Southern Christian Advocate

BISHOP MOUZON COMES HOME

South Carolina friends who have followed the brilliant career of Bishop E. D. Mouzon with growing pride rejoice that after sixteen years of episcopal service he comes now to preside over the Conferences of his native state. The announcement of the assignment at the recent meeting of the College of Bishops at Memphis was received with great satisfaction by friends and admirers in all sections of the state.

Born at Spartanburg, though of old Charleston Huguenot lineage, his entire ministry has been given to fields so far removed from us that comparatively few of our people have personal acquaintance with him, and will, we are sure be interested in the following facts:

Edwin DuBose Mouzon was born at Spartanburg May 19, 1869, the son of Samuel Cogswell and Harriet Peurifoy Mouzon. The house in which he was born near the Southern Railway station on Magnolia Street, opposite the old cemetery, is, if we mistake not, still standing.

He was graduated from Wofford College with the A.B. degree in the class of 1889 and the older preachers remember the tall, slender youth of striking appearance, who was received on trial into the South Carolina Conference at its session in Camden in December of the same year. He was transferred immediately, however, to Texas and stationed at Bryan.

His rise in the Texas Conference was rapid and after serving appointments in such cities as Austin, Galveston, Fort Worth and San Antonio, he was transferred to Central church, Kansas City, in 1901. In 1908 he became professor of theology in Southwestern University and at the Asheville Conference in 1910 was elevated to the episcopacy.

In 1905 Southwestern University conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity and followed this in 1911 with the Degree of Doctor of Laws. He was a delegate to the Ecumenical Conference at Toronto in 1911 and again at London in 1921. In the midst of an exceedingly active life filled with incessant and taxing administrative duties, the Bishop has found time to pursue a wide range of studies and is recognized as one of the most scholarly men in the Church as well as one of its greatest preachers.

A year ago he delivered the Fondren lectures at Southern Methodist University and since then the Cole lectures at Vanderbilt. The former were published under the title, "The Missionary Evangel.", and the latter appeared only a few weeks ago under the title, "The Program of Jesus." Both volumes have had a wide sale and have given him a secure place in the field of authorship.

In the earlier years of his episcopal career Bishop Mouzon rendered conspicuous service in the superintendency of our mission work in Mexico, South America and on the Pacific coast, but perhaps his most conspicuous service to the Church has been in the field of education. He had a leading part in founding Southern Methodist University and for a number of years has been president of the General Board of Education.

His home for the past four years has been in Nashville, Tenn., and friends desiring to write him can reach him at 810 Broadway, of that city. On May 19th he entertained the delegations of the two South Carolina Conferences at a delightful luncheon at the Peabody hotel in Memphis. In the course of happy reminiscences of his childhood, youth and college days in Spartanburg, the interesting facts were developed that the 19th of May was his birthday, was the anniversary of his license to preach, of his first marriage and of his ordination to the bishopric. It was a beautiful coincidence that on that day he should have entertained the representatives of the Conferences of his native state, over which he comes now to preside, and in most appreciative terms did Judge B. Hart Moss welcome him back home.

Numerous engagements will occupy his time for the next few weeks but he will officially meet the presiding elders of the two Conferences during the second week of the Pastors' School at Columbia College and thereafter he will be ready to take up fully the labors of this great episcopal district. As the official organ of the Conferences the Advocate pledges him the unstinted cooperation of our preachers and people in the prosecution of his work.