A History of Nebraska Methodism

   IN the beginning of this period at the Conference held at Fremont, March 31, 1870, only twelve preachers answered to roll call, and as there was no note made of members coming in later, and no roll of the Conference members, it is somewhat difficult to ascertain the exact number, but there were probably about twenty-five. This number included such men as T. B. Lemon, W. B. Slaughter, C. W. Giddings, J. B. Maxfield, David Hart, A. L. Folden, Jacob Adriance, J. J. Roberts, Gilbert De La Matyr, G. S. Alexander, Martin Pritchard, H. T. Davis, A. G. White, Jesse L. Fort, and J. M. Adair, many of them intellectual giants, and capable and willing to do efficient service. Thirty-four received their appointments from Bishop Clark, and eight places were left to be supplied. There were 2,670 persons in full membership and 876 probationers. There were twenty-one churches, valued at $117,000, and fourteen parsonages valued at $15,000.
   Will Methodism be equal to this great emergency, and with this little band of thirty-four members of Conference be able to keep pace with this rapidly advancing frontier? Surely it will be tested severely, but as events prove, it is equal to the occasion.
   Providentially there were at the beginning of this vast movement of population four of the best presiding

elders Nebraska Methodism has ever had, whose four districts covered the ground of this advance. The Beatrice District was placed in charge of J. B. Maxfield in 1871, and included Gage, Jefferson, Saline, York, Thayer, Nuckolls, Franklin, and Harlan Counties, and the sparsely inhabited but unorganized territory extending to the west line of the State. The same year Bishop Ames placed H. T. Davis, who was on the Lincoln District, in charge of the new settlements along the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, which was extending its line west from Lincoln to Kearney. A. G. White was already on the Omaha District and had jurisdiction over the entire length of the Union Pacific Railroad and up the Loup River. The Covington District was formed in 1871 and placed in charge of that natural-born pioneer preacher, S. P. Van Doozer. It extended along the north tiers of counties in the State, from the Missouri on the east to the limits of settlement in the west, embracing about 10,000 square miles. As might be expected, these leaders of the past were equal to the demands of the situation.
Those were trying times for presiding elders, and for circuit riders who already had large circuits. Some Methodist settler, anxious that he and his few Methodist neighbors should be organized into a class and be supplied with preaching, would beseech the presiding elder to send them a preacher, or would visit the nearest circuit rider they could hear of and urge him to "come over and help." The presiding elder. moved by this clamor, would sometimes exercise less care than he would otherwise have done, and under the pressure of an urgent demand be tempted to send them the first man he could

find, and who would sometimes turn out to be an ecclesiastical dead beat, and great harm would follow. Or the already overburdened circuit preacher would yield to the urgent appeal and launch out into unorganized settlements and add appointment after appointment to his charge, rendering it more difficult to do justice to the original appointments. When in the spring of 1871, the writer was assigned to Schuyler Circuit, it embraced all of Colfax and Butler Counties. He had to cross the Platte on a flatboat every alternate week to fill his three appointments already existing along the Platte Valley. But during that spring and summer all that table-land from the Platte Valley to the Blue, and west into Polk County and east into Saunders, was settled. The following incidents will show how the work expanded in those days: On one trip during the summer, while crossing the river, an elderly man, an entire stranger, approached me and asked if I was the preacher on that circuit. An affirmative answer brought an urgent request that I go over to a new settlement some twelve miles southwest, on the table-lands and look after the religious interests of some of his sons, with others, who, with their families, were located there. There was nothing to do but to promise, and in a few weeks what is now Rising Church was organized, the man making the request being old Father Rising, after whom the town was named. About the same time, at the close of one of my services at the Rosenbaum appointment in the Platte Valley, in Butler County, a fine, intelligent looking man approached me, introducing himself as a new settler, and asked me to make an appointment at his house. The result of this interview was that in a short time the David

City Church was organized in the unfinished home of Captain A. F. Coon, the man who had hunted up the itinerant preacher and made the request.
   The problem of gathering up these scattered Methodist settlers and organizing them into classes and circuits proceeded along two lines, the spontaneous and the regular. There had come along with these very settlers many local preachers and some superannuated preachers, and some of the more zealous of these, seeing the need of immediate action, waited not for the coming of the presiding elder, but launched out into any unorganized territory and began work.
   The regular line of work consisted on the part of the presiding elder largely in pushing out himself and holding meetings in new settlements and then finding some one to supply the work, perhaps some local or superannuated preacher. The first of these movements, in order to distinguish it from the usual method, is called spontaneous, rather than irregular. In one sense it is the regular duty of the local preacher thus to supplement the regular.
   It will be interesting and instructive to trace some of these spontaneous movements that antedated the coming and exercise of authority on the part of even these vigilant presiding elders.
   A typical case of this kind of work is related by Rev. David Fetz, a local preacher at that time, who had settled in the northern part of Webster County in July, 1873: "Brother Moses Mapes, a local preacher, and I commenced work in the north part of Webster and the south part of Adams Counties, extending our work into Franklin and Kearney Counties. Wherever we could

obtain a place to preach we soon had a class and Sunday-school organized. The Lord was with us in great power and numbers were converted and added to the Church. At Cloverton, in the north part of Webster County, a class was organized that year of over fifty members, taking in nearly all the inhabitants for eight or ten miles around. Also at Daily's ranch, on the Little Blue another was organized of equal numbers, where infidels and skeptics, and all classes, had been swept into the kingdom of our Christ. One infidel was converted as he lay on his bed at the midnight hour reading his Bible. Immediately he arose, went out into the darkness, and going from house to house and calling the people out to tell them what the Lord had done for his soul. At other points equal victories were obtained. No presiding elder had reached that part of the country as yet, and the Conference knew nothing of our work until the following year."
As early as 1869 that consecrated apostle, Rev. James Query, a local preacher, had preached the first sermon in Polk County, in (now) Governor J. H. Mickey's house, and organized the first class in Polk County, consisting of James Query and wife, J. H. Mickey and wife, Mrs. A. Roberts, Mrs. Jane Clark, and V. P. Davis and wife. The class was attached to the Seward County Circuit. This same James Query performed the first marriage ceremony ever solemnized in Polk County. In his report to the Conference of 1872, H. T. Davis, presiding elder, says of this zealous local preacher: "Brother James Query, a local preacher, organized this year a work on the Upper Blue, in Polk County, and reported to me 130 members, including probationers, two Sabbath-schools

with sixty scholars. Assisted by George and Joshua Worley (also local preachers) a most gracious revival of religion took place and some seventy-five souls were converted to God, including some of the most influential citizens of Polk County. They desire the Conference to send them a preacher." This is the cry that came up from many settlements at that time.
The mention of the Worleys brings to view two local preachers that wrought diligently and efficiently in laying the foundations of our Zion in the country contiguous to their homesteads, including portions of Lancaster, Saunders, Seward, Butler, and Polk Counties. The two older Worleys, George and Joshua, were constantly on the lookout for openings, and were constantly finding them, where they might hold a meeting and organize a class. Sometimes they were temporarily employed by the presiding elder, as supplies, but more frequently asserted their right to pre-empt any unclaimed territory not occupied by the regularly appointed itinerant, and there raise the standard of King Immanuel, and take possession for Christ and the Church.
At Norfolk, W. G. Peels and John Allberry, local preachers, held the fort in Madison County till the regularly appointed minister came, or like Charles G. Rouse, assumed the aggressive and pushed out into new settlements, held revival-meetings, and organized and laid the foundation ready for the itinerant when he came. Or A. C. Butler in Cedar and Dixon Counties, in the extreme north, who organized the first Sunday-school in the Morton neighborhood, near where Hartington now stands, and afterwards going along with W. H. Carter into some neglected neighborhoods west of Hartington,

held revival-meetings, resulting in the organization of the Oliver appointment on the Wausa Charge, with seventy members and a church.
   Thus these zealous local preachers and devoted superannuates, who were willing, and capable of doing, the work needed at that time, were gladly utilized by these wise presiding elders, and they actually did much of the work of organizing the Church, work that could not possibly have been done when it needed to be done, but for their help.
   This will be a suitable place to speak more fully of the Worley family, a family that has played all important part in the history of Nebraska Methodism.
   Besides these years of faithful and efficient service by these two brothers, George and Joshua Worley, both local preachers, it was the privilege of George Worley to give three sons to the Methodist ministry, who in both the home and foreign fields have wrought efficiently for many years. William McKendree Worley, the oldest of these was born in Vermilion County, Illinois, December 23, 1839, father and grandfather being stanch Methodists. He was converted at the age of fourteen, and soon became class-leader and Sunday-school superintendent in his home Church.
   On the 18th of April, 1861, he enlisted in Company C, Twelfth Illinois Infantry, for a term of three months, was mustered into the United States service May 2d, at Camp Yates, Springfield., Illinois, by Captain U. S. Grant. He afterwards re-enlisted in the 135th Illinois Infantry, and was finally mustered out of the service September 28, 1864.
   Brother Worley removed to Nebraska in May, 1867.

   He was licensed to preach by Rev. C. W. Giddings, presiding elder of Lincoln District. He served one year as supply and junior preacher on the North and West Blue Circuit, which embraced all of Butler, Polk, Hamilton, York, and Seward Counties, and part of Saline County. There were twenty-two appointments on the charge.
   He was the first Methodist to preach in York County. The service was held at the home of Mr. Anderson, a few miles west of Beaver Crossing. Besides sixty-two dollars which he received from the missionary appropriation to that circuit, he received eleven dollars in money, five of which was paid by J. H. Mickey. In addition to this he received one pair of socks. There was but one school-house on the entire circuit, so of course the services had to be held in the private homes of the people at a time when these homes consisted of dugouts and sod houses, and rarely had more than one room.
   What he regarded as the greatest misfortune that came to him during that year was the loss of his saddlebags and their contents while swimming Plum Creek, fifteen miles north of Seward. The contents consisted of a pair of socks, a Bible, Discipline, Wesley's "Plain Account of Christian Perfection," and Fletcher's Appeal. This is doubtless a fair sample of an itinerant's library, and the swimming of the stream, not an uncommon experience in those days of bridgeless streams.
   Brother Worley was received on trial in 1873, and has had success on all the man charges he has served during his long career. New churches have been organized at Roca and Bancroft, and at Covington, Schuyler, Seward Street, Omaha, and other points, old debts have

been paid and churches built at Alder Grove, Bancroft, Richland, and a new parsonage at Lyons.
   There was some revival interest on every charge he served, and on some there were gracious revivals. At Albion a great revival occurred during Brother Worley's pastorate that brought into the Church such men as Dr. Lewis, C. G. Barns, and others, who proved to be a progressive element that has ever since carried the Church forward on lines of steady and healthy progress.
   Brother Worley represented the North Nebraska Conference in the General Conference of 1888. In 1895 he was transferred to the Nebraska Conference and has been uniformly successful in the successive pastorates assigned him, and he is yet hale, hearty, and cheerful, after a third of a century in the Christian ministry. He was married to Miss Frances T. Worrell in 1874, and she has proved a faithful Methodist itinerant's wife through all these years.
   Thomas, another one of the Rev. George Worley's "boys," was born in Vermilion County, Illinois, October 11, 1852, and converted in 1865. He was educated at the State University, and after two years at Garrett Biblical School, was received on trial in 1876. After several years of efficient service in Nebraska, he was sent as a missionary to Central China, where he remained a few years and returned to the work in Nebraska.
   Thomas Worley has done excellent work on many of the successive important charges he has served, and is now pastor at Weeping Water, where the old stone church. built by Andrew L. Folden thirty years before was enlarged and remodeled at a cost of some $7,000.
   Jas. H. Worley, the third son given by George Wor-

ley to the ministry, was born May 17, 1854, and was also educated in the State University. At about the time James Worley was taking his course, there occurred the effort elsewhere referred to, to turn the institution over to infidel influence, and had so far succeeded that it became a hand to hand contest between St. Paul's Church and the infidel professors, who should have the boys and girls. Mrs. Roberts, Mrs. Hyde, Mrs. Peckham, and other elect ladies of the Church, found in James Worley one of the most efficient helpers, being their missionary to the students, carrying their invitations to attend socials at their homes and to come into their classes in the Sunday-school.
   He was received on trial in the Nebraska Conference in 1880, and was sent as a missionary to China in 1882, to which field he has given twenty-two years. He was for seven years principal of the Theological Seminary at Foochow, and has been the rest of the time in evangelistic work. He was the delegate from Foochow Conference to the General Conference in 1900. He is now presiding elder of a district, and in a letter to the writer, joins with all the other missionaries in noting a marvelous change taking place in old China, presaging great events in the near future, which will accrue to the more rapid advance of missionary work.
   It has been given to but few men to do more for the cause of Christ by their own personal work in the local ranks, and to give to the Church three ministers whose influence has been as great on both sides of the globe.
   While these spontaneous is activities of faithful local preachers were valued, and always recognized and incorporated in the system, they were the exception, and in
   16

their nature temporary. These enterprising presiding elders were on the constant lookout for these new settlements and were kept posted in various ways as to the needs and possibilities of the work, and were not long in finding some one to supply the field.
Thus word came to Dr. Maxfield, who in 1871 had been placed in charge of Beatrice District, then a frontier district, that a man was needed on the Republican, and C. W. Wells was sent.
The appointment and work of Brother C. W. Wells on the frontier being a typical one, is well worthy of a somewhat detailed statement, which will best be told in his own language, as recorded in his very valuable and intensely interesting book, "Frontier Life," prefacing his own statement of the case by a few preliminary and explanatory facts. In 1871 Rev. C. W. Comstock had been appointed to the Republican Valley Circuit, but after a brief visit to the country he became discouraged and returned as far as Fairbury, to which Brother Wells had been appointed, saying in explanation that he did not like to stay in a country where he had to carry a revolver, accompanying the remark by an exhibition of such a weapon. But people were beginning to crowd into the Republican Valley and must be cared for. Dr. Maxfield wrote Brother Wells that there were Methodists at Red Cloud, and asked if he would go out and look after them, adding, "There is no use sending C., I want some one who has sand in his craw." Recognizing this essential quality in Brother Wells he asked him, and Brother Wells possessing the quality in rare degree, went, though at great sacrifice. It may be remarked in passing that while Brother Wells has put in many years of valuable

work, and is now an honored superannuated member of the Nebraska Conference, Comstock, after a few years of inefficient work, dropped out entirely and has long since been forgotten. The frontier service tended to sift the ranks of the itinerancy and usually all but those who had the requisite "sand in their craw" dropped out. Referring to this willingness of Brother Wells to go to this hard field, Dr. Maxfield says in his next report to Conference, "God's blessing rests upon men who shake hands with ease and comfort, bidding them farewell and taking their lives in their hands, thus go forth bearing the precious seed."
   But we must let Brother Wells tell his own story of his experiences during his pastorate there, as recorded on pages 190 to 193:
   "Now came the tug of war with real frontier work in the ministry. For the first months my time was principally spent in looking over the country for Christian people and for houses to preach in. Soon after reaching Red Cloud an appointment was made at Brother Penny's, about four miles southwest of town, and at Brother Knight's, some five miles from Red Cloud up the valley, and another one about eight miles southeast of town.
   "At the Penny appointment preaching was in Brother Penny's house, which was a log building with a roof of 'shakes' split from the native oak-trees on his own place. Here I had a good preaching point during my entire pastorate on the charge. At Red Cloud I procured a vacant log building, which I occupied for a short time, then preached in Mr. Garber's store-room for a while; after this I moved into a dug-out in the south part of town, which shall be noticed further on. At the Knight

appointment I preached in Brother Knight's house, and, if I remember correctly, it was covered with poles and dirt, and had a floor of native soil. Here, as previously, we sang, prayed, preached, ate, and slept all in the same room, and had a glorious, good time. At the appointment southeast of Red Cloud we had preaching and Sunday-school in a dug-out in the bank of a creek, where we worshiped the Lord in the winter season, and in the summer we worshiped under the branches of two large oak-trees. Under these native trees I preached, held Sunday-school, and we made the woods and hills ring with our songs of praise and plain Gospel sermons. I often wonder if the echo of my voice is not still heard in that new country. The many happy hours I spent among those warm-hearted early settlers in dug-outs and sod houses will never be forgotten. They will be held in sweet remembrance as long as I live.
The house where I boarded was about as good as the country afforded at that time, and yet it was a very uncomfortable place in cold, stormy weather. Many times I have sat poring over my books while the snow sifted through the roof upon them, and I was compelled to throw something over my shoulders and sit in a stooping posture in order to keep my books from being soiled. Though the house was open to the cold, we could keep comfortably warm, for we were blessed with plenty of wood and a large fireplace. I say plenty of wood; there was plenty close by, but much of the time I carried it from the grove on my own shoulders. In cold weather, Brother Penny was usually on the road teaming, and left me to replenish the woodpile without a team.
"Another burden was imposed upon me. A good

brother who lived a mile from my boarding place was compelled to leave home and find work, that he might provide bread for his family. While he was away there came a heavy fall of snow. The weather grew exceedingly cold and the fuel he had provided for his family was entirely consumed. As there was no other man near, it fell to my lot to replenish this brother's wood-pile also, and keep his family from freezing. He had drawn up a lot of ash poles for fencing, which I converted into stove-wood, and, on his return he found his fencing had been burned to ashes. There is a vast difference between acting the part of a city pastor and preaching on a large circuit in the frontier work. While the city pastor is sitting in his cozy study at home, the frontier preacher is perusing his books in a cold room, with the family of children about him, or traveling through deep snow to meet his appointments, or to relieve the sick and destitute. Yet there is a glory in laying the foundation of our beloved Zion in a new country that many of our Eastern preachers know nothing of. I have no disposition to envy the comparatively easy lot of our Eastern brethren; but I do sympathize with them in their loss of the glory there is in laying the foundation Church in the new fields, upon which others may build.
"In all my travels on that large circuit at Red Cloud, through the snow and cold, piercing winds of winter, I neither had an under-garment nor an overcoat. Being born a backwoodsman, I did not mind such things as one who had been used to the comforts of life. On this charge I had some difficulty in finding houses to preach in; for when first going to the place there were no school-houses in all the country; so I preached in private houses, hop-

ing for the time when my congregation could have even a sod school-house to worship in. Even in the town of Red Cloud I was compelled to resort to a little dug-out on the outskirts of the village, where we held a series of meetings which resulted in great good for the Master's cause. Let the pastors of the present-day beautiful churches in Red Cloud rejoice that they are so comfortably situated, and remember that the first pastor and his little flock in that now flourishing town, preached, sang, and prayed in a small dug-out in the ground.
"On first coming to this country, I found Indians, buffaloes, deer, antelopes, turkeys, thousands of prairiedogs, and a few white men with their families. What a change has taken place in that country in so short a time! Then it was new, wild, and desolate; now it is well settled, rich, and a fertile country, with school-houses and churches; and fine residences have taken the place of the dug-out, the sod-house, and the log-cabin. The first winter I spent there I killed twelve wild turkeys, two of which were shot from the window of my room. Besides these, Brother Penny killed some seven or eight. So you see the wild turkey took the place of yellow-legged chicken. Then, occasionally, some chanced to kill a deer or buffalo, which went far toward supplying the table with meat the entire year.
"During the winter we held a revival-meeting in our dugout church, eight miles southeast of Red Cloud. Though worshiping under ground, there were many souls saved and made happy in the Lord, and there was a glorious awakening among the people of God. Truly the Lord is not confined to the large assemblies, the city-full, or the fine churches, but meets and blesses his peo-

ple in the dug-out, the sod house, and the log-cabin. O what a wonderful God is our God, who heareth the prayers of His people at all times and in all places!
   "In the spring of 1872 I finished my first year's work in the Conference, and on the Red Cloud Circuit, and went to Conference to report my charge. Traveling from Red Cloud to the seat of Conference, a distance of a hundred and fifty miles or more, through mud, rain, and cold, I reported as follows: Full members, twenty-three; probationers, six; received on salary from the circuit, thirty-two dollars; from the Missionary Society, $150--making $182 for the year. The bishop returned me to the Red Cloud Circuit, where I spent another year of toil and hardship, worrying through the year about as I did the previous one. During the warm season I had a good and enjoyable time in traveling up and down the valley and across the prairie with my horse and buggy; but in the snow and severe winds of winter, being poorly clad, I suffered intensely from the cold. During this year a class was formed at Guide Rock, which was made a regular preaching point, though there were but few Methodists at the place or within reach of it. I now had five preaching points; on the charge, which gave me abundance of work.
   "In the summer of 1872 we held a camp-meeting southwest of Red Cloud, on what was called Penny Creek. Here we had a successful meeting, and received some fifteen into the Church on probation, and the presiding elder, J. B. Maxfield, baptized a number of converts in the Republican River - the first Methodists baptized in that river in Nebraska.
   "During the week of our camp-meeting a heavy rain

storm visited the camp, saturating the ground to such a degree that it was unfit for use; so the presiding elder and I, with a few of the brethren, went on a buffalo hunt, We hunted all day without seeing my game, and came home tired and hungry, as hunters usually do. But the elder and the brethren went out the second time with better results. After hunting a few hours in the morning, they came upon their game, wounded a large male buffalo and chased him for several miles. He ran until he could or would go no farther, and then seemed determined to defend himself. Halting not far from where two young men were in camp, he unmistakably showed signs of fight. On seeing that he would go no farther, one of the young men, taking his gun, walked out toward him. As he was approaching the beast one of our men called to him not to go too close or he might be hurt. Paying no attention to the warning, he went on, swearing that he would kill the animal. When within a few rods of the, enraged beast, he presented his gun for firing; but the buffalo made a lunge for him, caught and crushed him to the ground, and threw him five or six feet into the air. As he came to the ground the buffalo prepared for another attack, when one of our men shot the beast through the heart, killing him instantly. The young man was taken to his camp and died there. Our men dressed the buffalo and returned to the camp-ground with enough beef to supply every person there for more than a week. Our camp-meeting closed with the good results already mentioned, and every one went home greatly benefited by having attended. The presiding elder, J. B. Maxfield, and a family by the name of Hurlburt came to this camp-meeting from Fairbury, nearly eighty miles distant, in a

covered wagon. Thus the reader can see something of the presiding elder's work and what he passed through in the early days of Methodism in this new country. Brother Maxfield's district extended from somewhere east of Beatrice as far west as the Nebraska line, a distance of more than three hundred miles, though he was not required to go so far west; for as yet much of the country was unsettled."
What Brother Wells and George W. Hummel were doing in the Republican Valley, others of like spirit were doing all along the line. About this time the tide of immigration was pouring into all the country west of the Big Blue, and in 1871 Bishop Ames placed the territory contiguous to the B. & M. R. R., which was being built from Lincoln to Kearney, in the care of H. T. Davis, then presiding elder of the Lincoln District. He procured the services of Rev. G. W. Gue, a transfer from Central Illinois Conference, to organize the work in Fillmore County. Brother Gue was a man of fine culture and high, scholarly attainments. He went to work with a will, visiting the people in their sod houses, and organizing them into classes, and soon formed a circuit. Perhaps no part of Nebraska has been settled with people of a higher grade of intelligence than those that speedily occupied the table-lands extending west of the Big Blue to Adams and Hamilton Counties. They were ambitious and enterprising and in nine months after the first settlement of Fairmont, Brother Gue had a church well under way. The next year Brother Gue was appointed to First Church, Omaha, and seemed equally at home in either charge.
In Clay County, Newman Brass was doing the same

kind of work, hunting up the Methodists that were coining in and organizing them. Others were doing the same in York, Butler, and Polk Counties.

If we are to judge of the value of the work accomplished in those early days by the subsequent growth of the Church, no more important work was done in 1871, than when the York Church was organized. Of the organization of this important charge, H. T. Davis gives this interesting account: "The first Methodist class was organized at the house of David Baker in the spring of 1871, and was composed of the following persons: David Baker, Elvira Baker, J. H. Bell, Thomas Bassett, L. D. Brakeman, Ella Brakeman, Sarah N. Moore, Thomas Myres, John Murphy, Mary Murphy, S. W. Pettis, and Mrs. Shackelford. Brother Baker was the leader. At Brother Baker's house the class was regularly held; and here the traveling preacher always found a royal welcome. The home of Brother and Sister Baker was always open to newcomers, and Father and Mother Baker were household names in every settler's cabin in York County for many years. In 1872 the writer had the privilege of sharing their hospitality, and after remaining over night with the kind family, in the morning Brother Baker ferried me over Beaver Creek in a sorghum-pan. The stream was high and could not be forded, and there was no bridge, so the only way of crossing was in this unique boat."
But before the organization referred to by Dr. Davis, W. E. Morgan, a graduate of Garrett Biblical Institute, had preached in Father Baker's sod house on the 14th of

May. He afterwards served as pastor for several years. Doubtless the location of our Conference school at York in 1879 tended to strengthen our Church, attracting as it did many Methodist families. During the existence of the school, under the pastorates of W. S. Blackburn, George A. Smith, H. T. Davis, Duke Slavens, and W. K. Beans, the membership increased from 140 to 568.
W. S. Blackburn was pastor at York at the time the school was located there, and it was largely through his influence that this action was taken. Of course, before this action, York had the reputation of being one of the most moral communities in the State. Up to that time, and ever since, they had kept the saloon out, and this had much weight in determining the Conference to locate at York. Though soon after the location of Wesleyan at Lincoln, the York College ceased to be, the Methodist Church had already acquired such strength that this fact did not check its growth, but it kept on growing under the successive pastorates of Hilton, Crosthwaite, and Stewart, until the present pastor, in his sixth year of a successful pastorate, finds himself the pastor of the third largest Methodist Episcopal Church in Nebraska, with nearly 800 members. The two which excel it numerically are St. Paul's Church, Lincoln, and University Place.
It would be interesting if space permitted to give the life history of each of the men who have wrought in the building up of so strong and influential a Church as that at York. But this is impossible, and we must be content with the mere mention of the names, except in a few cases of long service to the Church in Nebraska. Of Davis and Crosthwaite mention has been made on other pages.

   W. S. Blackburn was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, September 11, 1830. He first became conscious of the love of God in his heart when eight years of age, but childhood conversion received less recognition then, and he was not encouraged in his religious life and fell into spiritual darkness. This continued until he was fifteen years of age, when he was clearly converted, and has since that day to this, "witnessed a good confession."
   After spending some time at Allegheny College he was, at the age of nineteen, without solicitation on his part, licensed to exhort by his Quarterly Conference, and was at once assigned work in a destitute neighborhood and soon had, as seals to his ministry, twenty souls converted. He was soon licensed to preach, and on the 18th of June, 1851, he was admitted on trial in the Pittsburg Conference, and began a successful ministerial career of over half a century.
   In July, 1854, Eliza Jane Wakefield, the granddaughter, of a pioneer Methodist minister, became his life companion, and from that day to this she has devoted her life to the work required of a minister's wife, with an enthusiasm and efficiency which has largely contributed to the successes which mark her husband's ministerial career.
   Pronounced unfit for service in the Union army in 1861 as a common soldier, he later waived an appointment as chaplain in favor of his junior colleague. Soon thereafter he took work with the Christian Commission and spent a term in that important auxiliary service, ministering to the physical wants of the sick and dying soldiers, pointing them to the Savior and seeing many a brave boy die with the love of the Redeemer quickening

his departing soul and banishing the sting of death and the terror of the grave.
   For sixteen years Mr. Blackburn was a member of the Pittsburg Conference, and on every charge his passion for soul saving was rewarded with conversions. In the fall of 1867 a transfer was taken to the Nebraska Conference, and for the next twenty-seven years this pioneer pastor colabored with those grand old evangelists, Lemon, Pritchard, Slaughter, Giddings, Burch, Davis, Maxfield, and others, serving the Church in pastorates at Brownville, Rulo, Salem, Athens, London, Auburn, Plattsmouth, and York, in the original Nebraska Conference, and in West Nebraska Conference, at Axtell, Benkleman, Culbertson, Gering, and Republican.
   Always frail in body, he believed a change of climate and rest would benefit him. He went to California and spent a couple of years, during which time he served San Miguel. Finding himself renewed in strength he returned to Nebraska, and at Republican City, in West Nebraska, in the State to which he had given over twenty-five of his best years in a faithful, efficient service, he fittingly rounds out his half century in the Christian ministry by a pastorate attended by old time revival power and the conversion of souls. He returned to California, and he and his saintly wife are spending a happy, peaceful old age, serenely waiting the summons that shall call them up higher. In closing a letter to his son, T. W. Blackburn, a prominent lawyer of Omaha, he says:
   "With a heart glowing with gratitude to the Infinite Father, that He has given me so long a life of service in the ministry and that He has crowned my more than threescore and ten years with His loving kindness, strong

in the faith that came to me in childhood, happy in the memories of half a century in the itinerancy, and confident that God will welcome me home in His own good time, I here expect to spend the remnant of my days and from this city at His call to remove to the city not made with hands, whose builder and maker is God."
Another strong man who wrought in the rearing of the goodly structure of York Methodism, was J. W. Stewart, during whose pastorate the Church passed through a severe crisis in the loss by fire of the beautiful structure that had been erected during the pastorate of H. T. Davis. Of this great calamity the local historian, Mrs. Sarah N. Moore, gives this pathetic description: "One calm, beautiful night in October, the 16th, 1895, while prayer-meeting was in session in the lecture-room, fire was steadily making its way through the roof of the building, and by the time it was discovered it was too late to save the building, and while members and friends stood by and watched with tears running down their cheeks and exclamations of sorrow and regret coming from their lips, our beautiful church home was burned to the ground. We were bereft indeed, for was it not the second year of the drouth, and how could we ever rebuild. It was deemed an impossibility.
"Our sister congregations offered to share their church homes with us, but our membership was large, and it was thought best to secure a room, though it might be small and inconvenient, where we might hold regular services without interfering with the rights of others. As in the early days, there was no room suitable for a place of worship. But the Sunday after the fire found the congregation assembled in an empty store room on the

south side of the square, fitted up with a pulpit, a few pews, and the organ, which had been saved from the fire, and chairs sufficient for the seating capacity. We had a stirring sermon from the pastor, Brother Stewart, and at the close an appeal for money to rebuild the church, and in an incredible short time $6,000 had been subscribed, and it was settled that the Methodist Episcopal Church of York would not be homeless for a very long time."
   Thus John W. Stewart successfully led the Church of York through this fiery trial at a time when the financial conditions throughout the entire country were depressed, and a severe drouth in Nebraska had intensified these unfavorable conditions to such an extent as to make the building of such a church as York needed to seem to the people an impossibility. But this incident is characteristic of the man and of his entire career.
   He entered the ministry forty-six years ago, in 1858, in the Central Illinois Conference, but when the war broke out he enlisted in the service of his country, holding the rank of major. After discharging his duty to his country, he resumed his place in the ministry, and in 1874 was transferred to the Nebraska Conference.
   George A. Smith became a member of the Wisconsin Conference in 1858, and gave over twenty years to the ministry in that Conference before coming to Nebraska in 1880. He stood high in a Conference of such men as W. G. Miller, Coleman, George C. Haddock the martyr, and others. Since coming to Nebraska he has served the prosperous and important charges of York and Fairmont. But recognizing his superior ability as a preacher, and his sound judgment, the Church soon called him to

the presiding eldership of the Lincoln District, and then to the Nebraska City District.
   A sad misunderstanding of the situation in relation to our University matters that were at that time very complicated, led Bishop Warren to remove him from the latter district before his six years expired. The bishop was manly enough to afterward acknowledge his mistake and the wrong he had done to one of God's purest ministers. In 1892 he asked and received a superannuated relation, and has since lived in University Place. But he has not been idle during these years of his retirement, but often supplies the pulpit for his pastor, and always to the delight and profit of his hearers. Though past seventy, his sermons are still delivered with much force, and contain many passages of rare beauty and originality, reminding us of the days when he was a great power in the pulpit and the counsels of the Church.
   He has also spent much of this quiet evening of his life in literary works and has written and published a volume of poems, "Evening Bells," in which the sweetness of his own inner life finds tender expression, and other lives are being enriched. Though afflicted with partial deafness, he is happily spending his declining years along with his devoted wife and accomplished daughter, Mamie, a teacher in the music department of Nebraska Wesleyan.
   About the same time that George A. Smith came to Nebraska, another of Wisconsin's strong men came, in the person of Dr. W. G. Miller, being transferred to the Nebraska Conference in 1879. Beginning his ministry in 1844, it was his privilege to give a half century in this blessed work, fifteen of which were given to Ne-

braska. Death closed his long and useful career in 1893, and his brethren place on record the following brief summary of his life and work, and also these fitting words of appreciation of his worth:
"Wesson Gage Miller was born in Otsego County, New York, February 8, 1822, and died in University Place, Nebraska, December 20, 1893. His youth was spent in New York and in the summer of 1844 he settled in Waupun, Wisconsin, and went into business. He soon dropped secular pursuits and entered the ministry. His first circuit, Waupun, had twenty-two appointments requiring two services daily to reach all the points in two weeks. His next appointment was Watertown, where he performed the double duty of pastor and teacher. His third appointment was Waukesha, and his fourth Grand Avenue, Milwaukee. At the age of twenty-eight he was appointed presiding elder of Fond du Lac District and served for four years. He then served a pastorate of two years each at Racine and Janesville, after which he served Milwaukee District four years and pastor in Milwaukee three years. He was again appointed to Fond du Lac and Ripon and again, in 1872, to Milwaukee. April 26, 1874, during the delivery of a sermon, he was taken violently ill with a serious nervous prostration which caused him to retire for two and one-half years. On his recovery he was again appointed to Milwaukee, and in 1879 Bishop Harris transferred him to the Nebraska Conference and appointed him presiding elder of Omaha District, which he served two years, when the Conference was divided and he was appointed to York District for four years, and finally to the Lincoln District for six years, when he retired from the active work of the min-
17

istry, but continued to render what service he could to the University of whose Board of Trustees he was the president. All through his busy life he rendered much valuable service to the Church besides that assigned him by the Conference, especially in connection with the work of Christian education and the dedication of churches. Dr. Miller was an able preacher, a faithful pastor, a wise administrator and a warm friend to whom none need ever come in vain. He attended the Conference last September at Beatrice and made a touching address which all felt were farewell words. His last weeks he patiently waited for the summons to call him home. His work abides to bless the world. His memory is precious; may his mantle fall upon us who remain."