USA > Indiana > Indiana Methodism : being an account of the introduction, progress, and present position of Methodism in the State; and also a history of the literary institutions under the care of the church, with sketches of the principle Methodist educators in the state . . > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25
275
INDIANA METHODISM.
REV. AUGUSTUS EDDY.
AUGUSTUS EDDY was licensed to preach in 1821, near Xenia, Ohio. He was admitted on trial in the old Ohio Conference, at its session in Zanesville in 1824; and here commenced that grand itinerant career which con- tinued to the close of life, without a blot upon his char- acter. His first appointment was to the old Miami Circuit. He continued to travel large circuits until 1831, when he was appointed presiding elder of the Scioto District, where he was continued two years. He then traveled two years on the Columbus District. In 1835, he was stationed in Cincinnati, western charge, with Christie and Hamline as co-laborers. In 1836, he was transferred to Indiana Conference, and stationed in Indianapolis. His next appointment was Indianapolis District; then Whitewater District. He was next sta- tioned at Wesley Chapel, Madison; then presiding elder of Madison District; and from Madison District he was appointed in charge of Lawrenceburg District. In 1848, he was transferred to the Ohio Conference, and stationed at Chillicothe. He was successively stationed at Ham- ilton and Xenia, and was then appointed presiding elder on West Cincinnati District. In 1855, he was trans- ferred to North Indiana Conference, and stationed in Richmond. His next appointment was Indianapolis Dis- trict, where he remained four years. He was then stationed at Kokomo, but a vacancy occurring on the Richmond District, he was appointed in charge of it, and served until the middle of the ensuing August, when he was appointed post-chaplain in the United States Army at Indianapolis, which position he con- tinued to fill for about four years. He was then returned to the Richmond District, where he labored for three
ยท
276
INDIANA METHODISM.
years. He was then appointed presiding elder on An- derson District, where he continued to labor until smit- ten down with disease. He closed his active work at Greenfield, where he held his last quarterly-meeting, January 15 and 16, 1870. His disease was malignant erysipelas, which terminated fatally on the 9th of Feb- ruary, 1870. He was permitted to die at home, sur- rounded by his children and friends, in full possession of his mental faculties, and in the triumphs of Christian faith. Mr. Eddy was an instructive and entertaining preacher; his social qualities were fine; he was happy at home, and delighted in the society of his friends. He was three times elected to a seat in the General Confer- ence. His life was grand and heroic. In the vigor of early manhood he buckled on the Gospel armor, and he never laid it off. His manly voice was a trumpet-blast that gave no uncertain sound; and when his Captain called he was at the post of duty, ready to obey the summons. The workman is removed, but his work remains.
277
INDIANA METHODISM.
CHAPTER XV.
Methodist Educators-Rev. W. H. Goode, D. D .- Rev. Cyrus Nutt, D.D .- Rev. W. C. Larrabee, LL. D .- Dr. Tefft-Rev. T. H. Lynch, D. D .- Rev. John Wheeler, D. D .- Rev. T. A. Goodwin, A. M .- Rev. Philander Wiley, A. M .- Dr. Benson-Rev. William M. Daily, D. D .- George W. Hoss, A. M .- B. T. Hoyt, A. M .- Prof. Joseph Tingley, Ph. D .- Prof. S. A. Lattimore-Rev. Daniel Curry, D. D .- Dr. Nadal-Dr. Bragdon-Rev. B. F. Rawlins, D. D .- Albin Fel- lows, A. M .- J. P. Rouse, A. M .- Rev. B. W. Smith, A. M .- Rev. W. R. Goodwin, A. M .- Rev. O. H. Smith, A. M .- William H. De Motte, A. M .- Rev. Thomas Harrison, A. M .- Rev. J. P. D. John, A. M .- Rev. John W. Locke, D. D .- J. M. Olcott, A. M .- Rev. J. H. Martin, A. M .- Rev. L. W. Berry, D. D .- Rev. Thomas Bowman, D. D .- Rev. Erastus Rowley, D. D .- Rev. G. W. Rice- Rev. A Gurney-Rev. R. D. Utter.
METHODIST EDUCATORS.
REV. WILLIAM H. GOODE, D. D.,
H AS the honor of being the pioneer Methodist educa- tor in Indiana, so far as an official appointment by the Church is concerned. In May, 1837, while travel- ing Lexington Circuit, within the bounds of the New Al- bany District, he was elected Principal of the New Al- bany Seminary, upon the resignation of Philander Ruter, A. M. Rev. C. W. Ruter, Presiding Elder of New Al- bany District, who was also chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Seminary, released Mr. Goode from his circuit, and he took immediate charge of the Seminary. At the ensuing Conference, which convened in New Al- bany in the Fall of the same year, Mr. Goode was ap- pointed to the charge of the Seminary, and at the same
278
INDIANA METHODISM.
time laboring jointly in the 'pulpit with the pastor of New Albany Station.
Mr. Goode rendered efficient service both as a teacher and an administrator, while he remained in the institu- tion, but feeling himself called to the pastoral work, be- fore the next session of the Conference, he resigned the charge of the Seminary, and George Harrison, A. M., was elected in his place.
About the commencement of the year 1854, while pastor of Richmond Station, Mr. Goode was elected to the presidency of the branch of Whitewater College lo- cated in that place. He consented to this, simply for the purpose of winding up the affairs of the department, and saving the institution from embarrassment. His serv- ices were not only financially valuable, but also of serv- ice to both teachers and scholars. Having wound up the affairs of the College in accordance with his designs, his presidency expired with the expiration of the College.
INDIAN WORK IN THE SOUTH-WEST.
MARCH 15, 1843, at Mr. Goode's residence in South Bend, being then in charge of the district embracing all the north end of Indiana, he received, under the hands of Bishops Soule and Morris, an appointment to the super- intendency of the Fort Coffee Academy, an institution about to be established among the Choctaw Indians, in the tract of country to which they had been removed, lying west of the state of Arkansas, and still known as the " Indian Territory." This institution had been pro- vided for by an act of the General Council of the Choc- taw Nation, appropriating from their annuity fund six thousand dollars a year, for a term of twenty years. This act had received the sanction of the proper depart- ment at Washington. By concurrence of the Council
279
INDIANA METHODISM.
and the Government authorities the entire control and management of the institution were committed to the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the society adding one thousand dollars per annum to the endowment. Male and female departments were sepa- rately provided for. The organization of the institution, with the entire control of its funds, was placed in Mr. Goode's hands, subject always to open inspection of his books and accounts by the authorities of the Choctaw Nation, and to annual examination by a committee of the Conference. With this, also, he had a missionary charge among the Indians.
Rev. H. C. Benson was transferred from Indiana Con- ference to take the place of principal teacher. Rev. John Page, of Arkansas Conference, an educated Choc- taw, was Mr. Goode's assistant in labors among the na- tives. Other assistance was obtained as needed, from sources outside of the Conference. On receiving his ap- pointment, Mr. Goode went immediately to the Indian country. The site fixed for the male department was that of "Old Fort Coffee," vacated by the United States Government some four years previous, and then held by an Indian claim. It was a beautiful and commanding site, upon a high bluff of the Arkansas River, thirty miles above the state line. He took possession of the premises, bought out the Indian claim, remodeled some of the fort buildings, removed others and rebuilt in their places, and enlarged the farm-lands attached. Rev. H. C. Benson came on in a few months, and in the Autumn of that year the male department was opened. It was a manual-labor institution. The pupils selected by the General Council were boarded, clothed, and instructed in labor as well as in literary studies. The work prospered under Mr. Goode's hands, and among its first students
280
INDIANA METHODISM.
were those that have risen to places of prominence and usefulness among their people. As soon as the state of the finances would permit, buildings were placed under contract for the female department at New Hope, five miles distant from Fort Coffee, which were completed and occupied after Mr. Goode's return to Indiana. Mr. Goode had been transferred to Arkansas Conference, of which the Indian work was then an appendage. In 1844, he aided in the formation of the Indian Mission Conference at Tah-le-qua, in Cherokee Nation, serving as its first secretary. His connection with that work and with the South terminated with the Louisville Conven- tion in 1845. Having been elected to that Convention, he declined a seat, but attended its sessions as a specta- tor till separation was determined upon. At this point he resigned his work, and received a transfer back to North Indiana Conference, with an appointment to Peru District, then just vacated by the death of Rev. B. Westlake. And so terminated Mr. Goode's work in the South. The institution passed into the hands of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and lingered on till near the expiration of the twenty years' term, when it expired in the confusion of the Rebellion.
KANSAS AND NEBRASKA WORK.
MR. GOODE was appointed, in 1854, to the superin- tendency of missions in Kansas and Nebraska, which were designed mainly for the white settlers, but em- braced labors among the Wyandots, Delawares, Shaw- nees, Kickapoos, and other Indian tribes resident in the country. No strictly literary work was under his con- trol at that time. The Church South had possession of our formerly flourishing institutions among the Shaw- nees, which had been built by Mr. Goode's labors. His
281
INDIANA METHODISM.
labors among the Indians were interesting, and in a good degree successful. He entered the field single-handed and alone. Transferred to Missouri Conference ; stayed long enough to lay the foundation of three annual con- ferences, and to see about one hundred ministers at work. He organized Kansas and Nebraska Conference in 1855, holding its first session in a cloth tent at Law- rence ; formed Nebraska Conference in 1860; Colorado, in 1864. While there, served four years as a member of the General Mission Committee. Few men have made a more valuable or a more enduring impression upon the interests of the Church than Dr. Goode.
REV. CYRUS NUTT, D. D.
THE first meeting of the trustees of Indiana Asbury University was held in March, 1837; at which time Mr. Nutt was elected preceptor of the Preparatory Depart- ment, and arrangements were made to have that depart- ment opened at an early day. It required seven or eight days at that time to make the trip from Meadville, where Mr. Nutt then resided, to Greencastle, by the most speedy mode of travel, which was by stage and steam-boat. Mr. Nutt left Meadville about the 7th of May, and traveled by stage to Pittsburg, and thence by steam-boat to Cincinnati, and thence by stage to Green- castle, where he arrived on the sixteenth of the same month-having walked, however, from Putnamville to Greencastle, as there was no public conveyance from the outside world to Greencastle at that day. Mr. Nutt was born in Trumbull County, Ohio, September 4, 1814. His early educational opportunities were necessarily limited in so new a country. His parents were educated people, and he was taught reading, writing, arithmetic, geog- raphy, and grammar, at home, during such leisure hours
282
INDIANA METHODISM.
as could be redeemed from manual labor. He, however, attended the country school in his neighborhood, when in session, which was about three months in the year. Such was young Nutt's desire for a liberal education that he improved every opportunity for the acquisition of learning; and when, at the age of eighteen, his father proposed to deed him a piece of land, in consideration of his faithful labors on the farm, he told him he would rather have a good education than any property. His father at first spoke discouragingly, but finally agreed to give him his time, and let him get an education by working his own way. He went immediately to an academy to prepare himself for college; and in four years from that time he graduated at Alleghany Col- lege, Meadville, Pennsylvania, having supported him- self by teaching during the Winters, and at the same time keeping up his college studies. He graduated in 1836, and was immediately appointed preceptor of the Preparatory Department in the same institution; which position he filled for six months, when he was elected to the charge of the Preparatory Department of Indiana Asbury University, which had just been chartered by the Legislature of Indiana. Mr. Nutt was converted at a camp-meeting when in his twentieth year. He was appointed to the charge of a class of young men, as class-leader, while in college. He was licensed to ex- hort, and then to preach; and he preached his first sermon not long after his arrival in Greencastle.
He entered upon his duties at Greencastle on the 5th of June, 1837, commencing the Preparatory Depart- ment in a small one-story brick building, with only two rooms ; the larger of which was occupied by the town school. The smaller room was then the only place accessible ; and there Dr. Nutt began the literary
Engd by HBHall& Sons 62 Fulton StNY
Very truly Movies Espus Nutt
283
INDIANA METHODISM.
instruction of this since renowned University of the West. At the meeting of the Board of Trustees in September of the same year, Mr. Nutt was elected Professor of Languages. In 1841, he was elected Professor of Greek and Greek Literature and Hebrew, which he held until the Fall of 1843, when he resigned and took pastoral work in Indiana Conference, and was appointed to Bloomington Station. He had been admitted into the Conference at its session in Rockville in 1838, and or- dained deacon by Bishop Soule at Indianapolis in 1840, and elder by Bishop Morris at the Conference in Center- ville in 1842. He remained in charge of Bloomington Station two years, and the year following was stationed at Salem. His ministry was eminently successful in each of these charges. In the Fall of 1848, he returned to the University; having been elected to the Chair of Greek Language and Literature, made vacant by the re- signation of Professor B. F. Tefft, who took charge of the Ladies' Repository, at Cincinnati. In 1849, Dr. Nutt was elected President of Fort Wayne Female College, which he accepted and held for one year, when he resigned and accepted the Presidency of Whitewater College, which had been tendered him by the trustees of that institution, the climate of Northern Indiana not agreeing with Mrs. Nutt, who was a native of Ken- tucky. He entered upon the duties of the Presidency of the Whitewater College at Centerville, Indiana, in the Fall of 1850. The school flourished under his ad- ministration, and the number of students increased from one hundred and forty to more than three hundred. During the whole of this time he held the position either of trustee or Conference Visitor to Indiana Asbury Uni- versity, and took a lively interest in all the affairs of the Church He remained five years at the head of
284
INDIANA METHODISM.
Whitewater College, when he resigned to again enter upon the active work of the ministry; and at the ses- sion of the North Indiana Conference in Goshen, in 1855, he was appointed presiding elder on Richmond District, where he remained two years ; during which an almost constant revival was in progress nearly all over his district.
In the Fall of 1857, he was elected to the Chair of Mathematics in Indiana Asbury University. He was elected Vice-President of the Faculty. Hon. David M'Donald, who had been elected to the Presidency of the University, having declined to accept, the charge of the administration of the University devolved upon Dr. Nutt for nearly two years, during one of the most critical and important periods in its history, until Rev. Thomas Bowman, D. D., took charge of the institution, in the Spring of 1859.
The University was conducted with great skill and success by Dr. Nutt and his associates, and fully re- covered from the disaster that had unfortunately over- taken it in 1856-57. In 1859, he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from his Alma Mater, Alleghany College, and from which he had received, in due course, the degree of A. M. in 1839. In 1860, he was a dele- gate to the General Conference, from North Indiana Con- ference, leading his delegation, and served in that mem- orable session as a member of the Committee on the Episcopacy, and also on the Committees on Education, Judiciary, and Lay Delegation, and proved himself an industrious and useful delegate. In 1860, Dr. Nutt was elected President of the Indiana State University at Bloomington, which position he still holds (1871) ; and under his prudent and skillful management the State University has greatly prospered. The annual income
285
INDIANA METHODISM.
has increased from six thousand five hundred dollars to twenty-five thousand dollars. The Faculty numbers thirteen, and the students have increased from about one hundred to more than three hundred, all of whom are in the regular College Classes and the Law Department, the Preparatory Department having been abolished in 1867. Four thousand five hundred volumes have been added to the library, and the philosophical and chemical apparatus has been greatly enlarged.
The State University has prospered beyond precedent since Dr. Nutt has been at the head of its affairs. Dr. Nutt was elected President of Iowa State University in 1842, but declined to accept. He was a member of the State Convention in 1854, which organized the State Teachers' Association, and established the Indiana School Journal. Both as a minister of the Gospel and as an ed- ucator, Dr. Nutt has been eminently successful, and will leave upon the generation that comes after him an abid- ing impression for good.
REV. W. C. LARRABEE, LL. D.
PROFESSOR LARRABEE was a pioneer teacher in the Methodist Church. An academy at New Market, New Hampshire, afterward transferred to Wilbraham, Massa- chusetts, and the institution in New York City under the charge of Dr. Bangs, were the most prominent Method- ist schools in operation when he began to teach. Au- gusta College, in Kentucky, and a few academies, were just beginning to get under way. Besides those engaged in these schools, the other early teachers in the Method- ist Church were his contemporaries, or came after him. When he commenced, the great system of education which the Church has built in America was only dreamed of. The workmen were laying the foundations, all
286
INDIANA METHODISM.
unconscious of the magnitude of the fabric which was to be built thereon. When his work is measured, it will be found to have been second in importance to that of few, if any, educators of his generation.
Mr. Larrabee was born at Cape Elizabeth, in Maine, a few miles from the city of Portland, December 23, 1802. His early opportunities for acquiring an education were limited. The story of his heroic struggles to ac- quire an education is instructive, but can not be here re- lated. Acting upon the advice of judicious friends, he resolved to acquire a liberal education. He entered the Sophomore Class in Bowdoin College at the commence- ment of 1825. He taught during vacation. During two terms of his Junior, and also his Senior Year, he labored as assistant in the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, at Kent's Hill. He graduated in 1828, second in a class of twenty. Immediately after graduation he was, upon the recom- mendation of Professor Upham, called to the charge of a newly established academy at Alfred. Here he spent two years happily and prosperously. When the Wes- leyan University at Middletown was opened, he was ap- pointed tutor, and the actual teacher of the school, under the direction of Dr. Fisk, who was not yet ready to take personal charge of the institution. There were five or six Freshmen, and some twenty Preparatory, in his class. This was the beginning of the Wesleyan Univer- sity. The following year, Mr. Larrabee was elected Principal of the Oneida Conference Seminary at Cazeno- via, New York.
In 1835, Professor Caldwell having resigned the Principalship of the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, to accept a professorship in Dickinson College, Mr. Larrabee ac- cepted the charge of that institution, and while engaged in that institution, he assisted Dr. Jackson in the first
287
INDIANA METHODISM.
geological survey of the state. Mr. Larrabee was a dele- gate to the General Conference of 1840, which met in the city of Baltimore. Here he met Dr. Simpson, then President of Indiana Asbury University, E. R. Ames, and other Indiana delegates, who, among other things, were looking for a professor for the new university in In- diana. The result of this acquaintance was, that at the ensuing meeting of the Board of Trustees he was elected Professor of Mathematics and Natural Science in Indiana Asbury University. He accepted the position, and re- moved to Indiana in 1841. Dr. Simpson retired from the University in 1848, having been elected editor of the Western Christian Advocate, at Cincinnati. Rev. E. R. Ames was elected to the Presidency of the Univer- sity, but declined ; and for one year the duties of the Presidency devolved on Professor Larrabee, in addition to the regular duties of his Chair.
While professor in Asbury University, Mr. Larrabee visited West Point Military Academy as a member of the Examining Committee.
In 1852, Mr. Larrabee was elected editor of the La- dies' Repository. He declined accepting the position, hav- ing been nominated for Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion for the State of Indiana; but he discharged the duties of editor of the Repository for six months. Pro- fessor Larrabee was elected Superintendent of Public Instruction, and was the first the State ever had. Here, as in many other departments, his work was that of a pioneer. He entered upon the duties of his office, No- vember, 1852. The few public schools that were in the state were poorly organized. They had to be reduced to system, and in accomplishing this, Mr. Larrabee had to . encounter a large amount of popular prejudice. But he was enthusiastic in his work, and felt that he had a mis-
288
INDIANA METHODISM.
sion to fulfill in the department of education, and was glad of an opportunity of shaping the educational policy of the State. He had taken a deep interest in the de- bates on common schools, in the Constitutional Conven- tion. He had watched the progress of the School Law of 1852 through the Legislature, and had aided in shaping it. He believed if the law were carried out according to its intent, that it would give the state an educational sys- tem equal to the most advanced States in the Union. He personally visited most of the counties in the state, made explanations, and answered objections. He worked diligently and conscientiously ; but the measure and value of his success can not be easily determined, for the decis- ions of the Supreme Court, and acts of succeeding Legis- latures, in accordance with them, and to satisfy local prejudices, overthrew, for the time being, the most marked features of the law, and the ones to the development of which he had directed his chief efforts.
In 1854, Mr. Larrabee was defeated for a re-election, owing to intense political excitement, and the defeat of the State ticket on which his name was placed. In 1856, he was elected to a second term. The school system was still staggering under the blows of the Supreme Court, and consequent modifications of the School Law, and the results so fondly anticipated and earnestly la- bored for by Professor Larrabee were not realized. He retired from office in January, 1859, and, notwithstanding he failed to see the fruit of his labors as a general su- erintendent, as he desired, the results of his labors are yet seen ; and the system of public schools inaugurated by him are now the pride and glory of the State.
Professor Larrabee commenced preaching in 1821, and became a member of the Conference in 1832. He was an instructive and entertaining preacher; but his
289
INDIANA METHODISM.
great life-work, and that for which he will be chiefly re- membered, is that of an educator. At the time of Pro- fessor Larrabee's death, there were more men in prom- inent positions who had received their education in whole or in part from him than from any other educator in the Methodist Church. Professor Larrabee contrib- uted to the literature, as well as to the scholarship of the Church. His "Scientific Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion," composed chiefly of such of his college lectures as bore on that subject, was published during his connection with Asbury University. Also, "Wesley and his Coadjutors," and "Asbury and his Coadjutors." He also published a volume, consisting chiefly of articles that had been contributed to the Ladies' Repository, with the title of "Rosa Bower." Pro- fessor Larrabee died on the morning of the 4th of May, 1859, after a confinement to his bed of about six weeks. Mrs. Larrabee had died the January preceding.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.