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 5
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19-Granby, in Newton County. (Nearly extinct at the time, as a committee was appointed Oct. 1, 1870, to "see to the protection or sale of proper- ty," Belonged to Presby- tery of Southwest Misouri.) 20-Nevada. (Same as note in this column about Lamar Church. Cf. Records A, pp. 65-70. En- . rolled Sent. 14, 1872; organ- ized by Rev. W. R. Fulton. Record A, pp. 84-95.) Vernon County.
-
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PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE OZARKS
21-Pierce City. (Not organized until Jan. 22, 1871, therefore does not belong on original roll.) Lawrence County.
22-Verona. (Organized March 26, 1871. N. B .- Note on Pierce City.) Lawrence County.
23-Logan. (Organized March, 1871. See above.) Lawrence Coun-
ty.
24-Buffalo. (No date of organiza- tion, but enrolled same as Nos. 21-23, i. e., March 31, 1871.) Dallas County.
25-Mountain Grove. (Same note as Buffalo applies.) Wright County.
From these notes it will be seen that three of the churches mentioned in the enabling act, Bolivar, Houston and Lamar, were extinct when Presbytery convened. By dropping these and the churches added to the roll later we get the actual roll of the Presbytery at its organization, as follows :
A. Churches in the enaabling act and in the first minutes :
NAME. AFFILIATION. PRESENT STATUS.
1-Urbana Old School United with Buffalo.
2-Ebenezer
Old School
On present roll.
3-Mount Vernon
Old School
Now Ozark Prairie.
4-Avilla Old School Now White Oak.
5-Calvary Old School
On present roll.
6-Panther Creek Old School
Now Conway.
7-Carthage Old School
On present roll.
8-Neosho
Old School
On present roll.
9-Springfield New School Now Bellview.
10-Peace Valley New School
Dropped probably in fa- vor of West Plains.
11-Licking
New School Dissolved.
12-White Rock
New School Dissolved.
13-Mount Zion
New School On present roll.
B. Churches in minutes, but not in enabling act :
-
14-Bethel
Old School Dissolved.
15-Locust Grove
Old School Dissolved.
16-Minersville
Old School Dissolved.
17-Granby
Old School Dissolved.
18-Little Osage
Old School
Dissolved.
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PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE OZARKS
Thus it will be seen that of these eighteen churches ten are still on our role, five by the same, three with different names and two by union with other churches of later organization.
The territory assigned to Ozark Presbytery in the enabling act embraced twenty-five counties in Southwest Missouri. Pu- laski County has since been transferred to the Presbytery of St. Louis, Vernon County and a portion of the northwest corner of Cedar County and that part of Camden County lying north of the Osage River to Kansas City Presbytery. Meantime a large portion of the State of Arkansas has been added to our domain. At the semi-centennial of the Ebenezer Church in 1892 Rev. W. S. Knight, D. D., said :
"The territory embraced in the bounds of our Presbytery includes twenty-four counties in this southwest part of the State (N. B .- This em- braces Pulaski County, but not Vernon), and has a geographical area of about 16,000 square miles, or just about one-quarter of the entire State. To gain an idea of what such an area embraces, it will help us to consider that you could put the States of Massachusetts and New Jersey inside of our bounds. And surely this vast rich territory would support ali the population of the older States, and you would then have, instead of the 415,000 we now have, more than three and a quarter millions, with its great cities like Boston, Worcester, Lowell, Cambridge, Newark, Jersey City, Patterson; its great institutions, such as Princeton, Harvard (1636), Am- herst, Williams, Wellesley, Mount Holyoke; its great names, the Adamses, Webster, Choate, Sumner, Everett, Philips, in national affairs; Morse and Agassiz, in science; its historians, Bancroft, Prescott and Motley; in letters Dana, Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, Hawthorne and numerous others. But whose history runs through more than two and a half centuries, and while this territory was an unknown wilderness. Think of the wonderful possi- bilities that lie open to those who are living and shall live within the bounds of this Presbytery. With a fertile soil that is so productive in grain and fruit, and genial climate between the rigorous winters of the North and the hot, sultry climate of the South; with its vast stores of wealth that are proved to be under the soil, and that are already attracting the attention of people from all parts of the land; what will those who shall celebrate the centennial of this church see in this very territory of which we are now speaking? Verily, the lines are fallen unto us in pleas- ant places and we have a goodly heritage, in common with all who are laboring for the moral and material upbuilding of this fair domain. But now let us look at it as a Presbyterian heritage. And in this the history practically covers but a little over twenty-five years. I find after the scat- tered forces had reorganized that all numbered in 1866 only four ministers, seven churches and 163 members, with forty in Sunday school, which in- creased up to the time I entered the Presbytery, just seventeen years ago, to thirteen ministers, twenty-eight churches, 895 members, 505 in Sun- day school. At that time there was but one self-sustaining church in the Presbytery, that of Calvary, and there had been but four installed pastors, the first of whom was Rev. W. R. Fulton, pastor of this church. Now there are five installed pastors and five self-sustaining churches."
It will be seen that in this address Dr. Knight goes back to the organization of the Presbytery of Southwest Missouri. Else- where in the address he says that of the four ministers "two were
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PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE OZARKS
the Rev. W. R. Fulton and John McFarland, whose homes were in Greenfield. At that time your church of Ebenezer was the largest in the Presbytery, numbering 40."
It is worthy of note that as late as 1892 we only had five installed pastors and five self-sustaining churches.
FIRST DECADE-1870-1879.
The Old School Presbytery of Southwest Missouri reported in 1870 seven members, thirteen churches and 450 members, or omitting that part of the Presbtery that fell to Osage, six minis- ters, twelve churches and 432 members. Osage Presbytery New School reported seven ministers, thirteen churches and 290 mem- bers. Of these, four ministers, five churches and 100 members were in the territory assigned to Ozark Presbytery, or a com- bined force of ten ministers, sixteen churches and 532 members. . The first report of the reunited church shows eleven ministers, twenty-four churches and 630 members. Certainly a small force for so large a heritage.
A GLANCE AT THE WORKING FORCE.
Adding to those enrolled at the organization of the Presby- tery the names of the ministers received during the decade, we find a total enrollment of thirty-six ministers. Of these one was received on what proved to be fraudulent papers and his recep- tion was afterward declared to be null and void. Another was invited to sit as a corresponding member and his name appears on the roll of the Presbytery and in the Assembly minutes of 1873. But there is no record of his reception or his dismissal by Presbytery. It is probable that he supplied one of our churches for a few months and that his name was put on the roll through mistake. This leaves us a ministerial roll of thirty-four. Five of these, Revs. W. R. Fulton, A. W. Eliott, A. G. Taylor, Enos M. Halbert and L. J. Matthews, were on the roll the whole period; but only W. R. Fulton and Enos M. Halbert were in the active work the full time.
In boyhood or manhood I have had a personal acquaintance with eleven of these ministers enrolled in the first decade, and have had special opportunities to know by reputation several others.
John McFarland was bowed with the weight of years and arduous toil when Ozark Presbytery was organized, and be it said to the honor of this Presbytery that its first recommendation to the Assemblys Board of Relief April 12th, 1872, reads: "The
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Committee on Relief were directed to apply to the Committee on Relief Fund of Disabled Ministers for $300, or more if necessary, for the relief of Rev. John McFarland."
James A. Paige, the last Stated Clerk of Southwest Missouri Presbytery and the first of Ozark, only remained one year after the organization. And J. Howard Nixon's stay was likewise brief. James Junius Marks was received just at the close of the decade, and therefore his work belongs to a later period. Elimi- nating these four, the ministers who had the most to do in shap- ing the destinies of the Presbytery in this formative period were William R. Fulton, J. M. Brown, W. L. Miller, Cyrus H. Dunlap, Wm. S. Knight, David L. Lander and Thomas H. Allin.
For nearly nineteen years William R. Fulton served the Ebenezer Church. From that church you go down a little valley and up to the top of a green hill, and there lie his earthly remains awaiting the judgment morn. His was the longest pastorate in our bounds, followed by W. S. Knight's eighteen years in the first church of Carthage as a close second and R. W. Ely's fifteen years at Neosho as a close third. When I first saw Greenfield twenty years after his death the atmosphere of the place still emitted the fragrance of his godly life. And old settlers still remember him as a man of God who went in and out among them. At the semi-centennial of that church it was said that seven of the sons of Ebenezer were in the Christian ministry. I think there has not one entered since unless he was then in prepara- tion. Who but the Omniscient One knows the part John McFar- land and William R. Fulton had in turning those seven men from that church into the ministry? A child christened with the name of Fulton as a first name still serves that church as a ruling elder. He served the Presbytery of Ozark for seven years as Stated Clerk, and organized, either alone or as chairman of a committee, the following churches: Carthage, Avilla, Locust Grove, Stockton, Nevada.
John M. Brown was elected the first Presbyterial missionary on a salary of $1,000 per annum, to be paid by the Home Board. That was in October, 1873. In his history of Kansas City Pres- bytery, Dr. John B. Hill calls John M. Brown the principal or- ganizer of Osage Presbytery (p. 110), and in another place says : "The man who at the close of the Civil War was sent by District Secretary Norton to be one of the reorganizers of Osage was Rev. *
John M. Brown. * * He did more than any other one man of the field work resulting in the re-establishment of our church in the Presbyteries of Osage and Ozark."
He was the first Chairman of Home Missions in this Presby- tery. In my boyhood days Willis L. Miller-laid aside from the active duties of the ministry at that time by reason of ill health
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PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE OZARKS
-boarded in my father's family for some months. I recall him as a man of nervous energy and intelligence. On one occasion he went with my older sisters and myself in quest of wild straw- berries. A barefooted boy and the youngest of the company, I made slow progress among the rocks and briars, and lagged behind until the others. were out of sight-hiding, as it after- wards proved. Two sensations were indelibly stamped upon my memory-the awfulness of being lost, which gave me my first impression of what hell must be like; and then, when I was found, the meanness of that preacher and my sisters for playing the prank on me! Yes, and I remember the flavor of those wild strawberries. That old sage must have been thinking of some such berries as grew in the unplowed hills of Southwest Missouri when he said: "Doubtless the Almighty might have made a better berry than the strawberry, but doubtless he never did." Shortly after this Mr. Miller "put on the harness" and the rec- ords of Ozark Presbytery bear eloquent testimony to the correct- ness of my boyhood impressions of his zeal, earnestness and ef- ficiency. Cyrus H. Dunlap, the second Chairman of Home Mis- sions, served the Calvary Church over eight years. William S. Knight led the church of Carthage out of the slough of despond and the wilderness of debt, became the first Chairman of For- eign Missions and the virtual founder of the Carthage Collegiate Institute ; and Donald K. Campbell served the church of Joplin in the days of small things and planted Presbyterianism in Webb City. Of these we shall hear more anon. It remains for me to speak of David L. Lander and Thomas H. Allin. These were the sons of the Presbytery in a particular sense in that her hands were laid on their heads in licensure and ordination. The Pres- bytery inherited from the Presbytery of Southwest Missouri a commendable carefulness in the reception and the ordination of ministers,the lack of which carefulness will, I think, explain many of the weaknesses of her history in later years. In all the annals of the Southwest Missouri Presbytery I find no instance when a man was ordained by lowering the standard of examina- tions required in the book. For ten years at least the Presbytery of Ozark treasured the spirit of this inheritance, if not the letter. For a year and a half a certain brother knocked at her doors for admission. For some years his name had not been on the roll of the Presbytery to which he last belonged. Through correspond- ence it was ascertained that said Presbytery interposed no ob- jections . to his acceptance by Ozark Presbytery. He had lived in our bounds for several years. But the committee's report, which was adopted by Presbytery, states :
"He is not incapacitated for the active labors of the ministry, shall we receive him? Your committee recommend that we do not receive him
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at present. He had practically withdrawn from the ministry. He was en- gaged in secular business when he made this application and has so con- tinued to be since. We know no ground for charges against him as a Christian. He is teaching in the Sabbath School and doing good as a lay- man; but we believe this Presbytery can not clothe him again with the character of a Christian minister without secularizing this sacred office."
In this period it appears that only two men from non-Pres- byterian bodies sought admission to the Presbytery. The one, a Methodist, was received, but his reception was afterwards declared null and void, as previously stated; the other, a Baptist minister, was permitted to labor in our bounds, was twice exam- ined, but his examinations were not sustained.
Presbytery ordained but four men in these ten years. The first was Squire Glasscock and the last was W. A. Cravens. Of the others I shall speak more at length.
David L. Lander was a student for the ministry in Center College, but owing to ill health left the college and abandoned the idea of entering the ministry. Coming to Neosho, he taught in the public schools, where after three months' service he was elected principal. On uniting with the church he was immedi- ately elected an elder, and in that capacity served the church as a representative in Presbytery, as superintendent and Bible class teacher in the Sabbath school. Rev. John M. Brown laid hands on the young man and started him in the study of theology. Sub- sequently, while teaching in the Indian Territory, he "exercised his gifts." From his secular labors there he was called to preach by the Neosho Church, and served that and the neighboring churches of Granby and Westminster from April, '75, to April, '79. For a little over a year he was Stated Clerk of this Pres- bytery. And the records he kept are written in a hand beautiful and plain. Incidentally it might be noted that the same cannot be said of some earlier and later S. Cs. In later life Mr. Lander has served three other Presbyteries in a similar capacity. When just budding into young manhood I thought him an exception- ally good preacher. Of Thomas H. Allin I have precious mem- ories. In Hill's "Presbytery of Kansas City" (p. 306) is this record :
SALEM (PETTIS COUNTY).
This church is located five miles northwest of Lamonte and seven and one-half miles northeast of Knob Noster. September 15, 1880, in connec- tion with a request for the dissolution of the church at LaMonte the Rev. T. H. Allin requested leave to organize a church at this point. Rev. J. W. Allen, Synodical Missionary, together with T. H. Allin, D. L. Lander and Elders S. T. Mahin and P. Stringfield were appointed a committee to or- garize. The next spring the committee reported: "Our chairman failed to report in person at the appointed time; the remaining members of the
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PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE OZARKS
committee proceeded with the work as best they could. Preparatory ser- vices were held during the second week in October, the gospel being preach- ed each evening. On Sabbath morning, Oct. 10, after services, twenty-five persons were organized into a church according to the Presbyterian Con- fession of Faith and Form of Government. Fourteen of these presented letters from other churches and eleven were added on examination. Two elders, P. Stringfield and L. A. Byers, were elected and installed."
I was one of those eleven, and including a cousin of mine, who lived with us, and my married sister, if I am not mistaken, one family constituted nine of the twenty-five. Ours was a large family-with hired help-in those days always from eleven up. Yet there was always room for the minister. Mr. Allin, his wife and his son frequently stayed with us. He belonged to that old type of Presbyterian preachers-prevailingly clerical in attire and dignified in bearing. You had to give them about three- quarters of an hour's notice for breakfast. Owing to the crowded conditions of our house, my younger brother often slept on a pallet in the "Prophet's Chamber." The celerity with which the barefooted boy-now clerk of the session of Ebenezer Church -donned his apparel was a theme of constant remark and amaze- ment for the clergyman. The tall, erect and dignified man, past . sixty, could not realize that the boy slept in his shirt and only needed to run his legs in his trousers, throw a suspender over each shoulder, and as his hands came down button about three buttons on his trousers and then was ready for the day! This incident is a parable which, being interpreted, means: Preacher notice and know the boy.
But to resume. In the early seventies L. H. Allin was a law- yer and an elder in the Salem Church, Jasper County. In the Presbyterial records of March, 1876, is this minute :
"Whereas, the large field of Rev. W. L. Miller for the last two years has made it impossible for him to cultivate it alone; and, whereas, Mr. Thomas H. Allin, an elder of Salem Church, has for two years been assist- ing his minister, visiting the people and filling many of the regular appoint- ments, bearing his own expenses and receiving no compensation therefor; and, whereas, abundant and satisfactory testimony to the value of these labors has been presented by Rev. W. L. Miller and the elders of these churches; and, whereas, the Board of Home Missions is unable to commis- sion another minister so that field may be divided; therefore, resolved, that Presbytery do hereby gratefully recognize the value of the labors of Elder Thomas H. Allin, approve of his work and request him to continue therein until the next meeting of Presbytery."
Mr. Miller's field at that time covered a good part of North- ern Jasper and Lawrence Counties, but he and the Presbytery seemed imbued with the idea that it needed "cultivation" as well as preaching. So Mr. Miller set apart Mr. Allin as a kind of "local evangelist" two years before Presbytery took action thereon, and the Presbytery set him apart for the functions of
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this office long before the Form of Government recognized the office. Six months later Mr. Allin was licensed and another six months brought his ordination.
I have dwelt at length on these exceptional cases for a pur- pose. They were clearly exceptional in the sense that "the fathers" used the term. There came a time when the Presbytery seemed inclined to regard almost any man who lacked educa- tional qualifications, but wanted to preach, as an exceptional case. To the lack of care in the reception of candidates and min- isters I attribute much of the weakness of the Presbytery. And when I am gone, if remembered at all, I want to be remembered as one who had an humble part in bringing the Presbytery back to better traditions of a former day, and who believed that our smaller churches, that have and will fill the ranks of the minis- try and the rolls of the larger churches, need strong men of God to cultivate and preach for them, and that because they furnish the bone and sinew of the church at large, the church at large ought to ustain them. Starting with eleven ministers, enrolling a total of thirty-four, and closing the decade with nineteen, the Presbytery averaged 14 1-10 per annum. Not all of these were in active work. Several were bowed with the infirmities of age and were honorably retired.
GROWTH AND HINDRANCES.
The first report after the reunion gave the strength of the Presbytery as follows 1871 A. D .: Eleven ministers, 1 licentiate, 1 candidate, 24 churches, 76 added on examination, 92 by letter. 630 communicants. For 1880 the statistics are: Nineteen min- isters, 1 licentiate. 7 candidates, 34 churches, 83 added on exam- ination, 67 by certificate; total, 1,137 .. In his address at the Ebenezer semi-centennial Dr. Knight spoke of the growth of the Presbytery as follows: "The increase in membership from 1870 to 1880 was 152 per cent as compared with 46 1-3 in population, and from 1880 to 1890 77 per cent as against 43." In this com- parison, however, I think Dr. Knight used only the statistics of the Old School churches. As shown above, there were 532 mem- bers in the churches assigned to Ozark Presbytery at the time of the reunion. This would make a growth from 1870 to 1880 of 113 96-113 per cent. If one is inclined to a less optimistic glance. he can readily find that though we increased relatively faster than the population, other demonstrations outstripped ns by far. In- deed, the growth of the Presbytery was slow. Like the "good Indians," the Presbyterian element died or moved away during "Missouri's Memorable Decade." The churches were small and many of them chronically vacant. At the close of this period
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Calvary was the only self-sustaining church, whilst Carthage reported a membership of 115. When this Presbytery was or- ganized Webb City was not on the map and all Jasper County had a population less than that thriving city now claims. Greene, the most populous county in our bounds, had less than two- thirds of what her metropolis now claims, and even in 1880 all the people of Jasper County could have lived in the houses of the present Joplin, and strangers would have found plenty of "houses to let." W. J. Hayden says he organized the first Sun- day school in Joplin a little over thirty-five years ago, and he claims that at that time there was only one brick building in the place and that the mining industry was just beginning to attract attention. Not then had the fame of the "Land of the Big Red Ap- ple" been sounded afar, and no powerful express companies placed the fresh grown, luscious strawberries, kissed by the dews and with cheeks blushed by the sunshine of the Ozarks, on the table of artisan and millionaire in St. Louis, Chicago and New York. With its rocks and its hills it was largely an agricultural and stock-raising country, and chinch bugs or other pests were so numerous that this Presbytery took notice of the distressed condi- tion of the farming community. And let it be borne in mind that the strong men whom I have mentioned were not all laboring here at once.
Frequent attention is called to the great scarcity of minis- ters, and often the only kind that could be obtained were men who thought their mission fulfilled when they had filled their Sunday appointments. They expected to be nourished rather than to nourish the churches. The Presbytery of Ozark has had more than its share of this type. A country elder described one of them who came to us in later years in this way: "He preaches well enough, but when you sot him down he's there until you come back after him." We talk of ministers being underpaid. and so they are, but the minister who does not work as hard as the farmer or the mechanic is overpaid. A truck garden highly cultivated may yield its possessor as much revenue as a farm with scant cultivation. In the spiritual realm if the large church or field is not well cultivated it looks for another cultivator. Too often the small field must look for enrichment to a larger grant from the board.
It must be confessed, too, that while the Presbyterian Church has always been known for strength and stability she has not always been remarkable for adaptability. In this respect she is better equipped today than a generation ago. With the strength and stability of the fathers and the adaptability of the sons, we are now ready to move forward with accelerated pace. But the shortcomings in adaptability and the very stability and standards
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