The new city of Omaha grew rapidly, and by late 1855 the temporary capitol was in place and the first newspaper had arrived. “On Sunday, September 27, 1931, the First Methodist Episcopal Church at 20th and Davenport Streets in Omaha, observed its 76th anniversary. In a beautifully illustrated church bulletin, a brief history of the church was set forth, reading in part as follows:”
The first preaching service held in Omaha was conducted by Rev. Peter Cooper, a Methodist pastor of Council Bluffs, Iowa. Morton’s History of Nebraska has this to say regarding this service: ‘The ferry company built the first house in Omaha…. It was a rude log structure and was occupied by Mr. And Mrs. Snowden, who kept it as a hotel during the summer and fall of 1854, more especially for the accommodation of the employees of the ferry company. It was located on 12th and Jackson Streets, and was called the St. Nicholas, but was better known as the ‘Claim House.’ This was the first house and the first hotel in Omaha, and here the first religious services were held. At the solicitation of Mr. Snowden, a Methodist Episcopal preacher, Rev. Peter Cooper crossed over from council bluffs to preach. The following announcement of this meeting appears in the Omaha Arrow of August 4, 1854:
“Religious Notice
‘There will be preaching at the residence of Mr. Snowden in Omaha City, Nebraska Territory on Sunday the 13th inst., at 2 o’clock P. M. by Rev. Peter Cooper, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The citizens of Omaha City and vicinity, also of Bluff City, are respectfully invited to attend’.
There were about twenty-five people present, a number of whom were from Council Bluffs. Rev. Mr. Cooper continued to hold services in Omaha until he was succeeded by Rev. Isaac Collins, a regularly appointed missionary pastor, who organized the First Methodist Church in September, 1855, having at that time a membership of six. Services were then being held in the Territorial Capitol building on 9th Street...”
In 1855/56, the political climate of the country was heating up considerably. The Kansas/Nebraska Act of 1854 effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which forbade the introduction of slavery above the 36° 30’ North parallel and created the states of Kansas and Nebraska. The settlers of these new states were to be allowed to make their own choices regarding slavery but ballot box stuffing by both sides created a state of insurrection in “Bleeding Kansas.” After the “Sacking of Lawrence Kansas” by a pro-slavery group, John Brown and his sons came from Connecticut to strengthen the cause of the abolitionists and retaliated by perpetrating the “Pottawatomie Massacre” in 1856. With all this activity taking place just 150 miles south of Council Bluffs, it was only a matter of time before the Coopers would get caught up in the conflict.
Daughter Martha Cooper and her new husband William Scott were very busy during these years. While William was working with Martha’s father, Peter Cooper, providing material for the physical development of Omaha, Martha had set up the first schoolhouse and was seeing to the intellectual needs of its future citizens. Martha and William had their first child and Peter Coopers first grandchild on March 20th, 1856. Martha was 24 years old and she named her son William Hamline Scott. The middle name, Hamline, comes from Bishop Hamline of the Rock River Methodist Conference at Plainview, Illinois, who ordained and licensed Peter Cooper on July 21st, 1850.
The next few years would not be happy ones in the Cooper family. In August of 1858, Ann Cooper died of the Flu while attending to others who were ill with the same malady.
33 days after Ann’s passing, her daughter Martha gave birth to her second child, my great grandmother, Martha Ann Scott.
Only two years later, in December of 1860, Martha gave birth to her third child, Charles Wesley, who only survived a couple of days, and Martha herself passed away a few days later in January of 1861 from complications of the delivery; she was just shy of her 29th birthday.
Martha’s husband William, was left to care for their 5 year old son William and 2 year old daughter Martha Ann. In less than four years, the Coopers had lost 3 family members.
Further details of [Martha’s] life and family are indicated under the name of her husband, William A. Scott, and in a clipping from an old newspaper, found by the writer [Nelson Mason] in the trunk of her son, William Hamline., reading:
MEMOIR OF MARTHA COOPER SCOTT
[By her husband, William A. Scott]
“Martha Cooper Scott was born in New York City, May 18, 1832, and died of complicated puerperal peritonitis, January 18, 1861, near Magnolia, Iowa, in the twenty-ninth year of her age.
The subject of this memoir was blessed with religious parents, her father, Rev. Peter Cooper, having been for years an effectual and useful local preacher in the M E. Church. As a consequence her religious impressions began early, and in her sixteenth year, on New Year’s Eve, she joined the M. E. Church, under Rev. W. Palmer in Chicago; where she was attending school. The writer’s acquaintance with her began in 1852, at Council Bluffs, Iowa, which resulted in our marriage on April 24, 1853.
About two years after our marriage we entered the itinerancy. Our first work was Magnolia Mission, Iowa Conference, where we traveled a year, and made many warm friends, who proved their devotion by administering to her in her last sickness. Our last work was Indianapolis [Indianola] circuit, Iowa conference, over two hundred miles distant, and in order to go to it, she must leave all her friends and go among strangers. How hard is the lot of the itinerant’s wife.
During this year her health began to fail, and was never good to her death. Last spring we journeyed to the Rocky Mountains, which seemed beneficial, but proved delusive. About three weeks before she died her little infant preceded her to the “blessed land.”
She has left her husband and two little children to mourn her early departure; but we mourn not as those who have no hope. Little Willey, the oldest, who is nearly five years old, says his “ma has gone to help the lord take care of the little baby.” The day before her departure, having been to all appearance dead, she suddenly aroused from her lethargy and commenced praising God aloud, and told, while her face beamed with heavenly radiance, of having seen the glories of heaven. She described its beauties with rapture, and longed to be back again, and said that in a few hours she would be gone, and exhorted us to meet her in heaven, Shortly after, delirium came on, during which she sang sweetly and pathetically: “There is a happy land,”
Oh, if the redeemed of the Lord sing more sweetly in Heaven, what glorious music we shall have when we all get there. Then her mind turned to the resurrection morn, and she sang: “Glorious morning,”
This chorus we had often sung in our protracted meetings. What a glorious time it will be when we all rise together in that “morning!”
“Then all the ship’s company meet
Who sailed with the Savior beneath.”
Thus a beautiful life was ended, the sad event taking place at Magnolia, Harrison County, Iowa, 35 miles north of Council Bluffs. Some years later her brothers arranged for re-burial beside the sainted mother in the little rural cemetery, a mile east of Hillsdale. Her son, William H. Scott, has erected a red granite
memorial to her memory, reading: “Martha C. Scott, May 18, 1832; Jan. 18, 1861”
Next: Ch. 4
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