Archdeacon Delany was highly esteemed by both white and colored churchmen, and his election met with general satisfaction throughout the Diocese. Bishop Guerry wrote Bishop Cheshire that he thought Delany was "the logical man and I believe you have made a wise choice.... I envy you the privilege of having been the first Diocese in the Carolinas to take the lead in so far reaching a policy." It will be remembered that while rector of St. Peter's, Bishop Cheshire had established in Charlotte a mission for Negroes, St. Michael and All Angels. Shortly after it was well started, Rev. Primus P. Alston, a colored priest, was placed in charge of the mission. Alston was an energetic and progressive man. He soon began a manual-training school for Negro boys and girls, which he called St. Michael's Industrial School. In time he erected buildings at a cost of about eight thousand dollars, raising almost all of the money by himself. After some twenty years of splendid work as head of this school, Rev. Mr. Alston died in 1910. Bishop Cheshire at once decided that something must be done to preserve the valuable work which Alston had carried on so successfully. Realizing the high regard which the people of Charlotte had for the man and his work, the Bishop determined to lay the question of the future of St. Michael's School before a body of representative citizens of Charlotte in the hope of making it a civic enterprise, irrespective of denominational interests but still under the official administration of the diocesan bishop. Acting upon this decision, the Bishop called together in Charlotte a group of progressive men representing different denominations. He pointed out that the school was the property of the Diocese of North Carolina, that it had for more than twenty years done a great work for the community, and that no religious test was made an entrance requirement, although religious training was a part of the school's work. The Bishop then asked the group if it would act with him as a board of managers for the direction and maintenance of the school. The men displayed a sympathetic interest, and promised to co-operate with him in any plan for making permanent the work of the institution. The Bishop thereupon organized the Board of Managers of St. Michael's Industrial School, under whose control it continued to operate. When Bishop Cheshire met his diocesan convention in 1912, he reported what he had done and asked for its endorsement of his action and its assent to the new plan for operating the school. The convention confirmed the Bishop's work and consented to his plan for continuing St. Michael's School. Thus, by his promptness and resourcefulness, he preserved for the church and the community of Charlotte a valuable institution.