Early Beginnings

The founders of our church were hardy folk who endured much in their struggles to plant a town and a church on the Kansas prairie. Our first pastor, James S. Griffing (shown at left), was sent west by the Methodist Conference to the Kansas Territory to be a missionary. As Kansas had just been opened for settlement, many were pushing on to this frontier to help plant its institutions. Pastor Griffing joined a few friends and in the latter part of October, 1854 after a long journey overland from Indianapolis, they reached the western borders of civilization and pushed out into the wilds.

They had two covered wagons: one carried the members of the group and the other the household goods. They crossed at the old Indian ferry at the mouth of the Kansas River in Kansas City. The river was at its low stage, yet nearly two hundred yards in width. The banks had been left mucky and soft by the receding water, without footing for man or beast except at the immediate points of landing on either side. The ferry was propelled hand over hand along a rope stretched bank to bank.

The first wagon with the group was landed safely on the opposite bank and the horsed were brought back to help the heavier wagon of household goods up the bank. The horses were hitched to the wagon on the flat ferry; James Griffing sat in the wagon while the others took charge of the horses. Scarcely had they started out when the water began gushing in upon them and the horses at an alarming rate. There was no turning back: all hope was in pulling ahead with a vengeance, and that proved useless.

The horses were released and slid off the flat boat; the Indians held on to the ropes as long as they could until the weight of the boat filled with water made them lose their grip. Then the "crazy old craft" floated down the current with its load and Griffing seated in the front of the wagon, as he said afterward, "alone in his glory."

The boat eventually ran aground and the horses swam to the far shore and became stuck in the mud. From ten o’clock in the morning until sundown the men worked to extradite the horses and themselves. The wagon had to be taken in pieces across the river and reassembled on the other side.

Rev. Griffing was appointed to the Wakarusa Mission, which included all the settlements along the Kansas River Valley as far as Manhattan. Rev. William H. Goode was the Superintendent of Missions. Goode and Griffing traveled together through the winter of 1854-55, preaching in each settlement and laying the foundations for churches in each. Goode later wrote "Outposts of Zion," an account of these early days in Kansas. In this excerpt, he tells of the first sermon preached in Topeka.

"We laid our course for the head-waters of the Wakarusa, past the town of Brownsville [later renamed Auburn] [4]... On the succeeding day [February 7, 1855], we traveled through the Pottawatomie Reserve, passing the residence of the lordly old polygamist chief, and toward evening took up at the newly-laid-off town of Topeka... then consisting of a solitary frame shanty occupied as a hotel, with a cabin dormitory hard by, and a few claim structures in the suburbs. In this vicinity, brother Griffing had, a short time before, out of his scanty allowance, paid one dollar for a shortcake and half a dozen ears of corn.

"At Topeka we found a company of intelligent, enterprising men, mostly at the time from Pennsylvania, full of hope as to their town; laboring hard, and living on rough fare. We were kindly received, found a place to stake out our animals, and a little prairie hay to place before them. Our plain evening repast over, the men assembled in the cabin room, and I endeavored to present, for the acceptance, the Gospel "treasure" from 2 Cor. iv. 7. At bedtime I found that I was to be exempted from a lot in the crowded, floorless, common dormitory and honored with a superior position in the main building. Ascending by the aid of a ladder to a high bunk, I stowed myself away, and slept securely. The main article of diet for our evening and morning meal was "hasty pudding," or, in western parlance, "corn mush," without any of the accompaniments usually considered appropriate. But our hosts were kind and generous, and our appetite good; we ate freely, and I trust with grateful hearts..."

A Methodist class had already been formed in Topeka; the next month, Rev. Griffing returned for the chartering of the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Topeka on March 21.