Minnesota: The Revival State: Moves of God 1860-1960

By Dale Gilmore

This book documents spiritual awakenings in Minnesota from its origins as a state until around 1960. There are countless untold stories of God's activity across the Upper Midwest. This book attempts to tell some of those stories in words and pictures. In recent times, many prophetic voices have predicted that a series of fresh new spiritual awakenings are coming to Minnesota. The author has included an Appendix with many of those prophecies. For those who enjoy tracking revivals, this is an informative book to read. For those who pray for Minnesota, this is an important handbook to use.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781716420641

Book preview

BOOK ENDORSEMENTS

Several years ago, God gave me a prophetic word that Minnesota was the revival state.  At that time, I was unaware of the rich history of revival within this amazing state.  The fact that the Holy Spirit fell in Minnesota even before what many Pentecostals acknowledge as a second Pentecost at Azusa Street in Los Angeles, makes this even more remarkable.

Dale Gilmore has done the whole Body of Christ a great service.  He is like the Frank Bartleman who wrote the history of the 1906 Azusa Street Visitation.

Dr. C. Peter Wagner once said to me, Any history that is not written about is not remembered.  Dale has seen to it that future generations will remember and celebrate the works of God throughout the years to come.

Dr.  Cindy Jacobs

Generals, International

Dallas, Texas

Dale Gilmore has done an outstanding job in researching the material for this informative book on Minnesota revivals. I have been blessed and impressed with the time and detail he has spent in giving the reader not only valuable information, but also the needed inspiration to believe for another move of the Spirit in our day. You too will be blessed and challenged as you read.

David Ravenhill

Siloam Springs, Arkansas.

Historian Dale Gilmore has accomplished a most incredible job locating information on historical God encounters over the years in various parts of Minnesota    Allow the words of this book to stir your heart and make us all aware that God is not finished with us yet.   I believe the greatest Revival is still ahead of us.  Because of your personal interest in these God encounters, I believe you will be involved in the next great move of God and it could well be happening in Minnesota.  Lord let it happen. 

Gerald G. Derstine, D.D., Founder, President emeritus Gospel Crusade, Inc.

President Strawberry Lake Christian Retreat Church, Inc.

Founder, Director, Israel Affairs International

Founder, Institute of Ministry School, Christian Retreat, Bradenton, Florida

Brother Dale Gilmore has given us a wonderful piece of work in his new book on Minnesota revivals. Included is a little-known story of a Catholic sister's prophecies about the Mayo Clinic's beginnings, along with prophecies more recently shared about future revivals the Lord is wanting to bring to us. He does an excellent job of weaving back and forth between solid historical information and the more intriguing signs and wonders that have also occurred in our midst over time.  Also impressive was how he showed the Spirit's willingness to work through so many different branches of the Church: Presbyterians, Lutherans, Baptists, Pentecostals, blacks, whites, Germans, Norwegians, Swedes, Native Americans.  What a treasure-trove for future generations!  Every serious pastor and student of revival owes it to themselves to get a copy of this book!  May it spark faith and hope that the God who has been so active in the past yet still has so much more that He is intending to do in our midst before His Son's return!

Your brother in Jesus and co-worker in the harvest,

Larry J. Alberts

Senior elder at Way of the Lord, Blaine, Minnesota & Director of Body of Christ International ministries

https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/uaMWLCMtguRGg2q56hMBkoMWlMwDJWUI5EUgNCb-LgwZhv6GGUhxRQelDH_RGS2pmhGjDMh515UQ5gG9KOF-X55XckHLUCYIGFAPle87_UluPRW2E7yj3-ENEtC_=s0-d-e1-ft#https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0Bz9cM5h0r_YndmlxVHpKTjZ1elE&export=download

Larry J. Alberts

Revivals in Minnesota at the turn of the twentieth century helped lay the foundation for the emerging Pentecostal movement in the Northern Great Plains. These revivals among Scandinavian immigrants and others are an enduring reminder of the Holy Spirit’s power to transform families and impact communities.

Darrin J. Rodgers, M.A., J.D.

Director, Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center

DEDICATION PAGE

This book is dedicated to two parties who have been helpful and inspirational in pursuit of information on the Revival History of Minnesota.

[Photo Dedication-1—(no caption Kathy Gilmore)]

My wife, Kathy, who was my traveling companion and an on-going source of encouragement to me, and

[Photo-Dedication-2—(no caption Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center staff)]

The Entire Staff of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center in Springfield, Missouri. These people were a fountain of information and inspiration to me.  I cannot think of a more noble purpose in life than spending your life tracking the works of God across the earth.

Contents

BOOK ENDORSEMENTS

DEDICATION PAGE

FOREWORD

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

SECTION I: EARLY ORIGINS: CAMP MEETINGS COME TO MINNESOTA

Chapter 1:  Camp Meetings Come to Minnesota

Box #1:  Minnesota’s Miracle?

Chapter 2:  The Origins of Red Rock and the Development of a Ministry There

Chapter 3:  The Red Rock Camp Meetings Begin in Newport, Minnesota

Box #2:  Birth of the Mayo Clinic---A Supernatural Vision to Sister Mary Alfred Moes

Chapter 4:  Impact of the Red Rock Camp Meetings on Minnesota’s Formation

SECTION II. REVIVALS IN GREATER MINNESOTA

Chapter 5:  Spiritual Rumblings in Sweden, Norway, and Germany

Chapter 6:  Carl M. Hanson Comes to Minnesota

Box #3:  Swedish Free Mission Churches in Minnesota and the Dakotas

Chapter 7:  An Outpouring of The Holy Spirit Before Azusa Street

Chapter 8:  Mini-Fires in Minnesota’s North Woods Among the Lumberjacks

Chapter 9:  Revival Comes to Moorhead, Minnesota

Chapter 10:  Healing Revival Comes to Alexandria, Minnesota

Box #4:  A Brief History of Healing and Revival Meetings in Minnesota

Chapter 11:  Gerald Derstine and the Mennonite Revival

Chapter 12:  Mini-Outpourings Across Minnesota

The Tyler, Minnesota Revival

The Casino, Minnesota Revival

Billy Sunday Comes to Rochester, Minnesota

Revival Surrounding the 1862 Hanging in Mankato, Minnesota

Minnesota Woman Leads Paul Yonggi Cho to the Lord

Fire Falls on Minnie Abrams, Missionary to India 

Revival in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota

Tent Meetings in Cass Lake, Minnesota

Billy Graham in Minnesota

SECTION III—REVIVAL STREAMS IN MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL

Chapter 13:  Frank J. Lindquist and the Minneapolis Gospel Tabernacle

Box #5:  Charles S. Price

Chapter 14:  Soul’s Harbor Church, formerly known as Calvary Temple

Box #6:  Dr. Lilian B. Yeomans

Chapter 15:  Clayton Sonmore, Becky’s Cafeteria, and the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship

Box #7:  The Latter Rain Movement Controversy

Chapter 16:  Ted Hegre and Bethany Global University

Chapter 17:  Donald Pfotenhauer and Way of the Lord Church

Box #8:  The Amazing Aimee Semple McPherson Revival Meetings of 1933

Chapter 18:  Morris Vaagenes and North Heights Lutheran Church

Chapter 19:  Shiloh Temple International Ministries

Box #9:  Mississippi River Baptism Makes Newspaper Headlines

Chapter 20:  A Fire from the North, a Vision of Coming Revival

Appendix: A History of Prophetic Words Spoken Over Minnesota

Bibliography

Index of People and Places

Book End Notes

FOREWORD

Dale Gilmore is no stranger to revival.  He has studied it from afar, historically, and he has studied it close, here in the U.S. and in Latin America.  As a former Baptist pastor, he knows that there is sometimes cause for caution with Pentecostal claims of signs and wonders...and yet, as former Executive Director of the Minnesota House of Prayer, his office has become a literal depository for stories and records of just about every kind of Spirit-enabled stirring that you can imagine!  His heart is not to squeeze Christians into any predetermined theological mold, but rather to keep us open to anything and everything that the Lord Himself truly is beckoning His people to --especially His people here in the Land of 10,000 (or maybe 13,000?) Lakes!

Brother Dale is a man with an eye for detail and an ear for authentic dialog.  Whether examining missionaries to lumberjacks or Lutherans unexpectedly dealing with prayer in tongues or the amazing accidental work of world-renowned leader Billy Graham, we have it all here: samples of all sorts of things since Minnesota became a state, right on up until the modern era.  Spirit-filled restaurants, sky pilots, prophecies of nationwide awakenings starting along the Mississippi (or maybe the St. Croix?) -- so very much to chew on, so very much to prayerfully submit to God's rekindling in our day!

May the Lord see fit to give this book the broad audience it so richly deserves...and make the future even better than the past!

To the glory of our sovereign Lord,

Dr. Lance Wonders

Academic dean

ACTS International Bible College

Blaine, Minnesota

PREFACE

It was a hot Sunday in July in Minnesota.  Cindy Jacobs, president of the organization known as Generals of Intercession ¹ and a recognized prophetic voice in the nations, had contacted Pastor Morris Vaagenes, pastor of North Heights Lutheran Church in Arden Hills, Minnesota.  She had asked to speak in both morning services.  She felt the Holy Spirit had spoken a message to her for both the church and the state of Minnesota.  I was [Photo Preface-1—Cindy Jacobs, Generals, International] pastor of a small church in the Twin Cities but was keenly aware of the growing prayer movement in the state and was hungering to see a supernatural move of God in Minnesota.

We prayed about Cindy’s visit in our Wednesday night prayer meeting.  If I had my choice, I would have bolted my congregation that Sunday and gone to attend North Heights to hear what Cindy had to say.  But alas, being the pastor of a small church meant I had teaching responsibilities and a sermon to deliver myself that morning. Instead I sent a couple of spies from our church over to North Heights to capture in writing some of what she had to say.

That Sunday afternoon, I called one of our spies who gave me a brief rundown on the content of Cindy’s remarks.  Those remarks were confirmed and expanded later that week in the posting of the actual transcript of her message by some at North Heights.  She began by saying that in twenty years of ministry she has only invited herself to a location maybe five times. This was one of those times. Her text was Habakkuk 1:5:

Look among the nations and see; wonder and be astounded.  For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. (ESV)

What she wanted to say to the state of Minnesota was:

"I feel the Holy Spirit is saying there is a sweeping move of the Holy Spirit coming to Minnesota.  And God is going to make you, I do not know how to say it except ‘a first-fruits state.’ That means a state where God moves first. In the tremendous move of the Holy Spirit coming, like what was seen in the Jesus People day, there is going to be a sweeping, sweeping impact.  It is going to touch the government in Minnesota.  God is going to shift things in the government.  You are in a transition right now.  God is in a time of shifting and changing things in this state for HIS glory.  And I will also say to you, I believe with all my heart, and you can just see if you sense this is something from the Lord, that Minnesota will be one of the first states to vote against abortion at a state level.  And God is going to use this state to change the nation."

Cindy continued:

It’s like there will be so many fires of revival.  It is going to be in this little town and that little town.  And I want to say and prophesy across the north of Minnesota:  there’s going to be a sweeping move of the Holy Spirit that comes to the North—city after city after city will be touched by the presence of the living God.  It is wonderful to be able to come and give a good word.  Sometimes, you know, you come, and you cannot give such a good word.  But I know that the Holy Spirit is going to move here. ²

Our response to hearing these words was tears and worship, mixed with a sense of awe and fear.  I remember saying to the Lord, What do you have planned for this state, Lord?  Are you serious with all you said through Cindy? 

Cindy Jacobs returned to Minnesota in January of 2002, speaking at a prophetic conference at Redeeming Love Church.  Her opening words to assembled leaders at a luncheon the first afternoon were that she had told her friends that she was going to be speaking in Minnesota, the revival state!

I began to think, Who would have thought that this state, Minnesota, despised by many for its weather and northern location, laughed at by many for its funny, speaking accent, viewed by many as flyover country, viewed as Lutheran heaven in Lake Woebegone, might be the wellspring of a revival that would impact a nation? The state was not in the Bible Belt and had never been looked at as a bastion of spiritual vitality. As I looked skeptically at the spiritual landscape, I saw pockets of hunger for a Third Great Awakening.  However, I did not see the realities that Cindy was ascribing to Minnesota.

At this point, the Lord began saying to me, You don’t know the whole story. So, I began to say Lord, show me more of the story.  Then a series of remarkable things began to occur.  A few years prior a couple of women had been doing some spiritual mapping in the Newport, Minnesota community.  During their exploration of historical documents, they uncovered a treasure trove of materials on a remarkable history of camp meetings that had occurred on the banks of the Mississippi River that dated back over 100 years.  They met with me one morning and gave me a large packet of papers with lots of information on these meetings.  I had no ties with Newport, other than I lived across the river in South St. Paul.  But the women gave me the material saying The Lord told us to give this to you…. you’ll know what to do with it. At the time, I had no idea what to do with the materials and put them on a shelf in my office.  However, I periodically pulled the packet from the shelf and would read through some of what it contained.

While on the internet some years later, I came across another document, written by Darrin [Photo Preface-2—Darrin Rodgers, Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center (Photo courtesy of FPHC)] Rodgers, the director of the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, located in the Assemblies of God National Office in Springfield, Missouri.  The Heritage Center is the largest archives and research center in the Pentecostal and charismatic tradition. Rodgers happened to be a North Dakota native, and he had written a paper titled Rediscovering Our Diverse Roots: Pentecostal Origins in Scandinavian Pietism in Minnesota and the Dakotas. The paper’s thesis was that among the Scandinavian people who came to inhabit the Dakotas and Minnesota both from Norway and Sweden, there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in many communities with supernatural signs and wonders that preceded even the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles, California in 1906.  Azusa Street is often viewed as the origin of modern-day Pentecostalism. This author was saying that revivals and these signs of the Spirit were already manifesting in Minnesota and the Dakotas years before Azusa Street. He included names and dates.

Now God had my attention.  From that point on, it seemed I would continually meet men and women who would add some further piece to the history of God’s activity in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest region.  I did not know the whole story, but I was seeing more of the story.

Two men have pressed me to write this book.  Wesley Chase, who published my first book through Lightfall Publishing, is now in the Lord’s presence. However, Wes always had a sense that I was to write a book on what God had done and was doing in Minnesota.  He never pressured me in the task.  It was always encouragement through reminding me of the materials I already had plus new tidbits of information he would collect.  The second man is Dr. Lance Wonders, who is the Academic Dean and Chaplain at ACTS International Bible College in Blaine, Minnesota.  Dr. Wonders has been a friend for over 25 years.  He has long had the perception that I was to write a book on revival.  At almost every social encounter, he would ask How is the book coming? That question seemed to keep me on track. These two men, along with others who would ask questions about Minnesota’s history, helped keep this book near the front of my to-do list.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I want to acknowledge so many people who helped me with this project.  I want to thank first the many who sat through a recorded conversation with me. In no specific order they are Rev. Henry Brown, Dr. Charles Gill, Bishop Richard Howell, Ted and Jackie Eim, Dan and Kirsten Walch, Rev. Rolf Fure, Rollie Norman, Jerry Pabola, Rev. Paul and Juanita Tucker, Rev. Steve and Candace Thompson, Rocky Coffin, Dr. Paul Strand, Rev. Bob Burmeister, Dr. Morris Vaagenes, Rev. Charles Porta, Clayton Sonmore, Gary Sonmore, Larry Alberts, Tom Hardwick, Rev. C.P. and Becky Anderson, Dr. David and Nancy Ravenhill, Rev. Donald Pfotenhauer, Father Kilian McDonnell, Rev. Gerald and Shirley Derstine, Rev. Jay Bunker, Jim and Verda Erb, John Bentley, Rev. Gordon and Nancy Peterson, Jr., Rev. Virgil and Ruth Rasmussen, Rev. Steve Rasmussen, Dr. Glen Menzies, Carol Freeman, and Rev. Steven Anderson.

I want to secondly thank those who provided materials to me. Jeff Bremer kindly shared some of his collection of prophetic words he had preserved digitally on revival in Minnesota. Ruth Wessman began my journey by giving me her research on the Red Rock Camp meetings in Newport, Minnesota.  Rev. Lynndene Way gave me written materials she had collected on the Maria Woodworth-Etter tent meetings in Alexandria.  I want to acknowledge Dr. Darrin J. Rodgers from the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, and his book Northern Harvest, for providing encouragement and the groundwork for this inquiry.  Gary Sonmore also provided pictures for the book, as did the family of John Sornberger. I also want to thank Rev. Dan Johnson and the congregation of Casino Assemblies of God Church, and Rev. Dale Robins from the Lake Eunice Evangelical Free Church for permission to use pictures of their facilities in the book. Also, thanks go out to my grand-daughter, Tirzah Gilmore, who was my photographer on some picture-taking excursions.

Last of all I want to thank those individuals who have helped with the review and editing of this book.  Some have reviewed only portions of the book, while others have reviewed the entire book.  In no order, they are Dr. Lance Wonders, Michelle Lucas, Linda Holmes, Kathy Gilmore, Larry Alberts, Karen Krueger, and Kristine Noelle.

Several historical organizations have provided pictures and materials for this book.  In no order, they are the Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, Springfield, Missouri, The Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, Minnesota, the Ottertail County Historical Society in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, the Douglas County Historical Society in Alexandria, Minnesota, and the Olmsted County Historical Society, Rochester, Minnesota. I need to acknowledge help I received from the Murphy Library Special Collections, University of Wisconsin - La Crosse in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Thanks goes out also to Kathy Johnson and her office for their help as Archivist for the United Methodist Historical Society of Minnesota.

INTRODUCTION

This book is an attempt to fill in some of the rest of the story about the religious history of Minnesota. There are books filled with lists of denominations and Christian parachurch ministries that have ministered here over the years.  We praise God for the work done in His name in Minnesota.

But Scripture tells us God is always at work (John 5:17).  It is impossible to follow all God is doing at any given time.  This book is not meant to provide a complete history of religious moves in the state.  It is an attempt to trace that part of God’s work where the preaching of the Word was accompanied by a move of the Holy Spirit in impactful ways.  Sometimes those ways were great numbers of salvations and sometimes those ways were supernatural New Testament signs and wonders.  The period of inquiry of this book will be roughly the 100 years from 1860 through 1960.  I want to tell some of the stories of spiritual awakenings in the state. Some of the stories will be more recent than 1960. Those awakenings are sometimes called revivals and they are times when God invades a community or region with a greater sense of His presence and power, breaking the local church out of a slumber to a period of greater prayer, worship, and service in the Kingdom of God. As a result, the impact is felt in the society and culture.

My fear in writing this book has been twofold.  My first fear is that my personal background was in a very fundamental, evangelical, Baptist church.  Pentecostalism and the charismatic movement were looked upon with suspicion and not embraced. Over the years, the Lord Jesus has drawn me into a greater understanding of and participation in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. But I wondered if I could be fair in dealing with this material. My second fear is that this book will be incomplete. I have been concerned that there was some major revival or moves of God in the state of which I was not aware. I have come to the place of accepting that the book will be incomplete. There will always be another work of God in Minnesota that could have been included.  I have joked that this book should be bound in a loose-leaf binder, with the ability to add chapters as we discover past works of God, and as He continues to work in this state.  Hopefully, future authors will discover more of God’s activity here and more complete books will be put in our hands.

I have included much detail in this book for at least two reasons.  First, names, places, and dates are important to God. The Bible is full of names and places that are known only to God. Second, the detail is included to spur curiosity and individual study of your hometown. A name from the past might strike recognition in a reader in their family or community history. They can further investigate God’s activity in their region.

I will conclude the book with an Appendix that provides a brief prophetic history of some of the words spoken over Minnesota. Again, this Appendix will not be complete.  It will only include words that have made their way into my hands. Many more could be added.  I have also included an index of people and places referenced in the book.

Most of the material in this book was new to me, but very encouraging to my spirit. If God was doing these things over 100 years ago, I know He can do them again in our day. My prayer is that the reader will find the material encouraging to their spirits as well as provide a vision for what can be our future. It is important for one generation to share with the following generations what the Lord has done, the deeds "that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children but tell the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might, and the wonders that he has done...that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God."  (Psalm 78:3b,4, 6, 7a)

May a greater hunger for another great awakening be stirred in our hearts in these days!

SECTION I: EARLY ORIGINS: CAMP MEETINGS COME TO MINNESOTA

The state of Minnesota came into existence as a result of the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803 and the ceding of lands east of the Mississippi to the U.S. Government from, believe it or not, the state of Virginia.  Virginia got the land from Great Britain, but that is too complicated to examine here.  Anyway, the U.S. government decided to build a series of outposts in this new territory to do a couple of things.  The United States had just won the war of 1812 with Great Britain. However British troops were still stationed throughout Canada on our northern border. To prevent any further retribution, a series of forts were constructed along the Great Lakes in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota to guard against that. Also, the U.S. government wanted to see this newly acquired land developed. And so, to facilitate trappers, traders, entrepreneurs, immigrants and all who might venture into this new territory, and to make sure there was peace with the Native American population on the land, the decision was made to build these military/government outposts. One of those outposts was Fort Snelling, located on the southeast side of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Construction on Fort Snelling was begun in 1820 at the junction of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers and was completed in 1825.

Scripture make it clear that "(God) made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might find their way toward Him and find Him." (Acts 17:26-27a ESV) It is therefore safe to say that Minnesota’s borders were created by God so that those who would come and live within those borders would be able to seek God and find him!  They did seek Him, and they did find Him!  And that is where our story of revivals in Minnesota begins.

Minnesota has never been considered part of the Bible-belt, and when you think of evangelical Christianity flourishing somewhere, you do not immediately think of Minnesota. However, I hope the reader discerns how God has continually asserted His presence and renewing influence in this state from its inception up through the present day.  What follows are some of the stories of God’s presence and work among people in this state and bordering states. These are the ones we know about, but there are many stories we have not heard yet.  Our first section begins with the early camp meetings in the state, especially the very large Red Rock Camp meetings.

Chapter 1:  Camp Meetings Come to Minnesota

[Insert photo 1-1—Red Wing, MN in the 1860’s] The first known Camp meeting in Minnesota was held outside of Red Wing, Minnesota on the farm of Lehmen Bates in 1855.  Already camp meetings were popular events along the east and mid-Atlantic coasts during the 2nd great awakening.  We have evidence of 34 cities in Minnesota where camp meetings were held at least one year.  These camp meetings were evangelistic but also based on holiness teaching.  Many were held with multiple languages being spoken.

The term Camp meetings almost describes what they were: religious meetings held outdoors over a period of days where attendees camped in tents or in some cases stayed in cabins.  Merrill E. Jarchow is an author that has written extensively about the history of Minnesota.  He writes the following about the early camp meeting movement in Minnesota:

The camp meeting in America seems to have had its origin with the Cumberland Presbyterians in Tennessee and Kentucky, but it was so readily adopted by the Methodists that it became commonly associated with that denomination.  Despite its popularity with nineteenth-century Methodists, the camp meeting never was given official sanction by incorporation into the Methodist Doctrines and Discipline; thus, it remained more or less an extracurricular activity, a part of the unwritten law of the church. ³

The exact date and time of the first camp meeting held in Minnesota is unknown. The Reverend Benjamin Kavanaugh, a Methodist preacher who had come to Minnesota and worked in the vicinity of Fort Snelling around 1840, indicated in his writings that no meetings were held in Minnesota during his stay there.  It is possible that from Kavanaugh’s time until the middle 1850’s, with Minnesota as a rich mission field with arriving immigrants, that Methodist ministers were busy traveling their circuits and organizing classes and societies. Organizing camp meetings was not a priority. 

Finally in 1855, possibly the first camp meeting in Minnesota was held about three miles from the village of Red Wing, on farm property owned by Lehmen Bates.  The services were under the direction of Reverend Jabez Brooks, principal and [Insert Photo 1-2---Jabez Brooks (Used with permission from Archives, Hamline University)]  librarian of Hamline University (Hamline University began on property in Red Wing before moving to St. Paul, Minnesota). Records indicate the meetings began with a prayer meeting attended by thirty-three persons on Wednesday evening, August 8, 1855.  Tents had been pitched in the grove during the day, and others were added as the days passed.  Some in attendance traveled over a hundred miles on horseback, in wagons, and by steamboats to reach the meeting.  The Reverend David Brooks, father of Jabez Brooks, had negotiated with steamboat captains to carry camp meeting passengers at half price.  That precedent was continued for many years.⁴

The Reverend James Peet of Stillwater, left a description of the campground and a brief account of the meetings.  He observed that a stand was erected for the speakers and leaders, with seats occupied by English settlers on the right, and others occupied by Germans on the left.  The preaching alternated between English and German, and both groups sang the same hymns simultaneously [Photo 1-3---(no caption Plainview, MN sign)] in their respective languages. 

The climax of the meetings, which lasted six days until Monday, August 13, was reached at the lovefeast during the Sunday services.  There were thirteen tents on the ground at that time, in addition to some emigrant wagons. In total, about a hundred people joined in the worship.  Many confessed sins and renewed their covenants with God.  When the invitation was given to the ministers to come forward for Communion, thirty responded. After they had been served, many of the congregation partook of the sacrament.  Camp meetings customarily closed with the participants marching around the grounds while shaking hands, bestowing blessings on one another and saying goodbyes.  Those attending felt this camp meeting was a grand success. Several people were converted, and many joined the church. Religious feelings were quickened and many Methodist societies were birthed.⁵

There was a questionnaire sent to Methodist pastors throughout Minnesota in 1883. The purpose was to secure information about the history of Methodism in Minnesota. Mr. Jarchow collected the results of that survey from the Minnesota Methodist Conference Historical Society.

[Photo 1-4-(no caption Mazeppa, MN sign)] He discovered during the late 1850’s successful camp meetings were held in various parts of southeastern Minnesota. One location was the Eastman place, a mile southeast of Lenora near Caledonia, Minnesota. Another site was in a grove south of Hastings, Minnesota. An area known as High Forest, on the banks of the Zumbro River between Chatfield and Rochester, was also the site of camp meetings in those years.

With the coming of the 1860’s, either despite the Civil War or perhaps because of it, camp meetings increased in number and popularity.  Camp meeting sites remembered [Photo 1-5—(no caption Farmington, MN sign)] during wartime were Spring Valley, Clearwater, Winnebago City, Plainview, Center Grove, King’s Grove (south of St. Cloud), Rochester, Mazeppa, Dundas, and Pleasant Grove.  As the decade of the 1860’s progressed, Minnesota experienced population growth, and along with that growth, camp meetings became more numerous and were better attended. One Minnesota newspaper evaluated a camp meeting that was held in Farmington, Minnesota by saying Everybody has gone to the camp meeting. There are three meetings in the area happening now. ⁶

Box #1:  Minnesota’s Miracle?

(Please add light grey shading to all of Box #1)

On Sunday, April 27, 1975 the St. Paul Pioneer Press ran a news article that has not been widely disseminated.  The article was about an event which occurred 98 years previous, in 1877.  That spring, locusts threatened two-thirds of Minnesota, but no pesticides or insecticides existed to fight them.  As a last resort, many Minnesotans turned to prayer.

The story begins in the spring of 1877. Fear seemed to grip most of the state because of the recent grasshopper invasions. The state legislature convened during January that year. The old Capitol was located at 10th and Exchange streets. With a large share of Minnesota’s economy based on farming in those years, the state entomologist’s report raised great concern in every legislator’s heart.  The report noted that while locust invasions had been scattered through the state during 1873, 1874, and 1875, tests in the autumn of 1876 revealed that locusts covered the entire southern and western portions of Minnesota. Two-thirds of the state was covered with locust pods which was equivalent to 50,000 of the state’s 80,000 square miles.

The state leaders needed to be concerned.  The areas of the state that had suffered from earlier locust infestation suffered great devastation. Many farmers [Photo Box 1-1—A Grasshopper] were reduced to pauperism. The devastated crops resulted in poverty for new pioneer farmers, but also cities and towns.  Business was bad.  No one had money to buy goods.  Some considered it the worst economic crisis in Minnesota history.⁷

As a state, Minnesota was only eighteen years old. No one had insurance to cover losses, and many of the pioneers had little money saved for any kind of disaster.  There was whispering by many across the state that maybe they should leave Minnesota and go back to their home country. They asked, Why stay here and die in this new land?  There had been several locust plagues in Minnesota before 1877.  The first happened in the summer of 1856 and a second the following year in 1857.  But the current and larger plague began in 1873. ⁸

It was that year when the Rocky Mountain grasshoppers came and helped themselves to the crops in the counties of southwestern Minnesota. The locusts had been starving in the mountains, and so they began to move east into the Plains. In 1874, the Minnesota Legislature authorized $30,000 to help farmers.  A portion of it was for relief for the very desperate, while the rest was authorized to help farmers purchase seed grain. With a succession of poor crops, the farmers simply did not have seed from previous years. People from the rest of the state collected $18,000 in cash. In addition, they collected large quantities of clothing and food, which they gave to their farm neighbors in the southwestern Minnesota.

In 1874 the grasshoppers were multiplying and eating the crops again. This time they simply hatched out of the egg-like pods that females deposited across the state the previous fall.  They came again in 1875 and 1876, each time increasing the amount of land in Minnesota they covered. Concern grew as people realized that each female grasshopper had probably dropped 20 pods across one immigrant’s newly tilled field.  Each pod might contain 150 new grasshoppers.  There were no insecticides or pesticides to deal with the problem. So, with millions of female grasshoppers leaving pods across the state the previous year, the problem seemed enormous.⁹

It is hard to imagine the devastation brought about by this plague.  As you would look at the horizon, the sky would be dark with millions of grasshoppers in the air. As many as a hundred would attack one stalk of grain, chew until the stalk was gone, then fall into a bunch on the ground only to jump up for a new attack.  When they finished, not even stubble remained. Then they would fly to the next nearby field, devastating meadows, and pastures. The locusts would attack cattle, many of which died from blood poisoning. They ruined everything in one’s garden, except the peas.  They did not like peas. Picture in your mind one square yard of ground. The locust invasion was so thick that there would be sixty to eighty grasshoppers in one square yard. They could devour one ton of hay per day for each forty acres they covered.¹⁰

Mrs. Jane Sutherland, a new immigrant to Minnesota, kept a diary of an earlier plague. She noted how the crops looked so good. The corn and wheat were all doing well that year.  They had experienced some years of great crop yields. However, on this day as she went out to the garden about ten o’clock to get the vegetables for dinner, things were different.  She picked peas, string beans, onions, lettuce, and tomatoes for that evening’s supper. All the vegetables were healthy.  The men had come home from the fields for dinner. Conversation around the table was in praise of this new country and the crops.

While they were talking, it gradually darkened.  The men quickly went out to see if anything should be brought in before the storm.  But it was not a storm, but a locust plague. They were astonished at the sight when they opened the door!  The sky darkened by myriads of grasshoppers and no green thing could be seen.  Everything that used to be in the garden was gone.¹¹

The farmers did everything in their power to stop the grasshoppers.  They made hopperdozers: large sheets of tar-covered metal nailed to runners.  Horses dragged them over the fields to trap the insects in the tar.  Then they would take the dozers home, burn off the grasshoppers and re-tar the dozer for another run.  Other farmers tried to collect the grasshoppers and put them in large burlap bags.  One farmer collected 18 bushels of grasshoppers (100,000 per bushel) from a ten-acre field.¹²

As spring advanced, people began to be more vocal over their concerns. [Photo Box 1-2—Governor John Pillsbury] The state entomologist’s report highlighted the gravity of the statewide situation. Grasshopper eggs covered two-thirds of the state.  From conversation around coal stoves in general stores, to knitting bees, to messages preached in the pulpits across Minnesota, a low murmur became louder and louder.  We’ve tried everything else.  Let us ask the governor to proclaim a Day of Prayer for deliverance from the plague. Unless God answers our prayers, we are ruined. This opinion was even heard in barrooms across the state.

Hearing the requests of the citizenry, Governor John Pillsbury set aside April 26, 1877, a Thursday, as a day of fasting and prayer.  As one would expect that proclamation set off many controversies. A group in Minneapolis, calling itself the Liberal League, published a document April 15, The thrust of the article was that for people to believe in the power of prayer was untrue. It would bypass more practical solutions in dealing with the problem, and it insulted the intelligence of many Minnesotans! ¹³       However, one small congregation of Catholics met in Cold Spring, Minnesota at the Jacobs Prairie Church, and pledged to God that if he banished the locusts from their midst, they would erect a [Photo Box 1-3—Sign to Grasshopper Chapel] chapel to God and give thanks there.

As this was playing out, the rest of the nation watched.  Newspapers, from Chicago to Boston and south to Richmond and Atlanta, sent reporters to cover the story.  Editorialists were pro and con, cynical, grave, and often tongue-in-cheek.  Letters to the editor of the Pioneer Press and Minneapolis newspapers arrived in bulging mail sacks, with a wide spectrum of opinion: hope, fear, faith, and ridicule.

Finally, April 26 arrived. A hush fell over the state.  Streets were empty. Stores were closed.  Theaters and bars were dark.  Only the churches were filled as never before.  Reports indicated it was a beautiful, warm April day.  When the sun had set, many said We have left it with the Lord; we can do no more.  Then they went to their homes and waited to see what would happen.

Here is the account from the Pioneer Press about the next two days:

Shortly after midnight, on the morning of April 27, the sky clouded over.  Cold rain began to fall.  The wind shifted from south to north, and the rain changed to heavy snow.  All that [photo Box 1-4—Grasshopper Chapel] day of April 27, with a few respites, the storm raged, with rain and snow alternating and then frost coating the lands.  Into the morning of the 28th the storm still vented its fury and then, when it subsided, the farmers hurried into the fields.

With few exceptions, most of the grasshopper eggs had been frozen or destroyed just as they were hatching. ‘Baby locusts died by the millions…from severe colds in the noses,’ said the Pioneer Press editorial writer, in a joyous burst of good cheer and humor.  Sunday, April 29, another snowfall stung the same portion of the state and swept across Nebraska, Iowa, and Manitoba.

There were other strange manifestations that year when spring turned into summer. [Photo Box 1-5—grasshopper marker above the door] The eggs which did hatch spewed forth grasshoppers which mysteriously rose and flew away.  Not one egg was deposited in Minnesota that summer.  Normally it takes an area experiencing a locust plague several years to recover from the recurring crop damage. However, the harvest that year was the most bountiful known in the state at that point in its history.  Never had the fields yielded so many bushels of wheat and corn and small grains.

The believers in Cold Spring, true to their promise, built a Grasshopper Chapel near Cold Spring.  That first wood chapel was destroyed by a tornado in 1894. But 58 years later in 1952, the chapel was rebuilt with granite facing and an interior of highly polished pink, red, and gray granite. The chapel still stands in Cold Spring with images of grasshoppers over the doors.

The 1975 news story concludes: There has never been a serious grasshopper infestation in all the years that have followed April 26, 1877. ¹⁴

Chapter 2:  The Origins of Red Rock and the Development of a Ministry There

In 1839 the Rev. Benjamin T. Kavanaugh, from Ohio, was appointed to take charge of a small Methodist mission that had been established two years earlier.  The original location of this mission had been on the South St. Paul side of the Mississippi River in the Indian village known as Kaposia. (The village was located roughly where the former Swift Meat Packing plant was located along the Mississippi River.) It had been a difficult work for his predecessor, Alfred Brunson.  When the Rev. Brunson developed health problems, he could now go home. Rev. Kavanaugh arrived with his family and became the Superintendent of the work.  A building in Kaposia Village was used as a school during the week and a worship center on Sundays.  Rev. David King, who had arrived with Alfred Brunson, was the primary school teacher.  He not only taught English to the Indians who were in school, but he tried to learn the Sioux language and did some of his teaching in the Sioux language. ¹⁵

There is evidence that the Gospel was taking root not only among the new immigrants coming up the Mississippi River into the South St. Paul area, but also among the Native American Sioux living there. Likewise, in Lac Qui Parle, Minnesota, a Methodist mission was formed where the first Dakota dictionary, grammar, and gospel were written. Chief Little Crow had married four sisters near there and was living in what is now Chippewa County, Minnesota. He and his wives were frequent visitors to the school and the Bible meetings being held there.  It is said he had a good understanding of the Christian faith.  When pressed to publicly express a personal faith in Christ, Little Crow demurred.  As chief, he felt it best to identify with traditional Indian religion and not be a convert to the white man’s religion.  However, one or more of his wives had adopted the Christian faith as their faith. ¹⁶

[Photo 2-1—Kavanaugh cabin in its original setting (Used with permission from Minnesota Conference, UMC Archive)] When Benjamin Kavanaugh arrived at Kaposia, some misunderstandings developed between him and Chiefs Little Crow IV of the Sioux and Hole-in-the-Day of the Gull Lake clan.  History does not record where the fault lies but the two chiefs’ distrust of Kavanaugh disturbed the work of the mission to the extent that Kavanaugh moved eastward across the river to Red Rock to land owned by a man named John Holton. The work on the west side of the river was given to Rev. David King to continue.  Holton had arrived as a farmer in Newport with Alfred Brunson.  Here in 1839, Kavanaugh built a two-story log cabin.  The logs for the cabin were cut from the area which is now Seventh and Jackson Streets in St. Paul, then floated down the river.

The lower floor was used as a school from 1839 to 1843 for the whites and half-breeds who could not attend the school across the river at Kaposia, being [Photo 2-2—Oldest known photo of red rock (Used with permission from Minnesota Historical Society)] Indian territory.  The upper floor was used as the residence of the Kavanaugh family from 1839-1843.  The lower floor was also used as a church on Sundays. Ultimately, Rev. Kavanaugh built a 2nd building which he used as a home. He had also cleared some land so he could grow crops for his sustenance. 

The area of Newport, Minnesota that derived the name of Red Rock came from a granite stone that was found on the banks of the Mississippi River there in an area that consists primarily of limestone rock.  It is an oval shaped stone, standing about 3 feet high and about 4 feet long. The Indians in the region had always wondered how that unusual stone had made its way to the shores of the Mississippi River there in Newport, Minnesota.  For centuries they had used the stone as an altar, painting red stripes on it, offering food and game sacrifices on it, and sometimes bringing the blood of their enemies and pouring that on the stone.  The stone was worshiped as a dwelling place for the Great Spirit. ¹⁷

There are at least 3 legends about the origin of the Red Rock and the activity that took place around it.  All of them focus on the Native Americans claiming the Great Spirit brought the boulder to that river site and accepted the worship offered by the Native residents. However, as white people started to come up the river and settle in the region around the red rock, they brought with them their all-powerful God. One white man in a canoe had crossed the river and had the audacity to set up a place of worship to his God adjacent to the red rock of the Great Spirit. At the same time, the Native Americans were being crowded out, forced to move away to reservations. Still they would return, as a pilgrimage, to the red rock and offer offerings and [Photo 2-3—the red rock painted and mounted on camp meeting grounds (Used with permission from Minnesota Conference, UMC Archive)] sacrifices to the Great Spirit there.  The end came when the Methodist white man had turned the ground around the red rock into a large encampment with a tabernacle and numerous cottages. The final pilgrimage of Native Americans from Morton, Minnesota saw that the white man had moved the red rock, the home of the Great Spirit, on to their camping ground and placed it on a large concrete foundation. Each of the legends concludes with the Great Spirit leaving his home in the red rock.

From these legends, it is obvious that a form of power encounter was set up between the God of the Bible and the Native American spirits seeking continued worship of the Red Rock.  This began when Kavanaugh moved his church and school from Kaposia Village, on what is today South St. Paul land, across the Mississippi to Newport, Minnesota. Reports indicate that the new School and church facility were built within an arrow shot of the red rock stone sitting on the shore of the Mississippi River.

It was in 1841 that John Ford came and joined John Holton and a handful of other settlers in the Newport area.  John was a single man and became good friends with John Holton and his family.  He ended up marrying Mary Holton.  In 1844 Mary gave birth to their first son, Franklin C. Ford.  Franklin was the first white child born in Minnesota. Franklin C. Ford spent much of his life interacting with Native Americans, and he kept record of their perspectives on their life and legends in the Upper Mississippi valley of Minnesota.

The Methodist mission, begun by Rev. Kavanaugh which had moved now to the east side of the river at Red Rock, continued to function until 1843. When trouble broke out with the Indians that year, the two missions on both sides of the river were closed.

Chapter 3:  The Red Rock Camp Meetings Begin in Newport, Minnesota

In May 1868, 25 years after the closing of the Red Rock-Kaposia Mission, John A. Ford suggested a Camp meeting be organized.  John knew of the Camp meeting movement before coming to Minnesota and encouraged Mr. John Holton to offer ten acres of land to the Methodist Church for this purpose. The old Methodist School and [Photo 3-1—Early Red Rock preacher’s stand and seating (Used with permission from Minnesota Historical Society)] home that were within an arrow-shot of the Red Rock were still standing, although in a state of disrepair. A meeting of some of the Methodist clergy in the region was held by the old school and the Red Rock, and Mr. Holton’s gift of land was accepted.  The site was perfect for camp meetings. They ended their gathering with prayer on the grounds, asking God’s blessings on their venture.

The first camp meeting at Red Rock was held in late June and early July 1869 with about 2000 people present.  The facilities at Red Rock in these early years were quite primitive. A covered platform for speakers and singers was attached to a house (more of a shanty), which was used as a preachers’ lodging.  The lodging was only equipped with straw bunks and had little ventilation.  In front of the platform were logs used for seating, without backs.  Surrounding the seating area were tents for people who wished to remain overnight.

Despite the crude conditions, the first meeting was well attended.  On Sunday morning, [Photo 3-2—An early lay out map of the campgrounds (Used with permission from Minnesota Conference, UMC Archive)] July 4, according to a newspaper account, approximately two thousand people were present and the sum of five hundred dollars was collected for improving the camp site. The steamer Jeannette Roberts made semi-daily trips to the grounds from St. Paul during the meetings.  On Monday evening, July 5, it took the camp’s movable equipment to St. Paul. ¹⁸

In the following years, attendees noted improvements made to the campgrounds.  The first years found improvements in the clearing of much underbrush and the trimming of overhanging trees.  That was followed by fencing around the entire camp.  In subsequent