The Preacher, the Slanderer and the Methodist Conference
Tacoma's Methodist conference accepted a report clearing Rev. Ford of charges that he seduced a girl in Arkansas and embezzled money, while branding his accuser a slanderer.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
TACOMA, Sept. 8.—[Special.]—The bulk of the ministers doubt not that Ford will be returned as presiding elder of the Seattle district. Rev. George H. Feese, pastor of the Epworth church of this city, who preached at Argenta, Ark., after Ford had left there, says Nichols is a vile slanderer. Technically speaking, Ford's character was passed by the conference, which is equivalent to denouncing the charges. He asked for a committee of inquiry, which presented the report as adopted, but the conference didn't appoint a committee of investigation. This was headed off, it is said, by the adoption of the report of the inquiry committee. Still, an investigation can be ordered at any time. Members of the committee of inquiry say that Nichols presented no facts to bolster up his charges. Before the committee he admitted, they say, that he had merely hearsay. He, however, came away from the committee room, it is said, and again showed his typewritten article charging Ford with seducing an Argenta girl and being compelled to marry her and become the legal father of her child, also alleging embezzlement.
“Technically speaking, Ford's character was passed by the conference, which is equivalent to denouncing the charges.”
The story turns on the difference between a church 'inquiry' and a full investigation—a distinction that let Ford's defenders declare him cleared while leaving the charges formally unresolved. Modern institutions still wrestle with how to handle accusations against beloved leaders when the evidence is hearsay and the accuser is discredited. The episode also shows how quickly a local church dispute could become public scandal in the 1890s press.
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