Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett, missionary superintendent in southern Iowa and in the Rocky mountains for the American home missionary society

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

MEMOIRS

Chapter I. Early Life, Ancestry, Education

Page Birth — Parents — New England Ancestry — Andover, Ohio, . . 9 Childhood — Love of Nature — At Kingsville Academy and Alleghany College, 13

Farm-work — Religious Experience, 14

Teacher in Tennessee — Tour in East Tennessee and No. Carolina, 15 Ascent of Mount Mitchell — At Yale College and Andover

Seminary, 16

Chapter II. Ministry At Wentworth, N.h., And Mount Pleasant, Iowa

Ordination — Marriage — Happy Ministry — Other Fields calling, . 20

Visit West — Ministry at Mount Pleasant, 22

Among Sick and Wounded Soldiers — In Tennessee, 24

At Stevenson, Alabama — At Chattanooga, 26

Before Atlanta — At Marietta, Georgia — Ascent of Kenesaw, . . 32

Death of Wife — Call to Missionary Superintendence, 34

Chapter III. Superintendent Of Home Missions In Southern Iowa

Work of the Home Missionary Society in Iowa, 35

South-western Iowa — Work in New Towns, 36

Character and Success of his Labors, 37

His Paper, Church Work, 42

6 Contents.

Five Letters to the Children of Iowa : —

I. Have a Plan in Life, 42

II. Habits, 44

III. Every Child to do his Duty — Mind, Morals, and

Religion to be Cultivated, 46

IV. Prayer-Triangles— Life a Copy-book, 49

V. Goodness, 51

The Past, Present, and Future of Iowa, 52

Weakness in Churches, 54

Provide Things Honest, 55

Denominational Comity, 56

Congregational Order adapted to unite New Communities, ... 57

Congregational Order and Sectarianism, 59

To his Mother, on his Forty-fourth Birthday, 60

A Church Enlarged, 61

The Importance of Systematic Giving : —

Demands for Increasing Liberality, 63

Limits of Ability to Give, 64

The only Adequate Motive, . 65

A Law Older than Moses, 66

A Definite Portion — Objections — Advantages, 67

Importance of a High Ideal to Churches and Ministers, .... 69

A Night Ride, 70

Temperance Revival, 71

Importance of the Thorough Christianization of the United States, 72 Missionary Exploration of Colorado in 1874: —

History and Resources of Colorado, 74

Religious Condition of Colorado, 76

His Love for Iowa, 80

Appointment to Colorado in 1878, 81

Marriage — Farewell to Iowa Brethren, 82

His Life at Des Moines, by Rev. A. L. Frisbie, 83

Chapter IV. Superintendent And General Missionary In The Rocky Moun- Tains

A Sabbath in South Pueblo, 87

San Luis Park, 89

Contents, 7

In the Snow in June, 90

Pagosa Springs, 92

Among the Mountaineers, 93

Silverton — A Gambler's Funeral, 96

Anvil and Hazelton Mountains, 97

Gamblers' Contribution to a Sunday-school Library, 98

Importance of Christian Union, 99

The Black Hills 100

Among Robbers, '. . . 101

Sixty-six Hours of Staging — Lead City, 103

Deadwood — Spearflsh — Plan of an Academy, 106

A Gold Brick — Galena — Crook City, 108

Rapid City — Rockerville, 109

Mid-winter Labors, 112

The Week of Prayer at Lead City, 113

A Winter Walk, 114

Permanent Pastors Needed, 115

Beauty of the Black Hills, 115

To his Mother, on his Forty-seventh Birthday, 116

Over Hills and Ravines, 117

An Eshcol Bunch of Churches, 118

Emigration to Western Colorado, 119

Barbarism the First Danger, 120

Southern Colorado — Coal Creek— Rosita — Silver Cliff, . . . 121

Denver — The Plains in Spring — The Midnight Heavens, . . . 122

From Denver to Leadville, 124

Carbonateville — Kokomo, 126

A Journey to Hartford, Conn., 127

Building a Church at Leadville, 128

The Gunnison River Country, 129

Crested Butte — Hillerton, 129

Lumber and Shingles for the Leadville Church, 131

Last Visit to the Black Hills, 131

Rockerville — Deadwood — Custer, 132

Another Week of Labor at Leadville, 133

Rest at Home — The Colorado Association, 133

" Off for Leadville " — In Denver, 135

A Mountain Storm, 136

Overturning of Stage — Death, 138

8 Contents.

Funeral Services at Leadville and Colorado Springs : —

Address of Rev. R. T. Cross, 139

Tributes to his Memory : —

C. C. Salter — J. Adams, 144

C.M.Sanders — The " Home Missionary," 145

Lines suggested by his Death, by J. W. Phillips, 145

His Character and Life-work, 147

MEMOIRS

OF

JOSEPH W. PICKETT.

Chapter I. Early Life, Ancestry, Education

JOSEPH WORTHY PICKETT was born at Andover, Ashtabula County, Ohio, January 28, 1832. His ancestors were among the early settlers of New England, who left the mother country in the Puritan emigration of the reign of Charles I. He was of the sixth generation from John Pickett, who came from the County of Kent, England ; settled in Salem, Conn., 1648; moved to Stratford, 1660, and died April 11, 1684. The following is the line of descent: —

3. John, 1716 — February, 1807; married Elizabeth Meeker ; moved to Sandisfield, Berkshire County, Mass.

4. John, June, 1753 — October, 1840; married Ruth Boardman, 1759 — March 25, 1806, of Middletown, Conn. He was a soldier of the Revolution ; representative from Sandisfield in the Massachusetts Conio Memoirs of Joseph W. Pickett,

vention of 1788, which ratified the Constitution of the United States ; and in the House of Representatives of Massachusetts from 1789 to 1796, and from 1804 to 18 1 3 ; also a justice of peace for many years in the same town ; and moved to the unbroken forest of North-eastern Ohio in 18 19, with his three sons, John, Joseph, and

5. Benjamin, July 22, 1795 — April 26, 1873 ; married Lydia Ophelia Birchard, of Crawford County, Penn., January 8, 1822.

6. Joseph W.

His mother is a native of Becket, Berkshire County, Mass., and of the sixth generation from Thomas Birchard, who was born at Roxbury, England, in 1595 ; came from England in the ship "True Love," 1635; was made a freeman of Boston, 1637; settled at Saybrook, Conn., and died 1684. This is her line of descent : —

1. John, one of the original proprietors of Norwich, Conn.

4. James, 1 731-1820; one of the first selectmen, and the first treasurer of Becket. His only son was

5. James.

In the autumn of 18 12, he started with his family, the oldest child eighteen, the youngest two years of age, for the "Far West." They carried their household goods, provisions, and bedding in one heavy wagon, drawn by two yoke of oxen and a horse. Another

His Parents. II

wagon, drawn by three horses, took lighter articles and the family. Many were the mishaps and hardships of the wilderness. Now and then the wagons were upset or stuck in the mud. Several nights were spent with no shelter but the woods. For one hundred and fifty miles, they passed down the Alleghany River in flatboats. After six weeks' weary travel, they reached the tract that had been selected for their home, seven miles north of Meadville, Penn. Here, coming some years afterward as a teacher into an adjoining school district, Benjamin Pickett found his wife.

6. Lydia, born November 29, 1802.

Andover was then a township in the woods, five miles square. No roads had been made on its eastern side, where Benjamin Pickett had located. The only guides in going from place to place were blazed trees. The new home was a log structure, without window or chimney, the apertures between the unchinked logs furnishing light, and an opening in the roof carrying off the smoke. Thus they lived for the first year. Most of the neighbors were newly married people, and similarly situated. As busy years rolled on, the land was cleared for pasture and tillage, additions and improvements were made to the cabin, and support and comfort secured for the growing family. Here the subject of this memoir was born, the fifth of eight children.

He early showed conscientiousness, truthfulness, and a love of knowledge. Before he was three years old, he would place two chairs facing each other, and coax his elder brother to read to him. At five, he was a good reader. Warm in filial feeling, he loved to help his mother on washing days, gathering wood for her fire by the brook, and sharing her simple lunch in the shade. As he grew in strength, he assisted his father in the heavy labors of the farm. These were the happy memories of his childhood.

When seven years old, his father gave him a pocketknife, greatly to his delight. The need of a new house was at that time the household talk. The children's hearts were set upon it. But the careful father, scanning the cost and his resources in the presence of the family, decided that he could not afford to build. This filled Joseph with sorrow. With tears in his eyes, he went into the forest to weep and think by himself. As he reflected that his father could not build for want of means, he remembered that his new knife had cost something, and he at once resolved what to do. He returned to the cabin, handed the treasure to his father, and said : " Here is my knife, father. Take it back to the store, and get the money. I can do without it." The father's heart was touched to tears, and he said, "Joseph, keep your knife, and we will build the new house. " The willing self-sacrifice of the boy had kindled new energy in the man. There was no more faltering until the family moved into a new house, one of the best appointed dwellings in the township. It stands upon a hill, close to a charming piece of woods of fifty acres. Hon. Ben. Wade, visiting here when the orchard was in full bloom, called it one of the pleasantest places he ever saw.

At School and College. 1 3

The charm and beauty of nature won the boy's heart. He remembered through life the impressions which flowers and woods and the south wind made upon him when five years of age. In after years, Ruskin was one of his favorite authors.

He attended school a portion of each year in a log school-house three-quarters of a mile distant, until he was sixteen, when he entered the academy in Kingsville, on the shore of Lake Erie, for the fall term. At nineteen, he entered Alleghany College, at Meadville, Penn. Obliged to practise close economy, he rented a room, obtained provisions from home, did his own cooking, and frequently managed to live upon fifty cents a week. In the Junior year, he took the Haseltine Prize Medal for the best English composition. He graduated in 1855. His theme at Commencement was " Plato and his Philosophy." While in the academy and at college, he taught school during the winter months. Showing a superior faculty for instruction, he won the hearts of scholars, and gained honor and esteem in every community where he was employed. He thus obtained means to defray the expenses of his own education.

From early youth, he took part in literary and debating societies, and won repute as a ready speaker and an ingenious and able disputant. In the political canvass of 1848, he listened to the humor and eloquence of Thomas Corwin and to the strong and persuasive arguments of Joshua R. Giddings.

The heavy work upon the farm was haying. At that season, Joseph always arranged to be at home, and, with his scythe and rake and pitchfork, and cheering laugh and persistent pluck, made "the best of hands/' as his father called him.

He cherished through life the memory of an interest in religion when eight years of age. His father gathered the children around the family altar. His mother's devotional nature gave him a constant nurture of grace and goodness. At eighteen, when a student at Kingsville Academy, a brother's sudden death deepened his serious convictions. During his first year in college, in a time of awakening, he sought the Lord through weeks of fasting and prayer, with strong crying and tears. The hills of Meadville were witness to his spiritual struggles. When it pleased God to reveal his Son in him, and he saw the divine love in Jesus Christ, he acted with prompt decision, and on the following Saturday walked home, twenty four miles, to unite with the church of his fathers at the communion on the next day. An extract from his diary of this period shows his fervor and devotion : —

After the five o'clock prayer-meeting this morning, Merrill and I proceeded to the forests, where for two hours we supplicate.! at the throne of grace, and received largely of the Holy Spirit. I was enabled through faith to behold Christ's kingdom, and saw the ancient prophets worshipping around the throne. Oh, the holy joy of believing! I desire to give up my body as the temple of the Holy Spirit. May God ever guide me in the strait and narrow path !

Many years later, he said of his habits of retirement for meditation and prayer : —

I used to walk miles every day, going to some quiet retreat,

Teaches in Academy. 15

where I walked backward and forward, talking aloud to God, sometimes repeating portions of Scripture. I have worn paths in the deep woods so hard that the grass would not grow for months. Then I would kneel in prayer. I shall never forget those seasons. They sweetened my life, took out selfishness and passion, and put in sweetness and love, and a longing desire to do others good.

Before leaving college, he had made an engagement to take charge of an academy at Taylorsville, Wilson County, Tenn., but after reaching home was prostrated with typhoid fever, and brought very low. Upon convalescence, he was urged to delay. But, feeling that strength would come as he went on his way, he left home the last of August. It was his first long journey, and his first travel by railroad. His health improved every day. From Louisville, he went by stage to his destination, thirty-seven miles east of Nashville. Here was his work for two years. The academy flourished in his hands. He aroused a generous ambition among the students, and imparted to them his moral vigor and spiritual force. A neighboring hill of shady oaks and moss-covered rocks was his chosen resort for exercise and for meditation and prayer.

In the summer vacation of 1856, he travelled into East Tennessee and North Carolina, alone, on horseback ; making observations of the geology of those regions, and enjoying the wiidness and grandeur of the scenery. He visited Bon Air Springs, Roane County, and passed up Clinch River to Knoxville. From the Cumberland Mountains, he wrote, August 2d : —

I stayed Wednesday night at a tavern kept by an Ohio man. I told him it was the last thing I expected, — to see a man leaving

Ohio for these barren mountains. He came for his health, he said. There are good reasons for its being healthy upon the mountains : a person can seldom get enough to eat to make him sick. I felt sorry for the landlady. She could get along, she said, if they had any privileges ; that there was no school, and only now and then preaching, Baptist and Methodist, but neither of the preachers could read. Of course, there are exceptions to this gloomy aspect of the region. Now and then I call upon a wealthy, intelligent farmer who is a perfect gentleman. The political fever runs high. It will be a tight match between Fillmore and Buchanan. I know little of Northern politics.

From Knoxville, he went to Dandridge, and up French Broad River to the Warm Springs, N.C., six miles from the State line, a fashionable resort for the sons and daughters of fortune from the South. Riding on through Buncombe County, he ascended Mount Mitchell August 14th, and from its top wrote: —

My highest desire is realized and my loftiest aspiration gratified, for 1 stand upon the far-famed mount, the loftiest summit of the Blue Ridge and highest point east of the Rocky Mountains. Having put on a thick overcoat which belongs to one of the men who are clearing the top of the mountain, I have ascended the rude observatory made of balsam-trees, and am gazing upon the scene. Nothing I have before witnessed will bear comparison with it. But it is cold. I must go to a fire the workmen have built under a ledge of rock. . . . This is comfortable ; and I must tell you of my adventures. Yesterday, it rained most of the forenoon ; dark clouds hung around the mountains. At dinner, I saw some speckled trout the boys had caught. I remembered the stories father had told me, and determined to go fishing. The boys got bait. We went up the mountain about two miles by the side of a dashing, foaming stream, passing high laurel and ivy bushes that were growing in luxuriance, and threw in our hooks. I watched the boy's motion until I saw the plan, and then com-

Mountain Experiences. ij

menced. I let my hook float along the stream, when up came a trout and snapped it. I drew him out. Leaping along the rocks, I let my hook dance into the deep holes, when up came another fellow, which I ousted. It was the greatest sport at fishing I ever had. I caught five, the boy three. He said it was the first time he was ever beaten.

This morning, about seven, with a son of my host, I started up the mountain on foot. We travelled on and on. I made him puff and blow. We reached here between one and two o'clock this afternoon, after ten miles of "up-hill business." My host and several hands are at work here, building a sleeping-room. I am going to see the sun and moon rise and set. I can stand it to stay under the rocks without cover, if these mountaineers can. So good-night.

Morning, August 15. — I slept most of the night finely. We had a large fire built, which we were obliged to replenish often, as the fir-wood is poor to keep fire. My thermometer stood at 45 ° this morning. The sun set behind a cloud last night, but its rising this morning was glorious. The fog resembles vast lakes, above which the mountain summits rear their heads like islands.

His return to Middle Tennessee was by another route, through Jackson, Macon, and Cherokee Counties, N.C., and Monroe County, Tenn. Passing over the ancient domain of the Cherokee Indians, he entered a lonely valley, some thirty miles wide, with the ragged and rocky crags of the Blue Ridge on one side and the Smoky Mountains on the other. Overwhelmed at times by the towering, precipitous grandeur of the former, he found a fascination and charm in the soft and restful splendor of the latter. It was long an image in his mind of "the valley of blessing." On one side towered the holy law; on the other, the divine love seemed diffused abroad.

On the fifteenth of September, he resumed his work at the academy, with an increased number of pupils and his brother Cyrus as assistant. He closed his labors there July 10, 1857, with grateful assurances of esteem from his pupils, and with promises of a prayerful remembrance of them on his part. Five of his pupils accompanied him home, to be educated at Alleghany College. Three remained North, and a few years later joined the army of the Union. One was first lieutenant of a college company raised at Meadville ; assistant adjutant-general at the battle of Drahesville, December 20, 1 86 1 ; fought bravely on the Peninsula and before Richmond, and died from exhaustion. The others raised a company of cavalry, of which one was captain and the other first lieutenant.

Having saved twelve hundred and fifty dollars from his earnings in teaching, Mr. Pickett was enabled to pursue a cherished plan of study at Yale College, where he joined the Senior class, and graduated in 1858. He greatly prized the opportunities for culture afforded him at New Haven. Though not in firm health, he pursued his studies vigorously, and made more broad and solid his foundations for usefulness. His heart was deeply enlisted in the revival of religion which that year blessed the college. In Professor Goodrich, he recognized a model man.

In the fall of 1858, he entered the Theological Seminary at Andover, Mass., and pursued the full course of study for three years with industry and zeal. Not neglecting opportunities of usefulness or the culture of the

At Andovcr. 19

heart, he labored frequently in religious meetings and Bible classes, and, amid the walks and woods of Andover, kept up his habits of communion with nature and of devout meditation. During his first winter there, he wrote : —

Our oceanic winds and rain-storms are a conglomeration of hail, sleet, and snow, which loads the trees : but, let it come pleasant when they are thus adorned, and it is difficult to conceive of anything more beautiful. A week since, a damp, frosty snow fell upon the trees during the night and arranged itself in crystals, so that the morning revealed as glorious a spectacle as one could imagine. As we passed between the elms that interweave their branches above our walks, covered with millions of crystals, I remarked to my classmate that never did royal monarch walk beneath a more gorgeous canopy.

During the summer vacation of 1859, ^e labored under the Vermont Home Missionary Society at North Hyde Park and Eden, Lamoille County, but overtaxed himself, and was laid aside by sickness. He recovered so as to return to the seminary, but was again prostrated for several weeks. Upon regaining his health, such was his ardor and devotion that he soon made up all he had lost in his prescribed studies.

Chapter II. Ministry At Wentworth, N.h., And Mount Pleasant

IOWA.

^pOWARD the close of his seminary course, he was invited to return to North Hyde Park, being " the one that always came to mind as the minister they needed." But his steps were directed to Wentworth, Grafton County, N.H., where he found a happy field of labor for two years, among an intelligent and a refined people, who appreciated the devotion and kindling fervor of his ministry, and invited him to become their pastor. A work of grace prevailed during much of the time. Eighteen were added to the church by profession, and twelve by letter. He was ordained an Evangelist at Bristol, N.H., January 2, 1862, in company with a classmate, Rev. C. F. Abbott. The sermon was preached by Cyrus W. Wallace, D.D., and the ordaining prayer offered by Rev. Liba Conant. A few months afterward, April 10, he was united in marriage at West Williamsfield, Ohio, with Miss Mary Jane, daughter of Rev. George and Ann J. (Marvin) Roberts, a lady of gentle ways and sunny disposition, inheriting the faith and devotion of her lamented father, whose praise is in the churches of North-eastern Ohio to this day. He died May 7, 1857.

At Wentworth, Mr. Pickett's enjoyment *of nature

"Picket? s Hill." 21

was intense. The strength of the hills was his delight. A short distance from his home is a lofty hill, covered with evergreens and maples, and affording a fine prospect. Thither he resorted almost daily, book in hand, to read and study and pray. There he poured out his heart for the country, — it was at the commencement of the Rebellion, — and revolved the questions of going to the war as a private soldier or chaplain, of entering the foreign missionary field, or going to the Far West, or remaining in New England. The hill was soon called " Pickett's Hill," and still retains the name. He visited it whenever in after years he went to Wentworth. In 1861 and in 1862, he made a tour to the White Mountains, and again, at a later day, with his two boys.

To leave this delightful region and his pleasant associations with the Church cost him no little struggle. But a voice seemed to say: " Other fields have been appointed you. Up, and away to your life-work!" The claims of Portland, Oregon, and of fields in Nebraska and Missouri, and the wants of Iowa, were pressed upon his attention. On leaving, the Church expressed their appreciation of him as ua diligent and faithful laborer, spiritually-minded, abounding in prayers, and a ready and able speaker, rightly divining the Word." He had found the Church weak : he left it strong. His heart often reverted to this field. " We long for the hills," he wrote. "I want the mayflowers every spring, and a leaf from the old maple-tree that shaded my window, and something from ' Pickett's Hill ' every autumn." , After removing to Colorado, he wrote : " Our home faces Pike's Peak and glorious mountain scenery. But its vast and varied grandeur is not yet so precious to me as the sweet beauty of New Hampshire's hills, and her rushing watercourses."

During the summer of 1863, he visited the West to see its condition and wants, and look at fields that were calling for laborers. He spent several weeks at Council Bluffs and Nebraska City, and was urged by a little band of struggling Christians in each place to remain with them. In Nebraska City, he preached a vigorous discourse on the day of National Thanksgiving for the victories at Vicksburg and Gettysburg, that was cheering to the friends of the country in that community, where a powerful secession element had existed from the beginning of the war.

On the 1 2th of August, he visited Mount Pleasant, Henry County, Iowa. The opportunity of usefulness there, with the cordial welcome given him, seemed a divine call to that field. Here he spent the next six years, laboring with fervor and diligence, carrying the gospel into destitute neighborhoods, helping the schools, promoting the cause of temperance, addressing public meetings in each township in the county for the Bible Society, of which he was president, enlisting in every effort for the improvement of society, and raising the church from dependence upon the Missionary Society to self-support.

Of free and cordial manners, he won men to him. He had remarkable facility and despatch in visiting

At Mt. Pleasant. 23

from house to house, and had a word in season for every person, from the oldest to the youngest. No one was too humble for his care. In highways and byways, he sought out the wandering. His genial spirit, his untiring and ungrudging labors, made for him a host of friends outside his congregation. In his favorite work of evangelism among outlying districts, he was swift of foot, often performing feats of pedestrianism ; walking long distances to preaching stations, and allowing neither extreme heat nor severe cold nor muddy roads nor storms nor swollen streams to detain him from appointments. On one occasion, in winter, finding the ice gone on which he expected to cross a creek, he stripped off his lower clothing, and "waded in." He got safely over, dressed himself, went on his way, and fulfilled his appointment. He had preached that morning in Mount Pleasant. He returned there on a hand-car, working his passage part of the way, and preached again at night. He organized churches at Rome and Hickory Grove, — one eight miles west, and the other five miles north, of Mount Pleasant. Reviewing his work with the latter Church, at the dedication of their house of worship, in 1870, he wrote : —

As I looked upon the beautiful church, crowded with people, my heart was filled with gratitude at the thought of what God has wrought. Less than three years since, the church was organized with fear and trembling in a small, wretched, old school-house, where I had preached for some months, without even a desk to lay my Bible on. Now a membership of fifty earnest Christians gathered from all classes is making its influence felt through the region. It procured aid from the Congregational Union to the amount of two hundred dollars, but has not asked a cent from the Home Missionary Society, and is free from debt.

In July and August, 1864, he visited the scenes of the war in Tennessee and Georgia, at the call of the Christian Commission, to carry the ministry of religion among the sick and wounded soldiers. The following extracts are from his letters while in that service : —

July 12, 1864. — At Louisville, everything is changed from what it was seven years ago. Military officers now occupy the place of the Southern chivalry. Troops were marching here and there through the city, some hurrying to the front, others returning. Thursday we started for Nashville. Soldiers with muskets and bayonets stood at the doors of the cars. Nine years ago, I had gone in a stage over this route. War has changed the appearance of the country ; but few crops are being raised, and these very poor. At Munfordsville, I saw the first rebel works. Long lines of rifle-pits had been constructed, and other fortifications, all now deserted. Here a vast rebel army flushed with hope once confronted us. Onward to the South, mile upon mile, we moved, past rebel works which are now in our hands. I never realized before how much we have done toward putting down the Rebellion. We came in sight of the Cumberland River, on whose banks I once spent so many happy days ; but now everything speaks of desolation. Bristling bayonets guard the whole way. We found Nashville full to overflowing of military men. The Christian Commission occupy a large house in the city, owned by a rebel, who had run away with his family. He left the most of his furniture, which was convenient for us. On the second floor, in the hall was a nice baby-carriage. The nest was there, but the birdie had flown. I hope the little one will not be nursed into a rebel.