Introduction
Few have ever heard of the Megiddo Church, and even fewer know that its origins start with the Christadelphians in 1870, and have been intertwined to a greater or lesser extent ever since. Some readers might remember a debate between Ruth Sisson and Duncan Heaster held in the pages of The Tidings in 1992: and a few (and I am one) might recall seeing a copy of a magazine called Megiddo Message in your doctor’s office. But the whole account of this little denomination is quite fascinating, replete with ship wrecks, “gospel cars”, band wagons and somewhat strange beliefs. Now a tiny group of no more than 35 members of the one church in Rochester, NY, they still publish their magazine, with a claimed circulation of 15,000. They still appear to have scattered adherents elsewhere, but even so the total numbers are quite small, and apparently decreasing: reported visits to their services recently show only 25 or so attendees, mostly elderly.
H. T. (Lemuel Truesdale) Nichols was born October 1, 1844 in Elkhart County, Indiana. When he was about five years old, his family moved to Wisconsin. As an adolescent, he became skeptical of the established Protestant tradition in which he had been raised and began an intense study of the Bible. His views were often controversial and were ridiculed by his school classmates and others in the community.
In 1864 he was married, and two weeks later was drafted into the army. In the army he refused to bear arms and was transferred to service in a military hospital. After the war, he returned home to his wife to farm and to begin his ministerial career as an itinerant preacher in the Fox River Valley region of Wisconsin, northwest of Milwaukee.
In 1874, L. T. Nichols, accompanied by his family, including his wife, his parents, and his sister, as well as several other followers, moved to McMinnville, Oregon. There he established a church which he called “Christadelphian,” because of the similarity between his views of the Bible and those of Dr. Thomas, leader of the Christadelphians. Nichols held a popular annual camp meeting, published religious tracts, engaged in public debates on religious issues, and gained many additional followers.
For a while in the 1870’s the pages of The Christadelphian were replete with accounts written by this L. T. Nichols, with accounts of baptizing at least 70 into the Truth, and his fame spread quite widely in the Pacific north-west. (Mc Minnville is a little town about 30 miles Southwest of Portland.).
In 1880, Nichols’ concluded that “no man could be saved apart from knowing and keeping every commandment of God.’ This discovery has led the Megiddo Church to identify 1880 as the year of its founding because at this point Nichols called his followers to lead lives that set them apart from their contemporaries. It also led to his departure from the Christadelphian community.
The controversial doctrines preached by L. T. Nichols resulted in considerable persecution and in 1883 he decided to leave Oregon, settling himself and his followers in Dodge County in southeastern Minnesota. Here Nichols established a small church and preached in nearby communities. It was here also that he began his career as an inventor, patenting such inventions as a harness for four-horse hitches and a coupler for railroad cars. The profits from these inventions became a major source of support for the church.
One fundamental issue concerned how to achieve salvation. Nichols believed that people must live holy lives, while the Christadelphians accepted the concept of atonement by grace. In 1891 Nichols visited England and the histories of his church claims he debated Robert Roberts. (There is no other record I can find of this.) Nichols then largely abandoned his attempts to convince the Christadelphians and renamed his body the “Christian Brethren.’ He did debate Thomas Williams in 1892, with no success from his point of view, and from then on there are very few references to him in the literature of our community. He is claimed to have visited England again in 1897, but made no attempt as far as I can tell to contact Christadelphians, but concentrated on those he had previously converted. The Advocate records his death in 1912, but it is clear he had not troubled the Christadelphian community for many years. However, the later history of the community he founded is fascinating, if a little strange.
The Megiddo boat
Nichols predicted that the Second Coming of Christ would occur sometime between 1896 and 1901. As 1901 approached, Nichols felt compelled to carry the Brethren’s message to a wider audience. Ordering the construction of a large steamboat, which he named the “Megiddo,” he closed all his churches and gathered between eighty and ninety of his followers on the boat, which plied the Mississippi and Ohio River systems during the navigation seasons of 1901 through 1903, stopping at ports along the way where the Brethren held meetings. While on the rivers, Nichols continued to publish tracts, as well as flyers for distribution to announce meetings.
The ship excited much curiosity, and the newspapers along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers published front-page stories describing the marvelous craft. The boat cost $22,000 to build. It was red, white, and blue in color, had a complete machine shop for manufacturing and repair work, a carpenter shop, and a flour mill. Although the brethren, like members of the Megiddo Church today, were characterized by a high level of participation and a high degree of cooperation, they were committed to the principle of private property. Each family had its own living quarters and its own dining area, storage locker, and cupboards. Women cooked for their own families in the ship’s kitchen, and there were often as many as 30 meals being prepared at one time.
Wherever the boat went, the men on board sought work while the women took care of housekeeping and knitted woolen goods for sale to support their families and the mission.The children attended school aboard the boat. A handbill distributed to the public announced: “We manufacture acetylene gasometers and windmills and are agents for a first-class automobile.” The members also earned money from houses they built and rented in Nashville where the boat spent its first winter.
Upon arrival in a new port, if it were possible to borrow some horses, the uniformed Christian Brethren band would travel through the streets in their bandwagon, playing music and distributing handbills to publicize their meetings. They either arranged to meet in a public auditorium or pitched their 40 x 80-foot tent in a prominent location. The services consisted of songs, prayers, Scripture readings, and sermons by either L. T. Nichols or Maud Hembree, “the lady preacher.” The services were well attended, and the press reported Captain Nichols’ messages at length.
After two years on the water, the Megiddo experienced navigational problems while returning to the Mississippi from Cincinnati in the fall of 1903. Nichols had hired a captain who landed the boat on a sandbar. The next boat captain did the same thing. These mishaps resulted in expensive repairs and emphasized the danger of operating the Megiddo in those Midwest waterways. Besides, there were considerable risks from ice floating down the river. Feeling responsible for the many lives on board, Nichols decided that the river ministry was no longer practical, and the Megiddo was sold. The Christian Brethren relocated to Rochester where the Nichols’ had relatives. At about this time Nichols changed the name of his denomination to Megiddo Mission (or Church): no-one knows why.
Further work
Once in Rochester, they carried on an active mission work locally. Initially it was by such methods as a band wagon, which showed their fascination with band music (which still continues today). When Nichols died in 1912, it was by special dispensation that the band played at his gravesite.
It was not before long they realized how close they were to the Great Lakes, so the group acquired a series of motor launches, the last they called “Megiddo III”. They cruised the waters for eight years from 1916, and was replaced by a “mission car.” In both cases, six or so young men lived and peached from their conveyance, and the mission work proceeded.
By the 1920, the travelling missionaries were replaced by a publishing operation. As I already mentioned, they continue distributing their “Megiddo Message” quite widely, as well as a number of tracts and books. It is amazing that such a small congregation can distribute so widely a magazine, which is quite attractive in its layout, and some of the content is quite acceptable.
The Megiddo Church today
Each year on October 1st, members or the Megiddo Church gather in Mount Hope Cemetery at the grave of the church’s founder, L. T. Nichols. They gather not only
to celebrate the founder’s life and his contributions to the church but also to affirm their belief that he and others who are buried in the Megiddo plot will one day rise to be judged and rewarded by Jesus when he returns to establish his kingdom.
H. T. Nichols and the members of the group arrived in Rochester on January 27, 1904. Within a couple of months, Nichols purchased five acres on the southwest edge of Rochester, then outside the city limits. In 1907, the members of the group constructed their own church building. The church cost about $5,000 and seated 400 people. It was dedicated on March 22, 1908 with about 250 people in attendance. Today, the Megiddo Church still owns the complex of buildings across the street from the church and about 35 people live there.
Megiddos have long been recognized for the distinctive dress of the women which is characterized by long skirts, long sleeves, and high necklines. Women also use no makeup and gather their hair into buns, but unlike members of some conservative religious groups, they do cut their hair when it becomes inconveniently long. Colors of clothing are a matter of personal choice, and several of the women wear bright colors. The men, whose clothing styles are more likely to be dictated by the dress requirements of their employers, wear conservative suits and functional work clothes. The one requirement of clothing is that it conform to the Bible’s principal of “modest apparel”. While many observers tend to characterize Megiddo attire as old-fashioned, the Megiddos themselves consider their dress to be merely conservative.
Their beliefs
The original cause of separation from the Christadelphians was that Nichols believed that it was works that saved, not grace. The Megiddo Church still denies the Trinity, and believes in a personal devil: they also have similar beliefs on the soul and the millennial reign of Christ.
However, apart from the role of grace in a Christian life, they differ from our community in that they
- Members of the Megiddo Church eagerly await the arrival of Elijah, who, they believe, is presently living on another planet in God’s vast universe, awaiting the time when he will return to earth to prepare the way for Christ.
- They deny the role of water baptism.
- They celebrate Christmas — but on the first of Abib, in the spring.
- They venerate Nichols, remembering his death every year.
- They discourage marriage and child-bearing, holding these take away from the focus on waiting for the return of Elijah.
There has been no real contact between the Megiddo Church and the Christadelphians for over a hundred years, and only one or two members have joined our community from the group in the past century. And I wonder if the Church will even survive: like the Shakers before them, discouraging marriage and children is not a prescription for survival, even although, like them, we do expect the return of our Lord before long.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One