ItHROIS HISTORICAL SURVEY 
 

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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
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MINISTERS 
 
 of 
 
 FIRST 
 
 CHRISTIAN CHURCH 
 
 (Disciples of Christ) 
 
 SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS 
 1833 — 1962 
 
'♦: 
 
 OBH 
 
 42k 
 
MINISTERS 
 
 of 
 
 FIRST 
 CHRISTIAN CHURCH 
 
 (Disciples of Christ) 
 SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS 
 
 1833 - 1962 
 
 by 
 
 CHARLES FOSTER McELROY 
 
 Printed 
 as a private edition by 
 
 THE BETHANY PRESS 
 
Copyright © 1962 by Charles Foster McElroy 
 
 Manufactured in the United States of America 
 
 $5.00 
 
n,55(p 
 
 To the memory of 
 my companion and comrade 
 
 Cora Clarke McElroy 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 Church historian and elder emeritus, Charles Foster Mc- 
 Elroy, now in his eighty-sixth year, goes to his office every day 
 as attorney-consultant-adviser for the Department of Revenue, 
 State of Illinois. He has devoted much of the rest of his time 
 for nearly four years to the necessary research, correspondence, 
 and writing involved in the publication of this book of histor- 
 ical and contemporary interest. 
 
 When Dr. William F. Rothenburger was pastor of the 
 Springfield First Christian Church from 1917-27, he compiled 
 biographical sketches of eleven former pastors and assembled 
 other data in a scrapbook with this handwritten introduction: 
 
 In order that the rich history of First Christian Church throughout 
 ninety-four years might be preserved to future generations, all avail- 
 able historical sketches have been compiled and bound into this volume. 
 While they are necessarily fragmentary, they will nevertheless provide 
 succeeding generations with a knowledge of the trend of events 
 throughout almost a century (save six years) of rich history. Compiler, 
 Wm. F. Rothenburger, June, 1927. 
 
 Another stimulus to Mr. McElroy was the suggestion by one 
 of his later pastors, Harry M. Davis (1951-1955) that por- 
 traits of former ministers be procured. Mr. McElroy has fol- 
 lowed through on this suggestion, adding portraits not only 
 of ministers, but of their wives, and also of living link mission- 
 aries. With the artistry of photographer Herbert Georg, who 
 
is able to produce a beautiful portrait from an old or damaged 
 snapshot or newspaper picture, Mr. McElroy has assembled a 
 collection of fifty-one portraits of twenty-four pastors, twenty- 
 one wives, and six missionaries. These portraits were presented 
 to the church by Mr. McElroy as a memorial to his wife, Cora 
 Clarke McElroy. Their son and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. George 
 Clarke McElroy of Chicago, were present when this unique 
 and valued collection was dedicated in special services on 
 September 21, 1958. The Disciples of Christ Historical 
 Society, Nashville, Tennessee, felt that this collection of por- 
 traits, which is displayed in the spacious hall east of the sanctu- 
 ary, should be augmented by a compilation of biographical 
 information regarding these church leaders. In three years' 
 time Mr. McElroy's research has taken him to college and 
 library centers in many sections of the country, and he has been 
 in correspondence with relatives and interested church people 
 from coast to coast. 
 
 With perfectly amazing persistence of vision, sense of mis- 
 sion, and tenacity of purpose, Mr. McElroy has brought this 
 work to its present state of readiness for publication. It is 
 particularly appropriate that those who find an interest in this 
 volume should come also to know more about the author. 
 
 Charles Foster McElroy, son of George Washington Mc- 
 Elroy and Laura Foster McElroy, was born April 26, 1876, 
 on a farm in Red Willow County, Nebraska. His father, a 
 graduate of the Eureka College Bible Department in 1874, 
 served as state evangelist in central Illinois for two years. He 
 held a revival meeting in a schoolhouse at a country crossroads 
 called Blooming Grove, about 35 miles southwest of Spring- 
 field, between Palmyra and Girard, with 48 additions, resulting 
 in the formation of a congregation. He became the first pastor, 
 and in 1874 caused the erection of a frame church building 
 which is still in use. One of the charter members was Miss 
 Laura Ophelia Foster, daughter of Dr. Robert Foster, phy- 
 
sician and pioneer preacher. She and George W. McElroy were 
 married April 25, 1875. They then took up a homestead in 
 southwestern Nebraska. Due to a devastating raid by grass- 
 hoppers, and fears of an attack by the Indians, they moved 
 to Kansas. After the father died in 1880 the family returned 
 to Illinois. Charles was about three and a half years older 
 than his boyhood friend, Vachel Lindsay. 
 
 Mr. McElroy attended Eureka College for two years, where 
 he played on the first basketball team. He is a graduate of 
 Butler University, 1904, and received his law degree, J.D., 
 from the University of Chicago in 1915. He has traveled to all 
 continents and visited thirty-eight foreign countries. He can 
 be found in the cast of a play at the Springfield Theatre Guild 
 or on a special bus loaded with young people en route to a 
 Springfield High School basketball game. Although not the 
 oldest member in age, he holds the longest membership in 
 First Christian Church, having been baptized by Elder John 
 B. Briney in November, 1890. He served two terms as chair- 
 man of the General Board of the church. During the last three 
 years (1959-1961) he has been a member of the Committee 
 on Recommendations of the International Convention of Chris- 
 tian Churches (Disciples of Christ) . He is a life member of the 
 Art Institute of Chicago and of the Disciples of Christ Histor- 
 ical Society and is a director of the Vachel Lindsay House 
 Fund, Inc., which purchased and restored the Lindsay home 
 and made it a shrine for visitors. 
 
 He toured Mexico in 1954; visited Latin-American mission 
 stations in South America in 1956; went around the world in 
 1958; went on an extended bus tour of "Landmarks of Disciple 
 History" in 1959; attended the World Convention of Christian 
 Churches (Disciples of Christ) in Edinburgh, Scotland, and 
 toured Scandinavia in I960. 
 
 In the summer of 1961 he was hailed as a world champion 
 at the American Shakespeare Festival Theatre and Academy 
 
in Stratford, Connecticut. He had just come from the Bard's 
 Playhouse in Stratford, Ontario, where he had seen Shake- 
 speare's play, Coriolanus. While in Connecticut he saw Troilus 
 and Cressida starring Jessica Tandy. One of the proudest boasts 
 of the late George Bernard Shaw was that he had seen 27 
 different plays of Shakespeare, more than anyone else in the 
 world. Charles F. McElroy produced an authenticated list of 
 the 30 which he has seen, beginning with Antony and Cleo- 
 patra which he saw in Springfield in 1899. The press repre- 
 sentatives of the American Shakespeare Festival thought that 
 this was significant enough to warrant publicity. They arranged 
 for Mr. McElroy to present a rare Shakespearean mug to that 
 theater's growing collection, and to have it accepted by Jessica 
 Tandy, the leading star of the 1961 season's company. She 
 appeared as "Lady Macbeth," and as "Cassandra" in Troilus 
 and Cressida. 
 
 No one else could have, or would have, written this book. 
 
 We are all indebted to Mr. McElroy for the compilation and 
 preservation of these historical materials. 
 
 — Beryl Sales Kinser, minister, 
 First Christian Church 
 Springfield, Illinois 
 
 10 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
 
 1. The longest and most authoritative history of First Chris- 
 tian Church was prepared by Charles P. Kane, a long-time elder 
 of the church, who was county judge of Sangamon County, 
 1892-1896. It is entitled 
 
 The Christian Church of Springfield, Illinois 
 
 Something of Its Beginning and Growth, 
 
 During the First Sixty Years of Its History. 
 
 1833-1893 
 
 It appears on pages 298-314 of Transactions of the Illinois 
 
 State Historical Society for the Year 1907. On page 314 is the 
 
 following: 
 
 (Note: The foregoing paper was read at the celebration, by the 
 Christian Church of Springfield, Illinois, at the Sixtieth Anniver- 
 sary of its organization, observed the first Sunday in October, 
 A.D. 1893). 
 
 This history has been printed separately and copies are in 
 the Illinois State Historical Library. 
 
 2. Mrs. Mary Logan Coleman Morrison (Mrs. Hugh T. 
 Morrison) prepared Historical Sketch of the First Christian 
 Church on the Occasion of the Seventy-fifth Anniversary, 1908. 
 A typewritten copy is in a book among the prized historical 
 material of our church. 
 
 3. Her husband, Dr. Hugh T. Morrison, prepared a History 
 of First Christian Church, Springfield, Illinois, which he read 
 
 11 
 
at the laying of the cornerstone of the present building on 
 August 1, 1911. 
 
 4. B. R. Hieronymus, a long-time elder, wrote Historical 
 Sketch of the First Christian Church which was read at the 
 West Side Christian Church at an afternoon memorial on 
 December 6, 1914. 
 
 5. B. R. Hieronymus also prepared Recollections of Fifty 
 Years for the annual church meeting of January, 1922, but 
 because of his illness it was read by Mrs. Vachel T. Lindsay. 
 
 6. Mrs. Mary L. Morrison also wrote Historical Review, 
 October, 1923, . . . on occasion of the Celebration of the 
 Ninetieth Anniversary, 1833-1923. A copy is in the Illinois 
 State Historical Library. 
 
 7. In the memorial booklet issued on the occasion of the 
 Centennial Celebration in 1933, there appears a historical 
 sketch in the nature of short items telling of significant events 
 in the progress of the congregation. The author or compiler is 
 not known. 
 
 8. At the 125th anniversary on April 23, 1958, a memorial 
 volume, prepared by Chester E. Hahn and Beulah Gordon in 
 a narrative form, was issued. 
 
 The author has drawn freely on these histories. 
 
 The source of much of the information about Alexander 
 Graham is Lawson, P. B., The Life and Character. To Which 
 are Added Some of the Addresses and Sermons of Alexander 
 Graham. Teacher of the Christian Church in Marion. Alabama. 
 New York: John F. Trow, Printer, 49 Ann-Street, 1853. This 
 is bound in The Gospel Advocate, Volume II, 1856, Disciples 
 of Christ Historical Society, Nashville, Tennessee. 
 
 At this point, I wish to make special mention of the services 
 of my predecessor as church historian, Albert W. Hillier, for 
 his painstaking care in preserving and organizing data of all 
 kinds which make up what may be called the archives of the 
 church. 
 
 12 
 
In compiling this book, my aim has been to take advantage 
 of whatever is already in print, including biographies, maga- 
 zine articles, newspaper clippings, obituaries, and other printed 
 matter, as being most authoritative, in order to obtain so far 
 as possible a contemporary record and appraisal. This neces- 
 sarily has required the cooperation of many individuals and in- 
 stitutions, to whom thanks are due. 
 
 The source of the largest amount of material has been the 
 Illinois State Historical Library, of which Miss Mary Moyer is 
 head cataloguer; next the records and library of the United 
 Christian Missionary Society, Indianapolis, Indiana, of which 
 Doris Autrey is director. Next is the library of the Dis- 
 ciples of Christ Historical Society at Nashville, Tennessee, of 
 which Dr. Claude E. Spencer is the curator. Use of the library 
 facilities and the assistance of the staff have been made avail- 
 able also by the following institutions: 
 
 Bethany College, Bethany, West Virginia; Robert H. Yockey, 
 librarian. 
 
 Christian Theological Seminary, Butler University, Indian- 
 apolis, Indiana; Henry K. Shaw, librarian. 
 
 Disciples Divinity House of the University of Chicago, 
 Chicago, Illinois; Jay R. Calhoun, assistant dean. 
 
 Eureka College, Eureka, Illinois; Norma C. Brown, chair- 
 man, Division of Off-campus Information and Service. 
 
 Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio; Lawrence C. Underwood, 
 registrar. 
 
 Transylvania College, Lexington, Kentucky; Pearl Anderson, 
 registrar. 
 
 I express particular thanks and appreciation to the persons 
 who have contributed complete biographies of some pastors, 
 including: 
 
 W. E. Garrison for Charles Clayton Morrison; Beulah Gor- 
 don for F. W. Burnham; Ronald E. Osborn for E. V. Zollars; 
 Woodrow W. Wasson for Alexander Graham; Edmund 
 
 13 
 
Wilkes, Jr., for S. E. Pearre and L. B. Wilkes. 
 
 For providing portions of certain biographies, I extend 
 thanks to the following: 
 
 Richard Dickinson, Eureka, Illinois, for D. R. Howe; Mrs. 
 Campbellina D. (Mrs. Herbert G.) Odell, La Jolla, Califor- 
 nia, for T. T. Holton; Dr. Homer Wilson Carpenter, Louis- 
 ville, Kentucky, for J. B. Briney; Mrs. Grace Everest McDade, 
 McDade Lane, Chattanooga, Tennessee, for H. W. Everest; 
 J. Edward Moseley, Indianapolis, Indiana, for W. F. Rothen- 
 burger. 
 
 Chas. C. Ware, curator of the Carolina Discipliana Library, 
 Wilson, North Carolina, has furnished material for a consider- 
 able number of these biographies. 
 
 Locally, my chief co-worker has been Mary Moyer, who of- 
 ficially is assistant church historian, and who is head cataloguer 
 of the Illinois State Historical Library. She has made available 
 the resources of that and other libraries, and has assisted in re- 
 vision. 
 
 Of special importance has been the sympathetic co-operation 
 and guidance of our pastor and wife, Dr. and Mrs. Beryl S. 
 Kinser. Dr. Kinser has shared with me the facilities of his 
 office at the church, and has collaborated in writing numerous 
 letters in the search for data, as well as writing the Foreword 
 for this volume. My thanks to the pastor's secretary, Mrs. John 
 Nolan, and to Jane Ann Kinser for stenographic services. 
 
 Naturally, I cannot name all who deserve mention for their 
 helpfulness. I extend thanks for the assistance of numerous 
 members of the church and others, in typing and research. 
 
 Charles Foster McElroy 
 
 14 
 
OUR CHURCH BUILDINGS 
 
 The congregation of First Christian Church, Springfield, 
 Illinois, was organized April 23' 1833. At first it met in homes 
 of members, mostly in the homes of Philo Beers and Stephen 
 T. Logan; also in the "carding machine" at the northwest 
 corner of Fourth Street and Capitol Avenue, and also in the 
 courthouse. The carding machine, which appears to have been 
 used generally for public gatherings, never belonged to the 
 congregation and is not considered one of its church buildings. 
 
 In the Illinois State Historical Library is a "Historical Re- 
 view" written by Mrs. Mary Coleman Morrison on the occasion 
 of the celebration of the ninetieth anniversary of the church, 
 1833-1923. In it she refers to the structures that have housed 
 this congregation as follows: 
 
 The first church building was erected within the first year, in 1834, 
 on a fifty-foot lot on the north side of Madison between Fourth and 
 Fifth Streets where the A. L. Ide & Sons Foundry is now located. The 
 lot cost Sixty Dollars. In order to erect a building (40' x 60') funds 
 had to be solicited from those outside the membership of the church. 
 There would be many times when this struggling congregation would 
 not be using the building, so the condition on which sufficient funds 
 were forthcoming was that the building be also available for other 
 groups at convenient times. This condition was lived up to, but it 
 led to trouble when the Mormons came in 1839. After one or two 
 of the members had been "captured" by them, a petition was circu- 
 lated, securing the consent of the contributors to the withdrawal of 
 
 15 
 
First building, dedicated 1834 
 
 this condition. This was granted. The Mormons no longer used the 
 building and thus the building became the property of the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 The record of February 15, 1852, shows that a committee 
 consisting of Jonathan R. Saunders, Stephen T. Logan (Lin- 
 coln's second law partner), William F. Elkin, William Lavely, 
 and Joseph W. Bennett was appointed to make arrangements 
 for a "more suitable house of worship." The old building was 
 sold to the Free Portuguese Congregation. A new lot at the 
 northeast corner of Sixth and Jefferson Streets was purchased 
 at a cost of SI, 300. 00 and a building 40' by 60' erected under 
 the contractorship of Joseph W. Bennett. This second building 
 was dedicated in 1853. 
 
 In 1880 a building committee composed of L. H. Coleman, 
 Aaron Thompson, H. C. Latham, Erwin Clark, W. D. Logan, 
 A. H. Saunders, and Mrs. Hathaway Pasfield was appointed. 
 The lot on the northwest corner of Fifth and Jackson Streets 
 
 16 
 
was purchased for $2,200.00, and the building erected thereon 
 was dedicated February 12, 1882. The last meeting in this 
 third building was held on June 26, 1910. The congregation 
 met in the Masonic Temple until the present building was 
 ready for occupancy. 
 
 As early as 1908 there was definite consideration of a new 
 building, but the formal action came early in 1909. Frederick 
 
 Second building, dedicated 1853 
 
 17 
 
W. Burnham, pastor, was appointed chairman of the building 
 committee whose other members were Hathaway Pasfield, 
 Mary L. Morrison, Charles P. Kane, and Grandville A. Hulett. 
 The lot and building at Fifth and Jackson Streets were sold 
 for $34,000.00, and the present lot at the southeast corner of 
 Sixth and Cook Streets was purchased from E. A. Hall for 
 $17,000.00. The address given by Mrs. Caroline Beers Kane 
 when she turned the first spade of ground preparatory to the 
 
 Third building, dedicated 1882 
 
 18 
 
erection of this building is recorded in the minutes of June 
 4> 1911. Caroline, at the age of 6, had attended the organi- 
 zation meeting in the carding machine, hence had a personal 
 connection of 78 years with all these buildings. 
 
 The service of laying the cornerstone was held at three 
 o'clock on the afternoon of August 1, 1911. Elwood Com- 
 mandery No. 6 of Knights Templar acted as escort for the 
 Grand Lodge of Illinois, A. F. & A. M. The program in- 
 cluded a historical statement read by Dr. H. T. Morrison 
 and address by Reverend Finis S. Idleman, pastor of Central 
 Church of Christ of Des Moines, Iowa. The cornerstone 
 was laid with Masonic ceremonies by A. B. Ashley, Grand 
 Master of the Grand Lodge of Illinois. The building was 
 dedicated June 23, 1912. F. M. Rains, president of the Ameri- 
 can Christian Missionary Society, delivered the dedicatory ser- 
 mon. 
 
 The World Call of August, 1921, contains a feature article 
 on "Church Architecture" by Sherman Kirk. It carries a one- 
 half -page picture of our church building, and says: "Perhaps 
 the finest example of Gothic style in which a congregation 
 of the Disciples of Christ worship is the splendid building of 
 the First Church in Springfield, Illinois." 
 
 Statement of Cost of New Building (Submitted by Trustees 
 Jan. 1, 1913). 
 
 McKee Construction Co. $ 81,429.18 
 
 Austin Organ Co. 5,412.22 
 
 Patterson Stewart — heat- ventilating 4,801.80 
 
 Von Gerichten Art Glass 4,550.72 
 
 R. Haas Electric Mfg. Co. 4,374.65 
 
 Vaught Furniture Co 4,010.00 
 
 S. R. Badgley 3,029.04 
 
 Jackson Electric 1,544.66 
 
 Johnston & Hatcher furniture & rugs __ 1,191.53 
 
 19 
 
W. B. Miller & Son 1,050.40 
 
 S. A. Bullard, architect 800.00 
 
 G. H. Schanbacher, decorating 700.00 
 
 Wallis curbing and sodding 556.88 
 
 Spencer Vacuum Turbine 500.00 
 
 Kitchen equipment 420.35 
 
 Paullin-Patterson — painting 250.00 
 
 Bible school cabinets and furniture 151.51 
 
 John Bressmer — furnishing and rugs 146.00 
 
 French & Company — piano 120.00 
 
 $115,038.94 
 
 Incidental expenses incurred during building period: 
 
 E. A. Hall, interest on mortgage notes $1,875.00 
 
 Masonic Temple 1,350.00 
 
 Interest on note to bank 1,270.76 
 
 Miscellaneous incidentals 608.72 
 
 Insurance on building, organ, and furniture 
 
 5yrs. 592.50 
 
 Jefferson Company — printing 184.30 
 
 $5,881.28 
 
 Credit by interest received from sale of 
 
 old church $1,865.61 
 
 $4,015.67 
 
 The Influence of Melrose Abbey 
 
 It is a commonly accepted fact that Dr. Burnham came to 
 this congregation primarily to give the church the benefit of 
 
 20 
 
his experience as a church builder. He had just completed and 
 dedicated a new church building at Decatur for the Central 
 Church of Christ. Our congregation had in view a new struc- 
 ture to replace the one at Fifth and Jackson Streets. Dr. and 
 Mrs. Burnham spent several month's on a European tour, form- 
 ing impressions and gathering ideas. Among other places, they 
 visited the ruins of Melrose Abbey, about forty miles from 
 Edinburgh, Scotland. They considered the kirk of the Abbey 
 as the one structure whose main features were most adaptable 
 to the building at Springfield. They obtained sketches and 
 plans, and on their return recommended that these be used in 
 so far as practicable. The building committee agreed. In Mrs. 
 Mary L. Morrison's "Historical Review" for the ninetieth an- 
 niversary, 1833-1923, she says: "It was suggested to the archi- 
 tect, Sidney R. Badgley, of Cleveland, that he use all the archi- 
 tectural effects of Melrose Abbey that could be fitted into a 
 church which would meet the needs of the twentieth century." 
 
 British Crown Copyright, reproduced by permission of the Ministry of Works. 
 
 Ruins of Melrose Abbey 
 
 21 
 
The kirk (church) in Melrose Abbey was completed in 
 1146, as part of a large group of buildings built by the Cis- 
 tercian Order of Monks, in the valley of the Tweed River, 
 about 40 miles northwest of Edinburgh, in Roxburghshire, 
 Scotland. During the religious wars of the middle ages, it was 
 repeatedly pillaged and destroyed. Practically all of the build- 
 ings are entirely gone except the kirk, a considerable portion 
 
 British Crown Copyright, reproduced by permission of the Ministry of Works. 
 
 Ruins of Melrose Abbey 
 
 22 
 
of which is still standing. For several hundred years it has been 
 in ruins, but what is left is well cared for and continues to be 
 a shrine for tourists and visitors. 
 
 In the summer of I960, Dr. and Mrs. Kinser and Charles 
 Foster McElroy, while attending the World Convention of Dis- 
 ciples of Christ at Edinburgh, Scotland, made a side trip to 
 the ruins of Melrose Abbey. They noted the similarity of the 
 kirk to our church in general appearance, both outside and 
 inside, and in the proportions of nave, transept, and apse. 
 
 The caretaker displayed pictures of noted buildings which 
 have adapted features from Melrose Abbey, but he had no 
 picture of the Springfield church. On his return the church 
 historian sent several pictures of the church building, and the 
 caretaker wrote as follows: 
 
 Mr. C. McElroy 
 
 c/o First Christian Church 
 
 Melrose Abbey 
 Melrose 
 
 Roxburghshire 
 Scotland 
 Sept. 20th 
 Dear Sir, ^60 
 
 On behalf of myself & my colleagues I wish to thank you for 
 your kindness in sending the post cards of your church. We were all 
 quite impressed by its outward appearance. I can well imagine the 
 beauty of its interior. I hope you had an enjoyable holiday in our 
 country & could see most of the things it had to offer, in spite of 
 the inclement weather. Once again we say thank you. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 A. Jackson. 
 H/Custodian 
 
 On May 1, 1926, crosses brought from Solomon's quarry by 
 Dr. Burnham, and from Gethsemane by the pastor, Dr. Wil- 
 liam F. Rothenburger, were placed in the chancel and dedi- 
 cated. 
 
 23 
 
In 1932 the pastor, Clark Walker Cummings, placed in the 
 chancel floor stones from Calvary and a Crusader tile from 
 Seville, Spain. 
 
 In the rear wall of the sanctuary is a block of travertine 
 stone from the Roman Colosseum, and on the west wall of 
 the narthex is a stone from the foundation of the Brush Run 
 Church, Kentucky, the first church building erected by Dis- 
 ciples of Christ. 
 
 On the north side of the narthex is a dark stone brought 
 by Dr. Rothenburger from Ahorey, Ireland, where Thomas 
 Campbell preached from 1798 to 1807. 
 
 In 1914 the education building was remodeled, and what 
 had been an auditorium was converted into classrooms on first 
 and second floors. 
 
 In 191 8 the Dengen chimes were presented by Mrs. Mary 
 C. Freeman in memory of her husband, C. W. Freeman, at a 
 cost of $7,000.00. They were replaced in 1923. 
 
 24 
 
ROSTER OF PASTORS 
 
 1. Josephus Hewitt (Hewett) 1833-1835 
 
 2. Alexander Graham 1837-1838 
 
 3. Jeremiah P. Lancaster 1841-1843 
 
 4. William M. Brown 1843-1847 
 
 5. Andrew Jackson Kane 1847-1851 
 
 6. John H. Hughes 1851-1852 
 
 7. Alexander Johnson (Johnston) 1852-1854 
 
 8. B. F. Perky 1854-1856 
 
 9. Sterling Elwood Pearre 1856-1862 
 
 10. Daniel Radcliffe Howe 1862-1864 
 
 11. Lanceford Bramblett Wilkes 1866-1868 
 
 12. Thomas Tilgham Holton 1868-1870 
 
 13. James B. Crane (Crain) 1871-1872 
 
 14. Harvey William Everest 1873-1874 
 
 15. Edward Thomas Williams 1875-1877 
 
 16. John Milton Atwater 1878-1879 
 
 17. Joseph Buford Allen 1879-1883 
 
 18. John Z. Taylor 1883-1884 
 
 19. Ely Vaughn Zollars 1885-1888 
 
 20. John Benton Briney 1888-1891 
 
 21. Abner Peter Cobb 1891-1897 
 
 22. Jay Elwood Lynn 1898-1902 
 
 25 
 
23. Hugh Tucker Morrison, Jr., copastor 1902-1904 
 
 24. Charles Clayton Morrison, copastor 1902-1904 
 
 pastor 1905-1906 
 
 25. Frederick William Burnham 1907-1914 
 
 26. Frank Waller Allen 1914-1917 
 
 27. William Frederic Rothenburger 1918-1927 
 
 28. Clark Walker Cummings 1928-1937 
 
 29. Charles Benson Tupper 1937-1951 
 
 30. Harry McCuan Davis 1951-1955 
 
 31. James Nicholas Gibble (ad interim) 1955-1957 
 
 32. Beryl Sales Kinser 1957- 
 
 26 
 
Josephus Hewitt 
 
 Pastor 1833-1835 
 
 Born: August 27, 1805, at New York City 
 Died: About 1868, at Natchez, Mississippi 
 Married: Lucilla H. Payne 
 
 27 
 
I 
 
 t was the preaching of Josephus Hewitt 
 (sometimes spelled Hewett) that led to the organization of 
 the original Christian Church in Springfield. Mr. Hewitt 
 came to Illinois about 1830, and lived near Jacksonville. 
 As a preacher he assisted Barton W. Stone in several evan- 
 gelistic meetings and was a charter member of the Jackson- 
 ville Christian Church, which was organized by Stone. He was 
 urged by various persons to come to Springfield to organize 
 a church. He first preached at a carding machine building, but 
 his audiences were so large that services had to be held in the 
 courthouse. In the Sangamo journal of March 16, 1833, is the 
 announcement: "Rev. Josephus Hewitt of Jacksonville will 
 preach in the Court House, in this town today and tomorrow — 
 services to commence at 11 a.m." In the same paper, on 
 November 16, 1933: "We are requested to say that Mr. Hewitt 
 is expected to preach at the Court House today at 11 o'clock, 
 and on Sunday." 
 
 Judge Charles P. Kane, in his history of First Christian 
 Church, says that Hewitt was the "first minister of the gospel 
 to promulgate at Springfield that interpretation of Biblical 
 teaching, accepted and advocated by the body of believers 
 known as the Christian Church or the Disciples of Christ." 1 
 His converts were baptized in the Sangamon River. Many 
 placed their memberships in various existing churches, but one 
 group met at the home of Mrs. Garner Goodan and organized 
 a congregation consisting of the following twelve charter 
 members : 
 
 Philo and Martha Beers Mrs. Ann McNabb 
 
 Joseph and Lucy Bennett Reuben Radford 
 
 Alfred and Martha Elder William Shoup 
 
 1 The Christian Church of Springfield, Illinois, Something of its Beginning and 
 Growth, During the First Sixty Years of its History, 1833-1893. Charles P. Kane, re- 
 printed from the Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society, 1907, page 5. 
 
 28 
 
Mrs. Garner Goodan Elisha Tabor 
 
 Dr. James R. Gray 
 To these were soon added: 
 
 America T. Logan (wife of Stephen T. Logan, Lincoln's 
 second law partner) 
 
 General James Adams Mordecai Mobley and wife 
 
 Col. E. D. Baker and wife Woodworth family 
 
 George Bennett and wife and others 
 
 Lemuel and Evaline Higby 
 Judge Kane also states in his history: 
 
 Mr. Hewitt was a remarkable man. He had qualities that would 
 have distinguished him in any society, in any age. Large of stature, 
 dignified of mien, he at once impressed individual or assemblage. As 
 a speaker he was effective and forcible. 
 
 Mr. Hewitt became one of the most noted lawyers of that day, 
 and is spoken of by the older members of the profession as a man 
 of strong mind and very eloquent in his pleadings. 2 
 
 He was admitted to the bar, and was appointed prosecuting attorney 
 for this district. He was a conscientious man and had a high sense of 
 the responsibilities of his office. On the first day of each term of court, 
 it was his duty to charge the Grand Jury, and people invariably laid 
 aside their work and flocked to the court room to hear him. While in 
 the height of his power and usefulness an event occurred which 
 changed his whole career and took him from among us. [The event 
 was an argument between Hewitt, Lincoln, Baker and Logan with 
 respect to a murder trial.] ... I never saw Josephus Hewitt again. 
 The next morning it was announced . that he had resigned his office 
 and gone south, and one of the most eloquent men Springfield ever 
 knew faded from the recollection of its inhabitants. 5 
 
 Upon leaving Springfield in 1838, Hewitt moved to Natchez, 
 Mississippi. There is no record that he practiced law there, but 
 he became active in Whig politics. The date of his death is 
 believed to be about 1868. 
 
 -The Bench and Bar of Illinois, edited by John M. Palmer, Chicago, The Lewis 
 Publishing Company, 1899. Volume 1, pages 173-174. 
 
 3 Some Forgotten Orators: Recollections of Judge J. H. Matheny, in Illinois State 
 Journal of April 28, 1889. 
 
 29 
 
Edgar DeWitt Jones, in his book Lincoln and the Preachers, 
 says: 
 
 During Mr. Lincoln's Springfield years some of his closest min- 
 isterial friendships were made. Such a one was the Rev. Josephus 
 Hewett who organized the First Christian Church (Disciples) in that 
 city. He was an evangelist of that communion known popularly in those 
 days by the nickname "Campbellites," due to the fact that one of the 
 founders of the movement was Alexander Campbell of Bethany, West 
 Virginia. That the Rev. Mr. Hewett was a warm friend of Lincoln 
 is evidenced by the letter Mr. Lincoln wrote from Congress in 1848. 
 Lincoln addressed him as "Dear Hewett" . . . 4 
 
 The letter from Lincoln to Hewett follows: 
 
 Washington, Feb. 13, 1848. 
 Dear Hewett: 
 
 Your whig representative from Mississippi, P. W. Tompkins 5 has 
 just shown me a letter of yours to him. I am jealous because you did 
 not write to me — Perhaps you have forgotten me — Don't you 
 remember a long black fellow who rode on horseback with you from 
 Tremont to Springfield nearly ten years ago, swiming your horses 
 over the Mackinaw on the trip ? Well, I am that same one fellow yet 
 — I was once of your opinion, expressed in your letter, that presi- 
 dential-electors should be dispensed with; but a more thorough 
 knowledge of the causes that first introduced them, has made me 
 doubt — Those causes were briefly these — The convention that 
 framed the constitution had this difficulty: the small states wished 
 to so frame the new government as that they might be equal to the 
 large ones regardless of the inequality of population; the large ones 
 insisted on equality in proportion to population. They compromised 
 it, by basing the House of Representatives on population, and the 
 Senate on states regardless of population; and the executive on both 
 principles, by electors in each state, equal in numbers to her senators 
 and representatives. Now, throw away the machinery of electors, 
 and the compromise is broken up, and the whole yielded to the 
 principle of the large states — There is one thing more — in the slave 
 states, you have representatives, and consequently, electors, partly 
 
 ^Lincoln and the Preachers by Edgar DeWitt Jones, (New York: Harper & Brothers, 
 1948), page 21. 
 
 5 Patrick W. Tompkins was a Whig who stayed at the same boarding house in 
 Washington, D. C, as Lincoln did. 
 
 30 
 
upon the basis of your black population, which would be swept 
 away by the change you seem to think desirable. Have you ever 
 reflected on these things? 
 
 But to come to the main point, I wish you to know that I have 
 made a speech in congress, and that I want you to be enlightened 
 by reading it; to further which object, I send a copy of the speech 
 by this mail. 
 
 For old acquaintance sake, if for nothing else, be sure to write 
 me on receiving this. I was very near forgetting to tell you that on 
 my being introduced to Genl. Quitman, and telling him I was from 
 Springfield, Illinois, he at once remarked "Then you are acquainted 
 with my valued friend Hewett of Natchez," and on being assured 
 I was, he said just such things about you as I like to hear said about 
 my own valued friends. Yours as ever. 
 
 A. Lincoln 
 
 <£> 
 
 • - 
 
 Qhi*>—, . 
 
 . &<\£2m%* - "• 
 
 "John A. Quitman, Democrat and lawyer, was a major-general in the regular army 
 in 1847. 
 
 31 
 
A copy of this letter in Lincoln's handwriting, made from 
 a photostat in the Library of Congress, is reproduced here, by 
 courtesy of the Illinois State Historical Library. 
 
 
 / / 7 ' 
 
 Jr &~~ u^0^esi~? A-<^«^-w ^u. ^^>^ ^v^r-tc - i^x^cz 4r~ ,Ow^_ £bjt^ 
 
 2&w^, y ^,.„,...,.. «* /..>■■ « . . .„ .•/•; t^.^ 
 
 32 
 
ZZJ k~ shL^.4^£m~ t~r-£L«3^i, <r^M^c~-<: ~/- /2*?~-oc ^— -~ < ~'"^? "s^ 
 (v*~&~~~ JZ^m-—^ ^Ct^^zz; ^ _A~?^>£-j,*, &~~^ ^ fc*~j -=-*»^-~.w 
 
 Lincoln's friendship with Josephus Hewitt was not his only 
 connection with the congregation of this church. In 1842 
 Lincoln was defeated in the primary for the nomination as a 
 Whig candidate for Congress by Edward D. Baker, who with 
 his wife had become members of this church during the pastor- 
 ate of Josephus Hewitt. Baker was elected and served one 
 term in Congress, and was succeeded by Lincoln in 1844. 
 
 33 
 
The rapid growth of the Disciples in central Illinois is curiously 
 confirmed by the testimony of Lincoln's biographers. In 1842 Lincoln, 
 as a candidate for Congress, sought the support of the Whigs of 
 Sangamon County (in which Springfield is located) in a primary 
 election, but was defeated by Edward Baker, "a Disciple preacher." 
 Nicolay and Hay, Barton, and Beveridge agree that Baker's success 
 was largely due to the backing he received from the Disciples. Albert 
 J. Beveridge's Abraham Lincoln says: "Baker had all the 'Camp- 
 bellites,' to whose church he belonged." W. E. Barton's Life of Abra- 
 ham Lincoln quotes Lincoln as saying: "Baker is a Campbellite; and 
 therefore, as I suppose, with few exceptions, got that church" (Volume 
 1, p. 275). Nicolay and Hay's Abraham Lincoln, A History, as pub- 
 lished serially, is even more specific: 
 
 Baker and his wife belonged to that numerous and powerful sect which has 
 several times played so important a part in Western politics — the Disciples. 
 They all supported him energetically, and used as arguments against Lincoln 
 that his wife was a Presbyterian, that most of her family were Episcopalians, 
 that Lincoln himself belonged to no church and that he was suspected of 
 deism, and, finally, that he was the candidate of the aristocracy. {Century 
 Magazine, Nov., 1886, p. 392.) 
 
 Baker was English by birth, a lawyer by profession, a Disciple 
 chiefly by marriage, and a preacher only occasionally. He was a bril- 
 liant speaker, a firm friend of Lincoln, who named a son after him, 
 and later a United States senator from Oregon and a colonel in the 
 Union Army until he was killed in the battle of Ball's Bluff. That 
 the Disciples were powerful enough in Sangamon County to determine 
 the outcome of an election in 1842 seems improbable. The Berean, 
 a small magazine edited by A. Graham and published for one year, 
 reports (Jan., 1838) that the Springfield church at that time had 
 ninety members and adds that Schuyler, the second county west of 
 Sangamon, had four churches and about 150 members, including 
 "many dispersed Disciples." 7 
 
 What may be termed a third tie-in of Lincoln with this con- 
 gregation is the fact that his second law partner was Judge 
 Stephen T. Logan, whose wife, America T. Logan, became a 
 member in 1833, soon after the congregation was organized. 
 
 7 The ir.cident is related in The Disciples of Christ, Winfred E. Garrison and Alfred 
 T. De Groot (St. Louis: Bethany Press, 1948), pp. 221-222. 
 
 34 
 
Mrs. Logan was an active member all her life. Judge Logan 
 did not unite with the church, but gave it his continuing sup- 
 port. He was elected trustee in 1852, and was twice appointed 
 a member of building committees. In 1880 he was named as 
 one of the six trustees of the newly incorporated "The Chris- 
 tian Church of Springfield, Illinois." 
 
 «g» «$• 4* 
 
 In the Millennial Harbinger of December, 1853, page 7l6f, 
 appears an obituary of Mr. Hewitt's wife, MRS. LUCILLA H. 
 PAYNE HEWITT, and of his father. The article is not signed 
 but its intimate language leads to the belief that it was written 
 by Josephus Hewitt. It reads: 
 
 Died, of the prevailing epidemic [yellow fever], at the residence 
 of her husband, Mr. J. Hewett, in the city of New Orleans [Illinois 
 State Journal says "Natchez"], on Saturday the 22d of October, Mrs. 
 Lucilla H. Hewett, daughter of the Rev. William Payne, late of 
 Mason county, Ky., aged 40 years, 1 month, and 4 days. Active in 
 all the relations of a Christian wife, mother, mistress and friend, 
 her loss will be deeply felt wherever she was known. Decidedly 
 practical in her views of life, and its duties, where they required 
 action, no obstacles were sufficient to swerve her from the path which 
 duty indicated. While an afflicted husband and numerous family 
 mourn her loss — to them irreparable — they have the cheering con- 
 solation of knowing, that the light of a well-grounded hope illu- 
 mined her dark pathway to the tomb. She rests from her labors, and 
 her works do follow her. 
 
 Also, at the same place, of old age and debility, on Sunday 
 morning, the 30th ult, Mr. Thomas Hewett, father of J. Hewett, 
 in the 77th year of his age. For more than sixty-two years the de- 
 ceased has been a consistent member of the Christian church, having 
 consecrated the dew and freshness of his youth to the service of the 
 Redeemer. He patiently awaited his departure from a world which 
 offered little to attach him to it, save the devoted affection of his 
 off-spring; and when the summons came, the flame of life flickered 
 in the socket for a while, and went out. None could have known his 
 life, or witnessed his death, without exclaiming, "Let me die the 
 death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." 
 
 35 
 
Alexander Graham 
 
 Pastor 1837-1838 
 
 Born: November 29, 1811, at Hartsville, Tennessee 
 Died: April 17, 1851, at Marion, Alabama 
 Married: Mary Cathey, 1836 
 Children: None 
 
 37 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Alexander Graham 
 
 38 
 
A 
 
 lexander Graham, an early member of 
 the religious movement of Disciples of Christ in middle Ten- 
 nessee and northern Alabama, became, in his relatively brief 
 career, a meticulous scholar and teacher, a prominent lawyer, 
 and a religious thinker and preacher of uncommon ability. 
 
 Graham was born near Hartsville, a small town in Sumner 
 County, Tennessee. He attended the private neighborhood 
 schools intermittently and for a short time studied Greek and 
 Latin with a Dr. Ring of Gallatin, Tennessee. 
 
 Graham taught school near his home before his twentieth 
 birthday, and by the age of twenty-four had become proficient 
 in both teaching and in his comprehension of classical educa- 
 tion. He was particularly interested in languages, history, and 
 logic. These academic interests were often expressed in poetic 
 and prose compositions; no doubt it was his ability to express 
 himself in poetry that won him his wife, Mary Cathey, in 
 1836, while he lived in Marion, Alabama. 
 
 About the age of eighteen, Graham had become a Baptist 
 under the preaching of an Elder Wiseman, and with Wise- 
 man's encouragement, he shortly thereafter became a preacher. 
 However, in the latter part of 1832 and at the age of twenty- 
 one, while in charge of an academy six miles west of Paris, 
 Tennessee, he became acquainted with the religious views of 
 Alexander Campbell. His intellectual curiosity about Christian- 
 ity coincided with the emphasis of Campbell's rational religion. 
 He left the Baptists in 1834. That same year he returned to 
 Gallatin, Tennessee, where, in this center of the tobacco coun- 
 try, he, along with a Dr. Anderson and a woman, formed a 
 "congregation" on the principles of the Campbellian reformers. 
 He wrote: "I was once a worldling, then a Baptist; but I dis- 
 card every other name but that of Christ, of whom I am a 
 Disciple." The little church, called "Electa Cyria," showed the 
 enthusiasm of its founders, for at the end of 1834 there were 
 forty members. 
 
 39 
 
In late 1834, Graham left Tennessee and went to Marion, 
 Alabama. There he met James A. Butler, a preacher of the 
 Disciples of Christ living in the neighboring county of Loundes. 
 He lived with Butler for a year, and in December, 1835, the 
 two moved to Tuscaloosa, the seat of the state government 
 at that time. Here for two years they published a monthly 
 religious periodical called The Disciple. They also preached 
 wherever there was an opportunity. In the meantime, Graham 
 had married Mary Cathey. 
 
 In the spring of 1837, Graham and his wife left Alabama 
 for Cape Girardeau, Missouri, where he spent the year in 
 charge of an academy, in serious study, and in writing. 
 
 He next went to Springfield, Illinois, in the spring of 1837, 
 to become a teacher and the minister of the Christian Church. 
 His editorial interests were continued here, for he published a 
 monthly religious periodical called The Bevean. The publica- 
 tion existed for one year from January to December, 1838. 
 The articles he wrote for this paper reflect his superior mind 
 and a highly creditable literary style. Graham himself char- 
 acterized his work in Springfield in The Bevean as follows: 
 
 The congregation of Disciples in Springfield, now number about 
 ninety members. There has been a gradual increase since its formation, 
 and the first day has never been without its due celebration. I mention 
 this particularly to correct an erroneous report circulated in the neigh- 
 borhood that this church was dwindling, and would soon go to noth- 
 ing. There is no religious excitement in this place among any of the 
 churches. Communities have their seasons of apathy and enthusiasm, 
 and although we have had no revival, we have had an accession of 40 
 members during the last twelve months. It will only require industry 
 and perseverance, to see the truth triumph gloriously. 
 
 At the end of 1838 he went back for a visit to Marion, 
 Alabama, his wife's home, and remained there until his death. 
 At the suggestion of his cousin, John P. Graham, a man of 
 social prominence of Marion, he began the study of law. It 
 
 40 
 
was not long before he became a lawyer, taking over his 
 cousin's functions of the solicitor's office. 
 
 For a decade from 1839 to 1849, Graham gave most of his 
 attention and time to his law practice. He also made several 
 political speeches during this period; his interests, however, 
 were not in politics. 
 
 Though the duties of his profession as a lawyer absorbed 
 most of his energy and time, Graham nevertheless continued 
 his linguistic and biblical studies. He read Greek, Latin, and 
 French with facility. His knowledge of Hebrew, German, and 
 Italian increased, and he began the study of Spanish shortly 
 before his death. He preached regularly in the Marion church 
 or made arrangements for others to conduct the services. From 
 a beginning of five members, the church had grown in a few 
 years to a membership of one hundred fifty. In 1846 he had 
 the meetinghouse for the church built at his own expense. 
 
 During the decade of his law practice, Graham also took an 
 active part in his community's and state's educational and civic 
 responsibilities. He spoke occasionally on the subject of educa- 
 tion and held membership in the Masonic fraternity and the 
 Sons of Temperance. As evidence of his high standing in the 
 Southern states, his portrait was painted by Nicola Marschall, 
 or Mareschal/a celebrated artist of that time, a sketch of whom 
 appears in the National Cyclopedia of American Biography, 
 Volume 17, page 51, cl920. In 1861 Marschall designed the 
 Confederate flag- known as the "Stars and Bars," and the gray 
 uniforms worn by the Confederate soldiers. The portrait of 
 Alexander Graham now in our collection of former pastors 
 of First Christian Church is made from a photograph of this 
 painting by Nicola Marschall, which now hangs in the Depart- 
 ment of Archives and History of the State of Alabama at 
 Montgomery, Alabama. 1 
 
 a About 1859 Marschall painted a portrait of Alexander Campbell with a beard, which 
 hangs in the library of Christian Theological Seminary at Butler University in Indian- 
 apolis, Indiana. 
 
 41 
 
In 1849 Graham turned to his first main interest, education. 
 He abandoned his law practice and became president of the 
 Marion Female Seminary. The future was bright and the only 
 thing that seemed able to stop the creative endeavors of this 
 young and strong-willed man would be death. This came on 
 April 17, 1851, after a short illness. 
 
 In the Millennial Harbinger of June, 1851, on page 359, 
 Alexander Campbell wrote: 
 
 I sympathize with the relatives, friends, and brethren of our de- 
 ceased Bro. Graham, in their irreparable loss, and regret that the nar- 
 rative of the remarkable and eventful life of this much gifted brother, 
 communicated by our Bro. P. B. Lawson, is . . . reluctantly, but 
 necessarily, excluded from our pages. A. C. 
 
 «!» ♦§♦ «$• 
 
 After the death of Alexander Graham, MRS. MARY 
 CATHEY GRAHAM married Pope Massey, and after Mr. 
 Massey's death she married Arnold Jolly. There were no chil- 
 dren of any of these marriages. This information is contained 
 in a letter written by Blanche Graham (a niece of Alexander 
 Graham) to Mary R. Moseley of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Octo- 
 ber 20, 1952. As of the time of writing, Miss Graham was past 
 80 years of age. 
 
 42 
 
Jeremiah P. Lancaster 
 
 Pastor 1842-1843 
 
 Born: No information 
 Died: No information 
 Married-: No information 
 
 43 
 
An Judge Charles P. Kane's The Christian 
 
 Church of Springfield . . . During the First Sixty Years, page 12, 
 appears the following: 
 
 The following year (1842) occurred the second Annual Meeting 
 held at Springfield. The bright, particular star at this convention was 
 Jerry P. Lancaster of Missouri. As a pulpit orator he was probably 
 surpassed only by Josephus Hewett among our early preachers in Illi- 
 nois. He was a man of limited education but of fine natural endow- 
 ments and the master of a native eloquence that swayed his listeners at 
 will. Such was his impressiveness that one who heard him said, fifty 
 years afterward, he could give a complete outline of the sermon. The 
 Springfield church was so delighted with him, they pressed him into 
 service as their third pastor. He remained but a year, however, being 
 decoyed away by the superior persuasiveness of our Jacksonville Cen- 
 tral Church brethren; thence in 1844 he removed to Dubuque, Iowa, at 
 the invitation of our Brother Mobley, who had changed his residence 
 to that city. William and Lavina Lavely united with the church during 
 Mr. Lancaster's ministry. 
 
 The Illinois Legislature was in session during the early 
 months of 1843, and the Protestant ministers of Springfield 
 were called upon to take turns serving as chaplains of the two 
 houses. The Illinois Journal reports that Mr. Lancaster offered 
 prayer at the opening sessions of the Senate on January 5, 15, 
 and 24, and on February 2, 1843. 
 
 During much of the nineteenth century many ministers of 
 the Disciples engaged in hundreds of debates with ministers of 
 other denominations or sects. Alexander Campbell was the 
 foremost. Shortly before Jeremiah P. Lancaster came to Spring- 
 held, he took part in a debate on baptism with B. R. Johnson 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was probably one of the 
 first of such debates to be printed, and deserves recognition 
 here. The printed debate is in the library of the Christian 
 Theological Seminary at Butler University. It was printed by 
 Robinson and Williams, Boonville, Missouri, 1842. On Octo- 
 ber 27, 1841, and some days following, the debate took place 
 
 44 
 
at Fayette, Missouri, on the following questions: . 
 
 1. Are infants proper subjects of baptism? 
 
 2. Is immersion essential to the ordinance of baptism? 
 
 3. Does baptism form a condition or part of a condition of 
 justification, pardon, and remission of sins? 
 
 4. Does baptism as an emblem, refer to the baptism of the 
 Holy Ghost or grace of regeneration; or to the burial and 
 resurrection of Jesus Christ? 
 
 In the printed book are "Certificates" indicating that each 
 speaker was a bona fide representative of the religious body 
 for whom he spoke and to which he belonged, as follows: 
 
 1. We, the undersigned, members and preachers of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, certify that we believe Benjamin R. Johnson 
 well qualified to conduct the argument for the church to which 
 we belong, in the debate between Jeremiah P. Lancaster and 
 himself. 
 
 [Signed by eleven names.] 
 
 2. We, the undersigned, Teachers of the Christian Religion and 
 Proclaimers of the Gospel, do regard Elder J. P. Lancaster as a 
 gentleman and a Christian, and are willing to risk him in a de- 
 bate, in defence of the truths of our holy religion, with any men 
 who may be selected by any of the parties or sects of the present 
 age. 
 
 Signed by: 
 
 Henry Thomas A. H. F. Payne 
 
 Allen Wright S. P. Johnson 
 
 Joel H. Hayden Dick Young 
 
 Levi Vancamp H. L. Boon 
 
 F. R. Palmer Thomas M. Allen 
 
 T. N. Gaines M. P. Wills 
 
 The rules provided that each speaker should speak 30 min- 
 utes without interruption "unless he is pleased to waive his 
 right." King James' version of the Bible was used as authority. 
 There were three moderators, one selected by each side, who 
 in turn chose "a third person, who belonged to neither party, 
 
 45 
 
for the purpose of keeping order, and the speakers to the 
 question." 
 
 Who won? Undoubtedly the partisans of each side claimed 
 the victory. 
 
 There is an unfortunate and dramatic sequel to Lancaster's 
 work as a minister of the gospel, as recorded by T. P. Haley. 1 
 
 JERRY P. LANCASTER 
 
 Of the ministers who labored in an early day in Clay county, no 
 one is more frequently mentioned than Jerry P. Lancaster, who im- 
 mersed Moses E. Lard, and to whom General A. W. Doniphan refers 
 in his letter. 
 
 This distinguished preacher was from Kentucky and in an early 
 day, was a Methodist preacher. He came into the Christian church, it is 
 thought, in Anderson county, Kentucky, and perhaps at Lawrenceburg. 
 He came to Missouri in an early day, and is mentioned in the journal of 
 Elder T. M. Allen, as early as the year 1840. While a resident of 
 Missouri, his home was in the eastern part of the State, perhaps in 
 Pike county. He labored with others, in Monroe, Marion and Ralls, # 
 in Boone, Howard and Calloway, and made an occasional visit to the 
 upper counties of the State, preaching in Lexington, Independence, 
 Richmond, Liberty and Salem, in Platee county. In all these places 
 he is remembered as an eloquent preacher of the gospel. He was re- 
 markably successful in revival efforts, and baptized great numbers. 
 
 It is recorded that he, at one time [1841] held a debate with a 
 Methodist minister, in Fayette, Missouri, the Rev. Ben R. Johnson. 
 The baptismal question was of course disputed. I have often heard it 
 related that during the discussion the Rev. Mr. Johnson undertook to 
 depreciate the ability of Alexander Campbell. In reply, Mr. Lancaster 
 said. "Mr. Moderator, if one of Alexander Campbell's ideas should 
 happen to get into my friend's head, it would burst like a bomb-shell." 
 
 In the year 1849, this brilliant man began to give evidence that 
 he had fallen away from his faith in Christ. ... He emigrated with 
 that great throng, in that year, to the gold fields of California. Evil 
 reports came back concerning his conduct on the way, and while in 
 that far off land he made complete shipwreck of his faith, and was 
 known as a bad man. Some years later he returned to Missouri. On his 
 way home he was taken severely sick at Panama, and was prostrate for 
 
 'Haley, T P., Historical and Biographical Sketches of the Early Churches and Pioneer 
 Preachers of the Christian Church in Missouri (St. Louis: Christian Publishing Co., 1888) 
 pp. 338-341. 
 
 46 
 
many months. But for the kindness of his Masonic brethren, he would 
 have died of utter want and neglect, but they kindly cared for him 
 during his illness, and helped him on his way home. He reached home 
 utterly broken in health, and profoundly penitent for all his sins. He 
 began at once to attend the meetings of the church, perhaps in New 
 London, Ralls county. On one occasion brother T. M. Allen, who had 
 known him well, when he was a worthy minister of the gospel, was 
 holding a meeting there. He attended the meeting. At the close of one 
 of the services, he approached brother Allen, and asked an interview. 
 This kindhearted man, in the sternest manner, said to him: ' 'Jerry, I 
 have heard that you have denied the blessed Lord who redeemed you, 
 and whom you once preached, and that you are an infidel, and if this 
 is true, I want nothing to do with you." The fallen preacher burst into 
 tears, and said: "I have indeed done wickedly, but my faith is as strong 
 as it ever was. I must talk with you." The interview was granted. . . . 
 The result was, that before the meeting closed, he asked the church to 
 allow him to make a statement. He said: "Brethren, you have heard 
 much about my wicked conduct, perhaps much that is untrue, but 
 perhaps the worst, you have heard, is not as bad as I have really done. 
 I have been a great sinner, but God has led me through a long and sore 
 affliction to see the enormity of my sins. I do not make this confession 
 nor this statement with the hope of being reinstated in the church of 
 which I was once an honored member, in which I was a preacher, and 
 which I still love, but I have made it because I could not be happy 
 without making it. I have asked God to forgive me. I hope He has 
 done so. I do not ask you to forgive me now, but I do ask that you 
 will keep watch over me, and if, by the help of God I can so live as to 
 regain your confidence, then forgive me. I do not ask to be taken back 
 into the church now, perhaps it will never be best to do that, but I do 
 want to linger about the courts of the Lord, that I may have your 
 prayers and watchful care." The effect of such a speech can readily 
 be imagined. Good men and women wept for him, and freely promised 
 all he had asked. It was not long till he was restored to the fellowship 
 of the church in which he died, but never afterwards exercised the 
 functions of his sacred office. The evening of his life was spent in the 
 practice of law. . . . 
 
 Of his family I have no information. Whether he left children or 
 not I am not advised. He immersed M. E. Lard who, to the day of his 
 death, spoke of him in terms of tenderness. 
 
 47 
 
William M. Brown 
 
 Pastor 1843-1847 
 
 Born: Kentucky 
 
 Died: November 22, 1863, at Springfield, Illinois 
 
 Married: Julia A. 
 
 49 
 
JL his man was a striking personality. He was 
 six feet two inches in height and of fine form, weighing two hundred 
 pounds. His head was large, his face strong and clean-shaven, and his 
 dark hair he wore long for a male, and decidedly pompadour. 
 
 He came to Springfield in 1841 and was pastor of the church there 
 [in 1843—1847]. 
 
 He was elected as the first president of Eureka College [in 1855- 
 1856], but his service was only nominal. 
 
 His chief work was that of an evangelist. In this sphere he was 
 probably the most noted among the Disciples during his period of 
 service in Illinois. He was regarded as a powerful preacher. His ser- 
 mons united argument with impassioned appeal. In dealing with what 
 he considered denominational doctrinal errors he was often as in- 
 exorable as logic could be. . . . On one such occasion, a woman auditor, 
 not in sympathy with all his teachings, personally expressed the wish 
 that she "might have his scalp for a scrub-brush." At one of the earlier 
 State Meetings held in Springfield, the mountain-top was reached on 
 the Lord's Day. It was the custom then, at the close of the communion, 
 to shake hands throughout the assembly. Some of the elder brethren 
 would embrace each other and weep tears of joy. On this occasion, . . . 
 the gentle Barton W. Stone . . . cried out: "Brother Brown, you speak 
 too harshly of people's errors. Dear brother, when you find a stone 
 across the path of truth, just carefully roll it away, but don't try to 
 spat the man who laid it there." ... To his aggressiveness he added a 
 brilliant imagination. His pictures of heavenly things were sublime. 
 Great crowds attended his meetings and many were turned to the Lord. 
 After all, a sweet tenderness was in his soul. . . . 
 
 The churches at Springfield, Bloomington, Pittsfield, and at many 
 other places in the State, are yet much indebted to this great preacher. 1 
 
 William M. Brown is named as one of the incorporators of 
 Eureka College in a special charter which was granted by the 
 legislature of Illinois by an act approved February 6, 1855. The 
 institution had previously been known as Walnut Grove 
 Academy. In September, 1855, it was opened as Eureka Col- 
 lege with Elder William M. Brown as its first president. He 
 and Elder William Davenport were appointed solicitors for 
 
 a Nathaniel S. Haynes, History of the Disciples of Christ in Illinois, 1819-1914 
 (Cincinnati: Standard Publishing Company, 1915), pp. 485-486. 
 
 50 
 
the college. They visited localities in Illinois and adjoining 
 
 states to canvass for students and donations. In a few months 
 
 they reported over $60,000 in subscriptions. 
 
 The following letter by Mr. Brown to Barton W. Stone tells 
 
 of his evangelistic work at Springfield before becoming pastor 
 
 here: 
 
 Jacksonville, Illinois: August 11, 1841. 
 Dear Father Stone: 
 
 Brother Patton and myself arrived in Springfield July 3, and com- 
 menced a meeting, which continued four weeks during which we had 
 75 valuable additions in the city and vicinity. May the good Lord bless 
 them, and save them in His everlasting Kingdom. 
 
 W. M. Brown 2 
 
 The success of William M. Brown as an evangelist is evi- 
 denced by letters from him published in the Millennial Harbin- 
 ger, edited by Alexander Campbell. In the volume of 1846 
 is the following: 
 
 Frankfort, Ky., April 15, 1846. 
 
 My year's labors as an evangelist in the Mason county co-operation, 
 terminated on the 1st of this month. During the year I preached 334 
 regular discourses and immersed 176 persons. The preaching, I suppose, 
 was about half the services rendered. . . . 
 
 W. M. Brown 
 
 In the volume of 1855, page 54, appears: 
 
 Illinois — Bro. W. M. Brown, of Pittsfield, September 9th, writes: 
 "A few days since we closed a meeting in this place with 64 additions. 
 Among the number were Methodists, Congregationalists, and Baptists. 
 A Baptist minister (Bro. Chapman) was among the valuable acces- 
 sions. He delivered us a short but appropriate address, stating his 
 reasons for leaving the Baptists and uniting with us on the Bible 
 alone." 
 
 The Illinois State Archives disclose that he became chaplain 
 of the Thirty-eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry in the Civil 
 War. He was mustered in on May 28, 1863, at Newton, Illinois. 
 
 2 From The Christian Messenger, conducted by Barton W. Stone, August, 1841, Vol. 
 11, No. 12, pp. 416-417. 
 
 51 
 
At the battle of Chickamauga (September 19-23, 1863) he con- 
 tracted a cold and died November 22, 1863, at Springfield, 
 
 Illinois. 
 
 * * * 
 
 In the library of the Disciples Divinity House at Chicago 
 is a complete series of bound volumes of the Millennial Har- 
 binger, at least part of which had been in the library of Wil- 
 liam M. Brown. This is indicated by a bookplate in some of 
 the earliest volumes, reading as follows: 
 
 CHRISTIAN CHURCH LIBRARY 
 
 No books to be taken from the church 
 
 Donated by Mrs. Julia A. Brown from the 
 Library of her husband, the late Elder Wm. 
 M. Brown 
 
 It is likely that the Christian Church library referred to in 
 the bookplate is that of this congregation, inasmuch as the 
 Browns lived in Springfield for some years. However, this is 
 only a conjecture. 
 
 We have no further information about MRS. JULIA A. 
 BROWN. 
 
 52 
 
Andrew Jackson Kane 
 
 Pastor 1847-1851 
 
 Born: February 11, 1817, in Guilford County, North Carolina 
 Died: November 14, 1896, at Springfield, Illinois 
 Married: Caroline Maria Beers, May 13, 1847 
 Children: Martha Kane (Mrs. Thomas DeQuincy Tully) 
 
 Charles P. Kane (County Judge of Sangamon 
 County, 1892-1896) 
 
 Julia Elena Kane 
 
 Isabel Kane 
 
 Eugene Stillman Kane 
 
 Henry Beers Kane 
 
 Newell Kane 
 
 Jenny Coleman Kane 
 
 Caroline Kane Died in infancy 
 
 Wilbur Kane 
 
 53 
 
Andrew Jackson Kane 
 
 Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 54 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Caroline Maria Beers Kane 
 
 55 
 
A 
 
 ndrew Jackson Kane was the only 
 member of this congregation who later became its pastor, serv- 
 ing from 1847-1851. He was widely known as Elder A. J. Kane, 
 because Disciple ministers of that period objected to being 
 called "Reverend," preferring the title "Elder." His work as a 
 minister covered much of the state, and he took an active part 
 in the organization of the American Missionary Society and of 
 the Illinois Christian Missionary convention. He was selected to 
 preach the sermon at the dedication of the new church build- 
 ing at Fifth and Jackson Streets on February 12, 1882, when 
 Joseph Buford Allen was pastor. 
 
 Andrew J. Kane . . . was left an orphan in infancy and in his 
 early boyhood was taken by his oldest brother, Morrison Kane, to 
 Indiana, where he was reared. At the age of twenty-one, Andrew 
 started out in life for himself, going to Illinois. Not pleased with the 
 outlook of Chicago, then an uninviting village half sunken in the mire, 
 he came to Peoria and afterward to Springfield, which city was the 
 place of his residence until his death, with the exception of a brief 
 period of about three years from 1851 to 1854 [at which time he was 
 pastor of the Jacksonville Christian Church]. Arriving in the vicinity 
 of Springfield in 1839, he assisted in building the first bridge across 
 the Sangamon River [at Carpenter's mill]. 
 
 Having united with the Christian Church at Indianapolis under the 
 preaching of John O'Kane in 1836, Andrew connected himself at once 
 with the congregation in his home town (Springfield). Urged by the 
 brethren, he decided to enter the ministry and to this end took up the 
 study of Hebrew, Latin, Greek and English literature under private 
 tutors. ... In 1842, he was ordained to preach by the Christian con- 
 gregation at Springfield. 
 
 His field was central Illinois, though at times he passed the bound- 
 aries of the State. Before the age of railways and telegraphs in the 
 sparsely settled country, where few pastors were permanently em- 
 ployed, he preached continuously, riding on horseback to various towns 
 with his saddlebags behind him. In one side was his Bible and in the 
 other his necessary articles of wearing apparel. No name was better 
 known than his, no views more widely heard in those early days for 
 the development and settlement of Illinois. Meetings were held, 
 
 56 
 
churches organized, infant congregations cared for, and occasionally 
 an encounter was had with some champion of the opposition in public 
 debate. Some of his evangelistic meetings were marvelously successful 
 for the times and his converts numbered thousands. 
 
 Of his ability as a preacher the testimony is manifold and abundant. 
 Bailey D. Dawson, of Chicago, formerly of Jacksonville, Illinois, . . . 
 says: "Through many successful years, by his excellent good sense, 
 clever practical gospel preaching, his exemplary Christian walk and 
 conversation, he won many precious souls to Christ and achieved an 
 enviable name as a good pastor — the ablest minister this church ever 
 had then or in later times." 1 
 
 In the Millennial Harbinger of 1847 appears: 
 
 Fort Madison, I. T., February 15, 1847. 
 
 Brother Kain [Kane], of Springfield, Illinois, was over with us 
 lately. He spoke eleven or twelve nights (including Lord's day) in 
 succession, to crowded audiences, in our court-house. Ten persons 
 came forward and obeyed the gospel, and three were added to our 
 congregation by letter. We had to cut through ice over one foot thick 
 to immerse during our meeting. Wm. Leslie. 
 
 In the Millennial Harbinger of 1848 is the following: 
 
 ANOTHER TROPHY OF THE LEXINGTON DEBATE 
 
 Springfield, Illinois, March 30, 1848. 
 In the fall of 1845, I commenced preaching in the town of Ma- 
 comb, M'Donough county, Illinois, in company with brother Isaac 
 Murphy, now of Bethany, Va. We organized a congregation of about 
 seventeen members, to which were added some twenty-seven or eight 
 during the same meeting. Since that time I have visited them occasion- 
 ally, and the congregation has increased to 75 or 80 members. Among 
 them is a very amiable sister, the wife of brother B. Naylor, who was 
 convinced by the "Campbell and Rice Debate." She was a devoted 
 Presbyterian for some time; but having heard her husband read the 
 Debate in the family, during his leisure hours, she yielded to the power 
 of truth, renounced infant sprinkling, and obeyed the gospel under- 
 standing^ and for herself. 
 
 A. J. Kane 
 
 ^rom an article by Thomas T. Holton (Pastor 1868-1870), printed in Past and 
 Present of the City of Springfield and Sangamon County Illinois, by Joseph Wallace, 
 Chicago. The J. S. Clarke Publishing Company, 1904, Volume 1, pages 419-421. 
 
 57 
 
In 1853 Alexander Campbell visited various Illinois churches, 
 trying to raise money to endow a chair of chemistry at Bethany 
 College. He spent some time at Jacksonville, Illinois. A. J. 
 Kane was then pastor of the Jacksonville Christian Church, 
 but left to resume his duties as pastor of First Christian Church 
 in Springfield. In "Notes on a Tour to Illinois," in the Millen- 
 nial Harbinger of December, 1853, Mr. Campbell said: 
 
 . . . Bro. Kane was obliged to give the parting hand at Jacksonville, 
 and attend to his pastoral duties. My loss of his aid will, no doubt, 
 be a gain to the cause which he so ably and faithfully sustains in his 
 own proper field of labor. We want a hundred such men in this great 
 State of Illinois. 
 
 Elder A. P. Cobb, who delivered the address at his funeral, 
 said: "He was a reasoner rather than an exhorter, a natural 
 theologian — a preacher to preachers. He would have graced 
 and filled the chair of the Bible in any of our colleges." 
 
 ♦ ♦ ♦ 
 
 MRS. CAROLINE MARIA BEERS KANE was born Febru- 
 ary 20, 1827, at Springfield, Illinois, and died October 30, 1912, 
 at Springfield, Illinois. She was the daughter of Philo and 
 Martha Stillman Beers. Her parents' marriage was the "wed- 
 ding of the first white couple in the territory which afterward 
 became the county of Sangamon." It is described in detail by 
 Judge Charles P. Kane, grandson, in a lecture read before the 
 Illinois State Historical Society on January 25, 1906. At this 
 wedding the family borrowed all the white flour in the neigh- 
 borhood but could not get enough for a suitable wedding cake. 
 They then prepared a cake of cornmeal covered with white ic- 
 ing. It presented a sufficiently "festal appearance," but there 
 was merry disillusionment when it was cut. The minister, Rev. 
 Stephen England, had only well-worn Indian moccasins for 
 footwear and had to borrow a pair of leather shoes from his 
 brother-in-law, Evan Brittin, in which to officiate. (Exactly 61 
 
 58 
 
years later, on November 2, 1881, Flora, a granddaughter of 
 Evan Brittin, became the wife of Charles Philo Kane, grandson 
 of Philo Beers.) 
 
 Philo and Martha Beers were charter members of the original 
 congregation in 1833. Their daughter Caroline was then 6 
 years old. Later she united with the church and became the 
 wife of Andrew Jackson Kane on May 13, 1847. She was an 
 active and devoted member of the church until her death and 
 was prominent in the social and religious life of the city and 
 in the Daughters of the American Revolution. She was de- 
 scribed as a woman of superior intelligence and strong char- 
 acter. 
 
 She was chosen to turn the first spadeful of dirt on June 4, 
 1911, at the ground-breaking ceremony for the erection of the 
 present church building. 
 
 The Kanes had ten children, of whom seven grew to matur- 
 ity and became active members of the congregation. Through 
 Caroline Maria Beers Kane there has been a continuous line 
 of membership in this congregation through five generations": 
 
 (1) Philo Beers and Martha Stillman Beers (charter mem- 
 
 bers), parents of: 
 
 (2) Caroline Beers Kane, mother of: 
 
 (3) Charles Philo Kane, father of: 
 
 (4) Caroline Kane (Mrs. C. Hubert Streiff) 2 
 (4) Elizabeth Kane (Mrs. O. L. Zelle), and 
 
 (4) Philo Beers Kane, 2 father of: 
 
 (5) Barbara Mae Kane 2 and 
 (5) Vancil York Kane 2 
 
 2 Present members. 
 
 59 
 
John H. Hughes 
 
 Pastor 1851-1852 
 
 Born: No information 
 Died: At San Jose, California 
 Married: No information 
 
 61 
 
John H. Hughes 
 
 Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 62 
 
A 
 
 ccording to news notes in the Illinois 
 Journal, of Springfield, John H. Hughes performed a remark- 
 ably large number of marriages while he was pastor of this 
 church. He was chaplain of Springfield Masonic Lodge No. 4 
 in 1854. In the Illinois Journal of October 5, 1854, is a list of 
 the Grand Officers of the Grand Lodge of Illinois, A. F. & 
 A. M., in which he is named as Grand Chaplain. 
 
 After leaving this church, Mr. Hughes became pastor of 
 various Christian Churches in Missouri, including those at St. 
 Joseph and Kansas City. The minutes of various Missouri Con- 
 ventions give J. H. Hughes of Kansas City, Missouri, as record- 
 ing secretary of the Missouri Christian Convention in 1886- 
 1887. He was president of the Convention in 1888-1889. He 
 was included in the first list of ministers in the Missouri min- 
 utes (1889), but not afterward. In The History of the War- 
 rensburg \Missour'i\ Christian Church, 1855-1928, by Virginia 
 Gilkerson Hedges, we read: 
 
 J. H. Hughes followed next (after J. H. Foy was called to St. Louis). 
 He was the type of a lawyer and plead each case, in love of both God 
 and man. He was very successful in gaining converts. He died some 
 years ago in San Jose, California. It was said that no other man at that 
 time could claim more souls for his hire. 
 
 In Volume 3 of The Missouri Christian Lectureship for 
 1884-1885, the Foreword states that J. H. Hughes was Chair- 
 man of the Executive Committee of the Lectureship. 
 
 63 
 
Alexander Johnson 
 
 Pastor 1852-1854 
 
 Born: No information 
 Died: No information 
 Married: Name not known 
 Children: Four daughters 
 One son 
 
 65 
 
w 
 
 e find various references to Alexan- 
 der "Johnson" and to Alexander "Johnston," which lead us to 
 believe that they are the same man, who served as our pastor in 
 1852-1854. He later became the first pastor of the Main Street 
 Christian Church at New Castle, Indiana, from August, 1863, 
 to February, 1866, during the building and completion of its 
 first church edifice. Not much is known of his other labors 
 in this part of the country, but considerable is known of his 
 career in the far west. 
 
 We quote from E. B. Ware's History of the Disciples of 
 Christ in California, published at Healdsburg, California, in 
 1916. 
 
 CHRISTIAN COLLEGE. 
 
 In 1869 Alexander Johnston came to the state of California with his 
 wife and family of four daughters and a son. Johnston was a man of 
 fine appearance, well educated, and a fine preacher. In fact, along the 
 line of "first principles" he had few equals. He was a college-bred 
 man, and at once took a leading place in the educational forces of the 
 State among our people. 
 
 Johnston stopped at Woodland a little while, then came to Napa 
 and looked the field over with the view of founding a school, but 
 finally located at Santa Rosa. He began to preach for the church, and 
 immediately began to talk up the matter of founding a Christian school 
 in that fertile country and growing town. The country then was new, 
 and the public schools were poor. The State University was then only 
 on paper, and the people were anxious for better educational facilities. 
 
 Hesperian College at Woodland held the priority of age and of 
 claim upon the brotherhod of the State for financial support and for 
 patronage. It had been struggling for over ten years to get its head 
 above the water, but the Santa Rosa movement found supporters. 
 Reverend Johnston had a wonderful faculty for rallying men to his 
 enterprises, of forming quick combinations and carrying them into 
 immediate execution. His faculty for a long and continuous administra- 
 tion of plans which he set on foot was not so good. 
 
 At the State meeting at Woodland in 1870, as has been stated, a 
 new paper, the Bible Expositor, was started. Johnston was made editor. 
 This gave him prestige, and on January 1, 1871, the first number of the 
 new paper appeared. 
 
 66 
 
Soon after this Johnston began the active work of founding a col- 
 lege at Santa Rosa. A fine plot of ground was secured at the head of B 
 street, and a splendid two-story building erected thereon, with all the 
 necessary equipment. On September 23, 1872, the doors of Christian 
 College were opened to the public. The Honorable T. H. Laine of San 
 Jose, a stepson of Thomas Thompson, delivered the opening address. 
 The head of the faculty was Alexander Johnston, A.M., Professor of 
 Hebrew, Mental and Moral Philosophy; Harrison Price, A.B., Professor 
 of Latin and Greek Language and Literature; A. M. Merriman, Pro- 
 fessor of Mathematics, and Florence G. Johnston, M.A., teacher of 
 music. Johnston continued in the school about two years, when dif- 
 ficulties arose, and he resigned. 
 
 The college flourished for only a few years, and then the 
 property was sold and became Ursuline Academy. 
 
 Among Johnston's converts in California was no less a per- 
 son that Edwin Markham, the poet, author of "The Man with 
 the Hoe." In Stidger's biography of Edwin Markham, the poet 
 gives a pen picture of the minister, spelling the name "John- 
 son." He also mentions that the poet's mother was a member 
 of the brotherhood of Disciples of Christ, and states that he 
 also became a member and was immersed. 1 
 
 Said the poet on that unforgettable evening: "My mother was a 
 Roman matron, a woman of power, one who could have led an army 
 to battle, but she was also a thoughtful woman with a strong slant 
 toward religion. 
 
 "She was a seeker after religious truth always and took me with 
 her, even as a mere child, on these religious quests. She belonged to 
 the Campbellite Church, known now as the Disciples. There was just 
 enough controversy and clash of wits in that early church to satisfy her 
 keen and vivid intelligence. In those days the Disciples specialized in 
 Bible lore, and what was not known to them of immersion as the true 
 form of baptism was not known to any group on earth. 
 
 "I remember that now and then my mother would dress me and 
 take me to what were called 'revival meetings' or 'protracted meetings,' 
 
 William L. Stidger, Edwin Markham (Nashville: The Abingdon Press, 1933), pp. 
 226-229. 
 
 67 
 
where all the celebrities of the church came, each of them dowered 
 with immense beards and broad-bottomed physical bodies; preachers 
 with voices like the seven thunders of Patmos; voices that could and 
 did hurl thunderbolts of the fear of God into the most abject sinners. 
 
 "Among the great preachers of that church in those early days was 
 Alexander Johnson, a tall, thin, wiry personality, with broad clifflike 
 brows; long, skinny fingers like the talons of a vulture, and whenever 
 he walked across the floor of a church toward the pulpit he was the 
 target of all eyes. He was a thoughtful man, crammed with Bible 
 quotations and always ended his sermons with a terrific appeal to the 
 terrors of the law. 
 
 "We all sat there, especially the children, pale and horrified with 
 the prospect of a gulf of hell into which we might soon be hurled. 
 In those days there was not so much 'sweetness and light' in preaching. 
 Those preachers seemed to be terribly in earnest. They had what Goethe 
 called 'an inner earnestness' in their preaching, looking upon life and 
 religion as a most serious business. 
 
 "I joined the church and was immersed in San Jose, California. 
 I was immersed in a deep pool outside of the town somewhere. I took 
 the matter seriously, and, while I don't look upon baptism with quite 
 the intensity of those early brethren, still I look upon religion with the 
 same seriousness that I always did. I know that the truly religious 
 man is the only man who has founded his life on reason and Christ." 
 
 68 
 
B. F. Perky 
 
 Pastor 1854-1856 
 
 Born: No information 
 
 Died: No information 
 
 Married: ] (Wife and children are mentioned by Mr. 
 
 Children: J Perky, but no names or dates are given.) 
 
 69 
 
B 
 
 '• F. Perky became a leading figure in the 
 churches of Disciples of Christ of Ohio, and is mentioned 
 favorably three times in Henry K. Shaw's Buckeye Disciples. 
 He was an evangelist of the Ohio convention. 
 
 Alexander Campbell, in the Millennial Harbinger of Febru- 
 ary, 1853, said of him: 
 
 A SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 
 
 I congratulate, not only the beloved Bro. Perky, on his remarkable 
 recovery from the loss of reason, as the consequence of physical de- 
 rangement of a very peculiar character, but also his family, and all the 
 brethren in Ohio that knew him, admired him, and loved him, and 
 they are not a few. Their prayers have been heard and answered, and 
 he is himself again. 
 
 I heard Bro. Perky at four great meetings on the Western Reserve, 
 in 1851, with the greatest satisfaction and delight. I regarded him as 
 a great master-spirit in the midst of a great congregation, and in the 
 same ratio I was afflicted in his affliction, and grieved at what I fear- 
 fully anticipated a great loss to his family and friends, and to the cause 
 of our Great Redeemer. But the Lord has been very merciful to him 
 and to the people, in his truly remarkable restoration. His disease was 
 purely physical in its incipiency and general character; but its seat 
 being in the head, suddenly involved the brain, and deprived him of 
 all its healthy functions, so that his mind and body were, for months, 
 a perfect wreck. But by the science, the skill, and the care of the officers 
 and superintendents of the Ohio State Asylum, and especially by the 
 grace and mercy of God, he has been restored. How true the Sunday 
 School verse: 
 
 A fever or a blow may shake 
 
 Our wisdom's boasted rule, 
 And of the brightest genius make 
 
 A madman or a fool. 
 
 The following narrative will afford such interest and information 
 as will more than pay for the space which it occupies and the time spent 
 in reading it. A. C. 
 
 70 
 
Newton Falls, O., January 19, 1853. 
 
 My Venerable Brother: Permit me to say to you, and, through 
 the Harbinger, to many anxious friends, that, in the good Providence 
 of God, I am restored to my full measure of physical and mental 
 health, and hail, with inexpressible delight and gratitude, the privilege 
 of mingling with my brethren once more in the social circles and in 
 the great congregation. . . . 
 
 It is with heartfelt satisfaction and profound gratitude I record the 
 fact, that during my long separation from my family, their wants were 
 kindly cared for by the brotherhood from Allegheny City, Pa., to 
 Ashland, Ohio. The "cruse of oil and barrel of meal" were not allowed 
 to become exhausted during a protracted illness of nearly one year. In 
 addition to material aid from numerous congregations and individuals, 
 letters of condolence and sympathy, emanating from the purest hearts 
 and ablest pens, besides visits in person from those who knew how to 
 sympathize with the sorely stricken, contributed much towards mitigat- 
 ing the sorrows of my deeply afflicted companion and children, and the 
 perpetuation of the life of the best of wives, and the most tender and 
 prudent of mothers. . . . 
 
 My wife sends much love to Sister Campbell. With much affection, I 
 have the honor to be your brother in tribulation, and in the kingdom 
 and patience of Jesus Christ, and in the hope of Israel. 
 
 B. F. Perky. 
 
 B. F. Perky became pastor of the Christian Church at Spring- 
 field early in 1856 after having preached at the church several 
 times. After a few months the elders of the church waited 
 upon him and advised him that "such was the opposition to 
 his further continuance as pastor that his services could no 
 longer be profitable, and in their judgment, ought to cease." 
 Already there had been some misunderstanding between Mr. 
 Perky and certain members of the church. He then accused 
 the congregation of violating a compact and doing him great 
 injury. Without consulting the elders or the congregation, he 
 mailed a circular to the Christian ministers of the state calling 
 on them to meet in Springfield "to consider questions of great 
 importance." In January, 1857, forty-two preachers responded, 
 and listened to Mr. Perky's side of the case. Mr. Perky pre- 
 
 71 
 
pared a circular, which is in the Illinois State Historical Li- 
 brary setting forth his version. The meeting of the ministers 
 issued what they called a "Decision" in which they held that 
 "the church at Springfield has done him a palpable injury by 
 violating the solemn compact and should make reparation." 
 The congregation appointed a committee, whose report was 
 made to the church and adopted by it February 8, 1857. In 
 Haynes' History, it is said: "This report bears the unmistakable 
 stamp of that master-mind, A. J. Kane." The report is as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 CHRISTIAN MEETING-HOUSE, SPRINGFIELD, FEB. 8, 1857. 
 
 At a meeting of the congregation in Springfield, Feb. 8, 1857, the fol- 
 lowing report was read and adopted : 
 
 "Whereas, Jonathan Atkinson, Theophilus Sweet, E. W. Bakewell and 
 I. N. Carman, the majority of a committee appointed by the late 
 Preachers' Convention held in this city, have presented the elders of 
 this church with a copy of what they style their 'decision,' in which, 
 among other things, they assume to decide as follows: 
 ' "The grievances of Bro. Perkey are great. The church at Springfield 
 has done him a palpable injury by violating a solemn compact, and 
 justice and love alike bind them to make reparation, as far as possible, 
 for the injury, pecuniary and otherwise, sustained by him and the cause 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ.' 
 
 'And, whereas, The investigation of said grievances (as they term 
 it) was altogether partial and ex parte, insomuch as they only heard 
 his statement, and such evidence as he saw fit to produce, and did not 
 receive or seek any other, although informed that they could have 
 any information in possession of the elders in relation to matters 
 properly submitted to said committee, nor was the church permitted to 
 select any part of the tribunal; 
 
 "Therefore, Resolved, That we utterly repudiate and deny the authority 
 arrogated by said committee to try this church or to pass any decision 
 on its action. 
 
 "Resolved, That a church properly organized is responsible to no 
 tribunal on earth, except to the civil law in cases under its cognizance, 
 and that we regard this action of the committee as an assumption of 
 power, unwarranted by the word of God or the practice of the Chris- 
 tian Church, and a bold attempt to lord it over the heritage of God. 
 
 72 
 
"Resolved, That when this church feels itself incompetent to manage 
 its temporal and spiritual affairs, and deems it necessary to have 
 assistance, it not only has the right, but claims the right, to choose 
 a part, at least, of the tribunal to which matters may be properly sub- 
 mitted. 
 
 "Resolved, That the statement of said committee that 'the church in 
 Springfield has done him a palpable wrong by violating a solemn 
 compact,' is reckless and without foundation. 
 
 "Resolved, That this church approves the action of the elders in com- 
 municating to Elder Perkey 'that such was the opposition to his further 
 continuance as pastor of the congregation, that his services could be no 
 longer profitable and, in their judgment, ought to cease,' and we be- 
 lieve it was done with the best of motives for his good, and for the in- 
 terest of the cause of Christ. 
 
 "Resolved, That the church holds itself amenable to no Conference, 
 Synod or Convention, claiming the exclusive right to control its own 
 private and public concerns, but willing and desirous to co-operate with 
 others in promoting the great cause of religion as long as such right 
 is conceded. 
 
 "Resolved, That while we are disposed to respect the brethren com- 
 posing the committee, as ministers and proclaimers of the gospel, so 
 long as they confine their operations to the legitimate work to which 
 they are called, we must most decidedly, in the fear of God and in all 
 Christian forbearance, utterly repudiate and set at naught the so-called 
 decision so far as it relates to this church. 
 
 "(Signed) A. J. Kane, 
 "Richard Latham, 
 "Joseph Bennett, 
 "A. C. Constant, 
 "Committee." 
 
 Despite A. J. Kane's outspoken opposition to the action of 
 the Preachers' Convention, it appears that he had a rather 
 high opinion of Mr. Perky personally, as evidenced by a letter 
 quoted by Mr. Perky in his Circular as follows: 
 
 Springfield, Dec. 3d, 1856. 
 To All the Brethren in Christ: — This is to certify that the bearer, 
 Bro. B. F. Perky, has been sojourning and laboring with us for some 
 time very acceptably, and being about to leave, it affords me much 
 pleasure to state that we have found in him a man true and faithful — 
 the Christian and the gentleman. Any attention shown him on 
 
 73 
 
your part, will be supporting the cause of our common Master and 
 gratefully acknowledged by your brother in Christ. 
 
 A. J. Kane 
 
 This controversy has had a historical significance to the en- 
 tire brotherhood of Disciples of Christ. It tended to establish 
 firmly the status of an individual congregation as being wholly 
 independent in the conduct of its own congregational affairs — 
 not subject to the control or dictation of any so-called supervis- 
 ing authority such as a "conference, synod or convention." 
 The stand thus taken by Elder A. J. Kane and his colleagues 
 appears to be generally accepted, not only in Illinois but 
 throughout the entire brotherhood of Disciples of Christ. 
 
 Calling attention to the refusal of the 1961 Kansas City As- 
 sembly of the International Convention to override historic 
 congregational polity when it disapproved a resolution calling 
 for immediate steps toward desegregation of National City 
 Christian Church, Howard E. Short, editor of The Christian, 
 has said that current views on this subject seem to remain the 
 same. 
 
 The Illinois State Historical Library has a copy of the cir- 
 cular, evidently sent out by Mr. Perky from Mount Pleasant, 
 Iowa, in 1857, to David King, Jacksonville, Illinois. It con- 
 tains two letters: one from M. Berkey and Wm. London, 
 Mount Pleasant, Iowa, July 29th, 1857, to Elder B. F. Perky 
 regarding matters pertaining to the Christian church at Spring- 
 field, Illinois, and the Preachers' Convention held there in 
 January, 1857; and the other his reply, giving his account of 
 the misunderstanding, referred to by Haynes. 
 
 74 
 
Sterling Elwood Pearre 
 
 Pastor 1856-1862 
 
 Born: August 27, 1825, in Clermont County, Ohio 
 Died: January 9, 1904, at California, Missouri 
 Married: (1) Name unknown 
 
 Children: Names and number unknown 
 
 (2) Angelina Carman 
 
 Children: Henrietta Lockwood Pearre 
 (Mrs. Edmund Wilkes) 
 Daughter: Name unknown 
 
 (3) Caroline Neville 
 Children: None 
 
 75 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Sterling Elwood Pearre 
 
 76 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Caroline Neville Pearre 
 
 77 
 
THE PEARRE FAMILY 
 
 By Edmund Wilkes, Jr. 1 
 
 A, 
 
 .ccording to a notation in an old Bible, 
 in the handwriting of Henrietta Lockwood Pearre Wilkes (my 
 mother — wife of Elder Edmund Wilkes), her father, Dr. 
 Sterling Elwood Pearre, was born August 27, 1825, in Cler- 
 mont County, Ohio. His parents were Otho and Melissa Penick 
 Bagby Pearre of Kentucky. 
 
 He first became a physician and surgeon. He was known 
 as an eclectic doctor, which school of medicine taught the use 
 of plant extracts instead of minerals as medicine. Dr. Pearre 
 became an expert botanist, and was acquainted with a number 
 of the leading botanists of his day. He made a collection of 
 unusual plant specimens, pressed in a large book which he 
 called his Herbarium. 
 
 It was while he was practicing medicine that Dr. Pearre 
 decided to become a Christian minister. He was practicing 
 medicine in either Pennsylvania or Kentucky at the time of 
 an epidemic of yellow fever, which was a common scourge 
 in those days, and his wife and all his children died from it. 
 It is said that he quit the practice of medicine because his 
 medical knowledge and skill were insufficient to save his own 
 wife and family. 
 
 Alexander Campbell induced him to attend Bethany Col- 
 lege in Virginia. He graduated with honors, and devoted his 
 full time to the ministry, serving many of the prominent 
 churches of Disciples of Christ. In 1857-1858 S. E. Pearre, 
 M.D., was assistant professor at Eureka College. 
 
 Edmund Wilkes, Jr., who resides at 4449 South Benton Avenue, Kansas City 30, 
 Missouri, is a grandson of two of the pastors of First Christian Church. His father, 
 Edmund Wilkes, a minister, was the son of Lanceford Bramblett Wilkes, pastor in 
 1866-1868. His mother was Henrietta Pearre, daughter of Dr. Sterling Elwood Pearre 
 (pastor in 1856-1862) and Angelina Carman Pearre. 
 
 The research by Mr. Wilkes in regard to the details of the lives of his two grand- 
 fathers and their families appears to be more thorough than anything we have observed 
 in print. We are glad, therefore, to make use of his labors. — Ed. (See also L. B. 
 Willces, 92.) 
 
 78 
 
Dr. Pearre's second wife was Angelina Carman, a quite 
 energetic woman who died in 1862, leaving one daughter, 
 Henrietta (Nettie) Lockwood Pearre, then five years old. At 
 the age of twelve, Nettie became a student at Christian Col- 
 lege in Columbia, Missouri, and lived there most of the time 
 until she graduated, after which she was employed as a mem- 
 ber of the faculty until she married father, Reverend Edmund 
 Wilkes, son of Reverend and Mrs. Lanceford Bramblett 
 Wilkes, and became my mother. 
 
 One of the members of the faculty at Christian College 
 while Nettie was a student there was a gifted young woman, 
 Caroline Neville, who became Dr. Pearre's third wife. Caro- 
 line went to Lexington, Kentucky, to visit her brother at one 
 time when Dr. Pearre came there to hold a revival meeting. 
 She considered him the most intellectual man she had ever 
 met, and they fell in love and were married. 
 
 I understand that he always had been a shy, sensitive man, 
 of scholarly attainments with the ability to rise to eloquence 
 in the pulpit. He was kind, gentle, and tender. He lacked 
 the brilliance and aggressive drive that made Grandfather 
 Lanceford B. Wilkes a noted debater, and the ability to fit 
 himself into the company of great leaders of his Christian 
 brotherhood. Nevertheless, Grandfather Pearre was a rare and 
 great man, and well known in his day, and I am proud to have 
 been his grandson. 
 
 In the 1890's Dr. Pearre became afflicted with a disease 
 which impaired his ability to walk and, about 1896, he was 
 compelled to retire from the ministry. During his active career, 
 he had been a member of the Masonic fraternity. After re- 
 tirement, Dr. and Mrs. Pearre lived for a time in Irvington, 
 Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis. Later they moved to Cali- 
 fornia, Missouri, where they lived with their children. After 
 an illness which lasted several years, Dr. Pearre died January 
 9, 1904. 
 
 79 
 
The following obituary was published in the Christian Stand- 
 ard, January 20, 1904: 
 
 Dr. Sterling Elwood Pearre was born in Ohio, August 27, 1825, and 
 departed this life January 9, 1904, in the 80th year of his age. He was 
 a son of Otho Pearre, a descendant of an old Maryland family, and a 
 fellow-worker with Stone, Rogers, and others in the New Light Ref- 
 ormation. S. E. Pearre became a Christian early in life. He graduated 
 from a medical school in 1850, and practiced medicine and surgery 
 with success, until, at the earnest solicitation of friends and a personal 
 sense of duty, he laid down the surgeon's knife and took up the sword 
 of the Spirit, which he wielded with great power in the interests of 
 humanity. 
 
 That he might be a more efficient worker for the Master, he entered 
 Bethany College in the beginning of his ministry, from which he 
 graduated with honors in 1855. He was an intimate friend and great 
 admirer of Alexander Campbell, from whose life he drew a wonderful 
 inspiration. He was a profound scholar, a great preacher, and a sedulous 
 worker. 
 
 Much of his ministerial work was among our stronger congregations, 
 and many are the "Old Guard" remaining who will remember him 
 with love and veneration for the faithful work he gave the churches in 
 Dubuque, Iowa, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ashland, Ohio, SPRING- 
 FIELD, ILLINOIS, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Indianapolis, Indiana, 
 and other places. He leaves a faithful wife and co-laborer, the organizer 
 of the C. W. B. M. [Mrs. Caroline Neville Pearre], an only daughter, 
 the wife of Elder Wilkes of this city, with their children, a host of 
 friends and a rich heritage of good work for the Master. May his sleep 
 be sweet as he rests from his labors. 
 
 S. J. Vance, Pastor 
 Christian Church 
 California, Missouri 
 
 JU «.♦- »•« 
 V V 
 
 (l) There is no record as to who Dr. Pearre's first wife 
 was, nor as to the names or number of her children. Their 
 death from yellow fever caused Dr. Pearre to give up the prac- 
 tice of medicine and become a minister. 
 
 (2) Dr. Pearre's second wife was ANGELINA CARMAN. 
 Letters, still extant, written by her show that in 1851 she was 
 
 80 
 
living in Waynesville, Warren County, Ohio. From her letiers, 
 Angelina seems to have been of a sprightly, coquettish nature. 
 Her beautiful handwriting and excellent diction reveal edu- 
 cation and culture. An interesting sidelight of her personality 
 is given by her use in 1851 of dainty envelopes for her letters 
 instead of the folded pages, sealed with wax, which were in 
 general use until after the Civil War. The Carman family was 
 talented and musically gifted, with a love for good music. 
 
 She and Dr. Pearre had two daughters. The elder daughter 
 was Henrietta (Nettie) Lockwood, born March 5, 1857. She 
 married Edmund Wilkes and became my mother. The younger 
 daughter died of scarlet fever when five years old. 
 
 ♦ ♦ ♦ 
 
 (3) The third wife was CAROLINE NEVILLE PEARRE, 
 "Mother of the Christian Woman's Board of Missions." She 
 was born April 15, 1831, near Clarksville, in Montgomery 
 County, Tennessee, and died September 23, 1910. 
 
 The portrait shown here is of Dr. Pearre's third wife. Her 
 parents were C. O. Neville and Mary Ross Neville, who moved 
 to Mackinaw, Illinois, when she was quite young. Her mother 
 died when Caroline was fourteen years old. 
 
 She spent several years in Walnut Grove Academy, later 
 Eureka College, as a student and as a teacher. She taught six- 
 teen years chiefly in Columbia, Missouri, and in Harrodsburg, 
 Kentucky. She brought to the classroom a fine dignity, tact, 
 and a sparkling sense of humor. While a member of the 
 faculty of Christian College, at Columbia, Missouri, she was 
 one of the teachers of Nettie Pearre. When she married Dr. 
 Pearre, she left the teaching profession, and in middle life 
 assumed the duties of a housewife. As the wife of a minister, 
 Caroline contributed charm, culture, and Christian dedication 
 which matched the ability, scholarship, and fervor of her hus- 
 band. 
 
 81 
 
Caroline was a woman who exemplified the old-fashioned 
 term "gentlewoman." Possessed of a positive character and 
 eminent qualities of leadership, she exerted a wide influence 
 by her tact and graciousness, without seeming to strive for 
 dominance. She was a person of culture, taste, and discrimi- 
 nation, fastidious in habits of thought, speech, and conduct. 
 
 In 1874, while the Pearres were living in Iowa City, Iowa, 
 Caroline's long-standing conviction of the urgent need for 
 vigorous programs of missionary education among women led 
 her to correspond with other women who were prominent in 
 church leadership in various parts of the country. In May, 
 1874, Mrs. Pearre organized a woman's missionary society in 
 her own church in Iowa City. She wrote to the leading Chris- 
 tian women of other states, urging them to organize mission- 
 ary societies in their own and neighboring churches. The re- 
 sponse was immediate, and several societies were formed. Her 
 letters came to the attention of the brotherhood papers, the 
 Christian-Evangelist and Christian Standard, and the new 
 movement received their enthusiastic support. 
 
 The General Christian Missionary Convention was to meet 
 in Cincinnati, Ohio, in October, 1874. This seemed an oppor- 
 tune time for the women to form a national organization. At 
 the suggestion of Isaac Errett, editor of the Christian Standard, 
 about seventy-five women met on October 21 in the basement 
 of the Richmond Street Christian Church in Cincinnati. Mrs. 
 Pearre stated the purpose of the meeting, briefly outlined plans 
 for future work, and moved that a committee be appointed 
 to draft a constitution. She was appointed chairman of that 
 committee. On Thursday morning, October 22, 1874, the con- 
 stitution of the Christian Woman's Board of Missions was 
 adopted and officials were elected, Mrs. Pearre becoming cor- 
 responding secretary. In the afternoon of the same day, the 
 women were invited to report to the General Convention. Mrs. 
 Pearre delivered an address on "Woman's Foreign Mission 
 
 82 
 
Work." The General Convention then passed a resolution 
 recognizing and approving the Christian Woman's Board of 
 Missions. 
 
 The full story is told in detail in the Historical Sketch of 
 the Christian Woman's Board of Missions, published by the 
 Board at Indianapolis and revised in 1900 by Elmira J. Dickin- 
 son; in May, 1905, by Helen E. Moses; and in April, 1911, 
 by Anna R. Atwater (wife of John M. Atwater, pastor of the 
 Springfield church in 1878-1879). In the World Call of Janu- 
 ary, 1948, it is said that she "became known affectionately as 
 the 'Mother of the Christian Woman's Board of Missions.' " 
 
 While Mrs. Pearre was living in Indianapolis she contrib- 
 uted articles for young people regularly to the Young People's 
 Standard, of which someone said: "Hers is the graceful pen of 
 a ready writer." 
 
 First Christian Church of Springfield, Illinois, has reason 
 to take pride in the fact that both the organizer, Mrs. Caroline 
 Neville Pearre, and the last president, Mrs. Anna Robison At- 
 water, of the Christian Woman's Board of Missions were wives 
 of pastors of this church. 
 
 83 
 
Daniel Radcliffe Howe 
 
 Pastor 1862-1864 
 
 Born: 1819, in Ohio 
 
 Died: November 8, 1905, at Eureka, Illinois 
 
 Married: Merry 
 
 Children: John Howe 
 
 Henry Howe 
 
 Merry C. Howe 
 
 Elmira Howe 
 
 Martha Howe 
 
 William F. Howe 
 
 85 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Daniel Radcliffe Howe 
 
 86 
 
I 
 
 ames Howe, the father of the subject of this 
 sketch, was a native of Virginia and a Baptist preacher. He was a mem- 
 ber of the Mahoning Association and came with its members into the 
 Restoration movement. So spiritually D. R. Howe was both free-born 
 and of the blood royal. In his youth he attended private schools in 
 Ohio. In 1835 he came with his parents to Bureau County, 111. There 
 at Leepertown he went to school six weeks to George W. Minier. A 
 little knowledge of Latin and Greek he got by the help of his brother- 
 in-law, Amos Hays. At twenty-one, he taught the first school ever held 
 in Green County, Wis. He became a Christian in his eighteenth year and 
 thereafter preached some for seven years. Then he became a settled min- 
 ister of the church at Princeton at a salary of $250 a year. He served 
 there through a period of ten years, during the last half of which he re- 
 ceived $1,000 per year. He served the churches at Washington two 
 terms, Peoria, Springfield, Minonk, Quincy, Putnam, Henry, Lanark two 
 terms, Monroe, Wisconsin two terms; two terms at Princeton, and at 
 Ulysses, Neb. Besides, Mr. Howe was a very successful evangelist and a 
 noted builder of church houses. He was one of the finest men of his time. 
 In him there were combined in an unusual degree the elements of a 
 great gospel preacher. He enlightened the mind by a knowledge of the 
 Scriptures and then appealed to the heart and conscience with great 
 earnestness. Withal, he had fine business ability. During the fifty years 
 of his active ministry he missed the public worship on the Lord's Day 
 only eight times. 1 
 
 He was a charter member of the Princeton Christian Church 
 which was organized March 8, 1840. Later, he was pastor in 
 1851-1859. 
 
 Daniel R. Howe was a member of the House of Representa- 
 tives, from Bureau County, Illinois, in the Twenty-Third Gen- 
 eral Assembly, 1862-1864. 2 
 
 And last, but not least, is D. R. Howe, that venerable man of God, 
 who for more than half a century preached with zeal and power Christ, 
 and Him crucified. Thousands of souls rejoiced in salvation and many 
 churches have grown strong by his efforts. He spent some ten of his 
 last years in Eureka, where he served as elder of the Christian Church. 
 
 *N. S. Haynes, History of the Disciples of Christ in Illinois, p. 540. 
 2 Blue Book of the State of Illinois, 1931-1932, p. 758. 
 
 87 
 
This was wise and blessed, for he taught hundreds of young preachers 
 how to grow old sweetly and die gloriously in the faith of Christ. 3 
 
 A letter of August 10, 1961, from Richard Dickinson, of 
 Eureka, Illinois, says: 
 
 Unfortunately, when our church building burned in 1930 our 
 records, up to that time, were lost. Am sorry that I cannot give you any 
 information concerning Mrs. Howe. 
 
 I remember Elder Howe quite well as a cheerful and dependable 
 elder who got along agreeably with the younger, and more liberal, 
 members of the Board. Not all elders did, in those days. 
 
 In the County Clerk's records I learned that Mr. Howe died Novem- 
 ber 8, 1905. It is interesting that the attending physician in stating 
 the cause of death, wrote: 
 
 "Old Age. Was not sick, every organ seemed to perform its 
 
 function. The fruit was ripe and dropt off." 
 
 * * * 
 
 The 1860 census records show that Daniel Radcliffe Howe, 
 minister of Disciples of Christ, was living with his wife, Merry, 
 at Princeton, Bureau County, Illinois. Their six children are 
 listed above. This is our only information about MRS. DANIEL 
 RADCLIFFE HOWE. 
 
 ^Obituaries section in Year Book of the Illinois Christian Missionary Society, 1906; 
 58. 
 
 88 
 
Lanceford Bramblett Wilkes 
 
 Pastor 1866-1868 
 
 Born: March 24, 1824, in Maury County, Tennessee 
 Died: May 1, 1901 
 
 Married: Rebecca Kay Bryan, February 7, 1854 
 Children: Lucy Boone Wilkes; born October 7, 1854; died 
 
 December 22, 1857, at the age of 3 years and 2 
 
 months. 
 Mary Ellen Wilkes; born August 29, 1856; died 
 
 January 24, 1857, at the age of 5 months. 
 Lewis Bryan Wilkes; born December 8, 1857; 
 
 died December 4, 1881, at the age of 24 years. 
 Nannie Dawson Wilkes; born January 30, 1859; 
 
 died October 17, 1859, at the age of 9 months. 
 Edmund Wilkes; born November 15, I860; died 
 
 December 23, 1943, at the age of 83 years and 
 
 1 month. 
 Anna Huston Wilkes; born May 16, 1862; died 
 
 July 18, 1862, at the age of 2 months. 
 John B. Wilkes; born January 14, 1869; died 
 
 August 24, 1949, at the age of 80 years and 7 
 
 months. 
 Mary Cartmell Wilkes; born April 19, 1870; died 
 
 July 15, 1870, at the age of 2 months. 
 Alberta Singleton Wilkes; born July 25, 1871; 
 
 died February 18, 1893, at the age of 21 years 
 
 and 7 months. 
 
 89 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Lanceford Bramblett Wilkes 
 
 90 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Rebecca Kay Bryan Wilkes 
 
 91 
 
THE WILKES FAMILY 
 
 By Edmund Wilkes, Jr. 
 
 M 
 
 -y grandfather, Lanceford Bramblett 
 Wilkes, minister, educator, author, and religious debater, was 
 the son of Judge Edmund Wilkes and Cynthia Houston Wilkes. 
 When Lanceford was about five years old, his parents moved 
 to what is now Miller County, Missouri. 
 
 In 1830 the surrounding region was of distinctly pioneer 
 character. There were then no schools, and post offices and 
 churches were sparsely scattered. Mindful of the need of such 
 community enterprises, Lanceford's father soon organized a 
 school on a corner of his farm and called it Rocky Mount 
 School after the name of the Virginia county seat near where 
 he had been born. It was one of the first if not the first, in the 
 region. 
 
 Lanceford early determined to secure a good education; and, 
 by teaching younger pupils and by other work, he earned 
 enough to enter an academy at Springfield, Missouri, where 
 he continued his studies. 
 
 Shortly before he entered the academy, he first heard of a 
 religious group newly established in the community. They were 
 known variously as Campbellites, Stoneites, Reformers, Chris- 
 tians, Disciples of Christ, and New Lighters. In later years, 
 Lanceford is quoted as saying that at first he "dispised" them, 
 because their ways were considered uncouth and because of 
 the lack of education of some of those who served as preach- 
 ers. Lanceford's father is said to have been a Baptist, while 
 his mother was, and remained till her death, a Cumberland 
 Presbyterian. These churches and their members looked upon 
 the "Christian" or "Campbellite" groups as heretical, and op- 
 posed them bitterly. However, at Springfield, Missouri, Lance- 
 ford came under the preaching of a relative, J. M. Wilkes, 
 
 92 
 
who baptized him in the James River near Springfield, Mis- 
 souri. He decided to become a minister of the Christian Church, 
 and in the spring of 1849 he journeyed to Bethany, Virginia, 
 to enroll in Bethany College under Alexander Campbell. Camp- 
 bell became his chief mentor and Lanceford became a brilliant 
 disciple and pupil. 
 
 At this time, Missouri University came under the leadership 
 of a new president, James Shannon, a native of Ireland, a 
 scholar and a preacher of the Christian Church. In 1850 Lance- 
 ford with his younger brother, Peter Singleton Wilkes, became 
 a student at the University of Missouri at Columbia. He com- 
 pleted an extensive course in classical and biblical languages, 
 history, literature, logic, forensics, and attendant subjects. He 
 and his brother received Bachelor of Arts Degrees in 1852, 
 and Master of Arts Degrees in 1855. While a student, Lance- 
 ford became an active member of the Union Literary Society. 
 
 Meanwhile, in 1851, a school for young women was incor- 
 porated. Located at Columbia, Missouri, it was intended as a 
 female counterpart to the University, which restricted its stu- 
 dent body to young men. Lanceford B. Wilkes and J. K. Rogers 
 were engaged to travel for the college during the first summer 
 after their graduation from the University. That fall, Wilkes 
 was engaged as vice-principal with W. H. Hopson as principal 
 of the Palmyra Female Seminary, located at Palmyra, Marion 
 County, Missouri. This school had been launched as a feeder 
 school for Christian College. At about the same time, Wilkes 
 became pastor of the Christian Church at Hannibal, Missouri. 
 
 In 1856 the first president of Christian College, John Au- 
 gustus Williams, resigned, and Lanceford B. Wilkes was 
 elected president, with his close friend, Joseph K. Rogers, as 
 his assistant. Wilkes, however, did not enjoy administrative 
 duties and after about two years, in 1856, he resigned as presi- 
 dent and was succeeded by Rogers. Wilkes was retained, how- 
 ever, to travel for Christian College. 
 
 93 
 
In I860 L. B. Wilkes was called again to the pastorate of 
 the Christian Church at Hannibal, Missouri, at which post he 
 continued until 1865. The period of his pastorate at Hannibal 
 was the time of the Civil War. The Wilkes family was un- 
 ashamedly Southern in its sympathies and inheritance. Because 
 of his Southern views, Wilkes was the object of suspicion on 
 the part of the Northern partisans. He however, confined his 
 activities to the religious field. A story is told that he was 
 arrested, at the instigation of a Union partisan for "preaching 
 the gospel" without subscribing to an oath that he had "never 
 given aid or comfort to the enemies of the United States of 
 America." At the court hearing, Wilkes asked permission to 
 cross-examine the witness who appeared against him. He said 
 to the witness: "You have just testified that you heard me 
 preaching the gospel. Will you please tell the court just what 
 the gospel is?" The witness, in confusion, confessed that he 
 did not know, whereupon the judge pounded his gavel and 
 said: "Case dismissed." Without apology or the least retreat, 
 Wilkes continued a successful pastorate at Hannibal, Missouri. 
 
 In November, 1865, Grandfather was called to the pastorate 
 of the Christian Church at Springfield, Illinois, where he 
 stayed for about three years. He came to be recognized among 
 the leaders of the rapidly growing Christian Church, or Dis- 
 ciples of Christ, as the church was becoming known in the 
 Midwest. Since he was widely known for his scholarship, he 
 was often called upon to defend the position of his church in 
 controversies with other denominations. It was an age of re- 
 ligious controversy and acrimony, during which the various 
 denominations battled for influence and supremacy in this pio- 
 neer region. Wilkes' reputation grew as the years passed. 
 
 About 1868 Grandfather was called to the pastorate of the 
 old Main Street Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky. 
 This church, located in the Blue Grass region of the state, bore 
 the personal mark of many of the pioneers of the church, such 
 
 94 
 
as Alexander Campbell and Barton W. Stone, who in the early 
 1800's was pastor of the Cane Ridge Church, near Paris, Ken- 
 tucky. During his pastorate at Lexington, L. B. Wilkes con- 
 ducted at Mount Sterling, Kentucky, a celebrated debate with 
 Jacob Ditzler of the M. E. Church South, the transcript of 
 which was published in a volume of over 700 pages, and 
 widely circulated among Christian churches of the time. 
 
 Some time during 1870, L. B. Wilkes moved to Columbia, 
 Missouri, where he was the pastor of the First Christian 
 Church. During this pastorate, he maintained and enhanced 
 his reputation as a church leader. He was in demand for ad- 
 dresses and conferences, and he contributed many articles to 
 the current religious periodicals. One of his warmest friends 
 was J. H. Garrison, editor of the Christian-Evangelist. It was 
 in this period that Grandfather dedicated a new church build- 
 ing, known as Olivet Christian Church, located about six miles 
 east of Columbia, Missouri, on the Fulton Gravel Road. To- 
 day Olivet survives as a thriving rural church, a leader in com- 
 munity activities. 
 
 Because of health problems in the family, Grandfather 
 moved to Stockton, California, making a place for himself at 
 once. His reputation had preceded him, and he was engaged 
 as pastor of the Christian Church in that city. He continued 
 to write for the church papers, and became the author of a 
 theological book entitled Moral Evil. 
 
 Grandfather's death occurred on May 1, 1901. The entire 
 group of clergy in Stockton attended his funeral in a body. 
 
 Perhaps the best characterization of the work of L. B. 
 Wilkes was made by Dr. W. T. Moore in his book, The Liv- 
 ing Pulpit of the Christian Church published in 1868 while 
 Grandfather was at Springfield, Illinois. It contains a sermon 
 by Wilkes on "Christ's Precious Invitation." Dr. Moore wrote 
 of his contemporary as follows: 
 
 95 
 
Both as a preacher and teacher, Brother Wilkes has been successful. 
 True, he has never been remarkable for holding "big meetings", and 
 having great success in the evangelical field, though his successes even 
 here have been by no means small; but he has been eminently suc- 
 cessful in developing a permanent growth among the Disciples wher- 
 ever he has labored. He succeeds better as an instructor of the head 
 than as a mover of the heart. And yet he is capable of using very 
 powerful persuasive influence, though he seldom resorts to this method, 
 preferring rather to present his subject in the strongest light to the calm 
 judgment, and await the desired result, which if not as certain, is al- 
 ways more satisfactory when obtained. 
 
 His mind is rigidly logical, and yields only to legitimate arguments. 
 He has very strong and decided convictions, and although somewhat 
 reserved in expressing himself on any mooted question, is, neverthe- 
 less, always perfectly willing to share the full responsibility of any 
 position he may occupy, and, if necessary, will defend it in the face 
 of all opposition. He is naturally, however, unostentatious, quiet in 
 his general movements, and 'seeks after those things which make for 
 peace.' 
 
 He is about six feet high, has light hair, blue eyes, a sallow complex- 
 ion, and weighs about one hundred and sixty pounds. He is a close, 
 laborious student, and this fact is clearly marked on his physical or- 
 ganization. 1 
 
 ♦ ♦ ♦ 
 
 On February 7, 1854, Lanceford Bramblett Wilkes was mar- 
 ried to REBECCA KAY BRYAN, daughter of Lewis Bryan, 
 one of the incorporators and trustees of Christian College at 
 Columbia, Missouri. Lewis Bryan was a leading citizen of 
 Marion County, and was widely known as a breeder of fine 
 horses. He was a generous supporter of higher education for 
 women as well as men. 
 
 It will be noted from the list of children born in this family, 
 there were four who did not reach the age of one year. The 
 burdens of child-bearing and of toil, discouragement and be- 
 reavement rested most heavily on the mother, Rebecca. She 
 was a person of unusual spirit and character. Her conversation 
 
 1,1 'The Living Pulpit of the Christian Church," by W. T. Moore (Cincinnati: R. 
 W. Carroll & Company, 1868), pp. 145-146. 
 
 96 
 
sparkled with wit and shrewd banter. She could hold her own 
 in any company, and presided graciously over her household. 
 When the family was living in Columbia, Missouri, the young 
 university students would go out to the Wilkes farm home and 
 sit at the bountiful table listening to their hosts, who loved 
 to talk with young men. 
 
 Because of much illness in the family and the death of a 
 son, Lewis, Rebecca's health broke and they had to move to 
 California. She never entirely recovered her health, and died 
 January 16, 1888, at the age of 52. 
 
 — Edmund Wilkes, Jr. 
 
 The portrait of Mrs. Wilkes here shown is from a 
 photograph of an oil painting of her at Christian College, at 
 Columbia, Missouri. Miss Peggy Phillips, Director of Public 
 Relations at that institution, informs us in a letter of January 
 4, 1961: 
 
 The 60th anniversary of the founding of Christian College, termed 
 the Golden Jubilee, held on May 23, 1911, was the occasion for the 
 hanging of the portraits of the past presidents of Christian College 
 [including Lanceford Bramblett Wilkes] and their wives. The por- 
 traits were hung in the new classroom building, Dorsey Hall, which 
 is connected with St. Clair Hall, the administrative building, by a 
 covered loggia. The portraits, richly framed in gold, still hang in the 
 original places designed for them, a main-floor corridor which sees 
 a constant stream of students, faculty, and visitors during each school 
 day. No information as to the artists is available. 
 
 97 
 
Thomas Tilghman Holton 
 
 Pastor 1868-1870 
 
 Born: November 17, 1839, near Aberdeen, Ohio 
 Died: September 22, 1925, at Lincoln, Illinois 
 Married: Ellen Margaret Campbell, November 18, 1862 
 Children: Helen King Holton (Mrs. C. Lucas) 
 
 Campbell Holton; died January, 1959 
 
 Pauline Holton 
 
 Mary Holton 
 
 Anne Carr Holton 
 
 Elizabeth Dustin Holton 
 
 99 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Thomas Tilghman Holton 
 
 100 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 Ellen Margaret Campbell Holton 
 
 101 
 
T, 
 
 homas T. Holton was born near Aber- 
 deen, Ohio, one of thirteen children of William and Sally 
 Price Tilghman Holton. 
 
 He enjoyed superior educational advantages. He went to the coun- 
 try school, to Aberdeen Seminary, to the Southwestern Normal School 
 at Lebanon, O., and graduated from Bethany College July 4, 1862 
 [as valedictorian]. Before he was seventeen he was a schoolmaster at 
 Genntown, O. On a certificate marked 100 he conducted a school of 
 eighty-five pupils efficiently for nine months. Leaving Bethany after 
 graduation, he served as vice-president of Jefferson College, near Louis- 
 ville, Ky., of which O. A. Bartholomew was president. Early in 1864, 
 Mr. Holton became the head of Falmouth Academy. Miss Sally E. 
 Holton, his sister, served as assistant. Under their lead this school 
 did superior work for two and a half years. In 1866 he became pastor 
 of the church at Vincennes, Indiana. 
 
 ... In 1868 he became pastor of the church at Springfield, 111. 
 Next he served the Berlin Church, and at the same time was principal 
 of the public schools there for three years. In 1873 he moved to Lin- 
 coln, and served the church there and at Atlanta half-time each. 
 
 . . . Later, he served eight years as circuit clerk in Logan County [but 
 continued preaching regularly on Sundays]. Thereafter, ... he stood for 
 the State Legislature on the Prohibition ticket and received five thou- 
 sand votes. 
 
 . . . When a young man at school, he had for his roommate Ira 
 J. Bloomfield, who won his star in the Civil War. The two attended 
 Sunday school and church together. Being well intentioned, they de- 
 cided to become members of this church, provided they could be 
 immersed. The minister, however, desired that they should "conform 
 to their religious usage." They were likely lads, so the preacher left 
 with them a booklet entitled "Immersion Not Baptism." This declared 
 that immersion was "unscriptural, inconvenient, and indecent." When 
 the dominie returned he found the lads unchanged. "Well, now," he 
 said, "boys, we want you, and will immerse you if that is your choice." 
 Whereupon, they declared that neither he nor his church had any 
 right to do an unscriptural and indecent thing in the name of the 
 Lord. In 1858, Mr. Holton was baptized by Min. Marsena Stone 
 and received into the Baptist Church. He related no visions nor won- 
 derful experiences. The formula that the preacher used was this: "My 
 brother, upon a confession of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and 
 by his authority, I baptize you into the name of the Father and of 
 
 102 
 
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, for the remission of sins." Up to 
 this time, this young man had thought to become a lawyer. Now the 
 good Baptist sisters urged him to prepare to preach the gospel. . . . 
 During his four years at Bethany he changed his church affiliation, 
 he entered into the active work of the ministry only by the urgency 
 of the lamented preacher, J. Z. Taylor" 1 [who served this congregation 
 as pastor in 1883-1884]. 
 
 His first sermon was at Tolesboro, Lewis County, Kentucky, in the 
 summer vacation of I860. He had gone there to attend a meeting 
 conducted by J. Z. Taylor, the pastor of the Maysville Church. Brother 
 Taylor, without consulting him, announced him for a sermon. He was 
 too abashed to rise up and refuse. To further embarrass him, Brother 
 Taylor left two converts for him to baptize. He borrowed a suit from 
 Brother Halbert and baptized the two men in Cabin Creek in the 
 presence of a large group of people. This was his first experience 
 in baptizing. 
 
 While a teacher in Jefferson College, he preached his second ser- 
 mon at the Cedar Springs Church near Salt River, not very far from 
 Louisville. At the conclusion of the sermon an old farmer came for- 
 ward, greeted him, and left three dollars in his hand. 2 
 
 During his college career at Bethany he helped to found the Delta 
 Tau Delta college fraternity, which later became a national organiza- 
 tion. He was a charter member of its first chapter, and was on the 
 committee that planned and produced the pin worn by the Delts. The 
 intention of the founders was to have a local organization. Therefore, 
 Mr. Holton and several like-minded students visited Washington Col- 
 lege at Washington, Pennsylvania, and were initiated into an estab- 
 lished college fraternity known as Beta Theta Pi. They then proceeded 
 to organize a chapter at Bethany. Beta Theta Pi had originated in 
 1839 at Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio. 
 
 During 1869 the Illinois Legislature held its regular session 
 in Springfield. The Protestant ministers of the city, including 
 T. T. Holton, took turns in acting as chaplains for both houses, 
 and a fund of $500 was distributed among the ministers for 
 their services. Also, the Constitutional Convention of 1870 was 
 held in Springfield at which each session was opened by prayer. 
 In the record of the proceedings of the convention each prayer 
 
 'Nathaniel S. Haynes, History of the Disciples of Christ in Illinois, 1819-1914. 
 (Cincinnati: The Standard Publishing Company; 1915), pp. 535-537. 
 
 2 A sketch of Thomas Tilghman Holton, covering practically the same matters as above, 
 is found in History of Logan County, Illinois (Chicago: Interstate Publishing Company, 
 1888), pp. 478-479. 
 
 103 
 
is given in full. It shows that on Monday, January 10, 1870, 
 prayer was offered "by the Rev. Mr. Holton," as follows: 
 
 O God! Our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. Thou 
 hast watched over us with tender care, and brought us to see the light 
 of this beautiful morning. O Lord! our Heavenly Father, we would 
 not enter upon the labors of this day, without acknowledging Thy 
 guardian care over us — thanking Thee for all Thy goodness and mercy, 
 and praying Thee to take charge of us this day, and guard and keep 
 us as Thou hast in the past. O Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling 
 place in all ages; Thou hast kept us and preserved us. Thou art ever 
 God; Thou openest Thy hand and satisnest every living creature. All 
 receive their meat from Thee. O God! we would acknowledge Thee 
 in all our ways. We would put our care in Thy hands. We pray Thee 
 to watch us and keep us this day, and while we live, and guide us 
 to Thy honor and glory. O God! forgive us our sins, and bless us 
 more than we can ask of Thee. Give us wisdom and prudence, and 
 enable us to do the great work committed to our hands in such a 
 manner as will gain Thy approbation. Be with the members of this 
 Convention. Give them wisdom, and guide them in their councils. 
 Bless their families from whom they are separated; keep them in peace 
 and quiet. Preserve harmony in these councils. Keep us all in Thy 
 care, and enable us to do that which is good in Thy sight. Keep us 
 all the days of our lives, and when our work is done on earth, bring 
 us down to peaceful graves, and may we so have lived as to be placed 
 on Thy right hand, through our great Redeemer. Amen. 
 
 Thirty- second day, Friday, February 4, 1870 
 
 The Convention met at ten o'clock a.m., and was called to order 
 by the President. 
 
 Prayer was offered by the Rev. Mr. Holton, of Springfield, as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 We praise Thee, O Lord; we acknowledge Thee to be our God, 
 and humbly and reverently we would come into Thy presence to adore 
 Thee, the Giver of all good, in whom we live, and move, and have 
 our being. 
 
 O God, Thou hast preserved our lives and health through another 
 night, and brought us to the light of this morning under circumstances 
 so favorable to us. 
 
 O Lord, we acknowledge Thee in all our ways. We would defer 
 to Thy holy will, and walk in Thy law. O Father, we pray Thee now 
 that Thou wilt forgive us all our sins, and be with us this day. 
 Strengthen us for the work that is before us. 
 
 104 
 
We pray Thy blessing upon this Convention, O God, that it may 
 be guided by the counsels of wisdom, and that great good may follow 
 from the work that is done here during this session. In due time, 
 restore these members, we pray Thee, to their households. 
 
 And wilt Thou, O God, be with us, and guide us in all the ways 
 of life. Help us to be true men, and to walk in the ways of truth and 
 love. Go with us, our Father, in all the journey of life. Stand by us 
 in the hour of death; and may we so live that thenceforth we may 
 be with Thee; and to Thy name, O Lord shall be the praise, world 
 without end. Amen. 
 
 A copy of the Lincoln Times of Thursday, December 15, 
 1881, is a treasured possession of the Holton descendants. On 
 the first page is a two-column sketch of T. T. Holton under 
 the heading "Pencil Portraits," covering his career up to that 
 date. It mentions as evidence of his personal popularity that 
 in 1876, when Rutherford B. Hayes as Republican candidate 
 for President received a majority of 193 in Logan County, T. 
 T. Holton was elected circuit clerk on the Democratic ticket 
 by 165 votes. He was re-elected in 1880, but continued to 
 preach half time in neighboring churches. He was credited 
 with having done much to systematize the workings of the 
 office of circuit clerk in arranging and indexing papers, copy- 
 ing old and worn-out indexes in order to preserve them, and 
 in bringing up back work. He is described as "a vigorous, per- 
 sistent toiler." 
 
 The following is from an obituary, "He walked with God," 
 in The Christian-Evangelist, October 15, 1925, page 32: 
 
 The eternal crowning of Elder Thomas Tilghman Holton, took 
 place September 22, 1925. Without a struggle he gently fell 
 asleep and his soul took its flight to that higher and better world. For 
 more than 63 years he preached the gospel of the Son of God. He 
 was active in his chosen work up to Sunday, August 30, at which time 
 he preached his last sermon, at Hallville, 111., where he had been 
 preaching for half time for more than 25 years. . . . 
 
 He was a member of the Second Christian Church of Bloomington, 
 Knights of Pythias and Masonic lodges, Beta Fraternity, McLean Coun- 
 ty Historical Society and Old Folks Associations. 
 
 —David N. Wetzel. 
 
 105 
 
The following is contributed by a granddaughter, Mrs. Campbellina L. 
 Odell (Mrs. H. G. Odell), residing at La Jolla, California: 
 
 ELLEN MARGARET CAMPBELL HOLTON was born 
 January 9, 1833, in Newry, Ireland, the daughter of Archibald 
 Campbell and Anne Carr Campbell. Archibald was a favorite 
 cousin of Alexander Campbell. When Ellen Margaret was but 
 a few months old, Alexander Campbell arranged for Archibald 
 to come to America with his wife and their family of five. 
 
 Ellen Margaret was educated at Pleasant Hill Seminary for 
 girls, which was conducted by Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Mc- 
 Keever, whom she always called "Uncle" and "Auntie Mae." 
 Mrs. McKeever was Jane Campbell, a sister of Alexander. 
 
 Nearly all the Campbells conducted schools in Ireland, and 
 they continued doing so in this country. 
 
 Ellen Margaret was baptized by Alexander Campbell in 
 Buffalo Creek, back of the church at Bethany. She was a favor- 
 ite of Alexander Campbell and was in his home a great deal. 
 One evening my grandfather, then a student at Bethany, was 
 an invited guest of Alexander Campbell at dinner — a high 
 honor for an undergraduate. He was seated opposite Ellen 
 Margaret. From that moment he courted her. They were the 
 last couple that Alexander Campbell married. 
 
 The marriage occurred November 18, 1862, in the famous 
 old Bethany Church. Alexander Campbell officiated. The at- 
 tendants were Virginia and Decinia Campbell, daughters of 
 Alexander Campbell; Archie A. Campbell and Jane Campbell, 
 his nephew and niece; Cammie Pendleton, a granddaughter; 
 Miss Emma Blackewell; Miss Sally Holton and Nicholas L. 
 Holton, sister and brother of the groom; Dr. R. F. Turner, 
 W. H. Nave, and Jabez Hall. 
 
 Mrs. Holton died April 8, 1922, at Lincoln, Illinois. 
 
 106 
 
James B. Crane 
 
 Pastor 1841-1843 
 
 Born: September 22, 1822, at Mentz, Cayuga County, New 
 
 York 
 Died: October 18, 1898, at Waynesboro, Virginia 
 
 Married: Charlotte R. 
 
 Children: Son 
 
 Daughter < nameS n0t kn0Wn > 
 
 107 
 
w, 
 
 hen 14 years of age James B Crane 
 [sometimes spelled Crain] united with the Church of Disciples at 
 Throopsville, in Cayuga county [New York]. Meetings were held there 
 by Alexander Campbell, Dr. Silas E. Shepherd, Erastus Lathrop and 
 Brother Benedict; so that the young man became thoroughly instructed 
 in the great principles which those men advanced and from them re- 
 ceived a spirit and inspiration which made him an ardent Disciple until 
 his death. 
 
 In 1842 he moved to Paw Paw, Mich., where there were a number 
 of other members from the Throopsville Church, and united with the 
 little congregation which they had organized. 
 
 A few years later he and his wife, Mrs. Charlotte R. Crane, 
 went to attend the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute [later Hiram Col- 
 lege]. From there they went to Kentucky and took charge of the Ken- 
 tucky Female College and Highland Institute. He served for some years 
 as superintendent of Mount Pleasant Seminary in Kentucky. 
 
 In I860 they returned to Paw Paw, and for two years had charge 
 of the Union School in that place, where the writer first made their 
 acquaintance and attended their school. 
 
 As a teacher he was thorough and genial, and possessed remarkable 
 powers for arousing the noblest ambitions in his students, and winning 
 their highest admiration and love. He gave freely of his out-of-school 
 time to consult and advise with them in regard to their future lives and 
 how to acquire the success for which they hoped. While he was teach- 
 ing there he was a helper in a protracted meeting held by Brother 
 Wilcox, who was then pastor of the church. Many of the students 
 and others of the young people in the town were converts at the meet- 
 ing and a fine church was built. 
 
 The Professor was full of reminiscences and history of many of 
 those men whom he had personally met, and it was an abiding pleasure 
 to sit at his feet and listen. 
 
 In I860 two rising men had impressed the professor very deeply; 
 they were Isaac Errett, then residing at Ionia, Mich., and James A. 
 Garfield, then president of Eclectic Institute, afterward Hiram College. 
 And during that fall the professor said to the writer: "Garfield has 
 made up his mind to be President of the United States." He lived to 
 see James A. Garfield make his name immortal and honor the death 
 of a President with the exalted and undying glory of a great Christian 
 spirit. 
 
 After the close of the school the Professor spent several years in 
 preaching, at which he made a fine success. He had an easy and pleas- 
 
 108 
 
ing delivery and was scholarly, strong, impressive and fearless in de- 
 claring the truth. 
 
 For several years before his death he had been practicing medicine, 
 both allopathic and homeopathic, and was a skillful physician. 
 
 — J. E. Barnum, 1 Denver, Colorado 
 
 In the Millennial Harbinger of 1868, page 57, is a letter 
 from Crane: 
 
 Washington, Pa., Dec. 14th, 1867. 
 Bro. Pendleton : — I closed a meeting on Pigeon Creek in November, 
 with 31 additions; since which I have been laboring at home. I have 
 just closed a meeting here, with some 50 additions. This is considered 
 a great triumph for the truth in this city. I am now assisting in a 
 meeting at the Valley — the gospel is still triumphing. To God be all 
 the praise. We have among our converts one young man whose mind 
 the Lord has turned toward the ministry. I trust he will honor Bethany 
 ere long, to better qualify himself to plead the Lord's cause. 
 
 Fraternally yours, 
 
 J. B. Crane 
 
 The following is from the Christian Standard, December 
 17, 1898, page 1660: 
 
 The last years of his life he spent in quiet and retirement preparing 
 several books for publication, into which he has gathered the cream 
 of his learning. His wife, with whom he has spent more than 50 happy 
 years, mourns a great loss. A daughter and son, whose affection cheered 
 him, abide on this side while he has crossed over. A grandson, upon 
 whom his heart centered, in young manhood remains to follow him 
 as he followed Christ. The church has sustained a great loss in the 
 death of this soldier of the cross. 
 
 A. A. Cocke, D.D., Waynesboro, Virginia 
 
 Two of his published books are Rector W. F. Brand's 
 Pamphlet Reviewed, and The Scripture Teacher and practical 
 question book embracing an analysis of the five historical books 
 of the New Testament, designed for Sunday Schools, Bible 
 Classes, families, and private learners. Both books were pub- 
 lished in I860 and copies of them are in the library of the 
 Disciples of Christ Historical Society at Nashville, Tennessee. 
 
 1 J. E. Barnum, "The Professor Sleeps," The Christian-Evangelist, Jan. 5, 1899, p. 
 17. 
 
 109 
 
MRS. CHARLOTTE R. CRANE attended Western Reserve 
 Eclectic Institute with her husband, from which both graduated 
 in 1853. The following school year both taught in the English 
 Department of the Institute. James A. Garfield was then a 
 student. 
 
 110 
 
Harvey William Everest 
 
 Pastor 1873-1874 
 
 Born: May 10, 1831, at North Hudson, New York 
 Died: May 21, 1900, at Des Moines, Iowa 
 Married: (l) Sarah Ann Harrison, November 4, 1857; died 
 October 20, 1872 
 Children: Claude Harrison Everest, 
 Jean Harrison Everest, 
 Herbert Harrison Everest 
 (2) Mrs. Jennie Rogers, 1895 
 Children: None 
 
 111 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 Harvey William Everest 
 
 112 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Sarah Ann Harrison Everest 
 
 113 
 
Harvey W. Everest 1 
 
 1 n the short history of the Bible Department of 
 Drake University, three of its five deans have ceased from their labors. 
 A. I. Hobbs and R. T. Mathews have been followed by H. W. Everest. 
 Conspicuous alike for ability, fidelity to all educational interests, and 
 prominent in the affairs of the brotherhood, these men differed widely 
 in characteristics. Doubtless the teacher by instinct, and the more versa- 
 tile writer among them, was Dean Everest. 
 
 He was the well-equipped, all-around educator. He rode no hobbies. 
 His wide range of information, his studious habits and careful mental 
 discipline prepared him admirably for thorough, conscientious treat- 
 ment of any subject. He was an instructor, not a debater; and his place 
 was in the classroom and councils of his brethren, not in the fray. 
 He was the friend of every enterprise having for its aim and promise 
 the enlightenment and Christianization of the people. The cause of 
 education, with him, ranked next to Christianity. 
 
 Harvey W. Everest, A.M., LL.D., was a native of New York, born 
 at North Hudson, May 10, 1831. His parents were of that sturdy, 
 intellectual New England stock which gave a reproduction of these 
 qualities in their son. He attended the public school of North Hudson, 
 and began his career as an educator by teaching a summer school in 
 his own neighborhood when but sixteen years of age. The removal 
 of his parents to the now famous Western Reserve of Ohio gave him 
 the educational advantages offered in the following schools, which he 
 attended in order: Geauga Seminary, Western Reserve Eclectic Institute 
 (now Hiram College), Bethany and Oberlin Colleges — all Ohio in- 
 stitutions except Bethany in West Virginia. At Hiram he was a room- 
 mate of James A. Garfield. The two boys worked their way by build- 
 ing houses during the holidays. Upon his graduation from Oberlin, 
 he returned to Hiram as its head instructor — the successor of James 
 A. Garfield, his former associate and friend. 
 
 In 1864 he accepted the presidency of Eureka College, and served 
 until called to the pastorate of the Church of Christ at Springfield, 
 Illinois, eight years later. 
 
 A professorship was offered him in Kentucky University in 1872, 
 which was taken and filled two years. He returned to Illinois — one 
 year as pastor of the church at Normal, and then as president of Eureka 
 College for the second time. This institution owes to Dean Everest 
 its life and breadth of influence. To him, more than to any other man, 
 is due the uniting of the factions created at old Abingdon. Through 
 
 'From The Christian Standard, June 9, 1900. 
 
 114 
 
these periods, while he was president, young men and women were 
 trained, many of whom have attained eminence as Christian workers. 
 
 Butler University, at Indianapolis, Indiana, was opened to him in the 
 spring of 1881; which he entered and served as its president until 
 1886. In that year a land syndicate organized Garfield University at 
 Wichita, Kansas, and Dean Everest was chosen its chancellor. He 
 was instrumental in raising the $100,000 endowment, provided an 
 excellent curriculum, and met the conditions upon which the university 
 was to become the property of the brotherhood; but the syndicate failed 
 in its financial obligations, never completing the building and removing 
 incumbrances so that it could become the property of the brotherhood. 
 Through no failure of his, the university closed its doors in 1889, 
 and its chancellor became the pastor of the church at Hutchinson. 
 A great sorrow came into his life, in the loss of his devoted and 
 accomplished wife [Sarah A. Everest], while ministering to that con- 
 gregation. 
 
 In 1891 he was made president of the Southern Illinois Normal 
 School at Carbondale. Four years of hard labor, both as instructor 
 and lecturer in that institution, told on his health, and the physical 
 decline began which ended in his death. He was married the second 
 time to Mrs. Jennie Rogers of El Paso, 111., a woman of refined culture 
 and a noble companion for this great man. He was secured, for the 
 last place in which he served, as dean of the Bible Department of 
 Drake University, in 1897. . . . 
 
 In reviewing his whole life, there can be found no reproach upon 
 his character; no just criticism of his spirituality, scholarly attainments 
 and wonderful faithfulness. A keen intellectual discernment, logical, 
 concise, yet considerate of the feelings of those who differed from 
 him, won and held friends for him throughout his whole life. He 
 made large contributions, in his educational work, pulpit and writings, 
 to the plea for the union of God's people in Christ upon the one 
 foundation. 
 
 As an author, his "Divine Demonstration" is a textbook on Chris- 
 tian evidences in our colleges. The two more recent works, "Science 
 and Pedagogy of Ethics" and "The New Education" rank high as 
 literary and philosophical productions. His articles on various phases 
 of Christian doctrine in our religious weeklies and periodicals have 
 ever commanded the closest attention and warmest admiration from all 
 classes of readers. He was clear in his thinking, simple and apt in 
 illustration, and, withal, there was a breeze of freshness in the manner 
 in which he presented his thoughts that lent a charm to all he wrote. 
 As a lecturer, he was confined to religious and educational themes, 
 
 115 
 
but was sought for addresses from Mississippi to Michigan, and from 
 Pennsylvania to Colorado. As a preacher, he was didactic, not ora- 
 torical; but there was no lack of power to hold in closest attention 
 his audience. . . . 
 
 So sleeps one of our best-known writers, thinkers, educators. 
 
 —I. N. McCASH 
 University Place Church of Christ, Des Moines, Iowa. 
 
 ♦ ♦ 4» 
 
 (1) Harvey William Everest first married SARAH ANN 
 HARRISON on November 4, 1857. Her portrait is shown here. 
 The chief events in her life are given in a small book entitled In 
 Memory of Airs. Sarah A. Everest, 1 which was privately printed 
 by Mr. Everest. It consists of about fifty unnumbered pages. It 
 contains a tender tribute to her, in prose and poetry, by Mr. 
 Everest, followed by expressions of sympathy from numerous 
 friends, and concludes with selections from her poems and 
 addresses. 
 
 The main facts in her life can be briefly set down: Mrs. Sarah 
 Ann Everest was born September 30, 1833, at Painesville, Ohio, and 
 died at Hutchinson, Kansas, 1892, October 20, at 10:20 P.M., having 
 entered upon her sixtieth year. She was of English parentage. William 
 Harrison and his wife (nee Head) came to America from Margate, 
 England, in 1832 and settled on a farm near Painesville, where they 
 lived till near the close of their lives. Sarah was the fourth of their 
 seven children and the eldest daughter. She was a sunbeam in the 
 pioneer's home, a joy to them during all their years, and a ministering 
 angel who tenderly closed their eyes in death. She was educated in 
 the public schools, at Kirtland Seminary, and at the Eclectic Institute, 
 now Hiram College, Ohio, being at times a member of James A. Gar- 
 field's classes and of my own. . . . She taught in the public schools 
 with ever increasing success, and at the age of twenty-four became my 
 wife, Nov. 4, 1857, Rev. E. H. Hawley officiating. I was at the time 
 a teacher at Hiram. We lived at Hiram six years, from '57 to '64, 
 during which time I graduated at Oberlin College; at Eureka College, 
 thirteen years, '64-'72 and '77-'81; at Springfield, 111., two years, 
 
 ] This book does not show name of printer, or date of publication. A copy is now 
 in the possession of their granddaughter, Mrs. Grace Everest McDade Lane, Chattanooga 
 5, Tennessee, who loaned it to us with permission to quote. 
 
 116 
 
'72-'74; at Kentucky University, Lexington, two years, '74-'76; at 
 Normal, 111., one year, '76 and '77; at Butler University, Indiana, 
 five and a half years, '81 -'86; at Garfield University, Kansas, four 
 years, '86-'90;' and at Hutchinson, Kansas, two years, '90-'92. In the 
 cemetery of the latter place now rests her poor body, where neither 
 sun nor storm can disturb its deep repose, but her pure spirit, we 
 believe, has gone to dwell in the house not made with hands, eternal 
 in the heavens. It cannot be that a soul made in the image of God, 
 so responsive to all pure and noble thought, and so filled with love 
 for God and man, has wholly perished. Does Nature preserve her 
 clods but destroy her jewels? 
 
 A pen picture of her personal appearance may endure long after 
 every trace has been obliterated from photographs and portraits. She 
 was of medium height and weight; straight and well developed; com- 
 plexion, a softened brunette; hair, dark brown, at length, sprinkled 
 with gray; eyes, hazel and set in deep, ample orbits; forehead, wide 
 and intellectual; temples, full and distinctly veined; lips, thin, mobile, 
 and relieved by a median projection; shoulders low and waist well 
 proportioned; hands, slender, soft and spiritual; her voice, her own, 
 but low and sweet; the head, so poised as to give a gracious mien; 
 her step, elastic and graceful. 
 
 And with all, a deportment so self-respecting and so gentle as to 
 win all hearts. 
 
 She became a Christian when sixteen years of age and never wa- 
 vered in her profession; loved her Bible, loved the church and the dear 
 Lord who gave himself for it. 
 
 She gave constantly and liberally, according to her ability, for the 
 cause of missions, asking that I should pay into the treasury of the 
 Christian Woman's Board of Missions her usual amount per year for 
 ten years. 
 
 She was a most faithful, intelligent and loving mother. Her ma- 
 ternal heart and hand were never too tender to care for her children. 
 They were never given over to the care of another, and were never 
 neglected. In her discipline there was ever more praise than blame. 
 It was a rule with her never to punish a child when either was angry, 
 nor for an accident; nor to do so before other people. . . . 
 
 In everything she was my counsellor; in every trial a source of 
 strength; in every sickness a ministering angel; and if I have done 
 anything worthy, she deserved to share the honor. Because she was my 
 wife I am a better man, for time and for eternity. 
 
 H. W. Everest 
 
 117 
 
The next fourteen pages of the memorial book are devoted to 
 letters and resolutions of sympathy. Among these is the fol- 
 lowing from the widow of President James A. Garfield: 
 
 In the early days of the old "Eclectic," while the charm and senti- 
 ment of those first words in our "Old Bible" — "In the beginning" — 
 still held it in their spell; when the little band gathered there, filled 
 with the enthusiasm of a new enterprise, gave to the new school 
 strongest devotion, and the members stood together in their grand 
 conceit a phalanx against the world, there came into their midst a 
 bright, young girl, with that luminous beauty which radiates joy and 
 happiness — Sarah Harrison. Easily she took place in the foremost rank; 
 was loved by her associates, and held in high regard as one of their 
 faithful workers. Bright, humorous or grave, as occasion warranted, 
 she was in all worthy places a welcome spirit. 
 
 — Lucretia R. Garfield. 
 
 The women of this church expressed themselves as follows: 
 
 The sad news of Sister H. W. Everest's recent death has deeply 
 moved us. To many of us she was personally known, and greatly 
 esteemed for her high order of mental qualities, and kindness of heart. 
 In her departure from Springfield, where she so well filled the place of 
 our pastor's wife, she left behind her none but most pleasant recollec- 
 tions, of her gentle dignity, and amiable character. She is remembered 
 for the purity of her life, and faithfulness in the conscientious dis- 
 charge of her duty as a Christian. 
 
 We desire to convey to Bro. Everest our sympathy in his bereave- 
 ment, and we offer him that consolation which may come with the 
 assurance that he is not alone in his grief. 
 
 We commend him to the special care of the good Father, who 
 knoweth our frame and without whom not a sparrow falls to the 
 ground. 
 
 The Woman's Missionary Society, 
 First Christian Church, Springfield, III. 
 
 (2) In 1895 Mr. Everest married, MRS. JENNIE ROGERS, 
 of El Paso, Illinois, who died in 1912, in Los Angeles, Califor- 
 nia. She is described as "a woman of refined culture and a 
 noble companion for this great man." 
 
 118 
 
Edward Thomas Williams 
 
 Pastor 1875-1877 
 
 Born: October 17, 1854, at Columbus, Ohio 
 Died: January 27, 1944, at Berkeley, California 
 Married: (1) Caroline Dorothy Loos, August 12, 1884. She 
 died in 1892. 
 Children: Edward Thrasher Williams 
 
 Charles Louis Loos Williams 
 (2) Rose Sickler, January 8, 1894 
 
 Children: Alice Sickler Williams 
 Gladys Louise Williams 
 
 119 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Edward Thomas Williams 
 
 120 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 Caroline Dorothy Loos Williams 
 
 121 
 
E 
 
 dward Thomas Williams was the son of 
 William and Diana Louise (Hughes) Williams. He was or- 
 dained as a minister of the Disciples of Christ in 1875, and 
 served his first pastorate in First Christian Church in Spring- 
 field, Illinois, 1875-1877. After that he served churches at Den- 
 ver, 1877-1878; Brooklyn, 1878-1881; and Cincinnati, 1881- 
 1887. On October 23, 1884, he was elected a vice-president of 
 the General Christian Convention. Mr. and Mrs. Williams then 
 went to China as missionaries, as described in They Went to 
 China, issued by the United Christian Missionary Society, De- 
 partment of Missionary Education, in 1948: 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Edward Thomas Williams arrived in Nanking in 
 October of 1887, along with Mr. and Mrs. Meigs. They had been 
 appointed to China in December, 1886. Thus to Mrs. Williams belongs 
 the honor of being our first woman appointed to China [by Disciples 
 of Christ}. 
 
 Mr. Williams, as a graduate from Bethany College, shared first 
 honors with Ely V. Zollars [pastor of First Christian Church, 1885- 
 1888]. He was already in his fourth pastorate when he was called 
 to foreign service. His wife, Carrie Dorothy Loos Williams, was the 
 daughter of the much revered pastor and college professor, Charles 
 Louis Loos. She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, while her father was 
 pastor of Central Church. It was from that same church where her 
 husband was pastor that she went out with him to China. She was 
 a refined and cultured young woman and a successful teacher. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Williams took their two young sons with them to China. 
 The sons later took up their life work there. The older, Edward 
 Thrasher Williams, in 1943 retired from his post as Commissioner of 
 Customs in Wuchow, Free China. In 1947 the second son, Charles 
 Louis Loos Williams, retired from his post in the United States War 
 Department. . . . 
 
 In 1891, Mr. and Mrs. Williams were forced to return to America 
 because of the ill health of Mrs. Williams. She died following an 
 operation. 
 
 Mr. Williams returned alone to his work. He had an unusual apti- 
 tude for the Chinese language. Besides, he was a true missionary 
 statesman. He took charge of the evangelistic work, had a regular 
 circuit for preaching which included Drum Tower and South Gate 
 
 122 
 
in Nanking, Pukow across the river, Hsiakwan on the Yangtze at 
 Nanking and also more distant places. 
 
 In 1896, Mr. and Mrs. Williams resigned from the mission and 
 moved to Shanghai to enter into literary and consular work. . . . Mr. 
 Williams' brilliant career included work with the United States gov- 
 ernment in China and the United States, and with the Chinese govern- 
 ment. He continued in the diplomatic service until 1918 when he was 
 appointed Agassiz Professor of Oriental Languages and Literature in 
 the University of California. He held that position until he retired 
 as Professor Emeritus in 1927. Professor Williams lived in retirement 
 at his home in Berkeley until his death on January 27, 1944. 
 
 Edward Thomas Williams is one of five pastors of the First 
 Christian Church who were written up in Who's Who in Amer- 
 ica. The other pastors are Ely Vaughn Zollars, Charles Clayton 
 Morrison, Frederick William Burnham, and William Fredric 
 Rothenburger. 
 
 In the diplomatic service from 1896 to 1918 he was inter- 
 preter in Shanghai; translator in Shanghai; secretary, American 
 Legation, Peking; consul-general, Tientsin; assistant chief, 
 Division of Far Eastern Affairs, Department of State; chief 
 Division of Far Eastern Affairs, Department of State. 
 
 At the time of entering the diplomatic service, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Williams withdrew from the Disciples of Christ and became 
 Unitarians. 
 
 After World War I, he was Technical Delegate to the Peace 
 Conference in Paris, 1919. 
 
 His foreign decorations include the Chinese Order of the 
 Golden Sheaf in 1918, of which he became an officer in 1919 
 and the Blue Ribbon Order of Jade in 1936. 
 
 He was the author of Recent Chinese Legislation, 1904; 
 The State Religion of China Under the Manchus, 1913; China 
 Yesterday and Today, 1923; and A Short History of China, 
 1928. 
 
 A biographical sketch of Mr. Williams appears in 18 bien- 
 nial issues of Who's Who in America from Volume 6, 1910- 
 
 123 
 
1911, to and including Volume 23, 1944-1945; also in Who 
 Was Who in America, Volume 2, 1943-1950, page 579- 
 
 (1) MRS. CAROLINE DOROTHY LOOS WILLIAMS 
 
 was born February 21, 1856, in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was 
 the daughter of Charles Louis Loos, then pastor of Central 
 Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and later president of Eureka 
 College and also of Kentucky University, now Transylvania. 
 When she was two years old, the family moved to Bethany, 
 Virginia, where her father had been appointed to the chair 
 of Ancient Languages in Bethany College. As she grew up, 
 she knew Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott, Dr. Robert 
 Richardson, President Pendleton, Isaac Errett, Judge Jeremiah 
 Black (Attorney General), and all the illustrious men who 
 were accustomed to visit Bethany. At the age of 15, under 
 her father's preaching, she united with the church and was bap- 
 tized by him in Buffalo Creek, near the Bethany campus. 
 
 She attended the public schools and "a select school" in 
 Bethany, Virginia; Steubenville Female Seminary; and spent 
 two years in the Normal School at Dayton to prepare herself 
 for teaching. After completing the course, she taught for some 
 time in the schools of that city. The year before her marriage, 
 she taught German and French in Christian College at Colum- 
 bia, Missouri. She married Edward Thomas Williams on 
 August 12, 1884. 
 
 She became the first woman appointed as a missionary in 
 China. At Nanking, they lived for two years in a Buddhist 
 temple. Because of the riots and threatening conditions, the 
 missionary women and children were sent, for safety, to 
 Shanghai. Mr. Williams and the other men remained in Nan- 
 king to carry on the work as best they could in the chapels, 
 schools, hospitals, and dispensaries. 
 
 124 
 
In December, 1891, an examination disclosed that Mrs. Wil- 
 liams needed a delicate and difficult surgical operation. The 
 physicians in Nanking and Shanghai were unwilling to perform 
 it. The case was urgent. No time was to be lost if her life was 
 to be saved. In a few days, she and her family were on board 
 ship on their way home. The ship reached port two days before 
 the scheduled time. The day before the operation, she wrote a 
 letter to her two little boys, to be opened in case she did not 
 recover. She died February 12, 1892. Hers was the first death 
 in the China Mission. 
 
 Her funeral service was held February 14, 1892, in the 
 Central Christian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was an- 
 nounced: "Other services of a similar character will be held in 
 China, in India, in Japan, in Great Britain, in Lexington, in 
 Columbus, in Dayton, in Bethany, and in other places where 
 her great moral worth and heroic services are known. This 
 service today is only one of many that will be held to honor 
 
 her." 
 
 ♦ ♦ ♦ 
 
 (2) ROSE SICKLER was the first single woman appointed 
 to China. She was a Pennsylvania girl, a graduate from a state 
 normal school, and was sent to China in 1890 to establish edu- 
 cational work for girls. When the school was discontinued, 
 she took up evangelistic work in Nanking. There in 1894 she 
 married Mr. Williams. She shared with him in his itinerations, 
 and besides found time to translate several children's books, 
 and to carry on work among Chinese women. 
 
 125 
 

John Milton Atwater 
 
 Pastor 1878-1879 
 
 Born: June 3, 1837, at Mantua, Ohio 
 Died: January 17, 1900, at Cleveland, Ohio 
 Married: (1) Harriet Smith, 1863; died 1887. 
 
 Children: Frank Atwater, died in early child- 
 hood 
 Ernest Atwater, missionary in China; 
 killed in Boxer Rebellion, 1900 
 Fred Atwater, died May, 1901 
 Mabel Atwater, wife of Dr. C. B. 
 Taylor, of Nassau, Iowa 
 (2) Anna Robison, June 1892; died March 23, 
 1941 
 Children: None 
 
 127 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 John Milton Atwater 
 
 128 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Anna Robison Atwater 
 
 129 
 
J. 
 
 ohn Milton Atwater . . . was the third child 
 of Darwin and Harriet Clapp Atwater. He entered the Eclectic In- 
 stitute at Hiram in 1851, and each year for ten years following was 
 connected with the school as student or tutor. He entered Oberlin Col- 
 lege in '61, and was graduated from there in '63. . . . After graduation 
 he spent two years in the theological course at Oberlin. Then, returning 
 to Hiram, he became principal of Eclectic Institute during its last year, 
 and upon its becoming Hiram College [in 1867] he was its first pro- 
 fessor of Latin and Greek. From '68 to '70 he was president. The fol- 
 lowing year was spent in Alliance College as professor of Latin and 
 Greek. He had begun preaching in 1859, and had continued it during 
 all his school work. From '71 to '87 he gave himself exclusively to the 
 ministry [he served as pastor of the Christian Church at Springfield, 
 Illinois, 1878-1879] except that in the fall of 1880 he took President 
 B. A. Hinsdale's place at Hiram, while he was engaged in the Garfield 
 campaign. At the opening of Garfield University in 1887, he was made 
 head of its normal department and professor of Didactics. Financial 
 failure closed that school, and he went to Eureka College [as president 
 in 1892-1893]. ... As he was about to enter upon his second year at 
 Eureka he was called to Oskaloosa College as its president. In '97 he 
 accepted a call to Central Christian College, Missouri. Just as he was 
 on the entrance of that work his health suddenly failed. He never took 
 up regular work again, but did much preaching in various places while 
 seeking to regain his strength. He died January 17, 1900, at Cleveland, 
 Ohio, among the friends of the Franklin Circle Church, where he had 
 been pastor from '79 to '84. 1 
 
 (1) In 1863 while they were still in school MISS HARRIET 
 SMITH and John M. Atwater were married. She died in 1887. 
 
 (2) In June, 1892, Atwater married MISS ANNA ROB1- 
 SON. She was born on a farm near Cleveland, Ohio, and 
 graduated from Hiram College in 1882. She served several 
 years as principal of the high school at Bryan, Ohio, before 
 her marriage to John M. Atwater. After his death in 1900, 
 
 1 ]. M. Atwater, Jehovah's War Against False Gods, (St. Louis: Christian Publishing 
 Co., 1903), p. 355. 
 
 130 
 
she resumed teaching, and for three years was president of 
 the Ohio Christian Woman's Board of Missions. In 1904 she 
 was called to National Headquarters, and acted as vice-presi- 
 dent of the Christian Woman's Board of Missions, under Mrs. 
 Helen E. Moses as president, from 1904 to 1907. She also 
 edited Missionary Tidings, the official magazine. 
 
 Mrs. Atwater served as vice-president of the Christian Woman's 
 Board of Missions from 1904 to 1907, when at the death of Mrs. 
 Moses she succeeded her in the presidency. In this significant post 
 of leadership she served from that date until the C. W. B. M. united 
 with other brotherhood agencies to form the United Christian Mis- 
 sionary Society in 1920. 
 
 During these years Mrs. Atwater brought to the work a high quality 
 of leadership. She saw the annual receipts of the Board grow from 
 $281,637.54, in 1907 to $691,950.93, in 1919. In the period of her 
 presidency she also saw the assets increase from $300,000 to $1,446,- 
 588. 
 
 . . . The Board carried on home missionary work in the great cities, 
 among the Negroes of the South, and among the southern highlanders 
 and elsewhere. It pioneered in establishing Bible Chairs at state uni- 
 versities, the first of these being that at the University of Virginia. 
 Others which followed were at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Lawrence, 
 Kansas. Even more inclusive was the foreign work of the C. W. B. M., 
 extending to India, South America, Africa and islands of the sea, 
 and including in its work programs of evangelism, education, social 
 reconstruction and medical service. . . . 
 
 In all the years of her leadership in the field of missions, Mrs. 
 Atwater was characterized by an indefatigable energy, and intellectual 
 ruggedness and a vast breadth of vision. Her realistic sympathy, her 
 capacity for careful administration and her unusual speaking ability 
 were assets which the brotherhood recognized and prized. 2 
 
 In the same issue of World Call, Dr. Robert M. Hopkins, 
 then president of the United Christian Missionary Society, 
 wrote of her: 
 
 Mrs. Anna R. Atwater has been one of the outstanding women of 
 our brotherhood. From 1905 to 1926 she made a vital contribution in 
 kingdom service through the Christian Woman's Board of Missions 
 
 2 From "Anna R. Atwater," by George W. Buckner, Jr., in World Call, May, 1941, 
 p. 13. 
 
 131 
 
and the United Christian Missionary Society; in" both organizations she 
 graced executive positions of trust and responsibility. To her comrades 
 at headquarters, to her associates in state organizations, to the brethren, 
 both brothers and sisters, among the churches, to the missionaries on 
 the fields at home and abroad, she was a constant source of inspiration 
 and encouragement. Her life was one of varied interests and of worth- 
 while achievements. 
 
 132 
 
Joseph Buford Allen 
 
 Pastor 1879-1883 
 
 Born: 1847, in Kentucky 
 
 Died: 1902, at Spokane, Washington 
 
 Married: No information 
 
 133 
 
J 
 
 oseph Buford Allen was the youngest of three 
 brothers who served in the Christian ministry — Dr. J. M. and J. W. 
 Allen being the other two. He was educated in the public schools of 
 Bloomington and at Eureka College. He began the study of law with 
 Judge W. E. Nelson, of Decatur, but soon decided to enter the ministry. 
 Besides other congregations in Illinois, he served the First Church in 
 Springfield for a period of four years. His health failing, he moved to 
 Hutchinson, Kan., and later to Spokane, Wash. 
 
 Mr. Allen was a clear and vigorous thinker, a sincere and frank man 
 and an efficient preacher. 1 
 
 Two landmark events occurred during Joseph Buford 
 Allen's pastorate — first, incorporation of the church; and, 
 second, the erection and dedication of a new church building 
 (the third). On March 10, 1880, the church became incorpo- 
 rated as a religious corporation under the name "The Christian 
 Church of Springfield, Illinois." The trustees were Stephen 
 T. Logan (Lincoln's second law partner), Jonathan R. Saun- 
 ders, William Lavely, Dr. Vachel T. Lindsay (father of Vachel 
 Lindsay, poet), Charles P. Kane and Samuel H. Twyman. 
 The certificate of incorporation was recorded March 15, 1880, 
 in the office of the County Recorder of Sangamon County as 
 doc. 21008, vol. 80M, page 9. 
 
 On February 29, 1880, a committee consisting of A. H. 
 Saunders, H. C. Latham and the deacons of the church was 
 appointed to negotiate the sale of the church property at Sixth 
 and Jefferson streets. 
 
 The new building was dedicated February 12, 1882, in a 
 union service in which many ministers of other Springfield 
 churches participated. The dedicatory sermon was preached by 
 Andrew Jackson Kane, who had been pastor in 1847-1851. In 
 conclusion Elder Allen said: "Thus do we throw open our 
 doors. Thus do we dedicate this house to the service and to the 
 true worship of God." 
 
 Nathaniel S. Haynes, History of the Disciples of Christ in Illinois, 1819-1914. 
 (Cincinnati: The Standard Publishing Company, c 1915.) 
 
 134 
 
On Monday, February 13, 1882, the daily Illinois State 
 Journal contained an account of the dedicatory program, cover- 
 ing three full columns, and said editorially: 
 
 The new Christian Church, which was dedicated yesterday, is really 
 the best designed and the neatest temple of worship in this city. It is 
 sufficiently roomy to meet all the ordinary wants of the congregation, 
 and yet not so large as to cause a moderate-sized audience to be lost 
 or feel lonely. There is such an air of taste and comfort about all the 
 finishing and furnishing as to make it a most agreeable Sabbath-day 
 home. It is a credit to our city, and doubly a credit to the good judg- 
 ment, liberality and Christian benevolence of the congregation who 
 built it. There are other religious societies in the city that ought to 
 be inspired by, and imitate, this example. 2 
 
 l A picture of this church building is on page 18. 
 
 135 
 
John Z. Taylor 
 
 Pastor 1883-1884 
 
 Born: November 6, 1830, near Bakersville, Pennsylvania 
 Died: October 28, 1889, in Kansas. 
 Married: Mary Stuart 
 Children: Clara, youngest 
 
 Names or number of other children, not known 
 
 137 
 
J 
 
 ohn Z. Taylor was considered by many to 
 be the greatest evangelist of his day. His success is evidenced 
 by published letters referring to the large number of additions 
 resulting from his evangelistic meetings in various places. As 
 an example, in the Millennial Harbinger of 1866, a letter from 
 O. A. Burgess says: 
 
 Indianapolis, April 10, 1866: Dear Bro. Pendleton: — About the 
 tenth of Feb. our preachers resident here commenced a meeting and 
 continued it thirty-two days. They were assisted ten days by Bro. J. 
 Z. Taylor, whom you will remember as a graduate of Bethany Col- 
 lege — and one that reflects honor upon his Alma Mater, being a 
 workman that needeth not to be ashamed. The immediate results of 
 the meeting were one hundred and twenty additions to the church. 
 
 From 1873 to 1875, before coming to this church, J. Z. Tay- 
 lor had been pastor of the First Christian Church at Spring- 
 field, Missouri, which changed its location to Campbell and 
 College Streets and celebrated its forty-first anniversary. At 
 that time it was reported that his Sunday night audiences would 
 number 700, in a city of 9,000 people. From 1875 to 1881 
 he was pastor of the First Christian Church at Kansas City, 
 Missouri. 
 
 The following excerpts are from "Illinois Notes" in The 
 Christian-Evangelist: 
 
 Springfield, April 2 [1883] — The church at Springfield is alive 
 and doing a fine work. J. Z. Taylor, of Kansas City, is now holding 
 a meeting of some days. The Sisters are anxious to push the work to 
 higher heights of usefulness and have already accomplished a glorious 
 work. Sister Cora Logan's name glides fragrant amid the purest memo- 
 ries of the church as the enthusiastic agent of The Christian-Evangelist, 
 and Dr. Lindsay and his talented helpmeet labor on, ever fondly and 
 devotedly for the mighty cause. God bless the church at Springfield. 
 
 — Gay 
 
 Elder Taylor himself comments: 
 
 138 
 
Springfield, April 16. — We have a fine meeting in progress here. 
 Have had 24 additions; 21 confessions to date. The Dr. Munhall meet- 
 ing is to close to-night, which will, I think, open a wider field for 
 our work. 
 
 J. Z. Taylor 
 
 Springfield, May 1. — Bro. J. Z. Taylor, of Kansas City has been with 
 us a month. Last night he closed the most successful protracted meet- 
 ing we have had in this place in years. Forty-four were added to the 
 church, forty of them by confession. Calmness and deliberation char- 
 acterized the meeting, and the additions are of good material. The 
 church is greatly built up and encouraged. Bro. Taylor is a man of 
 musical abilities, as the people of Missouri must already know. With 
 untiring zeal he has wielded the power of his cultured mind and con- 
 secrated heart for the advancement of the cause here, and he will long 
 be gratefully remembered by the church in Springfield. 
 
 V. T. Lindsay 
 
 In "Our Budget" of The Christian-Evangelist of April 19, 
 1883, appears the following: 
 
 Bro. J. Z. Taylor will go to Montana Ter. as the missionary of the 
 Woman's Board, in June. He is a splendid man for the field, and we 
 congratulate the sisters on the wisdom of their choice. All Disciples 
 will rejoice that they have sent so good a man to so important a field. 
 We shall expect to hear of a great work accomplished. 
 
 To which Mr. Taylor replied: 
 
 The following explains itself: In your "budget" you alluded to 
 the fact that I am going to Montana to labor in the interest of the 
 Christian Woman's Board of Missions. This is true. But I am going 
 for a limited time only. In response to the urgent appeal of those 
 earnest women I have consented to go and inaugurate the work. I write 
 this that my limited stay may not be misunderstood. 
 
 J. Z. Taylor. 
 
 In the August 2, 1883, issue of The Christian-Evangelist , 
 "Personal Mention" is made as follows: "J. Z. Taylor has 
 accepted a call to labor at Springfield, 111., and will enter upon 
 his work on his return from Montana." 
 
 As a writer, J. Z. Taylor appears as the author of a treatise 
 in the same book with Alexander Campbell, in a volume en- 
 
 139 
 
titled A Symposium of the Holy Spirit. It was published by 
 John Burns at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1879, containing the fol- 
 lowing chapters: 
 
 Consciousness and Its Relation to the Holy Spirit, by A. B. 
 
 Jones; 
 The Holy Spirit in Consciousness, by G. W. Longan; 
 The Holy Spirit in Consciousness, by Thomas Munnell; 
 The Witness of the Holy Spirit, by J. Z. Taylor; 
 The Influence of the Holy Spirit on Conversion and Sanctifi- 
 
 cation, by Alexander Campbell. 
 
 The authors, with the exception of Campbell, were Midwest 
 preachers living in Missouri and Illinois. 
 
 J. Z. Taylor was one of the Illinois delegates to the General 
 Christian Missionary Convention in St. Louis on October 20, 
 1884. 
 
 After leaving Springfield, J. Z. Taylor resumed his career 
 as an evangelist. The Christian Oracle of May 7, 1885, quotes 
 from the Chicago Tribune: 
 
 The Rev. J. Z. Taylor, of Kansas City, has been conducting revival 
 services during the last week at the Central Christian Church at the 
 corner of Indiana Avenue and Twenty-fifth Street [Chicago], Mr. 
 Taylor has had large success as an evangelist, and is a speaker of un- 
 usual power. He was greeted yesterday morning with the largest audi- 
 ence assembled in the church for years. 
 
 An obituary of J. Z. Taylor in The Christian-Evangelist of 
 December 26, 1889, written by J. W. Newland, a former 
 parishioner at Bedford, Indiana, says that Taylor began his 
 pastorate in that city the first of April, 1868. 
 
 While he was our pastor, the church in Bedford enjoyed the high 
 noon of its prosperity and influence. All his sermons had in them a 
 purpose; there was nothing perfunctory about them. He was not ex- 
 egetical or explanatory. His texts were suggestive merely of the line of 
 thought he designed to pursue. His discourses were always logical. 
 
 140 
 
He first laid down his premises, slowly, coolly, dispassionately. These 
 were always made as plain as possible, so as to be within the compre- 
 hension of all. Then from these premises he drew his conclusions. This 
 part of his sermon was presented with great power and indescribable 
 earnestness. Then followed an exhortation to the church, appealing to 
 the membership to have more zeal and earnestness for the salvation of 
 sinners, and lastly, an appeal to sinners, full of pathos and tenderness, 
 to turn away from sin and lay hold of the hope set before them in the 
 gospel. His manner in the pulpit was exceedingly earnest and impres- 
 sive. His whole soul was full of the thought that he had a message to 
 the world. The whole man, body, soul and spirit, was engaged while 
 he was preaching. His sermons were always fresh. . . . 
 
 Finally I would say of his preaching, that its effects in communities 
 where he labored were profound and lasting. His logic and sound 
 reasoning convinced the understanding, his earnestness and touching 
 pathos moved the people to obedience, and while thousands have come 
 into the church under his preaching, they not only CAME, but they 
 knew WHY they came. 
 
 MISS MARY STUART was living at Somerset, Pennsyl- 
 vania, when she met and married J. Z. Taylor. Mrs. Taylor was 
 a life member of the C. W. B. M., and the youngest daughter, 
 Clara, was the assistant secretary. We have no information as to 
 the number or names of the other children. 
 
 141 
 

Ely Vaughn Zollars 
 
 Pastor 1885-1888 
 
 Born: September 19, 1847, at Lower Salem, Ohio 
 Died: February 10, 1916, at Warren, Ohio 
 Married: Hulda Louisa McAtee, October 22, 1865 
 Daughter: Addie Zollars (Mrs. Harlan Page) 
 
 143 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Ely Vaughn Zollars 
 
 144 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 Hulda Louise McAtee Zollars 
 
 145 
 
By Ronald E. Osborn 
 
 X-/ly Vaughn Zollars was a distinguished 
 minister and educator among the Disciples of Christ, who first 
 came to prominence with his call to the pastorate of First 
 Christian Church in Springfield, Illinois, in 1885. He was 
 born near Lower Salem, about thirteen miles from Marietta, 
 Ohio, on September 19, 1847. His boyhood was that of a 
 village blacksmiths son. After his marriage to Hulda Louisa 
 McAtee in October, 1865, he engaged briefly and unsuccess- 
 fully in the mercantile business, then took up farming and 
 taught country school on the side. In 1871 he entered Beth- 
 any College to study for the ministry. He earned his B.A. 
 in 1875, sharing the first honors of the class with Edward 
 T. Williams, who also became pastor of First Christian Church 
 in Springfield, 1876-1878, and who later was a missionary 
 in China. In 1876 Zollars received his M.A. degree from 
 Bethany. In 1894 Hiram College conferred on him the degree 
 of LL.D. He was ordained to the ministry at the Bethany 
 Church in 1876, and served the college briefly as adjunct pro- 
 fessor of ancient languages and as financial agent. From 1877 
 to 1884 he was president of Kentucky Classical and Business 
 College at North Middletown, Kentucky, and for one year 
 (1884-1885) he presided over Garrard Female College at 
 Lancaster, Kentucky. 
 
 When Zollars came to Springfield, Illinois, in 1885, First 
 Christian Church had about three hundred members and paid 
 its minister an annual salary of $1800. He began on the third 
 Sunday in June, with a sermon on "Duties of Pastor and Peo- 
 ple." His pastorate was a time of hard work and vigorous 
 growth. He put the membership to work on committees, or- 
 ganized a program of calling on absentees, and founded a Sun- 
 day evening youth group (young people's prayer meeting) 
 
 146 
 
which soon had a regular attendance of about forty. In Decem- 
 ber he held a two-week meeting, and in February he began a 
 protracted meeting with services every night except Saturday for 
 ten weeks; except at five services, Zollars did all the preaching. 
 At the end of his first year, he reported 221 additions. Dur- 
 ing the next two years, he was in increasing demand as a 
 speaker throughout Illinois and adjoining states; nevertheless, 
 in his three-year pastorate the membership doubled to more 
 than six hundred. 
 
 In the second year of Zollars' ministry, a parsonage was 
 erected on a lot back of the church building. Here Mrs. Zollars, 
 who seemed retiring in public, made her influence felt. Their 
 daughter, Addie, was nineteen when the family came to Spring- 
 field; she was a talented musician and gave her father con- 
 siderable help. The Zollarses were particularly close friends 
 of the [Dr. Vachel T.] Lindsays; in the scarlet fever epidemic 
 of 1888, three of the Lindsay children died, and Zollars con- 
 ducted the funerals. Later, because of the closeness of the 
 families, Vachel and Olive (Wakefield) Lindsay were sent to 
 Hiram College. 
 
 During Zollars' ministry, the organ began to be used in the 
 Sunday worship of the church. He preached vigorous sermons 
 on the position of Disciples, on home and foreign missions, 
 on temperance, and on American destiny. He welcomed to the 
 pulpit ministers of Methodist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran 
 churches. At the request of the ministers of the city, he met in 
 debate on the Sabbath question with the famous D. M. Can- 
 right; not long afterward, Canright abandoned the Seventh- 
 Day Adventists. In August, 1887, when the great railroad dis- 
 aster occurred at Chatsworth, Illinois, Zollars was waiting for 
 a train at a nearby station and saw the rescue operations, as 
 well as fehe scene of the wreck; back in Springfield on a Sunday 
 evening he delivered an eloquent sermon on "The Chatsworth 
 Horror." 
 
 147 
 
Eureka College sought Zollars for its president, but without 
 success. Twice he turned down the presidency of Hiram; the 
 trustees of the latter school persisted, however, and in June, 
 1888, he was inaugurated to his new post. In an administration 
 of fourteen years, Zollars brought Hiram College to larger 
 fame and usefulness than it had ever enjoyed, emphasizing 
 particularly the education of the ministry. From 1902 to 1906 
 he was president of Texas Christian University at Fort Worth, 
 Texas. Then he undertook the founding of Oklahoma Christian 
 University (now Phillips University) at Enid, Oklahoma, which 
 he served as president until the time of his death. He was the 
 author of eight books, the best known being The Great Salva- 
 tion (1895) and The Commission Executed (1912). 
 
 While Zollars preached throughout his long career, the 
 church at Springfield, Illinois, was his only full-time pastorate. 
 On the second anniversary of their coming, the congregation 
 honored Elder and Mrs. Zollars with a reception. She was 
 given a gold-headed umbrella and he a gold-headed cane. Fifty 
 years later, Mrs. Addie Zollars Page, their only child, presented 
 the cane once more to the church, which in turn entrusted it 
 to the Disciples of Christ Historical Society at Nashville, 
 Tennessee. 
 
 Edward Anderson, a young man during Zollars' Springfield 
 ministry and a long-time superintendent of the Sunday school 
 of First Christian Church, wrote in 1939: "Among all these 
 distinguished ministers, I think I am safe in saying that Brother 
 Zollars was one of the most God-fearing, God-loving, Christ- 
 like men we ever had." 
 
 After only a few weeks at Hiram College, the new president 
 expressed himself in the Christian Oracle of September 27, 
 1888, as follows: 
 
 Hiram College opened on August 23, 1888, under auspicious cir- 
 cumstances. There is an increase in the number of students over last 
 
 148 
 
year of fully 23 per cent, and the school last year increased 15 per cent 
 over the previous year. One very encouraging feature is the large num- 
 ber of ministerial students in attendance. Owing to the phenomenal 
 attendance in the ministerial department a movement is being in- 
 augurated to endow the Bible chair this year, and already two or three 
 quite handsome subscriptions have been made. Another cheering fea- 
 ture of the school is the fact that the patronage seems to be extending 
 over a continually growing field. Some eleven or twelve states besides 
 Canada are represented this year. 
 
 Faculty, students and citizens of Hiram are all very elated over the 
 present outlook. September 18, 1888, E. V. Zollars 
 
 A biographical sketch of President Zollars appears in Who's 
 Who in America, in 12 biennial volumes, from Volume 1, 
 1899-1900, to and including Volume 12, 1922-1923; also in 
 Who Was Who in America, Volume 1, 1897-1942. 
 
 MRS. HULDA LOUISA McATEE ZOLLARS was born 
 September 6, 1846, in Iowa, and died in August, 1925, at Hi- 
 ram, Ohio. She was the daughter of Dudley McAtee, a doctor 
 during the Civil War, and she assisted him in caring for the 
 soldier boys who were ill. She and Mr. Zollars were married at 
 an early age — she at 19 and he at 18. They first lived on a farm 
 where their only child, Addie, was born. They then moved to 
 Bethany, Virginia, while Mr. Zollars was attending Bethany 
 College. Wherever they lived, Mrs. Zollars took a special re- 
 sponsibility for looking after the home life of the young 
 women. When they retired, they went back to Hiram for the 
 balance of their lives. 
 
 149 
 
John Benton Briney 
 
 Pastor 1888-1891 
 
 Born: February 11, 1839, at Borland, Nelson County, Ken- 
 tucky. 
 Died: July 20, 1927, at Rural Retreat, Virginia 
 Married: Lucinda Holbert 
 Children: William Newton Briney 
 
 Russell Benton Briney 
 
 Campbell Briney 
 
 John Benton Briney, Jr. 
 
 Jessie Briney (Mrs. J. Basil Keesling) 
 
 Annie Briney (Mrs. W. H. Kelly) 
 
 Willie Briney (daughter) 
 
 151 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 John Benton Briney 
 
 152 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Lucinda Holbert Briney 
 
 153 
 
J 
 
 ohn Benton Briney . . . was brought up to farm 
 work, receiving such education as could be obtained in the country 
 schools of those days, in an attendance of two or three terms. At the age 
 of sixteen years he apprenticed himself to learn the carpenter's trade, 
 serving a term of three years as an apprentice. For this service he re- 
 ceived thirty dollars the first year, forty dollars the second, and fifty dol- 
 lars the third. He worked at his trade three years after the expiration of 
 his apprenticeship, and then married and spent a year at farming. In the 
 meantime he began to try to preach a little in connection with his other 
 employments, and receiving some encouragement from various brethren, 
 he determined to devote his life to the ministry' of the Word of God. 
 
 Having formed such a purpose, and seeing the importance of a good 
 education on the part of a minister, he entered Eminence College, at 
 Eminence, Kentucky, whose president was W. S. Giltner, who con- 
 ducted the college with marked ability and success for many years. 
 In this institution Mr. Briney took a four years' course, one year before 
 the close of which he was called to minister to the large church in 
 Eminence — a distinction of which a young man might be proud. After 
 serving that church three years he went to Millersburg, Kentucky, and 
 preached for the church there and the one at Carlisle two years. He 
 then went to Winchester, Kentucky, for four years, and then to Mays- 
 ville, same state, and after preaching there four years, he became state 
 evangelist for Kentucky. After serving in that capacity two years, he 
 again took up the work in Maysville, not having removed his family 
 from that place. 
 
 After another term of two years in Maysville, he went to Covington, 
 Kentucky, where he preached for two years and a half, and then, for a 
 change, he evangelized about six months — mostly in the state of New 
 York. Following this he spent a few months in M^aysfield, Kentucky, 
 preaching for the church there, and organizing West Kentucky Col- 
 lege. In 1886 he was called to the Linden Street church, Memphis, 
 Tennessee, and after laboring there two years and a half he went to 
 Springfield, Illinois, where he ministered to the church thirty months, 
 and then accepted a call to Tacoma, Washington. It was while pre- 
 paring to go to Tacoma, that he met with the accident that resulted 
 in an intercapsular fracture of the hip which lamed him for life, and 
 kept him confined to the house for nearly a year, and on crutches for 
 about two years. It was during this confinement that he wrote The 
 Form of Baptism, 1 and The Temptations of Christ. 
 
 'Although The Form of Baptism was not an oral debate, it belongs in the class of 
 public controversies between ministers of the Disciples of Christ and those of other 
 denominations. This one is notable in being probably among the last of such controversies 
 to be piinted. We noted supra that Jeremiah P. Lancaster, pastor 1843-1844. participated 
 in one of the first of such debates to be printed. 
 
 154 
 
His first work in the ministry after his injury was in Knoxville, 
 Tennessee, where he labored one year and then went to Moberly, Mo., 
 where he did the heaviest work of his life in the ministry. After serv- 
 ing the Moberly church nearly seven years he spent a year in the evan- 
 gelistic field, and started Briney's Monthly, which was a success from 
 the first issue, and after running through four volumes, lacking one 
 number, it now merges into the Christian Companion. . . . During 
 Mr. Briney's long and arduous ministerial life he has held about thirty 
 discussions with representatives of the leading religious bodies of this 
 country, besides lecturing considerably on scientific and other subjects. 2 
 
 The Form of Baptism, referred to above, attracted nation- 
 wide attention at the time. It was written in Springfield during 
 Mr. Briney's convalescence from his hip injury, and was pub- 
 lished serially in The Christian-Evangelist. Later it was issued 
 in book form. The subtitle reads: 
 
 An Argument Designed to Prove Conclusively that Im- 
 mersion Is the Only Baptism Authorized by the Bible. 
 It is a scholarly 188-page treatise, quoting exhaustively from 
 Greek literature in the original, supported by recognized lexi- 
 cographers. Then follows a 52-page answer by Joseph L. 
 Tucker, D. D., rector of Christ Church, Mobile. Mr. Briney 
 closes with a "Reply to Dr. Tucker's Review," which covers 
 49 pages. 
 
 According to the preface: 
 
 This book grew out of novel and interesting circumstances. In 1891 
 Dr. R. P. Huger, Episcopalian, and Dr. E. C. Anderson, Disciple, both 
 of Anniston, Ala., had some friendly conversations as to the scriptural 
 form of baptism, and the former submitted to the latter the following 
 proposition: 
 
 "I hereby offer one thousand dollars ($1,000) for conclusive evi- 
 dence that immersion is taught as Christian baptism — that is, as the 
 only form of Christian baptism taught by the Bible. The judges shall 
 be composed of five clergymen of the Protestant Episcopal Church, to 
 be chosen by me, and five men to be chosen by Dr. E. C. Anderson. 
 
 R. P. Huger" 
 
 2 Brown, John T., Churches of Christ (Louisville: John P. Morton and Co., 1904), 
 p. 470. 
 
 155 
 
Ten judges were selected, five by each side. An effort was 
 made by Dr. Anderson to have an odd number, but this was 
 rejected. The result was a divided verdict, five to five. The 
 $1,000 was never paid. 
 
 Dr. Homer Wilson Carpenter, now retired and living at 
 Louisville, Kentucky, relates the following in a lette/ of Feb- 
 ruary 11, 1961: 
 
 Those of us who knew J. B. Briney will recall him as a great de- 
 bater. In our National Conventions he was frequently a dramatic figure. 
 
 In the Pittsburgh Convention in 1909, the Convention Committee 
 brought in a recommendation to go, the next year, to Norfolk, Vir- 
 ginia. It was rather taken for granted that this action would be taken. 
 Then, to the surprise of the committee, J. B. Briney slowly came to 
 the front of the platform. Wichita, Kansas, had made a strong fight 
 for the next convention, but had failed with the committee. 
 
 As Briney began to speak, in the midst of the platform and directly 
 behind him, there was raised a great sun flower. Its height was from 
 the floor to the top of the open platform. Under a spotlight its golden 
 glow filled the whole platform. The audience was electrified by the 
 dramatic surprise. And when Briney had finished his speech in favor 
 of Wichita, a substitute motion turned the next convention from Nor- 
 folk to Wichita. 
 
 The above incident was rather characteristic of the man, who in his 
 generation was one of our giant leaders in the Christian Church. 
 
 From the obituary in The Christian-Evangelist of August 4, 
 1927: 
 
 J. B. Briney 
 
 Faces the rising sun as he passes into the Great Beyond after a life 
 marked by stalwart battling for the Cross. 
 
 J. B. Briney, honored prince of the King, went on at the rising of 
 the sun, July 20, 1927. He was born at Botland, Nelson County, Ky., 
 Feb. 11, 1839. He attained the advanced age of 88 years. 
 
 When the end came, Brother Briney was at the home of his devoted 
 daughter, Mrs. J. B. Keesling, Rural Retreat, Va. For several years he 
 had spent his summers in this kindly home. Protracted cold this season 
 brought on pneumonia. . . . The illness was of brief duration. His only 
 complaint was that he was tired. In harmony with his life he did not 
 
 156 
 
go down to the setting of the sun, but passed away with the rising 
 morn at 4 o'clock. 
 
 His last sermon was delivered in Broadway Christian Church [at 
 Louisville, Kentucky], May 29, 1927, on the subject, "The Foundation 
 of the Christian's Hope." It was beautiful as a going away message. 
 The realization of his hopes must be glorious, for he stood on a firm 
 foundation. The things he desired are now wonderfully brought to 
 fruition. 
 
 The name of J. B. Briney will live long. His influence for good will 
 go on until it reaches the farthest shore. His loved ones will have only 
 a short time to wait before they will receive him again. When the 
 shadows have grown a little longer, they will be with him again. This 
 will be in the dawning of the morn when all mists are cleared away. 
 
 G. W. Nutter. 
 
 ♦ ♦ ♦ 
 
 MRS. LUCINDA HOLBERT BRINEY was born in 1838 
 and died in 1906. She is remembered by some of our older 
 members as a woman of charm and friendliness, who took her 
 full share of responsibility in the work of the women of this 
 church. 
 
 157 
 
Abner Peter Cobb 
 
 Pastor 1891-1898 
 
 Born: October 27, 1853, at Somerset, Ohio 
 Died: February 11, 1923, at Decatur, Illinois 
 Married: Marilla Magdalene Dennis 
 Children: Ethel Mary Cobb (Mrs. James L.) 
 Adams Jr.; died November 3, 1939 
 Zoe Cobb (Mrs. Luther Allen) Som- 
 
 mer; Cleveland Heights, Ohio 
 Ambrose Merle Cobb; died December 
 
 10, 1942 
 Lois Margarita Cobb (Mason) ; died 
 
 March 14, 1958 
 Cyril Malcolm Cobb, Decatur, Illinois 
 Harold Llewellyn Cobb, Chicago, Illi- 
 nois 
 Evelyn Estelle Cobbl Twins; born 
 Elois Cobb J 1892; died 1894 
 
 Elise Cobb; born 1894; died 1897 
 Lillian Irene Cobb (Hobbs); born 
 1896; Decatur, Illinois 
 
 
 159 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Abner Peter Cobb 
 
 160 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 Marilla Magdalene Dennis Cobb 
 
 161 
 
M, 
 
 r. Cobb's family came to Decatur in 1867. 
 Here he attended school, and while in his teens learned the machinist 
 trade. He was strong in body and vigorous in mind, and made good 
 progress in both lines of work. In those years he was in the school of 
 adversity as well. Graduating at Eureka in 1878 [later returning and 
 earning his A.M.], he entered the ministry. As a pastor he served the 
 church at Normal two periods, at Springfield [Illinois], six years; at 
 Des Moines, la., and at San Antonio, Tex. For ten years he served as an 
 efficient evangelist in the United States and Canada. He held successful 
 meetings in Boston, New York City, Minneapolis and other great cen- 
 ters.. For fourteen years he has been platform manager at summer Chau- 
 tauquas. In him industry, large energy and capacity for work, with 
 thirst for knowledge and wide readings, have united in producing a 
 scholar of more than average attainments. 1 
 
 Miss Norma Brown, chairman of the Division of Off-Campus 
 Information and Service at Eureka College, contributes the 
 following story, related to her by Oliver W. Stewart (Eureka, 
 1890) : Cobb had a reputation for being a scintillating orator, 
 but he told about a lecture engagement he filled at Galesburg, 
 Illinois, which did not go to his liking. It was illustrative o£ 
 the disservice which good friends often impose upon speakers 
 by demanding social occasions for them before their major ap- 
 pearances. 
 
 On this occasion in Galesburg, some person of importance 
 arranged a dinner party to exhibit this clever friend. At the din- 
 ner party he shone, he sparkled, he scintillated, he was the 
 bright and shining star of the occasion. But when he rose to his 
 major responsibility on the lecture platform he found himself, 
 very much to his own disgust, utterly depleted and his own 
 estimate was that he was a drab disappointment. 
 
 The following is from The Christian-Evangelist, February 
 22, 1923, page 248: 
 
 On Sunday morning, Feb. 11, 1923, Brother A. P. Cobb passed into 
 life eternal at the age of 69 years. A brief illness of about three weeks, 
 started with a trouble of the heart and terminated in pneumonia. The 
 
 'Haynes, Nathaniel S., History of the Disciples of Christ in Illinois, 1915. Cin- 
 cinnati, The ^Standard Publishing Company, p. 498. 
 
 162 
 
place of his birth was Somerset, Ohio, but most of his life had been 
 lived in Illinois. For many years he had made Decatur his home. He 
 graduated from Eureka College in the class of 1878. The year follow- 
 ing, he was united in marriage with Maggie M. Dennis who with seven 
 children survive him. 
 
 The first pastorate of Brother Cobb was at Washburn, 111., and then 
 in Petersburg and Normal, 111.; Des Moines, la.; Covington, Ky.; 
 Springfield, 111. He gave himself to evangelistic work and was called 
 to almost every State of the union for meetings. For a number of years 
 he had lived here at Decatur and ministered to churches near here and 
 served in evangelistic work. 
 
 Brother Cobb was a great student. . . . He was blessed with a ready 
 memory and could quote more accurately and extensively than most 
 men. He was an interesting speaker and always brought a most help- 
 ful message. He was a ready conversationalist and was at home in al- 
 most any group. 
 
 During the six years that the writer has been his pastor, he has 
 always been a sympathetic and helpful member. — John R. Golden. 
 
 MRS. MARILLA MAGDALENE DENNIS COBB was born 
 May 20, 1855, at Decatur, Illinois, and died December 18, 
 1944, at Decatur, Illinois. She was known to her friends as 
 "Maggie." She graduated from high school at Decatur, Illinois, 
 and attended one semester at Eureka College. She taught several 
 years before her marriage to Mr. Cobb. 
 
 At Springfield and elsewhere, she was active in the Daugh- 
 ters of the American Revolution. Her youngest daughter, Mrs. 
 Lillian Cobb Hobbs, of Decatur, Illinois, writes on February 
 20, 1961: "Mother was a lifetime student — never stopped 
 studying." 
 
 163 
 

Jay Elwood Lynn 
 
 Pastor 1898-1902 
 
 Born: November 30, 1870, at Canfield, Ohio 
 Died: May 5, 1955, at Claremont, California 
 Married: Lula Olive Gault, June 30, 1897 
 Children: Emerson Lynn 
 
 Rachel Lynn (Palmer) 
 
 Gault W. Lynn 
 
 165 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Jay Elwood Lynn 
 
 166 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Lula Olive Gault Lynn 
 
 167 
 
J 
 
 ay Elwood Lynn was the third son of 
 Hiram and Rachel Lynn. He spent his childhood in Canton, 
 Ohio, and attended Hiram College from 1890 to 1895, receiv- 
 ing both his A.B. and A.M. degrees. In college he had 
 met Miss Lula Olive Gault, whom he married on June 30, 
 1897. 
 
 He was pastor of the First Christian Church in Mansfield, 
 Ohio, from 1895 to 1898, during which time a new church 
 building was erected. He then came to the First Christian 
 Church, at Springfield, Illinois, May 1, 1898. During Mr. 
 Lynn's pastorate, the congregation decided to establish a new 
 church on the west side of Springfield where a substantial 
 portion of the members lived. 
 
 In order to provide a suitable name for the new church, a 
 Certificate of Incorporation was filed December 31, 1901, 
 stating that at a meeting held on December 28, 1901, at 
 which B. R. Hieronymus acted as chairman, the name of this 
 church was changed to "First Christian Church of Springfield," 
 adding: 
 
 Said Christian Church was first organized at Springfield a.d. 1833; 
 incorporated March 10, 1880, and reincorporated as above for the 
 purpose of adopting a distinctive designation. 
 
 The certificate was recorded in the office of the County Re- 
 corder of Sangamon County December 31, 1901, as document 
 81143, vol. 152M, page 168. 
 
 This change of name cleared the way for a meeting of those 
 who were organizing the new congregation, at which Grand- 
 ville A. Hulett acted as chairman. The name "West Side Chris- 
 tian Church of Springfield, Illinois," was adopted. 
 
 First Christian Church released about two hundred of 
 its members to form the nucleus for the new congregation, 
 
 168 
 
and at a cost of $17,000 erected a building at the corner of 
 Edwards and State Streets. 
 
 To give prestige and to make sure that the new congregation 
 would go forward under its own power, Mr. Lynn became its 
 first pastor and continued until he resigned to become pastor 
 of the Central Christian Church at Warren, Ohio, beginning 
 June 1, 1904. 
 
 On July 24, 1902, Jay Elwood Lynn played center field in 
 a baseball game between the ministers and the lawyers of 
 Springfield. The lawyers won by a score of 17 to 16. The game 
 was for the benefit of the Home for the Friendless. Governor 
 Richard Yates acted as referee. 
 
 hardy athletes are really Springfielcf ministers and 
 ho got together July 24. 1902, to play a baseball game 
 fit of the Home for the Friendless A YMCA Park, 
 west of the Sacred Heart Convent V 1 ^ Academy, 
 were T. J. Sullivan for the lawyers and trie Rev. Archi- 
 for the ministers. The game attracted 1,»00 fans who 
 of $400 to walch the attorneys win by a s :ore of 17-16. 
 d Yates was guest of honor and servec as referee, 
 t. front row. are the Rev. August Hohl; ar unidentified 
 •cordia College student; the Rev. J^jFJwjiojd_JLj;nn*of the First 
 «Uan Cburrh; I lark B Shipp; Dr. H. L. Dietz itfHhe YMCA. 
 
 and Edmund Burk; second row, identification uncertain, believed 
 to be either Rabbi Traugott or Meyer Seeberger; Sidney S. Bneese, 
 Rev. Hall of the Congregational Church; Sullivan; Governor ' 
 David Griffith, umpire; the Rev. Euclid B. Rogers of the Fust 
 Baptist Church, and the Rev. Alexander Allen of Christ Episcopal 
 Church; third row. Ensign George B. Smith of the Salvation Army; 
 Robert H. Patton; the Rev. J. B. Rogers of the Third Pr e sb y te ri an 
 Church; the Rev. T. D. Logan of the First Presbyterian Church; 
 Hugh Graham, George ML Morgan, Ed Dunn, Stuart Brown, John 
 G. Friedmever, and Pascal E. Hatch. 
 
 169 
 
In March, 1910, Mr. Lynn moved west to become the min- 
 ister of the Central Christian Church in Pueblo, Colorado, but 
 resigned in approximately six months because of ill health. 
 He next served the Christian Church at Gill, Colorado. His 
 last full-time pastorate was at Loveland, Colorado, which he 
 was forced to give up in 1917 because of his health. He lived 
 for some years in Boulder, Colorado. In September, 1928, he 
 moved to Claremont, California, where he and his wife spent 
 their remaining years. During this period, he contributed some 
 notable articles to religious publications. He served at various 
 times as trustee of Hiram College and of Eureka College. 
 
 He died May 5, 1955, at Claremont, California. 
 
 ♦♦• $ .;. 
 
 MRS. LULA OLIVE GAULT LYNN was born April 9, 
 1873, at North Jackson, Ohio. Her father was John Gault and 
 her mother was Louisa Maria Johnston Gault. In the fall of 
 1890, she went to Hiram, Ohio, to a preparatory school, and 
 then on to Hiram College from which she graduated June 24, 
 1897. During the long period of Mr. Lynn's invalidism, 
 Mrs. Lynn took charge of the business and fiscal affairs. 
 As there was no Christian Church in Claremont, California, 
 the Lynns placed their membership in the First Christian 
 Church at Pomona, California. Mrs. Lynn was prominent 
 in the activities of that church. She was in demand for 
 devotionals, and for talks at conferences and other gather- 
 ings. Through her efforts, the Christian Women's Federation 
 at Pomona greatly enlarged its work. 
 
 In 1950 she received the "Cross and Crown" award from 
 the First Christian Church of Pomona. The award was planned 
 with the idea of showing appreciation for years of faithful 
 service of the older people who were no longer able to be ac- 
 tive in the life of the church. 
 
 Mrs. Lynn died June 13, 1958, at Claremont, California. 
 
 170 
 
Hugh Tucker Morrison, Jr. 
 
 Copastor 1902-1904 
 
 Born: May 23, 1877, at Buchanan, Michigan 
 Married: Mary Logan Coleman, June 23, 1908 
 Children: None 
 
 
 
 171 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Hugh Tucker Morrison, Jr. 
 
 172 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 Mary Logan Coleman Morrison 
 
 173 
 
JLn the summer of 1902 two young unmar- 
 ried men, brothers, Charles Clayton Morrison and Hugh Tucker 
 Morrison, Jr., were called to the pastorate of the First Christian 
 Church, then worshiping in a sanctuary located at Fifth and 
 Jackson Streets. 
 
 These young men, only recently graduated from Drake 
 University in 1898 and 1900 respectively, were living in Chi- 
 cago, where for four years Charles C. Morrison had been pas- 
 tor of the Monroe Street Christian Church, a church which the 
 younger Morrison, Hugh T., had served during the summer of 
 1898 as a vacation minister, prior to entering his junior year 
 in college. 
 
 The two ministers were called simultaneously to the Spring- 
 field pastorate in the relation of copastors. The elder was a 
 graduate student in the Department of Philosophy at the Uni- 
 versity of Chicago, and it was understood that this situation 
 was not to be disturbed. His residence continued in Chicago, 
 and on weekends he commuted between that city and Spring- 
 field to preach at the two Sunday worship services. 
 
 The younger brother, Hugh T., lived in the parsonage and 
 assumed all the duties of the pastoral office. The names ap- 
 peared on the bulletin board and on all church publications as 
 follows: 
 
 Rev. Hugh T. Morrison, Jr. 
 
 and 
 
 Rev. Charles Clayton Morrison, Copastors 
 
 Officiating at funerals, solemnizing weddings, administering 
 baptisms, counseling and directing of the various organizations 
 of the church were the official responsibility of the junior min- 
 ister. All pastoral reports were conveyed by him to the church 
 officials and to the congregation. During the final twelve 
 months of the copastorate the junior minister officiated at 60 
 funerals and solemnized 55 weddings. During the entire dual 
 
 174 
 
ministry he administered the rite of baptism to about 90 candi- 
 dates. 
 
 During the copastorate (1902-1904) there were commis- 
 sioned from First Church membership three outstanding young 
 people to serve on the mission field. These were Miss Rose 
 Theresa Armbruster to Japan, and Dr. Arthur Paul Wakefield 
 and Mrs. Olive Lindsay Wakefield as medical missionaries to 
 China. Mrs. Wakefield was a sister of Vachel Lindsay, the poet. 
 
 A similar event of unusual significance was the congrega- 
 tion's decision to become a Living Link in connection with the 
 Foreign Missionary Society. As a result of this action, Dr. Susie 
 Carson Rijnhart, already a well-known missionary, became the 
 congregation's representative in Tibet. 
 
 Since only a relatively small number of Christian churches 
 at that time were assuming such a major obligation, First 
 Church came to have a certain degree of distinction for its 
 missionary vision. The reflex influence from these several rep- 
 resentatives in missionary areas was deep and extensive. During 
 1903 Hugh T. Morrison acted as recording secretary of the 
 American Christian Missionary Society. 
 
 At the end of two years, the senior minister requested a 
 leave of absence for three months to complete his work at the 
 University of Chicago. This request was granted by the church 
 on condition that the junior pastor would fill the pulpit during 
 this period. However, the junior minister found that his voice 
 was not equal to the strain of pulpit preaching, and decided 
 to prepare himself for the practice of medicine. The copas- 
 torate was terminated at the end of 1904 and the senior min- 
 ister continued as sole pastor from 1904 until October, 1906. 
 After receiving his M.D. degree from Drake Medical College, 
 Hugh returned to Springfield, where he practiced medicine 
 from 1908 to 1942. 
 
 On June 23, 1908, Hugh married Mary Logan Coleman. 
 They made their home in the famed Logan Place, erected by 
 
 175 
 
her grandfather, Stephen T. Logan, who was Lincoln's second 
 law partner. The house has been replaced by Memorial Hos- 
 pital, dedicated in October, 1943. 
 
 Dr. Morrison took an active part in public affairs. In 1908 
 he was called on to give the initial presentation of the par- 
 ticular type of commission form of government which in 1909 
 was adopted by the city of Springfield as a substitute for the 
 aldermanic form. He lectured on current events under the com- 
 bined auspices of the Springfield Business and Professional 
 Woman's Club, the Y. M. C. A., and the Y. W. C. A. 
 
 During World War I, Dr. Morrison served as a medical 
 officer with the rank of Captain, and lectured on social hygiene 
 in the military camps and cantonments of the United States. 
 Later he became a stated lecturer on social hygiene for the 
 Illinois Board of Health. 
 
 In 1937 he was the first president of the Illinois Council 
 of Churches. For over 50 years he has been a trustee of the 
 Disciples Divinity House of the University of Chicago. 
 
 He was the author of two small volumes: Logan Place — a 
 Story of an Ancestral Home, privately printed in 1938; and 
 Milton G. Owen, Al.D. (a biography of a noted Springfield 
 physician) . He also wrote a copyrighted pamphlet, A Theory of 
 Pitch and Range in Voice Production, about 1954. 
 
 In 1909 Billy Sunday had held a highly successful revival 
 service in Springfield, in which nearly all the Protestant 
 churches co-operated. Over 4,700 persons "hit the sawdust 
 trail." In 1912 Dr. Morrison wrote "A Religious Survey of 
 Springfield," reflecting the effects of the Billy Sunday series 
 of meetings, which was first published in the Christian Century. 
 Later it was printed by Dr. Washington Gladden of Columbus, 
 Ohio, and widely circulated. 
 
 Since he retired from medical practice, Dr. Morrison has 
 made his home in Springfield, although he spends much of 
 his time in Florida and in Tucson, Arizona. 
 
 176 
 
MRS. MARY LOGAN COLEMAN MORRISON was born 
 February 18, 1880, at Springfield, Illinois, and lived almost all 
 her life in Logan Place, one of the show places of the city and 
 erected by her grandfather, Judge Stephen T. Logan, who was 
 Lincoln's second law partner. Her mother died when she was 
 eleven years old, and she soon became its mistress. Her grand- 
 mother, America T. Logan, was not a charter member of this 
 congregation, but united with the church soon after its organi- 
 zation in 1833 during the pastorate of Josephus Hewitt. 
 Stephen T. Logan did not become a member of the church, 
 but actively figured in its progress. He was elected trustee in 
 1852. In the same year, he was appointed a member of a 
 committee "to make arrangements for a more suitable house 
 of worship," which resulted in the second church building. 
 In 1880 he again served on the building committee for the 
 third church building. He was named as one of the trustees 
 in the original Certificate of Incorporation of "The Christian 
 Church of Springfield, Illinois," in 1880. 
 
 Mary was a graduate of Springfield High School in 1898, 
 and of Monticello Seminary, and took courses at the University 
 of Chicago. While yet living in the ancestral home, Mrs. Mor- 
 rison sponsored a centennial celebration of Logan Place on 
 January 1, 1937. This celebration was participated in not only 
 by local relatives and intimate friends of the family, but also 
 by many from other cities and even from remote states. For 
 this occasion Dr. Morrison wrote the volume, Logan Place — 
 a Story of an Ancestral Home. At the evening session, an ad- 
 dress was given by Dr. Edgar DeWitt Jones, pastor of Central- 
 Woodward Avenue Christian Church of Detroit, Michigan. 
 
 For twelve years, from 1911 to 1923, Mrs. Morrison was 
 an elected member of the Springfield Board of Education. She 
 was president of the Board in 1916-1918. When the present 
 Springfield High School structure was erected at Adams and 
 
 177 
 
New Streets, she officiated as president at the laying of the 
 cornerstone on September 19, 1916. 
 
 Since early childhood she was a member of the First Chris- 
 tian Church. In 1898 she was a delegate to the national con- 
 vention of the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor 
 at Nashville, Tennessee, and in time occupied almost every 
 position of responsibility in the local church, including mem- 
 bership on the official board and on the building committee 
 for the erection of the present structure. In 1904 she spent 
 several months on a Mediterranean cruise, traveling with Dr. 
 and Mrs. Herbert Lockwood Willett, and visiting Egypt and 
 the Holy Land. From 1924 to 1931 she was an active member 
 of the Board of Directors of the Springfield Y. W. C. A., and 
 again from 1936 to the time of her death. She was an honorary 
 member of the Board from January, 1934, to August, 1936. 
 She was President of the Y. W. C. A. from January, 1926, 
 through December, 1928. 
 
 One of the treasures in Logan Place was a copy of Andrea 
 del Sarto's painting of "The Holy Family." It now hangs in 
 the Weaver Lounge 1 of the Y. W. C. A. building. 
 
 She wrote a historical sketch of First Christian Church on 
 the occasion of its seventy-fifth anniversary in 1908 and a 
 similar sketch for the ninetieth anniversary of the church in 
 1923. The latter is in the Illinois State Historical Library. 
 
 In January, 1914, Dr. and Mrs. Morrison, as foster parents, 
 took into their home the three small sons of Reverend and 
 Mrs. R. Ray Eldred, who had lost their lives on the Congo mis- 
 sion field of Africa. Although not adopted, the youths volun- 
 tarily assumed the surname Morrison, and have been known 
 by that name. They are: Ray Eldred Morrison, Ward Eldred 
 Morrison (killed at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941), and 
 Dr. Joseph P. Eldred Morrison of the Smithsonian Institution. 
 
 'Weaver Lounge in the Y. W. C A. is named in honor of Mr. and Mrs. I. A. 
 Weaver, members of First Christian Church. Mrs. Weaver was co-chairman of the 
 Building Fund campaign to restore and refurnish the building after the fire of May 8, 
 1947. She is now a member of the Board of Trustees. 
 
 178 
 
Charles Clayton Morrison 
 
 Copastor 1902-1904 
 Pastor 1905-1906 
 
 Born: December 4, 1874, at Harrison, Ohio 
 Married: Laurel Scott, October 3, 1906 
 Children: Jane Morrison (Mrs. Frederick Reed Dickerson) 
 Helen Morrison (Mrs. Dr. Bertram G. Nelson, 
 
 J'-) 
 
 179 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Charles Clayton Morrison 
 
 180 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Laurel Scott Morrison 
 
 181 
 
By W. E. Garrison 
 
 harles Clayton Morrison was the son of 
 Hugh T. and Anna (Macdonald) Morrison. He was ordained 
 to the ministry of Disciples of Christ in 1892, at the age of 18. 
 He held student pastorates while taking his college course at 
 Drake University, which gave him his A.B. degree in 1898. 
 His college record was evidently superior in spite of the de- 
 mands of work with his churches, for when a chapter of Phi 
 Beta Kappa was formed at Drake many years later and was 
 granted the privilege of extending its membership to include 
 some of its most deserving alumni, he was one of those chosen 
 for this academic honor. 
 
 During the years between 1892 and 1906, he held pas- 
 torates of Christian churches in Clarinda, Iowa; Perry, Iowa; 
 Chicago (Monroe Street Church); and Springfield, Illinois. 
 His brother, Hugh T. Morrison, Jr., was copastor in the 
 Springfield ministry. Within this period also, and while serv- 
 ing the Monroe Street Church, he was a graduate student in 
 the University of Chicago with a fellowship in the Department 
 of Philosophy (1902-1904). 
 
 Morrison always had the courage of his convictions, as his 
 later editorial career amply demonstrated. This quality was 
 given early proof when, with the approval of his board, he 
 made the Monroe Street Church an out-and-out "open mem- 
 bership" church. This was probably his first decisive step on 
 the road of ecumenical activity to which so large a part of his 
 subsequent effort was dedicated. He held that it was folly to 
 expect that the union of Christians could ever be attained on 
 a basis including the agreement of all Christians with the 
 "historic position" of Disciples on baptism, and that it was 
 an equal folly for a church professedly pleading for Christian 
 unity to include in its own conditions of membership an item 
 
 182 
 
which was itself a barrier against unity. He held also — and 
 presented this view in a book, The Meaning of Baptism — that 
 baptism does not consist in immersion, though that was doubt- 
 less the original form, and is not necessarily invalid without 
 it. The Monroe Street incident and the publication of these 
 views made Morrison a controversial figure. His convictions 
 on this subject never changed, but it dropped into a subor- 
 dinate place in his thinking as other and more vital issues arose 
 when, as editor of the Christian Century, he again gave proof 
 of his courage and independence in dealing with topics of 
 crucial importance for both church and state. Many who had 
 been his critics in the Monroe Street affair came to admire 
 him as a social prophet and a religious statesman. When he 
 took the platform to give an evening address at the Interna- 
 tional Convention in Buffalo (1948), he received from the 
 huge audience a prolonged standing ovation unparalleled 
 within this writer's long convention experience. 
 
 At the end of this period from 1892 to 1906 and very near 
 the end of his Springfield pastorate, Mr. Morrison married 
 Miss Laurel Scott, on October 3, 1906. 
 
 The turning point in Morrison's career was his purchase 
 of the assets of the bankrupt Christian Century at sheriff's sale 
 for the reputed sum of six hundred dollars. Since the journal 
 formerly called the Christian Oracle had taken its new name 
 with new ownership and management on January 1, 1900, it 
 had pursued a brilliant but erratic course gradually tending 
 downward in circulation, editorial strength, prestige, and finan- 
 cial stability toward the ultimate pit of insolvency. Morrison 
 did not get much for his $600, if that is what it was, and 
 he soon lost most of that, for his reputation as a reckless young 
 radical on the baptism question brought a further shrinkage 
 of the already pathetically short subscription list. The trans- 
 formation of this moribund midget of a denominational weekly 
 into "an undenominational journal of religion" with world- 
 
 183 
 
wide prestige, "the most powerful voice in Protestantism," 
 as it has often been called, is one of the most amazing and 
 dramatic chapters in the history of American journalism. 
 
 Dr. Morrison's personal prestige rose with that of his paper. 
 He was editor of the Christian Century from 1908 until he 
 retired in 1947 when he put the paper into the very capable 
 hands of Paul Hutchinson, who had been managing editor 
 for almost twenty-five years and had written a large proportion 
 of the editorials. Morrison had founded The Pulpit (a monthly 
 publication), in 1929 and edited it until 1956. After the death 
 of Peter Ainslie in 1935, he took over the orphaned Christian 
 Unity Quarterly which Ainslie had founded and edited, en- 
 larged it, broadened its coverage, and renamed it Christendom. 
 Morrison edited this quarterly until in 1941 he gave it to the 
 World Council of Churches, in whose hands it underwent a 
 further change to make it the Ecumenical Review, an official 
 organ of the Council. 
 
 His other activities included frequent lecturing: the Rausch- 
 enbusch Lectures at Colgate-Rochester Theological Seminary; 
 the Southworth Lectures at Andover-Newton Theological 
 Seminary; the Earle Lectures at the Pacific School of Religion; 
 the Lyman Beecher Lectures at Yale Divinity School; the 
 Swander Lectures at Lancaster Theological Seminary; the Wil- 
 liam Henry Hoover Lectures on Christian Unity at the Dis- 
 ciples Divinity House, University of Chicago; and intermittent 
 service as professorial lecturer at Chicago Theological Semi- 
 nary, 1931-1949. He received many honorary degrees: D.D. 
 from Oberlin College, 1923, and from Chicago Theological 
 Seminary, 1928; Litt.D., Syracuse University, 1928; and LL.D., 
 Culver-Stockton College 1933, and Drake University, 1938. 
 
 An important chapter in Dr. Morrison's career was his work 
 in support of the outlawry-of-war proposal. This plan for 
 guaranteeing the peace of the world was initiated by Salmon 
 Levinson, a Chicago lawyer. He convinced Morrison, who be- 
 
 184 
 
came the chief journalistic advocate. Together they convinced 
 Senator Borah. Borah convinced the Secretary of State, Frank 
 Kellogg. Kellogg convinced Briand, Premier of France. Hence 
 the Kellogg-Briand pact which was ratified by the governments 
 of many nations. The advocacy of this plan brought Dr. and 
 Mrs. Morrison into close and friendly contact with govern- 
 mental leaders in various parts of Europe. It also furnished 
 material for many editorials and one book. Of even more sig- 
 nificance was Dr. Morrison's personal acquaintance with 
 church leaders throughout the world. He attended all the great 
 ecumenical gatherings beginning with Edinburgh, 1910, where 
 the seeds were planted which ripened into the World Council 
 of Churches. 
 
 A complete bibliography of Dr. Morrison's writings would 
 require weeks to compile and pages to print. His books are 
 as follows: The Meaning of Baptism, 1914; Hymns of the 
 United Church (ed., with H. L. Willett), 1916; The Daily 
 Altar (ed. with H. L. Willett), 1918; The Outlawry of War, 
 1927; The Social Gospel and the Christian Cultus, 1933; What 
 Is Christianity? 1940; The Christian and the War, 1942; The 
 Unfinished Reformation, 1954. 
 
 His present address is 1545 East 60th St., Chicago 37, 111. 
 
 A biographical sketch of Dr. Morrison appears in 20 biennial 
 issues of Who's Who in America from Volume 11, 1920-1921, 
 to and including Volume 29, 1956-1957, and again in Volume 
 31, 1960-1961. 
 
 4» «fr ♦ 
 
 MRS. LAUREL SCOTT MORRISON was the daughter of 
 Mr. and Mrs. William Poole Scott. She graduated from Spring- 
 field High School in 1894, and from the Springfield Training 
 School for Teachers. She taught from 1894 to 1906 in the Stuart 
 School at Springfield. She was also a voice student, and became 
 one of the recognized vocalists of the city. She was an officer of 
 
 185 
 
the Springfield Philharmonic Society, and an active member 
 of the Springfiei^d Choral Union for several years. At that time 
 the usual church choir consisted of a quartet. Although she 
 was not a member of the church she sang alto in the choir at 
 First Christian Church, when Charles Clayton Morrison came 
 as copastor with his brother Hugh. Under the influence of his 
 preaching, she united with the church. She became his wife 
 on October 3, 1906. 
 
 186 
 
Frederick William Burnham 
 
 Pastor 1907-1914 
 
 Born: May 7, 1871, at Chapin, Illinois 
 Died: January 13, I960, at Richmond, Virginia 
 Married: Cenie Allison, October 2, 1895 
 Children: None 
 
 
 187 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Frederick William Burnham 
 
 188 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Cenie Allison Burnham 
 
 189 
 
By Beulah Gordon 
 
 D 
 
 uring the six years from 1907 to 1914 
 when the present First Christian Church edifice was being con- 
 structed, Frederick William Burnham served as pastor and as 
 chairman of the building committee. At his suggestion the 
 building — said to be the most beautiful among the Disciples of 
 Christ — was modeled after Melrose Abbey in Scotland. 
 
 Dr. Burnham came to Springfield from Decatur, Illinois, 
 where a new church was built during the six years of his min- 
 istry. He left Springfield to answer the call of the Wilshire 
 Boulevard Church of Los Angeles, California. He had scarcely 
 begun his ministry in Los Angeles, when he was named first 
 president of the American Christian Missionary Society (Home 
 Missions). He assumed his duties on December 11, 1914, and 
 remained as chief executive until 1919 when The United Chris- 
 tian Missionary Society was formed. He served the United 
 Society as president until his resignation on December 10, 
 1929. 
 
 During most of his years as president of The United Chris- 
 tian Missionary Society its headquarters were in St. Louis, Mis- 
 souri, but later were moved to Indianapolis, Indiana. 
 
 During 1930, the year following his resignation as president 
 of the U. C. M. S., Dr. Burnham served as pastor of University 
 Park Christian Church, Indianapolis. From 1931 until he re- 
 tired in 1946 he was pastor of the Seventh Street Christian 
 Church in Richmond, Virginia. He died in Richmond on Jan- 
 uary 13, I960. 
 
 In a tribute to Dr. Burnham, the Board of Trustees of The 
 United Christian Missionary Society, meeting on January 19, 
 I960, six days following his death, said: 
 
 Mr. Burnham was not only a recognized leader among Disciples of 
 Christ, he was also a dominant figure in the ecumenical movement. 
 
 190 
 
Mr. Burnham, in addition to his outstanding ability as a preacher, 
 administrator and author, has been characterized as one of the finest 
 presiding officers and parliamentarians ever produced by Disciples of 
 Christ. It was this fact, together with his great and lasting contribution 
 to the work of the church at home and abroad, that caused the board 
 of trustees to name the auditorium of the new wing of the Missions 
 Building, the Frederick W. Burnham Auditorium. 
 
 In a letter written on February 11, 1959, Dr. Burnham, in 
 summing up his career, said: 
 
 Dear Brother McElroy: In accordance with your communication 
 of February 4, I am submitting herewith a biographical sketch of Mrs. 
 Burnham and myself. I have not made a separate sketch for Mrs. 
 Burnham because our lives and services were so intimately interwoven, 
 except that I have given her college life independently. My reason for 
 entering the ministry was a natural development. I had never contem- 
 plated any other life-calling. 
 
 I have no comment to make upon my pastorate in Springfield, except 
 to say that memory holds most dear the fellowship of such men as 
 Charles P. Kane, L. H. Coleman, B. R. Hieronymus, A. W. Hillier, 
 G. A. Hulett, Frank A. Drake, Edward Anderson and Henry B. Hen- 
 kel, and others, and such women as Mrs. George Pasfield, Mrs. Emma 
 Kreider, Mrs. Mary Coleman Morrison, Mrs. I. A. Weaver and many 
 other noble women. 
 
 Frederick William Burnham was born of New England parentage 
 in Chapin, Illinois, May 7, 1871. His father was a physician, At the 
 age of 17, he became a railway telegrapher and served the Wabash 
 Railroad at the Union Depot, Hannibal, Missouri, and the Northern 
 Pacific Railroad in Montana. He attended Whipple Academy, the 
 preparatory school of Illinois College, at Jacksonville, Illinois, and 
 went to Eureka for his college work. [While still an undergraduate, he 
 was listed among the members of the faculty fcr the sessions of 1892- 
 1893 and 1893-1894 as Teacher of Telegraphy and Railroad Book- 
 keeping in the Business Department.] He graduated from Eureka 
 College in 1895 with an A.B. degree; attended the University of 
 Chicago the summer of 1902 and again in 1931-32. He received the 
 degree of LL.D. from Eureka College in 1915. 
 
 In October, 1914, F. W. Burnham was elected president of the 
 American Christian Missionary Society (Home Missions) and visited 
 churches in every state in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada and 
 Alaska. In 1919 the several missionary societies were united under the 
 United Christian Missionary Society (U. C. M. S.), and F. W. Burn- 
 
 191 
 
ham was elected president successively for the next 10 years in open 
 convention elections. 
 
 He was chairman of the Executive Committee of the Federal Coun- 
 cil of Churches of Christ in America, 1902-24; delegate to the first 
 preliminary conference on Faith and Order in Geneva, Switzerland, 
 1920; delegate to the World Conference on Life and Work, Stockholm, 
 Sweden, 1925; delegate to the Federal Conference of Churches of 
 Christ in New Zealand and Australia, 1927-28. In 1928-29 he visited 
 the mission fields of the United Christian Missionary Society in India, 
 China, Japan, and Philippine Islands, in 1925 he toured Russia and 
 Scandinavia for the American Christian Missionary Society; and for 
 the Near East Relief he visited Palestine, Turkey, and Constantinople, 
 now Istanbul. He was a delegate to the Conference of Life and Work 
 in Oxford, England, in 1931. 
 
 Other interdenominational responsibilities of Mr. Burnham 
 are listed by the Board of The United Christian Missionary 
 Society as: vice-president of Illinois Christian Endeavor Union 
 1902-1904; president of Illinois Christian Endeavor Union 
 1904-1906; trustee of Eureka College, 1902-1914; commis 
 sioner of World Conference of Faith and Order, 1910-1925 
 chairman of Commission on Moral and Social Problems of the 
 Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work, 1920-1925 
 director of World Alliance for International Friendship 
 Through the Churches; director of Near East Relief; member 
 of Council of Boy Scouts of America; and member of Foreign 
 Missions Council and Home Missions Council. 
 
 The personnel record, filled out by Dr. Burnham when he 
 was president of the U. C. M. S., states that he was first or- 
 dained to the ministry in 1893 upon his graduation from Eu- 
 reka College, and was again ordained in 1909 by the elders 
 of First Christian Church at Springfield, Illinois. 
 
 From February 26, 1909, to April 12, 1909, William A. 
 (Billy) Sunday conducted a union revival service in Spring- 
 field, Illinois, during which 4,721 persons "hit the sawdust 
 trail." Each convert was asked to name the Protestant church 
 of his preference. Over 400 cards designated First Christian 
 
 192 
 
Church. Dr. Burnham proceeded to conduct a three-week evan- 
 gelistic service in this church, resulting in over 300 additions 
 to the church roll, as fruits of the Billy Sunday campaign. 
 
 In 1918, while president of The United Christian Missionary 
 Society, Dr. Burnham wrote a book entitled Unification — The 
 How, What, and Why of The United Christian Missionary 
 Society. The character and scope of the book are well expressed 
 by Charles S. Medbury in the Introduction: 
 
 As I think of an introductory word for President Burnham's 
 splendid setting forth of the lines of the life and work of the United 
 Christian Missionary Society, a fine expression of A. McLean's comes to 
 mind. Many will recall his saying: "Information is the panacea for 
 both apathy and antipathy." 
 
 If our people only knew more of the actual challenges from the 
 whole world field with which our representatives grapple constantly — 
 if there could only be brought home to them personally the heart-cries 
 of missionaries in appealing fields, both at home and abroad — they 
 could not be indifferent to the support of our co-operative work. . . . 
 And so the president has done well to tell the simple story as he has. 
 What he has written should be widely read, and, meantime, those 
 serving us by our call, should have our loving and prayerful support. 
 
 He was also the author of A Missionary Visit to Alaska. 
 
 A biographical sketch of Dr. Burnham appears in Who's 
 Who in America in 12 biennial issues, beginning with Volume 
 15, 1928-1929, to and including Volume 26, 1950-1951. 
 
 MRS. CENIE ALLISON BURNHAM was born January 28, 
 1870, at Eureka, Illinois. Her father was a Union soldier in the 
 Civil War, and was a prisoner of war in Libby Prison at Rich- 
 mond, Virginia. Cenie graduated at Eureka College in 1894 
 with degrees of A.B. and B.S. She remained another year at 
 Eureka and studied art. In a letter written February 11, 1959, 
 Dr. Burnham said: 
 
 193 
 
She and F. W. Burnham were married October 2, 1895. With her 
 husband she became a world-traveler and an efficient pastor's helper. 
 Together they served pastorates in Carbondale, Illinois, 1901-1907; 
 Springfield, Illinois, First Church, 1907-1914; Los Angeles, California; 
 Wilshire Boulevard Church, 1914; Indianapolis, Indiana, University 
 Park Church, 1930; Richmond, Virginia, Seventh Street Church, 1931- 
 1946; Virginia Rural Churches, 1946-1948; pastor emeritus, Seventh 
 Street Church, Richmond, Virginia, since 1946. On most of Dr. Burn- 
 ham's world travels Mrs. Burnham accompanied him at her own ex- 
 pense. She died in Richmond, Virginia, October 26, 1955, after 60 
 years of devoted companionship. 
 
 They had no children. 
 
 194 
 
Frank Waller Allen 
 
 Pastor 1914-1917 
 
 Born: September 30, 1878, in Trimble County, Kentucky 
 Died: December 15, 1936, at Los Angeles, California 
 Married: Ann Mary Meek 
 Daughter: Mary Jane Allen (Mrs. Chester Evan Sherwood) 
 
 195 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Frank Waller Allen 
 
 196 
 
!■■■■ 
 Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Ann Mary Meek Allen 
 
 197 
 
A? rank Waller Allen was the son of Frank 
 Gibbs Allen, a Disciple minister and editor, and Nancy Mad- 
 dux Allen. He attended Kentucky University, now Transyl- 
 vania, at Lexington, Kentucky, at various periods from 1896 to 
 1904, but did not graduate. He developed an interest in extra- 
 curricular literary activities, such as Lyceum Bureau attractions. 
 Before entering the ministry he was a newspaper reporter with 
 the Louisville Courier Journal, and later with the Kansas City 
 Star. He became pastor of First Christian Church in 1914, fol- 
 lowing Frederick William Burnham. 
 
 The Christian-Evangelist, May 28, 1914, said: 
 
 Springfield, 111., Calls Frank Waller Allen. — In accepting a call 
 to First Church, Springfield, 111., Frank Waller Allen, for seven years 
 pastor at Paris, Mo., will take the leadership of one of Illinois' largest 
 churches — a congregation of 800 with a magnificent $125,000 build- 
 ing. His ministry at Paris proved beyond all doubt his fitness for the 
 task before him. . . . 
 
 Editorially the "Paris, Missouri, Mercury" says: 
 
 "Frank Allen is not alone a big preacher, but a big man as well, uniting 
 to a broad culture in books an intimate and sympathetic knowledge of life, and 
 adding to both a capacity for practical achievement and an energy that never 
 tires." 
 
 On May 17, 1917, The Christian-Evangelist reported: 
 
 Frank Waller Allen Resigns at First Church, Springfield, Illinois. 
 
 — Frank Waller Allen will close a ministry of over three years at First 
 Church, Springfield, 111., on August 1. A determined effort was made 
 by every member of the church board to induce Bro. Allen to with- 
 draw his resignation, but because the strain of hard work is telling 
 upon his health, Bro. Allen declared this action final. 
 
 The Illinois State Register of May 7, 1917, said: 
 
 Regret over the resignation will be felt throughout Springfield, 
 but close friends were cheered yesterday when, after learning of the 
 resignation, they were given assurance that Mr. Allen will remain a 
 resident of Springfield while continuing and enlarging his literary 
 work. He is in great demand as a lecturer and will fill a number of 
 
 198 
 
lecture engagements after retiring from his present church work. He 
 has engaged in some literary work incident to his ministry and has 
 contributed many valuable writings to the world of literature. Mr. 
 Allen's Lyceum work will be managed by the American Bureau of 
 Arts and Travel, of Chicago. 
 
 In 1924 the Aliens went to California where Mr. Allen gave 
 up the ministry and withdrew from the brotherhood of Dis- 
 ciples of Christ. He devoted full time to the Unity Meta- 
 physical Library and Studio. 
 
 Among his books are My Ships Aground (1900); Back to 
 Arcady (1905); The Golden Road (1910); The Lovers of 
 Skye (1913); The Brothers of Bagdad (1913); Painted Win- 
 dows (1918); The Great Quest (1918); My One Hundred 
 Best Novels (1919); Wings of Beauty (1929); and Creative 
 Living (1930). 
 
 In 1914 Frank Waller Allen came to Springfield as pastor of the 
 First Christian Church. His views soon proved too liberal and by 
 191 8 he had resigned and was lecturing at the Springfield College 
 of Music and Allied Arts. He left Springfield in 1924 and went to 
 California, where he continued to write and lecture. The last of his 
 books to appear in the Library of Congress catalog was Creative Living 
 (Long Beach: Unity Metaphysical Library and Studio, 1930). 1 
 
 At least two of his books were published at Springfield, Illi- 
 nois, by the Springfield College of Music and Allied Arts — 
 The Great Quest (1918) and Painted Windows (1918). 
 
 The Illinois State Library has two of his books: The Lovers 
 of Skye (fiction) and Painted Windows (essays). The Illinois 
 State Historical Library has a copy of Painted Windows. 
 
 MRS. ANN MARY MEEK ALLEN was born August 5, 
 1889, the daughter of Lafayette Meek and Mary Powell Meek, 
 both graduates of Vanderbilt University. Her father was a 
 Methodist minister, and died when she was three months old. 
 
 'From "Reference Report" in Illinois State Historical Library, dated 5 Nov. 1951. 
 
 199 
 
She and her mother went to live with an uncle, Lewis Powell, a 
 Methodist minister with pastorates in Tennessee and Kentucky. 
 Her grandfather, Zephaniah Meek, was editor and publisher 
 of the Central Methodist in Catlettsburg, Kentucky. 
 
 She graduated at Millersburg College at Millersburg, Ken- 
 tucky, with the degree of B.A. She then did graduate work 
 at the University of Chicago, followed by extension work at 
 the graduate level from the University of Illinois. 
 
 After attending the University of Chicago, she started a 
 kindergarten class in Springfield, which was subsidized by the 
 PTA until the Board of Education included it as part of the 
 city school system. She continued this work until 1924 when 
 the Aliens moved to California. 
 
 She returned to Springfield in the early '30's, and accepted 
 a position with the Welfare Department of the Illinois Public 
 Aid Commission, covering Sangamon County. She was listed 
 as social case worker until April, 1942. Then she became a 
 case worker supervisor until 1948, when she went again to 
 California to engage in the same type of work at Los Angeles. 
 The Aliens' daughter, Mary Jane Allen, is married to Chester 
 Evan Sherwood. They live in Glendale, California. 
 
 While in Springfield she reviewed books for the Illinois 
 State Journal for more than a year, and she has done consider- 
 able writing on welfare subjects. She writes on November 26, 
 I960: "I have a very warm feeling for the years I lived in 
 Springfield and the friends I made there, and will always be 
 grateful for my stay in that city." 
 
 Her present address is 1513 1/4 North Hoover Street, Los 
 Angeles 27, California. 
 
 200 
 
William Frederic Rothenburger 
 
 Pastor 1918-1927 
 
 Born: March 5, 1874, at Holgate, Ohio 
 Died: September 7, 1959, at Denver, Colorado 
 Married: (l) Kate Parmly Teachout, June 27, 1906; died 
 1908 
 Daughter: Ruth Mae Rothenburger (Mrs. 
 Malcolm Stuart Ferguson) 
 
 (2) Leila Covert Avery, August 9, 1913; died 1942 
 
 Children: Ada Jane Rothenburger (Mrs. E. 
 E. Rogers) 
 Wilma Rothenburger (Mrs. War- 
 ren C. Winkler) 
 
 (3) Arlene Dux Scoville (widow of Charles Reign 
 
 Scoville), August 2, 1943 
 Children: None 
 
 201 
 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 William Frederic Rothenburger 
 
 202 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 Leila Covert Avery Rothenburger 
 
 203 
 
w 
 
 llliam Frederic Rothenburger was 
 born on a farm, the son of Christian William and Catherine J. 
 (Leonhart) Rothenburger. He attended a country school and 
 then walked three and a half miles daily to high school. He 
 graduated from Ohio Normal University in 1898, and received 
 an A.B. degree from Hiram College in 1900. He taught 
 Hebrew while a student there. 
 
 In 1907 he received the degree of B.D. from the University 
 of Chicago. In 1932 Eugene Bible College of Spokane Uni- 
 versity conferred on him the honorary degree of D.D. 
 
 He was ordained in 1900 to the ministry of Disciples of 
 Christ. His pastorates were at: 
 
 Ashtabula, Ohio, 1900-1905; Irving Park Christian Church, 
 Chicago, 1906-1907; Franklin Circle Christian Church, Cleve- 
 land, Ohio, 1908-1918; First Christian Church, Springfield, 
 Illinois, 1918-1927; and Third Christian Church, Indianapolis, 
 Indiana, 1927-1943. 
 
 He then married Mrs. Arlene Dux Scoville (third wife) 
 and for ten years they conducted evangelistic campaigns of two 
 or three weeks each in all parts of the country. He placed his 
 membership in the University Park Christian Church, of In- 
 dianapolis, Indiana. 
 
 He was the first president of the Springfield Council of 
 Churches, which was organized May 23, 1924. 
 
 He occupied almost every place of honor and responsibility 
 in the brotherhood. He was a trustee of the Pension Fund of 
 Disciples of Christ in 1931 to 1942; member of board of di- 
 rectors of Flanner House at Indianapolis, Indiana; vice-presi- 
 dent of the Board of Church Extension; chairman of the 
 Executive Committee, board of trustees and board of managers 
 of The United Christian Missionary Society; delegate to the 
 Federal Council of Churches; and president of the Inter- 
 national Convention of Disciples of Christ in 1934. 
 
 204 
 
He made a study tour of Europe in 1911, and made a tour 
 of the mission fields of the Orient in 1924. He was a fraternal 
 delegate to the Annual Conference of Churches of Christ (Dis- 
 ciples) in Great Britain in 1936. 
 
 He was the author of The Cross in Symbol, Spirit and Wor- 
 ship, which was published by Stratford Co., Boston, in 1930. 
 A review of the book by J. Edward Moseley, of Indianapolis, 
 Indiana, says: 
 
 This volume was written because of the author's interest in the 
 Cross as a spiritual symbol possessing vital meaning for people in 
 everyday life. Originally, much of the material was used in sermons 
 and addresses. 
 
 The Prologue is a meditation. "Part I, Seven Words from the 
 Cross," is a series of homilies. "Part II, The Cross — Symbol and a 
 Spirit," sets forth the early uses and abuses of the Cross and contrasts 
 the Roman Catholic and Protestant interpretations of it. "Part III, 
 The Lord's Supper — In Memory of Him," interprets the Spirit of the 
 Cross from a limited theological view. 
 
 Each of the major subjects is introduced by the reproduction of a 
 great religious painting. 
 
 The historical research which supports the author's spiritual inter- 
 pretations reflects the symbolic use of the Cross as an aid to worship 
 as well as its legitimate use in art, architecture, and worship. 
 
 While the material, the effort of a busy minister in a large urban 
 church, is not treated exhaustively, it is easy to read and may stimulate 
 further study about the Cross by the conscientious reader. 
 
 He also wrote many tracts, besides contributions to religious 
 publications. He was a Mason. 
 
 In 1938 his three daughters combined to give a word 
 picture of their father which we quote: 
 
 WE GO INTO A HUDDLE CONCERNING DAD 
 
 Ruth, Jane, and Wilma Rothenburger 
 
 Frequently people seem to think that a minister has little to do 
 but preach one or two sermons a week. If they could shadow our dad 
 for several days, they would change their ideas decidedly, because 
 a busier man would be hard to find, as is true no doubt of every 
 minister who is deeply consecrated to his work. From firsthand infor- 
 
 205 
 
mation we are fully conscious of the fact that the job of being a 
 minister, especially in a large city church, is one that takes every hour 
 of the day. He is not only preacher, but also pastor, administrator, 
 and counselor, and his time is everyone's but his own. 
 
 Luckily Dad's tremendous energy makes it possible for him to cope 
 with all the demands made upon him. To him the ministry is all 
 absorbing and in his estimation there is no work so inspiring and 
 fruitful. We once heard him say to a guest of ours that though one 
 never becomes rich in the ministry, there is no other work that pays 
 higher dividends in personal gratification. So he is never too busy 
 to be of help to someone and is glad to leave early for appointments 
 to drop in on families where there is sickness or death. He writes 
 to welcome new arrivals to the city, to congratulate graduates, and to 
 wish brides happiness. His personal and sincere interest in everyone 
 is a fundamental reason why he is generally loved and highly re- 
 spected. If you want to know how many friends he has, ask the post- 
 man. 
 
 And sermons? Dad realizes that the pulpit is his one greatest 
 opportunity to reach his people. A sermon brews in the back of his 
 head for weeks sometimes before it is dictated. All the while he is 
 reading much, both in his study and at the library. He thinks every 
 dollar paid for books is well spent — that goes for the whole family 
 as well as for himself. Once we tried to persuade him that he should 
 have a radio in his car to entertain him while driving. Then it was 
 we learned that in those odd moments between calls and meetings he 
 formulates his sermons. His delivery is forceful and he seldom refers 
 to his notes, which consist of a single card of handwritten outline. 
 One Sunday morning a sheet of paper was blown from the pulpit and 
 later several of the congregation spoke of the fear they had had that 
 he might not get through his sermon, but the paper had not been 
 missed. He is often told how much his sermons are appreciated and 
 we feel that he has a happy faculty for saying the right thing in a 
 helpful and tactful way. 
 
 In all his efforts he has had the assistance of a wife who has entered 
 wholeheartedly into the work herself and is just as generous with her 
 talent and time. We often laugh about the woman who said so aptly 
 that she just couldn't help telling them how much they reminded 
 her of a pair of mules — they worked together so well. 
 
 We think Dad is well rounded in more ways than the one we joke 
 him about. He follows current events closely, belongs to clubs, and 
 takes part in many activities. We know no one who more enjoys 
 meeting people and making chance acquaintances. He strikes up a 
 conversation with all those with whom he comes in contact and is 
 
 206 
 
always the first to make friendly overtures. He learns about the barber- 
 ing business while in the barber's chair, and all the problems of a 
 porter while on the train. This genuine interest in everyone has gone 
 a long way in encouraging people to come to him with all their 
 troubles, confident that they will have an interested and helpful advisor. 
 
 Dad is dignified upon occasion but he is also capable of throwing 
 off that dignity. Bedtime romps have passed with the years, but hardly 
 a dinner hour goes by without at least one or two grown daughters 
 piling into his lap to give him a bear hug during the after-dinner chat. 
 
 All three of us feel that no one could do a better job of being 
 a father than our own has done. No doubt, at some time or other the 
 razzing that ministers' children come in for has gone a little against 
 the grain but being P. K.'s (Preachers' Kids) has all been on the 
 profit side. When this article was requested the most youthful of the 
 trio remarked, "I wouldn't have been born in any other family for 
 the world even if I didn't get to dancing school or own a bike." And 
 that put it into a nutshell for all of us. 
 
 Our parents have always given us all the advantages within their 
 power to give: close medical attention, advantages of books and travel, 
 and contacts with interesting people and things. The full rich life 
 they have had they have shared with us. We have been reared in an 
 atmosphere of optimism and unity, and there is no feeling like that 
 of the pride we have when even total strangers say to us, "Oh, yes, 
 I know your father and mother and admire them very much." Their 
 wide acquaintanceship and extensive travel have meant much in our 
 lives, and Gandhi, Kagawa, and Adolph Keller are not mere names 
 but personalities made very real to us. But of just as much interest 
 to us is the fact that their contacts cut through all the strata of society 
 as well. 
 
 Rearing a family is never an easy proposition but our dad always 
 finds time to listen to our troubles and help us straighten out our 
 individual problems with a patience and understanding which have 
 been invaluable to us. He has such an optimistic and buoyant philoso- 
 phy of life and such fine idealism that "life with Father" has been 
 a constant inspiration. 1 
 
 Mr. Rothenburger attended the International Convention of 
 Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ) at Denver in August, 
 1959- At the opening session he took his place on the platform 
 with the other living past presidents of the International Con- 
 
 ] From My Dad — Preacher, Pastor, Person. Edited by George A. Campbell and J. 
 Edward Moseley (St. Louis: Bethany Press, 1938), pp. 136-140. 
 
 207 
 
vention who were presented to the audience. Perhaps the exer- 
 tion of the trip was too much. Without leaving Denver he 
 died September 7, 1959. Funeral services were held at the 
 University Park Christian Church at Indianapolis, Indiana. 
 Burial was in Crown Hill Cemetery at Indianapolis. 
 
 A biographical sketch of Dr. Rothenburger appears in Who's 
 Who in America, in 10 biennial issues, from Volume 18, 1934- 
 193^, to and including Volume 27, 1952-1953. 
 
 (1) MRS. KATE PARMLY TEACHOUT ROTHEN- 
 BURGER was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. R. Teachout 
 of Cleveland, Ohio. He was a leading businessman in Cleve- 
 land, and was known as a liberal giver to the support of Dis- 
 ciples of Christ in northern Ohio. She was born in Cleveland 
 and graduated from high school there. She married Mr. Rothen- 
 burger June 27, 1906. There was one daughter, Ruth Mae, 
 who became the wife of Malcolm Stuart Ferguson. Mrs. Kate 
 Rothenburger died in 1908. 
 
 (2) MRS. LEILA COVERT AVERY ROTHENBURGER 
 
 had been a teacher in Cleveland high schools for some years 
 before she married Mr. Rothenburger on August 9, 1913. She 
 was with him in Springfield during his pastorate at this church. 
 Two daughters were born to them in Springfield — Ada Jane 
 (Mrs. E. E. Rogers) and Wilma or Billie (Mrs. Warren C. 
 Winkler). Mrs. Winkler writes: "I always had the feeling 
 that Springfield was my mother's favorite career spot." 
 
 Resolutions of regret and appreciation were adopted by the 
 congregation when Mr. Rothenburger resigned in 1927 to be- 
 come pastor of the Third Christian Church at Indianapolis, 
 Indiana, including: 
 
 208 
 
And, be it further resolved: 
 
 That in the departure of Mrs. W. F. Rothenburger the women's 
 council, the church, and its organizations lose a brilliant and faithful 
 co-worker, and a woman of fine and lovely character; and that we 
 shall miss her very greatly, and know that we shall not easily fill her 
 place with one so devoted and earnest in all the departments of the 
 church. 
 
 The resolutions are signed by James B. Searcy, chairman, 
 Erma Templeman and Philo B. Kane, committee. Alongside 
 the signatures is the following: 
 
 The above resolutions were passed on Wednesday eve, June 29, 
 1927, and are to be recorded in the Archives of the church. 
 
 J. B. S. 
 
 of Committee. 
 
 Mrs. Leila Rothenburger died in 1942. 
 
 (3) MRS. ARLENE DUX SCOVILLE ROTHENBURGER 
 
 was the widow of Charles Reign Scoville, who was one of the 
 most successful evangelists among Disciples of Christ. She mar- 
 ried him in 1906. Together they spent about a year in Australia 
 and visited twenty-three foreign countries singing and speak- 
 ing. He died in 1938. On August 2, 1943, she married Dr. 
 Rothenburger. Her education was principally in music. She 
 holds both bachelor and master's degrees from the Chicago 
 Conservatory of Music, and was a private student of Oscar 
 Saenger and John Dennis Mehan in New York. Erom 1943 to 
 1952 she and Dr. Rothenburger held short evangelistic cam- 
 paigns, usually of two weeks each, in many parts of the country. 
 She was soloist and music director, while he did the preaching. 
 Mrs. Rothenburger estimates that upward of 500 additions re- 
 sulted. She lives at 3751 Central Avenue in Indianapolis, In- 
 diana, and is still active in music. 
 
 209 
 
Clark Walker Cummings 
 
 Pastor 1928-1937 
 
 Born: June 6, 1885, at Grand Haven, Michigan 
 Died: January 14, 1950, at St. Louis, Missouri 
 Married: Bess Eva Durbin, February 14, 1911 
 Children: Gail Cummings (Mrs. John E. Raber) 
 
 Jean Cummings (Mrs. Charles E. Wilson) 
 
 211 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Clark Walker dimming! 
 
 212 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Bess Eva Durbin Cummings 
 
 213 
 
V--/lark Walker Cummings attended Eu- 
 reka College during the school years 1907-1910, but did not 
 graduate. Later he attended the University of Chicago Divinity 
 School during the summer of 1912 and the summer quarter of 
 1913, without receiving a degree. He was ordained in 1908. He 
 held pastorates at Knoxville and Ipava, Illinois; Janesville, Wis- 
 consin; Flint, Michigan; and Evanston, Illinois, from which 
 place he came to the First Christian Church in Springfield in 
 1927. He resigned to accept a call to become executive secre- 
 tary of the Metropolitan Church Federation at St. Louis, Mis- 
 souri, on May 1, 1937. The Illinois State journal, on February 
 22, 1937, said editorially: 
 
 The new field to which he will shortly dedicate himself at St. Louis 
 will afford him perhaps a broader opportunity for exercise of the high 
 quality of spiritual leadership which has marked his service in Spring- 
 field. His genial personality, his kindliness of manner, his charitable 
 impulses and activities and his lofty conception of the Christian min- 
 istry both within and without the church will afford him there, as 
 they have here, the assurance of an extraordinary degree of usefulness 
 to the cause of religion in a much larger community. 
 
 The Christian-Evangelist of May 13, 1937, said: 
 
 Did you ever see a sleeping giant come to life? That is the thing 
 which has been happening in St. Louis during the days of preparation 
 for the coming of Clark Cummings, of Springfield, Illinois, to be 
 the new secretary of the Metropolitan Church Federation. The city 
 has been districted into 13 districts with officers and councils in each 
 one. All of this is an attempt to spread the work of the Federation 
 throughout every part of the city and to the very last church, small 
 or large. This re-organization has more potential power in facing up 
 to community enterprises than any ever devised. The Disciples of 
 Christ of St. Louis have always been active in the Federation and two 
 of our ministers, Ralph E. Alexander and Maurice W. Fogle, have 
 been elected chairmen in their respective districts. Thus the new secre- 
 tary is getting the endorsement and the support of the people of our 
 own brotherhood. Mr. Cummings, as secretary, attended his first meet- 
 ing of the advisory board of the Federation on Friday, April 30. A 
 
 214 
 
city-wide reception is being given for him and his family on the 
 evening of May 13 in St. John's M. E. Church. 
 
 He had been previously appointed by the International Con- 
 vention of Disciples of Christ as one of ten delegates to the 
 Universal Conference on Life and Work to be held at Oxford, 
 England, on July 12 to 26, 1937, and he attended, visiting 
 England, Scotland, and Ireland. 
 
 His immediate duties at St. Louis were to give attention to 
 over 300 churches and to preach twice a week at various St. 
 Louis churches. His offices were in the downtown Y.M.C.A. 
 
 In 1939 Dr. Cummings led a number of church and civic 
 groups in a fight for larger relief appropriations by the state 
 for the unemployed. In 1941 he denounced slums in St. Louis 
 as the worst in the United States. He assailed the "better 
 classes" for tolerating slum conditions, and organized a co- 
 operative religious program to combat the evil effect of slums. 
 In September, 1949, he was named a trustee of the St. Louis 
 Council on World Affairs. 
 
 On April 30, 1947, a special meeting of the executive board 
 of the Federation was held with Dr. Cummings as the guest 
 of honor, to observe the tenth anniversary of his tenure. A 
 resolution was adopted by the board that "he has given ample 
 demonstration of noble character and Christian Spirit," and 
 that his leadership "was an inspiration through these ten years 
 of growth in service and unity." 
 
 He died in his sleep January 14, 1950, The St. Louis Post- 
 Dispatch of January 15, 1950, said editorially: 
 
 CLARK WALKER CUMMINGS 
 
 Clark Walker Cummings' name became thoroughly known to St. 
 Louis when he led a campaign against illegal arrests, suppression of 
 free speech and police brutality which occurred in the deep depression. 
 This was characteristic of the man who for 12 years was executive 
 secretary of the Metropolitan Church Federation. He took his pulpit 
 where he found it. 
 
 215 
 
He found it close to home in his struggle against political inter- 
 ference in the city schools. He found it in Illinois in opposing bills 
 to take the franchise from men on relief. He found it across the nation 
 in assailing the "better classes" for tolerating slums. On widely as- 
 sorted issues, from race relations to Palestine, he helped those to whose 
 race and religion he did not belong, as he helped his own. 
 
 St. Louis reveres the memory of Clark Walker Cummings because 
 he was a journeyman minister. He worked hard at Christianity. And 
 if anyone should think that description undignified, Mr. Cummings 
 would not have found it so. For of him it could be said: 
 
 Whosoever will be great among you, shall be 
 your minister; and whosoever of you will be 
 the chiefest. shall be servant of all. 
 
 MRS. BESS EVA DURBIN CUMMINGS was born Novem- 
 ber 2, 1890, at Cordova, Illinois, and died August 12, 1954, at 
 St. Louis, Missouri. She attended business college at Galesburg, 
 Illinois. She was married February 14, 1911, to Clark Walker 
 Cummings. At Springfield she taught the Pensee Class in the 
 Bible school, and was active in P. E. O. She served as board 
 member of the Springfield Y.W.CA. in 1935 and 1936. Also, 
 she had an active part in interdenominational work among 
 women. 
 
 216 
 
Charles Benson Tupper 
 
 Pastor 1937-1951 
 
 Born: January 20, 1890, in Harrison County, Iowa 
 Married: Grace Elizabeth Van Vlack, June 23, 1915 
 Daughter: Rachael Evelyn 
 
 217 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Charles Benson Tupper 
 
 218 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 Grace Elizabeth Van Vlack Tupper 
 
 219 
 
D 
 
 r. Tupper served a pastorate of four- 
 teen years, from 1937 to 1951, the longest in the history of 
 First Christian Church. 
 
 He attended school at Woodbine, Iowa, high school; Drake 
 University, A.B., 1914; and University of Chicago, A.M., 1923. 
 In 1944 Drake University conferred on him the honorary de- 
 gree of D.D. 
 
 He was ordained to the ministry in 1914 in the University 
 Christian Church at Des Moines, Iowa. His pastorates prior 
 to Springfield were at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, 1914-1920; 
 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1920-1923; Boulder, Colorado, 1923- 
 1927; and Warren, Ohio 1927-1937. 
 
 During Dr. Tupper's pastorate the church debt, which had 
 been carried since the erection of the present building, was 
 paid in full. Rotation in terms of office for the elders was 
 established, as it already existed for the deacons. In 1946 Dr. 
 Tupper won the championship in the squash tournament of the 
 Springfield Y.M.C.A. He served two terms of three years each, 
 from 1940 to 1946, as a director of the Y.M.C.A. and was a 
 member of the National Council of the Y.W.C.A. Among 
 other offices he was one of the vice-presidents of the Interna- 
 tional Convention of the Disciples of Christ in 1938, the year 
 the assembly met in Denver, Colorado. 
 
 Professionally, he is a member of the American Association 
 of University Professors and of the American Association of 
 Theological Professors. 
 
 He was active in public affairs of all sorts in Springfield, 
 which partly accounts for the fact that he was honored by 
 election to the Thirty-third Degree in Masonry. The Masons 
 of the church raised a fund to pay the expenses of Dr. and Mrs. 
 Tupper to Philadelphia where he went to receive the degree 
 in 1950. 
 
 He is the author of a book, Called — In Honor, published 
 
 220 
 
by Bethany Press in 1949. The Christian-Evangelist of Decem- 
 ber 28, 1949, says editorially: 
 
 Recently there has appeared a significant book in this field, Called — 
 in Honor, written by Charles B. Tupper, pastor of First Church, 
 Springfield, 111. In a broad sense it is an interpretation of the code 
 adopted by the Disciples ministers. Mr. Tupper undertakes to discuss 
 frankly the many difficult ethical problems which confront the minister 
 as he endeavors to live up to the high calling to which he has devoted 
 his life. The demands upon the minister for high ethical standards, 
 by the very nature of his calling, are severe since the effectiveness of 
 his message is dependent upon the application which he himself makes 
 of the ethical teaching he proclaims. 
 
 Mr. Tupper throws light upon many a dark corner of ethical action 
 of particular concern to the Christian minister. He weighs the min- 
 ister's attitude toward his predecessor, toward the ministers of other 
 communions, the keeping of personal confidences, honesty in the ex- 
 pression of convictions, industry in the performance of duties. 
 
 A former pastor of this church, Dr. Jay Elwood Lynn (1898- 
 1902), wrote from Claremont, California, to Dr. Tupper say- 
 ing: 
 
 It was my very best Christmas gift for many reasons, one of them 
 being because it is such a fine book and breathes such a fine spirit 
 through all its pages. You may well be proud of it and all of us are 
 proud of you for having written it. 
 
 The kind paragraph on pages 99 and 100 about a certain "fellow 
 minister" speaks to me not of anything that I ever did but rather of 
 your own great ability to appreciate the very little things of life. 
 
 Dr. Edgar DeWitt Jones wrote: 
 
 It is unique. There isn't anything just like it in the literature of 
 the Disciples. It is a book that is needed. . . . The ministerial code 
 of ethics in your Appendix is high and exacting, but it is not too high, 
 and it is not too exacting. It is a code which should be accepted by 
 all comrades of the Majestic Fraternity. 
 
 A tribute from a neighboring Catholic prelate is worth quot- 
 ing in full, both because of its contents and because it reflects 
 the standing which Dr. Tupper enjoyed among the other reli- 
 gious bodies in Springfield: 
 
 221 
 
CATHEDRAL OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 
 
 524 East Lawrence Avenue 
 Springfield, Illinois 
 
 November 14, 1949 
 The Reverend Charles B. Tupper 
 First Christian Church 
 Springfield, Illinois 
 
 Dear Doctor Tupper, 
 
 Congratulations, in the sense of thanks to you for the delightful 
 two hours given me in reading your "Called — In Honor." I find my- 
 self in full agreement with most you have written. The evident sin- 
 cerity in which all of it is written makes it inspiring reading. 
 
 The thought in your statement on page 148, "Definitive Christian 
 faith never exorcises Christlike love," impresses me as one of your 
 best — notwithstanding the unusual meaning given the word, "exor- 
 cise." I can't imagine any evil spirit in Christlike love. My old teacher 
 of rhetoric would have delighted in that sentence not only for its basic 
 Christian thought but as a classic in ellipsis. 
 
 Count me a pre-publication subscriber to the next work of your 
 facile pen. 
 
 With all good wishes, I am, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Jno. B. Franz 
 Rt. Rev. Msgr. Jno. B. Franz 
 
 Dr. Tupper left Springfield in 1951 to become professor of 
 Applied Christianity in the College of the Bible at Drake Uni- 
 versity. He was presented to the University Community there 
 in a service of introduction October 19, 1951, at which Dr. 
 Tupper gave an address on "When Dreams Come True." A 
 reception in honor of the Tuppers followed, attended by 150 
 persons. The name of the institution was subsequently changed 
 from "College of the Bible" to "Drake Divinity School." 
 
 He was a member of the Board of Managers of the United 
 Christian Missionary Society from 1944 to 1954, and was chair- 
 man of the Board in 1947-1948. He was a member of the 
 Board of Trustees of the U. C. M. S., 1944-1950. 
 
 A letter of August 9, 1961, from W. B. Blakemore, Dean, 
 telling of Dr. Tupper's service as a member of the Board of 
 
 222 
 
Trustees of the Disciples Divinity House of the University of 
 Chicago, says: 
 
 He was elected to membership on the Board on August 25, 1947. 
 His letter of resignation was accepted on February 24, 1956. Mr. 
 Tupper resigned from the Board because in, assuming a faculty posi- 
 tion at the Divinity School of Drake University, he was, in some sense, 
 accepting a position at a competitor institution and he felt that there 
 would be incongruity in his retaining a position on the Board of 
 Trustees of Disciples Divinity House. Disciples Divinity House was 
 certainly fortunate to enjoy almost a decade of Mr. Tupper's service 
 and interest on its Board. 
 
 He asks to be remembered as the organizer and teacher of 
 the Forum Class in the Bible school. Originally it was known 
 as the "Young Married People's Class" — but time passes. 
 
 He also recalls that at Springfield he changed to preaching 
 without notes. 
 
 In 1958, when First Christian Church celebrated the 125th 
 anniversary of its organization on April 23, 1833, the program 
 provided that Dr. Tupper should preach on the preceding Sun- 
 day, April 19. This was followed by the church dinner on 
 Thursday evening, April 23, 1958. 
 
 In June, I960, Dr. Tupper reached retirement age at the 
 Drake Divinity School, and has since engaged in supply preach- 
 ing. For three and a half months he preached at the two serv- 
 ices each Sunday at the University Christian Church at Des 
 Moines, Iowa, during the pastor's illness. He also served as ad 
 interim pastor at South Bend, Indiana, and at St. Joseph, 
 Missouri. His present address is 4225 Adams Avenue, Des 
 Moines 10, Iowa. 
 
 •$» «$» ♦§♦ 
 
 MRS. GRACE ELIZABETH VAN VLACK TUPPER was 
 born October 4, 1891, in Cass County, Iowa. She graduated 
 from Simpson College at Indianola, Iowa, with the degree of 
 A.B. 
 
 223 
 
After teaching one year in the high school at Cumberland, 
 Iowa, she married Charles B. Tupper on June 23, 1915. They 
 have one daughter, Rachael, who is on the staff of the research 
 department of the Ohio Farm Bureau at Des Moines, Iowa. 
 
 While living in Springfield, Mrs. Tupper was for several 
 years a member of the Board of Directors of the Young 
 Women's Christian Association, and served as its president 
 two terms, in 1946 and 1947. 
 
 224 
 
Harry McCiian Davis 
 
 Pastor 1951-1955 
 
 Born: May 8, 1909, at Fulton, Kentucky 
 Married: Mary Kathleen Trover, December 27, 1933 
 Children: Jane Anne Davis (Lollis) — Washington, D. C. 
 Nancy Trover Davis — Hopkinsville, Kentucky 
 
 
 
 225 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Harry McCuan Davis 
 
 226 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Mary Kathleen Trover Davis 
 
 227 
 
H 
 
 arry McCuan Davis is the son of Mr. 
 and Mrs. Horace Cardwell Davis. He attended grade 
 and high schools at Memphis, Tennessee. He received the de- 
 gree of A.B. at Transylvania College in 1933, and Bachelor of 
 Divinity degree at the College of the Bible in 1935. For three 
 years during World War II he was a chaplain of the Armed 
 Services. His pastorates have been at Greenville, Kentucky; 
 Crestwood, Kentucky; and Central Christian Church, New 
 Albany, Indiana. While at New Albany he was chairman of 
 the committee on Christian Education for the State of Indiana, 
 1948-1950. 
 
 He served as pastor of First Christian Church of Springfield, 
 Illinois, from November, 1951, through June 1, 1955. During 
 that time the education building was remodeled at a cost of 
 $14,500.00 to provide additional class rooms for the Bible 
 school. 
 
 While at Springfield he was twice elected president of the 
 Illinois Council of Churches, in 1953 and 1954. For three 
 years he was a member of the Committee on Reorganization 
 of the work in Illinois. For two years he was a member of the 
 Committee on the Ministry of Illinois. 
 
 He next became pastor of First Christian Church at Hopkins- 
 ville, Kentucky, where he supervised the relocation of the 
 church and the construction of a new church structure costing 
 S450,000.00 which was dedicated November 9, 1958. Since 
 1958 he has served continuously as chairman of the Board of 
 Trustees and Executive Committee of the Disciples of Christ 
 Historical Society at Nashville, Tennessee. In July, 1961, he 
 was re-elected as trustee for a term of three years, and was also 
 re-elected Chairman of the Board. He was a member of the 
 Board of Directors of the Board of Church Extension at In- 
 dianapolis, and member of the Coordinating Council of the 
 state of Kentucky, 1957-58-59. For over ten years he has been 
 
 228 
 
a member of the Committee on Recommendations of the In- 
 ternational Convention. He has served as academic and admin- 
 istrative dean in Young People's Conferences in fifteen states, 
 including Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, North 
 Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Illinois, Indiana, 
 Iowa, and other states. 
 
 Harry M. Davis shares in the credit for our collection of por- 
 traits of former pastors and missionaries and wives, whose 
 biographies are presented here. The idea took form as a result 
 of conferences between Dr. Davis and the church historian in 
 1954. Dr. Davis initiated the quest for portraits by applying 
 to the Disciples of Christ Historical Society, which forwarded 
 eleven photographs as a beginning. He continued to promote 
 the project as long as he remained pastor. 
 
 * * * 
 
 MRS. MARY KATHLEEN TROVER DAVIS was born 
 June 18, 1912, in Hopkins County, Kentucky. She is the 
 daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Barton C. Trover, who now reside at 
 Earlington, Kentucky. After grade and high schools, she at- 
 tended Transylvania College two years, and took special work 
 in the College of the Bible. At Springfield she taught a class in 
 the Junior Department of the Bible school, and sang in the 
 choir. She was active in the Y.W.C.A., serving on various 
 special committees. She is now vice-president of the Ministers' 
 Wives of the Disciples of Christ of Kentucky. 
 
 229 
 
James Nicholas Gibble 
 
 Pastor 1955-1957 
 
 Born: July 30, 1889, in Cartret County, North Carolina 
 Married: Ella Jane Payne, June 19, 1913 
 Children: William Theodore Gibble 
 
 Neva Lee Gibble (Oldefest) 
 
 231 
 
Hubert Georg Studio 
 
 James Nicholas Gibble 
 
 232 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Ella Jane Payne Gibble 
 
 233 
 
J 
 
 ames Nicholas Gibble is the son of 
 William John and Jennie Gibble. His father was a pioneer 
 preacher among the Christian Churches of eastern North Caro- 
 lina. His mother was of* Dutch descent, coming from Holland 
 when but sixteen years of age. Two years after her landing, she 
 was married to an American twenty years her senior, and to 
 them were born seven sons and five daughters. James was one 
 of the three sons who heard the call of the ministry. His son, 
 William Theodore, constitutes the third generation in the 
 ecclestiastical line. 
 
 Mr. Gibble received both his A.B. and M.A. degrees from 
 Phillips University at Enid, Oklahoma, and was ordained to the 
 Christian ministry on May 25, 1917. His career has been 
 strictly pastoral, preaching for Disciples of Christ in Oklahoma, 
 Kansas, and Illinois. During the forty-four years of this con- 
 stant ministry, he has served in eight different pastorates, in- 
 cluding Maywood Christian, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Cen- 
 tral Park Christian, Topeka, Kansas; and First Christian, 
 Moline, Illinois. This ministry extended into many activities of 
 brotherhood life such as presidency of the Kansas Christian 
 Missionary Society; secretaryship of the Oklahoma Christian 
 Missionary Convention; treasurership of Oklahoma Ministers' 
 Institute; membership on Committee on Recommendations of 
 the International Convention; membership on Executive Board 
 of the Oklahoma City Council of Churches; vesper speaking 
 and teaching in youth conferences; activity in civic clubs and 
 community organizations; 32nd degree Mason. 
 
 Mr. Gibble retired from his active ministry in August, 1954. 
 His services continued in ad-interim pastorates. The second 
 of these ministries brought him to the First Christian Church 
 of Springfield, Illinois. This pastorate extended for twenty 
 months during which time 228 members were added to the 
 membership at regular services. Missions giving maintained 
 
 234 
 
the ten per cent annual gain over the previous year according 
 to the asking of the brotherhood for a ten-year program of 
 advance then in progress. 
 
 He writes (October 25, 1959): 
 
 That the Holy Spirit was enriched in the life of that great and 
 beloved congregation seemed evident, and both the preacher and the 
 congregation rejoiced in the fellowship of Christ and of one another 
 in this short season. The preacher freely testifies of the glory of this 
 church, and ever lifts up his heart in prayer and praise for the con- 
 tinued strength of these people. 
 
 ♦ ♦ «$• 
 
 MRS. ELLA JANE PAYNE GIBBLE was born March 1, 
 1888, near Bowling Green, Kentucky, and died October 12, 
 I960, at Enid, Oklahoma. 
 
 She was the daughter of Theodore S. and Minnie Payne. 
 She pioneered to Oklahoma with her parents in 1900. In 1907, 
 the first year of that institution's existence she enrolled in 
 Phillips University at Enid, Oklahoma. Its first president, whom 
 she knew personally, was Ely V. Zollars, who had been pastor 
 of this church in 1885-1888. There she obtained her education 
 and higher religious training. She was married to James N. 
 Gibble on June 19, 1913. 
 
 Not long before her death, Mr. Gibble wrote: 
 
 Mrs. Gibble often expressed her joy in their chosen profession, 
 having supervised and taught in the several departments of the church. 
 She served on the Board of Managers of the United Christian Mis- 
 sionary Society. She was on the State Boards of the Women's Mis- 
 sionary Societies of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Illinois; dean of women 
 and teacher in more than forty Youth Summer Conferences; a popular 
 speaker on missionary programs and Institutes. 
 
 Mrs. Gibble cherished the happy remembrances of the Springfield 
 ad-interim pastorate; the holy beauty of the church's sanctuary, the 
 kindly hands of Christian people whose love and friendliness gave 
 life a fuller meaning. She with her husband feel afresh the heavenly 
 benediction of God granted no less at the even-tide than in life's 
 morning. She, too, offers her prayer of blessing. 
 
 235 
 
Beryl Sales Kinser 
 
 Pastor 1957- 
 
 Born: June 17, 1910, in Wayne County, Iowa 
 Married: Ann Benton Elder, June 20, 1935 
 Children: David Everett Kinser, born November 12, 1938, 
 Hannibal, Missouri 
 Jane Ann Kinser, born December 16, 1940, Clarks- 
 
 ville, Tennessee 
 John Cameron Kinser, born February 12, 1945, 
 Clarksville, Tennessee 
 
 237 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Beryl Sales Kinser 
 
 238 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Ann Benton Elder Kinser 
 
 239 
 
An December, 1956, the congregation 
 called Dr. Beryl Sales Kinser, then at Youngstown, Ohio, to 
 become the pastor of the First Christian Church in Springfield 
 beginning March 1, 1957. 
 
 The effectiveness of Dr. Kinser's ministry is reflected in the 
 growth of the church. Eight hundred and thirty seven new 
 members have been received into the church, 255 of these by 
 confession of faith and Christian baptism. The church budget 
 has grown from $44,000 to SI 03,000 and outreach giving for 
 missions, education, and benevolence has increased from $17,- 
 567 to S26,495. Since 1957 the church has purchased three 
 properties immediately south of the sanctuary for a total of 
 $113,000. This is the only available area for parking or ex- 
 pansion. 
 
 Our pastor is active in ecumenical and community affairs. A 
 past president of the Springfield Council of Churches, he is 
 currently president of the Ministerial Association of Spring- 
 field and Sangamon County. He is a member of the Spring- 
 field Kiwanis Club and serves in programs of the United Com- 
 munity Services, Y.M.C.A., Boy Scouts of America, and other 
 civic organizations. He is a member of the Springfield Human 
 Relations Commission and chaplain in the office of Civil and 
 Defense Mobilization. 
 
 Dr. Kinser's Masonic affiliations include membership in St. 
 Paul's Lodge No. 500, A. F. & A. M., Elwood Commandery 
 No. 6, K. T., and Abe Lincoln High-Twelve Club. At the 
 meeting of the Grand Lodge in Chicago on October 7, 1961, he 
 was installed as the Right Worshipful Grand Orator of the 
 M. W. Grand Lodge of A. F. & A. M. of Illinois. 
 
 Beryl Sales Kinser, son of David C. and Mary Sales Kinser, 
 was reared on the Iowa farm which had been homesteaded by 
 his grandfather, Samuel J. Kinser, in 1853. His Alma Mater, 
 Culver-Stockton College, awarded him the Doctor of Divinity 
 
 240 
 
degree on January 25, 1957, with the following citation by 
 Dean John B. Alexander who presented him to President Fred 
 Helsabeck for the award: 
 
 President Helsabeck: Beryl Sales Kinser graduated as valedictorian 
 of his class from Promise City, Iowa, High School in 1927; received 
 the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Culver-Stockton College in 1931; 
 and the degree of Bachelor of Divinity from Vanderbilt University 
 School of Religion in 1934. 
 
 While in college he was active in athletics, forensics, music, and 
 dramatics. He was honor representative of the junior class, president 
 of the Ministerial Association and a winner of the Lund Debating 
 Prize. While at the graduate school, he was president of the junior 
 class, senior class and Campbell Club, and received the Founders' 
 Medal, the highest scholastic honor, at commencement. 
 
 He was ordained to the Christian ministry in 1931 by the Canton, 
 Missouri, Christian Church. He held pastorates as a student at Salem, 
 Santa Fe, Mendon, Oakwood, and Montgomery City, Missouri; and 
 at Columbia and Nashville, Tennessee. Since graduating from the 
 seminary he has been pastor of the First Christian Church at Monroe 
 City, Missouri; and at Clarksville, Tennessee, and for the past eleven 
 years of Central Christian Church at Youngstown, Ohio. 
 
 In the work of our brotherhood he has served as chairman of adult 
 work, and of the Ordination Council for District 4, Ohio; and as Ohio 
 representative for the Historical Society of the Disciples of Christ. 
 He has been a member of the Ohio State Commission on Men's Work, 
 the Ohio State Committee of Hiram College. He has served on the 
 faculty of Young People's Summer Conferences in Missouri and Ten- 
 nessee. He has been a member from Missouri, Tennessee, and Ohio 
 of the Committee on Recommendations, International Convention. He 
 has been a member of the Board of Directors of the International 
 Convention from 1953 to 1957. 
 
 He has been active in ecumenical relations in Youngstown and in 
 Ohio, and has been a delegate to the National Council and World 
 Council of Churches. He has been engaged in such community activi- 
 ties as Red Cross, Boy Scouts, Y.M.C.A., Kiwanis and P.T.A. 
 
 For his masterful and inspiring demonstration of the life of a 
 Christian pastor, preacher, and churchman at his best, and for his 
 extensive contribution to our brotherhood and the cause of human 
 betterment, Beryl Sales Kinser has been recommended by the faculty 
 and approved by the Board of Trustees of Culver-Stockton College 
 for the degree of Doctor of Divinity. I request that you confer upon 
 him this degree. 
 
 241 
 
In seminary at Vanderbilt University School of Religion, 
 where he was graduated with the B.D. degree in 1934, he 
 received the Founder's Medal for scholarship, the highest 
 student award given by the university. He had served as presi- 
 dent of both the junior and senior classes, as a member of the 
 Student Activity Union and as president of the Vanderbilt 
 Campbell Club. 
 
 Following his graduation from Vanderbilt, he became pastor 
 of the Christian Church in Montgomery City, Missouri. This 
 was followed by a ministry of almost five years in Monroe 
 City, Missouri. He then was pastor at Clarksville, Tennessee, 
 for seven years, and of the Central Christian Church, Youngs- 
 town, Ohio, for eleven years, before coming to Springfield. 
 
 As president of the Ministerial Association in Clarksville, 
 Tennessee, he arranged the first interfaith and interracial meet- 
 ing in the history of the city, with Negroes and whites, Cath- 
 olics, Jews, and Protestants participating. By contract between 
 the B. F. Goodrich Tire and Rubber Co. and the labor union, 
 all unresolved disputes between labor and management were 
 subject to -final arbitration by a board consisting of three per- 
 sons, one to be designated by management, one by the union, 
 and the other to be Beryl S. Kinser. While in Clarksville, Dr. 
 Kinser served as associate editor of The Tennessee Christian, 
 and as Tennessee correspondent for The Christian-Evangelist. 
 
 Dr. Kinser has attended twenty-four assemblies of the In- 
 ternational Convention of Christian Churches (Disciples of 
 Christ) and has served as a delegate member of the Recom- 
 mendations Committee from the states of Missouri, Tennessee, 
 Ohio, and Illinois. He served from 1953 to 1957 on the Board 
 of Directors of the International Convention and became 
 chairman of the Administrative Year Book Publication, and 
 Headquarters Relocation Committees. He attended the assem- 
 blies of the World Convention of Churches of Christ (Disci- 
 ples) in Buffalo, New York, in 1950, in Toronto, Canada, 
 
 242 
 
1955, and in Edinburgh, Scotland, in I960, where he was 
 elected to the Central Study Committee in preparation for the 
 1965 assembly to be held in Puerto Rico. 
 
 In addition to the many responsibilities he has accepted in 
 the organizational structures of his own communion in the 
 various states where he has served, Dr. Kinser was a visiting 
 delegate accredited by the Ohio Council of Churches and the 
 Youngstown Council of Churches to the Constituting Conven- 
 tion, National Council of Churches, Cleveland, Ohio, 1950; 
 Biennial Assembly, National Council of Churches, Denver, 
 Colorado, 1952; and the Assembly of the World Council of 
 Churches, Evanston, Illinois, 1954. 
 
 Dr. Kinser's eleven years as minister of the Central Christian 
 Church, Youngstown, Ohio, was the longest pastorate in the 
 history of that congregation. Under his leadership a beautiful 
 new building was constructed. Erected at a cost of almost 
 $500,000, the building was dedicated in 1950, and the remain- 
 ing $200,000 debt was completely paid before Dr. Kinser's 
 pastorate there was terminated. During this period he also 
 served as president of the Kiwanis Club and as president of 
 the Youngstown Ministerial Association. 
 
 Writing in the January 10, 1957, issue of "Good News," 
 weekly organ of the Youngstown Council of Churches, the 
 Executive Secretary, Dr. Paul W. Gauss, commented on Dr. 
 Kinser's plans to move to Illinois: 
 
 Strong ministers are a great blessing to the co-operative work of 
 our Council of Churches as well as to the individual church. The Rev. 
 Beryl Sales Kinser has been both of these in his ministry in Youngs- 
 town. We have rejoiced in his ministry in Central Christian. Here he 
 has built a wonderful church in every sense of the word. But he has 
 been a tower of strength in the ecumenical vision that has brought 
 his church into a splendid fellowship with one hundred others. He 
 leaves us soon to become pastor of one of the finest churches of his 
 denomination. We know that we will hear fine things from the exten- 
 sive ministry of Dr. Kinser. 
 
 243 
 
In Springfield, Dr. Kinser continues to lead the historic First 
 Christian Church well into the second quarter of the second 
 century of her life and service in the kingdom of God. The 
 congregation recently approved an extensive program of re- 
 modeling and refurbishing the beautiful building which has 
 served for half a century. 
 
 A master in the pulpit, his sermons challenge and inspire 
 members of a growing congregation and large numbers of 
 visitors. He has a heart for every need, and seeks to be a 
 teacher and mediator of the knowledge of God and of his 
 Christ to the people of the congregation and the community. 
 We hope that it will be many years before it becomes necessary 
 for the church historian to add a biography of his successor. 
 
 In a beautiful ceremony in the sanctuary of the historic Vine 
 Street Christian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 20, 
 1935, ANN BENTON ELDER became the bride of Beryl Sales 
 Kinser, pastor of the Christian Church of Montgomery City, 
 Missouri. 
 
 Their marriage vows were solemnized by Dr. Roger T. Nooe, 
 the pastor at Vine Street, where Ann Elder had served as 
 assistant organist and had studied organ with the well-known 
 teacher and composer, May F. Lawrence. Here she had gone 
 through all the grades of the church school, had been baptized 
 in the hands of Dr. Cary Morgan, had shared in the life of the 
 youth groups and had gone to young people's summer confer- 
 ences. She was a graduate of Vanderbilt University with the 
 Bachelor of Arts degree. At Vanderbilt she was a member of 
 the Gamma Phi Beta sorority. She had also received her diplo- 
 ma in Art as a graduate of Ward-Belmont College. She had 
 been privileged to receive much of her elementary education 
 through the progressive Demonstration School of the George 
 Peabody College for Teachers. 
 
 244 
 
As the daughter of Everett Benton Elder and his wife, Ivy 
 Johnson Elder, Ann Benton Elder was born January 16, 1912, 
 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where her parents were active 
 members of the First Christian Church. The family moved to 
 Fulton, Kentucky, for a time, and then to Nashville, Tennessee, 
 where Mrs. Kinser 's father became a watchmaker and jeweler. 
 His hobby was firearms and he taught his young daughter, an 
 only child, to be skillful in handling them. She has always 
 enjoyed hunting, fishing, and camping, although her principal 
 hobby now is in her collection of antique lamps. 
 
 Having relinquished her work as commercial artist for the 
 Ingram Manufacturing Company, Mrs. Kinser moved with her 
 husband to Montgomery City, Missouri. Two months later they 
 began a new pastorate in Monroe City, Missouri. While here 
 they welcomed David into their family. During this period, 
 too, she continued her study of the organ with Charlotte Morris 
 of Christian College at the same time her husband was taking 
 special courses at the Bible College of Missouri in Columbia. 
 
 Shortly after the Kinsers moved to Clarksville, Tennessee, 
 March 1, 1940, the organist of the Christian Church moved 
 from the city. Mrs. Kinser was asked to supply temporarily 
 until they could get some one as their permanent organist. 
 The temporary assignment continued through their ministry 
 there, interrupted briefly twice to welcome Jane, who was born 
 December 16, 1940, and John, who was born February 12, 
 1945. When the Kinsers left Clarksville to go to Youngstown, 
 Ohio, the church gave Mrs. Kinser a Hammond organ as an 
 expression of appreciation for her ministry of music. 
 
 Mrs. Kinser is a member of the American Guild of Organ- 
 ists. In Youngstown she served as president of the Women's 
 Fortnightly Club, as secretary of the Youngstown Federation 
 of Women's Clubs, as a trustee of .the Youngstown Young 
 Women's Christian Association and as a water safety instructor 
 with the Red Cross. These and similar interests have also been 
 
 245 
 
continued in Springfield and she always takes a vital, co-oper- 
 ative, and helpful interest in the life and work of the church. 
 
 As a wife and mother she graciously presides over her house- 
 hold, sharing her husband's interests and work, and following 
 the courses which her children have chosen. David, a member 
 of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, and a graduate in engineering 
 science from the Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, 
 Ohio, is continuing as a graduate student there. Jane, a member 
 of Delta Zeta sorority, after three years in the premedical 
 curriculum at the University of Illinois, began her first year in 
 the College of Medicine of the University of Illinois in Chicago 
 in September, 1961. At the same time, John is starting in his 
 junior year at Glenwood High School. Although the youngest 
 member of the family, he is the first to solo fly an airplane and 
 is awaiting his seventeenth birthday when he can qualify to 
 take passengers cross country. For Mrs. Kinser this all comes 
 after almost twenty years of membership in various P.T.A.'s, a 
 stretch with the Brownies, two terms as a den mother, and a 
 great multitude of contingencies such as every parent faces. 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Kinser celebrated their silver wedding an- 
 niversary in I960 on a tour of Europe where Mrs. Kinser made 
 a special study of art and architecture, with visits to most of 
 the great cathedrals. These are special interests which she plans 
 to pursue with more leisure in the future. 
 
 246 
 
MISSIONARIES 
 
 247 
 
Susie Carson Rijnhart Moyes, M.D. 
 
 Missionary in Tibet 1903-1905 
 
 Born: 1868, in Western Ontario 
 Died: February 7, 1908, at Chatham, Ontario 
 Married: (l) Petrus Rijnhart, 1894 (1866-1898) 
 Son: Charles Carson Rijnhart 
 Born in China June 30, 1897 
 Died in Tibet July 22, 1898 
 (2) James Moyes, 1905 
 Children: None 
 
 249 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Susie Carson Rijnhart Moyes 
 
 250 
 
T 
 
 he year 1891 found Petrus Rijnhart of Rot- 
 terdam, Holland, in West China serving among the Chinese and Tibet- 
 ans. Seeking funds and workers he returned to Toronto, Canada, where 
 he had done some special studying on his way to his chosen field. Not 
 far from Toronto he found Susie Carson, interested in foreign missions 
 and newly graduated from medical college. They were married and 
 in San Francisco shortly before sailing they united with the Disciples 
 of Christ. It was in 1898 that they set forth on their long anticipated 
 journey to Lhasa, the far interior and forbidden capital city of Tibet. 
 Somewhere along the way their baby son died and sometime later 
 Mr. Rijnhart disappeared. No word of his fate ever reached Dr. 
 Rijnhart, and alone through two lonely months of perilous travel, 
 hardship and danger she struggled back to a station of the China In- 
 land Mission in West China where James Moyes and other missionaries 
 looked after her and started her on her journey back to the homeland. 1 
 
 On arriving in the United States, Dr. Rijnhart wrote a book, 
 With the Tibetans in Tent and Temple, telling of her experi- 
 ences and adventures. The book was widely circulated, and 
 numerous copies are known to be in libraries and in the posses- 
 sion of individuals. It has been used in mission study groups 
 and classes in all parts of the country. In this book Dr. Rijnhart 
 tells of the plans the parents discussed for their little son as 
 they rode along in Tibet: 
 
 . . . We decided to give his education our personal supervision, 
 and what books we would procure for him — the very best and most 
 scientific in English, French and German. "He must have a happy 
 childhood," said his father. "He shall have all the blocks, trains, rock- 
 ing-horses and other things that boys in the homeland have, so that 
 when he shall have grown up he may not feel that because he was 
 a missionary's son, he had missed the joys that brighten other boys' 
 lives. 2 
 
 His bright ways had made friends for them among the 
 natives. The baby died July 22, 1898. The drug box, emptied 
 of its contents and lined with towels, served as a coffin. He was 
 
 1 From "Biography Set, Series 5" issued by United Christian Missionary Society, 1937. 
 2 "With the Tibetans in Tent and Temple.'' by Susie Carson Rijnhart, M.D. (New 
 York: Fleming H. Revell Company, c 1901), pp. 246-247. 
 
 251 
 
buried in a grave on which was placed a large boulder to 
 prevent desecration. Mr. Rijnhart conducted the burial service 
 in the native tongue, so that the guide could understand, 
 
 . . . and the cold earth of Tibet, the great forbidden land, closed 
 over the body of the first Christian child committed to its bosom — 
 little Charles Carson Rijnhart, aged one year, one month and twenty- 
 two days. 
 
 . . . Before leaving we covenanted that by God's help we would 
 seek to be instrumental in sending out another missionary to Tibet, 
 in the name of our little boy. 
 
 In his diary, dated August 23, 1898, the day of their de- 
 parture, the father wrote: 
 
 Today we started with broken hearts, leaving the body of our 
 precious one behind in regions of eternal snow, where the mother 
 of the Yangtse Kiang flows tranquilly past. 
 
 The disappearance of Petrus Rijnhart a few weeks later is 
 related on page 311: 
 
 Shouting something up to me which I did not hear on account 
 of the rushing river, he walked up-stream in the opposite direction 
 to the tents he had set out for. Then he followed a little path around 
 the rocks that had obstructed our way the day before, until out of 
 sight, and / never saw him again. 
 
 A government investigation resulted in a report that Petrus 
 Rijnhart had been murdered, but that the murderer could not 
 be traced. The report was dated "Pekin, May 2nd, 1900." No 
 further news except vague native reports was ever received. 
 
 Dr. Rijnhart toured this country, telling her story and urging 
 Disciples of Christ to send missionaries to Tibet. As a direct 
 result the United Christian Missionary Society decided to open 
 missionary work in that country. 
 
 She came to Springfield, and with the co-pastor, Hugh T. 
 Morrison, conducted a series of rallies to awaken the mission- 
 ary interest of this congregation. Starting April 27, 1902, 
 meetings were held on successive nights in four sections of the 
 
 252 
 
city. The city was bisected east and west by Fifth Street, and 
 north and south by Washington Street. This outlined four 
 relatively equal sections or quadrants in which the church's 
 scattered membership resided. Starting on Monday night, the 
 first meeting of the series was held in the northwest quadrant 
 at the home of Louis H. Coleman at First and Miller streets; 
 on the second night in the northeast quadrant at the home of 
 A. H. Saunders on North Sixth Street; on the third night in 
 the southwest quadrant at the home of Judge Charles P. Kane 
 at 1001 South Second Street; and on the fourth night in the 
 southeast quadrant at the home of A. O. Hunsaker at 707 
 East Cook Street. 
 
 On Friday night, the regular prayer meeting night, a general 
 assembly was held at the church, which proved to be a climactic 
 spiritual experience with testimonies and prayers for divine 
 guidance, tending to establish more firmly the congregation's 
 will to serve in a new relation to the missionary challenge. 
 All of the meetings were addressed by both Dr. Rijnhart and 
 the junior pastor, Hugh T. Morrison. 3 Dr. Rijnhart returned 
 and spoke in Springfield on November 16, 1902. The church 
 bulletin, dated December 7, 1902, declares: 
 
 No more advanced step has been taken by this church in recent 
 years than that of last Sunday, when it was voted without a dissenting 
 voice to become a Living Link church and support Dr. Susie C. Rijn- 
 hart in the foreign field. The heartiness with which the vote was given 
 was a manifestation of the temper and ideals of our congregation. 
 
 The Foreign Christian Missionary Society appointed Dr. 
 Rijnhart and Dr. and Mrs. A. L. Shelton as the first mission- 
 aries to Tibet. They sailed in 1903, reaching Tachienlu in 1904, 
 and there the work was started. 
 
 In 1905 Dr. Rijnhart married James Moyes, of the China 
 Inland Mission, a Congregationalist. In September, 1906, this 
 
 ^Charles Clayton Morrison and Hugh T. Morrison, Jr., were copastors, 1902-1904. 
 
 253 
 
church released Dr. Rijnhart in order that she might become 
 the Living Link of the Congregationalist Church in Tacoma, 
 Washington. 
 
 In 1907 her health became undermined by her difficult ex- 
 periences and they returned to Chatham, Ontario, where she 
 died February 7, 1908. 
 
 254 
 
Rose Theresa Armbruster 
 
 Missionary in Japan 1903-1932 
 
 Born: January 24, 1875, at Springfield, Illinois 
 Died: July 14, 1950, at San Gabriel, California 
 
 255 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Rose Theresa Armbruster 
 
 256 
 
R 
 
 .ose Theresa Armbruster was born and 
 grew up in Springfield, Illinois. She graduated from Spring- 
 field High School in 1892. At that time the graduates took one 
 of four different types of courses: classical course, Latin-Eng- 
 lish course, German-English course, and English or select 
 course. She followed the German-English course. 
 
 She was employed as a grammar school teacher from 1892 
 to 1903. From 1893 to 1898, at the Stuart School she taught 
 grades six and eight. She was then transferred to the Trapp 
 School where she taught seventh grade. She also attended 
 Hiram College. In 1903 she first went to Japan as a missionary. 
 
 Her first furlough was spent in study at the Bible Teachers' Train- 
 ing School in New York, and her second furlough in graduate study 
 at Columbia University. 
 
 Miss Armbruster's particular talent was in languages. Her com- 
 mand of English was exceptional, and she learned Japanese in a short 
 time, mastering the written as well as the spoken language. 
 
 Her first four years in Japan were spent in Tokyo and Osaka. She 
 was next stationed in Akita, where she stayed until 1919. Reports 
 of her work during these years reveal busy and enthusiastic days — 
 making evangelistic trips through the country districts, working with 
 the Japanese Bible women, serving a Temperance Band, and leading 
 in Sunday School and Christian Endeavor work. A firm believer in 
 the need of training for Sunday school teachers, she organized a city 
 Sunday School Association in Akita and served as its president. 
 
 After another brief period in Tokyo, ill health necessitated Miss 
 Armbruster's return to the United States in 1923. She returned to 
 Japan in 1926 and was stationed at Osaka. There she taught in the 
 English night school for girls and worked with the kindergarten and 
 Mothers' Circle. When the Kizukawa Kindergarten was forced to 
 close, the mothers' club continued to meet regularly in her home and 
 under her guidance. 
 
 [In 1929 she became the Living Link of the Woman's Council of 
 this church through the United Christian Missionary Society.] 
 
 Miss Armbruster returned to the United States in 1932 and retired 
 in 1933. Until failing health prevented, she spoke frequently about 
 Japan in the churches and carried on voluminous correspondence with 
 her Japanese friends through which she continued to counsel and 
 inspire them. For a time she made her home with her sister in Denver, 
 
 257 
 
Colorado. She then lived at the California Christian Home, San 
 Gabriel, California. She died July 14, 1950. 1 
 
 The following is from "The Missionary Intelligencer," 
 August 1917, page 385: 
 
 Biographical Sketch of Miss Rose T. Armbruster 
 
 This faithful and useful missionary comes of good, strong Teutonic 
 blood. Not only strength, but resourcefulness and endurance are out- 
 standing characteristics of her and of her people. 
 
 Springfield, Illinois, is the place of her birth. She was baptized 
 in the First Christian Church in that city, November 20, 1891. During 
 all of her experience in that congregation she was a strong, forceful, 
 helpful member, and the church was greatly devoted to her. Her 
 people were not members of the Christian Church. She therefore had 
 some problems to solve in taking the step her mind and heart prompted 
 her to take in accepting the position and fellowship of the Disciples 
 of Christ. The teaching of our people made a strong appeal to her 
 independent mind. The congregation at Springfield took pride in the 
 fine character and in the all-round useful life of this new member. 
 Miss Armbruster soon became a real factor in the social life of the con- 
 gregation. 
 
 ... Her pride in exactness, her constant hunger for knowledge, 
 her delight in a wide range of information, her tenacity in the prose- 
 cution of her studies, soon ranked her among the best students and 
 the ripest scholars of that city of high standards in literary attain- 
 ments. Springfield is no mean city. 
 
 . . . Japan made a strong appeal to her vivid imagination, her 
 strong sentiment, and to her best judgment. . . . Japan was rising 
 before the world in power and leadership. She saw clearly that the 
 "Sunrise Kingdom" was to become one of the most dominant in- 
 fluences in the Far East. Her wide range of information about Japan 
 and her good judgment helped her to accurately interpret the situa- 
 tion. . . . The decision to go to Japan was a wise one. 
 
 . . . She arrived in Japan October 17, 1903, as a missionary of 
 the Foreign Society. . . . She was an influence of force wherever she 
 went. Her presence encouraged the missionaries and won the con- 
 fidence and admiration of the Japanese. 
 
 'From They Went to Japan, United Christian Missionary Society, 1949, page 23. 
 
 258 
 
Dr. Arthur Paul Wakefield 
 
 Medical Missionary in China 1904-1927 
 
 Born: October 5, 1878, at Bloomfield, Ohio 
 Died: February 6, 1942, at Boston, Massachusetts 
 Married: Olive Catharine Lindsay, June 14, 1904 
 Children: Vachel Lindsay Wakefield, born April 17, 1906, in 
 Wuhu, China 
 Mary Churchill Wakefield, born May 18, 1908, in 
 Springfield, Illinois; died March 8, 1916, in 
 China 
 Catharine Frazee Wakefield, born September 26, 
 
 1913, in Wuhu, China 
 Martha Isabelle Wakefield, born May 4, 1915, in 
 Wuhu, China 
 
 259 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Arthur Paul Wakefield 
 
 260 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 Olive Catharine Lindsay Wakefield 
 
 261 
 
I 
 
 n the Illinois State Historical Library is a 
 book of genealogy entitled Ancestral Lines of the Doniphan, 
 Frazee and Hamilton Families, by Frances Frazee Hamilton, 
 which incidentally traces the lineage of Olive Catharine Lind- 
 say Wakefield. The section devoted to Arthur Paul Wakefield 
 includes his account of his own lineage, together with many 
 important facts in his adventurous and distinguished career. 
 
 Dr. Arthur Paul Wakefield ... is a direct descendant of Governor 
 William Bradford, governor for thirty-five years of the Plymouth 
 Colony, 1621-1657. Governor Bradford was born in Austerfield York- 
 shire, England, March, 1590. 
 
 Dr. Wakefield is the son of Professor Edmund Burritt Wakefield 
 and his wife, Martha Sheldon Wakefield. Professor Wakefield moved 
 with his family when Paul was nine years of age from Bloomfield, 
 Ohio, to Hiram, where Paul graduated in 1900 with the degree of Ph.B. 
 In 1904, Dr. Wakefield received the degree of M.D. at Rush Medical 
 College, University of Chicago. In 1906, he received the degree of 
 A.M. from Bethany College, West Virginia. On June 14, 1904, he 
 married Olive Catharine Lindsay of Springfield, Illinois, daughter of 
 Dr. and Mrs. Vachel Thomas Lindsay, and sister of America's illus- 
 trious poet, Vachel Lindsay. 
 
 In 1905 Dr. Wakefield was sent by the Foreign Board of the Chris- 
 tian Church as a medical missionary to China. He and his wife landed 
 at Shanghai on Thanksgiving Day, 1905. They were stationed at 
 Nanking, Chuchow, Wuhu and Luchowfu until 1918. While in Wuhu, 
 Dr. Wakefield spent almost a year in sanitation work, in connection 
 with the rebuilding of the Yangtsze River dyke. This work required 
 a force of seven thousand men. Dr. Wakefield's work was so efficient 
 that this task was completed without the appearance of the famine 
 fever so prevalent in China. [For this he was decorated by the Chinese 
 National Red Cross.] 
 
 At Luchowfu, Dr. Wakefield did hospital work. This town was 
 che home of China's great statesman, Li Hung Chang, who was a 
 personal friend of Dr. Wakefield, employing Dr. Wakefield as his 
 family physician. While in Luchowfu, Dr. Wakefield gave nearly 
 thirty-five thousand medical treatments. While at Luchowfu, he ac- 
 cepted a call from the Episcopalian Board as Instructor of Student 
 Health at Boone University at Wuchang. 
 
 262 
 
[In 1920 the Wakefields were confirmed in Wuchang as members 
 of the Episcopal Church, and served thereafter under the Board of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church. Dr. Wakefield was officially appointed by 
 the Episcopal Board May 11, 1920, as missionary to Hankow, China.] 
 
 At Boone University, Wuchang, Dr. Wakefield was head of the 
 student health. His was the first real student health work done in 
 China. Under Dr. Wakefield, the Chinese youths developed physically 
 as they a'dvanced in school until the graduates passed a grade-A life 
 insurance examination. When these young men entered Boone, they 
 were no less than twenty-five per cent tubercular. He was stationed 
 at Wuchang during the entire siege of the late war, administering 
 medical aid to the opposing generals and their armies. He was one 
 of the besieged of Wuchang when that city was confined within 
 closed gates for twenty-nine days, having on hand but one week's 
 supply of rations. Prior to this, Dr. Wakefield had sent his wife and 
 two daughters to Japan for safety; the son, Vachel, was already in the 
 United States, a student of Hiram College. Before the siege of Wu- 
 chang ended there was suffering, starvation and death on every hand; 
 Dr. Wakefield suffering with the others. It was through his solicitation 
 that the city gates were opened. In his judgment all would perish if 
 they remained inside, but some might escape if the gates were opened. 
 During this siege, Dr. Wakefield, through his profession, was a friend 
 of both generals and it was through his influence the siege finally 
 ended. In the Chicago Daily Tribune for October 9, 1926, appeared 
 the following with glaring headlines, which referred to Dr. Wakefield: 
 
 YANKEE'S DARING WINS PEACE FOR BESIEGED CITY 
 
 Doctor's Courage Brings Cantonese to Terms 
 
 Wuchang, China, October 8 [1926] — The chairman of the Chamber 
 of Commerce and the Chinese Red Cross assure The Tribune that 
 the American Episcopalians were solely responsible for the evacuation 
 of the starving inhabitants 'in the city of Wuchang, besieged for thirty- 
 nine days, and for the initiation of the surrender to the Cantonese. 
 Dr. Wakefield of the Episcopal hospital staff was particularly re- 
 sponsible, having won the Cantonese general's confidence when the 
 latter thought he was dying from a heavy draft of poison. 
 
 The bottle was not labeled, but Dr. Wakefield sniffed of it, and 
 believed it was lime juice. He drank the contents before the general, 
 and then applied an emetic. This enabled the Americans to become 
 mediators. 
 
 263 
 
DR. WAKEFIELD'S OWN ACCOUNT OF HIS FAMILY 
 
 LINEAGE 
 
 The Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
 
 Department of Public Health 
 
 State House, Boston 
 
 October 14, 1928 
 
 My family history I know little about, but have it all, in a "Book" 
 in China. In general, Wakefields came very early to New England. The 
 first grave in the first burying ground in Boston is a Wakefield — -direct 
 line. I am 10th generation, so am pretty near pure "U. S." My family 
 (Wakefields) moved to Ohio in 1812. Settled in Western Reserve 
 (Trumbull County). Grandmother (Churchill) Wakefield's mother 
 was a Bradford; her Uncle William Bradford came to her home, lived 
 and died with her. Hopelessly crusty, unmarried, he was devoted to 
 Grandmother. These two were in direct line from Governor Bradford. 
 
 All his life [grandfather's] he farmed, bought and sold cattle, 
 preached, married, buried people, always with no pay. He was a founder 
 of Hiram College. 
 
 Father went to Hiram, one year to Bethany to meet the Campbell- 
 Bethany groups; studied science. He was on the original Yellowstone 
 survey, from there went to Tucson, Arizona, interested in mining, 
 lost everything just before I was born (1878). He had preached at 
 Tucson on a dare. He felt that when the Lord's Day came there should 
 be religious services. In the face of the dare he preached unmolested. 
 When he came home a church at North Bloomfield (five miles from 
 Grandfather) needed a pastor, so father served that church. I was 
 born while he lived at Bloomfield. He never got away from the pulpit 
 after that. Hiram called him after a pastorate of seven years in Warren, 
 Ohio, about 1882-1889, and all the rest of his life he lived in Hiram. 
 
 He had a genius for teaching. In father's classes any boy of average 
 brain power could get his stuff over at the end of the term by listening 
 in during class. So he had a reputation of being easy. One could not 
 attend his classes and not learn; and now old students who did not ap- 
 preciate him then remember his teaching. He has in Hiram now the 
 standing as a teacher that he should have had twenty and more years 
 ago and still his standing keeps on growing. Three times he filled in 
 as Acting President. He refused the office itself; he hated executive 
 work and was not fitted for it. But faculty and students backed him 
 loyally when he had to fill in. He is the greatest (truly great) man I 
 have ever known and I have a very unholy pride in being his son. I 
 never heard him speak unkindly to or of any one. He never "rode" a 
 
 264 
 
student, and a student in trouble had father always as his friend. 
 Many a boy owes his salvation to my father's patience, tolerance and 
 deep affection. The greatest sorrows he ever knew were when boys 
 occasionally betrayed his trust. Even then his pain was for the future 
 of such a fellow. What could he do to save him? To bring his best 
 out! Father always meant that when he so often said, "We must bring 
 that boy out." 
 
 Mother was also pioneer stock, she was a Sheldon. Her Grandfather 
 Gersham came from Connecticut in 1800 to survey the northeast corner 
 of Western Reserve for Connecticut. He came horseback with his bride, 
 making the trip in 57 days. He had the next survey section to Cleve- 
 land. This enters in Portage County, and here on the old Indian portage 
 from Lake (via Cuyahoga River) to Gulf down the Mahoning and 
 Ohio Rivers, he built his colonial home. Grandmother was a Daw, a 
 wonderfully efficient and determined woman. Mother met father in 
 Hiram. Father, bashful, diffident to the last day of life, fell madly in 
 love with "Mathie" (Martha) Sheldon, the most beautiful girl in 
 school. She had sense to understand and appreciate father, took him 
 and stuck to him. She stood by him through life. Our home was open 
 house to everyone all my life. Mother did practically all the work. We 
 never made a fuss over anyone who came, but high, low, rich, poor 
 came. Father and mother gave everything to their friends, and every- 
 one was friend, especially those who had any need, physical, spiritual 
 or mental. How they lived on the salary father got I do not know. 
 But I do know this — they are the richest people I have ever known. 
 
 For myself. Sick from nine to sixteen years I grew up a semi-invalid, 
 no athletics, only playing with girls. Then I went into gymnasium and 
 fought it out, breaking up adhesion of the old appendix. 
 
 We came home on furlough in 1917. Under the Rockefeller Fel- 
 lowship I studied in Harvard Tropical School, Resident M.D. in South 
 Department Boston City Hospital, and in Westfield State Tubercular 
 Sanitorium for Children. Returned to China and in 1919 I went to 
 Boone University, Wuchang, as head of Student Health, where we re- 
 mained until returning to the United States December, 1927. 
 
 I went through the siege of Wuchang; and with B. P. Gilman 
 acted as messenger in carrying papers for surrender of the city. After 
 the entry of the Canton-Russian force we had to work to save our 
 property. After the Nanking affair I was left virtually alone with the 
 Chinese (faculty) staff; finally we had to smuggle our leading Chinese 
 on to British boats to save them and close the school (May 1927). I 
 was made Acting Dean and got authority from the Trustees to graduate 
 our Seniors, which I did in Hankow Cathedral, it being impossible to 
 have a graduation in our school buildings in Wuchang. I spent the 
 
 265 
 
summer in Japan, resting, and, no possibility of my work reopening, 
 I finally left Hankow for home via Suez in October, 1927. 
 
 I was offered, by cable, the position of Supervisor of State Tuber- 
 culosis Clinics (Massachusetts). I got into New York December 20th, 
 1927, and began this work January 1st, 1928. 
 
 For record I did post-graduate work at Hiram for A. M., did not do 
 my thesis. I wanted to clear this, as A.M. counts in China. I wrote 
 home to Father about it. He read the letter to Thomas Phillips, who 
 was Trustee of Bethany. PhiUips said nothing to father but went to 
 Bethany and had them give me an A.M. This was such a pretty tribute 
 to Father that I have let it go and have never taken my Hiram A.M., 
 but do accept, with no little feeling of pride and humility, the Bethany 
 Degree. 
 
 While on his way home in 1927, Dr. Wakefield was offered, 
 by cable, the position of supervisor of Tuberculosis Clinics in 
 the Division of Sanatoria and Tuberculosis Control, Depart- 
 ment of Public Health of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
 and began the work on January 1, 1928. His office was in the 
 statehouse at Boston. He remained there until October 31, 
 1932, when he accepted a position in Central Maine Sanato- 
 rium, at Fairfield, Maine. On July 31, 1936, he returned to the 
 Department of Public Health of Massachusetts, working with 
 the Services for Crippled Children, and stayed with that work 
 until his death. Upon the death of Dr. Wakefield, the Depart- 
 ment of Public Health of Massachusetts adopted the follow- 
 ing resolutions: 
 
 ARTHUR PAUL WAKEFIELD, M.D. 
 
 WHEREAS, Dr. Arthur Paul Wakefield of Belmont, Massachusetts, 
 Supervisor of Clinics for Crippled Children in the Massachusetts De- 
 partment of Public Health, died February 6, 1942; and 
 
 WHEREAS, Dr. Wakefield's entire professional life both in this 
 country and abroad was devoted to the service of his fellow men in 
 the varied roles of physician, teacher and leader; and 
 
 WHEREAS, his services in Massachusetts contributed materially to- 
 ward familiarizing the people of the Commonwealth with the work of 
 this department; and 
 
 WHEREAS, Dr. Wakefield in his private as well as his professional 
 life displayed a sincerity, a singleness of purpose, and a kindliness 
 
 266 
 
that endeared him to his friends and associates, to whom his passing 
 comes as a personal loss; be it therefore 
 
 RESOLVED, That the Department of Public Health of Massachu- 
 setts hereby formally recognize, with sincere appreciation, the services 
 of Dr. Arthur Paul Wakefield to the Commonwealth and his loss to the 
 cause of public health. 
 
 That it express its regret at his death and extend its deep sympathy 
 to his widow and children, and that a copy of this resolution of esteem 
 and sympathy be spread upon the records of the Department and that 
 a copy be transmitted to his widow and children. 
 
 A biographical sketch of Dr. Wakefield appears in Who's 
 Who in America in 7 biennial issues, from Volume 17, 1932- 
 1933, page 2359, to and including Volume 23, 1944-1945, 
 page 2204. 
 
 MRS. OLIVE CATHARINE LINDSAY WAKEFIELD 
 
 was born October 10, 1877, at Springfield, Illinois. She was the 
 older sister of Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, the poet. Her parents 
 were Dr. Vachel T. Lindsay and Esther Catharine Frazee 
 Lindsay. 
 
 She and her brother, Vachel, graduated from Springfield 
 High School in 1897. Both attended Hiram College, where she 
 received the degree of A.B. in 1901. She next attended the Bos- 
 ton School of Oratory for one year. She taught English in 
 Springfield High School in 1902-1903. On June 14, 1904, she 
 married Arthur Paul Wakefield, newly graduated as a medical 
 doctor from Rush Medical College, and went with him, in 
 1905, to China as medical missionaries, sent by the Foreign 
 Christian Missionary Society of the Disciples of Christ. In 
 World Call, March 1919, page 61, mention is made of Mrs. 
 Wakefield teaching at Luchowfu, China. 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Paul Wakefield have the distinction 
 of serving as missionaries under two Protestant denominations 
 — Disciples of Christ and Protestant Episcopal Church. They 
 served under Disciples of Christ until 1920. At that time, as 
 
 267 
 
related by Mrs. Wakefield, her husband decided to go into the 
 field of preventive medicine, and applied for appointment on 
 the staff at Boone University at Wuchang, China, which was 
 owned and operated by the Protestant Episcopal Church. He 
 was accepted with the provision that Dr. and Mrs. Wakefield 
 should take membership in that denomination. In 1920 they 
 were confirmed in Wuchang, thus becoming members of the 
 Episcopal church. 
 
 A daughter, Catharine Wakefield (Mrs. Paul Ward), in a 
 letter of March 15, 1961, says: 
 
 I remember hearing my father say that he felt that he was now fully 
 a member of both churches — that it was a wider communion rather 
 than a substitution of one for the other. I know that my mother, too, 
 regarded the First Christian Church in Springfield as the center of her 
 church life — to which other memberships might from time to time be 
 added. 
 
 After their return to this country in 1927, Mrs. Wakefield 
 placed her membership in Christ Episcopal Church at Cam- 
 bridge, Massachusetts, and took up activity for that parish in 
 work with foreign students in the metropolitan Boston area. 
 After Dr. Wakefield's death, Olive Lindsay Wakefield trans- 
 ferred her membership from that church to Christ Episcopal 
 Church in Springfield, Illinois, on August 31, 1945. The parish 
 record there shows that on June 21, 1946, she "defected 
 to the First Christian Church, Springfield, Illinois, the church 
 of her birth." She lived in the old Lindsay home until her 
 death. She wrote extensively and lectured on the life and work 
 of her brother, Vachel Lindsay, the poet. She organized prayer 
 circles of young people who met at her house. Not long before 
 her death she sold the Lindsay house to the Vachel Lindsay 
 House Fund, Inc., which has restored the building and made it 
 a shrine, visited regularly by thousands of persons. She was a 
 regular attendant at this church while health permitted. 
 
 She died May 2, 1957. 
 
 268 
 
Mrs. Mary Luranah Randall Hall 
 
 Missionary in India 1947-1953 
 
 Born: May 15, 1916, in Central Illinois 
 
 Married: William David Hall (born October 25, 1914) 
 
 June 26, 1938 
 Children: David Randall Hall, born in Tennessee 
 
 Bruce Fletcher Hall, born in India 
 
 Sarah Wynne Hall, born in India 
 
 269 
 
Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Mary Luranah Randall Hall 
 
 270 
 
M 
 
 rs. William David Hall became this 
 church's missionary link in India in 1947. Her career, as a 
 missionary and since, is so interwoven with that of her husband 
 that we quote from page 1 5 5 of They Went to India, published 
 by the United Christian Missionary Society in 1954: 
 
 Twice Mr. and Mrs. William David Hall have had a share in the 
 beginnings of very promising projects, the fulfillment of which they 
 were not to see. This happened first in Livingston, Tennessee, where 
 the Dale Hollow Larger Parish was little more than a dream when the 
 Halls sailed for India; and on their first furlough physical disability 
 prevented their returning to India to help in the development of the 
 new work in Orissa. 
 
 The Halls both come of middle-western farm people. Mrs. Hall 
 was Mary Lu Randall, and she grew up on a farm in Illinois where 
 she early learned the meaning of hard work. Bill also grew up on an 
 Illinois farm, and his family expected him to follow the tradition of 
 three generations of Halls at Hall Hill Farm [near Mechanicsburg]. 
 
 Mary Lu worked to pay most of her expenses during high school 
 and college. Bill had always found time for music, athletics, and other 
 extracurricular activities. After he met Mary Lu, through the student 
 work at University Place Church while they were both students at the 
 University of Illinois, his "extra-curriculars" centered around her. 
 
 After the university years, Bill taught for two years, and then en- 
 rolled in Yale Divinity School. Mary Lu, having graduated with honors, 
 worked at the University for a year. Then, in 1938, the college romance 
 culminated in their marriage, and they shared three busy years at Yale. 
 Bill, in addition to studying at the university, was minister of education 
 at the Congregational Church of Danbury, Connecticut. 
 
 In 1941, the Halls were accepted for service in India, Bill graduated 
 from Yale, was ordained, and they both enrolled at Cornell for a special 
 course in agriculture and home economics for rural missionaries. 
 
 War conditions made it impossible to go to India in 1942 and the 
 Halls began home mission work at Livingston Academy, Livingston, 
 Tennessee. They remained there until July, 1945. 
 
 Mr. Hall was accepted by the rural mountain people in a fine way. 
 Under his influence, the missionary spirit in the Livingston church 
 came alive, and the church began a systematic financial program. His 
 leadership of group singing was a real contribution, and he was in de- 
 mand for our own and interdenominational young people's conferences 
 and retreats over a wide area. He developed an interdenominational 
 youth program with Methodist and Christian churches which resulted 
 
 271 
 
in the establishment of a youth center after he left. Out of a joint 
 enterprise with the Alpine Presbyterian Mission grew the beginnings of 
 the Dale Hollow Larger Parish, which is now serving the area ef- 
 fectively. 
 
 Mrs. Hall occasionally substituted both in her husband's Bible 
 classes and in some of the high school science classes. She helped to 
 produce the church paper and was active in the life of the church, 
 the school, and the community. She kept their home a pleasant and in- 
 viting place for the many who came to see them, and often entertained 
 the young people and other groups from the church. 
 
 The Halls landed in Calcutta on January 9, 1946. They were 
 stationed in Takhatpur for part-time work, which easily became full- 
 time as soon as the language exams were behind them. Takhatpur is a 
 rural district, and the Halls travelled over a vast and roadless area, 
 maintaining the fellowship and guidance for the scattered village con- 
 gregations. 
 
 In the fall of 1948 they were temporarily assigned to the Allahabad 
 Agricultural Institute, an interdenominational agricultural college. Mr. 
 Hall served as acting head of the Extension Department. 
 
 In 1949 they took up residence in Bilaspur to oversee the evan- 
 gelistic work and village churches of the area. Here Mr. Hall developed 
 an audio-visual village evangelistic program, coordinating in a total 
 program the use of movies, film strips and slides, flannelgraph, public 
 address system, and recordings. This combination of methods proved 
 highly successful in drawing crowds. 
 
 Mr. Hall had several hobbies which contributed to the effectiveness 
 of his missionary service. A "shutter-bug," he sent dozens of pictures 
 to America every year, many of which have appeared in World Call 
 and other publications. 
 
 An interest in youth work developed in two directions. He edited 
 a recreational manual which has been used all over India and is being 
 edited for a second edition. He wrote a youth manual for local churches. 
 This was published in Hindi, is being used all, over the Hindi- 
 speaking area, and has been translated for use in some areas of South 
 India. Also he took an active part in young people's conferences, served 
 for two years as convener of the youth work committee of the Mid- 
 India Representative Christian Council which involved ex-officio mem- 
 bership on the N. C. C. youth work committee. This interest also caused 
 his vacations to be a busman's holidays, because he gave much of his 
 vacation time to recreational leadership for, and informal counseling 
 with, the young people at Woodstock School. 
 
 Because of Mr. Hall's interest and ability in the audio-visual pro- 
 gram, the Halls were among the first of our missionaries to explore 
 
 272 
 
the new field of co-operation with the British Baptists in Orissa. They 
 brought an enthusiastic recommendation to the annual mission con- 
 vention, and en route to America were able to attend meetings of the 
 Baptist Missionary Society in England. 
 
 The lifting and carrying of heavy audio-visual equipment while 
 Mr. Hall was in India aggravated an old injury and caused the dis- 
 ability which prevented their return to the field. 
 
 In 1953 the Halls came back to this country on furlough. 
 Mrs. Hall spoke from our pulpit at the Sunday morning serv- 
 ice. Mr. Hall showed scores of slides at an evening dinner 
 meeting, illustrating their work in India. 
 
 In 1953 Mr. Hall became a member of the staff of the United 
 Christian Missionary Society and moved to Indianapolis. The 
 problem of setting up housekeeping again in this country after 
 an absence of several years was such that Mary Lu says she 
 considered writing a book on "How to get along without what 
 you have to have." In August, 1956, Mr. Hall became a mem- 
 ber of the faculty at Brite Bible College of Texas Christian 
 University, and the family moved to Fort Worth, Texas, where 
 they now live. Both work in the International Student Com- 
 mittee. Texas Christian University has over 50 students from 
 abroad, who often need help when they arrive on a strange 
 campus in a strange country. Mr. Hall is sponsor of the Student 
 Volunteer Movement, among other activities. Mary Lu thus 
 describes herself (October 18, I960) : 
 
 Still and all, I consider myself a homemaker, and I take on only 
 those outside activities which I can work into my schedule without 
 being away from home when the children come from school. I do my 
 own housework and like to have time to make clothes for Sarah and 
 myself, and to work in the yard. I like the climate and Texas and 
 Texans, and we all seem to have put down roots, and are very happy 
 living here. 
 
 Her present address is 2825 Merida, Fort Worth, Texas. 
 
 273 
 
Mrs. Elizabeth Anne Eastman Mills 
 
 Missionary in Paraguay, 1954- 
 
 Born: March 29, 1900, at Minneapolis, Minnesota 
 Married: John Raymond Mills, August 20, 1930 
 Children: John Eastman Mills 
 
 Elizabeth Lee Mills (Young) 
 
 275 
 
276 
 
 Herbert Georg Studio 
 Elizabeth Anne Eastman Mills 
 
-L art of the story of Elizabeth (Betty) 
 Mills and her husband, John Raymond Mills, is told in They 
 Went to Latin America, published in 1947 by the United Chris- 
 tian Missionary Society: 
 
 John Raymond and Elizabeth Anne Eastman MUls had a varied 
 Christian experience over a wide field of service before they went to 
 Paraguay in 1937. 
 
 John Raymond was born in Indiana, but was taken by his parents 
 at an early age to California. He did his elementary and high school 
 work in Alhambra, California, schools; received his B.A. degree from 
 Pomona College, his M.A. from the Hartford School of Religion, 
 and his B.D. from the Hartford Theological Seminary. He also did 
 special work in the College of Missions and in Columbia University. 
 He earned about half of his way through school doing construction 
 work, waiting on tables, as salesman, and in Y.M.C.A. and church 
 work. He was baptized in 1916 by the Reverend J. Walter Carpenter. 
 He is a product of a missionary-minded Christian home, and from an 
 early age was active in Christian service. To his parents he gives the 
 honor of being those who most influenced him to dedicate his life to 
 missionary work. After them, he mentions Dr. A. L. Shelton and the 
 young people's conference movement. 
 
 Elizabeth Eastman was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and did 
 her elementary and high school work in her home city. She took her 
 B.A. and B.S. degrees from the University of Minnesota, and did 
 special work in the Kennedy School of Missions. She was baptized in 
 Springfield, Massachusetts, by the great missionary statesman, Andrew 
 F. Hensey. 
 
 Of the influences which brought her to the decision to give 
 her life to missionary work she says: "I was brought up in a 
 Christian home where everyone was keenly interested in mis- 
 sions." 
 
 Upon the graduation of John Raymond Mills from Pomona 
 College in California in 1927, his father offered to take him 
 into his real estate and insurance business. However, Raymond 
 had a deep desire to enter Christian work. While deciding 
 what to do, an opportunity came to take a summer course at 
 Columbia University and then go to a mission school in Izmir, 
 
 277 
 
Turkey, to teach for three years and to serve as treasurer of 
 the institution. His father and mother were tithers and had 
 always worked faithfully in the church. Their deep concern for 
 the church and missions took root in Raymond. 
 
 While in Turkey, he met a young lady by the name of Eliza- 
 beth Anne Eastman whom he asked to become his bride. Upon 
 returning to the United States in 1930, they were married in 
 Minneapolis, Minnesota. They were convinced that they wanted 
 to enter foreign missionary service, so they entered Hartford 
 Theological Seminary where Raymond secured his divinity 
 degree and his Master of Arts degree. He was kept busy serv- 
 ing in churches while his wife, Betty, worked as a social case 
 worker in Hartford, Connecticut, in order to solve financial 
 problems. The United Christian Missionary Society also helped 
 with grants in order that they might prepare for missionary 
 work in China. During the depression years missionaries were 
 being brought home, so the Board could not send them out. 
 
 In 1934 Dr. Raphael H. Miller had gone to the National 
 City Christian Church at Washington, D. C. as pastor and he 
 needed an associate. Raymond and Betty were called to assist 
 in the work at the National City Church where they stayed for 
 over three years. Both were ordained to the ministry there. 
 
 In 1937 a missionary family needed to be replaced in our 
 International College in Asuncion, Paraguay. Raymond and 
 Betty were asked by the United Christian Missionary Society to 
 go to Paraguay as missionaries. They taught together in the 
 school for fifteen years, when there came to them a dream to 
 open a church and settlement house among the poor of the 
 city. In October, 1953, Friendship Mission was inaugurated r J 
 their dream became a reality with the help of the school 
 alumni, churches, and friends. 
 
 Friendship Mission is meeting a need presented by Com- 
 munism, poverty, and illiteracy. The Colegio Internacional (In- 
 ternational College) at Asuncion, capital of Paraguay, educates 
 
 278 
 
the children of the well-to-do. Friendship Mission works among 
 the lower classes. The mission represents a co-operative effort 
 between the alumni of Colegio Internacional and the United 
 Christian Missionary Society. Through the efforts of the alumni 
 the Paraguayan government sold the land to the Society at a 
 reduced price as a gesture of good will. The alumni contributed 
 materials, services, and money. The North American committee 
 and friends gave generously. The mission has thirteen build- 
 ings constructed on over a city block of land. It has a large 
 playground, a small football field, and three basketball courts 
 where children and young people play under supervision. 
 
 Among the activities are: bathhouses for boys and for girls, 
 eagerly patronized; a dental clinic, 6 mornings each week; 
 a medical clinic, 2 mornings each week; a kindergarten, 5 
 mornings each week; typing classes, 2 a day; sewing classes, 
 4 a day; English classes, 2 a day. 
 
 All services are free. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Mills have two children who are married and 
 live in Southern California — John E. Mills and Elizabeth L. 
 Mills (Young). 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Anne Eastman Mills became the mission 
 link of First Christian Church in 1953, succeeding Mary Lu 
 Hall, 1947-1953. In 1953 the United Christian Missionary 
 Society decided not to return William David Hall and his wife 
 Mary Lu to the mission field in India, but made Mr. Hall a 
 member of its staff. The First Christian Church thereupon ap- 
 plied to the U. C. M. S. for permission to make Mrs. Elizabeth 
 Anne Eastman Mills its missionary link. She and Mr. Mills had 
 recently opened Friendship Mission in Asuncion, Paraguay. 
 Both Mr. and Mrs. Mills came to the United States on furlough 
 in 1955, in the course of which they visited this church for sev- 
 eral days, telling of their work. In particular they emphasized 
 the need of a new station wagon to take the place of one that 
 
 279 
 
was rapidly losing its usefulness. The World Work Department 
 of this church planned a campaign to raise $3,000 for the 
 purpose and succeeded in raising $3,105, which was turned 
 over to Mr. and Mrs. Mills. They purchased the station wagon 
 and used it in this country for about a month before shipping 
 it to Asuncion. The total cost including customs duty was 
 about $4,000. In a letter of thanks, Mrs. Mills said: 
 
 The old car which is over seven years old, and will be replaced by 
 this new one, has been used for every possible service imaginable. 
 You can well imagine the many uses of such a car at Friendship 
 Mission. It will serve for hauling supplies of all kinds and to transport 
 doctors, dentists, and other people serving the Mission. It will be used 
 as an ambulance to carry the sick to and from hospitals; to carry mem- 
 bers of our church to special meetings in other parts of the city; to 
 transport eqiupment and people to our conference grounds thirty miles 
 out into the country. And what a help it will be in evangelistic calling 
 and in our alumni work, for distances are great. 
 
 In addition, the Chi Rho Society of this church engaged in a 
 campaign selling sacks of sand, resulting in a gift of $500 
 toward the completion of an addition to one of the buildings 
 at Friendship Mission. Also the church contributed $500 to- 
 ward the building of a swimming pool at a conference ground 
 near Asuncion, and other gifts. Several young people in the 
 church have been corresponding with young people at Friend- 
 ship Mission. Mrs. Mills acts as interpreter if necessary. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Mills send a monthly letter to the church, re- 
 porting on their doings. The World Work Department cir- 
 culates the letter and sends it to a mailing list of over fifty 
 members of the church. This keeps the membership fairly well 
 informed, and stimulates a continuing interest in what is done 
 and what needs to be done. 
 
 The labors of Mr. and Mrs. Mills cover a large portion of 
 the missionary work of the Christian Church (Disciples of 
 Christ) in South America, notably in the country of Paraguay 
 
 280 
 
and in Brazil and Argentina. Mr. Mills is treasurer of the 
 U. C. M. S. for the entire country of Paraguay. All money for 
 the missions passes through his hands. At Asuncion, for many 
 years, Mr. Mills has been President of the "Patronata de Lepro- 
 sas del Paraguay," a national association including many 
 Paraguayans of prominence, to carry on the fight against 
 Hansen's disease (leprosy). 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Mills again visited this church for several days 
 during their furlough in I960. Mrs. Mills preached at the Sun- 
 day morning church service, while Mr. Mills talked to the com- 
 bined adult classes at church school on religious conditions in 
 Paraguay. They were in constant demand for conferences with 
 numerous groups. 
 
 Two members of this congregation visited Friendship Mis- 
 sion in 1956. Miss Lucy Williams traveled with a group of 30 
 in May, visiting missions of the Disciples of Christ in South 
 America, culminating at Buenos Aires in the celebration of the 
 fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the mission in that 
 area. Their tour included a day at Friendship Mission. Later, 
 in July, Charles Foster McElroy spent a week as the guest 
 of Mr. and Mrs. Mills and had a chance to see practically 
 all^of the activities of Friendship Mission. He also visited the 
 mission at Coronel Oviedo in Paraguay. Both Miss Williams 
 and Mr. McElroy have only the highest praise for what they 
 saw in Paraguay. 
 
 281 
 
Portraits of Ministers 
 
 of the 
 
 First Christian Church 
 
 Springfield, Illinois 
 
 Given in Memory of 
 
 Cora Clarke McElroy 
 
 by her Husband 
 
 Charles Foster McElroy 
 
 September 21, 1958 
 
 Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 Ministers Whose Portraits 
 Were Not Available : 
 
 Josephus Hewitt, 1833-1835 
 
 Jeremiah P. Lancaster, 1841-1843 
 
 William M. Brown, 1843-1847 
 
 Alexander Johnson, 1852-1854 
 
 B. F. Perky, 1854-1856 
 
 James B. Crane, 1871-1872 
 
 Joseph Buford Allen, 1879-1883 
 
 John Z. Taylor, 1883-1884 
 
 Herbert Georg Studio 
 
 282 
 
IN MEMORIAM 
 
 The portraits shown here, uniformly framed, hang in two 
 rows on the wall of a long corridor between the sanctuary and 
 the education building of First Christian Church of Spring- 
 field, Illinois. They include 24 pastors, 21 wives, and 6 mission- 
 aries — 51 in all. Among them is a "presentation" frame re- 
 citing that they constitute a memorial to Cora Clarke McElroy, 
 given by her husband, Charles Foster McElroy. Smaller photo- 
 graphs of Mr. and Mrs. McElroy are included in the frame, 
 with a list of the eight pastors whose likenesses were not avail- 
 able: 
 
 No. 1 Josephus Hewitt, pastor, 1833-1835 
 No. 3 Jeremiah P. Lancaster, pastor, 1841-1843 
 No. 4 William M. Brown, pastor, 1843-1847 
 No. 7 Alexander Johnson, pastor, 1852-1854 
 No. 8 B. F. Perky, pastor, 1854-1856 
 No. 13 James B. Crane, pastor, 1871-1872 
 No. 17 Joseph Buford Allen, pastor, 1879-1883 
 No. 18 John Z. Taylor, pastor, 1883-1884 
 The portraits were presented to the church at the morning 
 worship service on September 21, 1958, by Mr. McElroy, who 
 said: 
 
 On the "Fountain of Time" in Washington Park, Chicago, is in- 
 scribed : 
 
 "Time goes, they say. Ah no! 
 
 Time stays; we go." 
 
 283 
 
4> >, 
 
 > <U 
 
 - c 
 
 
 o I Ul 
 
 Si c . 
 
 
 G <= ~ 
 
 J3 O ^ 
 
 7o;g 
 
 
 > o c« a 
 
 w 
 
 isai 
 
 s. 
 
 «^ o 
 « —i £*• . 
 
 K o £ >^ 
 
 « T 1 <* 2J 
 
 O .ID «H 
 
 284 
 
X 
 
 285 
 
The history of a church is primarily its record as a congregation, 
 as evidenced in our recent observance of the 125th anniversary of First 
 Christian Church of Springfield, Illinois. But in a large measure that 
 record is shaped by those who have served as pastors, with their spirit- 
 ual insight, constructive ideas, and practical methods. During this 
 church's 125 years it has had 32 ministers. We believe it is proper 
 that we should give recognition to their leadership by preserving for 
 ourselves and posterity their likenesses in portrait form. It is equally 
 fitting that their wives should be honored. The wife of a pastor shares 
 his labors and takes a place of leadership in the routine functioning 
 of the church. Also, the missionaries who have gone out from this 
 church, or who have acted as our missionary links on foreign fields, 
 merit this type of appreciation. 
 
 Of the 32 ministers we have been able to procure portraits of 24; 
 we have 15 portraits of wives, and 5 of missionaries — making 44 in 
 all. We hope to be able to obtain still others. 
 
 Procuring these portraits has occupied four years. In particular I 
 wish to thank Dr. Harry M. Davis, our pastor in 1954, for helping 
 to initiate and carry on our quest for them. And I wish to thank the 
 photographer, Herbert Georg, for his personal interest and attention 
 in giving to these the highest photographic excellence. 
 
 My wife was a member of this church and she was sensitive to the 
 beauty of our building. We trust that this type of memorial is in keep- 
 ing with the innate loveliness of this structure. My son, George Clarke 
 McElroy, is present with his wife, and they join me in presenting to 
 First Christian Church these portraits in memory of his mother, Cora 
 Clarke McElroy. 
 
 The portraits were accepted by H. L. Allison, chairman of 
 the General Board. At that time the number of portraits was 
 44. Since then likenesses of 6 wives and 1 missionary have 
 been added, making a present total of 51. 
 
 We hope for more. Can any of our readers help in locating 
 others ? 
 
 286 
 
CORA CLEONA CLARKE McELROY 
 
 Cora Cleona Clarke was born December 4, 1881, on a farm 
 near Edinburg, Indiana. She graduated from Franklin College 
 in 1905, and taught for several years in high schools at New- 
 port, Brazil and Franklin in Indiana, and Kalispell in Montana. 
 On August 4, 1913, she was married to Charles Foster McElroy 
 and lived in or near Chicago until 1943, when they moved to 
 Springfield, Illinois, and united with the First Christian Church. 
 They had one son, George Clarke McElroy. She was an 
 authority on bird life, and contributed regularly to the Audu- 
 bon publications. She was a member of Pen Women of Amer- 
 ica. She died November 23, 1950. 
 
 287 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA