friends outside of the Church, was this first Methodist church (and probably the first church of any kind except mission churches for the Indians) in the Territory carried forward to completion at a cost of $4,500, and in November, 1856, dedicated to the worship of God by Dr. Goode.
   This historic church does not depend wholly on the fact that it happened to be first for the significance that makes it worthy of this detailed account of its construction, but from the first has justified the heroic sacrifices involved at the beginning. It at once became the scene of great revivals and has always housed a vigorous Methodist society.

OMAHA.

   The next place to receive attention and the appointment of a regular pastor was the ambitious and growing village of Omaha. There was something about this location that attracted from the first settlement in 1854 some of the shrewdest and most far-seeing business men that came to the territory in those early years. From the first they seemed confident that Omaha was to be the metropolis of the West, and proceeded at once by all legitimate business methods, and some perhaps less scrupulous than they ought to have been, to realize their expectation. True, every town on the river from Rulo to Dakota City, entertained the same hopes. Some of them at the start possessed equal advantages, and one at least., Bellevue, superior natural advantages. Besides being a more eligible site in point of beauty, it was the point that nature seems to have determined as the proper place for the projected Pacific Railroad line to cross the Missouri,

furnishing a natural and easy route up the Papio and out on to the Platte bottom, which could have been constructed at far less expense than the line from Omaha. But from the first Bellevue and all the other competing points were out-generaled by the business men of Omaha, who by first securing the removal of the territorial capital from Bellevue where Governor Burt first located it, to Omaha, and at immense expense secured the building of the bridge for the Union Pacific Railroad at Omaha, forever settled the metropolis question in their favor.
   It was not likely that so wise a leader as Dr. Goode would fail to see and appreciate the strategical value of such a place and provide for it. Hence early in 1855, long before there was enough Methodists to form a class, he appointed Isaac F. Collins to the mission. This was probably in January, and he reached his field and entered upon his work about the 20th of the following March.
   Thus it occurred at Omaha, as at many other places in Nebraska, that the first events of a religious character were Methodistic. The first sermon preached, the first official appointed to look after her spiritual interests, the first pastor assigned and present on the field, the first church organization effected, and the first Protestant church building erected, were all Methodist.
   Of Isaac Collins little can be ascertained. During his pastorate at Omaha, he married a daughter of Brother Amsbary, the father of Rev. W. A. Amsbary. Another brother, Webster Amsbary, is still living, and furnishes me the following brief facts concerning this cultured and devoted man who laid the foundations of Omaha Methodism. He says the first time he saw Isaac Collins was

when, in 1855, he rode up to his father's log cabin on a pony, and announced himself as having been sent to Omaha Circuit. This extended north and west indefinitely. He also says that Collins was born in Michigan, and was educated at Ann Arbor. While a brother, Judson, went to China as a missionary, Isaac went to Arkansas, and there, after preaching some time, became principal of a seminary at Tellequia, in the Indian Territory. It was from this field that he came in response to Dr. Goode's call for workers in Kansas and Nebraska, and was assigned to Omaha. In 1858 he left the Nebraska portion and served some pastorates in Kansas.
   Isaac Collins was without a church to preach in or a house to live in. He soon found a place in which to live, being unmarried, and through the courtesy of the Territorial officials he was permitted to occupy the United States Government building in which to hold meetings. While it was not possible to effect all organization until six months after his arrival, he was not without a congregation, and some supporters, as nearly all the early settlers were anxious to have religious services maintained in the village, however they might feel towards the Methodist Church or its pastor.
   We would be glad to know who constituted that historic class which Isaac Collins finally succeeded in organizing in the month of September, 1855. The beginning of a local Church organization, representing an aggressive type of Christianity, is a matter of great moral significance in any community. The mere presence of such an organization, with its church building, and its recurring religious services announced regularly to the community by the ringing of the bell in their hearing, is

a constant reminder of higher interests to be cared for, and must tend to check and curb the more sordid and selfish tendencies of our nature; but when you add to this mere existence the potent moral energies and inspiring influences of the messages of divine truth delivered every holy Sabbath by some faithful man of God, the instruction imparted in the Sunday-school, the prayers and testimonies and example of the faithful members, you have a center of moral and religious power which radiates a constant influence for good to the community; and when in addition to all these regular and stated services you have at frequent intervals gracious and sometimes powerful revivals, you have all agency for good that no community can afford to be without, being, as such a Church is, the chief conservator of public morals, and the promoter of those high ideals of life that tend to produce the best result in life and character. But all this is especially true when the place where this Church begins its humble career is destined to become a great city, with its intense activities begetting a forgetfulness of divine things, and its powerful agencies of positive evil demoralizing many of the people.
   Rev. James Haynes, in his history of Omaha Methodism, says there were six enrolled in this first class, in September, 1855, but does not give the names. Nor is there any record preserved that affords information on this point. The only clue to this desirable information found in the names of those who one year afterwards partook of the sacrament at the first quarterly-meeting ever held in Omaha. These were Mr. and Mrs. Amsbary, Mr. and Mrs. Collins, Mrs. Crowell, Mrs. McCoy, and Mrs. Harris, and some, if not all of these were probably mem-

certaining what each was able to give, and then boldly demanding that amount. The event proved this demand was honored to such an extent that the church was carried forward to completion and dedicated in December, 1856. It was located in what has since become the heart of the city, on lots donated by the town-site company at the corner of Douglas and Thirteenth Streets, on the ground now occupied by the Omaha National Bank.
   We would gladly mention the laymen associated with Isaac Collins in this historic enterprise which meant so much of faith and sacrifice to them, but the loss of the early records make this impossible. We do not even know who the first trustees were, or who were on the building committee. We only know that of that memorable list that partook of the first communion in September, 1856, there was only one male member, Brother Amsbary, and he resided near Florence.
   The subsequent history of Omaha up to the end of this first period brings into view some strong men, one of whom, John M. Chivington, who afterwards attained to national notoriety, if not national fame, in what is known as the Sand Creek massacre, when he was in command of troops in Colorado. He succeeded Isaac Collins as pastor one year, and at the Conference in April, 1857, was made presiding elder of the Omaha District, and the next year was transferred to the Nebraska City District. He continued on this district until 1860, when he went to Colorado. John M. Chivington was one of those strong forceful characters who find it difficult to either control themselves or to subject themselves to the requirements of a Church, or to the rules of war, but are a law unto themselves. But for these defects he would have been a

power for good, as he was a strong preacher and possessed many of the elements which constitute successful leadership.
   J. W. Taylor followed J. M. Chivington as pastor at Omaha. This devoted pioneer preacher came of Southern stock, having been born in Fayette County, Virginia, December 6, 1815. He was converted and united with the Church at the age of fourteen. His natural gifts of speech and song soon led to his being licensed to exhort and then to preach. He went from Virginia to Michigan, where he was married to Barbara Eiken, who was his constant and loyal companion for sixty-five years, and then passed to her reward. His first charge was White Oak Grove, in Platte County, Missouri, to which State be had removed, and where he spent eighteen years of faithful service in the western part, a section which became, in the fifties, the very hot-bed of border ruffianism. Platte County, the scene of his first and some of his subsequent labor, was the storm center of the pro-slavery opposition to Northern Methodist preachers. It was here that the infamous Platte County resolutions were passed, threatening a coat of tar and feathers for the first offense, and death for the second, to any Northern Methodist preacher who should proclaim the Gospel in that county. Though the fact that he was a Virginian relieved the situation in his case somewhat, the fact that he was a minister of the Northern Methodist Episcopal Church made it extremely perilous for him, and during the last few years in Missouri he discharged his duty at the peril of his life. One of his fellow workers on an adjoining charge, Rev. Sellers, was tarred and feathered, while another, Father Holland, was shot dead, and

Brother Taylor, himself, was notified to leave the country or a similar fate would overtake him. The feeling of bitterness having taken possession of the masses in Missouri, and growing worse every day, rendered further effort useless, and the new field opening up in Nebraska presenting an opportunity for usefulness free from those obstacles, he deemed it right and wise to cross the river and enter the work in Nebraska, which he did in 1855. His ministry in Missouri till thus interrupted, had been very successful, and has been in Nebraska, but his homespun manners and style of preaching did not altogether suit the taste of the more fastidious people of Omaha, and his pastorate there can hardly be said to have been very successful. But the old hero has, by his cheerful, happy spirit; his inspiring songs, his plain, faithful preaching, contributed largely to the planting of Methodism in Nebraska. There are few, if any, of whom it is more frequently recorded that he was the first to preach the Gospel and organize the Church in the frontier settlements. He has since passed to his reward.
   In 1858 W. M. Smith followed Brother Taylor. Of him Haynes says: "Mr. Smith was a man of good gifts for the pulpit, and an able manager of the affairs of the Church; but his sentiments on the question then vexing the Church and nation were un-Wesleyan and provoking to a majority of the people comprising the communicants under his administration. The membership was small, numbering hardly half a hundred, and any subject on which they could not harmonize, and especially the grave one at that time agitating the commonwealth, was next to a disaster, as its direct tendency was to hinder the most successful carrying on of evangelical work. The

bitterness and asperity indulged in mere conversation were adverse to spiritual growth, and engendered animosity which has not yet been outgrown. Mr. Smith's success was not what it should have been, and, most likely would have been, if his views had tallied with a controlling number of his people. Methodism failed for this and other reasons to get a prevailing hold on the citizens and hence suffered for want of adequate support, either financial or moral."
   A man now appears on the scene, a devoted man, whose ministry was a great blessing to Omaha. H. T. Davis, D. D., entered the ministry in the Northwest Indiana Conference on trial, in October, 1855. After three years of successful work in that Conference, which was attended with gracious revivals, he felt called to the Western field, and in 1858 wrote W. M. Smith, who was then pastor at Omaha, to that effect, and he at once in formed the presiding elder of Brother Davis's wishes. He was offered Bellevue, then vacant. He, as soon as it was possible to make such a move, reported for duty, and entered upon a career that has meant much for the cause of Christ, and especially for Methodism. His experiences in first entering upon his work in Nebraska, will be related more in detail in another part of this volume. His entrance into Omaha, which had already begun to take on city airs, is characteristic both of the man and of the times. Being unable to secure anything better, he secured a lumber wagon drawn by a pair of oxen, to haul his goods to Omaha, and he and Mrs. Davis on the load, drove up Farnam Street to the parsonage. Dr. Davis was a man of great faith and was constantly expecting great things of the Lord, and soon in-

spired his little flock with a like spirit, and they rallied around him, forgetting their political differences, which had become so acute under the administration of his predecessor.
   Besides, H. T. Davis was always seen to be a man so preeminently of one work, and that work the salvation of souls, that few ever thought to inquire after his political predilection, though his private convictions were well defined. Such a pastor was much needed in Omaha just at this juncture, when political excitement had reached a high pitch. Brother Davis found a debt of five hundred dollars on the church, and the whole community so prostrated financially by the crash of 1857-58 as to make it impossible to raise the money to pay this debt in Omaha. His people gladly gave him permission and he went back among his Indiana friends and soon raised the whole amount.
   There is no record of any special revival interest during the first year, and he himself makes no mention in his book of special religious interest during the year, as he most certainly would if there had been. But the following year witnessed a very gracious revival.
   H. T. Davis's pastorate being full legal term of two years, carries us to the close of the first period, so further mention of Omaha will be deferred till we come to treat the second period.