Leonidas Polk Family Papers

"Leonidas Polk, Father and First Founder of the University of the South" Sesqui-Centennial Address by The Right Reverend Jonathan Goodhue Sherman, S.T.D. Suffragan Bishop of Long Island at a dinner of The John H.P. Hodgson Chapter The Associated Alumni of the University of the South at the Harvard Club of New York City April 10, 1956

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official acts to General Convention: baptisms, 71; confirmations, 199; ordinations: deacons, 1; priests, 3; marriages, 3; churches consecrated, 5. He made his own comment as follows: "The vast extent of the field, the dispersed condition of the population, and the absence of facilities for communication with the different parts of it, have made the labor very great, and the apparent results far less than I could have desired. I have felt that I was engaged in the work of a pioneer, and that the seeds I was sowing, cast in as I trust in faith, would, under the watering of my successors, and the blessing of God, spring up in due time and bring forth fruits unto eternal life."

While at the General Convention in New York City in October, 1841, Bishop Polk was invited by the deputies from Louisiana to accept the bishopric of their diocese. The request was approved by the House of Bishops; on October 16 the House of Deputies confirmed the election, and Leonidas Polk became Bishop of Louisiana, having resigned his missionary jurisdiction. He promptly