W. Berton, a colored laborer, his wife and three children from drowning, March 25, 1913. He received a bronze medal and $1,000 for a worthy purpose as needed.

Louis O. Mott, a teamster, St. Louis, Missouri, helped to save George W. Berton, wife, and three children from drowning, March 25, 1913. He received a bronze and $1,000 for a worthy purpose as needed.

William G. Wills, a sixty-two-year-old farmer, Tyler, Texas, helped to rescue Thomas Ashcraft, a colored farm hand, from a 65-feet-deep cave-in well. Wills was awarded a silver medal and $1,000 for a worthy purpose as needed.

S. Rance Gregory, farmer and well-digger, Tyler, Texas, helped to rescue Thoman Ashcraft from a 65-feet-deep cave-in well, April 16, 1912. Award, a bronze medal and $1,000 for a worthy purpose as needed.

Luther B. Weaver, proprietor of a dye house, Dallas, Texas, died attempting to save George Maben, colored assistant, from burning when dye house caught afire. Award, a silver medal and $40 a month for support of widow during her life or until she remarries, with $5.00 additional for each of two children until each reaches the age of 16.

THE CHURCH AMONG NEGROES

The First Churches Organized

1785. Colored Baptist Church organized at Williamsburg, Virginia. 1788. First African Baptist Church of Savannah, Georgia, organ ized January 20, by Rev. Abraham Marshall (white) and Rev. Jesse Peters (colored). Andrew Bryan, a slave, was the first pastor.

1787. Richard Allen and a few followers started in Philadelphia an Independent Methodist Church. This was the beginning of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination.

1791.

Absolom Jones founded at Philadelphia St. Thomas Episcopal church.

1793. Springfield Baptist Church at Augusta, Georgia, organized by Rev. Abraham Marshall. Rev. Jesse Peters, who had gathered the members together, was the pastor.

1796. James Varick and others established in New York City a

colored Methodist Church which was the beginning of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion denomination. This is the oldest Negro church in New York. The first meetings were held in the cabinet shop of William Miller on Cross Street.

1800. The Abyssinia Baptist Church of New York City organized. 1802. The Second Baptist Church of Savannah, an off-shoot of the First African Baptist Church, was organized.

1805. The African Meeting House, the first Negro church in Boston and in New England, organized. The building for this church which is said to have been erected entirely by Negro labor, was in Smith Court, off Belknap Street. now known as the Joy Street Baptist Church.

It is

1809. The first African Baptist Church of Philadelphia organized. 1807. First African Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, the first Colored Presbyterian Church in America, founded by Rev. Archibald Alexander, pastor of the third Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, and moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly. Its building, erected in 1811, was located off Seventh and Bainbridge Streets. Now located at Seventeenth and Fitzwater Streets. John Gloucester (see John Gloucester) was its first pastor.

1818. St. Philip's Protestant Episcopal Church of New York City, an offshoot of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, organized. It was incorporated in 1820. St. Philip's has the distinction of being the richest Negro church in the world. Its real estate holdings, much of which is in residence property amounts to about $1,000,000.

1824. St. James First African Church, first colored Episcopal Church in a slave State, at Baltimore, Md., by the Rev. Levington, who had been ordained in St. Thomas Church, Philadelphia. This church was established with the consent and approval of Bishop Kent of the Episcopal Church. In 1827 the church building was consecrated.

1838. July. First Bethel Baptist Church, Jacksonville, Florida, established. It is now the Bethel Baptist Institutional Church. There were six charter members: four white, the Rev. J. Jaudan and wife, Deacon James McDonald and wife, and two colored persons, slaves of Mr. Jaudan. The first meeting place was the Government Block House which stood near the county courthouse.

Mr. Jaudan purchased a lot on Church Street between Hogan and Julia Streets and gave it to the church. A meeting house was erected here in 1861. At the close of the Civil War the white members of the church went into court and endeavored to dispossess the colored members of the church property and name. The colored members of the congregation, however, were in the majority and the court decided that they were the Bethel Baptist Church and rightful owners of the property. A short while after this, the Bethel Baptist Church sold the property on Church Street to their white brethren and purchased a lot on the Northwest corner of Main and Union Streets and erected a building thereon in 1868. In 1894, the Bethel Baptist Church was incorporated by the State of Florida as an institutional church with authority to carry on social betterment, industrial training work, a Bible institute, and a publishing and tract repository department, in addition to the regular work of a missionary Baptist church. 1867. April 14. Plymouth Congregational Church, first Colored Congregational Church among the colored people in the South, organized at Charleston, South Carolina.

This church had its origin with the colored members of the Circular Congregational Church of Charleston, which was organized in the year 1680. January 20, 1867, 108 of the members of the Circular Church requested their letters with the purpose of forming a new church of their own.

¡DATE OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE COLORED

DENOMINATIONS

1805. Colored members of Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church of Wilmington, Delaware, withdrew and erected a building for themselves.

1813. The Union Church of Africans incorporated September 7, at Wilmington, Delaware, by the colored members who had withdrawn from Asbury Church.

1816. The African Methodist Episcopal Church organized at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Richard Allen as its first bishop.

1821. At New York the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church organized June 21. James Varick was made District Chairman and the next year became the first bishop of the church.

1836. The Providence Baptist Association of Ohio organized. This is said to be the first colored Baptist Association organized in the United States.

In 1838 the Wood River Baptist Association of Illinois was organized.

1853 the Western Colored Baptist Convention organized.

1864 Northwestern and Southern Baptist Convention organized. 1867 the Consolidated American Baptist Convention organized and continued till 1879 when the Western churches withdrew.

1880 the National Baptist Convention was organized at Montgomery, Alabama.

1850. African Union Church organized by a division of the Union Church of Africans.

1850. The Union American Methodist Episcopal Church (colored) organized by a division of the Union Church of Africans. 1860. About this time the First Colored Methodist Protestant Church organized by Negro members who withdrew from the Methodist Protestant Church.

1865.

Colored members from the white Primitive Baptist Churches of the South organized at Columbia, Tennessee, the Colored Primitive Baptists in America.

1866. The African Union First Colored Methodist Protestant Church of America or Elsewhere, organized by a union of the African Union Church with the First Colored Methodist Protestant Church.

1869. At Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in May, the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church set apart its colored members and organized the Colored Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

1870. The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in May, at Memphis, Tennessee, set apart its colored members, and on December 16, 1870, at Jackson, Tennessee, these members were organized into the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.

1882. The Reformed Zion Apostolic Church (colored) was organized.

1896. In 1894 a number of ministers and members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church withdrew from the conferences in South Carolina, and in Georgia, and organized an independent Methodist Church. In 1896 they were organized into the Reformed Methodist Union Episcopal Church (colored).

1896. The Church of God and Saints of Christ (colored was organized at Lawrence, Kansas.

1899. A new denomination, the Church of the Living God (col

ored) was organized at Wrightsville, Arkansas. There are now three distinct bodies as follows: Church of the Living God (Christian workers for friendship); Church of the Living God (Apostolic); Church of Christ in God.

1900. The Voluntary Missionary Society in America (colored) was organized.

1901. The United American Free-Will Baptist were organized. 1905, July 10, at Redemption, Arkansas, persons who had withdrawn from the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Baptist Churches, organized the Free Christian Zion Church in Christ (colored).

NOTED NEGRO PREACHERS

1750. George Leile, born about this time, was one of the most noted of the early Negro preachers.

Some time before the Revolutionary War, Leile's master moved to Burke County, Georgia. Here Leile was converted and began to preach. Not long before he began to preach, his master, who was a deacon of the Baptist Church, gave him his freedom. Leile preached to the slaves at Savannah during the Revolutionary War. In 1783 he went to Jamaica. Just before leaving he baptized the slave, Andrew Bryan, who in after years became a great preacher and established the First African Baptist Church in Savannah. Leile had much success and established the Baptist church among the Negroes of Jamaica.

1788. Andrew Bryan founded the First African Baptist Church at Savannah, Georgia.

Bryan was publicly whipped and twice imprisoned for preaching. He was, however, faithful to his vow. At length liberty was given him by the civil authorities to continue his religious meetings under certain regulations. His master gave him the use of his barn at Brampton, three miles from Savannah, where he preached for two years with little interruption. In 1792 the church began the erection of a place of worship. The city gave the lot for the purpose. This lot has remained in the possession of the church up to the present time.

1753. Rev. Lemuel Haynes, revolutionary soldier and first colored Congregational minister. Born in West Hartford, Connec

ticut.

In 1775 Haynes joined the colonial army and served through the