USA > Indiana > Our church, a history of the synod of Northern Indiana of the Evangelical Lutheran Church > Part 20
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SYNOD OF NORTHERN INDIANA.
extended him a call which he accepted, and returned Septem- ber 1, 1891, to organize and become the first pastor of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church of Louisville, Kentucky. This little church was organized with thirty-zeven charter members and a Sunday school of fifty-two scholars and teach- ers. Under his faithful ministry it developed into a flourish- ing congregation. The Sunday school more than doubled itself, and a Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor was organized which became a strong auxiliary to the church. While pastor here he was often called upon to address various organizations and societies. Having broad and liberal views, he entered heartily into all kinds of Christian work for the betterment of mankind.
On November 18, 1891, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Martha Toot, a graduate of Kee-Mar College, and a resident of Gettysburg, Pa., who has proved herself to be a most car- nest sympathizer with, and efficient coadjutator in, her hus- band's work.
In August, 1893, he received a unanimous call to become pastor of Grace Lutheran church of Columbia City, Indiana, which call he accepted and entered upon his work September 3, 1893 Various reasons made this new undertaking arduous, but trusting in the great Head of the Church, he entered heart and soul into bis labors, and has been rewarded by seeing the work prosper in his hands.
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ELIZABETH MARTHA FRANCIS.
ELIZABETH MARTHA FRANCIS.
Elizabeth Martha Toot was the eldest daughter of Henry S. Toot, a wealthy farmer of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, near which historie town Mrs. Francis was born April 1, 1868.
While yet a young girl she was left to take her place at the head of the household and to become, through her mother's long illness, as far as possible, a mother to her brother and three younger sisters. The grave responsibilities of such a trying position were bravely borne, although involving the sacrifice of many pleasures; yet, without doubt, this experi- ence better qualified her for the duties of her present life. Nevertheless she found time to devote to study, besides attain- ing the more practical accomplishments of good housekeeping.
She received her education at Kee- Mar College, at Hagers- town, Md., and graduated with the class of 1890, receiving the First Honor.
While still a very young girl she met Rev. Francis, then a sophomore of Gettysburg College, and after a lengthy engagement was married to him at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, by Dr. Joel Swartz, now of the Congregational church, on November 17, 1891.
Soon after their marriage they removed to Louisville, Ky., where Rev. Francis was pastor o St. Paul's Lutheran church. Here Mrs. Francis entered very actively into the social inter- ests and duties of her position, as well as participated cheer- fully in all her husband's church work.
Since her removal to Columbia City, Ind., she has been more especially interested in the mission work, having been elected president of the Woman's Home and Foreign Mission- ary Society of Grace Lutheran Church.
284
SYNOD OF NORTHERN INDIANA.
MRS. AUGUSTA VIRGINIA HUNTER.
It would be impossible to be long in the presence of Mrs. Augusta Virginia Hunter without feeling that the many excel- lent qualities and charming characteristies which her friends aseribe to her are deserved.
Angusta Virginia Ireland, which was the full maiden name, was born February 5, 1819, and was the oldest child of Dr. Martin, a prominent physician of Columbia City, Indiana, and Mrs. Sarah Ireland, a woman of sterling worth and noble Christian character. Being born and reared amid healthful scenes, in a society free from sham and pretence, a society that. believed in " Honest work for to-day, honest hope for to-mor- row," all that was best in her character was very strongly developed.
Her carly educational training was received in the public schools of her native city, after which she spent some time in the Seminary at Greenfield. Ohio. Leaving the Seminary che engaged in teaching in Whitey County, Indiana, for a number of years.
She was married September 23, 1868, to John W. Hun- ter, a leading druggist of Columbia City, Indiana, who died May 1, 1884, leaving her with one child, a daughter twelve years of age. This marriage proved an exceptionally happy one.
She gave her heart carly to the Master, and imited with Grace Lutheran church on her eighteenth birthday. Since then she has been active in every department of church work. She has been a faithful teacher in the Sunday school for more than twenty-five years, and is at present its most efficient As- sistant Superintendent.
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285
MRS. AUGUSTA VIRGINIA HUNTER.
Of late years she has devoted much of her time and thought to the cause of missions, being closely associated and connected, not only to her own church, but, with the Synodical and General work of the Woman's Home and Foreign Mission- ary Society. She was one of the founders and organizers of our own Distriet Society of Northern Indiana Synod, and be- came its first President in 1882, which office she filled accept- ably for nine years when other duties compelled her to resign. In 1883 she was elected a member of the General Executive Committee of the Woman's Home and Foreign Misstonary So- ciety of the General Synod of the United States, which position she still holds.
Mrs. Hunter is mostly known to the Lutheran church, not only of Northern Indiana Synod, but to the church at. large, as the present honored and loved President of the Woman's Home and Foreign Missionary Society of the Gen- eral Synod of the United States. She was first elected Presi- dent at the convention which convened at Canton, Ohio, in 1891, and re-elected at Omaha, Neb., in 1893. As an officer she presides with grace and dignity, and her opinions on all questions pertaining to this great cause are sound and well received.
During the " Woman's Congress " at the World's Fair at Chicago, she was requested to prepare a paper on . Children's Work in the Church," which has been published, and has given her much prominence before the church and all Christ- ian people for the very excellent manner in which she handled her subject.
286
SYNOD OF NORTHERN INDIANA.
LEVI MYERS.
The subject of this sketch was born in Adams County, Penn., April 19, 1820, died Nov. 25, 1881, aged 62 years, seven months and six days. When 14 years of age he moved to Ohio, where he remained till 1843. In this same year he was married to Miss Barbara Sleighbang, who died in 1846, leaving one son. In 1848 he was married to Miss Christena Vanmeter, to which union was born seven children. He was the instigator and founder of Grace Lutheran, church of Colum- bia City, Ind., and no one but God knows of the self-sacrifices that this devoted man made for the church when it was strug- gling along in its infancy and weakness.
The following entitled, " Honor to Whom Honor is Due," from the pen of " Father" Wells, is but a feeble tribute of this noble man of God :
" No man did more for good morals, Sunday Schools and vital piety in your community than he did in those days. To the utmost of his ability he prayed and labored and gave to build up the Lutheran church on a scriptural basis. That church in Columbia City owes to him a debt of gratitude for the many years of toil and liberal giving which he devoted to its interests. He always did cheerfully more than his part to meet any claim against the church and provided for its tempo- ral and spiritual interests in those days when the church was weak and in great need of his help. Remembering his good deeds so well and having so often witnessed the substantial evidences of his church love, and knowing these things from intimate acquaintance and personal observation, the writer de- sires to pay this humble tribute to his memory .. No man was
287
PETER BISHOP.
more willing to make sacrifices for the cause of Christ than he was; and in his religious services he was very earnest and devout. The older members of that church cannot forget how greatly he enjoyed revival meetings; when in demonstration of the Spirit and power, the word reached the heart, believers rejoiced, sinners wept and seekers thronged the altar pleading for salvation. For him these meetings were always closed too soon and no protracted meeting ever lasted long enough to suit him. At such times, day and night, his soul would mount higher and higher, so that he seemed to live and move in the atmosphere of heaven. The earnest voice of that dear brother, now sealed with a silence that none but God can roll away, will not soon be forgotten by those who enjoyed those happy seasons with him in that old church, and Brother Myers, though dead, speaks to the living by his earnest Christian example."
PETER BISHOP.
The influence and work of some of the laymen of this Synod can never be computed. Quietly and unostentatiously have they been serving the church and her Lord. They have not sought distinction and have tried to avoid public recogni- tion for what they have done. Every pastor knows, however, that they have been " the power behind the throne " and that the advancement of Christ's kingdom has been largely due to their counsel and their faithfulness to the church. This is true of him whose life is here sketched. He has been unselfishly de- voted to the interests of his church and has gained the love and confidence of the entire Synod. He was born near Gettysburg,
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SYNOD OF NORTHERN INDIANA.
Adams County, Pa., October 18, 1823. At the age of sixteen he was converted and united with the church. He was earnest and aggressive in all that he attempted to accomplish and his la- bors have been crowned with success. Christianity has always been a subject of momentous interest to him, and it became the rule of his actions in all his career. His life exemplified his religion and intensified his influence among men. Novem- ber 12, 1844, he was married to Miss Eliza Rudisil and shortly after they removed to what was in that day considered . the far west." In the year 1849 they located in DeKalb County, Indiana. The country was then comparatively new and sparsely settled. About two miles west of Spencerville he erected a cabin and diligently used the axe and saw, the mat- tock and the hoe, until he brought one hundred and sixty acres of heavily timbered land into a fine state of cultivation. Here he lived and labored until the year 1874 when he left the farm and located in the village of Spencerville, where he engaged in the mercantile business. Filled with the spirit of enterprise he soon enjoyed a lucrative trade. He gained the fullest confidence of those with whom he dealt because his religion served him in the store-room as in the church. He lived what he professed. He was an earnest christian and that made him an energetic business man and gave him a success which he could not otherwise have attained.
In his church work he was even more devoted and aggres- sive than in his business affairs. He was prominent in the organization and erection of the first Lutheran church in DeKalb County, and in it he is still a faithful and influen- tial member. For more than thirty years he was the superin- tendent of the Sunday school and was unusually successful in
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GEORGE SPANGLER. 289
this line of work. . Ilis methods have always been such as were adapted to the increasing demands of the school, and his aim has been to hold the school in strict sympathy with the church. His musical abilities not only fitted him especially for this work but made him the leader of the church choir which position he has faithfully filled for a greater number of years than he has served as superintendent. The pastorate has repeatedly honored him in electing him as delegate to the annual meeting of the district Synod. His name appears early in the records of the Synod of Northern Indiana, and he was always an influential member in these annual meetings. Five times his Synod elected him as one of her delegates to the general Synod, and has frequently appointed him to other important positions and work. He is a careful, thoughtful man and in any work his counsel is appreciated. The best part of his history and life will not be written save in the " great book of remembrance."
GEORGE SPANGLER.
For many years one of the faithful and efficient laymen of the church in the Rock Creek pastorate was the subject of this sketch. He was born of German parentage in Adams County, Pa , October 16, 1816. Both his father and his mother were very pious and devoted Christians. They were active members and faithful supporters of the Lutheran church. They re- moved from Pennsylvania to Butler County, O., remaining there for many years and seeing their children all marry and found religious households of their own. George was married
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290
SYNOD OF NORTHERN INDIANA.
to Julia Clark, August 15, 1840, and in 1855 they removed to Carroll County, Ind., where they purchased a farm upon which they continued to reside to the time of his death. Hle was the father of three children, all of whom are married, and which he had the pleasure of seeing unite with the church and be- coming useful members therein. He had himself become iden- tified with the cause of Christ by confirmation when sixteen years of age, and it was to him no ordinary joy to witness his three daughters following the same course. Amid the vicissi- tudes of this life there are no sweeter thoughts and higher pleasures that come to the parent who truly loves Christ than those inspired by an entire houscholl consecrated to the Savior. The home in which Jesus dwells and where he is honored by all of its inmates is one of the garden spots of the world's true happiness and joy. There is no place m all this wide world of beauty and of toil so near to heaven. Through it there are often wafted the sweetest songs of praise, and from it there daily rises the blessed incense of prayer. Golden bonds unite the hearts of all, and when timely relations are broken by the hand of the destroyer the ties of a pure and sanctified love remain and make them one in thought in character and in destiny.
The work of Mr. Spangler for the church was of a very substantial and helpful character. Hle shrank from no duty and never tried to evade any responsibility. Ile did not aim, as do some, to see with how small a portion of service or of means the church can be served, but rather, always, how much he could do, how much he could give for Ilim who had done, and who had given, so much for him. In the congregation of which he was latterly a member he served in an official capac-
291
GEORGE SPANGLER.
ity from 1856 to 1882, and during all that period was never absent from a conneil meeting, nor from a business meeting of any character in the pastorate. The larger part of this time he was secretary and kept an accurate account of all the pro- ceedings of the church. For many years he was the efficient superintendent of the Sunday school and acted as chorister of the church until a few years before his death when failing voice compelled him to relinquish the work. Through his instru- mentality a prayer meeting was started and maintained in the church, and he was seldom absent from it. Most of the time he served as its leader and succeeded in helping others start on a career of usefulness for Christ, " His face was always seen, his voice always heard, and his presence always felt in the con- gregation of which he was a member." Rev. J. L. Guard who was his pastor for sixteen years said, "He was the one person whom I almost felt constrained to counsel to remain away from church on some extremely bad days." He was as liberal as he was faithful and regular in his attendance. His money was always ready to assist in any church enterprise whether local or general. Hle purchased and held for years a scholarship in Wittenberg College, and was a reader of the Lutheran Obser- ver from the first publication to the time of his death. His life was a quiet, even one wholly tempered by the spirit of Christ. It was "'a living epistle" that many "read" to their edification and spiritual up-building. His influence was wide-reaching and he commanded the love and respect of all with whom he came in contact. He died at the age of 65, March 28, 1882, in the blessed assurance of the Savior's pres- ence and care.
292
SYNOD OF NORTHERN INDIANA.
NOTES.
The fortieth annual convention of the Synod was held in Columbia City, Indiana, October 9-14, 1894, on the very place where the Synod was organized. The little frame church in which the first convention was held vet stands, but on the opposite side of the street and has been converted into a feed store. On the place where it was built and where the fathers of the Synod met and poured out their hearts in prayer to God for guidance in their important work, there now stands a large brick structure, elegantly furnished, and very neat and churchly in its appearance. The contrast between these two buildings furnishes a very striking illustration of the growth and development of the Synod as a whole and can justly be applied to every department of the work.
President Fryberger's annual report showed that he had been a busy man during the year and that he had been diligent. in looking after the interests of the churches, all of which were in a prosperous condition.
*:
Notwithstanding the financial depression of the country, Treasurer Kiefer presented the best report ever made to the Synod. The largest amount wa - contributed for the various benevolent operations of the church and the Synod came near- est to the apportionment standard. A few more years of such work and this body will never fall below that standard. To the treasurer is due much of the credit for this excellent showing.
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NOTES.
Rev. S. P. Fryberger was re-elected president and Rev. M. L. Smith secretary. Rev. C. J. Kiefer, much to the regret of the Synod, declined a re-election and Mr. E. L. Mcclellan, of Columbia City was selected to fill that office for the ensuing year.
The Synod gave a bond of ten thousand dollars for the endowment of Wittenberg Theological Seminary, agreeing to pay six per cent interest after June 1st, 1895. The entire amount is to be paid within five years from said date.
The " Rules and Regulations of the Board of Beneficiary Education, " presented by the committee appointed at the pre- vions convention and published in this volume, were amended as follows: Art. I, fourth line, strike out " three" and substi- tute " five (5) years, and so arranged that the term of one member shall expire annually." Art. VII, second line, strike out the word " written." Art. IX, ninth line, after .. school year" add " and the Board is authorized, if necessary, to bor- row the needed amount." . Art. X1, ( 1) first and second lines omit "of the Board of Beneficiary Education " and after "General Synod" in seventh line add " but payment of the principal shall not be legally demanded from one who thus continues faithful in the Lutheran ministry of the General Synod, said payment being left to the beneficiary's own con- science and knowledge of his ability." Art. XVIII, first line, insert after "of" the words " the Board to request." The form of obligation was made to read as follows:
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SYNOD OF NORTHERN INDIANA.
$
18 ... I promise to pay treasurer of the
Synod of Northern Indiana of the Evangelical Lutheran church, or his successor in office, dollars on the following conditions, viz. : That if I continue my studies under the direc- tion of said Board and enter and continue in the gospel minis- try of the Evangelical Lutheran church of the General Synod, then this note shall be payable as soon as I may conveniently feel myself able, but if I do not continue my studies under the direction of said Board, and do not enter and continue in said ministry, then this note shall be payable at once with six per cent. interest from date. Value received.
The reception tendered Synod by the young people's so- ciety of Christian Endeavor was a very pleasant affair, and the "speeches" of the evening touched almost every phase of life.
The anniversary services of Synod held on Sunday after- noon at three o'clock were presided over by Rev. Hugh Wells, the first President of Synod. Addresses were made by Revs. W. Waltman, D. F. Kain, E. W. Erick and W. L. Tedrow. Rev. Waltman was one of the charter members of Synod and spoke of the first convention. Rev. Kain spoke of the pioneer preachers and Rey. Erick of the people. Rev. Tedrow pre- sented the resources of Synod and its future prospects. It was a very interesting service.
On Sunday evening four young men, graduates of Wit- tenberg, were licensed to preach, and one ordained to the gos- pel ministry.
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295
NOTES.
Pastor Francis and people made the convention an unus- ually pleasant one with their royal entertainment, and Synod adjourned with heart and soul expressing the familiar words:
" Blest be the tie that binds Our hearts in Christian love, The fellowship of kindred minds Is like to that above."
THE
SE
DEC
74
N. MANCHESTER, INDIANA
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