The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-12-04

cured soma corn saA ha1 net sers
 "on January 2. 1908, Bishop Ashbury at charieston, q O, called for voIun- teers to an appsintmsnt as part of the Oconss District and Matthew P. Sturdivant volunteered, was elected to the eidership ss . Bigbse Missionary to section of the country seventy lor eighty miles alopg the Tombigbee riv- CT. The presiding elder. Iosiah nandls, bee In his rounds nor did any other elder of that district cross the wilder ness to look after the work Of sturdy old Matthew Gturdivant. Dr. Loyic Pierce was the presiding elder for that district in 1909. and he said he did not sci that Los ABgelss would be neigh- ssrssod ssrsss .g.s plses now eompsrsa with Tom
 "pr. West, commenting on the early work of the church. says that there was not a time from the taking in of the first member In 1909 to 1865 that the Methodist Church in Alabama did not under her ministry have slaves as mem- bers of her communion.
 Methodist Edueation.
 Judge Thomas then took up the sub feet of Methodist education.
 "In December. 1s1s, Andrew Moore opened school near Browns Spring, which Is now in the city of BIrming- ham," he said ,"and one of the young men enrolled as pupil at that time was James MoAdory. relative of our historian. Hon. Thomas M. Owenl
 "rhe Tuscumbia Sunday School Un- ion Auxiliary i. s. 8 Cnion of M. E. ing held for the purpose at Huntsviile April 2s, 1923 organised the Huntsville Sunday School and the Huntsville Bihle Tract Society"
 Judge Thomas quoted from early newspapers of Montgomery to show the work and growth of Methodism in this city.
 In Montgomery" he continued mot to expose the early neglects of my home city but as it may give some idea of the moral status of the country, at the time when the first academy ana college of the Methodist Church were respectively located on Monte Sano and on I.aGrange Mountains. The growth of the church is evidenced by the fact that when the AIabama Conference was organized in 1as2 thsrA were at work in the State about sixty-five itinerant preachers and about 1900 Methodists.
 ITO the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church at sPitts- burg, Penn. May. 1928, was reported an academy at that time tn course Of erection at Tuscaloosa, Ala, which was finished September. is29. and called the Sims Female Academy. This antedated by one year the Academy at Monte Sano Cat Huntsville), unfortunately we have no prospectus to judge the grade or the work to be done there as has been preserved of the Monte Sano Female Academy.
 First College In AlabaPa.
 sThe beginning of the work of an advanced education n Alabama unaer the auspices of the Meth odist church come in the founding of LaGrange Col lege in Franklin county. Alabama. on a proposition from the Tennessee Con- ference to the Mississippt ccnferenee. January 10, 1929. The commissioners to locate the college commeude6 their selection Of the site in the following words:
 seems in no small degree to sanction the hope that the enticements to els- sipation and idieness. which are too frequently observed to assemble them- selves in the vicinity Of institutions of this kind, will not dare to exhibit them selves here s
 ment. Steward Hall dormitorle5 ana
  opened for lack of funds. ."
 Tt was from this college that Bishop Joshua Souis received his degree Of Doctor of Laws July 1, 1850. After twenty-Ave years of varied experience (January, 1s55), the doors of the col. Iege halls on that sublime and conses crated spot were closed forever. and the was, opened at Florence Where 1t took the name of the Flor. er,ce WesIyan University. The institu- tion did great work for the gener' ation 1t touched.
 other Educational Work.
 "The Monte Sano Female Academy was established about September. 1880; the grade work is best told in its pros- pectus as follows: Tt Is proposed to teach in this institution Botany. Natural and Moral Philosophy, the Elements of Geography, Chemistry and Astronomy" A year later the Tusca- loosa Tract Society was organized.
 '1839 was the centenary year of Methodism and a meeting was appoint ed by official action of the Alabama Conference to provide a school of high CT education, and to collect money from the Methodists at large for that pur- pose. The result of this celebration was the establishment of Centenary Institute in the neighborhood of Val