USA > Nebraska > A history of Nebraska Methodism, first half-century, 1854-1904 > Part 22
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The reader will doubtless want to know something more about these men who rallied around Dr. Lemon, and under his leadership brought about such results.
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Besides the men that T. B. Lemon found on the dis- trict of whom mention has been made, there is one, Rev. C. A. Hale, whom we find at St. Paul. He has already done much pioneer work, penetrating as early as 1875 into the unorganized territory now comprised in Custer County, preaching the first sermon and organizing the first Sunday-school in all that section of country, in a dug-out on the Middle Loup River, at what is now Com- stock. Twenty miles further up the Loup was Lillian settlement, and here in the summer of 1875, Brother Hale and another minister of a sister Church, preached the first sermons in that part of the country. We have no means of knowing which was first, but if the usual cus- tom was adhered to it was that of the Methodist preacher. Brother Lemon finds Brother Hale at St. Paul in 1877, with a large family, just at the close of three successive years of grasshopper devastation. He feels it due to his family to suspend preaching for a time. Of this enforced retirement Dr. Lemon says in his report : "We regret to lose Brother Hale from the ministry; he is a good preacher, a pure, upright man." But he is back in tlie ranks again in a few years and T. B. Lemon had no more loyal supporter, and West Nebraska Methodism received a large contribution from his faithful and efficient labors on small stations, large circuits and districts through many succeeding years. His brethren express their ap- preciation of the worth of the man and his work by elect- ing him as a delegate to the General Conference in 1896.
Brother Hale was transferred to the Nebraska Con- ference in 1900, and has most of the time since resided in University Place, serving such charges as are contiguous, and still doing good work for the Master.
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Others come into the district this first year. Among these is the brilliant orator and erratic man, John Arni- strong, who serves Kearney, and who, after attaining to the position of a special transfer, was in demand by some of the best Churches, and actually filled some of the best pulpits in Methodism. Finally, when pastor of one of the best Churches in Kansas City, he drops out of the ministry because of an unwillingness to pay his honest debts, a trait that had characterized to some extent liis whole career, but had grown worse, as usual, and be- came intolerable.
Edward Thomson, son of Bishop Thomson, is at Hastings, but is soon changed to North Platte, which is seen by the keen perception of this wise presiding elder to have reached a point, where the right man, given a fair chance, will bring the charge into conditions of per- manent strength. This is what Edward Thomson did for North Platte. He is soon to be called to the educa- tional work of the Church, and as related elsewhere, is the first principal of our first Conference Seminary at York. He is afterward called to the head of the Malla- lieu University in 1886.
Thomson's place at Hastings is filled by A. C. Crosthwaite, a transfer from the Pennsylvania Confer- ence. He remains three years and his presiding elder says, "has proved himself to be the right man in the right place." He, too, comes to Hastings at a critical time, when the right man can start a charge on a career of per- manent growth and power. This is what Crosthwaite did for Hastings, building a fine church and strengthen- ing the work there along all lines, and it has ever since taken rank as one of our most important stations.
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The writer first met A. C. Crosthwaite at a meeting of the Conference Church Extension Board, being a mem- ber at the time. He well remembers with what thor- oughness Brother Crosthwaite, who was there with an ap- plication for aid for the Hastings Church, presented his case and won it. I have been impressed since as I have watched his career, as he has filled the successive impor- tant places to which he has been appointed, that the secret of his pronounced success may be found in that one trait, thoroughness, more than in any other one thing. Besides Hastings he has served many of our most important pas- orates, including York, and a full term as presiding elder of the York District. He was for many years secretary of the Conference, and in 1888 was one of the delegates to the General Conference, and was chosen one of the as- sistant secretaries of that body. He is still in the effect- ive ranks, serving his second year at Edgar, and gives promise of many more useful years of work.
Another name appears on the Kearney District in 1878 that presents some remarkable features. Charles L. Brockway was received on trial in 1876, and in 1880, at the same Conference that he was ordained elder, he was appointed presiding elder of the Hastings District. This rapid advance to a place of such responsibility has oc- curred but few times, if ever, in the history of Methi- odism, and certainly never before or since in the history of Nebraska Methodism. The nearest approach to it was the case of Leslie Stevens, who was ordained elder in 1885, and appointed presiding elder in 1886. This was also under Dr. Lemon's administration, and was one of the best things he ever did.
Brockway had joined the Conference on trial under
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Dr. Lemon, while the latter was yet presiding elder of the Nebraska City District, and joined the ranks of his devoted followers in the Kearney District in 1878. They were mutually attracted to each other, Dr. Lemon so strongly impressing himself on the younger man that he either consciously or unconsciously imitated the Doctor's peculiar style of oratory so closely as to be a matter of common remark. But this was the case with Amsbary and many other young preachers who came under the spell of his oratory. But there was also something about Brockway that strongly impressed Dr. Lemon with his superior talent and capability. Brockway had been a law- yer before entering the ministry, and was a well-matured man when he entered our work. Besides, his self-con- sciousness relieved him of any of those difficulties aris- ing from diffidence which sometimes hinders young men at the beginning of their career. This natural tendency to undue self-confidence might have remained within proper bounds had he not been unduly pushed forward. If Dr. Lemon failed anywhere it was at this point, where his affection for one of his boys tended to blind him to any possible danger of this kind and he recommended Brockway for presiding elder when the Hastings District was formed. This proved a calamity for the Church, and a misfortune to Brockway himself. His vanity was inflamed, and he became reckless in his conduct and fell.
Perhaps of all the young men who rallied round T. B. Lemnon, none were superior, and few equal, to Leslie Stevens, who joined the ranks in 1878, and was received on trial in 1880. Of the character and career of this choice young man, a writer who worked by his side and knew him well, shall speak. I quote from an article pub-
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lished in a newspaper on the eve of his departure for China to become superintendent of Central China Mis- sion :
"Rev. Leslie Stevens, presiding elder of Kearney Dis- trict, and under appointment as superintendent of the Central China Mission, was born in Michigan, April 25, 1858, and is therefore thirty-two years of age. As a boy lie attended the public schools and obtained a fair com- mon school education to which he has since added a large store of special and general knowledge by intelligent ef- fort and intense application to books and professional ditties, as a pastor and presiding elder on the frontier of Nebraska.
"He early in life embraced religion and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. A short time in the work of the Church convinced him that he was called of God to be a messenger of His truth. Licensed to preach he served as a supply for about a year and a half, and in 1880 was admitted on trial in the Nebraska Confer- ence. For five years after his admission into the Con- ference, he did splendid work all over Western Nebraska. So great was his success in administering the affairs of the Church, that at the Annual Conference, held at Sidney in the fall of 1886, he was appointed pre- siding elder of Sidney District. This appointment was made through the efforts of that great and good man, who very recently has gone to his reward, Rev. Dr. Lemon, who having the greatest confidence in the young man's judgment, honesty, and capacity, gave him such strong indorsements that the presiding bishop could not do otherwise than appoint him to the honorable position. The action of the bishop in appointing such a young man
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to such a position was severely criticised at the time, but time has proven the wisdom of his choice. One year in the presiding eldership was sufficient for the people every- where in the district to recognize that he had by his en- ergetic efforts, indomitable pluck, devotion to the Church, and executive ability, deserved the honor. He entered upon his duties of the second year in the same position, fully conversant with the Churches and people in his dis- trict. He displayed the same activity, sympathy, and zeal in serving the humblest Church that he did for the most influential. In the fall of 1887, Brother Stevens was taken from the Sidney District and placed in charge of the Kearney District, the strongest and most important district in the West Nebraska Conference. From that time to the present he has labored assiduously for the Church and district, over which he presides with so much grace.
"The Kearney District has made wonderful growth during his incumbency. When he was pastor at St. Paul, Nebraska, he wooed and won Miss Minnie Phillips, of that city. We would feel that this sketch would be in- complete, if we failed to say anything of Brother Ste- vens's wife.
"Mrs. Stevens is a noble woman of queenly bearing. Her sunny spirit has hardly its peer for sustained cheer- fulness. Her home is the shrine of natural beauty, good sense, and good taste, the very incarnation of comfort. When asked about going to China, she replied, 'I am per- fectly satisfied.'
"Bishop Newman gave his opinion of Brother Ste- vens's appointment to China in the following words: 'It is a good appointment. Brother Stevens is an able young man, earnest in his labors in the ministry, and in every
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way qualified for the important duties which will devolve upon him in his new field. I know him well, and I think him one of the coming lights in the Methodist work.' .
"The position to which Brother Stevens is appointed is not that exactly of missionary, but as superintendent of the 'Central China Mission,' with headquarters at Wan- king, the abiding place of the famous porcelain tower. There has been a mission at that point since 1868, and in the confines of the mission are about fifteen missionaries, and a number of ladies who work in the schools and hos- pitals under the auspices of the Woman's Foreign Mis- sionary Society. The position of superintendent of this important mission is one requiring great executive and administrative ability, and those who are acquainted with Brother Stevens know full well his peculiar fitness."
By the year 1879 others joined the ranks in the Kear- ney District. E. G. Fowler. frail of body but strong of purpose, with an ambition far transcending his physical endurance, joins the ranks. He was something of a poet as well as preacher, and in his preaching his polished thoughts were clothed in poetic expression. The writer remembers reading a most excellent poem written by him on the occasion of the printing of the entire New Testa- ment in the Chicago Times, at the time the new version was first published. He spent several years in the State, filling South Tenth Street, Omaha, Stanton, and other important places, when he transferred to a Western Con- ference.
William Esplin appears for the first time as a supply on the Ord Circuit in 1879, and is received on trial in 1880. None have been more faithful and efficient through a quarter of a century than this hearty, cheerful, conse-
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crated man of God. He remains in the West Nebraska Mission Conference till 1885, when he was transferred to the North Nebraska Conference. His career in this Conference has been creditable in the highest degree, fill- ing some of the most important charges, like Randolph, Hooper, and his present charge, Hirst Memorial Church, Omaha. His pastorates have been uniformly successful, and his good, strong, common sense, his sound preacli- ing and cheerful, pleasant, genuinely sympathetic pas- toral work has made him deservedly popular, and he has usually served the full term.
C. A. Mastin is admitted on trial in 1879, being one of a large class of nineteen admitted that year. He is appointed to Minden, and begins a career of great useful- ness, which seems yet to promise many years of efficient service. He has been uniformly popular as a pastor, al- most invariably serving the full legal term. He was ap- pointed presiding elder of the Indianola District in 1889, and was successful and well liked by all, and might have remained the legal term of six years, but finding the pas- torate much more suited to his taste he asked to be re- lieved of district work, and resumed the pastoral work, being assigned to Lexington. His next charge is First Church, Kearney. He served for several years as chap- lain of State Reform School at Kearney, and is now again pastor of First Church. He has been twice honored by his brethren by an election to the General Conference, each time on the first ballot; the last time he was in the pastorate when elected.
He has already given a quarter of a century to the work in West Nebraska. He has long occupied the most important fields, and none have contributed more valua-
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ble service in building up that Conference to its present strength.
David Fetz is referred to elsewhere as the zealous local preacher who waited not for the presiding elder, but with another local preacher, Moses Mapes, as early as 1873-74, carried the Gospel to the settlers in Webster and Adams Counties, and was blessed. with great revivals. This was not out of any disrespect for the presiding elder, but the need was so pressing that he felt that he must not wait. But he does not have to wait long for the com- ing of the presiding elder, and we soon find David Fetz taking his place in the regular way, first as a supply in 1878, and then in 1880 he is received on trial along with a class of twelve. Since then his career has been one of constant usefulness, often on humbler circuits, but every year counting for good.
J. M. Dressler appears as a supply on the Plum Creek Circuit in 1878, and has seemed to prefer to remain ill the local ranks. He has greatly honored that class of workers, which have seemed of late to be in danger of dropping into a condition of "innocuous desuetude." Few men in the regular work as members of Conference have put in more years of continuous service, or have done better work for the Master, than J. M. Dressler, local preacher. In later years liis work has been within the bounds of the North Nebraska Conference, and princi- pally in the Grand Island District.
And last, but by no means least, appears the name of P. C. Johnson, in 1879, as pastor at North Platte. With -- out doubt he stands next to Dr. Lemon as an influential factor in developing West Nebraska Mission into West Nebraska Conference in 1885.
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P. C. Johnson was born in New York, July 14, 1836, and was educated in private and public schools in that city. On the death of his mother, in 1846, he was sent to Perrinesville, New Jersey, where he spent several years on a farm, getting some training from the country schools. He was converted in 1858, and joined the Meth- odist Church; taught school till the war. Then his pa- triotism finds expression in a prompt enlistment in the Third Regiment of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps, was soon at the front, and participated in seven days' fight be- fore Richmond, and was wounded in the head at the bat- tle of White Oak Swamps, and taken to the West Phila- delphia Hospital, where he remained over two months and was then honorably discharged from the army in Sep- tember, 1862, after fourteen months in the service of his country.
He was licensed to preach in 1866, and after serving one year as a supply, was admitted on trial in the New Jersey Conference. After serving several charges in that Conference he was, in March, 1876, transferred to the Nebraska Conference, and stationed at Tecumseh. Of his pastorate here, and of some of the laymen in that Church, he speaks thus pleasantly in a paper read before the Methodist Historical Society, on "A preacher's esti- mate of some of the laymen I have known :" "There was a class of men at Tecumseh that impressed me very fa- vorably. They were plain men, without any society frip- pery whatever. They made no pretension-they simply did whatever there was to do. I may mention their names, partly by way of honoring them, and partly that you may, if you care to, know them. Andrew Cook, Joseph Pilmore, John Graff, Robert Robb, and Dr. C. K.
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Chubbuck. Others there may be that deserve mention, but I can not recall them now."
Of these laymen he further says: "Andrew Cook was an Englishman by birth, but an American by adoption. Just when he joined the Methodist Church I do not know. His piety was a practical kind and he was not strictly orthodox, that is, to let some estimate his theol- ogy. But he was a good man, honest, generous, prompt, liberal in sentiment and sincere in his faith and life. He lived and died a trustful follower of the Master. For a number of years he was a steady supporter, re- liable member, and firin adherent of the Church in Tecumseh.
"Joseph Pilmore was also an Englishman. He was a strict constructionist in matters of doctrine, and a rigid disciplinarian. Brother Cook and he were not made in the same mold and they would good naturedly clash about many things ; the first suave and courteous, the second. short and pointed, but both good men and honest.
"John Graff was the silent man. He kept his own counsel, did his own thinking, said it in few words- but he always paid his share without a murmur.
"Robert Robb was the old-fashioned Methodist of the lot-an emotional man, ready to cry as occasion de- inanded, not insincerely, however, for Brother Robb was all heart.
"Dr. C. K. Chubbuck was the manager of the party. His sense, skill, financial and other ability, were often depended on by the others; while they would co-operate with him almost in every plan he might propose.
"Of course there were some others who aided these leaders in their plans and work and made them a success.
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It was never in my ministry, mine to see five men who could work together more pleasantly, and harmoniously, and successfully than could these."
After a successful pastorate at Tecumseh, he was sta- tioned at the important Eighteenth Street Church in Omaha, and then after a year at South Tenth Street in Omaha, he goes to North Platte. Here he begins his career of great usefulness in connection with the work in West Nebraska. Of his pastorate here he has this to say in the paper above referred to: "When I went to North Platte, 300 miles west of Omaha, I found a small Church membership almost entirely composed of women. . The society had been organized but a little time before. My immediate predecessor was Dr. Edward Thomson. There was no church building-we used the house of the Baptist brethren. There was, however, a small parson- age on the north side of the railroad track.
"Among these women were Mrs. Charles McDonald, Mrs. Joe McConnell, Mrs. Alice Robinson, Mrs. Russell Watts, Mrs. Spoor, and others. I recall the name of but one man, and the mention of it would add no interest to the record, for so far as I can remember, he was noted only for his good-natured uselessness.
"These women were 'the fathers of Methodism' in North Platte, and incidentally of all that region. They did the work, paid the bills, aided the pastor, ran the en- terprises of the Church, taught in the Sunday-school. filled the prayer-meetings, and had about all the religion there was in the place.
"The pastor would not have been in it at all had it not been for the women of the Church, for he would have had to move out and seek for work elsewhere.
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"A word or two about each of these. Mrs. McDonald was a woman of very fine tastes, deeply pious, and yet withal, she possessed sound, practical sense, and to the extent her health permitted, worked and did her share. She has since died.
"Mrs. McConnell was the leader in almost every de .. partment of Church work. She was of petite figure, in- tensely active, always in earnest, lively and sprightly, possessing a mind and will of her own, never asking any- body's permission either to think or act. She was an in- tense Methodist, yet not of the shouting kind. She was always in motion and could be relied on for anything within the length of her cable tow. She now lives in Pittsburg.
"Mrs. Robinson was a woman of very practical sense. She was pre-eminently the worker. She collected the pastor's salary, and it was collected, too. She could shame scores of men into shadowy silence, with their miserable cry of 'Can't do it.' She was a woman of kind heart, and generous impulses, yet, if she took a notion to, she would wound her best friends. We soon came to know her, appreciate her excellencies, and love her for her real, solid worth. She was a whole-hearted Methi- odist and Christian. The story of her husband's conver- sion is one of the most thrilling I ever knew.
"Mrs. Watts was one of the purest, kindest, truest women God ever made. She was not so pronounced in her manners as some. Not at all demonstrative, but very true, and certain all the same. These were a type of laymen found 'away out West' from twenty-five to thirty years ago. Of all the places I ever served in my ministry, East or West, in the past thirty-nine years, I liked none
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better than North Platte. And could I have my way, I would ask for no better set of laymen than were the good sisters of North Platte." .
Dr. Johnson was next sent to Grand Island, where he found another Church which had for more than ten years been struggling for existence, but was just ready to emerge out of these conditions of weakness into strengtlı, and power, and influence, that has characterized it since, and he again proves the right man for the place, and does much during his pastorate to secure this much- wished but long-waited-for consummation. He was then placed in charge of the Grand Island District in 1889. In his first report he gives the following description of this district and his year's work :
"Grand Island District occupies the northeastern and northern half of the West Nebraska Mission. Bounded on the south by the U. P. R. R., east by North Nebraska Conference, north by Dakota, and separated from the Kearney District by the Middle Loup River.
"Its territory is large enough for more than forty-five counties of the average size of Nebraska counties, viz : twenty-four miles square, or 16.000,000 acres, and is traversed by the U. P., the Grand Island and North Loup, and the Sioux City and Pacific Railroads. (This terri- tory is larger than three States the size of New Jersey. )
"It contains a population of about from 25,000 to 30,- coc persons, and possesses a number of rapidly growing · towns, destined to be in the near future towns of consid- crable importance, a business center of a fine agriculture and stock raising community."
When the General Conference of 1884 established the
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line between the North and the West Nebraska Confer- ences, so that it ran along the west line of Hall County, taking that and Merrick from the West Nebraska Con- ference, it of course took the main portion of Johnson's district, and he was appointed to the Republican Valley District.
In IS88 Dr. Johnson transferred to the Nebraska Co11- ference, where he has since labored effectively in differ- ent pastoral charges, and is now field agent for the Semi- centennial Superannuate Fund.
Dr. Johnson was on the commission that instituted the "Plan of Unification" for our educational work, and has twice been a delegate to the General Conference, from: the West Nebraska Conference in 1888, and from the Nebraska Conference in 1900.
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