USA > Ohio > History of the Central Ohio conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, 1856-1913 > Part 1
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02112 6443
Gc 977.1 M561h Methodist Episcopal Church. Conferences. Central Ohio. History of the Central Ohio conference of the Methodist
HISTORY
OF THE
CENTRAL OHIO CONFERENCE
OF THE
Methodist Episcopal Church
ILLUSTRATED 1856 - 1913
HISTORIANS :
REV. ELIAS D. WHITLOCK, D. D. REV. NATHANIEL B. C. LOVE, D. D. REV. ELWOOD O. CRIST, D. D.
CINCINNATI PRESS OF THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN
Allen County Public Library Ft. Wayne, Indiana
COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION.
REV. E. D. WHITLOCK, D. D.
--
REV. N. B. C. LOVE, D. D.
REV. E. O. C'RIST, D. D.
COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION.
REV. H. J. BIGLEY,
REV. W. G. WATERS, D. D.
REV, M. C. HOWEY, A. M.
NOTE .- After the death of Dr. E. D. Whitlock, December 23. 1913, at the request of Dr. Love and the Committee, Bishop Anderson appointed Dr. E. O. Crist to fill the place of Dr. Whitlock as Editor and Historian to complete and publish this volume.
BISHOP WILLIAM F. ANDERSON. D. D., LL. D.
John Har Cay
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/historyofcentral00meth
Contents.
PAGE
PREFACE. - - 9
FOREWORD,
11
BEGINNINGS OF METHODISM.
Thomas Biddle,
17
GROWTH OF METHODISM, -
Bishop Darid H. Moore, D. D., LL. D., 22
THE FIRST CENTURY OF THE OHIO CONFERENCE, -
-
Rer. J. C. Arbuckle, D. D.,
26
THE BLACK SWAMP.
32
ORGANIZATION OF THE CENTRAL OHIO CONFERENCE,
-
50
PERSONAL MENTION,
63
THE BEGINNING OF MISSIONARY MOVEMENTS,
-
79
-
JOHN STEWART, PIONEER MISSIONARY OF THE METHODIST
EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
84
WOMAN'S FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF THE CENTRAL OHIO CONFERENCE, Mrs. E. D. Whitlock, 98
WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF THE CENTRAL
OHIO CONFERENCE,
-
Mrs. Delia L. Williams, 108
BENEVOLENT AND PHILANTHROPIC INTERESTS,
-
- 113
FLOWER DEACONESS HOME AND HOSPITAL.
117
LAKESIDE, OHIO,
- 125
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS,
-
134
CENTRAL OHIO CONFERENCE SEMINARY. -
136
7
8
Contents.
OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY,
PAGE 139
OHIO NORTHERN UNIVERSITY, - -
- 156
HISTORY OF CHURCHES-ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED, 162
TOLEDO METHODISM,
- 283
THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT, -
325
SURVIVING CHARTER MEMBERS OF THE CENTRAL OHIO CONFERENCE, - - 336
TRANSFERRED, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN,
- 340
SOME LAY LEADERS, 342
CONFERENCE ROLL AND PASTORAL RECORD, - 346
IN MEMORIAM,
378
ORIGIN OF THE WEST OHIO CONFERENCE, - 381
JOINT COMMISSION,
383
WEST OHIO ANNUAL CONFERENCE,
- 386
Preface.
THE territory covered by the Central Ohio Conference is historic ground. It was within the bounds of this Conference that the first missionary work was done under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, by John Stewart, among the Wyandots at Upper Sandusky. Agriculturally the territory is one of the richest in the State. The development of the natural resources came a little later than in other sections.
Bishop William L. Harris, an honored bishop in the Church, was for some years the secretary of this body. The type of min- istry which developed here partook somewhat of the pioneer fea- tures of the country. One is impressed as the list of the leaders of the Central Ohio Conference is called that there is a certain ruggedness and virility about them far above the average. The characterization of these leaders and the records of their noble achievements will constitute a large part of this volume. The cause of Methodism little by little has forged its way to a position of commanding influence throughout the area. The citizenship of the State of Ohio is perhaps as truly American as that of any other Commonwealth in the Republic. The free atmosphere of our the- ology, polity, and spirit makes strong appeal to liberty-loving Americans, and in the territory covered by the Central Ohio Con- ference multitudes of good men and women have yielded glad re- sponse to this gospel appeal. Strong Churches have sprung up in many towns and cities as if by magic.
Meantime, due consideration has also been given to the build- ing up of educational institutions. The Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, and the Ohio Northern at Ada, are abiding monuments of the interest of the people in educational ideals and form beautiful testimonials of their sacrifices in the propagation of these ideals. The youth of Ohio have gone out from the halls of these institutions to the ends of the earth and form a valuable contribution to the forces which make for the progress of mankind the wide world around.
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Preface.
Nor has the distinctly philanthropic work been overlooked. For many years the loyal Methodists of this section poured their con- tributions into the treasury of Christ Hospital, Cincinnati. In recent years the Flower Hospital, in Toledo, has received the gifts of the people, and under the direction of a wise and pro- gressive Board of Trustees these gifts have been judiciously in- vested for the relief of suffering mankind and for the cause of human progress.
The last session of the Central Ohio Conference as such was held at Kenton, Ohio, September 25 to 30, 1912. By request of the delegations of the Central Ohio and Cincinnati Conferences, an enabling act was passed by the General Conference of 1912 authorizing the consolidation of the two bodies. After safeguard- ing all the legal phases involved, this merger was effected at Urbana, Ohio, in the joint session which was held September 9 to 15, 1913, by which action the two bodies came together legally under the name of the West Ohio Annual Conference of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church.
The situation facing this strong body of ministers and laymen is unique and unusual. Greater opportunities could not be even asked for service to the Kingdom of God, and better facilities could hardly be desired for the carrying forward of the work. That Methodism here should be true to its original mission of spreading Scriptural holiness throughout the earth is of tremendous importance. That it will go forward with a spirit of consecration and earnestness to the manifold tasks of the Church in this day can hardly be questioned, and that the favor alike of God and man will rest upon the movement, is as certain as God Himself.
William Anderson
Foreword.
THE annals of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Ohio constitute one of the most interesting and important chapters in Methodism.
The establishment and growth of the Church, with its records of the adventures and the heroism, the experiences and the trials of pioneer Methodists, the prey often of innumerable temptations and dangers, men and women not lacking in the joys that brave service brings, and the triumphs that great victories achieve, afford the reader of both religious and secular history a fascinating study not only in the rise and progress of the Church, but in the civiliza- tion of the Commonwealth and the country.
No complete history of the physical and moral advancement of the State could be written that should fail to recognize and prominently mention the part Methodism has had in the constant and wonderful changes and advances of society in all that is es- sential to prosperous communities and enduring institutions.
Religion, education, philanthropy, and good government have uniformly been subjects of thought and objects of endeavor with the Methodist Episcopal Church, accounts of which are found in this volume of much interest and value.
It is no easy task, since in a large measure the records of tlie Church exist in scattered portions and in disconnected paragraphs or sentences, to set forth in orderly sequence the wonderful achieve- ments which Methodism has wrought in the history of society. What a volume of enchanting story and of inspiring incident would be ours to peruse if what Methodism has done in directions we can trace and ways we may infer could be gathered together in logical relations and accurate statement !
To write the history of any great Church or of any important organization, having for its object the transformation of human conditions is always difficult, because in the initiation and develop- ment of such a movement as Methodism, for example, there has been so much of spontaneous, unexpected, and fortuitous occurrence.
11
12
Foreword.
Notwithstanding the existence of these difficulties, the compilers and writers of this History of the Central Ohio Conference are to be congratulated that they have in their possession a large amount of reliable historical data, the accumulation of years of research, consisting largely of original Quarterly Conference and Church business records, original records of early and later district meet- ings, the Minutes of the Annual Conferences for the past hundred years, autobiographical accounts, letters and diaries of pioneer preachers, brief sketches from a majority of the Churches and pastors, and the records of the educational and benevolent insti- tutions of the Conference.
This volume, involving great work and care and considerable expense in its production, will no doubt commend itself to the ministers and the members of all our Methodist Churches in West- ern Ohio, and to many elsewhere.
The things unrecorded and that must remain so, because no memoranda of them have been preserved, would if properly assem- bled, furnish merriment to amuse the mirthful, varied incident to beguile the sober, and create a fund of the rich experiences of families, of individuals, and of Churches, many of them associated with the introduction of Methodism into neighborhoods and with the development of the country at large. This attempt to write a history of the Central Ohio Conference has been greatly handi- capped by the lack of the original data of some Churches.
Fifty-seven years ago, when the Central Ohio Conference was organized, conditions in Ohio were very different from those of to-day. Business then had not been organized as it is now; many of the natural resources of the State had not been developed ; farm- ing was very simple in its methods; facilities for transporting farm products and what little manufacturing there was were very simple and less numerous and speedy; the present industrial system, so thorough in organization, so comprehensive and universal, had not even been dreamed of ; everything in the course of business and trade was on the basis of simplicity and individualism, and gen- erally every business man was his own master, though necessarily there was then an interdependence of association and commerce in the limited traffic of the times.
The War of the Rebellion had not occurred with its conse- quences of broken homes and disturbed and retarded business; with
I3
Foreword.
its results of the discovery of new and extensive territory in the West, of the awakening of the genius and faculty of invention, with their importance and effect upon all lines of physical and social life; of the new and higher conceptions of freedom and equality, born of a struggle costly and bloody, almost beyond parallel in the history of warfare; a freedom which forever afterwards should not only liberate the bodies of human beings from all forms of oppres- sion and unjust burdens, which some new order of industrialism might impose upon society, but from the fetters of ignorance and the bondage of sin. Society a half-century ago was simple, demo- cratic, and only in a small way relational.
There were no great cities in the State; and problems, civic and social, which are now demanding of the State and the Church study and solution-if not solution, some better adjustment to the existing order of affairs-were not anticipated nor even dreamed of fifty years ago.
Then there was no great industrial world divided into two great and powerful forces, capital and labor, pitted in angry and deter- mined warfare against each other, forces whose definition no social expert has as yet clearly set forth so as to satisfy the general public.
The population of the State was chiefly rural and the occupa- tions, therefore, agricultural. Settlements in the State when Ohio was young in the sisterhood of Commonwealths were sparse; and even when the Central Ohio Conference was formed, aggregations of people were small and confined to villages and towns. The amusements of that day were often rude and coarse, the exag- gerated refinements and excesses which a luxurious civilization has produced being unknown.
In the country the forms of social attraction and entertainment were indigenous to the soil and the suggestion of the occupations pursued.
The log schoolhouse and the red frame structure that canie later were the chief sources and means of education, the instruction being imparted without any graded system or very much order. Still in these schools, such as they were, many Methodist preachers, some now living and others who have passed away, secured their elementary instruction and laid the foundation of their intellectual strength and usefulness.
14
Foreword.
Books were few. no comprehensive literature had been con- structed. Newspapers came but weekly, and the Methodist preacher was in great part the eyelopedia of the people, and upon him rested the duty of leading the community into the wider paths of intelligence and thought: and how nobly he has met the re- sponsibility the record of long years will disclose. His voice was
THE ITINERANT PATHFINDER, CROSSING THE MAUMEE. (From a painting by N. B. C. Love.)
the voice of John the Baptist crying in the wilderness. his figure the figure of Elijah confronting the evils and idolatries of the times.
The painter could do no greater thing to reflect the past in our civilization than to canvass the Methodist itinerant, with Bible in hand. mounted on his friendly and befriended horse, riding through the wilderness to found the Kingdom of God and to open up paths of intelligence and religion.
Such a portraiture would suggest to the mind of the reader the forms and boldness of many men who, within the bounds of Ohio Methodism and within the Central Ohio Conference. have
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Foreword.
stood straight and strong against evil and proven themselves daunt- less defenders of the truth in the midst of a "crooked and perverse generation." The foundations of the Church, the strong pillars of the State, the vineyards of the new wine of the Kingdom of God, the inspiration to benevolence and the riches of Christian philan- thropy, the light of the gospel falling on heathendom, and the impulse of a new order for universal righteousness,-all are trace- able in no small degree to the ideals, the influence, the heroism, and the faith of the Methodist itinerant.
"Faith of our fathers! we will love Both friend and foe in all our strife; And preach thee, too, as love knows how, By kindly words and virtuous life. Faith of our fathers! holy faith! We will be true to thee till death!"
I. Beginnings of Methodism.
BY THOMAS BIDDLE.
THE first fruits of religious "Reformation" in England were har- vested during the reign of Elizabeth. These fruits of religion were moral, mental, and civic betterment; the second harvest was Puritanism with its invincible valor on land and sea to establish itself in civic honesty, just administration of the law, religious tolerance, and a high degree of personal piety and godly reverence.
After the death of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector, in 1658, and after the "Restoration" of the Stuart dynasty, Puritanism was dethroned, and impiety, irreverence, laxity in morals, both public and private, soon prevailed.
It was given to John Wesley, born forty-three years after the death of Cromwell, more than to any other man, to turn the hearts of men back to reverence and godly living.
1703-John Wesley, son of Rev. Samuel Wesley, born at Ep- worth Rectory, April 25, 1703, Lincolnshire, England.
1716-Left home to attend Charter House School, London; later entered Christ Church College, Oxford.
1727-Appointed curate, after his ordination as deacon, to his father at Epworth.
1728-Ordained priest by the Bishop of Oxford.
1799-Returned to Oxford and there joined a group of devout students in a society called the "Holy Club," later called "Meth- odists," pursuing systematic exercises of prayer, study, and Biblical discussion, also visiting the poor, the sorrowing, and the prisoners.
1733-Missionary of the Established Church to the Colony of Georgia. Met some Moravians on board ship and was greatly impressed by their piety; his interest in them and their godliness led him to seek to know more of them and their religious views.
1738-Returned to England. Soon after reaching London he met Peter Bohler, a leading man among the Moravians, who, by
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History of the Central Ohio Conference.
the Scriptures and by witnesses, so ably and clearly explained and proved the doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ, with the possi- bility of instantaneous conversion and the assurances or witness of the Spirit which results from the exercise of such true faith, that he convinced John Wesley of his own lack of faith. Wesley at once began to seek to deepen his own faith. So conscious was he of his lack that he thought of giving up preaching, but Bohler's advice, which he followed, was, "Preach faith till you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith."
On May 24th of this year, according to his Journal, at a meet- ing of a society in Aldersgate Street, London, he received a pro- found religious experience, which he describes as follows: "One was reading Luther's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust Christ, Christ alone, for salvation ; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." He then began to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ with new power in the full assurance of faith, and wonderful results followed. Being prohibited from preaching in the Established Churches, he went everywhere proclaiming the gospel in the open to great multi- tudes of people.
1739-Preached in London, at "The Foundry," fitted for re- ligious services, and here began the organization of "bands" or "classes" and "societies." In this year the first Methodist chapel- the term "church" not permitted to any other building than the Establishment-was built at Bristol, England.
1744-The first Methodist Conference was held at "The Foundry," London. There were present, besides John Wesley and his brother Charles, four regular clergymen of the Church of England and four lay preachers.
1791 -- John Wesley died, eighty-eight years of age, having preached for sixty-four years. During that time he had preached 42,000 sermons; had been oft insulted, abused, many times beaten and put in peril of death.
No preacher since the days when Paul reasoned of righteous- ness, temperance, and judgment to come, equaled him in moral power or in achieving permanent benefits and blessings to mankind.
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Beginnings of Methodism.
The last letter he wrote, a few days before his death, was to Wilberforce to encourage him in his great and later successful fight against human slavery in the British dominions. "Servant of God, well done!"
METHODISM IN AMERICA.
1766-The first public Methodist preaching in North America was by Philip Embury, at his house on Barrack Street, now Park Place, New York City.
Embury was a skilled carpenter by occupation. In 1760 he, his wife, his cousin Barbara Heck, of saintly fame, and a few other Methodists, sailed for New York from Limerick, Ireland, at which place Embury had been a class leader and local preacher. In 1766 Barbara Heck had gathered a class of five at the house of Embury; soon there were two classes of seven each. Embury was invited to preach at the Almshouse, Williams Street, where the superintendent and several inmates were converted; "the poor had the gospel preached unto. them."
Captain Thomas Webb, barrack master at Albany, battered soldier, having lost an eye at the siege of Louisburg, Nova Scotia, and an arm crippled at Quebec with Wolfe, was a local preacher, licensed by Wesley, and had preached to his soldiers in his own barrack quarters. Hearing of the preaching of Embury, he came to New York, wearing his uniform, with sword and belt, desiring to be of assistance to Embury.
This valiant soldier was a soldier of the cross and was the most forceful personality in the founding of American Methodism; he possessed position, means, and unbounded zeal.
1768-Wesley Chapel, John Street, New York City, was the first Methodist church built in America ; planned by Barbara Heck ; 42 x 60 feet, built of stone. Embury made the pulpit. Captain Webb, now retired, gave thirty pounds, and lent three hundred pounds without interest, and then went out to solicit subscriptions ; among the subscribers were the lofty and lowly, from the patrician Livingstones to the lowly African maids.
About this time Robert Strawbridge, from Ireland, settled in Frederick County, Maryland, and began to hold meetings and formed a society near Pipe Creek. The first native American-born preacher, Richard Owen, was one of his converts.
20
History of the Central Ohio Conference.
In this year Captain Webb carricd Methodism to Philadelphia, where he formed a class of seven in a sail loft and preached from 1768 to 1769.
1770-Captain Webb carried Methodism to Baltimore, and with such success that Methodism has ever since been prominently active there. Webb also preached at Wilmington, Delaware.
1771-Francis Asbury, the Wesley of America, was sent by John Wesley to preach the gospel in the Colonies. Asbury was born 1845, the son of a comfortable farmer in Staffordshire; was converted at fourteen ; at eighteen a local preacher, preaching five sermons a week, besides working at his calling; at twenty started in the itinerancy, and after five years of hard service, upon Wesley calling for volunteers for service in America, Asbury was one of the five who volunteered and one of the two who were chosen.
1772-Asbury, at the age of twenty-seven, was appointed by Wesley as "superintendent" in charge of the Methodist societies in America.
1773-The first Methodist Conference in America was held in Philadelphia. There were ten preachers in attendance, and 1,160 class members reported.
1779-At Conference held at Fluvanna, Va., of twenty-seven present, seventeen voted against separation from the Established Church of England. Members of the Methodist societies continued to partake of the communion in the Established Churches. Wesley approved this action.
1780-At this Conference the distilling of grain into liquor and the institution of human slavery were both condemned. This was before Wilberforce wrote his attack upon slavery.
1784-The results of the American Revolution had left the Church of England in America in a very unpopular and weakened condition. Wesley saw that something must be done to satisfy the demand for the administration of the sacraments, and as the English bishops had previously refused to ordain a bishop for the Methodist societies here, he determined to consecrate one by pres- byters alone, and selected and consecrated Thomas Coke, a graduate ordained clergyman of the Church of England. Thomas Coke came to America, becoming the first Protestant bishop in the New World, bringing with him a plan of Church government and a liturgy, with an order of service, drawn by Wesley. Wesley preferred the
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Beginnings of Methodism.
Episcopal form of Church government, but did not consider it essential.
. Francis Asbury, who had, under Wesley's appointment, super- intended the Methodist societies since 1772, was consecrated the second bishop. The twelve years he had spent in America had tinged him with the spirit of democracy, for he insisted that elec- tion by the General Conference should precede his consecration. He was elected unanimously, as was Thomas Coke also, and thus was established the democratic rule of the election of bishops by the General Conference.
In 1784 the Methodist Episcopal Church was formally or- ganized in Baltimore, Maryland, with about 15,000 members and eighty-four preachers. It now (1913) has about 3,400,000 mem- bers with over 20,000 preachers, and over 4,000,000 in its Sunday schools, not to mention the 1,500,000 members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and the Methodist Protestant Church and other bodies that belong to the Methodist family.
[The following is an extract from an address delivered by Bishop Moore at the Centennial Session of the Ohio Conference in 1912 .- EDITOR.]
II. The Growth of Methodism. BISHOP DAVID H. MOORE, D. D., LL. D.
THE growth of Methodism is phenomenal. Beginning with a quar- tet of worthy students in Christ Church College, having the form and seeking the power of godliness, dubbed therefore "The Holy Club," and later, because of their severely methodical living, "Meth- odists," Methodism had no augury of success in the circumstances of its birth. Making its calling to the poor, to the outcast, to the criminal, it had neither the patronage of rank, the support of riches, nor the endorsement of respectability. It was a reflection upon The Establishment: illegitimate, unprecedented.
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