DUNCAN CHAMBERS MILNER,

MILITANT IDEALIST

            Duncan Chambers Milner was born at Mount Pleasant, Jefferson County, Ohio, March 10, 1841. Shortly before his death, March 18, 1928, he wrote that he considered the war against slavery, and the battle against the liquor traffic the most important events in the last century. These two great conflicts, together with his devotion to pioneer Presbyterianism, constitute the main purposes of his long and useful life.

            Shortly before Dr. Milner's death, Dr. William Chalmers Covert, Secretary of the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church, USA., who recognized the importance of the three aspects of Milner's career, especially his work in the State of Kansas, suggested that he write his autobiography. Although Dr. Milner did not heed Dr. Covert's request for a full biography, he did leave notes which give dates and guideposts for a biography of one of the most colorful careers during the turbulent years of reconstruction following the Civil War, the battle against the organized liquor traffic in which Kansas led this nation, and the establishment of the Presbyterian Church in Kansas and Missouri. In each of these conflicts Dr. Milner proved himself a worthy veteran, and he carried his scars like Christian in Pilgrim's Progress.

            Mount Pleasant, Ohio, the home of the Milner family, was settled in 1796. One of those who blazed the way for the first road thither was a Mr. Chambers, his maternal grandfather. The early settlers were Quakers from North Carolina and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians "who had been followers of Wolfe Tone in what was called the Rebellion of 1798." The Quakers believed it a great evil to hold men as property. As a boy Milner saw slaves brought to Mount Pleasant and knew the settlement was a station on the underground railway. He recalled hearing frequent and bitter debate about slavery. He read Benjamin Lundy's The Genius of Universal Emancipation, the first Abolitionist newspaper in the United States, which was published in Mount Pleasant. Once when a boy he went with his father to Wheeling, Virginia, where in a store his father pointed out a negro slave, the property of the merchant who owned the store. Milner never forgot this and shortly before his death he recalled his reaction, writing, "It seemed strange to me that this man who only differed from other men by his color, could be bought and sold like a horse." The Ohio Yearly Meeting of the Friends was then occasionally held in Mount Pleasant, and his attendance deepened the boy's abhorrence of slavery which seemed to him to contradict the Sermon on the Mount as well as common sense.

            Next to slavery, the temperance question was a close second as a subject for discussion. Mount Pleasant never had a licensed saloon, since the people there were total abstainers. It was one of the communities from which came the early temperance societies, and where such organizations as the Sons of Temperance, Good Templars and the Washington Society flourished. The surrounding towns, however, were by no means like Mount Pleasant in the matter of temperance.

            Milner also grew up in Mount Pleasant with certain literary interests. Besides Benjamin Lundy's Genius of Universal Emancipation, a large number of magazines, periodicals and books was published there. The Philanthropist was published by Charles Osborne; The Moral Advocate opposing war, duelling, capital punishment, and prison abuses was published by Elisha Bates; and The Life Boat, a "strong temperance paper," was published by John B. Woolf. "A famous debating Society" kept all these issues alive. Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War, was a native of Jefferson County. His parents lived near Mount Pleasant and he once visited the Society and took part in the debates. In 1837 the first AntiSlavery Convention in Ohio was held in Mount Pleasant. Incidentally, this town had a Free Labor store where nothing produced by slave labor could be sold. One of the first Sunday Schools organized in that part of Ohio was organized in Mount Pleasant and served as a model for other schools.

            In 1857, when Milner was sixteen, a religious revival swept the country. As a result of the "continued union meetings" in Mount Pleasant, when the revival was over, Milner united with the Methodist Protestant Church. He began to think of becoming a minister, but as his family had limited means, attendance at a college was a problem. To meet this situation, he took the teacher's examinations and passed them. At sixteen he began teaching a rural school "in the Cope neighborhood." During the following summer he attended the summer session of the Hopedale Normal School in Harrison County. The two winters following he taught the Buckeye School on Short Creek near Portland. Although discipline in those days was a serious problem, he was successful. The following year he taught in the Mount Pleasant School. After two years there, he had saved enough to enter Hayesville Academy in Ashland County, where he remained until the Civil War broke out in 1861: He now knew that his life must be devoted to eradicating slavery, and to this cause he dedicated his future although never forgetting his interest in temperance and in the ministry.

            Living near Wheeling, Virginia, (now West Virginia), he saw some groups joining the side of the Union and other groups that of the Confederacy. A great admiration for Abraham Lincoln together with his inherited Quaker feeling against slavery prompted him to enlist in the 98th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in August 1862. Immediately he was "appointed Sergeant Major," the highest non-commissioned officer in the regiment. To him the war soon became "a dreadful and bloody reality." In his reminiscences he noted, "We reached Cincinnati in the night, were at once taken across the river to Covington, Kentucky, and at midnight were fed by the patriotic ladies of that city. Our regiment was quartered in a market house. Colonel Webster had a room at a hotel and my bed that night was a billiard table. The next day we were put on a train and without previous drill or preparation, were hurried to Lexington, Kentucky, and then were marched toward Richmond. The Battle of Richmond Hill, led by Kirby Smith on the one side and by General Nelson on the other, was won by the Confederates, and the Union troops retreated, our command forming the rear guard." In spite of this setback he recalled the troops singing "The Battle Cry of Freedom" written shortly before by George P. Root. On October 8, 1862, he took part in the Battle of Perryville. His notes read: "Only six weeks from home and from the peaceful pursuits of life, with but little drill or discipline, taking part in a fierce battle." When Colonel George Webster was killed, Milner was sent with his body to Steubenville for the funeral. After a severe winter, on July 4, 1863, he reached Shelbyville. While there he visited Senator Cooper. His regiment was then ordered on to Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga. On September 19, 1863, the Battle of Chickamauga began, and the next day, Sunday September 20, he had a premonition that he was going to be killed. He recalled, "Shortly before the close of the battle, when we were in very close quarters with the enemy, I fell wounded. A minie ball passed through the large bone of my left arm crushing it." The next day he was taken to the Officers' Hospital in Chattanooga where it was decided to amputate the arm. Since the hospital was poorly equipped, he decided against the amputation and was honorably discharged and sent home to Mount Pleasant to die. Patient nursing, however, saved his life, and his purpose to fight liquor and slavery and to prepare himself for the ministry made him resolve to recover his health.

                        In the fall of 1864 although still suffering from his wound, Milner answered the emergency call for helpers in the work of the Christian Commission. The United States Christian Commission was the unique and unparalleled civilian agency of the Civil War. Founded November 16, 1861, by the Young Men's Christian Association of the northern states, it continued during the war to promote the spiritual welfare of the Federal soldiers, sailors, and marines. The American Bible Society contributed Bibles, and the civilian population gave money and voluntary services. In his notes Milner gives the number of his commission, 3420, and says that he served under J. R. Miller, later the noted editor of Presbyterian periodicals.

                        After completing his work with the Christian Commission, Milner began to prepare himself for the ministry. He determined to devote his life unreservedly to the Gospel of Christ. His notes continue: "With my wound still a running sore, I entered Washington College (now Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, Pennsylvania) in the middle of the college year, about February 1864, as a Sophomore, half advanced." His roommate was kd Cornes, also an honorably discharged soldier who had carried a Greek Testament with him all through the war. By identifying himself with the Second Presbyterian Church, of which Dr. Dodge was pastor, Milner now returned to the church of his fathers. In June 1866 he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts and was ready for the theological seminary.

                        In the fall of 1866 he entered Union Theological Seminary, New York City. He at once placed his membership in the Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church, of which Dr. Howard Crosby was pastor. While in the seminary he worked in a city mission. His notes briefly record that he greatly enjoyed the seminary work and the teaching of Henry B. Smith, Roswell D. Hitchcock, Thomas H. Skinner, and W. G. T. Shedd. During this time his wounded arm continued to cause him great suffering. Two physicians advised him to "go out West, ride horse back, drink milk, eat venison and live much in the open air." This advice prompted him to join a group of anti-slavery Union Seminary students who were "getting ready to go West as a body to Kansas and Missouri." This group, later known as "the Kansas Band," had been organized as the result of a visit to Union of an alumnus of the Seminary, Dr. Timothy Hill, of Kansas City, who "urged the claims of Kansas and western Missouri." This seemed to Milner the leading of Divine Providence, since it would permit him to carry out his life purposes.

            While in Union Seminary Milner continued his work for temperance, speaking in various

missions including some meetings of the Father Mathew Total Abstinence Societies. During these years he met and greatly admired William Dodge, Henry Ward Beecher, Theodore Cuyler, and Horace Greeley. Greeley visited Atchison in May 1859 and thereafter constantly urged young men to "go West." His enthusiasm was largely responsible for turning Milner's thought to Kansas.

            Following his graduation from Union Seminary, he returned to Mount Pleasant and married Miss Lucie M. Reid. The next day the young couple took the train for the West. For the next several years Milner's work was associated with that of Dr. Timothy Hill (1819-1887 ), the organizer and first pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, Kansas City, and who in 1868 became superintendent of all Presbyterian work in the Southwest.

            In October 1868 the Presbyterian Synod of Missouri (New School) met at Kansas City, Missouri. This Synod then included Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Indian Territory. At this meeting of the Synod the nine young men from Union Seminary, several of whom had served in the Civil War and who comprised the "Kansas Band" were ordained on October 4. Milner's notes list the following who were ordained: Colonel James Lewis, Major Charles H. McCreery, Capt. Samuel A. Stoddard, Adjutant Duncan C. Milner, Chaplain Theodore T. Jessup, Josiah J. Brown, and Benjamin F. McNeil. The immediate result of their coming into the Synod was the formation of two new Presbyteries and the organization of several new churches. At this meeting also arrangements were made for the formation of the Synod of Kansas. This was a time of great immigration to the West and especially to Kansas, to which state Milner was to give his life of devotion, In 1876 Dr. Timothy Hill wrote: "The one event which had more influence on the state (of Kansas) than any other single event connected with the Presbyterian Church, was the coming of nine young men together from Union Seminary in New York in 1868."

            Until 1875 Milner served as home missionary under Dr. Hill, then he became pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Ottawa, Kansas. From the first, Milner interested himself in the early history of Kansas, in the fight against the frontier saloons and in the Emigrant Aid Societies. He quotes approvingly the earlier words of Edward Everett Hale: "It is fair to say that every man in this Company went for the purpose of making Kansas a free state and to give a like privilege to all other States. No man went with the primary purpose of enriching himself and his family. What followed was that Kansas has always been a State of Idealists." To Milner Kansas remained always a state for idealists. He felt he could there make real his ideals for temperance, peace, and the establishment of the Kingdom of Christ.

                        While Milner was in Ottawa, Dr. John H. Vincent, later Bishop Vincent, came to Kansas and induced Milner to work for his newly organized "Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle." Milner went to Chautauqua, took the course, and graduated with the first class, "the Pioneers." When the Kansas Chautauqua Assembly was soon after organized, Milner became its first President. Through this organization he met and formed a life-long friendship with Frances E. Willard, and worked with her to further his ideal of temperance. Through his influence he brought to Kansas such speakers as Bishop Vincent, Lyman Abbott, Drs. Gunsaulus, Quayle, Tiffany and Henson, William Jennings Bryan, DeWitt Miller, U. S. Senators Plumb and Ingalls, William McKinley, exPresident Hayes, ex-Confederate General Gordon, General Miles, John A. Logan, and Governor Colquitt.

                        After 1878 he was closely associated in temperance work with Colonel John P. St. John. In his notes he records a trip with St. John who told him: "I will give you in confidence, a forecast. The State Republican Convention meets in a few days, there will be a deadlock between the two leading candidates. 1 will come in as the dark horse and be nominated and elected. I propose to recommend to the Legislature the enactment of a prohibitory law."

            True to this prophecy, St. John was elected Governor of Kansas in 1878 and re-elected in 1880. In the general election of 1881, the Amendment "prohibiting forever in Kansas the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors except for medical and scientific purposes" was passed. Milner believed that his ideal of temperance for his beloved Kansas would now be realized, but his most difficult days lay ahead, since the prohibitory law proved extremely difficult to enforce. Milner was now the outstanding Presbyterian minister in Kansas and one of the most influential reformers in the Middle West. His work received wide publicity.

            In 1882 the First Presbyterian Church of Atchison, without a pastor, thought of Milner. To this pastorate he was called. Atchison gave him a prominent place to carry on his efforts in making real the Social Gospel which he advocated before Rauschenbusch. Situated as it is on the Missouri River, Atchison was the "gateway to the West." Through the city passed the emigrants; thither had come the freed negroes; the Indian Reservation was near by. Atchison was thus a difficult city in which to enforce the new prohibitory law which was not popular with the incoming pioneers.

                        Milner, however, fought valiantly for law enforcement. On November 10, 1883, Frances Willard, a long-time friend of Dr. Milner, who sponsored her appearance, came to Atchison and addressed a large mass meeting in the newly completed Presbyterian Church. In an Editorial on this mass meeting, Ed Howe, Editor of the Atchison Globe, wrote: "The principal point of Miss Willard's lecture was that she abused no one, neither liquor seller or drinker, but talked as a humane sister for the benefit of mankind. We believe it is not too much to say that Miss Willard delivered the only genuine temperance lecture ever heard in Atchison; she accomplished some good and made no enemies." Miss Willard won the enthusiastic support of Ed Howe who wrote often of her fine spirit and later paid high tribute to Dr. Milner. The other members of the committee who brought Frances Willard, then at the height of her fame, to Atchison were Rev. Frank Ingalls, pastor of the Congregational Church and a close friend of Dr. Milner, Rev. W. S. Priest, pastor of the Christian Church, Rev. Philip Krohn, pastor of the Methodist Church, Mrs. D. T. Bradford, Miss Ida Downs, Bessie Collett, Blanche Challiss, an aunt of Amelia Earhart, Dr. Lydia Stockwell, and Mary E. Baldwin. On this visit Miss Willard organized the Atchison Woman's Christian Temperance Union which during Dr. Milner's pastorate was very influential. At Dr. Milner's suggestion, a similar group was also organized among the colored people of Atchison. Dr. Milner, it should be noted, was always the friend and champion of the negro, often reiterating that he had fought to give them freedom, and that he must continue to fight for their social and spiritual welfare.

            The following year at Milner's suggestion Frances Willard again visited Atchison. The secretary's notes of the Atchison Woman's Christian Temperance Union record her speaking in Price's Opera House before a capacity audience. The local W. C. T. U. paid five dollars for the use of the Opera House and also paid for Miss Willard's room at the fashionable Byram Hotel. Miss Willard continued to the end of her life to be very popular and influential in Kansas.

                      About a year later Milner wrote that arrangements had been made for some special meetings in Atchison under the leadership of the great Evangelist, D. L. Moody, and the services were to be held in the Presbyterian Church. Moody came at a time when the effort to enforce the prohibitory law reached its height. The issue as Milner saw it was simply the enforcement of law. Others held that prohibition as such was the wrong method. The notes continue: "The Atchison Globe with Mr. Howe as Editor was at that time against prohibition." The situation in Atchison became tense the day before Moody arrived. The notes continue: "The Atchison papers, of course, gave large space to the affair. My friend, Noble Prentis, then Editor of The Champion, strongly condemned the assault." Milner became the target for those opposed to prohibition. Moody was intensely interested in the temperance situation in Kansas and the notes continue: "I attended the Moody meetings and perhaps divided attention with the Evangelist. At the close of the meetings Sunday night, Mr. Moody insisted on my going to his hotel and giving him a full account of the battle. He said, 'I don't know what I would have done under the circumstances,' and said, 'You know Jesus spoke about turning the other cheek.' His singer, Mr. Towner, said: 'I am sure I know what you would have done with that big arm of yours'." But the difficulty of law-enforcement was not confined to Kansas alone. The notes continue: "About this time, the Rev. Geo. C. Haddock of Iowa was assassinated by a liquor crowd and there seemed an effort to excite bitter antagonism to all who were fighting to outlaw the liquor traffic." During these turbulent days, Milner, although the outstanding man in Kansas to oppose the organized liquor traffic, never forgot his early determination to make the Presbyterian Church influential on the frontier.

            In 1883 his leadership was recognized by his election as Moderator of the Synod of Kansas. At this meeting of Synod the vote was taken to establish a synodical college at Emporia. Milner, who held firmly to the Presbyterian tradition of education in church colleges, was the leader in the effort to build a Presbyterian college in Kansas. His notes, however, modestly record: "The Synod, in a body with a large number of citizens of Emporia, went to the open prairie and, as Moderator, I made a prayer of dedication of the ground where the buildings of the College now stand." The college later gave Milner the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

Milner's friendship with Governor John P. St. John and with Frances Willard continued as the three worked loyally together. In 1882 St. John ran for a third term as Governor of Kansas and was defeated by the liquor element. He then, by means of the lecture platform, took the issue to the entire country. In 1884 he ran as presidential candidate on the Prohibition ticket, after bolting the Republican Party. He drew enough votes to turn the election to Cleveland by defeating James G. Blaine, the Republican nominee. In this campaign Milner worked zealously for St. John. Frances Willard also cast her influence for St. John. At the National Convention of the Prohibition Home Protection Party which met at Pittsburgh, July 23, 1884, as a member of the Executive Committee she was asked to make the first seconding speech for St. John's nomination as the Presidential candidate. Miss Willard and Dr. Milner always associated temperance or prohibition with the protection of the home, and they tried to retain the name "Prohibition Home Protective Party." They were outnumbered, however, and in 1884 the name "National Prohibition Party," the original name when the party was organized in 1869, was resumed.

            Among other events of Milner's pastorate in Atchison which won national interest was his part in the founding of the synodical college for the Lutheran Church. Midland College was the result of a great number of meetings, culminating in the large mass meeting held in the Presbyterian Church.

            Incidentally Dr. Milner performed the marriage rites for a young soldier who was later to have national distinction. This was the marriage of Lieutenant Andrew Summers Rowan to Miss Ida Symns in the Presbyterian Church of Atchison on April 12, 1887. The Symns family had been prominent in the Presbyterian Church from its very beginning. Ida Symns Rowan continued to make her home in Atchison while her husband was away on active service with the army. Later, as Colonel in the Spanish-American War, Rowan achieved international fame when he "carried the message to Garcia." Mrs. Rowan was a devout Presbyterian and spent much time in prayer during the time her husband was absent on this perilous mission, the story of which Elbert Hubbard has immortalized. After the war, the Presbyterian Church together with the City of Atchison gave Colonel Rowan a great reception. During this period, Dr. Milner became interested in spreading the Social Gospel by writing. He wrote for many papers and began collecting material for his book on Lincoln and Liquor which he published in 1920. This book has been described as "probably the most complete and exhaustive collection extant of the evidence on Abraham Lincoln's attitude toward intoxicants personally and as a national policy." He also served as Editor of The Kansas Presbyter.

            In 1887 Dr. Milner was called to the pastorate of the Manhattan, Kansas, Presbyterian Church. Believing that Manhattan would be a quieter town than Atchison and would permit him more time for writing, he accepted the call and served the Manhattan Church until 1892. During his Manhattan pastorate, Dr. Milner continued to write and was encouraged by Colonel John B. Anderson, a member of his Session. Col. Anderson, a Military Superintendent of Railways in the Civil War, was connected with the building of the Union Pacific Railway. A fine scholar, he enjoyed reading his New Testament in Greek and French. He and his wife were greatly loved in the church and community. On the Golden Wedding Anniversary, Dr. Milner persuaded them to found the Anderson Memorial Library at the College of Emporia. He also knew that Andrew Carnegie was a boy in the office of Col. Anderson at Pittsburgh, when he was superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and he induced him to erect the fine building for the Anderson Memorial Library. Always interested in books, Dr. Milner found in the Anderson home the libraries of his brother, the Rev. W. C. Anderson, a sister's collection of books, and Col. Anderson's own large private library. There was also a large collection of Government publications collected by Congressman John A. Anderson and Anderson's own personal library. He spent many days sorting out from these collections and sent hundreds of volumes that made the nucleus of the present library of the College of Emporia.

            Milner's literary interests now became more important to him, but he never ceased to fight the organized liquor interests. He notes significantly: "The sentiment of the people of Manhattan was largely in favor of the prohibition law, but there was room for continued agitation for law enforcement." During the years 1893-1894 Dr. Milner served as President of the Kansas State Temperance Union and again found himself the center of much agitation.

            Following this period, Milner's work in Kansas ceased. In 1894 he moved to Chicago, and the rest of his active career was spent in Illinois. His life in Kansas was the most important part of his career, and it is to these years that Dr. Covert referred when he urged Dr. Milner to write his biography.

            Lord Acton once wrote, "Ideals in politics are never realized, but the pursuit of them determines history." These words apply to Duncan Chambers Milner. His ideals may never all be fully realized, but they proved to be a mighty power in the making of Kansas.