CHAPTER XVII.

THIRD PERIOD. (1870-1880.)

KEARNEY DISTRICT.

   IT was providential that just on the eve of a great calamity, A. G. White was placed in charge of Kearney District. He had already had four years' experience on the Omaha District, which had included that portion of the new district which extended along the Union Pacific Railroad and up the Loup Valleys. Of this district, as constituted by Bishop Andrews in 1873, White gives this description in his first report:
   "One year ago Kearney District was instituted, having no churches or parsonages, and but two or three charges fully organized. Names of a respectable number of circuits were given, and authority to penetrate the incognita of the plains, discover the territory, gather up the people, organize into societies, and supply them with preachers.
   "Armed with this roving commission, we entered upon the work with such frontier experience and energy as we could command, willing to fight with wild beasts, if necessary, and often had to subsist upon them, that we might find and gather up the scattered elements of our Zion.
   "This district, as it has been canvassed, only partially developed, for want of men and means, contains more

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territory than the States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and it embraces the interior and western part of the State. The Platte River and Union Pacific Railway extend through the district from west to cast, dividing it into two parts nearly equal in size. In the northern section, the Loup River and the most of its tributaries; in the southern part, the whole of the Republican River in Nebraska, are within the bounds of this district. The climate is salubrious; the soil unsurpassed in fertility; the people are intelligent and enterprising, but generally poor. Here are the elements of great physical and spiritual prosperity to be realized in the near future. Now, there is less pride, less infidelity, and less corruption here than in older settlements, and Christian labor will accomplish much more here than there. The moral elements are plastic now, and easily molded and controlled. And the Church that visits the people in their poverty and loneliness, and brings them the sympathy and instruction of the Gospel, will gain their confidence and affection and retain them for all time.
   "At last Conference a presiding elder and five pastors were assigned to this new district, but one of the pastors declined to go to his work, one has since withdrawn from the Church, and one has been partially disabled with impaired health. This was a small working force for so vast a region, and it has been increased from time to time by the addition of such ministerial help as could be made available. Several preachers supernumerary, superannuated and local are living within the district on homesteads, and as they had a mind to work in the ministry, they were employed. But as the Church could not in any case give more than half salary, it could not reason-

ably claim all their time and energies. It was necessary then to so arrange their work that they could cultivate their claims, and thus make the principal part of their support, and cultivate Immanuel's land as they had opportunity. Some of these preachers have labored with great success, and gathered scores into the Church by conversion, and yet their worldly compensation has been scarcely sufficient to defray their traveling expenses."
   According to this first report in 1874 there seems to be as yet no organized charge west of Kearney along the Union Pacific Railroad. North Platte indeed is mentioned as having been left to be supplied, and as having remained unsupplied through the year. These towns on the Union Pacific seem slow in developing Methodistically. Some of them were flourishing in 1867 when the Republican Valley was a hunting ground for the Indians, while at this time (1874) there are several flourishing circuits on the Republican, but none west of Kearney.
   Four new circuits are formed with an aggregate membership of 200.
   We can not but wish to know something of the men that A. G. White led out on this picket line, who, in the name of King Immanuel, proceeded to set up their banners and take possession.
   A few names appear that are already familiar in Nebraska Methodism as having done efficient service. Charles L. Smith is assigned the task of organizing the forces in Hamilton County, and gives a year of faithful, effective service, reporting more than 100 members.
   E. J. Willis, frail in body, cultured in mind, brave and devoted in spirit, does the same service in Clay County.

   These two, Smith and Willis, are the only effective elders reporting from this district at the following Conference.
   We find in the Loup Valley, at St. Paul, Richard Pearson, who has just been received on trial in the Conference. But he has been serving in Saunders County as a supply for two years, and has been spoken of by his presiding elder as a "sort of spiritual fire-brand, leaving light and heat and power all over the circuit, every week witnessing an advance." Evidently his work at St. Paul is in the same spirit, and with substantially the same results. A church is built and over 100 added to the membership. Before the year is out he will find cause to be thankful that he brought a good supply of clothing from England, for he will not be able to buy any for some years to come.
   Of the supplies, he found and put to work, D. A. Crowel, a supernumerary, who is sent to Kearney Circuit. A church built and nearly one hundred added to the membership, are facts mentioned by the presiding elder, as showing him to be a "workman that needed not to be ashamed." He is soon after transferred to this Conference, but continued ill health limits his career of usefulness in Nebraska to a few years.
   A superannuated brother, J. S. Donaldson, of Northwest Indiana Conference, though sixty-six years old, does effective work as a supply on the Grand Island Circuit, building a church at Grand Island. The presiding elder reports that notwithstanding this efficient service he is obliged to labor with his hands a portion of the time to secure the necessaries of life.
   Among the supplies that came to the assistance of

EIder White at this trying time was Jepthah Marsh. He was born in Pennsylvania, February 6, 1825, was converted and joined the Church at the age of nineteen, and married to Miss Jerusha Campbell in 1850. He was licensed to preach in 1853 and received on trial in the Erie Conference in 1854. As supply and member of Conference he gave eight or nine years to the work of the ministry in that Conference during which his labors were uniformly successful, his earnest, faithful preaching being always attended with some revival power, and sometimes he was blessed with great revivals. At one place a number of Indians were converted, one of whom became a preacher of the Gospel.
   His health failing, he took a supernumerary relation and came to Nebraska, March, 1873, intending to rest, and refrain from preaching at least a year. But such was the urgent need for men he was induced by Elder White to supply Wood River Circuit, beginning this pastorate in May. Thus began the ministerial career of Jepthah Marsh in Nebraska. He is still on fire with a burning zeal and nearly everywhere he has gone, has kindled a flame of revival power, besides building up the Church in other ways. When he prays he seems to get close up to the throne of Divine power. He was transferred to Nebraska Conference in 1874.
   Few have been more useful than has this saintly man during the year of his active ministry, both in Pennsylvania and Nebraska, and few crowns will have more stars than will the one our Lord will place on the brow of this humble servant, when he finally says to him, "Well done." He resides at University Place, and together with his faithful companion, is a benediction to all who come

within the range of their influence. He is an honored superannuate of the Nebraska Conference. May God raise up many more men like Jepthah Marsh.
   Perhaps the presiding elder deemed it a misfortune that the man he depended on did not go to Red Cloud, but it turned out otherwise when Charles Reilly, a local preacher, was found and sent in his stead. There had already been good work done in laying the foundations by that skillful and devoted workman, C. W. Wells, and that free lance, George Hummel, a local preacher, who had been holding revival-meetings in all that section, adding many to the Church. "Never," reports the presiding elder, "was appointment more fortunate. He found the Methodist elements scattered, but soon gathered them up and engaged in special services with a view to saving sinners. He worked each week as though it was his last. He succeeded marvelously, and for months many souls were saved every week. He has sixteen appointments and has had revival's at nearly all of them." The membership was increased from fifty-six to one hundred and fifty-five. He was admitted on trial at the Conference of 1874, and continued in the work for some years, but was compelled to relinquish his work in 1879 and take a supernumerary relation, and is now a superannuated member of Nebraska Conference. He resides in Kearney, and as police judge is administering the law with the same fidelity that he preached the Gospel.
   Of M. A. Fairchild, who supplied Clarksville, the presiding elder significantly says, that "he expected but little from the people in the way of salary and was not disappointed." His service, rendered in fatigue from the physical labors of the work during the week (made

necessary by the scanty pay), and without previous study, could not be as edifying as the Church needs, or as he could have performed under more favorable circumstances. And this applies to nearly all the preachers of the district."
   Of the marvelous results of this year's work on the Kearney District the presiding elder informs us in this extract from his first report:
   "At the beginning of the year the membership of the district amounted to four hundred and ninety-two; now, we number fifteen hundred and fifty. As we report sixteen charges, the increase of ten hundred and fifty-eight in the membership may not seem remarkable. But it should be remembered that some of these circuits have recently been organized and most of the pastors have given at least half their time to business to eke out a support which the circuits could not give them, and some of them could give no more than two-sevenths of their time to the ministry.
   "But the Lord has been with us, and this explains our success.
   "There was no Church property reported to last Conference from the territory, included in this district; now we have property to the value of $10,000.
   "This was considered missionary ground, and during the year we have received funds to aid in the work as follows:

From the Board of Missions . . . . . . . . . . $2,512 50
From the Board of Church Extension (by dona-
tion),  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 00
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  $2,812 50

   "And in return for this investment the Church has acquired ten hundred and fifty members and property to the value of $10,000. And larger appropriations of missionary and Church Extension funds would have been proportionally profitable to the Church. And the amount received is regarded as a Gospel loan to be repaid with interest in yearly installments; and we have already commenced the liquidation of this debt.
   "We have explored the country, discovered some of its necessities and possibilities; we have extended our skirmish line one hundred miles into the interior, and taken up some positions of strength and strategical importance, but how little, comparatively, has been accomplished towards making the desert glad with the light and civilization of the Gospel! The outposts are to be held and strengthened, and made batteries of Christian power.
   "The great battles are yet to be fought, the great obstacles to be overcome, and the great armies are yet to be supported in the field. And for this work we need men of mighty faith to lead the forlorn hopes of Christian enterprise, - men of practical wisdom, mighty in word as well as in deed, to inspire confidence, infuse zeal, and organize the forces of the. Church.
   "There is a little band of laborers engaged in this work who feel that God wills they should remain. The Church can do but little for them and the world will do less. The grasshopper plague has visited every part of the district, and not a field escaped; the corn crop, which was the main dependence of the frontier settlers, is ruined, and gaunt poverty frowns upon preachers and people, but in some way or other the Lord will provide, or, if not, still we will remain and share in the fortunes

of the people if the authorities of the Church shall so order."
   It will be noted that in his jubilation over the grand achievements he almost forgets the grasshopper scourge, which began in the summer of 1874, merely mentioning it.
   The next three years on this district embraces the period of the grasshopper devastation, and their history is a pathetic story of suffering on the part of the people in the district, and of heroic self-sacrifice on the part of the presiding elder and preachers. But it is also an inspiring story of splendid generosity on the part of the people in the older parts of Nebraska, and throughout the Church further east, by which these sufferings were greatly alleviated.
   It certainly presents a great and unlooked-for emergency. Will Methodism be ready for this emergency, and the man in charge be master of the situation?
   Perhaps what has been said is sufficient as a portrayal of how Methodism met the great emergency caused by the sudden inflow of vast numbers of people, and kept pace with the rapidly advancing tide as it swept over the prairies toward the western line of the State. A Church that could successfully meet and cope with such an emergency, may be confidently expected to be ready for any emergency. Surely, though, a severer test remains, when she is confronted with the conditions brought by the grasshopper plague. There had been much of hardship, it is true, connected with the rapidly developing work of the early seventies, but there was progress in both Church and State, and therefore much to inspire and encourage, and all were in good heart. The settler had built his

cabin or sod house, the latter becoming the prevailing type when the table-lands between the streams were occupied. He had broken out enough prairie to furnish him a good crop the second year. Even the first year there was enough sod corn raised to carry his stock through the winter. This was one of the advantages the early settler of the prairie States had over the early settlers of Ohio and Indiana. There the timber had to be removed, stumps uprooted, and work that required many years of toil had to be done, before much of a farm could be opened. But here a most excellent and productive farm could be made in a year or two, and the advance toward comfort and a competence was much more rapid.
   The people were confidently looking forward to what seemed a bright and prosperous future, when they should move out of the "soddy" into the more comfortable home, and build school-houses and churches, and surround themselves with all the elements of highest Christian civilization. Indeed, it would be difficult to conceive of brighter prospect than that which invited the people of Nebraska to honest toil, and incited them to hopeful industry, from 1870 to 1874. But suddenly, without a moment's warning, an enemy appeared that changed the whole situation from one of brightest hopefulness to one of darkest despair; from rapidly increasing comfort to abject misery.
   Somewhere on the unoccupied plains of the great Northwest, there had been hatched countless millions of locusts, commonly called grasshoppers. Food supplies being soon exhausted in their native habitat, they followed their unerring instinct which led them with deadly precision to the productive farms of the settlers in the West.

   And men who, in the morning looked out on thrifty crops and were already estimating their gain, were compelled on the evening to look on a scene of utter devastation. In the meanwhile, puissant man stood helpless in the presence of this tiny insect whose combined energy thus far exceeded his own. But the picture of utter ruin wrought by these pests, and the constant scenes of suffering inflicted on these settlers, especially in the large sections which had been so recently settled that people had not been able to accumulate anything as a reserve, can best be drawn by some who were in the midst of the scenes of desolation. Dr. Maxfield, whose district suffered much, thus paints the picture:
   "There have been certain reminders visiting us upon this district this year, keeping us keenly alive to the fact that we are still upon earth and not in heaven. I refer to the scourge of hot winds and grasshoppers, which I hitherto forbore to mention, because it rested heavily alike upon all parts of the district, without exception. The harvest of small crops - wheat, oats, and barley had been gathered when the grasshoppers fell like snowflakes from the skies. Myrids in multitude, they settled everywhere, and devoured the vegetables in the garden and the growing corn in the fields. All consumed in an incredibly short space of time. Relentlessly the work of ruin proceeded until nothing but the ruin of the farmers' prospects remained.
   To those who have not visited the wasted districts, no adequate idea can be conveyed of the extent and completeness of the disaster visited upon us. Families dependent upon corn alone are in a condition of absolute destitution. Individual instances of suffering are not given,

for, where the suffering is so general, to do so would seem an invidious distinction against a multitude equally worthy of mention. But very few families have left this district on account of this calamity. With a fortitude and courage praiseworthy in the highest degree, they have nearly all of them elected to remain. They have not asked to have the field curtailed, but that more preachers be given. A people so brave demand the best ministry in the world.
   "Of the preachers, but little can be said in blame or reproof. Volumes might be justly filled with their praise. I am unable to justly write the records of their noble lives and heroic sacrifices, but they are written in the book of God's remembrance, they shall be read at the last day in the hearing of all nations."
   While the whole State suffered and all the presiding elders make pathetic allusion to the scourge, Kearney District is the storm center of this awful visitation. Here the settlements were all new and scarcely any one had more than enough for a bare subsistence, even if their crops had matured. Hence there is no one more competent to tell the sad story than A. G. White, the heroic, resourceful, and self-sacrificing presiding elder. He says:
   "One year ago Kearney District was financially prostrate. 'The destruction that wasteth at noon-day' had come upon the whole land in the shape of prairie locusts; the crops were consumed and the people left destitute and helpless. They could not carry forward their Church enterprises nor support preachers, or even obtain for themselves the necessaries of life, and yet they needed the Gospel none the less for their misfortune; and the Church could not with honor, or with any Christian propriety,

withdraw from the field merely because the people had been unfortunate. The missionary appropriation was barely sufficient to pay the house rent for the preacher, and this was about all the visible means of support they had. A forlorn hope without ammunition, and depending wholly upon the bayonet, has, in a desperate emergency, saved the honor of an army. And so these preachers went forth as representatives of a Gospel faith and of sacrifice and found the Divine assurance still in practical force, 'Lo, I am with you.' Some of them have traveled their extensive circuits the whole year on foot, giving full proof of their ministry, and not neglecting the people in their underground cabins, who, in many cases, were kept at home for the want of clothing. And through the benevolence of Eastern friends these preachers have distributed relief to the amount of thousands of dollars among our needy people. Their congregations have been increased by distributing clothing to the poor who could otherwise not appear in public, and some were converted in the garments furnished them and thus enabled to attend public worship. This has been a year of faith and trial. The preachers were led by the spirit into the wilderness, not knowing how they were to subsist, but 'bread has been given and their water has been sure.' Not one who went to his work was compelled by poverty to leave; two were fainthearted and declined their appointments. The past Winter was unfavorable to special services, being intensely cold, and the people so straitened in their circumstances that they could not in every place obtain fuel and light for a place of worship, and many of them abandoned the country on account of the scourge.
   "At the time the appointments were made last Con-
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ference, it was apparent that the work could not be done unless extraordinary means should be used to procure subsistence for the preachers. Bishop Bowman had been in the district and knew the destitution of our people, and that many of them were not able to provide for themselves, and must receive charitable assistance or perish; he therefore advised me to go East for assistance, and gave me letters of commendation to our more fortunate brethren in the distance. Governor Furnas also highly approved of this charitable mission.
   After hastily arranging the district work and supplying a few charges with pastors, I went East to procure subsistance for the needy. My mission was regarded with great favor, and the people responded with a liberality far beyond my expectation. After an absence of two months, and organizing relief agencies as far as practicable in that time, I returned to take the oversight of the distribution of supplies, and perform district work as I had opportunity. An extensive correspondence was opened up and supplies collected by this means from twenty-two States and Territories.

Amount collected in cash . . . . . . . . . . .  $2,850 00
Amount collected in other supplies . . . . . .  10,460 00 
Total .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $13,310 00

   "Whole expense for collecting and distributing, including; freight, expressage, stationery, postage, etc., $409 50, or a little more than three per cent.
   "I have taken vouchers for the cash distributed, but not for the other supplies, as they were sent in bulk, for the most part, to preachers and others who were well known, who would charge themselves with the work of

distributing them. A statement of this business, and vouchers for the cash, are prepared for the information of Conference, and a committee is desired to inspect them. We have received timely assistance from the Boards of Missions and Church Extension, and from our Linda School Union, and thus we have been enabled, not only to maintain our position, but to strengthen it in spite of the plague of last year. We have not done much in return, but have formed a higher appreciation of these great connectional interests, and propose to express it in a more practical manner in the future. Many of the people contracted debts the past year, but they have been favored with a good crop, and are again on the road to prosperity. The storm of adversity has winnowed out the chaff of our population, but the men of weight, of intelligence, of firmness and faith, remain to work out the fortunes of the Church and State; and these people, many of them from the great cities, and from educational centers, are to be provided with the Gospel, and for this work the best talent of the Church is needed; not the frothy and fanciful that floats upon the popular wave, but practical, consecrated workers to meet and mold the elements of society, and to cut the channels for fortune to run in.
   "For this work we do not desire one thousand-dollar men, nor two thousand-dollar men, nor three thousand-dollar men, but men who are not in the market - men who are above all price, who feel the force of the Master's prayer and abide by it. 'As thou, Father, hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.'"
   The story of these marvelous four years on the Kearney District will find a fitting conclusion in the following

summary of results contained in A. G. White's last report, made at the Conference of 1877:
   "Four years ago Kearney District had neither church nor parsonage; now it has eight churches and three parsonages, worth at least $16,000 over all indebtedness. And in addition to the above, six lots have been procured in Red Cloud and three in Fairfield for church purposes, and $2,000 provided for churches thereon. Then that entire region contained but 492 members, and 309 of those were taken into the Church under my supervision in connection with Omaha District. Now we have a membership of 2,200. Then there was not a Sunday-school in that vast territory, excepting on Clarksville Circuit - a new charge which had been organized and supplied by myself. Now we have fifty-four schools, 352 officers and teachers, 1,606 scholars, and 1,500 volumes in libraries. During every year of this district's existence a majority of the charges were left without pastors, and on those charges supplied by the elder, has been more than half the increase in members and church property. All the members of Conference in Kearney District were brought into Conference through my agency; so we have not drawn heavily upon the working force of the Conference.
   "During the last four years I have collected outside of the State, and distributed in it, in furtherance of our Church work, more money and its equivalent than the Church has ever paid me as fees and salary; so I have not been a financial burden.
   "During these four years I have appointed fifty pastors. The most of these were noble men, and true to the great interests of the Church; but in a few instances, yielding to the clamor of the people for preachers and

depending mainly upon the commendations of strangers, I appointed men who were unsuitable for the work; but when this became known they were speedily dismissed.
   "We have aimed at better things, and with the means employed, would have wrought out better results in ordinary times; but we are thankful to a kind Providence that it is no worse, and thankful to the brethren in the ministry for their efficient co-operation. And if in view of the peculiar conditions of the district, greater success has been realized than is customary in like circumstances, it may not be improper to indicate here the policy which has contributed to this result.
   "I have never supposed that my appointment to this position was a personal favor, or made for my good; and it has never occurred to me that I had any right to use the influence of my office to accommodate personal friends. I have acted conscientiously upon the belief that the preachers were the servants of the Church, and not. the masters. And in appointing or recommending them for particular positions. I have sought first the greatest good of the Church, and always held that the interests of the preachers were of secondary importance.
   "And while I never made an appointment for the purpose of gaining a friend, or retaining one, I have fortunately been associated with men of such broad Christian principles, that they have thought none the less of me for holding their interests in abeyance. These preachers are impressed with the idea that 'the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.' Hence, while they modestly profess their kinship to Christ, with vigor and persistence they demonstrate the fact by their works. And they cultivate a type of piety which is not boisterous

or showy, but fruitful. And they have exhibited a superior ability to cause things to come to pass. If they had no opportunity for usefulness, they quickly made an opportunity and improved it. If circumstances were unfavorable, they proceeded to convert the circumstances and then use them. And as the coral insect, with no other resources, finds in its own body the substance for the foundation of a continent, so these brethren, 'with a heart for any fate,' with but little human support, either financial or moral, and thrown out across the track of the destroyer, have drawn from their personal resources the material for a monument of ministerial efficiency, which proclaims them to be in the true succession from the Head of the Church through the founder of Methodism."
   Of A. G. White's personal service and sacrifices, he says little or nothing, but the spirit in which he did it, and the character of the man will be better understood by a few facts that others relate. Many a hard-pressed pastor was surprised when he had taken the collection for the presiding elder's claim, to have it quietly handed back with the remark, "You need it more than I do."
   He would allow nothing but insurmountable obstacles to keep him from his appointments. At one time he was due at Gibbon to hold a quarterly-meeting some time in the month of March, and coming up from the South, found no way of crossing the Platte, but to wade it, which he promptly proceeded to do, reaching his quarterly-meeting in time, with zeal for God's cause undiminished. The ministers came to the nearest railroad for him and brought him back wherever practicable. Brother Hale took him sixty-five miles on one occasion. But it was not always possible for the pastors to do this, especially

in such cases, of which there were not a few, where the pastors themselves had no horse, and were compelled to travel their large circuits on foot. But if A. G. White could get to his quarterly-meeting no other way, he would not hesitate to go on foot, often walking long distances rather than miss his appointment.