USA > Nebraska > A history of Nebraska Methodism, first half-century, 1854-1904 > Part 21
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It certainly presents a great and unlooked-for emer- gency. Will Methodism be ready for this emergency, and the man in charge be master of the situation ?
Perhaps what has been said is sufficient as a por- trayal of how Methodism met the great emergency caused by the sudden inflow of vast numbers of people, and kept pace with the rapidly advancing tide as it swept over the prairies toward the western line of the State. A Church that could successfully meet and cope with such an emer- gency, may be confidently expected to be ready for any emergency. Surely, thoughi, a severer test remains, when she is confronted with the conditions brought by the grasshopper plague. There had been much of hardship, it is true, connected with the rapidly developing work of the early seventies, but there was progress in both Church and State, and therefore much to inspire and encourage, and all were in good heart. The settler had built his
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cabin or sod house, the latter becoming the prevailing type when the table-lands between the streams were oc- cupied. He had broken out enough prairie to furnish him a good crop the second year. Even the first year there was enough sod corn raised to carry his stock through the winter. This was one of the advantages the early settler of the prairie States had over the early settlers of Ohio and Indiana. There the timber had to be removed, stumps uprooted, and work that required many years of toil had to be done, before much of a farm could be opened. But here a most excellent and productive farm could be made in a year or two, and the advance toward comfort and a competence was much more rapid.
The people were confidently looking forward to what seemed a bright and prosperous future, when they should move out of the "soddy" into the more comfortable home, and build school-houses and churches, and surround theni- selves with all the elements of highest Christian civiliza- tion. Indeed, it would be difficult to conceive of a brighter prospect than that which invited the people of Nebraska to honest toil, and incited them to hopeful in- dustry, from 1870 to 1874. But suddenly, without a mo- inent's warning, an enemy appeared that changed the whole situation from one of brightest hopefulness to one of darkest despair; from rapidly increasing comfort to abject misery.
Somewhere on the unoccupied plains of the great Northwest, there had been hatched countless millions of locusts, commonly called grasshoppers. Food supplies being soon exhausted in their native habitat, they followed their unerring instinct which led them with deadly pre- cision to the productive farms of the settlers in the West.
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And men who, in the morning looked out on thrifty crops and were already estimating there gain, were compelled in the evening to look on a scene of utter devastation. In the meanwhile, puissant man stood helpless in the presence of this tiny insect whose combined energy thus far exceeded his own. But the picture of utter ruin wrought by these pests, and the constant scenes of suf- fering inflicted on these settlers, especially in the large sections which had been so recently settled that people had not been able to accumulate anything as a reserve, can best be drawn by some who were in the midst of the scenes of desolation. Dr. Maxfield, whose district suffered much, thus paints the picture :
"There have been certain reminders visiting us upon this district this year, keeping us keenly alive to the fact that we are still upon earth and not in heaven. I refer to the scourge of hot winds and grasshoppers, which I hitherto forbore to mention, because it rested heavily alike upon all parts of the district, without exception. The harvest of small crops-wheat, oats, and barley --- had been gathered when the grasshoppers fell like snow- flakes from the skies. Myriads in multitude, they settled everywhere, and devoured the vegetables in the garden and the growing corn in the fields. All consumed in an incredibly short space of time. Relentlessly the work of ruin proceeded until nothing but the ruin of the farmers' prospects remained.
To those who have not visited the wasted districts, 10 adequate idea can be conveyed of the extent and complete- ness of the disaster visited upon us. Families dependent upon corn alone are in a condition of absolute destitu- tion. Individual instances of suffering are not given,
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for, where the suffering is so general, to do so would seem an invidious distinction against a multitude equally worthy of mention. But very few families have left this district on account of this calamity. With a fortitude and courage praiseworthy in the highest degree, they have nearly all of them elected to remain. They have not asked to have the field curtailed, but that more preachers be given. A people so brave demand the best ministry in the world.
"Of the preachers, but little can be said in blame or reproof. Volumes might be justly filled with their praise. I am unable to justly write the records of their noble lives and heroic sacrifices, but they are written in the book of God's remembrance, they shall be read at the last day in the hearing of all nations."
While the whole State suffered and all the presiding elders make pathetic allusion to the scourge, Kearney District is the storm center of this awful visitation. Here the settlements were all new and scarcely any one had more than enough for a bare subsistence, even if their crops had matured. Hence there is no one more com- petent to tell the sad story than A. G. White, the heroic, resourceful, and self-sacrificing presiding elder. He says : "One year ago Kearney District was financially pros- trate. 'The destruction that wasteth at noon-day' had come upon the whole land in the shape of prairie locusts ; the crops were consumed and the people left destitute and helpless. They could not carry forward their Church en- terprises nor support preachers, or even obtain for them- selves the necessaries of life, and yet they needed the Gos- pel none the less for their misfortune; and the Church could not with honor, or with any Christian propriety,
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withdraw from the field nierely because the people had been unfortunate. The missionary appropriation was barely sufficient to pay the house rent for the preacher, and this was about all the visible means of support they had. A forlorn hope without ammunition, and depending wholly upon the bayonet, has, in a desperate emergency, saved the lionor of an army. And so these preachers went forth as representatives of a Gospel faith and of sacrifice and found the Divine assurance still in practical force, 'Lo, I am with you.' Some of them have traveled their extensive circuits the whole year on foot, giving full proof of their ministry, and not neglecting the people in their underground cabins, who, in many cases, were kept at home for the want of clothing. And through the benevo- lence of Eastern friends these preachers have distributed relief to the amount of thousands of dollars among our needy people. Their congregations have been increased by distributing clothing to the poor who could otherwise not appear in public, and some were converted in the gar- ments furnished them and thus enabled to attend public worship. This has been a year of faith and trial. The preachers were led by the spirit into the wilderness, not knowing how they were to subsist, but 'bread has been given and their water has been sure.' Not one who went to his work was compelled by poverty to leave; two were faint-hearted and declined their appointments. The past winter was unfavorable to special services, being intensely cold, and the people so straitened in their circumstances that they could not in every place obtain fuel and light for a place of worship, and many of them abandoned the country on account of the scourge.
"At the time the appointments were made last Con-
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ference, it was apparent that the work could not be done unless extraordinary means should be used to procure subsistence for the preachers. Bishop Bowman had been in the district and knew the destitution of our people, and that many of them were not able to provide for theni- selves, and must receive charitable assistance or perish ; he therefore advised me to go East for assistance, and gave me letters of commendation to our more fortunate brethren in the distance. Governor Furnas also highly approved of this charitable mission.
After hastily arranging the district work and supply- ing a few charges with pastors, I went East to procure subsistance for the needy. My mission was regarded with great favor, and the people responded with a lib- erality far beyond my expectation. After an absence of two months, and organizing relief agencies as far as prac- ticable in that time, I returned to take the oversight of the distribution of supplies, and perform district work as I had opportunity. An extensive correspondence was opened up and supplies collected by this means from twen- ty-two States and Territories.
Amount collected in cash, $2,850 00 Amount collected in other supplies, 10,460 00
Total, . $13,310 00
"Whole expense for collecting and distributing, in- cluding freight, expressage, stationery, postage, etc., $409.50, or a little more than three per cent.
"I have taken vouchers for the cash distributed, but not for the other supplies, as they were sent in bulk, for the most part, to preachers and others who were well known, who would charge themselves with the work of
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distributing them. A statement of this business, and vouchers for the cash, are prepared for the information of Conference, and a committee is desired to inspect theni. We have received timely assistance from the Boards of Missions and Church Extension, and from our Sunday- school Union, and thus we have been enabled, not only to maintain our position, but to strengthen it in spite of the plague of last year. We have not done much in re- turn, but have formed a higher appreciation of these great connectional interests, and propose to express it in a more practical manner in the future. Many of the people con- tracted debts the past year, but they have been favored with a good crop, and are again on the road to prosperity. The storm of adversity has winnowed out the chaff of our population, but the men of weight, of intelligence, of firmness and faith, remain to work out the fortunes of the Church and State; and these people, many of them from the great cities, and from educational centers, are to be provided with the Gospel, and for this work the best talent of the Church is needed; not the frothy and fanciful that floats upon the popular wave, but practical, consecrated workers to meet and mold the elements of society, and to cut the channels for fortune to run in.
"For this work we do not desire one thousand-dollar men, nor two thousand-dollar men, nor three thousand- dollar men, but men who are not in the market-men who are above all price, who feel the force of the Mas- ter's prayer and abide by it. 'As thou, Father, hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.' "
The story of these marvelous four years on the Kear- ney District will find a fitting conclusion in the following
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summary of results contained in A. G. White's last re- port, made at the Conference of 1877 :
"Four years ago Kearney District had neither church nor parsonage; now it has eight churches and three par- sonages, worth at least $16,000 over all indebtedness. And in addition to the above, six lots have been procured in Red Cloud and three in Fairfield for church purposes, and $2,000 provided for churches thereon. Then that entire region contained but 492 members, and 309 of those were taken into the Church under my supervision in con- nection with Omaha District. Now we have a member- ship of 2,200. Then there was not a Sunday-school in that vast territory, excepting on Clarksville Circuit-a new charge which had been organized and supplied by myself. Now we have fifty-four schools, 352 officers and teachers, 1,606 scholars, and 1,500 volumes in libraries. During every year of this district's existence a majority of the charges were left without pastors, and on those charges supplied by the elder has been more than half the increase in members and church property. All the members of Conference in Kearney District were brought into Conference through my agency; so we have not drawn heavily upon the working force of the Conference.
"During the last four years I have collected outside of the State, and distributed in it, in furtherance of our Church work, more money and its equivalent than the Church has ever paid me as fees and salary; so I have not been a financial burden.
"During these four years I have appointed fifty pas- tors. The most of these were noble men, and true to the great interests of the Church; but in a few instances, yielding to the clamor of the people for preachers and
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depending mainly upon the commendations of strangers, I appointed men who were unsuitable for the work; but when this became known they were speedily dismissed.
"We have aimed at better things, and with the means employed, would have wrought out better results in ordi- nary times; but we are thankful to a kind Providence that it is no worse, and thankful to the brethren in the ministry for their efficient co-operation. And if in view of the peculiar conditions of the district, greater success has been realized than is customary in like circumstances, it may not be improper to indicate here the policy which has contributed to this result.
"I have never supposed that my appointment to this position was a personal favor, or made for my good ; and it has never occurred to me that I had any right, to use the influence of my office to accommodate · personal friends. I have acted conscientiously upon the belief that the preachers were the servants of the Church, and not the masters. And in appointing or recommending them for particular positions, I have sought first the greatest good of the Church, and always held that the interests of the preachers were of secondary importance.
"And while I never made. an appointment for the purpose of gaining a friend, or retaining one, I have for- tunately been associated with men of such broad Chris- tian principles, that they have thought none the less of me for holding their interests in abeyance. These preachers are impressed with the idea that 'the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.' Hence, while they modestly profess their kinship to Christ, with vigor and persistence they demonstrate the fact by their works. And they cultivate a type of piety which is not boisterous
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or showy, but fruitful. And they have exhibited a supe- rior ability to cause things to come to pass. If they had no opportunity for usefulness, they quickly made an op- portunity and improved it. If circumstances were un- favorable, they proceeded to convert the circumstances and then use them. And as the coral insect, with 110 other resources, finds in its own body the substance for the foundation of a continent, so these brethren, 'with a heart for any fate,' with but little human support, either financial or moral, and thrown out across the track of the destroyer, have drawn from their personal resources the material for a monument of ministerial efficiency, which proclaims them to be in the true succession from the Head of the Church through the founder of Methodism."
Of A. G. White's personal service and sacrifices, he says little or nothing, but the spirit in which he did it, and the character of the man will be better understood by a few facts that others relate. Many a hard-pressed pas- tor was surprised when he had taken the collection for the presiding elder's claim, to have it quietly handed back with the remark, "You need it more than I do."
He would allow nothing but insurmountable obsta- cles to keep him from his appointments. At one time he was due at Gibbon to hold a quarterly-meeting some time in the month of March, and coming up from the south, found no way of crossing the Platte, but to wade it, which he promptly proceeded to do, reaching his quarterly- meeting in time, with zeal for God's cause undiminished. The ministers came to the nearest railroad for him and brought him back wherever practicable. Brother Hale took him sixty-five miles on one occasion. But it was not always possible for the pastors to do this, especially
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in such cases; of which there were not a few, where the pastors themselves had no horse, and were compelled to travel their large circuits on foot. But if A. G. White could get to his quarterly-meeting no other way, he would not hesitate to go on foot, often walking long distances rather than miss his appointment.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THIRD PERIOD. (1870-1880.)
KEARNEY DISTRICT CONTINUED.
IF it was providential that A. G. White should be placed in charge of Kearney District in 1873, on the eve of a great calamity, it was equally fortunate that T. B. Lemon should be assigned to the district, just as it was rallying from the effects of that calamity and girding it- self for a marvelous advance along all lines.
It is no secret that T. B. Lemon felt aggrieved that he should be sent to that hard field, nor is it surprising that he should feel so. He is already well advanced in life, being fifty-eight years old, and not being very vigor- ous in body, he naturally feared that he would be phys- ically unable to stand the strain. Indeed, it really seemed perilous, and many of his friends earnestly protested against the appointment. In all this there is absolutely no taint of disloyalty on the part of Dr. Lemon, and it is not to his discredit in the least that he should hesitate in the matter.
But this is one of those cases where the wisest do not always know what is best for them, and an over-ruling Providence seems strangely directing our course.
Dr. Lemon entered heartily into the work on the dis- trict, and soon found his health improving, and coming
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to like the work, was permitted to do his greatest work on this district.
It is remarkable that while the grasshopper scourge temporarily checked immigration, it did not stop it. The increase in population in the State from 1870 to 1875 was 124,000, while it was 205,000 from 1875 to 1880. The smaller increase for the first half of the decade as com- pared with the last half, is doubtless owing to the larger number leaving the State at that time.
Up to the close of Dr. Lemon's first year on this dis- trict, the country barely had time to rally from the dis- asters of the preceding three years, and in his first report the tone is not so hopeful and jubilant as in subsequent reports. There had been much to confirm his conviction that the appointment was a mistake. He had had a long and severe spell of sickness early in the year. The doubts regarding the future of the country were still prevalent and seemed well grounded. The force at his command, botlı of men and nieans, seemed inadequate. But recov - ering from that illness he takes up his great task, visits his vast field, musters such forces as are at his command, and by the following year things begin to move at a rapid rate under the inspiring leadership of this strong man.
The strength of his Christian character is revealed in no other way so clearly as in resistance of the temptation to give up so sadly expressed in these words contained in his first report :
"The Church has not received much addition from the immigration of the past year, but the people are com- ing and the valleys and divides are filling up and the Gospel preached by earnest, consecrated men can bring them to Christ. Within this vast territory there were
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twenty-one appointments and only eight men appointed by the bishop from the Conference, leaving thirteen ap- · pointments to be supplied, with only $1,400 to aid the men to work this field, and every charge purely mission- ary. With so few men, such limited means, and our own health impaired by overtaxing our energies during the past year, and the extent of the field before us, we felt more like giving up than ever before, but after prayer and reflection, we resolved to be obedient to the powers that be and enter upon and do the best we could, with very little expectation of standing it for the year, or ap- pearing before this Conference with a report from Kear- ney District, but God has been good, and in mercy has preserved us. During the first quarter we did but little in consequence of an illness which prostrated us for a part of the winter, but the few men sent to the district did double work to aid us, and they ably served the charges they were sent to, so that no loss was sustained by our absence."
None but the strongest character, grounded in mighty faith in God, could have met this moral crisis, and con- quered, as did T. B. Lemon. We honor him all the more because he stands the severest test to which a Methodist preacher can be sometimes subjected, to honestly ques- tion the wisdom and justice of the appointing power.
But not only does he remain firm and go to his task in the spirit of loyal submission to constituted authority, but we find even in his first report some fore-gleams of that fiery enthusiasm which soon comes to characterize the spirit in which he did his work in that portion of the State. And what is perhaps of even more importance, he was able to communicate this enthusiasm to the band
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of workers he soon gathered about him. Hereafter his reports to Conference were an inspiration to all of us.
Perhaps no portion of the story of the first twenty- five years of Nebraska Methodism is more pathetic in the tale of suffering to be recorded, or more inspiring in the recital of the heroic self-sacrifice of the preachers, and the marvelous growth of the district in the face of these sufferings.
When the district was organized in 1873, few in the Conference had much faith in the enterprise except A. G. White. When the report of the Committee on Appropria- tions of missionary money to the different missions was presented, one brother moved to strike out some of the missions in the proposed Kearney District, and had his map and other proofs ready to show that that part of the country could not be settled, and that to appropriate mis- sionary money to such a field was to squander it. But the men of faith prevailed and Kearney District set out on its eventful career.
Small indeed were its beginnings, as has already been mentioned. Had all the conditions remained favorable, the actual achievements of seven years could hardly have seemed possible. But when we remember that through nearly or quite half of this seven years the conditions were about as bad as they possibly could be, many leav- ing the country, and those that remained being so ini- poverished as to be unable to build any churches or par- sonages, or even pay their pastors enough to keep them from suffering, the growth has been simply marvelous.
In his first report, after stating that his district con- tained thirty-one counties, lying principally in the Re- publican, Platte, and Loup Valleys, and containing an
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area of 20,000 square miles, Dr. Lemon speaks this of the year's work and of its difficulties :
"We think the statistics will show that our frontier district has not been neglected, but the duties enjoined by our Discipline have been attended to. We have in per- son visited all the counties in the district and made per- sonal examination of the country and its wants and what we say of the demands are from personal observation. We need for that vast district of country men and means. Our sister Churches are putting up their best young men at the important centers and places of promise along the thoroughfares of travel, and liberally supporting them from their mission and Church Extension funds, and say- ing, 'Occupy and build churches, and we will help you until your people can sustain themselves.' Alongside of these agencies we are compelled to employ the local preacher, who has to toil day by day to support his fam- ily, as the people are not able to support him, and our missionary appropriation to these charges very small -- amounting only to some fifty dollars-while in the same places our sister Churches give from four hundred to seven hundred dollars to their preachers. Yet with all these disadvantages, our employed local aid and the few men sent from Conference, have nobly met and overcome the discouragements, and the results of their labors have been glorious, but how much greater would have been the results if we had had the men and means to meet the increasing demands of that growing country! Give us .these and you will hear good tidings from the West."
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