Annual Report.
Rooms of the American Missionary Association, 48 Beekman Street, New York, [illegible] Sept 14/60 Rev. L. C. Chambers. DEAR SIR: Your report will be for the year ending August 1, 1860, or if you have not been in commission a full year, for the [illegible] the date of your commission and August 1. Please fill up the blanks in the following form, and return it to us within three days after its reception by you, if practicable. Every blank should be filled explicitly, leaving nothing for us to determine. (For further suggestions on this and other points, see page 4.) Your own name in full, Lewis Champion Chambers Names of Churches and Congregations to which you minister, their and your location – (Town, [illegible] Office, + County, and State.) British Methodist Episcopal Church McGees Ferry Botany London Ingersoll McGees Ferry in the township of Camden Botany township of Howard [illegible] London Canada West Ingersoll Canada West Date of Commission, that is when your year commences. November 14 Dollars of aid pledged by the A.M.A., 10 dol 12 Months of labor herein reported, [illegible] months Hopeful Conversions, at London 2 Ingersoll 26 Additions to the Church on examination, or to each Church, if you minister to more than one. London 2 Ingersoll 26 1 young man at Ingersoll wants to go in the ministry Additions do by Letter, London by letter 3 Ingersoll by letter 12 Whole number of members in each of the Churches to which you minister, London members 65 Ingersoll members 45 McGees Ferry 26 members Botany 9 members Average attendance of each Congregation, McGees Ferry 12 Botany 7 of these 2 places the[y] are moving away they do not own any land [their] leases the most of them are out this fall and they are [moving] away Number of Church members pledged to total abstinence, London 32 Ingersoll 26 Contribution to benevolent objects, (not local,) [Former] slaves 3 here come to London 12 have come to Ingersoll they appear to Be [illegible] industry I want to build a house to worship [in] at Ingersoll Number of Sunday-school and Bible-class scholars, McGees Ferry 1 Scholars 11 London 50 Scholars 2 Bible class 1 Ingersoll 45 scholars 1 Bible class [illegible] schools are all [illegible] with the whites these is at London and Ingersoll (See directions on page 4, for giving other particulars on the inside of this sheet.) DIRECTIONS FOR FILLING THE INSIDE PAGES. UNDER the head of other particulars, please to state any facts of interest not embraced in the foregoing Report—such as organization of Churches, the time, and their location; also of Sabbath-Schools, Bible-Classes, and Missionary Associations; Revivals of Religion; young men having the Gospel Ministry in view; the erection of Houses of Worship; Providences apparently connected with moral results; Spiritual prospects of the Church; number of other Churches in the place, or immediate vicinity; present number of the population; moral condition of the people generally; the character of the immigrants coming to your region, and what proportion of them are from foreign countries slavery; the conversion of Roman Catholics; the observation of the Sabbath; efforts for the Anti-Slavery cause, in Church and State, and for the people of color; also, for the promotion of Temperance, and all true reforms; for Education and Missions; whether the “monthly concert of prayer” is observed with interest, and the enslaved are especially remembered on these occasions; what errors prevail, and whether progress is manifest in righteousness and all the highest interests of society; with any remarks or suggestions deemed useful to the cause. Use black ink, and be careful in your statistics that your figures, and the names of persons and places, be written with great distinctness. Devote time to your Report to give us your best thoughts in a condensed form. Yours, truly, Geo. Whipple S.S. JOCELYN, Cor. [illegible] P.S.—Under the heads, “Number of Church members pledged to total abstinence,” “Contributions to benevolent objects, (not local,)” “Number of Sabbath-School and Bible-Class scholars,” in some reports, the statistics are indefinitely given, making it necessary at times to leave the blanks unfilled in our printed Reports, thereby doing injustice to the parties and the cause. If the missionary [has] changed his field, and has not all the statistics to the date of his leaving, he should write to the officers of the Church to report them at once to him, or to send them to the Secretary here. We can not be thrown upon Quarterly Reports, but must depend upon the Annual Reports [also] for statistics. A daily memorandum-book, kept by each missionary, would greatly facilitate the giving of accurate as well as interesting quarterly and Annual Reports, and would have a happy influence upon his work. It is of much importance to the Secretary, that at the head of every letter, the Town, (P.O.,) County, and State, should accompany the date. I have [illegible] here a blank that was made for [illegible] Please give me the facts, so far as you can, that are [illegible] here. Take special pains to write the names of places [and] make the figures plain. I [will] Yours, G.W. This will inform you that I [illegible] and will mail this to day pardon the [long] delay as soon as I got it I have answered it I will be at Dresden on the 18 and [I will be] gone on the 22 please write before [this] time yours, LC Chambers Transcription by Haley Miller |