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 CHURCHILL 3ATTERLEE 
 
 PRIEST AND MISSIONARY— AN 
 
 INTERPRETATION OF HIS 
 
 LIFE AND LABORS BY 
 
 HAMILTON SCHUYLER 
 
 EDWIN S. GORHAM Publisher 
 1905 
 
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 Copyrighted 1905 by 
 Edwin S, Gorham 
 
 UBRARV or 00!>JGRESS 
 Two Copies Keceivou 
 
 MAY 18 1905 
 
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 //I /3^ 
 
 COPY B. 
 
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 The Heidingsfeld Press 
 New Brunswick 
 
"We must be here to work, 
 And men who work can only work for men. 
 And, not to work in vain, must comprehend 
 Humanity, and so work humanely, 
 And raise men's bodies still by raising souls. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter 1. The Maq and His Making. ... 7 
 
 Chapter II. Grace Churchi, Morgantoq. ... 33 
 
 Chapter III. A Country Parishj at Work. . . , 58 
 
 Chapter IV. Pioneer Work iq the Mountains. . 91 
 
 Chapter V. Trinity Churcf|, Columbia. .... 120 
 
 Chapter VI. Annong the Mill Hands. .... 146 
 
 Chapter Vll. Finishing His Course 154 
 
 Chapter VIII. Aftermath] 171 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE MAN AND HIS MAKING. 
 
 There are, broadly speaking, three types of men 
 whose Hves may be said to be worth recording; first, 
 those w^hose superior mental endowments have won 
 for them an unique place in the popular imagination ; 
 second, those who, while lacking this distinction, have 
 played important parts upon a wide stage of human 
 afifairs ; third, those who, while neither eminent intel- 
 lectually nor conspicuous because of their connection 
 with great events, have yet possessed personalities 
 which have fascinated and inspired others solely by 
 their intrinsic beauty and worth. To this last class 
 belongs the man with whom this book is concerned. 
 Churchill Satterlee in a ministry of little more than a 
 decade, and that spent mainly in an obscure back- 
 w^oods village, had succeeded in so impressing his 
 personality upon those among whom he labored or 
 who came within the zone of his influence, as not only 
 to create for himself a deep and abiding affection in 
 their hearts, but also to effect a permanent change in 
 their moral and spiritual outlook. It is on these 
 grounds, as one who loved humanity, and gave him- 
 self ungrudgingly for its uplifting, as a Fisher of 
 
 7 
 
8 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 Men, that Satterlee's life and work have been deemed 
 worthy of interpretation. 
 
 Churchill Satterlee was born April 27, 1867, in 
 New Hamburgh, a little village in New York State, 
 on the east bank of the Hudson River. He was the 
 first child and only son of Henry Yates and Jane 
 Churchill Satterlee. His father was at that time 
 assistant minister of Zion Church, Wappinger's Falls, 
 and occupied as a rectory the little cottage belonging 
 to Netherwoods, the estate of Irving Grinnell, Esq. 
 The child was baptized June 30, in the parish church 
 by the Rev. Dr. Andrews, a clergyman who was born 
 before the United States had achieved its independ- 
 ence from the mother country. This was a thought 
 w^hich Satterlee always cherished. 
 
 The Satterlee family came originally from the 
 little village of Sotterly in Suffolk, England, where, 
 in the parish church of St. Margaret's, may still be 
 seen the old family memorial brasses. During the 
 Wars of the Roses their estates were confiscated, and 
 one of the family, Thomas Sotterly, seems to have 
 removed to Devonshire. There,^ four generations 
 afterward, the Rev, William Sotterly was Vicar of 
 Ide, a suburb of the City of Exeter. Being a Royal- 
 ist, his property was sequestered by the Round Heads 
 under Oliver Cromwell, and he himself wa€ impris- 
 oned. His son Benedict, the- direct ancestor of the 
 Satterlee family in this country, emigrated to America 
 and settled in New London, Conn. His descendants, 
 like many of the English colonists of those days, 
 
THE MAN. 9 
 
 became Baptists or Congregationalists, and after- 
 wards, in the case of those who removed to New 
 York, Dutch Reformed. Through intermarriage 
 with the Lansing and Van Rensselaer famihes a 
 strain of Dutch blood was introduced and a relation- 
 ship thus established with many of the leading Knick- 
 erbocker families of New York State. One of Satter- 
 lee's relatives in the collateral line, Joseph Yates, was 
 Governor of the State of New York. On his mother's 
 side there was also an admixture of Dutch with 
 English blood. Timothy Gridley Churchill, his 
 grandfather, a merchant of New York City, was of 
 English extraction, but his wife. Patience Lawrence, 
 a descendant of John Eliot the Apostle to the Indians, 
 was a Riker on the mother's side. Satterlee's father, 
 Henry Yates Satterlee, afterwards first Bishop of 
 Washington, was the first of his family to return to 
 the faith of his ancestors, and as his mother's was a 
 church family, their son Churchill was reared in the 
 Episcopal Church as his rightful heritage. 
 
 New Hamburgh where Satterlee spent his child- 
 hood, contained the country seats of many New 
 Yorkers possessed of wealth and social position, who 
 were his father's parishioners, while two miles dis- 
 tant, in Wappinger's Falls, where the parish church 
 was located, there was to be found beside the ordinary 
 village population, a large contingent of mill oper- 
 atives employed in the great Garner woollen 
 mills. Thus the boy grew up surrounded by an 
 atmosphere of refinement and culture, and yet 
 
lo A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 coming at the same time in close personal touch 
 with the plain village folk and the working 
 classes. The ability to adapt himself to all sorts 
 and conditions of people which Satterlee so con- 
 spicuously displayed in after life, was undoubtedly 
 acquired naturally through his daily intercourse with 
 all classes during his boyhood days. Privileged 
 always to move on terms of perfect equality with those 
 highly placed socially, he was yet able to understand 
 and sympathize with the plainest and most uncouth. 
 Though all his tastes were aristocratic, he was yet the 
 most democratic of men, and if he possessed any pride 
 of birth or ancestry, no one would ever have known 
 it from his speech or bearing. 
 
 Owing to the fact that there was no good school 
 within a convenient distance, Churchill w^as taught at 
 home by governesses until he was twelve years of age, 
 when his parents took him to Europe with them. 
 During the year they spent in travel, he was placed in 
 the house of a French school-teacher in Switzerland. 
 Here, having as his daily companions only foreign 
 lads, he learned to speak the French language fluently, 
 and moreover, thrown as it were upon his own moral 
 resources, laid the foundation of the robust character 
 which marked his later years. It would scarcely be 
 true to say, that as a boy or young man Satterlee 
 exhibited special evidence of possessing more than the 
 normal interest in religious matters. As a lad he was 
 conscientious and dutiful, but he does not seem to 
 have impressed anybody with his piety. Perhaps, 
 
THE MAN. II 
 
 indeed, he could hardly be called an especially devout 
 boy. He seems to have entered with zest into the 
 observance of the Church Festivals, in connection 
 with which there were in his father's parish many 
 unique circumstances attending, but there is nothing 
 in the history of his boyhood to suggest that the min- 
 istry was in his thoughts, unless an incident recalled 
 of his once sprinkling water upon some kittens and 
 pretending to make them Christians, may be so 
 regarded. Another incident which occurred when he 
 was only about eight years old, may be mentioned as 
 early revealing the spirit of helpfulness to others 
 which w^as one of his distinguishing traits. The story 
 is recalled in a letter from a lady whom it concerned, 
 w^ho was his governess at this period : 
 
 ^T was not surprised when I learned that Churchill 
 had entered the ministry. I recall a little incident of 
 my stay in New Hamburgh. One day in my room 
 Churchill took up a book from the table, turned it 
 around and upside down, trying to read it. 
 
 "He asked, 'What kind of a book is this, Miss 
 Shaw^ ?' I answered, Tt is my Spanish Bible.' Ts this 
 all the Bible you have?' *A11 I have,' I replied. He 
 turned over the leaves and looked puzzled. The next 
 day he brought me a beautiful new English Bible, 
 saying, 'Miss Shaw, I think you can read that easier.' 
 On the first page he had written in his boyish hand, 
 'Miss Shaw, from Churchill Satterlee, New Ham- 
 burgh, July 29, 1876.' I left New Hamburgh twelve 
 days afterwards, August tenth, and was married on 
 
12 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 that day. The Httle Bible has been my constant com- 
 panion ever since. I have it now in good condition 
 on my Httle altar. It was probably Churchill's first 
 missionary work." 
 
 Upon the whole it may be said, that there was little 
 about the boy which marked him off as in any way 
 different from his companions, or which seemed to 
 indicate the direction of his future career. He was 
 just a simple, healthy-minded lad, who entered 
 heartily into the games and sports of his associates 
 and did with cheerfulness the tasks assigned him by 
 his parents and teachers. 
 
 Upon the return of his parents from their European 
 trip to their home in New Hamburgh, Churchill, now 
 in his fourteenth year, was sent to St. Paul's School, 
 Concord. The influence of the rector, Dr. Coit, and 
 the genius of the school made a deep and permanent 
 impression upon young Satterlee. The friendships he 
 formed there remained with him through life, and the 
 gratitude and affection he ever felt and expressed for 
 St. Paul's were unbounded. Owing to an accident 
 which befell him while coasting, he was seriously 
 injured and compelled to leave without finishing his 
 course. Subsequently, from this or some other cause, 
 inflammatory rheumatism set in, and Satterlee was 
 compelled for several years to spend the winter 
 months in the South. 
 
 Thus from his fifteenth year until a period reaching 
 into the early days of his ministry, Satterlee had to 
 suffer the lassitude and weakness, as well as pain, 
 
THE MAN. 13 
 
 occasioned by recurrent attacks of this disease. He 
 was naturally active, with a love of athletic sports, 
 which he had to forego when rheumatism set in. This 
 was a keen disappointment to the young boy, and it 
 was only through strong will power that the contin- 
 uity of his life and studies was maintained. Thus he 
 early learned the lesson of bearing pain and overcom- 
 ing obstacles. He was never discouraged by physical 
 weakness, and though for long periods he suffered 
 severely, his bedroom was always a scene of bright- 
 ness. Every morning in answer to inquiries, his 
 unfailing response would be: "Oh, I am better 
 to-day," and so attractive was his influence, that his 
 sick-room was a meeting place for his school-boy 
 friends, who came to see him as often as permitted. 
 
 While wintering in the South he continued to 
 pursue his studies under the direction of a tutor of 
 Unitarian belief. The rector of the parish in the town 
 where the two stayed took a great interest in both 
 teacher and pupil, and subsequently, when the teacher 
 was brought to Confirmation and the Holy Com- 
 munion, declared his conviction that the step was 
 due largely to Satterlee's influence. In speaking of 
 the matter years afterwards to Satterlee's father, this 
 clergyman said : "Instead of the teacher leading the 
 pupil, the pupil led the teacher." 
 
 There was nothing in Satterlee of the prig as a boy 
 or man. He frankly enjoyed the acquaintance and 
 companionship of many whose actions at times he was 
 fain to disapprove. He did not choose his associates 
 
14 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 with any idea that he would receive himself any 
 benefit morally or otherwise. He seemed never to 
 imagine that any moral fault or viciousness in them 
 would redound to his own injury or sully his manly 
 purity. If he refrained commonly from rebuking 
 them or uttering any condemnation of their actions, 
 it was not because he was indifferent to the course they 
 were pursuing or that he easily condoned their 
 offences, but simply because he liked them in spite of 
 their faults and did not feel called upon too closely to 
 scrutinize their lives. Such an attitude is often mis- 
 understood and usually set down as indifference to 
 moral issues. In some cases this is undoubtedly true, 
 but in his case no one could know him without being 
 convinced that his attitude was the result of wholly 
 different motives. Doubtless all unconsciously he felt 
 that they could not drag him down to their level, while 
 there was a possibility that he might be the means of 
 lifting them up. If he foreswore their society or made 
 himself in any way unpleasant to them by the adop- 
 tion of a censorious spirit, he was conscious that his 
 influence over them would wholly disappear. He was 
 willing to take the chances of being himself defiled, 
 for the opportunity of being helpful to them. 
 
 In 1882 Dr. Satterlee was called to become the rec- 
 tor of Calvary Church, New York City, and the 
 family accordingly removed thither and occupied the 
 rectory on East Twenty-first Street, adjoining the 
 church. This change from the conditions prevailing 
 in a country village to those obtaining in a metropoli- 
 
THE MAN. 15 
 
 tan city, undoubtedly exercised a potent influence over 
 the life of young Satterlee. In the manifold activities 
 of a large and highly organized city parish, situated in 
 the very heart of the most densely populated region of 
 New York, a thoughtful and observant boy such as 
 he was, could not fail to find much to inspire him and 
 quicken his susceptibilities. In his new home which 
 was always a center of a wide church life, he would 
 meet men distinguished in the ecclesiastical world; 
 missionary bishops and clergymen prominent in the 
 Church being frequent visitors at Calvary rectory. In 
 listening to the conversation and discussions which 
 went on about him, he could hardly fail to imbibe a 
 general knowledge of ecclesiastical and missionary 
 matters and have his interest in these things aroused 
 and stimulated ; thus receiving unconsciously into his 
 mind the pregnant ideas which determined his future 
 career. 
 
 Satterlee entered the Freshman Class of Columbia 
 University, his father's Alma Mater, in 1886. The 
 recurring attacks of rheumatism from which he suf- 
 fered during this period, and which prevented his 
 regular attendance upon his college course, made it 
 impossible to take a high standing in scholarship, but 
 he acquitted himself creditably and was graduated in 
 due course with his class. While in college Satterlee 
 entered fully into the social life of the institution, 
 joining one of the Greek Letter Fraternities, and 
 making many friends both within and without the 
 Society. He indulged freely in all the legitimate 
 
i6 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 amusements of his fellows, but had the reputation of 
 never exceeding the limits of temperance and good 
 behavior. 
 
 One of the closest friends of his boyhood and col- 
 lege years furnishes a frank description of Satterlee's 
 characteristics as they appeared to his associates of 
 this period : 
 
 '*One thing characteristic of Churchill was his 
 pleasure in helping others, which he always did in a 
 way of his own, and no obstacle ever prevented him 
 accomplishing his purpose. I remember his borrow- 
 ing money to lend it to another to provide funds so 
 that the other might study with a tutor. The man 
 finally got through, mainly by the grace of the 
 Faculty, it was said, but the man had very little grace 
 to spare, and what he did have was obtained through 
 the money he borrowed from Churchill, which 
 Churchill did not himself have, but, ever resourceful, 
 he obtained elsewhere. 
 
 "Churchill was a financier and promoter, in so far 
 as he might help or give pleasure to others. Even as 
 a boy he was resourceful. When the lemons gave out 
 at home and no lemonade could be procured, his 
 father's postage stamps were converted into ginger 
 ale and soda water at the nearest drug store for our 
 enjoyment. 
 
 "All sorts and conditions of fellows would come to 
 Churchill while he was in college, and also in later 
 years, when they were in trouble, and he helped them 
 in some way or other, any little thing, from getting a 
 
THE MAN. 17 
 
 bondsman when they were arrested, to going down to 
 court after them. If they needed money, and he had 
 none, he would allow them to pawn anything he had 
 that was pawnable. In many instances he never heard 
 of the article pawned, and often he was not even 
 reimbursed with thanks, but still he trusted everyone 
 who came to him, and everyone who knew him, no 
 matter how slightly, trusted him. 
 
 "Churchill was not a 'goody-goody' fellow. He 
 liked a good time, and this, combined with his strength 
 of character, v/hich in some cases almost amounted to 
 obstinacy, he was so purposeful, made him loved by 
 many and respected by all. These points are clearly 
 characteristic of him; they emphasize certain phases 
 of his personality which, perhaps, a good many may 
 think vv'^ould better be passed over, but they are facts. 
 In one case with which T was familiar, he was up 
 nearly all night obtaining a bondsman for a student 
 who belonged to another Fraternity. This student's 
 friends, if they had felt so inclined, could easily have 
 bailed him out, but did not lift a finger, while 
 Churchill ran about town to get the bail, thus contract- 
 ing a cold which compelled him to leave college and 
 go South for several months." 
 
 During successive summers Satterlee accompanied 
 his family upon tours through Europe. Thus he 
 visited repeatedly England, Spain, France, Switzer- 
 land, Austria and Italy. He w^as privileged to visit 
 Oberammergau twice, once while he was a boy of 
 thirteen, and again in 1890 during the summer fol- 
 
i8 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 lowing his graduation from college. He had lodgings 
 on both occasions with the same family, members of 
 which had parts in the Passion Play, and his impres- 
 sions of its wonderful influence were strengthened by 
 his consciousness of the genuine goodness and purity 
 of the lives of those who participated in the produc- 
 tion. The conjunction in them of religious devotion 
 with a keen appreciation of the value of art in music 
 and handicraft, was a matter he often spoke of with 
 enthusiasm, and probably accounted for his marked 
 predilection in after years for a rich and beautiful 
 church service. 
 
 When in England he was taken by his father to 
 inspect Oxford House and other phases of Church 
 work in East London, and he also attended with his 
 father a retreat for the Clergy at Keble College, 
 Oxford, conducted by Canon Grore. It is probable 
 that these experiences had a determining effect upon 
 his choice of a vocation. Up to this period his father 
 had scrupulously refrained from making any sug- 
 gestion to his son in regard to his future work, 
 though, of course, Satterlee could hardly fail to real- 
 ize the hopes his father cherished for him. 
 
 Proof that he had given the matter of choosing 
 a career full consideration before finally deciding to 
 adopt the ministry, is clear. That he did not simply 
 drift into it as following the line of least resistance, 
 is apparent from the fact that he had seriously 
 thought of going into business. 
 
THE MAN. 19 
 
 The following letter from one of his intimate 
 friends is illuminating on this point : 
 
 ''One day I asked Churchill why he went into the 
 ministry. He said: T told my father soon after 
 graduation that I had about decided to go into the 
 real estate business. Instead of jumping up to con- 
 gratulate me he just looked at me and said, 'I can 
 picture you sitting in an office on the Avenue waiting 
 for a customer to come in — and then ?' 
 
 ''I believe those two words — 'and then' — had a 
 direct influence on his whole course of life thereafter. 
 He felt that he was fitted for a higher calling and 
 one more useful. Many times have I heard him tell 
 the story of the worldly man who was being ques- 
 tioned as to his ambitions in life, and after each goal 
 of riches or pleasure had been reached the insatiable 
 questioner would ask, 'and then?' until finally the 
 man was forced to admit that after he had attained 
 all his ambitions in this world, he would in reality be 
 just where he started, having done no good to man- 
 kind, as his aims were entirely selfish, or at least not 
 directed towards things worth while." 
 
 A letter from a friend of mature years, whom Sat- 
 terlee often consulted, is similarly significant: 
 
 "When Churchill was about leaving Columbia, we 
 had a long talk with regard to his future. He had 
 not fully decided what he would do. Someone had 
 urged him to become a chemist. I did not think much 
 of it, and suggested, that if he w^ould like to study 
 law, I could help him. He said he thought he would 
 
20 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 enter the ministry, but was not quite decided ; that he 
 felt that his Hfe did not strictly belong to himself, 
 which was one of the reasons why, before deciding, 
 he desired to talk with his friends; that in the walk 
 of life in which he felt he could be most useful to 
 those about him, he would engage and do his best, 
 whatever the results might be." 
 
 Satterlee's father gives an account of an interview 
 which he had with his son relative to the choice of 
 his vocation in life. It was when the summer vaca- 
 tion following his graduation from college was draw- 
 ing to a close, during a sojourn in Lucerne. The two 
 had gone for a walk in the fields, and were resting 
 under a haystack. The subject was introduced by 
 Dr. Satterlee, who said to his son : 
 
 ''So far you have made a creditable mark for your- 
 self ; now that you have graduated from college, you 
 must choose a profession — what are you going 
 to be?" 
 
 ''Churchill replied : 'I don't know ; I don't think 
 I am good for anything specially.' 
 
 " 'What is your idea in life,' I said, 'to get or to 
 give ?' 
 
 "Churchill replied : 'Oh ! I've thought and decided 
 about that long ago, I want to give all that I have to 
 give; I want to be useful, of course, I want to help 
 my Day to take its stand ; I want to be a builder of 
 some kind, but I am not fitted to build up anything.' 
 
 "I said, 'Build up the human body.' He responded, 
 '1 never cared for surgery or medicine.' 
 
THE MAN. 21 
 
 ''I said, *Build up the sense of justice in the com- 
 munity.' He repHed, *I am no orator : no dialectician, 
 I am not fitted to be a lawyer.' 
 
 "I said, ^Be an architect or a civil engineer.' The 
 answer was, 'You know that I am neither a draughts- 
 man on the one hand nor a mathematician on the 
 other ; I am qualified for neither profession.' 
 
 '*I then said, 'Be a character builder.' Churchill 
 replied, 'How can I ? I am not qualified ! Anyway, 
 how is this to be done?' I answered, 'The character 
 builder in a village is the religious leader, who goes 
 in and out among the people, and shows the butcher, 
 the baker, the candle-stick maker, how, in pursuing 
 their trades, to be better tradesmen, better citizens of 
 the commonwealth, better Christians and more faith- 
 ful witnesses for Jesus Christ, in their several call- 
 ings ; who shows fathers and mothers that the Chris- 
 tian family is the unit upon which Christian civiliza- 
 tion is built up, and thus prepares the Avay for the 
 coming of God's kingdom.' Churchill replied, 'Oh! 
 if I only had the power to be such a character 
 builder, I should gladly give my life to this work, but 
 here again I have no qualifications for filling this 
 sphere.' I begged him to stop and think, and 
 reminded him of the influence he had exercised over 
 others in his college life and his Fraternity, and 
 over the friends who had been coming for the last 
 eight years to our house. He made no reply and we 
 walked quietly home. The next morning he an- 
 nounced to us that he should sail for home a month 
 
2 2 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 earlier than we had intended, for he wished to have 
 a conference with Dean Hoffman and Dr. Dyer, with 
 a view possibly to entering the General Seminary in 
 the autumn. When we all demurred, saying that this 
 would break up the family party and spoil the pleas- 
 ure of our European trip, he replied, somewhat 
 gruffly, 'Duty first — pleasure afterwards.' His one 
 great dread seemed to be lest he should be influenced 
 into entering the ministry without being really fitted 
 for it. Now, when he was on the point of deciding 
 through his own free will, it was a satisfaction for 
 him to feel, that by thus sailing for America contrary 
 to his own inclinations and our wishes, he was giving 
 proof of his sincerity and independent choice. Two 
 months from that time, on St. Matthew's Day, 1890, 
 while Churchill was being matriculated as a student 
 in the Seminary, we were in John Keble's church at 
 Hursley, praying that God would bless him in the act 
 and consecrate his whole future life in the ministry, 
 as a faithful servant of Jesus Christ." 
 
 Satterlee entered the General Theological Semi- 
 nary in the autumn of the same year. He did not 
 lodge in the Seminary dormitories, but continued to 
 live at home, going back and forth for the lectures. 
 He felt that his first duty was to throw all his energy 
 and strength into his studies, and he, therefore, 
 refrained from taking any active part in the work of 
 Calvary Church. He realized that by nature he was 
 more inclined to energetic and practical work than 
 to books, and he conscientiously devoted himself to 
 
THE MAN. 23 
 
 the study of theology. As the result of this persistent 
 effort he now acquired habits of systematic reading 
 which afterwards proved a constant safeguard to him 
 in his life as a country rector. The only definite and 
 regular work which he undertook in Calvary Church 
 during this period was the training of the Auxiliary 
 Choir. His natural shyness made him exceedingly 
 reluctant to fill this position, but his sense of duty and 
 his extreme fondness for music finally led him to 
 accept. Under his leadership as organist and choir- 
 master, a distinct improvement in the behavior of the 
 choir members was noticeable. Though the young 
 men and women composing the choir were many of 
 them his most intimate friends, his enthusiasm enabled 
 him to conquer his diffidence, and he learned to play 
 the part of a strict disciplinarian. 
 
 As at school and college, so also in the seminary, 
 Satterlee made many friends and was a prime favorite 
 with his classmates. He introduced them to his 
 parents and made them free of the hospitality so lav- 
 ishly dispensed at Calvary Rectory. 
 
 A fellow seminarian, who, perhaps, knew him as 
 intimately as any of his friends of that period, writes 
 as follows in a letter addressed to Satterlee's mother : 
 
 "Though I know that Churchill must have changed 
 greatly from our Seminary days, developed in every 
 way, intellectually and spiritually, I am confident he 
 had not outgrown one of his chief characteristics, 
 namely, his loyalty to those whom he honored with 
 his friendship. 
 
24 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 ^Terhaps you have forgotten, if, indeed, you ever 
 knew, what I said about him over ten years ago in a 
 class poem which I wrote. I had my fling at the 
 foibles and idiosyncracies of my classmates and pro- 
 fessors. There was no intention of hurting or of 
 leaving a sting behind, but I fancy in some cases there 
 was a feeling that I had been pretty severe. There 
 were one or two men whom I could not bring myself 
 to say anything 'spicy' about, their characters were 
 too simple and transparent to lend themselves to my 
 satire, good humored as I meant it to be. 
 
 ''Here is what I said then about Churchill : 
 
 " 'And here's a man, whose heart is true as 'Slt-eel, 
 A statement this from which there's no appeal, 
 Whose friends upon him always have a claim, 
 Which he will honor, — Satterlee's his name.' 
 
 'T can't remember precisely how it was Churchill 
 and I first struck up our friendship. He was the 
 younger by some years, and I think then, even for his 
 age and although a graduate of college and what is 
 called a man's man, singularly unsophisticated. Per- 
 haps it was this quality which attracted me to him 
 first. This, and the cordiality of his manner, together 
 with the absolute lack of conceit w^hich marked him, 
 served to draw me to him. I know that inside of a 
 week after our first meeting, we found ourselves 
 entering upon terms of great intimacy. He used to 
 come to my room and leave his overcoat and hat and 
 don the mortar-board and gown. I sat near him, 
 
THE MAN. 25 
 
 generally next to him, in the class room. Shortly 
 after the return from the country of the Rector of 
 Calvary and his family, Churchill invited me over to 
 lunch and made me acquainted with you all. 
 
 "During the two years of my Seminary course our 
 intimacy continued and our friendship increased. I 
 suppose I saw more of Churchill than anyone else did. 
 Churchill was a man the better you knew him, the 
 more you liked him. He was a gentleman under all 
 circumstances. I use the term in its fullest signifi- 
 cance. I do not mean that he was merely well-bred, 
 — that was to be expected, — ^but that he was a gentle- 
 man, always considerate of the feelings of others. I 
 never knew him to say anything unkind of anyone. 
 He had an innate refinement that led him to detest 
 whatever was vulgar. 
 
 "While many of us shirked our Seminary duties, 
 either out of constitutional laziness or because the 
 teaching was not to our liking and we felt we could 
 do better by following private reading, Churchill was 
 a faithful student. I fancy he did not learn quickly, 
 and that study was to him the hardest kind of work. 
 Remember, I am speaking of him as I knew him a 
 dozen years ago. I am quite prepared to believe what 
 I have been told regarding the subsequent develop- 
 ment of his capacities. I am not at all surprised to 
 know of the important work he has been able to 
 accomplish during the last few years. Had God 
 spared his life I should have fully expected to see him 
 
26 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 take his place among the leaders of the Church in 
 this country." 
 
 Satterlee was duly graduated from the Seminary 
 with the Class of 1893, and was ordained to the 
 diaconate with twenty or more of his classmates on 
 Trinity Sunday, by Bishop Potter, in Calvary 
 Church. He was to have been married on the fol- 
 lowing Saturday, but owing to a severe attack of his 
 old trouble, the wedding was postponed to June 15, 
 when he was united in matrimony to Margaret Hum- 
 bert, the youngest daughter of Pierre Humbert, Esq., 
 of New York City. The marriage took place in Cal- 
 vary Church, Satterlee's father officiating. He began 
 his ministry the following September as a curate to 
 the Rev. Dr. Battershall, Rector of St. Peter's 
 Church, Albany. In Advent of that same year he 
 was advanced to the priesthood by Bishop Doane* 
 Shortly afterwards, owing to the failure of his wife's 
 health, he was compelled to resign and go to Cali- 
 fornia. The following entry appears in his diary, 
 under date of January 7, 1894: "Celebrated for the 
 first time the Holy Communion in St. John's Church, 
 Los Angeles, with what feeling of trepidation and 
 happiness." 
 
 Satterlee offered his services for the winter to the 
 Bishop of California, and was put in charge of the 
 mission work at Ontario, besides doing duty at sev- 
 eral other stations. 
 
 His inability, for many months after his ordina- 
 tion, to take any settled cure, owing to his wife's ill 
 
THE MAN. 27 
 
 health, which obHged him to be in different parts of 
 the country at different seasons of the year, was a 
 great trial to him. But his work during this period 
 if desultory, was often very effective. In the summer 
 of 1894, he was appointed by Bishop Doane, minis- 
 ter-in-charge of the mission at Lake Placid, where he 
 held services in the hotel parlors. During this time 
 the mission was thoroughly organized by him, a lot 
 was given, a name was chosen, and a building fund 
 amounting to $1,350 was raised. Thus, as the result 
 of his efforts, St. Hubert's, afterwards a flourishing 
 parish, owed its beginning to him. 
 
 Subsequently, he had charge during the summer 
 months of a little church on an island in Raquette 
 Lake. Here he also did faithful work, going from 
 place to place with his wife in their birch canoe, visit- 
 ing the families of the Adirondack guides. As the 
 result of these efforts he was able to present a class 
 for Confirmation. Subsequently, during the years 
 that he was rector of Grace Church, Morganton, he 
 always took charge of some Mission Church during 
 his summer vacation, serving for several seasons as 
 minister-in-charge of the Chapel at Quogue, L. L 
 
 An incident occurring about this time illustrating 
 his spirit of knight-errantry, is worthy of mention. 
 A poor woman of the neighborhood came to him 
 with a pitiful story regarding her niece who had been 
 engaged to marry a young farmer, but who subse- 
 quently deserted her under very distressing circum- 
 stances. Satterlee volunteered to act as peacemaker 
 
28 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 between the two, and the next day undertook a jour- 
 ney of several hundred miles, at his own expense, for 
 the purpose of interviewing the man in question. 
 Arriving at his destination, which was in an isolated 
 community, Satterlee sent word to the young man, 
 making known the purpose of his errand. In due 
 time the young farmer appeared, accompanied by his 
 two brothers, all armed with guns, evidently expect- 
 ing trouble. As they approached him in this belliger- 
 ent attitude, Satterlee smilingly held out his hand, 
 remarking, ''I suppose I ought to have brought my 
 gun too, but as I have forgotten to do so, suppose you 
 put yours aside and let us sit down on these logs and 
 talk over this matter in a friendly spirit." As the 
 outcome of the conversation the yoimg man agreed 
 to be guided by his advice, and the two jumped into 
 the wagon and were driven to the rectory of the 
 neighboring village, where the aunt and niece were 
 awaiting the result of his intercession. The immedi- 
 ate marriage of the pair followed. It is pleasant to 
 record that the future life of the couple thus roman- 
 tically brought together, amply justified Satterlee's 
 intervention. 
 
 In his devotional life Satterlee had to struggle hard 
 against a natural disinclination to be systematic. He 
 disliked long services and protracted prayers; the 
 practical bent of his mind and his delight in bodily 
 activity making it irksome to spend much time in daily 
 devotions. Yet when he was at the Seminary he was 
 conscientious in his attendance upon matins and 
 
THE MAN. 29 
 
 evensong, and when he entered upon his clerical life 
 he felt that he ought to read matins daily in private, 
 even if the church doors were closed. When he and 
 his father were together, or another clergyman was 
 visiting him, he was constantly suggesting that they 
 should say matins and evensong together. But often 
 there were intervals of weeks when he discontinued 
 the practice. Yet he was undoubtedly in the large 
 sense, a praying man. As he said himself on one 
 occasion to a dear friend who expressed surprise over 
 the fact that he seemed to give so little time to his 
 private devotions : "I say my prayers all during the 
 day, at any time when I am walking or waiting to 
 see anyone." It was also a custom of his to say the 
 prayer for Missions at noon, and in cases where he 
 could so arrange, he had the church bell rung at that 
 hour. He never held a meeting of any kind without 
 a prayer, even though it was only to talk over the 
 plans for a new building. 
 
 . The physical suffering of his early years and the 
 natural seriousness of mind resulting from it, disci- 
 plined his spirit and developed his will power, and 
 he acquired the habit of religious cheerfulness. Said 
 one of his parishioners : "I never received but one 
 sharp rebuke from Mr. Satterlee, and that was soft- 
 ened by an affectionate smile. It was when I was 
 pouring out my troubles and trials into his ear. He 
 answered quickly, almost sharply, 'Don't worry, it 
 ahvays weakens.' " 
 
 A member of his father's parish in New York, 
 
30 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 in speaking of a sermon that Satterlee preached in 
 Calvary Church soon after his ordination, writes as 
 follows : 
 
 "With all the diffidence and inexperience against 
 which a young preacher must have to contend, com- 
 bined with the fact that he was in his father's pulpit, 
 'a prophet, as it were, in his own country,' before a 
 congregation among whom as a lad he had gone in 
 and out, he stood unembarrassed. Speaking very 
 modestly, and quietly, of well known truths, he sud- 
 denly raised hand and voice, and almost shouted out, 
 'Take up your cross, don't drag it, the Master meant 
 that you should carry it, and He shares the weight 
 with you/ As I look back upon the past, and realize 
 how, during so many years, these words have rung 
 through my own heart and life, from time to time, 
 even in his very tones, — I feel indebted to him for 
 the watchword. Thus early did he give indications 
 of the keynote of all his subsequent work, never 
 sparing himself, but always strong in the blessing 
 and help of the Master." 
 
 This was Satterlee's first sermon, and was preached 
 from the text, Gal. vi. 17, "From henceforth let no 
 man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of 
 the Lord Jesus." His interpretation of the text was, 
 that the marks of the Lord Jesus meant that the 
 vision of Christ had scorched the Apostle's eyesight, 
 and that the pain of this thorn in the flesh, was the 
 constant cross that he had to bear in his physical 
 frame for Christ. The memory of his own bodily 
 
THE MAN. 31 
 
 sufferings, the consequent trials of a broken up and 
 desultory life, his present anxiety over his wife's ill 
 health, were undoubtedly vividly present at that time 
 in his thoughts, and probably gave his words a force 
 and significance which seldom attach themselves to 
 the utterances of a young and inexperienced preacher. 
 
 A result of these sufferings through which Sat- 
 terlee passed was, that they brought out in him to an 
 unusual degree the power of human sympathy. He 
 seemed to anticipate almost what sufferers would say 
 to him, and in reply to speak the very word of help 
 that they most needed. 
 
 He inherited from his mother the gift of entering 
 into the lives of others through the intuitive reach- 
 ings out of his sympathy, and because he thus shared 
 their burdens, men and women learned to lean on 
 him, and expect help from him. This, in turn, called 
 forth his power of self-sacrifice. As the foundations 
 of his life grew deeper and rested more strongly on 
 God, he was able to comfort others with the comfort 
 wherewith he himself had been comforted of God. 
 
 The bond of union existing between mother and 
 son was unusually close and tender. If the affection 
 she felt for him constituted the main interest of her 
 life, and found expression always in the most earnest 
 solicitude for his comfort and well-being, the 
 response he made was no less sincere and sympa- 
 thetic. If his companionship was her chief delight, 
 he never failed to pay her the tribute of his perfect 
 confidence. From his boyhood days all through the 
 
32 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 years of his ministry, he made her acquainted with 
 all his plans and projects. He was never satisfied 
 unless she shared his pleasures, and when they were 
 separated correspondence between them was frequent 
 and regular. She was his model for a clergyman's 
 wife in her tact and sympathy and in the generous 
 hospitality she extended to her husband's parishion- 
 ers, making even the humblest feel that a cordial 
 welcome awaited him at the Rectory. 
 
 After Satterlee's ordination, especially after he 
 went to Morganton, he became remarkably robust. 
 His personal appearance was striking, particularly so 
 as he grew older. He was nearly six feet four inches 
 in height and broad in proportion. He had a finely 
 shaped head and regular features. His eyes were 
 dark and expressive. He had a rich strong voice, 
 and read the service impressively. Though he lacked 
 the conventional graces of oratory, his evident sin- 
 cerity and earnestness always caused him to be lis- 
 tened to with interest. 
 
CHAPTER IL 
 
 GRACE CHURCH, MORGANTON. 
 
 Mrs. Satterlee's continued ill health and the 
 physician's advice to remove her to a drier air and 
 a more salubrious locality, determined her husband 
 to take immediate steps to find permanent work. 
 Accordingly, he wrote to several bishops whose jur- 
 isdictions comprised sections favorable to the neces- 
 sities of his case. Bishop Cheshire, of North Caro- 
 lina, to whom he was personally known, promptly 
 responded and suggested Morganton, a small town 
 in the mountain regions of his diocese, as a place 
 answering the purpose. A call from the vestry of 
 Grace Church, to whom his name had been presented 
 by the Bishop, followed quickly. With his usual 
 impetuosity Satterlee was for immediately accepting 
 the call. But his father was unwilling that any defi- 
 nite answer should be given before making a personal 
 visit and investigating the conditions. As Satterlee 
 himself was unable to go, owning to the state of his 
 wife's health, his father, without saying anything to 
 his son, took a train and went to Morganton. On 
 his arrival there, as the hotel accommodations were* 
 of a somewhat primitive kind, he went to a private 
 
 33 
 
34 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 boarding house, which turned out to be kept by a 
 lady who was a parishioner of the church. Without 
 giving her any ckie to his identity he proceeded to 
 make some inquiries in regard to the parish. She 
 informed him that the vestry had just called a Mr. 
 ''Larabee" from the North, and expressed her opin- 
 ion that he would never do. They had never had a 
 Northern man, she said, and she was afraid there 
 w^ould be trouble, as he would not understand them 
 or they him. 
 
 The Civil War with .the sectional animosities it 
 had aroused and the bitter memories it had left, evi- 
 dently made the thought of a pastor from the North 
 repugnant to her mind. Doubtless the isolated char- 
 acter of the place and the little intercourse which the 
 inhabitants of this section had had with Northern 
 people were accountable for this feeling, and had 
 stereotyped a prejudice which elsewhere in the South 
 where communication was freer and the commercial 
 and social relations closer was tending to disappear. 
 However, when Dr. Satterlee informed her that it 
 was his son whom the vestry had called, she exhib- 
 ited the traditional kindness and courtesy of the 
 genial Southern nature, and was profuse in her 
 apologies. 
 
 The parish at this time was in a most unsettled 
 condition. The former rector, who was still occupy- 
 ing the rectory, had been practically forced to resign 
 his charge owing to his eccentricities and his inability 
 to "get on'' with the people. The parishioners had 
 
MORGANTON. 35 
 
 built and nearly paid for a new stone church, but the 
 rector on account of some whim refused to hold ser- 
 vices in it. Dr. Satterlee called upon him and lis- 
 tened to a fierce diatribe directed against the vestry 
 and members of the congregation generally. He 
 also met and interviewed several members of the 
 vestry, and, as he afterward told his son, the fact 
 that they had studiously refrained from saying any- 
 thing derogatory to the rector, convinced him that 
 the fault did not lie at their doors. The rector, it 
 might be stated, had been a Baptist preacher before 
 taking orders in the Church ; subsequently in turn he 
 relinquished its ministry and became a Methodist 
 circuit rider. 
 
 On his return Dr. Satterlee found his son in a state 
 of great chagrin over the fact that his father had 
 undertaken the journey without consulting him. It 
 was characteristic of Satterlee's nature to resent what 
 he considered any undue interference with his affairs 
 on the part of his family. He always desired to set- 
 tle matters for himself, to feel that his decisions were 
 the result of his own initiative, and not in any sense 
 due to others. It was not that he resented friendly 
 counsel but that he had a distaste of anything that 
 looked like ''coddling" or making things easy for 
 him. Devoted as he knew his father to be to his 
 interests and much as he appreciated his good sense 
 and the strength of his coimsel, he seldom asked his 
 advice and never looked to him for assistance in 
 troubles or problems connected wnth the work of his 
 
36 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 ministry. He would freely go to others whom he 
 deemed willing and capable of giving advice, but he 
 seems to have shrunk from carrying his burdens to 
 those nearest to him by the tie of blood. He felt pos- 
 sibly, that their love for him would be apt to bias 
 their judgment, that their desire to relieve him would 
 in some way imperil his virility or tend to swerve 
 him from following the path which he had mapped 
 out for himself. 
 
 Dr. Satterlee, after detailing the conditions which 
 he had found in Morganton, advised his son to accept 
 the rectorship. Satterlee accordingly wrote to the 
 vestry accepting the call, and soon afterwards took 
 his departure for his new field, entering upon his 
 work there early in September, 1894. 
 
 Morganton, which is situated in the northwestern 
 portion of the State of North Carolina on a plateau 
 lying between the Blue Ridge and the South Moun- 
 tains, was then a town of about two thousand inhabi- 
 tants. The county seat of Burke County, it contains 
 the Court House and Jail, and also several State 
 institutions, including the Hospital for the Insane 
 and the Deaf and Dumb Asylum. There are several 
 small manufacturing concerns in the village and a 
 large tannery, but the main interests of the place are 
 agricultural. The surrounding farms are owned 
 mainly by small proprietors. Along the river bot- 
 toms the soil is exceedingly fertile, but otherwise it 
 is poor, and especially in the region of the mountains 
 yields a meagre return to the efforts of the primitive 
 
MORGANTON. 37 
 
 people who inhabit this section. These mountain 
 folk are a peculiar people, living apart by themselves 
 and almost wholly untouched by the tide of progress 
 and civilization. As Satterlee's work among these 
 people comprises the most interesting and picturesque 
 side of his missionary labors, a description of their 
 unique characteristics and habits is reserved for a 
 subsequent chapter, when the story will be told in 
 detail. 
 
 The people in Morganton are, probably, fairly 
 representative of those who may be found in any 
 small Southern town. Besides the negro population 
 and the mechanic and small tradesmen class, there is 
 a sprinkling of the old "'aristocratic" element, de- 
 scended from the ante-bellum planters and slave 
 owners, financially ruined by the war. These people 
 have bravely accepted the situation and are now 
 employed in retrieving their fallen fortunes by engag- 
 ing in professional and mercantile pursuits and in 
 working their farms. This class, though lacking 
 many of the educational and other advantages which 
 wealth gives, has jealously preserved the traditions 
 of gentle breeding and displays fine social and relig- 
 ious instincts. In no part of the United States are to 
 be found better representatives of a genuine if 
 somewhat old-fashioned "aristocracy.'' 
 
 It was mainly people of this class that composed 
 the congregation of Grace Church, and to whose 
 homes and hearts the young clergyman from the 
 North and his delicate, fragile wife were now warmly 
 
38 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 made welcome. If at first there was an apprehension 
 on the part of some of the parishioners that the new 
 rector, whose Hfe had hitherto been spent in and 
 around the metropoHtan city of New York, and who 
 had been accustomed to enjoy all the advantages and 
 luxurious accessories of a wealthy and cultivated 
 society, should find himself unable to accept the con- 
 ditions of life in a little Southern village, — such 
 apprehension was soon dispelled. The frank hearty 
 manner in which he met their advances and the per- 
 fect simplicity of his bearing and character, at once 
 disarmed suspicion and won an immediate place for 
 him in their affections. Satterlee as a Northern man, 
 w^hile never disguising his sentiments, was always 
 punctilious in refraining from utterances which 
 might wound the political susceptibilities of his par- 
 ishioners. As one of the members of his parish 
 remarked to the writer, ''We never could have 
 believed that we could love a Northern man, but Mr. 
 Satterlee somehow never seemed to us to be one. We 
 really got to think of him as quite one of ourselves." 
 A distinguished Southern clergyman, now domi- 
 ciled in the North, who knew Satterlee intimately 
 and was familiar with his work in both of his South- 
 ern parishes, stated his conviction that Satterlee's 
 success in his work among Southern people was little 
 short of marvellous. "I am a Southern man," he 
 said, "and I know the Southern people, and I do not 
 imderstand how a Northern man was able to accom- 
 plish such results." 
 
MORGANTON. 39 
 
 But perhaps after all, there was nothing really 
 remarkable about the matter, and the simple explana- 
 tion is to be found in the fact that Satterlee possessed 
 that distinguishing trait of the gentleman, which 
 some one has designated as the "unwillingness to 
 give pain to others." "He was a gentleman,'' said 
 one of the oldest members of his parish, himself a 
 fine representative of the old regime, "and we are 
 gentlemen, and we both appreciated our mutual obli- 
 gations." 
 
 The rectory was an old building containing only 
 three rooms, and badly out of repair. Satterlee was 
 compelled to rent a house until a new one could be 
 built. He offered to raise among his friends in the 
 North a certain proportion of the money necessary 
 to defraying the cost of a new rectory, and the people 
 promised to provide the remainder. The following 
 March a house costing about $1,500 was built and 
 paid for and was immediately occupied by the rector 
 and his wife. 
 
 Satterlee' s first endeavor was to build up the parish 
 organization and to improve the services. The par- 
 ish hitherto had been quite content to go on the even 
 tenor of its way, living its ow^n little exclusive life 
 and satisfied to provide a religious home merely for its 
 own members. Little if any effort had been made to 
 draw in others from outside. As one of the members 
 phrased it, "Until Mr. Satterlee came we were an 
 exclusive religious club, and rather prided ourselves 
 upon the fact." But this was not Satterlee's notion 
 
40 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 of parish obligations. The other Christian bodies 
 represented in the community were the Presbyter- 
 ians, the Methodists and the Baptists. There was no 
 Roman CathoHc Church, indeed, it is said, that there 
 were only four Roman Catholics in the whole town. 
 But as in every other place so in Morganton, there 
 were not a few who had no religious affiliation. It 
 was these shepherdless sheep that he sought to draw 
 into his fold. It was by getting the children that he 
 felt he could best win their parents. Accordingly, he 
 devoted his first efforts to increasing the Sunday- 
 school. He introduced a vested boy choir as soon as 
 he was able to do so, and thus got hold of a growing 
 contingent of lads, many of whom had previously 
 had no connection with the parish. He trained them 
 himself. Later on he formed these lads and others 
 like them into a Junior Branch of the Brotherhood of 
 St. Andrew, arid found appropriate work for them to 
 do. The Sunday-school, which previously had been 
 small in numbers, began to grow rapidly. He re- 
 cruited scholars wherever he was able to do so with- 
 out seeking to draw them away from the religious 
 body to which they were attached. Probably one of 
 the reasons for the great respect and friendliness 
 which those belonging to other Christian bodies felt 
 for him was to be found in the fact that he made no 
 efforts to proselytize from their ranks. It was not 
 that he depreciated in any degree the claims and 
 advantages of the Communion to which he belonged 
 or underestimated its catholic character, but rather 
 
MORGANTON. 41 
 
 that he felt there was a sufficient missionary work 
 for him to do in gathering in those who owned no 
 rehgious attachment. But if he did not seek to press 
 home upon members of other rehgious bodies the 
 exclusive claims of the Church, he certainly let no 
 opportunity slip for showing his personal interest in 
 any who he thought might need his help, regardless 
 of their ecclesiastical predilections. As a minister of 
 Christ and a true fisher of men, Satterlee read his 
 commission largely and was ever ready to extend his 
 sympathy to all sorts and conditions of men. 
 
 The story is told of his paying a visit to a certain 
 woman of Methodist antecedents whose husband was 
 lying seriously ill. At the close of the interview the 
 woman informed him that she proposed sending her 
 children to the Sunday-school of Grace Church. 
 Some of her Methodist neighbors who had been 
 made aware of his visit to her, and who entertained 
 a lurking suspicion regarding the disinterestedness 
 of his motives in visiting her, ventured to intimate 
 their doubts. 
 
 "I reckon that Episcopal preacher is a'trying to 
 proselyte you," remarked one of these callers. 
 
 " 'Tisn't so," was the indignant rejoinder. "I've 
 been here over three years now and no preacher but 
 Mr. Satterlee has ever darkened my doors." 
 
 It is needless to say the "Episcopal preacher" got 
 that family for good and all. 
 
 Notwithstanding numerous incidents of this char- 
 acter, there was not only no jealousy of Satterlee' s 
 
42 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 influence, but evidence of the warmest personal 
 regard for him on the part of members of the other 
 Christian bodies. Indeed, so naturally and unob- 
 trusively did he go about his Master's work, and so 
 little was there in his nature of sectarian aggression, 
 that people seemed quite to forget that he represented 
 a different religious body from that to which they 
 yielded allegiance. 
 
 As one woman was heard to remark when the news 
 of his death reached her, "I did not belong to his 
 Church, but somehow I felt that he belonged to me. 
 He never made you think that you belonged to 
 another Church/' 
 
 Indeed, a prominent member of the Presbyterian 
 Church, speaking of their new pastor and desiring to 
 give an Episcopalian friend an idea of the kind of 
 man he was, said, '*He is a regular Satterlee." 
 Apparently this was the highest encomium he could 
 pass upon him. 
 
 There is one advantage of ministering in a small 
 community, of which Satterlee fully availed himself, 
 namely, the opportunity of cultivating close and 
 friendly relations with those outside of his immediate 
 parochial circle. He constituted himself the pastor 
 of all who had no definite church relationship and 
 many are the stories told regarding his success in 
 capturing those who had hitherto resisted all attempts 
 to land them within the meshes of the Gospel net. 
 
 One individual in particular, known as the '*bad 
 man" of the community, who had in times past killed 
 
MORGANTON. 43 
 
 his man and whose recklessness and desperate char- 
 acter caused him to be feared and shunned by all, was 
 so won over by Satterlee's kindness that a noticeable 
 change occurred in his habits and disposition. Peo- 
 ple saw and remarked the effect of the new influence 
 which had come into his life. Having doggedly 
 withstood all overtures looking to the religious train- 
 ing of his children by permitting them to attend a 
 Sunday-school, he finally, at Satterlee's solicitation, 
 gave his consent to their enrollment, and later on to 
 their baptism. As for himself he could not be per- 
 suaded to enter the church, but his personal relations 
 with the rector were of a most friendly nature. He 
 was a giant in stature, and when under the influence 
 of liquor disposed to be quarrelsome, but there was a 
 chord in his nature which Satterlee was able to touch 
 and which quickly responded to the brotherly sym- 
 pathy of the young clergyman. Perhaps it was the 
 virile quality which both possessed equally which 
 drew them to each other. Perhaps it was the perfect 
 simplicity of Satterlee's character, a simplicity appar- 
 ent to the most casual observer. The secret affinity 
 which two characters, seemingly utterly diverse, are 
 conscious of feeling for each other defies analysis. 
 The parties themselves are incapable of explaining it. 
 The bond exists and that is all that can be said. The 
 sequel to the story is a tragic one. Subseqeunt to 
 Satterlee's removal from Morganton this man, whose 
 reformation, partial at least, was certainly due to 
 Satterlee's influence over him, was shot dead on his 
 
44 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 reappearance in the town after an absence of some 
 months. It appears that he himself was unarmed, 
 and, so far as anyone knew, was not seeking any 
 quarrel with his slayer, wdio gave as his reason for 
 his cowardly action that he was afraid that the other 
 intended to kill him. The affair at the time was 
 regarded in the community as a cowardly murder, 
 though the slayer, ow^ng to the prevailing laxity of 
 the law in this section, escaped all punishment. The 
 murdered man as he lay dying, declared that he had 
 no evil intentions against his slayer. ''Search me, 
 boys," he said to those who had gathered about him, 
 '"you will find I have no gun." His last request was 
 that his little children might be brought to him that 
 he might kiss them before he died. His grief- 
 stricken widow in bemoaning her loss repeatedly 
 said, ''Oh, if only Mr. Satterlee had been here," the 
 thought evidently being in her mind that he might 
 have done something to comfort her husband in his 
 last agony. But the only man who had ever been 
 able to tame his fierce nature and give him a glimpse 
 of better things was far away ! 
 
 Satterlee's influence over men was one of the 
 distinguishing gifts of his personality. He was able 
 to attract them and attach them to himself in the 
 bond of a strong friendship. It had been so from 
 his earliest youth. He was liked by all sorts and 
 kinds of men. 
 
 In his pastoral work he still preserved in a great 
 degree the spirit of bonhomie which had character-- 
 
MORGANTON. 45 
 
 ized his associations with his boy friends and college 
 chums. If he never forgot that he was the pastor 
 and spiritual guide of the men of his flock and they 
 rightfully looked to him for an example of high 
 ideals and lofty living, he nevertheless refused to 
 isolate himself from them by the assumption of any 
 professional aloofness or pseudo-sacerdotal exclusive- 
 ness. If he w^as a priest, he was first of all a man. 
 If he was the pastor he was also the friend and bon 
 camarade. The many letters that were received 
 after his death from men with whom he had been 
 associated are illuminating upon this point. One 
 writes : 
 
 ^^His presence was a reproach to me in the night 
 watches when I had done wrong, and this was but 
 part of the whole effect his life had on mine." 
 
 Another in a private letter addressed to a friend 
 and evidently written out of the fulness of his heart, 
 gives utterance to the w^eight of obligation under 
 which he felt himself to be placed for Satterlee's 
 assistance and sympathy extended to him during a 
 spiritual crisis: 
 
 "Yours just to hand, and it was the first news I 
 had of Mr. Satterlee's death. It is indeed a great 
 blow to me, for I had learned to love him as a father. 
 The Church has lost a priest, the community a rector, 
 and the world one of its best men whose life was a 
 living sacrifice for those whom he loved, — and he 
 loved all men. You ask me to write a tribute to him. 
 I cannot. There are no words in my mean vocabu- 
 
46 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 lary that will come to the rescue of my thoughts and 
 feelings. If I said half of what I believe of him, 
 the world would think me extravagant, therefore, let 
 it be unsaid. There is one scene in my life I will 
 never forget, and the remembrance of it will ever be 
 with me as a sweet comforter, even if I be in hell. It 
 was with him. I had made a confession to him and 
 was waiting to hear what he had to say; the tears 
 were rolling down my cheeks and his, until finally he 
 smiled through his tears and putting his arm around 
 me said: 'Brace up, old boy, God loves you more 
 now than ever, because you need Him more.' I tell 
 
 you, X , that sentence has lingered in my mind 
 
 ever since. It taught me more Christianity than I 
 had learned during my whole life. I realized more 
 than ever before what I had often heard with my 
 ears only, that God is love. It is hard to realize that 
 he is gone, in fact, I don't feel that he is gone. I can 
 still feel him with me, and, in fact, he seems nearer 
 to me than ever before. I believe that he is looking 
 down upon me this instant, and perhaps is trying to 
 tell me something that I ought to know. I can now 
 understand how the Roman Catholics can pray to the 
 saints, for I believe he would hear me if I prayed to 
 him." 
 
 Still another parishioner writes : 
 
 ''I loved him, and I feel deeply and gratefully his 
 personal influence. In him I thought I saw 'the 
 beauty of holiness,' and he drew me, softly but 
 strongly toward the better life. I loved to co- 
 
MORGANTON. 47 
 
 operate with his work, because I always felt that 
 co-operation with him brought blessing to myself. 
 In his death I now feel that a light has gone out of 
 my own life; yet I earnestly hope that the influence 
 of his friendship and example may long abide with 
 me." 
 
 A prominent member of the Diocesan Council of 
 the Brotherhood of St. Andrew belonging to another 
 parish in the diocese, writes : 
 
 ''I am fully aware that the sorrow I feel, should 
 not be even mentioned along with your grief, but I 
 feel that yours will not be harder to bear for know- 
 ing how very much his being called away means to 
 so many of us men who had gotten into the habit of 
 looking to him, and pointing to him as an ensample 
 of a godly life. For myself I have been deeply 
 moved, much more than I could tell you." 
 
 The tributes to Satterlee's influence over the men 
 with whom he came in contact might be multiplied, 
 but these examples will serve to show how deep that 
 influence w^as. They are introduced at this stage in 
 the narrative rather than reserved until a subsequent 
 period, because much of the work which he was able 
 to accomplish cannot be understood apart from the 
 fact of his ability to interest men in his projects and 
 inspire them with a measure of his own missionary 
 spirit. 
 
 In August, 1895, less than one year after Satter- 
 lee's acceptance of the rectorship of the parish, the 
 new church, the mortgage debt having been paid. 
 
48 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 was duly consecrated by the Bishop of the diocese, 
 and the rector and congregation had the pleasure of 
 worshipping in an edifice free from all encumbrance. 
 The church, a pretty stone building seating about 
 four hundred people, was complete in all details 
 excepting as to an organ. The style of architecture 
 was pleasing and the building in every sense appro- 
 priate to the needs of a village congregation. 
 
 Mrs. Satterlee's health had not improved to the 
 degree that had been expected as the result of the 
 change of climate. Her husband had taken her to 
 Thomasville, Ga., early in January, 1895, in the hope 
 that the milder climate of that well-known health 
 resort might prove beneficial. She returned to Mor- 
 ganton in March, little if any better, and it soon 
 became apparent to her husband that her days were 
 numbered. In the following September he took her 
 to New York where she died at the home of her 
 father two months later, November the third. 
 
 The motive that had led him to accept work in 
 Morganton had now ceased to operate and the ques- 
 tion of his return thither and the permanent continu- 
 ation of his labors in that field came up for consider- 
 ation. The members of his family were anxious 
 that he should settle himself in some place in closer 
 proximity to themselves. His father, then rector of 
 Calvary Church, New York, refrained from offering 
 any advice upon the matter. But members of his 
 vestry came to him and strongly urged that he should 
 retain his son in the capacity of an assistant. The 
 
MORGANTON. 49 
 
 position happened to be vacant just at that time, and 
 the vestry stated their belief that ''ChurchilF' would 
 fill it acceptably. Dr. Satterlee broached the matter 
 to his son, stating that the suggestion had emanated 
 absolutely from the vestry, and, that while the idea 
 was gratifying to him, he should never himself have 
 dreamed of such a thing as mentioning it. Satterlee, 
 although deeply touched by the compliment paid him 
 by those who had known him from boyhood, and 
 realizing that his rejection of the offer would be a 
 keen disappointment to his family, yet felt obliged ta 
 decline. The work in Morganton he felt was his^ 
 own, the prospects of future usefulness were great,, 
 and thus, notwithstanding his natural desire to enjoy 
 the companionship of his family and old friends and 
 the advantages of city life, he concluded that it was 
 his duty to return to Morganton and continue his 
 labors there. 
 
 The question may well be asked, did Satterlee 
 regard his life in that little Southern town so far 
 removed from his family and friends and lacking 
 almost all the social and intellectual advantages to 
 which he was accustomed, in the light of a sacrifice? 
 Others certainly did. But for himself there is not 
 the slightest doubt that he cherished no such idea. 
 He was conscious of an intense joy in his work. No 
 one ever heard him complain of the hardness of his 
 lot, or express any wish for a more conspicuous 
 field for his ministrations. Besides the opportunity 
 afi^orded him of going to Calvary at a salary double 
 
so A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 that which he received at Morganton, he had as time 
 went on other calls to important parishes, but he put 
 them all aside, perfectly satisfied to remain in the 
 little remote village among the North Carolina moun- 
 tains. As evidence of Satterlee's contentment with 
 his humble position as rector of Morganton, the fol- 
 lowing extract from a letter written after his death 
 by an influential friend of his living in the suburbs 
 of New York City, is submitted : 
 
 ''Some years ago there were two or three parishes 
 vacant in this part of the country, and as I knew 
 some of the people I thought they might listen to 
 suggestions from me as to the rector whom they 
 should call. I wrote to Churchill (he was at Mor- 
 ganton then), asking him if he would like to come 
 this way again. He replied, he thought his health 
 required that he live in the mountains, but disregard- 
 ing that, he must stand by the work that came to 
 him, that he was not ambitious in a worldly sense, 
 but very anxious to do well and faithfully what he 
 found before him, and that the situation in which he 
 was placed, quite satisfied him in that respect." 
 
 When, after a rectorship of six years he finally 
 accepted the call to Columbia, he was confronted by 
 considerations of so urgent a nature that he did not 
 feel he could conscientiously refuse to go. To state 
 these now would be to anticipate events. 
 
 Satterlee returned to Morganton and resumed his 
 duties in December, a month after his wife's death. 
 A young man between whose familv and his own 
 
MORGANTON. 51 
 
 there existed a warm attachment and in whom Sat- 
 terlee, for his own sake, took a deep interest, volun- 
 teered to accompany him. to Morganton as a com- 
 panion. Satterlee gladly accepted the offer, and the 
 two men lived together in the rectory until the fol- 
 lowing spring. 
 
 Satterlee's nature was a thoroughly sociable one. 
 He disliked being alone and he always managed 
 during the years that he spent in Morganton subse- 
 quent to the death of his first wife and before his 
 second marriage, to have some friend staying with 
 him. This arrangement frequently served a double 
 purpose, it provided Satterlee with a companion in 
 his home and w^as also the means of bringing the 
 visitor under influences tending to his betterment 
 physically and morally. vSatterlee had a very tender 
 spot in his heart for young men who semed to be 
 deficient in the will pov^er to resist temptation. The 
 following letter written by a gentleman in New York, 
 a personal friend whom he often consulted in regard 
 to such cases because of his wide experience and 
 great success in dealing with them, is interesting in 
 that it contains an extract from one vv^ritten by Sat- 
 terlee to him bearing upon this very matter. The 
 communication is addressed to Satterlee's father : 
 
 '^Among a few things which I find here, is a letter 
 written to me from Paris in August, 1896. It is not 
 a long letter and in itself is unimportant, but in 
 
 response to it, I sent X (about, whom it was 
 
 written), to Montreal. After I had done this and on 
 
52 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 the 6th of September following, I wrote to Churchill, 
 saying that what I had done was experimental ; that 
 it depended a good deal upon X — — himself, that I 
 had had some stubborn fights with people to make 
 them keep straight, but that I hoped for the best, and 
 I added, 'But the weary hours that I have spent over 
 people almost discouraged one day, cheered the next ; 
 and finally seeing them emerge strong, accomplished 
 and self-reliant, has perhaps made me believe, that 
 almost any man with ordinary docility can be brought 
 to his level, whatever it may be/ 
 
 ''I find fastened to the copy of this letter, this 
 'Extract from letter of C. S. in reply to mine of Sept. 
 lo, 1896.' 
 
 '* 'I fully share the sentiments of your letter; it is 
 discouraging indeed to carry a load, and have those 
 for whose benefit you are bearing it, unappreciative, 
 indifferent, almost obstructive, but I firmly believe, 
 that under such circumstances, perseverance, courage, 
 patient endurance, whether they lead to success or 
 not, mark the brightest and most admirable points of 
 a Christian life.' " 
 
 There are many stories current in Morganton 
 regarding Satterlee's kind-heartedness to the poorer 
 members of his flock. A colored man, who had once 
 acted as sexton of the church, fell ill, and was regu- 
 larly visited by the rector. Calling one evening, Sat- 
 terlee found the wife thoroughly worn out from lack 
 of sleep due to a long vigil. Noting her exhaustion, 
 he told her that she would better go to bed and leave 
 
MORGANTON. 53 
 
 him to watch over her husband. After much per- 
 suasion she finally consented, and he remained until 
 the next morning. In relating the incident after- 
 wards to one of the ladies belonging to the parish, 
 for Satterlee, of course, never mentioned the matter, 
 she said, "He's the bestest white man I ever knowed.'' 
 
 Here is an incident illustrative of his shrewdness 
 in dealing with human nature. Satterlee had in his 
 employ a colored boy, John, as a sort of man-of-all- 
 work. On several occasions provisions were missed 
 from the storeroom and suspicion lighted upon John 
 as the guilty party. Satterlee, accordingly, called 
 the boy into his study, and without accusing him of 
 the theft frankly told him that certain articles were 
 missing and asked if he knew anything about the 
 matter. John denied emphatically that he had any 
 hand in their disappearance. Though morally cer- 
 tain that he was lying, Satterlee pressed the matter 
 no farther, but simply asked him to kneel down and 
 say a prayer with him. The following day John 
 returned and made a full confession that it was he 
 who had done the purloining. 'Tf Mr. Satterlee had 
 whipt me," said he in speaking of the affair to an 
 acquaintance, "I wouldn't have minded, but when he 
 just prayed with me, I felt so mean that I just had 
 to go and confess." 
 
 A friend of Satterlee's from the North, who spent 
 some time with him in Morganton and closely 
 observed his work there, furnishes the following dis- 
 criminating account of his methods and describes the 
 
54 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 influence of his personality upon his parishioners and 
 the community at large. 
 
 "Satterlee wanted a share of every man's work to 
 count for the Church, and it seems to me that was 
 the keynote of his ministry at Morganton. The great 
 success of that ministry every one knows. It had its 
 beginnings in his getting right at the people both in 
 parish church and mission chapel, and asking, 'What 
 are we here for, and are we doing what we are here 
 for in accordance with the mind of Christ?' Satter- 
 lee's work began where many another's has left off. 
 Instead of going back to his study to write a sermon 
 for the next Sunday, he would stay out among the 
 people whom he had set thinking (many doubtless 
 for the first time in their lives) and follow up the 
 argument with each one individually as circum- 
 stances permitted. He never let a chance go by to 
 speak to anyone with whom he came in contact, but 
 he never thrust- himself upon one; rather men were 
 drawn towards him by his personal magnetism. Once 
 he had spoken, an interest was kindled in the rough- 
 est nature which lasted until friendship took its place, 
 not merely personal friendship, but that which in 
 many cases led to union with the Church. 
 
 "I heard Satterlee once say, that he thought a min- 
 ister of the Episcopal Church ought to be and had an 
 opportunity to be the most influential man in a com- 
 munity. That whatever of honor and attainment 
 attached to other professions so much and more 
 besides was in the grasp of the clergyman to be 
 
MORGANTON. 55 
 
 * 
 
 wielded as a power for good, if he only would appre- 
 ciate it. He said that one of his greatest joys would 
 be to see the Episcopal Church take its place as the 
 National Church in this country, and that this could 
 only be brought about by the best educated men going 
 into the ministry and building up weak communities. 
 Whether Satterlee appreciated it or not, the fact is, 
 he was far and away the most influential man in his 
 community. 
 
 ''x\t Morganton he took hold of a parish that had 
 been quietly drifting. With his great ability as an 
 organizer he soon gathered up the loose ends, started 
 all the machinery of a well established church plant, 
 organized the Brotherhood, assembled the guilds, 
 founded outlying missions, all at what great personal 
 effort and sacrifice only those who have seen the work 
 going on know. His tireless energy soon accom- 
 plished results wdiich would have satisfied most men. 
 But with Satterlee to carry on the routine work of a 
 live parish was not enough. He made the people 
 realize that they themselves constituted the parish, 
 were an integral part of the jurisdiction of the 
 Church, and that they must look beyond their own 
 narrow boundaries and take their share of the 
 responsibilities of the Church at large. This he 
 brought about almost unconsciously by the direct 
 influence of his own interest in foreign as well as 
 domestic affairs. 
 
 "Deeply as he was engaged in the work of his own 
 parish, he nevertheless kept abreast of all that was 
 
56 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 going on in the Church outside. I have seen him 
 walk up the street from the post office with three or 
 four laymen reading aloud to them news of the Gen- 
 eral Convention at Washington; and when the 
 divorce question was being argued the general dis- 
 cussions which took place on the piazza upon the 
 receipt of the newspapers just before dinner, were 
 quite alarming in length to those whose appetites 
 were well sharpened. 
 
 ''Satterlee's interest in the affairs of the day was 
 no less broad, especially in politics and law. At one 
 time we took our meals at the house of the postmas- 
 ter. Morganton being an important point in western 
 North Carolina, we had an opportunity to meet there 
 many politicians, lawyers and travellers. One day it 
 would be the junior United States Senator, another, 
 the general attorney for the Southern Railway, and 
 on another occasion the Governor of the State, to 
 say nothing of lesser lights. The conversations on 
 various subjects which took place in free Southern 
 manner under these circumstances, were most enjoy- 
 able, and at such times Satterlee showed his extreme 
 breadth of view, being a moderate talker, a good 
 listener, and always ready to tell his story in turn. 
 
 ''Another thing which had a direct bearing on his 
 influence in the community was the fact that being 
 among Southerners, he did not just settle down in 
 Morganton and break off all connections with his 
 home and friends in the North. He never forgot his 
 old friends and associations, and when vacation time 
 
MORGANTON. 57 
 
 came, he was ready and anxious to drop work and go 
 North again. The people had a much greater respect 
 for him to feel that he was taking part in affairs out- 
 side their own narrow circle, and were all the more 
 glad to welcome him back. I have often noticed how 
 proud his parishioners were to have a man so broad- 
 minded and a Northern man as their rector.'' 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 A COUNTRY PARISH AT WORK. 
 
 Satterlee's intimate knowledge of the working 
 of parochial machinery which he had acquired during 
 his many years' experience in Calvary Church, now 
 stood him in good stead, and he proceeded to organ- 
 ize the forces of his little country parish for effective 
 work. It is probable that he inherited in a large 
 measure the gift of organizing ability which his 
 father so conspicuously displayed. But it is one 
 thing to develop the life of a city parish where the 
 material lies ready to hand and where the parochial 
 rivalry engendered by the proximity of competing 
 churches is acute and pressing, and quite another 
 thing to create out of the rawest of raw material the 
 agencies for effective work, and muster and direct 
 forces which hitherto have never been employed in 
 such capacities. In both cases it is, of course, requi- 
 site for success, that he to whom the responsibility of 
 leadership is committeed should possess the true mis- 
 sionary spirit and the ability to inspire others with a 
 measure of his own enthusiasm. But in the case of a 
 large city parish there are always to be found those 
 who have had some experience in religious work and 
 
 58 
 
A COUNTRY PARISH. 59 
 
 whose aptitudes and previous training render them 
 skillful auxiliaries. The spectacle of the work being 
 done in adjacent parishes serves also as an incentive 
 and stimulates a generous rivalry in a common cause. 
 Then environment counts for much and the quick 
 pulse-beat of a great city where life and activity in 
 all departments of effort are at the flood tide com- 
 municates itself in some degree to all and stirs up 
 even the least zealous Christian to a consciousness of 
 his responsibilities. 
 
 On the other hand, in a country parish remote from 
 the influences of church life in the great centres, and 
 where the current of existence flows sluggishly, the 
 difficulties in the way of organizing the forces and 
 maintaining the interest are proportionately great. 
 
 Satterlee was too wise to fall into the mistake so 
 commonly made by those who have received their 
 early training in a highly organized city parish of 
 attempting to work a rural parish upon identical 
 lines, forgetting that the conditions which obtain in 
 the country are wholly different. What he did was 
 to adapt the methods which he had learned to the 
 peculiar circumstances of the case. He organized 
 the forces at his disposal to do some definite work 
 which needed, in his opinion, to be done. He did not 
 have organizations for their own sake or because 
 they looked well on paper. Moreover, he did not 
 expect the organizations to work themselves. He 
 realized that the power behind all organization was 
 a personal one, and he sought, therefore, to enlist the 
 
6o A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 services of the best persons in his parish. While he 
 never shirked the responsibihty which his position as 
 rector involved, neither did he fall into the opposite 
 error of regarding himself as absolute dictator. As 
 one of his workers said of him, ^'He never said I but 
 always we/' Co-operation was his motto. If he was 
 always the leader in every enterprise, he yet took his 
 workers into his fullest confidence. No step of 
 importance was ever taken until the matter had been 
 discussed with them in all its aspects. That he so 
 admirably succeeded in carrying out the plans which 
 he undertook was undoubtedlj^ due to this fact. That 
 the rector wanted to do a certain thing and do it in a 
 certain way was sufficient. The corps of workers 
 which he succeeded in gathering about him gave him 
 their fullest support, because they instinctively felt 
 that he regarded the work as much theirs as his own. 
 The record of what was accomplished in a few short 
 years by the little band of workers in this remote 
 country town, seems little short of marvellous, and 
 simply shows how one forceful personality was able 
 to permeate the life of a wdiole community and stimu- 
 late others to deeds of devotion and self-sacrifice. 
 
 The men and women through whom he was able 
 to achieve these results were not different presuma- 
 bly in character and ability from those who may be 
 found elsewhere in similar localities. Previous to 
 his coming among them, they had been wont to 
 regard their Christian obligations in the light of what 
 may be termed purely ''personal religion." Their 
 
A COUNTRY PARISH. 6i 
 
 horizon of Christian duty was bounded by the hmits 
 of their own parochial Ufe. Doubtless they were 
 pious, God-fearing men and women to whom the 
 Episcopal Church represented an inheritance which 
 had come down to them from a venerable past, which 
 appealed to their sense of loyalty and satisfied their 
 religious aspirations. They regarded it doubtless, as 
 furnishing a centre about which clustered their relig- 
 ious and social life, and they clung to it with a deep 
 affection. The thought that they were in any degree 
 trustees having in their possession a treasure which 
 it was their bounden duty to share with others less 
 favored than themselves, probably never crossed their 
 minds. In saying this there is no intention of casting 
 any aspersion upon their Christian character. Far 
 from it. Such an attitude, unfortunately, is by no 
 means singular. In fact, it is that which prevails 
 almost everywhere. The only reason for referring to 
 it here, is because it serves to bring into stronger 
 contrast the change of spirit which subsequently came 
 over them under the impulse of Satterlee's example 
 and enthusiasm. The philanthropic and missionary 
 work which the people of this country parish were to 
 accomplish in the next few years is remarkable chiefly 
 as showing what it is possible to do when the latent 
 energies of a handful of Christian people have been 
 stirred into activity under a consecrated and devoted 
 spiritual leader. 
 
 It must be borne in mind for any right understand- 
 ing of the situation, that the parish was weak in 
 
62 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 numbers and contained few persons of any means. 
 The salary of six hundred dollars paid the rector, 
 will serve as a rough test of its financial strength. 
 
 It is true that church statistics have only a relative 
 value and cannot properly serve as a criterion of spir- 
 itual work, yet the growth of the parish during the 
 six years of his pastorate affords striking evidence of 
 the success of his ministrations. In a community 
 where the increase of population is small, the oppor- 
 tunity for the growth of the Church is usually 
 restricted. Notwithstanding the fact that the popu- 
 lation in Morganton increased but slightly during the 
 six years covered by Satterlee's residence there, the 
 Church nearly trebled the number of its communi- 
 cants. He found barely 80 communicants when he 
 began his labors, and when he left there were 215 on 
 the roll. The Sunday-school, which had 40 scholars 
 when he came, increased its numbers to 145. The 
 number of persons baptized by him was 275, being 
 an average of nearly 50 for each year of his pastor- 
 ate. In addition to paying a debt upon the church 
 edifice of $1,500 and building a rectory costing a 
 like sum, the parish purchased a new pipe organ at a 
 cost of $1,500, and maintained a parish day school 
 at a cost of about $400 a year. A day school for 
 colored children was also started and supported 
 largely through Satterlee's efforts. A night school 
 for children and grown persons employed during the 
 day was established in the factory district, members 
 of the parish serving gratuitously as the teachers. 
 
A COUNTRY PARISH. 63 
 
 A club for working men was organized, and a St. 
 Cecilia Singing Society formed, composed of musical 
 people drawn from the whole community, and over 
 which Satterlee himself presided as conductor. Be- 
 sides these enterprises educational and philanthropic, 
 which were all initiated by him and carried on under 
 his immediate supervision in Morganton proper, he 
 extended the field of his labors into the outlying dis- 
 tricts and established missions of a permanent char- 
 acter for the benefit of the neighboring mountain 
 folk. These various missions were regularly served 
 on Sundays by members of the Brotherhood of St. 
 Andrew, assisted by the women of the parish. 
 Chapels were erected at strategic points and appro- 
 priately furnished for the purpose of holding divine 
 service, and attached to each a house was built which 
 served as the home for a teacher, who taught a day 
 school composed of the children of mountain fami- 
 lies. The money to erect these buildings was all 
 raised by him personally, and the funds to provide for 
 their maintenance and for the salaries of the teachers 
 whom he employed in the day schools, were also 
 obtained through his efforts. 
 
 It is estimated that Satterlee must have raised from 
 sources outside of Morganton from ten to twelve 
 thousand dollars during the six years of his pas- 
 torate. This sum he obtained almost exclusively 
 from the North through personal solicitation. He 
 was accustomed annually to take a vacation of a 
 month or six weeks during the summer, and he 
 
64 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 devoted much of this time to canvassing for sub- 
 scriptions to his work. It was a task which he par- 
 ticularly abhorred, for he was naturally of a shy and 
 sensitive disposition and little relished interviewing 
 strangers on such an errand. Upon being asked once 
 how he managed to get so much money, he replied, 
 "Oh, by ringing door bells and writing letters." "Of 
 course I am often snubbed," he added. It was only 
 his conviction of the absolute necessity laid upon him 
 of securing money to carry on his work, that induced 
 him to persevere in a task so uncongenial. The suc- 
 cess he met with was remarkable. He seldom went 
 to personal friends unless driven to extremity, and 
 rarely to those connected with his father's parish. 
 He made his appeals rather to strangers. He avoided 
 the use of letters of introduction, preferring to play 
 his own hand. It was his wont in calling upon a 
 prospective giver to state his object in the shortest 
 terms possible, saying that he would like to tell his 
 story, but would not press the matter if there was no 
 disposition to accord him a hearing. If he was per- 
 mitted to proceed, he seldom went away without 
 having accomplished his purpose. Doubtless his 
 earnestness, enthusiasm, and the evident absence of 
 any self-seeking, were among the chief causes of his 
 success. Gradually he built up a clientele of his own 
 and secured many regular subscribers whom he kept 
 informed periodically regarding the progress of his, 
 work. He seems never to have been compelled to 
 
A COUNTRY PARISH. 65 
 
 abandon any enterprise because of his inability to 
 secure the funds required. 
 
 The director of the parish branch of the Brother- 
 hood of St. Andrew, who was also a vestryman of 
 the church, furnishes an estimate of the amount of 
 money raised by Satterlee from outside sources, 
 coupled with tlie statement that there was much more 
 spent by him of which no record is available : 
 
 Three Chapels $1,200 00 
 
 Three Mission Houses 1,800 00 
 
 Towards new Organ 800 00 
 
 Towards new Rectory 300 00 
 
 Towards Church Debt 800 oo 
 
 Salaries of various teachers in 
 
 parish and mission stations. . 5,000 00 
 
 $9,900 00 
 
 **This mone}^" he declares, 'Svas so quietly col- 
 lected that w^e never knew where it came from." 
 
 It might be noted here that there was another 
 chapel built, making four in all, the cost of which 
 was defrayed by the Morganton people themselves. 
 This was the first erected, and was called St. 
 Andrew's after the Brotherhood. This chapel was 
 subsequently sold and the mission abandoned owing 
 to the small attendance and the desire to concentrate 
 energies in more promising fields. Satterlee also 
 established a fifth Mission known as Quaker Mead- 
 ows, which has since grown into an important work 
 and now possesses its own permanent chapel. 
 
66 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 The women of the parish were organized into 
 various societies, along the usual lines. There was a 
 Chancel Guild which looked after the interior of the 
 church, keeping the sanctuary in order and having 
 charge of the communion vessels. The Woman's 
 Auxiliary included a visiting branch which, under 
 the rector's supervision, made regular calls upon the 
 poor and the sick and presented a weekly report to 
 him. A sewing society made articles and sold them 
 for the benefit of the parish and also provided the 
 furnishings for the chancel and the clergy and choir 
 vestments. For little girls, there w^as a society called 
 the "Busy Bees," which did work suited to their 
 abilities. Several of the women and older girls regu- 
 larly went out to the missions, acting as teachers in 
 the Sunday-schools and helping with the singing. 
 The young boys were organized into a junior branch 
 of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and appropriate 
 work was found for them in keeping the church yard 
 neat and clean. 
 
 The rector published, with the help of others, a 
 monthly parish paper, known as "The Crusader," 
 which had a successful career. As it was the only 
 Church paper published in the missionary jurisdic- 
 tion of Asheville, its circulation was soon widely 
 extended, and it finally became the recognized organ 
 of the jurisdiction. 
 
 The exceptional missionary and philanthropic 
 work which Satterlee accomplished was made possi- 
 ble only through his enlistment of laymen and their 
 
A COUNTRY PARISH. 67 
 
 organization in the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. 
 Satterlee had himself joined this society when in 
 Calvary Church and was a firm believer in its aims 
 and methods. He realized that only by securing the 
 interest and co-operation of the leading men of his 
 parish could he secure the results he desired. He saw 
 also that when once organized he must find some 
 definite and positive w^ork for them to do, work, 
 moreover, which they would feel was worthy of their 
 best efforts. Accordingly, shortly after assuming 
 charge of the parish he called together several of the 
 prominent laymen whom he felt he could depend 
 upon to second his efforts, and effected an organiza- 
 tion. The first meeting was held on June 6, 1895, 
 when three members w^ere initiated. In the course 
 of the month the society had increased to fourteen 
 members, and was ready to do aggressive work. The 
 by-laws adopted provided for a regular weekly meet- 
 ing, and it is interesting to note, that for the years 
 Satterlee remained in Morganton, this rule was 
 punctually observed. On the rector's initiative, the 
 Chapter adopted the following special rules, which 
 were incorporated into the by-laws under the head- 
 ing '"Suggestions" : 
 
 '*i. To attend the early celebration of the Holy 
 Communion in a body on the fourth Sunday in the 
 month; to bear in mind especially at that time, the 
 spread of Christ's Kingdom among young men, and 
 particularly in Morganton. 
 
 "*2. To connect myself with the Sunday-school as 
 
^8 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 teacher or with the Bible Class as member, or to 
 attend the mission to be carried on by the Brother- 
 hood. 
 
 ''3. To remember not only in Church worship, but 
 at all times, the responsibility of my example, not 
 merely as a Brotherhood man and a Churchman, but 
 as a 'member of Christ, the child of God and an 
 inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven.' " 
 
 The personnel of the Brotherhood was undoubt- 
 edly one of the chief factors in the success which 
 marked its efforts. The members were among the 
 leading men in the parish and the community. Sev- 
 eral of them belonged to the vestry. All were men 
 of probity and many among them were men of 
 mature years. Among their number were lawyers, 
 merchants, business men, and one was a retired 
 officer of the British army. 
 
 The members of the Brotherhood were divided 
 into different committees, to which were assigned 
 various duties. Some visited men in their homes, 
 and called on strangers at the hotels. Others wel- 
 comed visitors to the services and acted as ushers. 
 Others taught in the parish Sunday-school and that 
 of the colored church. Several gave their services as 
 teachers in the night school, while others conducted 
 services on Sundays in the county jail and alms- 
 house, — and still others, when the missions in the 
 mountains were established, acted as lay readers or 
 teachers in the Sunday-schools. All stood ready to 
 assist the rector in any good work which he desired 
 
A COUNTRY PARISH. 69 
 
 to do. The records of the society were carefully kept 
 and the minutes of the weekly meetings fill three 
 good-sized books. Reports in detail of work done 
 were made at the weekly meetings by the members 
 and matters of interest were talked over. A report 
 covering the work for the year accomplished was 
 annually compiled by the secretary. One of these 
 reports, that for the year ending Easter, 1897, is here 
 given, as furnishing an idea of the character and 
 magnitude of the Brotherhood's labors. 
 
 Number of members, 14. 
 
 Chapter meetings every Friday. 
 
 Corporate Communion fourth Sunday in month. 
 
 Visitation of the sick. 
 
 Hotel visited for strangers. 
 
 Jail visited weekly. 
 
 Lent services at noon in Court House twice a 
 week, attendance 600. 
 
 Night school twice a week, average attendance 30, 
 some grown people. 
 
 Services at St. Stephen's Church (colored) every 
 Sunday night, average attendance 20; Sunday-school 
 average attendance 30. 
 
 Services conducted without rector, 350. 
 
 Missions served as follows : 
 
 St. Andrew's, 73/^ miles from town, services 50, 
 attendance 1,500. 
 
 Good Shepherd, 3^ miles from town, services 51, 
 attendance 3,300. 
 
 (Day school, night school twice a week, sewing 
 
70 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 class twice a week, prayer service twice a week. Bap- 
 tisms 21.) 
 
 St. George's, 6>4 miles from town, services 49, 
 attendance 5,300. 
 
 Total attendance, 10,100. 
 
 Rain Hill, 15 miles from town, services all during 
 summer; Sunday-school 25 average attendance, at 
 Church services 50. 
 
 Total number of miles driven, 2,000. 
 
 In the report of work for the following year, the 
 number of baptisms at missions is given at 33 and 
 confirmation at 20; Lay readers 2; Catechists 4; 
 Sunday-school teachers 2; Bible class teachers 2; 
 Educational Committee 6; Hospitality Committee 7. 
 The average attendance at the weekly chapter meet- 
 ing is stated as being 71-3. 
 
 The former director of the Brotherhood writes as 
 follows in regard to the mutual relations of the rec- 
 tor and the members of the Society : 
 
 *'Mr. Satterlee was at his best in the Brotherhood 
 meetings. Nowhere else did he seem so free from a 
 restraint which clung to him in the pulpit and even 
 in private conversation. There he was almost boyish 
 in his freedom, while at no time losing sight of the 
 paramoimt duty incident to the meeting. There was 
 never a need to remind members of the time of 
 assembling. If they could come, they came, and 
 largely, it must be owned, to enjoy association with 
 him. The vestry room of the church was usually 
 
A COUNTRY PARISH. n 
 
 chosen as the meeting place, especially in the winter 
 season. 
 
 'The general mission work of the parish was the 
 chief standing theme of talk and action, though the 
 individual reports of weekly work were at all times 
 interesting, and often humorous. 
 
 ''The rector had a w^onderful knack of bringing 
 modest members to the front and having them 
 express opinions upon the matter in hand. His open- 
 ing and closing of the meetings was most tender, 
 affectionate and touching. 
 
 'T am sure the men entered into it with more heart 
 there than elsewhere, and that thoughts were born 
 which will live always.'' 
 
 Of course, Satterlee had the ordinary experience 
 of clergymen in meeting with failures. His first 
 Mission, St. Andrews's, had to be given up owing to 
 the meagre attendance at the services. The Club he 
 organized for young men and boys, though at first 
 promising well, was subsequently disbanded. The 
 Communicants' Union, w^hich he tried hard to keep 
 going, went out of existence owing to the difficulty 
 of maintaining the interest. But the failure of these 
 and other enterprises for which he had worked hard, 
 while they depressed him for a time, were powerless 
 to quench his enthusiasm. He was always looking at 
 the bright side, not merely because such an attitude 
 was in accordance with his temperament, but because 
 he conceived it a religious duty. He was opposed 
 sometimes by vestrymen or members of his congre- 
 
72 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 gation, through pure contrariness, but more often 
 through the natural inertia of conservative minds. 
 This opposition had a pecuHar effect upon him. He 
 was so used to sympathize that he tried to sympa- 
 thize 'with his opposers, — at least so far as to put 
 forth the effort to see things as they saw them, and 
 even to see himself through their eyes. The conse- 
 quence was, that his opposers gradually grew to 
 realize that he was striving to find points of union 
 with them, rather than of difference, that he was 
 anxious to be absolutely just, and that he was actu- 
 ally showing more consideration for them than he 
 was for himself, — and thus they usually became 
 ashamed of themselves and abandoned their attitude 
 of opposition. Undoubtedly also, his unfailing gift 
 of seeing things in a humorous way, helped him to 
 rob opposition of its asperity and prevent controversy 
 from becoming ill-natured. 
 
 Doubtless he was brought more keenly in contact 
 with failure in his endeavors to reform young men 
 whom he strove to assist. Notwithstanding repeated 
 experiences of failure on the part of those in whom 
 he specially interested himself, he never seemed to 
 grow discouraged, but was always hoping better 
 things of them. One young man whom he took into 
 his own house, and who lived with him in the rec- 
 tory month after month, kept on drinking, notwith- 
 standing every promise that he made, and when he 
 left the house empty whiskey bottles were found con- 
 cealed in all parts of the house. 
 
A COUNTRY PARISH. 73 
 
 A description of the first service held at the origi- 
 nal mission station established by Satterlee is given 
 by a member of the parish, a lady who was one of the 
 chief workers: 
 
 "On a lovely Sunday afternoon in July the first 
 mission service was started by Mr. Satterlee at a 
 place about seven and one-half miles from Morgan- 
 ton — afterwards called St. Andrew's. Mr. Satterlee 
 had one Church family in that neighborhood, and he 
 thought by having a mission near them, he could 
 probably gather a congregation. He asked permis- 
 sion to use an old log cabin for the services, and went 
 out the week before the first appointed service and 
 got some one to promise to make necessary repairs. 
 
 "On the Sunday, Mr. Satterlee, together with his 
 organist and a few members of the choir, who took 
 with them a small portable organ, left town early in 
 the afternoon. They had to cross a wide and treach- 
 erous ford on the Catawba river with which at that 
 time he was not familiar. He drove too straight 
 across and got into deep water, but the horse swam 
 and they escaped an accident. 
 
 "When he arrived at the cabin it was only to find 
 that the needed repairs had not been made — that 
 looked discouraging, but not for long. Mr. Satterlee 
 soon decided it would be even pleasanter to have the 
 service under the white pine trees which surrounded 
 the old cabin and where the ground was covered 
 several inches deep with dry pine needles. What 
 better carpet or sweeter one could w^e have had ? So 
 
74 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 we brought out the planks and improvised benches, 
 placed the organ and arranged a platform for Mr. 
 Satterlee. Then we seated the congregation of about 
 twenty people. There under the pine trees with the 
 rhododendrons blooming all round us was held the 
 first service of the first mission the rector established. 
 
 ''That cabin was used for twelve months, but was 
 repaired before winter. As showing its condition at 
 first, it may be stated that the lay reader and organist 
 on arriving a few minutes late one day were greeted 
 with, Tt is lucky you were a little late ; a few minutes 
 ago we just happened to see a huge black snake coile'd 
 up under your seat near the organ.' It had crawled 
 in between the logs of the cabin. You may be sure I 
 was glad I was late that afternoon." 
 
 On November 9, 1898, Satterlee contracted a sec- 
 ond marriage, wedding Miss Helen Stuyvesant Fol- 
 som, eldest daughter of George Winthrop Folsom, 
 Esq., of New York City and Lenox, Mass. The 
 ceremony was performed in Trinity Church, Lenox, 
 by Satterlee's father, the Bishop of Washington, 
 assisted by Bishop Doane, the Rev. Dr. Battershall, 
 of Albany, and the Rev. Harold Arrowsmith, the 
 rector of the parish. Satterlee returned at once to 
 Morganton with his bride. Mrs. Satterlee entered 
 enthusiastically into her husband's work, her quick 
 sympathies and splendid health making her a true 
 helpmeet in the busy missionary life which he led. 
 
 The following letter written to friends at home 
 within a few weeks after her coming to Morganton, 
 
A COUNTRY PARISH. 75 
 
 gives a vivid picture, full of local coloring, of the 
 strenuous conditions under which the work was 
 being done, and sets forth the details of a busy week 
 during the Christmas holidays : 
 
 ''Saturday, December 24, 1898. In the morning 
 we started immediately after breakfast for the Good 
 Shepherd to coach the children some more in their 
 carols. You will be getting tired of the word mud, 
 so unless I say the roads were good take it for granted 
 that the mud was most of the time a foot deep and 
 the rest of the time up to the hubs — not little 'Hub' 
 (Mrs. Satterlee's dog), but the wheel hubs, and occa- 
 sionally holes that nearly tip us over. Well, we drove 
 to the Mission, took Belle, the horse we have about 
 decided to buy, and she worked like a trooper. It 
 was a fine day. I took my knitting and did quite a 
 lot. There were many children there. Mrs. T — , 
 who is in charge, was much much amused with 
 'Hub,' who refused to lie on the bare wood floor, as 
 it was muddy from the children's shoes, so she got a 
 piece of carpet ; he is always spoilt wherever he goes. 
 I believe it must be the rubber lip, which always looks 
 so pathetic when he is not happy. We came back 
 through the W's place, and Herbert W — gave us 
 some quail; the shooting is fine here now. Every 
 one advises me to get Belle; they say she is a very 
 good animal, though about nine years old. We ate 
 a hurried luncheon, then drove out to see Mrs. I — . 
 Churchill had some prayers with her. Such a sad 
 Xmas for her children. They were working over a 
 
76 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 Xmas tree upstairs. She has been such a good 
 mother always. It is so sad. Her oldest girl, six- 
 teen, is so pretty and sweet. They are really nice 
 people, but desperately poor, and she is dying, and the 
 baby is six months old. 
 
 **On the w^ay home we met all the country people,. 
 — the 'pore whites' — returning to their cabins from 
 the Xmas shopping in 'town.' Such picturesque 
 sights! The road winds down the side of a hill, so 
 we could see the procession some w^ay ahead. The 
 roads, you know, are bright red, so are very marked. 
 There w^ere all kinds of old wagons, some even with- 
 out seats, and the women all in their big sun-bonnets, 
 sitting on the floor, or sometimes on rocking chairs. 
 Old and young, the women all wear these sun- 
 bonnets, big calico ones, and with their stern, scrawny 
 faces look like watches. There were also many men 
 on horses, ponies, mules, and donkeys. Most of the 
 men have shaggy reddish beards. And now and then 
 w^e saw a soldier. Some had toys flung over their 
 backs, and all carried bundles of various descriptions. 
 They always take ofif their hats and say 'good even- 
 ing.' Sometimes they say 'What a nice little dog' to 
 'Hub.' 
 
 "We got home finally, and stopped 'down street' to 
 get some things for the servants. I wish you could 
 have some idea of w^hat 'down street' is like here — a 
 wide bleak-looking street with tumbledown 'stores' — 
 heaps of rubbish — papers of all sizes and kinds 
 strewn everywhere, and blowing about, and the side- 
 
A COUNTRY PARISH. 77 
 
 walks swarming with men — black, brown, yellow and 
 white. All just standing about with their hands in 
 their pockets, or leaning against posts or walls. And 
 a row of horses, and carts on each side, 'hitched.' It 
 is a queer place — and all this may bore you. 
 
 "We came back to see how the church was getting 
 on; it was about finished and looked lovely. The 
 rood-screen was a great success; over the cross there 
 was a big star (gilded too) with electric lights in 
 the different points — most effective! When I came 
 out the church yard looked so awfully that I decided 
 to tidy it up a bit, so got our rake, and soon I was 
 joined by two little boys and we worked like beavers, 
 till it got too dark to see. Little Hugh G — told his 
 mother that Mrs. S — had to take her jacket off she 
 worked so hard. 
 
 "Mrs. T — came to supper, and afterwards w^e 
 went to the reunion at the Town Hall. I had been 
 dreading it frightfully, but it turned out very jolly 
 and informal. Of course Churchill was the moving 
 spirit, and kept things going. They played 'Going to 
 Jerusalem,' and old Colonel W — , 83 years old, was 
 left the last with a very pretty girl, and everyone 
 laughed to see them going round together. Finally 
 she sat down, and he sat on her lap ! 
 
 "Then Churchill made a speech that amused every 
 one; and finally in came Santa Clans! I had helped 
 him outside, to get his mask on and put cotton on 
 him in patches. He was a great success and said 
 some very funny things; — it was Ralph L — . Then 
 
78 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 there was a cake walk. Too funny! If only you 
 could have seen one couple ; it didn't seem as though 
 they could be real, as though they must be made up. 
 They were both tall and thin, with faces that looked 
 as though they were carved out of wood. She wore 
 an enormous brown sun-bonnet which she kept on 
 all the whole evening, a man's black cloth coat, and 
 a skimpy, draggled skirt. She was cross-eyed, with 
 deep wrinkles and lines in her face, but had quite a 
 sweet smile when you spoke to her. He was tall and 
 thin and straight, looked something like Major M — , 
 but a stronger face. He had been all through the 
 war in the Confederate army. Well, those two 
 walked solemnly in the cake walk, while everyone 
 else tried to be funny. The old Colonel put on a 
 tremendous swagger and walked waving his stick 
 like a drum major and was delightful. The other 
 two walked without changing a muscle in their stern 
 faces, though everyone was in fits over them. And 
 the judges awarded the cake to them, Colonel and 
 Mrs. O — . She walked the whole length of the hall, 
 still dignified and stern, and took the cake! When 
 they drew the grab-bag things she got a book, 'The 
 Lady of the Lake,' and he, a cake of soap ! I asked 
 her if she would like to change it for something else, 
 but she said quite shyly, 'I can read a little,' and I 
 said, 'Oh, of course, and I am sure you will like it.' 
 They were both at church, a little less stern perhaps, 
 and she said they had eaten a little of the cake — not 
 
A COUNTRY PARISH. 79 
 
 the soap. The grab-bag was all Churchiirs idea — 
 he ordered all the thjngs from Wanamaker's himself. 
 
 "Before leaving the hall all formed a big circle and 
 sang 'Auld Lang Syne.' Then we went home, and 
 several ladies came in, and we broke up candy for 
 bags for Sunday-school children till it was time for 
 church. I had suggested a midnight celebration to 
 Churchill, for I loved the one last year at the Sisters'. 
 We had two lighted candles on the altar. The ser- 
 vice was beautiful and everyone was much impressed 
 by it. Churchill intoned a part of the service and so 
 well, and the music was very good. We got to bed 
 after one o'clock. 
 
 ''Sunday, December 25. The next morning, 
 Xmas, when we came down to breakfast, Mrs. T — 
 was already in the library. After breakfast we undid 
 a few things, but Churchill had to go over to Sunday- 
 school. So I waited till he could be here 
 
 . . . After Mrs. T — had returned to her mission, 
 Churchill came back and we opened our presents. 
 
 "The morning service was fine. Churchill's ser- 
 mon was splendid, a great success, and most popular. 
 Mr. P — asked him if he would have it published. 
 Right after service he had a Celebration at the col- 
 ored church, and it was quite curious and weird to 
 see my big splendid Churchill and the little, fat, inky- 
 black clergyman together, and the row of black peo- 
 ple at the rail. We were tired and hungry for our 
 dinner, but before it was over Churchill had to rush 
 away. We took the banners over to the church and 
 
8o A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 at two o'clock the children began to arrive. It was a 
 warm sunny day, and all the children were so bright 
 and happy. The children from the different Missions 
 drove up in big wagons, over two hundred children 
 in all. It was a very inspiring scene. They formed 
 a long line outside, each Mission with its banner, 
 four in all. The church w^as packed. First came the 
 choir boys in their little clean cottas, then Churchill 
 looking so good (can't you see him?) singing away, 
 then all the little poor children in their heavy boots, 
 clattering along, and a lot of big rough men, all look- 
 ing so shy and pleased. The carols were sung with 
 so much spirit. I thought the whole service very 
 touching and splendid. A few years ago none of 
 those people or children knew a thing, and were 
 totally ignorant, not only about the Church, but the 
 ordinary civilities of life. When that was over, they 
 all came down to the vestry room, and I helped 
 Churchill give them each a package of candy, the 
 men and women too. Then we had a moment to our- 
 selves. The hills were beautiful and so restful — we 
 took a little walk. Churchill is fine ; he wanted to go 
 to thank the organist, when he was so tired, mentally, 
 and needed a rest, and I wouldn't let him, but brought 
 him home, and we had some tea. Then Mr. P — 
 and Janey came to supper, and after they had gone 
 we went to the G — 's, for Churchill wanted to talk it 
 over with them, and thought it would please them. 
 
 ''Monday, December 26. To-day is glorious, and 
 it is fortunate, as we had to go to two Missions this 
 
A COUNTRY PARISH. 8x 
 
 p, M Seven miles to St. George's for the 
 
 Xmas tree, from there to the Good Shepherd, about 
 ten miles, for their tree, and three miles home from 
 
 there, 
 
 ''We went on horseback and rode about twenty 
 miles. We started about one o'clock. Mr. C. P — 
 went with us. Such a nice man of the old-fashioned 
 type of Southerner. He weighs 250 pounds and rode 
 a great big powerful horse who loped the whole time. 
 Mr, P — wore a long coat, the tails of which sepa- 
 rated in the back and hung down straight on either 
 side, and a sort of dress waist-coat, showing a great 
 deal of shirt. He ambled along without budging in 
 the saddle, and so fast I could hardly keep up. We 
 got to St George's in good time notwithstanding the 
 mud. It was quite a sight to see the crowd of people 
 waiting outside of the chapel. So many women with 
 little babies, and quantities of men and boys, and of 
 course lots of children. I saw one of my god-children 
 there, the paralyzed half idiotic one. It was a bright 
 sunny warm day. If I had only taken my kodak 
 with me! 
 
 ''One old woman took quite a fancy to me. I sat 
 by her in the chapel and she kept patting my knee. 
 A younger one with a baby put her arm around my 
 waist when we stood up. She asked me if I were 
 Mr. Satterlee's wife. When I said 'Yes,' she said, 
 *You look right yoimg to be a preacher's wife.' 
 
 "The entertainment was wonderful. The chapel 
 was darkened, about two hundred people crowded in, 
 
82 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 not even standing room, for there were some outside 
 who could not get in. There was a Httle play (the 
 chapel has not been consecrated), and the children 
 were really wonderful. There was a Santa Claus 
 too. An old man named Squire M — was called upon 
 to make a speech, and astounded us all (gold bugs, as 
 they call us) by proposing a cheer for Sister Ella, 
 and Colonel Bryan. 
 
 ''We got away by four o'clock and took the loveli- 
 est road across country, through woods, through 
 lovely country, over brooks, and out on to the Brin- 
 dletown road, the one to the Good Shepherd. We 
 got there rather too soon. Mrs. T — was very busy, 
 but bright and cheerful as usual. She gave us quite 
 a supper about 5.30, and we were hungry! She had 
 a Xmas tree in the chapel, which was also packed. 
 And the children all recited pieces, some too killing 
 for words. I almost died over them, but all the coun- 
 try people thought it beautiful, especially when a 
 carefully dressed young man got up and with appro- 
 priate gestures recited 'Bungin, fair Bungin on the 
 Rhine' ! 
 
 'Tt was dark when we came out, but such a lovely 
 clear sky and bright moonlight. The horses were 
 cold and feeling good when we started and snorted 
 cheerfully, and we had a glorious ride home. 
 Churchill said he liked it ; was not a bit stiff after it, 
 nor Mr. P — either. 
 
 ^^Tuesday. December 27. There were women 
 here all the morning arranging things for the church 
 
A COUNTRY PARISH. 83 
 
 Xmas tree. After helping them a Httle I went with 
 Churchill to call on a few people, and then came back 
 and helped the boys with the church yard. 
 
 ''At 7.30 was the Xmas tree. I sat up in front and 
 helped with the presents. The church w^as packed. 
 Churchill made a nice address. He knows just how 
 to talk to the people, especially the children, who all 
 love him. They sang their carols again, and then 
 got their presents. 
 
 ''After the tree we persuaded Mrs. G — to go with 
 us to Asheville. We took the midnight train. The 
 mountains were very weird and beautiful in the 
 moonlight ; the scenery is much finer than I expected. 
 We got to Asheville at 2.30 a. m.: the hotel was 
 heated with steam and almost killed me, after our 
 cool, fresh little house. 
 
 'Wednesday, December 28. The day was fine 
 but colder, and more windy, than here. We had a 
 little time before church and did some shopping. 
 Churchill left us before ten, for he had to take part 
 in the consecration of the new Bishop of Asheville, 
 which, by the way, is the reason for our going. He 
 was the only man of the twenty clergy and five Bish- 
 ops who was as tall as Churchill. Churchill read the 
 Testimonials, a great honor, being the youngest 
 there, and so many old men. He did it very well and 
 impressively, and I felt so proud ! The sermon was 
 preached by the Bishop of South Carolina, and was 
 very good. The service lasted three hours and a 
 half. We came back on the 2.30 train, ate a sandwich 
 
34 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 at the station, and got home at five in the morning. 
 Met no end of clergy and several Bishops. The old 
 Bishop of East Carolina told me that Churchill was 
 the man he wanted for Bishop. 
 
 *'That night the moon was so bright and the night 
 so lovely that we took a little drive. 
 
 ''Thursday, December 29. At 7.30 in the evening 
 was the Xmas tree at the colored church. I thought 
 I wouldn't go, being rather tired, and about 8.30 
 w^alked down with ^Hub' to meet Churchill. Looked 
 in at the window and saw him and Mr. P — sitting 
 on the last seat, and tapped on the window. They 
 both jumped up, and insisted on my coming in, and 
 'Hub' too. I did not have on any hat, so Churchill 
 gave me his cap. The little colored children recited 
 and got presents. Fancy my despair to find another 
 dog lying on the floor. At first 'Hub' did not see 
 him, but when he did Mr. P — quickly put his hat 
 over his whole head, which completely squelched him. 
 
 ''Friday. December 30. Another busy day. Be- 
 gan with the boys in the garden, and then went with 
 Churchill to call on some people out in the country; 
 a lovely drive. We had to ford a wide river, with 
 islands in it, and so deep the water came in the buggy. 
 Most thrilling! We made a long call, and as usual 
 were plied with food, cake, pie, etc., which we ate, 
 and got home at two in the afternoon with no desire 
 for dinner. 
 
 ''A little before four Churchill and I started for the 
 Mission of the Cross, for the Xmas tree. We went 
 
A COUNTRY PARISH. 85 
 
 to the house of a Mr. H — , where we found Mr. John 
 P — and Mrs. G — , who had gone to decorate the 
 tree. Mr. H — and his daughters insisted on our 
 going into the dining room and eating a regular 
 meal ! Then we went to the chapel. The tree was a 
 great success. Everything is most primitive out 
 there. It is the newest of the chapels, and there are 
 more men and boys there than at the others. Besides 
 the candles on the tree the only lights were three ordi- 
 nary lamps, and it was very effective, for the eager, 
 wondering faces stood out in the dark background. 
 Each child got a present, and the little ones that 
 trotted up with outstretched arms to get their dolls, 
 were sweet and touching, and great was the awe 
 with which they looked at their new treasures. 
 
 "When we came out it w^as pitch dark, being a 
 cloudy night. There were some groups which would 
 have delighted Ethel, with pine torches, lighting up 
 the rugged faces of the men, the big sun-bonnets of 
 the women, and the children. 
 
 *We had to walk the horse nearly all the way 
 home. Mr. P — drove in front and carried a parlor 
 lamp which kept going out. 
 
 "And now I have got to the end of the Xmas trees 
 and to another Saturday, and, for the time being, will 
 stop." 
 
 In the winter of 1900, a Mission of ten days was 
 held in the parish by Bishop Coleman, of Delaware. 
 Satterlee had worked very hard for several months 
 previous to make the Mission a success, and had been 
 
S6 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 nobly seconded in his efforts by the members of the 
 Brotherhood and other parish organizations. The 
 result amply justified their labors. When Bishop 
 Coleman came he found the ground thoroughly pre- 
 pared for him and the interest of the whole com- 
 munity aroused. As evidence of the general enthusi- 
 asm and the personal regard felt for the rector of the 
 parish by all classes, the merchants of the town, irre- 
 spective of their religious affiliations, and including 
 even the Jews, closed their shops daily at an earlier 
 hour, thus affording an opportunity for all to attend 
 the Mission services. In addition to the regular ser- 
 vices in the parish church, special services were held 
 in the Court House and county institutions, at several 
 factories, at St. Stephen's, the church for colored 
 people, and at one of the outlying missions. An 
 accurate record was kept of the attendance, the total 
 running up to over six thousand, surely a remarkable 
 showing in a population numbering about two thou- 
 sand souls. 
 
 In a letter to the writer Bishop Coleman speaks 
 enthusiastically of the Mission and pays a high 
 tribute to Satterlee's character and abilities : 
 
 "I came to know the Rev. Churchill Satterlee very 
 well during a Mission that I held, at his request, while 
 he was rector of Morganton, North Carolina. 
 
 "Opportunities afforded in this way are particu- 
 larly well adapted to forming an intimate acquaint- 
 anceship, and, as in this case decidedly, even a friend- 
 ship. 
 
A COUNTRY PARISH. 87 
 
 *Tt was a Mission that had about it some features 
 of unusual interest, as regards, for example, the 
 scope of the various congregations gathered, not only 
 in the parish church, but elsewhere, daily, and as 
 regards the general sympathy evoked. 
 
 ''The whole community was deeply interested, and 
 there v;ere most gratifying evidences throughout of 
 a like mindfulness on the parts of the people belong- 
 ing to the several outlying mission stations that 
 were under his charge. 
 
 "Now, all this was largely owing, under God, to 
 the careful preparations that he had made, and his 
 own inspiring enthusiasm; an enthusiasm born out 
 of his devout and hearty concern for the people's 
 spiritual welfare. 
 
 ''We were in constant and minute conversation 
 upon this subject day by day; and I could not but be 
 much impressed with his whole-souled desire for the 
 uplifting of his people. 
 
 "He evidently felt his responsibility for their souls, 
 and was not willing to leave anything untried that 
 promised to help them to any degree. 
 
 "How well I can recall the delightful hours spent 
 after the services at night, in conversation with him 
 and his dear wife over the events of the day, and in 
 planning for the morrow. 
 
 "Such intercourse drew us very close to each other; 
 and I grew to love him more and more for his Chris- 
 tian and attractive manliness. 
 
 "In subsequent correspondence, especially as he 
 
SS A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 would sometimes write to me for my opinion upon 
 certain subjects, it was charming to discover his 
 strong growth in grace. 
 
 "I feel that the Church has lost one who bade fair 
 to be among her most effective and trustworthy 
 friends, and who, both by doctrine and example, was 
 well calculated to promote her best interests wherever 
 he might be." 
 
 One of Satterlee's dominant characteristics was 
 that he kept his eyes open, and was constantly scan- 
 ning the horizon to see if there were any kind of 
 opportunity for advancing his work. He had the 
 quality of "initiative" in a remarkable degree, and it 
 was this which stamped so much of his work with 
 originality. 
 
 Morganton is the county seat, where the Court 
 meets at certain intervals in the year. Here, as in 
 many other parts of the country, the sessions of the 
 Court draw the country folk from all quarters by a 
 strange spell of attraction. 
 
 Satterlee felt that here was an opportunity of 
 reaching out-of-the-way people, who were often far 
 from every kind of gospel ministrations. And so 
 during the recess of Court, he had mid-day services, 
 about a half hour in length, at which he himself 
 spoke, and secured also other clergymen to help him. 
 There was always a good congregation, sometimes a 
 very large one. 
 
 One who was much struck with the way in 
 which he utilized these and other opportunities, and 
 
A COUNTRY PARISH. 89 
 
 made the most of them, asked him how it was that he 
 was so successful. Satterlee's answer was, 'T do not 
 understand why it is that I succeed. I suppose it is 
 because I am trying to reach the people in the com- 
 munity in every way that God points out. This is 
 what God gives me to do. Whether other parish 
 priests could have the same success with the same 
 methods, I cannot tell." 
 
 The only General Convention of which Satterlee 
 was a member was that which met in 1898, in the 
 city of Washington. There is a circumstance which 
 occurred in this connection which reveals the magna- 
 nimity of the man. Satterlee was present as a Deputy 
 from the recently created Missionary District of 
 Asheville, for which jurisdiction the Convention dur- 
 ing that session was to choose a Bishop. The name 
 of Satterlee himself, but without his sanction, had 
 been mentioned in connection with this ofifice, and 
 there was a strong movement in some quarters to 
 press for his nomination. When the name of another 
 man was sent down from the House of Bishops, and 
 inquiries were made as to his qualifications for the 
 office, Satterlee immediately arose, and in a speech of 
 remarkable vigor bore the strongest personal testi- 
 mony to the character and attainments of the nomi- 
 nee. Though Satterlee' s name had not come before 
 the Convention in a formal way, yet he was aware 
 that his own claims upon the office had been discussed 
 by those immediately about him. 
 
 We can imagine how painful this must have been 
 
90 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 to the sensitive and delicate nature of a man who, by 
 going to a missionary field in the mountains of North 
 Carolina, instead of seeking a call to a city parish, 
 had proved how little he sought or desired position 
 or influence. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PIONEER WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 Satterlee's success in ministering to the moun- 
 taineers was phenomenal. From the very inception 
 of the work he seems to have met with great encour- 
 agement. Others who had previously attempted to 
 do evangelistic work among these people had found 
 the difficulties so great that they were forced to 
 abandon their efforts. Before Satterlee's coming to 
 Morganton a feeble attempt had been made to estab- 
 lish a mission by a former rector, but the enterprise 
 had languished and had finally been given up. The 
 field so far as it was worked at all was in the hands 
 of the Baptists and Methodists. There were no regu- 
 lar chapels or permanent mission stations anywhere 
 belonging to these bodies, and the only religious 
 ministrations of any sort were occasional preaching 
 services held by itinerant evangelists in log cabins or 
 school houses, where such existed. These preachers 
 were themselves, in many cases, almost as ignorant 
 and illiterate as those to whom they preached. Not 
 infrequently they were men whose moral characters 
 were not above suspicion. Their exhortations had 
 often little in them of the spirit of the Gospel, and 
 
 91 
 
92 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 were based upon the crudest theological conceptions. 
 ''Hell fire" and "damnation" were their favorite 
 themes, and they did not hesitate to consign to eternal 
 torments those especially who failed to contribute to 
 the collections which constituted the means whence 
 they derived a miserable livelihood. It is said to be 
 not at all an uncommon thing in these parts for one 
 who is too lazy to do manual w^ork, to take up 
 "preaching" for a living. The writer was informed 
 of the case of a revival preacher who was known to 
 have at least two wives living in different sections of 
 the mountains, but who, nevertheless, continued to 
 pursue his avocation without let or hindrance, either 
 on the part of the civil authorities or the ecclesiastical 
 body to which he professed to belong. In referring 
 to these cases there is no intention of casting any 
 aspersion upon the Christian bodies under whose 
 name and authority these vagrant preachers claimed 
 to exercise their functions. Doubtless in many 
 instances there was no official connection whatsoever 
 between the two, the work of the self-constituted 
 evangelist being conducted wholly upon his own 
 initiative. 
 
 To a people cut off by their illiteracy from all intel- 
 lectual interests, living in isolated communities, 
 steeped in poverty, whose days are spent in trying to 
 wrest a precarious living out of the stony soil of their 
 farms on the mountain side, anything that serves to 
 break the dull monotony of existence is welcome. 
 Hence, the announcement that there will be "preach- 
 
WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 93 
 
 ing" at a certain center is always received with inter- 
 est, and the appointed time usually sees a goodly 
 number, including both sexes and all ages, gathered 
 from the surrounding region. One who has occa- 
 sionally attended these meetings has described a 
 typical scene to the writer. A log cabin capable of 
 holding seventy-five to a hundred people is packed 
 with mountaineers and their families. The men and 
 women sit on opposite sides of the room. The faces 
 of all are expressionless. There is no enthusiasm dis- 
 played. The eyes are cast down so that no one looks 
 at the speaker. The women wear sun-bonnets, — the 
 usual feminine headgear of the mountains at all 
 periods of the year. Men and women alike are 
 engaged in chewing tobacco, the juice of which is 
 squirted at intervals in the direction of a receptacle 
 placed in the center of the room. The preacher, as 
 he becomes heated by the enthusiasm of his own 
 eloquence, does not hesitate to divest himself of coat 
 and waistcoat. Then in shirt sleeves he perambulates 
 the aisle, and, in company with his hearers, squirts 
 streams of tobacco juice into the common receptacle. 
 What were the definite Christian doctrines 
 preached the writer's informant did not seem able 
 to recall. Evidently the homiletical impression made 
 upon his mind was slight. He remembered, how- 
 ever, that the revivalist, as he strode up and down in 
 his shirt sleeves, thanked the Lord with unction that 
 he "never had no schoolinV' but was "an ignorant 
 man." 
 
 ^ 
 
94 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 It was among a people accustomed to receive their 
 religious impressions under such grotesque forms and 
 amid such squalid surroundings, that Satterlee did 
 his pioneer work and laid the foundations of the 
 Church deep and strong. To-day in the neighbor- 
 hood where he ministered, a marked change in the 
 appearance and habits of the people is plainly notice- 
 able. Services are conducted according to Prayer 
 Book usage, in chapels appropriately furnished with 
 the accessories of worship. The buildings are kept 
 clean, and the congregation of its own accord refrains 
 from bespattering the floors with tobacco juice. 
 Hundreds who could neither read nor write, have 
 now mastered these arts, either directly as the result 
 of their attendance at the day schools connected with 
 the missions, or indirectly through the impetus given 
 by these schools to the general cause of education. 
 When Satterlee began his mission work in the moun- 
 tains there were few if any public schools, but since 
 that time several have been started. The people as 
 they came under the influence of the Church, began 
 gradually to realize their deficiencies, and have 
 developed a desire for the advantages of educa- 
 tion. It was a most difficult task at first to 
 convince the parents that it was desirable to 
 permit their children to receive instruction. As 
 soon as children were capable of doing any 
 work, the parents invariably found employment 
 for them at home, and were jealous of anything 
 that deprived them of their services. To a request 
 
WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 95 
 
 that their children be sent to school, the parents were 
 commonly wont to reply, **We had no schoolin' and 
 we reckon they needn't have none either/' To-day 
 that attitude has largely disappeared and the parents 
 gladly send their children to school at such times as 
 their help is not imperatively required at home. Per- 
 haps it would be too much to claim, that the change 
 discernible in this respect is wholly due to the work 
 Satterlee initiated, but certainly much of the credit 
 for the improvement is clearly traceable to the influ- 
 ence of the missions he established. 
 
 It would be a mistake to imagine, because these 
 mountain folk are illiterate, that they are not in many 
 cases very intelligent, or because they live in squalor, 
 that they do not possess many sterling virtues. They 
 are hospitable to the last degree, personally cour- 
 ageous, loyal to each other, uncomplaining, and fair 
 in their dealings. In their heredity they represent, 
 perhaps, the purest strain of native Americanism to 
 be found in the whole country. There is among them 
 practically no admixture of foreign blood. Every 
 one of them possesses doubtless the qualifications for 
 admittance to such patriotic societies as the Sons of 
 the Revolution and the Colonial Wars. Out of such 
 stock have arisen men like Andrew Jackson and 
 Abraham Lincoln. Reticent and shy in the presence 
 of strangers, they are extremely sensitve to criticism 
 and suspicious of the motives of those coming among 
 them from the outside world. The faults prevalent 
 among them are those which naturally pertain to a 
 
9^ A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 rude and simple people living in a state of isolation, 
 and who, for the most part, are a law unto them- 
 selves. Illegitimacy and concubinage are frequent. 
 Feuds, sometimes leading to a prolonged vendetta, 
 are characteristic of their existence. They often 
 come in conflict with the law, owing to their pro- 
 pensity for manufacturing illicit whiskey, and they 
 invariably regard the revenue officer as their natural 
 enemy. They themselves drink large quantities of 
 their own ^'moonshine." 
 
 The moral improvement among those who have 
 come under the influence of the missions established 
 by Satterlee is a fact testified to by those who are 
 familiar with the conditions which existed previously. 
 A politician, a Methodist, who was in the habit peri- 
 odically of making campaign speeches to the moun- 
 tain audiences, expressed his conviction that the 
 change which had taken place was little short of mar- 
 vellous. '*Mr. Satterlee,'' he declared, ''has done 
 wonders for these people. I find everywhere more 
 intelligent listeners. The people conduct themselves 
 with greater propriety, they dress better, and seem 
 to have a keener appreciation of moral issues.'' 
 
 Satterlee's tact in dealing with these peculiar peo- 
 ple, as shown in his respect for their prejudices, in 
 his democratic ways, in his hearty recognition of 
 their virtues, and in his refusal to employ any other 
 means than moral suasion in his endeavors to eradi- 
 cate evils, undoubtedly accounts largely for the great 
 success he achieved. 
 
WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 97 
 
 "Your preacher is just as common as we are," was 
 the remark of one of his mountain flock to the lay- 
 man in charge of the mission. This was intended as 
 a high comphment to the simphcity of his manners 
 and bearing. 
 
 Many are the stories told of Satterlee's kind- 
 heartedness and generosity to these poor people. A 
 young boy, a cripple, was sent by him to the Johns 
 Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for treatment, the„ 
 money being supplied by himself or obtained i'rom 
 others through his solicitation. One family, who 
 was confronted with the necessity of obtaining a cer- 
 tain sum of money in default of which the home 
 would be sacrificed, obtained a loan from him with- 
 out security, which it is pleasant to record was sub- 
 sequently repaid. 
 
 The ground for one of his chapels w^as given by a 
 neighbor who distilled and sold whiskey on his prem- 
 ises adjoining the building. After the chapel and 
 school-house were built, Satterlee v/as pressed to 
 take advantage of the law which prohibited the sale 
 
 of liauor within a certain radius of a church or school. 
 
 J. 
 
 "They'll incorporate and put you out of business,'' 
 remarked some of his friends to the donor of the 
 land. 
 
 "ril trust him not to do that/' was the reply. 
 
 "No," said Satterlee, when the suggestion was 
 made to him, "vv e can't do a thing of that kind ; v/e'll 
 have to trust to moral suasion." 
 
 During the church services the liquor dealer al> 
 
98 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 stained from making sales, and ultimately gave up 
 the business altogether, was baptized and confirmed, 
 and became one of the staunchest supporters of the 
 work. 
 
 Satterlee fully appreciated the necessity of being 
 regular and prompt in his attendance at the services 
 which he held monthly in his mission chapels. When 
 the designated Sunday came, he never permitted any- 
 thing to interfere with his going. Whatever was the 
 state of the weather, however bad the roads, he was 
 always on hand. It was by no means an unusual 
 thing for him when the weather made traveling hard, 
 to leave Morganton on Sunday immediately after 
 his service in the parish church, without waiting for 
 his dinner. He would take a cold lunch with him 
 and eat it on the way, rather than run the risk of 
 arriving late at his destination. The mountain peo- 
 ple, who, in many cases, themselves came a distance 
 of several miles, were quick to appreciate his regu- 
 larity, and he seldom lacked a good congregation. 
 When he first began to hold these services, upon a 
 very stormy day when the mud in the roads was up 
 to the wheel hubs, he drove out only to find a mere 
 handful present. A gentle rebuke expressive of his 
 surprise that so few were in attendance when nothing 
 ever prevented his coming was sufficient, and he 
 never had occasion again to complain of their remiss- 
 ness in this respect. 
 
 That Satterlee was able to accomplish the difficult 
 task of translating his ideas so that they could be 
 
WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 99 
 
 fully comprehended by those among his hearers who 
 were most illiterate, is proved by the comment made 
 by one of the members of his mountain flock in the 
 vernacular of the district, 'The preacher knows what 
 kind o' fodder to give we 'uns." 
 
 A teacher in charge of one of the mountain schools 
 furnishes some interesting reminiscences of her life 
 among these people and pays her loving tribute to 
 Satterlee's memory. 
 
 ''When I first took up the work, Mr. Satterlee's 
 injunction was, 'Use every means in your power to 
 induce the people to send their children to school.' 
 The school was free, even the books were donated. 
 Mr. Satterlee felt that if the children could read and 
 write, and had a fair understanding of arithmetic 
 and grammar, they would then have a desire to reach 
 out and gain more knowledge; and so have within 
 them power to better themselves. 
 
 "He was wonderfully gifted wath the ability to 
 interest people. Once they knew him, it was a very 
 easy matter to win their good will; for the average 
 mountaineer is good-hearted, hospitable and unsus- 
 pecting of ill, though often superstitious. 
 
 "When I went down there, it seemed to me they 
 had so little pleasure that I felt to start a debating 
 club would be a good thing. Soon we had some 
 really good talkers ; it was astonishing the short time 
 it would take for us to settle the most important pub- 
 lic matters in our club. The winning side would 
 invariably say to me, Tlease tell Mr. Satterlee about 
 
 Ci4^ 
 
loo A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 the debate, and that our side won/ There were a 
 few girls connected with the club, but mostly boys 
 vv'hose ages ranged from ten to fifty years — you see 
 there were some old boys in that club. When Mr. 
 Satterlee would come out again, he would remember 
 what had been told him ; and it was a genuine pleas- 
 ure to hear him talk to them about the club. They 
 felt that he was really interested in their welfare, and 
 they were not mistaken. 
 
 "One Sunday afternoon we were expecting Bishop 
 Satterlee out to the mission to preach the sermon and 
 conduct the services, arid as I had to go a distance the 
 previous week to look after some children, concluded 
 to take along some notices of the coming visit of the 
 Bishop, and fasten them on trees or some other con- 
 spicuous place, hoping that by so doing a greater 
 number would be induced to attend. I went into a 
 store, in an out-of-the-way place, and, after having 
 made a purchase, asked permission to place the notice 
 near the door. I had never been there before, nor 
 had I ever seen any of the family. Said the proprie- 
 tor, 'Wal, what's it about, anyway?' I read the 
 notice that Bishop Satterlee of Washington would be 
 at the chapel, etc., etc. Said the man to his boy, 
 'Jake, let the lady put it up. I reckon he's some kin 
 to the preacher that is so mighty civil to us poor 
 folks. Why, he'd shake hands with a man in his old 
 clothes as quick as if he was dressed up in a white 
 collar.' The proprietor put up the notice himself, and 
 
WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. loi 
 
 I had the satisfaction of seeing him and 'Jake' at the 
 service. 
 
 "The people show their good feeHng toward one 
 in many ways. If they admire a person very much, 
 they are apt to name the first new baby after him. 
 One very disagreeable morning, w^hile the hail and 
 rain seemed to compete with each other as to which 
 should possess the earth, and I could hardly see to 
 drive, because of the storm, all at once my horse 
 halted a little, and almost in front of him stumbled 
 a little black boy about three years old, and close in 
 his wake came mother calling in a shrill rasping 
 voice, 'I say, you Churchill Satterlee Gordon, come 
 here. I 'clare to massa if he ain't the triflenest no 
 'count young 'un ever born'd.' I thought right there, 
 how little there is in a name, to be sure. The Gordon 
 was after the lay reader, who came out to our mis- 
 sion, and who lived not far from the affectionate 
 mother of the little image I had nearly run over. 
 
 *Tt seemed wise to bring the people together as 
 often as possible. We became interested in each 
 other, and the results were good feeling generally. If 
 a picnic were to be held, we always found out first 
 whether Mr. Satterlee could be with us or not. We 
 always waited his convenience, because we wanted a 
 good time, and if he were with us, we were sure to 
 have it. He was ever ready with suggestions for 
 games, and his laugh was contagious. When the 
 'tug of war' came, and one side showed weakness, he 
 went to their rescue. Then what fun! Every one 
 
I02 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 who had any pull in him would rush for the rope. 
 When it was time for refreshments — and at a moun- 
 tain picnic it comes early in the day — he would be in 
 among the men. If one seat was more comfortable 
 than another, he would insist upon some tired mother 
 with a baby sitting there. The babies were regular 
 attendants on all festival occasions. The male moun- 
 taineer does not make a good nurse, so the mother 
 wisely picks up the infant and starts off, and as the 
 father does not like to lose sight of the family he goes 
 too, and is always sure of a welcome. On Sundays 
 the father usually feels called upon to turn his atten- 
 tion to viewing the farm, and to go out to the bam 
 and congratulate the mules and himself that it is a 
 day of rest for them. The wife is the chief trans- 
 gressor, and does the greatest amount of work on 
 Sunday ; for they must eat, and Sunday is something 
 of a feast day. 
 
 "It was not unusual for one of the mission people 
 to send me a message to go to them at once, that they 
 were 'mighty bad, and reckoned that they had putty 
 nigh retched the end of their rope.' In response to 
 a message of this kind, I went to see a woman, who 
 had a great deal to say about a long life misspent. 
 I felt very anxious that Mr. Satterlee should see her ; 
 her advantages had been so meagre, it seemed to me 
 that the poor unhappy soul might find peace if the 
 good priest, whom I knew and trusted, could talk to 
 her. So I hurried off just as the sun was rising over 
 the mountain. When I reached the rectory they had 
 
WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 103 
 
 just finished breakfast. We were six miles from the 
 woman's cabin, and Mr. Satterlee had a wedding to 
 attend to at noon ; but he said certainly he would go 
 at once. One of the lay readers at our mission went 
 with him ; and as we knelt there, and I heard his kind 
 voice raised in prayer to God in behalf of the poor 
 woman, asking for mercy and forgiveness, I felt sure 
 that the petition would be granted. The result was 
 that the woman changed her life altogether, and lived 
 for several months. The good of that visit was far- 
 reaching. Three of her grandchildren were sent to 
 school to us. Subsequently these with the mother 
 were baptized, and the mother and eldest girl were 
 also confirmed. 
 
 "A gentleman said to me one day, ^Mr. Satterlee 
 is very hard on horses, etc' A farmer standing near 
 and hearing the conversation, remarked, 'Wal, he's a 
 gentleman, he is, and if the mare had any sense she 
 would be proud to haul such a man.' 
 
 "The wedding of a mountain pair was celebrated 
 in Grace Church, Morganton. The marriage was one 
 of convenience altogether; but as the bride was past 
 fifty, and the groom several years her senior, it was 
 to be supposed they had reached years of discretion. 
 I was honored with an invitation to the breakfast, 
 which followed the ceremony. Some of the friends 
 of the groom had prepared very nice refreshments. 
 Mr. Satterlee was trying to preserve a serious man- 
 ner, as the occasion called for, when suddenly the 
 bride called out, 'Oh, shucks, let's go home. Them 
 
I04 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 there hogs ain't been fed since last night.' She 
 referred to the swine that were part inducement to 
 the business transaction that had taken place that 
 morning. I will never forget the expression on Mr. 
 Satterlee's face. Yet he was just as kind and 
 thoughtful of that uncouth old woman as if she were 
 a lady. He was so considerate of every one. I never 
 knew him to do a selfish act, or an unkind one. 
 
 '*When the mission people would take in greens 
 that they might have a hand in the trimming of the 
 parish church, at Christmas, he would be sure to set 
 them in a conspicuous place, where they could see 
 them, and be assured that their contributions to the 
 church decorations were appreciated. 
 
 ''When the time came for him to leave us, I met a 
 man whom Mr. Satterlee had helped to overcome a 
 bad habit, and said this strong man, with tears in his 
 eyes, 'How can we let him go? I feel all broken up 
 over this.' 
 
 "I will always remember the early celebration of 
 the Holy Communion held at the mission after there 
 had been several confirmed. He came out frequently 
 in the early morning; it was so sweet and peaceful. 
 As I look back to those days, I think now as I did 
 then, that the work was such a good one; and I 
 rejoice at the privilege of having had Mr. Satterlee 
 as a leader and guide in it; always ready to encour- 
 age one with some apt quotation, 'Be not weary in 
 well doing; for in due time ye shall reap if ye faint 
 
WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 105 
 
 not/ Dear Mr. Satterlee! The world is better for 
 the brief time he was in it." 
 
 A clergyman from the North who visited Satterlee 
 in Morganton, gives the following account of his 
 visit to one of the mission stations : 
 
 ''I well remember a Sunday afternoon, a little more 
 that seven years ago, on which I drove out to the 
 most remote of these missions. The ruts were so 
 deep in the roads that the axles of the buggy now 
 and again touched the road between them. When I 
 commented on this to the lay reader in charge, he told 
 me of an afternoon when it had taken Mr. Satterlee 
 and him four hours to drive the eight miles, being 
 compelled several times to stop and pry the buggy 
 out of the mud with fence rails. He assured me that 
 since the opening of the chapel two years before, 
 there had not been a Sunday on which the service was 
 omitted. The chapel stood in the woods; there was 
 not a house in sight. But it was crowded to the doors 
 with typical mountaineers, some of whom I was told 
 had driven twelve miles in springless wagons drawn 
 by oxen. The Methodist circuit rider had ridden 
 there on an aged mule of preternatural gravity. The 
 women had brought their babies, and were dipping 
 snuff all the time. But the congregation was reverent 
 and earnest. The people filled the seats. They stood 
 so thick in the doorway that it was difficult for us to 
 get in. They sat all over the steps of the chancel 
 platform. They sat on the window sills, and boys 
 and girls fought for favorite branches of trees from 
 
io6 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 which they could see and hear. I was informed that 
 the majority of those in that congregation had never 
 been in any place of public worship till that chapel 
 was built. It was near this place that Sister Ella, a 
 deaconess working in the early days, asked a sixteen- 
 year-old boy if he had ever heard of Jesus Christ, 
 and received the startling reply, 'No, he don't live 
 near here. Perhaps he lives out on the big road.' 
 While we were there lay readers were conducting 
 services at the two other chapels, and that morning 
 and evening lay readers conducted the services at the 
 colored church, while I officiated at the parish church, 
 Mr. Satterlee having gone with the Bishop to Valle 
 Crucis, to forward the mission work at that point." 
 
 One who was present on the occasion of a Con- 
 firmation Service held at the Chapel of the Good 
 Shepherd has written a graphic description of the 
 scene, which must have been quite Apostolic in its 
 rustic simplicity : 
 
 "On Easter Day, 1898, the Bishop of Washington, 
 at the request of the Bishop of the Diocese, came to 
 visit the Chapel of the Good Shepherd. It was a 
 memorable afternoon. The skies were bright and 
 the air was fragrant with the flowers of early spring. 
 Birds were twittering in the branches. The congre- 
 gation came from all sides, on horseback, on foot, 
 and in strange primitive equipages, many of the peo- 
 ple bearing a striking resemblance to the country folk 
 described so vividly by Shakespeare. The chapel was 
 a one-story house, with a wide piazza in front The 
 
WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 107 
 
 walls of the interior were dressed in festoons of 
 white, by the deaconess and her assistants, and 
 flowers were everywhere. We came both to a disap- 
 pointment and an agreeable surprise. The room 
 itself could not hold one-tenth of the congregation, 
 and therefore the services were held on the piazza in 
 the open air. The diminutive organ was brought 
 out, and the choir took their places. The old moun- 
 taineers ranged themselves in a semi-circle, sitting on 
 logs, which were lying about in profusion, eyeing the 
 Bishop in his robes as though he were some wild 
 animal, who had been caught and brought in for the 
 occasion, and nudging each other, with a broad grin 
 on their faces. Soon, however, these simple folk felt 
 the reverence of the occasion, and the change which 
 came over the hundreds present was very marked. 
 
 "After the Bishop had spoken, explaining the rite 
 of Confirmation in simple words, he laid his hands 
 upon the heads of those who knelt before him. The 
 scene was a memorable one. I felt as though I was 
 living in some other century, and was looking upon 
 people who were drinking in the first experiences of 
 our Church with her beautiful services." 
 
 Material for telling more in detail the story of the 
 interesting and unique work among the mountain 
 people which Satterlee was able to accomplish 
 through enlisting the services of the members of the 
 Brotherhood of St. Andrew happily exists in the 
 form of a graphic description from his own pen. It 
 is probably no exaggeration to say that this account 
 
io8 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 constitutes the most heroic record of missionary work 
 ever undertaken and carried on by any body of lay- 
 men belonging to the Episcopal Church. The article 
 was first published in the January number of the 
 St. Andrew's Cross, 1900, and was subsequently 
 issued in pamphlet form by the Morganton Chapter 
 of the Brotherhood. Nothing could be more satis- 
 factory than to have the story of this remarkable 
 missionary enterprise set forth by him who was the 
 leader and guide in it. 
 
 "What Laymen Can Do In Mission Work" is the 
 title under which the article appeared. Both in its 
 title and the use of the plural pronoun the account 
 exemplifies the characteristic modesty of the man and 
 his habit of giving to others associated with himself 
 in the enterprises which he initiated and carried on 
 their full measure of credit. 
 
 'Tn the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, North 
 Carolina and Tennessee there lives a class of people 
 very unlike the majority of the citizens of the United 
 States, with customs and ideas peculiar to themselves. 
 Many of them have a keen, native intelligence, 
 though they possess neither education nor knowledge 
 of the world. These mountaineers are often mis- 
 judged or unappreciated, and comparatively little has 
 been done to plant the Church among- the scattered 
 communities in w^hich they live. One reason for this 
 oversight may have been the opinion that our Church, 
 with its liturgical service, would not appeal to, or be 
 understood by an uneducated people, ignorant of the 
 
WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 109 
 
 conventionalities of present-day life. To be a 
 Churchman requires intelligence, but not necessarily 
 education. A confusion of the two terms, intelli- 
 gence and education, is the cause of many a failure to 
 understand aggressive work in winning souls for 
 Christ. 
 
 "The General Convention of 1895, realizing the 
 important character of this Piedmont mountain 
 region, especially in North Carolina, set apart the 
 western portion of the State as the Missionary Dis- 
 trict of Asheville. A few months before, a Chapter 
 of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew had been estab- 
 lished in Grace Parish, Morganton. The question 
 which immediately confronted its members was, 
 What special united work shall the Chapter under- 
 take? The answer was unmistakably written in the 
 valleys and upon the rugged peaks of the everlasting 
 hills. These mountain sentinels beckoned us to come 
 to teach the m.ountaineers the Gospel message. In 
 several portions of the surrounding country the vis- 
 itations of a Christian minister of any name were of 
 rare occurrence. So the Brotherhood Chapter deter- 
 mined to start a mission. One of the members agreed 
 to become a lay reader and catechist, and to go every 
 Sunday afternoon to this point, eight miles distant 
 from the church, for the rector had the services of the 
 parish church at Morganton to look after. In a little 
 log hut, which, after the Brotherhood, was named St. 
 Andrew's, the first services were held. The people 
 seemed to appreciate them and the Brotherhood men, 
 
no A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 for the lay reader and his helpers were faithful and 
 enthusiastic. 
 
 ^'Successful work of any description will generally 
 expand; and, in our case, St. Andrew's Mission was 
 succeeded by another, named The Good Shepherd. 
 Instead of an old log hut, as before, with cracks in 
 the walls and a fireplace of the last century, a palatial 
 'country store' was placed at our disposal by some 
 friendly Methodists and Baptists. Fortunately, our 
 parish church contained additional material for lay 
 readers and Sunday-school teachers. A second 
 Brotherhood man consented to go each Sunday to 
 this new mission to conduct service and make an 
 address. Four months later a third mission was 
 started, called at first the Mission of the Messiah, but 
 for obvious reasons renamed soon afterward St. 
 George's. 
 
 "We were thus responsible for three missions. The 
 rector arranged to visit each one Sunday afternoon a 
 month, while the lay readers gave weekly services. 
 Before long Sunday-schools were found to be even 
 more necessary than church services, experience lead- 
 ing the rector and the Brotherhood men to realize 
 how much they could accomplish by little additional 
 effort in this direction. As the faults in the work 
 became apparent we corrected them one by one. A 
 day school was seen to be necessary to teach the chil- 
 dren how to read the Bible and the Prayer Book and 
 how to study their Sunday-school lessons at home. 
 Then, too, the young people needed looking after 
 
WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. m 
 
 during the week. So, a deaconess was sent to us by 
 the Bishop. We had often thought how much good 
 could be accompHshed in this way, but we had never 
 dared to hope for such a privilege, and we willingly 
 solicited funds for her support. It seemed to be the 
 will of God that our work should prosper. Next, 
 three chapels were built for us within a year by kind 
 friends. "St. George's Chapel was given by St. 
 George's Sunday-school in New York, the others by 
 individual subscriptions. The influence of a deacon- 
 ess living among the people soon became apparent. 
 Her success was almost phenomenal. At present 
 there are seven women teachers, in charge of five 
 flourishing day schools, and endeavoring to build up 
 Christian character generally. These teachers work 
 in full harmony and sympathy with the Brotherhood. 
 In the Church service and Sunday-school the lay 
 reader acts as the rector's deputy, but in the temporal 
 afifairs of the mission the teacher in charge has full 
 sway. This has proved a wise arrangement. During 
 the past few months the care of the colored mission 
 services in Morganton has been undertaken by mem- 
 bers of the Chapter, and the outlook is quite hopeful. 
 Ours is thus almost entirely country rescue mission 
 work, and oftentimes we look with envious eyes upon 
 other Chapters which are so successful in ways in 
 which w^e are deficient. 
 
 "So much for what we undertook to do. What, it 
 may be asked, has been the result ? Does our Church, 
 with her service of Common Praver, attract and hold 
 
112 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 the uneducated mountain people? In reply we are 
 able to give an unqualified affirmative. But first, 
 What aroused and perpetuated this work in a small 
 country parish, where there was little money to help 
 in conducting the missions? The rector was not 
 ubiquitous and could not attend all the services. The 
 congregation of the parish church was unable to sup- 
 port an assistant. The mountain people might have 
 given salary in vegetables and farm produce, but they 
 could not contribute money. The Bishop was power- 
 less to give us any of the meagre funds at his disposal 
 to support an additional clergyman. The answer is, 
 the Brotherhood of St. Andrew made this work pos- 
 sible. It could not have been accomplished without 
 the interest and co-operation of the laymen, and their 
 interest could not have been aroused without the sim- 
 ple yet thorough organization of the Brotherhood., 
 Secondly, this illustrates the truth of an old, though 
 somewhat disputed, principle, that mission work to be 
 successful to the greatest degree must be undertaken 
 in connection with a parish church. Isolated missions 
 wath their monthly or bi-monthly services are not as 
 thriving as those conducted in union with a prosper- 
 ous parish. The reason is obvious. Interdependence 
 of obligation arouses interest. It is good for the par- 
 ish church; it strengthens the mission. Above all, it 
 illustrates the principle of the organic unity of the 
 Catholic Church. When on Easter and Christmas, 
 these people of the missions come six and eight miles, 
 on foot, on mule back and in springless wagons over 
 
WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. "S 
 
 the worst possible roads, with their Sunday-schools, 
 each carrying its banner, to join in a carol service at 
 the parish church, the sight is inspiring. It brings to 
 the mission school children a consciousness that the 
 Church is their spiritual home, while it does the peo- 
 ple of Grace Church and, in fact, the whole commu- 
 nity a vast amount of good to view the old farm 
 wagons drawn by mules and tied to the hitching 
 posts of that Church which is sometimes called 'the 
 Church of the rich.' 
 
 ''Have the mission people shown their appreciation, 
 of the services? And if so, in what manner? Lay- 
 reading, of course, is never as popular and satisfac- 
 tory as services conducted by an experienced parish 
 priest. The lay readers realize this and they have 
 never once infringed upon the prerogative of the 
 pastor. A few individuals who loudly affirm that 
 *lay services are no better than no services,' have on 
 occasions escaped from the chapels, when they 
 awaited a clergyman and discovered that it was the 
 lay reader who unexpectedly appeared — a lawyer, or 
 an insurance man, or a grain merchant; but such 
 exhibitions of displeasure have been rare. The peo- 
 ple came to these missions because tney found they 
 could meet God there, CA^en if it were a layman who 
 endeavored to point Him out. On a recent Sunday, 
 an average day, there were two hundred and sixty 
 people attending the services. The number of bap- 
 tisms, in the neighborhood of fifty, shows the import- 
 ance the people place upon this Sacrament. Many 
 
114 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 have been confirmed, while nine-tenths of the number 
 who have been confirmed receive the Lord's Supper 
 whenever an opportunity presents itself. During the 
 year the aggregate attendance has reached fifteen 
 thousand. 
 
 ''Sometimes it has been most difficult to reach the 
 chapels on account of the inclemency of the weather 
 and other reasons, but neither rain, snow nor mud 
 has kept the lay readers from their duty. Frequently 
 the rivers have been so high that one's feet had to be 
 rested on the dash-board, or one has been compelled 
 to stand on the seat when the buggy was partly sub- 
 merged by high waters. The good-natured endur- 
 ance of such slight discomforts has won the respect 
 and affection of the people. The first man to be con- 
 firmed was not singled out by the rector and urged to 
 join a class for preparation. He came of his own 
 accord to one of the laymen and announced his desire 
 to be confirmed. When he was asked why he had 
 made the request, his reply was that the devotion 
 which the laymen had shown convinced him that the 
 Church they represented was a Church which fostered 
 robust manhood, and therefore the Church of which 
 he desired to be a member. 'People from other 
 churches,' he said, ' have come out here to hold ser- 
 vices, but as soon as something has happened to dis- 
 courage them, or as soon as bad weather began to 
 make traveling unpleasant, they stopped coming. We 
 like the Brotherhood men because they are good 
 weather, bad weather, all the year round, workers.' 
 
WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 115 
 
 'Tn what respect are the people bettered? In the 
 same way that the unenhghtened people in New York 
 or any other city are influenced and bettered by con- 
 tact with the Church;— in appearance and manners, 
 by an ambition to read and write, and by their grow- 
 ing appreciation of the worship of the Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer. 
 
 "We have adopted different systems of introducing 
 the Church Service at different missions. At one, we 
 began the first Sunday with a leaflet ; at another, with 
 selections from the leaflet, marking the portions to be 
 used with a red cross. At a third, we began with the 
 'portion of Scripture,' the 'few remarks' and the 
 'extemporaneous prayers,' and after ten months intro- 
 duced the leaflet. Each of these methods has its 
 advantages as well as its drawbacks. The use of the 
 liturgical service at once is apt, if not to antagonize, 
 to puzzle and intimidate the people. On the other 
 hand, waiting to feel the way sometimes makes it 
 awkward to change the method of worship and to 
 give a satisfactory reason for doing so. The congre- 
 gation is afraid to respond at first, but enjoys it after- 
 ward. The people soon learn to feel that they have 
 a share in the worship, and participation creates inter- 
 est. A man from one of the chapels of another 
 Christian body w^ho examined our Prayer Book 
 exclaimed, T shall never be satisfied until I have gone 
 forw^ard before the congregation and received Con- 
 firmation, thereby acknowledging to the world, in the 
 presence of God, my repentance and receiving for- 
 
ii6 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 giveness of all my sins, and strength and gifts to 
 ])ersevere in the Christian life.' 
 
 ^'To show how the people have improved is a diffi- 
 cult matter, but to us it is unmistakably evident. We 
 remember years ago when one of the women of the 
 parish, in the goodness of her heart, drove sixteen 
 miles out into the country through mud axle deep, to 
 teach the children the Christmas carols, and after 
 singing one of the carols alone about six times, 
 inquired — perhaps with a little righteous indigna- 
 tion — 'Children, why don't you join in?' The 
 answer was far more chilling than the cold breezes 
 and more aggravating than the mudholes, but beauti- 
 fully frank: 'We didn't come yere to sing; we come 
 to hear you 'uns sing.' Now things are different. 
 Last Christmas the people at one mission would not 
 allow us to send a wagon to bring them from the 
 country to the carol services. 'We wish to take care 
 of ourselves,' was their answxr; and a very self- 
 respecting answer it was. Recently we inquired why 
 certain mountain children knew so much poetry, and 
 discovered that they read all the books and papers 
 which came into their homes and learned all the 
 poetry which appealed to them — the result of the 
 schools. 'My, how they do enjoy them verses !' was 
 their mother's expression of gratitude. 
 
 "There are many picturesque features in the lives 
 of these people. On the winter evenings while wait- 
 ing outside the chapel for the service or entertainment 
 to commence, they build a large bonfire and gather 
 
WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 117 
 
 within the warm, bright glow of the flames; the 
 women in large calico sun-bonnetvS, regardless of the 
 Aveather; the men tall and gaunt, with deeply lined 
 faces ; the young people laughing and joking. When 
 the time comes to go home, they light their pine 
 torches and start in the darkness on the long home- 
 ward tramp, the men sometimes carrying the chil- 
 dren. Very often streams have to be waded ; that is, 
 if the crossing log has been swept away; and when 
 the cozy log house is reached, we may be sure that 
 the tired parents and sleepy children appreciate the 
 comforts of the wide beds, covered with their patch- 
 work quilts, the result of the women's work during 
 the winter days. When the mud is so deep that walk- 
 ing is impossible, a family mule is brought to the 
 mission, with as many as it can hold upon its back, 
 the journey to the chapel and home again being slow 
 but sure. As there is nobody at home with whom to 
 leave the baby, the mother is obliged to take her little 
 infant to church with her, and one becomes so accus- 
 tomed to the various wails and cries, that after a 
 service in one of the chapels the stillness in the parish 
 church seems abnormally restful. 
 
 "It is a touching sight to see a whole family come 
 to Baptism. A father, mother and five children were 
 baptized last winter, beginning with the oldest and 
 going so, in order, down to the baby. 
 
 "A marriage always draws a great crowd and 
 seems to impress the people very much. The last one 
 presented a difficult problem, as the young woman 
 
ii8 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 refused to let go of her father's hand, and the groom 
 was too shy to come forward. One man in the con- 
 gregation was heard to say, in an awed whisper, 
 'Lor', I could never go through that/ 
 
 "The Mothers' Meetings are always well attended, 
 and are doing much to teach and elevate the women 
 in their home life, and also to give them practical, 
 common-sense knowledge. The Progressive Clubs 
 are holding the interest of the young people and are 
 improving them wonderfully. Whereas, the subject 
 for debate at the first meeting was, 'Which is better, 
 a horse or a mule?' 'The Future of the Philippines' 
 was the last subject under discussion. 
 
 "Our Brotherhood men have found out the old 
 truth that he / 
 
 / 
 " 'Who gives himself with alms feeds three, 
 
 Himself, his hungering neighbor and Me.' 
 
 "Working for others helps self almost more than 
 it does them. It creates in one a manly ambition; it 
 engenders humility. Without any cant or exaggera- 
 tion the rector of the missions can say that, in several 
 places he has seen the whole religious tone of the 
 community raised by the life and example of the 
 Brotherhood workers. 
 
 "Nothing is so interesting as human nature. There 
 is a God-ward side to every character, and divine 
 instincts that will respond to every appeal that is 
 really made in the Name of Christ. Our American 
 life is teeming with opportunities, but it requires 
 
WORK IN THE MOUNTAINS. 119 
 
 courage to seize them; — not the courage of the sol- 
 dier on the battlefield; not the courage of the financier 
 or of the statesman, but of the Christian who dares 
 to speak for Christ, in Christ's own way, through 
 His Church." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 TRINITY CHURCH, COLUMBIA. 
 
 The work which Satterlee was doing in Morgan- 
 ton began, as time went on, to attract much attention 
 throughout the South, and particularly in neighbor- 
 ing dioceses. He came to be widely regarded as an 
 energetic and successful man, and it was, therefore, 
 inevitable that prominent parishes in that section 
 seeking a rector should have their thoughts directed 
 toward him. In the spring of 1900, Trinity Church, 
 Columbia, S. C, the largest parish in the Carolinas, 
 numbering over five hundred communicants, lost its 
 rector by his removal to Richmond, and the vestry 
 began to take steps to fill the vacancy. A former 
 parishioner of Grace Church, Morganton, a member 
 of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and a close friend 
 and great admirer of the rector's, had removed to 
 Columbia about a year previous to this time. Know- 
 ing that the pastorate of Trinity was vacant, he men- 
 tioned Satterlee's name to one of the wardens, who, 
 in turn, brought the matter before the vestry. This 
 gentleman was straightway invited to appear before 
 that body and give information in detail about the 
 character and attainments of his former pastor. So 
 
 120 
 
COLUMBIA. 12 1 
 
 enthusiastic was he in his remarks and so laudatory 
 in his statements, that he succeeded in creating a 
 strong desire to secure Satterlee for the rectorship. 
 A^s a member of the vestry in speaking of the matter 
 afterwards, said, ''We really did not believe that any 
 such man existed, but if he did, we felt we must have 
 him." 
 
 In reading the following letter written after Satter- 
 lee's death by this gentleman who proposed his name, 
 one can well imagine how eloquently he must have 
 advocated the choice of his friend for the vacant pas- 
 torate of Trinity. The communication is addressed 
 to Mrs. Churchill Satterlee : 
 
 'Tt has seemed almost impossible for me to dry my 
 eyes or steady my hand to write, when at times I 
 have begun to realize the great blow that has fallen 
 upon us all. I had no scheme of life, I might say no 
 dream of life in which Churchill Satterlee, my friend 
 and brother, as well as rector, was not a vital factor. 
 It never occurred to me that my advancing and 
 declining years would not be comforted and cheered 
 by the splendid fellowship which has grown and 
 strengthened between us since the beginning of our 
 acquaintance. That we did not correspond as fre- 
 quently as some friends do is of no greater signifi- 
 cance than that when thrown wath him, I did not say 
 all that I had meant to say to him. There was some- 
 thing satisfying about his very existence and the 
 supremest comfort and delight in his presence. No 
 misunderstandings could live between us, and to me 
 
122 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 as to many another, he was the most real exempHfi- 
 cation of true and living Christianity that could be 
 presented. In the pressure and crush of business I 
 have stopped and thought of him, and the days we 
 have spent together, of our long; rides, with his arm 
 affectionately around my shoulders; of the evenings 
 in his study in Morganton, when he would speak of 
 you and your coming to share his life and work; of 
 the days when you and he lived there together; 
 and afterward when you came again into my life in 
 Columbia, so naturally, that the existence of the inter- 
 val of more than a year was forgotten in the joy of 
 reunion. All these have often, I might say daily, 
 come back to me accompanied by the hope, aye, the 
 belief that they were all to be lived over again. 
 
 "It must be that 'beyond this bourne of time and 
 place,' all this is to be, and more which now we can- 
 not understand, but which he knows, just as we felt 
 that he always knew, even as he walked among men. 
 
 "Others have spoken and written of him better 
 than I am able to do, but none have said more than I 
 have always known, and to none will his life be more 
 of a living reality than to me. 
 
 "The hymn, sung as his body was carried from 
 the church, was the refrain of the glorious song of 
 his life; the message of his spirits to his people, 'May 
 Jesus Christ he praised,' '' 
 
 A delegation from the vestry was sent to Morgan- 
 ton to make a personal investigation, which resulted 
 favorably, and an immediate call to the rectorship 
 
COLUMBIA. 123 
 
 was unanimously extended. This call was delivered 
 in person by the two wardens and the assurance was 
 received that it would be duly considered. Satterlee 
 went to Columbia shortly afterwards to look over 
 the field. 
 
 While there he met the vestry as a body and in- 
 quired particularly whether in case of his acceptance, 
 the congregation would object to his undertaking 
 mission work in poor communities, and on occasions 
 bringing the people of such mission to Trinity 
 Church for united worship. He was assured that no 
 obstacle would be thrown in the way of his doing 
 any good work, or in the methods adopted by him 
 for accomplishing it, provided, of course, that he 
 would not leave undone the proper ministration to 
 Trinity Church. 
 
 He went from Columbia to Washington and thence 
 back to Morganton, from which place he wrote 
 accepting the call, promising to take up his duties on 
 the first Sunday in January. 
 
 The following is the text of the call issued by the 
 vestry, with Satterlee's reply accepting the same : 
 
 
 November 5, 1900. 
 Rev. and dear Sir: — 
 "As Senior Warden of Trinity Church of this city, 
 and as such, in the absence of a rector, Chairman of 
 the Vestry, I have the honor and the very sincere 
 pleasure of officially asking you to accept the rector- 
 ship of this parish, to which you were unanimously 
 
124 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 elected by our vestry on the third day of this month. 
 At a meeting of our congregation held this afternoon 
 after due notice this action of the vestry was unani^ 
 mously approved, 
 
 ''We ofifer you a salary of $2,100 a year, payable in 
 monthly installments, and the use of a convenient and 
 commodious rectory. 
 
 "In behalf of the vestry and congregation I express 
 the sincere wish that you will favorably consider this- 
 call. 
 
 ''With respect, 
 
 "Faithfully yours, 
 
 "RoBT. W. Shand. 
 "To Rev. Churchill Satterlee, 
 
 "Morganton, N. C." 
 
 "November 21, 1900. 
 "Grace Church Rectory, 
 "Morganton, N. C. 
 "Robert W. Shand, Esq., 
 
 "Trinity Church Vestry. 
 "My dear Sir : 
 
 "After careful and earnest consideration of the calf 
 extended to me by Trinity Church, Columbia, I have 
 at last decided to accept it. 
 
 "It is not without some hesitancy, that I follow in 
 the illustrious steps of such men as the past rectors 
 of Trinity Church, but by your kind indulgence, and 
 by the grace of God, I believe we shall be happy in 
 our relations as pastor and people. 
 
COLUMBIA. 125 
 
 ''I suggest Epiphany, January 6, 1901, the first 
 Sunday of the month, as a convenient day to assume 
 my duties as rector of your Church. I should Uke 
 six weeks vacation in summer in order to be with 
 our parents, about which they feel very strongly. 
 
 ''Hoping that God will bless our united efforts in 
 the upbuilding of His Kingdom, I am, my dear sir, 
 with great respect and esteem, 
 
 ''Sincerely yours, 
 
 "Churchill Satterlee." 
 
 In a previous chapter it w^as stated that Satterlee 
 had refused several flattering offers to leave Mor- 
 ganton and accept w^ork elsewhere, but that he pre- 
 ferred to remain where he was, being contented and 
 happy with his lot. Possibly he might have pre- 
 served this intention and resisted all inducements to 
 make any change had it not been for considerations 
 which he regarded as imperative. His salary of six 
 hundred dollars at Morganton, now that he had a 
 family growing up, was wholly insufficient for his 
 needs, modest as they always were, and although his 
 father was willing to extend his financial assistance, 
 his ability to do so had lessened since his acceptance 
 of the Bishopric of Washington, and Satterlee felt 
 that he ought to relieve him of that burden. More- 
 over, for some time past the fact had impressed itself 
 upon him that he needed the intellectual stimulus only 
 capable of being fotmd in a larger and more varied 
 communitv, if he was to make the most of his talents. 
 
126 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 Besides these considerations, he appreciated the fact 
 that his missionary labors in Morganton had about 
 reached their hmits, and, with the organization he 
 had perfected, could be easily carried on by another 
 hand. But in order to assure after his departure the 
 continuance of the important work which he had 
 established among the mountaineers, and to provide 
 the necessary funds for maintenance, he brought the 
 matter to the attention of the General Board of the 
 Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, asking 
 that permanent provision be made for carrying it on. 
 This the Society, on his representations endorsed and 
 approved by its agents who were familiar with the 
 w^ork, readily agreed to do. But, in addition to these 
 considerations, Satterlee had convinced himself that 
 a great work awaited him in Columbia among the 
 mill people, of whom several thousand were settled 
 upon the outskirts of the town, and whose religious 
 needs appealed strongly to his missionary spirit. In 
 leaving Morganton and going to Columbia, Satterlee 
 felt he was justified, not merely on purely personal 
 grounds, but that he would thereby secure a wider 
 field for his energies and opportunity for the fuller 
 development of his abilities. 
 
 Satterlee entered upon his duties in Trinity Church 
 on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 1901. 
 
 The parting from his parishioners in Morganton 
 was a sad one for both rector and people. The 
 impress which he had made on the whole community 
 was so deep and abiding, that when his death 
 
COLUMBIA. 127 
 
 occurred three years afterwards, the entire town was 
 plunged in mourning, and gave visible and vocal tes- 
 timony to the universal respect and affection felt for 
 him by all classes and creeds, in a special memorial 
 meeting, the details of which are reserved for narra- 
 tion in the final chapter. The sorrow on Satterlee's 
 part at severing the relations which bound him to his 
 Morganton flock, was equally sincere, and his affec- 
 tionate interest in those among whom he passed the 
 first years of his ministry continued to display itself 
 in many ways. 
 
 Columbia, where Satterlee now took up his resi- 
 dence, was one of the most thriving among the 
 smaller cities of the South. As the capital of the 
 State it drew^ to itself representatives of the chief 
 political and legal elements in the commonwealth. 
 Originally built for the sole purpose of providing a 
 seat for the State government, the city for many 
 years preserved this exclusive character, and only 
 since the war has developed aspects of commercial 
 and industrial life. Burned to the ground during the 
 Civil War, Columbia quickly rose from its ashes and 
 through the courage and enterprise of its citizens was 
 rebuilt on more substantial lines, and to-day, with its 
 noble Capitol, its State and public institutions, its 
 fine business buildings, its State College, and well- 
 appointed public schools, its dignified church edifices, 
 and its many attractive homes, furnishes ample evi- 
 dence of the public spirit and thrift of its inhabitants. 
 
 Trinity Church was one of the most important and 
 9 
 
128 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 influential parishes in the South, both from the num- 
 ber of its communicants and the character and social 
 prestige of the congregation, which comprised the 
 elite of the city. The welcome accorded the new 
 rector was cordial in the extreme. There was never 
 any question regarding Satterlee's Northern birth 
 and proclivities. He was made to feel at once his 
 perfect acceptability in his Southern environment. 
 The vestry was composed mainly of Confederate 
 veterans of the Civil War, and the fact was remarked 
 at the institution of the new rector, that the spectacle 
 of a young Northern man receiving his induction 
 into a conservative Southern parish at the hand of a 
 Bishop who had himself fought on the Confederate 
 side, and surrounded by a group of men almost all of 
 whom bore wounds received in the great fratricidal 
 conflict, was of unique interest. 
 
 In connection with Satterlee's first appearance in 
 the chancel, a ludicrous incident is related which, at 
 the time, to himself certainly, aflPorded small occasion 
 for risibility. It seems that the trunk containing his 
 supply of vestments went astray en route between 
 Morganton and Columbia, so that when Sunday 
 came he found himself without his clerical habili- 
 ments. There was nothing to do but to borrow^ a 
 cassock and surplice from a brother priest. As Sat- 
 terlee stood over six feet in his stockings and was 
 proportionately big of frame and broad of shoulders, 
 and as the other man was small of stature and lightly 
 built, the vestments were anything but a good fit, — 
 
COLUMBIA. 129 
 
 in fact, the grotesque appearance of their new rector 
 with abbreviated cassock and sleeves coming only 
 just below the elbows, was the occasion of much sup- 
 pressed amusement on the part of members of the 
 congregation. This incident, however, served, as a 
 member of the parish afterwards remarked, to in- 
 crease the respect felt for him, because it was plainly 
 evident if he was built on generous lines physically, 
 he was possessed of a small supply of personal vanity. 
 
 One who was present on the occasion gives a 
 description of Satterlee's bearing under the trying 
 ordeal to which he was subjected. 
 
 ''He had to face a church crowded with strangers,, 
 the majority of whom looked upon him as simply a, 
 mountain missionary. He exhibited absolutely no> 
 hesitation or self-consciousness. His rendering of 
 the service, always impressive, was this time superb, 
 and when he came to the sermon, which was not the 
 one prepared for the occasion, he more than held his 
 own. There were many who came to criticise, and 
 even friends from North Carolina who feared the 
 ordeal for him, but as he proceeded a wave of reac- 
 tion seemed to sweep over the entire congregation, 
 and when the service was over, the people seemed to 
 vSay with one voice, as they left the church, 'He's the 
 man.' " 
 
 Two weeks after Satterlee entered upon his duties 
 his little son Yates was stricken down with smallpox,, 
 and the family found itself quarantined in the rec- 
 tory. The sympathy of the whole community went 
 
I30 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 out to the rector and his wife in their misfortune and 
 anxiety, and, though debarred from offering their 
 personal ministrations, his parishioners found many 
 methods of expressing their deep concern and friendly 
 solicitude. After the second week, as the case was 
 only a mild one, Satterlee withdrew from the house 
 in order to attend to his parish duties and was able 
 to communicate with his wife only through the tele- 
 phone or at a distance from the street. It was a 
 severe trial for him, but it had one good result, in 
 that his trouble served to draw his people closer to 
 him and to early cement the bond which united pas- 
 tor and flock. 
 
 While Satterlee enjoyed intensely the society of 
 his friends, and always kept open house for his par- 
 ishioners, carrying his hospitality so far as almost to 
 make of his rectory a parish house, — he w^as yet a 
 man singularly domestic in his tastes, and took the 
 keenest delight in the companionship of his wife and 
 children. The contrast between the lonely years 
 spent in Morganton before his second marriage and 
 his happy domestic life subsequently was most 
 marked. 
 
 Satterlee's immediate predecessor was an eloquent 
 and popular preacher, and the knowledge of this fact 
 caused him many misgivings regarding his ability to 
 satisfy the expectations of his new flock. He was 
 wont to acknowledge humbly his own shortcomings 
 in this respect. He strongly felt that his people were 
 rightfully entitled to the best he could give them, and 
 
COLUMBIA. 131 
 
 he determined forthwith to make himself more pro- 
 ficient in his prophetic office. In Morganton, among 
 the simple and kindly folk who constituted his par- 
 ishioners, he felt that he was addressing a little body 
 of friends to whom he could speak in terms of famil- 
 iarity and freedom, who loved him too much to be 
 critical, but in the case of the conservative and cul- 
 tured people who comprised his congregation in 
 Trinity Church, Columbia, he realized that the pres- 
 ence of a more critical spirit demanded a correspond- 
 ing effort on his part. While his sermons never lost 
 their simplicity of thought and expression, a gradual 
 improvement in their form and substance was notice- 
 able. Particularly was this the case in his extempo- 
 raneous addresses. One of his Morganton parish- 
 ioners, a lady of culture and critical judgment, in 
 speaking of his first attempt at extemporaneous 
 preaching, said to the writer: 'Tt was positively 
 pitiful to hear him. He seemed unable to utter a 
 coherent sentence. His thoughts appeared to have 
 deserted him and he floundered helplessly through 
 his address, scarcely uttering a connected thought. 
 It was a great relief to us when he had finished. 
 When subsequently I heard him preach in Columbia, 
 I was amazed at the improvement that had taken 
 place. He spoke with ease and fluency and was able 
 apparently to give full expression to his thoughts. 
 I congratulated him warmly upon the improvement, 
 and told him how surprised I was at his success, and 
 added that I believed he would m.ake a fine extempo- 
 
132 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 raneous speaker if he would persevere in it. His face 
 lit up with an expression of keen pleasure, as he 
 remarked with boyish naivete, 'Do you really think 
 so, Mrs. X. ?' I assured him I was perfectly sincere.'' 
 
 Of Satterlee's preaching, one who was very close 
 to him, but whose relationship did not impair his dis- 
 criminating judgment, writes in response to a letter 
 of inquiry : 
 
 **You speak of Churchiirs sermons. These were 
 not eloquent, for Churchiirs mind was creative, 
 rather than analytical or logical. He had always a 
 great yearning to help his people. He knew what he 
 wanted to say, but only slowly learned the art of say- 
 ing it in a way that his people would understand 
 what he meant. 
 
 ''The criticism that I have heard more than once 
 from his most intelligent parishioners was, that while 
 other sermonizers challenged a deeper interest, or 
 w^ere more eloquent than he, nevertheless they derived 
 more help from Churchill's sermons than those of 
 many others, because he always gave them some life 
 lesson, which they took home to their hearts; — some 
 vital truth which inspired their faith, and which they 
 could live by. 
 
 "Personally, I have not read any of Churchill's 
 sermons for a year or more, and although he had 
 greatly improved since that time, and his sermons 
 were really more helpful to the men of his congrega- 
 tion than those of his very eloquent predecessor, 
 nevertheless, I am inclined to the belief that it was 
 
COLUMBIA. 133 
 
 his own personal influence, rather than the words 
 which he spoke, which produced this effect." 
 
 One of the wardens of Trinity, in a communica- 
 tion addressed to the writer, speaks in the following 
 appreciative terms of Satterlee's character and work : 
 
 **Mr. Satterlee vSoon impressed the whole commu- 
 nity with the belief that his whole heart was in his 
 work; that he had really attained to that Christian 
 eminence where it was 'none for self and all for 
 Thee.' He was a stranger to envy. He worked for 
 the good of others, absolutely indifferent whether 
 credit was given to him for what was accomplished. 
 After his death a good Presbyterian remarked, 'Mr. 
 Satterlee was one of the most catholic-spirited men I 
 ever met,' and a Baptist minister said, T never knew 
 a man who was more nearly the perfect Christian.' 
 
 "He found the ladies of the congregation organ- 
 ized into a Women's Guild, with committees charged 
 with separate departments of church work, desig- 
 nated as Visiting Chapter, Chancel Chapter, Church- 
 yard Chapter, Industrial Chapter, Beneficial Chap- 
 ter, and Church Chapter. There was also an active 
 branch of the Women's Auxiliary and an organiza- 
 tion of young ladies called Daughters of the Holy 
 Cross. All these were continued by Mr. Satterlee. 
 A branch of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew had 
 been previously organized. This he revitalized and 
 enlarged. He also organized into groups, the 'Men 
 of Trinity,' the 'Boys of Trinity,' and the 'Junior 
 
134 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 Boys of Trinity/ and established for the girls the 
 'Junior Auxiliary/ 
 
 "Under his ministrations, congregation and 
 Sunday-school grew in size. He was universally 
 esteemed. As a preacher he would not be called elo- 
 quent, but earnest, sensible and instructive, with an 
 improvement manifest every year. His life was a 
 sermon. I have never heard of one single act or 
 utterance of Mr. Satterlee criticised as being incon- 
 sistent with his Christian profession. He truly lived 
 what he preached." 
 
 As may be gathered from the foregoing, Satterlee 
 found Trinity Church well organized. He had not, 
 therefore, to create his parish machinery as in Mor- 
 ganton, but simply to utilize what he found ready at 
 hand and infuse the workers with a measure of his 
 own spirit. It does not appear that he met with any 
 open opposition to his plans from any quarter. 
 Doubtless the greatest difficulty he had to contend 
 with was simply the vis inertiae pertaining to a con- 
 servative and highly respectable congregation. As 
 one of its members said, ''Before Mr. Satterlee came, 
 Trinity was anything but a working parish." The 
 same person, in speaking of the obstacles which Sat- 
 terlee found in his work, recalled a remark of his to 
 the effect that the trouble with Trinity congregation 
 was "its confounded respectability." Satterlee could 
 bear nothing like a patronizing attitude on the part of 
 one person towards another, and his contempt for 
 what he termed "respectable aloofness" was supreme. 
 
COLUMBIA. 135 
 
 While extremely sensitive to any evidence of indiffer- 
 ence or dislike exhibited towards himself, he never 
 permitted such a feeling to dominate him. Rather, 
 he exerted himself doubly to win over his critics. An 
 intimate friend recalls his saying in such a case, ''I 
 think So-and-So is rather distant towards me and 
 doesn't like me much; I must be careful to cultivate 
 him." 
 
 In regard to his work as an organizer and pastor, 
 one of his vestrymen writes thus : 
 
 "A feature in Mr. Satterlee's ministry was that 
 disappointment in results never seemed to discourage 
 him. If he thought a work was needed he tried to 
 do it. If others failed to appreciate it, he neverthe- 
 less went on, and in many things accomplished what 
 he wanted, while others predicted failure, and only a 
 few sustained him. As it grew upon our people that 
 he was working wholly for the good of others, and 
 that good was done, he found himself sustained and 
 encouraged by large numbers. 
 
 "His ministrations were not only to groups and 
 organized bodies, — he was untiring in his devotion 
 to individuals. He visited regularly all of his flock, 
 and was especially attentive to the sick and sorrow^- 
 ing. Once while at a florist's purchasing flowers for 
 a poor woman (which he frequently did) some one 
 present remarked that he had better buy food for her. 
 The florist replied, ^I know that he has already done 
 that.' 
 
 "After Mr. Satterlee's death his best friends were 
 
136 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 surprised to hear of how much he had done for those 
 who suffered and were sorrowful, and they wondered 
 how he had ever learned anything about some of 
 these people. I have often told Mr. Satterlee of 
 cases of sickness just reported to me. His reply 
 almost always was, 'Oh, yes, I have been there.' 
 
 "In all of the organizations of the parish he took a 
 lively interest, attending meetings, encouraging and 
 advising. He tried to be in closest touch with the 
 boys and young men of the parish, and keep them 
 even in their play mindful of their Christian obliga- 
 tions. They were all warmly attached to him, and 
 his influence was manifest in the better lives of many 
 of them.'' 
 
 As revealing the wideness of his personal minis- 
 trations, the fact may be mentioned that he estab- 
 lished relations with the colony of Greek Christians 
 settled in Columbia, and that the children were 
 brought to Trinity Church to receive baptism. 
 
 One of the "Boys of Trinity" furnishes an account 
 of the Club which the rector formed, with a descrip- 
 tion of the annual outing : 
 
 "Soon after Mr. Satterlee's arrival in Columbia he 
 organized the boys of his parish into a club called the 
 ^Boys of Trinity.' In this society there were relig- 
 ious as well as social features. 
 
 "Meetings were held every Friday night. Mr. 
 Satterlee, as chaplain, always opened the meeting 
 with prayer, after which came the regular routine 
 business of the society. We were always glad when 
 
COLUMBIA. 137 
 
 our rector was able to give us little talks. He spoke 
 to us not as a preacher but as our friend and comrade. 
 
 'Through the rector's help and assistance the 
 *Boys of Trinity' were able to have an annual outing. 
 While in camp we dressed in our old clothes. It was 
 a pleasing sight indeed to see the rector dressed in a 
 brown shirt and overalls, joking and laughing with 
 the boys. He took part in all our sports and was lit- 
 erally 'one of the boys.' 
 
 ''When the choir boys and 'Boys of Trinity' first 
 went to 'Camp Satterlee' they wtvt asked by Mr. 
 Satterlee to take their prayer books and hymnals 
 w^th them. This they did because they wanted to 
 please their rector, though they did not think they 
 would have much use for them, — but it proved other- 
 wise. The country people would come to camp at 
 prayer time, which was also breakfast and supper 
 time, and at first we thought they came for some- 
 thing to eat, but they wanted to hear Mr. Satterlee 
 pray and the boys sing familiar hymns. 
 
 "Mr. Satterlee was always straightforward in his 
 dealings with the boys. He was never partial. He 
 was always kind and considerate and slow to lose his 
 temper. He certainly was an ideal leader of boys. 
 He always had the nicest way of getting one to obey 
 him. He would never command, only talk kindly, 
 and we all soon saw how just he really was. Mr. 
 Satterlee was a good man, and they loved him for it." 
 
 One who was intimately associated with Satterlee 
 in the active work of the parish, whose position 
 
138 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 afiforded opportunity for knowing much of the quiet 
 work he did among young men, writes as follows : 
 
 *'Since the news of Mr. Satterlee's death reached 
 me I have recalled daily between smiles and tears, 
 many incidents of my association with him, and it 
 seemed it w^ould be an easy matter to give you such 
 material as you desired. But when I came to analyze 
 the incidents which had most impressed upon me Mr. 
 Satterlee's unusual characteristics, I found they were 
 so closely connected w4th the private affairs of other 
 people still living, that they were not available for 
 your purpose. 
 
 "I saw his marvellous tact exercised so many times 
 in solving diffxult choir problems and in bringing 
 together warring factions, and yet the parties con- 
 cerned never realized how dexterously they were 
 handled, and to recall them now would be to frustrate 
 Mr. Satterlee's intentions. I also know of his deal- 
 ings with several young men in whom he was inter- 
 ested, and my information came from the young men 
 themselves, who, of course, told it to me in confi- 
 dence. One case I remember especially well of a 
 young man who had been very dissipated but was 
 trying to reform. Mr. Satterlee got him into the 
 choir, and took pains to make friends with him. 
 Christmas eve I heard that this young man was 
 preparing to ^celebrate' with his friends and I 
 went to the rectory to impart the news to Mr. 
 Satterlee, who, of course, went at once in search 
 of his protege. A few days after the young 
 
COLUMBIA. 139 
 
 man remarked to me, 'I tell you Mr. Satterlee 
 is an awful good fellow.' I agreed with him, 
 and he went on to say, 'You know he came to 
 see me Christmas eve. I was going down the street 
 when I met him and he said he was just going to my 
 rooms to wish me a *Merry Christmas,' so I went back 
 with him, and we sat and talked about books and 
 dogs and hunting until eleven o'clock. Then he pre- 
 scribed for my cold, and advised me to go to bed.' I 
 inquired if he took Mr. Satterlee's advice. 'Yes, I 
 did,' he replied. T knew he hunted me up because he 
 thought I needed a guardian, though he never 
 preached a bit to me, — and I thought, by Jove, if he 
 could give up Chrismas eve at home to keep me 
 straight, the best I could do was to keep straight.' 
 
 "If those of us w^ho were so fortunate as to come 
 within range of his influence could but tell what he 
 had done for each of us personally, what a great 
 memorial his would be. God was so good as to give 
 me the benefit of Mr. vSatterlee's comfort and counsel 
 at a time of great trouble and sorrow, and the help he 
 gave me then has made life a different thing for me." 
 
 During Satterlee's rectorship he started a fund for 
 the erection of a parish house adjoining the church. 
 It was his idea that this building should constitute a 
 memorial to departed communicants of Trinity 
 Church. One member of the parish made an offering 
 of $1,000, and others gave liberally. At the time of 
 his death several thousand dollars had been collected 
 through his exertions, and it is now proposed to push 
 
I40 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 the work vigorously and make the house in a special: 
 sense a memorial to the late rector. 
 
 One who, perhaps, was closer to Satterlee than any 
 layman, having been intimately associated with him 
 for eight years, both in Morganton and also after- 
 wards in Columbia, gives some interesting personal 
 reminiscences : 
 
 "We used in summer to spend evenings together 
 smoking on the veranda, and I remember upon one 
 occasion his bringing out a box of 'plantations' sent 
 him by his father, remarking that they were such as. 
 his father kept for his own use, though he always had 
 'Henry Clays' for special occasions when he enter- 
 tained men of distinction. I remarked that I was 
 somewhat surprised that Bishop Satterlee smoked at 
 all, to which he replied, 'Certainly he does; all the 
 good fellows smoke.' 
 
 "It was a favorite tenet of his that sermons should 
 always be prepared by Thursday night, so that any- 
 thing that might happen later in the week would not 
 cause a preacher to go before his congregation unpre- 
 pared. I think he followed this rule almost invaria- 
 bly, doing most of his work between Tuesday and 
 Thursday night. On Mondays, he did the lighter 
 part of his parochial work and called it resting. This 
 was the day when you could see him on the street and 
 stepping into places of business for the smile and 
 handshake that were always welcomed even by the 
 busiest ; and often with an invitation to 'Come around 
 for tea and a smoke this evening.' 
 
COLUMBIA. 141 
 
 ''He was, as you know, a great lover of good 
 church music, and a very good choir-master. In 
 Morganton he conducted all rehearsals, with the 
 exception of one period of six months during which 
 he had a trained musician employed ; and his was the 
 only bass voice we had at any time. 
 
 ''When he had worked very hard, and we had a 
 fine service, as we usually had on all feast days and 
 special occasions, he would have what he called a 
 'blue Monday' following, which I can see now was 
 simply the result of nature's protest against over- 
 work, though he never complained of physical dis- 
 comfort, and would rarely acknowledge that he was 
 at all out of condition. 
 
 "If he was not what is popularly called an orator, it 
 is because he didn't consider it worth while to be. 
 His sermons were strong, scholarly and effective, and 
 his growth as a preacher during the eight years that 
 I knew him was remarkable. He didn't aspire to a 
 reputation as an orator, and didn't want to be known 
 as a 'walking encyclopedia.' 
 
 "He remarked to me once, that his father had told 
 him that there were certain points in which other 
 young men of his Class surpassed him, but that his 
 theological perspective was good; and this seemed to 
 please him very much. 
 
 "All through life it was with him a question of 
 true perspective, and this is what saved him from the 
 partisanship and susceptibility ^to adulation that have 
 often impaired the usefulness of many able men. 
 
142 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 That remark of his about true perspective, though 
 not intended as such, was a much needed sermon 
 to me. 
 
 "When he began services in the mill district in 
 Columbia it was under a simple shed near the site of 
 the present chapel, and there is one incident that 
 shows strongly his talent for turning opposition to 
 help. Bishop Capers was to hold the service, one 
 Sunday afternoon, Trinity choir furnishing the 
 music; and Mr. Satterlee was out 'drumming' for a 
 congregation. He found some men seated at the end 
 of a railway bridge near by, and, to strengthen his 
 invitation to them, added 'The Bishop of South Caro- 
 lina, a great man, is going to preach.' One of the 
 men said rather sullenly, 'What I want to hear is a 
 good man, it don't make any difference to me about 
 Bishops — one good man is as good as another.' 
 Seizing the opportunity, Mr. Satterlee won them all 
 by saying, 'That's the right spirit, and the man we 
 are going to hear is a good man, just the kind of man 
 you want. Everyone who knows the Bishop knows 
 that he is first of all and above all a good man.' 
 
 "He would join in a very hearty laugh at his own 
 expense, and when, through haste or nervousness, he 
 would announce at choir meeting that we would sing 
 'eighty-five verses of the fifth hymn,' the mirth that 
 followed was sufficient stimulus to an extra hour of 
 hard work if lie wanted it from us. 
 
 "At one Easter celebration at the Church of the 
 Good Shepherd in Columbia, he undertook to cite the 
 
COLUMBIA. 143 
 
 story of Jonah to the children, with the intention of 
 bringing in Christ's three days in the tomb as the 
 antitype of Jonah's three days in the belly of the 
 whale. His tongue became tangled, and he used 
 every possible transposition of the syllables in the 
 words 'belly of the whale.' Finally he stopped, 
 laughed in spite of himself, and said with comic seri- 
 ousness, *Well, children, you know what I mean; 
 now don't go home and tell this.' 
 
 "Once, in Morganton, I heard a gentleman, not of 
 Mr. Satterlee's congregation, say: 'I just left the 
 happiest man I've seen in a long time ; old man H — , 
 the blacksmith, got a letter to-day from Mr. Satterlee 
 who is in Switzerland, and he's the proudest man 
 you ever saw.' (By some people in this section, the 
 word 'proud' is used as synonymous with either 
 'happy' or 'grateful.' I don't know if this is true in 
 the North.) 
 
 "You can see from the incident just given how he 
 remembered each individual in his congregation, no 
 matter what his position in life, and always took the 
 trouble to show that he remembered. 
 
 "When there was quite an epidemic of smallpox 
 near Morganton, he came to my father's office in 
 compliance with the compulsory vaccination ordi- 
 nance, and while he was being vaccinated, my father, 
 who was Superintendent of the Board of Health, said 
 jokingly, 'I must do this well, for if things get bad at 
 the smallpox camp I may want to take you there 
 
 with me.' Without hesitation Mr. Satterlee spoke 
 
 10 
 
144 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 up very earnestly and said, 'Do you really mean it, 
 Doctor? ril go if you want me.' 
 
 **I know of one case where he traveled over a thou- 
 sand miles and spent about three hundred dollars 
 from his own pocket, in order to help a young man 
 do what he considered the honorable thing, and save 
 the name of a young girl who could be saved only in 
 one way. This was done against violent opposition 
 on the part of the young man's family, but the man 
 himself was anxious to make amends, and the wis- 
 dom of Mr. Satterlee's course is evident from the 
 subsequent life of the couple, despite the adverse 
 criticism at the time. 
 
 ''I remember that Spencer's 'Synthetic Philosophy' 
 occupied a prominent place in his library, and that he 
 w^as very fond of biographies, taking special interest 
 in J. Wing s 'Life of Washington.' While in Europe 
 during the summer of '96, he and his sister made a 
 study of Bryce's 'American Commonwealth,' a book 
 Avhich most people would hardly consider best 
 adapted to vacations. 
 
 "At one time he entertained the idea of writing a 
 history of the origin, or rather descent, of the class of 
 North Carolinians known as the South Mountaineers, 
 but I do not think he ever found time to undertake 
 the work. 
 
 "One of his methods of deciding between two 
 courses of action was to take the pros and cons of 
 each in parallel columns and strike a balance ; but I'm 
 
COLUMBIA. 145 
 
 not sure that he adopted Spencer's method of giving 
 numerical vahies to the items. 
 
 ''He and I used often to refer to the existence of 
 some point of contact, some ground in common, be- 
 tween the best man and the worst ; and sometimes in 
 a half-cynical humor I would sum it up in a detached 
 quotation from Kipling, 'The best is like the worst.' 
 Cynicism formed no part of his constitution, so he 
 would get back at me by bringing up the subject in 
 company with a lot of dignified people, and pointing 
 to me and saying jokingly, 'This fellow believes the 
 best are just like the worst, anyway.' " 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 AMONG THE MILL HANDS. 
 
 It was stated in the preceding chapter that one of 
 the main reasons leading Satterlee to accept the call 
 to Columbia was his appreciation of the fact that a 
 great missionary work awaited him among the mill 
 workers living on the outskirts of the city. During 
 the past twenty years there had been growing up in 
 Columbia important cotton manufacturing interests, 
 which had brought to the city from the surrounding 
 country districts a large and increasing population. 
 When Satterlee went to Columbia, it is estimated 
 that over ten thousand persons were employed in the 
 various mills established there. These workers were 
 mainly recruited from the "sand hill" districts of 
 South Carolina, and comprised people who had here- 
 tofore made a precarious living as small farmers. 
 Dwelling for the most part in isolated communities, 
 possessing little or none of the advantages of educa- 
 tion, and sunk in the lowest depths of poverty, these 
 "poor whites'' or "crackers" eagerly embraced the 
 opportunity offered them of bettering their condition 
 which the establishment of the cotton mill industry 
 presented. Whole families, including children, came 
 
 146 
 
THE MILL HANDS. i47 
 
 to Columbia and found employment in the mills. 
 Unaccustomed heretofore to having any money, the 
 united wages which the family as a whole was able to 
 earn represented in their eyes a sum almost fabulous. 
 As much of the work was of such a character that it 
 could easily be performed by children of tender years, 
 such constituted a percentage of the workers. Prior 
 to 1903, children under ten years of age were freely 
 permitted to enter the mills; since that time the law 
 has prohibited the employment of those under twelve. 
 In a pamphlet which Satterlee published soliciting 
 aid for his work among the mill people, he strongly 
 condemns this evil, and gives the facts as to the con- 
 ditions under which the work is done : 
 
 "The blame for this sacrifice of children's health 
 and schooling should be placed where it belongs. 
 Many of the mill owners would co-operate willingly 
 to compel children of tender years to go to school. A 
 large number of the mill owners and managers were 
 in favor of the Child Labor bill, which was recently 
 passed by the General Assembly in this State, for- 
 bidding children under ten years of age to work in 
 the mills this year, next year prohibiting those under 
 eleven to work, and the year following those under 
 twelve, unless there is a widowed mother to be sup- 
 ported, or some other equally urgent cause. The 
 working hours are long. The State allows sixty-six 
 hours a week, and the majority of employees prefer 
 to work twelve hours a day for five days in the week, 
 with a half holiday on Saturday. Work commences 
 
148 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 at 6 A. M. and ends at 6.45 p. m., with three-quarters 
 of an hour intermission at noon. But almost ninety 
 per cent, of the entire pay roll of any of the factories 
 in this State is figured upon a piece basis, and the 
 other ten per cent, is paid by the day. So far as the 
 work and the pay are concerned, it matters little to 
 the employer whether the work is done by a man or 
 by a child, so long as it is well done. The expense is 
 the same. Children are desired for other reasons, not 
 primarily for the reason of economy. 
 
 "It is by no means rare for a family to make $800 
 or $1,000 a year. That is one reason why the mill 
 owner has been inclined to employ the children, as 
 the father and mother prefer to go where the family 
 can make the largest wages, using the whole family ; 
 the older children often make more money than the 
 parents. Sometimes the father does not work at all. 
 But such a condition of affairs is the exception rather 
 than the rule.'' 
 
 The influx of this large population within a few 
 years rendered the task of adequately ministering to 
 their spiritual needs a tremendous one, and quite 
 beyond the powers of the Christian people of Colum- 
 bia. The mill workers themselves, if not unmindful 
 of their religious interests, were yet wholly lacking in 
 the power of initiative and capacity for caring for 
 themselves in this regard. For a long time little was 
 accomplished in the way of providing regular relig- 
 ious services. Vagrant preachers, it is true, occa- 
 sionally made their way into the mill districts, fol- 
 
THE MILL HANDS. 149 
 
 lowing the people from their former homes, but their 
 crass ignorance and crude conceptions of Christianity- 
 made their ministrations of small avail in awakening 
 the dormant religious life and raising the moral tone 
 of th^ community. The mill owners themselves ulti- 
 mately saw the necessity of doing something for the 
 moral uplifting of their employees, and in the spring 
 of 1 90 1 three of the largest companies offered to 
 give a plot of ground and $2,500 towards the erection 
 of a church building to cost not less than $5,000, to 
 any Christian body in Columbia which would build 
 a church and supply regular Sunday services. Here 
 was Satterlee's opportunity. Though he had just 
 come to Columbia and had barely established himself 
 in the rectorship, he brought the matter before his 
 congregation and begged them to accept the offer of 
 the mill ow^ners. Although the parish heretofore had 
 been content to consider only its own needs, spend- 
 ing, as the wife of one of the vestrymen said, "most 
 of its thought, most of its efforts, and most of its 
 money upon itself," such was the contagion of Sat- 
 terlee's enthusiasm that the vestry readily agreed to 
 raise $2,000 for the purpose, Satterlee himself prom- 
 ising to provide the balance. As soon as the matter 
 had been settled, Satterlee took possession of the 
 field, and, pending the erection of the church, had a 
 wooden shed put up where open air services were 
 conducted by him during the summer and autumn of 
 1 90 1. In speaking of this early phase of the work 
 Satterlee says in his pamphlet : 
 
ISO A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 "By beginning the services in this simple way, 
 something was also done, I believe, to impress upon 
 the people for whom they were intended the fact that, 
 in spite of erroneous but frequently widespread im- 
 pressions, the Episcopal Church does not stand for 
 exclusiveness, or for modes of worship unsuited to 
 the simplest people." 
 
 The people at first were highly suspicious of the 
 new enterprise. Few or none of them knew anything 
 of the Episcopal Church, the ideas they had concern- 
 ing it bordering upon the ludicrous. Still, they 
 flocked to the services attracted by their curiosity and 
 the novelty of the vestments worn by the clergyman 
 and choristers. The same methods which had won 
 success for Satterlee's work among the mountaineers 
 of North Carolina proved, however, equally effectual 
 in winning the good will of the mill operatives, and 
 it was not long before suspicion was completely dis- 
 armed and a permanent and loyal congregation estab- 
 lished. As in the case of his mission work at Mor- 
 ganton, Satterlee felt that little lasting good could be 
 effected without having workers on the spot who 
 could enter into the daily life of the people and min- 
 ister as well to their material as to their spiritual 
 welfare. Accordingly, with his usual resourceful- 
 ness, he managed to raise the money among his 
 friends in the North to pay the salary of a deacon- 
 ness, who arrived in October of that year. A house 
 was set apart by the mill owners for her occupancy, 
 
THE MILL HANDS. 151 
 
 which was used also for the meetings of the societies 
 and guilds which Satterlee organized. 
 
 The chapel, a commodious brick building holding 
 400 people, was completed in November, 1901, at a 
 cost of $5,700, the title being vested in Trinity- 
 Church, and it was called Trinity Chapel. Mean- 
 while a curate ministering exclusively to the wants of 
 the mill congregation was secured and active mis- 
 sionary work begun. 
 
 The problem of how best to meet the peculiar 
 needs of the mill congregation occupied much of 
 Satterlee's thoughts. In the pamphlet previously 
 referred to, he tells how the work was conducted and 
 the results which followed : 
 
 "The question of the most suitable form of service 
 to introduce now came up for decision. It is my 
 experience that in all mission work of this kind, the 
 hope of the future centres largely in the children. 
 The older people have already formed their opinions, 
 and are established in their views. In order to be 
 reached at all, the adults must be reached through 
 the children. So it was deemed best to have two ses- 
 sions of the Sunday-school, morning and afternoon; 
 to have an educational and devotional service in the 
 morning, with Morning Prayer, churchly hymns, and 
 a talk on some simple phase of Church doctrine or 
 worship. For use, at night, we arranged a leaflet 
 which had the elements of our Church service, but 
 simplified; old familiar hymns were sung, and a 
 'gospel sermon' was preached. 
 
152 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 "The efifect of these services has been marked. 
 True, there is seldom a crowd in the chapel, but we 
 have a very fair proportion of the Sunday scholars in 
 the community, as also a gratifying number of the 
 adult worshippers. The Methodists and the Baptists 
 have larger congregations, but it must be remembered 
 that many of those who attend the services and par- 
 take of the Holy Communion in Trinity Chapel had 
 never even heard of the Episcopal Church two years 
 ago. Our numbers are on the increase year by year, 
 although we endeavor to be very careful in the prep- 
 aration of our catechumens. There are hundreds and 
 we fear thousands who never attend a church of any 
 name, so there is a great work ahead. 
 
 "In this way the mission was continued through 
 the winter and spring of 1902. The minister in 
 charge, and the deaconess, regularly visited the fami- 
 lies in the mill homes. When any sickness or death 
 occurred, the services of our workers were in constant 
 demand, as the people realized that the rector, the 
 vicar and the deaconess were at their service when- 
 ever help of any kind could be rendered. Direct and 
 indirect good has resulted from these visits. There 
 are several persons alive and in good health to-day, 
 who, ignorant of the ways and means of nursing, 
 would probably have succumbed to premature death 
 had it not been for certain simple precautions shown 
 them in their sick rooms." 
 
 In no respect were the results of this line of work 
 
THE MILL HANDS. i53 
 
 more productive of good than in the case of the 
 babies. By the estabhshment of a Day Nursery, 
 where mothers were encouraged to place their infants 
 during the time they themselves were employed in the 
 mills, the sickness and mortality among this class 
 were greatly reduced. It had been the custom in 
 many instances for the mothers to take their babies 
 with them to the mills, where they were deposited in 
 a convenient place and then left to their own devices. 
 In order to keep them quiet, it was not unusual to 
 dose them with paregoric. Even w^here this was not 
 the case, the lack of proper food and attention, the 
 foul air, and loud whir of the machinery, were 
 causes distinctly affecting the babies' health. 
 
 The institutional work which Satterlee inaugurated 
 soon outgrew the cramped quarters of the little home 
 provided for the deaconess, and the conviction forced 
 itself upon his mind that a building especially adapted 
 to the growing needs of the work was an urgent 
 necessity. At least $5,000 was required to erect and 
 equip a proper building. During his vacation in the 
 summer of 1902, he devoted his time and energy to 
 w^hat he termed "the irksome task" of raising this 
 money. He succeeded in getting this large sum, 
 how or from whom no one but himself knew. All 
 that. his parishioners in Columbia could say about it 
 was, that "he got it from friends at the North." The 
 house, a pleasant commodious building having a 
 large assembly room and a number of small rooms 
 
154 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 suitable for class work and the meeting of societies, 
 together with apartments for the working staff, was 
 completed only a few months before his death, and 
 stands as a memorial to his labors. 
 
 Of the practical advantages which accrued to the 
 work from the possession of such a centre of institu- 
 tional life, Satterlee gives his ow^n estimate: 
 
 "The mission house provides excellent quarters for 
 our organizations. The fifty G. F. S. members are 
 schooled into the duties of 'friendliness' in all its 
 varied aspects, and are unconsciously learning to be 
 good daughters, wives and mothers, and, by a little 
 care and thoughtfulness, to make homes comfortable 
 and happy. 
 
 "At the Boys' Club there is a short service, a prac- 
 tical talk to the boys, and afterwards games and 
 other amusements. The boys flock to us in great 
 numbers. 
 
 "The mothers have a weekly meeting, and enjoy 
 the talks and suggestions of our women workers. 
 These gatherings create a bond of union between 
 them all, meeting as they do almost under the shelter 
 of the church, and so, in a measure, a friendly feeling 
 is aroused, and of course this friendliness helps the 
 Church, showing men, women and children that the 
 Church stands for real religion, and that pleasure, 
 happiness and amusement have a rightful place in 
 life. 
 
 "In the rear of the building there is a dispensary, 
 
THE MILL HANDS. i55 
 
 where six of the best physicians in Cohimbia offer 
 their services twice a week each to those who come 
 with proper endorsements. The dispensary is well 
 patronized. At the very end of the building (but 
 this is to be a venture of the future, when we have 
 more money) there are two rooms which we hope to 
 see furnished with bath tubs for the use of those 
 whose cramped and crowded homes make habits of 
 personal cleanliness difficult. The night school, 
 w^hich during the past winter was conducted three 
 nights each week, was very popular with the young 
 people. It required the constant attention of three 
 teachers to keep the thirty boys and girls well occu- 
 pied and interested in their work. 
 
 "This is our simple and unadorned story in a nut- 
 shell, but there is a great deal more to be accom- 
 plished, and we have only commenced. There are 
 opportunities for work among these 10,000 mill peo- 
 ple in the suburbs of Columbia which are appalling 
 in their magnitude. Sometimes we shudder to think 
 what we might be doing to help these people but have 
 not the means to do. And what is true of Columbia 
 is coming to be true of numerous other Southern 
 cities and towns.'' 
 
 That Satterlee's work for the social and spiritual 
 betterment of their mill operatives was fully appreci- 
 ated by the proprietors is evident from the following 
 communication sent to him by one of the officers of 
 the company: 
 
156 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 'Columbia, S. C, July 8th, 1903. 
 "Rev. Churchill Satterlee. 
 "My Dear Sir :— 
 
 "In respect to the matters which we had under 
 discussion when we last met, it affords me pleasure 
 to say that T, together with others who are interested 
 in the management of the mills, feel ourselves under 
 great obligations to those denominations who have 
 built churches and placed pastors among our people. 
 We appreciate none more highly than the work which 
 has been done by Trinity Church, of which you are 
 the rector. We feel that the work which has been 
 done by you, both through the medium of your 
 chapel and also your Mission Home, is one of great 
 service to our people, not only from the spiritual 
 aspect, but from the social and intellectual. The 
 presence among these people of the vicar of your 
 chapel, and also of the worthy ladies who are in 
 charge of the Mission Home as deaconesses, has- 
 already been felt, and we are satisfied that this good 
 work will continue to grow. The chapel service, I 
 can say from my own personal experience as a visitor 
 there, is highly appreciated by the people, and tends 
 to lead them forward to a higher and more useful life. 
 The work of the deaconesses who are in charge of the 
 Mission Home, while largely of the same order, as it 
 deals with the spiritual life of the people, is more 
 largely felt in their every-day and social life. The 
 tendency there is to give this people a new idea of 
 life and of living, and lead them up to a much higher 
 
THE MILL HANDS. i57 
 
 plane of social relation. The benefactions also which 
 have been dispensed from this Home are of great 
 value to this people, and the charity v^ork v^hich is 
 there being done by many of our most prominent 
 ladies we regard as a great blessing to them. 
 
 "In speaking on behalf of the management of these 
 mills, I feel that we cannot express the gratitude that 
 we owe to you and those associated with you because 
 of this work which you render our people through 
 the instrumentalities above referred to, and we desire 
 to assure you that we shall at all times hold ourselves 
 in readiness to co-operate with you in this noble work. 
 
 "With much esteem, I remain, 
 
 "Yours very sincerely, 
 
 "W. A. Clark." 
 
 Satterlee's work among the mill operatives, while, 
 perhaps, it bulks bigger in the material results 
 achieved than his missionary labors among the 
 mountaineers of North Carolina, lacks of necessity 
 the charm and picturesqueness which belonged to the 
 latter. For one thing, his duties as the rector of a 
 large city parish, precluded the possibility of that 
 close personal intercourse with individuals which 
 characterized his Morganton career. He seemed 
 wSometimes to fear that his parishioners in the parish 
 church of Columbia would feel that he was neglect- 
 ing them if he gave too much time to the mill work. 
 That there was no such feeling is certain, for the 
 sympathy and support accorded him by the leading 
 
158 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 people of Trinity Church were amply manifest. They 
 indeed had no ground for any complaint that he neg- 
 lected his duties toward themselves, though it may 
 fairly be inferred that the extra burden entailed by 
 the charge of the mill work made undue demands 
 upon his strength, and was one of the causes that laid 
 him open to the attack of grippe which ultimately 
 cost him his life. For long intervals the chapel was 
 without a curate, and as he was unwilling to see the 
 services suspended he took them himself in addition 
 to those at the parish church. Often on Sundays 
 after celebrating an early Communion at the church, 
 he went to the chapel, a distance of about two miles, 
 and held another celebration there at 9.30, returning 
 for the main service at the church at 1 1 o'clock. Then 
 after evensong at 5 o'clock at the parish church, he 
 would hold another service at the chapel at 7.30 
 o'clock, all entailing the preaching of three sermons, 
 besides attendance at the Sunday-school and catechis- 
 ing the children. 
 
 One of his wardens, in a communication to the 
 writer, tells how he spent his last Easter Day : 
 
 "On Easter Day of 1903, he had early Communion 
 at St. Luke's Church (a congregation of colored 
 people) at 5.30 a. m., at Trinity Church at 7.30, and 
 at Trinity Chapel at 9. He then had full morning 
 service in Trinity Church at 1 1 a. m., Sunday-school 
 celebration at 4 p. m., and preached at Trinity Chapel 
 at night, and after the service had a wedding. We 
 all considered him a very strong man physically." 
 
THE MILL HANDS. i59 
 
 In Columbia, Satterlee continued the custom which 
 he had started in Morganton, of bringing to the par- 
 ish church on all festival occasions the children 
 belonging to the Mission. By this arrangement he 
 fostered the sentiment of an identity of organic life 
 between the two and promoted a feeling of mutual 
 good will. In all his work, what he especially aimed 
 at was to break down the barrier of social prejudice 
 and to inculcate a spirit of mutual sympathy and 
 helpfulness. While he recognized the fact of class 
 distinction, he was intolerant of any exhibition of it 
 where religion was concerned. He felt strongly that 
 the Episcopal Church was popularly misunderstood, 
 that among many of those often designated as the 
 "plain people" there was a vast misconception of the 
 Church's attitude. As much as in him lay he strove 
 to combat this prejudice and to make the poorest feel 
 that the Church was for him and needed him. He 
 had a large faith that the Church's system was capa- 
 ble of meeting the religious wants of all classes. On 
 this point, taught by his own experience, he writes : 
 
 "The Church which can reach the mountaineers of 
 North Carolina, and the humble people in our large 
 cities in England and America will, in extending to 
 the mill population of the South a helping hand in 
 the name of our common Master, be deceived joy- 
 fully,' as the Church of the Living God, and, in fact, 
 has been so received." 
 
 But, while clinging firmly to this belief, he was 
 
 actuated by an intense desire for Christian unity. He 
 II 
 
i6o A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 longed to see all those who acknowledged a common 
 Lord and Master united in one visible Brotherhood 
 of faith and worship. A staunch Churchman, a firm 
 believer in the Catholic and Apostolic character of 
 the Church whose ministry he exercised, he had yet 
 that largeness of sympathy, that true wideness of 
 vision, which, while it does not ignore theological 
 and ecclesiastical differences, yet seeks to include all 
 men and all systems in the circle of its helpfulness 
 and love. 
 
 A clergyman who had unique opportunities for 
 observing Satterlee's work and methods, and who 
 was admitted to his closest confidence, writes thus 
 concerning his attitude towards Christian unity : 
 
 "It seems to me that there was a central aspiration 
 in Satterlee's life, and that his ministry shaped itself 
 out of this thought, as the oak from the acorn grows. 
 
 "That ruling idea was Christian unity. There are 
 many Low Churchmen, who have no consciousness of 
 historic corporate or organic Christianity, and it is an 
 easy task for these to sympathize with the sects. 
 
 "On the other hand there are High Churchmen, 
 who have the strongest kind of convictions regarding 
 Catholic and Apostolic Christianity, who have no 
 sympathy at all with denominational religious life. 
 
 "There is a third class, who hold from deep con- 
 viction to the Catholicity and Apostolicity of the 
 Church, and who, yet, on the other hand, have a deep 
 conviction that they should recognize all that is best, 
 
THE MILL HANDS. i6i 
 
 most scriptural and most spiritual in the life of the 
 sects. 
 
 'This is the hardest stand to take, and yet, with 
 Satterlee, it was not hard at all. While he was, from 
 conviction, a consistent High Churchman, neverthe- 
 less his whole heart went out to those in other Chris- 
 tian bodies, in the most natural way. He drew them 
 to him by his deep fount of sympathy. 
 
 "Beneath all his sympathy he had singular shrewd- 
 ness, and common sense enough not to put himself 
 into positions where he w^ould compromise his stand 
 as a minister of Apostolic Succession, and yet, some- 
 how he never made ministers of other Christian 
 bodies feel antagonized. They saw that he was try- 
 ing to emphasize points of contact more than points 
 of difference. They felt that he recognized their 
 Christian character as those who were living in union 
 Vv^th Christ. 
 
 **This same deep aspiration for unity took many 
 phases and characterized his work. In the parish his 
 one idea was to fill the parish church with the atmos- 
 phere of a warm Christian home, and he accom- 
 plished this result by ignoring parish parties, class 
 distinctions and personal differences. Because he 
 ignored them the parishioners felt ashamed of em- 
 phasizing such distinctions. 
 
 *Tn his mission w^ork the same idea took shape in 
 the great yearning to make the mountaineers of 
 North Carolina and the mill operatives of Columbia, 
 feel that the chapel to which he drew them was a real 
 
i62 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 spiritual home, in which they would all find rest and 
 comfort. 
 
 ''In intermingling with denominational life he 
 would at times attend the services held by ministers 
 of other Christian bodies, in a modest, unobtrusive 
 way, and in return they came frequently to the church 
 of which he was the rector, feeling that there was a 
 warm welcome there for them in the rector's heart." 
 
 Another, who had watched Satterlee's career 
 closely, and was particularly impressed with the 
 reality of his personal influence over those outside the 
 Communion to which he belonged, writes as follows : 
 
 ''No one who knew what his work was, both at 
 Morganton and Columbia, can fail to be struck by 
 the wonderful results of his short ministry in creating 
 a spirit of fellow^ship and Christian unity, not only in 
 his own parish, but throughout the whole community. 
 
 "He seems to have had a singular, a most unique 
 power of attracting to himself, and, so bringing 
 together, men of all kinds of religious opinion and 
 belief, and in this way he became himself, through 
 the uncpnscious influence of his personality a centre 
 of unity among Christians of all denominations. This 
 was the more remarkable because he was so entirely 
 free from any spirit of compromise or laxity in his 
 own Church principles, which rested on the strong- 
 est, most unwavering convictions, — but the power of 
 his whole-hearted loyal devotion to the service of 
 Christ and His Church; the pure unselfishness of his 
 life were so plainly manifest to all who came in con- 
 
THE MILL HANDS. 163 
 
 tact with him, that they felt themselves lifted up to a 
 higher plane, where the overmastering consciousness 
 of the real spiritual unity of all Christians in Christ 
 cast their lesser differences into the shade. 
 
 "Might not this one aspect of Churchill Satterlee's 
 life and work be taken as an illustration and a 
 prophecy of the way in which Church Unity will at 
 last be brought about, — through the indirect, uncon- 
 scious influence of such personalities, — themselves 
 living centres of spiritual power, and bringing home 
 so irresistibly to the hearts of men the truth of their 
 inward fellow^ship and oneness in Christ that outward 
 unity will become a necessary expression of Christian 
 life?" 
 
CHAPTER VIL 
 
 FINISHING HIS COURSE. 
 
 Satterlee's health since his entrance upon the 
 work of the ministry had upon the whole been excel- 
 lent. He seemed to have entirely outgrown the heart 
 affection which had been a serious matter during his 
 college days. Doubtless the good health he subse- 
 quently enjoyed was due largely to his residence in 
 the stimulating climate of the North Carolina moun- 
 tains and to the vigorous outdoor life which he led 
 there. It is possible that his removal to the low-lying 
 country of western South Carolina may have resulted 
 in lowering his vitality, thus laying his system open 
 to an attack of grippe which he had in November, 
 1903. Upon the subject of Satterlee's health, his 
 father sends the following communication : 
 
 *'While he was in college Churchill had a rheu- 
 matic heart. Our physician said, however, that if 
 nothing tmforeseen happened, and he took reasonable 
 care of himself, that nature would accommodate her- 
 self, as she always does, to his physical condition, and 
 that he would outgrow this physical disadvantage, 
 and that there was no reason why he should not live 
 until he was eighty years of age. 
 
 164 
 
THREE GEXERATIOXS. 
 Bishop Satterlee, Rev. Churchill Satterlee and Harry Yates Satterlee 2nd, 
 
FINISHING HIS COURSE. 165 
 
 'The physician's words were exactly fulfilled. 
 Churchill became so robust and strong physically, 
 that last summer he went into the ocean, swam in the 
 surf, rode twenty miles on a bicycle, and took other 
 vigorous exercise. 
 
 "He w^as so strong, that in thinking of the future, 
 while I have contemplated my own death, or Mrs. 
 Satterlee's death, I never dreamed that he would be 
 taken away. If it had not been for the grippe, which 
 weakened his heart, in an entirely different manner 
 from rheumatism, I believe he would have been alive 
 to-day." 
 
 It is not unlikely also, as suggested in the preced- 
 ing chapter, that the extra work which Satterlee 
 assumed in connection with his mission to the mill 
 folk, made too great demands upon his strength. 
 The deaconess in charge, in speaking of this matter 
 afterwards said, that she had often noticed when he 
 came to the chapel to hold a service on Sunday even- 
 ing, that he exhibited signs of physical and nervous 
 exhaustion. When she would remonstrate with him 
 and beg him to allow^ one of his lay readers to con- 
 duct the services, he would smilingly respond that he 
 was all right, and counsel her to look after her own 
 health and not bother about him. While never spar- 
 ing himself, Satterlee was always most considerate of 
 those who worked under him. On one occasion, when 
 the deaconess was feeling worn out from her labors, 
 he insisted that she should take three months' vaca- 
 tion, continuing her salary the while and providing 
 
i66 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 a substitute out of his own pocket. When she 
 demurred to leaving her post for so long a time, he 
 wrote her a letter, saying, 'This is not to suggest, 
 nor to advise, but to direct you to go." His last 
 official act was to endorse over to her order a check 
 which he had received from personal friends for the 
 purpose of providing a horse and wagon for her use 
 in paying visits. 
 
 As showing the general concern felt in the com- 
 munity over Satterlee's illness, the fact may be men- 
 tioned that a Roman Catholic Sister came to the rec- 
 tory and offered her services as voluntary nurse. 
 
 Satterlee partially recovered from the attack of 
 grippe by which he was prostrated in November, and 
 was able to resume his duties for a time, but it was 
 soon apparent that his heart had become weakened. 
 In response to the urgent wishes of the vestry that he 
 should leave Columbia and go elsewhere for a com- 
 plete rest, he went to Savannah for ten days, whence 
 he returned little, if any, better. 
 
 Subsequently, accompanied by his wife and chil- 
 dren, he went on February 9 to Augusta, Georgia, 
 taking rooms at the house of Dr. Michel in Summer- 
 ville, a suburb of the city. While Satterlee and his 
 wife both realized that his condition was serious, 
 there was no idea apparently on the part of either 
 that there was any immediate danger. It seemed to 
 be believed, that with a complete rest he would be 
 fully restored to health. Satterlee himself never gave 
 any indication that he deemed his end near, but on 
 
FINISHING HIS COURSE. 167 
 
 the contrary, was bright and cheerful to the last, 
 spending the days playing with his children and chat- 
 ting with his wife. The only indication which led 
 Mrs. Satterlee subsequently to think that possibly 
 her husband might have had some undefined idea that 
 his death was imminent, was a remark he made to her 
 the day before the end came, "I have never prayed 
 before as I have prayed to-day." 
 
 On the morning of February 16, at four o'clock, 
 just before dawn, death came suddenly and 
 painlessly. As one of his eulogists phrased it in the 
 glowing periods of his Southern eloquence : 
 
 "When morn was about to unbar her golden gates, 
 he passed away. The sunset of his life was associ- 
 ated with the brightness of the rising sun. Such an 
 ending of a Christian career gives no cause for vain 
 regrets. It is God's way. What is life but a great 
 battlefield, whereupon men are falling every day? As 
 a Christian soldier of the Cross, Churchill Satterlee 
 went to a painless ending, crow^ned wnth the victor's 
 wreath, fashioned by the angels of heaven." 
 
 Satterlee died in the thirty-sixth year of his age, 
 completing a ministry of a trifle over ten years. 
 
 Passing away in the prime of his young manhood, 
 having before him a career promising a large useful- 
 ness, growing every day, as was apparent to all 
 observers, in intellectual strength and spiritual grace, 
 his death yet seemed to have about it an unwonted 
 note of triumph. Those who were present at the 
 funeral services were deeply impressed with this 
 
i68 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 thought, and the many letters which were subse- 
 quently received by the family breathe a similar 
 sentiment. 
 
 On the news of his death reaching Columbia, a 
 hasty meeting of the vestry was held and a deputa- 
 tion appointed to go to Augusta and accompany the 
 body to that city. Meanwhile, Bishop Satterlee had 
 been notified, and with his wife and daughter went at 
 once to Augusta. 
 
 The funeral services were held in Trinity Church, 
 Columbia, on Thursday afternoon, February i8. The 
 interior of the church building was elaborately dec- 
 orated with white cloth and flowers. There were no 
 outward signs of mourning save the grief evident on 
 the faces and in the bearing of the great congrega- 
 tion. The church looked, so it was remarked, as 
 though it had been prepared for the celebration of an 
 Easter festival. 
 
 The clergy of the city and vicinity were present in 
 a body, as was also a full representation of the minis- 
 ters of the various denominations, who occupied by 
 invitation seats in the choir. In the body of the 
 church was the priest of the Roman Catholic church. 
 The funeral services were conducted by the Bishop of 
 the diocese, the Rt. Rev. Ellison Capers, a former 
 rector of Trinity Church, assisted by the Archdeacon 
 of Columbia and others. The hymns sung were 
 special favorites of Satterlee, "J^sus lives," and "O 
 Zion haste thy mission high fulfilling," the latter by 
 appointment of his family as an expression of his 
 
FINISHING HIS COURSE. 169 
 
 earnest missionary feeling and work. The reces- 
 sional was "When morning gilds the skies." As the 
 choir sang, the bells at the Olympia Mills, where the 
 rector had done so much loving and effective mission- 
 ary w^ork, were solemnly tolled as a token of the 
 grief of the operatives. 
 
 A short address was made by Bishop Capers, in 
 which he paid a high tribute to Satterlee's character 
 and his work in Columbia. In conclusion, addressing 
 himself to Bishop Satterlee, who sat immediately in 
 front of him, the speaker said : 
 
 "It is an inexpressible honor to have reared such a 
 son and given him to God in His holy ministry, and 
 now that you are called upon, my dear brother, to 
 give him back to God, it is strength and peace to 
 know that his bishop and these brethren, the vestry, 
 and the congregation of Trinity assure you that his 
 ministry was an honor to him and to you, and a 
 blessing to the people." 
 
 Bishop Satterlee, leaving his pew and standing in 
 the aisle beside the casket, closed the service by pro- 
 nouncing the benediction. 
 
 The progress of the funeral party resembled a 
 devotional pilgrimage. All the way from Augusta 
 to New Hamburgh, wherever a change was made, 
 the body w^as met by former friends and associates, 
 clergymen and laymen. At Columbia, at Washing- 
 ton, at New York, special delegations were present, 
 the members of which bore the casket with their own 
 hands from point to point. A special service for the 
 
I70 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 benefit of relatives and friends was held in Calvary 
 Church, New York, the following Saturday morning, 
 the attendance being surprisingly large. 
 
 Later in the day the body was conveyed to New 
 Hamburgh in a special car, accompanied by the 
 family, relatives and friends. Classmates at the 
 Seminary and College friends bore the body to its 
 last resting place. Bishop Satterlee himself read the 
 Committal Service, and short prayers were offered 
 by tw^o of Satterlee's classmates. Here in the family 
 plot in the cemetery of the little village on the banks 
 of the Hudson where he was born thirty-six years 
 before, all that is mortal of Churchill Satterlee now 
 reposes. 
 
 Three children were born of Satterlee's marriage 
 to his wife Helen Stuyvesant Folsom; Henry Yates 
 named after his grandfather, the Bishop of Washing- 
 ton, born April 8, 1900; Etheldred Frances, born 
 May 20, 1902, and Churchill, his father's namesake, 
 born May 25, 1904. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 AFTERMATH. 
 
 If the preceding chapters have not sufificed to 
 afford the reader some clear idea of the man of whom 
 they treat, it is obvious that the mere printing of 
 resolutions and of letters of appreciation will be of 
 small avail to that end. But though this be true, it 
 yet may be of interest to those who have followed the 
 record thus far to read in a supplementary chapter 
 extracts from some of the many resolutions and let- 
 ters received by Satterlee's family after his death. 
 The perusal of these documents cannot, it is believed, 
 fail to deepen any impression made by reading the 
 foregoing narrative, and may also serve to throw an 
 additional side light upon Satterlee's personality and 
 character. Indeed, it was due mainly to a study of 
 these documents and to the strong impression made 
 by their contents of the remarkable character of Sat- 
 terlee's influence, that the idea of attempting to inter- 
 pret his life assumed definite shape. 
 
 One of those who knew him well, a woman of 
 intellectual force and critical judgment, in giving her 
 opinion as to the advisability of publishing an account 
 of Satterlee's life, thus expresses herself : 
 
 171 
 
172 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 "These personal tributes and impressions from so 
 many different sources have given me such a fresh 
 and inspiring picture of Churchill's life and character, 
 that I wish it were possible to cast them in some 
 form which would convey the same vivid idea of his 
 personality to others. The difficulty is, that a char- 
 acter so marked by simplicity, purity and single- 
 mindedness, could not be analyzed or described in 
 detail (as a more complicated nature might be), 
 without destroying the truth and unity of the im- 
 pression instead of strengthening it. One great 
 secret of his power certainly lay in the transparency 
 of his life— the perfect harmony between aims and 
 motives and outward acts and deeds, — and it would 
 seem hardly possible to understand him (except for- 
 those nearest to him), without knowing something of 
 his active work, or, through illustrations, of the 
 results of his personal influence on the lives of all 
 kinds of people, — or by seeing, in the evidence of 
 such love, gratitude and loyalty as is shown in these 
 tributes, what the sympathy and self-sacrifice must 
 have been which called them forth. I have not 
 clearly expressed what I mean — it is only that it 
 seems especially true in his case that he can be best 
 known by the fruits of his life. 
 
 "It does seem as if the remarkable, spontaneous: 
 tribute paid to his memory ought to be interpreted, 
 so that it may be seen to be a striking testimony to • 
 the power of a really noble, Christlike character, and 
 a proof of what such a man can achieve in a few 
 
AFTERMATH. i73 
 
 years, beginning with a comparatively limited sphere 
 of work and influence, which he extended and made 
 great by the energy, faith and enthusiasm he carried 
 into it, as well as by his practical judgment and 
 executive ability. 
 
 ''If the results could be made to speak for them- 
 selves, many might be helped and inspired by such a 
 record of his life.'' 
 
 To let the facts, so far as possible, speak for them- 
 selves, to avoid making comments or passing enco- 
 miums has been the constant endeavor of the writer. 
 In so far as, and wherever, he has transgressed this 
 canon, it has been due simply to the unconscious over- 
 flowings of his own admiration for the personality he 
 has endeavored to interpret for others. 
 
 In the resolutions passed by the Vestry of Trinity 
 Church, testimony is borne to the deep love and rever- 
 ence felt for their late rector ''by all who knew him 
 or had seen his good works." 
 
 "Words cannot picture nor can tongue utter the 
 thoughts of our hearts. As a friend, a counsellor, a 
 preceptor and a priest, he was loved, trusted and 
 revered." 
 
 Adapting to his case the words of St. Paul, they 
 declare : " 'In all things' he proved himself the min- 
 ister of God — 'in much patience, in affliction, in 
 
 necessities, in distress By pureness, by 
 
 knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the 
 
 Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned By the 
 
 word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of 
 
174 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 righteousness, on the right hand and on the left 
 . ... as sorrowful yet alway rejoicing; as poor 
 yet making rich ; as having nothing and yet possess- 
 ing all things.' " 
 
 The following account of a memorial service held 
 in Grace Church, Morganton, to express the general 
 sorrow of the community over Satterlee's death, is 
 taken from the local newspaper : 
 
 ''Notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather, 
 a large congregation was present, composed of every 
 denomination. The services were conducted by Rt. 
 Rev. Bishop Horner. A short form of evening ser- 
 vice was used, after which short addresses on the life 
 and services of Mr. Satterlee in this and the sur- 
 rounding community were made. The tributes paid 
 were beautiful and touching, and especially was this 
 so when a member of one of the missions arose and 
 spoke of the great work done and the influence for 
 good which his presence had wrought. At the close 
 of the services resolutions were offered by a commit- 
 tee of representative citizens, which were adopted by 
 the people en masse rising/' 
 
 After the usual preamble, the document proceeds as 
 follows : 
 
 ''His work here lives after him in more fruitful 
 lives, in brighter homes, in light brought in dark 
 places. 
 
 "It matters little where such a man was born or 
 how he died. The fragrancy of his life, like the 
 
AFTERMATH. 175 
 
 breath of a spring morning, permeated a whole com- 
 munity. In sorrowing for him it is rather ourselves 
 that we sorrow for, that we shall see his face no 
 more. Like the great Apostle, whose life was his 
 model, he has gone up unbound to a greater Jerusa- 
 lem and found fit association with the white-robed 
 and palm-bearing multitude which are led by the 
 Lamb. 
 
 "In the six years of Mr. Satterlee's ministry here, 
 it is a matter of common knowledge that his Chris- 
 tian life w^as characterized by the broadest charity, 
 the most unaffected sympathy with the troubles of all 
 the people; while to those permitted the privilege of 
 knowing his inner home life there was shown the 
 quiet beauty of the cultured Christian fireside. 
 
 "A mighty Cedar of Lebanon is laid low. 
 A Prince in Israel has fallen! 
 
 "This people, irrespective of creed, tender sympa- 
 thy to the parents and young wife of the deceased 
 rector, and claim to share with them some part of the 
 melancholy pride with which his richly-led life is sur- 
 veyed by all who knew him or were brought under 
 his influence." 
 
 The Women's Auxiliary of Trinity Church have 
 this to say regarding his missionary zeal : 
 
 "In his brief ministry of three years among us he 
 
 impressed each one with his unusual and intense 
 12 
 
176 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 interest in missions. He was ever animated by the 
 spirit of his favorite missionary hymn : 
 
 " 'Beware kst, slothful to fulfil thy mission, 
 Thou lose one jewel that should deck His crown/ 
 
 "He longed to have the everlasting Gospel preached 
 to all men, at home and abroad, and did all in his 
 power not only to teach the flock committed to his 
 care, but he went out into the highways and lanes and 
 sought by gentle but most earnest efforts to bring all 
 sorts and conditions of men into our Father's House. 
 Nor did his missionary zeal stop there, but also in the 
 foreign field in all parts of the world, wherever it was 
 possible for us as members of the Auxiliary to extend 
 our aid, he, as our President, did all he could to help 
 us accomplish all we would for the glory of God and 
 the benefit of our fellow men. We can hear his fine 
 voice as he sang : 
 
 " *My tongue shall never tire 
 Of chanting with the choir, 
 
 May Jesus Christ be praised/ 
 
 "This was the inspiring motive of his life." 
 In the State, the leading daily newspaper of Colum- 
 bia, was printed this tribute : 
 
 "Three years ago the Rev. Churchill Satterlee 
 came to Columbia a stranger: to-day there is a 
 shadow over many households and sorrow in many 
 hearts in this city because of his death. To hundreds 
 
AFTERMATH. i77 
 
 of friends the announcement came as a shock; they 
 had sustained a great personal loss. 
 
 ''Some of the good works of this young and earn- 
 est laborer in the Lord's vineyard will be recounted 
 elsewhere ; many of them will never be known, for he 
 ministered to the needy, w^hether in body, in mind, or 
 in soul, and only his God knows the full measure of 
 his goodness. The secret of Mr. Satterlee's influence 
 over those with whom he came in contact was, doubt- 
 less, their abiding faith in his goodness, earnestness, 
 sincerity. Unaffected, absolutely natural, he won 
 those who would have been repelled by the affected or 
 veneered. 
 
 ''That magnetism by which the Christian gentle- 
 man, the sincere and kindly man, won and bound to 
 him those he met in the social walks, Mr. Satterlee 
 exercised from the pulpit. His belief and his sim- 
 plicity drew his hearers toward the Church. 
 
 "Truly, a good man has gone to the reward of the 
 righteous.'' 
 
 As showing the cordial relations existing between 
 Satterlee and the ministers of other communions, the 
 following extract from the formal resolutions passed 
 by the Ministerial Brotherhood of Columbia is 
 quoted : 
 
 "We, his brother ministers of Christ, held him in 
 high esteem for his untiring energy in the Master's 
 cause, his large faith in the w^ord and power of his 
 Heavenly Father, and for his noble and exemplary 
 life among us, so full of kindness and unselfish deeds ; 
 
178 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 and we feel that our communitv has suffered a severe 
 and heavy loss by his death/' 
 
 Bishop Capers, in the course of an address deUv- 
 ered at the funeral, speaks thus of the secret of Sat- 
 terlee's influence: 
 
 **His untiring earnestness, his unselfishness, his 
 executive ability, his consecration to his official 
 duties, his devotion to the poor, to the sick, and above 
 all and beyond most men I have met who were men 
 of culture and of great gifts, his marked humility, 
 won for him the confidence and affection of hundreds 
 of those who came to know him, or to sit under his 
 earnest ministry. 
 
 "The charm of his sincerity, the grace of his 
 humility, the force of his mind, and the manly sym- 
 pathy of his generous heart drew men near to him, 
 and they thoroughly trusted, loved and followed 
 him." 
 
 The letters received came from all sorts of people, 
 dignitaries of the Church, clergymen who at various 
 times worked with him or under him, clergymen who 
 came only in occasional contact with him, lay workers 
 associated with him, both men and women, members 
 of the two parishes which he served, personal and 
 family friends, and those w^ho had but little direct 
 knowledge of him, yet who had learned to respect 
 and admire him as the result of what they had heard 
 of his work and influence. These letters coming 
 from so many different sources and representing 
 diverse types of character and individual outlook, yet 
 
AFTERMATH. 179 
 
 exhibit a remarkable unanimity of sentiment as 
 touching the subject of their appreciation. To all, 
 Satterlee's personality presented a combination of 
 qualities evoking in their hearts a feeling of true rev- 
 erence and deep personal affection. The concrete 
 portrait presented is that of a man who sincerely 
 loved men and ungrudgingly gave himself to their 
 service. If not great from a purely intellectual 
 standpoint, he may yet be pronounced so in his ability 
 to win the love of others and imbue them with a 
 measure of his own spiritual devotion and zeal. 
 
 Here is an extract from a letter to Bishop Satterlee 
 from the Archdeacon of Columbia : 
 
 "You may have heard it, and a dozen times, but to 
 me it is so glorious that I must speak of it — what a 
 marvelous influence his three years' living here 
 wrought among the people of this town. It is mani- 
 fested in so many ways. What you saw, at Trinity, 
 the hour we said Mother Church's benediction over 
 the honored temple of his soul, was a fair token of 
 the estimate placed upon his character here, by all; 
 and even those dissenting clergy, who came as close 
 up — it was infinitely pathetic to me — as could be 
 allowed, brought more than their personal interpre- 
 tation of the meaning of the occasion, — they were 
 representatives of their people's esteem for and confi- 
 dence in him, whose departure is an acknowledged 
 common loss. As for the men and women here in 
 general, I never go out, without finding some expres- 
 sion of the affection borne him, and that even yet 
 
i8o A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 sometimes accompanied with tears. The last time 
 but one I was on Main street, I was met by Mr. C — , 
 a Presbyterian, and president of the CaroHna Bank, 
 who grasped my hand most warmly, expressing 
 regret that he was absent at the funeral, and speaking 
 of his profound admiration of Churchill, and ere we 
 parted his eyes were glistening with tears. For a 
 man to come among strangers, and in three years, 
 w^ithout a thought of doing it, to win the confidence 
 and love of a whole community, if this is not to be a 
 Christian, what is? 
 
 "As for myself, dear Bishop, always will it be a 
 source of strength that for even so short a time I 
 could have and hold your son for a friend. He was 
 so gracious to me, congenial, gentle, thoughtful. In 
 a way which w^as a support he sympathized with me 
 concerning the 'peculiar people' to whom I am bound, 
 in life and labor — and for all that he was and did, for 
 his friendship and confidence and for the tender mem- 
 ory of him, I shall be thankful.'' 
 
 Here is an appreciation of Satterlee's character by 
 a clergyman w^ho knew him intimately during the 
 early part of his career : 
 
 "My ow^n associations with Churchill were before 
 and during that important part of one's life w^hen the 
 choice of a vocation was receiving quiet yet anxious 
 consideration. The same prominent, native charac- 
 teristics, then and always shone forth in him. Not 
 alone his uniformly gentle, and, therefore, amiable 
 qualities, but withal an exceptional regard for perfect 
 
AFTERMATH. i8i 
 
 fairness in dealing with, or estimating, the characters 
 and opinions of others. Anyone acquainted with 
 Churchill could not fail to know his distaste for any- 
 thing which was not perfectly genuine, his dislike of 
 the flimsy, especially in one's character, least of all in 
 possible material for the sacred ministry. I think 
 often of the cheerfulness which he manifested in 
 sickness, when many another, I fancy most of us, 
 would have thought ourselves quite unfairly dealt 
 with." 
 
 The following is from the Rector of St. Paul's 
 School, Concord, N. H. : 
 
 "I have had several delightful letters from your 
 son Churchill during the last few years. First he 
 wrote me, announcing the birth of his boy ; then later 
 with regard to a boy in Morganton whom he thought 
 would prove worthy of a scholarship at the School 
 and whom he hoped would eventually become a useful 
 and honored man in his community, but, as his 
 experience ripened he withdrew this first named boy 
 and substituted another whom he thought better fitted 
 for the life and its advantages. I was rejoiced to be 
 able to further his wishes and to aid him to the extent 
 of my power in the noble work he had in hand. Since 
 his removal to Columbia I have heard from him 
 twice, once in answer to some inquiries in regard to 
 his work, and again last fall a most cordial response 
 to an invitation to spend Thanksgiving Day with 
 Mrs. Satterlee at the school and preach to the boys. 
 All these letters, few in number though they were, 
 
i82 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 bore the impress of thorough devotion to his work 
 and a very lofty standard with regard to it. I should 
 imagine that he had endeared himself greatly to the 
 people in Columbia. He had those warm and gener- 
 ous traits, that sincere and simple piety which won 
 him their hearts. It is a sore trial as one grows old 
 to see the choice and noble men whom one hopes are 
 to carry on the Church's work in the future, and to 
 meet with the right courage and wisdom the prob- 
 lems that are arising on every side, fall one by one 
 in the very prime of life, and one might say at the 
 beginning of the battle." 
 
 The three letters following are from clergymen 
 who at various times worked under him as curates : 
 
 "Though my knowledge of Mr. Satterlee was as 
 compared with that of many others a brief and lim- 
 ited one, yet there were certain things that impressed 
 themselves upon me in a way that cannot be for- 
 gotten. 
 
 "There was, of course, devotion to the cause of his 
 Master and the Church, but there was with this a 
 certain rare unselfishness and deep humility. There 
 was an utter want of egotism and self-assertion. He 
 had certain strong opinions and ideas, but he was 
 perfectly ready to listen with entire gentleness and 
 without any show or trace of feeling to what others 
 had to say. 
 
 "And then, as one looks back, one can see how he 
 was continually thinking of other people and making 
 provision for their happiness and welfare. He was 
 
AFTERMATH. 183 
 
 always ready, as I knew before I came here, by cor- 
 respondence with him, to do all that he could to help 
 even the weak and worthless members of his old 
 flock, who called out in other quarters only condem- 
 nation. 
 
 "He had that mark of the true priest, that his char- 
 acter merited confidence, that as many people have 
 said, they found it so easy to tell him things about 
 themselves. The many deeds of individual help and 
 kindness to the sick and distressed, are unknown and 
 will ever be unknown. But they are treasured in a 
 higher book of record than any earthly one. 
 
 ''There is a sad pleasure in looking back to the 
 almost boyish impulsiveness and eagerness which 
 went always with a real simplicity and purity of 
 heart. He has passed from our sight, but his exam- 
 ple and memory are still with us to stimulate and 
 encourage, especially those of us who are men, in our 
 efforts to follow our Master, to serve God, to be pure 
 and true and loving.'' 
 
 Another says : 
 
 "I am very happy to say that it was my pleasure 
 and privilege to be the assistant of your son. Rev. 
 Churchill Satterlee, in Columbia for over a year, and 
 consequently I learned to know and to love him a 
 great deal. I considered him one of my best and 
 kindest friends, and in his death I suffered a personal 
 loss. With the exception of the death of my own 
 dear father, only three months before, the news of 
 Mr. Satterlee's death was the greatest shock I have 
 
i84 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 ever had. He was, in the truest sense of the word, a 
 Minister of God, always on the lookout for some way 
 in which he could minister to the needs of others, 
 thoughtless of self and always thoughtful of others. 
 Frequently I would go to him for funds to help some 
 of the factory people, and not once do I remember 
 being refused when it was at all possible for him to 
 help me. He was loved by one and all with whom he 
 came in contact, rich or poor, white or black. And 
 as our dear Bishop Capers said, at his funeral, he 
 owed his success in the Ministry to his humility. As 
 a man I loved him; as a Minister of God I honored 
 and reverenced him ; as a good, true and kind friend 
 I valued him, more than words can express. I con- 
 sider the time I worked under his directions the hap- 
 piest days of my early ministry." 
 
 A third writes : 
 
 "I became very fond of him during my short term 
 of laboring with him in Trinity Church, and it was 
 a great sorrow when I felt I must accept the urgent 
 call to this parish. Mr. Satterlee was a man of rare 
 personality. During my brief sojourn with him I 
 saw him in many phases of life. We worked together, 
 we took a trip together and we camped together, and 
 we also lived together, because I was his guest in his 
 home for nearly a month, and during my stay I was 
 in and out all the time. At all times his life was one 
 of sweetness and gentleness. He was always kind 
 and thoughtful and was ever looking out for the 
 opportunity to do a kindness for another. He was a 
 
AFTERMATH. 185 
 
 thorough-going practical Christian who let his light 
 shine upon all who came in contact with him. I think 
 perhaps the most striking characteristics of his per- 
 sonality were his love and gentleness and pure good- 
 ness, with humility and simplicity, yet always with 
 great dignity. 
 
 "I feel that one of my greatest blessings in going 
 to Columbia was in my becoming acquainted with 
 your son, whom I loved very dearly. His life was a 
 benediction to all who knew him." 
 
 A former professor under whom Satterlee studied 
 in the General Theological Seminary, now Vicar of 
 Lambeth, London, writes : 
 
 "For Churchill there is nothing but thankfulness. 
 His was a pure spirit, freer than that of most men 
 from any kind of condemnation, and his joy tempered 
 though it is by absence in the flesh from those he 
 loves, must be great. Now face to face, what that is, 
 who can tell? he has found the solution of all prob- 
 lems in the realization of a perfect Life which over- 
 laps them all." 
 
 The Bishop of Salina, who knew Satterlee during 
 his boyhood, has this to say : 
 
 "He seems indeed to have endeared himself to his 
 people, and certainly did a splendid work for Christ. 
 
 "I well remember at Blue Mountain Lake you 
 asked me to encourage him to study for the ministry. 
 You said, 'If you had a dozen sons, wouldn't you 
 want them all to study for the ministry?' Though 
 
i86 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 you had only the one, he seems to have done a twelve- 
 fold service." 
 
 The Bishop of North Carolina, who recommended 
 Satterlee to his Morganton parish, pays this tribute 
 to his character : 
 
 "I have known very few men who impressed me 
 as being so truly godly and pure and high minded." 
 
 The Bishop of Southern Ohio, who sought to 
 secure Satterlee for an important work in his own 
 diocese, writes: 
 
 'T know w^hat he was to you and to others, how 
 nobly he had gone on, fulfilling your own best ideals 
 for him as a man and a man of God. I went from 
 here to Asheville, to try and get him for my Cincin- 
 nati Associate Mission. I never shall forget the im- 
 pression he made on me." 
 
 Writes the Bishop of Los Angeles, who had 
 known him from his boyhood: 
 
 "Churchill was such a dear, useful, manly man. I 
 had heard nothing of his illness, and only last week, 
 in a Church paper, something was said of a fresh 
 honor that had been conferred upon him. I thought 
 of him as still doing the same vigorous work that he 
 had been doing ever since he went to Columbia." 
 
 The Bishop of Albany, who ordained Satterlee to 
 the priesthood, and in whose diocese he began his 
 ministry, writes : 
 
 "It is among the grateful memories of my episco- 
 pate that I was in more ways than one connected with 
 Churchill. As a missionary in the Adirondack 
 
AFTERMATH. 187 
 
 region of the Diocese of Albany, where he laid the 
 foundations of a mission that has grown to such 
 strength ; as at work in the old parish of St. Peter's 
 in the city; and as one of the men whom I ordered 
 to the Priesthood, I came to know him well and to 
 love him better than I knew him. He combined in 
 his character rare spiritual gifts, unusual intellectual 
 power, and a consecrated energy which gave the 
 whole of himself without reserve to the work of the 
 Master. There was in his life the promise, as we 
 thought, of the longer service which God did not 
 grant him, and of the larger service which he carried 
 out in his work in North Carolina." 
 
 The Bishop of Massachusetts writes : 
 
 "With what satisfaction and pride you have 
 watched your son Churchill from childhood. What 
 gratitude you must have felt at his entrance into 
 Holy Orders. Above all, however, must be the note 
 of gratitude that he has through life been a loving 
 son and a pure and devoted follower of the Master. 
 He has been of the saints through life, and now he is 
 numbered with them above." 
 
 The Bishop of California, in whose diocese Satter- 
 lee did mission work for a while, writes : 
 
 "How well I remember the charm of his person- 
 ality and the devotedness to his calling, when I had 
 the opportunity of meeting him in Southern Califor- 
 nia not long after his ordination. His rest has come 
 early, early has he fulfilled his noble ministry." 
 
i88 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 The Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of Pennsyl- 
 vania sends this letter : 
 
 ''He bore in his countenance a wonderful testimony 
 to his character. It always seemed to me that I had 
 never met a young man who impressed one as more 
 thoroughly and essentially the Christian gentleman 
 than he. The story of his work in North Carolina 
 before he went to Columbia was a noble one. I had 
 from time to time more or less correspondence with 
 him, and his whole attitude towards that interesting 
 mountain work always inspired me and made me feel 
 that here was a man who was not only living a life of 
 the greatest usefulness, but one in which he was him- 
 self sanctified by his own unselfish effort. The record 
 of the way in which his life was regarded in Colum- 
 bia, later on, showed that its inspiration remained. 
 Had he been born and educated in that neighborhood, 
 the community could not have been more deeply 
 moved by his loss. I doubt whether any man who, in 
 this generation, has gone from one portion of the 
 country to another, has ever won so thorough a 
 respect, and so cordial an affection. He bound 
 together the North and the South by another golden 
 cord of good will, and of service willingly rendered 
 and received in his Master's Name. Brief as was his 
 life, he did a work which, however modest and un- 
 known to the great ])ublic of the country, Avas yet 
 sufficient to surround his name with a halo in the eyes 
 of those who knew about him, and to show other 
 young men what can be accomplished by the quiet 
 
AFTERMATH. 189 
 
 life of a soul that has thought only of doing the best 
 and noblest in the service of God and man." 
 
 The Bishop of Pennsylvania, who knew him only 
 by the reputation which his work had won for him, 
 writes thus : 
 
 "I had not the pleasure of your son's acquaintance, 
 but I have heard much of him, of his commanding 
 ability, and self-sacrificing spirit and heroic devotion 
 to the work to which he had been so manifestly 
 called." 
 
 The Bishop of East Carolina, who was familiar, 
 from his personal knowledge, with Satterlee's mis- 
 sionary labors in Morganton, thus expresses himself : 
 
 ''We are grieved and shocked by the news of your 
 loss. It would have been sad news for us anyhow, 
 but it is more keenly so, because of our very pleasant 
 and cordial reception by him, and our sight of his 
 good work when I visited Morganton when Bishop 
 Cheshire was abroad. I did so admire your son and 
 his work that I could not help wishing him to help me 
 in my own diocese. But God has taken him to a 
 higher life, and we may be sure, to a higher work." 
 
 The Bishop of Asheville, under whom, for a time, 
 Satterlee worked at Morganton, says : 
 
 ''His ability to win the love and confidence of all 
 the people with w^hom he came in contact was phe- 
 nomenal." 
 
 The Bishop of West Virginia writes : 
 
 "I never knew him, but I had always such accounts 
 of his life and work, that I could not but think of him 
 
I90 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 as a great comfort to you and of great promise to the 
 Church/' 
 
 Says the Bishop of Maine, who was at the Semi- 
 nary with him : 
 
 ''Yes, Churchill was your offering to the Master 
 for work here and in Paradise." 
 
 The Bishop of New Jersey, who at one time sought 
 to secure his services for the Associate Mission in 
 Trenton, writes : 
 
 'The last person I saw^ as I left Washington the 
 day after the Missionary Council, was your son, a 
 prince among men in his beauty and stature, and 
 likely to live for many a year. The Church loses 
 heavily in his death, but your loss is greatest of all/'' 
 
 The Bishop of New York, under whose jurisdiction 
 he entered the ministrv, declares : 
 
 "His high ideal of his ministry, and his entire con- 
 secration to it always impressed me." 
 
 The Bishop of Western Massachusetts writes : 
 
 "I did not know your boy well. You remember 
 you put him in my charge once, on shipboard, but he 
 had so many friends then, I saw little of him. I 
 remember how handsome and attractive he was, and 
 since then his praise has been in everybody's mouth. 
 The Church has suffered a great loss." 
 
 A classmate at the Seminary, who labored in an 
 adjacent diocese, sends this appreciation : 
 
 "While our acquaintance at the Seminary was 
 casual, we all knew his sterling worth. I followed 
 his course in the Ministry with growing interest and 
 
AFTERMATH. 191 
 
 admiration. So impressed was I with the richness of 
 his character, and his striking administrative abihty, 
 that it was with real pleasure I earnestly strove 
 to have him for my Bishop, although so young, when 
 the Council of East Carolina met to elect a Coadjutor, 
 placing his name before the Council and maintaining 
 it. And, if in God's Providence he might have held 
 that high office, T am sure my regard and affection 
 would have but increasingly gone out to him. Now 
 that the Master has called him to the more perfect 
 service and its rich rewards, I am grateful for his 
 life and that I knew somewhat of it." 
 
 The Rector of old St. Alichael's Church of Charles- 
 ton, S. C, writes : 
 
 "His simplicity of character, his earnestness of 
 purpose and devotion to his work impressed us all. 
 His was indeed a beautiful life, and an inspiring 
 example, and I feel that I am a better man for having 
 know^n him. He had won his way so entirely into 
 the hearts and sympathies of the people of Trinity 
 and of Columbia, that no tribute they could render 
 was sufficiently expressive of their feelings towards 
 him, and it is very much to know that he had won 
 this secure place after so comparatively brief a min- 
 istry." 
 
 One of Satterlee's clerical neighbors, while at Mor- 
 ganton, w^ho had experienced the power of his sym- 
 pathy, writes as follows : 
 
 "Of all those among the clergy I have met, I think 
 
 your son was, without exception, the most lovable. 
 13 
 
192 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 When I was in the Diocese of Asheville, I met him 
 frequently. At that time I was very much broken, 
 was discouraged and saddened. The last night I was 
 in the diocese I spent at his house in Morganton. 
 After we had retired, he rose and came to my room, 
 and sat on the edge of the bed and we had a long 
 talk. Kind hearted, sympathetic, and above all, mar- 
 velously clear headed, he seemed to know by intuition 
 just the right word to say. The next morning he 
 went with me to the train. It was long before sun-^ 
 rise, and he insisted on telegraphing to you, that you 
 might expect me as a guest the next day in Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 "To my mind he was above all others adapted to 
 missionary work. I have ever looked to his becom- 
 ing a Missionary Bishop. In the Convention at 
 Albany, the eleventh of last month, I had a talk with 
 a few young men who also knew him. We agreed 
 to put him in nomination as Bishop Coadjutor. I 
 was to present his name and one of the others was to 
 second it. It was unlikely that he would receive more 
 than our own votes, but it would satisfy my own con- 
 science. The one who had promised to second my 
 nomination lost courage and failed me. At the time 
 I felt very much annoyed, but I am glad I did make 
 the little speech I did, and publicly testified to my 
 appreciation of him." 
 
 One who during his deaconate had been the recipi- 
 ent of Satterlee's friendship and brotherly help, sends 
 his grateful acknowledgment : 
 
AFTERMATH. 193 
 
 ''If I have had any success in the Ministry, it is due 
 in great part to what I learned visiting your son at 
 the rectory in Morganton and asking his advice, for 
 he never failed to encourage me. I came to him 
 when I needed a friend, and often exchanged Sunday 
 services, so as to give my people the blessed Sacra- 
 ment of the Holy Communion. In December, 1902, 
 he called me to assist him in his work at Columbia. 
 These things naturally drew me to Mr. Satterlee, 
 whom I admired not a little for his beautiful life and 
 zealous ministry.'' 
 
 A young clergyman who was associated with him 
 for several years writes : 
 
 "It was a pleasure to know him, and to be so inti- 
 mately associated with him as I was for several years. 
 The secret of his success was no secret to those who 
 saw him unreservedly. He gave himself to his work. 
 Like the Master whom he so faithfully served, he 
 spared not himself. It is not surprising that his peo- 
 ple always loved him." 
 
 One of the Masters at St. Paul's School writes : 
 
 "From the time of his coming here as a boy, to the 
 day of his death as a man, he has given us at the 
 School only remembrances that made us proud to 
 have him an old St. Paul's boy. 
 
 "I do not like to think of the loss to the Church of 
 his earnest and telling work for the Lord and for the 
 men w^hom He came to save. I love to think that 
 somehow for the dead who worked for Christ here, 
 there is, in that time of waiting, some real sphere of 
 
194 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 helpfulness that corresponds in its proper degree to 
 'the preaching to the Spirits in prison.' Even for the 
 Church of Christ such a death is so made less of a 
 loss than it seems. 
 
 "It is, however, from those among whom he 
 directly ministered, from those who were drawn to 
 him by the cords of his helpfulness and human sym- 
 pathy, that the most illuminating estimate of Sat- 
 terlee's personality is naturally to be found.'' 
 
 One of the devoted women who labored side by 
 side with him in the mountains of North Carolina 
 and subsequently in the mill work at Columbia writes, 
 evidentlv out of the fulness of her heart : 
 
 "You must know how I loved him, who by his 
 helpful encouragement had developed all that was 
 best in me, who has in the past four happy years 
 made me feel that the Master had work for me to do 
 in His vineyard. I who always felt so privileged to 
 be one of his teachers ! I think our Heavenly Father 
 must have in His tender blessings to His children, 
 have given me those bright days with him last sum- 
 mer, when again I might learn from him in that 
 w^onderful humility, that pure unselfishness, that lov- 
 ing, pitiful, sympathetic, forgiving heart, so full of 
 love for humanity, and who in seeing the best in 
 others, made them show him the best; and who by 
 his own humble, holy walk with God and sincere 
 belief in His word, led others so willingly, lovingly 
 to Him, and made us feel it was so easy and happy 
 to be a child of God. What a wonderful magnetic. 
 
AFTERMATH. 195 
 
 tactful, God-given gift he had in his influence with 
 all kinds and sorts of people. I can never forget his 
 wonderful patience and love for his Alpine sheep, 
 steep and uphill though they had made the way to 
 win them and bring them into the Master's fold. I 
 think in this precious work of his and his wonderful 
 success must have been written on his heart the para- 
 ble of the Shepherd, searching after his lost lamb, 
 'more precious in his sight' than 'the ninety and nine 
 which went not astray.' And the milling people, how 
 they reverenced him ! I can see them now, gathering 
 around him for a word, after those talks with them 
 Sunday nights. Their careworn faces would brighten 
 as they told me how they loved to have him with 
 them, and to hear him preach. And I must recall to 
 his own precious wife, the wonderful sweet bright 
 smile that illumined his face when a little girl pre- 
 sented him with a beautiful bunch of Southern 
 flowers here at our little entertainment at the Mis- 
 sion, and said, 'Mr. Satterlee, we give these flowers 
 to you w4th our love, and wish you a happy visit 
 away and a speedy return,' and he turned to the audi- 
 ence, his face all aglow at the happy thought, and 
 said he had been counting the hours when he would 
 be with Mrs. Satterlee, and told them to think of him 
 at such a time when he would take those beautiful 
 flowers to her." 
 
 Here is a joint letter from three brothers, who 
 were members of the Morganton Chapter of the 
 Brotherhood of St. Andrew : 
 
196 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 "Now that our whole community has met, creed 
 and class thrown for the time to one side, to express 
 their sense of his loss, w^e feel a mournful interest in 
 recording for your own eye, the great good wrought 
 in our lives by the association permitted to us with 
 him, whom we shall, alas, see no more with earthly 
 eyes. 
 
 "That we may meet him and enjoy communion 
 with him in another and higher realm, is now the 
 greatest hope we have in life. Bowing, as he would 
 have us bow, to God's decree, had the blow fallen 
 elsewhere, we recall with unalloyed joy the happy 
 years of his ministry in this little town, his pleasant 
 passing in and out among us, the sweet savor of his 
 blessing, the sacred hours when he had us in the wor- 
 ship of the temple. Our children remember him and 
 speak of him now, even more tenderly that we, their 
 innocent hearts being more responsive. 
 
 "We can recall no death in our memories that was 
 more taken to heart by the people at large. They 
 talked of it on the streets, worldly men, who stopped 
 to recall some kindly greeting of his in the past, and 
 to mention some good deed done at the time in secret, 
 but which had come to their knowledge since he left 
 us. We, who write you this, were in the Brotherhood 
 of St. Andrew with him, where, free from the 
 restraint of the pulpit he poured out his sweetest self, 
 and was bon camarade, rather than rector. He 
 never gave us an order for Church work, merely the 
 gentlest of suggestion as to what should be done by 
 
AFTERMATH. 197 
 
 any of us, and it is a pleasure, inexpressible now, to 
 remember that like the invitation of royalty, it was 
 regarded as a command and obeyed without hesita- 
 tion, and in good confidence of its exact fitness to the 
 matter in hand. 
 
 "We feel the poverty of words as never before in 
 writing you this. We should but for a serious illness 
 in the family of one of us, have had a representative 
 at Columbia when the last love of the South was 
 shown him, and now we can but ask God's blessing 
 on you and the children." 
 
 Another member of the Morganton Chapter sends 
 the following: 
 
 "Mr. Satterlee was very dear to me and mine. His 
 friendship I prized above all men, and to me it was a 
 privilege seldom equalled. Not only do we mourn 
 with you, but this whole community is sorrowful, the 
 one topic being him and his work, self-sacrificing in 
 behalf of others, always doing good, always smooth- 
 ing over the rough places. Truly he Valked with 
 God.' Would that I had seen him before he left, but 
 1 feel that his spirit is still with us. I always cher- 
 ished a feeling that some day he would return to his 
 flock here, but now there is a lonely feeling; some 
 day we shall all meet, for I know he will intercede 
 for us who might stray from the straight path. His 
 work here will live for all time, and will be a monu- 
 ment more enduring than marble or brass." 
 
 This is from a member of the Columbia Chapter 
 of the Brotherhood : 
 
198 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 "I felt that I must write to tell you of the sincere 
 love I bore for Mr. Satterlee, ever since it was my 
 good fortune to know him. No one will ever know 
 what his life meant to me. It is without hesitation 
 that I make the assertion that no one could have 
 drawn me into the Church as Mr. Satterlee has done. 
 He was the means of bringing me into the Sunday- 
 school, for I was delighted when an opportunity was 
 offered me to assist him in any way. Duty became a 
 pleasure when he was in any way connected with it. 
 At his invitation I became a member of the Brother- 
 hood of St. Andrew, and was happy to do anything 
 I could for him. I would die for such a man." 
 A prominent lawyer of Columbia writes thus : 
 ^'I loved your son with all my heart, and the dear- 
 est and sweetest recollections of him were those to 
 which I could not give publicity since their nature 
 was altogether private, either in relation to me as 
 friend or priest, but there are other recollections 
 which will abide, in the hearts and minds of all those 
 who were blessed with his rectorship at Trinity 
 Church, forever.'' 
 
 Here is the expression of a widow's sorrow : 
 "We too mourn the loss of our dear, true friend, 
 whose place can never be filled. Just what he was to 
 me and my fatherless children, only God knows. L — 
 will, I know, be a better, nobler man for having been 
 under his influence." 
 
 This was written by a parishioner of Trinity 
 Church, Columbia: 
 
AFTERMATH. 199 
 
 "And now the deserted home is a constant re- 
 minder of the brave Christian soldier, who in his 
 brief stay with us, accompHshed so much for others. 
 Strange, it seems to us poor mortals, that such beau- 
 tiful lives are so soon ended. He has finished the 
 work God has given him to do on earth, and now he 
 has gone to beautify the Temple not made with 
 hands. Our prayer must be for strength and means 
 to carry on the work begun, and, may we never forget 
 the example set us by the noble self-sacrificing life. 
 Some one said to me, ^Mr. Satterlee was so sweet to 
 those in trouble that I cannot but feel that he has 
 gone to take a message of comfort to our loved and 
 lost' " 
 
 The three following extracts are from letters 
 written by women parishioners at Morganton : 
 
 "We can't forget him, for we almost worshipped 
 him. How true in his case were the words, ^To know 
 him is to love him.' I have just started a Sunday- 
 school class, composed of boys about sixteen, who I 
 know would never have drifted if he were here. If 
 I can even interest them a little, I shall feel that I am 
 in some way helping to carry on his great and noble 
 work, begun among us." 
 
 "You know how we all here loved dear Mr. Sat- 
 terlee, and we really feel broken hearted, and your 
 sorrow is our sorrow. He was so much to us, not 
 only as a congregation but individually; next to my 
 immediate family, I loved him best. I feel that he 
 
200 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 did so much for my soul, his sermons went straight 
 to my heart; his Hfe was an inspiration, he was so 
 pure and holy, and the godliest man I ever knew. 
 Though he has been away for three years, he is as 
 dear to this parish as when he left. Amidst the 
 mourning draperies in the church to-day I could feel 
 his spirit hovering near." 
 
 ^It would have been a sad sweet pleasure to you to 
 have been at the beautiful memorial service held in 
 our little church yesterday (for it seemed as if he 
 were almost with us), by the citizens of the town, 
 and presided over by the Bishop. So many men paid 
 beautiful tributes of love to one whom we all loved. 
 Men of the Church, men of the Mission, and men in 
 all the other communions joined in words of love and 
 admiration for him, and one thought was expressed 
 by all sooner or later, ^It was good to have known and 
 lived with such a man.' " 
 
 This is from a young man living in Columbia : 
 "This community has lost greatly by the death of 
 your esteemed husband, for I do not believe any man 
 ever came to this city and did as much good as he did 
 in the short time he was here. The people here will 
 never forget him." 
 
 A Morganton lawyer sends this tribute : 
 "I loved him as a brother, and his influence over me 
 enriched and ennobled my life all the time I was 
 under it. This whole community mourns, for he was 
 universally loved and respected." 
 
AFTERMATH. 201 
 
 A prominent business man of New York who had 
 known Satterlee from boyhood, and whose advice he 
 often sought on personal and other matters, sends the 
 following : 
 
 ^'It is needless for me to tell you how highly I 
 esteemed him and how deeply I regret his death. 
 Churchill had strengthened as years went by, and the 
 last time I saw him I was greatly impressed with his 
 mental growth. I believe that he was fast becoming 
 one of the strongest men in the Church. I know that 
 he stood high among the clergy. He was always 
 good, gentle, lovable, with strong mental force and 
 vigor behind it. He would write to me about two 
 long letters a year, telling me of his work, his hopes 
 and his progress, though the last he always under- 
 rated." 
 
 A former resident of South Carolina, now living 
 in Washington, writes : 
 
 "Mr. Satterlee w^as greatly beloved in South Caro- 
 lina, — his w^ork there was a great and noble one. He 
 truly taught many to follow in the footsteps of the 
 meek and lowly Jesus, not only by his sermons and 
 ministrations, but by his lovely Christian example 
 also. The State has sustained a loss, which will be 
 hard to replace." 
 
 The following letter is from a vestryman of Holy 
 Trinity Church, Philadelphia: 
 
 "It was my great privilege to know Churchill dur- 
 ing his early ministry. Our friendship commenced 
 on an ocean steamer. We sat side by side at the 
 
202 A FISHER OF MEN. 
 
 table, and whether there or as we paced the upper 
 deck, our talk was on the subject dearest to his heart, 
 namely, How to save men. His secret of success 
 was his burning love for Christ and a burning love 
 for those for whom Christ died. His whole heart 
 was possessed with the earnest desire to save the 
 immortal lives of men. During his ministry at Mor- 
 ganton. North Carolina, he invited me several times 
 to spend a week with him while the courts were in 
 session and to speak daily at the noon hour on the 
 subject of personal religion, to lawyers assembled 
 from all parts of the State. I have always regretted 
 that I could not fulfill such an engagement. I felt 
 his personality in my own heart. His life, so spotless, 
 so unselfish, was a living power to me." 
 
 A prominent member of Trinity Church, an inti- 
 mate friend of the rector's, and one of the leading 
 men of Columbia, has this to say : 
 
 "I never realized our rector's greatness until he 
 was taken away from us. It is now two months since 
 his death, and the further his form recedes into the 
 past the stronger my consciousness of his real great- 
 ness grows. In pondering this I have thought many 
 times, that thus it is with God's saints — when they 
 are present with us in bodily form, their physical 
 nature seems to act as a veil which, for the time being, 
 obscures and hides the real grandeur of their char- 
 acters." 
 
IN MEMORIAM 
 
 CHURCHILL SATTERLEE. 
 
 The youthful sower in the morning Hght 
 Went forth in joy to sow the goodly seed, 
 
 Himself he spared not, put forth all his might, 
 Nor asked an earthly guerdon for his meed. 
 
 The sun arose, but ere he reached his noon 
 We saw the sow^er stricken in his field ; 
 
 "Too soon," our hearts in anguish cried, "too soon. 
 Who sows the seed should reap the harvest's yield." 
 
 Ah, so we reason in our human way. 
 
 We say of one, "His work hath just begun," 
 
 Of other, "He hath filled up full his day" ; 
 Yet how know we when any's work is done? 
 
 To each the Master sets his proper task ; 
 
 He only knoweth when the tale is done ; 
 He surely will for no true servant ask 
 
 Until he hath the day's full wages won. - 
 
 And so, my brother, though we mourn for thee. 
 We may not say thy life knew not its goal ; 
 
 Thy Master's own, "Well done," eternally 
 Shall be the satisfaction of thy soul. 
 
 — H. S. 
 
 THE END. 
 
MAY 18 1905 
 
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