by LHS Volunteer Dave Boling

Have you ever started a project and found that there were surprises along the way?

Such was the case last year when I began researching my program for the Lakeside Heritage Society about Lakeside missionaries. Surprises lead us in different directions. They can be distractions or they can deepen and expand the story you’re trying to tell.

And it all started with past Lakesider, Eleanor Durr!

In her book, Lakeside Lore, Eleanor tells the story of two of the many Methodist missionaries with ties to Lakeside, Franklin and Bertha Ohlinger.  They spent their honeymoon here and Bertha gave a farewell address to the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society before the couple left for China. The Ohlingers were frequent visitors when they were in the United States. They stayed at the Searles Guest House (we know it today as "Idlewyld").

Eleanor also writes about her personal relationship with Dr. F. I. Johnson and his wife, Halla. The Johnsons were missionary leaders in the Methodist Episcopal Church a generation after the Ohlingers. Frend and Halla Johnson (she’s listed as "Helen" in an old directory) had a cottage on the Lakefront.

Both of these families left items that they acquired in their missionary work and world travels to the Upper Room Museum in Nashville.

I decided to follow up on Miss Durr’s stories and contacted the Museum to see if I could obtain some photos of some of the Johnson/Ohlinger items for my presentation. A month later,  I received a call from their museum director informing me they had made the decision to close their museum. She asked if Lakeside would be interested in receiving some of the items; if not, they would be sold at auction. She preferred that the items be made available to Lakeside because we had connections with both the Johnsons and Ohlingers. We would be free to keep, store, or sell them as we saw fit. Soon thereafter, Dakota Harkins, Carol Morgan, and I, participated in a Zoom tour of the collection being offered, and we accepted the items with gratitude.

The Ohlingers were German Methodist missionaries in China and Korea for more than 45 years. Franklin was a graduate of the German-Wallace College (now Baldwin Wallace University) in Berea, founded by German Methodist Bishop and Lakesider, William Nast. First stationed in China, the Ohlingers introduced the Gospel in the villages of China where it had never been heard. They used their linguistic skills to translate hymns and other English and German writings to the Chinese language. They were founders in 1881 of the Anglo-Chinese College in Foochow, where Franklin was the College President and Bertha taught. When Korea was opened to the West in 1887, they were among the first missionaries to enter the country. There, Dr. Ohlinger started one of the first printing ventures, published a newspaper, and continued to spread the Gospel message. (see Ohio's Yesterdays).

In this rather large collection gifted by the Upper Room Museum, there are a few gems related to Lakeside and our missionary heritage––for example, Bertha Ohlinger’s German Bible, and a hymnal in Chinese that she translated from English. Bertha was the first to translate English hymns to the Chinese language. The collection also includes a large bell and stand that belonged to her husband, Franklin, along with many other items that would have been typical for him to take as he traveled the Ohio countryside visiting churches when on furlough from his missionary work.

Franklin used photo images and artifacts like the Goddess of Mercy to help Westerners understand the culture of the Chinese and Korean people. The sessions must have been visual treats, featuring photos, art and traditional Asian costumes. Franklin could talk for an hour or more and not lose the interest of the crowd. A freewill offering would go to support their missionary work or sometimes a 25-cent admission would be charged. As much as the Ohlingers shared the Gospel in China and Korea, they shared Asian culture here.

Lakeside was home base for many missionaries like the Ohlingers, where they would rest, prepare for church visits, and for their return to the mission field. While at Lakeside they were an active part of the community, preaching at the camp meeting and the Lakeside church or speaking to mission groups and conferences like the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society.

Rev. Dr. Franklin Ohlinger died in 1919 after 46 years as a missionary in Korea and China. His wife and soul mate, Bertha, died in 1934. The Ohlingers are buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Toledo. On their grave marker is inscribed, “Friends of the People of Korea and China.”

Lakesiders Frend and Halla Johnson were Ohioans who grew up in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Halla, a graduate of Marietta College, and Frend, of Ohio Wesleyan and Boston University, were married in 1897. Thus began a partnership in mission that took them around the world twice and led Frend to leadership roles in foreign mission work. Halla’s leadership included the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, a passionate advocacy for the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and the founding by the WCTU of the Women’s National Union for Political Action. Halla led mission programs and pageants both at Lakeside and Chautauqua. This included several years at the Chautauqua Institution and Mountain Lake Chautauqua.

Together, the  Johnsons started the American branch of the Save The Children Foundation, and Frend was a driving force behind the Methodist Children’s Home in Worthington, Ohio. Like the Ohlingers, the Johnsons would travel to local churches in support of missionaries and share their observations and “curios and costumes” from the foreign lands they visited. Places like Lakeside grew a wider understanding of the world through missionaries and the missionary leaders of Methodist, Lutheran, Baptist, Society of Friends and Presbyterian denominations.

Perhaps because they lost their only child, a daughter, in 1917, they were passionate advocates for children and for uplifting others. Their grave marker at Oak Grove Cemetery in Delaware Ohio, is inscribed with the motto “NOT FOR SELF BUT FOR OTHERS.” More than just words, it was the guiding principle of their lives. 

Johnson items in the collection include selections from their world travels. Of special interest is a pair of 4-inch girl’s shoes. Foot binding was the Chinese custom of tightly wrapping young girls’ feet as a sign of beauty and status. Feet altered by binding were called lotus feet. It was an incredibly painful process, significantly limiting the mobility of the women involved. By the early 20th century, foot binding had come to an end.

As Eleanor Durr recalls in Lakeside Lore:

I was program chairman of the Old timers Day program and several speakers had cancelled. At the last moment, I called on the F. I. Johnsons to ask if she would reminisce on early Lakeside. Mrs. Johnson was almost a legend. She had been chair of Camp Wesleyan, taught on missions and produced numerous pageants using the hundreds of costumes she had collected from every known mission field.

To my question ... Mrs. Johnson said, “give me 5 minutes.” In that time we were headed for the auditorium, where she tried out the microphone and put her thoughts together for a talk. All went well on Oldtimers Day. ... Seeing the many people in costume, she inquired, “Do you have a costume department?” “No,” I observed, “everyone has to skirmish for their own.” “Then would you like to inherit all of mine?”

Many silks, possibly some of those very garments, along with some of Bertha Ohlinger’s collection, made their way to the Upper Room Museum, and are now in the possession of the Lakeside Heritage Society.

One of the items most interestingly connected to Lakeside is a rare 15-inch Staffordshire porcelain  symbolizing Faith, Hope and Charity, the values of the Good Templars. While it celebrates the organization’s first branch in England, established in 1868, the organization’s values were the same here at the Lakeside chapter.

The Good Templars originated in 1851 as a fraternal organization dedicated to temperance. The organization included both men and women as members and made no distinction of race, but they had a short history at Lakeside. They disbanded and sold their unfinished building to the Methodist Episcopal Church, which was destroyed in the great 1929 fire that swept through Lakeside.

One of the rarest items in the collection is a Chinese ceramic tomb figure from the Six Dynasties period. This female figurine is of a Classic form, tall and slender, in a slight forward posture, with lowered head and down casting eyes, suggesting her status as lady in waiting.

There are more common items as well, like wooden boxes, tea pots, and a Chinese Cinnabar Red Lacquer Vase with panels of a scholar and his attendants, in a rich landscape, between panels of flowers.

The Heritage Society thanks the Upper Room Museum for this significant, unrestricted gift. Special thanks go also to Mrs. Carolyn Putney, retired Curator of Asian Art at the Toledo Museum of Art, for her assistance evaluating the items. The Heritage Society Collection Committee is determining how to use them to help tell the story of Lakeside’s missionary heritage. Depending on their condition, some of the silks will be sold. We'd love to find a fabric artist in Lakeside who could use some of the fabric in a creative manner for the benefit of the Heritage Society. Stay tuned!

Written by Dave Boling

Lakeside in the summer of 1882 was abuzz with activity.  There were bishops, local church leaders, and missionaries. Former first lady Lucy Webb Hayes and her husband Rutherford B. Hayes were present as were evangelists and those who dreamed of being gospel bearers in Ohio after their time at Lakeside that summer.

At its core, everything about Lakeside gives birth to love. Sometimes from the preacher’s pulpit, sometimes among those who meet for the first time and discover they are connected in ways far beyond their imagination to places where only God had dreamed.
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Such was the story of Henry Willis and Anna Ruddick. 

Henry grew up in the Brethren church, in its Ohio heartland, near Ashland, Ohio. He was just beginning his ministry as a Methodist evangelist when he came to Lakeside that summer to hear Rev. Thomas Harrison, known around the country for his evangelistic zeal. Harrison would preach at least twice each day of the camp meeting and bring hundreds of people to their knees in prayer, praying for God’s forgiveness and grace. It was said that “Lakeside had never before enjoyed such a tidal wave of salvation.” The whole auditorium, or tabernacle in camp meeting terms “was at times converted to an altar for seeking souls.”

Young Henry, 24 years old, saw Harrison as a mentor, a guide, if you will of how an evangelist labored in the fields of God. He had no idea how much he would impact his life when he arrived at Lakeside that summer.
Anna Ruddick, age 20, lived in Clyde, Ohio, with her parents. She was a teacher and her father was the pastor of the Methodist church in Clyde. I can imagine he was probably Florence Nickerson’s pastor for he pastored Florence’s church and had been a teacher in Clyde as well. Surely, Anna and Florence knew each other.
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It was during the camp meeting that Henry and Anna met for the first time. They were like spirits, with a common desire to spread the Gospel. “They quickly discovered their hearts were indeed joined together.” In the biography of Henry Willis written in partnership with his wife the author says it this way, “After much pure association together, and after much prayer on the part of both, it became evident that God intended them for each other, in the journey and work of life.”

After Lakeside they went their separate ways, Henry to Ashland, Anna back home to Clyde. Apparently, separation does indeed make the heart grow fonder. Henry proposed and they were married on October 12, 1882 by Anna’s father in Republic, Ohio. They became husband and wife partners in evangelism, working across northern Ohio. Henry was called the “Boy Evangelist from Ohio.” It was a compliment that would humble his heart, as Thomas Harrison, who he had heard at Lakeside was known the “Boy Evangelist” a moniker he carried with him his entire life.
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Soon they felt called to Philadelphia, they connected to again to Thomas Harrison, and served in his church. While there, they talked about becoming missionaries and decided to write to Bishop William Taylor, the leader of Methodist missions in Africa. (You may recall, he too was a speaker at Lakeside.) Taylor laid out all the challenges of being a missionary and despite all the perils of missionary work, Anna and Henry left New York harbor for Africa on January 22, 1885. They reached Africa a month later.
Anna was especially plagued by illness while in Africa and it was decided in August of 1885 that they would sail back to the United States. It’s not recorded, but one can imagine that it must have been a heart-breaking time for both Henry and Anna who wanted to serve by “winning souls for Christ” only to be stopped by illness.

But it was Henry who became seriously ill on the ship after leaving Africa and on August 30, 1885 he died and was buried at sea. Anna made it back to the States where Rev. Thomas Harrison helped her through the challenging times of losing her husband and recovering her health. Later that year he preached a memorial service for Henry Willis. Anna was 23 years old.

Anna went on to be an evangelist in her own right, traveling to camp meetings and Chautauquas, leading people to Christ. Did she remarry? Did she move back with her parents in Ohio? When did she die? Where is she buried? Did she ever return to Lakeside? These questions and others are lost to history.

Nonetheless, it’s a Lakeside love story, one of many, across its history. If only the trees could talk, the stories they could share.

Written by Evan Engelhart

For this week's Manifest Blog, we have decided to introduce our staff and highlight some of the great work they do in the Archives and Heritage Hall Museum for the 2020 season. Some may be new faces, some may be old faces, but we are all here to help serve you and help with any historical needs you may have!

Former LHS Manager of Operations, Dakota Harkins, has now taken over educational programming for Lakeside Chautauqua as Director of educational and heritage programming. For any programming suggestions or questions, contact Dakota at dharkins@lakesideohio.com

Written by Evan Engelhart