Atkins, James

Methodist Episcopal Church, South minister and educator James Atkins (1850-1923) was born on April 18, 1850 in Knoxville, Tennessee to James Atkins and Mary Jackson. James Atkins, Sr. served as a minister in the Holston Conference for more than 34 years. In 1866 the family moved to Emory, Virginia and Atkins began coursework at Emory and Henry College. However, in 1869 he was forced to abandon his studies due to family financial difficulties. Atkins taught school in rural eastern Tennessee before becoming the principal of Blue Springs Academy, south of Cleveland, Tennessee, in 1870.

On October 31, 1870 Atkins was granted a license to preach from the Cleveland, Tennessee Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MECS), where his father was pastor. In 1871 he returned to Emory and Henry College, eventually receiving a Master of Arts honoris causa. In 1872 he was admitted on trial into the Holston Conference. During the next six years he served in Jonesboro, Virginia; Abingdon, Virginia; and Asheville, North Carolina. In 1877 he was elected Secretary of the Board of Missions of the Holston Conference.

From 1879 to 1896, Atkins served as president of two colleges. At Asheville Female College in Ashville, North Carolina he held this position from 1879 through 1889. For the next four years (1889-1893), he worked at his alma mater, Emory and Henry College. He returned to Asheville Female College from 1893 to 1896. In 1890 he received a Doctor of Divinity degree (D.D.) from Trinity College (later known as Duke University) in Durham, North Carolina. Atkins ended his tenure as college president in 1896 to become the Sunday School Editor in Nashville, Tennessee.

Atkins was elected bishop in 1906. Though he remained a resident of North Carolina throughout his episcopacy, Bishop Atkins served many important roles throughout the MECS. He led the denomination’s Commission on Education in 1911 as it established Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Atkins assisted in fundraising for the building of the university and participated in the laying of the Dallas Hall cornerstone in 1912.

In 1914 Atkins was elected President of the General Sunday School Board of the MECS. He later served as Chairman of the Centenary Commission, a group that raised $50 million in support of home and foreign missions in 1918 and 1919. Following World War I the MECS used some Centenary funds to open missions in Belgium, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. The denomination then named Bishop Atkins first superintendent of the new European mission field. In addition to his work with religious education and missions, Atkins was also instrumental in the founding of the Southern Methodist Assembly at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.

On September 14, 1876 Atkins married Ella Maria Branner. The couple had four children: Mary Lyons, Love Branner, James, and Hilliard. Ella Branner Atkins died on August 3, 1916. On June 7, 1921 James Atkins married Eva Rhodes.

Bishop Atkins died on December 5, 1923 in Little Rock, Arkansas and was buried in Waynesville, North Carolina.

Sources:

Chappell, E. B. James Atkins: Christian Leader and Seer. The Methodist Quarterly Review 73, no. 2 (April 1, 1924): 215-231.

Duncan, Watson B. Bishop James Atkins, D.D. Minutes of the South Carolina Annual Conference (1924): 91-94.

Harmon, Nolan B., Ed. Encyclopedia of World Methodism . Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 1974. James Atkins, by Jesse E. Earl.

Grimes, Lewis Howard. A History of the Perkins School of Theology . Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1993.

From the guide to the James Atkins papers 301. 01., 1874-1965, 1900-1923, (Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University)