Charles Spencer Smith

Charles Spencer Smith, son of Nehemiah Henry and Catherine Smith, was born in Colborne, Canada, March 16th, 1852. He resided in Canada for about fourteen years, chiefly at Bowmanville, a town about forty miles east of Toronto, and in the public school of Bowmanville he received his elementary education. When about twelve years of age he was apprenticed to learn the trade of furniture finishing. A disastrous fire having destroyed the factory in which he worked, his apprenticeship ended about one year after it had begun.

At the age of fourteen he left Bowmanville and went to Buffalo, N. Y., where he was employed as a general utility boy in a boarding house. In 1868 he went to Chicago, where he worked for a time as a porter in a barber shop. He was there during the meeting of the National Republican convention which nominated General Grant for the presidency. He then engaged in service on certain boats plying the Great Lakes, serving as deck hand, second cook and waiter. The last boat on which he was employed ran in the lumber trade between Detroit and Saginaw, Mich. This was in 1869, and the last trip for the season was made in the latter part of October of that year. With a cold winter staring him in the face, and finding himself but ill-adapted to the service which he had rendered on board various boats, and despairing of making a success of similar duties in connection with hotel service, and remembering that he had knowledge of the elements of a common school education, he decided to go south and engage in teaching, and try to obtain a position under the Freedman’s Bureau.

He went to Louisville, Ky., and reported to Col. Runkel, who had charge of the Freedman’s Bureau for that state, and who employed him as a teacher and sent him to Payne’s station on the Lexington branch of the Louisville and Nashville railroad, about 11 miles from Lexington. His stay here was short, as the Ku-Klux broke up his school and ordered him to leave within forty-eight hours. He returned to Louisville, reported the facts to Col. Runkel, who assigned him to duty at Hopkinsville, Ky. He was very successful at this place, very much enjoyed his work, and formed the acquaintance of a young lady who afterward became his wife. He remained here from November, 1869, to June, 1870. While at Hopkinsville he was strongly convicted of sin, and sought and obtained forgiveness therefore. He was succeeded as teacher at Hopkinsville by the Rev. Allen Allensworth, a Baptist minister, who afterward became a chaplain in the United States army.

From Hopkinsville he went to Jackson, Miss., where he became acquainted with most of the colored men who figured conspicuously in politics. Among them were James Lynch, secretary of state; John R. Lynch, speaker of the House of Representatives; B. K. Bruce, sergeant of the Senate and afterwards United States senator; Sam. Ireland, sergeant of the House; Thomas W. Stringer, and James Hill, afterwards secretary of state. Hiram Revels was then United States senator, but he did not meet him while he occupied that position. After remaining in Jackson a brief time, he went to Greenwood, afterwards the home of Governor Vardaman, where he taught school for a few months. He also taught school in Yazoo City, Meridian, Loundes County, Noxubes County, West Point, and Kemper, DeKalb County.

During 1871 he spent several months in and around Jackson, and, in partnership with a Mr. Chas. Evans, conducted a panorama of Biblical scenes.

In August, 1871, he was licensed as a local preacher by the quarterly conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in Jackson, Miss., under the pastorate of Rev. O. A. Douglass. At the suggestion of Rev. O. A. Douglass he attended the Mississippi Annual Conference of the A. M. E. Church, in session at Yazoo City, in December, 1872, Bishop T. M. D. Ward presiding, for the purpose of making application to be received into the conference on trial as an itinerant preacher. For some inexplicable reason he found that there was considerable prejudice against his being received, and on the advice of the Rev. Adam Jackson and the Rev, John Allen, he withdrew his application, and thus made it possible for him to be taken up and given an appointment ad interim of the annual conference. Bishop Ward, who was very favorably impressed with him, appointed him to the China Grove Mission. This was immediately after the adjournment of the conference, but on reaching Jackson Bishop Ward was induced to change the appointment and send him to Raymond Mission, where he remained until the end of November, 1873, when he was transferred to the Alabama Conference, where he was ordained a deacon under Bishop Ward in Emanuel Church, Mobile, Ala., December 6th, 1873, and was appointed pastor of the church at Union Springs, the county seat of Bullock County. Here he became active in politics, and Nov. 3d, 1874, was elected a member of the House of Representatives of the State Legislature of Alabama for a period of two years. One of his colleagues, G. W. Allen, afterwards became a minister of the A. M. E. Church, and in 1904 was elected editor of the Southern Christian Recorder, one of the official organs of said church. In 1875 he performed the ceremony which united his colleague, Mr. Allen, in the bonds of holy wedlock. In 1876 he was a delegate to and a leader of the Colored Men’s National convention, which met in Nashville, Tenn., in the hall of the House of Representatives of the capitol building. Many distinguished men were in attendance at that conference, among them John M. Langston, P. B. S. Pinchback and M. W. Gibbs.

On October 22, 1876, he was ordained an elder by Bishop R. S. Foster, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at Nashville, Tenn. This is explained on the ground that desiring to obtain favorable facilities for pursuing some special lines of study, he temporarily changed his relationship from the A. M. E. Church to the M. E. Church, and became a student in Central Tennessee College, now Walden University, Nashville, Tenn. During his brief connection with the M. E. Church he held pastorates in Nashville and Murfreesboro. In April, 1876, during his pastorate at Murfreesboro, he was married to Miss Katie Josephine Black, the ceremony being performed in Nashville, Tenn., by the Rev. John Braden, D.D., the founder of and for many years the president of Central Tennessee college. This union was blessed by three children, two of whom died in early life, leaving one still living, Susan Elnora. Death deprived him of the further care and affection of his wife, July 28th, 1885. She died while on a visit to his sister, Mrs. Lucy Thurman, Jackson, Mich., and was buried in Mt. Evergreen Cemetery of said city. In 1904 the body was disentombed and re-interred in Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Mich. While a student at Central Tennessee college, in connection with other studies, he pursued a course in medicine and was graduated from the medical department in 1880. He never, however, entered upon the active practice of the profession.

In the spring of 1878 he rejoined the A. M. E. Church, and was appointed by Bishop Wayman to Brownsville, Pa., where a vacancy at that time existed. October, 1878, he was received by the Pittsburgh Conference, in session at Salem, O., and was appointed to the charge of Allen Chapel and East Liberty Circuit, both churches being located in Pittsburgh. At the Pittsburgh Conference, held September, 1879, East Liberty was made a station and he was appointed to the pastorate thereof. At the general conference of 1880, Bishop Ward having been assigned to the supervision of the Illinois Conference, and being fondly attached to him, he desired to be connected with one of his conferences, and in July, 1880, made application to Bishop Shorter, who then had charge of the Pittsburgh Conference, for a transfer to the Illinois Conference. In the following September he placed his transfer in the Illinois Conference, and was appointed to Bloomington. While at Bloomington he engaged his services as traveling agent for the great Sunday school Publishing House of David C. Cook, of Chicago. In September, 1881, at the session of the Illinois Conference, Chicago, Ill., he asked for and was granted a supernumerary relation in order that he might enter Mr. Cook’s employ. During his brief connection with the M. E. Church, he had been much impressed with the utility and value of its Sunday school Union, so much so that when he resumed his connection with the A. M. E. Church he formulated a plan for the organization of a similar institution therefor, and presented the plan to the Bishops’ Council, held in New York City, May, 1882. This being a special session of the Council, it was decided by the Bishops to waive the formal consideration of the plan until the meeting of their annual session, which took place August, 1882, at Cape May, N. J., where his plan for the organization of the Sunday school Union was formally approved, and he was appointed the corresponding secretary. The plan was carried to the general conference of 1884, in session at Baltimore, Maryland, and was unanimously adopted. He was elected without opposition its corresponding secretary and treasurer, a position in which he continued until May, 1900. The work he accomplished for the Sunday school Union during the 18 years of his connection with it is so well known that it need not be recited here.

He was a delegate to the second Ecumenical Methodist Conference, held in Washington City, D. C., 1891; was a delegate to the third Ecumenical Methodist Conference, held in London, England, September, 1901. At this conference he participated in the discussion on Ecumenical Methodism, in which he emphasized the capacity of the native African for intellectual development, and asserted that in the empire of intellect no color line can be drawn. At the close of the London Conference he delivered addresses in provincial meetings in Hull and Sheffield. He was a delegate to the fourth Ecumenical Methodist Conference, Toronto, Canada, October, 1911. He assisted in all the preliminary work of the executive committee, the business committee and the committee on program. Through his watchfulness and insistency, the distinctively Colored Methodist denominations were more largely represented on the program than at any of the preceding conferences. He presided at the morning session of the third day, during which he delivered a brief address on foreign missionary enterprises, which was regarded as one of the unique features of the conference. The ease and dignity with which he presided was the subject of general and most favorable comment. While in attendance at this conference, Victoria College, located in Toronto, conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, which was the first time that it had conferred that degree on a man of color. June, 1913, Wilberforce University honored him with the title of LL.D.

He has been much sought after as a political speaker, and was elected an alternate delegate by the Illinois State Republican convention to the National Republican convention of 1884, which nominated Jas. G. Blaine as its presidential candidate. He possesses oratorical powers of a high order and is an eloquent and impressive speaker, whether on the platform or in the pulpit. His three most memorable addresses are, “Ballots and Bullets,” “The Conflict between John and Tom–a Review of the Race Question” and “The Noachian Curse.” He produced three sermons which may be regarded as masterpieces: “What is Truth?”, “A Great Tribute Unwittingly Paid,” and “Love, the Essential of Christianity.” He delivered a magnificent and thrilling address on “The Relation of the British Government to the Natives of South Africa,” before the Negro Young People’s Christian Educational Congress, in Convention Hall, Washington, D. C., August 1st, 1906. He is a frequent contributor to the leading newspapers and magazines, and his writings are characterized by originality of thought, vigor of expression and elegance of diction.

December, 1888, he married Miss Christine Shoecraft, of Muncie, Ind. The ceremony took place at Nashville, Tenn., and was performed by the Rev. G. L. Jackson. The fruit of this union was one child, Charles Spencer Smith, Jr.

In 1900 he was elected a bishop by the general conference of the A. M. E. Church, in session at Columbus, Ohio, and was assigned to the Twelfth Episcopal District, comprising Ontario, Nova Scotia, Bermuda, Windward Islands and the South American Annual Conferences. Bishop Moore having died in 1900, he was given the additional work of superintending the Louisiana and the North Louisiana Annual Conferences. At the general conference held in Chicago, 1904, he was assigned to the Thirteenth Episcopal District, comprising the annual conferences in South Africa. Complications of a formidable and intricate nature, which had formed before his going there greatly militated against him, and finally led to an exchange of jurisdictions in the African work between him and Bishop Derrick, so that the latter assumed charge of South Africa, while he took over the supervision of the work in West Africa, November 24, 1906. He sailed from New York for West Africa, via Liverpool, to hold the Sierra Leone and Liberia Annual Conferences. At the General Conference held in Norfolk, Va., 1908, he was assigned to the Sixth Episcopal District, which embraces the State of Georgia. The outstanding feature of his administration in Georgia was the raising, in 1910, of $30,000 for Christian education. This was the largest amount raised for education, as the result of a single rally, by any fragment of colored people in the history of America. In addition to this, the increase in the Dollar Money for the quadrennium was over $23,000. At the General Conference held in Kansas City, Mo., 1912, he was assigned to the Tenth Episcopal District, which embraces the State of Texas. His administration in that district was chiefly characterized by rescuing Paul Quinn College, Waco, from serious financial embarrassment, and the extensive repairing and improving of the several buildings situated on the campus.

In 1887 Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, O., conferred on him the title of D.D., and in 1913 the title of LL.D.

He died in 1924.