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Page 13 text:
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A PIONEER PASTOR N the first issue of St. Paul's V3 ' ' ' 0 first newspaper, the St. Paul Al Ii Pioneer, which made its ap- . O pearance on the twenty- eighth of April, 1849, was the following statement: Rev. Mr. Neill, a member of the Presbytery of Galena, is expected to preach at the school house on Bench street, next Sunday, ftomorrowj, at ti if 6755559 755-7356-7 eleven o'clock in the morning. Thus was the first Protestant missionary resident of St. Paul introduced to the territory in which he was to play so interesting and important a part. -1- 4- It was on April 23, 1849, after a stormy, difficult trip, marked by days of rain and cold, that the steamboat Senator docked at the Jackson street landing in St. Paul. When the stage was out, a young Presbyterian minister stepped ashore and set out to acquaint himself with the little hamlet to which he had been commissioned at his own request. It did not take him long to survey the few stores and private homes then clustered about Third and jackson streets, with a little log chapel be- longing to the Roman Catholics overlooking the town from the westward. Fmsr DAYS IN A FRONTIER VILLAGE Walking up Bench street, which lay to the south of Third, young Neill passed a rude shanty, and becoming interested in its dusky interior, he entered and found himself in the office of the St. Paul Pioneer, a very young paper. In fact, the first issue of the Pioneer was just then in the process of preparation by James M. Goodhue, a native of New Hamp- shire, and a graduate of Amherst College. This last must have been delightful news for the young pastor, for he, too, was an Amherst man, having received his Bachelor of Arts degree there in 1842. Young Mr. Neill immediately subscribed for the paper, and then sat down to write an account of a drowning which had occurred at a place near Prairie du Chien when the Senator was on its way up-river. In this incident was the beginning of a friendship between two of Minnesota's greatest pioneers, both of them deeply interested in the progress of the state, both of them contributors to her progress, although in different ways. The following Sunday Reverend Neill for the first time addressed his new congregation. There is something very stirring in the thought of what that first Sunday was to the group of people who gathered in the schoolhouse to hear a sermon by the young man from the East, who had refused the pastorate of one of the largest churches in Galena, Illinois, to plunge into a new territory farther west. BoY1sH Diusnms AND lVlANHOOD,S Rnnuzn- TION The pioneer spirit colored all the life of Edward Neill. Even as a boy in Philadelphia, where he was born in 1823, he had a longing for a life of adventure that expressed itself in a boyish desire to become a marine. With maturity this passed, but the old enthusiasm for adventure remained. After graduation from Amherst he began theological training under the Reverend Dr. Albert Barnes, and the Reverend Dr. Thomas Brainard, both emi- nent divines of Philadelphia and friends of the Neill family. However, before his ordination to the ministry in 1848, young Neill taught school in Virginia at a point near Maryland. It was while here in 1847 that he married Miss Nancy Hall of Snow Hill, Maryland, and made his definite decision to go into the min- istry. But the pioneer spirit drew him west- ward and he chose to be ordained by the Presbytery of Galena, Illinois, the following year. Then for two years, from 1847 to 1849, he was a home missionary among the .miners at Elizabeth, Illinois. It was at the end of this time that the old lure of the unexplored again seized him, and he requested the School Missionary Board to send him to the new ter- ritory just north of Iowa. It was characteristic of the man that after receiving the commission he took the first boat for the new territory. 0 Q O Q 0 4 'N ' ffww-lf N '557b6T'567f5t Y
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Page 14 text:
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Neill had been in St. Paul only a few weeks when he was delegated by the Presbytery of Galena to attend the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at Philadelphia in May. The trip was productive of good things for the little parish in St. Paul, for friends and relatives who saw Neill gave him considerable financial aid towards the erection of the First Presbyterian Church in St. Paul, which was also the first Presbyterian Church in Min- nesota. While the little building was being built, services were held in the old Central House, which then served as both hotel and temporary territorial capitol. On November 29,1849, the First Presbyterian Church was opened for worship, although the installation of elders did not take place until the, first Sunday of January, 1850. The Pioneer, in referring to the latter service, mentions the fact that J. W. Selby and W. H. Tinker were officially recognized as elders, and that com- munion was administered. It says further that the Reverend Dr. Williamson of Little Crow Mission was present with several of his native Sioux, who are communicants of his church. The doctor made some very affecting remarks both in English and Sioux, alluding to the union of communicants of different colors and races, and believers present were invited to unite. A CHURCH is BUILT Four months later, before its newness had worn off, the little church was destroyed by fire-the first conflagration since the organiza- tion of the Territory. The congregation, led by their undaunted pastor, immediately set to work securing funds for a new building, .and purchased a lot on the corner of Third and St. Peter streets. This undertaking was far more ambitious than the first, for the new 'church was to be of brick and to have a 'bell in its steeple. The bell, the largest in the Territory, arrived by steamboat one Saturday in Sep- tember, 1850, and with the efforts of car- penters and blacksmiths was hoisted into the belfry of the new church. That night at nine o'clock its first tones sounded over the hushed i-A . 7 In 7 IK. I Y W mf I Tin WWQIM I T555 156: rfc new If' on rcs cu .ef.-.'I Ax... Y.. ,. AY,,, ,If.,.,. ,, V ,,,w,,A,,,,,,,W,-3 frontier town, causing consternation among the Indians in the village below . . . but awakening pleasant memories among the white settlersfhi The next two years were busy ones for Reverend Neill, on alternate Sundays he preached to settlers at St. Anthony and Fort Snelling, besides doing regular work within his own parish. In 1850 he was instrumental in forming the Presbytery of Minnesota, and was also active in organizing the first Presbyterian Sunday school. Meanwhile he had built a home on Fourth street near Washington. It was the first brick residence north of Prairie du Chien. In Andrews' History of St. Paul there is a passage telling of the erection of this house and how the Indians watched . . . with wonder, as they had not before seen bricks. They seemed to them to be as well adapted for pipes as the sacred red pipe-stone, and coveted them. Some even took a few without leave, and as they wore no capacious hats, hid them under their blankets, and carried them to their village, but when they began to scrape them were disappointed in finding that like 'Apples of Sodom' they turned to dust. THE TE1uuToRY's FIRST THANKSGIVING The first proclamation for a Thanksgiving day was issued by Governor Ramsey in 1850, and in accordance with its suggestion the twen- ty-sixth of December was set aside. On this day the congregations of the Baptist, Presby- terian, and Methodist churches gathered at the Methodist church, where Reverend Neill preached a Thanksgiving sermon with the text, The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. The sermon, which was later published in one of the papers, spoke of what a change has taken place in the town since the meeting of the first legislature last year. Then only the log chapel of the pioneer and a small house of worship were to be seen from this plain, now, 'behold, crowning the bluffs, four church edifices of various styles of architecture which would not discredit an eastern village. Speaking with all the enthusiasm of eager youth, Reverend Neill concluded, Is there 'C. C. Andrews-History af St. Paul.
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