< i-T^Ji $ -< :<> '•^ 5 ^^f CAlIFOIi»jk. A-QFCAlIFOMi \\\EUNIVER% A>:lOSANCElfj}> aaiH^ "^^Aavaaiii^^ %a3AiNniiwv -v^tllBRARYQr >^^t•llBRARY•ac^ ^' ^. o ^«;,.OFCALIFO% ^^OFCAIIFO/?^ ^xiijDNV-soi^ ■^a^AiNnawv' ^'^AavaaiH^'^ -< ^IIIBRARYQ^^ -v^llIBRARYQc ^WE•UNIVER% ^lOSANCElfj-^ %ojnv3-jo^ '^OJiiVD-jo^ v*^ .^jOFCAllFO/?^ ^OFCA11FO% "^(^Aavaani^ ^*' -< ^«!/ojnv; ^.OFCAllFO% AWEUNIVER% ^lOSANCElfjv. o ■^(^Anvaan-^^"^ ?- o o ^/^a3AlNn•3\\^^ o "^/saaAiNnawv -^N^lLIBRARYi?/^ ^0FCAIIF0% <=*=. » ^ ^^ •■% d ^^Aavaani^ ^t-LIBRARYO/C. 30 AWEUNlVERS//i clOSANGElfj;> l^<^ '%a3AINa-3WV^ -^^lllBRARYOc. ^.^tllBRARYi?^. ^«!/ojiw3Jo'^ ^3i- YOUTH AND EDUCATION 29 which distinguished that generation from all that pre- ceded and that have since been born there." The in- fluence of this teacher together with that of the min- ister and his son Micah, a tutor in Harvard College and later a minister, made what Dr. James Flint thought might not ''unfitly be called the Augustan age of scholarship and learning in North Reading." ''The result of the impulse given to the youthful mind of the place was, that five individuals of that small parish and two from the West Parish were simulta- neously members, six of Harvard, and one of Dart- mouth college."'^ The school was in the building across the green from the meeting house. This building had once been the meeting house and was removed from that site in 1752 to make room for its successor. This old schoolhouse was used later for a grocery store and then for a carpenter shop. It was still standing in 1903. The meeting house of Timothy's time and that of his cousin and friend, James, was removed in 1829 for a new building, which still stands, being owned by the town and the Universalist Society^' and used for school and lodge purposes.^* In the Western Monthly Review we have Flint's ^^ Flint, James. Historical Address, delivered at the Bi-Centennial Cele- bration of the Incorporation of old Toivn of Reading, May 29, 1844, 38-4i- 1^ In the early part of the nineteenth century, the Universalist church succeeded to the propertj' of the old Parish Church in North Reading. The Unitarian Churches usually fell heir to the Parish Church in most of the eastern Massachusetts parishes where there was a division between the liberal and orthodox parties. In North Reading the orthodox partj^ organized the Union Congregational Church in 1836. 1^ See George W. Hinman's "History" in Semi-Centennial Souvenir of North Reading, 1853-1903. 30 TIMOTHY FLINT description of the village church and minister of his youth : Our village had but one church, and he who occupied it, was as an angel in the golden candlestick, a man of real and deep rev- erence, living in the hearts and affections of the people, his goings out and comings in, noted, not for calumnious scrutiny, but from filial veneration. Those were not the days of the reign of a hundred angry and polemic sects. Religion was understood to be a matter of practise and good feeling; and the theories by which good men became religious were little investigated, the people being more concerned to gather good fruit, than to search out the elementary principles of its origin and development. This picture has added color from the keen regret of Mr. Flint, writing in 1829 or 1830, when he said, ''The same village now has its rival spires of temples dedicated in form to the Prince of Peace. . . " ^^ In one of the stories we have more of Flint's early experiences in the village church: I see my father at the head, and my mother and the rest of the family, according to their ages, following each other's steps through those delightful meadows, as we went up to the house of God in company. I see even now the brilliance of the meadow-pink, and I seem to hear the note of the lark, startled and soaring from our path. There is the slow and limpid stream, in which I have angled and bathed a thousand times. There was the hum of the bees on the fragrant, white balls of the meadow button-wood, which formed an impervious tangle on the verge of the stream. Each of the boys had his nosegay of pond lilies, with their brilliant white and yellow cups, their exquisite and ambrosial fragrance, and their long and twined stems. Each of the girls had her bonnet and breast decked with a shower of roses. Well, too, do I remember the venerable minister, with his huge white wig, his earnest voice, and an authority, at once patriarchal and familiar. The small and 19 Jf'gstern Monthly Reviei'.; vol. iii, 369. YOUTH AND EDUCATION 31 rustic church was filled to overflowing with those, who had there received baptism, and who expected to repose with their fathers in the adjoining consecrated enclosure. And there, op- posite to the church, was the village schoolhouse, one of those thousand nurseries of New England's greatness. Dear remem- brances! How often ye visit my di-eams in the desolate land of the stranger.-" There is no record of Timothy's name among the confirmed members of the North Reading Church. He left home for school at fifteen years of age and it is likely that his formal church relations began after that time. The Harvard Class Book for the Class of 1800 '' says that Timothy fitted for college under David Everett in the North Reading Grammar School and at^ Phillips Academy, Andover. From the Bio graphically Catalogue of the Academy we learn that he was a stu-' dent there in 1795. He entered Harvard in 1796 and graduated with his class in 1800. His old pastor, andj the pastor's son also, were Harvard men, and it was aj natural step for him to go to Cambridge. His most intimate friend, his cousin James Flint, was two years behind him at Harvard, though one year his senior. He mentions him later as his college friend as well as the friend of his boyhood. The class historian has an entry about Timothy that was never finished: ^'Chummed with ." In the Massachusetts Historical Society's Proceed- ings'^ it is said that he was a member of a company which gave a Greek play, at time of graduation. We •^Francis Berrian, vol. i, 15, i6. 21 Manuscript in Library of Harvard University. 2- Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, first series, vol. x, 52. j2 TIMOTHY FLINT know from later remarks in his own writings that he was unusually devoted to the classics and to French. But it is rather strange that we have no direct word from Flint in all the mass of his writings about his experiences at Harvard. One feels however, that when Mr. Flint is describing Francis Berrian's im- pressions at Harvard there is enough of his own expe- rience inwrought, to give us a fair understanding of what that period of his life contributed to the future man. He says: Of the character that I formed, of the impressions that I received at that rich and noble institution, I am not, perhaps, an adequate judge. . . The arrangements of that important in- stitution are abundantly calculated to call forth emulation, but I saw that emulation too often accompanied with the baseness of envy. I well remember, that here I first felt the "whip of scorpions," of disappointed ambition and mortified pride. My fellow students sometimes received marks of approbation which were denied rae, and which, I had an inward conviction, be- longed to me, as justly as to them. My inward tortures were increased by making the discovery, that I was actually beginning to be envious. It was a most self-abasing scrutiny, that taught me this. I made a great efifort, and I flatter myself, that I tore up this pernicious branch by the roots, and cast it from me for- ever.-* Mr. Flintwouldhavebeen very far from saying this last thing about himself, but to the friends of his later years and the unbiased judgment of the historian it seems like an unveiling of the early struggles which produced the rarely unselfish and generous soul of the missionary and author. There is also a description of what must have been Timothy Flint's early habits as a student, in the same passage as quoted above when he describes Francis -'•' Fraticis Berrian, vol. i, 17. YOUTH AND EDUCATION 33 Berrian as being in his college days, of sedentary habit, reading incessantly, and devouring everything that came in his way. The reading he calls ill arranged, judged by the better scholars. He was given to dreaming with his eyes open. Of him Mr. Flint says that he delved into the deepest mysteries of life and "investigated with a tormenting eagerness the evi- dences for an eventful hereafter." This last is a marked trait of the later life of Mr. Flint. Francis Berrian read also the unbelieving wits and historians; but he antidoted them with works of the immortals who have written on revealed and natural religion. From these he came to the gospel. He says: "I placed before my mind the simple grandeur of Him of Calvary." "I was deeply struck with the tender and afifectionate spirit of the apostles." This con- verse with the gospel served to curb the ambition for greatness which was strong within him and gave to him as an ideal for life, that which should be the most quiet. Even the pillar saints of the early church appealed to him for emulation in spirit. At his graduation, Timothy Flint tells us of his hero, that he was extravagantly fond of books of voyages and of travels. He disliked the cities and delighted to im- agine himself in the position of Robinson Crusoe. Again he dreamed of himself with his father's family located in the boundless prairies of the west; and again floating down from the "head-spring of the Missouri to the ocean," or about to follow "the intrepid Clark and Mackenzie over the Rocky Mountains to the Western sea." "* All this must have been a part of Mr. Flint's own college life. ^* Francis Berrian, vol. i, 17-20. 34 TIMOTHY FLINT It is probable that Timothy Flint had decided to enter the ministry while in college. Dr. James Flint says, that he began the study of theology immediately after graduation. The Harvard Class Book for the Class of iSoo informs us that he taught an academy for one year at Cohasset, and preached for a time at Marblehead. It is probable that he spent the first year after graduation in teaching, and in the study of theology. At Cohasset, Reverend Jacob Flint ( Har- vard. 1 794) , Timothy's cousin and an older brother of Dr. James Flint, was pastor from January, 1798 until October, 1835. The only item of interest which we have concerning Timothy's short time at Marblehead, was that here, July 12, 1802, he married his wife, Abigail Hubbard, daughter of Reverend Ebenezer Hubbard and a relative of Joseph Peabody." Pea- body was a wealthy Salem shipping merchant who was always to follow Mr. Flint with deep interest and, in the hours of the family's extreme need, with sub- stantial aid. Having had two years for the study of theology and some little experience in preaching, the young man was ready before he had reached his twenty-second birthday, for a settlement. This opportunity was offered to him in the parish of Lunenburg, then a part of the town of Fitchburg, and forty miles northwest of Boston. ^'^ For items in this paragraph see Encyclopedia Americana: Supplemen- tary Volume, 270, 271 ; Bigelow, E. V. Narrative History of Cohasset, 506 ; and Cohasset Toii>n Records. The date of Abigail Hubbard's baptism is Oct. 9, 1785. 11. THE EARLY MINISTRY IN NEW ENGLAND As a candidate for the pastorate Mr. Flint was en- gaged at Lunenburg for four Sabbaths, "i8th April to 9th May, 1802, inclusive." Services were to begin at half past ten o'clock in the morning and at half past one in the afternoon. Then he was engaged for one more Sabbath. After his fifth Sabbath with them a town warrant was issued, May sixteenth, in order that the town might give Mr. Flint a call. On the tenth of May the town had concurred with the church -by the selectmen probably- and was ready thus far for the formal call. But there was a long squabble about the settlement and salary. The call was "reconsidered" and renewed. During this time Mr. Flint it seems was on the field and supplying the pulpit.'*^ The call, as finally agreed upon, offered Mr. Flint *'one thousand dollars for his comfortable settlement and an annual salary of four hundred dollars." The opening of his ministerial career upon so troubled a sea proved a prophecy for the future. "On his acceptance" continues the town historian," -<' Letter of J. A. Litchfield, Lunenburg, Mass., Feb. 10, 1908, in the Boston Public Library. -" Cunningham, CJeorge A. .-/ History of the Tozun of Lunenburg in Massachusetts, from the Original Grant, Dec. 7, ///p (-1875), 136-140. Manuscript in the Lunenburg Town Librar3% Mr. Cunningham died in 1875 and had not completed his work at that time. 36 TIMOTHY FLINT "the town chose a committee to decorate the pulpit and secure the galleries at a cost of one hundred dollars. Another was appointed to entertain the council which was invited to meet on the sixth of October for the ordination of the young minister." We have very brief record of this notable event, but with the prepar- ations of the town, the number of ministers and churches invited, it ought to have been, and doubtless was, a great occasion for the people of the parish and for the young candidate. The North Church of Salem, Reverend Dr. Barnard, pastor, at a meeting after church. Lord's day evening, September twenty- fifth, "declined to send their elder and delegate to the ordination council of Timothy Flint at Lunenburg," "^ but Doctor Prince and the old First Church would not treat them so. The North Reading Church voted on September t\venty-sixth, to send as delegates two dea- cons and two lay delegates, one of the latter being the father of the candidate."^ The old pastor. Reverend Eliab Stone, preached the sermon which was printed and sent to every family in the parish of Lunenburg. Reverend Jacob Flint of Cohasset was invited and also Reverend Mr. BuUard of Fitchburg, whose son, Judge Bullard, was to have a large place in Timothy's life in the southwest. The town historian"" tells us that Mr. Flint was in ill health much of the time during his tw^elve year pas- torate, and that there was "a good deal of difficulty in collecting his salary." At the request of Mr. Flint the town voted, November 20, 1809, "that there shall 28 Salem North Church Records in Essex Institute, Salem. 29 North Reading [Mass.] Church Records. 20 Cunningham, op. cit. The Parsonage at Lunenburg, Massachusetts Slightly altered in recent years EARLY MINISTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 39 be but one service each Lord's day." This looks as though it was a concession to the pastor's physical weakness. It was not, however, entirely gracious. Dr. James Flint tells us that Mr. Flint carried on a little farming- the "ministerial lot" of those times gave encouragement in this direction -and cultivated a taste for letters and chemistry. This latter taste seems to have been one of several causes of trouble. Some of his more ignorant parishioners thought that the minister's devotion to his laboratory was a sign of some secret and sinful end. To this would be added their suspicions of disloyalty to the government which the "rabid" democrat felt sure was in the breast of the federalist. The charge of counterfeiting was made and it seemed so serious to the pastor that he prose- cuted and obtained judgment against his persecutor.^^ This of course did not quiet the troubled waters of the parish life. The Harvard class historian tells us of another inci- dent, presumably in the late years of the Lunenburg pastorate, which was one of the unsettling influences. A young man of the town, who bore the reputation of a reprobate, died. Mr. Flint began his funeral ser- vice by reading one of Doctor Watts's hymns, be- ginning: My. thoughts on awful subjects roll, Damnation, and the dead. The audience was so shocked, and especially the rel- atives of the deceased, that they never forgave the minister. Mr. Flint's plain speaking and dealing at this pe- riod of his life is quite marked. It is perhaps one of the 21 Timothj' Flint, in Harvard Class Book for the Class of iSoo. 7 y n 40 TIMOTHY FLINT reasons for his classmate's remark"'" that at this period he was little versed in human nature or gifted in social intercourse. A couple of stories, apropos, are pre- served for us in notes in the Lunenburg Library copy of the Recollections of the last ten years, passed in occasional Residence and Journeyings in the Vnlley of the Mississippi. These notes were made by Luther G. Howard, a grandson of one of Mr. Flint's deacons, now living in Reading, Massachusetts. He says: At one time Mr. Flint exchanged with the Ashby minister. My grandfather and Mr. Taylor went up to Ashby to hear him preach. He would not speak to them, being displeased at their leaving their own church to follow him. At another time one of Mr. Flint's neighbors called on him and told him what some of the people were saying about him. When the man left the house, the minister accompanied him to the gate and pointing to a place beside the fence said, "When you have another load to dump, leave it there and don't bring it into the house. "^ Mr. Flint was "School Committee" for three dif- ferent years and for the last two years of his pastorate he was a trustee of Lawrence Academy at Groton. He is charged by the town historian ^^ with being care- less in his records. He made return of marriages performed, only about once in three years and then did not give the dates. The birth dates of his own chil- dren are not recorded and the baptisms of only two of the three that were born to him here: Micah Pea- body, baptised July 3, 1803, Emeline Hubbard, bap- tised June 30, 1805. Ebenezer Hubbard, according to family records, was born January 19, 1808. The earliest sermon that we have by Mr. Flint is ^2 Harvard Class Book for the Class of iSoo. 33 Cunningham, op. (it. EARLY MINISTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 41 that preached at the ordination of his friend, Ebenezer Hubbard, Mrs. Flint's brother, to the Second Church and Society in Newbui-y, May 11, 1808. It is much longer than his other sermons and addresses preserved in print. It gives the impression of being too conscious of the occasion. In consequence it is formal and a little pedantic. It is lacking in the passionate and human interest that usually character- izes his expression. His theme is the motive to and the manner of the gospel ministry. He takes a wide range over the field of practical theology. There are no incidents or stories to illustrate, only passing references to the parables. There is very little of the flowing rhetoric so common in his writ- ings. There is hardly a suggestion that looks in the direction of the heresies and controversies of the times. There is often a clear consciousness of the deeper meanings of the forms being observed and a desire that his hearers shall realize that the things which they now behold are evanescent.^* During this pastorate Mr. Flint published a sermon on Immortality. This was always a favorite theme. Mr. W. D. Gallagher says this sermon was written when Flint was about twenty-one years of age." No copy of this sermon has been found. The town historian, Mr. Cunningham in his His- tory of Lunenburg has preserved the Covenant which was "adopted and used by Mr. Flint" in Lunenburg. '■^* Flint, Timothy. Sermon at the Ordinatio7i of Re-v. E. Hubbard. ^^ Cincinnati Mirror, vol. iii, 37. In an article on Flint, Mr. Gallagher says, "The last work, we believe, which he published before the Ten Years' Residence was one entitled Arguments natural, moral and religious, for the Immortality of tlie Soul, written about the time of attaining to his majority." 42 TIMOTHY FLINT It is given here as an indication of the undogmatic and evangelical tendency of the man: You believe in One Supreme Eternal God, and you devote yourself to him in an everlasting covenant. You believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God, and you rely on him alone for Salvation. You believe in the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier and Comforter, and the necessity of His Holy influence to your Salvation. You receive the Holy Scriptures as the rule of your Faith and Conduct, and you promise to obey the Will of God, therein made known ; and to submit yourself to the government and discipline of Christ in this church so long as Providence shall continue you among us. This you covenant and promise. Then follows the pledge of fellowship on the part of the church. There is no creed used. It would seem to indicate the position which Mr. Flint always en- deavored to hold, of standing by the universal stand- ards of the church and avoiding all sectarian creeds and forms. There is another sermon of Mr. Flint which was preached at Leominster, Massachusetts, on the Lord's day, January i, 1815, which shows the same practical tendency. He is not at all concerned with theology, but very much with the practical issues of every day life. He takes account of the unusual number of deaths in the parish during the previous year. There had been fifty, which numbered also their minister who had served them for fifty years.^® Early in the year 18 14, Mr. Flint requested an in- crease of salary. The matter had been discussed before, and the minister felt very strongly that he was 36 Flint, Timothy. A Sermon delivered in Leominster at the Commence- ment of the Year, Lord's Day, Jan. I, 1815. EARLY MINISTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 43 not being justly treated in this regard. That he had a party in the parish of like opinion is indicated by the fact that his successor, Reverend David Damon, was settled on a six hundred dollar salary, instead of the four hundred paid Mr. Flint. But there was such hostility to Mr. Flint that when the question of increas- ing his salary came up in town meeting, the decision was against him. On the seventh of April, Mr. Flint addressed a letter to his constituency asking for a dis- missal and giving his reasons for doing so. He says he might have given many, but they would excite use- less and unavailing irritation. He wished to part in love and in prayer for their growth in grace. He is compelled to give some reasons however to justify so extreme a step on his part. He is convinced that under existing circumstances he can do no further good in the parish, and this conviction has undermined his health. His support is not sufficient for his needs and in consequence he is unduly tempted by his de- pendent condition "to be timid in rebuking the evil, or so slavish through fear of offending, as to treat the holy and the vile alike." From most of the people he had during his twelve years among them, "in the morning and prime of his life" received proofs of kindness and affection which would endure while memory re- mained to him. "Though separated here . . . we shall soon be together again in a world where there is no slander." Again in closing his rather lengthy letter he says: "While with a feeble constitution and miserable health, I embark once more, with my fam- ily, upon a stormy world, I ask an interest in your 44 TIMOTHY FLINT prayers that I may be guided into all truth and duty.""' A glimpse i)t the Lunenburg pastor's experience with late comers to church and his other trials also, are set forth in the story of Arthur C/enning:'' In George Mason, tlw Young BacksicooJsman ; or "Don't give up the Ship,"' which is the most autobiographic of Mr. Flint's stories, there is, with a few changes of figures and names, much of the author's Lunenburg experiences put into a picture which must have been taken out of his diary rather than evolved from his imagination. He says: Few of my readers would coniprehend«the peculiar trials of a minister in such a place, or would be able to understand the com- plication of minute difficulties and vexations, which, during a ministry of sixteen years, in a countrj- village, had broken down his health and spirits, and finally induced him to ask a dismission from his people, and to move to this distant and unknown country. His parish comprehended every shade of opinion in religion and politics. Embittered parties and eternal disputations were the consequence. In attempting to keep clear of all, the pastor be- came embroiled with all. Both himself and his wife had been reared delicately. The salary Mas small, and the family increas- ing. He became poor, and obnoxious both to the religious and political parties; and after sixteen years of the prime of his life spent among them, admitting, the while, that he was exemplary, of good feeling, learned and eloquent, they refused him in town meeting, a request to add something to his salary. In disgust he asked a dismission, and it was granted. . . In the progress of his vexations in his parish, he had become, perhaps I ought to say, unreasonably disgusted with the condition of a minister in that country. . . He had been accustomed for years to allow his thoughts to expatiate in fabricating the romance of pastoral '" Cunningham, o/>. cit., 136-140. "^ Flint, Timothy. The Life arid AdveJitjms of Arthur Cleniilng, vol. ii, 146-14.8. EARLY MINISTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 45 enjoyments and pursuits. By accident the romances of Imlay and Chateaubriand, and other writers equally historical, presenting such illusive pictures of the southern and western country, had fallen into his hands. During the long winter evenings, When fast came down the snow, And keenly o'er the wide heath the bitter blast did blow, this romance of freedom from the vexations of a minister's life, and the miseries of political and religious altercation in a pop- ulous village, and escape from the inclement climate, to a country where he might find health, freedom, solitude, rich land, and independence, formed in his imagination. Once formed there, all his reading and reasonings, all the opposing arguments, all the remonstrances of his friends and each renewed vexation, embel- lished his romance, and confirmed liis purpose. His wife, at first, argued gently against the plan ; but she loved her husband, and his oft repeated, and eloquently painted views of his romance, finally presented it to her mind as a reality. ^'^ Mr. Flint at Lunenburg, was beyond the zone of active theological disturbances. The Trinitarian Party here did not separate from the old parish until 1835. Political difficulties far more than religious disturbed him in these years. There are some indi- cations, however, that he was not without his troubles, and his part in the theological tempests of the time. In the dedication of his Recollections^'' to Dr. James Flint, he mentions as an indication of the strength of their friendship, that it has survived the "still more fatal influence of differing opinion." Doctor Flint was an early and avowed Unitarian. It is significant too, not only of troubles but of the peace loving man, "9 See pages 15-16. *o Flint, Timothy. Recollections of the Icift ten years, passed in occasioiral Residences and Jonrneyings in the Valley of the Mississippi, from Pittsburg and the Missouri, to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Florida to the Spanish frontier; in a scries of Letters to the Rev. James Flint, of Salem, Massaclin- setts, I, line 9. 46 TIMOTHY FLINT that in all his years at Lunenburg Mr. Flint was not once a delegate to the Massachusetts General Asso- ciation/' These disturbances were doubtless in the way of a settlement in New England and a factor in driving him to the far west where he fondly hoped to escape from theological controversies. Two more items are given by the Lunenburg records as presented in the Lunenburg manuscript history by Mr. Cunningham, and then they are silent as to Mr. Flint and his affairs. A council was held June 6, 1 8 14, which dismissed the pastor. On Sep- tember 3, 1 81 5, one month before the westward jour- ney began, Mr. and Mrs. Flint were dismissed from the membership of the Lunenburg church to the church in Salem. This was, of course, the First Church, and it is probable that they remained mem- bers of this church during their wanderings in the west and until they were settled in Cincinnati. They do not appear to have lived in Salem. Their home was in Lunenburg from the time Mr. Flint resigned the pastorate there until they began the western jour- ney-some fifteen months later. On the twenty-fifth of November, 18 14, there is a letter of Mr. Flint written from Lunenburg to Rev- erend Mr. Lowell, Boston. This was most likely, Reverend Chas. Lowell, father of James Russell Lowell, and a classmate of Flint. He was then pastor of the West Church, Boston. Mr. Lowell had writ- ten Flint about some family history connected with Lunenburg and did not know that Flint had resigned 41 Massachusetts General Association. Minutes. See also letter of Wm. H. Cobb, Boston, Jan. 4, 1908, in the Library of Harvard Universit}'. EARLY MINISTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 47 the pastorate there. Mr. Flint informs him of this fact and explains it to him by writing: My people were democratic, and the mania of democracy al- ways ran high here. It rendered the last years of my residence here very uncomfortable. Starvation and insult exhausted my health. It has been convalescing, since I left here. I have been em- ployed, as I observed, the past summer and autumn on a mission [for the Massachusetts Society for promoting Christian Knowl- edge] to the county of Rockingham in N.H. I am now here, and unemployed. I contemplate taking a school. I presume you have a surfeit of applications to recommend applicants for a school. Could I obtain a small private school, I could at least promise fidelity. Perhaps I might add, that in former time, I had reputation, as an instructor. If you would take the trouble to enquire, whether any such school might be had in Boston, or the vicinity, you would confer a great favor upon, dear sir, yours affectionately T. Flint.''^ In the Account of the Massachusetts Society for promoting Christian Knowledge,*^ there are extracts from the journal of Mr. Flint, made during this mis- sion in New Hampshire, to which he refers in his letter to Reverend Mr. Lowell: "Sept. 5, Implored God for strength, and heart to be faithful ; and set out to commence missionary labors." He spent three weeks at Kingston and six weeks at Raymond. These places had pastorless churches, decadent from sec- tarian divisions and other causes. He preached thir- ty-one times in the nine weeks, administered the sacra- ment twice, baptized two children, instructed and *2 This letter which is in the Boston Public Library, manuscript depart- ment, has an interesting endorsement evidently made by Charles Lowell, as follows: "From Timothy Flint author of several works relating to the Valley of the Mississippi, etc., my class mate and friend. C. L." "Lived afterwards in Cincinnati. C. L." ^^ See pages 53, 54, 64, first note, 66. 48 TIMOTHY FLINT catechised individually two hundred and forty chil- dren, and prayed with ten sick. It is not surprising that he did not remain with this society. Its Account shows a strangely sectarian view of its work as a missionary society. The "congrega- tional church" [spelled with a small "c"] is the "reg- ular order." Baptists of all sorts, Methodists, Uni- versalists, "'Christyans or Smithites" are all regarded as sectarians and their errors and ignorance are fully described. They are all regarded with the barely tolerant air of the "churchman" of all ages. Still further, this society felt concerned for the evil done by those who held to high Calvinism even though they were of the "regular order." A reading of this old missionary report w^ould prove an excellent tonic for persons depressed by the present day denomination- alism." After this date Mr. Flint held a second commission from the Massachusetts Society for promoting Chris- tian Knowledge, and received a third commission in May, which however he did not use.*^ He is said to ** One of the missionary reports, and not at all peculiar, which is reported in the Account as evidence of the helpful character of the society's work runs as follows: "A few Calvinistic Baptists and Freewillers are of upright and unblamable character; but very few of the latter. As a body, they may be considered, as the scum of the earth the filth of creation. Lying, drunkenness, uncleanness, sabbathbreaking, fraud, and theft may be found among them, without close scrutiny; they are the prominent feature of their devotees, especially of the Christyans {^sic^ or Smithites. The Methodists are better in some respects ; for, when they can no longer hide the abominable wicked- ness of their adherents, they will shut them out of their societies; and such generally attach themselves to the Smithites, and are cordially received. The Smithites, Freewillers, and Methodists, though opposed to each ether, and always quarreling; yet thej' perfectly agree, when there is any wall to pull down (as they call it) or, in other words, a congregational church to destroy," 71- *^ Letter of Timothy Flint to Rev. Abel Flint, secretary of the Missionary EARLY MINISTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 49 have labored in Massachusetts. His work under the second commission was probably in the western part ot the state and in New York, where the society had a mission in Essex County. The home scene of Arthur Clenning is located in New York, near Lake George, and might indicate a visit by Mr. Flint to this section. Another indication of the scene of his labors at this time is a remark in the Recollections when speaking of the wildness of the western Indians, and comparing them with the eastern people of that race. He says: "I had, as you know, traveled in the northern parts of the United States, and had seen the Indians of Canada and New York."'"' Society of Connecticut, written from Lunenburg, Jan. 23, 1815, and found in the archives of the societj', Congregational House, Hartford. ^* Flint, Timoth}^ Recollections of the Last Ten Years, 93. III. THE MISSION TO THE FAR WEST The next word, recorded concerning Timothy Flint after his New Year's sermon at Leominster, is spoken by him at the same place on the Fourth of July in the year 1815. It is an oration delivered before the Wash- ington Benevolent Society of Lancaster and Sterling and of Leominster and Fitchburg. It was printed soon after, the Society requesting Mr. Flint to furnish a copy for the press. It is one of the important papers pertaining to Mr. Flint, because it is the only political document we have in the early period of his life and because it was spoken at a time when political passions were strong in New England. This Society before which he spoke was a political club holding to the Federal ideas. Mr. Flint himself was a Fed-^ eralist, who, as we have seen, had found it uncom- fortable to live in a Democratic community. But there is very little of a partisan nature in this ad- dress, and nothing of bitterness. In his review of the Revolutionary period, the days of the Confederation, the Constitutional Convention and the administration of Washington, Mr, Flint is enthusiastic and laudatory. For the successors of Washington, he has little praise and much mild criti- cism. Of the French influence he is jealous. For the future of the nation he is very hopeful. Concerning New England he is eloquent, reminding us strongly of 52 TIMOTHY' FLINT the famous eulogy of Massachusetts by Daniel Web- ster in his "Reply to Hayne." It is in a more tender and personal key but it has the same sustained elo- quence. If it had been fortunate enough to have got- ten into the school readers '" and books of declamation, it might have become immortalized. He said: New England, land of my forefathers, whose habits are so congenial, whose associations are so dear to mj' heart, "when I forget thee," or cease to speak of thee with filial veneration, "may my right hand forget her cunning." New England - I delight to see her small but frequent farms, owned by enlightened, inde- pendent and virtuous land-holders. I delight more in the verdure and the harvests, won by laborious cultivation from native rough- ness and sterility, than in the indolent exuberance of nature. I love her frequent hills and dales, and the transparent beauty and the pleasant murmur of her rapid hill-streams ; and would not exchange them for the creeping and marshy creeks, that wind lazily through an uninteresting and boundless plain. I admire the firm enclosures of her farms, of materials as durable and everlasting as I wish her prosperity to be. I admire her frequent and neat schoolhouses, and the courteous bow of her clean and healthy children flocking to them. And most of all, I admire her temples, the crowning ornaments of her villages; and, from the multitudes directing their steps to them on the Sabbath, I discern, that here publick sentiment still sanctifies the Sabbath of our God. And near that glorious emblem of the law, justice and order, of industry and temperance, during this life, and of a happy immortality beyond it, the village church, I survey with solemn pleasure the church-yard, seen at the same view, and asso- ciating its repose with the immortal hopes of the temple, where the virtuous "forefathers of our hamlets sleep." *^ In this address is something of provincialism when he declaims against the party politics of the times for *^ Mr. Flint's article on the effects of gambling was published in at least one edition of McGuffey's Eclectic Readers. See AVxy Fifth Eclectic Reader (Cincinnati, 1866). ^* Oration before the H'ashingtoii Benevolent Society, July 4, 1815. THE MISSION TO THE FAR WEST 53 shutting out New England from the sea. This he thought, together with false pictures of "palaces, and paradises, and spontaneous wealth, in the West" was driving the hardy sons of New England beyond the mountains until, he says: Our dwellings, our school-houses and churches will have mouldered to ruins ; our grave-yards be overrun with shrub-oaks ; and but here and there a wretched hermit, true to his paternal soil, to tell the tale of other times. The emigrants that have gone to the far west and south will feel, he thinks, that: They live in a state of estrangedness and exile from all that is dear to them, and dream incessantly of their native hills and valleys.*^ There is nothing provincial, however, in Mr. Flint's outlook when he speaks of Napoleon, escaped from his island in the Mediterranean, as: "The restless dis- turber of the nations . . . consistent but in one thing, and that thing perpetual inconsistency."^" Though he is lamenting over the desolation of New England by the great western movement that was then gathering such headway; though he is pitying the expatriated sons of New England as they are spread abroad over the uninteresting and boundless plains, and dreaming incessantly of their native hills and val- leys, still we are hardly surprised that he is about to join the men who, "their wives and little ones loaded into waggons, the funeral procession of New Eng- land, advanced, 'with measured step and slow,' to- wards the Alleghany hills.""' *" Oration before the H'ash'ington Benevolent Society, 19, 20. ^^ — Idem, 22. ^' — Idem, 19. 54 TIMOTHY FLINT A letter dated Lunenburg, July 23, 18 15, addressed to Reverend Abel Flint, secretary of the Missionary Society of Connecticut,"'" reveals the workaday life of Air. Flint far better than his Leominster oration. He had been considered by the Society as a candidate for a western mission. An offer was extended to him through Doctor Morse."^^ Mr. Flint says in this let- ter: I have long contemplated a removal with my family to the west\vard, under an impression, that a milder climate would be beneficial to my health. An object, which I have had more especially in view, has been to establish in some central place a religious publication, like our religious monthly papers; except that it should more particularly vindicate our literature, charities and institutions. He believes strongly in the importance of this enter- prise, but appeals to the "better judgment" of the sec- retary as to its practicability. He desired the society to give him a commission to preach in the Kentucky and Ohio River regions until such time as he should become acquainted and establish himself there for the carrying out of his special plan. He says he has the testimony of the Massachusetts Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, that his labors have been as great as any other of their agents, in spite of his feeble health, and that he now holds a third commission from that society, given to him the last May, which he has not used. He proposes to accept the offer of the Con- necticut Missionary Society, though the compensa- tion is to be less than that of the Massachusetts Society, ^- In Congregational House, Hartford, archives of the Society. ^3 Thi8 was probabh' Reverend Dr. Jedidiah Morse, 1761-1826, at this time secretary of the Mass. Soc. for promoting Christian Knowledge, and one of the founders of Andover Theological Seminarv. THE MISSION TO THE FAR WEST 55 if he may be allowed to take his family with him and be credited with sufficient time in which to reach his field. It is interesting to note that among the refer- ences that he offers to furnish, are some from the "most respectable orthodox clergy of this region."^* The appointment was made for the states of Ohio and Kentucky. He was commissioned to visit such settlements in these states as he should think proper.^^ In a letter written the fifteenth of August, also from Lunenburg, Mr. Flint accepts the appointment of the Missionary Society of Connecticut, shrinking from the idea of so much responsibility, but "having taken the best view of duty." In this letter he says further: I propose to commence my journey in patriarchal style, taking my wife and three children with me. May I go with the sim- plicity of heart, the confidence in God, and the submission to his will, of a patriarch. Should I go with such feelings, though it be to a strange and distant land, and not knowing, "whither I go," He will protect me, and make us useful, and suffer us to want nothing, that is necessary for us. In a month's time he expected to be in Hartford on his westward journey. He did not, however, reach Hartford as early as he had planned. He spent the Sabbath, the first of October, there. With the beginning of the trip westward, the Recol- lections commence. The missionary letters, preserved in the Congregational Library of Hartford, are also full, and the process of selection and exclusion is em- barrassing. Mr. Flint sees so many people and things that are strange to us as they were to him, and he ^■♦Letter of Timothy Flint, Leominster, July 23, 1815. ^^ Seventeertt/t Annual Narrative of Missionary Service (Hartford, iii6), «5. 56 TIMOTHY FLINT writes about them so entertainingly, that one is loath to pass by much that can not be put into these pages. The family was embarked in a two horse wagon, with such of their household effects as they were able to carry. On the fourth of October they left the ''land of their fathers" and the next day crossed the Hudson at Fishkill. On Sabbath, October eighth, they were at Newton, Sussex County, New Jersey. Mr. Flint preached in the Presbyterian Church and "Had much conversation respecting the deplorable destitution of the means of religious instruction in that vicinity." Minister and missionary were agreed that there was no part of the country more in need of missionaries. Bibles, and tracts than that between Newton and the Wyoming Country, and Newburg on the Hudson and Easton on the Delaware. But this was only the first needy region that our missionary family was to dis- cover. Every day of the long journey west, brought them new experiences of religious destitution, moral decay in consequence, of fields white for the harvest and no laborers in view. The first missionary letter"® is full of these trying experiences, and reports constant distributions of tracts and Bibles, and ministries such as a Christian missionary delighted to give even to the stranger. In this letter there is a summary of mission- ary work performed on the western journey: Arrived at this place [Cincinnati] the last of November, through many fatigues, exposures and dangers. . . I have not preached, as often as I could have wished, owing to the im- possibility of doing it, while a passenger in a boat, as I have been the last ten days of my journey. On the Sabbath I have uniform- ly collected the boat's crew, and had divine service ; and have had ''Letter of Timothy Flint, Cincinnati, Dec. 5, 1815. THE MISSION TO THE FAR WEST 57 the satisfaction to see them attentive, and the profanity diminish- ing among them. I have in a great number of instances addressed the boatmen - perhaps the most abandoned race of men in any country, that professes to be Xn. . . Since I have been here, I have been almost every day engaged in some public religious exercise. I have arranged three, or four missionary stations in large villages, in this vicinity, where I hope to labor through the winter. Newport, Kentucky, and "White-water, 20 miles from this," are named as two of his stations. The story of the journey westward must not be passed by without sharing the experience of the family as it is told in the Recollections. Towards the latter part of the month [October, 181 5] we began to ascend the Alleghany hills. In our slow mode of travel- ing we had had them in view several day^s. With their intermin- able blue outline, stretching hill beyond hill, and interposing to the imagination of such travelers as we Avere, a barrier to return almost as impassable as the grave, it may easily be imagined with what interest we contemplated them. . . Occasional samples of the people and the country bejond those hills, not at all cal- culated to soothe our feelings, or to throw pleasing associations over our contemplated residence beyond them, had frequently met us. The people on our route constantly designated them by the appellation of "back-woodsmen," and we heard these men uniformly calling their baggage "plunder." The wolf, the bear, and the bald eagle, were the most frequent emblems in the tavern- signs, near the acclivities of these mountains. The bald eagle itself was soaring in the blue of the atmosphere, high above the summits of the first ridge, and its shrill and savage cries were sufHciently loud to reach our ears.^'^ There were many "compagnons de voyage" from New England, "poor, active, parsimonious, inquisi- tive" and like themselves more fully convinced of the ^^ Flint. Recollections, 6. 58 TIMOTHY FLINT superiority of their nativ^e region the farther they trav- eled away from it. He says of their experience before they began to descend the hills to the west: . . . It will readily be conceived that a family which had been reared in seclusion, such as ours, would be likely to drop some "natural tears," and to take a long and anxious look at the land, which contained all their ties and charities. We tried to comfort each other, as we steadily contemplated the blue summits that were just before us, that we had a world in which "to choose our place of rest, and Providence our guide." But we had al- ready wandered far enough from home, to admit the full truth of the exclamation of Attala: "Happy they, who have not seen the smoke of the stranger's fire." ^^ This touch of homesickness is only the first of very many that they are to sufifer in the coming years of their wanderings. In the first letter to the Mission- ary Society of Connecticut, Mr. Flint adds a note to the secretary saying that he is so burdened with the heavy traveling expenses, and with the religious con- ditions that he finds, that he will not continue his mission longer than six months, and then return with his family to his native state. But we hear no more of this plan after the first letter.^" They pressed on towards Pittsburg on one of the great lines of travel, passing hundreds of w^agons. Of these wagons he says: "Many of them had broken axles and wheels, and in more than one place it was pointed out to us, that teams had plunged down the precipice and had perished." In descending the ridges many places were so narrow that two carriages could not pass. The rule in such places was that a 59 Flint. Recollections, 7. ^° Letter of Timothy Flint, Cincinnati, Dec. 5, 1815. THE MISSION TO THE FAR WEST 59 hoFH should be blown or a messenger be sent ahead to keep the road clear."" The teamsters were an entirely new type to this New England clergyman. He says of them : "They seemed to me to be more rude, profane and selfish, than either sailors, boatmen, or hunters, to whose modes of living theirs is the most assimilated." They were for the most part drunken and little disposed to assist each other. Yet even here there were exceptions. He learned of a sort of brotherhood among them, sworn to stand by each other in the hour of need. Mr. Flint remarks that he often dropped among these profane wagonmen, as if by accident, "that impressive tract, the 'Swearer's Prayer'." Then he would note the effects as they read, some assenting thoughtfully, oth- ers merely smiling, and others again growling approv- al very much as Indians do at a council when they give reluctant assent to proposed terms.^" They met great droves of cattle and swine being driven from the Ohio country to Philadelphia, and these seemed rough and shaggy like wolves. The name of the place from which they came, "Mad Riv- er" seemed to add something to their wild appear- ance.^^ While they were having all the hardships of their fellow travelers, the missionary was too much of a philosopher not to notice closely and to enjoy the hu- man nature about him. A stage coach is broken down and the passengers sit about drenched in the rain. Their different behaviors are commented upon. A German Lutheran minister and his family are jour- ^^ Flint. Recollections, 3. ^^ — Idem, 8, 9. '^^ — Idem, 9. 6o TIMOTHY FLINT neying in their direction. He is going to the "Big Miami." He had constantly in his mouth when traveling, a pipe, In form much like tiiat musical instrument called a serpent, in which the smoke circulated through many circumvolutions, and finally reached his mouth through a silver mouth-piece. He rode a huge Pennsylvania horse, apparently with no consciousness of want of feeling for his wife and children, who. for the most part, trudged along beside their waggon on foot. The plain diet of this family as they sat at table apart in the inns, consisting of "boiled potatoes, sour milk, and mush," excited the pity of the Yankee chil- dren, as their more substantial fare excited the longing looks of the young Germans.*'^ The landscape in West Pennsylvania reminded them very much of New England ; but not so the "tall, hardy, lank-looking race of men," a mixture of Scotch, Irish and Germans, who spoke a "singular and rather ludicrous dialect."**^ Arriving at Pittsburg, the new world is fully en- tered upon. Its vast number and variety of river craft is most striking to the eastern eye. From this point they proceeded by boat. They sold their team and wagon at a large sacrifice and found they must pay exorbitant prices for everything they bought. They were not favorably impressed in any way with this thriving and ambitious city, but they took some com- fort on being assured that there was less of outbreaking evil than in earlier times. It is not necessary to follow the family at length in this first stage of a river journey. It is to be often repeated during the next ten years and one becomes *** Flint. Recollections, 9-11. *^^ — Idem, 12. THE MISSION TO THE FAR WEST 6i gradually familiar with it. It is needful to remem- ber however, that the river travel, life, and influences occupied a place in the early western civilization that, in this day of railroads, can in no adequate measure be appreciated. The hardships of the entire journey from the east were great. Mishaps and accidents were not a few. At Pittsburg, a heavy and rapidly driven coach had collided with their lighter conveyance to the great distress of the latter but fortunately without much harm to its occupants. The river journey was the most hazardous. The water was low and they had to wait for a boat. The expense of travel by steamboats, even if one had been available at this time of the year, was too heavy for the slender missionary income. It was only four years after the time when the first steam- boat had been seen upon the Ohio. Early in Novem- ber, they took passage on a crazy Kentucky flatboat, owned by a Yankee trader, and loaded with "factory cottons and cutlery." It was a perfect day when they embarked at one o'clock in the afternoon. The Flints were greatly enjoying the beautiful scenery, the novel experience and the agreeable change in their method of travel. The Massachusetts trader was indulging golden dreams when suddenly the flatboat, instead of floating gently along, as its ov^ner and passengers had expected, was whirled and tossed about in a manner altogether alarming. The helpless craft was carried swiftly through a chute, now it stuck on a bar, and now it was dashed upon the rocks of "Dead Man's Riffle" and almost capsized. The children shrieked, and the cotton stufifs and hardware fell from the shelves and 62 TIMOTHY FLINT almost buried Mrs. Flint. The scared Yankee trader and his reverend first mate, in their confusion, forgot to resort to the oars, but tried to save themselves by consulting the Navigator, a guide descriptive of the Ohio and Mississippi.*^" The reader will not wonder that by the time they reached Beaver, the family forsook the risky flatboat, and bought a large skiff. But the exposure in the open boat resulted in the lung fever for Mr. Flint and sick- ness for the whole family. At Wheeling they were forced to stop and take lodgings in a house filled with other invalid travelers. Sick, neglected, in a strange place, they helped one another as well as they could, but were so homesick that their eyes filled with tears at the mere mention of home. The people of these stopping places on the river were so accustomed to large numbers of sick and dying strangers among them that they had become hardened and indifferent." One of the things that Mr. Flint noticed and felt keenly was that the ministry in this section had nothing of the kindly hospitality toward their traveling breth- ren, which made life so agreeable to the ministerial traveler in New England. At Pittsburg he had been introduced to a minister whose house impressed him with the wealth and opulence of the owner but not with his hospitality. The only entertainment they found on this first journey was at the public places, at high rates. In Pittsburg they paid double for accom- modations as compared with Boston.^^ After their recovery at Wheeling they embarked in a "keel boat," one of the fastest and most graceful *=« Flint. Recollections, 19, 20. ^- — Idem, 21-26. ^^ — Idem, 18. THE MISSION TO THE FAR WEST 63 craft of the period. They reached Marietta in safety after a few days and, for the first time since leaving home, were among friends. Mr. Flint had letters to General Putnam here and writes about the pleasure of their stay at this place. You can imagine the rapidity of discourse, the attempt of two or three to narrate their adventures at the same time, and the many pleasant circumstances attending the renewal of long sus- pended intercourse with congenial society.®^ Near the end of November, Flint purchased "a Kentucky flat, of forty tons burthen" and descended the river in company with several passengers besides his own family, to Cincinnati. On this last section of their journey, which occupied but a few days, they had their first intimate experience with a Kentuckian. He was a fine healthy-looking fellow with a young wife, two or three negro slaves and two children. He was a very profane man but agreed to omit his usual oaths out of respect for Mr. Flint as a minister. The wife was hopeful that Mr. Flint might cure him of his folly and make him religious like "all his rela- tives." The Kentuckian nettled the New England children by exaggerated stories about Yankees who sold "pit-coal, indigo, and wooden nutmegs." He usually followed his anecdotes by a song with the chorus: They will put pine-tops in their whisky. And then they call it gin.'^" Stories at the expense of the Yankees they found very common. Mr. Flint thought that not even the poor Irish had so many stories invented for them and put into their mouths. He takes these stories serious- 6 '^ Flint. Recollections, 29, 30. ''^ — Idem, 34-36> 64 TIMOTHY FLINT ly enough to explain that the Yankees were often made scape goats of, for people who had never been near New England. He thought also that the superior acuteness of the Yankee had made many a block-head from other sections try "to shine his hour, as a wise man," and assume "this terrific name."^^ At Cincinnati the Flints found their cousins. Heze- kiah Flint Jr., son of the man who had emigrated with the first Ohio company and whom the eight year old Timothy had followed with longing eyes, had moved to Cincinnati several years before this time. This cousin had been in the west for above twenty-five years, and his experience would be invaluable for the intro- duction of the missionary family to their new life and work. At Cincinnati they settled for the winter, here to get their bearings, and to determine whether to go on in the new, w^ild, and strange w^ay, or to return to the land of their fathers. The family, notwithstanding the fact that they had been raised in a small New England village, and were quiet and shrinking in the presence of strangers, seemed to have so adapted themselves in a short time to the western ways, that they soon came to be at home in their new world. ^1 Flint. Recollections, 32. IV. ITINERATING IN THE OHIO VALLEY The missionary family took a house and settled in Cincinnati for the winter. They found in this new city, but twenty-five years removed from the wilderness, many things to surprise them. It had eight or nine thousand people, Mr. Flint said, . . . Handsome streets, a number of churches, one a very large one, a very spacious building for a Lancastrian school, and other public buildings, and two commodious market-houses. On the opposite shore rose a considerable village ; an arsenal of brick, some handsome mansions, and one or two countrj'^-seats, that rose still further in the distance. The buildings on each side were placed in positions, that displayed them to the best possible advan- tage, on gentle slopes rising gradually from the shores of the river. Mr. Flint contrasts the free and rapid growth of this city with that of St. Petersburg which was reared by "a great and intelligent despot" who said, '' 'let there be a city' and a city arose upon a Golgotha, upon piles of human bones and skulls that gave consistency to a morass." He is too true an American not to be proud of this difference and he is prophet enough to see that at no distant day the banks of the Ohio will become a continuous village, and this section in a single century become almost as populous as Europe. He was im- pressed with the abundance of vegetables, meats, game, and fish, and indeed, all the market supplies of an eastern city. He found provisions cheaper here, but the total expense of maintaining a family was much 66 TIMOTHY FLINT larger than in Massachusetts. He asserts a few years later, concerning the seven hundred thousand people of Ohio, that there are not the same number of people anywhere else on the globe so well clothed and fed as are they/' He found in this city much sufifering among the strangers and emigrants. He says: "It seemed to have been their impression, that if once they could arrive at the land of milk and honey, supplies would come of course." Many suffered and died and were buried by charit}\ He gives an incident of a family from Maine. The family was large and crowded into one room. Flint continues: The husband and father was dying and expired while I was there. The wife was sick in the same bed, and either from terror or exhaustion, uttered not a word during the whole scene. Three children were sick of fevers. If you add that they were in the house of a poor man and had spent their last dollar, you can fill out the picture of their misery. Mr. Flint thought that the government ought to do something to regulate the stream of migration and that there ought to be more help from voluntary socie- ties and from churches -the Methodists being the only body that cared for their people in such circum- stances, and they did it with commendable zeal and liberality.''^ The missionary was pleased to discover that the moral conditions of society at Cincinnati, considering its age and the materials of which it had been made, was "astonishingly regular and correct." There were many societies for diffusion of religious knowledge, instruction, and charity. The ladies had formed a ^2 Flint. Recollections, 38-40. "" — Idem, 41, ITINERATING IN THE OHIO VALLEY 67 bible and charitable society. The members were highly respectable and their work showed genuine benevolence/* He found the people of the city showing a laudable desire to belong to some religious society. At the time of his arrival the Methodists appeared to be in the lead. They were strongly marked with the pecul- iarities of their sect. They had a number of lay preachers, some of them among the wealthiest people of the town. These preachers were the leaders of par- tisans and sects with unhappy results. They had more esprit du corps than other sects and were disposed to use it in aid of political and other projects marked out in conclave by their leaders.'" Mr. Flint attended a meeting of Presbytery which was called for the settlement of disputes.'^ He says: The ministers took the attitude, and made the long speeches of lawj'ers. . . Thej' availed themselves of the same vehement action, and pouring out a great deal of rather vapid declamation, proceeded to settle points, that seemed to me of very little import- ance. The whole scene presented, it may be, a sufficient modicum of talent for the bar, but manifested much want of the appro- priate temper. The press began at this time to teem with polemical religious pamphlets. He remembered the first phrase of one of them was, "It beats the devil." But he thought the religious disputes of all ages were like these of the western city, though possibly not quite so coarsely expressed." '■* Flint. Recollections, 47. "^ — Idem, 45, 46. "'^ It is to be remembered that the New England clergymen count them- selves Presbyterians v.hen in the west at this period. '^^ Flint. Recollections, 46. See also 69. 68 TIMOTHY FLINT One of the reasons, that made Ohio seem not inap- propriately called the "Yankee state" Mr. Flint says, was that it had not only the same desire for schools, psalmody, settling ministers, and religious worship, but, "the same disposition to dogmatize, to settle, not only their own faith, but that of their neighbor, and to stand resolutely, and dispute fiercely, for the slight- est shade of difference of religious opinions."'^ It was during this winter that Mr. Flint made his first acquaintance with a new sect, called the "Cum- berland Presbyterians." He could not give accurately the shades of difference which distinguished them from the older body of Presbyterians. "They describe themselves," he says, "in point of speculation, to agree with the Arminians." In the manner of their preach- ing, and especially as to vociferousness they copied the Methodists but outdid their model. In culture they were inferior to the Methodists, so far as he had heard them. In common with new sects they seemed to have the juvenile ardor and desire to make proselytes. He was interested in their movement to build a school where "the rough timber, which they work into the sanctuary, may be hewed with the 'axe of the proph- ets'."" He found the ministers of the region, men of con- siderable talent and readiness, the latter quality being promoted by the invariable habit of extemporaneous speaking. They were also, usually men of enlight- ened zeal and entire sanctity of general character. He noted some peculiarities in the style of preaching in this region, which had been influenced by the pre- "s Flint. Recollections, 44, 45. "9 — Idem, 75. m ITINERATING IN THE OHIO VALLEY 69 ponderance of Methodists and the more sensitive char- acter of the south. He says: They did not much affect discussion, but ran at once into the declamatory. Sometimes these flights were elevated, but much oftener not well sustained. For the speaking, the whole was, for the most part, moulded in one form. They commenced the para- graph in a moderate tone, gradually elevating the voice with each period, and closing it with the greatest exertion, and the highest pitch of the voice. They then affected, or it seemed like affecta- tion, to let the voice down to the original modulation, in order to run it up to the same pitch again. *^ Mr. Flint was pleased to think there was a growing change of taste, especially in the cities, in the matter of pulpit oratory. Two or three well trained and eloquent young clergymen from the north, had passed through Ohio and Kentucky, had preached frequent- ly, and had been highly popular. These men, and the finer culture that was rapidly spreading from the schools, was working a radical change. Mr. Flint wTote*^^ to the Missionary Society of Connecticut that the character and reputation of an eastern missionary, even though he was under some suspicion as to his theological soundness, was almost too high for the advantage of the missionary when he came to preach before the expectant people. This popularity of the New England preacher would seem to be illustrated in Mr. Flint's first win- ter's work, and during other periods also. In Ken- tucky he often had large and enthusiastic audiences and was several times pressed to remain for a second night or until a Sunday when more people might hear *^ Flint. Recollections, 47. ^' Letter of Timothy Flint, Cincinnati, March 20, i8r6. 70 TIMOTHY FLINT him.*" He was however, often conscious of the strong prejudice that had been much increased in this section by the attitude of New England during the war of 1 8 1 2, but everywhere he found that a man of reputable appearance was treated with courtesy, and the "Yan- kee" was no exception." Among the several professions that Mr. Flint char- acterizes is that of the law. In Ohio the lawyer was generally democratic, while in the opposite state he was a dandy. "The language of the bar was in many instances an amusing compound of Yankee dialect, southern peculiarity, and Irish blarney." "Him" and "me" said this or that, "I done it" and similar phrases were common, while the figures of speech were taken from the measuring and location of land purchases, the navigation of the rivers, and other local interests.^* Whatever lack of taste and culture Mr. Flint found in the western world, at the bar, in the pulpit and in the press, it was not, he thought, from a lack of tal- ent. He found that here were the most ardent and powerful minds, allured by speculation and adventure. The lack of taste so much displayed in public, came rather from the always common disposition of the in- competent to make themselves prominent and vis- ible.«^ We have much in the Recollections about the nat- ural scenery of the region through which Mr. Flint traveled. Added to his love of nature, and the keen interest excited by novelty, there seems to have been 82 Letter, op. cit. «* — Idem, 51. 83 Flint. Recollections, 69, 70. ^•"' — Idem, 49. ITINERATING IN THE OHIO VALLEY 71 a purpose to learn and remember all that he could in order to use it for the printed page. There is much said about the state of society and there are many in- teresting comparisons made. He did not think the people of Ohio were mostly from New England but he thought the institutions of that section were very much in the ascendency, and also that Ohio was the last state toward the west where that would be true. He says: "The prevalent modes of living, of society, of instruction, of association for any public object, of thinking, and enjoying, among the middle classes, struck me, generally, to be copies of the New England pattern." Mr. Flint had not visited "New Connecti- cut" at this time and is speaking of the Ohio River region of the state. The more dense population, the small farms, the villages, and even the face of the country, in some ways, reminded the New Englander of his own country.^* One of the most interesting men that Mr. Flint met in these first months was General Harrison. He records in both the Recollections and the missionary letters, his impressions of and the benefactions re- ceived from this man who was then well known as the hero of an Indian war. He lived at North Bend, Ohio, seventeen miles below Cincinnati on the Ohio River. "On a fine farm," says Flint "in the midst of the woods, his house was open to all the neighbors, who entered without ceremony, and were admitted to assume a footing of entire equality." His table was "loaded with abundance and with substantial good cheer, especially with the dififerent kinds of game." 8^ Flint. Recollectio7is, 44, 45. 72 TIMOTHY FLINT It was like old English hospitality. The general's personal appearance was not at first preposessing. Mr. Flint describes him as: A small, and rathfr sallow looking; man. . . But he grows upon the eye and upon more intimate acquaintance. There is something imposing in the dignified simplicity of his manners. In the utter want of all show, and insignia, and trappings, there is something, w^hich finely comports WMth the severe plainness of republicanism. . . There is a great deal of ardor and vivacity in his manner. He h.is a copious fund of that eloquence which is fitted for the camp and for gaining partisans.*'^ Mr. Flint thought that he had generally been underrated as a commander. It is interesting to note that among the amounts collected by Mr. Flint on his field, and reported to the Missionary Society, is five dollars from General Harrison, presented to Mrs. Flint, December 17, 1815.^^ But the general ren- dered his cause much more substantial aid than this by the opening of his house for public worship, by hospitality to the missionary when on his tours, and by hospitality to his family party when they were jour- neying to St. Louis. Here also Mr. Flint organized one of the two churches which were the fruit of his first winter's work, the other being at Newport, Ken- tucky. During this winter General Harrison urged Mr. Flint to settle in his community as the minister.*^ He had similar invitations from Dayton, Ohio, and Lexington, Kentucky. In March, after a very severe winter, which the westerners said had been caused by the unusually large number of Yankees who had arrived the pre- *^ Flint. RecoUeciions, 50. 88 Item reported in the letter of July 2, 1816, written from St. Louis, 89— Idem. ITINERATING IN THE OHIO VALLEY 75 ceding months, Mr. Flint took a three hundred mile circuit through Indiana and Kentucky, being gone twenty-two days and preaching seventeen times, as he reports to his Society."" In Indiana he was contin- ually coming upon new^ cabins in the forests along the Ohio River. He draws an interesting picture of the evolution of the cabin into the frame house, and the brick mansion; the family meanwhile aspiring to rise in the financial, social, and cultural world. "^ There were many settlers from New England, the question of forming a state government was warm, and the slavery issue was being keenly agitated. There was fear expressed by the southern element that it might be a Yankee state like Ohio.^" Vincennes, then the principal place in the state, was visited by the missionary, and also Vevay. In the latter place he was interested in the colony of Swiss and their attempt to plant great vineyards in the for- ests. He admired the colonists very much and com- ments on their intermarriage with the Kentuckians. He crossed into Kentucky at the mouth of the river of that name, in company with an educated young Ger- man as his traveling companion. This German was able to see the advantages and disadvantages of the new country, and especially the opportunities it of- fered for the poor of his own country.^" In Kentucky he found the people living easily and in plenty. The young natives seemed to him the largest people he had ever seen. The villages were ^•'Letter of Timothy Flint, Cincinnati, March 20, 1816. ^^ Flint. Recollect'to7ts, 53. ^- — Idem, 56, 57. 93 — Idem, 58, 60. 76 TIMOTHY FLINT full of people who had nothing to do. Everywhere there were striking marks of rustic opulence. The public houses were full of well dressed boarders, travelers and strangers. The meals were served up with much display, and the lady hostess was conducted by some dandy to her chair at the head of the table, which was regarded as a post of honor, and which she filled with suitable dignity. I felt grieved to see so many fine young men exempted from labor, having no liberal studies and pursuits to fill up their time, and falling almost, of course, into the prevailing vices of the West - gambling and intemperance. . . The parents lament- ed the fact, and the children were ready more frankly to confess the charge, than to reform.^* Mr. Flint found the people of Kentucky more en- thusiastic and national than any other western people and looking with disdain upon the people of the younger states. He tells an anecdote, said to be familiar to every westerner, about a Methodist preacher from Kentucky preaching in a neighboring state. He was trying to describe heaven. Failing in adjectives and similies he said: "In short, my breth- ren to say all in one word, Heaven is a Kentuck of a place." ^= In consequence of this feeling and of the age and wealth of Kentucky, Mr. Flint found that in all the neighboring states the Kentuckians claimed and often received a preeminence in official and social circles, which gave them a marked influence upon the entire western world. He cautioned the thoughtful people of the state against the common and acknowledged evils that he had pointed out to them as being danger- s'* Flint. Recollections, 62. ^5 — Idem, 63, 64. ITINERATING IN THE OHIO VALLEY 77 ous not only to themselves and their descendants, but to wide regions, soon to be great and influential states. He concludes: Upon none of the western states is the obligation to labor for the disciplining, purifying, and, if I may so say, of redeeming the young, so solemnly imposed, as upon this.^" Mr. Clay had just returned from Ghent, where he had been a member of the Peace Commission, when our missionary visited Lexington. Out of consider- ation for the statesman's fatigue from receiving a large number of callers after his return, he did not join the procession but remarks approvingly of Mr. Clay as a statesman and a man of true culture though he may not have had the usual advantages in that direction. He regrets that so man}'^ young men pride themselves on their not having a classical education and imagin- ing that they are following the great statesman's ex- ample. "For the one prize so obtained, there would be a thousand blanks."'''' "Lexington is a singularly neat and pleasant town," he thinks. Not so large or flourishing as Cincinnati, but justly claiming to be the "Athens of the West," while its larger rival can only be the Corinth. Mr. Flint pays high compliment to the Transylvania Uni- versity at Lexington, and to its head, Doctor Blythe who, he regrets, is bitterly opposed by the conservative religionists. The signs of general culture which he found in the homes were largely traceable, he thought, to this and similar institutions.""* In his missionary work during the four months of his residence in Cincinnati Mr. Flint followed the plan of "that sagacious society, the Methodists." He »8 Flint. Recollections, 72. ^'' — Icfrm, 77. ^^ — IJern, 67, 68. 78 TlAlOriiV FLINT arranged a circuit at several points resulting, as before indicated, in two permanent churches. He was ap- palled by the paganism and ignorance that he found in the new and remote regions and in the river settle- ments, the better classes of settlers being more on the upper waters of the lateral streams/'" He organized several "societies for the suppression of intemperance and Sabbath breaking, the crying sins of the country." He found twenty-three families within three miles of General Harrison's place with- out a complete copy of the Bible, and his supply was speedily exhausted. The people had very little read- ing matter and had poor reading habits compared with New England people. His tracts were de- voured eagerly. He had almost given ofifense in dol- ing out the few he had for distribution. These, he thought, were the most effective tools the missionary could use. He says he found "the taste, the singing and the selections that prevailed here, to the last de- gree bad." He had prepared a collection of "slow, sweet, and solemn music" selected from European books and changed into the patent note form. He was fearful that the expense of printing, which was high there, would prevent his publishing the selec- tions which he thought would do something to add to the attractions and solemnity of psalmody, in that section."^ The question of support was a most difficult and trying one to Mr. Flint. His salary from the Mis- sionary Society of Connecticut was twenty-five dollars per month, with no allowance for expenses and with "^Letter of Timothy Flint, Cincinnati, Jan. i8, i8i6. 1"" Letter of Feb. 12, 1816. ITINERATING IN THE OHIO VALLEY 79 all receipts from the field deducted from this meager amount. In January of 1816, he wrote to the secre- tary that his salary very little more than covered half of his living expenses and asked that he might have his collections in addition to his salary from the so- ciety. This was apparently granted to him after- wards and was a favor shown to few others at that time. Mr. Flint found that expenses were very high in many ways and that he had little gain from the hospitality of the people among whom he preached such as an unmarried man would have had. He was soon plan- ning to settle in a large center where he might get a more adequate support from church and school work. He found that the people in the country places had no thought of any obligation to support the gospel. He could not urge the matter without injury to his work. He was at times so much straitened that he decided to give up his mission and go into some work where he could support his family'"' He received during his three weeks tour in Kentucky, fifty-one dollars and fifty cents in unsolicited gifts. For the four months in the Ohio Valley he reported sixty-six dollars and twenty-five cents received "' from the field and in addi- tion to his salary. In the later letters written this first winter, the burden had lifted a little and he apolo- gized to the secretary of the society for the anxiety he had shown earlier."^ 1"! Letter of Jan. 18, i8i6. ^"2 Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Louis, July 2, 1816. Flint had instruc- tions to limit his letters to one sheet. In many cases he found that difficult and sometimes cross lines his letters. In this letter he adds an e itra sheet and gives a financial report of his work up to this date. It is one of the two or three most important missionary letters. i<>3 Letter of Timothy Flint, Cincinnati, March 20, 1816. 8o riMOTH^ FJ.INT But a feeling that there was a still greater need of his work on the Mississippi where there was no organ- ized mission work, the hope of establishing himself in a central place like St. Louis, and a letter from Mr. Stephen Hempstead •■ of the latter place, decided him to go on to this region. Accordingly he asked for a transfer of his commission to "the Illinois territory and the course of the Mississippi." There he hoped to be ''the founder of the first branch of the Pres. church in St. Louis and the Miss. Territory." This decision was reached and arrangements made to go before he knew that the society had sent another man to that region - the Reverend Salmon Giddings. Mr. Flint thought, however, there would be room for both of tJiem! He had been invited to settle both at Ver- sailles and Frankfort but had declined, in part because there was an academy connected with a pastoral charge of more than one church, and he did not feel physically able for the undertakings."* One might be led to suspect that Mr. Flint was beginning to be infected with the same migratory spirit which he charges upon the Kentuckians, when he says of them : * Mr. Flint had written to Stephen Henapstead on Dec. 29, 1815, as follows: "Seeing in Messrs. Mills and Smith's Journal, of their missionary tour into your country, your name given as a fit character, to whom to send bibles for distribution, I have inferred from that circumstance, that you were interested in the concerns of religion in general. "I am a missionary' from the Presbyterian church of Connecticut, sent to labor where there appears the best prospect of doing good. I am at present laboring in this vicinitj', but have had thought of visiting St. Louis in the spring." He inquires also about the prospects for missionary work, the attitude of the people and the heakhfulness of the climate. See Letter in collection of Missouri Historical Society. Copy in Harvard University Library. 1"* Letter of Timothy Flint, Cincinnati, March 2c, iSi'i. ITINERATING IN THE OHIO VALLEY 8i "Though they have good houses they might almost as well, like the Tartars, dwell in tents." He wanted to see what was in the west. Living was cheaper ! Op- portunities greater! The rainbow descended on the Mississippi! V. THE JOURNEY DOWN THE MISSISSIP- PI AND SOJOURN IN ST. LOUIS For the journey down the Ohio and up the Missis- sippi, Mr. Flint purchased a keelboat about ninety feet in length and of seventeen tons burden. At that time there was but one steamboat which went up the Mississippi above the Ohio and it was unsafe. Their boat was heavily loaded, having at first several pas- sengers besides Mr. Flint's family, and a considerable stock of merchandise, about seven thousand dollars worth, which belonged principally to a brother of Mr. Flint. This merchandise was intended for the establishment in the new country, of a business for this brother and Micah P., the oldest son of the mission- ary.^""* Many friends had been gained in Cincinnati. Shortly before his departure, the Female Charitable Association had invited him to preach a sermon for them and had given him twenty dollars for his mis- sion. ^°*^ These and other friends accompanied the family to their boat to see them off, after having made many kind provisions for their comfort upon the long journey. The breaking of ties here was a foretaste of similar experiences that came to them many times in 10= Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, June 4, 1818. See also letter of Giddings, St. Louis, March 2, 1818. ioG_ Idem, St. Louis, July 2, 1816. 84 TIMOTHY FLINT the succeeding years and led Mr. Flint to say that he found gloomy thoughts connected with every effort to form new acquaintances, which however pleasant, are so transient and frail.'" The date given in the Recollections for the depar- ture from Cincinnati is April twelfth, and for the arrival at St. Louis, May twenty-fourth, while the let- ter written to the Connecticut Society, July second, from St. Louis gives the dates as April fifteenth and May thirteenth. In view of the time that had elapsed before Mr. Flint wrote the Recollections, some ten years, and then far from his books and papers while on a visit in Massachusetts, and also in view of the fact that most of his journals and papers had been de- stroyed by a cyclone in Arkansas,^"* there need be no hesitation in accepting the dates in the letters in pref- erence to those in the printed pages of his book, re- gretting only that the revised copy of this book is lost. The first two hours of the journey down the river were most delightful, but for the threatening thunder clouds gathering in the west. The storm broke upon them so severely and suddenly that they could not make the shore and they were compelled to weather it in the open river, their heavily laden boat taking in considerable water, and all on board being thor- oughly frightened. Even the grim ^'patron" of the boat looked serious though he had been many years on the river and many times wrecked. Because of the storm they landed at General Harrison's place the first evening and continued there a couple of days, being most hospitably entertained by him and enjoy- 10' Flint Recollections, io. ^^^ — Idem,^. SOJOURN IN ST. LOUIS 85 ing the thorough work that a skilled tutor was doing with his children.'"* Mr. Flint thinks they would have turned back after this inauspicious beginning of their voyage if they had been in the least superstitious or if they could at all have foreseen even a part of what was to befall them. It was on the second day of the trip down the river and at Lawrenceburg, that the eleven year old daughter Emeline, playing about the boat with some child of the village, fell into the river and would have been drowned but for the help of a stranger.''" They reached the Mississippi in ten days' time, hav- ing picked up a boat's crew of ten or a dozen men at "Shawnoe-town." This place is described as "an un- pleasant looking village, that had but just emerged from an inundation, before our arriving there.'"" The boat's crew had agreed that they would neither swear nor become intoxicated while they were in the service of the minister. This agreement was so well kept, that they earned the title of "the civil boat's crew" from people on the shores and from other boat- men, who were surprised by not receiving from them the customary abuse and profanity."' This agree- ment could not, however, relieve the owner of the boat from the necessity of providing the crew with the customary "refreshments," or, as Flint says, "the us- ual compliment." On the twenty-fifth of April"' their boat drifted 109 Flint. Recollections, 83. ii»— Idem, 83. iix — ldem. 112 Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Louis, July 2, 1816. 11;: _ Uem. 86 TIMOTHY FLINT into the turbid, chalk-like waters of the Mississippi and was made last to the young willows on the shore while the crew prepared for the toilsome and perilous ascent of the river. The family was distressed by what they saw of an attempt to build a city at the junction of the two great rivers. All they found of the ambitious city of Cairo was floating on a great flat boat "a hundred feet in length, in which were fam- ilies, liquor-shops, drunken men and women, and all the miserable appendages of such a place." '"* The Mississippi opened to them a new world. It was to them as to most of the American people of that time, the "ultima Thule-a limit almost to the range of thought." The forests had seldom resounded, ex- cept with the cry of wild beasts, the echo of thunder, or the crash of undermined trees, falling into the flood. The sense of newness, combined with the sense of novelty. They "beheld everything as though the water, the plants, the trees of the Mississippi, would be different from the same things elsewhere." This led Mr. Flint to say when writing ten years later, Perhaps the first half day that we passed in ascending the river under every favorable omen, was the happiest period that we ever experienced, as it respects mere physical enjoj-ment. In this connection he remarks : I have been astonished, at r. subsequent passing this same por- tion of the river, and then too under pleasant circumstances, how much of the zest and enjo\-ment of such scenes are taken away with their noveIt>'.^^^ "Under such circumstances," says Mr. Flint, "this novel and fresh scene revived those delightful images of youth, the spring-time of existence, which are most "Splint. RecollectJons, %e. ^^^ — Idem, ii, ^o, 91. SOJOURN IN ST. LOUIS 87 fondly cherished and longest remembered." Charm- ing scenery, delightful air, cheering sunshine, and the majestic view of the Father of Waters, pouring his flood between wonderful shores, filled all of the en- thusiastic and poetic family with ecstasy. They seemed to float as in a delicious dream. The "huge sized cotton-woods" waved in strange loveliness. Great flocks of wild ducks and other game birds rose in airy flights from the reeds and were hardly fright- ened by the discharge of their guns. There were herds of deer seen now and then bounding through the distant thickets. Everything united to captivate the senses and to excite the fancy. The pungent odor of the willow flowers, which the voyagers crushed in their hands as they grasped the overhanging boughs to aid the northward motion of their boat, raised in their minds mythological ideas of "nectar and am- brosia." ^^'^ However, even this stage of the journey was not all pleasure. The severe and dangerous toil of working up the river, beset as it was with snags, "sawyers," wreck heaps and rocks, soon exhausted the physical energies and led to depression of spirits. They were more than once half a day struggling with all the force of crew and passengers in order to drag their heavily laden boat past a single rapid or difficult place in the river. At best they wxre only creeping up stream and making about twelve miles a day."^ The night season brought not only rest but a change of scene as well. All hands encamped on the shore. Some favorable spot was selected, camp fires built, 116 Flint. Recollections, 88-90. ^^~ — Idem, 92, 93. 88 TIMOTHY FLINT supper cooked and couches prepared for the welcome repose of night. But before rest, came the social hour of the camp. The almost invariable rule was that the owner of the boat must furnish for this hour the usual rations of whiskey. Mr. Flint probably could not have resisted this custom even if he would have done so. Some of the boatmen in Mr. Flint's crew had been hunters in the upper world of the Missouri. Others had been "above the falls of St. Anthony" on the Mississippi. Some had been in Canada. Still others had wandered south to the Gulf of Mexico, on the Red River and into the Spanish country. There were stories of river and forest, of war and hunt, of Spaniard and Frenchman. There were tales of dusky loves that no feature of romance might be wanting, Mr. Flint says, and he thought the stories would have made tolerable romances if they had been "tricked out in the dress of modern description." ^^^ "Shawnoe Indians" prowled about the night en- campment and were such objects of terror to the fam- ily they received little "pleasure from the spectacle." These did not have the "tame and subdued counte- nance of the northern Indians" with whom Flint had become acquainted when traveling in those regions. ^^^ Desperadoes, in outlandish attire, armed with dirks, and smelling desperately of bad liquors -"a race of men placed on the extreme limits of order and civili- zation"- invaded the camp. Not unfrequently some lawless wretch, minus one eye, was pointed out to Flint as a victim of the "gougers" thumb. But the clergyman was assured that no "gentleman" w^as in 11^ Flint. Recollections, 94, 95. ii9— Idem, ^^. SOJOURN IN ST. LOUIS 89 danger of being gouged. This was "a surgical oper- ation" which they thought "only proper to be prac- tised upon black-guards, and their equals." ''" Two methods of locomotion were employed, in propelling a boat up stream when poles and oars did not answer: towing and "bush-whacking." A tow- line or "cordelle" of great length was carried by every boat. One of these long ropes was used after the manner of a cable on a canal-boat, to pull the boat up stream by the muscle of man. The "hands" would toil along the bank tugging at the "cordelle." When they came to the mouth of a tributary, they either swam across, holding fast to the line, or used a yawl to carry the rope across. When they were impeded by a bluff, it was necessary to "warp" or cross the river to the low ground on the other side. "Bush-whack- ing" was the practice of pulling the boat up by taking hold of overhanging trees. Crossing the river often brought no relief from their difficulties. When the current was unusually swift or the ground marshy on the bank, the long rope was carried far ahead and attached to a windlass. The boat and the boatmen were exposed to constant perils. Mr. Flint remarks that he had never taken a trip on the river without seeing the recent wrecks of boats, and the red shirted bodies of drowned boatmen float- ing in the river. Their boat was several times in extreme danger from the high current and from fall- ing trees along the banks. The family often walked on the shore when the danger was considerable. Once while the helmsman talked with a girl on shore he 120 Flint. Recollections, 98. 90 TIMOTHY FLINT ran on to a snag or "sawyer," which penetrated the bow of their boat and nearly cost them their cargo if not their lives.'"' In the first missionary letter from St. Louis/" Mr. Flint tells that he made most of his way on foot as the boat toiled painfully up the river, and that he could walk faster than the boat traveled. He entered the cabins of the few settlers and endeavored to learn the moral and religious condition of the people. The first settlement of any importance was the old town of Ste. Genevieve where there was some little progress and comfort. Below this he found the people with- out an exception destitute of the Scriptures and all religious advantages. He found little opportunity to preach during the ascent of the Mississippi but he distributed much religious literature and made known the name of missionary, which before they had never heard. At Ste. Genevieve they came for the first time upon the French mode of constructing houses and forming a village. He says : The greater proportion of the houses have mud walls, whitened with lime, which have much the most pleasant appearance at a distance. Their modes of building, enclosing, and managing, are very unlike those of the American. Here the French is the predominant language. Traces, too, of their regard for their worship begin to be seen. You see the Catholic church. On the ridges of the houses, or over the gates, you frequendy see the wooden cross.^^* He held an evening service at Ste. Genevieve and had a large audience principally of Catholics, in spite of their priest's opposition to Protestantism, which ^21 Flint. Recollections, 91, 97. "2 July 2, 1816. 12' Flint. Recollections, 100. SOJOURN IN ST. LOUIS 91 had recently been revealed by his order that all the New Testaments sent in by the bible societies, should be burned. Mr. Flint had such a cordial re- ception and invitation to settle here that he was much inclined to do so, though he decided that he would at least go on to St. Louis and confer with Mr. Giddings before he made his final location. He stopped at Herculaneum, half way to St. Louis, and had a cordial reception there also.^'* Mr. Giddings had reached St. Louis via the north- ern route on the sixth of April, a few weeks before Mr. Flint's arrival. '"" The latter says in his first let- ter from St. Louis : We arrived here the 13th of May. Mr. Giddings had left the ground, despairing of usefulness, and having received from the people the most pointed neglect. My reception was also cold. Mr. G. Blackburn ^-^ had recently been here, and had made engagements to fix himself here in the autumn. He evidently considered the mission, as standing in his way. He had made use of detraction, intrigue, and every engine, that he could move, to prejudice the mission.^-' He alternately lashed the eastern peo- 124 Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Louis, July 2, 1816. 1-^ Norton, Augustus T. History of the Presbyterian Churcli in Illinois, 21, 33 ff-. 37, 5-- ^-" Reverend Dr. Gideon Blackburn, 1772-1838, a well known and leading Presbyterian minister of Tennessee. His character is very partially and un- fairly presented in this letter. Mr. Flint does him justice later in his Recollections, 183, 184. This letter gives us a fair picture of the not unusual estrangement between the Middle State or Western Presbyterians and the New England Presbyterians or Congregationalists as they were called later. See further on these points Norton's History of the Presbyterian Church in Illinois. See also Rev. Abel Flint's letter to Mr. Hempstead (Hartford, April 30, 1818), in which reference is made to Dr. Blackburn's attack on Rev. Abel Flint and New England clergymen. ^-" The mission in Missouri that was founded by the Missionary Society of Connecticut was the result in good part of the visit of Samuel J. Mills to St. Louis in the fall of 1814. Sec Thomas C. Richards's Samuel J. Mills, 92 TIMOTHY FLINT pie, eastern institutions, and especially eastern missionaries, repre- senting, that only such were sent out, as could find no employ even in that land of dullness. He even brought forward the Hartford Convention. A warning was inserted in the news- papers, intimating that our object was to disseminate the politics of Osgood and Parish.^'® The Americans of influence are gener- ally Tennesseeans and Kentuckians, sufficiently disposed to cherish prejudices against eastern people. From this variety of concur- ring causes, I found almost every heart closed against us. Our situation, the while, was by no means enviable. You know, that my whole family is slender. We had come in the boat 900 miles, had been wet and scorched, and harassed by mosquitoes and wood ticks, and had been suffering not a few hardships, privations and fatigues. No house was open to us, nor was even a hovel to shelter us to be hired. There seemed to be no asylum but either the hot, leaky, and filthy boat, or the wilderness. I dispatched a messenger to St. Charles, 20 miles up the Missouri, but every avenue seemed closed up there also. On Sunday Mr. Hemp- sted, and Mr. Giddings, who had heard of our arrival, visited us, and we were once more cheered with the sight of Xn friends. I went from the boat to divine service, and we had a very full audience, I went out to Mr. Hempsted's farm and we prayed to- gether, and sung that fine hymn, the meeting of Xn friends, and our communion together was sweet. Mr. Giddings declined preaching here any longer. The field was unoccupied, and prov- idence seemed to have rendered it necessary for me to fix here. With the help of Mr. Hempstead and a young man from Massachusetts, a Mr. Sawyer, Timothy Flint found a two room log hut for which he had to pay Missionary, Pathfinder, Pioneer and Promoter, 153, 154. Also letter of Samuel J. Mills to the Missionary Society of Connecticut, St. Louis, Nov. 7, 1814; and letter of Flint to Hempstead, Cincinnati, March 11, 1816. 129 Probably David Osgood, 1747-1822, and Elijah Parish, 1762-1825. The former was a distinguished preacher of Massachusetts. He was a zealous Federalist and some of his political sermons attracted considerable notice. Parish was also a Massachusetts minister and greatly interested in politics. His election sermon in 18 10 criticised the government so severely that the legislature refused to publish it. SOJOURN IN ST. LOUIS 93 twelve dollars per month. They lived five days in the boat on the river. While in the harbor they had not failed to be interested in the strange craft and people from all sections of the western world. In a few weeks' time, Mr. Flint found his audiences growing and the people softening to kindness. He felt that there was a good prospect of overcoming prejudice and establishing a religious society. He did some preaching during the summer at St. Charles and other points. He also took hold of a school which Mr. Sawyer had started and which was about to fail because of local prejudice and the timidity of the teacher. The school was conducted jointly by Mr. Flint and Mr. Sawyer. It must have been suc- cessful from the number of Catholic children who were in attendance and who remained for the religious exercises conducted by the teachers.^"" Financially the school must have been successful for Mr. Flint received one hundred and twenty dollars as his share of profits for the summer. Judged by the same stand- ard his church work, for less than four months, was successful -one hundred and four dollars having been raised for him by subscription."^ Mr. Flint confessed that he was anxious to establish his school and mission so firmly that when Doctor Blackburn arrived in the fall with his teachers and preachers, he would find the ground in St. Louis fully occupied. One year later, however, Mr. Flint writes that they have united their forces and are working in harmony. He says: "We are most happily agreed 130 Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Louis, July 2, 1816, 131 Letter of Oct. 10, 1816. 94 TIMOTHY FLINT in sentiment ami in the distribution of our labors." The third Thursday in November, 1817, they were to form a Presbytery at St. Louis in connection with the ^^'est Tennessee Synod. The Presbytery was composed of the t\vo New Englanders, Giddings and Flint, Mr. Mathews, a Pennsylvania Presbyterian, and Mr. Donnell, a pupil of Doctor Blaclvburn.'^"" Mr. Donnell was later settled over his church in the "mine district.'' southwest of St. Louis. ^"^ The only criticism that Mr. Flint makes on the candidate was that he had the measles. It was most likely the first Protestant ordination or installation service in that part of the world. ^"* If Doctor Blackburn himself had located in St. Louis as he intended, it is not likely that this early and happy union would have been effected. It was only six weeks after his arrival in St. Louis that Mr. Flint reported himself so busy with school, pastoral duties, funerals, and preaching tours in the country that he had little time to write and was at the limit of his strength. He found the burden of preach- ing much heavier here than in the east. He says: Extreme caution is necessary in this abandoned country even in the manner of performing public duty. I should not dare under any circumstances to use notes. The eastern missionaries, who have done it have very much prejudiced their cause. The people here have a vast deal of effrontery, and Avill not pardon ^^- Letter of Nov. i, 1817. See furt'ner concerning the misunderstanding between Mr. Flint and Doctor Blackburn in the letter of the former to Mr. Hempstead from St. Charles, Nov., 1816. 133 — Idem, St. Charles, May 4, 1818. Flint says of this district: "I saw in the excursion and in the many families, that I entered in the mine district far more encouraging appearances, than I have noted elsewhere in this country. There are many respectable and serious families from Con- necticut. You will fancj', that we were most cordially received." 1'^ Flint. Recollections, 127. SOJOURN IN ST. LOUIS 95 modesty in anyone. A frothy and turgid kind of ready eloquence is characteristic of every class of public speaker. I have broken over all early habits, and have triumphed over extreme reluctance, and against my own taste and feelings, have become all things to all people, as far, as I possibly could. They think, that were I not extremely feeble, I should be almost, except my eastern bonds, as a Kentuckian.^"' Contrary to his hopes he found living expenses here higher than in Cincinnati and was still perplexed by this matter. He was encouraged, however, when he looked back over the long and expensive way that he had come, for it seems almost as if the ravens had pro- vided.^^' The business of his brother, in which Mr. Flint had invested about one thousand dollars, did not he says occupy any of his time. He was not usually in the store more than once a week. It proved not only an unsuccessful business but the occasion of much criticism later. It was, very possibly, an occasion of hostility to his ministry at this time.^"^^ During the first summer Mr. Flint distributed one hundred and fifty Bibles, part of them French. He observed that he often found during his travels large deposits of Bibles in the hands of public men, who had agreed to act as officers of the societies formed by Mr. Mills, lying unused, while there were many fam- ilies all about without a copy of the Sacred Book. He thought political men poor agents for such work.^^* Toward the close of his work in St. Louis he held a communion service, the first Protestant service of the 1"'' Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Louis, July 2, iSi6. ^"^ — Idem. 1^^ Letter written from St. Charles, June 4, iRi3. 1"* Letter from St. Louis, July 2, 1816. 96 TIMOTHY FLINT kind there. The people were from all states and sects and each one thought that his way of conducting the ceremony ought to be adopted and was scandalized that so much concession should be made to others. Mr. Flint thought when writing nine years later ^^^ that this occasion had brought out in an unusual way people's attachment to form. It was, however, a very solemn and affecting service and he thought marked the beginning of a religious profession for some of the younger people."" In this connection, Mr. Flint's remarks about the sects beyond the Mississippi are interesting to notice. He says : At one point you meet with a respectable Methodist, and begin to feel an attachment for the profession. He next meets you with harmony and cooperation on his lips, and the next thing you hear, is, that you are charged with being a fierce Calvinist, and that you preached that "hell is paved with infants' skulls." While, perhaps the society, with which you are connected, hear from an opposite quarter and from a pretended friend, that in such a sermon you departed from the dicta of the great master, and are leading the people to the gulph [sici of Arminianism. The Baptists are as exclusive as in the older regions. Even among our own brethren [It is always to be remembered that the New England missionaries at this time are Presbyterians as soon as they cross the Alleghany mountains, and by a process much simpler and less difficult than such crossing.], it is well known, that there is some feeling of a questionable nature, some rivalry between the pupils, the doctors, and schools, of Andover and Princeton. He mentions besides the usual sects the followers of Elias Smith and speaks of numerous other would-be- founders of sects. The people in general are fully 1^^ Flint. Recollections, 112. "0 Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, Oct. 10, 1816. SOJOURN IN ST. LOUIS 97 persuaded that they have done their full duty toward a preacher when they have listened to what he has to say.''' The western missionary's life, he thinks, is as hard and dangerous, as the foreign. He laments, that when the former falls, as he so often does, he is unrecorded, though he "who falls in a foreign land, is lamented as a hero and a martyr. Provision is made for his fam- ily, and the enthusiasm and regret of romantic sensi- bility attach to his memory." '*^ Mr. Flint removed to St. Charles early in Sep- tember. He found that he could not continue his school and his missionary work, and he preferred to give up the former. St. Charles was a much more central location for the circuit of preaching points which he visited, especially up the Missouri River. He thought that at this point where the great rivers were but four miles apart would be the center of pop- ulation rather than at St. Louis. It was then the polit- ical center of the territory. He also mentions as one of the reasons for his leaving St. Louis that the people there, while they attended his service in good numbers and from the country regions round about were for the most part young men and women on whom all instruction and exhortation seemed wasted. There was, too, "the Catholic mummery," the ridiculousness of which was only exceeded by the heedlessness with which it was witnessed by the Catholics themselves. Duels were continually occurring and all was confu- sion and uproar. It seemed as though even the senti- ment of a God was universally erased, and the wick- '*! Flint. Recollections, 114, 115. 1*2 — Idem, 115. q8 timothy flint edness of the place threw a continual gloom over his mind which he felt he was not able to bear. He had not lived in St. Charles and it at least looked better in these respects besides having the advantages above named. ""* In later days and in more philosophic moments Mr. Flint speaks more favorably of the Roman Catholics, of sectarianism, and even of the moral conditions of this new country. But what is recorded in this chap- ter is out of the immediate and bitter experience of the man in the midst of conditions which in a moral and social way is described by other missionaries and travelers in not very different terms. ^** Mr. Giddings took up the work of the school and pulpit in St. Louis upon Mr. Flint's departure, and thought he saw signs of improvement above what he had first found. He was sufficiently encouraged to try to carry on the work unless Doctor Blackburn should undertake it or make it impracticable for him to continue. At any rate Mr. Giddings "" was the mis- 1*3 Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, Oct. lo, i8i6. 1** See especially Rufus Babcock's Memoirs of John Mason Peck (Phil- adelphia, 1864), 85-88. 1*5 Letter of Salmon Giddings to the Missionary Society of Connecticut, St. Louis, Sept. 20, 1818. Mr. Giddings in this letter gives an interesting report of the Presbyterian churches in Missouri territory-. When Formed Concord Ch., Bellevievv Aug. 3, 1816 Bonhome Oct 18, i3i6 St. Louis Nov. 15, 1817 Union Church of Rich- mond & Dry Creek Apl. 17, 1818 Church of Buffaloe May, i8iS Church of St. Charles Aug. 29, 18 18 No. of No. No. Present Baptized Members Re- Re- No. When moved ceived AdulU Infants Formed 27 8 21 40 I 12 16 5 4 15 2 6 10 S IS I 2 7 7 14 14 9 9 SOJOURN IN ST. LOUIS 99 sionary there for a number of years, and organized the First Presbyterian Church, November 15, 18 17. In all accounts the writer has seen, Giddings is spoken of as the first resident pastor in St. Louis. With how much justice this claim is made can only be judged when we consider Mr. Flint's reports to the Mission- ary Society of Connecticut. Unfortunately, Mr. Giddings's reports for 1816 and 1817 are missing from the files of the society. VI. ST. CHARLES AND SURROUNDING REGIONS Mr. Flint made his home in or near St. Charles, Missouri, for four years. Three of these years, 1816- 18 19, were spent in missionary and ministerial work. The last year, 1821-1822, was spent on a farm near St. Charles. At present the missionary period only is of interest. For this time we have a greater abundance of ma- terial than for any other of his life, except possibly, the Cincinnati years, 1827-1833. One hundred pages of the Recollections are devoted to his work, experience, and observations here; there are six letters written to the Missionary Society by Mr. Flint from St. Charles, and three letters written to the same society at this time by Reverend Salmon Giddings, which largely con- cern Mr. Flint. This period is important in the life of the eastern minister and his family for it marks the notable and painful process of physical and social acclimatization, which all had to undergo ; a process which often meant death on one hand and moral disaster on the other, to a fearfully large per cent of the western home seekers. A few months after his arrival we notice Mr. Flint flattering himself that he had so far adapted himself to the western ways, as to be almost "like a Kentuck- I02 TIMOTHY FLINT ian." In this he finds himself later painfully disap- pointed. This period is important again because of Mr, Flint's fully recorded experiences in the new and formative society of which he was a part. It is full of significance for the historian and the student of so- ciety. We can do no more than mention some of the things that seem most significant from this point of view, since they are not vital to the life story of Tim- othy Flint. Mr. Flint traveled constantly and widely in his mis- sionary work at this time, going frequently along the main lines of travel, fifty and one hundred miles from his home. He was always keenly alive to all that was to be seen and heard. These experiences were not lost or greatly changed by time. It has been of much in- terest to the writer to compare the reports made to the Missionary Society of Connecticut and the impres- sions of the same conditions as they are recorded in the Recollections and written several years later and un- der very different circumstances. There is a difference of course but it is easily accounted for and it does not argue against the accuracy and finality of Mr. Flint's judgment upon men and affairs. Of those things of general interest in the experi- ences and records of Mr. Flint for this period, the most noticeable is the emigration of the times. At St. Charles in the fall of 1817, there was an average of one hundred people every day coming to the town, or passing to near-by points. Nearly all wxre poor and not one family in fifty had a Bible.'*" He remarks on i-*"* Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, Nov. i, 1817. MINISTRY AT ST. CHARLES 103 the fads which seized the moving streams of people to go to a certain point for a few months, as the Boon's Lick, on the Missouri, only to branch off in a few months to Salt River.''' He speaks of the instability of the population -no one felt settled enough to build a good house, plant an orchard, or aid in building church or school.'**^ He is concerned with the effect of the new comers on the old and settled French so- ciet}^ There, all the vices had indeed found lodging, but the people were quiet and inoffensive in their sins. But with the flood of newcomers all gates were swept away. A movement, that was well under way for the erection of a meeting house in St. Charles and for se- curing a churchyard, was dissipated by the inrush of strangers. The revelry of the dance and drinking places continued on the Sabbath day until the minister reported the condition to the grand jury. The jury acted and checked the disgrace. But the revelers - and only a fev^^ heads of families did not have a part in it- were so offended with the disturber of their pleas- ures that they soon found means of displacing him."^ The different classes of frontiersmen, emigrants, and village people are noted and commented upon at length. Mr. Flint had a wide experience with the Indians in these years, both by visiting them in their villages, and in seeing great councils gather at St. Charles for conference with the government agents, and for trading purposes. They came from the west as far as the Rocky Mountains. He was greatly in- terested in these native peoples and made a close study '^" Flint. Recollections, 203, 204. ^■'^ — Idem, 204, 206. 1*3 Letters of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, Aug. 3, 1817, and June 4, 1818. I04 TIMOTHY FLINT of them.*"*" The intermarriage of the French and In- — ^<^dians, with its results, is commented upon/'^ The methods of laying out, advertising, and selling real estate, farms, and town sites is noticed/" This description seems quite modern to residents of the re- cent west and to the present day investors of the older states who have been tempted to buy western property. He discusses the American habit of "puffing" and es- pecially its western development as it aflfects the news- papers, schools, and general culture/^' The crudity and the cruelty of society is commented upon, causing on the one hand, an entire disregard of literature among people who are so busy with merely physi- cal things; and on the other hand, as shown in the constant dueling and frequent murders/'* These conditions together w ith rowdyism and the violation of the Sabbath, Mr. Flint thought, were quite visibly and immediately affected by the gathering of the best elements into a religious society, under the leadership of competent ministers. He wished that eastern people, who talk about the felicity of a country with- out institutions of religion, might have an opportun- ity such as he had to experience that imagined felicit>\''' Mr. Flint at this time, and in all his writings upon the west, brings to mind a fact largely forgotten about the westward movemxent of populations, namely, the 1^'^ See his Recollections, 135-164. Also the Indian JVars, the Geography and History, Daniel Boon and the Shoshonee Valley. i''! Flint. Recollections, 131, 163. ^^^ — Idem, 130. i5a_ Idem, 185-188. 154 — Idem, 178-183. ^'*'' Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, Nov. i, 1817 MINISTRY AT ST. CHARLES 105 enormous cost in human suffering and life. His de- scription of the "seasoning" fevers which invariably overtook the emigrant of w^hatever age or physical condition, brings to realization the price that v^as paid in making the west to blossom and to build up its civi- lization. Mr. Flint shows his subtle power of analysis and portraiture in describing the highly wrought men- tal states, conditioned by fever and delirium. For ^■' two months, August and September, 1818, he was him- self in the supposedly fatal grip of the seasoning fever. It was one of those states of delirium when the mind is abnormally acute. He could repeat verses which were impossible for him under normal conditions. All the foreign languages he had studied he could use with surprising facility. All care and concern for life had passed and he felt as though in a dream world. The first symptoms of returning strength and recall to earth were distressing. The spiritual exhil- eration and renewal which remained with him during and after convalescence, show the fine religious and moral balance of his character and in a measure ac- count for the noble mastery of the very trying episode noticed in the closing paragraphs of this chapter.^^*^ .^ Still one other thing of general interest is more I closely related to this period of his western experience than to any other -the mounds and other relics of the prehistoric American races. In many directions of his travels he noted these curious ancient formations, speculated on their age and uses, and took advantage of evety -opportunity to examine the contents of the mounds, ancient settlements and cemeteries. Near 15® Flint. Recollections, 132-135. io6 TIMOTHY FLINT St. Charles he believed there had once been a very dense population as he believed there would be again. ^^'hile on a journey up the Illinois River he was inter- ested in the mounds in the Cahokia prairie. His son Micah probably accompanied his father at this time for he wrote a poem on these mounds, dated March 19, 1825, which Mr. Flint included in the Recollec- tions.^"' Just back of the house on his farm below St. Charles at Point Prairie or the Mamelle there were two of these artificial mounds. While digging a ditch in this vicinit^^, the Flints discovered some in- teresting relics which he describes, together with relics found near St. Louis at the time of his residence there.^'^* Mr. Flint was always interested in the bar and gives us his impressions of several leading lawyers of the territory.'^** There were two sessions of the legislature at St. Charles during his residence there. He says of the legislators: Some of them were neither Solons nor Solomons. Indeed, in the western country and elsewhere in America, they do not believe in the maxim, "ex quolibet," etc. ; almost any timber can be worked into the political ship. Some boys invented a very toler- able pasquinade. It was labelled on the plastering around the speaker's chair. "Missouri, forgive them. The}' know not what they do." . . I was here [i.e. in the state. He was in Jack- son in 1 82 1 when Missouri became a state] when the state of Missouri passed from its territorial character to that of a state. The slave question was discussed with a great deal of asperitj', and no person from the northern states, unless his sentiments ^^" Flint. Recollections, 167-169. ^■^s Flint. History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley, vol. i, 126- 129; Recollections, 164-174. 1S9 Flint. Recollections, 184, 185. MINISTRY AT ST. CHARLES 107 were unequivocally expressed, had any hope of being elected to the convention, that formed the constitution. The constitution was well enough, except in its stupid interdiction of ministers from being eligible to any office in the state, and in some other trifling enactions equally barbarous.^*"' Of preachers as he met them at this time, he says: "Of the itinerant preachers, I did not hear one who approached to mediocrity. They may have been pious men, but, for the most part, they defy all criticism." He several times speaks of a minister in St. Louis, who was for a time popular as an orator, and who made great pretense of learning and as a teacher. He does not name him but it was probably John Mason Peck that was in mind. Mr. Flint's estimate of this pioneer,^**^ if it be he, is not as high as the present gen- eration would rate him, judging him by his life work. The Reverend Dr. Blackburn, who figured so con- siderably in the anticipations of Mr. Flint and his companion, Mr. Giddings, is spoken of, as one of the western type of preachers. He says: I heard the Rev. Dr. B. the favorite orator of Tennessee, preach. I would not wish to laud him in the same affected strain, with the encomiums of the blind minister of Virginia. But he is certainly an extraordinary man in his way. His first appearance is against him, indicating a rough and uncouth man. He uses many low words, and images and illustrations in bad taste. But perhaps, when you are getting tired, almost disgusted, everything is reversed in a moment. He flashes upon j^ou. You catch his ej'e and you follow him ; he bursts upon you in a glow of feeling 160 pjiiif RecoUeclions, 214, 215. T»i — Idem, 183. Mr. Peck speaks more plainly and even less justly of Mr. Flint. He says that his sermons while good and sometimes eloquent were borrowed from published sources such as Burder's Village Sermons. See Houck's History of Missouri, vol. iii, 229, 230. io8 TIMOTHY FLINT and pathos, leaving you not sufficiently cool to criticise. We may affect to decry the talent of movin<; the inmost affections. After all, I am inclined to think it the most important qualifi- cation, which a minister can possess. He possesses this in an eminent degree. He has the electric eye, the thrilling tones, the unction, the feeling, the universal language of passion and nature, which is equally understood and felt by all people. He has evi- dently been richly endowed by nature ; but his endowments owe little to discipline or education. '^- Rather a generous criticism, is it not, of a man who had warned the people as Doctor Blackburn had done in St. Louis, against "the New England emissaries of ^,the Hartford Convention." He adds a word about the New England preachers : there are a few of them, "plain men, of sound instruc- tion and good sense, who are respected for these quali- fications, but are not popular as orators.""^ We must turn now to things more intimately con- nected with Mr. Flint. Among the earliest difficul- ties in the new work at St. Charles was that of finding a place to live. Rent, Mr. Giddings says, cost the Flint family twelve to twenty dollars per month. His total income from his professional labors for the two full years of service here was considerably under four hundred dollars annually. During his first year in the territory, he lived in six different houses. Then he was driven out of a comfortable cottage, by a "pow- erful Kentuckian with a host of negroes," into a thir- teen by fourteen foot log hut with a ground floor, and Mrs. Flint's school for young ladies was broken up. It was at this time that the family set about to secure a house of their own, as a measure of economy and neces- 162 Flint. Recollections, 183, 184. 163 _ J^t;fn^ ig^. MINISTRY AT ST. CHARLES 109 sity, after having moved four times in a year/"* Upon this house the minister labored with his own hands during the week, to the scandal of some of his southern neighbors."^ In the new cottage the school was re- sumed. Some of their most pleasant experiences and friendships came through their schools.'"" Bible and tract distribution continued to be an im-^ portant part of his work. He apparently thought it even more effective than preaching. He gives some incidents of its efifectiveness. He had as high as twen- ty calls in one day for Bibles. He thought five hun- dred would not satisfy the demands."^ Mr. Giddings had a similar experience. Mr. Flint had at this time published his collection of hymns. He was teaching the people to sing them, being usually his own chor- ister as all western ministers were at that time. He occasionally opened a preaching point at some new place, nearby or as far as forty miles up the Missouri, and again thirty miles up the Mississippi, at Cuivre. At this latter point seven persons wished to form a church society and a like number at St. Charles wished to take the same step. Mr. Flint discouraged this move, thinking the numbers too small and their indi- vidual character unfit for so important an undertak- ing. He did urge however, the building of churches or meeting houses."^ This cautious disposition is one of the charges later against Mr. Flint- as showing in- competency. He reports audiences at all points as i«* Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, Nov. i, 1817. J«= Letter of Jan. 4, 1818. ^^^ Flint. Recollections, 194-197. 167 Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, April 15, 1817. '^^'^ Idem. Also letters of Aug. 3, 18x7 and June 4, 1818. no TIMOTHY FLINT growing during the First year, and it would seem that he was always regarded in this section as an eloquent and able preacher. Mr. Giddings so regarded him. In the second year Flint says, that to speak accurately he must say that his audiences are not growing, except at Bonhomc, where a church was organized October 1 8, i8i6.^"" He was compelled to say also that moral conditions were no better. He felt that there had been too much coloring of missionary reports in order to suit the eastern constituency of the society. There were occasional cases of seriousness which he reported from time to time but the burden of sin seemed to bear down with crushing force at this period. During part of his St. Charles labors he turned pe- destrian, both from motives of economy and health. He w^alked eighty miles in one week, and in seven weeks crossed the Missouri sixteen times. One year he did not receive more than enough money south of the river to pay his ferriage. It was ahvays danger- ous and many people lost their lives in crossing this river, yet he came to love the muddy stream so much that when he returned to it after an absence of two years he wrote some of his most interesting lines upon it.^^" He was continually occupied from daw^n until ten at night. His frail wife w^as not less driven with her school and home duties. Many of his business letters, and letters to his friends were written on a plank in some cabin during his journeys in the country.^" He 1^^ Letter of Salmon Giddings, Sept. 20, 1818; a!«o of Timoihy Flint. May 4, 1818. I'^o Flint. Recollections, 289-391. I'l Letter of Timothy Flint, April 15, 1S17. MINISTRY AT ST. CHARLES in had often been lost on the prairies, and again he had been charmed with the glory of the prairie fires, as seen in the distance at night. In spite of his philosophy, breadth, and geniality, the evils about him, and the burdens upon him, to- gether with his natural disposition for plain speech, and his New England notion of the ministry, led the missionary to such pointed condemnation of the open sins of his village and to take such steps against them, that during the second year of his residence, he had almost the entire community hostile to him. Even his friends at other places and his fellow ministers joined in the condemnation."' He says he did not then speak French well enough to preach in it but that he could and did use it to reprove and warn. He declares that Hindustan can not be more heathen than is their vil- lage, and it is not worse than others. In his letter of April 15, 1817, he gives the following picture of moral conditions: The sinners are most of them the worst of all - Gospel sin- ners - who have relinquished, and lost all, that they once had, or knew, or heard in a more favored country. The sick have no guidance - the dying no voice of prayer. The dead are carried unhonored, and almost unmourned to their long home. There is not to my knowledge a consecrated American burial ground in the whole territory'. I tremble for the influence of the general example upon my family and myself; and I am here feeble, and alone to contend for the cause of the blessed Redeemer. When my own heart is discouraged and cold, and these periods return too often, I am ready to imagine, that there is in the very atmos- phere, which w^e respire here, a moral miasma fatal to religious sensibility. As for natural sensibility, I am sure there is little here. The people have all broken the tenderest ties in coming ^"2 Letters of S. Giddings, St. Louis, Jan. 5, March 21, and May 23, i8i8. 112 TIMOTHY FLINT here. They have all witnessed great trials, and difficulties in passing these wide wildernesses. They have witnessed the dread- ful atrcKities of the savages. They have to struggle with the obstacles peculiar to a new country, and scenes of suffering, which make the hardest eastern heart thrill, produce here no impression. A man who could feel and write in this strain would be sure to do some preaching, which would go close home. So strongly does he feel that he is doing no good that he writes in August of this year that he must soon cease to take any money from the society. He thinks it is consecrated money and should not be wasted where it is in no way appreciated. It was at this time that he attacked the Sunday balls. The first day he preached here, there had been a horse race which started ofif just as he rode up to the preaching place, and but a few yards away.'" But the Sunday balls as a new and regular thing were more than he could stand. He wrote to the secretary of the Mis- sionary Society of Connecticut that he had threatened to report the offenders to the grand jury. Later he did so and they were punished by authority of the law. This extreme measure together with some other grievances against Mr. Flint brought his labors to a close. The whole story is told in three of Mr. Giddings's, letters to the Missionary Society of Connecticut."* It is a painful story, even as read in these almost cen- tury old letters. They are ungenerous letters, reflect- ing on the judgment of a good man. gone more than three quarters of a century to his reward. Had 1^3 Flint. Recollections, 125. 1^* See note 172. See also letter of Rev. Abel Flint (Hartford, April 30, i8i8), to Mr. Hempstead. The latter had reported some of Mr. Flint's difficulties to the Missionary Society of Connecticut. MINISTRY AT ST. CHARLES 113 it not been for his full reporting of the matter to the Missionary Society, we should have been in ignorance of any special difficulties in Mr. Flint's life at this time, or of the part which Mr. Giddings had in the matter, a part which clearly led to Flint's resignation of his mission. This result was not expected nor de- sired by Mr. Giddings.''" Although he was younger than Mr. Flint, had thirteen or fourteen years less experience in the ministry, and had gone west later than Mr. Flint, Mr. Giddings constituted himself, apparently, the head of the mission. In this capacity, it appears that he had reported to Reverend Abel Flint, secretary of the Missionary Society of Connec- ticut, late in 18 17, that there were damaging rumors afloat concerning Mr. Flint. The secretary asked for particulars. Mr. Giddings had not expected to have his remarks about his neighbor taken so seriously and he was reluctant about going into details. However, this request led Giddings to report, January 5, 1818, that the rumors had grown and that the people were universally prejudiced against Mr. Flint. For rea- sons which Giddings names but which charity forbids us to mention he did not at this time make a detailed statement. In March, however,"* he made ^^° Salmon Giddings, 1782-1828, was a native of Hartford, Conn., grad- uated at Williams College, T811, and at Andover Theological Seminary, 1814. He was tutor for one year at Williams after his theological course and then went to St. Louis under the Missionary Society of Connecticut, arriving a few weeks before the Flint family. He seems to have been a plain, honest, plodding man of ordinary abilities, not physically strong but faithful and largely efficient in the new world where his few years of work were accom- plished. On Giddings's life and work see Augustus T. Norton's History of the Presbyterian Church in the State of Illinois, 21, 33 fl., 37, 52. J. E. Roy's "Salmon Giddings" in Neio Englander (New Haven, 1874), vol. xxxiii, 513-532. 1^*5 Letter of S. Giddings, St. Louis, March 21, 1818. 114 TIMOTHY FLINT a particuhir statement. The charges against Mr. Flint summed up by the writer after he had investi- gated them are: ''He is a Speculator, Avaricious, Immoral and of course, not a Christian." Mr. Gid- dings says further in this letter that he has investigated many of the worst reports, traced them to their origin, '*and found them to be the oflspring of malice and without foundation, or at least very little to make any of them from." Two months later ^'^ Mr. Giddings reports that there is not nearly so much talk, feeling has subsided and that the better class of people have restored Mr. Flint in their good opinion. He thinks that the talk will blow over entirely and he hopes that Mr. Flint may be retained in the mission. He is very uncom- fortable over his part in the affair and adds a closely written note, and a cross line postscript to explain himself. But it was too late to recall what he had said and done. It seems to have been the mistake of an honest but overofficious and inexperienced man, zealous for the success of the common w'ork. The grounds for all the charges had been, Mr. Flint's plain speaking, his rebuking of outbreaking sins, his connection with a business enterprise at St. Louis, his endeavors to extricate himself from the debt that had resulted from his business failure and his family expenses, and especially his purchase and loca- tion of a land claim on an island above the town, where the people had long been accustomed to get their wood supply at the expense of the government. Here, when he forbade the removal of timber, Mr. Flint ran squarely against the age long and instinctive belief of 3^7 Letter of May 23, 181S. MINISTRY AT ST. CHARLES 115 European peoples that public lands are Commons and that any public or private interference with these rights should be resented vigorously. He speedily disposed of this claim and re-located'"* below the town at Point Prairie. Mr. Flint did not know until the third of June that his difficulties had been reported to the Society. He probably heard of it from Mr. Giddings while he was at St. Louis where he had regular preaching appoint- ments, on days when Mr. Giddings was absent. Mr. Flint does not connect his fellow missioner with the reports, but lays the responsibility on a Mr. Beebe who had lately been in Hartford. The letter* in which Mr. Flint resigns his mission and reviews his work with the society, and in which he refers briefly to the charges made against him, is in many ways the best now extant. Judged by this letter and by his remarks in his Rec- ollections several years later, Mr. Flint did not give Mr. Giddings the slightest occasion to confirm his notion that he was a man of quick or uncontrolled temper.''^ Mr. Flint declared that he had loved Mr. Giddings, that he had put his pride under and yielded to his judgment in matters pertaining to the mission and that he had taken the place assigned to him -that of a subordinate. Mr. Giddings letters also show that this was the relationship between them. Mr. Flint makes no elaborate attempt to defend or explain himself and takes a dignified and grateful leave of the Missionary Society.^*" i'** Mr. Gidding's letter of March 21, 1818. * See Appendix B. 170 Letter of Jan. 5, 1818. 180 Letter of Timothy Flint, June 4, 1818. VII. ON THE GREAT RIVER AND THE ARKANSAS Very soon after he resigned his mission in June, 1818, Mr. Flint was taken ill and had the long sick- ness to which reference has already been made. He was unconscious for thirty days.^^^ Mr. Giddings visited him at the end of August and says: Mr. Flint has a severe turn of sickness. For about four days the physicians did not think he would live from one day to an- other. His life was despaired of. He is mending or was the last I heard from him. I saw him about two days after his fever abated. He appeared much resigned, and said he thought he had enjoyed much of the presence of God during his sickness but appeared confident that he should not recover.^**-' In this letter, Mr. Giddings reports that they had organized a church at St. Charles on the twenty-ninth of August, two days after their Presbytery met. He named the eight people who formed the church and remarks that the step had the entire approbation of Mr. Flint. He says also that the people of the St. Charles church told him, at the time their church was formed, that they would no longer consider them- selves under Mr. Flint's care.'^' It appears however, that the local prejudice against Mr. Flint was rapidly passing, and that it was a case of "Ill-will" and "Pre- 181 Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, Jan. 15, 1822. 182 Letter of S. Giddings, St. Louis, Sept. 20, i8i8. is.'i — Idem, ii8 TIMOTHY FLINT judice" pouring dirt on "Mr. Goodman.'' It seems most probable that Mr. Flint continued to preach in St. Charles, after his recovery and until he left for the south. While he was preparing to go down the Mis- sissippi, a subscription for him, as pastor of the church, was started and so liberally supported, that he says it would have induced him, together w^ith other con- siderations, to have remained in St. Charles, had he known it in time.'"* St. Charles was one of the places which had strong attractions for Mr. Flint. There was a high bench above the town, looking far over the valley and prairie, and a favorite place of meditation. He had often thought to finish his career here, and had found the place where he hoped his ashes would rest. There were some very warm friends in the community and the place had become home to the wanderers.^^^ Mr. Flint had for several months been in corres- pondence with people in the south about church and school work. As early as August, 1817, he had an invitation from "Rapide on Red river." He had also at this time an invitation to go to Alabama, and another to go to Washington,^.neaiuNatG45ez^:J\lissis- ^si£pi. Two things were pulling him, the hope of adequate support, and a populous "country in a reli- gious point of view unexplored. "^'^^ This last place was finally decided upon, but the journey could not ^** Flint. Recollections, 215, 216. ^** — Idem. Also letter from St. Charles, Jan. 15, 1822. Bryan and Rose's Pioneer Families of Missouri has an interesting and complimentary sketch of Mr. Flint which seems to be made from local tra- ditions. It speaks of his opening a farm on the Marais Croche Lake where he raised cotton and made wine from wild grapes. ^s*" Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, Aug. 3, 1817. RIVER JOURNEYS 119 begin in the fall of 1818 as they had intended, because of the sickness and slow recovery of Mr. Flint. In April, 1819, they were ready to depart for the low country. It was a "solemn leave" that they took of their home and friends.'" Three years' residence in a new community go farther toward the making of a home than double that time can do in an older so- ciety. And this family was a home-loving one, though they were never to know a place as their own, while Mr. Flint lived, for more than a few years at a time. The family embarked upon a very large keelboat with an ignorant patron. They met with disaster upon disaster from the first of their journey. Only a few miles down the river, at Bellefountaine, they ran aground, and were extricated by the help of a file of soldiers from the garrison. At the mouth of the Mis- souri they were carried among the sawyers and nar- rowly escaped wreck. We were he says, "like to be sunk in the harbor at St. Louis by a leak in the bottom of our boat, which commenced in a dark and stormy night." Opposite "Flour Island" they were struck by an unusually severe storm which wrecked, in their sight, two other boats and drowned the occupants. Their boat was old and frail and its escape at this time, and a few days later "opposite the middle Chickasaw blufif," when it was caught in an eddy of the swollen river and almost broken in two, seemed miraculous. In this eddy a few days earlier a boat had been broken and wrecked. They were witnesses of a fourth wreck before they had reached the mouth of the Ar- kansas, five hundred miles down the Mississippi. It 1*'^ Letter of Jan. 15, 1822. 120 TIMOTHY FLINT was again proving itself the "wicked- river" as the boatmen called it/"" On the fifth of May they reached the White River in Arkansas. Mr. Flint says of this event in his Rec- ollections: We were swept round by the strong current of the Mississippi in our keel-boat between two green islands covered with rushes and cotton-wood trees, into a small bay which received the waters of White River. This is all a region of deep and universal inun- dation. There was from six to ten feet water over all the bot- toms ; and we had a wide display of that spectacle so common in the spring on the Mississippi, a dense forest of the largest trees, vocal with the song of birds, matted with every species of tangled vegetation, and harboring in great numbers the turkey-buzzard, and some species of eagles ; and all this vegetation apparently ris- ing from the bosom of dark and discolored waters. I have never seen a deeper forest except of evergreens. The waters of the White River were so clear that they could see the great catfishes among the smaller fishes of all kinds. But no baited hook could tempt them."" From the White River they soon passed by a cross channel to the Arkansas River. They had planned to go up this river to the "Post" some fifty miles distant by water, and leave a consignment of tracts and Bibles which they had for the new territory. They were met at the point where they struck the Arkansas River, or near there, by some prominent people of the "Post" who persuaded them to try this place as a location for their mission. Mrs. Flint was sick at the time and they had enough of experience in these new regions to know that it would be well to go to the south by is^ Flint. Recollections, 217-219, also letter frcin St. Charles, Jan. 15, 1822. ^^^ Flint. Recollections, 252-354. RIVER JOURNEYS 121 stages/"'' So it was decided to spend at least the first summer at the "Post" before continuing to Natchez. Mr. Flint noticed that the Arkansas River marked the border of a new climate.'"' The river itself interested him greatly. He speaks of its reddish waters, the narrow strips of land which formed the banks on either side and through which, during the high waters, the river poured at frequent intervals into the swamps and lagoons which flanked it. These bayous and lagoons he found conforming to the curves of the river, and when they were full during the spring floods, they had a current moving with the river. They were often thirty miles in width. In summer they were covered with a great lily-like flower, the leaves of which completely covered the water in many places. Great forests stretched over most of these flooded regions.'"" The curves or bends in this river, which it has in common with other rivers of the region, were features of much interest and speculation to Mr. Flint. He thought their regularity must be the result of some unknown law.'"^ The upper regions of the river, which however, he did not visit since he did not go, so far as can be discovered, more than one hundred miles above the "Post," were also places of much inter- est to him. He had studied the reports of travelers about the habits of the river in its upper courses, how it issues from the mountains a clear and rapid stream, and upon the plains loses itself in the sands. 19" Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, Jan. 15, 1822. "1 Flint. Recollections, 256. 192 _ i^ejj,^ 256, 264 ff. 193 _ i^ern, 264, 265. \ 122 TIMOTHY FLINT His prophecy about these sandy plains through which the Arkansas flows is interesting in view of the late developments in that region. Here where the river loses itself in the burning and shifting sands he thinks the buffalo, elk, and bear will range until they "will in ages to come be the resorts of shepherds." ^°* ''Providence," he thinks, ''seems to have provided that men can hardly subsist among them." Here on these vast and sandy plains will be for ages the "Syrtes of America." '^^ In the midst of these sandy regions are now some of the most valuable and productive lands of the whole country, yielding not merely the wild grape of which Mr. Flint had heard more than we now know, but fruits of many kinds, sugar beets, melons, and vegetables, besides many farm products, in an amazing abundance, while the entire region had long been occupied by the cattle men with their vast herds before it was used by the farmer. Mr. Flint occasionally indulged in prophecy and in some in- stances he has come surprisingly near the facts as they have been realized in history.^^^ In the case of the upper Arkansas regions he has gone farther astray than is usual with him. The cypress tree attracted his special notice among the trees of the lower Arkansas countPy^ It consti- tuted a vast proportion of the swamp forests, growing always in water, covered with a thick coat of green, buff, velvet-like matter, while the trees themselves were covered with long moss, or "Spanish beard." 19* Flint. Recollections, 268. ^*" — Idem, 255, 256. i9« See Western Monthly Revievi, vol. i, 255-263. RIVER JOURNEYS 123 Concerning the effect of these forests on the observer he says : No prospect on earth can be more gloomj'. The poetic Styx or Acheron had not a greater union of dismal circumstances. Well may the cypress have been esteemed a funereal and lugu- brious tree.^®^ The **Post" of Arkansas [Arkansas Post], they found a rough frontier settlement on a narrow ridge of land rising out of the Arkansas. In front of it was the river and at the back a swamp which was tribu- tary to the White River thirty miles distant. This ridge was but six hundred yards wide and about ten feet above high water. The entire population of the territory, which was only about ten thousand at this time, was settled at a few points along the rivers. ^''^ Mr. Flint was in Arkansas only five months and did not have the opportunities for travel that he had in Missouri, but in this short time he visited several points up and down the Arkansas River, and, appar- ently, the higher country to the north."' He found the territorial legislature enacting "what they would call 'the blue laws' of old Virginia," and on the succeeding Sabbath the legislators and judges would fall to their usual vocation of gambling throughout the day.'"" He says of the inhabitants : The people of this region are certainly more rough and un- tamed than those of the state of Missouri, or of the more north- ern and western regions. But yet, even the inhabitants here were far from deserving the character that has generally been given to 197 Flint. Recollections, 261-263. '»^— Idem, 265-267. 198 _ [jgj„^ 2^, 265. 200 _ j^gj„^ 269. 124 TIMOTHY FLINT the best of the population of these countries. The redeeming influence of American feelings, laws, and institutions, was suflS- ciently infused into the new government to carry it into quiet effect throughout the country.-"' Mr. Flint thought there was no other country which could show such bigotry and enthusiasm, run to such glaring absurdity. He visited and studied carefully a sect known as the "Pilgrims" which had started in Lower Canada and come to the end of its course, with but six persons left, near the "Post" in Arkansas. They had been going southwest to find the New Jerusalem, and at this point had found the fever which had put an end to their search for the Heavenly City on earth. Their principle was the forsaking of the world. Their practice was never to change their clothes, wash themselves, or follow an occupation. Their chant, when entering a village was, "Praise God, repent, fast, pray." Mr. Flint's description of the sect extends through several pages of the Recol- lections^ and is worth the notice of students of reli- gious fads."°" Mr. Flint's experience in preaching here was one of the most tr^'^ing he was ever called upon to endure in his capacity as a minister. The services were held in the Court House. There were no religious habits, and he felt that his few sermons had but little efifect. Some emotion was visible, but he felt that his mission was like that of the itinerants, and that both his and their work was like the fire that passes over a stubble field, lightly, and which in a few days leaves no sign of its presence.""^ -"1 Flint. Recollections, 269, 270. 203 — Idem, 274. -"- — Idem, 275-280. RIVER JOURNEYS 125 At this time Mr. Flint was preaching in French, though his pronunciation was defective, because most of his audience was of that nation. He says of these hearers: The French people generally came to the place of worship, arrayed in their ball -dresses, and went directly from worship to the ball. A billiard-room was near, and parts of my audience sometimes came in for a moment, and after listening to a few sen- tences, returned to their billiards. ^°* This last experience he had at other places as well. While he was one hundred miles up the river, prob- ably at the Mulberry settlement, in July, his family was taken sick with the epidemic fever of the country. All of them were seized except Mr. Flint. A negro child died in his family. His hired negro servant was taken sick and he could get no one else. The only doctor they could trust, a member of his family at the time, was sick also. Mrs. Flint and Micah were so ill as to be thought hopeless. There were a great many deaths all about them. For sixty days Mr. Flint says, he was nurse, physician, and house- keeper.^°^ It was at this time that they suffered from a hurri- cane. His journal and other manuscripts were lost. He says: This manuscript, together with many others, was blown away in a hurricane which occurred on the Arkansas, in which every part of the house where we resided was penetrated by the wind and rain ; and in which the suffering and danger of a sick family precluded anxiety' upon any other score.^°® It was during this summer too, that the family ex- 2"* Flint. Recollections, 274. 2*^^ — Idem, 271, 272. Also letter from St. Charles, Jan. 15, 1822. 20« Flint. Recollections, 4, i2t. TIMOTHY FLINT perienced drenching rain and thunder storms for thirty-six days in succession.'"' Added to these larger afflictions was a lesser one ; that ought not to be entirely overlooked, and will not ' be by any one who has had anything of a similar ex- \ perience. It was the pest of mosquitoes. The ^ natives had grown somewhat accustomed to it though they excused their heavy drinking by the necessity ; they were under of thus gaining relief from the miser- ies caused by this pest. They called the reverie or the insensibility of drunkenness "a musquitoe dose." The Flints could not eat a meal at their table all that summer without first kindling a fire under the table, out of the most offensive materials. Of his expe- riences at night Flint says: I slept under a ver)' close mosquito curtain. I would soon be- come oppressed for want of breath under the curtain, and when I drew it up and attempted to inhale a little of the damp and sultry atmosphere, the mosquitoes would instantly settle on my face in such numbers that I was soon obliged to retreat behind my curtain again. Thus passed those dreadful nights, amidst the groans of my family, calls for medicine and drink, suffocation behind my curtain, or the agony of mosquito stings, as soon as I was exposed to the air.-"* Mr. Flint tells us in the letter to the Missionary So- ciet\', that under the conditions of their summer in Arkansas the entire family came to have an aversion to the low country and thought only of getting back to the north. As early as possible, and while Mrs. Flint had still to be carried, they took boat and started to return to St. Charles, in the early part of October, 1 819. Boatmen often failed them and Mr. Flint was -°~ Flint. A condensed Geography and History, vol. I, 582. -^^ Flint. Recollections, 272, 273. RIVER JOURNEYS 127 obliged to handle the boat with the help of his three children who still had the ague and were sick every other day.""" Near the mouth of the Arkansas, at St. Francis, they stopped with Mr. Phillips, an acquaint- ance, who pressed them to remain with him until the river should be higher next spring. At this season it was so low that there were almost no boats upon the river, all steamboats being laid up. Mr. Flint de- sired to stay but Mrs. Flint and the family were so anxious to leave the country that it was decided to go Qn.=^° As this was to be the saddest journey of all that this long suffering family experienced, it will be quite in place to notice its joys. It was a beautiful fall. Nature was at her best, most wild and beautiful. The paroxysms of ague, when they were passed, left a kind of poetic excitement, not unlike that produced by opium, and making one capable of a high degree of enjoyment. Mr. Flint gives us a picture of one of these nights : Then, when we were made fast in a cove on the wide sand-bar ; when the moon, with her circumference broadened and reddened by the haze and smoke of Indian summer, rose, and diffused, as Chateaubriand so beautifully says, the "great secret of melancholy over these ancient forests ;" after our evening prayers, and the fa- vorite hymn, "The day is past and gone," etc. I have spent hours in traversing the sand-bars entirely alone.-^^ Progress up the river was very slow. They had not gone far before their two "hands" fell ill and left Mr. Flint and the two boys, to drag the six ton boat up the river. Some days the boys were sick with the ague -0" Letter ox Timothy Flint, St. Charles, Jan. 15, 1832. 21° Flint. Recollections, 283. 211 — Idem, 285. 128 TIMOTHY FLINT and the father toiled alone at the cordelle. The boat would lodge on sandbars and he would have to go into the water and push it off though the ice was at times strong enough along the shore to bear his weight."'" They toiled at one place for two or three days and were about to lay by for the winter when a fortunate wind aided them with their sail to go on. They exhausted their provisions, and were at the point of hunger when they sighted a boat loaded with flour and pork. They were compelled to pay thirty dollars for a barrel of each, the boatmen discovering and tak- ing advantage of their plight."'"' When they had accomplished two hundred miles of their journey up the Mississippi, and were "opposite the second Chickasaw blufif," at a point called "Rare Paths" and thirty miles from human habitation, on the twenty-sixth of November, there occurred the most touching incident that is possible in the experience of a Christian family. Mr. Flint tells the story at length in the Recollections,'^* and more briefly but with a few additional details in his letter to the Missionary So- ciety."'^ Flint says: At ten in the morning we perceived indications of a severe approaching storm. The air was oppressively sultry. Brassy clouds were visible upon all quarters of the sky. Distant thun- der was heard. We were upon a wide sandbar far from any house. Opposite to us was a vast cypress swamp. At this pe- riod, and in this place, Mrs. F. was taken in travail. My children, wrapped in blankets, laid themselves down on the sand-bar. I secured the boat in every possible w^ay against the danger of being -1- Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, Jan. 15, 1822. 213 Flint. Recollections, 285, 286. 214 See pages 286-288. 212 Jan. 15, 1822. RIVER JOURNEYS 129 driven by the storm into the river. At eleven the storm burst upon us in all its fury. Mrs. F. had been salivated during her fever, and had not yet been able to leave her couch. I was alone with her in this dreadful situation. Hail, and wind, and thunder, and rain in torrents poured upon us. I was in terror, lest the wind would drive my boat, notwithstanding all her fas- tenings, into the river. No imagination can reach what I en- dured. [Nothing left but God, and He appeared for us. - Letter.] The only alleviating circumstance was her perfect tranquillity. She knew that the hour of sorrow, and expected that of death, was come. She was so perfectly calm, spoke with such tranquil assurance about the future, and about the dear ones that were at this moment, " 'biding the pelting of the pitiless storm" on the sand-bar, that I became calm myself. A little after twelve the wind burst in the roof of my boat, and let in the glare of the lightning, and the torrents of rain upon my poor wife. I could really have expostulated with the elements in the language of the poor old Lear. I had wrapped my wife in blankets, ready to be carried to the shelter of the forest, in case of the driving of my boat into the river. About four the fury of the storm began to subside. At five the sun in his descending glory burst from the dark masses of the receding clouds. At eleven in the evening Mrs. F. was safely delivered of a female infant, and, notwith- standing all, did well. The babe, from preceding circumstances, was feeble and sickly, and I saw could not survive. At midnight we had raised a blazing fire. The children came into the boat. Supper was prepared, and we surely must have been ungrateful not to have sung a hymn of deliverance. There can be but one trial more for me that can surpass the agony of that day, and there can never be on this earth a happier period than those midnight hours. The babe stayed with us but two days and a half, and expired. The children, poor things, laid it deeply to heart, and raised a loud lament. We were, as I have remarked, far away from all human aid and sympathy, and left alone with God. We deposited the body of our lost babe - laid in a small trunk for a coffin - in a grave amidst the rushes, there to await the resurrec- tion of the dead. The prayer made on the occasion by the father. ijo TIMOTHY FLINT with the children for concourse and mourners, if not eloquent, was, to us at least, deeply affecting. The grave was made on a high bank, opposite to "the second Chickasaw bluff," a rude memorial was raised on the spot and the place became sacred in the memories of the devoted family. Micah, some years later, wrote "Lines on Passing the Grave of My Sis- ter." It was published in the Western Monthly Re- vieii\'^^ and will be found in Appendix C. -^6 See vol. i, 651-653. VIII. PREACHING AND FARMING IN MISSOURI After the pathetic incident related at the close of the last chapter, the Flint family proceeded on their pain- ful and sorrowful journey up the river. They were fortunate enough to secure two men to aid them at this time, but after two weeks more of travel, when they had reached the southern line of Missouri, the ice be- gan to hinder them, and the weather grew severe. These difficulties together with the fact that their boat, though it drew but thirty inches of water, was contin- ually striking on the sand bars, led them to land at New Madrid, with the intention of completing their journey by land.^'' But St. Charles was still more than two hundred miles distant, they were yet feeble from their recent sicknesses, and the season and region most unfavorable for such a journey to be undertaken by a family. This village of New Madrid was not so wretched and abandoned a place as Mr. Flint had expected to find it. There were some rare people there, who, when the Flints came to know them and to experience their kindliness and hospitality, were remembered ever after as among their choicest friends. This was not only for their work's sake toward the strangers but for their intrinsic worth of character. This place 217 Flint. Recollections, 219, 220, 288. 132 TIMOTHY FLINT had in past years been the scene of several serious at- tempts under the Spanish rule, to found a strong col- ony. There were some prominent French and Amer- ican families located here as a result of such an attempt by a General Morgan of New Jersey. An elderly lady, Mrs. Gray, gave the family a part of her house and here they lived for the winter, from the middle of December, when they arrived, until the spring or early summer.'^^ There were several congenial families here, and with their help Mr. Flint began religious services, which he considered quite successful, and especially so as far as the Catholics were concerned. A Sunday School was formed apparently at this time, and was continued under the care of Mrs. Gray for several years, though Mr. Flint speaks of her as having seen seventy winters. "^^ It would seem that there were those here who desired to have Mr. Flint settle as their minister and that a subscription was raised for that purpose. However, the people failed to pay what they promised and the minister moved on after a few months, to the county town, Jackson, some fift>^ miles up the river."° In New Madrid, Mr. Flint experienced, he says: "a harrowing degree of interest, in the disappoint- ments and sufiferings of these original adventurers," many of whom had been reared in all the tenderness of opulence and plenty, and were from highly culti- vated and distinguished French families."^ 21** Flint. Recollections, 220, 221. -^'■* — Idem, 220, 228. --0 Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, Jan. 15, 1822. --1 Flint. Recollections, 221. PREACHING AND FARMING IN MISSOURI 133 There was also another local interest at this place upon which he dwells at much length, namely, the great earthquakes which had occurred seven years before his arrival there, that is, in 1 8 1 2. This disaster had almost a morbid interest for Mr. Flint as it had of course, for many of those who witnessed it. The original shocks had occurred in two series of concus- sions. At one time the movement of the earth was vertical. At another time it was horizontal. There were great chasms opened in the earth running from northeast to southwest. Hundreds of these were still visible when Mr. Flint was there. The earth had seemed to burst in other places. Such were the phenomena near New Madrid on the Mississippi River. The result was that the waters were thrown back into the bayous, many boats were wrecked, and others were landed there and abandoned with their cargoes, by their owners. Provisions, in consequence lost almost all value in the New Madrid district. The bed of the river was changed at different points. Lakes were made and unmade. For a distance of three hundred miles below New Madrid the face of the country was changed in many striking ways. The cemetery on a high point of land overlooking the river at New Madrid had been cast into the river. The town had been largely depopulated, and many houses, with orchards and farms were still abandoned at the time even of Mr. Flint's visit. No buildings had been erected after the earthquakes except the lightest kind.'" As the people grew more experienced with the dan- --- Flint. Recollections, 222-228. 134 TIMOTHY FLINT gers, a unique plan of deliverance from the opening chasms in the earth, was hit upon. The tallest trees were felled to the northwest and the southeast, at right angles to the direction in which the chasms opened. When the earthquake premonitions were heard, the people hurried to their felled trees. Mr. Flint says, that by this means all were saved though openings often occurred under the tree trunks on which the people were mounted."^ The government came to the aid of the stricken people and allowed them to locate on public lands in other sections in place of ruined or abandoned farms in the devastated district."'* Several strange phenomena are reported by Mr. Flint. There were said to have been continued and vivid flashes of lightning in the western sky on per- fectly clear nights, in the intervals between the earth- quake shocks. There were at such times, subterra- nean thunders. The worst of these was thought to have been on the night in which the fatal earthquakes at Caracas, Venezuela, occurred. Birds and animals were said to have fled in terror to the people for pro- tection. Where the earth burst, water, sand, and pit- coal were hurled in great volumes as high as the tops of the trees."^ Occasional shocks had been felt during the seven years. While they sat by Mrs. Gray's winter fire, he says: We were not unfrequently interrupted for a moment by the ^^^ Flint. RecollectioTts, 226. 224 — Idem, 227. Letter of 8. Giddings, St. Louis, March 21, 1818. iic — Idem, 223, 224. PREACHING AND FARMING IN MISSOURI 135 distant and hollow thunder of the approaching earthquake. An awe, a slight paleness passed over every countenance. The nar- rative was suspended for a moment, and resumed. '*•* Little is told about the year or more, that the Flint family spent in Jackson, Missouri.* He was engaged in preaching and did much traveling. There was considerable talk among the German people for whom he preached a part or all of this time about liberal pay, but after he had left that section and returned to St. Charles he said that he had received nothing but promises for his services as minister. He and the family earned their living by their labor and had managed to keep out of debt."' From references that he makes to German pupils, though he does not say where he had them, and from the fact that the school was always so closely related to their missionary work and so sure a means of helping to make a living, it is altogether likely that this was a part of their work here. It is also likely that some farming was done. The oldest son was in his eighteenth year and the sec- ond son, Hubbard, was twelve or thirteen years old at this time. Flint says about his time spent in Jackson that it was "more devoid of interest, or of attachment, or comfort, or utility, than in any other part of the country." He says : The people are extremely rough. Their country is a fine range for all species of sectarians, furnishing the sort of people in abundance, who are ignorant, bigoted, and think, by devotion to --'■' Flint. RecollertioTis, 229. * For this period in Flint's travels see Hoiick's History of Missouri, vol. iii, 232. 22' Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Cliarle?, Jan. 15, 1822. 1 3b TIMOTHY FLINT some favored preacher or sect, to atone for the want of morals and decency, and everything that appertains to the spirit of Christianity.--* It is of this section that Mr. Flint speaks especially when he makes one of his most interesting remarks on the religious character of the western people. He says: They are anxious to collect a great many people and preachers, and achieve, if the expression may be allowed, a great deal of religion at once, that they may lie by, and be exempt from its rules and duties until the regular recurrence of the period for replen- ishing the stock. Hence we witness the melancholy aspect of much appearance and seeming, frequent meetings, spasms, cries, fallings, faintings, and, what I imagine will be a new aspect of religious feeling to most of my readers, the religious laugh. Nothing is more common at these scenes, than to see the more forward people on these occasions indulging in what seemed to me an idiot and spasmodic laugh, and when I asked what it meant, I was told it was the holy laugh ! Preposterous as the term may seem to my readers, the phrase "holy laugh" is so familiar to me, as no longer to excite surprise. But in these same regions, and among these same people, morals, genuine tenderness of heart, and capacity to be guided either by reason, persuasion, or the uniform dictates of the gospel, was an affecting desideratum.--® The scene of Mr. Flint's George Mason is prob- ably laid here in Missouri, rather than in Mississippi, where he has located it in the story. He never resided in the latter state. The trying experiences of the New England minister's family under the name of the Masons must tell much of what the Flints felt and suffered keenly from, in the rude society of Jackson, and other places as well. Mr. Flint would not give expression to it in his letters or in his Recollections. It was a part of the many things that he withheld not 228 Flint. Recollections, 232. 229 __ Jdem, 238, 239. PREACHING AND FARMING IN MISSOURI 137 "blazoning" them even to his f riends."^" In the story of George Mason we see how the poverty of the New England family is despised by the rich planters, how their modesty and reticence is taken for pride, and how their unwillingness to conform to the rude reli- gious and social customs of their neighbors leads to their ostracism and even persecution. The sons of the two wealthiest planters fall in love with the twelve year old daughter of the New England family and in their frontier way proceeded to woo her despite the protests of mother and daughter, that she was only a child. [Mr. Flint's daughter Emeline was about fif- teen when they lived in Jackson.] In the south that age was considered quite old enough for courtship and marriage. The author remarks that he had fre- quently seen mothers but fourteen years of age. While at Jackson, Mr. Flint was much interested in the nearby German settlement on the Whitewater River. These people were from Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Germany direct. They were settled in the forests and very much isolated both by their habits and location. Flint thought they had preserved their nationality better even than their countrymen in Pennsylvania. Indeed he remarks l about this time that he thinks all the Europeans, and the Anglo-Americans as well, are far more devoted to their national and state habits after they have once lost themselves in this new world. Much of the infelicity of society in the new country he says came from this clannishness, aggravated by the strange surroundings \ and the latent homesickness of the people."^^ He has 230 Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, Jan. 15, 1822. 231 Flint. Recollections, 244. 138 TIMOTHY FLINT no fear but that this marked trait of the early western society will pass and all will be proud to be a part of the nation that is soon to be a recognized power in the family of nations.""*' The Germans, he considered the most prosperous class of people in the west. The French seemed to him the least so. The very appearance of many of them, "spare, thin, sallow, and tanned, with their flesh adhering to their bones, and apparently dried to the consistency of parchment" was in striking and elo- quent contrast to the "large, stout, and ruddy-looking men and women," in the German settlements, x^s a race the French did not rise above indigence, while the Germans were generally independent and often rich. Everything about their farms had the appear- ance of permanence and strength. Their cattle and horses were large. He said : They spend Htde, and when they sell will receive nothing in pay but specie. Every stroke counts towards improvement. Their wives have no taste for parties and tea. Silent, unwearied labor, and the rearing of their children, are their only pursuits ; and in a few years they are comparatively rich. The French were "a poor race of hunters, crowded in villages with mud hovels, fond of conversation and coffee." Next to the Germans in prosperity were the Anglo-Americans, then the Scotch, while the direct emigrants from England were only more successful than the French."^ Mr. Flint found his German parishioners anxious for religious instruction and devoted to the German ideals of honesty and industry, though they had one great weakness. He says : 232 Flint. Recollections, 252. ^ss — Idem, 237. PREACHING AND FARMING IN MISSOURI 139 But almost every farmer has his distillery, and the pernicious poison, whiskey, dribbles from the corn ; and in their curious dia- lect, they told me, that wlu'le they wanted religion, and their chil- dren baptized, and a minister as exemplary as possible, he must allow the honest Dutch, as they call themselves, to partake of the native beverage. And they undertook to prove that the swearing and drunkenness of a Dutchman was not so bad as that of an American. One of them was reproved for his intemperance and profaneness, and it was remarked that he had been zealous and i very strict in his religious profession in Carolina. "Never mind," said he, "this is a bad countrj' for religion. I know that I have lost him," he continued, "but never mind, by and by the good breacher," as he phrased it, "will come along, and 1 shall pick him all up again.-"* These people had brought a minister named Wei- berg with them to the country. He was an educated man but a notorious drunkard. Says Mr. Flint: The earnest manner in which he performed divine service in their own ritual [the Lutheran] and in their own language, car- ried away all their affections. . . After service he would get drunk, and as often happens among them, was quarrelsome. They claimed indulgence to get drunk themselves, but were not quite so clear in allowing their minister the same privilege. When the time came to pay their subscriptions they refused on the ground of his failing. Three succes- sive years he sued for and recovered his salary. And To reinstate himself in their good will, it was only necessary for him to take them when a sufficient quantity of whiskey had opened their phlegmatic natures to sensibility, and then give them a vehe- ment discourse, as they phrased it. in the pure old Dutch, and give them a German hymn of his own manufacture, for he was a poet, too, and the subscription paper was once more brought forward. They who had lost their suit and had been most fnveterate in their dislike, were thawed out, and crowded about the paper either to sign their name or make their mark.-^^ 23* Flint. Recollections, 233. 235 — Idem, 334, 335. 140 TIMOTHY FLINT But the Reverend Herr Weiberg had finally been banished to a neighboring German colony and the Yankee ''Breacher" was in his place. He occasionally returned to Germany as it was called, to taste their whiskey and cider. . . He came to the house of Madam Ballinger, where I usually stayed when among them. "Well," said he, "I judge you will now get good fast, now that you have a Yankee breacher. Does he know one word of Dutch?" "Very little, I suppose," she replied ; but in order to vindicate her preach- er, she added, "but he knows French," etc., and she went on giving my knowledge of various languages, according to her own fancy: "And, mein Gott, what I tinks much good, he does not drink one trop of whiskey!" ^^^ Mr. Flint says further about his German congre- gation, I had the good fortune to be very acceptable to this people, although I could not smoke, drink whiskey, nor talk German. They made various efforts to fix my family among them. And, as the highest expression of good will, they told me that they would do more than they had done for Weiberg.-^^ Whether it was because the "Yankee breacher" 236 The funeral customs of these German people may be of interest. Flint says — "I attended a funeral, where there were a great number of them present. After I had performed such services as I was used to perform on such occasions, a most venerable looking old man, of the name of Nycswinger, with a silver beard that flowed down his chin, came forward and asked me if I were willing that he should perform some of their peculiar rites. I of course wished to hear them. He opened a very ancient version of Luther's hymns, and they began to sing in German, so loud that the woods echoed the strain; and 3et there was something affecting in the singing of these ancient people, carrying one of their brethren to his long home, in the use of the language and rites which they had brought with them over the sea from the 'fader land,' a word which often occurred in their hymn. It was a long, loud, and mournful air, which they sung as they bore the body along. The words 'mein Gott,' 'mein broder,' and 'fader land,' died away in the distant woods. Remembrances and associations rushed upon me, and I shall long remember that funeral hymn." ~ Recollections, 235, 236. 237 Flint. Recollections, 236. PREACHING AND FARMING IN MISSOURI 141 could not meet them in more of their social customs, whether it was because he would not pursue Weiberg's method of collecting his salary and renewing the sub- scriptions, is not known. It is clear, however, that the promises and efforts amounted to nothing; and early in September, 1821, after spending almost two years in southern Missouri, the family started overland for St. Charles."* On this one hundred and fifty mile journey they probably had some heavy conveyance which would carry their household effects and the mother and in- fant. For, during this summer, a fifth child (the fourth to live) was born to them, on June 8, 1821, at Jackson. He was named James Timothy."^ Their "Joseph" Mr. Flint calls him. He was to be their comfort indeed in after years. This journey to St. Charles would lead them by a way that was not as strange as all their former paths in a new country. There would be friends and ac- quaintances at Ste. Genevieve. There were the Hempsteads and many others at St. Louis. The jour- ney was leisurely for they did not reach St. Charles until about the middle of October."*** Their former farm home below St. Charles had been sold when they left in the spring of 18 19. Still they felt that there they were at home. Mr. Flint says in the letter to the Missionary Society, January 15, 1822, that their welcome had been very cordial from their former friends in St. Charles, and that he 238 Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, Jan. 15, 1822. 239 Family Records. Manuscripts in Boston Public Library and Library of Harvard University. 240 Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, Jan. 15, 1822. U2 TIMOTHY FLINT had obtained a perpetual lease on a farm four miles from St. Charles, having ''determined to farm for subsistence, and to preach altogether gratis." This farm must have been below the village and near where their former home had been. In the Recollec- tions,''' he makes acknowledgment of special indebt- edness to two families who lived below St. Charles at the "Point." The letter continues : We began w ith some degree of cheerfulness to build our cabin, where we expected to end our days. The second day of our labor, we were all struck in one day with the dreadful fever of the country. We were penniless and homeless. For more than 30 days, all consciousness and remembrance was lost to mc. The neighbors took Mrs. F. and me to one house, our daughter was carried to another. Mrs. F. had an infant and it was taken from the breast, and carried to another place. My two boys had but a slight attack, and went to another place. The first of January' we were all re-assembled in the cabin, where v/e now live, but all afflicted with the ague, which has now followed me sevent}' days. The Recollections adds some details to the story of this sad homecoming. In the height of his fever, cir- cumstances made it necessary for Mr. Flint to be re- moved from the house where he w^as taken sick. While he was unable to raise himself in bed, he was moved in a carriage to a house six miles distant. He writes: Sick as we were and probable as the prospect was, that some of us would add the trouble of funeral rites and duties to the labor and cares of nursing us, they never remitted their kindness for a moment. He is not permitted to name these friends, but as he looks back upon those dreary days, writing a few 2*1 Page 190. > n H n PREACHING AND FARMING IN MISSOURI 145 years later, probably in Salem, or perhaps at the pa- rental home in North Reading, he says: How often, when flunking of these families, to whom we owe so much, have I remembered Gray's beautiful verses - "Full many a gem," etc.^*" By the first of the year, 1822, the cabin had been completed, and probably much earlier for the two boys, as we have seen, w^ere not seriously ill. There was another trouble, however, for the missionary let- ter says: We are now for the first time in debt. [He probably means debt as a result of living expenses and sickness.] I have no appar- ent means of payment - for I am utterly incapable of assisting my family, and Mrs. Flint has the ague sometimes many days in suc- cession. Under these circumstances, we are discouraged with the country. Our industry, we think, would avail us more in a healthier climate. The people of St. Charles have shown great kindness, but our situation is still sufficiently wretched. We seem to have no prospect here, but to wear out with continual fever and ague. Our friends at the eastward propose to assist us in some small degree, to return to Mass. Perhaps your society, which assisted us to come here, will compassionate our case, and join our friends in aiding us to return. Any of the Missionaries here will inform you that instead of blazoning our misfortunes, we have kept the greater part of them back. Perhaps your society will think it as meritorious, to assist a distressed, and worn out family to revisit their friends - as to fit the fresh Miss, out.-*^ Mr. Flint was an honorable and independent man, and his putting aside his pride to write the above letter would not be the least of his sufferings. He would not have done it at all but for the helpless family, which he was not then able to do anything for, and for which he seemed unlikely to be able to provide 242 Page 191. 2^"^ Letter of Timothy Flint, St. Charles, Jan. 15, 1823. 140 TIMOTHY FLINT in that section. Certainly none will dare to charge him with anything of the pauper spirit in this instance until they have entered into some sympathy with the desperate situation in which his family was at this time placed. Hear him a little farther, though one shrinks from making public even at this day what cost a brother, as this cost Mr. Flint. He writes: You can easily conceive the strong repugnance, which I feel at making a proposal so humiliating to our natural feelings. But I may say with the catholic church, "e profundis exclamavi." I have looked upon my family, and all pride has sunk within me. The view of their condition has wrung from me this pro- posal. I have traveled farther - and have suffered more, and have preached as much - as any Miss, in the country. Should your society see fit to remit me something in aid of my returning next fall, I may, perhaps, see you, and thank you and them in per- son. At any rate you will not censure this my proposal until you have placed yourselves in my situation in fancy, in an open cabin, one or the other still groaning with the ague - and no resource, but the casual kindness of a few friends, whom the frequent view of similar cases has rendered callous to them. I am persuaded, my dear Sir [Reverend Abel Flint, secretary of the Missionary Society of Connecticut] that you will give our case a kind and considerate hearing, and that your delicacy will not expose our case, except there be some prospect of some assist- ance. Should I survive my present complaint, of which I some- times doubt, it is doubtful, if I shall ever be able to preach again, though my friends seem anxious, that I should resume my labors here. But whether I recover, or not, whether your society aid me, or not, I am resigned, I am, and shall be personally your affectionate friend, and hum. serv. T. Flint. One feels that the appeal to the Missionary Society of Connecticut was just and proper. It would not seem that anyone who contributed to the funds of the PREACHING AND FARMING IN MISSOURI 147 society at that time would have objected to such use of the money when they knew even a small part of the story. But a careful and repeated study of the So- ciety's list of disbursements for the year 1822'" and of the six thousand three hundred, four dollars and sixty-six and one-half cents disbursed by order of the trustees, not one cent went to the Flint family though there were three other missionaries in the new state of Missouri who received a total of four hundred, eighty-five dollars. It ought to be said, however, that aid may very possibly have been sent to Mr. Flint from constituents of the society and through its influ- ence. Such items, probably, would not be officially reported. 2ii Tiventy-Fourtli Annual Narrative of Missions (Hartford, 1823) has a statement of the funds for the year 1822. IX. FLORIDA AND NEW ORLEANS Whether or not Mr. Flint served the St. Charles church as minister after his recovery in the w^inter of 1822, and until his departure in October of that year, we are not informed. It is altogether likely that he preached for them at least a part of the time. He and the boys devoted themselves to their farm during the spring and summer.'" It is quite probable that during this year Mr. Flint was doing something with his pen, hoping thus to help gain a living and do his part of the world's work. His George Mason very likely chronicles something of this year's experiences, as for instance when Mr. Mason is represented as working on a book which he had expected to find time and inspiration to finish, here in his Arcadia. But with the work of clearing a little garden spot in the forest. The father's hands were one blister. . . The severe toil, too, caused Mr. Mason rheumatic pains and sleepless nights. He found, moreover, when stormj' weather confined him to the house, that a body full of the pains of exhausting labor, would not allow scope to his thoughts, when he sat down to his great work with his pen. Unremitting toil, in such a frame, blunts the sen- sibilities, suspends the exercise of the imagination and fancy, and after a fruitless effort to stir up his thoughts, he was compelled to admit, that severe labor and writing are incompatible.^^V ~*^ Flint. Recollections, 291. -^" Flint, Timoth}-. George Mason, the Young Backivoodsman, 32. I50 TIMOTHY FLINT It would not be surprising to learn that George Mason was written during this year of the second resi- dence in St. Charles. It would have been more pos- sible than in the busy Cincinnati years just before it was published. Mr. Flint tells us that they took leave of their friends in St. Charles at this time -the last they were to see of this place of their wanderings -after a sacramental meeting, being he says, "accompanied by the prayers and tears of many friends, not without corresponding tears of our own.""** When they were preparing to depart from St. Charles, they had all, apparently, recovered their health. Their prospects for a living, and for useful- ness were not, however, sufficiently bright to encour- age them to stay in this section of the west. It was with the help of eastern friends that they had prepared to return to New England, via the Mississippi and the Atlantic. Mr. Flint makes a delicate and warm expression of his obligations to the two friends, who, at this period came to his rescue. He "would tell all" if it were not for the feelings of his family. His friend. Dr. James Flint, who settled in 1821 as pastor of the East Church, Salem, was one of the friends, and the other we have no doubt, was Joseph Peabody, the Salem merchant.'" The journey down the Mississippi was begun the fourth of October, 1822, in company with Mr. Wil- liam Postell, of St. Charles, who had joined Mr. Flint -*^ Flint. Recollections, 217. ''^ — Idem, 291, 292. See also the Dedications of the Recollections and the Geograplty and History. FLORIDA AND NEW ORLEANS 151 in building a flatboat and fitting it up for the use of a family. Two days after they had taken leave of the St. Charles friends, they left the quiet retreat on the prairie below the town. But before they had gotten out of the Missouri they lodged on a sand bar which held them for four days and until they had unloaded their boat. They were not ready to go on until the end of the week. They tied up at St. Louis for the Sab- bath. Mr. Flint says of this occasion at St. Louis, "I preached to a very serious audience, a farewell dis- course. Many circumstances concurred to give solem- nity to this parting." Such partings are always times for reviewing the past. It would not be difficult to enter into some of the concurring circumstances which made this occasion so solemn for people and minis- ter.=='° After the first mishap on the sandbar in the Mis- souri, this journey was prosperous all the long way to N ew Orleans. As far as the Arkansas there was noth- ing of the charm of novelty which was always so keen with Mr. Flint. There was much of sadness associ- ated with every rapid place in the river and especially with one particular point "opposite the second Chick- asaw blufif." After they have passed below the Arkansas, Mr. Flint begins in his Recollections a history of the settle- ments which they pass, the new aspects of the vegetable world as it growls more tropical, the different appear- ance of the forests, and especially the difference in the character of the settlements with their increasing num- ber of negro huts and villages about the great planta- -^° Flint. Recollections, 217, 219. 152 TIM(rrHV FLINT rion buildings. .Much of this material must be val- uable for the historian of this period and section. At Warrenton, Mississippi, just below where Vicks- burg now stands, they came to the first village of any size below New Madrid, Missouri. Here they stopped for a day or two and made inquiries about the religious life and interests of the place. Though there were a hundred good residences and many brick store buildings in the place, he could find but one per- son who was known as a professor of religion. He says: I was directed to a young lady, whose husband had something of the appearance of a dandy, and who answered my inquiries about the profession of his wife, with a shrug, and a half-sup- pressed smile, informing me that she was a Methodist, but would be glad to converse with any person who wore the garb and appearance of a minister. He gave me clearly to understand that it was no affair of his and that I must converse with her alone. She spoke discouragingly about the willingness of the people to assemble for public worship. I retired, considering it a hopeless attempt, and intending to pass on without any public exercise. But in the course of the evening a number of the citizens came on board, offering their houses and wishing to have public worship. There was a full house and apparently an attentive audience. Thev left this place the next morning after hearing many regrets expressed by the people that in so con- siderable and prosperous a place there should be so little public spirit and so little religious feeling, as to have no place of public worship. '^^ Natchez they found a romantically situated place which the inhabitants called a city. It was the prin- cipal cotton-shipping point of the region. At some seasons a thousand boats could be seen at the landing. -■"■'i Flint. RecolUct'tons, 294, 295. FLORIDA AND NEW ORLEANS 153 The lower part of the town, "under the hill," was a repulsive place, the center of all that was vile from the upper and lower country, ''the refuse of the world." Of the houses in this section of Natchez, Mr. Flint says: "The fiddle screaks jargon from these fauctbus orciy The other part of the town on a bluf¥ three hundred feet high, showed a rich country round about, and it contained many handsome public buildings, on wide streets, with the appearance of comfort and opulence. There was a Baptist, a Meth- odist and a Presbyterian church,'^' the latter with a large building and society. Mr. Flint had no books at hand as he wrote and estimated the population of Natchez at seven or eight thousand. He notes also that though the town was clean and the air seemingly pure they had repeated and severe visits of the yellow fever.'"*^ One hundred and fifty miles above New Orleans they came to the levee on the west side of the river. Another began a little lower on the east side and each continued to New Orleans. They were struck by the high state of cultivation which obtained on the nar- row strip of coast land on each side of the river and lying under the levee. This coast land was usually about two miles wide, bounded at the back by the swamps and forests, conforming to the shape of the '^''- Flint. Recollect!orr.r, 295. For the origin of this and other Presbyte- rian churches in the vicinitj-, see J. G. Jones's A Concise History of the In- troduction of Protestantism into Mississippi and the Southivfst, 225-238. Mr. Jones says the first Protestant church in this section, and so far as the writer can learn it was the first church with a settled pastor west of the Alleghany Mountains, was a Congregational church at Kingston, Miss. It was formed by Reverend Samuel Swayze, and a colony from New Jersey in 1872 or 1873. -^3 Flint. Recollections, 295, 296. 154 TIMOTHY FLINT river, and very rich. Sounds heard from the houses below them seemed to come from beneath the river. The houses and grounds were very beautiful and Mr. Flint thought that no other section of the Union, not even the banks of the Delaware could compare for fertility' and productiveness with this section. Among the noblest of the plantations that they saw was that of General Hampton, "one of the questionable heroes of the late war," Mr. Flint thinks.''* In all this marvelously rich and beautiful section of country, with its dense population, Mr. Flint was pained to find no Protestant church, though the eye was cheered by the sight of a Catholic spire every six or seven miles. He thought it hardly necessary to go to Hindustan to find whole regions destitute of even the forms of Christian worship. At Baton Rouge they admired the United States barracks which Mr. Flint thought as commodious as any in the whole country. The two or three companies of troops were under high discipline. There was a beautiful white monument on the grounds, erected in honor of some officers of the garrison who had died there, but the inscription on it seemed to Mr. Flint a reproach in a professedly Christian country. As he remembered the verse it w^as: Like bubbles on a sea of matter borne, We rise, we burst, and to that sea return."^^ We are not told just when the Flint party reached New Orleans, but it was probably some time in No- vember and in the healthiest season. Their health must have been so much improved and the country so -^* Flint. Recollections, 297, 3(X). -^^ — Idem, 299, 300. FLORIDA AND NEW ORLEANS 155 attractive in various ways that they were in no hurry to proceed to New England and so complete the long journey they had begun. In January of that winter, Mr. Flint tells us that he ascended the river on a steamboat as far as Baton Rouge. He does not tell us the object of this trip but devotes a page or two of the Recollections to what he saw at that time.^^^ They spent about four months in New Orleans during the first winter's residence there and at New Year's time were enjoying peas in bloom, daffodils, and roses. ^^^ Mr. Flint spent part of the time gathering material for his Geography and History in the French manu- scripts in the archives of state."^^ The Flints had friends in the south to welcome them. These, with new and influential ones, desired to locate them permanently in this section of the coun- try. In this way they became interested in Coving- ton, thirty-five miles north of New Orleans, and across Lake Pontchartrain. Mr. Flint repeatedly calls this section West Florida although it was then, and had been since 18 10, claimed by the United States as a part of Louisiana. In 1812, it was made a part of the state of Louisiana, and in 1819 and 1821, all possible claim of Spain upon it had been surrendered to the United States.''' On a stormy March evening they embarked on a steamer that was to carry them across this broad and shallow lake for the scene of their new labors. So low were its shores and so wide its shallow waters that "^^ In the year 1823; pages 299, 300. 257 ff^estern Monthly Revieiv, vol. iii, 633. -^^ — Idem, vol. i, opposite 128. Also Geography and History, vol. i, 13. 259 Channing, E. The Jeffersonian System, map, opp. 14.2. 156 TIMOTHY FLINT in its center it was difficult or even impossible to see land, though it was only thirty miles wide. When the water was rough the surf broke far in the forests so low was the shore. When it was calm there was a covering over the water like paint of various hues shifting and changing, and showing the most singular sport of this kind that could be imagined. There were great herds of cattle feeding in the swamps in winter and ranging in the grasses of the pine w^oods during the summer. These pines gave them a home- like feeling for they had seen none in the whole two thousand miles of their travels on the "Nile of the West." Mr. Flint was interested in the relics of the long history of the Floridas, and in the contrasts of soil, climate, and people compared with other sections in which he had lived. The shipping on the bayous and lakes he found very important, but the sailors were the most abandoned of their class, being the refuse from the sea and larger rivers. The native people he thought were more shiftless and degraded than in oth- er places, being generally denominated Bogues and calling themselves "rosin heels." ^^^ Mr. Flint had charge of two churches here, the one in Madisonville on the north shore of the lake, a summer resort for New^ Orleans people, and the other at Covington. This latter place was six miles inland, the county town in St. Tammany County, and the head of river navigation toward the Mississippi Territory. There w^as a school here which Mr. Flint conducted in addition to his duties as a minister. Only two things which seemed worthy of note occurred in his *^o Flint. Recollections, 315-319. FLORIDA AND NEW ORLEANS 157 work here. Contrary to the rule in this section, the people were united, and punctual in their attendance on religious worship.""' Another occurrence in the time of their residence here was a severe storm, long remembered, in the fall of 1823. Mr. Flint compares it with a great storm in New England, in the fall of 1815, just as he was leaving the Atlantic section, and thinks the latter was the more severe.^"" Health seems to have been good in West Florida, but they returned to New Orleans after seven or eight months in the fall of 1823, thinking possibly to locate permanently in that city. This question was a matter of "painful solicitude." Many friends assured them that they were now well enough acclimated to make it safe for them to stay in the city through the summer. Fear of the consequence of such an attempt, and the probability that they would be compelled to leave ev- ery summer, decided them, when the opportunity came, to go to Alexandria in the same state.'"^ Noth- ing is said of returning to the north. They seemed I to be here to stay. The great business prosperity of I the country had made it possible for the family to I become independent and comfortable in a short time. The country had many attractions, while the need for the teacher and preacher was great. Before going to the Red River country, with them, it would be well to look at New Orleans as it was in Mr. Flint's time, not so much for the sake of acquaint- ance with the old city, but because it will be an aid -•^1 Flint. Recollections, 318. 262 ff^estern Monthly Rfvieiv, vol. iii, 634. ~^^ Flint. Recollections, 219, 220. 158 TIMOTHY FLINT in the study of Timothy Flint to have followed him here in his meditations and observations. Viewed on a bright January morning, New Orleans had a unique and fantastic appearance, more like European cities than any other in the United States, he was told. There was a large and handsome brick Presbyterian church building and a good socie- ty, which had had "the brilliant and pious Larned" ^" as pastor, and now had a very able man. There was a large and well conducted hospital, a cathedral and a female orphan asylum. Concerning this latter insti- tution, Mr. Flint remarks that the inmates attended first the Presbyterian and then the Catholic church and that it was founded by a Mr. Poydras, a man unique in that time and section for his charities. '"^ This was probably Mr. Flint's first experience in a cathedral-like building and he seems to have spent many hours within its quiet walls. It stood in the midst of the city's noise but its walls were so thick that all was quiet within. The dead buried beneath the pavement, the figures of the saints, the dim light, the unalterable repose and perpetual tranquillity of the place, made it a haven and a benediction to Mr. Flint. He could not but compare it with the brilliant, highly finished and strongly lighted interiors of the Protes- tant churches, to the disadvantage of the latter.^^® -^^ Flint. Recollections, 302-304. About Larned, 69, 350. Reverend Sylvester Larned, born at Pittsfield, Mass., Aug. 31, 1796, graduated at Middlebury College, 1813. He studied theology at Princeton and was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry in 1817. He went out as a missionary in 1817 to New Orleans. He was distinguished as an eloquent and powerful preacher. He died of yellow fever in New Orleans, Aug. 31, 1820. See Life and Eloquence of the Rev. S. Larned, by R. R. Gurley. 205 Flint. Recollections, 305, 306. 2«6 — Idem, 304. FLORIDA AND NEW ORLEANS 159 Mr. Flint took careful note of the moral conditions of the city. He did not believe, as was generally reported, that it was worse than other large cities of the country. There was a very efficient police system and there was no complaint of the law's delays. There were certain sections of the city and certain houses so bad and having such an aspect of "beastliness and deg- radation, as to render them utterly unbearable^ But Mr. Flint thought it was possible that these places rendered the same service to the city as the "Helotes, to the Spartan children." There was more of a babel of tongues here than anywhere else, and as seen and heard in the market place it was an experience not to be forgotten. The French were the same gay and light people everywhere. Their great, brilliant, and gaudy theater was crowded on Sundays. But as in- dication that not all the people of the city had the same mind about Sunday amusements, Mr. Flint tells us that he noticed, one Sunday morning, large theater bills posted about the city, announcing the play for that evening. He says: Towards evening of the same Sabbath I observed that a paper of the same dimensions, and the same type, but in English, was everywhere posted directly under the French bill. It contained appropriate texts from the Scriptures, and was headed with these words ; "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy," and mentioning that there would be divine service at a place that was named, in the evening.^"^ There were many societies and unions whose mis- sion it was to pour salt into the city's fountains. There was "apparently much excitement of religious feel- ing." During the second winter of his residence, Mr. 287 Flint. Recollections, 307, 309. i6o TIMOTHV FLINT Flint took an active part in a lecture course which was conducted by the ministers of the city."'" Next to the vice of the city the saddest side of its life, to Mr. Flint, was the awful sickness and mortality. The hearse was busy night and day. In the summer of 1822 the destroying angel had seemed to carry a "besom" and there were two thousand recorded deaths beside multitudes unnoted. The poor Catholic-Irish and the northern young men suffered most. The lat- ter, he thought, had but one chance in two of surviving the first fever season.'"^ V- Sin and sickness filled the cemeteries. Part of the dread of burial there, came from the fact that for a large part of the year the water filled all graves that were not built above ground. The Catholic cemetery was full of graves and monuments, one wall being formed by contiguous monuments in two tiers. It was here that Mr. Flint delighted to wander on moon- light evenings, meditating on the transient dream of life, and the vanity of the search for w^ealth which brought so many from every clime, to end their days in this place."" Two inscriptions in this cemeter\^ were impressed upon his memory. One was on a handsome slab in the upper tier, and in gilt letters, // moruit victimc d'honneur. From this pitiable eulogy of the duel he turned with pleasure to a simple stone erected by a master for his black servant, with its eulogy of the long, faithful, and affectionate service of the slave. He turns from these cities "of the living" telling us that in the Protestant cemetery he had seen, a great 2(38 piint. Recollections, 311, 319. -'^^ — Idem, 311. -''^ — Idem, 312. FLORIDA AND NEW ORLEANS i6i number of the names of young men from Salem, Bos- ton, and all New England, who had died in the prime of their life "du fievre jaune."'"^ Mr. Flint had a keen appreciation of the great com- mercial advantages of New Orleans. He thought its location was unrivaled by any other city in the world and that it far surpassed New York in this respect. With a clergyman from the north he estimated the number of boats along the river front at between twelve and fifteen hundred. With the unlimited ca- pacity for productiveness in the upper country, the trade of which at that time all came down the river, and the products of all climes finding their way thith- er by the sea, Mr. Flint could hardly imagine the future of this city."" -""^ Flint. Recollections, 312, 313. -'- — Idem, 301, 308. X. THE HOME ON THE RED RIVER Not New England, but Louisiana, was to become* the home of Timothy Flint's family. At Alexandria, on the Red River, some two hundred miles above New Orleans, this family took deep root, even before the death of its head in 1840. All connection with the land of its birth was lost after a few years and it be- came an integral part of the Southland. There many of its members are found today. Not far from the beginning of the year 1824, the removal took place and under conditions far more comfortable than any of the previous travels of this family. The steamer Spartan was chartered to carry them and a few other passengers. They made a speedy and delightful trip to their new home."^ The waters of the Red River were not unlike those of the Arkansas and deserved their name. The chan- nel was in most places narrow and deep, though very sinuous. Shoals of alligators were seen crossing the stream, "as though logs had found the power of loco- motion." Alexandria was found to be a pleasant vil- lage, one hundred and fifty miles by river, above the Mississippi, though but one third that distance in a right line. It was on a perfectly smooth plain, car- peted with the richest verdure, which sank away into the cypress swamps a few miles back from the river. 273 Flint. Recollections, 320, 321. 154 TIMOTHY FLINT On the opposite and eastern bank of the river, the pine bluffs came near. The white houses with their piazzas, showed themselves under the beautiful china and ca- talpa trees. The music of the falls just above the village, reminded them of the distant roar of the At- lantic, and lulled them pleasantly to sleep. '^^ Alexandria was in the center of one of the most important cotton districts of the south. It was the seat of justice for the parish of Rapide. There were bankers, lawyers, doctors, and editors enough but the country was new and the state of literary culture was very low. The college^ over which Mr. Flint pre- sided, was in a huge but rather ugly building. It had absorbed great sums of money, and was still supported generously by the state and by its patrons. There were large numbers of students, many of them board- ing with the principal. The work was elementary but none the less laborious. Three Presbyterian min- isters had already laid their ashes here, one of them the Reverend Mr. Hull having died just before Mr. Flint took charge of the seminary and church."*" Mr. Flint found his work very pleasant but exact- ing for a man of such limited strength as his. The preaching demanded was of the highly emotional type. He was very much isolated as to fellowship, the nearest minister with whom he could exchange being at Natchez, two hundred and fifty miles distant by river. The roads were much nearer but impassable most of the year. There were only three Baptist churches in the state, and Mr. Flint's church was the only one of its order in that part of the state. The Methodists -•■•Flint. RecoUerlions, 322, 323. -"•' — Idem, 323. THE HOME ON THE RED RIVER 165 were at work with their usual zeal; but their hostility to slavery limited them very much in their immediate sphere of influence. There were many Catholic churches. The religious and social conditions seemed hopeful to Mr. Flint, there being some things that he would like to have seen transferred to the more serious people of the north.^^" Mr. Flint sa3'^s the first year in Alexandria passed very pleasantly "in the discharge of uniform duties." His society was small but embraced some of the most amiable families that he had anywhere met. The people were very attentive to his ministry.'" It was here that Mr. Flint met Judge Henry Bul- lard, who became one of his most intimate and valued friends. We have already noticed that the father of this man, Reverend John BuUard of Fitchburg, Mass- achusetts, was a neighbor and friend of Mr. Flint, when he was at Lunenburg. The judge was eight years younger than Mr. Flint, but he was a Harvard man, 1807, ^^^ ^^ every way congenial.^" Mr. Flint says about him in the Recollections :"^ If any one would know the value of a companion, bred In the same region, formed to similar habits, versed in all kinds of liter- ature, a scholar, a gentleman, and a man capable of sincere and ardent friendship, let him wander without such a friend ten years in the wilderness of the West, and then, where such a thing was least expected, let him find such a friend. In the preface to Francis Berrian, Mr. Flint pays a warm tribute to the friendship of Bullard. He also '-'•^ Flint. Recollections, 340, 341. 2^'^ — Idem, 353. ' -"•* See Harvard Class Book for the Class of iSo/, in Hansard Library, manuscripts department. 2'" Page 353. i66 TIMOTHY FLINT says that this story grew out of conversations with the judge and that he is indebted to him for much of the material in it: "You well know, that no inconsider- able portion of these adventures is anything, rather than fiction."'"*^ Judge Bullard had spent several years in Mexico as a soldier of fortune, before he set- tled at Alexandria. Much of the interest of Francis Berrian comes from this mingling of the story of his friend with the writer's fiction. In the village of Alexandria, clean and delightful every way to the eye, they had a comfortable residence near the school building. The breezes were pleasant, but in them, carried from the wide spreading swamps, were the deadly fever germs. Here, as every where in this section, Mr. Flint says, the rich soils were the places of greatest danger, and the poor soils of the pine woods the healthiest. Late in May, 1824, Mr. Flint being quite ill at the time, the family retired to the pine woods where they built a cottage near those of two other families with whom they were intimate. Judge BuUard's family being one of them doubtless. Here in the woods there was a considerable settlement of people from Alexandria and the region about."^^ This summer in the pine woods is the pleasantest and most idyllic of any that we have recorded in Mr. Flint's life. And so he thinks himself."^" There was every charm of nature, charms to which he and his family were most responsive. There was also the rare blessing of health and vigor. He was seized by a "poetical paroxysm," and wrote: -^^ Flint. Francis Berrian, p. iii. 281 Flint. Recollections, 353-364. 282 — Idem, 355. THE HOME ON THE RED RIVER 167 For I remember well the scorching day, When weary, faint, and wan, I saw thee first. Expecting soon to lay the load of life Beneath the turf; but thy cool wave And healthful breeze inspired other hopes. ^*^ They were in comfort, and in the midst of warm and cherished friends. The keenness of their pleas- ure is perhaps best indicated by the poems written at this time, which recite their experiences and medita- tions.''* Continuing his song of the forest and stream, Mr. Flint says: Thy fountains, springing midst the wavy pines, Well from the hills, to join thee, o'er a sand As pure as mountain-snow ; so bright. That the gay red-bird tunes his note of joy, Soon as he settles on thy laurel branch. How often, ere the jocund morn had ting'd Thy groves with gold, my angling rod in hand, From thy pellucid wave I've drawn the trout. In all his pride of mottled white and gold, And born the cumbrous prize, triumphant, home. There was no "jealous lock or latch" in their Eden, for: By joint consent with these dear friends we threw Observance, form and state all to the winds. Three or four families took many of their meals together. The breakfasts were eaten under the beaches near the stream where the abundant trout- Mr. Flint caught over two thousand of them averaging over a -^^ Flint. Recollections, 356. -^* Beside the two poems written at this time by Mr. Flint and Micah, there is a third poem written by the latter at some other time which Is closely related to this occasion and experience. Mr. Flint incorporates it here with this summer's experiences. See Recollections, 359-364. i68 TIMOTHY FLINT pound in weight, during this summer-were tossed by the anglers to the black girls who did the cooking. And then, when evening from the azure east, Threw her deep mantle o'er the dark-brown pine, We've sat, well pleased, to list the breezy moan, Nature's Eolian harp, to sink, or swell Along the boundless forest-tops, in strains. That awe, impress, or council sleep : - This vesper hymn prolong'd, till the bright moon, Thron'd on her silver car, and twinkling stars Seem but to float just o'er the forest tops. Sudden the blazing torches rise around, And pour their flickering light amidst the trees. And spread illusions o'er our humble sheds, As those, that mark enchantment's fabled tales. Our cabins turn to palaces, and the dark pine, Seen half in living light, and half in shade, Half lucid verdure, and half deepening gloom, Shows, like the light of life, shut by the grave From the dark regions of eternity.^'*'^ As Mr. Flint looked back on these happy months he could detect that even then there w^as a "sad pre- sentiment" hanging over him. He seemed always to fear when the cup of happiness was at his lips lest it betoken a bitter one to follow. Micah's lines writ- ten on this same occasion would be expressive of the father's feelings. Micah says: And, lost in thought, how deeply pondered, On my distant native land. Her granite cliffs, that breast the ocean, Dashing back the Atlantic wave. How soon and how sadly the father was to see those Flint. Recollections, 356, 357. THE HOME ON THE RED RIVER 169 granite shores, neither of them could know, when they went back to the village in the fall, singing: Farewell, ye groves, that I am leaving. Where I've spent the summer heats; Autumnal gales now force us, grieving. To resume our winter seats. ***' The Recollections^'^'' tell the story of the few months that followed the return from the hills. A part of it is as follows : In October of the last year, we resumed our laborious duties in the Seminary. I had my son and another young man under a particular course of personal instruction. I had boarders, a numerous school, preached after a sort and as I could, and was trying to digest this work. A few weeks of this overplied exer- tion began to make me feel the illness, which brought me to your country. I struggled to vanquish it, by resolution and exercise, until the eighth of last December. I was then seized with a bilious complaint, accompanied with spasm, which confined me to my bed. All the aids of medicine were unavailing. The middle of January, I was just able with assistance, to mount on horse- back. Accompanied by my friend. Judge Bullard, of whom you have so often heard me speak, I commenced a journey to Natchi- toches and the interior beyond for my health. There is a full description of this journey to and from the Mexican frontier on the Sabine River. But we must confine ourselves to the things that most inti- mately concern Mr. Flint. They journeyed slowly and at first the sick man gained some strength. Their coming was known and everywhere the planters vied with each other in their attentions to the minister and judge. At Natchitoches, they spent two weeks, most hospitably entertained, and were deeply interested in the old town. Mr. 286 Flint. Recollections, 357, 358. ^^'^ — Idem, ^6^ Q. 170 TIMOTHY FLINT Flint speaks of its history as a succession of Indian poii'ico'ws, Spanish fandangoes^ French balls and American frolics. To tell the story he must be the "great Unknown," and "have ten volumes for elbow." "Pity, that all this interesting matter should be lost, for want of an historian," says Mr. Flint.'*"* He was called upon here to act as chaplain for a French surgeon named Prevot, who was to be hanged for killing a young attorney from the north, a Mr. Mills, because he would not fight a duel with him. The Frenchman belonged to "the school of Voltaire and Delambert," which he said was a bad kind of school to make a good Christian. He at first refused to talk with Mr. Flint thinking he was a Roman priest. Learning that Flint was a Protestant he said eagerly, "vous avez raison done." Mr. Flint accompanied him to the gallows, offered a prayer at the request of the condemned man, saying for him in English to the assembled people, that he died asking the mercy of God, and in charity with all men. His last words to Mr. Flint were: "Adieu, ministre! je vous remer- cie."^^^ Mr. Flint and his friend passed on to the Spanish frontier and the village of Adayes.* This was a typi- cal Spanish village, and the buildings and people of- fered an interesting contrast to the French settlements. Returning from this point they were lost in the woods for a time and caught in a rain storm before they were finally guided on their way to the United States Post, "Cantonment Jessup." Here they were welcomed by Colonel Many who commanded two companies of -*^ Flint. Recollections, ■^66. -^^ — /^?ot, 367-369. * Now spelled Naies. THE HOME ON THE RED RIVER 171 soldiers. On reaching Natchitoches again, Mr. Flint was unable to ride, and returned to his home by boat, having had little benefit from his excursion.'"" The illness continued. During the sultry weather of March he grew so much worse that friends and phy- sicians joined in urging him to go to the north as a last resort. Many cases were cited to him to prove the efficacy of such a step. But to the exhausted invalid, Who had been for years sustained by the most assiduous nurs- ing and care, it seemed a formidable experiment to commit myself to such a great journey, and to separate myself from every friend. You know enough of my habits to be aware how often, in my days of distress and my nights of watching, I laid my case before Him, who alone can help; how often, in the vibrations of feeling, dififerent determinations would alternately have the mastery. . . A carriage, a horse, a servant, all the little delicacies so necessary to the fastidious appetite of an invalid, were constantly furnished me by my friends. Kindness of every sort may be rendered, and the heart may swell with grateful thoughts, which cannot clothe themselves in words, and yet disease go steadily on. So it was with me. I saw that I could not long survive in that region. I determined to disengage myself from my family, cast myself on the care of God, and commence a journey of twenty-five hundred miles for my native land, looking forward as the most fortunate consummation, that I had a right to hope, to revisit the scenes and the friends of my first years, and after so much wander- ing and toil, to be buried by the "graves of my father and my mother." -"^ So the journey was undertaken on the fourth of April, 1825. When he arrived at the home of his friend, Dr. James Flint in Salem, he said he "had come home to die." '^' -''"Flint. Recollections, 369-373. ^si — Idem, 373, 374, -^-Encyclopedia Americana: Supplementary Volume, vol. xiv, 270, 271. XL A NEW LEASE OF LIFE Mr. Flint in telling the story of this long and pain- ful journey says: It is unnecessary for me to speak of the forced cheerfulness of my family and my friends, the presages of people, who talked with confidence in their words to me, and who instantly used a different language among themselves. Friendship and kindness could do nothing for me, that was not done. A kind neighbor was to accompany me as far as Baltimore. The morning sun shone brightly. The bell had struck for calling together the pupils in the seminary. They bade me farewell in the court-yard. My family accompanied me to the steps. Perhaps the hardest parting of the whole was with a little fellow between three and four, with a dark Spanish countenance, but a brilliant eye, that easily kindles with joy or is suffused with a tear, according to the passing emotion. He is our Joseph [James Timothy], born to us after an interval of fourteen years, excepting the infant which we lost on the Mississippi. He was marching in the court-yard with his military hat and feather, clad in a new suit, and with a tin sword, given to keep him away from this painful business of parting. But he had come, and saw that there was restrained emotion and uncommon countenances. He came up to me and asked why mama and sister looked so strange. I kissed him, not daring even to turn back, or cast one "longing, lingering look behind ;" and sustained by my two sons went on board the steam- boat Natchitoches, bound for Natchez, parted from my sons, took my berth, heard the parting gun fired on the bow, and instantly felt, that we were descending the river.-*^ At Natchez two physicians visited and aided him 293 Flint. Recollections, 374, ff. 174 TIMOTHY FLINT with counsel and medicines. He took the fine new steamer Grecian for Louisville and made a speedy journey in beautiful weather which he would have greatly enjoyed but for his extreme illness. There were such mornings as would almost create a "soul beneath the ribs of death." But all the beauty, and the busy and joyous life on the gay steamer, struck a key not at all in unison with his feelings. Many nights he took a mental leave of family and world, thinking it unlikely that he would survive until morning. On the eleventh of April he records, "we passed the place , where our babe lies buried." In ten days he had reached Louisville. What a contrast with their sad and lonely journey up the great river in 1819. He now traveled one "hundred miles a day, against the whole weight of the Mississippi current." Then for fifty days they had struggled with the current, and thought ten miles a day good progress."^* Louisville had grown to be a fine town, the very smell at the landing indicating a great and growing place. The log farm houses along the river had given place to houses of brick. At Cincinnati, he was still more surprised with the change that ten years, or a little less time, had wrought. He stayed here two days, visited by friends and relatives, and aided by the then famous Dr. Drake."^^ On the passage to Wheeling his complaint took a new form which still more weakened him, but the striking changes in the country continued to attract -^* Flint. Recollections, 377. Also Geography and History, vol. i, 238. 295 Mr. Flint speaks of Dr. D., one of the respectable physicians of the place. He was probably referring to Dr. Drake, a famous physician of Cincinnati and a man that later Mr. Flint was to know intimately. A NEW LEASE OF LIFE 175 his notice. He was reminded of Caesar's changing Rome from brick to marble when he saw the Ohio villages. Wheeling, when he first saw it, "was a smoky, mis-shapen village." Now he found rows of massive brick buildings, and lodged in a hotel equal to anything on the Atlantic coast. The great national road from here to Baltimore seemed even more mar- velous than other changes and especially as he remem- bered their first toilsome and dangerous journey to Pittsburg over the mountain road. The land travel was more exhausting than the river. At Washington, Pennsylvania, he was obliged to rest two days, receiv- ing much kindness and attention, but being still fur- ther inconvenienced for traveling in a stage, by the application of a large blister.'''*' Speaking of the journey through the mountain re- gion, Mr. Flint says: We were driven down the most considerable of them, a dis- tance of between four and five miles, at a furious rate, and at mid- night, and just on the verge of precipices, that it would be fearful to look down upon at mid-day. I suffered more than I can de- scribe, from weakness and exhaustion. We crossed the Potomac, stayed a night at Frederick, and I was cheered with a distant view of the Atlantic regions. . . Having arrived in Boston and met some friends, who are very dear to me, and from whom I parted between ten and eleven years before, as I departed for the West, I could see by the very attempt to suppress surprise and exclama- tion, how time and disease had changed my countenance. . . A few hours brought me to you, my dear friend [Dr. James Flint, Salem], and having accomplished the object of my prayers, having seen again my earliest and most constant friend, I felt in that joyful hour of meeting, as though, could I have had my family with me, miserable as my health was, I should have 296 Flint. Recollections, 378-380. 176 TIMOTHY FLINT been the happiest of the happy. But at the end of this long pil- grimage, \\ith more than two thousand miles interposed between me and my family, your countenance, and that of my other friends, told me but too plainly, that these halc\on hours were not expected to be long repeated. There are no constant things here, but disappointments and tears. Happy for us, that there remain- eth a rest for the people of God.-*' While the father is thus thinking and writing of his family, busy about their home and school duties in the far south, the eldest son is writing: I implore his blessing On an absent father's head, That, health and hope possessing, He may yet return to spread A smile of joy and gladness O'er an anxious mother's brow, And chase the look of sadness. Which is there imprinted now."*^* Here ends not only the story of the long journey home but the Recollections. Thus far it was written during the summer in New England, and dedicated at Salem in September to Doctor Flint. At the request of his friend, another letter was written from Cin- cinnati in September on his way home. This is print- ed as a supplemental letter in that same volume. In this he gives his impressions of things in New England as he saw them after ten years absence. The very marked industrial, social, and religious revolution, then taking place, was a matter of the greatest interest and concern to Mr. Flint, and he returns to it often in the letters written during the next ten years, in which period he was several times in New England. These 29" Flint. Recollections, 380-383. 298 Flint, Micah P. The Hunter and Other Poems, 129. A NEW LEASE OF LIFE 177 fully recorded impressions are of importance for an understanding of Mr. Flint's character and will be noticed later. Dr. James Flint says in his article in the Encyclo- pedia Americana that the effect of the climate, of quiet and rest, and of a trip they took together to Saratoga, was to so far restore his friend's health, that he was able to write the Recollections.''''' This Mr. Flint did at the urgent request of his friends. This book it ap- pears was all written in New England at this time except the supplement as above noted. The first let- ter or chapter is dated Alexandria, Red River, Octo- ber, 1824. Part of this may be a letter written at that date to Doctor Flint, but at least a part of even this letter was written after his return to New England. It is quite possible that he used some of his own letters to Doctor Flint and notes made earlier, but it is to be remembered that he says he wrote "without books" or journal.^"' Besides the journeys mentioned by Doctor Flint, Timothy probably visited his home in Reading, though he does not mention this visit and seems to have made his head-quarters in Salem. At the home church he found a new minister in the place of the aged Eliab Stone, who had died in August, 1822. His father was still living at the place of his birth and at the advanced age of eighty-eight years. His mother had been dead near twenty years. He revisited Lun- enburg where he was greeted as one come back from -^^Encyclopedia Americana: Supplementary Volume, vol. xiv, 270, 271. Giiswold in his Prose Writers of America [152] says that Flint began to write the Recollections soon after his removal to Alexandria. 300 piint. Recollections, 4, 296. 178 TIMOTHY FLINT the grave. They had thought of him too, in their humble annals, as a personage of history. He says of this experience: All that ought to have been remembered by my former people in my favour, was remembered. All that in those days of inex- perience, of untamed youth and temperament, related to me, which I could have wished forgotten, seemed to have been com- pletely consigned to oblivion. . . One burst of affectionate remembrance was manifested by the whole people. I felt pain- fully, that in wandering from that rustic, but feeling people, I had wandered from home. This excitement, so many recollections, alternately delightful and painful, stories of the living, the suf- fering, and the dead, the necessity of conversing with so many, soon renewed my indisposition, and 1 was compelled to hasten away.^°^ Much restored in health Mr. Flint began in Sep- tember, the journey to his home in Alexandria. He had finished his Recollections and left the manuscript with the publishers who brought it out in March of the following year. Dr. James Flint says that he began the writing of Francis Berrian on the return trip home, and finished it during the following win- ter.^°" This story opens with a description of the writer's journey from Massachusetts to the regions of the Spanish frontier. Just what is fact and what is fiction can not be told, as the journey progresses, but we are enabled to see Mr. Flint making a comfortable and glad return to his family, enjoying himself with newly made and old friends on the palatial steam- boats, and devoting himself to reading and writing as 301 Flint. Recollections, 388. 302 Doctor Flint says that Francis Berrian was begun on the return journey in the fall of 1826. As the work was brought out in the summer of 1826, it is clear that he should have said the fall of 1825. See article in Encyclopedia Ajnericana: Supplementary Volume. A NEW LEASE OF LIFE 179 steam and current carried him south. We have also a glimpse of the glad home coming in the Francis Berrian. We do not know whether Mr. Flint resumed his school work or not. His son Micah must have been in the practise of his profession as a lawyer about this time and was perhaps already interested in a planta- tion. The family circumstances continued to grow easier from the beginning of their residence here. It seems rather likely that Mr. Flint devoted himself chiefly to literary work during the winters of 1825- 1826 and 1826-1827. A number of articles that ap- pear in the first numbers of the Western Monthly Review, beginning in May, 1827, appear to have been written in Louisiana, and it would seem likely that nearly all of the work on the Geography and History was done before he moved to Cincinnati.^"^ On April 27, 1826, Mr. Flint again left his home in Louisiana for an expected absence of eight months. He was ill at the time and this trip was probably taken partly for the same purpose as the one a year before. But he was not nearly so helpless, and hopeless as then, and seems to have had certain business enterprises in mind. Dr. James Flint says he brought the manu- script of Francis Berrian with him on this journey.^"* It was published during this summer and while Mr. Flint was in the north. We do not know whether he remained as long as he intended and are only told by Dr. James Flint that he once more rejoined his fam- 303 The Geography and History was copyrighted, Oct. 19, 1827. See also the preface to the different editions. See Revieiv, vol. i, 69, 71, 81, op- posite 310. 30* See footnote 302. i8o TIMOTHY FLINT ily in the autumn of 1826. Some of his time while in the north must have been spent in literary work, especially on the Geography and History which was ready for the public in the fall of the next year. He had these volumes printed in Cincinnati, and it is like- ly that so extensive a work would take a Cincinnati printer many months to accomplish. In all probabil- ity he completed his arrangements while north in 1826 for removal to Cincinnati and for the beginning of his magazine and publishing business early in 1827. In the October number of the first volume of the Western Monthly Review we have a ten page article entitled, "Extracts from the Journal of a Voyage from Alexandria, Red River, Louisiana, to New York, by way of New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico." There are no names but there are unfailing signs in this jour- nal that it is Mr. Flint's and that he was then in "the laudable habit of taking notes during travels" even if it had become "the bore to the public." ^°' Mr. Flint is always at his best when describing the expe- riences of a journey. Of the many such accounts which we have, none are more interesting than this. It is the story of the second trip to the north and was made in 1826. He embarked at New Orleans, May i , "in the large, new ship Azelia, Captain Wibray, to sail next day." He had spent two days in New Orleans, which place he had not visited for two years. The nights in New Orleans were made memorable by the immense band of large bull frogs in the nearby swamp. "The depth, number, and variety of the cries of these animals unit- 305 K'estern Mont/ily Revieiv, vol. iii, 270. For the story of the journey see vol. i, 313-322. A NEW LEASE OF LIFE i8i ed the ludicrous and the terrible." The invasion of mosquitoes through a fissure in the netting, created a situation not only "ludicrous" but so "terrible" that a black girl must drive out the enemy and mend the rent before there could be rest.^"'' At evening time a steamboat gripped the Azelia on one side and a French ship bound for Havre on the other side, and carried them ofif like "a cat lugging her kittens." By morning they are set free on the "illimitable sea." The leave taking of the French and Americans with the friends to be left behind, the contrasts in the expression of emotions, are of keen in- terest to this observer who seems equally to wonder at the ways of nature and of man. He joins in spirit with the worship conducted by the Roman priests on the French ship, for do not even the black hands on the grimy tug below, uncover and stand in reverence. The first sight of the sea carries him back to the days of his boyhood and the many hours that were spent in the chill and healthful wave of the Atlantic. But from the smooth river current to the sea is a sharp change and in a few minutes all the bilious passengers are sick. Mr. Flint remains on deck as long as he can see land, dreaming of all that has happened on those receding shores.^" For two days he is disabled, but on the third there is a dead calm following the brisk north breeze. For three days they lie motionless in the water with the spires of Havana visible from the topmast. They amuse themselves with the sea birds, turtles, and with sinking objects. All of these latter are turned suc- 306 if/estern Monthly Review, vol. i, 315. 307 — Idem, vol. i, 315-317. 1 82 TIMOTHY FLINT cessively into silver, gold, pearl, and diamond as they sink in the clear, still water. The captain and sailors of a Yankee schooner come on board and furnish amusement for the passengers with their dialect and ''apparent simplicity." Even Mr. Flint can see them with the southern eye, but "apparent" proclaims him as he always claimed to be "a true son of New Eng- land." ^"'' After the calm, a storm, and even worse sea-sickness, which has one virtue; causing an indif- ference to existence which "excludes fear." But the grand spectacle rouses him the second day of the storm. What the poets have not been able to tell him he can now see and feel for himself, though he has to be laid on a mattress in the companion-way, to see it.""^ On Sunday morning, the sixteenth day of the voy- age, the beautiful bay and city of New York open be- fore them. Here they are only planting. In New Orleans was green corn and cucumbers. The verdure here is not so deep but looks more healthful. A Jer- sey steamboat carrying passengers to church in New^ York, for it is Sunday morning, takes them in tow. "At ten we gladly spring on shore, and I once more tread optato gremio te/luris.^^^^° One other incident occurring in Alexandria in Jan- uary, 1826 or 1827, is recorded in a letter probably written to Dr. James Flint. It is given because it shows the things which most impressed Mr. Flint, and because of its inherent interest. He was taking his usual m.orning walk on a marshy forest road -a walk so dreary that it had become the subject of frequent SOS plint. Recollections, 390. 309 Jf'estern Monthly Review, vol. i, 320, 321. "^^ — Idem, 322. A NEW LEASE OF LIFE 183 jest among his friends. He gives us one of his most perfect pictures of the morning scenes and sounds. Into this picture, amidst which he walks thinking of the distant friend of his youth, comes the wail of a woman. Coming along the road are a couple of In- dian women and two or three children following in the customary Indian file, a cart upon which is a rude cypress coffin. Preceding it is an aged Indian man. Sympathy in the face and words of this tender hearted man, stops the procession. The aged father answers in his broken French: "c'etoit mon seul fils-c'etoit grand et brave. Mais il est parti, et nous partons.'^ He had heard a father's "funeral oration for his son," and he went on his way, the wails of the widow dying in the distance, meditating upon how "death deals his dart, and tears fall ; and hearts are as deeply desolated in the wild woods, as when the tenant of a palace falls.'"" 211 Western Monthly Revievj, 71-73. Extract from a letter. XII. LITERARY WORK IN CINCINNATI After twelve years spent in the great west, and in the early part of 1827, Mr. Flint was able to carry out the object which he had more especially in view when he was first planning to go west. This was the plan, of which he wrote to the Missionary Society of Connecticut, to establish, "in some central place a religious publication, like our religious monthly pa- pers ; except that it should more particularly vindicate our literature, charities and institutions."^'" The ''central place" was Cincinnati. The publication was the Western Monthly Review. The object of the Review, as set forth in the editor's inaugural ad- dress, holds closely to that which was first in mind. Mr. Flint probably moved to Cincinnati about the time that his Western Monthly Review was first is- sued, May, 1827."'' Cincinnati was chosen for the new residence because it ofifered a central location for his business, because there were friends and ac- quaintances there, and especially because of its cli- 312 Letter of Timothy Flint, Lunenburg, July 23, 1815. 313 Mr. Venable in his Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley [348] says the family joined Mr. Flint in the fall of 1825. This is a mistake that might have been avoided by a more careful reading of the Revieiv. On the other hand, Doctor Flint in the Americana article says Flint did not move to Cincinnati until the fall of 1828. This is too late by a year and a half. Mr. Flint declares in his opening article. Review, May, 1827, that for himself and his children his first ties and duties are in Cincinnati. E. H. Flint had opened his book store in that city as early as June, 1827. i86 TIMOTHY FLINT matic advantages, being somewhat mid-way between the north and the south. The family circumstances must have been quite comfortable by this time. We hear nothing more of private schools and Mr. Flint had ceased to preach regularly. Then too, the business enterprises under- taken involved the investment of considerable capital. In addition to the magazine, a retail book store was opened, and in connection was a publishing and whole- sale business. The second son, E. H. Flint, "Hub- bard" the family always called him, was in charge of the business which was continued as late as 1833, about the time that Hubbard went south with his father's family. The Review and many of Mr. Flint's books were published by his son. There are also occasional reprints from his press.^" The very cordial reception given by the public to Mr. Flint's first two books, the Recollections and Frajicis Berrian, w^as a strong inducement for him to venture wholly upon the field of literature. In his "Editor's Address" while he is quite sensitive to the criticisms of his own and his son Micah's books, yet he is evidently much pleased with the wide reading which has been given them. In this inaugural address, Mr. Flint gives several reasons for establishing such a review^ as he proposed. We are physically, and from our peculiar modes or existence, a scribbling and forth-putting people. . . At the census of 1830 the Mississippi valley will contain more than four millions of inhabitants. . . Little, as they have dreamed of the fact 314 Charles Lowell, "Trinitarian Controversy" in fVestern Monthly Re- view, vol. iii, 109. LITERARY WORK IN CINCINNATI 187 in the Atlantic country, we have our thousand orators and poets. We have not a solitary journal expressly constituted to be the echo of public literary opinion. The teeming mind wastes its sweetness on the desert air. The exhausted author, after the pains of parturition, is obliged to drop the dear offspring of his brain into the immense abyss of a public, that has little charity for any bantlings, that do not bring money into their hands, and "Where it is gone and how it fares Nobody knows and nobody cares." To foster polite literature in the west, was then the* first object named.^'"* This particular object, Mr. Flint felt, was of much importance because, he says : ", . . one, who has not seen can not know, with what a curl of the lip, and crook of the nose an Atlantic reviewer contemplates the idea of a work written west of the Alleghany mountains." He proposed to be gentle and generous with every aspiring writer. His "function" as well as his motto was, Benedicere^ hand Maledicere.^^'^ It seems fair also to say that this was his practice. The only time when he might be fairly charged with breaking over his rule was on some rare occasions when he met the furious sectarian or the fawning politician. There were enemies, however, against whom he proposed to join forces even with "them of the bloody flag." ' Show us an author who advances an irreligious, or an im- moral sentiment, an opinion that has a clear tendency to confound the unchangeable distinctions of right and wrong, unhinge prin- ciple, and overturn the social foundations, and we will do our 31^ fVestern Monthly Revie'. ^i** Flint, Timothy. George Mason, 3, 4. 420 Volume for 1835. LITERARY TRAITS AND ESTIMATES 251 grets that people are so absorbed in business and poli- tics, that there is almost no time left for encouraging the high and necessary art of the literary worker. He lamented the lack of taste in the reading public, and all that tends to degrade it among publishers and re- viewers. He thought one of the greatest weaknesses of the American literary world was that it had not cut loose from its English models and bid defiance to the pride and conceit of the English world of letters. At this point he shows, as on many other occasions, his dislike of things English. He would turn from Eng- land to the continent for ideals and inspiration. For himself, he goes to the French but he sees that Ger- many is to be, and already is, the leader in the search for truth and in cosmopolitan scholarship.*'^ He was much interested in, and hopeful concerning, the be- ginning that was being made by a little group of Har- vard men to introduce the German thought and liter- ature into the United States. It promised well for a new and worthy school in America. Mr. Griswold says: Flint was compelled to write constantly and rapidly, and to print without revision. *-- This may well be true. His letters are as accurate as his printed page. And lack of finish is one of the greatest evils of the page, and the story as well. There are so many obvious faults, in plot, sentences, and even in use of words, that one often regrets that he did not spend more time in the revising of his work. At such times new regrets arise, that the revised copies of his 1 *-^ f Western Monthly Rfvieiv, vol. iii, 267, 278. *22 Griswold, Rufus W. Prose IVriters of America, 153. TLMOTHY FLINT principal works which Doctor Flint mentions,"'^ are not thus far discovered. Of one common fault, Mr. Flint pleads that he is not guilty in any way that it is possible to avoid, that of deliberately emptying other people's books into his own. No one is disposed to charge him with this fault. He was quite free, however, to pour his own books into each other. This is notably true in the Geography and History as depending on long pass- ages from the Recollections. The Indian Wars is lit- tle more than a compilation from the Geography and History. Many paragraphs and pages in succession are carried over without other changes than those made by the printer. This is not true in the case of Daniel Boone. The same scenes and incidents which occur in the earlier work are here entirely rewritten. In his stories he often takes a page or two of descrip- tion, or an incident, from the inexhaustible Geog- raphy and History, and this work supplies material also for the Review. He makes a generous use of his son Micah's poetry in his stories, notably in the Sho- shonee Valley. There is in this story a curious adap- tation of one of Micah's poems. "Frederick" stand- ing on the Chinese shore and gazing out into the sea where a few leagues away the beloved "Jessy" had disappeared into the depths, recites a few lines that have a familiar sound for they recall the lines of Mi- cah P. Flint. In truth three verses of Micah's "Lines, on Passing the Grave of my Sister" have been adapted by the father and put into Frederick's mouth. *^* *-^ Encyclopedia Americana: Supplementary Volume. 424 Flint, Timothy. Shoshonee Valley, vol. ii, 262; JVesiern Monthly Review, vol. i, 652, 653. LITERARY TRAITS AND ESTIMATES 253 Dullness never appeared to Mr. Flint as dignity. He chose always the language of the heart. To be prosy or dull seemed to him almost a sin to be ranked with dishonesty. The Britannica s^Lys: "His style was vivid, plain, forcible, and his matter always in- teresting." Of his style in writing and speaking Mr. Flint says upon one occasion, "We admit ourselves, that we have a pernicious attachment to ornamented speech." ''^^ Professor Henry A. Beers, when writing his life of Nathaniel Parker Willis, about 1885,*'" had occasion to examine Mr. Flint's articles on "Sketches of the Literature of the United States," in the Athenceum in 1835, as they were related to similar articles of Mr. Willis published in the same volume of the AthencBiim. About Mr. Flint's articles, Professor Beers remarks that they amply made up in heaviness any want of ballast in Willis. He thought them full of general views which if not correct, were harmless because un- readable. Professor Beers says of Arthur denning^ however, that it is by no means without merit: It has imagination and enough imaginative art to secure interest. Ecce Signum - 1 have read it through, and so have two other members of my family - a feat not always possible in the case of a modern novel of much greater pretensions.*^'^ This feat is the more striking when it is known that it was accomplished in two days' time, and the story has about the same number of words as the average modern novel. Mr. Venable thinks there was never a more delight- *-^ JVestern Monthly Revieia, vol, i, 749. *28 Beers, Henry A. Nathaniel Parker Willis, 217. *27 Letter, Dec. 12, 1907. 254 TIMOTHY FLINT ful book of the kind written than the Recollections. He says : A more original book it would be impossible to conceive of. In fact, it seems not to be a book, but a familiar talk - a picture from nature; a man revealing himself to the sympathetic world with unconscious and complete candor, confidence and enthu- siasm.*-* He thinks the novels, especially Francis Berrian^ racy and readable to this day. Mr. Gallagher thought this first novel of Mr. Flint worth, for its descriptions alone, a score of the English novels that were being reprinted every day in this country. The fact that Mr. Gallagher wrote about Mr. Flint and his work while Mr. Flint still lived in Cincinnati, and the considerable measure of success that he himself had in the literary field, make his remarks and estimates of unusual value. Al- though he was an ardent admirer of Mr. Flint and had read his Recollections, the Geography and His- tory and Francis Berrian again and again, and hoped to read them yet more, and while he read he had no thought of time, he was not blind to the faults. He was free also to speak of them.^^^ He thought his friend's style was in defiance of the schools, obnoxious to criticism, but of great force and often much beauty. He says : Disdaining the trammels which the masters would impose on him, he soars into the regions of poetry. Consequently he for- gets not infrequently, that there is such a thing in composition as ending a sentence. This highly poetic style, Mr. Gallagher thought, 428 Venable, William H., Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley, 358. ■*"^ Cincinnati Mirror, vol. iii, 36, 37. LITERARY TRAITS AND ESTIMATES 255 was hardly suitable for scientific works. He had himself found it a great annoyance. It was too inter- esting to be useful. In looking for facts in the pages of the Geography and History one forgot his quest or having found the facts he forgot himself and went on and on in the thrilling narrative. Mr. Gallagher did not know of Flint's equal in the English language, in descriptive writing. Of this power he says, he would feast his eye upon some scene of beauty, to him of sur- passing loveliness, seize his pen -the divine afflatus upon him -and page after page would soon be glow- ing with the eloquence and fervency of his nature.*^" Mr. Gallagher thought carelessness and volumi- nous writing was Mr. Flint's greatest weakness. In the latter part of the Cincinnati period, when Mr. Gallagher was writing of him as the first man in the western group of writers -"a group only ten years be- hind the Atlantic circles"- Mr. Flint was very pro- ductive and seemed to his friend, not to be adding to his fame. "Capability," Mr. Gallagher thought, was the one word that summed up and described Mr. Flint's mental traits. He says: Besides John Neal, there is no one who can produce in a certain time, so manj' volumes on so manj' subjects, and gen- erally so well executed, as Timothy Flint.*^^ Mr. Flint's style both accounts for his interest in French literature, and is itself accounted for by the influence of that literature. His interest in French writers was so strong toward the close of his literary career, that he did little more than translate and com- ment upon the works of the men that most interested him. This was not a late interest, however, for he *2° Cincinnati Mirror, vol. iii, 36. *3i — Idem. 256 TIMOTHY FLINT tells that in college he was a student of French writers. There is no doubt that one of the reasons for the fail- ure of his magazine was that he lived too much in European, and especially in French literature and history. In this, as in his missionary work, and his religious views, he was in advance of his age so far that they left him alone or only threw stones after him. His translations from the Genie du Christianisme had been "cradled" in many papers but not credited to him.*^== Perhaps the most extensive work that Mr. Flint ever undertook was that upon which he was engaged in the early part of 1830, the translation of the Diction- aire Historique, ou Biographie Universelle Classique. Upon the basis of this and the work of Lempriere, he proposed to construct an American Biographical Dictionary. Upon the translation he had his oldest daughter's help. In April, 1830, he had made a good beginning of six hundred manuscript pages and had gotten well along with the b's. In June he had gotten on to "D'JENGUYS." The translations were probably finished, but whether the American Bio- graphical Dictionary was completed there are no means of knowing. The closing article in the last number of the Review is a translation from the Dic- tionaire Historique d'Education, which he had been admiring a few months earlier and wishing some com- petent translator would undertake to put into Eng- lish."^ Some of the estimates that were made of Mr. Flint's 432 Jf^estern Monthly Revieiv, vol. iii, 534. *33 — Idem, vol. iii, 534, 582, 663, also 587, 666. LITERARY TRAITS AND ESTIMATES 257 literary work by his contemporaries may be further noted. N, P. Willis, in his American Monthly Mag- azine*^^ for 1829, spoke strongly of the value of Mr. Flint's magazine and historical work as contributions to the knowledge of the west, and mentioned the Sho- shonee Valley as showing the influence of the white people upon the Indians. In the Athenceum^^^ Mr. Willis said, that he was really a man of talent, and that Francis Berrian was his best work. The New York Observer *^^ said that he ranked among the more dis- tinguished writers of the country. His classmate, Samuel Swett, said: Mr. Flint was one of the most distinguished of our literary characters, especially at the west. His Recollections^ Swett thought was to be an ever- lasting monument to his fame.*" William Cullen Bryant made a very favorable re- view of the first edition of the Geography and History in the New York Evening Post. Mr. Flint says of this notice (no copy of which has been found) , "If any one were not proud, he would be more or less than man.""« Griswold said. It [the Geography and Historyl was at that time the most important contribution which had been made to American geography, and, with the Recollections, it embraces the most graphic and faithful descriptions of the scenery and physical as- pect of the western states that has ever yet been written.^^^ "*Vol. i, 75. *35 Vol. for 1835, no. 375, 12. 436 Vol. xviii, 139. *^'' Christian Register, vol. xix, 138. *^^ Flint, Timothy. History and Geography, p. xiii. *^^ Griswold, op. cit., 152. 258 TLVIOTHY FLINT Henry T. Tuckerman "" speaks of Flint as exten- sively read, widely beloved, as at home in the wilder- ness, a favorite in society, the peculiar value of his writings being that they evince not a cursory survey of regions described but of years of residence. Besides this intimate contact with men and countries he had the power of patient observation. Tuckerman believed that Flint's books would often be consulted by subse- quent writers. The New York Co7?i7nercial -quoted by Mr. Gal- lagher in his iVf/rror^"^- thinks the Geography and History, and the Recollections the most valuable con- tributions that industry and research have ever pro- duced for the making known of the western interior. Mr. Flint is, this critic thinks, one of the most excellent writers that the country has produced, and belongs to that very rare class in the country, "authors or littera- teurs." He says also that Mr. Flint is almost as ver- satile as Goldsmith, that he is distinguished as a novelist, naturalist, geologist, geographer, and essay- ist. His ethical productions seem to this writer to show a mind strong and cultivated, a judgment un- warped and sound, with a sense of religion of the most purifying influence. This writer's only lament is that Mr. Flint has not been more widely appreciated. Mrs. Trollope thinks no better of America's liter- ature than of her other characteristics, but she has a good word for Mr. Flint. She says: Mr. Flint's Francis Berrian is delightful. There Is a vigor and freshness in his writing that is exactly in accordance with ^■^'^ America and Her Comrnenlntors. jr'itli a Critical Skefc/i of Travel in the United States, 402, 404. ■**! Cincinnati Mirror, vcl. iii, 444. LITERARY TRAITS AND ESTIMATES 259 what one looks for in the literature of a new country ; and yet, strange to say, is exactly what is most wanting in that of Amer- ica. . . His History of the Mississippi Valley is a work of great interest and information, and will, I hope, in time find its way to England, where I think it is much more likely to be ap- preciated than in America.*'- The United States Literary Gazette*'" of Boston for May 15, 1826, gives a dozen pages of quotations from the Recollections. The reviewer makes few remarks about the work except that it is by one very competent to write and not of the common class of tourists. It is, he thinks, a very important subject upon which the older section of the country needs to be accurately and fully informed, and he quotes fully for the benefit of those who may not see the book. The Southern Review*** gives an extended review of the Recollections. The reviewer has carefully read the work, and gives a very accurate itinerary of Mr. Flint's journeyings, which can not be made out without careful reading and rereading. With the quotations and synopsis given in this review, we have a very good presentation of the whole work. But even then the reviewer says : When we look back on what we are compelled to omit, we can not but feel regret. We feel sorrow at closing the volume and bidding our friend adieu, and can not refrain from sincerely wishing him a re-establishment of his health, and a long life of happiness and utility in the bosom of his amiable family. Concerning the character of this "Presbyterian Minister from New England," this writer says : He Is, evidently, a man of sound observation, of liberal prin- ^'t^ Trollope, Mrs., op. cit., vol. ii, 155. **^' Vol. iv, 133-146. 4** Vol. ii, 192-216. 26o TIMOTHY FLINT ciples, of engaging simplicity, pure benevolence, and unaffected piety. . . Though a man of education, he does not appear to be one of science ; or if so, he has carefully avoided displaying it. This man is very much pleased with Mr. Flint's unprejudiced views on the slavery question, and with his advice to the people of the north against the polit- ical agitation and abuse of the question. The A^nerican Monthly Review**^ devotes eight pages to a review of Flint's History and Geography. The reviewer is occupied with pointing out the errors of fact, or supposed errors, the infelicities of the lan- guage and the absurdities of certain statements. Some of these charges are true. Mr. Flint is not always clear in his statements. Some of his statements are far too general when they should have been definite. In other cases, it is probable that Mr. Flint knew of what he was speaking better than the reviewer. For instance, the reviewer states that Mr. Birkbeck had nothing to do with Mr. Flower's founding of Al- bion, Illinois. He seems to be ignorant of the fact that Mr. Flower and Mr. Birkbeck bought a tract of land together, divided it by lot and labored to- gether for the building up of the settlement on the English Prairie where both Albion and Wanborough were located."'' The editor of the Knickerbocker^ probably Charles Fenno Hofifman,"^ was an admirer of Flint. In March, 1833, he gives six pages of the translation of Droz's Art of Being Happy. He speaks of the trans- 4« Vol. iv, 460-468. ^*^ See Thwaitcs's Early Western Travels, vol. ix, 71, note ; vol. x, 47, note, 271, 272. **'^ Knickerbocker, vol. ii, no; vol. iii, 320. LITERARY TRAITS AND ESTIMATES 261 lator as, our eloquent countryman. In the same vol- ume he reviews the Lectures upon Natural History. He says: The name of Mr. Flint begins to be well known to his countrymen as that of one of the very best of our native writers. He approves of the aim of the book and speaks of the style as, "like all of the writings of the author, flow- ing, warm and animated.""^ On the other hand is the American Monthly Re- view "^ which had to read the same Lectures with "our smelling bottle in hand." It was not from fear of the cholera, nor from the bad odor arising from the book, nor yet from a proneness to fainting, but To prevent heart sinking, we were obliged to stimulate our nasal extremity, while we read. . , Such continued deep plowing of our sensibilities, such delectable outpouring of waters of pathos, such wild visions of fancy, hanging round grave and solemn preaching, like mistletoe on an oak, such snuffs, mere finger pinches of philosophy, mingled with wholesale absurdities, were altogether too much for our poor, mechanical, straightfor- ward humanity. We trust there are natures to which this book will be like mother's milk, natural food. It is the high sounding title of the work and its very general and popular character which seems to be most offensive to the editor of the American Monthly Re- view. The title of the book is a mere bait, he thinks. It is not fair because it does not say that important lec- tures are translations. The editor has not time to point them out but he warns the reader that the book is full of errors. It has great honesty of purpose united with great credulity. The credulity is that of poetry, **^ Knickerbocker, vol. i, 140-146, and 193, 194. 4*9 Vol. iii, 261. 262 TIMOTHY FLINT and altogether too credulous for natural history. The reviewer says: Hence it is that furies with snaky hair, no longer people the regions of imagination, but under our author's hand would become every day sort of folk. He tells us that he has actually seen a hair - plucked from the living horse, and thrown into a trough of water, exposed to the genial rays of a warm sun, turn to a living snake.*^" The editor thinks that Mr. Flint has destroyed a beautiful fable by believing it a fact. Still, with all his exuberance and wildness . . . Mr. Flint has made a useful book. Its object is noble. Even with all his faults, his inflated style, and all its puerilities and gross inaccuracies the book has many redeeming virtues, and for the hour is a pleasant companion. But it is vain to look for a little appreciation of the work. The reviewer is of]f again upon his old way of ridicule: There is no system, and the author pretends to none. You are not led softly into the realms of mystery but: You are seized by the collar, and pitched heels over head into the fathomless ocean of science. As j'ou scramble ashore all dripping and covered with sea-weed, the author again grasps you and introduces you to some great picture. ■'"'O American Monthly Revieiv, vol. iii, 264. This reference is to page 49 of the Lectures and is as follows: "I have observed an analogous fact, apper- taining to another branch of natural history. I heard the fact asserted and denied, and I made the trial myself. A long black hair from a horse's mane was left in a wooden trough, to soak in rain water, during tlie sultry dajs of August, for ten or twelve days. At the end of that time it had become ■white, and had acquired a protuberance at one extremity', like a head. It moved about, folded and unfolded itself, showed sensibility when touched, and had become in fact that singular animal, of which naturalists, as far as I know, have taken no notice ; but Avhich farmers know well by the name hair-snake." LITERARY TRAITS AND ESTIMATES 263 Again and more fairly: This is the great fault of the book before us ; there is a want of impressive distinctness. . , It is truly to be lamented that one who knows so well how to color and embody with life such facts, should allow his imagination to usurp the throne of his judgment. The Style of this reviewer is that of the smart news- paper paragrapher and there appears to be a personal dislike of Mr. Flint. But he has pointed out the evi- dent weaknesses of the author. His suggestion that Mr. Flint might honor his former profession, the ministry, by thinking more and writing less, is of course unkind, but it is none the less true. The London Quarterly Review *^"^ for 1832, gives twenty pages to a review of the Recollections. Most of this is in fine print, quoting from Mr. Flint's work. It is for the most part favorable, but the reviewer has not read the work closely enough to follow Mr. Flint's movements. He thinks that Mr. Flint lived longest at Jackson, Missouri, and that he made one visit to New England during the first ten years of his western residence. The impression of the reviewer concern- ing the work as a whole is worth notice. He says: We wish Mr. Timothy Flint had fallen in our way before we drew up our account of Mrs. Trollope On the Domestic Manners of the Americans, because the tw-o writers travel over much of the same ground, and the contrasts as well as the paral- lels, which their descriptions of nature and society present, are full of interest. Having lost the opportunity of presenting them together -we must be contented with expressing our hope that these Recollections may be reprinted in this country, and placed in every library of voyages and travels, on the same shelf with ^5^ Vol. xlviii, 201-222. 264 TIMOTHY FLINT those two little volumes which seem to have proved such bitter chewing to our Radicals and Whi^s. With obvious faults, Mr. Flint's style is marked by countervailing excellencies, being lively, flowing, often vigorous, and, in general, quite unaffected ; but this is a secondary merit. These pages reflect a sincere, humane, and liberal character, a warm and gentle heart and hardly even a prejudice that is not amiable. The reviewer is in full sympathy with Mr. Flint except that he is "pulled up" by the unfavorable com- parison of the present European nations with the an- cient people of America known as Moundbuilders. Of such poor bigotry, based on such solid ignorance, we should never have expected to discover a specimen in the same book with the beautiful passages we have been quoting. Here, however, J is the Yankee mark. ' The North American Review for October, 1826/" I in reviewing the Recollections says : I This volume has been perused by us with great pleasure, and I with much respect for the writer's talents and character. We / have risen from it, indeed, with a stronger sympathy, than we I should wish to have occasion to feel with the author in the hard- ships and sufferings endured by him and his family; with more vivid conceptions than we before possessed, of the peculiar aspects of the grand and beautiful features of the country he describes; with more enlarged views of its natural resources, of the extent and progress of its population ; and with more favorable impres- sions of the general character of our fellow citizens of those vast and fertile regions, that border upon the Mississippi, and its mighty tributary streams from the east and the west. Mr. Flint is not one of the common herd of travel writers and journal makers "who" as he remarks, "travel post or are wafted through a country in a steamboat, and assume, on the ground of having thus traversed it, to know all about it." ^'^^ *52 Vol. xxiii, 355-368. ^^^ — Idem, 357. LITERARY TRAITS AND ESTIMATES 265 Still more to the purpose the reviewer thinks, is the fact that Mr. Flint's Intellectual, moral, and literary qualifications fitted him to avail himself of these advantages, and to impart attractions and an interest to his narrative, which such qualifications only can impart to a work of this kind. He unites properties which do not often meet in the same mind, a capacity for discriminating and philosophic observation, a true tact and common sense logic, with the imagination, feeling, and romantic sentiment of the poet and novelist. . . His deep and vivid sympathy with the varying aspects of the physical universe, which opened to his view in the Western world, gives to his narrative one of its most peculiar and engaging features. There is a truth, a distinctness, a graphic fidelity in his descriptions, which make the reader feel himself to be a present spectator of the objects and occurrences he describes. . . As he feels strongly and deeply, he heightens, no doubt, by the coloring of his imagination, the hues of the gay or sad vicissitudes which befell him. Yet there is an air of good faith and reality in what he relates, which convinces us, that we may listen to him with the confidence, with which a man, at his fireside, receives the communications of a friend of tried integrity, telling the tale of his eventful wanderings and various fortunes after an absence of many years.*^*. . It has the peculiar charm of an autobiography, written by a man of cultured intellect, dis- closing his thoughts and the hidden workings of his soul, under various novel circumstances. . . The reflections are often orig- inal and sensible, and indicate a mind accustomed to hold "large discourse, looking before and after," and rich in its own re- sources. In the closing paragraph of this review, the faults are pointed out. The reviewer does not mean to be unjust, and is not, when he says : An obvious fault in this work is the confusion, which the read- er experiences in its perusal, arising from the circumstance, that the author seems sometimes to be writing at Alexandria, some- ^^* North American Revieiv, vol. xxiii, 358. 266 TIMOTHY FLINT times in New England, and at other times it is difficult to con- jecture where. Instances of repetition in thought and language frequently occur. The same word is often repeated ungrace- fully in the same sentence, where a synonym would save the awkwardness, and express the sense equally well. The thread- bare quotation, "longing, lingering look behind," comes upon us something like a half dozen times. Many parts of the work bear evident marks of haste in the composition. We notice these, not as flagrant faults, but as blemishes, which a little more atten- tion, or careful revision would have prevented. This review makes extensive quotations from the w^ork and is perhaps the best of the several that were written. The North American Review did not soon forget Mr. Flint. It occasionally referred to him for several years after his retirement. In July, 1 836, it said : Flint's Ten Years' Residence is one of our few genuine na- tional works. It could have been written nowhere but in the Western Valley. It could have been written by no one, whose mind had not been moulded by a constant contact with western scenery and people. The reviewer was speaking of another writer's work in lines similar to those of Mr. Flint. This writer seems to have criticised Flint's work as a failure. The Review remarks: He will have adJed to his already well-earned fame, when he shall have produced such a "failure" as Mr. Flint's Ten Years Residence in the Mississippi Valley. *^^ ^'^s Vol. xliii, 2. XVII. PERSONAL AND RELIGIOUS CHARACTERISTICS It seems fitting that a few of Mr. Flint's friends and critics should be heard from as they bear witness con- cerning his personal and religious life. In forming any estimate of his life it must always be kept in mind that Timothy Flint was in poor health, often an invalid, for at least two thirds of his three score years. He belonged to that choice company of the world heroes and heroines who carry their own and often their brother's burden, while suffering from pain and disease. That he did his full share of work in the world, invalid though he was, is evident when one turns through the two thousand pages of the Re- view which was almost exclusively his own work,^^^ and that was but a small part of his literary work dur- ing the three years of its publication. Mr. W. D. Gallagher said: "He writes as he talks- rapidly, eloquently, poetically, carelessly." Mr. Gallagher, as has been said, was a close friend of Mr. Flint and admired him greatly. In 1835 ^^ ^^^~ '^^^ N. P. Willis is clearly mistaken in thinking that Mrs. Trollope did any extensive writing for the IVestern Monthly Revieav. There are no signed articles by her and nothing to show that she wrote anything. Others seem to have the same idea as Mr. Willis in this matter. Mr. Gallagher in the Mirror (vol. iii, 37), says Flint wrote three fourths of the Revieiu him- self.* This appears to be a just estimate. 268 TIMOTHY FLINT icated to him a little volume of poems, Erato Number Oner' IMr. Flint was a man who made many devoted friends and a few bitter enemies. There is a freshness, a fullness and vitality, a personal charm about the man which strikes even the modern reader strongly. This is noticeable in the opening pages of his magazine. Modern readers feel also the personal charm of the man in his novels and other writings. Mr. Willis was so charmed with the spirit which Mr. Flint had shown in making a correction concern- ing a previous statement about Mr. Willis's mag- azine, that he says, "Now could we walk to Ohio 'to kiss the hand of that man'." He had not met with such cordial sympathy since he left his college class."^ It was the charm of personal character, subtle and elusive, but marked, that first attracted and induced the writer to make an extended study of his life. This impression has been made upon several friends, some of literar}" tastes, and others, the casual novel reader, to whom Mr. Flint's novels and Recollections were loaned. This persistence of his influence and charm will help to explain some of the warm expressions of his contemporaries. One of his most enthusiastic admirers was Mrs. TroUope. Such a person's testimony regarding Mr. Flint and his family is all the more striking because of her usual attitude toward things American. *^^ She says: The most agreeable acquaintance I made in Cincinnati, and *•"> Cincinnati Mirror, vol. iii, 36. Also, Knickerbocker, vol. v, 348-349. ■*f'i American Monthly Magazine, vol. i, 358. ^•'- See pages 212-215. CHARACTERISTICS 269 indeed one of the most talented men I ever met, was Mr. Flint, the author of several extremely clever volumes, and the editor of the Western Monthly Review. His conversational powers are of the highest order: he is the only person I remember to have known with first-rate powers of satire, and even of sarcasm, whose kindness of nature and of manner remained perfectly unin- jured. In some of his critical notices, there is a strength and keenness second to nothing of the kind I have ever read. He is a warm patriot, and so true-hearted an American that we could not always be of the same opinion on all the subjects we discussed ; but whether it were the force and brilliance of his language, his genuine and manly sincerity of feeling, or his bland and gentle- man-like manner that beguiled me, I know not, but certainly he is the only American I ever listened to, whose unqualified praise of his country did not appear to me somewhat over-strained and ridiculous.^®^ His classmate, Samuel Swett, says about him: . . . Of ardent temperament, active, insatiable inquisitive- ness, confident in his opinions and sanguine in his pursuits, inde- fatigably studious, and well read in his profession and the auxil- iary sciences and literature. . . He was himself an eloquent companion, of inexhaustible information, infinite anecdote, sur- charged with wit and humor, and, what is better, with good humor. How his heart overflowed with human kindness, his numerous troops of friends in every part of our country will cordially attest.*^* It was this friend who thought that Flint's western experiences had effectually cured him of his unsophis- ticated traits, and made him passionately fond of so- ciety. At the time of his death the Knickerbocker said : He was a warm friend, an upright, independent and honorable man and a true Christian.*®^ ^^^XroUope, Mrs., op. cit., vol. i, 124. ^•* Christian Register, vol. xix, 13S. ^^^' Knickerbocker, vol. xvi, 364. 270 TIMOTHY FLINT In the land of his adoption, he is well remembered, though he is almost forgotten in the land of his birth. Descendants and friends remember him as an extreme- ly attractive and lovable man, who combined with in- tellectual culture and strength, great charm of man- ners and personality, Mr. F'lint probably did largely overcome his nat- ural shrinking from the public. But he was always somewhat, as he says : Repulsed from the giddy, joyous throng As one of other kind, in musing mood I find me here alone, a pilgrim come To view once more the final resting place Of my forefathers, and the sounding pines Still spread their dark green tassels to the breeze.**® He was in the habit of walking in the woods at sun- rise and again in the evening.*" He traversed the streets but little.**'^ There was always something of the recluse about him. He was very sensitive to criticism, though he did not often reply to it.*^^ But along with this brooding and silent nature, shrinking from his kind, there was also an intense interest in men. He delighted to study the "forest walkers" and to show that the human nature which was there, was a "correspondence -as the Sweden- borgians say- of all, that was in Rome, or is in Pekin or Petersburg, Paris, London, or Washington."*^" If Flint's novels are not of the modern psychological 466 ffgstern Monthly Revieiv, vol. ii, 210. **^ — Idem, vol. iii, 637, line 16 *®^ — Idem, vol. ii, 83, line 33. **® — Idem, vol. i, Editor's Address, 9 ff., also 272-273. *'o Flint, Timothy. Shoshonee Valley, vol. i, 17. CHARACTERISTICS 271 type, they show at least as much interest in the motives of their people, as in the plot. This is true particu- larly of the Shoshonee Valley and Francis Berrian. Mr. Flint is interested in the eccentric doctor, who proposed with bread pills and colored waters to "kick calomel and fever out of doors." His theory rested on the healing powers of nature and his practice was to let the patient alone. Flint was half in favor of the theory, but wholly interested in the doctor as a speci- men of his tribe.*" As another indication of his interest in character, it is suggestive to remember that he had a large collec- tion of autographs, as large, he thought, as any col- lection in the country."' Mr. Flint had a very lively interest in the frontiers- man. He says of them : There is a kind of moral sublimity in the contemplation of the adventures and daring of such men. They read a lesson to shrinking and effeminate spirits, to the men of soft hands and fashionable h'fe. . . They tend to reinspire something of that simplicity of manners, manly hardihood, and Spartan energy and force of character, which formed so conspicuous a part of the nature of the settlers of the western wilderness.*"" Mr. Flint's most popular book Daniel Boone,*'* judging by the fourteen different editions through which it passed, shows this strong interest in the fron- ■*^' JFestern Monthly Revieiv, vol. ii, i^6y\6-]. ■*^- — Idem, vol. iii, 637, line 4. ^^" Editor's preface to Pattie's Personal Narrtiti-vr, in Thwaites's Early Western Travels, vol. xviii, 27. *^* The popularity of Flint's Daniel Bonne is shown also by the fact that it was copied by later writers. The North .Imerican Revieiv, vol. Ixii, 71, says of the A dventiires of Daniel Boone, by the author of Uncle Phillip's Conversations that it is taken almost entirely from Mr. Flint's v.orlc. Even Flint's mathematical errors are copied. 272 TIMOTHY FLINT tiersman. The story of Oolemba and the Shoshonee Valley are studies of Indian life as aflfected by the white race. These red men and the frontiersman were types of life that he knew well and most suc- cessfully described. Mr. Venable's remark about Timothy Flint's inter- est in human nature, and his optimistic view in all stages, is quite in point here : Timothy seems never to have encountered other tlian amiable people in his wanderings; French, Spanish, Dutch, German, Eng- lish, half-breeds, full blood savages -all were amiable to him. With equal hospitality of heart, he met Yankee traders, and Kentucky boatmen, Canadian voyageurs, and Texas rangers.*^^ Enough has been said during the progress of this story about his love of nature, of his delight in the wildest storm and the most terrific crashes of thunder, and his interest in a great variety of nature's phenom- ena. Mr. Flint was often lifting the curtain of the future and vv^ondering what would be, in the years to come. The development of the Mississippi Valley, the in- fluence of canals and railroads and the growth of our institutions, are subjects with which he frequently deals. One of the most curious articles that we have from his pen, and not the least interesting, is an article entitled, "Extracts from the Gazette of Oregon, mouth of Columbia, July 5, 1900." In this article,*^^ Mr. Flint attempts to put himself forward nearly three quarters of a century, and write a Fourth of July edi- torial for a daily paper published at an unknown city, of one hundred thousand inhabitants, and fifty years 475 Venable, William H., op. cit., 346. 476 IfTestern Monthly Review, vol. i, 255-263. CHARACTERISTICS 273 of age, at the mouth of the Columbia River. One's curiosity is to see how far he missed, and how near he came to the conditions that existed when the year 1900 had arrived. There were he says, vast numbers of Japanese and Chinese who could come from their own land in seven days, but they were merchants and me- chanics, devoted to their adopted land, celebrating the national day, and loved and trusted by their native American neighbors. Of the millions of people who lived west of the Rocky Mountains, one half were immigrants from China, Japan, and the islands of the sea. This section of the great country, could compare in culture, comforts, and wealth with the proudest portion of the land. There were one hundred mil- lions of people in the United States, united and strong, courted by all the nations of the earth. The Spanish Republics extended far to the north as in the days before the Mexican War. They were now populous and happy. Travel was so expedited that the journey from the mouth of the Missouri via river and canal, could be often made in less than twenty days ! The journey across the continent was so comfortable that a rich lady, who fancied herself an invalid, had made the entire distance by river and canal and had not once left her couch. Canals were every^vhere common, even over the mountains. Bal- loons were now traveling through the air, directed as easily as skiffs in the water. Strange that he did not foresee the railroad! It is the age of petticoats and the "better half" of the species. Woman has learned algebra, chemistry, and all the list, including verse-making and man-gov- 2 74 TIMOTHY FLINT crning. She has thrown corsets, false curls, everlast- ings and affectation to the fire and winds, and returned to the graceful draperies of the Greeks. In short, they have jjymnasticised and calfsthenized, and man- aged, what with verses and pretty ways, and thrumming instru- ments, and warbling songs, after the fashion of the nightingale, and by seeming to be humble and good, until, aided by down right muscle and physical power . . . they have carried the point, that for the next century they shall legislate, decide the causes, and fight the battles, allowing the men to lie upon their oars, and to be put upon a probation of good behavior, in which, if they come forth as gold, they may be allowed to take govern- ing, turn about, every other century/"' In morals there were still greater improvements. The very boys in the street scout a miser. A profane man is not admitted to good society'. A liar gets no credit for the second lie. The people turn up their noses at a babbler. Even the fairest woman if she at- tempt to relate scandal, causes the people to rise from the tea-table and fly as from the plague. Already there has come to be a thousand churches of Christ in China. There has just been a world meeting of all Christian churches at the birth place of the Redeemer, which separated, after recommending as "The motto and formula of all Christians under heaven these words: Glory to God in the highest; on earth peace and good will to men.^^ ''* The article closes with an amusing description of the manner in which "Miss Emily Evergreen of the city of Oregon, aged seventy- five years," was ground over and rejuvenated "by transfusion of youthful blood into her veins.""" *'''' Western Monthly Revieii; vol. i, 260. *" _ Idem, 258. 479 — Ide?n, 261-263. CHARACTERISTICS 275 The questions of death and the future life were of even more interest to Mr. Flint than these of the fu- ture of the world's development. He said that when he passed through a town, if he had time, he always vis- ited the cemetery. In his notes to the Art of Being Happy he returns repeatedly to the thought and expe- riences of death and the hope of immortality. Mr. Flint is not morbid at this point, but rises to the height of St. Paul and the great Christian souls of all ages, in his confidence of victory over death and the infinite gain of the future life.*^" Mr. Flint championed many reforms. He deliv- ered some of his most telling blows against dueling.**^ He organized and addressed temperance societies. From many remarks that he makes we may judge that he was himself a teetotaler and advocated this kind of temperance as the only sure cure for a great evil.*^^ He detested tobacco. He was always strongly opposed to partisan politics. Many of his keenest shafts were directed at the politi- 480 por a discussion of Immortality see Notes to the Art of Being Happy, 193-313, especially, 304-312. Here is a typical passage from page 311 of this work: "For myself I feel that I am immortal, and that these fellow sojourners, to whom I have been attached by the affection of lonp; intimac}', and the recep- tion of many and great kindnesses, will exist with me hereafter. I pretend to conceive nothing, I wish to enquire nothing, about the mode, the place and circumstances. I should as soon think of disturbing myself, bj' endeavor- ing to conceive the ideas that might be imparted by a sixth sense. It is suHicient that my heait declares, that a being who has seen this glorious world, cherished these warm affections, entertained these illimitable aspira- tions, felt these longings after immortality, indulged 'these thoughts, that wander through eternity,' cannot have been doomed by Him, who gave them, to have been quenched forever in annihilation. Even an illusion so glorious would be worth purchasing at the price of a world." 481 Western Monthly Revieiv, vol. i, 453-461. *8- — Idem, vol. ii, 79-97. 27b TIMOTHY FLINT cians of his day/"^ He thought it a matter of deep regret tliat all well bred persons did not banish poli- tics as a subject of discussion while journeying, for: What is it to a traveler, who of two stupid demagogues are elected to congress, or who made the heaviest speech at a cau- cus? *^* He had little sympathy with radical and extremist of any kind. He was not a Mason, but he disapproved heartily of the anti-masonic excitement consequent upon the Morgan episode, during the years 1826- 1828.*^= Mr. Flint had much to say, and that in his most se- rious vein, about slavery. In 1825, he said: "I have never owned a slave, and I would to God, there had never been one on earth." But he had seen the insti- tution at close range. If he knew all of the evils con- nected with it he knew also, all that could be said for it. Moreover he had then warm friends, and soon after sons, who owned large numbers of slaves. He could see both sides of the question and was compelled to say of the northern attitude: But when I hear opinions that are expressed in your region, and see the bitter influences of misrepresentation upon this sub- ject, and read the intemperate and inflammatory productions of the day, productions, which, I doubt not, are in many instances got up merely for political purposes, I tremble, in contemplating their probable influence upon public feeling at the South. ^®® If there were space it would be a pleasure to say much about Mr. Flint's family. James and Hubbard were prosperous planters. James was one of the best and most noted lawyers in the south, and had a very 483 ff^estern Monthly Rev., vol. ni, ^1 J. "^ — Idem, vol. iii, 169-181. ■*^* — Idem, vol. ii, 196. *8^ Flint. Recollections, 341-348. CHARACTERISTICS 277 large and remunerative practise. He was an officer in the Mexican War. He was a quiet and methodical man. The yellow fever, after taking him, carried off, in 1855, his wife and two of his children within a few weeks.*" Hubbard was a painstaking and burden- bearing man, the most religious one of the five. His old slaves long prayed for "Massa Hubbard." Both of these brothers lost their lives by the yellow fever, con- tracted while nursing their black people during a fever epidemic in 1853 -dying within a few weeks of each other. Emeline and Martha died during the Civil War. Mrs. E. H. Flint is said to have refused one million dollars for her property shortly before that time. All five had children except Emeline. Micah's two sons died early. Two of James's four chil- dren are living: Mrs. Emeline Flint Seip, Alexandria, Louisiana and James Timothy Flint of Nashville, Tennessee. The latter has three daughters but no sons and the name of Timothy Flint passes with this grandson. Mrs. Seip has four sons, approaching manhood, two of whom bear the honored name of Flint as given names. Mr. Flint's youngest daughter, Martha, who became Mrs. McWaters, has one daughter living, Mrs. E. A. Preston, Walla Walla, Washington. She also has children, one of whom is Mrs. Skinner of Galveston, Texas. There are still other grandchildren of Mr. Flint living in the south. Several of Mr. Flint's grandchildren have shown the same active, nervous, and poetic nature that belonged to their grandfather. The family traits are said to be *^' For a biographical sketch of James Timothy Flint, see Alice Fortier's Louisiana, vol. ii, 143 ff. Also, Fredric Seip's letter written from Alex- andria, La., Jan. 10, 1910, in Library Harvard University. 278 TIMOTHY FLINT marked in them, and I have had many opportunities through their correspondence and literary produc- tions of knowing that some of the strong features of the father are preserved by the children of the second and third generation/"*- Mr. Flint was a profoundly religious man. He was deeply, genuinely Christian, in all his acts and thoughts. Not alone his preaching, and his devoted service upon the hardest of missionary fields, bear witness to his religious life, but the great mass of his writings are permeated with the spirit of piet>'. His stories have confessedly a moral aim. All of his con- temporaries, who speak of the religious side of his life, bear w^itness to its warmth and depth. In his family life, religion was not only regarded as a matter of precept and practice, but as an institution. There w^ere morning and evening prayers. On the Sabbath there were special services, and sermons like those of Paley were read by some member of the fam- ily circle.*^^ His prayer, used in family worship, has been preserved, in the Bibles of more than one of his children.*®'' One of Flint's best poems, "The Being of a God"*®' goes more deeply into his thought about God than any of his prose. At the same time it is full of faith and hope. Timothy Flint was in full sympathy, and often in hearty fellowship, with all Protestant sects in their practical expressions and emotional experiences of re- 488 Several letters of Emeline Flint Seip, 1907-1910, in Boston Public Librarj'. 4S9 Jfestern Mofit/ily Reviev:, vol. i, 747, line 46. *»o See Appendix D. Also manuscript in Librar\, Harvard University and in Library, Yale Universit}-. *^i Western Monthly Revieii; vol. i, 528. Also Appendix E. CHARACTERISTICS 279 ligion. In these matters he was at one with the Ro- man church itself. It was only when a sect became exclusive and intolerant toward other Christians, that Mr. Flint parted company with them. It is Francis Berrian that appears to talk, but it is Mr. Flint's notion when he says to the priest: My heart subscribes to all your forms of prayer, neither am I displeased with some of your imposing forms of worship.*"^ Again in the Recollections he says there can be no question about the revolting contradictions of the real presence, the infallibility of the Pope, and other ad- ditions of the dark ages, but their reverence for and attachment to their church and ministry, unwilling- ness to dispute about articles of faith, and their will- ingness to sacrifice personal interests to the common cause, might not be regarded by Protestants without utility. He believed the Catholics were right in thinking that theological disputations were ruinous in their tendency, and that the multitudes never had, did not then, and never would have, "an influential faith, except it be an implicit one.""^ He was in deep sympathy with the Episcopal church in its marked tendency to put the emphasis upon worship and work, and in its swinging away from the "horrible and revolting doctrines of Calvin- ism and Hopkinsianism" which make one shudder even in the reading. He thought the spirits of Dodd- ridge, Baxter, and Watts, with others of their kind, had found a refuge in the Episcopal church, since they had been driven from their gentle and beneficent rule in the New England churches, by the tempest of *^2 Flint, Timothy. Francis Berrian, vol. i, 217. ■••'^ Flint. Recolltitions, 117, 118. 28o TIMOTHY FLINT fierce and contending opinions then raging. But he could not understand how the liberal views of the Gos- pel which prevailed in the Episcopal communion, could be made to agree with the thirty-nine articles. When he came to the apostolic sanction of the Episco- pacy, as established in the English church, he pro- tested indignantly. He said : It seems to us altogetlier the wrong time in the day, for a man of calm, temperate and enlarged spirit of the author, to come forward with the proposition, that the extL-rnal form of the constitution and government of any church is of Divine appoint- ment. This he thought was descending to the common secta- rian plane, and making claims which were equally valueless whether made by the oldest or the newest sect.""* It may be of interest as showing sectarian ten- dencies to remark about the religious affiliations of Mr. Flint's family. Near the close of his life they were inclined to Unitarianism. James Timothy was a Spiritualist and prepared a work in manuscript upon this subject. The present generation -and those im- mediately preceding them -are all Episcopalians, lib- eral, and tolerant generally, in their opinions and prac- tises of religion. They are still a strongly religious family.*^' Mr. Flint had seen the immense amount of good that was done by the Methodists, "on the very skirts of civilization, and among a peculiar race of people, upon whom no other denomination of Christian min- isters would be likely to operate." He admitted the zeal, the affectionate spirit and the brotherly love, the *9* H'estern Monthly Revieii; vol. ii, 386-389. ■*®^ Letters of Mrs. Seip, 1907, 1908. CHARACTERISTICS 28 1 untiring and unshrinking purpose, and more than all, the character of sentiment, tenderness, and bearing that marked their worship. It united, too, he thought, little as it had the credit for the union, "a greater degree of liberality with its well known zeal, than any other denomination, except the Liberal Christians." But he aimed to be impartial. There were things in the Methodist body that were foreign to their true spirit, such as noise, groanings, clapping of hands, stamping, shouting, and other parts of what might be "called the manual exercise of the Methodist worship." This, he says, was inconsistent with their origin, culture, and the good sense of many of their people."®** He protested against the use of their splen- did esprit du corps for political and selfish ends. He saw the danger there was in their covering up from their own view and attempting to hide from the world, some very common sins under the warm cloak of their piety. This he exposed mercilessly in his picture of the "Reverend Thomas S." and his dealings with a wealthy young heiress committed to his care. This man is presented as follows: With religion always in his mouth, and enough of morals and strictness to be always respectable; full of long and reiterated observances, and apparently always having, as his phrase was, the world under his feet; aiming always, too, in his religious exercises at the feelings, placing much dependance upon frames of mind, and considering the exaltation or the depression of feel- ing, as the graduated marks of nearness to God, or distance from him, it was no wonder that he gained an increased hold upon the sensitive and thoughtful nature of his fair associate. There was something imposing, too, in this assumed austerity of a young 498 Jf^estern Monthly Rcvieic, vol. ii, 476. 282 TIMOTHY FLINT and handsome man, something sublime in this apparent conquest of all earthly affections.*^^ Mr. Flint was naturally a Presbyterian but not a Calvinist. He did not think that the New England churches at the close of the Colonial period were Cal- vinistic. He thought the men upon whom the min- istry of that period had fed, Watts, Baxter, Doddridge * and more than all Matthew Henry, were orthodox in theory and heretical in practise -if their phrase and term were Calvinistic, their life and practise were Ar- minian/^* He thought they were little interested in the Athanasian doctrine of the Trinity, and that if they had been asked categorically if they believed in the strict unity of the Deity they would have given but one answer. Mr. Flint was a Presbyterian, as he con- ceived that party to have been in the great days of Puritan thought. He believed the Trinitarian party in New England was sectarian and bigoted, that it was pulling down the traditions and institutions of the fathers."** He believed they were mocking the spirit of the Pilgrims which they pretended to follow. One of the leading characters, and the most clearly drawn one in his Shoshonee Valley is Elder Wood, the Baptist trapper missionary. His head is Calvinistic. His sermons to the Indians are occasionally of the high Calvinistic type. Upon such occasions the Indians can make nothing of the elder's teaching. They easily drive him into a corner. But they believe in the heart and life of their preacher. With his theology he per- plexed and repelled them. With his humanity and religion he wins them. This character is a concrete *^' Flint, Timothy. Francis Berrian, vol. ii, 281. 49S jyestern Monthly Rcvieiv, vol. iii, 369, 370. *^^ — Idem; also vol. ii, 339-345. CHARACTERISTICS 283 expression of Mr. Flint's position in reference to Cal- vinism and Presbyterianism. So far as he followed the Unitarians of the early Channing type, it was not only because he was very closely related to them by strong early ties but because he felt that they best preserved the spirit of the earlier age and ministry, which he so much admired. It seemed to him that there never had been a purer or better ministry than that of New England a half cen- tury before his time. Their "preaching was afifection- ate, persuasive, mild, paternal." "°° It was a time when. Religion was understood to be a matter of practise and good feeling; and the theories by which good men became religious, were little investigated, the people being more concerned to gather the good fruits, than to search out the elementary principles of its origin and development.^"^ The Unitarian party- Flint called it the "Liberal Christian" party- appeared to him to adhere most strictly to the simple covenants of the fathers and to avoid the dogma of Calvinism or other isms. It ap- peared to him, as it may easily appear to the present day student of those times, that the Unitarian party taken as a whole was the most tolerant, and undog- matic body of the period. He would like to have believed, he says : That the spirit of bigotry had not found its way even into the ranks of the unitarians. . . True, they do not wield fire and fagot. True, they contend not for the converting influence of inquisition and dungeons. But they are not above a little harmless ridicule, of those who hold that Christ is worthy of worship, as he 600 ffgsiern Monthly Revieiv, vol. i, 685. '^"^ — Idem, vol. iii, 369. 284 TIMOTHY FLINT himself does, dp above hints that such a person is weak, credulous, obtuse of intellect, and ought to be sent where people are less enlightened. Theirs are these "mild and harmless expedients, that may be adopted with the most Christ-like tempers." The truth is, the spirit of man is naturally a persecutinti; spir- it. . . Every one wishes to bend every other mind to his opinion. . . The leaders of all sects wish to exclude all light, but that, which tends to confirm their followers in their present persuasions. Every one talks about the omnipotence of truth ; and yet every one dreads, that any other views, than his own, should be presented to his disciple.^*^- With the more advanced biblical and rational po- sition of Theodore Parker, Flint was not in sympathy. With the rationalism, the swinging away from re- vealed religion and the reducing of Christ to the ranks of humanity which marked one wing of Unitarianism in its second or third generations, Flint had no sym- pathy whatever. He says concerning the person of Christ: We rcf^ret the application of that ingeniiit)' of unitarians, which denies that Christ is the object of worship in the Scriptures. It is to be remembered that no party then raised the question of fallibility concerning the teachings of the Scriptures. Flint continues: We have no fears of giving him too high a place in our thoughts, or of placing on him too entire a reliance. If the gospel and the epistles do not give to the Saviour a claim far above any prophet, apostle, martyr, example, principality, angel, or power, if the apostles do not assign to him a high and peculiar place in their faith, thoughts and hopes, then words to us would cease to have a meaning. He thinks that the contention between, "unitarian" 502 ff^gstern Monthly Review:, vol. ii, 345. CHARACTERISTICS 285 and ''trinitarian," like the greater portion of all theo- logical disputes, is a dispute about terms. If they Were compelled to be silent, until they had precise ideas about what is the point of division and dispute between them, we are clear, that the greater portion of the dispute would be consigned to oblivion. Worship is a feeling, a homage of the mind and of the heart, and the object not the less real, because utterly incomprehensible, either as three, or one.^"^ He wished to leave the question where the Scrip- tures left it. He did not believe that the abstract name and dignit}^ of the Saviour or of the Deity was a thing that had been revealed to us, and even if God had at- tempted to reveal it, mankind would not have been able to understand it.'"^ In a word, he believed in the Trinity of Revelation and experience, but not in the Trinity of Athanasius. Sectarianism in religion was Mr. Flint's particular aversion. He said about 1832 in the notes to his Art of Being Happy : with the fierce war cry of sects in religion, in their acrimonious and never ending con- tests about abstract terms without a meaning, their combats about the vague and technical phrases of formulas of faith, I have long since had nothing to do. For many years they have rung on mv ear like the distant thunder of clouds that have passed by. This meditating spirit is the cue to Flint's religious position. Wherever he found that, whether among the Orthodox as he often did, or the Liberals, he counted himself one with them. He did not believe in logic as the servant of religion. He thought, "Disputation and discussion, under the mistaken idea 503 ff^estern Monthly Re'vieiu, vol. ii, 280. 50* — Idem. 286 TIMOTHY FLINT of enlightening the understanding, tend to banish the small remains of religion from among us."'""'^ He loved Matthew Henry because he was devotional - "orthodox in term and phrase, but evangelical and liberal in temper and spirit."^*"' He was devoted to the French romantic writers because they were poets rather than theologians. Villemain studied the liter- ature and history of the past not for "their dogmas, but for their piet}^ and enthusiasm." ^"' Lamartine he thrilled under, because he had the pathos, melancholy, originality, and shaggy vastness of Byron without his skeptical, misanthropic and revolting epicurism.^"* More than by other Frenchmen he was moved by Chateaubriand in his Le Genie du Christianisme. He spoke in the exalted language of poetry and not "in the shibboleth and terms of a sectarian." ^"^ He ad- mired Paley for one reason particularly- that he so nearly avoided "all disputable points among the sects, and all doctrinal matter of doubtful authority, or ambiguous interpretation." "° Mr. Flint always thought of religion as a natural sentiment in man. He thought a person left to grow on a desert island would have a religion. He says on this point: It is an inwrought feeling in our mental constitution, an un- written, universal, and everlasting gospel, pointing to God and immortality'.''^^ 5°5 Flint. Recollections, 117. 506 fyestern Monthly Review; vol. iii, 370, line 18. «o"— Idem, 264. 5°8 — Idem, 26, 27. 5°3 — Idem, vol. i, 609-625. '^o-'ldem, 746. *ii Flint, Timothy. Art of Being Happy, 230. CHARACTERISTICS 287 Nevertheless he believed religion was not unreason- able. He says : We are bound to believe things, that are above reason, on the testimony of God. But God, the author of light and order, has not called upon us, any where, to believe things, that are contrary to reason. ''^- He was in sympathy with scientific exegetical study of the Bible, for he thought it all important to know its teachings.''^^ He was not much in sympathy with the theological schools. He thought Andover in 1830 was as far from Princeton orthodoxy on one side as it was from the Unitarians on the other. This had resulted from the influence of such men as Edwards, Hopkins, Emmons, and Worcester, and from its prox- imity to the "warm crater of notions."'"' Mr. Flint's conclusion as to the essence of religion, first stated in his Recollections and held throughout his life, is: Religion is love, love to God and to men ; if there should ever be anything like assent to a common faith on the earth, it would be the experimental religion, the religion of the heart.^^^ ^1* Western Monthly Revieiv, vol. ii, 342. See also the review of "Let- ters on the Logos," by Chas. W. Upham and the "Trinitarian Controversy" by Dr. Charles Lowell, in the Re-vieiv, vol. ii, 233-246, 269-281. 613 _ /^^,„. *"'* — • Idem, vol. iii, 370. 515 Flint. Recollections, uy. APPENDIX A Itinerary of Timothy Flint 1780 Born, North Reading, Massachusetts 1795 Phillips Academy, Andover 1796 Enters Harvard College 1800 Graduates at Harvard 1 801 Teaches in an Academy at Cohasset. Studies Theology 1802 Preaches at Marblehead and is married there. Is settled at Lunenburg, and ordained 1 814 Resigns. Mission in New Hampshire 1815 Mission in Massachusetts and New York. Mis- sion to the west. Cincinnati, Indiana, and Ken- tucky 1816 St. Louis and St. Charles 1819 Arkansas. New Madrid, Missouri 1820 Jackson, Missouri 1 82 1 St. Charles, Missouri 1822 New Orleans 1823 West Florida. New Orleans. Alexandria, Louis- iana. 1825 New England and return to Alexandria 1826 New England via Gulf and Atlantic. Return via Cincinnati 1827 Removes to Cincinnati 1828 Visits New England 290 ITINERARY OF TIMOTHY FLINT 1829 Visits New England 1832 Visit to Alexandria, Louisiana; possibly South America 1833 Visits New England. Lives in New York City 1834 Removes to Alexandria, Louisiana; travels in New England, Canada, and possibly Europe 1835 In Cuba, New England, and on the Great Lakes. 1836-1838 New England journeys (?) 183Q Visits New England 1840 Goes to North Reading. Died August 16, buried at Salem APPENDIX B Flint's Letter of Resignation to the Missionary Society OF Connecticut"' Rev. Abel Flint, Secry. Miss. Soc. Con., Hartford, Con. Rev. and dear Sir, I learned at St. Louis yesterday without surprise but not without regret, that reports unfavorable to me had reached Hartford. Mr. Beebee, son in law of Mr. Hempsted, has been in your region. He is hostile to missionaries in general, and to me in particular, and I had every thing to fear from the representations of such a man. To the reports I will be as frank, sincere and brief as possible. Wheri I left Cincinnati, I had loaned money, which I could recover in no other way, but in goods. They made but a trifle and would be nothing without more. My son was an excellent accountant. My brother and son wished to make the experiment of store keeping to- gether. I had nothing to do with the business, and was seldom in the store oftener, than once in a week. The experiment was unfortunate, but I was resigned. When I came here, I found, that I had no alterna- tive, but either labor for myself and family, or injus- tice to my creditors, and absolute want. I will ^1^ Letter preserved in the Congregational House [Hartford, Conn.], Archives of the Missionary Societ}^ of Connecticut. 292 APPENDIX B venture to affirm, that no other man with a family and my means [would] have had any other alternative. In the face [of sedejntary habits of thirty five years standing, of ill health, and what is still harder to the iiesh, in the face of the opinion and example of this indolent people- i have labored in the intervals of my other duty, and that severely -and each member of my family has labored -my wife, slender, as she is, often until midnight, after the toils of a school through the day. We have supported in the midst of poverty and embarrassment a decent and hospitable standing and a character of integrity, which enables me to loan, when, and where 1 choose, an admission of integrity, which the people of this country seldom pay to a poor man. But at the same time I have made as frequent excursions to preach and distribute bibles, as any other missionary in the country. My scene has been laid in the wildest part of it. I have seen seven, or eight ephemeral and holiday missionaries commence and decline in my neighborhood. Three respectable ministers have been here with a view to settle in this region, have become discouraged and are gone, since I have been here. Twelve at least have been in this way in this country- they are all gone. Mr. Math- ews, than whom a more devoted minister in my mind does not breathe, is now insulted and left by his con- gregation, and he is firm, independent and useful still. Mr. Giddings has his full share of trial and opposi- tion. I also, have had enemies, and bitter ones in this place. I have been at once popular and unpopular during all of my residence here. To my face I have LETTER OF RESIGNATION 293 always received the most pointed respect. My con- gregations at this time are larger by far, than they were, when I came to this place. They are larger, than when Mr. Mathews, or Mr. Giddings preached here, or other ministers, who are known. A number of religious characters have moved into St. Louis, since I left there and have altered the aspect of that place- and a baptist minister [Peck?] has ren- dered himself conspicuous there. There are hopeful appearances, and there is also rivalry and opposition. But, when I left it, there was but one Pres. family in the place. St. Charles is now what that place [then was.] Religion, when I came here was considered contemptible. The phalanx of opposition was in array from one end of the street to the other. Why did they invite me here? On speculation. A min- ister- a church -a school -are words to flourish in an advertisement to sell lots. They spoke of Mr. Gid- dings as good and devoted, but feeble. They paid me a similar compliment. They probably misinterpret- ed us both. When I brought terror into their billiard- rooms, and a blush into their faces at beholding their likeness depicted with independence and fidelity of intention at least, they began to talk of starving me out. I located a New Madrid claim on an Island above this town. The clamor of Speculation was raised against me -for they thought me getting in a situation to take care of myself. They learned my connection with your society, and no doubt might at that time have obtained a request to you to withdraw your patronage. I could easily give you a volume of detail upon the subject; but you know human nature, 294 APPENDIX B and can fill in the outline. I shall not attempt a vin- dication of my course. I knew, as well, as another, that my tone of remonstrance has not been popular for the moment -but I venture to affirm -that there is no minister in this territory, who has a better share of the general respect, wherever I am known. The best families in this place have their children in Mrs. Flint's school. I am poor but respected and it is the hardest country that I have yet known, in which to unite poverty and respect. I have two applications to settle in regions near this, where I am as well known, as here. And in taking leave of your respec- table Society, I aver, with a pride, that I hope is hon- est, that its honor and interests have been supported not only with fidelity of intention but with a good degree of success. If this be boasting I hope you will charge to the occasion and not to me the necessity. I make no doubt- that impartial and respectable people will amply confirm this statement. You may ask why I have not organized churches? Not because I have not been as frequently invited to do it, as brother Giddings. The question has been frequently proposed to me here. I have had two rea- sons the one secret- the other avowed. I have thought a premature organization of a church might injure the interests it would wish to subserve. I have deemed the elements too unsettled and character too equivocal, and the numbers too small in the instances, where I have received requests of this kind. I have seen so much coloring, too, in missionary statements, that I have feared to blazon what little has been done. I have hoped to do but little more, than sow a seed for LETTER OF RESIGNATION 295 the generations to come. Another reason is, that I have been taught to consider my duty as subordinate in this country. Notwithstanding my age, notwith- standing pride whispered me, that I was not fitted for that station, I have loved brother Giddings, have sup- ported a cheerful cooperation in subordination to his views, and have yielded to him the place of fame. I have said enough perhaps too much -but what I have said is necessary to my feelings. I have passed through good report and through evil report. I have endured my "cruel mockings" and my perils from "false brethren." The fiercest spirits of the union are here. Every thing is in a State of chaos -and in looking back upon the ways through which God has led me -I bless him in my inmost soul -that I have gone through my trials -as well -as I have. I came naked here. I am naked still. My health is poor, but my confidence in the God whom I serve, is deep and unabated. He will some how or other "spread a table for us in the wilderness," and though no longer under the protection of your So- ciety, I shall not the less attempt to Spread the name and the Salvation of my Redeemer. I respectfully resign my commission, as missionary, and acknowl- edge, that I have received a compensation in full of all demands. In taking leave of your respectable society I should do injustice to my feelings, did I not admit that it has treated me with great kindness ; and that I heartily ap- prove the vigilance with which it inspects its distant missionaries. And though not one of them in name and office, I hope I shall still be in heart and affection. 296 APPKNDIX B I earnestly pray the Great Shepherd to bless you, and give you the best earthly compensation - the conscious- ness of doing good, and the brightest crown in hea- ven -that, which will be awarded to those "who have turned many unto righteousness." Respectfully yours, T. FLINT. APPENDIX C MiCAH P. Flint's "Lines, on Passing the Gilwe OF My Sister" In descending the Mississippi, there is a long sweep- ing point of heavily timbered bottom, just opposite the second Chickasaw Bluff, a name which is given to one of those peninsulas of high land, which jut into the alluvion, and approach the river from time to time on its eastern side. In this bottom, at the distance of about two hundred and fifty paces from the bank of the river, there is a little grave, in which are deposited the remains of my youngest sister. She was born on our passage from Arkansas to St. Charles, in the fall of 1819, and survived only three days. At that time, the settlements on the Mississippi were so thin, and remote, that there were often intervals of unbroken forests, extending from twenty to thirty miles along its shores. It was in the midst of one of these, and in a night of storms, that this little infant was born ; and it is there, that she was buried. We were ascending the river in a small batteau, and were entirely alone, having been left by our hands a few miles below. Our solitary situation -the circumstances of her birth -the place of her burial -all, conspired to make a deep and lasting impression on my mind. Some years 298 APPENDIX C afterwards, 1 passed the same place, in the spring of the year, on my way up the river, in a steam boat. Be- fore we arrived there, I had stolen away from the crowded bustle of the cabin, to a more secluded place on the top of the boat, that I might indulge my feel- ings without observation, or restraint. 1 shall not attempt to describe them now. I felt a desire to con- secrate the memory of this "desert born" and "desert buried," in the minds of some, whose friendship has been, and ever will be, dear to me. Lines, on Passing the Grave of My Sister''' On yonder shore,- On yonder shore. Now verdant with its depth of shade. Beneath the white-armM sycamore. There is a little infant laid. Forgive this tear. A brother weeps. 'Tis there the faded flowret sleeps. She sleeps alone. She sleeps alone. The summer's forests o'er her wave ; And sighing winds at Autumn moan Around the little stranger's grave, As though they murmur'd, at the fate Of one so lone and desolate. In sounds that seem like sorrow's own, Their funeral dirges faintly creep; Then deep'ning to an organ tone. In all their solemn cadence sweep, And pour unheard, along the wild, Their desert-anthem o'er a child. ^^"^ Western Monthly Re^cneii:, vol. i, 651-653. LINES BY MICAH P. FLINT 299 She came, and pass'd. Can I forget, How we, whose hearts had hail'd her birth, E'er three autumnal suns had set, Consign'd her to her mother Earth? Joys, and their memories pass away; But griefs are deeper trac'd, than they. That little group ; - 1 see them now. As when I knelt among them, there, And saw our father's pallid brow Uncover'd to the desert air ; As, in the midst, he knelt to pray Beside the bier, on which she lay. Again, I see each pale cheek flush ; Again the burning tear-drop start. And mark the deep and voiceless gush Of feelings -such as wring the heart. That grave -the spade -the coffin -pall, Aye, even yet, I see them all. We laid her in her narrow cell, We heap'd the soft mould on her breast. And parting tears, like rain-drops fell Upon her lonely place of rest. May Angels guard it; -may they bless Her slumbers in the wilderness. She sleeps alone. She sleeps alone. For all unheard, on yonder shore. The sweeping flood with torrent moan, At evening lifts its solemn roar, As, in one broad, eternal tide, Its rolling waters onward glide. 300 APPENDIX C There is no marble monument, There is no stone,- with graven lie, To tell of love, and virtue blent, In one, almost too good to die. We needed no such useless trace, To point us to her resting place. The pilgrim, as he wanders by, May see, indeed, no trace, from whence To learn, that he is treading nigh The sleeping dust of innocence ; But there are hearts, by whom that spot. In death, alone, will be forgot. She sleeps alone. She sleeps alone. But now, the Spring hath pass'd her bier, With flowery crown, and verdant zone, To wake again the slumbering year; And all around, on joyous wing. The forest songsters flit and sing. She sleeps alone. She sleeps alone. But midst the tears of April showers. The Genius of the wild hath strown His germs of fruits, his fairest flowers, And cast his robe of vernal bloom. In guardian fondness o'er her tomb. She sleeps alone. She sleeps alone. But, yearly, is her grave-turf drest. And still, the summer vines are thrown. In annual wreaths across her breast, And, still, the sighing Autumn grieves, And strews the hallow'd spot with leaves. APPENDIX D The Family Prayer of Timothy Flint "* O! God our Heavenly Father, we rejoice that Thou, the Lord God, gracious, merciful, wise, and omnip- otent, reigneth ; and hast sent Thy Son Jesus Christ our Savior, to declare Thy Word and to save us from our sins. We thank Thee for all that Thou art, hast been and will be to us, and we confide that as Thou has been our father's God, Thou wilt also be our God and our guide even unto death. Keep us we beseech Thee in Thy love and fear all the days of our life. May we earnestly seek to know and humbly strive to obey Thy righteous will. May we allow no opportunity to do good or avert evil to escape us. May we labor to bring our thoughts, our words and actions into con- formity to our duty as made known to us by reason of Thy Holy Word. May we search into the natural and moral laws of our being, and religiously conform to them. May we strive beyond all else to manifest the same mind, nature and character which were in Christ Jesus. Deliver us from all evil, natural, and moral and especially from the fear of death. Fill our soul with love for Thee and all men ; and finally, after we shall through Thy strength and in the hope of that blessed immortality promised in Thy Word, have overcome the bitterness of death, raise us to that im- mortality, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. [Ending with the Lord's Prayer.] 51S Family Archives; also manuscripts in Harvard and Yale Libraries. APPENDIX E The Being of a God''^ There are, who will not see in earth, or sky, Nor find deep in the chambers of their heart The Great Invisible. That murky mind I envy not, that readeth thus the page Of elder scripture. Nature's eloquence Pours in my ear a mystic strain from heav'n. 'Twas when the southern breeze was bland, Charg'd with the fragrance of the budding spring, Night's shadov^ veil was curtain'd o'er the sky. Along the blue at intervals repos'd, Festoon'd and motionless, the fleecy clouds, Heav'n's radiant lamps, hung out between. Lit up the portals of the throne of light. He, who can ken the starry sky, nor hear The sphery music singing of a God, Will die an Atheist in hopeless gloom. My senses caught the glorious argument. My bosom with the high conviction warm'd. Beyond that blue ; beyond those stars ; beyond The sky; beyond the grave; still deeper in The eternal space He dwells in light. Aye ; and this mind, so anxiously that thrills 'Twixt hopes and fears, the tenant soul within, .-.19 ff^fstern Monthly Revieiv, vol. i, 528. THE BEING OF A GOD 303 Imprison'd in this crumbling clay, disturb'd, As sleeping waters, with a pebble's fall. Shall, fearless, soar past suns, and worlds and all The unimagin'd mysteries beyond ; Until it scale the adamantine walls That guard the access to His spotless throne. There shall I see his face without a veil ; Not darkly through a glass in sin and tears ; But changing to his image, as I view. -Timothy Flint. BIBLIOGRAPHY I. FLINT'S WRITINGS [Arranged in chronological order} Sermon at the Ordination of Rev. E. Hubbard, Newburyport, 1808. Covenant of Lunenburg Church: in Cunningham's J History of the Town of Lunenburg. Letter of Resignation to the Lunenburg Church (Lunenburg, April 7, 1814) : in Cunningham's A History of the Town of Lunen- burg. Letter to Rev. Mr. [Charles] Lowell (Lunenburg, November, 1814). In Ms. Department of Boston Public Library. This letter is in reference to his troubles in the Lunenburg pastorate, his mission in New Hampshire and his plans for the future. A Sermon delivered in Leominster at the Commencement of the Year, Lord's Daj^ Jan. ist, 181 5 (Leicester, 1815), pamphlet. Oration before the Washington Benevolent Society of Lancaster and Sterling and of Leominster and Fitchburg. Delivered at Leominster, July 4, 181 5. (Worcester, printed by William Manning), pamphlet. Report to the Massachusetts Society for promoting Christian Knowl- edge: in the Society's Account (Andover, 1815), pamphlet, pages 53, 54. Annual Narrative of Missions (Hartford, 1816-1823). Several extracts from Flint's letters and reports to the Missionary Society' of Connecticut. Letter to Rev. Abel Flint, Secretary of the Missionary Societ}^ of Connecticut, Lunenburg, July 23, 1815. This is the first of a series of fourteen letters to the Missionary So- ciety of Connecticut, most of which are in the nature of reports of his missionary work in the West. All are preserved in the archives of the Society, Congregational House, Hartford. Idem, Lunenburg, Aug. 15, 181 5. 3o6 TIMOTHY FLINT Letter to Rev. Abel Flint, Secretary of the Missionary Society of Connecticut, Cincinnati, Dec. 5, 1815. Idem, Cincinnati, Jan. 18, 181 0. Idem, Cincinnati, Feb. 12, iSlb. Idem, Cincinnati, March 20, 18 16. Idem, St. Louis, July 2, 1816. Idem, St. Charles, Oct. 10, 18 16, Idem, St. Charles, April 15, 1817. Idem, St. Charles, Aug. 3, 181 7. Idem, St. Charles, Nov. 1, 181 7. Idem, St. Charles, May 4, 1818. Idem, St. Charles, June 4, 1818. Idem, Marais Creche near St. Charles, Jan. 15, 1822. Letter to Stephen Hempstead, Cincinnati, Dec. 29, 18 15. Idem, Cincinnati, March ii, 1816. Idem, St. Charles, Nov., 1816. Idem, Jackson, July 6, 1820. Preserved in Missouri Historical Society collection, St. Louis. Copy- in Harvard University' Library. A Collection of Hymns from European Books. Printed for Flint in 1815 or 1816. Mentioned only in Flint's missionary reports. Arguments Natural. Moral and Religious, for the Immortalitj' of the Soul. This was written before 1802 and published or printed before 1826. Mentioned by W. D. Gallagher, in Cincinnati Mirror, vol. iii, 37. I have not been able to find a copy of this pamphlet. Recollections of the last Ten Years, passed in occasional Residences and Journeyings in the Valley of the Mississippi, from Pittsburg and the Missouri, to the Gulf of Mexico, and from Florida to the Spanish frontier ; in a series of Letters to the Rev. James Flint, of Salem, Massachusetts (Boston, 1826). It has been asserted frequently, and even by Br. James Flint that this book was republished in London. But as no bibliography that I have seen mentions such an edition and as the British Museum Catalogue has only the Boston edition, I am inclined to think it very doubtful whether or not it was ever published in England. It is probably confused with the London edition of Francis Berrian which has been overlooked by the bibliographers and by the friends of Flint. The Harvard Class Book for the Class of 1800 says that it was partly republished in France. There is no trace, however, of this work in the BIBLIOGRAPHY 307 A articles upon Flint in La Grande Encyclopedie and the Biographic Gen- erale. They mention only the American edition. Allibone in his Critical Dictionary of English Literature, mentions an edition of this work. Boston, 1831. His authority apparently is Rich's Bihliotheca Americana Nova (London, 1846), 230. Sabin in the Bihliotheca Americana, vol. vi, 479, thinks this is a mistake. In its review of the Recollections in the October number, 1832, vol. xlviii, 201-222, the London Quarterly Review in giving the title page of the book says, "Boston, 8vo, 1831." Francis Berrian, or the Mexican Patriot (Boston, 1826), 2 vols. The British Museum Catalogue mentions another edition of this work (London, 1834), 3 vols. There was also a second American edi- tion (Philadelphia, 1834), 2 vols. The London edition is not mentioned by any of the American bibliographies nor by Flint's friends. It is possible that the latter have confused this edition of Francis Berrian with the Recollections which they report as having been republished in London. Extracts from the Journal of a Voyage from Alexandria, Red river, Louisiana, to New York, by way of New Orleans and the gulf of Mexico: in the Western Monthly Review, vol. i, 313-322. A condensed Geography and History of the Western States, or the Mississippi Valley (Cincinnati, 1828), 2 vols. This is Mr. Flint's most serious contribution to literature. It was a very important book in its day and is of much value yet, not only as indicative of Flint's character but as a history of his time. The History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley. To which is appended a Condensed Physical Geography of the Atlantic United States, and the whole American Continent (Cincinnati, 1832), 2 vols. This work is styled a "Second Edition." Not only is its title different from the first edition but there are many changes in the text. Nearly all of the material in the two volumes of the first edition is put into the first volume of this edition. In thp second A'olume of this edition there is entirely new material and it has for title. The United States and the other Divisions of the American Continent. Idem (Cincinnati and Boston, 1833), 2 vols. 'The Western Monthly Review (Cincinnati, May, 1827, to June, 1830), 3 vols., large 8vo, pp. 668, 704, 756. About three fourths of this publication is from Mr. Flint's pen. It is very valuable for biographical and also for historical and research purposes. The Downfall of the Fredonian Republic (Cincinnati, 1827) : in Western Monthly Review, vol. i, 69-71. See also Thwaites's Early Western Travels, vol. xviii, 365-379. x) 308 TLVIOTHY FLINT Canals (Cincinnati, 1827) : in JVestern Monthly Revinv, vol. i, 73-78. Jemima O'Keefy. - A Sentimental Tale (Cincinnati, 1827): in fVestern Monthly Revieiv, vol, i, 384-393. Duelling [j;V] (Cincinnati, 1827): in JVestern Monthly Review, vol. i, 453-4t)i. Violetta and Thoroughgrabb. A Tale : in Western Monthly Re- view, vol. i, 442-453. This story is presented as a sample of a storj' which the author hopes to publish soon in two volumes, boards. It is difficult to decide from the playful wa}- in which the stoiy is introduced by the editorial note, whether or not it is Mr. Flint's own work. This point is decided however by the printing of the same story in the Knickerbocker a few years later, Sept. 1835, vol. vi, 173-186. In the latter magazine the story seems to be entirely rewritten and much of the frontier slang and dialect is elimi- nated. Extracts from the Diary and Correspondence of Mrs. Risk. This work was announced in Sept., 1827. In Jan., 1828, Mr. Flint announced that the volume was ready for the press and only waited a suitable paper for publication. Mr. Flint says in the first announce- ment that from "an attentive perusal of her numerous and voluminous manuscript writings, the editor is persuaded, that this will constitute a work of no common interest of its class." No later mention of the work is made in the Rei'ieiv. See Revic^u, advertising pages for Sept., 1827, vol. i, and also page 565. Address on Intemperance, Delivered before the Cincinnati Temper- ance Society (Cincinnati, 1828) : in Western Monthly Reviev, vol. ii, 79 - 97. A Tour (Cincinnati, 1828) : in Western Monthly Revieiu, vol. H, 193-209, 249-263. Mr. Flint describes this tour as from Cincinnati via Wheeling and Washington to Salem, returning via Erie Canal and Buffalo. The Life and Adventures of Arthur Clenning (Philadelphia, 1828) , 2 vols. George Mason, the Young Backwoodsman ; or "Don't Give up the Ship." A story of the Mississippi (Boston, 1829). This book was republished (London, 1833) under the title, Don't Give up ike Ship; or, the Good Son. A tale by T. Flint. Inland Trade with Mexico (Cincinnati, 1829) : in Western Month- ly Review, vol. ii, 597-607, 649-659. See also Thwaites's Early JVestern Travels, vol. xviii, 327-364. This is largely a review of Dr. Willard's travels in the southwest. BIBLIOGRAPHY 309 Agnes Sorel de Merivanne: The Recluse Coquette (Cincinnati, 1829) : in Western Monthly Review, vol. iii, 57-67. A short story of French life in Louisiana. Oolemba in Cincinnati: in James Hall's Western Souvenir (Cin- cinnati, 1829), 68-101. This is a short, interesting story of an old Indian's visit to Cincinnati after many years and when that city has grown to be a large and thriving community. On the Progress of Political and Literary Opinions on the Continent of Europe (Cincinnati, 1829): in Western Monthly Revieiu, vol. iii, 266-284. A Tour (Cincinnati, Oct., 1829) : in Western Monthly Review, vol. iii, 284-294. Like most of his journeys this is in the form of a letter to Dr. James Flint. It describes a trip to New England via Wheeling, the return to Cincinnati being by a northern stage route and in the company of Rev. Mr. Pierpont. Is it expedient for the United States to obtain possession of Texas ? (Cincinnati, 1830) : in Western Monthly Revieiu, vol. iii, 359- 368. American Biographical Dictionary. See Western Monthly Re- view, vol. iii, 470-480. In 1830 Flint was planning this work which is here fully outlined. It was to be based on the Biographie Universelle Classtque, on the Bihliotheca Classica, of Lempriere, and the American biographies. It was to be far more extensive than any American work and to correct the provincial disproportions of Lempriere. He probably did not go further with this enterprise than to complete the translation of the French work. Dictionaire Historique, ou Biographie Universelle. See Western Monthly Review, vol. iii, 470-480, 534-545, 582-587, 663-666. Mr. Flint was interested in this work as furnishing part of the found- ation for his American Biographical Dictionary. We have extensive por- tions of his translations in the Revieiv. In June, 1830, he had reached "D'jenguys." His interest in this work, the three or four years of working time which he yet had in the north, and the help of his daughter Emeline, makes it seem quite likely that he finished the translation of this work. There is now no trace of it to be found, unless indeed it may have been worked into some of the dictionaries published during the next generation. Party Spirit (Cincinnati, 1830) : in Western Monthly Review, vol. iii, 517-525- 310 TIMOTHY FLINT A characteristic article showing Mr. Flint's views of sectarianism in religion, society, and race. Gambling. A Prize Tract. A copy of this tract has not been found. It is mentioned only in the Cincinnati Mirror, vol. iii, 36, 37. The Lost Child (Boston, 1830), i8mo. The North American Revie-. BIBLIOGRAPHY 315 American Monthly Magazine (Boston, 1829), vol, i. This magazine was edited in Mr. Flint's time by N. P. Willis, an admirer of Mr. Flint. It has several appreciative reviews and notices. American Monthly Review (Boston, 1833), vols, iii and iv. Beers, Henry A. Nathaniel Parker Willis (American Men of Letters Series), (Boston, 1885). Bryan, Wm, S. and Robert Rose. A History of the Pioneer Families of Missouri (St. Louis, 1876). Cincinnati First Congregational Church [Unitarian] Rec- ords. Reported in letter of Geo. A. Thayer (Cincinnati, Jan. 24, 1908), in Unitarian Library, Boston. Cincinnati Mirror (1832-1835), 3 vols. Several references to Flint, and an important article on his writings. Edited by Wm. D. Gallagher. Cooke, Harriet R. The Flint Family: in The Driver Family (New York, 1889), 291-307. Cunningham, George A. A History of the Town of Lunen- burg in Massachusetts, From its Original Grant, Dec. 7, 17 19. A manuscript in Lunenburg Town Library. DuYCKiNCK, Evert A. Cyclopedia of American Literature (New York, 1856), 2 vols. Eaton, Lilley. Genealogical History of the Town of Reading, Mass. (Boston, 1874). Essex Register [Salem], Aug. 24, 1840. Flint, James. Verses on Many Occasions with Others for which it may be thought there was no Occasion (Lynn, 1851). Flint, Rev. Timothy: in Encyclopedia Americana: Supplemen- tary Volume (Boston, 1858). Historical Address delivered at the Bi-centennial Celebration of the Incorporation of the Old Town of Reading, May 29, 1844 (Boston, 1844). Flint, James Timothy. Letters to Parents and Relatives (Cam- bridge, Mass., 1838-1841). These letters are ver\- important for the last years of Mr. Flint's life. The son was in the Harvard Law school and wrote frequentl}'. Several of his letters are preserved by the family in Alexandria, La., and are now in care of Mrs. Emeline Flint Seip. Flint Jr., James Timothy. Several Letters to the Writer in 3i6 TIMOTHY FLINT reference to his Grandfather's books and life. In Harvard Li- brary. Flint, Mic.vn Peabodv. The Hunter and Other Poems (Boston, 1826). Lines on Passing the Grave of My Sister: in Western Month- ly Revieiv, vol. i, 651-653. Letters concerning a Journey from Nashville to Alexandria, Aug. and Sept., 1833: in Knickerbocker, vol. iii, 112-119, Ford, Henry A. and Kate B. History of Cincinnati, Ohio (Cin- cinnati, 1881). GiDDiNGS, Salmon. Letters to the Missionary Society of Con- necticut (St. Louis, 1 8 18), Archives of the Societ>% Congrega- tional House, Hartford. Griswold, Rufus W. Prose Writers of America (Philadel- phia, 1847). HoucK, Louis. A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explor- ations and Settlements until the Admission of the State into the Union (Chicago, 1908), 3 vols. Knickerbocker (New York, 1833, 1834), vols, i, ii, iii. Has a number of articles by Flint and several about him. Important source. Literary Gazette (Boston, 1826). Lunenburg, Mass., copy of the Recollections. Mss. notes in. Parish and Town Records. See letters of J. A. Litchfield to the writer in Boston Public Libraiy. Massachusetts Historical Society. Proceedings (Boston), vol. i, 416, 418; vol. X, 52, first series. Massachusetts Society for promoting Christian Knowl- edge. Account (Andover, 1815). Missouri Historical Society. Collection (St. Louis), Let- ter of Abel Flint to Stephen Hempstead, Hartford, April 30, 1818. Letter refers to unfavorable reports made to the Missionary Society- of Connecticut about Timothy Flint. New York Commercial. Quoted in Cincinnati Mirror, vol. iii, 444, as containing a review of the Baclielor Reclaimed or Celibacy Vanquished and an estimate of Flint's writings. The Commercial article is quoted to the extent of four BIBLIOGRAPHY 317 or five hundred words and is valued as showing Mr. Flint's high standing in the literaiy world. Norton, Augustus T. History of the Presbyterian Church in Illinois (St. Louis, 1879). North American Review (Boston, 1826, 1830, 1836, 1846), vols, xxiii, XXX, xliii, Ixii. North Reading. Semi-centennial Souvenir (North Reading, 1903). Has a history of the North or Second Church of Reading (North Reading Church) and other valuable material. Union Congregation Church Manual (Andover Press, 1903). Parish Records. Pandect, The (Cincinnati, 1827, 1828). A Calvinlstic paper published by Dr. Joshua L. Wilson and other orthodox ministers of the city. Several times attacked Flint. See Rei^eiv, ii, 460-462. Quarterly Review (London, 1832), vol. xlviii, 201-222. Phillips Academy. Biographical Catalogue (Andover, 1903), p. 40. Richards, Thomas C. Samuel J. Mills, Missionary, Pathfind- er, Pioneer and Promoter (Boston, 1906). Sabin, Joseph. A Dictionary of Books relating to America, from its discover}' to the present time (New York, 1868-1892), 19 vols. Salem. Records of the First Church. Essex Institute. Records of North Church. Essex Institute. Salem Gazette, Aug. 21, 1840. Seip, Emeline Flint. Several Letters, Poems and Copies of Family Records (Alexandria, La., 1907-1910). In Boston Public Library. Seip, Fredric. Several Letters relating to Mr. Flint's life in Alexandria and to that of his family (Alexandria, La., 1908- 1910). In Library of Harvard University. Southern Review (Charlestown, 1828), vol. ii, 192-216. Stedman, Edmond C. and Ellen M. Hutchinson. Library of American Literature (New York, 1887-1890). Thomas, Emeline Flint. Letters to her brother, James Tim- othy Flint at Harvard (Alexandria, 1838-1841), belonging to 3i8 TIMOTHY FLINT the Family in Alexandria, La. In care of Mrs. Emeline Flint Seip. Trolloph, Frances. Domestic Manners of the Americans (Lon- don, 1832), 2 vols. Republished (New York, 1901). TucKERMAN, Henry T. America and her Commentators. With a Critical Sketch of Travel in the United States (New York, 1864), 401-404. This is one of the most careful, fair, and valuable criticisms of Mr. Flint and his work. INDEX Adayes: 170 Alabama: 118 Albany (N.Y.) : 208 Albion (111.): 260 Alexandria (La.): mentioned, 15, 211, 222, 237, 277; moves to, 157; first letter in Recollections dated from, 177; described, 163-164; re- sides, 163-183 ; home life, 167-168 ; returns to, 178, 217, 229; journey from, 180; incident, 182-183; fire, 3i8; homestead, 233 Alleghany Mts: mentioned, 17, 53, 57i i53j footnote Alps: 222 American Antiquarian Society of Worcester: 15-16 American Biographical Dictionary: works on, 256 American Monthly Review: men- tioned, 212; review, 260; extract from, 261, 262, 263; cited, 315 Andover: mentioned, 218, 287 Angel's Rest: summer home, 234 Apennines: 222 Arkansas: mentioned, 84, 119, 297; resides, 121-127; people, 123-124; hardships, 125-127 Arkansas Post: 121, 123 Arkansas River: mentioned, 119, 120, 151, 163; marks border of new climate, 121 ; scenery along, 121-123 Army, union: 15 Arthur Clenning: Flint's experiences portrayed, 44 ; mentioned, 49 ; pub- lished, i88; extract, 250; criticism, 253 ; cited, 308 Art of Being Happy: extract, 27, 286; mentioned, 275, and footnote, 285 ; cited, 310 Athenaum : prepares articles, 223 ; sketches prepared for, 230, 231; mentioned, 231; cited as authority, 231; articles, 250-251; criticism ot articles, 253; article by N. P. Wil- lis, 257 Atlantic Ocean: mentioned, 164, i8i Attala: 58 Azeila (ship) : 180-181 Babcock, Rufus: book cited, 98, footnote Ballinger, Madam — : 140 Baltimore (Md.): mentioned, 173, 175. 199 Banks, Gen. — : 233 Baptists: i8, 96, 190, 282, 293 Barnard, Rev. Dr. — : 36 Baton Rouge (La.): 154, 155 Baxter, Mr. — : 279, 280 Beaver (on the Ohio River) : 62 Beebe [Beebee], Mr. — : 115, 291 Beecher, L3man: 18, 193 Beers, Prof. Henry A: mentioned, 230; extract from letter, 250; criti- cises articles in Athenaum, 253 ; criticises Arthur Clenning, 253 ; cited, 315 Belial: children of, 212 Bellefountaine (Mo.) : 119 Bently, Dr. — : 26 320 TIMOTHY FLINT Berrian, Francis: character in luMik, 29; at Harvard, 32-33; mentioned, 279 ; see also, Francis Berrian Bethany (W. Va.): 190 Bibles: lack, 78; distributed, 95, 109; scarcity', 102 Bigelow, E. V: work cited, 34 Biographic Universclle Classi(jiie: 232, 238, 256 Birkbeck, Mr. — : 260 Blackburn, Rev. Dr. Gideon: men- tioned, 91, and footnote, 92, 98; unites forces with, 93, 94; elo- quent, 107-108 Blythe, Dr. — : 77 Boats: Kentucky flatboat, 61-62, 63; skiff, 62; keel, 62, 119; purchases for journey, 83; steamboat, 83; crew on, 85 ; method of propelling, 89; journey up Miss. Riv., 127- 132; builds flatboat, 151; embarks on steamer, 155, 163 ; berths, 207- 208; good, 220; experience on, 225-227 Bogues: nickname applied to natives, Bonhome: no Boon's Lick: 103 Boston (Mass.) : Congregational Library, 16; mentioned, 161, 175, 218, 259; class reunion, 209-210; compared with European cities, 222 ; stops at Tremont House, 227 ; beauty of Mt. Auburn, 243, 244, footnote Boston Public Library-: 16; original letter in, 232 Brook Farm: 190 Brown, Chas. Brockden: 249 Bryant, Wm. Cullen: 257 Buffalo (N.Y.) : 198, 228 Bullard, Frances: marries Micah Flint, 233 Bullard, Judge Henry: 36, 165, 166 Bullard, Rev. John (father of pre- ceding) : 36, 165 Byron, Lord: 286 Cahokia Prairie: 106 Cairn (111.): 86 Calvinism: 192, 279 Calvinists: 18, 193 Cambridge (Mass.) : 238 Campbell, Alexander: 18; debates with Robert Owen, 190-193 Canada: 88; visits, 219-222 Cantonment Jessup (U.S. Post) : 170 Caracas, Venezuela: earthquake at, 134 Cartwright, Peter: 17 Catholics, Roman: mentioned, 90-91, 93i 97» 98? 132; churches in La., 154, 165; cemetery, 160; doomed man refuses to see priest, 170 ; ser- vice by priests, 181; pope, 279; agrees with, 279 Cemeterj^: Catholic, 160; Protestant, 160-161 ; private, 237 ; Flint buried in Harmony Grove, 243 ; beauty of Mt. Auburn, 243, 244; monu- ment in (illus.), 245 Channing, William EUery: i8 Chateaubriand, M. — : 45, 286 Cheneyville (La.) : 237 China: 273 "Christians": 190; compared with Unitarians, 192 Christian Register, The: quotation, 235; article, 239, 242; letter from, 241 Church: called to Lunenburg, 35; trouble, 43-45 ; resigns, 43 ; hopes to found Presbyterian, 80; organ- ized in St. Charles, 98, 117; dis- courages founding, 109; lack of Protestant in La., 154; Catholic, 154, 165 ; in New Orleans, 158 ; de- bate in Methodist, 191 ; Presbvte- rian, refused for debate, 191 ; Flint, one of the leaders to form first Congregational, 195 ; Trinitarian, INDEX 321 209 ; Flint's attitude and sympathy toward various denominations, 279 Cincinnati (Ohio) : mentioned, 63, 77. 95, loi, 150, 179, 211, 234, 236, 269, 291; spent winter in, 64; settle for winter, 65; described, 65- 66; friends, 83; date of leaving, 84; revisits, 174; plans removal, 180; literary work, 185, 189; lo- cates, 185-217; debate, 190-191; honored, 2cx3-20i ; Mrs. Trollope, 212-213 ; moves from, 217 Cincinnati Mirror: mentioned, 41, 258 ; cited as authority, 41, 234, 254, 255, 258, 268; cited, 313 Cities: eastern compared with wes- tern, 204 Civil War: 15, 233, 277 Clark, C. A: 241 Clark, Wm: 33 Clarke Company, Robert: thanked, 16 Clay, Henry: 77 Cohasset: 34 Collins, Judge — : 195, footnote Columbia River: 273 Columbus (war-ship) : 206 Congregationalists: 18, 153, footnote; relations with Presbyterians, 67, footnote, 90, footnote, 96 Connecticut, Missionary Society of: Flint's connection with, 54; let- ters, 69, 84, 115, 141-142, 145, 146, 185, 291-296; salary, 78-79; men- tioned, 91, footnote, 112, footnote, 146 Cooke, Harriet R: author of Driver Family, zz, footnote; work cited, 315 Cordelle: used to propel boat, 89, 128 Corwine, R. M: 195, footnote Covenant: used by Flint in Lunen- burg, 42 Covington (La.) : 155, 156 Creoles: 219 Cuba: 227 Cuivre (Mo.) : 109 Cunningham, George A: work, 35, footnote, 41, 46; cited, 315 Cutler, Ephraim: 25, footnote Cutler, Julia P: writer, 25, footnote Cutler, Rev. Dr. Manasseh: 26 Cypress tree: 122-123 Damon, Rev. David: 43 Daniel Boone: related to other works, 252 ; most popular work, 271-272, and 271, footnote; cited, 3" Dartmouth College: 28, 29 Dayton (Ohio) : 72 Dead Man's Riffle: 61 Delaware River: 56; compared with Mississippi, 154 Disciples: 190 Doddridge, Mr. — : 279, 280 Donnell, Mr. — : 94 Drake, Dr. — : 174, and footnote Earthquakes: in Mo., 133; plan to save from, 134 Easton: 56 Economic Conditions: abundant food, 65 ; cost of living, 65-66, 93 ; in Ky., 75-76; in St. Charles, 108 Edinburgh Reviezv: poem, 236 Edwards, Jonathan: 287 Egypt: 240 Emmons, Nathaniel : 287 Encyclopedia Americana, Supp. Vol: as authority, 34; article cited in, 177; quotation from, 229; cited, 314 Encyclopedia Britannica: extract, 253; cited, 314 Episcopal Church: 279, 281 Erie Canal: 198 Essex County: 25, 49 Essex Institute (Salem) : 15 Europe: mentioned, 65, 191; visits (?), 222 322 TIMOTHY FLINT Everett, David: 28 Ewing, Finis: 18 Factories: 204 Federal Party: 51 Female Charitable Association: of Cincinnati, 83 First S.S. on the La Plata: gathers material for, 200 Fishkill (N.Y.): 56 Fitchbiirg (Mass.) : mentioned, 34, 51, 165 Flint, Rev. Abel : extract from let- ter to, 54; mentioned, 91, footnote, 112, footnote, 113; letter to, 146, 291-296 Flint, Ebenezer Hubbard (son of Timothy Flint): birth, 40; book- store in Cincinnati, 185, footnote', business, 186; manages Micah's estate, 233 ; characteristics, 276, 277 Flint, Mrs. E. H : wife of preced- ing, 277 Flint, Emeline Hubbard (daughter of Timothy Flint) : mentioned, 40, '37i 195; falls in river, 85; mar- ries Gen. Thomas, 232 ; describes brother's death, 237-238 ; death of, 277 Flint, Hezekiah (uncle of Timoth}') : goes west, 25, and footnote Flint Jr., Hezekiah (son of preced- ing) : in Cincinnati, 25, footnote, 64 Flint, Rev. Jacob: 34, 36 Flint, Dr. James (cousin of Tim- othy) : mentioned, 28, 34, 150, 182, 199, 223, 227, footnote, 252; quo- tation from Historical Address, etc., 29; at Harvard, 31; Recollec- tions dedicated to, 45 ; Timothy visits, 171, 175; connection with the Recollections, 177; informa- tion from, 178, 179; gives date of move to Cincinnati, 185, footnote; letters to, 196, 199, 206; goes to North Reading with, 208 ; cited as authorit}-, 229; visits Timothy, 235; verses by, 235-236; article, 242; buried beside Timothy, 244; writings, 315 Flint Jr., James (son of Micah P. Flint) : death, 237 Flint, James Timothy (youngest son of Timothy) : birth, 141 ; parting, 173; at Harvard, 232, 238; visits, 238 ; return home, 238 ; in Natchez, 239-241 ; buys cemetery lot, 243 ; occupation, 276-277 ; children, 277 ; Spiritualist, 280; library destroy- ed, 15 Flint, James Timothy (grandson of Timothy Flint): gives aid, 15; mentioned, 277 Flint, Martha Elizabeth (youngest child): teaches French to, 234; gift, 238; mentioned, 277; death, 277; daughter living, 277 Flint, Martha Kimball (mother of Timothy) : 21 Flint, Micah Peabody (oldest son of Timothy): date of birth, 40; mentioned, 83, 106, 235 ; very ill, 125 ; poem in memory of sister, 130, 297-300; lines by, 168, 176; occupation, 179 ; criticism of work, 186; poems published in Revieiv, i88; marries Frances BuUard, 233; prosperous, 233; estate, 233; death, 236; published poems, 236; father uses poetry, 252; sons, 277; works cited, 316 Flint Jr., Micah (son of Micah P.) : death, 237 Flint, Peter: 241 Flint, Thomas: 21-22 Flint, Timothy: great-uncle, 22 Flint, Timothy: birth and baptism, 21 ; genealogy, 21-22 ; boyhood. INDEX 323 25-^8; youth, 28-34; education, 29-34; ministry in Lunenburg, 35- 46 ; resigns from pastorate, 43-46 ; eloquence of, 51-53; journey west, 55-64; 83-85; in Ohio, 65-81; or- ganizes churches, 72 ; journey through Ind. and Ky., 75 ; on Miss. Riv., 85-92; stay in St. Louis, 91- 97; in and around St. Charles, 101-118; Sunday observances, 112; troubles in ministry, 112-115; sick- ness, 117; prophecy, 122, 272-274; in Arkansas, 121-127; hardships, 125-130, 142-146, 295 ; in New Ma- drid, 131-135; in Jackson, 135- 141 ; return to St. Charles, 142- 150; asks for aid, 145-146; jour- ney south, 150-154; in New Or- leans and vicinity, 154-161 ; in Alexandria, 164-182; head of col- lege, 164, 169; ill health, 169-178; goes north, 171-178, 179-182; in Cincinnati, 185-201 ; objects in es- tablishing JVestern Monthly Re- 'vieiv, 186-188 ; literary career, 178- 207 ; attitude toward ministerial duties, 193-194; goes to New Eng- land, 195-200; goes south, 200; journeys, 207-210; takes charge of Knickerbocker, 207, 210-211; re- signs, 215; returns to Alexandria, 217; travels, 218-228; in Canada, 219-222 ; in Europe ( ? ) , 222 ; in S. Amer. (?), 222, 223-224; in Cu- ba, 224-228 ; writes for Atheneeum, 230-231; prosperity, 233-234; last years, 233-242; death, 242, and footnote; rank as writer, 242-243; monument and inscription, 244- 247 ; criticism of work, 249-266 ; interest in French literature, 255- 256; type, 17; characteristics, 18- 19, 267-287; dislike of liquor and tobacco, 275 ; attitude toward slav- ery, 276; famil}', 276-278; reli- gious, 18, 194, 195, 275, footnote, 278-287; itinerary', 289-290; letter of resignation, 291-296; family prayer, 301 ; books and papers de- stroyed, 15; list of writings, 305- 313; biographies of Flint, 313-314 Flint, Mrs. Timothy (wife of pre- ceding) : marries, 34; mentioned, 62, 72, 195, 292; keeps school, io8, 109, 294; very ill, 125, 145; anx- ious to leave Ark., 127; in travail, 128-130; death, 227, footnote, 243, and footnote; see also Hubbard, Abigail Flint, Wm: father of Timothy, 21 Flint, Wm: grandfather, 21 Flint, Wm: great-grandfather, 21 Flint, Wm: great-great-grandfather, 22 Flint family treasures: destroyed, 15 Flint homestead: 21; illustration, 23 Flint Street: 22 Florida: interested in history, 156 Flour Island: 119 Flowers, Mr. — : 260 Ford, Mr. — : History of Cincinnati, cited, 195, footnote Fortier, Alice: work cited, 377 Francis Berrian, or the Mexican Pa- triot: mentioned, 28, 271; quota- tion, 30-31, 32, 33; material, 165, i66; when written, 178; personal references, 178-179; published, 179; well received, 186; criticism by W. H. Venable, 254; by N. P. Willis, 257 ; by Mrs. Trollope, 258- 259 ; extract from, 281-282 ; cited, 307 Frankfort (Ky.) : 80 French: of Arkansas, 125; compared with Germans, 138; in New Or- leans, 159; interest in French Avork and translations, 255-256. Gallagher, W. D : mentioned, 41, 324 TIMOTHY FLINT and footnote, 267, footnote \ state- ment, 234; value as critic, 254; criticises Flint's works, 254-255; criticism, 258, 267; dedicates book to Flint, 268 Galveston (Tex.) : mentioned, 237, 277 Galveston flood: 15 Geography and History of the Mis- sissippi Falley : quotation, 26 ; cit- ed, io6, 307 ; gathers material for, 155; mentioned, 179, and footnote; publication, i8o, 188; Niagara Fails described in, 198 ; popularity', 234; criticism, 243; related to oth- er works, 252 ; criticism by Mr. Gallagher, 255 ; by Griswold, 257 ; by Mrs. Trollope, 259 ; review in Amer. Monthly Review, 260. George Mason: Flint's own experi- ences portrayed, 44, 137; quota- tion, 44, 149 ; Mo probable scene of story, 136; works on, 149, 150; published, 188; moral purpose, 250; cited, 308 German settlement in Missouri: 137- 141 ; people compared with French, 138; trouble with pastor, 139-140; funeral customs, 140, footnote Germans: minister and family, 59- 60; of Pennsylvania, 205; of Missouri, 138 Ghent (Ky.) : 77 Giddings, Rev. Salmon: mentioned, 80, 91, 92, 94, 98, 99, 101, 107, 108, 109, 295 ; writes letters against Flint, 112-114; brief account, 113, footnote; Flint's relations with, 115 ; letter, 117 ; trials of, 292, 293 ; attitude of Flint toward, 294 Goldsmith, Oliver: 258 Golgotha: 65 Gray, Mrs. — : 132, 134 Grecian, S.S: 174 Griswold, Rufus W: extract by, 251 ; criticism by, 257 Gulf of Mexico: mentioned, 88, 180 Hali, Capt. — : 221 Hall, Judge James: 189, 212 Hamilton, Major — : 221 Harmony Grove Cemetery: Flint buried in, 243 Harrison, Gen. — : 71; described, 72; home (illus.), 73; mentioned, 78 ; forced to stop with, 84 Hartford (Conn.): Congregational Library, 16, 55; mentioned, 55, 92, 115, 291 Hartford Theological Seminarj : thanked, 15 Harvard Class Book for Class of iSoo: cited, 31, 34, 314; as author- ity, 39, 40, 165, 242; statement from, 233 Harvard University: thanked, 15; mentioned, 29; Timothy Flint at, 31-33 ; Francis Berrian rt, 32- 33 ; class historian relates inci- dent, 39; class reunion, 209-210; James Timothy Flint at, 232, 233 Harvard University Library: 80, footnote Havana: mentioned, 181; visits, 224- 225 ; people, 225 Haverhill: 218 Havre (France): mentioned, 181 Hempstead, Stephen: letter to, 80, footnote; mentioned, 91, footnote, 92, 291 Hempstead family: mentioned, 141 Henry, Matthew: 282, 286 Herculaneum (Mo.): 91 Hinman, George W: 29, footnote Hoffman, Chas. Fenno: 210, 211; admirer of Flint, 260 Hopkins, Samuel: 287 Hospitality: lacking in west, 62; INDEX 325 shown by Gen. Harrison, 72 ; shown little, 79; great, 131 Houck, Louis: History of Missouri, cited, 135, footnote, 316 Howard, Luther G: 40 Hubbard, Abigail: date of baptism, 34, footnote; Flint marries, 34; see Flint, Airs. Timothy Hubbard, Rev. Ebenezer: 34, 41 Hudson River: 56, 198 Hull, Rev. — : 164 Illinois: ask for transfer to, 80 Hlinois River: 106 Imlay: 45 Indiana: journey through, 75 Indians: Shawnoe, 88; mentioned, 103, 104; funeral, 183; Elder Wood's sermons, 282 ; stoiy cited, 309 Indian IVars: related to other works, 252 Ipswich River: 21 Italy: 205 Itinerants: 17, 124 Jackson (Mo.): 132; spends year in, 135; people, 135-136; German settlement near, 137-141; men- tioned, 263 Japan: 273 Johnson, Senator — : 189 Jones, J. G: book cited, 153, foot- note Journeys: west, 55-64, 80-91; on riv- er, 60 ; through Ky., 75 ; inces- sant travel, 102; up Miss. Riv., 127-132; on Miss., 150-154; on ac- count of health, 169-171 ; north, 171-176; return to Alexandria, 178; account, 180; north, 195-200; south, 200; from Cincinnati, 207- 210; east, 217-220; in Canada, 220-221; in Europe (?), 222-223; in S. Amer. (?), 222-224; to Cuba, 224-225; future, 238 Keelboat: purchases, 83; embarks, 119 ; see Ooats Kentuckians: first intimate experi- ence with, 63 ; manners, 75-76 ; mentioned, 92; restless, 80-81; reference, 95; Flint compares self to, 101-102 Kentucky: mentioned, 55, 69, 189; journey through, 75 ; manners, 75- 76 ; rec'd gift of money, 79 Kingston (N.H.): Flint works three weeks in, 47-48 Kingston (Miss.): mentioned, 153, footnote Knickerbocker: writes for, 189; cit- ed as authorit}% 204, 205, 207, 217, 220, 221, 222, 225, 227, 260, 261, 269 ; takes charge of, 207, 210-211 ; quotations from, 208, 209, 211, 215, 218, 222-223, 224-225, 226- 227, 244, footnote, 261, 262, 269; article, 212; criticizes Mrs. Trol- lope's book, 213; resigns, 215; mentioned, 231; reviews, 260-261; contributions, 310-313 Lafayette, Marquis de: 200 Lake Champlain: 219 Lake George: 49 Lake Ponchartrain (La.) : 155; cross, 155-156 Lake Winnipisaukee: 218 Lamartine, M. — : 286 Lancaster (Mass.) : 51 Langtree, Samuel Dal)': 210-211, 215 La Prairie: 219 Larned, Rev. Sylvester: 158, and footnote Lawrence Academy (Groton) : 40 Lawrenceburg: 85 32b TIMOTHY FLINT Lawyers: comparison, in various sections, 70 Lear, King: 129 Lecture upon Natural History: 28, cited, 311 Lemprierc, M. — : 256 Leominster (Mass.): 42; Fourtli of July oration, 51-52 Letter: to Chas. Lowell, 47 and foot- note, 232; of Flint, cited, 78-79, 83. 94-95. 96, 102-103, 104, 109, no, III, n2, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 121, 125, 127, 128, 132, 135. 137, 141, 145, 185; first missionary, 56, 58 ; to Gen. Put- nam, 63 ; to Miss. Soc. of Conn., 69; cited, 78, 79, footnotes; to Stephen Hempstead, 80, footnote; to Missionary Society- of Connec- ticut cited, 84, 115, 141-142, 145, 146, 185 ; first miss., from St. Louis, 90, 91-92 ; from St. Louis, 94-95 ; report from letter of S. Giddings, 98, footnote; from Timothy Flint, 111-112; by Mr. Giddings against Flint, 112-114, 291-296; of S. Giddings, 117; of George A. Thayer, 195 ; to James Flint, 196, 199, 206; in Athenaum, 230-231; to Rev. Chas. Lowell, 46-47, 232; family, 235 ; of Emeline Thomas, 237-238 ; of Flint, 240- 241 ; of C. A. Clark, 241 ; of Hen- ry A. Beers, 250; of Flint, pre- served, 305-306 Lexington (Ky.) : 72, 77 Life and Adventures of Arthur Clenning: see Arthur Clenning Litchfield, J. A: letter from, 35, footnote London: 222, 270 London Athenaum, The: see Athen- aum London Quarterly Review. 263-264 Louisiana: mentioned, 188 Louisville (Ky.) : reaches, 174 Lowell, Rev. Chas: letter to, 46-47, 232; work cited, 186, footnote Lowell, James Russell : mentioned, 46 Lowell (Mass.): visits, 204 Lunenburg: name of Micah's plan- tation, 237 Lunenburg (Mass.) : librarian thank- ed, 16; mentioned, 34; Flint set- tles as minister, 35-47; ordination of Flint, 36; trouble in church, 39; letter from, 55; visits, 177-178; 208-209 Lutheran, German: minister, 59-60 McGuffey's Eclectic Readers: 52, footnote Mackenzie, Alex: 33 Macoupin: accredited to Flint, 223; cited, 311 Madisonville (La.): 156 Mad River: 59 Maine: sufferings of family from, 66 Mamelle (Mo.) : 106 Many, Col. — : 170-171 Marblehead (Mass.) : 34 "Marietta on the Ohio": 25, 63 Massachusetts: mentioned, 49, 66, 84, 209 ; desires to return, 145 ; changes, 203-206 Massachusetts General Association: 46 Massachusetts Historical Societ}-: Proceedings, 31 ; becomes corre- sponding member, 201 Massachusetts Society for promoting Christian Knowledge: 47, 48-49; quotation from Account of, 48, footnote, 54 Mathews, Mr. — : 94; trials of, 292, 293 Mediterranean Sea: 53 Merrimac River: 219 Methodists: 17-18, 66, 68, 96, 280, 281-282 INDEX 327 Mexico: Judge Bullard in, 166; Mexican War: 273, 277 mentioned, 191 Miami River: 60 Middle Ages: 17 Middlesex County (Mass.)-' 25 Migration: to west, 66 Miller, Gen. — : 207 Mills, Samuel J: 80, footnote, 91, footnote, 95 Mill's and Smith's Journal: 80, footnote Ministers: of the west, 68-69; o'f Ky., 76 ; eloquence of, 107-108 Missionaries; home compared to for- eign, 97; hardships endured, 145- 146 Mississippi River: 62, 80, 81, 83, 150, 163, 173, 237, 397; reach, 85; journey, 85-92, 127-131, 150-154; prepares for trip, 118; scenery along, 120 Mississippi Valley: mentioned, 17; development, 272 Missouri River: mentioned, 33, 97, 119; dangerous, 110; mishap, 151 Montmorency River: 220 Montreal: 220 Monument, Timothy Flint's: inscrip- tion, 13, 244-347; illustration, 245 Morgan, Gen. — : 132 Morse, Rev. Dr. Jedidiah: 54, foot- note Mosquitoes: great swarms, 126 Moundbuilders: 364 Mounds: 105-106 Music: for religious service, 78 Naies: see Adayes Napoleon, Bonaparte: 53 Narrows (L.I.) : mentioned, 206; lo- cates at, 2IO Nashville (Tenn.) : mentioned, 15, 277 Natchez (Miss.) : mentioned, 118, 164; described, 152-153; in, 173; goes to, 339 ; storm, 239-341 Natchez Courier: cited, 339 Natchez Free Trader: cited, 239 Natchitoches: mentioned, 169, 171, 239 Natchitoches, S.S: cm, 173 Navigator: cited, 62 Neal, John: 355 Newburg (N.Y.): 56 Newbury (Mass.): 41 Newell, Harriet: 219 New England: clergymen, 59, 67, footnote, 80, footnote, 91, footnote, 96; people, 78; mentioned, 150, 161, 177, 188, 263; progress made in ten years, 176 ; absence from, 203 ; changes, 203-206 ; visits, 238 New Hampshire: mentioned, 47, 309, 219 New Harmony (Ind.) : Owen's col- ony, 190 New Jersey: 56, 133 New Lanark (Scotland) : 190 New Madrid (Mo.) : mentioned, 131, 152, 293; experiences, 131-135 New Orleans (La.) : levees near, 153; reach, 154; return to, 157; described, 158-161 ; mentioned, 163; visits, 180-181 ; vegetation, 182 Newport (Ky.): 57 Newton (Sussex Co., N.J.) : 56 New York (state) : 49 New York City: location compared to New Orleans, 161 ; journey to, 180; reaches, 182; leaves, 217; compared with European cities, 222 New York Commercial: 258, 316 New York Evening Post: 257 New York Observer: 257 Niagara Falls: visits, 198; mention- ed, 229 North American Revieiv: criticism of 328 TIMOTHY FLINT Recollections, 264-266 ; mentioned, 271, footnote; cited, 317 North Bend (Ohio) : 71 North Precinct Congregation: 22, footnote North Reading (Mass.) : librarian thanked, i6; Parish Records, 21, and footnote, 317; mentioned, 21, 145 ; saying in, 22 ; educational ad- vantages, 29 ; schoolhouse, 29 ; church, 36 ; visits, 208 ; writes from, 239; near, 241 Norton, Augustus T: book by, cited, 91, footnote, 113, footnote, 317 Ohio: spends winter, 65-81; termed "Yankee state," 68 Ohio River: journey, 60-64; men- tioned, 65, 71, 75, 83, 199 Ohio Valley: 17, 79 Oolemba: short story, 189, 272; cit- ed, 309 Oregon: 274 Orizaba (Mex.) : 219 Osgood, David: 92, and footnote Ottawa River: 220 Owen, Robert: 189-193 ; debates with Rev. Alex. Campbell, 190-193; as travelling companion, 196 Packets: New York and Liverpool, 206 Paley, Wm. — : 278, 286 Pandect: weekly paper, 193; charge against Flint, 193-194 Paris: 222, 270 Parish, Elijah: '92, and footnote Parker, Theodore: 284 Pattie, James O: edits Personal Nar- rative of, 189 Peabody and Co: 211, 230, 231 Peabody, Mr. — : 231 Peabody, Joseph: 34, 150 Peck, John Mason: 18, 107, 293 Pekin : 270 Pennsylvania: Germans, 205 Philadelphia: 59; compared with European cities, 222 Phillips, Mr. — : 127 Phillips Academy (Andover) : 31 Pierpont, Rev. Mr. — : 200 Pilgrims: spirit of, 282 Pineville (La.) : cottage in, 234 Pioneers: ministers, 17; stories, 26; expectations, 66; frequent realiz- ation, 66 ; trouble, 101 ; charac- teristics, 102-104; business meth- ods, 104; sufferings, 105; Flint ad- mirers, 271 ; see Flint, Timothy Pittsburg (Pa.): 58, 60, 61; rate of living compared with Boston, 62 ; mentioned, 175 Point Prairie (Mo.): 106; locates at, 115 Post: see Arkansas Post Postell, William: 150 Potomac River: crosses, 175 Poydras, Mr. — : 158 Presbyterians: Old School, 18; New School, 18; Arminianized, 18; N. Eng. clergymen, 67, footnote, 91, footnote, 96 ; Cumberland, 68 ; church organized, 98 ; see Church Presb}'tery: Cumberland, 18; Flint attends meeting, 67 ; to be formed, 94; meeting, 117 Preston, Mrs. E. A: 277 Prevot, Surgeon — : hanged, 170 Prince, Dr. — : 25, 36 Princeton College: 158, footnote, 287 Putnam, Gen. — : 63 Quebec: 220 Railroad: first experience on, 208 Rapide, Parish of: 164 Raymond (Mass.) : Flint works six weeks in, 47-48 Reading (Mass.) : librarian thanked, 16; North Parish Church, 22; INDEX 329 mentioned, 177, 218 ; Flint's death place, 242 ; see North Reading Recollections of the last ten years: notes in Lunenburg Libraiy copy, 40 ; dedication, 45 ; mentioned, 49, loi, 142, 151, 155, 268; begin- ning) 55 ; quotations, 57, 58, 60, 63, 67, 68, 69, 72, 76, 86, 106, 107, 120, 126, 127, 128-130, 135-136, 139, 140, 152, 165, 167, 169, 171, 173, 175-176, 178, 287; cited as authority, 70-71, 72, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 96, 97, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, no, 112, 115, n8, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137. 138, 139, i4'3, 141. 149, ISO, 151, 152, 153, 154, 156, i57» 158, 159, 160, i6i, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 173. 174. 175, 176, 177. 182; end 176; where and when written, 177; left with publisher, 178; well received, 186; Ms. for sec- ond part, 229; second part, 239; criticism, 243 ; related to other works, 252 ; criticism by W. H. Venable, 253-254; by Griswold, 257 ; in U.S. Literary Gazette, 259; in Southern Revietv, 259; Swett's estimate, 257 ; review in London Quarterly Revieiv, 263 ; in North American Rei>ieiv, 264- 266 ; reference to religion, 279 ; cited, 306 Red River: 88; home on, 163, 235, 243 Religious and Social Conditions: in Newton, N.J., 56 ; along route of western journey, 56-59; among boatmen, 57 ; among immigrants, 66-67, 105, 132; in Ohio Valley-, 67-70, 71, 75-77, 78; desperadoes, 88 ; in Ste. Genevieve, 90-91 ; in St. Louis, 91-93, 94-95, 98; attach- ment to religious form, 96, 97; in and near St. Charles, 103-104, no, 111-112; itinerant preachers, 107; in Arkansas, 123-125 ; in Jackson, i35"i36; among Germans, 138- 140; in Warrington, Miss., 152; in New Orleans, 159; in Havana, 224-225 Richards, Thomas C: 91, footnote Rideau Canal: 220 Robinson Crusoe: 33 Rochester (N.Y.) : 198 Rocky Mountains: 103, 222, 273 Rome: 270 Rousseau, Jean J : 28 Roy, J. E: 113, footnote Sabine River: journey, 169 St. Anthony (falls of) : 88 St. Charles (Mo.): mentioned, 92, 93, 131, 293, 297; moves, 97; stay in, 101-118; acclimatization, 101; legislature, 106; love for, 118; returns, 141-150; trouble, 142-146; prepares to depart, 150 St. Francis (Ark.) : 127 Ste. Genevieve (Mo.): mentioned, 141 St. Lawrence River: 220 St. Louis (Mo.) : mentioned, 80, and footnote, 84, 91, 114, 119, 141, 291; stay in, 91-97; reasons for leaving, 97; spends Sunday, 151 St. Paul: 275 St. Petersburg (Russia) : 65, 270 St. Tammany County (La.): 156 Salem (Mass.) : mentioned, 22, 145, 161, 172, 177, 237; First Church, 25, 36, 46; North Church, 36; East Church, 150; visits, 177; Flint buried in, 243 Salt River: 103 Saratoga: mentioned, 177 Sawyer, Mr. — : 92 Saxon, S.S: 235 330 TIMOTHY FLINT Schenectady (N.Y.): 208 School: applies for, 47; in Cincin- nati, 65; desire for, in Ohio, 68; in St. Louis, 93; Mrs. Flint's, 108, 109, 294; in Jackson, Mo., 135; in Covington, 156 Sects, religious: compared, 96; Pilgrims, 124, 135, 136; see under names of various denominations Seip, Emeline Flint: aid rendered, 15; mentioned, 235, footnote, 277; letters cited, 317 Seip, Frederic: 223, footnoli', 235, footnote, 277; letters cited, 317 Sermon: preached at ordination of Ebenezer Hubbard, 41 Shaw, Lemuel: 210 "Shawnoe-town" : 85 Shoshonee Valley: uses son's works in, 237, 252; criticized by N. P. Willis, 257 ; mentioned, 271, 272, 277, 282; cited, 310 Siamese twins: 206 Simpson, Prof. Samuel: thanked, 16 Smith, Mr. — : 80, footnote Smith, Elias: 96 Solomons: 106 Solons: 106 South America: 222, 223; scene of stories, 223, 224 Southern Revievi: 259; extract, 259- 260, cited, 317 Spartan, S.S: 163 Staten Island: 210 Sterling (Mass.) : 51 Stone, Eliab: mentioned, 28, 36, 177 Stone, Micah: 29 Storm: 84; on Miss. Riv., 119, 128- 129: in Covington, 157; at sea, 182, 225 ; at Natchez, 239-241 Summerville: summer home, 234 Swayze, Rev. Samuel : founds church, 153, footnote Swedenborgians: 270 Swett, Samuel: statement, 233; article by, 235; writes to, 239- 241 ; extract by, 242 ; criticism by, 257, 269 Swiss: in Ind., 75 Tartars: 81 Teamsters: of the west, 59 Tennessee: 91, footnote Tennesseeans: 92 Thayer, George A: 195, footnote Thomas, Gen. — : marries Emeline Flint, 232, 233; daughter, 238 Thomas, Emeline (wife of preced- ing) : describes brother's death, 237-238 ; see Flint, Emeline Thwaites, R.G: cites Pattie's Per- sonal Narrati've in Early Western Travels series, 189, footnote, 271, footnote, 310 Tracts: "Swearer's Prayer," 59; distributed, 78, 109 Transylvania Universitj' (Lexing- ton, Ky.): 77 Travels: see Journeys Tremont House (Boston) : 227 Trinitarian Part}': 45, 282 TroUope, Frances Milton: book cited, 212; intimac>- with Flints, 212-213 ; book criticised in Knick- erbocker, 213 ; praises Flint family, 213; quotation, 214-215, 258-259; mentioned, 221 ; work cited, 263, 318; admiration for Timothy Flint, 268-269 Tuckerman, Henry T: 258 Union, S.S: 225; passengers on, 225-229 Unitarians: does not connect self with, 18 ; comparison to Camp- bellites, 192; helps found church, 195; family inclines to, 280, 283; lacks sympathy with, 284, 285; inentioned, 287 INDEX 331 United States Literary Gazette: 259 Universalist Society: of North Read- ing, 29 Upham, Chas. W: book cited, 287, footnote Venable, W. H: work mentioned, 16; error in article, 1S5, footnote; extract from, 239; criticism of Recollections, 253-254; quotation, 254, 272; work cited, 314 Versailles: 80 Vevay (Ind.) : 75 Vicksburg (Miss.): 152 Villemain, M. — : 286 Vincennes (Ind.) : 75 Voltaire, School of: mentioned, 170 Walla Walla (Wash.) : mentioned, 277 Wanborough (III.) : 260 Warrenton (Miss.) : 152 Washington (D.C.) : described, 196- 197; mentioned, 270 Washington (Miss.) : 118 Washington (Pa.) : mentioned, 175 Wasiiington Benevolent Society (Mass.) : 51 Washington, George: society named for, 51 W^atts, Isaac: 39, 279, 2S0 Webster, Daniel: 52 Weiberg, Rev. Mr. — : 139-140, 141 Welland Canal: 220 Western Monthly Re-vietv: quoted, 25. 27. 30, 187-188, 194, 199-200, 232, 270, 274, 283, 284, 285, 287; mentioned, 29, 130, 179, 267, 269; cited as authority, 122, 155, 157, 180, 181, 182, 1S3, 187, 193, 194, 196, 197, 198, 200, 206, 212, 213, 251, 252, 253, 256, 271, 272, 274, 275, 276, 278, 2Sc, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 287; article in, 180; establishes, 185; reasons for establishing, 186-188; financial value, 18S; changes, 188; weak- ness, 189; translations, 233; criti- cism of work, 243 ; advertisement, 249; related to other works, 252; religious views in, 283-285; con- tributions to, 307-313 West Indies: 191, 222 Wheeling: 62, 174-175, 196 White Mts: 218, 219 White River: 120, 123 Whitewater (Ky.) : 57 Whitewater River: German settle- ment, 137-141 Whiskey: used by boatmen, 85, 88; by Dutch, 139 Wilbray, Capt. — : 180 Vl^Illis, Nathaniel Parker: mentioned, 230, 267, footnote; life of, 253; criticises Flint, 257; admiration for Flint, 268 Wilson, Rev. Dr. Joshua L: 193 Wood, Elder: character in S/io- shonee Valley, 282 Worcester, Samuel : 287 Yale University: thanked, 15 Yankees: 63, 64 / < r ^tfOJITVDJO^' ^/Sa3AINa-3WV ^UlBRARYQc ^OFCALIFO/?^ ^^AdvaaiH^ ^vlOSANCElfj^ ^AaaMNnmv^ ^lOSANCElfj^ ^OFCALIF0/?^>^ ^OFCALIFO/?^ %\ '>*?'% f/Or-l iUS^I ilV^I aaiH^ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles Tliis book is DUE on tlie last date stamped below. r^ Cc !;^^ 4 1988 '^EB 4 1988 '^.aojiivDJo^ if— *S •^i"» so iNn-JWv \NCElfj'^ > iRARYOx AllFO% •AHCElfj> %a3AINn-3Wv ^lOSANCElfj-^ %83AINfl-3WV ^^OFCALIFO/?^ .A,OFCALIFO% ^(JAavaaii-^- >&Aaviian-^^^ ^WE•UNlVERy/A o o %a3AINfl'3WV -< S5 ^^ILIBRARYQ^ \V.tUN!VERS7/i ^V:WSANCEL% ^llIBRARYCk;^ c^"^'^^^^^'^ '•^/idJAINIlJUV ^ %a3AINn3WV^ 33 i ^ , "^audiivjjv)' .^;OFCAIIF0% ''flUdllVJ .^WEUNIVERJ/A ^««OJI1VDJO^ \oi\m-^ \ -^OfCAllFOMjl^ ^^ME•U^IIVER5•/;5 i^ "^(^Advaaii-i^ ^lOSANCElfXy> %a3AINn-3WV^ ^OFCAllFOi?^ «A,OF-CAllFC ^(?AavaaiH^ '^fi'Aavaaii- •/^ ^lOSANCElfx^ o -5^1-LIBRARYQ^ A^ILIBRARYQ^^ aWEI)NIVERJ//v ^lOSANCEi o ^.OFCALIF0%, ,^WE•UNIV£R^//, ^lOSANCElfjV- =0 '%a3AINa-3WV^ ^lOSANGElfj^ ' «>^IIIBRARYQ<- ^lUBRAR^ ^OF-CALIFOff^ ^OF-CALIFC ^^