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Bishop Wesley J. Caines, D.D.
A. M. E. Church
Residence: Atlanta. Ga.
BISHOP GAl!\ES presides over the New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, and
New England conferences. He was born in Wilkes COWlty, Georgia, October 4,
1840. His parents, William and Louisa Gaines, the former a Methodist and the
latter a Baptist, rwsed him in lavery. He was converted at nine.
His boyhood was spent on the plantation. At eleven, he mastered the alphabet
in a week, learned to write from a copy-book, and to read while sick, studying
the Bible. In 1855, he removed to tewart County, Georgia, in 1856 to Muscogee
COWlty, and dates his call to the ministry to this time, when he was wont to
preach funeral sermons over dead birds and animals. He married, in 1863, Miss
Julia A. Camper, who has made him a helpful wife; they have one child, Mary
Louisa. .
He was ordained to preach in 1865, admitted to the South Carolina Conference
in 1866, and ordained elder in 1867. His appointments were the Florence lVIission,
Ga., 1866; AlIant.'l, Ga., 1867-69; Macon, 1871-73; Columbus, 1874-77;
Macon,1878-80; Atlanta, 1 81-88. He was elected bi hop at Indianapolis in
1888.
He has been book steward of the North Georgia Conference, member of the
African Methodist Episcopal Financial Board, trustee and trea urer of Morris
Brown College, Atlanta, Ga., and tru tee of Wilberforce University, Ohio. He
is president of the board of directors of Payne Theologicnl Seminary, Wilber-
,
386
force, 0., and president of the MriCIID Methodist Episcopal Board of Publication,
Philadelphia. He received the degree of D.D. from Wilberforce in 1883.
A prominent member of the church says: "Bishop Gaines is one of the
shining lights of the Mrican Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a pious, wellinformed,
and eloquent preacher, of imposing presence, and of blended politeness
and dignity. He possesses both administrative and creative capacity of a high
order and adds to his energy, firmness, and ability, excellent tact and discretion.
He has done some remarkable work in getting money and building churches."
In his ministerial labors, he has raised $400,000 for the Mrican Methodist
Episcopal Church. Early in his pastoral career he wiped out a debt of $4,500
and completed Cotton Avenue Church, Macon, Ga.; built St. James Church,
Columbus, Ga., at a cost of $10,000; erected Bethel Church, Auburn Avenue,
Atlanta, at a cost of $25,000.
Bishop Gaines is a strong and eloquent preacher. He is a successful author,
having published several well-written and valuable productions: "Mrican
Methodism in the South," "The Negro and the White Man," "The Gospel
Ministry," etc. He has won distinction on the lecture platform. He presided
over the Negro Young People's Congress, the greatest gathering of Negroes ever
held in the United States.
He has traveled extensively in this country and in Europe, visiting many of
the principal cities of England, Belgium, Holland, Germany, S\vitzerland, Italy,
and France. He was present and delivered an address at the Clifton Conference.
He was master of ceremonies at the meeting in February, 1909, in Atlanta, Ga.,
held in honor of President-elect William Howard Taft, by the colored citizens.
The Condition and Education of
the Negro
Bishop W. J. Gaines, D.D.
NATIONS and races have their difficulties to surmount and
the problems of their destiny to settle. Such a time has
come in the history of the Negro on this continent of
America. He finds himself confronted with questions as grave
and far-reaching in their scope and bearing as were ever presented
to any people in any age for settlement. I am not alarmed
for the final issue to my people when I look into the face of these
tremendous problems. I believe that that Providence which
permitted our coming to these shores, and the working out of
three hundred years of slavery, far from the land of ourfathers,
is yet guiding us on to a great destiny, and, for one, I look forward
to the coming years, not with fearful heart and foreboding
doubt, but with a sublime and unfaltering faith, believing that
the clouds which now overhang our skies shall break away and
the sunlight of a glorious future burst upon us with unclouded
splendor.
This destiny will not be wrought out by the sword, as has been
the case with other peoples in other ages of the world. The day
of blood and battlefields, thank God. is passing away. The
triumphs of the future are on far nobler fields.
