although he never knew,
-Cheshire suspected that the money, so badly needed at the time, came
-from the father of his friend, Robert Bixby.
-
-During his first two years at Trinity, Cheshire had come to know Rev.
-John Williams, Bishop of Connecticut and one-time Presiding Bishop of
-the Episcopal Church, who often visited the college. When school closed
-in June, 1868, Cheshire found that he was not financially able to go
-home for the summer vacation, and that he would have to remain in
-Hartford. Bishop Williams heard of his plans and thereupon invited him
-to his old home in Deerfield, Massachusetts, for a month. The Bishop
-said that he could serve as his secretary, and on this condition
-Cheshire gladly accepted the invitation. As it turned out, he had very
-little to do. He spent the month most delightfully, meeting many
-interesting people and visiting near-by historical places. After leaving
-Bishop Williams, he spent a pleasant month in Maryland visiting two of
-his college friends. Thus most of the summer passed rapidly, and he
-returned to Hartford greatly refreshed, ready to begin the last year of
-his collegiate work.
-
-While at Trinity Cheshire became a member of the Phi Kappa fraternity,
-now the Alpha Delta Phi. He was the only member of his class who
-belonged to this fraternity. Consequently, Cheshire modestly explains,
-whenever an honor fell to a Phi Kappa of his class he was the only one
-to receive it. Whether this was the reason or not, he was made president
-of the Senior class, and was elected a marshal for the commencement of
-1868. As for class and college prizes, he never entered a contest until
-his last year. At this time he entered the competition for the "Tuttle
-Prize," which was an award of thirty dollars for the best essay by a
-senior on a subject to be chosen by the faculty. The topic selected for
-Cheshire's class was "The Causes of the French Revolution." Cheshire
-submitted a paper of forty-eight foolscap pages. Much to his
-gratification, and somewhat to his surprise, his essay won the prize.
-With the money he purchased "Pratt's Complete Works of Bishop Hall" in
-ten volumes as a gift for his father. For himself he bought a set of
-Chaucer's works in eight volumes and a few other books. Indeed, he seems
-to have made his prize money go far and to much advantage.
-
-In June, 1869, Cheshire's college days came to a close. During his three
-and one-half years at Trinity he made many close friendships which
-continued throughout his life. He was not an outstanding student, but
-did creditably in all his courses. At the commencement exercises he
-delivered an original address, which was required of all graduates. He
-chose as the subject of his senior oration "The Strength of Republican
-Governments," a topic characteristic of that period. Cheshire had been
-influenced in the choice of this subject by De Tocqueville's _Democracy
-in America_, in which he had become interested. Following his graduation
-he returned to North Carolina, where he spent the summer of 1869 with
-his family at Monreath. This was his last long vacation. He was soon to
-take over his first position and to begin earning for the remainder of
-his life his own way.
-
-In the course of graduation week at Trinity, Cheshire had the good
-fortune of making the acquaintance of Rev. John Avery Shepherd of
-Maryland. Dr. Shepherd had organized a few years before a private
-school, which he called St. Clement's Hall, at Ellicott City near
-Baltimore. Being favorably impressed with Cheshire's personality and his
-record at Trinity, Dr. Shepherd offered him a position in his school
-teaching Latin and Greek for the scholastic year 1869-70. His salary was
-to be six hundred dollars a year in addition to board and lodging.
-Cheshire gladly accepted the position, since he wished no longer to be a
-burden on his father. His younger brother was then ready to enter
-college and was only waiting for him to finish.
-
-In the middle of September Cheshire left Monreath to take up his duties
-at St. Clement's Hall. Before he left home his father gave him fifty
-dollars to aid him until he should receive a part of his salary. This
-was the last time he ever gave him any money, that is, from a feeling of
-responsibility for his son's support.
-
-At St. Clement's Cheshire was given all the upper classes in Latin and
-Greek, and in addition taught some arithmetic and algebra. In
-consequence of his rather poor beginning in Latin and Greek at the
-Tarboro Academy, he never became a scholar in these fields. While
-teaching Latin he became more interested in this subject and read rather
-widely in Tacitus and other Latin authors. In the course of his busy
-life of teaching he found time to continue "a kind of study" of
-Blackstone which he had begun in his senior year at Trinity. He also
-read through Kent's _Commentaries_ and a good deal of English poetry.
-
-Cheshire came to know a number of people in the neighborhood of the
-school who helped to make his life at St. Clement's more interesting and
-pleasant. He spent a good many week-ends in Baltimore with some of his
-Trinity friends. When his oldest and best friend, Richard Lewis, came to
-Baltimore to study medicine in the fall of 1870, his visits became more
-frequent. On the whole, his life at St. Clement's was happy, and the
-experience he gained, worth while. He never, however, became fond of
-teaching, but he enjoyed his students and took a warm personal interest
-in them. After two years at St. Clement's he decided to abandon teaching
-for the law profession, which he thought would be more congenial to his
-tastes.
-
-When Cheshire returned to North Carolina in June, 1871, he went with his
-family to Hillsboro to spend the summer. Here he began the study of law
-under the eminent lawyer, William K. Ruffin, son of Chief Justice Thomas
-Ruffin, who coached law students since he was too crippled to do much
-active practice. Ruffin was a "devotee" of the common law and always
-gave his students a thorough drilling in it. He made Cheshire devote
-almost all the summer to the study of Second Blackstone and Cruise's
-_Real Property_. When he left Hillsboro in September, Ruffin made him
-promise that he would secure an old folio edition of Coke's
-_Commentaries on Littleton_ and read it carefully. Some time later
-Cheshire bought a copy of this work in Baltimore and read it from cover
-to cover as he had promised. He once remarked that he believed he was
-the last man in North Carolina to have completely read the old folio
-edition. Cheshire found Mr. William Ruffin "a most interesting man as
-well as a stimulating and helpful teacher."[4]
-
-Upon returning to Tarboro Cheshire continued his study of law, now in
-the office of Howard and Perry. In this office he "read law," for he
-says that Judge George Howard would not agree to give him any
-instruction. Cheshire, however, maintained that he learned much law from
-Judge Howard, and "a good deal of sound practical wisdom."
-
-After his summer's work under William Ruffin and some three months'
-study in Judge Howard's office, Cheshire was ready to try for his
-license. On January 1, 1872, he went to Raleigh to be examined by the
-Supreme Court Justices. It was an oral test and, in Cheshire's own
-words, was "a very slight and superficial examination" in comparison
-with those given today. The day after the examination he was informed
-that he had passed and was granted his license.
-
-Shortly afterwards George G. Hooper, a Trinity College friend, wrote
-Cheshire to come to Baltimore and join him in a law partnership. He did
-not particularly care to leave North Carolina, but he feared if he
-remained he might be a burden on his father while establishing himself.
-He accordingly accepted Hooper's offer, and the two men formed a
-partnership under the firm name of Hooper and Cheshire. Hooper agreed to
-pay him a salary for the first year, at the end of which time they would
-make a new agreement.
-
-Cheshire had not been in the office long before he learned that Hooper
-had "little real law practice." His work was almost entirely confined to
-drawing up conveyances and examining land titles. After some fifteen
-months of this sort of work, Cheshire realized there was little future
-for him in such a partnership. It was, therefore, with much pleasure
-that he received, in May, 1873, a letter from his friend, John L.
-Bridgers, Jr., asking him to return to Tarboro and join him and his
-father, Colonel John L. Bridgers, in the practice of law. Cheshire
-readily accepted this proposal, and the following month came back to
-North Carolina where he was to make his home for the remainder of his
-life.
-
-Cheshire was happy to be living in Tarboro once again with his family
-and among his old friends. Thus was formed the firm of Bridgers,
-Cheshire, and Bridgers. This connection continued until January, 1875,
-at which time Cheshire was offered the position of secretary and
-treasurer of the Pamlico Banking and Insurance Company, a corporation
-organized to solicit fire insurance. He accepted the offer because it
-gave him an office and a small salary and did not interfere with his law
-practice. The company's business was not extensive, and required only a
-few hours of his time each day. While holding this position he was also
-treasurer of the Tarboro Building and Loan Association. Again this
-office demanded little of his time, merely requiring that he receive the
-money from the secretary weekly and pay it out upon his order.
-
-Cheshire continued the practice of law until the early part of 1878. In
-summing up his work at the bar, he observed: "I made a living and saved
-a few hundred dollars. I had no very interesting or important cases, so
-far as I recall."[5] During his last year of practice, however, he made
-a little over fifteen hundred dollars, which, for a young lawyer of that
-period, was doing quite well.
-
-Since leaving St. Clement's Hall in June, 1871, Cheshire had not by any
-means devoted all of his time and thought to the study and practice of
-law. He accomplished a great deal more in the summer of 1871 than the
-study of common law under Mr. William K. Ruffin. It was then that he
-renewed his acquaintance with his cousin, Miss Annie Huske Webb, who
-lived in Hillsboro. He had seen this cousin but little since her visit
-to Tarboro in December, 1865. He always remembered the first time he saw
-her upon her arrival in Tarboro for that visit and described the meeting
-thus: "When I looked at her, as she came in out of the rain, and lifted
-the veil from her face, I thought her the most beautiful person I had
-ever seen. I think that first impression was never effaced."[6]
-
-In the course of the summer spent in Hillsboro Cheshire saw a good deal
-of his cousin. It was not long before he realized that he was in love
-with her. While not possessing a particularly romantic nature, Cheshire
-was a man of deep emotions and fine sentiments. During his courtship of
-Miss Webb he composed for her this little poem:
-
-A. H. W.
-
-  My Love is a fair white Lily,
-    And she loves not the day's full glare,
-  But she seeks out a quiet valley,
-    And she lifts up her sweet face there.
-  The blue heavens through the branches
-    Look down with their kindly light;
-  And she smiles back a gentle greeting
-    When the stars look through at night.
-  The song-birds sing to her sweetly,
-    And she's rocked by the gentle breeze;
-  And she hides from the storms of Winter
-    'Midst the roots of the giant trees.
-  She peeps in the crystal streamlet,
-    As she nods in the breezes light:
-  And she knows not her own fair beauty,
-    But is glad that she's pure and white.[7]
-
-By May, 1872, Cheshire and Annie Huske Webb were engaged; but it was not
-until 1874 that he felt he was financially able to marry. On December 17
-of that year they were married in St. Matthew's Church, Hillsboro. They
-had a simple wedding with Richard Lewis as his best man. The following
-day Cheshire and his wife went to Tarboro, where for the next four years
-they made their home with his family.
-
-With this, the greatest event in his life up to that time, we close the
-first phase of Cheshire's career. During the period he had grown to
-manhood, received his scholastic and collegiate education, taught for
-two years, studied law and practiced it for six years, and had some
-little part in the business world. All of this training and varied
-experience gave him a rich background for the great work which lay ahead
-of him.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-_Deacon and Priest_
-
-
-
-Ever since he left college Cheshire had been conscious of a growing
-desire to become a candidate for Holy Orders. Not long after his
-marriage he spoke to his wife of this aspiration, and told her he had
-now decided to present himself to the Bishop. He had not come to this
-decision earlier because he was determined not to go into the ministry
-until he had made a success of what he was doing at that time. He would
-not enter the ministry as a failure from another field of work. By the
-middle of 1876 he decided that he was making a respectable living for
-his wife and himself. He thereupon told his father of his decision and
-sent Bishop Atkinson his application. Shortly afterwards the Bishop
-accepted him as a candidate for Holy Orders, and Cheshire began
-preparing himself for his new work.
-
-It was Cheshire's original plan to attend the General Theological
-Seminary in New York for a year or two, but Bishop Atkinson and his
-father dissuaded him from this course because they objected to the Dean
-of the Seminary and because they felt that its ritualistic influences
-were too strong. Bishop Atkinson thought that, since Cheshire had had a
-good classical education, had pursued intellectual interests, and had
-been reared in a clergyman's family, he could quite adequately do his
-preparatory work at home. Cheshire accepted the Bishop's advice, and at
-once began a well laid-out course of reading. He had already read a good
-many ecclesiastical works, since he had been contemplating this step for
-some time.
-
-At the end of 1877 he gave up his connection with the Pamlico Insurance
-and Banking Company, and soon afterwards concluded his legal affairs. In
-September, 1877, he went to Raleigh to stand his examinations for the
-diaconate before Rev. Dr. Matthias M. Marshall and Rev. John E. C.
-Smedes. Having passed his examinations acceptably, Cheshire was ordained
-deacon by Bishop Atkinson on April 21, 1878, in Calvary Church, Tarboro.
-His father presented him for ordination. The following Sunday he
-assisted his father in the morning service and preached his first
-sermon. Thus he was launched upon a new career in which he was to rise
-to heights far beyond his modest dreams.
-
-When Dr. Kemp Plummer Battle, President of the University of North
-Carolina, heard that Cheshire was studying for the ministry, he asked
-Bishop Atkinson to send him to Chapel Hill. Dr. Battle was a native of
-Edgecombe County and had known Cheshire and his family for many years.
-Since the revival of the University in 1875, Rev. Robert B. Sutton, of
-Pittsboro, had from time to time held services in the Chapel of the
-Cross. The Chapel Hill churchmen, however, felt that the parish needed a
-regular and resident minister. The Bishop complied with Dr. Battle's
-request and informed Cheshire that he was to serve his diaconate in
-Chapel Hill under the direction of Dr. Sutton. This was a disappointment
-to Cheshire, for he had hoped he would be able to remain in Edgecombe
-County and strengthen the church's position there. The Bishop also
-directed him to hold a regular appointment in the rapidly growing town
-of Durham, where as yet there was not even an established mission. This
-was a difficult assignment for a young deacon just beginning his
-ministry. In Chapel Hill he had to revive an old parish which had fallen
-somewhat into decay during the hard years of the reconstruction period,
-while in Durham he had to build from the ground up, commencing with only
-a handful of church people.
-
-Cheshire came to Chapel Hill in May, and on the nineteenth of that month
-held his first service in the Chapel of the Cross. President Battle
-invited him to make his home at his house until he could find a suitable
-place. Cheshire accepted this generous offer and spent several weeks
-with the Battles. In consequence of a long illness, contracted soon
-after his arrival, he did not hold another service in Chapel Hill until
-the last Sunday in June. The next Sunday he was able to keep his first
-appointment in Durham, but following this service, he had a serious
-relapse and was unable to continue his work until early fall.
-
-For a few weeks that fall Cheshire boarded at the hotel, while his wife
-visited her family in Hillsboro. This gave him an excellent opportunity
-to come into close contact with the students, many of whom took their
-meals at the hotel. In this way he came to know a number of students who
-were not members of his church. Throughout his rectorship in Chapel Hill
-he made it a point to know all the students who were in any way
-connected with the Episcopal Church. In a comparatively short time he
-was on friendly terms with most of the small student body.
-
-Cheshire frankly confessed that in the first exercise of his ministerial
-duties among the students he felt "great embarrassment" and even some
-"timidity." He explained: "I had not been accustomed to speak much of my
-own religious feelings; and I was at a loss how to make a proper
-approach to the subject of another person's religious duties and
-convictions."[8] He visited the boys in their rooms when he thought they
-liked it, but never sought to force himself upon them. Cheshire later
-declared he did not remember ever approaching a student on the subject
-of religion without receiving a serious and courteous hearing. Many
-students seemed to appreciate the interest he took in their religious
-life. Cheshire himself was only a few years older than many of the
-undergraduates and, therefore, could understand their point of view and
-enter sympathetically into their problems. The effectiveness of his
-first year's work in Chapel Hill was demonstrated when Bishop Lyman made
-his visitation to the Chapel of the Cross in May, 1879. Cheshire
-presented to the Bishop for confirmation nine students and two girls of
-the village. In later years he remarked that this was "one of the most
-interesting and satisfactory classes I ever presented."
-
-When he first began preaching, Cheshire took great pains in the
-preparation of his sermons, writing them out in full. He freely admitted
-he had "no special gifts or talents as a speaker." In discussing the
-problem of preaching with Cheshire just after his ordination, Bishop
-Atkinson said he would give him the same advice which Bishop Johns, of
-Virginia, used to give his young deacons: "Choose a pretty long text, so
-that if they persecute you in one city, you may flee to another."
-Cheshire began, in time, to memorize his sermons and then to attempt to
-preach extemporaneously, but he always felt that his written sermons
-were better. Concerning the reception of his sermons in Chapel Hill, he
-stated: "My Chapel Hill congregation seemed to me most considerate and
-appreciative of my attempts at preaching, even the students of the
-University, so far as I could judge."[9]
-
-In his congregation Cheshire had some of the most distinguished members
-of the University faculty. President Battle was his senior warden and
-sincere friend, who gave him "judicious praise" as well as sound advice
-as to the pitfalls which a young clergyman might expect to encounter.
-Dr. J. de Berniere Hooper, Professor of Greek, was in Cheshire's
-opinion, "the most scholarly and highly cultivated" member of his
-parish. Professors Ralph Graves and George T. Winston, both young men
-who were later to win fame, were also members of his congregation. He
-lived on friendly relations with these and other members of the small
-faculty.
-
-When Mrs. Cheshire came to Chapel Hill, she and her husband moved to the
-home of Dr. William P. Mallett, where they lived until the early part of
-1879. They then took over the parish rectory, a small four-room house
-with a kitchen in the back yard. It faced Rosemary Lane and was situated
-on a two-acre lot, on part of which stands the present rectory. Their
-families and parishioners furnished the house for them quite
-comfortably. There was a small debt on the rectory, and, prior to
-Cheshire's coming to the parish, it had been rented to assist in
-retiring the obligation. When he moved into the rectory, he agreed to
-pay the interest on the debt, notwithstanding that his salary was only
-five hundred dollars a year. It was not easy, even in those days, to
-live on such a small income, but Cheshire often remarked that his years
-in Chapel Hill were "as happy, I believe, as possible in this world." He
-was fortunate in realizing his happiness at the time and often spoke of
-it to his wife. To make their happiness complete, a second child,[10]
-Elizabeth Toole, was born to them in the summer of 1879.
-
-Although the parish in Chapel Hill was his chief charge, Cheshire did
-not think that it had an exclusive claim upon him. He regarded it as a
-center from which to work. In the fall of 1878 he began to lay definite
-plans for what was to be an important missionary work in Durham. After
-surveying the prospects there Cheshire, with the co-operation of his
-little flock, was able to rent a hall on Main Street which was
-ordinarily used for public entertainments. Here he held services on the
-first Sunday in every month. The work in Durham prospered remarkably,
-considering that the congregation had no church building of their own.
-Cheshire and his congregation soon realized, however, that if much
-progress was to be made, they must have a church. The greatest
-difficulty at first was to find a lot within their means. Finally, one
-was purchased at a low price because of its undesirability from a
-business standpoint. In the spring of 1880 the foundations of the little
-church were laid.
-
-Since his congregation could bear only a small part of the cost of
-building a church, Cheshire had to ask for assistance elsewhere. His
-family and friends in Edgecombe County contributed about one-fourth of
-the total cost. In a communication to the _Church Messenger_ Cheshire
-requested the rectors of the larger parishes of the Diocese to
-contribute one Sunday's offering to the completion of the Durham church.
-On the general subject of soliciting aid for religious purposes, he
-declared: "Indiscriminate begging from anybody and everybody to the
-neglect of every consideration, except the chance of getting a dollar,
-is not becoming to the cause of religion, and is a positive
-discouragement to Christian liberality." This was the kind of soliciting
-which he never practiced. Throughout his ministry he requested aid for
-the church of only those who he felt were rightfully responsible for its
-support.
-
-By the spring of 1881 the church was completed at a cost of about
-twenty-five hundred dollars. In a remarkably short time, less than a
-year and a half, the money had been raised and the building erected.
-Cheshire named it "St. Philip, the Deacon," feeling it to be the "fruit"
-of his work as a deacon. It was with much pride and happiness that, on
-July 24, 1881, he assisted Bishop Lyman in the consecration of St.
-Philip's—a fitting close to his work in that mission.[11]
-
-Cheshire never expected, nor did he ever receive, any compensation from
-the Diocese for his missionary activities. Concerning extra parochial
-work, he said: "I did not look upon work outside the parish as extra
-work, for which I should receive extra remuneration or special
-commendation."[12] Shortly after Cheshire began his work in Durham, the
-Treasurer of the Diocese sent him a check for twenty dollars, which he
-promptly returned, saying that he "did not desire to receive anything
-from the Diocesan Treasury."[13] During his three years of service in
-Durham the little mission paid him small amounts from time to time,
-which approximately covered the expenses he incurred. He looked upon his
-labors for this mission as "a pure work of love and missionary
-enterprise." In recalling this experience, he declared: "I believe I
-worked harder and with more enthusiasm in my Mission of St. Philip's,
-Durham, and afterwards in establishing St. Mark's Church, Mecklenburg
-County, than in any other work I ever undertook...."[14]
-
-While carrying forward his constructive work in Chapel Hill and in
-Durham, Cheshire did not overlook his preparation for the priesthood,
-although, as he remarked, he did not "feel that impatience to get out of
-the Diaconate," which he often observed in young clergymen. During his
-leisure hours he read widely and thoroughly, and was well prepared when
-the time came for his advancement. At the close of the diocesan
-convention, held in Winston-Salem, he was ordained priest by Bishop
-Lyman in St. Paul's Church on May 30, 1880. He was presented for
-ordination by Rev. John E. C. Smedes, and the sermon for the occasion
-was preached by Dr. Alfred Watson, later Bishop of East Carolina.
-Commenting upon the ordination service, the _Church Messenger_ said of
-Cheshire: "thoroughly active, he will do a work that will tell in the
-diocese."
-
-During his ministry in Chapel Hill Cheshire received calls from several
-parishes, all of which offered him a better salary than he was then
-receiving, but he usually declined them by return mail. In the winter of
-1881 the vestry of St. Matthew's, Hillsboro, and the church in
-Burlington asked him to take charge of their parishes. This prospect
-appealed to him strongly, since he would live in Hillsboro, his wife's
-old home, where they had many kinsfolk and friends. Before taking any
-action, however, he consulted Bishop Lyman, who replied that he
-preferred Cheshire to remain in Chapel Hill where he was doing a good
-work. He accepted the Bishop's decision and declined the call to
-Hillsboro.
-
-About two months later Cheshire received a call from St. Peter's,
-Charlotte, which he declined immediately. Hearing of this action, Bishop
-Lyman wrote him that he wished him to accept the charge of St. Peter's.
-Cheshire replied that he had refused to go to Charlotte because the
-Bishop had instructed him, only a few months earlier, to remain in
-Chapel Hill. Bishop Lyman, however, answered that he had directed the
-vestry of St. Peter's to call him again "_and he would see to it_" that
-Cheshire accepted. The call was accordingly renewed, and Cheshire went
-to Charlotte to interview the vestry. He told them that he accepted the
-charge because he felt it his "duty to respect the wishes of the
-Bishop." Cheshire often remarked that during his ministry he never
-accepted a call to any parish, explaining that the Bishop had directed
-him to go to Chapel Hill and later to the parish in Charlotte. This was
-not said in a spirit of criticism of his Bishop but merely as a
-statement of fact, for he also declared that he "preferred" to have his
-work given him. Throughout his long life of service he always had the
-feeling of doing a work assigned to him.
-
-Cheshire quite naturally regretted leaving Chapel Hill, for he had been
-happy in his work there. He was also reluctant to part with his mission
-in Durham, which was created in a very real sense by his own labors.
-Recalling the first three years of his ministry, he declared: "I look
-upon my life at Chapel Hill as my pupilage, the completion of my
-training for my life work."[15]
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-_Saint Peter's Parish_
-
-
-Cheshire entered upon his work in Charlotte with a feeling that here he
-had an excellent opportunity for extending the influence of his church,
-particularly in the missionary field. He did not feel any fear or
-trepidation at the thought of this larger and more difficult work,
-although he had no great confidence in his own ability. He went to his
-new parish with the determination to give to it his best, and throughout
-his rectorate there he never lost sight of that ideal. When some of his
-friends heard that he was going to St. Peter's, they told him he was
-taking over one of the hardest and most undesirable parishes in the
-Diocese. This was indeed a discouraging description of his new work, but
-after serving twelve years at St. Peter's, Cheshire remarked that he had
-found nothing which would justify such a characterization of that
-parish.
-
-Cheshire did not bring his wife and children to Charlotte at once but
-left them in Chapel Hill for the summer. During this time he lived with
-Mr. John Wilkes, the senior warden of the parish, and took his meals at
-a boarding house. Finding no parish rectory in Charlotte, he bought a
-house on North Church Street. This purchase took all he had saved from
-his law practice, plus an additional thousand dollars which he had to
-borrow. His salary from St. Peter's being twelve hundred dollars a year,
-he was able to carry a debt of this amount. With a salary this size he
-felt that he had been "raised to a condition of affluence." In an
-exuberance of generosity he offered to become responsible for the
-support of an orphan in one of the foreign mission orphanages. For some
-reason his proposal was not accepted. It was not long, however, before
-he found that his salary was little if any above his actual needs.
-
-When Cheshire became rector of St. Peter's there were one hundred and
-thirty-seven communicants in the parish. Mr. John Wilkes and Colonel
-Hamilton C. Jones were his senior and junior wardens, respectively.
-These men were quite different in temperament, but both were sincerely
-devoted to the welfare of the church. The young rector found in them
-staunch friends and helpful advisors. One of the first tasks Cheshire
-set for himself was to visit and become acquainted with each member of
-his congregation. After making a careful study of the parish register,
-he purchased a small memorandum book in which he wrote down the full
-name, age, and church status of each person connected with St. Peter's.
-By the end of his first summer in Charlotte he had become fairly well
-acquainted with most of his parishioners.
-
-One of Cheshire's predecessors at St. Peter's was the Rev. Benjamin S.
-Bronson, rector of the parish from 1867 to 1878. He had been greatly
-interested in institutional work, and had begun several enterprises in
-the course of his ministry in Charlotte. None of these, however, was
-carried to a successful conclusion under his direction. Mr. Bronson's
-capacity seemed to be limited to merely initiating worth-while projects.
-His efforts were not futile, for he instilled in his congregation a deep
-interest in this type of work. Cheshire often said that what he was able
-to accomplish in Charlotte was due in part to the enthusiasm for
-institutional work which Mr. Bronson had aroused in his parishioners. He
-confessed that he did not have the type of mind which readily produced
-original ideas: "I think I can only methodize and put into practice
-ideas I get from others."[16] Although he exaggerated his lack of
-originality, he was strikingly successful in taking a good idea or
-suggestion and making it work.
-
-When Cheshire came to Charlotte he found one of Mr. Bronson's charities
-still in existence, although in a sadly neglected condition. This was a
-four-room house which was known as St. Peter's Home and Hospital. The
-good work which was being done in a very small way by this institution
-strongly appealed to Cheshire. He regularly visited the sick there, and
-soon began to lay plans for enlarging its usefulness. For this purpose
-he enlisted the aid of a retired clergyman, Rev. Lucian Holmes, who was
-then conducting in Charlotte a small school for boys. Mr. Holmes visited
-the people of the city, soliciting contributions ranging from ten cents
-to one dollar a month. His efforts were successful, and in a
-comparatively short time the little hospital was assured of a modest
-monthly income. It was planned that the women on the Board of Managers
-of the hospital should collect the pledges. Thus, under Cheshire's
-direction, St. Peter's hospital was firmly established and has continued
-to grow in usefulness to the community from that time to the present
-day.
-
-Shortly after becoming rector of St. Peter's, Cheshire began to take an
-active interest in the church's work among the Negroes. He found among a
-large Negro population only one communicant. Prior to the Civil War
-Negroes had worshiped with the whites, sitting in galleries erected for
-their use. Following the war and reconstruction, however, the church had
-of necessity been forced to curtail its work among the Negroes. He
-recognized in this condition an opportunity for a great work. Since his
-parish was large and demanded the greater part of his time, he asked
-Bishop Lyman to send him an unmarried clergyman who could devote all his
-efforts to the Negro work. The Bishop complied with his request, and in
-the spring of 1882 sent Rev. Charles C. Quin to Charlotte. Quin received
-a stipend of two hundred dollars a year from the Diocese, which Cheshire
-supplemented with fifty dollars out of his own pocket. In addition, Quin
-lived with the Cheshires, who gave him his room and board.
-
-After securing an assistant for the Negro work, Cheshire's next step was
-to find a place in which to worship. He found an old house in the Negro
-section of Charlotte, which he bought and remodeled sufficiently to make
-it serve as a mission. He named the little chapel St. Michael and All
-Angels. Although Quin was placed in charge of this mission, Cheshire
-held an evening service there every second Sunday. In this way he was
-able to keep in personal contact with the congregation.
-
-The work progressed so well that it was not long before the need for a
-larger church was apparent. Seeing this need, Cheshire solicited
-contributions for a new church from his parishioners and from various
-churchmen throughout the Diocese. He sent Quin to Pennsylvania, New
-York, and Connecticut with letters to his friends in those states,
-asking for assistance. Cheshire and Quin were fairly successful in their
-efforts to raise funds for the new church, and in the spring of 1883 the
-cornerstone was laid. In the course of the year the nave and chancel
-were completed, while the transepts were left to be finished at some
-future time. It was a well-built brick church and large enough to allow
-for considerable growth in the congregation. It stands today as a
-testimonial to Cheshire's zeal in advancing the work of the church.
-Shortly after it was built, Quin resigned and was succeeded by Rev.
-Primus P. Alston, a colored clergyman, who remained in charge of the
-parish for over twenty years. St. Michael and All Angels was now
-practically independent of St. Peter's, although it was still under
-Cheshire's general direction.
-
-While in the process of establishing St. Michael's, Cheshire was at the
-same time engaged in another missionary enterprise. He found in a
-section of Charlotte, known as Mechanicsville, a number of families who
-were members of the Episcopal Church but were not connected with St.
-Peter's parish. Seeing an opportunity to extend the work of the parish,
-he determined to bring the services of the church to these people. He
-began by establishing a Sunday school in an abandoned schoolhouse in
-this section. The Sunday school gradually expanded into a little
-mission, which he called St. Martin's. Not long after the mission was
-started, the building in which the services were held was destroyed by
-fire. Not permitting this misfortune to discourage him, he began almost
-at once to lay plans for the erection of a chapel on the same location.
-
-After negotiating with the Charlotte school board, he was able to buy
-the property for fifteen hundred dollars, to be paid in three
-installments. Cheshire himself paid the first installment of five
-hundred dollars, while two of his parishioners guaranteed the remainder.
-He procured his part of the cost by selling a lot in Tarboro which his
-father had given him. When the land was bought, he began the work of
-raising money for the erection of a chapel. His loyal friend, Mr. John
-Wilkes, came forward as usual and supported him generously with both
-time and money. Other friends came to his assistance, and work was soon
-started on the building. Cheshire organized the Guild of St. Martin to
-help him in carrying forward the work on the chapel. Some time before it
-was completed, he began to hold a service in the little church every
-Sunday night. This service was in addition to three others which he held
-each Sunday at St. Peter's. Thus, Cheshire had literally built from the
-ground up the mission of St. Martin's. It maintained a steady growth and
-in time became one of the larger parishes of the Diocese.
-
-There seems to have been almost no limit to Cheshire's missionary
-fervor. He was not content to confine his labors to the bounds of
-Charlotte. Shortly after coming to St. Peter's he visited Monroe, and
-there he found a number of churchmen who at one time had been served by
-the rector at Wadesboro. At the request of these churchmen Cheshire gave
-them a monthly service, being assisted for a time by Mr. Quin. In 1885
-the work at Monroe was turned over to Rev. Edwin A. Osborne. During his
-rectorate at St. Peter's Cheshire also held services from time to time
-at Rockingham, Mooresville, Mount Mourne, and Davidson College. He did
-not, however, succeed in establishing a permanent mission at any one of
-these places. If he had had more time to devote to this distant
-missionary work, he might have met with better success.
-
-In the fall of 1883 there came to Cheshire an opportunity to do what he
-later characterized as "the most entirely gratifying and successful work
-of all my missionary undertakings."[17] Columbus W. McCoy, of Long Creek
-Township, Mecklenburg County, invited Cheshire to hold a service in his
-community, stating that a number of people in his neighborhood had
-manifested an interest in the Episcopal Church. McCoy had formerly been
-a Presbyterian, but having become acquainted with the Book of Common
-Prayer, he expressed a desire to join the Episcopal Church. Cheshire
-accepted the invitation, and on November 18 held his first service there
-in the community schoolhouse. He passed the night with Mr. McCoy and
-spent the next day in visiting the people of the neighborhood. He felt
-that "very little can be accomplished in a new field by merely having a
-service, even a Sunday service, unless time is given to personal
-familiar visiting from house to house, to know the people, and to
-establish some influence among them."[18] He held a second service that
-night, and returned to Charlotte the following morning. This same
-procedure was followed in his subsequent visits.
-
-In December Cheshire went again to Long Creek, but in consequence of bad
-weather, he did not return again until the spring. Beginning in May,
-1884, he held monthly services in the Long Creek community. Observing
-the growing interest of the community in the church, he decided to hold
-a series of services for them from August 12 through the 16th. He
-secured the assistance of Rev. Dr. George B. Wetmore and Rev. Mr.
-Osborne. The services were held in Beach Cliff Schoolhouse and were so
-well attended that part of the congregation was forced to sit
-out-of-doors. Cheshire and his assistants took turns in preaching in the
-morning and evening. In the afternoons they visited those families who
-had shown an interest in becoming members of the church. In the course
-of the week they baptized sixteen persons, for the most part children,
-and at the end of the services fourteen adults signified their desire to
-be confirmed. At the close of the week's preaching Cheshire was
-presented with a petition signed by eleven persons who asked that they
-be organized as a mission under the name of St. Mark's Chapel. This was
-indeed a successful conclusion to the week's work.
-
-On October 25 Bishop Lyman visited Long Creek and confirmed sixteen
-persons. Following the confirmation he organized the congregation as a
-mission to be known as St. Mark's. Cheshire continued his monthly visits
-to the new mission until January, 1885, at which time he turned this
-work over to Rev. Edwin A. Osborne, who had already taken charge of
-Cheshire's congregation in Monroe. Upon assuming this work Mr. Osborne
-moved from Henderson County to Charlotte. During the remainder of
-Cheshire's rectorate at St. Peter's, he and Mr. Osborne became intimate
-friends and co-operated generously in each other's work.
-
-Although Cheshire devoted most of his time and energy to St. Peter's
-parish and its missions, he did not neglect his duty to the Diocese. He
-attended all of the diocesan conventions and took an active and
-significant part in their deliberations. Probably the most important
-action taken by any convention during his ministry was that relating to
-the division of the Diocese. The question of dividing the church in
-North Carolina into two dioceses had been discussed from time to time by
-the conventions since the election in 1873 of Bishop Lyman as assistant
-bishop. Bishop Atkinson had favored a division at one time, but when the
-question was placed squarely before the convention of 1877, he came out
-strongly against it. The large number of clergy and laity who favored
-division dropped the proposal for the time-being out of deference to
-Bishop Atkinson, who, they felt, did not have much longer to serve. Upon
-his death in January, 1881, the question was again brought forward. At
-the convention of 1882, held in Calvary Church, Tarboro, Dr. M. M.
-Marshall, rector of Christ Church, Raleigh, introduced resolutions
-declaring the sentiment of the people on division and calling for a
-committee to consider proposals for the erection of a new diocese. The
-convention approved Dr. Marshall's resolutions, and the Bishop appointed
-a special committee to report upon the subject.
-
-After some study of the proposal this committee submitted a majority
-report calling for a division of the Diocese. Bishop Lyman, who during
-Bishop Atkinson's life-time had advocated the formation of a new
-diocese, now reversed his position. Upon hearing the report of the
-special committee, the Bishop delivered "an impassioned attack upon the
-report."[19] The opposition of the Bishop led to a long and, at times,
-acrimonious discussion. When the question was finally voted upon, the
-committee's report was adopted by a large majority of the clergy and
-laity. The convention appointed a committee of clergymen and laymen to
-confer with the Bishop upon the details of the division, to obtain his
-consent, and to report to the next diocesan convention. Cheshire was
-made a member of this committee.
-
-St. Peter's parish, Charlotte, was host to the diocesan convention of
-1883. The most pressing and important business of this convention was
-the question of forming a new diocese. On the second day the Committee
-on Conference with the Bishop made its report. The committee stated that
-after a consultation with the Bishop it found that he was opposed to a
-division of the Diocese because he felt that one bishop in good health
-could do the work for the entire state, and that the church in North
-Carolina was not financially able to support two bishops and two
-diocesan organizations. The Bishop told the committee, however, that he
-would consent to the erection of a new diocese provided a large majority
-of clergy and laity desired it, the line of division to be satisfactory
-to him, and the permanent funds to be divided equally between the two
-dioceses. Following the report the convention voted on the question:
-forty-two clergymen voted for division, and eleven against; twenty-nine
-parishes voted for, and ten against. Cheshire voted for the creation of
-a new diocese, as he had done in the convention the year before.
-
-When the question of a territorial division came up for discussion,
-Cheshire moved that the new diocese be composed of the counties of
-Hertford, Bertie, Martin, Pitt, Greene, Wayne, Sampson, Cumberland, and
-Robeson, and all that part of the state located between those counties
-and the Atlantic coast. Cheshire later withdrew his motion when the
-special Committee on a Line of Division presented an amended report
-which embodied in substance his recommendation. The convention
-unanimously adopted the amended report. Cheshire was in favor of placing
-the counties of Edgecombe and Halifax in the eastern Diocese and
-retaining Cumberland in the old Diocese. When he saw, however, that
-Bishop Lyman would not give up Edgecombe and Halifax, he recommended
-that Cumberland should be included in the new division. This was the
-arrangement finally adopted.
-
-After an agreement had been reached on the line of demarcation, Cheshire
-offered the following resolutions: (1) that the convention of 1883
-ratify the work of the convention of 1882 relative to a division of the
-Diocese; (2) that the Bishop of the Diocese and the General Convention
-of the church be requested to give their consent to this procedure; and
-(3) that all the securities and properties of the church in North
-Carolina be equally divided between the two dioceses, as should be
-agreed upon by a committee representing both. Cheshire's resolutions
-were voted upon separately, and were all adopted. Following their
-approval the convention received a letter from Bishop Lyman announcing
-his consent to the formation of a new diocese. Thus was decided an
-important, and vexing, problem of the church in North Carolina.
-
-The convention of 1883 was the first in which Cheshire had taken a
-significant part, but from that time forward his influence and counsel
-became increasingly important. He was made chairman of the committee on
-the division of diocesan properties. His committee had a difficult task
-in dividing the permanent funds of the church to the satisfaction of
-both dioceses. The problem caused a few very bitter discussions in
-several succeeding conventions. Cheshire usually led the discussions,
-often taking the side of the new diocese against Bishop Lyman and a
-majority in the convention. More often than not he won his point, since
-his opponents rarely took the pains to make themselves fully acquainted
-with the facts. Cheshire was sometimes accused of being discourteous in
-his manner towards the Bishop when they disagreed. It can be fairly
-said, however, that he was never intentionally so. In a letter to the
-Bishop he remarked that he often spoke excitedly and impetuously upon
-any subject about which he felt very strongly, and that this
-characteristic was sometimes interpreted as discourtesy.[20] Cheshire
-had the highest respect for Bishop Lyman and admired him both as a
-bishop and a man. Nevertheless, it was almost inevitable that two such
-decided and forthright characters as Lyman and Cheshire should have
-pronounced disagreements.
-
-One of Cheshire's most valuable contributions to the diocesan
-conventions was his services on the Committee on Canons. He was a member
-of this committee from 1884 through 1893, with the exception of 1887-88,
-serving as its chairman for several years. He made himself thoroughly
-acquainted with the canons of the church, and while serving on the
-committee, he did most of its work. During these years debates on the
-canons occupied much of the time of the annual conventions. Long after
-becoming bishop, Cheshire remarked that he was happy to observe that
-this was no longer true, and that "We have come to be interested in more
-important business." He did not mean to belittle the value of canonical
-law, but rather to emphasize the importance of other work.
-
-In 1887 Cheshire made a revision of the canons, expecting the convention
-of that year to call for a revisal. He also carefully annotated the
-canons and the articles of the diocesan constitution. The convention of
-1887 did call for a revision to be made and be presented to it the next
-year. However, Cheshire was "surprised and disappointed" when the Bishop
-did not reappoint him to the Committee on Canons. Hearing of the work
-Cheshire had already done on the canons, Dr. Kemp P. Battle suggested
-that he should present to the next convention his revision as a
-substitute for the one to be proposed by the committee. Cheshire decided
-to follow this suggestion. When the committee presented its report to
-the convention of 1888, he rose to say that he had prepared a revision
-of the canons the year before and had been advised by some of his
-friends to offer it as a substitute. Several requests were made from the
-floor that he should explain his work. Following his explanation a
-motion was made that his revisal be adopted in place of that of the
-Committee on Canons. The motion was carried by a large majority, and
-after making several minor changes, the convention adopted Cheshire's
-revision. Its action was a signal tribute to the high character of
-Cheshire's work.
-
-From time to time Cheshire served on other regular and special
-committees. He was a member of the Executive Missionary Committee from
-1885 to 1891, and a member of the Board of Managers of the Thompson
-Orphanage from 1886 through 1893. In all his activities he manifested a
-zealous interest in the affairs of the Diocese. In consequence of his
-work in the diocesan conventions and his productive ministry in
-Charlotte, he came to be recognized as one of the outstanding clergymen
-of the state.
-
-Cheshire's first personal contact with the work of the church outside of
-North Carolina was with the University of the South at Sewanee,
-Tennessee. Feeling that the churchmen of his Diocese displayed an
-unwarrantable lack of interest in the welfare of the University of the
-South, he resolved to bring to their attention the needs and
-opportunities of the institution. In 1885 he made an appeal for support
-of the school in the columns of the _Church Messenger_. He wrote
-personal letters to prominent churchmen, and made addresses on behalf of
-the University in as many parishes as he could conveniently reach. His
-voluntary efforts met with some success. Perceiving Cheshire's active
-interest in the school, Dr. Jarvis Buxton, clerical trustee for the
-University from the Diocese of North Carolina, resigned this position at
-the convention of 1885. Dr. Buxton then nominated Cheshire to succeed
-him, and the convention unanimously confirmed his nomination. From 1887
-until he was elected bishop he attended every meeting of the trustees.
-During this period Cheshire formed many lasting friendships with the
-trustees and professors he met at Sewanee. These associations gave him a
-better understanding of the church's work outside of his Diocese.
-
-The diocesan convention further recognized Cheshire's ability by
-electing him one of the clerical deputies to the Triennial General
-Convention of 1886. He was re-elected a deputy to the succeeding
-conventions of 1889 and 1892. As far as the journals reveal, he did not
-take an active part in any of these meetings. It was characteristic of
-him to have little to say in a body of which he was a new member until
-he had become thoroughly acquainted with its personnel and procedure. At
-the General Convention of 1889 he was made a member of the Missionary
-Council and was re-elected to the Council in 1892. Attendance upon these
-conventions further broadened his knowledge of the work of the national
-church and brought him into contact with many of its prominent figures.
-
-In consequence of his energetic parochial work and his active
-participation in diocesan affairs, Cheshire received, during his
-rectorate at St. Peter's, several calls to other parishes. In September,
-1888, the vestry of Calvary Church, Tarboro, asked him to become their
-rector to succeed his father, who wished to retire. Cheshire refused the
-call. It is to be supposed that he preferred the larger opportunities
-offered in Charlotte, but his personal papers do not reveal why he
-rejected the invitation. Writing to him concerning his refusal, Bishop
-Lyman stated that he was pleased to learn that Cheshire was to remain in
-Charlotte, and that he recognized "how great a calamity it would have
-been to the interest of the Church, in your own, and in the adjacent
-counties, had you decided to resign your present position. I am sure,
-too, that your determination to remain will greatly strengthen the
-hearts of those around you, and greatly increase your powers of
-usefulness."[21] This commendation of his work by Bishop Lyman, who was
-not inclined to give excessive praise, must have been encouraging to
-Cheshire. Three years later he received a call from the vestry of St.
-Paul's Church, Macon, Georgia. They offered him a rectory and a salary
-of sixteen hundred dollars a year, but he also declined this call.
-
-The most complimentary consideration Cheshire received, prior to 1893,
-was in the summer of 1891. At that time Rev. Henry Lucas, rector of St.
-Mark's Church, Brunswick, Georgia, in behalf of himself and several
-other clergymen, wrote Cheshire to ask if he had any objection to his
-name being used as a nominee for bishop of Georgia. Lucas stated that
-the diocesan convention of Georgia was to meet on July 1, in Macon, to
-elect a bishop. Cheshire replied that if he were elected by the
-convention he would be "on the whole unwilling to accept." The Georgia
-convention met and elected a bishop, but Cheshire's name was not placed
-in nomination because the delegates did not wish to risk a refusal. Rev.
-A. W. Dodge, a member of the convention, wrote Cheshire: "I think we
-could have elected you without any great difficulty if you had been
-willing to serve us."[22] In none of his writings examined does Cheshire
-give an explanation of his unwillingness to become bishop of Georgia.
-His love for North Carolina and its people and a sincere conviction that
-he should devote his life to the work of the church in this state is
-probably the best explanation of his decision.
-
-During these years in which Cheshire was assuming a greater share of
-diocesan work, his parochial and missionary duties in and outside of
-Charlotte were not neglected. The only serious criticism of his services
-which was brought to his attention by his parishioners was that the
-missions in Iredell and Mecklenburg counties demanded too much of his
-time. Cheshire, however, maintained that in serving the rural missions
-he was at the same time building up St. Peter's, since the missions
-would eventually furnish many new members to the town parish. In spite
-of this criticism, he continued his missionary and institutional work.
-In 1885 and 1886 he gave wholehearted assistance to Rev. Edwin A.
-Osborne in establishing the Thompson Orphanage in Charlotte as a
-diocesan institution. The last parochial enterprise of St. Peter's
-Church in which he participated was the founding of the Good Samaritan
-Hospital for Negroes. The movement for the hospital was initiated by
-Mrs. John Wilkes, with whom Cheshire co-operated in every way. He
-devoted much time to raising the money for the purchase of a lot. In
-1888 he laid the cornerstone of the hospital and three years later
-officiated at its formal opening. The Good Samaritan was the first
-hospital for Negroes to be established in North Carolina.
-
-In the course of his pastorate in Charlotte Cheshire was on the
-friendliest of terms with the ministers of the other denominations,
-although he sometimes strongly differed with them. He was a member of
-the local Ministerial Association, serving for a time as its
-vice-president. The association often passed resolutions inviting
-popular preachers to hold revivals in Charlotte. Cheshire, not in
-sympathy with professional revivalists, customarily opposed this
-procedure.
-
-When the association once invited the well-known preacher, Sam Jones, to
-hold a series of services in Charlotte for ten days, all the ministers
-except Cheshire closed their churches during the revival. At the time,
-he was criticized rather severely for his lack of co-operation. Some
-eighteen months later Jones announced he was returning for a second
-revival, although he had received no invitation. Hearing of his plans,
-the Baptist pastor, at the next meeting of the Ministerial Association,
-proposed a resolution that the ministers of the town should not close
-their churches during Jones' visit, nor co-operate with him. He declared
-that, while his church had gained a good many members immediately
-following the revivalist's services, most of them had by this time
-deserted him, and the whole effect of Jones' preaching had been to lower
-and demoralize the religious life of his congregation. The other
-ministers concurred in his opinion. Cheshire, however, objected to the
-resolution on the grounds that he would not oppose any man who, as far
-as he knew, was "honestly trying to preach the Gospel as he understood
-it." He opposed it also as a matter of policy, since, in his opinion,
-nothing would please Jones more than to be able to say that "a lot of
-little two-by-four preachers got together, and voted to keep Sam Jones
-out of Charlotte."[23] Cheshire's argument convinced the other clergymen
-that he was right, and the resolution was dropped. The incident well
-illustrates his keen sense of fairness and good judgment.
-
-Cheshire's domestic and social life in Charlotte was happy and
-interesting. Although his salary was not large, he was able to make his
-family reasonably comfortable. When he and Mrs. Cheshire left Chapel
-Hill, they had two children, Elizabeth and Sarah. During their twelve
-years in Charlotte four other children were born to them—Joseph Blount,
-Annie, Godfrey, and James Webb. This was a large family to support on a
-clergyman's salary, but by good management they were able to make their
-life pleasant. The Cheshires were hospitable people and enjoyed
-entertaining their friends. The Dean of the Convocation of Charlotte and
-the Diocesan Evangelist, as well as many other visiting clergymen,
-usually stayed with them when visiting St. Peter's parish.
-
-Cheshire made many friends in Charlotte outside of his congregation as
-well as among his parishioners. He accomplished a great deal in building
-up a more friendly attitude on the part of the other denominations
-towards the Episcopal Church. The fearless and positive stand he always
-took on questions involving the principles and policies of his church,
-while antagonizing some people for a time, in the end won him many
-admirers and the respect of all.
-
-When Cheshire resigned his rectorate of St. Peter's in 1893 to become
-assistant bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina, he left in the parish
-a record difficult for any future rector to equal. In the course of his
-twelve years at St. Peter's he had increased its membership from one
-hundred and thirty-seven to two hundred and sixty-three. He organized
-and established St. Martin's parish, St. Michael and All Angels' mission
-for Negroes, St. Mark's mission at Mecklenburg, and St. Paul's mission
-at Monroe. He sponsored the building of St. Peter's and the Good
-Samaritan hospitals, and assisted Rev. E. A. Osborne in establishing the
-Thompson Orphanage. These were significant accomplishments for a
-rectorate of twelve years. But as almost everyone else, Cheshire also
-experienced some failures. In his attempts to establish missions at
-Rockingham, Mooresville, and Mount Mourne, he had not been successful.
-However, balanced against his successes, these failures seem small.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-_Election to the Episcopate_
-
-
-Theodore Benedict Lyman was elected assistant bishop of North Carolina
-in 1873, and upon the death of Bishop Thomas Atkinson in 1881 he assumed
-the control of the Diocese. In 1891 he celebrated in Christ Church,
-Raleigh, the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood.
-By this time the Bishop had begun to show signs that the duties of his
-office were becoming too arduous for his failing strength. It was not
-until two years later, however, that he felt that he must ask for
-assistance in his Episcopal duties. When the diocesan convention met in
-Christ Church, Raleigh, on May 17, 1893, Bishop Lyman brought to the
-attention of the body his failing health and the necessity of conserving
-his strength. He stated he would welcome any suggestions on the subject
-the convention saw fit to make. The subject of assisting the Bishop was
-taken under consideration immediately, and a committee was appointed to
-study how best this might be accomplished.
-
-The following day this committee recommended, in the form of several
-resolutions, that Bishop Lyman should be relieved of a part of his
-official work by the election of an assistant bishop; that when the
-convention completed its present session it should adjourn to meet again
-in Raleigh on June 27 to elect an assistant bishop; and that the present
-convention should take steps towards determining a salary for the new
-office. The resolutions were adopted in their entirety.
-
-Before taking up the proceedings of the adjourned convention, it is
-interesting to consider here some views Cheshire once expressed on the
-Episcopate in North Carolina. In 1891 a friend wrote him asking who he
-thought would make a good successor to Bishop Lyman. In reply to this
-query, Cheshire remarked that he did not approve of anyone's expressing
-an arbitrary opinion as to the choice of a bishop for this Diocese, but
-since that was what his friend desired, he would offer some suggestions.
-He declared that Dr. Francis J. Murdoch, Rector of St. Luke's,
-Salisbury, was his first choice, and characterized him as a learned,
-noble, and lovable man. His second and third choices were the Rev.
-Robert S. Barrett, of Atlanta, and the Rev. Mr. Winchester, of
-Nashville. Above everything, said Cheshire, "We want a plain man—one who
-can come down to the plain people of our country." He did not suggest
-anyone above the age of fifty, since he thought it was better to choose
-a clergyman "rather under than above his prime." Speaking in general of
-the election of bishops, Cheshire observed: "I really, and in all
-seriousness, think that there is something providential in the choice of
-a man to the office of Bishop. The best men are so often those who were
-hardly thought of beforehand—sometimes hardly heard of."[24] To
-illustrate his point, he cited the elections of Bishops Ravenscroft, of
-North Carolina, Whipple, of Minnesota, and Jackson, of Alabama. These
-observations are particularly interesting, coming as they did only two
-years before the proposed election of an assistant bishop.
-
-When the adjourned convention convened in Christ Church on June 27,
-Bishop Lyman gave his canonical consent to the election of an assistant
-bishop. The convention then provided that the new office should carry
-with it an annual salary of twenty-five hundred dollars.
-
-At the afternoon session the doors of the convention were closed, and
-nominations for an assistant bishop by the clergy were in order. The
-clergymen nominated were Rev. Nathaniel H. Harding, Dr. Joseph Blount
-Cheshire, Jr., Rev. T. M. N. George, Dr. Francis J. Murdoch, Dr.
-Matthias M. Marshall, and Rev. Robert S. Barrett. It is significant that
-all of these candidates, with the exception of R. S. Barrett, of
-Atlanta, were clergymen resident in North Carolina. It is also of
-interest that Murdoch and Cheshire, who were to be the two most
-important candidates, nominated each other. In his nomination speech Dr.
-Murdoch said: "The good shepherd knows his sheep. This is pre-eminently
-true of Dr. Cheshire. He knows the people of North Carolina, their
-history, their relationships, better perhaps than any other person
-living."[25]
-
-Under the rules of the convention the clergy elects a bishop by a
-two-thirds vote of their number. Their choice is then submitted to the
-laity, who either ratify or reject it. In this convention twenty-nine
-votes was the necessary majority for election.
-
-On the first three ballots, although all candidates received some votes,
-Cheshire led each time. But after the third ballot, the contest was
-narrowed down to Cheshire, Barrett, and Murdoch. Cheshire remained ahead
-through the sixth ballot; Murdoch then took the lead, which he held,
-with the exception of five ballots, through the twenty-fourth. During
-this balloting, Barrett led all candidates twice and tied with Murdoch
-for the highest number three times. After the twenty-fourth ballot
-Cheshire asked to be excused from further attendance. He explained that
-he had expected the convention to last only one day and had accordingly
-promised to marry a friend on the twenty-eighth.[26] He was excused, and
-without further balloting the convention adjourned at eleven-thirty in
-the evening.
-
-The following morning balloting was resumed, with Murdoch continuing to
-hold his lead. On the twenty-ninth ballot the Rev. Arthur S. Lloyd, of
-Norfolk, Virginia, was nominated and remained in the contest until the
-end. From the thirty-second through the thirty-fifth ballots Cheshire
-did not receive a single vote; while from the thirty-sixth through the
-thirty-eighth he received only one vote on each. Before the
-thirty-seventh was taken, Rev. W. S. Barrows moved that if no one was
-elected within the next two ballots, the clergy should retire from the
-convention for a conference. His motion was carried. Since no election
-took place, the clergy repaired to Christ Church chapel for prayer and
-conference.
-
-There was a small minority in the convention, numbering ten or twelve
-clergymen, who were opposed to electing anyone from the Diocese of North
-Carolina. This minority held the balance between the stronger candidates
-and thus prevented an election. All attempts to compromise with the
-minority on some candidate other than Murdoch or Cheshire failed.
-Thereupon, when the clergy met in the chapel, it was agreed that they
-should arrive at a choice by the process of elimination. After several
-votes were taken, the selection lay between Cheshire and Murdoch. The
-supporters of both men then agreed to vote in the convention for the one
-who received the highest vote in this conference. When the votes were
-counted, it was found that Cheshire led by a majority of one. The clergy
-then re-entered the church and took the thirty-ninth ballot, which
-resulted in twenty-nine votes for Cheshire, seven for Lloyd, and five
-scattered. The laity quickly confirmed the choice of the clergy by a
-vote of twenty-four to seven; whereupon the Bishop declared Rev. Joseph
-Blount Cheshire, Jr., elected assistant bishop of the Diocese and
-appointed a committee to notify him of his election.
-
-After performing the promised marriage ceremony, Cheshire went to High
-Point to spend the night. When he arrived, he found several telegrams
-from friends congratulating him upon his election. Describing his
-reaction to the news, he said that he "could not comprehend what they
-meant, and thought there must be some mistake. I was more deeply
-agitated than I could have anticipated." The following day he wrote his
-father: "The one thing in the election at Raleigh which gives me unmixed
-satisfaction is the knowledge that it would be a happiness to you and to
-mother. In every other respect my feelings are of so confused a kind
-that I hardly know myself what to do or say.... I feel that this
-election has its human cause and origin in your life-long labor for the
-church, and in the name and good will of our people which I have derived
-from you and not made for myself."[27] This sincere statement of his
-thoughts about his election was characteristic of Cheshire. He felt
-profoundly the great responsibility which had been placed upon him, and
-wrote a friend that he could never have undertaken it had he not felt
-that he had the "sympathy, co-operation, and prayer"[28] of his people.
-
-The month following his election Cheshire received more than two hundred
-letters and telegrams of congratulation. They came from clergymen and
-laymen in and outside of North Carolina, and a great many were from
-persons who were not members of the Episcopal Church. One of the most
-common sentiments found in these letters was the pleasure and
-gratification expressed at the election of a North Carolinian as
-assistant bishop. It is a noteworthy fact that Cheshire was the first
-native clergyman of the state to be elected to the Episcopate of the
-Diocese of North Carolina.
-
-Dr. Francis J. Murdoch, as well as many of his adherents, sent their
-sincere congratulations. In a circular letter to his supporters,
-thanking them for their efforts in his behalf, Dr. Murdoch said of
-Cheshire: "The election has ended as I wished. Other men may tremble as
-to the outcome. I have not one misgiving. Neither love for Dr. Cheshire
-nor prejudice against any man can warp my judgment in this matter. I say
-now (as I said when I nominated him) that we have made no mistake."[29]
-This warm praise from a man of Dr. Murdoch's high character and ability
-must have been very encouraging to Cheshire.
-
-An amusing and interesting tribute to Cheshire's election as assistant
-bishop were some verses by Rev. John E. C. Smedes. Dr. Smedes, a former
-clergyman of the Diocese, had been one of Cheshire's examiners for
-deacon's orders and had presented him for ordination as priest. His
-lines are as follows:
-
-CONGRATULATIONS TO A BISHOP-ELECT
-
-  News sweeter and fresher
-  I ask not, Joe Cheshire:
-  You are bishop assistant
-  Elect; though too distant
-  For love's fondest issue,
-  Alas! or I'd kiss you.
-  'Twas my joy to examine you
-  And find no mean sham in you;
-  For deep did they ram in you,
-  At Berkeley and Trinity,
-  A full charge of divinity.
-  'Twas my joy, mine eye feasted,
-  To see duly priested
-  The youth I presented.
-  And now I'm contented:
-  They will make you a bishop.
-  I send a meek wish up
-  To the Shepherd above,
-  That in wisdom and love
-  You may long feed His sheep,
-  While the Faith you still keep,
-  And then, crosier laid down,
-  May at last wear a crown.
-
-Shortly after his election Cheshire received an invitation from the
-vestry of Calvary Church, Tarboro, to have his consecration service held
-there. He accepted the invitation and selected October 15 as the date.
-It was indeed fitting that he should be consecrated in the church which
-his father had served for a half century and in which he himself had
-been brought up and ordained to the diaconate.
-
-On the day of Cheshire's consecration the little town of Tarboro was
-taxed almost to its capacity to take care of the out-of-town people who
-had come for the service. About thirty clergymen from the dioceses of
-North Carolina and East Carolina were present. The service began at
-eleven in the morning. The ecclesiastical procession, headed by seven
-bishops and the bishop-elect, entered the church singing the hymn "The
-Church's One Foundation." Rt. Rev. T. U. Dudley, Bishop of Kentucky,
-preached the sermon. Bishop Lyman was the consecrator, assisted by
-Bishops Watson, of East Carolina, and Capers, of South Carolina.
-Cheshire was presented by Bishop Weed, of Florida, and Bishop Sessums,
-of Louisiana. The venerable Bishop Quintard, of Tennessee, also took
-part in the service. All of the bishops joined in the laying on of
-hands. During the service the choir sang the anthem "How Beautiful upon
-the Mountains are the Feet of Them that Publish Good Tidings," composed
-by Rev. Dr. M. A. Curtis. It is interesting to note that this anthem was
-sung at the ordination of Dr. J. B. Cheshire, Sr., in 1840 and at the
-ordination of Rev. J. B. Cheshire, Jr., in 1880. The service closed with
-the singing of the recessional "Holy, Holy, Holy." It was a beautiful
-and impressive ceremony, but its beauty was marred for Cheshire by the
-absence of his father, who was not well enough to attend.
-
-Bishop Cheshire's first episcopal act was to hold an evening service in
-Tarboro, the night of his consecration, at St. Luke's Chapel for
-Negroes. He did not lose any time in assuming the duties of his new
-office. While in Tarboro he made several visitations in Edgecombe and
-Halifax counties. On October 23 he and his family returned to Charlotte,
-but he did not tarry long. A few days later he set out for the mountains
-of North Carolina, where he spent a month visiting the scattered
-churches and missions in that section. Returning from the mountains, he
-continued his visitations until he was suddenly called to Raleigh on
-December 13 by the death of Bishop Lyman, who had been in greatly
-enfeebled health for the past few months.
-
-The death of Bishop Lyman placed the Assistant Bishop in full charge of
-the Diocese of North Carolina. The few weeks of work Bishop Cheshire had
-had under the direction and advice of the senior bishop stood him in
-good stead now that he had the sole responsibility for episcopal
-guidance of the Diocese.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-_First Years in the Episcopacy_
-
-
-When Bishop Cheshire assumed the episcopal oversight of the Diocese of
-North Carolina, he felt little confidence in his ability to fulfill the
-duties of the office. He did feel that by sincere and diligent
-application he could accomplish much for the welfare of the church. When
-elected assistant bishop he was, in his own words, "constrained to
-accept the call, not from any sense of fitness in myself, but simply
-because such a call seems to me to carry with it an imperative
-obligation to accept, unless the hand of God should plainly point in
-another direction: a dispensation was laid upon me."[30] Notwithstanding
-his expressed views, Bishop Cheshire was, in the opinion of most
-churchmen, better fitted for his office by ability, temperament, and
-training than any other man in North Carolina.
-
-Bishop Cheshire met his first diocesan convention in May, 1894, at St.
-Paul's Church, Winston. He opened his annual address by saying: "I
-cannot bring into any order or method in my own mind, much less can I
-put it into words, the feelings which this occasion calls up. To no one
-can it seem stranger than it does to myself that I should occupy this
-place, and thus address you from the chair of Ravenscroft, of Atkinson,
-and of him so lately taken from us." He made no recommendations for
-important changes in the policy or work of the church, since he wished
-to become more thoroughly acquainted with the problems and needs of the
-Diocese before doing so. The Bishop urged upon the clergy then, as he
-was to do many times in the future, the necessity of keeping their
-parochial records in proper order, and observed that no businessman
-would employ a clerk for a week if he kept his books as many of the
-parish registers were kept. In concluding his address, the Bishop
-touched on three subjects which were to be collectively the theme of his
-episcopate: namely, the importance of regarding the Diocese rather than
-the parish as the unit of the church; the necessity of supporting all
-diocesan institutions; and the great need for continuing and expanding
-the missionary work of the Diocese. Time and time again he drove home
-the spirit and essence of these subjects, until the clergy and laity
-alike caught some of the fire of his enthusiasm and translated his ideas
-into living reality.
-
-One of the first diocesan projects Bishop Cheshire undertook was the
-revival of the old mission of Valle Crucis, established by Bishop Ives
-about fifty years before. At the same time he planned to revive the
-mission work along the Watauga River. For this difficult work the Bishop
-had one man in mind who he thought was eminently qualified—Rev. Milnor
-Jones. His first meeting with Jones had been at the convention of 1883.
-Shortly afterwards, Bishop Lyman had asked Cheshire if he would carry to
-Jones a sum of money which had been raised to aid him in erecting a
-church at Tryon. The Bishop had added that he hoped Cheshire would spend
-a few days with Jones to observe his work. Cheshire complied with the
-Bishop's request, and spent a few unforgettable days with Jones, driving
-with him over the hills and valleys of Polk County to visit his
-scattered missions. At the time, he had been greatly impressed with
-Jones' influence with the mountain people. When he began to plan the
-revival of Valle Crucis, he remembered his experience with the
-picturesque mountain missionary.
-
-Milnor Jones, however, was in Oregon when the Bishop was ready to
-commence his mountain work. In January, 1894, Cheshire wrote asking him
-to return to North Carolina. In replying to Bishop Cheshire, Jones wrote
-this characteristically laconic letter: "Where do you want me to go?
-What do you wish me to do? And what salary will you give? Not that the
-_amount_ of the salary makes any difference; I only wish to know just
-what I have to go on." The Bishop answered as concisely: "I want you to
-go to Valle Crucis, on the Watauga River. I want you to revive the old
-Valle Crucis Mission, as your special work; and I give you for your
-field of operations Watauga, Mitchell, and Ashe Counties, to do what you
-can in them. I will give you six hundred dollars a year, payable
-monthly."[31]
-
-Milnor Jones was a rough, plain-spoken individual with a remarkable
-faculty for understanding and winning the confidence of the simple
-mountain folk. He had a deeply religious nature, and a complete
-fearlessness in preaching the Gospel as he understood it. Bishop
-Cheshire found him an unusually effective man in laying the foundations
-of missionary work, but from that point he seemed to lack the power to
-build further.
-
-Jones entered with enthusiasm upon his work in the mountains of North
-Carolina. When the Bishop began his visitations to the western counties
-in June, 1895, he found that Jones had made a promising beginning.
-Bishop Cheshire spent several weeks with him, visiting one mission
-station after another in the counties of Mitchell, Watauga, and Ashe.
-They preached, baptized, and confirmed in the most out-of-the-way places
-and under the most varied conditions. When they first visited
-Bakersville they held services in the courthouse, but upon their return
-for a second service some time later, they were refused the use of the
-building on the grounds that the courthouse was not safe for large
-crowds. The local newspaper, however, gave as the reason for the refusal
-the fact that the Methodists and Baptists held that "the Episcopalians
-had been preaching uncomfortable doctrine." The Bishop and Jones were
-not to be daunted; they held their service on the street in front of the
-courthouse. A large congregation gathered for the service. When the
-Bishop began preaching he did not think his voice would reach the
-assemblage, but after a few minutes he felt as if he could make himself
-heard "a mile away." He afterwards declared that "I never spoke with
-more ease, freedom, and enjoyment, or with a greater sense of the high
-privilege of being a servant and ambassador of my Lord."[32]
-
-Another interesting episode in Bishop Cheshire's mission work in the
-mountains took place at Beaver Creek, Ashe County, in the summer of
-1896. Here the Bishop and Jones were maintaining a mission school with
-two teachers in a building which had been leased for two years. When the
-Bishop went to the schoolhouse to hold a service, he was met by a mob of
-more than fifty men who "forcibly prevented" him from entering. The mob
-declared that the reason they were preventing him from holding his
-service was that they did not like "Mr. Jones' doctrine" and they
-understood that he, the Bishop, taught the same doctrine. In reporting
-the incident to the convention of the Jurisdiction of Asheville, the
-Bishop described it as "an experience which I certainly had never
-thought a possibility in my native state of North Carolina."[33]
-
-In reviving the old mission at Valle Crucis Bishop Cheshire did not
-intend to follow the plan of Bishop Ives, which had been to establish a
-boys' school and a training school for the clergy. His primary motive
-was to evangelize the people of the mountain counties. He wanted to make
-Valle Crucis "an associate mission from which preachers and teachers
-should go out and keep up the work of evangelizing, instructing, and
-educating wherever an opening might be found or made."[34]
-
-Milnor Jones, carrying letters of introduction from his Bishop, in the
-fall of 1895 visited the northern states to raise funds for his mountain
-work. He was successful in his efforts and, with the money thus raised,
-mission schools were established at Valle Crucis and at Beaver Creek. In
-the course of 1896 and 1897 a mission home, consisting of an eight-room
-house, was erected at Valle Crucis at a cost of twelve hundred dollars.
-It was built to accommodate a missionary, a teacher, and several pupils
-attending the mission school. Shortly after this constructive beginning
-Milnor Jones gave up the work at Valle Crucis. He confined his efforts
-to the small mission stations scattered over Mitchell, Watauga, and Ashe
-counties. The Bishop placed Rev. Samuel F. Adams in charge of Valle
-Crucis, and under his guidance and that of his successors the work
-progressed steadily.
-
-Milnor Jones left North Carolina towards the end of 1897. He, with the
-assistance and encouragement of Bishop Cheshire, had laid the
-foundations of a missionary work which was to be a credit to the church.
-Referring once to the character of Jones' work, the Bishop remarked: "If
-I had a wild mountain country full of moonshiners, I think I would like
-to have him, but for anything more civilized he is too savage."[35] With
-all of Jones' crudeness and faults, Bishop Cheshire believed him to be
-"really a more Godly man than many an one whose life is perfectly
-conventional and blameless." The Bishop often remarked that the visits
-he made to Milnor Jones in the mountains of North Carolina were among
-the most interesting experiences of his career.
-
-Coinciding with Bishop Cheshire's efforts to expand and revive the
-missionary work of the church in the mountains, a movement was initiated
-to create a missionary district from the western counties of the Diocese
-of North Carolina. At the diocesan convention of 1894 a committee was
-appointed to study the advisability of requesting the General Convention
-to organize the western counties of the state into a missionary
-jurisdiction. It was felt by many that the present Diocese was too large
-to be adequately administered and supervised by one bishop. In his
-address to the convention of 1895 Bishop Cheshire substantiated this
-view when he reported that during the past year he had been able to
-devote only nine weeks to the western section of the state, which
-embraced nearly thirty counties.
-
-The Bishop was "in sentiment" strongly opposed to a division of his
-Diocese, for he disliked seeing the church in North Carolina divided
-further. Also, he had become deeply interested in his mountain missions
-and was loath to relinquish them. He realized, however, the
-impossibility of properly serving such a large territory. Moreover, he
-was determined not to make the mistake which he thought Bishop Atkinson,
-in 1877, and Bishop Lyman, in 1882, had made when they opposed the
-formation of a new diocese. In his opinion, a bishop "makes a mistake,
-when he opposes the well-settled convictions of his clergy and people
-upon a matter affecting the development of the Diocese."[36]
-
-When the diocesan convention met in May, 1895, the Committee on the
-Proposed Missionary Jurisdiction recommended that the General Convention
-be requested to set apart the western section of the Diocese of North
-Carolina as a missionary jurisdiction. It was further recommended that
-the line of division should be the eastern boundaries of the counties of
-Alleghany, Wilkes, Alexander, Catawba, Lincoln and Gaston. Bishop
-Cheshire had suggested to the committee this territorial division.
-Although it meant a great loss of strength to his own Diocese, the
-Bishop believed that the missionary jurisdiction should be made large
-enough to be of importance, and that it should be created with the view
-of its becoming a diocese at some future date. The convention adopted
-the committee's recommendations, and instructed its deputies to present
-them to the General Convention.
-
-When this body met in the fall of 1895, Bishop Cheshire presented in the
-House of Bishops the memorial of the Diocese of North Carolina
-requesting the erection of a missionary jurisdiction. The memorial was
-referred to the Committee on Domestic Missions. A few days later the
-Bishop of Florida, chairman of the committee, reported the memorial
-unfavorably, stating that his committee did not believe the reasons set
-forth were sufficient to justify an affirmative action. He further
-reported that the legal and constitutional requirements had not been
-properly provided for. Bishop Cheshire then introduced a resolution
-calling for the erection of a missionary district and providing that it
-should be under the limited jurisdiction of the Bishop and Convention of
-the Diocese of North Carolina until such constitutional amendments could
-be adopted to remove the objections advanced by the Bishop of Florida.
-The House of Bishops adopted the resolution with little discussion, and
-two days later it was approved by the House of Deputies. Following this
-action Bishop Cheshire moved that the House of Bishops should proceed to
-the election of a missionary bishop for the newly created district. His
-motion met with opposition and was postponed to a future meeting of the
-House of Bishops. The district, which was to be known as the
-Jurisdiction of Asheville, was temporarily placed under the episcopal
-care of Bishop Cheshire.
-
-Only a few weeks after the close of the General Convention, Bishop
-Cheshire, on November 12, 1895, met the first convention of the
-Missionary Jurisdiction of Asheville. He outlined to the clergy and
-laity what would be expected of them as a missionary jurisdiction, and
-gave much helpful advice on setting up the machinery for carrying on
-their work. The Bishop called to their attention the almost incalculable
-opportunities for extending the influence of the church in the mountain
-counties. The next year he greatly expanded this idea in a charge to the
-clergy of the Jurisdiction. The Bishop pointed out that nine-tenths of
-the work in the Jurisdiction of Asheville was to evangelize people who
-were almost wholly ignorant of the church. Such material aids as
-rectories, schoolhouses, and even churches, while undoubtedly helpful,
-were not necessary adjuncts to the primary object of the church: "to
-catch men." He urged the clergy to know the people, to preach to them in
-words they could understand, and to make religion an integral part of
-their lives.
-
-After completing his first year in charge of the Jurisdiction of
-Asheville, and after a careful study of the manifold problems peculiar
-to it, Bishop Cheshire was convinced that the erection of the missionary
-jurisdiction was "an act of wise and prudent statesmanship." He thought
-that a missionary who had the oversight of three or four counties sorely
-needed regular visitations from the bishop, and in his opinion the work
-could be more effectively carried on if the bishop were able to remain a
-week or more with each missionary. He pressed these points upon the
-members of the House of Bishops in strongly advocating the election of a
-bishop for the Jurisdiction. Finally, in the fall of 1898, the House of
-Bishops elected the Rev. Junius Moore Horner, a native North Carolinian,
-as missionary bishop of the Jurisdiction of Asheville. He was
-consecrated on December 28, 1898, in Trinity Church, Asheville, with
-Bishop Cheshire as the consecrator. After this service Bishop Cheshire
-formally turned over to Bishop Horner the full administration of the
-Jurisdiction.
-
-Turning now to a wholly different phase of Bishop Cheshire's work, we
-take up one of the most important achievements of his long episcopate,
-the establishment of St. Mary's School for girls as a church
-institution. This school had been founded in Raleigh by Dr. Aldert
-Smedes in 1842, and had been nurtured and maintained, through good and
-hard times, by its founder and his son and successor, Dr. Bennett
-Smedes. St. Mary's was not a church school, but its two rectors had been
-Episcopal clergymen, and thus the institution had been under the
-exclusive influence of the Episcopal Church. By 1896 Dr. Bennett Smedes
-was finding it very difficult to compete with publicly supported and
-privately endowed schools. At this time he made it known that he could
-no longer continue St. Mary's as a private school.
-
-The Alumnae Association of St. Mary's at once took action to preserve
-the school for the church. It sent a memorial to the diocesan convention
-of 1896, in which it appealed to the Episcopal Church in North Carolina
-"either to endow the School, or to erect for it suitable buildings in
-Raleigh or elsewhere, and thus relieve it of one great drain, its heavy
-rent." The appeal met with sympathetic attention from Bishop Cheshire.
-Only the year before, he had remarked to the convention: "I have been,
-from earliest childhood, brought up to look upon St. Mary's School, at
-Raleigh, as the most valuable of all our church institutions or agencies
-in North Carolina.... I cannot too highly recommend this school to the
-confidence of all the people of North Carolina."
-
-After careful consideration of the St. Mary's Alumnae memorial, the
-convention adopted a resolution providing for the appointment of a
-committee of six, to include the Bishop, with the authority to buy
-suitable buildings for a girls' school or to purchase land and erect new
-buildings. In direct reply to the memorialists, Bishop Cheshire offered
-a resolution, which the convention adopted, assuring the alumnae that
-the church in North Carolina "will do all in its power to place St.
-Mary's School upon a permanent foundation as an institution under the
-charge and patronage of the Church throughout the entire State...."
-
-At the convention of 1897 the special committee on a diocesan school for
-girls reported that it had procured a charter of incorporation for the
-Board of Trustees of St. Mary's School from the state legislature, and
-had turned over to this corporation all further negotiations. The newly
-constituted Board of Trustees, of which Bishop Cheshire was chairman,
-then made its report. It recommended that not less than one hundred
-thousand dollars be raised for the purchase of a location, the erection
-of buildings, and an endowment of St. Mary's School. The Board announced
-that it had contracted to purchase for fifty thousand dollars a site
-known as the St. Mary's Tract. The convention adopted the report as it
-was made.
-
-During the past year, at the request of the Trustees, Bishop Cheshire
-had spent a month visiting many towns throughout the state in an attempt
-to interest the people of the church in the needs and potentialities of
-St. Mary's School. His efforts met with gratifying success. He appealed
-to the women of the state, and especially to the alumnae of St. Mary's,
-to raise fifty thousand dollars for an endowment which should be known
-as "The St. Mary's Alumnae Association Fund." To stimulate the interest
-and increase the activity of the women in this plan, Bishop Cheshire
-organized the "Order of the Patrons and Daughters of St. Mary's." He
-proposed to find fifty women who would give five hundred dollars each
-towards the endowment, and two hundred and fifty others who would each
-contribute one hundred dollars. He reported to the convention of 1897
-that he had raised a substantial amount in this way.
-
-Thus, St. Mary's was established as the official school of the Episcopal
-Church in North Carolina. The Diocese of East Carolina and the
-Jurisdiction of Asheville had agreed to contribute to the maintenance of
-the school and were given representation on the Board of Trustees. Dr.
-Bennett Smedes was retained as rector of the school and continued in
-this position until his death in 1899. The first year the school was
-under the control of the church the number of boarding students
-increased fifty per cent. To a great extent the enlarged enrollment was
-due to the renewed interest which Bishop Cheshire had aroused.
-
-In the course of his negotiations to establish St. Mary's as a church
-school, the Bishop discovered that the churchmen of South Carolina had
-been for some time loyal and generous supporters of the school. After
-reflection upon this fact, he determined to ask the Diocese of South
-Carolina to co-operate in the maintenance and management of St. Mary's.
-When he discussed the subject with the Board of Trustees, it was decided
-to appoint a committee of the Board to meet at Saluda to confer with
-representatives from South Carolina. The conference was held in August,
-1898. After a friendly and constructive discussion, the conference
-resolved that St. Mary's School should be placed under the "control and
-patronage of all the Carolina Dioceses."
-
-Bishop Cheshire met with the convention of the Diocese of South Carolina
-in the spring of 1899 and presented the advantages and possibilities of
-St. Mary's as a church institution. The resolution of the Saluda
-conference was reported to the convention and was unanimously adopted.
-Bishop Capers, two clergymen, and two laymen were appointed to the Board
-of Trustees to represent South Carolina. After patient and diligent work
-Bishop Cheshire was able to unite the church of the two states in the
-support of one church school for girls. In a comparatively short time it
-was to become the largest Episcopal school for girls in the United
-States.
-
-In the winter of 1897 Bishop Cheshire suffered an irreparable loss in
-the death of his wife. Their married life of twenty-two years had been
-remarkably happy. Mrs. Cheshire had been a great help to him in his work
-as deacon and priest and later as bishop of the Diocese. She gave him
-encouragement, devotion, and the benefit of her sound common sense. The
-Bishop often spoke of how much she meant to him in his work, and of
-their happy life together.
-
-It was a fortunate coincidence that the Lambeth Conference came in the
-summer of 1897, for it enabled him to have a complete change, removing
-him from those associations which reminded him so strongly of his wife.
-The Lambeth Conference, which convenes approximately every ten years at
-Lambeth Palace, London, is composed of all the bishops of the Episcopal
-Church throughout the world. Bishop Cheshire decided to attend,
-believing it would be broadening and an exceedingly worth-while
-experience. The object of the Conference was to discuss religious
-questions of world-wide interest. In the course of its sessions it would
-be divided into groups which would discuss problems relating to
-particular countries.
-
-The Bishop sailed from New York on June 2, arriving in England six days
-later. Since the Conference did not commence until July 1, he spent the
-intervening time sight-seeing. This was the summer of Queen Victoria's
-Diamond Jubilee, giving an additional interest to his trip. He attended
-the Jubilee service at St. Paul's, and remarked that the Bishop of
-London preached "a good sermon" for the occasion.
-
-The Lambeth Conference was formally opened at Westminster Abbey by the
-Archbishop of Canterbury, who was to preside over its sessions. There
-were present for the Conference one hundred and ninety-four bishops from
-all parts of the world. Forty-nine of these represented the Episcopal
-Church of the United States. The sessions of the Conference continued
-through July 31. Bishop Cheshire was a member of the committee on church
-unity, and, as far as his journal reveals, this was the only committee
-on which he served. Reporting upon the Lambeth Conference to his
-diocesan convention the following year, Bishop Cheshire said: "The first
-message which we bring home from the Lambeth Conference of 1897 is that
-God in His Providence is opening the world to us; and to prepare us for
-the work we are to do, He is drawing all parts of the world-possessing
-Anglo-Saxon race into a closer union of common interest and sympathies,
-and of mutual confidence." He declared that the American bishops, while
-receiving much benefit from the Conference, had also contributed
-constructively to its work.
-
-Shortly after the Conference closed, Bishop Cheshire visited the
-Archbishop of York for a few days. Upon leaving York he spent about a
-month traveling in England, Scotland, the Orkneys, and Ireland. In early
-September he left England for the Continent, where he visited in
-succession Antwerp, Brussels, and Cologne. Of his reactions to the
-cathedrals of these three cities, the Bishop observed that they "do not
-seem to me to be really so full of interest and beauty as even the
-inferior English cathedrals. They do not so abound with evidences and
-symbols of their connection with the life and history of the country and
-people, and so in spite of all their ornamentation they have a barren
-look."[37] The Bishop did some further sight-seeing in Germany,
-Switzerland, and France. While in Switzerland he saw the famous Lion of
-Lucerne, which he thought possessed "a dignity, nobleness, and beauty
-about it which exceeds anything of the kind I have ever seen before."
-Leaving from Southampton, he arrived in New York on September 24,
-feeling much refreshed and ready to return to the work of his Diocese.
-
-Two years after his visit to England Bishop Cheshire married Miss
-Elizabeth Lansdale Mitchell, of Beltsville, Maryland. She was the
-daughter of Rev. Walter A. Mitchell, an Episcopal clergyman. The
-marriage proved to be happy and successful in every way. Mrs. Cheshire
-was a splendid mother to the Bishop's children, and they all became
-devoted to her.
-
-When a friend heard that Bishop Cheshire was to be married, he remarked
-to the Bishop that with his large family he needed a wife. With his
-characteristic honesty the Bishop replied: "I don't need any such thing.
-My daughters take the best care of me and want me to have the best of
-everything. I don't need a wife; I am marrying again just because I want
-to."[38]
-
-From the General Convention of 1895 to that of 1931, Bishop Cheshire
-attended every triennial meeting of this body. In the first three or
-four conventions, he did not take an active part in the discussions of
-the House of Bishops. For that matter, he never participated as
-prominently in its deliberations as some of the other bishops. At the
-1895 convention he was appointed to the committees on the Admission of
-New Dioceses and on the Consecration of Bishops, and at the next
-triennial meeting he was made a member of the Joint Commission on the
-Revision of the Constitution and Canons. This last appointment pleased
-him, since it was the kind of work for which he was well prepared. His
-legal training influenced his partiality for this type of work. In 1904
-he was appointed to the Committee on Canons, on which he served for
-almost every convention until his death. As a member of this committee
-he made his most important contribution to the work of the General
-Convention. It will be recalled that it was in this capacity that he had
-done his best work in the diocesan conventions. From time to time he was
-made a member of other regular and special committees.
-
-When Bishop Cheshire assumed the office of bishop of the Diocese of
-North Carolina, he felt it his duty to exercise the full authority of
-that office. In deciding upon this course of action he did not intend to
-be arbitrary or despotic in administering the Diocese, although at times
-some clergymen and laymen seemed to think so. But when they became
-better acquainted with him and his methods, they admired and respected
-him the more. The Bishop had a forthright, and sometimes decidedly
-blunt, manner of speaking, which, to those who did not know him so well,
-seemed arbitrary or overbearing. He had disagreements with his
-clergymen, but they felt that they could always count upon receiving a
-fair hearing from him. When the Bishop realized he was in error upon any
-point, no one was quicker than he to admit it.
-
-In 1895 Bishop Cheshire, for the first time in the history of the
-Diocese, issued to the clergy "Visitation Articles," as called for by a
-canon of the church. After employing them for a year he found they were
-useful and "calculated to make the visitations of the Bishop of more
-real value to the Clergy and to the people. The Bishop has for so long a
-time ceased to exert any real influence or control in the ordinary life
-and work of the parish in all parts of the United States, that the
-assertion of that authority, which in theory our Bishops are supposed to
-possess, is perhaps impracticable at present."[39] He thought that if
-the bishop would make himself acquainted with the affairs of each
-congregation during his visitation, it would strengthen the influence of
-the episcopate, and would go far towards the "breaking up of our present
-congregational parochialism." One of Bishop Cheshire's customs which
-endeared him to his people was that of calling upon the members of a
-congregation during his visitation. Of this practice he once remarked:
-"People like the attention and it makes Bishop and people feel nearer
-together, but in most cases they do not want very long visits."[40] The
-Bishop's keen understanding of human nature was one of his most notable
-qualities.
-
-Bishop Cheshire thought that southern bishops had a great deal to be
-thankful for, particularly that in the South "as much as anywhere in the
-world, I believe, the Bishop may still be in some real and personal
-sense, the pastor of his flock, can live in familiar and confidential
-relations with his people." He deplored the tendency, which seemed to be
-growing in some quarters, of making the bishop simply an administrator
-of ecclesiastical affairs.
-
-While Bishop Cheshire was in no sense a ritualist, or what is commonly
-known as high church, he believed in a strict adherence to the rubrics
-of the Book of Common Prayer. He had a great reverence and admiration
-for the services of the Prayer Book, and consequently little patience
-with those clergymen who attempted to alter their order or length. He
-was not a dogmatic formalist, but was thoroughly convinced that the
-canons and rubrics of the church should be obeyed and not disregarded by
-those individuals who might take exception to them.
-
-In a charge to his clergy on the subject of Public Worship, Bishop
-Cheshire pointed out that the church was established and is sustained by
-Christ for two purposes: "first, to be the depository and source of
-spiritual Truth and Power; and second, to bring men into living contact
-with that spiritual Truth and Power." The Prayer Book is a means by
-which the church can diffuse and extend the truth, and it is also a
-means of developing and conserving the influence of the church. In his
-opinion, extemporary methods of worship had a tendency to weaken and
-finally destroy the concept of common public worship. The public worship
-of the Episcopal Church was not left to individual whim or judgment, but
-was definitely prescribed. He maintained that the participation of the
-congregation in the services and sacraments of the church is its
-principal means of cultivating its oneness with Christ. The Bishop
-enjoined the clergy to follow the services as they were set down in the
-Prayer Book, and warned them that they would gain nothing, but rather
-would injure the church by seeking to make their services more
-attractive through short cuts or innovations.
-
-In a Pastoral Letter to the clergy and laity of the Diocese, Bishop
-Cheshire further developed the subject of public worship and the use of
-the Prayer Book. He gave much sound instruction as to how the minister
-and congregation should conduct themselves in any of the church's
-services, particularly emphasizing the importance of correct kneeling
-and audible and intelligent responses. He stressed the value which the
-clergy and laity would receive from a regular observance of the feast
-days and fast days. The Bishop expressed his strong disapproval of
-decorating the church for any purpose other than "for God's honor." The
-sacred character of the church should not be sacrificed to gratify the
-vanity of men and women. He referred particularly to the extravagant
-excesses often indulged in when decorating the church for weddings.
-
-This Pastoral Letter is just as applicable to churchmen today and is
-worthy of as much consideration from them as when it was first issued in
-1912. It would be of great value to them to hear it read annually in the
-churches of the Diocese.
-
-Bishop Cheshire never went to extremes in anything. In spiritual as well
-as in material matters he believed in preserving a sense of proportion.
-He advised his clergy to use practical judgment in the observance of
-Lenten services. Very few clergymen were capable of preaching good
-sermons for forty or more consecutive days and, in his opinion, few
-congregations desired them. Even in those cases where a preaching Lent
-had been successful, he thought that a change would have a salutary
-effect upon the people.
-
-On the subject of church music he tried to preserve an equilibrium of
-opinion. The Bishop was very fond of good ecclesiastical music and
-thoroughly enjoyed singing himself. While his standards of church music
-were high, he did not at all approve of too elaborate arrangements of
-the old chants and hymns. He wanted them sung properly, but also in such
-a way that at least a part of the congregation would be able to join in
-with the choir. On several occasions he was known to have stopped the
-organist and choir in the middle of a hymn or chant because the tune was
-either too difficult or too decorative.
-
-Bishop Cheshire's interest in domestic missionary work was by no means
-limited to the zeal which he had displayed when working in the mountains
-of North Carolina. In his report on missionary work to the convention of
-1898, he made a strong appeal for domestic missions and missionaries. He
-called to the attention of the convention the fact that the growth of
-the church in the Diocese was chiefly through its missions. Since there
-were no large city parishes, its strength lay in the towns, villages,
-and country districts. "In these," said he, "has been our growth, and in
-these is our hope and strength for the future." The missionary clergymen
-had presented for confirmation during the past year more than half of
-the total number of persons confirmed. He concluded these remarks with
-an urgent plea for adequate salaries for the missionaries.
-
-Up to 1901 the administration of the diocesan missions was in the hands
-of the Bishop and the Executive Missionary Committee of the convention.
-Bishop Cheshire reported that under this system the missionary work
-usually showed an annual deficit of from four to five hundred dollars,
-even after he had used funds for it which should have been reserved for
-special work. With the advice and approbation of Bishop Cheshire, the
-convention of 1901 divided the missionary work of the Diocese into three
-divisions—the Convocation of Raleigh, the Convocation of Charlotte, and
-the Convocation for Colored Work. These convocations, each with an
-archdeacon at its head, were given full control of diocesan missions.
-The archdeacons, under the supervision of the bishop, had the direction
-and control of the missionaries in their respective convocations. Under
-this new organization the diocesan missions progressed steadily, and the
-treasurers of the convocations seldom reported a deficit. Some fifteen
-years after this plan was inaugurated, Bishop Cheshire declared that the
-missionary work had been "prosecuted with greater vigor and system than
-ever before in my knowledge of the Diocese."
-
-At the close of the first decade of Bishop Cheshire's episcopate, a
-large number of clergy and laity gathered at Good Shepherd Church,
-Raleigh, on the evening of October 14, 1903, to celebrate the occasion.
-At this service the Bishop made an address in which he reviewed his work
-for the period. During the decade he had held more than 4,000 services,
-preached 1,400 sermons, delivered 500 addresses, confirmed 4,400
-persons, consecrated 27 churches and chapels, and ordained 27 clergymen.
-To him the greatest achievement of the past ten years was the
-acquisition of St. Mary's and its establishment as the church school of
-all the Carolina dioceses. In 1897 his Diocese had assumed in behalf of
-St. Mary's an obligation of fifty thousand dollars to be paid in twenty
-years. At the end of six years only eighteen thousand dollars of the
-debt remained, and in addition ten thousand dollars had been spent upon
-permanent equipment for the school. Since the Diocese took over St.
-Mary's, the number of boarding pupils had increased threefold. In
-conclusion, he declared that they should not look too much to the past
-but should press on to the future with the work of the church.
-
-Representatives of the clergy and laity congratulated the Bishop upon
-his tenth anniversary, pledging their loyalty and devotion to him, and
-expressing the appreciation of their respective bodies for his splendid
-work. Mr. Richard H. Battle, in behalf of a number of the Bishop's
-friends, presented him with a beautiful pectoral cross and a silk
-cassock. In acknowledging the kind expressions and gifts, the Bishop
-remarked: "I have one single desire, it is to serve God in this Diocese.
-It was the interest that I took in the work here that brought me into
-the ministry, and I have no desire to labor elsewhere. I love my people,
-and I appreciate the kindness, sympathy and aid that has been given
-me...."[41]
-
-The following day the colored clergy and laity honored the Bishop in a
-service at St. Ambrose Church, Raleigh. Resolutions expressing the
-confidence and affection of the colored churchmen were presented to
-Bishop Cheshire by Rev. Henry B. Delany. Rev. Primus P. Alston, on
-behalf of the colored clergy, gave the Bishop a handsome stole,
-accompanying it with an address expressing the gratitude of the colored
-people for his work among them. Afterwards, the Bishop observed that
-nothing during the past ten years had been more gratifying to him than
-"the unvarying respect, courtesy and loyal support" which he had
-received at the hands of his colored clergy and laity.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-_Man and Bishop_
-
-
-In addition to his accomplishments as a clergyman, prelate, and scholar,
-Bishop Cheshire attained considerable skill and reputation as a
-sportsman. Fishing and hunting were the sports he liked best and the
-only ones he indulged in. He once remarked that he had been fond of
-fishing from his boyhood, but he thought his liking for it increased
-with age. His prowess as a fisherman was well known to his churchmen
-from the coast to the mountains of North Carolina. During the 1890's,
-when he was building up his mountain work, he would sometimes allow
-himself a few hours of relaxation to fish for the fine trout in the cold
-mountain streams. As a good fisherman should, he always carried his
-tackle with him when traveling near promising streams. In later years,
-whenever he had the opportunity, he returned to the mountains for a
-brief vacation of fishing.
-
-On one of these trips, accompanied by his son, Joseph B. Cheshire, Jr.,
-he was fishing in the Watauga River. When they came to a ford, the
-Bishop recalled that he had an old friend, Bill Holler, living a short
-distance away, whom he would like very much to see. Accordingly, they
-walked up the road about a half mile. Pausing at the foot of a
-mountainside, the Bishop asked his son to climb up and tell Mr. Holler
-that an old friend wanted to see him, but not to mention his name.
-Shortly afterwards, his son returned accompanied by a little old man,
-with long white hair and beard and a pleasant, wrinkled face. As soon as
-the old man saw his visitor, his face lit up with a smile, he threw open
-his arms, rushed up to the Bishop, and embraced him, crying: "Lord! It's
-the old Bishop, the old Bishop, the old Bishop!"
-
-The Bishop's fondness for hunting was almost as great as that for
-fishing. He began hunting in early boyhood but, according to his own
-statement, he never became a good shot. Many of his hunting companions,
-however, would undoubtedly contest the point. Among the people of his
-Diocese he was famous for his skill in wild turkey hunting. Strange as
-it may seem, he did not kill a wild turkey until he was sixty-four years
-old. Up to that time he had hunted partridges a great deal, but as he
-grew older, he had to give it up because it required so much walking.
-Hunting wild turkeys, although strenuous enough, was better suited to
-his years. After his first kill, scarcely a season passed that he did
-not bag at least one turkey. As the Bishop's enthusiasm for this sport
-grew, he made an interesting collection of turkey calls. They ranged
-from several varieties made from the wing bone of the turkey to the box
-type, which was usually made of cedar.
-
- [Illustration: _Bishop Cheshire fishing in the French Broad River,
- September, 1912._]
-
- [Illustration: _Photograph by Bayard Wootten
- The Parker-Cheshire House in Tarboro, birthplace of Bishop Cheshire.
- The house was built by Theophilus Parker, the Bishop's grandfather._]
-
-Less than a month before his death Bishop Cheshire went turkey hunting
-in the Roanoke River swamp, near Scotland Neck. On this occasion, at the
-age of eighty-two, he killed a fine gobbler. About a week later he was
-to go to St. Stephen's Church, Oxford, for a visitation and planned
-while there to go turkey shooting with his friend, Rev. Reuben Meredith,
-rector of the church. His son Godfrey was to join them for the hunt on
-Monday. A few days before leaving home, however, he did not feel at all
-well and, after consulting his physician, informed his daughter, Miss
-Sarah Cheshire, he would give up the hunt. But by Saturday the Bishop
-was feeling so much better that on his way to Oxford he wrote his
-daughter the following letter:
-
- "Dear Sarah:
-
- When Godfrey comes to Oxford tomorrow have him bring my gun and the bag
- in which I keep my hunting clothes and turkey calls. I am going turkey
- hunting on Monday.
-
- 'When the devil was sick the devil a monk would be, When the devil was
- well the devil a monk was he.'
-
- Your affectionate father,
- Joseph Blount Cheshire"
-
-Bishop Cheshire had an enviable reputation throughout the state as a
-raconteur of rare charm. Some of his best stories came from his fishing
-and hunting experiences, but they covered many other subjects as well.
-Most of his best anecdotes of personalities and events in North Carolina
-history are found in his book _Nonnulla_. It was not always the content
-of his stories which caught and held the interest of his listeners, but
-quite as often the manner in which the Bishop told them. For this reason
-they sometimes lose their color and charm when read or repeated by
-someone else. When he told an amusing story, which he often did, one of
-its best features was his own enjoyment in the telling and his hearty,
-contagious laughter. Another characteristic of the Bishop's stories was
-the natural way they appeared in his conversation, usually graphically
-illustrating or emphasizing a point. He never dragged a story into his
-conversation merely for the pleasure of telling it.
-
-As a conversationalist, however, he did not depend upon his ability to
-tell a good story. He could talk interestingly to persons from any walk
-of life, seeming always to know just the right thing to say to each. He
-never flattered, but gave freely his candid opinion whenever requested.
-Although he talked a great deal himself, the Bishop made his listener
-feel that he was interested in his ideas and wanted to hear them.
-
-In his role as a preacher of sermons Bishop Cheshire did not resemble
-his modern prototype, who quite often is more of a brilliant lecturer
-than a preacher. The Bishop employed no oratory in his sermons, but
-preached very much as if he were talking to a group of friends. He took
-a text from the Bible, most frequently from the New Testament, and
-proceeded to expound and interpret it, seldom using stories or anecdotes
-to illustrate his ideas. They were unadorned, straightforward
-expositions of religious truth. Of his sermons, the Bishop remarked to
-one of his clergymen, "Because a man is not converted to Christ through
-my teaching and preaching, I do not on that account conclude that he has
-rejected Christ; he has only rejected my representation of Christ."
-
-Dr. Robert B. Drane, for more than fifty years rector of St. Paul's
-Church, Edenton, once wrote of a rather typical reaction to the Bishop's
-sermons. He invited a man, who scarcely ever came to church, to come to
-St. Paul's to hear Bishop Cheshire. The man said he would be glad to,
-that he had heard the Bishop preach several times, and that he "always
-talked sense." Dr. Drane remarked that if the thousands of persons who
-belonged to no church could be made to realize that "preachers did
-really talk sense," the membership of the churches would increase and
-religion would be more respected.
-
-While not meaning to belittle the value of sermons, Bishop Cheshire
-sincerely felt that the prayers, responses, chants, and hymns of the
-church's service, climaxed by the supreme act of Christian worship, the
-celebration of the Holy Communion, held a greater significance for
-mankind and better satisfied spiritual needs.
-
-Bishop Cheshire's interest and activities extended to all phases of the
-church's life in his Diocese. There was scarcely any work or endeavor of
-his people too small to attract his attention. He often remarked that it
-is "the little things that count." It was his capacity to understand and
-sympathize with the everyday problems of his people that so greatly
-endeared him to them. Although the Bishop never in any way permitted
-himself or his clergy to become involved in controversial political
-affairs, he displayed at all times a vital interest in the social
-problems of his state. When he felt it to be the duty of the church to
-take a positive stand on a social question, he did not hesitate to make
-clear her position and to take what action he believed best suited to
-the occasion.
-
-The increasing number of divorces in North Carolina and the growing
-laxity of the laws on that subject was a problem which gave the Bishop
-much concern. In 1904 he called the matter to the attention of his
-diocesan convention and suggested a remedy for the situation. The Bishop
-asserted that there had been sufficient talk and theorizing upon the
-divorce question and that now was the time for positive action. The
-apathy of the public conscience, which had permitted the divorce law to
-be greatly modified, was, in his opinion, the cause of the divorce evil.
-Bishop Cheshire believed there was only one true reason for divorce:
-adultery. For many years it had been the only cause recognized by the
-state law, but in recent years frequent changes in the law to meet
-individual cases had created an unjustifiable condition. Not one of
-these modifications of the law had been adopted upon "any general
-principle of morals or of social science."
-
-The Bishop called upon the convention to express its condemnation of the
-present legislation on the divorce question, and to issue an address to
-the people of the state urging the necessity of reforming the divorce
-laws. He also suggested that the convention appoint a committee to
-communicate with the other Christian bodies of the state in order to
-secure united action on the subject. After serious deliberation, the
-convention indorsed the Bishop's position. It authorized him to appoint
-a committee, of which he should be chairman, to publish an address to
-the people of the state expressing the sentiment of the Episcopal Church
-on the divorce question; and to prepare a memorial to the General
-Assembly requesting that the divorce laws be restored to the status of
-the code of 1883. The convention sent a request to the Diocese of East
-Carolina, the Jurisdiction of Asheville, and all the other denominations
-of the state to join in this memorial.
-
-Bishop Cheshire lost no time in forwarding to every church conference or
-synod, meeting prior to January, 1905, the resolutions of his diocesan
-convention. Favorable action was taken on the resolutions by the
-Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, and Methodist Protestant churches. The
-Bishop attended the Presbyterian Synod and the Conference of the
-Methodist Church, and was cordially received.
-
-When the General Assembly met in 1905, Governor Robert B. Glenn
-recommended that the divorce laws be restored to the form as found in
-the code of 1883. After a close consideration of the memorial of the
-North Carolina churches, the legislature enacted a law which embodied in
-substance the request of the memorialists.
-
-Bishop Cheshire once more concerned himself with the divorce problem
-when the legislature of 1931 was considering several bills for modifying
-the conditions for granting divorces. At the time the bills were under
-discussion he was visiting his daughter in Louisiana. In order to place
-his views on the subject before the legislature, the Bishop addressed a
-letter to the chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the House of
-Representatives. It was published in the _News and Observer_ of February
-12.
-
-He again attacked the practice of enacting special laws for
-particular persons, and asserted that in some incidents the laws were
-unconstitutional. He reviewed the efforts which he and many other
-citizens had made about twenty-five years before to restrict the causes
-for granting divorce. With public opinion behind them, their efforts had
-been successful, but since that time many of the old abuses had
-reappeared. The Bishop declared that from his knowledge of public
-opinion in North Carolina, sentiment against relaxing the divorce laws
-was as strong then as it had been twenty-five years before. In his
-letter he confined himself to one principal idea, "the will of the
-people of the State against personal influence in behalf of individual
-parties," believing that it would produce a greater effect than if he
-merely reiterated the usual moral and social arguments.
-
-It cannot be said with certainty how much effect the Bishop's letter had
-on the members of the legislature, but coming from a man whose character
-and opinions were held in such high regard by North Carolinians, it must
-have had some influence upon the outcome. The proposed measures were
-defeated by large majorities in the General Assembly.
-
-On one of the most controversial questions of the twentieth century,
-national prohibition, Bishop Cheshire held very definite views. He
-believed that each state should be allowed to decide the question for
-itself, and that a federal prohibition law would breed more evil than
-good.
-
-Several years before the passage of the national prohibition law, Bishop
-Cheshire attended a meeting in Raleigh which was considering various
-aspects of social welfare work. He was present as an invited guest. The
-business of the meeting was moving along smoothly, when someone
-introduced a resolution to the effect that the meeting should
-memorialize Congress with a demand that the manufacture and sale of
-alcoholic beverages be made illegal in the United States. The resolution
-was received with much enthusiasm. Many speeches were made advocating
-its passage and all were applauded. After the enthusiasm had somewhat
-subsided and the question was about to be put, Bishop Cheshire asked
-permission to say a few words. He stated that he deplored excessive
-drinking and its evil consequences, suffered as much if not more by the
-innocent as well as the drinker. He sympathized with the purpose of the
-resolution to achieve more widespread temperance, but, he reminded them,
-good intentions unless intelligently directed often did more harm than
-good. Under the American system each state or community had the
-authority to outlaw liquor, as had already been done in North Carolina.
-So long as the prohibition of liquor was confined to those states whose
-public opinion was behind it, he believed it could be enforced. He did
-not think, however, that a federal law could be enforced in those states
-where public opinion and the state authorities were in opposition. He
-maintained that what had already been accomplished in some states in
-behalf of temperance would be jeopardized if an attempt was made to
-impose prohibition upon those states which were not yet ready for it.
-
-Upon the conclusion of the Bishop's remarks, there was for a few moments
-complete silence. It was as if someone had thrown cold water over the
-entire meeting. When a member moved that the resolution be laid on the
-table, not a voice was raised in opposition to the motion, and the
-subject was dropped. The Bishop was never one to allow his intelligence
-to be overruled by emotionalism, and in stating his views on national
-prohibition he not only displayed his sound judgment but also proved
-himself a very good prophet.
-
-Bishop Cheshire exercised a remarkable influence upon the people of his
-Diocese. One aspect of the effect of his character upon them is seen in
-the ready co-operation and assistance they gave him in his work for the
-church. The inspiration they caught from him was not a transient
-enthusiasm, but one which carried over from one endeavor to another.
-Above all, the Episcopalians of the Diocese loved their Bishop as a
-man—a vital, interesting personality who possessed none of the unctuous
-pompousness of the commonplace ecclesiastic. Miss Nell Battle Lewis once
-aptly characterized the Bishop as "much more than a Churchman, able
-Churchman though he is. Foremost, he is a man—a gentleman—of the most
-unswerving honesty, conviction, courage, kindness, humor, and
-charm."[42]
-
-Throughout almost all of his Episcopate Bishop Cheshire had no
-secretary. By choice he attended to his correspondence himself, writing
-all of his letters in longhand. Towards the end of his life he employed
-a secretary for a short time, but soon found that he preferred to do the
-work himself. He kept letter-books in which he entered a record of every
-letter he wrote, giving the name of the person written to, the date, and
-the place he was writing from. According to his own records, he wrote
-during his Episcopate 66,778 letters. The Bishop never liked any help in
-doing something which he felt he was able to do for himself.
-
-As a father Bishop Cheshire won the admiration of everyone who knew him.
-Each of his three daughters and three sons gave him their wholehearted
-love, obedience, and respect throughout his lifetime. He gained and held
-their devotion by his kindness, intelligence, and sympathetic
-understanding. He was a strict disciplinarian, but always preserved a
-tolerant and open-minded attitude towards the desires and weaknesses of
-youth. He treated his sons as men and expected them to act the part.
-
-The Bishop gave his children all the advantages he could afford. Two of
-his sons were educated at the University of North Carolina, and the
-third attended the University of the South. His three daughters all went
-to St. Mary's School. When one of his sons was leaving home to enter
-college, the Bishop told him that he would not ask him to promise to
-refrain from forming bad habits at school, such as drinking and
-gambling, nor would he accept such a promise if his son offered it. He
-went on to say that he had tried to teach him right from wrong and that
-his son well knew what things he could do that would make his father
-happy and proud and those which would make him unhappy and ashamed. He
-wanted his son to conduct himself as a gentleman, not because of any
-promises made, but for the sake of decency. The Bishop asked him to
-remember that he would always stand up for him as long as he was in the
-right, but he would not defend him for a moment if he were ever guilty
-of misconduct. This straightforward, manly counsel made a lasting
-impression upon the son. It was typical of the Bishop's uncompromising
-and practical way of thinking on moral questions.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-_Historian_
-
-
-From his youth Bishop Cheshire had been fond of history, and as he grew
-older, his interest in it developed into a serious avocation. While
-practicing law in Tarboro, he saw a good deal of his uncle-in-law,
-ex-Governor Henry Clark, who had a decided taste for history. He had an
-excellent library to which he made his nephew welcome. Cheshire spent
-many happy hours browsing among the old books and manuscripts and
-listening to the conversation of his uncle. Governor Clark had a
-thorough acquaintance with the early history of North Carolina,
-particularly that of his own section. In later years Bishop Cheshire
-said of his uncle: "I have often felt that he had a greater influence
-than any other person in developing my tastes and inclinations in the
-direction of historical inquiry."[43]
-
-For his first serious historical composition Cheshire chose a subject
-with which he was intimately acquainted, the history of the church in
-Edgecombe County. In a series of articles, under the title, "An
-Historical Sketch of the Church in Edgecombe County, North Carolina,"
-which appeared in the _Church Messenger_ from August 17 through
-September 21, 1880, he traced the history of this parish from the
-colonial period through the rectorate of his father. The sketch is
-superior to the usual parish history in that it concerned itself with
-the growth and development of the church in Edgecombe rather than with
-the genealogy of the families in that county.
-
-When Colonel William L. Saunders was in the process of compiling the
-_Colonial Records of North Carolina_, he asked Cheshire to make a
-collection of documents relating to the colonial Episcopal Church.
-Cheshire secured from Bishop Perry of Iowa, Historiographer of the
-Episcopal Church, a large body of material, which he had copied under
-his personal supervision. Colonel Saunders found the material so
-interesting and valuable that he incorporated it in its entirety in the
-several volumes of the _Colonial Records_. In appreciation of his
-contribution Cheshire was given a full set of this work. In 1893 Judge
-Walter Clark, when he began to edit the _State Records of North
-Carolina_, wrote Bishop Cheshire: "I beg that you will aid me with your
-advice, suggestions and information as to what should be published and
-the best means of procuring materials."[44] This statement well
-illustrates the high regard in which the Bishop's historical acumen was
-generally held.
-
-In 1883, in the course of collecting materials for Colonel Saunders,
-Cheshire visited Philadelphia. While there he examined the records of
-the Pennsylvania Quakers for information concerning the early Quaker
-settlements in North Carolina. From his examination of these records he
-found sufficient evidence to disprove the long-held thesis that the
-early settlers of North Carolina were religious refugees from New
-England and Virginia. His conclusion was that the first settlers of the
-Albemarle section came there primarily for economic reasons and not for
-religious freedom. He embodied his findings in a pamphlet called "The
-First Settlers of North Carolina Not Religious Refugees." After reading
-the monograph, Colonel Saunders wrote Cheshire: "You have not only
-_proved your proposition_; _You have demonstrated it._"[45] Saunders
-adopted the same interpretation in his preface to the first volume of
-the _Colonial Records_. Cheshire's original thesis was further expanded
-and substantiated by future historians of the state.
-
-In 1882 Cheshire edited and published the documents relating to the four
-conventions, held between 1790 and 1794, which had made the abortive
-attempt to set up a diocesan organization in North Carolina. The
-documents of three of these conventions had never been published before.
-They threw much light upon an important phase of the early history of
-the Episcopal Church in North Carolina.
-
-The Diocese recognized Cheshire's ability as an historian by electing
-him historiographer at the convention of 1884. The convention of 1876
-had created this office, and had elected Dr. M. M. Marshall, Rector of
-Christ Church, Raleigh, the first historiographer. It had also passed a
-resolution requiring each clergyman to compile a history of his parish.
-When Cheshire became historiographer eight years later, only a few of
-the clergy had complied with the resolution. After examining the
-histories which had been written, he found that, with a few exceptions,
-they were of no value. Several months after his election, in an article
-for the _Church Messenger_, he stressed the importance of preserving
-local church history. He announced that he was making a collection of
-old documents and pamphlets on church history for the Diocese, and he
-requested anyone possessing these materials to send them to him. One of
-Cheshire's chief contributions as historiographer was the interest he
-aroused among the churchmen in the history of the church and of their
-respective parishes.
-
-The publication of the _Colonial Records of North Carolina_ further
-stimulated his interest in historical research. He planned and began to
-write the "Annals of the Church in the Province of North Carolina." He
-worked upon this history whenever he found an opportunity, but after his
-election as bishop his duties were so pressing that he had to abandon
-the project. He had made considerable progress, however, before laying
-it aside. His research was not done in vain, for he was able to use much
-of it in one of the papers he presented before the centennial convention
-of the dioceses of East Carolina and North Carolina in 1890.
-
-Probably Cheshire's most productive act as historiographer of the
-Diocese was to initiate and successfully direct the celebration of the
-one-hundredth anniversary of the convention of 1790. This convention,
-held in Tarboro, had made the first, although unsuccessful, attempt to
-form a diocese in North Carolina. As the centennial of the event drew
-near, Cheshire thought that it should be commemorated in some
-appropriate manner. Accordingly, at the diocesan convention of 1889 he
-introduced a series of resolutions calling for a joint convention of the
-dioceses of North Carolina and East Carolina to be held at Tarboro the
-following year. The resolutions were adopted and a committee on
-arrangements appointed, with Dr. Jarvis Buxton as chairman. Commenting
-on the proceedings, Cheshire frankly remarked: "I took care, however, to
-get myself elected Secretary of the Committee; and the Committee
-cheerfully allowed me to do all the work."[46]
-
-The Committee on Arrangements decided that the most fitting and
-profitable manner of celebrating the occasion would be to present a
-series of papers on the history of the Episcopal Church in North
-Carolina. Cheshire organized the program, selecting the writers and the
-subjects of the papers.
-
-The joint convention met in Tarboro May 16-18, 1890, and was well
-attended by churchmen from both dioceses. The papers covered the history
-of the church in the colony, its decay following the Revolution, and its
-revival after 1817. Cheshire read a paper on "The Church in the Province
-of North Carolina." At the close of the proceedings, the convention
-resolved that the addresses should be published in book form under
-Cheshire's editorial direction. Upon the motion of the Rev. Robert
-Strange, it was also resolved: "That the thanks of the joint Convention
-of North and East Carolina be extended to the Rev. J. B. Cheshire, Jr.,
-for conceiving and carrying to so successful an issue the reunion which
-has been so delightful and edifying to us all."
-
-Since there was not sufficient time, all of the addresses prepared for
-the joint convention were not delivered. In addition to the paper
-Cheshire read, he also wrote two others—"Decay and Revival, 1800-1830"
-and "White Haven Church and the Rev. Robert Johnston Miller." These
-papers, as well as all the others written for the centennial
-celebration, were published in a volume entitled _Sketches of Church
-History in North Carolina_. Besides the three papers and his editorial
-work, Cheshire wrote the introduction to this book. The volume is a
-distinct contribution to the history of the Episcopal Church in North
-Carolina. Prior to this time little of any value had been written on the
-subject. Cheshire's articles are probably more scholarly than any of the
-others, and they definitely reveal more research in original sources.
-
-In recognition of Cheshire's achievements as a clergyman and his
-contributions as a historian, the University of North Carolina at its
-commencement of 1890 conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of
-Divinity. Four years later the University of the South bestowed upon him
-the same honor, and in 1916 his alma mater, Trinity College, Hartford,
-Connecticut, also gave him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He was not
-one to seek honors, but when they were conferred upon him he appreciated
-them, particularly the thought which motivated the bestowal. Bishop
-Cheshire became an honorary member of the North Carolina Society of the
-Cincinnati in 1897 and a few years later an hereditary member. He served
-for a time as chaplain of the North Carolina Society and later of the
-national organization.
-
-Although his diocesan work occupied most of his time, the Bishop found
-the opportunity now and again throughout his episcopate to write
-articles for ecclesiastical and historical publications. The subject
-matter of most of his writings was drawn chiefly from North Carolina
-history. One of his most interesting departures from this practice was
-the editing of George Herbert's _A Priest to the Temple or, the Country
-Parson, His Character and Rule of Holy Life_. This work, first published
-in 1652, had attracted his attention when he was a young lawyer in
-Baltimore. He was greatly impressed at the time with its earnestness and
-its spiritual character. When in 1905 Professor Palmer, of Harvard
-University, edited the complete works of Herbert, the _Country Parson_
-was again brought to the Bishop's attention. He decided to bring out a
-special edition of the _Country Parson_ in order to make it available to
-all of the clergy. The work appeared in 1908 and was dedicated to his
-father, whose sixty years in the ministry splendidly illustrated
-Herbert's ideal of a country parson. In his introduction to the book
-Bishop Cheshire commented: "It is not too much to say of it that for
-beauty and truth to nature, for its combination of the ideal and the
-practical, for its presentation of an almost heavenly perfection in
-terms of human experience, it has not its equal in the religious
-literature of our language." Whenever sending out a young clergyman as a
-country parson, he always tried to supply him with a copy of this work,
-believing that it would be of great value to him and his parishioners.
-
-At the request of the editor of the _Carolina Churchman_ Bishop Cheshire
-wrote, in 1910-1911, a sketch of the life of each of his predecessors,
-Bishops Ravenscroft, Ives, Atkinson, and Lyman. He did not make the
-sketches serious biographical studies, but tried to present intimate
-pictures of the four bishops, including a few amusing anecdotes. The
-sketch of Bishop Ravenscroft is probably the best and the most
-interesting.
-
-In the course of 1910 and 1911, at the invitation of the Episcopal
-seminaries at Sewanee, Alexandria, New York, Philadelphia, Cambridge,
-and Middletown, Bishop Cheshire delivered a series of lectures on the
-history of the Episcopal Church in the Confederate States. The lectures
-were well received, and upon their conclusion the Bishop was urged to
-put them in permanent form. Realizing that the interest in the subject
-was fairly widespread, he decided to arrange the lectures for
-publication. In 1912 Longmans, Green, and Company published them under
-the title, _The Church in the Confederate States_.
-
-In this work the Bishop describes the organization of the Episcopal
-Church in the Confederacy, the church's work among the soldiers, its
-attitude towards the Negroes, its trials and burdens, its publications,
-and, finally, the reunion of the northern and southern branches of the
-church. Following the last chapter he included a brief study of the life
-of Thomas Atkinson, Bishop of North Carolina, 1853-1881, who had been
-one of the most important exponents of the reunion of the church in
-1865.
-
-In general, the critics praised the Bishop's work as a significant
-contribution. Of it the _Outlook_ remarked: "His account of the attitude
-of the Church in its political relations throughout those sad and trying
-times is free from any tinge of bitterness. Its narrative of the work of
-bishops and councils, and of the ministries of the church to the
-soldiers and to the slaves, deserves to be widely read for the
-little-known facts it records." _The Churchman_, of New York, declared:
-"The temper of Bishop Cheshire's narrative is admirable, his account of
-perplexing constitutional questions that arose from the relations of the
-Church to the Confederacy and to the Union is clear, his analysis of the
-issues is penetrating and acute, his conclusions will be generally
-accepted." The church periodicals, North and South, were unanimous in
-their praise of the Bishop's work. They felt he had done the American
-Episcopal Church a great service in preserving this phase of her
-history. _The Church Times_, of London, thought that while the book was
-interesting and informative, it was not fair to the northern church.
-Many of the reviewers considered the last chapter of the work, which
-discussed the reunion of the church in 1865, the most interesting and
-significant. The Bishop was able to write of this particular subject
-with intimacy, since his father had taken an active part in the reunion.
-
-_The Church in the Confederate States_ is Bishop Cheshire's most
-important historical contribution. In it his style is direct, simple,
-and restrained. It describes and interprets a phase of Civil War history
-which had never before been adequately treated, and since its
-publication no work on the subject has superseded it. For his
-information Bishop Cheshire relied almost entirely upon original
-sources. Some of the more personal incidents, however, were gained from
-actual participants in that stormy period.
-
-On one of his visitations to Milnor Jones' missions in Watauga County,
-Bishop Cheshire told Jones that if he should outlive him he would see
-that some recognition was made of Jones' work. Many years later the
-Bishop fulfilled his promise by writing the volume, _Milnor Jones,
-Deacon and Missionary_. The greater part of this biography is devoted to
-the years 1894-1897, which Jones spent in the mountains of North
-Carolina. It is an interesting picture of that most unique character,
-and a good description of both the difficult and sometimes amusing sides
-of missionary work in the mountains. Although the Bishop liked and
-admired Jones, he did not fail to bring out his faults as well as his
-many virtues.
-
-Bishop Cheshire's last important literary work[47] was his reminiscences
-of personalities and incidents in North Carolina history. He gave these
-memories the title _Nonnulla_, meaning "Not Nothings." The Bishop began
-this book on his seventy-fifth birthday, and completed it five years
-later. He included in it stories and anecdotes about people and places
-not customarily found in the serious histories, but which are not
-entirely without significance "as illustrating, in an informal and
-familiar way, the life of our State and our people." _Nonnulla_ is
-replete with human interest to North Carolinians, and contributes much
-to their understanding of some of the characters who helped to build
-their state.
-
-In recognition of Bishop Cheshire's contributions to North Carolina
-history, the State Literary and Historical Association elected him its
-president for 1931. In his presidential address the Bishop discussed the
-religious provisions of the Fundamental Constitutions prepared by John
-Locke for the Lords Proprietors of Carolina. Although Locke's document
-was never put into effect, its provisions for religious freedom, in the
-Bishop's opinion, "perhaps found lodgment in the life of the people and
-attained a better development in their subsequent history."[48] While
-the Church of England was made the established church of the colony,
-liberty of conscience was permitted to all except atheists. Elaborating
-upon the theme of religious freedom, he demonstrated that the colonial
-government did not practice religious intolerance even though laws were
-enacted for the support of an established church.
-
-With his presidential address to the State Literary and Historical
-Association, Bishop Cheshire concluded his work as an historian. It was
-a fitting close to this phase of his life. Although history had been to
-him a pleasant avocation, no professional historian ever took his work
-more seriously or had a higher ideal of historical accuracy. In the
-words of Dr. A. R. Newsome, of the University of North Carolina, "Native
-ability, industry and self-discipline enabled him to achieve a degree of
-historical scholarship seldom encountered among laymen." The Episcopal
-Church in North Carolina owes him a debt of lasting gratitude for his
-pioneer work in its history.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII
-
-_Work Among the Colored People_
-
-
-Bishop Cheshire's active interest in the church's work among the Negroes
-began when he was rector of St. Peter's Church, Charlotte. His
-organization of the colored mission of St. Michael and All Angels and
-the part he took in helping to establish the Good Samaritan Hospital
-have already been related. When he became bishop he continued and
-greatly enlarged his activities in behalf of the Negro work.
-
-In the early part of his episcopate the Bishop made an address to the
-Conference of Church Workers Among Colored People, in which he expressed
-some interesting ideas on the colored work. He first pointed out that
-the reconstruction acts had failed to accomplish for the Negro many of
-their designed objectives. Although those acts were for the most part of
-a purely political character, he realized many sincere people in the
-North had advocated them in the belief that they would help the Negro.
-In his opinion, the legislation of the reconstruction period had not
-accomplished for the colored people what its sincerest advocates had
-confidently expected. If the Negroes are to play a significant role in
-the future of this country, the Bishop declared, "it will be only
-because they shall have become fitted for that part. No theories of
-predominant political equality will avail for preserving privileges
-which are not exercised for the benefit of the community...." He
-believed that the disabilities of the Negro could not be removed, nor
-the disadvantages under which he worked conquered, by legislation
-against particular evils, "but simply by changing the actual conditions
-of the race itself." Those who are interested in the welfare of the
-Negro must work for the elevation of his ideals of living, of working,
-and of self-restraint. The Bishop emphasized the importance of
-developing a spirit of self-reliance and self-help among the colored
-clergy and laity, believing this to be the best means by which they
-could strengthen their economic and social position.
-
-The colored churchmen of the Diocese soon learned that in Bishop
-Cheshire they had a staunch friend and one from whom they could count
-upon receiving a fair and sympathetic hearing. He reciprocated this
-confidence with a like faith in them. It was a regular practice of the
-Bishop to attend only the first day's session of the annual meetings of
-the white and colored convocations. He did this in order to give the
-clergy an opportunity of "speaking their mind freely." He always
-remembered an observation of George Eliot that "the first thing the
-clergy do, when they get together in convocation, is to abuse the
-Bishop." In this connection Bishop Cheshire once remarked: "I do not
-know what the white clergy may do, but I do not believe my black clergy
-will have anything to say against me even in my absence."[49]
-
-At the opening of the twentieth century one of the most important
-questions facing the Episcopal Church in the South was the separation of
-the Negro work in each diocese from that of the white. Bishop Cheshire
-was strongly opposed to any separation of the church's work founded
-solely on the racial feeling. He disliked to see the unity of the
-Diocese disrupted, and believed the ideal situation was "a church and a
-diocese which in its annual gatherings should represent visibly the
-oneness of all races and colors in Christ."[50] He realized, however,
-that he could not be guided entirely by his personal feelings on a
-question of such importance. A large body of the Negro clergy and many
-white churchmen throughout the South felt that the welfare of the church
-demanded some sort of separate organization for the colored work.
-
-When he met his diocesan convention in the spring of 1907, Bishop
-Cheshire announced his position on this question. Since the colored
-people seemed to desire an organization of their own, he believed the
-time had come for the church to take some definite action. He asked the
-convention to make known its views on the question of separation, since
-it would come up for discussion in the General Convention that fall. The
-Bishop stated that two plans of organization for the Negroes were being
-considered. One provided for the consecration of suffragan bishops who
-should have charge of the colored clergy and laity and should be under
-the diocesan bishop. The other called for the consecration of missionary
-bishops who should have charge of the colored work in contiguous
-dioceses and who should be responsible to the General Convention. The
-Bishop declared that he was heartily in favor of the latter plan,
-believing that it met the needs of existing conditions much more justly
-and adequately than the former. Moreover, the colored people themselves
-seemed to favor the plan of using missionary bishops. If they were used
-they would be under the direct control of the General Convention and
-would be given more independence than suffragan bishops, who would be
-under the administrative jurisdiction of the white diocesan bishop.
-Bishop Cheshire felt that if the colored work was to be made independent
-of the white, the Negro bishops should be given some administrative as
-well as spiritual responsibilities.
-
-When the convention took up the question of the colored work, it
-referred the whole matter to a special committee. After careful study,
-the committee recommended that the Negroes be given a separate
-organization, that the plan of missionary bishops be adopted, and that
-the deputies from the Diocese should present these recommendations to
-the General Convention. The committee's report was adopted.
-
-At the General Convention, which met in the fall of 1907, the Conference
-of Church Workers among Colored People presented a memorial in which it
-advocated a separate organization for the Negroes and the election of
-suffragan bishops. A joint committee of the House of Bishops and the
-House of Deputies, of which Bishop Cheshire was made a member, was
-appointed to consider the memorial. This committee recommended the
-adoption of the principal features of the memorial. Bishop Cheshire and
-one other member of the committee presented a minority report in which
-they urged the use of missionary bishops. Their report was defeated in
-the House of Bishops by a vote of fifty to thirty-four, while that of
-the majority was carried, forty-five to thirty-three. After the defeat
-of his proposal, Bishop Cheshire voted for the majority's report,
-believing it preferable to no action on the subject.
-
-The question of the racial episcopate was, however, far from being
-settled. During the next three meetings of the General Convention Bishop
-Cheshire and a few others continued to work for the adoption of the plan
-of missionary bishops. In 1913 they succeeded in getting the plan
-approved by the House of Bishops, but it was defeated by the House of
-Deputies. The southern bishops and clergy were the most undecided as to
-what plan they wanted to put into effect. Up to 1918 the Diocese of
-North Carolina had taken no action towards electing a suffragan bishop
-for the colored work. In 1917 Bishop Cheshire advised his diocesan
-convention to consider the question. The next year the convention voted
-to proceed to the election of a suffragan bishop.
-
-Before nominations for the office were called for, Bishop Cheshire
-gathered together the colored clergy and laity of the convention for an
-informal discussion. He told them that, in his opinion, Rev. Henry B.
-Delany, who was then archdeacon of the colored convocation, was the best
-man for the office. Rev. M. A. Barber strongly represented the
-qualifications of the Rev. Mr. Baskerville, who had been recommended by
-Bishop Guerry, of South Carolina. Mr. Delany then withdrew from the
-conference, and Bishop Cheshire asked the colored clergy to express
-themselves frankly on their preference. Every one of them expressed the
-opinion that, while they thought Baskerville was an excellent man, they
-did not think he could compare with Delany in qualifications for the
-office of bishop. Of this unanimity of opinion, Bishop Cheshire
-remarked: "It was something of a surprise to me—for I really did not
-know how strong their feelings were."
-
-When the convention proceeded to the election of a suffragan bishop,
-Delany was the only man nominated. He received every vote of the clergy
-and laity. When he was presented to the convention and asked to say a
-few words, he simply remarked: "I cannot speak. I cannot utter what I
-feel. I thank you." Bishop Cheshire characterized his laconic expression
-as "about the best speech he could possibly have made."[51]
-
-Archdeacon Delany was highly esteemed by both white and colored
-churchmen, and his election met with general satisfaction throughout the
-Diocese. Bishop Guerry wrote Bishop Cheshire that he thought Delany was
-"the logical man and I believe you have made a wise choice.... I envy
-you the privilege of having been the first Diocese in the Carolinas to
-take the lead in so far reaching a policy."
-
-It will be remembered that while rector of St. Peter's, Bishop Cheshire
-had established in Charlotte a mission for Negroes, St. Michael and All
-Angels. Shortly after it was well started, Rev. Primus P. Alston, a
-colored priest, was placed in charge of the mission. Alston was an
-energetic and progressive man. He soon began a manual-training school
-for Negro boys and girls, which he called St. Michael's Industrial
-School. In time he erected buildings at a cost of about eight thousand
-dollars, raising almost all of the money by himself. After some twenty
-years of splendid work as head of this school, Rev. Mr. Alston died in
-1910. Bishop Cheshire at once decided that something must be done to
-preserve the valuable work which Alston had carried on so successfully.
-Realizing the high regard which the people of Charlotte had for the man
-and his work, the Bishop determined to lay the question of the future of
-St. Michael's School before a body of representative citizens of
-Charlotte in the hope of making it a civic enterprise, irrespective of
-denominational interests but still under the official administration of
-the diocesan bishop. Acting upon this decision, the Bishop called
-together in Charlotte a group of progressive men representing different
-denominations. He pointed out that the school was the property of the
-Diocese of North Carolina, that it had for more than twenty years done a
-great work for the community, and that no religious test was made an
-entrance requirement, although religious training was a part of the
-school's work. The Bishop then asked the group if it would act with him
-as a board of managers for the direction and maintenance of the school.
-The men displayed a sympathetic interest, and promised to co-operate
-with him in any plan for making permanent the work of the institution.
-The Bishop thereupon organized the Board of Managers of St. Michael's
-Industrial School, under whose control it continued to operate.
-
-When Bishop Cheshire met his diocesan convention in 1912, he reported
-what he had done and asked for its endorsement of his action and its
-assent to the new plan for operating the school. The convention
-confirmed the Bishop's work and consented to his plan for continuing St.
-Michael's School. Thus, by his promptness and resourcefulness, he
-preserved for the church and the community of Charlotte a valuable
-institution.
-
-Bishop Cheshire's work among the Negroes of his Diocese received
-recognition from the national church when, in 1911, he was elected
-chairman of the Advisory Council of the American Church Institute for
-Negroes. The Institute had been organized in 1906 for the purpose of
-aiding the larger Episcopal schools for Negroes, such as St.
-Augustine's, the Bishop Payne Divinity School, and others. From this
-time forward he received a number of invitations to speak in the
-dioceses of the North on various phases of the church's work among the
-Negroes of the South. One of his most interesting addresses on this
-subject was made before the Woman's Auxiliary of the Diocese of Long
-Island at its annual meeting in 1915.
-
-In this address the Bishop declared that the fact the Negro was
-increasing in population meant to him that "God is not done with him. He
-has something for him to do." The Negro had not only survived his
-contact with a higher civilization, but had made in it a place for
-himself. "Protected and trained by his two and a half centuries of
-American slavery, the greatest blessing which up to this time he has
-ever known," the Negro had lived through emancipation and the
-"incalculable injustice of his premature enfranchisement." He was
-turning from false political and social aspirations and attempting to
-lay sound foundations for his moral and material development. Referring
-to the religion of the Negro, Bishop Cheshire observed that he found it
-very little different from that of the white man. He spoke of the
-Negro's gift of religious emotion, which might be dangerous, "yet it is
-a gift; and it is needed to give power and life to faith." The Bishop
-declared that the church set up a standard for the Negro to live by, it
-acknowledged him as a brother, and it gave him a definite place in its
-organization.
-
-In answer to the question of what the Woman's Auxiliary could do for the
-Negro, Bishop Cheshire replied it should try to teach the colored
-churches to support themselves and to be willing and able to aid others.
-As for a particular work the organization could undertake, he emphasized
-the importance of hospital care. This was a vital need and one which the
-Negro by himself could not supply.[52]
-
-The address was well received, although a few of the ideas contained in
-it were doubtless a little disturbing to some of the listeners. The
-Bishop was fearless in expressing his convictions, and was ever ready to
-defend them when necessary.
-
-St. Augustine's School for Negroes was founded in 1867 by North Carolina
-churchmen. It was built and maintained, however, by northern churchmen
-and agencies. While the school was not a diocesan institution, Bishop
-Cheshire throughout his episcopate gave it his full co-operation and
-support. He had a personal interest in the school, for his father had
-been one of the original incorporators. As ex-officio president of the
-Board of Trustees he kept in close contact with the development of St.
-Augustine's. Realizing that his state benefited most from the school,
-Bishop Cheshire time and time again urged his people to give it every
-encouragement and assistance within their means.
-
-In appreciation of his services to St. Augustine's, the authorities of
-the school resolved to name a proposed new building for Bishop Cheshire.
-Of this decision, the presiding bishop, John Gardner Murray, remarked:
-"I can conceive of nothing more splendid that the Church or community
-could do than to erect at St. Augustine's a building in honor of Bishop
-Cheshire. The work itself is most deserving in every way, and the Bishop
-whose name you propose to have associated with it, is one of the
-greatest Bishops in our Church in his every relationship thereto."[53]
-
-The dedication of the Cheshire Building at St. Augustine's College took
-place on Bishop Cheshire's eightieth birthday, March 27, 1930. In the
-course of the ceremony the Bishop delivered an address in which he
-traced the history of St. Augustine's from its establishment as a simple
-normal school to its present collegiate status. He touched upon the
-development of Negro education in the South since 1865, and emphasized
-the importance of this fact in the growth of a better relationship
-between the races. St. Augustine's, said the Bishop, in a larger sense
-represents the church's attitude towards the Negro problem in America
-and what it has done to solve that problem.
-
-Dr. A. B. Hunter, principal of the school for twenty-five years, made a
-short talk in which he spoke of the Bishop's loyal support of St.
-Augustine's. He ascribed much of the institution's success to the
-"unfailing sympathy and material assistance of the Bishop." Towards the
-end of the ceremony a portrait of Bishop Cheshire, hanging in the hall
-of the new building, was unveiled.
-
-Coming as it did towards the end of his life, this expression of
-appreciation from the colored people was a fitting close to the Bishop's
-work among the Negroes. He understood and respected his colored people,
-and in return they loved him and gave him their loyalty and confidence.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX
-
-_Development and Conclusion of the Bishop's Work_
-
-
-In the first decade of his episcopate Bishop Cheshire laid the
-foundation for almost all of his future work. The remainder of his life
-was devoted to expansion and improvement. This program demanded all of
-his thought and energy and, as it progressed, became almost more than
-one man could administer. The Bishop never complained of being
-overworked, but when he realized he was no longer physically able to
-meet the demands of his office, he did not hesitate to ask for
-assistance.
-
-A pleasant and interesting interlude in the routine of the Bishop's busy
-life was a trip to England in the summer of 1908. The object of the trip
-was to attend the Pan-Anglican Congress and the Lambeth Conference. The
-Bishop and Mrs. Cheshire sailed from New York and landed at Liverpool on
-May 28. Since the Pan-Anglican Congress was not to open for about two
-weeks, they spent the intervening time sightseeing and visiting friends.
-Among the many interesting places they visited was the old Abbey of
-Valle Crucis in Wales for which Bishop Ives had named his mission school
-in the mountains of North Carolina. The Bishop observed that here,
-however, there was no natural cruciform arrangement of valleys and
-streams which so distinguished his Valle Crucis mission.
-
-The Pan-Anglican Congress was opened on June 15 by an impressive service
-held in Westminster Abbey. The Congress was composed of bishops,
-clergymen, laymen, and laywomen representing the Anglican communion from
-all parts of the world. There were six thousand delegates present, but
-they were divided into a number of sections for the discussion of every
-phase of church work. Bishop Cheshire attended the sessions of one of
-these sections every day, but he did not have time to enter in his
-journal much about the proceedings. On one occasion, when the topic for
-discussion was the church's work among the Negroes of North America, he
-was one of the speakers. He later remarked that he had scarcely warmed
-to his subject before his allotted time was gone.
-
-On another occasion the Bishop was invited to a breakfast given by the
-Church Temperance Society. At the breakfast he was seated next to the
-Bishop of London, who was to preside over a meeting of the Society
-following the meal. In the course of conversation Bishop Cheshire
-remarked to the Bishop of London that "in America at least as far as
-concerned my part of it, drinking was unknown among women." The English
-prelate seemed to be greatly impressed by this statement. After the
-breakfast there were several scheduled speakers who talked on the
-problem of intemperance. They all agreed that the use of intoxicants in
-England as a whole had improved, but that the discouraging feature of
-the situation was the increased use of them by women. The Bishop of
-London announced that the meeting would like to hear from the United
-States, and he would, therefore, call upon Bishop Cheshire for a few
-words. As he rose to speak, the Bishop of London said to him, "Tell them
-what you have been telling me." After commenting on the work of the
-Church Temperance Society, he complied with the request and added: "I
-believe it to be true of all parts of the United States that among the
-descendants of the original English, Scotch, and Scotch-Irish settlers
-of America, intemperance or the use of intoxicating drinks among the
-women is unknown, or so extremely rare as to amount to nothing in
-looking at the situation in its general aspect."[54] His audience
-displayed a keen interest in his views.
-
-The Pan-Anglican Congress closed on June 24 with a service in St. Paul's
-Cathedral. Bishop Cheshire thought that the Congress was "the most
-remarkable religious gathering of recent times." He was particularly
-impressed by the deep interest the British public and press took in the
-proceedings of the Congress. The capacity of the great Albert Hall was
-taxed to hold the average daily attendance of twelve thousand persons.
-
-The Lambeth Conference, which opened on July 5, did not attract as much
-attention as usual, since it followed so closely upon the Pan-Anglican
-Congress. Its work, however, was none the less significant in the life
-of the church. Bishop Cheshire considered its proceedings more
-interesting than those of 1897. He noted that the younger bishops took a
-more active part than they had in the previous Conference. He served as
-a member of the Committee on Foreign Missions.
-
-Bishop Cheshire returned to England in the summer of 1920 to attend his
-third and final Lambeth Conference. He was then seventy years old but in
-good health and still capable of doing a full day's work. He regularly
-attended the sessions of the Conference, and manifested as much interest
-as ever in its work.
-
-The Bishop was made a member of the Committee on Christianity and
-International Relations, which was to deal in particular with the League
-of Nations. He found the work of the committee very interesting, but
-later remarked that the American bishops on the committee found
-themselves in an embarrassing position, since the League of Nations had
-been made a political issue in the presidential campaign of that
-year.[55] Bishop Cheshire felt that this Lambeth Conference surpassed
-the two previous ones in the importance of the work accomplished and in
-the probable results. The Conference took much "wider and freer views"
-of the questions discussed. The Bishop observed that some of the
-speeches which were received with decided approval were strongly opposed
-to all that had been the traditional policy of the church.
-
-Upon the close of the Conference Bishop and Mrs. Cheshire, accompanied
-by their friends, Dr. and Mrs. A. B. Hunter, spent a few weeks traveling
-on the Continent. The Bishop particularly enjoyed his visit to
-Switzerland, whose mountain scenery greatly impressed him. He always
-thought, however, that his North Carolina mountains were more beautiful
-and appealing than the more spectacular Alps. On one Sunday which the
-Cheshires and Hunters spent at Gletsch, Switzerland, the Bishop took his
-little party out into the country. In the presence of the great Rhône
-glacier with his "congregation" sitting on rocks about him, he read the
-Morning Prayer, omitting not one part of it.
-
-In addition to his three visits to Europe, Bishop Cheshire made one
-other trip beyond the borders of the United States. In 1910 the
-Archbishop of the West Indies invited a number of American bishops to
-Jamaica to assist in the consecration of the churches which had been
-rebuilt on the island after the disastrous earthquake of 1907. Bishop
-Cheshire accepted the invitation and, as it turned out, was the sole
-representative of the American Episcopal Church. The consecration
-ceremonies took place in January, 1911. During his stay of about two
-weeks the Bishop participated in the consecration of five or six
-churches. Describing the ecclesiastical procession at one of the
-ceremonies, the _Daily News_ of Kingston, Jamaica, commented: "There was
-then the stern Prelate of North Carolina just south of Mason and Dixon's
-line; Prelate of a vast domain many, many times the size of this island,
-and with a problem something like ours." This exaggerated description
-amused the Bishop a great deal. He enjoyed his visit, particularly
-riding about the island observing the customs and manners of the
-natives. He always took a keen pleasure in learning about new places and
-their people.
-
-Turning now to diocesan affairs, we find Bishop Cheshire preparing to
-begin a long campaign to free St. Mary's School from its burdensome debt
-and to raise an adequate endowment for the institution. When he
-addressed the convention of 1912 he reminded the members that on October
-15, 1913, he would complete twenty years as bishop of the Diocese of
-North Carolina. In his opinion, the most important work accomplished in
-this period was the establishment of St. Mary's as a diocesan school.
-The Bishop declared that he would like to celebrate his twentieth
-anniversary by paying off the debt on St. Mary's and by raising one
-hundred thousand dollars towards a permanent endowment. He wished,
-therefore, to devote much of his time for the next eighteen months to
-this end, and asked for the convention's support. The convention
-indorsed his suggestion and promised its co-operation.
-
-At the convention of 1913 a special committee on an endowment for St.
-Mary's was appointed to work with the Bishop. Notwithstanding the
-efforts of Bishop Cheshire and the committee, very little money was
-raised by the anniversary of his consecration. Thus, the matter stood
-until 1916, when Bishop Cheshire proposed an exceedingly ambitious
-program. The plan called for raising fifty thousand dollars to retire
-the school's funded debt and to meet certain necessary expenses, one
-hundred thousand dollars as an endowment, and another hundred thousand
-for additions and improvements. It was further suggested that the
-dioceses of East Carolina, South Carolina, and the Jurisdiction of
-Asheville should be asked to co-operate in this endeavor. The convention
-adopted the plan, and the quota for Bishop Cheshire's Diocese was set at
-seventy-five thousand dollars.
-
-The Bishop was untiring in his efforts to interest his people in the
-needs and promising future of St. Mary's. The program for raising the
-endowment was progressing well when the war disrupted its work, but the
-campaign was by no means abandoned. By the end of 1921 more than one
-hundred and forty-six thousand dollars had been pledged. Two years later
-the Bishop reported that St. Mary's School was free of all debt. The
-generous gifts to the school by Mr. Lawrence Holt and Mr. William A.
-Erwin, which followed shortly afterwards, gave the Bishop much pleasure
-and made him feel that the work which he considered the most important
-of his episcopate was now permanently established.
-
-When America entered the World War in 1917, Bishop Cheshire felt that
-President Wilson was fully justified in asking Congress for a
-declaration of war. Of the conflict he observed that, while America as a
-nation had committed errors and evils in the past, he believed that as
-far as the present war was concerned, "we know that we have no selfish
-purpose or desires." The Bishop was upholding a cause which was brought
-close home to him, for he had two sons who volunteered and later saw
-service in France. He had very definite ideas on duty to one's country,
-and little patience with those pacifists who held that a Christian could
-not go to war. In his opinion, such an argument was no more valid than
-it would be to say that one should not protect one's home and family
-against thieves and murderers. "We owe everything that we are—" declared
-the Bishop, "all that we have to our Country. We owe her ourselves."[56]
-In the course of the war he gave voice to these views in many of his
-sermons.
-
-When the Bishop heard that a camp for training soldiers was to be
-established in Charlotte, he called together the Episcopal clergy of
-that city for a discussion of the problem of caring for the needs of
-thirty or forty thousand soldiers who were expected there. They devised
-plans for keeping open the parish houses of the several churches for the
-use of the soldiers, and the best means of caring for their religious
-life. The Bishop addressed a letter to the people of the Diocese asking
-them to give every possible assistance to their friends in Charlotte in
-this great responsibility.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-As Bishop Cheshire was about to complete a quarter of a century as head
-of the Diocese of North Carolina, it was planned to celebrate the
-occasion with a special service in Calvary Church, Tarboro, on October
-15, 1918. But when the time came for the celebration, it had to be
-postponed because of the influenza epidemic. It was finally held in
-Raleigh at the closing session of the convention of 1919. The Bishop
-delivered an address in which he traced the history of the Diocese
-during his episcopate. The convention then by a unanimous rising vote
-adopted the following resolution introduced by Dr. R. D. W. Connor:
-
-  "That gratefully acknowledging our obligations to Almighty God for the
-  many evidences of His Divine guidance in the affairs of His Church
-  throughout this period of its history, we are especially grateful to
-  Him for the love and care with which He has preserved the physical
-  strength, the mental vigor and power, and the spiritual grace and
-  consecration of our beloved Bishop. Resolved further, that this
-  Diocese is greatly indebted to Bishop Cheshire for the sympathetic
-  spirit, the unflagging zeal and never-failing wisdom and the
-  statesmanlike vision with which, under God, he has directed its
-  affairs, shaped its policies, and guided its growth and development;
-  that we hope and pray he may long be spared to lead us in full
-  strength and vigor of body, mind, and spirit; and that we take this
-  opportunity of pledging to him our unswerving loyalty and undivided
-  support in the prosecution of his labors for the spread of the Kingdom
-  of God on earth."[57]
-
-Dr. A. Burtis Hunter, for the clergy, and Governor Thomas Bickett, for
-the laity, brought to the Bishop messages of loyalty and affection. Mr.
-William A. Erwin presented the Bishop with a purse of gold from the
-people of the Diocese as a token of their love and esteem. Bishop
-Cheshire was deeply moved by these expressions from his clergy and
-laity. It would be difficult to find in any diocese a more sympathetic
-relationship between bishop and people.
-
-As Bishop Cheshire advanced in years, changes were taking place in the
-church as in almost every other institution. Some of these he advocated,
-while others he accepted with regret. When the diocesan convention of
-1919 met, a plan was introduced placing the administration of the
-affairs of the Diocese in the hands of the bishop and an executive
-council. Of the proposed plan Bishop Cheshire said that he thought it
-had "some advantages," but he earnestly hoped that the administration of
-the diocesan missions by the archdeacons would not in any way be
-changed. The archdeacons were a great assistance to the bishop in
-carrying on missionary work, and were invaluable in overseeing vacant
-parishes and missions. He referred to them as "the eyes of the Bishop in
-all matters of practical work," and stated that he wished to take this
-occasion to express his appreciation for the relief they had afforded
-him. In his opinion, whatever shortcomings could be ascribed to the
-present system of convocations under archdeacons were largely due to the
-lack of co-operation by the laity.
-
-After considering several proposals, the convention adopted a plan of
-diocesan organization which provided for an executive committee to be
-elected by the convention. It was to be composed of the bishop as
-ex-officio chairman, three clergymen, three laymen, and three laywomen.
-The executive committee was to act as a co-ordinating and co-operating
-agent in diocesan work. The convention also provided the bishop with a
-secretary who should likewise serve as secretary of the executive
-committee. The functions of the archdeacons were not at this time
-altered. Several years later, however, the personnel of the executive
-committee and the scope of its influence were enlarged. Also, a field
-secretary, who was to oversee missionary work, was employed. These
-innovations made the old system of convocations and archdeacons
-unnecessary, and it was accordingly abolished.
-
-The Bishop observed with regret the abolition of the office of
-archdeacon but acquiesced in it, since the majority of the clergy and
-laity preferred the new system of administration. In his annual address
-of 1929 he paid a final tribute to his archdeacons. He asserted that the
-missionary work had never been so well looked after as under their
-supervision, and that he would not have been able to advance this phase
-of his work without their invaluable assistance.
-
-When Bishop Cheshire was entering upon his seventieth year, he felt
-little impairment of his physical strength and had no desire to diminish
-his episcopal duties. He realized, however, that others might feel he
-was growing too old to carry on the work alone. Placing the affairs of
-the church above any personal considerations, he asked the convention of
-1919 whether he should continue to administer the Diocese without
-assistance or adopt some other course. The Bishop then retired, and the
-convention sitting as a committee of the whole considered its reply. Dr.
-Richard H. Lewis introduced a resolution which was unanimously adopted.
-It declared that the affairs of the Diocese had in no way been
-neglected; that there was no evidence of failure of the Bishop's
-physical or mental faculties; and that the convention was confident that
-he would ask for assistance when he felt it was necessary. The
-confidence his people placed in him, as expressed in this resolution,
-gave Bishop Cheshire much pleasure and encouragement.
-
-In the spring of 1922 the Bishop informed the Standing Committee of the
-Diocese that he had been urged by several physicians and laymen to
-curtail his work and to request the convention for assistance. The
-Standing Committee promptly advised him to propose the election of a
-bishop coadjutor. Accordingly, on April 21, he addressed a letter to the
-clergy in which he announced his intention to ask the approaching
-diocesan convention to consider the question of electing a bishop
-coadjutor. The Bishop felt the clergy and laity should be informed of
-his purpose in order that they might give this important subject
-thoughtful consideration before the meeting of the convention.
-
-On May 16, at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Raleigh, the convention
-met and immediately took up the question of giving the Bishop assistance
-in his work. After consideration it resolved that a bishop coadjutor
-should be elected. Bishop Cheshire then gave his consent to the
-election, and assigned to whoever should hold the new office the
-episcopal oversight of the Convocation of Charlotte and the personal
-supervision of all postulants and candidates for Holy Orders of the
-Diocese.
-
-The nominations for bishop coadjutor took place on the evening of the
-second day. After six ballots were taken, the Rev. Edwin Anderson
-Penick, Rector of St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, was elected. He
-received thirty-two clerical votes and twenty-four from the laity. The
-choice of the convention met with general satisfaction throughout the
-Diocese. Concerning the election, Bishop Cheshire declared: "We believe
-that the Spirit of God effectuates with His presence, His guidance, His
-blessing, the solemn functions of the Body of Christ. And never, I make
-bold to say, did we feel more sure of the Divine presence, guidance and
-blessing, than in the solemn hour of the choosing of our Bishop
-Coadjutor. Among the many happy and helpful experiences of my
-Episcopate, and of my life, I remember that as one of the best."[58]
-
-On October 15, 1922, the twenty-ninth anniversary of Bishop Cheshire's
-consecration, Rev. Edwin A. Penick, D.D., was consecrated bishop
-coadjutor in St. Peter's Church, Charlotte. He entered upon the duties
-of his office almost immediately thereafter. From that time until the
-death of Bishop Cheshire the two men worked together in perfect harmony.
-Although they did not always agree on diocesan policy, they never
-allowed a difference of opinion to mar their affectionate relationship.
-
-Bishop Cheshire gradually placed more responsibility on Bishop Penick as
-he became better acquainted with the work of the Diocese. A
-characteristic act of Bishop Cheshire's, and one which claimed the
-admiration of his people, was the turning over of the work at Chapel
-Hill to Bishop Penick's supervision. The Chapel of the Cross at Chapel
-Hill had been the Bishop's first parish and he had always retained for
-it a deep affection. Therefore, it was a personal sacrifice for him to
-relinquish it to another. He felt that, due to the peculiar nature of
-the work at Chapel Hill, it should be under the guidance of a younger
-man.
-
-As Bishop Cheshire grew older he began to plan how best he could provide
-for his wife and daughter when they would no longer be able to live at
-Ravenscroft, the Bishop's house. He decided to build a small apartment
-house in Raleigh, which would produce an income as well as provide a
-home for them. When the house was completed he advertised the apartments
-for rent only to families with children. He thought the frequent
-practice of denying apartments to persons with children was most unfair
-and, therefore, determined to make his house an exception. This was
-typical of the Bishop, who loved children and large families.
-
-In building his apartment house Bishop Cheshire had to borrow a part of
-the cost of its construction. Speaking of this to Bishop Penick, he
-remarked he hoped to live four years longer since by that time his loan
-would be retired. Recalling this observation Bishop Penick decided to
-raise a sum of money from among the people of the Diocese to relieve the
-Bishop of this care. The money was raised by the time the diocesan
-convention met in the spring of 1924 at Winston-Salem. It was a fitting
-time and place for the presentation of the gift, since it was at
-Winston-Salem thirty years before that Bishop Cheshire presided over his
-first convention. The gift, which amounted to $4,273, was presented to
-the Bishop from the people of the Diocese by Dr. Richard H. Lewis, who
-said in part: "My dear Bishop: By your strong and vigorous intellect,
-your wide and accurate learning, your public spirit, your unspotted
-character, and a personality of unaffected friendship, you have come to
-be—in the words of another—'one of the best known and best loved men in
-our State.'" Referring to this generous expression of affection, Bishop
-Cheshire remarked that he could never "cease to feel grateful to him
-whose generosity conceived the idea, and to the many kind friends who
-responded to his suggestion, and transmuted his thoughts into act."
-
-At this convention the Bishop delivered an address in which he briefly
-reviewed the high points in the thirty years of his episcopate. He
-declared he wished to repeat a major point he had made in his first
-episcopal address in 1894, namely, the importance of realizing the
-"common bond of union in the Diocese by becoming interested in common
-Diocesan work." During the past three decades Bishop Cheshire had
-accomplished more than any of his predecessors in breaking down
-parochialism by arousing in his people a lively interest in diocesan
-enterprises. The Bishop concluded the review of his work by saying that
-the past thirty years had been happy ones, "years in which I have
-received much love, consideration, and kindness from all our people,
-clerical and lay."
-
-The unusual and praiseworthy feature of the general esteem in which
-Bishop Cheshire was held in North Carolina was the demonstration of that
-esteem during his lifetime. The churchmen did not wait until his death
-to eulogize him and to erect memorials in his honor. On many occasions
-and in many different ways he was made to realize the high place which
-he held in the hearts of his people.
-
-After completing thirty-five years as bishop of the Diocese of North
-Carolina, a longer period than any of his predecessors, Bishop Cheshire
-felt that he must give up the greater part of his work. He therefore
-informed the convention of 1929 that he was turning over to Bishop
-Penick the general administration of the entire Diocese. He thought that
-the ever-increasing and more complicated work of the church required a
-younger and more vigorous man, one, as he expressed it, "more adaptable
-and more in sympathy with changing conditions and methods." Of Bishop
-Penick he said: "We have one whom we all believe to be eminently fitted
-to carry on the Diocese with success and with the confidence, sympathy
-and affection of all." Bishop Cheshire did not intend, however, to
-relinquish all of his duties. He retained for himself the episcopal
-oversight of about one-third of the parishes and missions, the keeping
-of the diocesan register, and the requisite business before the Standing
-Committee. The parishes which he reserved for his own visitations were
-all located within a convenient distance from Raleigh.
-
-Bishop Cheshire was not present at the convention of 1929 because of the
-serious illness of Mrs. Cheshire. Bishop Penick read his address. It was
-the first diocesan convention that he had failed to attend since 1876
-when he had been present as a lay delegate. Mrs. Cheshire died before
-the convention adjourned. Accordingly, resolutions of sympathy for the
-Bishop were adopted, and a committee was appointed to represent the
-convention at Mrs. Cheshire's funeral. The death of his wife was a great
-loss to the Bishop; their life of thirty years together had been happy
-and congenial. Mrs. Cheshire had been a generous mother to his small
-children, and a helpful and devoted wife.
-
-Although his strength was gradually failing, Bishop Cheshire displayed
-during the next three years a remarkable activity. For one of his years
-he preserved an unusually tolerant attitude towards the many religious,
-social, and political changes of the day. When, on his eightieth
-birthday, he was asked what he thought of the youth of today, the Bishop
-replied: "The world is a much better place than it was when I was a
-young man.... Young people today have more personal religion than they
-did then."[59] While he disapproved of much that was done by the youth
-of today, he thought that his parents must have had much of the same
-sort of disapproval of his own generation. "When people talk," said the
-Bishop, "of the degeneration of the morals and manners of the present,
-and praise the good old times and old time religion, as being so much
-superior to the present, they do not know what the old times were, and
-in my opinion, they are often speaking nonsense. That is my very serious
-opinion."[60] In making this observation he did not mean to depreciate
-the religion of his forefathers, for no one had a greater respect and
-veneration for the past.
-
-During the last year of his life Bishop Cheshire filled almost all of
-his regular visitations in the eastern part of the Diocese. In addition,
-he spent ten days, in the month of July, visiting the country churches
-in the counties of Rowan, Mecklenburg, Davie, and Iredell. In the course
-of these visitations he called on forty families in the several parishes
-and missions. Such activity in midsummer would have taxed the strength
-of a far younger man, but it did not appear to trouble the Bishop. At
-the time, he wrote his son that although the heat was very severe, he
-noticed it no more than if he had been doing nothing. In June of 1932
-the Bishop went to Hartford, Connecticut, to assist in the consecration
-of a new chapel at his alma mater, Trinity College. He enjoyed the trip
-thoroughly, renewing some of his old friendships and making new ones.
-
-By the fall of 1932 Bishop Cheshire's health was greatly impaired, but
-he continued his visitations through December 11. On that day he
-performed his last service. He confirmed a class of fifteen persons in
-the Church of the Good Shepherd, Raleigh, but was not able to preach the
-sermon. A few days later he went to Charlotte for treatment by a
-specialist. Shortly after entering the hospital, however, he became
-gradually worse. On December 27, at six-thirty in the evening, the
-Diocese of North Carolina lost its beloved Bishop.
-
-It was unusually difficult for the people of the Diocese to realize that
-Bishop Cheshire would no longer be with them. He had possessed such a
-lovable and dynamic personality, had so largely molded the character of
-the Diocese, and had been its Bishop for so long that his people found
-it hard to associate the idea of death with him. He had baptized,
-confirmed, or married many of them, had entered sympathetically into the
-pleasures and problems of their secular as well as their spiritual
-lives, and thus endeared himself to them to an extent far beyond the
-capacity of most men. In the words of the Presiding Bishop, James DeWolf
-Perry: "It is impossible to foresee a time when his influence will not
-be felt, his penetrating mind will not be esteemed or when his name will
-cease to be held in grateful and loving remembrance."
-
- [Illustration: THE CHAPEL OF THE CROSS, CHAPEL HILL
- _From a drawing by Mary de B. Graves_]
-
-
-
-
-_Notes_
-
-
-CHAPTER I. YOUTH AND MANHOOD
-
-1. Joseph Blount Cheshire, "Some Account of My Life for My Children,"
-_Carolina Churchman_, March, 1934. Hereafter, this work is cited simply
-as "Some Account of My Life."
-
-2. This manuscript was written on February 12, 1866. It is owned by Mr.
-J. B. Cheshire, Jr., of Raleigh.
-
-3. Cheshire, "Some Account of My Life," _Carolina Churchman_, May, 1934.
-
-4. _Ibid._, December, 1934.
-
-5. _Ibid._
-
-6. _Ibid._, February, 1935.
-
-7. _Ibid._
-
-
-CHAPTER II. DEACON AND PRIEST
-
-8. Cheshire, "Some Account of My Life," _Carolina Churchman_, May, 1935.
-
-9. _Ibid._, April, 1935.
-
-10. The first child was born in March, 1878, but died only a few days
-after birth.
-
-11. _Church Messenger_, August 4, 1881.
-
-12. Joseph B. Cheshire, "Autobiography," pp. 229-230, a manuscript work
-owned by Mr. J. B. Cheshire, Jr.
-
-13. _Ibid._, p. 230.
-
-14. _Ibid._, pp. 231-232.
-
-15. _Ibid._, p. 256.
-
-
-CHAPTER III. SAINT PETER'S PARISH
-
-16. Cheshire to his wife, November 23, 1905, Cheshire Manuscripts, owned
-by Mr. J. B. Cheshire, Jr., Raleigh.
-
-17. Cheshire, "Autobiography," p. 315.
-
-18. _Ibid._, p. 322.
-
-19. _Ibid._, p. 345.
-
-20. Cheshire to Bishop Lyman, April 6, 1886, Joseph Blount Cheshire
-Papers, University of North Carolina Library.
-
-21. Bishop Lyman to Cheshire, October 17, 1888, Joseph Blount Cheshire
-Papers, University of North Carolina Library.
-
-22. A. W. Dodge to Cheshire, July 6, 1891, Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire
-Papers, North Carolina Historical Commission.
-
-23. Cheshire, "Autobiography," p. 382.
-
-
-CHAPTER IV. ELECTION TO THE EPISCOPATE
-
-24. Cheshire to Nannie C. Hoke, February 16, 1891, Bishop Joseph
-Blount Cheshire Papers, North Carolina Historical Commission.
-
-25. Rev. Robert B. Owens to L. F. London, July 8, 1938. Mr. Owens
-was a member of the adjourned convention of 1893. This letter contains
-a description of the proceedings of that convention.
-
-26. Dr. Stephen B. Weeks was the friend Cheshire referred to. The
-wedding took place in Randolph County.
-
-27. Cheshire to Dr. Joseph B. Cheshire, Sr., June 29, 1893, Bishop
-Joseph Blount Cheshire Papers, North Carolina Historical Commission.
-
-28. Cheshire to Sallie Badger Hoke, July 3, 1893, Bishop Joseph
-Blount Cheshire Papers, North Carolina Historical Commission.
-
-29. Rev. Francis J. Murdoch in an open letter to Rev. E. A. Osborne,
-1893, Bishop Joseph Blount Cheshire Papers, North Carolina Historical
-Commission.
-
-
-CHAPTER V. FIRST YEARS IN THE EPISCOPACY
-
-30. _Journal of the Convention of the Diocese of North Carolina_
-(1894), p. 64.
-
-31. Joseph B. Cheshire, _Milnor Jones, Deacon and Missionary_, p. 28.
-
-32. _Ibid._, p. 53.
-
-33. _Journal of the Convention of the Missionary Jurisdiction of
-Asheville_ (1896), p. 51.
-
-34. _Ibid._, pp. 50-51.
-
-35. Cheshire to his wife, October 2, 1901, Cheshire Manuscripts, owned
-by Mr. J. B. Cheshire, Jr., Raleigh.
-
-36. Joseph B. Cheshire, _Fifty Years of Church Life in North Carolina_,
-p. 6.
-
-37. Joseph B. Cheshire, Journal of 1897, p. 96, a manuscript account of
-his visit to England and the Continent in the summer of 1897, owned by
-Mr. J. B. Cheshire, Jr., Raleigh.
-
-38. Nicholas Collin Hughes, "Some Memories of Bishop Cheshire." This
-manuscript was written for L. F. London and is in his possession.
-
-39. _Journal of the Convention of the Diocese of North Carolina_ (1896),
-pp. 61-62.
-
-40. Cheshire to his wife, November 7, 1899, Cheshire Manuscripts, owned
-by Mr. J. B. Cheshire, Jr., Raleigh.
-
-41. The Raleigh _News and Observer_, October 15, 1903.
-
-
-CHAPTER VI. MAN AND BISHOP
-
-42. _Carolina Churchman_, April, 1931.
-
-
-CHAPTER VII. HISTORIAN
-
-43. Cheshire, "Some Account of My Life," _Carolina Churchman_, January,
-1935.
-
-44. Walter Clark to Cheshire, May 24, 1893, Bishop Joseph Blount
-Cheshire Papers, North Carolina Historical Commission.
-
-45. Cheshire, "Autobiography," p. 360.
-
-46. _Ibid._, pp. 414-418.
-
-47. For a complete list of the Bishop's published writings, see pp.
-131-133.
-
-48. The Raleigh _News and Observer_, December 4, 1931.
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII. WORK AMONG THE COLORED PEOPLE
-
-49. Cheshire to his wife, August 25, 1905, Cheshire Manuscripts, owned
-by Mr. J. B. Cheshire, Jr., Raleigh.
-
-50. _Journal of the Convention of the Diocese of North Carolina_ (1907),
-p. 72.
-
-51. Bishop Cheshire to Bishop Guerry, May 17, 1918, Joseph Blount
-Cheshire Papers, University of North Carolina Library.
-
-52. Joseph B. Cheshire, Manuscript Address, Cheshire Manuscripts, owned
-by Mr. J. B. Cheshire, Jr., Raleigh.
-
-53. _Carolina Churchman_, May, 1929.
-
-
-CHAPTER IX. DEVELOPMENT AND CONCLUSION OF THE BISHOP'S WORK
-
-54. Joseph B. Cheshire, "Our Summer, 1908," a journal of his visit to
-England for the Pan-Anglican Congress and the Lambeth Conference, owned
-by Mr. J. B. Cheshire, Jr., Raleigh.
-
-55. Joseph B. Cheshire, "England, 1920," a journal of his trip to
-England for the Lambeth Conference and of his visit to France and
-Switzerland, owned by Mr. J. B. Cheshire, Jr., Raleigh.
-
-56. Sermon on Patriotism and the War, Joseph Blount Cheshire Papers,
-University of North Carolina Library.
-
-57. _Journal of the Convention of the Diocese of North Carolina_ (1919),
-p. 51.
-
-58. _Ibid._ (1923), p. 84.
-
-59. The Raleigh _News and Observer_, March 28, 1930.
-
-60. _Carolina Churchman_, April, 1930.
-
-
-
-
-_Published Writings of Joseph Blount Cheshire_
-
-
-_Address of the Right Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, Bishop of North
-Carolina, on the Occasion of the Dedication of the Memorial Vestibule in
-Christ Church, Raleigh, to the Glory of God and in the Memory of Richard
-Henry Lewis, December 18, 1927._ Charlottesville, Va., n.d.
-
-"Baptism of Virginia Dare," anniversary address, delivered on Roanoke
-Island by Rt. Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, D.D., August 18, 1910, _North
-Carolina Booklet_, Vol. X, no. 4.
-
-_Bishop Atkinson and the Church in the Confederacy._ Raleigh, 1909.
-
-"The Bishops of North Carolina—When the State Was One Diocese," _The
-Carolina Churchman_, November, 1910-February, 1911.
-
-_The Church in the Confederate States: A History of the Protestant
-Episcopal Church in the Confederate States._ New York: Longmans, Green
-and Co., 1912.
-
-"The Church in the Province of North Carolina," in _Sketches of Church
-History in North Carolina_, edited by Bishop Cheshire.
-
-"Decay and Revival, 1800-1830," in _Sketches of Church History in North
-Carolina_, edited by Bishop Cheshire.
-
-"Dr. Richard H. Lewis; An Intimate Sketch by a Life-long Friend," _The
-Carolina Churchman_, October, 1926.
-
-_The Early Conventions: held at Tarborough Anno Domini 1790, 1793 and
-1794. The first effort to organize the Church in North Carolina.
-Collected from original sources and now first published. With 
-introduction and brief notes_, Raleigh, 1882.
-
-"The Early Rectors of Christ Church," _Centennial Ceremonies held in
-Christ Church Parish, Raleigh, North Carolina, A.D. 1921. Including
-Historical Addresses._ Raleigh, 1922.
-
-"Entries in an Old Bible which was Formerly in the Possession of Miss
-Chloe Coward," _North Carolina Historical and Genealogical Register_,
-July, 1903.
-
-_Fifty Years of Church Life in North Carolina_, an Address by the Rt.
-Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, D.D., Bishop of North Carolina, on the
-Fiftieth Anniversary of the Rev. Robert B. Drane, D.D., as Rector of St.
-Paul's Church, Edenton, N. C. All Saints' Day, 1926. Edenton, n.d.
-
-"First Settlers in North Carolina Not Religious Refugees: A Study in
-Origins," _North Carolina Booklet_, Vol. V, no. 4.
-
-_Fragments of Colonial Church History: 1. Public Libraries._ n.p., 1886.
-
-"The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, and Religious Liberty in the
-Province of North Carolina," _Historical Magazine of the Protestant
-Episcopal Church_, Vol. I, no. 4.
-
-_An Historical Address Delivered in Saint Matthew's Church, Hillsboro,
-N. C., on Sunday, August 24, 1924. Being the One Hundredth Anniversary
-of the Parish._ Durham, 1925.
-
-"An Historical Sketch of the Church in Edgecombe County, North
-Carolina," _Church Messenger_, August 17-September 21, 1880.
-
-"How Our Church Came to North Carolina," _The Spirit of Missions_, May,
-1918.
-
-_Milnor Jones, Deacon and Missionary._ Raleigh, 1920.
-
-_Nonnulla: Memories, Stories, and Traditions, More or Less Authentic,
-About North Carolina._ Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina
-Press, 1930.
-
-"The Office of Solicitor General of North Carolina," _University of
-North Carolina Magazine_, May, 1894.
-
-"The Personnel of the North Carolina Convention of 1788," _Publications
-of the Southern History Association_, Vol. III, 1899.
-
-_A Priest to the Temple or, The Country Parson, His Character and Rule
-of Holy Life_, by George Herbert, with an Introduction and brief notes
-by the Bishop of North Carolina. New York: Thomas Whittaker, Inc., 1908.
-
-_Public Worship in the Church._ A Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of
-North Carolina delivered at the meeting of the Convocations of Raleigh
-and Charlotte, in October, 1912. Also a Pastoral Letter to the Clergy
-and Laity of the Diocese, n.p., n.d.
-
-_Saint Peter's Church, Charlotte, North Carolina—Thirty Years of its
-Life and Work, 1863-1893._ Charlotte, 1921.
-
-"A Sermon; Preached in St. John's Church, Fayetteville, the Sunday next
-before Advent, November 24, 1889, at the Centennial of the Fayetteville
-Convention of 1789," _University of North Carolina Magazine_, Vol. XI,
-no. 4.
-
-_Sketches of Church History in North Carolina, Addresses and Papers by
-the Clergymen and Laymen of the Dioceses of North and East Carolina._
-Wilmington, 1892.
-
-"Some Account of My Life for My Children," _Carolina Churchman_,
-January, 1934-May, 1935.
-
-"White Haven Church and the Rev. Robert Johnston Miller," in _Sketches
-of Church History in North Carolina_, edited by Bishop Cheshire.
-
-"Why Judge Haywood Left North Carolina," _University of North Carolina
-Magazine_, January, 1895.
-
-"Wilmington, the Free Town of the Cape Fear," in _Historic Towns of the
-Southern States_, by Lyman P. Powell. New York: The Knickerbocker Press,
-1900.
-
-
-
-
-_Index_
-
-
-A
-
-Abbey of Valle Crucis, 109
-
-Adams, Rev. Samuel F., 59
-
-"A. H. W.," poem, 17
-
-Albemarle section, 2, 89
-
-Alpha Delta Phi, 11
-
-Alston, Rev. Primus P., 31, 76, 104
-
-Alumnae Association of St. Mary's School, 64
-
-American Church Institute for Negroes, Cheshire elected to, 105
-
-"Annals of the Church in the Province of North Carolina,"
-  MS by Cheshire, 91
-
-Archdeacons, Cheshire's estimate of, 117-118
-
-Ashe County, 57-58
-
-Atkinson, Bishop Thomas, 18-19, 21;
-  on division of Diocese, 35;
-  sketch of by Cheshire, 94-95
-
-
-B
-
-Bakersville, N. C., 58
-
-Baltimore, 13;
-  practices law in, 14-15
-
-Barber, Rev. M. A., 103
-
-Barrett, Rev. Robert S., 47, 48
-
-Barrows, Rev. W. S., 49
-
-Baskerville, Rev. Erasmus L., 103
-
-Battle, President Kemp P., 19, 22, 39
-
-Battle, Richard H., 75
-
-Beach Cliff Schoolhouse, 34
-
-Beaver Creek, 58-59
-
-Bickett, Gov. Thomas, 116
-
-Bishop of Georgia, Cheshire considered for, 41
-
-Bishop Payne Divinity School, 105
-
-Bixby, Robert F., 10
-
-Blount, Elizabeth, 2
-
-Blount, Joseph, 2
-
-Bridgers, Cheshire, and Bridgers, firm of, 15
-
-Bridgers, Col. John L., 15
-
-Bridgers, John L., Jr., 15
-
-Bronson, Rev. Benjamin S., institutional work in Charlotte, 28-29
-
-Burlington, N. C., Cheshire is called to church at, 25
-
-Buxton, Rev. Jarvis, 40, 91
-
-
-C
-
-Calvary Church, Tarboro, 2, 3, 35;
-  Cheshire receives call to, 41;
-  Cheshire consecrated in, 52-53
-
-Canterbury, Archbishop of, 67
-
-Capers, Bishop Ellison, 53, 66
-
-Chapel Hill, 19-20;
-  Cheshire gives work in to Bishop Penick, 120
-
-Chapel of the Cross, Cheshire becomes rector of, 19-20
-
-Charlotte, Cheshire begins work in, 27
-
-Cheshire, Annie, 44
-
-Cheshire, Annie Gray, Bishop's sister, 4
-
-Cheshire, Annie Webb (Mrs. Joseph Blount), 17, 22, 44;
-  death of, 67
-
-Cheshire, Elizabeth Mitchell (Mrs. Joseph Blount), 69;
-  death of, 123
-
-Cheshire, Elizabeth Toole, 23, 44
-
-Cheshire, Godfrey, 44
-
-Cheshire, James Webb, 44
-
-Cheshire, John, the Bishop's grandfather, 2
-
-Cheshire, Dr. Joseph Blount, Sr., 2, 3, 4, 7, 10
-
-Cheshire, Bishop Joseph Blount, birth, 4;
-  early education, 4-6;
-  practices law, 14-17;
-  marries Annie Webb, 17;
-  ordained deacon, 19;
-  rector, Chapel of the Cross, 19-26;
-  ordained priest, 25;
-  rector, St. Peter's, Charlotte, 27 ff.;
-  Negro work in Charlotte, 30-31;
-  in diocesan conventions, 34-39;
-  views on episcopate, 47;
-  elected assistant bishop, 50;
-  on Missionary Jurisdiction of Asheville, 60-63;
-  St. Mary's School, 63-66;
-  death of Annie Webb Cheshire, 67;
-  marries Elizabeth Mitchell, 69;
-  in the General Convention, 69-70;
-  on public worship, 71-72;
-  on fishing and hunting, 77-79;
-  on divorce question, 81-84;
-  on national prohibition, 84-85;
-  as a father, 86-87;
-  on racial episcopate, 101-104;
-  asks for assistance, 119;
-  death of Elizabeth Mitchell Cheshire, 123;
-  on youth of today, 123-124;
-  death of, 125
-
-Cheshire, Joseph Blount, Jr., 44, 77
-
-Cheshire, Katherine Drane, 4
-
-Cheshire, Sarah, 44, 79
-
-Cheshire, Theophilus Parker, 4
-
-Cheshire Building, St. Augustine's, 107
-
-Christ Church, Raleigh, 48
-
-_Church in the Confederate States_, discussion of, 94-96
-
-_Churchman, The_, 95
-
-_Church Messenger_, 23, 25, 90
-
-Church of the Good Shepherd, Raleigh, 75, 119;
-  Cheshire's last service, 124
-
-Church Temperance Society, of England, 110-111
-
-_Church Times_, 95
-
-Clark, Gov. Henry, 88
-
-Clark, Judge Walter, 89
-
-_Colonial Records of North Carolina_, 89, 91
-
-Connor, R. D. W., resolution on the Bishop, 116
-
-Convocation for Colored Work, 74
-
-Convocation of Charlotte, 74, 119
-
-Convocation of Raleigh, 74
-
-Curtis, Dr. M. Ashley, 3, 53
-
-
-D
-
-Davidson College, 33
-
-Deerfield, Mass., 10
-
-Delany, Rev. Henry B., 76;
-  elected suffragan bishop, 103-104
-
-Devereaux, Thomas P., 2
-
-Division of the Diocese, 35-36
-
-Dodge, Rev. A. W., 42
-
-Drane, Dr. Robert B., on Cheshire's sermons, 80-81
-
-Dudley, Bishop T. U., 53
-
-Durham, N. C., 20;
-  Cheshire organizes church in, 23-25
-
-
-E
-
-Edenton, N. C., home of Cheshire's ancestors, 2
-
-Edenton Academy, 2
-
-Edgecombe County, 19-20;
-  history of church in, 88-89
-
-Eliot, George, quotation from, 100
-
-Ellicott City, 1, 12
-
-Episcopal School for Boys, Raleigh, 2
-
-Erwin, William A., 114, 116
-
-Executive council, formed, 117-118
-
-
-F
-
-France, Cheshire visits, 68
-
-Fundamental Constitutions, Cheshire discusses, 97
-
-
-G
-
-General Convention, Cheshire elected deputy to, 40;
-  on racial episcopate, 102
-
-George, Rev. T. M. N., nominated assistant bishop, 48
-
-Glenn, Gov. Robert B., 83
-
-Gletsch, Switzerland, 112
-
-Good Samaritan Hospital, 42-43, 99
-
-Graves, Professor Ralph, 22
-
-Graves' school, Granville County, 7
-
-Guerry, Bishop William A., 103, 104
-
-Guild of St. Martin, 32
-
-
-H
-
-Halifax, 3
-
-Harding, Rev. Nathaniel H., nominated assistant bishop, 48
-
-Hartford, Conn., 8, 10
-
-Herbert, George, 93, 94
-
-Hillsboro, N. C., 20;
-  Cheshire studies law in, 13-14
-
-Historiographer, Cheshire elected, 90
-
-Holler, Bill, 77-78
-
-Holmes, Rev. Lucian, 29
-
-Holt, Lawrence, 114
-
-Honesty, Cheshire writes essay on, 7
-
-Honorary degrees, given Cheshire, 93
-
-Hooper, George G., Cheshire's law partner, 14-15
-
-Hooper, Professor J. de Berniere, 22
-
-Hooper and Cheshire, firm of, 15
-
-Horner, Bishop Junius Moore, consecrated bishop, 63
-
-Howard, Judge George, 14
-
-Howard and Perry, firm of, 14
-
-Hunter, Dr. A. B., 108, 112, 116
-
-
-I
-
-Iredell County, 42
-
-Ireland, Cheshire visits, 68
-
-Ives, Bishop Levi Silliman, 2, 3;
-  work at Valle Crucis, 56, 59;
-  sketch of by Cheshire, 94
-
-
-J
-
-Jackson, Bishop Henry M., 47
-
-Jamaica, Cheshire visits, 113
-
-Johns, Bishop John, advice to young clergymen, 21
-
-Johnston, William H., 5
-
-Joint convention of 1890, 91-92
-
-Jones, Hamilton C., 28
-
-Jones, Rev. Milnor, mission work in the mountains, 56-59;
-  Cheshire's estimate of, 60;
-  life of by Cheshire, 96
-
-Jones, Sam, 43-44
-
-Jurisdiction of Asheville, formation of, 61-63
-
-
-K
-
-Kerfoot, President of Trinity College, 9
-
-
-L
-
-Lambeth Conference, Cheshire attends, 67-68, 109, 111-112
-
-Lenten services, Cheshire on, 73
-
-Lewis, Nell Battle, tribute to the Bishop, 86
-
-Lewis, Dr. Richard H., 5, 7, 13, 118;
-  Cheshire's best man, 17;
-  tribute to Cheshire, 121
-
-Lloyd, Rev. Arthur S., nominated assistant bishop, 49
-
-Long Creek Township, 33-34
-
-Louisburg, N. C., 5
-
-Louisburg Academy, Cheshire attends, 6
-
-Lucas, Rev. Henry, 41
-
-Lyman, Bishop Theodore Benedict, 21, 24, 25, 34, 53;
-  on division of Diocese, 35;
-  estimate of Cheshire's work in Charlotte, 41;
-  asks for assistance, 46, 48;
-  death of, 54;
-  sketch of by Cheshire, 94
-
-
-M
-
-McCoy, Columbus W., 33
-
-Mallett, Dr. William P., 22
-
-Marshall, Dr. Matthias M., 19, 35;
-  nominated assistant bishop, 48
-
-Maryland, 9, 12
-
-Mecklenburg County, missions in, 42
-
-Meredith, Rev. Reuben, 79
-
-Methodist Church Conference, 83
-
-Missionary bishops for Negro work, 101-102
-
-Mitchell, Elizabeth Lansdale,
-  marries Bishop Cheshire, 69;
-  death of, 123
-
-Mitchell, Rev. Walter A., 69
-
-Mitchell County, 57-58
-
-Monreath, summer home of the Bishop's father, 5, 12
-
-Monroe, N. C., Cheshire organizes church in, 32
-
-Mooresville, N. C., 33
-
-Murdoch, Dr. Francis J., Cheshire's estimate of, 47;
-  nominated assistant bishop, 48;
-  nominates Cheshire, 48;
-  on Cheshire's election as bishop, 51
-
-Murray, Bishop John Gardner, estimate of Cheshire, 107
-
-Music in the church, Cheshire on, 73
-
-
-N
-
-Negro, religion of the, 106
-
-Newsome, A. R., estimate of Cheshire as an historian, 98
-
-Niles, Professor William W., 9
-
-_Nonnulla_, vii, 79;
-  discussion of, 97
-
-
-O
-
-Orkneys, Cheshire visits, 68
-
-Osborne, Rev. Edwin A.,
-  takes work at Monroe and Long Creek, 32, 34;
-  founds Thompson Orphanage, 42
-
-_Outlook_, 95
-
-
-P
-
-Palmer, Professor George H., 94
-
-Pamlico Banking and Insurance Company, 15, 19
-
-Pan-Anglican Congress, 109-111
-
-Parker, Elizabeth Toole, 4
-
-Parker, Mary Toole, 4
-
-Parker, Theophilus, 4
-
-Pastoral Letter, by Cheshire, 72-73
-
-Penick, Bishop Edwin A., elected bishop coadjutor, 119;
-  proposes gift for Cheshire, 121, 122
-
-Perry, Bishop James DeWolf, tribute to Cheshire, 125
-
-Phi Kappa, Cheshire's fraternity, 11
-
-Pittsboro, N. C., 19
-
-Polk County, 57
-
-Portrait of the Bishop, 108
-
-Presbyterian Synod, 83
-
-Pynchon, Professor at Trinity, 10
-
-
-Q
-
-Quaker settlements in North Carolina, 89
-
-Quin, Rev. Charles C., 30-32
-
-Quintard, Bishop Charles T., 53
-
-
-R
-
-Racial episcopate, 103
-
-Ravenscroft, Bishop John Stark, 47;
-  sketch of by Cheshire, 94
-
-Ravenscroft, Raleigh, home of the Bishop, 120
-
-Roanoke River swamp, Bishop hunts in, 78
-
-Rockingham, N. C., 33
-
-Ruffin, Chief Justice Thomas, 13
-
-Ruffin, William K., Cheshire studies law under, 13-14, 16
-
-
-S
-
-St. Ambrose Church, Raleigh, 76
-
-St. Augustine's School, 105, 107-108
-
-St. Clement's Hall, Cheshire teaches at, 1, 12-13, 16
-
-St. Luke's Church, Tarboro, Cheshire holds first service
-  as bishop in, 53
-
-St. Mark's Church, Mecklenburg County, 25;
-  organized, 34
-
-St. Martin's Church, Charlotte, organized, 31
-
-St. Mary's School, founded, 63-64;
-  Cheshire's opinion of, 64;
-  established as a church school, 64-66;
-  Cheshire's daughters attend, 87;
-  debt on, 113-114;
-  endowment for, 114
-
-St. Matthew's Church, Hillsboro, Cheshire married in, 17;
-  Cheshire is called to, 25
-
-St. Michael and All Angels, Charlotte, organized, 30, 31, 99
-
-St. Michael's Industrial School, Charlotte, 104-105
-
-St. Paul's Church, Edenton, 2, 80
-
-St. Paul's Church, Macon, Ga., Cheshire receives call to, 41
-
-St. Paul's Church, Winston-Salem, 25, 55
-
-St. Peter's Church, Charlotte, 28, 36;
-  Cheshire is called to, 26
-
-St. Peter's Home and Hospital, organized, 29, 30
-
-St. Philip's Church, Durham, 24-25
-
-Saluda conference, 66
-
-Saunders, Col. William L., 89-90
-
-Scotland, Cheshire visits, 68
-
-Scotland Neck, 3
-
-Sermons, Cheshire discusses, 21-22
-
-Sessums, Bishop Davis, 53
-
-Shepherd, John Avery, 12
-
-Smedes, Dr. Aldert, 63
-
-Smedes, Dr. Bennett, 63, 64, 66
-
-Smedes, Rev. John E. C., 19, 25;
-  verses to Cheshire, 51-52
-
-Society of the Cincinnati, Cheshire becomes member of, 93
-
-State Literary and Historical Association, Cheshire elected
-  president of, 97
-
-Strange, Rev. Robert B., 92
-
-Suffragan bishops, for Negro work, 101-104
-
-Sutton, Rev. Robert B., 19, 20
-
-Switzerland, Cheshire visits, 68, 112
-
-
-T
-
-Tarboro, N. C., 14-15, 17;
-  description of, 2
-
-Tarboro Building and Loan Association, 15-16
-
-Tarboro Male Academy, Cheshire attends, 5, 7, 13
-
-Thompson Orphanage, Charlotte, 42
-
-Trinity Church, Scotland Neck, 3
-
-Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., Cheshire enters, 8-9;
-  graduates from, 11-12;
-  confers degree on Cheshire, 93;
-  Cheshire visits, 124
-
-Tryon, N. C., 56
-
-"Tuttle Prize," Cheshire wins, 11
-
-
-U
-
-University of North Carolina, 5, 6, 8, 19, 87;
-  confers degree on Cheshire, 93
-
-University of the South, Cheshire made trustee of, 39-40;
-  Cheshire's son attends, 87;
-  confers degree on Cheshire, 93
-
-
-V
-
-Valle Crucis, Cheshire revives work at, 56-57, 59
-
-
-W
-
-Watauga County, missions in, 57-58
-
-Watauga River, 56, 77
-
-Watson, Bishop Alfred A., 25, 53
-
-Webb, Annie Huske, Cheshire meets, 16;
-  marries Cheshire, 17;
-  death of, 67
-
-Weed, Bishop Edwin G., 53
-
-Weeks, Stephen B., 49 n.
-
-West Indies, Archbishop of, 113
-
-Wetmore, Rev. George B., 34
-
-Whipple, Bishop Henry B., 47
-
-Wilkes, John, 27-28, 32
-
-Wilkes, Mrs. John, 42-43
-
-Wilkinson, Frank S., 5, 7-8
-
-Williams, Bishop John, 10-11
-
-Wilson, President Woodrow, 115
-
-Winchester, Rev. J. R., 47
-
-Windsor, N. C., 3
-
-Winston, Professor George T., 22
-
-
-Y
-
-York, Archbishop of, Cheshire visits, 68
-
-
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