James Edson White describes the mission and fate of his historical boat

“Again and again we have been met with inquiries and criticisms regarding the missionary steamer "Morning Star" and the need of its work,” wrote James Edson White in the January, 1900 Gospel Herald. “The advisability of such a boat has sometimes been severely criticized. Recently it has been suggested that the "Morning Star " ought to be put into business, and the money it could earn used to carry forward the work.

 “Now, my friends, I wish to make a few statements in regard to this boat which I think will settle questions of this kind.

“As to the use of the boat? It is not only a home for its owner (James Edson White), but it is missionary headquarters which cares for a company of eight to 15 workers. In addition to this, it contains on the upper deck a comfortable chapel in which not less than two thirds of all our public meetings are held. Hence it can readily be seen that the owner of this boat is not using it merely as his own home and for personal gratification, but it is also one of the most useful agencies for good connected with the work in that field. 

“The boat has been successful in doing a great amount of good. We can refer to eight earnest Christians who have accepted the truth entirely through the influence of this boat, and its usefulness in the cause has been very apparent and the good it is accomplishing great. We have felt that the hand of the Lord has guarded and protected it through dangers, and we believe his hand will go with it in its future work; and our prayer is that the Lord will bless it to the further advancement of his cause in this field.” 

White brought the Morning Star along with him to Nashville when he moved his headquarters there in 1900 but did little more with it than take his mother, along with Edward A. Sutherland and Percy T. Magan, on an eventful voyage up the Cumberland River in June, 1904 to find a farm on which to locate the Madison enterprise.  A 1906 fire later destroyed the boat.

The fate of the Morning Star 

THE GOSPEL HERALD 

PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE SOUTHERN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 

APRIL, 1906

THE LAST VOYAGE OF THE MORNING STAR 

Many of our readers will be interested to know that the steamer Morning Star, whose name has been so long interwoven with the history of the Southern Missionary Society, has made her last voyage. 

For nearly a year the boat has been tied up on the Cumberland River, just above Edgefield Junction, Tennessee. Early last May she sank at her moorings, but was raised a few days later, and was subsequently cleaned and refitted sufficiently to be used for a time as a chapel where Sunday afternoon meetings were held for several months. 

Though so closely connected with the history of the Society for so many years, the Morning Star was always private property, being owned and maintained by Brother J. E. White, who hoped that the boat would again be used for the work for which it was originally built; but as the way did not seem to open for this, on the first day of April, 1906, the river being high, the boat was beached, and is to he removed some little distance from the river to a point between Brother White's residence and the Cedar Grove church building, there to be used by Brother White as headquarters for his book work. 

The boat will be placed on a foundation and some changes will be made, in the interior arrangements, but the outward form will be preserved intact so that those who were acquainted with the boat while in commission, would at once recognize her if they were to see her in her new location on land. It is Brother White's purpose to preserve the Morning Star as a memorial of the work done on the Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers. 

The Gospel Herald

 PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE SOUTHERN MISSIONARY SOCIETY North Station, Nashville, Tenn.

 April, 1907. 

The steamer, Morning Star, so closely identified with the early history of the Southern Missionary Society, was burned, not to the water's edge, but to the ground about four o'clock on the morning of the 25th. The first day of April, 1906, the boat was beached, and it was Brother White's intention to remove it about a mile from the river and transform it into an office and headquarters for his book work. The planking being more rotten than had been realized, moving the Star proved a difficult task and the attempt was abandoned, pending a decision as to the final disposition to be made of it. The question was settled in a rather unexpected way by fire, doubtless of incendiary origin, as the boat was unoccupied and was quite a distance from any fire. 

The Star was owned wholly by Brother J. E. White. It had been practically out of commission so far as any important missionary work was concerned for six or seven years, though until about a year ago Brother White cherished the hope that the boat might be again used in active evangelistic operations. 

The loss by the fire is probably small as it would have been necessary, doubtless, to have broken the boat up and the material would have been of comparatively little value. The machinery, steam piping, doors, windows, etc., were removed some weeks before the fire. 

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