HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM. |
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but only one got that much and one reports but $176. Nor will
he get much help from the missionary funds, the average per pastor
being sixty-two dollars. However great the difficulties, Alfred
Hodgetts will soon have nearly all these charges supplied with
most excellent men. Some of these he will find among the local and
superannuated preachers and others will come from outside.
Though in the nature of the case Dr. Hodgetts
must depend largely on supplies during his entire administration,
the district made progress under his leadership. At the close of
the full term of six years he is appointed to South Tenth Street,
Omaha, where he remains three years and has a successful
pastorate. In 1883 Bishop Walden appointed him to the Norfolk
District, where he served the full term. He is elected to the
General Conference of 1896 and is there selected as the
representative of the Tenth District on the General Missionary
Committee, on which he serves during four years. There are few
more responsible positions than this. Besides these positions of
trust to which he was called, he was also a member of the
Commission that adopted the "Unification Plan," and started
Nebraska Wesleyan University out on its career of usefulness and
power. He continued a member of the Board of Trustees continuously
till his removal from the State, which occurred in 1900, at which
time, at the close of a successful pastorate at Trinity Church,
Grand Island, he was transferred to the New York East Conference,
of which he is now a member. These various places of
responsibility to which the Church called Dr. Hodgetts are a
sufficient index of his standing, and render unnecessary any
further words of commendation.
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HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM. |
It will be seen that much of the space
given to Dr. Hodgetts is devoted to incidental allusions to his
work on his district, and the men who wrought with him. Elkhorn
Valley District presented the same phases and had much in common
with the frontier districts of the earlier period. But it also
presented some peculiar conditions that required some notice. The
historian soon finds how difficult it is to treat men in the
abstract separated from their surroundings of fellow-workers and
events. Indeed, it is impossible. And these subordinate laborers
that have received this brief notice are all worthy of much fuller
treatment, and one of the unpleasant features of the remaining
portion of this history will be the self-denial which the limited
space of a single volume will impose on the historian in the
treatment of the rapidly increasing number of workers; many of
those who come later will not be more than mentioned, if even so
much as that is accorded to them. They must wait the preparation
of a far more elaborate history of Nebraska Methodism, which the
writer sincerely hopes some more competent hand will write in the
future.
There is something so unique about this Elkhorn
Valley District in the first years of its history, that it seems
to demand that we tarry a moment before passing, and note its
development and make brief mention of some of the men whom
Hodgetts found and who wrought on this hard field the first two
years of his administration.
Father C. W. Sackett, a retired preacher of
saintly character, will supply Chambers, though he will only
receive $7.95 for his work. D. T. Olcott, still known as one of
our most consecrated and holy men among our superannuates, whom
everybody respects and loves, will
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successfully serve Creighton Charge, and will leave a
memorial for himself in Olcott Chapel, built at one of the country
appointments, and also in the church erected in Creighton.
He will find in Holt County, living on a claim,
George P. Bennett, who has for years held high rank in the Des
Moines Conference, serving one term as presiding elder. He is glad
to do some preaching, and will supply Inman Circuit. He would
gladly have relinquished his claim if he could have disposed of
it, but jokingly remarked that he was in the same fix as the
traditional man who had hold of the bear's tail, and was anxiously
waiting for some one to help him let go. Some years afterward he
did return to his old Conference.
E. S. Bargelt, a superannuated member of the
Upper Iowa Conference, deeply spiritual and still full of faith
and old-time Methodist zeal, served Pierce. For Neligh, Hodgetts
secured N. H. Gale for the first part of the year. He had come to
us from the Presbyterian Church, and was a pure man and an
excellent, scholarly preacher. But the infirmity of deafness
increased to such an extent that he was compelled to retire from
the pastorate and was employed as financial agent of the new
Nebraska Central College. His place at Neligh was soon filled by
J. W. Phelps, a transfer from the Rock River Conference. J. W.
Phelps was a mixture of strange contradictions. He was possessed
of a personal magnetism which gave him remarkable power in the
pulpit. Few men could sway all audience more powerfully than could
he. Vast crowds attended his ministry, and in a few months Neligh
Charge was marvelously advanced. This same magnetic power gave him
a strange influence over many in
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his personal intercourse. Such was his phenomenal success
at Neligh, that when at the next Conference at Ponca, in 1885, a
man was needed to succeed Dr. Maxfield on the Omaha District, no
one seemed so well fitted for the place as J. W. Phelps, and
Bishop Andrews appointed him. For two years he seemed to be
carrying everything by storm. Never had such quarterly-meetings
been known in that part of the State, and the district was soon
ablaze with enthusiasm. But alas! as is sometimes the case with
these strong men, a vein of weakness existed on the moral side of
his nature. He was tempted to place his great, personal influence,
resulting from the prestige of his office, and also from his great
personal magnetism, at the disposal of a mining stock corporation,
and become agent for their fraudulent, worthless stock, inducing
many preachers to invest. In two years his brilliant career on the
Omaha District closed in shame and disgrace, and he resigned and
went to California.
The two men appointed by Bishop Mallalieu to
circuits on Dr. Hodgetts's District are well worthy of further
notice.
Dugald C. Winship had chosen the honored and
highly useful profession of a physician, and was succeeding
admirably, having become skillful in his chosen life work. He had
located in Bennett, and built up a practice worth at least $1,000,
or more, a year, with excellent prospects of even larger success
and larger income in the future. He afterward resided a year in
Oakdale, Nebraska, where he practiced his profession. But the call
to preach had become so clear that it had reached the point where,
with Paul, he was constrained to say "woe is me if I preach not
the Gospel." But this could hardly
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be without a struggle. He already had a little family
around him that looked to him for support. Could he afford to
relinquish his income of $1,000 or more, as a physician, to accept
less than $500 as a Methodist itinerant? Not a few of our most
successful pastors have been confronted with just such a problem.
John P. Yost, at North Bend, Nebraska, was serving as postmaster
on a salary of $1,200 a year, and resigned and entered the
ministry, accepting a charge that paid $300. D. W. Crane,
presiding elder of the Kearney District, was train dispatcher on
the Union Pacific Railroad, and was one of the best in their
employ, receiving $1,700 with all almost certain prospect of
speedy promotion with much larger pay. But when the conviction of
duty became clear, he turned his back on these brilliant worldly
prospects and cheerfully went to a charge that did not promise to
pay more than $400.
I speak of these cases, not because they are
exceptional, or more worthy of note than many others, but as
illustrations of the fact that as a rule Methodist preachers have
not been attracted to the ministry from mercenary motives, but
almost invariably have entered it from a sense of duty, attracted,
not by large salaries, but by large opportunities of usefulness
and impelled by the conviction that God had called them, and that
it therefore became their imperative duty.
This was certainly the case with D. C. Winship.
He was admitted on trial in 1882, and was sent to Wayne, which
included Wakefield, rival towns just springing up on the new
railroad running from Sioux City to Norfolk. The year before,
1881, W. H. Carter had organized a small class at Wayne, and
Josiah Fowler had formed an-
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other at Wakefield. These were the first classes formed
at these places. Winship took his family of five to Wayne, but
finding no place to live and little encouragement, he accepted the
offer of Wakefield to reside there, they agreeing to build a
parsonage. This they proceeded to do as far as possible, but only
one room could be made fit to live in, and from January until
spring that small room must serve their family of five for
kitchen, bedroom, dining-hall, parlor, reception-room, and study.
Besides the parsonage, a good church building was erected during
Brother Winship's pastorate, and Methodism well established at
Wakefield. To support himself and wife and three children he
received less than $500.
Brother Winship's next charge was Wisner, a
circuit of four appointments, and his pastorate here was attended
with some revival interest.
When, at the next Conference, D. C. Winship's
name was read out for Niobrara, Brother Leedom came to the writer,
who had become Brother Winship's presiding elder, and demanded,
with no little indignation, why I had sent Winship there, saving
it was an outrage. But there had come a great change in Niobrara,
by the coming of a wealthy and devoted family, Brother C. D.
Chipman and wife, and I felt sure the time had come to send them a
strong man, and felt sure they would take care of him as they had
promised. The event proved that I was not mistaken. Though he only
found twelve members, he was blessed with a great revival,
breaking up vicious amusements, and resulting a large number of
accessions, among them W. Barnum and wife, the latter the daughter
of Brother and Sister Chipman. As an expression of gratitude for
this last result, Sister Chipman
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came to Brother Winship saying she had promised the Lord
if He would save her son-in-law, and bring his family into the
Church, she would build a parsonage. The parsonage was built and
good Sister Chipman drew her check for $650 to pay the bill. As
for support, Brother Winship was promised $500, and received $556,
fifty-six dollars more than was promised, and more than he had yet
received. Though Brother and Sister Chipman were soon removed by
death, M. W. Barnum and his devoted wife remained for many years
the mainstay of the Church, which even after Dr. Winship's
pastorate remained a fairly comfortable charge, served by some of
our best men.
Brother Winship next went to O'Neil, where he
succeeded in saving the Church, which was having a life-and-death
struggle against the predominating Catholic influence there, which
has always made it difficult to maintain our position. After this
hard year, during which the wing of the church building was fitted
up for a parsonage, he and his family had a pleasant pastorate of
two years at Oakdale. where he had received license to preach a
few years before. Then to Stanton, where, during a pastorate of
three years, he had gracious revivals and cleared the property of
debt. Then a year at Old Dakota City, and then to First Church,
South Omaha, where more than one hundred souls were converted, and
a floating debt of $1,200 paid off.
But Brother Winship's outspoken opposition to
the vices of the city brought on him the wrath of the saloon
power. He did not realize his personal danger until he was waited
on in the parsonage by a big ruffian, who talked so abusively that
Dr. Winship made a move to put
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him out, when he was confronted with a big knife. It is a
great wonder that he came out of the affray alive. The would-be
assassin was immediately arrested, and admitted that the saloon
men had sent him to "do up the preacher." But he was made to pay
so dearly for his amusement that it is not likely that he has ever
been induced to attempt to "do up" a preacher again.
Brother Winship was secretary of the Conference
for many years, was elected delegate to the Ecumenical Conference
at Washington, and was once elected reserve delegate to the
General Conference.
He went to Colorado, where he spent several
years in and around Denver, in the meanwhile educating his
children at Denver University, returning to Nebraska in 1890,
since when he has served Trinity Charge, Grand Island, and is now
pastor at Central City.
During Dr. Hodgetts's administration he
inaugurated the district camp-meeting at Oakdale, which continued
to be for fifteen years the scene of many great gatherings, and
resulted in many great spiritual victories; as high as one hundred
souls were converted at some of them. Besides the interest of
successive presiding elders and the pastors of the district, this
success was due in no small measure to some choice laymen, among
them A. J. Leach and others, of Oakdale, and J. H. Barns and
Monroe Whitmore, of Cedar Creek.
We must pause a moment to note the pathetic
close of the career of S. P. Van Doozer. It was fitting that he
who played so large a part in making the North Nebraska
Conference, as pastor, but especially as presiding elder of the
Covington, or rather, North Nebraska District, should be among
those who should help to organize the
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363 |
North Nebraska Conference. After a year on the Papillion
Circuit, where he built a church, largely by his own labor, he is
again summoned by the authorities of the Church to district work
on the frontier, and is assigned by Bishop Wiley to the new Albion
District, lying west of the Norfolk District. The writer was at
the same time assigned to the Norfolk District, and we both found
it convenient to reside at Norfolk.
Brother Van Doozer seemed yet the very picture
of robust health, and as between us, gave much fairer promise of
long life than I did. But he threw himself into the work, as was
his wont, with his whole soul, not sparing himself. This is
something S. P. Van Doozer never seemed to think of doing. But he
was greatly enjoying his work, and was in the midst of plans
evolved during the first quarter, when with startling suddenness
the news came that he was stricken down with disease while on his
way to his quarterly-meeting, and in a few days the sad
intelligence came that at Fullerton, at the home of Brad
Slaughter, to which his devoted wife had been hastily summonded,
S. P. Van Doozer "ceased at once to work and to live."
I have had occasion to refer to the work of this
rugged, stirring, consecrated man of God, because no history of
Nebraska Methodism would be complete without noting the great
contribution he made in various ways to the making of that
history.
His brethren of the Conference put on record the
following memoir, prepared by his comrade in the Lord's work, J.
B. Maxfield:
"Rev. S. P. Van Doozer, presiding elder of
Albion District, North Nebraska Conference, and reserve dele-
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gate-elect to the last General Conference, died at
Fullerton, Nebraska, January 16, 1884. Concerning the exact date
of his birth we have no certain information. He was a native of
New York, and about fifty-eight years of age. He graduated at the
Michigan State University, and attended the Garrett Biblical
Institute. Soon after he removed to Missouri and was engaged in
our educational work for a time. Brother Van Doozer married in
1871, Miss Sarah E. Malloy, who, with two interesting sons,
survives him. As a preacher, Brother Van Doozer was sound in his
theology, scriptural in presenting salvation on the terms of the
Gospel, 'Repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ.' That school of the prophets, Garrett Biblical Institute,
had taught him that our theology is a complete system, compact,
harmonious, strong, and all-sufficient. He was clear and forcible
in setting forth the momentous themes relating to man's moral
estate and eternal happiness. His flock was fed upon solid truth
rather than vapid sentimentalism. He built many churches, often
with his own hands, when help was lacking, which frequently was
the case. He was a wise builder of living stones into Christ's
spiritual temple. To many throughout these borders his memory 'is
as ointment poured forth.' He was the intimate friend and
co-worker with the gifted and sainted White, of our Nebraska
Conference, to whose sudden death his own decease presented such a
striking and painful parallel. He was a Christian hero. He was a
wise counselor. He was a devoted husband and a kind, affectionate
father. The world has been made richer because he lived, the
Church poorer because he died."
M. Adair spent many years in the work in Ne-
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM. |
365 |
braska, and was one of our most faithful men. Besides
serving some important charges, among them Plattsmouth, it was he
who laid the foundations of our Church at South Tenth Street,
Omaha, as early as 1872. He bought a small church of the United
Presbyterians, and "displayed commendable zeal, both in the city
and country, but received for his services scarcely enough to pay
house rent," says his presiding elder.
Josiah Fowler transferred to this Conference
from Michigan in 1876, when he was advanced in life and somewhat
broken in health, and while a most excellent preacher, and
faithful pastor, was never appreciated at his full value by the
people. He served some of our best charges, among them Dakotah
City and Fremont, and was highly respected by all who knew him.
But his retiring disposition was not well fitted to the rush and
push of the Western life. He was permitted to give a third of a
century to the gospel ministry, eight of which were spent in
Nebraska. He died at his home in Dixon County, in 1889. Three of
his sons have entered the ministry, and are now members of the
North Nebraska Conference.
Other names connected with this first Conference
are worthy of mention. Among the most saintly of men is W. H.
Carter. We have already met him on the St. James work, where he
was converted at a camp-meeting at Lime Creek, under S. P. Van
Doozer's administration, and at once becomes an active supporter
of the pastor. In 1878 he is received on trial, and gives many
years to the work in Nebraska. He is the first to organize the
work in many portions of Antelope and Knox Counties in 1879. He is
said to have been "a typical pioneer
24
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HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM. |
preacher, spending most of his time in the homes of the
people, and traveling from place to place carrying the message of
divine truth." It was he who first organized Methodism in Wayne,
and many other places. He is still a highly respected
superannuated member of the Conference, but some years ago, his
health failing, he removed to the coast, and is now residing in
Washington.
Then there is steady-going, faithful J. R.
Gearhart, who has given many years to the ministry in Nebraska. He
was received on trial in 1880, and appointed to Madison, and
afterward served in succession St. James, Wakefield, Humphrey,
Coleridge, and other charges. He is now an honored superannuated
member of the North Nebraska Conference and resides with his
family at University Place.
J. Q. A. Fleharty entered the work in Nebraska
in 1874, being received on trial and appointed to Iron Bluffs that
year. The next year he has all Polk County, and with his Bible,
hymn-book, and a few clothes stowed away in a pair of saddlebags,
he spends most of the time in the saddle. He builds the first
church at Wesley Chapel appointment, and has a revival at Osceola,
at which over one hundred are converted. Among those converted
were the county judge, sheriff, and constable; and J. H. Mickey,
now the honored governor of Nebraska, was among the most active
workers during the meeting. North Bend, Columbus, Harvard,
Madison, where he builds a parsonage, and Oakdale, are among the
charges he has served, on many of which God blessed his labors
with gracious revivals, and he has received over 500 probationers
while in the ministry.
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367 |
While at Madison, 1881, he was married
to the now sainted Ella A. Woodman, "whose desire was to die in
the work." After twenty years as a faithful wife and intelligent
worker in the Church, she goes to her reward on the 18th of
October, 1901.
Brother Fleharty is now a superannuated member
of the North Nebraska Conference, and resides in Omaha.
Charles F. Heywood saw not a little of life
before entering the Methodist ministry, having practiced law,
served a term in the Nebraska Legislature, and was for some time a
minister in the United Brethren Church. He comes into our work
with a good equipment of natural ability and a large experience
with men and affairs.
He is received on trial in 1880, and goes to
Niobrara, and the next year is appointed to Norfolk. Here he
purchases two lots for a church, and that he wisely selected the
location is the verdict of all subsequent pastors and presiding
elders. With a little handful of members he proceeded to erect a
church, and by doing much of the work himself, he succeeded in
inclosing it so it could be used. C. F. Heywood may be said to be
the first to give Norfolk Methodism a permanent place in the
community. His next pastorate is Madison, where he remains two
years, doing excellent work. Then at the Conference in Ponca, in
1885, just after that great calamity in which the new church they
had erected had blown down, C. F. Heywood was selected to meet the
emergency. His ability as a preacher soon commanded a large
congregation, and his careful management of the difficult problems
brought the Church through the crisis in good shape. He has given
twenty years of efficient service in the effective ranks, but was
compelled to take a superannuated rela-
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tion in 1901, and now resides at Central City, greatly
respected by all who know him.
Another name that has become well known in
Nebraska is that of J. W. Shenk, D. D. Born at Coblesville, New
York, January 20, 1842, and converted at the age of fourteen, he
began preaching at the age of sixteen. After graduating at Garrett
Biblical School, he joined the Central Illinois Conference and was
sent as a missionary to Buenos Ayers, South America. But failing
health soon compelled him to relinquish that work and he returned
in 1867. He was transferred to the Nebraska Conference in 1878. He
served in succession the important stations of Seward, Fremont,
Eighteenth Street, Omaha, and was six years on the Grand Island
District. While he had a good measure of success in all of these
responsible positions, his chief distinction grows out of his
relation as editor of the Omaha Christian Advocate
throughout its eventful history. As that enterprise will be
treated in another portion of this history, it only needs at this
time to mention the fact that Dr. Shenk was once elected delegate
to the General Conference and twice elected reserve delegate. He
was also a member of the Commission that located Nebraska Wesleyan
University at Lincoln.
J. W. Stewart's name appears among the first
members of the North Nebraska Conference, but inasmuch as he only
served two pastorates, First Church and Tenth Street Church,
Omaha, in this Conference, nearly all his ministerial work in
Nebraska being in connection with the Nebraska Conference, it
might be more proper to mention his work in the portion of this
history relating to that Conference. But after all, every
Methodist
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369 |
preacher, in some large and important sense, belongs to
the whole Church, and is equally at home everywhere.
Then there is quaint old Father Janney. He had
been preaching for half a century before the North Nebraska
Conference had its birth, and began his ministry before most of
its members were born. He preached his first sermon in that
historic Foundry Church, in Washington, D. C., and was ordained
deacon by Bishop Soule, in 1832. He was of Quaker parentage, but
was converted at a Methodist camp-meeting near Washington, D. C.,
and joined the Methodist Church, but retained through life some of
the Quaker traits.
He was nearly sixty years of age when he began
his work in Nebraska, but he shrunk not from some of the hardest
service. After serving De Soto and Fontenelle, he was sent to the
Wood River Circuit, 150 miles west, the point farthest west of any
circuit in the State. He is already on the superannuated list, but
we are glad to reckon him among the charter members of the North
Nebraska Conference.
After a life of over seventy-five years and a
ministry of over fifty years, he passes on to his well-earned
reward, departing this life April 11, 1887.
J. L. St. Clair is well worthy of mention among
those who helped to organize the North Nebraska Conference and has
done much to develop it into its present strength. He came to us
from the United Brethren, among whom he had been a leader for
years, and was one of their best preachers, as he was afterward
one of our best preachers. He would command large audiences
wherever he went, and always left his mark on the charges he
served, in the way of accessions, or some substantial advance in
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the way of a church building, or parsonage, or both, for
Brother St. Clair had a penchant for economizing means and space
by partitioning off the rear end of the church for a parsonage.
This was the case at West Point and Albion, at each of which
places he built a church. At Columbus he gave our Church its first
permanent foothold by the erection of a fine church. His career
has been one of uniform success. He tarries with us, but is doubly
afflicted with defective eyesight and hearing.
Of the probationers in Conference at its
organization, besides those already mentioned, are two well worthy
of mention. E. L. Fox was one of these resourceful voting men that
will make their way anywhere, and that people can not help but
like. His few years in Nebraska were very successful, and he is
just the man for the difficult mission he is carrying on in New
York City.
Another probationer whose subsequent career
justifies further notice is J. B. Priest. Brother Priest is a
native of Iowa, but came to Nebraska in the later seventies, and
settled in the neighborhood of St. James, where he taught school
for some years, and where he was married to Miss Carr, who has
proved a helpmeet indeed.
Brother Priest is another one sent down to
Conference from the old St. James Charge, and was admitted on
trial at the first Conference in 1882. J. P. Priest has been a
popular pastor from the first, being a good preacher, all
industrious, sympathetic pastor and skillful, resourceful manager
of the affairs of a local Church. His first circuit is Ponca,
where all these qualities will be in urgent demand throughout his
entire pastorate, which continued the full legal term. This first
pastorate is typical of all his subsequent ones, in that it
brought into action
HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM. |
371 |
those qualities that have made him a pronounced success
wherever he has been sent in the last twenty-three years. He found
Ponca in a very low state, spiritually and every way, but a great
revival, in which he was assisted by a Brother Wendell, an
evangelist from Iowa, gave the society a fresh start along
spiritual lines. The revival, however, has so increased the number
in Church and congregation, that a new church building becomes a
necessity, and under the wise and stimulating leadership of this
young probationer, speedily becomes a possibility, and a little
later, through the self sacrificing efforts of pastor and people
becomes a reality, in the erection of one of the best churches in
North Nebraska Conference. The future seemed bright with hope for
the Ponca Church and plans for aggressive work along all lines in
the new church were being laid, when suddenly, early in June, a
terrific wind storm tore their new temple to pieces, blighted
their hopes, and defeated their plans, or seemed to. To make
matters worse, the Conference had accepted their invitation to
hold its next session at Ponca in the new church. A few days
after, when the writer, who was then presiding elder of the
district, suggested to Brother Priest that I might have to change
the place of holding the Conference, the indomitable pastor said,
"No; we need the Conference more than ever." That was one of many
cases where the pastor was wiser than the presiding elder, for the
Conference met in Ponca and the Methodist preachers came to the
rescue of the stricken Church by pledging $500 to aid in
rebuilding. With this help the brave society rebuilt under the
wise leadership of C. V. Heywood.
It will suffice to say that in all the important
charges
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he has served, such as Norfolk, Lyons, South Tenth
Street, Omaha; Central City, Albion, Randolph, and Blair, this
faithful preacher and tireless worker has been successful. He has
for years been secretary of the Conference, and is yet in the
prime of life.
John P. Roe is one of the ablest preachers we
have ever had in Nebraska. He came to us originally from the
Episcopal Church. He was born in England and reared in the Church
of England, and coming to America, he naturally became a member of
the Episcopal Church and remained such till converted in a
Methodist revival, when he seemed instinctively to find his way
into the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he has ever since
been a stanch defender. He was licensed to preach, and served as
chaplain during the war. He returned from the war and served
several pastorates in the Wisconsin Conference. But probably the
greatest service he rendered the Church in Wisconsin was as
financial agent of Lawrence University, our Methodist school at
Appleton. He succeeded in relieving it of a burdensome debt, and
greatly strengthened it financially.
He took a supernumerary relation in the
Wisconsin Conference, and came to Nebraska in 1875, residing in
Omaha. Here he soon after lost his wife, a most accomplished lady,
characterized by a deep and intelligent piety. Brother Roe served
South Tenth Street two years, as noted elsewhere, and also Seward
and Crete, and at each of these places his ministry was attended
by large congregations, and his strong, faithful sermons made a
deep impression on the community.
Put perhaps his greatest service in Nebraska was
when, as elsewhere related, during his pastorate at the
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373 |
little mission church on South Tenth Street, Omaha. It is
not too much to say that during the first year he saved the
struggling society from bankruptcy by giving his entire salary to
pay their debt, and the next year made it possible for them to
build their present church by donating his salary to the building
fund.
John P. Roe is a man with somewhat peculiar
traits not often understood by the casual acquaintance and only a
few know him sufficiently well to appreciate his true nobility of
character. He is still residing in Omaha. In 1881 he was married
to Miss Cattell, an English lady with whom he became acquainted
during his pastorate at Seward. Sister Roe is a true Christian
lady, of great force of character, and is devoting her energies to
the task of ministering to her husband, who is rapidly failing in
strength. Brother Roe is among the honored superannuated members
of the North Nebraska Conference.
There is one more name that well deserves
mention.
R. Gortner came to Nebraska in 1882 and settled
on a homestead in Holt County. He was at once employed as a supply
by Dr. T. B. Lemon, though he had come to Nebraska to rest and
recuperate, his health having become impaired in Illinois. In 1883
he was admitted on trial in the Nebraska Conference, but was
transferred in 1884 to the North Nebraska Conference, and was one
of the two men appointed by Bishop Mallalieu to places on the new
Elkhorn Valley District, being sent to Inman.
While serving faithfully and efficiently on the
frontier for several years, J. R. Gortner's chief distinction lies
in the fact that he felt himself distinctly called of God to the
mission work in Africa, under that Pauline leader, Bishop William
Taylor. So, with his devoted wife and
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HISTORY OF NEBRASKA METHODISM. |
two boys, John Narver and Ross, he was sent to the chosen
field in the fall of 1887. There are few more pathetic stories in
the annals of missions than this brief account furnished by his
son, Rev. J. Narver Gortner, who for years has been a successful
minister of the Gospel in the North Nebraska Conference. He
says:
"My father was stationed by Bishop Taylor at
Garraway. Later he was made presiding elder of the Cape Palmas
District. He died the following March. I was alone with him when
he died, my mother being unconscious at the time. The next day I
assisted certain colored men in tearing down a partition in the
mission house and making two coffins, one to bury the remains of
my father in, and the other to bury the remains of Mrs. Meeker, a
missionary lady who had died the day before. A few months later my
mother and I, accompanied by my younger brother, Ross, returned to
America."
Though like Melville B. Cox, the first
missionary to Africa, J. R. Gortner in a few months fell a victim
to the dread African fever, this makes him none the less worthy of
all honor for the spirit of self-sacrifice that made him willing
to give his life, if not his service, to redeem Africa. And the
spiritual redemption of Africa should ever be an object of special
interest to Nebraska Methodism, seeing one of our number lies
buried there.
There are a few other names, but they are those
who remained only a few years among us and went to other fields.