USA > Indiana > Indiana Methodism: a series of sketches and incidents grave and humorous concerning preachers and people of the West with an appendix containing personal recollections, public addresses and other miscellany > Part 15
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But his sermon was not all made up of stories of that sort. He gave the people a good many im- portant things to think about. In the evening the "Old Chief," as Mr. Finley was called, came for- ward as a weeping prophet, and delivered a sermon worthy of the man, worthy of the occasion, and worthy of the cause he represented. Their host on Monday morning at an early hour supplied them with pipes and tobacco, when they became loqua- cious and genial as was their wont at all times when not deprived of facilities to indulge the ac- quired habit of using the noxious weed.
The delegates from the Northwest Indiana con-
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ference to the General conference, of 1856, were as follows, viz. : Jacob M. Stallard, George M. Boyd, James L. Thompson, and William Graham.
The secretary of the General conference must have been very derelict in the performance of his duties in keeping the journals, as it is not shown from the records of the session that one of these good brethren made a motion, or offered a resolu- tion, or presented a paper of any kind, excepting their "credentials," during the session of that honor- able body.
The fraternal delegates from the Wesleyan Meth- odists to the conference were the Rev. Drs. Hannah and Jobson. Dr. Hannah was a very able preacher, a Christian gentleman, and seemed to win all hearts during the session. In regard to Dr. Jobson, rumors were rife at the time, in Indianapolis, that he felt that he must keep up and maintain the habits which he had acquired in early life, in England, and so he demanded his quota of lager beer as an indispensa- ble part of his daily meal.
Rev. Samuel C. Cooper, a noble specimen of man- hood, and a distinguished preacher, that year led the delegation of the North Indiana conference. Mr. Cooper died in July of the same year (1856), and a fews years ago, this writer prepared a sketch of the life and labors of that grand pioneer preacher, which, in the belief that it will interest many of the readers of this volume, is here given.
"Few names forty years ago in Indiana Method- ism stood more prominent or deservedly more honored than that of S. C. Cooper. He was one of the heroic band of itinerant pioneers who laid
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deep and broad the foundations of American Meth- odism in Indiana. He was born in Baltimore, Md., May 17, 1799. While a child his parents removed to Ohio. In 1818 he was converted, and soon after was licensed to exhort, and felt a deep conviction that he was called to preach. Like many others, he resisted these impressions and devoted his energies to secular pursuits. For a time success attended his efforts, but through treachery and broken banks his earnings were swept away, and he sought a home farther west. He erected his cabin in Southern Illinois. Here a deeper sorrow overtook him. His young wife died, leaving him with two small children. God spoke to his heart, and he could no longer resist. His former impres- sions of duty returned with great force and he resolv- ed to obey the call.
"Three months from the death of his wife, at the call of Rev. Charles Holliday, in December, 1826, he was laboring as an exhorter on Vincennes cir- cuit, with Stephan R. Beggs as preacher in charge. During this year he was lincensed to preach, and was admitted on trial in the traveling connection in Sep- tember, 1827, and appointed to Cash- River circuit in Illinois. In 1828 he was appointed to the Prince- ton circuit, Indiana, where he married her who for nearly thirty years cheerfully shared the toils and sac- rifices incident to an itinerant life in Indiana fifty years ago. Mr. Cooper by hard study and untiring indus- try, took high rank, so that in eight years from the time of his admission on trial he was made presid- ing elder of Bloomington district. With that wise forecast for which he was remarkable, he was among
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the most active of the fathers in planning for a great university in Indiana.
"Such were his high business qualifications, his push and pluck, that the wise men of the conference chose him as financial agent of the new and dar- ing enterprise. He gave seven consecutive years- the best of his life-to raising money and securing students for the infant college. In doing this he traveled on horse back in all weather, with an abandon of personal care or comfort, which made him a hero if not a martyr. There are three names which, in connection with the Indiana Asbury university, should never be forgotten,-S. C. Cooper, Isaac Owen, and Daniel DeMotte. To them be- long the honor of so preparing and laying the finan- cial basis of "Asbury" as to make "DePauw" possible. Brother Cooper was honored by election as dele- gate to the General conference at Pittsburg in 1848 and to that at Indianapolis in 1856. He served the church twenty-eight years-eight on circuits, seven as agent, and thirteen as presiding elder.
"He was in his place as delegate to the General conference in 1856, answering to the first roll-call. For the first ten days of the session he remained with that body, but finding himself daily growing weaker, he was compelled to return to his home in Greencastle. His work was done. He had fought a good fight, but worn out with overwork, he went sweetly to rest in Jesus, July 19, 1856, in his fifty- eighth year, and the twenty-ninth of his ministry. Although bordering on three-score, his death was premature ; for with his iron frame, but for the ter- rible exposure and excessive horseback riding east
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and west, from one line of the State to the other, north and south, from the Ohio river to Lake Mich- igan, he might have reached four-score. His chil- dren, most of them daughters, he lived to see well settled in life, all occupying highly respectable so- cial positions, and all members of the church. His honored son, *Rev. Samuel T. Cooper, of Northwest Indiana conference, residing at St. Joseph, Mich., inherited all the best traits of his distinguished father. Though now, and for several years super- annuated, his praise is in all the churches as a man of God, an able minister, and of great success in looking after the poor and neglected in the adjacent neighborhoods, where there are no regular pastors. He, too, has raised a beautiful family. The energy, industry, and force of the father and grandfather softened by the grace and quiet dignity of a pious and cultured mother, seem to reproduce in the children the ancestral traits, so that father and sons are living ex- amples of the Pauline ideal, in that they are not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Some one has said : 'It is not to him that acts the most conspicuous part in life's drama that shall be awarded the highest meed of praise, but to him, rather, who acts best the part in life's lot as- signed him.' Judged by this rule, and measuring the lives of all who have borne the historic name of Cooper, whether it be Anthony Ashley, the philan- thropist ; Sir Astly, the surgeon ; Ezekial, the preacher; James Fenimore, author of 'The last of the Mohicans,' or James, the American General and United States senator, no one has filled his appro- * Died.
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priate sphere with more inflexible integrity, persistent energy, unflagging zeal, and ulti- mate success than Rev. Samuel C. Cooper. Noble man ! moral hero ! thy deeds live, thy worth abides ! 'Death does not end all,' for 'the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance." '
CHAPTER XXI.
MISSIONERY COMMITTEE-FIRST CONFERENCE INDIA.
The conference was held in Crawfordsville in 1856 by Bishop Janes, beginning October 8, with Professor Nadal, sec'y. At this conference the following persons were admitted on trial : John H. Cox, Edward Roszell, Richard S. Robinson, L. S. Boyce, Albert Kellogg, John R. Eddy, George Guion, James W. Greene, Aaron Hays, Charles L. Smith, Jesse S. Woodard, Leonard S. Martin. Of these twelve, one only remains as a member of the North-west Indiana conference, viz., J. W. Greene, D. D. This distinguished brother has been highly successful in every part of the work to which, from time to time, he has been assigned; whether on Rennselaer circuit, Crown Point, Stock- well, Delphi Station, Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Greencastle or Crawfordsville,-whether a circuit preacher, stationed preacher, or presiding elder he has proved himself in his efficient and honor-
IN
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able career the peer of any man in the conference. This good brother was exceedingly fortunate in his selection as helpmeet the cultured Christian daugh- ter of Samuel Organ, esq., of LaPorte, Indiana. Brother Greene and his good wife, under God's blessing have succeeded well in raising a fine group of noble boys, one of whom at least is married and settled in a Western city, and has already ac- quired a high standing as an attorney at law. Others are studying in the learned professions. And the father and mother have reason not only to be grateful to the God of grace, but justly proud of their promising sons.
Rev. John R. Eddy, a son of Rev. Augustus Eddy, and a brother of the distinguished T. M. Eddy, succeeded in his work, was highly esteemed by the people as a man, and a devoted Christian pastor. In 1862 his work was Attica station. During the year 1863, while the war of the rebellion was raging, Brother Eddy, at the earnest request of a number of his friends of the 72 Indiana regiment, accepted the chaplaincy. He joined his regiment at Mur- freesborough, Tenn., and commenced his labors among the soldiers, Sunday, June 21, preaching from Prov. 16, 32: "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." Wednesday, June 24, during a fight between Col. Wilder's cav - alry brigade and the rebel forces he was instantly killed by a shell. Chaplain Layton wrote back to the friends of Brother Eddy, "He sleeps, but no canon will wake him; he fell at his post, fearlessly doing his duty." He fell in the vigor of manhood
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into a Christian patriot's grave. His blood mingled with the copious stream that America's loyal sons poured out to invigorate the tree of liberty, and fertilize the vales of freedom.
In view of the growing interests of the Thorntown Academy, and for other reasons, William F. Wheeler, the sweet singer of our Israel was placed on the Indianapolis district, and J. L. Smith was sent to Thorntown station, and Rev. William Campbell became agent for the school; and so three of the earnest workers in building up the institution resided in the village where the academy was located. At that time in Thorntown there were seven places where intoxicating drinks were sold. The trustees and friends of the school before named, determined to close up this nefarious business, so that no patron of the school should fear to send his son as a stu- dent lest he might be led astray through the saloon influence. Public meetings were held, earnest speeches were delivered. resolutions were passed, all showing the liquor sellers that the community was in earnest; and the better citizens of the place, being a large majority of the whole, adopted for their guidance and government,-"Peaceably, if we can; forceably, if we must." Suffice it to say that in a little over one month from that time not a drop of liquor could be bought in Thorntown, even at the drug store. And for many years, and indeed until recently, no saloon has been established in that town.
The General Missionary committee, 1856-1860, representing the seven General conference districts stood as follows:
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District No. 1, N. J. B. Morgan; District No. 2, L. Crowell; District No. 3. W. Reddy; District No 4, J. M. Trimble; District No. 5, J. L. Smith; District No. 6, H.Crews, District No. 7, W. H. Goode.
In later years the members of the general Mis- ยท sionary committee have been elected by the gen- eral conference, but in 1856, and, for some time after that, they were appointed by the bishops. For the year above named, the committee held its first meeting in the mission rooms at 200 Mulberry st., New York, commencing November 12. During that year Kev. Dr. William Butler sailed for India, our first missionary to the people of that country. Soon after his arrival at Lucknow the Sepoy rebellion broke out, and he had to fly to the Himalayas for safety. He soon, however, made the acquaintance of an honest native whom he called Joel. And the church was very much interested in the doctor's let- ters from India, in some of which he speaks of Joel and himself as holding their first meet- ing in a sheep-pen. The same Joel was his first convert in India, and became a useful helper in the beginning of our work in that wonderful country,- a work now grown to such unlooked for proportions.
During that session of the General Missionary committee, or, rather, at its close, on Saturday evening, this writer whose zeal was perhaps superior to his knowledge, moved that the members of the committee, instead of leaving after midnight on Sunday night for their homes or even on Monday morning, have a ratification meet- ing on Monday night in St. Paul's church, not dream- ing, when he made the motion, that he might be ap-
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pointed as one of the speakers on that occasion. A committee was appointed among the laymen to ar- range a program and all other matters necessary for the meeting on Monday night. The Rev. Dr. John P. Durbin, who was then missionary secretary, pub- lished in the "Missionary Advocate" a full report of the ratification meeting as follows :-
"MISSIONARY DEMONSTRATION."
"This was the notice given of a meeting deter- mined upon at the close of the late session of the General Missionary committee. So favorably was the proposition entertained, that, with the excep- tion of one of the superintendents and one member of the General committee, all found it possible to remain until Monday evening, November 7th, to attend a public missionary meeting at St. Paul's church, cor- ner of Fourth avenue and Twenty-second street. The laymen of the committee were appointed to carry out the object, make the necessary arrangements, and the program for the exercises, etc., etc.
"This committee consisted of M. F. Odell, W. Truslow, H. M. Forrester, and J. H. Taft. Arrange- ments were made to secure the presence of the pas- tors of the city and places adjacent ; indeed, they came from distances that surprised us. At the time appointed those who had by previous arrangement assembled with the members of the board in the chapel connected with the church, passed to the places assigned them within and around the alter of the church while the bishops and members of the General Missionary committee took their seat s upon the platform.
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"Bishop Morris opened the service by giving out a missionary hymn, which was sung by the whole congregation-a grand assembly for numbers and interest-after which prayer was offered by Bishop Ames.
"The Corresponding secretary being then called upon, gave a brief account of the temper and action of the church in sustaining the progress of the mis- sionary cause during the current year just closing, and in the course of his remarks related the se- vere privations which had been endured by many of the home missionaries in the northwest during the year, some of whom had been obliged with their families to live upon nothing but corn bread, not having enough wheat even for sacramental services ; and of money, in some cases, not enough to pay the postage on their letters ; and yet these men said to the conference : 'The people have done the very best they could ; we have lived and suffered with them in their privations, we will continue to do so, and stay and share in their better times when, with the Divine blessing, better crops are given them !'
"The secretary further stated that the deliberations of the committee were marked with great anxiety, for it was apparent that greater aid must be offered to those suffering home-laborers ; and it was equally apparent that the opening doors inviting our en- trance, and the growth of our missions abroad, called for an increase in the appropriations to our foreign work. In this connection he also named the remark- able liberality of European residents in India to our mission in that land ; the same was true of their lib- erality to our mission in China, and this too from
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parties not members of our communion.
"The committee, after having severally given an account of the probable support to be hoped for from the sections of the country they represented, pro- ceeded, after making the appropriation for Africa, to take up the home work, not as the most destitute, but as it had in some parts endured great privation, it was desired to extend all possible relief in that direction before proceeding any further with foreign fields. That part of the work being disposed of, provision for the foreign fields was made without much delay, and the result-after deducting the amounts which the good-will and zeal of several of the conferences led them to decline receiving- reached an aggregate of Two Hundred and Eighty- three Thousand Six Hundred and Sixty nine Dol- lars.
"Bishop Baker was the next in order to address the meeting, and he did it with admirable effect, giv- ing a succinct account of the rise, progress, and pres- ent condition of our work on the Pacific coast. His allusion to Jason Lee, and his work of faith and la- bor of love, was both most tender and well-merited. He also paid a deserved and honorable tribute to the memory of the local preachers who were the founders of the church in California. A more com- pact and intellgent speech we have rarely if ever listened to.
"Rev. W. H Goode came next, to inform the audi- ence of the extention of the borders of the church of God into and far beyond the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, to Pike's Peak and the Rocky Moun- tains. This brother is emphatically, and has been
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for years, a frontier missionary, and he dwelt with true nobility of character and manner upon the tri- umphs-the Cross of Christ had won, and with fervor spoke of the conquests he yet anticipated even in the very heart of Utah, confronting and overthrowing the scandalous, and worse than Mohamedan, and affronting system of uncleanliness existing there ; offering in conclusion, that, if the superintendents of the church could find no more fit and willing in- strument, they might take himself ! This minister is a fitting companion for the heroes of this or any other age of the church.
"Rev. Hooper Crews, of the Rock River confer- ence, next gave the result of his observations in the West, having himself been a pioneer in Illinois, when obliged to go on foot forty-five miles without seeing the face of a white man or getting any re- freshments, and at the end of such a route, on one occasion, to administer the sacrament to a man and his wife who dwelt alone in the wilderness, and with whom in this blessed rite he enjoyed a higher sat- isfaction than he would in being possessor of the town of Rockford, in which he now lived, but which, at the time he was speaking of, he might have possessed by simply staking it out and enter- ing it in the land office.
"Bishop fanes now came forward in the order as- signed him, and apologized for his position among them on the ground of his love of order and obedi- ence. His appointment being made by the laity, he felt bound to stand up in his place, and justify their action in this respect and their devotion to the missionary cause. We had been hearing from the
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circumference, and it was not perhaps amiss to hear from the center or heart of this great missionary movement. It gave him pleasure to testify to the health, and soundness, and activity of the heart, and of his confidence that still, as heretofore, in this seat of the origin and organization of our great missionary work, the heart might be relied upon. We can safely defy any one to do justice to the in- imitable speeches of the bishop upon misionary occasions.
"Rev. N. J. B. Morgan, of Baltimore, being called upon, gave account of his field as the mother of missionaries, having them in China, India, Bulgaria, Sandwich Islands, in California, and in Oregon. The people of his region of country were lovers of the missionary cause, giving cheerfully of their sons and of their substance to it, and in devotion to this great calling of the Church were regarded in the relation of a twin brother to their brethern at New York.
"Rev. W. Reddy, of Western New York, then, in a happy manner, referred to the relation sustained to the cause by the section of country from whence he came, and argued, from present indications, that greater proof of genuine attachment would here- after be given by all that section of country. Broth- er Reddy was especially happy in referring to the hallowing and liberalizing influence the conference of the Missionary Committee and Board had upon all concerned, and that the period of his connec- tion with them had been a profitable one to himself in its catholic and sanctifying influences. Prayer for the conversion of the heathen world, and faith
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in its more speedy accomplishment, would more largely hereafter occupy his heart.
"Rev. F. M. Trimble, of Ohio, announced himself a missionary by parentage, having in him 'the faith which dwelt in his grandmother,' who, from the time of her conversion, rested not from announcing the preciousness of Christ until she went to Abra- ham's bosom. If she went not 'everywhere preach- ing the word,' everywhere she did go she ceased not to
-'Tell it to all around
What a dear Savior she had found.'
Many who heard her, turned unto the Lord, and Brother Trimble declared from his personal knowl- edge that her faith did not abide alone. He touch- inlgy adverted to the fact of the introduction of Brother Nast to him while he was yet under awak- ening ; how he prayed with him, and dismissed him with a letter of introduction to the next preacher ; of the visit of this German penitent to the camp- meeting ; of his conversion and early connection with the conference, and of the now rapid exten- sion of the German work at home and abroad.
"Rev. F. L. Smith, of Indiana, was now called out, and gave his experience of pioneer life, relating with great zest his early preaching efforts in a court- house built of poles notched and laid up after the manner of a log house, and of wending his way by Indian trails to camp-meeting, until he came where two ways met, and he was directed in the true way by seeing on the bark of a smooth beech tree, standing at the fork of the road, written by some ingenious person who had dipped his finger in the mud to do
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it : For the camp ground take the right hand road!' The first year of his itinerant life he shod his own horse, paid his own ferriage, and received for the year's labor seventy-five cents! Another year, when he had a married collegue, they had col- lected, or the stewards had, at the close of the year, seven dollars and some cents. This was spread up- on the table at the fourth quarterly meeting, con- sisting of small pieces of silver, sixpences and shill- ings. A good man, seeing so much money in that then wild country, blessed his Maker because the preachers were not likely to starve that year. He then dilated upon the enjoyment of the days when, at quarterly meetings, the brethern could entertain as many visitors as they had puncheons in their floor, and that the same devotion to Christ's cause still obtained among those people ; for when the wants of the missionary treasury and the sufferings of pioneer brethern were known in his conference they generously declined receiving any or next to any missionary appropriations. This warm-hearted man wound up by an allusion to the avowed twin re- lationship existing between Baltimore and New York, that it was well-known among woodmen that the hardest of all trees to split was one with two hearts ! To say that the audience were moved by this happy hit is not exactly the thing, but he 'brought down the house' although it was a church.
"BishopSimpson complimented Bishop Janes upon his usual classical excellence, and excused his ap- pearance before the audience at so late an hour as a device of the committee of arrangements with which to 'taper off' the exercises. With this pleasant in-
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troduction he took occasion to give the result of his observations upon our missionary field in Germany, Scandinavia, and Bulgaria ; remarking upon the fruitfulness and true Methodistic character of our German work ; upon the hunger of 'the word' ap- parent through all Scandinavia ; men, women, and children pressing upon him,taking his hands in both theirs, and giving thanks with tears for the messen- gers sent them. He dwelt upon their devotion to the faith they had embraced, their great zeal in contributing of their own scanty means to build houses for public worship worthy of older societies ; his admiration of their general character and ap- pearance-their fair complexion, blue eyes, and no- ble bearing causing him to think that every man he met was a brother. He especially dwelt upon their innate love of liberty, on the advances made by Norway in the way to equality and the abolition of no- bility or caste ; relating that in the final struggle, when the nobles seeing the commons were in the ascent and would triumph, one of them arose and declared the impending event had determined him to expatriate himself from his native country, which he did, then and there, by addressing an apostrophe to the great mountains, the bulwarks of his native land, 'Farevell !' and to the rivers and streams, 'Farevell !' and to the associates of his youth and maturer years, 'Farevell !' Upon the conclusion of which one of the members quietly arose and said, 'I hear the mountains and rivers echoing, Vell ! Vell ! ! '
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