Albert Micajah Shipp

Background

Albert was born on June 15, 1819 in Stokes County, North Carolina, United States, the son of John and Elizabeth (Oglesby) Shipp.

Education

In 1840 he was graduated at the University of North Carolina.

Career

Shipp was admitted on trial to the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1843 he was ordained deacon by Bishop Andrew, and in December 1844, elder by Bishop Soule. He served two years on circuits, four years on stations, and one as presiding elder. He was a member of every General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, from 1850 to 1886 inclusive, and of the Centennial Conference, held at Baltimore in 1884.

He early became one of the outstanding preachers in his denomination, but in 1848 his voice weakened under a chronic throat affection, making regular pulpit service thereafter impossible. In 1848-49 he served as president of Greensboro Female College, North Carolina. For ten years (1849 - 59) he was professor of history in the University of North Carolina, and for the next sixteen years president of Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina.

From 1875 to 1885 he held the chair of exegetical theology in Vanderbilt University, for three years of the time serving as dean of the theological department and vice-chancellor of the University. Bishop Holland N. McTyeire, then powerful in the affairs of the institution, bluntly demanding a head of the theological department of greater ability, Shipp resigned in 1885.

The remaining two years of his life he spent at his home "Rose Hill, " Marlboro County, near Cheraw, South Carolina. In December 1876, his Conference requested him to prepare a history of Methodism in South Carolina. Pressure of his new duties at Vanderbilt University caused him to delay the project until the summer and fall of 1880, and the work, The History of Methodism in South Carolina, was published in 1883.

He died at Cleveland Springs, North Carolina, where he had gone in quest of health.

Achievements

• Albert Micajah Shipp was a Professor of Exegetical Theology in the Biblical Department at Vanderbilt University for more then decade. He was the author of The History of Methodism in South Carolina, the first work to show a realization of the part that Methodism has played in the life of the state and of its people, not neglecting the remarkable service rendered the slaves.

Works

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• book

  • The History Of Methodism In South Carolina

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

Religion

Converted at Rock Spring camp meeting in August 1835, he joined the Methodist Church.

Personality

As a teacher he won the respect and affection of his students. He was a man of correct literary taste and broad scholarship.

Connections

Shipp reared a large family; his wife was Mary Jane Gillespie, daughter of Samuel Gillepsie, a planter of Cheraw. They had a son and a daughter.

Father:

John Shipp

Mother:

Elizabeth (Oglesby) Shipp

Spouse:

Mary Jane Gillespie Shipp

child:

John Shipp

child:

Sarah W. Shipp

opponent:

James Henry Carlisle

father-in-law:

Samuel Gillepsie