USA > Ohio > A history of the Disciples of Christ in Ohio > Part 16
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Our Bible schools, in Ohio report in 1916, show: Forty-three schools, with enrollment of 500 or over each. Of these, 21 have enrollment of 500 to 700; 10 have an enrollment of from 700 to 1,000, and 12 have enrollment of 1,000 or over.
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XXXIII CANTON AND COLUMBUS
THE WORLD'S LARGEST SUNDAY SCHOOL, CANTON, O.
Y EARS ago people went to Canton to see the
President, says a correspondent of the Cleve- land Leader. Now they go to see P. H. Wel- shimer, the organizer of the world's largest Sun- day school.
It was a great sight to see Mckinley conduct the Presidential campaign from the front porch of his simple cottage home, but it is no less a ยท sight to see "Welshimer's Sunday school," so called, in action.
One noted churchman visited the school re- cently and attempted to describe it to his congre- gation when he returned home. "No one knew I was coming," he said, "but there was the Bible school just the same, about twenty-eight hundred on a hot Sunday morning when the thermometer was soaring and the vacation bug boring and the Sunday sleeper snoring; there they were, on the job; every department going at full pressure; main school and Intermediate, Primary and kin- dergarten; classes in the doorway, on the stairs, outside under the trees, up under the eaves, down in the cellar, hanging out the windows, clinging to the roofs, and coming down the chimneys, in the office and on the rostrum, in the organ loft and in the tonneau of a big red touring-car hitched at the curb."
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And he was nearly right. The First Christian Church is a square-shaped building out of all proportion to the average church one sees, and has accommodations for a Sunday school of forty-five hundred, yet the overflow frequently sends classes into the doorways and out under the trees.
When the school is in action, classes appear to be everywhere, yet there is no confusion. Every class has its allotted space and its corps of teachers. Every class is perfectly organized, and each of the five separate departments operates independently of every other, each having its orchestra or piano, choirmaster, superintendent, teachers and such.
The whole assemblage suggests a well-trained army studying the Bible. While the classes are in session, messengers, officials and aides-de-camp fly about on orderly errands. No one appears to beat the air uncertainly. Every department seems to be connected with a central force.
It takes little more than a cursory glance to show that Mr. Welshimer is that central force. Pearl was the name given him by his mother, but it illy fits his rugged masculinity and general show of strength. He is a gem, though, at direct- ing a church organization. Tall, broad-shouldered and blonde instead of the usual deliberateness found in physically big men, he overflows with nervous energy. He occupies the pulpit during the school session and supervises over all. Under his direct charge is a mixed class of eighteen hundred men and women, a huge Bible school in itself if comparison were to be made with other schools.
Hundreds go to Canton to get pointers on
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Sunday-school organization. Mr. Welshimer gives a simple, direct instruction: "Practice business methods in your school," he says.
Business methods are practiced at the First Christian Church. On a gilt sign nailed on the door to the anteroom of Mr. Welshimer's suite in the church are two words, "Church Office." These words are the key to the secret of the growth of the Sunday school and church.
The anteroom is an office, really and truly. Inside, typewriters rattle incessantly; there are young women clerks at neat desks; steel-letter and card-index file-cases; telephones on every desk; automatic telegraph call-boxes. Mr. Wel- shimer has his study up a flight of stairs in a corner of the church balcony, but he calls that room an office too.
"I consider myself a business man rather than a professional man," this remarkable church leader says. "Preachers have long been saying to the people, 'Put religion in your busi- ness,' but the people have answered back, saying, 'Put business in your religion.' I have tried my best to abide by this answer. I sat down and studied the matter of operating a church just as I believed a business man would study the prob- lems of operating a department store or an in- surance agency. I now have what I think a busi- ness man would call a 'good organization.' I am still constantly on the lookout for new ideas, new members and new workers, however. Some day a larger Sunday school than ours may be developed, but I believe it will be far in the future. We have never failed to make healthy gains each year. Canton is growing rapidly and we will not lag behind."
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The First Christian Church twelve years ago was one of the smallest of the small. Mr. Wel- shimer went there at that time at the age of twenty-eight, with only four years' experience in a church at Millersburg, O., after he had left Hiram College. The church enrollment was less than two hundred and the Sunday school was nothing at all.
By gradual steps the growth was effected. Now the church has an enrollment of thirty-five hundred and the Sunday school an enrollment of six thousand. In the first six months of 1914 the average weekly attendance at the Sunday school was 2,898. No comparison can be made between this school and the average Sunday school.
The two schools coming nearest to this Can- ton school, organized and operated in a city of sixty thousand people, are the famous school in a Presbyterian church in Philadelphia, over which John Wanamaker, the noted merchant, has been superintendent for the last fifteen years, and the Frank L. Brown school of the Bushwick Avenue Methodist Church of Brooklyn.
Mr. Welshimer says his school has grown rapidly because most of the energy of the church is concentrated on the Sunday school. His theory is that the Sunday school is the greatest evangelistic force in existence. Statistics have been compiled by him showing that 85 per cent. of church-members were recruited from the ranks of the Sunday school. He says people can be led to a Sunday school much more easily than they can be to a church. In a church the pastor does all the talking. The church-members have no "comeback." In the Sunday school there is open discussion. Questions can be asked and
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argued. Bible questions can be discussed free of denominational theories,
In the First Christian Church the pastor is the leader of the school. He says one big mis- take being made is where pastors permit their Sunday schools to slip away from them into the hands of a superintendent.
"There was a time," he says, "when the min- ister felt that his chief duties were to preach on Lord's Days, call on the sick, attend prayer- meetings, and be entertained in the homes of his people. That was when Bible-school work was in its infancy. Many a minister has con- sidered the work of the Bible school beneath his notice. It has been the place for a few pious old men and the women and children. Occasionally a minister is found whose entire relationship to the school consists in dropping in ten minutes before dismissal and 'smiling upon the school.' But the preacher who does the greatest work, and whose influence will count in the teaching of the Word and the building of character-who will have a great school to be used as a field to be reaped, then a force to be worked-will need to give something else besides smiles."
The entire city is considered the field of endeavor for the First Christian Church Bible school. Babies are enrolled in the school as soon as born; new families moving into the city are recruited or at least sought as recruits, and "landed" nine times out of ten unless already affiliated with some other church or Sunday school.
The babies are put on a "Cradle Roll," and watched closely until old enough to commence Bible studies. A "Hopeful List" is also kept.
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Names are added to this list by a corps of one thousand workers well trained and organized, and from the list new members are constantly being added to the school.
"We have a record for bringing new families of the city into our Bible school within an aver- age of two weeks," says Mr. Welshimer. "Our system is like this:
"As soon as any one moves into our city we are notified, because we have a committee that keeps tab on all grocery stores and places of business where new families are certain to put in an appearance early after their arrival.
"I immediately set my stenographers to work. The new family is given space on a card that goes into our index files at once. Then a stenographer calls up twelve members of the church living near the new family, and instructs them to make calls. Those twelve church-members call separately and extend invitations to our Sun- day school. If the invitation is accepted, the new family is brought to the school and a tip is given the reception committee that is always on duty at the church. The new people are introduced all round and made to feel at home. If the first twelve callers should fail to get the new family into the school, we send around another twelve. Those failing, I send my assistant pastor, who is a very tactful and energetic young woman. I keep her busy in that sort of work. She is a kind of a 'walking delegate' of the church. Many times I make new calls on new families myself. Personal contact with the people is always advantageous."
In the handling of the Cradle Roll is another instance of the enterprise of this church.
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"I never fail to get a report on the birth of a child in the families of any of our church or Sunday-school members," Mr. Welshimer says. "I immediately notify the superintendent of the Cradle Roll.
"There are twelve workers under that super- intendent, and each of them makes from four to six calls per year on parents of every child on the Roll. A new baby receives a call from the entire corps, one at a time, as soon after birth as possible. Literature on how to care for babies is tendered, as well as a few simple presents. The child is immediately registered on our files with all sorts of information about it and its parents. Thereafter we keep track of the child, sending presents and making calls on its birthdays and such. When it grows old enough it naturally becomes a member of our Sunday school. On June 1, 1914, we had 587 names on our Cradle Roll."
Special days, or red-letter days, are con- stantly being held in the school to keep interest awake. Printed invitations to these meetings are usually sent through the mails. Regular advertisements appear in the daily newspapers for the church and Sunday school. Every time a member of the school misses a Sunday a score of school workers are on his or her heels at once. Why the absence? Sick? Out of town? Any of the family sick? A report on a printed form is made of the case and passed along to the proper committees for adjustment. Lessons and liter- ature are carried to absent ones so they will not get behind in their work.
The church and the school has each its own charity organization, its own library, its own
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clubs. The Sunday school has broken practically all the Sunday-school records ever kept.
Its mixed class of eighteen hundred taught by Mr. Welshimer is the largest class of its kind in the world. There is a man's Bible class in the school, with an enrollment of six hundred and an average attendance of about five hundred, which is perhaps the most remarkable feature of the whole school. Many business men are in this class, but 95 per cent. are men from the factories and the shops. Charles Sala, a manu- facturer, is its teacher.
The school has set new records for attend- ance at three different times. In 1913 it held the world's record for a single day's attendance, with 4,814. June 21, 1914, this figure was moved up to 5,433. June 28, 1914, the latest world's record of 7,716 was established, and on that Sun- day the thermometer in Canton reached 90 de- grees before noon.
The above record was from the Cleveland Leader on Sunday, July 12, 1914.
The reports of the Bible schools in Ohio in 1916 show: Forty-three schools with an enroll- ment, each, of 500 or over. Of these, 21 have an enrollment of from 500 to 700; 10 have an enroll- ment of from 700 to 1,000; 12 have an enrollment of 1,000 or over.
COLUMBUS
On the 18th day of June, 1871, T. D. Garvin organized the church in Columbus. Twenty-nine members were received by commendation, and seven by confession and baptism, making thirty- six in all. They raised, during the year, $8,700, an average of $87 to the member.
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In January, 1872, they purchased a lot on the corner of Jay and Third Streets. On this they erected a small frame building, Wm. Williams doing nearly all the work with his own hands. In 1880 a commodious brick structure was erected.
At the Ohio C. M. S. Convention in 1872, Isaac Errett, the president, urged reasons for the society to co-operate in building up the cause at Columbus. "It is the capital of the State, and as such we all have an interest in being rep- resented there. As a geographical, political and social center, it has facilities for reaching out over the State with moral and religious influ- ences such as belong to no other city in the State."
The O. C. M. S. encouraged the brethren in the State to aid Bro. T. D. Garvin in his solici- tation for Columbus, and in all they gave several thousand dollars to aid the work in the capital city.
In 1903, W. S. Priest was minister for the church, and in 1904 they sold the Third Street property and purchased a lot at Twenty-first and Broad Streets, and built a model structure cost- ing $55,000, and this was dedicated in April, 1907.
The growth has been commendable. There are now ten churches of Christ in the city :
1. Broad Street .- Maxwell Hall, minister.
2. Chicago Avenue .- W. W. Carter.
3. East Columbus .- J. H. Garvin.
4. Furnace Street (S. S.).
5. Hilltop .- T. N. Plunkett.
6. Indianola .- Willard A. Guy.
7. Linden Heights .- W. A. Roush.
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8. South Columbus .- R. F. Strickler.
9. West Fourth Avenue .- T. L. Lowe.
10. Wilson Avenue .- Frank M. Moore.
The Columbus brethren co-operate with one another in extending the kingdom. In no city in Ohio have the disciples planned with greater wisdom and carried their plans to success.
The churches now (1917) have a membership of nearly four thousand members and about the same number in the Bible schools. In nearly all these enterprises the Ohio Christian Missionary Society has taken a humble but needful part.
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L. L. Carpenter
F. M. Green
James Darsie
S. M. Cook
J. H. O. Smith
James G. Encell
Cyrus Alton
George Darsie
David Ayres
A GROUP OF RESTORATION LEADERS
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XXXIV
PIONEERS IN NORTHWESTERN OHIO
L. L. Carpenter, George Lucy, Benjamin Al- ton, Dana Caul, Solomon Metzler, A. C. Bart- lett, J. V. Updike, Moses Bonham, Z. W. Shep- herd, S. M. Cook, S. T. Fairbanks, David Ayers, F. M. Green and G. M. Kemp are among the pioneers in northwestern Ohio.
In 1839, George Lucy preached in the private house of John Mercer, in Wood County. He bap- tized three persons. In 1840, Benjamin Alton preached in the same place. After that time John and William Mercer called the people to- gether weekly for Scriptural reading, prayer and social meetings. They attended to the Lord's Supper every Lord's Day for four years. Moses Bonham then organized a church at Sugar Grove. In 1858, Nelson Piper reorganized the church at Bethel, now Rudolph. He set apart the officers by the laying on of hands. Moses Bonham alternated in preaching at Bethel and Sugar Grove. Out of Bethel largely grew the churches at Mungen, Bowling Green, Fostoria, Tiffin, Weston and New Olivet. North Weston was organized about 1856; Sugar Grove about 1844. Some time in the fifties, Prairie Depot, McComb and Elmore were organized.
Calvin Smith, of Trumbull County, under the auspices of the Ohio Christian Missionary Soci-
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ety, planted the church at Elmore. Samuel Church, of Pittsburgh, Pa., started a church in Toledo in those early days. When he moved away, the church in Toledo failed. Again a church was started in 1872, under the auspices of the O. C. M. S., and F. M. Green was the first minister. L. L. Carpenter planted churches at Wauseon, Tedrow, and at other places. J. V. Updike planted the churches at Oak Harbor, Delta and Paulding. The church at Lima was planted by W. T. Moore in 1869. The Kenton Church was organized in 1852 by Calvin Smith. In Miami, Darke, Shelby and Mercer Counties, the first church was planted at Monroe or Fred- erick (Fidelity P. O., Miami County), in 1847. Among the first preachers there were Benjamin Wharton and Jasper Swallow. The church at Carnahan, Darke County, was organized about 1847 by Benjamin Franklin. J. C. Irvine and William Stone preached in those counties. J. M. Smith, the great pioneer of those counties, was sent out by the volunteer organization of several communities and he sowed the seed, and organized fourteen churches. In 1875 this dis- trict co-operation was joined to the Ohio Chris- tian Missionary Society and constituted the Twenty-fifth District. The substance of this chapter was read at a State convention in Colum- bus some years ago and is a fair record of the pioneers.
E. P. EWERS
Edwin Patterson Ewers was a native of Bel- mont County, O., born in 1840 of sturdy English- Quaker stock. When a mere lad his family moved to Defiance County, O., where a fine farm
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was by father and son carved out of the primitive forest. Edwin was both industrious and studi- ous. By the light of hickory bark, burning in the fireplace, he read and worked over his les- sons. His ambition was always boundless. He never knew discouragement. He was soon teach- ing school, outstripping all the other workers in the harvest-fields as a cradler, lifting the heaviest loads, throwing stones the farthest and proudly riding his horse as marshal of the day at the rural celebrations. He courted and won Miss Harriet Bostater, a favorite schoolteacher of the community, and, settling in a log house, he farmed and also taught school in winter. Continuing his studies at home and seeking out as private tutors the best men about, he was soon called to become superintendent of the Pioneer (O.) schools and, later, of the West Unity (O.) schools. During these years he had graduated from the State Normal at Columbus, had secured a life certificate and had been made chairman of the school examiners.
His ambition now led him to found a school of his own. Coming from Fayette, O., and gathering about him a fine group of men, he established the Fayette Normal, Music and Business College, of which he was president for many years. A high grade of work was done, and many teachers, ministers, attorneys and business men and women received their first real inspiration in this school, many of them finishing later in more advanced schools. Pres. Minor Lee Bates, of Hiram College, was a student here.
Mr. Ewers had always declared that if he ever found a church which taught the plain and simple New Testament truths, he would enter
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such a communion. Hearing Robert Moffett, he immediately and whole-heartedly became a dis- ciple, and a Christian Church was founded in Fayette, Mr. Ewers and the father of President Bates being elders in it as long as they lived. Needless to say, the church and the school be- came closely united and many students became members of the Christian Church.
Mr. Ewers was a natural teacher. His pupils loved him and studied hard to please him. Mathe- matics, usually a dry study, became under his touch entrancing. He loved his students and in- spired them to noble living. Having been poor himself, he never forgot the poor young man or young woman who was ambitious to get on in the world. To such he opened his home, his purse and his heart. Hundreds now call him blessed. He lives in the hearts of those whom he lovingly taught. He was the inspiration of hundreds of young people. In the county teach- ers' institute he was a great favorite.
He lived for his church, his school and his family. One daughter, Alice Adelia, a sweet and brilliant girl, died at the age of eighteen-a de- voted Christian. His son, John Ray, is now minister at the East End Christian Church, Pittsburgh, Pa., and has already given years of his life to the ministry. .
While the school above described was not strictly a church school, yet it was intimately associated with our cause in northwestern Ohio. In a hundred prominent places to-day, strong men and women are exercising large influence in our communion, the source of whose inspira- tion was the Fayette school or the Fayette Church.
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S. T. FAIRBANKS
S. T. Fairbanks was born in Massachusetts, and came to Ohio when he was six years old. He was baptized on the profession of his faith in Christ, in Medina County, in 1836, and soon after commenced preaching. He was a cripple from the time he was twelve years of age. He was in his eighty-eighth year when the Lord called him to his eternal home. His body was buried at Weston, Wood Co., O. He served in the ministry of the Word sixty-five years. He had a good library composed of the authors promulgating the Christian faith. He had a marvelous memory, and could quote verse and chapter of any point of interest found between Genesis and Revelation. He was truly a pioneer. It was with profound interest and pleasure that he watched the growth of the Restoration move- ment. His labors were in northern and north- western Ohio. He was a preacher of the "Old School." He declared the gospel rather than interpreted it. He knew the Bible, and not things about it. He had hid the Word of the Lord in his heart.
He encountered dark clouds of adversity in his early ministry. Persecution ran high. In one locality, where he did much preaching, a young woman schoolteacher confessed Christ and obeyed him in baptism. Her father and mother, though members of a sectarian church, disowned her and drove her from their home. She sus- tained herself for some time till the white plague ruined her health. The brethren in the little country church took turns and cared for her in their own homes. When she was buried, the
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whole church went as mourners, but the father and mother, living only two miles from the church, would not attend the funeral. Such prejudice as that the pioneers endured, but the schoolteacher, forsaken by father and mother, the Lord took up, and she received a hundred- fold in this life, and in the world to come eternal life.
Bro. Fairbanks, like Paul, with a thorn in the flesh, persevered to the end. He went up through the persecutions and trials of this life to the land of delight, where his love for flowers will be greeted with flowers of endless variety; where his ambition for knowledge will find mil- lions of paths along which to play ; and where his simple, unaffected love will bask in the sunshine of heaven forever.
1832-LEEWELL LEE CARPENTER-1910
L. L. Carpenter was born in Norton Town- ship, Summit Co., O., Dec. 10, 1832; departed this life at Kansas City, Mo., in February, 1910. His father was a soldier in the war of 1812. His parents were poor, but highly respected, people. They endured the privations of the pioneer set- tlers of eastern Ohio. L. L. was the seventh son. He was raised on the farm. He attended the common district school three months in the year, and worked nine months at the hardest kind of work. All his spare time he read and studied at home and prepared himself to teach district school. He also later attended local academies. He sawed wood and did local jobs of work as he could find them. Then he spent two years at Bethany College under the training of Alex- ander Campbell. This was one of the fortunate
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privileges of his life. In 1853 he accepted the gospel of the Christ. His life was an open book, and upon his life-pages have been recorded scores of acts which have made the lives of others brighter: cares have been made less bur- densome; clouds of discouragement have been cast from the sky by encouraging words, and many have found their lives worth harder strug- gle by attempting to live more as he did, for his life was in accordance with his Christian teach- ing.
No other minister in the United States, and probably in the world, has dedicated so many meeting-houses as L. L. Carpenter. He dedi- cated 752 churches. He commenced preaching in 1857, in Fulton County, O. He went all over the county, preaching in schoolhouses, barns, private houses, groves, and wherever he could get the people together. During the first four years of his ministry in that county he baptized more than a thousand converts, and organized seven churches which have maintained an honorable position and are still strong and influential churches. For four years, commencing in 1862, he was treasurer of Fulton County, but continued preaching every Lord's Day and held several protracted meet- ings. He helped organize the State Sunday School Association, and was its first president.
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