History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 80

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998

USA > South Dakota > History of South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 80

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Many churches fail to make full reports of the amount of money raised for expenses and benevolence. So far as annual reports have been made in the past, the summary is as follows : For benevolence, from churches, $116,819.03; from Sunday schools. $5.824.43 ; total for benevolence, $122,643.46. For expenses, from churches, $716,880.30; from Sunday schools, $42,207.1I ; total for expenses, $759,087.41 ; total for benevo- lence and expenses, $881.730.67. For the first ten or twelve years the annual printed proceed- ings of associations contain very meagre re- ports of amounts contributed for any object, and in succeeding years the reports are incomplete. There is no doubt, whatever, that if full and com- plete reports of money contributed for expenses and benevolence had been made annually, the grand total would exceed one million dollars. The summary given above does not include the generous assistance rendered by the American

Baptist Home Mission Society in supporting missionary pastors and building houses of wor- ship. The society has appropriated to South Dakota from the missionary fund $217.731.09, and from the church edifice fund, in gifts and loans, $36,921.90 ; total, $254,652.99.

The foregoing is a condensed sketch of Baptist missionary work from its beginning in South Dakota, and the later progress and growth of the denominations. From the earliest settle- ments, harassed by Indian depradations, to the later years of peace and prosperity, many have had a large experience in laying the foundations of a new state and shaping its character and destiny. To have borne a part in such ån un- dertaking is a great honor. In this foundational work, Baptists labored from the beginning, and have ever since borne a conspicuous part. They were more than Baptists. They have been busy toilers in constructing the framework and per- fecting the development of a state, midway be- tween the oceans, on whose broad prairies might be established homes, the abodes of peace and happiness, and schools, the aids to intelligence and culture, and churches, the helpers to piety and devotion and loyalty to God.

We have been looking backward over a past record. For what has been accomplished we thank God. As citizens we rejoice in the peace. and plenty, and prosperity of our state. As Baptists we are grateful for the progress we have made, and that we have a record of which we need not be ashamed. Treasuring the remem- brance of what God has done for us and through us, hitherto, we hand the record down to those who shall come after us. While heeding the command "Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee." we are also obeying the injunction to "Tell it to the genera- tion following."

CHAPTER XCVIII

CONGREGATIONALISM IN SOUTH DAKOTA.

BY REV. CHARLES MOTT DALEY.

Congregationalism presents the apostolic idea of churches established by the voluntary union of Christian believers, each church governing its own affairs, yet united with others in the bonds of fellowship, according to the New Testament suggestions. There is evidence that this apostolic form of church government was resuscitated in England as early as the days of Wycliffe, in the fourteenth century, though church history speaks of its having become a definite movement in the sixteenth century.

These Separatists were an offense to the Church of England, and their acts were con- sidered revolutionary. Persecutions, tortures, imprisonments, exiles and hangings followed. But the religious liberty for which these earnest souls contended was not to be destroyed by per- secutions. They sought safety in Holland, wor- shipping at both Amsterdam and Scrooby. In an old manor-house there, says a gifted writer, was the beginning of New England. This his- toric church seems to have had, in a peculiarly providential way, those elements that Rev. R. J. Campbell recently stated that the American churches now lack, viz : a happy blending of the' intensely religious, or pious, elements with those of the strongly intellectual. At length the "May- flower" set sail. "The seed of a free govern- ment was in the 'Mayflower' and in the compact made in it. The fruit of it is the American re- public." New England, with its meeting house, and town house, and school house, and college, followed the experiences of Plymouth Rock and

1620. But could Congregationalism thrive west of the Hudson river? Doubted. Therefore a plan of union was adopted about the year 1800 by Presbyterians and Congregationalists, which continued for about fifty years, and was then dis- solved. Congregationalists had discovered that their polity was adapted to the West as well as the East, though New York state and the West- ern Reserve had by this time become dominantly Presbyterian. Dr. Alexander H. Ross stated that "The Plan of Union has transformed over two thousand churches, which were in origin and usages Congregational, into Presbyterian churches." Modern Congregationalism from its beginning had been imbued with the missionary spirit, and the dissolution referred to served the more emphatically to impress the need of active work. Congregationalists already felt that they had a divinely appointed mission westward. The states bordering the great lakes, and the rapidly opening newer West and Northwest, with its in- homogeneous multitudes of pioneers, gave to this church polity a hearty welcome. Congregation- alism responded with home missionaries and home missionary churches; with academies and small colleges and great colleges; while by the New England churches great national societies were organized for the development and assist- ance of these missionary activities. If any should ever ask, "What brought Congregationalism to South Dakota?" the answer may be found in what is stated above, coupled with its desire to fulfil our Lord's injunction recorded in the six-

WARD HALL, WARD ACADEMY.

CHURCH AND RECITATION ROOM, WARD ACADEMY.

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

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teenth chapter of St. Mark. It is this spirit that sent Congregationalism around the world, and that gives to this polity, through the various de- nominations embracing it, doubtless, the largest aggregate membership of any church polity in the United States.

The following sketch of Congregationalism in South Dakota is but an account of a similar history of its life and work from New England all across this great continent to the Pacific coast. The history of Congregationalism in this state is, in every important particular, the history of the commonwealth itself. From early territorial days until now, no great progress in physical, intellectual or spiritual interests has been made in which Congregationalism has not been a potent factor. It was a pioneer, and as such endured the hardships and vicissitudes of pioneer life.

Congregationalists in South Dakota count among their leaders and builders the Riggs fam- ily, whose father, Stephen R. Riggs, D. D., LL. D., visited the territory of Dakota as early as Sep- tember, 1840, holding religious services with the Indians and traders at old Fort Pierre, on the Missiouri river. Dr. Riggs, himself a Presby- terian, was a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which society was then operating under the Plan of Union referred to above, and was supported by both Presbyterian and Congregational churches. These services seem, from the best records avail- able at the present time, to have been the intro- ductory ones in evangelical missionary work in the territory. This trip was made by Dr. Riggs and his associate from their mission station at Lac-qui-parle, Minnesota, for the purpose of ascertaining the condition of the Teton In- dians west of the Missouri river and their attitude toward missionary work. We shall speak later of this signally important and effective work, which has been continued with unabated energy by his two sons and a grandson, members of our state association.

Congregationalists' first work among white settlers was done at Yankton, then the territorial capital, though a rough frontier and river town of about four hundred inhabitants. The American

(Congregational) Home Missionary Society came to know of the desire in Yankton for a Con- gregational church through the correspondence of an estimable lady, wife of the Rev. C. H .. Wheeler, then a missionary in Harpoot, Turkey, whose brother was none other than Judge W. W. Brookings, of the territorial capital. As the re- sult of an application for a missionary sent to the society by Judge Brookings, Rev. E. W. Cook, of Ripon, Wisconsin, was commissioned for six months for that work. He reached Yankton in March, 1868. Services were begun at once, and the First Congregational church of Yankton was organized April 6, 1868, with ten charter mem- bers. One month later the Congregational Sab- bath school was organized with six members, but at the end of the first year reported an aver- age attendance of fifty-two. Services were held in the "little Episcopal church on the corner" for a few weeks, when the lower room of the capitol building was secured and used until the terri- torial legislature met that winter. The first pul- pit and benches were made by the pastor, Mr. Cook, a man who could do many things. The first organ was partly the gift of the Tabernacle church, Chicago. The first bell came from the river steamer "Imperial," which was burned, the bell falling into the hands of Judge Brookings, who presented it to the church. This bell soon adorned the capitol building, and later became the property of Yankton Academy, and is now on the high school building of that city. Though serving without a commission, Rev. J. D. Bell served the church for a few weeks, or until the coming of Joseph Ward, who, with his estimable wife, reached Yankton by stage from Sioux City on the night of November 16, 1868. He had recently graduated from Andover Theological Seminary, and more recently married at Paw- tucket, Rhode Island. Deacon Miner's impres- sion of him as he saw him that night on reaching the end of his long and tiresome journey is well worth noting here: "He was something over six feet in height, broad-shouldered, well pro- portioned, plainly, but well dressed, and looking as if he might be a traveling man or a young lawyer or doctor, or possibly a young preacher.

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At all events, he looked like a man who could do things." Later he adds, "from this point (his coming) the early history of the church and of the college is essentially the history of the life work of Joseph Ward; and if there is any good thing in Yankton, or South Dakota, connected with the history of those formative years that has not on it the finger marks of Joseph Ward, I do

DR. JOSEPH WARD.

not know what that thing is." Joseph Ward be- came pastor of the Yankton church. He had a prophet's faith. He believed the acorn planted there had in it the possibilities of an oak, and he gave it the care that an acorn demands. From the capitol building the church services were taken to a small room with low ceilings, known as Fuller's hall. Here were held "some blessed

revival meetings." Here one good sister got the "power," to the consternation of some of the brethren and sisters reared in the Congregational and Presbyterian way. Here the first Christmas was celebrated with a "tree," to which was tied a card with this inscription, "Good for two lots on which to build a church. Signed, J. B. S. Todd." These lots were selected the following day, the General (Todd) taking the committee out in his sleigh to select them. Upon these lots, with a third one purchased, the Congregational church building was begun in 1869, and completed in 1870, and stands, with the parsonage beside it, today. This church was dedicated July 17, 1870, Dr. J. E. Roy, the first visitor from outside the territory, preaching the sermon.

Early in his ministry Joseph Ward began training his church in Christian giving, both for home and foreign fields. The first Sabbath even- ing of every month was set apart to a missionary concert, and contributions were received for missionary work. Thus a missionary spirit was cultivated which resulted in much good.

Before Joseph Ward started for Dakota he was admonished by Dr. Badger, secretary of the American Home Missionary Society, to "see to it that the cause of Christian education be carried on vigorously in the great northwest." "Here in this commission lies the first foundation stone of Yankton College, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." Even before his church was completed he began planning in that direc- tion. He hoped to make Yankton an educational center. A small stock company was organized in the interest of Yankton Academy, which. was not only the forerunner of every Christian school in the territory, but of the high school system as well. Yankton Academy continued until "the present high school system was made possible by the passage of a bill through the legislature, which bill was framed by Rev. Joseph Ward." After that bill became a law the academy and everything connected with it was turned over to the city of Yankton, and the question of the es- tablishment of Yankton College was agitated, which was settled by representatives of the churches a few years later.

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HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

Church societies that put their strongest and wisest men in newly opened fields make no mis- take. Though not the very earliest missionary comer, Joseph Ward secured a grasp on the situ- ation at Yankton and throughout the territory such as no man in those early days had. As a strategic missionary point Yankton became the center of a group of twelve Congregational churches within six years. This is a remarkable record when we consider the sparse settlements, the poverty of the people and the rough border elements that had to be contended with in that day. Mrs. Joseph Ward speaks of nearly the whole town's partaking in the hanging of a des- perado who was hidden in the brush on the oppo- site side of the river and how the crowd came back again to attend service at the Congrega- tional church, where they listened to a vigorous sermon against the practice of lynch law. One whole year Joseph Ward labored alone in Yank- ton, and the fields about, at the same time urging the American Home Missionary Society at New York to send him men to occupy the numerous openings, and meet the earnest appeals made.

In the fall of 1869 Rev. Stewart Sheldon, who was then pastor of the First Congregational church of Lansing, Michigan, was much broken in health by malaria, and left his charge there to seek restoration to health in the clear, dry air of Dakota. He took a claim just outside of Yankton, and also bought a piece of timbered land on the "Jim." Here he worked day after day, hewing logs for the cabin he meant to build on his claim, and making cordwood, which he sold in the Yankton market. He built a two- story log cabin on his claim, where he lived many years. His son, now the Dr. Charles M. Shel- don. in his book, "The Twentieth Door," de- scribes the life of the family on this claim. Mr. Sheldon recovered his health, and at the earnest solicitation of Joseph Ward took up work in the early spring of 1870, and four years later was placed in general charge of the work throughout the territory, which position he occupied until the summer of 1885. He was a kind Father who sent this energetic and consecrated man to Da- kota at such a time. Vermillion, Elk Point, Rich-

land and Bon Homme were the first points sup- plied by Mr. Sheldon, who traveled far and wide with his faithful ponies. He began work in these points in the early spring of 1870 and re- ported the organization of three Congregational churches on one day, the 17th day of July, of that year: Richmond in the morning, Elk Point in the afternoon, and Vermillion in the evening.

There were no ready places for services then. At Vermillion a little store building, a rickety, tumbled-down schoolhouse, a weather-beaten, de- serted house on the outskirts of the town, small halls, and the depot, all served as meeting places for those early Christians. The first church was built on the river bottom where the town then stood, and was washed away in the great spring flood of 1881. The second church was soon built in the new town on the hill. This was moved and remodeled, and added to, and added to again. and now a large and commodious church and pleasant parsonage speak of the permanence and growth of the work. Seventy-five times the origi- nal number (seven) have found here a church home, while about three hundred members re- main to enjoy its privileges. At Elk Point the surroundings were, perhaps, less favorable. The first and only available hall soon burned to the ground. A little unfinished church building that might have been rented if it could have been completed, was wrecked by the wind and scat- tered over the prairies. The work was abandoned for a time and then resuscitated, and afterward a lapse of six years occurred between pastors. But by the perseverance of the saints an active and spiritual church may be found there today, with a good church home and a parsonage be- side it. On the 20th of October, 1870, our mis- sionary set out for Canton, not knowing where the town was located, but was told "somewhere on the Big Sioux river, about seventy miles away." He reached there the second day at ten o'clock in the evening, stopping with a family of fifteen. The next morning, the Sabbath, he preached in a log house with thatched roof and a ground floor, and received ten new members into the church. He drove that afternoon to

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Sioux Falls, twenty-five miles, and held an even- ing meeting in the old barracks building formerly used by the soldiers as a defense against the In- dians. He found only two professing Christians in the place, but the people wanted a missionary and a church. A Congregational organization was soon effected and a house of worship built. At Springfield, four years later, when it was proposed to build a church, the governor, who happened to be present, offered a lot and two hundred dollars in money. A thousand dollars was pledged and the site was chosen, when all of a sudden millions upon millions of grasshoppers came pouring through the land and the building project for that year was abandoned. It was a time that tried men's souls. One wrote, "We seemed like pigmies, utterly helpless and unutter- ably confounded before them." Of this group of twelve churches planted in those early years, seven remain Congregational; three have united with other denominations; one was washed away-church, parsonage and Green Island it- self-in the great flood of 1881. The pastor and his wife and family, after long hours of suffer- ing, as they clung to the outside of the roof while the huge ice piles were crushing every- thing about them, were rescued. One church died. We doubt not that this little band of churches could enter into hearty sympathy with the great Apostle to the Gentiles who experienced many "perils."

The first Congregational idea, that of indi- vidual liberty, had opportunity to express itself during those six eventful years very fully; the second must be given that opportunity. There- fore this organization for fellowship. The mother church felt the need of fellowship, while she also felt sympathy for the feebler churches. She is- sued letters missive to the four other churches organized, asking that they be represented at a fellowship meeting to be held at Yankton Janu- ary 20, 1871. But two of the churches could send delegates, viz: Elk Point and Richland, while the Canton church sent regrets and a re- port of its work. Three ministers were in at- tendance upon this meeting, viz: Rev. Joseph Ward, pastor of the church at Yankton, Rev.

Stewart Sheldon, missionary pastor of the Ver- million church as well as of the two churches represented by delegates, and Rev. A. L. Riggs, superintendent of the Indian work under direc- tion of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, at Santee, Nebraska. At this meeting the Congregational General Associa- tion of Dakota was organized, the constitution adopted and signed by the three ministers and five delegates present. The war cry of this first six-year period was evangelism and education. At every annual and semi-annual gathering these important themes were emphasized again and again. At the second meeting, held in Yankton May 26, 1871, Rev. L. Bridgman, recently from Wisconsin, was present and gave an account of a trip up the valley of the Vermillion, where he had been prospecting, preaching the first sermon in Turner county. At the next meeting a com- mittee on home evangelization was chosen and instructed to issue a circular giving information concerning the religious needs of the territory, so imbued were the churches with this missionary spirit. At this meeting, also, held in Yankton, April 19, 1872, the Woman's Missionary Society of the Yankton church provided the program for the evening, being addressed by Nathan Ford, of Lena, Illinois, without doubt the first public woman's missionary meeting held in the territory.

Special mention is made of the attendance of three ministerial brethren from other denomina- tions at the Canton meeting which convened Fri- day evening, October 1I, 1872: Rev. A. Potter, United Brethren, Rev. J. Cole, of the Methodist Episopal church, and Rev. J. Runyan, Wesleyan Methodist church. This Association meeting was continued over the Sabbath, the 13th, the Canton church being dedicated on that date. Five hun- dred dollars was raised at dedication to pay last bills. The fifth meeting, both historic and unique, was held outside the territory, at Santee, Ne- braska, October 10, 1873, at the Indian mission station of. Rev. A. L. Riggs. Without doubt at that meeting was begun that interest on the part of our churches in Indian missionary work which has strengthened through the years. The fol-

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

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lowing resolution` was passed giving expression to the interest so early felt : "Resolved, That we use every opportunity to promote fellowship be- tween the Indian churches and our own in order to unite as closely as possible all the Christian in- fluences of the territory, and for the mutual benefit of their people and ours." The following meeting was made memorable by the presence for the first time of a representative of the Amer- ican Home Missionary Society, in the person of Rev. J. E. Roy. The seventh meeting was held at Sioux Falls and records the presence of W. S.

Northern, Plankington and Yankton, which, unit- ing, form the General Association of Congrega- tional Churches of South Dakota.

The work of the years following was some- thing like the putting into operation of plans al- ready suggested, although the days of hardship and pioneering had, by no means, passed. Thrill- ing incidents of heroic missionary effort during the succeeding twelve years could be narrated that might be both interesting and profitable, if space would allow. Greater scope characterized the movement during the second six-year period.

YANKTON

COLLEGE

Bell, who was associated in every helpful way with the development of Congregationalism in the state until the year 1890, when he was called to the superintendency of the work in Montana. At the annual meeting at Canton in May, 1875, the first college resolution was passed instructing a committee to consider "whether the time has come to make any movement toward a Christian college for Dakota, and if so, what movement ?" The acorn of that early planting has grown until the Congregational organization of South Dakota now consists of seven local associations, viz : Black Hills, Central, Dakota (Indian), German,

The settlements seem to have followed the water courses, the valleys of the Sioux, Missouri and James rivers, as suggested by the following or- ganizations which previous to 1881 were effected, viz: Medary, Aurora, Watertown ; Fort Pierre, Pierre, Fort Sully, Mandan ; Rockport, Redfield and others.

Associated with this period is the coming of Rev. D. B. Nichols, now our revered "Father" Nichols, who, with his Bon Homme, and later, Mission Hill, present to us never-to-be-forgotten examples of faith and answers to prayer. His life illustrates what some Congregationalists

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have done for community life in our national history.

Contemporaneous with this period, Congre- gation work was opened in the Black Hills by Rev. Lanson P. Norcross, whom the American Home Missionary Society had sent to Deadwood from Colorado, in November, 1876. Congrega- tional services were held the next Sabbath in the dining room of the old Centennial Hotel, but on account of interference with the dinner hour a room was secured in the Inter-Ocean Hotel. In this place, on December 3, 1876, the Congrega- tional Sunday school was organized, with a membership of more than forty. The church or- ganization was completed January 15, 1877, four women and seven men uniting by letter from home churches. This is the oldest church organ- ization in the Black Hills, writes one of the pio- neers of Deadwood. This organization took place in a carpenter shop with no floor save "mother earth." The first church building was twenty-five by thirty-five feet in size and was occupied first in June, 1877. Capt. W. A. Beard, formerly of New Bedford, Massachusetts, at that time conducting a grocery store in Deadwood, presented the church with a bell which Fred T. Evans transported free from Sioux City to Dead- wood. This bell was the first one brought to the Hills, without doubt. Eighteen months later Rev. J. W. Pickett made his first visit to the Hills as general missionary. He visited and preached in all the towns and mining camps of the Hills and organized Congregational churches at Lead City. Spearfish and Rapid City, and aided in organizing Sunday schools at Rocker- ville and other points in the southern Hills. He was the projector of the Spearfish Academy, and had it not been for his untimely death that insti- tution would probably have continued under Congregational direction. Mr. Pickett also or- ganized the Black Hills Bible Society and the Black Hills Association of Congregational Churches.

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History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 80

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen Number of Pages: 998

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998