Story of my life and work

Front matter

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

The Logic of Christian Evidences — Andover: Warren F. Draper, 1880, i2mo, pp. xii, 312. $1.50.

Studies in Science and Religion — Warren F. Draper, 1882, i2mo, pp. xvi, 390. $1.50.

Preface

The sixty years of my active life cover a period of unexampled intellectual as well as of mechanical readjustments. To the discussion of the intellectual problems which have special bearings on our religious life Providence has given me a call which I could not decline. The chief reason for the preparation and publication of the present volume has been to keep in the foreground of the public consciousness the new arguments and recently discovered facts (some of which I have contributed) supporting reasonably conservative views concerning the relation of science to the Bible. This I do at the present time, not because I think my work is all done, but because this survey should be made while my powers are still unabated.

A minor reason for the publication of the volume is that as an autobiography (which it really is) it will serve to bring before the minds of the present generation a vivid picture of the conditions of life during the last half of the nineteenth century, when most of these readjustments referred to were being made.

I am encouraged to make this venture from the fact that more than 40,000 of my contemporaries have purchased the books I have written, and a still, larger

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Preface number have read my numerous contributions to the current periodicals of the time, a partial list of which is given in the appendix. A glance at this list will tell better than words how constantly the subjects on which I have written have been before my mind, and how wide has been the range of investigations upon which my conclusions have been based.

By permission of the Publishers of the Nation I have made free use of letters published in that periodical, relating to my trip across Asia, but for the most part the form of these communications has been somewhat changed.

With strong assurance that the fundamental truths which I have attempted to define and defend will ultimately prevail, notwithstanding the eclipse into which many of them have fallen, I offer the volume for the consideration, both of the general public, and of the scientific and theological fraternities to which it has been my privilege to belong.

G. Frederick Wright.

Oberlin, Ohio, November, 191 6.

Chapter I

Grandparents settle in Whitehall, N. Y., 4; Their conversion, 9; Mother's early life, 12; Marriage proposal, 17; The cousins, 19; Pleasures of childhood, 23 ; The country church, 28 ; Common-school and early education, 32; Teaching district school, 38; Prophet Miller, 39.

Chapter II

Reasons for going to Oberlin, 41 ; Home life in Oberlin, 45 ; History of the college, 49 ; Its cosmopolitan character, 53 ; Finney's peculiarities, 56; The professors, 60; The college curriculum, 72; Teaching winter schools, 76; The anti-slavery conflict, 89; The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue Case, 90; The Civil War, 96 ; Enlistment in the army, 97 ; Experiences of Company C, 101 ; Revival in Brownsville, 104.

Chapter III

Choice of a field, 106; Marriage, 107; Peculiarities of the parish, 109; Habits of study, 115; Parish duties, 117; Results, 119; Associates in the ministry, 121 ; Geological studies, 123 ; The Champlain Valley during the Glacial epoch, 125.

Chapter IV

Character of the parish, 128; The theological seminary, 130; A geological problem, 132; Its solution,

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134; Connection with the Bibliotheca Sacra, 136; Friendship of Asa Gray, 137; Connection with Boston Society of Natural History, 139; Prehistoric man in Trenton, N. J., 141 ; The Logic of Christian Evidences, 142; The glacial boundary in Pennsylvania, 144.

Chapter XI

Mr. Baldwin's generosity, 201 ; Lectures in Japan, 203 ; The Japanese professors, 207 ; The head of the Japanese tobacco trust, 208 ; Baron Rosen's friendship, 209; Silt in the Chinese Sea, 211; Arrival at Tientsin, 213; at Peking, 215; Providential deliverance, 216; Trip to Kalgan, 217; Chinese peculiarities, 219; The Ming Tombs, 221; Kalgan, 225; Mongolian plateau, 227; Chinese inns, 230; Catholic Mission of Shiwantse, 232; The Boxer revolution, 233; Escape from Peking, 234; Admiral Alexieff at Port Arthur, 236; Lack of government in Manchuria, 239; Russian engineers at Teling, 241; Missionaries at Kwan-Chen-tse, 245; Harbin, 246; Down the Sungari River and up the Usuri, 247- 253; News of the Boxer revolution, 250; Up the Amur, 253-260; Traveling companions, 253; Massacre at Blagovestchensk, 257; Transbaikalia, 260- 282; City of Chita, 261; Lake Baikal, 262-266; Irkutsk to Krasnoyarsk, 266-269; Political exiles, 267; Minusinsk, 269-272; Remarkable museum, 271; Krasnoyarsk to Omsk, 273-277; Internal navigation, 274; Increase of population, 276; Fourteen Hundred Miles by Tarantass, 277-298 ; Russian Postxii roads, 277; Our tarantass, 279; Semipalatinsk, 282; Companions in travel, 285; Lake Balkash, 287; Ala-tau Mountains, 289; The city of Verni, 291; The irrigated belt, 292; Tashkent, 294; Samarkand, 298-305; Tamerlane, 301; Splendid ruins, 303; Alexander at Samarkand, 304; Pumpelly's excavations at Merv, 305 ; The Caspian basin during the Glacial epoch, 306; Elevated shore line at Trebizond, 308 ; Over the Dariel Pass, 309 ; Rostov, Moscow, Petrograd, Kiev, and Odessa, 311; Prehistoric remains at Kiev, 314; The Great Jordan Fault, 317- 331; From Damascus to the Jordan Valley, 320; High level terraces about the Jordan Valley, 323 ; From Jerusalem to the south end of the Dead Sea, 324; Jordan Valley during the Glacial epoch, 327; Accident to Mrs. Bent, 329; Egypt, Greece, Italy, 331; Excursion to Palermo, 332; Home Again, 333-338 ; Publishing results, 333; Glacial problem in Missouri, 335; Prehistoric man at Lansing, Kan., 337; Summary of Results of the Asiatic Trip, 339— 349; Lectures in Japan, 339; The Russian pecple, 340; Religion in Russia, 341; Russian church music, 343; Future of Russia, 344; Scientific results, 345.

Chapter XII

Third Visit to Europe 350 Kitchen middens of Denmark, 351; Geological excursion with Dr. Hoist in southern Sweden, 352; The largest glacial bowlder in the world, 354; Raised beaches at Solvitsborg, 356; Stockholm to Petrograd, 357; Political discontent in Russia, 358; Mr. Stead in Moscow, 360; Traveling companions from Moscow to Rostov, 363 ; A week at Rostov, 365; Kertch, Theodosia, Yalta, 367; Yalta to Sevastopol, 368; Syria and Palestine, 370-383; Customhouse at Constantinople, 371 ; Visiting the cedars of

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Lebanon with Professor Day, 372; Baalbek and Damascus, 375; Visiting Selah Merrill on a housetop at Jaffa, 376; Where Israel crossed the Red Sea, 377; Scientific Confirmations of Old Testament History, 379-383; The Stone Lectures, 379; The reception of the book, 381.

Chapter XIII

Fourth Visit to Europe 384 Palaeolithic remains at Amiens, 384; Rubble drift at Sangatte and Brighton, 386; Lectures in England, 388 ; Publishing Origin and Antiquity of Man, 390.

Chapter XIV

Editorial Work 392 Bibliotheca Sacra, 392; The New Departure at Andover, 393 ; Transfer of Bibliotheca Sacra to Oberlin, 395; Contributors to Bibliotheca Sacra, 397; Harold M. Wiener, 400; Rev. E. S. Buchanan, 402; Advanced scholarship of Bibliotheca Sacra, 406; Records of the Past, 407.

Chapter XV

Archaeological and Professorial Work 40S Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 408 ; Lack of local interest in the State, 409 ; Marked revival of interest, 411; Colaborers, 413; Remarkable results of our explorations, 414; Professors associated with me in Oberlin, 415; my class work, 416; Parting words, 417.

Chapter XVI

My Creed 418 1, 2. Personality of God, 418 ; 3. A system of secxiv ondary causes, 419; 4, 5. God a creator, 420; 6. An orderly progress in the development of life, 421 ;

7. Sudden appearance of man in the world, 422;

8. The magnitude and complications of the Glacial epoch unappreciated, 423 ; 9. Abnormal conditions of the Glacial epoch, 424; 10. Man contemporaneous with the closing stages of the Glacial epoch, 425; 11. The flood connected with the Glacial epoch, 426; 12. Man needs an historical revelation, 426; 13. The Bible such a revelation, 427; 14. More care needed in interpreting the Bible, 428; 15. The bcoks of the New Testament genuine and authoritative, 431; 16. The early formulas of Christian doctrine too valuable to lose, 432; 17. Safe leaders will be raised up, 434; 18. Theologians and men of Science will come to an agreement, 435; 19. Nations will learn the folly of war, 436.

Appendix: Notes and Bibliography

The essence of intellectual living does not reside in extent of science or in perfection of expression, but in a constant preference for higher thoughts over lower thoughts. Here is the true secret of that fascination which belongs to intellectual pursuits, that they reveal to us a little more, and yet a little more, of the eternal order of the Universe, establishing us so firmly in what is known, that we acquire an unshakable confidence in the laws which govern what is not, and never can be, known. — Philip Gilbert Hamerton.

Chapter I

Enoch Wright, my grandfather, was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 1763. His parents came from Northampton, Massachusetts. What their name was I have not been able to learn, for the Wrights were at that time a numerous family in the Connecticut valley.

At the close of the Revolutionary War wre find Enoch, at the age of sixteen years, enlisted as a teamster in the campaign which ended in the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, ar> event which he was permitted to witness. His discharge from the service was dated on the field, and reads as follows:

Camp York Town, Virgine: Oct. 10: 1 781 this Certifyes that Enoch Wright is Discharged the wagon Servis on Account of Inebility of helth & not having Any Teme of his own thot Best So to do

Sd Wright hath Purchesd him Self a Hors & hath Liberty to take it home.

all Isuing Comiss are Desird to furnish the Barer With Provitions to Connecticut.

Why he should have gone to Connecticut is not 3 certain, but it is surmised that he was attracted thither by the presence of Tryphena West, whose family was originally from Connecticut, but was found not long after residing in Pittsfleld. Among her brothers were Ichabod, and Frederick, after whom 1 was named.

In 1783 Enoch Wright and Tryphena West were married, much to the displeasure of the bride's parents, on account of the groom's lack of worldly goods. But Tryphena was courageous and confident and boldly set out on horseback with her young husband to make a home near Skenesboro (now Whitehall), New York, at the head of Lake Champlain. Here he purchased from a Mr. Carver a tract of land five miles northeast of Whitehall village. The boundary line between Vermont and New York is here formed by East Bay, and Poultney River, which, after running some miles to the north, bends around to the south and leaves a projecting point of the town of West Haven, Vermont, extending between the river and Lake Champlain, almost to Whitehall village. Thus Vermont was upon three sides of my early home, from which resulted the fact that my early associations were much more intimate with Vermont than with New York. The towns of Poultney, Fair Haven, West Haven, Benson, Castleton, Rutland, Hubbardton, and Middlebury were much more familiar to me than any places in my native state, except Whitehall.

Skenesboro and the immediate vicinity are connected with many of the most thrilling scenes of American history. For many days Skenesboro was the headquarters of Burgoyne's army; the battle of Hubbardton occurred but a few miles to the northeast ; and the bateaux of Burgoyne's scouting parties went up East Bay to Carver's Falls, two miles to the north ; while, only seven or eight miles to the west, after crossing Lake Champlain and Dresden Mountain, an unfrequented road led us to the Bosom on Lake George at the foot of Black Mountain and opposite Sabaday Point, and brought to our attention the many thrilling scenes in Colonial history when the French and English were struggling for the possession of that most important line of early communication.

My grandfather built him a log cabin a short distance back from the home where I was born, and where in my childhood's days were the decaying trees of the apple orchard which he had planted with his own hands. I well remember the heap of stones which marked the foundation of this cabin, and the spreading roots of the stump of a hollow pine tree concerning which my grandmother often gave me a thrilling story of her pioneer experience. When in due time they had become the possessors of a flock of eight sheep, it was their custom to shut them up at night in this hollow stump to protect them from the wolves. But at last these ravenous beasts effected an entrance and killed the entire flock, the remnants of whose bodies were found scattered around in the inclosing forest. Painfully my grandmother collected the locks of wool lying around, and carded and spun them into yarn, and from it knit stockings for her children.

My grandmother lived to be eighty-seven years old, and for some years I was her intimate companion, sitting by the fireside to keep her company while she regaled me with stories of her pioneer life. Children were born to her in rapid succession, until there were ten in all. But she was a thrifty housekeeper, and, though slight in frame, had a vigorous physical constitution. She delighted to tell me that after the first year, when she brought up a calf on hay tea, they never ceased to have fresh milk in the household. The unfailing spring of water to which they resorted in dry seasons was a quarter of a mile away. Not daring to leave her children at home alone, she would often bring water this distance for household use, with one babe in her arms and another trudging along with unequal steps at her side. At one time as she was combing her hair in the door of her cabin on a pleasant day, she thought she saw one of the neighbors' cattle in the wheat field near the house, and hastened to drive the creature away; but was surprised to see it push through the brush fence in a manner unlike that of a domestic animal, and on looking closely discovered that it was a bear. These and other stories told me by my grandmother relate to events which occurred one hundred and thirty years ago, and illustrate the length of time through which evidence of the first order may be transmitted by tradition. On visiting this region at the present time, all evidence of the conditions existing in the early years of my grandfather's settlement have disappeared ; but of these things I have no more doubt than I have of any other fact that is made known to me by human testimony; while I doubt not that by repeating them here those who read this account will believe them as firmly as they do any facts of history.

Unfortunately a part of the land which my grandfather purchased lacked a good title. He had bought it originally of the New Hampshire grant, which was supposed to own the land to the head of the lake. Hence he was compelled to pay a second time for it. Nevertheless, his business capacity was such that he prospered greatly, adding farm to farm until he must have been in possession of nearly one thousand acres. The region was heavily covered with timber, much of it being pine. The immense stumps of these

Story of My Lij\ trees were so saturated with pitch that many of them remained in the ground for a century, while others, after being violently wrenched from the ground, were set up on edge to make fences which still endure. The land was cleared of the forests in the shortest possible way, the trees being felled and piled in heaps where they could be burned and the ashes saved, from which potash was made, — the ashes being leached and the liquid boiled down in huge kettles of well-known shape, tapering inwards from top to bottom. It is from similarity to the shape of these kettles that the numerous well-known depressions and lakelets in the glaciated region are named " kettle holes." At first potash was almost the only marketable product that could be sent from the land. But as soon as even a small area was cleared immense crops of wheat could be procured from the virgin soil, and this found a ready market at Troy and Lansingburgh, at the head of navigation on the Hudson River, about one hundred miles south. But over that distance it had to be hauled by teams. This necessitated the establishment of innumerable small taverns along the route. Some of the houses put to this purpose in that heyday of hotel life are still standing, but in many more instances a bed of tansy is all that marks their former location. Those were the days when it was not thought imprudent to take a dram, and indeed when " morning bitters " were supposed to be a necessity. Hence the tansy bed by the side of every public house. In looking over my grandfather's papers, I find regular account of small amounts of rum among the articles for which his wheat was exchanged.

After a few years the log house in the orchard was exchanged for one of more considerable pretensions, built just in the rear of the one which at a later date my father built, and in which I was born. This second house was a frame building covered with clapboards which, if I remember aright, _ were split from the straight grain of pine trees and given a smooth surface by the shave. They were fastened with wroughc nails. The home stood long after my remembrance and was a favorite place for the storage of corn and apples, and for the games of hide and seek which we children played with each other.

Though they had been brought up under the strict religious influences prevailing in New England, my grandparents were so engrossed in their pioneer life that for twenty-one years they were entirely neglectful of their religious duties, but at this time an event of great significance occurred. Upon reaching his majority their oldest son, my uncle Orin (a name of blessed memory to all the children of the neighbor-

1 0 hood who enjoyed rambling with him in his old age through the forests in search of ground nuts, saxifrage, and wintergreen, and along the streams and lakelets, where fish were caught), went back to Pittsfield to attend school at the ancestral home. There he fell under the influence of a powerful revival of religion conducted by the erratic Lorenzo Dow, and experienced a change of heart which made him ever afterwards a pillar of the church and a witness for everything that was noble and true. His first impulse upon his conversion was to set out for his home to give his testimony to his parents and brothers and sisters. He hastily walked the one hundred and twenty miles that separated him from them, arriving at night after all had retired, but his mother, recognizing his step, called, " Orin, is that you? What is the matter?" He replied, "I have found the Saviour and have come home to tell you. I want the whole family aroused that I may tell them of my experience." Consequently all the children were aroused and gathered about the fireplace.

The effect was instantaneous, my grandfather and grandmother at once acknowledged their error in so long neglecting their religious duties and entered upon a new and joyful life of Christian experience. The influence rapidly spread throughout the neighborhood and it was but a short time before a

Congregational Church was formed, of which my grandfather was the clerk and leading member. In those days the practice of infant baptism was more scrupulously observed in Congregational Churches than it is at the present time, and it is affecting to notice that at the communion following the organization of the church all my grandfather's children were presented for baptism, though as my father told me the consent of the older ones was obtained.

In a few months a meetinghouse was built about three miles to the southeast of our house, where it would accommodate a large circle of families interested in the movement. My grandfather was chairman of the building committee and kept the records of the society as well as of the Church. On seeing how carefully these were kept, one does not wonder at his success in business, for note was made of everything purchased and of every day's work employed.

But shortly after, in 1808, he was seized with a violent fever, and cut off in the midst of his activities, leaving my grandmother with the cares of her family and a large landed estate. The older children, however, were so well developed that she could shift most of the burden upon their shoulders, and this she did, until one by one they were all married, and seven of them were settled on farms adjoining the old homestead, she making her home there with my father until her death in 1847.

My mother's maiden name was Mary Peabody Colburn. She was descended from a family that came to Boston about 1640, living for the most part in the vicinity of Lowell. Her mother was a Peabody, one of the numerous family of that name living in Salem. She was related also to the Spoffords, some of whom are still living in North Andover. But she herself was born in 1800 in Fredericktown, New Brunswick, whither her father 'ind mother had gone in connection with the loyalist emigration at the close of the Revolutionary War, preferring the rule of the King to that of the newborn Republic. In 1808, however, they came back to the United States and settled in Fairhaven, Vermont, which was only five miles east of the Wright homestead. My grandfather Colburn also had a large family, the oldest of whom, my uncle John, was at one time interested in the establishment of an iron foundry at the head of East Bay just below Carver's Falls. Some of the remains of the foundry are still in existence. The failure of the enterprise was due to a singular and very instructive geological event, the marks of which are still visible.

At the time of Burgoyne's campaign and until the time of my uncle's adventure, East Bay was navigable up to Carver's Falls, and so could be depended upon as an outlet for the product of their forge. But two or three miles above the Falls, Poultney River was running in a very unstable channel, determined by the unequal melting of the ice of the Glacial epoch, which conducted the stream to a waterfall which furnished prospective power of considerable value. A mile or two above this waterfall the stream was prevented from flowing into a partially filled preglacial channel by a narrow embankment of gravel and sand. An enemy of the owner of the waterpower conceived the plan of taking vengeance upon him by turning the course of the river at that point. This he carried into effect one dark night, and in the morning the rushing water had so enlarged the breach that it was too late to be remedied and a permanent change in the channel was effected. " The dry falls " (near which for a time Horace Greeley had his home) and the elevated abandoned channel were left to the geologist as permanent records of the change, while the manner in which it was effected is known only through this tradition which I desire to perpetuate. As my memory joins itself on to that of those who were contemporaneous with the event, there need be no doubt of the truth of the story.

As a result of this change in the channel an immense amount of fresh sand and gravel was washed down the stream and over Carver's Falls to fill up the channel of East Bay and render it permanently unnavigable. Thus my uncle's promising plan was " nipped in the bud " and the remnants of the buildings in a lonely and inaccessible place were all that remained of the venture at the time of my childhood, to excite the curiosity of visitors.

Two other facts relating to this insignificant stream, with which I became familiar, were of great assistance in later years in helping me to solve difficult geological problems. From them I learned how water can be made to run up hill. The headwaters of Poultney River were twenty or twenty-five miles southeast of our house. Hubbardton Creek entered East Bay, the continuation of the river, a short distance northwest, coming from the north. At one time a series of thunderstorms passed over the headwaters of the river, raising it, opposite the mouth of the creek, as much as forty feet above its ordinary level. At the same time there had been no rain in the valley of the creek. The water of the river, therefore, when it passed the mouth of the creek rushed up into it and carried upstream a dam which had been constructed to furnish power for a grist mill. As I had often ridden to this mill with grists of corn to be ground, the story of this dam's floating up stream made a deep impression on me, and, as I found many years later, helped me to the solution of a most difficult problem in glacial geology.1 The other fact was that in going to the village of Whitehall one road crossed a causeway, which was near the level of the water at the head of Lake Champlain. Ordinarily this was dry, but when strong north winds blew for some time the water used to rise and cover the road so as to make it impassable, thus illustrating the power of the wind in affecting water levels, and helping one to understand the story in Exodus where the " strong east wind " is said to have opened the Red Sea for the passage of the Children of Israel, while a change of wind had overwhelmed the Egyptians who ventured to follow them.2

During the years of her girlhood, following their return, my mother's family lived in West Haven and Benson. During a portion of this time they kept a toll gate on a turnpike which led from that section of the country to the great market place at the head of navigation at Troy on the Hudson River. Many a day she was left in charge of the gate, which gave her opportunity not only to become familiar with the faces of a great number of people but also to satisfy her insatiable love of reading, which followed her to the end of her life. My mother's education, like that i6 of most young women of the time, was limited to the three R's and fancy needlework, while in arithmetic she was scarcely taken beyond fractions, but she knew Watts' Hymns, the Bible, Young's " Night Thoughts," and Pollok's " Course of Time " almost by heart, and had largely devoured all the choice literature that came within her reach. She had read Shakespeare, " Scottish Chiefs," and Baxter's " Saint's Rest " while in New Brunswick before coming to the States. A young lady of her acquaintance, who was desirous of emulating her in some respects that she might make herself agreeable to her gentlemen friends, begged of her at one time to lend her for a few days her " Young Man's Night Thoughts," things with which my mother thought she was already too well acquainted.

In the powerful religious revivals which swept over that region in the second decade of the last century, my mother became deeply interested, and in the year 1818, in the company of one hundred others, joined the Congregational Church of Benson, a town which then had twice the population which it now has. About this time a proposal of marriage was made to my mother by a young minister, which it woulcl have seemed natural for her to accept, but at the same time a plain-spoken, honest farmer, in the person of my father, was competing for her affections and secured the prize. Thus the train of events that led up to my own existence hung for a time in the most delicate balance. Fortunately for myself it turned in my favor and in due time I with four brothers and a sister came into the world to struggle amid its vicissitudes, and to leave our footprints on the sands of time.

The letter in wThich my father made his final proposal illustrates better than almost anything else, both his own sterling qualities and the formalities of the time.

" The winter is past and gone the spring has now returned which now animates all around us and awakens in man a spirit of joy and gladness and all the social passions of the mind : for man is formed for asocial being and not for solitude capable of enjoying sweet intercourse with his fellowbeing; for it is written two are better than one and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. May I not use freedom while conversing with one whom I trust hath the spirit of Christ, for I also have this consolation, that Christ hath formed in me the hope of glory; how strong the friendship when formed on right principles: and how hardly to be broken. I need the council of one who can sympathize in my afflictions and share in my pleasures, one in whom I may ever find new delight. After haveing some personal acquaint-

1 8 ance with you, I am led to believe the report I have so frequently heard of you. I shall hope for afriend in you for I trust you will find afriend in me; where true friendship is existing happiness will exist in the pleasure of afriend; the generous heart will not wish to make himself happy in the misery of his friend; but will make happiness consist not in the good of one but all. Shall I find you like minded. After careful examination and investigation of the subject from our first acquaintance, I am convinced that amore particular acquaintance would be interesting to me. Much however depends on your choice; and the freedom of your situation. I hope you will not be delicate about giving your mind on the subject, trusting you will find a generous heart to deal with one, who will not be outdone in generosity. I will acknowledge you my equal, and, I trust your generous heart will ask no more. I wTill conclude by refering you to the 2. Epistle of John 12th. "Whitehall April the ioth