Hercules Wilson collection

The Reverend Hercules Wilson (b. April 13,1883 – d. February, 1978) was an African American Presbyterian minister and a native of Darien, McIntosh County, Georgia. He received his early training in the St. Cyprian Episcopal and the public school of his home town. In 1908 he graduated from the College Department of Biddle University (now known as Johnson C. Smith University), with a degree of Bachelor of Arts. He was a 1911 graduate of the theological... seminary at Biddle, and was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Systematic Theology. Biddle, which was founded for the expressed purpose of the “training of colored preachers, catechists and teachers of their own race”, was a cornerstone of intellectual, social, and spiritual life of Charlotte’s African American community, and a strong regional influence on the Presbyterian Church. Wilson’s first assignment was most likely St. Lloyd Presbyterian, as a small country church located in Sharon Township, North Carolina. Later he would serve at the larger and more socially prestigious Woodlawn and Brooklyn Presbyterian Churches. Rev. Wilson was the first minister at Brooklyn (a predecessor church to the current First United Presbyterian Church) in metropolitan Charlotte, North Carolina. Rev. Wilson is also associated with Westminster Presbyterian Church in Concord, NC; Green Street Presbyterian Church in Morganton, NC; and Bethel United Presbyterian Church in Waxhaw, NC.