Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1917-10-09
OF
PIONEER PREACHER
Rev. T. w. Owen of This City Gives
Interesting Story to News
paper Reporter.


dist conference, of which he is a
member, in Lincoln. While there a
reporter interviewed Rev. Owen in
relation to his early experiences in
that state and the following interest
ing story, published in the Lincoln
Journal, was the result:
The difference between the ap-
pointments made fifty years ago and
today are decidedly different. Rev.
T. w. Owen of Webster City, Iowa,
who has seen fifty years of active
service in the ministry of the church
and is now retired, came to Nebras-
ka in the late seventies and was CIV
en- charge as missionary on the
frontier. He considered as his cir
cult or appointment all the territory
from Beaver City to Colorado and
from the Kansas line to Curtis. OF
course it took some time to cover
this territory. Meetings were held
in school houses or in the homes of
some prominent man in the neigh
borhood who invited the minister to
hold services in his house.
Rev. MI. Owen states that his first
salary was 1870 for the first year.
With this sum he was expected to
support his wife and keep the church
in running order. Produce was the
same All cash when it -anne ts>the
preachers salary. Often the mem
bers Of his congregation would bring
in load of produce, chicken or
load Of straw as their share of the
preachers salary. Sometime the
preacher would get the worst of it,
in condition of produce but it was
his part never to complain.
When Rev. owen began preaching
in New York state the war broke out
and the results of the war began to
be seen in his congregation. Funeral
sermons were many. Crepe was on
nearly every door and a majority of
the people in the congregation were
in mourning.
Rev. owen tells of an Indian scare
which caused him to lose his congre-
cation while on the circuit preach
ing in Nebraska. when I came to
he explains, 81 was
preaching at Cambridge and Indian
ola as part of my work. Wilsonville,
where l was sometimes accustomed
to preach was the scene of an Indian
raid. The plan of the Indians was to
run their horses as fast as they could
and then exchange them for horses
they could steal from the ranch own
ers and cattlemen in Nebraska and
thus keep ahead Of the United States
troops. At one station in Nebraska
the Indians met with resistance and
eleven persons We're killed.
"There was therefore, some ex-
citement in this part Of the country.
I was going to preach at house of
one of my parish fourteen miles
south of Cambridge one Sunday |
as usual. l reached the top |
of a rise in the ground where |
should be able to see the group OF
houses where I was to preach and to |
my surprise no one was in sight.
drove up to the house thinking that
some mistake had been made and the |
people had gone to the school house
TOR the service. AS l was turning !,
away from the house / saw two men, |
gun in hand, leap on their horses |
and call me to halt. recognized |
one as the superintendent of my Sun
day school and he told me that there
were seven thousand Indians moving
down the valley and that the people |
had gone to the school house for pro-
lection. They urged me to turn
back and l returned to Cambridge. |
| later learned there were no Indi-
ans at all. The frontiersmen had seen
in the moonlight a bunch of cattle
men moving south with their cattle
and remembering the Indian raid,
jumped to the conclusion that there
were seven thousand Indians moving
to attack and at once left their
homes and fortified themselves in
the school house."
The meeting of the Methodist la
dies aid society has been postponed