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36 J. C. Smith, "Early Methodism in Indiana," 38-39.
CHAPTER III.
THE OLD INDIANA CONFERENCE, 1832-1844.
If any single period in the history of Indiana Meth- odism stands out more conspicuously than any other. it is the period from 1832 to 1844, the years of the life of the old Indiana Conference. These are notable years because of the outstanding leadership; when such men as Allen Wiley, James Havens, Matthew Simpson and Edward R. Ames were in their prime. These were years also of conspicuous progress in the church throughout the State. When the Indiana Conference met for its first session it had a membership of thirty- nine preachers, five presiding elders' districts, and the church membership in the state numbered 19,853; in 1844, the year marking the close of the period, there were 206 preachers, sixteen districts and 67,118 mem- bers. For many, however, these years in the history of Indiana Methodism are rendered the more interest- ing because they mark the inception and the founding of Indiana Asbury University, now DePauw Univer- sity. The old Indiana Conference and the founding of this next to the oldest living Methodist College in the old Northwest, are inseparably connected, and the his- tory of both during these early years belong together.
The first session of the Indiana Conference met in New Albany on October 17, 1832, Bishop Joshua Soule presiding. Eighteen members were present at the first roll call, and responded to their names in the follow- ing order : Allen Wiley, Joseph Tarkington, John Kern, Daniel Anderson, Samuel C. Cooper, George Locke, James Havens, Asa Beck, Charles Bonner, John T. Johnson, William Shanks, C. W. Ruter, James Arm- strong, William H. Smith, Enoch G. Wood, James Scott,
1 See Minutes for 1832.
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Richard S. Robinson and Boyd Phelps. C. W. Ruter was elected secretary of the Conference, which posi- tion he held continuously until 1838, when ill health compelled him to give it up. The Conference convened on a Wednesday and adjourned on the following Mon- day morning. Among the items of important business transacted was the adoption of by-laws for the govern- ing of the Conference, and these by-laws, with slight change, were continued in force throughout the twelve years of the life of the old Indiana Conference.1
A collection was taken up for John Strange, whose health had recently given way, and like most Methodist preachers, he had little of this world's goods to tide him over such a crisis. This collection helped to pur- chase a house and lot in Indianapolis for him, where he died a few months later, December 2, 1832. It is doubtful if there has ever been a Methodist preacher in Indiana more universally loved than John Strange, and for years after his death his name is frequently found on the lips of those who admired and loved him, both among the ministry and laymen.
An interesting case which came before the Confer- ence in 1832, was that of Alfred W. Arrington, who was reported by his presiding elder to have withdrawn from the church, "having become skeptical in his mind," but that since his withdrawal he had become thoroughly convinced of the truth of Christianity, and deeply deplored his fall, and now begged to be restored to his former standing in the church. A motion was made that he be restored, but it was lost; the next day the motion was reconsidered and he was restored to the church. Arrington was a young preacher of great promise, and was reputed to have been one of the most eloquent of the young preachers in the State, but as one of the old preachers observed, his head had become dizzy through flattery, and he soon fell again, and finally he left the ministry and went to Arkansas where he became a successful lawyer.
One of the things which continually strikes a read-
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er's notice, as he goes through the minutes for these years, is the large number of men who are refused admittance to the Conference. The journal records the names of those admitted, and then states that so-and-so were not admitted, giving no reason, how- ever, for the action, though the statement generally follows that the presiding elders have leave to employ them if they think it necessary. One of the chief rea- sons for the refusal of the Conference to accept preach- ers was because they were married. It was a rule of the church, "as inexorable as death," that no man, no matter what his age or circumstances, should marry until he had traveled four years.2 This rule was doubt- less a wise one when it was adopted, but when the ex- treme frontier conditions had passed, as was true in Indiana by 1832, the enforcement of the rule led to both injustice to candidates for the ministry and a great loss to the church itself.
Another rule of the church which made marriage for the young itinerant very difficult, and romantic love affairs next to impossible, was the rule which required the unmarried minister to consult his brethren on the subject, before he was to mention love or marriage to the young lady of his choice. "The rule did not say what brethren were to be consulted, but the presiding elder always assumed that they were ex-officio entitled to be consulted." Strange as it may seem to us in these days every circuit seemed to have somewhere in its bounds a "pious young sister, every way qualified to become a first-class wife for a preacher ;" and willing to endure all the hardships of the itiner- ancy if they might providentially be called to it." To make the situation more embarrassing to the young preacher, he had no home on the circuit except where his saddle-bags happened to be, and frequently he was
2 Autobiography of Joseph Tarkington, 28.
Western Christian Advocate, July 14, 1858.
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compelled to stay at the home of one of these self-sac- rificing young sisters, and often perhaps her home was the only stopping place for that appointment, and thus he was brought face to face with her once every four weeks. "Common politeness required him to be courteous to all, and the instincts of a gentleman would lead him to be respectful to the grown daughter, who never failed to be in her best attire and on her best behavior during his stay, and often at the expense to him of many an hour that he ought to have spent with Watson's Institutes or Wesley's Sermons, whether he preferred it or not."
In one such home in the early thirties was an ac- complished daughter who had favorably impressed three young preachers, and each determined to take the first opportunity of consulting the presiding elder on the subject of matrimony. Accordingly all three went to a camp-meeting, which was held near the center of the district, in which they all had circuits. Neither knew why the others were there. One obtained an early interview. He began by telling the elder that his four years of celibacy was about up, and that he had been making the matter of marriage a subject of prayer, and the Lord had indicated to him that he ought to marry. The elder inquired who was the happy girl, and received the reply, "Cora ---. " "A splendid girl," said the elder, "and will make any man a good wife." And soon the young preacher was on his faithful horse speeding to Cora's home to begin his courtship.
Soon after this young preacher number two drew the presiding elder to one side and made practically the same speech and received the same reply and the same indorsement of Cora. Later in the same day preacher number three had a hearing, making a similar speech, and winding up as the others had done with Cora. To him, however, the presiding elder replied: "Now see
3 Tarkington Autobiography, 29-32.
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here, my young brother, there must be some mistake somewhere. Cora - is a splendid girl: but you are the third man who has today said the Lord had indicated her for a wife. Somebody must have mis- understood the Lord."3
Two other items of business transacted by the con- ference of 1832 are of importance. On the first day of the conference a committee was appointed, consisting of Allen Wiley, C. W. Ruter and James Armstrong, to consider the propriety of establishing a literary insti- tution under the patronage of the Conference. The committee presented their report, recommending that the conference establish such an institution, and that the presiding elders collect all the information possible as to possible sites and means of raising money. The journal also records two bequests which had been made to the Methodist Episcopal church in Indiana, one by Col. James Paxton and the other by Isaac Swearingin, and Allen Wiley and James Armstrong were appointed agents to receive the bequests for the conference. This was the beginning of the Preacher's Aid Society, of the Indiana Conference, though the society was not formally organized until 1834.
When the appointments were read at the close of the first session of the Indiana Conference, the State was divided into five districts, Madison, presided over by James Havens; Charlestown district, William Shanks, presiding elder; Indianapolis district had for its elder, Allen Wiley; James L. Thompson was ap- pointed to the Vincennes district and James Armstrong was given a missionary district. There were sixty preachers appointed to some forty charges. The mis- sionary district included Upper Wabash mission, St. Joseph and South Bend mission, Kalamazoo mission, Fort Wayne mission and LaPorte mission.4
The second session of the Indiana conference met at Madison, in October, 1833, Bishop Soule again pre-
4 Minutes of Conferences, Vol. II (1829-1839), 173-175.
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siding. An increase of membership was reported of 3,582, giving a total membership for the state of 23,617. Resolutions were adopted favoring the estab- lishment of a periodical at Cincinnati, and the next year the Western Christian Advocate began its honor- able career at Cincinnati, with Charles Eliott as the first editor. The missionary district was this year called the Northwestern district, over which James Armstrong again presided.5 The third session of the conference met at Centerville, on October 22, 1834, Bishop Roberts presiding. This year two new districts were added, the Crawfordsville and the LaPorte dis- tricts, making seven in all, and an increase of 1,684 members reported. This year the death of three of the veteran preachers was reported, George Locke, James Armstrong and Nehemiah Griffith, all of whom had done valiant service for the church.6
In 1835 the conference met at Lafayette, Bishop Roberts again presiding. The increase in membership for the year was only 263, but as the whole church went behind near 2,000 this year the gain in Indiana was creditable. At this conference, General confer- ence delegates were elected in the following order, C. W. Ruter, Allen Wiley, James Havens and J. L. Thomp- son, with Aaron Wood and William Shanks as reserve delegates." The next year, 1836, the conference met in Indianapolis, and Allen Wiley, until the arrival of Bishop Roberts, was elected president, pro tempore. This year there was an increase of 2,616, and a class of twenty-four was admitted on trial into the confer- ence. A new district was added which was named the Centerville, making eight districts in all, the new dis- trict being located in the northeastern section of the State. Among the leading questions discussed at this conference was the location, organization and endow-
5 See Minutes for 1833.
6 Minutes for 1834.
7 Minutes for 1835.
8 Minutes for 1836. Western Christian Advocate, May 19, 1858.
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ment of the new university, which the Conference had determined to establish.8
No sooner had Indiana been set apart as a separate conference, than there began to be an agitation for the establishment of an institution of learning under the control of the Methodist Episcopal church. On the first day of the first session of the Indiana Conference, which met in New Albany, in October, 1832, a com- mittee consisting of Allen Wiley, C. W. Ruter and James Armstrong was appointed to consider and re- port on the advisability of establishing such an insti- tution. In their report they state, "We therefore think that seminaries and colleges under good literary and moral regulations are of incalculable benefit to our country, and that a good conference seminary would be of great and growing utility to our people." They further state "When we examine the state of the liter- ary institutions of our country, we find a majority of them are in the hands of other denominations (whether rightfully or otherwise, we do not take it upon our- selves to determine) -whose doctrine in many respects we consider incompatible with the doctrines of revela- tion, so that our people are unwilling (and we think properly so) to send their sons to those institutions. Therefore we think it very desirable to have an insti- tution under our own control from which we can ex- clude all doctrines which we deem dangerous; though at the same time we do not wish to make it so sectarian as to exclude or in the smallest degree repel the sons of our fellow citizens from the same."
The committee closed their report by recommending that the presiding elders of the various districts be "re- quired to collect all the information in their power in reference to an eligible site, and the means to build, and present the same to the next conference."9
At the session of the conference in 1833, just be- fore the close of the session, a committee was again appointed to "make inquiries relative to the establish-
9 Minutes for 1832.
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ment of a conference seminary," and on this commit- tee were appointed A. Wiley, James Armstrong, James Havens, James L. Thompson and William Shanks.10
Although it was felt by many members of the con- ference that it was desirable to have a college in the State under the control of the Methodist church, yet it was thought if the Methodist church could receive an equitable share of privileges in the State University at Bloomington, that it would be better, at least for several years, for the church to actively support that institution, rather than found one of its own.11 Ac- cordingly it was resolved, at the session of the Con- ference in 1834 to petition the State Legislature on the subject, and a form of a memorial was prepared by a committee of the conference. In the memorial it is stated, "We would impress it upon your honorable body that literature belongs to no one denomination of per- sons, and that no one exclusively, should be allowed to possess the keys that unlock her treasures. We appre- hend that the funds of our State College were designed by their munificent donors to patronize science and advocate the cause of general literature and not of re- ligious sects, and should it be divested from its original design (directly or indirectly) the donors are despoiled of a rich inheritance, and the legacy itself betrayed to a very questionable purpose. . . We look in its charter (State College) and read that the places of president, professors and tutors are open, soliciting capacity to occupy them without regard to religious professions or doctrines. We then turn our eyes on the faculty from the organization of the Institution up to this hour and we see one common hue, one common religion characterize every member, as if capacity and fitness were combined to one church and one set of religious opinions." The memorial did not ask that
10 Ibid., 1833.
11 Article by F. C. Holliday on "Indiana Asbury University," Western Christian Advocate, February 17, 1858.
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the State College be put either in whole or in part under the control of the Methodist Church but they simply asked that the trustees of the college be elected for a definite term of years and that vacancies, as they occurred, should be filled by the Legislature and not by the remaining members of the board of trustees, as had been the custom heretofore.12
This memorial was signed by the members of the Conference, and six other similar memorials were pre- sented to the state Legislature numerously signed, all of which were referred to the committee on education, but for some reason the committee never took any ac- tion in reference to them.13
The three oldest institutions of higher learning, founded in Indiana, with the exception of the old Uni- versity of Vincennes, were Hanover and Franklin Col- leges, and Indiana University. The University of Vin- cennes had been founded in 1806 and the national gov- ernment had endowed it with a township of land, but its life was never vigorous, and it soon died and its endowment was taken for the present State University. The State University began its career in 1820 as a State Seminary, and it received in 1822 the endowment belonging to the Vincennes University. In 1828 it be- came Indiana College, and in 1838 Indiana College be- came Indiana University. The Baptists in 1834 began an agitation for a college under their control, and the next year, 1835, Franklin College was founded. The Presbyterians of Salem Presbytery, as early as 1825 were talking of founding a school, and in 1826 the Presbytery arranged with a certain John Finley Crow, who had been conducting a boarding school at South Hanover to enlarge his school into a classical school, and this was opened in 1827.14
For a number of years previous to the founding of
12 Minutes for 1834.
13 House Journal, 1834, 82, 148, 155, 228, 236, 293, 36S.
14 Esarey, History of Indiana, 291-293.
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Indiana Asbury University the Methodists had com- plained that the State College was under the control of the Presbyterian church. This was not alone true of the State College in Indiana but of Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, and the same accusation was also lodged against the State University of Kentucky. The Methodists considered the Presbyterians as extremely arrogant, assuming themselves to be the "only compe- tent educators of the people," and as a result of the Presbyterian control of the State colleges in the West, but few young men from Calvinistic families were en- rolled as students in the State Institutions.15 The Meth- odists had four chief complaints against the Indiana State College: (1) The Institution was regarded as belonging to the Presbyterian Church, and was listed among Presbyterian colleges. (2) The religious beliefs of Methodist students were not respected. (3) Efforts were made to convince the public that none but Pres- byterians were competent to teach in higher institu- tions of learning; and (4) Under the existing system no Methodist could be represented on the board of trustees, although the Methodists were the most nu- merous religious sect in the State.16
One writer in the Western Christian Advocate, in 1835, signing himself "Indiana Itinerant," urges the establishment of a Methodist Seminary, as Hanover had already been started under Presbyterian auspices, and the State College was alleged to be under Presby- terian influence.17 Another article later in the same year pleads for the starting of a Methodist College in Indiana. This writer says that there are many Meth- odist parents who would prefer to have their children educated under Methodist influence, but are compelled to send them to Bloomington or Hanover both of which are under Presbyterian influence. He, however, wants
15 Holliday, "Indiana Methodism," 317-318.
16 F. C. Holliday, "Life and Times of Allen Wiley," 71-72. 17 Western Christian Advocate, January 9, 1835. 18 Ibid., June 5, 1835.
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it distinctly understood that he does not favor a Theo- logical Seminary.18 At this period the opposition to Theological Seminaries among Methodists was strong, even the editor of the Western Christian Advocate op- posing their establishment in an editorial in which he points out that they are still in the experimental stage, that they would be dangerous to unanimity of opinion, and he also argues that literary institutions are enough, and that the tendency of Theological Seminaries would be to localize the itineracy.19 The first committee on education appointed by the Indiana Conference in 1832, embodied in their report this statement, in regard to Theological Seminaries: "We are aware that when a Conference Seminary is named some of our preachers and many of our people suppose we are about to estab- lish a manufactory in which preachers are to be made. But nothing is farther from our views, for we are fully of Mr. Berneges' opinion, who, when comparing minis- ters to pens, observes that although the Seminaries have been trying to make pens for hundreds of years, they will not write until God nibs them."20
Failing in their efforts to secure a reform in the manner of controlling the State University, the con- ference turned their thoughts earnestly toward the es- tablishment of a literary institution. Accordingly at the session of the Conference in 1835 which met at Lafayette a plan was agreed upon for the founding of a university. The committee on education reported an elaborate plan for raising money, creating a capital stock of an indefinite number of shares of $100 each, any person holding one share of stock having the privi- lege of sending one student for six years to the univer- sity. The sum of $10,000 was to endow a professor- ship, and the preachers and especially the presiding elders were to act as agents to get the plan started. Also provision was made for finding a suitable location
19 Ibid., January 9, 1835.
20 Minutes of Indiana Conference, 1832.
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for the university, the plan being to start a competition between two or more towns in bidding for the Institu- tion.21 When the conference of 1836 convened repre- sentatives from several competing towns were present, Rockville, Putnamville, Greencastle, Lafayette, Madi- son and Indianapolis being the principal competitors. Rockville presented a subscription of $20,000, Putnam- vile about the same; Indianapolis and Madison, $10,- 000; Greencastle, $25,000.22 Calvin Fletcher, repre- senting Indianapolis, did not labor hard for the Insti- tution, saying that it was not good for boys to be away from home in as large a place as Indianapolis would be some day. General Howard represented Rockville, and in his speech admitted that there were some chills and fever at Rockville, whereupon Mr. Fletcher ad- mitted that some even died at Indianapolis, but Dr. Cowgill, representing Greencastle, said, "People never die at Greencastle, although for convenience they have a cemetery there."23 3 Two ballots were all that was needed to determine that Greencastle should be the seat of the Indiana Asbury University, the name of the Uni- versity having been decided by the Conference at their session in 1835.
Greencastle at that time contained a population of about five hundred, the town having been laid out about ten years previous. It was therefore very new and very rough in appearance. The streets were without grad- ing or sidewalks, except about the public square, and mud was a very abundant article for at least six months in the year. It was exceedingly fortunate for Green- castle that it secured the location of the college, for had it failed, the county seat would probably have been moved to Putnamville, and the influence given to
21 Minutes for 1835.
22 Western Christian Advocate, February 17, 1858. Article on Indiana Asbury University, by F. C. Holliday. Dr. Geo. L. Curtin, in his semi-centennial address delivered June 21, 1887, gives some- what different figures (Historical Addresses, 12).
23 Autobiography of Joseph Tarkington, pp. 131-132.
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the town by the University made it a point on the In- dianapolis and Terre Haute Railroad and later gained for it also the New Albany and Michigan City Railroad.
The Conference then appointed a committee to draft a charter to be submitted to the Legislature at its next session, which was done, and the charter was passed substantially as drawn up by the committee. The fol- lowing original board of trustees was then elected: Robert R. Roberts, John Cowgill, A. C. Stevenson, W. H. Thornburg, William Talbott, Rees Hardesty, Joseph Crow, John W. Osborn, Thomas Robinson, Hiram E. Talbott, James Montgomery, Daniel Sigler, Isaac Mat- kins, T. W. Fletcher, Gamaliel Taylor, Martin M. Ray, Isaac C. Elston, S. S. Leanard, W. W. Hitt, James A. Wright, T. A. Howard and Jacob Hass.
The first meeting of the board of trustees was held on the first Monday of March, 1837, at which it was decided to open a preparatory department as soon as a suitable teacher could be secured. Later Rev. Cyrus Nutt, a graduate of Alleghany College, was elected principal of the preparatory department at a salary of $400.00 In due time the new principal arrived, and on the 5th of June, 1837, the school was opened in a room in the old town seminary building. Five pupils, barefooted and without coats, appeared-O. Badger, O. H. P. Ash, William Stevenson, Osborn and S. Tay- lor, all of whom resided in Greencastle except Badger.24
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