The Bible School and Missionary Institute
Tremont City, Ohio
Taken
from Tears and Triumphs by John
William Harris (internet pages 144-155)
http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyctr/books/1801-1900/HDM1864.PDF
The summer of 1904 we spent in tent meetings until the fall, when we attended our first Congress of the Christian Nation Church at Tremont City. It was at this congress that Brother Gaskins asked my wife and me to take over the Bible School at Tremont City, which he had started a few months before.
FIRST
YEAR OF BIBLE SCHOOL -- (1904-05)
Preceding the opening of the school I went to Michigan near the place where I had held tent meetings to advertise the school and gather funds to set it in order. It was while holding a service one night in a little church building at Cedar Run, about eleven miles from Traverse City, that a crudely dressed young man of nineteen came to the front after the service and kneeled at the altar. When I asked him what he was seeking, he replied, "I would like to attend your Bible School but have no means to pay my way." I told him if he had the backbone he would be there, means or no means, for where there was a will there was a way.
It was in October just before the opening of the term, while I was doing some papering of the chapel ceiling, that the door was opened and a youth stepped into the room. He was dusty and shabbily attired, having unkempt, long hair showing through the holes in his seedy hat, with no socks on his feet and his toes sticking out at the front of his shoes. Smiling he looked up at me trying to hang a long piece of paper on the ceiling and said, "Can't I help you, Brother Harris?" At first I did not recognize him, but scrutinizing him closely I saw it was that young man I had met at Cedar Run, having the same outfit on that I had seen him wear while there -- Ross V. Willobee. He had taken my words literally, sold a calf which he owned, and paid his fare to Tremont City with nothing left. Neither had I any funds to take care of him; but the Lord did have for he saw a diamond in the rough. After helping to get some of the buildings in order to take care of the few students that came, he shucked corn for the farmers around the village for half a day at a time, gave me what he had earned, about fifty cents, and then attended classes the other part of the day, studying late into the night. He was a good worker, so the farmers told me. After all the corn was shucked in the vicinity, he came to me and said, "I am leaving to earn some money for the next year's term of school and will be back next fall." I told him if he was willing to help in the work around the school, I would see him through his school year. As the tears coursed down his cheeks, he said, "You and Sister Harris have been a father and mother to me, and I cannot repay you." He yearned for love, sympathy, and kindness, and Sister Harris and I tried to supply this need, for his mother had died while he was a baby. His stepmother had no liking for him and his father was unsympathetic, though Ross was a good worker on his father's farm and in his home community, as I afterwards learned of his neighbors.
He thought he was saved before he came, but several days after entering school he became deeply convicted of sin, earnestly sought the Lord for pardon with fasting, and prayed late at night in his room. Early one morning after a night of prayer we heard him come down a flight of stairs from his room. Entering my office, he said, "The Lord has saved me." I said, "No, Brother Willobee, go back to your room until you get the witness of the Spirit." Going back, he again was heard in earnest prayer. A half hour had passed when with a shout of victory, he came bounding down the stairs three steps at a time and entered my room with a shining face glorifying God. He truly had gained the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ, and none now could make him doubt it. Sometime later he was brightly sanctified, and little by little his uncouthness passed away. For three years he was with us until we closed the school. He would work some during the summer vacation, hold meetings wherever he found an open door, and would return for the fall and winter term of school. We loved him as one of our own children.
The
attendance at the Bible School that first year was very small, not over
fifteen students. Some of the neighbors took a stand against us, because of
evil reports spread, and finances as well as provisions became very scarce.
One Saturday evening we had nothing to eat for the pupils over the Sabbath.
About dusk there was a knock on my door; and when I opened it, a man handed me
five dollars saying, "The Lord impressed me that I should give this to
you." This supplied our immediate needs. At another time we had need of
fifty dollars to meet a certain obligation. We prayed about it and left it
with the Lord. "The next morning when the mail came in, one of the
letters contained a check for fifty dollars.
Our boys tried to get some wood to cut up on shares to supply the heat for the building; but though there was plenty going to waste in the community around, those who had it refused to let us have a stick, telling one another they would freeze us out -- but we didn't freeze out. Going to the store for some groceries one morning, I was informed that several loaded coal cars had left the track and had gone over a steep embankment, the coal being scattered in a man's field. To recompense the man, the railroad company sold him all the coal in his field at only a fraction of its worth. It was the best coal on the market, which at that time sold for six dollars a ton at retail. The farmer sold the coal at one dollar a ton as it lay in his field. But I had not a cent with which to buy a single ton. On my way home a man stopped me and gave me ten dollars for the school; then I was stopped by another man who said, "I have a team and a wagon. and if you want to buy any of that coal I will haul it free." I got ten tons, enough to last us through that first winter.
It was in March, 1905, that I closed this first term of Bible School . . . During this summer campaign in Michigan there were several brought to Christ, not only converted but a few sanctified, and some funds were given for the Bible School at Tremont City to get the building ready for the fall and winter term of 1905-6. It was before the opening that I was invited to give a series of Bible lessons in a campmeeting at Sulfur Lick near Chillicothe, Ohio. Coming to these services was a beautiful girl of about twenty-five, Miss Edith Flesher, with three of her friends. One night while I was preaching upon the subject of hell and its inmates, the Spirit of the Lord struck her with deep conviction. Turning to her companions she said, "He'll not get me to go to the altar." It was only a moment after this statement, that she fell on her face in the straw like one who had been shot. There was a death-like stillness upon the congregation. Finally she jumped to her feet with a look of despair and began to slowly walk with her face upward saying, "I'm in hell! I'm in hell!" Her voice sounded like one in deep despair. This deep conviction stayed with her until the next day when she was brightly saved. That same night in which Miss Edith was convicted one of her companions, Blanche R., was also thought under deep conviction and was later saved. That fall both of the girls attended the Bible School, where Sister Edith was sanctified.
Returning to Tremont City, we made several rooms out of the large opera-stage in the rear of the upper story of the building, leaving the big audience room forty by sixty feet. at the front for assemblies on special occasions. Then we went to Columbus where there was a friend dealing in secondhand goods, who gave us furniture and other furnishings for the rooms.
The opposition to the Bible School was now more intense. We were unable to secure coal for the winter without paying a large price for it. We went to Ironton and there secured a carload at a very low price paying cash for it. The coal looked rusty on the outside, and several of the people made sport of it thinking I had been cheated, but it proved to be an extra good grade. The surplus above which I would use during the winter, I tried to sell; but not a person would take any of it. I put the entire carload into the cellar of the building to be used the following year. At that time, flour was seven dollars a barrel at retail, and I could not get a single concession for the school. But a French lady and grocery keeper introduced me to a wholesale flour merchant who owned a mill not far from Tremont City, and he let me have his best flour at three dollars a barrel delivered, and offered to trust me several months for the pay, but I had the cash to pay for it. In many other ways the Lord raised up friends for us.
THE
SECOND YEAR OF BIBLE SCHOOL -- (1905-06)
That year's Bible School term opened November first, 1905, with a good attendance of students. It started with several days of revival services in which some of the students were saved and sanctified, also a few from the surrounding districts including members from the Methodist Church in the town. This brought opposition from their pastor, and he spoke against the school. This opposition increased during the year.
One of those attending the services was a man working for a farmer near the village. He had been seeking earnestly for several nights, until he became so desperate that one evening before he came to the meeting, he put his revolver under his pillow and declared he would blow his brains out if he did not get relief that night At the altar he prayed until I closed the service, yet refused to give up. Finally he said to me, "Go to bed. I'm not going away till I get saved." I stayed with him until about one o'clock that night, and after an intense struggle he obtained the victory.
One Sabbath night, the French lady, (the storekeeper of whom I have spoken), came to the altar. Soon she arose, hastened out of the room, and was gone about a half hour before returning. Then she again went to the altar and soon prayed through. She had gone to her store where she had tobacco and some other things which she felt she could not sell to the glory of God, and these she put into the stove.
It was during this second year of school that we became interested in foreign mission work and began to support it. Two outgoing missionaries to Quito, Ecuador, South America, Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, stopped with us a few days and spoke to the student body about their future field of labor in that benighted country which was just opening up to gospel work. After reaching their field of labor, we at various times sent them financial support. Later Brother Sherman and his good wife from the Vanguard Home, near St. Louis, Missouri, came during the Christmas season and brought with them Miss Luema Angel, a missionary who had been in India for six years and was at this time on a furlough. In these humble people of God we became greatly interested. They were a great blessing to the School. This was the first spiritual effort put forth in foreign missionary work in the Christian Nation Church.
This second term of the Bible School ended the latter part of March, with more severe persecutions, slanderous reports being spread about the institution. Several in the town sympathized with us, but took no open stand for us because of fear of what men would say. The school authorities of the town tried to force our younger students into the public school, but we sent them home at the holiday season and told them not to return until we could make better arrangements for them. Yet much good was accomplished during that winter's term . . .
It was at this time we had a strong desire to attend the Vanguard Camp Meeting held in August on the Marvin Camp grounds, twelve miles from St. Louis, on the road to St. Charles. Rev. C. W. Sherman at that time was the superintendent. It was he with his good wife and Miss Luema Angel, who had been at our Bible School during the Christmas Convention the winter before . . . Soon we were back in Tremont City making ready the building for the fall and winter term of Bible School.
THE
LAST YEAR OF THE BIBLE SCHOOL -- (1906-07)
The Christian Nation Church had its Annual Congress in the School building at Tremont City in September . . . It was at this Congress that the Bible School property was turned over to the School by the Christian Nation Church, and in October it was incorporated under the laws of the State of Ohio, called "Bible School and Missionary Institute," and received a charter from the State, dated November 7, 1906. The names of the incorporators were Brother Gaskins, Ross V. Willobee, Sister Harris and myself.
The school term for the third year opened, October sixteenth, with a large number of students in attendance. In the beginning of the term there was a revival season of two weeks at which time several of the students prayed through as well as some in the village and the surrounding districts. One of the special rules of the school was: The boys and girls were to keep separate, except in the classes, were not to go out on the streets without permission, and the younger girls were to be chaperoned by an elderly woman when on the street. Though the past year had been one of great opposition by Satan's forces, now it was to be increased many fold. Some of the parents and guardians had sent their older girls and boys to the school to be under religious environment and instruction; but the school authorities in the town sent orders for those of scholastic age to attend the public school. To keep from having any trouble I sent these students to their various homes. Then a citizen of the town wrote and had published in a Springfield paper several articles against me and the school, intimating the morals were low. These I undertook to refute by saying I had been educated in that city, had been in business there, and had borne a good reputation; also that I could produce excellent recommendations as to scholastic ability and character. But nothing I wrote to the city press availed anything, as all was denied by this Tremont City correspondent who said I was an impostor.
Before this a young married woman, who claimed to get converted in one of our meetings and was called to the mission field, became an influential worker among the student body as well as with the Christian women who attended the services, and took part. She finally became enamored with one of our Christian young men who was a student. I warned him to be on his guard, and he avoided her. Thinking I had something to do with it, she became an enemy and secretly worked against me and Sister Harris, who at first was deceived by her profession. She used her influence to cause me much trouble, especially from some who were members of a secret order in that place.
At night hoodlums, urged on by the ill-disposed, would throw large rocks against the strong paneled doors of our bedroom facing the street, to the terror of Sister Harris, especially when I was absent; or they would take large clubs and beat on the outside walls and doors. In order to protect our lower windows we put up heavy shutters, but they threw rocks against these. Even in the daytime boys, standing at a distance with target rifles, would shoot through the windows, endangering the lives of the students. After dark we could hear the crashing of window lights in the large auditorium of the upper story by rocks being thrown through them, some being picked up in the room as large as a man's fist. Not a large glass in all the upper story was left whole. One night when I opened an outside door, a gun cracked and a rifle ball struck the building close to the side of my head. If I went out at night it was at the risk of my life. These hoodlums were secretly encouraged in this by some of the evil-minded citizens, and we could get no official protection, though we asked for it.
There was an elderly man, a real estate agent who lived in the village and pretended to be a friend to the school. At times he would make a small contribution, and in the religions services he would shout like one that was overflowing with joy. One day he inquired of me about the financial condition of the school property, but I gave him no satisfactory answer. It was a few days after this that the Mead brothers, who had sold the building and held a mortgage against it, came to me and said they wished I would pay up the interest on the notes they held, as we were back several dollars. I told them I would see about it immediately. The Mead boys were not very good financiers and this real estate man had been to them secretly, offering them cash for the property if they would sell it to him. One day a man came to me and said he had heard I was from the town. This man tried to draw me out concerning the trouble I was having and also the financial condition of the school, especially the property. I refused to divulge anything until he said, "You need not be afraid to talk. I know all about the trouble you are having and the Cause back of it. It is the lodge that wants the property. I was a member of it, but withdrew because I could not sanction their doings, besides I am now a Christian and do not want them to get the building." Then he told me the fraternal order for a long time had desired the building for a lodge hall, expecting to buy it cheaply. But when we obtained it for school purposes some were greatly disappointed and abetted the hoodlums in their evil deeds, hoping we would vacate so they could secure it. Also the man who had approached me to buy it was a leading official of the order. Moreover he said, "If you still owe anything on the property, I will advance all the money you need to pay for it, taking only your word that you will pay it back when you can."
With this assurance I went back to the Mead brothers and asked them to produce the notes as I was ready to pay them in full. I had taken along the receipts that they had given for the various payments made, and found, in their tastelessness, they had failed to endorse them on the notes. The interest not only had been paid, but the principal had been cut down. Seeing this, the brothers were fully satisfied and refused to consider the full payment, and the real estate dealer who had been offered several hundred dollars by the lodge to secure the property, was foiled in his hypocrisy. Later my brother-in-law, who was a member of the same order in the city, was converted and confessed he knew all about the cause of that persecution against me at Tremont City.
It was now the beginning of the new year and I contemplated closing the school for good; and, after the students had left, I offered at private sale all the equipment as well as what provisions were left over. But no one in the town seemed disposed to buy anything though I offered it at a fair reduction. Several thought I would have to dispose of it at any price to get rid of it, especially the coal which amounted to about eleven or twelve tons. A close neighbor, hearing about the coal I had, called me by phone and said he would take it all at my price. When others heard of this sale, several came, and soon everything except the bed clothing which I stored for future use was sold. The money received I banked to be used wheresoever the Lord designated in the future. Then the building was turned back to the Mead family who held it for religious services, refusing to sell it to the fraternal order. After these forty years the building has greatly decayed but still shows many of the scars received from the bombardment of rocks and other missiles at that time.
Sometime after I had left Tremont City, the real estate agent had a deal with another man who beat him out of his house and home in his old age. In his distress he became demented, walked the street and confessed how he had trifled with God's Spirit by making a false profession. Later he was taken to the asylum where he died. I heard that the man who had written those defamatory articles against me and the school, also came to a sad end. Others who had a part in this persecution, including some of the boys, suffered God's wrath; though I learned some afterwards repented and, got to God.
We left Tremont City in February, 1907, feeling we had been delivered from prison. It was in Springfield that our second child was born March 7, at my parents' home. We named him Samuel William Howard, the first name being after the Bible prophet; the second after Uncle William Gaskins, who so nobly stood by us in our severe trials, and the last, after our esteemed friends in Adams County, Robert Howard and family. This child became specially marked because of the severe ordeals through which Sister Harris went at Tremont City.
In the three years of the Bible School at Tremont much good had been done in the salvation of souls and establishing some of the students in the grace of God.
Note: I would like to obtain additional information about the events listed above, including the newspaper accounts of what occurred. To date, I have not been able to locate anything other than the account by John W. Harris. If you have any additional information about the school, anyone that attended, or events related to the school, please contact me at don@ratcliffs.net (This is not my working email address, but an address that is used to avoid spam. In response to sending an email to this address, you will receive an automatic response providing my actual email address.) Thank you for any information you can provide.