BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.
XVII
"Is it possible that my young friend is celebrating his
semi-centennial ? What wonderful experiences have been
crowded into those fifty years ! Enough to make a man
feel a century old. You have seen great changes in the
condition of the South. You are sometimes tempted to be
discouraged or impatient when the stream of progress
seems to turn backward in a great eddy. Remember,
brother, that the Almighty Father of love rules and there
can be no really backward movements in his work. The
Southern school work demands all your powers of eloquence
and gifts of teaching."
Rev. W H. Hickman, D.D., president of Clark Uni¬
versity, made a very appropriate speech, speaking in high
terms of the faithfulness and excellence of Prof. Crogman's
work.
Prof. Crogman was a lay delegate to the General Con¬
ferences of the M. E. Church of 1880, 1884 and 1888,
and one of the assistant secretaries of the last two of these.
A letter from Rev. D. S. Monroe, D.D., secretary of these
last two General Conferences, included the following :
"Though a Southerner by birth, from my early man¬
hood I was opposed to slavery, and I considered it one of
the greatest privileges of my life that it fell to my lot to be
the first to nominate a man of African descent as an assist¬
ant secretary of the General Conference of 1884. I was
certainly extremely fortunate in securing the services of
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