Letter to Dorthy Bratton on January 27, 1967 from Rev. F. H. Cowles {Pastor of First Baptist Church of Leavenworth, Kansas}
Collection: Winfield Scott
Title
Letter to Dorthy Bratton on January 27, 1967 from Rev. F. H. Cowles {Pastor of First Baptist Church of Leavenworth, Kansas}
Subject
Cowles, Rev. F. H.
Bratton, Dorothy
Letter
Leavenworth, KS
Scott, Winfield
Wright, DeForest B.
Description
Rev. Cowles is responding to Miss Bratton's request for information on Winfield Scott. Rev. Scott was the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Leavenworth Kansas. He supplied excerpts of the official church records. Dating back to 1864.
Creator
Rev. F. H. Cowles
Source
Winfield Public Library
Publisher
Winfield Public Library, Winfield, Kansas, USA
Date
1967-01-27
Rights
Format
text/plain
Language
English
Type
Correspondence
Citation
Rev. F. H. Cowles, “Letter to Dorthy Bratton on January 27, 1967 from Rev. F. H. Cowles {Pastor of First Baptist Church of Leavenworth, Kansas},” Winfield Digital Collections, accessed June 24, 2026, https://winfield.digitalsckls.info/item/198.
Text
Winfield Public Library
Winfield, Kansas
January 30,1967
Mr.DeForest B.Wright
5542 Romaine Street
Hollywood,California 90038
My dear Mr.DeForest:
I’m afraid that by this time you will think we have forgotten about your request for material on Winfield Scott. Not so. We have been in the
process of trying to obtain something for you,but it has seemed a slow process.
Today we received a letter from the wife of the minister at Leavenworth who sent us some material a copy of which I shall enclose. She also suggested that we contact another source which we shall do and if we have any success we shall send it on to you.
We have very little beyond the statement you will also find enclosed taken from our records here. I wish we had more as it is interesting and we have become more conscious of the name of Winfield than we had been formerly.
Very truly yours,
Dorothy Bratton
(Miss)Dorothy Bratton,
Librarian
P.S. I am sorry,but neglected to state in the body of this letter that we would be mostgrateful for a copy of the thesis when your daughter completes it. Thank you for offering it to us.
D.B.
REV. F. H. COWLES, Pastor
Resident Phone: MU 2-1825
Church Phone: MU 2-4426
First Baptist Church
I3th and Osage Leavenworth, Kansas
"That in all things Christ might have the pre-eminence."
Col. 1:18
January 27, 1967
Miss Dorothy Bratton Winfield Public Library Winfield, Kansas
Dear Miss Bratton:
Your request for information about Rev. Winfield Scott has been Passed on to me and I am happy to forward to you what we have in the church records. Rev. Scott is of particular importance in the history of our church since he was the first minister of the church after the uniting of two small congregations - First Baptist and Tabernacle Baptist Churches of Leavenworth. It was Rev. Scott who saw through to completi-
tion erection of a magnificient House of Worship said to be the pride of the city as well as of the denomination that built it. This church, which stood at the S. W. corner of Sixth and Seneca Streets until Decem-ber 1956, was built when Leavenworth was a thriving, young, frontier city and indeed the State had only been admitted to the Union just a few years before. (1861)
The following excerpts are taken from official records of the church:
Thursday, Dec. 29, 1864 "The Rev. Winfield Scott was recommended by the Home Mission Board as pastor. It was voted to leave the matter to the discretion of the Board. "
Thursday, Feb. 29, 1865 "Rev. Scott presented his commission from the Home Mission Board. A motion by Bro. C. N. James to Call Rev. Winfield Scott to the pastoral care of the church carried unanimously." (He was to receive a salary of $1,500.00 per year. Rev. Scott and his wife, Helen, came to us from the Baptist Church in Farmer, Seneca Co., N. Y.) "After a free expression of opinion as to the propriety of building a house of worship this season, it was voted that a meeting of the church and society be called for Thursday, March 19, to decide the matter."
March 3, 1965 The pastor and deacons were appointed to draw up Articles of Faith and the Church Covenant.
The first baptism by Rev. Scott (and also the first members to be received into the new church by baptism) was performed on Sunday, April 2, 1865, when Miss Elizabeth Hatfield and Miss Anna Leonard were baptized in the Missouri River.
Rev. Scott was appointed a delegate to the Baptist State Convention in Paola in 1865, and the convention was invited to hold its next annual meeting with our church. (The invitation was accepted and the Leaven-worth congregation had to furnish housing and food not only for all the delegates who attended but also for the horses of their guests.) In 1868 Winfield Scott was preacher at the state convention which met at Atchison and in 1869 he was president of the Kansas Baptist Convention.
A special meeting to lay the Corner-stone of the new church edifice was held Nov. 2, 1865, with appropriate ceremonies.
In succeeding years the church requested the Home Mission Board to "re-appoint Brother Scott as missionary in this place at the same salary as before." This newly developing western land was considered to be mission ary territory by the churches and the people back east. The Mission Board probably paid about half of the pastor’s salary, and the local church paid $800.00 yearly.
Listed separately is a copy of Resolutions of the Church of Leavenworth which was published in a local newspaper expressing the gratitude of the church to their pastor, Rev. Scott, and others for their generous help in building the church.
April 20, 1870 "At the close of meeting our pastor, Rev. Winfield Scott, gave notice to the church of his intention to resign the pastoral care of the church, and at his request the church appointed the deacons and Bro. P. J. Williams and Bro. Geo. A. Moore a committee to procure a supply for the pulpit. The resignation was formally presented on April 28th and af-ter its reading to the church the following resolution was made --- "Re-
solved that we accept the resignation of our pastor now tendered us and that be be released from his pulpit duties whenever he wishes to enter upon his missionary work but that the formal acceptance of his resigna-tion be postponed until the dedication of our new church."
Just when Rev. Scott left Leavenworth and the church here is not known, but we do know that he planned the dedication service for the new building, which was held on Feb. 20th, 1871, and he was still listed as pastor at that time. There is no further mention of him in the minutes of the church clerk after that date, until 1874 when it is noted that "Rev. Winfield Scott of Denver preached at recognition services for Rev. I. S. Kalloch on Feb. 1, 1874." (Rev. Kalloch was also a very notable man, a nationally known orator and prominent in many fields.)
Rev. Orlie Wilbur, Historical Secretary for Kansas Baptists might be able to furnish additional information. His address is 2026 N. 66th Terrace, Kansas City, Kansas. Also, research in the files of the Lea-venworth Times would probably reveal other facts of interest about Rev. Scott. From their column "Twenty-Five Years Ago" (which I clipped from the paper approximately five years ago) we have this -----
Word was received by the Rev. F. R. Beery (our minister for 20 years and a cousin to the actor Wallace Beery) of the death in San Diego of Mrs. Winfield Scott, an early Leavenworth pioneer woman whose husband had built the First Baptist Church at 6th and Seneca. The Rev. Winfield Scott came to Leavenworth in 1861 for his second pastorate and in 1862 raised a company of volunteers in answer to Lincoln’s call at the time of the Civil War. He went as a captain of Company C, 126th New York Volunteers carry-ing a sword presented him by his church and was wounded at Harpers Ferry and sent home. He returned to duty later and was in the thick of the battle of Gettysburg. He was severely wounded in the Battle of the Wil-derness and Mrs. Scott went personally to President Lincoln for permission bring him home. The permission was granted and the Rev. Scott recov-ered under Mrs. Scott’s care. He then renewed his work in the ministry, built the church here and served as its pastor for seven years. Later he rejoined the Army as a Chaplain. He was retired from the Army in 1898 and died Oct. 19, 1910.
I am much interested in the history of our church and therefore in all its former pastors. I hope this information will be of value for your files and to the relatives of Rev. Scott. May I congratulate them on having such a worthy forebear? I presume this Winfield Scott is a descendant of the General Winfield Scott who was born in 1786 in Virginia who had a distinguished military career and compiled the General Regulations for the Army. By any chance is Ft. Scott, Kansas or Scotts Bluff, Nebraska also named after Winfield Scott? I would be interested in hearing further about Rev. Scott .
Sincerely yours,
Doris Cooley
Mrs. Daniel Cooley
1616 Shawnee Street Leavenworth, Kans. 66048
1 encl.
RESOLUTIONS OF THE CHURCH OF LEAVENWORTH
Resolved, That we, the Baptist Church of the city of Leavenworth, Kansas, render thanksgiving and praise to the Triune God for His wonderful manifestation to us, in sending deliverance in this hour of financial distress, and we record with gratitude the fact that He has repeatedly fulfilled His promise to hear and answer prayer.
Resolved, That we are under special obligations to our pastor, Rev. Winfield Scott, for his untiring zeal and persistent efforts in advancing our interest regardless of his own, and that we do now heartily acknowledge our appreciation of his ser-vices, and extend to him our sincere thanks.
He has labored to build our Bethel most cheerfully and assiduously amid discouragements and burdens that few could bear, and in all his trials and embarrassments being an example to his flock and the world of unwavering faith in God's promise, when nearly all other hearts failed. He trusted in God and has not been disap-pointed. While many others have given most liberally and cheerfully, he has often gone beyond duty, giving all he had or could acquire, till, in addition to his other efforts, he has given forty-five hundred dollars, a sum considerably larger than he has received from the church for his pastoral services while among us, and
Resolved, That we will ever gratefully remember his self-sacrificing labors to en-sure us a sanctuary of our own in which to worship the Lord our God, and render Him thanks and praise for His goodness and mercy to us.
Resolved, That our thanks are eminently due to Dea. H. S. Chase of Boston, Mass., for aiding us in 1866 to raise two thousand dollars for our edifice, and for giving us one thousand dollars at the present time, and we remember with gratitude his untiring zeal and heroic perseverance in raising fifty-five hundred dollars, sufficient to remove a mortgage of this amount from our edifice and thereby sec-uring through the church and its friends in Leavenworth, the completion of our church building.
Resolved, That our thanks be extended to Dea. J. W. Converse of Boston, Mass., for giving five hundred dollars to our church, and thus promptly seconding the ef-forts of Bro. Chase, in his endeavors to raide the amount needed to relieve us.
Resolved, That our thanks be extended to all our noble hearted brethren and sisters in all parts of the land, who have remembered us so kindly and liberally with their money, their words of cheer, and their prayers—-and we unite in sending to each and all of them the benediction of our hearts, and we pray our Father in Heaven, who has answered us repeatedly, to fulfill His promise made to them in Luke 6:38, and we order a memorial book to be prepared in which the names of all contributors and amounts from every source shall be inscribed, and it shall be preserved in the archives of our church.
Resolved, That our thanks be extended to C. R. Morehead, Jr., H. L. Newman, J.C. Irwin, T. A. Hurd, E. B. Allen, Daniel Shire, J. F. Richards, M. H. Insley, J. L. Weaver and John R. Sears, of Leavenworth, Kansas, for the spirit of magnanimity that they manifested towards us as a church, in accepting the proposition of H. S. Chase, and we pledge them our utmost cooperation in fulfilling the guarantee made by them to entirely complete our beautiful edifice within six months from this date.
Resolved, That we extend our thanks to the Watchman and Reflector of Boston, and the "Standard” of Chicago, for the earnest sympathy they have manifested to us in making acknowledgment for moneys sent to us, and in making in their columns full statements of our wants.
Resolved, finally, that we earnestly implore a spiritual blessing from God our Father, and we ask all who have aided us to complete our outer temple, to pray earnestly for the rebuilding of our spiritual temple, through a sweeping revival of God’s grace in Leavenworth.
Done by order and in behalf of the church at her regular meeting, held Dec. 30, 1869.
W. H. Robinson, Clerk Winfield Scott, Pastor
Original Format
Paper
Title
Letter to Dorthy Bratton on January 27, 1967 from Rev. F. H. Cowles {Pastor of First Baptist Church of Leavenworth, Kansas}
Subject
Cowles, Rev. F. H.
Bratton, Dorothy
Letter
Leavenworth, KS
Scott, Winfield
Wright, DeForest B.
Description
Rev. Cowles is responding to Miss Bratton's request for information on Winfield Scott. Rev. Scott was the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Leavenworth Kansas. He supplied excerpts of the official church records. Dating back to 1864.
Creator
Rev. F. H. Cowles
Source
Winfield Public Library
Publisher
Winfield Public Library, Winfield, Kansas, USA
Date
1967-01-27
Rights
Format
text/plain
Language
English
Type
Correspondence
Citation
Rev. F. H. Cowles, “Letter to Dorthy Bratton on January 27, 1967 from Rev. F. H. Cowles {Pastor of First Baptist Church of Leavenworth, Kansas},” Winfield Digital Collections, accessed June 24, 2026, https://winfield.digitalsckls.info/item/198.Text
Winfield Public Library
Winfield, Kansas
January 30,1967
Mr.DeForest B.Wright
5542 Romaine Street
Hollywood,California 90038
My dear Mr.DeForest:
I’m afraid that by this time you will think we have forgotten about your request for material on Winfield Scott. Not so. We have been in the
process of trying to obtain something for you,but it has seemed a slow process.
Today we received a letter from the wife of the minister at Leavenworth who sent us some material a copy of which I shall enclose. She also suggested that we contact another source which we shall do and if we have any success we shall send it on to you.
We have very little beyond the statement you will also find enclosed taken from our records here. I wish we had more as it is interesting and we have become more conscious of the name of Winfield than we had been formerly.
Very truly yours,
Dorothy Bratton
(Miss)Dorothy Bratton,
Librarian
P.S. I am sorry,but neglected to state in the body of this letter that we would be mostgrateful for a copy of the thesis when your daughter completes it. Thank you for offering it to us.
D.B.
REV. F. H. COWLES, Pastor
Resident Phone: MU 2-1825
Church Phone: MU 2-4426
First Baptist Church
I3th and Osage Leavenworth, Kansas
"That in all things Christ might have the pre-eminence."
Col. 1:18
January 27, 1967
Miss Dorothy Bratton Winfield Public Library Winfield, Kansas
Dear Miss Bratton:
Your request for information about Rev. Winfield Scott has been Passed on to me and I am happy to forward to you what we have in the church records. Rev. Scott is of particular importance in the history of our church since he was the first minister of the church after the uniting of two small congregations - First Baptist and Tabernacle Baptist Churches of Leavenworth. It was Rev. Scott who saw through to completi-
tion erection of a magnificient House of Worship said to be the pride of the city as well as of the denomination that built it. This church, which stood at the S. W. corner of Sixth and Seneca Streets until Decem-ber 1956, was built when Leavenworth was a thriving, young, frontier city and indeed the State had only been admitted to the Union just a few years before. (1861)
The following excerpts are taken from official records of the church:
Thursday, Dec. 29, 1864 "The Rev. Winfield Scott was recommended by the Home Mission Board as pastor. It was voted to leave the matter to the discretion of the Board. "
Thursday, Feb. 29, 1865 "Rev. Scott presented his commission from the Home Mission Board. A motion by Bro. C. N. James to Call Rev. Winfield Scott to the pastoral care of the church carried unanimously." (He was to receive a salary of $1,500.00 per year. Rev. Scott and his wife, Helen, came to us from the Baptist Church in Farmer, Seneca Co., N. Y.) "After a free expression of opinion as to the propriety of building a house of worship this season, it was voted that a meeting of the church and society be called for Thursday, March 19, to decide the matter."
March 3, 1965 The pastor and deacons were appointed to draw up Articles of Faith and the Church Covenant.
The first baptism by Rev. Scott (and also the first members to be received into the new church by baptism) was performed on Sunday, April 2, 1865, when Miss Elizabeth Hatfield and Miss Anna Leonard were baptized in the Missouri River.
Rev. Scott was appointed a delegate to the Baptist State Convention in Paola in 1865, and the convention was invited to hold its next annual meeting with our church. (The invitation was accepted and the Leaven-worth congregation had to furnish housing and food not only for all the delegates who attended but also for the horses of their guests.) In 1868 Winfield Scott was preacher at the state convention which met at Atchison and in 1869 he was president of the Kansas Baptist Convention.
A special meeting to lay the Corner-stone of the new church edifice was held Nov. 2, 1865, with appropriate ceremonies.
In succeeding years the church requested the Home Mission Board to "re-appoint Brother Scott as missionary in this place at the same salary as before." This newly developing western land was considered to be mission ary territory by the churches and the people back east. The Mission Board probably paid about half of the pastor’s salary, and the local church paid $800.00 yearly.
Listed separately is a copy of Resolutions of the Church of Leavenworth which was published in a local newspaper expressing the gratitude of the church to their pastor, Rev. Scott, and others for their generous help in building the church.
April 20, 1870 "At the close of meeting our pastor, Rev. Winfield Scott, gave notice to the church of his intention to resign the pastoral care of the church, and at his request the church appointed the deacons and Bro. P. J. Williams and Bro. Geo. A. Moore a committee to procure a supply for the pulpit. The resignation was formally presented on April 28th and af-ter its reading to the church the following resolution was made --- "Re-
solved that we accept the resignation of our pastor now tendered us and that be be released from his pulpit duties whenever he wishes to enter upon his missionary work but that the formal acceptance of his resigna-tion be postponed until the dedication of our new church."
Just when Rev. Scott left Leavenworth and the church here is not known, but we do know that he planned the dedication service for the new building, which was held on Feb. 20th, 1871, and he was still listed as pastor at that time. There is no further mention of him in the minutes of the church clerk after that date, until 1874 when it is noted that "Rev. Winfield Scott of Denver preached at recognition services for Rev. I. S. Kalloch on Feb. 1, 1874." (Rev. Kalloch was also a very notable man, a nationally known orator and prominent in many fields.)
Rev. Orlie Wilbur, Historical Secretary for Kansas Baptists might be able to furnish additional information. His address is 2026 N. 66th Terrace, Kansas City, Kansas. Also, research in the files of the Lea-venworth Times would probably reveal other facts of interest about Rev. Scott. From their column "Twenty-Five Years Ago" (which I clipped from the paper approximately five years ago) we have this -----
Word was received by the Rev. F. R. Beery (our minister for 20 years and a cousin to the actor Wallace Beery) of the death in San Diego of Mrs. Winfield Scott, an early Leavenworth pioneer woman whose husband had built the First Baptist Church at 6th and Seneca. The Rev. Winfield Scott came to Leavenworth in 1861 for his second pastorate and in 1862 raised a company of volunteers in answer to Lincoln’s call at the time of the Civil War. He went as a captain of Company C, 126th New York Volunteers carry-ing a sword presented him by his church and was wounded at Harpers Ferry and sent home. He returned to duty later and was in the thick of the battle of Gettysburg. He was severely wounded in the Battle of the Wil-derness and Mrs. Scott went personally to President Lincoln for permission bring him home. The permission was granted and the Rev. Scott recov-ered under Mrs. Scott’s care. He then renewed his work in the ministry, built the church here and served as its pastor for seven years. Later he rejoined the Army as a Chaplain. He was retired from the Army in 1898 and died Oct. 19, 1910.
I am much interested in the history of our church and therefore in all its former pastors. I hope this information will be of value for your files and to the relatives of Rev. Scott. May I congratulate them on having such a worthy forebear? I presume this Winfield Scott is a descendant of the General Winfield Scott who was born in 1786 in Virginia who had a distinguished military career and compiled the General Regulations for the Army. By any chance is Ft. Scott, Kansas or Scotts Bluff, Nebraska also named after Winfield Scott? I would be interested in hearing further about Rev. Scott .
Sincerely yours,
Doris Cooley
Mrs. Daniel Cooley
1616 Shawnee Street Leavenworth, Kans. 66048
1 encl.
RESOLUTIONS OF THE CHURCH OF LEAVENWORTH
Resolved, That we, the Baptist Church of the city of Leavenworth, Kansas, render thanksgiving and praise to the Triune God for His wonderful manifestation to us, in sending deliverance in this hour of financial distress, and we record with gratitude the fact that He has repeatedly fulfilled His promise to hear and answer prayer.
Resolved, That we are under special obligations to our pastor, Rev. Winfield Scott, for his untiring zeal and persistent efforts in advancing our interest regardless of his own, and that we do now heartily acknowledge our appreciation of his ser-vices, and extend to him our sincere thanks.
He has labored to build our Bethel most cheerfully and assiduously amid discouragements and burdens that few could bear, and in all his trials and embarrassments being an example to his flock and the world of unwavering faith in God's promise, when nearly all other hearts failed. He trusted in God and has not been disap-pointed. While many others have given most liberally and cheerfully, he has often gone beyond duty, giving all he had or could acquire, till, in addition to his other efforts, he has given forty-five hundred dollars, a sum considerably larger than he has received from the church for his pastoral services while among us, and
Resolved, That we will ever gratefully remember his self-sacrificing labors to en-sure us a sanctuary of our own in which to worship the Lord our God, and render Him thanks and praise for His goodness and mercy to us.
Resolved, That our thanks are eminently due to Dea. H. S. Chase of Boston, Mass., for aiding us in 1866 to raise two thousand dollars for our edifice, and for giving us one thousand dollars at the present time, and we remember with gratitude his untiring zeal and heroic perseverance in raising fifty-five hundred dollars, sufficient to remove a mortgage of this amount from our edifice and thereby sec-uring through the church and its friends in Leavenworth, the completion of our church building.
Resolved, That our thanks be extended to Dea. J. W. Converse of Boston, Mass., for giving five hundred dollars to our church, and thus promptly seconding the ef-forts of Bro. Chase, in his endeavors to raide the amount needed to relieve us.
Resolved, That our thanks be extended to all our noble hearted brethren and sisters in all parts of the land, who have remembered us so kindly and liberally with their money, their words of cheer, and their prayers—-and we unite in sending to each and all of them the benediction of our hearts, and we pray our Father in Heaven, who has answered us repeatedly, to fulfill His promise made to them in Luke 6:38, and we order a memorial book to be prepared in which the names of all contributors and amounts from every source shall be inscribed, and it shall be preserved in the archives of our church.
Resolved, That our thanks be extended to C. R. Morehead, Jr., H. L. Newman, J.C. Irwin, T. A. Hurd, E. B. Allen, Daniel Shire, J. F. Richards, M. H. Insley, J. L. Weaver and John R. Sears, of Leavenworth, Kansas, for the spirit of magnanimity that they manifested towards us as a church, in accepting the proposition of H. S. Chase, and we pledge them our utmost cooperation in fulfilling the guarantee made by them to entirely complete our beautiful edifice within six months from this date.
Resolved, That we extend our thanks to the Watchman and Reflector of Boston, and the "Standard” of Chicago, for the earnest sympathy they have manifested to us in making acknowledgment for moneys sent to us, and in making in their columns full statements of our wants.
Resolved, finally, that we earnestly implore a spiritual blessing from God our Father, and we ask all who have aided us to complete our outer temple, to pray earnestly for the rebuilding of our spiritual temple, through a sweeping revival of God’s grace in Leavenworth.
Done by order and in behalf of the church at her regular meeting, held Dec. 30, 1869.
W. H. Robinson, Clerk Winfield Scott, Pastor
Original Format
Paper