USA > Iowa > The Presbyterian Church in Iowa, 1837-1900; history > Part 2
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The next Sunday I was advised to spend at West Point, the first organized Presbyterian Church in Iowa. My friends equipped me with a pony and saddle bags, and in this itinerant style I entered West Point, which, with other
points, was to be the scene of my labors for the next four and one-half years, fording the Skunk River on my way thither. There was no church building. There had been one at an earlier date, but it became unsafe and was taken down. The people worshiped in a brick building, erected for a court house, and which, on the removal of the county seat to Fort Madison, had been given to the Presbyterians of the Synod of Iowa (O. S.), for a college, which, after a struggle of a few years, was now defunct. Our first service was held on a week-day night. A few tallow candles served to make the darkness visible, but the prospect did not seem very cheer- ing. The next Sunday I preached at West Point to a good congregation; and in the afternoon to a few people in the Sharon Church, nine miles distant, situated where La Crew now is. The building stood then alone on the prairie, a few scattering farm houses only in sight. After spending about a month in traveling and preaching, at the invitation of the West Point and Sharon Churches, I returned to West Point and made it my home and center of my mission circuit. I returned to West Point about the close of December and engaged to preach six months to these churches, expecting to return East in the spring. Besides preaching in the morn- ing at West Point, I had sent an appointment for the after-
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HISTORY
noon at Pilot Grove, ten miles northwest, where there were a few Presbyterians to be cared for. Sunday was January 1, 1860, and when I mounted my horse after dinner to ride these ten miles over the prairie, the thermometer registered twelve degrees below zero. I found a goodly little bunch of people assembled, several of them Quakers, among whom I found lasting friends; and I ministered to them and to the Presbyterian families for four and one-half years, once a month. After my removal to Burlington I was called back there, riding forty miles on horse back, to hold a communion service, and seven young men were received into communion. Among these were the Rev. Dr. Adam W. Ringland, his two brothers and two uncles. We had received a number into the church previously. After I had preached my first Sun- day at West Point, my arrangement required that I should hold service the next Sunday in Sharon congregation. It had been decided that it was inexpedient to try to meet in the church building, which was so far east from the bulk of the people. The first appointment was made for the Wil- kinson school house, about a mile north of where Sharon church now stands. I continued services there till the fol- lowing summer. The school house soon became too strait for our congregation, and when the fine weather came the
women and children occupied the inside of the school house and the men placed boards outside for seats and occupied them. It was soon seen that we must have a more proper meeting place. The first thing was to buy suitable ground for a church and burial ground. After much canvassing on the subject of a location, the corner of the township line road, which ran north by the Wilkinson school house, was deemed most central; and Dr. Todd, a Kentuckian, who owned a large farm, including the southwest corner of this intersection, very kindly sold us four acres of that corner for $100.00, and thither, during the summer, the Sharon church building was removed. two and three-fourths miles from where La Crew now is. It was a very considerable task, which was done voluntarily by the congregation, and two of the elders, William Robertson and James B. Pease, superintended the work. We had now a church and church yard for burial, and there Sharon church and cemetery re- main, the church replaced by a new one and the cemetery enlarged and beautified at the great expense of $85,000, by the generosity of the Seeley family, who were brought into the church during my labors there. They endowed the cemetery with a large and valuable farm, and erected on it suitable and attractive buildings and appliances, and water
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power for the irrigation of the cemetery. They surrounded the cemetery with an iron fence, with a New Hampshire granite foundation. This cemetery contains the precious dust of the first generation of Sharon church people, the early settlers of that prairie.
Quite a number of our people lived in the vicinity of Primrose, a small village four and one-half miles southeast of Sharon church. There we held service in the M. E. church on the same day as the Sharon appointment, at three o'clock. Samuel Davis, a venerable and excellent elder of the Sharon church, resided there, and in his house the minister always found a warm welcome. Many were added to the church there in due time, and a church was organized and a church building erected afterwards. While living at Fort Madison, I officiated at the dedication of the building. The third ap- pointment that day was at Dover, six miles east of Prim- rose. In short days and bad roads it kept the preacher moving pretty lively to fill these appointments on time. But he usually was able to do this by economy of time and a good horse. The school house was generally full to the extreme limit when the minister arrived there at nightfall. The Bonnells, Diekeys, Hoovers, Walkers and Linns were
early members of the church, and in due time others came in.
To return to West Point, one Sunday morning early in January, 1860, the minister was unusually lonely and dis- couraged. He felt that if any good was done the Lord must do it, and in that spirit he preached the "Confession of Jesus Christ." An interest seemed to awaken at once. Several remained after service to speak to the minister of their duty and desire; and extra services for that week were appointed. In all, twenty-two or twenty-three persons were added to the church at that time, among them Mr. Adolph Salmon, born a Hebrew in Hamburg, Germany, afterwards Treasurer and President of the Board of Trustees of the church, a great help and comfort to the pastor, with his wife, who was reared in the Lutheran Church. He died during my resi- dence there, calmly and hopefully in the Christian faith. In addition there were other men and women received who became a great help to the church. The congregations were large, both from town and country, and were enthusiastic, and it was demanded that we should build a church. The congregation had long owned an inside lot, and the adjoin- ing corner lot also was secured. The pastor obtained an acceptable plan, and during 1861 and 1862 the present bu il
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HISTORY
ing was erected. By the liberality of the people it was paid for on completion, without even asking a collection on the day of dedication. It is still in good condition and is one of the best country church buildings in Iowa. The people have since secured a handsome and commodious manse and paid for it also.
Once a month the minister preached at. Franklin, a town six miles distant, at three p. m., in a stone church erected and given for the use of the people by John Berger, an elder of the Evangelical St. Peter's Church. Even hymn books were provided by him. He had the happiness after- wards of seeing two of his sons active and successful ministers of the gospel. On the 4th day of March, 1861, the day of President Lincoln's inauguration, a series of services began at Sharon church. The Rev. J. B. McBride, then of Bentons- port, now of Princeton, Iowa, assisted me very efficiently and acceptably. From the first a deep interest was awak- ened and there were many conversions, especially of adults. At the close of the meeting thirty-three united with the church. Sixteen of these were men. There were sixteen adult baptisms. The work was very striking and encourag- ing and laid the foundation for the extensive growth of a vigorous country congregation.
The four and one-half years spent in itinerant work in the northwest part of Lee County had been very happy years. The people had welcomed the minister very cor- dially and had cheered on his work. They became warm personal friends of the pastor's and continued such during life, and he has since, from time to time, been called to per- form the last sad duty for many of them as they were laid to rest. But the work of riding so many miles over the prairie to six different appointments, and many occasional appointments, and the long distance necessary in pastoral visitations, in all sorts of weather and all kinds of roads, had been a severe one. And the Lord seemed to open the way to a proper change and an equally important work. The field had widened so that two ministers or more have occu- pied the same field ever since. So after these years, we sep- arated in friendship and with mutual regrets, and with warm regards which continue to this day in children and children's children.
In the spring of 1864, I was called to supply the First Presbyterian Church, of Burlington, Iowa, and deemed it my duty to accept this call. The church had passed through a somewhat chequered and not very successful history, with very brief pastorates. It had been divided once, and a
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church built for the new congregation, which after a time had been sold to the Roman Catholics. On account of differences of opinion about the Civil War, the church was now much distracted, and some long-time and honored members had gone elsewhere. It seemed very desirable to build up our church in this growing and important city. It was with this feeling that I entered upon the work there, determined to preach only the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to take no part in any divisive measures. The Lord blessed the work, and we were soon called upon to enlarge the church building. A spirit of harmony took the place of division. The salary was increased from $800.00 to $1500.00 a year.
In the pastor's first year at Burlington, on the 4th day of October, 1864, he was married at Fort Madison, Iowa, by the Rev. R. H. Kennard, to Miss Emily Stewart Walker, eldest daughter of Dr. J. C. Walker, an elder of the church of Fort Madison, who, with his wife, Mrs. Martha Stewart Walker, were charter members of the church in Fort Madison in 1838, and devoted adherents all life long. Two children were born here, our only son, George B. Stewart, and our eldest daughter, Helen Walker Stewart, who died in her sixth year at Omaha,
The parting with the church at Burlington was a sore trial. We had bought our cottage and set up our home there. We gained a large circle of devoted friends. Many have passed away in the faith, and many remain to this day, who have ever been, with their children, a joy and comfort in our lives, most highly prized by ourselves and by our children.
The pastor established an afternoon service, once in two weeks, at a union church building at Spring Creek, six miles from Burlington. A large congregation gathered there from the surrounding country, and the church, which had been in abeyance for some years, was resuscitated. Two elders were elected, and a number of members were added.
After six and a half years of happy and successful work, I was called to be pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Omaha, Nebraska. That church had just passed through a time of great trial. Two-thirds of the membership had gone out under the former pastor and formed a new inde- pendent church. Only fifty members were left in the First church. They had a handsome new church building, but with a debt of $10,000.00 pressing on it. The few churches in Nebraska were attached to the Presbytery of Council
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HISTORY
Bluffs, Iowa. Many of the leading men in the Synod deemed it my duty to accept the unanimous call of this im- perilled church. Dr. Cyrus Dickson, an honored secretary of our board of home missions, was of this opinion. So, in obedience to the voice of duty, as it seemed, I accepted this call. I have never ceased to wonder at the courage which led me to undertake this work.
To add to the difficulties, the panie of 1873 came on, and then the grasshopper scourge; and a consequence of this scourge was a famine in a large part of the state. The people of the eastern and central states freely responded to the published needs of the starving people. At one time during the winter forty thousand rations were issued regu- larly every day from Omaha, under the supervision of a lieutenant of the U. S. army, with the aid of a corps of as- sistants. People left their homesteads and went back to the East. The city of Omaha was too poor to light its street lamps. But in 1877 the dark clouds passed away and prosperity returned to the state and city. After striving for six and a half years as pastor, and having seen the men- bership trebled, I had the pleasure of seeing a great religious interest awakened in the winter of 1876, during union serv-
ices. The $10,000.00 debt was carried and so the church was saved.
The circumstances of the city of Omaha, as a frontier town, made pastoral and charitable work among the very poor and destitute more necessary than in any other place I have ever known. Mrs. Stewart and myself gave much of our time, energy, interest and means to this work. But one of our great rewards was the large number of valued and life- long friends we gained, through whose friendship the lines of our life had been widened and many joys added, which we would not willingly have gone without, even if their cultivation involved much self-denial and privation.
In the autumn of 1873 I was sent as a commissioner from the Presbytery of Omaha to the Synod of Iowa, at Iowa City, to ask the Synod to divide the Presbytery of Omaha into three Presbyteries, and to concur in asking the General Assembly, at its next meeting, to form these into the Synod of Nebraska. These requests were granted; and in the autumn of 1874 the first Synod of Nebraska met at Omaha. I was elected chairman of the committee on mis- sions, and acted in that capacity until I left the Synod, dur- ing the formative period of our churches. In a meeting at Omaha of the superintendents of missions, the committees
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of missions of the Synod of Iowa, and of the congregational association of Nebraska, formed the league of comity in Home Missions, under which both bodies subsequently acted in the formation of their churches in Nebraska.
In the spring of 1877 I received and accepted a unani- mous call to be Pastor of the Union Presbyterian Church at Fort Madison, Iowa, in the region where I had previously spent eleven years in ministerial work. In April, 1877, I removed with my family to Fort Madison, where in due time I was installed Pastor, a relationship which continued with unbroken harmony until it ceased January 1st, 1904. The congregation, in town and country, grew and increased, until it was felt we must arise and build. Poor and rich liberally responded in subscriptions; and voluntary gifts, large and small, came in from here and elsewhere, until it seemed safe to begin. Some were afraid that a large and onerous debt would be incurred, as had been done once be- fore in the building of their church. That debt had long pressed heavily, until at the union of the old and new school churches in 1858, when the Union Church of Fort Madison was formed, and payment of this debt was assumed by Dr. J. C. Walker and paid by himself. So now the pastor, in faith that the amount necessary to complete the church with-
out debt would be raised, and in order to put this obstacle of fear of debt out of the way, assumed the responsibility of finishing the church without debt, out of his own narrow means, if necessary, provided the congregation agreed to give him the choice of the architect and the plan. This was done in a congregational meeting and a building com- mittee appointed, of which the pastor was chairman.
The pastor secured a plan from Mr. L. B. Valk, a dis- tinguished church architect of New York City, who was afterwards the architect of the First Presbyterian Church of Burlington. The plan was unanimously adopted by the congregation and authority given to the committee to build. The cornerstone was laid in June, 1884, the Rev. Dr. Mc- Clintock and others assisting the pastor. The church was finished and dedicated by September 1st, 1885, the pastor conducting service, assisted by other of his brethren. A large sum remained to be raised to clear the church from debt. But the congregation responded nobly and the whole sum was raised and the church dedicated free from debt. Five thousand dollars was given by two trustees. The ladies afterwards paid $2000.00 for a pipe organ. All were happy. The congregation was satisfied with their beautiful modern church, with its many handsome memorial windows,
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HISTORY
with its conveniences for the Sunday school and the other uses of the church, and happy that it was theirs, free from debt, and that all had been done so harmoniously. The work of the church went on with a new impetus. The Sun- day school and prayer meeting increased greatly. The ladies assumed the cost of carrying on the music of the church. Seasons of religious interest arose, from time to time, in which many were added to the church, forty at one time, and lesser numbers at others. As the long time elders passed away, others were raised up, and the pastor always had a wise and excellent body of advisers and helpers. The pastor labored on until he entered his eightieth year, and then the Presbytery, at his request, dissolved the pastoral relation and placed his name on the honorably retired list. This pastorate was not alone of the congregation of the Union Church, but of the city of Fort Madison and of the surrounding country, on both sides of the Mississippi River, where much pastoral work was done. The pastor per- formed more than three hundred and fifty marriage cere- monies and attended more than a thousand funerals, with visitations of the sick. As his services were desired, he freely gave them in all surroundings and circumstances. On
the last Sunday of his pastorate, twenty, several of them among the business men of the city with their wives, with some of the young people, entered into the communion of the church.
In April, 1904, a new pastor, Rev. Harry C. Rogers, a young and active minister, was unanimously called and soon entered upon his work, with great acceptance. To add to the brightness of the outlook, a lady of the congregation, long an active and devoted worker in many ways, gave a suitable and valuable manse ready for the use of the pastor and his family. As we look back on the old and homely church, small membership, since more than doubled, the beautiful modern church and organ, the large and interested congregation, the fine Sabbath school and the throng of young people in the Endeavor Society, the gifts of the church to benevolence and the gifts of the Ladies' Mission- ary Society, and think of the many who have died full of hope and cheer, and the aged, who are still living, who look forward with confidence to the glorious salvation of the Lord, we lift up our anthem of joy and cry aloud, "What hath God wrought?"
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Others might have told the story of greater sacrifices and smaller returns. But all would have told the story of a thorny pathway, with satisfaction and joy at the end.
Yet, as our purpose is to tell in brief the story of thir- teen hundred ministers, and seven hundred and fifty churches we must draw sparingly on our wealth of material.
The majority, with all their zeal and success, or patient, unrequited toil, will have but the few lines of facts and fig- ures-a pittance of a tribute worthily earned. In speaking of these pioneers we bear in mind that they were assisted and followed by men of the same Apostolic zeal and cour- age. The material for self-sacrifice and martyrdom still dwells in the Church.
And here, after promising a chapter on "The Pioneers," and after having it well under way, we are constrained
to abandon the plan, and treat our entire list of ministers in alphabetical order. We regret the brevity enforced by the size and plan of our book. The early and later pioneers will have all possible consideration; and our endeavor will be to treat all with fairness. No one can be afforded much space; and many may grieve to see how small they look in so large a crowd. We hope, however, that all may comfort themselves with the thought that to be numbered with so noble an army, and to have shared in so glorious a work, is worth all the hardships they have endured.
So, reserving the personal tributes of Harsha and Stewart and McElroy and Bailey for their proper subjects, we close this chapter with the "Heart to Heart Letter" of Dr. Bailey :
A Heart to Heart Letter
I am asked for a heart to heart communication for our Iowa Presbyterian History. There arises before me in imagination a grand and noble company of ministers, elders and laymen all over our beautiful state, who have made our
growth and prosperity as a church possible by their constant, consistent, and united efforts, each standing in his place steadfastly, making our ranks strong and our progress sure. I cannot enumerate these faithful ministers and must not
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discriminate where, almost without exception, they were all so good and true.
During my sixteen years of service as Synodical Super- intendent of Home Missions, I came into close touch with these men and women (for the wives of our Home Mission- aries are full sharers in the trials and triumphs of the grand work to which their husbands consecrate themselves), in the midst of the battle for Truth and Righteousness. I am persuaded that no state or country has now or has had a more uniformly earnest, faithful and self-sacrificing set of missionary workers than Iowa.
True, there are some men who were at pivotal, strategic points in the development of the work, who by reason of their location and spirit played a larger part than others who were just as true on more quiet fields.
In the earliest times there were Bells, Beamans, Mc- Elroys, Speeses, Masons, Phelpses, Wellses, Dodds, Dodders, McCombs, Dinsmores, Joneses, Rices, Craigs, Marshalls, etc., who lifted the blue banner of our church along the borders and at strategic points in the interior. So there were Carrolls
Campbells, Bairds, Osmonds, Robinsons, Hugheses, Rus- tons, Clelands, Averys, Burkhalters, McRaes, Mcclintocks, McAfees, etc., to take up the well-begun work and push it forward with a zeal becoming consecrated men that they all were.
So about my time I found a fine company of younger men like Evans, Luccock, Stophlet, Greene, Knox, Coyles, Berger and a host of others of noble spirit and power. These men made my work easy and my burdens light in ways without number, God knows, though the world may never realize, how fully such men as these held up the hands of the Synodical Missionary and made our church strong. To name them all in detail and tell of their virtues and graces would impose on me as impossible a task as that which confronted the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews when in the eleventh chapter he attempts to recount the triumphs of faith. I dare not undertake it. Let it suffice for the present to thank God for their lives, and work and pray that those who come after may emulate their zeal and spirit of faithfulness. T. S. BAILEY.
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EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
Part III. Our Educational Institutions
Our pioneers illustrated very soon their zeal for education, higher education, Christian education. Several of our early ministers established schools, out of which came a part of their support; and the semi-wilderness began to blos- som with academies, seminaries and colleges. Several of these were useful, and some famous for their day ; but the estab- lishment of our state school system soon removed their necessity and deprived them of support. The story of those struggles would make an interesting chapter; but we must limit ourselves to existing institutions.
The earliest efforts were made in the south-eastern part of the state; but the rival interests waited long to find a center where success was possible, in Parsons College. Meanwhile determined and self-sacrificing effort in the northeast section centered in Hopkinton, and produced Lenox College,the first incorporated in the state. We treat the colleges in the order of their age.
Lenox College, Hopkinton
As early as 1854, the late Henry A. Carter cherished the hope of establishing a college at Hopkinton. His ob- ject was to provide the facilities of higher christian education without the inconvenience and expense of sending to eastern colleges. This object was approved by many others and there finally resulted the organization of a Joint Stock Company to erect a building to be used for educational purposes. The date of the formation of the Joint Stock Company is not recorded but it met later on September 6, 1855.
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