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Cleveland Gazette-August 10, 1889
The August 3 issue of the Atlanta, Ga., Defiance contains in an interview with Bishop H. M. Turner on the Payne-Derrick trouble, in which he says:
Bishop Payne must have something to fight: our old father would die if he was not fighting somebody. He fought Bishop Disney and myself until he found out that neither of us would notice him, and now he has switched off and got after Dr. Derrick; it will soon be somebody else. Why, don’t you know that Bishop Payne could not live without having somebody to abuse?
When asked about Rev. Derrick’s being obliged to leave the country because of dishonest money dealings in Virginia, Bishop Turner replied:
Yes, there were some rumors to that effect years ago when Derrick went home, but the Virginia conference rigidly investigated the report ten years ago, and pronounced it libelous, and passed his character, and it has passed from year to year ever since. More than that, Derrick has, since that time, been D. D’d by Wilberforce University, our own great institution of learning, has been the guest of Bishop Payne as late as two years ago; has filled one of the greatest pulpits from year to year; was chairman of our committee on finance, at the general conference; received a large vote for the bishopric at the general conference. I voted for him myself and so did other bishops; was voted for too, by the Virginia conference delegates, where Bishop Payne says he perpetrated a great crime. And more than all, I am the bishop of Rev. W. B. Derrick, D.D., and assure you that his character passed the New York conference with a dissenting voice, June 8, 1889.
