The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1912-07-13
Forty Years Among the American
HighlanderS.

|
the IIighlanders gives authority to
speak of them, then may be granted
that privilege. For more than forty
years | have travelled among them,
as soldier, physician and minister
was brought up in village of
churches, and thought all people this
side of China were equally blessed.
Some older people are yet laboring
under the same delusion
When a young man, | went to Vir-
ginia, the land Of my fathers, TO join
the army, and rode more than a hun
dred miles across the Cumberland
mountains Although not looking for
churches or preachers, l do not re-
member seeing a single one. During
the war l crossed those mountains
several times, and still found no
churches l was surprised
After the war / became a physi-
clan, and frequently rode through
those mountains, visiting the sick.
and still found only church or two
in many miles, though there were
| thousands of people with souls.
When i became a minister. nat
urally remembered that country
where many Of my old comrades
lived, Christless and churchless. and
determined to give them what little
help l could.
In the synod Of Kentucky l found
a mighty champion of these long neg
lected people-the Rev. Dr. Stuart
Robinson. man who believed the
Gospel was for every creature" ir,
all the world" Through his iniiu-
ence, largely, the missions to the
mountains were inaugurated by the
synod of Kentucky over twenty wears
ago, and l was honored by being
called from the First Church in
Louisville TO serve the synod as
Evangelist. ! thought l had some
idea of the vast destitution Of the
mountain regions, but when l entered
the work | was amazed to find re-
gion as large as the German empire
practically without churches. Sab
bath schools or qualified teachers:
whole counties with tens of thousands
Oh people, who had never seen
| church, or heard Gospel sermon
they could understand; and there are
thousands of them vet.
ms vast Appalachian regi n cov-
ers some eighty-six thousand square
miles, and is inhabited by some four
| millions of people. nearly all white
and they are today the purest stock
OF Scotch-Irish and Anglo-Saxon
races on the continent. For hundreds
OF years they have lived isolated from
the outside world, with no foreign in
termiXture. l do not remember ever
seeing Il foreigner in the Cumberland
mountains.
They are not degenerate people.
They are a brave, independent, high
| location have isolated them from the
advantages of education and religion.
They have been simply passed by in
the march of progress in this great
age, because they We're out of the
way. The world today--even our
own people-know more of China
| "a
our contemporaries of the seven
tc"nth and eighteenth centuries.
No railroads or any other kind of
roads invited travellers. scholars or
preachers into the sOlitudeS of their
mountain homes. The inevitable re-
suit has been. the want Of these
blessings which education ana re-
liSion bring, churches and schools.
With the fewest exceptions there are
none of either
In the largest county i'm the cam
h"rlandS. when entered il, there was
not a church in the whole county. and
TIA" only school in its capital was
taught in the court house. one Of
our oldest rNangclists. and moun-
tain man, aitcr a tour through 4
Ilrgr section. said. cot all the drSti-
tuti"nS ! have ever seen. this rN-c'-
all. N"t bible nor a Christian did
! ind"
have n" hrSirancy IN saying that
This is the largest body OF White pco-
rI" ON this continent who ave rroc-
tirIlly without the Gospel And do
not know any people who VIII make
gr"1t,r S1cwdccs to hear it, have
known thcm t. Walk from i've To- t,u
miles over their rough mountain