- Title
- Era of progress and promise, 1863-1910 : the religious, moral, and educational development of the American Negro since his emancipation
-
-
- Date
- 1910
-
-
- Creator
- ["Hartshorn, W. N. (William Newton), 1843-1920."]
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
Era of progress and promise, 1863-1910 : the religious, moral, and educational development of the American Negro since his emancipation
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Rev. M.
С. В.
Mason* D.D.
Cincinnati» Ohio
Rev. CHarles C. Jacobs
Sumter, S. C.
Dr. Mason is corresponding secretary of the Freedmen’s Aid
Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
He was born on a sugar farm in Louisiana. He entered
school when he was twelve years of age, learning his alphabet
the first day. The following Sunday
he entered Sunday-school for the first
time in his life. That morning, as
Dr. Mason tells the story, the school
was singing, “ Shall we gather at the
river?” “I could not,” says he,
“ for the life of me find out what it all
meant, but as a last resort made up
my mind if there was going to be any
swimming there I could do my share.”
Subsequently he entered a school of
higher grade, and after years of strug¬
gling, working sometimes bv dav and
Rev. M.
С.
B. Mason. D.D. ° f J
night to remain in school, he graduated
from New Orleans University in 1888 and Gammon Theo¬
logical Seminary in 1891. The first eight years of his ministry
were spent in New Orleans and Atlanta. During his pastorate
in Atlanta he increased the membership from 360 to 1,000 and
paid off an indebtedness of $11,000.
Dr. Mason was elected field secretarv of the Freedmen’s Aid
Society in 1891, assistant corresponding secretary in 1895, and
in 1890, at the General Conference, was elected corresponding
secretary, being the first man of his race to hold such a posi¬
tion in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was reelected in
1900, 1904, and 1908. Dr. Mason is one of the most popular
orators of his race.
Dr. Mason at once, after his first election, undertook to develop
the spirit of self-help among the colored people in the South,
and in three years, in addition to the regular offerings for the
educational work, he raised $24,000 on the debt of the Society
from the colored people alone. Under his leadership the spirit
of self-help and self-reliance has been greatly developed among
the colored people, as will be seen from the fact that nine years
ago the aggregate amount contributed by them for the Freed¬
men’s Aid Society was $8,000. In 1908 they contributed
$32,250, being an increase of $23,350.
Dr. Jacobs is field secretary of the Sunday-schools of the
Methodist Episcopal Church for colored conferences. He has
served in that position since 1901.
He was born November 16, 1861, at Camden, S. C., and re¬
ceived his early education at the Jack-
son Normal School. At the age of
seventeen he was teacher of a public
school of the county, and three years
later he began preparation for the
ministry. He entered the South Caro-
lina Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church in 1884 and was
first appointed to a church near
Orangeburg, S. C., the site of Claflin
University.
Dr. Jacobs was at this time the sole
supporter of four orphan brothers and
sisters. With two sisters and a brother
he entered Claflin University. The other brother worked his
way through Howard University, Washington, and Long
Island Medical College, Brooklyn, N. Y. Dr. Jacobs gradu¬
ated from the classical course of the university in 1890 as
valedictorian of his class. In 1895 lie was called from the
pastorate of one of the churches of South Carolina to be state
Sunday-school worker under the direction of Rev. Dr. Jesse L.
Hurlbut, then corresponding secretary of the Sunday-School
Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The work was
enlarged so that his jurisdiction covered several other states.
While in this work he was appointed presiding elder of the
leading district of his conference. He accepted the position,
although greatly surprised at the appointment. He remained
in charge of this district for five years, when he was called to
Sunday-school leadership of what is known as Washington
Section of the Colored Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, comprising ten annual conferences and fifteen states.
He was elected to two general conferences of the church, and
at the General Conference of 1904, at Los Angeles, Cal., was
selected as associate editor of the Daily Christian Advocate ,
published during the Conference. Dr. Jacobs was an inter¬
ested and influential member of the Clifton Conference.
4‘22
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