Guide to the S.H. Chester Papers
Open for research.
Samuel Hall Chester, a Southern Presbyterian minister and Secretary of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS), was born January 17, 1851 in Mt. Holly, Arkansas. In the fall of 1869, he entered Washington College (now Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia). Robert E. Lee was president of the college. He graduated as valedictorian of his class in 1872. After graduating from Union Theological Seminary in Virginia in 1875, Chester was ordained by the PCUS Presbytery of Mecklenberg in North Carolina later that year. Between 1875 and 1892, he served pastorates in North Carolina and Tennessee. In April 1884, Chester married Susan W. Willard (1862-1947) of Wilmington, North Carolina. They had eight children, including Julia Sweet Chester (Mrs. Bennett H. Pearce, 1888-1972).
In October 1893, Chester was appointed by the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions of the PCUS to serve as acting secretary. In 1894, he was elected to that position at the annual meeting of the PCUS General Assembly in Nashville. During his service, foreign missionaries served in Africa, Brazil, China, Cuba, Japan, Korea, and Mexico. After he left the secretarial post in 1912, Chester served as Foreign Correspondence Secretary and Editor. In 1926, he received the honorary status of Secretary Emeritus of Foreign Missions.
In addition to his ministerial and administrative service, Chester authored Pioneer Days in Arkansas; Behind the Scenes: An Administrative History of the Foreign Work of the Presbyterian Church in the United States; Memories of Four-score Years: An Autobiography; and Lights and Shadows of Mission Work in the Far East: Being the Record of Observations Made During a Visit to the Southern Presbyterian Missions in Japan, China, and Korea in the Year 1897.
In 1934, S.H. and Susan Willard Chester celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. S.H. Chester died on April 27, 1940 at Montreat, North Carolina.
The S.H. Chester Papers, 1872-1950, contain correspondence, writings, photographic materials, scrapbooks, and other materials relating to, or collected by, Samuel Hall Chester and family. The papers contain relatively little information on the foreign mission work of the PCUS. The collection is arranged in two series: "Papers, 1872-1950" and "Photographic materials, scrapbooks, and yearbook, circa 1880-1945."
The "Papers" series consists of eleven folders of clippings, personal and professional correspondence, sermon notes and notebooks, writings, and other materials. Among the correspondence are letters from S.H. Chester to his seminary classmate and personal friend Edward O. Guerrant (1838-1916), a Southern Presbyterian minister and evangelist from Kentucky. There is correspondence between S.H. Chester and S.S. (Samuel Spahr) Laws and others on the matter of polygamy. A few scrapbooks also contain correspondence (primarily congratulatory letters). J.H. McNeilly's narrative documents the effort to remove S.H. Chester from the office of foreign mission secretary. This series also includes a folder of S.H. Chester's sermon notes and notebooks and a small assortment of his writings. Materials relating to S.H. Chester and his connection to Washington and Lee University and Robert E. Lee include a photostat of his 1872 valedictory address, a sketch, and Chester's brief narrative taken under oath.
The "Photographic materials, scrapbooks, and yearbook" series includes photographs of the Southern Presbyterian delegation (including S.H. and Susan Willard Chester) at the 1916 Panama Congress on Christian Work in Latin America, as well as photographs, invitations, and clippings documenting the Chesters' visit to Stockholm, Sweden for the 1925 Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work. A scrapbook of congratulatory letters, telegrams, cards, clippings, and other memorabilia documents the Chesters' fiftieth wedding anniversary at Montreat, North Carolina, in 1934. Another scrapbook includes congratulatory letters to Chester for his 1934 autobiography, Memories of Four Score Years. Materials of Julia Chester Pearce include photograph albums of Cuba and of travels in the United States, friends, and family; a scrapbook of memories of Mount Berry, Georgia and Montreat, North Carolina; and a 1914 yearbook for Martin College in Pulaski, Tennessee, where she was a faculty member. This series also includes four other scrapbooks and a folder of assorted photographs.
The collection is arranged as follows:
SERIES I: PAPERS, 1872-1950
SERIES II: PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIALS, SCRAPBOOKS, AND YEARBOOK, circa 1880-1945
Received from S.H. Chester in 1931 and Mrs. S.H. Chester in 1941. Received from Frank H. Richardson in 1967, Mrs. Wright MacMillan in 1979, and the Swannanoa Valley Museum by Harriet A. Styles in 1991.
The processing of this collection was made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources’ “Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives” Project. The collection was minimally processed and the finding aid was created in Archivists’ Toolkit in February 2011 by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Michael Gubicza. This guide was revised in June 2013 by Bill Brock, Collection Management Archivist.
S. H. Chester Papers, RG 470, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
| Box | Folder | Description | |
| SERIES I: PAPERS, 1872-1950 | |||
| 1 | 1 | "Address of Fitz Hugh McMaster at Catholic Presbyterian Church, August 14, 1941" (Chester County, South Carolina), 1941 August 14 | |
| 1 | 2 | Clippings, 1881, 1936-1941 and undated | |
| 1 | 3 | Correspondence, 1877-1950, bulk 1877-1899 | |
| 1 | 4 | Correspondence re polygamy, 1906-1908 | |
| 1 | 5 | "The Effort to Remove Dr. S.H. Chester from Secretaryship of Foreign Missions Committee," by J.H. McNeilly, and circular letter, after 1910 May; 1912 May 6 | |
| 1 | 6 | "Entanglement in Christian Doctrines" by C.H. Parkhurst, pastor, Madison Square Presbyterian Church (New York, N.Y.), 1912 December 15 | |
| 1 | 7 | Mount Sion/Zion Society, Winnsboro, South Carolina, 1914 | |
| 1 | 8 | Sermon notes and notebooks, circa 1922 and undated | |
| 1 | 9 | Sketch and oaths - S.H. Chester (guard of honor member for Robert E. Lee) and death of Joseph Chester in the Civil War, 1931-1932 | |
| 1 | 10 | Valedictory speech (photostat) of S. H. Chester, Washington and Lee University, 1872 June 27 | |
| 1 | 11 | Writings, 1921 and undated | |
| SERIES II: PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIALS, SCRAPBOOKS, AND YEARBOOK, circa 1880-1945 | |||
| 4 | Photograph album of Julia Chester Pearce - Cuba, 1919, 1937 and undated | ||
| 5 | Photograph album of Julia Chester Pearce - travels in the United States, friends, and family, 1913-1918 and undated | ||
| 6 | Photographs, invitations, and clippings - Stockholm, Sweden and the Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work, 1925 | ||
| 2 | 1 | Photographs and postcards, circa 1880 and undated | |
| 2 | 2 | Photographs of the Southern Presbyterian delegation at the 1916 Panama Congress on Christian Work in Latin America and an unidentified group photograph, 1916 and undated | |
| 2 | 3 | Martin College (Pulaski, Tennessee) yearbook, 1914 | |
| 2 | 4 | Scrapbook - clippings (re Chester and Willard families; S.H. Chester; and China, Korea, and Japan mission work) and sermons, 1884-1915 and undated | |
| 3 | 1 | Scrapbook - assorted material and topics, including items relating to S.H. and Susan W. Chester and family, circa 1931-1944 and undated | |
| 7 | 1 | Scrapbook - assorted material and topics, including newspaper clippings relating to Davidson College, 1939-1942 and undated, bulk 1940-1941 | |
| 7 | 2 | Scrapbook - assorted material and topics, including Davidson College and Mount Berry, Georgia, 1940-1941 and undated | |
| 3 | 2 | Scrapbook of Julia Chester Pearce - "Memories," Mount Berry, Georgia, 1935-1938 | |
| 3 | 3 | Scrapbook - primarily re the Chesters' 1934 fiftieth wedding anniversary, 1912, 1934-1943 and undated, bulk 1934 | |
| 3 | 4 | Scrapbook - primarily re S.H. Chester's Memories of Four-score Years: An Autobiography, 1934-1935, 1945 and undated, bulk 1934 |