USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume II > Part 45
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In 1854, when the territory was thrown open to settlement, Baptist Churches were established instead of missions. Six years later there were forty congregations and twenty-nine preachers in Kansas. The Baptist Association was organized in June, 1860. Five years later Ottawa University, which is now one of the leading educational insti- tutions of the state, was established. An Academy at Hiawatha and a Theological Seminary at Kansas City, Kansas, were established later.
At the present time the Baptist Church ranks third in membership in Kansas. There are about six hundred congregations and five hun- dred ministers.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
EPISCOPAL CHURCHI
The first Episcopal parish was organized at Leavenworth, in 1856, by Rev. Hiram Stone. The next year a church building was erected at that place and consecrated by Bishop Kemper. The pioneer ministers of 1857 were Revs. Charles M. Calloway, C. Reynolds, and R. S. Nash. Rev. Calloway conducted services at St. Pauls, at Manhattan, where, the next year, a parish was organized by N. O. Preston. Rev. Reynolds founded Trinity Church at Lawrence, and Christ Church, at Prairie City, in his first year, and Rev. Nash founded a church at Wyandotte. Trinity Church at Atchison was founded in October, 1857, by Rev. L. R. Staudenmayer. Rev. J. Ryan founded a church at Elwood in 1858. The state organization of the church took place at Wyandotte in 1859.
Rev. Calloway came to Topeka in 1860 and founded Grace Church. A building was erected having a female seminary in connec- tion. This is now known as the Bethany College of the Sisters of Bethany and is one of the best private educational institutions in the State. The new Grace Cathedral, which is now in process of construction, will be one of the finest church edifices in Kansas.
The present strength of the Episcopal Church in Kansas is about seven thousand members. It is divided into two dioceses, Kansas and Salina, with headquarters respectively at Topeka and Salina.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
CATHOLIC CHURCH
In 1822 Rev. Father Charles de La Croix was appointed missionary to the Osages by the Bishop of New Orleans. IIe reached the Neosho
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in May of that year. He baptized Antone Chouteau on the 5th of May. This missionary died from the effects of the hardships of the wilderness without accomplishing much.
The first Catholic Mission in Kansas was established among the Osages, in 1827, by Father Van Quickenborn, a Jesuit priest of Missouri. In 1829, the first buildings were erected, one at the Osage mission by Father Odin, and one at Pottawatomie Station by Felix Verreydt.
In 1851, Bishop Miege was appointed over this section of the country, and he established a church at St. Marys, where a building was erected. Father Heiman organized a church at Leavenworth and built the cathe- dral of the Immaculate Conception about this time. Other early churches were one at Lawrence, organized in 1857 by Father Magee, and one at Doniphan the same year under Father Wirth. In 1858, a church was founded at Wyandotte by Father Heiman, and one at Valley Falls; St. Marys, in Nemaha County, was founded in 1859, the church at Ft. Scott, in 1860, by Fathers Schoenmakers, Ponziglione, and Van Gach, and the Church of the Assumption in Topeka in 1860, by Father James H. Defouri.
A number of educational institutions have been founded by the Catholic Church, the most important of which is St. Mary's College, established in 1848. Mt. St. Scholastica's Academy, at Atchison, was established in 1863; St. Benedict's College at Atchison, in 1858; St. Mary's Academy, at Leavenworth, in 1866, and Nazareth Academy, at Concordia, in 1884. Besides these there are several other academies, and hospitals and a large number of parochial schools.
There is a Catholic population in Kansas of one hundred thousand people.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
The Congregational Church made its appearance in Kansas with the first white settlements. Rev. Samuel Y. Lum was the pioneer minister, and founded a church in Lawrence October 15, 1854. Rev. Lum also preached at Topeka. Rev. C. E. Blood preached at Manhattan. In 1855, one of the strongest church colonies of any denomination located at Wabaunsee in the county of that name. It was under the Rev. Harvey Jones. Seven churches were founded in 1856: Manhattan, Topeka, Osawatomie, Zeandale, Burlingame, Bloomington, Kanwaka. Wabaun- see and Geneva followed the next year.
The State organization of the church was formed at Topeka, in 1857. The next year ten churches were organized : Albany, Atchison. Emporia, Hiawatha, Leavenworth, Minneola, Quindaro, Grasshopper Falls, Wyan- dotte and Sumner. Among the pioneer ministers were Rev. Lewis Bodwell, Rev. A. L. Adair, 1856; Rev. Sylvester D. Storrs, Rev. O. L. Woodford, Rev. Richard Cordley, Rev. R. D. Parker, and Rev. G. C. Morse in 1857. Storrs, Cordley, Parker and Morse composed the famous Andover Band.
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In 1865, the Congregational Church founded Lincoln College at Topeka. It was later moved to a new site southwest of the town and the name changed to Washburn. This college is now the largest educa- tional institution in Kansas, independent of the State. Fairmount Col- lege, at Wichita, was founded in 1895.
The present strength of the Congregational Church in Kansas is over sixteen thousand.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
The pioneer Presbyterian ministers in Kansas were Revs. Joseph Kerr and Wells Bushnell, who came to the Wea Indians, near Ottawa, in 1835, where they established the first Presbyterian Church in Kansas. In 1837 Rev. S. M. Irvin located near the present site of Highland. Six months later he was joined by Rev. William Hamilton. These men founded the organization which later became the parent of the Synod.
The first church to be organized after the white settlements were made was at Leavenworth, in 1856, by Rev. C. D. Martin. Rev. James Brownlee, of the "New School," came in 1858 and founded churches at Brownsville, Olathe, Gardner, Black Jack, De Soto, Centropolis, and Spring Hill. The "Old School," organized at Auburn, Atchison, Te- cumseh, Lecompton and Lawrence that year. In 1859 churches were founded at Topeka, Leavenworth, Carlyle and Ft. Scott. Pioneer min- isters of 1858 were Revs. William Wilson, and C. McCain : of 1859, F. P. Monford, W. Bishop, H. Reed, E. Blachly, J. G. Reaser, and Rev. Mr. Thorne.
Three educational institutions were formed very early, Highland College, Mapleton Academy, and Iola High School. Highland College was founded in 1857, and is still maintained. In 1882, the Presbyterian Church established the College of Emporia at Emporia, Kansas.
The present strength of the Presbyterian Church in Kansas is thirty thousand members, five hundred congregations and two hundred and sixty-one ministers.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
MENNONITE CHURCH
The Mennonites came to Kansas direct from Russia. The immigra- tion began in 1873, and in 1875, a large body comprising four hundred families, or about nineteen hundred people, came to Topeka, bringing with them $2,000,000 in gold with which to found homes. They settled in groups, in Reno, Harvey, Marion, and MePherson counties. For ten years the influx continued, until no less than fifteen thousand had settled in Kansas. Later the number reached sixty thousand.
The Mennonites established their own churches and schools. The first school was founded at Halstead in 1882. It offered its course of
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instruction in both English and German. In 1887, the City of Newton made an offer to the church to have the school moved. Instead of doing this a new one was founded, which finally opened its doors in 1893, as Bethel College. There were about thirty-one Mennonite Church buildings in the state at that time, and a membership of not over five thousand. At the present time the membership is about seven thousand five hundred. The institution at Newton is supported entirely by the church, and by the income from an endowment which has been given by Mennonite people. It has from one hundred to one hundred and fifty annual enrollment.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
LUTHERAN CHURCH
The pioneer minister of the Lutheran Church in Kansas was Rev. Joseph B. MeAfee, who came to Leavenworth in 1855. He established a school, as well as a church, at that place. Two years later he moved to Valley Falls where he established a church and preached all over the country. He succeeded in establishing churches at Monrovia, Pardee and Crooked Creek, in 1858. Rev. David Earhart located at Ozawkie in 1857, and preached over the country for three years. In 1860 he organized a church at Sumner, in Atehison county, and one at Vinland, in Douglas county. In 1861 he organized a church in Doniphan County. He continued his labors until 1873, in Doniphan, Brown, and Atchison counties and established a dozen or more churches. The Lutheran Church, at Leavenworth, was founded in 1861, by Bishop Dubs: at Atchison in 1866, by (. F. Liebe; at Lawrence in 1868, by Rev. Morris. Those at Salina, Lindsborg and Topeka were founded in 1868.
Bethany College, which has the best Conservatory of Music in Kansas, was founded by the Swedish Lutherans in 1881. Midland College, at Atchison, was founded by the German Lutherans in 1887, and St. John's Lutheran College at Winfield, in 1893.
There is an aggregate membership of thirty thousand in the Lutheran Church in Kansas at the present time.
ELIZABETH N. BARR.
THE CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN
The Church of the Brethren ( formerly the German Baptist Brethren) is a Christian communion of about 100,000 members. It was organized in Schwarzenau, Germany, in 1708, by a group of eight persons who were all more or less affected by Pietistic teaching. The church has been variously denominated as that of the Taufers, Tunkers (German "tau- fen"), Dunkers, Dunkards, German Baptist Brethren, and the Brethren. in 1908, at the General Conference at Des Moines, Ia., the name "Church of the Brethren" was definitely adopted.
Persecuted in Germany because of non-conformity the membership emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1719. settling first in Germantown, where
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the mother church is still in a prosperous condition. The Brethren were early associated with Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians and also with other minor sects such as the Quakers and Mennonites. The first German Bible printed in America was published by Christopher Sower, a leading member of the new sect. His printing press was destroyed by the British during the Revolution, a misfortune from which the church with difficulty recovered.
The Brethren came to Kansas shortly before the Civil war. As far as known the first member in the state was David Kinzie, who lived near Clinton in Douglas County. In 1854 Jacob Ulrich of Wayne County, Indiana, came with an immigrant train of eleven wagons of Brethren. These Hoosiers settled south of Emporia. Within a year, however, Ulrich and his family moved ten miles south of Lawrenee. He wrote frequently for the church paper, the Gospel Visitor, and exercised a wide influence in inducing his church people to come to Kansas. In the Quantrell raid he was a heavy loser, the raiders stopping at his home and firing his house as they left. Ulrich was a warm friend of Senator Lane and of Jacob Branson. The retreating guerrillas inflicted permanent injuries upon Abraham Rothrock, a neighbor of Ulrich's and the first bishop of the Brethren in Kansas.
The first church of the Brethren in Kansas was built on Washington Creek, southwest of Lawrence, in 1858, although services had been held earlier near the present Town of Dunlap. The congregation at Washing- ton Creek is still in existence. Before 1878 congregations were organ- ized at Ozawkie, Emporia, Morrill, Fort Scott, Abilene, Peabody, and Nickerson. The year 1878 witnessed a large immigration. More and more the tide turned to central and western Kansas. By 1886 many of the extreme western counties had been reached.
In 1881 there occurred in the Miami Valley in Ohio a church division which split the denomination into the three divisions all of which con- tinue separate even today. Higher education and a salaried ministry were the questions at issue. The Ultra-Conservatives called themselves the Old Order German Baptist Brethren, accepting also the designation Dunkard; the Conservatives likewise retained the name German Baptist Brethren, but became the Church of the Brethren in 1908; the Radicals, often ealled Progressive Brethren, are legally known as the Brethren. The Old Orders are rapidly waning in membership.
The Church of the Brethren in 1916 had 4,824 members in Kansas, the northeastern and southwestern parts of the state showing the largest membership. Three times in her history the church has held her Annual Conference in Kansas,-at Bismarck Grove (Lawrence) in 1883, in Ottawa in 1887 and 1896. In June, 1917, the conference comes to Wichita. These gatherings are always unusually well attended.
The Brethren own McPherson College, a Christian college established in 1887 at McPherson. The Kansas membership sustains at Darlow a home for the aged. The Child Resene Society has its headquarters at MePherson. The church also has a mutual insurance company which
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does a large amount of business among the members of the eentral section of the United States.
The plea of the Brethren is for a return to the faith and practice of primitive Christianity. Therefore they are a church of earnest Bible students. They have no ereed aside from the Bible. In brief their doetrines inelnde baptism (trine immersion), the Lord's Supper (a full meal), the Eucharist, feetwashing, and the anointing. They take no oath, abstain from military service, and go to law only as a last resort. From the first they have been on record as temperate advocates. They have. always opposed slavery. Sinee 1817 they have aetively opposed the use of tobacco.
Their form of church government is democratic and representative. All officers are elected by the voice of the local congregation. There are three degrees in the ministry, the elders being vested with all the powers of the ministerial office by means of ordination. The local church couneil meeting deeides on matters of strietly local importance, the more weighty matters being sent to district conference. Any question of general inter- est is decided at the general annual conference. All conference bodies are made up of delegates elected by local congregations. A free and open discussion followed by a majority vote is decisive in the adoption of methods of work. The greatest problems now confronting the denomina- tion are conceded to be missionary activity, the Sunday School, and the education of the young.
E. L. CRAIK, Lawrence, Kansas.
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
KANSAS UNIVERSITY
The first effort toward founding a college on Mt. Oread was made in 1856. Amos A. Lawrence, of Boston, one of the founders of the Emi- grant Aid Society, donated a sum of money for the purpose, and work was started on a building. The enterprise was shortly abandoned because a elear title to the land could not be seeured. Early the next year Mr. Lawrence made the gift which later became the original endowment of the Kansas University. This gift was in the form of two notes of $5,000 each, against the Lawrenee University of Wisconsin. This donation was placed in the hands of trustees to be used for educational purposes. The Presbyterian Church then undertook to found a "Free State College," and raised some money for the purpose. In 1859 the Legislature gave official sanction to the " University of Lawrenee," and a conditional deed was obtained from the town to the present site of North College, where the work had already been begun. The church advaneed the building as far as the means would permit, but was unable to complete it on account of the drouth of 1860. In 1861, the Episcopal Church took over the enterprise, secured a new charter under the name of the Lawrence University of Kansas, and continued the work on the building. The foundation and walls of a structure fifty feet square and three stories
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high were built before the war interfered. In 1863, the conditions of the deed not having been fulfilled, the town of Lawrence took possession of the site and building.
A bill to locate the Kansas University at Manhattan where a church college had already been opened was vetoed by Governor Charles Robin- son, in 1861, for political reasons. The Legislature of 1863 located the University at Lawrence on condition that the town would furnish a suitable site of forty acres and $15,000 in money. The committee ap- pointed to take charge of the arrangements in behalf of the state were S. M. Thorp, I. T. Goodnow and Josiah Miller. Miller was the first promoter of the college as a Presbyterian institution. This committee selected the site, and the city of Lawrence secured it for the state by giving Mr. and Mrs. Charles Robinson, in exchange for it, half a block of land south of the North College building, ten acres of land half a mile west of the new building site, and a large cash bonus raised by individual subscriptions. Ten thousand dollars cash was realized from the Amos Lawrence notes, and the balance of $5.000 was raised by notes signed by Lawrence people. About this time the town was devastated by Quantrill, and on account of the poverty which followed, the Legis- lature of 1864 refunded the money to the signers of the notes.
The legislature divided the University into male and female branches, the female branch to be separate from the college proper and taught exclusively by women. However, the admittance of women to college on any terms was in those days a triumph of liberality, and was secured in Kansas by a very small majority. The general management of the institution was vested in a Board of Regents, on which the following men were the first to serve: Solon O. Thacher, Charles Robinson, James S. Emery, George W. Paddock, Daniel P. Mitchell, Isaac T. Goodnow, R. A. Barker, J. D. Liggett, C. B. Lines, C. K. Holliday, E. M. Bartholow, T. C. Sears, W. A. Starrett and Joseph L. Wever. At the first meeting of the Board, held March 21, 1865, in the Chambers of the Lawrence City Council, the Rev. R. W. Oliver, who had been in charge of the college project for the Episcopalians, was elected Chancellor.
As there were not sufficient funds to build on the University grounds, the Regents decided to obtain the unfinished building on lands in pos- session of the city of Lawrence. The city agreed to make the property over to the state providing the building should be completed and a college opened by January 1, 1867. In order to do this, the Regents secured what was left of a number of different funds given for the relief of Quantrill raid sufferers. The sums aggregated about $12,000, in exchange for which the Regents agreed to give free education to those children who had been made orphans by the raid. The building was completed and college opened September 12, 1866. The first faculty was as follows: Elial J. Rice, A. M .. chair of Mental and Moral Science and Belles- Lettres ; David II. Robinson. A. B., chair of Languages ; Frank H. Snow, A. M., chair of Mathematics and Natural Science. The salaries of these men were fixed at $1.600 per year. Albert Newman, M. D., was ap- pointed lecturer on Hygiene and Medical Science. Ile served one year
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without pay and was then elected to the faculty. Professor Rice was made president of the faculty.
Fifty-five students enrolled the first year, all in the preparatory department. About half were women, but the facilities were so limited that no attempt was made to divide the college into male and female branches, so the University became one of the first institutions in the country where men and women attended the same classes.
Professor Rice resigned in the summer of 1867, and Chancellor Oliver in December of the same year. John Frazer, A. M., was elected Chancellor, made president of the faculty and given the chair of Belles- Lettres. He remained in this capacity until 1874. and had the honor of graduating the first class of four students in 1873.
The enrollment reached 125 the second year, and one hundred and fifty-two the third. Departments were divided and more instructors were added to the faculty. North College was already over-crowded and the Regents felt the urgent necessity of providing more room. To get adequate appropriations from the state at the time was hopeless, and so the matter was urged upon the people of Lawrence. A hasty election was called and bonds to the amount of $100,000 were voted. This was too big a burden, and the city was relieved of it by the state some years later after $90,000 had been paid in interest. With the proceeds of these bonds, a building two hundred and forty-six feet by ninety-eight fect, and containing fifty-four rooms was begun. The sum realized was suffi- cient to enelose a structure of this size and the Regents depended on the legislature for the money to complete it. In 1872, an appropriation of $50,000 was made. When this had been spent the building was ready for classes, but far from complete. The work went on by means of small appropriations and was finished in 1877.
Dr. James Marvin became Chancellor in 1874 and remained until 1883. In that time the attendance grew from two hundred and seventy- two students to five hundred and eighty-two. The scope of the Uni- versity was broadened, new departments added and divisions made in departments already established. In 1876 a normal department was opened, and in 1878 a law school under J. W. Green. The sale of lands granted the University by Congress had netted $100,000 up to this time. At the elose of Dr. Marvin's chancellorship, an aggregate of one hundred and thirty-nine students had graduated. There were nineteen professors on the faculty.
Joshua Allen Lippincott accepted the chancellorship in 1883. It seemed easier to secure appropriations in his administration. The annual appropriation for current expenses was raised from $30,000 to $75.000. A chemistry building was erected at an expense of $12,000, an engine house costing $16,000. and $50,000 was appropriated to build Snow Hall. This last building was for the use of the department of Natural Science, and for many years it housed the valuable and famous collec- tions of Professor Snow and Professor Dyehe. The legislature of 1885 provided for the establishment of a school of pharmacy and the dis- continuance of the Normal course. The lower classes of the preparatory
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were gradually dispensed with until at the close of Lippincott's regime very little of it was left except instruction in foreign languages. There was a consequent raise in scholarship standards, the College was becoming a University. At the time of Lippincott's resignation there were thirty members on the faculty.
The next head of the University was Frank H. Snow, who was elected to the chair of Mathematics and Natural Science in 1866, and had been on the faculty since that time. Chancellor Snow resigned in 1902, com- pleting thirty-six years of continuous service. He started the valuable collections in geology, botany and zoology in 1873, and contributed more than any other one man to the growth and success of the institution. He came to the chancellorship just as the college was emerging from a school, offering everything from common school branches on up, to a University offering complete courses in every department of education.
In 1890, the courses in civil and electrical engineering were separated from the collegiate department and organized into the School of En- gineering, and in 1893, a $50,000 building was provided for this depart- ment. A chair of Pedagogy was established in 1893, and the faculty increased to fifty-two members. A legacy of $91,618.03, from the estate of William B. Spooner, unele of Chancellor Snow, came to the University late in 1891, and was used to build the Spooner library. The Kansas University Quarterly, devoted to original research by Faculty and students, began publication in 1892. In 1891 and '92, Prof. Dyche made conspicuous additions to the collection of animals by the capture of one hundred large specimens which he mounted himself and exhibited in the Kansas building at the Chicago Fair. The collection was far ahead of any other similar exhibit in point of taxidermist art.
One of the most important steps in the point of service to the people was the founding of University Extension. For a number of years lectures on different subjects had been given by University professors who gave their time gratuitously whenever called upon. In 1891, regular courses of instruction were offered, consisting of one lecture each week for twelve weeks, to be followed by reading courses. Eight such courses were given the first year, two in Topeka, two in Wichita. one in Olathe, and three in Kansas City. Out of the thousand or more people who heard the lectures, one hundred followed the prescribed reading courses, took the examinations and received University eredit. By 1895 the University Extension was reaching four thousand people. It was not fully organized on a correspondence basis, however, until' 1909. That year a bulletin was issued offering courses as follows: Me- chanical and Electrical Engineering, Mining, Surveying, Mechanical Drawing, ITighway Construction, History, Political Economy, Political Science, Sociology, Philosophy, Education. Ancient and Modern Lan- guages, Entomology, Botany, Zoology, Geology, Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, Physiology, Mathematics, Pharmacy and Medicine.
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