USA > Nebraska > A history of Nebraska Methodism, first half-century, 1854-1904 > Part 16
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Thomas Worley has done excellent work on many of the successive important charges he has served, and is now pastor at Weeping Water, where the old stone church built by Andrew L. Folden thirty years before was enlarged and remodeled at a cost of some $7,000.
Jas. H. Worley, the third son given by George Wor-
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ley to the ministry, was born May 17, 1854, and was also educated in the State University. At about the time James Worley was taking his course, there occurred the effort elsewhere referred to, to turn the institution over to infidel influence, and had so far succeeded that it be- came a hand to hand contest between St. Paul's Church and the infidel professors, who should have the boys and girls. Mrs. Roberts, Mrs. Hyde, Mrs. Peckham, and other elect ladies of the Church, found in James Worley one of the most efficient helpers, being their missionary to the students, carrying their invitations to attend so- cials at their homes and to come into their classes in the Sunday-school.
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He was received on trial in the Nebraska Conference in 1880, and was sent as a missionary to China in 1882, to which field he has given twenty-two years. He was for seven years principal of the Theological Seminary at Foochow, and has been the rest of the time in evangelis- tic work. He was the delegate from Foochow Confer- ence to the General Conference in 1900. He is now pre- siding elder of a district, and in a letter to the writer, joins with all the other missionaries in noting a mar- velous change taking place in old China, presaging great events in the near future, which will accrue to the more tapid advance of missionary work.
It has been given to but few men to do more for the cause of Christ by their own personal work in the local ranks, and to give to the Church three ministers whose influence has been as great on both sides of the globe.
While these spontaneous activities of faithful local preachers were valued, and always recognized and in- corporated in the system, they were the exception, and in
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their nature temporary. These enterprising presiding elders were on the constant lookout for these new settle- ments and were kept posted in various ways as to the needs and possibilities of the work, and were not long in' finding some one to supply the field.
This word came to Dr. Maxfield, who in 1871 had been placed in charge of Beatrice District, then a frontier district, that a man was needed on the Republican, and C. W. Wells was sent.
The appointment and work of Brother C. W. Wells on the frontier being a typical one, is well worthy of a somewhat detailed statement, which will best be told in his own language, as recorded in his very valuable and intensely interesting book, "Frontier Life," prefacing his own statement of the case by a few preliminary and ex- planatory facts. In 1871 Rev. C. W. Comstock had been appointed to the Republican Valley Circuit, but after a brief visit to the country he became discouraged and re- turned as far as Fairbury, to which Brother Wells had been appointed, saying in explanation that he did not like to stay in a country where he had to carry a revolver, accompanying the remark by an exhibition of such a weapon. But people were beginning to crowd into the Republican Valley and must be cared for. Dr. Maxfield wrote Brother Wells that there were Methodists at Red Cloud, and asked if he would go out and look after them, adding, "There is no use sending C., I want some one who has sand in his craw." Recognizing this essen- tial quality in Brother Wells he asked him, and Brother Wells possessing the quality in rare degree, went, though at great sacrifice. It may be remarked in passing that while Brother Wells has put in many years of valuable
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work, and is now an honored superannuated member of the Nebraska Conference, Comstock, after a few years of inefficient work, dropped out entirely and has long since been forgotten. The frontier service tended to sift the ranks of the itinerancy and usually all but those who had thie requisite "sand in their craw" dropped out. Refer- ring to this willingness of Brother Wells to go to this hard field, Dr. Maxfield says in his next report to Con- ference, "God's blessing rests upon men who shake hands with ease and comfort, bidding them farewell and taking their lives in their hands, thus go forth bearing the pre- cious seed."
But we must let Brother Wells tell his own story of his experiences during his pastorate there, as recorded on pages 190 to 193:
"Now came the tug of war with real frontier work in the ministry. For the first months my time was princi- pally spent in looking over the country for Christian peo- ple and for houses to preach in. Soon after reaching Red Cloud an appointment was made at Brother Penny's, about four miles southwest of town, and at Brother Knight's, some five miles from Red Cloud up the valley, and another one about eight miles southeast of town.
"At the Penny appointment preaching was in Brother Penny's house, which was a log building with a roof of 'shakes' split from the native oak-trees on his own place. Here I had a good preaching point during my entire pastorate on the charge. At Red Cloud I procured a vacant log building, which I occupied for a short time, then preached in Mr. Garber's store-room for a while; after this I moved into a dug-out in the south part of town, which shall be noticed further on. At the Knight
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appointment I preached in Brother Knight's house, and, if I remember correctly, it was covered with poles and dirt, and had a floor of native soil. Here, as previously, we sang, prayed, preached, ate, and slept all in the same room, and had a glorious, good time. At the appoint- ment southeast of Red Cloud we had preaching and Sun- day-school in a dug-out in the bank of a creek, where we worshiped the Lord in the winter season, and in the sun- mer we worshiped under the branches of two large oak- trees. Under these native trees I preached, held Sunday- school, and we made the woods and hills ring with our songs of praise and plain Gospel sermons. I often won- der if the echo of my voice is not still heard in that new country. The many happy hours I spent among those warm-hearted early settlers in dug-outs and sod houses will never be forgotten. They will be held in sweet re- membrance as long as I live.
The house where I boarded was about as good as the country afforded at that time, and yet it was a very un- comfortable place in cold, stormy weather. Many times I have sat poring over my books while the snow sifted through the roof upon them, and I was compelled to throw something over my shoulders and sit in a stoop- ing posture in order to keep my books from being soiled. Though the house was open to the cold, we could keep comfortably warm, for we were blessed with plenty of wood and a large fireplace. I say plenty of wood; there was plenty close by, but much of the time I carried it from the grove on my own shoulders. In cold weather, Brother Penny was usually on the road teaming, and left me to replenish the woodpile without a team.
"Another burden was imposed upon me. A good
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brother who lived a mile from my boarding place was compelled to leave home and find work, that he might provide bread for his family. While he was away there came a heavy fall of snow. The weather grew exceed- ingly cold and the fuel he had provided for his family was entirely consumed. As there was no other man near, it fell to my lot to replenish this brother's wood-pile also, and keep his family from freezing. He had drawn up a lot of ash poles for fencing, which I converted into stove- wood, and, on his return he found his fencing had been burned to ashes. There is a vast difference between act- ing the part of a city pastor and preaching on a large circuit in the frontier work. While the city pastor is sit- ting in his cozy study at home, the frontier preacher is perusing his books in a cold room, with the family of children about him, or traveling through deep snow to meet his appointments, or to relieve the sick and desti- tute. Yet there is a glory in laying the foundation of our beloved Zion in a new country that many of our East - ern preachers know nothing of. I have no disposition to envy the comparatively easy lot of our Eastern brethren ; but I do sympathize with them in their loss of the glory there is in laying the foundation Church in the new fields, upon which others may build.
"In all my travels on that large circuit at Red Cloud, through the snow and cold, piercing winds of winter, I neither had an under-garment nor an overcoat. Being born a backwoodsman, I did not mind such things as one who had been used to the comforts of life. On this charge I had some difficulty in finding houses to preach in; for when first going to the place there were no school-houses in all the country ; so I preached in private houses, hop-
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ing for the time when my congregation could have even a sod school-house to worship in. Even in the town of Red Cloud I was compelled to resort to a little dug-out 011 the outskirts of the village, where we held a series of meetings which resulted in great good for the Master's cause. Let the pastors of the present-day beautiful churches in Red Cloud rejoice that they are so comforta- blv situated, and remember that the first pastor and his little flock in that now flourishing town, preached, sang, . and prayed in a small dug-out in the ground.
"On first coming to this country, I found Indians, buffaloes, deer, antelopes, turkeys, thousands of prairie- dogs, and a few white men with their families. What a change has taken place in that country in so short a time! Then it was new, wild, and desolate; now it is well set- tled, rich, and a fertile country, with school-houses and churches ; and fine residences have taken the place of the dug-out, the sod-house, and the log-cabin. The first win- ter I spent there I killed twelve wild turkeys, two of which were shot from the window of my room. Besides these, Brother Penny killed some seven or eight. So you see the wild turkey took the place of yellow-legged chicken. Then, occasionally, some chanced to kill a deer or buffalo, which went far toward supplying the table with meat the entire year.
"During the winter we held a revival-meeting in our dug-out church, eight miles southeast of Red Cloud. Though worshiping under ground, there were many souls saved and made happy in the Lord, and there was a glorious awakening among the people of God. Truly the Lord is not confined to the large assemblies, the city- full, or the fine churches, but meets and blesses his peo-
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ple in the dug-out, the sod house, and the log-cabin. O what a wonderful God is our God, who heareth the prayers of His people at all times and in all places !
"In the spring of 1872 I finished my first year's work in the Conference, and on the Red Cloud Circuit, and went to Conference to report my charge. Traveling from Red Cloud to the seat of Conference, a distance of a hun- dred and fifty miles or more, through mud, rain, and cold, I reported as follows: Full members, twenty-three ; pro- bationers, six; received on salary from the circuit, thirty- two dollars; from the Missionary Society, $150-making $182 for the year. The bishop returned me to the Red Cloud Circuit, where I spent another year of toil and hard- ship, worrying through the year about as I did the pre- vious one. During the warm season I had a good and enjoyable time in traveling up and down the valley and across the prairie with my horse and buggy ; but in the snow and severe winds of winter, being poorly clad, I suffered intensely from the cold. During this year a class was formed at Guide Rock, which was made a reg- ular preaching point, though there were but few Meth- odists at the place or within reach of it. I now had five preaching points on the charge, which gave me abun- chance of work.
"In the summer of 1872 we held a camp-meeting southwest of Red Cloud, on what was called Penny Creek. Here we had a successful meeting, and received some fifteen into the Church on probation, and the pre- siding elder, J. B. Maxfield, baptized a number of con- verts in the Republican River-the first Methodists bap- tized in that river in Nebraska.
"During the week of our camp-meeting a heavy rain-
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storm visited the camp, saturating the ground to such a degree that it was unfit for use; so the presiding elder and I, with a few of the brethren, went on a buffalo hunt. We hunted all day without seeing any game, and canie home tired and hungry, as hunters usually do. But the elder and the brethren went out the second time with bet- ter results. After hunting a few hours in the morning, they came upon their game, wounded a large male buffalo and chased him for several miles. He ran until he could or would go no farther, and then seemed determined to defend himself. Halting not far from where two young men were in camp, he unmistakably showed signs of fight. On seeing that he would go no farther, one of the young men, taking his gun, walked out toward him. As he was approaching the beast one of our men called to him not to go too close or he might be hurt. Paying no attention to the warning, he went on, swearing that he would kill the animal. When within a few rods of the enraged beast, he presented his gun for firing; but the buffalo made a lunge for him, caught and crushed him to the ground, and threw him five or six feet into the air. As he came to the ground the buffalo prepared for another attack, when one of our men shot the beast through the heart, killing him instantly. The young man was taken to his camp and died there. Our men dressed the buffalo and returned to the camp-ground with enough beef to supply every person there for more than a week. Our camp-meeting closed with the good results already mentioned, and every one went home greatly benefited by having attended. The presiding elder, J. B. Maxfield, and a family by the name of Hurlburt came to this camp- meeting from Fairbury, nearly eighty miles distant, in a
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covered wagon. Thus the reader can see something of the presiding elder's work and what he passed through in the early days of Methodism in this new country. Brother Maxfield's district extended from somewhere east of Beatrice as far west as the Nebraska line, a distance of more than three hundred miles, though he was not re- quired to go so far west; for as yet much of the country was unsettled."
What Brother Wells and George W. Hummel were doing in the Republican Valley, others of like spirit were doing all along the line. About this time the tide of im- migration was pouring into all the country west of the Big Blue, and in 1871 Bishop Ames placed the terri- tory contiguous to the B. & M. R. R., which was being built from Lincoln to Kearney, in the care of H. T. Davis. then presiding elder of the Lincoln District. He pro- cured the services of Rev. G. W. Gue, a transfer from Central Illinois Conference, to organize the work in Fill- more County. Brother Gue was a man of fine culture and high, scholarly attainments. He went to work with a will, visiting the people in their sod houses, and or- ganizing them into classes, and soon formed a circuit. Perhaps no part of Nebraska has been settled with people of a higher grade of intelligence than those that speedily occupied the table-lands extending west of the Big Blue . to Adams and Hamilton Counties. They were ambitious and enterprising and in nine months after the first settle- ment of Fairmont, Brother Gue had a church well under way. The next year Brother Gue was appointed to First Church, Omaha, and seemed equally at home in either charge.
In Clay County, Newman Brass was doing the same
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kind of work, hunting up the Methodists that were com ... ing in and organizing them. Others were doing the sams' in York, Butler, and Polk Counties.
YORK.
If we are to judge of the value of the work accom- plished in those early days by the subsequent growth of the Church, no more important work was done in 1871, than when the York Church was organized. Of the or- ganization of this important charge, H. T. Davis gives this interesting account: "The first Methodist class was organized at the house of David Baker in the spring of 1871, and was composed of the following persons: Da- vid Baker, Elvira Baker, J. H. Bell, Thomas Bassett, L. D. Brakenian, Ella Brakeman, Sarahı N. Moore, Thomas Myres, John Murphy, Mary Murphy, S. W. Pettis, and Mrs. Shackelford. Brother Baker was the leader. At Brother Baker's house the class was regularly held; and here the traveling preacher always found a royal wel- come. The home of Brother and Sister Baker was al- ways open to newcomers, and Father and Mother Baker were household names in every settler's cabin in York County for many years. In 1872 the writer had the privilege of sharing their hospitality, and after remaining over night with the kind family, in the morning Brother Baker ferried me over Beaver Creek in a sorghum-pail. The stream was high and could not be forded, and there was no bridge, so the only way of crossing was in this unique boat."
But before the organization referred to by Dr. Davis W. E. Morgan, a graduate of Garrett Biblical Institutc. had preached in Father Baker's sod house on the 14th c.
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May. He afterwards served as pastor for several years. Doubtless the location of our Conference school at York in 1879 tended to strengthen our Church, attract- ing as it did many Methodist families. During the ex- istence of the school, under the pastorates of W. S. Black- burn, George A. Smith. H. T. Davis, Duke Slavens, and W. K. Beans, the membership increased from 140 to 568.
WV. S. Blackburn was pastor at York at the time the school was located there, and it was largely through his influence that this action was taken. Of course, before this action, York had the reputation of being one of the most moral communities in the State. Up to that time, and ever since, they had kept the saloon out, and this had much weight in determining the Conference to locate at York. Though soon after the location of Wesleyan at Lincoln, the York College ceased to be, the Methodist Church had already acquired such strength that this fact did not check its growth, but it kept on growing under the successive pastorates of Hilton, Crosthwaite, and Stewart, until the present pastor, in his sixth year of a successful pastorate, finds himself the pastor of the third largest Methodist Episcopal Church in Nebraska, with nearly 800 members. The two which excel it numeric- ally are St. Paul's Church, Lincoln, and University Place.
It would be interesting if space permitted to give the life history of each of the men who have wrought in the building up of so strong and influential a Church as that at York. But this is impossible, and we must be content with the mere mention of the names, except in a few cases of long service to the Church in Nebraska. Of Davis and Crosthwaite mention has been made on other pages.
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W. S. Blackburn was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, September II, 1830. He first became con- scious of the love of God in his heart when eight years of age, but childhood conversion received less recognition then, and he was not encouraged in his religious life and fell into spiritual darkness. This continued until he was fifteen years of age, when he was clearly converted, and has since that day to this, "witnessed a good confession."
After spending some time at Allegheny College he was, at the age of nineteen, without solicitation on his part, licensed to exhort by his Quarterly Conference, and was at once assigned work in a destitute neighborhood and soon had, as seals to his ministry, twenty souls con- verted. He was soon licensed to preach, and on the 18th of June, 1851, he was admitted on trial in the Pittsburg Conference, and began a successful ministerial career of over half a century.
In June, 1854, Eliza Jane Wakefield, the granddaugh- ter of a pioneer Methodist minister, became his life com- panion, and from that day to this she has devoted her life to the work required of a minister's wife, with an en- thusiasm and efficiency which has largely contributed to the successes which mark her husband's ministerial ca- reer.
Pronounced unfit for service in the Union army in 186I as a common soldier, he later waived an appoint- ment as chaplain in favor of his junior colleague. Soon thereafter he took work with the Christian Commission and spent a term in that important auxiliary service, min- istering to the physical wants of the sick and dying sol- diers, pointing them to the Savior and seeing many a brave boy die with the love of the Redeemer quickening
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his departing soul and banishing the sting of death and the terror of the grave.
For sixteen years Mr. Blackburn was a member of the Pittsburg Conference, and on every charge his pas- sion for soul saving was rewarded with conversions. In the fall of 1867 a transfer was taken to the Nebraska Conference, and for the next twenty-seven years this pio- neer pastor colabored with those grand old evangelists, Lemon, Pritchard, Slaughter, Giddings, Burch, Davis, Maxfield, and others, serving the Church in pastorates at Brownville, Rulo, Salem, Athens, London, Auburn. Plattsmouth, and York, in the original Nebraska Con- ference, and in West Nebraska Conference, at Axtell, Benkleman, Culbertson, Gering, and Republican.
Always frail in body, he believed a change of climate and rest would benefit him. He went to California and spent a couple of years, during which time he served Saul Miguel. Finding himself renewed in strength he re- turned to Nebraska, and at Republican City, in West Ne- braska, in the State to which he had given over twenty- five of his best years in a faithful, efficient service, he fittingly rounds out his half century in the Christian min- istry by a pastorate attended by old-time revival power and the conversion of souls. He returned to California, and he and his saintly wife are spending a happy, peace- ful old age, serenely waiting the summons that shall call them up higher. In closing a letter to his son, T. W. Blackburn, a prominent lawyer of Omaha, he says :
"With a heart glowing with gratitude to the Infinite Father, that He has given me so long a life of service in the ministry and that He has crowned my more than threescore and ten years with His loving kindness, strong
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in the faith that came to me in childhood, happy in the memories of half a century in the itinerancy, and confi- dent that God will welcome me home in His own good time, I here expect to spend the remnant of my days and from this city at His call to remove to the city not made with hands, whose builder and maker is God."
Another strong man who wrought in the rearing of the goodly structure of York Methodism, was J. W. Stewart, during whose pastorate the Church passed through a severe crisis in the loss by fire of the beautiful structure that had been erected during the pastorate of H. T. Davis. Of this great calamity the local historian, Mrs. Sarah N. Moore, gives this pathetic description : "One calm, beautiful night in October, the 16th, 1895, while prayer-meeting was in session in the lecture-room, fire was steadily making its way through the roof of the building, and by the time it was discovered it was too late to save the building, and while members and friends stood by and watched with tears running down their cheeks and exclamations of sorrow and regret coming from their lips, our beautiful church home was burned to the ground. We were bereft indeed, for was it not the second year of the drouth, and how could we ever re- build? It was deemed an impossibility.
"Our sister congregations offered to share their church homes with us, but our membership was large, and it was thought best to secure a room, though it might be small and inconvenient, where we might hold regular services without interfering with the rights of others. As in the early days, there was no room suitable for a place of worship. But the Sunday after the fire found the congregation assembled in an empty store room on the
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south side of the square, fitted up with a pulpit, a few pews, and the organ, which had been saved from the fire, and chairs sufficient for the seating capacity. We had a stirring sermon from the pastor, Brother Stewart, and at the close an appeal for money to rebuild the church, and in an incredible short time $6,000 had been sub- scribed, and it was settled that the Methodist Episcopal Church of York would not be homeless for a very long time."
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