Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-10-06

Inc tribe OF Christians, SO-called,
are not extinct, even to this day" So |
wrote the learned Josephus some 40 or
seemed to think it strange that loyalty !
to Christ should last so long. But the /
Lord is their Shepherd, and, on the |
whole, He has led His people through |
green pastures and beside the still |
waters
Sunday school teaching, or its equiv
alent, has been in the world for cou-
pie of thousand of years. We are told
that was an important part of the
early Jewish educational system"
And the Roman Catholic church and
the reformers in its membership have
from time to time taught their chill
dren in the scriptures. Martin Luther
was, of all things, teacher and says:
when schools prosper, the church re-
mains righteous and her doctrines
pure. Young pupils and stu
dents are seed and source of the
church If we were dead, whence would
come our successors, if not from the
schools? For the sake of the church
we must have and maintain Christian
schools. They may not appear attrac-
tive, but are useful and necessary"
Sunday schools, somewhat the same
as we have them today, have been held
here and there, in America as well as
in Europe, but no effort at striving
Systematically to organize Sunday
school in every church was made until
a Mr.. Robert Raikes of Gloucester,
England, took hold of the idea in A.
D. 1880. 1t was the impulse that he
gave the work that reached Rock Is
land county 60 years later. Not that
it took 60 years for the good people
to see any good in a Sunday school,
but the westward course of empire"
had not yet reached so far into this
western paradise. Rock Island county
was then and for decades afterward
still a place where every prospect
pleases and only man is vile
Braved Danger From Indians.
A lady 81 years young" and still
hearty and who came here in A. d.
1886, told me that one William Bell
used to walk from his home in little
village called Pennington (Ferrens-
burg), up the river, TO a settlement of
farmers, where he was their ''class
leader" every Sunday. and that his
wife worried considerably over these
trips of his. She feared the Indians
would waylay and kill him. 1t is writ
ten that this settlement had the first
Sunday school in Rock Island county,
and that my "91 years young" inform
ants husband was its first superin-
tendent, and that it was organized in
1885, probably in June" of that year.
How charmingly interesting. Let us
digress just second. Our young su-
perintendent had arrived from Pennsyl-
vania only that year; took up land,
and in the autumn was to return to the
old Keystone state to marry my in
formant. But man proposes" etc.
The old Mississippi froze up, and there
was no wedding until the following
May; then a three weeks trip down
the Ohio and up our old river, brought
the couple back to the settlement, and
to the Sunday school. We will all re-
joice in the fact that the good Lord re-
warded this patriarchal superintendent
by making one of his sons bishop in
the Methodist Episcopal church, and
this bishop today is touching the lives
of thousands, perhaps we should say
millions, of the people of Africa, fol-
good
Wells n Common Name.
This Sunday school was held in the
home of the senior Joel Wells; the
superintendent was Michael ]. Hart
zell. They tell us that at that time {
stranger could call everyone he me-
MIR. Wells" and he would not be
wrong more than half the time. Today
a stranger might call anyone he meet:
on those same grounds either "Mr
Johnson" "Mr. Olson" or "Mr Swan
son." and be fairly sure of being right
We are told that all history is con
nected The writer, while visiting
fine old patriarch, also some go year,
young" in Moline last week, huntin:
material for this poor paper, glanced
up to the large clock to see the time
of day. "That elock,'' said Mr. Hub
bard, sis from the old Joel Wells, Sr.'s
home"-the home of the first Sunda.
school of Rock Island county. 1t woul'
seem that everything connected witt
Sunday school is continuously ant
perpetually useful.
1t sounded strange to hear Mr.. Huh
bard tell of driving to Galena to pun
chase lot, from German there, OIL
which to build the First Congregations
church of Moline; and that he paid TO
the lot in British and French money
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