More about Rufus...
In the early 1820's, his maternal ancestors were the first settlers in the Little Tennessee Valley of North Carolina, in the shadows of the Nantahala Mountains. The were Silers. The name lives on Silers Bald, in the Great Smokies, and on another Silers Bald, in the Nantahalas.
Dr. Morgan was an Episcopal priest, a hiker, a constant worker for the betterment of the lives of the North Carolina mountain people. One of his first church duties was to accept and distribute give-away clothing sent from afar to poor mountain people. He disliked seeing them losing their dignity and independence by accepting handouts.
He also founded a country school at Penland, NC. His sister, Lucy, later joined him in it and established a craft department. That craft school still lives and has grown famous. Rufus and Lucy also helped found the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild. Because of the school and guild, many mountain people earn a living making craft articles.
Rufus loved walking and loved the mountains through which he walked. During his vigorous years, he alone maintained the entire 55 miles of the Appalachian Trail along Nantahala crest. When he grew too old for this, he helped form a hiking club that continues it.
Years ago, it became church policy to consolidate small community churches with larger churches in bigger cities. One of the smaller churches eliminated was the one where his family and his ancestors had been members. They even moved the bodies from the little graveyard to the cemetery of the larger church. But they left the old tombstones.
One day at the old church site, Rufus pulled some pennies from his pocket, looked at them and decided it was enough to start a fund to build a new church at the old site. He never asked the church for fund--nor even told his superiors what he was doing.
It is a lovely small church, with wormy chestnut exterior and interior of white pine paneling. Those old tombstones are its foundation. Fifty persons would crowd it. In his retirement, Rufus served as its pastor without regular salary.
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St. Francis of Assissi Episcopal Church
Cherokee, North Carolina
The church may be seen from the bridge over the Oconoluftee River in the town of Cherokee. When you climb slowly up the hill and absorb the magnificent view of river and mountains -- the atmosphere of worship -- you will not be surprised that "Moses of the Mountains" suggested "St. Francis of Assissi" as the name for the mission. When you learn that construction of the church was delayed for awhile for the sake of nesting birds, and that workmen refused to cut a tree until the birds in another nest could grow to the point of flying away, you will be quite convinced that the name could be no other.
Here is a quote from Rev. Morgan (Moses of the Mountains), "The procuring of the land for the church reflects something of the system under which these first Americans live. The land is held by the Eastern Band of the Cherokees. The use of the land is allocated to the individuals for the use of families. When we had selected the site which we wanted, the use of which was in the hands of one of our members, Mrs. Gloyne, it was necessary to get the approval of the Tribal Council, and of the Government Agency. This system, so far as the Cherokees are concerned, goes back to the earliest contacts with the white men. It was a capital offense for an individual to alienate any other tribal land."
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The San Damiano Crucifix above was special to Rufus.
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PEACE PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS
Lord,
make me an instrument
of your peace,
Where there is hatred,
let me sow love;
....where there is injury, pardon;
....where there is doubt, faith;
....where there is despair, hope;
....where there is darkness, light;
....where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not
so much seek
....to be consoled as to console;
....to be understood as to understand;
....to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving
that we receive;
....it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
....and it is in dying
that we are born to eternal life.
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