Church of the Incarnation Organized June 14, 1861

Decatur, Nebraska Church of the Incarnation Organized June 14, 1861 In 1854, the organization of Nebraska Territory occurred only after the Omaha and Otoe-Missouri tribes of Native Americans had relinquished their lands by treaty, and had simultaneously agreed to move onto reservations. The territory was opened to white settlement after the treaties were ratified in late May and early June of that year. Although it had taken several months, by early 1856 Commissioner of Indian Affairs George Manypenny had helped the Omaha chose very good land for their reservation in the region known to the Omaha as Blackbird Hills. Not only was it good for farming, there was excellent timber, plenty of game, and many streams with fish The Indians moved onto their reservation land in 1856. The surrounding land was equally as good, and whites who saw an opportunity for trade with the Indians soon created Decatur Town and Ferry Company in Burt County, which laid out the town on the southern border of the reservation. The hamlet was named by the town company’s proprietors, who included Stephen Decatur Bross, who claimed he was a nephew of Commodore Stephen Decatur. Although the region was good for agriculture, Decatur’s early economy was based upon trade with Indians and with other regional fur traders. In fact, another of the town’s proprietors was Peter Sarpy, a French fur trader who is widely regarded as the first white resident in the area, arriving in the region ca. 1830. Although the town’s economy was reportedly based upon trade with the natives, an early resident of Decatur, John A. MacMurphy, reported that only three traders living near Decatur were permitted to go on to the reservation to trade. The trio included Sarpy, another Franchman named Lambert (possibly Clement Lambert), and an American named Chase. The three traders operated trading posts near the river, and dominated the community’s societal formation. MacMurphy arrived in early 1857, and he offered an excellent description early Decatur. A 2 New Yorker by upbringing, before he left the Eastern United States, MacMurphy had purchased lots in Decatur as well as a section of land that adjoined the townsite, certain that fame and fortune awaited him in Nebraska Territory. But when he and his party of co-travelers disembarked their steamship at Decatur, disappointment overwhelmed them. MacMurphy described the scene: A more heart broken and dilapidated set of tenderfeet never put hoof ashore, than we were the next day after the boat was gone and we were left fairly alone miles from nowhere. Instead of four stores, there were two log trading posts, owned by Frenchmen, who hated “ventre bleu Yankees,” and as for the fifteen houses, there wasn’t such a thing as what we had been accustomed to call a house in the place. None of this particular party . had [ever] seen a country before where there was not a good tavern handy at night and a warm breakfast ready-cooked the next morning The author went on to explain that the town’s economy was based primarily on bartering goods in exchange for animal pelts, either with local Indians or other fur traders operating in the region. The most profitable period annually included the few days after the Indians received their cash annuity payments. At that time, goods were purchased with specie. But through the remainder of the year, purchases were made with fur pelts. MacMurphy wrote that: We got a great many buffalo robes, . beaver, mink, otter, fox, and now and then a bear skin or silver grey wolf. Antelope, deer and elk skins were plenty, and each had its barter price in flour, sugar, coffee, meat or what Mr. Indian wanted. Towards spring half the place would be piled to the ceiling with peltries, and you could smell that old log cabin for miles down the bottom. The proximity of the reservation, coupled with an economy based upon trade with Indians, meant that native culture was well-understood among the town residents, and early observers recorded the funerals of at least two Omaha Indians who were buried using the burial services from the Book of Common Prayer. On July 16 ,1855, Logan Fontenelle, son of fur trader Lucian Fontenelle and Me-Um-Ba-Ne, daughter of Omaha Chief Big Elk, was murdered by Sioux hunters near the Loup Forks. Thirteen days later, the Omaha chief was buried near Decatur, using the “impressive funeral 3 service of the Episcopal Church. [read] by Stephen Decatur.” And a couple of years later, another elderly Omaha head man was buried on the reservation, again using the funeral rite from the Book of Common Prayer, and noted MacMurphy, “we all joined in when possible. This part seemed to please the Indians very much.” It is readily understandable that Decatur’s proprietors wanted to make their small village seem like the city for which they all hoped. Organizers believed that the railroad, then under construction in eastern Iowa, would cross the Missouri River at the location of Decatur. To assure potential residents that Decatur would blossom, organizers sought to cooperate with any group that could upgrade their “village” into the ranks of “viable town.” Church buildings and attendant congregations were important to the image of town prosperity and community viability that was needed to entice railroad capitalists to invest in Decatur’s future. And so the town’s residents were delighted when Missionary Bishop Joseph Cruickshank Talbot stopped there on his second trip into the northern part of his missionary district in Spring 1861. He held services in the dining room of the hotel called the Fuller House. The bishop was impressed; the services were “attended by a large congregation. The [congregation] responses . were as full and audible as in our best trained congregations. The singing, too, . was unusually excellent.” The bishop was enroute to Dakota Territory, but after his visit there, he returned to Decatur. On June 14, he again read prayers and baptized two children. In a meeting with the bishop after the service, town residents offered $200 toward the salary of an Episcopal clergyman (roughly one-half the usual $400 salary), as well as the labor needed to construct a church edifice; the bishop promised to procure $300 worth of building materials. While no organization papers were ever located, church record books begin with this date, and thus, this is the date commemorated as the date of parish 4 organization. To underscore their desire for a church building in Decatur, residents offered upwards of fifteen city lots on which to construct the church building and/or to raise revenue for church sustainabilty. Among the donors of lots was Peter A. Sarpy, who donated a lot in Mills County, Iowa. Wrote Bishop Talbot, This is the first instance within my knowledge, in which the entire population of a town have expressed such desire, and taken such action for the establishment of our services among them. The people are intelligent, and a considerable proportion of them liberally educated, and if I can now procure an experienced and prudent clergyman, with the means for his support, I have little doubt of being able to control the religious education of the town. It was one of the chief objects of my journey. Very quickly, the bishop secured a donation from a “liberal layman” at the Church of the Incarnation in New York City to assist in funding construction of the church building. For that reason, the little parish in Nebraska Territory took the name of the parish of its donor. Bishop Talbot worked quickly to locate missionaries for his growing missionary district. On June 15, 1862, the bishop ordained two deacons for work in Nebraska Territory. Rev. Orsamus A. Dake was assigned to Trinity Parish in Omaha; Virginian, Rev. Algernon Batte, was assigned to Church of the Incarnation in Decatur. Educated at the Virginia Theological Seminary, Rev. Batte had also read the law, an experience that Bishop Talbot believed would “give him great advantages.” Rev. Batte arrived in Decatur on June 18, 1862, finding construction work on the church building at a standstill. While the bishop had procured – and shipped – the necessary building materials from the East during the previous summer, the fall and winter of 1861-1862, had been cold and snowy, severely hampering construction work. When Spring finally arrived, the construction workers and carpenters had more pressing, paying jobs to undertake. Sensing the crisis, Bishop Talbot journeyed to Decatur to oversee the work himself, arriving in June 1862, and remaining until the building was enclosed. Once the structure was completed, on September 4, 1864, the Church of the 5 Incarnation became the first building consecrated in Bishop Talbot’s missionary district. But living conditions on the Frontier were harsh with few amenities, even in a village such as Decatur, leading Bishop Talbot to conclude that the lives of his missionaries were more arduous than those of a Western farmer. Thus the missionary prelate used the Decatur church as a model for his concept of physically attaching a rectory to the church building, making life more comfortable for the rector. In Decatur, the rectory was attached to the back of the church building; it opened into the Nave of the church. Church of the Incarnation had been established when prospects for the growth of both Decatur’s population and church congregation seemed good. Even the upheaval of the Civil War had not deterred construction of the Cedar Rapids and Missouri Railroad. By 1862, the rails were building toward a Missouri River crossing site at Decatur, making economic prospects bright.

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