USA > Nebraska > A history of Nebraska Methodism, first half-century, 1854-1904 > Part 18
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"I received $175, and had an increase in membership of twenty-three. For the year 1878 I received $210.42. and had an increase in membership of four. Of this amount Madison paid $80 and I gave them on subscrip- tion $80 to the church. There went into the building of that church two yoke of oxen, one cow, and four pigs. My boy worked for the oxen and cow."
Another stalwart worker in the local ranks entered the field in Antelope and Madison Counties in the later seventies in the person of Charles G. Rouse, who was born in Dupage County Illinois, September 17, 1836; came to Nebraska in 1870, and received license to preach under Jabez Charles's pastorate in 1873, and has since. though remaining in the local ranks, assisted pastors and preached, as a supply, for twenty-five years, as regularly and efficiently as if he had been a member of the Con- ference. He would doubtless have been admitted into the Conference had he entered the work earlier in life. At the time his name was presented he was past forty and had a large family, and objection being made on
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that score alone, lie was not admitted, whereby a great mistake was made and injustice wrought, as his subsc- quent career of great usefulness makes clear. His record compares favorably with that of the average member of Conference. Brother Rouse is a man of fine physique. excellent voice, a good singer and a good preacher, and withal is "full of faith and the Holy Ghost." Great re- vivals have attended his ministry from the first. A goodly number of churches and parsonages have been built under his guidance and inspiration. Indeed, it would be difficult to find a charge which he has served that has not been strengthened in some way by this faith- ful man of God. He has served some important charges on the Neligh and other districts, among them may be mentioned Plainview, Osmond, Pierce, Creighton, Meadow Grove and Tilden, and Newman Grove and Emerick.
He began his work on the latter charge which was in the neighborhood of his homestead at St. Clair Valley, God blessing his ministry with a wonderful revival.
Brother Rouse has been twice married, first to Miss Lydia Motter, September 10, 1857, who after thirty years, during which she was a faithful wife and devoted mother of her children, she passed to her reward Sep- tember, 1887. He was married the second time to Mrs. Amanda Grantham, February II, 1897, who has since been a true companion in his toils and victories.
His patriotism was evidenced by three years' service in the army. He enlisted in Company B, Thirty-third Regiment, Wisconsin Infantry, August 14, 1862, and was honorably discharged August 9, 1865, at Vicksburg.
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OMAHA.
In tracing the history of Omaha through the last period, we left it in the hands of Gilbert De La Matyr, who was leading the Church to large and more prosper- ous conditions. Samuel Burns, that genius in Sunday- school work, was at the head of that department and had already brought it up to 540, as compared with 240 Church members. Everything seems to promise well for the future, and in 1872 the presiding elder, A. G. White, puts the situation as follows :
"Dr. De La Matyr has fully sustained the prestige of the pulpit, and closed up his third year greatly beloved by the friends of the Church, and respected by the whole community. The Sabbath-school seems each session to be in the very zenith of its excellence. The officers and teachers present a rare example of promptness and adapt- ability and faithfulness in their work. Whatever money can purchase-judicious management and faithful labor can accomplish, are here applied to make Sabbath-school instruction attractive and successful."
G. W. Gue, whom we have seen cheerfully doing pio- neer service among the new settlers in Fillmore County the year before, succeeds Dr. De La Matyr, and puts in a year of efficient service, when he is compelled to tempo- rarily quit the active ministry and accept a lucrative secu- lar position to make up a heavy financial loss caused by becoming surety for a friend.
The new factor of progress above referred to had been introduced into the Sunday-school work by the elec- tion of Samuel Burns as superintendent in 1869. That he was a rare genius in this kind of work is manifest
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from the fact that the school, according to reports made to the Quarterly Conference, increased from 319 in 1870, including thirty-seven teachers, with no conversions re- ported, to 702 in 1872, including thirty-five teachers, with thirty conversions reported. The full significance of this phenomenal growth, will be better appreciated when we consider that the entire membership of the Church had not materially increased during that period, being 225. Indeed, the Minutes for 1873 show only 150 members, but this is probably an error. But when we recall thie fact that the number in Sunday-school rarely exceeds the number of the Church membership, it will appear that this growth is almost unprecedented in the history of the Church. And that good was being done is evident from the thirty conversions reported in 1872.
With such a splendid record as this we can almost pardon a man if he becomes a little vain and even arro- gant, and insists on running that department himself, as- suming that results had proved him thoroughly compe- tent to do so, and it would be sound policy for the Church to be patient with a man who could bring this important department up to such a high state of efficiency, and make it such a great power for good in the community as it certainly was. For the sake of the cause they could well afford to let him think the Sunday-school was the biggest thing about the Church, as it literally was, numer- ically, at least, and they could bear with him if he thought it the most important department. Perhaps this exag- gerated view of the relative importance of the Sunday- school was one element of his success.
But when in 1863 Clark Wright was transferred from one of the Eastern Conferences and became pastor, he
IS
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seemed not to be able to take in the unique situation of a Church with one of its subordinate departments more than twice as large as itself, or comprehend that geomet- rical contradiction, that in this case the part was greater than the whole. Nor did he understand Samuel Burns, and having himself no small store of ministerial dignity to maintain, it was difficult for him to brook what seemed undue arrogance on the part of Burns.
That both these men were honest in their convictions, and that both loved the Church and were, in their differ- ent ways equally loyal, and willing to toil and sacrifice in order to build it up, did not relieve the situation, but as it often happens. the very intensity of their honest con- victions increased the tension, and made it more difficult for either to understand the other.
But probably these men might have gotten along to- gether and perpetuated the situation that was so full of present power and future promise, if the pastor in his zeal for the spiritual interests of the Church had not in- troduced an element into the situation in the person of Mrs. Maggie Van Cott, which, as events proved, greatly increased the difficulty of a satisfactory adjustment of conflicting convictions.
Assuming, as we may properly do, that it was right for the pastor and Burns and the entire Church, to con- serve and perpetuate the Sunday-school in the high state of efficiency to which it had been brought, and that Burns was the only man who could do it, and his judgment as to what would best serve this purpose, was entitled to more than ordinary respect. And further assuming that the pastor was right in desiring a revival of religion, and in good faith sought to promote it by what he deemed
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the most efficient means, by the employment of Mrs. Van Cott, who had already a great reputation as a successful evangelist ; the problem now presented to the pastor and the whole Church was how to perpetuate the now pow- erful agency for good, the Sunday-school, and also make it possible for Mrs. Van Cott to accomplish all she could in her line of work.
She comes, as every evangelist should come, with a conviction that there is no work so important as the sal- vation of souls. And in this she shared what has been the universal sentiment of Methodism. She felt that for the time being all else should be subordinated to the re- vival, and as the leader in the special movement she also felt that all others should willingly submit to her will, and obey her commands, including pastor and Sunday- school superintendent. This had doubtless been conceded to her wherever she had been, and she knew nothing in the conditions at Omaha that would make that an excep- tion. It did not occur to her that by careful and skillful methods, in which the weekly teachers' meeting was a most potent factor, Samuel Burns and his co-workers had built up one of the best schools in Methodism, and that therefore the situation in Omaha presented some features which were peculiar and probably different front any she had ever met, and called for special consideration, and special treatment.
There can be no doubt that Mrs. Van Cott was a con- secrated woman, whom the Lord was using in the salva- tion of many souls. But it is to be feared that she was so constituted that her success had, perhaps uncon- sciously to herself, exaggerated her conception of her own importance, and narrowed her views as to Church
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work, and greatly strengthened a naturally imperious will. This we know sometimes happens in the case of otherwise excellent evangelists. There was probably somewhat in the manner and spirit of her demands that would make it difficult for a man like Samuel Burns to accede to them, even if reasonable. And in view of the peculiar importance of maintaining his large Sunday- school and the teachers' meeting as an essential feature, he could not but regard her demand for unconditional surrender, and entire suspension of the teachers' meeting, even after he had offered to hold it an hour later, so all could attend both services, as unreasonable, and refuse to surrender. Hence the disastrous rupture, that has many times overbalanced all the good that Mrs. Van Cott did in her revival, which would have been great and last- ing but for this. And what was equally and more per- manently harmful to Omaha Methodism, it destroyed the best Sunday-school she has ever had in hier history. And still further, the withdrawal of Burns and his influential followers, was probably the chief cause of subsequent financial embarrassment by which they became bankrupt and lost their property. And we must still add as an- other item to the dark account of loss, the years of futile effort to build up a rival Church, which cost such men as Lemon, P. C. Johnson, Pardee, Shenk, Beans, and Leedom years of valuable ministry.
Some may doubt the propriety of dwelling so long on this unhappy affair. But the historian has not the option to choose only the pleasant features of the history, but is in duty bound to note what has obstructed the progress of the Church. It is my conviction that no event in the fifty years of Nebraska Methodism has been so far-reach-
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ing in its pernicious influences, not only in Omaha, but to some extent, beyond the limits of that city, as this un- happy affair. It is here recorded as a monumental blunder, not to use a harsher name, that should stand out as a warning to good people not to sacrifice the in- terests of Christ's kingdom for the sake of having one's own way.
Clark Wright was an attractive man and might have succeeded well but for these troubles, and the financial embarrassment. As it was he reports considerable gain in members during his pastorate, but the Sunday School of 700 which he found, dropped down to 400, and this number was not maintained.
He is followed by L. F. Britt, who remains a year and has to his credit a gracious revival resulting in the conversion of some seventy-five. But success along spir- itual lines, could not avert the doom of bankruptcy im- pending, and the bondholders accepted in settlement all their property, both on Seventeenth and Thirteenth Streets, leaving the Church homeless."
At this juncture, that old veteran, H. D. Fisher, was induced to come to the rescue, though he would receive $800 less salary by doing so. He found a homeless Church, but temporary arrangements were made for serv- ices in a rented hall. A lot was purchased on Davenport Street, between Seventeenth and Eighteenth, and the third church enterprise was inaugurated, and in due tinie a plain frame structure, with parsonage at the rear, was · completed and dedicated by Mrs. Van Cott. In speak- ing of this achievement, Dr. Fisher quotes Bishop Haven, who, when he preached in the church remarked to the congregation : (See Gun and Gospel, by Fisher, p. 257.)
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"It is marvelous indeed !" and to me, "where did you get all this? We have known of the state of things in Omaha for years before you came. Some said Methodism was dead there and ought to be buried. But when I learned you had gone to Omaha I told my friends 'that means resurrection,' and so it did. The bishop preached for us, and told the congregation that the bishops had regarded the case as practically hopeless, and it was the man from Kansas who, in the economy of grace, had brought them resurrection."
The growth of the city and of the Church seems to call for expansion, and the Second Church has been or- ganized just north of Cumings Street, meeting a grow - ing need of that part of the city. This expansion takes place in the south part of the city, in 1872, and its be- ginnings are thus reported by the presiding elder :
"Omaha Mission-J. M. Adair, pastor. This is a new work, embracing the scattered settlements not in- cluded in any other pastoral charge in Douglas County. A church has been purchased in South Omaha, near the Union Pacific depot, and Brother Adair has labored to pay for it. He has displayed commendable zeal in city and country, but has received for his services barely suf- ficient to pay his house rent."
In 1879, at the close of Dr. Fisher's pastorate, there appears as pastor, J. B. Maxfield, D. D., one who has al- ready become familiar by his work on pastorates and dis- tricts. Of his work here Haynes says :
"He never failed to enlighten his hearers on the sub- ject in hand nor to edify his people. With him in the pulpit the assurance that the services would be interest- ing was not doubtful; and he was able to hold this good
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opinion and respectful hearing to the end of his labors in the charge. Closing the second year as pastor, he was removed to take charge of the Omaha District."
The expansion noted before, consisting of a second charge on Izard Street, enjoyed some prosperity under the successive pastorates of C. A. King, Charles McKel- vey, and J. H. Presson, and gave promise of steady growth, being in a growing portion of the city where it was much needed. But in 1874 the party who followed Burns out of the First Church, purchased the building and moved it up onto Eighteenth Street. After some eight or nine years, during which such men as Lemon, Pardee, P. C. Johnson, Beans, Shenk, and Leedom had given their best service, the effort to establish a Church there was given up as hopeless, and it was sold and Seward Street Church established.
South Tenth Street was served during this period by J. M. Adair, T. H. Tibbles, John P. Roe, P. C. Johnson, and David Marquette. Under Father Roe's ministry the Church, during the first year, received his services free of charge on condition that they pay all their debts, amounting then to $500. This was done. The second year he agreed to put the entire salary, $500, into a build- ing fund, to be available when they came to build. It was this and other generous actions of this man of God that made it possible for the writer to carry forward to success the building of both church and parsonage, dur- ing his three years' pastorate, beginning in 1879.
CHAPTER XV.
THIRD PERIOD. (1870-1880.)
LINCOLN.
AS EARLY as 1857 Salt Creek appeared in the Min- tites, and was left to be supplied. As to whether any one was secured for the circuit is not known, nor do we know just what territory was comprised in the circuit that year. and for several subsequent years. But the following year we find, as noted elsewhere, that Zenas B. Turman was assigned to Salt Creek. The first settlement on the site where Lincoln now stands, of which we have any au- thentic account, was established by Elder Young, and several others who were Methodist Protestants, and had in contemplation the establishment of a colony of their co-religionists, and started a seminary. But the project failed. The next effort was made by parties attracted by the supposed possibility of profitably developing the salt works, and the little village of Lancaster was the result. The superior richness of the salt deposits in Kansas soon made the Nebraska enterprise unprofitable and it was abandoned. But in 1867 Nebraska became a State and must needs have a capital, and Lincoln was selected. The plan was to sell lots enough to put up the State-house, and this being realized, Lancaster became Lincoln, the flour- ishing capital of the State.
Prior to this, however, probably in 1867, R. H. Hawkes preached on the site where Lincoln now stands.
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Father Edward Warnes, who speaks of himself as the oldest settler in Lincoln, having built his cabin near what would now be 719 A Street, in 1862, in an interview in the Lincoln Newes, for October 28, 1903, speaks of Brother Hawkes's ministry as follows :
"Rev. Hawkes was the first preacher. He was a very devout man. Money was scarce then, and the preacher was paid mainly in produce. It appeared that the good preacher and his family had not been remembered by the congregation for some time, and they had come to the point of starvation. A lot of us, hearing of the extreme poverty in which our pastor and his loved ones were placed, met and formed a donation party. We were loaded down with provender-flour, meat. coffee, sugar, and other substantial eatables too numerous to mention. As some of us reached the door we heard a voice engaged in prayer. Through a crack in it we saw the good man on his knees pleading with his Maker to help him in his hour of trouble and asking that a way be found to ena- ble his family and himself to be relieved from the pang's of hunger. I tell you it brought the tears to the eyes of his listeners.
"The produce was quietly and swiftly piled against the door, while the man within continued his prayer for relief. Then when the job was done a loud knock was given on the door and the entire party retired to a safe distance and waited developments. When he opened the door, the stuff piled up fell into the room, and it was laughable and pathetic to see the astonished and grateful look on the face of the recipient."
The following year, 1868, however, marks the real beginning of Lincoln Methodisin. Happily, just at this
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juncture, when the capital had been located, and was starting out with every prospect of success, H. T. Davis is just closing his three years' pastorate at Nebraska City, and is available for the work of laying the foundation of the Church in Lincoln, being appointed at the Confer- ence that year. Of the beginnings of Lincoln Methodisni no one is more competent to speak than H. T. Davis, hin- self, and in his "Solitary Places Made Glad," he tells the story :
"In the spring of 1868, Lincoln first appeared upon the Minutes of the Nebraska Annual Conference, and the writer was appointed pastor. The town contained a pop- ulation of some two hundred souls. There was no par- sonage, beautifully and richly furnished; no large so- ciety to greet the pastor and his family, and give them a royal welcome to a grand reception. The pastor built his own house and furnished it as best he could. While our house was being finished, Mrs. Davis did her cooking in the largest kitchen we ever had, the ceiling was high, the floor beautifully carpeted with living green, the ventila- tion perfect and our appetites of the very best. Here we lived a number of days in the most roomy apartment we ever had.
"We found sixteen members of the Church, including men, women, and children and a small church on Tenth Street inclosed only. We found another thing we did not like so well. On this shell of a house we found what the little girl called the latest improvement-a $400 mort- gage. We went to work, finishing the building, and con- secrating it to the worship of Almighty God, Dr. W. B. Slaughter preaching the dedicatory sermon. At the end of one year the building became too small for the congre-
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gations. The trustees authorized the pastor to dispose of the church, and the next week I sold it to the School Board of the city for a school-house. On the lots given by the State to the Church, we then built a frame build- ing. This building was afterwards enlarged."
At the close of Dr. Davis's pastorate, Lincoln is favored with the appointment of J. J. Roberts. He is now at the zenith of his great intellectual powers and enters upon his work among a people capable of appreciating his worth, both as a preacher and as a man. He preached at the session of Conference which was held in Lincoln, and well does the writer remember how profoundly that sermon impressed the Conference. He, with his devoted wife, entered upon what promised to be the most fruitful pastorate they had had in Nebraska, but was destined to be cut short by the failing health of Brother Roberts. At the close of the first year he had become a hopeless in- valid, rheumatism having fastened its relentless hold upon his physical frame. His presiding elder, Dr. Davis, re- ports the year's work as follows :
"Lincoln is in a healthy condition. A neat and sub- stantial parsonage, with eight good rooms, two large halls, a good cellar and cistern, has been built during the year at a cost of seventeen hundred dollars, and the whole amount paid, leaving no encumbrance whatever on the property. There is in connection with the Church a large and flourishing Sabbath-school. Brother Roberts's health during the past year has been poor, suffering in- tensely with rheumatism most of the time; nevertheless he has done an amount of labor that but few under the same circumstances would have performed. A mind of the Pauline type, he is one of the strong men of the
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Church, and his trumpet never gives an uncertain sound. He is most emphatically what Paul exhorted Timothy to be, 'A workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word, giving to saint and sinner his portion in due season.'"
After nearly a year of intense suffering, J. J. Roberts closed his earthly career on the 17th of March, I873.
J. J. Roberts was without doubt one of the ablest preachers Nebraska has ever had. And the strongest features of his preaching did not consist in the arts of the rhetorician or the orator. He rather eschewed thesc as being unnecessary, depending almost wholly on the capacity of the truth itself to make its way, if it only had a fair chance, by being clearly perceived by the speaker and plainly presented to the people. J. J. Roberts ex- celled in that marvelous capacity to see a great truth clearly and all truths in their true logical relations, as constituting a system, and grasp the system itself as a whole. This same power enabled him to detect fallacies and expose them most mercilessly. Brother Burch tells of an instance of this kind while Roberts was at Peru. A Christian (Campbellite) preacher was holding a series of meetings at Peru, and according to their usual method at that time, his preaching was of the controversial order, more attention being given to an effort to show that other Churches, especially the Methodist, were wrong, than in convincing sinners of their need of salvation. Roberts attended and after their meetings were over, devoted a little time to the matter in his next prayer-meeting, but in that short time completely swept away the fallacies of two weeks of preaching.
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This same keen logical power enabled him to detect shams. These he most heartily despised and took great delight in exposing them.
So complete was his work along these lines that when he got after a fallacy or a sham it took him but a few moments to create the impression on the minds of his hearers that there was nothing left of either sham or fallacy.
His standing among the people of Lincoln is indicated in these extracts from the Daily State Journal of March IS, 1873: "The death of J. J. Roberts, though not unex- pected, threw a gloom over the city. No man in Lincoln was more generally regarded with respect and veneration than he. His life for months past has been a struggle with terrible pain and suffering, and his indomitable for- titude and cheerfulness, his sterling piety, and his un- complaining resignation won for him a warm niche in the hearts of all who knew him. His disease was rheu- matic gout, that racked his frail body with merciless cruelty for days and weeks together and stretched him helpless on a couch of pain. Mr. Roberts came to Lincoln two years ago as pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, but after a year's faithful service, was obliged to take the superannuated relation. As a preacher he showed a wonderful depth of thought and originality. that would have made him a famous orator had his physique possessed the health and energy of his mental organization."
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