school ever taught in Tuscaloosa was taught by him, and taught at a time when to teach a colored school was to put one’s life at the muzzle of the shot gun. Touching this phase of work, he related to the writer the following stories: “When we were just set at liberty I went to a white Baptist who had in times of slavery shown himself friendly toward black people, and said, ‘Mr. S----, we need a school teacher, can’t we secure you?’ He replied, ‘Do you think I would disgrace myself by teaching a negro school? Besides this, it would be only throwing into the waste my time, my talent and my strength. I might as well drive into a room a drove of sheep or a herd of swine, and put books before them as to put books before kinky-headed nigger children.’ “On one occasion, two white men who had come into town to bring a prisoner, walked into my school room with their ropes and chains in hand, and teacher and school, feeling sure that the ropes and chains were for their necks, were so dismayed as to excite the pity of the dreaded visitors, and they sought to remove our fears and to encourage us to continue on in our good way.” Speaking of the organization of colored churches in the South, he remarked to the writer: “I was in Savannah when the white people were discussing the propriety of organizing colored churches.” He opened the first Sunday School for colored people in the city of Tuscaloosa the first Sunday in December, 1866. He claimed to owe most of his success in the study of divine truth to the Rev. Chas. Manly. On July 1 he organized the African Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa with 25 members. As he did not begin reading till he was 22 years old he was not faultless in his mastery of the English language, but was a good speaker, self-possessed and ready in words. Mr. Murrell was one of the leading fathers of the Alabama work. His children were a pride to him in his old age. In the last years of his life he spoke tenderly of his old mistress who encouraged him to learn to read, and of his maiden mistress, who in many ways saved him from oppression and aided him in securing his liberty. Since the above sketch was commenced Mr. Murrell and his good wife have exchanged the cross for the crown. Nichols, Rev. James, of Greenville, moderator and missionary of the Union Association, was born in Virginia May 10, 1842, and was brought to Alabama September, 1856, locating at Selma, where he joined the church and was baptized by the Rev. Mr. McCraw, who was then pastor both of the colored and of the white churches of that city. At this time, as the dates will show, he was a young man. It was in this same church and city that he began the work of the ministry during the days of slavery. His first marriage was to Miss Emma Allison, of Dallas county. The fruit of this marriage was two sons and one daughter, neither of whom is now living. His present wife has two living children. He has an humble home of his own.