The Opelousas courier., 1896-09-12
CHAPEL CARS. ;
THE PROJECT OF A TELEGRAPH
OPERATOR IN ARIZONA.
missionary Work by Railroad Among
Mining Camps and Cattle Ranges
The Interior Arrangement
of the Gospel Cars,

poIuef me the United State
n Mexico, to take charge of a tele
graph Office. The town is the center
OF a gold and silver mining region
and on Sundays and holidays wa
thronged with miners from thirty t.
forty miles around, while the Ions
rows of saloons, dance halls and gam
bling bells did q land office business
Murders and robberies were common
occurrences. Mr.. Wheeler had CONF
from a family of stanch Baptists, liv
ing back in Albany County, New York
and, unlike a large majority of the
young men amid the excitement of
mining region, retained his religious
zeal.
During the two years hat Mr..
Wheeler lived on the southern horde,
of Arizona he made numerous efforts
to establish a permanent passionate
there, but none was successful. Then
an idea came to him. 1t was to have
a railroad car built with a chapel in
it, SO that it might be hauled from
one mining town to another, for all
mining communities soon have a rail.
road built to them when they get to
be at all prosperous. Mr.. Wheeler
made careful drawings of the car he
had in mind, mapped out routes that
such a car might make in the Terri
tories, and studied the scheme from
every point OF view. A year later he
went back to New York and, with the
help of the foremost Baptist clergy
men of New York and Philadelphia,
laid his plans for missionary work in
the far West before the rich members
OF the evangelical churches. John D.
Rockefeller liked the idea and gave
him $4,000 toward the chapel car
scheme, and his daughter, Mrs.
Strong, Of Chica o, gave $4,000 more.
The late George w. Childs, of Phila-
delphia, gave $1,000 for Bibles and
literature to be carried in the car and
distributed in the homes of Western
pioneers. A fund of $4,000 was raised
among a dozen Baptists in DR.. Armit-
ages Churxxl in New York for main
tanning the chapel csr.
When the car was finished all the
Western and transcontinental railroad
companies gave Mr.. Wheeler free
permission to attach the car to any
regular freight Tor passenger train at
any time ION twenty-four hours no.
tice) when travel was to be made from
town to town, or when repairs were
necessary at railroad shops. The car
was named "Evangel." It has now
been in operation nearly six years.
and has travelled in every railroad
lo~calltY-in many localities a score of
times-from Mexico to British Colum-
bia and from the Rocky Mounta~to
the Pacific. Mr.. Wheeler was killedfn
a railroad accident last year, but in Ills
administration of the car over 1900
persons declared themselves converted
to Christianity in the "Evangel." r
The first work of retaining sinna1ls
was along the line of the SOUTHERN
Pacific Railroad from Ell Paso, Tex,
to Yama, Ariz. The church on wheels
drew a vast number of people, who
probably could not have been induced
to attend worship in a common build
ing. The chapel a stayed at Benson,
Deming, Maricopa, Tombstone, and
Globe for weeks, and everybody,
miners, stage drivers, COW punchers,
saloon keepers, faro dealers, monte
men, and all-around tough men went
night after night to hear the "Light-
ming Parson,"., as Mr.. Wheeler was
known in the Territories because of
his dual occupation of preacher and
telegraph operator. A book of thrill
ing tales might be written of the work
of Mr.. Wheeler and his wife in the
hardest towns in Arizona and New
Mexico. From Arizona the car went
to lonely hamlets in the San Joaquin
Valley and along the coast in Cali
fornia, wherever there was railroad
communication. Then it went to Ore.
gon.
The practicability and usefulness of
the chapel car "Evangel' had been
demonstrated by that time, and the
American Baptist Publication Society
took in hand the building and equip
ping of two more chapel ears on Mr..
Wheeler's plans. The funds were con-
tributed by wealthy business men in
New England and New York City.
Andrew Carnegie, who had recently
been on a tour of the Pacific coast
and had seen the work the ''Evangel"
and it's missionaries were doing,
opened his purse for the new cars.
So since 1898 there have been three
new cars. The ''Evangel' has been
kept in the missionary field, along the
lines of the Northern Pacific, the
''Emanuel' has been employed along
the Union and Central Pacific routes,
and the "Judson" has been utilized
by a party OF young men on the West
branches of the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fe Railroad system. In
The last two years a fourth chapel car,
The ''Rope." has been used for services
among railroad men at important
and repair shop stations in
Oregona and Southwest Ter
ritories. Funds have now been col
|ected for a fifth chapel car for use in
The western hamlets Of Texas, the
indian Territory and Kansas, where
here are Christian people who have
40 places of religious worship.
The chapel cars are all alike in
arrangement. They are 20
'eet long, 10 feet wide and Il feet
high. Each has a seating capacity of
40, and twenty or thirty more may
seats in the aisles when there is
The cars have cost, with all
equipments, some $40, 600. The in
erior is finished in light polished oak
md bird's-eye maple. The chapel
,art has a marrow aisle running through
he middle Of the car, and wide seats