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Text originally published in 1961 under the same title.
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FROM THE GROUND UP:
THE STORY OF BROTHER VAN
MONTANA PIONEER MINISTER
1848-1919
BY
ROBERT W. LIND
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION
Dedicated to those who knew and loved him, and in whose memory Brother Van lives on.
FOREWORD
He was a living legend in his own time. And when he died in 1919, the words that were written about him by Bishop Cooke had been accepted as truth for years everywhere in Montana:
I dont believe there was a dog in Montana that would not wag his tail when he saw him coming.
For forty-seven years the pioneer people of the new state had seen him coming. First across the prairie and mountain trails afoot or on horseback, and later by road and railroad, William Wesley Van Orsdel had traveled Montanas vast domain. And as he traveled the long name had been shortened to Brother Van and the short mans shadow had lengthened to touch the lives and institutions of the Territory and State.
Brother Van and Montana were ideally suited to each other. Van had the calling in his heart to go west and build on no other mans foundations. Montana, in 1872, was being settled by rugged pioneer folk who had left other mens foundations behind them in the east. The long trek west had sorted out those who could not endure the hardships of new beginnings. As the pioneer saying went, The cowards never started and the weaklings fell by the wayside.
To paint a word picture of the pioneer preacher and the pioneer territory which captures the real feeling which Brother Van had for Montana and which Montana had for Brother Van is almost impossible. But Bob Lind, a part of the Church which Brother Van helped to establish, has come closer than any writer to date.
Linds picture of Brother Van and his times is reliably accurate, though it was no easy task to detach fact from fiction in giving account of a man about whom stories grew like grass on the Montana prairie. He found in Brother Vans life so much adventure and color that he only needed to tell the story as it was.
When you finish reading this book you will have met the best of the early frontier in the Rocky Mountain west. You will follow a man who made a pulpit for preaching the Good News out of the freighters or cowboys camp, the cabin or the ranch home, the Indian tepee, the barroom or the street corner. And you will see that to all of his congregations, formal or informal, he always gave his best in word and song.
He saw the watering places of the buffalo and the antelope become the campground of the cowboy and the sheepherder. These oftentimes gave way to the ranches and towns. He saw wide places in the trails become cities. He saw the wildlife give way to domesticated animals; he saw the great prairies turn into golden wheat fields. To meet these changes there were no trails, but Brother Van made them and showed us how to follow them, a Montana Methodist spokesman said of him.
The frontiers have changed somewhat now, though thousands of square miles of wilderness area still remain in Montana. Lifes hard problems still remain, too, and those who would conquer them must be the spiritual descendents of Brother Vanpioneers of the Way which is always waiting to make men and situations new.
The Reverend George A. Harper
St. Pauls Methodist Church
Helena, Montana
PREFACE
Intimately acquainted with every important person and event in Montana from 1872 to 1919, Brother Van was a Methodist clergyman whose interests extended beyond the doors of any church, and whose influence was felt far beyond the reaches of any denominational confines. Brother Van was a simple man, but he was not inconsequential. An air of excitement attended his every action; everything he did made news. He was a man of the hour; undoubtedly one of the giants of his time wherever he might have lived. He happened to live in Montana.
Because he was a man of such broad and deep concerns, it has been an exceedingly difficult task to select a fitting title for this book. A title should convey, in a few choice words, the meaning of the topic which it expounds. Brother Vans life defies such categorizing. FROM THE GROUND UP seems to catch the essence of his dedicated ministry, for he literally did lay the foundations from the ground up for Montana Methodism.
There were a fewvery fewothers who came to Montana as early as he, and served as long. There are others to whom we are deeply indebted for our rich heritage in the Treasure State. But almost everyone would agree that Brother Van, more than any other individual, built Methodism from the ground up in Montana.
Brother Vans life story deserves to be written, for it was a life of unusual scope and impact. It deserves also to be read by all who are interested in the spiritual heritage of the American West.
It has been said that historical books cannot at once be both factual and interesting. I think you will find that statement disproved as you read this story, for the facts in themselves are interesting, and often dramatically so. Having sifted through mountains of clippings and personal effects of Brother Vansletters, journals, and essays; having read everything that was ever written by or about him, having interviewed many people who knew him; I feel competent to say that this book represents the facts about Brother Vans life and ministry.
My thanks to the churches which have borne with me through several years of research and writing, never complaining of things left undone while the book was being written. Thanks also to the Historical Committee of the Montana Conference for giving access to the valuable materials pertaining to Brother Van which have been gathered through the years, and to the patient friends who read, discussed, criticized, and typed the manuscripts. Only after the experience of writing a book can another person fully appreciate the contributions of the many persons upon whom the author must rely in preparing a book for publication.
Special thanks are due to those who shared with me their pictures, papers, and memories which were so vital to the compilation of this biography.
I sincerely hope youll be pleased with the end result of my labors, and that when you have read the book you will feel that you have met Brother Van, and have been inspired by his noble life.
