EDWIN RUTHVEN SHAPARD (Chapter 17) 1886-1887, Asbury Manuel Labor School, The Creek Nation

CHAPTER 17

ASBURY MANUEL LABOR SCHOOL, THE CREEK NATION

1886-1887

         

 
          On November 4, 1847, the 4th Annual Indian Mission Conference authorized the establishment of the Asbury Manuel Labor School for the education of Creek children. Rev. Thomas Ruble was appointed by Bishop William Capers to initiate the endeavor and superintend the school. Thomas B. Ruble was born in 1811 in Virginia. He was a founding member of the Indian Mission Conference. After many years of service, he died on May 8, 1876, and was buried in the McClellan Cemetery in Washington County, Arkansas.

       Rev. Ruble commenced on the task of selecting a site for the school.  Assisted by Colonel Logan, a U.S. Indian Agent for the Creek Nation, and Colonel Rutherford, the Superintendent of Western Territory, in January 1848, a site was selected about a mile and a half northwest of North Fork town. In the 1830s, the Creek Indians established the town of North Fork, which was located within the fork of the Canadian and North Canadian rivers, due to its location at the intersection of the Texas and California Roads. In 1855, Robert E. Lee camped at North Fork town which was a stopping place on the ‘Texas Road’ running from Missouri to Texas. The town site consisted of homes and businesses which flourished until 1872, when G.W. Stidham, Capt. Sam Grayson, G.E. Scales, D.B. Whitlow and J.D. McCoody paid $1000 to R.S. Stevens, the manager of the MK&T Railroad, which was being constructed, to bypass North Fork and build the train station at the present site of Eufaula, which is where these men had land interests. Over time the businesses fled North Fork for Eufaula. 
The Asbury school grounds, in 1848, consisted of 80 acres, of which 30 acres were fenced. Other improvements included a twenty-foot by twenty-foot log house with a front porch and kitchen, a stable and a chicken house, and “a tolerable supply of fruit trees”. Plans were enacted to erect a school building 110 feet long, 34 feet wide and three stories high. Contracts were let to Webster and Reed of Ft. Smith, Arkansas, for the stone and brick work, and to J.J. Denny of Louisville, Kentucky, for the wood work, Materials and furnishings were shipped by boat from Louisville, up the Arkansas River, and then overland to the site by ox wagons. The corner stone was laid on July 19, 1848. The building was completed in October of 1849, at a total cost of $9,169. It contained 21 rooms, with spacious halls, and could accommodate 100 students, plus faculty. 

     During the Civil War, the smaller buildings of Asbury were burned, and the large building was put in much disrepair. Rev. Thomas Bertholf, who was Superintendent during the entire course of the War, was given the task of rebuilding and reestablishing the school. He began this work in 1866, and died at his labors in 1867, being buried at the school’s cemetery. Rev. John Harrell took up the work for the remainder of the Conference year and was relieved by Rev. T. B. Ruble in 1868. Rev. Ruble’s work was barely begun when fire destroyed the main building in 1869. In 1870, Rev. John Harrell returned to Asbury School, and before 1871, had rebuilt the buildings and restarted the school. Rev. Harrell died in 1876, and was buried alongside his wife, Eliza, at the Asbury school cemetery which was located approximately half a mile north of the school. 
Asbury School was host to the Annual Indian Mission Conference in 1855 and 1874. It was noted that the approach to the school led through a beautiful timbered field with a wide lane that separated the fields of corn, wheat and oats. There were vegetable gardens near the buildings. They had hogs, chickens, cattle, and horses. The main building, located in a grove of forest trees, was an east-facing three-story brick school with a porch that ran the entire length of the front. The basement level was constructed of stone and the rest of the exterior walls were brick. Asbury Manuel Labor School burned 1881, and again in 1886, under the superintendence of Rev. E.R. Shapard, and was not rebuilt. The school grounds and all remaining property within were sold on March 17, 1888. In 1892, Eufaula Boarding School, known first as Eufaula High School, was established at a different location to continue the work so nobly begun by the Asbury School.
    The names of the Superintendents of Asbury Manuel Labor School and the year of their appointment follows: T.B. Ruble 1847-1858, Thomas Bertholf 1859-1867, John Harrell 1867 (middle), T.B. Ruble 1868-1869, John Harrell 1870, David T. Holmes 1871-1872, Young Ewing 1873-1875, John Harrell 1876, supply 1877, W.N. Martin 1878-1879, J.F. Thompson 1880-1881, B.H. Greathouse 1882, Young Ewing 1883, M.A. Clark 1884, C.C. Spence 1885, E.R. Shapard 1886. 
                      The original Methodist Church of Eufaula was established and located at the Asbury School. In 1872, the town of Eufaula was founded and by 1874, the town was prospering. In 1878, the church separated from the school and was moved to the business district of Eufaula. The church burned in the 1890s and was rebuilt. Since then it had been moved and rebuilt a few times though still remained in Eufaula, and is the oldest continual Methodist Church in Oklahoma (1847-present day). 
                 In 1946, congress approved the establishment of a large lake in the vicinity of Eufaula. The graves at the Asbury school cemetery, including those of Rev. John Harrell, his wife Eliza, Rev. Bertholf, et al, were relocated to Greenwood Cemetery at Eufaula. Stones from the foundation of the Asbury School were moved to the Greenwood Cemetery to establish the Asbury Memorial, which stands near the graves and honors the memory of those pioneer ministers. A dam was constructed and on September 25, 1964, the area was officially flooded, creating Lake Eufaula. Today the location of the school grounds and the town of North Fork lies deep beneath the waters of the lake. 
           

      After the Conference in October of 1886, the Shapard family collected their belongings and made the move to Eufaula, Creek Nation, residing at the Asbury Manuel Labor School. Rev. Shapard assumed his position as Superintendent and procured $310 in excess funds to help run the school, saved through strict economy by the former Superintendent, Rev. Charles C. Spence (1846 – 1914). There were two teachers employed to help educate the students and a variety of hired hands to help run the institution. The school had an abundance of corn, hogs and cattle to feed the students and faculty for the year, as well as, a good array of tools for farming. 
              While the family prepared their quarters, Rev. Shapard wasted no time in beginning his work. He preached the first sermon of his new appointment to the students and faculty at the Asbury Manuel Labor School on November 3, 1886. Over the following weeks, he also preached at Eufaula and Fishertown. 
       The Shapard family had only been there less than a month when tragedy struck. On the evening of November 26, 1886, as the faculty and students were assembling for evening prayers, the Asbury School burned down. The fire started in the third story by the carelessness of one of the students. This was the third time the building has burned in its history. The tragedy turned the Superintendent and 80 students out-of-doors and the school was suspended until December 14th, when the Trustees rented a house, the residence of Judge G.W. Stidham, as a temporary school building.  Rev. Shapard immediately went to work arranging the move. By the authority of Bishop Charles B. Galloway and Mission Board, the school was reopened again with 40 pupils. After the burnout, the Trustees and the Chief of the Nation renegotiated the financial appropriation allotted to the school by a lesser amount. Rev. Shapard consulted with Bishop Galloway and determined to run the school for as long as the money ($2,852.50), allowed by the authority of the Nation, would last. Rev. Shapard further supplemented this amount by $358.54 through the sale of livestock. The term ended on June 17th, which was just short of the normal time of dismissal, being June 30th. 
                    Due to the fire, the Shapard family was forced to move quarters again, the two-story Stidham house at the new location was apparently in need of repair. Some of the windows needed glass which had allowed dirt dauber wasps, to cover the walls with their nests. The flue on the stove or chimney was faulty and filled the house with smoke when initially lit. Water had to be transported in, as the local water source was some distance away. Rev. Shapard even helped make the bedsteads for the 40 boys to sleep. 
       

           On November 27, 1886, a committee, appointed by Bishop Charles B. Galloway, met in Eufaula to consider the subject of establishing a male college within the bounds of the Indian Mission Conference. The committee consisted of M.A. Clark, J.Y. Bryce, T.F. Brewer, E.R. Shapard, and J.J. Methven; whereby T.F. Brewer was elected chairman and E.R. Shapard was elected secretary. This meeting was the first of many, in the establishment of Galloway College which would officially open in September of 1888 in Vinita, Indian Territory. The Cherokee Council had granted 160 acres for the school, and the local citizens and merchants helped raise the needed funds. The Trustees of Galloway College, consisted of Revs. E.R. Shapard, M.A. Clark, T.F. Brewer, J.Y. Bryce and J.J. Methvin. The college opened as an all-male institution. The primary and secondary school held classes in the Methodist Church until a four-story brick-and-stone building was completed in 1889. The school became operational yet accumulated significant debt, until W. E. Halsell, a prominent cattleman and landowner, donated the funds to save the school. In July 1891, Galloway College was renamed Willie Halsell College, in honor of Halsell's daughter. In 1893, the college became coeducational and had an enrollment of 209 students. In 1908, when the college was no longer financially viable, its campus was sold to Halsell and the institution closed. Interestingly, however, the school was attended by Will Rogers, the famous, part-Cherokee Oklahoman, who as a child made the school's honor roll in 1892 and 1893.
                 

        In late November or early December of 1886, Rev. Shapard’s 14 year-old daughter, Miss Lizzie Shapard, had been added to the number of boarding students at the Harrell Institute in Muskogee, Indian Territory. Rev. Shapard advised his daughter upon attending school, “I want you to do the best you can in studying, study hard, and even study those books which you may not be called upon to recite if it is for your good. – One great object which I have in sending you there is that you may learn music. – While I want you to carry up your other studies.- As soon as I am able I will send you off to the States some-where – I want to qualify you for work in this country as a teacher or in whatever capacity the church may need you for. Be sure to take care of your health. – And above everything else live the life of a Christian. Do not be ashamed to answer questions with regard to Christian experience. Try to make your prayers not only formal but spiritual.” 
               Lizzie seemed to fair well at the school as she was elected Secretary of the Juvenile Mission Society and elected Secretary of the Parsonage Society of Muskogee. She was also appointed as a librarian for the McGavock Library which was located at the school. Rev. Shapard may have donated 9 volumes of the ‘new’ Washington Irving to the school’s library, as he was known to have a large personal library. The books were donated, shortly after Lizzie appointment as librarian, by one of the ‘Harrell Institutes best friends” of which they were not at liberty to reveal. 
                   On December 13, 1886, the Trustees of Asbury Manuel Labor School met at the Shapard home to decide which of the students would be allowed to stay. Because of the lack of housing and funds only 40 boys were allowed to remain to continue their education. Mrs. Shapard remarked, about the lack of space in the temporary school quarters, that, “we are so crowded in the dining room, when we get in we can’t get out, unless we go around the home.” Classes resumed on December 14th and despite a noble effort by Rev. Shapard and the faculty, the crowded living conditions and disruption during the year hindered the proper advancement of the pupils. 
                On December 18, 1886, the Shapard family received the heart-breaking news of the death of their dear friend and former teacher at New Hope Seminary, Miss Dora Rankin, who passed away while a missionary in China.  She had died in Shanghai on December 10, 1886, and was buried in the Pak Sien Jaw Cemetery. Rev. Shapard remarked that, “…she was competent, earnest and devoted, ever bearing the evidence of a noble Christian heart. It was always a matter of satisfaction to me and my family that the first mission work by those who were our first missionaries of the Woman’s Board in China was performed in connection with us. While the whole Church will feel her loss, my family will be deprived of those letters of friendship which were doubly dear to us. Always prominent in my room are the pictures of her and her sister [Lochie], and my children feel today toward them as if they were older sisters of the family.” 
               In Early January, 1887 the weather became very cold. Rev. Shapard could not send the Asbury students out to work and they did nothing but cook and eat. Nevertheless, several of the students became very sick from exposure to the winter weather. Later that month, Rev. Shapard traveled to Muskogee to attend a series of bible study meetings with 17 other ministers. For a week they had daily Bible readings, study, prayer and experience meetings, with regular sermons every evening. While in Muskogee, Rev. Shapard visited his daughter Lizzie at the Harrell Institute. When Rev. Shapard attended his meetings, Lizzie was excited to look after her little brother, Edwin Jr., who had traveled to Muskogee with his father. 
           

          On March 22, 1887, at Eufaula, Indian Territory, Edwin and Jennie give birth to their third son, David Evander Shapard. The name, ‘David’ is not only a Biblical name, but also the name of the younger brother of both Edwin and Jennie. The name, ‘Evander’, is derived from Edwin’s younger brother. As an adult, David had grey eyes, brown hair and was of medium height with a stout build. 
   On April 27, 1887, Euna Bryce, the three year-old daughter of Rev. J.Y. Bryce, Sr. died at her home. Rev. Shapard attended her funeral in McAlester, Indian Territory. Euna’s brother, J.Y. Bryce, Jr., who later would became a minister, remembered Rev. Shapard fondly and remarked, “I knew [Rev. Shapard] intimately for a long period of years and to my mind there were few men, if any, that were greater than he. [Brother Shapard] had as much to do with shaping my life as any man out side of my own father, in fact more. I met him first when a mere child, about eight years of age, we were then living in old Skullyville, and all through the years after, until God called him home, he was a frequent visitor in our home, than whom none were more welcome. [Brother Shapard] was my pastor when I was recommended for admission

on trial in the Indian Mission Conference, the year 1888, he lived that year in Savana I.T. just north of our old home, about six miles…I have a letter at home written to [my] wife and I by [Rev. Shapard in] the year 1888, after we had gone to our first work, Thackerville, located on the Red River north of Gainsville, Texas, in this letter he gave us some fatherly advice which we cherished all along through the years.” 
                  Rev. Shapard continued to preach in Eufaula and Fishertown, among other areas, throughout the year. In late May, he traveled to Fort Smith on church business for a ten-day visit, and upon his return visited and preached at the New Hope Seminary. On June 17, 1887, the Asbury Manuel Labor School closed its doors permanently and Rev. Shapard turned over the remaining property of the school to the Trustees. The Shapard family moved into the town of Eufaula to spend the summer. That same month, E.R. Shapard attended his daughter’s graduation at the closing exercises of the sixth annual term of the Harrell Institute, which included student recitations, compositions and dialogues, examination of classes and a musical concert. After the summer, Lizzie Shapard was sent to ‘the States’ for a better education. She attended the Brookhaven, Mississippi Female Institute from September, 1887 through June of 1888. This institute became the current-day Whitworth College. From 1859-1928, the school operated as a 4-year women's college which was affiliated with the Mississippi Methodist Conference. 
                     Rev. Shapard always encouraged Lizzie to get the most of her educational opportunities and to utilize her time wisely. He wrote in 1887; “I hope Lizzie you will turn your whole attention to your studies… I sent you to Brookhaven that you might have the best of associations and I hope that you will prove yourself worthy of it. You will be noticed by different persons because you are the daughter of one of the missionaries of the church in the Indian Country. Preserve that dignity etc, which would be expected of such. And know too that you will be thrown with those who are your equals and probably superiors in intelligence, polish, etc. …I hope that you will improve your time well and be ready as soon as you are through to work in this country in doing good.” 
                   

            The 42nd Annual Indian Mission Conference was held at Vinita, in the Cherokee Nation, on October 12-17, 1887. Twenty-one preachers attended and a number of lay delegates. E.R. Shapard took the train to reach Conference. He was elected Conference Recording Secretary, as well as, being elected a member of the Committee on Memoirs with Young Ewing, T.F. Brewer and J.F. Thompson. Bishop Charles B. Galloway appointed Revs. E.R. Shapard and T.F. Brewer as a committee to collect from such sources as they could the minutes of the Conferences from 1882-1886, the records of which were lost in the fire at the Asbury Manuel Labor School. During the year, this committee was able to locate and record a great portion of the lost minutes into a new minute book.
                    During the Conference, Rev. Shapard gave a report on the Asbury Manuel Labor School. He stated that, “A final settlement was made by E.R. Shapard (the last superintendent) with the national trustees and with the House of Kings and Warriors. The burned walls and cultivated grounds remain awaiting the action of some future bodies to determine what will be the future history of this institution. This ground is hallowed by the buried remains of Brother Bertholf and Harrell – our fathers in missionary work, both of whom died while serving as superintendent of the school. Memories of hundreds now living around the place call for efforts to build another school to take the place of this – rebuilding if not on the same ground, adjacent to it. Will it be done? Or must the plowshare of some heartless generation desecrate those hallowed precincts.” The school was not rebuilt and those ‘hallowed precincts’ currently rest below the waters of Lake Eufaula.

               
        At the end of Conference, Rev. Shapard was appointed to the Choctaw District; Railroad Circuit. The members of the church at Eufaula remarked that, “In parting with E.R. Shapard our minister for the last year, Eufaula loses one of the most zealous and earnest laborers in the Lords vineyard, who has ever had charge of this station.”