USA > Ohio > Allen County > A standard history of Allen county, Ohio : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development > Part 38
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CHAPTER XXVI
CATHOLICITY IN ALLEN COUNTY
Just as the first records of civilization in Allen County cluster about historic Fort Amanda, now in Auglaize County, when the first Catholic settlement was made at Delphos, it was then in Putnam County. Father Joseph Otto Bredeick organized the Catholic Church at Delphos in 1844, and it was a good many years before the coming of the first resident priest in Lima-Father Edward J. Murphy. The Catholic Church has always been planted in any community soon after transportation was established there, but emissaries were in advance of the canal at Del- phos. The railroad had reached Lima before there was a church in the community.
Allen County Catholics belong to the diocese of Toledo. The churches in Allen County are: St. Rose's, the mother church and St. John's and St. Gerard in Lima; St. John's, in Delphos; St. John's, in Landeck; St. Patrick in Spencerville, and St. Mary's in Bluffton. There are 800 Catholic families at Delphos and 1,200 in Lima. While Landeck is a strong Catholic community, all other Catholic centers are smaller ones. There are more Catholics in the western than in the eastern part of Allen County. There are about 4,000 Catholics in the immediate vicinity of Delphos. Peter Gengler, a zealous Catholic, was active in organizing the church at Landeck where there is valuable church property. The church was organized there in 1866, and the modern church was built in 1904, that is spoken of as an unusual edifice among Catholics. This church was in process of building for ten years.
Father Bredeick, who had such an important part in Catholic develop- ments at Delphos, came direct from Hanover, the Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, and in 1844 he built the first Catholic chapel from logs and at his own expense. For two years it was both chapel and his place of residence ; it was then enlarged and used as a school as well as a chapel. Father A. F. Manning of the mother church, St. Rose, has been in Lima since 1893, and he is dean of the Lima district, having the supervision of Catholic affairs in five counties : Allen, Van Wert, Putnam, Hancock and Paulding.
Allen County Catholics are abreast of the times in educational affairs, maintaining the grade and high school courses in their parochial schools ; very few Allen County Catholics attend public schools; the course of study in the parochial schools corresponds to that used in the Catholic University in Washington City. It is a four-year high school course, and it is only distance that causes Catholic children to attend public school. The St. Rose Parochial School opened in 1872, and it is recognized by the faculty of Ohio State University and other state institutions. Its diplomas are accepted at all colleges without the requirement of entrance examinations. Many Allen County Catholics enter Notre Dame, and some go to Protestant schools in quest of higher education. In 1920, there were nine young men from Lima studying for the priesthood at Mount St. Mary's Ecclesiastical School in Cincinnati. The same condi- tions exist in St. John's parish and parochial school at Delphos with reference to the course of study.
While Delphos was in Putnam County until 1848, the history of local Catholicism began with the activities there. Father Bredeick was suc- ceeded by Father F. Westervelt, Father A. I. Hoeffel and now Father
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F. Rupert is priest in St. John's parish; the Rev. Father Hoeffel served the parish forty years. Father Frederick, who was stationed there for a short time, died in 1854 at the time of the cholera epidemic. Landeck was set off from the Delphos parish, and is now a wealthy Catholic rural community. The Latin speaking nationalities who came to Allen County affiliate with the Irish, Germans and French in the different Catholic com- munities. Many Allen County Catholics journey to the Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey for healing from physical ailments; there is a relic there of historic interest, and some remarkable cures have been reported in Allen County. Visitors who pray at the shrine lodge in Pilgrim House while tarrying in Carey.
All Catholic societies are under the direct supervision of the priest- hood; the Knights of Columbus, Lodge No. 436, was organized in Lima, June 25, 1899, and Father A. E. Manning is chaplain. While Delphos once affiliated with the Lima lodge, it now has a branch lodge Knights of Columbus, with well-equipped lodgerooms over the Commercial Bank; it has acquired building lots and will erect its own Knights of Columbus lodgeroom. The Lima lodge is housed in its own Knights of Columbus recreation building. The Lima Commandery Knights of St. John is a fraternal organization ; there was a Catholic Mutual Benefit Association, but its reserve fund was exhausted in wartime and it ceased to function ; the Catholic Knights of America have branches in Lima and Delphos ; the Ancient Order of Hibernians has branches in North and South Lima with members from outside parishes; the Catholic Order of Foresters sustains one court in Lima; these secular societies are available for all Catholics.
All Allen County Catholics have a feeling of pride in the Knights of Columbus recreation building in Lima. The building contains thirty liv- ing rooms for gentlemen who appreciate home comforts; each room is equipped with bath and running water; the long waiting list of applicants indicates the popularity of the recreation building as a place of residence. The dining hall is attractive, and a lunch or banquet accommodations may be had there. The assembly hall has seating capacity for 700, and it is used for all social purposes. There are smoking and rest rooms for the men, and waiting rooms for the women; the conveniences of the modern home are joined with the characteristics of the modern club, and the public appreciates the service. It is a social center and all are wel- come there.
The Knights of Columbus are always ready to promote community affairs ; the record established in the World war for humanity's sake has given a new meaning to knighthood, and made membership in the order a matter of privilege and honor. World war social leaders realized that the public conscience had awakened to a new vision of duty and obliga- tion, and with that thought in mind the erection of a recreation building and social center became the dominant purpose. It supplies an opportu- nity for the restless energy of youth surrounded with uplifting and wholesome influences, and thus it becomes a factor in the morale of the community. Women are as welcome as men, and thus the recreation cen- ter introduces the home atmosphere into the club existence. This Lima Knights of Columbus recreation house is unique inasmuch as it stands alone-the only institution of its kind in the country. It is a three-story modern fireproof building in the busy center of Lima.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL IN ALLEN COUNTY
It is said that the first Sunday school in Allen County was held in the home of Christopher Wood; before locating in Allen County, he was a scout in the American army and a soldier in the War of 1812, coming to Allen County in 1824, where he once entertained Daniel Boone; they had been scouts together. He was a Virginian, and was active in local devel- opment ; it is said that Christopher Wood was the first justice of the peace in Lima, and his home was always open for religious meetings. In the Wood family were two sons: Joseph and Albert, and a son-in-law, Ben- jamin Dolph, and they were community builders. The Sunday school appealed to them.
While most records attribute the missionary effort to Patrick G. Goode, one account says : "In 1832, Patrick Gaines Goode was appointed state Sabbath school agent to travel in Shelby and the counties north of it, for the purpose of establishing Sundays schools," and it is under- stood he was at the home of Christopher Wood while engaged in that service. He was a Sunday school man, a Methodist preacher, a lawyer, a judge and a representative in Congress. While Patrick G. Goode never lived in Allen County, his name is interwoven with local history. He was spending the night in the Daniels cabin when Lima was christened, some of the accounts crediting him with dropping the name in the hat that came out last in naming the community. Mr. Goode is revered as a class- ical scholar and lover of literature, and he devoted himself with assiduity to the work of establishing Sunday schools; the friendships he con- tracted were of lasting nature, his labors extending over the entire valley of the Maumee.
The man who gave the Sunday school to the world was Robert Raikes of Gloucester, England. However, he had nothing on Messrs. Goode and Wood in the beginning of Allen County Sunday school history. Robert Raikes was interested in the welfare of the poor in Gloucester, and in 1781, he gathered the children together and employed teachers for them. He taught them Sabbath observance, and others soon caught the spirit of it. Within five years there were 250,000 children under Sunday school influence, and under the present day understanding of things all Christians accept the Sunday school as the most efficient branch of modern church extension service. The Allen County Sunday school was organized half a century after the initiative by Robert Raikes. How- ever, the Sunday school was simultaneous with the beginning of local history. The pioneer churches were not long without the aid of the Sunday school.
About ten years after Robert Raikes called the world's first Sunday school together, the idea was introduced into Philadelphia, and it soon spread throughout the United States. December 19, 1890, was the first centennial of the Sunday schools in the United States, and from a group of one dozen interested persons in Philadelphia, it had grown in 100 years to vast proportions; when Robert Raikes had only a few fol- lowers, John Wesley wrote: "Who knows but what some of these schools may become nurseries for Christians?" The first Welsh Sunday school in Allen County was organized at the home of Rowland Jones in 1836, and it seems there were many Sunday schools within the first decade in local history. Thomas Griffith, who was later killed by a falling tree, was
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superintendent of the first Welsh Sunday school; the Welsh Sunday schools had been conducted in English for several years; in 1852, when there was an influx of immigrants from Wales, the church and Sunday school were again in the Welsh tongue. For more than fifty years the Welsh prevailed, and now the service is in English again. The present generation has been educated in English, and Welsh is seldom heard. from a pulpit in Gomer.
A folder given out at the 1920 annual convention of the Allen County Sunday School Association at the Central Church of Christ, Lima, October 12th and 13th, with the general theme: Education and conserva- tion-an adequate program of Christian education for the church, school and community, failed to attract a satisfactory attendance. One of the speakers prophesied that the day is not far distant when there will be no session of the Sunday school, the church adapting itself to the needs of the young, and the knowledge of the Bible being imparted to them in the public school. It was cited that Van Wert has already had good results from such methods. The expense is taken care of through the churches, and better instructors are secured than some who volunteer their service. There was an unusual situation developed in the reorganization of the county, the name of the president being suppressed until after the result of a political campaign, John C. Cotner not wishing to use the Sunday school as a leverage while waging a political campaign. In its reorganiza- tion, the roster is: president, J. C. Cotner ; vice president, Mrs. F. H. Creps ; secretary, I. C. Bretlinger, and treasurer, Homer Sloniker. The association was entering upon the forty-fifth year in its history.
Everybody refers to some one older than himself when inquiries are being made on subjects about which the pages of history are silent, and yet all pay tribute to Joseph Dague, Albert Stewart and Samuel A. Wat- son who were active Allen County Sunday school workers many years ago. Miss Elizabeth Schneider, who is a beneficiary of Joseph Dague, remembers the time when all Sunday school convention speakers were entertained in the Dague home, while today they make themselves com- fortable in the Lima hostelries. Mrs. Harriet Watson remembers making many trips with her husband who was active in the first Sunday school organization, and this trio of Sunday school workers: Dague, Stewart and Watson, introduced the song: "Where is my wandering boy tonight ?" throughout Allen County. One night when they were several miles from Lima, and all found themselves minus their whips they really wanted to know the whereabouts of some "wandering boys."
The secretary's record must be in error about the 1920 convention being the forty-fourth annual session, since a newspaper clipping of Sep- tember 23, 1865, announces a Sunday school mass meeting and picnic to be held in Lima, the procession forming on the public square at 10 o'clock and marching to the fair grounds; the committee recommended that provision be brought by the different schools, and that a dinner be arranged together. The speaking and the music were to be provided by the committee, but there was no intimation of the official head of the organization. However, the old coterie of the Allen County Sunday School Association has long since entered into the reward of the faith- ful, promised from the foundation of the world. The Methodists, Pres- byterians and Baptists are credited as being the oldest churches in Lima, and Mr. Dague was a member of the Market Street Presbyterian; Mr. Watson of Trinity Methodist Episcopal, and Mr. Stewart was a Baptist.
The Allen County Sunday School Association indorses all forward movements in church and Sunday school, and it cultivates an inter-
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denominational spirit at all times. There were not lesson study helps in existence when those pioneer Allen County Sunday school workers used to make their evangelistic efforts so attractive; they always had full houses wherever conventions were held, but A. D. 1920, the people had become inured to such things, although some districts in Allen County were well represented in the convention. The number of delegates is based on one for twenty members of each Sunday school, but Lima citi- zens did not live up to their privilege. In the early convention history, Mr. Dague used a tabernacle-something he planned himself, in illus- trating Bible stories.
While in attendance at the World's Sunday School Convention in Tokio, Japan, A. D. 1920, Evangelist W. E. Biederwolf of Winona Lake asserted that 25 per cent of the ministers in America do not maintain daily family worship, and perhaps that explains the absence of Lima ministers from the Sunday school convention. There are large Sunday schools in some Lima churches, but the officers and teachers do not affiliate with the County Sunday School Association. In wartime it was discovered that 25 per cent of the American soldiers were illiterate, and the same criticism may be laid at the door of the Sunday schools. Sousa's Band in Lima was the counter attraction at the time of the Sunday school convention. The conventions are held in Lima because of transportation facilities, and Lima is a logical center.
In the Ohio Sunday School Association official directory, there are five field workers, and F. C. Kattner of Lima is in charge of five counties : Allen, Auglaize, Mercer, Van Wert and Putnam. His field is known as the Lima district; it is his mission to foster Sunday school activities and unite forces in the different communities. He is recognized as an expert in Sunday school affairs. While some adults object to supervi- sion, it is simply applying business methods and many sociologists recog- nize the need of outline and definite action. It is not conducive of good results to allow a class argument about the number of angels in heaven -put such members out of the class, and stop singing :
"O Lord, we thank thee for our church, A thousand years the same,"
and allow the religious expert to suggest changes in it. The Sunday school is the business college of the church, and the recent version of an old saying is : "What cannot be endured must be cured," and the trained, determined religious specialist sets about it.
The trained religionist says why Americanize people unless the same force should Christianize them, and religious education is concerned with political training-Americanization. Every American citizen should be able to read the Constitution of the United States and the Holy Bible, and if he is Christianized there will be no difficulty about Americanizing him. Religious education should parallel secular training, and the trained religionist enters a plea for better citizenship. Exalt the work of the Sunday school and grow enthusiastic about politics, patriotism and relig- ion. Dean N. E. Byers of Bluffton College, who is a secular educator with a grip on community welfare questions, said in the convention that religion is more than just a Sunday school affair, and he urged that society take valuable time through the week to acquire religious knowl- edge. Why hold the Sunday school teacher responsible for the religious training of a child? It is under the teacher's influence, perhaps, twenty- four hours in an entire year. How is the Sunday school teacher to offset the training of the whole week in thirty minutes on Sunday morning?
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The Allen County Reorganized Sunday School Association has out- lined a country-wide program: township organization, city council of religious education, a summer school for Bible study and office service. The office staff is to distribute Sunday school literature, gather statistics and issue information bulletins. The awakening of young life is both physical and mental, and the adolescent period requires careful handling in order to retain the young in the Sunday school; it is the transition period, and social awakening immediately follows the physical develop- ment. One who deals with the adolescent period requires tact in super- vision, and should cling to the motto: "One is your master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren." In order to have the adult become a church communicant the child must be properly trained, and the modern churches are planned with reference to the Sunday school; the junior church is a reality in some communities.
While some one has likened the Sunday school to the merry-go-round, intimating that those who ride get off where they get on minus the coin, there is no denying the fact that it is a citizenship factory. The output of the Sunday school is Christian character. When the church and the Sunday school are at low spiritual ebb it is the strategic hour, the psychological moment when wisdom is needed in directing the forces that make for righteousness. Sometimes the war horses-the wheel horses of the past, see everything wrong because the rising generation has adopted forward methods, and eternal vigilance is necessary on the part of those directing the movements. When the drunken man with a wooden leg was crossing the bridge he encountered a knot hole, and with the artificial limb in it he kept moving but did not get anywhere, and that has been a difficulty-round and round without making progress. It is said that progress is never indicated by the tape measure-round and round, but the yardstick marks the straight forward movement.
The day is not far distant-an outcropping of the Allen County Sun- day School Convention, when specialists will impart the knowledge of the Bible to the rising generation. There is psychology connected with it, and yet in the Sunday school the parents are eligible to religious training ; when this privilege is removed they will wail about it; too many mothers now feel that they have discharged their whole duty to. their children when they get them ready for Sunday school. All the Sunday school in the church and all the church in the Sunday school, would be the ideal condition ; the standing criticism is that there are two Sunday audi- ences, the children attending Sunday school and leaving before the church service ; the junior church helps to solve that difficulty. In some commu- nities one service is merged into the other, the burning question being how to hold all for both services.
It is a recognized fact that there are two doors to the Sunday school, and while the multitude is finding the front entrance too many are allowed to escape at the rear from want of proper attractive features ; the unfold- ing powers of the adolescent period require wise guidance. "Be ye there- fore wise as serpents and harmless as doves," and raise the standard of Bible knowledge. A little girl knew what was in the Bible: a lock of her hair. and mother's new cake recipe. When a young man in the World war flashed a message to his mother, "Colossians 11:5," he was arrested as a spy because the military authorities did not understand his code; when they referred to the passage they found these words: "For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and behold- ing your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ."
While many are familiar with John III :16, from often hearing about it, the church people of today know less of the Bible than did the pre-
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ceding generations who read it through, chapter by chapter, often as many times as the number of their years; some mathematical genius has figured out that by reading three chapters every day and five chapters on Sunday, one may complete the Bible in a year with two Sundays exempt from reading it. Since America has become a nation of newspaper read- ers all that is changed, and only Bible students read daily from the Book of Books, usually the course of study outlined by the International Sun- day School Lesson Committee; this series was adopted in annual conven- tion in Indianapolis in 1872, and Allen County now has all the advan- tages ; the graded system of lesson study was adopted in 1910, but it did not at once spring into popularity. The Sunday school has been the great agency for the removal of denominational barriers, and in Sun- day school association conventions no questions are raised about which there may be a difference of opinion. The people now think in commu- nity fashion, and co-operation is the watchword; community welfare includes everything.
While some Allen County Sunday schools adhere to the use of the Bible, and others prefer some special outline study, most of them use the lesson commentaries from their own denominational publishing houses, although uniform lessons are studied through the influence of the Inter- national Sunday School Association. Perhaps it is through the weak- ness of the organization that all Sunday schools are not affiliated with the Allen County Sunday School Association ; just as there are mere fill- ers-seat warmers, in the church service there is inefficiency in the Sun- day school, and the mission of the Association is to counteract such difficulties. Under prevailing conditions, it is through the medium of the Sunday school that a knowledge of the Bible reaches the home, although the Sunday school teacher may encounter the same difficulty in finding the Book of Jonah that she would have in locating St. Jacob in the New Testament.
"Ponder the Bible until it is written on the heart," says some of the Sunday school advocates, and yet the little girl who learned the golden text, "Ye cannot serve God and Mamma," is not an isolated example of the work of the inefficient Sunday school teacher.
CHAPTER XXVIII
EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES-THE SCHOOLS OF ALLEN COUNTY
There was an educational provision in the famous Ordinance of 1787, under which the Northwest Territory was organized, and thus Ohio and the other states carved out of the Old Northwest attracted the best class of settlers. One who has distinctive remembrance of the three R's as the entire educational curriculum in Allen County is inclined to take some note of the panorama-the evolution of the educational system; an investment in the mind and heart of the child is laying up treasure where moth and rust do not corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal; the school should develop in the youth a sense of responsibility for the wel- fare of the community.
Truth does not flourish in the midst of illiteracy; wherever educa- tional budgets exceed military appropriations, there is hope for the future ; as long as more money goes to gun foundries than to type industries, there will be an unsettled condition in the world. In the Old Northwest there was an early provision for the free schools, the sixteenth section in every township being set aside for the maintenance of schools in each of the five states : Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. From the beginning these states have led the world in educational progress. In them there is a $5,000,000 land income for education alone. In Athens County, Ohio University occupies one of those school sections; since it is the oldest university west of the Allegheny Mountains that fact is significant. The same condition prevails in Allen County-section 16 in each congressional township, without regard to civil boundaries provides public school money. This source of revenue has been liberally increased by donations from private sources, and from the state. However, until 1850, there were many subscription schools in Allen County; there was nothing to tax to produce an educational fund, and the teachers collected the subscription money themselves.
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