The Life of THOMAS E SKINNER
THOMAS EDWARD SKINNER 1825-1905
FOUNDER, THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF RALEIGH
POLK SECTION, LOT 29
Thomas Edward Skinner was born in Perquimans County, North Carolina, April 29, 1825. He was one of four sons of Charles Worth Skinner, one of the most wealthy farmers in the State, and was also one of the most successful operators of fisheries on the Sound. Charles, under the influence of the Reverend Thomas Meredith and Reverend E. T. Daniel, became a Baptist and was probably the most wealthy Baptist in the State and the greatest benefactor of Wake Forest College.
As soon as young Thomas reached the required age of twelve for admission, he was sent to Wake Forest College. At the time of admission, Wake Forest was a manual labor institution with every student being required to work three hours a day on the school farm. At one point, Thomas was detailed, along with others, to the field to hoe rows of corn. However, instead of mounding the dirt around the stalks he used his hoe to cut them down to stubble. For his actions he was brought before the faculty where he and two fellow pranksters, L.C. Hinton and William Hunter, were rewarded for their misdeeds with twenty stripes (lashings or flogging) each. However, such punishment was hardly a deterrent for the boys as a few days later they were caught by Professor White taking his sweet potatoes. Eventually though, all would become preachers of the gospel.
After attending Wake Forest for four years Skinner was sent to a renown school operated by William Bingham, Sr., at Hillsboro, North Carolina. Headmaster Bingham was known as a “bad boy breaker,” and Thomas’ father thought Thomas needed his attention. At this school Thomas was a classmate of James Johnston Pettigrew, later to become one of the most gallant generals of the Confederacy. After a year of schooling at Hillsboro, he ask his father for permission to attend the Caldwell Institute in Greensboro and had his request granted. Here he was a classmate of Alfred Moore Scales, who would later become Governor of North Carolina.
In 1844 Thomas entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated in 1847 with a degree of Bachelor of Arts. To his dying day, Thomas insisted that the University granted his degree because he certainly hadn’t earn it. While at Chapel Hillm, Thomas’ classmates included his old friends from Hillsboro, Pettigrew and Matt W. Ransom.
Following graduation, Skinner returned to Perquimans County, married Miss Ann Eliza Halsey of Tyrrell County and began farming. In 1848 he ventured into the herring fishery business with his brother Charles and the income from the fishing endeavor alone was fourteen thousand dollars that year.
A casual meeting with a farm laborer in 1850 launched a life-long career in Christianity for Thomas. During wheat-sowing time in the fall of 1850, Mr. Skinner entertained, during a severe rainstorm, a poor wheelwright named Parker who, because of his lowly status, was without a first name. Parker was a humble Christian who spent the night in prayer asking God to enter his host’s heart and convert him to Christianity. The next morning, upon learning of this, Skinner was humbled and troubled by the act of Parker. For more than a month he prayed secretly twenty or more times a day.
In January, 1851 he was baptized into the membership of the Bethel Baptist Church of Perquimans. Four months after his baptism, Skinner became a student at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He had gone to New York with his wife and young child, Thomas Haley Skinner who would later become a graduate of Wake Forest College and a physician. Soon after Thomas’ arrival at the seminary, his wife died. Remaining in school, he graduated on May 8, 1854 and on the eve of graduation, he married Ann Stuart Ludlow.
His first pastorate was in Petersburg, Virginia. This pastorate was terminated due to the illness of Ann and a change of residence was required. In the fall of 1855 he answered a call to Savannah to pastor and while en route, he stopped in Raleigh to preach a single sermon. As a result of the strength of his preaching in Raleigh he received an offer to remain in the capital city and pastor at the Baptist mission station. Obtaining the consent to live in Raleigh from his wife, Skinner accepted the calling. A the time, Skinner’s salary was $800 and paid by the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Pastor Skinner accepted the position with the understanding that as soon as possible the church would build a new meeting-house in a better location. At the time, members of the First Baptist Church were worshiping in a damp basement into which women as Mrs. Alfred Williams and Mrs. Graham, the wife of the Governor, attended. Skinner, with the help of his wealthy relatives and by motivating the members of the church to make financial sacrifices, purchased for $6,000, a tract of land at the corner of Edenton and Salisbury streets. The money for the building was raised in almost one day. On that same day, the Baptist State Convention was meeting in Raleigh and Skinner was able to obtain $2,000 each from his father, his father’s friend, Richard Felton, Mrs. Alfred Williams and A.M. Lewis. Before the end of the evening, Skinner had amassed subscriptions amounting to $18,750. As a result, Skinner soon gave to Raleigh the finest Baptist church in North Carolina. The church began to develop under Skinner’s leadership. In a year, membership had grown to about 250. The church soon was able to financially support itself without assistance from the Baptist State Convention and its status was elevated from mission station to church. Skinner’s salary jumped from $800 to $2,400 without any request for increase from him. Thus he built the Baptist following in Raleigh and made it perhaps the most influential body of Christians in the State. Skinner served two pastorates in Raleigh, from 1855 to 1866, and from 1879 to 1886. He served other pastorates, including Nashville, Tennessee, and at Columbus, Athens and Macon, Georgia. But his great work was with the church in Raleigh. During the Civil War, in 1863, he ran the Union blockade on the “Advance” and went to England to procure Bibles and Testaments for the North Carolinians. At his request, the British Foreign Bible Society sent a large gift of Testaments for distribution to the boys and girls of the South who could no longer buy them from the publishers in the North.
In addition to his Christian services, Skinner occupied the chair of Biblical Interpretation at Shaw University. He was the financial agent for what is now Meredith College and was president of the Board of Trustees at Wake Forest College.
In 1902, his son, Ludlow Skinner, was tragically shot in an altercation on the steps of the Raleigh Post Office. Thomas, in his bereavement went into seclude retirement at Fletcher, in Henderson County. But in the last days of March, 1905, he returned on a visit to the city and church he loved. While in Raleigh on April 2nd, Thomas Edward Skinner died while taking an afternoon nap. It seems fitting that Mr. Skinner would died in Raleigh, on Sunday, after attending services at his first Baptist Church.