CHAPTER XIX.

FOURTH PERIOD. (1880-1904.)

ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFERENCES.

   IF the retrospect of the achievements of the Third Period tend to make Nebraska Methodists grateful to the Great Head of the Church, these very achievements will keep us busy during the Fourth and last Period. This conquest of a State will make possible, and even necessary, further expansion along many lines, as we shall see.
   The first of these will be the speedy organization of two new Conferences. The very large growth of the past has made this a necessity. In the carrying out of that feature of our polity, known as the itinerancy, the Annual Conference becomes the unit of administration. In it are centered the interests, both of the local Churches and of the pastor. Though this is not strictly a function of the Conference proper, but of the appointing power, it is there the Bishop and his cabinet determines the momentous question for each charge as to who is to be their pastor, and for each preacher, what is to be his field of labor to which he and his family are expected to go. It is here the pastor makes his report for the year past and receives his marching orders for the year to follow. It is here that the Annual Conference examines every one of its members, and the bishop asks in open Conference whether there is anything against him. Till this is answered in the negative, the Conference will not pass his

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character. Any preacher, or the humblest lay member of the Church may be there, and if they know any reason why his character should not be approved, they may, in due form, say so, and the challenge will be respected and they will be heard. It is there the undergraduates are examined in their studies, and to them the Annual Conference is a theological school, with its four years' course of study, and the usual requirement is that they attain to a grading of seventy out of a possible rating of one hundred. They must pass their examination before committees appointed for that purpose.
   Besides these and other legal aspects of the annual gathering, which makes it the imperative duty of each preacher to be there, if possible, it is a most happy reunion of the soldiers in the field, and their wives. Then there is very sure to be the bishop, and a bishop is a very large personage in the eyes of the young preacher. Besides the bishop, some of the strongest men of the Church will be there to represent some of the connectional interests.
    For these reasons, every preacher ought to be, and wants to be, and usually is, at the Conference session. But the work having extended over so large an area, to attend Conference will mean for some hundreds of miles of travel and an expenditure of money out of all proportion to the amount received. Hence new Conferences have become a necessity, and will follow in due course.
   The first move in this direction is the organization of the West Nebraska Mission, embracing substantially the same territory as that comprised in the West and Northwest Conferences, except that the line came a little further east, taking in Hall and Merrick Counties along the Platte, and Holt County along the Elkhorn.

SOME OF THE FIRST MEMBERS OF THE NORTH NEBRASKA CON-
FERENCE.
1. J. L. ST. CLAIR. 2. J. R. GEARHART. 3. J. Q. A. FLEHARTY. 4. C. F.
HEYWOOD. 5. C. W. WELLS. 6. W. H. CARTER. 7. JABEZ CHARLES.
8. JOHN P. ROE. 9. J. M. ADAIR.

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   At the session of the Nebraska Conference at York, in 1881, it was decided by vote to make 6 Conferences of the territory lying east of the West Nebraska Mission, making the Platte River the dividing line running east and west, and the next year the North Nebraska Conference met for the first time on September 14, 1882, at Fremont, and its organization was completed by Bishop Merrill.
   We will want to know something more about some of these than their mere names, especially those who have become prominent, and those who have rendered long years of service. There are some with whom we have already become familiar; they have already been mentioned; and some have been characterized.
   There is J. B. Maxfield, who has been in the forefront of the battle for the past twenty years, and is destined to be the recognized leader for the next twenty years; then there is Jacob Adriance, whom we have seen laying the foundations of our Zion in two Territories; there is William Worley, whom we have met on the frontier planting Methodism in York County, still hearty and strong for another twenty years; there is S. P. Van Doozer, who led the hosts to victory on the North Nebraska District twenty years before, and is ready for any service to which the Church may call him; there is Daniel S. Davis, whom we saw ten years before unfurl the banner of the cross and set up the standard in Saunders County; there is Jabez Charles, who ten years before laid the foundations of our Zion in Madison and Boone Counties; there is John P. Roe. who, though a supernumerary, by his faithful and efficient labors and generous giving, did more than any other one man to make the present South Tenth

Street Church, Omaha, a possibility; there is E. G. Fowler, with his still frail body, but still eager soul.
   Besides these, of whom we have already made more or less mention, there are others who deserve much more than it will be possible to give. But there are some of these who have given so many years, and have occupied places of trust and responsibility, filling them creditably, that they must receive something more than a passing notice. Nor will the fact that some of them are still living and will read with some surprise what is said of them, deter us from more extensive mention of their work. If they be words of censure, may they profit by the same and be thankful for the "wounds of a friend." If they be words of commendation, there will be no impropriety in saying them before they die.
   J. B. Leedom is a name known and honored throughout the North Nebraska Conference, where for twenty-eight years he has lived a holy life of entire devotion to the Master, and usefulness to the Church, on circuit, station, and district. He was born in Middlesex, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, June 1, 1840, and was reared on a farm in a godly home, presided over by a Baptist father and a Methodist mother. He was educated in the common schools, which continued three months in the year. The balance of the time young Leedom worked on the farm till twenty-one. Patriotism led him to enlist in the army, in Company G, Eighty-third Pennsylvania Regiment Volunteer Infantry, and as a part of the army of the Potomac, he helped fight the following battles: Hanover Courthouse, Gaines Mill, Malvern Hill, Second Bull Run, and Rappahannock Station. Then in Grant's campaign, from May 1st to September,
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1864, in the Wilderness, Petersburg, Virginia, and South Side Road. When the term of enlistment expired, the fag end of the regiment returned to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where the enlistment roll was made out, and he was returned to civil life.
   Surely the above record is an expression of patriotism and heroism that any one might be proud of.
   At Pittsburg, in April, 1866, he was united in marriage with Miss Evaline Reynolds, who has been at his side in all his subsequent career as a Methodist itinerant, sharing with him the varying experience of joy and sorrow. Besides being a loyal, helpful wife and wise, devoted mother, Sister Leedom has been a prominent leader along different lines of Church work, but especially in the Woman's Home Missionary Society.
   It was two years after their marriage on the 14th of February, 1868, that they gave themselves in covenant relation to God and the Methodist Church.
   Brother Leedom was licensed to preach November, 1868, and was received on trial in the Erie Conference in September, 1870. A few years are given to the ministry in that Conference, when, as a result of some correspondence with S. P. Van Doozer, he was transferred to this Conference and began on the St. James Circuit a career of great usefulness, which continues to this day.
   They reached their charge in due time and moved their family of six into the small, but neat parsonage, twelve by twenty feet. But if the parsonage was small, he found a large circuit to give him plenty of hard work, something which Jacob B. Leedom always seemed to enjoy, and on which he seemed to thrive. In such laymen as the German Henry Ferber, and the English Henry

Morton and his father; Adam Snyder and his wife, and saintly W. H. Carter, who will himself soon be in the ranks, and that irrepressible local preacher, A. C. Butler, he found a large-hearted welcome and hearty co-operation. Souls were saved during the first year, and his work so acceptable that he is returned. This was a year of great spiritual prosperity, with revivals and conversions, but also of great hardship, on account of the grasshoppers.
   Brother Leedom's next pastorate was West Point Circuit, where three years' patient, efficient toil results in strengthening the charge along all lines, and he is rewarded at the Conference of 1879 by his being appointed as the successor of J. B. Maxfield as presiding elder of the North Nebraska District. This appointment was a complete surprise to himself, but later proved a benediction to many others. He served the full term, and during his administration churches were built at a number of places, and the number of charges on his district had so increased that a large portion of the New Albion District was taken from the western end, and still there was left for the writer, who succeeded him, seventeen charges on the Norfolk District, the district having been given that name.
   He has since, with a few intervals as supernumerary, on account of broken health, served different important pastorates, among them Eighteenth Street, Omaha, and Central City. He is now the successful pastor at Silver Creek.
   Alfred Hodgetts is another name well known in North Nebraska Conference, and indeed throughout Nebraska Methodism and in the Church at large, having filled some

of the most important places. He was a native of Brooklyn, New York, and received his first lessons in religious work in that city, in Talmage's school for lay workers. But he soon found his way to Nebraska with his family in 1878, his first charge being Blair, which he supplied under Dr. Maxfield, then presiding elder.
   He is received on trial at the next Conference and appointed to Wisner Circuit, which extended up the Elkhorn, and included Stanton, where he organized the first class. This class did not continue, however. We next find him on the Decatur Circuit, which then included Lyons, where Brother Hodgetts resided, and where he built a comfortable parsonage. Here he remained two years, and was then appointed to Papillion Circuit. We have now reached a turning point in the ministerial career of this young man.
   In the Conference at Blair, in 1884, Bishop Mallalieu, recognizing the need of two new districts to take the place of the Albion District, which we have seen was served for a while by the lamented Van Doozer, one to be along the Platte Valley and be called the Grand Island District, and one to be along the valley of the Elkhorn and be called the Elkhorn Valley District, and include the contiguous counties on either side of the river and west of Norfolk as far as the eastern half of Holt County. For this new district he selected Alfred Hodgetts.
   If ever a presiding elder was sent to a district well nigh empty-handed, it was Alfred Hodgetts. Maxfield had been sent to the new Beatrice District in 1871, with but five men appointed by the bishop. S. P. Van Doozer took with him four when he went on the Covington District in 1871. A. G. White had five given him when he

took the Kearney District in 1873, though only two members of the Conference and one probationer stay with him through the year. But this young man goes to his district of nineteen appointments, and finds that the bishop has appointed but two, one, D. C. Winship, who has just been received into full connection, and J. P. Gortner, who still remains on trial in the Conference. Happily, both these are excellent workers. But this leaves this inexperienced presiding elder seventeen charges for which he must find supplies. True, there are five most excellent men ready to his hand, and appear in the Minutes as if they had been appointed by the bishop. There is that stanch old Methodist preacher, Bartley Blain, who is a supernumerary member of the Minnesota Conference. He has already done some work in Holt County. He is now superintendent of public schools in that county, but will supply Star Circuit. There is Oscar Eggleston, who has just received license to preach, and is ready to enter on his long career as a useful, faithful itinerant, and he will serve Clear Water. Then there is that zealous local preacher, W. H. Burt, who has already done excellent work up in that country, on the Plainview and other circuits, and who will return to Plainview, where he has already done one year of excellent service. Then there is the irrepressible R. Kinne, who has just carried forward to completion a church at Neligh. He will supply the Willowdale Circuit, but will remain but a few months. That faithful, reliable local preacher, Charles G. Rouse, will supply Emerick. Then he will find at Knoxville another local preacher, J. W. Bell, but will soon wish he had not found him and must get rid of him. John Wright will supply Neligh.

   But Alfred Hodgetts will still find ten charges for which there are no men visible to serve as supplies. Any presiding elder, however experienced, that takes a district with ten places to be supplied, will be taxed to the utmost to find ten men suitable for this work. True, the appointments are published in all the Advocates, and advertise the fact that he needs ten men. This will be somewhat to his advantage, but will also be a source of great peril to his reputation for wisdom, and to the interests of the Lord's work. Many will at once apply for the places, and among them will be many excellent men. But he will find that almost every ecclesiastical dead-beat in the country is watching for this very opportunity, and will write him. How shall he separate this chaff from the wheat. It will not do to depend entirely on the recommendations sent him. He will find later that there are some of his brother presiding elders in the East and elsewhere, the strength of whose recommendations is in proportion to the worthlessness of the man, and is the measure of said presiding elder's desire to get rid of him. He may, when writing it, have quieted his conscience by the vain imagination that "any one will do for the frontier." Under these circumstances the presiding elder will find himself the subject of opposite sentiments, over against his caution will be his desire to get these vacant places supplied as soon as possible. He will be urged to prompt and perhaps hasty and inconsiderate action by the clamor of the people for a pastor, and will doubtless in some cases be imposed on.
   If he is to get good men for these ten vacant charges, it will not be because of the salaries he can promise them. The. highest salary reported the year before was $368,

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