Missionary to Blaine County carried out the Great Commission

Reporter's note: My wife and I moved to Chinook about four years ago and ever since on most weekdays I've shared early morning coffee with Art Kleinjan, and others, at the Chinook Senior Center. Art is an active member of St. Gabriel's Catholic Church, having served on the church council over the years. About a month ago Art told me, "You might be surprised to know I was first baptized a Presbyterian."

He went on to tell about a Presbyterian minister, from Stanford, who came a couple of summers and held a vacation Bible school at Miewald school. At least one summer school was also held at North Yantic school. These summer schools were held during the early 1940's.

Art explained the minister would stay with local families, during the week, and the families would feed him and give him a place to sleep. Art laughed when he recalled, "When he stayed with us he had to sleep in his car because we already had all our beds full." The minister's name was Rev. Clifford J. Shumaker.

There was a bit more to Art's recollection. He said, "I never remember my dad going to church except for funerals. But somehow Rev. Shumaker convinced my dad to be baptized. But he still never attended church as far as I remember."

I'm married to a Presbyterian minister and this story intrigued me. I wondered, "Who was this 'minister' and was he really a Presbyterian minister?" Perhaps equally baffling was, "Why was he doing summer Bible schools out in these sparsely populated parts of the country?" Finally, I was curious if the baptisms were recorded as Presbyterian ministers are careful to keep accurate records of baptisms, weddings and funerals.

Many people stepped up to help me gather information on this story. I can't list them all, but I thank them. If I got it wrong, it was no one's fault but my own. Here's what I learned about Rev. Clifford J. Shumaker as a person and why he was doing the Bible schools in Blaine County. I never could determine if or where the baptisms he did in the summer schools were ever recorded.

Sunday School missionaries worked where there was a perceived need for a church

Rev. Clifford J. Shumaker traveled to Blaine County, and other rural areas, from Stanford to organize summer vacation Bible schools in rural school houses. He was not, technically, associated with the local Presbyterian church in Stanford, where he lived for several years. His employer was the national Presbyterian church's organization and his goal, along with several other Sunday School missionaries in Montana and around the country, was to hold the summer Bible schools with the hope that the parents and children of the rural programs would become the beginnings of organized Presbyterian churches.

Shumaker and his counterparts labored in the early 1940's, but the national Presbyterian church had started 'Sabbath Schools' as early as the 1870's in the mining camps of Montana. In 1890, the first two official Sunday School missionaries organized 21 schools in Montana. Unfortunately, experience showed that without some regular leadership to keep the enthusiasm generated by the summer schools they soon faded away. Each new summer the missionaries basically had to start all over.

Rev. Shumaker first came to Montana not as a missionary but as the called pastor of a combined Baptist-Presbyterian church in Polson. Before Montana he was a pastor in Steubenville, Ohio, then in Lisbon, North Dakota. A church history of the Polson church suggests Shumaker was well regarded as attendance and financial support both increased during his tenure as pastor. After three years at Polson he and his family moved to Havre.

In Havre was where he likely started his employment with the national church as a Sunday school missionary. There are newspaper stories from this period, around 1941-42, of his being the business manager at a church youth camp in the Bear Paws as well as accounts of both he and his wife, Clara, making numerous trips to organize summer schools. A 1941 article from the "Great Falls Tribune" describes the couples' summer programs in and near "Roy, Hilger, Brooks, Strauss school, Brownel school, Square Butte, Coffee Creek, Glangarry, Miewald and North Yantic schools." (the latter two schools were both in western Blaine County).

A new ministry

from Stanford

By 1943 the Shumakers had moved to Stanford and purchased a house. Clara Shumaker was teaching at the elementary school and their only child, Ann, was in elementary school. It was during this period that Shumaker made his first trips to Blaine County. Art Kleinjan recalled the "Presbyterian minister from Stanford" organizing the schools, so it had to be after his time in Havre that the Sunday School missionary reached out to Blaine County. As mentioned in the "Reporter's note" above, the missionaries seemed to rely on locals to house and feed them.

Both Clara and Clifford are mentioned in many Montana-based publications of the period as being involved in the outreach of the church. Clifford was often a 'teacher' or 'guest speaker' at large organized meetings and schools. Clara was musically inclined and would typically have some role working with the musical portion of a meeting or gathering.

Richard Cronk, who grew up near Savoy, said, "A friend of mine, whose family was Presbyterian, invited me to attend a church camp with him in Belt (Montana). The person who greeted us when we arrived was Rev. Shumaker. I remembered the name because to a kid the name was unusual." Several references about Rev. Shumaker mention his 'orientation to youth' both as a pastor and as a summer school missionary.

About this time (late 1940's) the national church began to refocus its resources, recognizing that few churches were resulting from the summer schools while churches already organized were floundering for lack of seminary trained leaders. The focus changed to serve the existing churches and keep them strong. During this period of transition Shumaker would travel once a month to Whitlash (up on the Canadian border) to preach to a congregation without a fulltime minister. I talked by phone with a lady in the nursing home in Shelby who said, "I knew him very well, Rev. Shumaker married me and my husband in 1948."

In 1955 the Shumakers sold their house in Stanford and moved to Hysham (near Miles City). I couldn't access the church's records but a member said that Rev. Shumaker was the minister for the Hysham church for about two years. I have no way to verify this notion, but it seems the Sunday School missionary program might have been suspended or Shumaker realized the focus was changing and he moved on to be a pastor again.

The Shumakers move

to California

By 1957 the Shumakers had left Montana, after 19 years in the state, to live in Miranda, California. Miranda is in the area of the Redwoods in northern California. Clifford became the pastor of a church that has since disbanded, Clara was a primary school teacher. Their daughter, Ann, graduated from Stanford High, in 1954, and, according to a high school classmate living in Great Falls, "Ann was always studious and spent many years working at the University of California, Davis." Ann died about two years ago, she had three children.

Rev. Shumaker retired as a Presbyterian minister when he left Montana. From 1957 to 1966 he was a pastor in the Miranda area. There were also many references to his volunteer work, in Humboldt County, on various social services boards and advisory groups. He was the 'south Humboldt county correspondent' for the local newspaper. In 1966 he retired from the church in Miranda. He died in 1971. Clara remarried and remained in California.

A life lived with variety

and purpose

Rev. Clifford Shumaker was a native of Ohio, having grown up on a farm. After graduation from Mount Union College, a Methodist denominational school, he graduated from McCormick Seminary (Presbyterian) in Chicago. From there he was a pastor in Ohio, then a pastor in North Dakota. Before arriving in Polson as the new minister, he returned east and completed a master's degree in religious education from the University of Pittsburg.

As I read about Rev. Shumaker's life and accomplishments, I was always struck by the variety of things he had done-missionary, pastor, summer camp administrator, social service volunteer and, yes, writer for a newspaper. I wondered what drew a Midwesterner to Montana and why he left Montana for California. He obviously touched a lot of lives and had a real passion for working with youth.

One of several things I wonder about this story, and never discovered, did he ever record the 1940-ish baptisms of Art and Paul Kleinjan of rural Blaine County? How many others did he baptize in Blaine County, even in the Kleinjan family? And if he did record the baptisms, where are they noted? I'll likely never learn that part of the story of Rev. Clifford J. Shumaker's life.

One thing I can say for sure, he followed Christ's Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20): "to make disciples by baptizing and teaching them to observe everything I have commanded."