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The suffering brethrenDuring the "General Conference" of 1856 -- a conference held every four years by the Methodists -- a motion for the creation of a separate conference to serve the Kansas and Nebraska Territories was raised and approved by the assembly. The first session of the new "Kansas-Nebraska Conference," it was decided, would be held in Lawrence, Kansas Territory, on October 23-25, 1856. On
Thursday, October 23, at the appointed hour, "approximately twenty to
thirty preachers" [1]
-- James Griffing among them -- assembled in a tent in Lawrence under the
leadership of Bishop Osman C. Baker. Their first order of business was to
appoint a recording secretary and to answer the following routine questions with
respect to the conference's membership.
Appointments
for the coming year:
Circuit
Reports:
The Committee appointed to nominate officers for the different conference societies made their report as follows, which was adopted: Conference Bible Society: Wiley Jones, President Report of the Committee on Necessitous
Cases: L.
B. Dennis $60.00 [3] In remembering the first conference held at Lawrence, James later wrote that, "W. G. Piper, of precious memory, was appointed....to take charge of the work [at Topeka during] the coming year. It was unfortunate for myself as well as the church that I was entirely without ministerial experience, having been sent out on the frontier by the church from the Missouri Conference as a probationer to receive my first lessons in the great school of the itinerancy. [Consequently, I was assigned as the "junior minister" on the Topeka circuit during 1856-1857. During that year] $300 was appropriated by the Committee on Missions to assist in the work. [By the end of that second year,] 80 members and 5 probationers were reported. The place for preaching [in Topeka] in these early times was at a hall [4] built on Topeka Avenue and occupied alternatively by the different branches of the church until they might build homes of their own. Consequently, no other than what is called a Union Sabbath school was organized and sustained." [5] The First Annual Meeting of the Kansas-Nebraska Conference was concluded within days of the Presidential Election of 1856. Unable to cast ballots in the election, most free-soilers living in Kansas Territory waited in suspense for the election results, knowing that the fate of their cause would depend in a large measure on the choice of the Nation. Isaac Goodnow, Manhattan resident, probably captured the sentiments of most free-soilers best when he sat down to write in his diary on Friday, November 21, 1856:
[Owego,
New York] Dear brother Ralph, ...
The last time Your affectionate sister – Sarah [Goodrich]
My dear Nephew, ...I received a letter from [your sister] Augusta a week or two since. She was very well and [her husband] James Griffing was improving but I suppose you have heard from them since and I can tell you no news of them. The elections are over and [John C.] Fremont is not to be our next President. But we are not disheartened. We are ready, or rather getting ready, for another fight – feeling some that our principles are right and in the end will prevail. You know “Truth crushed to earth will rise again.” Did not New England do nobly; and New York stood by her side. I am proud of New England.... Give my love to the folks
at home [in Owego] and do not forget to write me and keep me informed how you
get along. Yours truly, -- Elizur T. Goodrich
[2] The "senior minister" appointed to the Topeka Circuit with James Griffing was Rev. William G. Piper. When Rev. Piper died on May 15, 1869, James prepared his obituary notice: [Rev.
Piper] was born Aug. 23, 1817, in Hopkinston, N. H.
In 1837 he removed to Illinois and entered a school in the town of
Ebenezer, near Jacksonville, taught by his oldest brother Rev. John H.
Piper, where he obtained the rudiments of an education. Whilst attending a camp meeting
near Pulaski, Hancock County, Illinois, on the 6th day of August
1838, he was converted, being at that time 21 years of age. Believing that
he was moved by the Holy Ghost to preach that Gospel that had done so much
for him, he obtained license signed by Rev. John S. Barger of Quincy
District, Illinois Conference, August 14, 1841. In September of the same
year, he was received on trial in the Illinois Conference and was appointed
to the Rushville Circuit. In 1855, [after a series of appointments in
Illinois, his health failed] and, thinking that a change of climate would
perhaps be for the best, he took a transfer to Kansas which, at that time,
was just opening for settlement. It was my fortune to know him quite
intimately during much of his stay in Kansas.
The invigorating air and stirring questions agitating this new State
imparted new life [to Rev. Piper] and he seemed to feel as if God had much
for him to do here. He entered at once with great zeal upon the choice work
of his life. His first appointment was Topeka circuit where he labored with
great acceptability and laid foundations upon which others have since
largely built. In 1857, [he] was sent to Big Springs circuit, where also he
did a good work, organizing classes and Sabbath schools, and attending to
all the duties of a Methodist Preacher. In 1858, he was appointed to the
Auburn and Tecumseh circuit where he labored the former part of the year
with some success, but long rides between appointments, many exposures in
storms, swimming swollen streams, and only such accommodations as new
settlements often afford, sometimes wandering over the wide prairie until
morning light, only revived those symptoms of the disease that finally took
him from us. In the fall of this year his health so far failed, that at the
conference of 1859, he took a superannuated relation, since which time he
has been residing at Baldwin City, Kansas, highly respected and most beloved
by those who knew him best....... "Why
should our tears in sorrow flow,
[3]
At the First Annual Conference, James submitted a claim of $541. He
reported receiving only $151 from his charge, leaving him short by $390.
That he received most of his "payment for services" in the form of
food and other supplies is evident by the careful recording of
"gifts" in a pocket memorandum from the period. A few examples are
reproduced here: Dec.
1855 August
1856 March
1857 May
1857 June
1857 Aug
21st [1857] September
[1857] The same pocket memorandum mentions the $50 received "at Conference Oct. '56" and suggests that from it, $5 was paid to Dr. Martin, his physician, and that clothes were purchased. For example, "one pair common pants, one common vest, one flannel shirt, one pair thick boots, and one second hand coat."
[4] "For the first few years, church meetings were held in houses of members and later in various places, including the schoolhouse, Constitution Hall and Museum Hall." First United Methodist Church Anniversary Records, 1980. [5] Unpublished, undated pocket memorandum written by James S. Griffing. Circa 1881. |
