The August, 2004 Parish Visitor related that some of the very people who were early founders, leaders and members of First Church continue to have ties here today. Some of those connections to the past have been revealed during this anniversary year; others have not. Here are the "teasers" from last year’s article and the details of the connection:
An early preacher, presiding elder (district superintendent) staunch Abolitionist, chaplain to the legislature, and church newspaper editor has a great, great grandson who is a member of our congregation at the present time.
The early preacher was Hugh D. Fisher. He preached in Lawrence and other Methodist churches and missions in territorial Kansas and the early days of statehood. He wrote the story of his experiences, including his escape during Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence, in the book The Gun and the Gospel. His great, great grandson is David Fisher.
Another member has found that his fourth great uncle was one of the local preachers at the Quincy Street Church in the 1850s and 1860s and was one of two pastors to speak at the cornerstone dedication of that building.
The pastor was Joel Kneeland, who came to Topeka before 1859 from either Vermont or New York State. He is noted in the Quarterly Conference Minutes for the Topeka/Tecumseh Circuit as one of the recognized local pastors. In October of 1860 he helped Rev. James Griffing and Topeka founder Cyrus Holliday lay the cornerstone for the Quincy Street Methodist Episcopal Church and his name appears in church records into the late 1860s. His descendent is Larry Wills.
Every Sunday we have classes in a building that was named for a gentleman who was a leader in the Topeka business community and has a street, several buildings, and a Kansas town named after him.
Joab Mulvane was on the building committee for the church at Sixth and Harrison. The Mulvane addition to our church was named for him as was the Mulvane Art Center at Washburn University, Mulvane Science Hall at Baker University, Mulvane Street, and Mulvane, Kansas. Look for a plaque in the Mulvane Building honoring Joab Mulvane and his wife.
A little girl was a flower girl at the first wedding to take place in the new church at Sixth & Harrison; her legacy and her family’s live on in the name of another of our buildings.
T. B. Sweet and his family were prominent members in our church from 1873 to the mid-1900s. His business connections were far-reaching, including being president of the Kansas Loan and Trust Company and a number of mining companies. He was chairman of the building committee when the church was built at Sixth & Harrison, a steward for the church, a licensed exhorter of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and served on the Board of Trustees of Baker University and many other boards and committees in the city and the state. His family -- wife Annie B. and children Susie B., Mary B., and Paul B. -- were actively involved in First Church all their lives. Susie was the flower girl at the first wedding at the "new" church. Mary was very interested in mission work and an education center in Chile bears her name. According to the Parish Visitor for February 22, 1962, it was resolved "that in recognition of the Sweet family’s many years of dedicated stewardship, loyalty, devotion and service to our church, the newly-acquired Christian Church property shall be called ‘The Sweet Memorial Youth Building.’"
Look for more connections to our past in the November Parish Visitor.
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