Waters were chosen to select the bell. At the dedication services, I remember nothing so distinctly as the opening prayer. The minister prayed for the building; that it might long stand as a temple of the living God. Many and varied have been the messages that this old bell has sent out. In sad tones, it has toiled the passing away of all those who first heard it. There was a custom, now sensibly fallen into disuse, of tolling the bell when anyone died. If it stopped in the tens, a youth or maiden had died. If it reached the thirties or forties, we knew that strong manhood or loving womanhood had slipped away. But when it reached the three score and ten, we knew the ripe sheaf, ready for the harvest, hard been garnered in. Countless are the times it has rung out the old year and the new one in. Right merrily has it rung when the young men and maidens plighted their vows beneath its silvery tones. During the civil war, its uses were many and varied. It called the country to do honor to the soldier in his Army Blue, sleeping in the narrow bed in that ‘low green tent whose curtains never outwart turn’ until the last bugle shall have been sounded. Once it angerly clanged out the sharp notes of war when Morgan and his raiders crossed into Indiana. And again, on April 14, 1865, it tolled the sad message that Abraham Lincoln, our first martyred President, had been assassinated.” It is of interest that the same bell that tolled for President Lincoln also tolled for President John F. Kennedy. Roll of the Ministers It would be impossible to list the names of the ministers who have served our church without some reflections. Bishop Simpson, who helped dedicate the second log structure, built in 1836, was but one of four bishops that have been in our community. In
addition to Bishops Roberts and McKendree, there was also the leader of American Methodism, Bishop Francis Asbury, who was often in the home of Reverend John Schrader. Some of the men who have served the church have become District Superintendents, others have also been noted for leadership in the general church administration. The daughter of Reverend M.O. Robbins is a Methodist Missionary in India. Several sons of the ministers who served our church have entered the ministry. Under the pastoral care of ministers who have served the church several young men of our congregation have become ministers. When speaking of past ministers of the
John Schrader
congregation it would be impossible to overlook one whose name is almost symbolic with early Indiana Methodism and our St. Paul’s Church. They called him Father John Shrader. A book could well be written about him, but space does not permit us to do so. John Schrader (spelling later changed to Shrader) was born in Baltimore on October 18, 1792. His father was Jacob Schrader, who came from Germany, settled in Baltimore then moved to east Tennessee and settled near Knoxville in 1795. In the fall of 1814 John Schrader was admitted into the traveling connection of the Tennessee Conference, which included in its bounds Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas and a
St. Paul’s UMC History
11
Made with FlippingBook flipbook maker