East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1910-06-09

Rev. Il. B. Ford Superintendent of
Portland Division.
The name of Rev. T. b. Ford, an
other former pastor of the Methodist
church In Pendleton has been dragged
into the Euster controversy in Port
yesterdays Oregonian:
That the troubles Of the Rev. w. T.
Custer and the Sunnyside Methodist
Episcopal church are the result Of q
deep laid conspiracy to make Rev. T.
B. Ford, of Hood River, superintend-
ent of the Portland district is the as
sertion made yesterday by friends of
the pastor.
The action of the official board of
the Sunnyside church in refusing to
pay Mr.. Euster's salary after June Is
is said to be part of this plot. Mr..
Euster contends that his acion Of the
board Is unlegal and in defiance of
the rules of the Methodist church,
besides being in open rebellion to the
bishop Of the Oregon conference.
The conspiracy is alleged to be di-
rected against both Mr.. Euster and
Rev. w. B Hollingshead, the present
district superintendent. The plan, it
is said, is to land Mr. Ford in Mr..
Hollinghead's place at the end of his
term, which will come at the meeting
Of the Oregon conference in Septem-
ber 1t is asserted a great many let
ters have been written by the social
ed conspirators. which confirm the
existence of plot on the part of Mr..
Ford and his friends and show that
the issue is not SO much against Mr..
Euster personally. Letters covering
400 pages are said to have fallen in
to the hands of those affected, prov
ing the existence of Mr.. Ford's ambi-
ton
Meeting Alleged Illegal.
The latest phase of the row is the
action of the board taken last Mon
day night. when it decided 1t would
not pay Mr. Euster's salary after
June IS. Mr.. Euster says this meet
ing was illegal, star chamber" ses-
sion, not regularly called as required,
from the pulpit. The action came as
a great surprise to the pastor, for he
did not know the meeting was to be
held until 10:30 o'clock that night,
when he returned from the Hawthorne
Park Tabernacle. Then Charles f.
Lemon told him of it. Mr. Euster said
of the affair:
'The meeting of the board had not
been called for Monday night but
announced at the tabernacle that there
would be n board meeting next Mon
day night. 1t was an Illegal meeting,
according to the rules of the Metho-
dist church, and an open rebellion,
but in line with the policy Of the fac
tion which desires to ruin the Sunny
side Methodist church. 1t was a most
dastardly thing to do toward a man
who has been trying to erect this
beautiful church and do his duty by
the people for the board to hold a
meeting without his knowledge and
declare to cut off the salary of the
pastor and set him and family adrift
81 have been sweet-tempered all the
way through this trouble. I have
continued to preach to the peo-
pie. For some time I had no man
agement of the finances of the new
building. That was taken away from
me some time ago by the building
committee. The committee dismissed
the architect and employed Fred G.
Oppenheimer, a carpenter TO super
intend the erection of the new church
and paid him more than the archi-
| tect fees, a pure graft,
"At meeting Monday night, Rev
Henry p Blake. who is not a pem-
ber of this conference, was chosen to
| preside
! When it came to a vote on the reso-
luton to cut off my salary. Mr.. Blake
! told the meeting that the action was
rebellion. but Herbert Gordon, one
of the leaders of the opposing faction
! declared. let it be rebellion then
am willing and ready to submit tc
/ the constituted authority of the
! Methodist church. and have no fears
of the result.
Il have said nothing unkind of the
! leaders of this faction, but have said
! if I have made mistakes l am sorry
| am not alarmed over the action ta'
ken. have received many assur'
ances of assistance and sympathy
over the telephone today. There Il
an investigating committee of five
with Charles T.. Lemon as chairman
which has been making a careful in
vestigation into all the details of th'
trouble, and will submit a full repor
covering every phase of the case. Bish
op Smith also has been investigating
the trouble"
Mr. Euster had nothing to say con
cerning the alleged conspiracy H
declared he would be loyal to tn
church. to the bishop and to the dis
trict superintendent and declared tina
he would continue to preach at sun
nyside and to live on bread and waite
if necessary.
Baby'S Vital Point.