Charles Monroe Sheldon

A Kansas Portrait

Congregational minister, the Reverend Charles M. Sheldon (1857-1946) of Topeka, is known for his book, In His Steps (published in 1897) and also for his efforts to obtain better educational opportunities for black children living in Tennesseetown (a former district of Topeka). Sheldon also fought passionately on behalf of the temperance movement.

Charles Monroe Sheldon was born on February 26, 1857, in Wellsville, New York. Because his father was a Congregational minister, the family moved five times before settling in South Dakota. Sheldon's father and uncle both abstained from alcohol and were very influential in his life. He once told an audience that he had signed a total abstinence pledge at the age of seven promising not to use alcohol and tobacco. Apparently, he never violated it.

Sheldon attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and then college at Brown University, graduating in 1883. In 1886 he graduated from Andover Theological Seminary. The Congregational Church in Waterbury, Vermont, called Sheldon to his first pastorship in 1886 where he quickly earned a reputation for his progressive views and innovative and unorthodox pastoral style.

His preaching and writings were rooted in the larger social gospel movement (ca. 1870-1920) which brought contemporary social problems to the attention of practicing Protestants and other churchgoers. The movement sought to reform the inequities between rich and poor, workers and management, and eradicate bad behavior like drinking, which interfered with social progress. Like other reformers, Sheldon felt his actions could improve the lives of others. Sheldon's Waterbury parishioners were not very receptive to his message.

While in Waterbury Sheldon met Mary "May" Merriam, the granddaughter of a parishioner, who was visiting from Topeka. Her parents were founding members of Central Congregational Church (1888) and through this connection Sheldon was called to preach at Central. He married Mary in 1891 and their only son, Merriam Ward Sheldon, was born in 1897.

As pastor of the newly established Central Congregational Church in Topeka, Sheldon devised a novel approach designed to attract students to attend the regular Sunday evening service. Instead of delivering the usual sermon, Sheldon read sermon stories in installments. The subjects were of a moralistic nature and each chapter ended on a note of suspense, designed to bring his listeners back the following Sunday evening.

In the fall of 1896 Reverend Sheldon introduced his latest sermon story entitled "In His Steps or What Jesus Would Do." It was the story of a tragic incident in a fashionable church that caused its pastor to recruit a little group, each of the members would pledge to live his or her daily life for one year as though Jesus would. Response to the sermon by students was enthusiastic. A religious magazine from Chicago published the stories in weekly installments. Readers responded to the series as well and soon it was published in book form. Sales were spectacular. Some 20 other publishers discovered the story as it appeared serially and they too offered it in book form, without compensation to Sheldon since the stories were never copyrighted.

In March 1900 Frederick O. Popenoe, editor and owner of the Topeka Daily Capital, offered Sheldon complete control over the paper for a week. Sheldon tried to publish the paper as he thought Jesus would. Circulation rose from 15,000 daily copies to well over 350,000. During that week he refused to print "hard" news or ads for tobacco, alcohol, or patent medicines. He listed every person, including the janitor, in the editorial column except for Popenoe who had angered Sheldon by hiring an agent to advertise the special editions.

Sheldon was also famous for his community work. During the economic depression of the 1890s, he spent several months working a week at a time with railroad operators, laborers, and merchants to understand their conditions during the financial downturn. He worked with African American "Exodusters", people from former slave states who migrated to Kansas after the Civil War, to improve their Tennessee Town community. He decided that the area was impoverished due to a lack of employment and helped find jobs for many of its residents. He and Central Congregational Church also sponsored the first black kindergarten west of the Mississippi River in 1893.

Sheldon was a well-known prohibitionist and actively campaigned in Topeka against saloons. He traveled throughout the world with his prohibitionist message, going to England in 1900 for a temperance campaign and to Australia and New Zealand for another in 1914. Despite his obvious piousness, those who knew him said he might rebuke a saloon owner, but would be the first to come to the aid of the owner's family if they fell on hard times. His philosophy was to hate the sin but love the sinner.

Although Sheldon conceded that even Jesus drank wine, he claimed that he wouldn't have during the much changed environment of the 19th and 20th centuries. The saloon (not around in Jesus' day) was a despicable institution in the eyes of Sheldon and many other alcohol reformers. In his view consumption of alcohol led to other crimes and was a drain on the economy. Sheldon suggested that when in a moral dilemma, a person should try to do in life what Jesus would do if in the same situation.

Although Kansas was already a prohibition state when Sheldon arrived, he quickly realized that the law was not being enforced. Joints were operating all over the city and drug stores were abusing their right to dispense alcohol for medicinal purposes. Working with other reformers, Sheldon made several attempts to expose the illegal liquor trade, even entering drug stores to see if he could buy medicinal alcohol without the proper paperwork; he found that he could do so very easily. He even went further, by confiscating illegal liquor and dumping it in the streets.

Those with interests in alcohol sought to stop Sheldon by offering bribes or threatening him and his family. His barn was burned at one point. A few people from his congregation criticized his reform practices, but for the most part, his parishioners wholly supported his efforts, including those related to alcohol.

After his retirement from Central Congregational Church in 1920, Sheldon edited Christian Herald, An Illustrated News Weekly for the Home, a religious periodical, from 1920 to 1924 and continued to write articles after his final retirement in 1924. Sheldon made several other trips abroad, most notably to the Holy Land in 1926 on a Christian Herald sponsored tour.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Sheldon continued to write and was an active peace advocate. He also wrote a prohibition plank for Republican Alfred M. Landon's Kansas gubernatorial campaign. On February 17, 1946, shortly before his 88th birthday, Sheldon suffered a stroke and died one week later on February 24, 1946.

Before Sheldon's death, memorials to the beloved pastor had already been constructed. A community house was added onto the Central Congregational Church in 1926 and named for Sheldon. In the 1960s, his outdoor study was saved by the Central Congregational's Altruist Club, an organization for women started by Sheldon in the early 1900s. The club paid for the study to be moved to Gage Park and continues to staff the memorial. As well, there is a Sheldon Memorial Room at Central Congregational Church.

While it is probably accurate to say that Sheldon approached social issues with more sensitivity to class and race than other well-intended reformers, it is true that on the subject of alcohol he was unwavering. Sheldon could be satisfied that the Kansas prohibition law was still in effect when he died, however, it was only two more years before the law was repealed.

His serial novel, In His Steps, continues to be offered by as many as 12 different publishers whose sales have been estimated from $10 to $30 million dollars for the book that Sheldon originally sold for 75 cents. The book's message, "What Would Jesus Do?," (WWJD) has been translated to bracelets, t-shirts, necklaces, and other visible expressions as a Christian motto.