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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
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Sweet, William Henry, 1853- 1919. A history of Methodism in northwest Kansas
A HISTORY OF METHODISM IN
NORTHWEST KANSAS
BY WILLIAM HENRY SWEET, D.D., Of The Northwest Kansas Conference.
KANSAS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
1920
Ruilen County Public Library 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2275
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY WINTON J. BALTZELL, PAUL W. SWEET, WILLIAM W. SWEET, EMMA SWEET TONDEL, RUTH SWEET KRESKY AND RALPH L. SWEET.
PREFACE
The last several years of the life of William H. Sweet were devoted to the collecting of material and the writing of this volume. He very much hoped to finish the task and see the book through the press himself, but death came suddenly on January 5, 1919. He had planned to publish the book at his own ex- pense and ask the Conference to sell it for the benefit of Kansas Wesleyan University, and before his death he had talked to his children about the plan. They accordingly now desire to carry out his desire, and the present volume is published at the expense of the heirs of William H. and Rose A. Sweet. On its com- pletion the entire edition will be turned over to the Northwest Kansas Conference and the proceeds of the sale of the book are to go to the Kansas Wesleyan University.
The manuscript has been published, practically as it was left by its author. He greatly regretted that more complete material was not forthcoming in re- sponse to his many appeals, but the book contains much material that would no doubt soon have been lost, and those, who in the future will write of pioneer days in Northwest Kansas will find here a storehouse of interesting material.
The Biographical Introduction has been added, though the author did not so intend, and has been pre- pared by his eldest son, Dr. Paul W. Sweet.
CONTENTS.
Preface.
Biographical Introduction.
Chapter I.
Kansas.
Chapter II.
Pioneering.
Chapter III. The Organization of the Conference.
Chapter IV. The Conference Sessions.
Chapter V. Educational Interests of the Confer- ence.
Chapter VI. Women's Work.
Chapter VII. History of the Churches of the Colby District.
Chapter VIII. History of the Churches of the Ells- worth District.
Chapter IX. History of the Churches of the Man- kato District.
Chapter X. History of the Churches of the Salina District.
APPENDIX.
A. Conference Roll.
B. Those Admitted on Trial.
C. Members, Probationers, Local Preachers.
D. Local Preachers Ordained.
E. Benevolent Collections.
F. Districts, with Presiding Elders, or District Super- . intendents, in Charge.
G. Pastoral Charges and Dates of Organization.
H. Pastoral Support from 1872 to 1883.
I. Salaries of Pastors.
J. Special Sermons.
K. Church Property.
L. Constitution of Itinerants' Club.
M. List of Faculty Members of Kansas Wesleyan University.
WILLIAM HENRY SWEET. 1843-1919. (From an Oil Portrait Presented to Baker University.)
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION.
My father was an American, measured both by birth and his ambitious and energetic life. He was descended on his father's side from one of three Sweet brothers who came to this country about the time William Penn founded the great colony of Penn- sylvania. Whether they came with William Penn I am not certain, but I know they came under the in- fluence of that great leader, for the teaching and re- ligious ideals of the Quakers seem to have come down through the generations even to my father, whose fore- most desire seemed always to be to live a life approved of God. His mother's name was Jane Robinson, the daughter of Lucy Moorman and Thomas Robinson of Virginia. I have heard grandmother say that she was a direct descendant of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, but we have since learned that Robert Bolling, whose first wife was Jane Rolfe, married for his second wife Lucy Hall, and it is from this line grandmother de- scended. When they moved to Kentucky they became slave holders, as grandmother's parents had been in Virginia. When father's father and mother were mar- ried they were presented a slave girl as a wedding present, and after they moved into Ohio, it was one of their great regrets that they had not set the slave girl free, rather than sell her, as they did.
It was shortly after their first child was born that father's parents moved from Kentucky into Brown County, Ohio, where they settled just across the east fork of the Little Miami near the village of Marathon. Here they lived for a number of years, when they moved to Five Mile, where father was born, on July 14, 1843, the last of six children, in a lottle log cabin
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in the midst of a dense forest, which was afterwards cleared away by grandfather and his boys and a farm made near the turn-pike which runs from Fayville to Georgetown, the county seat of Brown county.
I have heard father describe their log cabin and their log school house, both of which were primitive indeed. The logs were hewn by hand out of the me- dium sized trees of the forest, while the cracks between the logs were filled with mud, which would often dry and fall out of place. The boys' bedroom was in the attic or loft of the cabin, which was reached by a rude ladder. Here the wind, on winter nights whistled be- tween the cracks and under the eaves and it was not unusual for them to awaken in the morning to find a drift of snow across the floor or even sometimes across the bed. The first school which father attended was conducted in a log school house, where slabs, hewn out by hand served as desks and home-made stools with pegged legs served for seats. But the times were rapidly improving and as the community became more thickly populated it was not long until the schools had a much more improved equipment.
Father's parents were staunch members of the Methodist Church and grandfather was an official of their local church, while grandmother was noted for miles around for her singing. Especially was she in demand during the protracted meetings and on some occasions she even crossed over into Kentucky to help with the singing there. When father was a babe in arms his mother and father took him across the Ohio river on one such occasion. Coming back after night; while they were crossing the Ohio river in a row boat, the boat was capsized and father with the others thrown into the river. It was only by a fortunate chance that they secured him, in the dark and saved him from an early death.
At the age of twenty-one, in company with his
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older brother Andrew father entered the army of the North, in answer to President Lincoln's call for one hundred day men. Already father's twin brothers, John and James, had entered the service of their coun- try, and Uncle James was soon to meet his death at Vicksburg. It was on May 1st, 1864, that father and Uncle Andrew were mustered into the service as mem- bers of Company K, 160th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Immediately they went into camp at Ripley, Ohio. where they remained but a few days, when their Com- pany was embarked on a river steam boat and taken to Martinsburg, Virginia. Here they were placed on picket duty, until July 3rd, when they were driven out and hotly pursued to Maryland Heights, where they made a stand, and were saved from capture by the arrival of cavalry reinforcements and large guns. Father and his brother were honorably discharged from the service and reached their home on September 20, 1864. Previously to this, however, father had be- longed to the Home Guards and had taken part in the pursuit of Morgan, on his famous raid through south- ern Indiana and Ohio.
Immediately after being mustered out of the army, father began his educational career by attending a Normal school at Lebanon, Ohio. My cousin, Will Hair, writes of that period of his life: "I well remem- ber the good-bye grandpa and grandma gave him as he climbed into the wagon loaded with his furniture After finishing at Lebanon he came to Ne- braska City, Nebraska and taught school in the district in which we lived, one mile south of Nebraska City. He boarded with us. During his one year's residence in Nebraska he formed acquaintances that were of the best. It was only two years after freighting days and Nebraska City was still filled up with the rough characters of those times, as that was one of the lead-
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HISTORY OF METHODISM
ing points for loading freight bound for the west. Your father's strong Christian character-which he never compromised-was so unusual at that time and place, that it made him prominent, and although I was a small boy then, I can well remember some of the comments about him. Before leaving, he was offered a good position in a bank by the leading banker of Nebraska City. Your father considered this seriously, but his desire for an education and the ministry over- came all temptations to enter the business world. I considered him while in school and afterwards-the best specimen of an honorable man, as he had the best combination of ability, strong religious convic- tions and unselfish manhood I ever knew."
After spending the summer in canvassing in the northern part of Nebraska for a book entitled "The Men of Our Day," father left for Delaware, Ohio, Sep- tember 1st, where he entered Ohio Wesleyan Univer- sity -- a college where character building held chief place in its curriculum and where more attention was paid to moralities than to formalities. Here he was a classmate of former Vice-President Charles W. Fair- banks. Like Fairbanks he batched most of the time, which did not seem to adversely affect his future in the least, though even then as now, those who were com- pelled to resort to batching in college, were sometimes made to feel their penniless condition. Father was unable to go straight through college on account of his finances, but generally taught a "winter school" com- ing to college in the spring after his school had closed.
At that time the Ohio Wesleyan Female College was separate from the Ohio Wesleyan University which admitted men only, but that did not prevent the boys and girls from becoming acquainted. And so it was that Rose A. Williams, another real Ameri- can with a family tree going back to early New Eng-
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land-met her future husband in the person of Wil- liam Henry Sweet. I think father must have felt his poverty very keenly, while in college for he once told me that he seldom went with the girls and his meeting mother one afternoon at the old white sulphur spring on the campus and walking home with her to Monnett Hall was one of the bright spots in his college life at Delaware.
My mother was the daughter of a farmer, Jacob Williams, who was the owner of several hundred acres of land in Franklin County, Ohio. Mother's paternal grandfather had come to Franklin county, had taken up land and had erected the first brick house in that country, and the country about the village of Harlem was largely held by his sons. Mother and a brother and sister went to school at Delaware, and mother was graduated from the Ohio Wesleyan Female Col- lege with the class of 1871. I have before me the program of the Commencement exercises for that year and I note that Rose A. Williams, my mother, was the valedictorian of the class. Following her graduation my mother taught two years in a school for colored people established by the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Holly Springs, Mis- sissippi, then called Shaw University, since changed, however. to Rust University. It was while mother was at Holly Springs and father in Kansas that a corre- spondence between them was begun which finally end- ed in their engagement. I have several of the letters of that period before me and they make interesting reading for their children.
At this point we will let father tell of the next four- teen years of his life.
FOURTEEN YEARS OF MY LIFE.
I was graduated from the Ohio Wesleyan Uni- versity in 1872, in a class of forty-six. Before my
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graduation I had applied for, and been elected to a Professorship in Baker University. But before I left Ohio for the west, another letter reached he from the trustees, to the effect that owing to the condition of their finances, there had been a subsequent meeting of the Board, and the question of my election had been reconsidered and tabled. So when, in August, I start- ed for the west, I was in much the same situation as was Abraham when he left the land of Ur: "Went forth not knowing whither I went."
A classmate had told me that a Principal of Schools was wanted at Piper City, a little town in Illinois. I determined to spend a Sunday there, on my way west, and see if there was a place there for me. At that time, a county superintendent in Illinois was author- ized to examine and employ teachers. I arrived at Piper City on a Saturday morning, and went at once to see the Superintendent. He inquired as to what ad- vantages I had had, and examined me as to my quali- fications, and offered me the place, at $70 a month. I told him I would give my reply Monday morning.
I went to church Sunday morning, and in the after- noon took a walk along the railroad. The cry of my heart was like that of Paul's on his way to Damascus: "Lord what wilt thou have me to do." I had no An- anias to tell me, but I trusted that the Holy Spirit would speak it to my heart. Not far from the station I sat down on a railroad tie, and thought and prayed. The question to be decided then and there was: "Shall I accept this offer or not." I had not sat there long, till there was whispered to my consciousness as plainly as if it had been spoken in my ear: "Do not accept it."
My decision was instantaneous to obey the voice. Accordingly I went to the Superintendent, the next morning, and declined his offer; and took the train to pursue my unknown way. I had some business at Ne-
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braska City, and went there to look after it. Before the business was finished, a third letter reached me from the Board of Trustees of Baker, saying they had held another meeting, and had re-elected me, and de- sired me to come on at once. Owing to this experience, I never doubted that I had a work to do at Baker. This had much to do with my holding on to the school again and again, under circumstances of great dis- couragement.
I landed in Baldwin September 4th, 1872, and en- gaged board and room at the home of Professor Foss, who was in charge of the Music department, and kept a boarding house. The school had already opened and I entered at once upon my work. Dr. R. L. Har- ford, who was the pastor at Lawrence, was the nominal President of the College. Professor S. S. Weatherby was Vice-president and in charge of the school. Miss Harford, a sister to the Doctor was preceptess and teacher of English. The attendance of students was very small, so that three of us were quite able to take care of the classes. Early in the term, Miss Harford was married and left us. In due time her place was filled by the election of Mrs. M. V. B. Knox-a most estimable lady and a good teacher.
It soon became evident that my salary would not warrant me in paying four dollars a week for board and room. Professor Weatherby suggested that a boy's boarding hall would be a help to the school, and that the old college building (the Castle) might be converted into one. I went to Lawrence and invested forty dollars in lumber, and wall paper; and though I had never attempted carpenter work, proceeded to put in partitions and to paper the walls. Mr. C. W. Rob- erts, a member of the Junior class and a carpenter, was kind enough to hang the doors and put on the locks. In November the boy's club was opened, with
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HISTORY OF METHODISM
Mrs. Barbary Moore as Matron and cook. She was an estimable lady and a good cook. I occupied a room on the first floor and acted as steward for the club. Several boys occupied the rooms on the second floor. Not a great many joined the club, but we were a con- genial group and spent the winter pleasantly.
The next spring the Kansas Conference met at Ottawa. At this session it was divided into the Kansas and the South Kansas conferences. A fellow was re- ported to have declared, "it was a wicked shame that a set of Methodist preachers could get together and divide the state;" but he added, "there will be one good thing about it, we shall have two more Senators." He was not very learned, but he was wise; for he be- lieved in getting all the consolation he could out of a thing he did not approve, and could not mend.
At this session a committee of business men from Olathe came before the conference and offered $50,000 if they would move the college to that place. After a lengthy discussion, a commission of ministers and lay- men was appointed to consider the proposition and relocate the school, if in their judgment it was wise and expedient to do so.
The following resolution was passed by the con- ference :
Resolved: (1) That the Educational Commission shall meet in Baldwin City on the first Tuesday in May, at 2 o'clock, to be- gin their investigation, after which they shall fix a time of their own meeting. (2) That if they shall report favorably to the con- tinuance of Baker University at Baldwin City, we will respond to their call, on account of subscription given at the last con- ference.
The commission met at the appointed time and canvassed the whole ground, and reached two con- clusions: First, that the Conference could not, in honor, move the college from Baldwin if they would;
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and second, that it would not be wise to move it if they could. It was discovered that real estate in Bald- win had been deeded to purchasers on condition that a school of collegiate grade be maintained there, and if this were not done, the land was to lapse to the original owner. This provisional deed effectually barred the honorable removal of the school, and the trustees and the conference could not afford to even consider the doing of a dishonorable thing. The Olathe proposition was therefore turned down, and arrange- ments were made to continue the work at Baldwin.
I had been admitted into the conference on trial. On the last morning of the session Rev. J. Boynton, who was my Presiding Elder, and also chairman of the board of trustees, came to me and said, there was not much doubt but that the college would be moved, and that in his judgment it was not wise for me to remain in it. I told him I was in the hands of the conference, and was ready to obey my superiors. I was accord- ingly appointed to Centralia, Nemaha county. Pro- fessor Weatherby was not quite so forsaken as he had been on a previous occasion, as Mrs. Knox was present to share his burden. A. A. B. Cavaness was enlisted again to instruct the classes in Mathematics. The work for the college year was carried through and a pleasant commencement closed the year. A class of three members was graduated, M. V. B. Knox, L. P. B. Weeks and Mary Henderson.
On my way from Ottawa, returning from confer- ence, Dr. Davis lamented, in my hearing, the action that had been taken, and predicted that the college would not be moved. I told him if the college was continued at Baldwin, I would return, if the trustees desired me. Accordingly, after the finding of the com- mission, I was recalled, and in November left a charge that had proven a very pleasant one, and returned to
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my work in the college, and to my room in the old castle. Professor Knox had been added to the faculty, and a pleasant, and in some respects, a successful school year was enjoyed.
In June, 1874, Dr. Denison was elected President, and a new impetus came to the school. It was quietly whispered that the doctor's bachelor brother, who was reported to be rich, might lift the institution out of its embarrassment, but the financial crash of 1873, that wrecked so many fortunes, disappointed all ex- pectations.
On August 13th of that year the grasshoppers lit in Baldwin. Crops had already been cut short by drouth and chinch bugs, and in an incredibly short time after the hoppers came every green thing had disappeared, except prairie grass and apples. Strange to say, the devouring pests stripped the trees of their foliage, but left the fruit hanging. But it might al- most as well have been taken, for being exposed to the burning sun, it soon withered and was of little value. The prospect for students being thus cut short, I, fearing the income would not be sufficient to support all the teachers, applied for and secured the position as teacher of the higher grades in the Baldwin Public Schools. Such of the college classes in Mathematics as could not be provided for by the other Professors were heard before and after school hours, without remuneration. This arrangement continued for but one terin, as the work in my department became heavier, and it was felt that full justice could not be done the students.
One direction often given to those who desire to accumulate property is that they live within their in- come, but during the 70's teachers in Baker needed to study very assiduously how they could live without their income. The school year ended June, 1875, with
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the gloomiest prospects the state had ever seen. The grasshoppers that had invaded the country the pre- vious fall had deposited millions of eggs in the ground. These eggs hatched in the early spring, and the young hoppers grew as if they were native to the soil. Farm- ers were diligent in sowing and planting, but the little hoppers seemed to watch for the sprouting grain, and devoured it as fast as it grew, so that fields that had been planted twice, and some three times, were as destitute of vegetation the middle of June as the public road. But if one had concluded that these conditions were to continue, he would have been greatly mistaken. As soon as the hoppers got their wings, they took their flight. The fields were again planted and the weeks which followed were, for rain and sunshine, the most favorable I have ever seen. Corn planted the 16th of June produced, in seven weeks, stalks as many feet high. Potatoes, melons, garden stuff of all kinds, grew amazingly, so that fields which were bare the middle of June could have supplied an army in September. It is probable that the crop of '75, after a spring so unpromising, first suggested what has since been af- firmed : "That Kansas can rise the highest, and fall the lowest, and get up the quickest of any place on earth."
The year 1875 is a memorable one to the writer for another reason ; for in August he returned to Ohio and on the 7th of September took to himself a wife, in the person of Miss Rose A. Williams, whom he had met at Delaware, Ohio, she being a member of the class of 1871 of the Ohio Wesleyan Female College. She had taught two years in the Freedmen's Aid School, at Holly Springs, Mississippi, and had there some experience of short rations, which, in a measure, prepared her for the experiences that awaited her. The first Sunday I was in Ohio an old gentleman in-
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HISTORY OF METHODISM
quired whether "I was there in the interest of the grasshopper sufferers." Father Williams replied, "I guess he is here in the interest of one of them."
In October the Rev. Walters, pastor of the Kaw Valley Circuit, gave up his charge, and the Presiding Elder, Rev. J. J. Thompson, appointed me to the place. I supplied the charge for the remainder of the year, in addition to full work done in the college. This was a fortunate opening, for the sum paid by the charge supplemented the income from the college and tided us through the year. But in the spring the college felt too poor to issue a catalogue, so there is no record of that year's work.
The following year opened much as the previous year had done. The attendance was small and there was little enthusiasm. Indeed, little else could be expected, for a debt of $17,000 hung, as a dark pall, over the institution and faculty. Up to this time noth- ing had been done toward liquidating the debt. It consisted of $10,000 of bonds. and $7,000 floating debts. It had been proposed that Baldwin would take care of the floating debt, if the conferences would pro- vide for the bonds. The only hope that either the town or the church had of being able to accomplish the task was that creditors would discount their claims from half to two-thirds their face. Some of the holders of bonds and other creditors had encouraged the hope that this would be done.
In the spring of 1877, feeling that I could not afford to remain longer in the school, I resigned my place and was appointed pastor at Holton.
Rev. P. T. Rhodes was appointed Agent at this time. Having assurance that the bonds could then be taken up at an average of forty cents on the dollar, he said to the conferences, that if they would raise $4,000, he would clear the college of debt. Pledges
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were secured for a little more than that amount. Had these all been paid promptly, the Agent would have made good his promise. But it was again demonstrated that it is one thing to get a pledge, and quite another thing to get the money. With the most earnest and strenuous effort, the Agent was not able to collect half the amount that had been pledged. Four thousand of the bonds were taken up, leaving six thousand still outstanding.
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