History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 150

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358

USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men > Part 150

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Stephens, a lay preacher, and others until the ap- pointment, in July, 1882, of the present pastor. The church now reports one hundred members, and the Sunday-school has sixteen officers and teachers, and an average attendance of nearly two hundred and fifty scholars. The superintendent is W. L. C. Brey, who has been connected with mission Sunday-school work since 1856, when Rev. George Kline started such a school at Soulard Market.

Carondelet Baptist Church .- The Carondelet Church is situated at the corner of Fifth and Taylor Streets, South St. Louis. Rev. G. L. Tal- bot is the pastor, and C. S. Purkitt is the clerk. It was organized as the First Baptist Church of Caron- delet, Nov. 3, 1867, at the residence of Deacon C. S. Barrett, corner of Second and Taylor Streets, Caron- delet, by Rev. Adiel Sherwood, D.D., and Rev. J. V. Schofield, D.D., of the Third Baptist Church of St. Louis, now of the Fourth Church. The organic mem- bers were C. S. Purkitt, M.D., Nathan B. Jones, Mrs. Meroe Andrews, Mrs. Charlotte P. Purkitt, and Miss Antoinette Purkitt. The corner-stone was laid in October, 1871. The building was first used July 4, 1872, and was formally dedicated Dec. 15, 1872, by Rev. Dr. Burlingham, of the Second Church, and the Rev. W. Pope Yeaman, of the Third Church of St. Louis. The pastors have been Revs. Frederick Bower, appointed April, 1868; J. H. Luther, D.D., appointed March, 1869; Thomas Hudson, appointed July, 1871; John Seage (pro tem.), appointed March, 1873; J. H. Brcaker, appointed Nov. 2, 1873 ; T. J. Koetzli ( pro tem.), appointed Sept. 15, 1875 ; A. F. Randall, appointed Feb. 4, 1876 ; E. L. Schofield, appointed Sept. 23, 1877 ; G. L. Talbot, appointed Jan. 1, 1882. In August, 1874, the church sent out a colony of about thirty members to form a new church called the Welsh Mission, or Second Baptist Church, which flourished for about two years and then dissolved, most of the members returning to the Carondelet Church. Connected with it are the Sunday-school, organized four or five years earlier than the church and now having nine teachers and over one hundred scholars ; a Ladics' Industrial Society, organized April 1, 1869, and still flourishing and steadily increasing in usefulness ; a Ladies' For- eign Missionary Society ; the Baptist Literary Society, organized in December, 1877; and the Mite Society, organized in January, 1882. A Young Ladies' Pas- toral Aid Society was organized Feb. 9, 1876, but only remained in existence one year. The congregation numbers about forty families, or one hundred and fifty-seven persons. In May, 1882, there were one hundred and six communicants.

1682

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

Garrison Avenue Baptist Church, corner of Morgan Street and Compton Avenue, Rev. J. H. Curry, D.D., pastor, was organized March 29, 1877, with Rev. W. Pope Yeaman, D.D., as pastor, by thirty- nine members, most of whom had obtained letters of dismissal from the Third Baptist Church. Their first place of worship was on Garrison Avenue, be- tween Lucas Avenue and Morgan Street (hence the name of the church), and in it on the 8th of April, 1877, the dedicatory services were held. In the early part of 1879 the church building was removed to its present site at a cost of five hundred dollars. Dr. Yeaman resigned the pastorate Dec. 22, 1878, to accept an appointment from the General Baptist Asso- ciation of Missouri, after which the church depended upon supplies until Jan. 26, 1879, when Rev. J. C. Armstrong became the pastor. He resigned Dec. 1, 1881, to take editorial charge of the Cen- tral Baptist. Dr. Curry, the present pastor, who was visiting the city at the time, was invited to occupy the pulpit on the 2d of April, 1882. Two weeks later he received a unanimous call to the pastorate of the church, and resigned the charge of a flourishing con- gregation at Dallas, Texas, in order to accept it. The first deacons of the church were George L. Bab- ington and William H. Curtis, chosen at the time of organization, and M. S. Clemens and John Herget, appointed later. Gabriel Long was the first clerk, and James S. McClellan, Gabriel Long, Mr. Stilwell, and Samuel V. Monks composed the first board of trustees. The Sunday-school was organized at the same time as the church, with fifteen scholars, and William H. Curtis as superintendent. It now num- bers one hundred children, and the membership of the church has increased from thirty-nine to ninety.

Colored Baptist Churches .- The colored Baptists of St. Louis organized themselves into a congrega- tion about 1833, and the establishment of their church was almost contemporaneous with that of the Second Baptist Church. They adopted the name of the First Baptist Church (the white congregation under that title having become extinct). The pastor of the Colored Baptist Church was Rev. Berry Meacham, an energetic colored man. He was for- merly a slave in Virginia, and having purchased his freedom, removed to St. Louis, where he followed the occupation of cooper. He bought the freedom not only of himself, but as he prospered in business that of his wife, children, and father. In the same way he secured the liberation of fifteen slaves, who worked for him in his cooper-shop until they had paid the money thus advanced. In 1836, Berry Meacham was the owner of two brick houses in St. Louis, a

farm in Illinois, the estimated value of which was ten thousand dollars, and two steamboats.

THE FIRST AFRICAN CHURCH, Almond, between Fourth and Fifthı Streets, Rev. J. R. Young, pastor, now has now a membership of six hundred and twenty-four.

THE EIGHTH STREET (or SECOND) CHURCH is situated on the southwest corner of Eighth Street and Christy Avenue. Rev. S. P. Lewis is the pastor. On the 22d of March, 1846, Elders Richard Sneethen and J. R. Anderson commenced preaching in a hall adjoin- ing Liberty Engine House, and in June following peti- tioned for letters of dismissal from the First African Church. These were granted, and on the 3d of Au- gust, 1846, the Second Church was organized with twenty-two members dismissed from the First. It was recognized by the council Oct. 24, 1847. On the 17th of June, 1851, the present lot was pur- chased for four thousand five hundred dollars, and the erection of the building was begun Aug. 1, 1851. The basement was first occupied in October following, and the building was completed and dedicated Aug. 22, 1852. It was enlarged by an addition of twenty- five feet, in accordance with a vote of the congrega- tion taken Feb. 5, 1858. Its present membership is five hundred and fifty.

UNIVERSITY CHURCH .- On the 11th of December, 1867, Elder Edward Wills1 began to preach in a small room on University Street, between Twenty-second and Twenty-third Streets, and in 1869 organized the present church at University Street and Jefferson Avenue. He continued pastor until the close of 1881, when the church became involved in legal diffi- culties, and sued its pastor, as trustee, for possession of the property. The church was closed during the first four months of 1882, and reports only forty-five members to the Association. The other Colored Bap- tist Churches are the Chambers Street Church, at the corner of Tenth and Chambers Streets, Rev. W. B. Jones, pastor, membership 160; Mount Zion Church, Papin Street, between Pratte Avenue and High Street,

1 Edward Wills, one of the oldest preachers in St. Louis, was born of a slave mother in 1811, on the farm of Willis Wills, in Logan County, Ky. In 1836 he was removed to Virginia and hired out to work, and two years later was brought to St. Louis. In 1853 he was licensed to preach, and officiated at different times at seven different churches,-the Garrison, Concord, Cold Water, Musick's, Kirkwood, Gravois, and Belleville (III.). Ile was fully ordained in September, 1866, and organized succes- sively the Platte Creek Church, at Fish Lake, III. ; Elder Wills' Church, in the American Bottom ; University Church, St. Louis; and others in St. Charles and Brigham, Mo. After a pastorate of fourteen years the church in St. Louis not only turned from him, but sued him for possession of the property which he held as trustee.

1683

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

Rev. Lewis Lane, pastor, the membership numbering 70 persons ; Antioch, Edwardsville, membership 65 ; Bethel, North St. Louis, membership 33; South St. Louis, Carondelet road, near River des Peres, Rev. T. Jackson, pastor, membership 54; St. Paul, Rev. C. Landers; pastor, which meets in the Jewish Syn- agogue, membership 43; Rock Spring, Rev. William J. Brown, pastor, membership 80; Compton Hill, Compton Avenue and Caswell Street, Rev. C. Deca- tur, pastor, membership 138.

METHODIST CHURCHES.

Methodism in Missouri .- Rev. John Clark was the first Methodist ininister to settle in Missouri. He arrived about 1798, but soon after became a member of the Baptist denomination and organized a number of congregations under the auspices of that church. When the territory was ccded to the United States (in 1804) aud restrictions on Protestantism removed, missionaries turned their attention to Missouri, and Joseph Oglesby in 1805 reconnoitred the Missouri country to the extremity of the settlements, and " had the pleasure of seeing Daniel Boone, the mighty hunter." In 1806 the Western Conference (em, bracing the entire Mississippi valley, from the Alle- ghenies westward) appointed William McKendree (afterwards bishop) to the presiding eldership of Cumberland District (which included Indiana, Illinois, West Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas), and John Travis to the Missouri Circuit, a sparsely-settled region, extending from Pike County on the north to Pemiscot County on the south, and from thirty to fifty miles westward of the river. McKendree and Travis traveled over their territory on horseback, and carried their provisions in their saddle-bags. They often slept on the ground, and swam or forded rivers. Travis divided Missouri into two circuits, the Missouri River being the dividing line, and reported fifty-six members in the Northern (or Missouri) Circuit, and fifty in the Southern (or Meramec). In 1809, Cold Water Circuit was added ; it included St. Louis, and contained thirty-nine members. In 1821, St. Louis became a separate circuit, with two hundred and fifteen members, and Rev. Isaac N. Piggot as minis- ter. Missouri, as stated, was in 1807 a circuit of Cumberland District, Western Conference; in 1809 its circuits belonged to Indiana District ; in 1812 to Illinois District; in 1813 they became part of the Tennessee Conference; in 1814, Missouri became a district ; in 1816 it was attached to the Ohio Confer- ence; in May, 1816, the Missouri Conference was created by the General Conference sitting in Balti- more, and embraced Missouri, Illinois, and a large part

of Indiana. Its first session was held, commencing Sept. 23, 1816, at Shiloh meeting-house, in Illinois, -the first church built by Methodists so far West. It consisted of nine members, and there were twenty-two preachers to be stationed, of whom twelve were in Illinois and ten in Missouri. There were eight hun- dred and seventy-five white and fifty-nine colored members in the Missouri District, which was then divided into seven circuits. In September, 1820, at the fifth meeting of the Missouri Conference, Missouri was divided into two districts,-Missouri and Capc Girardcau; St. Louis Circuit being in the former, which was divided into eight circuits, with a total membership of seven hundred and sixty-three, of whom two hundred and fifteen were in St. Louis Cir- cuit. On the 24th of October, 1822, the Missouri Conference met for the first time in St. Louis, where the building of the First Methodist Church had just been completed, and the town of St. Louis was made a separate station, with Rev. Jesse Walker as the minister.

In 1824, Illinois and Indiana were organized into a new Conference, and the Missouri Conference was made to include the State of Missouri and Arkansas Territory. In 1836 the Arkansas Conference was or- ganized, and the Missouri Conference was made to in- clude the State of Missouri and that part of Missouri territory which lies north of the Cherokee line. At the fifteenth session of the Missouri Conference, held in St. Louis, beginning Sept. 16, 1830, it was re- districted into four districts,-Missouri, St. Louis, Cape Girardeau, and Arkansas ; the St. Louis Dis- trict being divided into St. Louis station and seven circuits. The latter were Union, Gasconade Mis- sion, Salt River, Palmyra, Buffalo, and Missouri. Prior to 1822 the congregations were served by mis- sionarics or circuit-riders. These, with the dates of their appointment, were John Travis, 1807 ; Edward Wilcox, 1808; John Crane, 1809; Isaac Linsey, 1810 ; George A. Collins, 1811; Daniel Fraley, 1812; John M. McFarland, 1813 ; Richard Conn, 1814; Jacob Whitesides, 1815 ; Benjamin Proctor, 1816; John Scripps, 1817; John Harris, 1818 ; Samuel Glaze, 1819 ; Thomas Wright, 1820; Isaac N. Pig- got, 1821; Jesse Walker, 1822. The presiding elders since the establishment of St. Louis District have been Andrew Monroe, 1830, 1832-36 ; Alcx- ander McAllister, 1831; Silas Comfort, 1836-37, James M. Jameson, 1838-40; Wesley Browning, 1841-43; William W. Redman, 1844. The bishops presiding at the Missouri Conference since its organi- zation have been William McKendree, 1816, 1818, 1823 ; Robert R. Roberts, 1817, 1820-22, 1824-27,

1684

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

1830-31, 1834-36, 1842; Enoch George, 1819; Joshua Soule, 1828-29, 1832, 1837-38 ; Thomas A. Morris, 1839-40 ; Beverly Waugh, 1840 ; James O. Andrew, 1843.

In 1844-45 occurred the great secession of the Southern Methodists, which left the Northern mem- bers for a time without " a local habitation or a name" in Missouri, and without a Conference in the State or a church in the city. A few ministers, however, the more prominent of whom were Rev. Anthony Bew- ley (who in 1860 was hung by a mob at Fort Worth, Texas), Rev. Mark Robertson, Rev. Nelson Henry, Rev. Peter Akers, and Rev. Joseph Tabor, continued to labor in connection with the old denomination. In 1845 a small church, called Ebenezer, was erected, which, in 1862, became the Union Methodist Church of St. Louis. In 1848 the Missouri Conference was reorganized, meeting with the Illinois Conference at Belleville, and was made to include Kansas and Arkansas. In 1852 the Arkansas Conference was set off, and in 1856 the Kansas Conference was formed. In 1861, when the civil war commenced and the fate of Missouri, as to its connection with the Union or the Southern Confederacy, trembled in the balance, the Northern. Methodists were again disorganized, many of the ministers being compelled to leave their posts throughout the State. In May, 1861, their services were suspended everywhere except in St. Louis, and Ebenezer Chapel (St. Louis) was seized for debt and closed, Hedding Chapel was dissolved, and only a nucleus of worshipers remained at Simp- son Chapel. During this period presiding elders and ministers either left the State or entered the army as chaplains or soldiers. In the latter part of 1861, owing to the occupation of the State by the Northern troops, the Southern wing of the church in turn be- came disorganized and scattered. On the other hand, the old Methodist organization began to recover its lost ground, and has continued to flourish ever since. The Missouri Conference was reorganized in May, 1862, as the Missouri and Arkansas Conference. In 1868 it was divided into the Missouri Conference (north of Missouri River) and St. Louis Conference (south of the river and including Arkansas), and in May, 1872, the Arkansas Conference was cut off and established as a separate body.

The first church of the denomination established in St. Louis was organized by the Rev. Jesse Walker in the fall of 1820, and the first systematic preaching was begun about the middle of December of that year. The first Sunday-school was commenced in - December of the following year, and its first super- intendent was Col. John O'Fallon. In 1845, owing

to the dissension which had arisen concerning the question of slavery, the congregation separated from. the regular Methodist organization and joined the Methodist Church South. It then became known as the First Methodist Episcopal Church South, and consequently there is nominally no " First Church" of the old organization in St. Louis.

The bishops of Missouri Conference from 1849 until 1868, and of St. Louis Conference since, have been as follows: E. S. Janes, 1849, 1852, 1858, 1869 ; C. J. Houts, pro tem., 1850 ; B. Waugh, 1851; T. A. Morris, 1853, 1861; E. R. Amcs, 1854, 1857, 1860, 1863, 1867, 1871; Matthew Simpson, 1855, 1862, 1877 ; O. C. Baker, 1856, 1864; Levi Scott, 1859, 1865, 1872; C. Kingsley, 1866 ; E. Thomson, 1868 ; Davis W: Clark, 1870; Thomas Bowman, 1873, 1878; Edward G. Andrews, 1874; Stephen M. Merrill, 1875 ; Jesse T. Peck, 1876 ; Isaac W. Wiley, 1879; Randolph S. Foster, 1880 : John F. Hurst, 1881; Henry W. Warren, 1882. The St. Louis Con- ference is now divided into St. Louis, Sedalia, Kansas City, Springfield, and Missouri Districts. St. Louis District has twenty stations or circuits, the presiding elders over which since the reorganization in 1848 (with the dates of the Conferences appointing them) have been George W. Robbins, 1848 ; J. J. Buren, 1849-50 ; David N. Smith, 1851 ; C. J. Houts, 1852- 54; J. H. Hopkins, 1855-56; Nathan Shumate, 1857; Samuel Huffman, 1858-61; J. C. Smith, 1862-64; M. Sovin, 1865-68 ; J. L. Walker, 1869- 71; A. C. George, 1872; T. H. Hagerty, 1873-75 ; C. A. Van Anda, 1876; F. S. Beggs, 1877-80 ; T. H. Hagerty, 1881-82. The reorganized Missouri Con- ference started in 1848 with 1538 members and 26 traveling and 24 local preachers, Arkansas being in- cluded in these figures. The St. Louis Conference held in March, 1882, reported 18,080 members and probationers, 168 local ·preachers, 171 Sunday-schools, with 1562 teachers and 13,169 scholars, 191 churches, and 65 parsonages. St. Louis Station (or City) re- ported 1187 members and probationers, 8 local preach- ers, 7 churches, 7 Sunday-schools, with 158 teachers and 1655 scholars.

The Western Methodist Book Concern, 1101 Olive Street, was organized in 1865, with Rev. Ben- jamin St. James Fry, D.D., as manager, in rented rooms at No. 413 Locust Street, and later removed to 913 North Sixth Street, which property had been bought and is still owned by the concern, being now used for manufacturing purposes. John H. Cam- cron was manager from 1872, when Dr. Fry took the editorial management of the Central Christian Advo- cate until 1880, and was then succeeded by the pres-

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS.

1685

ent manager, Samuel H. Pye, from the Cincin- nati Book Concern. In the third story of the pres- ent quarters are the editorial office of Dr. Fry, and the room where, every Monday morning, are held the meetings of the Methodist Episcopal Ministers' Asso- ciation. The Book Concern moved into its present quarters in 1881.

Benjamin St. James Fry, D.D., was born in Rut- gers, East Tennessee, in 1824, but spent his childhood and early manhood in Cincinnati. He was educated

subsequently rc-clected, and continues to hold that position. He was a reserve delegate of the General Conference of 1868, and served part of the session, and was secretary of the Committee on Sunday- schools. At the General Conference of 1876 he was the secretary of the Committee on Education. Dr. Fry has been a frequent contributor to period- ical literature, and is the author of several volumes of Sunday-school books, including lives of Bishops Whatcoat, McKendrce, and Roberts. He was also

BISHOP MCKENDREE.

at Woodward College, Cincinnati, and was received into the Ohio Conference in 1847. Among his ap- pointments in that Conference were Portsmouth, New- ark, Chillicothe, and Zanesville. He was president of the Worthington Female College for four years, and served three years as chaplain in the Union army. In 1865 he was placed in charge of the depository of the Methodist Book Concern at St. Louis, and con- ducted its business until, in 1872, he was elected editor of the Central Christian Advocate. He was

the author of " Property Consecrated," one of the prize volumes issued by the church on systematic beneficence.

William McKendree, one of the early bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in King William County, Va., on the 6th of July, 1757. He was a soldier during the Revolutionary war, entering the army as a private, and rising to the rank of adju- tant. He was placed in the commissary department, and was present at the surrender of Cornwallis at

107

1686

HISTORY OF SAINT LOUIS.

Yorktown. In 1787 he was converted to religion, and soon began to take a prominent part in public meetings. In 1788 he was received on trial for the ministry, and continued to labor in his vocation until November, 1792, when, having been influenced by Mr. O'Kelly to join in certain measures of alleged re- form, he was greatly disappointed by their failure at the General Conference. Mr. O'Kelly withdrew from the church, and Mr. McKendree sympathizing with him, sent in his resignation as a minister, but the Conference agreed that he might still preach among the societies. Mr. McKendree soon obtained leave to travel with Bishop Asbury, in order that he might ascertain for himself whether his impressions had been well founded. In a short time he became satis- fied that he had been deceived. In 1796 he became presiding elder, and in 1801 was sent to the West to take the supervision of the societies in Ohio, Ken- tucky, Tennessee, Western Virginia, and part of Illi- nois. In 1806 he was appointed to the Cumberland District, embracing Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and half of Tennessee, and during the same year traveled extensively in Illinois. He himself records that in 1807 " we attended a camp-meeting across the Missis- sippi River, which was the first meeting of the kind ever held on that side of the river, and we walked about forty miles to get to it." In 1808 he was called to preach before the General Conference, and discharged this task so ably that Bishop Asbury said at its close, "That sermon will make McKendree bishop." This prediction was realized by his election as bishop by the same Conference (1808). In 1816, during which year he presided at the first session of the Missouri Conference, he became the senior bishop. He died on the 5th of March, 1835, at the residence of his brother, ncar Nashville, Tenn. Bishop Mc- Kendree' was a popular preacher, and a zealous and laborious minister. He was careful in the adminis- tration of discipline, and introduced system into all the operations of the church. His influence was potent everywhere, but especially was he regarded as the father of Western Methodism, to which he had given years of earnest labor, and in the success of which he felt a deep and abiding interest.

Jesse Walker was born in North Carolina (the exact date is uncertain), and was admitted as a traveling preacher in 1802. Subsequently, for four years, he traveled in Kentucky and Tennessee. In 1806 he was appointed missionary to Illinois, and at the end of his first year of labor reported that he had secured two hundred and eighteen members to the church in that region. He continued his missionary labors in Illinois and Missouri until 1812, when he

was made presiding elder over the church in both those Territories. In 1820 he was appointed Con- ference missionary, with leave to select his own field of work, and chose St. Louis, where he established the First Methodist Church, of which he remained pastor for two years. On the 24th of October, 1822, he again obtained the appointment of Conference mis- sionary, and in 1823 began to labor among the In- dians. In 1834 failing health compelled him to retire to his farm in Cook County, Ill., where he died on the 5th of October, 1835.

John Travis was born of Presbyterian parents, in Chester District, S. C., Nov. 3, 1773. He was ap- pointed tò Missouri Circuit in 1806, at which date he was first received on trial by the Western Con- ference, and traveled from five to seven hundred miles on horseback to reach his circuit. Two years later he was received into full connection, and in 1812 was ordained as elder. He remained in charge of different circuits, nearly as wild and thinly settled as the first, until 1815, when he married, and retired to a farm in Livingston (now Crittenden) County, Ky., where he studied and subsequently practiced medi- cine. He preached occasionally until his death. He became totally blind fourteen ycars before his death, which occurred in his eightieth year, Nov. 11, 1852.

Among the early ministers of the Methodist Church in St. Louis, Rev. John W. Springer and Rev. Joseph Boyle, D.D., were also prominent. Mr. Springer was born in Fayette County, Ky., in 1808, and arrived in St. Louis in 1848, and took charge of the St. Louis mission. Besides the mission, he had charge of a number of circuits. He was married three times, his first wife being Eliza Pilcher, of Fayette County, Ky., the sccond Eliza Lueller, and the third Minerva D. Pilcher, sister of the first Mrs. Springer. He was a faithful and active minister, and labored industri- ously for many years, but at the time of his death, which occurred on the 17th of October, 1879, was on the superannuated list.

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History of Saint Louis City and County, from the earliest periods to the present day: including biographical sketches of representative men, Part 150

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898 Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1358

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1358