Walter  Reeves Laymen's Day AddresS

10/18/58

Walter R. Reeves

1905

SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.

As what I am going to say is very personal, I ask your pardon for this.  Also please bear in mind I am not a public speaker either by training or profession.   In Matthew, 6th Chapter, verse 33, we read these words, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness."  In April of 1822 George Howlett and his wife Elizabeth arrived from Kentucky at a tract of land about one half mile north of Brick Chapel where they purchased land from the government for $1.25 per acre.  Elizabeth rode a horse all the way and carried her one year old daughter Nancy in her arms for six weeks. The Tract of land is now the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Clarke Hendrich.  All the area at that time was dense wilderness which stretched as far north as the site of Crawfordsville and no one at that time believed it would ever be cleared as the task was to great.  George Howlett helped clear the brush and timber off the site of what is now Greencastle, it being at that time very rough and hilly.  This is said by experts to be the finest stand of hardwood timber that the earth ever produced.  As soon as possible the Howlett's proceeded to erect a log cabin.   As there were no boards to make a door a blanket was hung over the door opening.  There were numerous Indians in the vicinity and they were friendly and assisted in the building of the cabin.  Now log cabins were of two types, if the settler was in a hurry to get his cabin built he used round logs just as they came from the forest, but if he wanted a more pretentious cabin he hewed both sides of the log with an adz or broad axe.  I have seen great poplar logs hewed to a uniform thickness of six to eight inches almost as smooth as if they had been sawed.  The Indians often came to the cabin on their ponies and took little Nancy, who in later years became my grandmother Reeves, riding with them.  Of course the parents were uneasy, but they did not wish to anger the Indians and no harm ever came to Grandmother Nancy which is more than you can say of many so called civilized men today.   After they were settled in their cabin the Howlett's, being religious people began to think of how they could seek and serve God.  But how?

They knew God was in the winds, that God was on the waters and they knew that He was in the wilderness.  There were no roads only dim Indian trails through the woods or perhaps an occasional trail blazed by white hunters.  Their neighbors were 5, 10, even 20 miles distant.  I have been told that Great-Grandmother was a woman of firm convictions, that she set her hand to a task she was not easily discouraged  or turned aside.  We do not know how she did it.  We will never know but in April of 1824, George Anderson, an itinerant Methodist circuit rider, preached the first Methodist sermon ever preached in Monroe Township in the Howlett cabin to a congregation of five people.  There was George Jackson and his wife Susanna, George Howlett and his wife Elizabeth,  and Susan Bruner.  There are so many things I would like to know about the early days.  It is my bitter regret that I did not make a record of those early days before death stilled the lips of those who could have given me the information.

I would like to know how the Howlett's got through their first winter for they could have not raised much, I would like to have known more about George Jackson and his wife, what kind of people they were and where they lived.  I would like to know more about Susan Bruner and the Howlett's Indian friends.  I have the greatest sympathy for the American Indian and I think our treatment of them, past and present is a national disgrace.  I could have gotten a great amount of information from my uncle George for he lived with the Howlett's for eight years in the early years. It was him that I got the story of "Old Bruin."  Bruin was  a bear cub they captured in Kentucky and tamed him.  He followed them all the way to Indiana and lived two years until a white hunter found him in the woods and shot him.  George Anderson formed a Methodist Society at the first meeting he held in the Howlett cabin.  The organizations were not called Churches but Societies in the early days.  Services were held in the Howlett cabin until 1828 when the congregation became to large for the cabin and they moved into the log school house which had just been built south of where Brick Chapel Church now stands.  In 1828 James Montgomery deeded to the Trustees of the Church the lot where the Church now stands and a plot just east of the Church for a burial ground.  The official name of the Church was Montgomery Chapel.  George Jackson began immediately to burn brick and lay walls for the Church which was dedicated in 1834.  Great-Grandmother Howlett used to tell her children in later years how the ladies came to Church wearing sunbonnets and barefoot.  I can say today I am proud to have sprung from ancestors who had the fear of God in their hearts and a desire to do His will.

In the early 1870's the old Church was torn down and the present structure was built and dedicated in 1872.  George Howlett lived until 1873 and Elizabeth until 1878. Whether they were able to attend the dedication ceremonies I do not know, but I have often wondered what their thoughts were on that day.  My memory goes back to the year 1888 for my Grandfather Reeves died that year and I remember the circumstances connected with it.  My father as a young man attended Mt. Pleasant Church which was a strong Church and had as young preachers a number of men who later became prominent.  I often heard him speak of that grand old man DePauw, Hillary A. Gobin and Dr, E.S. Thomas, President of the Indiana Anti-Saloon League who preached there.  Mt. Pleasant still clung to the old idea's.  No musical instrument was allowed in the Church because it was blasphemy.  In those days people loved to get up in class meeting or prayer meeting and tell their Christian experiences. Sometimes they talk on and on.  Old Brother Daniel Henry would start a song when he thought a person had spoke long enough.  The congregation would join in and the person who was speaking would sit down.  A favorite of Old Mr. Henry was "Whiter than the snow." This was called singing down a speaker.   When Old Mr. Henry could no longer lead singing the custom died out.  As long as I remember I went to Brick Chapel Church with my father and mother.  We went to Sunday School and preaching services  of the morning and either preaching or class meeting in the afternoon and preaching services again at night.  There were no deserted or dark Churches at night in those days.  And we always attended prayer meeting on Thursday nights.  As the road to Brick Chapel was a dirt road, in the spring the mud would get almost hub deep to a buggy and it was all a rugged farm horse could do to drag a buggy through it.

My Father had a open buggy called a road wagon to which he drove a team of mules.  Now mules are not very beautiful creatures, but they were tough and could cover a lot of miles in a day.  I remember on Sunday afternoon Father took the Brick Chapel minister, the Rev. Joe E. Green to Fillmore to preach.  Coming home the mules ran off and threw Rev. Green into a barbed wire fence.  He was not hurt seriously.  Most all the young unmarried ministers used bicycles whenever the weather was suitable.  Everyone in those days had parlors and my mother used to have the minister's bicycle in the parlor so it would be safe. Ministers with families had no conveyances and someone had to go after them and take them home.  I can remember my Father bringing the minister out on Saturday afternoon then they would stay with us over Sunday and Father would take them home on Monday.  One minister I remember especially well was Rev. Joshua Bills whom I considered one of God's good men.  Rev. Bills liked the book of Daniel and he used to take me on his lap and tell me Bible stories. I was thrilled by the story of King Belshazzer when he feasted with a thousand of his Lords and their ladies and drank wine from golden vessels which had been taken from a temple before Babylonians destroyed it.  Suddenly a deathly hush came over the drunken mob as the Hand of God appeared and the finger of God wrote over against the candle sticks on the wall spelling out the doom of Belshazzer and his empire.  That night the Medes and Persians entered the city and great Babylon fell.

 And then there was the camp meeting in a grove near Groveland where Grandfather Reeves had built a cabin.  He would load enough provisions for the horses and his family of 10 into the farm wagon and spend the week at the Camp Meeting.  Strange ways, it seems to us today, to seek the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness.                           

Walter R. Reeves 1958  

"Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up."

1930 Mt. Pleasant Church

The Church building was located southeast of Brick Chapel until 1950, but it wasn't used for years before that time.  

1930 Brick Chapel School

The school building was located west of Brick Chapel Church until 1950. School was closed in 1930's.

1931 Brick Chapel School

Brick Chapel  School #6 in the 1890's

The school was located just south of the Church on the Old Crawfordsville Road.

  Mrs. Virginia O'Hair, Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Flint, Mr. Jim Ritter, Rev. Flory, Mrs. Earline Webber, Mr. and Mrs. Bill Porter, Mr. and Mrs. Clarke Hendrich, Mrs. Gail Steele, Mrs. Kathy Ritter

 1962 Sunday Class 

Bill Porter and Jim O'Hair cooking? 

1962 County Fair Tent

The Ritters       

                                        The Becks

The Churches Grow, 1817–1843

The Second Great Awakening was the dominant religious development among Protestants in America in the first half of the nineteenth century. Through revivals and camp meetings sinners were brought to an experience of conversion. Circuit riding preachers and lay pastors knit them into a connection. This style of Christian faith and discipline was very agreeable to Methodists, United Brethren, and Evangelicals, who favored its emphasis on the experiential. The memberships of these churches increased dramatically during this period. The number of preachers serving them also multiplied significantly.

Lay members and preachers were expected to be seriously committed to the faith. Preachers were not only to possess a sound conversion and divine calling but were also to demonstrate the gifts and skills requisite for an effective ministry. Their work was urgent and demanding. The financial benefits were meager. But, as they often reminded one another, there was no more important work than theirs.

The deep commitment of the general membership was exhibited in their willingness to adhere to the spiritual disciplines and standards of conduct outlined by their churches. Methodists, for example, were to be strictly guided by a set of General Rules adopted at the Christmas Conference of 1784 and still printed in United Methodism’s Book of Discipline. They were urged to avoid evil, to do good, and to use the means of grace supplied by God. Membership in the church was serious business. There was no place for those whom Wesley called the "almost Christians."

The structure of the Methodist, United Brethren, and Evangelical Association churches allowed them to function in ways to support, consolidate, and expand their ministries. General Conferences, meeting quadrennially, proved sufficient to set the main course for the church. Annual Conferences under episcopal leadership provided the mechanism for admitting and ordaining clergy, appointing itinerant preachers to their churches, and supplying them with mutual support. Local churches and classes could spring up wherever a few women and men were gathered under the direction of a class leader and were visited regularly by the circuit preacher, one who had a circuit of preaching placed under his care. This system effectively served the needs of city, town, village, or frontier outpost. The churches were able to go to the people wherever they settled.

The earlier years of the nineteenth century were also marked by the spread of the Sunday school movement in America. By 1835 Sunday schools were encouraged in every place where they could be started and maintained. The Sunday school became a principal source of prospective members for the church.

The churches’ interest in education was also evident in their establishment of secondary schools and colleges. By 1845 Methodists, Evangelicals, and United Brethren had also instituted courses of study for their preachers to ensure that they had a basic knowledge of the Bible, theology, and pastoral ministry.

To supply their members, preachers, and Sunday schools with Christian literature, the churches established publishing operations. The Methodist Book Concern, organized in 1789, was the first church publishing house in America. The Evangelical Association and United Brethren also authorized the formation of publishing agencies in the early nineteenth century. From the presses of their printing plants came a succession of hymnals, Disciplines, newspapers, magazines, Sunday school materials, and other literature to nurture their memberships. Profits were usually designated for the support and welfare of retired and indigent preachers and their families.
The churches were also increasingly committed to missionary work. By 1841 each of them had started denominational missionary societies to develop strategies and provide funds for work in the United States and abroad. John Stewart’s mission to the Wyandots marked a beginning of the important presence of Native Americans in Methodism.

The founding period was not without serious problems, especially for the Methodists. Richard Allen (1760–1831), an emancipated slave and Methodist preacher who had been mistreated because of his race, left the church and in 1816 organized The African Methodist Episcopal Church. For similar reasons, The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church was begun in 1821. In 1830 another rupture occurred in The Methodist Episcopal Church. About 5,000 preachers and laypeople left the denomination because it would not grant representation to the laity or permit the election of presiding elders (district superintendents). The new body was called The Methodist Protestant Church. It remained a strong church until 1939, when it united with The Methodist Episcopal Church and The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to become The Methodist Church.

OPEN HEARTS, OPEN MINDS, OPEN DOORS