The Rev. Edward Leander Shuler—mountain lad
THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of Union
County, Georgia
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
The Rev. Edward
Leander Shuler—mountain lad
Rev.
Edward Leander Shuler (March 15,
1886-October 21, 1959)
Pictured at
Mercer
University, 1914
In the Mercer University, Macon,
Georgia
college yearbook of 1914, underneath the picture of Edward Leander
Shuler who
received his AB degree from that institution that year was this
quotation which
he had chosen as representative of his life to that point:
"A man that fortune's buffets
and
rewards
Has
ta'en with equal thanks."
One of fourteen children born to
William
Jackson Shuler (1830-1936) and Elizabeth Townsend Shuler (1861-1947) of
Ponder,
Georgia, a section of Upper Choestoe along the Logan Turnpike, Edward
Shuler
knew it was through "buffets and rewards" of fortune and the grace of
God that he had succeeded in completing his college degree. He would go
on to
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky
for a master's degree,
and then return to Georgia
and Florida
where he completed his career as a minister and teacher. Born March 15, 1886 in
Choestoe,
Edward Leander Shuler died October 21, 1959 in Jacksonville, Florida.
I have just reread Edward L.
Shuler's book,
Blood Mountain, his memoirs,
published in 1953 by the Convention Press of Jacksonville, Florida. The
subtitle of his book is "An Historical Story about Choestoe and
Choestoeans." He says in his foreword: "This is a rambling tale,
combining the deeds and sayings of Choestoeans who lived in a small
rural
district in the Georgia
mountains, which was called Choestoe." (iii)
Written in a folksy manner, with
avid use
of the mountain vernacular language in the dialogue, Edward Shuler
recalls a
time past when frugal and hard-working parents, even though limited
themselves
in formal education, held a strong ambition for their children to go to
school
and make a difference in the world of their day. The wisdom he quotes
from his
Uncle Enoch Shuler, his father, Jack Shuler, and his mother, Elizabeth,
is
well-embedded in the book's story line and shows how the author
benefited from
their sage advice.
Edward Leander Shuler received
his
education at Hood's Chapel
School in his
community
with inimitable teachers Bud Miller, John Twiggs, Silas Chambers and
others.
With this foundation in his one-teacher country school, Edward went to
"boarding and batching" school at Hiawassee Academy,
the school founded by cousins and great men who went out from the
mountains to
make a difference. These founders of the mountain school were the Rev.
Dr.
Fernando Coello McConnell and Rev. Dr. George W. Truett. Edward
remembers how
he went with his mother and father to the home of Henderson Dyer to
borrow
money for Edward to pay his fees and set up his "batching" room in
Hiawassee. At Hiawassee
Academy, Edward
was
introduced to Latin and Greek and the classics of literature. He was
also on
the Truett Society debating team and learned to become a good public
speaker
through that experience. His years of learning at Hiawassee Academy,
a Mission School in the mountains,
were basic
to all he did in his succeeding years.
While studying at Hiawassee Academy,
Edward Shuler and Laura Collins began their courtship. She was a
daughter of
Archibald Benjamin Collins (1863-1897) and Mary Louise Jackson Collins
(1862-1934). Her brother, Mauney Douglas Collins (1885-1967), was a
good friend
of Edward Shuler. Mauney Collins would become Georgia's
state superintendent of
schools and served in that capacity from 1933-1957. Laura Collins and
Edward
Shuler married August
18, 1906.
The next step in Edward Shuler's
education
was at Young
Harris College.
In his memoirs, Rev. Shuler describes Young Harris as "in that pasture
was
the tree of knowledge, and it had only good fruit on it, and it was
ripe…That
nearly every one who attended the little college did eat of the good
fruit was
shown by the life each one lived later on. In half a century, the
college sent
forth a hundred and forty young men as gospel preachers." (p. 95, Blood Mountain). At Edward's
graduation from Young Harris, he heard the famed preacher, the Rev. Sam
Jones,
deliver the graduation sermon.
The next step in education for
Edward
Shuler was Mercer
University in Macon, Georgia.
He and his wife Laura and their little girl, Ruby Jane Shuler (born
March 7,
1908) went across the Logan Turnpike to Gainesville, caught a train to
Atlanta,
spent a day or two seeing the capitol and other sights there, and then
on by
train to Macon. Her brother, Mauney Douglas Collins, who was already a
student
at Mercer, accompanied the Shulers on this trip. Thanks to the
president of
Mercer, Dr. Jameson, who managed to find money from endowment
scholarships, the
Shuler family was able to live frugally with enough to eat in one of
the Mercer
cottages specifically set aside to house married Mercer ministerial
students.
Edward's account of how he studied hard for his first sermon at a
church of any
size outside those at which he had preached in the mountains before
going to
Mercer, the Wrightsville First Baptist, recalled both the anticipation
and the
nervousness of the encounter on Mother's Day. As it happened, all
turned out
well and the people welcomed the "preacher man" who had grown up in
the Blue Ridge Mountains. Edward's
seminary
degree was earned at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky.
Edward and Laura Shuler had two
other
children besides Ruby Jane: a son, Paul Edward Shuler, was born November 12, 1909
and Mary
Elizabeth Shuler was born November 23, 1915.
Edward Leander Shuler was
ordained to the
gospel ministry at Oakwood
Baptist Church
in Hall County, Georgia in 1910. Laura
continued
her education and graduated from Florida Southern College. In addition
to
rearing their children, she also became a teacher with a thirty-year
career.
She loved poetry, both reading and writing it, and some of her poems
are
included in Edward's book of memoirs.
Even though much of their work
was in the Jacksonville,
Florida
area, Edward and Laura Shuler never lost the desire to return to the
mountains.
The serene valleys and hills and the mountain people remained dear to
their
hearts. Edward, as well as Laura, wrote poetry. In his "The Old
Nottely" he lauds the tumbling river that cascades through Union County.
The river became for this couple, moved away, a symbol of how life
itself flows
and cascades, touched by and touching a multitude of people.
c2009 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published May
7, 2009
in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved.
Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator, freelance wirter,
poet, and historian. She may be reached
at email [email protected]; phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708
Cedarwood
Road, Milledgeville, GA 31061-2411
Updated May 24,
2009
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