History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ by Daniel Berger

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History of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ

by Daniel Berger

PART III

THE ANNUAL CONFERENCES

CHAPTER XI

A GROUP OF EARLY CONFERENCES

I. THE ORIGINAL CONFERENCE

^p.555 The reader has seen in these pages some account of the rise and growth of the old historic conference of the Church, from its initial meeting in Otterbein's parsonage, in 1789, up to the time of the first General Conference, in 1815. It has become customary to speak of this as the original conference, to distinguish it from other conferences, the body itself not having taken any other name than simply the Conference until after other conferences began to be formed, when its official name became the Hagerstown District or Conference. The reader will also remember that after two sessions, those of 1789 and 1791, no other formal assembling was held until the year 1800. From that time forward regular annual sessions were held, and these up to 1815 have been referred to. From the meager records of these sittings, as well as from other sources, we learn that their work was steadily extending, not only in the regions where it originated, but to the westward, especially in western Pennsylvania and into the new State of Ohio, which had just then been admitted to a place among the States of the Union. But from the brief memoranda left us enough is gathered to give us a strongly defined picture of the life and activities of those ^p.556 times. Many of the names of the actors remain, and the work they succeeded in achieving stands out with great distinctness from a field over which the deepening mists of time have gathered. Brave and true men were they, toiling under many disadvantages, but laying with patience the foundations for the goodly temple which their successors have reared.

The time came by and by when, on account of the great extent of territory occupied, it became impracticable for all the ministers to meet in one assembly, and other conferences, daughters of this goodly conference of the East, must be formed. The first of these was organized at what was then a long distance from the meeting places of the old conference.

II. THE MIAMI CONFERENCE.

The second conference of the United Brethren Church, formed in the year 1810, hardly so much by separation from the original conference as by semi-independent origin, was the Miami. Of the growth of the Church westward, leading to the formation of this conference, of the time and place of organization, and number of ministers present, with a list of their names, and of the several sessions leading up to the General Conference of 1815, mention has already been made.¹ Of its action in memorializing Bishop Otterbein to ordain one or more preachers, who might be able to ordain others also, and of its offices in bringing about the assembling of the first General Conference, mention has also been made. The conference began soon after its organization to assume a position of importance in the affairs of the Church. The original area embraced by the conference included all the State of Ohio, with the eastern portions of Indiana, the special ^p.557 centers of work being in the Miami, Scioto, and Muskingum valleys.

The history of the conference presents a long list of names of men who toiled laboriously, in the earlier days and the later, and who contributed their proportion of noble achievement to what must perhaps, here as all over the Church, remain as a portion of its unrecorded history, except in the souls gathered into the kingdom of God. Six of its members, some of them while in previous connection in other conferences, have been honored by the General Conference with the responsibility of the bishop's office, of whom five, the elder and the younger Kumler, Zeller, Hoffman, and Coons, have been gathered into the eternal harvest. Others have been called to other responsible stations in the Church, as Shuey to the management of the Publishing House, Flickinger to the missionary secretaryship, Kemp, Billheimer, and McKee to the missionary treasury, Garst to Otterbein University, W. J. Pruner to Hartsville, Landis to the theological seminary, Beardshear and Bookwalter to the presidency of Western College, S. M. Hippard and C. W. Miller to the management of college finances. Others have attained noted success as pastors and presiding elders, as C. J. Burkert, J. L. Swain, and G. M. Mathews, the last adding to his work the care of the Quarterly Review. E. S. Lorenz, at one time president of Lebanon Valley College, is known throughout the Church, and more broadly beyond, as one of the foremost among Sunday-school music and song writers. Drs. W. H. Klinefelter and S. B. Ervin, former college presidents, are pastors in this conference. J. D. Holtzinger, the oldest living itinerant, waits in sweetness of spirit for the coming crown. Jacob Antrim, who sometimes gathered from three to four hundred souls into the Church in a single year, has long since gone to his reward. Rhinehart, the first editor of the Religious Telescope, and much noted ^p.558 as a singer, earlier from Virginia and a member of the old conference, remained with the Miami till his death. John McNamar and the Bonebrakes, men of rugged strength, were among the early workers in this field. From everywhere the familiar faces look down to us out of the past, a numerous host, men who feared God, and toiled in the field until the going down of the sun.

Laymen, too, this conference has produced whose names are widely known. Among these was David L. Rike, who never thought the smallest meeting of the church too unimportant to attend, was a wise and safe counselor, serving long on many boards of the Church, was the staunchest and most lamented friend of Otterbein University, was sincere and unostentatious in his religious life, and large-hearted and generous in his benevolences. He has passed on to his coronation. John Dodds has long been widely known to the Church for his large-handed liberality, both in the city in which he has spent his life, and widely elsewhere, as many struggling church enterprises have experienced. Both these men were members of the General Conference of 1893, and Mr. Dodds is elected a delegate to that of 1897.

The conference has had good success in some of the cities and larger towns. Three thousand of its more than eleven thousand members are distributed among its ten churches in the city of Dayton. It has taken a place among the foremost in the advocacy of the progressive measures which have marked the life of the Church. In the long agitation on the anti-secret-society legislation it was among the most earnest in urging more liberal measures. It was among the first also to press the principle of pro rata representation in the General Conference, and in asking for lay delegation in the General and annual conferences. Generous from the beginning in ^p.559 its support of Otterbein University, in contributing money and students alike, and equally so in its support of Union Biblical Seminary, its ministry and people have been greatly the gainers.

III. THE MUSKINGUM CONFERENCE.

Many of the United Brethren families who emigrated westward found new homes in the Muskingum Valley, in sections contiguous to Westmoreland and other counties in Pennsylvania where the Church was already established. They remained under the care of the old conference in the East until the year 1818. The distance to the East, and the poverty of most of the ministers, prevented their attendance at the conference sessions. It was therefore resolved to form a second conference west of the mountains, and on the 1st of June, 1818, six ministers met at Joseph Naftzgar's, in Harrison County, Ohio, to effect an organization. Their names were Abraham Forney, Matthias Bortsfield, Joseph Gundy, Christian Knagi (Kanaga), Jacob Winter, and John Crum. Bishops Newcomer and Zeller presided. Three visitors, J. G. Pfrimmer, Jacob Antrim, and J. A. Lehman, were present. A camp-meeting held near by, on the farm of Mr. Bortsfield, had been closed just before the conference was opened. Bishop Newcomer, in referring to this meeting, expresses surprise at the great numbers of the people who were present, and says, "The grace of God wrought powerfully among the people." It was from this season of spiritual baptism that these ministers came when they gathered for this first conference. Their minutes breathe warmly the spirit of grace. "Brotherly love," say they, "united the hearts of the little band," and they "resolved to build the kingdom of Christ under the blessing of the Lord."

^p.560 "It is a sublime spectacle," remarks Mr. Lawrence, "to behold these six German ministers, without patronage, with little education, and depending almost wholly on the products of their little farms in the woods for their subsistence, resolving to build the kingdom of Christ. And they did build, and God owned their work."

The Muskingum Conference as thus organized included all the territory lying east and north of the Muskingum River, and several counties in western Pennsylvania, among them Westmoreland and Washington counties, the region where Christian Berger and others had begun to preach as early as 1803. The work west of the Pennsylvania line was for a number of years conducted almost wholly by a consecrated local ministry, so slightly was the regular itinerancy yet organized in that day. Gradually a change came, and the conference in numbers and efficiency gained a high rank.

Regret has already been expressed that this noble conference, through later reorganization of boundary, lost its autonomy and name in the Church. It has, however, produced names that will live. Among the men whom it raised up are Bishop Weaver, Alexander Biddle, and others familiar to the General Conferences and the Church a generation ago. Of Mr. Biddle a word is to be spoken farther on.

IV. THE SCIOTO CONFERENCE.

The early history of the Scioto Conference is the same as that of the Miami. The Miami was organized within the territory which afterward became that of the Scioto, and up to 1824 the life of the two conferences was one. The region which fell to the Scioto was among the fairest of the State, and portions of it were at that time under more advanced cultivation than other portions of Ohio. ^p.561 The territory was the central and southeastern parts of the State.

At the session of the Miami Conference in 1824 arrangements were made for the division, and the first separate session of the Scioto Conference was held in June, 1825, in Fairfield County. The records of this and three succeeding sessions are not preserved, and the particular place where this initial session was held cannot now be determined. The list of names also of the charter members seems to be lost. The minutes as preserved commence with the session of 1829. At this session the following names appear as "brethren present": Samuel Hiestand, Elijah Collins, John Coons, Nathaniel Havens, Joseph Hoffman, John Russel, John Eckert, James Kinney, Jacob Zeller, and Philip Cramer. Among the additional names for 1830 are Dewalt Mechlin, Lewis Cramer, William Hastings, Andrew Bird, J. Montgomery, and William Ambrose, and in 1831 are found recorded the names of George Benedum, one of the first members of the Miami, Royal Hastings, and William Hanby. Some of the names, however, of the original members remain. Among these was John Coons, afterward bishop, who was licensed to preach in 1823. He became a member of the Miami Conference, and in the division transferred his connection to the new conference. His later years were spent in the Miami. The reader has seen an account of him. A man of renown in this conference was Joshua Montgomery, licensed in the Miami Conference in 1824, and casting his lot with the Scioto Conference in the division. He was often a member of the General Conference. He is remembered as a man of rather short, stout figure, with an earnest face, large head, and deep-set eyes, genial and companionable, an able preacher, and a valuable man in his conference and in the general councils of the Church. Like ^p.562 Mr. Coons, he was a member of the famous General Conference of 1841.

This conference has contributed its full share of men of strength to the Church. To the office of bishop it gave Hiestand, Coons, Hanby, Edwards, and Davis. Bishop Mills, while being a member of the Iowa Conference at the time of his election to the office, was born and brought up and licensed in the Scioto. These have been elsewhere spoken of. Among the early members of the conference William Ambrose is well remembered. Born in Maryland in 1770, converted in 1789, making an extensive preaching tour through Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio with Bishop Newcomer in 1812, he afterward removed to Highland County, Ohio, and became one of the early builders of the Church in Ohio. Two of his sons, Matthias and Lewis, grandsons of Christian Crum, became preachers, and one of them, Matthias, was three times a member of the General Conference from the Scioto, and afterward twice from the Illinois Conference. He joined the Scioto Conference in 1833. A strong figure in this conference in its earlier years was Elias Vandemark, who was licensed to preach in 1829, and gave a quarter of a century of earnest and successful labor to the Church. Among its present best-known itinerants are G. W. Deaver, George Geiger, W. H. Price, Samuel Whitmore, J. H. Dickson, and others.

This conference, in the earlier days of the Publishing House, was charged with its special oversight during the intervals between the sessions of the General Conference, the trustees being required to account annually to the conference. To the Scioto belongs also the honor of being the first among all the conferences to take effective action with reference to the founding of an educational institution. The account of the founding of Otterbein University ^p.563 has already been given. For many years, until the organization of the Central Ohio Conference, the college was within the boundaries of the Scioto, a fact which contributed much to the strength and honorable position which the conference acquired.

V. THE INDIANA CONFERENCE.

The Indiana Annual Conference, one of the fair daughters of the old Miami, herself the mother of a goodly family, embraces territorially the southern part of the State of Indiana. The conference was organized in the year 1830, meeting in its first session on the 25th of May in that year. The place of meeting was the house of Mr. Stonecypher, about four miles south of Corydon, the county-seat of Harrison County. By the year 1835 the conference had so far extended its territories as to render division advantageous, and the Wabash Conference was formed. In 1846 another division followed, the northern half becoming the White River Conference, while the southern half retained the original name.

Among the early names of this conference are found a number who had already achieved distinction for ability and service as members of the Miami Conference, such as John McNamar, Aaron Farmer, Francis Whitcomb, D. Bonebrake, and B. Abbott—strong names in those days.

Familiar names of later years in this conference were L. S. Chittenden, J. Lopp, Daniel Shuck, J. L. Stearns, J. Scammahorn, J. Ball, and I. K. Haskins. Of these Mr. Shuck and Mr. Haskins alone survive. Mr. Shuck was elected bishop from this conference, at the General Conference at Westerville in 1861. His name has mention in this volume in connection with that conference. Mr. Chittenden was often presiding elder. He was a member of the committee on compiling a hymn-book for the ^p.564 Church, as ordered by the General Conference of 1857; was a number of times a delegate to the General Conference, and was chaplain of the Sixty-seventh Indiana Regiment in the War. He died at Westfield, Illinois, in June, 1892. Mr. Haskins was frequently presiding elder, and his name is several times found on the General Conference rolls. He removed to Kansas in 1884.

Prominent among the names of the present time in this conference are J. Breden, J. M. Fowler, A. A. Armen, J. T. Demunbrun, J. T. Hobson, and A. W. Arford, all of whom have served the conference as presiding elders. Mr. Hobson has been secretary of the conference since 1879, with the exception of one year, and served five years as presiding elder.

The present membership of this conference is seventy-four ministers, of whom forty-four are in the itinerant ranks, with 10,082 in the laity. There are forty-eight young people's societies, with a membership of 1,444. The Sunday-school enrollment, including officers, teachers, and scholars, is 8,161.

VI. THE VIRGINIA CONFERENCE.

The old conference of the East, or Hagerstown Conference, remained substantially a unit until the year 1831. Its territory included Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. The mention of this conference calls up the names of Otterbein, Boehm, Guething, and others, who spent the whole of their ministerial life within its bounds, sowing the seed of the word, and preparing the way for the generous harvests which were to follow. In the earlier pages of this volume the history of this conference is traced with moderate fullness up to 1815, from which time forward greater attention is given to the successive General Conferences. Meanwhile, the work of development went ^p.565 onward. The conference increased in numbers, alike of its ministers and membership, until it became advisable, for the greater convenience of serving the various charges, to divide it into two sections. The General Conference of 1829 took appropriate action authorizing the division, in the following resolution :

Resolved, That the Hagerstown Conference district be divided to the best advantage, and that the brethren Hildt, Brown, Zahn, and Miller constitute a committee for the purpose.

This committee brought a report to the conference, which was adopted. Of this report the following minute appears on the record:

The committee appointed to divide the Hagerstown Conference district reported that said district shall in the future consist of the State of Virginia and the counties of Washington and Allegheny in Maryland, and that the remaining part of the said district shall constitute a new one, to be called the Harrisburg District.

Both of the names thus assigned by the General Conference were within a few years changed, the old name of Hagerstown District or Conference becoming the Virginia Conference, and the Harrisburg District or Conference becoming the Pennsylvania Conference.

In March, 1830, the old conference met for the last time as one body, at Shopp's Meeting-house, near Shiremanstown, Pennsylvania. Seventy-eight names were at this time enrolled on the ministerial list, and fifty-seven of this number were present. The session was one of peculiar interest. The brethren who had toiled so long in the close fellowship of a single body were henceforth to labor as two companies. A tender Christian fellowship prevailed throughout the session, and the secretary makes this record in the minutes: "Love and unity reigned in the conference." Toward the close of the session the question was asked which of the two bodies, after the division was ^p.566 consummated, should retain possession of the record. It was answered by the adoption of a resolution:

Resolved, That in future the Hagerstown Conference shall have the old protocol [minutes], and that the Harrisburg Conference shall procure a new book.

To this the record adds the following minute: "Bishop Kumler gave to William Brown two dollars, with which he shall purchase a new protocol for the Harrisburg Conference, and shall transcribe from the old into the new all important proceedings."

From this session was missed the presence of the venerable Bishop Newcomer, the first time for a long series of years. Just a few months before, he was called into the presence of the Master.
The Hagerstown Conference, whose name soon after appears as the Virginia, convened in its first separate session on April 27, 1831, at Mill Creek, Shenandoah County, Virginia. Twenty ministers were present at the opening session: Henry Kumler, Sen., bishop, William R. Rhinehart, Henry Burtner, J. Krock, G. Patterson, G. Guething, J. Zahn, W. Kinnear, W. Miller, P. Witzel, Jacob Rhinehart, J. Houck, G. Hoffman, N. Woodyard, J. Haney, H. Higgins, J. Hass, P. Harmon, W. Knott, and Jacob Erb, of Pennsylvania. Early in the session a young man of slender build, not yet nineteen years old, was presented as an applicant for license to preach. For forty-two years the Church knew him as Bishop Glossbrenner. Two years later the names of J. M. Hershey, G. Rimal, W. R. Coursey, and G. A. Shuey appear in the minutes; in 1834 Jacob Bachtel was admitted, and in 1838 Jacob Markwood. Glossbrenner, Markwood, and Bachtel gave great strength to the conference, and a high standing before the General Conferences. Other men of distinction appeared from time to time, as J. W. Howe, George W. Statton, ^p.567 I. K. Statton, John Ruebush, W. T. Lower, C. B. Hammack, H. A. Bovey, and J. Rodruck. Of these, Mr. Howe remains in the conference, the Stattons and H. A. Bovey are in the West, the others are in the kingdom above. Z. Warner became a member of the Parkersburg Conference. Younger than any of these is Bishop J. W. Hott, also of this conference. Among others well known are George P. Hott, A. P. Funkhouser, C. P. Dyche, W. R. Berry, J. D. Donovan, and W. F. Graver. Many others of its men, among them A. M. Evers, C. T. Stearn, and the Grimms, are in other fields. Charles M. Hott, a brother of the bishop, a man of brilliant gifts and great usefulness, after twenty-two years of devoted service, died in 1890. His remains lie buried in the beautiful cemetery of Woodbridge, California.

The Virginia Conference, in the men it has given to the Church and in the work it has accomplished, has made for itself a noble record. Many have been the brave workers who, in the more than sixty years of its existence, have toiled and gone to their reward. In no other conference was the heroism of the ministers and people tried as in this through the dark period of the War, when, for three years, their territory was a great battlefield. The conference has provided nobly for the education of its young people in rearing and supporting Shenandoah Institute.

VII. THE PENNSYLVANIA CONFERENCE.

The Harrisburg Conference, as named by the General Conference of 1829, became, not long after its separate organization, the Pennsylvania Conference, the latter designation expressing more appropriately its geographical position. The first session of the conference, as newly organized, was held in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, in April, 1831, with thirty-one ministers present. Five ^p.568 candidates for license to preach were received, making the number thirty-six. Two years later the boundaries of the conference were so extended as to embrace the territory west of the Alleghany Mountains, including Westmoreland and Washington counties, where a number of societies had been established, and which had been under the care of the Muskingum Conference since its organization in 1818. The conference now included the whole of Pennsylvania and a portion of Maryland. With this large territory before it the conference addressed itself to the work with much energy, and grew so rapidly that in 1838, seven years after the separation from the old or Hagerstown Conference, at a session at Wormleysburg, Cumberland County, there were ninety-eight preachers present. To this number nine were added during the session, making one hundred and seven. In this year the portion west of the Alleghany Mountains was set off, forming the Allegheny Conference, thus considerably reducing the number of preachers.

In the year 1846 another division was made, by which the East Pennsylvania Conference was formed. The Pennsylvania Conference was now known for a few years as the West Pennsylvania. The name "West" was soon dropped, and the old name without prefix restored, on account of the possible invalidation of titles to bequests made to the conference under its old name. There were sixty-nine ministers in the conference at the time of the division. Of these thirty-four remained in the Pennsylvania Conference, while thirty-five were enrolled with the East Pennsylvania.

This conference enrolled in its earlier as well as later days many men who served the Church with signal ability. Among these was Jacob Erb, who was licensed as a preacher in the original conference in 1823. Another was ^p.569 John Russel, licensed in 1818. Both of these became bishops, and both have been spoken of. George Miller, one of the foremost men of that time, joined the conference in 1833, serving with great success until 1851. Jacob Winter was one of the most successful laborers, his field being in the western part of the State. Christian Crider, son of Rev. John Crider, a man of devout heart and most exemplary life, was licensed to preach in 1835. At the separation in 1846 he cast his lot with the East Pennsylvania Conference. He is remembered as a man and preacher of worthiest type. He died in March, 1850. J. S. Kessler, not educated, not brilliant in the pulpit, was a most industrious worker and one of the most acceptable men of the conference. At the division of the conference in 1846 his name was enrolled with the East Pennsylvania. An interesting biography of Mr. Kessler was written by Dr. I. L. Kephart. Samuel Huber was a man of mark in this conference. An autobiography of him was published some years ago.

Among the younger men at the time of the division were J. C. Smith and Alexander Owen. Smith advanced rapidly to the front. He preached ably in both English and German, and was an indefatigable and successful worker. Owen was one of the most lovable of men, a preacher of great ability, became president of Mount Pleasant College, and, upon its transfer to Otterbein University, editor of the Unity Magazine, and later president of Otterbein University. He died, greatly lamented, at the early age of forty-one. Z. A. Colestock, of Dutch descent, born in 1824, began preaching in 1844. After a long life of useful service, much honored and loved by his brethren, he now waits in contented old age, with his companion by his side, for the Master's final call. In the year 1846 John Dickson took his first work in this ^p.570 conference. The reader has made his acquaintance as Bishop Dickson. Among the most useful members of this conference, a successful revivalist and pastor, and greatly interested in Sunday-school work, is H. A. Schlichter, who became a member in 1861. He will not lay down the sword until he exchanges it for the harp. Among the laymen of this conference Mr. Jacob Hoke, who died several years ago, holds a distinguished place. He was long a member of the Publishing House and other boards of the Church, and was the author of several valuable works, among them "The Great Invasion," the history of Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania, esteemed one of the best war histories ever written. A name long familiar in the roll of this conference was that of W. B. Raber. He served frequently in the office of presiding elder, and was a number of times in the General Conference. Other familiar names, a number of them on the General Conference records, are A. H. Pice, J. L. Grimm, B. F. Daugherty, J. R. Hutchison, J. P. Jones, Dr. I. H. Albright, J. P. Anthony, J. T. Shaffer, Dr. C. A. Burtner, H. B. Spayd. Dr. C. T. Stearn has long been a leading member of this conference, serving successfully a number of its best stations. He was elected to the General Conference in 1881, and to each conference since up to the present. In this body, as also in the Virginia and Pennsylvania conferences, he was among the staunchest in advocating the constitutional reforms which have recently been consummated, urging their adoption when it was unpopular to be a liberal.

The Pennsylvania Conference, by special arrangement with the congregation of the old Otterbein Church in Baltimore, made soon after Otterbein's death, supplied that church with pastors until the organization of the East German Conference, since which time pastors have been supplied by the latter conference. The conference has ^p.571 seventy-four ministers, of whom sixty-six are itinerant. Its general membership is 11,653. Its Sunday-school enrollment is, teachers and scholars, 17,569, over fifty per cent. above the church membership, showing a high degree of activity in the Sunday-school work. The membership of the young people's societies is over 3,600.

VIII. THE EAST PENNSYLVANIA CONFERENCE.

All history of the Harrisburg, or Pennsylvania, Conference between the years 1830 and 1846 belongs to the Pennsylvania and East Pennsylvania conferences alike, the division of the conference district occurring in the latter year. In the year 1847 the eastern and western divisions met for the first time in separate sessions. The prefixes "East" and "West" were attached to the names by the General Conference of 1845 when authorizing the division, and the name "West" was, four years later, dropped from the Pennsylvania for reasons already noted. The journal of the conference, including a copy of the minutes of the old or Hagerstown Conference from 1800 down to 1830, and the original record from the latter date to 1846, passed into the possession of the East Pennsylvania Conference.

The first separate session of this conference was held at Brechbill's Meeting-house, near Annville, on March 4, 1847, Bishop Hanby presiding. The number of ministers enrolled was thirty-five, of whom twenty-six were in attendance; the laity numbered about fifteen hundred. Among these were a number of men whose names became broadly known, as Solomon Vonnieda and David Strickler, both of whom were editors of the Fröhliche Botschafter, and the former publishing agent; John A. Sand, an able German preacher; John Doerkson, born in Germany, a man of much strength; Jacob Scholler, later of the Ohio ^p.572 German Conference; John C. Smith, who is remembered by many; Gideon Smith; D. Gingerich; Andrew Steigerwalt, who transferred to the East German Conference; George A. Mark, Sen., a man of much influence in the conference counsels.

Others who followed and are deceased were: George A. Mark, Israel Carpenter, W. S. H. Keys, the last two noted as eloquent preachers; Carpenter was blind for many years; C. S. Meily, distinguished as a linguist and Oriental scholar; his valuable library is in Union Biblical Seminary; Dr. J. W. Etter, author, professor, and editor; Lewis Peters, a successful preacher, four times in the General Conference; Isaiah Baltzell, a delightful music writer, whose name is closely joined with that of E. S. Lorenz, and whose songs and music continue to give pleasure to thousands. Others, as Dr. I. L. Kephart, Dr. I. H. Albright, Jacob H. Mark, and T. P. Orner, have transferred to other conferences.

Among those now prominent in this conference, some in service elsewhere, are Dr. S. D. Faust, professor in Union Biblical Seminary; Dr. Ezekiel Light, chaplain of the National Military Home, at Dayton, Ohio; Dr. C. J. Kephart, Sunday-school secretary for the State association of Pennsylvania; H. B. Dohner, prominent in the Sunday-school work of the conference and State; Dr. J. P. Miller, one of the ablest preachers and most successful pastors of the conference; D. D. Lowery and M. J. Mumma, long among its safest counselors; E. Ludwick, H. C. Phillips, H. U. Roop, successful preachers and laborers; C. I. B. Brane, who recently transferred from the Maryland Conference. One of the long-familiar figures in the General Conference sessions is Dr. G. W. M. Rigor, noted for his steady opposition to radicalism and his support of reform movements. He was closely associated with the publication ^p.573 of the United Brethren Tribune, a paper opposed to extreme radicalism and advocating constitutional reform and more liberal legislation. The paper was published in Harrisburg, with Light and Rigor as editors, and was discontinued when the objects it advocated were accomplished. He was also connected with Isaiah Baltzell in the publication of the Musical Visitor, a monthly in which the uniform Sunday-school lessons were published in 1872, prior to the commencement of the International lesson courses, the latter beginning with January, 1873.

The East Pennsylvania has long held the position of one of the most progressive conferences of the Church, a place gained in part through its unflinching attitude during the long period of radical agitation. In Sunday-school and educational work it holds a place well at the front. Before the general Sunday-School Board placed the Sunday-school secretary in the field, the conference Sunday-school convention employed Rev. H. V. Mohn to hold institutes throughout the conference district. This same work was afterward placed in the hands of the presiding elders and made a part of their regular duties.

The conference has churches in nearly all the larger towns and cities in its territory, most of them in a prosperous condition. It has a membership of 8,313, with sixty-five ministers, of whom sixty-two are in the itinerant ranks. Its activity in the Sunday-school work is suggested by the fact that it enrolls 12,715 teachers and scholars, a number more than fifty per cent greater than that of its church membership. Nearly three thousand names are enrolled in its young people's societies.

IX. THE ALLEGHENY CONFERENCE.

As early as 1803 John G. Pfrimmer and Christian Berger went into western Pennsylvania and preached the ^p.574 word in Westmoreland and Washington counties. In November of the same year Christian Newcomer visited the locality, preaching for a time with great success. Of a meeting at John Bonnet's School-house, where the first General Conference was held twelve years later, he says in his Journal, "I had not spoken long before some of my hearers fell to the floor; others stood trembling and crying so loud that my voice could not be heard." On the next day he preached in the evening at a private house. Of this he says: "The power of God was displayed in a most marvelous manner. The whole congregation was moved. Mourning and lamentation were general. Some of the most stubborn sinners fell before the power of God. The meeting continued the whole night, and some were enabled to rejoice in the pardoning love of God." On a Sabbath soon after he preached in a barn, with from three to four hundred people present. Some, unable to gain admittance, stood without in a drenching rain. He speaks of the occasion as "a Pentecost." Some, he says, fell from their seats; some lay as if they were dead. The weeping and crying and praying came from every part of the house.

Thus amid lowly scenes, in private houses or barns, were laid, here as in many other places, the foundations of the Church. It is not always amid the environments of luxury, in churches richly adorned with elegance and splendor, or under the sound of organs or orchestras, that the great soul-struggles are accomplished through which men enter into life. Even so amid rude surroundings in a humble spot over the seas the great Shepherd of the sheep brought to the world its richest joy.

The Allegheny Conference, though the Church was founded so early, did not become a distinct organization until the year 1839. A portion of the territory occupied ^p.575 by it had earlier, as has been seen, formed a part of the Muskingum Conference. In 1833 the General Conference attached all of the Muskingum Conference lying in Pennsylvania to the Pennsylvania Conference. At the session of the Pennsylvania Conference in 1838, at Wormleysburg, there were present ninety-eight preachers and some forty laymen, so that the question of entertainment became an embarrassing one, while the long distances for travel further suggested the propriety of division. By general consent, as was sometimes done in the earlier days, the conference agreed upon a division, without previous action of the General Conference.

The Allegheny Conference met in its first separate session on March 25, 1839, at Mount Pleasant, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. The conference roll contained twenty-nine names. Fourteen ministers were present, namely, Harmonius Ow, John R. Sitman, Joseph Zumbro, George Miller, John Rathfon, John Wallace, Adolphus Hamden, Isaac Coones, Martin Houser, William Beighel, Daniel Worman, Jacob Ritter, Henry Metzger, and William B. Lewis. Among those not present was Henry Kephart, father of Bishop E. B. Kephart and Drs. I. L. and C. J. Kephart. Among those received into membership was George Wagoner, father of Rev. George Wagoner who perished with some of his family in the Johnstown flood in 1889; also John L. Baker, who is still living, at the advanced age of eighty-six, at Mount Pleasant.

This conference has produced a very considerable number of men who have become widely known to the Church, some of them in fields remote from the place of their birth. Among these may be named Jacob Ritter, the only surviving member from 1838, who published at an early day "Ritter's Sketches," a small volume which served a useful purpose for ministers; J. B. Resler, long known ^p.576 in connection with Otterbein University; George Keister, professor in Union Biblical Seminary, deceased; Bishop E. B. Kephart, I. L. Kephart, C. J. Kephart, H. A. Thompson; A. L. DeLong, for a time a professor in Western College; D. D. DeLong, twelve years president of Lebanon Valley College; George A. Funkhouser, senior professor in Union Biblical Seminary; S. B. Allen, professor in Otterbein University and president of Westfield College. Among other well-known names are W. B. Dick, Isaiah Potter, M. Spangler, J. Medsger, D. Speck, B. F. Noon, D. Sheerer, R. S. Woodward. Among the younger men are H. F. Shupe, editor of the Watchword; L. W. Stahl, a man of recognized efficiency; W. J. Zuck, professor in Otterbein University; J. I. L. Resler, L. F. John, W. R. Funk, and A. L. Funk, men of growing strength; J. M. Lesher and J. R. King, who have rendered valuable service as missionaries to Africa. Samuel S. Snyder, who went early to Kansas, and fell a victim to Quantrell's raiders in the first year of the War, was a member of this conference.

The Allegheny Conference has taken a place among the foremost in progressive character. As early as 1840, thirteen years before the organization of the general Missionary Society, it formed the Home Missionary Society of the Allegheny Conference. In 1847 it took preliminary action leading to the founding of Mount Pleasant College. In the same year, with the view of securing better qualifications for its ministry, it ordered the arrangement of a special course of reading, upon the general plan of that now found in the Discipline.

In general church membership the Allegheny Conference leads all the other conferences, the number being 12,383. In Sunday-school enrollment and in membership in young people's associations it is surpassed only by the Pennsylvania Conference.

^p.577 X. THE SANDUSKY CONFERENCE.

The first member of the United Brethren Church within the territory of the Sandusky Conference, so far as is known, was Rev. Jacob Baulus, who, in the year 1822, removed with his family from Maryland, and settled upon an uncultivated farm near Fremont, Ohio. He soon opened his house for religious services, gathered about him his neighbors, preached to them the gospel, and formed a society. The General Conference of 1829 attached a portion of Sandusky County to the Muskingum Conference, and it was named Sandusky Circuit. The Muskingum Conference at its next session made this circuit the nucleus of a presiding-elder's district, naming it Sandusky District. Mr. Baulus was elected elder for the district, and J. Zahn preacher on the Sandusky Circuit. Other circuits were soon formed, and the work was strengthened by the arrival of United Brethren families from the East. Among them were several preachers, as George Hiskey, John Smith, Philip Cramer, Henry Kimberlin, John and Jacob Crum, Israel Harrington, Daniel Strayer, and others.

In view of this rapid growth, the General Conference of 1833 authorized the organization. The first session was held on May 12 of the following year, at the house of Philip Bretz, near Melmore, Seneca County, Bishop Hiestand presiding. Twenty ministers were present at the organization. Six names were added to the list. Thus the conference entered upon its career with an enrollment of twenty-six preachers. All of these have passed on into the great beyond. The territory of the conference at its organization embraced all it now possesses, a portion of that now occupied by the Central Ohio Conference, and all that part of Ohio now belonging to the North Ohio Conference.

^p.578 Among the most useful of the early ministers of this conference was Stephen Lillibridge. His brief career, lasting only eight years, was marked by incessant labor. From his diary it appeared that he had preached over nineteen hundred sermons, or an average of nearly five for each week. He died near Findlay, Ohio, in 1843, at the early age of twenty-eight. At the second session of the conference, in 1835, Henry G. Spayth came into this conference on transfer. He rendered the Church an invaluable service in writing a history of its earlier periods, mention of which has been made in the preceding pages.² Mr. Spayth died at Tiffin, Ohio, on September 2, 1873. Joseph Bever, a successful preacher and safe counselor, joined this conference in 1835. He compiled the "Christian Songster," long acceptable to the Church. He died at a ripe age, at Fostoria, in November, 1896. A. Spracklin was esteemed an able expounder of the Word. John C. Bright became a member of the conference in 1841. To him, as practically the founder of the Home, Frontier, and Foreign Missionary Society, the Church is greatly indebted. He died in 1866.³ John Lawrence, fourteen years editor of the Religious Telescope, has been elsewhere referred to. D. Glancy was a devoted and successful laborer, and won many to the Church and to Christ. William Mathers became a member of the conference in 1847. He wrote a brief history of the conference. After fifty years of connection with the conference he still remains strong in the esteem of his brethren.

Alexander Biddle, one of the oldest living ministers in the Church, having reached the age of Otterbein and Boehm, was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, in April, 1810, and has nearly completed his eighty-seventh year. He was licensed to preach in 1830, and ordained ^p.579 by the first Bishop Kumler in 1832. He has been a member of the Sandusky Conference since 1847, or fifty years, and in the ministry sixty-seven years. He remained in the active itinerancy about sixty-four years, since which time he has sustained a local relation, preaching when strength would permit. He was a member of the General Conference of 1841; also elected to that of 1837, but not present; afterward elected to each conference up to 1865. In his great age there is a beautiful ripening of the Christian graces. In a recent letter, written from his home in Galion, Ohio, he says: "I am feeling keenly the burden of almost eighty-seven years, but am enjoying fair health. As to the future, I am living by the day, with a bright prospect of the heirship of eternal life. . . . In the quiet of my lonely home my soul feasts on the riches of divine grace. The time of the sunset has come, but its tints are those of a golden autumn day. The sun is going down without a cloud, and as the earthly is fading out of sight, the heavenly breaks upon my vision, and I long to be at home in the bright eternal day which has no sunset." In his concluding words Mr. Biddle expresses great delight with the progress which the Church has made since he entered its ministry three-quarters of a century ago. There is a beautiful eloquence in this serene old age, so near the borderland of the heavenly, waiting for the chariots of Israel.

Among other men of recognized usefulness in this conference in a later period, who have all died, were M. Bulger, S. T. Lane, Alvan Rose, C. L. Barlow, E. M. Bell, Chester Briggs (later of the Miami), F. Clymer, and W. McDowell. Among others prominent in their day, but now retired, are Levi Moore, Isaac Crouse, elsewhere spoken of as the author of our organized Sunday-school system, W. Martin, J. F. Seiler, William Nevill, George Bender, W. W. McCurdy, ^p.580 and T. D. Ingle. Among others now in the active service are D. B. Miller, transferred from Auglaize in 1867, T. J. Harbaugh, W. A. Keesy, S. H. Raudebaugh, J. F. Hill, J. W. Hicks, G. L. Bender, I. P. Lea, W. E. Arnold, J. H. Arnold, H. Doty, C. N. Crabbs, I. E. Barnes, R. French, and W. S. Sage, the last once connected with the mission work in Africa. Dr. Miller has been since 1885 the energetic financial manager of Union Biblical Seminary. The Sandusky Conference has steadily stood in the front rank in all progressive movements of the Church. It was the second to give its voice for building a college for the Church,—Otterbein University,—gave strong approval to the proposition to build a theological seminary, supported vigorously the pro rata and lay-delegation movements, and urged more liberal legislation on the secret-society question, while always loyal to the general interests of the Church even when controlled by those who radically opposed the measures it advocated. Some years ago, for the purpose of providing more efficiently for local educational needs, the conference built Fostoria Academy, at Fostoria, Ohio. The work done in the institution proved highly satisfactory, but the income for its support being insufficient, it was recently closed.

XI. THE UPPER WABASH CONFERENCE.

In the vigorous extension of the Church toward the West new conferences were rapidly formed. The Indiana Conference, one of the prosperous daughters of the Miami, soon gave to the Church daughters of her own household. Among these was the Wabash, the northern portion of which afterward became the Upper Wabash. The first session of the Wabash Conference was held as early as September, 1835, in Parke County, Indiana. Thirteen preachers were enrolled, and six circuits were recognized, ^p.581 divided into two presiding-elder's districts. The elders chosen for the first year were William Davis and John Denham, Mr. Davis taking also a circuit. The other itinerants were James Griffith, E. T. Cook, James Davis, Josiah Davis, and J. T. Timmons. John Hoobler soon after became a fellow-laborer with these pioneer itinerants. Several of these names afterward became widely familiar. Of William Davis it has already been said that he became president of Otterbein University and later of Western College. James Davis became prominent as a revivalist and ingatherer of souls. Mr. Griffith, in his young life a skeptic, became one of the foremost of the preachers in the West. He was an earnest abolitionist in the days when it was unpopular to affirm the equal rights of men. He was often in the General Conference, and was marked for his manly sincerity. John Denham was an able and successful preacher in this company of itinerants.

Almost throughout the entire Church the conditions of itinerant life have so greatly changed from those of half a century or more ago that it may be well to preserve here a picture as given by one of the ablest, as well as most devoted, of the preachers of that time. It is from the pen of William Davis. In a letter to a friend, written in the spring of 1846, Mr. Davis said: "A few evenings ago, while sitting by my fireside, looking forward to the labor and exposure and privation which I must endure during the conference year which has just commenced, my mind was carried back to the past; whereupon, I hunted up my old diary, by the aid of which I reached the following facts and conclusions: That I have been an itinerant minister in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ sixteen years; that I have traveled for ministerial purposes fifty-four thousand two hundred miles; that I have preached (or tried to preach) five ^p.582 thousand one hundred and ten sermons; that I have received as an earthly remuneration six hundred and fifty-two dollars; that the Lord has hitherto helped me; and that it would be wickedness to distrust so good a friend in time to come. My time has been spent chiefly on the frontiers, among poor people; and could I lead some of my rich brethren along the Indian trails, or more dimly-beaten paths, to the cabins in the woods, and introduce them to meanly-clad parents, surrounded by almost naked children, and let them worship and mingle their prayers, songs, and tears around the same altar, they too would love those poor brethren, excuse their scanty contributions, and of their abundance give something for the support of the missionary who, perhaps, with ragged clothes and naked knees (for I have preached with naked knees) is preaching on the frontiers."⁴ This portrayal presents, not the experience of a solitary individual, but broadly that of the pioneer missionary of those days.

The Wabash Conference in 1858 was divided, forming the Upper and Lower Wabash conferences. The two conferences together number about nineteen thousand souls. Of this number 7,437 are in the Upper Wabash, its Sunday-school enrollment being about eight thousand. Prominent in its present ministry are T. M. Hamilton, 0. P. Cooper, J. W. Nye, J. Cowgill, R. M. Zuck, A. M. Snyder, and others. Mr. Hamilton, as others of these men, has long been a familiar figure on the floor of the General Conference. The conference has sixty ministers, of whom forty-one are in the itinerant ranks.

Mrs. Lydia Sexton, whose field was widely the Church, was in a degree identified with this conference, receiving from it credentials at the session of 1859. Having been born in April, 1799, she was then well advanced in years, ^p.583 but had been preaching for many years with a quarterly-conference license. One year, 1870, was spent, with great success, as chaplain of the Kansas Penitentiary. Her life was one of extensive usefulness. She died at Seattle, Washington, at the advanced age of ninety-three.

XII. THE LOWER WABASH CONFERENCE.

The ministers whose residence, on the division of the Wabash Conference, fell within the territory assigned as the Lower Wabash, assembled in their first separate session on March 17, 1859, at Westfield, Illinois. Bishop Edwards presided. The following ministers responded to their names on roll-call: W. C. Smith, S. Mills, S. Bussard, E. Shuey, R. W. Belknap, H. Elwell, W. M. Givens, J. W. Nye, H. Clark, J. P. Shuey, John Burtner, W. H. Brown, A. Bales, S. G. Brock, J. Coffman, A. Dunbar, A. Helton, M. Hail, E. Jackson, G. P. Jackson, J. McKee, S. Rush, S. Stark, and J. Severe.

Of this number the first nine remain, and the first three continue in the active ministry, well advanced in years, but retaining much of the zeal of their youth. Mr. Smith has given a large part of his life to the financial service of Westfield College, has been a delegate to six General Conferences, and for nearly forty years has served on some of the general boards of the Church. Now, as the time of the sunset is coming, he is toiling cheerfully as a presiding elder of one of the districts. S. Mills has given similar prolonged service to the conference and Church. He has been eight times a delegate to the General Conference, and has been in the presiding-eldership or served as agent for Westfield College since 1863. Dr. I. L. Kephart, editor of the Religious Telescope, is a member of this conference. Dr. W. H. Klinefelter, six years president of Westfield College, had his membership ^p.584 transferred recently to the Miami. Prof. W. P. Shuey, in the chair of mathematics in Westfield College since the founding, and Prof. L. H. Cooley, formerly in the chair of ancient languages, are among the members of this conference. The conference possesses a progressive spirit, and some years ago opened its doors for the admission of women to membership. On its rolls are the names of Mrs. Alva Roberts, Mrs. H. J. Musselman, and Mrs. C. A. Stevenson.

In the days when the anti-secret-society agitation so greatly disturbed the Church, this conference was strongly radical. Its leading men, however, had a higher regard for the unity and welfare of the Church than for the perpetuation of radicalism; and so, when the General Conference of 1885 appointed the Commission for the revision of the Constitution and Confession of Faith, its three presiding elders, W. M. Givens, S. Mills, and J. G. Shuey, in counsel together, resolved to do all in their power to hold the ministers and people in their districts in thorough loyalty to the Church. In this they were entirely successful. The conference remained a unit throughout the troublesome period of the secession. Had some others in high official position taken a similar and really Christian course, they might have prevented much evil.

Numerically, the Lower Wabash Conference stands among the foremost in the Church, its ministerial roll embracing ninety-one names, with a general membership of 11,360. Its Sunday-school enrollment is 12,356, and its young people's societies have a membership of 1,835.

¹See pp. 180, 184-186.

²See p. 282

³See pp. 427, 428.

⁴Lawrence's History, Vol. II., p. 275.



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