BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
BENJAMIN TUCKER TANNER, D. D.
In 1881 he visited England and Continental Europe in the interest of the publication department, and received as gifts stereotype illustrations to the value of five hundred dollars. He attended the Ecumenical Conference and witnessed the gathering of Universal Methodism, and came in contact with the representatives of the rest of the Wesleyan family.
He has written several works relative to the church and race: “Apology for African Methodism,” “The Negro’s Origin, and is the Negro Cursed?” “An Outline of Our History and Government,” “The Negro, African and American.” Autobiographical sketches, with illustrations, have appeared in Fowler’s Phrenological Journal, and in Simpson’s Encyclopedia of Methodism. He has been elected a member of the New England Historical Society of the M. E. Church. He has shown what it is possible for a man to do in this country and church, who has energy and talent. He has arisen from a successful barber to be the king of Negro editors. His pen is sharper than his razor, and his editorial chair is finer than his barber chair.
The church and race will long remember Dr. B. T. Tanner for the part he has taken in the reconstruction of the South, for his words of encouragement and good advice.
REV. C. S. SMITH, M. D.
Rev. C. S. Smith was born of humble parentage, March 16, 1854. He early evinced a desire for knowledge, and was able to read before he was five years of age. The first school book which he possessed was purchased by money that he himself had earned. He attended school at intervals until he was about ten years of age, when he was put to learn the trade of a cabinet finisher. He made but poor success at this, however, the “grains of his nature” being against him. He was passionately fond of reading newspapers, and to the influence and teaching of the public press he attributes the larger share of his present knowledge. When about eleven years of age he left home, and since then has fought the battle of life alone. In 1869, when nearing the age of seventeen years, he began his career as a public teacher in the State of Kentucky, under the auspices of the
