Coshocton County, Ohio - Chapter 16: Ecclesiastical and Educational - Fraternal, 1909

Temperance Movement From The Crusaders To The.Rose Law

ECCLESIASTICAL AND EDUCATIONAL - FRATERNAL AND SOCIAL - THE MINISTER IN POLITICS - THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT FROM THE CRUSADERS TO THE.ROSE LAW.

.Within the secular scope of these chronicles, having more particular reference to temporal rather than spiritual or religious affairs, it is not feasible to go into the story of each church in every township. To do that means a chapter for every one, and in this year of our Lord, nineteen hundred nine, the church has grown to so great an institution over what*it was in the county's early days that a separate volume would be required to record denominational and congregational progress.

In the pages on the pioneer life are related the first efforts here in organized religious work. Today there are a hundred congregations in Coshocton County.

The Methodist membership is especially large. There are thirtyfour M. E. church buildings in the county, and every township is included in that list of houses of worship except Tiverton. Almost every town here has its Methodist church. The following places are represented, the congregations not in towns being listed in townships:

Nine Presbyterian congregations in Coshocton County have church buildings, the largest of which is the Coshocton edifice of white stone, among the most beautiful examples of ecclesiastical architecture in this section of the State. The other churches are in the northern and eastern parts of the county, also in Jefferson Township in the west. In the southern portion Virginia Township is well represented in the church at Adams Mills on the county line. Following is the location of Presbyterian congregations, all in towns except two:

Since the days of the courthouse services eighty years ago the Methodist Protestant membership has grown here to the extent of eleven congregations. About half the townships of the county have M. P. churches. The Rev. Stokely S. Fisher, present pastor in Coshocton, is known in literary work as a contributor of magazine poetry. The M. P. churches are located as follows:

Oxford Township Among the earliest churches established in the county is the Baptist, whose strength today is represented by fourteen congregations. Early in the nineteenth century the meetings at Coshocton were held in Wilson McGowan's tavern, and later in the courthouse. Services are now held.in Baptist churches at the following places:

Wakatomika Among the churches established in this county in later years is the Disciple, which now numbers five congregations holding services in their own houses of worship. Formerly, in Coshocton, meetings were held in City Hall, then in the modest frame building in Eleyenth Street, which has been succeeded by the Main Street church edifice. The Disciple churches of the county at.present include:

There are five Lutheran churches within our county borders at this writing. For years there was no work of organization in Coshocton where a considerable number of Lutherans came to live, and 'finding no church of their faith they gradually affiliated with other denominations. The Lutheran churches are located in Coshocton Chili Franklin Township Adams Township New Bedford

Four German Evangelical churches are in the county, principally in northern townships in regions populated mainly by descendants of early German settlers. The churches are situated in Coshocton Chili New Castle Township

Eight congregations of the Evangelical Association church are organized in Coshocton County. All are in the country north of the county seat, and largely in the northern tier of townships. Following are the places having Evangelical churches:

The growth of the Catholic church is a feature in ecclesiastical history of the county. Even since the comparatively recent days of Father Jacquet, who as a missionary priest attended Chattanooga and Little Rock, there has been such advance that besides the new building of Sacred Heart church in Coshocton, a school has been erected during Father Synan's charge. The school contains four rooms. There are

"125 pupils taught by five Dominican sisters. All grades are taught including a high school course. The advent of the French marked the beginning of the Catholic church in Franklin Township, more than half a century ago, and prominent among the organizers was Anthony Wimmer, Sr. At the same time a congregation met in the Killbuck log church, Monroe Township, and descendants of the early organizers are represented in today's church at Spring Mountain whose trustees include Joseph Krownapple, W. J. Krownapple and Joseph Haverick. In 1886 the Catholic congregations of Linton and Franklin townships consolidated, and a new church building, Our Lady of Lourdes, was erected in the southwestern part of Linton Township.

The United Brethren church of Coshocton advanced from meetings in City Hall fifteen years ago to the house of worship in Park Avenue. The membership grew to two hundred during the pastorate of the Rev. A. E. Fair. The church recently lost an earnest worker in the death of Charles W. Smith.

The United Presbyterian church appears in the earliest records of organized religious work in Coshocton County. Robert Boyd, pioneer member, assembled meetings in Keene Township when the county was only half a dozen years organized. Today the United Presbyterian congregations meet in Amity church in Keene Township, and in the Fresno church.

The Christian Union Church in Coshocton advanced to the present. building in 1904 through the constant labor of the Rev. I. B. Dillin, pastor.

The Episcopalian church service was among the oldest held in this region, as previously recorded herein. There is an Episcopal church at "The Knob," not far from Keene. The Episcopal congregation in Coshocton, now holding services in Carnegie Library, is arranging for the erection of a church building in Main Street.

In the care of her two cemeteries - Oak Ridge and South Lawn - Coshocton is fortunate in having the services of Superintendent Thomas Page whose work of beautifying our last resting place justifies all commendation.

The country school is still at a disadvantage in having all pupils from the A-B-C tot to the sixth-reader class mixed in one room under the one teacher's charge; and this condition may never be improved unless an economical system be devised for the transportation of pupils from country homes to graded schools, giving them the same advantages now enjoyed by town pupils. Thorough work has produced results highly creditable to the teaching profession of Coshocton County. ,

A tendency toward crowding new studies upon pupils who are not sufficiently drilled in fundamental acquirements of correct every-day speech, creditable letter writing, and a general knowledge of business and government is the serious defect of modern educational methods in some local quarters. There is also a question regarding the wisdom of the Coshocton High School curriculum conforming to university entrance requirements. Under that system the study of dead languages is a preparatory course for the two per cent of our high school graduates who go to college, but for the ninety-eight per cent it is regarded a waste of time which were much. better utilized along the line of broad, general education. The present educational unrest in the nation may yet abolish the dead languages from the universities, when they will no longer be retained in a high-school course out of dubious regard for antiquated prestige. Any change in the direction of specialization, however, is subject to criticism; for which reason the expansion of manual training is viewed with disfavor. Valuable school hours consumed by boys in planing boards, and by girls in sewing on buttons, are needed for more important work in such limited period of mental training. The use of the hammer and saw and needle is something that may be learned in their place out of school just as much as the use of any implement - miner's pick, farmer's plow, potter's wheel, or any other. And when we discard a dead language it is not necessary to consume the student's time with furniture-making. That accomplishment may enable him to undertake light house-keeping with home-made chairs and tables, but the same school hours devoted to a study of life-problems would benefit him much more in the days of exercising his vote to effect needed improvements in economic conditions, as, for instance, our taxing system. There is vital need for the voters of tomorrow learning more of citizenship, its powers and its duties. The political unrest in the country is strikingly shown in the increase in the Socialist vote of Coshocton.

Within the last year a night school has been supported by the taxpayers of the Coshocton Union School district. Eighty pupils, representing both sexes and ranging in age from fourteen to forty-five, came to the four teachers to be taught in fundamental studies, the general value of which was proved to these pupils by experience in the world of bread-winning.

Socially the city of Coshocton is free from elements of exclusiveness which open the door only to the golden key or the ancestral knocker. Were W. D. Howells to rise superior to his Fifth Avenue surroundings which give him an exaggerated idea of the influence of riches, and come instead into the greater world of the American commoner he. would see the worker an honored member of society; he would find in Coshocton that the worker is not excluded from fashionable functions, the dance, the reception, the card party, and other diversions of society. Literary and historical clubs and lectures are popular, while roller polo, the theatre and moving-picture shows are

Fraternal organizations are widely represented, including the Masons, Elks, Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows, Modern Woodmen, Forresters of America, United American Mechanics, Maccabees, Catholic Mutual Benefit Association, Pathfinders, National Union, Protected Home Circle, American Insurance Union, Woman's Relief Corps, King's Daughters, and women's auxiliary orders in various lodges. The Greek letter societies, Phi Sigma Chi and Alpha Pi, were organized by Coshocton High School graduates in recent years.

Religion and politics have been wisely kept apart by public sentiment in Coshocton County, exerting a certain restraint upon elements which would convert a minister of the gospel into a political wirepuller. But occasionally there have been exceptions when a misguided individual has imagined his position in the pulpit vested in him a political authority. Such a one made an assertion to the writer which shows to what extent personal vanity or blind egotism is excited in one become drunk with power. It was in the November political campaign of 1908, after the clergyman in question had been through the county local option fight the previous month which for him was replete with novel experience. There were days in succession, he related impressively, when his clothes were never off. With an air of supreme confidence he declared that he could elect or defeat any man. He wrote letters over the county calling on voters who opposed the saloon to support candidates whom he named as men after their own hearts. People knew how ridiculously the facts were misrepresented by the amateur politician in the pulpit, and the county repudiated his selections at the polls. Soon afterward he was asked to resign his charge, and he left the church." It is to be hoped that any future political activity in which he may enlist will be freed from an unholy alliance with a probate judge who treats children's snowballing as a crime.

Temperance movements in Coshocton County are described in Rey. William E. Hunt's historical writings as dating back to the days of the Washingtonians, the Sons of Temperance, Cadets of Temperance, Good Templars, and Women's Leagues. About forty years ago the saloon issue was before the people of Coshocton in the election of mayor and council. The Citizens ticket which represented anti-saloon forces was elected by a vote of 143. The total vote for all tickets was 350. The new council passed the McConnellsville ordinance and Mayor Hiram Beall vigorously enforced the law, closing four saloons while others were placed under much restraint. The historian continues that "The taxpayers grew restive under the expenses of trials, and public sentiment failed to support the movement, and in due course put into the controlling municipal places those who, while preserving the form of the ordinance, had no sympathy with its spirit."

Four years later women in Coshocton organized a crusade, visiting saloons, praying on the sidewalk in front in rain and snow, exhorting saloonkeepers to close their business. Mass meetings were held nightly, and prayer meetings in the mornings. Men were asked to sign pledges not to drink, and women sat near saloons as pickets, blanketed and with warm bricks at their feet. Finally saloons surrendered their stock, with the understanding that they would be paid for it. Barrel heads were knocked in and the gutters ran with liquor, while the bands played, the church and courthouse bells rang, men shouted, and women sang and cried and prayed.

was wanted, and came in slowly. Somehow a great deal of liquor was still drunk. With little observable signs of trade - none when the pickets were around - the breath of many still had the odor of beer, or what even seemed more discouraging, whisky; because indicating a readiness to take stimulant in even more concentrated and damaging form."

The change in public sentiment appeared in the next election, and soon thereafter the ordinance of 1870 underwent changes. Within six months after the beginning of the crusade Coshocton had more saloons than before.

Last October 22, under the new Rose law, an election was held by the county on the question of voting out the saloons. The petition for the election was circulated by men and women over the county. Church bells were rung before the election. There had been twentysix saloons, all in the city of Coshocton, and four were closed several weeks before election. The county option fight overshadowed every other issue in the political campaign that fall. People scarcely gave a thought to any other question, even of such national importance as the election of a President, while the one consideration regarding the public policy and fitness of candidates for local offices was the question "Are you wet or dry?"

The county option election drew out the heaviest vote ever polled in the county, 7,774. It resulted in an anti-saloon majority, rolled up by the townships outside Coshocton, excepting Crawford, the only one in the country that voted "wet." The city of Coshocton gave a wet majority of 877, but so large was the dry majority in the county that the anti-saloon vote carried the county by 584.

A month afterward no bar in the city sold liquor. A few dispensed near-beer and soda water. The rest were succeeded by other lines of business.

Coshocton has experienced a few months as a dry town as this record goes to press. Much liquor is bought elsewhere by mail and received here by express and freight, while suitcases are known to leave Coshocton empty and return loaded with wet goods. Beer drinking gave way to the whisky bottle in the hip pocket.