USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. I > Part 38
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HOTELS OF OLD WYANDOTTE.
There were hotels in old Wyandotte wherein the guests were eom- fortably housed and well fed. There was the Catfish hotel, a log building, conducted by Isaae W. Brown, an Indian, in 1856-7. Among the guests there, were members of the government surveying corps under Mr. Calhoun, the surveyor general, who stayed at the Gillis hotel on the levee at the foot of Main street. There were many transients-people were coming and going all the time. A great many Indians used to patronize the house.
There was the Eldridge House, near what is now Fifth street and Minnesota avenue, conducted by Mrs. Arms, who was related to the Eldridges at Lawrence. It was headquarters for Free State people on the way from New England to Kansas. They took the stage there and many of the men noted in Kansas history stopped at the hotel. The old Augusta House was on the south side of Minnesota avenue, near Third street. It was run by A. C. A. Jost. There was a Wyandotte hotel on Nebraska avenue, near Third street, where many Kansas nota- bles stayed while the constitutional convention was in session. The old Garno House, at the northwest corner of Third street and Minne- sota avenue, for many years was a famous hostelry. There was another hotel in the early days which a few persons remember. It was the St. Paul. There was such a rush of immigration in the later fifties that many people had to live in tents and there were not enough hotels ,
to accommodate them. Colonel R. H. Hunt bought the steamboat "St. Paul," which was anchored at the foot of Washington avenue, and fitted it up as a hotel. The St. Paul was crowded all the time and the service was fine.
The principal hotel in Kansas City, Kansas, at this day, is the Grund, a three-story fire proof building erected by George A. Grund, a pioneer citizen. It is the finest built and equipped hotel in Kansas, although perhaps not the largest. Also in the list may be included the Kelchmer House, the Wyandotte hotel, Pennington hotel, Metropolitan, and the New Home.
THE MERCANTILE CLUB.
Kansas City, Kansas, is fortunate in having among her numerous civie societies a live commercial organization, and it may be said that
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in the remarkable development of the Kansas metropolis in recent years the Mercantile Club has been a leading factor.
The Mercantile Club was organized in December, 1898, as the re- sult of the efforts of Evan H. Browne, a progressive citizen of Kansas City, Kansas. Its announced purpose was to promote the commercial and industrial advancement of the city. W. A. Simpson was its first president, and succeeding presidents have been W. T. Atkinson, Edwin S. MeAnany, Northrup Moore, Evan II. Browne, George Stumpf, J. W. Breidenthal, Benjamin Schnierle, W. T. Maunder, Dr. George M. Gray, C. L. Brokaw, Willard Merriam, G. C. Smith and P. W. Goebel. During its life of a little over twelve years its secretaries have been W. E. Griffith. James S. Silvey. Carl Dehoney, Donald Greenman, A. H. Skinner and P. W. Morgan, the present secretary.
Among the earlier activities of the club was its aid to our educa- tional authorities in building up its splendid system of schools. It was instrumental in obtaining an appropriation by congress for the erection of a post office building after many years of delay, and of seeuring from Andrew Carnegie a gift of $75,000 for a library building.
The annual "Sunshine" trade-extension trip of its members for a series of years covered nearly every mile of railroad in the state, and in nearly every city and town the name and fame of Kansas City, Kan- sas, was made known.
The Mercantile Club was first and foremost in the agitation that led to the erection of a system of parks and boulevards, and has baeked every movement looking to civic betterment. It supported the Kaw Valley Drainage Board in its fight to obtain those improvements of the river to protect the property in the valley from damage by overflow. It has stood for the enforcement of law, and when the city was defamed by misrepresentations as to the effect of the closing of the saloons, through the enforcement of the prohibitory law, its members were quick to set the American people right by a presentation of the facts.
It was the Mercantile Club that advocated the purchase of the Metropolitan water plant by the city, by which our people were enabled to obtain an abundant supply of pure water at reasonable rates; and it is able to point with pride to the successful operation of the municipal water plant and the earning of a profit, above operating expenses and interest charges, each and every month. It was the Mercantile Club also that advocated the acquisition of a municipal electrical plant. for which an issue of $350,000 of bonds was voted and which now is building. and it was that organization which got behind the movement for the new city hall now building in Kansas City, Kansas.
And it was the Mercantile Club, ever and always advocating effi- cient government, that led the successful fight for the inauguration of the system of municipal government by commission which, in one year of operation, has demonstrated that a city can be run on a safe and sane business basis.
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The Mercantile Club has comfortable quarters in the Commercial National Bank building at Sixth street and Minnesota avenue, and its meetings, held twice each month, are open to all members and to the public.
OTHER CIVIC ORGANIZATIONS.
Many other organizations have to do with the civic development. Among these are the Grandview Improvement Association, Central Avenue Improvement Association, and the Northwest, West Side and the Seventh Street and Ohio Avenue Improvement associations. These, while laboring each for the betterment of things in its own community, also work together and with other civic bodies for the general welfare of the city.
The Merchants Mutual Association, representing more than five hundred merchants, and the Trades Assembly, representing the many affiliated labor unions are exerting a strong influence for civic better- ment.
CHARITABLE AND CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATIONS.
The most potent agency in the city for the relief, care and better- ment of the poor from a comprehensive point of view is the Associated Charities, which is a federation of practically all the charities of the city. The scope of work being conducted by this association is very broad, the three most essential features being relief, cooperation and pre- vention. It also maintains departments of investigation, registration, visitation and education. The most modern, up-to-date methods of rendering relief. both temporary and permanent, have been adopted in Kansas City; the measure of success to be attained will depend largely upon the degree of co-operation between the Associated Charities and the people of the city, and it is the duty of every loyal citizen to give this charity clearing house a trial. P. W. Goebel, president of the Commercial National Bank, is president of the Associated Charities, and G. M. Pfeiffer is its secretary.
The Children's Home, under control of a woman's board of man- agers, in doing so much for homeless little ones, appeals to the highest instincts of the women of the city, and all are loyal in their support of it. It has been conducted in the city fifteen years and has accom- plished great good. A similar home for colored children is conducted by a board of women of that race.
Among other organizations that are doing good is the International Sunshine Society, which has recently taken over the Carrie Nation Home for Drunkard's Wives, established in 1902 and which failed for want of drunkard's wives to share its benefits. The building now is used as a Home for Girls.
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Notable among the organizations in Kansas City, Kansas, having to do with the spiritual, as well as the intellectual and social, is the Young Women's Christian Association, which has a magnificent home at Sixth street and State avenue. Its beautiful work touches the lives of nearly one thousand young women who are its members. The Association conduets night schools for young women. It also has an extension department by which its work is earried on in many of the large industries. A strong movement also has been started for the organization of a Young Men's Christian Association in Kansas City, Kansas. A building to eost $100,000 is planned. An organization for negroes on similar lines has been effected and a building to cost $30,000 soon is to be erected.
The story of the history of other great institutions of Kansas City, Kansas, and Wyandotte county-the churches, schools, societies, hospi- tals and the professions-is told in succeeding chapters of this work.
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CHAPTER XXIX.
PROTESTANT CHURCHIES OF THE COUNTY.
WYANDOTS, THE FIRST METHODISTS-WHEN THE METHODISTS WERE DIVIDED-EXPELLED THE REV. MR. GURLEY-RETURNING TO THE OLD CHURCH-THE METHODIST CHURCHES BURNED -- THE OLD CHURCH RE- ORGANIZED -- THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH SOUTIE-OTHER METHODIST CHURCHES-A CHURCH OF WAR TIME DAYS-THE ORGANIZA- TION OF THE CHURCH-SOLDIERS ATTENDED PRAYER MEETING -AS A PASTOR'S WIFE TOLD IT-THE DROUGHT OF 1860-WHEN THE OLD CHURCH BELL RANG-THE BURNING OF LAWRENCE-THE OLD CHURCH ON FIFTH STREET-EPISCOPAL CHURCHES-THE PRESBYTERIANS-THE BAPTIST CHURCHES-THE METHODISTS PROTESTANT-CHRISTIAN CHURCHES-CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ORGANIZATIONS-OTHER RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS- SUNDAY SCHOOLS.
A writer hath said "the groves were God's first temples," and it might be suggested that the missionaries who eame among the Indians were our first Kansas preachers. Sustained by a fervid religious en- thusiasm, they were to endure exile, privation and, if need be, martyr- dom in order to spread the Light as they saw it, and earry to the be- nighted savage the blessed precepts taught by the Peasant of Galilee. Carrying with them the Bible and the implements of agriculture, they taught the rudiments of productive and civilized industry to the red men, at the same time that they were unfolding the plan of salvation and proclaiming the present advantages and future glories that waited the true followers of the Prince of Peace. But, with the passing of years, the teepee of the red men gave place to the habitation of the Anglo-Saxon, and the old Indian mission gave place to the church which became the houses of worship for the white people.
White men who came from the east established missions among the Shawnee and Delawares in Wyandotte county, but, by a reversal of the usual order of things, the Wyandot Indians brought their mission with them when they eame west from Ohio. So it turns out that the Washington Boulevard Methodist Episcopal church in Kansas City, Kan- sas, grew out of the Methodist mission that was organized in Ohio in 1819, and that was the first mission ever organized in the world by that denomination. It had been regularly supplied by the Ohio Methodist
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conference. In 1843, when the Rev. James Wheeler was the missionary, the Wyandots came to Kansas and he accompanied them. The church organization, for such it was, remained intaet. The Rev. Mr. Wheeler, on his arrival, at once became a member of the Missouri Methodist confer- enee and the bishop continued him in the work among the Wyandots, where he remained until 1846.
WYANDOTS, THE FIRST METHODISTS.
Even before they were located on the lands they purchased from the Delawares, the Wyandots held regular services on the strip of low land at the state line, with a little band of two hundred souls, nine class leaders and three local preachers. In April, 1844, after they had established themselves and were erecting their homes a log church was built and ready for use. It stood about one-half mile west of Chelsea Park. It was there the whole community worshipped until 1847, when a brick church was erected on the Mary A. Grindrod tract near Tenth street and Walker avenne, one-half mile west of the Kansas City-North- western freight depot at Fifth street. Occasionally publie services were conducted in the English and Indian languages, in the school house on the east side of Fourth street between Kansas and Nebraska avenues. The English speaking class met there and the first Sabbath school was organized in June, 1847. The Rev. Mr. Wheeler was sue- ceeded by the Rev. E. T. Perry. Ile had been sent by the Methodist Episcopal Church South, but he kept the records in the name of the Methodist Episcopal church.
WIIEN THE METHODISTS WERE DIVIDED.
In July, 1848, the official board petitioned the Ohio conference for a missionary, and the Rev. James Gurley volunteered to come in that capacity. He arrived in November. Previous to his arrival, the Rev. Abram Still, M. D., presiding elder of the Platte distriet (which included the Indian missions in this region), came to hold his first quar- terly meeting, in October, 1848. Dr. Still preached Sabbath morning on the text, "My peace I give unto you, " after which Mr. Perry organ- ized the Methodist Episcopal Church South, with forty-one members. There were in the house one hundred and ten members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and sixty-nine refused to go into the new organiza- tion. Many of the old members of the church had died since they came to the west, and, at this time, there were but one hundred and sixty re- maining. Renewed efforts were made to induce the members of the old church to unite with the new, but the highest number ever obtained was sixty-five, and soon after Mr. Gurley's arrival some of these re- turned to the old church. But, notwithstanding that there was a large
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majority in the Methodist Episcopal church, the building was stoned, so as to endanger the house and disturb the services, when Mr. Gurley preached in it, and the official board decided to withdraw from it, for a time, to a vacant dwelling house.
EXPELLED THE REV. MR. GURLEY.
The last week in February, 1849, the United States Indian agent, at Wyandotte, expelled Mr. Gurley, at the instance of some members and adherents of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, though it was avowed he had committed no offense against the law, nor eaused any of the disturbances. They existed before he came, and continued until 1857. The next Saturday after Mr. Gurley's expulsion, the presiding elder, Doctor Still, erossed the Missouri river in a skiff, swimming his horse amidst great blocks of ice, to hold his second quarterly meeting in the old dwelling house. Thirty persons united with the church upon this occasion. As soon as the spring rains were over, the services were held in a grove, and before winter another log church was built near the present Quindaro cemetery. The Rev. Squire Gray-Eyes and John M. Armstrong were sent to the Missouri conference at St. Louis ( August, 1849), to petition for a missionary. The Rev. G. B. Markham was appointed, and arrived in a few weeks, remaining two years and being followed by the Rev. James Witten in October, 1851. Mr. Witten's wife was in failing health, died January 1, 1852, and she was buried near the log church, hers being the first interment in the Quindaro cemetery. The Rev. George W. Robbins was appointed presiding elder in October, 1850, and was continued three years. Following Father Witten as missionary were the Rev. M. G. Klepper, M. D., October, 1852; the Rev. J. M. Chivington, autumn of 1853; the Rev. J. T. Hopkins, presiding elder; the Rev. J. H. Dennis, fall of 1854; the Rev. W. W. Goode, D. D., presiding elder, and superintendent of the work in Kansas and Nebraska territories. He moved his large family from Richmond, Indiana, to a small brick house, about two miles from the con- fluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers.
RETURNING TO THE OLD CHURCH.
Soon after these preachers came, twelve persons returned from the Southern Church to the old church. One of them was Matthew Mud- eater, the Wyandot chief, and the other Mrs. Hannah Walker, the wife of William Walker, the provisional governor of Kansas. She was a white woman. . All the white women in the church and Wyandot Nation had united with the South Church, except one Mrs. Lucy B. Armstrong, and she was rejoiced when an English speaking class was reorganized, after a lapse of seven years, at Doctor Good's house. There were pre-
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sent Doctor Goode and family ; the Rev. J. H. Dennis, wife and daugh- ter; Mrs. Hannah Walker; Mrs. Luey B. Armstrong and two of her family, who were then members of the church; and the former mis- sionary, Father Witten-more than the requisite number for a primi- tive elass. The class was continued until Doctor Goode moved into Iowa in October, 1855, to take charge of the work in Nebraska. The Rev. L. B. Dennis succeeded him as presiding elder of all Kansas north of the Kansas river.
THE METHODIST CHURCHES BURNED.
In the winter of 1855-6 the health of the Rev. J. H. Dennis, who was continued missionary, rapidly failed, and near the 1st of May, 1856, he left Wyandotte for his mother's house in Indiana, where he died the following August. His memory is blessed. Before he left,
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WASHINGTON BOULEVARD METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. (OLDEST CHURCH ORGANIZATION IN KANSAS.)
on the night of April 8, 1856, both ehurehes were burned by ineen- diaries. The Rev. William Butt, who had been appointed to the Leaven- worth, Delaware and Wyandotte mission, moved here in November, and preached in a school house near Quindaro. In April, 1857, he was appointed presiding elder, and the Rev. R. P. Duval suceeeded him as missionary. Services were held in Mrs. Lucy B. Armstrong's house from April to the last of December, 1857, when the old frame church, corner of Washington avenue and Fifth street, was completed. The same year a brick church was built at Quindaro.
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THE OLD CHURCHI RE-ORGANIZED.
The first quarterly meeting of the Methodist Episcopal church, after Wyandotte City was settled by white people and the church was re-organized, was held on Mrs. Armstrong's premises, September 1, 1857. The public services of the Sabbath were held on her lawn, under the shade of the trees. There was gathered a vast concourse of people from Wyandotte and Quindaro and the country around. Presiding Elder Butt preached the morning sermon, and the Rev. J. M. Walden, local preacher, politician and editor of the Quindaro Chindowan, de- livered the afternoon sermon. After Mr. Duval, came as missionaries (April, 1858) the Rev. H. H. Moore, who remained one year; the Rev. G. W. Paddock, two years; the Rev. Strange Brooks, March, 1861 (the Rev. N. Gaylor, presiding elder), one year and the Rev. M. D. Genney, March, 1862 (the Rev. W. R. Davis, presiding elder), one year. The annual conference was held at Wyandotte, Bishop Simpson presiding. Mr. Genney was first lieutenant in the United States volunteer service. He attended conference and resigned his lieutenancy, but it was not accepted.
With the exception of about four months, during which time the Rev. C. H. Lovejoy had charge, the Wyandotte and Quindaro mission was without a pastor this year. At the conference held in Lawrence, in March, 1863, the Rev. Strange Brooks was appointed presiding elder of the district, and the Rev. M. M. Haun, missionary. In 1864 the Rev. A. N. Marlatt was appointed missionary, remaining about ten months, when a man was appointed who had been transferred to another conference, and therefore did not fill the appointment at Wyandotte. The Rev. D. G. Griffith, a young local preacher, did not complete the conference year.
In March, 1866, Wyandotte was made a station, the Rev. D. D. Dickinson was appointed pastor, and the Rev. J. E. Bryan sent to the Wyandotte and Quindaro mission, the Rev. H. D. Fisher, presiding elder. In March, 1867, came the Rev. H. G. Murch, and in March, 1870, the Rev. S. G. Frampton. The latter remained one year, but failed to keep up the Quindaro and Wyandotte mission appointments, partly because most of the Indians were about moving to the Indian territory. These appointments were therefore dropped. The Rev. S. P. Jacobs remained two years from March, 1871, during which time a neat parsonage was built. The Rev. II. K. Muth was appointed in March, 1873, the Rev. William Smith, who succeeded him, remaining two years.
The corner-stone of a new church, the foundation of which had been laid on the corner of Kansas (now State) avenue and Fifth street, was laid by the Rev. William K. Marshall, and the basement was dedicated by the planting of Christianity in Wyandotte county. The church
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thus established, prospered and grew in numbers, and is one of the most popular in Kansas City today having upwards of one thousand members. Among its pastors in recent years, as well as in the early days, were many of the men who have been noted for their work in the church. The pastor at the present time is the Rev. Clyde Clay Cissell.
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH.
Of the one hundred and ten members of the original Methodist Episcopal church, organized in Wyandotte in 1843, forty-one joined the Southern branch when it formally was organized by the Rev. E. T. Peery in October, 1848. The church was given a lot by the Wyandotte City Company in 1859, at the northwest corner of the old Huron Ceme- tery. A brick church and a parsonage were built there in 1873-81 The church was occupied by the congregation until in 1889, when the property became of great value for business purposes and was sold. The next year the organization erected the present brick church, at the northeast corner of Seventh street and State avenue, and the name was changed to the Seventh Street M. E. Church, South. Some of the earlier pastors were the Revs. B. F. Russell, Daniel Dofflemayer, J. T. Peery, Nathan Scarrett, William Barnett, Il. II. Craig, D. C. O'Howell, Joseph King, D. S. Heron, E. G. Frazier, G. J. Warren, T. II. Swearen- gen, J. W. Payne and W. H. Comer. The Rev. John Score was pastor in 1910-11.
OTHER METHODIST CHURCHES.
The First German M. E. church was organized in 1859, with Frank Weber, Maria Weber, Louis Feisel, Marie Feisel, Abelhard Holzbeier- lein, Catharine Schatz, Margaret Ortman, Henry Helm, August Gab- riel, Carl Gabriel, Henrietta Gabriel, Gottleib Kneipfer and Margaret Kneipfer, as members. In 1866 a church edifice was erected at the northeast corner of Fifth street and Ann avenue and was dedicated in September of that year by the Rev. M. Schnierle. The congregation worshipped there until in the nineties, when the present church at Eighth street and State avenue was erected. Another German M. E. church is located at No. 320 South Tenth street.
The Central Avenue M. E. church, at No. 950 Central avenue, and the Central M. E. church, at No. 724 Sonth Mill street, of recent forma- tion, are separate organizations. Both, however, have large member- ship and handsome churches. The other churches of the denomination are the London Heights, at Fifteenth street and Garfield avenue; the Highland Park, at No. 42 South Seventh street; the Mt. Pleasant, at Fifth street and Waverly avenue; and the old Quindaro church, at No. 3023 North Twenty-third street. The Argentine M. E. church is at
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Twenty-sixth street and Metropolitan avenue, and the Quayle M. E. mission, at No. 210 South Fourteenth street. The Methodist churches at Rosedale, Bonner Springs and elsewhere in the county are men- tioned in connection with those places.
The Wesleyan Methodists have an organization in the Tidings of Joy mission, at No. 445 Virginia avenue, conducted by the Rev. E. W. Howard.
The Free Methodists have also the Glendale church at No. 2717 North Tremont street ; the Life Line mission, at No. 711 Osage avenue ; and the Second ehnreh, at No. 738 South Fifth street.
The colored M. E. churches are: The African, at Mill and Valley streets; the Bethel mission, at No. 2141 North Water street ; the Ninth Street, at No. 1417 North Ninth street; St. Peters African, at No. 409 Oakland avenue. The African M. E. church is at No. 2323 Ruby avenue, in the Argentine distriet.
A CHURCH OF WAR TIME DAYS.
The old First Congregational church in Kansas City, Kansas, was organized in the territorial days before the Civil war and around it is woven much of the thrilling history of the "border times" when the struggle to make Kansas a free state was waging. The Congrega- tionalists, who came out from New England, were Free State people, and the organizer of the First church-the Rev. Sylvester Dana Storrs -was a leader among them. He was a member of the "Kansas Andover band," which included, beside Mr. Storrs, the late Rev. Richard Cordley, for nearly fifty years pastor of Plymouth Congregational church at Lawrence; the Rev. Roswell Davenport Parker, who planted Congregationalism at Leavenworth; and the Rev. Grosvenor C. Morse, who went to Emporia and started a church, taught school, and after- wards founded the Kansas State Normal School in that city.
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