Labors and travels of Elder Lemuel Potter ...

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ELDER LEMUEL POTTER.

Preface

It may seem strange to many, that a man would offer to the public a book like this to read, and my reasons for doing so, are two : Several of my brethren have asked me to give a sketch of my life experience and labors, together with my call to the work of the ministry, and I have had some inclination to do so, thinking that my experience and labors given to others might be a comfort, at least to some.

The reader may find some things in the following pages which will be useful. At any rate, I hope there is nothing that will do the cause of the Divine Master an injury. The motive prompting me to write this work, and to place it before the public has been sincere, and with a view to the advancement of the Master's Kingdom. If, therefore, the reader should see any mistakes, of which, perhaps, there are many, I humbly hope that the mantle of charity may be thrown around and imperfections borne with, and hat it may not be forgotten that the author is noth_ ing but an imperfect man, at best, and that to look for perfection in a human production is to find ourselves disappointed. It has been my object to relate facts precisely as they have occurred, and I can truly say it is my experience, without exaggerations or extravagancies in any of it.

Hoping that the reader may not become disgusted with it, I submit it to the perusal, criticisms and scrutiny of a reading world, with an humble hope that it may prove a blessing, at least to some of the Lord's little ones.

Lemuel Potter.

Chapter I

It is said that "In the making of many books there is no end," and while the following may be put before the public as a candidate for patronage, and subject to the scrutiny of a reading public, its author only hopes that it may be interesting, and honorably fill its humble station among all the literary productions of the world. I have had, for some time, a sort of an aversion to a man, or his friends, undertaking to give a history of his life, because, if he writes it himself, as a rule, he leaves about half of it out; he is very particular to crowd into the work all his virtues, and leave out all his vices. This seems, at least, to be the rule as far as I have observed. The bias of a man in his own favor, is such as to disqualify him for giving a fair and impartial history of his own life deportment, in the world among men. Whenever there is a question to settle between himself and others, and he is to be the tribunal before which that question is tried, he is certain to gain the decision in his favor. If his children should undertake to write a history of his life, after he has left the world, the result would be about the same. While you read such a book, as a rule, you might just picture out to yourself a pure angel, and say to yourself, there is the life and character of the man of whom you are reading. But with all these objections, having been called upon many times, and by many brethren and friends, to write out and publish a history of my own life, experience and labors in the world, I have finally obtained the consent of my mind to do so. The reader need not expect anything very scholarly in this work, but just the plain, simple statement of facts, as my experience has taught me, during my lifetime in the world. If I do not give my own faults, many of them, I hope that I shall not appear egotistic in magnifying my virtues.

About one hundred and twenty-five years ago, more or less, Lewis Potter was born in the state of old Virginia, but I am not able to sav what part of the state, nor to give the exact date of his birth. He lived and raised a family, of which Felix Potter was a member, born in the old state of Virginia. The latter moved to Kentucky in an early day and lived in Warren County in the vicinity of where Bowling Green is now located. When he was a man grown, he was married to a Miss Brown, and to them were born a number of children, among whom was Jesse Potter, born in Warren County, Kentucky, October 30th, 1 82 1. When he was a boy they moved to southern Illinois, and at the age of nineteen Jesse was married to Miss Margaret Sams, and to them were born five children, of whom the author of this work is the oldest. I was born October 28th, 1841, in Edwards County, Illinois, within a half mile, perhaps, of where Samsville is now located. Samsville took its name from my grandfather Sams, on the corner of whose farm the little village w r as founded. I was born and raised in that part of the country, engaged in helping to clear out and cultivate a farm until I was a man grown.

Chapter II

During my boyhood days the country of southern Illinois was new. Perhaps there was not a mile of railroad in the state when I was born. It was quite a new country, and there were wolves, deer, turkey and other wild game in abundance. Land, a great deal of it was not taken up, and my father entered a considerableportion of the land where he now lives, at $1.25 per acre. It was then a wild bushy woods. The country was very sparsely settled, there being scarcely enough children in the whole township to justify a school teacher to teach them at the ordinary price. The advantages, generally, were very poor at that time in that part of the country. Men frequently cut their wheat, those who raised any, with a sickle, sometimes a cradle was used. A man on a farm who ow led a wagon was considered a well-to-do farmer. There were no mills in the •country of any consequence. Sometimes a man would take his wheat to mill, and while his own horses pulled the mill that ground it ; if he got it bolted, he might have to turn the bolts with his own hands while it was being ground. Sometimes he would get it ground and take it home unbolted. Horse-mills .and wind-mills were most common. Once in awhile

IOa water-mill, could be found on some creek or stream that would grind when the water was not too high nor too low. Very few people in that section of the country, at that time raised wheat, there being no mills and no market. There was one church in our neighborhood, and that was Long Prairie Church, of Old School Baptists, which is still in existence in the same neighborhood. The old house that we used to go to in my boyhood days, was a log house, and there were no other meeting-houses of any denomination, nearer than one within about seven miles. And as there were no places of pleasure or amusement, the people of that country in those days, almost, if not quite all, attended church at this place. The church was constituted in 1825, with nine members. The people in those days made their own living at home. They grew their own wool and flax, did their own spinning and weaving, and it did not take a great deal to live on then, as it does now. Clothes and provisions were hardly as fine as they are now. The fine May-meeting dress for the country woman was of home-made cotton, that she had made herself, with her own hands, taking everything from the stump, so to speak. Before the washboarcf came into use, the battling-stick was a very popular instrument in washing clothes, and it was about as common, while a woman was down at the creek, or branch, or spring, doing her week's washing, to hear the battling-stick, which sounded in the distance like heavy pounding, as it was to seethe smoke from her fire. But amidst all these dis-

— IIadvantages, the people were happy, sociable and sober. All the people were neighborly, if not from good principles, they were from necessity, for a man could not afford to be selfish during such times, from the fact that many times he had work to do, such as raising houses and other heavy work that he could not do alone, and not being able to hire hands to do his work, he necessarily had to depend on what was then called "swapping" work with his neighbors.

CHAPTER II.

During my boyhood days I was taught that to be idle was disgraceful, and that nothing could be very respectable that did not have work attached to it. My father was a great worker, and those about him had to cultivate the spirit of industry. Hence, in my very early life, he was always able to find something that he thought would be profitable for me to engage in. I can hardly remember when I was not large enough to throw a limb or branch on a fire during the winter or spring, or to get up of mornings and make- fires and go out and feed early, or to rake wheat up into bundles ready to be bound during harvest, or to hoe corn, or to follow the plow and remove the clods off the little corn while he plowed.

At the age of ten, my mother died of consumption. I was very small for my age, but the next spring after I was ten, I was put out in the field with a yoke of old gentle cattle, to harrow in some oats that father had sown broadcast, and from that time on I went to plowing with the same cattle, and from that on until I was grown I worked more with cattle than any other team, and worked them more or less every year. I helped plow, harrow, haul saw-logs, have gone to mill and market, gathered com, hauled wheat and hay out of the field in harvest time, and plowed and harrowed in hot weather with cattle — in fact I have done almost everything with them that they are capable of doing on a farm. And so far as the ox being used in scripture, to illustrate the character and work of a minister as a servant, I have sometimes thought that I know something of the use of the ox, literally speaking, whether I know anything about the services of a minister, spiritually speaking, or not.

I never had very great advantages in obtaining an education. What little schooling I got was at home in our own district schools. I managed by the time I was a man grown, to procure what was called in Illinois, a second grade certificate, to teach school. The most of my education I have obtained since then. Examinations, however, were not so rigid as they are now, by any means. I do not think I ever got a first grade certificate. A teacher in those days was examined in the seven common branches, for teaching a countrv school. I taught my first school in 1862, a three months school in the summer. My salary was fifteen dollars per month, and I boarded myself. It was, however, not far from home, and I worked mornings, evenings and Saturdays for my

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board. So that I made in that three months, the sum of $45.00, cash. This is the first money I ever ovvned, more than a few pieces of small change, once in a while, less than a dollar at a time. I taught this school in the summer, and that fall I was twentyone years of age. The next March I was married to Miss Lydia Jane Humphreys, who was my choice for a companion, of all women. We have now been married about thirty-one years, and to us have been born seven children, five of whom are now living, three of them married and two single. Three of them have possession of a hope in Christ, and two of them members of the Regular Baptist Church. The other two died in infancy.

Chapter IV

As before stated I was married on the 22d day of March, 1863. During the preceding winter, I taught school three months, about a mile ancU a half southeast of West Salem, in my native county. I was fond of mirth and innocent pleasures, frequently attending the ball-room and enjoyed dancing. But I had always, from my earliest recollections, a great regard for good morals. I had a great desire, when I was a boy, to be recognized as a good boy. I wanted to be respected as a truthful boy. But, with all my desire to stand high, as I have before remarked, I was fond of mirth and innocent pleasures. Business, however, kept me engaged almost all the time, so that I did not spend as much time in going to shows, fairs, parties and other pleasure trips as my neighbor boys usually did. I thought at the time that it was a hardship that I was kept so close, and not allowed the privileges that other boys had, but I feel now that perhaps it was best for me. During my term of school, already mentioned, began my exercise of mind on the subject of religion. I think I had serious impressions occasionally, from my earliest recollection, and feel now that I have had promptings or cautions from the good Spirit, occasionally, all my life, if I ever had. I will now relate a reason for my hope in the Savior, that I experienced at the time already stated. About the beginning of the year 1863, I was permitted to have a full view of my own poor wicked heart, and O, how miserable ! I need not look around now for a man with a heart full of evil and vain imaginations, for if there is not another heart in the world that answered the description given in the Bible, mine did. The very throbbings of my own heart seemed to speak the terror of the law to a poor sinner like I was. At first I tried to rid myself of the impression that I was the greatest sinner in the world, but all seemed in vain, I could not throw off the impression that I was the most miserable sinner in the world. I tried, under these impressions to ask the Lord for mercy, but it looked so much like solemn mockery for one so vile, who had nothing good to present to the Lord, that at times I was almost afraid to call on his name.

Often have I, in the great agony of my poor heart, taken a walk, more to be alone than anything else, and in those lonesome hours I would often find myself trying to ask the Lord for mercy as I walked along. Sometimes I was made to think that the Lord had shown me the wickedness of my poor, sinful self, that I might see His justice in my condemnation. It seemed that my time in the world was now going to close, and I must die and be lost. O, how wretched ! It was not worth while to tell others of the trouble I was in, for they could not sympathize with me, I thought. Still I kept trying to do something good that the Lord would bless me with peace of mind, and it seemed that nothing would give that but mercy in the forgiveness of sins. If the Lord would forgive all my wrongs, and the innumerable sins I had committed, I thought I would be under greater obligations to Him than any poor sinner that ever lived in the world. In this way I went on for four or five weeks, and it seemed that I could see no peace at any time or place. Everything wore a gloomy, dismal appearance to me. Finally I came to the conclusion that there was something that I had not done that I must do before the Lord would have mercy.

In trying to call to mind what it might be that I had not done, it occured to me that I had never been humble enough to kneel down and pray to the Lord ; and that was the reason I had received no evidence of the forgiveness of sins. Determined to do, what I thought I had committed sin in neglecting to do until now, I started to a place where I intended to get on my knees in prayer to the Lord for mercy to one of the vilest sinners of the race of Adam. I started with a full determination that when I got to that place I would kneel down without any hesitation, and try and pray to the Lord ; but instead of doing so I walked past the place I had started to. I stopped, and the thought of my poor heart was, "you are too haughty, and your heart too obdurate, and the Lord will be just and send you to torment."

O, it is more than I can do to describe the anguish of soul just at this time. Lord, be merciful ; if I am lost it is just, and if saved, it is a poor guilty sinner saved by Grace. It seems now that I stood in one place and was trembling like a leaf, trying to ask the Lord for mercy, and had almost given up in despair, when suddenly there was a change came over me that brought peace that I am not able to describe, and I felt like praising the Lord for his grace in the salvation of a lost and justly condemned sinner. My trouble was gone, and I thought I would not be troubled any more on account of sin, but, O, how mistaken! I have seen many troubles since then, and often think that my life is so imperfect, and bears so few marks of a Christian, that I often doubt the reality of my knowledge of the Lord.

In October, 1863, I united with the church, and have been trying to live in the service of the Lord. I have thought many times that my hope would notdo, yet if I have to go into eternity in a moment, it is the very best I have. The fellowship of the brethren is worth more to me than all the friendship in the world.

I have now only given simply a relation of what took place with me some thirty-one years ago, and I leave my brethren and sisters to judge of the reality of its being the Lord's work. I thought when I first joined the church, that by the time I was thirty-five or forty years of age I would become more devoted in my feelings towards religious matters, and be more reconciled to the will of the Lord than I was then, but I see no difference in those particulars. I am still a poor sinner and do not deserve saving, yet God's mercy and grace is sufficient, so I still have hope.

Chapter V

After school was out in the spring and I was married, I went to work to raise a crop, still under the impression that there was only one way to make a living, and that was by hard labor and constant employment. O, that all the boys could still be so impressed. The time I now refer to was right in the midst of the late war. Farm products were generally high. Tobacco, sometimes, brought as high as fifteen dollars per hundred, and a great many people in our part of the country raised cotton, as it was a very hard article to get at that time. While engaged in raising a crop, the subject of religion was on my mind every day of my life, and sometimes, perhaps, every hour in the day that I was awake. I was a constant reader and student of the Scriptures, and whenever I had a leisure hour I was perusing that sacred book. I was under the impression that as I had, I thought, obtained a hope in the Savior, there was a duty enjoined upon me, and frequently the importance of discharging my duty by submitting to the ordinances of God's house, bore upon my mind to such an extent, that it caused me a great deal of serious meditation. In fact, a great deal of the time I was in trouble, and felt sad and cast down, and it looked many times as if I was robbed of everything that was calculated to make me cheerful. Not because it was unpleasant to work and to make a living, and to enjoy the society of a young wife, the wife of my youth, but it seemed that my studies upon the subject of religion disqualified me for the earthly blessings and privileges that I had. The church that I have mentioned in a previous chapter, had gone down so that she had neither house to preach in, nor pastor to preach to her, and while there were, perhaps, thirty members belonging to that church, the only meetings they held were those held by transient ministers, who might pass through the neighborhood and preach at some private house, or school house, and it was frequently the case that I would not hear of such meetings 'till they were over. I felt a great desire frequently, to know if my wife was interested upon the subject of religion, as I was, but for a long time said nothing to her upon the subject. Two or three times during the summer, she and I got on our

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horses, and rode over to Mount Erie, in Wayne county, to Providence church. We thought it was a great treat to go to meeting where the brethren and sisters seemed to take an interest in church affairs, and we thought they did at that church. I studied a great deal about joining the church at that time, but there were several difficulties in the way. One was, that as far as I was acquainted with the Old School Baptists, they had no young members. All their members that I had ever seen were old men and women. Our neighbors had often predicted that they would soon all die out, and I could not see why they would not. The prospects looked very gloomy to me, especially when I would take Long Prairie church as an example ; and I was better acquainted with that church than any other. I did not know whether they would want as young a person as I was in their church or not. I would often think when I would hear them talk on the subject, that a candidate for baptism among them must undergo a very rigid examination on the subject, of a reason for his hope. This, I was afraid that I could not give. My experience was very small if I had any, and I was not capable of telling it very well. I felt then, and do yet, that it would be a great sin to deceive the church, and be deceived myself, on the subject of religion. With all these difficulties before me, I went about a great portion of the time, with my head hung down, and of ten felt like I would love to talk on the subject of religion, if I had some person to talk to, to whom I thought such a conversa-

•20- tion would be pleasant. I, however, finally resolved to go to Providence church, at the October meeting, and offer myself, and let the church be her own judge as to my fitness or unfitness to be baptized. Elders E. S. Madding and Isaiah Walker both preached on that day, and after preaching the opportunity was extended for members to come to the church, and I went up, and after I was through talking, before the brethren had time to say anything, it just seemed to me that they would not receive me because I had told nothing, yet I had told all I had to tell. I will not say that I was surprised when they did receive me, neither will I say that I would not have thought hard of them if they had not received me. But after I was received and baptized, I felt like the change was a great one. I could be cheerful now. Instead of going about and feeling like I was forsaken, I might be heard whistling or singing, or giving some demonstration of peace of mind and joy of heart, while I was about my work every day. When I went to the house I was very fond of singing in the old hymnbook. It did then, and does yet, occur to me that it paid me, poor and unworthy as I felt, to join the church. By so doing, I cast my lot in among the best friends I had upon earth. No other people could have ever come so near being one with me as my brethren and sisters in the church have. It is, indeed a wonderful display of God's condescending love and mercy to His poor children, that He has established His church here as a home for His little ones, while they

■2 1 travel through this life, and battle with all its difficulties. I would say to all who have a hope in the Savior, and have never yet united with the church, you get the most pay for the least service rendered when you obey the Lord, more than anything else that I ever knew anything about. I felt like I was the least one of the whole family, when I joined the church. And I still feel that if there is any one place in the church more suitable for me than another, it must be at the feet of the brethren ; for I know that I am, at best, a poor, imperfect, needy and unworthy sinner. I am as dependent on God for His grace and mercy "in my salvation, as the new-born child is on its mother for care, sustenance and protection. I feel like adopting the language of the great apostle to the Gentiles : "It is by the grace of God that I am what I am."

Chapter VI

There has been quite a change in the country in southern Illinois since I first joined the church. There was the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, then in operation from Cincinnati to St. Louis, running across the state of Illinois, running from Vincennes to St. Louis, and the Illinois Central was in operation, running from Chicago to Cairo, and the Evansville and Terre Haute was in operation, running from Evansville to Terre Haute, and was then called the Evansville and Crawfordsville Railroad. South of the O. & M., and east and west from the Illinois Central to the E. & T. H. was a country that had no railroads, most of it lying in southern Illinois. Under these circumstances, a man traveling through the country was necessarily compelled to furnish his own means of conveyance. Traveling on horseback was the most popular method at that time. Baptist ministers, as a rule, were farmers, living upon their own farms, making their own livings, and each one of them pastoring from one to four churches, and sometimes five. The idea of the brethren giving the preacher a living, or any part of a living, at that time, was entirely unknown among the Old School Baptists in southern Illinois. Some of the preachers were the most independent men in the church, so far as worldly possessions were concerned. This is still true in many cases. If a man had to go a certain number of miles to his church, it was understood that that amount of travel was required of him on horse-back, or in a buggy or some other conveyance of his own.

After I had joined the church, and felt that I had done my duty so far, it was not long till I began to be impressed with the thought of preaching the gospel. This was something very repugnant to my feelings and nature. I tried to fix the matter up satisfactorily with my own mind, for a long time. I tried to persuade myself that for me to entertain a thought that it was my duty to preach, must be a great delusion. There were many reasons I thought, why it could not be enjoined upon me to preach.

I-was poor, and had all the responsibilities of a family as other men had.. I was ignorant and inexperienced so far as the world was concerned. I do not think that I had ever been more than thirty or forty miles from home in my life, until I had joined the church and commenced trying to preach. My impressions to preach were all to myself. I kept them a profound secret as long as I could, but felt at times that I endured a great deal of trouble. I would sometimes fancy that I was in the presence of a congregation, preaching to them, or engaged in prayer publicly, or singing with a congregation, and shaking hands among them. Often in my meditatations, a text of scripture would crowd itself upon my mind, and I would frequently catch myself preaching to myself on that text, and when I would find myself thus engaged, I felt mean and ashamed, for I thought that it was wrong, and that some one might see me at such things, and if they should, I felt sure they would have no confidence in me. I tried to get rid of such impressions, that I might get rid of such a practice as that, but it increased, and I finally became so absorbed on the subject that I preferred to wander about, and rove the fields and woods alone, rather than the best company I had in the world. Sometimes I would go out for something, or to do something, and would wander about, I do not know how long. I would sometimes go to the barn to feed my horses, and when I had come back, I could not have told whether I had fed them or not. While in this great trouble and strain of mind, I was not unmindful of the responsibilities resting upon a minister of the gospel, although I did not know as fully