Echoes from the Sandhills

Series 4 - Echoes in Action

Echo 18 - An August Day in Manchester, 1875

Manchester, Cumberland County, North Carolina — August 28, 1875

Imagine that it is a Saturday morning in late August 1875.

Only ten years have passed since the end of the Civil War and emancipation. Freedom is not a distant chapter in a history book. It is recent memory.

We are in Manchester, in the part of Cumberland County now known as Spring Lake. Ministers and representatives from A.M.E. Zion churches and circuits across the district have gathered at Bethel A.M.E. Zion Church for their District Conference.

We know something of what happened that day because A. W. Marsh was there to report the proceedings to The Educator. His account appeared in the newspaper on September 4, 1875.

For a few moments, his words allow us to walk through the doors of Bethel and join them.

The Morning Begins

Elder A. M. Barrett is presiding.

The conference opens with the reading of the 115th Psalm. Then those gathered join in singing the hymn “Brethren in Christ.” Elder D. Williams follows with prayer.

With worship concluded, the business of the conference begins.

James D. McKay is elected recording secretary, with W. B. Minter as his assistant. A. W. Marsh is selected as reporter to The Educator.

Then Elder Barrett rises to give his opening address.

The newspaper tells us that his remarks “abounded with wholesome advice” and were delivered in such an interesting manner that those gathered listened with “the most earnest attention.”

Barrett is happy to be back among them. He speaks of the joy he feels at being permitted once again to visit and labor in the district after an absence of a year. He recalls the early history of the A.M.E. Zion Church in New York and urges the members of the conference to conduct their business “in peace and harmony.”

Then he shares a number that is easy to pass over:

2,758 miles.

That is how far Elder Barrett reports traveling throughout his district since the Annual Conference.

In 1875.

Those miles remind us that the churches represented at Bethel were not isolated congregations. They were part of an organized connection of churches, ministers, circuits and communities spread across a wide area—and maintaining that connection required someone to travel those roads.

Then They Got Down to Business

The conference next examines the character of the local preachers.

The newspaper reports simply that all passed except one.

Then Elder Barrett announces the committees.

And this is where we should linger, because the newspaper preserved something more valuable than a description of the meeting.

It preserved names.

On Rules: A. W. Marsh, William McLean, William Thigpen, Rev. Henry Williams and Rev. R. C. Collins.

On Examination of Candidates to the Annual Conference: Rev. Henry Williams, Rev. R. C. Collins, Rev. John Murchison, Rev. D. Williams, W. T. Jones and Isham Williams.

On Missions: William B. McLean, T. McNeill, A. Manners, William Goldston, Elder D. Williams and R. C. Collins.

On the State of the Church: A. W. Marsh, Bolston Rieves, James Waddell, E. M. Cole, Anthony Wadworth, Thomas Lucas, R. C. Collins, Henry Williams, W. T. Jones, Joseph Jordan, A. Williams, H. McDonald, Peter Cameron and J. Cameron.

Read those names slowly.

McKay. Minter. Marsh. McLean. Thigpen. Williams. Collins. Murchison. Jones. McNeill. Manners. Goldston. Rieves. Waddell. Cole. Wadworth. Lucas. Jordan. McDonald. Cameron.

Perhaps one is familiar.

Perhaps it is a name carried by a family in the Sandhills today. Perhaps one appears in an old family Bible, a census, a deed, a church record or on a weathered cemetery stone.

That is one of the gifts of these old newspapers. They do not merely tell us that something happened.

They tell us who was in the room.

Noon in Manchester

Eventually, the morning's work comes to an end.

The conference adjourns until 2:00 p.m.

We are not told what happened during that break. But imagine Manchester on an August afternoon—the heat, the conversations outside Bethel, people greeting those they had not seen for some time, and delegates discussing the business still ahead.

Then two o'clock arrives.

They return.

The Afternoon Session

Elder Barrett again takes the chair.

Deacon G. W. Williams opens the afternoon exercises with reading, singing and prayer.

There is no need for another roll call.

The minutes of the morning session are read aloud. Corrections are made. Then the conference approves them.

Next comes the statistical report.

Letters are read from the different circuits, and their reports are presented. The newspaper notes that all reports are given except the report from the Carthage Circuit.

That small reference gives us another glimpse of the geographic reach represented inside Bethel that day. Manchester is the meeting place, but the business being conducted reaches beyond Manchester.

Finally, the statistical reports are finished.

And after a morning of worship, speeches, examinations, committee appointments, minutes, letters and reports, the delegates do something wonderfully ordinary.

They stop.

For ten minutes.

The newspaper tells us that everyone “retired for ten minutes for refreshments.”

For just a moment, it is easy to imagine the scene.

The formal proceedings give way to conversation. Perhaps someone steps outside. Someone finds a drink. Ministers and delegates catch one another for a quick word before returning to their seats.

Ten minutes later, the conference resumes.

The Committee on the State of the Church presents its report.

And then, just when we want to know what they said, our newspaper account ends:

“Concluded next week.”

But Remember the Year: 1875

It would be easy to see this as nothing more than the routine proceedings of an old church conference.

But the year changes how we should read it.

1875.

Only ten years after freedom.

Some of the people gathered inside Bethel that day had lived through slavery. Others had been born into a world in which their parents, relatives and neighbors could be held as property.

Now here they were.

Ministers and laymen representing A.M.E. Zion churches and circuits across the district had come together in Manchester to conduct the business of their denomination.

They elected their officers.

They examined their preachers.

They considered candidates for Annual Conference.

They appointed committees on rules, missions and the state of the church.

They received reports from their circuits.

They read their minutes, corrected them and approved them.

And they made sure that someone reported what they had done to the Black press.

That last act is why we can return to Manchester today.

For a Moment, We Were There

One hundred and fifty-one years separate us from that August Saturday at Bethel.

Yet an old newspaper has shortened the distance.

We know what scripture opened the meeting.

We know what hymn they sang.

We know who prayed.

We know who presided.

We know Elder Barrett had traveled 2,758 miles.

We know the names of men entrusted with the work of the conference.

We know Carthage had not submitted its report.

We even know they stopped for ten minutes to get refreshments.

These are small details.

But small details are often what make people from the past human again.

So today, we are not looking at 1875 from a distance.

For just a little while, we have taken a seat inside Bethel A.M.E. Zion Church in Manchester.

We have listened.

We have watched.

And, most importantly, we have called their names.

Source: “May God bless the Camp Meetings,” The Educator, September 4, 1875. Report dated Manchester, Cumberland County, North Carolina, August 28, 1875.