Campbell Chapel AME Church 715 Atchison St.  Atchison Placed on the National Register of Historic Places 1-17-2003

Photo D&VC, 3-08

Quoted from the Kansas Preservation Newsletter , Kansas State Historical Society, Nov.-Dec.  2002:  http://www.kshs.org/resource/ks_preservation/kpnovdec02.pdf

The Campbell Chapel A.M.E. Church, 715 Atchison Street in Atchison, was built in 1878. Featured indepth on page three of this issue, Campbell Chapel was nominated for its architectural significance as an example of Romanesque Revival and for its historical association with the growth and development of Atchison’s African-American community.

From slavery to the present, African-American churches, like Campbell Chapel A.M.E. Church, served as community builders and service providers. The churches functioned not only as sites of worship services, but also as public meeting halls and community centers for a wide range of social activities; as such, they were an important lifeline. After the Civil War, they helped fleeing blacks secure housing and employment and took up the task of formally educating the newly freed slaves. In fact, many church halls became makeshift classrooms.

Almost all black churches had to serve a multiplicity of purposes in their early days in response to the hostile conditions of black life. They not only provided a wide variety of services for the needy, but also provided spiritual, moral, and political leadership. In doing so, African Americans invested much time and many resources in building up their religious institutions. Black Methodists took the lead in creating totally independent black denominations. The first major black church was the African Methodist Episcopal Church. These independent black churches were largely limited to free states, like Kansas.
 

By 1870, there were 1,136 blacks in Atchison, most working as unskilled laborers, railroad workers, and domestics. Black farmers bought land from the government for $1.25 per acre on the installment plan. Few whites welcomed them. At first they lived in shanties, dugouts, and tents, usually near railroads or the river. In 1878, an Atchison newspaper reported there were forty blacks camped for the winter in shanties on the edge of the town. Frustrated with the burden of their poverty, the Atchison City Council passed an ordinance forbidding the landing of paupers at its river front docks. However, some Atchison residents continued to give them provisions and, in time, jobs.

The largest migration of blacks to Kansas was in 1878-79. Due to increasing economic and political oppression, thousands of poor blacks were motivated to leave the South. Too poor to buy food or pay rent, the freed blacks depended on local communities and Kansas Freedman’s Relief Association for support upon their arrival in Kansas.

A small congregation of the African Methodist Church was organized by Rev. John Netherson and J. K. Fisher in1865, the year the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. The Atchison City Directory reported that “with commendable zeal” they had obtained space over the Lane Livery Stable on Third and Main and used this space for both church and school. This was the first “colored” school in Atchison as well.

A year later, nine church trustees purchased a lot from John M. and Eliza J. Price for $250. The trustees who represented Campbell Chapel in this transaction on April 30, 1866, were Nicholas Johnson, Gibby Burrell, Adam Walker, Nelson Hunt, Rev. Jesse Mills, William McKee, Alfred Barker, Caleb Paris, and Fuller Carter. These men were all laborers except for a minister and a whip maker. Some had migrated to Kansas from Virginia and Kentucky.

They built their first church, a frame structure, on this lot at 715 Atchison Street that same year. It was anticipated at the time of the fund raising that this edifice would cost $1,400. Appeals went out to the public for funding assistance, and construction was completed in 1866. This church burned to the ground on May 16, 1878. A Sunday School Convention of the Kansas Conference of the A.M.E. Church had just met there the day before. The fire companies responded immediately, but there was a scarcity of water and the structure was lost. The church had been insured by American Central Insurance for $1,100.

The congregation immediately set out to build another church and the first services were held in this present structure on Sunday, November 3, 1878. The Daily Champion referred to Campbell Chapel as “one of the neatest brick churches in the city.” There were two services held on Sundays and a prayer meeting was held on Wednesday evening of each week.

Campbell Chapel, which was named after A.M.E. Bishop Jabez P. Campbell, was chartered on October 31, 1878, with the purpose of public worship and the support of charitable, benevolent, educational, and missionary undertakings. The five trustees were Jacob W. Starr, J. Rucker, Robert Hyston, George Ranson, and Jesse Mills. They reported the value of the church to be $5,000.

In order to pay down the mortgage indebtedness, special fund-raising events were held at the church. Pledges and offering envelopes were also used to fund church repairs and maintenance. When the pastor wanted a parsonage erected, church members solicited contributions with $5 coupon books.

By 1884, membership had grown to 325 congregants and Sunday school attendance totaled 100 members.

Choirs of the black churches in Atchison joined together to perform musical programs. Most of these events were shared with Ebenezar Baptist Church, the only other black church in the city for several years. Campbell Chapel even had The Campbell Chapel A.M.E. Church is an example of the Romanesque style. (Right) It sits on a bluff looking south over the downtown business district. (Below) The sanctuary interior was remodeled in the 1950s.

This article was written by LeAnn M. Smith and Martha Hagedorn-Krass. Ms. Smith is a member of the Campbell Chapel A.M.E. Church and Ms. Hagedorn-Krass is the Architectural Historian with the Cultural Resources Division.