In 1871 the late Rev. James H. Foster was called to the pastoral office, which he served for the space of twenty years, leaving it only to answer the summons of his Master to appear in purer and higher spheres. Under his administration the church increased its membership from a few hundred to several thousand. He expended some $10,000 or $12,000 on the present edifice. Under his pastorate the Foreign Mission Convention was organized in 1880. After Mr. Foster’s death, December 1, 1891, Rev. A. J, Stokes, then pastor at Fernandina, Fla., was called to their pulpit, and now serves with great success, having added within the last two months about 500 by baptism. So far, his success is a wonder to the people of Montgomery. The special item under his administration is the organization of the young people for training and work. Old Brother Boykin (about 85 years old) in speaking of the work about Montgomery, said: “The first colored preacher I saw after coming from Charleston, was Bro. Cyrus Hale. He came from South Carolina. He was an old man when I first met him. He was well read, was a good preacher, and the white people ’lowed him to go anywhere there was a call for him. He was the father of the work in this section. Following him, was Bro. Jacob Belser, and then came Bro. Nathan Ashby. Brother Hale must have been ordained, for he used to baptize in slavery time. “While we were worshiping in the white church, we had some ’sistant deacons--Bros. Fayette Vandeville, Jerry Fye, Peter Miles and Abe Blackshear.” Rev. William Jenkins relates the following: “I was born in Montgomery in 1835, and have been here every since. I began to speak in public in 1852, and continued to speak in the city and on neighboring plantations all the while. I was allowed to read the Bible, but I had rather been caught with a hog than with a newspaper; because, for the hog, I was likely to get a whipping; but for the newspaper I might get a hanging. And there was some faith them times. On a plantation out here where I used to preach, there was a balloon coming down one day. The overseer and the people saw it, and as that was a new thing with them, it frightened them, and everybody fled except one brother, who, on seeing the man in the balloon, and believing that it was the Lord, ran towards the descending balloon, exclaiming as he looked up: ‘Lord, I’s been looking for you for so long a time, and now you’s come at last!’ The balloon man said: ‘Go away, boy; I’m nothing but a man.’”