The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-20

rection of the Presbyterian church is that
 of establishing beautiful mountain re-
 treat, nestled away in the Land of the
 Skies, !" where, amid inspiring scenes, the
 youth, the minister and everyone may spend their vacations, where all the re-
 ligious influences will be thrown around
 them. and some of the greatest religious conferences will be held every year.
 This great undertaking Is under the di- rectioh of Moderator James R. Hover ton of this present general assembly, who will present it to the body one day this
 week. Here Is a brief and interesting history of the movement, and some of it's advantagess prepared by Dr. Howerton:
 The Mountain Retreat association was organized in 1897 by the Rev. John S.
 Collins, congregatlonallst minister of
 New Haven, Conn. He bought the tract
 of land. now known as Montreal Ca con traction of Mountain RetreaD. situated | about sixteen miles east of Asheville, on
 the headwaters of the Swannanoa river,
 two miles from Black Mountain station
 on the Southern railway. The land was
 in part paid for by the sale of about
 300 lots. As MT. Collins acquaintance
 and influence was chiefly in the north
 nearly all of these were bought by north-
 ern people. Several of these built perma-
 nent homes and formed the town of Mon
 treat. Others built winter homes A few
 southern people became interested and
 built summer cottages.
 number of religious assemblies were
 held during the succeeding summers. AL
 though some of the best talent in the
 country was secured and those who were
 present were highly benefited by these
 assemblies yet they were never as large
 ly attended as they deserved to be, chiefly
 we believe owing to the lack of adver-
 tisement among southern people who con-
 stitute the large majority of the sum
 mer visitors to the North Carolina moun-
 tains. MT. Collins was succeeded in the
 management Of Montreal by Weston R.
 Gales, the well known evangelist, who
 continued in office until his death. Mr.
 Gales, among other things, erected the vory neat and commodious church and
 school building, which has been used in l the summer as the association auditorium. 1 From the very beginning the associa- ! tion was embarrassed by the lack of cap | ital. Considering that the place was al- ! most a wilderness, with one or two worn
 
 | or other improvements, the marvel Is | that MT. Collins and MT. Gales accomp- | lished so much. From the very begin l ming MT, John s. Huyler of New York, | whose name has a sweet savor all over l the world and who Is even better known | to a smaller circle, 1t is true, as a large | hearted Christian man, had been interest | ed in the work of the association Not | only because of his personal friendship | for MT. Collins, but because of his inter est in everything tending to promote the interests, of -Christ's kingdom. he sent | liberal financial assistance to the asso- 1 ciation.
 Mir J., A. Porter of Asheville, N. C.. 1 who had been associated with MT. Collins and Mr.. Huyler in the purchase of the l property, continued to manage the prop | erty for several years. In the fall of 1905 | Mir. Huyler and MT. Porter gave Dr. | Howerton an option for a year on the property on just what it had cost Mr. l Huyler without computing any interest l viz, $50,000, provided he could secure the | backing of the Presbyterian church to carry out the original purpose of the as- | sociation. At the fall meeting of the 1 synod of North Carolina in 1905, held in l the Southern Presbyterian college, the l matter was presented to the synod by Dr. 1 Howerton. The synod indorsed 1t heart | fly by a rising vote and appointed com | mittee, with Dr. Howerton as chairman, 1 to carry out the plan.
 In order sto sraise the money for the | purchase price, 800 shares of stock were | offered at $100 per share. Tn order to in- | terest many people as possible, no 1 one person was permitted to subscribe | for more than one share of the stock, the | conditions of the subscriptio. only 300 | could be accepted on these terms. 1 The property was turned over by Mir
 Huylar October 1, upon payment of s25,00O | cash. f1sh
 | In September the old managing commit | tee of the Mountain Retreat association 1 elected the members of the North Caro- | lima synod's' committee as their success l sors and then resigned, thus perpetuating l the legal entity of the Mountain Retreat association, ,and turning over its char 1 ter, rights, privileges and immunites to | the new regime. The Rev. J. R. How | erton was elected president and treasurer; 1 Mir. J. D. Murphy, vice president; MT. c. c. Lord. secretary.
 1 It was originally contemplated that the | Mountain Retreat association should be virtually under the control of the synod 1 of North Carolina, but as half of the | subscribers to stock were outside of North | Carolina, and represented every state l within the territory of the southern
 church, it was thought best to present | the matter to the assembly with a view | to giving # relation to the whole l church. This was done and the assem- l bly, at Greenyille. May, 1906, by a unan- l imous vote appointed a large and rep- 1 resentative committee to visit Montreal | and report on tre suitability of Montreal | as a location and the advisabity of es- | tablisbing system of summer schools 1 and confere9ces. More than thirty of | this committee visited Montreal as the l guests of Messrs. Huyler and Porter, who | paid the expenses of the meeting, on | June 29, 1906. They remained several ] days and made a thorough investigation. | They drafted a highly favorable report. | recomm ending the location and plans, but l recomm ended that. 1t be conducted as a
 voluntary association, the assembly sus- | taining friendly and advisory relation 1 to it, while assuming no direct respon-
 sibilitY for or direct control over 1t. This | report will be presented to the assembly at Birmingham. In 1907 If this report | Is adopted as there seems no doubt l that it will be, the Mountain Retreat association will sustain no formal or le- gal relation to the church.
 But since the, amended charter re
 quires that two-tnirds of It's directors and