Charles Calvin Pettey, son of Jordan and Fannie Pettey, was born December 3, 1849, on the banks of the North Yadkin River, about four miles east of Wilkesboro, the county seat of Wilkes County, N. C. This valley is very rich in sandy loam, and leaving the river the rolling hills and rocky ridges abound in minerals. From the door of their two-roomed log cabin could be seen variegated nature; and looking northward the eye beholds many brooks and streamlets, the waters of which appear to be as transparent as crystal, roaring, sparkling, and foaming as they rush down the mountain side, sinuous in their course through hills and rocks in great haste to unite with the foamy spray of the Yadkin, along whose banks can be seen huge rocks lifting their precipitous heads from fifty to one hundred feet above the surrounding landscape, careening as if peeping down upon the golden-finned and silver-sided fish that are accustomed to throng the shoals on a beautiful springlike day. Just beyond and all around, if in midsummer, our eyes behold meadows green and waving fields of wheat covering the great plains that stretch away toward the mountainsBISHOP CHARLES CALVIN PETTEY, A.M., D.D.
John was born on the 14th day of March, 1845, at Frazer, St. Joseph's Parish; his mother died in 1853, when he was eight years of age, and, as the boy was a favorite in his family for brightness, modesty, and candor, his father sought to give him the best advantages possible. He received home instruction from a half-sister. Mr. J. W. Hewett was his first public instructor, and by recommendation of Bishop Parry, of the Established Church of England, he was sent to St. John's Lodge, where in four years he completed its curriculum, graduating at the head of his class of fifty-six (white and colored) young men, delivering the valedictory address; and the following four years were spent in Codrington College, on the island of his birth, carrying with him first honor, favorable prophecy, and kindest wishes of his instructors and acquaintances.
In 1862, at his request, his father sent him to visit Jamaica and other islands, and thence to the West Coast of Africa, where he spent three years and three months, and while there learned to speak the Fantee language, and was present when England crowned Quakuduo king of the Fantees. During his residence in Africa he visited and spent his time in observing the customs, language, etc., at Sierra Leone, Cape Coast, Elmena, Dix Cove, Accra Lagos, Badagry, Bathurst, Gambia, Fort Bullin, etc. On his return from Africa he spent five years in Balize, British Honduras, where he was engaged as orderly room clerk, and finally became her majesty's chief clerk of the brigade office.
J. W. Lacey was born of slave parents, in Fauquier County, Va., 1832; left the South when a lad about seventeen years of age, and found his way to the city of Harrisburg, Pa., where he was converted in 1856, joining the church there under the pastorate of Rev. J. P. Clinton. He next came to Binghamton, N. Y., where he received local preacher's license from Elder William Sanford in 1858. In 1861 he went to Hayti, West Indies, where he received deacon's and elder's orders under Superintendent Clingman; in the same year (1863) he was elected General Superintendent. During that year the two branches of Methodists, Zion and Bethel, held a convention at Gro Mound and united under the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Discipline. Superintendents Pierce and Clingman resigned at this convention, and he was elected superintendent of the united societies called Zion, the headquarters being in St. Marc, where they had a fine church edifice. While holding the office of superintendent of Zion on the island of Hayti he ordained S. S. Wales and Wesley Youngs as elders, and George Evans as deacon, besides several others. In 1869 he returned to the United States andREV. J. W. LACEY.
The North Carolina Conference and those Conferences which have been set off by it have always shown a larger proportion of members to the number of ministers than other Southern Conferences. The reason for this is that in these Conferences the New England idea has been followed, which sets a high standard for the reception of ministers. In 1882 the East Alabama Conference had 140 ministers and 14,000 members, or 100 members to each minister. The Central North Carolina Conference had 100 ministers and 20,000 members, or 200 members to each minister. Four Conferences have been set off by the North Carolina Conference, as follows: The Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina, and Central North Carolina. Out of the Central North Carolina the Western North Carolina has been formed; out of the South Carolina the Palmetto has been formed; and out of the Tennessee Conference the West Tennessee and Mississippi and the East Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina; and out of the West Tennessee and Mississippi, the South Mississippi, making in all nine Conferences that have sprung from the North Carolina Conference. The territory embraced in these Conferences (excepting Tennessee) formed the Third Episcopal District for several years, and has for the last ten years raised fully one half of all the general fund raised by the entire connection. The sons of the Carolina Conferences are scattered all over the connection, and are everywhere making their mark. The roll of the North Carolina Conference is as follows:
G. H. S. Bell was born in the town of St. George, in the islands of Bermuda, alias Somers Islands, the 16th of December, A. D. 1858. His father and mother, Inkle and Hannah Bell, were both formerly slaves in what was known as the British West Indies slavery, but were, by an act of the British Parliament, emancipated on the 1st of August, 1834. His grandfather, Mr. Peter Herbert, by his mother's side, was a freeman, and was the first appointed class leader in the Wesleyan Methodist Church or Society in Bermuda. This information was gained from the memoirs of Rev. John Marsden, the second appointed and officiating Wesleyan minister in that colony.
W. H. Newby was born at Belvidere, N. C., in the year 1852. He was reared by Quakers and sent to school, where he acquired the rudiments of an education, but still is practically a self-made man. At an early age he took charge of a free school in Pasquotank County, N. C., and taught for several years. He married at twenty, and has a family of three daughters. He entered the ministry in 1880 at Bay Branch, N. C., under Bishop J. W. Hood, presiding bishop of the Virginia Annual Conference. The first work he did was at Nixonton, N. C., where he built a very nice church costing $1,200. The largest portion of this money was donated by white friends on Staten Island, N. Y. He made a special friend on this island in the person of Lawyer A. De Groot, who is still a friend of the cause he represents.
At the expiration of two years, again in company with Bishop J. P. Thompson, he met the New York Conference, which convened in Newburg, where he was ordained deacon, and, being again sent to the New England Conference, where he served as chief secretary, he took an active part in the proceedings of the sessions, and when the appointments were announced young Morris was assigned to Nantucket, the smallest and poorest appointment in the district. He, however, accepted the appointment, took his young wife and went to his work on the island.
About this time the war broke out. Brother Morris thought Africa the best place for him. As he was preparing for the far-off land he received a letter from his parents begging him not to go so far from home. In the meantime the president and authorities of the island of Hayti were inviting persons of all classes to go there. Rev. (now Bishop) Holly, rector of St. Luke's parish, New Haven, Conn., learning of Brother Morris's intention of going to Africa, called upon him and had him consent to go to Hayti. Morris wrote Bishop J. J. Clinton, who, after advising him to remain in the United States, gave his consent to go, praying that God would be with him. Brother Morris went, but the climate was against his health. He buried his wife, an excellent Christian woman, also two children. The next year he returned to his native land, to find, to his regret, the old church not supplied by Zion ministers. The field having opened in the South for our ministers rendered it impossible for Zion to keep up the work in Nova Scotia.
Brother Morris was sent to St. John, N. B., where he was successful in raising the school building twenty feet and made the lower part a commodious room for divine services. This place is in use now, and is known by the name of St. Philip's Church. Before going to St. John he married his present estimable and talented wife. From St. John he went to Bermuda, where, with the aid of his partner, he established the first colored church on the island. One thousand and fifty persons became members and followers in less than two years. Seven years' stay on the island was the means of doing good; the result will only be known in eternity. Brother Morris was made assistant superintendent of the Church work at Bermuda, and performed all the duties of a bishop except ordaining. He held three Annual Conferences. While there Rev. G. H. S. Bell, the Conference Steward of the New England Annual Conference, was one of the members who joined under his administration.
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