CHAPTER IX.
SECOND PERIOD. (1861-1870.)
THE period
covered by this history coincides with the beginning of that
modern movement marked by the tendency of people toward the great
centers, building up these relatively much more rapidly than the
rural districts. Historic proportion will require us to give
special attention to the development of the Church in these
centers, by reason of the relative measure of influence these must
exert on the general situation and their consequent greater
relative importance. Yet, while Methodism, as is her wont, will
adjust her administration so as to meet the new conditions and
give special attention to these centers, she will not do so at the
expense of the smaller villages and rural districts; a feature of
the evangelistic work to which she has always given due care and
which the peculiarities of her system, and the spirit of her
ministry, have fitted her to do, and in which she has been
pre-eminently successful. The justice of this claim will be amply
shown in the pages of this history.
It may be said in a general way that no
department of our Church work in these first periods was more
carefully looked after and utilized than the Sunday-school. We
have seen John Hamlin at the head of one in Nebraska City, and
good Sister McCoy effecting an organization of a Sunday-school
among the first things in Omaha. We have seen that one of the
first things Jacob Adriance thought of was to organize
Sunday-schools,
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supplying libraries. In many places the first movement of
a public religious character was to organize a Sunday-school This
sometimes took the form of a Union Sunday-school before there were
enough of any one denomination to carry it on. Though these Union
schools sometimes persisted in holding the ground long after the
Methodists became strong enough to have one of their own and made
us some trouble when the effort to do so was finally made, our
preachers rightly held that the Sunday-school being an integral
part of the Church, as soon as possible it was better for each
Church to have one of its own, and would proceed to organize a
Methodist Sunday-school.
It should be explained in passing, that I have
felt justified in assuming that the Sunday-school department has
been well cared for, and to economize space I have omitted the
Sunday-school statistics, except in a few exceptional cases. The
reason for this is that I have found that as a rule, the number of
officers, teachers, and scholars usually about equal the number of
Church members. Thus the total membership in the Church, as given
by the last Year-book, was 3,029,500, and the officers, teachers,
and scholars in the Sunday-schools were 3,123,297. This rule holds
in Nebraska, with occasional exceptions both ways, some of which
will be noted as we pass.
The two centers that still claim our attention
and which it will be our duty to trace through this second period,
are Nebraska City and Omaha.
Nebraska City received as its pastor in 1861, T.
B. Lemon. It is very strange, but there is no report from this
important charge in 1861. L. D. Price had been appointed in 1860,
but had evidently not gone to his charge,
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and though one of the most important charges, it seems at
the close of the Conference year not to have had a pastor and no
report is made. But the year before the membership had been
reported ninety, including probationers. Assuming that the number
in 1861 was the same, this is the number that greeted T. B. Lemon
when he entered upon this important pastorate. He found the
membership discouraged. The Church was in debt and was about to be
sold. One of the members told him he did not see how he could live
there with four children. But the Lord most wonderfully blessed
his labors with a great revival, and he came to Conference in 1862
rejoicing over a great increase in membership, being able to
report 235, a net increase of 137. The Church debt was also
paid.
Dr. Lemon, during this first year, had won the
affections of the Church and of the community, and was very
popular with all classes and was returned for the second year.
At the end of this year he reported 225 full
members and sixty-four probationers, another gain of over fifty,
showing the permanency of the work the year before, and the
success of the second year.
The legal limit still being two years, Dr.
Lemon, though he had won the hearts of all, must needs go to
another field, and is sent to Omaha, while Wm. M. Smith is
stationed at Nebraska City. He remains two years, and at the end
of this term reports 191 members and two probationers. This is a
loss of about sixty, as compared with Dr. Lemon's last report,
though it still leaves Nebraska City by far the strongest charge
in the Conference.
This strong man seems to have been unable to
either hold what he found, or build up the Church anywhere,
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owing to his want of tact in the expression of his
political views. However, this loss may be accounted for in part
by the reaction that often follows times of great revival, such as
attended Dr. Lemon's pastorate, or by the general adverse
conditions that prevailed during the Civil War. As noted
elsewhere, the entire Conference did little more than hold its own
during the first three or four years of this period.
At the Conference of 1861, Bishop Morris
appointed H. T. Davis, who, we have seen, had just closed a very
successful pastorate at Omaha, presiding elder of the Nebraska
City District. Though thrust into this high office at the early
age of twenty-seven his administration of the district was very
acceptable and we may be sure that the residence of himself and
wife contributed in no small measure to the success of the work in
Nebraska City.
At the Conference of 1865, his time being out on
the district, he is appointed pastor at Nebraska City, again
following Wm. M. Smith, as he had done in Omaha in 1859. The time
limit having been extended to three years, H. T. Davis, as was
always the case with him, staid the full time.
The first time the writer ever heard Dr. Davis
preach was during this pastorate. I was on my way to my first
charge, Helena, in 1866. Two appointments on this circuit lay
directly west, the nearest, Syracuse, near where we lived, being
sixteen miles from Nebraska City. I reached Nebraska City late in
the day and remained over night. Brother Davis was engaged in
revival meetings that had been continuing for several weeks. I
expected to hear a powerful revival sermon, but heard only a short
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talk of not to exceed twenty minutes, when the
invitations for penitents was given. Will any one respond to so
tame an affair as that? I said to myself. But to my astonishment
quite a number responded. Of course many were already under
conviction and had been at the altar before. But the incident
convinced me that much of the power of H. T. Davis's preaching was
the result of the man back of the sermon.
Brother Davis's pastorate at Nebraska City was a
success throughout and at its close he was set to the task of
laying, at the new capital at Lincoln, the foundations of another
great center, which was in after years to become the strongest in
the State.
Nebraska City, in 1868, is left to be supplied,
and George S. Alexander appears for the first time in Nebraska
Methodism, being transferred from the Providence Conference, and
filling out the year, is returned in 1869 and again in 1870 to the
pastorate at Nebraska City.
With the exception of five years spent in
Illinois, during which he filled important places, he was
connected with the work in Nebraska twenty-six years, when death
closed his career in 1894. His brethren place on record the
following as a tender memorial of his life and work:
"George Sherman Alexander was born in Cumberland
County, Rhode Island, July 10, 1832. He was kept in school until
he was fourteen years of age. During this time he laid the
foundation of his future life work. Leaving school he worked in a
cotton mill, then in a woollen (sic) mill, where he became a
weaver. While working in the mill he was also broadening his
education by careful study. At the age of twenty-one he abandoned
his loom and followed teaching for a short period. In
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1854, under deep conviction that he was called to preach
the blessed Gospel, he entered the Methodist ministry, preaching
his first sermon April 30, 1854. For several years he served
prominent charges in Massachusetts and Connecticut. March 11,
1856, he was united in marriage to Miss Abby G. Smith, at Eastham,
Mass. In October, 1867, he moved to Iowa, and from thence, in
April, 1868, he was transferred to the Nebraska Conference and
served Nebraska City, Peru, and Lincoln. He was then appointed
chaplain of the State penitentiary. During this time his wife was
called to the Father's house above, leaving six children. These
were separated until September 20, 1877, when he was married to
Miss Susan M. Godding at Philo, Illinois. For the next five years
he served Homer and Monticello as pastor, and then, from failing
health, returned to Syracuse, Nebraska, taking charge of the
Syracuse Journal and preaching for the Church in this place for
one year. He could not cease preaching, and while editing his
paper he became pastor of the Church at Turlington, which he
served until a few months before his death. He patiently waited
for the summons to call him from the Church Militant to the Church
Triumphant, until May 2, 1894, when he was called from pain and
suffering to his glorious and eternal rest."
The coming of George S. Alexander brought into
our Western work an infusion of New England blood. In the best
sense of the word he may be said to have been a live Yankee
translated into the vim and push of the great West. He seemed at
home from the first. His physique was slight, his weight rarely
exceeding one hundred pounds, and sometimes it was not as much.
The story is told that meeting a friend in a grocery store his
friend
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proposed to weigh him over against a sack of flour, and
if the sack weighed more than his pastor his pastor was to have
it. His pastor got it.
But though his body was always slight and for
many years he was the victim of a cancer, that body was the
dwelling place of a restless, determined spirit, always taxing the
body with plans and schemes of life beyond its frail powers.
It will be seen that Nebraska City during this
entire period has had a succession of able men for pastors, and
closes the period with 237 members and sixty-three probationers,
about the same as reported at the close of Dr. Lemon's two years
of phenomenal success. There have been some fluctuations, but it
is greatly to her credit and to the credit of these able, faithful
men, that through this most difficult period there has been no
permanent loss, and she retains her place as numerically and
perhaps otherwise the strongest charge in the Conference.
If we now turn to Omaha we find that it starts
out in this period with only fifty members and thirty-one
probationers. It is left to be supplied and at the end of three
months David Hart, who has been sent to Calhoun, is transferred to
Omaha. He remains the second year and reports fifty-five members
and sixteen probationers, which indicates that he had some
revival, yet he is not able to increase the membership. There were
at that time many removals and the city itself was losing
population. Certainly the situation was discouraging in the
extreme. These were the times that try men's souls, and to
zealous, ambitious preachers like David Hart, supply the severest
test of loyalty. It is much easier to work in a place where
everything is prospering and things move forward, than
12
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in a place that is at a standstill, with people
discouraged and distracted and facing an uncertain future. Brother
Hart is to be honored for holding the forces well in hand and
preventing a complete collapse, so that when the tide turned, as
it soon did, he could turn over to his successor a well organized
Church, with such members as J. W. Tousley, Col. Richie, Samuel
Burns, Brother Isaacs, and Mrs. McCoy and others of like zeal and
capacity. And Omaha Methodism had the right man in the person of
T. B. Lemon to make the most of the opportunity when the tide
turned. Fresh from his wonderful success in Nebraska City, Dr.
Lemon entered upon his work after the Conference of 1863, flushed
with victory and ready to lead the Church forward to larger
things.
T. B. Lemon became popular with all classes, not
by seeking it for its own sake, but by the inherent qualities of
his mind and spirit. There were the strength of intellect, and the
culture and refinement of the well-bred gentleman, which seemed
perfectly natural to him and strongly attracted the most
influential men, like A. J. Poppleton, G. L. Miller, Samuel Burns,
and others of like standing. So he was in demand for special
services on great occasions. When in December, 1863, Omaha
celebrated the fixing of that point as the terminus of the Pacific
Railroad, and the ceremony of breaking ground for this great
enterprise which was to be of national and even international
importance occurred, it was T. B. Lemon who was called on to open
the exercises with prayer. When the legislature met it was T. B.
Lemon who should be chaplain of one of the houses. In speaking of
Dr. Lemon's pastorate at that time, Haynes says
"The national conflict was rife, but Mr. Lemon
re-
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fused to commit himself to either side, and with eager
desire for success in his charge preached, prayed, and sang as if
undisturbed by the rigor of fratricidal strife. Mr. Lemon was
occasionally criticised for his not unreservedly avowing Union
sentiments. A story is told that during a session of the
legislature at Omaha, after he was elected chaplain, in a prayer
one morning he uttered a petition in behalf of the Chief Executive
of the nation. Some members of the Assembly found fault by saying
he did not pray for the country. A lawyer of prominence and a
friend of the chaplain, told some of them that they were too
illiterate to comprehend the meaning of a gifted man's
language."
He made friends outside of the Church who
voluntarily assisted in the maintenance of the pastor and his
projects. The two years of his sojourn in Omaha were almost
uninterruptedly pleasant to him and his family, and to the day of
his death he had many admirers in the city. Coming to the
metropolis at that time, and pursuing the lines of conduct thought
by himself the best, he well-nigh broke down the partition that
separated between the ardent friends of the Government and those
who preferred the success of the Confederacy.
At his coming he found nearly a hundred
communicants,* and received seven hundred dollars for his first
year's allowance. An increase in the number of the membership not
worth mentioning is noted at the close of the year, but his
acceptability is signified by his having received on salary, as
reported in the Minutes of the Conference, $1,000, and $500 as a
donation.
But while thus popular with the rich and
influential,
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he was equally popular with poorer classes. His warm,
sympathetic nature made him a real friend to everybody, and
everybody felt that the friendship was genuine. The presence of T.
B. Lemon in Omaha, unquestionably gave Omaha Methodism a standing
in the community it had not had before.
But amid all this popularity, Dr. Lemon held
himself steadily to his high ideals of a Gospel minister. He did
not depend on what accessions might drift into the Church as the
result of the new prosperity and growth of the city, but preached
with power the old-fashioned gospel, and held revival services
which were very successful and at the end of two years, when he
took the district, the membership had increased to one hundred,
including twenty probationers, and the Church was strengthened in
every way.
It can not but be regretted that at this
critical juncture a man like William M. Smith should have been
appointed to follow T. B. Lemon, in April, 1865. Flushed with the
victories being won by Grant, and a few days later maddened by
indignation at the assassination of the beloved Lincoln, the
people were more intolerant of any want of sympathy with the Union
cause than ever, yet this man stubbornly and offensively held on
his way, as will be seen by the following related by Haynes:
"He reaches the city in time to preach on the
Sabbath following the assassination of President Lincoln. The
church was draped, and loyal men and women were in mourning as if
one of their own household had been taken away. They were in
expectation that a memorial service would be held. Mr. Smith
entered the pulpit at the appointed hour, and to many present was
not a stranger.
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He chose as a text, I Cor. xi, 2: 'For
I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ,
and Him crucified,' and proceeded to preach. In the discourse he
made no allusion either to the preparation of the room for the
occasion nor to the taking off of the now dead chieftain, totally
ignoring the sad and disappointed people who had met to honor his
name and to do a most willing part in perpetuating a remembrance
of his noble manhood and distinguished patriotism.
Mr. Smith was not willing to concede that he had
made a mistake in paying no respect to the feelings or preferences
of a large share of the people present; but the loyal and
patriotic at once decided not to sustain a man, though appointed
as a pastor, who would so brazenly offer an affront! A few weeks
later the Quarterly Conference met, and after proceeding with the
business till the question was reached, 'What has been raised for
the support of the ministry this quarter?' Answer: 'Nothing!' The
presiding elder, who was present and in the chair, was informed
that if he would remove the offending pastor, he would receive pay
for the time he had served; otherwise he would get no salary. He
was removed, and for a time the charge was left pastorless. Mr.
Smith's name appears not again in the Minutes as pastor, but as
having superannuated. He removed to Colorado, and it is intimated
became connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; and
now owns and lives upon a ranch a few miles south of Pueblo, in
that State."
There appears now the right man for the place in
the person of W. B. Slaughter, who fills out Wm. Smith's year, and
completes the full term of the pastorate in
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Omaha. He finds ninety-three members and seventy-five
probationers, the latter being the fruit of T. B. Lemon's
revivals. He finds Omaha entering upon an era of prosperity, with
Methodism well at the front among the Churches of the city, thanks
largely to the influence of T. B. Lemon. Haynes says: "The
Methodist Church was now the place of entertainment on the
Sabbath, and as a consequence the congregation was much the
largest in the city." (Of course by "entertainment" he means that
the preaching was the most attractive.)
W. B. Slaughter was one of the most scholarly
men we have had in Nebraska. He was born in Penn Yan, New York,
July 15, 1823, and received his education in part at the Genesee
Wesleyan Seminary. For a while he engaged in teaching, being
principal of an academy at Coudersport, Pennsylvania, and later of
the Genesee Model School, in Lima, New York. He then joined the
Genesee Conference, serving several pastorates, among them Old
Niagara Street Church, Buffalo.
Coming West he served Wabash Avenue, Chicago,
for the full term, then Joliet. Of this cultured, consecrated man,
Haynes gives some facts which show the spirit of the man, and of
his devoted wife as well:
"Early during the late rebellion he raised a
company of volunteers for the Thirty-ninth Illinois Infantry,
expecting to be appointed chaplain of the regiment. But the men
whom he recruited insisted upon his being their captain, to whose
preference he yielded. However, he actually served as chaplain,
organizing class and prayer meetings, and seeking the conversions
of soldiers. Serving twenty-one months, toiling with heroic zeal,
he was disabled and returned to his family. Recovering as nearly
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as to permit him to perform pastoral work. He was
appointed to Rockford, Illinois. In the midst of his labors at
Rockford, in the spring of 1864, Bishop Ames sought him as the man
he wanted for Denver District, Colorado. The matter was urged, and
he finally consented. The people whom he served remonstrated, and
telegraphed the bishop asking that he might not be removed. But
the reply was 'He must go.'" He left at once and hurriedly, only
delaying long enough to provide a private conveyance that his
family might follow. He reached the seat of the Colorado
Conference just in time to hear the appointments read at the close
of the session, and was startled to hear his own name announced
for Colorado District, instead of Denver.
The last-named district, at that date, included
all of the southern part of the territory and was made up of a few
preaching places a great distance apart, the largest of which was
Colorado City, once the capital, having less than ten members. The
sacrifice he must make was unexpected, but there was no loyal way
out of it. Heroically he accepted the work and sent for his wife
and two sons, leaving his daughter that she might attend school.
There was no railway reaching further west than Marshalltown,
Iowa. Mrs. Slaughter sent her eldest, a boy of seventeen, with the
conveyance for crossing the plain in advance, and, taking the
rail, overtook him at the western terminus. They together hence
began the long and hazardous journey, expecting to meet bands of
Indians after crossing the Missouri River.
Arriving at Omaha they were kindly received by
Rev. T. B. Lemon, pastor, and his family, who persuaded them to
rest a few days. Mrs. S. says: "I started from
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Omaha with my two boys, the older serving as driver, and
the other two years old, feeling there was safety only in the
protection of the divine arm." Often their vehicle was surrounded
by the red men, who, at that time, were committing frequent
depredations, but they were not molested. Four weeks of wearisome
travel had passed, and an axle of their carriage broke when
several miles from any habitation, and they were helplessly alone.
Fortunately a covered wagon came in sight. They were taken on
board and their conveyance was drawn behind; and in this manner
were driven into Denver, where they were met by Mr. Slaughter.
Tarrying long enough to get the carriage repaired, the trip toward
Pike's Peak was resumed, Colorado City being their destination.
Their arrival was in the evening, only to find that there was but
one place where they could get lodging for the night; and but one
frame house in the village; the others were of logs. They could
make no arrangement for housekeeping, and could find no place,
where they could all occupy the same house--they had to be
separated for sleeping. As their money was nearly gone, Mrs. S.
began teaching, while her husband made a round on the district,
taking about a month.
Mr. Slaughter attempted to make better provision
for his family's comfort. In his travels he found some mineral
springs (now Manitou), and as he had never used his right to
government land, he concluded to claim them as a homestead. Upon
this claim he and his son put up a log house, and while yet
unfinished the family occupied it. Retiring the first night while
the stars could be seen through the undaubed apertures and the air
balmy and quiet, an unlooked for change in the temperature
occurred
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before morning. The wind blew cold and biting and snow
began flying; and daylight found Mr. S. with a severe cold that
soon developed in pneumonia. He summoned a doctor who invited him
to his cabin, one room of which he occupied for two months. By the
watchful care of the physician he was brought through the crisis.
But the doctor advised that he would convalesce more surely in the
altitude of Denver.
Mrs. S. says: "Our finances were meager, and
living very costly. When we broke our last dollar it indeed looked
very dark ahead. But I felt surely the Lord will provide. And he
did; for the next mail brought a check for fifty dollars from
Governor Evans, who had heard of Mr. Slaughter's illness. This
enabled us to outfit for Denver."
Though relating to other fields, these extracts
are justified because they reveal so vividly the spirit of self
that characterized this cultured man and wife through their entire
career in Nebraska. While, as we see, his abilities were soon
recognized, and he was soon summoned to responsible places in
educational and pastoral lines, both in the East and West, he also
heard the call of duty when summoned to that hard far-away field
in Colorado. There are few men who have made as great sacrifices
in the ordinary way as W. B. Slaughter. But there was a special
feature in his case which made the trial doubly hard. He was well
qualified and strongly inclined to serve the cause of Christ along
literary lines, as shown by his book referred to by Haynes,
"Modern Genesis," pronounced by competent judges one of the
strongest arguments against the "Nebular Hypothesis" ever written.
To go West meant to give up the cherished
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and congenial plans of his life work, as it then seemed,
and doubtless did rob the Church of much excellent work on that
line. After coming to Nebraska, though as a rule serving the best
charges, it was not always so. He cheerfully took some hard
circuits. The writer well remembers that in 1871, when Dr.
Slaughter was in charge of Bellevue Circuit, actually receiving
not to exceed $700, I visited him at his home in West Omaha. Dr.
Slaughter took me with him in his old buggy, down through the
woods near where Hanscom Park Church now stands, to visit his son
Bradner, who was superintendent of a soap factory, and laughingly
mentioned the fact that while he was getting the promise of $700
for preaching the Gospel, his boy was getting $1,300 for making
soap.
This visit was an illustration of one side of
Dr. Slaughter's character, which was prominent. He had become a
father to all the boy preachers, and they often found their way to
his home for counsel in their work, but especially in their
studies. No one could make a young preacher feel more at ease in
his presence. He treated them as though they were his equals, and
inspired in them self-respect, self-confidence, and made them feel
that if they tried they could make something of themselves.
Eternity alone will reveal how many young
preachers Dr. Slaughter has helped at some crisis, and put at
their best, and his service along this line is unique, and its
value to the work in subsequent years may never be computed, but
will be none the less real.
It can hardly be said that Slaughter was an
orator, or a revivalist, but he was pre-eminently a teacher of the
Gospel. He was a diligent student to the last, and constantly
digging about the foundation to find the reason
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of things, and would, in skillful ways, indoctrinate the
people in the foundation truths of Christianity. It was his chief
function to build up into intelligent, strong Christian character
the raw material furnished by the revivalist.
This was the strong, cultured pastor that Omaha
Methodism needed and received at the crisis in 1865, when the
flock had been left without a shepherd by the violent rupture with
Wm. M. Smith.
Though the membership is only one hundred,
including twenty probationers, they are in high spirits and face a
much more hopeful future than had as yet presented itself. The
need of a new church was keenly felt, but the way to realize it
did not present itself during Dr. Slaughter's pastorate of three
years, though he and his brethren among the laity sought it
diligently. But along all other lines the Church grew and
prospered, and at the end of three years, when Dr. Slaughter gave
way to his successor, he handed over a well-organized,
enthusiastic Church. As to the exact number of members we have no
means of knowing, as the Minutes that year unaccountably omit the
statistics relating to membership, something that had not happened
before, nor has it since. But the number must have been much
larger than at the beginning of his pastorate. The Church had been
growing and was beginning to feel its own importance. This is
incidentally shown in the fact that they now felt they must have a
"special transfer" from the East, and Dr. H. C. Westwood was
secured from Baltimore Conference. He was distinguished as being
the only Methodist preacher who up to that time had received the
degree of Doctor of Divinity from Presbyterian Princeton
College.
Of the man, his work, and the results of his
pastorate,
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Haynes has this to say: "Henry C. Westwood, transferred
from the Baltimore Conference, was next in the succession of
pastors. He arrived in May, 1867, more than a month after the
closing of Mr. Slaughter's term. The agitation the year before of
the project of more inviting quarters as a place of worship
resulted in the quitting of the old church and making extensive
alterations in the structure that it might be rented as a source
of revenue. The congregation had already hired and had begun using
the German Methodist Church as a place of meeting. Mr. Westwood's
cultivated notions of propriety were almost shocked at the coarse
looking apartments of this cheap building; and as a concession to
his wishes the trustees hired the privilege of using the Academy
of Music as a preaching place only once a week--on the
Sabbath.
Mr. Westwood reports having large congregations,
and that the official board and himself were in complete harmony.
The estimating committee suggested $2,000 as his salary, and the
Quarterly Conference confirmed their judgment. A new and
comfortable parsonage housed him and his family, and the prospect
was flattering. The thoughts of the official members were much
engrossed in devising a method by which money might be secured to
provide a new chapel. Mr. Westwood interested himself in giving
assistance, to the partial neglect of more directly religious
work. The congregation was not held to the maximum; no revival
occurred, though the preacher failed not to be in the pulpit on
Sunday. But before the winter was ended, and while the new
chapel's walls were being raised, there were intimations of
discontent.
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The pastor did not enjoy Western
etiquette nor the bland manner of some of his parishioners. Much
of his former life had been spent among better polished people,
and he hardly would tolerate those who could not appear well at
their homes or in society; and he almost refused to visit the
humble poor of his charge. Nothing better might be expected than
that fault-finders would use such an opportunity to complain of
the pastor. There seemed to be but little room left for mutual
good feeling between the servant and the served, and before the
ending of the first year the chances for the accomplishing of good
were lost.
Mr. Westwood was, in appearance, an accomplished
gentleman, and an interesting sermonizer. His efforts in the
pulpit were not criticised unfavorably; and if he had not
persisted in his exhibitions of an haughty spirit, accepting the
situation in right good fellowship, he might have been very
certainly a useful man in Omaha. As it was, he went to Conference
under a cloud, pursued by a delegate from his charge instructed to
ask for his removal. But he was reappointed only to meet such
opposition as forced his presiding elder, A. G. White, to consent
to his removal in three months. He was transferred to the
Conference which he left to come West. His death occurred at
Fredonia, New York, August, 1890.
Moses F. Shinn, in those days a handy man to use
in filling a gap, and having reformed, was employed to take charge
till some one might be secured permanently to stand in his stead
as pastor. Mr. Shinn was a man of much experience in the ministry,
and, at times, of great value to the Church. He was a cheerful
companion, and a speaker of no mean qualities, sound in doctrine
and a thoroughly orthodox Methodist.
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM. |
187 |
After an interval of six weeks, during
which diligent efforts had been made by presiding elder, bishop,
and the leading lay members to find the right mail to meet this
crisis in affairs, he was finally found in the person of Gilbert
De La Matyr, D. D., who entered upon the pastorate in 1869. Dr. De
La Matyr was doubtless the equal in pulpit ability of any of his
predecessors or successors, With his great abilities as a preacher
was a large stock of common sense, together with a kindly
sympathetic nature that gave him social access in helpful ways to
all classes. He seized the situation with a firm grip, and soon
became its master, and the Church starts out on a new era of
prosperity. The first year of Dr. De La Matyr's pastorate
coincides with the close of the second period, and we will resume
later the story of this strong man's work.
Before passing, however, it is proper to note
that during this period Omaha had residing in the city the
following presiding elders: The first two years, Wm. M. Smith, who
succeeded better as presiding elder than as pastor, being a wise
administrator, and not coming in such constant contact with the
people as to make his political views offensive. He was succeeded
by Isaac Burns, who at the end of two years asked to be released
that he might resume the pastorate, which to him was more
congenial. It was providential that after three successful,
helpful years in the pastorate in Omaha, Dr. Lemon was placed on
the district and remained four years in Omaha as presiding elder.
Doubtless his influence was of great value in steadying things
during the pastorate of Dr. H. C. Westwood. He was followed by
that natural born presiding elder, A. G. White, whose sound
judgment was much needed in those critical times.