USA > Minnesota > Rice County > History of Rice and Steele counties, Minnesota, Vol. I > Part 33
USA > Minnesota > Steele County > History of Rice and Steele counties, Minnesota, Vol. I > Part 33
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The evening of the same day, the Dacotah chief with some of his braves visited us at the mission house and had a long inter- view with the three Chippeways and their missionaries.
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The mission school at Faribault was happily at once recog- nized as the medium of the friendship of the two tribes. At least, from this time no party from either nation seems to have gone upon the war path. At once the Dacotahs brought their children to the school to be taught; and it was the intention to receive some of the more promising ones of both nations to be trained as catechists and missionaries to their own people.
The school year of 1859-60 opened with the following teachers: George C. Tanner, A. M .; S. D. Hinman, James Dobbin, A. M .; Mary J. Mills and Mary J. Leigh. The various departments, as appears on the reports, were juvenile, primary, high school, organized at the anniversary, college, unorganized, and the divinity school. George C. Tanner was a graduate of Brown University, James Dobbin, a pupil of Dr. Nott and a graduate of Union College, New York, and the others had been connected with well known educational institutions of high standing in the east.
The year 1859 marks an important epoch, the turning point in the fortunes of the Bishop Seabury mission. At the diocesan convention held in the city of St. Paul, June 29, 30 and July 1, the Rev. Henry Benjamin Whipple was elected bishop of Minne- sota, and was consecrated at Richmond, Va., October 14, that year. His first visit to Faribault was made in February, 1860, liis first sermon was preached Quinquagesima Sunday to a con- gregation which crowded the chapel. It would be difficult to describe the impression his sermons produced. The following Tuesday a committee of the citizens called upon him and invited him to make Faribault his residence, pledging him $1,168, be- sides several lots of land towards the erection of an episcopal residence. Later, Alexander Faribault, with great liberality, offered him five acres for this purpose.
After carefully considering the matter, the bishop addressed the following letter to the committee :
"St. Paul, March 24, 1860.
"Messrs. L. S. Pease, W. S. Judd, J. C. N. Cottrell.
"Gentlemen : After a careful examination of the whole matter, I have decided to select Faribault as the residence of the bishop upon the terms proposed by your committee, with this one excep- tion. As a servant of Christ in charge of a large missionary field, I have no right to judge the future so far as to pledge that under no call of duty would I leave Faribault. My action must be guided by my sense of duty to Christ and His church. I have no knowledge of anything which will lead me to change my residence. But my friends in Faribault must be willing to leave me free. Should this meet the approval of your citizens,
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you may secure for me the house of Mr. Faribault, and have it ready for me May 1. With my hearty thanks to yourselves and the citizens of Faribault, and praying God to bless you, I am faithfully yours, H. B. Whipple, Bishop of Minnesota."
In his annual address to the convention of the diocese, June 13, 1860, the bishop gives his reasons for this choice. "It is a favor- able center for missionary work in the midst of a rapidly increas- ing population. It offers a feasible plan for the establishment of church schools. Its citizens alone made a definite offer to aid in crecting a house for the bishop."
This house, unfinished, stood at the southeast corner of Central avenue and Sixth street. It was finished and occupied by the bishop in 1861. Additions were subsequently made to it and here the bishop opened St. Mary's hall in 1866. The bishop continued to reside here until the erection of the bishop's house opposite the cathedral.
Up to this time Mr. Breck had been the head of the associate mission. As correspondent and treasurer, he disbursed the funds received through the daily mail and held in trust the real estate acquired for the mission. He was responsible to no one. There was no endowment or definite support. The salaries of four clergymen depended upon the gifts received from day to day. This continued for several years, until after the bishop's influ- ence increased the gifts of individuals. This was through personal friends, Sunday schools and parishes. The bishop found an indebtedness of $5,000 or $6,000, an amount nearly equal to the value of the property of the mission. By his personal efforts through letters and addresses, he enlisted the sympathy and interest of churchmen of means and placed the institution on a permanent foundation.
The second anniversary of the Seabury mission took place August 8, 1860, on the grounds now occupied by Shattuck school, then a thick forest. A large number of visitors and friends of the Institution came together from all parts of the state. The pro- cession, which formed at the chapel near the park, consisted of the juvenile and primary departments and the high school, with former pupils and visitors, to the number of about four hundred, who marched to the grounds where many were already assem- bled, so that the entire number could not have fallen far short of a thousand. The first address was made by General Cole, of Faribault, and contained passages of singular beauty. We quote a single sentence, because it gives us a vivid picture of the carly settlement of the state.
"Those whom I see around me today, have been driven hither from all parts of our common country by that restless love of
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gain and adventure, which, booted and spurred, rides the Amer- ican youth from his cradle to his grave."
"Ten years ago, the stranger, standing upon this eminence, would have looked upon a landscape of wondrous beauty, selected by the Dakota with that singular appreciation of the beautiful in nature, which is an instinct with the savage, as his favorite camping ground. These noble forests were as green then as now. The prairie flowers bloomed as thickly and diffused their fragrance as bountifully. Along the banks of yonder stream a long line of Indian wigwams glistened in the morning sunlight, the homes of the fathers of those red children who are now being redeemed from barbarism within the walls of your sem- inary. Upon those sites, now made sacred by your hearthstones, the Indian woman pounded her corn. Up and down the level plain, now marked by the main street of your village, dashed a band of braves in mimic fight, exulting in the hideous pomp of savage warfare. Mighty herds of buffalo cropped the grass where roll yon waves of golden grain. No hum of industry, no church-going bell, naught but the monotonous chant of the medi- cine men and the wild whoop of the warrior.
The deadly feud which has for ages decimated the rival nations who possessed this land, has yielded to the efforts of the missionary ; and their offspring today mingle at the altar their infant voices in the worship of the Christian's God.
The address of the bishop which followed was a vision of the future as that of General Cole had been of the past, from which we quote a few characteristic sentences.
"It is less than three years ago that there came to this village some loving hearts who desired to plant here a school for God. They came empty-handed and alone-no corps of teachers-no endowments-no glebes of land-no scrip or purse. He who watches every venture of faith was their protector and their guide.
"The schools we seek to rear are Christian schools. We would omit no branch of learning needed for the discipline of life; we would make these boys in all that makes man manly, men of mind, of strong wills, of patient spirit, of perse- vering toil-such men as mold the state. * We would * make these girls all that Christian daughters, Christian wives and Christian mothers ought to be.
"Ours is to be also a school of the Prophets. We seek to train up Christian teachers and send forth hence heralds of the cross. It was only yesterday that we began, and yet God has already sent to us from the workshop and the farm many young men in the pride of youthful vigor to be trained for the highest and holiest service found on earth.
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"There are here some children of the forest. Go with me to an Indian village ; see the childhood by the wigwam, untaught, untrained, naked, with heathenism stamped upon its face; re- member that these Indian children of the wigwam are born with an inheritance of disease, heathen degradation, and poverty and death; there is not a ray of light on their darkness; they will live and die without ever knowing of a Christ and Savior. Look on them as a Christian man will look, with a Christian heart. Come, now, while the teardrops linger in your eyes and the shadow of that darkness is on your heart, to a happier scene. Tell me if a world of labor is not more than paid to see these children of the red man rejoicing with other Christian children, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in their right mind? There is no Christian heart here today that is not the happier that these dear children are also lambs in our Christian school.
"You see here no college halls, no massive piles of costly buildings; there is seen by His eye which reads the secret thoughts a fairer temple being reared in children's hearts. This we have learned to do-to work on, hope ever, to believe with surest faith that the foundation laid for God shall yet be finished with rejoicing."
After a collation in the grove, Judge Atwater addressed the young men of the school in a few well-chosen words. The school year closed with the examination of the class in theology, conducted by Professor Manney in the presence of several of the clergy. About 150 students had been enrolled in the several departments during the school year just ended.
Faribault had now become the official center of the work of the Episcopal church in Minnesota and was attracting the atten- tion of churchmen outside the diocese. The bishop naturally became the head of the associate mission, which, after the ordi- nation of Enmegahbowh, consisted of Messrs. Breck, Manney. Peake and Enmegahbowh. The missionary paper, issued soon after the arrival of the bishop, gives the following as the first trustees of the Bishop Scabury Mission : H. B. Whipple, bishop of Minnesota; J. Lloyd Breck; S. W. Manney; E. S. Peakc. The bishop was president by virtue of his office, and Dr. Breck was made secretary, with the correspondence of the mission, and Dr. Manney treasurer. The articles of incorporation pro- vided for the addition of lay members. Sometime between October and December, 1861, the number was further increased by the election of the Rev. E. G. Gear, chaplain U. S .A., Fort Ripley ; Rev. D. B. Knickerbacker, of Minneapolis; Rev. E. P. Grey, of Shakopee ; Hon. H. T. Wells; Hon. E. T. Wilder, and Gen. N. J. T. Dana, U. S. A. In the Trinity issue of the mis-
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sionary paper, 1862, we find the additional names of Rev. E. R. Welles, of Red Wing, and C. W. Woolley, of St. Paul. In 1864 the name of the Rev. E. S. Peake reappears. In 1866 some changes had taken place from removals, and we find the name of the Rev. S. Y. McMaster added to the list in the missionary paper issued in the summer of that year. The number of trustees could be increased to twenty. A full list to the present time will be found at the end of this paper.
At the instance of the bishop, the title of the "Bishop Sea- bury University" was dropped and the simple name of grammar school used as expressing the real work done. Until 1865 the educational work was carried on in the plain building of wood in the town. In September, 1860, the bishop ordained the first graduates of Seabury Divinity school. Of these, two in num- ber, the Rev. George C. Tanner remained in the educational work and the Rev. Samuel D. Hinman was appointed the first missionary of our church to the Sioux, with residence at the "Lower" or "Redwood Agency," on the upper Minnesota river. This mission, named by Mr. Hinman "The Mission of St. John the Beloved Disciple," was never a part of the Bishop Seabury Mission, but was under the special care of Bishop Whipple.
The missionary paper of April, 1861, gives the following arrangement of the work :
"The freshman class numbers four, who are instructed by the Rev. Prof. Manney, of the theological department, and the Rev. G. C. Tanner, of the grammar school.
"The grammar school is under the head mastership of the Rev. G. C. Tanner, assisted by G. B. Whipple, Prof. Manney and several of the older students. During the Easter term, which has just closed, there were fifty-five scholars, eleven of whom are preparing for the ministry. There is also a girls' school attached to the mission, under the charge of Hannah De Lancey.
"The Indian department, known as Andrews hall, contains nineteen children and youth of both sexes, of the Chippewa and Dacotah nations, some of whom we hope will be messengers of peace to their own people.
"We have under our care sixteen young men whom we are educating for the sacred ministry."
The anniversary of 1861 was celebrated on the mission grounds, where the present Seabury hall stands, July 8. The opening address was made by the Hon. H. T. Welles, of Min- neapolis. His subject was "The Vocation of the Christian Scholar, His Relation to His Country and Its Government." He was followed by the Hon. Isaac Atwater, whose theme was "Christian Education" in the home and the school. Both ad-
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dresses were thoughtful and were listened to with profound interest. Want of space forbids any quotation.
At Easter, 1862, the missionary paper gives the following arrangement of the work for 1861-62:
"The divinity department remained the same as in I860-61. Rt. Rev. H. B. Whipple, D. D., professor of pastoral theology and pulpit eloquence; Rev. Solon W. Manney, A. M., professor of systematic divinity and acting, professor of ecclesiastical his- tory and exegesis; Rev. J. Lloyd Breck, D. D., professor of Biblical literature and the Book of Common Prayer. In the grammar school-Rev. George C. Tanner, A. M., professor of mathematics and languages; Enoch C. Cowan, head master. Andrews hall-Susan Phelps, matron ; Annie Bull, assistant and teacher. St. Columba Mission (Chippewa)-Rev. E. Steele Peake in charge, residing at Crow Wing; Rev. J. Johnson En- megahbowh, deacon, residing at Gull Lake.
The Dacotah Mission was not under the care of the Bishop Seabury Mission, but was under Bishop Whipple, and Mrs. Whipple continues to be the patroness of the work.
Mrs. Breck, who had been interested in the Chippewa work, passed away April 8, 1862, and now sleeps in the churchyard near St. James' school.
The only modification of the educational work for 1862-63 is: Grammar school, Rev. J. Lloyd Breck, D. D., rector, and the addition of Herbert Hubbell to the staff of teachers. Dr. Breck was rector of the parish.
The Christmas "Missionary" for 1863 gives: "Young ladies' school, Hannah De Lancey and S. P. Darlington, teachers. Miss Darlington was the daughter of Dr. Darlington, the scientist, of Philadephia, who had come to Minnesota for her health. She subsequently became the first principal of Saint Mary's hall. The Rev. Mr. Peake, who had been appointed chaplain of a Wisconsin regiment, had retired from the Chippewa Mis- sion in 1862.
In 1864 an advance was made in the educational work of the mission. The Rev. Elisha Smith Thomas, late bishop of Kan- sas, was elected professor of exegesis and Hebrew and entered upon his duties October, that year. In the grammar school, George P. Huntington, a gradute of Harvard University and a son of Bishop Huntington, is added to the staff. Mr. Hubbell retires in the carly part of the year. The Indian department has been dropped and Miss Phelps becomes matron of Seabury hall. Mr. Huntington had come to Minnesota for his health, but, failing to receive the expected benefit, remained but one year. The breaking out of the Civil War in 1861 was a critical period in the history of the mission. The churchmen of the South, notably
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of South Carolina, had been liberal supporters of the associate mission. This naturally ceased. The bishop had but lately come to the diocese. Yet, with a large-hearted faith, he decided to extend the scope of his work. July 16, 1862, he laid the corner- stone of the "Cathedral of Our Merciful Savior" with an appro- priate address, and the following day the cornerstone of Sea- bury hall for the Divinity school. These were the first perma- nent buildings of the mission, those hitherto erected being of wood. Seabury hall stood on the brow of the hill, north and south, west of the present Shattuck hall, and was to form one of a quadrangle. The funds for the erection of these buildings were contributed by the friends of the associate mission in the East. The same day was the fourth anniversary of the mission. The Rev. E. P. Grey, of Shakopee, and the Rev. Edward R. Welles of Red Wing, delivered the addresses.
About Christmas, 1864, the new Seabury hall was ready for occupancy and the students who had been boarding in the town removed to the hall. Professor Thomas was in charge as warden, residing in the hall. The educational work con- tinued to be carried on during the rest of the year in the school building in the town. The only bridges over the river were on Second and Fourteenth streets, and in high water the hall could be reached only by a cireuitous route or by boats. The usual method was by a plank across the stream near Ninth street. A thick forest covered the grounds in 1862, and the south end of the present campus was a swamp.
In the fall of 1865 a further change was made in the edu- cational work. A sehoolroom was fitted up on the third floor of Scabury hall and the Rev. George C. Tanner was appointed head master of the academical department, while Professor Thomas had the oversight of all the students as warden. This included the divinity students and all other students, outside of school hours, living on the grounds. This arrangement con- tinued until Easter, 1866, when the mission house, occupied by Dr. Breck, was burned, and residence had to be provided for him. Accordingly, Professor Thomas removed to the town, and Dr. Breck was made dean of the entire work, in residence in the hall.
The original plan of the associate mission contemplated the education of young men for the ministry, to which the academ- ical work was subsidiary. Mr. Breck had come to St. Paul in 1850 with the purpose of training up clergy for the Northwest. As Bishop Kemper thought it too early to plant another divinity school in the Northwest, Mr. Breck took up the Indian work. When driven out of the Indian country by drunken Indians, he returned to his original plan of a theological sehool. At the
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opening of the associate mission in 1858 there were no boarders save the young men looking forward to the ministry. These were members of Mr. Breck's family and occupied the dormitory near the mission house on the hill, and later boarded in the families of the bishop and clergy.
One important reason for selecting Faribault for the asso- ciate mission had been its location as a center for church work. In this particular Faribault was the most centrally located town in the territory. Work was begun at Northfield, Owatonna, Waterville, where parishes have been organized and churches built. The parish at Waseca is also the outgrowth of work begun at Wilton, where a church was erected in 1865. Other missions are Morristown, Warsaw, Elysian, Roberds' Lake, Cannon City and Dundas, in all of which churches have been built and services supplied by the clergy and students of Sea- bury hall, not to mention other points where occasional services have been held.
The second class to be ordained after completing their studies at Seabury consisted of George Brayton Whipple and Solomon S. Burleson, ordained September 28, 1863. Mr. Whipple had come to Faribault with his brother, the bishop, in 1860, and had taught in the grammar school while pursuing his studies, and among other important positions was later in charge of the parish and chaplain of St. Mary's hall. The largest class or- dained in the early history of the school was in 1867, among whom were James Dobbin, Charles Hurd Plummer and Enoch Crosby Cowan. The last named went with Dr. Breck to Cali- fornia; the two others have exercised their ministry in the diocese-Dr. Dobbin as the rector of Shattuck school, and Dr. Plummer for so many years as the beloved rector at Lake City. To give individual histories further would be impossible.
After Bishop Whipple came to Faribault some of his friends placed their sons in the school under his care. These occupied, temporarily, convenient rooms near and boarded in the bishop's family. The number grew when Seabury hall was completed, and was further increased with the facilities for taking care of them and with the reputation of the school. It was intended that the income from board and tuition should assist in defraying the expenses of educating the young men for the ministry. This condition of things continued until the burning of Seabury hall, Thanksgiving day, 1872, and the consequent separation of the schools. In the fall of 1866 Mr. Tanner was obliged to give up teaching on account of his health. Dr. Breck remained as dean until the close of the school year, when he resigned and removed to the Pacific coast. The same summer Mr. Dobbin, who had returned to Faribault in 1864, to pursue his theological
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studies, was ordained and placed in charge of Seabury hall and of the academical work. As the number of students increased, temporary provision was made for them. A frame building for a schoolroom and recitations had been erected in 1865, and other arrangements were made as circumstances required.
As the bishop went about the diocese he drew to Faribault the sons of prominent citizens in the state, and the school became known as the Bishop's school, a name by which it has always been recognized. This growth made a new building necessary. Accordingly, in 1869 a second permanent building was completed, and in honor of Dr. George C. Shattuck, of Boston, the largest donor, was named Shattuck hall, a name by which the school, as well as the hall, is known. The purpose of this building was for the grammar school exclusively.
No special changes which need be noticed here occurred until 1872, when Seabury hall was burned on Thanksgiving day. This resulted in the entire separation of the theological depart- ment from the grammar school. For the rest of the year the divinity students occupied temporary quarters until the present hall was completed. The new Seabury hall was opened Thanks- giving day, 1873. From 1872 the history of the two schools is treated separately, though both were under the direction of the corporation of the Bishop Seabury Mission.
Not only did the strong personality of Bishop Whipple im- press itself upon the mission, but the success of the schools is due to him in securing the necessary funds for carrying on the work. When the bishop came to Faribault he was compara- tively a stranger to the church outside of the parishes where he had ministered. During the first year of his episcopate he received about $600 for his work. The indebtedness of the Sea- bury Mission was probably more than the entire property would have brought at a forced sale. In 1862 he dared to lay the foundation of the cathedral and Seabury hall. In 1869 Shattuck hall was erected. During this time instructors had to be paid and outside work provided for. A library was needed. Hearing that the library at Palmyra College, Missouri, was to be sold, the bishop decided to purchase it for Seabury. This was further increased during his visit to England in 1864-65 by the gift of many valuable books. The Emperor of Russia, through Hiram Sibley, a friend of the bishop, presented a valuable copy of the "Codex Sinaiticus," one of the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament. Other additions have been made from time to time.
Thus far the students had assembled for worship in the schoolroom. In 1869-70, during his visit abroad, the bishop met his former parishioner, Mrs. Augusta M. Shumway, who became interested in his schools and was moved to erect a chapel as a
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memorial to a beloved daughter, lately deceased. Then came the Chicago fire. A person of less heroic devotion would have felt justified in giving up the work. But to her lasting honor, a pledge once made was more than fulfilled, and the chapel, though costing a much larger sum than at first pledged, was conse- crated by Bishop Whipple September 23, 1873.
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