USA > Pennsylvania > History of the Church of the Brethren of the Western District of Pennsylvania > Part 14
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" Third. It shall be the duty of said Mission Board to meet at least every six months, and oftener if necessary.
" Fourth. It shall be the duty of this Board to select annually for mission work two or more brethren, well es- tablished in the faith of the Gospel as practiced by the German Baptist Brethren church, one of whom shall be an elder; these brethren shall hold themselves in readiness to respond to the demands made upon them by the Mission Board, for which labors they shall receive their expenses and such compensation for their time as the Board may see right and proper.
" Fifth. It shall be the privilege of the Mission Board to fill any vacancies that may occur in their number.
" Sixth. It shall be the duty of the Board to consider all calls for preaching, to aid weak churches, and to improve all opportunities for opening up new points in Western Penn- sylvania.
" Seventh. It shall be the duty of said Board to receive funds by donations, bequests and endowments, from indi- viduals and churches, as provided for by the Annual Meet- ing, and their work shall be confined within the funds in hand.
" Eighth. It shall be the duty of this Board to introduce the Gospel Messenger and distribute tracts within their work, and, if necessary, at the expense of the mission funds.
" Ninth. It shall be the duty of said Mission Board to keep complete minutes, or records, of all their work done, including money received and expended, number of sermons preached, and results, number of families visited, and report annually to the District Meeting.
" It was resolved that we hereby repeal all former mis- sion methods and adopt the foregoing, and also that all un-
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Present Mission Board of Western Pennsylvania, 1916. Standing, Left to Right, Elder H. S. Replogle, Elder J. J. Shaffer, Elder W. M. Howe. Sitting, Elders G. K. Walker and P. J. Blough.
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF THE
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appropriated funds in the hands of the present Board shall pass into the new treasury."
Members of the new Mission Board were appointed as follows : J. W. Myers, deacon, one year ; P. U. Miller, deacon, two years ; H. A. Stahl, minister, three years ; W. G. Schrock, minister, four years; P. J. Blough, lay member, five years.
With a few slight changes this plan has now been in opera- tion twenty years. The principal change is permitting the full Board to be ministers. The present Board is composed of five elders.
During these years much faithful and far-reaching work has been done. The missionary sentiment has grown very encouragingly. The first few years evangelists were appoint- ed who were supposed to render assistance to weak and iso- lated churches, and mission points. The names of Brethren G. S. Rairigh, Jasper Barnthouse, D. H. Walker, H. A. Stahl, J. H. Beer and E. K. Hochstetler appear as evangelists.
The Mission Board has given more or less help to Clarion, Cowanshannock, Ryerson Station, Ten Mile, Cokeville, Bol- ivar, Boucher, Glen Hope, Rose Bud, Chess Creek, Pitts- burgh, Red Bank, Hyndman, Greensburg, and possibly a few other places. For want of more funds a number of other calls had to go unheeded, and opportunities for building up churches have thus passed by. Many times the treasury was empty and urgent letters had to be written to delinquent churches, urging them to remit their pro rata share.
April 9, 1901, the Board made a call for $1,000 a year. May 4, 1903, a lot on Greenfield Avenue and Mont Clair Street, Pittsburgh, was bought for $2,250 cash, and in 1904 a church and parsonage combined was erected, and on October 2 of the same year it was dedicated. Beginning with May, 1900, Elder S. S. Blough labored here seven years, during which time the work grew from a mere handful of scattered members to a strong organization of more than one hundred. During Brother Weaver's pastorate the Pittsburgh congregation re- linquished its dependence upon the Mission Board, and became
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self-supporting in 1910. This is now one of the leading con- gregations of the District.
From the beginning of the Greensburg Mission the Board has furnished very substantial help to the work, and while they did not build the meetinghouse there, they gave their sanc- tion and influence to it, and on April 18, 1911, they petitioned District Meeting as follows: "We, the Mission Board of Western Pennsylvania, petition District Meeting in behalf of the Brethren at Greensburg, that they be given the priv- ilege to solicit the congregations of Western Pennsylvania for funds for the erection of a new meetinghouse at the above place." The way the work has grown and prospered in Greensburg has scarcely been equaled in the history of our church. It will be but a few years till the work there will be self-supporting. The churches and missions receiving help from the Mission Board during 1914 were Bolivar, Chess Creek, Cowanshannock, Greensburg and Red Bank. New openings are being investigated. The total receipts the past year were $2,263.22, and the expenditures $2,171.77.
Besides the five brethren first chosen, the following have served on the Mission Board: W. G. Lint, C. A. Just, W. H. Fry, D. H. Walker, J. B. Miller, V. E. Mineely, H. L. Griffith, M. J. Weaver, J. J. Shaffer, S. U. Shober, H. S. Replogle, W. M. Howe and G. K. Walker. Elder P. J. Blough has served continuously for twenty years, and at the last District Meeting was elected for the next five years. All this time he was treasurer for the Board.
CONGREGATIONS SUPPORTING MISSIONARIES.
In 1903, largely through the efforts of Brother M. J. Weaver, the Shade Creek congregation pledged itself to sup- port Sister Anna Z. Blough on the India mission field. Since the division of the congregation, Shade Creek and Scalp Level unite in her support. Missionary meetings are regularly held by these two congregations.
In 1904, the Quemahoning congregation decided to sup- port a missionary (a minister) in India. Brother J. W.
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Swigart was selected to be its representative, but before time . for sailing he died, October 17, 1904, aged 26 years and 8 days. In 1906 Brother Charles H. Brubaker became their represent- ative. After nearly four years of service in the field he died October 20, 1910, aged 37 years, 1 month and 25 days. In 1911 Brother Quincy A. Holsopple accepted the call from Quemahoning and is now happy in the work.
SUNDAY-SCHOOLS SUPPORTING MISSIONARIES.
In addition to the above, the Sunday-schools of the Dis- trict are supporting Sisters Ida C. Shumaker and S. Olive Widdowson in India, and have asked Sister V. Grace Clapper to represent them in China.
WHAT WE COULD DO.
While at first thought we may be inclined to congratu- late ourselves upon what we have accomplished and what we are doing in the support of workers on the foreign field, on the other hand it seems very little compared with what we could do. Instead of our Home Mission Board having $1,500 a year (last year's $2,263.22 was exceptional) for work in the District, they could have $7,000 annually. That would be only about a dollar a member. And instead of supporting four in the foreign field we could support one hundred. That would mean only about four dollars per member. Looking at it in another light, do we not have seventy-five members in the District who could easily support each a missionary? By a little more effort the Sunday-schools would support five. That would leave only twenty to be supported by the congregations. From observation it is evident that the two congregations that are supporting each a missionary have made more rapid growth since they undertook the support than they did before. Others ought to try it and receive the blessing. There are at least ten congregations that could each support a worker in the foreign field. That would leave only ten to be apportioned among the other twenty-four congregations. What do you say? Is it possible? It is worthy of a prayerful
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consideration and a trial. It is truthfully said that the church that is not a missionary church will be doomed to extinction. May it not be the same with the congregation that is not alive to the cause of missions, both home and foreign?
And what can be said of the number of our own sons and daughters who have gone to the fields across the seas? In all, seven have gone. Of these, two had to return and take up work in America again. Only five on the field and several of those broken down by overwork! My dear young brethren and sisters-brethren, especially-will not many of you decide to give your talents and energies-yes, your lives, if need be- to the work on the foreign field? From this, the largest Dis- trict, numerically, in the whole Brotherhood, instead of having five foreign missionaries, we should have fifty. Should men be more ready to go everywhere for the government or large and rich corporations, where large salaries are offered, than for the Governor of all the world to win souls for him? Think and pray over it.
Our missionary chapter would be incomplete without the biographies of the brethren and sisters who have gone to the foreign mission field from our State District. These we will give in the order in which they entered upon their work.
JACOB M. BLOUGH.
Jacob M. Blough is the youngest child of Elder Emanuel J. and Sarah (Barndt) Blough, and was born near Stantons Mills, Jenner Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, De- cember 12, 1876. His grandfather was Elder Jacob Blough, of the Brothers Valley congregation. He comes from Swiss- German ancestry. He was reared on his father's farm, where he was taught the dignity of labor. He attended the Walter public school thirteen years. He was an apt student and ap- plied himself diligently to his books, graduating from common school in 1892. He had one term of nine weeks at Normal and in 1894 he began teaching. Three years he taught near home and one year in the Hooversville primary grade.
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1
Elder Jacob M. Blough and Wife.
At eighteen he was given liberty to make his own way, which he did largely through teaching. He graduated from the Juniata College English course in 1899, and from the classical course in 1903. The last four years he was assistant teacher in mathematics, English and Latin.
All the Sunday-school privileges he had were two sum- mers ('80 and '81) at the Pine Grove meetinghouse when yet a little boy. At the same place, during a series of meetings held by Elder George S. Rairigh, when he was but fifteen, he heard the call of the Lord, being baptized by S. P. Zim- merman in the Quemahoning Creek, February 8, 1892. This brought about a great change in his life. The following sum- mer he taught a Sunday-school class in the Maple Spring Sunday-school. In '94 he led his first Bible class and offered his first public prayer. On September 4, 1897, he was elected to the ministry by the Quemahoning congregation, and exactly one year later was advanced to the second degree.
While in college he took an active part in all religious and society work. In 1899, with a few others, he organized the Student Volunteer Band for Missions. He was its leader and greatest inspiration. He became a volunteer in 1899. He was teacher of mission study class several years. While he was president of the Young People's Missionary and
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Temperance Society, at Juniata, a movement was started to send and support a missionary, and he was the society's choice. In 1902 he was sent to the Toronto Student Volunteer Con- vention.
June 26, 1903, he was married to Sister Anna Z. Det- weiler. At the Bellefontaine Conference, in 1903, he was ap- pointed missionary to India. Fresh from college, full of en- thusiasm for his Master's service in foreign lands, he, with his wife and others, sailed for India in the fall of 1903.
Upon their arrival in India they located at Jalalpor for language study till November, 1904, when they were trans- ferred to Bulsar, where he took charge of the Boys' Orphan- age. Here he continued till December, 1910. On the field his work, including his language study, was thorough. His scholarly habits have made him the natural choice to edit the Gujerati Sunday-school Quarterlies, used not only by our own mission, but some neighboring missions. This position he has held from 1907 to the present. He was advanced to the eldership in 1907. He was a member of the field committee from 1907 to 1911, and from 1912 to the present. Of this committee he was secretary four years and chairman three years. He was also the first president of the India Mission Board-elected in 1908 and served till December, 1910, and from 1912 to the present.
During 1911 they had their first furlough. Of this he made splendid use, touring thoroughly his own State District of Western Pennsylvania-willing to go to the lonely places in small congregations, as well as to address larger ones like on Missionary Day at St. Joseph Conference of 1911. At this Conference he represented the District of India on the Stand- ing Committee and also served as Writing Clerk. His fur- lough afforded him very little rest. Besides canvassing his home District he traveled extensively in the West, as well as in Middle Pennsylvania. He also assisted in three Bible terms, or institutes. Wherever he went, he strengthened the cause of missions in India. Largely through him (rather them) money was secured to establish the Bible School at Bulsar.
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On their return trip they spent some time in Palestine from January, 1912, and located at Anklesvar in February, to take Brother Stover's place while he took his second fur- lough. In May, 1913, they returned to Bulsar, where he be- came the first principal of the Bible Teachers' Training School in June of the same year. He was the editor of the Gujerati church paper during '13 and '14. He was the president of the India Sunday-school Mission in Gujerat in '13 and '14. He served on many committees in the mission and neighboring missions.
Because of the death of Sister Quinter, and a number of others being on furlough, some of whom, being sick, were unable to return, the work became unusually heavy upon the ones on the field. It was during this strain that Brother Jacob's health began to give way. During the summer of '14 several months were spent on the mountains with the hope of re- gaining lost vitality. The hoped-for strength, however, failed to come, yet they returned to Bulsar, and opened the school work, hoping for the best. It was not long, however, until he broke down finally, and had to give up all work. They were sent to Landour, on the Himalaya Mountains, for treatment and a rest.
After remaining here about ten months, resting and tak- ing treatment, they returned to Bulsar, occupying their new home, and he again took up his teaching in the Bible School, though not entirely well. By exercising great care, and taking things calmly and slowly, he was enabled to finish the first term of school without any bad results, and he hopes even- tually to regain his health and strength-all this through the prayers of the faithful.
MRS. ANNA Z. BLOUGH, NEE DETWEILER.
Christian F. Detweiler was born in Hurtingdon County, Pennsylvania. Salome C. Zook was born in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. Both were reared in the Amish Mennonite faith, the latter's father having been a minister. With an Amish Mennonite colony they settled in Knox County, Ten-
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nessee, about 1872, and while there both united with the Church of the Brethren. On December 1, 1872, was born to them a daughter, whom they named Anna. In 1880 the family moved to Montgomery County, Ohio, while Anna went to Pennsylvania to live and grow to womanhood. Two years later her mother died, leaving seven children. Later her father married again, and made a home for his children at Johnstown, Pennsylvania. She was baptized at Johnstown, in 1886, before she was fourteen, by Elder Jacob Holsopple.
Being without a mother from the time she was ten years of age, and without a father from sixteen, she was early in life thrown upon her own resources. As a child her oppor- tunities for a good education were limited, but through the kind hospitality of Elder and Sister J. B. Brumbaugh it was made possible for her to go to Huntingdon, and attend Juni- ata College. By working for her board she was enabled to attend the college several years. Three summers she spent at the seashore, as waitress; one year she worked in Phila- delphia, two years in a factory in Huntingdon, two years as kitchen matron and one year as dining-hall matron at the col- lege. During 1892 and 1893 she was matron in the Orphans' Home, in Huntingdon. This variety of vocations gave her a broad training that has aided her greatly in her life work, though often, during these years, she felt her burden heavy to bear.
While in Huntingdon she attended the Bible terms for a number of years. It was also her privilege to be an active worker in the Girls' Band in the college, and the Organized Girls' Mission Bands in the church. In 1900 she became a volunteer. She attended the mission study classes in the college, and took up the teachers' training work in the Sun- day-school. Thus she used every opportunity for obtaining a better knowledge of the Bible, as well as preparing herself for a missionary whenever the call should come. She was sent as delegate to the Students' Volunteer Convention at Toronto in 1902.
The call for her to be a missionary came in 1903, when
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the Shade Creek congregation, Somerset County, Pennsyl- vania, asked her to be their representative in India. On June 26, 1903, she was married to Jacob M. Blough.
They attended the Annual Conference, at Bellefontaine, Ohio, where she received her appointment, with her husband, to the India mission field.
They sailed for India October 13, 1903. The first year and a part of the second were spent in language study. Six years she helped in the orphanage work at Bulsar. During their furlough in 1911 she accompanied her husband and as- sisted in a number of meetings, especially in Western Penn- sylvania. Since her return to the field her principal work has been with the women of the community. Because the Lord has blessed her with continual good health, her services have been of inestimable value to the mission. Her labors of love and kindness in India, though little is said of them publicly, have touched every missionary, and she has endeared herself to every one who has come in touch with her.
IDA C. SHUMAKER.
Ida Cora, fourth child of Alexander Eston and Lydia Elizabeth (Lint) Shumaker, was born October 27, 1873, in Meyersdale, Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
" When but twelve years old, while attending a revival in the Meyersdale congregation, conducted by Elder John S. Flory, of Virginia, she confessed Christ and united with the Church of the Brethren by baptism administered by him. This opened a new field of service, into which she threw her whole heart. From childhood, for thirty-one years, she missed only two Sundays from Sunday-school-one when she was sick and the other on account of high water. When but eleven years of age she took charge of the infant class of the Meyersdale Sunday-school, kept it, and taught the scholars to the point when all but two of those enrolled had confessed Christ." This class, over which she presided for nearly a quarter of a century, and which numbered nearly, or
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Ida Cora Shumaker.
altogether, one hundred pupils, was a model after which many teachers of other schools in the neighborhood copied.
She was a faithful attendant of the Meyersdale schools. Being possessed of more than an ordinary amount of intel- ligence for one of her years, she and a girl friend composed the first graduating class that finished the prescribed course in the Meyersdale High School, May 7, 1889. The following school term she was elected by the board of education to take charge of one of the primary grades in the local schools, and for twenty-one consecutive terms she successfully presided over the same grade, and gave it up only to enter the higher profession-that of a missionary to the heathen across the sea. During this time she taught a model school for three summers, and during another summer gave lectures to teach- ers. During the time that Sister Shumaker taught in the public schools of her native town, she refused many flattering offers to teach in the public schools of several of the larger
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towns and cities of Pennsylvania. In the same proportion that she was successful in public school work she was also successful as an earnest, tireless and active worker in the church and Sunday-school.
Year after year she attended the Annual Conference of her church, where she demonstrated to the thousands of Sun- day-school and church workers the methods and means for successful work in the primary department of the Sunday- school. Though busy with other work, for a number of years she found time to edit the primary department of the Brethren Teachers' Monthly. She always received more calls to speak at conventions of Sunday-schools, public schools and general church gatherings than she could answer. She was one of the speakers at the Pennsylvania State Sunday-school Convention in 1909. At the Somerset County Sunday- school Convention, held at Windber, where Jacob Riis, of New York, the noted lecturer, met her, and saw her work with the children, he remarked that he had met two persons who knew how to handle children.
Several years before her appointment to the foreign field she spent her public school vacation in the Pittsburgh Mis- sion, where the church now has a flourishing congregation. This experience has proved helpful to her in her chosen call- ing.
In 1909 the Sunday-school Convention of Western Penn- sylvania chose her as their representative in the foreign mis- sion field of India, and pledged themselves to support her. At the time of her appointment she had charge of the primary and beginners' department of the Meyersdale Sunday-school, and was home department visitor to twenty-nine members, to reach all of whom more than ten miles had to be traveled. After her appointment by the Annual Conference, in 1910, she dropped all these lines of endeavor as rapidly as possible, and in company with R. D. Murphy, District Secretary, toured the schools of Western Pennsylvania in behalf of her mission to India.
Early in October, 1910, she started on her journey to the
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Far East, and when she left Meyersdale the populace of the town and surrounding country turned out en masse at the railway station to bid her Godspeed. Never, in the history of the town, was there such a demonstration at the departure of anyone. Upon entering the India mission field she was lo- cated at Bulsar, where she has been working ever since. Since learning the language she has been teaching and waiting on the sick, besides having upon her shoulders the cares and responsibilities of the Girls' Orphanage, of which she is over- seer. She assists Brother Blough in editing the Gujerati Sunday-school Quarterly, having charge of the primary de- partment. These quarterlies have an encouraging circulation outside of our missions, which testifies to their helpfulness and thoroughness.
She has had an honor and privilege accorded to none oth- er of our missionaries-that of being asked to continue each week during a second year at the government schools her lectures on educational principles and methods of teaching before high school students and prospective teachers. None is happier in service than Ida, and of none is labor more ap- preciated. Her annual letters to the Sunday-schools are messages full of love, faith, trust and patience, accompanied with pleas for the continued prayers of her supporters in the home land, as well as for more volunteers.
Sister Shumaker is a niece of Bishop Conrad G. Lint, "who for a half century has had charge of the Meyersdale congregation, and who was at one time well known throughout the Brotherhood as an evangelist of note, but who has now for some years been inactive, owing to blindness and other infirmities of age.
QUINCY A. HOLSOPPLE.
Information Supplied by His Father.
Quincy A. Holsopple was born near the center of Indiana County, Pennsylvania, November 7, 1885, in a new plank- frame house, which was first occupied on Thanksgiving of
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Quincy A. Holsopple and Wife.
the previous year. He is the only one of his family and an- cestry that was not born in a log house, so far as is now known. His great-grandfather's people were Hollanders, who wrote their name Holzapfel. Three families of that name crossed the Atlantic before the Revolutionary War, and one of them probably was in the line of Quincy's ancestry, and possibly includes the Heinrich Holzapfel, who communed at the first love feast held by the Brethren in Germantown, Pennsylvania. The name Henry was borne by Quincy's great- grandfather and occurs frequently in the line of his ancestry.
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