Gentleman of the old school : Thomas E. Skinner, Baptist pastor, 1825-1905

              Thomas E. Skinner, Baptist Pastor, 1825-1905
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J. Daniel Day
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State Library of North Carolina
Raleigh
Presented by
J. Daniel Day
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A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL
Baptist Pastor
THOMAS E. SKINNER, 1825-1905
J. Daniel Day
arheelokie Products 2010 Holly Springs, NC
/VC
/i Gentleman ofthe Old School: Baptist Pastor Thomas E. Skinner, 1825-1905
Day, John Daniel
ISBN: 978 615 34495 9
Copyright pending, 2010
All Rights Reserved
Tarheelokie Products
6728 Fawn Hoof Trail
Holly Springs, NC 27540
Cover photographs courtesy of the archives of First Baptist Church, Raleigh,
NC, and Don Kline.
Unless otherwise indicated all images are taken from Thomas Skinner's
Sermons, Addresses and Reminiscences, to which is appended Briefs, Sketches,
and Skeletons ofSermons Covering a Wide Range ofSubjects. Raleigh, North
Carolina: Edwards & Broughton Power Printers and Binders, 1 894.
Scripture translations are from the King James Version, unless otherwise noted
with the text.
Printed by Laser Image Corporate Printing
4018 Patriot Drive
Durham, NC 27703
Dedicated to the memory of John M. Lewis, Th.D. (1915-2007) who,
like Thomas Skinner, also served the people of Raleigh's First Baptist Church
as the great work (1960-1987) of his life
"The Lord buries his workmen but carries on his work.
"
"He was one ofthe broadest minded ministers andprofoundest theologians ofhis
day, and a gentleman ofthe old school.
"
Moses N. Amis, Historical Raleigh, 1913
"// was the homage my mindpaid to Dr. Skinner, [this] ideal Baptist man, that I
could think ofhimfittingly, as possibly something else than a Baptist. There was
a broadness ofquality in him that caught my heart and set my ideal. He summed
up eighty years ofwhat was best in North Carolina Baptist history; and not only
what was best, but what wasfinest.
"
John E. White, Second Baptist Church
Atlanta, Georgia, April 19, 1905
"Few men among us have enjoyed the confidence andfriendship ofso many
influential men ...he helped them all by his wise counsel ... Until the last
he loved the company ofyoung men and out ofrich store houses gave them
reminiscences and advice that was helpful. He neverjudged men sternly, but
charitably. He made allowances for the mistakes ofyouth and always carried
about the mantle ofcharity to throw about the short comings ofhis fellow men.
He remembered that they werefrail. He lookedfor the good in men andfound
it and magnified it, and sought to lead them in right paths by appeals to their
highest and noblest aspirations.
"
Raleigh News & Observer, April 7, 1905
"Churches grew under his tending; and ministers sprang up where he labored... .
His greatest work was that ofmaking the First Baptist Church ofRaleigh what it
is... . The poor ofRaleigh never had betterfriends than he and Mrs. Skinner... .
He was an able preacher, a worthy servant ofour denominational enterprises, a
useful citizen. But he will be remembered ... mostfor his rare personal qualities.
In no other man have we known to be combined so perfectly the graces ofa
Christian with the accomplishments ofa man—afull-blooded, life-loving man.
"
Biblical Recorder, April 12, 1905
First Baptist Church of Raleigh - 2008
EXTERIOR PHOTO BY DON KLINE
INTERIOR PHOTO BY TAKAAI IWABU, USED WITH PERMISSION FROM NEWS & OBSERVER
FOREWORD
During the eleven years it was my privilege to be the pastor of First Baptist Church of
Raleigh, I led worship in the building Thomas Skinner built in 1858-59. Each Sunday it
was my joy to preach, standing in direct view of the colorful rose window which he is
thought to have given the church. But only when I chanced upon a copy of Dr. Skinner's
1 894 book (which I did not even know existed) in Stevens Book Shop in Raleigh did
I realize that Thomas Skinner was more than just a historical benefactor of the church;
he was a man I needed to spend time with and a man many others ought to know. This
sketch of his life is my attempt to carry out both impressions.
Many persons' work is represented in these pages. Not least of all are the many members
of First Baptist Church of Raleigh who were wise enough to preserve records and
memorabilia concerning the church's history. Leading their number are persons of
earlier years like Jordan Womble, Jr., J. A. Marcom, T. H. and Willis Briggs, and more
recently, Ed Wyatt and Thornton and Fannie Memory Mitchell; Fannie Memory was
even kind enough to donate her professional editorial skills to this manuscript. But the
list of those whose work is represented here extends far beyond Raleigh. Nancy and
Peter Rascoe, owners of the historic Fletcher-Skinner-Nixon house near Hertford, N.C.,
and now operated by the Rascoes as the 1812 on the Perquimans Bed and Breakfast
Inn, widened my fascination with the Skinner clan. They also introduced me to Beth
Taylor of Edenton, N.C., a most helpful resource for Skinner family genealogy and lore.
I must also acknowledge the ready assistance given me by the staffs of the Perquimans
County Library in Hertford, the Tyrrell County Library in Columbia, as well as the
frequent assistance given me by the always helpful staff at Wake County's historical
treasure chest, the Olivia Raney Library in Raleigh. Much thanks also to Douglas
Brown and Kim Cumber at the North Carolina Office of History and Archives, and to
Julia Bradford, the coordinator of Wake Forest University's Z. Smith Reynolds Library
Baptist Collection, and to Ed Morris, Director of Wake Forest's Birthplace Museum.
Also to be thanked are Bruce Miller and Joe Freed whose research on those interred
in Raleigh's Oakwood Cemetery was a great help in launching my explorations.
Mrs. Marshall DeLancy (Margie) Haywood, Jr. graciously reviewed a portion of the
manuscript to assure its accuracy. First Baptist Church member, Matt Bullard, provided
valued assistance interpreting legal documents, and Dr. Glen Jonas, Dr. Tony Cartledge,
and John Woodard read early drafts of this manuscript with critical and rescuing eyes;
my deepest thanks to them. I especially thank my friend and most competent historian,
Jim Clary, whose commitment to primary sources and "turning over every rock" has
—
along with his frequent and lavish encouragement and publishing expertise—made this a
far more thorough work than it would otherwise have been. Finally, I want to record my
debt to two Campbell University Divinity School graduates: Susan Ulrich, who made the
initial effort to convert my jumbled sentences into sequential paragraphs, and to Jamie
Kipfer who finished the task with great care and expertise. And, as always, I remain
unbelievably blessed by the unfailing support of my wife, Mary Carol, who often has
been almost as eager as I to learn more about Thomas Skinner.
J. Daniel Day, 2009
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction 1
1
.
A Notable Family, a Carefree Youth 3
2. The Conversion, Calling, and Preparation of a Pastor 1
5
3. A Stellar Beginning 23
4. Ministry as Joy and Travail 35
5. War Is Hell 49
6. Wrapping Up and Moving On 65
7. To Nashville and Beyond 73
8. Home Again, Home Again 85
9. The Funeral of the Whole Concern 93
10. Murder on Main Street 1 1
1
Conclusion and Evaluation 119
Appendixes
A. Resolutions of State Convention in 1 867 130
B. Resolution upon Skinner's 1886 resignation 131
C. Sermon of 1 883 : "God's Delight in Mercy" 1 33
D. Biblical Recorder, April 12, 1905 137
Introduction
In his sixty-ninth year of life the Reverend Dr. Thomas Edward
Skinner penned some reminiscences of his years as pastor of the First
Baptist Church of Raleigh, North Carolina. With obvious pride he
described the church's neo-Gothic building as a "grand old edifice
[which] still rears its graceful steeple to the skies, indicating God's help
and the people's aspiration." 1 That "grand old edifice" was actually only
thirty-five years old at the time, having been built during Skinner's first
term of service (1855-67)—he would return for a second term (1879-86).
One hundred and sixteen years later it still serves as a graceful place of
worship for the church and as a landmark in downtown Raleigh, being
one of only four extant antebellum buildings facing North Carolina's
capitol city's Union Square.
Unfortunately, the story of the man behind its construction, Thomas
Skinner, has not fared as well as his grand edifice. That building has
undergone a modest expansion and several restorations, but the story
of this remarkable pastor whose ministry reached beyond Raleigh to
Nashville, Tennessee, and to Columbus, Athens, and Macon, Georgia,
as well as to institutions like Wake Forest and Shaw universities and
Meredith College—this man's story has regrettably been neglected.
The contours of his story, fortunately, may be reconstructed from his
memoirs, as well as from tributes written about him by those who knew
him well, and from the histories of the various churches, institutions, and
cities that were a part of his life. Those several pieces, when reassembled,
reveal the portrait of a most remarkable man: born into privilege, he
lived as a servant of Baptist people and their Lord; a child of the genteel
antebellum South, he lived and preached through America's bloodiest
war, its anguished reconstruction era, and into its twentieth century. John
1 Thomas E. Skinner, Sermons, Addresses and Reminiscences, to which is appended Briefs, Sketches and
Skeletons ofSermons, Covering a Wide Range of Subjects (Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton Power Printers and
Binders, 1 894), 354-355, hereinafter cited as Sermons.
Quincy Adams was president when he was born; Theodore Roosevelt
was president when he died. He was a product of the fields and rivers
of North Carolina but was equally at home on the streets of New York
City, London, Paris, and Geneva; he was a lover of laughter and wit,
yet he walked more lonesome valleys than most want to contemplate. A
visionary of God's kingdom, he crafted a struggling nineteenth-century
mission-station in Raleigh, North Carolina, into a church with a name,
a place, a style, and a stature that endures to this day. Moreover, every
contemporary of his credited him with being a man of deep friendships
and of broad faith, but how those treasures were gained and how they
were nurtured is a tale that is as instructive as it is inspiring.
A Notable Family, a Carefree Youth
The Skinner family name was well established and respected in the
northeastern corner of North Carolina long before Thomas Skinner was
born there on April 29, 1825, to Charles Worth and Mary Creecy Skinner.
Skinners from the Albemarle Sound area and its contiguous counties of
Pasquotank, Perquimans, and Chowan had served with distinction in North
Carolina's colonial government, in the Revolutionary War, and in the
chambers of the state's political infancy, but none appears to have pursued
an ecclesiastical career until his father's generation. That generation saw
three ofthe eight male children ofJoshua and Martha Skinner ofPerquimans
County attend the College ofNew Jersey (later known as Princeton). One,
Joseph Blount Skinner, became a respected attorney in Hertford, North
Carolina; another, Collins Blount Skinner, became a valued doctor in
Edenton, North Carolina, while the third, Thomas Harvey Skinner, became
the family's first clergyman—a Presbyterian who, unlike his brothers, chose
not to return to his native state upon completion of his academic degrees.
The Reverend Dr. Thomas H. Skinner ( 1 79 1 - 1 87 1 ) served as the pastor
of churches in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City but distinguished
himselfmost as a faculty member ofAndover Seminary, as a founding board
member in 1 836 ofNewYork City's Union Theological Seminary and, from
1848 until his death in 1871, as Professor of Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral
Theology at Union Seminary.2 Although his career was geographically
distant from the family's Perquimans homeplace Dr. Skinner was to play a
2 Thomas Harvey Skinner was remembered in 1884 by Roswell D. Hitchcock as being "a courtly, gallant
man, of Southern birth and blood but of Northern training, a man of positive, intense, and resolute theology
wrapped in the mantle of a flaming evangelism", Leah Robinson Rousamaniere, "A History of the Skinner
and McAlpin Professorship at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York," http:www.utsnyc.edu/
NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?&pid=724&srcid=409. See articles about him in Dictionary of American
Biography, Dumas Maoline, ed. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1963), vol. 9, 201-202; The New Schaff-
Herzog Encyclopedia ofReligious Knowledge, vol. 10, Samuel Macauley Jackson, ed. (Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Baker Book House, 1950), 448; Jaquelin Drane Nash, "Skinner, Thomas Harvey", William S. Powell, ed.
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1994),
vol. 5, 357-358, hereinafter cited as Powell, Dictionary.
His son, also named Thomas Harvey Skinner, followed his father's career path but chose a differing
theological base as an "Old School" Presbyterian who taught on the faculty of McCormick Theological Seminary
in Chicago until his death in 1892.
Charles Worth Skinner
crucial role in the spiritual life of his nephew, Thomas E. Skinner, as well
as in that ofThomas' father, Charles Worth Skinner.
Charles Worth Skinner (1784-1870),
another of the eight sons ofBenjamin and
Martha Skinner, was never formally
educated. His interests were more in the
fields and forests and waterways of
Perquimans County than in quiet libraries.
But being as diligent in his pursuits as his
brothers were in theirs, he soon became a
most prosperous planter. However, his
comfortable life of agrarian affluence and
familial pleasure was shattered when
Charles Worth's beloved wife Mary
suddenly fell ill and died; his youngest son, Thomas, was not yet two
years old. The forty-three-year-old planter was devastated, "plunged into
a sea of uncontrollable grief, and his physician, his own brother [Collins
Blount Skinner], feared the consequences upon his mind."3 In his despair
the stricken man prayed incessantly, finally asking in brash agony that
when he arose from his knees God might let him open his previously
ignored Bible to a passage that would bring him comfort. He opened the
Bible and his eyes rested on Isaiah 43:2:
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and
through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou
walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned.
He began to feel his prayer was being answered. He continued to
verse five: "Fear not, for I am with thee," and then discovered 41 :9-10:
3 Sermons, 333. The tormenting grief experienced by Charles Worth Skinner is all the more remarkable when
one learns of the remarkable piety, home worship services, and daily prayer that, according to his brother, was
the pattern in the family home during the days of their childhood and youth. See Thomas H. Harvey, A Sketch of
the Life and Character ofthe Late Joseph B. Blount by his Brother (New York: E. French, 12 Bible House, Astor
Place, 1853), 75-77.
Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee and will not cast thee
away; fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I
am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I
will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Interpreting those verses as
personal promises of God to him,
Charles' crisis passed; peace and hope
came to him. Determined to signalize this ,
wonderful transformation, he immediately |
traveled the twenty miles to Edenton, 1
North Carolina, where he booked passage
on a steamer to New England to confer
with his preacher-brother, Thomas Harvey
Skinner. Upon finding him he made his Thomas Harvey Skinner
profession of faith public and "connected photo: christian weekly, feb. i87i.
himself with the Presbyterian Church."4 Unfortunately for the
Presbyterians, Charles Worth Skinner's tenure as a Presbyterian was
extremely brief.
For his defection the Baptists have no
less a person to thank than the Reverend
Thomas Meredith who was then the pastor
of the Bethel (Baptist) Church near the
Skinner homeplace on the peninsula
known then and today as Harvey's Neck.
Of his father's entrance into the Baptist
fold, Thomas Skinner wrote that Thomas
Meredith, "the brains, head, heart, and
eyes of this lion of the tribe of Judah
—
the Baptists of North Carolina," simply Thomas Meredith
Sermons, 333.
"instructed him [Charles Worth Skinner] more thoroughly in the way"5
and during a revival meeting at the Bethel Church led by the Rev. Robert
T. Daniel (who in 1812 had been the founding pastor of Raleigh's [First]
Baptist Church), Charles W. Skinner was baptized as a Baptist. The benefits
the Baptists received by that addition to their numbers were immense.
Beginning as an eighteen-year-old renter of sixty acres (his father
had given him one plow horse and one Negro boy old enough to plow),
Charles Worth Skinner eventually owned more than thirteen hundred
cultivated acres plus several hundred more acres of woodlands and
extensive fisheries in the Albemarle Sound, making him one of the
wealthier men in that region ofthe state. And from the day ofhis entrance
into the Baptist fold until the financial devastation brought by the Civil
War, he lavishly poured out his resources on Baptist causes and put his
business acumen at their service.
He was one of the fourteen founders of the Baptist State Convention
of North Carolina—no doubt brought to the 1830 chartering meeting
in Greenville, North Carolina, by his pastor Thomas Meredith, the
organizing impetus of the convention. Skinner was also one of the
original trustees of Wake Forest College, presenting it with its first bell
and a cash gift of $500 at the first board meeting in 1834. In subsequent
years a host of other gifts of cash and expertise would follow. He and
his neighbor-friend Richard Felton made very generous contributions to
the building of the Baptist church in the Perquimans County seat town
of Hertford—a prominently displayed marble plaque in that church's
sanctuary still offers tribute to their indispensable roles in that church's
early years. And the needs of mission endeavors beyond North Carolina
were also important to him; each year he devoted the profits from one
5 Ibid., 334. Rev. Martin Ross (1762-1827), a close friend of Meredith's and an earlier pastor of the Bethel
Baptist Church, is often considered to be the "Father of the Baptist State Convention;" he was married to Mary
Skinner, an aunt of Charles Worth Skinner.
of his fields to mission endeavors and no person's "informed theology"
could disturb his belief that God always caused that selected field to
bear a more bountiful harvest than any of his other fields. 6 But one of
his greatest gifts to North Carolina Baptists, as well as to Baptists of the
South, was his son Thomas Edward.
Nothing is known of the childhood of "Tommie" Skinner although
the lifelong collegiality of father and son leads one to believe the two
developed an early warm relationship. Credit for some of that warmth
must surely be given to "Tommie's" stepmother, Anna Squires (she
and Charles Worth were married on April 7, 1827), for Thomas wrote
glowingly of her as his "mother" and as a woman of great faith—the first
person from whom he sought prayer when he began to be concerned about
his own salvation, and was told: "Thomas, I have prayed for you since
you were an infant upon my lap, that God would convert your soul."7
But neither his mother's piety nor his father's Wake Forest
connections could grant young Thomas admission into that school's
founding class. The boy was one year too young for the academy's
entrance requirement. So, at age eleven, Thomas was sent 200 miles
east of Perquimans County, to a Hillsborough, North Carolina academy
6 Charles Worth Skinner's multiple contributions to N. C. Baptists are well documented in M. A. Huggins,
A History of North Carolina Baptists 1727-1932 (Raleigh: General Board Baptist State Convention of North
Carolina, 1932), hereinafter cited as Huggins, History of N. C. Baptists; and in George Washington Paschal,
History of North Carolina Baptists: Vol. I, 1663-1805 (Raleigh: General Board North Carolina Baptist State
Convention, 1930), as well as in Paschal 's History ofWake Forest College 1834-1865, (Raleigh, N.C: Edwards &
Broughton Company, 1935), vol. 1 , hereinafter cited as Paschal, History of Wake Forest, and in John W. Moore's
tribute to him included in Skinner's Sermons, 236-252. Moore wrote that "no man, perhaps, has yet lived in our
State who made so many princely donations. He was the embodiment of gracious and abounding charity. To give
seemed to be as instinctive to him as the breath of life" (242).
Moore's tribute also included an interesting defense for his slaveholding, as well as for the practice itself. The
U. S. Census [Slave Schedule] indicated that C W. Skinner owned more than sixty slaves in 1850, which would
have been a high number among North Carolinians at that time according to William S. Powell, North Carolina
Through Four Centuries (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1989), 328, hereinafter
cited as Powell, North Carolina: "There were [in 1860] 85,000 farmers in the state, but less than 27,000 of them
owned any slaves at all. Among slave owners in the Coastal Plain only about 1 in 20 had 20 or more slaves, and in
the Piedmont only about 1 in 50 had that many. Ownership of 20 or more slaves marked one as a 'planter' ... ."
7 Sermons, 343. Her tombstone in the cemetery at the Bethel Church has a singular ascription of praise
inscribed on it: "A mother in Israel."
taught by the Scottish Presbyterian minister, William J. Bingham, Sr.,
whom Thomas later characterized as a "celebrated bad-boy-breaker."8
Apparently Bingham did not fully succeed with "Tommie" for when the
youngster departed for Wake Forest the next year he was, if not a bad
boy, certainly a lively lad.
Skinner himself enjoyed telling of some of his escapades in those
days when the school required manual labor as part of the boys' studies.
As Skinner told it, he was sent one day into the cornfield and ordered to
"hill the corn" but rather than "hill the corn" he chopped it down. That
brought a punishment of twenty stripes, and as those were being
delivered by President Wait, he remembered seeing President Wait's
wife standing nearby with uplifted hands, praying: "Hold, enough!"
Skinner said, "I thought she was the greatest, best and most charitable
person ever encountered."9
A few weeks later he and the two
classmates who had joined him in the
corn destruction (and its punishment)
were caught "grabbling potatoes" in
Professor White's potato patch. They had
mistakenly thought the object they saw in
the corner of the patch was a barrel when
in fact it was the professor. Skinner did
not record the punishment received for
that second offense but delighted in the
fact that both of his accomplices, as well
as he, became preachers. "It seems," he
wrote, "to be congenial for preachers in
Samuel Wait embryo to be potato grabblers . . .
." 10
8 Ibid., 335. A North Carolina State Historical Marker now stands on the southeast comer of Hassell and
Corbin Streets in Hillsborough, marking the location of the Bingham School.
9 Ibid., 335.
10 Ibid., 335.
Perhaps the most humorous of Skinner's early-teen pranks was
one reported not by Skinner but by Baptist historian George Paschal,
who noted that the man who oversaw the students' manual labor was
predictably not a favorite of the boys. One frosty morning, rather than
do his bidding, some of the lads actually pitched the overseer into an icy
creek but, fearing the consequences of their foolhardy deed, they then
fished him out and purchased his silence about the event with all the
money in their possession: three dollars. Thomas Skinner was among
the group who did the pitching and the bribing—and then completed
the work earlier assigned them."
On the more cultured side of the ledger, Paschal noted that Thomas
Skinner played the violin in the school's "band," and that was also
attested to by Skinner himself. As an 1882 edition of the Wake Forest
Student reported, "We have heard Dr. Skinner, President of our Board of
Trustees, say that in old times three persons formed the Commencement
band at Wake Forest. Ofthese the two prominent ones were Dr. Wait and
the present Dr. Skinner. The former played the flagelot [a type ofwooden
flute], marching to time at the head of the procession; the latter was the
then little Tom Skinner, regarded as somewhat of a prodigy because he
was only eleven [sic] years of age and played the fiddle." 12
As the Student entry revealed, "little
Tom Skinner" eventually would serve
with great distinction on Wake Forest's
Board of Trustees—even as board
president for a period. But during his
days as a student there (1837 - 40) his
most laudable accomplishment may have
been his befriending of another young
North Carolinian, Matthew Tyson Yates.
Matthew Tyson Yates
1
1
Paschal, History of Wake Forest, vol. 1,91, footnote 56.
12 Ibid.,462, n.8; Wake Forest Student, May, 1882 (vol. 1, no. 5).
10
Yates was six years older than Skinner and came from a very different
socioeconomic setting. His family's poverty revealed itself in Yates'
pronounced educational deficit. But through exceptional discipline
young Yates' native intelligence blossomed to such a degree that he was
remembered not for any academic lack but for his profound devotion to
Christ and his yearning to serve as a foreign missionary. Only future years
would reveal what astounding ministry gifts Yates possessed as Southern
Baptists' first missionary in Shanghai, China, and how enduring was the
bond between Skinner and Yates.
After completion of his days at Wake Forest Skinner spent another
year at William Bingham's Hillsborough school, where he became
friends with the later much-celebrated Confederate General James
Johnston Pettigrew. The following year found him at Greensboro's
Caldwell Institute, where he was a classmate of future Governor Alfred
M. Scales (1884-88). Then, with all his prep school days completed,
Thomas Skinner finally arrived at Chapel Hill and the University of
North Carolina. The year was 1844 and he was nineteen years old. 13
It was an election year and, mirroring his father's political opinions,
Thomas became an ardent supporter of Henry Clay, the Whig candidate
in the presidential campaign. As election day drew near, youthful
bravado led him to post an open bet on Clay's election on the belfry
near the college well. When the votes were counted and it was clear
that Clay had been defeated, the penniless young man had no other
recourse but to call upon his father to cover the $600 obligation he had
incurred. Charles Worth eventually sent the requested money—with a
one-sentence admonition: "It is said that the constant dripping of water
1 3 The paucity of young North Carolinians (and all were male at this juncture) who were privileged to have such
advanced educational opportunities can be glimpsed in William Louis Poteat's summary: "Even in 1840 the 632
primary and common schools, financed by the income of the [state's] Literary Fund and local taxes, enrolled about
15,000 children out of a school population ten times as great. The 141 private academies had 4,398 pupils, and
the only two colleges in the State, the University and Wake Forest, showed a combined enrollment of 158. That
in 1840." Poteat, "Growth of Education 1830-1930," in The Growth ofOne Hundred Years: Addresses Delivered
at the First Centennial Session ofthe Baptist State Convention (Raleigh, N.C.: General Board of the Baptist State
Convention of North Carolina, 1930), 58.
11
will wear away the hardest stone." Thomas' response? "I was too happy
to respond, but I thought that I loved him more than I ever had done." 14
Other glimpses of collegiate days would take longer to come to
light. For instance, "Old Aunt Rita" was a Negro lady who worked as a
cook in Chapel Hill during Skinner's student years. Later, during his first
pastorate in Raleigh, she regularly attended worship in the then biracial
church. According to Skinner she was "a very large and fleshy person, a
true Christian, and very demonstrative, as when, in the gallery, she lifted
up her voice to shout, so that no other voice could be heard." When
he privately asked her to restrain herself she explained that his hushed
listeners "were not at Chapel Hill, as I was, and they did not know of
you there. . .and when I sees you in dat dar pulpit and hears you preach, I
'clare fo' de Lod, I can't keep from shouting."15
In 1847 Skinner was among the thirty-six young men to whom
the university granted a diploma, and he candidly admitted "it was
granted—yes, granted—never earned."16 Thus he left the University of
North Carolina enriched, if not with academic accomplishments, then
with friendships with young men like "Pettigrew, my most intimate
classmate, and [Senator-to-be Matthew W.] Ransom . . . and [John] Pool,
the first United States Senator of the class." 17
But the lives of all of them would be tragically and permanently
defined by the darkening skies over America. That Skinner was aware of
the nation's growing political division was apparent in his brash wager
on Henry Clay, but it is doubtful if he was also aware or even cared
about a similar rift occurring within his father's beloved Baptist family.
The year Thomas left Wake Forest (1840) the North Carolina Baptist
Convention his father had helped to establish sent a strong resolution
to their northern brethren, imploring them "to disavow in some form all
14 Skinner also averred "from that happy morn until now, I have never bet one cent on anything." Sermons, 337.
15 Ibid., 354.
16 Ibid., 337.
17 Ibid., 111.
12
concurrence in the late schismatical movements of the abolitionists" and
warning that unless that was done "the present friendly relations between
Northern and Southern Baptists will be seriously endangered."18 The
warning went unheeded and five years later, during Thomas' second year
at Chapel Hill (1845), Baptists of the South severed relationship with
their northern counterpart and formed a new Baptist body: the Southern
Baptist Convention. But there is no evidence that the freshly degreed
Thomas E. Skinner had any interest in this Baptist fissure.
He returned to the gentle waters of the Albemarle Sound and to the
abundant forests and fields owned by his family in Perquimans County,
happily taking up the life of a farmer. The following May (1848) he
married a young lady from across the sound in Tyrrell County, Ann Eliza
Halsey, the sister of two of his Wake Forest classmates. 19 In December
their first child, Edloe, was born—but only a month later, January 30,
1 849, the child died. The sadness that loss brought to the young couple
was incalculable but it may have been softened when, in February of the
following year, Thomas' father deeded to him a 538-acre plantation and
residence known as Woodlawn.20 And most certainly delight returned to
them on July 7 of 1850 when a second child was born to Ann Eliza and
Thomas. They named her Sarah.
The United States Census of 1850 entered Thomas' name next to
his father's (indicating the two lived on adjacent lands) and declares
18 Paschal, History of Wake Forest, 236, footnote 13 gives the complete text of the warning resolution. Paschal
also noted in the same place the extreme duress experienced by Wake Forest at that time because "the entire faculty
with the exception of tutors were Northern men" and supposedly of abolitionist sympathies. Even Charles W.
Skinner, along with Thomas Meredith, withdrew his support from the school for awhile, perhaps for that reason.
1
9
Ann Eliza Halsey was the child ofMary R. ( 1 797- 1 854) and Joseph Halsey ( 1 790- 1 854) who married in 1 823 in
Tyrrell County, N.C. Ann Eliza was bom September 14, 1 827, the third ofher parent's five children. An older brother,
William Wynne Halsey, and a younger brother, were at Wake Forest during the 1 837-40 terms attended by Thomas
E. Skinner [See Wake Forest Alumni Director}- (Winston-Salem, N.C: Wake Forest College, 1961), 109], Her father
was frequently named as an executor in the wills probated in Tyrell County during that period, suggesting that he was
a person held in high regard. Something of the family's values and financial means may be ascertained not only from
the presence of two sons at Wake Forest but also from the first bequest in Ann Eliza's mother's will: "My executor to
purchase the lot near Columbia [N.C, seat of Tyrrell County] now occupied by Revd Jon C. Elwell & make a deed
to sd [said] Elwell" ("MARY R. (x) HALSEY) widow of Joseph Halsey" in Tyrrell County North Carolina Wills
1812-1900, abstracted by Dr. Stephen E. Bradley, Jr., (Virginia Beach, VA, privately published, 1994), 26, 110.
20 Perquimans County Book of Deeds, CC, 403.
13
the value of real estate owned by the younger Skinner to be $2,000 (his
father's is listed at $25,000). The U.S. Slave Schedule for the same year
also revealed that Thomas E. Skinner owned nineteen slaves ranging in
age from a seventy-two-year-old male and a sixty-six-year-old female to
several preschool age children.
It would appear that the young Tar Heel's course of life was set and
that "the lines had fallen into pleasant places" for him. But the defining
voice of God had yet to be heard.
The residence of Woodlawn
(built ca. 1795; the second story porch was added much Later)
PHOTO TAKEN BY THE AUTHOR IN 2009
14
15
The Conversion, Calling and Preparation of a Pastor
In November, 1 850 a threatening afternoon rainstorm sent the twenty-five-
year-old farmer-businessman into his flat fields to assure himself
that its water drainage systems were clear. As he returned home he saw
one Mr. Parker, an area wheelwright, riding by on the ever-worsening
muddy road and invited him to find shelter for the night in his home.
Parker accepted the thoughtful invitation and thus the two were thrown
into conversation that evening over after-dinner cigars. The University
of North Carolina graduate quickly came to see that "this most excellent
Christian man, though wholly illiterate, was far from being an ignorant
man in the most vitally important matters."
The humble wheelwright began by asking about the fishing enterprises
that Skinner, and his older brother Charles, Jr., had begun and about the
markets for their wares, expressing his own interest in purchasing a barrel
ofshad or herring from them next season. Then Parker asked Thomas what
he thought of fishing on Sunday. A lively discussion of Sabbath-keeping
ensued, with Parker respectfully contending that, contrary to the Skinner
sons' practice, it would be wiser to honor the Sabbath commandment and
lose a potential $2,000 per season than to disobey the Lord for such an
ultimately small sum. Despite his educational advantage Thomas found
no way to refute the man's logic, so he changed the subject, suggesting
it was time to go to bed.
The next morning Skinner asked if his guest had slept well and was
told he had not. When asked why, Parker replied: "Well, I got to studying
about you, and praying to the Lord, who was surely in that room last night,
that He would convert the soul ofmy good friend, who had sheltered me
from the storm, and noticed me so kindly." Skinner had "never had any
person to speak thus to me and show such heart sympathy." He was
stunned and when they sat down for breakfast, "for the first time in my
life I asked Mr. Parker to 'say grace,' as the phrase went."
16
After the meal, Skinner attempted to bid his guest farewell with a
handshake but the wheelwright would not release the young man's hand.
He promised he would be praying for Thomas' conversion as he traveled
home and asked Skinner to pray to that end also. "But what is the use of
a man who has not prayed in twelve years attempting any such thing?"
asked Skinner. But then, as much to dismiss Parker as to comply with his
request, he agreed to do so. Parker continued to press, wanting to know
when Skinner would do his praying and Skinner promised, "Tonight,
when I go to bed."
But that pledge led to more than an obligatory bedtime prayer. A
disturbed Thomas Skinner went immediately inside his house, locked
himself in an upper room and began to pray. And not just in a perfunctory
manner. Indeed, his search for the Savior and for peace for his inflamed
conscience and heart persisted for weeks. He began holding family
prayers. Even his slaves who, according to Skinner, "have more intuitive
knowledge and good horse-sense than we are accustomed to crediting
them with," began to whisper: "I tell you master is struck, de Lord's
got hold of him, sure." In his ongoing search Skinner was especially
encouraged by old Uncle Ben, "a shouting Methodist" on the plantation.
He also sought the prayers and counsel of his stepmother, and only his
respect for her honesty convinced him she had not informed Pastor
Quinton Trotman of the Bethel Church of his anxious state, so pointed
were Trotman's sermonic words one Sunday morning.
Finally Skinner mustered enough courage to ask for a visit from
Trotman, and the pastor came—but not until a month later, on the next
stated weekend when Trotman was to conduct services at the Bethel
Church. The two spent a long Saturday night in conversation and the next
morning Skinner, awaking early, made his way to the parlor, built a fire,
and mused upon the Lord's dealings with him in the past weeks. When
Rev. Trotman descended the stairs, Skinner told him that he would like
to be baptized that morning if the pastor thought he was a fit candidate.
17
Trotman replied, "I saw last night that you were converted, brother
Tommie, but I preferred to say nothing, and let the Spirit teach you."
An hour or so later Skinner's father and mother stopped by his house
to ask if Thomas and his wife were going to church and were told that
"Tommie" was to be baptized that morning at eleven o'clock. The couple
had to 'put the whip' to their horses to reach the church in time to witness
the baptism of Thomas Edward Skinner, on January 19, 1851.
Four months later he was enrolled in Union Theological Seminary in
New York City. But, what of Skinner's "call" to ministry? His account of
this "call" is as unusual as his conversion was dramatic.
In December, 1850, while he was anxiously awaiting Pastor
Trotman's visit, Skinner had paid a Sunday morning visit to Old Uncle
Eden, a "colored" overseer of the spiritual affairs and daily labor of the
servants on the plantation of one of Skinner's uncles. Uncle Eden was
esteemed for his spiritual insight by whites as well as blacks. The old man
quickly sensed "Mars [Master] Tommie's" spiritual state and, against
the strong protestations of the young man, insisted God was calling him
to preach. Skinner recreated Uncle Eden's concluding words and their
effect on him:
And now you, my youngest Mars Tommie, gwine ter preach de
gospel sho as you born, dat's so. Now, Mars Tommie, you sees
my people comin' up as de bell tolls to de reglar Sunday meetin'.
I ax you, Mars Tommie, to read de Scripture and to pray for us
all, that we might serve de Lod and git to heabben at las'.
How could I refuse, looking upon these poor untaught souls?
That was my first sermon—call it so, ifyou please. Had I refused
then, do you believe that God would ever have given me another
opportunity? That was in December, 1850, and I have been
preaching—poorly indeed—ever since. 21
21 Sermons, 347. The full narrative of Skinner's conversion and call is found on pp. 338-347. One might note
that Skinner's conversion in adulthood is representative of that period, when childhood professions of faith were
as atypical as they are characteristic in today's Baptist churches.
From that and other experiences Skinner related, it is clear how
much he was guided by the spiritual fires of the black race. Indeed, he
offered no other hint of his "calling" to a life of ministry apart from
those spoken to him by Uncle Eden. Also, coming as they did several
weeks prior to Skinner's actual profession of faith and baptism, they
intimate something of the deeper struggle going on in the young man's
soul. For Thomas Skinner, the call to Christian faith was apparently part
and parcel with a call to leave houses and lands and comfortable lifestyle
to become a Baptist pastor, subject to pauper's wages and to a church's
annual vote to retain or release him from his post. For good reason he
struggled greatly with that decision.
Fortunately, he chose to follow the Voice and, following his baptism,
promptly moved to New York City with his wife, their infant daughter,
Sarah, and a mulatto nurse employed to assist with care for the child.
Newton Seminary in Massachusetts had actually been Skinner's first
choice for a theological school—Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
had not yet been established for young theologians of the southland
—
but after a frustrating experience in Newton attempting to find housing
for his family, Skinner traveled to New York City to seek counsel from
his uncle, Thomas Harvey Skinner, a professor at Union Theological
Seminary. To his surprise he discovered a Methodist as well as some
Congregationalists and Baptists were enrolled in the Presbyterian school
and so he promptly joined their number.
His first year at the seminary went well. But the following fall
Thomas' newfound faith and calling were most cruelly tested. His wife,
twenty-four-year-old Ann Eliza, died on August 27, 1852, presumably
from complications following the June 10, 1852 birth of a son, Thomas
Halsey Skinner. Surprisingly, Skinner said absolutely nothing about Ann
Eliza's death in his memoirs, choosing only to report the date and fact
of his second marriage on May 8, 1854, to Ann Stuart Ludlow of New
19
York.22 The omission of any reference to Ann Eliza's death surely startles
today's reader but hers is not the only death Skinner chose not to write
about in his reminiscences; its omission may be partially understood by
his characteristic reserve about his many grief experiences.
Nothing survives of Thomas Skinner's academic record at Union
Seminary but it is helpful to know that that institution had been a recent
creation of ardent "New School" Presbyterians. They had established
the school out of a desire for a more vigorous evangelism than that then
espoused by Princeton's Calvinist scholasticism. The "New Schoolers"
were especially disenchanted with what they deemed nit-picking on
the part of Princeton's "Old School" Presbyterians. The heresy hunts
launched by the "Old School" against innovative and effective pastors
such as Albert Barnes and Lyman Beecher were evidence to the "New
School" that a new seminary was needed, a school with more emphasis
upon reaching the growing masses of people—in the exploding
metropolitan cities ofthe East and the western frontier—and less concern
for theological hairsplitting. This is not to say that the "New Schoolers"
were not rigorous in their scholarship; they were committed to that. But
the "New Schoolers" also desired an evangelistic fervor and a generosity
of theological outlook which they were convinced were not forthcoming
from the "Old School."
A secondary but nonetheless real concern was the divisive issue of
slavery. The "New School" was decidedly abolitionist in sympathy but
22 Ibid., 349. Ann Stuart Ludlow (b. 1833, d. February 18, 1903) was the daughter of John Reynolds Ludlow
and Ann Jane Mollon. Though Skinner said she was "of New York," it appears she had family connections
reaching back to the Bethel Church of Harvey's Neck. J. D. Hufham, in his obituary report to the convention
following Thomas Skinner's death, said that the maternal grandmother of the second Mrs. Skinner, a Mrs. Mollon,
had been baptized in the same Nine Mile Creek as had Thomas Skinner and his father. No other connections or
information have been discovered, however.
As for Ann Eliza Skinner, her body was returned to Tyrrell County, NC and interred in the Albemarle
Cemetery of Columbia, N.C Her gravestone records a death date ofAugust 27, 1 852, a date that verified that she
was indeed the mother of Thomas Halsey Skinner, confirming his inclusion as a grandchild in the will of Martha
Halsey (see footnote 19 above). The boy's birth date is recorded in Thomas Skinner's own hand as June 10, 1 852,
in the account book he kept of his management of the funds bequeathed by Mrs. Halsey to the two grandchildren
borne by her daughter, Ann Eliza. This account book is in the North Carolina Baptist Historical Collection of
Wake Forest University's Z. Smith Reynolds Library.
20
was also displeased by the strident manner in which some were advocating
it. They were in political agreement with the approach outlined by
Daniel Webster: do away with the practice legally, methodically, and
wisely, offering financial compensation to slaveholders for their losses.
In the evolving life of Presbyterianism, the "New School" became
the dominant theology north of the Mason-Dixon line, while the "Old
School" prevailed in the South.23
Thus, if Thomas Skinner's seminary instruction "took," he returned
to the land of Dixie and its Baptist churches with a degree from a "New
School" Presbyterian seminary, a softened Calvinist theology, a firm
evangelistic orientation, a more urban, urbane, and generous outlook
than most of his fellow ministers—and more challenges to slaveholding
practices than would make any slave owner comfortable. And lest one
forgets, he also returned with a Yankee wife.
Skinner's brief tenure at his first pastoral charge in Petersburg,
Virginia, is in fact attributable to his wife, Ann Stuart Ludlow of New
York. Immediately after their marriage the newlyweds traveled to
Perquimans County where Thomas was ordained by and in the Hertford
Baptist Church—its handsome new building completed only weeks
earlier. They then journeyed to Petersburg, where Thomas had already
accepted the pastorate of its Baptist church. However, only eight months
later, citing Ann's health as the reason, he resigned and retreated with her
and his two children to Avon Springs, a resort near the Finger Lakes area
of western New York noted for its healing waters and idyllic summer
weather. There, on February 27, 1855, Ann gave birth to their first child,
Ann Jane, or as they called her, Annie.
But the availability of such a promising young minister did not
23 The statement of the originating impulses and theological orientation ofthe school was based upon the summary
provided in Henry Sloane Coffin, A Half Century of Union Theological Seminary 1896-1945 (New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1954). Coffin's summary was based upon George Lewis Prentiss, The Union Theological Seminary
in the city ofNew York and biographical sketches ofitsfirstfifty years (New York: A.D.F. Randolph, 1 889).
21
remain unnoticed in the South. A request arrived from the Baptists
in Savannah, Georgia, seeking a visit from young Thomas Skinner
concerning their pastoral opening. He agreed to visit them that fall and
in November he boarded a southbound train to Savannah. But his journey
was interrupted.
Call it providence, the operation of the "good ole boy" network, or
whatever one wishes, the fact is that when Thomas Skinner arrived at
the Weldon, North Carolina, railroad depot in November, 1855 to make
train connections to Savannah, he came upon Dr. William Hooper, the
much-respected leader of the Wake Forest faculty. Hooper prevailed
upon him to interrupt his journey long enough to attend a portion of the
North Carolina Baptist Convention which was assembling then for its
annual session in Warrenton, only thirty miles distant. When the two
entered the Warrenton church building Skinner was greeted by the Rev.
G. W Johnston, who had served as the clerk in Skinner's ordination
service the previous year. Johnston asked the thirty-year-old Skinner not
to leave the meeting until the two had opportunity to talk further. When
that conversation was held, Johnston explained that he was serving
as the pastor of the church in Raleigh but was suffering from a throat
disease that made preaching impossible and therefore he was searching
for a successor. Would young Skinner delay his journey southward and
accompany Johnston to Raleigh and preach for him Sunday? Skinner
agreed to do so and on the following Sabbath day he preached morning
and evening to the Raleigh congregation. Then, at a called meeting of
the congregation on November 25, 1 855, the church did two things. First,
it received the resignation of G. W. Johnston and then it gave unanimous
support to Johnston's nomination of his successor, who was described
in the church's minutes as "Elder Thomas Skinner of New York, but a
native of North Carolina."24 The members promised to pay Skinner $800
24 Minutes of First Baptist Church, Raleigh, November 25, 1855, hereinafter cited as Minutes.
22
for his services in the next year, with half that sum to be received as a
subsidy to the Raleigh church from the Southern Baptist Convention's
missions program.
Rather than continuing his trip to Savannah, Skinner returned to New
York "to confer with the powers that be—she is still the power, thanks to
a merciful Providence—and after a serious and prayerful consideration
of the matter, accepted the call to Raleigh, with the distinct understanding
that they would, as soon as possible, erect a new meeting house in a
more eligible situation."25
Anne Stuart Ludlow Thomas E. Skinner
DATE UNKNOWN: PHOTOS COURTESY OF
THE CHURCH ARCHIVES OF F.B.C RALEIGH
25 Sermons, 351. Skinner's account of the details of his call to the Raleigh church has been followed here
although the minutes of the church meeting ofNovember 25, 1 855, read somewhat differently. They began: "At a
called meeting of the church after the usual morning services, our present pastor, Elder G. W. Johnston stated ...
."
That varied with Skinner's report that he preached both morning and evening services and that the called meeting
occurred on Monday evening. November 25 fell on Sunday in 1855. Skinner's statement that half his salary
was from Southern Baptist mission funds was not corroborated in the minutes, which said nothing about that
significant detail, although many such [important to us] details were regularly omitted from the minutes. Willis G.
Briggs repeated Skinner's statement regarding the salary supplement as well as Skinner's statement regarding the
church's commitment to erect a new building, another significant detail the minutes failed to report. (Address by
Willis G. Briggs on 140th Anniversary, March 16, 1952, Archives of F.B.C, Raleigh, N.C). In that same address
Briggs supplemented the single name of Dr. William Hooper as being the person who intercepted Skinner at the
Weldon train station with additional names of those who "chanced to meet" Skinner at the depot. They were "Dr.
Jeter, Dr. McDaniel and others" who were "on the way to Warrenton for the Baptist State Convention." Jeter was
on Wake Forest's faculty and McDaniel was the pastor of the Fayetteville church.
23
A Stellar Beginning
One shudders to think of the contrast between the City ofNew York
- and the posh Avon Springs resort the Skinners had known most recently
- and the small southern town that was Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1855.
Although it was the state's capital (even that designation had, however,
been often and fiercely contested by Fayetteville until 1840), Raleigh's
population was still well below five thousand and its expansion had
not yet pressed beyond the one square mile laid out for it in William
Christmas' original city-plan of 1795. Pigs and cattle as well as chickens
and dogs freely roamed its unpaved streets and occasional wood-plank
sidewalks. Although giant strides were being made statewide in
education, only three public schools were functioning in Raleigh and
their term was restricted to three to five months per year. The first railroad
(with locomotives bearing names like Tornado, Volcano, Whirlwind,
and Spitfire) had made its appearance in Raleigh only in the preceding
decade; telegraph service arrived in 1848. The commodious and elegant
Yarbrough Hotel was in operation but so were innumerable 'grog' shops
(saloons) filled with the ne'er-do-wells known to loiter in a city where
politics was king. To be sure, stately homes were to be found, especially
along Blount Street, and there was a burgeoning commercial district on
Fayetteville Street—so the city did bear evidence of promise. But there
were little signs of prominence other than the centrally located State
House. Cities such as Wilmington and Fayetteville and New Bern were
much more impressive. Raleigh offered little to remind the young pastor
and his wife of marvelous Manhattan, nor did it have the established and
genteel ambience which had awaited them in uninvestigated Savannah.
So far as the city's churches were concerned, the Episcopalians were
far in front; the handsome stone sanctuary of Christ Church had been
occupied one year earlier. The Methodists and Presbyterians had their
own less imposing facilities, but the Baptists were housed in a building
24
which one observer said "had been for all its history in a feeble and
languishing condition."26 Even more telling, the minutes of the Baptist
church's business meetings were a depressing and repetitious recital of
ineffective facility repairs and insoluble debt dilemmas, interspersed
with sad notations of the parade of arriving and departing pastors. Even
the slender "church book" containing these minutes had only a few blank
pages remaining within it, but the purchase of a new one had become a
source for numbing discussion. Little did that dispirited group realize
that in the calling of Thomas E. Skinner they had entered a new and
history-shaping period in the church's life.
On December 16, 1855 Skinner preached his introductory sermon,
using as his text 1 Corinthians 11:16: "Woe is unto me if I preach not the
gospel." It was one of the sermons Skinner chose to publish in his 1894
memoirs, and for good reason. In it he delineated much of his personal
theology and philosophy of ministry. 27
In typical nineteenth-century sermonic style, Skinner spent a good
deal of time in ground-clearing preliminaries before presenting his five
points. But even those preliminaries were noteworthy. In artful manner
his first paragraphs dealt with the "rights" of a preacher of the gospel. He
maintained that, contrary to the Apostle Paul's chosen practice, present-day
pastor-preachers had the right to marry and to receive financial
payment for their services. (Suspicion of "hireling" clergy was rife in
that day, and it was just as common for pledged wages to go unpaid—as
was actually the state of affairs in the Raleigh church at that time for
Skinner's predecessor, the well-regarded Rev. G. W. Johnston).
The new pastor then said that "every Christian is called to his own
ministry as a servant of Christ" even if it be not as a preacher of the
gospel, per se: "He can visit the sick and the poor, feed some ofthe sheep,
and certainly be instant in attendance upon the Word, and, above all else,
26 Ibid., 249. The observer was John W. Moore, state historian.
27 That "Introductory Sermon" is found ibid., 221-235; all citations in the following paragraphs are taken from
those pages.
25
live a life 'hid with Christ in God.'" But Skinner left no doubt that some
were specifically called to preach the gospel and, perhaps unwittingly,
he even offered his listeners a not-well-disguised portrayal of his own
calling in these exhortative words:
But there are also . . . many men following secular employments
engulfed in the busy scenes of life, nay who are not even
professed disciples of Christ, but who are living in the world
without God and without hope, who have been called to preach
by their mental gifts, by their advantages in life, and by the
waving fields of the plenteous harvest of souls perishing for the
want of laborers in the vineyard—men who were called loudly,
but would not heed the message of the Master. Woe is unto such,
because they would not obey and preach the gospel!
He rounded out his preliminary remarks by stating the contents of
the gospel to be preached. "The gospel of Christ means the history of
Christ—His doctrines or teachings, His sufferings and death. ... The
gospel of Christ is the scheme ofredemption, the plan of salvation, wrought
out in the councils of heaven and delivered unto us by the incarnate
Jehovah—Christ—God manifest in the flesh." Such a gospel includes not
only "the unspeakable blessings of everlasting salvation" but also "the
untold miseries of condemnation," and "the glorious doctrine of Election
. . . or Predestination, or Divine purposes, or Foreknowledge, or whatever
scriptural phrases you may please." But concerning those latter doctrines
he was quick to add that "so long as we fan the flame and wrest the truth of
such doctrines, just so long will our hearts burn with the fire, not of spiritual
devotion, but of sectional, personal and bitter opposition."
The ground then having been cleared, Skinner proceeded to speak
of various ways in which the preaching of the gospel was done. First,
he scorned those who preached only "the palatable doctrines and duties
of the Christian life" and failed to mention its necessary self-denial and
cross. Second, and just as loathsome to Skinner, those "who tell you of
26
the peculiarities of the Jewish theocracy, the wonderful achievements of
the sword of Israel, her heroes, her kings, her judges ... the magnificent
proportions of the Temple, its costly furniture, finished walls and
captivating ritual" but fail to speak more of the Christ who fulfills all
these historical types and images. To Skinner all such historical texts had
to be "treated as to trace down, point out and hold up Christ to the view
of the lost soul."
Warming to his subject, Skinner gave the lengthiest section of his
sermon to a development of "the prevalent and destructive fault of
the age ... Idolatry of Learning." Here he seemed to be addressing
any apprehensions among the members about their young New York-educated
pastor and perhaps about learned clergy in general. Skinner's
approach was to reproach those preachers whose learning led them to
a "barrenness of soul" with "the entire loss of sight of the great end of
preaching, which is the strengthening of the faith of the saints first, and
as a consequence the winning of souls to Christ." To him "the power
that learning confers, if it be unsanctified, is as the power derived from
hoarded wealth, or any other source not consecrated to God's service
—
an engine of evil, a sword in the hand of Satan." The positive use of
learning he illustrated from Baptist missionary heroes William Carey and
Adoniram Judson. Skinner's implicit, though never overtly expressed,
pledge was that his learning, like that of Carey and Judson, would be
placed in the service of the Lord and of the Lord's people.
His fourth point dealt with those whose preaching of the gospel was
marked by controversy, and he claimed that a minister true to his calling
"must necessarily be a controversialist ... contending for the truth as
against error." But that recognition did not mean that the preacher was
to be a person of strife, "for the servant of the Lord must not strive, but
be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient." Even when dealing with
legitimately controversial matters, the preacher of the gospel was to be
a persistent and humble teacher of the good as he saw it, remembering
27
"that in many things we, too, do displease and offend Him, more, perhaps,
than these our misguided brethren."
Finally, Skinner elevated the examples of Jesus' preaching and of
Paul's as the models for faithful preaching of the gospel. Jesus, he said,
was "a plain, bold and searching preacher . . . .God-fearing and not a man-pleasing
preacher . . . self-sacrificing preacher, condescending to men of
low estate, and even choosing from this class of men those who were
to follow him and preach his gospel." The Apostle Paul, he said, "was
second to none, save his beloved Master" [as a model for Christians],
and that "Self-denial was Paul's daily habit in life." Skinner concluded
his sermon with a Victorian cascade of scriptures imploring his listeners
to pray for him that he might be, like Christ and Paul, a good and faithful
preacher of the gospel.
The sermon is tedious to the extreme for today's tastes, but it might
be judged a masterpiece of pastoral and theological sagacity for its time.
He forthrightly but tactfully dealt with sensitive issues such as his salary,
allayed anxieties about his much learning while not discounting the
benefits of education, and challenged his listeners to accept their own
role as ministers of the gospel while assuring them that he would be a
theologically orthodox minister who, though not afraid of controversy,
would neither seek it nor depart from the spirit of Christ in the midst of
it. And finally he asked for their partnership—in prayer and in deeds of
mercy and faithful attendance—in the ministry that was set before them.
The proof, however, was in the daily grind ofministry and it is through
the minutes ofthe church that Skinner's opening days ofministry are more
visible than in that introductory sermon. Here there are strong indications
that he quickly earned the congregation's respect. For instance, in the
church meeting of February 14, 1856, they granted to him and Deacon
Peter Francisco Pescud the authority to review the church's bylaws and
rules of decorum. In the conference of October 9, 1 856, they also ordered
that "the breast works of our present pulpit be taken down and permission
28
be granted to our Pastor to have such a stand and other fixtures erected
in its place as will be agreeable to his tastes and feelings and that the
expenses of the same be defrayed by the church." That last action was
surely predicated upon two remarkable displays of his ability that they
had witnessed in the first months of 1856.
First, the debt that had shackled the church for years was retired.
That action came following a resolution A. M. Lewis had introduced in
the March church meeting mandating that each member be assessed a
certain sum to retire the debt. However, when the matter was taken up
in the May conference, the clerk entered the following clumsy, albeit
celebrative summation: "The necessity for the operation of such a
Resolution as Bro. A. M. Lewis' having erased the old church debt having
been settled by cash and subscriptions it was withdrawn." Although one
may struggle to understand fully the clerk's awkward sentence—as well
as wonder how such a miracle might have occurred—there can be no
questions about a second and much plainer entry in August of that year:
"So the old church debt may be considered as settled finally." Also, in the
May 3 conference in which Brother Lewis' resolution was withdrawn,
the church agreed to purchase a new "church book" and took up a more
than sufficient collection to pay for it. Hope was budding.
The other remarkable event that occurred in the early months of
1 856 was the purchase of a lot for the promised new church building.
That came to light in the minutes of May 3 1
:
One states he's learned that Elder Skinner, A.M. Lewis & R. M.
Jones in connection with A. Williams Esq. had purchased a lot
from Dr. Jas. H. Cook near the capitol on which it was anticipated
to build a new Church Edifice. He desired to know what was the
intention of the Church in regard to this matter and also what
disposition the purchasers expected to make of their property.
A. M. Lewis stood and informed all present that the named gentlemen
had indeed purchased the land with the intention of making at least a
29
portion of it available to the church for a new building and that they were
ready to add additional cash and pledges to assist with its construction.
The proffered lot was on the southwest corner of the intersection of the
broad Salisbury and Edenton streets which formed the north and east
boundaries of the Capitol Square. A new building on such a lot would
indeed be well located, facing the handsome new Episcopal facility
across the grassy expanse ofthe Capitol lawn, and with proper scope and
design it could be most impressive. Hence, the near-accusatory tones of
an unnamed inquiring church member were quickly suppressed by the
unanimous congregational acceptance of the gift and in glad anticipation
of such a new building.
There was also a poignant personal dimension to the story of that
land-gift which must be retold. It concerned the crucial role played in it
by a man named Jim Atkins. Skinner told it best:
In the summer of 1856 a lot was purchased from Dr. Cook,
consisting of one acre on Hillsboro and Salisbury streets and
opposite the Capitol Square, for which we paid six thousand
dollars cash, or its equivalent.
It is an interesting story as to how we purchased that lot. This
man, Dr. Cook, had a servant man named Jim Atkins; he was
a member of the church, which consisted of white and colored
members—nearly equal in their number. Jim had great influence
with his master, whose playmate he was when boys together. Dr.
Cook had agreed to sell this lot to several parties at different times,
but always failed to enter into legal steps to consummate the sale.
Dr. Charles E. Johnson was one of the parties thus disappointed.
When I told him I had purchased the lot—he was my brother-in-law—
he smiled and said, he will not confirm the sale legally. I
showed him the paper he had signed, and a similar one which I
had signed also and delivered to Dr. Cook. "Why Thomas," he
said, "you have got him." "Yes," said I, "by the help of Jim Atkins,
I have." Jim had been out to spend Sunday night with his master,
and as he said, "I will, by the help of the Lord, Mars Thomas,
fetch the old man round, and I will report to you Monday night."
Jim was the collector of the Doctor's rents in the city and was his
only agent. Jim was a blacksmith and lived in the city. True to his
word, he reported to me thus: "Go right out dar Mars Tommie and
see him, for he has promised me sure that he will sell you that lot;
case he wants to see a fine Baptist church built right there, and
will take one thousand dollars less than he has ever asked for it."
He was a strong-minded man, but ungodly.
On Tuesday afternoon Deacon Pescud accompanied me out to the
Doctor's with the two papers binding each ofus, legally, to confirm
the transaction. At first the Doctor seemed to be off from what
he had promised Jim. He said, "I will come into town tomorrow
and confirm the sale," and that his word was his bond. "Yes," I
said, "so is my word my bond, but suppose either ofus should die
tonight, then what? Now, Doctor, we can't exchange words further,
for ifwe do not trade in five minutes, I will return to town and buy
another lot before sunset." And, rising to go, I handed him the
obligation and asked him if he would sign it. He signed it, and we
had the lot. We could not have purchased it without the aid of that
excellent Christian man, Jim Atkins. He was a sweet singer, and
frequently have I seen the congregation remain in the old church
to hear Jim sing, "Home Sweet Home," as he stood in the gallery.
His house was next door to Dr. Carter's [the pastor of First Baptist
at the time Skinner wrote this account] present residence. It was
a plain log-house with one room. That (eastern) side of the entire
square was vacant, save two or three hovels on Edenton Street,
in one of which Jim lived with his family. The good man died
of dropsy, and while visiting him once he pointed to the walls of
the church, which were about half erected, and broke out with
the apostrophy, "Mars Tommie, I shall not live to see that house
completed, but, thanks unto God, I have a house, not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens." I loved Jim Atkins.28
The loveliness of that story is made bittersweet to those of a later
century by noting that only months after Jim Atkins' indispensable role
28 Ibid., 352-353.
31
in the acquisition of the lot for the new church building—and apparently
in response to the growing attendance at the old church—the church
ordered that "the galleries [that is, the balcony of the old church] are
ordered to be vacated by the colored congregation and occupied by the
children and young persons of both sexes connected with the Sabbath
School and the congregation during the forenoon service. The colored
congregation to have a special sermon every Sabbath afternoon and
permission to use the galleries at night."29
Thomas Skinner had by then led in the elimination of the church's
debt and the acquisition of a prime location for a new church building.
There remained before him the crowning accomplishment of his first
year of ministry in Raleigh: securing money for the building itself—and
like the purchase of the Cook property, that also was accomplished in
large part through Skinner's remarkable individual initiative.
The church was serving as host for the 1 856 Baptist State Convention
in November and Thomas' intention was to enlist the financial assistance
of North Carolina's assembled Baptists for the new building. However,
a financial crisis was then threatening the continued existence of Wake
Forest and an urgent appeal for funds for the school was made in one of
the convention's afternoon sessions. While the school's spokesperson
was issuing that appeal Skinner, his father, and Richard Felton were seen
in deep conversation just outside the chamber—the daytime sessions
were being held in the House of Commons chamber of the State House.
When the appeal was concluded, Thomas Skinner took the floor to
announce to the two hundred delegates that his father and Richard Felton
had authorized him to announce that those two gentlemen would each
give $5,000 to alleviate Wake's crisis and that young Thomas would add
another $3,000 to the sum. The assembly was stunned and displayed its
amazement by promptly pledging another $31,000 for Wake Forest's
29 Minutes, September 5, 1856. In the Minutes of May 25, 1857, it was noted that "the colored congregation"
would then return to the gallery "since owing to peculiar circumstances they were compelled to vacate some time
ago."
32
survival. It was an astounding amount ofmoney for such a small number
of persons—$44,000! As a consequence, in the words of one eyewitness,
"Wake Forest College was saved and saved forever."30
But what of Thomas' intention to raise money for the new church
building during that meeting? It remained in force. Prior to the
convention Skinner's father and Richard Felton as well as two members
of the church, A. M. Lewis and Mrs. Alfred Williams, had given him
their pledges toward his goal of raising between $18,000 to $20,000 for
the new building, a sum he believed would assure the building's erection.
His plan had been to announce those pledges during the evening service
in the woebegone church building, hoping Baptists in attendance
from across the state would want to match them and help erect a more
fitting house of worship on the state's Capitol Square. The unexpected
generosity displayed for Wake Forest clearly made questionable a
second financial appeal during the same convention, let alone on the
same day. Wake Forest officials, when they learned of Skinner's intent,
feared another appeal would negatively impact the pledges they had just
received, so they asked him to abandon his plan. But feeling that he
would not soon have another such opportunity, Skinner disregarded their
plea and pressed on, knowing he had only $7,000 in hand as the crucial
evening session began.
Once the session was called to order the young pastor presented
his challenge to the messengers and then, as they discussed his request,
he worked among them to solicit gifts for the "grand edifice" which he
believed would bring sorely needed pride to all the Baptists of North
Carolina. Moving from one potential donor to the next, Skinner would
secure a pledge and then electrify the crowd by announcing his mounting
tally as he made his way around the packed church auditorium. By
evening's end Thomas Skinner had raised the astounding sum of $ 1 8,750
30 This narrative is based on the account given by John W. Moore in Sermons, 244-245, and in Paschal History
of Wake Forest, pp. 291ff., and with numerical variants in Huggins, History ofN. C. Baptists, lAl-l^Z.
33
in cash and pledges for the new building.31
Its construction was assured!
Moreover, it would not be just the creation of one local congregation, but
an expression of many North Carolina Baptists' desire for excellence.
The Convention of 1856 would become a convocation long
remembered and gloried in by Baptists of the Old North State. On one
day those in attendance generously gave an unprecedented total of
$62,750 to Baptist causes—and, according to Skinner, every cent that
was pledged to both causes was fully paid.32
The church itself took note of Skinner's amazing productivity by
renewing his call as their pastor and setting his 1857 salary at $1,000,
an increase of 20 percent. Or so said the church minutes of November
5, 1856. However, apparently speaking in summary fashion, Skinner
himself said "to the honor of their liberality, . . . they called on the Home
Missions Board no longer for aid, but increased their pastor's salary,
without his wish or expectation, to twenty-four hundred dollars."33
It
is unfortunate that Skinner placed that sentence where he did in his
reminiscences, thereby creating the impression that his salary was raised
to $2,400 for 1857. Such a figure was eventually approved for him, but
not until 1863. But the fact remains that Thomas Skinner's first year of
3
1
Sermons,. 362-365. Huggins, History ofN. C. Baptists, offered lower sums for both subscriptions efforts. The
official minutes of the 1856 session of the Baptist State Convention recorded a total for Wake Forest of $25,125
but attached to those minutes there was an article which appeared in the Biblical Recorder of January 1 , 1 896,
written by Thomas E. Skinner stating that the amount was $44,000 rather than $25,125. Paschal attempted to
reconcile those data in History of Wake Forest, 293ff.
There was also a discrepancy in the sum pledged to the church building effort; the convention minutes
reported $ 1 3 ,650 rather than the $ 1 8,750 stated by Skinner. However, neither of those sums matched the number
($15,433) stated in the July 20, 1857, minutes of First Baptist Church as the church undertook the construction of
its new building.
But, as Huggins noted, considering that the treasurer reported a regular income of $5,300 for the convention
in 1 856, the liberality of the 1 856 Convention did make it "the great session of 1 856" that Huggins deemed it: "the
amount was nearly twice the amount which had been given from 1 83 1 through 1 855. And the Convention had to
wait for some fifty years before it could have another such experience."
32 Sermons, 365. Endorsing the assertion that the new building was as much the project of North Carolina
Baptists as it was of Raleigh Baptists was the fact that when its cornerstone was laid, Charles W. Skinner rather
than a Raleigh church member, laid it, saying: "As I now lay this brick in hydraulic cement, so may the hearts of
all Christians be united in love" (ibid., 354). Moreover, the minutes of the financially floundering Raleigh church
prove that had the construction of the building depended upon Raleigh resources alone, it would not have been
built at all.
33 Sermons, 352.
34
ministry in Raleigh was an astounding turnaround year for the church and
a landmark year for Baptist's institutional witness in North Carolina.
And for Thomas and his wife Ann it was a year of personal joy as
well; their second child, Emmie, was born May 15, 1856. Also, his
encumbrances to the issue of slavery were lessened by his sale that year
of the Perquimans County plantation given him by his father.
34 Thus,
quite literally deed by deed, his heart was ever more closely turned to the
pulpit rather than to the life of a planter.
34 Perquimans County Book of Deeds, Book EE, 1 87.
35
Ministry as Joy and Travail
Skinner might have been wise to read the handwriting on the wall
when the church, in its January 2, 1 857, meeting, committed only the paltry
sum of S220.40 toward the new building, and in its March meeting was
still attempting to raise the balance due on his 1856 salary. Nonetheless,
the church authorized him to appoint a five-member building committee,
and he appointed Alfred Williams (a benefactor of the church and well-respected
local merchant, whose wife was a member of the church
although he was not), A. M. Lewis, P. F. Pescud, Robert M. Jones, and
himself. The group quickly engaged the architectural firm of Percival &
Grant, designers of several impressive local homes and public buildings,
and began their work.35
As springtime came, spiritual blessings also arrived as "the Church
began to feel the first movings of a refreshing season from the Lord,"36
and genuine revival sprang up, with sunrise prayer services and evening
preaching services yielding conversions virtually every day. For most
of the entire month of April and in spite of frequent rainstorms, the
meetings continued with overflow crowds standing outside the building
and still others having to be turned away. Ministers from the Wake
Forest faculty and nearby churches were brought in to assist Skinner
with the preaching and personal work. An impressed church clerk left his
glowing assessment of their young pastor in this April 13 entry:
Our pastor's heart and soul and body seem to be engaged in
the work of the Lord. He has preached several times during the
meeting he delivers an exhortation to his dying congregation
every night and speaks words of advice and encouragement to
35 The firm of Percival and Grant soon dissolved but Percival continued the work for First Baptist; a Petersburg,
Virginia, contractor, William Coates, received the contract to build the building, according to Minutes of July 20,
1857. Photos of some of the Raleigh homes designed by Percival can be seen in Elizabeth Culbertson Waugh,
North Carolina's Capital. Raleigh, Bicentennial Edition (Raleigh: Junior League of Raleigh, 1992), 108ff.; and
for Percival himself, see William B. Bushong, "William Percival, an English Architect in the Old North State,
1857-1 860," North Carolina Historical Review, vol. 57, no. 3 (July, 1980), 310-339, hereinafter cited as Bushong,
"William Percival."
36 Minutes, April 3, 1857.
36
those who are mourning on account of their sins. He visits those
who are enquiring during the day and in fact nearly every person
within his knowledge who is in the least degree concerned on
the subject of religion. He has truly shown himself a faithful
undershepherd. The Lord bless strengthen and encourage him by
rewarding his labor in behalf of the church and the inhabitants
of Raleigh.
But regardless of the revival and Skinner's hard work the coffers of
the church continued to be empty, especially with regard to the pastor's
salary. For his part, Skinner, calmly disregarded the oversight and in June
announced that the building committee had completed a plan with Percival
for the new building and that very soon the work would be let out for bid.
In late July the church received the details of the plan its committee
had "made out." The new building "exclusive of lightning rod, furniture
of the church, (such as carpets cushions, Lights, etc.) the seats in the
basement and the walling [fence, exterior finish?] around the church"
was to cost $20,687.50 and would be completed by September, 1 858. The
minutes actually speak of "the new church now in process of erection,"
so apparently the committee had previously authorized the work on the
church's behalf, confident that the $5,254.50 gap between the cash and
pledges then in hand and the contract price would, as they said, "be
raised by the liberality of those who feel an interest in establishing the
Kingdom of Christ upon earth."37
As the construction progressed the church chose to add a steeple to
the design, apply a stucco exterior, install two coal furnaces and only-recently-
available gas lighting, place new pews in the basement and an
iron fence around the perimeter of the building (the fence itself being
donated by Thomas Skinner—although the church bore the installation
charge), and, of course, affix a lightning rod. Those added considerably
to the final cost of the building, but on July 20, 1857, the church was
37 Minutes, July 20, 1857.
37
pleased to adopt the $20,687.50 report of its building committee and
anticipate its move into a new house of worship.38 By year's end a sale
of the building then in use to the Roman Catholics had been negotiated,
apparently for a price of $3,000.
During the long months of construction the church members' spirits
and those of all North Carolina Baptists were heartened by the return
of Matthew T. Yates on furlough from China. For the previous eleven
years the missionary's financial support had been a high priority in every
associational meeting and in most of the churches. He gave a series
of well-attended lectures in the Raleigh church in the springtime of
1858; but, surprisingly, when he returned in the fall to attend Raleigh
Association's annual meeting the reception was not nearly so cordial.
It was felt by some in attendance that Yates was dressed too elegantly;
some even hinted he was profiting handsomely from whatever he was
doing in China. Skinner attempted to counter the whispered displeasure
with delicate finesse during a foreign missions report he gave to the
assembly, but when he sat down Yates took the floor and spoke more
forthrightly. He explained that his suit had been purchased for him eleven
years earlier by Thomas Skinner and other friends. That apparently put
an end to the malicious talk, for when the Baptist State Convention met
two months later and it was discovered that Yates had given $300 toward
38 John Moore claimed (Sermons, 250) the building cost a total of $40,000 but there are no extant records to
corroborate that figure and little this researcher has seen would indicate that the building's cost actually doubled its
proposed budget. Indeed, a source much closer ( 1 874) to its construction says: "... so great was the enterprise, that
it was undertaken in pieces—the main building was the first contracted for at eighteen thousand seven hundred and
fifty dollars, then the tower for fourteen hundred and ninety dollars. The stuccoing was an extra job and cost seven
hundred dollars; the pews of the basement cost two hundred and twelve dollars; the bill of the architect was nine
hundred and thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents; the lot cost seven hundred dollars. The iron railing, a present from
Dr. Skinner, cost one thousand dollars, and all these items, with the baptistry, bell, furnaces and furniture, made the
grand total amount to about twenty-seven thousand dollars." Manual ofthe First Baptist Church ofRaleigh, N.C.,
April, 1874 (Raleigh: John Nichols & Co., Book and Job Printers, 1874), 6-7, hereinafter cited as Manual of the
First Baptist Church. But even that report, published within fifteen years of the building's completion, differed from
Skinner's report that the lot cost $6,000; the price stated within that report was only $700.
In any event, as Moore admitted, the cost "seemed a great sum in the eyes of our people, but God has blessed the
investment in so signal a manner that we can have no doubt that such bounty to His cause was well-seeming on
High. Our fathers were content to worship in structures inferior to barns in architectural merits, but from this one
example we have seen city after city and many villages rearing up fanes that show at last that we [meaning the
Baptist denomination?] love and honor the worship of our Lord." Sermons, 250.
38
the establishment of what was to be Southern Theological Seminary,
others in the room rushed to reimburse the missionary. As for Thomas
Skinner—who had given five times that much for the projected seminary
and who had played a major role in Yates' sartorial splendor—he
received no reimbursement offers but did wryly comment that he wished
he "knew how to keep my clothing so well that I could look as well as
Yates did in a suit of clothes eleven years old."39
As the promised date of occupancy of the new building drew near it
was obvious the building would not be completed as scheduled. That was
a severe disappointment to the Raleigh church leaders because the state
convention had been invited to return for its November, 1858, convention
and enjoy the brick and mortar fruits of its generous 1856 gifts. But
regardless of the building's unfinished state, the Raleigh Baptists made
plans for their guests and invited Rev. J. Lansing Burrows, pastor of
the First Baptist Church of Richmond, Virginia, to preach a dedicatory
sermon in the partially completed building during the convention.
Even in its unfinished state the building was "a most beautiful
structure" according to a Wilmington, North Carolina, correspondent.
"And when the tower is completed, on which workmen are now engaged,
it will make a most imposing appearance. . . . The windows are composed
of stained glass, and with the exception of the center light in the tower,
they are of a mild, subdued brown or lead color, and give a very pleasant
light for the eyes. The centre light in the tower is composed of all the
colors of the rainbow, and is most beautiful to look at. The wood work
of the interior is stained a dark walnut color, and seen by gas light, as it
was presented to us, it makes a very pleasant sight."40
The "centre light in the tower" was unquestionably the sixteen foot
diameter rose window prized today as a signature feature of the building.
39 Charles E. Taylor, The Story of Yates the Missionary as Told in His Letters and Reminiscences (Nashville,
Tennessee: Sunday School Board Southern Baptist Convention, 1898), 126-127, hereinafter cited as Taylor, Story of
Yates. For the detail concerning contributions to the projected seminary, see Huggins, History ofN. C. Baptists, 243.
40 Biblical Recorder, vol. 23, no. 49, December 2, 1 859, 2.
39
Rose Window in the Bell Tower
PHOTO: DON KLINE
In a newspaper article written by Skinner during the construction of the
building, he had promised that "Over the doorway there will be a
beautiful rose window with rich stained glass . . .
."4I A Raleigh Register
reporter, offering readers a verbal tour of the finished facility, noted the
"the rose window is seen with good effect from the main floor of the
Church."42 Hence, the window was planned and installed in the original
construction although the church records make no mention of it or of its
cost or giver, if in fact it was presented as a special gift.
But the church records did record the impressive dedication service
on the second night of the convention, Thursday, November 11, 1858.
Notwithstanding the very inclement weather, the house, capable
of accommodating more than 1,000, was well and comfortably
filled. The choir, assisted by some of the best vocalists of the
city and led by Mr. W. D. Cooke, Principal of the Institute
of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind. Dr. Burrows' text was
41 The Semi-Weekly Raleigh Register, January 13, 1858.
42 Raleigh Register, September 14, 1859. Bushong cites a Richmond Examiner article about the "opening
services" of September 1 1, 1859, in which it is said: "Over the doorway is a beautiful rose window with rich
stained glass." Bushong, "William Percival."
40
a portion of the 7th verse of the 60th chapter of Isaiah. "I will
glorify the house ofmy glory." His theme was 'the house ofGod
glorified'. ... At the conclusion of his sermon, Dr. B. requested
the congregation to rise, when he dedicated the Building to the
worship ofAlmighty God ... .
43
And in the best Baptist tradition, before adjournment a collection
was taken to assist in paying for the building's completion! However, not
until September of the following year would the congregation actually
begin to worship in the new building on a regular basis. But in its
construction a giant step had been taken in re-imaging Baptists in North
Carolina and in Raleigh. A worthy and elegant-for-its-time-and-place
house of worship had been planted at the crossroads of North Carolina's
capital city. There is no way to explain that feat other than to point to the
leadership of Thomas Edward Skinner.
First Baptist Church of Raleigh - view of the
interior as it appeared in the mid-1 800s
43 Minutes, November 11, 1858.
41
First Baptist Church of Raleigh -
mid 1800s
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE
CHURCH ARCHIVES OF F.B.C. RALEIGH
As for the man himself, it had been a wearying season. Only four
weeks before the convention's opening, the three-and-one-half-year-old
firstborn child of Thomas and Ann died. Annie, born to them in Avon
Springs, New York, died on October 5, 1858. There would be many, too
many, such losses in the future. In addition to three-year-old Annie's
grave, the Skinner family plot in Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh encloses,
among others, the graves of two whose headstones bear no inscription
save the single, aching word: "Infant." For Thomas, having previously
lost his first child, Edloe, at one month, and his first wife, Ann Eliza, in
her twenty-fifth year of life, the valley of griefwas not unfamiliar terrain.
But Annie's death was Ann's first suchjourney. And, creating a formidable
emotional whipsaw for her was the fact that four days after Annie's death,
42
Ann gave birth to Johnie, their first son—who would, unbelievably, die
only twenty months later.
Also, two weeks after the convention's closing, to a congregation that
was dallying in the seemingly impossible task of paying his promised
1858 annual salary of $1,000, Skinner "signified his willingness to preach
the coming year for the same salary; but gave the church to understand
in kind but very plain terms that as soon as they were relieved of the
present church debt that he should require the sum of $1,500 per year,
should they require his services."44
The only recorded response was to stipulate that the pastor's family
was to receive a free pew when a new pew rental scheme went into
effect. That scheme was touted to be the answer to the church's financial
woes. Unfortunately, six months later it had proven to be a most
disappointing panacea, so canvassers returned to the work of securing
pledges to underwrite Skinner's salary, but even those efforts led to a
most unsettling episode.
While carrying out his canvassing mandate, Deacon Pescud innocently
approached the editor of the Biblical Recorder, Rev. J. J. James, to ask
if James would assist in underwriting Skinner's salary. James replied he
would gladly pledge $100 "if they would get an interesting preacher."
Taken aback by that response, Pescud reported it to Skinner, who went
to James personally and heard it repeated to his face with the additional
claim that "there were some prominent members of the church who
entertained the same sentiments" and that those individuals had told him
"that were it not for the liberality of Elder Skinner, that the church would
soon dispense with him as Pastor."
It is no wonder that an alarmed Deacon Pescud brought the matter
before the next church conference, believing that if James' statements
were true, then a candid expression of that opinion by the church was due
44 Minutes, December 3, 1858.
43
their pastor. A. M. Lewis, aware of Pescud's intentions to report Editor
James' statements, immediately responded to the report by presenting a
formal resolution to the conference:
Whereas, It has been brought to the attention of this church, that
disrespectful language has been used by Elder J. J. James (who
is not a member of this church) relative to our beloved Pastor, T.
E. Skinner, to the effect that he was "an uninteresting preacher,"
etc. And whereas, said light and insinuating language was used
to one of the Deacons of this Church. Therefore be it
"Resolved 1-. That the church considers such language as
unbecoming and unworthy of one Christian minister towards
another, and that the conduct of the said James can be construed
by this church as nothing less than an unprovoked attempt on his
part to come between Pastor and people.
"Resolved 2nd
, That this church utterly and entirely denies the
charge of said James, as made against our highly esteemed,
much loved and appreciated Pastor, and with pleasure they have
watched and witnessed the growing and increasing improvement
of him, more particularly as a preacher, which gladdens their
hearts and make them feel proud of him.
And when they reflect upon his usefulness and efficiency
here; upon what he has done for them as a church and as a
denomination, they feel it no more than shere [sic] justice to
thus repel this unwarrantable and officious attempt on the part
of the said James, whether made to cast a fire brand among a
united, quiet and contended church and Pastor, or to wound the
feelings of the said Pastor.
"Resolved 3 -, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the
Pastor, Elder T. E. Skinner, for his private use."45
45 Minutes, July 1, 1859 (underlining in original). In that episode Skinner was introduced into the pressurized
role of a "city church" pastor, a role which the pastor of First Baptist Church of Charleston, S. C. and later
president of the University of Alabama, Dr. Basil Manly, Sr. (1799-1868) found impossible to fill. He said that
he had "seen enough ... of the pastorate of our city churches." An urban pulpit, he said, "offered a vacuous
prominence, an empty notoriety, the tyranny of custom, subjection to continual judgments and comparisons, and
always, the pressure of competition with other clerical notables. The workload was unreasonable: townsfolk
demanded proficiency in the pulpit, the lecture room, the Sabbath school, the prayer meeting, the mission board,
44
The clerk for that July, 1859, meeting stated only that this resolution
was "adopted." That solitary word, shorn ofany adverb such as heartily or
unanimously, allows one to wonder if Editor James had some grounding
in fact and if acids of discontent were present within the church's
membership. Although the handsome new building was entered only
weeks after "adopting" A. M. Lewis' resolution, there were troubling
signs that all was not well as 1859 drew to its close.
One sign may possibly be found in the leave of absence the church
granted Skinner just one month later to attend the annual meetings of
various Baptist associations on behalf of "the Baptist Female School
now about to be established in this City."46 The desire for a school for
Baptist girls had been advanced for decades by many, including one of
Skinner's predecessors, Rev. J. J. Finch and his wife, who had opened
such a school in Raleigh during Finch's tenure as Raleigh pastor [1844-
48]. And, in 1 859 A. M. Lewis, P. F. Pescud, John Williams, J. S. Walthall
(all Raleigh church members) and Skinner had acquired the Eagle Hotel
building diagonally across the street from the church for the purpose of
continuing Finch's vision. Even with the well-earned reputation Skinner
had earned as a fund-raiser, one may still wonder if underwriting such a
school at that time was of such urgency as to be the only motivation for
releasing him from his preaching duties for the month—especially in the
critical final months of the new church's construction.
Another indication that all was not well is found in the November
18, 1859, notation that Skinner was resolute in his desire for $1,500 for
his 1 860 services, but that conversations were ongoing about that sum.
the academic societies, the editor's table, the revival meeting, and the sick room. And the salary of $1500 was
inadequate when a man was 'required to maintain the style of a gentleman, and the generosity of a Christian.'" E.
Brooks Holifield, The Gentlemen Theologians: American Theology in Southern Culture 1795-1860 (Durham, N.
C: Duke University Press, 1978), 22.
Something of Skinner's magnanimity (and ambivalence) was in evidence when, thirty-five years later, he
wrote of Editor James that he "never indulged in fun, but sometimes enjoyed it in others," and that he "was a grave,
serious, matter-of-fact person" who had "a strong mind, well-educated, and wrote good English" and that "few
men were superior to him in the exercise of sound judgment," Sermons, 358.
46 Minutes, August 8, 1 859.
45
In subsequent meetings he essentially agreed to a nine-month contract,
albeit at the requested annual rate of $ 1 ,500, which the church clerk noted
would actually require only $1,125 from the church before the arrival of
the time when the 1861 pew rent/auctions would become due. The clear
hope of the clerk was that with the revenue from paid-in-advance 1861
pew rentals Skinner's 1860 services could be extended through the final
quarter of 1860 and beyond, but the clerk also dutifully noted that, as
of December 30, 1859, there was a $250 balance still due on Skinner's
1859 salary. Eight months later that balance had not been fully paid.
Finally, it is noticeable that when the new baptistry of the church
was finally put into service—in June of 1860, nine months after the new
building was first used for weekly service—only two were baptized.
A congregation whose clerk had proudly noted that the church's
membership as it entered the new building in September, 1859, was 433
persons (228 white and 205 colored),47 had become atypically dormant
in numerical growth.
Perhaps, therefore, it was with a general sigh of relief when, in
August, 1 860—one year after the first leave of absence was granted
—
the church "unanimously" approved a furlough of undesignated length
for Skinner to become essentially the development officer for the desired
girl's school.48
It was understood that during his time of service to the
47 Minutes, September 8, 1859
48 Minutes, August 3, 1860. At this same meeting a 'financial plan' that would be less dependant upon pew
rental/auctions was approved by a vote of 37 to 4, with the names recorded of all men [only men had suffrage at
the time] voting affirmatively and negatively. It was most unusual for the clerk to record the actual tally and just
as much so to record the names of those voting aye and nay.
The action releasing Skinner from his preaching and pastoral duties came in the form ofa resolution submitted
by A. M. Lewis. It read as follows:
"Whereas, This Church is fully of the opinion that the enterprise now on foot to establish in this City a
denominational female School of high order, is of the highest practical importance; and whereas, it being
determined by its friends and projectors to raise $25,000 for this object on the joint-stock principle—all
the stock now taken being pledged on the condition that the said sum shall be raised by the 1 st of January
next; and whereas, as the present Agent, Elder G. M. L. Finch, has resigned his position; therefore,
"Resolved, That such absence be granted to our Pastor as he may deem proper, in order to raise the necessary
amount."
The clerk then noted in brackets this addendum:
"[It is due Elder Skinner here to state that he very liberally proposed to take the above-named Agency without any
remuneration from the stock-holders, and that his salary as Pastor of this church ceases during the time necessary
for him to secure the remainder of the $25,000 for the school—thus involving a great pecuniary sacrifice on his
46
school Skinner would be self-supporting, and hence not a financial
obligation of the church. Even better (for the balance sheet of the church,
at least), the stated supply preacher, Rev. J. S. Walthall, agreed to serve
for only S40 per month, about 30 percent of Skinner's request. Skinner
was, however, still to be considered the church's pastor.
In the midst of all that jockeying about, however, one clearly
memorable and most pleasant event graced the unsettling latter half of
1 859. Thomas and his fatherjourneyed to Healing Springs, Virginia, for a
brief vacation. Seated across the dinner table from them one evening was
a lady from Charleston, S. C, whose face held an unusual fascination for
Skinner's father—whose second wife, Anna Squires Skinner, had died
four years earlier. His seventy-five year old father's staring at the woman
became so embarrassing to Thomas that he chided him, reminding him
that that staring was not only rude but also irritating to the lady. His
father, who was always quite circumspect about such matters, replied,
"Why, Thomas, she is the image of your mother!" Thomas subsequently
explained to the lady the source ofhis father's fascination and was kindly
told that, in light of the circumstance, she took no offense and would
take none should he continue to admire her. Thomas then wrote:
That was the only photograph ofmy mother—what words!—that
I ever had. After that, it was my enquiring look that interested
this accomplished woman, whose image is now before me. I
thought it was a remarkable providence, since I had often longed
to know how my own dear mother looked. This was a prayer of
desire answered to my longing heart. How good is the Lord, of
our providential lives!
49
Apart from such slender tokens of grace, however, the days of 1859-
60 were personally and professionally ominous for Thomas Skinner. But
not for him alone; those were overcast days for most southerners.
pan, and depriving himself of the comforts of home and the society of his family, that there may be a Baptist
school reared here for the education of Baptist daughters.—Clerk]"
49 Sermons, 332.
47
By the summer of 1860 the bitter cultural and economic divisions
that had fueled the nation's politics for decades had become incarnated
in that year's presidential candidates. Historian James McPherson
interpreted the general mood of those in the South.
As the election neared, the increasing likelihood that a solid
North would make Lincoln president brewed a volatile mixture
of hysteria, despondency, and elation in the South. Whites
feared the coming of new John Brown . . . Unionists despaired
of the future; secessionists relished the prospect of southern
independence. Even the weather during that summer of 1860
became part of the political climate: a severe drought and
prolonged heat wave withered southern crops and drove nerves
beyond the point of endurance.50
Almost predictably, Lincoln's November election brought a swift
southern reaction. On December 20, 1 860, a convention called by South
Carolinians to consider secession from the Union voted 169 to to do
just that. Five months later, incensed by Lincoln's request for North
Carolina troops to suppress the rebellion, a called convention of North
Carolinians followed suit. When news ofthat decision spread throughout
the city "one hundred guns boomed and church bells rang in salute of
secession."51 The war that would claim the lives of more than 40,000
North Carolinians, devastate the state's economy, and determine its
political and cultural course for decades, had begun.
Thomas Skinner had just turned thirty-six. He was the pastor of one
of the state's most visible Baptist churches, the father of a ten and a
50 James M. McPherson, Battle Cry ofFreedom: The Civil War Era (New York and Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1988), 228.
51 William C. Harris, North Carolina and the Coming of the Civil War (Raleigh: North Carolina Department
of Archives and History), 51. William S. Powell, dean of historians of North Carolina, summarized the character
of the state in 1860 as follows: "On the surface it had become more progressive, as demonstrated by its splendid
system of public or common schools; its railroads ... its newspapers; its natives holding high national office,
among others a president, a vice-president, a cabinet member, and an ambassador; and, most important, its many
new business enterprises. Yet the people had changed hardly at all. They were still largely rural and dependent
on agriculture, very independent, ultraconservative, often superstitious, clannish, seldom aware of events outside
their immediate neighborhood, and above all satisfied with these characteristics." Powell, North Carolina, 327.
48
two-year-old daughter (Sarah and Emily, respectively) and of an eight-year-
old son (Thomas Halsey) and, according to the U.S. Federal Census
from the previous year, he owned $8,000 in real estate and had a personal
estate of $7,000. His account books would not look that good again for
decades.
49
War Is Hell
The deprivations of war began immediately. For the Baptists
of Raleigh it began with a redeployment of its new Sunday school
facilities, located in the basement of the church. That area was promptly
converted into a workspace for seamstresses whose productivity was
most impressive: "1,500 mattresses, 400 shirts, 300 jackets, 200 pairs
of pants, and 200 haversacks during the very first month of hostilities."52
Desperate for iron, the Confederate War Department soon asked the
churches of the South to donate their church bells so that they might be
recast as cannon. The Raleigh church's bell, only recently installed and
even more recently rung in jubilation at the announcement of secession,
was patriotically given to the Cause.53
But such productivity and generosity was no match for spiraling
inflation. "Between 1862 and 1865 in the local [Raleigh] market, the
price of chickens rose from 20 cents to $4.50, a dozen eggs from 15
cents to $4.05, a pound of beef from 12.5 cents to $3.33, bacon from 33
cents per pound to $7.50, wheat from $3 per bushel to $50.
"
54
As one expense-alleviating measure Skinner, whose return to
churchly duties from his fund-raising endeavors is difficult to date,
offered "in consequence of the trouble of the country, growing out of
the war, and to the pecuniary pressure and embarrassment . . . [to] serve
the church as Pastor, without the payment of his usual salary . . . [and] to
give the services of his servants to act as sexton ... ." The church quickly
accepted the offer and "tendered unanimously a vote of thanks to Bro.
Skinner for his liberal and generous course toward them."55
Such generous actions by Skinner and the productive output from
the ladies seemed, at least in the beginning, to be gloriously rewarded
52 James Vickers, Raleigh City of Oaks: An Illustrated History (Sun Valley, California: American Historical
Press, 1997), 48, hereinafter cited as Vickers, Raleigh.
53 Minutes, April 4, 1862.
54 Vickers, Raleigh, 49.
55 Minutes, June 7, 1861.
50
by the good fortune encountered by their uniformed sons and husbands.
The Battle at Big Bethel, northwest ofNewport News, Virginia, in which
the Federals suffered seventy-six casualties versus only eight sustained
by the Confederates, gloriously underlined the southern claim that one
southern fighting man was worth ten Yankee hirelings. And the stunning
Confederate victory at Bull Run (Manassas) in July, 1861, was a tonic
to all southern hearts. But only a month later North Carolina's civilians
experienced in much nearer form the horrors of war. That bad news
emanated from the state's northeastern corner, the location of Thomas
Skinner's family and fortune.
Possessing neither an army nor a navy prior to secession, the South
was ill prepared to wage the war it had declared. That foolishly ignored
deficit was demonstrated painfully on August 29 when inadequate
Confederate defenses at Hatteras Inlet were surrendered to Union forces,
granting the Federals access into the Pamlico and Albemarle sounds.
That debacle sent North Carolinians reeling in shock since those waters
facilitated fully one-third of the state's economic lifeblood. Equally
troubling was the fact that control of those sounds meant the Federals
would also have much easier access to the Wilmington-Weldon railway
line, the crucial artery for the north-south flow of Confederate soldiers
and materiel. The Raleigh Register lamented: "Why did not our force
of seven or eight hundred men kill, drive into the sea, or capture the
enemy's force of 300 or 400 men who spent the night 600 yards of [sic]
our troops?"56 But the bad news from down east continued. In quick
succession the Oregon and Ocracoke inlets also fell into Union hands,
assuring the Yankees of even easier domination of the entire region.
Accordingly, on September 10, 1861, the church received a letter of
resignation from Thomas Skinner, stating that his "eastern possessions
are exposed to the marauding enemy," and that it was his "duty to give
56 Cited in John G. Barrett, The Civil War in North Carolina (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
1963), 45.
"!»»%, «*|MK&*
Map of Albemarle Sound Region, published in
Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (New York, 1862), courtesy
of University of North Carolina Historical Maps Collection
52
them more attention than would be consistent with his duties" as the
church's pastor.
As had often been the case in the past, A. M. Lewis was ready with a
resolution one in which he noted "with deep regret" Skinner's resignation
but also resolved that "we cannot consent to receive his resignation and
that we cheerfully grant him whatever time may be necessary to attend
to his eastern interests." The resolution ended with a call for a committee
to "endeavor to get him to withdraw his resignation."57 Lewis' resolution
was unanimously adopted.
The following month, responding to the committee's entreaties for
him to continue in the pastoral office, Skinner stood before the group
and delivered a message as disturbing as the war news. He personally
explained "in kind and very candid terms other and more weighty
reasons why he had seen fit to offer his resignation ...
." He said his truer
reasons for resigning had to do with the "cold and lukewarm state the
church was in . . . and its habitual neglect of its Christian duties, which
was not only painful to him, but was really alarming." The clerk's report
of the balance of the meeting merits full quotation:
The Pastor proceeded to point many omissions of palpable and
plain duties on the part of the brethren, and warned them of the
consequences of their present inactivity. He could and would
not remain as Pastor under present circumstances and would
only withdraw his resignation in case the brethren would be
more faithful and punctual hereafter. Remarks of an affecting
and touching character were then made by brethren Lewis, Vass,
Jones and others, all acknowledging their guilt before heaven,
and promised with God's assistance, to do better for the future.
Bro. Lewis moved that it is the sense of the church that Bro.
Skinner withdraw his resignation, which was unanimously
carried. Bro. S. then withdrew his resignation for the present.
Conference adjourned with the benediction by the Moderator.58
57 Minutes, September 10, 1861.
58 Minutes, October 1, 1861
53
In such manner the church muddled its way into the painful days of
war, struggling with one another as well as with Lincoln's "aggression."
Skinner's personal assessment ofthe war itself is found in a "Report on
the State ofOur Country" which he and two others submitted to the Baptist
State Convention only a month after his confronting the church with its
lukewarm condition. The report presumably documented the feelings of
most North Carolina Baptists as well. It read:
Whereas, Since the last session of this body a war has been
waged by the United States, upon the Confederate States of
America; and whereas, in the spirit of the barbarous ages, the
United States have declared our citizens outlawed, and with
an avowed determination to subjugate the whole country, even
to the entire destruction of its citizens and their property; and
whereas to this end they have imprisoned and murdered many
of our citizens, stolen their property, pillaged their homes, burnt
their houses, and driven the rightful owners thereof away from
them, trampling under their wicked feet the written constitution,
which for twenty years they have been toiling to undermine;
therefore,
Resolved, That with gratitude to God we acknowledge His divine
hand in the guidance and protection of our beloved country, and
in giving us thus far the victory over our enemies; and pray for
His grace that we may trust him for future blessings.
Resolved, That we recommend to the churches throughout the
State, that they cease not to cry unto the Lord for His help in this
our time of need.
Resolved, That we recommend 10 o'clock of each Sabbath
morning as a convenient hour for a concert of prayer. 59
59 Minutes, Baptist State Convention ofNorth Carolina, 1861, 22. The tone of that Report mirrored a statement
approved earlier in the year by the Southern Baptist Convention which blamed the war on "the fanatical spirit
of the North" that had "long been seeking to deprive us of our rights and franchises guaranteed by the United
States Constitution." That statement also went on to excoriate the churches of the North because, rather than call
their members to the ways of peace and tolerance, "with astonishment and grief, we find churches and pastors
of the North breathing out slaughter and clamoring for sanguinary hostilities with a fierceness which we would
have supposed impossible among the disciples of the Prince of Peace." 1861 SBC Annual, 62, cited in Pamela R.
54
But pray—and fight—as passionately as North Carolinians might,
the situation in Skinner's homelands grew steadily worse. On February
5-6, 1862, Roanoke Island was captured—and with its loss the cities
of New Bern, Elizabeth City, Edenton, and Hertford were inescapably
brought under Union control.
Within hours of the Roanoke Island defeat the grim scenario
delineated in Skinner's "Report" was alarmingly demonstrated by a
Union attack on the Chowan River town of Winton, some fifty miles
farther inland than Skinner's family plantations and fisheries.
In a frenzy of looting and burning the Union troops dragged beds
and stuffed chairs into the streets, ripped them open with their
bayonets and set them on fire. Pictures, books, velvet drapes,
carpets—anything that would burn—were heaved into the fires.
Pianos were carried outside and smashed to pieces with rifle butts.
Every pig, cow, and chicken that could be found was bayoneted
or shot. The Northerners staggered under the load of pots and
pans, silverware, mounds of clothing and other possessions as
they returned to their ships. Anything not consumed by fire, was
carried off. Winton was totally destroyed.60
In the first quarter of 1 862 Skinner was absent from all the church
meetings; plausibly he was in Perquimans County much of the time,
attempting as best he could to secrete or salvage the family's assets.
Meanwhile the church, attempting to honor its recent avowals to be
more faithful and punctual in its duties, "borrowed" from the Charity
Fund for some salary for him and approved a salary of $ 1 ,200 for 1 862.61
But the disturbing financial report of October, 1 862, revealed that the
church by then owed Skinner $1,020 and an additional $200 in unpaid
salary for that year. The $ 1 ,020 debt to Skinner likely indicates he was
Durso and Keith E. Durso, The Story ofBaptists in the United States (Brentwood, Tennesseee: Baptist History and
Heritage Society, 2006), 117-118, hereinafter cited as Durso and Durso, The Story ofBaptists.
60 R. Thomas Campbell, Storm Over Carolina: The Confederate Navy's Struggle for Eastern North Carolina
(Nashville, Tennessee: Cumberland House, 2005), 88.
61 Minutes, February 28 and April 14, 1862.
55
personally paying much if not all of the operating, or as it was termed,
the "incidental" expenses of the church. But, as a resolution approved
in that October church meeting attests, Skinner's days of generosity and
patience were coming to an end. That resolution stated:
Whereas the debt due the Pastor has been accumulating for the
last three years until it has reached the sum of $1020; and as the
Pastor has been deprived of his usual income by the ravages
of war, it becomes highly important that the church should
immediately discharge its liabilities to him, and thereby afford
him some reliefand to give evidence ofits sincerity and to comply
with all of its honorable engagements, which has been for some
time too much neglected. And as several attempts have been
made heretofore for the accomplishment of the same object and
proved inefficient, it becomes necessary that the church should
remind its members of their solemn covenant with each other.
We have each agreed to contribute for the support of the ministry
and the current expenses of God's house; and a failure of any
member to comply with this solemn contract would be offensive
to Christ and gross immorality in the eyes of the church. Now in
view of the facts herein stated, further delay would be a disgrace
to the church. Therefore, Resolved, That there be appointed a
committee of three consisting of brethren Jno. G. Williams, W.
C. Upchurch & J. H. Alford, whose duty it shall be to assess
each and every member of this church their proportional part of
the above named debt, according to their means of paying.62
Surprisingly, that assessment approach seems to have succeeded
when so many others had not. When the appointed committee presented
its proposed assessments at the next church meeting, thirty-six agreed
to pay the named amount, nine were unwilling, while forty-four were
absent. After a failed attempt by some of the "unwilling" to have another
committee appointed to which they might show that they were unable
to pay, the plan was adopted and three months later the $1,020 debt
62 Minutes, October 3, 1 862.
56
was retired. However, $450 was then due on Skinner's current salary,
$ 1 60 ofwhich was quickly paid when the additional deficit was reported.
Skinner himself added good news by informing the meeting that Miss
Susan Parrish, a recently deceased member ofthe church, had designated
$ 1 ,000 of her estate to be deposited and its interest used solely for the
pastor's salary. Finally, Deacons Pescud and Jones reported that they had
received pledges for an 1863 salary of $2,400 for Pastor Skinner "on
condition that the pews should not be rented out."63
That was a salary doubling that of any previous year and the fact that
it was linked to discontinuing pew rentals augured a new day in church
budgeting. By approving that figure and its stipulation, the church inched
forward. But it was too late. Within months the pastor they were rallying
to support was gone.
The minutes say only that at a called meeting on October 15, 1863,
"the Pastor announced his intention to leave the church for awhile for the
purpose of visiting Europe on a private and denominational character."
Acceding to Skinner's plans, the church named as its interim pastor
the Reverend Thomas Henderson Pritchard—who had recently been
driven from his Baltimore pulpit for his Confederate sympathies—and
unanimously endorsed a commendatory statement:
Whereas, in the providence of God matters of private and
personal character have rendered it necessary for our beloved
pastor Elder Thos. E. Skinner to visit Europe and thus make a
temporary severance ofrelations which he has sustained towards
this church for the last eight years inevitable; therefore
Resolved, that while we are deeply grieved at having our pastor
separated from us we appreciate the necessity which calls him
away, recognize the hand ofGod in it, andbow to it with resignation
looking and praying for his restoration at no distant day.
63 Minutes, April 3, 1863. The rental of church pews, although a common practice was a policy that brought
dissension among many churches. Raleigh's Good Shepherd Church for example, was established out of the
desire for a 'free pew' church for Episcopalians.
57
Resolved, that we do still consider Elder Skinner our pastor and
while we will endeavor to try and have his place supplied during
his absence, we will expect him to resume his labors among
us whenever in the Providence of God he may be permitted to
return to his country.
Resolved, that we will cherish his memory in our heart and pray
for the safety of himself and his family, for the success of his
mission and his speedy restoration to us.
Resolved, that we recommend him to the confidence of our
brethren wherever his lot may be cast as a Christian gentleman
and minister.
Resolved that a copy of these resolutions be [included in?] the
church book, that a copy be presented to Elder Thos. E. Skinner
and a copy be sent to the Biblical Recorder for publication.
Multiple questions immediately arise. Obviously, the first question is:
What was this "mission" of "private and personal character" (the words
employed in the church's resolution), or (as the church's minutes say)
"the necessity which calls him away" ... to "visit Europe on a private and
denominational character"? And, why at that time, in the heart of the war?
What might have motivated him to embark on any such "mission" then?
European "visits" were not possible apart from running the Union Navy's
blockade of North Carolina's sole remaining port at Wilmington—and
that was a dangerous enterprise, not a family vacation. And, finally, how
could a man who was on record as being in financial straits afford to sail
with his family to peaceful Europe—not knowing when he might return
and with little assurance of sustaining funds reaching him until "he may
be permitted to return to his country"?
There is an answer for only one of those questions, but credible
suppositions are possible for others, while mystery continues to hover
over all. The one definite answer pertains to the "mission" that called
Skinner away from Raleigh. It was duty to God and country.
58
The spiritual needs of the Confederate
troops were of as much concern to
southern churchmen as was their physical
well-being. To that end calls were
ceaselessly made for chaplains or, barring
that, for pastors to serve short terms as
preachers to the soldiers. Younger men
such as Thomas H. Pritchard, and John A.
Broadus (who had preached a revival with
Skinner in Raleigh before the war and
would later become a nationally known
Thomas Henderson Pritchard preacher and president of Southern
Seminary) were among the many who nobly answered that call for short-term
service.
But another urgent need of the military forces was Bibles. The
soldiers gained great comfort from reading the Bible, and copies of
the New Testament were especially appreciated by them. Therefore
great effort was made to raise money for the purchase of the scriptures.
Each issue of the Biblical Recorder provided the names and amounts
received for the purchase of Bibles, with the result that by the war's
end the treasurer of the North Carolina Baptist Convention had received
nearly 575,000 for that purpose—a larger sum than the total given for all
convention causes for the fifteen-year period, 1 86 1-1 875.M
However, most of America's Bible publishers were located within
Union territory. The one Bible society located within the Confederate
States which had "stereotype plates" ofthe New Testament could not keep
up with the demand, and after a fire at a Greensboro bindery destroyed
its inventory of Bibles and of paper, the armies of North Carolina—not
to speak of the Sunday school age children of the state—were destitute
64 Huggins, History ofN.C. Baptists, 268.
59
of printed religious materials. The only remaining source for those
materials and Scriptures was the Bible publishers of Great Britain—but
accessing that resource required an agent in England to transact the
purchases and oversee their clandestine shipment.
Thomas Skinner served as that agent. As the messengers to the North
Carolina Baptist State Convention were told when they assembled in
1863:
Elder T.E. Skinner ... has recently run the blockade in the
Advance, [and] was entrusted with two one thousand dollar
Confederate cotton bonds, to be used in the purchase of a set
of stereotype plates of the New Testament, which he is to have
forwarded to us by one of the government vessels engaged in
running the blockade at Wilmington. He is also commissioned
as agent to purchase Bibles and Testaments in England on the
credit of the Board of Missions to be paid for when the war shall
have ceased.65
That answers the question concerning the "mission" and "denominational"
references within the church minutes. But those minutes also speak of
Skinner having "personal" reasons for his trip to Europe. Perhaps that
is simply a figure of speech signifying his "personal" patriotism or his
sense of obligation to provide spiritual nurture for the soldiers. One other
possibility suggests itself: Ann's physical or emotional health. Her health
had prompted their departure from Petersburg, Virginia, in 1855 after only
eight months, and her health was to be the stated reason for their 1 872 move
from Columbus to Athens, Georgia. Also it must not be forgotten that Ann
65 Minutes, Baptist State Convention ofNorth Carolina, 1 863, 26. In the Georgia Christian Index ofJan. 29, 1 864,
it was reported that "Rev. T. E. Skinner who went to Europe from Raleigh, N.C. has arrived in England. He will
purchase plates of the Bible for the S.S. Board." Glenn Tucker noted that "even with starvation always looking in at
the door, a devout people appeare