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 6
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PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE OZARKS
of excellence made the church a target for others. Then, too, the ministers of the Presbytery were compelled to exhaust much of their strength in efforts to supply the vacant churches and to relieve their own charges of the burdens of debt. Some of the strongest churches now on our roll were mildly censured for not fulfilling promises to liquidate these debts, and the heroic efforts of such churches as Salem, Ozark Prairie and Mount Zion were held up as worthy of emulation. Ministers were appointed to preach at the many vacant churches during the interims of Pres- byteries, and even the pastor of Calvary was appointed to preach at Ash Grove once a month for six months, and what is more to the point he reported fidelity to the trust with the exception that he failed to do so in August. The Committee on Church Erection submitted the following tabulated statement in April, 1874:
Name of Church
Elected
Cost
Remarks
Ebenezer
1852
$3,000
Calvary
1856
3,300
Mount Zion
1867
3,500
Debt
$250
Carthage
1871
5,000
$2,500
Neosho
1872
2,600
$600
Ozark Prairie
1872
6,000
$600
Salem
1873
3,000
$6,000
(I think this debt of Salem must have been $600 instead of $6,000, as given in the report.)
The report calls attention to the fact that many of the churches were houseless and urges the importance of houses of worship to secure permanence and prosperity.
A PERIOD OF ORGANIZATION.
This was a period of organization. Many of the churches had a habit of not staying organized and had to be reorganized. The annual summary for May, 1870, states there were thirteen churches. This was before the union was consummated and there- fore is the record only of the Old School Presbytery. It must, too, include Bolivar, which the records show was dissolved just before this. On a previous page I have shown that in the autumn of 1870 there were twelve O. S. and five N. S. churches that en- tered into the union.
Then in May, 1871. we had twenty-four churches, and in 1880 thirty-four. If we subtract the Arkansas churches from the roll of 1906-territory that was not then in our bounds-we find exactly the same number of churches, i. e .. thirty-four. Only ahout one-fourth of these are now on our roll.
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PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE OZARKS
LAY WORKERS.
In the day of small things Presbytery was blessed with some efficient elders. Young people's work was scarcely an iridescent dream, and so far as the records show Presbytery took no knowl- edge of the women until its third meeting, and then simply called upon them for help in educating young men for the ministry in these words: "Resolved fourth, That we solicit the hearty co- operation of our good sisters in this noble work."
William Thompson, of Mount Zion Church; William R. Gor- ton and John L. Carson, of Calvary, and William H. Schmal- horst, of Conway, have been elders in these churches respectively during the entire thirty-seven years of the history of the Presby- tery. Dr. A. C. Schell, of Neosho, was an elder in that church at the organization of the Presbytery, and at its transfer to the New Ozark, but for a period of the intervening years he was away and in connection with other churches.
W. L. Scroggs, for forty-five years an elder in the Ebenezer Church, was an efficient Presbyter, serving on many important committees, and has given two sons to the ministry. A third son was for a short time a medical missionary. An older son is now an elder in the Ebenezer Church and a grandson is a deacon.
Charles Sheppard, of Calvary Church, was the first treasurer of Presbytery, and William R. Gorton formed the habit of being an efficient temporary clerk so early that he has probably served in that capacity oftener than any other two men. Neosho, in the person of Elder J. H. Miller, furnished the first man recommended by the Presbytery to the Foreign Board. That was October, 1870, and Mr. Miller was recommended to the board as a suitable man for the board to recommend to the Government for an agency to the Quapaw and Seneca nations. This same church gave the Presbytery the valuable services of Elder D. L. Lander before he became a minister, as Salem Church did those of Elder T. H. Allin. Paul Orr, oldest of the three brothers who for so many years served as elders in the Ozark Prairie and Mount Vernon group of churches, took that deep interest in affairs Presbyterial for which some of us remember him. And the names of Mitchell, Poage, Sheppard, Strain and Stringfield, frequently found in these earlier annals, are represented in the eldership of the Pres- bytery by a later generation to this day. But time would fail me to tell of McMillan, recently deceased at Carthage, and W. A. Wheatley, sole elder of Webb City at its organization and an elder in the recently organized church of North Heights, Joplin, and of the rest who wrought righteousness and obtained the promises.
Not until March 19th, 1876, did Presbytery seek to enlist the
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PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE OZARKS
women in organized efforts. On that date this minute appears: "Resolved, That at our next stated meeting we hold a mission- ary meeting and that we endeavor to secure one lady to repre- sent each church in a Ladies' Presbyterial Missionary meeting ; and that our Committee on Foreign Missions be instructed to pre- pare a good program for such a meeting." This society was or- ganized at Greenfield September 29, 1876. Miss Amanda Cowan, of Calvary Church, who is still an active worker in the local or- ganization of that church, was elected first President. Presby- tery was greatly elated over this new movement, hailed with de- light the prospect of the ladies becoming colaborers in the work of evangelizing the world and promised to endeavor to secure a society in each church. Six months later note is taken of the efforts to organize the Board of the Southwest in St. Louis, the commendatory resolutions of the last session are reiterated and the Stated Clerk was instructed to send these felicitous tidings to Mrs. Henry S. Little, of St. Louis, a name familiar to this gen- eration.
BOARDS AND BENEVOLENT AGENCIES.
The Boards of Home Missions, Church Erection, Sabbath School Work, Ministerial Education and Ministerial Relief first claimed the attention of Presbytery. The struggling condition of our churches brought home to them the beneficent agencies of home missions and church erection; the wide moral and spiritual destitutions called for Sabbath school missionaries, whilst the importance of the work of ministerial education was echoed from hilltop to hilltop in the clarion call :
"O still in accents sweet and strong Sounds forth the ancient word, 'More reapers for white harvest fields, More laborers for the Lord.' "
And when more reapers failed to come the added burdens of those who were here bowed them with the weight of premature age and endeared to the Presbytery the work of ministerial relief. We who have fallen on softer days can forgive them that they seem not even to have had a standing Committee on Foreign Mis- sions until the autumn of 1875. Of this first standing committee Dr. W. S. Knight was the Chairman, and although there is abun- dant evidence that he put considerable energy into the work of the committee, the report at the spring meeting of 1877 shows that only five churches contributed to foreign missions. One of the five contributed $206 and the other four contributed $20. A little out of proportion, think you? Yet as late as 1906, of the
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PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE OZARKS
$1,797 contributed to foreign missions, one church of the forty- two on the roll of Presbytery contributed $1,029. Yet while the Presbytery tarried so long in organized efforts for foreign mis- sions, it is fair to state that at its first session Presbytery called on all its churches to observe the first week in January as a week of prayer for the conversion of the world.
It was but natural that home missions should claim a large share of the attention of Presbytery when we remember that all our churches were home mission churches except Calvary. Just at the close of the decade the churches of Carthage and Joplin reached the dignity of belonging to the sustentation department of that board. A later generation of elders and ministers may need to be reminded that the sustentation department of home missions had two requirements-that the minimum contribution per member for pastor's salary be $5 and the minimum salary be $900. These minimums may have varied at different times, but I give them as I recollect them .. The first standing Committee on Home Missions consisted'of Revs. J. M. Brown, W. R. Fulton and Elder W. L. Seroggs. After three and a half years of serv- ice as Chairman of this committee Mr. Brown resigned, and Rev. C. H. Dunlap was elected and served until his removal from the bounds of the Presbytery just before the close of this decade. Very early in its history Presbytery recognized the need of a field worker, who at various times has been designated as Presbyterial evangelist, missionary or pastor-at-large. John M. Brown first served Presbytery in this capacity. Allusion has already been made to Dr. Hill's estimate of him as a field worker. That repu- tation he seems to have sustained in this Presbytery. But after two years of service, on account of the heavy debt of the board, which Presbytery designated "the severest trial that has come upon the missionary work of the church," the office was discon- tinued. It would seem that the board paid the entire salary of Mr. Brown, i. e., $1,000. Just at the close of this decade Dr. Marks was elected to a similar position in Presbytery.
Of the original members of the Presbytery, three became an- nuitants of the Board of Relief during this period: When I re- member that this list of our worthy annuitants was headed by John McFarland, and when I recall other honored names that have appeared thereon, I think that maybe I had better drop a tear or breathe a prayer. But at the risk of appearing harsh. with the hope that it will inspire greater care in the future, I will give the outlines of one case which is but an illustration of nu- merous cases that, in my humble judgment, lower this worthy cause in the minds of our people.
Licensed without academic education and without a full examination October, 1867 ; ordained April, 1869. Recommended
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PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE OZARKS
to this board on account of throat trouble September, 1877. Still on the roll. I thought it-and not very long ago an elder who knew said it-it would have been better for some one to have told him that with only throat trouble he might have turned to some secular employment. In the early days of the Presbytery the work of Sabbath school missions was hardly considered second to any. Within our bonnds, as a usual thing, there was from one to three missionaries, or colporteurs, as they were generally called. At the first meeting of the Presbytery W. J. Hayden. the representative of the American Sunday School Union, ad- dressed the Presbytery, and at that time the work of this Union seemed to be regarded with about the same favor as our own Board. From the very beginning the Presbytery has had its Sun- day School Committee, and as early as September, 1872, Presby- tery adopted a standing rule to the effect that conferences on Sunday school work be held in connection with the sessions of Presbytery under the auspices of the Sunday School Committee. It would seem that the early missionaries devoted more time to the dissemination of Christian literature than to the organization of Sabbath schools. Though much of this work has never been turned to denominational strength or aggrandizement, eternity alone will reveal the good that has been done.
My earliest impressions of ministers is that of austere and dignified men, who slept in our best bed and whose shoes I was expected to blacken. And my earliest recollection of a colpor- teur is that of a man who came into our home and gave me a book entitled "The Story of a Pocket Bible," which left a lasting impression for good on my mind.
The first candidate for the ministry enrolled by this Presby- tery was a colored man, Benjamin Garnet by name. That was October 1st, 1870. One year later William E. Renshaw, of Mount Zion Church, and John W. Richardson, of White Rock Church, were received under care of Presbytery. So elated were the fathers and brethren over this prospect of filling the ranks of the ministry from our own sons that they passed ecstatic reso- lutions calling upon churches, elders and "our good sisters" to help to sustain the cause of ministerial education. In 1878 the number of candidates rose to five, and in 1880 there were seven. When we remember that in no year in the last twenty have we had more than half this number, though our membership has increased several fold, we can more fully appreciate what these feeble churches did in the way of replenishing the ranks of the ministry.
The Presbytery has never been distracted by doctrinal dif- ficulties. Its ministry has been prevailingly of a conservative type. In the realm of ethics it has had a few derelicts. In 1878
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PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE OZARKS
Presbytery deposed from the ministry one on whom it had laid its own hands. The charges were immorality. Less than fifteen years later Presbytery ordained this man and in a few years had another trial on its hands, at which time the same man was cen- sured. Subsequently he was permitted to demit the ministry, but the church he wrecked has not recovered to this day.
I recall a later incident where a man past threescore and ten was received from another denomination and in less than a year scandalized the community where he was sent and was temporarily silenced by the Presbytery, but not until he had started the church on a path that led it outside our ranks. The first of these was never equipped for the ministry, either by na- ture, by education or by grace. The second should have been left to spend his dotage in the church to which he gave his man- hood's powers and abilities.
In the item of ministerial salaries the first decade was far in advance of subsequent times. Not that any of its ministers there received as large a salary as some do now, but that for the.same grade of work, both relatively and actually, better salaries were paid. Then we had no cities and no city churches. In 1873 a certain village church, together with an outgoing country church, raised $500 and received $500 from the board to make a salary of $1,000. The village has grown to a city ; to the natural increase has added strength by union with the Cumberland Church, yet I believe after thirty-four years has only increased its pastor's salary by the use of the manse. At that time from $800 to $1,000 seemed to have been the prevailing salary for a good man in a single church aided by the board, or just strong enough to stand alone, or for a number of the groups of churches. Gradually the salaries were decreased. Some inefficient men helped to lower the standard. Weakened churches could seldom attract the other kind. The board lowered its grants partly because of financial stress and partly by reason of the slow growth of our churches. Thus the salaries, the ministry and the churches act and react on each other. . The board and the home mission committees of the Presbytery have mutually deplored the meager support offered our ministry in recent years. Here is one of the problems be- queathed to the new Presbytery of Ozark.
SECOND DECADE-1880-1889.
The second decade was an era of church building. Not less than fifteen churches applied for aid in the erection or comple- tion of houses of worship.
.
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PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE OZARKS
The following table shows the fluctuating growth of the Presbytery :
Year
No. Ministers
Candid's
Added on Ex. Added by Cert.
Whole No.
1880
19
7
83
67
1,137
1881
16
6
18
47
1,068
1882
20
8
79
129
1,189
1883
21
5
70
88
1,250
1884
15
3
100
157
1,367
1885
16
4
150
178
1,563
1886
18
1
171
125
1,734
1887
20
2
228
93
1,877
1888
21
2
138
131
1,949
1889
26
1
134
98
2,000
It seems almost incredible that in 1881, with sixteen minis- ters, only eighteen should have been added to the churches on profession of faith. It should be said, however, that the number of ministers is not a fair index to the working force of the Pres- bytery, because the Presbytery has constantly enrolled a com -. paratively large superannuated list. The early years of this era were the golden age of candidates for the ministry. In 1882 the Presbytery reported eight, or one to every 1485/s communicants In 1906 the Presbytery had one candidate to 3,432 communicants, and the following year two to 4,069.
It is also worthy of remark that the candidates of the early eighties were the products of our own churches, and took full collegiate and theological courses, whilst those of recent years, for the large part, have come from other churches and have en- tered the ministry by the short cut. At one time the Presbytery had four candidates in Drury College. At another there were four in theological seminaries, two in Drury College and one in Park. But the fatal mistake was made of permitting these young men to slip through our hands and enter other fields of labor. Of the seven referred to, two entered other callings and only one took a field of labor in our bounds upon his ordination. The Presbytery employed the young men during their summer vaca- tions, but failed to hold them when they had completed their course. The same rule applies to our candidates of later time. We have given to the church at large a number of young men whose successful ministries in other places leads the historian to infer that had they stayed with us our progress would have been more marked. The perennial difficulty in this Presbytery has been the securing and holding of efficient ministers. The young man alluded to above accepted the pastorate of the Joplin Church at his graduation and in less than a year asked for the
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PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE OZARKS
dissolution of the pastoral relation. Presbytery granted the request with a protest, but it granted it.
In the records of April, 1882, this entry is found :
"A letter having been received and read from Elder A. D. Matthews, of Buffalo, requesting the holding of a Presbyterial camp meeting at some central point in Polk or Dallas County, it was resolved that Presbytery answer favorably and that said meeting be held under the direction of Rev. J. J. Marks."
The growing interest in the intellectual and spiritual train- ing of the young was manifested in the holding of Sabbath school institutes and the founding of institutions of learning. The rec- ords of these institutions are meager, but there are indications that Presbytery devoted considerable attention to them and con- sidered them of much importance.
In 1888 colporteurs were supplanted by Sabbath school mis- sionaries. The two officers were not distinct, but under the old regimen the dissemination of Christian literature was the promi- nent work, and the organization of schools occupied a secondary place. During a part of that time at least the organization of schools was relegated largely to the agents of the American Sun- day School Union, which institution was regarded as a quasi- handmaiden of the Presbytery. Educational institutions under church auspices sprang into being in various parts of the Presby- tery. The Mount Zion and the Mount Vernon churches were erected with a view to school as well as church purposes, each of them having two stories. The school in connection with the former received the endorsement of Presbytery in 1884. The latter maintained a flourishing academy at the close of this dec- ade. Presbytery also entered into negotiations for an academy at Ash Grove in 1885, but it appears that the school did not ma- terialize. Aid was also given to Synod's earliest effort to co- operate with the Southern church in the maintenance of West- minster College at Fulton, Mo., but the most pretentious educa- tional endeavor of the Presbytery was the founding of Carthage College, a sketch of which is elsewhere given.
The subjoined report of the Committee on Home Missions April, 1884, presents a graphic picture of the condition and needs of the Presbytery :
"First-We need more permanence in the terms of ministerial service- we had thought to say more permanence in the pastoral relation,-but when we remember that we have but two pastorates among all our thirty-six churches it seems more natural to use the term which appropriately be- longs to the existing state of things. In our smaller churches the pastorate is almost if not entirely unknown. The term of ministerial service rarely, if ever, exceeds two years, and very often falls short of one. As long as this condition of things continues it is impossible to secure the best results of our labors. The responsibility of these frequent changes may possibly
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PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE OZARKS
be about equally divided between the ministers and churches. The remedy must be looked for in the same direction by a greater readiness on the part of the churches to receive such faithful ministers as Providence may send to them and a greater contentment on the part of the ministers in remaining where Providence has once placed them.
"Second-We need larger efforts at self-support. The sense of de- pendence on the board once indulged in by a church often becomes chronic. It is so much easier for poor, weak human nature to receive rather than to make sacrifices that a church often continues to call for aid when a little sacrifice would make them self-sustaining, or the same result may be secured by a judicial grouping of churches. The churches should remember that what they receive is not a charity to their minister, but to them, and unless the necessity is upon them they should be no more ready to receive aid in paying for their minister's services than in paying for their gro- ceries or their doctor's bill.
"Third-We need to impress upon the minds of all the duty of liberal contributions to the Board of Home Missions. This board is the mother of all our churches. For every dollar the churches of this Synod contributed to this board last year we received back seven to be expended on our mis- sion churches. * * *
"Fourth-We need the fostering of existing organizations rather than the organization of new churches. In some respects this is not so satisfac- tory a work as that of planting new organizations, but it is the work providentially put to our hands as a Presbytery, and we should patiently and steadfastly give our energies to it."
In this and the preceding decade the country churches at- tained a prestige they have long since lost. Where is the country .community in Southwest Missouri that would now attempt to erect a house of worship as substantial and imposing as "the brick" church of Ozark Prairie? The development of the Pres- bytery in these decades followed the westward course of the star of empire. Lawrence, Newton and pre-eminently Jasper coun- ties were the fertile fields of effort. But the Jasper County work was largely in the country fields. Joplin first received a gen- erous grant of home mission aid as late as 1885. And after eleven years of a checquered career Webb City was reduced to a mem- bership of eleven as late as 1888, and reported less than one hun- dred members twenty-two years after its founding. The grants of the Home Mission Board to our churches were indeed generous. Year after year Eureka Springs Church was recommended for $700 aid to make a salary of $1,000, and other churches or groups were recommended for from $300 to $500 to make similar home mission salaries.
In the latter half of this decade three tendencies are marked -smaller grants from the board, smaller salaries, more ministers ordained and received without the educational requirements laid down in the book. It is safe to say that the average salary of the home missionary the last fifteen years is from 20 per cent to 25 per cent smaller than the fifteen years before 1892, and if we con trast the price of commodities and the increased wealth of the
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PRESBYTERIANISM IN THE OZARKS
community the showing would be far worse. It appears that the Board grew weary of making such generous grants, and while appropriations were decreased, contributions to self-support were, to say the least, not increased. Inevitably this condition led the churches to request Presbytery to "lay hands" on uneducated men.
Indeed it seemed impossible to man our fields, offering such meager salaries, with men who had been trained in college and seminary. But a greater bane to progress was found in the fact that our churches were many of them without the stated means of grace a good part of the time. A short history of Presbyterian- ism in Webb City contains this statement: "After Mr. Camp- bell's departure and for the next nine years the church was vacant more than half the time. (Non)'mirable dictu,' at the close of the interregnum 'the church was reduced to eleven members.'" Alas, many of the churches did not fare even that well-after pro- tracted vacancies they were abandoned.
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