Rev. George D. Peacock, The Shepherd’s Dog
“With
the passing of the Reverend George Daniel Peacock, a great Missionary Era of
the West is forever closed. And his name
will stand with the names of Whitman and Spaulding and Sheldon Jackson, Samuel
Wishard, Henry F. Kendall and others who had energy, vision, courage; and who
were driven by a Spirit not of themselves to push out the outposts and help
build Christ’s Kingdom in the West.
His
requiem is one with Paul’s: ‘I have fought a good fight’ – handicapped and
imperfect – ‘I have fought a good fight.’
Church,
on your knees to pray that you lose not the Missionary Passion such as lived in
him!”
--- Joseph I Gulick, God’s
Missionary (from message delivered at Rev. Peacock’s funeral)[2]
Joseph I. Gulick was Idaho Falls’ Presbyterian Church’s
longest serving pastor, 36 years, and a friend of George Peacock from 1921,
when George encouraged the discouraged Joseph who at the time was pastor in
Soda Springs, until 1956, when George passed away in Idaho Falls.
George D. Peacock was born into a Later-Day-Saint family in
1871 in Manti, Utah. His childhood was difficult, both for him and his
mother. Having albinism, his eyesight
was poor and his stomach and digestive system were hyper-allergic, causing problems
that would plague him all his life. Also,
an accident during childhood when he was chopping wood caused him to lose one
eye. With a glass eye and only 50% of his vision in the other eye, he had a
perpetual squint, viewed himself as ugly and knew that he would always be
different in whatever company he found himself.[3]
When George Peacock was eleven years old, Dr. George W.
Martin of the Presbyterian Mission School[4]
in Manti visited the Peacock farm. Dr.
Martin may have heard of this boy who was causing such a ruckus for his mother.
She was at her wits end and wasn't sure
what to do with him. So against her
better judgment Mother Peacock gave her permission for George to live with his
grandmother in Manti and attend the Presbyterian school.
At school George watched and listened in wonder, and
experienced the joy of music, drama, nature study, camping and good talk. His mind clamored for knowledge of the world
and everything in it. He was especially
curious about the stars and planets, for his light-sensitive eyes which
suffered from direct daylight were marvelously alive in the softer light of night.
He could read and write only a little,
but his spirit hungered for knowledge of all kinds. So at the Presbyterian school he grew stronger
and smarter.
One summer Dr. Marcus E. Jones came from the East to hold a
summer school teaching botany and geology in nearby American Fork Canyon. A young man was needed to help with the tents
and supplies and the camp cooking.
George took the job and had a summer he never forgot. As he looked back
on it he felt that this was the turning point in his life, when he accepted
Jesus Christ and the Christian life for himself, because of what he had seen
reflected in the lives of these Christians.
As fast as George’s reading improved, Dr. Martin gave him
heavier and heavier books until he was reading theology and criticism, as well
as the fictional world of Tom Sawyer and Robinson Crusoe. He learned to sing
the Christian hymns and to pick them out on the piano. So gradually George, from age eleven to
sixteen, was drawn into a new world which began to satisfy his longings.
During these years, George was almost disinherited by his
family as he was gradually drawn away from Mormonism. Then in 1888, at the age
of seventeen, he returned to the Peacock farm in Sterling. He helped with the farm chores and household duties
until he was twenty-four. But on August
11, 1895 George made the break from his Mormon home, declaring his faith in
Jesus Christ, receiving Christian baptism, and being received into the
Presbyterian Church of Manti, Utah.
The disgrace and disappointment of this oldest son who
renounced his Mormonism and thus all his mother stood for rocked her life. She denounced him with her head and her
words, and George left home a pilgrim and a wanderer.
When he made his profession of faith at Manti, Dr. Livingston
Smith and others urged him to become a literature representative with the
American Tract Society. George took three months training with Dr. William A.
Hough in Salt Lake City and then joined him in the Tract Society work in Utah.
His contract provided him $15.00 a month in cash, $6.00 a month travel expenses
and 50% of the proceeds from sales of books. He learned that he had to “canvass” for
addition funds to keep body and soul together and also live off the land and
when offered, accepting invitations from kind families to stay in their home or
share a meal.
In the late 1890’s Dr. Samuel Wishard with Dr. George Martin
and others were holding evangelistic tent meetings in Utah. When they turned
their eyes toward the Manti area, they realized they needed someone who knew
the territory to go from door to door to gather a crowd. George Peacock was chosen for the job. He did it so well that Dr. Wishard gave him
what became his favorite title, “Shepherd’s Dog,” and he discovered God’s purpose
for his life, telling him, “George, you are our Shepherd’s Dog. It takes a good dog to round up the flock and
get them into the fold.”
It was during this period that he made his first visit to
Idaho Falls. On a Sunday in late
October, 1899 he spoke in both the morning and evening services of the Idaho
Falls Baptist Church, in the morning on “The Good Shepherd,” using Psalm 23 as
his text, and in the evening on “The American Tract Society.”[5]
While with the American Tract Society he made contacts in
Boise, included with Idaho Governors. In
later years he developed a strong friendship with Idaho Governor C. C. Moore,
who was from Ashton, and who supported his work. In the early 1920’s George preached at the
Industrial Training School in St. Anthony, which C. C. Moore had founded in
1903.
While American Sunday School Union missionaries[25] at this time did indeed organize Sunday schools, a better categorization might be “roaming teacher-evangelists,” as they sought to take the gospel and start churches as well as Sunday schools in rural and remote areas of the West. George would weave the web of ministry and conversation and friendship, usually by the most haphazard process. But in most every situation George left an orderly result, a kind of pastoral counseling which these people would never have had without him. He kept in touch with many of his contacts over the years, nursed them when they were sick, and became a devoted friend of their children, also securing scholarships for youth to attend Wasatch Academy or Westminster College or the College of Idaho. Often he was the only minister available to marry or bury the people he visited. The way he described his informal teaching and counseling was, “We found much common interest in speaking of the vital things of life.” The could include short courses in Bible study and theology which might be continued traveling along the road or in a chance meeting on a train or in a hotel or as George helped with chores in the fields or in the kitchen.
In 1905 George made his headquarters in Blackfoot, as he was
spending more time in southern Idaho, and he maintained that residence until
1921 when he moved to Idaho Falls. In
both places in rented rooms, one in Blackfoot, three at different times in
Idaho Falls. When not traveling, he
wrote hundreds of letters every year to people he had visited.
George’s second reported visit to Idaho Falls was in 1906,
and by then he was working with the American Sunday School Union, mostly going
to rural areas and towns that had no churches.
In 1906 he spoke to the Sunday school of the Presbyterian Church in
Idaho Falls.[6]
George was ordained a Presbyterian minister by the
Presbytery of Southern Utah in the spring of 1908. Now in addition to his other activities, he conducted
services in churches of several denominations, as an invited guest or temporarily
filling a vacant pulpit.
Perhaps three of his most successful efforts organizing
Sunday schools were in New Sweden, Thornton and Jackson Hole.
Paul Baird writes that George was perhaps the first Protestant
Sunday School Missionary to come to the Jackson Hole area, when it was a “hideout
of cattle rustlers and isolated ranches.”[7]
In 1907, The Idaho Republican published an article George wrote about his visits
to the Jackson Hole area:
“…I
have just spent six weeks of missionary toil in the Jackson Hole country. Nature made the valley grand and beautiful by
placing great mountains on either side and almost closing it up at the ends,
leading just enough room for the Snake River to flow in and out through the
valley.
It
is a hundred miles to the nearest railroad point. The eight hundred people of
the valley are entirely without a minister of the Gospel, there being no
minister nearer than the railroad would bring him. A majority of the families live on their
cattle ranches and are isolated from each other in the remoteness of the
mountains. Some of these families are of
the best American type, college-bred or versed in music and art.
My
first trip to the Jackson Valley was seven years ago when I distributed Bibles,
books and tracts among the people. Then
I went over a year ago and helped them in their Bible study and Sunday school
work. Then I went over this year and
organized two new Sunday schools for them….”[8]
Paul Baird, a pastor who worked with George Peacock in the
1940’s, said of the work at New Sweden, “Perhaps George Peacock’s most
spectacular success in organizing and maintaining a Sunday school was the one
at New Sweden. After years of struggle
this school became a congregation which could eventually enlist the whole
community in a 24th of June annual Children’s Day outing.”[9] George had first sought to organize a Sunday
school in New Sweden in 1906, along with a partner, J. D. Johnson.[10]
Fifteen years later, on another visit, he went door to door in the community
inviting the residents to a meeting on Sunday, where he helped the 93 people in
attendance reorganize the Sunday school, selecting teachers and officers and ordering
supplies.
The Memorial Presbyterian Church of Thornton was organized in
1913 by Paul Baird’s parents. George
made many visits to Thornton, organizing and maintaining the Sunday
school. When he helped put on a
community Christmas service in Thornton in 1935, 50 Sunday school pupils had
parts in the program.[11]
In August 1946 George along with five
others led a two-week Vacation Bible School at Thornton. George said, “We had 50 boys and girls every
day. Almost more than we could
manage. I took some of the beautiful
parables of our Lord and put them in simple story form for the older boys and
girls, and then I told a live missionary story every day. I took with me two new baseball bats and a
new ball and the older ones played softball for playground amusement.”
In 1915 George organized a Sunday school in “District 38” of
Idaho Falls that within a few weeks had an attendance of around 50 students.[12] George made frequent visits to St. Anthony
and Rexburg; a report of a Christmas program he organized at the Presbyterian
Church in Rexburg in 1935 noted that it was attended by more than 160 people
and that “the church at Rexburg has been maintained largely under his
direction.”[13] A
history of the Protestant church in Ririe acknowledges Rev. Peacock’s
contribution when families started moving to the new town site of Ririe: “The
Rev. George D. Peacock, a partially blind but zealous Sunday School missionary,
had organized a Sunday School on Buttlers Island.”[14]
A report of Rev. Peacock’s efforts in 1927 included the
following:[15]
“Organization
of community Bible schools has been effected at Drummond and on the Fort Hall
Indian Reservation according to George D. Peacock, Sunday school missionary for
southeastern Idaho, who represents the Presbyterian Sunday school
missions. The organizations followed
several weeks of planning and acceptance by the residents of the sections. We helped the folks in Drummond start a fine
new Sunday school last Sunday said Rev. Peacock, ‘More than 60 persons were
enrolled.’ Drummond is a dry farming community 15 miles southeast of Ashton.
For several years the people have had no church of any kind and not even a
Sunday school. ‘The Sunday school is to
be strictly a community Bible school and union literature and hymn books will
be used so that no feeling or unpleasantness may arise from creedal or dogmatic
disturbance. In one of the communities
on the Fort Hall Indian reservation we found one community called Gibson. It had no Sunday school, the nearest churches
being at Blackfoot. Since organization
there, interest has increased and
attendance has been good.”
One place in which George was not successful in organizing a
Sunday school was Bone, 23 miles southeast of Idaho Falls. At a meeting of Bone residents, one man stood
up and with fire in his eyes he stated that the LDS priesthood would not stand
for any religious activities outside Mormonism.
However, hitchhiking back to Idaho Falls, George experienced another face
of Mormonism when an LDS family picked him up, insisted on taking him to their
home for dinner and then delivered him at his room in Idaho Falls.
Rev. Peacock was always happy in his role as story-teller,
drawing on his store of true and fancied tales which children all over the Peacock
Country[16]
enjoyed for years. He loved to tell how during one of his trips by team and
wagon in 1920 he had wandered to Strevell, Idaho.[17]
When he arrived in the morning at the cattle ranch of a woman aptly named
“Shotgun Sal,” he found utter chaos in the kitchen. Sal and her daughter were
frantically rushing to get a meal prepared for the hayfield workers. But the baby was crying, and the butter
needed to be churned, not to mention a score of other chores to be done. In his
characteristic way, George just fell-to-it and changed the baby, churned the
butter and played hired-hand, uninvited and largely unobserved.
When order was restored, his hostess looked around to see
who had helped and discovered this stranger who announced that he was going to
hold a Sunday school in the Strevell Hotel and hoped that she and her men and
their families could attend. Shotgun Sal
replied in amazement, “For a man who can do all this I'm going to attend and
find out more about you. And I'll have my men over there on Sunday—if I have to
use my shotgun!”
As George was thinking about how he would write up his
report to the National Office of his visit to Shotgun Sal, he first considered,
“One hour churning the butter; thirty-two minutes changing the baby and getting
him calmed down; thirty five minutes mopping the kitchen floor…” but then settled
on “I visit and help with the dishes. Fine
kind of opportunity to talk on the personal religion that counts.”
Following a visit over the 1920 Christmas holidays to his
family in Utah, George wrote in his diary, “I feel that the year is not closing
with an abundant fruitage of good work done but even at the very last days
failure and eclipse. Somehow I cannot
grasp the way to do the work. The past
is against me… My best impulses and desires have been killed by my own willful
self. And 1920 has gone. It seems like death to me. Am I glad I lived the year? Yes! Very glad! Glad I lived through every
day, even though it was a struggle to overcome self and to bring myself up to a
point of helpful service to others.”[18]
These doubts returned the following year. On his 50th
birthday, April 7, 1921, he wrote in his diary, “I am no better than I was at
16!” He seemed to be newly-appalled at
his lack of education for his work as well as by his personal weakness and
appearance. He wanted to get away
somewhere for the summer, but he had agreed to speak in honor of Dr. Samuel
Wishard at the 30th anniversary of the Idaho Falls Presbyterian church[19]
and also to conduct a wedding in Thornton.
But then spring weather cheered him up – on the last Saturday in May he
wrote, “This is the most perfect May in 25 years!” and two days later added, “I
am well today, full of enthusiasm. Have a sense of real spiritual strength and
power. Free from regret and sorrow and
so optimistic that I hope never to bring shame and remorse on myself again.”
Besides the weather, two other changes in 1921 may have
renewed George’s strength and vision. He
moved to Idaho Falls, where he maintained his residence the last 35 years of
his life. And he applied to become commissioned by the Presbyterian Church as their
Sunday School Missionary and his application was accepted.
While headquartered in Idaho Falls, Rev. Peacock rode his
bicycle from there almost to the Mexican border, starting 27 churches on the
way. In the late 1930’s he asked one of
his relatives to drive him on the same route so that he could visit as many of
these churches as possible to see how they were doing. Every one they found was still in operation
and welcomed him with great fanfare.
For George Peacock prayer was a feast. He spent actual days and nights in prayer and
Bible reading. Most every day included
several hours spent in exultant, warm communion with God. Natural, childlike, he entered the Holy of
Holies with eager expectancy and bitter probing and anguished grappling with
mysteries. When George went into a home he took all of this with him, be it
farm or city dwelling, a place of wealth or poverty. He was ready to talk of “spiritual things”
with a state governor or with a chance acquaintance on the street. This gift for honest, direct witnessing and
sharing made him a catalyst wherever he was. And for this reason he was most always
welcomed back for more of the same.
However, 10 years after being commissioned as a Presbyterian
Sunday School Missionary, his commission was terminated, though protested by
the local (Kendall) Presbytery and the Utah Synod of the Presbyterian
Church. Joseph Gulick and others also
interceded for him, and he applied to be reinstated several times, but to no
avail. Now he had no salary and no official sanction and at times his despair
returned. But he went on with his
ministry with increasing maturity and effectiveness, simply based on his
unavoidable call of God.
Idaho Senator Chase Clark and Governor C. C. Moore and
others saw to it that George was twice elected Chaplain of the Idaho Senate[20]
and he served with distinction in his daily ministry to the legislators, while
he lived on a ten dollars a week salary by staying at the YMCA and eating in
the automat. Still George continued to
give the major emphasis of his life to the ministry in his fields in Utah and
Idaho, which he called Peacock Country. He
nursed pastor-less churches for years at a time. He was called on by the strong churches in Idaho
Falls and Pocatello several times to moderate their Sessions for periods of
time and to preach in interim periods between pastors.
He had a way of dropping-in to “cheer up the work” when it was most
needed.
In Idaho Falls he made it a practice to be “about the town”
twice a day going and coming to the Post Office and to the railroad station to
mail his daily quota of communications all over the country. As he passed along Main Street, he would make
various contacts – the butcher, stopping in a restaurant or to converse with a
friend or potential friend with whom he might share a momentary exchange or a
two-hour conference. He was garrulous
with some, ribald with others, pastoral with still others. He had a special concern for children and
young people. He and they understood
each other; they shared an uninhibited wisdom about matters unknown to others.
Then he would return by way of the hospital to make daily
calls or stop in at a home for a cup of coffee. In this way he stirred the life
of the town, creating new vibrations in the course of conscious promotion of
his own schemes and his unconscious ministry to persons.
Idaho Falls banker Mrs. Minnie Hitt told George that she and
her bank would help him maintain some kind of bank account. So he sent his receipts from all sources to
her and was able to write checks from an extremely variable and flimsy bank
balance which upon occasion was mysteriously increased.
George often attended the Utah Bankers’ Convention,
completely on his own, where he hobnobbed with friends and with complete
strangers. He was welcome on the floor
of the Idaho State Legislature and was known to Idaho Governors. There was no situation too exalted or too
humble for the Shepherd’s Dog.
But with the passing of the years George began to dread the
future. His eye gave him more trouble and at times seemed to be failing. He needed to memorize his sermons as he could
not see well enough to read them. To
read his Bible he would hold it close to his face with his left hand and with
his right hand hold a magnifying glass up to his squinted right eye.
He had continual bowel and stomach trouble and treated
himself with baths at Lava Hot Springs and also home remedies. But he continued to grow in confidence and
power in preaching. To his amazement and
great joy he found he could preach a message that got to people. He was constantly discovering new truth
through daily study of the Bible, the press and literary classics. Dr. Joseph Gulick was a counselor when he
needed one and a good friend and he often filled Dr. Gulick's pulpit when he was out of town.
On the last page of George’s last journal in 1947 he wrote,
“Somehow I feel that I shall now be compelled to give up my diary on account of
my poor vision. The maladies of old age are upon me. All the terrible
infirmities of old age come at once. Eternal God, be ever gracious and near me,
and help me to be brave and very strong. Spare me according to Thy gracious
mercy.” His ministry continued several more years.
Paul Baird, knowing George Peacock when Paul was a child,
ministering with him in his later years, and sifting through 40 years of his
diaries, summarized (1) George’s devotional life, (2) the colors and patterns
of his life and ministry, and (3) then suggested answers to two questions that
drove his study of this man.
Paul concluded that Rev.
Peacock’s devotional life centered around:
1.
What the Bible meant to him as the very center
of his existence;
2.
What Prayer meant to him as his most natural
mode of expression;
3. The Dark Night of the Soul which continually underlay every experience and haunted his every hour; and
4. His at times almost ecstatic Participation in the beauty of nature and the joy of human fellowship.
Paul provides examples from
George’s diaries of each of the above.[21]
As for the colors and patterns
of his life and ministry, Paul included:
-
interrelationships with members of his family;
-
the beloved company of Peacock Country (the many
people he met on his travels and kept in contact with);
-
his volatile self, his moods, his albinism, and
his tempestuous dialogue with life;
-
his passionate drive to perform a ministry
no-one else could or would perform;
-
his play, talk, eating, journeying, partying,
praying, conniving, canvassing, politicking; and
-
the continual tension between his unfaltering
commitment to the plan and call of God and his continually faltering body and
spirit.[22]
In the Epilogue of the story of George Peacock, Paul Baird
touched on what he called “The Mystery of Ministry,” summarizing it in two
questions:
1.
Why and how God calls to His Ministry improbable
people like the Shepherd’s Dog, and
2.
What, after all, “Success” in ministry is.
I quote only part of his answer to the first question: [In
reviewing George Peacock’s life] “we see more clearly that God calls men
according to His own plan and purpose…’The Lord
said unto me’…is the point. When all is
said and done, ministry is performed in God’s name alone, and it makes sense
only in relation to the Holy God of life….”[23]
“As to what constitutes “Success” in Ministry,” Paul Baird
concluded, “George Peacock has demonstrated that it is men who are willing to
be a Shepherd’s Dog who perform “successful” – that is, authentic – ministry
wherever they may be. ‘Fools for Christ’s sake’ is the way Paul (the apostle)
put it. He meant people willing to carry
out the garbage and keep the shop open, come what may…”[24]
Jesus called Rev. George Daniel Peacock out of his Mormon
roots and sent him to share and embody His gospel, rounding up lost sheep and
bringing them into His fold, where others had not gone thoughout Peacock Country - Utah, Idaho and
beyond.
Appendix – Titles of a few of
George’s sermons given at the First Presbyterian Church in Idaho Falls:
What Doest Thou Here? – Aug. 3, 1924
My Grace Is Sufficient for Thee – Oct. 26, 1924
The Conquest of Fear – Oct. 4, 1925
The Sword of the Spirit – Aug. 29, 1926
The Nature and the Task of the Christian Church – Dec. 12, 1943
Life More Abundant – April 19, 1943 (address to 60 members of the Idaho Falls Eastside P.T.A.)
The Significance of the Cross – Aug. 6, 1944
How to Go Home – Feb. 11, 1945 (given when many servicemen were coming home from WWII)
Goals of Attainment – July 22, 1945
The Kingdom of God and Realism – June 29, 1947
The Significance of the Cross – July 6, 1947
[1]
Paul Jesse Baird, The Shepherd’s Dog –
The Story of Peacock Country, 1974, p. 137.
[2]
Quoted by Paul Jesse Baird in The
Shepherd’s Dog – The Story of Peacock Country, 1974, p. 139.
[3]
This and much of the following was taken directly, or slightly modified from (1)
Jean R. Fowkes’ 4-part biography of her great uncle, “George D. Peacock, Jr.
1871-1956,” posted on https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/K2MH-9CM,
and (2) Paul Jesse Baird, The Shepherd’s
Dog – The Story of Peacock County, 1974.
Paul Baird knew George both when Paul was a child growing up in
Southeast Idaho and later as a pastor who worked with George for several years.
Paul also had access to George’s extensive diaries.
[4]
The Presbyterian Mission School in Manti was started by Joseph McMillian in
1877. Brigham Young immediately held a two-day
mass meeting denouncing McMillan and the school, forcing its closure. Brigham died later that year and the school
was reopened.
[5] The Idaho Register, October 20, 1899 p.
8. George’s life could be characterized
by the theme of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. A biography of his life was entitled,
The Shepherd’s Dog, and Psalm 23 was
printed in the program of his funeral service.
[6] The Idaho Falls Times, September 11, 1906,
p. 9.
[7]
Paul Jesse Baird, The Shepherd’s Dog,
p. 55.
[8] The
Idaho Republican, December 27, 1907, p. 3G.
[9]
Paul Jesse Baird, The Shepherd’s Dog,
p. 64. June 24th is the day of the Swedish Midsummer celebration.
[10] The Idaho Falls Times, September 11,
1906, p. 9.
[11] The Post Register, December 26, 1935.
[12] Idaho Register, June 4, 1915.
[13] The Post Register, Dec. 26, 1935.
[14] “Ririe
Presbyterian Church to Note Golden Birthday,” The Post Register, Nov. 11, 1966, p. 8. Butlers Island was a
settlement near where the railroad tracks cross the South Fork of the Snake
between the more recent Twin Bridges and the Heise Bridge.
[15] Missionary
Tells Of Work Done in Southeast Idaho, The
Idaho Falls Post, April 29, 1927, p. 5.
[16] Mostly
Idaho and Utah, although George also made trips to California, Montana and
other states.
[17]
Now a ghost town, one mile north of the Utah line and 23 miles southeast of
Malta, Idaho.
[18] Paul
Jesse Baird, The Shepherd's Dog, p.
69.
[19]
The Post Register, April 27, 1921, p. 8. Dr. Wishard is credited with formally
organizing the Idaho Falls Presbyterian Church in 1891. George Peacock also
shared his memories of working with Dr. Wishard at First Presbyterian Church’s
60th anniversary service, see The
Post Register, April 27, 1951, p. 8.
[20]
1935 & 1937 legislative sessions
[21]
See pages 125-128 of The Shepherd’s Dog
by Paul Jesse Baird, 1974.
[22]
Plus two others I didn’t include as I think you need to read Paul Baird’s book to
understand.
[23] The Shepherd’s Dog, p. 141.
Comments
Post a Comment