John Carlisle Kilgo (July 22, 1861 – August 11, 1922) served as a bishop in the

Methodist Episcopal Church, South The Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MEC, S; also Methodist Episcopal Church South) was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). Disagreement ...

(MECS) from 1910 to 1922. From 1894 to 1910, Kilgo was the president of

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, in Durham, North Carolina, the predecessor of

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. Earlier, Kilgo was a circuit preacher in South Carolina and a financial agent of

Wofford College Wofford College is a private liberal arts college in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It was founded in 1854. The campus is a national arboretum and one of the few four-year institutions in the southeastern United States founded before the America ...

Early life

John Carlisle Kilgo was born to James Tillman Kilgo and Catherine Mason Kilgo on July 22, 1861 in

Laurens, South Carolina Laurens is a city in Laurens County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 9,139 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Laurens County. History Located in upstate South Carolina, the city of Laurens is named after Henry Laure ...

. His father was a circuit preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Kilgo attended Wofford College but dropped out after his sophomore year. Soon thereafter, the MECS

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

Kilgo as a circuit preacher in which capacity he served for six years. On December 20, 1882, Kilgo married Fannie Nott Turner. In 1888, Wofford College appointed Kilgo as a financial agent of the college where Kilgo became known in the region for his preaching and leadership potential. During his time at Wofford, Kilgo studied with Henry N. Snyder for three years and was awarded an honorary MA.

Trinity College (Duke University)

John C. Kilgo was offered the presidency of Trinity College in 1894 at the age of thirty-three. Kilgo soon began acting on his desire to build the college into an institution with a national reputation. His presidency of Trinity College is notable for the 1903 Bassett Affair, wherein the university defended academic freedom. Kilgo's statement of Trinity College's aims were likely adopted in 1924 as the aims of Duke University.
"The aims of Duke University are to assert a faith in the eternal union of knowledge and religion set forth in the teachings and character of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; to advance learning in all lines of truth; to defend scholarship against all false notions and ideals; to develop a Christian love of freedom and truth; to promote a sincere spirit of tolerance; to discourage all partisan and sectarian strife; and to render the largest permanent service to the individual, the state, the nation, and the church. Unto these ends shall the affairs of this University always be administered." Contemporaries characterized Kilgo as "a man afire" and students whispered among themselves that his pulse beat above normal. But they revered him and relished his bold attacks on narrow political and religious tenets of the time. However, one student did note as "the only flaw in his shining armor, a toleration for some Republican views," possibly a reference to his friendship with the Duke family. While well known for his stirring defense of academic freedom during the Bassett Affair, Kilgo also invited African-American leader Booker T. Washington to speak on the Trinity campus in 1896. Washington's appearance at Trinity was his first on a white Southern college campus. Additional principles firmly established during Kilgo's presidency include high standards in admissions, quality over numbers, the employment of the best possible faculty, and the equal education of women with men. As an indication of the national stature of the college, the President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching wrote Kilgo in 1909, "You are one of the few college presidents of this country who sattempting to graduate each year an individualized group of men nd womenrather than a group that is merely more educated than when it came to you." There is now a quad on the West Campus of Duke University named after Kilgo.

Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South

Kilgo had received votes to become bishop at the general conferences of the MECS in 1898, 1902, and 1906. Finally, Kilgo was elected as a bishop of the MECS in May 1910. As bishop, Kilgo oversaw the following annual conferences: *1910: KY, Louisville, North AL, FL *1911: KY, SC, North MS, MS *1912: Holston, Memphis, SC, Baltimore *1913: German Mission, AR, Little Rock, White River *1914: IL, KY, Western VA, Louisville, VA *1915: IL, NC, SC, AL *1916: Western VA, Western NC, VA, NC *1917: Japan Mission, China Mission, Korea Mission *1918: North MS, LA, MS *1920: No assignment because of poor health *1921: Partnered with Bishop McMurry in Northwest TX, LA, North MS, MS John C. Kilgo died on August 10, 1922, at the age of sixty-one in Charlotte, North Carolina. Assisted by Bishop

Collins Denny Collins Denny (May 28, 1854 – May 12, 1943) was an American clergyman and educator. He was Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy at Vanderbilt University from 1891 to 1910. He served as bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South from 1 ...

, Bishop Warren A. Candler officiated the funeral."Funeral Services of Bishop Kilgo," North Carolina Christian Advocate (Greensboro, NC) LXVII, no. 32 (1922).

Notes

Bibliography

* Garber, Paul N. ''John Carlisle Kilgo, President of Trinity College, 1894-1910'' Duke University Publications. Durham, N.C.,: Duke University Press, 1937. * Kilgo, John Carlisle, and D. W. Newsom. ''Chapel Talks''. Nashville, Tenn., Dallas, Tex. tc. Publishing house M. E. church, South, 1922. * Porter, Earl W. ''Trinity and Duke, 1892-1924: Foundations of Duke University''. Durham, N.C.,: Duke University Press, 1964. * Rowe, Gilbert T. "John Carlisle Kilgo--Preacher and Educator." ''The Methodist Quarterly Review'' LXXI, no. 4 (1922). * Walters, Kevin L. “Balancing Freedom and Unity: John Carlisle Kilgo and the Unification of Methodism in America.”
Methodist History
' 48, no. 1 (October 2009): 43-57.

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