History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 81

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 81

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What we would designate as the third period of Congregational history in South Dakota be- gan with the year 1881. This year ushered in the most remarkable settlement on new lands the

nation had, to that date, perhaps, ever known. Over three million six hundred thousand acres of land had been entered in all and about two-thirds of it, or two million four hundred thousand acres, according to the best authorities was in South Dakota east of the Missouri river. Sixteen thou- sand acres for two days in succession were en- tered at a single land office. During a portion of of the season the average was a thousand home- stead entries a day, from two to four thousand newcomers every twenty-four hours. Scores, if not hundreds, of towns were builded in a year. A nation was born in a day! Life then was as strenuous as even a Roosevelt could wish. These were crucial years. The missionary problem was not so much where to plant, as where not to plant. That no mistake would be made at such a time would be unreasonable to suppose.

At a time of great anxiety concerning the manning of the fields the heart of the superin- tendent was made glad by the coming of, the Yale Dakota Band. This band consisted of nine young men from Yale Theological Seminary who had offered themselves for work in the home land. They were Messrs. Case. Fisk, Holp, Hubbard, Lindsay, Reitzel, Shelton, Thrall and Trimble. Their coming marked an epoch in Da- kota Congregationalism of that period. One of the number writes, "We have furnished by virtue of their coming among us, one foreign mis- sionary, one field secretary, and later out of the band have evolved a home missionary superin- tendent whose efficiency and worth we are glad to acknowledge." This period marked the in- auguration of the woman's work, both home and foreign branches. The Dakota Branch of the Woman's Board of Missions of the Interior was organized at the General Association meeting at Watertown in 1883, with Mrs. M. B. Norton as president, and Mrs. Joseph Ward, secretary. The Woman's Home Missionary Union was organ- ized at the General Association meeting held at Yankton, one year later.

In April, 1886, denominational Sunday school work was begun by the Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society, Boston, Massa- chusetts, with Rev. W. B. D. Gray as territorial

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superintendent, who held this office until Octo- ber, 1893. At once this society became a dis- coverer of fields and an organizer of society. It has during these eighteen years organized hun- dreds of schools in places where no other gospel services were held. Some of these, from various causes, are dead. The Home Missionary Soci- ety, co-operating, continued the work thus opened with the organization of many churches, while some of the schools planted developed into churches of other faiths. The society also called to its assistance the following men, each of whom labored a considerable length of time: Rev. Messrs. W. S. Bell, William McCready, Albert T. Lyman and John Sattler, who labored jointly for the Congregational Home Missionary Society and the Congregational Sunday School and Pub- lishing Society, in the German work, beside others who labored for short periods. Rev. C. M. Daley, the present superintendent, began work for the society July 1, 1888, taking the superin- tendency October 1, 1893. When this society opened work on this field there were seventy- nine Congregational Sunday schools, with a membership of 5.335; now there are, including our branch, independent and mission schools, 221, with a total membership of 12,138.

This period also witnessed the organization of the Dakota Home Missionary Society, at the General Association meeting at Huron Septem- ber 17-20, 1885, with Rev. Joseph Ward, D. D., president, and Rev. W. B. Hubbard, who con- tinued in this office so many years as its faithful secretary.

Rev. Stewart Sheldon, whose appoint- ment as territorial superintendent came direct from the American Home Missionary Society, served from June 20, 1874, to June 20, 1886. Mr. Sheldon also served as missionary pastor for four years previous to his commission as general worker. In his sixteen years of pioneer service he saw the Congregational churches of Dakota territory increase from one church, with a membership of ten, at the beginning, to one hundred and one churches with a membership of 3.571, and a Sunday school membership of 5,641. Having succeeded Mr. Sheldon, Rev. H.

D. Wiard continued his superintendency five years, resigning his position in this state to ac- cept a similar one in northern California. Later he became field secretary of the Congregational Home Missionary Society. Under his superin- tendency the churches were increased to 132 and the membership to 4,892, while many church buildings and parsonages were built.

Rev. W. G. Dickinson was called to the su- perintendency January 1, 1892. Failing strength and a fatal disease caused him to relinquish his work before the close of the year. He was greatly beloved by the churches. He was buried from his home at Webster, South Dakota, in January, 1894. During Superintendent Dickinson's ill- ness the board of directors chose one of its num- ber, Rev. W. H. Thrall, pastor at Redfield, to carry the work for a time. May 1, 1893, he was chosen state superintendent of the church work, which office he still holds. During the period of his superintendency, which includes the years of drought and depression, there has been a net gain of thirteen churches, and 1,996 members, while the church, especially the parsonage build- ing, has been large.

The aggregate value of Congregational church buildings in South Dakota is $306,500, and of parsonages, $107,000. The value of its college and academy property, exclusive of Indian school property, is $225,000, and of endowments, $160,- 000. Total Congregational church membership in the state is 7,310, and Sunday school member- ship, including its branch and mission schools, is 12,138. Its young people's societies number 68, with a membership of 2,098.

The first general missionary was Rev. D. R. Tomlin, employed in September, 1887. For nine years he did a most valuable service in special evangelistic work, and as a wise coun- sellor on the field. Others serving in this capac- ity were Rev. W. G. Dickinson, Rev. Philo Hitchcock, Rev. E. W. Jenney and Miss Emma K. Henry, all doing a worthy and acceptable work among the churches. In June, 1895, Rev. A. E. Thompson, pastor of the Yankton church, resigned his work to engage in union evangelistic work in the state and elsewhere. Thus, and for

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these many years, Congregationalism has sought by every possible means to advance deep spirit- ual life in this commonwealth.

One of the most important features of Con- gregational work in this state, and one of grow- ing importance, is that among the German peo- ple. This work was begun in the year 1884, with the organization of eleven German churches, which were formed into a German Congrega- tional Association, auxiliary to the present South Dakota Congregational General Association. Rev. George E. Albrecht, D. D., who was then superintendent of the German Congregational work in the United States, fostered this move- ment and rendered timely help in the prosecution of it. An early German missionary was Rev. J. Josc, who remarked : "Nearly all the members of these churches are decided Christians, who leave the German Lutheran churches because the form and style of their old organizations fail to satisfy them. May our Heavenly Father give us ministers for Dakota to His liking, and our work here will soon be a light which will cast its rays afar." His humble prophecy has already become an axiom in and through the thirty churches constituting the German Association. Our German brethren are, with fidelity, teaching the Bible to their children, and are educating the churches in Christian giving. They give to church, Sunday school and educational work in this country, but perhaps take greatest pride in giving to our American Board of Foreign Mis- sions. They have many good houses of worship and comfortable parsonages. They are an in- dustrious and frugal people, conservative in their religious thinking, and have already become an important element, and withal dependable, in our young state. This German Association sustains an academy of merit where both the English and German departments are ably conducted.

Space would fail me in speaking at length of those who have gone on before. "Not here- their footprints are here, their work is still on exhibition here, but the living self is with God." J. U. McLoney, Joseph Ward, Charles Sec- combe and wife, Lewis Bridgman and wife, Edward Brown and wife, Andrew J.

Drake, W. G. Dickinson, James H. Kyle, Artemas Ehnamani, William A. Lyman, and others, both noble men and women, some in the full strength of their years, others fathers and mothers in Israel, who were called home at the end of many years of honest, earnest toil for Him. These are the losses that have come through the years. Yet why should we call that loss which to them has been such gain?

Congregationalists have done a large and im- portant work among the Indians of South Da- kota. The first distinctively Congregational movement for the education of the Dakota In- dians of the Northwest was begun by Rev. A. L. Riggs, in the establishment of the Santee Nor- mal Training School, which, though built on the Nebraska side of the Missouri river, is for and with the Indians of South Dakota. This school was established in 1869 and has been enlarged from time to time and, being directed with definiteness and intelligence, is recognized as the most successful school for Indian youth in the United States. Dr. Riggs is assisted by his son, Prof. F. B. Riggs.

In February, 1872, Rev. T. L. Riggs began missionary work among the wild Indians of the upper Missiouri, locating near Ft. Sully. This was the first Congregational Indian mission es- tablished within the bounds of South Dakota. This mission was extended by Mr. Riggs to Standing Rock, in 1880, and in 1885 Miss Mary C. Collins was secured as a helper. She con- tinues in the work as an ordained minister and has supervision of the Grand River district in South Dakota. Rev. George W. Reed, who joined the Dakota mission in 1887. now has charge of the work in the North Dakota portion of the Standing Rock reservation.

In 1885 native workers were sent to the southward to occupy the newly opened out- station on the White river. In 1887 Rev. James F. Cross came into this work and a year later was given supervision on the Rosebud reserva- tion, which place he still occupies.

The Dakota Mission of the American Board was, in its Congregational make-up and mem- bership, transferred, January 1, 1883, to the

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American (Congregational) Missionary Associ- ation.

The work begun near Fort Sully in 1872 has developed. In addition to the extensions referred to, fifteen out-stations have been established on the Cheyenne river, eight of which are now ac- tive. A school preparatory to Santee was estab- lished at Oahe in 1884, and conducted by Rev. T. L. Riggs, and has attached to it a primary school on Plum creek under the care of Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Griffiths. This field has seven or- ganized churches ; Grand River has two churches

largely toward supporting their own religious services, carry on and entirely support a mis- sionary society of their own which now sends out three native missionaries, and also supports one missionary to the Crow Indians, their former bitter foe.

Not the least of the results of Congregational effort and prayer for and by the Indians them- selves, is the great change that has been wrought in these wild Indians of the plains within a short quarter of a century. This has been going on quietly and surely and with increasing momen-

REDFIELD COLLEGE.

and six mission stations ; and Rosebud reserva- tion, two organized churches and five out-sta- tions. The rapid growth of this work is due in large measure to the constant use of the training agencies and the trained workers.

Wonderful have been the results: About two thousand of the present generation of Indians have been taught at the Santee Normal Training School; over five hundred have had an elemen- tary training at Oahe and Plum Creek and the out-station day schools; the active membership of the nine Indian churches in South Dakota is seven hundred and five. These churches pay

tum. Other forces have contributed to this end, but not one has been more persistent and effect- ive.

True to the spirit of the New England fa- thers, Dakota Congregationalists have conducted an earnest educational campaign, successful and far-reaching in its results. Beside the Indian schools referred to above, six other institutions of learning have been established by Congrega- tionalists within the bounds of this state. All have stood for Christian education. Yankton Academy, established in the early 'seventies by Rev. Joseph Ward, was the first Christian school

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HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

in the territory of Dakota, and the first school with a curriculum in any way approaching an academic or high school course. Securing the passage by the territorial legislature of a more liberal educational bill, he closed his academy and threw his help for the time being to the city schools of Yankton.

Spearfish Academy, or, officially, "The Pre- paratory Department of Dakota College," was founded in 1878 by Rev. J. W. Pickett, superin- tendant of Congregational work in Colorado and the Black Hills, and was incorporated in 1880. Pickett Memorial Hall was built and dedicated in December of that year. Rev. B. Fay Mills was chairman of the executive committee. The school closed its doors in 1882 for lack of funds. Prof. H. H. Gay, Boston, Massachusetts, was principal. It was the first school in all that section of country higher than a district school. Its students, many of whom live in Spearfish, speak highly of its literary and mu- sical departments. It served to point out Spear- fish as a favorable point for a school, and likewise developed among Spearfish people a desire for educational opportunities. Further than this it had no tangible connection with the establishment of the state normal school there.

Yankton College was the third school to be established by Congregationalists, Yankton hav- ing outbid other towns in its desire to secure this first college in the Dakotas. May, 1881, was the date. Rev. Joseph Ward, D. D., was its first president. The college grounds were consecrated October 30, 1881, the Yale Dakota Band and others taking part. Yankton College has stood pre-eminently for Christian education. Through its uniformally strong faculty, and its high stand- ard of scholarship, it has won and held its place among the strongest colleges of the land. Rev. Henry K. Warren, M. A., LL. D., stands at the head of its faculty of twenty. The following departments are maintained : College, academy, conservatory of music, art, elocution, physical training, short-hand and typewriting, domestic economy. Enrollment of students current year, two hundred and seventy-five. It has seven buildings on a beautiful campus of twenty-five

acres, including the Athletic Park. A fine fifteen- thousand-dollar library building has just been promised by Andrew Carnegie. Its library al- ready consists of eight thousand volumes. Yankton College has one hundred and forty thou- sand dollars of an endowment fund, and one hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars in build- ings, library and apparatus.

Plankington Academy was established in 1885. Rev. R. H. Battey was president of the board, and Rev. L. E. Camfield, principal. This school was continued but for two years.

Redfield College opened for work in Septem- ber, 1887. It was the child of the Northern (then Midland) Association of Congregational churches and was later endorsed by the General Association. Rev. David Beaton was its first president. Its first sessions were held in the au- dience room of the Congregational church at Redfield. The citizens of Redfield and other friends of the college erected the first building, which was occupied January 26, 1888. Exactly eight years from that date this building was totally destroyed by fire, but was at once re- placed by a more substantial and commodious one. A small ladies' hall has since been added, and the foundation of a large and substantial science hall is already laid. The college library consists of five thousand volumes. The valuation of buildings, campus, library and apparatus ag- gregates forty thousand dollars. The depart- ments consist of college, academy, conservatory of music, and business. The enrollment for the current year is one hundred and sixty-six stu- dents. Rev. I. P. Patch is president, and eleven others associated with him constitute the faculty. Rev. L. Reynolds has recently accepted the of- fice of field agent of the college and already has twenty thousand dollars pledged toward a fifty- thousand-dollar endowment fund. Redfield Col- lege is pervaded with a strong and healthful Christian atmosphere, and few who have en- terred there as students have returned to their homes unconverted. Her missionary training department, added a few years since, gives a course covering the first year in our theological seminaries, and has induced several young men

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to enter the ministry. These are doing valuable service in the home field, and one, as a missionary of the American Board, represents Congrega- tional interests in the Philippine islands.

Ward Academy was established in September, 1893, by Rev. L. E. Camfield, its first and pres- ent principal. It was the child of necessity : "Fifteen thousand school children in Charles Mix and adjoining counties, from twelve to forty miles from the railroad, without opportunity of education beyond the district school." This was the announcement of its founder to the people of that county issued in an invitation to meet for an academy mass meeting, September 23, 1892. A year later the academy building was dedicated, and named, in honor of Joseph Ward, Ward Academy. Twenty-five students began the first year's work. Some boarded in the new building, others drove from their homes through the cold and heat to continue their studies. With re- markable interest and success, the work grew. Few have toiled mentally and physically as have the devoted principal and his wife these years. The present enrollment of the school is one hundred and ten. Six earnest, self-sacrificing men and women constitute the faculty. A very large church building has recently been finished, the lower portion of which is used for class rooms, and a hall over a store building is di- vided into rooms for boys. Thirty-five girls oc-

cupy thirteen rooms at the Hall. A fourth build- ing must speedily be erected. The valuation of buildings, lands, stock, apparatus, etc., is thirty thousand dollars. The course of study com- prises the classical, Latin-philosophical, English- normal, and musical. The school is very earn- estly Christian.

Congregationalism has been constantly inter- ested and ably represented in the civic affairs of the territory and the state from its earliest be- ginnings. In the territorial legislatures, in the constitutional conventions, in the state legisla- ture, in the halls of the national congress (by two United States senators and one congressman, not to speak of several others, members of our Con- gregational constituency), its voice has been heard with impressiveness and distinction. Its thumb-prints are on many of our best laws, also. The cause of temperance and purity, and of the oppressed and of the homeless, has been, and is, 'its cause. Congregationalism also responded to the "call to arms," issued in behalf of an op- pressed people, and sent officers, and men in the ranks, and the chaplain of the regiment.

Who are Congregationalists? They are but men and women, with a high and mighty calling. And as they become humble before Him, so shall they become strong. The future demands deeper consecration, and points to greater achieve- ment.

CHAPTER XCIX

THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

REVISED BY REV. MARSHALL F. MONTGOMERY.

Much of the earlier history of the Episcopal church in South Dakota has been gathered by the Rev. John H. Babcock, rural dean, and to his work we are indebted for many of the facts stated herein. The first time the Book of Com- mon Prayer was used in South Dakota was prob- ably in the summer of 1860 when Right Rev. Joseph C. Talbot, missionary bishop of the north- west, assisted by Rev. Melancthon Hoyt, held services among the settlers along the Missouri from Sioux City to Fort Randall. This visitation by Bishop Talbot was made very soon after his consecration. It is not known whether he was again in Dakota, but apparently he was the first bishop who administered the word and the sacra- ments anywhere in this portion of the northwest.

The Rev. Melancthon Hoyt, then residing in Sioux City, continued to minister to the spiritual wants of the South Dakotans at irregu- lar intervals until 1862, when he removed to Yankton and gave himself up wholly to the Dakota work. For thirteen years he was rector of the church at Yankton, at the same time keep- ing an eye out for every opportunity to extend the work of the Master into the adjacent Dakota and Nebraska country. In 1865 Bishop Clarkson became a missionary bishop of Ne- braska and Dakota and was given jurisdiction over the Dakota field. Dr. Hoyt was then re- lieved of parochial work at Yankton and ap- pointed general missionary of Dakota territory, continuing in this office until 1884, when he was made by Bishop Hare honorary dean, in which

position he continued until his death in 1888, hav- ing for twenty-eight years faithfully ministered to the work of his Master in South Dakota and North Dakota, traveling a great portion of the time, visiting nearly every dwelling place, preach- ing, baptising, caring for the sick, comforting those who mourned and publishing the gospel news to all the people of the land. He organized congregations in Yankton, Elk Point, Vermillion, Eden, Canton, Parker, Hurley, Turner, Water- town, Pierre and other places. To his zeal, per- severance, patience, sympathy, wisdom in speak- ing, aptness to teach and good example of a Christian life, displayed during more than a quar- ter of a century of unceasing toil, is due the strong foundations upon which the spiritual temple rests within the field he cultivated.

At the general convention of 1868 a large part of the territory of Dakota was erected into a separate missionary district, being practically that part of the territory which lay west of the Mis- souri river and also including the Yankton and Crow Creek Indian reservations east of the Mis- souri and the Santee reservation in Nebraska. It remained, however, under the episcopal care of Bishop Clarkson. Later the name Niobrara was given to this new district, and it was from the first intended that it should be the scene of a special effort to reach the Indians who made up almost exclusively its population. One of these Indian tribes, the Santees, had been, before their removal to Dakota, while living in Minnesota the object of the special care of Bishop Whipple, who

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established a mission among them under the care of the Rev. S. D. Hinman. Mr. Hinman re- moved with them to Dakota and afterwards to Knox county, Nebraska, and thus the way was opened for extending the missionary work among the other tribes of the Sioux. Soon after this a prominent and wealthy churchman of Phila- delphia, William Welsh, came to the help of the young mission. He visited the Indian tribes of Dakota extensively more than once and pleaded their cause with irresistible force at the east, and, as a result, the mission staff was largely in- creased, the Rev. Messrs. J. W. Cook, H. Swift, H. Burt, W. J. Cleveland and J. Owen Dorsey, as well as several lay men and women, identify- ing themselves with the work. It soon became evident that the mission called for a bishop of its own and on All Saints' Day, November I, 1872, the Rev. William Hobart Hare, secretary of the foreign committee of the board of mis- sions, was appointed bishop by the House of Bishops, was consecrated January 9, 1873, and in April following appeared upon the field of his future labors. Bishop Hare was born in Prince- ton, New Jersey, May 17, 1838. He was edu- cated at two well-known institutions, namely, the Episcopal Academy of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. He has the degree of D. D. from Trinity and Kenyon Colleges and of S. T. D. from Columbia. He at once began a vigorous campaign among the Indians and scat- tering whites of his jurisdiction. "When he went among the Indians," says Bishop Whipple, " 'White man' was then a synonym for liar, but. Bishop Hare soon restored the good name and repute of the Caucasian." His vigorous action soon won for him the name of "Swift Bird" be- cause of the long and rapid journeys he made over his diocese. Nothing daunted him, where duty called he went through storm and drouth, sleeping in the open, camping at one time in soaking wet blankets and again in a dry camp where water could be procured for neither man or beast. In these long and weary marches he subsisted upon the rough fare of the country, the fat pork and soda biscuits of the stage ranches, the even less palatable fare of the pioneers' tables

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History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 81

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