USA > Missouri > Annals of Methodism in Missouri : containing an outline of the ministerial life of more than one thousand preachers, and sketches of more than three hundred ; also sketches of charges, churches and laymen from the beginning in 1806 to the centennial year, 1884, containing seventy-eight years of history > Part 25
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320
BRECKINRIDGE CIRCUIT.
Lineville, are new charges in it. The first and last abide, as does the district. The other two have taken other names. Wentzville, in the St. Charles district comes to stay. The only new appointment in the St. Louis Conference is West Plains, which has developed well. It is now a station. Warsaw district reappears and the name of Lebanon is changed to Rolla.
1869.
In the Missouri Conference we find for the first time Centralia, Ashland, Williamstown, Sioux City, Cameron and Stewartsville circuits, and Kahoka and Lathrop mis- sions. In the St. Louis Conference, Warsaw district disap- pears and Lexington district reappears. Fenton takes the name of Kirkwood, and Marble Hill comes in lieu of Dallas, alias Crooked Creek. Kirkwood developed slowly, but is now a fair charge. The fact that the last sermon Bishop Marvin preached was on the occasion of the dedication of the church there will make it immortal.
1870.
In the Missouri Conference Carrollton goes to the head of a district and is also made a station ; the circuit taking the name of Norborne. Pleasant Park and Salisbury are new circuits, in new districts. Osborn takes its place in Platts- burg district, and second charge in St. Joseph, in St. Joseph district ; also Winthrop mission. The St. Louis Conference was this year divided ; the other line beginning at the mouths of the Gasconade river, thence up said river to the mouth of Big Piney, thence up that stream to Cedar Bluffs, thence due south along range eleven to Arkansas. All east of this line to retain the old name and that west to be called West St. Louis Conference, which, in 1874, was changed to
321
IS70.
Southwest Missouri. In these annals the new Conference will be known as Southwest Missouri. In the St. Louis Conference this year the new names are: Cuba, Licking, Van Buren, Millersville and Patterson circuits.
Cuba was taken from Steelville and Licking from Waynesville. In the Southwest Missouri the new charges are: Brownsville and Blackwater, Grand Pass, Papinsville, Holden, Index, Pierce City, Humansville, Douglass and Mountain Store circuits, and Nevada becomes a station. Blackwater chapel is in Pettis county, and is not the old Blackwater church which is in Johnson county, about thirty miles farther west. It was organized in 1840, either by H. L. Dodd, then on Arrow Rock circuit, or by G. W. Bewly on the Lexington. Subsequently it belonged to Col- umbus and then to Warrensburg circuits. The charter mem- bers were : John Rice and wife, Mildred Litton, Luke Hall, George and Hezekiah Rice, M. J. Dunkley, B. Y. Chipman and a Mr. Jones, who was the class leader.
The first house of worship was built in 1856. The pres- ent beautiful chapel was erected in ISS2, and dedicated the next year by Dr. Hendrix, R. H. Shaeffer being the pastor at the time. The class recommended L. P. Siceleoff and Ely Johnson for license to preach.
A. F. Scruggs was a local preacher of great power and popularity. B. Y. Chipman is still the pillar of the church there. The Wheelers, Patricks, Greggs, Gibsons, and many others are remembered by former pastors.
Brownsville class was set off from Blackwater by W. B. McFarland in IS70. The charter members were : Fletcher Patrick and family, C. H. Wells and family, Wm. and Elb. Chapman and Benj. Smith. The church, a union
322
PAPINSVILLE CIRCUIT.
house belonging to us and the O. S. Presbyterians, was built in IS6S, and dedicated by Bishop Marvin in IS72. A good parsonage was built that year. C. H. Wells has been licensed to preach. J. W. Wilson and family, the friends of my boyhood, make the place pleasant to me.
Papinsville is a pleasant charge. I have not forgotten many acts of kindness shown me there. To write the names of all whom I remember there would make this sketch too long ; but they are in the book our Father keeps. I do not know when the church in Papinsville was built. That at Round Prairie was erected in ISTS, under the pastorate of L. W. Pearce. This circuit licensed Clinton Clenny, C. K. Elliott and W. H. Summy to preach. Index is a good cir- cuit, and Pierce City has developed into a station.
1871.
In the Missouri Conference for this year the districts were rearranged. Carrollton loses the honor which she had enjoyed but one year, and takes her place in the Chillicothe district, and Mexico and Gallatin districts appear, making nine, since which time there have been no changes in names and number.
Moberly is made a station, Knoxville, Gosneyville and Haynesville circuits, and Nineveh and Perche missions appear on the list of charges. No new appointments in the St. Louis Conference, but eleven come to the front in the South- west Missouri. They are: Sedalia and Waverly stations, Clinton and Windsor, LaMonte, Aullville, Santa Fe, Lee's Summit, Pink Hill, Montrose, Chalk Level circuits and Golden City mission. Southern Methodism has had to struggle for existence in Sedalia ..
323
IS72.
The first citizens were mostly from the north, the city having originated during the war, and Northern Methodism has always been in the ascendancy. Under and by the per- sistent efforts of Preston Philips, then a local preacher living there, a small class was collected and a church built about 186S or '9. Since then a small but neat parsonage has been built in the rear of the church. During the last three years, under the energetic labors of Bro. Browne, the church has grown till it is now much in need of another house of wor- ship. Waverly has been one of the pluckiest stations in the Conference. I believe it pays more missionary money per capita than any other charge. Clinton has been noticed. Windsor is an old Methodist town, but has been subjected to many changes. LaMonte, Lee's Summit and Pink Hill have developed into good circuits. All have parsonages and churches.
1872.
In the Missouri Conference the new charges for this year are: Cedar City, Forest City, Hamburg, Graham, Alenthus grove, Flagg spring, Trenton, Jamesport and Grant City. Shelbyville is made a station.
In the St. Louis Conference, the St. Louis circuit, after remaining intact for sixty-four years-since ISoS,-yielded to the inevitable and lost its identity; in lieu of which we have Bellefontaine, Eden and Bridgeton. Bridgeton was immortalized by having Frank Morris for its first pastor and being his last charge and an appointment in his first.
The new appointments in the Southwest Missouri Con- ference are : Chapel hill and Stoutland. Neosho enters the list of stations. Chapel hill church is a union affair, in which the best conditions of church growth are never found.
324
SUMMARY.
Basin Knob dates back to the forties. It is a good place because Jackson Longaker, Uncle Billy Hays, James Sanders, and many, many others whose names are lovingly remem- bered, live round about there. This was the headquarters of W. M. Pitts. Bethel is not so old, nor is Sny Mills. This circuit was my last pastoral charge, and I must refrain from writing names, else I would write too many. 1873.
The new charges in the Missouri Conference this year are Vandalia and Polo. Fulton becomes a station, and second charge in St. Joseph takes the name of Arch street.
In the St. Louis Conference the name of Poplar bluff is given to the old Greenville district. The new charges are : Sinking creek, Piedmont, Coldwater and Belmont. The only new charge I note in the Southwest Missouri Confer- ence is the Henderson circuit.
1874.
No new charge in the Southwest Missouri Conference this year, but one-Renick-in the Missouri, and two-Pine forest and Libertyville-in the St. Louis.
Here endeth this section.
CHAPTER X.
The end of all things is at hand, Be sober and watch unto prayer.
The figures on the page of my manuscript admonish me to make this chapter short. In it the two sections shall be blended in one.
1875.
The Missouri Conference this year admitted eight on trial and re-admitted one. The St. Louis admitted three on trial, re-admitted one, and received one by transfer. The Southwest Missouri admitted four on trial. Of the eighteen, four discontinued, one was expelled, five have have located, two have been transferred, one-James A. Carter-has died, and the others are yet in the field ; one who located and one who transferred have returned.
BRO. CARTER traveled nine years nominally, but really many more. He was a long time a local preacher and often supplied circuits. I knew him long, intimately and well. He was an excellent man, a consistent Christian, a good preacher, and a useful laborer in the Lord's vineyard. He had an older brother, Valentine, who was one of the most powerful preachers that ever lived in Crawford county. They were Tennesseeans.
The new charges this year are: Bedford, Craig, La- mar and New London, in the Missouri Conference ; Com-
326
ASH GROVE CIRCUIT.
merce, in the St. Louis ; and Morrisville station and Walker and Ash Grove circuits, in the Southwest Missouri. Ash Grove is a part of the old Springfield circuit, has a good par- sonage and is a good circuit. Walker was taken from the Nevada circuit and has developed slowly. Morrisville is a plucky station.
1876.
Seventeen were admitted on trial this year; four by the St. Louis, which also received two by transfer, and nine by the Southwest Missouri. Of the nineteen, one discontinued, one has been expelled, one has transferred, three have located, two, A. T. Lewis and W. C. Bone, have died, leav- ing eleven in the Conferences.
The new charges are Brussells, Hopkins, Jamison and Scottsville in the Missouri, and Lane's Prairie in the St. Louis. Poplar Bluff is made a station.
1877.
The Missouri Conference admitted seven on trial, the St. Louis four, and received one by transfer, and the South- west Missouri admitted seven on trial, readmitted one, and received one by transfer. Of the twenty-one, three discon- tinued, three have been transferred, four have located and three-A. Early, W. R. Craven and J. G. Wilson -have died. Ten are yet members of the Conferences, two that left having returned.
We note seven new charges this year, four in the Mis- souri and three in the St. Louis. They are: Readville, De Witt, Triplet, Davis, Page Avenue, Clarkton and Spring Valley.
327
1878.
1878.
This year the Missouri Conference admitted eight on trial, readmitted two and received three by transfer ; while only two knocked at the door of each of the other Confer- ences for admission on trial, and the Southwest Missouri received one by transfer. Of the eighteen, half abide in the field, while five discontinued, two transferred, and two- A. W. Smith and L. W. Swayne-have stacked their arms, having finished their warfare. The new names of charges are Oxford in the Missouri, Neelyville in the St. Louis, and Burdet and Brownington in the Southwest Missouri.
1879.
The Missouri Conference received two on trial and one by transfer ; the St. Louis, six on trial and two by transfer, and the Southwest Missouri, two on trial and one by read- mission ; only fourteen in all. Of these, one has with- drawn, two have been transferred, and the other eleven are still among the toilers. Only four new charges appear, two in the Missouri and one in each of the other Conferences. They are: Avenue Chapel, St. Joseph, (now Hundly), Lorraine, Marquand and Cold Water.
1880.
Eighteen new names were enrolled this year. The Missouri admitted four on trial, readmitted one, and received two by transfer. Each of the other Conferences admitted five on trial, and one came to the Southwest Missouri by transfer. Of them, four discontinued, one returned whence he came, two have located, two-W. E. Stewart and Josiah Godby, Sr.,-have died, one-L. A. Smith-disappeared in ISS2, and the others are still "gathering sheaves." In the
328
CHILHOWIE CIRCUIT .
Missouri Conference, the new appointments are : Lawson, Tenny's Point, DeKalb and Lindly. In the St. Louis he have Sligo, Sikeston, Piketon and Ash Hill; and in the Southwest Missouri, Washington Avenue (Kansas City), Chilhowie, Herndon, Slater, Plato, Colesburg and Garden City. The Lawson class was first organized at the Jefferson school house in 1860, by Geo. Huffaker, a L. P. The Crowlys, Jameses, Youngs and others make Lawson a good place. Chilhowie, like, Lawson, has a Union church, but there are some excellent people there and round about there. The same at Bear Creek, where the church was organized away back in the forties, and recommended A. M. Rader for license to preach. Old Prairie View, a Methodist church, has recently been rebuilt in the village of Norris. Now the names come trooping up, but want of space forbids. Yet this book would be incomplete without the name of Uncle Dan McIntyre. Then Waugh, Boocher, Stark, Beard-but my page is full. Fairview class was organized in the house of the Widow McCowan, and was composed of himself, Col. James McCowan and wife, Margaret McFarland and I. A. Rader, by D. S. Capell in 1845. Slater church was built in I879 at a cost of $1,600, and dedicated the next year by Dr. McAnally. It is the outcome ot the old Mt. Horeb class, of which the Dugginses, Bridges, Woodwards, Pulliams and Jacksons were members. L. Pulliam and E. W. Woodward are preachers from this class. Herndon class was organized by A. M. Rader in IS66. R. P. Wall and wife, W. G. Boatright and wife, Al. Hudson and wife, Jas. Ashman, B. Riggins. Mrs. Crawford, Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Marshall were the charter members. The church was built in IS6S, and dedicated in 1878 by M. M. Pugh. Rose Valley class
329
ISSI.
was organized by C. H. Wells, L. P. J. C .. J. A. and Dora Sink, W. and E, Rothrock, L. and S. Ezell and B. F. Burford were the members. The church was built in ISSo, and cost $900.
1881.
The Missouri Conference admitted four on trial this year and two came by transfer. The St. Louis admitted three and the Southwest Missouri eight, and received five trans- fers ; a total of twenty-one. Four discontinued, two have withdrawn, one has located and fourteen are faithful to their calling. No new charge in the Missouri Conference ; one (Valley Mines) in the St. Louis and three-Lydia Avenue, in Kansas City (now Centenary), Higginsville and Cross Timbers-in Southwest Missouri. Centenary Church, in Kansas City, has had a most rapid and substantial growth. The first house of worship (a frame building) was burned. The present is a substantial and elegant brick building. It has had but two pastors, C. C. Woods and J. W. Lorance. Higginsville class was organized in 1872, by E. W. Wood- ward, and was composed of Mrs. Swacker and daughter, Mrs. McCorcle and daughter, and Mr. Schooling. The church was built in ISSo, under the pastorate of W. B. McFarland. Swacker, Catron, Neal and Wade are its lead- ing members.
1882.
The Missouri Conference admitted four on trial, the St. Louis two, and received two by transfer, while ten knocked at the door for admission into the Southwest Missouri, and six stepped in through the open door of transfer. Of the twenty- four, five discontinued, one has located, and the other eighteen are still in the field. The new charges are: Prai-
330
SUMMARY.
rieville, West Nodaway and Albany Station, in the Missouri Conference : Maynard, Bonne Terre and Siloam Springs, in the St. Louis, and Fairmount, Elston, Bunceton, Seymour and Rich Hill, in the Southwest Missouri. Some are simply new names for old charges.
1883.
This year the Missouri Conference admitted six on trial and four came in by transfer ; St. Louis, five on trial and five transfers ; Southwest Missouri, nine on trial and five trans- fers ; a total of thirty-four-the largest number received in any one year, except 1871, when thirty-six joined. Thirty are still in the Conferences in Missouri, one is in the Denver Conference and the other two have discontinued. The new names of charges in the Missouri Conference are: Elmo, Hardin, Edgerton, Kearney and Perry. In the St. Louis we have: Allenville and White Mill Station. In the Southwest Missouri : Kansas City Mission, Freeman, Altoona, Odessa, Jasper City and Sheldon.
In 1815 John Vanderpool, the first white settler in Ray county, pitched his tent on Crooked River, where Buffalo Bridge now is. Hardin is a little east of the bridge. It has a good Methodist church and society. The first county seat of Ray was Bluffton, near where Camden now is. The church was organized at Camden in the thirties. It is a mining town, and the church is wanting in stability. Father Quisenberry, a local preacher living in Richmond, preached the first sermon in Camden Bend (the Bottom), and organ- ized a class there early in the forties. Under the pastorate of E. T. Ingle, in ISS2, a neat chapel was erected, and dedi- cated by M. B. Chapman. The church at Orrick was also built the same year, by the same man.
331
ISS4.
1884.
The roll shows that ten new members were added to the Missouri Conference this year, one of which was by transfer. The St. Louis admitted four, and received three transfers. In the Southwest Missouri the applicants are five and the transfers two ; making a class of twenty-four with which to close the roll on Centennial year. The first man on the roll (W. McKendree) was a moral Hercules. The name of the last one means something with which to raise heavy weights. It is fitting to add that the author of this book baptized this young man in his infancy.
Only one new charge in the Missouri Conference this year (O'Fallon), which was probably an appointment in the old Missouri circuit, formed by Travis in 1So6. Old things sometimes become new. No new charge in the St. Louis Conference. In the Southwest Missouri we have Holmes Chapel and Brooklyn Avenue, in lieu of Kansas City Mis- sion. Hume and Sprague take the place of the old, historic, Little Osage circuit, which is committed to the keeping of the Annals of Methodism in Missouri. Further on we have Clinton district, and in it two new charges-Lowry City and Green Ridge. There is one other new name. a fitting one with which to close these sketches. It is Climax.
"Behold what God hath wrought!"
CHAPTER XI.
-
EDUCATION.
We can scarcely think of a sentient being more abso- lutely devoid of knowledge than one of the human species just born ; yet we certainly know of none with greater capac- ities for the acquisition of knowledge ; with possibilities for continuous, endless attainments. Every man has learned all he knows. Knowledge is the product of thinking. Think- ing comes from the contact of the mind with objects without itself. It is doubtful whether the mind could originate thought, but for its contact with an object. There is some- thing in heredity, but more in environment. "Blood will tell," but education makes the man. This begins the day he is born and continues through all time. Of all the lessons he may learn, none are more important than those he first learns. This imposes responsibilities on parents, the divinely appointed teachers of their children, that but few have real- ized. Many, if not most men and women think their obli- gations to their children have been fully met when they have provided food and raiment for them. As to their education the state has made provision for that and to the state they relegate all responsibility on that subject.
Is this as it ought to be? Very true most parents have not the time and many of them have not the capacity to teach
333
I S4S.
their children as they should be taught, and are therefore under the necessity of providing suitable persons qualified to teach them. This creates the necessity for schools, and out of it our school system has been evolved.
Experience has shown that schools succeed better when directed by some organized power. Hence the state and the church are looked to as the proper agents to direct the work of education. But which? The answer of this question depends on what it takes to make a man. If man is only an animal, then the obligations of parents do not go beyond feeding and clothing their offspring.
If in addition to this he has a mental nature, but nothing more, then their duties have been discharged when the cul- ture of the mind has been provided for, which the state may do. But if in addition to these, he has a spiritual, a religious nature, then their obligations have not been met until pro- vision has been made for the development of this, the most important factor in his nature, and this the state cannot do.
It is right for the state to assist parents in the clementary education of their children where religious subjects are not taught. The children being at home, can be instructed in religion by their parents. Our public school system is an important factor of our government and should have the hearty support of all good citizens. Further than the public school the state should not go. The work of higher educa- tion belongs to the church and not to the state. The following reasons prove to me most conclusively the correctness of this statement.
First, it is not right to require the poor to pay for the education of the rich; yet this is what higher educa- tion, by the state, does. The poor cannot send their children
33
EDUCATIONAL.
abroad to be educated ; yet they have to pay taxes to support state institutions. There are in Missouri 916,565 children of school age. There were 683 students from Missouri in the state university last year. Including other state institu- tions, possibly 2000 students were the beneficiares of tuition paid by the state. This leaves 914,565 who receive no benefit though their parents paid their part of the tuition, which is manifestly unjust and wrong.
But I have a second and more potent reason for the position assumed. It is this: The state cannot conduct higher education without either going beyond its prerogative and teaching religion, or else by excluding religion make its curriculum too narrow to make a man. Man is a three fold being, having a physical, a mental and a religious nature. If any of these be neglected in his education, his education is incomplete and he is dwarfed. But the state cannot teach religion. This is the prerogative of the church. IIence state institutions can only develop the physical and intellectual parts of a man and thereby dwarf, by neglect, the religious- the higher part.
It is by this method that rascals are made. Conscienceless men are dangerous.
State education is necessarily narrow. Only a church school can have a curriculum broad enough to make a com- plete man. The church that has no school is doomed to extinction. Rev. J. H. Pritchett, A. M., uses the following forcible language on this subject :
The question, "Who shall educate our children?" is by.no means an insignificant or a slumbering one. It is both leading and living; and the practical answer given to it by those to whom God has commit- ted those children, will decide, unappealably, our social, political and
335
ST. CHARLES COLLEGE.
ecclesiastical future. I would awaken thought and feeling and action touching this most important matter, especially on the part of those who acknowledge allegiance to Jesus, the Christ.
The term, education, in its best sense involves the ideas both of developments, and furnishing, and applies as fully to the moral as to the intellectual part of man's nature. Its curriculum includes all that man may become, as well as all that he may learn in a state of probation. Any theory of education that ignores or fails to provide for any essential part of man's complex constitution or complicated relationship, is inherently, radically, fatally defective. Any theory of education that fails, either by omission, or by positive provision otherwise, to make moral character and destiny its obective point, is a deception, delusion, a snare; in short, any system of education that sacrifices a complete manhood, either to a partial manhood or to any of the mere accidents of that manhood, is a calamity, a plague spot, a curse. The Spartan, the Napoleonic, the modern utilitarian theo- ies all fall under the ban of these strictures. The too prevalent idea that any amount of any kind of education is profitable, hence desira- ble, is fraught with more essential evil to society than any amount of ignorance of the three "R's" can possibly be. "He who acquires an education, no matter how limited or how extensive, at the expense of his morals, is the worse for his education," and so is society.
If the view of the nature and the scope of education here set forth is correct, then I am justified in saying that education, in all its higher aspects, is not only unquestionably but exclusively the prerog- ative of the church.
Methodism, which was born in one of the greatest uni- versities in the world, has always been the friend, patron and promoter, of education. Soon after its birth Mr. Wesley projected Kingswood school. So also did Bishops Coke and Asbury inaugurate Cokesbury College, soon after the organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States.
ST. CHARLES COLLEGE.
As early as 1827 the Missouri Conference began to plan for a Methodist school in Missouri, but not
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