USA > Nebraska > A history of Nebraska Methodism, first half-century, 1854-1904 > Part 29
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35
"In 1879 C. Harms was appointed presiding elder of Nebraska District. At this time Papillion and Bell Creek were made a charge, and C. Lauenstein appointed their pastor. In 1880 Lincoln City was made a mission and J. G. Kost appointed to this charge. At the same time Oxford, in Furnas County, with adjoining counties, were formed into a mission, and W. C. Kellner appointed mis- sionary. In 1881 at the third annual session of the West German Conference, held at Oregon, Missouri, Bishop R. S. Foster presiding, C. W. Lauenstein was appointed missionary to the northwestern part of Nebraska, giving lıim an unlimited territory to work, looking after the Germans and fixing stations and appointments, to preach and organize societies wherever he found it practicable. He made his home for his family at Norfolk, for he him- self could only come home once in a while on a visit.
442
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM.
Neligh, St. James, St. Peters, Weigand, Hainesville, Nio- brara, O'Neill, Ray, Stuart, Plum Valley, Bow Valley; Ballentins, Halifax, Albion, Oakdale, along the Ray Val- ley, and westward as far as Arabia, Woodlake, and Ains- worth, all of this territory was canvassed. In spite of all the privations, hardships, and hard labor this proved to be the most satisfactory and blessed work during liis entire ministry.
"In 1882 McCook and Beaver Creek were made a mis- sion with W. C. Kellner as the missionary. Custer, Val- ley, Holt, and Knox Counties were given considerable attention, but owing to the lack of men and means were not regularly cared for.
"In 1883 a mission was formed at Stuart, with the ad- joining counties, and Charles Werner was appointed there, and H. C. Ihne was put in charge of the newly formed circuit now called Sterling. Valentine was made a mission during this time.
"In 1884 F. H. Wippermann was stationed at Custer and Broken Bow. In 1885 the work was taken up at Courtland and Beatrice by Gustav Becker, Custer, Fron- tier, and Ash Creek, Gordon, and Rushville, Greeley and Wheeler, Niobrara, Scottsville were supplied. In 1886. at the eighth annual session of the West German Con- ference, held at Kansas City, Kansas, Bishop J. M. Wal- den presiding, two districts were made and Jacob Tan- ner was appointed presiding elder of Nebraska District and H. Bruns presiding elder of North Nebraska Dis- trict, Platte River to be the dividing line. Big Springs, Hemmingford, and Hebron were made appointments, and in 1887 Colby, with C. Falter, missionary, was added to the list.
443
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM.
"Slow but steady has been the growth of German Methodism, so that in 1890 there were twenty-nine ap- pointments with but twenty-six regular Conference men- bers (preachers) to take care of them. These twenty-nine appointments, consisting of 1,633 members and 205 pro- bationers, contributed $1,386, or about eighty-five cents per member, to missions. Sunday-schools, fifty-two; officers and teachers, 466; scholars, 2,059. All collec- tions were taken and people contributed as they were able.
"During the last ten years German Methodism has been nearly at a standstill, owing to light immigration from Europe, and many of our younger people having moved westward into Oklahoma, Washington, Idaho, Dakota, and also into localities where there are no Ger- man Churches, and others on account of the language have united with our English Churches. In 1900 Ger- man Methodism numbered fifty-two churches, thirty- three parsonages, fifty-three Sunday-schools, 577 officers and teachers, 2,178 members, and 175 probationers.
"During the period of ten years, 1890-1900, passing through drought and failures, German Methodisni kept up its collections to the usual standard. For instance, for mission, $18,055 was given, being an average of over eighty-five cents per member.
"In 1903 the collections for missions was over $1.15 per member, being a little more than during 1901 and 1902. On Nebraska soil are twenty-nine charges and as many faithful workers employed to press forward on the line. Since 1890, H. Bruns; P. C. Schramm, and Ed- ward Sallenbach were filling the office of presiding elder in the order named. on the North Nebraska District, and J. Tanner, Edward Sallenbach, and G. J. Leist were do-
-
444
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM.
ing district work on the Nebraska District, officiating in this capacity at the following points: Beatrice, Center- ville, and Highland, Clatonia, Cortland, Culbertson, Humboldt, Jansen and Gilead, Kramer and Hallam, Lin- coln, Macon and Oxford, and Sterling.
"J. G. Leist, presiding elder of North Nebraska Dis- trict, has charge of Arlington, Berlin, Boelus, Duncan and Columbus, Eustis, Friend, Grand Island and Palmer, Hampton, Kalamazoo and Fair View, Omaha, Osceola, Papillion and Portal, Rushville, South Omaha and Platts- mouth, Waco and Seward, West Point and Scribner, Western and Swanton. Humboldt was the first self -- supporting charge, in 1869. The first German camp- meeting was held June, 1868, near Centerville, in Charles Krolls's grove. The first district meeting was held at Clatonia in June, 1875."
Our German brethren closed their first half-century with a membership of 1,788 and ninety-nine probation- ers, forty-two churches, valued at $74,100, and twenty- seven parsonages, valued at $33,100, and contributed for missions in 1903 the sum of $2,199, being an average of $1.23 per member.
SCANDINAVIAN WORK.
As early as 1871 an effort was made to establish a mission and start the work. The first man appointed failed to come, and of the second, A. G. White speaks thus in his report to the Conference of 1872:
"At the request of Bishop Ames, I applied to Rev. S. B. Newman, presiding elder of the Swede Mission District, Illinois Conference, for another man, and he recommended Peter Lindquist, a local preacher of Chi-
445
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM.
cago. Brother Lindquist reported to me about the first of October, 1871, and was assigned to the mission, with the agreement that he should receive but $150 of the mis- sion fund for the remainder of the Conference year .* Brother Lindquist has labored incessantly among his peo- ple, traveling and preaching in four presiding elder's dis- tricts, and he has organized societies in all these districts. The Scandinavians in the State number 10,000; they are generally irreligious, but moral and industrious. They are widely scattered, like sheep without a shepherd, but eager to receive any one who cares for their souls and who can impart religious instruction in their own lan- guage. There is a pressing demand upon our Church for more nien and more money for this work."
The next year Arthur Smith is appointed to assist Peter Lindquist in prosecuting the work, but the presid- ing elder speaks less hopefully in his next report: "They have traveled extensively and labored faithfully, but little has been accomplished. And in my judgment the results of the experiment do not justify a continuance of the mission. It appears unwise to perpetuate the language and customs of other nationalities among us, and I am not prepared to ask for an appropriation of mission funds for this purpose."
Nothing more seems to have been done until 1877 when John Linn began work in Oakland. Since then the work has grown until we have prosperous charges in Omaha, Lincoln, Oakland, and several other places in the State. The latest statistics we have are for 1902, at which tinie there were 1,090 full members and twenty probationers.
* The Conference then met in the spring.
29
446
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM.
We would be glad to trace more fully the history of this work, as we doubt not it presents the same features that the English and the German work have presented. If there has been any difference it has been in the di- rection of larger circuits and larger districts than that which has been required in our German work. We may safely say that the toils and hardships and difficulties have not been any less and the faith and devotion and heroism of the workers must have been equally great.
NORWEGIAN WORK.
This did not begin until 1880, and there being but very few of that people in the State, only two charges have been formed, one at Fontenelle and one at Omaha. The former has thirty and the latter sixty-five, including probationers.
.
CHAPTER XXIV.
FOURTH PERIOD. (1880-1904.)
AS WE have watched this great organization of Ne- braska Methodism grow, it has seemed more like an or- ganism with its principle of spiritual life building itself up into maturity and completeness, power and influence, very much after the law of development of the individual, with the periods of infancy and youth, when little is re- quired or expected except growth. But growth brings ever-increasing power and larger range of action. It · has been developing its organs, increasing their func- tions, and ever-broadening the range of its activity and the extent of its relations.
At the beginning it must receive help rather than give help. Hence for a number of years there were but few benevolent collections taken, while the amount of mis- sionary money received was relatively greater, as we have seen, than at subsequent periods when the need was even more urgent.
The only subordinate organizations were the class and Sunday-school, and the class-meeting and prayer-meet- ing, and the preaching service had regard more for the maintenance of the life of the infant Church than for any activities looking to helping outside of itself.
But a religious organism, with as vigorous a type of spiritual life as that possessed by Methodism could not help but grow into conditions of greater strength and in- creasing responsibility, and ever-broadening range of ac-
447
448
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM.
tivity. She will be expected to increase the range of her own inner activities, looking to the care of her young people, by improved methods in Sunday-school work, and the organization of the young people into societies specially adapted to their development along the line of spiritual life, moral restraint, and more efficient service for the Master.
She will be expected to take a more intelligent view of the needs of the great world outside of the narrow circle of her own existence, and to come in touch with the great movements in our own country, such as the Church Extension, Freedmen's Aid, in its efforts to help up a race ; the Woman's Home Missionary Society, with its varied benevolent enterprises, like our Mothers' Jewels Home, and the beneficent deaconess movement. Then she must keep in touch with the great world movements, as represented by our Missionary Society, and the sister organization, the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society.
She will be expected to lend a helping hand in moral reforms, and especially see that her great influence be unmistakably on the side of temperance and against the saloon.
As we enter upon this fourth and final period we are inspired, both by the achievements of the past and the prospects of the future. The quarter of a century just past, from 1854 to 1880, has been an eventful one. Most of it has been characterized by storms in the political world and disasters in the industrial world. There has been an almost constant struggle against great difficulties of various kinds. The periods of peace and prosperity and other favorable conditions have been brief and few and far between. The strength of the Church is to be
449
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM.
measured as much by the obstacles overcome as the achievements wrought; judged by either standard, she has stood the test. If there have been battles, there have also been victories. If there have been difficulties, they have been met and overcome. If there have been hard- ships, they have been patiently borne. If the work has demanded sacrifices, they have not been withheld.
Though the obstacles at times have seemed almost insurmountable, there has been no period during which some progress has not been made, and at some periods great progress.
As we look back from the summit of the year 1880, and view the twenty-five years over which the Church has passed in her work of planting Christianity in Ne- braska, it may be said that, with the exception of "bleed- ing Kansas," no section of the Lord's vineyard, and no quarter of a century of time, have presented greater diffi- culties, involved more hardships, or called for more real heroism, in all the history of the frontier work of the Church, than did Nebraska during this period.
The fourth period, on which we are entering, will present some marked contrasts with the preceding ones. The prevailing conditions will be far more favorable, the opportunities in some directions greater and the respon- sibilities correspondingly increased. Methodism will again be tested. She has shown that she can meet ad- versity and triumph in spite of it. How will she stand prosperity ; will she come to trust in her own acquired strength, and cease to keep close to God, and trust only in Him? It has often occurred in the history of the Church that when the life and power of Christianity has built up a great institution, with machinery complete for
450
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM.
the further carrying out of the purpose of this living prin- ciple, the institution has ceased to be the means through which the life and power is to accomplish its purposes in saving souls and building them up into high-grade men and women, and has itself become the end to the main- tenance of which the energies of the Church are directed. Will history repeat itself? We shall see.
The keynote in this period, as in the one just preced- ing, is still expansion, but it is largely expansion of an- other kind. Before, the expansion has been territorial, with some traces of the beginnings of the expansion of the range of the Church activities along new lines. As early as 1869, the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society had been organized and auxiliaries were formed in some of the Churches in the sixties. But there was still a lin- gering doubt as to the need of this new society, and the zealous women found scanty welcome by not a few pas- tors. Even some of the officials of the parent Mission- ary Society looked askance at the interloper, fearing it would cut in on receipts. True, to prevent this, the women were prohibited taking any public collection. Not- withstanding this handicap, they sometimes reported more for the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society than the pastor did for the parent society.
There were not many auxiliaries formed until late in the seventies, when the sainted Mary Ninde visited the State and organized some societies. Mrs. Angie F. Newman was also active during these years in promot- ing the interests of this society, and was very successful in extending the range of its influence and its hold upon the people, so that in 1879, when Mrs. M. J. Shelley, of Tecumseh, was elected secretary for the Nebraska Con-
MRS. M. J. SHEL- LEY,
MISS MATILDA WATSON,
Corresponding Secre- tary, Topeka Branch.
For many years organ- izer for Nebraska, and Treasurer of Topeka Branch.
MISS URDELL MONT- GOMERY,
Principal of Baldwin High School for girls, Banga- lore, India.
MISS REBECCA WATSON, Missionary to Japan.
MISS LOUISA IM- HOFF, Missionary to Japan.
OFFICIALS AND MISSIONARIES OF W. F. M. S.
45I
452
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM.
ference, the young society had demonstrated its vitality and vindicated its right to be by effective work in rais- ing money and supporting missionaries in the foreign field. And it was found that instead of curtailing the re- ceipts of the parent society, it was materially aiding it by Cisseminating missionary information and stimulating the Church to unselfish giving.
Mrs. Shelley entered upon her work with enthusiasm and prosecuted it with vigor, going not only to the places accessible by railroad, but traveling many hundreds of miles in her own private conveyance, thus reaching many points away from the railroads. In 1883 the society had become so well established throughout the Western States that the Topeka Branch was organized, and Mrs. Shelley was elected to the responsible place of branch treasurer, a promotion she had well earned.
For sixteen years Miss Matilda Watson, of Lincoln, Nebraska, the daughter of a Methodist preacher, has been the efficient corresponding secretary of the Topeka Branch, which includes the States of Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. Mrs. Ida Moe, of Fre- mont, Nebraska, the daughter of E. H. Rogers, has been for many years the Conference secretary for North Ne- braska Conference, rendering valuable service.
This is the only society in our Church, the work of which lies wholly in the foreign field, and may therefore be said to be the one whose work represents disinterested benevolence more nearly than any other.
That its great work in the foreign field is coming to be highly appreciated is evident from the words of un- stinted praise by Bishop Moore, in China, and all our bishops that have visited China and India. Perhaps
REV. E. R. FULKER- SON,
REV. STEPHEN A. BECK.
Principal of the Chingci Seminary, Nagasaki, Japan.
In charge of publishing interests at Seoul, Korea.
MRS. GEORGE S. MINER, Missionary to China.
REV. JAMES H. WORLEY,
Missionary to China.
REV. GEORGE S. MINER, Missionary to China.
MISSIONARIES OF THE PARENT BOARD.
453
454
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM.
there could be no more competent witness as to the high character of their work than Bishop Warne, the greater part of whose ministerial life has been spent in India. In an interview in the Christian Advocate for March 24. 1904, in answer to an inquiry concerning the work of this society, he pays this well-deserved tribute both to the noble women who manage the Woman's Foreign Mis- sionary Society at home and their missionaries in the field :
"Our Woman's Foreign Missionary Society has some of the choicest spirits of the nation in India. Not only that, but I suppose it is not generally known that the women have sent more money to India each year of the quadrennium than the parent society has sent. Because of this the women are able in some places to educate their girls where we are not the boys, until it is difficult to find husbands for the girls who are at all their equals. When one remembers that women have been illiterate through the centuries in India, and now compares that with a state of affairs in the Christian Church where the women are better educated than the men, it is surely true 'these that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.' One often wonders whether the women who go to the field or the women who remain at home, and without salary give time and thought to raising the necessary funds to carry on the work, are the most worthy; and when one remembers the restrictions that have been put upon the women in raising the money, it seems still more wonderful. May we all catch the spirit of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society workers, and may they in- crease and grow mightily, is the prayer of all Indian workers !"
It is a happy coincidence that in 1880, when Nebraska
REV. PETER VAN FLEET,
Missionary to Porto Rico.
REV. J. R. GORTNER, Missionary to Africa.
REV. E. E. WILSON, Missionary to Porto Rico.
...
REV. LESLIE STEVENS,
Superintendent of Mis- sions in Central China.
MRS. EVA VAN FLEET, Missionary to Porto Rico.
MRS. LOUISA COL- LINS,
Prominent worker in W. H. M. S.
MISSIONARIES OF THE PARENT BOARD.
455
456
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM.
Methodism was girding herself for an advance, the Woman's Home Missionary Society had its birth and would soon become a potent factor in the larger work of the Church, and often make life more comfortable for the itinerant and his wife and children. Up to that time, except in times of special calamity, the missionary on the frontier was never relieved and gladdened by the receipt of a barrel or box of supplies to supplement his meager salary. But from now on, thanks to this noble society, this is to be a common experience.
And when a time of special need. came, by reason of the drouth in 1894, the writer, who was then presiding elder of the Neligh District, in the North Nebraska Con- ference, the one which suffered most, this blessed society only needed to be notified of the situation and they at once started the streams of beneficence which were the first to reach the scene of destitution, and enabled our pastors to relieve the suffering, not only of our own peo .. ple, but of Congregationalists, Baptists, Catholics, non- Church members, and even infidels shared the bounty supplied by the Department of Supplies of the Woman's Home Missionary Society. Boxes and barrels came from New England, North and South Carolina, the States of the Middle West, and from the Pacific Coast, and not a little cash as well. The elder and his wife gave up half of their house as a supply depot, and they, and nearly all the pastors were kept busy distributing this beneficence.
What was done for the Neligh District in 1894 is but a type of what this society is doing all the time for all the Nebraska and other Western Conferences. In 1888 the West Nebraska Conference resolved that "we are grate- ful to the Woman's Home Missionary Society for its aid.
457
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM.
Many pastors would have been compelled to leave their fields of labor, had it not been for this band of noble, Christian women."
Still earlier, in 1884, Dr. Lemon, in his report, says : "The Woman's Home Missionary Society has done a grand work in helping by sending clothing to the preach- ers and their families, and others in our mission field. This has long been a felt necessity and is doing good."
But the beneficence of this society is not confined to sending supplies to the missionaries on the frontier, but has taken on a multiplicity of forms, and extends fron Porto Rico to Alaska. It has established what to Ne- braska Methodism is doubtless its most important in- stitution, its National Mothers' Jewels Home at York. This will be spoken of on another page.
Doubtless the most prominent among the good women who have extended the organization of this society within the bounds of Nebraska is Mrs. M. E. Roberts, who has for years been national organizer. Others, like Mrs. Louisa Collins, in West Nebraska Conference; Mrs. J. B. Maxfield, Mrs. John Crews, Mrs. J. B. Leedom, Mrs. D. C. Winship, and others of the North Nebraska Con- ference, that might be mentioned, have in various ways rendered valuable service in this connection.
But probably the most urgent need of Nebraska Meth- odism at the beginning of this fourth period was more church buildings in which to house the multitudes that had come into our fold by immigration and conversions. The number of circuits and stations have increased to 136. But we must remember that we are still in the period when the stations are yet few, and the circuit system yet prevails to a large extent. It is not uncommon
458
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM.
for these circuits to have from four to eight appointments, and some of the presiding elders report circuits with ten and even fifteen appointments. It would be safe to say that at about that time the average circuit had not less than four separate appointments, and that the general average, including stations and circuits could not have been less than three appointments for each charge. But lest we overstate the facts in this case we will make the general average two. This would give us two hundred and seventy-two separate Methodist societies to be housed, while the total number of churches in 1880 was only seventy-seven. This leaves one hundred and ninety- five unhoused societies and congregations. In other words, over two-thirds of the societies are entirely with- out shelter, except as pensioners on the State for school- houses, and on other denominations occasionally for a church.
Besides these two hundred societies and congrega- tions for which the Church has not as yet been able to furnish any shelter, there are many of the older societies that have outgrown the small buildings they first erected and must have larger ones. Probably two-thirds of those which already have churches will have to build new ones in the next ten years.
Thus in 1880 Nebraska Methodism is far behind in her church buildings. Many of her congregations are un- housed, or are still in the school-house stage of develop- ment. This is better than no place, but can not be per- manent.
The conditions we have seen have been such since this need for churches began to be urgent by reason of
459
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM.
the marvelous growth of the last decade, that many pro- jected enterprises have had to be abandoned, and few churches have been built. Indeed throughout the entire State during the whole quarter of a century there has . been no time that has been favorable to church-building.
Besides, the Church Extension Society has been in
.
FIRST METHODIST CHURCH BUILT IN NEBRASKA, AT NEBRASKA CITY, 1855-6.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.