This was the Rev.Robert C.Bedford, a white man from Wisconsin, who was then pastor of a little coloured Congregational church in Montgomery, Ala.
Before going to Montgomery to look for some one to preach this sermon I had never heard of Mr.Bedford.He had never heard of me.

He gladly consented to come to Tuskegee and hold the Thanksgiving service.

It was the first service of the kind that the coloured people there had ever observed, and what a deep interest they manifested in it! The sight of the new building made it a day of Thanksgiving for them never to be forgotten.
Mr.Bedford consented to become one of the trustees of the school, and in that capacity, and as a worker for it, he has been connected with it for eighteen years.

During this time he has borne the school upon his heart night and day, and is never so happy as when he is performing some service, no matter how humble, for it.

He completely obliterates himself in everything, and looks only for permission to serve where service is most disagreeable, and where others would not be attracted.