USA > Nebraska > Congregational Nebraska > Part 11
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"It was pitched on a grassy plot about forty feet to the rear of a large saloon tent. In that saloon, with nothing but canvas intervening, I could hear the conversation and the revelry whenever I was awake through the night. We had a comfortable bed in one corner and he also had an extensive collection of various devices which he used in his vocation as a gambler. He became quite confidential, showed me the contrivances, and explained, sparingly, how the various tricks were worked. When we were talking about the 'ball and shell' trick, I asked the question, 'Where is the ball when you get people to bet it is under the shell?' 'In my pocket,' he answered. After I had listened to his descriptions for some time, I took up my Bible, and asked him if he would listen to a chapter from the Book. 'Oh, yes, I'll listen, you can read if you want to; I ain't got nothin' agin the Bible.' So I know that he heard one chap- ter from the Gospel of the divine Lord, whether he ever heard one again or not. When the evening was growing late, perhaps ten or ten thirty he rose and said to me: 'Now, you can turn in whenever you want to. There's the bed 'n' it's all right. I'm goin' out to see if I can make somethin'.' And he vanished into the night. And I lay down to sleep, and the strangeness of the situation came
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upon me. I in the tent of a frontier desperado and gam- bler, and he gone out to 'make somethin'!'
"I heard the chink of glasses, the click of 'chips,' the boisterous talk and laughter in the saloon tent, and won- dered just where my friend and bunkmate was, and just what were his transactions. But presently I fell asleep, and did not waken when he came to bed. Some time dur- ing the night I was awakened by the sound of voices. My gambler friend was by my side in the bed. Some other man was in the tent and was pleading with my bedfellow in husky, excited half-whispers. The intruder was the first to speak: 'Say, pard, let me take yer pop, jest for a few minutes.' The voice at my side answered: 'No, I can't let yer have it.' 'O say, pard, I don't want it but jest a little while : let me take it, won't yer?' 'No.' More decidedly, 'I won't let it go.' 'O come now, I've got t' have a pop. I'll bring it back to you in jest a few minutes. I'll do any- thing fer ye on earth if ye'll jest let me have yer pop a few minutes.' But my gambler companion steadily refused to lend his 'pop' (revolver). The other kept up his excited pleading for some time, using every persuasion, but to no avail.
"During the progress of the conflab I felt something under the blankets touch me, and I knew that in his de- termination not to let this stranger, whoever he might be, get possession of his gun, he had shoved it back into the bed between us. Finally the intruder became convinced that his request was not going to be granted and went away. As he disappeared into the night, the gambler said : 'You bet, I ain't goin' to give up my gun, for anybody ; ye don't ketch me without my gun.' A pause. Then: ‘I wonder if he thought I'd let him take my gun? Not much. I've got too many enemies in this country. There's one feller, if we ever meet agen it's jest who can shoot first,
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that's all. 'N' he's look'n f' me, too.' A pause. 'That's why I wanted you to stay with me. That feller may come into this town.' That was interesting. I suppose he thought that if there were two men in his tent, and his enemy should put in an appearance, there would be some chance that he would not be hit! We talked in this refresh- ing way for some time. I asked: 'Did you see that fellow before he spoke to you?' 'You bet, I heard him before he got to the tent, and I had my gun right on (pointed at) his
WESTERN NEBRASKA OF TO-DAY UNDER IRRIGATION
heart.' Then as we lay down to sleep again, I did some thinking. What a life this man was leading! To be every moment on guard for his life, night and day. That man had approached our tent over the soft grass with well-nigh noiseless footfall in the dead of night. He might easily enough have surprised me, for I did not hear him till his voice awoke me. But this gambler was living under such a tension of watchfulness and dread that he had been aroused and was fully prepared for self-defense before that
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stranger had reached the tent. 'Truly,' I said, 'the way of the transgressor is hard.' No further interruptions dis- turbed our slumbers, but I presume that for many a day I shall not forget the night when I enjoyed the hospitality of a border gambler."
In this and the preceding chapter we get various glimpses of pioneer work, of the characteristics of different men who have had no small part in the development of Congrega- tional Nebraska. We are wont to think of. pioneer work as something which occurred long ago. But here we find it very recent. Some of it is even now, and the work goes on. There is some romance as well as hardship in home missionary work.
The following story of grasshopper relief was prepared by Rev. J. E. Storm who knew the facts, and is related to show how Congregationalists worked in the interests of the people in need. There was much suffering, hardship, and destitution on the part of many. There was no little hero- isin on the part of missionaries and pastors who in the midst of great deprivation stayed by their posts and helped bring relief to the destitute.
FATHER BARROW'S STORY OF GRASSHOPPER RELIEF
"While Polk county was suffering from the grasshopper devastation of '74, Rev. Simon Barrows was county super- intendent of public instruction in connection with his pastor- ate at Osceola. On his rounds of duty he made note of the most pressing needs of the settlers-so many pairs of shoes, so many undergarments, trousers, socks, stockings, cotton and woolen cloth, etc., etc. This condition he set forth in detail in a letter to a ministerial friend in Boston with the comment, 'This represents one-quarter of Polk county; if you can multiply this by four you will know our need.'
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"The friend took the letter to Hon. Alpheus S. Hardy, one of Boston's best business men. Hardy read it through and said, 'That is business; now we know what to do.' He had a large number of copies of the letter struck off, and set on fire the pulpits of the city the following Sunday morning. People saw the need and gave heartily and liberally. Boot and shoe firms gave whole boxes of new goods, dry goods merchants gave by the bolt, money poured in freely to pur- chase with, so that within a few days a whole carload was ready to hurry west. The freight was prepaid through to Columbus, Nebraska, the whole cargo being shipped direct to Rev. Simon Barrows. Some little time after he had re- ceived word front Boston of the shipment being on the road and all freight prepaid, he received word from Omaha to send on money to pay freight from there to Columbus. He at once telegraphed to Mr. Hardy and Mr. Hardy tele- graphed to Omaha to 'forward the car immediately.' When the car arrived at Columbus teams were sent for the goods, but not enough teams to take the whole at once. The agent would not open the car unless they would sign a release of the whole carload. This the men feared to do, lest they would never more catch sight of that car or its contents, so they went home without the goods. The fol- lowing day teams enough were sent to empty the car, but they had to agree to deliver their loads to the county relief committee. Why the agent .should insist on such a move, the reader may guess. Arriving at the county seat the boxes and bundles were deposited in the court house, and a mes- senger sent to Father Barrows to see how the wind blew. He talked of the arrival of the goods, and casually sug- gested that the committee might open the boxes. 'No,' said Father Barrows, 'they would not do that,' 'But,' said he, 'suppose they should ?' 'They would not open but one, for I would put them where they could not open any more.'
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'Well, what can they do?' 'Do! There is but one thing for them to do,-load up the goods and send them to me.' 'They have no right to them at all,' 'It was an individual shipment to myself.'
"The result was that the committee were called together, and they got Father Barrows to help them get up a suitable resolution that the goods belonged to him, and that they had no right to them, and to him they should, would, and did go.
"Then came the task of distribution. For this careful preparation had been made. A large book made of common brown wrapping paper was used for entries. The needs of each family had been itemized and listed therein. When the boxes and bundles were opened, packages were made to cor- respond with the entry against each name. These were labeled and stored away in the attic, where a floor of new boards had been laid for this emergency. As the recipients came, everything was ready, the packages were delivered, and receipts signed right in the book.
"When all had been served this book was taken to three of the county officials, including the county judge, and they were asked to look the book through and give such certifi- cate as they thought best. They did as requested and gave a certificate to this effect: 'We are satisfied that the goods have been disposed of according to the wish and purpose of the donors.' This certificate Father Barrows sent to Mr. Hardy. The reply came back at once, 'We are perfectly satisfied ; you need give yourself no further trouble.'
"If all grasshopper relief had been as carefully and con- scientiously handled much suffering would have been avoided, there would have been a more equal distribution, and the bright days that followed would not have left a cloud upon some otherwise fair names."
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WOMEN'S WORK IN NEBRASKA
XXI
WOMEN'S WORK IN NEBRASKA
The writer counts himself fortunate in securing from the president of the W. H. M. U. of Nebraska, the Rev. Laura H. Wild, recently pastor Butler Avenue Church, Lincoln, the following account of the organized work of the women in Nebraska. A woman's pen can best describe women's work.
Miss Wild writes :
"The women of Nebraska have not been slow to help. In the Year Book of 1904, out of the 196 church clerks re- ported 91 are women, and 35 of the 181 Sunday school su- perintendents. The ladies' aid society in almost all the churches is an indispensable assistant to local interests, financial and otherwise, and in the missionary work it is the women who have kept things stirring outside the annual Sunday morning offering.
"The women's annual missionary meeting occurs in Octo- ber, usually before the State Association meeting. One day is devoted to the home work and one day to the foreign. From forty to sixty delegates are present, not a large at- tendance, but made up of some of the most consecrated and earnest women of the state.
"The interest in foreign fields is centered about workers who have gone from our own number, Miss Wainwright in Japan and Miss Stella Loughridge (of Vine Street Church, Lincoln) in western Turkey. A Bible woman is also sup- ported in central Turkey, and the children are working for an industrial school in Africa.
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"The home work is concentrated upon the missionary fields we have within the boundaries of our own state, mis- sionaries in the sandhills; two Indian children attending the Santee school, our four academies, and the churches and Sunday schools that are being built. The money raised is nearly equal-$1,700 in 1903 for foreign work, $1,600 for the home.
"Certain distinctive points in the development of the work stand out clearly. The first gift from the state to the Woman's Board of the Interior was $5 from Mrs. Reuben Gaylord in 1871. The first contribution to the Home Mis- sionary Society was from Nebraska City in 1876. The first contribution from a local society was from the Ashland 'Little Workers' in 1874.
"The oldest auxiliary is the one at Weeping Water. In 1873 at the State Association meeting held in Weeping Water the women got together and organized the Woman's Board of Missions for the State of Nebraska, its object be- ing both foreign and home work. The next year, that this double end might be clearly understood, the name was changed to the Ladies' Association of Nebraska for Home and Foreign Missions, and Mrs. Asa Farwell of Ashland was made the president. Mrs. A. E. Dean became president in 1876,-the wife of one of the pastors, who herself was born in India, who had labored there after her marriage, and who went back there in July, 1901, after her husband's death, to give still further missionary service. The meet- ings were held up to 1887 in connection with the State Association meetings, not as a part of them but in some neighboring church. 'Many times,' as Mrs. Sherrill said in one of her reports, 'by overcoming great obstacles, leaving the pleasant gathering of our brethren, who, we know, thought us much more zealous than wise, and retiring to some cold, neighboring church.'
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"In 1877 a paper on 'Woman's Work for Woman' by Mrs. Farwell, read before the State Association itself, was so well received that it had the honor of being incorporated in the minutes of that body. There were twelve auxiliaries then. In 1879 a milestone was passed when the women de- cided to attempt the support of a missionary, Miss Van Duzee of Turkey.
"In 1880 it was resolved to raise an equal sum for home missions. The report of this year says, 'Our infancy is past, and we enter upon our next stage with great promise.' Four hundred and sixty-two dollars were raised that year, three-fourths going to foreign work and one-fourth to home. It has taken Christian people longer to realize that there is as much of a responsibility upon us for home missions as for foreign.
"The Nebraska Woman's Board of Missions was or- ganized with that fact in view. It was to be a union effort, one society working for the entire missionary field. But owing to the tardiness of the home missionary consciousness and urgent foreign missionary pressure from the Woman's Board of the Interior, which had been organized in 1868, it was the foreign work which received the lion's share of the gifts. Mrs. Sherrill writes in 1880: 'The proposition to change our name and constitution, and limit our work to foreign missions so as to become auxiliary to the W. B. M. I., has been discussed every year, but the feeling pre- vails that we can not exclude from our thought and prayers and gifts the society that is working to Christianize our own land, both because that society needs our allegiance, and because we need that our intelligence and activities be stimulated by connection with it.'
"Nevertheless the receipts fell off, and because the so- ciety had pledged a definite amount for the support of their foreign workers, it was the home cause which suffered.
13
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"In 1883 two treasurers were appointed. In 1884 the WV. B. M. I. called for $750. That year there was raised for foreign missions $892.66, for home missions $313.89, for the Educational Commission $2, for the A. M. A. $22, for the American Congregational Union-our present Church Building Society-$5. These sums show the rela- tive importance, in the eyes of the women, of these various societies.
"While the amounts increased and home missions gained as the years went by, and many of the founders and strong supporters of the society believed most earnestly in union, it was voted in 1887 at the meeting held in Lincoln that 'the Woman's Missionary Association limit its work to foreign missions, being auxiliary to the W. B. M. I., and that we form a Woman's Home Missionary Society of Nebraska." This accounts for the fact that the Branch (the foreign work) reports date of their meetings from the very begin- ning, 1873, and the Union (the home work) from 1888. That is, the annual report of 1904 is the thirty-first of the Branch and the seventeenth of the Union.
"From that time to the present there have been two sets of officers and two state headquarters, but the meetings are always held together at the same place, and the local soci- eties have never divided. There is the utmost harmony in the work, a mid-winter fellowship and consultation of the officers of both societies having been held in 1888 and 1904. The first reports after the division were published together ; then each pursued her own way until 1903, when they were published together once more.
"After the division there were more active efforts put forth for the home missionary cause. Special circular let- ters were sent to every pastor, and there were added thirty- three new auxiliaries during the year. The church in Ken- sington, Connecticut, sent $100 to encourage the new-born
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child. At the close of the year there were fifteen junior and juvenile societies, one of them being a boys' club in South Bend. Boxes for the home missionaries were pre- pared. There was raised for the home work $1,105.82, including the $100 from Connecticut, against $513 the year before. The foreign work saw quite an increase also, $1,000 coming into its treasury.
"There was a steady increase in gifts, with some fluctua- tions, until the year 1892, when the high-water mark was reached for the Union-$2,002.43, the Branch that year rais- ing $2,185.34, and the next more still, $2,345.
"Then came on the hard times and a most discouraging drop, falling down in 1897 to $1,280 for the Branch and in 1899 to $1,091 for the Union.
"Again prosperity is making itself felt throughout the state, and this time of a more solid character. Receipts are rising. But just as business men are more cautious in their ventures the women are not as liberal accordingly as they were in earlier days. But each year a higher goal is set, and it is hoped soon not only to reach but to pass our former high-water mark.
"During the last two years there has been broader intelli- gence concerning foreign missions owing to the systematic study of the most admirable books prepared by the national boards, and consequently a more real interest in those aux- iliaries where such study is carried on. Mention should be made of the special library fund raised by the Union, by the publishing of a serial story called 'Inasmuch.' Twelve chapters were written by well-known women, including Mrs. Caswell and Mrs. Sangster. The sale of these books at twenty-five cents has brought in enough money to buy and circulate a library of forty home missionary volumes. The Branch also has a half dozen books in this collection.
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"Nebraska has two young ladies' missionary societies, one at Vine Street Church, Lincoln, and one at Weeping Water. These have a splendid record, but for the most part the young ladies' work has been merged in that of the C. E. S. The children's department has been quite success- ful, with special objects to work for. Of late years in some of the larger churches the departmental plan has been adopted, all the women in the church being united in one association with various departments, chosen according to individual preference. The missionary department of such associations is counted as an auxiliary. In 1894 there was one German auxiliary organized by the pastor at Princeton. The same year Mrs. Caswell spent several weeks in the state visiting the local societies in the interest of home mis- sions, and in 1898 Miss Wright, Field Secretary of the W. B. M. I., did the same.
"The women's work in Nebraska has had in the past most faithful women at the helm, pouring into it effort, strength, and patience of which few will ever know. The result has been not a brilliant record, but a creditable one in its breadth of view, practical methods, financial fruitage, and warin Christian fellowship."
The following list of presidents and secretaries of the women's work in Nebraska has been compiled by Mrs. H. Bross, and is of no little interest :
PRESIDENTS
Mrs. Asa Farwell, 1875-76. Mrs. S. C. Dean, 1876-87.
"BRANCH" PRESIDENTS
Mrs. S. C. Dean, 1887-88. Mrs. F. L. Fitchett, 1894-99.
Mrs. G. W. Hall, 1888-93.
Mrs. J. G. Haines, 1893-94.
None, 1899-1900.
Mrs. E. H. Wood, 1900 -.
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WOMEN'S WORK IN NEBRASKA
"UNION" PRESIDENTS
Mrs. S. H. Leavitt, 1887-91. Mrs. J. T. Duryea, 1893-95. Mrs. Whitfield Sanford, Mrs. D. B. Perry, 1895-1901.
1891-92.
Mrs. M. A. Bullock, 1901-03.
Mrs. S. H. Leavitt, 1892-93. Rev. Laura H. Wild, 1905 -.
SECRETARIES
Mrs. J. E. Elliott, 1873-74. Mrs. A. F. Sherrill, 1879-83. Mrs. G. W. Hall, 1874-75. Mrs. H. A. Leavitt, 1883-84.
Mrs. H. Bates, 1875-79. Mrs. E. L. Childs, 1884-87.
"BRANCH"
Mrs. N. C. Bosworth, 1887- 90.
Mrs. A. R. Thain, 1890-94. "UNION"
SECRETARIES
Mrs. W. H. Russell, 1894- 1900.
Mrs. W. A. Higgin, 1900 -.
SECRETARIES
Mrs. L. F. Berry, 1887-90. Mrs. S. C. Dean, 1893-94. Mrs. H. Bross, 1894 -.
Mrs. E. S. Smith, 1890-92.
Mrs. W. R. Dawes, 1892-93.
PART II
CONGREGATIONAL SCHOOLS IN NEBRASKA
I
CONGREGATIONAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
THE FONTANELLE SCHOOL
At the second meeting of the State Association held at Fremont, October 30, 1857, and called "The First Annual Meeting," a preliminary meeting for organization having been held in Omaha, August 8, 1857, it was
"Resolved, That we deem it expedient to take measures to lay the foundation of a literary institution of a high or- der in Nebraska.
"Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to take into consideration the location of the literary institution.
"Resolved, That R. Gaylord of Omaha and P. Allen of Ft. Calhoun be two of this committee, and that Brother Gaylord select the other in Omaha. Voted, That this com- mittee view locations, receive propositions, and, if thought expedient, call a special meeting of the association."1
This is the first record of action looking toward Congre- gational education in Nebraska. Our pioneer fathers could not well be good Congregationalists without building a college.
True to the historic spirit of the denomination they be- gan building up a Christian school as soon as they were organized into an association of churches.
In compliance with the preceding resolution Moderator Gaylord called a special meeting of the association at Fon- tanelle, January 5, 1858, to consider the question of found- ing an institution of learning.
1 Manuscript Minutes, 1857, p. 10.
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Mention has been made in a preceding chapter2 of the effort of Dr. John M. Ellis to locate a colony and establish a Congregational college. A year earlier than that, "on the 24th day of June, 1854, less than thirty days after the
LOGAN FONTENELLE, CHIEF OF THE OMAHAS
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act, a little company of Quincy (Illinois) people met together and organized the 'Nebraska Colonization Company.' "3
2 Part I, chap. II.
3 Caldwell's Education in Nebraska, p. 165.
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TIIE FONTANELLE SCHOOL
This company, in carrying out their project, located, Sep- teniber 15 of the same year, the town of Fontanelle on the east side of the Elkhorn river a few miles northwest of Omaha, and named after Logan Fontenelle, a half-breed Indian, chief of the Omaha tribe, who had rendered them valuable assistance. There a tract of 112 acres was set apart for Nebraska University. Says Prof. A. B. Show : "It would be difficult to find a more satisfactory location for a college. The westward view is broad and charming, embracing in its sweep not only the Elkhorn and its tribu- taries, but also the wide valley of the Platte many miles to the south. It did not seem visionary to expect that some day a half score of substantial college buildings would look down from this height upon a thickly populated and pros- perous community."4
Rev. W. W. Keep, a Baptist clergyman, was one of the leading promoters of the colony, trustee and financial agent of the university, and it may be it was intended to establish a Baptist colony and build up a Baptist college. Professor Show says : "The evidence is not clear and satisfactory. In the first board of trustees of which a record re- mains, that of 1856-57, three out of eight trustees were already members of the Fontanelle Congregational Church and two others were members before 1860. In the next board of trustees, elected before the question of transferring the management had been raised, five out of eleven were Congregationalists, but the chairman, Rev. J. M. Taggart, was a Baptist clergyman."5
Caldwell's Education in Nebraska, pp. 167-68. Professor Show, who writes of Congregational educational institutions in Education in Nebraska, has done such thorough and scientific work that when we quote from him we are assured there is no need for further re- search in the matter quoted.
5 Ibid., p. 171.
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The first. church organized in Fontanelle® was Congre- gational, and "quite a number of these were from the Con- gregational Church of Quincy, Illinois,"7 showing that they were a part of the colony.
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