THE FIELD AND ITS POSSIBILITIES.
The Evangelistic Committee of the Presbyterian Church has been active
in the logging camp work since 1902, when it first sent missionaries to
preach in the camps of Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The first missionaries it appointed to this work were Rev. Jos. Oliver
Buswell and Rev. F. E. Higgins, the former taking the work in Wisconsin
and the latter in Minnesota. Both these men had been carrying on
private work in the camps near their pastorates. Prior to 1907 the work
was largely experimental and on a small scale, but in the summer of the
above-named year a strong sub-committee of the Evangelistic committee
took charge of the logging camp mission work and an aggressive campaign
was inaugurated.
In the foregoing pages of this little volume we have considered the
work in Minnesota exclusively and presented only the part which came
directly under the hand of Mr. Higgins: now we desire to give a brief
view of a more extended field.
The sub-committee known as the Lumberman's Evangelistic Council is
composed of men who are individually interested in this work. They are
prominent lumbermen or well-known ministers, as the personnel of the
committee shows:
Mr. W. A. Holt, Oconto, Wis.
Mr. Arthur D. Wheeler, Chicago, Ill.
Mr. C. A. Barton, Minneapolis, Minn.
Mr. E. T. Buxton, Duluth, Minn.
Dr. J. M. Gray, Chicago, Ill.
Dr. W. O. Carrier, Waukesha, Wis.
Mr. Dewitt Van Ostrand, Philips, Wis.
Dr. J. Beveridge Lee, Chicago, Ill.
Dr. W. J. Darby, Evansville, Ind.
The officers of the council are:
Hon. Hugh H. Hanna, Chairman, Indianapolis, Ind.
Mr. J. E. Defebaugh, Vice Chairman, Chicago, Ill.
Dr. P. E. Zartman, Secretary and Treasurer, Winona Lake, Ind.
Rev. F. E. Higgins, Superintendent of Camp Work, Rockford, Minn.
Rev. J. O. Buswell, General Superintendent, Lumber Exchange,
Minneapolis, Minn.
The desire of the Lumberman's Evangelistic Council is to place the
services of the missionaries at the disposal of all the lumber camps in
the west, so that the general morals of the workers may be raised and a
corresponding plain of righteousness and ability be reached.
[Illustration: THE STEAM HAULER]
The superintendents of this work are well equipped for the task before
them. Mr. Buswell has been an interested worker in the camps for some
years. He felt that God called him to this particular work, and has
been instrumental in leading many of the foresters to Christ.
The reader of these pages knows that Mr. Higgins brings to the work the
practical experience of twelve years, and a devotion to God and man
that brings results.
Through Mr. Buswell and Mr. Higgins the claims of the lumberjacks
have been presented to the churches and by their efforts almost all
the money used to carry on the work in the past, except their own
salaries, has been raised. Under their direction a number of helpers
have been at work in the field, the superintendents being individually
responsible for their salaries and expenses.
Beyond the States of Minnesota and Wisconsin, a little work was also
done in Michigan and Washington. In the State of Washington Mr. Higgins
spent the last two summers, taking with him, in 1907, two of his best
camp chaplains.
The future is ruddy with promise. With the more extensive organization
come hopes of greater efficiency and broader possibilities. The
desires of a few men have become the wishes and prayers of a greater
number. The sub-committee's intention is to reach all the western and
southwestern States in which the men of ax and peavey are at work.
As yet only the edges of the field have been approached; even in
Minnesota where the work is more extended, only one hundred camps
are touched, while four hundred other camps are left entirely to
themselves. Many of the States are without any organized work in the
lumber regions.
A view of the States west and south will reveal larger timber districts
where this mission work will find a welcome and where aggressive
extension is immediately imperative.
Western Montana has its camps on the tree-covered mountain slopes.
Idaho computes its timbered acres at ten millions. Timber is one of the
principal resources of the State of Washington. The western slopes of
the Cascades are heavily wooded with fir and on the eastern side blue
and yellow pine predominate. Oregon is proud of its pine forests, the
density of the woods is inviting to industry and solitude. The Douglas
spruce has made this State a world-famous mart for masts and spars.
California is the home of the redwood, and all the world reads of its
mammoths of the forest; but in the northern part of the State pine,
oak and fir lure the lumber companies, and there the lumberjacks are
calling for services.
Southwest of Minnesota the numerous camps of the timbered Black Hills
catch the eye, then come the sixteen million mountain acres of forest
land in the neighboring State of Wyoming, and an almost equal stretch
in Colorado. Missouri is also well wooded, in all except the northern
and western parts, and the State of Arkansas has twenty-five million
acres of timber wealth. Louisiana has more than half of the timber
acreage of Arkansas. The State of Texas does not count its wooded lands
by acres; it presents the figures of sixty-four thousand square miles.
The possibilities of this evangelistic work are noticeable in the
above sketch of the western and southern forests. Where the lumber is
to be obtained, there are the lumber camps and the lumberjacks. The
surroundings of the men are much the same as in Minnesota, with the
restraints of civilization removed and the agents of viciousness always
at hand. The foresters present a picture at which the angels weep and
the devils are joyful.
Lumbering has been a prominent industry for many years in Michigan,
Wisconsin and Minnesota, and it will continue to play a large part in
the industry of these States for twenty years to come. In such States
the camps are large, grouped and accessible therefore the mission work
can be done with greater ease and economy than in the older States of
the east where the lumbercamps are far apart and small. In the west a
camp chaplain can serve as high as fifteen camps, giving them each a
service at least twice a month.
Seventy-five dollars a month will support a chaplain. Since the logging
season is short, in Minnesota about five and a half months, it will
be seen that a large amount of good can be accomplished at a small
expenditure. A chaplain will preach to from sixty to one hundred and
sixty men every night in the week and on Sunday perhaps preach in three
different camps. He is the representative of spiritual truths to from
six hundred to one thousand men. Where, at so little cost, are the
possibilities of good so great? Where are these camp preachers to be
obtained? "I believe that God will call to this work the men of the
pineries rather than the men of the seminaries," said the Rev. F. E.
Higgins. This has been so in the past. The men who are converted in the
camps are equipped with a knowledge of conditions through experience,
and where mental and spiritual ability are present they can do
excellent work.
Several of the successful workers in the camp mission were once
lumberjacks. Mr. Fred Davis, who, since the promotion of Mr. Higgins,
is superintendent of the Minnesota work, was at one time a lumberjack.
Mr. Davis refused an excellent business position in order to spend his
life reaching the foresters.
Another worker is Mr. L. C. Michells, a former cruiser and estimator.
Mr. Michells is not only a strong preacher, but is physically able to
care for himself when opposition is presented,--to this the ex-mayor
of a lumber town can testify to his sorrow, as can others who saw the
fallen political boss hauled home on a dray after the encounter with
right and might. At the time of writing, Mr. Michells is preaching in
the camps of Washington.
God is raising up men. Will the Christian church raise the means?
Through the work done in Minnesota and Wisconsin an introduction has
been secured to all the Western States; the timber lands of the west
are owned largely by the firms who have exploited the woods adjacent to
the Great Lakes, and these companies know the good accomplished here,
hence a ready welcome is given to the missionary going to more western
fields. The lumberjacks are naturally wanderers and in the camps of the
Pacific slopes the Minnesota and Wisconsin woodsmen are already there
to give the chaplains welcome. Mr. Higgins tells of preaching in a town
on the Tacoma Eastern Railway in Washington:
"In one town where no religious organization was at work, I held
services in a dance hall, and seventy-five persons were present, sixty
of whom were loggers. After the service two lumberjacks came up to me
and said: 'Hello, Pilot, don't you know us? We're a couple of your
Minnesota boys. Don't you remember preaching in the Clearwater Camps on
'The Chances a Fellow Has if He'll Take Them?' Well, we broke away from
the gang, came out here, have saved our money, and are the ones who
rustled the crowd for you tonight.'
"On another occasion I was to speak in the open air, when an old
Minnesota campman brought a pitcher of lemonade and placed it by my
side. After the meeting he invited me to his home and wanted me to make
it mine while I labored in that place. Such kindness from the men who
had been my boys in the North Star pineries did much to make my work in
Washington a pleasure."
By the past work the doors of the present have been forced open. The
waiting men are inviting the bearers of good tidings to enter--shall we
refuse? Where there is a need shall not the Christian Church supply it?
Douglas Malloch, the lumbermen's poet, presents us a picture of the
field in the following poem:
THE PARISH OF THE PINES
"Where the winter's chill is deep and still,
Where summer days are long,
Where sighing breeze and branches fill
The air with sob and song,
There lies a parish of the Lord
No wall or street confines:
There 'waits the coming of the Lord
The Parish of the Pines.
"No tower uplifts its gilded spire
Above a house of prayer,
No organ tower or swaying choir
Makes sweetest music there,
For 'tis a vineyard choked with weeds
And lush with tangled vines;
Yea, much it lacks and much it needs--
The Parish of the Pines.
"Yet word of God is word of God
In camp or pulpit told,
And men of forest and of sod
Await the story old.
'Tis time to hew away the sin
That now the soul confines,
And let a little sunshine in
The Parish of the Pines."
Transcriber's Notes:
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Lumberjack Sky Pilot, by Thomas D. Whittles