Memorials of Methodism in the bounds of the Rock River Conference

Preface

THE writer of these veracious sketches came to Illinois with his father's family, and settled in Chicago, in June, 1835. In 1839 he became acquainted with Methodism and Methodist preachers. Circumstances connected with the residence of family relations led him to the acquaintance with Methodist workings in many parts of the Rock River Conference from the date mentioned above. Being four years a member of Clark Street Church, and having been now (1886) over thirty -seven years a member of the Rock River Conference, there are few who have a better knowledge of the men and times than the writer.

Being at the dedication of Canal Street Church in Chicago, in 1843, we took the first notes referring to Western Methodism; and about 1850 we fully determined to write such a work as we now give the reader. Ever since we have been gathering, as we could, items for such sketches. We have received information from many sources concerning most events, and it is wonderful how much those who took part in the events differ in statements.

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Out of these contradictions we have been able, in most instances, to arrive at the truth, and we think the sketches are generally correct.

We append a few words of request and of explanation.

1. This work has been hurried through the press, under financial difficulties to be sure, if possible, to get it into the hands of the few remaining early members before they are gone. The reason of this wish is, that we hope it will call forth at once corrections and additional matter. We earnestly request all readers to send to us at once every thing of interest they may recall concerning early societies and early workers. Be careful to give names and dates correctly. We are preparing a further work, to be mainly devoted to the life and times of the workei-s. All matters of interest illustrating the lives of such men as Jesse Walker, John Sinclair, Hooper Crews, Philo Judson, J. H. Vincent, R. A. Blanchard, Luke Hitchcock, C. H. Fowler, S. B. Beggs, B. H. Cartwright, etc., will be received with thankfulness.

2. The body of this book was written in 1865. Since then we have brought most matters briefly to date. Every fact and date up to 1865 was carefully considered. We have not had time to be so careful concerning matters since then. We were

PREFACE. 5

more anxious to preserve the earlier incidents, as the doings of later years are yet in the hands of the living, and, for the most part, already on record.

3. Our idea in the beginning was to write little concerning living men. Concerning many men, Ave began with lengthy sketches; but we soon found we must omit much intended matter to keep our pages within bounds. Some of Rock River's most noted men have done most of their work in our bounds since the body of the work was written, and, for reasons given above, have hardly been mentioned. Among them are O. H. Tiffany, Arthur Edwards, R. M. Hatfield, and a host of others, whom we intend, if life is spared, some time in the near future, to enshrine in the printed page.

4. Such a local work as this book is, will necessarily have a limited sale ; and as the money invested in it is needed for further publications, we trust every well-wisher will aid, by purchase and notice, the sale of this work.

5. We are sure many persons will be disappointed when they find how brief is the account of matters which they have learned to look upon as of great importance. Their disappointment will be just; but our apology is, we found it impossible to crowd into a volume all that ought to be said. We have purposely given most space to matters of the

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early day that would be lost. A volume as large as this could be written concerning every prominent interest. If life is spared, we hope to do some of these things hereafter.

We have had aid from so many, it would be difficult to mention all. The most effectual aid has come from our friend, Dr. J. H. Vincent, to whom we return most cordial thanks.

If any reader shall find that his Church has not been written up in the following pages, he will please collect the early history, and forward the notes to the author.

A. D. FIELD.

Indianola, Warren Co., Iowa.

February, 1886.

Chapter I. Introduction Of Methodism Into Illinois

IF there is any evil connected with such a work as this, it will be a tendency to Chnrch glorification ; for there is a Church egotism as well as personal self-esteem. We may make such a work the occasion of vain boasting, or we may so recount God's mercies to us as that we shall praise him the more. How little of what we have undertaken to sketch would ever have been produced had not God been with his laborers ! We of to-day, who pass the months surrounded by the pleasant influences of Christian society, with our Churches, our social meetings, our Sunday-schools, and the regular ministrations of the Word, do not, we fear, fully appreciate the cost at which these privileges have been wrought out for us. The long years of toil and days of anxiety endured by our pioneer members and preachers, if fully realized by us, would cause us to prize more highly the results of those early labors, and remember with fonder solicitude the names of those early workers. And let no ruthless hand carelessly lay waste the fair fields of Methodism, planted and watered with so many labors and tears !

A few years ago Judge Smith, an old settler of Indiana, in delivering lectures on the early times, speaking of the early progress of religion, said : " Had it not been for these men with their saddlebags, on horseback, the West would have gone to barbarism." In the first settlements the Sabbath was forgotten, the Bible little read, and vices were rife. But to these incipient communities the men on horseback went with authority from on high, and opened their missions in the log cabins, bringing back the settlers to the Sabbath and Bible and religion of the older lands ; and the genial power of religion has been felt in every city and village and community. There is scarcely a neighborhood in the bounds of the Rock River Conference but was visited by the Methodist preachers as early as 1840; and if the fruits of their labors are not found in every neighborhood, it is no sign the fruits are lost. Young converts of the earlier days are found in all parts of the country, and many of them in the better land. Many of the prominent citizens of Chicago and other Western towns were converted in the country places, through the labors of the fathers of our conference.

Illinois was first settled by the French, at Cahokia and Kaskaskia, over two hundred years ago. The Americans began to settle in the State about a hundred years ago, coming up from the South, over the Ohio River. The stream of settlers, until 1835 was from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and the States South. Many of the early inhabitants were the " poor whites" (now, we trust, an extinct race) from the slave States. These came up as far as Springfield, settling what, in the parlance of the day, is called "Egypt." The country from Springfield to the Illinois River, from Peru to the Indiana line, was mostly settled from Ohio. The country north of a line drawn from Peru to Indiana remained nearly vacant until 1835, when settlers began to pour in from New York and New England. As a consequence of the settlers coming from the South, Methodism was introduced from thence, bearing the Southern type and form. Nearly all of the preachers of the Rock River Conference, up to 1845, were from the South. Hooper Crews and John Sinclair, two of our noblest men, were from Kentucky. The course of the tide of immigration was from Virginia and Maryland to Western Pennsylvania, from Pennsylvania to Ohio, from Virginia and the Carolinas to Kentucky, and from Kentucky and Ohio to Indiana and Illinois.

As early as 1786 one Benjamin Ogden was appointed to Kentucky, and in 1787 appointments were made to Ohio, and about 1800 to Indiana. A conference was appointed to be held in Kentucky in 1790. Peter Cartwright tells us that the first Methodist class formed in Illinois was organized in St. Clair County in 1793, Captain Joseph Ogle being appointed leader. A sister Newman was living in Whitesides County in 1860, who was a member of this first class soon after its organization. It was formed by Joseph Lillard, who, it seems, was the first regular Methodist preacher who visited the State. There were but two hundred and ninety-six traveling preachers on the American continent at that time. Another class was organized — we can not tell whether it was the second or not — at Edwardsville in 1801. A man by the name of Davidson, who died at Savannah, Jo Daviess County, in 1851, and who was a member of the first class in the Rock River Conference at Galena, was the leader. The first mention of Illinois in the Minutes is in 1803, fifteen years before the Territory was admitted into the Union as a State. There is but one appointment ; that is simply " Illinois." This solitary circuit continued until 1815, when other circuits began to be formed. "Illinois District" was set off in 1811 ; but most of the appointments were in Indiana and Missouri. The first Illinois appointment (1803) was "Western Conference, Cumberland District, Lewis Garrett, P. E. ; Illinois, Benjamin Young, missionary."

In 1824 the Illinois Conference, embracing Illinois and Indiana, was set off. There were nine appointments in Illinois. In 1830 there were twenty circuits in the State. The first conference session held here met at Shiloh meeting-house, in St. Clair County, in 1820; the second at Padfield's, on Looking-glass Prairie, October 23, 1824. S. R. Beggs was a member.

But it does not accord with our purpose to follow up the progress of the work in Illinois. We shall confine the account to the limits we have chosen to represent. The first appointment within the limits of the present Rock River Conference was made in 1825, and was as follows :

" Illinois Conference, Illinois District, S. H. Thomson, P. E. ... Sangamon, Peter Cartwright (who is also superintendent of the Pottawatomie Mission). . . . Jesse Walker, missionary to the Pottawatomie Indians."

Before narrating the occasion and history of that first appointment, we record the following list :

1823, Jesse Walker, missionary to the Missouri Conference, whose attention is particularly directed to the Indians within the bounds of said conference.

1824, Jesse Walker, missionary to the settlements between the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, and to the Indians in the vicinity of Fort Clark (Peoria).

1825, Jesse Walker, missionary to the Pottawatomie Indians.

1826, Pottawatomie Indians, Jesse Walker.

1827, Pottawatomie Mission at Salem, John Dew, superintendent and conference collector for the mission ; Jesse Walker, missionary.

1828, Pottawatomie Mission at Salem, Isaac Scarritt.

Brother Scarritt was sent to wind up the work.

About 1820 John Stewart had gone up among the Wyandots in Ohio, and had met with wonderful success. This created a furore in favor of Indian missions. Jesse Walker caught the commendable fever, and this is why we find him ready to enter upon such work, as is indicated above.

October 25, 1825, Brother Walker wrote to the Missionary Society, reporting progress. " In the Spring of 1824," lie says, "I opened connection with the Pottawatomie Indians, and found they were willing to receive a missionary then ; but my call to the General Conference prevented me holding a satisfactory council with them. Being reappointed the next Autumn by Bishop Roberts, I opened a school at Fort Clark, . . . which continued through the Winter, and in which I had six Indian children, whose progress was extremely flattering for so short a period. In the Spring of 1825, with five white families, I proceeded to the mouth of Fox River, shortly after which I had a most satisfactory council with five chiefs of said tribe. We immediately built cabins for the accommodation of the families. I then opened a school, into which I received fourteen Indian children. But finding that the station was not located on Indian land, I proceeded up Fox River about thirteen miles further, selected a station, and am now preparing to move into it. The place is about one hundred miles above Fort Clark, about twenty miles north of the Illinois River, between it and Fox River. The soil is very good, timber plenty, and the spot well watered."

These Indians roved, tented, and hunted over the country bordering the Illinois, Fox, and Des Plaines Rivers, from Fort Clark (now Peoria) to Fort Dearborn, at Chicago.

At the conference of 1825 Jesse Walker was continued missionary, and directed to erect mission buildings, the government having promised to pay two-thirds the expenses of such improvements. The preacher went up to his head-quarters, taking a few whites, mostly his relatives, with him. These were the first white settlers between Chicago and Galena. At a place now in the town of Mission, La Salle County, on the east side of Fox River, Walker began to make improvements. He called the place Salem; so that in 1827 the appointment appears on the Minutes as Salem Mission. At the close of the year the missionary made his report, dated December, 1826.

"I have now closed the business of Salem Mission," he says, "for the present year, and beg leave to report that, in accordance with the instructions of Bishop Roberts, I went, as soon as possible, to the Indian country, and have made an agreement with the Pottawatomies, through their chiefs, for a section of land, in conformity with the articles adopted by the Illinois Conference, and have obtained the best titles which could be obtained from a rude and uncultivated nation, signed by the interpreter, as a mutual friend, which instrument accompanies this report. The place selected for the establishment is about one hundred miles above Fort Clark, and about twenty miles north of the Illinois River, between it and Fox River. The soil is good, timber plenty, and the spot well watered. I have progressed as far as I could with my means in building and improving. I have built a house for the accommodation of the family, which consists of eighteen persons. The house is fifty feet by twenty, two stories high, with apartments. It is built of hewed logs and roofed with shingles. We have a smith shop, a convenience I could not dispense with, situated as I was so remote from the settlements of the whites ; a poultry-house, spring-house, and other conveniences. I have forty acres of land in cultivation, seven acres inclosed for pasture, and one acre for garden. All has cost $2,400. Our crops are good — I suppose worth $200, when secured. Hitherto every thing has been attended with much hardship, hunger, cold, and fatigue ; and the distance we have had to transport every thing has made it expensive.

But with regard to the settlement, the greatest obstacles are overcome. A few more years' labor will furnish a comfortable home and plenty. I have talked with eight chiefs, all of whom are highly gratified with the mission, and have pledged themselves to use their influence to support it in its religious character, but can not legislate on the subject of religion. That, they say, is a matter between the Great Spirit and the hearts of their people [is this the first announcement of the higher law f] ; but they will defend and protect the mission family, and if the Indians will give up their children to the care and tuition of the missionaries, they will be glad of it ; but they can not use coercion. The school consists of fifteen native children — seven males, eight females — and two teachers. I have expended altogether in the establishment $2,093. The government has agreed to pay two-thirds of the expense, which would be $1,394. I have received from the Church $1,000, which added to the amount promised by the government, makes $2,394 to which add $107 in donations, and we have $2,401, which, if the money were drawn from the government, would leave $308. I would here state that I have built a horse-mill, and have it in operation. I have tried to be economical, and am conscious also of having done the best I could. A door of communication to the hearts of these poor, neglected, persecuted sons of men, before we can expect among them the exercise of an evangelical faith, must be opened. We must try and bring them to the habits of civilization."

The building mentioned in the above report had five rooms. The family consisted of Jesse Walker and wife, one teacher, two laboring men, and two women.

In June, 1827, Peter Cartwright, who, as presiding elder of " Illinois District," had the superintendence of the mission, writes : " There are a great many difficulties to be encountered in introducing the Gospel among the poor children of the forest. These difficulties present themselves very formidably among the Pottawatomie nation. They are generally suspicious of the whites. Our school at Salem remains small, but the children learn very fast. There are also some recent signs of a work of grace in the hearts of one or two adult natives. If we had a religious interpreter, or if some old Indians were changed in heart, we think the work of God would rapidly spread among this wretched people."

Cartwright writes again, in September, 1827, saying : " Our school yet remains small ; but the children are orderly, learn fast, and give attention to the worship of God. One adult native has professed a change of heart, and has been baptized. The natives profess to be friendly to the mission, and assure us we shall have more of their children. Our farm-crop, worth about $500, consists of corn, wheat, potatoes, etc. The mission property is worth about $500, but there is yet a debt hanging over it." It is probable the crops mentioned in 1826 and

1827, were the first raised in the bounds of the Rock River Conference, now the granary of the world, excepting the gardens and patches around Fort Dearborn.

The Missionary Report for 1828 says : " Latterly the prospects are brightening ; they were discouraging at first." J. Walker, in a letter in April,

1828, to J. Dew, who served as superintendent that year, and who traveled over the conference collecting funds, says : " Our school has increased to seven boys, from six to twelve years of age, four of whom are reading and writing ; the other three are spelling in two syllables. We have four girls, over eight and under fifteen, who are spelling in four or five syllables, and learning to read the easy lessons in the spelling-book, and two small girls learning the alphabet (thirteen in all), and we are expecting three or four more. The Indians seem to understand me better. This is owing to the new interpreter (the old one has been turned off). As to religion, I am sorry to say I do not see that blessed work of God rising among them that I have long prayed for. They have brought four packs of cards and burnt them in my fire, and some of them have promised to quit their drinking and go to work this Spring. The Indians are ordered off the government lands, and are returning to their sugar-camp in very low spirits." To which J: Dew adds, in reporting the above letter : " Brother Walker informs me that he has united in marriage George Furkee (the present interpreter, who is a half-breed) and Kitakokishnoquah, one of his female scholars, which is the first Christian marriage ever celebrated in the nation. They have both learned to read and write. The government has as yet done nothing, the fund being already exhausted."

Jesse Walker reported to the conference of 1827 twenty-five members, among whom was one Indian. The remainder were members of the mission family and a few whites settled near. In 1828 six members are all that are reported. These were the first reports of members within the bounds of the Rock River Conference. Mr. Walker continued as the missionary until 1828 ; then Isaac Scarritt was appointed to the work, and this is the last year the mission appears in connection with the appointments. The government had bargained for the Indian lands, and by 1829 the tribe began to scatter, moving across the Mississippi, giving place to the inevitable white man. Isaac Scarritt was sent on the work, not so much to labor as to close up the affairs of the mission. In 1830 S. R. Beggs was appointed by the conference as agent to close up the affairs of the concern, and settle its accounts. He distributed the remaining property among the various creditors, and thus ended the first Methodist appointment in the bounds of the Rock River Conference. The mission premises have ever since been used as farm-land. The Indian did not receive the Gospel, but the white man did.

Isaac Scarritt says of Jesse Walker : " His ardent zeal to be the instrument of good to Indians led him to view their improvement and prospects in religion and civilization in a more favorable light than could be indorsed by others not actuated by the same sanguine feelings."

At the time Isaac Scarritt was sent to the mission (in 1828), James Walker, who afterwards settled at Walker's Grove (Plainfield), was living where Ottawa now stands, and Pierce Hawley, Edmund Weed, and J. Beresford lived at what was afterwards called Holderman's Grove. These, with Mr. Scarritt's own family at the mission, constituted the whole of the white population in the region now included in the Rock River Conference, excepting the few whites then at Chicago and Galena. The whole region was Indian country. While at the mission Mr. Scarritt, with his interpreter, George Furkee, went on a trip to Chicago. This was in 1829, at which time our missionary preached what is supposed to be the first Methodist sermon ever preached in that tumultuous city. On their way they lodged at an Indian village near Plainfield. A few days previous an Indian of this village had killed an Indian of another village some miles distant. According to Indian custom he might, by a ransom, save his life. The Indians of the village contributed, and the culprit went on his errand with eight or ten horses. According to Indian law, his life was forfeited, and he was every hour in danger of falling by the avenger's hand. If his offer was not accepted, he must quietly resign himself to his fate. But the gifts were accepted, and the same night our travelers lodged in the village the redeemed one returned with joy. Is there a place in this world where the poet's saying is belied :

" In the corrupted currents of the world, Offense's gilded hand may shove by justice ?" 3

Chapter II. Introduction Of Methodism Into Galena

GALENA has the credit of receiving the first Methodist preacher ever sent to white settlers in the bounds of the Rock River Conference. This occurred in 1828, at a time when the Salem Mission on Fox River was being closed up. The first record on the Minutes concerning this matter is in 1828, and is as follows :

" Illinois Conference ; . . . Illinois District, Peter Cartwright, P. E. ; ... Galena, John Dew ; Pottawatomie Mission, at Salem, Isaac Scarritt."

Mr. Cartwright says that though he several times undertook to visit Galena while it was on his district, he never reached the place.

Previous to the commencement of a town in Chicago in 1830, Illinois was settled almost entirely from the South, or from Ohio and Indiana, so that as the inhabitants came up the streams, which were the leading landmarks in the early day, Methodism came with them ; and in following the appointments, we must follow the map from south to north. At the time when the country in the bounds of the Rock River Conference began to be settled, there were two points of attraction : one the new lake - port at Chicago, the other the lead-mines around

Galena. The country around Galena was settled first; but by 1832 Chicago began to outdo the leadmine country. The early settlements and earliest Methodist appointments were formed between the Lake and Fox River, and between the Mississippi and Rock River.

The region of country in which Galena stands was purchased from the Sacs and Foxes in 1804, but was re-ceded to the Indians in 1816, with certain lands reserved, because of the supposed existence of lead-ore. On the west of the Mississippi, under the French and Spanish governments, mines had been worked for many years. In 1819 the once famous Buck Lead, on Fever River, was discovered and worked by the Indians. In that year the first white settlers went to the vicinity of Galena, established trading-posts, and engaged in smelting ore. Jesse W. Small, M. Bouthillier, and Dr. Muir were the earliest white settlers. In 1820 A. T. Van Meter arrived there. In 1821 the United States War Department took charge of the lead-mines, and under the new regulations they were more fully and profitably worked. This object was secured by granting five-year leases to miners and smelters. At this time (1821) there was but one house, and that a log-cabin, and one white resident, on the present side of Galena. This settler was a Frenchman, the Bouthillier mentioned above. Most of the miners returned to their homes South, Winters, so that it was a long time ere there were many permanent settlers. There was an Indian village belonging to the Sacs and Foxes — united tribes, among whom Black Hawk afterwards arose — near the site of the Commercial House (1861), on the corner of Main and Franklin Streets. " The bluffs were there, and the grassy plat bordering the river. Stout bushes and stunted oaks and wild vines grew on the ground where houses, streets, and gardens are."

In 1823 Mr. James Johnson, of Kentucky, who had leased a large section of mine-land, went to Galena, accompanied by two companies of United States regulars, for protection. He at once engaged in the mining business on Fever River. In 1824 Lieutenant Martin Thomas was appointed agent of the lead-mines. The same year Captain Orrin Smith, Mr. Meeker, and Harris arrived. The name Galena was not given to the gathering cluster of buildings until 1827, when Lieutenant Thomas laid out the town. From its mineral resources, he gave it the name it still bears — Galena (lead ore). In 1824 it was called " The Point " by the English, and " La Pointe " by the French, and sometimes " Frederic's Point," from a man by the name of Frederic, who resided below " Shot-tower Hill." This year (1824) there were two smelting furnaces, and in 1825 five of them. In 1826 there were about twenty log cabins and one hundred and fifty inhabitants. In 1828 there were one hundred houses, with eight hundred inhabitants.

During these years there was little that resembled religion among the early settlers. The French very nearly forgot the " blessed Virgin " and their God, if they ever knew him, when they settled in that leaden Eldorado, and the true idea of Christianity was little known.

The first sermon in Galena, so far as is now known, was preached in 1827, by a Baptist preacher, who was passing through the place. His name and residence are not known. He preached but once, and passed on. This was two years before the first sermon in Chicago. In 1828 an Episcopal clergyman, a chaplain from one of the upper forts, preached one sermon.

The importance of the place as a mission field had been felt by residents from the East and South, and in 1828 the first missionary appeared on the ground. This was John Dew, appointed to the Galena Mission in 1828. Mr. Dew thus became the first preacher to the whites in Rock River Conference, and the third who labored in our bounds. In April, 1829, the Rev. Aratus Kent, a Presbyterian minister, appointed by the Home Mission Society, went to Galena to open up the work in behalf of his Church. A Methodist local preacher, one of a class who have often been pioneers of Methodism, was already on the ground, and had commenced regular preaching. Mr. Kent at once went to work as an ardent laborer, and Galena owes much to his untiring care. He preached his first sermon in an unfinished log building on Bench Street, and afterwards occupied the dining-room of a tavern situated on Main Street. He soon purchased an old log building, which had been used as a court-house, which he fitted up for a church and school-room. In this a school was at once commenced, and in the

Summer of 1829, while Chicago was yet non est, Mr. Kent organized the first Sunday-school in the town. In the Galena Advertiser (a paper edited by Dr. Newhall) of December 14, 1829, there is a card from Mr. Kent, acknowledging the aid he had received in repairing his church, and announcing that on the next Sabbath it would be opened for Sunday-school at 9.30 A. M., and for preaching at eleven o'clock.