USA > Nebraska > A history of Nebraska Methodism, first half-century, 1854-1904 > Part 3
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The details of that journey possess thrilling interest, and may best be told by extracts from his own account, as given in his "Outposts of Zion."
His work in Kansas had already brought on severe illness, but he felt that he must also visit the Nebraska
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portion of the field, and it is to his trip to this field the following extracts refer :
"Still feeble, suffering, and apprehensive of results, I urged on my course, and about three in the afternoon reached the house of Rev. Thomas B. Markham, then residing upon the bank of the Missouri, nearly opposite to where the town of Kickapoo, in Kansas, now stands. Here I found a brother in Christ and a kind Christian family, who, though then afflicted themselves, received me cordially, sympathized in my condition, and ministered to my necessities.
"According to expectation, the ensuing day brought on another paroxysm, by which I was completely pros- trated, and for a period of about nine days I was confined by illness. For a time, uncertain as to the result, it was natural that my thoughts should turn, as they had more than once done before under similar circumstances, to the idea of dying from home, far from family and friends. The trial was severe; but, through the grace of God, I think I have, at such times, always felt resignation to the Divine will. Once I well remember having my pocket- book and pencil brought, and feebly tracing what I sup- posed might by a last brief line to the companion of my life, who has since preceded me to glory. But God had other designs for me.
"By the 22d I began to feel as though I should sum- mon up my little strength and again address myself to the journey. Finding myself unable to manage my team I determined to dispose of them and commit myself to the stage-route up through northwestern Missouri, stop- ping at different points, and making excursions into the Territories as health and circumstances allowed. I ac-
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cordingly sold, at low rates, my carriage and horses, with such part of my equipage as I could, gave away the re- mainder. and prepared for another mode of travel.
"Returning to St. Joseph, I took my passage in the stage for Council Bluffs on the 28th, with the privilege of stopping at such points as I might think proper. Feeble as I was, I found that I must start in the evening and travel all night. Detained at one time on the bank of the Nodaway, waiting for the ferryman, and worn down by fatigue and debility, I lay down upon the ground and slept an hour ; awoke and found myself chilled ; was alarmed for the probable results, but traveled on and ex- perienced no bad effects. I stopped a little after daylight at Oregon, the county seat of Holt County, some ten miles back from the river. Here I left the stage, and ob- taining a horse, for twenty miles I followed the stage road along the bluffs, and then leaving them turned in the direction of the river, arriving in the afternoon at the cabin of Colonel Archer, where I found a kind home among Tennessee Methodists, recently settled in Mis- souri Bottom. On the day following my kind host vol- unteered his services to take me across the river in a canoe, ran up the great Nehama a little way, and landed for the first time upon the soil of Nebraska Territory. (July 29, 1854.) Finding no settlers here, I spent some time in meditating, prospecting, writing, etc .; recrossed the river and returned to the cabin of my pioneer friend."
Again taking the stage, he went to a point opposite to Old Fort Kearney, there left the stage and again crossed the Missouri. Resuming his narrative, he says : "Old Fort Kearney was an evacuated military post, the name and the troops having been transferred to a new
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post about two hundred miles up the Platte River. A substantial block-house, one old log dwelling, and the remains of a set of rude, temporary barracks, were all that was there to be seen of the old fort. Squatters had taken possession of the lands, and the two rivals, Ne- braska City and Kearney City, had been laid off, the one above and the other below the mouth of South Table Creek. The site of the old fort. now of Nebraska City, is bold and fine. I found a single frame shanty erected, in which were a few goods, and a single settler in the old fort cabin in the person of Major Downs. I found him to be a frank, generous-hearted soldier, possessing some noble traits of character, with some unfortunate remains of army habits. He took me to his house, treated me kindly and generously, exhibited quite an interest in my mission, took down his city plat, and, in my presence, marked off certain lots, since risen to a value equal to five times the outlay and expenses of my whole trip, which he then and there donated to the Methodist Episcopal Church.
"Having taken all the steps practicable toward the introduction of our work here, I took leave of the Major and his kind family, recrossed the Missouri, returned to Sidney, and about one hour after midnight again took the stage."
The next day Dr. Goode reached Council Bluffs, and after a brief rest of a day he at once crossed the Missouri to the village of Omaha, which at that time was being laid out. After surveying the field at that point he went on down the river and spent the Sabbath, August 6th, with Rev. Wm. Hamilton, of the Presbyterian Church, at his mission at Bellevue, preaching his first sermon in
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Nebraska on that occasion. The next week he returned to Council Bluffs and from thence started on his return trip to his home, going by stage across the State of Iowa to Rock Island, thence by railroad to his home in Indiana. Thus ended this memorable journey that as subsequent events reveal, meant so much to the future of both Kan- sas and Nebraska.
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This record of his journey of over 800 miles from his home to Omaha, by private conveyance, or by stage, con- suming two months of time, exposed to the dreaded Asiatic cholera then prevalent along portions of the Mis- souri traversed, and under conditions of physical disa- bilities which at times became so serious as to threaten his life, and threatened by the excited pro-slavery people of Kansas and Missouri with tar and feathers, or even worse, is one rarely paralleled in the history of the Church. Little wonder that after this veritable hero, who so courageously and efficiently performed this pre- liminary survey of the great field and reported its needs to the authorities, should immediately be re-commissioned to the same field to take charge of its development as superintendent of missions in Kansas and Nebraska. That he cheerfully did so reveals the true greatness and nobility of his nature and the completeness of his conse- cration to the Master's service more fully than any words can do. This will become even more apparent as the story of those early days is told.
CHAPTER II.
FIRST PERIOD. (1854-1861.)
KANSAS TERRITORY having the greatest number of settlers, properly commanded his first attention, but after a month of travel in that territory we find him, early in December, turning his face toward the Nebraska portion of the Territory, though there were as yet few permanent settlers even at the more prominent points, such as Ne- braska City and Omaha.
The eagle eye of Dr. Goode was on the lookout and we find him in December, 1854, making his way up to the Nebraska end of his immense field, on horseback, his customary mode of travel in winter. It so often hap- pened that there was difficulty in finding something to eat for man or horse, that the good Doctor carried corn and provision along with him for emergencies. He speaks of that trip being "rough and fatiguing ; my horse became lame, and on the second or third day, failed." Procuring another he proceeded on his toilsome way. But on the first day the new steed became sick and seemed about to die. While not dying, this second horse had to be abandoned and a third one procured, with which he made his way to a point opposite Nebraska City, his in- tended point for the Sabbath. The ice was already run- ning to such an extent that the regular ferry had been abandoned and the trip across the river had to be made in a skiff, at no small risk of life. But Dr. Goode always
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felt that he must get to his appointments at all hazards. Here he found the hotel of his old friend, Major Downes, so crowded that he concluded to hunt up the cabin of the pastor, W. D. Gage. This was over in the brush some distance from the hotel, and night having come on, he, with great difficulty, found his way to the cabin parsonage and was royally entertained by the pas- tor's family.
The next day being the Sabbath he held service in one of the rooms of the hotel. amidst much confusion on the part of some of the guests who were not interested. No class had as yet been organized, the pastor, for some reason, was absent, and he somewhat sadly says: "This was all there was of the first quarterly-meeting at Old Fort Kearney," and it may be added, the first in the Ter- ritory. But before leaving Nebraska City he had some consultation "as to the means of prosecuting the work in this growing field, and especially the erection of a house of worship on the lots already donated."
He had intended going on as far as Omaha, there having as yet been no pastor secured for that point, but his horses having failed him, he deemed it expedient to abandon that part of his trip for the present and return home.
While as yet there were few actual settlers, there were many who had been on the ground, selected and staked off their claims, returned to their Eastern homes and were expecting to come back in the spring, bringing their fam- ilies with them, so there was little that could be done until that time.
In anticipation of this influx of permanent settlers in the spring of 1855, Dr. Goode had published a call in the
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Advocates for men to supply the field, only one man so far having been appointed. W. D. Gage, who has been noted elsewhere, was assigned to Nebraska City in 1854. A quotation from his book will show the care with which Dr. Goode selected these men and the spirit in which he expected them to come to the field, and prosecute the work, and the difficulties he experienced in procuring the right kind of men :
"Early in the winter responses began to be received to the public calls for ministerial aid, which we had made through the Church papers. These calls were gen- eral. No man was individually requested or advised to come into our new and exposed work. All were left to follow the call of duty or of inclination. Our tables were loaded with letters of inquiry, expressing good wishes, and making contingent and indefinite proposals for the future. But these did not fill the immediate and urgent demands of our work. Occasionally, however, one was found whose first proposition was, 'Here am I; send me.' With such our work in the Territories has been supplied. None have been pressed into service.
"In a very large majority of instances our supplies were men of the right stamp, volunteers, men of energy, willing to 'endure hardness as good soldiers.' There were a few instances to the contrary. Attempts were made to foist upon us, from the older Conferences, men who were too indolent or incompetent to labor acceptably where they were; but who, in the judgment of good brethren, 'would do for the frontier.' Such efforts were generally detected before consummation; or, if not, soon afterward, in which case they were disposed of in the most summary way practicable. The speculating
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SOME OF THE MEN WHO CAME IN THE FIFTIES.
I. JEROME SPILLMAN. 2. J. W. TAYLOR. 3. LORENZO W. SMITH. 4. JACOB ADRIANCE. 5. DAVID HART. 6. Z. B. TURMAN. 7. JESSE L. FORT.
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mania, that has sometimes seized Western recruits, or perhaps even prompted their transfer, has been but little known among the traveling preachers of these Terri- tories. They have been, for the most part, Homines unius operis.
"Rev. A. L. Downey was the first volunteer that came to our aid. He was appointed to Leavenworth mission. The second in order of time who appeared among us, was Rev. Isaac F. Collins, a transfer from the Arkansas Conference, and a man of considerable experience in the work of Indian missions, who was assigned to the Omaha City Mission.
"Some new fields, also, were laid off and supplied. Meeting, providentially, with Rev. Hiram Burch, a young man from Illinois, who had, in feeble health, been labor- ing as a supply in Northern Texas, I employed him to take charge of a new field in the northern extreme of Kansas, known as Wolf River Mission. His health im- proved ; he was received into the Iowa Conference the en- suing session, appointed to Nebraska City, and has ever proved a faithful and efficient minister. Upon a steam- boat in Missouri River, I met with a young Englishman with credentials and apparent qualifications for the work, and employed him to travel between the Nemahas, and organize the Nemaha Mission. This was Rev. David Hart.
"Thus, in the course of the year, our entire work was manned. The order of time has been anticipated in this statement, for the purpose of presenting all the names at one view. My Wyandott home became a place of resort, and an outfitting point for preachers coming into the Territories ; a circumstance which probably had much to
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do in fixing the jealousy and inveterate hate of pro-slav- ery sentinels, secular and ecclesiastical, posted along the border."
Thus we see that this alert superintendent had pas- tors in the field at all the strategical points before there were organized flocks to shepherd. W. D. Gage was sent to Nebraska City nine months before a class was formed, Isaac Collins was in Omaha six months before an organization could be effected, and David Hart was sent early in the spring of 1855 to the Nemaha Mission where he must wait and toil till the following fall before effecting an organization.
It is a very suggestive coincidence that in the same year that the territory which afterward constituted Ne- braska passed from the possession of Catholic France to that of Protestant America by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, there was born in Pennsylvania the one who should, half a century afterward, be the first to be assigned to a pastorate in the territory, and as the chaplain of the first legislature, should typify the character of the State to be built up in the Territory. Though W. D. Gage was a humble, unpretentious, rugged pioneer preacher, he was the representative of the most aggressive form of Protestant Christianity then in the field, the Church which has wrought most potently in making the great State of Nebraska what it is.
It would be interesting to speculate about what might have been if the Louisiana Purchase had not been made. and the territory remained in the possession of a Catholic country, and Catholic colonies spread over these prairies, and Catholic priests instead of Methodist preachers like W. D. Gage and other Protestant pioneers had been the
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first to propogate Christianity on this territory. The results in other exclusively Roman Catholic countries supply an answer, and the answer thus supplied makes us very thankful that matters have turned out as they have. An allwise providence has seen to it that such should be the case, and the more pleasing and profitable task is ours to trace the work of the Gages, Burches, Davises, Taylors, Harts, and others of the historic band that in the fifties lifted and held aloft the banner of Prince Immanuel on the prairies of Nebraska.
W. D. Gage was converted at the age of twenty-one and entered tlie New York Conference at the age of twenty-five. . After spending twenty- REV. W. D. GAGE, The first pastor ap- pointed in Nebraska, October, 1854. six years of faithful ministry in the New York, Genesee, Illinois, Arkan- sas, and Missouri Conferences, he was, in October, 1854, appointed, at the age of fifty-one, to the Nebraska City Mis- sion. Being just prior to this a member of the Mis- souri Conference, which was just across the river from the lower portions of Nebraska, Father Gage had, pre- vious to this time, crossed over to the Nebraska side, visiting and preaching, as elsewhere noted, at Old Fort Kearney (Nebraska . City,) as early as January, 1853, and was known to be familiar with the field. After serv- ing as pastor at Nebraska City, and chaplain of the first Nebraska Legislature, he asked and received a location. This step was afterward regarded by himself and friends as a great mistake which he very much regretted. How-
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ever, at the time of his location he was already past fifty, with a family about him, and doubtless his motive was to secure a home for these loved ones, which continuance in the work at that time would make difficult, if not im- possible. Some years afterward he was re-admitted to the Conference and did many years of faithful service on the frontier.
He was married to Miss Sarah Schoonmaker, Janu- ary 1, 1833, who died in 1862, leaving three daughters. Four others preceded her to the heavenly world.
Father Gage passed to his reward, November 20, 1885, and his brethren in the Conference place in their Minutes this tribute to their fallen brother: "He was a minister of good preaching ability, and very successful in every department of Church work. He now rests in peace, and his works do follow him."
The charge to which W. D. Gage was assigned Oc- tober, 1854, was Nebraska City Mission, making that the first place to be recognized in the list of appointments. It included at the first all the settlements extending north along the river as far as Rock Bluffs. It was doubtless on this charge, in what was known as the Morris neigh- borhood, that the first Methodist class in Nebraska was formed, as early as March, 1855, and the first Sunday- school organized a month or two later.
This settlement is worthy of special mention as be- ing probably the first distinctively Methodist settlement coming into the Territory. As early as 1853 there came into the section a few miles southwest of Rock Bluffs, W. H. Davis, together with Milton Morris, Abram Towner, . Mr. Acketyer, Thomas Ashley, and six other heads of families, all members of the Methodist Church, except
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Mr. Ashley (and he was converted at the second camp- meeting held in Nebraska, and in this same neighborhood, in August, 1857). This visit was made prior to the treaty by which the government obtained control of the land, which was not made until the following March, and did not take effect till June 24, 1854. But these enter- prising Methodists did not wait for the government, but made a private treaty with the Otoe Indians, by which in consideration of the payment of ten dollars each to the Indians, and a promise to defend them in case the Otoes were attacked by their dreaded and powerful enemies, the Sioux, they were permitted to stake out their claims, which they at once proceeded to do. This arrangement was so highly satisfactory to the Indians that they made a great feast in honor of these pale-faced friends that for the sake of a few acres of their land agreed to pay them some money, but especially to help them in their contest with their foes. They even examined the white man's teeth to see that everything was right.
After completing these preliminary arrangements, Mr. Davis and his party returned to their homes to spend the winter, and came back to Nebraska the following year with their families, and formed a permanent settlement some two or three miles southwest of old Rock Bluffs.
These were all men of intelligence and Christian char- acter, with families of like character. Indeed some of them were of superior intelligence, and all characterized by an earnest type of piety. Father Davis was a man of culture and manly Christian character ; Milton Morris, the religious leader, and his wife, were of superior in- telligence and force of character. Previous to coming to Nebraska they had served as missionaries to the Sac
REV. MILTON MOR- RIS.
MRS. MILTON MOR- RIS.
REV. A. TOWNER.
MRS. A. TOWNER.
W. H. DAVIS.
MRS. W. H. DAVIS.
REV. ELZA MARTIN.
THESE WERE ALL AMONG THE FIRST MEMBERS OF THE FIRST CLASS FORMED IN NEBRASKA, EXCEPT ELZA MARTIN, WHO JOINED THE CLASS IN APRIL, 1855.
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and Fox tribes of Indians, and he was at the time of his coming to Nebraska an ordained local elder. Abram Towner was also a local preacher, and the first sermon ever preached in Cass County was delivered by him at the house of Thos. B. Ashley, in October, 1854.
Just when this company of earnest Methodists began to hold religious services, and organize themselves into a religious body, is not certainly known, but we may be sure that it was not long after they arrived on the ground, which was in the spring of 1854. With a positive spirit- ual experience such as they evidently possessed, they would not long "neglect the assembling of themselves" in religious worship, and Mrs. Spurlock, daughter of W. H. Davis, informs me that they at once began to hold prayer and class meeting, and an occasional preaching service in the cabins of the settlers, before even a school- house could be erected. The exact date of their organ- ization into a class can not be ascertained. Rev. Elza Martin, an ordained local preacher still living in the neighborhood of Falls City, informs me in a letter that when he moved into the settlement in April, 1855, he found the class already organized, and thinks the organ- ization was effected at the quarterly-meeting held by Dr. Goode at the cabin of Father Morris, the preceding March. and referred to in his "Outposts of Zion." This would make it the first class organized in the Territory. But it seems more likely that Dr. Goode would have mentioned the fact had he at that time organized the class. Indeed, when we remember that those first settlers in the Morris neighborhood were nearly all members of the Methodist Church when they came there in 1854, making in all not less than twenty, it is highly improbable that with two
H. Burch
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such zealous and experienced local preachers as Father Morris and Abram Towner, that they would remain long without an organization. Besides W. D. Gage was ap- pointed as we have seen, as early as October, 1854, to Ne- braska City Mission, which included all the settlements as far north as Rock Bluffs, and as they thus early had a zealous pastor, it is well-nigh certain that this first class was organized some time in 1854. At all events, there can be no doubt that this Morris class was the first one formed in the territory.
If the class in the Morris settlement was organized as early as in 1854, which is probable, the class at Ne- braska City, though the head of the mission, was not or- ganized until in April, 1855, and was probably the second organization effected in the territory.
Happily we are not without authentic information in regard to this date. John Hamlin* was the first class- leader, steward, trustee, and Sunday-school superintend- ent, and had the contract for building the first church building in Nebraska. His daughter, now Mrs. Melvina Brown, of Omaha, was a member of this first class, and to her I am chiefly indebted for these facts. The other members of this first class were Isabella Hamlin, the wife of John Hamlin ; Rev. W. D. Gage and wife, Rev. J. T. Cannon and wife, and Rowina Craig. The organization took place in a little frame shanty, twelve by twelve feet in dimension, opposite where the Grand Central Hotel now stands. Rev. J. W. Taylor, who a few months after this succeeded Brother Gage as pastor, informs me that he organized the first Methodist Episcopal Sunday-school in Nebraska City.
* Since deceased.
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In the fall of 1855 Hiram Burch was appointed to Brownville, but J. W. Taylor, who had been appointed to Nebraska City, proposed to the presiding elder that he and Brother Burch exchange places, which was effected, and Brother Burch became Brother Gage's successor.
The society was yet quite feeble in numbers, not to exceed sixteen, and none of these with much financial strength. But they had already begun to plan for a church building. As was often the case in those early days, the initial steps had been taken some time before by an outsider. Major Downs, who at the time of Dr. Goode's first visit to the Nebraska City in July, 1854, had donated two lots in the town site he had laid out on the abandoned ground where old Fort Kearney had been, for a Methodist church. This doubtless ranks as the first donation of any kind toward the erection of a church in Nebraska, except perhaps for mission churches for the Indians. While subsequent development in the building of the town made these lots less eligible in location for a church, they were quite valuable, and were readily ex- changed for those on which the church was then erected, and on which the present edifice stands.
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