Iowa
History Project
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The one
office which to-day stands out in importance above all others in the Iowa
Yearly Meeting of Orthodox Friends is that of the “General Superintendent of
Evangelistic, Pastoral, and Church Extension Work”. This office had its origin,
as its name would indicate, both in the evangelistic and pastoral systems and
in the modern demand for a careful supervision of the whole field of the work
of the Yearly Meeting. Its history is the record of the labors of the five men
who have held the position.(168)
Born at
Fairfield, Maine, in 1832, John Henry Douglas, the first General Superintendent
among the Iowa Friends, was in the very prime of life when he assumed the
responsibilities of this new office. He was trained “according to the strictest
sect” of the Quaker faith, receiving his early education at St. Albans and at
Hartland Academy in his native State, and later spending three years at the
Friends’ School at Providence, Rhode Island. By 1858 he was recorded as a
minister in the Society of Friends in Clinton County, Ohio; and from there he
came to Iowa.(169)
Worn out by
ceaseless toil, at the end of four years Douglas’s health failed him and he was
compelled to give up the superintendency. Before long, however, he was again at
work in other fields. Twenty-nine times he has crossed the Rocky Mountains in
the course of his labors, and now after sixty years in the ministry(170) he is able to write from his California home that his interest
in the work is unabated.
In looking
forward to the man who might be chosen to take his place Douglas wrote to the
Yearly Meeting in 1889: “I would suggest that my successor should be a man of
God, full of Holy Ghost and wisdom. He should be a man of large experience in
both the evangelistic and pastoral work,… and he should be a man capable of
representing the church before the world”.(171)
It was upon just
such a man that the choice fell. Much like his predecessor, Isom P. Wooten was
filled with a zeal for evangelistic work. For five years he labored with a
vigor that commanded respect on every hand. Evangelism, pastoral needs, and the
internal organization of the fields already occupied all received his constant
attention. For the first year he reported that throughout the Iowa Yearly
Meeting there were sixty-six ministers who devoted at least a part of their time
to evangelistic work; while during the five years of his administration the
records show the conversion of 6251 persons through this means, with 3878 names
added to the membership rolls of the church.
The labors which
had overtaxed the strength of John Henry Douglas, likewise proved too much for
Isom P. Wooten and he also was compelled to retire from the work. At the annual
gathering in 1895 Zenas L. Martin(172) was called
by the Iowa Yearly Meeting to the General Superintendency. While the five years
which followed show the same evangelistic activity which had been displayed
under the two previous administrations, it is to be remembered that the
problems confronting the General Superintendency. While the five years which
followed show the same evangelistic activity which had been displayed under the
two previous administrations, it is to be remembered that the problems
confronting the General Superintendent were rapidly changing. The evangelistic
movement, so far as the Society of Friends in Iowa was concerned, had spent its
force; and the real problem of the church was that of holding the ground
already taken and the development of a strong life within. This problem Martin
undertook to solve. He repeatedly called the attention of the Yearly Meeting to
the necessity not only of building up its pastoral service by the increase of
salaries and the construction of comfortable parsonages,(173) but also of providing “homes for
our aged ministers, some of whom in giving their whole time to the ministry
have been unable to provide for the needs of their declining years.”
Like those who
had served as General Superintendent before him, Zenas L. Martin gave a
definite bent to the policy of the Yearly Meeting. In pointing out the fact
that “most of our churches, for years, have followed with studied regularity
their methods, time and place of holding annual evangelistic meetings”, he
ventured to recommend the uniting with other denominations where feasible, both
for the salvation of souls and for the upbuilding of the communities where
Friends found themselves brought into contact with other churches. This plan
had frequently been tried, but of late years with little or no success so far
as Friends are concerned.
Having “received
a call from the American Board of Foreign Missions to take charge of the
mission work in the West Indies”, Zenas L. Martin resigned the superintendency
of the Iowa Yearly Meeting on April 1, 1900, and William Jasper Hadley, then
acting as the President of the Executive Board of the Evangelistic Committee,
was appointed to fill out the unexpired term.(174)
When
William Jasper Hadley read the report of the Evangelistic Committee in the fall
of 1900 it was clear to all that he was the logical successor to the
superintendency. As pastor of several of the most important congregations in
the Yearly Meeting,(175) as clerk of Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly meetings, and as
President of the Mission Board he had known the problems and conditions of the
home and foreign field probably better than any other man in Iowa. He accepted
the office, and for eleven years he performed the tasks of the position with a
devotion and with results which place him alongside of John Henry Douglas for
the services which he rendered to the Society.
While the first
General Superintendent labored chiefly in the work of evangelism, Hadley
concentrated his efforts on the perfection of a more effective form of church
machinery. The extent to which the former succeeded has been noted; while to
appreciate the full measure in which the latter accomplished his purpose, one
must view the organization through which the Superintendent does his work
to-day. Hadley persistently urged the consolidation of rural meetings into
circuits, the centralization of authority in the hands of the Evangelistic
Board, and the establishment of permanent funds for the care of aged ministers
and for church extension. He aroused a deeper appreciation of the problems
confronting the church.
William Jasper
Hadley resigned the office of General Superintendent in the fall of 1911, and
Harry R. Keates,(176) a man of wide experience
and great energy, became his successor. Evangelistic in his methods, the type
of ministry which Keates is bringing to bear upon the home field appears in the
following statement from his first annual report to the Yearly Meeting in 1912:
The preaching
demanded today is the same that has been blessed of God in the past to the
salvation of souls. Man’s utterly lost condition, the penalty for sin, the
Divine provision for salvation, man’s responsibility for accepting this on
Divine terms, its results here and hereafter are fundamentals which cannot be
ignored.
The vigor with which the new Superintendent entered upon his work surprised and almost alarmed many members of the Society. For some time the meeting at Marshalltown, Iowa, had been torn and rent with factions to such an extent that it was on the verge of breaking into pieces. In a manner that in the light of ancient Quaker democracy seemed arbitrary, the Evangelistic Board intervened and enforced its right to adjust the difficulties. A storm was raised, and the Yearly Meeting was asked to give its ruling in the case.(177)
Keates has also grappled with the problem of reenergizing the ministry of the Yearly Meeting on an evangelical basis. Constantly moving from one Quarterly Meeting to another, he has throughout the field called the ministers and workers into special conferences to discuss the problems of each particular charge. Here again adverse criticism has found expression. Undaunted, however, at passing obstacles, Keates has continued his work with an enthusiasm which promises to put new vitality into the Society.
168- The years served by each of the General Superintendents of the
Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends are as follows: John Henry Douglas, 1886-1890;
Isom P. Wooten, 1890-1895; Zenas L. Martin, 1895-1900; William Jasper Hadley,
1900-1911; Harry R. Keates 1911-.
169- The writer is indebted to John Henry Douglas for a brief sketch
of his life, prepared in May, 1913.
170- John Henry Douglas states that he began preaching in 1853.
171- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Orthodox) Friends,
1889, p. 19; 1891, p. 21.
172- Zenas L. Martin was born in Yadkin County, North Carolina, near
the old home of Daniel Boone, in 1855. He came to Iowa in 1859 with his parents
Daniel H. and Belinda (Reece) Martin, who settled at New Providence, Hardin
County. Here he made his home until he entered the services of the American
Board of Foreign Missions in 1895. He is now the Superintendent of the Friends
missions in Cuba.
173- In connection with his annual report in 1897 Zenas L. Martin
made the following recommendation: “I would recommend that,…. All our meetings
which have not parsonages consider the matter of building next year, and that
there be liberality in the size and convenient arrangement of them. It would be
well for good cupboards and closets to be made in all houses, and that stoves
be furnished, so that in moving ministers may be saved the expense of handling
heavy furniture.”—Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Orthodox) Friends,
1897, pp. 23, 24.
174- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Orthodox) Friends, 1900, p.
11.
175- William Jasper Hadley was born in Hendricks County, Indiana, in
1848. He came to Iowa in 1870 and settled in Dallas County. From that time on
his career runs as follows: farmer, teacher, Superintendent of Indian Schools,
deputy to County Treasurer of Dallas County, 1888-1890, County Superintendent
of Schools, preacher and pastor, General Superintendent of the Iowa Yearly
Meeting of Friends, 1900-1911, pastor of the Friends Church at Des Moines,
1911-1913.
176- Before accepting the evangelistic superintendency of the Iowa
Yearly Meeting of Orthodox Friends, Harry R. Keates had served in a like
capacity in the New York Yearly Meeting. Later he had been for three or four
years the pastor of the Friends Church at Des Moines, Iowa.—See Minutes of
Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Orthodox) Friends, 1912, p. 8.
177- In its report, the committee to which was referred the subject
of the Evangelistic Board having been granted “absolute authority to take such
action as may seem right in the case”, “where differences exist likely to cause
hurt to a meeting” (Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Orthodox) Friends, 1910,
p. 17), announced its approval. “Your committee believes, however, that our
Constitution already provides a complete method of dealing with all
‘differences’ which may arise and that, therefore, the above resolution is in
conflict with it.”—Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Orthodox) Friends, 1912,
p. 14.