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 21
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delivered a fervid speech in favor of free schools, referring, in the course of his remarks, to the mother of the Grachi, and eulogizing her devotion to the education of her boys. Wright recounted all the particulars of the familiar story. When a certain noble lady, he said, visited the mother of the Grachi, making a display of her costly jewelry, and then saying to Cornelia, 'And where are your jewels ?' Cornelia purposely detained her guest until her boys returned from school, when, pointing to them she said, 'These are iny jewels.' Meanwhile the Whig member, leaning over and whispering to Mr. Dowling, who was a brother Whig, inquired, 'What does Wright mean by his talk about Mother Grachi ? Who is she anyhow ? I never heard of her before.' 'Oh,' said Dowling, 'she is an old woman living on the Raccoon, down in Park county. She has six or eight lazy, good-for-nothing boys ; and she is ex- pecting, if this bill is passed, to have them schooled at the expense of the rest of us, who have no boys to educate.' 'Ah, that's it, eh ? Well, never mind, I'll show him a thing or two.' As soon as Mr. Wright was seated the Whig member from South- ern Indiana, sprang to his feet, and said : 'Mr. Speaker, perhaps you and this house don't under- stand about this case as much as I do. The gentle- man who has just taken his seat, as you know, rep- resents Park county, and wants to make himself very popular with the old women and boys down there. He has a great deal to say about Mother Grachi ; but who is Mother Grachi ? Why, sir, as I have been informed by a gentleman who knows her well, she is an ignorant old woman living down
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there on the Raccoon, in Park county, and has about a dozen boys the gentleman who has just spoken would have us educate at the expense of the State. And now Mr. Speaker, I should like to know where the money is to come from ? Why, sir, it must come from the pockets of the hard-fisted yeomanry of the country, many of whom, like myself have no boys to educate. Money must be taken from my pocket by taxation, and from the hard earnings of others like myself, who have no children, to educate a lot of loung- ing boys like old Mother Grachi's. I protest against it. The people I have the honor to represent will never stand it, sir, never.' The effect of the speech, Mr. Dowling said, was tremendous. The whole house, including gallaries, was convulsed with laughter. And the laughter, he said, instead of confusing or intimidating, only animated and inspired the speaker.
The conference year was a prosperous one in re- vivals, conversions and additions to the church.
The session of the North-west Indiana con - ference of 1871, was held at Crawfords- ville, Bishop Ames presiding, J. C. Reed, sec- retary. Eleven persons, at this conference, were admitted on trial, of whom only one remains in the conference and in the active work-Rev. Whitefield Hall, now stationed on LaPorte circuit. This good brother is a son of Rev. Colbreth Hall, and, on the maternal side, is a grandson of Rev. William Hunt, who was among the very first Meth- odist preachers in Indiana, being in the territory as early as 1808. Brother W. Hall is a sound gospel preacher, loves the church, is devoted to his work,
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has a cultured wife, and has been much blessed in seeing the work of the Lord prosper in his hands.
One admitted at this conference, F. J. Tolby, was sent as a missionary to New Mexico, and, after two or three years of faithful labor, his life went out by the hand of an unknown assassin. Brother Tolby was born in Hendricks county, Indiana. He was con- verted to God near Tippecanoe Battle Ground in 1857, and, as has been stated, admitted to the North- west Indiana conference in 1871. He served the church with fidelity on Pine Grove, Brook, and Mor- rocco circuits, and in 1874 was stationed at Cimar- ron, New Mexico. On September 14, 1875, as he was returning from Elizabethtown, he was shot by some unknown person, and fell from his horse a life- less corpse.
The following words found in the report of Rev. Thomas Harwood, superintendent of the mission, doubtless contain the true acount of the mis- sionary's tragic end. He says: "Brother Tolby has labored nearly two years at Cimaron and Elizabethtown and did the church good service. He was a rising man, bold and fearless in the pulpit and out of it; had made many friends on his circuit and in the country, and was hopeful for the work; but in the midst of his hopes, in the noonday of his life, he was cut off. But the itinerant, like a war- rior, fell from his saddle in the midst of the strife."
Several things transpired at the conference of 1871 of rather a remarkable character. The confer- ence sermon on Tuesday night was preached by Brother B, in which, as it was thought by many of
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his brethren, he animadverted with unsparing severity upon the alleged conduct of many mem- bers of the conference, even charging them with organizing secret bands among themselves for the sake of personal promotion.
At this conference the commissioner appointed to secure a division of the Preacher's Aid Society funds, made his final report. And in that report was incorporated the action of the Board of Mana- gers, approving and accepting the services of the commissioner, and adding, by resolution, a vote of thanks for the faithful manner in which the work had been conducted from the beginning to its close, including a period of seven years.
A provisional arrangement for the introduction of layman into the General conference having been made at Chicago in 1868, lay delegation entered the General conference of 1872 in triumph, at Brook- lyn, N. Y. The first Northwest Indiana Lay Elec- toral conference met at Crawfordsville on the third day of the Annual conference session, Friday, the 8th of September. The following is a full list of the Northwest Indiana conference delegates to the general conference of 1872: Clerical,-Allen A. Gee, Joseph C. Reed, Nelson L. Brakeman, Samuel Godfrey; Reserves,-Aaron Wood, Luther Taylor ; Lay,-Henry S. Lane, John Brownfield; Reserves,- Mark Jones, L. B. Sims. During the quadrennium, closing in 1872 there was an almost alarming mor- tality among the bishops of the Methodist Episco- pal Church.
Bishop Thomson, who died near Wheeling, W. Va., March 22, 1870, was a marked man in many
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respects. To the men who knew that great man of God, nothing needs to be said; but the younger men now in the active work, and the preachers to come after them, would do well to study the life story of Edward Thompson. Bishop Thompson was born in Portsea, England, October 12, 1810; he was a relative of James Thompson, the author of "The Seasons." He came to America in ISIS, and the family located in Wooster, Ohio, in 1820. He be- came a practicing physician, and his medical studies and associations developed in him a strong bias toward skepticism. On Sunday, December 1I, 1831, he was converted, on his knees, after reading the Epistle of James; then and there he consecrat- ed his life to God, and became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Some of his friends were opposed to his joining the Methodist church, but he answered them by saying, "The Methodists are a people who make a business of religion." His parents were Baptists, and his father consented with reluctance to his son's becoming a Methodist. He was baptized April 9, 1832, and licensed to exhort the next day; on July 1, 1832, he was licensed to preach, and was admitted on trial at Dayton, Ohio, in September, 1832. His first year in the con- ference was with H. O. Sheldon, preacher-in-charge; he was afterwards stationed with Joseph M. Trimble in Cincinnati, and the next year served the church in Sandusky City; for some time he was pastor of the church at Detroit, Mich .; became prin- cipal of Norwalk seminary; he was elected editor of the Ladies Repository in 1844; from '46 to '59. was president of Ohio Wesleyan university; became ed-
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itor of the Christian Advocate at New York in 1860, and, at the General conference at Philadelphia in 1864, bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Perhaps the highest achievements of Dr. Thom- son were in the department of education. Here he seemed a prince in his native domain. He ruled by the charms of personal goodness, by the magic spell of an inimitable character. He taught with facility, and made every topic luminous by fertility and aptness of illustration. Many of the men who have given character to the North Ohio conference were educated, partially or wholly, at the Norwalk seminary during his presidency. As Bishop he be- longed to the whole church. He dearly loved his friends in Ohio, where perhaps he accomplished the best work of his life. It grieved him to think of making a home for his family in a distant State. This writer remembers with distinctiveness a remark of Dr. Thompson's, when he was elected editor of the Christian Advocate at Buffalo in 1860; a position he did not seek and accepted with reluctance. After his election, his friends seeing that he seemed rather despondent, rallied about him and said: "We have no fears of you, you will succeed as editor." The Doctor replied : "By God's help I will run it through or it shall run me through." The saintly man has found his exceeding and great reward in heaven.
Calvin Kingsley was elected Bishop, also, at Phila- delphia, in 1864. He was born in 1812, and died at Beyroot, Syria, April 6, 1870. Bishop Kingsley was an amiable and loveable man; unpretentious, yet
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scholarly, and always sweet-spirited. He was an active worker, impelled by strong convictions, in behalf of the liberation of the slaves. As editor of the Western Christian Advocate he had ample op- portunity for the exercise of his powers as a writer, and, under his management, that paper never gave out an uncertain sound on the moral questions of the day or failed in loyalty to the Methodist Epis- copal church. As a bishop he was kind and con- ciliatory, genial and frank. He had what might be called a hatred of anything in the church repre- senting, or even squinting towards "a third order" in the Methodist ministry, or pointing to a "hierarchy" in the Church of his early choice, for whose interests, in the work of the ministry, he had labored so faithfully and successfully from his youth up. He was loveable in his life, and died la- mented by all that knew him.
Davis W. Clark, one of the bishops of the Meth- odist Episcopal church, was born in the State of Maine, November 25, 1812, and died at his home in Cincinnati, Ohio, of disease of the heart, May 23, 1871. He graduated from the Wesleyan univer- sity, Middletown, Conn., in 1843. He was admitted into the New York conference, and, after filling five appointments in the conference, he was appointed to the editorship of the "Ladies Repository," which position he held till 1864, when he was elected bishop. He took an active part, after the war, in the re organization of the work in the South. He was president of the Freedmen's Aid society, and an institution of learning in the South bears his name. He was regarded as a scholarly man, a clear
.
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thinker, with but little animation in his preaching, a friend to learning, and an earnest supporter of the schools and colleges of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Osmon Cleander Baker, a bishop of the Method- ist Episcopal church, was born in Marlow, New Hampshire, July 30, 1812; and died in Concord, N. H, December 20, 1871. At the age of fifteen he was placed in the Wilbraham academy, where, soon after, he wasconverted and received into the church by Dr. Fisk, the principal of the school. He was licensed as an exhorter when seventeen years of age. In 1830 he entered the Wesleyan university where he remained three years. While in college he was licensed as a local preacher. In 1834, he be- came a teacher in the seminary of Newburry, Ver- mont; and, after about ten years in the work of teaching, he was appointed pastor of the church at Rochester, N. H., and in 1845, of the church in Manchester, N. H., both charges of the New Hampshire and Vermont conferences. In 1846 he was appointed presiding elder of the Dover district, but after a year, accepted a professorship in the Biblical Institute at Concord, N. H., in which city he henceforth resided until his death. At the general conference at Boston in 1852, he was elect- ed a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church, and the Northwest Indiana was the first conference over which he presided, organized and held, as be- fore stated, at Terre Haute. Bishop Baker, while he was not what would be called a great preacher, was a man of tender sensibilities, loveable disposi- tion, accurate in his rulings on questions of church
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law, and was highly esteemed and much loved by the preachers, wherever he went.
The general conference of 1872 was remarkable mainly for two things : Ist. The admission of laymen as delegates. The only power to bring about this fundamental change in the church polity rested wholly in the ministry; and while the lay- men have not been fully satisfied with their position, yet the action of the ministry in which they volun- tarily divided with their lay brethren their powers as rulers in the church might be set down as, per- haps, the eighth wonder of the world. It is a trite saying that all men love power, and it is an exceed- ingly rare and unusual thing for anyone in author- ity to yield or divide that authority with any other. It is therefore a sublime spectacle that the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church, without com- pulsion, willingly said to their lay brethern, "Come over and help us." As revolutions rarely go back- ward so the good work will, doubtless go on, until by the plan of organizing the General conference in . to two houses, the decrease of the clerical numbers, or the increase of the lay, there will result such a division of power as shall bring about perfect equality, "for we be brethern."
2nd. The election of so large a number of bishops. The General conference seemed to have been stricken with a panic, or alarmed by the fact that four of the bishops had passed to their reward since 1868. One brother naively remarked that in the election of eight bishops he feared the church had "Overdrawn its account with the Lord."
By the death of Bishop Thomson, Kingsley,
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Clark and Baker, only five remained, viz., Morris, Janes, Scott, Simpson, and Ames. To this number the conference added Thomas Bowman, William L. Harris, Randolph S. Foster, Isaac W. Wiley, Stephen M. Merrill, Edward G. Andrews, Gilbert Haven, and Jesse T. Peck.
At the session of the Northwest Indiana confer- ence, held by Bishop Janes at Thorntown, Septem- ber 4-9, 1872, there were eight admitted on trial, not one of whom remains in the conference at this writing, 1892.
Alexander B. Bruner is a member of the Colo- rado conference, where he is an acceptable and use- ful preacher .
Winfield S. Crow is, or has been, preaching for the Universalists or Unitarians, and it is not very ma- terial which.
Andrew J. Clifton is a born revivalist, and is still doing good work in Nebraska.
Franklin Mikels is a good man, a good preacher, and was successful in the active work, but is now on the supernumerary list, with his residence at Stock- well.
John Blackstock, about ten years a missionary in India, returned to his old conference a few years ago, remaining about two years, and then returning to India, a true and faithful man of God.
Henry A. Buchtel, an alumnus of Asbury, now De Pauw, university, was sent to Bulgaria as a missionary, soon returned to America ; occupied several among our best stations ; was in Denver, Colorado, several years, and is now stationed in one of the city churches in Indianapolis. He is scholar-
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ly, kind hearted, brotherly, an able preacher, suc- cessful and popular wherever he has labored.
James N. Beard, also, was admitted at this con- ference, of whom mention has already been made.
Brother Thomas Meredith was re-admitted on his certificate of location.
T. C. Webster, a most excellent brother, a fine preacher, a very loveable man, was transferred some years ago to Nebraska, and is now the efficent and popular pastor of one of the churches in the city of Omaha. During that year, that is to say, in the winter of '72-3, a glorious revival took place in the city of Crawfordsville, where J. L. Smith was pre- siding elder, and Rev. S. Beck, D. D., preacher-in- charge. For the first week or ten days of the meetings they were held as union meetings between the Methodists and Presbyterians, and part of the time in one church and then in the other. On a certain occasion during the revival, and while the meeting was being held in the Methodist church, a noteworthy circumstance took place, which is here given. In the Methodist church the choir and or- gan had been, for years, situated in the end gallery. Among the members of the choir were two or three persons who were not members of any church, while the organist, a most excellent Christian lady, was a member of the Baptist church. Some of the more scrupulous, not to say sectarian, among the official members, were much opposed to any one's taking part in the music who was not a member of the church. The matter was, from time to time, discussed in the official meetings, and at least one member of that body determined that the choir
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should be brought down out of the gallery, and that all persons not members of the church should be eliminated therefrom. The following evening, after a somewhat stormy debate over the question in the official board, it fell to the lot of the presiding elder to preach. Seeing "the impending crisis" he, in a quiet way, visited the organist and chorister, and arranged with them, during the afternoon, to move the organ down from the gallery, and place it in what was called the "Amen corner," on the left-hand side of the pulpit; and he further arranged with them to be present, and hold a service of song, beginning immediately after the ringing of the first bell. As the congregation gathered all were surprised, and none more so than the irate official member alluded to, to see the organ and choir en- gaged with animation, leading the congregation, and sitting near the pulpit. The chorister, Mr. G., though not a member of the church, had an excel- lent Christian wife, who was also a member of the choir;he himself was a man of correct morals, but not a Christian. After the opening prayer in the evening the preacher requested the choir to lead in singing the well-known song, "The old, old story." During the singing of this song the chorister broke down and burst into tears, the other unconverted mem- bers of the choir became deeply moved and much agitated, and before the meeting closed they were both converted, and received as members of the church. This result dissipated all opposition to the choir, and, through the power of the blessed gospel of love, all became sweet harmony again.
In 1873, beginning on the 10th of September, the
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Northwest Indiana conference was held in South Bend, Bishop Simpson in the chair, with J. C. Reed, secretary. At this conference their came in by transfer, Isaac Dale, from Illinois, I M. Van Arsdal, from upper Iowa; and by re-admission, W. W. Jones. Eleven persons were admitted on trial ; and of these the following remain with the conference at this writing, 1892 : Allen Lewis, W. H. Hickman, H. M. Middleton, Jeptha Boicourt, and G. R. Street- er.
Brother Lewis has from the beginning been one of the most useful and successful preachers and pas- tors in the conference. After serving in several im- portant appointments he closed, at the last session of the conference, a full term of five years at Brazil, and is now on his first year in the city of Valparaiso. He is a man of vigorous health, weighing about two and forty pounds, with a mind well trained by thor- ough study ; he is a very able and sound gospel preacher. He everywhere makes the impression among the people that he is a man of God, and, in his personal religious experience, he has a conscious knowledge of what is meant by a true New Testi- ment conversion and entire consecration to God, and the Holy work of the ministry. Long may he live to bless the Church and honor the cause of his Master.
W. H. Hickman, after several years labor in In- diana, serving the church at West LaFayette, Frank- fort, South Bend, and three years on the Crawfordsville district, is now president of Clark university, Atlan- ta, Georgia.
H. M. Middleton is a man of a "meek and quiet
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spirit" ; a pleasant Christian gentleman, much loved by the people where he has served as pastor ; a clear thinker, a sound preacher, and a good man. He is now the useful and popular presiding elder of Craw- fordsville district, "worthy and well qualified," re- spected and loved by preachers and people.
Brother Boicourt is a good man and a good preacher, but of feeble health ; his name now stands on the superannuated list.
Brother G. R. Streeter is now on his third year at Hammond station. He has had a good run of appointments ; is a man of fair education, industrious, affable and gentlemanly. He is a profuse reader ; a good preacher and faithful pastor ; makes friends everywhere ; and has, from the beginning, had suc- cess in his work.
Isaac Dale commenced his labors as a preacher in the Illinois conference ; was transferred to the Northwest Indiana conference and appointed to Brookston circuit ; afterwards was stationed at Good- land, Perrysville, Attica, Delphi, LaPorte, Thorn- town ; and is now pastor of Asbury church in the city of Terre Haute. He is conscientious and de- vout as a Christian ; faithful in his work as a pastor; a good preacher, and successful in winning souls to Christ.
Brother Van Arsdal's career was brief. He was much loved ; was a good man and a fair preacher ; he died young, leaving an unblemished life-record.
Brother Jones has been on the retired list for sev- eral years ; a good man and faithful ; for several years has lived in Florida, where, it is understood, he has organized a strong society, and been instru-
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mental in building a handsome house of worship.
One death was reported at this conference, viz., Rev. Moses Blackstock, who came, many years ago from Canada. He had spent a long and useful life in the work of the Lord, and peacefully passed away at Paxton, Illinois, August 31, 1873.
This writer closed his full term of four years as presiding elder on the Crawfordsville district at the conference held in LaFayette, September 9-14, 1874, Bishop Wiley in the chair. Of the thirteen ad- mitted on trial at this conference the following per- sons remain, and are in the active work : Delos M. Wood, J. C. Martin, and Aaron W. Wood.
Brother Aaron W. Wood is now the acceptable and useful pastor at the Ninth st. church LaFayette, and among the younger or middle aged men of the conference, is, for ability, usefulness, and success as a Methodist preacher, the equal of any man of his age in the conference. He never fails to make his mark and bring things to pass wherever he goes.
Brother J. C. Martin is one among the best men in the conference ; where he has traveled he is so successful and so much loved by the people that, if possible, they never fail to hold him for the full time alloted by the law of limitation. He is now on the Dayton and Mulberry charge, having in the fall of 1891 closed a full term of five years as pastor at Rossville, one of the best circuits in the conference.
Rev. D. M. Wood, A. M., is an alumnus of Asbury, now DePauw university. He took rank from the beginning, and, after successfully laboring for a num- ber of years in some of the promising stations of the conference, was appointed, at the session of 1891,
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by Bishop Ninde, presiding elder of the Greencastle district. He has entered on his work with vigor, and will, doubtless, make a useful and popular pre- siding elder.
Three deaths were reported that year, George W. Warner, David Holmes, and J. Spinks.
Brother Warner was born in Ohio, October 15, 1817; converted and joined the M. E. Church in 1836. He was licensed to preach in April 1840 by presid- ing elder Aaron Wood, and appointed as a supply on South Bend circuit. He was a good man, useful in his work, and much loved by the people where- ever he went. As a preacher Brother Warner was scriptural, clear, pathetic, earnest, and successful. As a pastor he was vigilant, with tender regard for his flock ; as a friend, he was constant and true ; as a husband, tender and effectionate ; as a Christian, conscientious, true, unobtrusive, and earnest. He departed this life, to find his reward in heaven, on the 30th day of April, 1874.
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