HB9HB 
 
 ^B
 
 EXPERIENCES 
 
 OK 
 
 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 IN 
 
 THE EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND 
 CITIES OF THE WEST. 
 
 JAMKS B. WALKER. 
 
 CHICAGO. 
 
 SUMMER & CO. 
 1881.
 
 Copyright, 1881, by SUMNER vS: Co.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 EXPERIENCE OF A PIONEER IN THE FRONTIER SETTLEMENTS AND 
 CITIES OF THE WEST. 
 
 The chapters that are to follow will contain a true statement of in- 
 cidents occurring in the life of a man who lived from childhood to 
 old age in the forests, villages and cities of the Great West. The 
 history will be an egoism, of course. It can be nothing else. Those 
 who read the first chapters will be interested in the last. The first, 
 although widely different in spirit and purpose from the last, are a 
 part of the whole, without which sketches of the life of a western 
 man would not be complete. 
 
 Few persons living in the world have passed through so varied an 
 experience as the writer of the chapters which are to follow. This I 
 am sure will be the opinion of the reader who follows the series to 
 its conclusion. But I will not anticipate. The common incidents 
 of life are not often impressed upon the memory; but sometimes in- 
 cidents which would seem minor to others are of deep interest to the 
 individual who experiences them. Such incidents are not omitted 
 in the following narrative. 
 
 356901
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 The Cabin and the Clearing, 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Schools and School Discipline, 20 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Factory Boy, 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Store Boy on the Frontier, 39 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Printer's Apprentice, 50 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Traveling Printer, 64 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Clerk and the Schoolmaster, 77 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Editor, Politician, Student-at-Law, 94 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 The New College and the New Life, no 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Various College Experiences. 126
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Agent of the American Bible Society, 135 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Editor and Reformer, 162 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 First Pastorate and Professorship, 179 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Author and Preacher, 190 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 Author, Evangelist, Editor and Publisher in Cincinnati, 214 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Preacher and Pastor Mansfield, 234 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Chicago in the Early Day, 243 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 Mansfield and Abroad, 248 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 Sandusky, 256 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 Benzonia and the College, 262 
 
 NOTES, THOUGHTS AND INCIDENTS, 271
 
 PIONEER LI FE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CABIN AND THE CLEARING. 
 
 My father and elder brother both died before I 
 was born. I have never known what may be peculiar 
 in the love of a brother or sister. I have no record 
 of my father's history except a marriage certificate 
 preserved by my mother, and some masonic regalia, 
 indicating that he was a master mason. My wid- 
 owed mother returned to the home of her father, 
 and soon after removed with my grandfather's fam- 
 ily from the city of Philadelphia to a new farm in a 
 region which was then the western frontier twenty 
 miles from Fort Pitt now the city of Pittsburg. 
 My first recollections are of a log cabin the " clear- 
 ing" in the woods, and the struggle of a family from 
 the city to live in a new settlement. 
 
 The region west of the Allegheny Mountains was 
 then called the " Indian Country." The names of
 
 8 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 Brady and Poe, and others who led the pioneer set- 
 tlers in the border warfare with hostile Indians, 
 were the honored names with those who came first 
 into the new settlements. ' In the neighborhood 
 gatherings of the men, and the visits of the women 
 to each other's cabin, tales of peril with the Indians, 
 or of adventures in hunting the game which then 
 abounded in the forests, were familiar, and often ex- 
 citing subjects of conversation. 
 
 Among my first recollections is a story told of 
 one of the earliest settlers, whose cabin was occu- 
 pied before the incursions of hostile Indians had 
 ceased. The husband had gone a day's journey to 
 Fort Pitt, to obtain food necessary to the subsist- 
 ence of his wife and child, which he left alone in 
 the cabin to watch and wait, in fear, until his return. 
 Before he left, the cabin was made to look forsaken 
 as though the family had suddenly removed from 
 it. Cooking utensils and such other implements 
 as they possessed were hid in the woods. No fire 
 was kindled. The slabs, split out of logs with the 
 axe called puncheons which had been laid down 
 as a floor, were taken up and thrown confusedly 
 around principally piled in one corner of the build- 
 ing. (JJnder these an excavation was made in the 
 ground, and some bed clothes thrown down, where 
 the woman and her child might be concealed if she 
 saw signs that Indians were in the vicinity. Here 
 this brave pioneer woman had slept, or rather 
 watched one weary night. Early the next morning 
 as she looked out stealthily through the chinks of
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 9 
 
 the cabin, she perceived Indians lurking upon the 
 edge of the clearing. She hastened with her infant 
 child to her place of concealment under the floor. 
 The Indians, when they supposed they had satisfied 
 themselves that the cabin was forsaken, came in and 
 examined the premises to see if any thing was left 
 worth appropriating. While they remained, the 
 woman lay nursing her child to keep it from move- 
 ment and noise. Once or twice the movement of 
 the little one, it seemed to her, would surely betray 
 her; but the talk and tramping of the Indians pre- 
 vented their quick ears from catching the sound 
 from beneath. In a short time they hastened away, 
 fearing, perhaps, an ambush or attack by the set- 
 tlers. The husband returned, heard the story of 
 his wife's peril, and removed his family to the near- 
 est "block house," or frontier fort, and hastened to 
 give warning to the pioneers that Indians were 
 prowling upon their border. 
 
 The first families in Western Pennsylvania and 
 Kentucky subsisted in a good measure, during the 
 first years, upon corn bread, and the game which 
 they procured in the forests. The deer, the wild 
 turkey, and other game were plentiful; and almost 
 every family had a rifle or two hanging over the 
 cabin door, on buck horns, by which they supplied 
 themselves with venison. The skins, which they 
 seasoned and tanned themselves, were made into 
 moccasins and breeches for the men and boys, or 
 they were bartered at the nearest market town for 
 supplies of ammunition and whiskey for the men,
 
 10 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 and occasionally a quarter of tea for the women. 
 Soon after the removal of my grandfather to his 
 cabin, a company of three hunters called to see the 
 new-comers. As yet there was no door in the cabin. 
 A bed-quilt was hung up where the door should 
 have been, until a single board was brought twenty 
 miles to make a door. This board was the only 
 one ever used in the cabin. The hunters, (with- 
 out the ceremony of knocking,) put aside the quilt, 
 perhaps with the muzzle of their guns, and walked 
 in. The incidents which followed, rendered vivid 
 by frequent recital, are still distinct in my mem- 
 ory. They were dressed in the hunter's costume 
 of the times. A cap made of a fox or raccoon skin, 
 with the tail attached behind; a hunting-shirt (as 
 the outside garment was called,) which consisted 
 of a butternut colored linsey-woolsey frock, with a 
 small fringed cape; pantaloons of dressed deerskin; 
 a leathern belt, with a large knife attached, and 
 moccasins tied with leather strings upon their feet. 
 As these three men entered the cabin, they were sa- 
 luted with a loud scream by my mother and aunts. 
 The women had heard of the Indians with terror, 
 and supposed that they were now to be scalped or 
 carried captive by these supposed savages. There 
 was a second floor what was called a loft in the 
 cabin, reached by a ladder. The young women 
 sprang up the ladder and crouched together tremb- 
 ling, and perhaps praying for deliverance. After 
 the hunters had a little recovered from their sur- 
 prise, words of inquiry and explanation, spoken in
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. II 
 
 their own language, assured the affrighted women 
 that their scalps were safe, at least for the present; 
 and after a little delay to compose themselves they 
 ventured down the ladder, and shook hands with 
 the grinning hunters. 
 
 A sorrowful tale was told in the frontiermen's set- 
 tlement of a frozen hunter found near the decayed 
 trunk of a fallen tree, against which he had laid his 
 rifle. There were marks of his fingers upon the 
 tree where he had attempted to detach dry bark 
 and material to make a fire. His lint or flint had 
 failed him. He had probably lost his bearings in 
 the woods ; or he may have followed some valuable 
 game away from his accustomed track. The night 
 had come on, and with it intense cold. Feeling 
 chilled and drowsy as those do who die by freezing, 
 he had lain down beside the fallen tree. The death 
 chill had imperceptibly stolen over him, and he slept 
 his last sleep under the stars in that trackless forest. 
 There were sorrowful hearts in one lonely cabin 
 during that winter. When the snow was gone in 
 the spring, the hunter's body was found and interred 
 by the few settlers of the border. Long afterwards 
 the story of the "lost hunter" was told, and his fin- 
 ger marks were shown upon the tree, where failing 
 to kindle a fire, he had laid down to sleep the sleep 
 that knows no waking. 
 
 My grandfather's family consisted of two young 
 men and two daughters beside my mother. All 
 these labored by day and by night to reach a self- 
 sustaining condition in their new home. Within
 
 12 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 the period of three years the desired end was gained 
 and the deprivations and sacrifices of pioneer life- 
 were greatly abated. During those first years the 
 woods around the clearing were often lit up at night 
 by the blaze of burning log heaps ; and from the 
 cabin door my grandfather and uncles could be seen 
 revealed in the light, or flitting like spectres 
 through the lurid smoke, rolling the logs and piling 
 the brush upon the blazing heaps. 
 
 I remember that a German neighbor, who lived 
 on the adjoining farm, and who had "settled" before 
 we built our cabin, had the first wheat flour in the 
 neighborhood. My grandmother having dieted for 
 a long time on corn-bread and potatoes, either bor- 
 rowed, or she received a present of two cupfulls of 
 wheat flour, which, no doubt, was to her more sa- 
 vory food than are costly confections to the debili- 
 tated victims of fashionable life. 
 
 Our people were of the Scotch Covenanter stock, 
 and at that time there were no churches of their 
 own persuasion in the region. At the distance of 
 about six miles a frontier Presbyterian minister, Rev. 
 Mr. Bracken, was endeavoring to gather the pioneer 
 families into a congregation. The meeting house 
 was of logs, and the floor was not yet laid down. 
 The congregation for a time sat on the cross logs 
 which were designed to sustain a floor, when mate- 
 rial could be procured to make one. A little inci- 
 dent which occurred about this time evinced the 
 unsophisticated character of the youth in the woods. 
 The younger members of the family frequently
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 13 
 
 walked to meeting, while those who remained ob- 
 served sacred time with a degree of strictness and 
 reverence unknown in this day. Nothing was read 
 but the Bible on the Sabbath. I was permitted to 
 indulge in no excited movement, nor even free 
 laughter during the Day of Rest ; and in after years, 
 although reverence and faith were, in a general 
 sense, lost, there was still something in my mind 
 that reluctated against Sabbath profanation. 
 
 On one occasion as a party journeyed on foot to 
 the church, they were accompanied by my youngest 
 aunt, who had scarcely reached womanhood, and a 
 youth who was one of our neighbors. The young 
 woman accidentally lost her garter, which becom- 
 ing known to the party, the young man took out 
 his jack-knife, stepped aside into the forest, and sep- 
 arated the pensile bark from a bass-wood bush; and 
 having cut a band of it about the length of the lost 
 garter, he tendered it, with kindly suggestions, to 
 my youthful aunt. The incident was reported in 
 the family circle before sun down on that Sabbath 
 day, and the loud and prolonged hilarity that fol- 
 lowed, at the expense of aunt Mary, could be re- 
 strained by no rules of Sabbath decorum. Whether 
 it were reprehensible or not, the casuist may deter- 
 mine. For myself, I have no doubt the intention 
 in the act was as pure and more benevolent than 
 that of the royal gallant, whose like courtesy is per- 
 petuated from age to age by a brotherhood of 
 knights, whose escutcheon bears the significant de- 
 vice, "homo soit que mal y pense"
 
 14 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 The early times families had not the facilities to 
 supply themselves with raiment which those pos- 
 sess who now emigrate to the West. The people 
 clothed themselves almost entirely in material of 
 their own manufacture. Flax was sown, prepared, 
 spun and woven in our own family; and when a few 
 sheep could be kept on the farm, wool was mingled 
 in the fabric, and an article called linsey was pro- 
 duced, which was commonly worn, both by men 
 and women. 
 
 When wool became more plentiful and flannels 
 were manufactured, there were no fulling-mills such 
 as existed in later years. Necessity was the mother 
 of invention more frequently in early days than now; 
 and one of the methods of fulling flannels was suf- 
 ficiently primitive; while at the same time, it was 
 excessively exhilarating to those engaged in it, and 
 those who witnessed it. The woolen web was sat- 
 urated with soap and water and thrown down in an 
 emulsient mass upon a clean space in the centre of 
 the cabin floor. The men of the neighborhood, 
 especially the young men rolled their pantaloons 
 up to their knees, and with bare feet sat in a circle 
 on the floor around the woolen web in the centre. 
 At a given signal each one commenced kicking vig- 
 orously upon the web, and his kicks were met by 
 equal ones from the opposite operator. It became 
 a matter of muscular endeavor by each one not to 
 be kicked back on the floor by his antagonist; hence 
 quick, prolonged, and spasmodic kicking was paid 
 out upon the web in the center, which was occa-
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. I 5 
 
 sionally plied by the laughing house-women with 
 additional soap and warm water. The result was 
 that the flannel was thoroughly fulled, the operators 
 thoroughly saturated with sweat, soap and water ; 
 and a general, and somewhat vociferous laughter 
 was induced, which shook the sides of all present, 
 and promoted appetite for the homely but whole- 
 some meal which followed. Gatherings for the pur- 
 pose of fulling by this primitive process were called 
 by the pioneers, "kicking frolics." Since then I have 
 seen fulling mills pushing and pounding the woolen 
 web with their wooden instruments, but I think I 
 never observed the process without smiling when 
 the old recollection of the "kicking frolic" was 
 suggested to my mind. And I think it doubtful 
 whether any fulling mill ever did the work more 
 thoroughly than it was done in the cabins of the 
 first settlers in the "Indian Country." 
 
 As the people found means to clothe themselves 
 in fabrics of their own manufacture, the old and 
 worn apparel which they had brought with them 
 from their former residence, could be cut up and 
 made into clothing for the youngsters. I remember 
 well a suit which my aunt manufactured for me out 
 of a worn garment which belonged to my mother. 
 Buttons were scarce in those days, and the expedient 
 was adopted of cutting slices off from the corks of 
 bottles, and covering them for button-moles. When 
 the job was finished, I was dressed in my new suit, 
 and sent on an errand to our nearest neighbor, John 
 Henry. I have a distinct remembrance of a feeling
 
 1 6 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 / 
 of pride, strong to exultation, that possessed me, as 
 
 I entered the cabin door. My excitement was so 
 apparent that the family noticed it, and some of them 
 made a remark which I remember to this day, that 
 little James - - was proud of his new suit. I 
 have had various suits since then of various text- 
 ures, but I have no recollection of a feeling of self- 
 gratulation so strong as that which possessed me, 
 when clad in that new suit made out of my mother's 
 old one. 
 
 Schools in the early years of the settlement were 
 few and sometimes distant from our dwelling. The 
 first school which I attended was kept by an old 
 gentleman whose name was Ashton. He had been 
 a militia officer in the time of the Revolution. He 
 married a young wife, and removed from the old 
 settlements into the new, where he taught a school 
 in the same room in which he and his wife lived and 
 lodged. His successor was a young man of fine 
 personal appearance, but a great rascal, who made 
 it his business to try the hearts and the virtue of 
 the young women in the country around. The 
 pleasantest face in our neighborhood was that of 
 Sally Otto, a daughter in a German family of the 
 better class of pioneers. The first pleasant impres- 
 sion ever made on my mind by woman's face was 
 made by Sally Otto. I remember standing a little 
 boy at her knee, and looking up at her pleasant 
 features, while she talked, and her large blue eyes 
 beamed smilingly upon me, as I tried to answer her 
 questions.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. I/ 
 
 It was not long before it was whispered in the 
 neighborhood, that the school-master was to be 
 married to poor Sally Otto. I write "poor Sally," 
 because these were the words of affectionate regret 
 used by the neighbors, when Sally's hard fate be- 
 came known to them. They were married he in a 
 coat borrowed of a young man who had come in 
 from the old settlements she in the rustic garb of a 
 pioneer maiden, with what little adornment my 
 aunts and other friends could grant her. Soon after 
 their marriage she was removed to a remote neigh- 
 borhood, where her husband again taught a school, 
 and where he proved unfaithful to his marriage 
 vows, and broke the heart of poor Sally Otto. Even 
 in his recreancy she clung to him with imploring 
 affection, until he left her to do a villain's work in 
 other places. The remembrance of her benign 
 countenance and her sad fate has frequently re- 
 curred to my mind during a life time ; and seldom 
 without claiming the tribute of a sigh. The young 
 and the fair in the rural districts should be admon- 
 ished to trust nothing to the professions of prepos- 
 sessing strangers. "A man may smile and smile 
 and be a villain." Remember Sally Otto. 
 
 In a few years our family became acquainted with 
 many families in the older settlements near Pitts- 
 burg. About the time that the family removed to 
 the West, an elder sister had married in Philadel- 
 phia, and removed to Fort Pitt, (afterwards Pitts- 
 burg.) Her husband was a mechanic and purchased 
 lots in the new town, which afterwards, with other
 
 1 8 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 accumulations, made him a wealthy man, of whom 
 we shall hear more hereafter. During the visits of 
 the family to their friends in Pittsburg and the ad- 
 jacent neighborhoods, they found suitors and were 
 all married but the two younger. My mother mar- 
 ried a second husband and removed to his home 
 upon the Allegheny river, eight miles above Pitts- 
 burg. About the same time that these changes 
 were taking place, my grandfather was visited by 
 an agent of the first iron and nail factory established 
 in the West. It was located at Pittsburg ; owned 
 by Mr. Cowan, and subsequently purchased and en- 
 larged by Whiting & Co., of Boston, Mass. My 
 grandfather had been a worker in iron in the city 
 of Philadelphia, and now his services were sought 
 to aid in the construction and working of the new 
 mills. He accepted the invitation ; left the farm ; 
 and removed to what was then the borough of Pitts- 
 burg. 
 
 I should not be true to my memory of this period 
 if I did not relate, that on the night when my 
 mother was married, previously to the removal of 
 the family, I had a dream which so impressed me 
 that it has often been suggested by incidents in sub- 
 sequent life. I dreamed that a large ball, so large 
 that it filled the room, was revolving in the cabin 
 where I slept. It rolled on its axis with some 
 noise. I observed it intently and noticed upon it 
 lines and traces as of chalk, indicating paths of 
 travel. I was then a lad some seven or eight years 
 of age, and knew nothing of the rotundity of the
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 19 
 
 globe ; and, there were no geographies or maps in 
 the family or in the schools of that period. When 
 at a subsequent time I learned that the world was 
 round, and revolved on its axis, and noticed its fig- 
 ure in the geography, it recalled my dream ; and I 
 thought of it with some degree of curious inquiry in 
 my mind. At a later time I was discussing the 
 philosophy of dreaming with a most excellent man, 
 now deceased, president of one of our western col- 
 leges. We agreed in adopting the prevalent expo- 
 sition of the subject, that the " stuff of which dreams 
 are made" is the ideas and fragments of ideas which 
 had previously existed in the mind. Of these are 
 composed the pictures, sometimes fantastically and 
 sometimes regularly constructed, which the mind 
 sees in dreaming. We supposed various ways in 
 which the archetype of the dream might have been 
 thrown into the mind. We were satisfied; and yet 
 something seemed to say to me, that is not all ! 
 
 Most men are fools enough to believe in dreams; 
 But wise enough to keep their inward thought 
 A secret from each other.
 
 20 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISCIPLINE. 
 
 My grandfather's family having removed to the 
 borough of Pittsburg, my time was divided for four 
 or five years between such school studies as were 
 common in that day, and labor in the nail factory. 
 During this period the first Sabbath-school taught 
 at the West, was opened in an upper room of a store 
 on Wood street. Of this school, at my own request, 
 I was permitted to become a member. There were 
 doubts at the time, whether the Sabbath-school 
 were not a charity institution, and whether on that 
 account it was proper for me to attend. Our family, 
 although in humble circumstances, were self-sus- 
 taining ; and would have resented as an insult any 
 intimation that they would receive a benefit of any 
 sort without rendering an equivalent. During a 
 visit to Scotland and the North of Ireland at a later 
 period, I found this feeling of personal and family 
 independence prevalent everywhere among the 
 Protestant laborers of the "old country." It was 
 supposed likewise that it would be a violation of 
 the sanctity of the Sabbath, to attend a school upon 
 that day. And as the Sabbath-school was first con-
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 21 
 
 ducted it would still seem so to many good people. 
 
 The Superintendent of the school was Mr. Lowry. 
 He was a member of a good family in Pittsburg, 
 which has since been distinguished in the Presbyte- 
 rian church for its devotion to missions and other 
 benevolent efforts of that denomination. We were 
 taught in the school to read, write and cypher, in 
 the first rules of Arithmetic ; our books, paper and 
 other requisites being provided for us. The first 
 strokes that I ever made with a pen were made in 
 the Sabbath-school, under the tuition of "Squire 
 Lowry." I well remember his kind expressions as 
 he leaned down over my desk, and taught me to 
 make straight lines and crooked ones ; or strokes 
 and pot-hooks, as they were technically called. 
 These early forms of the Sunday-school were soon 
 superseded by more Scriptural instruction. Verses 
 of Scripture were learned by the pupils, and for a 
 certain number committed to memory, a New Tes- 
 tament was given by the teacher. I was one that 
 recited the required number and procured the first 
 Testament I ever owned. And many of the verses 
 learned at that period are more distinct in the mem- 
 ory of an aged man to-day, than that of any other 
 portion of the Scriptures. I have taught Sabbath- 
 school myself since then, and the large portions of 
 Scripture thus early stored in my memory, have 
 been a blessing and an unction to other minds as 
 well as my own. 
 
 During these years a Sabbath-school missionary 
 came from Philadelphia and preached to the chil-
 
 22 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 dren in Rev. Mr. Swift's church, on Diamond Alley. 
 He had the I3th part of the iipth Psalm, Watt's 
 version, printed, and desired all the children present 
 to commit it to memory. I did so, and although it 
 lay dormant in my mind for years, yet subsequently, 
 traveling on business through many counties of the 
 State of Ohio, I sang on horse-back hundreds of 
 times when no one but God heard : 
 
 " O that the Lord would guide my ways, 
 
 "To keep His statutes still; 
 " O that my God would grant me grace 
 
 "To know and do His will," &c. 
 
 The teacher of the day-school that I then at- 
 tended was doubtful about my committing to mem- 
 ory one of Watt's Hymns. He was a rigid adherent 
 of the Associate Reformed Scotch Church, and 
 thought it sinful, as the same church still does, to 
 sing any but "inspired psalmody," as they called 
 Rouse's version of David's Psalms. To commit one 
 of Watt's hymns, the good man no doubt supposed 
 might give me a bias in favor of profane singing. 
 He perhaps did not understand as well as Christians 
 do now, the relation of the introductory dispensa- 
 tion of Moses to that of Christ ; and that, if the 
 psalms of the Old Testament were inspired to suit 
 the principles and the worship of the darker dis- 
 pensation "that made nothing perfect," they would 
 be deficient in the superadded truth and grace which 
 came by Christ under the Gospel. 
 
 The instruction and school discipline under mas- 
 ter McClurgan, would seem peculiar at the present 
 day. Our reading books after Murray's Introduc-
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 23 
 
 tion, were the New Testament succeeded by the 
 Old. Passages of David's Psalms, and some pages of 
 the Assembly's Catechism were learned each week, 
 and recited on Saturday forenoon the afternoon 
 being a holiday. The discipline was rigid and solely 
 by corporeal infliction ; great care being taken to 
 ascertain correctly the degree of malfeasance, and to 
 administer castigation in proportion to the offence. 
 The old man used a rod, and for grave offences, 
 what was called the "taws;" which consisted of 
 several thongs of leather fastened upon a round 
 stick for a handle. A small edition of what is called 
 in sailor phrase- "the cat-o-nine-tails." I passed 
 under the rod several times, but, more fortunate 
 than many of my companions, I experienced the 
 infliction of the "taws" but once. That occasion, 
 of course, I shall not forget. 
 
 The master was hostile to the use of marbles, and 
 those who engaged in the game when they should 
 have been at school, were deemed culprits liable to 
 the penalty of the "taws." Being permitted to 
 leave the school-room for a brief space, on some 
 errand, I unwisely made an effort to replenish my 
 store of marbles, by a game with a youngster whom 
 I found on my return near the school-house. We 
 were engaged with great earnestness, when I noticed 
 my companion looking up with apparent surprise. 
 I turned in the direction of his gaze, and, alas for 
 me ! the master was standing demurely behind me, 
 looking with quizzical countenance and simulated 
 interest upon my exploits in the marble ring. He
 
 24 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 had achieved a strategy, and by a detour reached the 
 scene of our engagement. I may not give the pre- 
 cise words, but I shall give the spirit of the scene 
 which followed. There was a cessation of my per- 
 formances, of course ; and for a moment I stood at 
 a loss what to say or do in the premises. The old 
 man assuming a peculiar look, remarked "That 
 was a good shot Jamie ; ye seem to be quite a pro- 
 ficient in this business. When ye get through with 
 the game, if ye have no objections, perhaps we had 
 better walk back to the school-house." I did not, 
 however, wait to get through with the game nor 
 to make objections nor to walk back with my 
 teacher ; but making my exit suddenly, I hastened 
 back with all speed, and arrived at the school-room 
 some minutes before he returned. As I took my 
 seat, I remarked to a pleasant young girl, (Sarah 
 Trovillo,) that sat nearly opposite : 
 
 " Sarah, as soon as the master comes I shall 
 ketch it." 
 
 "What in the world kept you so long?" said 
 Sarah. 
 
 "I wanted to win back my marbles from Sam. 
 Ross." 
 
 I had done what the foolish victim of the gam- 
 bler generally does, trusted to winning back my 
 losses, until my time and my stakes were both gone. 
 
 I had only time to devise and execute with some 
 assistance, the expedient of putting my copy-book 
 under my jacket to save myself from the sharp pain 
 that I knew was coming, when the steps of the
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 25 
 
 teacher were heard upon the stairs. As he entered, 
 everything was as silent as a graveyard. I was con- 
 sidered in the school, a favorite with the old man, 
 and probably many were anxious to see whether 
 the known penalty of the "taws" would be fully 
 inflicted. But the autocrat of that school-room 
 would have thought it as great an offence to be 
 influenced by favoritism as would Sir Matthew Hale 
 in his duties as Cromwell's chief justice. The heads 
 of the scholars were bent over copy-books, slates 
 and testaments ; but glancing down the long desk 
 on one side of which sat a row of boys, and on the 
 other, a row of girls, I could see most eyes turned 
 ascant in the direction where I sat. 
 
 The teacher entered, took his place as usual, and 
 ordered attention to lessons which they all gave 
 but with their eyes still upon me. In a short time 
 the rod fell before me on the desk. The master was 
 in the habit, when he noticed any neglect or trans- 
 gression by a pupil, of throwing his rod to the cul- 
 prit, who had to carry it back, and stand to be 
 adjudged and punished according to his demerits. 
 
 I carried up the rod, and the old man took down 
 the taws, and after lamenting my depravity and ex- 
 pressing his regret that such an one as I should 
 transgress in such manner taking me by the collar 
 with his left hand, in the other he wielded the ter- 
 rible taws. The first two blows, rapidly inflicted, 
 sounded upon the paper under my jacket with a 
 sharp crack almost like pistol shots. The school 
 was convulsed with laughter. The old teacher, with
 
 26 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 some apparent surprise, suddenly suspended the in- 
 fliction. He did not at once understand the un- 
 usual sharp sound so different from the sound of the 
 taws upon the backs of other delinquents. Perhaps 
 he thought that the blows might be too severe for 
 the slender, delicate boy under correction. But 
 peering into my face, where a suppressed laugh was 
 struggling with the effort to appear awfully hurt, he 
 began to comprehend that some mischief had been 
 practiced. The copy-book was soon discovered 
 and dislodged, and then the castigation followed 
 with a will that left in my mind no doubt of its 
 thoroughness. I returned to my seat, and although 
 Sarah Trovillo gave several indications of sympa- 
 thy, I did not raise my eyes to look at any one for 
 some time. The old teacher subsequently seemed 
 unusually kind to me, and I believe that was the 
 only grave transgression, by which I ever grieved 
 the heart of my good old school-master, Hugh Mc- 
 Clurgan. 
 
 During most of this period, before Sabbath-school 
 literature existed, my library consisted of " Goody 
 Two Shoes," the " Ballads of Robin Hood," a " To- 
 ken for Good Children ; " and in later years a Song 
 Book and ^Esop's Fables. I could recite at one time 
 some of the ballads of the "forester bold," and most 
 of the poetry in the old Dilworth Spelling Book. 
 And I had essayed, about the age of thirteen, to 
 write, in Robin Hood measure, my first poetry, ad- 
 dressed to an absent uncle. I remember, as I write, 
 the following verse :
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 2/ 
 
 Remember still I am your friend, 
 
 Remember uncle dear, 
 I have no father to defend 
 
 Me in my youthful year. 
 
 This is juvenile and doggerel, of course, but first 
 efforts are remembered not so much for the value 
 as for their place in the history of the mind.
 
 28 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE FACTORY BOY. 
 
 The rolling mill and nail factory in which my 
 grandfather labored, was owned by a Boston com- 
 pany Whiting being the principal name. Work- 
 men were brought from Massachusetts. They were 
 mostly young men, and were known collectively by 
 the sobriquet of "the yankees." My business, 
 with that of several other boys in the factory, was 
 to heat the nail plates in a furnace, and carry them 
 to the men who operated the machines. There was 
 a set of doggerel verses composed by somebody 
 about the factory that characterized, and sometimes 
 caricatured, many of the laborers. I remember 
 some of them. I was flattered by the following 
 description : 
 
 There's little J r 
 
 He picks up the poker, 
 
 Flies round like a ghost in a throng; 
 With his hat cock'd a-side, 
 And his shirt neck untied, 
 
 He carries his plates all along.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 29 
 
 Of one of the finest and freest young men the 
 rhyme said, 
 
 There's generous James Fails, 
 He shells out the nails ; 
 
 Nor thinks that the time it is long: 
 He can take a good drink. 
 And at it never wink; 
 
 But pass it all off with a song. 
 
 Poor Fails ! fine looking and generous to a fault, 
 if he had lived in other times and under other cir- 
 cumstances, he might have been a successful man 
 and an honored citizen ; but there were no temper- 
 ance societies in those days, and I feel as sure as I 
 do of anything unknown to me in the past, that the 
 devil that dwells in alcohol, increased his power 
 over the young man, until with lost character and 
 impaired health, he sank to a premature grave. 
 
 The boys in the factory were in the habit of earn- 
 ing a little money in leisure hours, by packing the 
 nails in kegs for the workmen. On one occasion I 
 was bringing the empty kegs down a high flight of 
 steps, when by some mis-step I fell over the side 
 upon a heap of cut iron plates below. I was taken 
 up lifeless and conveyed home by two of the men. 
 After a time I was restored ; but a point of sharp 
 iron had penetrated my neck and made a wound, 
 the scar of which remains to the present day, as a 
 reminder of factory life and labors. 
 
 The "Yankees" were often attendants upon the 
 first cheap theatre established in Pittsburg. Some 
 of the earliest players were the Drakes, who plied 
 their vocation in the villages upon the Ohio and 
 Mississippi rivers between Pittsburg and New Or-
 
 30 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 leans. As the audiences could not be large in those 
 days, some effort was made to attract the factory 
 men. On a certain night a song entitled "The 
 Nails" was to be sung, and the men generally pur- 
 posed to be present. As the verses were said and 
 sung frequently in the factory, I remembered them, 
 and recall some lines at the present moment : 
 
 "To sing of nails, if you'll permit 
 My sportive muse intends, sir; 
 A subject that I now have, pat, 
 Just at my finger ends, sir. 
 
 We've spikes, and springs, and sparables, 
 
 Both little, great and small, sir. 
 Some folks love nails with monstrous heads, 
 
 And some love none at all, sir. 
 
 The bachelor's a hob nail, 
 
 He rusts for want of use, sir; 
 The misers are no nails at all, 
 
 They're all a pack of screws, sir. 
 
 As all proposed to go to the theatre that night, I 
 was very anxious to be of the company ; but my 
 friends were averse to my wishes. They spoke of 
 theatres as the " Synagogues of Satan." Play-act- 
 ors they called " mountebanks," and considered 
 them the associates of gamblers and loose women, 
 an opinion of which I had an opportunity to learn 
 more at a subsequent time. I secured the aid how- 
 ever of a friendly yankee, who interceded for me 
 with success. He guaranteed my safety, good 
 behavior, and admission fee ; and I was allowed to 
 accompany him to witness the performances of the 
 evening. Either from a penchant for roguishness, 
 or to save the half fare, he persuaded me to adopt
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 31 
 
 an expedient, which, possessing in those days a 
 slight vein for the comic and adventurous, I was 
 nothing loth to do. It was in cold weather, and the 
 yankees wore great coats or cloaks. The tickets 
 were delivered at the foot of the stairs, which they 
 ascended to the circle in which they sat. The ex- 
 pedient was, that I should conceal myself under the 
 great coat of my friend cling with my hands upon 
 his shoulders, and let myself down full length. As 
 my feet did not reach the bottom of his great coat, 
 no part of me was visible ; and I, being a slender 
 lad, and the man who received the tickets not look- 
 ing after those who had passed, the fraudulent 
 device succeeded, and I emerged from under the 
 great coat at the head of the stairs, and that night 
 witnessed the play. By that and one or two subse- 
 quent visits, while yet a small lad, my moral con- 
 victions adopted from my family in regard to the 
 evils of the stage were greatly abated ; and from 
 the stand-point of present observation, I can see 
 that a Superintending Providence alone, in subse- 
 quent years, prevented me from identifying myself 
 with the votaries of the theatre. 
 
 I remember little of the subject of the evening's 
 entertainment. My attention was specially at- 
 tracted to a sentence in a strange language, in 
 gilded letters, written over the drop curtain 
 " Voluti in Speculum" I knew nothing of its im- 
 port ; nor did the men in the factory ; but the 
 sparkle of the gilding attracted my attention ; and 
 years afterwards when I was studying the Latin
 
 32 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 language, the significance of the sentence " Voluti 
 in Speculum? was sought out, and translated by 
 the aid of Ainsworth's old Latin dictionary, which 
 student's used in the first western colleges. 
 
 During some years subsequent to the war of 1812, 
 silver money was seldom seen. When it began to 
 circulate, it was cut into small pieces. A Spanish 
 quarter was cut into five pieces, each passing for a 
 sixpence. A half dollar made five pieces, each pass- 
 ing for a shilling. The "fractional paper currency" 
 was mostly what was called, in low phrase, "Shin- 
 plasters." Every shop-keeper who desired to do 
 so, issued little, poorly printed, bills, promising 
 to pay at his bar or shop from five to fifty cents. 
 It happened that a gentleman visited the factory 
 one day probably to ascertain the process or prof- 
 its of nail making. After spending some time in 
 his round of examination, he took from his pocket 
 a whole silver half dollar, and gave it to me. I was 
 richer in mind with that silver half dollar than I 
 ever have been since with an accumulation of thou- 
 sands. A man's sense of wealth, I have learned, 
 does not consist in the abundance of the things 
 which he possesseth but in his satisfaction with 
 WHAT he possesses. I have accumulated somewhat 
 in my lifetime, but the sense of satisfaction was 
 greater at the beginning than at the end. Silver 
 scarce to possess a real round half-dollar was, in 
 my circumstances, of course, something of an ac- 
 quisition. It was shown round among the hands 
 generally, and I was congratulated upon my good
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 33 
 
 fortune. In consulting with friends at home what 
 disposition should be made of the "specie," my 
 grandfather thought that as the money came from a 
 gentleman who had examined the machinery, and 
 seen all the men at work ; and as his gift was prob- 
 ably an expression of his gratification in view of the 
 whole thing the money should be expended, for a 
 treat all round in the factory. I demurred in regard 
 to an expenditure of the whole sum ; but appropri- 
 ated one-half of it for half a gallon of whisky, with 
 which the men generally drank my health in the 
 health destroying beverage. 
 
 Two incidents occurred in these years by which 
 I felt sensibly in the influence both of faith and un- 
 belief. Some of the men were in the habit of as- 
 sembling in .the office of the company on winter 
 evenings and talking of the various topics that come 
 up in such companies. Henry and Robert Steele, 
 sons of the First Presbyterian minister in Pittsburg, 
 were clerks in the establishment, and were usually 
 in the office in the evening. They were both skep- 
 tical ; because, perhaps of the inconsistencies which 
 they perceived between the private life and public 
 profession of their parents. I was present one even- 
 ing when Robert Steele expressed his doubts of 
 the truth of the Christian religion. He made several 
 statements giving reasons for his opinions. Others 
 assented to the reasonableness of his views, and 
 cited other difficulties which had occurred to them 
 in regard to the Christian faith. I was startled and 
 alarmed. The expressed doubt seemed to take pos-
 
 34 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 session of my mind ; and while I feared to entertain 
 them, I felt exceedingly perplexed and unhappy 
 the remaining portion of the evening. I had been 
 taught to reverence the Bible. The only man that 
 I had ever heard spoken of as an infidel was a black- 
 smith, living on my way to school, whose house I 
 would have been afraid to pass in the night. That 
 I should have a doubt in my own mind was there- 
 fore a cause of self-upbraiding and unrest. But, 
 as in the parable, the devil had cast seed, in the 
 night, and went his way ; so in this case, as in most 
 other cases, the evil seed sown that night lived, 
 even contrary to my own will. 
 
 I felt likewise the effect of faith in those years ; 
 and this at a time subsequent to the experience just 
 stated. The one seemed for a time to displace the 
 other, without any process of reason in the case. I 
 was taken every Sabbath day to the Presbyterian 
 church, where, although I was generally listless, on 
 one or two occasions my mind was deeply im- 
 pressed. I felt, consciously, spiritual rest and was 
 happy in spirit, and averse to anything I thought 
 wrong. I was in the same mental state that I have 
 known, since then, many youth and even children 
 to experience, when there was earnest prayer and 
 the presence of the Holy Spirit in a congregation. 
 If, at such times, children and youth were instructed 
 to see God in Christ, as Lord and Savior, would 
 they not be permanently established in the king- 
 dom of God ? Such cases old and young are 
 symbolized by the man out of whom demons were
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 35 
 
 expelled, but the mind being cleansed of evil and 
 not occupied by truth, the demons of evil returned 
 with seven-fold power. There is, in many such 
 cases, repentance towards God, that turns the soul 
 from sin, and gives rest to the mind ; but faith in 
 Christ that enthrones the Savior as the Lord of life, 
 is hot exercised, because that vital gospel truth is 
 not perceived. This state of mind occurred once 
 or twice while I was a lad, but only for a few days. 
 No one knew my doubts, and few knew my spir- 
 itual peace. My young companions who did know, 
 I remember, spoke of me as "getting good." When 
 this peace and something more passed, the nat- 
 ural state of doubt and carelessness returned in- 
 creased rather than abated. 
 
 Two incidents occurred, during my factory and 
 school life, in these years, by one of which I nar- 
 rowly escaped disability, and by the other sudden 
 death. 
 
 A boiler for the steam engine was being manu- 
 factured or repaired ; and the riveting was done by 
 workmen who needed some one, small enough to 
 go into the boiler ; and willing and strong enough 
 to hold a bar braced against the head of the rivet 
 on the inside, while the workmen made it tight by 
 hammering it on the outside. I did the service for 
 part of two days, at the end of which time I had 
 become so deaf that I could not for a season hear 
 ordinary conversation. I was withdrawn from the 
 labor, of course ; and for a time it was feared that 
 my sense of hearing had become seriously impaired.
 
 36 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 Subsequently, the auditory nerve slowly regained 
 its sensibility ; yet a slight dullness continued for 
 some time; and the previous acuteness of the sense 
 has never been entirely restored. 
 
 My grandmother had deceased soon after we re- 
 moved to town, and my youngest aunt had married, 
 and was keeping house in my grandfather's resi- 
 dence, with her husband, William Graham. He was 
 a factory man, and is still living. They were good 
 people, but the care and regard to my reverence for 
 the Sabbath, and other religious observances, which 
 my mother and grandmother had strictly enjoined, 
 was not exercised over me, as in earlier years. It 
 was contrary to general rules to violate the Sab- 
 bath ; but other interests attracted attention from 
 me, and I suffered for transgression a penalty that 
 nearly closed my life. 
 
 I would not give a true sketch of the "pictures 
 in Memory's hall," if I did not state the impression 
 of a dream, which I immediately related to my 
 aunt, who interpreted it as foreboding some impend- 
 ing evil. I dreamed, two or three nights before, the 
 following incident : that I was a truant from school, 
 and traveling in a road to which I was not accus- 
 tomed, when a black snake suddenly sprung into 
 my, path and bit me. I awoke, with the vivid and 
 unpleasant sensation produced by the dream upon 
 my mind. The following Sabbath, I and two other 
 lads from the factory left the city to gather hickory 
 nuts at a distance of two or three miles from town. 
 One had climbed a tree to shake the nuts from the
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 37 
 
 branches, while the other and myself stood below. 
 A dead limb was detached from the tree by the 
 climber which fell directly upon my head. I re- 
 member nothing subsequently for two days except 
 a single incident : I was carried home by some 
 friendly persons, and after a season consciousness 
 and reason returned. This closed my labors in the 
 factory, which itself was soon after suspended in 
 consequence of a failure of the proprietors. 
 
 After a few months in school I removed from 
 Pittsburg, in the family of my uncle Graham, to a 
 small village on the western border of the State, 
 near the Virginia line. My uncle had some rela- 
 tives in the neighborhood, and had located there 
 with the design of keeping a country store. He 
 took his small stock of goods, his family and myself 
 down the Ohio river in a keel-boat. Goods for the 
 West and South in those days were mostly pur- 
 chased in Philadelphia, and the transit was by 
 means of wagons, drawn over the mountains by six 
 horses to Pittsburg, thence down the Ohio river in 
 keel or flat boats to places below. The keel-boat 
 was propelled up and down the shores of the river, 
 by four men using long poles, by which they moved 
 up stream at the rate of some ten miles per day, 
 and down the stream about three times that dis- 
 tance. The flat boat floated upon the current with 
 produce for New Orleans. The keel-boat landed 
 us at Georgetown, six miles from which place was 
 Hookstown or as it was characteristically called 
 at that time "the Devil's half acre." In this place 
 
 356901
 
 38 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 we opened shop in a small house, selling whisky 
 by the gallon, and other commodities less detri- 
 mental to the people, in one end of the building 
 and dwelling in the other. 
 
 I would have no one infer that my uncle was a 
 bad man who sought to injure his neighbors. He 
 was, and is now an industrious, honest, kind-hearted 
 man. He was, perhaps, the only man in the town- 
 ship that drank no distilled liquor himself; but not 
 to sell it in country retail shops would have been an 
 un-heard-of procedure. A short time ago, not 
 having seen any of the family for many years, I 
 called on my uncle's youngest daughter, who was at 
 the time, unwell. The old gentleman was at her 
 house. As I looked upon her features I remarked, 
 "She looks very much like aunt Mary did when she 
 was young." "Does she?" said the aged man, 
 rising suddenly to his feet, and looking into her face 
 with an awakened expression. My aunt had been 
 dead many years; but "it stirred the blood in the 
 old man's heart, and made his pulses fly," as he 
 thought he saw again something of the expression 
 of her who gave him her young love, and was his 
 faithful companion till death.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 39 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE STORE BOV~.ON THE FRONTIER. 
 
 Hookstown, or "the Devil's half acre," was not 
 exactly a frontier town, in the sense of its being a 
 new settlement. The region around had been settled 
 for some years ; but it was on the borders of Vir- 
 ginia, and the usages of the region and most of the 
 inhabitants, were of the "rough and tumble" kind, 
 often found upon the border of slave states. The 
 village was a small one. I resided in it two years, 
 and never heard a sermon, nor saw a minister of the 
 gospel, but once, when I was taken to Presbyterian 
 service about five miles distant. There were sober 
 families in the region, but the epithet given to the 
 town characterized, with more truth than taste, the 
 quality of most of the surrounding population. In 
 Hookstown and vicinity occasional inebriety was 
 the rule, and abstinence the exception. The tav- 
 erns, of which there were two, were the resort not 
 only of the neighboring farmers and their sons, but 
 they were places where the rowdies for some dis- 
 tance around were accustomed to congregate. The 
 landlords lived by the sale of liquor. On all public
 
 40 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 occasions, and at all social gatherings, the bar-rooms 
 were filled to overflowing. On these occasions, 
 such incidents as swapping horses reciprocal treat- 
 ing, and, in the evening songs and "hot stuff" (as a 
 heated drink mostly of whisky was called) were the 
 order of procedure, often till a late hour of the night. 
 The form of trading horses, when the owners did 
 not agree, was usually to appoint one man to repre- 
 sent each owner. These would retire examine 
 the animals, and come to some agreement, as to the 
 terms of exchange. When they came in, the land- 
 lord, or some one that represented him, would state 
 the conditions in whisky, in case of the agreement 
 or disagreement of the parties. The formula was 
 as follows : 
 
 "Two rues two half pints; 
 "Two stands two half pints; 
 " A rue and a stand a half pint, 
 " And the ruer pays it." 
 
 Perhaps the uninitiated ought to be informed that 
 the words "rue" and "stand" meant to rejector 
 accept the conditions of the trade, made by the ref- 
 erees. But trade, or no trade, the conditions 
 were such that whisky flowed freely ; and generally 
 down the necks of all present. It was therefore the 
 desire of every one frequenting the bar-room to get 
 up these attempts at horse trading as often as pos- 
 sible. One of the landlords usually kept at least 
 one horse in his stable, and a friend at hand, to get 
 up trades by which he often gained considerable 
 sums by actual exchange, and always something by 
 the sale of whisky.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 41 
 
 The worst fighting usages of border life were 
 practiced at Hookstown. It was a place where the 
 rough fighters, or "bullies" as they were called, fre- 
 quently met each other, and grappled in those bar- 
 barous conflicts, which were often more brutal than 
 the combats of the ring, where professional pugil- 
 ists contend for the prize belt or the stakes of their 
 beastly abettors. These rough fighters were the 
 heroes of their neighborhood ; and when two of 
 them met who had not tried their prowess, it was 
 always expected that a fight would ensue. And 
 fighting men generally were related to each other 
 by whipping or being whipped, almost as univer- 
 sally as a herd of animals contend until the brute 
 strength of the males in the flock is determined. 
 
 These affrays by the low whites in the slave states 
 and upon their borders, had not only the animal 
 characteristics of contending for the mastery by 
 brute force, but in some cases the men used their 
 power more barbarously than do unreasoning ani- 
 mals. They attacked each other with their fists, 
 their feet and their teeth, and used every effort to 
 gain the mastery, and make their opponent cry 
 "enough." This word "enough!" was the sign 
 of vanquishment, and the signal at which all by- 
 standers thought it their duty to immediately rush 
 in and separate the victor from his opponent. Some 
 would endure almost to death before the sign of 
 submission was uttered. 
 
 I have, on one public occasion, seen three couples, 
 at the same time, upon the ground,- each sur-
 
 42 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 rounded by a ring of excited men. They were beat- 
 ing, and sometimes biting and gouging each other. 
 The men in the ring around them cried " No man 
 touch" "no man touch!" until one or the other 
 of the parties cried "enough," when the ring broke, 
 and then several men would dash in to separate the 
 combatants. When they were parted (I hesitate 
 to write what truth requires) the faces of one or 
 both would be beaten and bloody. Often a finger 
 would be bitten to the bone. An eye closed ; and 
 sometimes an eye gouged by the thumb of the ad- 
 versary, almost out upon the cheek. Thus bruised 
 and bleeding, a bucket of cold water would be fur- 
 nished them, in which they bathed and washed their 
 disfigured features and broken flesh. 
 
 It sometimes happened that the finger of one of 
 the fighters was clenched in the teeth of the other, 
 before much personal injury had been inflicted by 
 either. This was considered "dishonorable." The 
 bitten man would cry "enough," and be released; 
 but in such cases the fight was not understood as a 
 finality ; and was generally renewed at some suc- 
 ceeding public gathering, until one or the other was 
 the acknowledged victor. 
 
 There were several in the neighborhood who bore 
 visible marks of mutilation received in these savage 
 encounters. Among others was the school master 
 of the place, from whom I learned to be tolerably 
 proficient in some of the more advanced rules of 
 arithmetic. He was a protestant Irishman, and had 
 been accustomed to the rude conflicts that in former
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 43 
 
 years commonly took place at fairs in North Ireland, 
 between the protestant and papal population. In a 
 fight during our residence in Hookstown, he had a 
 portion of his upper lip bitten off. I was present, 
 and witnessed the battle. A stranger was at the 
 tavern harvesting for Smith, the landlord. The 
 school master was with the company, after dinner, 
 on his way to the harvest field. Something was said 
 by the stranger probably prompted by Smith or 
 others which the teacher considered disrespectful 
 to himself, or to "Ould Ireland," as he called his 
 mother-land. The insult was returned, and a fight 
 immediately ensued. Each one appealed to one of 
 the company and asked him to "show fair play;" 
 and then, in rabble phrase, they "pitched into each 
 other." McFarland, the Irishman, had some skill 
 in the act of self-defence, and struck his antagonist, 
 who was a stout man, several hard blows before they 
 closed upon each other. After tumbling for a time 
 on the ground, each one damaging his antagonist in 
 every possible way, my school master lay under- 
 most ; but he had clasped the neck and one arm of 
 the other, and drawing him close to his person, was 
 striking heavy blows with his right hand. At this 
 point, their faces being drawn together, the stranger 
 bit a piece out of the upper lip of my teacher. He 
 probably designed to seize his nose, but failing, he 
 caught his lip, and took a piece clean out. The 
 Irishman did not "holler enough" as some in the 
 ring desired him to do ; but by desperate effort, he 
 succeeded in turning his antagonist, and dealing
 
 44 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 upon his face and person such crushing blows, that 
 the stranger cried "enough," and at once several 
 men "pitched in," and separated the school master 
 from his subdued antagonist. So soon as they were 
 "parted," McFarland ran to Smith, the landlord, 
 and uttered words which I recollect distinctly, both 
 in sound and sense. He asked "Smith am I dis- 
 figured?" Smith answered "I can't tell it looks 
 like a bad bite." The school master gave one bound 
 towards his opponent, and uttering the words, "Ould 
 Ireland forever," would have beaten the life out of 
 him, if he had not been seized and restrained by 
 the men present. 
 
 The teacher was a tolerable practitioner on the 
 flute, and rejoiced in the execution of such tunes as 
 the "Battle of the Boyne," and "Croppies lie down," 
 which in the north of Ireland, will always heat the 
 blood of a Catholic to fighting temperature. But 
 after this incident, so long as I knew him, he was 
 unable to use his flute ; and both his features and 
 his voice had been damaged. 
 
 There was another occurrence in connection with 
 this man that seemed like a retributive providence. 
 The father of McFarland had been killed in Ireland, 
 in an affray between Catholics and Protestants. 
 The assailants two brothers eluded the law offi- 
 cers, and escaped to America about the time that 
 McFarland came over. Soon after the above inci- 
 dent occurred, these two homicides came to Hooks- 
 town, with packs on their backs, as peddlers. They 
 supposed they were in a land where no man knew
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 45 
 
 them or knew of their crime. McFarland recog- 
 nized them at once, and was possessed with a spirit 
 of revenge. They knew nothing of his presence in 
 the place or in the country. He counseled with a 
 family in the neighborhood, how he should assail 
 them and avenge his father. He was dissuaded 
 from an assault at that time ; and soon after the 
 Pittsburg paper contained intelligence of the death 
 of two brothers. They had gone in to bathe, at what 
 was called the "old wharf," on the Alleghany river 
 above the city, and both had been drowned. There 
 was very deep water immediately off from the 
 wharf. Many times I and others had endeavored 
 to dive from boats at the landing, and bring up 
 some evidence that we had been at the bottom. 
 Into this deep water, of which probably neither 
 of them was aware, one of the peddlers had 
 stepped, and while struggling for life, the other had 
 endeavored to rescue him, and both had sunk to- 
 gether. They were found, one grasping the other; 
 but both of them dead. 
 
 The school master married in Hookstown and be- 
 came more sober in his habits. I was told that he 
 labored industriously and saved sufficient money to 
 purchase a farm in the State of Ohio, on which he 
 or his posterity, are probably living to the present 
 day. 
 
 I suppose, it is true that most children before the 
 age of sixteen, have their favorites among the boys 
 and girls in the school room and upon the play- 
 ground. And perhaps these early attachments are
 
 46 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 as free from selfish alloy, as any that are known to 
 the human heart. They are not always between 
 such subjects as would select each other after self- 
 ishness and reason had become more mature ; but 
 they are unaffected by mercenary and sensuous in- 
 fluence, and seem to be induced by some sort of 
 mutual affinity of mind for mind. 
 
 Among the first memories of most persons is one 
 of the pleasant little boy or girl who awakened 
 their first heart interest. The sweetest keys of the 
 poet's lute, are usually attuned to their early loves. 
 "Highland Mary" and "Annibel Lee" will live in 
 song forever ; and so of others. Some passages of 
 this kind I remember ; the authors of which are 
 unknown. Says one 
 
 " I often think each tot'ring form 
 
 That limps along on life's decline, 
 Once bore a heart, as young, as warm, 
 
 As full of idle thoughts as mine. 
 And each has had his dream of joy 
 
 His own unequaled, pure romance, 
 Commencing when the blushing boy 
 
 First thrilled at lovely woman's glance. 
 And each could tell his tale of youth, 
 
 And think its scenes of love evince 
 More passion more unearthly truth, 
 
 Than any tale before or since." 
 
 And again : 
 
 " There's a magical Isle up the river of time, 
 
 Where the softest of airs are playing; 
 There's a cloudless sky, and a genial clime, 
 And a song as sweet as a vesper chime 
 
 When June with the roses is staying. 
 And the name of the Isle is the I-ong Ago ; 
 
 And Memory's treasures are there; 
 There are brows of beauty, and bosoms of snow. 
 And forms and features we used to know; 
 
 And a lock of a young maiden's hair."
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 47 
 
 I, like others, had my favorite among the little 
 girls of the Hookstown school. And on occasions 
 when the youth were invited by the neighbors to 
 cut apples, or to make apple butter, the evening 
 was spent as the larger children in the country 
 usually spend such evenings ; and in going and re- 
 turning my favorite and I were not often far apart. 
 What she thought of me may be gathered from the 
 following quaint lines, which she had selected from 
 some quarter, and passed to me in the school : 
 
 " Most worthy of admiration; 
 Almost to adoration; 
 And held in estimation, 
 For a fine education, 
 And a good reputation; 
 I have a strong inclination 
 With your approbation 
 To become your relation." MARY. 
 
 But time, which changes all things, removed me 
 from the village back to Pittsburg, and not long 
 after removed Mary, in the blossom of her youth, 
 to the land of the departed. Before I left the vil- 
 lage, myself and another youth visited a large rock 
 which lay on the margin of Mill Creek, about a 
 half mile distant. On this, with a nail and a stone, 
 we cut our names and the names of our favorites. 
 Many years afterwards I had business in that por- 
 tion of Pennsylvania. It was not far out of my 
 route, and curiosity led me to the locality which 
 had been the scene of my boyish experiences. 
 Mary had been dead some years ; and I wandered 
 to the rock and searched for the names, which in 
 early days had been slightly cut with the nail upon
 
 48 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 its surface. Every trace was obliterated. No me- 
 morial remained of the heart-life of the school boy, 
 and store boy, in the " Devil's half acre." 
 
 But there are pauses in the business life of the 
 busiest men ; and during one such pause the follow- 
 ing lines were written, somewhat in the spirit of 
 Burns' "Address to Mary in Heaven :" 
 
 Sometimes in the pause of busy life, 
 
 When my mind is very still, 
 There looks on me in Memory's glass, 
 
 Without the call of will, 
 A fair young face from the land of youth, 
 
 And when she comes I sigh 
 And my thought is held as with a spell 
 
 Of an unseen spirit nigh. 
 
 Long, long ago, in boyhood's time 
 
 She was my earliest love; 
 But ere the flush of maiden prime 
 
 She joined the choir above; 
 Her presence gives a sign of peace, 
 
 All selfish thought is gone, 
 I hear her silent words awhile, 
 
 And then I am alone. 
 
 In the spirit-world hereafter, 
 
 I shall meet an angel friend, 
 Whose presence I shall know by thoughts 
 
 That with my thinking blend ; 
 She will tell me in life's pilgrimage 
 
 She oftentimes was nigh, 
 And looked on me, in Memory's glass, 
 
 Till I answered with a sigh. 
 
 Men generally fail who embark in a business the 
 details of which they do not understand. So did 
 my uncle. He traded in a small way until he had 
 neither capital nor goods left. He trusted his neigh- 
 bors trafficked in produce; and, although he drank 
 no intoxicating liquor himself, he was, for a time,
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 49 
 
 partner in a distillery; and supplied the taverns with 
 whisky. The end, of course, made haste. He was 
 a member of one of the Scotch Presbyterian church- 
 es ; and had accumulated, by his labor, a little fund 
 with which he purchased goods, when he left Pitts- 
 burg. At the end of two years he returned to his 
 former labors, a poorer and a wiser man. By skill 
 and industry he subsequently gained a competency, 
 and yet lives to be grateful for it. The region 
 around Hookstown has changed in character since 
 then ; but mostly by the death or removal of its 
 first inhabitants.
 
 50 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 THE PRINTER'S APPRENTICE. 
 
 Having returned to the city I was apprenticed, 
 by my own choice, to learn the art and mystery of 
 printing. The Pittsburg Gazette was the first news- 
 paper established west of the Alleghany mountains. 
 At the time that I commenced my apprenticeship 
 it was owned by Eichbaum and Johnston, and ed- 
 ited by Morgan Neville. There was likewise a 
 bookstore in connection with the establishment. 
 With this old firm and for this old paper I com- 
 menced setting type, and continued in the office for 
 about five years. My mother and her husband had 
 removed from the farm into the city, and were mem- 
 bers of the Scotch Secession church, under the pas- 
 torate of Dr. Bruce, where I frequently attended 
 worship. About this time there was some contro- 
 versy among the older people in the congregation 
 in regard to the method of singing David's Psalms, 
 and the tunes that should be used. Some of the 
 old people had previously been offended by the 
 clerk (or Cltfrk as he was called) "giving out" two 
 lines instead of one. The clerk had stood before
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 5 1 
 
 the pulpit and read one line at a time. The con- 
 gregation would sing that, and he would read an- 
 other beginning to sing in a peculiar nasal tone 
 before he reached the end of the line. The re- 
 form of reading two lines instead of one succeeded; 
 and the old precentor having resigned, a younger 
 man stood up in his place, and introduced a new 
 psalm tune called Winter a sweet, simple melody ; 
 but it was offensive to the old members who never 
 had heard a new psalm tune in their lives. They 
 could not sing the songs of Zion in an unknown 
 tune ; and they looked as sad as the Hebrews by 
 the streams of Babylon, when the new tune was 
 used. This will perhaps seem to the worshipers of 
 our day something like bigotry, or ignorance, or 
 both. Perhaps these sincere worshipers erred both 
 in the method and the matter of psalmody ; but in 
 the sight of God, who would have his people " sing 
 with the Spirit and the understanding" "making 
 melody in their hearts unto the Lord," their wor- 
 ship was surely more acceptable than in churches 
 where men and women sing with the same motive 
 that they do in the opera, and where melody is 
 made in the organ unto the congregation, instead 
 of "in the heart unto the Lord." Such psalmody 
 is an art offering to the congregation not a heart 
 offering to God. 
 
 About this period Methodism began to prevail at 
 the West ; and the youth of the more staid denom- 
 inations were often restrained from attending these 
 services. Methodist usages in the early period were
 
 52 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 certainly peculiar unwisely so perhaps; but it is 
 certain that the denomination was more spiritual 
 and efficient then than it is at the present day. 
 The men, for the most part, wore a coat of the Qua- 
 ker form, and the women all wore the Quaker, or, 
 as it was called, the Methodist bonnet. To be a 
 Methodist in those days was to come out from the 
 world in a sense not understood at the present time. 
 When a young woman was converted, all ornament 
 was laid aside. The bonnet of the worldly style 
 was put off or burned, and a demure, plain dress, 
 such as we occasionally see a young Quakeress 
 wear, was the badge of Methodism. 
 
 In their meetings, which were held only in the 
 plainest chapels, the preacher generally became 
 earnest, and responses were shouted at the top of 
 the voice by those in the congregation ; and during 
 prayer, sometimes five and sometimes twenty, or 
 more, were praying aloud at the same time. And 
 it frequently occurred that during an enthusiastic 
 meeting, one or two would fall and "get the power." 
 To "get the power" was to lose physical strength 
 and fall suddenly to the ground. The subjects of 
 the power were generally women. When they had 
 fallen, all motion of the limbs would seem to cease. 
 The breathing would become slow but easy the 
 pulse almost dormant. They seemed to hear noth- 
 ing of the movements about them. The face often 
 looked radiant, and during the suspension of ex- 
 ternal sense, they frequently professed, upon recov- 
 ering the normal state, to have seen glories that
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 53 
 
 surpassed utterance. Some of those who "got the 
 power," were too honest and devout to dissemble in 
 a matter so serious. Their loss of the external and 
 awakening of the internal sense was, no doubt, in 
 some sense, real, and partook more of the charac- 
 ter of the devotional experiences of the first Chris- 
 tian assemblies, than the rational Christianity of our 
 time is willing to admit. Like miracles, necessary 
 only in the beginning of a dispensation, to establish 
 its authority, the more fully developed reason and 
 better culture of the politic and more worldly 
 churches of the present day, do not need an impart- 
 ation of "power." It would not take long for a 
 person who knew the day of his death to determine 
 which were the better experience, the extravagant 
 emotion of the early day, or the formal and fashion- 
 able order of later periods. Such an one would be 
 likely to prefer the former, and say there was a 
 "more excellent way" than either. 
 
 I sometimes went to Methodist meeting. On one 
 occasion I went home to pray for an hour at my bed- 
 side. On another occasion I remember urging skep- 
 tical objections to an elderly man, who was an active 
 Methodist, until I seemed to stagger his faith, and 
 I left him embarrassed and perplexed. But I had 
 no complacency or sense of triumph in the achieve- 
 ment. I felt deeply troubled with the thought that 
 perhaps I had shaken his faith ; and that night I 
 prayed earnestly and long, that if the Bible were 
 true, God would in some way show it to me, and if 
 I had injured the good man I prayed sincerely that
 
 54 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 the evil might be corrected. I had some reason 
 afterwards (although we never spoke again on the 
 subject) to think that the arguments I had sug- 
 gested had done evil. I know nothing of his later 
 history, but I fear he made shipwreck of the faith. 
 For this I can make no reparation or atonement in 
 the government of God. And if the evil is not ar- 
 rested or compensated for by Christ's sacrifice, what 
 will be the result in my case ? My own repentance 
 did not recover him to obedience, and could not 
 counteract or compensate for the current of moral 
 evil which I then originated in the will of that man. 
 Will the currents of life which Christ originated by 
 his life and death, at some future time meet and 
 counteract this evil, and (as He does not need) the 
 good be imputed to me ? 
 
 About this time I began to be enamored of the 
 Muses, although my partiality did not seem to be 
 appreciated by those who had the young ladies in 
 charge. 
 
 The Saturday Evening Post, of Philadelphia, was, 
 I believe, the first literary newspaper published in 
 this country. It was exchanged with the Gazette, 
 and when I could obtain it, I read it with great 
 avidity ; and my highest ambition, just then, was 
 to see something of my own composition in print. 
 
 The first production that I ever offered for publi- 
 cation, was a parody on something that had ap- 
 peared in the Post. It was rejected with a notice 
 to correspondents, that the editor thought he had 
 read it before. It was the production of a youth,
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 55 
 
 and somewhat extravagant and juvenile, of course ; 
 but it was entirely original. As these first efforts 
 were ''driven like nails into the mind," perhaps they 
 ought to be inserted. Here is the parody : 
 
 [ For the Saturday Evening- Post.} 
 
 MESSRS. EDITORS : Having a good deal of work 
 to do about the farm lately clearing up some new 
 land and grubbing out a place for a potato patch, I 
 hung my triangle on the branch of a dog-wood tree. 
 Being out hunting the steers last week I came 
 across the instrument and brought it home again. 
 Looking over the Post lately and seeing some beau- 
 tiful verses on Imagination, I imagined it was spring, 
 and then imagined the following invitation to your 
 correspondent, Isadore : 
 
 O, Isadore, loveliest, come to me, 
 And we'll sit in the shade of our great elm tree; 
 And we'll list while the mocking-bird carols along 
 At the hour of noon -tide his varied song. 
 
 Or, come when the sinking god of the day 
 Has dappled the clouds with a lambent ray; 
 And we'll talk till the shadows of twilight pervade, 
 And spread o'er the woodland,-a mantle of shade. 
 
 Or, come when Luna, pale queen of the night, 
 And the chrystalized dew shall give thee light ; 
 'Tis elysian pastime to spend a sweet hour 
 By moon-light and dew-light alone, in our bower. 
 
 Oh come when your cheek is all in a glow, 
 Like fervid wine be-dropt in the snow; 
 And hold your breath lest Zephyrus should sip 
 The honied dew from your fresh young lip. 
 
 Come ! no matter when by day or by night, 
 With a throbbing pulse and an eye of light; 
 And I'll sing the words, if you'll sing the tune, 
 Of the " Banks and Braes of Bonny Down." 
 
 Failing on one style and in one direction, I tried 
 another. I offered to one of the city papers a piece 
 of pure sentiment, which was never published. I
 
 56 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 thought the editor, of course, a great dunce, and 
 stated my resolution to some of my companions, 
 that I should sometime have my poetry published, 
 if I had to start a paper for that special purpose. 
 And as a matter of fact these first efforts never 
 were permitted to appear in print until inserted in 
 a paper under my own control. 
 
 In these years a young girl in the city Miss Eliza 
 Hunter, whom I had never seen, wrote verses 
 evincing poetical taste and talent. Her teacher 
 had them published in the Gazette. I read them 
 with interest and admired the mental gifts and im- 
 agined personal graces of the poetess. A freak of 
 foolish adventure induced me to address a note to 
 her through the post office, proposing to lend her 
 certain books, (if she had not read them,) most of 
 which I expected to borrow, if the offer was accept- 
 ed. The books were to be delivered (if she desired 
 it) in such way that neither of us should recognize 
 each other in the transaction. I received a note 
 soon after accepting my proposition, and proposing 
 on her part, that on a certain night, the books 
 should be delivered at a certain hour, at the door 
 of her teacher's residence, to a person that should 
 answer to her name. The books indicated were 
 mostly obtained; and at the time designated I called 
 and inquired for the poetess. She was not at home; 
 and it was not known to her friend when she would 
 be. It was night. I recognized her teacher in my 
 interlocutor; but I did not observe him so intently, 
 as I presume he did me.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 57 
 
 I never saw the poetess until forty years after, 
 when one day in summer I was riding with my wife 
 on a visit to a relative near a village where she re- 
 sided. A lady was approaching us on the sidewalk 
 whose name I inquired. It was Mrs. Dr. Barker 
 forty years before Miss Eliza Hunter. I had the 
 driver rein up the horses, and asked pardon of the 
 good looking elderly lady, for inquiring if she re- 
 membered a note signed "Carlos," and the tender 
 of books in her school girl days. She looked a lit- 
 tle surprised ; but said, after a moment's hesitation, 
 that she did, and asked me to call. I have not seen 
 her since. 
 
 A little difficulty between myself and a fellow 
 apprentice originated in this affair. Thomas Col- 
 lins, son of a deceased lawyer, in Pittsburg, and who 
 had been for a time a cadet, at West Point military 
 academy, was an apprentice in the same office. He 
 had a good looking overcoat a comfort which I did 
 not possess. It hung in the office, and on the night 
 in question, as he was not using it, I appropriated 
 it for half an hour, to convey the books as designa- 
 ted. When he learned the fact his wrath waxed 
 exceedingly hot. He feared he should be identified 
 as the hero of the foolish adventure. Collins was a 
 good, gentle youth, and afterwards a fast friend ; 
 but it was some time before he was reconciled to 
 appear on the street in his own overcoat. 
 
 The first steam-boats that moved upon western 
 waters were constructed at Pittsburg about this 
 time. Oliver Evans and Henry Holdship were
 
 58 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 principally engaged in the enterprise. I had a ride 
 on one of the first steam-boats that floated in a 
 western river. My employers had some interest in 
 the craft, and all hands had a holiday the Saturday 
 afternoon on which she was to make her trial trip, 
 and by some means I managed to get on board. 
 She proved to be a slow boat, unable to make 
 head-way against a strong current. We ran down 
 the Ohio river in fine style to what was called in 
 those days Smoky Island, about five miles below 
 Pittsburg. The passengers were exulting and hi- 
 larious ; but when the boat was turned and headed 
 up the stream, the cast of countenance on board 
 became gradually less self-complacent. Her ma- 
 chinery worked on, but the boat made no head-way 
 against the current. After various devices had 
 been used with little avail to make her go ahead, 
 she was turned out of the channel to take advant- 
 age of dead water ; and by this expedient she was 
 constantly in danger of sticking fast on the bottom. 
 The boat left the dock soon after noon, and did not 
 make the five miles down the river and back until 
 after dark. 
 
 I had a friend in later life, William Patterson, a 
 banker of Mansfield, Ohio, now in heaven. He re- 
 sided in Steubenville, on the Ohio river, about this 
 time, and had an experience on this boat, or one 
 which commenced business about the same time. 
 He was an intelligent and devout man ; and not in 
 the habit of telling exhilarating stories; but his first 
 ride on a steam-boat he never forgot.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 59 
 
 The young people of Steubenville determined to 
 have a social time, and a large pleasure party, of 
 which he was a prominent member, embarked on 
 board the first steam-boat that reached the town, 
 on her return trip to Pittsburg. But the party 
 never arrived at their destination. The river was 
 in good stage, but the current in many places was 
 too strong for the power of the boat. The gentle- 
 men excursionists used every expedient to aid the 
 engine by an application of their physical strength. 
 They used poles on the sides of the boat. They 
 took the yawl ahead and endeavored to aid by a 
 tow line. In one or two instances they seized the 
 limbs of trees overhanging the stream ; but all 
 effort failed and the pleasure party, having, un- 
 doubtedly, had more exercise, and recreation, and 
 exhilaration, than such a party would have on a 
 better boat at the present time, voted the effort 
 to reach Pittsburg by steam-boat a failure, and re- 
 turned to their homes, believing that steam-boat 
 navigation on the Ohio, was what the best civil en- 
 gineer in Europe affirmed it would always be on 
 the Ocean, an impracticable achievement. Steam- 
 boat travel subsequently on river, lake and ocean 
 reached a degree of speed, comfort and splendor 
 the acme of which was passed twenty years ago. 
 Before the competition of the rail-roads the boats 
 on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and on the lakes 
 from Buffalo to Chicago, were fitted up with a de- 
 gree of comfort and splendor, which is not seen 
 now-a-days. The fixtures and furniture were far
 
 6O PIONEER LIFE 
 
 superior to anything seen in Europe ; and the speed 
 was nearly one-third greater than the best boats 
 on the Rhine. I have, since my first experience on 
 a steam-boat, crossed the Atlantic four times from 
 one Continent to the other without a stoppage of 
 the wheels from port to port. And on the Channel 
 on the Rhine on the lakes of Europe I could 
 not refrain from a feeling of suppressed enthusiasm 
 for my Fatherland and the Great West in particular 
 when I compared the best European boats with the 
 old Sultana, and her compeers, on the American 
 lakes and rivers. 
 
 During my apprenticeship I had some literary 
 advantages, which in the latter part of the period, 
 I endeavored to improve. There was a book store 
 in connection with the establishment to which I 
 had access. There was likewise a subscription read- 
 ing room of which the father of Mr. Eichbaum was 
 librarian ; to this I was admitted when none of the 
 members were present. About this time, likewise, 
 Mr. Kirkham, author of a school grammar, that sub- 
 sequently circulated largely in the West, got out 
 an edition of his book. He was very frequently in 
 the printing office, and was kind enough to loan me 
 several volumes, and commend them to my atten- 
 tion. One of them was Cobbett's Grammar, which 
 I read, and he expounded at leisure opportunities. 
 I have always been grateful to this traveling gram- 
 marian for his kindness. I remember some of his 
 topics of conversation to the present day, and about 
 all I knew of grammar, when I subsequently became
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 6 1 
 
 a school teacher, was what I learned from Cobbett's 
 grammar, in the printing office, by the aid of Mr. 
 Kirkham. 
 
 A debating society existed at this time in the 
 city, composed of young men, with one or two of 
 whom I became acquainted. By their introduction, 
 I became a member of the club. They were mostly 
 clerks or mechanics. Every one of them was a 
 man of some native ability, and subsequently each 
 one, with perhaps two or three exceptions, achieved 
 for himself an honorable place in society. One of 
 the members a mechanic was subsequently sher- 
 iff of the county. Another, Mr. George Darcey, 
 whose family, poor but industrious, had resided in 
 a small house belonging to my step-father, was sub- 
 sequently state senator from the city district ; and, 
 when I last met him treasurer of the Pittsburg 
 and Fort Wayne Rail Road. Another member, Jo- 
 seph Barker, became mayor of the city. One a 
 druggist's clerk, accumulated a large fortune in 
 South America ; another, a grocer's clerk, became 
 one of the wealthiest wholesale dealers in the city. 
 I, the youngest of them all, and the only one that 
 failed as a member, passed through a life more 
 varied and I think more useful than any of them. 
 
 I never succeeded in making a speech or arguing 
 a question before this society. The members were 
 mostly better informed than myself; and I was in 
 such positions anxious and diffident. Having at- 
 tempted to discuss the question of the evening two 
 or three times, being able to get no further in my
 
 62 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 remarks than " Mr. Chairman you know * * 
 that is" * * * I was ashamed and vexed with 
 myself; and determined to make a last effort. I 
 thought out and matured my remarks for the ap- 
 proaching discussion. I designed to achieve a tri- 
 umph that would make up for all past failures ; and 
 some of the members, who had read some things 
 that I had written, were sure I could do so. When 
 the evening came, I expended the only sixpence I 
 had for a cup of beer, supposing it would give cour- 
 age and aid to banish diffidence. The eventful 
 moment for my delivery approached. I remember 
 it distinctly, and almost feel it now. While the 
 member that preceded me was speaking I could 
 actually feel, if I did not hear my heart thumping 
 against my sides. I rose in order, and addressed 
 the chairman. I was able to utter mechanically 
 some two or three of the sentences I had prepared. 
 But, alas ! I again lost the chain of consecutive 
 thought ; and repeated like one talking to the stars 
 the old words with some additional expletives: 
 " Mr. Chairman ! * * * You know * * that 
 is * * consequently therefore but" . I sat 
 down ; and my efforts at public speaking closed for 
 some years. In after life, years after, I became a 
 public man, my heart beat energetically, when I first 
 rose in new circumstances to address an audience. 
 But diffidence, which accelerates pulsation, often 
 aids in impression, and since then I have seen au- 
 diences both in church and state more effectively 
 controlled by my words, and by others whose speech
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 63 
 
 was generated by a like impetus, than I ever saw 
 one controlled by a self-sufficient or phlegmatic 
 speaker. It is when the impulse is generated by 
 emotion originating in the conscience or the heart, 
 that the mind moves with sublime and controlling 
 power. 
 
 But time lapsed. My apprenticeship closed, and 
 rinding no employment in Pittsburg I concluded to 
 set out for Philadelphia as a traveling printer. A 
 little company of friends assembled on the night 
 preceding, at the residence of my mother, to bid 
 farewell. On the following morning, when I awoke, 
 my mother was in my bed room praying. I did not 
 then know that she prayed habitually ; but she told 
 me subsequently when the crisis in my life was 
 passed that she had made supplication for me daily 
 from the day of my birth ; which no doubt she con- 
 tinued to do, including her other children, until the 
 day of her death.
 
 64 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE TRAVELING PRINTER. 
 
 There were no rail roads in those days, and stage 
 coaches between the East and the West were slow 
 and expensive. Men journeyed over the Alleghany 
 mountains mostly on horse-back or on foot. West- 
 ern merchants often rode, and sometimes walked 
 the distance between Pittsburg and Philadelphia. 
 Their goods were, as before stated, conveyed to the 
 West in wagons, drawn over the mountains by five 
 or six horses, and thence by keel-boat down the 
 Ohio river, and again by wagons into the interior, 
 of the new States of Ohio and Kentucky. 
 
 On a morning in August, a robust young man, 
 who was a carpenter, and myself, started to accom- 
 plish the journey over the mountains on foot. Our 
 wardrobe, tied in a handkerchief, was carried in 
 hand, or on a stick upon our shoulders. We were 
 about ten days in accomplishing the distance of 
 three hundred miles. My companion was athletic, 
 and suffered little, comparatively, from fatigue. 
 Ever day I was weary with travel. We would oc-
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 65 
 
 casionally sit down in a shade to rest. At such 
 times, foot sore and weary, I would throw my- 
 self upon the ground, and almost immediately "na- 
 ture's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," would come to 
 my relief. But the next sensation was always an 
 unwelcome one, sometimes painfully so : it was 
 that of a call or shake from my companion, arous- 
 ing me to endure again the labors of the road. 
 
 On one such occasion, we followed a little path 
 that led off from the mountain road to a spring near 
 by. The spring was known to mountain travelers, 
 who generally stopped to rest and drink ; and often 
 to bathe their swollen feet in the cool brook, which 
 ran from the spring. Here we tarried a little longer 
 than our usual time. A draught of the limpid 
 water, distilled away down in the crystalline alem- 
 bics of the mountain, and a slumber on the bank 
 of the murmuring rivulet, protracted a little longer 
 than the usual time, refreshed and strengthened me. 
 When I arose we took another cool draught, and 
 set out again upon the mountain road. As we jour- 
 neyed on, I composed in my own mind, the last of 
 the following stanza. Subsequently, in writing for 
 a friend a poetical description of the journey and 
 the spring, I prefixed the preceding lines. They 
 would not have seemed egotistical to the friend for 
 whom they were designed ; and now that they are 
 copied when the eye is faded, the natural strength 
 abated, and the dark and curling hair has become 
 white as snow their introduction here will be for- 
 given :
 
 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 A traveler on the mountain, 
 
 In a warm mid -summer day, 
 Sat down beside a fountain 
 
 That gushed beside the way 
 'Twas a cool sequester'd fountain, 
 
 Where the birds and breezes play. 
 
 He was a youthful traveler, 
 
 And delicately fair ; 
 With eye as bright as diamond light ; 
 
 And dark and curling hair ; 
 His hat lay by him on the sward 
 
 Bosom and brow were bare. 
 
 'Twas a pleasant spot, and a pleasant thought, 
 
 That Memory treasures still, 
 Flow'd through his mind as he lay reclin'd 
 
 By that flowing mountain rill 
 The rest was sweet, and nature kind, 
 
 And numbers rlow'd at will. 
 
 The numbers rlow'd at will, dear friend, 
 
 And I write them here for you ; 
 The rest was such as Mercy gives ; 
 
 The spring was honey-dew ; 
 Or nectar drops, when angels seem 
 
 To bathe the lips in a fever'd dream. 
 
 The sweet repose ; the shaded spring ; 
 
 The carol of the birds, 
 The Muse gave form that Memory set 
 
 To music in these words : 
 
 Know ye delight when the spirit droops 
 
 With the sorrows fatigue can bring : 
 I do ! for I sat on the mountain side, 
 
 And drank of the mountain spring : 
 And laid me down on the cool green sward, 
 
 Where the brook ran murmuring by, 
 While the feather'd songsters overhead, 
 
 Carol 'd a lullaby 
 And the cool, pure breeze that linger'd nigh, 
 
 And whispered among the boughs, 
 Seemed kind as die light in a woman's eye 
 
 When kissed by her chosen spouse.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 67 
 
 Having arrived at the city of my birth, I first 
 expended a portion of my little fund of money in 
 a visit to Peal's Museum, of which I had read in 
 Dilworth's spelling book ; and where I expected to 
 gratify a longing desire of many years, to see the 
 wonders of art and natural history stored in that 
 old first American Museum. Having satisfied my- 
 self in this particular, I sought out and called upon 
 the friends of our family, to whom I had been kindly 
 commended by my mother. In these visits I had 
 the first experience of what is frequently the dehu- 
 manizing effect of wealth upon the natural heart. 
 Some of our relatives were in fashionable society, 
 but the larger number were in the better and hap- 
 pier association of the middle class generally in- 
 dustrious citizens. The ladies of the wealthy fam- 
 ily, with a single exception, after they had learned 
 that I was "only a journeyman printer," gave those 
 indications which are easily understood, that my 
 position was not such as would qualify me for intro- 
 duction to some of their company ; hence, I was 
 invited to call at certain specified times: times, of 
 course, when their fashionable friends would not be 
 present. I do not know, at the present writing, 
 that there was anything improper in this, consider- 
 ing the tyranny that the forms of fashionable society 
 exercised over all its victims ; but a "journeyman 
 printer," of course, felt himself to be as good as 
 anybody in the city, and had no disposition to call 
 upon the family at the times designated, or at any 
 other time. Wealth does not always eviscerate the
 
 68 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 soul. Culture and character and conscience often 
 co-exist with fortune ; but after some experience in 
 various classes of society, I am sure that characters 
 deserving contempt ; or rather compassion, are 
 found more frequently in fashionable circles, than 
 among the industrious middle class of the country. 
 Selfishness and vice prevail in their worst forms at 
 the two extremes of society. The mean is the 
 gold : One extreme is tinsel ; the other tin. 
 
 My more humble friends received me with kind 
 hearts, and manifested a sincere interest in the ex- 
 periences of their friends at the West. In their 
 minds the "Indian country" was still associated 
 with Indians and bears and barbarians of the bor- 
 der. To find a young man from Fort Pitt, civilized 
 and social, surprised them into a state of mind that 
 was quite gratifying to me. I found among some 
 of them real heart-friendship. Some were caring 
 for the orphan children of deceased friends ; and 
 in their circle of association I heard of some fami- 
 lies of little means that were assisting neighbors 
 poorer than themselves. There is more real charity 
 exercised by the better class of laboring people 
 and shop keepers towards their needy neighbors 
 than the world supposes. The kindness of the vir- 
 tuous poor to each other, is neither known nor ap- 
 preciated as it should be. There is little kindness 
 in fashionable circles for each other, except that 
 which is selfish or affected. 
 
 Some months of labor were spent in the printing 
 offices of the city. Most of the time in the office
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 69 
 
 of Jasper Harding, near the Girard bank. In this 
 office the workmen received, each Saturday night, 
 little more than sufficient money to pay their board- 
 ing bills ; and the sum earned beyond this was paid 
 by orders on clothing stores, and such like devices, 
 by which unscrupulous dealers could charge such 
 rates as their avarice dictated ; and the journeyman 
 printer had about the same chance for a respectable 
 living, as the needle woman has who makes shirts 
 for the shop keepers of the city. 
 
 Wearied and disaffected with such style of life 
 and labor, I sought other employments. Among 
 the efforts which proved unsuccessful, was an at- 
 tempt to enlist in the service of the South American 
 Republic, then contending with Spain for independ- 
 ence. This endeavor was suggested by my friend, 
 Collins, who had finished his indenture, and come 
 to Philadelphia, soon after my arrival. He had, like 
 myself, failed to get remunerative employment ; 
 and, as he had spent some years at the military 
 academy, he supposed we might both succeed with 
 the consul of the New Republic, in getting a pas- 
 sage to South America, and a lieutenant's commis- 
 sion in the army. The consul was a portly, pleasant 
 looking gentleman, and seemed somewhat inclined 
 to favor the application of Collins, as his military 
 education was deemed a fitting preparation for the 
 service. But as for me, neither precedents nor pa- 
 pers were in my favor. There was nothing about 
 me or my antecedents that indicated fitness for the 
 work of the warrior. With proper courtesy, there-
 
 70 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 fore, my aspirations to command a squad of peons 
 was dismissed, and that of Collins held under ad- 
 visement. But as my friend was a diffident young 
 man, he never returned to urge his application ; 
 and moreover, he did not desire to leave for parts 
 unknown, without a companion. 
 
 Collins had wealthy friends in the city, and soon 
 found employment as a teacher, which he followed 
 for some years. I soon after left the city for New 
 York. We never subsequently exchanged but one 
 letter ; and I have never seen Collins but once since 
 we then parted. We were resolved to struggle 
 manfully to gain what we supposed we had ability 
 to accomplish- an honest living. Correspondence 
 was expensive in those days, each letter costing 
 from twelve to twenty-five cents. Laboring men 
 could not afford to have many correspondents be- 
 sides their near relatives. We had agreed, however, 
 if fortune frowned or favored if either of us should 
 deem it expedient to commit suicide or matrimony, 
 that one should inform the other, as the facts 
 might be. 
 
 Some years afterwards the following letter was 
 addressed, verbatim, to Collins, still in Philadelphia. 
 After place and date there was inserted, 
 T. I'm married J. B. 
 
 To which a response was returned immediately 
 in the following words : 
 
 J. B.Fm not yet ; but soon shall be. T. 
 
 I know that brevity is said to be the soul of wit, 
 and the fashion with the generals since the time of
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 71 
 
 Caesar ; but if there have been any more laconic 
 epistles in connection with matrimonial matters 
 than the foregoing, I have not read them. 
 
 Once since the days of other years I have met 
 Collins. He is now an old man ; and has a clerk's 
 place in the Post Office in Pittsburg. Being re- 
 cently in that city, I took pains to learn his address. 
 I called at his dwelling and awaited his return from 
 labors much too laborious for him. I was anxious 
 to see, if after a separation from youth to age, he 
 would recognize me. He came into my presence, 
 an aged and a sad man. He stood before me and 
 surveyed me some minutes with interested scrutiny. 
 Occasionally saying, " I ought to know you, sir." " I 
 do know you" "But, who is this?" The effort at 
 recognition, however, was a failure, and I had to give 
 him the name of his old companion. Then followed 
 the exclamation "is it possible!" and a strong 
 clasp of hands. Poor Collins diffident intelligent 
 educated kind of heart he is nearing the close 
 of life with a dependent family, and yet dependent 
 for a living on the salary of a clerk. Once he pos- 
 sessed some means by inheritance, but having 
 invested it in the suburbs of Pittsburg, the title 
 proved to be imperfect, and by the wiles of dishon- 
 est men, he lost his little all. His eldest daughter 
 was a young lady of amiable qualities and the light 
 of his house. She had recently died, and her father 
 carried to his daily toil, the heart of a stricken 
 mourner. He said he had given one hundred dol- 
 lars for the lot in the graveyard where his dear
 
 72 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 daughter lies buried, and it required one year of 
 close economy in his family to save the money 
 which procured the deed. That little lot in the cem- 
 etery, where, when his labors are done, he hopes to 
 rest by the side of his daughter, is the only inher- 
 itance he has on earth. Poor Collins. 
 
 During the time I was in Philadelphia, my friends, 
 of course, were somewhat solicitous that I should 
 find immediate employment which they knew was 
 difficult to obtain at that time. My good mother, 
 especially, was anxious for my welfare ; and strange 
 as it may seem to others, and as it seems to me, I 
 am, in writing these lines, more sensible of her 
 anxiety for me at that period, and more affected by 
 the remembrance of her labors to procure friends 
 for me ; and by her motherly gifts and advice, than 
 I was at that time. I think the longer a man lives 
 in the world he becomes more impressed and grate- 
 ful by the recollection of a good mother's interest 
 for him in the days of his youth. 
 
 My dear mother had a sore trial in connection 
 with her solicitude for her absent son. It so hap- 
 pened that a person of my name (a druggist, I 
 think) committed suicide during my sojourn in 
 the city. By some means the report reached my 
 mother, with the additional conjecture that it might 
 be her son. Her distress for a season was painful 
 for her friends to witness. She conjectured causes 
 for the event. What disappointments or sufferings 
 could have caused an act so unlike anything she 
 could have anticipated. Although it was a mere
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 73 
 
 rumor, she could not be comforted, until the history 
 of the case was obtained. When I heard of this 
 incident, and many times since, when friends have 
 described her state of mind at that time, my heart 
 has been deeply affected by the thought of what 
 my dear mother must have suffered in consequence 
 of her maternal attachment to her son. 
 
 A little incident which memory preserves affected 
 me, and affected a companion much more than my- 
 self. Walking one evening in the autumn in the 
 pleasant streets of the city, my companion was a 
 young man from Pittsburg, who had come to the 
 city before me. We boarded in the same house 
 had known the same families in our youth, and of 
 course, we sympathized with each other, and talked 
 over reminiscences of the past. On that evening 
 Alexander K. seemed pensive, and thoughtful. To 
 walk and talk of our old homes, and old friends 
 lady friends especially seemed more than usual a 
 special interest with him. (Allow me to assume 
 Dermoody as my nom de plume, and I can give the 
 reader the spirit of our talk for a few minutes.) A 
 conversation I shall never forget. 
 
 "Dermoody," said he, pressing my arm closer, 
 "you know Sally Brown." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Well, this night she and I were to be married." 
 
 " Is it possible ?" 
 
 " Yes, this night this night Sally Brown was to 
 become my wife." 
 
 "Why did you not mention this before?"
 
 74 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 "We were to keep our secret till the event was 
 past but it's all over now." 
 
 "Has she been untrue?" 
 
 "No; nor I but the thing is impossible. She 
 sees it. I see and feel it. Dermoody, it would be 
 madness to marry Sally Brown with no prospect of 
 a comfortable living. I can't do it." 
 
 " It is postponed, then." 
 
 ." No ; the engagement is given up. She thought 
 it best. But, Dermoody, it is hard for me. I could 
 work day and night for that girl. But it's all over 
 now ! I think she is crying to-night. Oh, if I only 
 could see her. But I have no money to go home ; 
 and it would do no good, if I had. I have no heart 
 either to write or to work." (His voice grew trem- 
 ulous and he said,) "Dermoody, whoever gets Sally, 
 I know she II remember me!" 
 
 With other words of home and friends, we walked 
 on, and ever after, during the little time I was with 
 him, I spoke to him less mirthfully but with more 
 kindly interest than before. 
 
 My friend K. was married long ago, and Sally, 
 too better, I think, than though they had married 
 together. Does she remember him ? Surely ; and 
 he remembers her ; but both, probably, with the 
 conviction that their early purpose was better un- 
 fulfilled. 
 
 Before I left the city I spent a day or two in 
 visiting places of public interest. There was an 
 exhibition at the Asylum for deaf mutes, and hav- 
 ing procured a ticket, I attended the exercises. I
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 75 
 
 remember that the gentleman who handed me the 
 ticket, inquired why I wished to be present ; and 
 that I had some difficulty in assigning a reason. 
 Feeling alone in the world, the incident commemo- 
 rated in the following verses impressed me, as it 
 might not have done at another time. A class of 
 mutes was reciting. The features of the young girl 
 to which the lines refer, bore the impress of a pure, 
 affectionate and thoughtful mind : 
 
 " Her deep expressive eye had caught 
 
 Its lustre from the Spirit's gem, 
 And on her brow the light of thought 
 Flashed like a Spirit's diadem." 
 
 She noticed my look of interest, and it then 
 seemed to me not only recognized, but felt it. Her 
 eye dropped from mine, where she, no doubt, read 
 sympathy for her situation, and a slight color suf- 
 fused her cheek. Years afterwards, in hours of re- 
 laxation from professional study, I recalled the 
 event, and gave the impression permanency in the 
 following lines : 
 
 THE MUTE GIRL. 
 
 She was a fair young girl; and all I've seen 
 
 Of woman has not left within my mind 
 
 So pure a picture. Her beauty was not such 
 
 As I have seen in portraits: It seem'd to live 
 
 Upon her face: And when her mind had caught 
 
 Her teacher's thought, her soul would seem to come 
 
 In beams of intellect to her dark eyes 
 
 And light her features with a sentient glow 
 
 Of meaning I could read * * * 
 
 I felt my heart 
 
 Was sympathizing with that silent girl: 
 She felt so too. For when she had perceiv'd
 
 76 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 My earnest look, her glance grew fix'd a moment 
 Soft'ning down into a tender inquiry 
 Which asked, if I had lov'd or pitied her 
 And then she turned her eyes away and blush'd! 
 
 O, Nature, it was lovely thus to place 
 A sacred spring within the virgin breast, 
 Which in the bosom of that voiceless girl 
 Who knew no causes why her cheek grew warm, 
 Would thus vibrate and tremble to be touch'd, 
 By the slight impulse of an ardent glance. 
 
 Unknown to that dumb girl, was art's device 
 And the dissimulation of the world, 
 Her heart was a hid fountain, and its springs 
 Of pure and fresh affection were concealed 
 From the intrusion of the common herd 
 The flatt'rer's breath the impiety of men- 
 The words of malice, pride and guilt, which soil 
 And harden other hearts, came not to hers. 
 
 I then was very young, and thoughts like these 
 
 Came to my mind: that if I could unseal 
 
 That maiden's ear, and pour into her mind 
 
 A living language; softened by the deep 
 
 And touching pathos of a kind regard 
 
 From her heart -treasure I would thus bring forth 
 
 The Pure affections of her virgin soul, 
 
 Like rich and fragrant unction upon mine 
 
 Ambition then I'd leave to selfish men 
 
 ( Who toil and struggle anxiously to gain 
 
 An increase of anxiety ) and live 
 
 In wedlock with that maiden. And I'd store 
 
 Her mind with a rich furniture, and by 
 
 The tenderest loving kindnesses and care 
 
 Unite her heart of heart unto my own. 
 
 I'm older now, and fancy more subdued; 
 Yet to my thoughts to-day there came the form 
 Of that fair voiceless girl; and I have prayed 
 She may have happiness that angels know 
 That in the silent dwelling of her soul 
 Sweet peace and joy may dwell continually.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CLERK AND THE SCHOOLMASTER. 
 
 Having arrived in the city of New York, with 
 but a small fund of money, and finding no immedi- 
 ate employment, I called upon Mordecai Manuel 
 Noah, then editing a daily paper in that city. I 
 found he had the reputation among the laboring 
 printers and others in the city, of being a "good- 
 hearted and liberal man." When I inquired for em- 
 ployment, he replied courteously, and not with the 
 repulsive and misanthropic "no" that greeted me 
 when I made the same inquiry at some other offices. 
 Some words of his led me to state my antecedents, 
 present needs, and my willingness to do any- 
 thing honorable by which I might get a start in the 
 struggle of life. He employed me as an under- 
 clerk in his office ; not so much, as he said, because 
 there was need of another hand ; but as a personal 
 favor in view of my needs until a better place could 
 be obtained. Here I remained a few weeks, copy- 
 ing letters, mailing papers, and doing other miscel- 
 laneous writing, until by some legal process, the 
 paper passed out of his hands. He subsequently
 
 78 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 established the Ark, and managed it for a time; but 
 my employment closed with the close of the old 
 office. My patron, however, (for such he seemed 
 to be) at my suggestion, gave me a letter of recom- 
 mendation to Mr. Booth, just then a star actor, 
 managing one of the city theatres. He asked the 
 manager to give me a chance to exhibit my thes- 
 pian qualities. Upon presenting my letter, I learned 
 that supernumeraries were abundant, and applica- 
 tions numerous, and no opportunity for my entree 
 upon the boards seemed probable. 
 
 The Booth, to whom I was introduced, was the 
 father of the notorious murderer recently executed. 
 While in Mr. Noah's office I had some opportunity 
 to learn the habits, and character of professional 
 players. They met and talked in the office, and 
 more freely in the absence of Mr. Noah. I am per- 
 fectly sure that if my application had been success- 
 ful, meritorious aims and a virtuous life would have 
 been abandoned. "Evil communications corrupt 
 good manners," and allowing for extraordinary ex- 
 ceptions; such as Mrs. Siddons and Mrs. Richie, 
 there is no virtue on the stage. The evil of theat- 
 rical exhibitions might, perhaps, be abated ; but so 
 long as the habitues of the stage are what they are, 
 no reform will ever take place. The evil is not all 
 with the actors and their female associates. So 
 long as respectable men and women in the presence 
 of their families, give enthusiastic demonstrations 
 in behalf of profligate men, and such women as 
 Rachel known to be the mother of illegitimate
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 79 
 
 children, and the mistress successively of men of 
 the town when virtue thus smiles on vice, it indi- 
 cates a taint at the heart, and parents so doing in- 
 vite the infection into their families. Such parents 
 and children may be virtuous ; but their virtue 
 stands in caution, not in conscience. 
 
 My washerwoman during my stay in the city, re- 
 sided in an alley back of the city hall the same, I 
 think, which now passes the side of Stewart's dry 
 goods palace. We usually called for our clothes in 
 those days generally on Saturday night or Sunday 
 morning. During my visits to this family I saw 
 the needs of the poor in an aspect which had not 
 presented itself at the West. The inmates were 
 Germans, and used various expedients to live ; 
 among others, that of buying wood by the half 
 cord, and splitting it into small parcels, which they 
 sold to the most impoverished people in the neigh- 
 borhood. One Sabbath morning I saw little rag- 
 ged, hungry looking children call with a sixpence 
 and receive a few little pieces of wood not suffi- 
 cient to kindle a fire in the stove of a thrifty family 
 in the country. It was but a few steps to Broad- 
 way from this scene of poverty and need. Three 
 minutes' walk changed the scene. Men and women 
 in rich attire (few rode in carriages in those days) 
 were passing on the streets. Some of them leading 
 children clothed in warm raiment. They were 
 probably going to the churches, which were, at 
 that time, mostly in the lower part of the town. 
 Being so near the confines of need myself, prob-
 
 8O PIONEER LIFE 
 
 ably the contrast affected me more than it would 
 do now. The worship of Christians clad expen- 
 sively, and even deformed in person by the extrav- 
 agances of fashion in immediate proximity to the 
 ignorant and destitute poor, produced reflections not 
 favorable to city life, nor to city style of piety. 
 Experience in late years has induced views that 
 are somewhat more charitable. Still, at the pres- 
 ent moment, I am sure that those who pray, " Be 
 ye warmed arid filled, and do not the things that 
 are needful to the body," are hypocrites. Not that 
 all the poor are worthy many of them are evil and 
 vicious. Not that every mendicant should receive 
 alms without inquiry : but it is the business of 
 Christians, when both classes cannot be supplied, 
 to have the Gospel preached to others rather than 
 to themselves ; and to pray for a blessing upon 
 their efforts and their alms not for a blessing with- 
 out efforts and alms. 
 
 My means being about exhausted, I crossed the 
 ferry at Hoboken on Sunday morning, with the 
 purpose of walking to Albany, and of embracing 
 any chance that might offer by the way, to engage 
 in any employment that would supply present ne- 
 cessities, and give an opportunity to commence life 
 in some new direction. Before I left the city I had 
 sold a camlet cloak, much worn in those days, in 
 order to pay my washing bill and supply some arti- 
 cles that I needed. The day was chilly snowflakes 
 were falling, and without my cloak I felt uncom- 
 fortably cold. I have always been hopeful in all
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 8 1 
 
 circumstances. Not more than twice in my life do 
 I remember a moment of despondency ; but on 
 that Sabbath alone, on foot [going, I scarcely 
 knew whither with little money, and too thinly 
 clad I felt, for once, near the end of my resources, 
 and that I was shut up to a higher power. 
 
 There were at that time large Lombardy pop- 
 lars standing by the roadside, near Hoboken, on 
 the way to Hackensack. I stopped and stood for 
 a few minutes under one of those old trees, and 
 offered up heart-felt prayer. If I had been asked 
 that day whether I believed the Bible, I should 
 have replied that I was in doubt, and could not be- 
 lieve. Yet under that tree, I prayed as sincerely as 
 I have ever prayed. I did not ask my soul whether 
 there was a God, or whether there was reason in 
 prayer. I did not inquire whether I believed or 
 not. I prayed to God for aid and guidance ; and 
 whether the opinion is orthodox or not, to this day 
 I believe God heard and answered my prayer. 
 
 In a few minutes I walked on, and had not pro- 
 ceeded far before I was overtaken by a farmer trav- 
 eling in the same direction. We talked by the way 
 familiarly, and I stated my desire for some employ- 
 ment; proposing to teach a school, or to do any other 
 service to recruit my spent resources. He informed 
 me that a schoolmaster was wanted in his district, 
 about three miles further upon the road, at the lit- 
 tle village of New Durham. The principal man in 
 the management of school affairs lived there, and 
 he proposed to introduce me when we should arrive
 
 82 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 at his house. It happened that the family were ab- 
 sent at church. The snow was still falling, and I 
 was rather pleased than otherwise that the family 
 were away. It was so comfortable to sit by the 
 cheery fire, and to look out upon the falling snow ; 
 and to smell the savory dinner, boiling in the pot, 
 (no cooking stoves in those days), that I really 
 feared they would return soon, and reject my appli- 
 cation at once, so that I should have again to take 
 the cheerless road. I remember no hour in my 
 life when I felt a deeper sense of comfort than I did 
 that Sabbath day, sitting within, before the open 
 fire, and looking out through the window upon 
 the falling snow. 
 
 The farmer, Mitchell Saunier, soon returned. He 
 had, if I remember rightly, learned from the neigh- 
 bor who left me at his house, that a candidate for 
 schoolmaster was awaiting his return. I was in- 
 vited to dinner, and complied earnestly with the 
 scripture injunction to " eat what was set before 
 me without asking any questions." Mr. Saunier 
 was not a religious man, nor was there, I believe, a 
 male member of any church in the neighborhood. 
 The fire, and the dinner, and the hope of employ- 
 ment, aided me to present myself favorably to my 
 patron ; and by the time we were done eating, it 
 was understood that I should exhibit my hand writ- 
 ing at once, and as the weather was getting better 
 we could employ the afternoon in visiting families 
 in the neighborhood, to ascertain the number of 
 scholars they would send. I had commenced to
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 83 
 
 write in the Sabbath school practised under Mas- 
 ter McClurgan ; and had become a good penman in 
 the shop at the Devil's Half Acre. Writing was 
 the only scholarly accomplishment of which Mr. 
 Saunier could judge. His eye aided him as to my 
 competency in that acquirement ; and when I sat 
 down and wrote some lines of good copy hand, ac- 
 companied with divers flourishes, the matter was 
 settled as to my qualifications, and we started at 
 once to canvass for scholars. The effort was a suc- 
 cess ; and the succeeding Wednesday I began my 
 school as teacher of the New Durham Academy. 
 There was a fine school building, and the name of 
 Academy had been given to it under my predeces- 
 sor, Mr. Randall, who had taught the school for 
 some years. He was a man of fair ability, and had 
 recently deceased. 
 
 I was greatly pleased with the change in my tem- 
 poral prospects ; but with the success came a meas- 
 ure of solicitude. I feared I should have a larger 
 job on my hands than I wished to bargain for. It 
 so happened, however, that the pupils who attend- 
 ed the first term were not advanced scholars in any 
 department of study. There was an exception or 
 two, but I deemed it an excellent method to review 
 first principles, and to become rooted and grounded 
 in these before proceeding to more difficult studies. 
 
 By doing my best, both as a student and an 
 instructor, I achieved in a short time the reputa- 
 tion of skill and learning as a teacher ; and I was 
 not forward to give all the information I possessed
 
 84 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 on the subject of my own scholastic advantages. 
 Indeed, being rather social in regard to subjects 
 generally, and rather taciturn in regard to this, it 
 was supposed by some, that, being now "only a 
 schoolmaster," I was ashamed to mention my pre- 
 vious advantages in contrast with my present 
 position. 
 
 A circumstance happened about this time which 
 greatly increased my reputation, and consequently 
 came near destroying it. It was stated in the 
 Almanac that two stars of the first magnitude were 
 approaching each other in the western horizon, and 
 that on a certain night there would be a conjunction 
 of their rays. I knew little about the stars, but I 
 knew the evening star, and had learned, by obser- 
 vations through a month, what other star was ap- 
 proaching it in a direct line. The people did not 
 pay much attention to astronomical tables in the 
 Almanacs ; and when I pointed out the stars to Mr. 
 Saunier's family, and announced the night when 
 they would unite their rays, I had not the most re- 
 mote intention of setting myself up for a wiseacre, 
 any farther than I had by observation learned the 
 two particular stars that would, on a certain future 
 night, form a conjunction. The event, I presume, 
 was talked about in the school ; and when it oc- 
 curred as predicted, my reputation for a knowledge 
 of astronomy beyond the comprehension of com- 
 mon people, was established at once. A young 
 gentleman of the old aristocratic family in the vil- 
 lage (Mr. Doremus) called upon me immediately,
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 85 
 
 and two families from the city of New York, who 
 had their summer residence in the neighborhood, 
 on this or on some other account, sent their children 
 to school. They had been instructed in some of 
 the best schools in the city, and were proficient in 
 some of the advanced studies. It required more 
 than all my knowledge and tact to "master the 
 situation." I had previously purchased keys to 
 the arithmetics used, and a key and Exercises for 
 Murray's English Grammar ; and there was nothing 
 in the class books that I did not understand. But 
 I knew nothing of the prevalent methods of instruc- 
 tion ; and had never in my life parsed a sentence 
 according to the forms of the schools. My methods 
 of teaching, therefore, were often original, and quite 
 surprised my new pupils. After a short experience 
 they thought fit to withdraw ; their parents either 
 doubting my capabilities, or supposing, perhaps, 
 that it was not best to mix up in the minds of 
 their children, systems of instruction so different in 
 character. 
 
 Subsequently, in connection with my day labors, 
 I taught a night school in the winter. A number 
 of young men attended, some of them wishing to 
 study various branches not often heard of in com- 
 mon schools. I instructed them, however, in my 
 way, in all branches, common and uncommon, that 
 they wished to study ; and the knowledge which 
 I then gained, in connection with what I had pre- 
 viously obtained in the printing office, has been 
 of more practical advantage to me in the duties
 
 86 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 of life, than four years of subsequent collegiate study. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the years spent in college 
 study of the dead languages is of little benefit to 
 the pupil. Translations are so bungling in style, 
 and so blind in idea, that the student often learns 
 to be satisfied with an obscure perception, and an 
 imperfect expression of thought. Distinct and 
 discriminating statement is hindered rather than 
 furthered, unless the study be pursued much beyond 
 the college curriculum. So far as mental discipline 
 is regarded, much of the talk of professors on this 
 subject is mere selfish verbiage. Mental discipline 
 is that which gives self-possession, clear apprehen- 
 sion and logical acumen. The study of the dead lan- 
 guages gives neither. If one-half of the time spent 
 in tire study of language in our colleges, were added 
 to studies in the English language, law, natural sci- 
 ence and natural history, the change would be a 
 large advantage to students. 
 
 The older residents of Bergen county, N. J., are 
 mostly the descendants of the Dutch families that 
 first settled on the North River. They had at that 
 time still some peculiar usages, especially upon the 
 holidays. At such times it was customary for the 
 young people, together with such married persons 
 as were so inclined, to assemble without invitation 
 at the public houses in the villages and engage in 
 dancing during the afternoon and evening. At 
 such times ardent spirits and less harmful bever- 
 ages, were freely circulated. The best families were 
 not often represented on these holiday occasions,
 
 IX THE NEW WEST. 87 
 
 but respectable young people of the country around 
 were present, often in large numbers. 
 
 I was sometimes present and engaged with others 
 in the free and easy usages of the descendants of 
 the Dutch. Two such occasions I shall not forget, 
 and "the truth of history" requires that I should 
 note them here. I shall tell the truth as due to 
 conscience: of course, "nothing extenuate or set 
 down against myself in malice." 
 
 In those days, when everybody drank brandy, 
 most persons of those called temperate, felt, at 
 times, the exhilarating influence of intoxicating 
 liquors. I think I never was so affected by liquor 
 that strangers would notice its effect upon my "walk 
 and conversation." But I have been exhilarated 
 by it, and prompted to conversation and conduct, 
 that in my more thoughtful moments I would have 
 eschewed. I learned by experience that the mod- 
 erate drinker is not a safe man to trust with the 
 management of affairs that require close thinking. 
 No man after he has taken a glass of spirits will 
 mature his thought so perfectly, nor look to results 
 of his actions so carefully, as he would have done 
 without it. No one knows how many of the fail- 
 ures in business and of the unexpected defects in 
 moral conduct are to be attributed to this cause. 
 
 I have not been many nights out of bed after ten 
 o'clock during a whole lifetime. My grandfather 
 taught me to have faith in Franklin's maxim : 
 
 " Early to bed and early to rise 
 Makes a man healthy and wealthy and wise."
 
 88 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 I have lived in the light during a lifetime ; and 
 observation has taught me that there is something 
 wrong in the heart as well as the habits of those 
 who may be called night birds: 
 
 Keep regular hours, the wise and good 
 
 I^ive mostly in the light; 
 While vice, and crime, and fashion hohl 
 
 Their orgies in the night. 
 
 I have retired from lectures before they were 
 closed, and from social gatherings before supper, 
 rather than violate the order of nature, or encour- 
 age others to do so. On two occasions, however, 
 my attendance upon the gatherings mentioned 
 above was prolonged till near the middle of the 
 night, when my desire to go home became so con- 
 trolling that I set out alone about midnight on 
 my return to my lodgings. 
 
 On one such occasion I traveled from Bergen to 
 Hoboken, and . thence over Wehauken Hill a dis- 
 tance, I suppose, of about eight miles. I desired 
 to reach the residence of Mrs. Ross, a patroness 
 of my school, with whom I was boarding at the 
 time. I had either to go by the road, which would 
 prolong the distance three miles, or to go over the 
 hill without road or guide, which few would have- 
 attempted in daylight. I had less caution than I 
 would have had if I had drank nothing but cold 
 water, hence, I attempted to reach my bed by the 
 shortest route. The hill is precipitous, and it 
 was then covered with trees and undergrowth. 
 How long I struggled over precipices and through 
 underbrush I do not know. I did not lose the road,
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 89 
 
 because there was none. I did not lose myself, for 
 I was never more self-conscious in my life ; but I 
 lost my latitude and longitude, and at daylight, 
 having emerged into a farming region, I found 
 myself about two miles from the residence of Mrs. 
 Ross, in a more thoughtful mood than when I 
 started from Bergen. I had but little time to rest 
 and think before breakfast. The son of my hostess, 
 who was one of my scholars, had not yet returned, 
 and the narration of my night walk, and the at- 
 tempt to abridge my journey by scaling the preci- 
 pices of Wehauken mountain, was, to them, a 
 matter of marvel. I did not think it wise to make 
 it a subject of much talk afterwards. 
 
 On another occasion, I wished to leave a rendez- 
 vous called the turnpike gate, about midnight, and 
 return home, a distance of some three miles. I had 
 gone there in a light market wagon with a young 
 man who lived near my boarding place. No one was 
 prepared to leave at that hour ; and I was unwise 
 enough to perpetrate what I designed as a joke 
 to take the horse and wagon of my friend, and 
 start for home alone. I did not get off, however, 
 without the movement being noticed. The owner 
 of the vehicle, and one or two others, hallooed and 
 pursued ; but I put the horse on his metal, and 
 followed by shouts and baying dogs I reached, in 
 advance of my train of followers, the residence of 
 the owner of the horse ; and, having made the 
 excited animal fast f*o the hitching post, I put my- 
 self in a secure place for the balance of the night.
 
 90 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 I fear that the freak occasioned language that was 
 neither complimentary nor classical. I was not 
 anxious to meet my friend for a day or two ; and 
 when I did see him, ! had the gratification to learn 
 that the salutation was quite different from what it 
 would have been if we had met before I reached 
 the hitching post on the evening aforesaid. 
 
 During my service as a teacher, I had periods of 
 mental struggle on the subject of faith in revela- 
 tion. There was a Dutch Reformed minister, who 
 preached a sermon once in two weeks in the school 
 building. I had met him, and had stated my doubts 
 concerning divine revelation. He urged some 
 views in behalf of inspiration, which, to me, seemed 
 feeble. This, with his positiveness in regard to 
 things for which I thought he ought to show a 
 reason, strengthened my doubts. He lent me, 
 however, a volume of the history of Jerusalem, 
 which contained Gibbon's account of the Emperor 
 Julian's attempt to rebuild that city, and the rea- 
 son assigned for his failure. I was not satisfied 
 with the exposition of the historian. It seemed 
 to me that the determination of the Emperor, the 
 enthusiasm of the Jews, and the means and men 
 engaged, could not be defeated by gaseous explo- 
 sions as supposed. Other considerations led me 
 reject^ as of no value, some of the arguments urged 
 against revelation. Still I could not believe. But 
 my desire to know " What is tnttJi ?" was some- 
 times intense. 
 
 I remember, when alone, taking the large Bible
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 9! 
 
 used by the minister, which lay on a desk in the 
 corner of the school-room, and removing it to the 
 centre of the school-room and then retiring a few 
 paces, and praying to God that if the Bible con- 
 tained a revelation from Him, He would give me 
 evidence of the fact by some voice or sign that I 
 could understand. There was, of course, no mani- 
 festation. Perhaps I ought to have known that it 
 was folly to expect visible interposition. Yet the 
 Bible spoke of such being given in the old time, 
 and I had interest enough to make the effort. I 
 affirmed my sincerity and called upon God. Was" 
 that prayer answered ? I only know I felt easier in 
 my darkness after I had done what I could to get 
 light. 
 
 After about a year and a half of service as school- 
 teacher by economy boarding around, and man- 
 agement in other ways, I found my purse and 
 wardrobe in much better condition than when I 
 arrived. I tarried a short time longer to collect 
 arrearages on bills; and meanwhile, to pay ex- 
 penses, I repainted the dwelling of Mr. Saunier, 
 lettered the kegs of the tavern with such labels as 
 Whisky, Brandy, Gin, Wine, etc. I kept bar on 
 muster day, and became an expert in compounding 
 "gin-slings," "toddy," "egg-nog," and the like bev- 
 erages for the victims of alcohol. I aided the town 
 assessor to make out his books ; and after a very 
 miscellaneous service of some weeks, I bade fare- 
 well to many friends, and accompanied by one of 
 them to the city of New York, I set out again for
 
 92 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 the wide West, with some more knowledge of the 
 world, and better prepared to turn circumstances 
 to good account in the battle of life. 
 
 With a gentleman who taught school at Hoboken, 
 Col. Taylor, I had frequent interviews during my 
 stay at New Durham. He was an educated man 
 of ability and literary attainment. In his associa- 
 tion I was often profited and interested. He had 
 been an officer in the regular army, but for some 
 reason had resigned, and was now gaining a scanty 
 living by teaching a grammar school. He would 
 sometimes become intoxicated, and was a man of 
 fearful passions when excited. W'hile in the army 
 he had married a Southern lady of delicacy and 
 culture, whose heart he had broken by his bad 
 habits and passions. He suffered intense self-re- 
 proach, but too late to save the lost, or to reform 
 confirmed habits. Before I left for the West he sent 
 me the following lines, which I find to-day among 
 my old papers. His life was a failure, but his re- 
 gard for me was generous, and I felt it. He had 
 better anticipations of my future than I had myself. 
 After some introductory lines Col. Taylor wrote : 
 
 The day we part shall in my memory dwell; 
 
 But I salute thee with a last farewell! 
 
 O, shun the siren Pleasures every lure, 
 
 As heat be ardent, and as light he pure, 
 
 To some great object give thy brilliant powers, 
 
 I.iet humbler minds riot in festive bowers. 
 
 The bar at which true g-enius loves to flame 
 
 To perseverance offers wealth and fame. 
 
 If still more arduous labors thou would'st find 
 
 Go, well prepar'd, instruct the public mind 
 
 The patriot, too but let me not presume 
 
 For thee the olive-palm and laurel bloom:
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 93 
 
 Adieu, Dermoody when in distant climes, 
 Forget not Oscar and these off-hand rhymes. 
 
 Tarrying recently for a week in the city of 
 New York, when more than three score years 
 of age, I had the curiosity to cross the ferry at 
 Hoboken, and visit the scene of my former experi- 
 ences. The former village of Hoboken had become 
 a city. The old road around Wehauken Hill for 
 three miles is traversed by street cars. I looked 
 for the old Lombardy poplars ; they were all gone 
 except a few straggling ones, which looked old and 
 decrepit. The precipices of Wehauken arose above 
 the cars, and looked as though no ordinary labor 
 could surmount them. Mrs. Ross was long ago 
 called from earthly labor. Her farm had been sold 
 by speculators for town lots. Her children were 
 dead or dispersed. I met her grandson, who was 
 familiar with my name, as he had often heard his 
 uncles and aunts speak of their former teacher. 
 He looked at the aged man before him with awak- 
 ened interest. The academy building, and the old 
 residence of Mr. Saunier, were gone. Nothing was 
 as I had known it but the old stone house of Mr. 
 Doremus, which was occupied by another family. 
 I could find but one of my old pupils. She was 
 one of the most ungainly, but is now probably the 
 most respectable and influential of them all. After 
 dinner, and an hour's talk of the days of other 
 years, I left a package of useful tracts upon her 
 centre table, and returned again to the cars. 
 Sic transit gloria mnndi.
 
 94 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EDITOR POLITICIAN STUDENT AT LAW. 
 
 Having reached home and visited friends in the 
 city, I hastened to the residence of my mother, on 
 a farm seven miles from town, on the Alleghany 
 hills. My step-father, for some years of his life, 
 had labored in a white lead factory, and was subject 
 to a disease of the stomach, produced by inhaling 
 the poisonous vapors of the metal. His disease had 
 sometimes produced spasms, from which he recov- 
 ered with difficulty. He had recently kept a, drug 
 store in the city, but declining health induced him 
 to retire to his farm in the country, where he was 
 confined mostly to his house as an invalid. 
 
 My mother seemed pleased with the person and 
 presence of her returned son, as did also my step- 
 father, and they readily assented to have a gather- 
 ing of a few of the young people from the farms in 
 the neighborhood, to renew old friendships, and 
 spend a social evening. With the young people in 
 the neighborhood I had been familiar, and with 
 some of them it is proper to say a favorite. I 
 had, during the years of my apprenticeship, often
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 95 
 
 walked seven miles, after the labors of the day, to 
 spend an evening at what was called a country 
 frolic ; where the rustic plays and dances of the 
 "merry, gentle country folk" were enjoyed by 
 those present in a sense that those constrained by 
 the forms and fashions of life never experience. 
 
 My parents did not encourage the ruder pastimes 
 that sometimes characterized the neighborhood. 
 But few were assembled this evening, and I was 
 to call at farmer Phillips' to accompany his daugh- 
 ter Eliza to the little company. The young woman 
 had that morning scalded her foot severely, and 
 could not go. She was anxious to accompany me, 
 as she had often done years before ; and she would 
 now have endeavored to ride over to our house, 
 but her good mother interposed, reminding her 
 that she had had various ominous warnings, which 
 indicated that Providence did not favor her going. 
 I returned alone, leaving her a few yards from 
 her dwelling with a sad and longing look. The 
 young people were mostly assembled when I reached 
 home ; and kindly greetings were cordially and 
 familiarly exchanged. I had improved in social 
 qualities by absence. The friction of society will 
 polish individual habits. 
 
 But the evening that began in gladness, closed 
 in tears. My step-father, who, perhaps, had par- 
 taken more freely than usual of the refreshments 
 which my good mother had prepared for the com- 
 pany, was seized with one of the spasms produced 
 by the poison of lead. In a few hours his soul,
 
 0/> PIONEER LIFE 
 
 released from its earthly tenement, entered upon 
 the untried experiences of the world to come. 
 Some remained to weep around the dying bed of 
 their friend and neighbor. My mother kneeled in 
 the presence of us all, and uttered a sobbing, heart- 
 felt prayer. The scene was one that cannot be 
 forgotten. I had never heard my mother pray 
 until that night. Women, except in the Methodist 
 churches, prayed only in secret in those days. But 
 her joy of heart had suddenly been succeeded by a 
 great grief and she prayed aloud. 
 
 After a season of mourning, and some labor in 
 arranging with the children of the deceased (two 
 of whom were children of my mother by her 
 late husband) a plan for the future of the family, 
 I again left the city. 
 
 My uncle, during the time that he was shop-keeper 
 in Hookstown, had purchased a contract for a tract 
 of land in the State of Ohio. He had not been able 
 to obtain a perfect title, and I set out to visit the 
 parties and procure a deed of the land. On the way 
 I was detained by an attack of ague and fever, and 
 after a protracted season of illness, I reached Raven- 
 na, a new county town on the Western Reserve, in 
 the State of Ohio. Here, after I had succeeded in 
 the business for which I was sent, I engaged in a 
 new printing office, having, by the assistance of 
 friends, bought half the interest of the " Western 
 Courier" 
 
 General politics had scarcely any influence in those 
 days upon the local elections of the new counties.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 97 
 
 The northern counties of Ohio were settled almost 
 exclusively by New England people. The little 
 paper advocated the interests of John Q. Adams 
 for the Presidency ; and as I was from Pennsylvania, 
 and professedly a Democrat, it was arranged that I 
 should take charge of the literary department of 
 the Courier, while a young attorney C. B. Thomp- 
 son managed its politics. Our paper was the 
 only one in the region. It was the organ of the 
 village politicians who managed the political ma- 
 chinery of the county. There were some Jackson 
 men, mostly from Pennsylvania, in the district. 
 We desired to issue an address in favor of Andrew 
 Jackson, and I was chosen to write it. It was the 
 only address printed in Northern Ohio advocating 
 the election of Old Hickory. It was a curiosity 
 in its way. The names of parties seem to have 
 changed sides since then. The coalition with the 
 South demoralized the Democratic party. There 
 should be a Democratic party, opposed to monop- 
 olies to class legislation, and class education a 
 party from the people and for the people, opposed 
 to the money power and the lobby power in legisla- 
 lation. The Democratic party then professed to 
 be the party of morals and of progress. So I un- 
 derstood its principles, and strenuously urged, in 
 my address to the people, the doctrine of General 
 Jackson's letter to Monroe, urging him to select for 
 office "men of known probity, virtue, capacity and 
 firmness, without regard to party." 
 
 The General was elected, but he abandoned the
 
 98 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 principles he urged upon President Monroe. But 
 as I had no expectations, I continued to be a Jack- 
 son man in the old sense, after the General had 
 himself left the Jackson platform. 
 
 Our paper made no opposition to the administra- 
 tion, and I fell quietly into the political association 
 of the town. We confined ourselves mostly to 
 State and County politics. The machinery for 
 managing elections was operated, as before said, 
 by office-holders and village politicians. My ex- 
 perience was instructive, but somewhat surprising 
 to a young man who had not become accustomed to 
 the management usual among those who are adroit 
 in local politics. 
 
 The principle study of the village junto in those 
 days was concerning the best way to manage the 
 farming population, and make them subservient to 
 the aims of the office-seekers. "Coffin hand-bills" 
 had been a staple document with those opposed to 
 General Jackson. They represented some militia 
 men being shot for desertion. But one old Justice 
 of the Peace in the country had concluded that the 
 men deserved to be shot, and was using his in- 
 fluence against a candidate for County Treasurer, 
 who had circulated the bills. He had a large circle 
 of friends, and it was necessary that he should be 
 "brought into the traces" before the election. It 
 was arranged, therefore, that the Sheriff should 
 call and see him, and make his visit at such time 
 that he would be invited to stay all night. He was 
 to "intimate that the Squire had been a little in
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 99 
 
 advance of others in his opposition to the hand- 
 bills ; and that all could see now, since the elec- 
 tion, that his views were right. It was likewise 
 thought best to put into the paper the name of his 
 son Bob, as a candidate for some county office. It 
 was understood, of course, that he would riot get 
 the nomination at the convention to select candi- 
 dates, but it would commit him and his father to 
 stand by the nominees in such form that they could 
 not "back out." 
 
 There was another difficulty, the shape of which 
 I do not exactly remember. I can give outlines : 
 A conscientious deacon proposed to split the ticket, 
 because a man who was somewhat immoral had 
 been nominated for a responsible place. The thing 
 had to be "managed," and a certain lawyer, whose 
 brother-in-law was a minister, undertook to " fix 
 the matter with the deacon." The moral inten- 
 tions of the deacon were not carried out ; but by 
 what means the thing was done I never knew. 
 
 When there is but a single newspaper in the 
 new counties of the West, it is potential in deter- 
 mining political issues. I endeavored, in one case, 
 to accomplish an end in an independent way. 
 Oliver Snow was one of the first settlers and 
 wealthiest farmers in his neighborhood. He had a 
 daughter who had contributed original poetical arti- 
 cles for the Courier. Nothing had appeared from her 
 pen for some time. I was anxious, in my sphere as 
 editor, to be the patron of genius, and wrote a 
 paragraph inviting "Angerona" alias Eliza Snow
 
 IOO PIONEER LIFE 
 
 to send something for the poet's corner. There 
 are more poets in the world than there are books 
 of poetry ; and better passages have been pub- 
 lished in the corner of a newspaper than can be 
 found in some duodecimo volumes. I only remem- 
 ber a word or two of my invitation to Angerona 
 to renew her correspondence. I said : " Has An- 
 gerona hung her harp on the willows, or quarreled 
 with the Muses, or why, in the name of Poesy, 
 do we not hear from her again ?" Soon after, 
 Oliver Snow, her father, came into the printing 
 office to see the new printer, who had noticed in 
 such appreciative language the productions of his 
 daughter. I had on a ruffled shirt that day an 
 item of apparel not uncommon at the time ; and I 
 did the amiable for the old gentleman in my bland- 
 est manner. The consequence of which was, that 
 as Mr. Snow passed out through the front office, he 
 remarked that the new printer seemed to be a 
 "real gentleman." To which, of course, my part- 
 ner smilingly assented. This visit was followed 
 immediately by a contribution from Angerona. 
 
 I had not yet seen the poetess, but I was inter- 
 ested in the family, and wished to commend myself 
 to their attention. I took the responsibility, there- 
 fore, of putting her father's name in our paper as 
 an independent candidate for County Commissioner. 
 Tickets were printed and circulated in his region 
 of the county. The regular nominee was Owen 
 Brown, of Hudson, father of John Brown, of Har- 
 per's Ferry, "whose soul is marching on." Mr.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. IOI 
 
 Snow was not elected, but he received a large vote, 
 and a little effort would have carried him in. 
 
 I desired to see the poetess, and accompanied 
 John Pierson, Esq., (subsequently Judge Pierson, 
 of Iowa,) who was to deliver an address to the 
 farmers of her neighborhood. The address was 
 given in a large barn on the Fourth of July. The 
 lady auditors were seated on the first floor, in front 
 of the speaker ; and the gentlemen the young 
 men especially in the haymow, back of the speak- 
 er opposite the ladies. A friend indicated which 
 was Angerona ; and it was plain that Angerona 
 knew which was "Dermoody" a cognomen I had 
 chosen for myself. 
 
 That evening there was a dance at the village 
 tavern. Angerona was pious. She did not dance ; 
 nor did she stay to witness the amusement of those 
 who did. That night Mr. Pierson and myself tar- 
 ried at the dwelling of Oliver Snow. I did not see 
 much of Angerona afterwards ; and our intercourse 
 closed entirely by my removal to college. I should 
 have seen more of her, but I offended the poetess 
 unwittingly, and I am not sure that she ever for- 
 gave me. I wrote a little scrap in verse, and in- 
 serted it in my paper. It was entirely a matter 
 of the imagination ; but she was too pure to con- 
 ceive of such things being written even in poetry, 
 without having some objective reality. Here are 
 the offending lines : 
 
 My love, the gift you gave me 
 lias bound me with a spell,
 
 IO2 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 As pleasing as the witcheries 
 
 Of which old fables tell; 
 The loveliness subdues me; 
 
 Thy gentle voice I hear, 
 And the cadence of thy whispered words 
 
 Still murmur in my ear. 
 
 There is a charm about thee 
 
 Of modesty and youth ; 
 There is a meaning in thine eye 
 
 Of constancy and truth; 
 And I'd sooner trust thy single vow 
 
 Than all the prayers that said 
 At Lama's shrine, or Mecca's tomb, 
 
 My own delicious maid. DERMOODY. 
 
 These simple lines did not suit Angerona ; and 
 she sat down immediately, and sent the following 
 for publication in my paper : 
 
 Say, who on earth would not despise 
 A paltry thing which thousands share; 
 
 A friend in fractions who would prize, 
 Or deem the piecemeal worth a care? 
 
 Say, who, that would not scorn to aim 
 
 For that which all besides possess'd; 
 Say, who would ever wish to claim 
 
 A heart which many else had bless'd? 
 
 Then talk no more of friends to me 
 
 I will not share a friend in co, 
 I now a single friend will be, 
 
 Or friend, oh never let me know! 
 
 Poor Angerona! intelligent gifted pious and 
 unsophistocated in the ways of the world ; and re- 
 ceiving the Old Testament to be the rule of duty, 
 as well as the New, she became, a year or two after- 
 wards, a convert to the Mormon's, who made their 
 first settlement in Ohio, not far from her neighbor- 
 hood. She thought their miracles, their simple 
 habits, and their faith, were a reproduction of prim- 
 itive Christianity ; and believing in the obvious
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 1 03 
 
 cases of healing, she became a victim to the base 
 imposture. Her family followed the faith of their 
 favorite daughter, and they all emigrated with the 
 Mormon's to the West, where she is now a spirit- 
 ual wife of the impostor Brigham Young a frac- 
 tional wife of the polygamous patriarch in the 
 Valley of Salt. 
 
 The followers of the Mormon's were generally 
 sincere country people. I have met them in differ- 
 ent parts of the world since then. In Glasgow, 
 Scotland, an honest servant girl in a hotel, who 
 had been perverted by the propagandists of their 
 faith, was about to emigrate, with a company, to 
 Salt Lake. Knowing that I was an American, she 
 took an opportunity to speak to me of the Mor- 
 mon's in America. I did what I could to dissuade 
 her from her purpose, but she was immovable. 
 Everything she said in the Bible was like the 
 Mormons. Nothing was like the religion of the 
 churches in Glasgow. The Mormon preachers 
 traveled without purse or scrip. They preached 
 from house to house. They often healed the sick. 
 They preached the Gospel to the poor ; and if some 
 of the older men had several wives, so had Abra- 
 ham, Isaac and Jacob. One man she knew had 
 been healed of disease by laying on of hands. He 
 felt the cure the moment it was affected. He had 
 continued well, and could work ever since. It was 
 therefore impossible for her to doubt. 
 
 So she talked. It was in vain that I spoke of 
 the Old Testament with its polygamy, as introduc-
 
 104 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 tory, and imperfect in doctrine and morals, compared 
 with the New. It was in vain that I spoke of the 
 natural effect of the mind upon the body, by acts 
 of sudden and strong faith. She could see no 
 value in my words. She was a poor girl intelli- 
 gent beyond most of her class. I desired to save 
 her, but she did not understand my arguments; 
 nor would they have affected her if she had. She 
 assented to everything I said in regard to the 
 purity and obligation of the New Testament. 
 That, she professed to believe ; and she said the 
 Mormon's practised it ; but the churches in Glasgow 
 did not. If I had been asked at that time if I 
 thought this young woman was a Christian, I should 
 probably have said the dispensations of Providence 
 are often mysterious let us judge charitably. 
 
 I had always, from my boyhood, been possessed 
 with the notion that perhaps every selfish mind 
 possesses more or less that I was adequate to a 
 higher sphere of life than that in which I was 
 moving. Such inward promptings led me to com- 
 mence the study of law, while, at the same time, I 
 was engaged in printing the paper. I spent part of 
 each day in the office of Hon. Jonathan Sloan. He 
 was subsequently elected to Congress, and I con- 
 tinued the study with my partner, Mr. Thompson. 
 I anticipated that when I had finished my studies, 
 a partnership would be formed, embracing all de- 
 partments of our business. 
 
 I was able now to do something for aspirants to 
 county offices, and to one man, at least, I gave the
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. IO5 
 
 assistance necessary to his success. S. D. Harris, 
 General of the county militia, was the old County 
 Surveyor, and had been Auditor for a series of years. 
 An effort was made to oust him, which I resisted. 
 I wrote his defensive articles for him, and assailed 
 his opponents. My conscience did not always 
 quietly acquiesce in the part I took in the contest: 
 But the General was elected, and did not in all 
 respects "forget Joseph." 
 
 The drinking usages of those days would sur- 
 prise the people of the present time. (I mean the 
 better class of people). The General and I had 
 frequently drank together before the election; but 
 I am sure we never met subsequently in a public 
 house ; that we did not take alcohol in some of its 
 forms. And as I boarded at a hotel, and he spent 
 a good share of his leisure time there, our drinking 
 (always at his expense when the courtesy exceed- 
 ed two treats per day, which I thought should be 
 the maximum of indulgence,) may be supposed to 
 have been a pretty extensive patronage of the bar. 
 Strange as it may seem, I never had, and never 
 contracted, a taste for ardent spirits. I drank be- 
 cause it was universal social usage ; and friend- 
 ship and good fellowship were supposed to be 
 indicated by the invitation to partake of the pois- 
 onous beverage. But tobacco I always ^chewed ; 
 and alcohol was always distasteful to me unless 
 thoroughly saturated with sugar. I drank a native, 
 still wine (Lunell) on the Col de Bam pass of the 
 Alps that, to one wearied by travel, was refreshing,
 
 106 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 and had a pleasant flavor ; and sparkling Moselle 
 may be drank occasionally by invalids, especially 
 by dyspeptics, like Timothy, with profit ; but no 
 man of either sense or conscience, should ever per- 
 mit the "leprous distillments" of ardent spirits, or 
 the defilement of filthy tobacco to pass his lips. 
 
 Thus time passed in the village until the winter 
 holidays, at which time, as usual, a ball was pro- 
 jected, of which I was one of the managers. The 
 others, whose future I shall note, were my part- 
 ner, C. B. Thompson, John Whittlesey Charles 
 Clapp and Ely Campbell. Such assemblages were 
 common in new country towns ; but there were 
 those who said that evil omens gathered over the 
 dancers on this particular occasion. A portion of 
 our company seceded, and got up a dance for 
 themselves in an opposite hotel. Lucy Robinson, 
 my companion for the ball, whose residence was 
 several miles from town, lost the flower-wreath 
 that bound her hair. Not many weeks subsequent- 
 ly she was taken ill, and after a lingering sickness, 
 she "slept the sleep that knows no waking." The 
 tidings made me sad for a little while, and I often 
 said in thought, alas ! poor Lucy ! 
 
 The managers for the evening were to lead in 
 the first set ; and first of those stood the manly 
 form of my partner in the office, Charles B. Thomp- 
 son. He moved but a few steps, when his dancing- 
 shoe rent in such form that he could not proceed. 
 The program was broken, and the set went on 
 without him. The next morning Mr. Thompson
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. IO/ 
 
 was not at breakfast he was ill. Slightly so, at 
 first ; but his illness increased, and after a few days 
 he retired from his hotel to the residence of his 
 sister (Mrs. Dr. Swift) where, after several weeks 
 of illness, he died. 
 
 His mother, who had come to watch by his sick 
 bed, ,was a Christian woman ; and was anxious 
 that' her son should speak with some minister of 
 the gospel in regard to his spiritual interests. 
 There may have been others, but I knew of but 
 two professors of religion in the village ; and there 
 was no resident minister. One was procured, how- 
 ever ; but although the sick man respected relig- 
 ious institutions, he had no heart for such converse, 
 and indicated his apathy by turning himself away 
 in his bed. I think, likewise, the minister was one 
 in whom, when well, he had but little confidence. 
 There came, however, almost immediately after- 
 wards, a sudden change in the spirit of his mind ; 
 and his awakened interest on the subject of relig- 
 ion surprised me more than his previous apathy. 
 He seemed to wake as from a dream, and look at 
 religious subjects as a new revelation. He would 
 say : " How could I live in the presence of the 
 Bible, professing to be a revelation from God ? 
 How could I constantly hear preaching of Christ's 
 life and death ? How could I live in the presence 
 of all these things even assent to them and yet 
 not regard them ?" He was now exceedingly anxious 
 that Rev. Mr. Storrs, president of Hudson college, 
 should be sent for. When that good man came,
 
 108 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 Mr. Thompson still continued to express surprise 
 at his former apathy. He thought of himself as 
 one that had been asleep, and was interested in 
 dreams rather than in the realities he should have 
 considered. 
 
 I do not know what Christians thought of his 
 exercises. They produced no effect whatever upon 
 my own mind. The last night I watched by his 
 bed, waking from a troubled sleep, he said he had 
 dreamed that he was struggling through a sea of 
 ice. His fever had suggested the opposite sensa- 
 tion. But a few more nights of fever and wander- 
 ing thought, and Charles Thompson departed to 
 learn the realities concerning which he had been 
 thoughtless in life, but thoughtful when irrevoca- 
 bly summoned to die. 
 
 There were sad hearts in the village when 
 Thompson died. There was one who mourned as 
 though she had lost more than a friend. There 
 was one a brute in the legal profession who 
 seemed to be gratified by the event which afflicted 
 others. A competitor at the bar had gone. 
 
 Of the other four managers of the New Year's 
 ball : Ely Campbell, a jeweler, grew wealthy. He 
 established the first bank of Ravenna. Subse- 
 quently he removed to Wisconsin, and engaged 
 more extensively in the money trade. During the 
 mania on the subject of spiritualism, which pre- 
 vailed in the country at that time, he accepted the 
 doctrine, (as did skeptics generally) became dis- 
 gusted with earthly things, and shot himself dead
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 109 
 
 in his own counting-room ; to wake up, as he 
 imagined, in an exalted spiritual sphere. 
 
 Charles Clapp, the most amiable of us all a 
 young merchant from Bostonmarried Miss Clapp, 
 the leading belle of the village. Religious interest 
 increased with the growth of the town ; and in a 
 revival which occurred in subsequent years, he 
 made a profession of religion. In the Miller ex- 
 citement of 1843, he embraced the doctrine that 
 the end of the world was at hand. He expended 
 his time and his money to further the delusion. I 
 traveled some distance to visit him at Akron, hoping 
 to lead him to forsake, or, at least, to doubt the 
 error to which he had committed himself. But it 
 had fastened upon him as a mono-mania ; he could 
 see nothing except in the light of his own convic- 
 tions. He had been led astray by a minister in 
 whom he trusted ; and when the set time for the 
 destruction of the world had passed, he abandoned 
 as lovely a family as there was in the State, and 
 joined a settlement of Shaking Quakers, where he 
 is now the principle man in the community. His 
 sorrowing wife said her husband was certainly a 
 good Christian why was he suffered to fall into 
 error ? Why ? 
 
 John Whittlesey, son of Hon. Elisha Whittlesey 
 for many years third Auditor of the national 
 treasury, was a merchant's clerk. He subsequently 
 became a merchant, married, and lost his first 
 wife. I did not see him for more than thirty years ; 
 and then I married him a second time, to a lady 
 residing in the city where I was then living.
 
 I 10 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE NEW COLLEGE AND THE NEW LIFE. 
 
 After the death of my partner, my legal studies 
 were closed. The entire management of the paper 
 devolved upon me ; and other pursuits and studies 
 were not possible, without relinquishing the labors 
 of editor and printer. I set type during the hours 
 of each day, and wrote editorials and packed and 
 mailed the papers as I could find spare hours. It 
 was necessary for me either to relinquish the study 
 of the law, or to dispose of my paper ; the latter I 
 concluded to do. I might have been admitted to 
 practice without much further study ; but I felt 
 that some further knowledge of Latin and mathe- 
 matics was desirable ; and more especially, the 
 sense of diffidence and the recollection of former 
 efforts at public speaking led me to seek some 
 more private opportunity to train my mind in ex- 
 tempore talk and argumentation before appearing 
 at the bar, where a failure would be a disaster from 
 which it would take years to recover. With these 
 views I left Ravenna to spend a year at the West- 
 ern Reserve College, a new institution that had
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. I I I 
 
 just been opened at Hudson, in the same county in 
 which I published the Courier. 
 
 The appearance of things at college quite sur- 
 prised me. Nothing of the like is seen now-a-days. 
 I had thought of collegians as genteel young men, 
 well dressed and well bred; and had some misgivings 
 in regard to my age, supposing the young men would 
 all be my juniors. There were about twenty, in all 
 grades of advancement, from those who had a very 
 imperfect knowledge of common school studies, 
 up, perhaps, to the Sophomore class, and several of 
 the number were older than myself. I gained some 
 assurance by noticing that one of them tacked on 
 his door a notice: "Lost one pare of tongues." 
 All of them, when I first entered the institution, 
 were from the country, or the country villages 
 adjacent. Several of the best of them were young 
 men endeavoring to educate themselves. Their 
 garments were mostly home manufactured ; and if 
 they had been acting in obedience to a law which 
 prohibited conformity to the fashions of the world, 
 they could not have been more diversified and 
 rustic in their appearance. A few years subse- 
 quently, the aspect of things changed in this 
 respect. The new colleges of the West, when 
 farms and villages were not much advanced, gath- 
 ered young men who, in polished society, would 
 have seemed uncouth in appearance, and rustic 
 in manners ; but under their homely exterior were 
 often hidden mental and moral qualities greatly 
 superior to those of some who might be disposed
 
 112 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 to disparage them. Among the students was one 
 who now holds the highest judicial position in the 
 State where he resides. Others have an honorable 
 record in professional and public life. 
 
 Some of the Professors in the new institution 
 were among the ablest men in the country East 
 or West. The school had commenced, as that 
 of Oberlin and many others in the early period 
 of Western progress, with a single instructor. 
 When I arrived there were three, President Storrs, 
 who had just entered upon his duties, and Pro- 
 fessors Nutting and Wright. Mr. Storrs was 
 brother of Dr. Storrs, of Braintree, Mass. He 
 was a man of piety and ability. Prof. Wright is 
 now a State officer in Massachusetts. He is one 
 of the best scholars in the country, and has dis- 
 tinguished himself both as an editor and an author. 
 At a later period Beriah Green, of New York ; Dr. 
 Hickox, President of Union College ; and Prof. 
 Barrows, recently of Andover, were teachers at 
 Hudson. These are distinguished men in their 
 profession. Most of them are still living to tell 
 the story of their early labors in a Western college ; 
 one the devout Storrs has " fallen asleep." These 
 professors have labored since then upon more pol- 
 ished material, but not upon material of more 
 intrinsic value. 
 
 In such association I began my college experi- 
 ence. My surroundings were new in more respects 
 than one. Since my boyhood I had not had a 
 companion who professed to be a Christian. I had
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 113 
 
 many associates, male and female ; and the lines 
 of Moore had been verified in my experience : 
 
 " Go where we will, 
 The h';;irt will find something to twine around still." 
 
 But with the exception of Angerona, of whom I 
 knew but little, I never had an associate that was 
 even professedly pious. 
 
 Now, however, my circumstances were altered. 
 Some of the teachers and many of the students 
 exerted themselves personally to procure the con- 
 version of those whom they considered impenitent 
 students. They did not speak to me directly on 
 the subject of religion, but they did to others ; and 
 the presence of such an influence was new and 
 distasteful to me. My influence and opinions, I 
 presume, were no less so to them. I was a rara 
 avis among them. I had aided the collection at 
 the county seat to pay the fine of a man who had 
 attacked and beaten one of the students, (William 
 Russell), who had prosecuted him for breaking the 
 Sabbath. I had, in my paper, opposed the move- 
 ments of the men ( many of them connected with 
 the college) who first introduced the temperance 
 reform at the West. Claiming, as all moderate 
 drinkers then did, to be in favor of temperance, I 
 opposed the total abstinence pledge. All this was 
 known at Hudson, and I learned subsequently that 
 there was some doubt in the mind of at least one 
 of the Professors, whether it were wise to admit 
 me to the privileges of the institution. But un- 
 worthy as I was, I had one of the best friends
 
 114 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 that any young man ever had, in President Storrs. 
 He had, previously to his going to Hudson, preached 
 in the village of Ravenna, where I published the 
 Western Courier. He knew me well ; my gay- 
 eties, and follies, and errors ; but, for some rea- 
 son, he was always my friend whether I was 
 thoughtless or thoughtful until he died. I appre- 
 ciated his friendship ; and if he had needed the 
 friendly offices of such a one as I was, I am sure 
 I would have talked for him, or fought for him, 
 if necessary, so long as strength lasted. 
 
 I was admitted to the institution ; and having 
 stated what studies I wished to pursue, was per- 
 mitted to recite in such classes as would enable me 
 to attain my purpose. I found a boarding house 
 in the hospitable dwelling of Owen Brown, father 
 of John Brown, of Harper's Ferry. Thus favored 
 and associated, I began student life at the Western 
 Reserve College. 
 
 So soon as I was fairly initiated in the routine 
 of affairs, I endeavored to make the old College 
 Society the Philozetian subservient to my aim 
 of preparation for public speaking, and public pro- 
 ceedings of a political nature. I was probably per- 
 sistent in this effort, beyond what was proper ; and 
 hence, many of the other young men, who had 
 different views of matters, and different aims in 
 life, resisted encroachment upon old usages and 
 forms of proceeding. Secular aims succeeded, 
 however, with the majority ; and the more devout 
 young men withdrew, and, with permission of the
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. I, I 5 
 
 faculty, formed another society. The two soci- 
 eties, I presume, have their place in the institution 
 till the present day. 
 
 About this time the report was published in the 
 newspapers, originating probably in the New York 
 Herald, that the Poles, who were at that time in 
 insurrection, had achieved a decisive victory over 
 the Russians, and that their independence would 
 be the result. We of the Philozetians, thought 
 it expedient to make a patriotic demonstration in 
 honor of the occasion. So, at a certain hour in 
 the evening, most of the college room windows were 
 illuminated with tallow candles. The bell, which 
 was a steel bar, made in the form of a triangle, 
 was rang energetically, and sent its sharp, stinging 
 tones through the surrounding neighborhood. The 
 students assembled in the chapel, where another 
 gentleman and myself were to make speeches for 
 " Poland and Liberty." The faculty had been ap- 
 prised of the meeting, and, I believe, did not forbid 
 the assemblage ; but the people of the village and 
 neighborhood had heard nothing of " Poland and 
 Liberty;" at least, they had heard nothing of our 
 proceedings in regard thereto. They heard the 
 bell ringing furiously at an unusual time, and they 
 saw the blaze of light proceeding from the college 
 building, and concluding, very naturally, that the 
 college was on fire, a crowd of them rushed to the 
 rescue. I do not remember who was speaking when 
 the first excited men entered ; but our exercises 
 were suddenly interrupted by the rush of the well-
 
 I l6 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 meaning villagers to extinguish the fire, which they 
 supposed was consuming the building. If their 
 coming did not extinguish a fire in the building, 
 it extinguished the enthusiasm of the speakers, 
 put out the tallow candles ; and closed, rather 
 unceremoniously, the evening's proceedings. 
 
 The religious influence about me was active. It 
 was in the early period of the wide-spread revival 
 of religion in the West, in which Charles G. Finney 
 was one of the most active laborers. I had some 
 difficulty in exhibiting courtesy and attention to 
 the persuasions of those who addressed the 
 students on that subject. In some of them I 
 had but little confidence, but to the words and 
 prayers of President Storrs, I was always respect- 
 fully attentive. 
 
 One morning, after the President had led in 
 prayer in the little chapel, I can recollect the 
 thoughts that passed through my mind as I went 
 to breakfast. They were the first of a series of 
 exercises which lasted for months ; vivid to me ; 
 but unknown to those about me. The President 
 had prayed that the students might all possess 
 certain principles, and fulfill certain duties to 
 God and men, which my reason assented to as 
 proper ; but I felt unwilling to be and to do what 
 I assented to as right. I did not inquire with 
 myself why this was so ; but the consciousness 
 of the contradiction between knowledge and will 
 was unpleasant to me. I had never felt it before. 
 
 Another inquiry kept constantly recurring to my
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 117 
 
 mind, with an intensity that I had not before ex- 
 perienced. If Christianity ivere discredited or 
 destroyed, what would be the result ? Such in- 
 quiries were often accompanied with doubts and 
 objections to the Bible, that I had never thought 
 of before ; and which, perhaps, others have never 
 thought of. Most of these related to the Old 
 Testament ; and although disposed to solve them 
 in my own mind, it was not possible, with the 
 views that I then had, for me to do so ; and to 
 this day, with the views commonly held of the 
 Old Testament, the difficulties would remain. 
 
 But the doubts and difficulties that still possessed 
 me when I recurred to certain subjects, did not in 
 the least abate the uncomfortable conviction that 
 I was not willing, and did not even desire to be 
 willing, to do the good which my reason and con- 
 science approved. The doubts remained, but the 
 inward conflict, although held in abeyance at times, 
 was not overcome, but increased. 
 
 After weeks of solicitude, I began to seek in the 
 library for books to aid me to determine what was 
 truth and duty in regard to the ever present sub- 
 ject of thought. It is somewhat strange, perhaps, 
 but the arguments of Chalmers and others, con- 
 cerning the reliability of the inspired witnesses and 
 kindred discussions, had no influence whatever to 
 remove difficulties, or determine my mind to right 
 convictions. One volume, however, which finally 
 fell into my hands, was clear and satisfactory. 
 And in settling one point, it aided to settle many
 
 Il8 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 others. It was " Paley's Horse Paulinae." It satis- 
 fied my mind, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that 
 Paul was a real character ; that most, if not all the 
 epistles attributed to him, were written by him ; 
 and that they contained a true account of his 
 beliefs and experiences. No fair mind can read 
 Paley's treatise and avoid the same conclusion. 
 This point settled, was a solid centre of reflection. 
 
 For many months this state of inquiry and in- 
 terest continued. It did not seem to me that my 
 mental exercises were in any wise supernatural. 
 They came in the ordinary way of suggestion ; and 
 as yet the internal interest was not shown in any 
 wise in the external life ; and yet, actions which a 
 year before I should have done with unconcern, I 
 felt now to be of doubtful propriety. 
 
 The Fourth of July holiday was at hand, and the 
 faculty of the college gave the students some days 
 of recess. There was to be a ball at town centre 
 on the evening of the holiday, in which the faculty 
 did not think it wise that the students should par- 
 ticipate. At least, we presumed that to be their 
 opinion from the fact that in giving the recess, they 
 desired all the students to continue recitations, or 
 to visit their homes until after the holiday. There 
 were but few of the young men whose parents did 
 not reside within a day's travel, and I always sup- 
 posed that the unusual provision was to remove Mr. 
 Loomis, who was my room-mate, and myself, from 
 scenes which they thought would be morally injuri- 
 ous to us. For reasons that I do not remember,
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. lip 
 
 the usual demonstrations were made during the 
 day, but the dance was postponed to a succeeding 
 evening, at which time we had returned to col- 
 lege. Dancing in those days was prohibited in the 
 churches, as were other social amusements, much 
 more rigidly than they are at present. My mind 
 had come into the state, in which I felt a growing 
 desire to be a Christian ; yet, I saw no evil in social 
 amusements. I supposed, however, that one or the 
 other must be abandoned. There were those in 
 the college, as I afterwards learned, that knew, or 
 supposed, that my mind was unusually interested 
 in religious subjects ; and on the evening of the 
 dance there were a few invited to meet socially at 
 the house of one of the professors. There were 
 prayers and hymns, interspersed with our talk ; and 
 at the usual hour we retired to our rooms, while 
 those who remained undoubtedly offered prayer in 
 our behalf. 
 
 In returning to my boarding house I had to pass 
 the house of mirth. I had concluded not to be pres- 
 ent that evening ; but the illuminated hall the 
 music and the movements of the dancers, observed 
 through the open windows, attracted my attention, 
 and I stood for several minutes, until the desire to 
 mingle with the company gathered strength. I 
 could give no reason to myself for my perplexity 
 on the subject ; and concluding that I was a fool for 
 feeling as I did, I started for the ball room. 
 
 For reasons entirely inexplicable to me, when I 
 entered, instead of enjoying the spirit of the scene
 
 120 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 and the congratulations of friends, male and female, 
 I felt a solemnity that I could in no way dissipate. 
 I was vexed with myself, and in order to disperse 
 the gloom and awaken feeling in sympathy with the 
 scene about me, I retired to the refreshment room, 
 and drank a glass of brandy, which could be had in 
 a private way, by those inquiring for it. 
 
 When I returned to the ball room I went through 
 a set in a contra dance with a young lady who, long 
 ago, passed, as I hope, to the land of peace. After 
 retiring and sitting a few moments, I noticed that 
 she was looking at me with surprise. I recollected 
 myself, and found I was talking to her on the sub- 
 ject of religion. I was chagrined ; and as soon as 
 I could courteously do so, I retired from the room, 
 a mystery to myself and to my companion. 
 
 That night and for sometime afterward I was 
 unhappy and perplexed. There was an element of 
 conscience and solemnity in my mind that did not 
 usually belong to my thought. I do not remember 
 whether the thought of God was a prevailing one 
 or not. I did not feel that I had been a great sin- 
 ner ; but I felt I had been ungrateful to God. The 
 death of my partner now affected me more than it 
 did at the time of his decease. I felt that my heart 
 was sinful, rather than that my life had been so. I 
 tried to control my mind and avoid all wrong 
 thought, but could not satisfy myself. " When I 
 would think good evil was present with me." I felt 
 this in the depth of my soul. I burned some books, 
 not so bad in themselves, as some books are, but
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 121 
 
 because I thought them unprofitable. I found a 
 Bible belonging to the family where I boarded, and 
 read it in preference to other things. Its teachings 
 were now subjects of interest and inquiry, and 
 fixed my attention. No one, however, who called 
 at my room during this period ever saw me reading 
 the Bible. Several passages seemed duplicates of 
 my own experience : One I remember expressed 
 my state of mind, and my heart rose in supplication 
 in the words of one that had felt just as I did at 
 that minute, "Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief'" 
 
 I struggled hard to regulate my thoughts and 
 imaginations, some of which I now felt were offen- 
 sive to God ; but I could, by no act of will produce 
 the good in myself that I desired. I shall always 
 remember one day, when I had determined with 
 stronger purpose than usual to keep my heart with 
 diligence, I set out for recitation, and by the way I 
 was shocked to find my mind full of imaginations 
 that I had determined should be cast out. It may 
 not be believed it seems so incredible yet it is 
 true, that I was angry with myself; or rather with 
 my heart ; and stamping on the ground, I uttered 
 an oath, which I do not remember that I ever did 
 before, and that I have never done since. 
 
 During all these long months, no one had spoken 
 to me on the subject of religion. There was no 
 special interest on religious subjects in the college 
 or the church at this time ; and it seemed to me that 
 Christians, who once seemed so much interested, now 
 endeavored to avoid the subject in my presence.
 
 122 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 At length I received a note from Joseph Barr, who 
 afterwards died on the way to Africa, as a mission- 
 ary. He invited me to call at his room in the even- 
 ing. I presumed that he desired to talk with me, 
 on the subject which was now seldom absent from 
 my mind. I went at the hour designated ; but Mr. 
 Barr was not there. I waited ; but he did not come. 
 I was disappointed and vexed with his delay, and 
 determined to know the reason why I was invited 
 and neglected. I remained in the room until nine 
 o'clock, at which time students were ordinarily re- 
 quired to retire. He came after the hour. My 
 spirit of reproach and controversy had left me. He 
 soon spoke to me of the subject which absorbed my 
 thought. We talked till a late hour perhaps the 
 middle of the night. He prayed two or three times; 
 and asked me to pray. I uttered some words, not 
 in the Christian form of supplication, and stopped, 
 but did not rise from a kneeling posture. It seemed 
 to me that a cramped, hard pressure was on my 
 breast, and I struggled as though I was separating 
 myself from some physical burden. Mr. Barr prayed 
 again, and ceased ; and I seemed to get rest, and 
 rose to go home. He went with me. We did not 
 talk much, but I exclaimed several times, "How 
 strange!" In reply to the question "What is 
 strange, Mr. W. ?" I remember only that I felt as 
 though the stars, and all things praised God, and 
 replied "Everything looks so light and pleasant." 
 He left me at my boarding place. My mind con- 
 tinued for some days to grow more peaceful and
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. . 123 
 
 happy, and thenceforward I lived in conscious peace 
 for many months. 
 
 I did not think anything about the doctrine of 
 the Trinity. I did not think of the questions con- 
 cerning the divinity of Christ. The idea of God in 
 my mind, was that of a Holy, present Father, whose 
 attributes I saw in Christ. Preachers seemed to 
 talk in a new language. I think I had not then 
 fully believed in Christ, as I do now. I remember 
 the first sermon I heard on the subject of the 
 Savior after I had "ears to hear," I wept, and laid 
 my head on the front of the pew to let my emotion 
 flow off in tears. One marked change in the state 
 of my mind was that while before I saw no God in 
 anything that occurred about me, I now saw God 
 in all events. In everything that occurred, from 
 the least to the greatest, I saw the hand of God ; 
 and it is so to this day. In all things that occur in 
 connection with individual or general history, I see 
 the presence of God. And while, in many cases, I 
 can see no exposition of particular providences I 
 am sure there is a reason, and that God is in the 
 incident, be it what it may. 
 
 During this period I was not afraid of death; and 
 often said so to others. When I retired at night 
 my mind was in a state of pleasant peace. In the 
 morning the mental enjoyment had abated ; but 
 with the first waking thoughts it gradually returned. 
 I did not ask myself whether I had become a Chris- 
 tian. The first incident that led me to realize the 
 difference between present and former states of
 
 124 . PIONEER LIFE 
 
 mind, was the pleasure begotten by hearing it stated 
 that a young woman, (now Mrs. Simeon Porter, of 
 Cleveland,) had become a Christian, and was rejoic- 
 ing in hope. This I knew would before have given 
 me no pleasure ; but now my interest and joy were 
 great. I had occasional throbs of sorrow, but they 
 related to the cause of Christ. An aged minister, 
 Mr. Hughs, in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, had 
 fallen into sin. Probably no one in the college knew 
 the man. I should not think so much of the inci- 
 dent now ; but then, for days, whenever I thought 
 of it, I felt a deep sense of humiliation and regret 
 for the dishonor which had been brought upon the 
 cause of Christ. 
 
 My faith at this time was not in creeds nor in 
 passages of Scripture. I had a sense of reconcilia- 
 tion with God. There was one thing, however, 
 which at a period somewhat later, seemed to me to 
 be a ground of reasonable assurance, both in regard 
 to the faith of the New Testament, and in regard 
 to the character of my own exercises. Peter and 
 James and John and Paul speak of the experiences 
 of themselves and others who believed the truth 
 that they believed and taught. It was faith in those 
 truths which produced the purposes, experiences, 
 hopes, and fears of which they speak. Now these 
 same purposes, experiences, hopes and fears, I found 
 in myself which are described as existing in them. 
 The conclusion, therefore, was a logical necessity, 
 that the same truths were in existence, and were 
 believed by them as they were now believed by me:
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 12$ 
 
 because the effects of faith were the same in them 
 as they were in me : Hence, the truth believed 
 was the same. 
 
 This sameness of experience was extended to 
 what seemed the paradoxes of the gospel. I had 
 known what it was to feel that "when I would do 
 good evil was present with me." Now I could see 
 what John meant when he wrote, "They cannot 
 sin, because their seed remaineth in them." "Sor- 
 rowing, yet always rejoicing." "We know we are 
 of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness." 
 Others might dispute about the import of such pas- 
 sages. I could see that they were the utterances 
 of minds exercised by the faith of Christ in pecul- 
 iar circumstances. Doubts there might be about 
 the histories of the Old Testament about varia- 
 tions in the narrative of gospel events ; but of the 
 sameness of the objects and subjects of faith, which 
 produced the same experiences in those who ac- 
 cepted and obeyed, there could be no doubt. 
 
 Thus through exercises protracted and intense, 
 and perhaps peculiar, I awoke to the consciousness 
 of being a disciple of Christ ; and with this con- 
 sciousness came the sense of duty. "Lord what 
 wilt thou have me to do."
 
 126 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 VARIOUS COLLEGE EXPERIENCES. 
 
 The time that I designed to remain at the new 
 college was now more than past. My means were 
 exhausted. My purpose to devote my life to the 
 profession of the law did not stimulate me as 
 formerly. If I had such purpose at all, it was a 
 purpose without a will. In this state of mind I con- 
 sulted president Storrs on the subject of my future 
 employment. He advised me to continue by some 
 means study for another year, saying that probably 
 Providence would meanwhile reveal more distinctly 
 the path of duty. I assented, but as I had little 
 money left it became necessary to devise ways and 
 means, by labors of various kinds, to meet my ex- 
 pensive bills. Some of the best of the young men 
 were paying most of their expenses by their labor. 
 This is one of the advantages of new colleges in a 
 new country. This I now prepared to do. 
 
 A voluntary association of students had formed a 
 club to board themselves at cheap rates. I was 
 elected steward, and received my board for my 
 services. We rented a vacant house, and hired a
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. I2/ 
 
 widow lady to cook for us. Some of the boys fur- 
 nished provisions from their father's farms. Others 
 procured sufficient money by various expedients to 
 pay rate bills. I transacted the business of the club 
 procured supplies ; and did some things in ways 
 that would seem peculiar to people now-a-days. I 
 remember well an incident that had some effect 
 upon my feelings at the time, and was an amusing 
 recollection for years afterwards. It was difficult 
 to obtain female assistance in the labor of the house. 
 This, however, became necessary, as a large num- 
 ber of the students had joined the boarding hall. 
 We heard of a young woman ten miles distant, who 
 could be obtained to aid in the culinary depart- 
 ment. I borrowed a horse and rode to her father's 
 residence. She willingly assented to come, and it 
 was proposed that she should sit upon the horse 
 behind me, and thus ride through the woods to 
 Hudson. The blanket was taken from under the 
 saddle, and so arranged that she, without hesitation, 
 bounded into her seat from a stump, and off we went 
 over new roads and rough roads for our destination. 
 There were places in the road where it was neces- 
 sary for me sometimes to aid her to keep her place, 
 and neqessary for her to grasp around me with un- 
 usual tenacity ; but we got home safely, I vacating 
 my place that she might ride alone into town. The 
 approaches of a young maid in the earlier years of 
 Peter's discipleship led him to deny his Master. I 
 kept in mind my profession. 
 
 But clothing as well as boarding had to be pro-
 
 128 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 cured, and in addition to my management of the 
 boarding hall, I labored in a printing office which 
 hao! been recently removed from Cleveland to Hud- 
 son. It was the first religious paper published in 
 the state. In subsequent years I was, in the course 
 of Providence, to become owner and editor; but 
 now I labored, twice a week in the press room, 
 working off the edition of the paper, of about one 
 thousand. Beginning after supper I, with another 
 student, using the old inking balls,- would usually 
 get through our labors about the middle of the 
 night. If we began later, we did not finish our job 
 till near morning. Thus, by various labors I suc- 
 ceeded in paying expenses for the most part for 
 about two years ; which were perhaps as happy 
 years, if not so useful, as any subsequent years of 
 my life. 
 
 The happiness of these years, especially the first 
 portion of the time grew out of a will in perfect 
 submission to the will of God, and a heart that re- 
 luctated against all sin even against acts of a 
 doubtful character. I was in harmony with my 
 own conscience ; and labored as I had opportunity 
 in various ways to promote the good of others. 
 .Sometimes myself and another student walked five 
 miles to attend a Sabbath-School. One evening in 
 each week I attended a meeting for prayer and con- 
 ference in the neighborhood near by. Here I met 
 with John Brown, afterwards sacrificed at Harper's 
 Ferry, for his honest. and prayerful but misdirected 
 efforts to emancipate the slaves. The character-
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 129 
 
 istics which marked his subsequent life marked the 
 man at that time. He was sternly opposed to all 
 wrong and all sham ; and yet there was, in worldly 
 matters, a spirit of speculation and daring about 
 him which led him to attempt large, but impracti- 
 cable things. The first meeting to consider the 
 practicability of a railroad from Cleveland to Pitts- 
 burg, of which I was secretary, was assembled in 
 the church at Hudson, and was organized princi- 
 pally by John and Frederick Brown. We were 
 ahead of the time, but the project was subsequently 
 accomplished. He planned a city on the Cuyahoga 
 river at Franklin bought a farm which he surveyed 
 into city lots and sold them to such as would buy. 
 One of the best deacons in the church of Hudson 
 mortgaged his farm and bought lots of Mr. Brown. 
 He was a friend ; and I remonstrated with the 
 Browns for making the sale. They were honest in 
 the opinion that a town of no mean dimensions was 
 to arise on their purchase. I got a promise, how- 
 ever, that they would take back the lot and release 
 the mortgage. The purchaser did not assent to 
 the arrangement ; and hence, one of the best of 
 deacons lost half his estate, and died some short 
 time afterwards, a wiser and perhaps a holier man. 
 Subsequently John Brown, who had formed a part- 
 nership with Simon Perkins, a wealthy citizen of his 
 county in sheep growing, devised a scheme to con- 
 trol the wool market of the entire union in behalf 
 of the farmers, whom he thought were defrauded 
 by eastern purchasers. He went to England to
 
 130 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 consummate his plan. He failed, of course, and re- 
 moved with his family to Kansas, where he and his 
 sons fought the good fight of faith and liberty, 
 which to him were one and indivisible. In the Kan- 
 sas struggle he lost part of his family and most of 
 his property. This intensified his hatred of slavery 
 which became in some sense a mania a mania which 
 ultimated in the tragedy of Harper's Ferry, and 
 linked the name of John Brown, until the end of 
 the world, with the history of emancipation in 
 America. 
 
 During this period of study and faith, Theodore 
 D. Weld, a man of marked character and one that 
 left his mark upon the student mind of the West, 
 visited the college. He had for his patron the same 
 man, who had rescued William Lloyd Garrison from 
 prison in Baltimore, and aided him in his anti- 
 slavery efforts. Arthur Tappan a name that ought 
 not to die did more and better than any other 
 man in the nation, in the initiation of the religious 
 reforms of the half century in which he acted. Mr. 
 Weld passed first through the West lecturing on 
 the importance of manual labor in Academies and 
 Colleges ; and for a season thereafter almost all the 
 new institutions of the West, endeavored to furnish 
 labor for students who desired to aid in their own 
 education ; and many self-reliant boys who pro- 
 cured for themselves an education in those days, 
 have done well, since then, both for God and their 
 country. "Brave boys were they." Some of them 
 long ago finished their course and have gone to
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 131 
 
 their reward. Others lived to see the country pass 
 through its baptism of fire and blood in the civil 
 war. A few still live with their armor on ; and 
 when the fight is over, and old opponents have 
 joined the ranks, " let not him that putteth on the 
 harness boast himself as he that putteth it off." 
 
 Mr. Weld subsequently visited the West as a 
 temperance lecturer. He traveled West and South, 
 and collected the statistics of intemperance, and 
 the opinions of jurists and officers of prisons, which 
 he used with great effect in initiating the temper- 
 ance movement of that day. He performed a simi- 
 lar mission, (sustained first by Mr. Tappan, and 
 subsequently by philanthropists at the West,) in in- 
 troducing the anti-slavery reform in the Western 
 States. This was the martyr age of the reform 
 movements in America. Before it closed, Mr. Weld 
 was married to the eminent Quakeress, Angelina 
 Gremke and retired from public effort. The first 
 struggle was for liberty of speech on the subject of 
 slavery. When that victory was gained, the power 
 of further achievement was secured. It was the 
 beginning of the end. And that battle was fought 
 by men, of more moral courage than was that of 
 any other that succeeded it from Sumpter to Appo- 
 mattox. 
 
 A single incident will give the prevailing spirit 
 of those times. The mob spirit was everywhere 
 rampant, and sometimes triumphant. The only in- 
 stance in which I found it necessary to retreat from 
 the field, was at Aurora, a town about eight miles
 
 132 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 from the college. Here was a large brick church 
 and one of the oldest religious societies in the State. 
 The population in the township, with few excep- 
 tions, were opposed to the discussion of the anti- 
 slavery question. I was invited by the people of 
 the church to speak to them on the subject of Sab- 
 bath-Schools and Slavery. The pastor of the 
 church Rev. John Seward became alarmed in 
 view of the danger of mob violence to the church 
 building and to myself personally. Mr. Seward 
 himself, who was faithful in all the common duties 
 of his profession, did not think it wise to be present. 
 Mrs. Seward, however, a brave Christian woman, 
 determined to accompany me to the church, and do 
 what she could, by her presence, to restrain the 
 mob. As we approached the place of meeting the 
 crowd of determined and enraged men and boys 
 began a tumult of fiendish yells, and other inde- 
 scribable noises ; and having loaded an old anvil 
 with powder, they fired it near us as we approached 
 the door, causing injury to the building, and nerv- 
 ous excitement and apprehension among the people. 
 When I began to speak some of the mob had 
 ascended to the belfry and hung out a black flag 
 and continued ringing the bell furiously. The anvil 
 and pieces of fire arms were loaded with immense 
 charges of powder, and discharged continuously 
 under the windows until the glass in every window 
 in the house was shattered to pieces. By the ad- 
 vice of the bravest who still remained, I descended 
 from the pulpit, which was a high one, supported
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 133 
 
 by pillars, and standing beneath continued my re- 
 marks on the value of Sabbath-School instruction. 
 Every woman left the house but Mrs. Seward. She 
 took a chair and sat beside me until violence outside 
 of the building could do no more. But the mob 
 was not to be foiled. They devised an expedient 
 that closed the exercises and cleared the house : 
 Mrs. Seward and myself withdrawing with a few 
 others that had remained. They got above the 
 audience room and broke the ceiling through in 
 several places. Through these holes in the ceiling 
 they poured down powder upon the church floor, 
 and upon this they dropped fire which produced 
 explosions, that would have ignited and destroyed 
 the building, had not those who took such danger- 
 ous measures to expel us suppressed the fire when 
 we left the house. 
 
 The church stood for at least six months in a 
 shattered condition before the damages were re- 
 paired. It stands there still ; its former pastor is 
 still living. Since then, I presume, many of that 
 same company have heard valiant talk for liberty 
 in that pulpit ; and no doubt after the battle was 
 over some of them became valiant anti-slavery men. 
 But we will not contemn the conservatives, some 
 of them were better men than the ultra radicals 
 whom they opposed. The only radicalism that can 
 be trusted in all cases and places is that which is 
 produced by faith in Christ which works by love to 
 men. Gospel radicalism is produced by love to 
 men, and love of right conjoined. Natural radical-
 
 134 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 ism by love to self and love of right conjoined. In 
 the martyr age of the anti-slavery reform John G. 
 Fee was an example of the one Cassius M. Clay 
 of the other.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 13$ 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 AGENT OF THE AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY. 
 
 Before my term of four years at the college was 
 closed, I was invited to become an agent of the 
 American Bible Society to aid in an effort then 
 being made to supply all the families in the State 
 with the Bible. My field was the South-west half 
 of the State of Ohio. My business was to visit every 
 county-seat in my district, and organize a Bible 
 Society in each county where none existed, and 
 reorganize old societies that had ceased to act. In 
 order to do this it would be necessary to ride con- 
 tinually from one county to another, and often to 
 different portions of a county to visit prominent 
 men and ministers, and get their assistance in the 
 new organization. A part of my district was the 
 North-west frontier of the State, where the inhab- 
 itants were sparce roads were new, and agents for 
 benevolent societies were unknown or were mak- 
 ing their first visits. The other portion of my ter- 
 ritory included the oldest part of the State from 
 Cincinnati to Steubenville. I commenced my work 
 with a settled and prayerful purpose to do good as
 
 136 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 I had opportunity. I do not believe that in a ride 
 of two years, of the many with whom I rode in com- 
 pany portions of the way, or the multitude with 
 whom I associated by lodging in new places from 
 night to night, I neglected a single opportunity to 
 speak on the subject of the Christian faith not 
 speaking as a task or a duty for them or myself 
 but introducing the subject in a way natural to the 
 conversation, and rendering it easy for them to 
 speak of things they had heard or seen or felt in 
 regard to religious doctrines or practice. 
 
 A few incidents in this labor of two years have 
 left their impress on my memory. The duty of 
 agents in those days was more self-denying than 
 now. I rode the two years without tarrying a day 
 for rain or roads or weather ; and often went with- 
 out a meal in order to save expense to the society. 
 I formed in the city of Cincinnati, the Young Men's 
 Bible Society, which has done efficient work every 
 year from the period of its organization till the pres- 
 ent time. Salmon P. Chase we elected the first 
 president of the society, and he continued to act in 
 that capacity until called from the city by his duties 
 as U. S. Senator. From then until the present time 
 I have had some interest in his history ; and at 
 times some connection in a retired way with the 
 political progress of Chief Justice Chase, until his 
 elevation placed him above the range of my influ- 
 ence. He, however, did not forget his humble 
 friend. After his elevation to the Chief Justiceship, 
 I had some trouble with one of my publishers, who
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 137 
 
 endeavored to appropriate the copy-right of one of 
 my books. It was a book which Mr. Chase had ap- 
 preciated and commended in public and private 
 circles. When acquainted with the controversy, he 
 procured an opinion in my favor from ,one of the 
 best jurists in Washington city, and sent it gratuit- 
 ously to rrie. May the influence of his lofty life 
 abide in the Republic always. 
 
 With an excellent Episcopal clergyman of the 
 city the pastor of Mr. Chase I had an interview 
 which left a very different impression upon my 
 mind from that produced by subsequent familiar 
 intercourse with the same gentleman. I visited 
 him in company with a young man who had been a 
 college friend, and who was now studying medicine 
 in the city. The clergyman had once been a stu- 
 dent of medicine, and was very courteous and fa- 
 miliar with my friend, but said little to me, and gave 
 me no encouragement in regard to co-operation in 
 the formation of the Bible Society. Better success, 
 however, was achieved in other congregations and 
 the society was a success. I was not insensible to 
 the slight of Dr. A., and in conversation with the 
 gentleman who accompanied me to his study, I 
 learned that the doctor had never lived or labored 
 outside of cities. My apparel was that of a layman, 
 adapted to my labor in the new counties rather than 
 in the cities. Others understood this ; it is probable 
 he did not. He had never probably seen a man who 
 wore a cap and rough overcoat laboring for such 
 objects as I proposed to accomplish. He therefore
 
 138 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 made little account of my application, and was per- 
 haps in doubt whether there were not some mistake 
 or imposition somewhere. Other circumstances in 
 other connections led me to suspect that my appar- 
 el, although just the thing for the country churches, 
 was in the way of my access and success in the city. 
 I rectified matters on this subject ; and, although 
 opposed all my life to uniforms and ministerial garbs 
 for the clergy I procured for myself a citizen's suit 
 of genteel quality, which I found aided my sense 
 of respect and aided others to respect myself and 
 my mission. But my city suit I never wore in the 
 new counties. There the rough coat and beaver 
 cap, somewhat the worse for wear, induced famil- 
 iarity at once, and seemed to them more in keeping 
 with the mission of one asking aid from laboring 
 men to give the Bible to the poor and the destitute. 
 There are extremes on this subject. I have made 
 mistakes in regard to it. several times during my 
 life. Expensive and uncouth fashions ought to be 
 eschewed by people of conscience at all times, while 
 some regard to decent and becoming apparel is due 
 both to ourselves and to those with whom we asso- 
 ciate. 
 
 With the excellent Dr. Aydelotte, I had subse- 
 quently much pleasant and profitable intercourse, 
 and as I never mentioned the incidents of our first 
 interview, I presume he never surmised that the 
 author, editor and minister with whom he associ- 
 ated, was the man who once visited him in behalf 
 of the Bible Society, and who was treated with less
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 139 
 
 courtesy than his mission deserved. The doctor is 
 now an aged and venerable man. The years be- 
 tween middle life and age had passed without a 
 meeting. Last year we took each other's hand, 
 looked into each other's face as aged men, and 
 spoke of the days of other years. 
 
 During my service for the society I met in two 
 instances at least with Bishop Mcllvaine, who is un- 
 doubtedly the best Bishop of the Episcopal church 
 on either side of the water. In England it is not 
 possible for a bishop of the Episcopal church to be 
 a very good Christian. In this country the tempta- 
 tion to eschew the self-denying and humble and 
 laborious life of a Christian minister is not so great. 
 In two instances the Bishop held a confirmation in 
 the same county-seat on the same day with my ap- 
 pointment for the annual meeting of the county 
 Bible Society ; on both occasions he made a speech 
 for the Bible cause. In the county Claremont, as 
 usual, I was to introduce the business and make 
 an address in connection with the acceptance of the 
 report. I had prepared an address with care that I 
 generally delivered at each county-seat. On this 
 occasion, there were appreciative auditors present, 
 the Bishop among others, and I hoped to leave 
 thoughts upon their minds that would be profitable 
 in furthering the cause. I had scarcely become 
 earnest, however, in my discourse, before I felt my 
 coat twitching slightly. No conjecture of the cause 
 entered my mind. I adjusted my coat and went on. 
 The twitch was renewed with more energy. I
 
 140 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 turned to look and found the county treasurer, who 
 was likewise treasurer of the Bible Society, had 
 been laboring with the skirt of my coat, and when 
 I turned he mildly whispered to me that I had bet- 
 ter be short, as the people wanted to hear the 
 Bishop. My enthusiasm was squelched, of course, 
 and with a few embarrassed words I gave place to 
 the excellent man who was to follow. 
 
 The address which I was about to deliver was the 
 substance of that printed in the first chapter of the 
 "Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation." It has cir- 
 culated more widely through Christendom since 
 then than any other argument in behalf of Divine 
 Revelation. The Bishop did not hear it then, but 
 he read it at a later period, and unsolicited by me, 
 did much that aided the circulation of my little 
 volume : and upon my first visit to England, he 
 sent me a complimentary letter to his friends that 
 I found more influential with the best class of church 
 men, and likewise with the best class of dissenters, 
 than any other introductory letter that I took with 
 me. 
 
 The last time I saw the bishop he presided at the 
 commencement exercises of Gambier College where 
 I was invited to deliver the address and the diplo- 
 mas to one of the literary societies. At the close 
 he gave me a cordial greeting and signified his 
 hearty interest in the things I had spoken. I be- 
 lieve in the parity of the ministry, but if some 
 denominations must have bishops, I hope the Lord 
 will send them many such men as Bishop Mcllvaine.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 14! 
 
 Striking incidents often occurred in my visitation 
 of different counties in my Bible work. I found in 
 the interior of the State a family by the name of 
 Boydenot who claimed to be the nearest lineal de- 
 scendants of Dr. Boydenot President of Princeton 
 College, and first President of the American Bible 
 Society. The family were poor, and it was found 
 that they had no Bible in their house. One was 
 given to them as a gratuity. This was an incident 
 which their pious and learned ancestor could never 
 have anticipated. An incident too, which shows 
 the working of free republican institutions, which 
 makes nothing of a man's antecedents but every- 
 thing of what he is in himself and for his own time. 
 
 Late in the autumn I was traveling towards Ma- 
 rietta, in the poor and hilly region of the Little 
 Muskingum. Inhabitants on the road were few and 
 far between, and night was approaching ; I came to 
 a stream that was much swollen by rains that had 
 recently fallen. It was a long distance back to the 
 last house. I was lame with a severe bruise that 
 my horse had inflicted while I was endeavoring to 
 make him comfortable the preceding night. I 
 needed rest, and hoped there was some dwelling 
 near by if I were only over the swollen stream. But 
 the stream was rapid the bottom might be ob- 
 structed by stumps ; and below were trees lodged 
 in the stream, against which my horse might be car- 
 ried by the current. It was a moment of painful sus- 
 pense. I concluded to brave the danger ; and hav- 
 ing fastened my saddlebags, which contained my
 
 142 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 few papers and wardrobe on my shoulders, I, with 
 difficulty, urged my horse into the stream. He 
 swam bravely ; and, although swept some distance 
 by the current, we reached safely the other shore 
 my saddlebags dry, but my person drenched nearly 
 to my shoulders. For three lonesome miles I had 
 to ride, chilled and in pain, before I came to the 
 first house. It was in another creek bottom, and 
 proved to be that of a good farmer, justice of the 
 peace in his neighborhood. It was getting dark 
 the sight of the house was a relief, and the kindly 
 reception which I met was more than comforting. 
 My horse and myself were soon cared for ; and the 
 method by which I had my clothes dried I will not 
 relate. Suffice it, that after about an hour spent 
 under a bed quilt, during which my wet garments 
 were drying, we surrounded one of the most tooth- 
 some supper tables to which ever a hungry traveler 
 sat down. 
 
 Providence seemed to work all things together 
 for my comfort that night. The family expected 
 that on that night the Methodist circuit rider would 
 make his quarters at their house ; and, as was usual 
 in such cases, the best arrangements were made for 
 his entertainment. Indeed it was an effort with the 
 families on the outside circuits in those days to 
 show their degree of temporal prosperity by the 
 richness of their table during the minister's visit. 
 The minister had, undoubtedly, been detained by 
 the rains and swollen streams. I sat in his place ; 
 and the family seemed to be glad that their culinary
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 143 
 
 preparation was not made in vain. We had stewed 
 chicken and dough-nuts, and ham and eggs and 
 short-cake mashed potatoes with butter on the 
 top, and "store coffee," with other fixings and 
 fringes which I have forgotten. A sense of propri- 
 ety led me to restrain the eagerness with which I 
 appropriated the substantial items of the farmer's 
 table ; but I have no doubt I manifested sufficient 
 eagerness to indicate my appreciation of the repast. 
 This family lived on a "bottom farm" in the hilly 
 and sparcely settled region of the Little Muskin- 
 gum to which the old hunters had retired as popu- 
 lation increased in the better portions of the State. 
 The squire entertained me with a recital of some 
 of the services he had performed as a magistrate. 
 They would scarcely be believed in our time, and 
 yet they were no doubt exactly true. The men 
 who were married were usually those who had 
 "voted for the squire," and whose finances were 
 sensibly affected by the payment of "half a dollar 
 in specie." One couple had been married, with no 
 attendants the man in his shirt sleeves, the woman 
 barefoot. Another was unable to meet the expense 
 at the time, but he had "squatted" on a piece of 
 land and promised to pay the bill in pumpkins the 
 succeeding fall, which promise was faithfully kept, 
 indicating perhaps that he was satisfied with his 
 bargain. I left the squire's hospitable home in 
 much better condition than when I arrived. He 
 refused any compensation. My expression of grat- 
 itude for bed and board were hearty and sincere.
 
 144 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 At the other side of the State before the white 
 people had settled on the Maumee river, an incident 
 occurred that left quite a different impression upon 
 my mind. I had rode through the Black Swamp, 
 which was then almost impassable, between Little 
 Sandusky and Maumee city. There I met Mr. Van 
 Tassel, missionary to the Ottawa Indians, at whose 
 invitation I rode to the mission station, some dis- 
 tance up the Maumee to spend a day or two, and 
 visit the Indian camps. During my stay the mis- 
 sionary and myself took a canoe and "paddled" up 
 the stream to the camp of the Indians in order to 
 witness the pow wow which they annually cele- 
 brated at the season of corn-gathering. Two long 
 rows of logs were on fire, and between these the 
 Indians were holding a dance, in which they leaped 
 and contorted and swayed their persons in the most 
 violent manner some of them humming meanwhile 
 a low monotonous strain in accord with the noise 
 of a sort of drum which was shaken by an old man 
 sitting apart from the dancers. A prophet or 
 "meteer" was on a visit to them and sat near the 
 "music man." A portion of the Indians which had 
 previously left the region had returned, much dis- 
 satisfied with the treaty by which they had conveyed 
 their lands to the Government. After spending 
 some time witnessing the strange movements and 
 grimace of the dance Mr. VanTassel and his half- 
 breed interpreter with myself in company, visited 
 some of the tents or lodges of those with whom 
 they were well acquainted. I was reclining on a
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 145 
 
 raised seat covered with skins at the side of the 
 lodge, when an Indian thoroughly intoxicated en- 
 tered. He mistook me I was afterwards told for 
 an agent of the Government, and proceeded to 
 make an extravagant and threatening address to 
 me concerning the alleged fraud. His gestures 
 were violent, and performed in near proximity to 
 my face. The interpreter and missionary made 
 earnest efforts to appease him, but he seemed ob- 
 livious to their explanations, and they could only 
 advise me to keep composed and his rage would 
 subside. I felt uneasy ; and when the drunken war- 
 rior proceeded to draw his tomahawk and flourish 
 it to indicate how such men as me ought to be dealt 
 with, I was thoroughly frightened, and although the 
 interpreter seemed to be ready to seize his arm if 
 he should make the movement to strike I was 
 chilled with apprehension ; and I remember no time 
 in my life when I felt a greater sense of relief, than 
 when the wild Indian subsided into a quieter mood 
 and returned his tomahawk to his belt. 
 
 I have known something of missionaries to the 
 Indians since I visited the old station on the Mau- 
 mee. To the Christian colony which I aided to es- 
 tablish in the woods of Northern Michigan three 
 men with their families came to reside. They had 
 gone out from Oberlin as missionaries, without aid 
 from any society, trusting to God for sustenance 
 and guidance. They labored at Red Lake, in the 
 cold and distant region of Northern Minnesota. 
 They were men of faith and prayer and labor. But
 
 146 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 after years of toil and self-sacrifice almost to death, 
 they abandoned the Indians and returned poor in 
 all respects except the life of God in their souls. 
 
 They were never able to make the Indians believe 
 that they were disinterested laborers for their good. 
 This, perhaps, is not strange ; men who have no 
 faith, whether savage or civilized, cannot believe 
 that one man can seek the good of others as the 
 end and aim of his life. Every man naturally seeks 
 his own good as his supreme end ; hence he can 
 have no evidence from his own experience that such 
 a state of mind as disinterested benevolence can 
 exist. His experience is against it. Hence, the 
 Indians naturally believe there is some selfish mo- 
 tive back of every effort for their good. These 
 good men thought the providence mysterious that 
 led them to the sacrifice which they made with but 
 bitter fruit of their labor. They did the work of 
 God which no other men probably would have 
 done. The divine plan is to offer the truth in the 
 gospel spirit, to a people, then, if they reject it, 
 their end will come by Providential Judgments. 
 These men fulfilled the divine plan successfully 
 and faithfully. God does not usually give heathen 
 lands as an inheritance to his church by conversion 
 of the people. The business of the church is to 
 preach the truth then, when truth is rejected Prov- 
 idence sends war wicked men or pestilence, or 
 famine to remove the heathen and give the land 
 to his own people. Such will be the history of the 
 Indians in America.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 147 
 
 I left the Maumee mission which had been estab- 
 lished by Western Presbyterians, and passed by an 
 Indian trail fifteen miles through the Black Swamp 
 to the nearest settlement. After reaching Colum- 
 bus, Ohio, I proceeded by the Great National Road 
 projected by Henry Clay, as a thoroughfare of traffic 
 and travel between the East and West. The con- 
 ception of railroads and their uses, was not yet 
 developed in the mind of the great commoner. The 
 bed of the road was thrown up east of Columbus, 
 but not yet macadamized. I had therefore, often 
 to leave the road-bed on account of the impassable 
 mire and take a side path. In one of these circuits, 
 in descending to a small stream, about eight miles 
 more or less from the city I came upon what was 
 called a sponge. It was ground that looked fair 
 enough on the surface, but being saturated by 
 springs beneath, my horse sank at one plunge to 
 his neck in the mire. I succeeded in getting rid of 
 the animal, which struggled fearfully, and finally act- 
 ually rolled over down the hillside. Saddle, saddle- 
 bags and all things else were thoroughly covered 
 with mud and water. I led the horse a short dis- 
 tance across the stream, on the farther bank of 
 which stood a country tavern, where I gave the 
 landlord a moderate sum to have the animal and 
 his paraphernalia washed and dried for progress in 
 the morning. 
 
 At this wayside inn, the Irishmen who broke 
 stone on the National Road had their quarters. 
 The boss of the stone crackers was the only man
 
 148 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 in the mess who had a single bed. Other straw 
 beds or "shakedowns" all occupied by two or more 
 of the men. I was courteously invited by the boss 
 himself to share his bunk. He was a large Irish- 
 man and there was but little space for me ; and 
 having refused to partake of a "jigger of whisky," 
 I did not wish to offend a man so drunk and rude 
 and dirty as he was. Besides there was no altern- 
 ative but to sit by the fire, lie on the floor, or sleep 
 with the boss. If I had had even a partial appre- 
 hension before undressing of the evil to come I 
 certainly should have preferred to have slept with 
 my horse in the stable. I have slept in some strange 
 places in my life by land and sea, but a night so 
 repulsive to my sensibility in all respects I never 
 passed. It seemed as though the fumes of whisky 
 and tobacco not only expired, but exhaled and ex- 
 uded from every pore of the Irishman's person. To 
 separate myself from the body of pollution was im- 
 possible, as there was no room in the bed by which 
 I could lie apart from my bed-fellow. How I longed 
 for day-light no mortal can tell. I always eschewed 
 tobacco, and since that night I have felt even more 
 disposed to eschew all chewers of the filthy weed. 
 Many years afterwards in endeavoring to establish 
 a Christian church and colony in the woods of 
 Northern Michigan, I had a clause inserted in the 
 charter excluding the sale of tobacco upon any of 
 the lots and lands of the colonists. The experience 
 of that night, no doubt, prompted to the exclusion, 
 of the filthy narcotic.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 149 
 
 During the latter portion of my term of service 
 as an agent of the American Bible Society, I was 
 married to a young woman from New England, who 
 was residing in the family of Professor Nutting, of 
 Hudson, Ohio. She was a student in the ladies' 
 Seminary, and taught school and labored as need 
 required for self-support. From the change of 
 mind when I saw God in nothing, to the time I saw 
 God in everything, I had prayed naturally, not at 
 stated times and places, but as a constant state of 
 mind, in regard to all things in which I took a per- 
 sonal interest. And now that I thought of uniting 
 myself with a life companion I prayed with great 
 earnestness for the divine interposition and guid- 
 ance. I had no doubt that for the obedient Christian 
 matches are made in heaven. The characteristics of 
 my wife supplemented those of my own. My weak 
 points of character were antagonized or strength- 
 ened by her different qualities, and I do not believe 
 there was any other woman who could have aided 
 with more skill and efficiency the accomplishment 
 of the various labors of my life. She still lives to 
 review in age and infirmity the arduous and diver- 
 sified labors through which she has passed with her 
 husband. She knew that I unduly appreciated my 
 own efforts, and I never heard her utter a word of 
 praise in regard to any of my labors, either in bus- 
 iness or in the pulpit ; and, although a woman of 
 strong will, yet she never objected to any change 
 of residence or of labor which I proposed. She 
 strongly desired to attend church in all cases when
 
 150 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 I was to preach, and did so when it was with the 
 greatest difficulty that she could ascend the steps 
 of the sanctuary. I have since been sure that she 
 went to pray while I was preaching. Three sepa- 
 rate attacks of paralysis have reduced her in all re- 
 spects to a second infancy ; yet, any attention from 
 her husband is a comfort even in her second child- 
 hood. 
 
 Soon after our marriage one of the ludicrous in- 
 cidents that sometimes befall public speakers, who 
 commit their manuscripts, occurred at a time and 
 place well adapted to abate self-complacency. I 
 was invited to deliver a fourth of July oration in 
 Nelson, Ohio, not far from Hudson College. Two 
 speeches were to be made one by Judge Hitch- 
 cock, afterwards of the Supreme Court, the other 
 by myself. The committee, perhaps, designed to ar- 
 range for something judicial and weighty, and some- 
 thing that might be more popular and exhilarating. 
 The audience was large and contained the elite of 
 the country round about. I had written and com- 
 mitted my speech something I have never done 
 since. But on this occasion the position of the asso- 
 ciate orator, and the presence of the woman towards 
 whom I had the feeling that I suppose men gener- 
 ally possess the first months of married life, led me 
 to devote some time and study to make a good 
 thing of my speech, which was destined to be elo- 
 quent and edifying, and good otherwise in a degree 
 that would give my wife, and everybody else pres- 
 ent, a proper appreciation of my qualities.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 151 
 
 I stood up and "spoke my piece" about half 
 through, when the chain of association broke, and 
 what followed of the speech dropped entirely from 
 my memory. To make the matter more perplex- 
 ing I did not have my manuscript in my pocket 
 but in my hat, which sat on a window-sill near 
 where my wife was seated about the middle of the 
 audience. The only alternative, however, was to 
 ask for my hat, which was delivered to me ; and the 
 balance of the oration was read from the manu- 
 script, and must have seemed to the audience very 
 much like the notes of a hymn tune after a Christ- 
 mas carol. I was pious and could see after reflec- 
 tion that I had been possessed with a selfish desire 
 to distinguish myself; and I had grace enough to 
 be thankful for the providence that caused the fail- 
 ure ; and when I found that the misadventure had 
 no effect upon my wife except to create sympathy 
 and apparently more kindly respect, I drove home 
 from the gathering a happier man than I was when 
 I went. The admonition produced a wise caution ; 
 and subsequently, in all my efforts, I endeavored to 
 master the subject matter of my discourse, and used 
 copious notes of the train of thought, depending 
 upon .myself for words, and upon God for guidance 
 in what I had to say. 
 
 There was not much time for literary labor while 
 riding from one county to another holding annual 
 meetings adjusting accounts and putting Bible 
 Societies into working condition. I did not, how- 
 ever, lose interest in historic incidents ; and some-
 
 152 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 times riding alone through the woods, when I was 
 not singing the nth part of the iigth Pslam, as 
 rendered by Watts, my mind gave poetical form to 
 incidents learned by the way. 
 
 In the county of Tuscarawas, there is the little 
 village of Gnadenhutten, where the first white man 
 who ever trod the soil of the State of Ohio lived 
 and taught the Indians. He was a Moravian mis- 
 sionary, and at the date of my visit the Moravian 
 church still held the ground occupied by the old 
 Indian Mission. A few Moravian families still re- 
 mained at the old site. They were ministered to 
 by a pastor of their own godly denomination. I 
 had learned to reverence the Moravians for their 
 missionary zeal, and desired to see some of the peo- 
 ple, and to visit the locality of the fearful massacre 
 of the missionaries and Indians which had occurred 
 at this place. Returning I wrote the following 
 verses : 
 
 i. 
 
 Throw up thine arms, thou sycamore tree, 
 For rich is the soil that nourishes thee; 
 And the vine that climbs round thy branches high, 
 Should yield its clusters of rubric dye; 
 Kor the earth which the fostering juice imparts 
 Is drench'd in the blood of the red men's hearts. 
 
 II. 
 
 'Tis a strange, wild tale that they tell of thee 
 Thou clambering vine and sycamore tree; 
 They say that in time, long- past and gone, 
 The red man rov'd in these wilds alone; 
 That here, in the midst of this circling wood, 
 In the days of old, a village stood 
 Where the warrior Indian, wild and free, 
 Rejoic'd in primeval liberty.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 153 
 
 III. 
 
 A man of God, from the rising sun, 
 Came to Gnadenhutten and Shoenbrunn; 
 And he taught the Indians to love the name 
 Of Him who on errands of mercy came: 
 They heard his talk with rev'rent fear, 
 And leaned on their bows around to hear; 
 Then buried the hatchet, and tilled the sod, 
 And bow'd to worship the white man's God. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Thus far in the wilderness' solitude, 
 Midst the tall old trees, and the mountains rude, 
 In prayers and praises, the ancient race 
 Lifted their hearts to the God of grace. 
 
 V. 
 
 But cruel War seized his flaming brand, 
 And shook at heaven his bloody hand; 
 And the warrior Indian seized the bow 
 And lurk'd like the panther for his foe; 
 But the Christian Indians would not sing 
 The song of war in their council ring 
 Yet Suspicion whisper'd the Christians prayed 
 And plann'd for their warrior brothers' aid. 
 
 VI. 
 
 "Twas Autumn, when Ceres fills her horn 
 With the ripen'd ears of the golden corn, 
 When a band of pale-faced warriors came 
 With words of peace, in the Christian's name, 
 But their words of peace were spoke in guile, 
 With a " forked tongue " and a siren's smile. 
 
 VII. 
 
 At even, about the close of day, 
 They took the Indians' arms away; 
 And they gathered them in that sacred place 
 Which their hands had rear'd for prayer and praise, 
 Then told their doom, as History saith, 
 Indians an hour! then meet your death! 
 
 VIII. 
 
 'Twas fearful tidings the red man stood, 
 In the pride of their race, in solemn mood ; 
 But their cheeks blanch'd not, nor a quicken'd breath 
 Betray'd the fear of approaching- death 
 All kneel'd in silence and rais'd their eyes 
 To the God that heard their suppliant cries.
 
 154 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 IX. 
 
 An hour elapsed The white men came 
 And with deadly rifle took deadly aim, 
 And they rent the breasts of the Indians there, 
 As they kneeled and lifted their hearts in prayer. 
 
 X. 
 
 Now far in the West the Indian sire, 
 As he sits by his wigwam's flickering fire, 
 Oft tells the tale of what things were done 
 At Gnadenhutten and Shoenbrunn. 
 
 For the past sixty years each period of twenty 
 years has been a cycle of speculation and revulsion. 
 Property appreciates in value. The currency is 
 expanded. Purchases of real estate are made for 
 the purpose of speculation that is, to sell at higher 
 figures. The inflated currency encourages the bor- 
 rower. The borrower becomes the speculator 
 and this continues until property in large amounts 
 is held above its value for present purposes, and 
 thus kept out of the hands of those who buy for 
 use. This cannot last long. The borrower has to 
 pay, and the property held by him at last reaches a 
 figure that does not pay ; hence, a reaction com- 
 mences. A decline in prices toward its value for 
 present use begins. When the decline begins each 
 holder makes haste to realize in view of a greater 
 decline, and a panic ensues that puts real estate, 
 and, with it, the produce of real estate, down below 
 their actual value. Wages fall, because improve- 
 ments stop, and they continue until by emigration 
 and the natural growth of our new country, an equi- 
 librium again takes place, and a new period of spec- 
 ulation and expansion begins ; to be followed by
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 1 55 
 
 another revolution, when speculation again places 
 property beyond its value for present use. 
 
 Such a period of speculation was passed between 
 the years 1835-45. Having disposed of my print- 
 ing office, I proposed to myself to invest the pro- 
 ceeds in lands or lots that would appreciate, and 
 thus freed from the care of accumulation in the 
 present, and the fear of want in old age, it was my 
 purpose to study theology and devote my life to 
 the gospel ministry. My idea was to invest my 
 means in wild lands or lots in growing towns and 
 pay no more attention to worldly interests. I pro- 
 posed, when prepared to preach, to labor where I 
 could do the most good, irrespective of salary fur- 
 ther than sufficient to furnish food and raiment for 
 my family, which consisted only of three persons 
 self, wife and sister-in-law. 
 
 With this purpose I started on horseback with 
 Frederick Brown brother of John Brown, of Har- 
 per's Ferry to invest my spare funds in new lands 
 in Michigan, and lots in Chicago. It was early in 
 March. The weather the first days of our journey 
 was extremely cold, and we were almost frozen be- 
 fore we reached Toledo. At that time the question 
 was where the great city at the mouth of the Mau- 
 mee was to be located. There was Maumee city 
 projected above, and Toledo in its present site, and 
 another city farther down, towards Lake Michigan. 
 There are at this day some old houses and frames 
 of houses in the lower town still standing that were 
 built about the time of our visit. Maumee city
 
 156 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 above, is a small, dilapidated village. Toledo is a 
 thriving commercial city ; and property which we 
 considered too high to purchase at a few hundreds 
 of dollars, is now worth tens of thousands ; and 
 property in the other city, for which hundreds were 
 asked, is now not worth so many cents. 
 
 We passed on and made our next stop and in- 
 quiry for investment at a new city just laid out 
 where the road from Detroit crossed the St. Joseph 
 river. There was then a blacksmith shop, a tavern, 
 a grist mill, and perhaps one or two other houses. 
 It was supposed to be the head of navigation on the 
 St. Joseph. We inquired for lots, and were told 
 that the business lots were mostly sold ; but the 
 landlord showed us at the distance of about one- 
 half mile, on an elevation, the place where the first- 
 class dwelling houses were to be ; and when he 
 informed us we could get lots that would, beyond 
 question, double in value in a short time, as the 
 business lots had already done. We believe not 
 more than two houses were ever added to the pop- 
 ulation of the place. 
 
 At the tavern in this place we met a gentleman 
 that had disposed of his stock of merchandise and 
 the good-will of a thriving business, and was on his 
 way to St. Joseph, the name of a city on Lake 
 Michigan, at the mouth of St. Joseph river. He 
 had bought for $20,000 a farm at the mouth of this 
 river, where he was about to lay out a city, and in- 
 vited us to purchase lots, while we could get good 
 locations. He was willing: to sell lots for one-half
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 157 
 
 what they would be worth so soon as the location 
 was known ? and one-tenth of what they would be 
 worth in a few years. 
 
 Some years afterwards, while living in Chicago, 
 we frequently crossed the lake at St. Joe. It being 
 the end of the stage route in former years before 
 the railroad was finished. 
 
 There stands now on the old site a large three- 
 story frame hotel, capable of holding hundreds of 
 travelers ; and scattered over a large area of vacant 
 land are houses vacant of tenants, and falling to 
 pieces. The hotel, we suppose, was built by the 
 first proprietor to accommodate purchasers flocking 
 to buy city lots. The deserted houses were built 
 by the first or second purchasers of lots in order to 
 begin the new city. Such was St. Joseph when we 
 saw it twenty years ago ; and such are multitudes 
 of other projected cities in the West. Maps were 
 made of the new cities and lots changed hands by 
 the map. One succeeded fifty failed. 
 
 We could not see as the landlord did, the future 
 city at the crossing of the St. Joe., so we rode on 
 to Elkhart. Here speculators had preceded us, and 
 the property on what was to be the business street 
 had changed hands, and lots were held at a high 
 figure. There was a projected water power on the 
 river, a short distance above the village. We were 
 shown how the dam was to be constructed across 
 the stream, and the power was to be as valuable as 
 that at Lowell. It was supposed too, that the man- 
 ufacturing city would not injure the prospects of
 
 158 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 Elkhart, but that the greatness of the one would 
 rather be auxiliary to the greatness of the other. 
 We had not means enough to invest in so valuable 
 a location, and concluded not to buy. 
 
 By this time the weather was getting warm, and 
 the roads were breaking up and becoming almost 
 impassable for horses. My companion concluded 
 not to go further towards Chicago. Speculation 
 was at the advance state, and we both concluded 
 that prices were too high to make profitable invest- 
 ments. We learned likewise that prices in Chicago 
 were exorbitant ; and ten years subsequently, when 
 the reaction had spent its force, I bought a lot in 
 Chicago for less than was asked for them ten years 
 previously. Reaction had ensued. 
 
 We started on our return home unwilling to in- 
 vest at the prices asked for lots in the prospective 
 cities. 
 
 We concluded to purchase a lot or two of wild 
 land and return home. To accomplish this we 
 traveled up the St. Joseph river to a point where 
 land was to be had at low rates and some govern- 
 ment land still remained in the region. While ex- 
 amining a tract on which there was a "wet prairie," 
 Mr. Brown's horse sank under him through the 
 surface soil of the prairie, and horse and man came 
 near going down. When extricated from his pre- 
 dicament he expressed disgust with the location, 
 land and latitude, and determined to return home 
 and save his money. I concluded to stay longer 
 and make a purchase. Next morning we parted
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 159 
 
 company. Subsequently I purchased two pieces 
 of land, and exchanged the excellent horse which 
 I rode for two village lots which some one had laid 
 out on the banks of the river near by. The location 
 was called Bristol ; there was but one house on the 
 site of the new city whether another was ever 
 built I do not know. I think, however, there is a 
 village of Bristol on the line of the Southern Mich- 
 igan Rail Road which is probably the old location 
 where I made my first investment in town lots. 
 
 On our return home the stage got fast in the 
 road, at night, somewhere east of Sturges' Prairie, 
 and some of the fastenings breaking, and no dwell- 
 ing house near, we had to sit in the coach till 
 morning. Other misadventures incident to the 
 early times in the West occurred, but we reached 
 home in safety; and having expended the little bal- 
 ance of our funds in the purchase of a dwelling 
 house, we took several boarders to aid in paying 
 expenses, and I commenced the study of theology 
 preparatory to preaching the gospel. 
 
 I continued the study of theology, at Hudson, 
 under Prof. Hickox, now president of Union Col- 
 lege, Schenectady. After about nine months had 
 passed, an incident occurred which hastened the 
 event of my licensure. A young man by the name 
 of Canfield, who had been suspended at some east- 
 ern institution, had been admitted to Oberlin, and 
 after a short term in that institution he had com- 
 menced preaching in a neighboring congregation 
 without license. The people were unwilling to dis-
 
 l6o PIONEER LIFE 
 
 miss him, and the dilemma came up for the con- 
 sideration of the Presbytery either to license him, 
 or lose the congregation. They concluded to li- 
 cense him, and in order to have an apology for the 
 procedure of licensing an Oberlin student, preach- 
 ing irregularly, with imperfect education, they con- 
 cluded to invite me to secure a license at the same 
 time ; and the Presbytery was called to meet at 
 my house, and Mr. Canfield and myself were li- 
 censed to preach the gospel. Neither of us having 
 graduated in the literary course, and our theology 
 being attained in a few months. 
 
 It ought to be said, however, that Bible studies 
 in college and Bible classes, and the discussions 
 of doctrinal theories and revivals of religion in 
 which the theory of the Holy Spirit was taught, 
 were so common in those days, that I have no 
 doubt we were, both of us, better prepared to meet 
 the practical requirements of the age and lead a 
 congregation in doctrine and labor, than the mere 
 preaching machines made by literary and theolog- 
 ical training usually are. Canfield, in order to 
 licensure as I feared at the time, became quite con- 
 servative and orthodox, and passed his examination 
 in form with the Presbytery and the older pastors 
 received and exchanged pulpits with him at once. 
 I was known as an Abolitionist, and one inclined 
 to favor the Oberlin movement ; and then the re- 
 membrance of my newspaper management, caused 
 some of the Presbytery to look with disfavor on 
 my examination. They argued that I would not
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. l6l 
 
 co-operate with the Presbytery, and absented them- 
 selves when the vote was taken on the question of 
 licensing me to preach. 
 
 Canfield was true to the Presbytery. He subse- 
 quently repudiated Oberlin Theology, and wrote 
 a pamphlet against their doctrine of perfection. 
 He had talent and soon found a pulpit in a city 
 church. The slave received from him no aid. He 
 preached the Orthodox faith, and still continues to 
 get a first-rate salary in a first-class church. 
 
 I was licensed, and prepared to preach in a small 
 church in the neighborhood, but the Adullamites 
 of the Presbytery opposed, and I preached my first 
 sermon at Akron. The people heard me gladly 
 urged the Presbytery to ordain and settle me with 
 them. They assented. I could pass no exami- 
 nation in the languages having but an imperfect 
 knowledge of all from Latin to Hebrew. But of 
 the English tongue I had knowledge and command. 
 And I studied a little volume on theology prepared 
 for Bible classes, and had the happiness to hear 
 that a new member of Presbytery, a graduate in 
 literature and theology who had recently settled at 
 Franklin, said while I was retired after examination, 
 that he had never heard so satisfactory an exami- 
 nation before in doctrinal theology. The ordina- 
 tion dinner was eaten, and the brethren went home, 
 and I began my labors as pastor of the Congrega- 
 tional church in Akron, and member of the Pres- 
 bytery of Portage.
 
 l62 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 EDITOR AND REFORMER. 
 
 The first religious paper published in the United 
 States was published in the old town of Chillicothe, 
 Ohio, by Mr. Andrews, a Presbyterian minister of 
 the pioneer age of the West. Two or three had 
 subsequently been established at the East, when 
 the Ohio Observer was originated at Cleveland, by 
 Hermon Kingsbury, Esq. It was patronized by 
 the early Congregational families of Northern Ohio. 
 After the Western Reserve College had been estab- 
 lished at Hudson, it was removed to that place, 
 but its patronage not paying expenses I was in- 
 vited to take charge of the paper, and continue, if 
 possible, the publication. My wife had saved some- 
 thing by teaching school in Southern Ohio, while I 
 had gained a little by the most rigid economy. 
 Our means combined enabled us to make the first 
 payment on the office, and to provide first things 
 absolutely necessary for housekeeping, when we 
 should arrive at our new home. 
 
 We started in the early spring to travel the length 
 of the State, from West Union in the south to Hud-
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 163 
 
 son in the north of Ohio. We journeyed, as the 
 stages generally did, by day and night. The first 
 night our progress was hindered by a storm and a 
 swollen stream on the route, and we sought shelter 
 about midnight in a log cabin upon the banks of 
 the creek. A bed, with a bed-companion that need 
 not be described, was provided for my wife. I and 
 the other passengers lay on the floor. We were 
 drenched by the rain, and made up a brisk fire, and 
 our feet being wet and chilly I placed mine in closer 
 proximity to the hot coals than was wise. I had 
 on boots and rubber overshoes, and being weary I 
 soon fell into a deep sleep, which before morning 
 was broken by a sensation that my feet were in a 
 furnace. I started up to find my rubber overshoes 
 scorching hot partly melted and partly indurated. 
 They adhered to my feet with a tenacity that my 
 strength could not overcome. And when I rose to 
 make the effort the heat seemed to increase to an 
 intensity that destroyed all calmness. I made an 
 outcry that was unseemly, but which roused the 
 other passengers, as though the house had been on 
 fire. There were some frightened and some ludi- 
 crous looking features, as all suggested and aided 
 in the effort to detach the melted rubber and 
 scorched boots and saturated stockings. After I 
 had been extricated I felt a joy in being barefoot 
 more than that experienced as country school boy, 
 when I discarded my shoes, in the first days of 
 summer. 
 
 When we reached the neighborhood of Mt. Ver-
 
 1 64 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 non the roads became impassable in some places. 
 The male passengers had often to get put, and with 
 the aid of rails from neighboring fences, aid to ex- 
 tricate the vehicle. We had left the main road and 
 were proceeding hopefully on a side track not so 
 much gullied by travel, when an incident occurred 
 that we had expected hourly for some time the 
 stage upset. The old coach went down slowly, 
 and the jaded horses made no disturbance. The 
 passengers were settled into a pile at the bottom 
 side of the conveyance. No harm being done ex- 
 cept the slight contusions and inconvenience expe- 
 rienced by the undermost from the incumbent 
 weight of those above them. All righted them- 
 selves as soon as possible, and looked about for a 
 place of egress from the old coach. 
 
 The coaches in those days had sliding windows 
 in the sides, hence the one directly above us offered 
 egress into the open air. An invalid young man, 
 who had been suffering from jaundice and ague, 
 prevalent in the early times, was inspired by fright 
 and nervousness with extraordinary agility ; and 
 leaping up to the window above, got his head and 
 arms through the aperture, while he had strength 
 to get no further. Thus he blockaded the passage, 
 while his nether extremities hung dangling about 
 the faces of those inside. In this situation the lady- 
 passengers, in their haste to get out, forgot for a 
 time the extreme modesty in which there is no profit. 
 Before the gentlemen had time to make themselves 
 masters of the situation, one of the ladies had
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 165 
 
 grasped the invalid by one leg, while another seiz- 
 ing the other, they struggled womanfully to elevate 
 him through the passage of egress. The gentle- 
 men soon rallied to their aid ; but I know that the 
 ludicrousness of the scene so affected some of them 
 that their aid in elevating the man with the ague 
 was not of much account. When the passage was 
 cleared one of the gentlemen passed out and stand- 
 ing upon the top side of the fallen coach aided the 
 passengers ladies first of course into the open air. 
 
 After the storm, one of those sudden changes of 
 temperature occurred which often takes place at 
 the West in the early spring. The weather became 
 quite cold. The surface of the mud was frozen, 
 and the horses " slumped " i. e., broke through the 
 crust of frozen mud, and sunk, often knee deep, in 
 the mire below. 
 
 To make rapid progress was impossible, and the 
 coach was an incumbrance. Some of our passen- 
 gers were left at Cleveland. The few who desired 
 to proceed farther, were put into a strong open 
 wagon, into which passengers, mail and trunks 
 were packed, without regard either to care or com- 
 fort. In such condition, on a cold, bleak day, after 
 a ride of eight hours, we reached our destination at 
 Hudson. I have made many trips in the stage 
 coach, and had been capsized many times, but the 
 incidents of the trip across the State to enter upon 
 new duties in the printing office was a marked 
 experience. 
 
 Our first home was plain enough. We had pro-
 
 l66 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 posed to live within our income. And, although 
 since then we have resided in a villa residence, the 
 pleasantest in one of the pleasantest interior cities 
 of Ohio ; yet, I do not think we were more happy in 
 our mansion than we were in our first rented house. 
 We began without carpets ; we used large stones 
 for andirons ; our chairs were of the cheapest con- 
 struction. My wife, for a time, did her own labor, 
 and sometimes sat up until the middle of the night 
 to prepare the necessary furnishing for beds and 
 other first things in our humble home. I was pub- 
 lisher, editor, and sometimes printer. Thus we 
 worked on, every month gaining more ease and 
 adding comforts. We first spread a cotton carpet 
 on one room. This after a time was removed to 
 another room and a woolen one laid down. The 
 stone andirons were removed to give place to iron 
 ones, and these again to brass ; and in every ad- 
 vance in any direction there was more real pleasure 
 than when the rich man, who has no taste for art, 
 adds some artistic ornament to the adornments of 
 his mansion. Before we closed our connection with 
 the paper we were as comfortably and as tastefully 
 conditioned as the average of our neighbors. Every 
 day grateful to God for his goodness. 
 
 The first newspapers in the West were usually 
 managed by practical printers, and most of the type 
 set by boys. I had been a printer boy myself, and 
 could understand their wants and ways. Four 
 young lads aided in the printing office. It was our 
 purpose to train these boys for usefulness and
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. l6/ 
 
 inculcate in their hearts the principles of the gos- 
 pel. With a good common school education, the 
 labor of three years in a printing office will prepare 
 a good boy for any trade or profession, often better 
 than the same time spent in the colleges of the 
 country. The printer boys labored a certain num- 
 ber of hours and spent two hours each day in study 
 under the guidance of one of the college students. 
 They sat with us at our family table reciting a verse 
 of scripture each morning with the rest of the fam- 
 ily. At night they sang with us and kneeled with 
 us in worship, and on the Sabbath, when there was 
 a contribution for any benevolent object, they had 
 their mite with the rest of us to cast into the con- 
 tribution ; and in the evening of the Sabbath there 
 was a family talk suitable to interest and instruct 
 young minds. In such exercises, interspersed with 
 such amusements as boys need, passed the weeks 
 and months for two years in the office and in the 
 family. Then circumstances rendered it desirable 
 that I should sell the property. When the paper 
 was sold, although a Christian minister was the pur- 
 chaser, he was unwilling to make the conditions 
 which a Christian man should have made with my 
 boys and they returned to their homes or sought 
 employment in other places. They all professed, 
 during the two years, obedience to Christ, and two 
 of them were admitted to membership in the church. 
 We have noted with interest the history of our 
 printer boys. One of them is a Presbyterian min- 
 ister one is a successful lawyer one became clerk
 
 l68 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 in a retail store, and finally succeeded to a share of 
 the business. The youngest is editor and proprie- 
 tor of a successful newspaper in Illinois. Another 
 one, who was with us but a short time returned 
 home. We have not learned his history, but have 
 confidence that his life has been a success. 
 
 The anti-slavery sentiment was strong at the 
 periods of the Revolution and the war of 1812. 
 Franklin, Clay and Harrison were in their day each 
 members of Emancipation Societies. The men who 
 originated the anti-slavery discussion which termi- 
 nated in the overthrow of the slaveholder's power 
 were western men. Foremost among them were a 
 company of Presbyterian ministers, settled along 
 the southern border of the State of Ohio. Some of 
 them had been driven from the slave States for the 
 offence of teaching colored children on the Sab- 
 bath. Of these, Rev. John Rankin was one. These 
 men preached against slavery their presbytery 
 denounced slave-trading, and John Rankin wrote 
 his Letters on Slavery, which were widely circu- 
 lated both East and West, before Garrison was im- 
 prisoned. The Genius of Emancipation, published 
 by Benjamin Lundy in the new region of Illinois, 
 was the first and truest of all the anti-slavery pa- 
 pers. From the Letters of John Rankin, William 
 Lloyd Garrison received his conviction of the evil 
 of slavery a fact which he magnanimously ac- 
 knowledged in public and private. It was from 
 these men that Thomas Morris secured his convic- 
 tionsthe first man that stood up to denounce
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 169 
 
 slavery and demand emancipation in the American 
 Congress. John Rankin is yet living, having 
 worked in the anti-slavery reform from its incep- 
 tion to the overthrow of the inhuman institution 
 by a war brought on by the force of truth and 
 prayer on the one side and the insanity of the 
 guilty on the other. 
 
 When the anti-slavery sentiment began to extend 
 itself in Ohio, the churches and colleges were placed 
 on probation, as they are by every reform which 
 demands the suppression of evil and the advance 
 of righteousness in society. The Western Reserve 
 College was the first institution in the West to ac- 
 cept and advocate the doctrine of the abolitionists. 
 The three leading professors were active agitators 
 in the early years of the discussion. Greene and 
 Wright were men of unusual intellectual acumen. 
 President Storrs was a man of marked religious 
 character, commending his views to every man's 
 conscience in the sight of God. Arthur Tappan, 
 one of the best men that ever lived, had given of 
 his means freely to endow the college at Hudson. 
 But the wealthy churches and the politicians in 
 church and State, East and West, denounced the 
 anti-slavery men. This was true in a general sense 
 of all denominations. A few were faithful to Christ 
 but those few found that what James G. Birney 
 said was true "the churches were the bulwarks 
 of American Slavery." Very soon the determined 
 hostility of the professed Christian Churches, Col- 
 leges and Theological Seminaries made itself felt
 
 I/O PIONEER LIFE 
 
 at Hudson. The Board of Trustees opposed the 
 reform in the college, and by a majority vote asked 
 the anti-slavery professors, Greene and Wright, to 
 resign their places. President Storrs continued at 
 the head of the institution faithful to principle; 
 but the hostility of the pro-slavery trustees hast- 
 ened his death. 
 
 This was the condition of things when I took 
 charge of the religious paper at Hudson. The old 
 and able professors were removed and new men 
 were in their places. A portion of the students 
 had acquiesced in the new condition of things ; 
 some had gone home ; others went to Oberlin. 
 The few and faithful anti-slavery men were incensed 
 by the dismission of the professors and the perse- 
 cution of the president, so that the parties were 
 personally and warmly antagonistic. 
 
 President Storrs had been my friend in business 
 and in study. In impenitence and in obedience 
 his kindness and courtesy never abated. Professor 
 Elizur Wright was a scholar, and a man of unusual 
 literary ability. Professor Greene was a righteous 
 man, and his cutting logic convinced many of the 
 sin of slaveholding. President Storrs was a good 
 man, and gained to the cause those that Professor 
 Greene convinced. I respected one, and respected 
 and loved the other. Long after the decease of the 
 good man after the war of freedom was inaugu- 
 rated, I inscribed to his memory the following 
 verses addressed to those who with myself had re- 
 ceived his instruction and accepted his principles :
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. I/I 
 
 TO THE EARLY MEMBERS OF THE WESTERN RESERVE COLLEGE, JN MEMORY 
 OF OUR DECEASED FRIEND, PRESIDENT STORRS : 
 
 Honor the good bow down and bless 
 The pure in heart whose holiness 
 
 Reiiched :ind enriched your mind; 
 The humbly wise are truly great 
 Great in high thoughts which elevate 
 
 The aims of human kind. 
 
 Honor the Great the great of soul, 
 Who live above the mean control 
 
 Of low and selfish aims; 
 Who see and dare maintain the right; 
 When cowards flee, they stand and fight 
 
 In presence of the flames. 
 
 Honor the heroes, who will stand 
 For truth and justice in the land, 
 
 Nor yield to selfish fears; 
 Who in the dark some seeds of light 
 Germ truths which spring to moral might 
 
 In minds of after years. 
 
 Honor the dead, whose lives were given 
 A sacrifice for truth the leaven, 
 
 Of martyr blood has power: 
 If ful'ring in the fight with sin 
 Storrs faltered not, remember him! 
 
 'Twill help us in that hour. 
 
 Every new truth which Providence brings to the 
 front and puts before men, challenging conscience 
 and conduct on their part, puts them on probation 
 for a higher or lower moral status. The ordeal 
 through which I passed was not an easy one. I 
 had not been the first nor the firmest in recogniz- 
 ing the righteousness of anti-slavery principles ; 
 but I accepted them at an early period, and desired 
 to maintain them kindly and firmly. 
 
 When we had taken charge of our printing office 
 and opened our new home, the pro-slavery members
 
 1/2 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 of the Executive committee of the college desired, 
 of course, to conciliate the new editor, and influence 
 the paper into the conservative side of the contro- 
 versy. They made a concerted effort to do this. 
 The new faculty were moderately conservative 
 the Executive committee of the Trustees were ultra 
 conservative. The agent of the college had been 
 to New York city and returned with the report, 
 that the principles of Arthur Tappan, the philan- 
 thropist, were repudiated and even abhorred by the 
 ministers and churches, and that the college would 
 lose all patronage in New England, and at Andover 
 in particular, if they did not recede from any avowal 
 they had made of anti-slavery principles. The 
 most efficient man among them, therefore, became 
 my earnest friend at once. He brought and sent 
 us choice items for our table aided to get in and 
 arrange our few articles of plain furniture and 
 tendered suggestions for himself and others of good 
 will and wisdom in regard to the management of 
 affairs. It would have been discourteous and heart- 
 less to reject proffered kindness and counsel, and 
 yet it would be against conscience to suppress or 
 deny anti-slavery conviction. What was to be 
 done ? The authority of Andover and New Haven, 
 and all the churches at the East, and Lane Semin- 
 ary at the West, were the crushing response to 
 all suggestions of reason and right. It was vain to 
 say that Andover was silent on the subject of ma- 
 sonry until the anti-masonic sentiment prevailed 
 during the first discussions in New England ; and
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 1/3 
 
 then its teachers bravely came in after the struggle 
 was over. That the temperance reform received 
 no aid till it needed none ; and then an Andover 
 professor wrote ultra articles under the influence 
 of a narcotic stimulant refusing church fellowship 
 to any one who used ardent spirits. Andover de- 
 fended slavery from the Bible ; so did the Colleges 
 and Theological Seminaries generally. The Meth- 
 odist churches repudiated the sentiments of Wesley 
 and hugged the sin. Oberlin was just in the tran- 
 sition state, and after a struggle in the Board of 
 Trustees adopted the anti-slavery principles by 
 only a single vote. Everything seemed against 
 those who maintained the truth. But the few anti- 
 slavery men had confidence in the cause and in the 
 God of justice. They stood for right and liberty. 
 Lost some friends and gained a spirit of prayer 
 with courage and a good conscience. 
 
 When it was made manifest that my paper was 
 committing itself to anti-slavery principles the col- 
 lege authorities became alienated and averse ; and 
 the presbytery, which included all the Congrega- 
 tional churches of the region were mostly alienated. 
 These were mostly good men, and they had power 
 to do the paper much damage. The agent for the 
 Foreign Mission Board, who visited all the churches 
 and was the most active of the college trustees, 
 did much to hinder the circulation of the paper. I 
 threatened retaliatory measures and proposed to 
 denounce all societies and agents that made active 
 efforts to injure the paper. There were men enough
 
 1/4 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 in the churches who had embraced the truth to 
 give effect to anything the paper might say in its 
 own behalf. After a year of quiet struggle on both 
 sides during which the paper through the faithful 
 labors of a devoted man who acted as field agent, 
 continually gained ground, a final and wicked de- 
 vice was conceived to get the control of the publi- 
 cation. The paper was originated at Cleveland by 
 Harmon Kingsbury, Esq., one of the Trustees of 
 the college, who had sold the good-will of the es- 
 tablishment with the type and subscription list to 
 Rev. Mr. Stone, who had removed it to Hudson. 
 The press upon which the paper was printed he 
 had donated to the college, and rent was paid annu- 
 ally to the trustees for its use. The scheme was 
 to claim the whole establishment on the plea that 
 the ownership of the press included all the rest ; 
 and it was not purposed to repay me for my pur- 
 chase nor for the material in the office. Strange as 
 it may seem this dishonest trick was favored by all 
 but one of the College Executive Committee. Mr. 
 Kingsbury was absent at the time. I was willing 
 to appeal to him in a joint letter for his construc- 
 tion of the case. But while the negotiation was 
 pending a letter was sent to him without my knowl- 
 edge, by the President of the college, (with the 
 counsel undoubtedly of others,) adapted to draw 
 from Mr. Kingsbury an answer that would favor 
 the attempted fraud. Providence interfered to de- 
 feat the evil scheme. Mr. K. was detained at Syra- 
 cuse some time. His letters were to be directed
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 1/5 
 
 to New York. When I learned that I was betrayed 
 in regard to the joint letter, I wrote immediately, 
 directing my letter as they had done, to New York 
 city. The detention of Mr. K. prevented his get- 
 ting their letter before mine arrived. The good 
 man, who was an anti-slavery man, understood the 
 scheme and denounced it stating to them and me 
 that their claim was invalid. Thus ended the first 
 chapter of the effort to get the paper back from the 
 righteousness of anti-slavery sentiments. The 
 effort, however, cost me anxiety and trouble, as 
 lawyers were consulted and a suit would have been 
 instituted, provided they had obtained by misrep- 
 resentation, an answer from Mr. K. favorable to 
 their claims. 
 
 Having failed in utterly improper schemes to ob- 
 tain control of the paper, after a time propositions 
 were made to purchase the office, and as I had 
 grown weary of contention, and had little fear that 
 the anti-slavery sentiment could be set back by any 
 effort, I proposed terms which they immediately 
 accepted, and the paper was transferred to a gen- 
 tleman whom the college men and presbytery had 
 selected as the best man to manage the publication, 
 which was a more powerful instrument in forming 
 public opinion in the churches of that early day 
 than it would be at the present time. 
 
 They did not have the paper a week before a sad 
 mishap befel the press upon which it was printed, 
 and with which they endeavored to obtain all the 
 little property I possessed. A prominent man in
 
 1/6 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 the place had seduced his neighbor's wife, and a 
 communication was admitted and published in the 
 paper denouncing the act and printing the name 
 of the lawyer who was the guilty party. This was 
 published in the closing issue of my paper, although 
 the contract had been closed and the transfer made. 
 The irritated culprit threatened vengeance on all 
 parties, and learning that he was seeking me with 
 a cowhide, I learned at the same time I had no 
 desire for a meeting. 
 
 The purchasing party were probably not aware of 
 the difficulty which would meet them on endeavor- 
 ing to make a conservative out of a reform newspa- 
 per. The soul knows what justice is, and in those 
 who approve and those who resist, truth creates 
 conscience. Those who resist are irritated, and those 
 who obey grow strong within themselves. Hence, 
 to repudiate the anti-slavery sentiment would cause 
 a loss of subscribers. To maintain it would irritate 
 the other party. It became, therefore, a mere go- 
 between, manifesting neither conscience nor cour- 
 age. We do not thus speak because we think 
 conservative men are always bad men. Some of 
 them are among the best men in the churches. But 
 God constantly brings up moral principles to try us. 
 Some men fear public sentiment or some other 
 earthly thing ; they close their eyes when the 
 light shines, and cease to grow in grace ; and often 
 resist truth until they experience the divine dis- 
 pleasure in some form not knowing oftentimes the 
 cause of the adverse providence that strikes them.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 1 77 
 
 It was so with the men of the paper and college. 
 The newspaper was removed to Cleveland, but it 
 failed to receive the patronage hoped for. It came 
 back to Hudson, but succeeded no better. It lived 
 a struggling and dying life for a number of years, 
 when its subscribers were transferred to a religious 
 paper which had originated in Cincinnati. 
 
 The college, largely endowed by self-denying 
 men, has had but few students for many years. Its 
 professors and Board of Trustees quarreled and 
 damaged each other. At the present day it is rich, 
 but still its influence limited. The money paid by 
 Arthur Tappan in the beginning, and the large 
 sums procured from industrious farmers by agents, 
 are expended to support a cultured and easy-living 
 class of Christian teachers. Its pupils are few. Its 
 societies are secret societies, and its influence for 
 the cause of Christ others may estimate. 
 
 After the sale of my paper I invested my money 
 in western lands and devoted myself for a short 
 time to the study of theology, and was licensed by 
 a committee of the Presbytery to preach the gospel. 
 The examination was held at my own residence ; 
 when the vote was taken two of the college trustees 
 left the room, and the members of the Presbytery 
 remained and voted me a license to preach the ever- 
 lasting gospel of the Son of God. When the ques- 
 tion of the Presbyterian Confession of Faith were 
 propounded whether I accepted the Confession 
 of Faith as containing in substance the doctrines of 
 the Bible, I answered that I did, interpreting it by
 
 1/8 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 the Scripture quotations written under the articles. 
 The answer was new, but it was accepted at the 
 time ; and subsequently, when I was ordained by 
 the same presbytery, no objection was made to the 
 same form of answer. So, subordinating human 
 tradition to the New Testament, I entered with a 
 good conscience upon my labor in the churches.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 1 79 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 FIRST PASTORATE AND PROFESSORSHIP. 
 
 We commenced labor in the church of Akron, 
 with a spirit of simple devotion to the work which 
 we do not now possess. The reason of the gospel 
 is clearer now. We see that the fundamental prin- 
 ciples of faith in Christ's life as a rule of duty, and 
 in his death as a source of love, is true as a neces- 
 sary condition of righteousness, benevolence and 
 purity in men. But we think with less conviction 
 from reason as to the necessity, the principles of 
 the gospel and the benevolence and wisdom of the 
 great plan of Jesus the faith in the facts which we 
 felt then was more efficient upon our heart and 
 conscience than the clearer intellectual conviction 
 of the facts which we see now. We think, how- 
 ever, that Christ as the manifested God is more to 
 us now than formerly. 
 
 Our devotion to our work in those first years we 
 think was sincere and active. An immense gather- 
 ing to hear and see a presidential candidate in the 
 village did not take us out of our study. We made 
 efforts to instruct the people and awaken a religious
 
 180 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 interest. We had heard Professor Wright lecture 
 on Geology ; we had read on that subject what 
 books we could obtain, and in order to get the ear 
 of the people of the town, we delivered in a public 
 hall a course of lectures on the subject making 
 maps and gathering knowledge as we proceeded in 
 the course. The people gave us credit for more 
 knowledge than we possessed ; but we were better 
 informed on the subject than any of the hearers, 
 and hence our presentation of the facts of the new 
 science as then understood was a success and ben- 
 efit. It awakened a spirit of literary interest in 
 the place, and gathered some additional hearers 
 into the church on the Sabbath. 
 
 Religious inquiry was soon awakened, and such a 
 state of things ensued that those opposed to the 
 religious life, as urged by the pastor, formed a new 
 society and invited a Universalist minister who 
 commenced service in the town hall. At the close 
 of a sermon, this gentleman being present, arose 
 and asked the privilege to give notice that he would 
 refute at his place of preaching the doctrine of 
 future punishment, which I had argued as a natural 
 effect of sinful character. Universalism did not 
 succeed. Its adherents built a fine stone church, 
 which subsequently passed into the hands of the 
 Baptists. But religious inquiry did succeed, and a 
 revival of religion in which I had the aid of Pres't 
 Mahan, then of Oberlin, was the means of gather- 
 ing a large number of persons into the communion 
 of the church. The two first converts were two
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. l8l 
 
 lawyers of the village one of them mayor of the 
 town. Their conversion surprised me and all other 
 citizens who knew them. One of them, Mr. S., I 
 have lost trace of; the other, Judge B., still resides 
 in the place an exemplary Christian man, as I sup- 
 pose. A second ingathering filled our little house, 
 most of the congregation now being professors of 
 religion. 
 
 I now felt that my work was done in that field ; 
 and desiring to write and publish what I had writ- 
 ten on the Plan of Salvation. Having an opportu- 
 nity to consult Professor Storrs, of Lane Seminary, 
 who spent a Sabbath at Akron, I asked a dismissal 
 from the church, and removed my family to Cincin- 
 nati, with the purpose of prosecuting my plan of 
 publishing my first volume. 
 
 Before I left the church just at the time I sup- 
 posed it had reached a high degree of prosperity 
 and usefulness a vision of the night perplexed and 
 troubled me. I record it because it was among 
 some of my most vivid mental experiences. One 
 night in deep sleep I saw a stone church standing 
 on the site of the church where I labored. Its foun- 
 dation story seemed natural and firm, but another 
 story seemed to be added upon the old structure. 
 The stones were loosely laid together and its top 
 seemed open and enveloped in a cloud. It was firm 
 below but dilapidated and unsubstantial above. 
 The dream affected me. It seemed to me to indi- 
 cate future evil to the church ; and yet I remember 
 distinctly that I thought such an issue most
 
 1 82 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 unlikely and set down shortly the impression I 
 received as owing to some cause which indicated 
 nothing in regard to the future. 
 
 But if there was no indication in the dream, the 
 future history of the church filled the requirement 
 of just such foreshadowing. After an absence from 
 Akron of about two years, having visited the 
 church but once in that period I returned on the 
 day previous to the one upon which the Millerites 
 had predicted the end of the world. After I left 
 the people they chose for their pastor an eccentric 
 man whose name was Pickens. A man of talents 
 and peculiarities. He embraced the theories of 
 Mr. Miller and some of the most influential mem- 
 bers of the church, and some apparently the most 
 devoted, embraced the same views, and looked for 
 the end of the world the following day. The Ad- 
 ventists from the region around had assembled in 
 convention in my old church, and Mr. Fitch, of 
 Cleveland a man of reputation and sincere piety 
 was preaching to the people in convention assem- 
 bled. His text was a passage of the Psalms: "O 
 Lord destroy the wicked out of the earth." He 
 taught the people that the succeeding day or cer- 
 tainly in the immediate future, Christ would come 
 and destroy the wicked and glorify His saints. 
 
 I sat until the close of the discourse, and then 
 asked the privilege of addressing the people. I 
 had come a long distance to save some of. my old 
 church if possible from the delusion in which they 
 were involved. The convention would not hear
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 183 
 
 my remarks ; and the most affecting incident was, 
 that my old friends, who had become Adventists, 
 desired that I should not speak. 
 
 I failed in the public effort. I then called on Mr. 
 Pickands, and sat at tea with him and Mr. Fitch 
 and others, expecting the immediate appearance 
 of Christ. They seemed sober and collected, and 
 talked of the immediate advent as a reality ; and 
 replied to no inquiry or conversation on the great 
 fatuity that filled their minds. 
 
 Mr. Pickands' child was sick unto death, but he 
 left home to preach the advent in Canton, where he 
 declared his purpose to be found preaching when 
 Christ should appear. The next day, although a 
 message was sent to him that his child was dying, 
 he refused to return, but continued, as I was in- 
 formed, most of the night in the pulpit preaching 
 and waiting the advent of the Redeemer. 
 
 The world went on as usual. Mr. Pickands re- 
 turned home. But he and a part of the church 
 were demoralized. One portion separated from the 
 other. The steadfast men and women built a new 
 house in another part of the city. The Adventists, 
 with the exception of a few persons who were re- 
 stored to the common faith, lost- faith in revelation, 
 or they adopted some evil tenets that led them 
 farther into evil. 
 
 Another singular episode occurred during my 
 ministry at Akron. While agent for the Bible So- 
 ciety I became acquainted with several gentlemen 
 who were engaged in founding a new college a
 
 1 84 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 short distance from Lawrenceburg, Indiana a vil- 
 lage about twenty miles below Cincinnati, on the 
 Ohio River. They were mostly of the Protestant 
 Methodist denomination, in connection with a few 
 Presbyterians, who took an active interest in the 
 new institution. A large farm had been purchased 
 and a college building erected on the hills about a 
 mile from the village ; and after I had labored about 
 six months at Akron, the agent of the Board of 
 Trustees presented me with an appointment as pro- 
 fessor, and urged my immediate acceptance, as all 
 things were ready to commence operations, and the 
 president, Dr. Snethen, was already on the ground. 
 Influenced I fear by the desire for literary distinc- 
 tion, and the desire to publish my views on certain 
 subjects, I accepted the call and against the prot- 
 estations of my people, I left them to enter upon 
 the duties of an instructor, for which I was in no 
 wise qualified. In the departments of Philosophy 
 or Belles-Lettres I might have been qualified for 
 duty ; but, although the first Professor of language 
 at Oberlin was not a graduate, a professor who 
 was scarcely prepared to enter college, would have 
 had hard work to learn what he needed to teach. 
 Notwithstanding ail this I accepted, not doubting 
 from past experience but that I could keep in ad- 
 vance of the first students. But God did not favor 
 my project, and from the time I left Akron until 
 the time I got back again, I passed under the rod, 
 and the infliction was felt at every turn of affairs. 
 Myself, wife and sister started on a canal packet
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 185 
 
 for the Ohio River. It rained incessantly, and we 
 found the canal broken near Chillicothe, and had a 
 detention and a difficulty in getting round the gap. 
 When we reached Portsmouth the river was flooded 
 and the canal boats could not form connection with 
 the boats on the river. After transhipment and 
 long labor we passed Portsmouth, and took pas- 
 sage on a steamer to be landed at Lawrenceburg. 
 
 We reached the place in the night, the river at 
 high flood, and were set off by the steamer's yawl 
 on what we supposed to be the main land below 
 the town. The yawl returned and the boat steamed 
 on, and we started to reach the town which was in 
 sight. But to our surprise and the alarm of the 
 women we found ourselves landed on a small island, 
 or rather on a strip of land that the rising waters 
 has surrounded and isolated from the main shore. 
 There was no hope of extrication for us until morn- 
 ing, unless we could make our voices heard by some 
 one who might bring us a boat from the main land. 
 Add to this that the land was wet and the water of 
 the river rising, and the night dark ; and, although 
 there was no immediate danger, the situation was 
 not a pleasant one. 
 
 By loud calls long continued, we succeeded in 
 arousing some one who brought a small boat from 
 the main shore, and by whose aid we and our bag- 
 gage were conveyed to the hotel, where rest and 
 refreshments restored comfort of body and equi- 
 librium of mind. 
 
 On the succeeding Sabbath we heard Henry Ward
 
 1 86 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 Beecher preach his first sermon to a little Presby- 
 terian church in Lawrenceburg. The church con- 
 sisted, we believe, of about twelve female and two 
 male members. The young preacher held in his 
 hand during his discourse a small testament, and 
 preached an extempore sermon against the doc- 
 trine of Universalism. That afternoon he took tea 
 at the principal physician's of the village ; and we 
 remember forming a judgment from the manner of 
 his preaching and his easy social manner that pop- 
 ularity rather than power would characterize his 
 ministry. His history has proved that our estimate 
 was less than the measure of the man. Without 
 affirming for him the logical faculty in large meas- 
 ure or an ability for accuracy beyond others in 
 analysis of any subject it yet is probably true that 
 as an extempore preacher he is the first in the 
 world ; as much superior to Mr. Spurgeon as the 
 length and breadth of our country is superior to 
 that of Great Britain. 
 
 I never met with Mr. Beecher to have any per- 
 sonal talk with him but once subsequently. I had 
 for two or three years contemplated publishing a 
 hymn and tune book which I supposed was needed 
 to meet the wants of the western churches. I 
 had corresponded with Prof. Allen, of Oberlin, and 
 others East and West on the subject. But before 
 my material was prepared, the prospectus of Mr. 
 Beecher's book appeared, which promised to accom- 
 plish the plan of my collection so much better than 
 my own that I abandoned my work and called to
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. l8/ 
 
 make some suggestion to him concerning what I 
 supposed to be the wants of the new churches at 
 the West in regard to Psalmody. I accepted his 
 views on all subjects, except the size of the volume, 
 which I would have had smaller by one-third, omit- 
 ting the common place hymns and much inferior 
 music ; and in phraseology I thought the titles of 
 endearment appropriate to demonstrative affection 
 should not be used in application to Christ. The 
 words blessed, gracious, merciful, and others which 
 had no technical application to earthly love of 
 equals, I thought should be, in all cases, substituted 
 for such phrases, "my love," "the bosom of my 
 God," "the arms of his love," and such like phrases. 
 Mr. Beecher, as I understood him, was decidedly 
 opposed to my views on the subject, and thought 
 all phrases of domestic endearment, and appella- 
 tions of human affection highly appropriate. 
 
 But to return to my first professorship. I found 
 the affairs of the new college in quite a different 
 condition from what I expected. There were no 
 funds that could be relied on. The first building 
 was not yet finished. It was expected that I would 
 be a man of all work in teaching the first classes, 
 and added to all this there were no first classes to 
 teach. Some dozen of pupils were pledged and 
 expected at the institution so soon as it was opened; 
 but after a sojourn of a few weeks the prospects of 
 the enterprise seemed to me so doubtful that I con- 
 cluded to retire, and return to Akron, where my 
 correspondents assured me the people were praying
 
 iSS PIONEER LIFE 
 
 and hoping that Providence would send me back. 
 Some weeks after I left, the college building was 
 burned down and the enterprise abandoned. 
 
 Thus far everything in our journey had been dis- 
 astrous and discomfiting. We procured a horse 
 and conveyance and started for Cincinnati, on our 
 return home. There had been another spring 
 storm, and the little Miama was swollen to a flood. 
 A man who had crossed with a heavy wagon told 
 us he thought we could safely drive over the usual 
 ford of the river. We ventured into the drifting 
 water. It rose into the bed of our carriage, and 
 the wheels floated in the stream. By an energetic 
 movement of the horse we reached the other side 
 in safety, grateful that we all escaped drowning. 
 
 By this time I had realized that my ways in the 
 matter of the professorship were not God's ways. 
 I began like Moses, when God met him at the inn, 
 to fear that God would kill me before I got home ; 
 and this sense of my danger and Divine displeasure 
 was increased by another incident, which occurred 
 in the afternoon when we were about seven miles 
 from the city. Dark clouds had been gathering for 
 some hours in the south-western horizon, and the 
 heavy peals of thunder and swift drifting clouds 
 indicated a storm at hand. We might have stopped 
 before the storm struck us, but we drove on hoping 
 to reach a more comfortable shelter; but no shelter 
 offered in season, and one of those heavy thunder 
 and hail storms which sometimes occur at the 
 West, found us on the road some distance from a
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 189 
 
 house. The din of the storm, and the hail stones 
 falling in large size frightened the horse, and he ran 
 at the top of his speed until he reached the first 
 house by the roadside, when I succeeded in bring- 
 ing him up by the fenceside, without overturning 
 the vehicle. The women were able to get out and 
 find shelter in the house. I had to stand in the 
 storm and hold the horse, who was acting franti- 
 cally, until the fury of the storm had subsided. 
 
 It was now getting late in the day. We had no 
 time to dry our wet garments my own especially 
 thoroughly dripping with water and in such plight 
 we reached Cincinnati. The passage that the Lord 
 met Moses at the inn and sought to kill him seemed 
 verified in my experience, and I think I promised 
 faithfully, that if God would forgive me for my 
 folly, and not kill me while thus estray by the way, I 
 would go home to my people, and make all literary 
 ambition and personal desire subservient to the 
 great aim of preaching the gospel, and personal 
 labor for the upbuilding of Christ's kingdom. 
 
 We arrived at Akron in safety. A minister a 
 venerable brother yet living in the state had been 
 engaged to preach for the church. He retired and 
 I assumed again my labor, which continued through 
 two years, at which time we removed to Cincinnati 
 as before stated.
 
 190 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AUTHOR AND PREACHER. 
 
 Having reached Cincinnati, we tarried for a few 
 weeks, while I carefully examined the library at 
 Lane Seminary to see whether the course of thought 
 in my proposed volume had been anticipated by pre- 
 vious writers. The library had been purchased in 
 Europe, by Prof. Stowe, and was full on all subjects 
 of theological import. I likewise read some of the 
 chapters of the MSS. to Doctor Beecher and his 
 daughter, Catharine, then regarded as the literary 
 Cynosure of the family. The doctor spoke words 
 of encouragement. Catharine wisely suggested 
 that books were not immediately successful in ac- 
 cordance with their value that some of the most 
 ephemeral, if introduced by a popular name, would 
 succeed immediately, while books of substantial 
 value, with an unknown name, would fail. I determ- 
 ined to revise and publish my book anonymously. 
 
 While engaged in the labor of reconsidering and 
 re-writing I proposed to preach the gospel in some 
 neighboring destitute church, and with this object 
 in view I visited a little church on the Ohio river,
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. IQI 
 
 about twenty miles above the city. To this" I re- 
 tired with my wife and began work. Gospel ordi- 
 nances had been suspended for some time ; and 
 the few believers that remained had little hope that 
 their fallen tabernacle would ever be raised again. 
 But there were two or three of Christ's faithful ones 
 who sighed and prayed over the desolation of Zion. 
 One old man, whose wife was deaf, and who seemed 
 to be possessed with a spirit of prophecy, had just 
 before our unexpected arrival, invited his next 
 neighbor and some others of the little company of 
 believers, and assured them in words that seemed 
 the impulses of enthusiasm, that he was sure spirit- 
 ual good was in store for them, and that the time 
 was just at hand. In the midst of this night, and 
 before the predicted morning had dawned, God in 
 His gracious dispensation sent us to New Richmond. 
 
 I arrived at the house of the elder, and on the 
 following Sabbath preached to them the gospel of 
 the grace of God. They were few and poor; they 
 could give my wife and myself our boarding, but no 
 more. We concluded not to ask money from the 
 Missionary Society ; but with the aid of a little 
 money earned by wife as teacher of a select school 
 in the village, and a little which I possessed, we 
 proposed to live with them and labor for them one 
 year, during which time I designed to finish writing 
 my book, while at the same time I devoted myself 
 to the spiritual good of the people. 
 
 On the first Sabbath but few of the seats were 
 occupied, but from that day thenceforth the congre-
 
 192 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 gation gradually increased. The Methodist people 
 had a class and a few good people ; but the minis- 
 ter who visited them once in two weeks seemed to 
 me to have little spiritual apprehension of the value 
 of the gospel. In the evening I went in to hear 
 him, and to some young girls who were whispering 
 and unquiet in one corner of the church he cried 
 out amid his rambling words "I see you girls over 
 there in the corner, turning up your eyes like a duck 
 in a thunder storm." I retired, I hope, feeling some 
 sense of the spiritual wants of the people of the 
 town. The Baptists had previously had an organ- 
 ization, but it had been abandoned. The Unitari- 
 ans had a good church building, but had no service, 
 and expected none. Skepticism prevailed, and re- 
 spect for religious services, except in the minds of 
 the few whose faith had not failed, scarcely existed. 
 
 Some little knowledge of law and business, more 
 than the little I knew of what is called systematic 
 theology, aided me to get the attention of a portion 
 of the people, and the number of attendants and 
 the interest, especially in our afternoon prayer- 
 meeting, continued to increase. Interest was soon 
 apparent on the Sabbath in the fixed attention of 
 some persons, and in their acceptance of the invi- 
 tation to attend the afternoon prayer-meeting. 
 The few faithful ones were wakeful and prayerful; 
 and there were such indications that I appointed 
 preaching every night for a week. 
 
 In this first season of religious interest a number 
 of the church were renewed in the spirit of their
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 1 93 
 
 mind, and some of the leading young men of the 
 town were converted. There were three young 
 men, companions, in the village who were the most 
 influential one of them a merchant, who was pro- 
 fessedly a Universalist. The Sabbath after our 
 series of meetings began I preached from the text, 
 "he that believeth shall be saved." He was awak- 
 ened and soon accepted the truth became obedient 
 to Christ, and immediately was absent from town. 
 It was not known where he had gone ; but he soon 
 returned with his aged mother, who soon rejoiced 
 with him in his new birth. 
 
 The effect of this interest awakened attention in 
 the community and revived the church. But we 
 had as yet no lamps for evening service ; and the 
 Sabbath-school, which had almost ceased to exist, 
 was augmented in numbers, but with no regular 
 distribution of books or papers. Our singing was 
 led by a faithful old elder who could lead in but 
 three kinds of metre long, common and short 
 and who never attempted a greater variety than 
 two tunes for each metre. The congregation, old 
 and young, followed with good will, but not often 
 in good time or tone. And yet I am sure that this 
 service of song was more acceptable to God, and 
 did the souls of the people more good, than the 
 wicked exhibitions of organ and quartette in fash- 
 ionable churches, which perform for the congrega- 
 tion, who often "know not what is piped or sung." 
 
 As the winter was coming in, it was thought 
 a good time to make an effort to increase our
 
 194 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 facilities for all purposes ; and to aid in the effort all 
 the people gave a little as God had prospered them. 
 We obtained lamps for evening worship. Bought 
 a new Sabbath-school library. Made a new con- 
 fession and covenant for the church, and procured 
 a young man from Oberlin now Rev. Mr. Edwards, 
 of Ohio to teach a common school during the day, 
 and a singing school in the evening. The common 
 school did much for the rising youth of the town, 
 and the singing school did a great deal for the 
 churches, and in meliorating the manners of the 
 youth of both sexes, most of whom were yet un- 
 reconciled to the will of Christ. 
 
 The teacher was faithful as a Christian ; and 
 through him the young people learned to respect 
 religion, and were drawn into attendance upon the 
 services of the Sabbath. The religious people dur- 
 ing the winter were humble and prayerful. Some 
 persons who had dishonored their Lord, publicly 
 confessed their sins and confessed personally to 
 those who had been stumbled by their offences, 
 both in the church and out. These confessions did 
 good to the penitent and impenitent. The world 
 knows what Christians ought to be, and when they 
 confess their sins, and reform their lives, many rec- 
 ognize this as the effect of the gospel on their 
 hearts; so that religion, instead of being disparaged 
 by the lives of worldly professors, has the honor of 
 their reform. These confessions, therefore, honored 
 the gospel ; benefited those who acknowledged 
 their wrong-doing ; removed stumbling-blocks, and
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 195 
 
 prepared the way for a further work of grace in the 
 spring. The spring had scarcely opened when a re- 
 vival of great interest began in the church, and for 
 a series of weeks there was preaching on the Sab- 
 bath and at least two other evenings in the week. 
 One evening was occupied by a conference and 
 prayer-meeting, where were heard inspiring words 
 from those who had recently believed; as also from 
 Christians who had made new attainments in holi- 
 ness. During these meetings I procured aid from 
 the city and seminary, as was needful. Rev. J. 
 Blanchard, of the city, afterwards president of Knox 
 College ; Mr. R. W. Patterson, of the seminary 
 now Dr. Patterson, of Chicago and Rev. Mr. Ben- 
 ton, of College Hill ; and occasionally others spent 
 a day or two in "the work at Richmond." Some 
 incidents peculiar and striking will be mentioned 
 at the close of the chapter. 
 
 Before the extra meetings were closed a choir was 
 formed, mostly from the converts, who had been re- 
 ceiving instruction in vocal music. They sat in the 
 two front pews, and the way in which they sung the 
 songs of Zion, gave an impulse sweet and deep to 
 the work, which often accomplished more than a 
 sermon. What a mockery of God and a murder of 
 devotion it is to introduce music that is harmony 
 without melody, and sound without sense into as- 
 semblies that have professedly met to worship God. 
 As in sentiment, so in worship. It is the sense of 
 the song, set to a melody a familiar melody that 
 aids to awaken answering emotions in the heart
 
 196 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 What warm tears dim the eyes unshed ; 
 
 What wild vows falter on the tongue 
 When " Scots wha 1 ha' with Wallace bled," 
 
 Or "Auld Lang Syne " is sung. 
 
 So it is only with purifying instead of patriotic 
 fervor, 
 
 When Jesus who for sinners bled 
 On Calvary, is sung- 
 
 One of the familiar hymns of the new converts 
 I printed on the cover of the brief church confes- 
 sion, and it was sung with absorbing pathos, and 
 sung so frequently that every one soon knew the 
 hymn and joined in the service of song. 
 
 The special interest continued, with little addi- 
 tion to the usual preaching service, except, perhaps, 
 an additional sermon each week until near the close 
 of summer. So large a proportion of the young 
 people had been converted, and the reform in the 
 town had been so general, that all the churches of 
 the different denominations were revived, and those 
 which had ceased to exist were reorganized, except 
 the Unitarian, which included a good part of the 
 wealth and intelligence in the region. At a revival 
 subsequently most of the Unitarians believed in 
 Jesus as God manifest in Christ, and united with 
 us in the Presbyterian church. 
 
 The Methodist church was greatly strengthened 
 in numbers and in faith ; a Protestant Methodist, 
 which had ceased to exist, was reorganized ; the 
 Baptist people became active and increased in num- 
 ber, and commenced regular worship in the Uni- 
 tarian house ; the Campbellites formed a society,
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 1 97 
 
 and the congregations, especially the Presbyterian, 
 Methodist and Baptist, were well sustained. 
 
 During all this time in New Richmond I had 
 done but little work on my book. In addition to 
 the labor in the town I had visited during the week, 
 and sometimes on the Sabbath, a little church six 
 miles distant, called the Scotch Settlement. Here, 
 also, a revival had existed for some time, gathering 
 in many of the unconverted families in the region. 
 The two interests sympathized with each other, 
 and I felt that my work was finished when the 
 churches strengthened and instructed had grown 
 to the full stature that could reasonably be hoped 
 for at that time. I felt also that a man who could 
 devote his time to pastoral labor, in which I always 
 had failed, (although I had not failed to speak famil- 
 iarly on religious subjects to every one at suitable 
 times and places,) would do the work now needed 
 better than I could. This was my sincere convic- 
 tion, and I stated it to the people. There was no 
 one that looked at the matter as I did, and parting 
 with those who felt constrained to come and re- 
 monstrate with me, especially the older people who 
 always left me with tears and regrets, on this and 
 a subsequent occasion, was one of the most trying 
 incidents of my experience in New Richmond. 
 
 INCIDENTS OF THE RELIGIOUS INTEREST AT 
 RICHMOND. 
 
 Going early to the afternoon prayer-meeting one 
 Sabbath, before the people had assembled, (as I
 
 198 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 sometimes did,) I heard upon entering the door, an 
 earnest almost an excited talk among four old 
 men who were in the habit of tarrying in the church 
 during the interval between the morning service 
 and the afternoon prayer-meeting. They were the 
 oldest members of the church so aged that it was 
 pleasanter for them to remain in the sanctuary and 
 converse of Scripture themes, than to walk to their 
 homes and return. 
 
 As I approached the pulpit near which they were 
 sitting together in a corner pew, the talk became 
 lower, but the faces of all looked earnest and beam- 
 ing, and it seemed as though the eyes of one at 
 least, was still wet with tears. They seemed to 
 have had an affecting disputation ; but I found it 
 was a disputation of an uncommon spirit. They 
 appealed to me, and told me the subject of their 
 difference : Each one of the old men was sure that 
 the grace of Christ in pardoning him as a sinner 
 was more rich and conspicuous than in that of the 
 others. They had been reciting the greatness of 
 their unworthiness and the interpositions of Provi- 
 dence in their behalf, and each honestly felt that 
 the mercy of Christ to them was the greatest. I 
 could determine the question in no other way than 
 that the truth was just what they felt it to be. It 
 was the greatest in each case. The decision would 
 have perplexed an angel ; but I doubt whether any 
 other would have satisfied them so well. 
 THE WICKEDEST MAN. 
 
 There were three men in the village, an old man
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 199 
 
 of seventy years and a young man of about twenty- 
 five, who were considered the wickedest men in 
 town. Father Emmerson, as he was afterwards 
 called, was professedly an Atheist. He was a man 
 of some means ; was an invalid who had left his 
 house seldom for years ; he was bowed together so 
 that "he could not lift up himself." He was quar- 
 relsome, profane, and terribly wicked in spirit. 
 Sometimes, in periods of anger, not being able to 
 wreak his vengeance on those whom he hated, he 
 would get his daughter's Bible, and blaspheme and 
 stamp upon it. The old man lived with his daugh- 
 ter, whose husband was a man of religious life, 
 professing to have continually a sense of the pres- 
 ence and love of Christ. After the meetings had 
 progressed for some time during the second period 
 of interest the old invalid expressed a willingness 
 to "go and see." Accordingly he surprised every 
 body, by making his way to the church through a 
 back street, and appearing in a seat near the pulpit. 
 He continued to attend, and soon appeared at the 
 ^evening service when, as was usual in those days, 
 persons desiring special prayer and instruction, 
 came at the close of the service to the front seats, 
 as inquirers for the way of life. One night, after a 
 number had gone forward, I saw the old invalid 
 struggle to get up, but apparently unable in his 
 decrepit condition. I went to the pew before him 
 and gave him my hand when he seemed to rise 
 with almost superhuman agility, and walked over 
 the tops of two or three pews to the seats, where
 
 2OO PIONEER LIFE 
 
 those inquiring "What must I do to be saved?" 
 were seated. From this time the old man attended 
 prayers in his son-in-law's family, and gradually all 
 things seemed to become new to him. Old things 
 had really passed away, and he was renewed not 
 only in mind but in body. Instead of being de- 
 crepid and bowed down, he became straight and 
 active for a man of his years. His pains and evil 
 passions left him at the same time. The healing 
 of the body seemed more strange to many than the 
 healing of the mind. Dr. Muzzy, the leading phy- 
 sician of the city, heard of the case and examined 
 into the facts as a case of the influence of the mind 
 upon the body. 
 
 The old man knew nothing of the Bible, and I 
 do not know that he had any example of Chris- 
 tianity as he practiced it ; but the first thing he did 
 after he awoke to the new life, was to go to a man 
 whom he had considered his enemy, and invite 
 him to church ; and, as the man was poor mostly 
 on account of a habit of occasional intoxication, he 
 proposed to aid in "fixing up" the family children 
 and all, in order that they might attend church. 
 This he accordingly did. The children were nat- 
 urally interesting, and soon appeared in school, and 
 the eldest daughter was subsequently the leader on 
 the ladies' side of the choir. 
 
 The old man united with the church, being bap- 
 tized when almost seventy years of age, with many 
 others of the age of seventeen and upwards. He 
 prayed and uttered his pious thoughts in the Ian-
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 2OI 
 
 guage of an alien ; but he grew in knowledge ; and 
 his life, without any knowledge of the Bible, was 
 better than those who know better than he what 
 Christ required. He began immediately to labor 
 for the conversion of others. He confessed his sin 
 and made reparation in all cases where he thought 
 he had injured others. He had been miserly in his 
 latter years, but he gave of his means not largely 
 but in fair proportion for gospel purposes. He had 
 an experience that whenever he heard a passage of 
 the Bible read that coincided therewith, he judged, 
 as the best Christian can do, the Bible by his own 
 experience. Hearing the passage read "I will 
 take away the hard and stony heart and give you a 
 heart of flesh" he said, "that's true it's a fact I 
 know it." He had bee^i what is called a hard man. 
 A son had died by violence. He had lost wife and 
 children without shedding a tear or giving a sigh ; 
 but now the remembrance of those things visibly 
 affected him. Without knowing any one else had 
 ever done so, he made a list of about fifty persons 
 of his old companions living in different places. 
 For these he prayed, using other means as he had 
 opportunity. As they were converted he erased 
 their names on his list. It was said, which I hardly 
 think credible, that all these men were converted. 
 I know many of them were. But there was at least 
 one very bad man in the town who was not con- 
 verted, but who was suddenly killed by an accident 
 in the street. The old man said he had gained 
 much of his property by improper means, and it
 
 202 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 would be right if he should lose it. This came to 
 pass by wrong doing of others ; and he died a poor 
 man, faithful to the last, but dependent in his last 
 years upon others. 
 
 One of the other wickedest men was a young 
 man, Dave Putnam, of twenty-two or twenty-three 
 years. He was indolent, repulsive in manners and 
 apparel, and horribly profane. He was the only 
 son of parents that had fallen to the bottom of so- 
 cial life utterly careless in habits and neglected 
 by all their neighbors. Nobody went into their 
 house except for some necessary business. I was 
 in once, the only time I ever saw the old woman. 
 Originally they were from New England, as was 
 Father Emmerson ; but when people of good ante- 
 cedents lose caste, and self respect and ambition, 
 they are likely to become more abject than others. 
 This wicked young man was converted. His father 
 and mother, who had once been professors of relig- 
 ion, were made aware of their debasement by the 
 new light which shone around them and now 
 shone into their poor dwelling. There was improve- 
 ment in habit, in house, and I hope in heart. David 
 maintained a reformed life for years. He subse- 
 quently married, and I have now no knowledge of 
 his later life. If he still perseveres in the new life, 
 the transformation of these two wickedest men was 
 miraculous. The other wickedest man never at- 
 tended church, but opposed and blasphemed. He 
 was killed by an accident some years afterwards. 
 
 The man in the village to whom Father Emmerson
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 203 
 
 had gone first to confess his sin and make rep- 
 aration, and whose intemperate habits had kept 
 his family of interesting children in ignorance and 
 poverty, soon began to attend meeting. At a con- 
 ference meeting one afternoon, Rev. Mr. Benton, of 
 College Hill, near Cincinnati, was aiding in the 
 service. He stood on the floor before the pulpit, 
 and was reading the twenty-fifth Psalm, when he 
 read the eleventh verse "For thy name's sake, O 
 Lord, pardon mine iniquity ; for it is great." Mr. 
 , who sat near the door, jumped to his feet 
 apparently under excitement. He walked up the 
 aisle without apparently seeing any one, and stood 
 immediately before Mr. Benton, who was so non- 
 plused by the movement and the appearance of the 
 man that he ceased to read. Mr. Benton looked at 
 me and I gave an indication that there was no dan- 
 ger. He asked, "what do you want read?" The 
 man said "Does that say that the man was par- 
 doned because his iniquity was great?" Benton 
 replied, "Yes, the psalmist prayed to be pardoned 
 because his iniquity was great." "Pardoned be- 
 cause he had been a great sinner?" he replied. 
 "Well, yes; because he felt he had been a great 
 sinner." The man replied loudly "That's me 
 I'm the man does God pardon any one because 
 he has been a great sinner?" "Yes; if they feel 
 and confess their sins." " I do ; I'm the man am 
 I pardoned?" I believe Mr. Benton made no fur- 
 ther reply, and the man apparently overcome by 
 his emotion sat down. The scene produced some
 
 2O4 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 sensation ; and there was prayer and singing 
 some wet eyes and but few words, except those by 
 the leader of the meeting. 
 
 From that hour Mr. - - was a changed man. 
 
 He worshiped God with all his house, some of his 
 children being already children of God by a new 
 birth. He was a reformed man in all respects. He 
 was never known to taste liquor again but once in 
 the city, at the solicitation of a friend. He was an 
 equable, peaceful and devout Christian. Twenty 
 years after, when I saw him, he said he had never 
 known a day since his new birth that was not a 
 happy day. His children were among the respect- 
 able residents of the town ; his son a faithful Chris- 
 tian man, being postmaster in the place. 
 
 There was a colored family in the place ; the 
 father, Lewis O'Banyan, being lame, intemperate 
 and cruel in his family. His wife bearing perpetual 
 abuse, and yet by her labor providing food for the 
 family. This man had his curiosity excited by the 
 general movement in the town. He did not go into 
 the church, but he frequently stood outside at the 
 window and heard the services inside. After some 
 weeks it began to be said that black Lewis had 
 stopped drinking and abusing his family. Little, 
 however, was thought of the matter, until the fact 
 of his industry and quietness and temperance be- 
 came apparent to every one. Then some of the 
 Christian people myself perhaps went to his 
 house, to inquire of his wife and himself concerning 
 the change of habits. All and more than had been
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 2O5 
 
 told concerning the change was confirmed. He 
 did not profess to be converted. He did not know. 
 He only knew "he did not feel as he used to;" he 
 hated his old habits ; had no desire for whisky, and 
 felt happier on the Sabbath. After a long season, 
 during which he now attended church and sat near 
 the door, his life was so obviously a Christian's life 
 that he and his wife became members of the church. 
 His children were clothed and in school, and all 
 things had become new both temporally and spir- 
 itually with the O'Banyan's. Lewis soon came from 
 the door and sat in a pew near the pulpit. He as- 
 sumed the duties of sexton, and was faithful till 
 he died. 
 
 There was a large distillery in the place one of 
 those immense establishments which produced 
 whisky by the hundreds of barrels. The clerk in 
 this manufactory of fire water, was an educated 
 Irishman, who was, in Belfast, a member of a Pres- 
 byterian church. He was a young man, and one 
 of the best specimens of an Irish gentlemen I had 
 ever met. He became, with others, a member 
 of our church under protest that his aid in such 
 business was wrong. All the Christian reforms 
 anti-slavery, temperance, Sabbath observance, anti- 
 masonry were duly noticed and advocated in the 
 pulpit, as fitting occasion occurred to refer to them. 
 This gentleman left his place contrary to the wishes 
 of the owner, Mr. Atkinson. After a short time, 
 perhaps by continued solicitation, he returned feel- 
 ing that he was too fastidious about the matter, as
 
 2O6 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 he had no personal interest in the profits of the dis- 
 tillery. After a few weeks, however, his conscience 
 triumphed a second time, and he left the distillery 
 and purchased a farm on the Kentucky side of the 
 river, where, I have no doubt, God prospered him 
 as a conscientious Christian man. There were 
 coopers in the place belonging both to the Presby- 
 terian and Baptist churches. They refused to make 
 barrels for the distillery ; took them by boat to the 
 city and sold them for what they could have had at 
 home. 
 
 Those who purposed to observe the Sabbath had 
 more difficulty, and failed one of them at least 
 after much expense and loss of time to obtain for 
 himself a day of rest. He was a river engineer, 
 and was receiving good wages. He left his boat 
 rather than labor on the Sabbath. He hoped to 
 get a birth on some packet that lay by on the 
 Lord's day, but failed to do so. For some months 
 he was out of employ, and his good Christian wife, 
 who had been awakened to new life, sustained her 
 husband and herself by her needle. They how- 
 ever concluded, after self-denying effort, that Sab- 
 bath rest for the engineer could not be obtained, 
 and he took a place again on a boat with the pur- 
 pose of so observing the day on the boat that, 
 although engaged in labor, his comrades would rec- 
 ognize him as reverencing the Sabbath day. Years 
 afterwards I saw one of the coopers, who was glad 
 he had made no barrels for the distillery. 
 
 The distillery was, by a providential accident,
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 2O/ 
 
 destroyed by fire, and its owner failed in business. 
 One man had prayed that a certain distillery might 
 be burned down, (a prayer of very doubtful pro- 
 priety,) and when the accident that fulfilled his 
 desire occurred, he was somewhat startled and 
 alarmed as though he might have had some per- 
 sonal connection with the disaster. 
 
 In the vicinity of New Richmond, at a distance 
 of six miles, there was a little Presbyterian church, 
 called the Scotch settlement. To this place I went 
 usually once each week, and sometimes in the sum- 
 mer on Sabbath afternoons. A spiritual refreshing 
 was vouchsafed to them, and most of those in the 
 neighborhood who were not identified with other 
 congregations united with the Presbyterians. Years 
 afterwards, when those who were then children 
 were settled in life, I met with some of them who 
 remembered the days of other years. One old En- 
 glish gentleman, who was a man of very passionate 
 temper, I met in his infirm age when he was quite 
 deaf. He had fought a good fight against his pro- 
 pensity to passion, and had kept the faith that he 
 professed with trembling. 
 
 One sad incident occurred during the year. The 
 son-in-law of old Mr,. Emmerson became insane 
 and died. Insanity was hereditary in his family ; 
 and the religious interest he felt excited him. This, 
 probably, occasioned an attack of the family mal- 
 ady. Great care had been taken in the Presbyte- 
 rian church to prevent the interest becoming an 
 excitement. The meetings were closed after an
 
 2O8 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 hour and a half sometimes sooner. Nothing was 
 permitted to prolong them. The people were ad- 
 vised to take their usual sleep. A meeting held in 
 the city by an evangelist, who prolonged his serv- 
 ices sometimes from two to three hours, with pro- 
 tracted conference meetings every afternoon, had 
 occasioned brain fever in several cases, and the 
 death of at least two excellent men. Doing all we 
 could to promote "peace" of mind and body ; yet 
 nervous invalids would at times be unduly moved. 
 One lady, the wife of an excellent Baptist brother, 
 was the only one during all the time who inter- 
 rupted the exercises by any nervous expression. 
 She spoke so excitedly, that the singers began a 
 sweet familiar hymn, when she gradually subsided 
 into peace. She had had nervous pains every day 
 for years. She was a member of our church ; but 
 her husband had created a doubt in her mind on 
 the subject of baptism, and her conscience was not 
 at rest. Every one was glad when she concluded 
 to be baptized by immersion in the Ohio. In con- 
 nection with this baptism, the singular fact occur- 
 red, that the nervous pains ( neuralgia, probably,) 
 that had afflicted her, especially in the night, ceased 
 from the moment of her immersion. Whether they 
 returned I do not know; but the healing at the time 
 was marked, and beneficent. The cold bath may 
 have had something to do with it the relief of con- 
 science may have had. The peace of mind from a 
 sense of duty done, may have had. A true faith 
 which works by love is better than medicine
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 2OQ 
 
 oftentimes. Of the two most nervous persons, ex- 
 citement in one case produced evil, in the other 
 'healing of soul and body. 
 
 During the time that I was editing and publish- 
 ing my paper in the city, I spent a part of the time 
 on the Sabbath as minister of the Church at R. 
 The leading physician of the region, who was a 
 Unitarian, with some other men of like views at- 
 tended the Presbyterian service. The doctor's wife 
 is a faithful Christian in word and deed. One after- 
 noon at conference meeting, unexpectedly to every 
 one, the doctor rose in the meeting and said words 
 of this import : His mind was not at rest ; if God 
 was in Christ, he wished to know it and feel it. I 
 had preached Christ not as God and man, but as 
 God in man. Not as the second person of the trin- 
 ity, but as God in his relations to the soul : That 
 He had power on earth to forgive sins. "Christ in 
 the soul." His omnipresence, as being with his 
 people "till end of the world;" and "where two 
 or three were gathered." The true God revealed 
 only in Him. No man knoweth the Father but 
 the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal 
 Him. That the New Testament religion was to 
 believe in, love and obey God as revealed in Christ 
 that God was in Christ, and Christ is in the Holy 
 Spirit. The doctor believed ; and not long after I 
 ordained him as an elder in the church. He was 
 subsequently stumbled by the evil doings of minis- 
 ters ; but still hopes to be saved, and endeavors to 
 obey the Lord. In connection with the interest
 
 2IO PIONEER LIFE 
 
 during which the doctor believed, many, but not all 
 of the other Unitarians in the region accepted the 
 gospel, and united with the churches. The remain- 
 ing poor, likewise, came in; so that the little church 
 contained the highest, as well as the lowest of the 
 town, socially considered. One of the very poor 
 was the wife of a blind wood sawyer, who had been 
 a member of the Methodist church but was dropped 
 for alleged immorality. Some of the alleged delin- 
 quences were, perhaps, too true. She attended 
 church and professed to be a Christian, but made no 
 application for membership, and no effort to mingle 
 socially with those by whom she had always been 
 held as a pariah. Her life, however, was so exem- 
 plary that it was thought proper to speak with 
 her of the duty and privilege which Christ offers 
 to his people in church ordinances. When proposed 
 as a member there were fears expressed of various 
 kinds, but none of those fears were realized during 
 my knowledge of affairs in the congregation. 
 
 When the work of conversion seemed to cease in 
 some measure at least for want of material, those 
 in the town being mostly members of some congre- 
 gation ; and those not in attendance being more or 
 less hopeless ; I thought it wise to endeavor to give 
 some lectures, on literary and scientific subjects to 
 increase the general culture of the people. They 
 were a mixed multitude in the town from all parts 
 of Christendom, and most of them very deficient in 
 general knowledge. I had a very imperfect knowl- 
 edge myself of the things that I endeavored to
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 211 
 
 teach, but I knew more of the subject matter than 
 any one else that would lecture gratuitously, and 
 with the assistance of books and maps I succeeded 
 in interesting and profiting the people. 
 
 The time came, however, after I had spent some 
 time with the church, (and my religious paper in 
 Cincinnati was established and sold to Rev. E. Good- 
 man, an excellent man who became my successor,) 
 that believing my work in Richmond was com- 
 pleted as did my brethren in the ministry, I 
 concluded to go and cultivate some other vacant 
 field. Then came the only trial I had with the 
 people. It may not be right for me to tell the story 
 but the old elders and members are still living, 
 and some of them remember the scenes as vividly 
 as I do myself. 
 
 When I had concluded to leave the city and the 
 church at Richmond, my purpose was made known 
 to the people. There was surprise and apparent 
 sorrow, as they now were strong enough to give 
 what would be moderate support to a minister. 
 Some of the older people called personally to use 
 their influence with me. The faithful ones who 
 were there when I went to the village left weeping, 
 and left me in a state of mind which I cannot de- 
 scribe. Then, by appointment, the elders called, 
 when we had packed a part of our household goods. 
 They talked earnestly and piously and soundly, and 
 expressed their fear that I was resisting the will of 
 God, and that some evil might come to me if I per- 
 sisted. They were willing to take all the trouble of
 
 212 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 unpacking my goods and to do anything I desired if 
 I would give up the plan. It was impossible for me 
 not to be affected by their solicitude, and I agreed 
 to refer the decision to my wife ; but she refused to 
 take the responsibility. I then agreed to go on board 
 the packet with my goods, and if anything occurred 
 before I got to Portsmouth, I would return and 
 take my place again at Richmond. With sorrowful 
 faces we all aided to get the goods to the dock, and 
 we went on board the boat. I could not bid them 
 a courteous adieu individually, and they knew the 
 reason. I went into the boat, and the last man I 
 saw through the window as the boat left the wharf 
 was the colored man, poor Lewis O'Banyan, walk- 
 ing to and fro in a lot above the river. As the boat 
 passed he stopped and looked intently. I felt anx- 
 ious to wave a farewell, but I did not venture out. 
 I really had some apprehension that I might be 
 fleeing from duty, as I had done once before ; but 
 the boat landed us safely at Portsmouth, where we 
 took the canal packet for central Ohio, where a 
 ministering brother (Rev. Mr. Powell) had written 
 to me that a little church at Mansfield, which I had 
 aided to organize before I entered the ministry, 
 was destitute and somewhat desolate, and needed 
 a minister. 
 
 I went immediately to Marietta, where I preached 
 for a season to the oldest Congregational church 
 organized west of the Alleghanies ; lectured in be- 
 half of the Anti-Slavery cause to a small audience 
 in the church, where but two of the members were
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 213 
 
 willing to be present ; aided to form a new Congre- 
 gational church in Putnam on the opposite side of 
 Muskingum river ; and having received an invita- 
 tion to establish a religious paper in Cincinnati, 
 being urgently invited by a vote of the New ^chool 
 Synods of Ohio and Cincinnati, I considered it a 
 call of Providence, and prepared to go to the city 
 and accomplish the work if it could be done. I 
 considered it a call of Providence, because I was 
 sure such a paper ought to be established, and I 
 was sure no one but myself could accomplish the 
 object. I was a practical printer ; had some expe- 
 rience as an editor, and could manage the concern 
 with one-third the cost which would be incurred 
 by men not understanding the operative part of 
 the business.
 
 214 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 AUTHOR, EVANGELIST, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER 
 IN CINCINNATI. 
 
 We had gone to Cincinnati to revise and publish 
 our first volume. For a few months we applied 
 ourselves diligently, until the volume was about 
 ready for the press. During a part of this time we 
 were preacher to a small church at New Rich- 
 mond, near the city, (of which more will be said in 
 the next chapter). 
 
 A religious paper had been published for some 
 years previous, and had failed. The Western pas- 
 tors felt the want of a journal as a medium of com- 
 munication with their churches, and the three 
 Synods of Ohio, Cincinnati and Indiana united in 
 inviting me to establish and conduct such a journal 
 for them. They pledged co-operation, and that 
 they would procure by their own solicitation a cer- 
 tain number of subscribers. I have before me at 
 this moment, the doings of a committee, signed by- 
 Rev. A. Benton, Chairman, and Rev. J. Blanchard, 
 Secretary. It is written :
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 21$ 
 
 Rev. J. B. Walker proposes to commence a relig- 
 ious paper in the city, on condition that 1600 sub- 
 scribers be obtained for him, and 400 more within 
 three months from its first issue, the ist of Novem- 
 ber. Voted that we undertake to raise the requisite 
 number of names, provided Bro. Walker supplies 
 the desks of such clergy as may be engaged in ob- 
 taining names. Voted that Bro. Walker be invited 
 to come to the city by the middle of April, 1840. 
 Pledges : Dr. Stowe, two weeks' labor ; J. Blanch- 
 ard, six weeks or 600 subscribers ; J. Benton, labor 
 as agent till the number is obtained. 
 
 The paper was commenced. What little means 
 I had I employed in its establishment. My friends 
 accomplished about as much as pastors and profess- 
 ors usually do in enterprises that require personal 
 solicitation. Rev. Messrs. Bingham and Blanchard 
 spent some time on the field and obtained a good 
 list of subscribers. Prof. Stowe visited the Synod 
 of Indiana, and made a speech in behalf of the en- 
 terprise. Dr. Beecher commended the new enter- 
 prise to the patronage of his people on the Sabbath. 
 There was likewise a circular sent to the churches 
 inviting subscriptions. All these efforts producing 
 less than one-fourth of the number of subscribers 
 promised. 
 
 The only alternative was, that I should give up 
 the enterprise or obtain by agents a supporting list 
 of subscribers, and support myself and family by 
 other means until the paper gained a paying list. 
 Within the course of one year this was nearly ac- 
 complished, and the Watchman of the Valley was 
 generally circulated in Western Ohio, Indiana and
 
 2l6 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 Northern Kentucky. But there were other difficul- 
 ties in the way of its progress besides the effort to 
 obtain subscribers. The anti-slavery question was 
 vigorously agitated in the churches. The new 
 paper was scarcely radical enough for the old men 
 who had initiated the discussion, and it maintained 
 principles that the opponents of the anti-slavery 
 cause would not tolerate. Hence, many subscribers, 
 especially the wealthy members of city churches, 
 discontinued the paper as soon as they understood 
 its sentiments on the central subject of the times. 
 It was maintained the first year by sacrifice, and 
 rejected by some and approved by others ; it 
 labored, under much embarrassment, for human 
 freedom and vital religion. 
 
 Dr. Beecher and Prof. Stowe, of Lane Seminary, 
 were personally friendly, and approved the senti- 
 ment of the paper ; but their relations to the 
 churches in the city were such that Dr. B. espe- 
 cially, did little openly to aid its circulation. He 
 began a series of articles on the doctrine of Chris- 
 tian perfection a subject much talked of, and more 
 frequently exemplified in those days than at pres- 
 ent. But the most influential family in his church 
 were actively hostile to the Watchman and remon- 
 strated against his writing for it. The good doctor 
 after initiating the discussion thought best not to 
 continue his articles. 
 
 It was a period of awakened interest on the sub- 
 ject of religion in the city. Protracted meetings 
 were held in the Presbyterian churches. The doctor
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 2 1/ 
 
 invited me to aid him in a series of evening meet- 
 ings. I attended the preliminary conference, and 
 during some remarks stated that Christian parents 
 should, (if a series of meetings were held,) be 
 specially watchful in regard to their influence upon 
 the young people in their families who were uncon- 
 verted ; that a walk and conversation in the spirit 
 of the services should be maintained, or any convic- 
 tion of sin which the unconverted might feel would 
 be dissipated by the apparent thoughtlessness and 
 apparent prayerlessness of those who professed to 
 love Christ, and who should at such a time be anx- 
 ious that their children might be converted. 
 
 This preliminary admonition was appropriate to 
 the time, and the unthoughtful state of many whose 
 children were expected to attend the special serv- 
 ices. I returned to my home that evening feeling 
 deeply the responsibility of the labors which I sup- 
 posed would ensue. Before I retired, however, I 
 was called upon by Mr. Hicks since then a well 
 known laborer for Home Missions who informed 
 me that after the sermon closed, the elders had a 
 meeting and requested Dr. Beecher to inform me 
 that in the evening meetings ensuing they desired 
 that no reference should be made to the subject of 
 Slavery, and no allusion to the habits of family life. 
 These conditions, of course, relieved me from my 
 engagement ; and on the invitation of Mr. Mills, of 
 the Second Presbyterian church, without condi- 
 tions, (although his views on the subject of Slavery 
 differed more from my own than those of Doctor
 
 2l8 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 Beecher,) I engaged to aid him in a series of meet- 
 ings which were immediately commenced, and 
 which resulted in the salvation of many who at- 
 tended the services. 
 
 Dr. Beecher labored in his church faithfully and 
 prayerfully and conscientiously for weeks. Others 
 aided his zealous endeavors, but no fruit crowned 
 the effort at this time. It is not for man to judge 
 whether the Savior was displeased with the inhu- 
 manity and inconsistency of his professed friends. 
 
 A wealthy lady defeated another plan which the 
 doctor had on his heart, and which would have been 
 accomplished but for her management. It was pro- 
 posed that a new Presbyterian church should be or- 
 ganized in the audience room of the Cincinnati col- 
 lege, then under the presidency of the late General 
 Mitchell. The general, at that time captain of a 
 volunteer company in the city, a West Point grad- 
 uate and president of the college, co-operated cor- 
 dially in the movement. I had arranged for the 
 music, and the co-operation of a number of Chris- 
 tian laborers in the work. There was a ladies' so- 
 ciety connected with the Second Church, which 
 had a considerable sum in their treasury, which Dr. 
 Beecher had the privilege of expending, as he might 
 deem wise, for the promotion of the gospel. This 
 he pledged to the new enterprise. We had indi- 
 vidual subscriptions, and other resources sufficient 
 to meet the expenses of the enterprise. The lady 
 referred to, president of the missionary society, 
 who was wife of the most influential pro-slavery
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 219 
 
 man in the city heard of the project ; and that I 
 was to take charge of the new organization. She 
 immediately called the ladies of the society to- 
 gether, (few, if any of whom knew the plan which 
 we had matured in dependence upon the fund which 
 the doctor had pledged,) and obtained a vote of the 
 society to expend the funds of the society to pro- 
 cure new stone steps and better fixtures for the 
 front entrance of the Second church. Our project 
 failed, of course, and the wise woman no doubt 
 congratulated herself on the defeat of a plan that 
 would have opened a new church in the city where 
 the condition of the bondmen would be remembered. 
 The doctor seemed to be somewhat ashamed as 
 well as grieved at the failure of the movement. 
 But we understood the difficulty of his position, 
 and those who had been urged into the effort by 
 his advice and pledges, were careful not to manifest 
 in his presence -regret that he allowed the good he 
 might do and that he desired to do, to be circum- 
 vented by those governed by a wicked hostility to 
 truth and freedom. 
 
 The doctor seemed determined that I should be 
 permitted to speak to his people on that subject, 
 and a portion of his people were anxious to hear 
 things said that he believed but did not say. Dur- 
 ing his summer vacation he had the privilege of 
 selecting the supply for the pulpit, and his people 
 were to pay for the services. I accepted the invi- 
 tation to preach during his absence. The watchful 
 men on the board of elders were alarmed, and an
 
 22O PIONEER LIFE 
 
 order was passed, that I should be requested not to 
 read any anti-slavery notices in the pulpit, and if I 
 would not consent to withhold such notices, a com- 
 mittee should receive the notices and send only 
 such to the pulpit as they chose to hear. There 
 could be no voice in that pulpit inviting to prayer 
 or effort for the negro. It was further resolved 
 that a contribution should be taken each Sabbath 
 to pay the extra expenses of the congregation 
 while the doctor was absent. My conscience re- 
 luctated against these arrangements and prohibi- 
 tions. I had, however, engaged to supply the 
 pulpit for a definite time, and I worked on under 
 the cloud a few Sabbaths when, being thrown from 
 a conveyance and prevented by my bruises from 
 proceeding with my engagement, I thanked God, 
 and freed myself from my bondage. The congre- 
 gation had no difficulty in obtaining an eminent 
 preacher to occupy my place, whocould withhold 
 in prayer, sermon and notice, all reference to the 
 sin of slavery. 
 
 Since then the church has had eminent preachers; 
 but the gospel has been dishonored, and the people 
 humiliated by a grosser defection, of one of the 
 members from principle, than that of those who 
 refuse to read a notice for an anti-slavery prayer 
 meeting. 
 
 The hostility of the pro-slavery men did not 
 make the Watchman of the Valley more conserva- 
 tive perhaps less so until finally a gentleman 
 who deemed its opinions intolerable, and supposing
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 221 
 
 from nis position that he could accomplish by men- 
 ace what he had failed to do by other means, 
 wrote me a note, which was handed me by Wm. 
 Persons, desiring to be informed when it would be 
 convenient for me to leave the city ; implying, of 
 course, that means would be used to suppress the 
 Watchman and its editor, if I persisted in publish- 
 ing an anti-slavery paper as the organ of the New 
 School Presbyterian Churches. 
 
 The Philanthropist, the anti-slavery paper of the 
 West, had been destroyed, and its press thrown 
 into the Ohio river a' few weeks before. Lovejoy's 
 paper at Alton, for a similar offense had been de- 
 stroyed, and Lovejoy himself murdered. The note 
 came from a source that was not to be despised. 
 The individual who wrote, had sufficient influence 
 to prevail on every paper published in the city to 
 discontinue exchange with the Watchman, except 
 the Gazette, then managed by the resolute veteran 
 editor, Charles Hammond. After an hour's reflec- 
 tion, I returned for answer, that if the writer would 
 call on me at a certain time and place, he would 
 learn when I would be prepared to leave the city. 
 He did not come, and I heard no more from him, 
 except that he refused to visit a friend who hap- 
 pened for a few weeks to be residing in my family. 
 
 The Watchman continued its issues ; " the coun- 
 try people read it gladly ; " and, meanwhile, my 
 Sabbaths and spare time were devoted to various 
 other efforts which I deemed adapted to promote 
 the triumph of truth and righteousness.
 
 222 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 There were two classes of people in the city 
 which were doing mischief. They had been met 
 by Dr. Beecher in a measure by efforts which he 
 made to meet mechanics and all others who would 
 assemble in their own workshops to hear the gospel. 
 There were likewise efforts made for systematic 
 preaching in the market house on Fifth street, and 
 in the Bethel Chapel in the other end of the city ; 
 but we found the parties most active in hindering 
 the gospel adopted the same means of out-door 
 preaching, and promoted hostility to holiness 
 when we hoped to counteract it. It was thought 
 best, therefore, by myself and a few others, that I 
 should meet the Atheists, or the Fanny Wright 
 men as they were called, in debate, when the Infi- 
 del people would be present, and those who were 
 being led astray. The Reformers, as the Infidels 
 called themselves, had a large room on the corner 
 of Main and Fifth streets. Mr. DeRusmont, the 
 putative husband of Fanny Wright, had his head- 
 quarters and library there ; and the club assembled 
 twice a week for discussions and business. I pro- 
 posed to meet them in their own room and discuss 
 the question, " Is there a Supreme Moral Personal 
 God apart from, or above the laws of Nature, who 
 rules and judges men ?" 
 
 I invited only a single friend, Mr. VanBergen, an 
 elder of the 3d Presbyterian church, who was occa- 
 sionally present at the discussion. The Infidels 
 and those who sympathised with them were out in 
 force. I remember only a few of the turning points
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 223 
 
 in the discussions, which terminated happily in de- 
 taching from the reformers some men and women 
 who were tending to irreligion and immorality. 
 
 The action of conscience was a main topic. 
 They argued that conscience was both light and 
 law to the soul, and all the light and law the soul 
 needed. 
 
 I argued that conscience itself needed light ; 
 that like the natural eye, it was true in itself but 
 could not see in the dark. This was illustrated 
 one night at length by showing that conscience en- 
 forced the faith of the soul right or wrong ; and the 
 more sincerely men believed error the more poten- 
 tial was conscience to enforce it. In dark ages and 
 heathen countries this was evidently true ; true to 
 all believers, Catholic and Protestant. The point 
 was established and gained for truth. They con- 
 ceded that conscience needed light, and then argued 
 that they ha:d the true light but their strength at 
 that point was broken. 
 
 They insisted that all men were governed by 
 motives ; that God foreordained whatsoever comes 
 to pass good and bad alike. Mahomet and Jesus 
 murder and mercy and the penalty, all there was 
 for the wrong, was conscience and consequences. 
 I agreed in part, but argued that if good and bad 
 action were alike produced by a power independ- 
 ent of man, that power must be malignant; because, 
 to produce in man bad conduct and then punish 
 him for acting in a manner which he could not 
 avoid, was the character of a supreme devil. If
 
 224 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 all action were alike caused by law without free- 
 dom, man should suffer no more for a good than a 
 bad act. A father who would cause his child, or 
 even a dumb beast, to do an act, and then punish 
 for it, would be a monster. And if we were in the 
 power of such laws, or persons, or principles, or 
 whatever they might call Fatality, we should all re- 
 joice in annihilation, because to exist would surely 
 bring evil sooner or later. 
 
 If, as some argued, chance governed the world 
 instead of fate, the cause was still evil. Change 
 corrected nothing. It created disorder. We might 
 chance to be deranged ; think we murdered our 
 parents ; but chance could not correct the evil. In 
 the eternal future left to chance, we should look with 
 dread to the morrow if any said there was no 
 future. We had chanced to exist once. We might 
 again ; but not for the better. We are the highest 
 creature now. If change not probably so again. 
 It is said we are spirit, and matter cannot give pain 
 to spirit. It does now and may again. The dread 
 of the future, if left to chance would be torment. 
 
 Some of the women were alarmed, and some men 
 never came back to hear the close of the discussfon. 
 
 During my term as editor, and some months 
 thereafter, I labored in the neighboring churches 
 as an evangelist when pressure of other duties 
 would allow. In Madison, Indiana ; in Columbus, 
 Ohio ; in the 3d church in Cincinnati, and else- 
 where. I witnessed the process of the revival 
 years from 1836 to 1840, and some marked incidents
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 225 
 
 impressed on the memory and certified by experi- 
 ence may be noted with profit. There were pro- 
 fessional evangelists in those days, some of whom 
 still live. The best of them all, Rev. C. G. Finney, of 
 Oberlin, still lives ; and Burchard and Littlejohn 
 and the Footes, have ceased to labor ; Mr. Avery, 
 and Clarke, of Cleveland, are the only men now 
 actively engaged in the West. Most of these 
 men had a process and a method peculiar to them- 
 selves. Their method was true to the spirit of the 
 gospel, and while it was vital with faith and devo- 
 tion, it accomplished the end for which it was sent. 
 The next general visitation of spiritual interest 
 may be dispensed by a somewhat different method, 
 but the spirit must be the same. 
 
 Another class of persons called themselves Uni- 
 versalists. Some of them upright and amiable, but 
 teaching the thoughtless views of the doctrine of 
 sin and holiness, that absolutely prevented repent- 
 ance and faith in Christ as the Savior from sin. 
 
 They were deluding many persons by pretences 
 which part of them supposed to be true that the 
 Christian ministers of the evangelical denomina- 
 tions were unwilling to discuss the subject with 
 them. They challenged Dr. Beecher, not suppos- 
 ing he would meet them, to vindicate the truth he 
 taught in a polemic way. But the fact of the chal- 
 lenge, common in those days, and that no one like 
 Paul in the School of Tyrannus proposed to meet 
 them, gave them adherents every week. After 
 consultation it was thought best that I should
 
 226 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 accept their challenge to discuss the question, Will 
 all men be saved ? The discussion was to be held 
 in their own church. After consultation among 
 themselves it was agreed that a discussion should 
 take place first in a village church not far from the 
 city; and subsequently in the city. 
 
 Mr. Pingree, who subsequently died in Louisville, 
 a man of many gifts and unusual ability, entered 
 the arena first. The discusssion lasted three days. 
 The business was a new one to me. I had read 
 Ely's debate and Dr. P. Cook, and I devised a new 
 process of argument, which I was sure would con- 
 vince an audience if not the disputant, of the ab- 
 surdity of Universalism. On the appointed day 
 we met and dined together, and with proper court- 
 esy I was introduced to the people. Mr. Pingree 
 argued from various scripture passages, that all 
 would be saved. I rose and argued that all would 
 be damned. I had collected a large number of 
 scripture passages, and appealed to the audience 
 if I had not, on their own principles of construction 
 proved that none would be saved. 
 
 The method was a new one, and succeeded in 
 upsetting all the old arguments by nullifying them. 
 
 When my opponent argued that certain words 
 did not mean everlasting, I assented provided he 
 would apply the same rule to the other side, ever- 
 lasting life. 
 
 After two days I had succeeded in destroying 
 confidence in the construction of scripture by which 
 Universalists sustain their views in the eyes of
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 22/ 
 
 the people. The third day the rational argument 
 was appealed to, the unreasonableness of eter- 
 nal punishment was argued successfully by Mr. 
 Pingree ; and if I had contended for eternal tor- 
 ments, as the old divines did, I should have done 
 something to diminish my success in the debate. 
 But I declined to argue eternal torment for the im- 
 penitent, and argued that they would be punished 
 as much as they deserved, and as long as they were 
 sinful, and that they would either sin and suffer for- 
 ever, or else suffer for sin and then be annihilated, 
 which is the scriptural teaching ; but that those 
 who grew worse instead of better by their proba- 
 tion could never enter heaven. 
 
 The debate did good ; the evangelical people in 
 the neighborhood rejoice in the issue as a great 
 deliverance from a boastful and injurious error, to 
 this day. 
 
 The next debate took place in the Universalist 
 church in the city. Every effort was made to get 
 a change of terms as to the place of holding the de- 
 bate. They desired that one-half the time it should 
 be in some evangelical church, but I was unwilling 
 to change the arrangement. 
 
 The debate in the city was with John A. Gurley 
 subsequently member of congress, now deceased. 
 I would pursue no method but to oppose his argu- 
 ment by its opposite and to apply his definitions to 
 both sides ; I affirmed that sinning only increased 
 the propension to sin ; and that the second death 
 by annihilation, or otherwise was as endless as the
 
 228 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 second life. Dr. Beecher and the evangelical min- 
 isters, and many leading men on all sides attended 
 the debates. It had one good result. Previously 
 there had been in the city and region about, a con- 
 stant urging for debate, and assumption that the 
 evangelical people were afraid to let the common 
 people hear the two sides compared with the Bible, 
 and many people were believing these statements. 
 Subsequently, till the present day, Universalism 
 has grown more orthodox and more modest in 
 that region. The truth about the matter was, 
 that the orthodox ministry, learned in tradition, 
 and pious as some of them are, with the exception 
 of Dr. Beecher and Mr. Burnett, of the Campbellite 
 church, were entirely unfitted to meet the Universa- 
 list preachers before a mass audience of the people. 
 This last discussion occurred about the time that 
 I closed my connection with the paper. I trans- 
 ferred the office of the Herald of the Prairies 
 to Rev. E. Goodman, one of the best men I ever 
 knew. I now had leisure, which I could not obtain 
 till now, to publish my first volume. I had delivered 
 some of the chapters as addresses at college and in 
 labor for the Bible Society, the last chapters being 
 the experience at New Richmond. I had preached 
 most of the book, and had re-written and arranged 
 the whole ; and now I proposed to print the work 
 with my own hands, and give it to the public that 
 it might propagate the truth, if truth was in it. I 
 believed in the book myself, but had no idea of 
 what its history would be. I felt that I had a
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 229 
 
 mission to publish it, and was willing to risk a part 
 of what little money I had on the issue. 
 
 Dr. Bailey, then editor of the Philanthropist, 
 afterwards of the Era, at Washington City, was a 
 friend. We had issued our papers from the same 
 office ; saved some money by exchanging articles 
 in both, and I felt confidence in his ability to judge 
 of the value of the work. It was submitted to him 
 in MSS., but after retaining it for a time, I called 
 and he told me he could not possibly find time to 
 read it thoroughly, and could not advise in regard 
 to its publication. 
 
 I took the MSS. to Dr. Beecher, who willingly 
 heard me read such portions as I desired to have 
 examined. Miss Catharine Beecher was called in 
 by her father. She was then considered the strong 
 mind of his family. Mrs. Stowe had written only 
 the Mayflower Stories, which were not appreciated 
 at the time of their publication as her subsequent 
 writings have been. The doctor expressed, with- 
 out hesitation, his opinion that the book would do 
 good, dwelling with earnestness on some parts 
 which others have not noticed so favorably. Cath- 
 arine thought well of what she heard, but feared it 
 would be a losing enterprise to publish it. She 
 stated what abler writers than myself have found 
 to be true that a book may be original and of 
 sterling value, but if produced by a man unknown 
 to fame, as almost all original works are, it will gain 
 little or no circulation, at least in its own genera- 
 tion. Her talk was honest and true, and led me to
 
 230 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 publish the book anonymously, hoping, as in the 
 case of Walter Scott, Irving and others, that it 
 might stand on its own merits ; at least, that the 
 unknown name of its author should not detract 
 from its acceptance by the public. 
 
 I retired to my office and determining to make 
 the loss as light as possible, I concluded to set the 
 type myself. A needy Baptist printer, out of em- 
 ployment, I engaged to do the presswork. The 
 proofs were read by myself, and Rev. J. Blanchard, 
 then of the Fifth street Presbyterian church. Of 
 the fifteen hundred printed only five hundred were 
 bound, and I took my departure to introduce the 
 book to the public. 
 
 After supplying personal friends, and leaving 
 some with the booksellers in Cincinnati, mostly in 
 exchange for other works, I took the balance of 
 the edition with the unbound sheets and started 
 for New York and Boston. In New York I left a 
 volume with the religious papers and magazines. 
 Two queer incidents occurred in this connection 
 which helped and hindered. The editor of a prom- 
 inent religious magazine, who had resided in Cin- 
 cinnati, insisted on hearing the name of the writer 
 as he was acquainted in that city. I gave the last 
 name which proved to be that of a prominent law- 
 yer of established literary reputation. He seems 
 to have assumed at once that Judge W. was the 
 man, and gave the book a very flattering notice. I 
 took one to the editor of the New York Observer ; 
 and, although I desired to act incog., he recognized
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 231 
 
 me as the former editor of the Watchman in Cin- 
 cinnati, and as I could not deny the authorship of 
 the book, he gave the anonymous volume a notice 
 that would have prevented any one from buying 
 the work. Some years afterwards when the book 
 had succeeded he apologized in his paper for his 
 unjust notice in the beginning: and not long ago I 
 received a letter from the same gentleman, I sup- 
 pose, stating that his father on his death-bed de- 
 sired him to give his thanks to the author of the 
 work for the aid it had given his faith in his last 
 days. 
 
 A copy was presented to Dr. S. H. Cox, then in 
 the zenith of his strength. He probably had seen 
 the notice in the magazine, and read the book. 
 He wrote, soon after, a notice of the work in the 
 Evangelist, speaking of it as a rare book, the sen- 
 tences, he said, were "clear as light and weighty 
 as gold." 
 
 In Boston, Mr. John Tappan, then a bookseller 
 and publisher, read the book and agreed to furnish 
 it as anonymous to publishers, and endeavor to get 
 a few reviews. He succeeded so well that the Bos- 
 ton press, with the exception of the Magnet, of 
 which Theodore Parker was an editor, said noth- 
 ing but good words for the volume. It was stated 
 in some of the papers that it was, as they under- 
 stood, the work of an eminent lawyer, who had 
 been skeptical, and in this volume gave the views 
 and reasonings which led him to embrace the ortho- 
 dox faith. This reference of the authorship of such
 
 232 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 a book to the bar rather than the pulpit, (although 
 with some experience in both ; with the exception 
 of a few eminent men, I know that the average in- 
 tellect of the pulpit is in advance of the bar,) aided, 
 no doubt, in the introduction of the work. A sec- 
 ond edition was soon called for, in this country. It 
 was immediately issued in London, and in continu- 
 ous editions on both sides of the water from then 
 till now. At the present time it is printed in most 
 of the languages of Christendom, and has a wider 
 circulation in the Christian world than any Ameri- 
 can book. 
 
 While printing the book, and at other moments 
 of leisure, I preached at New Richmond, and as an 
 evangelist in many of the larger places adjacent to 
 Cincinnati. In the city of Richmond, Indiana in 
 Columbus, Ohio at Newark, Ohio, and many other 
 places, I aided the settled preachers at their own 
 invitation, and in all cases God favored the church 
 by converting many to the obedience of Christ. 
 At the city of Columbus, where I aided the late Dr. 
 Hitchcock, some time during three winters, I learn- 
 ed that God works by any process that is prosecu- 
 ted with faith and spirit by the people, and no pro- 
 cess without these will accomplish the end. For 
 two winters the people were humble, self-sacrificing 
 and dependent on God's mercy the third, they 
 supposed the old forms would achieve like results, 
 and the forms were operated with a selfish aim and 
 little spirituality hence but little good was achiev- 
 ed. Providence therefore introduces new men and
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 233 
 
 new forms to counteract the inveterate tendency to 
 rely on forms rather than faith on men rather 
 than on God.
 
 234 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PREACHER AND PASTOR. MANSFIELD. 
 
 We had labored as an evangelist or rather as an 
 assistant preacher in many of the cities of the West : 
 and as our paper was read in all the New School 
 Presbyterian churches, we were known to the re- 
 ligious communities generally. We had, therefore, 
 invitations to churches and new colleges, where it 
 was supposed our labors might be useful. A new 
 institution was projected at Blendon, Ohio, near 
 Columbus, in which we were elected professor, of 
 which our former paper, after we left the city, made 
 the following mention : " It will be with unfeigned 
 pleasure that our readers will learn that the Board 
 of Trustees of Central College have appointed Mr. 
 Walker professor of Belles Lettres in this institu- 
 tion, and that Mr. W. has accepted his appoint- 
 ment. Eminent now as a writer, he is destined 
 to be eminent as a teacher and professor. Central 
 College is situated at Blendon, a few miles from 
 Columbus, and is destined to be unsurpassed by 
 any college in the state." We visited the site of 
 the new college ; but although its chief patron was
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 235 
 
 one of the most benevolent men in the state, and 
 its buildings were spacious and valuable, we doubt- 
 ed of the large success and usefulness of the insti- 
 tution ; and admonished by a former experience of 
 the same sort at Lawrenceburg, and my purpose, 
 at that time, to hear the call of duty thereafter, was 
 why it did not seem to me that it would best pro- 
 mote the glory of God in Christ, for me to become 
 a professor at Blendon. We went on our way, 
 therefore, to Mansfield. 
 
 Myself and wife rode from Mt. Vernon to Mans- 
 field, on a winter night in an open wagon. Straw 
 was thrown into the wagon, and my wife, self and 
 books were loaded in ; and thence for thirty miles, 
 over a rough road, we were conveyed to our new 
 field of labor. The first Sabbath, the church pre- 
 sented a "beggarly amount of empty pews." The 
 congregation being more discouraging as to number 
 than a minister is usually called to meet. But the 
 history of the church and the character of the few 
 who belonged to it interested me more than others, 
 and I began labor trusting in Christ for aid. 
 
 The church had been organized several years 
 before, in a measure, by my own aid. When agent 
 of the Bible Society I had visited Mansfield, and 
 finding a few Christian people in the Old School 
 Presbyterian church, persecuted for their zeal in 
 reforms, and their sympathy with the new institu- 
 tion at Oberlin, I advised them to form a separate 
 church, and drew up the articles by which the so- 
 ciety was organized. They formed themselves into
 
 236 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 a new society, and after worshiping for a time in 
 the second floor of a warehouse owned by the late 
 E. P. Sturges, they erected a small church building 
 by personal labor and no small sacrifice on the part 
 of most of the members. They had employed for 
 a time several ministers before I came ; but their 
 abolitionism and the hostility of all the other 
 churches turned away from their congregation those 
 who loved the praise of men more than the favor 
 of God. An anti-slavery lecturer had been assailed 
 by a rabble while speaking in their church, and had 
 to be accompanied to his room by friends lest he 
 should be assailed by some patriots under the lead- 
 ership of the late Major General S. A. Curtis, who 
 was then a resident lawyer in the place. The gen- 
 eral was subsequently converted to better opinions 
 and principles, and during the late war for Union 
 and Liberty made some atonement for previous 
 errors. 
 
 There was in the little church two or three fami- 
 lies that were wealthy, and by whose aid a small 
 salary of about four hundred and fifty dollars and 
 a free dwelling was made ours ; and even this was 
 quite an advance on what I had received at New 
 Richmond, and was worth in provision nearly twice 
 the amount at the present time. But I never felt 
 willing to receive in my own behalf Home Mission- 
 ary money ; and with rigid economy on our part, 
 we lived comfortably and received into our family 
 one orphan child, besides my wife's sister whose 
 home was with us.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 237 
 
 It was not often that the prominent families in a 
 village give their means and influence to spiritual, 
 reformatory religion. But it was so in the early 
 years of the Mansfield church, and to some extent 
 it is still so in the same church ; but they have re- 
 cently erected an expensive and imposing church 
 edifice, and may degenerate from early purity and 
 piety. When a church that has a splendid house 
 and contains an influential element in society, rises 
 above odium, it is as it was with Christianity in the 
 early period, when the offence of the cross had 
 ceased, worldly Christians, who seek social position 
 and association will seek fellowship in such a church, 
 and an element of worldliness becomes intermixed 
 with the good. I had some little experience of the 
 sort before I left Mansfield. And previously, while 
 in Cincinnati, a gentleman of means moved into 
 the city from Rochester, N. Y. He professed to be 
 an anti-slavery man. I used all the influence I had 
 with him to lead him to unite with a church hold- 
 ing anti-slavery sentiment, which really needed his 
 aid. But he could not be persuaded, and united 
 with the Second Presbyterian church which did not 
 need his aid. He subsequently removed to Brook- 
 lyn, N. Y., and united with a church which led him 
 in his chosen way of worldly religion. 
 
 The little church in Mansfield succeeded abund- 
 antly God aiding it. Every Sabbath added to its 
 congregation, while still it maintained its purity as 
 an anti-slavery, temperance and Sabbath keeping 
 church. The odium gradually subsided as the
 
 238 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 truth triumphed, and we lost only one member, a 
 merchant of wealth and influence, who rose in the 
 congregation and walked out of the church never 
 to return. He was offended by some remarks 
 in regard to men at Washington seeking popular 
 favor by the sacrifice of righteous principles. He 
 died without a sign. Subsequently another gentle- 
 man, an attorney at law, supposing he was about 
 to die, repented as he hoped. I baptized him in 
 his bed, charitably endeavoring to indulge the same 
 hope. He recovered, and took command of a com- 
 pany in the Mexican war, by which the South 
 hoped to add more slave territory, but failed 
 through the prayer and efforts of anti-slavery men 
 and women. He united with the church on his re- 
 covery ; but as we opposed the Mexican war, he 
 withdrew when he took command of his company. 
 He was subsequently Lieut. General of the State, 
 and Colonel in the late war for Union and Liberty ; 
 and was more recently a successful attorney in 
 Washington city, where he died desiring in his last 
 hours to be taken back to Mansfield to sleep the 
 sleep that knows no waking in the cemetery of that 
 city. His action in regard to church matters was 
 exceedingly peculiar. While he would not go into 
 the church, because of the views which were held 
 and preached, he subscribed more liberally than 
 any other man in proportion to his means to sup- 
 port the teaching which he eschewed. 
 
 Temporal, intellectual and spiritual success was 
 granted to the church. Series of lectures on
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 239 
 
 geology and other popular subjects were occasion- 
 ally given by the pastor and resident gentlemen. 
 The Sabbath-School was enlarged and the increase 
 of children sometimes brought in the parents. On 
 the Fourth of July, we had, often in company with 
 the other schools, a procession a repast brief 
 speeches and dialogues by the pupils, which were 
 both amusing and instructive amusement being 
 the principle aim. No pews were rented. The 
 little salary was raised by subscription. The con- 
 gregation built in the second year a fine parsonage 
 on a large and pleasant lot of ground, which I orna- 
 mented for those that followed me with fruit and 
 flowers ; and the labors and prayers of the church 
 were crowned with annual, sometimes semi-annual 
 ingatherings of a greater number into the fold of 
 Christ. 
 
 A weekly ministers' meeting was instituted, and 
 most of the evangelical ministers in the city at- 
 tended ; and thus a spirit of unity was obtained in 
 promoting the common interests of religion in the 
 place and the region round about. Instead of 
 bigotry, charity gradually prevailed, until the old 
 members of my congregation were filled with aston- 
 ishment, when the old minister who had disciplined 
 them for reform and revival utterances appeared 
 unexpectedly to them one Sabbath morning in my 
 pulpit to preach the gospel. 
 
 After a revival of religion which added a number 
 to our communion, and likewise to other churches 
 in the place, an association was formed including
 
 240 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 the most influential men in the city, the object of 
 which was to secure the better observance of the 
 Sabbath ; to promote the cause of temperance, and 
 to reform the vicious by whatever means and influ- 
 ence we might properly use. The association was 
 fruitful of much good. The Pittsburg, Fort Wayne 
 and Chicago Rail Road, which was not then com- 
 pleted to Chicago, ran its cars through a portion 
 of the corporation on the Sabbath day. We had 
 the Sabbath train stopped for a short time, but it 
 cost an effort ; and the Marshal of the city, Mr. 
 Gilkeson, who is yet living, and who was the first 
 child born in the place, was baptized with scalding 
 water from one of the engines while endeavoring 
 to arrest the engineer. The management of the 
 road, however, discontinued the working train and 
 constructed a track outside the corporation. The 
 Sabbath was for a season at least respected, and 
 even those who had opposed the effort for cessation 
 of the laboring train became grateful for the rest 
 that was gained for themselves and others. Most 
 of the reformers have entered into their final rest. 
 Dr. Hildreth, one of the most active then I be- 
 lieve, mayor of the town has just deceased. 
 
 The ministers likewise, not only of the city, but 
 throughout the country, formed themselves into an 
 evangelical alliance, including at least seven de- 
 nominations of evangelical Christians, on a common 
 basis of the essential articles of gospel faith. Our 
 aim was to unite our efforts by which we would 
 advance human interests by gospel faith. This was
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 241 
 
 the first evangelical alliance ever formed in the 
 world. It ante-dated by a year at least that sub- 
 sequently formed in London, by delegates from all 
 portions of Christendom. I still have its first rec- 
 ord book. Sermons were preached alternately, and 
 papers read in the different churches no pastor 
 preaching in his own pulpit at the exercises of the 
 Alliance. 
 
 In my own church, I preached a sermon in the 
 forenoon, endeavoring to lodge conviction of some 
 one truth in the minds of the people. In the after- 
 noon or evening, I gave a continuous exposition of 
 a book or letter of the Apostles, from four verses 
 to twenty or more at a service, till the book was 
 finished. I preached once each quarter to the chil- 
 dren, and usually made some remarks in the Sab- 
 bath infant class-room, to break the monotony for 
 the little children. I had no differences with the 
 people except in regard to renting seats and an 
 organ. At the end of the second year, when the 
 church became full many of the new attendants, 
 and some of the old, wanted the seats rented, about 
 which I doubted, but which was accomplished by 
 the congregation. The organ, I thought, would 
 introduce artistic music instead of spiritual melo- 
 dies sung by all the people with the spirit and with 
 the understanding. A melodeon, I thought, would 
 be all that would be necessary for an accompani- 
 ment. A compromise was effected, and a small 
 organ procured, and although the effect was not so 
 evil as if a larger instrument had been introduced,
 
 242 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 the people gradually began to listen to new tunes, 
 instead of singing such as would make melody in 
 their hearts unto the Lord. 
 
 The house being full and feeling that the work 
 in the congregation was about finished, I acceded 
 to a request that had been urgently pressed upon 
 me by brethren in Chicago, to establish a religious 
 newspaper for the North-West in that city.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 243 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 CHICAGO. 
 
 My Mansfield people were sorely tried when 
 they found that I had engaged to go to Chicago. 
 After my first installation at Akron, I had determ- 
 ined never to be installed again ; but to be free to 
 act on my own sense of duty to leave one field of 
 labor for another, when my conviction and con- 
 science determined. I therefore, on the invitation 
 of the Presbyterian ministers in Chicago and some 
 adjacent places, purchased a printing press of my 
 old friend Harmon Kingsbury, and began the pub- 
 lication in Chicago of a Weekly Religious paper, 
 which they had named the Western Observer, but 
 which I changed to the " Herald of the Prairies." 
 Its history was something similar to my previous 
 enterprises of the same sort in Cincinnati. All the 
 Presbyterian Religious papers then published in 
 the free states of the West, had been established 
 by myself: one in Hudson ; one in Cincinnati, and 
 now one in Chicago. (The one in Hudson existed 
 before I bought it, but survived only by my efforts.) 
 All were circulating at this time.
 
 244 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 After renting an office for a few months, I pur- 
 chased a lot and house on Wells Street, where the 
 Briggs House now stands, for seven hundred dol- 
 lars, in which I lived, printed my paper and kept a 
 Sabbath School and Tract Depository ; and fitted 
 up a room for a minister's meeting where the 
 ministers of all evangelical denominations then in 
 the city assembled on Monday at 10 o'clock, to 
 state the form of their skeleton for the preceding 
 Sabbath, and discuss some religious text or topic. 
 There was more union in effect at that time than 
 now. We not only had a Union Bible Society, but 
 a city Sabbath-School Union, of which I had the 
 duty of being president, and a Union Tract Society 
 which aimed to put a tract each month into every 
 family in the city. William H. Brown, Philo Car- 
 penter, and other leading citizens were engaged in 
 this work, and the women of the churches aided 
 efficiently. We had likewise an Anti-Papal Asso- 
 ciation, which told not only the good things in Ca- 
 tholicism, but the bad and dangerous things. The 
 popular ministry of our day have degenerated, and 
 through fear and favor are cowards, false teachers 
 or dumb dogs on the subject of the Papal super- 
 stition. Speaking only of its good aspects, (which 
 may be found even in the character of a felon,) but 
 withholding testimony against corrupting and dan- 
 gerous errors. 
 
 Agents were sent over the prairies to the 
 churches in Illinois and Wisconsin, and a list of 
 some four thousand subscribers for the Herald were
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 245 
 
 obtained in about two years. Meanwhile I engaged 
 in the purchase of a lot on the West side for a 
 church building a few wealthy men aiding mostly 
 in the pecuniary outlay. In this we organized the 
 Third Presbyterian church, and I (a member of 
 the Fox River Congregational Association) be- 
 came its pastor, and aided to establish the congre- 
 gation. The four youths working in the printing 
 office were converted. The enterprise prospered ; 
 and not long after my departure the people divided 
 into two churches, the First Congregational and 
 the Third Presbyterian, which now have multiplied 
 into some eight churches. 
 
 I had chosen for my printer a pious young man, 
 Mr. B. F. Worrell, now preaching at Centralia, to 
 whom I .gave an interest in the receipts of the 
 paper, and who aided faithfully in gospel work in 
 the city, and subsequently became a Congregational 
 minister. We cared for the Bethel cause in those 
 days. A lot was purchased near the river, and a 
 small frame church built. There was a chaplain of 
 little use to the sailors. Mr. Worrell managed the 
 Sabbath-School, and aided in the Sabbath services. 
 I occasionally preached on the wharf to sailors 
 congregated on the sides, top and bow of some 
 steamboat. We endeavored to have the Sabbath 
 observed ; and, as farmers in those days came with 
 their wheat to market in wagons, and often passed 
 the bridges on the Sabbath, Mr. Worrell or one of 
 the printer boys occasionally stood at the bridge 
 part of the Sabbath and gave a tract on Sabbath
 
 246 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 keeping to the thoughtless Sabbath breakers. The 
 temperance cause was not neglected in that early 
 day. I procured a set of wood cuts representing 
 the spider and the fly symbolizing the saloon-keeper 
 and his victim, and printed handbills setting forth 
 the aim of the illustration. These were distributed, 
 and some of our printer boys pasted them on the 
 public places in the streets. Useful and scientific 
 knowledge was not neglected. I delivered a series 
 of evening lectures in the city hall ; and an annual 
 address to the Mechanics' Association, of which I 
 was a member ; and in various ways we endeavored 
 to originate and aid right things in the new city, 
 while preacher, and editor of the Herald. 
 
 In those days we had no paved streets. Lake 
 street had been graveled, but in Winter it was a 
 deeper mire than some other streets. On Wells 
 street, near Randolph, where I had my home and 
 office, wagons sunk i'n the mire and the horses had 
 to be extricated from the vehicle in order to get 
 them out of the difficulty. I sympathized with the 
 dumb brutes, beaten often by intelligent brutes in 
 order to make them accomplish impossibilities. I 
 published several articles in my paper calling at- 
 tention to cruelty to animals ; and the papers in 
 the city noticed these articles and the publications 
 did good. I published the notice of the seceding 
 masons from St. Charles, who opened a lodge pub- 
 licly in the court house, and gave them encourage- 
 ment in my paper, which was not a very popular 
 course with some of my friends. The paper having
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 247 
 
 been placed on a paying basis, as was supposed, 
 it was sold to Bross & Wight, (now Governor 
 Brpss, and Rev. Mr. Wight, of Sycamore). The 
 cholera year impended. Scarcely anything but 
 funeral wagons with a few followers were seen in 
 the streets. I staid in the city and endeavored to 
 do my duty to the dying. I, and Philo Carpenter, 
 still living, stood by a dying man when wife and 
 children had fled. On the Union fast day I 
 preached the sermon in the West Side Methodist 
 church to a few auditors so feeble that I steadied 
 myself by holding to the pulpit. 
 
 My old people at Mansfield knowing I had closed 
 my labor with the paper and proposed to leave the 
 city, sent me an urgent request to return at once 
 to them, which I thought it my duty to do for a 
 season.
 
 248 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 MANSFIELD AND ABROAD. 
 
 On my return to Mansfield I did not find the 
 congregation larger than when I left the church ; 
 yet they were united and prepared for progress. 
 After about a year of service an enlargement of 
 the house was needed, and we built an addition to 
 the church, and made much enlargement and im- 
 provement. Meanwhile I instructed an indigent 
 and needy young man in Theology now a Con- 
 gregational minister. 
 
 While in Chicago I had formed the acquaintance 
 of Alexander Brandt, a Scotch banker, who gave 
 me the subject of a prize book, which a gentleman 
 of Aberdeen desired to be written, the best treatise 
 to secure the award. He asked me to write as one 
 of the competitors for the prize. The number of 
 competitors in England and Scotland was large, 
 but he inspired me with a disposition to make the 
 effort. He himself having accumulated a fortune 
 in Chicago, returned to reside in the neighborhood 
 of Aberdeen. Leisure to produce this work I hoped 
 to obtain by a return to my old residence. Much
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 249 
 
 of my leisure for a year was given to the proposed 
 volume, and to the enlargement of our place of 
 worship. When the work was done I proposed to 
 take the MSS. to Aberdeen, and visit Mr. Brandt 
 and the relatives of a Scotchman in Chicago who 
 was urgent that I should report his prosperity in 
 person to his relatives still remaining upon the es- 
 tate of the Earl of Aberdeen. In his early years 
 he had been servant on a farm which I visited, but 
 now he was a trusted and wealthy citizen of Chi- 
 cago. Subsequently, however, by making haste to 
 be rich he lost his reputation and his wealth. 
 
 I went across the sea ; visited Scotland, high 
 lands and low lands, South and North, from Glas- 
 gow to the mouth of the Losey. At Aberdeen Mr. 
 Brandt was absent, but I had the pleasure of meet- 
 ing the faculty of the Theological Seminary and 
 other persons of some literary note at a dinner 
 made in my behalf. Wine was freely used, and, 
 although I had not totally abstained from a glass 
 while traveling on the Alps, I maintained the Amer- 
 ican principle of "taste not," against the strongest 
 entreaty of both gentlemen and ladies to drink to 
 America. I remember that when I declined abso- 
 lutely to partake of the exhilarating beverage they 
 asked me to pass the bottle, which reminded me of 
 the adapted passage of the Bible : "Woe unto him 
 that putteth the bottle to his brother's lips." I de- 
 clined laughingly by uttering that passage ; but all 
 the others did not laugh some looked embar- 
 rassed, and I had to make an effort myself to appear
 
 250 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 as though I did not realize the import of the words. 
 
 I spent a night with a minister of the Seceder 
 church in Elgin. In the evening a bottle of whisky 
 was placed on the center table, and the servant 
 brought in a kettle of hot water, and a supply of 
 sugar and nutmeg. The minister and his wife 
 drank freely and frequently, and their urgency for 
 me to partake increased as the time came to retire. 
 I was suffering with a severe cold, and the hot 
 punch was known by them to be a specific. We 
 retired, each of them taking what they called a 
 night-cap, which is the technical term for a last full 
 glass of hot punch. Next day I delivered an ad- 
 dress at the annual meeting of the Elgin Bible So- 
 ciety. The ministers were there one with red 
 face and flaming nose. He was said not to be a 
 drunkard, and "never went into the pulpit dis- 
 guised by liquor." Such cases I met with in Lon- 
 don among men officially connected with the church 
 and the benevolent societies of the city. Even in 
 some of the State churches not only the minister is 
 marked with the wine color, but the man before 
 the pulpit, who is hired to lead the responses has a 
 face and nose aflame with the stimulus of brandy. 
 
 And not only in the State churches but among 
 the dissenters as well, the drinking habit is prev- 
 alent. I preached for Dr. Raffles, of Liverpool, at 
 that time perhaps the leading independent in 
 England. On his table at dinner he had both 
 wine and brandy, yet he was considered a temper- 
 ance man, and was a member of the "Liverpool
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 251 
 
 Temperance Society an association designed to 
 discourage the intemperate use of distilled spirits. 
 
 In London I had the privilege of delivering two 
 addresses in Exeter Hall, which were printed. 
 The first, on the "Aspect of the American Anti- 
 Slavery Question," was listened to with respectful 
 attention ; although the address of an American 
 negro, which followed, received ten times the 
 plaudits. The English people at that time were 
 in a mood to be pleased with proceedings of any 
 colored man who appeared among them, especially 
 an escaped slave. This was not to be wondered at, 
 so that the eclipse of my speech did not displease 
 me as the colored speaker kindly informed them 
 that my views were mainly correct. My address, 
 however, was printed. Although Dr. Campbell 
 mutilated that part which spoke of the influence 
 of slavery in the Mission Board, the Quakers bought 
 extras and distributed the full address in different 
 parts of the kingdom. 
 
 My temperance speech was not so well received 
 even as the anti-slavery speech had been. The 
 audience was composed mostly of those in favor of 
 moderation in drinking but few, if any, held what 
 was called the teetotal principle which means en- 
 tire abstinance. I was informed that there were 
 but two ministers in London, Dr. Jabez Burns, of 
 Paddington, and one of the ministers connected 
 with the London City Missionary Society, that ab- 
 stained habitually and entirely from all distilled 
 and fermented beverages. In the audience were
 
 252 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 many respectable men in the English sense. Sir 
 E. Bass was there, who was one of the largest ale 
 brewers in London, yet one of the most diligent 
 workers to prevent intemperate drinking. He is 
 no doubt a Christian of benevolent character who, 
 as all Englishmen, with few exceptions, looks upon 
 ale as a beneficial beverage. I did not know of the 
 presence of any of the great brewers in the audi- 
 ence, and when a light gentlemanly looking man 
 rose on the stage and went out, at the utterance of 
 what I thought a most sensible remark, but which 
 the audience received with disapprobation, I was a 
 little perplexed. The remark signified that we 
 Americans were surprised to know that many of 
 the large brewers in Great Britain were among the 
 active men in efforts to arrest the evils of drunken- 
 ness, at the same time engaging in a manufacture 
 which produced drunkards, and then using a por- 
 tion of their profits to prevent the effects of their 
 own production. The address was offered by the 
 officers of the Total Abstinence Society to all the 
 London papers that usually publish such matter, 
 but not one of them would insert it. The objection 
 in each case was the improper disparagement by a 
 foreign speaker of some of London's most esteemed 
 citizens, the brewers. The Quakers, however, have 
 courage as well as conscience, and they sent the 
 address to Glasgow in Scotland, where it was pub- 
 lished as it was spoken, and large numbers of the 
 papers were circulated by them in London. In- 
 temperance is a principle source of poverty, misery
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 253 
 
 and crime in Great Britain ; but until the English 
 adopt the Christian principle, which succeeded with 
 the American population, they will never even abate 
 the evil the principle announced by Paul "If 
 wine cause a brother to stumble, or if it makes him 
 weak. I will drink no more while the world stands." 
 The moderate drinkers of the realm must deny 
 themselves an indulgence that might not be hurt- 
 ful to them, because their indulgence would en- 
 courage a practice that would be hurtful to others. 
 Introductory letters from prominent men on this 
 side of the waters are influential in Great Britain. 
 I had letters from Bishop Mcllvain, Lewis Tappan, 
 Governor Bartley and others. The Bishop's letter, 
 which was cordial and complimentary, gave me 
 access to the best people ; and the letter of Lewis 
 Tappan opened the doors of all the Quakers and 
 Reformers that I met with. I did not use any 
 other letters, except one to Dr. Campbell, and 
 others from Dr. J. P. Thompson, then of the New 
 York Tabernacle, and I never wrote but one letter 
 from Europe to any American newspaper. I had 
 read with a feeling of utter disgust the letters of 
 Willis, speaking of the great ones he had called 
 upon, and the book of Dr. Sprague, of Albany, and 
 of the certain D. D's, of Boston, giving description 
 of English families, evidently designed by the writer 
 for the base purpose of printing their own name in 
 connection with the well known names of England. 
 Such things are humiliating to our national char- 
 acter. I had such a feeling of repulsion for such
 
 254 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 writers that in the only letter I did write no single 
 name was mentioned. This was the other extreme 
 but a safe one. 
 
 The Quakers are really the only people in En- 
 gland who maintain the principles of reform as do 
 the Christian reformers of America. They oppose 
 slavery, tobacco, alcohol, secret oaths of masonry, 
 deforming fashions, and maintain gospel principles, 
 together with some other views in a right direction; 
 and yet they have no appliances to propagate their 
 principles. I found myself more at home with the 
 Quakers than any other people in Europe. 
 
 The Dissenters of England are no better than 
 the Establishment in their drinking and tobacco 
 usages. I was invited to preach a sermon at a 
 dedication of a Baptist chapel. The Baptist min- 
 isters from the whole surrounding region were pres- 
 ent. We had an out-door picnic, as we call such 
 gatherings, and a grand time socially. After the 
 dinner I left the audience to speak to some poor 
 women and a company of Gipsies that were hover- 
 ing in the neighborhood of the company. When I 
 returned I could not find a single minister of all our 
 company. I inquired some time before some one 
 told me that I would probably find them in an up- 
 stairs room in the village, not far from the church 
 that had been dedicated. I went up expecting to 
 hear some question of import discussed. When lo, 
 I entered a room filthy with tobacco smoke and 
 tobacco stench each man, with no exception that 
 I noticed, smoking a tobacco pipe, while the table
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 2$ 5 
 
 in the centre of the company, was loaded with 
 ale glasses, and a bottle of brandy in addition. I 
 preached in many of the dissenter's chapels in Lon- 
 don Congregational and Baptist but with the 
 exception of Dr. Burns, of Paddington, and Dr. 
 Campbells, I was invariably offered wine in the 
 ante-room after sermon, where a bottle was kept 
 in a closet and sometimes both before and after 
 sermon, wine was urged. 
 
 On my return to Mansfield, the people of my con- 
 gregation received me with real kindness and grat- 
 ulation. Some of the expressions of regard on their 
 part, I have recorded elsewhere. After remaining 
 with them two years, I felt it was a duty to go to 
 some other field of labor. The enlarged house was 
 again full. The influential people of the town were 
 professors of religion and not much material existed 
 that was not in some of the churches, or in a repro- 
 bate state where no effort or truth could reach 
 them. After I retired, the church was still pros- 
 perous, and it is at the present time the largest 
 Congregational church in the state, except Oberlin.
 
 256 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 SANDUSKY. 
 
 There was a Presbyterian church at Sandusky 
 city, which was one of the oldest in Northern Ohio. 
 It had some members which were true to the prin- 
 ciples of Christianity. Some of them would pray 
 for the slave, while others more wealthy and world- 
 ly, were hostile to any word of preaching or prayer 
 in their behalf. The wealthy portion of the peo- 
 ple withdrew and built a large stone edifice and 
 organized a new church, leaving a few faithful ones 
 poor and unpopular. There was a little church 
 called the Oberlin church in the city that was like- 
 wise few and feeble. I went to the aid of the re- 
 formers. We succeeded in uniting the two churches 
 into one Congregational church, and they called a 
 minister from Washington city, who had made 
 some stir as an anti-slavery man. They agreed to 
 give him seventeen hundred dollars per annum, 
 which was the largest salary paid at that early time 
 out of Cincinnati. He proved a failure in all re- 
 spects. For a few months a sort of declamatory 
 verbiage of words about sacred things attracted
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 257 
 
 many people, and at the height of the popular 
 furor he was urgent for a new church building, and 
 got the best men in the church involved in the plan 
 of erecting a spacious and beautiful edifice one of 
 the finest for church uses in the State. Before the 
 building was half completed the popularity of the 
 preacher had abated. The congregation had fallen 
 off, and the men engaged in building were left with 
 an unfinished church, and a debt of seven thousand 
 dollars upon their hands. Their minister resigned, 
 and the whole enterprise, spiritual and temporal, 
 seemed a chaos. They invited me to labor for 
 them, and I assented and began work in the hope 
 of saving church and property. They were in debt 
 for an unfinished church ; in debt for a fine organ, 
 and in debt to the retired minister; but they were 
 a generous people, and agreed to give me twice as 
 much as they could afford to pay. 
 
 The first Sabbath some of the members were ab- 
 sent, in attendance upon a service held in another 
 church by the retiring preacher. They still sym- 
 pathized with him, and it was several weeks before 
 a cordial union of all the good people was effected. 
 From that time, gradual but certain prosperity 
 attended the effort. We had a religious interest 
 that added some influential men to the church 
 and others came to us by letter who were able to 
 aid in exigencies. There was a Wesleyan Method- 
 ist church in the city which had few members, but 
 they owned a good church building I effected a 
 union with them. They took pews in our church
 
 258 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 became members with us and we sold their house 
 to enable us to liquidate in part our church debt, 
 or rather to finish the building. The church was 
 prosecuted for the debt due the preacher, and the 
 organ and furniture attached. I bid in the prop- 
 erty at a nominal price, and transferred it to the 
 ladies' society, which succeeded in paying the 
 pressing demand then pending. Other claims were 
 pending, and at one time the whole church property 
 was transferred to me as assignee for the creditors. 
 I scarcely know all the plans and subscriptions by 
 which we saved ourselves; but we succeeded in 
 paying the floating debt, leaving still about seven 
 thousand dollars due upon the church building 
 not yet finished. The audience room, one of the 
 most comfortable and tasteful in the State, was fin- 
 ished. The basement and spire were not ; and the 
 debris of the builders stones, timbers and rubbish 
 were lying around the unfinished church. It 
 stood on the public square on the same street with 
 the Episcopal Methodist and Baptist churches 
 none of the lots of which were inclosed. The 
 church buildings stood like neglected houses on a 
 common. The whole was an offense to my sense 
 of propriety and order, and with some effort I got 
 all the churches to unite and fence in all the lots, 
 and plant trees in them. The planting on the Con- 
 gregational lot I did myself, with the aid of my 
 wife ; and the year after the rubbish was removed, 
 and the trees planted, the churches looked as 
 though Christians cared for their sanctuaries.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 259 
 
 It was not difficult now as the congregation was 
 larger to procure funds to put on the spire and fin- 
 ish the basement for Sabbath-School and ladies' 
 rooms. The ladies furnished means to procure the 
 material ; then, with the aid of a donation of some 
 things from the car shop in the city, and the aid of 
 young men in the congregation with my own 
 hands we did the painting, and the sealing of the 
 Sabbath-School rooms. When done they were 
 tasteful and tidy, and the Sabbath-School and the 
 ladies enjoyed their pleasant rooms. 
 
 We were now really prosperous in all directions. 
 Many families came in who had not been identified 
 with the congregation, and hence had paid nothing 
 in the past for the house. The next year, there- 
 fore, we concluded to make an effort to free the 
 church from debt, or at least to remove a part of 
 the burden. The effort was successful beyond my 
 most sanguine hope. The brethren who were per- 
 sonally responsible for the large share of the debt 
 subscribed freely, so that more than one-third of 
 the amount was assumed by them. From another 
 I got a town lot, and from others subscriptions of 
 five hundred down to five dollars. Our debt was 
 paid. The house was full ; and having meanwhile 
 completed the MSS. of my volume in the Doctrine 
 of the Spirit, I took a vacation of a few months in 
 England in order to publish the work telling the 
 people to supply themselves with another pastor, 
 if possible, as I doubted whether I should think it 
 my duty to remain with them after I returned.
 
 26O PIONEER LIFE 
 
 They had had several preachers while I was gone, 
 but not being suited I continued to labor for Christ 
 in the city during a year or more after I returned. 
 
 The finances of the family were managed in a 
 good measure by my wife, while we were struggling 
 to extricate and establish the church in Sandusky. 
 We had concluded never to expend any year the 
 whole of our income, whether four hundred or 
 four thousand dollars. We secured a commodious 
 house in Mansfield, and a portion of the time my 
 wife took a number of boarders connected with the 
 public schools ; and, as in other cases, when my 
 labor, many times almost gratuitously, did not pay 
 expenses, she supplemented it by management, 
 labor and economy. She has now done with labor 
 probably is a paralytic invalid but in her day she 
 did faithfully the part of a pastor's wife. Her last 
 years are peace. 
 
 When the church was built up and the congrega- 
 tion filled up at Sandusky I again visited Europe 
 to publish my third book The Doctrine of the 
 Holy Spirit. The English publisher took my MSS. 
 and gave me compensation, although they could get 
 no copy-right ; and many more of my books have 
 been sold in the old world than in the new, but 
 in both they have had a constant sale. I do not 
 know that this is decisive as to their merit, for many 
 books by English authors of little or no value are 
 brought out by American publishers that get little 
 attention at home, and would never get any here 
 if written on this side of the water.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 26 1 
 
 I did not expect to remain longer with the church 
 in Sandusky, but when I returned they were with- 
 out a pastor, and I continued to labor with them 
 for a season. In the meantime I made arrange- 
 ments to sell my Ohio property, preparatory to 
 removal to the wilds of Northern Michigan, to ac- 
 complish a project which I had cherished as one 
 that I supposed would be the last work of my life.
 
 262 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 BENZONIA AND THE COLLEGE. 
 
 From the beginning of my Christian life I had an 
 aspiration (a selfish one, no doubt) to accom- 
 plish some good in the world, not only as a writer, 
 but likewise as a teacher and founder of a model 
 Christian college. I looked upon most of our col- 
 leges as rather abating than fostering a self-denying 
 piety in students ; and even in the case of some 
 theological seminaries the students lost the fervor 
 of their piety, and all their zeal for Christian re- 
 forms, and became mere pulpit essayists, and in 
 many cases mere preaching machines. I thought I 
 could establish a school that would do better than 
 this ; and, as Oberlin, which had been the instru- 
 ment of Christian reform and piety, seemed to be 
 determining to the forms of the world with others, 
 (although, still the best of them all,) I was the 
 more anxious to aid in establishing a school that 
 would be in my view a true school of the prophets. 
 
 Two young men of Oberlin had a desire to found 
 a colony and school, (a project common at that 
 time,) and called on me to advise and aid in the
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 263 
 
 endeavor. I was a trustee of the institution at 
 Oberlin, and that institution had accomplished so 
 much good in church and state that I promised aid 
 and effort, if a good location could be found. The 
 committee commenced their search for a location. 
 (Mr. Fairfield grew dissatisfied with some of the 
 movements of his companion and withdrew from 
 the project). Rev. C. E. Bailey associated another 
 gentleman with him, and they found a location in 
 the Northern woods of Michigan, which was deemed 
 favorable. No county was organized. No inhab- 
 itants in the region, except a few families living 
 and fishing at points on the lake. The land was 
 all government land. It was open for homesteads, 
 and there was a certainty that the population of 
 the Grand Traverse region would be a laboring, poor 
 agricultural people. There were no schools in the 
 region ; and no academy or college to produce 
 teachers within one hundred and fifty miles. It 
 was an uninhabited wilderness country ; but soon 
 to be filled up with poor families on homesteads. 
 The location suited me, as one to start a new Chris- 
 tian enterprise. There was an actual want of the 
 effort we proposed to make. There were too many 
 colleges richly endowed in the older states ; but 
 here we could have a school to meet the actual 
 wants of the church and the poor. I engaged 
 heartily with Mr. B. in the enterprise. The agents 
 and one other family of the stockholders went into 
 the lands, and built cabins. I visited the location 
 each season for three years, when others having
 
 264 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 gone into the colony, and difficulty arising between 
 them and the agent, Mr. Bailey, I concluded to re- 
 move to the new settlement, and devote my time 
 and means to organize and develop in harmony 
 the three great interests of Agriculture, Education 
 and a pure Christianity. More than one-half of 
 the colony had gone there directly or indirectly by 
 my instrumentality. Some of them got up projects 
 to leave the colony, unless I removed to the woods 
 with them and gave my aid. We left, therefore, 
 our pleasant villa in Mansfield ; took with us a 
 widow and five orphan children ; left the most 
 tasteful and pleasant residence in the city of Mans- 
 field, and removed into a log cabin at Benzonia, the 
 name I had given to our new town (composed of 
 a Hebrew and a Greek word). My wife never 
 murmured, although the change of residence and 
 comfort was almost as great as possible from a 
 first-class home to a log cabin open to the weather. 
 Every night during the winter when it stormed 
 she shook the snow off our bed in the morning 
 and there was no bright night that we could not 
 see the stars through crevices in the logs of our 
 cabin. 
 
 I expended all my income annually in opening a 
 farm planting fruit and encouraging and aiding 
 others to do so. I took to the region the best breed 
 of stock ; best varieties of fruit and fowls, and 
 helped the settlers what I could in their endeavor 
 to get homes and surroundings so that they could 
 sustain themselves. Many of them needed frequent
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 265 
 
 and energetic assistance, which I gave so far as I 
 was able; in some cases furnishing food sometimes 
 clothing! 
 
 But I had gone there solely prompted by the mo- 
 tive to develop the country and locate a Christian 
 college. Our agent, in purchasing government 
 lands and managing our finances, had acted for his 
 own interest, perhaps more than was meet. So, 
 after spending years of toil, a part of the time in 
 colony matters, and two years as a member of the 
 State Senate from the Northern District of Michi- 
 gan ; after organizing the first Congregational 
 church in Lansing, the capitol of the State, and 
 preaching for them six months in a hall which I 
 built and gave for their use on the Sabbath, with- 
 out charge ; after seeing the school at B. in opera- 
 tion with two professors and an assistant ; after 
 erecting a mill and aiding in making roads, bridges, 
 etc. ; after seeing all the log cabins removed, but 
 one, and many tidy frame houses erected ; after 
 success in a good measure had been achieved, I 
 found the agent of the colony and treasurer of the 
 college so managed the finances that, although 
 there was no fraud, I utterly despaired of effecting 
 any benevolent end in connection with the enter- 
 prise, or of preserving the lands of the institution : 
 I therefore reluctantly gave up my cherished 
 scheme and left the colony. I left, however, all the 
 lands I had given, which was a large part of the 
 whole five thousand acres, to be used for education 
 in that destitute region, and by the school which
 
 266 PIONEER LIFE 
 
 had been established, so far as it was established 
 at all, mostly by my personal means and agency. 
 
 The Congregational churches of Ohio had not 
 been organized when I returned to Mansfield. The 
 Oberlin people had what was called an Oberlin 
 Association, and there was an organization at Ma- 
 rietta of a few churches ; but no state association, 
 and most of the Congregational churches were 
 independent or in the Presbytery. After some cor- 
 respondence, it was agreed by the active men of 
 the state, especially the Marietta men, to hold a 
 state convention at my church in Mansfield, in 
 order to organize, if deemed expedient, a State 
 Congregational Association. Providence so ordered 
 that I was president of the convention. The great 
 difficulty was to harmonize the Oberlin men and 
 the Western Reserve college and Marietta men. 
 They have never acted together. Many of those 
 present had repudiated Oberlin. By thoughtful 
 arrangement of committees and subjects the two 
 parties began to fraternize with each other, and in 
 the end a State Congregational Association was 
 formed, including all the Congregational and Inde- 
 pendent churches in the state Oberlin and Anti- 
 Oberlin died and the Congregationalists were 
 brethren. I have been thankful that Providence 
 gave me the chairmanship of the State Convention. 
 
 I was in the Senate, chairman of the Committee 
 on Public Instruction. A Common School bill had 
 been prepared by a previous legislature but had 
 failed. I adopted the bill, and with modifications
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 267 
 
 put it through the Senate by an almost unanimous 
 vote. I think it the best Common School law ex- 
 isting in any state. Attempts have been made to 
 amend, but every amendment will be an injury. I 
 did my share in the Senate preached frequently 
 in my own hall and cared for Benzonia's interests 
 so far as I was able. When I returned from the 
 Senate the citizens of Benzonia assembled and 
 gave me a reception. I was addressed, and I an- 
 swered as greater people do. And the walls of the 
 log school house were hung with evergreens and 
 inscriptions. "Welcome to our Senator," and other 
 devices were on the walls. I was more embarrassed 
 for words than I had been in times of debate on 
 bills of import in the Senate. 
 
 May God revealed in Christ bless this narrative 
 so far as it is pure to the good of others and lead 
 the compiler to omit anything that would turn at- 
 tention to himself, except so far as example may 
 do good. 
 
 JAS. B. WALKER.
 
 .THOUGHTS AND INCIDENTS. 
 18301880. 
 
 From time to time in my reading and study some thought has im- 
 pressed me vividly, or has been suggested in some new form or relation. 
 I have often written such thoughts in my diary or in a blank book 
 lying on my table. I have here transcribed some of these. They 
 have many of them been embodied in some of my sermons or vol- 
 umes ; yet I have thought it would be profitable for me, and it may 
 be for others, to read them here as they, were originally set down. 
 
 Christians who live by faith in the Son of God have less to do with 
 the dispensation of Moses than they suppose. Christ's example and 
 precept is their law: to please Him their motive: and the love 
 produced by faith is their life. To the believer, "Christ is first and 
 last and 'midst and everywhere." 
 
 "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish, as did those upon 
 whom the tower fell." Does this mean that the death of the body- 
 is likewise the destruction of the soul to the impenitent ? It cannot 
 mean that they would perish temporally by a similar providence. 
 But the warning may refer to the violent death of the great multi- 
 tude of the Jews at the destruction of Jerusalem. 
 
 The peculiarities of evangelical labor in the revivals of 1830 1840 
 were the true methods of gospel progress. 
 
 The truths of the gospel were presented in a searching and unsec- 
 tarian form. Different denominations often united in the effort. The 
 preachers urged the people to turn from all sin and uncleanliness, as 
 necessary in order to communion with God. Sometimes weeks were 
 spent in preaching to professing Christians, until they saw their sins 
 and confessed them publicly to each other and to God. Each then* 
 felt free from a sense of condemnation. No intoxicating liquors were 
 used tobacco was generally abandoned as a filthy habit and be- 
 lievers attained peace and purity in believing. 
 
 1
 
 2/2 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 Then the people were invited to work and pray to speak kindly 
 to the impenitent confess to them if they had misled them by liv- 
 ing vain and worldly lives ; and then invite them to the prayer meet- 
 ing and to the sanctuary. In that prayer meeting and sanctuary 
 were the believing people imbued with a sense of the Spirit's pres- 
 ence, and with the worth of the soul ; and exercised with a deep and 
 loving spirit of prayer prayer that was not form but power. Expe- 
 rience meetings for Christians ; inquiry meetings for the impenitent 
 individual effort all conducted without fanaticism, (except in occa- 
 sional cases which will always occur in connection with any energetic 
 movement ). The means of grace thus administered were blessed of 
 God to the conversion of hundreds of thousands in all the 'evangeli- 
 cal churches in America. Many neighborhoods were transformed. 
 Many denominations rose from dead works and forms into spiritual 
 life, and the foundations of the churches of the' present day were 
 mostly laid during the revival period from 1830 to 1840. 
 
 The form of revival effort without confession ; without forsaking 
 of sins ; without the spirit of prayer and repentance, and without 
 humble reconsecration to Christ, is a mockery, and will fail to accom- 
 plish good. Some churches afterwards endeavored to work in these 
 forms without true confession and repentance. It was as beating the 
 air: "the form of godliness without the power thereof." 
 
 What the world needs is more love in the hearts of men for God 
 and for each other. So far as love is increased the world is saved, 
 the law fulfilled and God glorified. Now, faith in Christ draws love 
 from the Godhead into human hearts. Believers draw love from 
 Christ into their own hearts by faith ; and hence, as love seeks good 
 of others and is diffusive in its nature, they disseminate love among 
 men. Thus every one that truly believes increases the love power in 
 the world. There can never be an item more of love in this selfish 
 and corrupt world than there is to-day, except it be drawn from 
 Christ by faith and then diffused among men, by believers. 
 
 Suffering has power above all other power to move the emotions, 
 and thus induce activity among men. It was the sufferings of the 
 Waldenses that moved Milton, Cromwell and all England. The re- 
 cital of the sufferings of the slaves moved England and then America 
 in the greatest reform the world has known. It was the sufferings 
 of the settlers in Kansas that moved all the free States to move for 
 their rescue. The atonement contains the love power developed by 
 suffering in the highest degree ; hence its power to move the world. 
 
 Sometimes there is interest great as the perpetuity of free institu- 
 tions urging patriotic men to vote for men of moral principle, irre- 
 spective of party attachments. A professed Christian that does not
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 2/3 
 
 do this when the moral character of the candidates, or the moral 
 principles of the canvass require, is derelict in duty. 
 
 The trinity of the New Testament is different from the trinity of 
 the dogmatics. The New Testament is not irrational. Some of the 
 creeds are. The Scriptures speak of the Father ( the Unknowable 
 substratum or substance of divine Being) as being revealed in the 
 person of the Son, and both Father and Son as being revealed by 
 the Holy Spirit, who comes in the personality of the Son. 
 
 When philosophers write about infinity of time or space, as being 
 a simple innate idea, they use words without knowledge. The idea 
 is nothing more or less than the finite indefinitely extended. It is a 
 finite idea with limitation subtracted ; this is all the infinity that the 
 human mind can know. The perfect is the conception of character 
 deprived of imperfection ; and as the creation tends to this end, per- 
 fection in this sense will sooner or later be attained by those who are 
 rising in moral attainment. 
 
 There are too many of our best hymns which express a desire to 
 depart from this world. There should be few such hymns, because 
 they can be truthfully sung in spirit by but few Christians. It is not 
 the state produced by the Spirit except in the case of those who are 
 nigh unto death. Christian courage, love, hope, effort, experience, 
 are better expression for hymns which are not praise and devotion in 
 view of the providence and attributes of God. Most Christians sing 
 untruthfully, who sing hymns expressing a desire to die. 
 
 The gospel is the only remedy for the moral evils of mankind, be- 
 cause there is no religion which will work out the good of the whole 
 world but this. No religion that will work all sin out of the soul of 
 individual believers, but this. No religion that glorifies God by re- 
 vealing fully his love and justice, but this. 
 
 Each new species in the natural world is evolved from old species 
 by the process of gestation. So the new species of humanity of 
 which Christ is the head. By faith the lineaments of the new spe- 
 cies are begotten in the old. As a chrysalid in development here 
 perfected at the resurrection. The new species will then have its 
 appropriate corporeity, "We shall be like Him," etc. 
 
 Decent, tasteful apparel is comely, but to me the professional badge 
 in the apparel of ministers has always seemed undesirable ; hence I 
 have endeavored to counteract the tendency by wearing brown and
 
 2/4 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 other Quaker colors or part of a suit in preference to a full suit of 
 black. I have, I think, accomplished the introduction of the white 
 vest into the pulpit. Ten years ago I wore the only white vest as 
 chairman of the convention that formed the Ohio State Conference 
 of Congregationalists. Every year since then the State Conference 
 has had an increasing number of white vests, until in the present 
 year, the spotless color predominated. The methodist brethren took 
 the retorm more easily and more rapidly than the Congregational 
 and Presbyterian ministers. 
 
 Individuals in whom the Holy Spirit was consciously dwelling, 
 would probably not be displeased to see young people dance in proper 
 places and with proper associates, but would not themselves ordi- 
 narily be disposed to unite in the amusement, even for the benefit of 
 the excuse. It is probable that the friends of Christ danced at the 
 wedding feast; but it is not probable that he or his mother did so. 
 
 We should be guarded in the matter of old ecclesiastical institu- 
 tions. If they accumulate wealth or character they generally become 
 time-serving and corrupt. They can bestow honor and patronage; 
 hence the venal will seek their favor and sacrifice to them as a fish- 
 erman of old sacrificed to his net. 
 
 On a certain occasion I visited, by invitation, a certain city and 
 found that the daily papers the preceding Saturday had published a 
 notice that "the Rev. Dr. Walker'''' would preach in a certain 
 church the following Sabbath. I was a stranger to most of the con- 
 gregation; but reading the notice I thought they would expect some- 
 thing profound; or a discourse on some important subject, from a 
 Doctor of Divinity. I was tempted to select a subject of such 
 character; and not select under the influence of the true motive: 
 What will do this people most good! The title D. D. being contrary 
 to Chris.t's command, is of the devil. It does injury to those who 
 accept it, and to the cause of Christ. 
 
 Much of the dogmatism on the subject of imputed righteousness 
 has grown out of the wickedness of man's heart, which leads him to 
 devise schemes of hope that are in some cases preposterous, rather 
 than obey the example and command of Christ, to labor for the good 
 of men, with a loving and self-denying spirit. 
 
 Imputation is practically true in only one sense. It is the merit 
 of Christ; his self-denying life; his sacrificial death, which by faith 
 affects the human heart, and by producing the love and disposition 
 to obey which the law requires, makes the man righteous. Hence 
 the merit is in Him who produces the change in us but the love and 
 obedience is in us. But to talk of imputed righteousness only so far
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 275 
 
 as we possess a loving and obedient spirit is a sham and a sin. As 
 saith the voice of reason in the Scriptures, "If while we seek to be 
 justified by Christ we ourselves are found sinners, we make Christ 
 the minister of sin." Such dogmatism actually makes Christ's sac- 
 rifice an occasion to continue sin rather than a producing cause of 
 holiness among men. 
 
 It cannot be questioned but that miracles were necessary to intro- 
 duce the gospel dispensation. No truth could at that time have 
 been received as from God without them. All men believed mira- 
 cles were wrought by the divinities which they worshiped, and the 
 nature of the human mind is such, that while men believed this it 
 was necessary to credence in the Messiah to give them the evidences 
 of miracles. After the descent of the Holy Spirit, which was the 
 great miracle, the moral instead of the physical aspect prevailed 
 more and more in the propagation of the gospel, until in the end an 
 internal experience, and an intellectual apprehension of the ultimate 
 spiritual character of the manifestations and precepts of the gospel 
 becomes its witness. 
 
 The fact, therefore, that miracles were wrought of a striking phys- 
 ical character in the first ages of the N. T. Dispensation must be 
 true. But how they were wrought, whethei subjectively or object- 
 ively in accordance with natural law, or above natural law, is not 
 of so much importance. The effect gained was the end sought. 
 
 I have generally found that trained singers with no firm religious 
 principles, whether they are professors of religion or not, are an evil, 
 if they are members of a select choir in a congregation. They man- 
 ifest selfishness class feeling, and fastidiousness in regard to singing 
 with certain persons, and with certain voices. Their absence from 
 the choir, or their presence in it leads others to absent themselves. 
 Then they introduce many new tunes which the congregation cannot 
 sing; and which, being new to themselves, they sing like a man 
 walking on a tight rope hesitating, careful and balancing without 
 spirit or impression. Then they sing to make melody to the congre- 
 gation not to God, which is idolatry; and the congregation admire 
 the artistic performance instead of feeling the impress of devotional 
 thought. A choir may lead a congregation and an instrument ac- 
 company the choir but they should so lead that all the people could 
 sing, and that persons of common musical culture and strong good 
 voices should not be excluded from the singer's seat. 
 
 I sincerely believe that if I ever get to heaven, it will be by the 
 immediate power and mercy of God, and I shall myself be without 
 the least degree of merit "a sinner saved by grace." 
 
 2
 
 2/6 
 
 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 There is one man whose name is attached to an advertisement in 
 my paper published at Chicago, and likewise in the Independent. I 
 have never noticed his name in either of those papers without utter- 
 ing an inward and sometimes a vocal thought of prayer for his pros- 
 perity, temporal and spiritual. That man's name is Lucius Harte, 
 of Burling shp, New York. 
 
 Once when I was hard up ( as business men say ) for means to meet 
 some indebtedness on my paper in Chicago, I sought advertisements 
 from business men at the east, who I thought would sympathize with 
 my endeavor to establish a new paper in the West devoted to reform- 
 atory evangelical religion in the churches. Mr. Harte received me 
 very kindly; talked like a man and a Christian, and paid me in ad- 
 vance a considerable sum for advertising for him in my new paper in 
 a new city Chicago. I greatly needed the aid; felt his kindness 
 and the manner in which it was bestowed. I kept his advertisement 
 in so long as I printed the paper; and have never since noticed his 
 name without saying sincerely, O Lord, bless Lucius Harte. 
 
 P. S. I visited Lucius Harte in 1848. Now, in 1866, I see by his 
 advertisement that he prospers in business. 
 
 I don't believe in the change bearing law of Babbage's calculating 
 machine. Either there is some provision made by the original de- 
 signer by which the link in the chain after ten millions and its frac- 
 tion is extended, or else some defect in the machine creates the vari- 
 ation. It is not possible that a machine fixed by a perfect material 
 structure to progress by unity to 10,000,000, can change ttnless the 
 physical structure provides for it, or produces it as a result of its 
 operation. 
 
 Unless there are well directed efforts by wise and good men to 
 enforce the great central doctrine taught in the precept and example 
 of Christ, viz: that God is glorified only by labor for the temporal 
 and spiritual good of man, there will be a tendency in half a century 
 from this time, to that contemplative self-enjoying state produced by 
 faith in love, which is the tendency of the mind that shuns labor and 
 does not love men as Christ loved them. The new commandment 
 is: Love others, AS I HAVE LOVED YOU. 
 
 This world is a world of work and self-denial. In the next, it may 
 be, our circumstances will be different. The holiest condition on 
 this earth, and perhaps in all spheres, is to find happiness in doing 
 good; not in feeling good, unless the feeling arise as it ought from 
 doing for others from love as a motive. 
 
 Ministers who are not at home with common people who know
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 2/7 
 
 little except the dead languages and the things which relate to dog- 
 matic and sectarian theologies, are not the best class of gospel min- 
 isters. They are not fitted for such work as that done by the apostles. 
 Some godly men who were accounted peculiar in the seminaries, 
 worked for the poor during their student life, and thus escaped the 
 incapacitating process, as the first students'at Oberlin; as Whitefield 
 and Wesley. But a recluse seminary education usually injures men's 
 spirituality, and tends to make them mere preaching machines (as 
 the professors often are); fitted only for the worldly churches, where 
 persons assemble as a form on the Sabbath. 
 
 Skeptics admit that the example and precepts of Christ, are the 
 best rule of life that has ever been given to men. Now, reason as 
 well as religion requires that men should conform to the best known 
 and approved principles of duty. Hence it follows that God must 
 judge skeptics as well as Christians by the New Testament. The one 
 acknowledges the rule as right, but is neither obedient nor penitent 
 for disobedience. The other acknowledges the rule; seeks grace to 
 obey; and when conscious of failure is humble and penitent, and as 
 such seeks and receives pardon in Christ. 
 
 Wonder if those who believe in the development theory, believe 
 likewise in moral development. If they do, then Christianity is true; 
 for the system of Moses was a development out of the patriarchal 
 religion; and the gospel is a development out of the Mosaic dispen- 
 sation. And the system is still developing itself into the image of 
 the moral perfect. If development be true at all, ( and I think there 
 are sufficient data to prove that it is,) then it is true as a general law 
 over the whole organic creation; and it is true likewise over tha 
 whole spiritual world; hence, the gospel which is developing the 
 spiritual interests of men towards the perfect is true, because it ful- 
 fills the natural law. 
 
 Men have, by nature, a conscience that enforces the duties of mo- 
 rality up to the standard of the golden rule. We know without reve- 
 lation what men ought or ought not to do to us; hence we infer what 
 our duty is to them in like circumstances. The sense of right in 
 such cases is natural. But conscience in relation to duties to God 
 acts only by faith in revelation; and our duties to men become more 
 consciously obligatory by recognizing God as requiring them. A 
 sense of God in truth is the life of conscience. 
 
 The /of the mind is not conscious of itself. It is only conscious 
 of its product or thought. Thought is the object seen by the ego or 
 personality of the mind. Just as we are conscious of perceiving 
 objects of sense but not of the eye which gives us the perception.
 
 2/8 
 
 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 Conscious of seeing, but not of the eye that sees. Yet the perceiv- 
 ing/may know its own character, by perceiving the character of 
 the thought which it evolves. 
 
 Sir Wm. Hamilton thinks that the EYE and the I, having the same 
 sound in'English, embarrasses the student in understanding the office 
 of the eye: but rightly \inderstood the analogy aids the apprehen- 
 sion. Sir. Wm., like many other professional philosophers, writes 
 many things that are hard to be understood, and writes them in re- 
 gard to matters that need to be made plain by a true philosophy, 
 rather than to be involved in a labyrinth of learned logomachy. 
 True philosophy simplifies. // is the province of a great mind to 
 make things plain. The idea of Hamilton, that we are immediately 
 conscious of the external world is essentially unphilosophical. While 
 it is true that we have consciousness of the external world without 
 being conscious of the medium through which we obtain our knowl- 
 edge, yet a true philosophy gives the medium, and in many cases cor- 
 rects errors of the medium. 
 
 Very few nights during a whole life time have I been out of bed 
 after half past nine o'clock. I have endeavored to live in the light 
 and hence, with a feeble constitution, I have accomplished an un- 
 usual amount of physical and mental labor. 
 
 In the worldly and wealthy churches are many good people, per- 
 haps as many as in those churches which gather the poor alone. 
 The churches should, if they are churches of Christ, embrace all 
 classes of society. People will, from the nature of things, associate 
 by affinity; but where true religion exists faith in Christ is the strong- 
 est affinity existing on earth. When a church has collected within 
 its congregation those who associate by worldly affinity, only the fact 
 proclaims it as one destitute of the Savior's marks of a true church, 
 as given to John. 
 
 I have known persons convicted of the truth, who felt that they 
 must do something yet were unwilling to deny themselves and obey 
 Christ. To escape the sense of obligation they bribed their con- 
 science by associating themselves with some church of society, where 
 they could serve the world and bear at the same time the name of 
 Christ. Ministers in popular churches should be faithful to such. 
 
 I have just returned from a monthly meeting of Presbyterian min- 
 isters. A skeleton was read on the passage, " Ye are dead and your 
 life is hid with Christ in God." It affirmed that the Christian's joy 
 and the Christian's motive were drawn from Christ; that they were 
 not of the world; that they had hidden sources of love, praise and 
 duty, that the world had not. And the skeleton closed with an ad- 
 dress to the impenitent to seek the hidden life of the Christian. Such
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 279 
 
 sermons describing Christian character as it should be, and then ap- 
 pealing to the impenitent, as though it were true of all those in the 
 congregation who profess religion, are an offence to reason, as well 
 as to God. The impenitent present many of them partners of pro- 
 fessors know that the description is untrue of the greater portion of 
 those professing religion. They if they think about it at all either 
 believe the minister is deceived, or that he is endeavoring to deceive 
 them in regard to the mental joy and peace of professing Christians. 
 A few in our churches experience the grace of Christ taught in the 
 gospel. The great body of professors, especially in worldly churches, 
 fall far below the experience written in the text. Religion will make 
 little progress until truth is preached by men who feel and do truth. 
 
 There is generally an emigration from old communities when the 
 interests of true religion are to be furthered, as in the case of Abra- 
 ham; the Israelites; the early Christians; the Puritans, and others. 
 Old countries become so rigid in their dogmatic forms and creeds: 
 there come into action so many monied interests connected with old 
 forms and institutions; so many shibboleths; so many influential 
 ecclesiastical bodies; so many doctors of divinity, that truth is 
 cramped, and its life and light restrained, unless there be an emigra- 
 tion of godly persons into a far and free region. Hence, emigration 
 is an act of Providence to preserve piety and liberty. It has fol- 
 lowed, according to this principle, that while the older churches of 
 the East yet maintain the truth, it is the truth in bonds. While 
 those of the free West have less system, but more reform; more 
 energy; more variety of means, and more conversions to Christ. 
 
 This is Sabbath, December 2Oth, 1859. I read yesterday a para- 
 graph in the daily paper, stating that Mr. Moran, who receives the 
 exorbitant sum of $25,000 per year for his services as President of 
 the Erie Rail Road, has issued a circular asking the working men on 
 the road to submit, without grumbling, to a reduction of their wages 
 most of them receive but the sum of one dollar per day the me- 
 chanics something more; most of both classes having families. Now, 
 it is my opinion that the man who will receive $25,000 per year for 
 his own services, and then ( in order that he may save the company 
 in giving him his extravagant salary ) will ask men who work as hard 
 as himself to take less than $i per day, is a selfish, heartless scoun- 
 drel. God forgive me for the denouncement. 
 
 There is a time when the soul or life principle of things begins to 
 assimilate matter into the form of a body, which body changes its 
 particles but not its form; hence, there is a life principle. Forms of 
 matter have a beginning perfect in its kind hence, there is a God.
 
 280 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 In a certain city in which there were churches of several denomi- 
 nations, there came at a certain time several naval officers, lieuten- 
 ants, midshipmen and others. They were lions in worldly circles, 
 and likewise with the churches of society. It was known that some 
 of them were like other officers of the regular army and navy men 
 of bad habits; licentious men, excited often by brandy, and often 
 filthy with tobacco. The churches of society whispered to them that 
 the Congregational church was the "Abolition church," and the 
 whisper "accomplished the end for which it was said." The naval 
 officers attended other churches and were never seen at the church 
 that testified against prevailing sins. Thus the wicked were induced 
 to go where they could not be benefited. Worldly persons in those 
 churches, professing to be disciples of Christ, were gratified and ren- 
 dered more evil by their association, and the church which testified 
 for truth was relieved from a malign influence an influence which 
 in the end brought shame to some of the foolish families who had 
 courted it. 
 
 Ten years after writing the above sentences I visited the city 
 where the churches referred to are located. The Abolition church, 
 as it was then called, is now the leading church. The other is liv- 
 ing a dying life. 
 
 The confessions of a contrite Christian, which evince heart-felt sin- 
 cerity are a sermon that reaches the souls of others, and convicts them 
 of sin, more certainly than any other expression of truth which men 
 hear. Men know what the gospel requires, and what professors of 
 religion ought to be; and when they see those that they know have 
 lived a worldly or unworthy life acting conspicuously without sense 
 and confession of past evil, they are stumbled. They know such 
 persons, in order to a good conscience, ought to first "confess their 
 faults one to another." Hence, when it is done sincerely they feel 
 it, and are convicted themselves of the purity and power of the gos- 
 pel that thus reaches and removes sin. 
 
 Parents who attend prayer meetings and are at times very much 
 engaged for others; but who have unconverted sons and daughters 
 to whom they have never spoken on the subject of religion, are usu- 
 ally persons who do not exemplify the life of religion at home, and 
 who desire their children should have favor with the world. There 
 may be one good parent whose life does not avail against the char- 
 acter or moral evils of the other; hence, children are evil while one 
 parent is good. 
 
 The Logos; the Sent one Messiah is the highest conception and 
 the highest hope originated by the human mind. In the fullness of 
 the old world's age, God, who had inspired the conception in the 
 ancient world, and guided in its development, actualized it in the
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 281 
 
 birth of Jesus; and in the descent of the Holy Spirit in a personal 
 form upon him at his baptism. The result was God manifest in the 
 flesh. There is a prophetic element in the minds of all great and 
 good men. Hence, this idea of a divine manifestation through man 
 to man has been the final exposition of human wisdom in all the ages. 
 
 The best graces as well as the best forms of religion can be coun- 
 terfeited, especially by men of sensibility and talent. Preachers 
 who have little principle often do this. They know what they ought 
 to be and simulate it; but hypocrisy is a cloak that sometimes be- 
 comes repulsive to its wearers; and those who feign godliness which 
 they do not feel generally turn into sectarians, or formalists. They 
 often oppose the reformed and spiritual movements which God from 
 time to time inaugurates in the churches. And in such cases their 
 formal godliness seems to many to be true godliness, and gives influ- 
 ence to their opposition to moral progress. So it has been in the 
 anti-slavery and other reforms. 
 
 The word infinite, and all words of cognate import are words with- 
 out meaning to the human mind only so far as they express a finite 
 idea; and we conceive of that idea as deprived of limitation. The 
 human mind is limited and cannot comprehend the infinite in any 
 direction. The effort to do so produces an idea of a finite quantity 
 with a suffix or prefix, depriving that quantity of conceivable limit. 
 This is evident in the early forms of the Hebrew language. 
 
 The pure spirituality of the gospel dispensation was developed in 
 the minds of the Apostles progressively even after the day of Pente- 
 cost. The Christian system was gradually detached from Judaism; 
 and Christ's character and his coming as the Divine Spiritual Re- 
 deemer, was better understood after years of thought and labor than 
 at the first. 
 
 The doctrines of the New Testament are gradually developed in 
 the world under the Divine Supervision. It is not quite time yet for 
 light to be granted by providence in all places and cases in regard to 
 the erroneous construction of future retribution, which taught eternal 
 hell torment for all impenitents. Such a construction of the New 
 Testament might be inferred readily from the prevailing interpreta- 
 tion of one, perhaps more, passages of the S. S. But the denounce- 
 ments by the teachers of this doctrine in most congregations are less 
 terrible than formerly. The time has come for the initiation of the 
 discussion concerning the words perish, life, death, hell, etc., in 
 the N. T. This initiation I have attempted from a sense of duty in 
 the Oberlin Evangelist; a portion of which the good brethren there
 
 282 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 have omitted. They feared the influence upon the received views. 
 The result of the discussion will probably be that God is overcoming 
 evil, both physical and moral in his universe. That the consequences 
 of sin here and hereafter are its penalty. That no one not united to 
 Christ by the faith that purifies and draws life from him, will reach a 
 glorious resurrection; and that at the judgment, God will make an 
 end of evil by annihilating in the second death all reprobate spirits 
 whose trial proved a failure, resulting in deterioration instead of be- 
 ing rendered meet for the "resurrection of the dead." 
 
 It is a most striking and significant remark of Jeremy Taylor 
 that an unjust acquisition is like a barbed arrow which must be drawn 
 backward with horrible anguish or else it will be the destruction of 
 the soul. 
 
 I am persuaded that the higher intellectual expressions of gospel 
 truth are not valuable to the less cultivated c{ass. I attended a 
 funeral to-day in a rude neighborhood; and as I have felt before, so 
 I felt to-day, that nothing but strong language and figures, and strik- 
 ing and moving illustrations, are adapted to awaken and interest the 
 great majority of such congregations. The Head of the Church in 
 sending out the fishermen the Wesleyans, and other teachers from 
 the populace, and in giving the strong language of the New Testa- 
 ment, and its awakening exhibition of love and penalty, has adapted 
 his providences; his manifestations, and his teaching to common 
 minds. 
 
 The literalists commit the same blunder that the Jews did in the 
 time of Christ, and that the disciples did in some measure before the 
 pouring out of the Holy Spirit. The error of literalism is palpable 
 and hurtful. Jesus especially spake in parables. All his words have 
 a spiritual import, except in some cases where they relate to temporal 
 concerns. Not a double sense but a spiritual sense. The book of 
 John; the Beatitudes; the Revelation, especially are perverted if lit- 
 erally interpreted. The language of symbols is a universal language: 
 and, although liable to misconstruction, especially by non-spiritual 
 minds, yet the import of Christ's words, and much of his own con- 
 duct have a spiritual sense. As in the case of the barren fig tree 
 that was cursed. The import is the same as that of his parable of 
 the husbandman who. seeking fruit, and not finding it, cast out the 
 occupants of the vineyard. The tree is the symbol of the Jewish 
 church, which, bearing no fruit, was doomed to immediate destruc- 
 tion, which it experienced in the generation then living. The with- 
 ering of the fruitless tree under the curse of Christ, was a visible 
 symbol. 
 
 Perfection of instinct in the beginning of life is not in accordance 
 with any possible theory of development by law.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 283 
 
 The struggle between the animal and the spiritual in man indi 
 cates more than we see at first thought, in regard to man's moral 
 nature and destiny. 
 
 The Holy Spirit was personally in Christ and Christ is personally 
 in the Holy Spirit; and in that personality He is with the church to 
 the end of the world. 
 
 I have had, since I hoped in Christ, four seasons of peculiar expe 
 rience. Three of them were alike in my consciousness. Soon after 
 I was converted I enjoyed a state of mind for many months that was 
 a peaceful delight. The trees and the stars seemed to speak quietly 
 of God, and I was not afraid to die. 
 
 The second, I was going to a meeting of days with a brother of 
 peculiar rich and earnest experience. He had faith and hope and 
 joy in his soul, and a spirit of prayer by which his soul seemed to 
 reach and effect others. I slept, and talked with him by the way 
 to the meeting, and next morning when I awoke my mind was in a 
 sweet spiritual frame. I rose earlier than others and walked out into 
 the orchard, and my heart and the trees and the heavens seemed 
 lovingly to praise God. 
 
 Again in Cincinnati I slept and talked during a revival of religion 
 with another brother of earnest, gracious exercises. He seemed 
 "filled with the Spirit." When I awoke the next morning I had the 
 same state of mind. I have no doubt these brethren prayed for me 
 earnestly on those nights. But was there anything in the fact that 
 they possessed the Spirit which by personal contact aided the im- 
 partation of the influence to me? Is there anything in the doctrine 
 of the laying on of hands, (spoken of as one of the cardinal doctrines 
 in Heb. 6,) wKich indicates that the Holy Spirit is communicated 
 through persons ? If so, what is the value of the ordination by 
 formal and selfish ministers? If any Spirit be communicated through 
 them, it is certainly not the Holy Influence indwelling by faith. I 
 have had other deliverances from sin, not in such connections. In 
 these two cases it seemed to be an impartation of spiritual life 
 through others. 
 
 I just now found a black beetle which had been turned over on its 
 back on a smooth surface. It seemed to be feeble, probably from 
 long struggle to right itself; still it put forth eiforts to get right side 
 up, without success. I held out to it a straw which it seized and 
 thus turned itself over. It felt better, and I felt better to see it re 
 leased. I thus increased in some degree the s .m of sentient happi- 
 ness. My Father made the insects. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, and one which repeated experiments 
 renders indubitable, that one man can place his logos in another so 
 
 4
 
 284 
 
 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 that the will and thought of that other will be his will and thought, 
 while yet he retains his own logos in his own bosom. Who can solve 
 the unfathomable mystery ? That such things exist, ( to which a 
 better name should be given,) there can be no doubt. I haVe my- 
 self induced the magnetic sleep in those whose veracity could not 
 be questioned. The susceptibility is not common, but it exists with 
 some in a lesser, with others in a greater degree. In such cases 
 some can read the thoughts in other minds. 
 
 Three several times in my life I have been sensible of power in the 
 words that converted a sinner. I felt the power of the thought in 
 my own heart, and I spoke it as though life was in it. The individ- 
 uals afterwards repeated to me the idea and spoke of certain words 
 as going to their heart and awakening them to feel their lost condi- 
 tion. I have no doubt that as a general truth individuals will feel a 
 preacher's words in some measure as he feels them himself. And 
 special instances as above often occur. 
 
 The holiness of the New Testament is the central evidence of its 
 truth. Holiness of Christ ; of the Apostles ; of the doctrine. In 
 holiness is the highest good of the human soul; hence, the New Tes- 
 tament is the highest truth. 
 
 Whenever an individual does any act that causes a great many 
 minds to regard him with ill-will and indignation, some persons 
 think that he may expect some evil providence to befall his person. 
 Such an individual should pray without ceasing. He needs good 
 angels to protect him. Observation has seemed to iqe to teach that 
 such a statement has some truth in it, albeit it may not be postulated 
 as truth. Evil wishes are prayer as good desires are prayer. 
 
 Present and perfect accordance with the will of Christ should be 
 constantly the main point of Christian purpose and endeavor. I will 
 be obedient and loving toward God every day and hour; and to 
 please Him will seek and improve every opportunity to do good to 
 man. Purposes and rules for prayer, reading, etc., are well enough, 
 but without the main purpose TO DO by faith the will of Christ daily 
 and hourly, they fail of efficiency, and are often the means by which 
 the soul excuses itself for neglect of duty. 
 
 When an individual feels wrong towards another, it seems as 
 though some evil spirit ordered the words and conduct of that other 
 so that the one with evil feeling could see what will enable him to 
 judge according to his evil disposition. Occasion is given for the 
 development of the evil exercises in the case of those who have the 
 evil disposition.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 285 
 
 The men who have changed the sweet melodies of old Sherburne 
 and other like tunes, (melodies which were natural and easy, and 
 hence delightsome,) into the forced and affected harmonies in some 
 of the newer versions, ought to be damned, at least for a second or 
 two ; but not so long as they distress others by the disappointment 
 and regret of hearing artistic harmony instead of the old natural 
 melody. Why can't harmonists let the sweet melodies of the church 
 alone ! Make new, but spare the old. Not long since, in a large 
 congregation, on a public occasion, the preacher gave out the hymn, 
 "Shall Jesus bear the cross alone," which all knew was married to a 
 tune they loved, written in the books. The fools in the choir se- 
 lected another tune and disgusted and jarred the minds of a large 
 share of the audience. No composer Bliss excepted writes more 
 than from one to a dozen good melodies. Melody is the soul. Mere 
 harmonies are body without soul. 
 
 There are passages in the books of Moses that are not in accord- 
 ance with the New Testament view of God's character, except as we 
 consider them judgments of God inflicted upon wicked nations, and 
 inflicted by men whose own natural impulses (i. e., the impulses of 
 the natural heart,) were turned to account in executing those judg- 
 ments. The slaughter of the women and infants by order of Moses; 
 a like case by Samuel, and a worse case by the Levites, killing their 
 neighbors who had transgressed by idolatrous indulgences. Great 
 injury is done to the cause of Christ when men endeavor to render 
 these cases consistent with the advanced light of our dispensation. 
 The statement of David hanging the children of Rispah is probably 
 an interpolation, as it is not found in the parallel record. But the 
 preceding instances of cruelty are a true record ; and even this may 
 have been the act of a king jealous of the heirs of Saul. God permits 
 similar acts of cruelty in wars of the present time. The Bible is re- 
 sponsible only for giving a true record of such acts as were done in 
 connection with Jewish wars. Such record could be made in our 
 age; but the spirit of Christianity is designed to change the charac- 
 ter of the world so that the cruelties of one set of men inflicted on 
 others as judgments for sin will not be continued. Such things, then 
 and now, were seldom approved by the Almighty, except as judg- 
 ments in which both the afflicted and the inflicter were guilty as to 
 same extent in the war with the sleveholders. David, as a warrior, 
 was a man after God's own heart chosen to scourge other guilty na- 
 tions ; yet he was himself called "a man of blood," and was not 
 permitted on account of his blood-guiltiness to build a house of 
 worship for Jehovah. And so far from being as a common man 
 one after God's heart, the scriptures affirm that for his sins terrible 
 judgments were inflicted on him, and the sword was not to depart 
 from his house until he died. God is dishonored and the Scripture 
 record misconstrued by making David a Saint, in any other sense 
 than that of his sterling hostility to Idolatry, and his recognition of
 
 286 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 God in all the providences that befel him. By deep repentance he 
 received pardon, as it may be hoped, for his aggravated sins. Less 
 aggravated in view of the darkness of his dispensation; but such as 
 would have consigned him to destruction under gospel light. 
 
 Another evil more prevalent formerly than at the present time is 
 that of endeavoring to make the local legislation of Moses, which 
 was adapted to the children of a migratory nation, a rule of duty 
 under our dispensation. Moses changed the legislation in accord- 
 ance with the change of circumstances in the commencement. The 
 penalty for theft was three times changed in Israel. Deuteronomy, 
 the second law, was promulgated when the Jews were about to be- 
 come a settled nation, and was changed and amended in various 
 respects to suit the better circumstances of the people. The moral 
 law, in the Ten Commandments, given on Sinai is immediately from 
 God. It is the higher law. All legislation contrary to it is nuga- 
 tory. It is the foundation of all legislation. The ritual and local 
 laws of Moses were to last only till they were fulfilled. The Ten 
 Commandments are to last so long as man lasts. Whosoever breaks 
 one of them and teaches men so is the least in the Kingdom of God; 
 and whosoever teaches the obsolete ritual is not instructed in the 
 Kingdom of God. 
 
 The moral law is the law of nature revised and revealed with au 
 thority. 
 
 The first commandment with its introduction recognizes the God 
 of Providence as the True God, and the only God to be worshiped. 
 "I brought you up out of the land," etc. 
 
 The second forbids idolatry, because the worshiper will necessa- 
 rily attach the attributes of the image to the idea of God. 
 
 Third, forbids irreverence and false swearing. 
 
 Fourth, appoints the day for rest and religious culture. 
 
 Fifth, duty of children to parents. 
 
 Sixth, protects life. 
 
 Seventh, chastity. 
 
 Eighth, property. 
 
 Ninth, character. 
 
 Tenth, makes all spiritual forbidding the thought that prompts to 
 wrong action. 
 
 " Male and female created He them." Man was created male and 
 female. Juno sprang from Jupiter's head. Eve was from the side 
 of Adam. Every head is male and female united in the cerebellum. 
 The two sets of organs co-operate. But the organs in male and fe- 
 male do not seek like organs in each other. Nature seeks to balance 
 herself. And that marriage is probably best if not happiest, when 
 the organs of the male and female are the compliment of each other. 
 That is, where a small organ in the male head is compensated by a 
 larger one in the female, and -vice versa. Similarity of organs does 
 not produce peace and happiness, as phrenologists have taught.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 28/ 
 
 Combativeness largely developed in both will be certain to produce 
 collision so in other cases. There is something in phrenology, but 
 not all that phrenologists have claimed. 
 
 The doctrine of perfection is not so difficult, if there were discrim- 
 ination. Whether men can be perfect or not, of course, depends on 
 the standard they measure themselves by. To be perfect in love is a 
 very different thing from being perfect in self-denial for the good 
 of men. Christ was perfect in both. 
 
 There is evidence of the antiquity and genuineness of the Bible 
 in that its early histories are not theogonies but homologies. Not 
 the genealogies of gods but the genealogies of men. The puerile 
 and impure tales of the Old Testament ought not to be read in fam- 
 ilies, although the parent ought to have them read by children, and 
 explain that to the early men concubinage was permitted. That 
 "old wives' fables," which the New Testament discountenances, 
 were the staple histories, of the old times; because the genealogies 
 of families was the chief interest and the only history. That the 
 deception of Abraham, Rachel and others were wrong then, but 
 would be greater wrong now. That it was necessary for the Bible to 
 give a true state of the low and beastly vices prevailing in early 
 times, in order to give us a true record of the true state of the church 
 and the world in that age. 
 
 In rejecting the Jewish view of their own Scriptures the Christians 
 have erred in the past; but it was the erior of the church rising from 
 the dark ages to the more advanced state. It is now, or soon will 
 be, a hindrance to the progress of truth to affirm that the minor his- 
 tories and the hagiographa of the Old Testament were inspired in 
 the same sense as the dispensation of Moses proper, and the preach- 
 ing of the prophets. 
 
 Solomon's song is a love song; and in our age would be a lewd 
 song. And while it may have been valuable to the Jews as an incite- 
 ment to monogamy, or the love of one wife only, in our circumstances 
 it is an excitement to lust rather than an inducement to virtue. The 
 older divines, by making it an allegory, alluding to Divine love saved 
 it from evil and used it for good. Inspiration relates in its most im- 
 portant sense to those scriptures which reveal the true character of 
 God, and his true relations to man. Under the New Testament, 
 as God was in Christ, through Him is revealed to us the true God 
 and the true duty. The Holy Spirit in inspiration produced ideas 
 in the minds of the sacred writers in keeping with his own holy na- 
 ture. Where such ideas are not, the Holy Spirit is not. Providence 
 guides in regard to other truths of history and hagiography. The 
 books of Matthew, Mark and Luke are providential comnilations of 
 actual historical facts concerning the life, ministry and death of Christ. 
 
 5
 
 288 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 The book of John and the epistles are historical and spiritual pre- 
 sentations of gospel truth and experience. All are inspired, but not 
 in the same sense. One is by the influx of the Holy Spirit; the 
 other by guidance and providence. 
 
 God of Providence and grace who hath raised me up and guided 
 me to do better than I would or could do, enable me to show others 
 how much may be done by Thine assistance in a short life, for thy 
 glory and the good of thy creatures. And help me to acknowledge 
 kindly and gratefully, and to show others, that only those who are 
 instruments in thy hands accomplish ends worthy of life's labor. 
 
 London, July 2, 1861. Amen to the above, which was written in 
 Ohio years ago. 
 
 Faith in the Gods of human invention is a natural state. The 
 faith of the natural mind in its own creations. Faith in a character 
 of God above and beyond human capabilities, is produced by in- 
 spired truth and supernatural influence the Bible and the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 The boy called the prince of Wales is a common lad, and he does 
 not deserve so much honor as the self-supporting student in our com- 
 mon schools and seminaries. The Quakers, although ultra, were 
 right in principle in refusing honor to hereditary place holders. Such 
 usually deserve contempt rather than honor. Those who, like Queen 
 Victoria, live a virtuous life, while they spend largely the public 
 money, should be respected for being no worse than they are. But 
 the Americans who, like Gorham Abbott, make asses of themselves 
 by adulation of the prince of Wales, and do it in such connection as 
 to pervert the principles of the young in regard to the worth of hu- 
 man character. Such men and women are sycophants and shallow 
 hypocrites. Our contemplated college at Benzonia, I hope will never 
 invite such mean minds to address any of our societies. There seems 
 to be a hereditary taint in some families that causes some of their 
 members to cringe and prostitute their conscience in the presence of 
 factitious greatness or greatness in combination with crime as wit- 
 ness the Life of Napoleon by one of the Abbotts and the proposition 
 to his pupils by another to demean themselves as menials in the pres- 
 ence of a boy, the prince of Wales. Such men fall little behind 
 the eulogists of debased greatness as Parton and other of like char- 
 acter, who eulogize mind or character without conscience. 
 
 In the coming ages the question of depravity will be resolved into, 
 development of the being by earthly, sensuous and evil surroundings, 
 in which all are born. It will be admitted that man was created in 
 adaptation to the imperfect conditions in which he was to live. That:
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 289 
 
 man's imperfection and Christ's perfection imply each other in the 
 moral economy of the world, and that the last is designed by faith 
 to counteract the other. 
 
 Jesus Christ is God projected into the objective, that by faith He 
 might become subjective in man; or, Jesus Christ is the Logos, the 
 intellectual objective in the divine mind, projected into a human 
 nature, that He might become the moral objective to the human 
 mind, and so by appropriating faith become subjective to the soul. 
 
 After all the discussions and doubts about doctrine in which Chris- 
 tians may be involved; after all the doubts about whether many in 
 the church are better than some without, still it is pleasant to preach 
 the gospel. The holiness of the gospel; the self-denial for the good 
 of men; the practical character of its morals; the adaptation of its 
 doctrine to benefit men; especially its power to produce love in the 
 human heart, which is the thing needed all these make it pleasant 
 to preach the gospel. 
 
 A beautiful little bug has flown to the gas-light deceived, and has 
 fallen in pain on my sheet of paper. Poor thing! What does such 
 an incident mean in the system of creative nature? What does it 
 indicate in regard to the rule of law to the relations of Creator and 
 creature? Lord, make us humble and docile by such inquiries. 
 They are too deep for me. 
 
 It is not the preaching of godliness but the practice of godliness 
 that convicts a household. Households that are externally fair but 
 internally foul, raise those children which lead people to wonder how 
 such good people could have such bad children. There are excep- 
 tions; but bad children generally are made by bad propensities in 
 one or both parents, or bad management at home and home-life not 
 known abroad. 
 
 Does Matter limit to some extent, and in some sense the exercise 
 of divine power? There can not be two hills without a valley be- 
 tween. If a perfect level is raised in one place to a hill, it will from 
 the nature of things and laws cause a depression elsewhere. So, if 
 out of a perfect moral level God brings good, there will result its 
 negative evil. Thus, out of nothing the eduction of good produces 
 a residuum without the good; hence, if good agency be educed, evil 
 agency remains and the progressive work of God in the world is by 
 the good to work the evil out of the system.
 
 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 There must be moral progress, or an eternal fixedness in perfection 
 that resolves itself into an infinite and inert sameness. But progress 
 implies immaturity; hence the creation is immature, but advancing 
 to perfection in which memory of past history will destroy sameness. 
 
 The man whose heart is inclined to reform; to truth; to love, will 
 be in favor of Christ and His gospel, and his mind will be inclined 
 to confess the one and support the other because Christ is the ob- 
 jective of his own internal state. 
 
 The words damnation and condemnation in the New Testament 
 require a new definition in order to a right apprehension of their im- 
 port by the common reader. The true sense is either self-condem- 
 nation felt in the soul, or the sentence of judgment dooming to 
 penalty as the desert of sin. The words are generally understood as 
 meaning the penalty itself as experienced after judgment instead of 
 the sentence of condemnation before the judgment. 
 
 Belief in miracles is first, not last in the divine dispensations. 
 When the reason of men shall be fully developed, so that men can 
 see that Christianity is ultimate and perfect in truth, love and power, 
 then the belief in miracles will not be necessary to the men of that 
 age. But it does not follow that the belief was not necessary in the 
 first ages of faith. Men then needed the evidence of sense in con- 
 nection with the truth. The men of the last age need the evidence 
 of reason, and reason will teach that miracles were necessary in the 
 first, but not in the last ages of faith. 
 
 For the reader's sake I have endeavored in my published works to 
 write in such a way that my readers may be drawn insensibly to a 
 more liberal and rational and evangelical view of doctrinal theology 
 in regard to points where the creeds limit the import of scripture. 
 
 We may be sure that a church or community that sins against 
 the light of the age in which they live will not run on peacefully. 
 Unless there be repentance there will be a hardening in sin. 
 Because, when sin is made manifest by truth, if men do not forsake 
 their sin, they will seek apology and then justification of the evil; 
 and hence, if they do not repent, they necessarily become blind and 
 hardened in their guilt. 
 
 When the anti-slavery discussion first commenced in this country 
 it was urged in view of moral considerations alone. At that early 
 day, those who understood the retributive character of God's gov- 
 ernment over nations and churches, taught that God would visit the 
 South with penalty unless they would hear truth and reform their 
 wicked institutions. But the presentation of truth only rendered
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 291 
 
 them insane in their sin. Rulers, priests and people have become 
 hardened and aggressive, and the end will probably be penalty or 
 destruction. We have already reached the beginning of the end. 
 Why should good men wonder? God will reveal his attribute of 
 justice and the future generations will understand that God is just, 
 by his penalties which, perhaps, they would not learn by his precepts. 
 
 The first chapter of Romans seems to prove what sectarian selfish- 
 ness has not brought out of the text that, although the heathen are 
 vile and desperately wicked, yet that those who conform to the light 
 they possess with as much assiduity as the Christian conforms to the 
 light he possesses, will, according to his degree of holiness, be as 
 acceptable to God as his more privileged fellow man. The heathen 
 cannot attain to the degree of holiness that can be attained by faith 
 in Christ; hence, we are the happiest of the holy; but he cannot 
 sink into such aggravated crime as those who have better privileges. 
 It is wise to determine no more in regard to the future of the hea- 
 then than is revealed. 
 
 A proof that the Old Testament in its eeneral history and its pro- 
 phetic books was written by divine guidance, is found in the fact 
 that the retribution of the nation from first to last, and the views of 
 the prophets in regard to the causes of that retribution are in accord- 
 ance with what must from the character of God, be the history of a 
 people where privileges and tuition and transgression were such as 
 that of the Jews. The attribute of justice, as it effects nations in 
 this world being assumed, then the history of the Jews is a deduction. 
 
 The idea of a personal devil is necessary in order to lead the soul 
 to hate sin. Satan to the soul is evil personified, and as such be is 
 hated as an objective evil agent, and sin becomes odious as being 
 agreeable to him and instigated by him; thus it becomes odious to 
 the soul in view of its evil source and instigation. But if sin is con- 
 sidered an accident; a fatality; a human frailty, its odious nature is 
 abated in the estimate of the soul. It is considering a character or 
 quality objectively that leads us to feel most deeply its good or evil 
 in ourselves. To hate evil personified is to hate sin. 
 
 There are some symbols in all languages which are derived from 
 the grand objects and movements of the material universe; as light 
 and darkness for truth and falsehood, and others that seem to all 
 minds the natural figure for certain states of mind. Other ideas are 
 the final results of human reason in all ages as that of the logos, or 
 thought birth of the mind. Now, suppose it to be shown as it may- 
 be, that the scriptural use of these and like expressions are derived 
 from previous theosophies or philosophies, does that invalidate the 
 
 5
 
 2Q2 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 truth of scripture? Are not the ideas natural to man, and the sym- 
 bols which all human languages produce most likely to be true, as 
 they are those that will be finally and universally accepted. Let the 
 New Testament be an eclecticism, gathering the gold from the dross 
 of past thought, and incorporating those ideas at which the mind ar- 
 rives as its ultimate deductions. Let Paul speak in the language of 
 the Rabbins, and John accept the phraseology of Alexandria, the 
 truth of Christianity thus proved does not lose its power. It only 
 takes on a form that will define it by the idiom of the times that 
 will give it currency in its own age, and connect it with the matured 
 thought of all ages. 
 
 There are certain tiltima thule toward which if the thought be 
 prone to run, the mind will find itself enveloped in shadows and 
 doubts. The future life in connection with the resurrection of the 
 body. The accordance of the old dogmatic teaching in regard to 
 the atonement with the views revealed in the New Testament. It 
 will be wise for most Christians to accept the impression made by the 
 separate passages of the New Testament as they read them. Mental 
 effort to constrain them into accordance with the defined dogmatic 
 views of theologians, often hinders the impression of the apostolic 
 thought. It is wise for those who believe that love is life and heav- 
 en, to leave these speculations to those who like them, and look to 
 Jesus, believing in his life as the rule of duty, and in his death as 
 the manifestation of divine love for man. 
 
 The true and only true religion is that which being believed will 
 accomplish the most good in accordance with the laws of mind and 
 moral progress. No one can doubt but that in this respect the pre- 
 cept and example of Christianity are perfect. But there is need, as 
 the soul is made, of something more than precept and example. 
 Love is life; it is the highest good of the human soul; hence, with 
 the perfect in precept and example there is the absolute need of the 
 love-producing power. This the Christian religion has in perfection to 
 those who believe. Further still, there is need that the love produced 
 should influence the will to work for the good of the race. No one 
 can doubt but that love to Christ does this perfectly. If, therefore, 
 the only true religion is that which accomplishes the best results for 
 individual men and for the race the religion of Christ as it is re- 
 vealed not in creeds but in the New Testament Faith in Christ, 
 as Lord, Teacher and Sacrifice, is the only possibly true religion 
 and as human nature is constituted it is impossible for Christianity 
 to be untrue. 
 
 But what of the Old Testament? It was introductory and imper- 
 fect in many respects, because it was in the development before the 
 perfect. Yet, in the then state of human progress the religion that 
 taught the one God, Creator, and Controller of nature and provi- 
 dence the religion that took the institutions produced out of the
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. , 293 
 
 necessity of the human heart and human circumstances and moulded 
 them into symbols and into an introduction to the coming perfect, 
 and gave them a moral significance, and at the same time connected 
 (iod with the affairs of nations and men as the moral governor: In 
 this sense the Old Testament religion in that age and stage of devel- 
 opment and in those circumstances was the best possible to be 
 believed, and hence was the only possible religion as introductory to 
 the perfect in Christianity. 
 
 Doubts connected with figures, as in Bishop Colenso, have noth- 
 ing to do with the truth in the case. God's providence to 6,000, re- 
 veals the same truth as to 600,000. The fables and fictions of Jewish 
 tradition and hagiography incorporated in the canon have nothing to 
 do in the case. The nature of the Holy Spirit is such that his op- 
 eration is only in connection with holy thought, and systems, and 
 things necessary to human progress and human good. With this 
 understanding of the plan where the divine connects itself with the 
 human, in all dispensations, the truth-seeker will not be injured by 
 such works as that of Colenso and other writers of the same class 
 
 East and to come. There are figments and fictions, and old wives' 
 ibles in the old Testament, of course; but the plan and providence 
 of God in the dispensation of Moses is above and independent of 
 these. 
 
 This week Rev. Mr. C , from Munson, Mass., is here. He 
 preached yesterday, not as I advised him, but a sermon from the 
 passage in Job: "Who by searching can find out God." His dis- 
 course was an abstruse attempt to show we could know nothing of 
 God. "His centre was everywhere, His circumference nowhere. 
 Infinity is incomprehensible; so omnipresence; so infinite power." 
 The effort was to show that all reasoning in regard to God must be 
 contradictory and absurd, and such was the God of the Bible. The 
 sermon was in one sense true; but it was designed to accomplish just 
 the opposite of what revelation and right preaching aims to accom- 
 plish. What a pity! God is revealed in Christ in order to be com- 
 prehensible to man. 
 
 Parents should be careful to be accurate in the use of language in 
 the presence of their young children. The forms of speech settled 
 in their minds from two to ten years of age, it is almost impossible 
 to eradicate by later tuition. I learned from my grandfather's family 
 to use the verb "to be" erroneously; and now, a Dr. of Divinity by 
 the forced nomination of my brethren, and a Senator without asking 
 the nomination, I still in senate and pulpit, and often in the first writ- 
 ing of a MS use is for are, and other less erroneous forms. 
 
 Christian people ought to cease praying for their pastor in his pres- 
 ence. I have always desired the people for whom I preached to
 
 294 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 pray for me in private, but not in public. Human nature is selfishly 
 good sometimes. A modest preacher will not desire to hear prayer 
 frequently for himself if he can have it unheard. And people, as 
 well as preachers, sometimes pray as the politicians say "for 
 bunkum." A good brother is in the habit now of praying for the 
 young woman gone to teach, and for others in such a manner that 
 it reaches the parent' 1 s heart through their ears. Pray personally 
 in private if persons are present. 
 
 Poets, and to some extent other literary men, who are merely men 
 of letters those who have never associated with men or with nature 
 in the common walks of life who have never labored with their 
 hands, and are conversant with ideas only, can never produce any- 
 thing that will not be devoid in some measure of practical sense. 
 They may be brilliant and profound; but the clear, strong discrim- 
 inations of the practical mind will be absent. Their verses may suit 
 mere students of letters, but the logic of Pope, the human nature of 
 Shakspeare, or of Burns will be wanting. If such men, who are 
 merely scholars, espouse a good cause, as Sumner or Phillips, they 
 are heroes of the ideal rather than the practical. It requires Garri- 
 son, the printer; Chase, the ferry boy and school teacher; or, espe- 
 cially Lincoln, the laborer, to maintain truth for those who would 
 practically apply it. The simple anecdote of Abraham Lincoln, that 
 it is unsafe to swap horses crossing a stream, had more influence in 
 the general election of 1864, than all the able but glittering speeches 
 of Charles Sumner put together. I knew this fact, because, in that 
 election I thought it duty to canvass my senatorial district for Lin- 
 coln; I could use his matter with the masses, but I had no use for 
 the expanded thought of Sumner. 
 
 Oberlin, more than any other institution in the land, has been 
 God's instrument in moralizing the politics, and spiritualizing the re- 
 ligion of the churches in the West. Not because her doctrine and 
 action were perfect, but because they tended to perfection. 
 
 The power was not so much in her professors, ( except in the case 
 of Mr. Finney. They were, most of them, pious men; but very 
 common men. Mr. Finney has been the best, and some of her other 
 professors among the best Christians in the land ). The power she 
 has exercised in the country has been in her principles and her pray- 
 ers, and in the consecrated hearts of her first friends and her first 
 students. She drew to her retired wooden rooms the spiritually in- 
 clined youth of the whole land. 
 
 Her first school teachers, alive with gospel principle concerning 
 human freedom and spiritual holiness, felt within them a commission 
 to disseminate the light of truth. They went by hundreds into the 
 school districts of Ohio and other western states and in the families, 
 quietly, (while the selfish politicians were scheming for themselves;
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 2Q5 
 
 or while no political excitement perverted the perception of the peo- 
 ple,) they enlightened and converted multitudes to righteous princi- 
 ple; established the truth in their conscience, from which scheming 
 politicians could not subsequently turn them. At the same time 
 Oberlin was doing this work State colleges, and other secular insti- 
 tutions, were preaching and teaching their orthodox heresies, and 
 sending out a class of lawyers and preachers and doctors, many of 
 whom resisted reform and were a bane rather than a blessing to both 
 church and State. 
 
 The fear now is, that Oberlin has fulfilled her mission as a power 
 of righteousness in the earth, and is falling to the level of rich, edu- 
 cational institutions; and at the death of Mr. Finney will pass from 
 being a spiritual to a secular religious power. Her halls are now 
 costly and large; filled mostly with worldly and wealthy rather than 
 poor and spiritual students. Her teachers who, in the days of her 
 greatest usefulness, did not get half the salary that other college 
 professors received, are now seeking larger endowment and salaries 
 equal with others. Thus, education for the people will end at Ober- 
 lin, and education for classes begin. The teachers will no longer 
 affiliate with the students in common; but will be more separate; 
 and Oberlin will rise in popularity, and sink from spiritual power. 
 She will regenerate no more States politically, and spiritualize no 
 more churches. Finney will be true till death, but such men have 
 no successors. May God give to Benzonia the spirit and the power 
 of Oberlin in the early time. 
 
 When churches or benevolent organizations become large and in- 
 fluential; when they have a name which is honorable; when their 
 managers are great and prudent men in the world's estimation; 
 when many praise and none can gain anything by dissenting from 
 their procedures, then arises the danger that men will begin to 
 regard the institution itself with improper deference. Its friends rely 
 on its name, its wisdom, its wealth to honor or promote themselves. 
 It may then begin to "seek its own" its own growth, character, 
 interests, as an institution rather than the things that belong to 
 Christ. Great institutions and men of great name may do great det- 
 riment to true religion. With the prevalent desire to be esteemed 
 great in human estimation, to be a true minister, is scarcely possible. 
 
 ON DREAMS AND DREAMING. How mysterious and inexplicable 
 they are? Skeptical as we may be, and doubtless should be, in re- 
 gard to any intimations of the future being connected with the com- 
 mon clreamings of the night, yet there are dreams that the mind 
 cannot dispose of as being the shadow of past thoughts. It is no 
 doubt true that the prevailing state of mind during waking hours 
 carries its hues into the hours of sleep, and these hues somber or 
 .salient tinge the texture of our night visions. But is it not likewise
 
 296 
 
 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 true that coming states of mind do the same the one as much as 
 the other? It is certainly true that the impress of the dream and of 
 events which follow often force the mind to feel whether it will or 
 no, that as shadow and substance the one is the complement of the 
 other. There are visions that can be accounted for on no theory as yet 
 proposed, and those who assume that such have no connection with 
 the future are often egotistical philosophers like Merebaud, who 
 seek reputation by negativing everything inexplicable. Dreams in- 
 dicating the future confirm the hopes of a future life, and strengthen 
 the testimony for the scriptures. My sleeping thoughts are often as 
 distinct in the morning as my waking thoughts at night. The freed 
 spirit expatiates in the past and future alike. 
 
 The symbolic representations of the future in dreams do nqt al- 
 ways nor often assume the shape of symbolic ideas, as we would 
 conceive of them in waking hours while yet in connection with the 
 future they seem more striking and appropriate, than any which we 
 could conceive of while awake. Take the following three instances 
 among very many: 
 
 Before the principal revival of religion in Akron, I dreamed 
 that the old meeting house seemed to assume the aspect of a dingy 
 stone building. Its height increased; its tops surrounded with 
 clouds, and apparently lost in the darkness of the clouds. The sur- 
 roundings of the church did not seem inviting, but rather dark, and 
 the enlargement seemed in some wise not pleasant to. me. I had no 
 anticipation except good for the church. The form of the church 
 which I beheld in vision was something I did not anticipate and 
 would reject. The impression was not pleasant, and yet there was 
 extension. Now, while I remained in Akron the church prospered 
 greatly. I left it a large and hopeful people. The revival then in 
 progress greatly added to its members; but after I left Mr. Pickands 
 went to that church. He was eccentric, and became a Millerite. 
 The church was in the end divided, and its members scattered, and 
 clouds and darkness were upon it, when the organization ceased and 
 a new church was formed of its fragments. 
 
 In Chicago, during the progress of the revival in the First Presby- 
 terian church, whilst I was laboring with them, I dreamed of seeing 
 a field inclosed for cultivation. It had been used. It was elevated 
 at its upper end and declined to the bottom. The lower part seemed 
 rather barren and gullied by storms and strong currents of water 
 which had passed over it. The upper part seemed more fair and 
 fruitful, and I was engaged in setting out in it young fruit trees. 
 Others were growing there, and the upper part of the field presented 
 to my eye and left on my mind a pleasant impression. 
 
 That church was the first organized in Chicago. Old strifes and 
 currents of public sentiment had separated and marred the minds 
 of its old members. They were unfruitful for the most part. Church 
 discipline of the most painful kind began before the protracted meet- 
 ing closed. But there was a better class of members, who were re- 
 vived and greatly advanced and to them were added, by my labors,
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 297 
 
 a number of converts. These have since then been the hope of the 
 church. The church has prospered, and a colony has gone out and 
 formed a Congregational church which is likewise doing good. The 
 reform element and self-denying spirit are mostly in the Congrega- 
 tional church but both are prosperous. 
 
 A precious revival has just closed in this (Mansfield) church. The 
 church itself has been more revived and enlightened than at any 
 time before. With one or two exceptions, every member has made 
 spiritual attainments. Now, in the midst of the revival I dreamed, 
 and the dream greatly impressed and affected me. 
 
 I dreamed I was in a garden of fruitful plants and flowers; the 
 buds on the trees which seemed like rose bushes were just develop- 
 ing, as the cabbage rose develops its flower. I thought that it was 
 sunlight, but there was slight snow on the ground and it was cold 
 and freezing. In looking at the buds I saw that almost every one 
 had in its core a black worm; the head of the worm was visible, and 
 it was moving and living in some cases larger and more active than 
 others. I stood and wondered in my dream how the worms* could 
 live in the freezing weather. It seemed strange to me but true. 
 After contemplating the scene I took a stick and engaged thrashing 
 the bushes and buds to knock out the worms and kill them. I 
 thought I labored with some success, although not with entire nor 
 general success. 
 
 Now the revival is over. It has been a rich blessing to us all. I 
 have preached much to the church. Worldly and selfish aims were 
 as canker worms in the developing Christian character. The worms 
 lived in the cold light of truth while there was little spirit or power; 
 but by the grace of God something has been done to remove them 
 in this revival. What do such dreams presenting unthought of sym- 
 bols, which really do symbolize the future, mean? Do not beings 
 that know the future commune with our minds in the night season? 
 
 OCTOBER 27, 1858. Last night I returned from Chicago at nine 
 o'clock. Slept soundly, as I was somewhat wearied. I dreamed, and 
 in vision saw three scenes very dissimilar, and all seeming to purport 
 the same thing. I seemed to be an observer rather than the subject 
 of the dream. 
 
 I dreamed I was in a house somewhat old. By some force it was 
 falling with myself and others in it. It fell and I awoke. 
 
 Asleep again. I saw a chestnut tree standing apart in a field. A 
 crow hovered over its top. The bird seemed to alight on it as a dark 
 cloud. A wind arose and uprooted the tree, and blew it down and 
 along the ground. 
 
 Asleep again. I seemed to be on the second story of a house, and 
 was pulling a rope to ring a bell. The bell, or rather steel ring, 
 was cracked and gave out only the shore, harsh jars of a broken bell. 
 
 All things seen in dreams are not the product of the law of sug- 
 gestion, nor are they always originated by imperfect sleep, or by in- 
 digestion. These visions were very vivid. They are quite diverse 
 in themselves, yet the same import.
 
 298 
 
 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 OCTOBER 29. This morning I received a note from a friend con- 
 nected with a family in which in former years I had a deep interest. 
 One died insane; one is now insane, and I fear another is about to 
 lose her reason. I have not for years had any intercourse with this 
 family, they residing in a distant part of the State. 
 
 The letter just received is from Mrs. Harriet Emmerson, of New 
 Port, Ky. A passage of its doleful contents reads as follows: "With 
 one of my sons dead, and the other in the lunatic asylum, I find my- 
 self almost alone at fifty-three years of age, and dependent on others 
 for a living." This woman was one of the holiest members of the 
 church at New Richmond. Her husband died insane. She needs 
 help and asks for it. I feel deeply these afflictions, and will do for 
 the sufferers what I can and when I can. The dreams are being 
 fulfilled. The interpretation is by no possibility a chance similitude, 
 for every state of mind in view of these facts are the same which the 
 dream produced. The fulfillment does not always produce the same 
 state of mind sometimes only it does. The cracked bell was a 
 symbol of impaired reason. 
 
 I have just heard a sermon on love. To me, although I knew it to 
 be sacred and vital truth, it was barren and empty. I am fastidious, 
 perhaps, beyond propriety in regard to preaching perfection, by those 
 especially who are known to possess only the ideal, not the actual of 
 their teaching. I would never give out even a hymn to sing if I 
 thought it overstated the spiritual condition of the singers. In that 
 beautiful hymn, "I love thy kingdom Lord," the verse containing 
 the imprecation, 
 
 If ere my heart forgfet 
 
 "This hanil let useful skill forsake, 
 
 "This voice in silence die," 
 
 I have never given out for others to sing, and I have never sung 
 it when given out by another. 
 
 Worship ought to be the expression of the true emotions of the 
 heart. Reverence, humanity and utter truthfulness should charac- 
 terize every word or no word should be said or sung. It is some- 
 what different perhaps with preaching. But the common, formal 
 preacher who lectures on the life and power of love, which he does not 
 feel, does his duty while he is yet an object of pity. He may utter 
 the same truth, and yet the spirit of his discourse its impression 
 upon the hearts of others will be very different from that of the man 
 who speaketh out of the abundance of his heart. Such discourses 
 usually affect nobody, except to repel or harden those who know that 
 the man's words are with him a mere theory, and to other hearers 
 they are as a "painted ship on a painted ocean." 
 
 A person that tells the evils that he knows to be true of another, 
 without at the same time telling the good that he knows to be true, 
 is a liar.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 299 
 
 There should be some method by which omnibus bills in the 
 legislature, appropriations of public moneys for improvements in 
 States or in the Union, should be referred to an impartial committee 
 of inquiry and determination, to report after investigation according 
 to the need and value of each object asking appropriation. Experi 
 ence in frauds upon the Government are constant, and interested 
 representatives combine shamefully for selfish ends, to fetch public 
 funds. When in the Senate I found it difficult to resist combinations 
 of this sort. 
 
 I am troubled with youthful feeling, as fresh as when a boy. An 
 aged man, feeble in body hair white as wool -and yet in style 
 of intercourse with the young, almost the same as forty years ago. 
 Others note the peculiarity. I shall surely soon get beyond this. 
 
 BKN/.ONIA, August, 1868. I have planted four orchards in my 
 life, and these with words of mine have induced the planting of many 
 others here and elsewhere. I have urged the people here to plant 
 fruit trees and shrubs so soon as they had sufficient clear land. I 
 have introduced good varieties of fruits, and tested them, and dis- 
 tributed them, from the strawberry to the winter apple: and by fairs 
 and in other ways we have created a desire among the people of the 
 whole region to cultivate good fruit. This we hope will be a bless- 
 ing to their families. It will contribute to health, gratify taste, and 
 make home surroundings pleasant and profitable. A gentleman who 
 has been looking through my fruit yard and lawn seems induced 
 thereby to remove here and devote his leisure to fruit culture. With 
 industry, careful culture and wise selections, fruit growing espe- 
 cially the best winter apples may succeed as a business in our re- 
 gion. But, in order to this, time and skilled labor are necessary. 
 
 I have read the Bible of Reason in which the wise teaching of the 
 ancient sages is compiled from Confucius to Lucca; and the state- 
 ment affirmed that they are valuable as the doctrines of Jesus. Now, 
 if it were admitted that the excellence of the gospel is in its pre- 
 cepts which it is not but in the revelation of Divine Love in 
 Christ. Yet, if it were admitted that the power is in the precept, 
 then why did not Seneca conquer the world? Why don't Comte 
 regenerate and transform men? Tell us, O ye men, who find truth 
 superior to the New Testament, why does not the greater truth pro- 
 duce the greater effect? The power of faith on the conscience and 
 heart is the central glory of the gospel not its precepts. 
 
 There is a law which will operate to produce an increase of beauty 
 in the forms and faces of the human family, especially in America. 
 Persons who have a free selection of marriage mates as the young
 
 300 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 people of this country will generally select companions of physical 
 and mental qualities unlike their own. Those who observe will 
 notice this. The selection in physical forms may grow out of the 
 distaste one gets for his own uninviting peculiarities. A lean 
 structure will usually select a round featured mate. A person with a 
 long nose will never select a mate with the same peculiarity. The 
 dislike they get to their own peculiarity repels them from it in an- 
 other. So it is in mental qualities that are marked. Hence, this 
 balancing and counteracting process goes on in a free society cross- 
 ing out peculiarities, and improving the forms and features and men- 
 tal symmetry of civilized society. 
 
 Mark 11:24. An excellent woman, Mrs. Huntington, is relating 
 her experience. She had for months been prayerful and asking for 
 the grace of love and faith. At length she experienced what is re- 
 corded in the nth chapter of Mark, 24th verse "What things 
 soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye 
 shall have them." She says she came into the state of mind in 
 which she felt "/ believe these blessed things that I have sought 
 ARE MINE. Jesus has said, He will withhold no good thing I have 
 his promise. THEY ARE MINE. When I felt they are mine, my 
 peace flowed like a river." The promise in the passage was verified 
 to her just as it reads. She believed she had through Christ the 
 promised good, ami she had it. She is peaceful and useful. Is it 
 not a law of the mind, .that if we believe we receive spiritual good, 
 we have it? Does the belief produce it? 
 
 It is necessary that we should believe that Christ suffered for our 
 sins; otherwise the love of Christ would not lead us to hate sin. 
 Love for a person will lead us to hate whatever causes that person to 
 suffer especially if the cause of the suffering be evil in its own 
 nature then both heart and conscience is opposed to it. Such is 
 our nature, and the true gospel is so adapted to our nature that those 
 who love Christ will hate sin. 
 
 Deacon Bailey has just said to me what surely must be a good qual- 
 ity in my pulpit labors. He said I "made everything so simple and 
 plain that it seemed to him he knew it all before, and yet he didn't." 
 I have rather desired that some one like the deacon who can appre- 
 ciate truth when he sees it, would say just this ot my preaching. 
 The plagues of literature and of the schools are those who "see 
 things through a glass darkly;" who have many words for few ideas; 
 and who write in strained definitions, and talk profoundly about sub- 
 jects that they cloud rather than clear to the apprehension of others. 
 A great mind gives simplicity to profound ideas.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 30 1 
 
 Ts it a case of polygeneses? One of the first years of my residence 
 in Hen/.onia a little brownish midge or fly infested the wheat stalks 
 l>y the million. They seemed to suck the juices hut not kill the 
 stalk, as I feared they would. The succeeding year the woods and 
 fields were alive with small, yellow butterflies which laid their eggs 
 in the forest and orchard trees; and from these were generated the 
 millions of canker worms or inch or measure caterpillars, which 
 destroyed leaves and fruit, and were the pests of the season, and 
 continued in less numbers the second year. Was the midge the pro- 
 genitor? 
 
 LIFE ATOMS. What objection is there to the doctrine that God 
 created life atoms? elementary norms of life which are latent until the 
 adapted conditions develop them into active assimilation with matter 
 as their specific bodies. A seed will lie hidden in the earth, below 
 the search of air and sun, in a latent state, for ages; yet, when 
 thrown near the surface it germinates. Hut life is not in the body of 
 the seed, but a germule within the seed and within a cell. The 
 qualities of things are educed by their correlation. The relative 
 position of bodies or masses of matter develop their qualities and 
 determines their form and motion sometimes by contact, sometimes 
 without. 
 
 Why not, therefore, suppose that life-atoms were created and min- 
 gled in the elements of matter, but latent till the changing and 
 advancing conditions of the sun and the globe developed them? de- 
 veloped them in certain regions of the earth and at certain times. 
 And thus from first to last stages of progress; and that these atoms 
 before developed had each the sexual constitution, and when they 
 had assimilated to themselves bodies, had powers of adaptation to 
 country and climate. 
 
 If God created molecules of specific life among the primary ele- 
 ments, the evidence of his wisdom and power would be as decisive 
 as in the case of specific creations per se. In the one case He 
 created the life principle subject to related and designed conditions 
 of development; in the other case He created the animal when its 
 adapted condition ensued. But as conditions are developed pro- 
 gressively, why not suppose the one to be conditioned with the 
 other, and all by the immediate power and wisdom of God the God 
 who reveals His nature to men in the adapted personality of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, by whom alone God is known, and in whom alone 
 He becomes personal? 
 
 The tenth and eleventh chapters of Daniel are undoubtedly an 
 interpolation in the prophecies of Daniel, written and inserted after 
 the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. The beginning of the twelfth 
 chapter ought to be connected immediately with the close of chapter 
 nine.
 
 3O2 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 The Friend Quakers utterly fail in the matter of means and efforts 
 to propagate the truth in the world. The Congregationalists fail in 
 spirituality and testimony against worldly conformity, while they 
 rigorously propagate the gospel as they understand it. The two 
 qualities should be united. There should be testimony and effort in 
 a spirit of love. 
 
 Against intemperance in drink and diet, and in favor of simplicity 
 and healthful variety in drink and food. 
 
 Against preposterous, injurious and expensive fashions; and in 
 favor of comfort, good taste, and economy in clothing. 
 
 Against amusements injurious to health, morals, and happiness; 
 and in favor of healthful and exhilarating recreations in proper asso- 
 ciations. 
 
 Against all oaths, especially oath-bound secret societies; but in 
 favor of legal affirmations for legal uses. 
 
 Against operatic and unintelligible singing in churches which is 
 an abomination to God and in favor of congregational singing in 
 familiar melodies and intelligible words, with light instrumental ac- 
 companiment. 
 
 Against auction of pews, and in favor of free seats families tak- 
 ing their seats, but not excluding any one so long as there is room. 
 
 Against long prayers and long essay-like sermons; but in favor of 
 scriptural, earnest prayer and preaching. 
 
 Against all systems and persons who deny the Lord that bought 
 them, and for the evangelical faith that believes " God was in Christ, 
 reconciling the world to himself," and that these only obey the 
 Lord who labor for men. 
 
 Against all schemes which predicate the hope of heaven on forms 
 of faith and worship; and in favor of faith in Christ and prayerful 
 obedience by good works to his example. 
 
 Against the usage of making the Old Testament the religion of 
 Christians; and in favor of presenting it as the New Testament does, 
 as adapted to its place; but introductory and imperfect as compared 
 with Christianity. 
 
 Against all religious tests in political affairs; but in favor of requir- 
 ing conscience and moral life in candidates for office. 
 
 WHEATON, 111., July 29, 1875. I am seventy years of age. The 
 good hand of my God having brought me to this birth-day in better 
 health than I had anticipated. I have felt that God would now per- 
 mit me to retire from pulpit duty, and devote my remaining strength 
 to the revision and publication of my books. Of one thing, the 
 events of a life have convinced me, by experience, that good and 
 evil are inseparably connected with all things in this life; and that 
 there is a process going forward under the Divine Supervision by 
 which the good will eventually triumph. In the balance of moral 
 good and evil the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the cause that gives pre- 
 ponderance to the good. The power of that sacrifice is increasing
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 303 
 
 in the world. The influx of love in my own time into the hearts of 
 men is perfectly obvious by comparing the state of the churches 
 now with their spirit a half century ago. That sacrifice is a part of 
 the moral economy of the world, and is implied in the existence 
 of darkness and evil and imperfection in the creation. 
 
 Carlyle - has become not only cynical and misanthropic, but bitter 
 of heart towards his fellow-men. This is the natural result in the 
 case of those who are gifted with a degree of mental acumen and 
 discernment which enables them to see clearly the defects and selfish 
 aspirations of men, and to discern the assumptions and selfish exhi- 
 bitions of medium minds. No mere man with a mind superior to his 
 fellows can observe the cunning -the weak presentments which 
 some men make of themselves, and the selfishness which moves 
 them, without feeling with the poet, 
 
 " I sometimes wish th:it I could blot 
 
 All traces of mankind from earth, 
 As tho' 'twere wrong to blast them not, 
 They so degrade so shame their birth." 
 
 Such men discern clearly the motes in the eyes of others, and un- 
 less they have the grace of God in their hearts, and the truth of God 
 in their minds, they will in old age become unhappy and malignant 
 cynics. He that believes the peculiarities of men are in a great 
 measure natural and that selfishness is in the nature of every one ; 
 and that he himself is one of the same family and that a forbearing 
 and benevolent spirit should be exercised towards those who possess 
 a lesser and yet assuming mind often without knowing their own 
 obvious defects such an one however gifted, may be happy in old 
 age. 
 
 It seems to be the history of the different members of the solar 
 system that from a state of igneous fusion they have advanced to 
 or are advancing to a habitable condition, by cooling then they 
 continue to congeal until they become unfit for the residence of 
 such beings as now exist. Assuming this to be true, then man is 
 the objective aim of the creation. After him no intelligent being can 
 exist in what will then be a frigid world. The coal or fuel supply is 
 likewise limited a thousand years more will exhaust the available 
 deposits in the temperate zones hence man is the ultimate of the 
 Divine idea in the world. In the future this will be seen and the 
 significance understood but, the refrigeration proceeding, the planet 
 will at length become unfitted for the residence of man as at present 
 constituted. What then? 
 
 THE DEBTOR. Jan. 1876. This month I expected some three or 
 four hundred dollars from those who are indebted to me. It is now 
 the first day of February and I have not yet received a dollar.
 
 304 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 Trusting to those indebted to me I let my arrears run low. There 
 are several bills that I expected to pay during the month of no 
 great amount, but such as I always pay. I have been afraid for a 
 week that some of these would send in a bill, and that I would have 
 to refer them to another day a thing which I do not remember ever 
 having done in my life-time. I had promised to two or three that I 
 would pay monthly as I always do, in their cases. What will they 
 think? This day it is storming violently, and the storm is really a 
 satisfaction to me in this matter, that no one will expect me to go 
 out of my house to-day, and therefore will not feel disappointed in 
 not getting the little sums due them. This is a new experience for 
 me. How unhappy must be the poor debtor, who is always in such 
 a case ; and how guilty such debtors as mine, who might and ought 
 to pay their debts when over due, and do not. 
 
 THE SCIENTIFIC ULTIMATE. The old questions of past ages are 
 discussed with unusual interest, and deeper penetration by scientific 
 enquirers of our time ; and the discussion has resulted as in the past, 
 in a dead lock at the point of life and death. The contestants cover 
 the entire field of inquiry ; each student seeking the ultimate in his 
 own department of study. 
 
 Learned men are agreed that Jhe development or evolution of life- 
 forms is correlated with physical conditions, or the environs in 
 which the life principle or germ is located. The question is : Is the 
 life-principle a separate and substantial entity, possessing peculiar 
 specific qualities which are developed by conditions and subjacent 
 surroundings ? That while it exists co-ordinately with its environs 
 and is dependent upon them for motion and development ; yet being 
 thus brought to activity, it assimilates a body from its material sur- 
 roundings, by a specific poiver which is not of its surroundings, but 
 which acts upon them, and assimilates its body from their material ? 
 
 I can see no evidence in any case where life exists, that the form- 
 ating germ and the elements from which it assimilates its corporeity 
 are identical. There is evidence to the contrary. Every specific 
 germ in creation produces for itself a body of a different form, yet 
 all marked by adaptations to sustain and prolong its life. There is 
 surely two separate entities in the case. The potency which forms 
 the body is not in the particles or atoms of the body itself; but in 
 the organizing germ of life which collects those particles into a form 
 whose qualities are adapted to subserve the instincts of the vital 
 ovum that produced them. Single germs assimilating various ele- 
 ments into adaptive forms for life and reproduction is a very differ- 
 ent thing from the identical atoms uniting in prismatic forms. The 
 one is an eclectic power exerted by one entity upon various elements 
 which surround it; the other is an adjustment of like atoms which 
 takes place in the eternal flow of all the atoms of the universe 
 among themselves. 
 
 And not only in the lowest, but in the highest being, man, the
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 305 
 
 germinal animalcule becoming attached to an ovary, a formative 
 process is begun which assimilates material from its surroundings 
 till the time of birth. Then placed in new environs the testimony 
 of observation and consciousness is that the child, by its first move- 
 ments, learns of the non-ego the not me the first consciousness 
 being that of its surroundings. The first perception of the infant 
 is not self, but the surroundings which affect itself. Thenceforward 
 the I the self-germ the Ego, lives in conscious contact with its 
 environs. It that is, the separate Ego, is conscious of thinking, 
 acting, feeling. It is conscious of the ideas which are engendered 
 in the mind by its physical surroundings ; but the Ego itself is as 
 separate from the idea in its own mind which it sees and judges, 
 and uses, as the agent is from the object. 
 
 I have had frequent attacks of what is called a cold in my life, 
 but for two years, while organizing a Christian school and colony, I 
 dwelt in the woods at Benzonia, Michigan, and lived in a log house, 
 through which I could see the light of the stars at night, and slept 
 in a room where the fine snow was often shaken from my bed and 
 the other beds in the morning. In this open house not a member 
 of the family, so far as I can remember, had a cold. All took out- 
 door exercise ; all had good health, and good appetites. My wife 
 here, in the third year, had an attack of apoplexy ; rather as we 
 thought from excess of blood than ill-health. We subsequently 
 moved into a closely sealed and plastered house, with close warm 
 rooms. My neuralgia returned severely, and colds and complaints 
 were frequent. 
 
 I ought to be grateful as I think I am to the blessed Father in 
 he.aven, that during a life of more than seventy-five years, I can re- 
 member but a single time of gloomy feeling, or blues, as we call a 
 despondent state of mind. I have passed through trials of mind and 
 body, but always in hope and cheerfulness. This is something to be 
 grateful for. I have been reading of the despondency and peculiari- 
 ties of authors. I have known a little of authorship, but nothing of 
 the peculiarities mentioned. At my advanced age I thank God for 
 a cheerful, and in a common way, a successful life. I am sure this 
 has conduced to longevity. The mind not only actuates but gives 
 form and force to the body. I am not so strong to do and endure as 
 formerly, yet still my step is agile and my form erect, at the age 
 of seventy-five years. 
 
 In the little gifts which I have sometimes bestowed on others, un- 
 expectedly to them, I remember those cases when a trifle seemed to 
 produce instant and marked surprise and pleasure. Once, in Lon- 
 don, passing up the Strand where many women were sitting selling 
 hogs feet and other items to appease hunger, I noticed among the
 
 306 
 
 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 women, one pale and comely and diffident woman, not like most 
 of the coarse women about her. I stopped and asked her the price 
 of feet, and paid her for several. She presented them gladly. I 
 gave her the money but refused to take the feet. She looked to 
 ascertain if something was not misunderstood. I made her under- 
 stand she was to have the pay and keep the feet : a happy, grateful 
 and rather wondering expression came to her pale face, and I passed 
 along ; both of us happier than we were before. 
 
 Another day in London I noticed an affectionate looking little girl 
 carrying a heavy basket. I gave her a shilling. She looked so 
 surprised and happy, when I told her it was for herself, that I went 
 to the same place afterwards hoping to meet and surprise the child 
 again. I did not see her again, but I had left two adopted little 
 girls in America, to them I wrote about the girl and the incident. 
 
 Once in New York on Christmas day, as I came out of a friend's 
 house, Rev. D. F. Newton, 1 noticed a dejected looking woman, 
 picking up old rags and papers. A lady, now Mrs. General Brinker- 
 hoof, had given me five dollars, asking me to expend it charitably 
 for her. I gave the woman part of the money. She took the money 
 with an inquiring look ; and when she ascertained I had given it to 
 her, with a happy surprise, she hurried almost ran away. She 
 probably had children at home suffering for food, and with a glad 
 heart ran to their relief. 
 
 The doctrine of evolution, which is true in the right sense, cannot 
 be argued with one factor, as though an individual by its own force 
 and nature alone, developed some new form and faculty. Varieties 
 imply change of habitat and condition. And a new species implies 
 a new environment coming in at the same time, and adapted to the 
 qualities of the new species. Do progressive environs develop pro- 
 gressive faculties ? The earth has progressed from lower to higher 
 conditions; the species thereon has advanced from lower to higher 
 faculties ; up to man. Will there be a farther advance ? 
 
 I have often said that if it were appointed that I. should live my 
 life over again, I would not desire to change any material event 
 of my history. I have been asked, was not the effort to establish a 
 church, school and colony at Benzonia a failure that I abandoned as 
 unfruitful of good. I am satisfied that it was not, and that it has 
 and will accomplish, in a good measure, what I designed ; although, 
 owing to providential circumstances, I withdrew from the enterprise 
 sooner than I expected to do, when I removed to the colony. My 
 design was to aid in establishing institutions in the woods of North- 
 ern Michigan, that would be a blessing to the poor people that would 
 settle on the lands under the Homestead law ; to provide cheap edu- 
 cation for their children ; and especially for the children of the 
 colony that I should aid to collect there. All this was in a great
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 307 
 
 measure accomplished. A Christian church ; one of the best and 
 largest in the state, was gathered and organized at Benzonia. A 
 school was started and endowed with land and money sufficient to 
 support two teachers ; the children of the colony and the whole 
 region had opportunity for an academic education at a mere nominal 
 rate, $12 per year. The best kind of fruits were introduced into the 
 colony, and from it into the whole region. I aided to organize, be- 
 side the Congregational church at Benzonia, four other Congrega- 
 tional churches in the region, which are still living and doing some 
 good ; and aided in the organization of the Baptist church in Joy- 
 field, besides helping in all reforms and institutions that I thought 
 would do good. The region, in consequence, is right in politics ; 
 right in morals, and prosperous as a new region can be ; and the 
 influence of the district on the legislation of the state, which I rep- 
 resented in the senate two years, has always been good. If the 
 country had been settled by another class it would have been differ- 
 ent. The school and the churches which were first organized, 
 invited in a good class of people, and they by affinity brought others. 
 The part I accomplished in seven years in the Traverse region I ac- 
 cept as a part of my history, and do not desire to change the work. 
 Selfish men worked in with the enterprise, but God does not design 
 the good to exist without the accompanying evil. The preponder- 
 ance of the good is what God and good men achieve. Thank God 
 for guidance and success. 
 
 Is it unscriptural to suppose that man's body is an evolution from 
 nature below him ; that he is the highest animal of the chain ; the 
 end of the organic series, and that this animal nature was endued 
 with a spiritual soul? i. e., a spiritual nature superinduced upon the 
 perfected animal form. Is not this truth indicated by the statement 
 that animals were created of the dust of the earth, i. e., that all 
 organized bodies are formed of the elements of the material world ; 
 but to man, the most perfect of the animal forms, God added a 
 rational soul, so that man is a compound nature, animal and angelic? 
 
 For the last month I have added a verse of praise at the close 
 of my morning prayer in the family. I feel that to pray longer with- 
 out praise would be wrong. God has guided my life so mercifully ; 
 so quietly through a wonderful variety of circumstances that I ought, 
 before life closes and while it lasts, to praise as well as pray. Hence 
 to our morning devotions we add the doxology : 
 
 Praise God from whom all blessings flow, 
 
 Praise Him all creatures here below ; 
 
 Praise Him above ye heavenly host, 
 
 Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 
 
 It is surprising that churches still rely on forms of worship as a 
 passport to heaven. Forms, so far as decency and order demand are 
 
 9
 
 308 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 proper, but forms instead of faith, labor and self-denial for Christ is 
 one of the delusions which cheat many souls out of heaven. Here is 
 a Mrs. Bowler, of whom I have known something, as a weak, well 
 disposed woman. She has just joined the Catholic church, as the 
 best means of securing salvation. The idea of following Christ in 
 labor for the temporal and spiritual good of men, has never been her 
 conception of the way of life. Church rites and observances have 
 grown in importance in her mind, until finally she has reached the 
 Catholic the church where rites are most relied on. Alas for her ! 
 
 This week I have fitted out my youngest adopted child, James 
 Benzonia Walker, for his trip to Nebraska. He was given an oppor- 
 tunity to learn a trade, or study for any useful profession ; but, on 
 account of weak eyes, and a disinclination to study, he preferred to 
 work on a farm and own one in the West. He is sixteen years 
 of age, and goes to work for some farmer for a time before he enters 
 on his own land, if he ever does so. I have done all I could to train 
 him in right principles and habits. I have expended thought and 
 money for his good. I hope that he will be a useful man. If he 
 fails it will not be because I have not done everything that a father 
 could do for an adopted son. May God guide the boy. He is the 
 tenth adopted child. 
 
 THE DOOMED MAN. 
 
 These lines have impressed me more than once by their solemn 
 thought. If there be a point of doom often passed before men die. 
 beyond which the truth and the Spirit of God fail to awaken the 
 conscience, and to produce love in the heart, the solemnity of such 
 a doctrine is awful. I have seen men that seemed to be doomed 
 men. I have known when they saw the truth clearly, and rejected 
 it intelligently. Some of them subsequently became skeptical. 
 One, a successful lawyer, is living in Washington City walking a 
 dead and spiritually doomed man, without any apparent conscious 
 ness of approaching death. 
 
 There is a time we know not when, 
 
 A place we know not where, 
 That marks the destiny of men, 
 
 To glory or despair. 
 
 There is a line by us unseen, 
 
 That crosses every path, 
 The hidden boundary between 
 
 God's patience and his wrath. 
 
 To pass that limit is to die, 
 
 To die as if by stealth ; 
 It does not quench the beaming eye, 
 
 Or pale the glow of health.
 
 IN THE NEW WEST. 309 
 
 The conscience may be still at ease, 
 
 The spirits light and gay ; 
 That which is pleasure still may please, 
 
 And care be thrust away. 
 
 But on that forehead God has set 
 
 Indelibly a mark 
 I'nseen by man, for man as yet 
 
 Is blind and in the dark. 
 
 And still the doomed man's path below 
 May bloom as Eden bloomed 
 
 He did not, does not, will not know, 
 Or feel, that he is doomed. 
 
 He knows, he feels that all is well, 
 
 And every fear is calmed ; 
 He lives, he dies, he wakes in hell, 
 
 Not only doomed, but damned ! 
 
 O ! where is this mysterious bourne, 
 By which our path is crossed ; 
 
 Beyond which, God himself hath sworn 
 That he who goes is lost ? 
 
 How far may men go on in sin ? 
 
 How long will God forbear ? 
 Where does hope end, and where begin 
 
 The confines of despair ? 
 
 An answer from the skies is sent 
 
 " Ye that from God depart, 
 While it is called to-day repent, 
 
 And harden not \o\\r heart ! " 
 
 SATURDAY, June 28, 1879. ^ have just returned from the funeral 
 of my adopted daughter, Mrs. Emma Lincoln Moffatt, wife of Prof. 
 T. C. Moft'att, of this place. 
 
 Emma was one of a family of orphans, left without parents in their 
 infancy. We took her into our family, because she needed a home. 
 and some family to care for and educate her. Her health was never 
 strong, and she could not have borne hard labor. We educated her 
 carefully, and she taught school for several terms. She came with 
 us to Wheaton, where she was married in this house, by myself, to 
 Prof. Moffatt. She had a kind, good, intelligent husband, with 
 whom she lived just one year, having died on the anniversary of her 
 marriage. She professed love for the Savior at an early age, and 
 lived a consistent Christian life. Her religious experience was more 
 marked than was known even to most of her friends. She leaves a 
 little boy which is called Frances James. In reflecting upon my life 
 in connection with her, I remember no word that I regret. May her 
 death impress us and others with the duty to "work while the day 
 lasts." Emma farewell! '^ Reqtiiescat en pace. "
 
 310 NOTES ON PIONEER LIFE 
 
 I am an old man now, and no opportunity will ever again be 
 granted me to travel extensively but when a young man I traveled 
 on horseback for two years through the west half of the state of Ohio, 
 as Agent of the American Bible Society forming county societies, 
 collecting funds, and seeing that each county was visited and every 
 family supplied with the Bible. I do not remember that in that 
 ride of two years I ever rode with a casual companion in the road 
 without embracing some opportunity kindly to introduce the subject 
 of religion, and endeavor to leave some good impression on the 
 mind. To-day in thinking of the past this has been a consolation 
 to me. O how many neglected opportunities I have to account for ! 
 notwithstanding that some were observed in earlier years. I think 
 the early years of my religious life were my best years.
 
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