Three in One

“Have you heard the call yet” John Frederick asked his third son James Arthur after one of JA’s crescent hill services. “If so, what are you going to do about it?’

“Yes, yes I have and am going to dedicate my life to serving the Lord through full time ministry.” 

John Frederick beamed with pride as he recalled a similar conversation he had with his Dad, Nathan, 40 years earlier.

Nathan, my Great Grandfather, his son my grandfather John Frederick his Grandson my Dad James Arthur all heard the call.”

I asked Dad once how do you know if you got the call or not? He replied that you just know, you know in your bones that to be a preacher spreading the word of God is what you are meant to be.

Nathan, born 1841 spent his youth and young adult years working the Ohio Hocking County farmland with his Dad and brothers. When he was 10 years old his oldest brother went to work as a farmhand in Illinois. Not long after he saved a toddler from getting trampled by runaway horses. While doing so a blood vessel broke from the strain of holding a horse back and he passed within hours of saving that boy’s life. 

The unfortunate incident had a huge impact on Nathan as did his Dad, Daniel and is Mom’s faith. They both converted to being United Brethren members and helped to build a church structure.  UB’s as they were known was the first protestant organization that originated in the United States. The partnering founder of the denomination was a steadfast Abolitionist. The church took a strong stance against slavery in 1817 during their annual conference declaring that slavery in “in every sense of the word, shall be totally prohibited and in no way tolerated in our community.” As a result members were required to set their slaves free. There was a loophole but it was prohibited for any member to sell their slaves. In 1837 that loophole was closed and the church took the stance that any slave owners were prohibited as members of the denomination. A core tenant of the United Brethren was the importance of promoting Social Concern beyond salvation. To empathize genuine care for the total well-being of people. That Christians should actively work for the good of society.

Ohio contributed more soldiers per capita for the Union than any other state. Nathan had several cousins and acquaintances who volunteered including one, who had to fight to join as he was 57 years old. Strong from a lifetime of farming and tough as nails he took part in many major battles.

The last paragraphs of Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address inspired many Ohioans and others to join up. “My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well, upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied, hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

Source: Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler et al

Given his upbringing, his faith, relatives and friends that signed on Nathan decided that he too should volunteer, and in the summer of 1862 upon its founding joined the 114th Ohio Volunteer Infantry regiment. Troops were to serve three years, and as infantry soldier he took part in 11 major battles and several skirmishes in what was known as the Western Theatre of the Civil War. He and his company fought in the campaign leading up the siege and eventual capture of Vicksburg. Afterwards the 114th went back and forth between Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, and Alabama where they were involved in the capture of Fort Blakeley, the last major battle of that war.The regiment finished up in Texas where he mustered out in July 1865. From there he made his way back  to Ohio. Two months after doing so he married Emily Jane.

No doubt Nathan experienced the horrors of war. The 114th took part  in fierce hand to hand combat during assaults on Vicksburg. Use of knives, musket buts, bayonets took the lives of many. As did disease. One third of his 900 man regiment did not live to the end and several dozen others were too injured to continue on. 

Not long after his marriage he embarked on a 46 year career as a UB and Christian Union denominations minister. The first forty of those he was engaged in full time ministry. Nathan and Emily’s first child Sarah Emilyne was born September 3, 1886, in Ohio and passed away August 1887. Records do not indicate where she died. February 15,1868 their first son, Daniel Horace was born in Jasper County Illinois. Second son George Ellsworth born in Illinois also but only lived one month. The third son, my grandfather John Frederick was born 9/24/1874 in Ohio, as was his younger brother James Givens. Census records show that in 1880, Nathan was registered as being a preacher in Huntington Township Ohio. These birth and census records indicate that Nathan’s ministry took place primarily in Illinois and Ohio. He also served some churches in Marion Township and Madison County Iowa.

Given that he grew up doing farm work and the churches he served were often in rural areas there is a strong likelihood that he continued working the land during his full-time ministerial years.

Emily passed away in 1903 at the age of 58. Nathan remarried a few years later and remained in Iowa till moving to live with his son, my Grandfather John Frederick Eveland in rural Vida Phelps County Missouri. There he died at the age of 73  on November 26, 1914.

It is easy to think that two or the biggest decisions of Nathan’s life, marrying fellow United Brethren member Emily Jane, and devoting his life to bringing hope to others, stemmed from his time as a soldier. Many in the Army were religious and prayed often. There was at least one occasion in between the two assaults on Vicksburg where union and confederate troops mingled on days when truce was in place while corpses were removed. He would have learned that both sides sang many of the same hymns, and prayed to the same God for strength to carry on.

Two of his five children died young, the only daughter after just 13 months and second son not even one month. He must have possessed great mental strength to take care of his congregation in the midst of personal sorrow. I think that strength of belief was passed down to his son, Granddad John Frederick and Grandson, my Dad, James Arthur.

Grandfather John Frederick, became a United Brethren at a young age. Like his Dad, Nathan, and Grandfather Daniel he believed and lived by the four tenets of their denomination  which were::

1 - Adherence to the confession of faith. The doctrinal statement set forth  essential beliefs on God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Church, the Bible, salvation, and the ordinances. While there may  be  differences of interpretation on non essentials there is no tolerance for diversity in the core doctrinal policies.

2 - Respect for Unity amidst Diversity. The Church values diversity in worship, Bible versions, social action, and others as long as there is no conflict with Scripture or the confession of faith. Mission and unity take precedence over rigged structures,

3 - Seeking the Lost. The movement was born with; a position to reach those who are “lost,” and to lead them to Christ.This includes not just conversion but discipleship, baptism, training in righteousness, use of spiritual gifts and holy living. Conversion is seen as a radical transformation of life, demonstrated by faithfulness and obedience.

4- Demonstrating Social Concern - beyond salvation. UB’s empathize with genuine care for the total well-being of people. This includes addressing social, economic, and moral issues. A belief that Christians should actively work for the good of society.

To sum up these tenets express doctrinal unity with diversity, mission to the lost as a social concern.  They balance doctrinal clarity with flexibility, activism with social engagement and unity with cultural adaptation.

Prayer before meals and daily devotions with the family were encouraged and practiced by the Evelands. .Frederick  was born in Vinton County Ohio September 24, 1874. The first 35 years of his life were spent in Ohio with 10 of those as a teacher. 

John married Clara A. Gire in a ceremony conducted by his Dad Nathan Eveland in Vinton, Ohio April 26 1903.Clara was 19 years old. Their first child, Nathan Raymond was born 8/7/1904 and on January 26, 1907 Twins Clarence Frederick and Lila Armanda came along. All three were born in Ohio.

In 1909 the family moved to Tipton Iowa where John Frederick started a ministerial career that lasted 38 years. Third son James Arthur was born 2/24,1911 in Tipton a fact he was most proud of as it allowed him to brag about being an Iowan born all his life. It must have been one heck of a journey from Ross County Ohio all the way to southern Iowa with a five year old and twins not even three.

After four years in Tipton they moved yet again to Phelps, County Missouri. John bought a small farm and continued his work in the ministry. There near Rolla daughters Dorothy, 1916 and Alberta, were born. A baby brother too who sadly did not survie long..

Church work did not pay much in those days and with six children to take care of there was just not enough money. John Frederick took a teaching gig for four years in addition to the farming and attending to his ministerial work as a circuit rider pastor for three different churches. Those church assignments did not add much to the family income. Clothing for the family was sent via barrels from mission minded churches.

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Life of a Circuit Rider Preacher in Western Missouri, Early 1900s

In the early 1900s, Western Missouri was still a frontier region for many rural congregations, and the circuit rider system—originally developed by Methodists in the early 1800s—remained a common way to minister to scattered settlements Wikipedia+1. A circuit rider was a traveling clergy member assigned to a geographic “charge” of two or more churches, often hundreds of miles apart, visiting each congregation regularly and sometimes establishing new ones Wikipedia.

Daily routine and travel
A typical circuit might cover 200–500 miles on horseback, with preaching points spaced days apart Heroes, Heroines, and History+1. Riders often preached every day, sometimes multiple times a day, and could spend months on a circuit before returning to base. In Western Missouri, this meant riding through farmland, small towns, and isolated farms, often alone, with minimal support The United Methodist Church

I don’t know how much of the above United Methodist description of circuit riders in John Fredericks era applied to him. For sure some of it did as he did not make much money from preaching for several years. He did cover three rural churches during those years which meant he would have been away from home quite a bit. It’s possible he may have had use of a car when serving his circuit, especially as the years went on.

The boys had to do what they could to ensure the family had enough food on the table. J Arthur time he was out of elementary school took care of his own clothing and shared whatever income he got from doing odd jobs, mostly yard work.

Despite the hardships the family did have fun. Fishing in nearby creeks, being thrown in stock ponds, hunting for game, blindmans bluff. 

Times got better. John Frederick moved on from circuit riding to assignments in Eagleville Missouri that provided a more livable wage which enabled him to stop teaching. 

That is where J Arthur went to grade school and graduated from High school.

Clara and John had another son, John Paul, in 1921, but he died nine months later. He and Clara also lost their oldest son, Nathan, who passed away in 1952 at the age of 48. No one was aware he had a critical condition until an operation for his back showed he had cancer of the spine. This took place just a few weeks before he died. Nathan was a minister for a number of years prior to taking up farming full time. He married Marie Melvina  and they had five sons and two daughters. Tragically one of their sons, Nathan Raymond, drowned in a stock pond  while attempting to rescue a playmate from drowning. He was just 10 years old. That same day Marie gave birth to a baby boy who died at birth. The two brothers were buried together. Marie died just two years after Nathan, she was 45. Their three remaining sons ranged in age from 15 to 26. It seems they took care of themselves after the passing of their parents. Harry and  Robert Paul (Pete) we used to see at Eveland reunions. George and John Clarence don’t think that I ever met them. Daughters LaDonna Joy and Sharon Kay 11 and 15 were adopted by relatives of the name Lark. I do recall  but after their Mother died never saw them again.

John and Clara’s son Clarence after service with the Army at Fort Leonard Wood developed diabetes. He recovered after a long period of rest and married Beatrice Phillips July 1. 1935. They had three children. The first, Clarence Jr. did not reach 6 months. Oldest daughter Barbara Ann died when she was 33. Second daughter Ruby Mae died when she was 62 in Kansas City.  It seems she was married but cannot find any evidence as to whether or not she had children.

John Frederick's other assignments included Adrian-Crescent Hill prior to taking up residency in Nevada, Missouri in 1941. While ministering the church in  Nevada he also served the Brookfield -South Eagle congregation. John officially retired in 1947 after 40 years of spreading the gospel at the age of 73. He continued to live in Nevada until his passing in 1957, and was known as the “walking preacher” as he walked everywhere with a bible in his hand.

Grandmother Clara no doubt faced many hardships as a pastor’s wife with several children to care for and a husband who was often away preaching the gospel and caring for congregants. As noted there were several heartaches along the way including deaths of infants and grown children. They both were mentally strong and rather than share their despair they brought comfort and hope to those in need.

She lived 10 years as a widow with her final five at Aunt Lila’s country home near Breckenridge, Missouri. Lila provided the care she needed which involved much lifting in and out of bed and wheelchairs. Grandmother kept her playful sense of humor to the end. At one clan gathering she took part in a gag every few minutes during mealtime saying “David got fat.”  After about the third or fourth time people were wondering if her mind was going but at that point I appeared with a huge stomach thanks to pillows under my shirt and all got a good laugh.

I was barely 8 years old when John Frederick passed. I did not have much contact with him but do recall he was very kind to us three brothers, always finding some loose change on our annual visits so we could go get some ice cream or see a movie. Much of his bearing is no doubt due to his Dad’s influence. Photos show their hands placed in the same position while sitting. Similar to a picture of JF standing with his heels touching while the feet turn outward, and a six year old me in the background standing just like him.

John Frederick was proud of his Eveland heritage and made a point as did his Dad Nathan, that wherever discovered Eveland's he did know of to write them. This way he found out that all with the surname Eveland derived from two who came to America during the Palatine great exodus of the early 18th century. He noted that Eveland's served at soldiers during the American Revolution, War of 1812, The Civil War, Spanish American War, and the world wars 1 and 11. It is also noteworthy that after his passing Eveland's continued to serve with honor during conflicts such as the Vietnam War.

He wrote that it was his pleasure to know that Evelands throughout the land were noted for their honesty, industry, and as peaceable, patriotic law-abiding citizens. What a legacy.

Eveland family reunion 1952 that is John Frederick second roll in the middle in between daughters Dorothy and Alberta. Clara is to the left of Alberta.

The next photo is of John and Clara with their six adult children. I think that photo is from the late 1940’s.

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Here is some of the story of our Mom and Dad. James Arthur (JA and or Art he was often called, and Mary Ellen (referred to as Ellen in her younger days).

February 24, 2011, James Arthur Eveland was born in the parsonage at Tipton, Iowa. He was the third son of Rev J. F. and Clara Eveland. When he was nine months old, he became seriously ill which left him very frail and small. At the age of four the family moved to northern Missouri. While in grade and high school he mowed yards and worked for an undertaker. He contributed what he could to the family’s income. Upon completion of high school JA determined to go to college. The great depression was underway, and it did not seem feasible for him to be able to continue his education. Near the time to start school he was still short of funds, so he hiked up to Iowa and shucked corn making enough money to allow registration for the winter quarter at Kiddar college. The next year that school closed its door and with just a few dollars he enrolled in Kansas City University. He was a member of their basketball team. Thanks to working evenings and weekends he had enough funds to complete the year.

Soon after a teaching assignment at a rural school was secured and later, he enrolled at Central Missouri State College, obtaining in 1936 a bachelor’s degree in education. Daily chapel was not mandatory at the school but most of the students attended for noon time devotionals. More than likely, Mary Ellen, his future wife, attended those same sessions but she being born November 6, 1913, was almost three years younger which meant they did not have any of the same classes and he did not get to know her till later.

Following graduation JA taught in a suburban school near KC Missouri, also coaching girls' basketball and eventually became the principal. John Frederick in 1939 was ministering the Adrian Crescent Hill Church, located just two hundred meters from Mary Ellen’s home. There was a Halloween party at her house which led to their striking up a friendship. John Frederick had a serious heart attack and James Arthur stepped in to finish out the year for his Dad. In the meantime, Mary Ellen and JA got married at her childhood home, the one below the hill of Crescent Hill on June 1, 1940. That summer a full-time appointment to the same Eagleville Church John Frederick that preached at, and there is where JA and Mary Ellen started their life together.

“Ellen” as her family called her at a daily young age moved from a good size house and farm near Sedalia to a smaller spot of land and a grey concrete home at the bottom of Crescent hill. Her Dad was forced to move due to the Great farm crisis of the 1920’s. The sixth and youngest child of Charles and Mary Jenkins, had three older brothers and one sister. The gap from Hubert to Ellen was 14 years, and her closest sibling, Ruth was nine. She did a lot of gardening, gathering eggs and so forth. The family did not have a lot of cash, but their farm and garden provided the food they needed. Mary Alexander’s hands were always busy. Preparing and cleaning up of meals, making and mending clothes, quilts, and stitching bible verses kept them busy. 

Older siblings looked out for their baby. When young she got a pony, Topsey and rode that horse everywhere. Even challenging Hubert’s oldest son, WK to races. One day they encountered a railroad section just as a train approached. Topsey and Mary Ellen sped across with WK having to wait to cross. Here is a photo of 5-year-old Mary Ellen with her siblings.

Mary Ellen was a top student, and by the time she finished high school was teaching grades K thru 12 at a one room schoolhouse. Her students learned and she was strict. An angry parent showed up with his buggy and threatened to whip her for not giving his son a good mark. The next day brother Paul who was the closest in age was at the school ready to confront the angry Dad. Nothing ever came of it after that.

Like her husband JA, Mary was determined to go on to college. She saved and scrimped what earned teaching and brother Charles provided the rest. 

Mary Ellen’s parents were deeply religious. Grandpa Jenkins didn’t work on Sundays proclaiming that the Lord’s Day for him to rest, and his wife read the bible daily. They were loyal parishioners of the church at Crescent Hill. Their faith rubbed off on their offspring, especially Mary Ellen. Despite knowing the hardships such could be she was glad to become a minister’s wife.

Nest is a a photo J Arthur and Mary Ellen in 1943

“Art” as JA came to be known, felt the call as his Dad and Granddad did to make ministry his life’s mission. He and Mary Ellen decided that to do so it would be best to attend the three-year program at Dayton Ohio’s Bonebrake Theological Seminary. To do so depended on receiving a student pastorate in the Miami Ohio conference. Just prior to the start of school, assurance came that he was assigned to a church and a few days later they headed off to Dayton. It was a venture in faith. Expenses were to run two to three thousand a year and the income earned from serving two churches in the countryside near Dayton paid at the most $750 a year. Art took additional work which included running the elevator two hours each night at the Y and later working varying shifts as a military policeman at the Malleable Iron works from either 4 to 12 pm or 12 to 7 am walking 13 miles each shift. Fortunately, after that he got a job at the Post Office. Mary Ellen worked some too prior to giving birth to first son, John Charles September 29, 1943.

These jobs and the two churches he preached at every weekend and ministered their members were in addition to handling a full load of post graduate divinity coursework.  Close associations were made with faculty, and fellow students who became lifelong friends.

What seemed like a three-year daunting grind were instead a very happy, enriching time that Art and Mary Ellen treasured the rest of their lives. 

Seminary diploma, Bachelor of Divinity (equivalent to a MA) was received in the presence of John Frederick and Clara Spring 1944. Art was hoping to receive a commission as a chaplain but due to severe cataracts he could not join the military. He got a job with the Oklahoma conference serving a good-sized congregation in Bartlesville. They spent three busy years there during which time the church, thanks to a wealthy benefactor, was able to pay off its mortgage.

In the spring of 1946 Art applied for and received the assignment to head up the Evangelical United Brethren Church on East Sixth Street and Mulberry in Muscatine, Iowa. After giving birth to two more sons, Gary Paul in 1946 and David Arthur in 1949, Mary Ellen went back to work full time teaching home economics at the local Intermediate school. It was in Muscatine that they both came to be loved by so many people.

When they left Muscatine after 17 years there was tremendous outpouring of appreciation and affection for both of them.I was 13 and remember seeing more grown adults cry than had ever seen before. Like many I viewed them both as giants, and so did the community. Some of the reasons that was the case included: 

Building the church up to over 500 members making it one of the largest in Muscatine, which had a population 20,000; 

James Arthur averaged 35 home or hospital visitations each week, and people knew if they became ill, he would be at their side shortly;

Mary Ellen never turning away anyone looking for a handout or wanting to spend time in the parsonage just to visit;

Becoming foster parents for over a year and offering to adopt an orphaned student;

Counseling run away teens to return home;

Inspiring countless young women to live a life of value contributing to their home and community;

Taking part with enthusiasm in church activities such as pancake breakfasts, ice cream socials, pie eating contests, croquet, horseshoes, and bible study;

Taking in stranded motorists during ice storms on the interstate;

Serving as LT. Governor for Iowa and Nebraska Kiwanis club;

Conducting hundreds of weddings many of which were held in the parsonage, baptisms, and funerals.

Never interrupting or cautioning during weekly prayer sessions for church members who did not know how to be brief as they spoke their prayers;

Visiting people every week who were confined to the house;

Handled conflict amongst church members with respect, dignity, and grace;

Showered mercy on an abused wife who left her husband;

Practiced forgiveness for a teen who was stealing from church offerings;

24/7 availability to students and church members whenever they want to ask for guidance, have someone listen to their concerns and pray for them.

The Church District Superintendent was also sad to see JA go as well as Central’s principal. During these years JA was a member of the conference board on missions and in 1961 he was one of six nationally selected to spend. three weeks in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Mary Ellen as department chair built up the home economics course offerings to where those became much sought after classes to attend.

The next time I saw so many people crying was 11 years later at James Arthur’s (Dad) memorial service. He was in his third year of being the Pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Brooklyn, Iowa. Mom was once again teaching home economics at the local high school when he called asking her to go home. Upon arrival she started the drive to get her husband to the nearest hospital in Grinnell, 10 miles away.  James Arthur did not make it there.

The good people of Iowa were there for Mom as soon as she left the ER. They took care of her car and got her home and later the parsonage ready for relatives who would soon arrive for the memorial.

Dad and Mom worked as tirelessly at the Brooklyn church as they did during their seven years in Des Moines, 17 in Muscatine and everywhere else. *

They both had great faith and followed the United Brethren tenets as their ancestors did and lived the gospels all their lives.

My brothers and I and our children are forever blessed that James Arthur and Mary Ellen were our Mom and Dad. ***

Layperson Jack Gustafson summed up the feelings of many in this letter he wrote to the Brooklyn Chronicle editor published the day after he died.

“Brooklyn has suffered a great loss in the passing of J. Arthur Eveland. He will be greatly missed for a long time to come by all  those who have had  the privilege to know him and be a part of his life. 

Art was the most sincere Christian I have ever known. He was kind and always looked for the good in others. I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone–not even the few who have criticized him.

Art was the most organized man I have ever met. Through his direction he raised the Grace Methodist Church to a plateau that it has never before experienced. He never asked anyone to do anything that he would not give twice as much of himself. In our Kiwanis Club he was the same way–a bundle of energy-a great leader.

Art was a doer and not just a joiner. Art did what was required of him and then some, and then some, and then some.

Oh God, how I loved and respected that man. I consider it an honor to have had him as a close friend.

                           Jack Gustafson

James Arthur Eveland 02/24 1911 - 11/26/1974

Mary Ellen Eveland 11/10/1913 - -09/05/2010

* More information about Nathan’ s Civil War experience can be found on the blog post titled Ancestors at windwarddavemusings.blogspot.com

**At some point I hope to write up more of Mom’s story and that of her siblings. 

*** Much of what it was like for us boys as children can be found in the book Grandpa’s True Stories which in addition to a dozen copies in circulation can be found on line at windwarddavemusings.blosgpot.com

Addendums:

Much credit for this write up goes to Mom, Mary Ellen and Grandfather John Frederick as they both put together lots of information regarding our family genealogy. Mom’s booklet was bonded and printed with the assistance of her oldest son, John Charles Eveland.

The cane. John Frederick wrote a paragraph as to a hickory cane made in 1800 that came to his possession. The latest accounting is that his youngest son, John Givens had possession of it in Council Bluffs Iowa in1947 where he was living at the time. I don’t know if it is the same cane, but I have one that is very old. It has a silver knob which we thought was given to Nathan Eveland for his Civil War service. However, we are not able to read the inscription.   

What’s next?

Mom also put together a big book about her Jenkins ancestors. In addition, Aunt Ruth did a rather book that pertains to what life was like for her. It also has lots of recipes and anecdotes about her mom and Dad. Their stories are fascinating. I would like to try and get such in one volume. To do so is going to require a ton of help from others. Any volunteers?