r so greatly.

A spirit of true patriotism, as well as the tie of christian
brotherhood, prompts the lending of a helping hand and an encouraging
word, while he solves the problem of his own destiny of great usefulness
in the home, the school, the church, in the shop, on the farm and in the
fields of professional opportunity and business activity.

It may be truly said of the Freedmen that they represent the poor of
this world, of whom the Lord Jesus said, "Ye have the poor always with
you, Me ye have not always. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the
least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto Me."

VII

UPLIFTING INFLUENCES

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT.--AN HISTORIC COMPARISON.

"Look unto the rock whence ye were hewn, and to the
hole of the pit whence ye were digged."--Isaiah 51:1.

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT

The historic incidents, having an uplifting influence that occurred
among the Choctaw Freedmen of Indian Territory, from the time of their
first instruction in the Bible to the establishment and present
development of Oak Hill Industrial Academy, when briefly summarized,
seem like a reproduction on a miniature scale of those greater events
that occurred among the Christian nations of Europe and America
preceding the adoption of their systems of public instruction.

I. THE CHOCTAW FREEDMEN

Rev. Cyrus Kingsbury, a generous hearted missionary to the Indians,
having charge of a church building at Doaksville, encourages the slaves
in the vicinity to meet in it occasionally on Sabbath afternoons, for
the purpose of receiving instruction in the Bible and shorter catechism.

This Bible instruction does not result in the organization of a church
at that place, but opportunity is given for the manifestation and
development of the religious instinct of a number of persons, amongst
whom there are two young men, who were destined later to become
influential leaders among the enslaved people whom they represented.

After their emancipation, one locates on the west bank of the Kiamichi
river and later becomes known as Parson Stewart, the organizer and
circuit rider of a sufficient number of churches, at the time of his
decease in 1896, to form the Presbytery of Ki a mich i.

The other, accompanied by several personal friends, migrates fifteen
miles eastward and founds a home in the Oak Hill neighborhood. In the
course of a short time he is visited by the parson and his home becomes
a hou