USA > Missouri > Presbyterianism in the Ozarks : a history of the work of the various branches of the Presbyterian Church in Southwest Missouri, 1834-1907 > Part 33
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pitched their tents. So sparsely was the country settled that there was but one house in five miles of the place, and all told there were about twenty-five or thirty persons in attendance. After deep conviction and many douhts A. A. Young, then a lad of 16 or 17 years, was converted and was ready to unite with the church had there have been such an organization. Sometime after this his parents moved to Lafayette county, where the re- ligions advantages were but little, if any, better. Soon the Spirit of God began to strive with the young man and he felt called to preach the Gospel. But he resisted the call. One excuse after another presented itself. His education was defective. He was not yet a member of the church. His parents gave him a tract of land in Johnson county and he became the prond possessor of several good horses, so that he was expecting great temporal prosperity. He took part in prayer meetings and on one occasion used a text and tried to preach. The effort was a great failure, at least so he thought. But even this would not stifle his convictions as to his duty to preach. Then all his horses died save one. On this one he started away from home on Sabbath morning. His pious mother remonstrated with him for this act of Sabbath desecra- tion and begged him to go to church. Her appeals were not in vain. On the road to church he contrasted his_ obedience to his mother with his disobedience to his Heavenly Father. His losses presented themselves as chastisements, and he said : "Now, Lord, if Thou hast called me to preach, give to me a demonstration of that fact. Thon hast killed all my horses but the one I am riding. Kill him and I will be satisfied." The horse took sick, and think- ing the Lord was taking him at his word, he retired to a secluded spot. placed himself on the altar and asked the Lord not to kill the horse. This prayer was heard and he was permitted to ride the horse for a long time in carrying the glad tidings of salvation from place to place. In the fall of 1831 he was received by the Presbytery of Lexington as a candidate for the ministry. The Presbytery ordered him to ride the circuit, and his time was fully ocenpied in preaching and in study. On the 3d of April, 1833, he was licensed. The following February, in company with Rev. B. H. Pierson, he started south and traveled as far as Cane Hill, Ar- kansas. The Presbytery of Washington sent him, in company with Guilford Pylant, on an itinerating tour in Southwest Mis- souri and Northern Arkansas. Where Springfield now stands they found a blacksmith shop, a small store and a few log cabins. The people were eager for the Gospel and would ride from five to ten miles to a week-day appointment. The missionaries found a few Cumberland Presbyterian families, who were rejoiced to find a minister of their own faith and order. They were kind- hearted and hospitable. Their food was nsnally venison, turkey
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and cornbread. The missionaries' horses were lariated in order that they might subsist on the green grass. After six months' labor Mr. Young returned to Johnson county and entered, with about seven others, a private theological school conducted by Rev. R. D. Morrow. "In February, 1836, Mr. Young, Rev. T. M. John- ston and Mr. R. C. Ewing, a candidate for the ministry, concluded to spend a few weeks in Southwest Missouri before the spring meeting of the Presbytery. After many hardships through swollen streams and almost impassable roads they arrived in the neighborhood of Springfield. Upon inquiry they found there were three ministers in the bounds of what was subsequently known as Ozark Synod. Here they held meetings wherever they could gather a congregation until the time for Presbytery. Mr. Young was ordained April 23, 1836, and about a week later, in company with Rev. T. M. Johnston, returned to Southwest Mis- souri, the scene of his life's labors. His biographers say: "The Ozark Presbytery met this fall (1836) on the - day of at the residence of Alfred Moore, on Spring River, in Barry county. There were five ministers in the bounds of this Presby- tery. They were all present." The blanks as to day and month indicate that the records were not before the writers. But there are other lapses of memory. The Presbytery was first called Neosho, not Ozark, and it was organized on the fourth Tuesday in March, 1837. There is no intimation in the records that Mr. Young was present at this first session. But at the second session, September 27, 1837, this entry was made: "Brother Alexander A. Young, a member of Lexington Presbytery, being present, was invited and took his seat as a corresponding member." The rec- ords fail to state when he became a member, but the inference is that he united at this session, for he was at once actively identified with the work of the Presbytery, and is recorded as one of the two ministers who met without a quorum at the time for the next session.
On the 16th of February, 1837, Mr. Young married Miss Ann Steel, of Greene county, and in the spring took his bride to the farm in the confines of the present Lawrence county, where they lived together for forty-three years. Mr. Young was a shining il- lustration of a type that is now practically extinct, i. e., the farmer preacher that is a success. Primitive Cumberland Presby- terianism had no strong board of domestic missions to sustain its missionaries. Its adherents on the frontier handled but little money. Their history was "the short and simple annals of the poor." Men like Mr. Young, strong in body, in mind and in Spirit, toiled with their hands in season and preached "in season and out of season." The times have changed. The people are now well able to sustain the ordinances of God's house. The public
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schools, rural delivery of mail, and the ubiquitous printing press are with us. The thirst for the instructions of the sanctuary is not, therefore, as keen. Men do not go in uncomfortable con- veyances and over rough roads for miles to a mid-week service. The demands on the ministry are different, but scarcely less ex- acting. The opportunities for ministerial education are greater. The intellectual demands and the need of spiritual culture are greater. And the success of a secularized ministry is a thing of the past. The learning of this lesson was a painful process in this church. The Cumberland historian, McDonald, in his vol- umnous work, published in 1888, has one chapter entitled, "The Transition from Missionary Evangelists to Paid Pastors." From this chapter I quote at length :
"When the Second Cumberland Presbyterian General Assem- bly met, 1830, this opposition to the pastoral office had reached its zenith. That General Assembly, by a large majority, voted to sub- mit to the Presbyteries the question of striking out of the form of government the whole section recognizing the pastoral office. * *
* There were only eighteen Presbyteries; of these only two voted for the striking out of the chapter. Thirteen voted no. Three made no report. * * * The effort was never renewed, hut year after year the feeling grew in the General Assemblies that the regular pastoral office, in its trne sense, would have to be established. * * * Very few of the early Cumberland Presbyterian ministers had any correct idea of the true nature of the pastor's office. When the necessity for real pastorates was nrged, many seemd to think that installation was all that they lacked. The people soon understood, however, that he who served them under the name of a pastor, was in fact but a secularized- supply who preached on the Sabbath and then went back to his worldly pursuits. In many cases these preachers rode eight or ten miles on Sabbath morning to their appointments and rode back Sabbath evening. * *
* Even now the truth is but slowly dawning upon onr people that pastor and evangelist belong to two very different vocations. The standards by which the churches have usually judged of a man's fitness for the pastor's work are standards which belong rather to the other vocation, that of the evangelist. To preach thrilling popular sermons, to attract a great crowd, to gather in many wealthy members, to build a fine meeting house-such things as these have been regarded the ne plus ultra of pastoral snecess. There may be no systematic beneficence in the congregation, no entire personal consecration to Christ's service in the daily practical life of any member; the missionary spirit may be wanting in hoth pastor and people; no child of the church may ever go to labor among the heathen or enter the holy ministry ; family prayers may be neglected in
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the households, and the members be untaught in the great fund- amental truths of Christianity; there may be as little separa- tion from the ways of a godless world as the devil himself could wish-still if attractive sermons draw great crowds and a hand- some salary is paid the man who occupies the pulpit is regard- ed by many as a successful pastor. Ah! the great day will re- verse many a human verdict. * * * Let a man who knows what real pastoral work is studiously avoid all sensational dis- courses and all mere spasms, and set himself to work earnestly to organize, drill, train, and indoctrinate his flock in real, per- sonal consecration to Christ; let him strive to cultivate love to Jesus by enlisting every member of the flock in a thorough study of the Bible, and in active efforts to do good and win souls, and, in a large majority of cases, the church will rebel. This is not what they want; they want to be thrilled with eloquence on the Sabbath and left to themselves through the week. That the Pastor's office is the most difficult and important of all hu- man callings can be easily proved. * * *
The pastor in this transition period had to unteach some wrong lessons which the church had learned. The silence of the pioneer preachers about money had created a strong opposition to paying preachers. This existed not only among the covetous and the worldly, but among people who had considerable rep- utation for piety .. Indeed congregations that were celebrated for demonstrations of religions ferver were often the very ones which gave the least money. All the first Cumberland Presby- terian preachers started wrong. Bitterly did our old man re- gret their failure to teach and train the people in this duty, but their regrets came too late. It will take several generations yet to get rid of the leaven of their example. In the midst of the great congregation at Big Spring, Thomas Calhoun, near the close of his life, used substantially these words: 'I am now old, and must soon go to meet my Judge. I have been one of the actors in establishing the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and in all that pertains to its early history, I have a clear con- science save only about one thing. We have all failed to do our duty in training the people to pay their preachers. I have lived to see the ruinous consequences of that failure and I don't want to die without confessing my sin in this matter in the most public manner possible.' So. too, did Ewing and others make public confession. But it came too late. The evil continues."
By the time the church was planted in Southwest Missouri the change on this subject was manifest. As indicated on a pre- vious page, the Presbytery required its ministers to preach on the duty of supporting the gospel. Yet it may be that Dr. Mc-
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Donald's description of the transition period is applicable to this as to other parts of the church.
It is doubtful whether Mr. Young was in full accord with these changing views of his church. The early records show that Presbytery excused him for not complying with the order to preach on the subject. And I have had oral testimony thta corroborates my inference. It is true he received some pecu- niary compensation for his services and that he made a report to the Presbytery in which he recommended churches to sus- tain those serving them. He was evidently very successful in raising money for church buildings and debts. But his main re- liance for the support of his family was on his farm. And my impressions are that his precepts accorded with his example.
In passing it is worthy of remark that if the people are to have right conceptions about the gospel ministry being entitled to support from ordination to the grave, the ministry must regard the sacred calling as one entitled to their whole time and tal- ents. The days of the successful farmer-preacher are past. The biographers of Mr. Young state that when he settled on the farm that was to be his home until he was transferred to the New Jerusalem; the nearest church was Center Creek, and that this and New Providence were the first Cumberland Churches in Southwest Missouri, adding: These churches were organized in the territory where Mr. Young labored during the first years of his work in Southwest Missouri, and from these two churches have grown all the churches in this country. We have seen, however, that the New Providence Church was "stricken off" from Kickapoo in 1837, and that Mount Comfort is the same as Kickapoo. Inasmuch as New Providence was formed out of Kickapoo and probably soon became the strongest church in Greene county, and as the name Kickapoo was changed to Mt. Comfort. it is quite natural that the name Kicpakoo should have escaped Mr. Young's memory and that he should have remem- bered New Providence and thought of Mount Comfort as a sub- sequent organization. In the list of ministers that have served the Mount Comfort Church the history of Greene county men- tions first William Piland and then Anderson Young, and states that the church "was organized in 1834 near where the Pres- byterian church now stands under a brush arbor." * * This church was first called Kesteopoor Congregation. Piland and Kisteopoo are probably typographical errors. But this is as good a place as any to remark that the sketches of churches in county histories of Southwest Missouri counties-and I have examined a number of them-are not accurate. The official records indicate that Kickapoo was organized in 1835 by Rev. Andrew Buchanan. And the name of Anderson Young does not
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appear as moderator. His biography states that he and Guil- ford Pylant visited this section in 1834. They may have preached in the vicinity before and after the organization, but it is improbable that either was the pastor or minister in charge. Of the Center Creek Congregation grew the Spring River Congregation, which "was organized by Mr. Young on the 9th of October, 1837. From this church sprang the churches of Mt. Vernon, Big Spring, Verona, Aurora, Mars Hill, Marion- ville, Ozark, Prairie. (Biography of A. A. Young).
The Spring river church was subsequently known as Zion. Here Mr. Young was an under shepherd for nearly forty-three years. Quoting again from his biography: "The ministers of Ozark Presbytery petitioned the Arkansas Synod to divide Ozark Presbytery into three parts, to be known as the Presby- teries of Ozark, Springfield, and Neosho. The Synod granted the prayers of the petitioners and at the fall session of the Synod in 1835 Ozark Presbytery was divided, and out of the territory was constituted Ozark, Springfield and Neosho Pres- byteries. At the spring session of these newly constituted Presbyteries, in the year 1836 a memorial was sent from these Presbyteries to the General Assembly, asking that body to or- der the constitution of a New Synod to be known as the Ozark Synod of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The prayers of the petitioners were granted, and accordingly the Ozark Synod was constituted in the month of October, 1837."
(By a suprising lapse of memory this would divide the Presbytery into three before its actual organization. These statements are inconsistent with other parts of this biography as well as contrary to the records. In the fall of 1846 Arkansas Synod authorized the division which issued in the existence of Ozark and Springfield Presbyteries. Neosho Presbytery was or- ganized by reason of an enabling act passed by the Synod in 1851 and the Synod of Ozark was created in 1852).
The country was developing rapidly and the demand for preaching services increased. More reapers for whitened har- vest fields were sadly needed. Community after community was saying, "Come, give us a two-days' meeting, once in every six months, if you cannot come oftener. Mr. Young lived on his farm in the country. He was usually away from his home from two to four days every week attending his appointments." He occasionally made a general round of all the churches in Ozark Synod and held sacramental meetings once a year. These ex- cursions extended from the Gasconade river on the east to the Indian Territory on the west, and from the Osage river on the north to the Arkansas line on the South. At almost every com- ing together of the church there were conversions and addi-
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tions. Meantime the demands of a growing family were press- ing and at times it seemed that he would be driven to give up these missionary labors. "But always just at this point the brethren would come to the rescue by giving him what assist- ance they could. * * * His dear companion and partner in all of his difficulties (Aunt Ann) had much to do with Mr. Young's success in the work of the ministry. She carried for- ward the work and business of the farm vigorously in the ab- sence of her husband." * * "There is one spot on earth near where Mr. Young lived that is regarded as almost holy ground by the people of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church throughout this entire country. I refer to the old Spring River Camp ground. During the early history of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in this county thousands of souls were converted under the ministry of Mr. Young at that camp ground. Here for many years the people would assemble for the worship of God. They would leave their homes and all their property and come together for their yearly feast. They were not afraid to leave all with God, and they, their wives, and their little ones go to serve God in their camp meetings."
* * * The church grew and multiplied rapidly under the ministry of Abel H. Burton, Solon B. Abernathy, T. B. Sitton, Mr. Young and others in this country until it was thought that the Cumberland Presbyterian Church had the pre-eminence in all this country." Probably by this last clause the biographer has reference to Lawrence county with at least parts of Dade, Jasper, Newton and Barry counties. The Civil war broke in on the church when it was at the height of its prosperity. Mr. Young sided with the Union and for a time was compelled to seek refuge within the lines of the United States army at Springfield. His great influence made him a shining mark, and conservative though he was, the Confederate soldiers regarded him as a dangerous man to their cause. Subsequently he went to Rolla, lived in banishment for a time-preached to "refu- gees" and returned home stealthily. Two armies had devastat- ed the country and in their wake came a third more to be dread- ed than either-the "Guerillas." "In the fall of 1864 * Revs. C. C. Williamson and R. J. Simms appointed a meeting to
be held in Mt. Vernon. * A few days before the time for this meeting to commence General Sterling Price made an- other raid through the State of Missouri, and in consequence of this Mr. Williamson and Mr. Simms both failed to attend their meeting. Mr. Young attended this meeting
* * The working male members of the church alone. *
* were mostly girded up with weapons of death. * Just before the time came to close the meeting, the power of God
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came like a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the place where
they were sitting. *
* There stood up an exceeding great army of witnesses for Jesus. The meeting not only affected the town, but it reached to the country for miles around. After the meeting had continued for about two weeks it invaded the ranks of the army, and some of the soldiers fell like dead men before the Divine Power. When the anxious were called, and the altar of peace was filled with strong-hearted men and sol- *
diers armed, # * Mr. Young would first pass around among them and disarm them, to prevent any accidents, then he, with his working force, would encourage and instruct the anxious to close with offered salvation now. * * The meetings continued for more than three weeks. * * * There were about one hundred converts, and about sixty of that number joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
* * Before the meeting closed Mr. Young raised one thousand dol- lars in money and good subscriptions to satisfy a debt hanging over the Cumberland Presbyterian Church property in the town . of Mt. Vernon." The ravages of war left but two ministers in the bounds of Ozark and Neosho Presbyteries. Mr. Young at- tached himself temporarily to the Springfield Presbytery. "He had the entire territory of what was before the war the Presby- teries of Ozark and Neosho, but at the close of the war a deso- late, burned and devastated district of country. * * * This entire territory was left to Mr. Young. It is true Mr. Simms labored some with Mr. Young in this territory, but his work was then confined to the territory north and east of Springfield." In young manhood he had helped to make "The wilderness blossom as the rose." But now that his head was silvered the garden of roses was burned over. And the planting must begin anew. In this work he was hindered by the "iron clad oath" in the new constitution of the state, which he believed subverted the first principles of free government and would drive the gos- pel from the State. But the State failed in her effort to come into compact with the United States until she restored religious liberty, and now the difficulty was with the ministers who were yet on the war path. The territory of Ozark Synod was at- tached to Missouri Synod, and Springfield Presbytery embraced the southwest part of the State. At the spring session in 1866, Mr. Young and Rev. A. Delzell were appointed to "travel in the destitute portions of the Presbytery for the next six months." Like Paul and Barnabas, they visited the brethren in every place where they had hitherto preached the word. They had protracted meetings, resuscitated moribund churches and ministered to the people in their homes wasted by war and pil- lage. Again in the spring of 1867 Mr. Young was appointed on
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a similar mission. This time his traveling companion was Rev. Garnett Davenport. So extensive was their field that it requir- ed two months to make one round. Yet with Pauline fervor and endurance they went forward. And the hand of the Lord was with them and multitudes were obedient to the faith.
Mr. Young continued his work in the bounds of Spring River congregation from the fall of 1867 to the spring of 1869. Then the Springfield Presbytery appointed him to travel throughout its bounds to solicit money to liquidate the debt of the Springfield Church. "He told them that he had been a long time in the field, and that most of his life had been spent in missionary work. He felt like that he would not live many years: that his family had undergone all the hardships incident to the life of a minister in a frontier country and that he was preparing that year to build a house for himself and Aunt Ann to die in, and that he hoped the Presbytery would not think of sending him again into the missionary work." But the Presby- tery could not excuse him. Rev. John Hudson was appointed to fill his place for six months in the home church and Mr. Young was obedient to the Presbytery, and successful in his efforts. The work of the Presbytery had so grown out of the desolations that in the spring of 1871 the three Presbyteries of Springfield, Ozark and Neosho were constituted as of yore and the Synod of Ozark was reorganized at Springfield in October, 1871.
Mr. Young continued in the active ministry, though with failing health until the end came, March 13, 1880. His trium- phant death recalls the words of the great apostle to the Gen- tiles :
"I am now about to be offered and the time of my de- parture is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course. I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness."
On the 15th day of March, 1880, a funeral discourse was delivered in Zion church by Rev. J. B. Fly and the body was interred in the adjoining cemetery. To Mr. Fly he had com- mitted the material for a sketch of his life and to him he had commended his beloved Zion church, saying: "You take charge of my church. I have preached for them for forty-three years, but my work is done; in a short time I will be at home." On the 8th of May, 1880, an association was formed to place a mon- ument at his grave. Popular subscriptions were made through- out the bounds of the three Presbyteries, and a committee con- sisting of James M. White, Rev. J. B. Fly and Geo. W. Rinker selected the monument.
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