Sometimes when I research something I find interesting, I find a fact that needs to be updated. Such is the case with the Rev. A. J. Showalter who wrote the music for the hymn “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” in 1887. Local legend was that this Rev. Showalter was the pastor at the Ridgeway Methodist church from 1901 to 1902. Sadly, he was not actually the pastor appointed here; A. J. was also Presbyterian, not Methodist. His initials stood for Anthony Johnson. He published over 130 music books and passed away in Tennessee in 1924.
 |
| Mention of Rev. J. A. Showalter in obituary for Rev. Isaac. Chivington, first pastor of the Ridgeway M. E. Church. Ridgeway Journal, May 19, 1910. |
Rev. J. A. Showalter DID serve as pastor in Ridgeway from 1901 to 1902, coming here from Cainsville. He is the one pictured with Merrill Grant in the Ridgeway: Then and Now book as well as the Harrison County Bicentennial history book. I found his name in the Methodist pastoral appointments list published in area papers and thought it was a typo at first, but when I found his name again in 1902 in the papers, I realized that at some point, someone reversed his initials and thought he was A. J. Showalter the composer. Rev. J. A. died in October 1902 at his home in Ballwin, KS after an illness of several months.
