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testing part, after a hard struggle to maintain wor-
ship, joined the Brownstown Association; and we
may be fairly sure that there was a McCoy in the
number, for the McCoys always and everywhere stood
for missions. The minutes contain no tables of be-
nevolences till 1884; then the total for benevolences
proper was $359.87, the largest amount being given
by Uniontown church, $202.72, in 1891 the total
benevolences were $627.04, of which amount Seymour
church gave $280, and of this amount state missions
received $101.68. The minutes of 1906 record a total
for benevolence of $1,010.16; of this amount Sey-
mour church gave $868.72, and the object receiving
the largest amount was Foreign Missions, $263.70.
Among the laymen of this Association deserving
mention, the first place belongs to L. D. Carpenter.
He was born in New Hampshire in 1844; he came to
Indiana recommended to Messrs. Love and Butler,
manufacturers, of Seymour, by Mr. Barney, of Day-
ton, Ohio. He was engaged as bookkeeper, but also
assisted the firm in other ways. He and Miss Marietta
Clark, of Massachusetts, were married in 1867; they
had not been in Seymour long till an opportunity
came to purchase a small hardware establishment, and
as Mr. Carpenter was of an energetic and far-seeing
disposition, he made up his mind to borrow the means
from his father, the Rev. Mark Carpenter, and begin
business for himself. Prosperity attended the venture
and in a few years he had the leading hardware es-
tablishment in that part of the State; the retail trade
amounted to $125,000 or more. And he was as lib-
Page 185
eral in giving as he was wise and energetic in accu-
mulating. To the building fund of his church he
gave $7,000 in all, and what is more, he was a leader
in organizing the church so thoroughly on business
lines that it is a model church--and has been for
many years. All bills are paid promptly and the cost
of improvements are provided for before the improve-
ments are made. He and Mrs. Carpenter were fond
of music and helped to train a choir that was of great
value in maintaining the dignity and worshipfulness
of the church services. And still more, Mr. Carpenter,
seconded by his wife, did an excellent and efficient
service in imparting noble ideals to those who came
into immediate contact with them; their clerks in
nearly every instance became capable and loyal chris-
tian men and women, and these have gladly attributed
their higher ideals to Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter. In
the midst of their business prosperity there came to
them the conviction that they should engage in For-
eign Mission service. Accordingly, after being act
apart to that work by a representative Baptist coun-
cil, Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter and Miss Lenore Ayers,
also of the Seymour church, went to Nemuro, Japan,
where Mr. Carpenter's brother, Chapin Carpenter, had
already done some work. They went at their own
charges, and on the condition that if the business at
home at any time imperatively demanded it, they
would return.
It was soon found that the Japanese government
would not give them permanent title to land for a
mission station, and so their plans were balked at
