The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-09-07
MECKLENBERC
TO CELEBRATE
FIFIIETH YEAR
FAMOUS PRESBYTERY IN NORTH
CAROLINA COUNTY HAS GROWN
FROM ONE CHURCH TO IN
CLUDE SixTY-THREE.

DIR. and Mrs. w. z. McIlwain will
leave September 10 for North Carolina
where they will spend the remainder
of the month.
Doctor McIlwain goes to attend the
semi-centennial of the Presbytery of
| Mecklenburg, in the bounds of which
he was born and reared: he was IL
censed and ordained there as a min
| lister and to this Presbytery gave more
than half of his ministerial life and
services This will explain why, al
though not now a member of the
Mecklenburg Presbytery he has been
requested to deliver the historical adj
dress on this occasion.
The Presbytery was organized Oc-
tober 16, 1869, in the parIor of Mrs.
Robert Pearson in Morganton, y. c..
therefore in a few days it will reach
its fiftieth year.
The celebration will take place 1T
the old Steele Greek church which is
located nine miles from the city of
Charlotte. This is a noted church
in that part of the state. 1t has
been in existence for more than $50
years and today has 700 members of
| the church and 500 members of the
Sabbath School.
! In the last fifty years this Pres
| bytery has done a great work. Sew
| enty-five new churches have been
| organized, seventy-five new church
buildings have been erected in the
mission fields, more than fifty manses
have been built, about It's young men
| have been received as candidates for
| the ministry. Those ministers are
| preaching the gospel today in every
| southern state and some of them in
| far away Africa, Japan and Korea.
The Presbytery of 1869 has grown
/ into three Presbyteries today, Neck
| lenburg, Asheville and Kings Noun
| tain. And instead of the original
| Presbytery of 1869 with 80 churches
and 300 members the combined mem
bership of these three Presbyteries
would make a Synod with $50 churches
and $4,000 members. This Synod.
grown out of one Presbytery in so
years would be larger than number
of the large Synods of the Presby
terrain church. 1t would be larger than
the Synod of Tennessee, Kentucky or
Missouri.
The growth of the Presbyterian
churches in the city of Charlotte has
been unusual. In 1869 there was only
one church in the city with 260 mem
befs. Today there are II churches
with more than 1000 members. In the
county of Mecklenburg there were Is
churches for the white people. Today
there are 20 colored Presbyterian
churches and AZ churches for the
white people-making in all 81 Pres
byterian churches in Mecklenburs
County.
The educational institutions of this
county are of a very high order.
Davidson college, % miles from the
. city of Charlotte, is the largest Pres
byterian college in the south. 1t was
founded in 1887 and since that time
it has matriculated 5000 students.
graduated LOO and from this number
So have become ministers.
Queens college for young ladies was
established more than so years ago.
Recently it was removed from it's
location in the heart of the city of
Charlotte to beautiful wooded park,
two miles from the city. and new and
modern buildings erected at a cost of
100000. All the Christian denomina-
tions have prospered in this famous
county of North Carolina because it IS
a strictly a church going and Sabbath
observing community.