My Dissertation

The following paragraph might show up in my dissertation. It's my partial attempt to define and explain the project:

While it does present a biographical narrative, it is not a biography per se. It is, instead, what might be called a series of case studies based on one life, all related to a wide range of topics and sub-fields of history. These include American religion, especially the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement; Native Americans, narrowed to the Five Tribes of Oklahoma, especially the Choctaws and Chickasaws; biblical studies and Christian theology; the history of Indian Territory, Oklahoma Territory, and the State of Oklahoma, especially Grady County and the towns of Silver City, Minco, and Chickasha; women's and gender history; education and educational theory in the United States; North Carolina's Coastal Plain, where Meta Chestnutt was born and raised, and the city of Nashville, Tennessee, where she attended the Peabody Normal College and the University of Nashville, and where she worked among the Churches of Christ and Christian Churches during the late 1880s.

John D. Benedict (1854-1946)

John Downing Benedict was born in Clermont, Indiana, in 1854. His family moved to Vermillion County, Illinois, in 1869, and it was there that he graduated from high school. He went on to complete a degree at the University of Illinois. In 1881, the year he turned twenty-seven, Benedict became superintendent of schools in Vermillion County. During his eight years at that post, he developed a uniform educational program for the state's rural schools. The curriculum was so popular it was later adopted by the State of Kansas and by Oklahoma and Indian Territories as well. Benedict's record of success in the field of education was no doubt what led to his being appointed the first U.S. superintendent of schools in Indian Territory in 1899.[1] 

The new position had a remarkable background. Prior to the passage of the Curtis Act of 1898, the Five Tribes of Oklahoma had complete jurisdiction over their respective school systems. But Section 19 of the Curtis Act stated that

no payment of any moneys on any account whatever shall here after be made by the United States to any of the tribal governments or to any officer thereof for disbursement, but payments of all sums to members of said tribes shall be made under direction of the Secretary of the Interior by an officer appointed by him.[2]

Apparently, the U.S. government intended and took the phrase "under direction of" to mean that the Secretary of the Interior would have to approve of the activities for which the tribes received money. And that meant, among other things, federal oversight of schools in Indian Territory.[3] And so it was that Benedict arrived in Muskogee, Indian Territory, on February 27, 1899, to begin his challenging work.[4]

Notes

[1] Carolyn G. Hanneman, “Benedict, John Downing,” Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, accessed March 25, 2021, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=BE016. See also Grant Forman, "John D. Benedict, Pioneer Educator in Oklahoma," Oklahoma Teacher 27 (May 1946), 17-18.

[2] An Act For the protection of the people of Indian Territory, and for other purposes, Chap. 517, 55th Cong, 2d. sess. (June 28, 1898).

[3] This interpretation stems from Benedict's own view. See John D. Benedict, "Excerpt from Manuscript of 'My Educational Experience'," Indian-Pioneer Papers, Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma, accessed March 25, 2021, https://digital.libraries.ou.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/indianpp/id/3907/rec/1

[4] Ibid.

D. T. Broadus on El Meta Christian College in 1895

The college at Minco is moving on. The building is not complete yet. It will require patience and perseverance to complete the building and get the school in good running order. W. J. Erwin, J. H. and R. S. Tuttle are trustees, and will push it to completion as fast as they can. They now have three teachers, including the music teacher. There are now about ninety pupils and others ready to start as soon as they get more of the boarding department ready. Brethren, let us all encourage this much-needed work. Some good brethren who have money can do a grand work by contributing some of it immediately to assist in finishing up the boarding department. Send your money to either of the trustees, or to Miss Meta Chestnutt, who has labored so faithfully for five long years in bringing the school up to what it is now. She began with a small number of children in a little schoolhouse on the wild prairie, but all the time with this work in view. She has, by persevering until now, brought it to where it is. She is a graduate of Peabody Normal, of Nashville, Tenn., and is a practical, energetic teacher. She begins a thing to succeed. She has but little use for the word fail. Other good teachers will be added as fast as they are needed. One other will be added soon.

D. T. Broadus, "Kansas Notes," Gospel Advocate 37 (January 3, 1895), 14.

The Letter to the Hebrews: Some Basics

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews describes it as a "word of exhortation," a sermon (13:22). The anonymous writer was a thoroughly-Hellenized Jewish Christian steeped in the language of the Septuagint, an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Also trained in rhetoric, he wrote some of the finest Greek to be found anywhere in the New Testament.[1] Hebrews bears a number of marks suggesting it was written to a house church in an urban setting, perhaps Rome. Like the writer, the intended audience had roots in the Hellenistic synagogues of the Jewish Diaspora. The congregation had endured persecution for their Christian faith and, in the eyes of the author, had now become spiritually sluggish. They were in danger of drifting away from their commitment.[2] The community stood in need of pastoral rebuke and encouragement, which is exactly what this sermon in written form was intended to provide.

Notes

[1] William L. Lane, Hebrews 1-8, Word Biblical Commentary 47A  (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1991), xlvii-li.

[2] Ibid., liii-lx. For this reconstruction of the historical situation, Lane points to passages like Hebrews 2:1, 5:11, and 10:32-35.