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Peter Harrison Whisner, D.D. Paul L. Nichols* Introduction Peter Harrison Whisner was a leader in the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. 1 He is best known around Blacksburg for his role in the beginning ofthe Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. This article will tell more about him - his family background and college years; what he did for the school in Blacksburg; later accomplishments in his 46-year career in the ministry; what is known of his personality and temperament; and what he once wrote about his faith in God, the Bible, and the Methodist Church.2 Background and College Years Peter was born February 1, 183 7, near Berkeley Springs, Virginia, in what is now part of West Virginia. Both his paternal and maternal ancestors had been farmers in Morgan County for several generations, and his parents were Methodists.3 He attended the Lick Run preparatory school and, with his mother's urging and the help of his older brother, Samuel, was able to attend Dickinson College, a Methodist school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.4 He entered in 1856, spent three months in their grammar school, and was able to finish his freshman year in only two months. 5 An important event that is usually noted in biographies of nineteenth and early-twentieth century Methodist preachers is their "conversion" experience. Many years after his conversion, Peter recalled, "My presence often in Class Meetings and Love Feasts induced me to desire to know the joy I saw and heard as the experience of others, so that when about thirteen years of age I sought the Lord at a camp meeting. I was at the mourner's bench Sunday afternoon and night, and Monday morning, afternoon, and night; and on Monday night a new and blessed experience came to me, for which I have still to thank the Lord."6 But, he continued, "Because of personal hesitancy to tell the state of my mind to any one I had a very unsatisfactory condition from that time till ' Paul L. Nichols, Ph.D., is the historian of Grace United Methodist Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He is the author of histories of his church published in 1992 and 2006 and is a life member of the United Methodist Historical Society of the Baltimore-Washington Conference. 33 PAUL L. NICHOLS I was about twenty years ofage. Part ofthat time I could scarcely say I was a Christian at all, and sometimes I went forward as a penitent, seeking to know more of the blessed experience that I had lost. This state of indefiniteness disappeared when I was about twenty, while I was a student at college. Throughout much of my boyhood I had the impression that I ought to be a minister ofthe Gospel, an impression that never left me. "7 When Peter returned home in the summer of 1857, the preacher at his Berkeley Springs church granted him a license to exhort. 8 The exhorter was sort of a lay preacher requiring little education, who was often expected to speak after the preacher. He returned to Dickinson for his sophomore year and took courses in Greek and Latin, as well as a religion course based on Paley's theology.9 Peter took off the following year, most likely working with the preacher of the Berkeley Springs Circuit. In February 1860, he was officially given a license to preach by the circuit's quarterly conference. When he went back to school that month, he was admitted as a senior, taking examinations to earn credit for the classes he had missed. Before he graduated, he began preaching in a church near the college. He ranked eighth in his 1860 graduating class of 24 students, even after being in college less than half the time usually required to complete the course. 10 . ,. Figure 1. College graduation photo dated 1860, age 23. Photograph Archives, Archives '] and Special Collections, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. - Methodists and the Slavery Issue The Methodist Episcopal Church had split in 1845 over the issue of slavery. 11 Conferences in the North remained with the original Methodist Episcopal Church, while southern conferences became part of the new Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Baltimore Conference was in a difficult position; its boundaries extended north into Pennsylvania, and south past Blacksburg in the slave state of Virginia. The preachers were very aware of the historic significance of the Baltimore Conference, where Methodism in America had its roots. Most of them, even those with southern sympathies, decided to stay with the Methodist Episcopal Church, 34 PETER HARRISON WHISNER, D.D. and the Conference remained intact. That could change, however, if the denomination took a stand against slavery. In 1860, that is exactly what happened. The quadrennial General Conference, meeting in Buffalo, New York, added a passage to the Book ofDiscipline condemning slavery, and admonishing "all our preachers and people to keep themselves pure from this great evil, and to seek its extirpation by all lawful and Christian means."12 The following year, the Baltimore Conference had a memorable Annual Conference in Staunton, Virginia. 13 Southern delegates were angry over the so-called new chapter on slavery; they pushed a vote through declaring the Baltimore Conference independent from the General Conference, but still part of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was at this meeting that Peter Whisner was admitted on trial as a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 14 After the Civil War broke out, it was nearly impossible for preachers of the Baltimore Conference to travel between the northern and southern parts of their territory. So each year while the war raged there were two annual Conference sessions, one in the North and one in the South. But all appointments to local churches were still made by the bishop, who presided over the northern meeting. Peter's first appointment in 1861 was as a junior preacher on the Rockingham Circuit in Virginia, which included Harrisonburg, Bridgewater, Mt. Crawford, Mt. Solon, Naked Creek, Fellowship, Wesley Chapel, and Dayton. 15 Junior preachers were unmarried and traveled among the churches on horseback, with their clothing and books in their saddlebags. Known as circuit riders, they usually stayed in the homes oftheir parishioners. In 1864, Peter was ordained as a deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church; his first appointment as a preacher-in-charge was the church at Lewisburg, West Virginia, where he served for two years. 16 By 1865, the Civil War had ended, and, although slavery was no longer an issue, many Baltimore Conference preachers with Southern sympathies believed that they would feel more at home in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. One oftheir leaders, Samuel Regester, had delivered an impassioned speech inviting all of the preachers in the Conference to attend the first meeting of what would become the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to be held February 7, 1866, in Alexandria, Virginia. 17 The historic Baltimore Conference had finally split into northern and southern branches. Again preachers had to decide whether to remain with the Methodist Episcopal Church or join Samuel Regester and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Although Peter Whisner had come from a Virginia county that did not become part of the Confederacy, had gone to a college in a northern state, and his Berkeley Springs mentor was a northern 35 PAULL. NICHOLS sympathizer, all of his appointments had been in the southernmost part of the Conference in Virginia. At age 29, he transferred his allegiance to the newly formed Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Two weeks before the meeting, he married Louisa Ann Arey of Bridgewater, whom he had first met when he had been the junior preacher on the Rockingham Circuit. 18 At the Alexandria Conference, the young Peter Whisner chaired the Committee on Seminaries, showing an early interest in Methodist educational institutions. He presented his committee's report, which began, "There never was a more favorable time than the present, for exerting ourselves in the great cause of education, with such immense advantage to our people, and such lasting good to the Church at large," the war having prevented the proper attention. "Of the Colleges and Schools under Conference control five years ago, we have today but one remaining, the Wesleyan Female Institute at Staunton; and of all the Seminaries looking to us for encouragement and support, and to which annually we sent our ministers as examiners, not one remains." The report continued, "The college building at Blacksburg, known as the 'Olin and Preston Institute' is unoccupied, and falling into decay. Immediate attention is asked to the matter, that all the money and labor expended on this enterprise of our Church may not be entirely swept away. As there is now no college in our territory, it becomes us to immediately provide for the wants of the sons of our people, either by reviving the Institute at Blacksburg, or founding one elsewhere." 19 At the close of the Conference, Rev. Whisner was given his first appointment as a member of the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South: preacher-in-charge of the church in Lexington, Virginia. 20 The next annual Conference was held in Baltimore. Peter and his Committee on Seminaries reported that there were still no colleges under control of the Conference, and they had no progress to report on the Olin and Preston Institute in Blacksburg: the building was still decaying for want of occupancy and "serving no purpose whatever." The Committee could not agree on a plan, but stated, "The citizens of Blacksburg and the community are most anxious that the Conference should purchase the property at once, and make it our Conference college." The committee urged all the delegates to carefully consider whether the Conference should have a college in Blacksburg and "how shall we possess ourselves of this college and put it in successful operation."21 It was not even clear which branch of Methodism should be responsible for the school, but the local church now belonged to the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

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