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 26
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EDUCATIONAL.
until 1835 did the plans take concrete form. That year the Conference, held at Arrow Rock camp ground, projected St .. Charles College, which was chartered in 1837 and the Col -. lege was opened with Rev. J. H. Fielding, President. This. school was partially endowed by a Mrs. Collier. It did well until the war. Then it got into the courts and suffered from .. litigation. For some years past it has had peace and pros- perity, and is probably now in better working order than it ever was. It has an endowment of $23,000. The- property value is $15,000. J. A. Lanius, a son of one of. he old preachers, is its President.
CENTRAL COLLEGE.
The people of Fayette, Missouri began to agitate. the question of building a high school there in 1840. In IS44 W. T. Lucky opened Howard High School with six students. It was under the care of the Mis -. souri Conference. The St. Louis Conference, at its session in Lexington in 1852, called for an Educational Convention to provide for the establishment of a College of the highest grade. The Missouri Conference, held in St. Joseph two weeks later, joined in'the call and the convention thus provided for, met in the city of St. Louis, April, 1853, of which Rev. D. R. McAnally, D. D., was President and Rev. N. Scar -- ritt, Secretary. This convention projected Central College, which was located after an animated debate between E. M. Marvin and W. G. Caples, at Fayette, Caples winning. P. M. Pinckard and W. M. Prottsman were the first agents. Soon the present College edifice was erected and the school was opened under the Presidency of Rev. N. Scarritt. The building involved the church in debt under which it groaned. for many years, and from which it was finally relieved by E. R. Hendrix, while he was President.
337
HOWARD-PAYNE COLLEGE.
A second convention was held in Fayette in June, 1868, of which Bishop Marvin was president and W. M. Protts- man, secretary, and by which Rev. W. A. Smith, D. D., was elected president of the college, who soon raised an endowment fund of $100,000. It now has $110,000 invested as endowment. Rev. J. D. Hammond, D. D., is now presi- dent. Rev. W. H. Anderson, D. D., Rev. C. C. Morrison, D. D., Rev. J. C. Wills, D. D., and Rev. E. R. Hendrix, D. D .. have been presidents in former years.
A third convention was held in Fayette, June, 1876, of which Rev. N. Scarritt was president and Rev. W. M. Protts- man was secretary. The fourth also met there, November, IS91. Of this Bishop E. R. Hendrix was president and Rev. C. M. Hawkins was secretary. This convention provided for an Educational Conference, the first session of which was held in Lexington in June, 1893. This Conference is composed of delegates from all the annual Conferences in Missouri, as the conventions had also been.
HOWARD-PAYNE COLLEGE.
Central College, having been located at Fayette, the seat of Howard High school, absorbed the male patronage of that institution, and it became a female school, from which has come, largely through the liberality of Rev. Moses U. Payne, Howard-Payne College, of which Rev. H. D. Groves, A. M., is president.
Out of W. T. Lucky's school of six pupils in 1844 has come Central College and Howard Payne College, with a combined patronage of about four hundred students. The property value of the first, which belongs to the three Con- ferences in Missouri, is $80,000. That of the second, which belongs to the Missouri Conference, is $40,000.
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Rev. W. H. Lewis, D. D., conducted a female school in IS42 and 1843, in old Monticello, near Glasgow.
SHELBYVILLE HIGH SCHOOL.
In 1850 a brick building was erected in Shelbyville, where a successful institution was conducted ten years under the name of Shelbyville High School. Since the war it has been succeeded by what is now called Centenary High School, located at Palmyra, and of which Rev. C. R. Forster, A. M., is now principal. The property is valued at $3,000. I think it belongs to the Hannibal district.
MACON DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL
was first located in Bloomington, where the work of educa- tion was carried on by it for many years. It is now domi- ciled in Clarence. The property is worth $13,000, and be- longs to Macon district. Rev. P. D. Shultz has just resigned the principalship.
THE CHILLICOTHE DISTRICT
one year ago projected a school at Humphreys, with J. S. Herrington, principal, in a building given to the district, worth $6,000.
NORTHWEST MISSOURI COLLEGE.
The Gallatin and St. Joseph Districts have jointly engaged in a school enterprise, located at Albany, known as Northwest Missouri College, of which W. H. Pritchett, A. M., is president.
WOODSON COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE.
Early in the fifties a high school was established at Weston and another at Plattsburg while W. G. Caples was on the Weston district, but they have long since ceased to be. The Plattsburg district, however, is now wrestling with the great problem. An excellent building has been erected
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CENTRAL FEMALE COLLEGE.
in Richmond-one of tho best in the West-the property of the Plattsburg district, to be known as Woodson Collegiate Institute.
CENTRAL FEMALE COLLEGE.
As we are now close to Lexington, we will cross the river and write up Central Female College, which, like Cen- tral College, is the joint property of the three Conferences in Missouri.
In 1870 the citizens of Lexington determined to establish in their town a Methodist school for the education of their daughters. A spacious brick residence was secured and the school was opened under the name of Marvin Female Insti- tute. Soon after the Masons of Missouri gave them the Ma- sonic College building and grounds, to which the school was removed. On this enterprise the three Conferences in Mis- souri united in order to build up a first-class college for the purpose of educating the Methodist girls of the state. The building was enlarged, but not without grappling with a worrying debt, But, with the aid of Dr. Scarritt, W. B. Palmore and others, that has been cancelled, and the prop- erty, now worth $50,000, is unincumbered. J. O. Church, WV. T. J. Sullivan, W. G. Miller, W. F. Kerdolf and A. A. Jones have been its presidents. The last now is.
Dr. W. H. Lewis conducted a school for young ladies in Independence for a number of years.
SOUTHWEST MISSOURI HIGH SCHOOL.
More than half a century ago the subject of education by the church was inaugurated in the extreme southwest part of the state. At a quarterly Conference for Springfield circuit, held at Ebenezer camp ground, August 15, 1842, the following was adopted :
1
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EDUCATIONAL.
"Resolved, That in the opinion of this Conference, it is highly necessary that we take into consideration the estab- lishment of a high school somewhere in the Ebenezer neigh- borhood, on the manual labor system." J. K. Lacy was presiding elder, and S. S. Colburn preacher in charge. Rev. J. H. Slavens, M. D., was appointed agent. He was suc- ceeded by Hon. L. H. Simms, M. C. Two years later the Conference was in session three days, grappling with this question. The name of the contemplated institution was changed from Southwest Missouri high school to Southwest Missouri college. Rev. B. McCord Roberts, J. S. Waddill, Esq., and Rev. R. A. Foster were appointed .to draft a plan for the building, and Rev. H. G. Joplin was appointed agent. Subsequently, Rev. E. B. Headlee served as agent. A frame building, two stories high, containing three rooms, was erected at Ebenezer in 1847 by Joseph Evans, in which the second session of the St. Louis Conference was held in September, 1847, Bishop W. Capers presiding. The school was first opened in March, 1848, with Rev. A. H. Mathis, A. M., president, assisted by John McNeil and Miss Maria Mathis. A few years later an additional building ' was erected and the school was continued with varied success up to the war. The property belonged to the church. Every person connected with the inauguration and early manage- ment of the school has passed away, and the pupils that yet live are old men and women. An effort was made after the war to resuscitate the school, but failed.
MORRISVILLE COLLEGE.
In 1871 an educational convention for the Springfield district was held in Bolivar, of which W. M. Prottsman was president and C. H. Briggs secretary. This convention
34I
SCARRITT COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE.
decided to re-establish a district school, and located the same at Pleasant Prairie church, in Polk county, twelve miles north of Ebenezer. Morris Mitchell gave the land for the school, because of which the institution was named Morris- ville Institute. As the sketch of Pleasant prairie church was on the last pages of the sketch of Bolivar circuit, I repro- duce it as far as I can from memory here.
Samuel and Sarah Mackey, who were among the char- ter members of Springfield class, moved to this neighbor- hood in 1832. About the same time Reuben Ruyle settled there. The two families constituted the first class, which was organized, I think, in 1833. Arthur and Sarah Ewing, George and B. C. Mitchell and Gideon Ruyle were soon added to the class. These soon after married and their wives became members. The first place of worship was a small, round log house, a mile east of where Morrisville now is. The second was a hewed log house, that stood just a little north of where the college now stands. The third was a frame building. This was burned and the college chapel is now used as place of worship. I suppose the college building was erected in IS72. The school was first called Morrisville collegiate institute, and was the property of the Springfield district. It is now known as Morrisville college, and belongs to the Southwest Missouri Conference, and is worth $10,000. Prof. Wigfield, Revs. W. C. Montgom- ery, W. C. Godbey and J. B. Ellis have been (the last still is) its presidents. The college was incorporated in 1889. B. W. Applebey, president ; W. W. Ellis, treasurer; and B. W. Mitchell, secretary of the board of Curators.
SCARRITT COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE.
Steps were taken by the quarterly Conference of Neosho circuit, held at Locust grove, February 9, 1878, to establish
342
EDUCATIONAL.
a school for the Neosho district. The fourth quarterly Con- ference elected H. W. Webster, O. A. Moss, L. M. Lloyd, A. M. Sevier, I. B. Jones, Joseph Cravens, R. J. Hender- son, A. W. Chenoweth and I. F. Garner trustees for the Neosho district seminary. This was done in Neosho, August 12, 1878. Said board immediately bought a brick dwelling house for the school, elected Prof. D. M. Conway principal, who opened the school in September. This school, now known as Scarritt collegiate institute, has come up through varied experiences of failures and success, not escaping the inevitable debt. The presidents have been : Revs. Geo. H. Williamson, W. C. Montgomery, A. B. Miller and C. C. Woods. The school is housed in substan- tial brick buildings. 1
The Board of Curators was incorporated by filing their articles in the office of the Secretary of State, on September 17, ISSS, the names of the gentlemen composing the first board being as follows: Arch. M. Sevier, W. Ed. Hall, Wm. A. Daugherty, Nathan Scarritt, John M. Sherwood, Orville P. Hawkins, Thomas R. Easterday, Corona H. Briggs, Lee B. Smith, Joseph King, John C. Hermes and Bailie P. Armstrong.
The name of the school comes from the contribution of a' large sum of money (I have forgotten the amount) to relieve it of debt by Rev. N. Scarritt, D.D. It has an endowment of $10,000, the gift of Mr. and Mrs. W, E. Hall, of Carthage, Mo. The school belongs to the South- west Missouri Conference, and is worth $30,000.
COTTY COLLEGE.
Miss Alice V. Cotty, for a number of years teacher of mathematics in Central Female College, conceived the idea
343
ARCADIA HIGH SCHOOL.
of establishing a school for the education of girls at Nevada, Mo. She associated her sisters with her, and they erected suitable buildings adjoining that beautiful town, where they have for about ten years been conducting, most successfully, Cotty College Institute, of which Mrs. A. V. Cotty Stockard is presideni. It is under the patronage of the Southwest Missouri Conference.
About one year ago steps were taken to inaugurate a High School at Sprague, in Bates county, for the Nevada district. Rev. M. T. Fulcher was made principal of it.
ARCADIA HIGH SCHOOL.
The most beautiful valley in this state, so far as my knowledge extends, is on Stout's Creek, in Iron county, and is called Arcadia. Here Rev. J. C. Berryman established, in 1847, the Arcadia High School. It was an individual enterprise, but, to all intents and purposes, a Methodist school. For many years it was prosperous, and accom- plished an incalculable amount of good. In 1867 Mr. Ber- ryman sold his valuable property. Subsequently it was bought by the Methodist church; the name changed to Arcadia College, a large brick building erected, involving the church in debt, to liquidate which the institution had to be sold, which was purchased by the Catholic church, and thereby the finest location for an institution of learning in the state was lost to Methodism.
BELLEVUE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE.
In 1867, immediately after Mr. Berryman sold the Arcadia school, a stock company was formed in the Bellevue valley, and a substantial brick building was erected in the town of Caledonia, in which the Bellevue Collegiate Insti- tute was opened that fall under the direction of Professor
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EDUCATIONAL.
Newland. The Methodist church was the patron of the school from the beginning, and the stockholders soon after deeded the property to the church. It is now worth $18,000 and belongs to the St. Louis Conference. Rev. Nelson R. Henry, a son of one of the pioneer preachers, is now the president of it.
Rev. J. E. Godby, D.D., conducted a school for several years in Washington, Franklin county. There was also a Methodist school for a while in Charleston.
Before closing this chapter I deem it due to myself to say that the chapter on education, prepared when this book was written, has been lost, with some other items of the original manuscript, and that this has been prepared since half the book was put in type, at intervals between reading proof and with insufficient data. As it has been written mostly from memory, more than likely some of the statements may be incorrect. It has, however, the advantage over the original chapter in this-that it brings the history of our educational work down to date. So far as I have seen the catalogues for the past year, they indicate that the year was one of unusual prosperity. But as I am from home, and have not access to the catalogues for the year just past, I give a summary for the preceding year, taken from the minutes of the Confer- ences. There are now fourteen colleges, institutes and high schools owned and controlled by the M. E. Church (South) in Missouri. Of five I have no means of learning the prop- erty value. The aggregate value of the other nine is $212,- 000; endowments $143,000. Eight of them show 78 teachers and 1,540 pupils.
CHAPTER XIL.
MISSIONS.
"Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased." Christianity provides for its promulgation to all the world. This is one evidence that it is divine. Its author commanded his disciples to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." This mandate has reverberated through the church in all ages, and is still the marching orders of all who love the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Christian, religion is a life, a new, a spiritual, a divine life. Life is essentially and necessarily active. Do or die are the only alternatives of living organisms. The first desire of every new-born soul, of every human being who realizes that "Christ, the hope of glory," is formed within him, is . that others, all men everywhere, may become partakers of "a like precious faith,"-may have the same, sweet, joyous experience. This new-born desire is inherent in the new life, and in its gratification the soul is expanded, the divine life is developed and the truth is finally realized that "they that turn many to righteousness shall shine as stars forever and ever. The church, which is composed of persons with such impulses, must provide for aggressive movement, else it will die. It must go into "the regions beyond," or die at home.
The Methodist Church originated with the grandest religious movement the world has witnessed since the apos-
340
MISSIONS.
tolic days. Although the missionary fire burned in the bones of the apostles, and they traveled extensively, Paul being the greatest missionary the world has ever known, yet one thing was wanting to enable the Church to carry the "Gospel to every creature." That was organization ; means by which the divinely given forces of the church could be conserved and directed in the conversion of the world. Wesley, the most efficient organizer the church has ever known, and who said, "the world is my parish," compassed this largely by { the itinerant system of preaching the Gospel, which he- inaugurated. This however, was the only apostolic method revived. It soon sent streams of salvation all over England, and anon the river of life, through this channel, reached America, and dwellers in the new world found pardon and peace in drinking of the streams which make glad the "City of God." The Methodist Episcopal Church was organized during a Conference held in Baltimore, beginning December 27, 1784. There and then Bishop Coke, whom Mr. Wesley had but recently ordained and sent to America, took up a missionary collection, which amounted to $150, and with which he immediately sent two preachers to Nova Scotia. So far as I know, this is the only instance in which a church projected a foreign mission at the time of its organ- ization. Twenty-four years after this. the South Carolina Conference sent two missionaries to preach to the slaves and one to plant Methodism in Alabama. The itinerancy brought the preachers into contact with the Indian tribes. In 1817 the Lord wonderfully opened the door for the preach- ing of the Gospel to them.
This led to the organization, in 1819, in the city of New York, of the Methodist Missionary and Bible Society. This.
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MISSOURI CONFERENCE MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
same year-1819-Jesse Walker was appointed missionary in Missouri. This is the first time the word occurs in the Annals of Methodism in Missouri. This appointment was repeated the next year and in 1821 we have: "St. Louis Mission, J. Walker." Nothing more is said about missions till 1830. 'This year the Conference met in St. Louis, during which the Missouri Conference Missionary Society was organized. It was during this session that the conference was visited by two Flat Head Indians from Oregon, who had heard that the white men had a book that told about the Great Spirit and another world and came across the Rocky mountains on foot in search of the same. No wonder that a missionary society was organized and four missions projected among the Indians, to two of which two brothers, Thomas and William Johnson were sent. Four missions in the des- titute parts of the state were also planned. They were Salt River, in North Missouri, West Prairie in the Southeast part of the state and Gasconade and James Fork of White river in the Southwest. The missionaries were, E. T. Peery, W. Heath and C. Eaker. James Fork was not supplied until IS31, when J. H. Slavens was sent to it and its history began. The three first named were made circuits the next year, and the other in 1833 when North Grand River mission was inaugurated with J. M'Mahan in charge.
In 1832, the General Conference put the following in the form of business of the Annual Conferences :
"Question sixteen. (It is now 29.) What has been contributed for the support of missons?" (It also then included Bibles and tracts. ) The first answer to this ques- tion by the Missouri Conference was in 1833 and was, "For missions, $213.75. (Four cents per capita. ) For publishing
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MISSIONS.
fund $9." The next year $202.97 were reported, being five per cent. less than the first collection. In 1835 again 157 per cent. was realized, the report being $515.86. In 1836 the per cent. of increase was fifty-four ; 1837, the report shows a decrease of forty-seven per cent. and no collection for 1838 reported. But in 1839-the centennial of the organization of the first Methodist Society in London-a wonderful bound forward was made, the collections amounting to $1,305.87, a gain of 234 per cent. over the last report, being eleven cents for each white member.
Ten years out of fifty-two, no collections are reported. Of the forty-two years in which collections were taken, six- teen show a decrease compared with the previous year and the other twenty-six an increase.
In 1860 this Conference paid nearly thirty-five cents for each white member, in ISSo it paid twenty-five cents, and in 1884, thirty-eight cents per capita. It paid in forty-two years, $143,927. 17, an average of $3.426.83 per year.
The St. Louis Conference has no report ten years out of thirty-nine. Fourteen other years show a decrease and fifteen an increase. This Conference paid a per capita of twenty- four cents in 1856, of thirty-one in 1870 and forty-four in 1879. Those are the highest figures.
The Southwest Missouri Conference shows a decrease for three years and an increase in eleven, fourteen collections being reported in fourteen years. It paid per capita in 1871, fourteen cents, in 1882, thirty-four cents, and in 1884, thirty- three cents.
In fourteen years it paid $48,86S.S8 ; average per year, $3,460.63. The St. Louis paid in twenty-nine years $91,- 756.49 ; average, $3, 164.
349
WOMAN'S FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
The three Conferences have paid a total of $284,552.54, being an average for the forty-two years in which collections were reported of $6,775.06.
The Missouri Conference has a representative (A. P. Parker) in China, which greatly promotes their collections.
W. M. Patterson, now in Mexico, began his ministry in what is now the Southwest Missouri Conference. May the time soon come when every conference in the church will have a representative in some foreign land.
It is proper to state that about fifty per cent of this money has been spent in the state and the balance in send- ing the gospel farther west-to the Indians, to Mexico, Brazil and China, through the agency of the parent board.
WOMAN'S FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
" I entreat thee help those women which labored with me in the gospel whose names are in the Book of Life."
Near the middle of the present century some elect ladies of Baltimore, the place whence the first Methodist mission- aries had been sent to Nova Scotia, inaugurated a plan of church work that ultimated in one of the most-probably the most successful religious movements of this, which may appropriately be designated the missionary century.
Although southern women were engaged in this work, which speedily took organic form in the Methodist Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, yet, in consequence of the un- happy war, the organization of the Woman's Foreign Mis- sionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was not effected till 1878, when the General Conference, which met that year in Atlanta, Ga., devised a constitution and put the society into working order. In the meantime there had been a few tentative organizations-notably, in
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MISSIONS.
Baltimore, Md., and Nashville, Tenn. Of this society, the General Conference, but recently held in Richmond, Va., says: "It has done well-unexpectedly well in its collec- tions, marvelously well in its administration, magnanimously well in its relation to and co-operation with the parent board, gloriously well in its achievements in the fields of its opera- tions."
The first society organized in Missouri was in Neosho, early in 1878 or near the last of 1877, of which Mrs. T. P. Hill was president and Miss Mollie Henning was correspond- ing secretary. It made its reports to the society in Nashville, of which Mrs. Lavinia Kelly was president. The next in Missouri, of which I have definite information, was organ- ized in the First church, St. Louis, of which Mrs. Bishop Marvin was president, and Mrs. E. Avis corresponding secre- tary. This was organized in November, 1878, and was com- posed of twenty-eight members, representing all the churches in the city.
The Missouri Conference Society was organized in Macon City September 15, 1878. Mrs. A. Hendrix, mother of Bishop Hendrix, was president, and my friend of former years, Mrs. T. J. Gilbert, was corresponding secretary.
Mrs. F. H. Montague, the present capable and efficient corresponding secretary, writes me : "No permanent record was kept of the number of auxiliaries at its organization. Its growth has fluctuated. Often as many auxiliaries disbanded as organized. When I came into office three years ago the auxiliaries and juveniles numbered thirty-three. They now number sixty-four. Greater interest is manifested every year, and I am happy to report that while we work to send the gospel to the heathen we are spiritually blessed at home.
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