IN THE BRUSH;
OR,
OLD-TIME SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND RELIGIOUS LIFE
IN THE SOUTHWEST.
BY
REV. HAMILTON W. PIERSON, D.D.,
EX-PRESIDENT OF CUMBERLAND COLLEGE, KENTUCKY; AUTHOR OF "JEFFERSON
AT MONTICELLO"; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE NEW
YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ETC.
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY W.L. SHEPPARD._
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.
1881.
COPYRIGHT BY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
1881.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I.--Why I relate my experiences in the Southwest. Introductory 1
II.--My outfit for my life in the Brush 12
III.--The itinerant pioneer preacher's faithful horse 35
IV.--Old-time hospitality in the Southwest 47
V.--Old-time basket-meetings in the Brush 60
VI.--The baptism of a Scotch baby in the wilds of
the Southwest 82
VII.--Barbecues, and a barbecue wedding-feast in
the Southwest 90
VIII.--The old, old book, and its story in the wilds
of the Southwest 103
IX.--Candidating; or, old-time methods and humors
of office-seeking in the Southwest 130
X.--Some strange experiences with a candidate in
the Brush 156
XI.--Experiences with old-time Methodist circuit-riders
in the Southwest 171
XII.--Heroic Christian workers in the Southwest 193
XIII.--Strange people I have met in the Southwest 204
XIV.--Old-time illiterate preachers in the Brush 238
XV.--"Ortonville"; or, the universal power of sacred
song 278
XVI.--Work accomplished in the Southwest 294
IN THE BRUSH.
CHAPTER I.
WHY I RELATE MY EXPERIENCES IN THE SOUTHWEST.--INTRODUCTORY.
On a visit to New York, many years ago, after the first few months
of my ministerial labors in the wilds of the Southwest, I met a warm
personal friend, a genial, generous, noble Christian woman, who at once
said to me:
"And so you are a Western missionary. Well, do tell me if anything
_strange_ or _funny_ ever _did_ happen to a missionary. Mother has
taken the home-missionary papers ever since I was a child, and I always
read them; and I often wonder if anything _strange_ or _funny_ did
_ever_ happen to a Western missionary."
I had recently spent three happy years in the Union Theological
Seminary in that city, and had come back to attend the heart-stirring
anniversaries, held in those days in the old Broadway Tabernacle, and
to meet again the many friends who had followed me in my labors with
their kind wishes and their prayers. Though nearly thirty years have
passed since I received that greeting, I have never forgotten, and
have very often recalled it. And I have as often thought that it was
most natural that the churches and people at large who send forth and
sustain the heroic laborers who are toiling in the varied departments
of Christian effort in our newer States and Territories, should desire
a much fuller account of their daily lives and labors. As many of them
travel extensively, and see pioneer border-life in all its aspects
and phases, I have thought it most natural and reasonable that the
people should desire to know more of their adventures; more of their
contact with the rough, whole-souled people with whom they so often
meet and mingle; more of that strange compound of energy, recklessness,
and daring, the hardy hosts who erect their log-cabins and fell the
forests in the van of our American civilization, in its triumphant
westward march. Only one day in seven is set apart as sacred time,
and only a few hours of that day are devoted to what are generally
regarded as spiritual duties. A description of these duties alone,
whether performed on Sabbath-days or week-days, is a very inadequate
description of missionary life as a whole. In order to perform these
duties, a man must eat and drink, take care of his body, mingle with
the world, and meet all his responsibilities as a man and a citizen.
In the pages that follow it will be my purpose to present a portraiture
of ministerial life in the wilds of the Southwest, in all its aspects
and phases, exactly as I found it. I shall attempt to portray week-day
life as well as Sunday life. I shall describe scenes of wonderful
and thrilling religious interest, and the most common and homely
incidents of every-day life, and, as far as possible, give an idea
of my life as a whole. I shall attempt to describe the politicians,
preachers, and people; the country in which they live, their manners
and customs, their barbecues, basket-meetings, and weddings, and all
the peculiarities of their open, free, and genial _home-life_ in its
social, political, and religious aspects and relations. In this I shall
be successful only so far as I succeed in perfectly describing their
life and my own during the many years that I mingled with them.
My lady friend and questioner, to whom I have referred, was slightly
mistaken in calling me a "missionary." I was not one in name. At the
time of my graduation from the Theological Seminary, I was under
appointment as a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions to West Africa; but hæmorrhages from my lungs
prevented my entrance upon that work.
After extended travels by sea and land for nearly five years, I had so
far recovered my voice as to be able to preach, and was very anxious
to be about my chosen life-work. But my physicians--Dr. Gurdon Buck,
Dr. Alfred C. Post, and Dr. John H. Swett, of the University Medical
College--as kind as they were distinguished and skillful, told me
that I would never be able to perform the duties of a settled pastor;
that the study, labor, and care of such a life would completely break
down my health in a very few months. They told me that I must engage
in some labor that would give me a large amount of exercise in the
open air; and that if it involved horseback-riding it would be all
the better for my health, and probably give me more years in which
to labor. I accordingly accepted an agency from the American Bible
Society, which involved the exploration on horseback of the wild
regions in the Southwest described in this volume. In addition to
very extended travels by steamboat up and down many of the larger and
smaller Southwestern and Southern rivers, I have ridden a great many
thousand miles on horseback--I have no means of telling how many. For
a long time I rode my horse several thousands of miles yearly. Bishop
Kavenaugh, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in introducing me,
as an agent of the American Bible Society, to a Southwestern conference
over which he was presiding, told them that, "although a Presbyterian,"
I had "out-itinerated the Itineracy itself."
I spent a night with the Governor of a Southwestern State, at the house
of his sister, who was the wife of an Episcopal clergyman. We lodged
in the same room, occupying separate beds, as was very common in that
region. The Governor was genial and social, and we conversed until long
after midnight. We talked of the hills, valleys, and mountains, of
families and communities, of the customs, manners, and peculiarities of
different classes of people, over a very wide portion of the State. As
I was about to leave in the morning, the Governor said to me:
"Sir, you know _more about this State_, and _more people in it_, than
any man I ever saw."
I replied: "I am surprised, Governor, to hear you make that statement.
I know that politicians canvass the State most thoroughly; that you are
expected to make speeches in every county, and in as many neighborhoods
as possible; and that you try to shake hands with as many as you can
of those that you expect and wish to vote for you. As you were born
and educated in the State, and have canvassed it so thoroughly and
successfully, I supposed that you knew a great deal more about it, and
a great many more people in it, than I do."
"I do not," he replied, very positively, "and I never saw a man in my
life who did."
I state these facts as my reason and justification for writing this
book; that my readers may understand that I am not a novice in regard
to the things whereof I write; that I know whereof I affirm. Indeed, I
will tell them confidentially that I have obtained a "degree," one not
so easily acquired as some others, and more honored in the wilds of the
country. It is "B.B.," and means Brush-Breaker. The exposition of the
full meaning of this "degree" will explain the origin and meaning of my
title to this book.
In attending a conference, presbytery, association, or other
ecclesiastical meeting in the wilds of the country, as the old veteran
and other preachers were pointed out to me by some friend, he would say:
"That is Father A----. He is an old _Brush-Breaker_"--and all the
younger men would press forward to shake his hand and do him honor;
or, "That is Brother B----. He has broken a right smart chance of
brush"; or, "That is young Brother C----, wonderfully self-satisfied
and conceited, as you see. The sisters have flattered him so much that
he has got the '_big head_' badly. He will be sent to Brush College, to
break brush a year or two, and will come back humbled, and will make a
laborious and useful man"; or, "That is our devoted and beloved young
Brother D----. His soul is all on fire with love for his Master, and
he will thank God for the privilege of going anywhere in the Brush to
preach and sing of Jesus and his salvation."
This use of the word _Brush_ enters largely into the figures of speech
of the people of the Southwest. On one occasion I heard a Methodist
bishop preach on a Sabbath morning to a very large congregation,
composed of the Conference, the people of the village, and the
visitors in attendance. During the first half of his sermon, which
was extemporaneous, he did not preach with his accustomed clearness
and power. His thoughts were evidently very much confused, and it
was rather painful than otherwise to witness his struggle to get the
mastery of his mind and subject. But he accomplished this at length,
and closed his sermon with great power and effect. In returning from
church, a young circuit-rider said to me:
"Didn't you think the Bishop got badly _brushed_ in the first part of
his sermon? I sometimes get so brushed in my sermons that I think I
will never try to preach again. It's a comfort to a beginner to know
that an old preacher sometimes gets brushed."
Figurative language of this kind abounded among the people of the
Southwest, and was very expressive. These provincialisms had usually
grown out of the peculiar life and habits of the people. Many of
them seem to have originated in the perils of early flat-boat
navigation--when they were accustomed to float down-stream by daylight,
and tie up to some stump or tree for the night! Woe betide the cargo,
boat, and crew, if that to which they had "made fast" failed them in
the darkness of the night! Hence, as I suppose, this provincialism.
If I made inquiries in regard to the character of a man who had been
recommended to me for a Bible distributor, I was not told that he was a
reliable or an unreliable man, but, "He'll do to tie to," or "He won't
do to tie to"; and if the case was particularly bad, "He won't do to
tie to in a calm, let alone a storm." As there were so many perils in
this kind of navigation, those were regarded as extremely fortunate who
reached their destination in safety, and could send back word that they
had made the trip; hence, "to make the trip" was a universal synonym
for success. And so, when a novice attempted to make a speech, preach a
sermon, address a jury, or engage in any kind of business, the people
predicted his success or failure by saying, "He'll make the trip," or
"He won't make the trip." They never said of a young man, or an old
widower, that he was addressing or courting a lady, but, "He is setting
to her," a figure of speech derived from bird-hunting with setter-dogs,
as I suppose. When such a suit had been unsuccessful, they did not say
the lady rejected or "mittened" her suitor, but, "She kicked him." The
first time I ever heard that figure used was at a social gathering
in Richmond, Virginia, in 1843, where the belle of the evening was a
Miss Burfoot. After being introduced to her by a friend, he told me
confidentially that she had recently "kicked" Mr. H----, a gentleman
present, to whom he had already introduced me. To be "kicked" by a
Burfoot seemed to me a more than usually striking figure. When many
persons were striving for the same object, or where there were rival
aspirants for the heart and hand of the same lady, they said of the
successful one, "The tallest pole takes the persimmon."
I was once present at an ecclesiastical meeting in the Brush, where
motions of different kinds were piled upon each other, until the
greatest confusion prevailed as to the state of the question before
the body, and the moderator was appealed to to give his decision in
the matter. I did not fully comprehend his decision, but it was clear
and satisfactory to the body over which he was presiding, all of whom,
like himself, were old and experienced hunters. Arising to his feet, as
became a presiding officer thus appealed to, and lifting his tall, lank
form until his head was among the rafters of the low log school-house,
he hesitated a moment, and then said, "Brethren, my decision is that
you are all ahead of the hounds."
These are but specimens of the figurative language--the
provincialisms--that abound among the people of the Southwest.
I do not, therefore, in the pages that follow, speak of my travels
in the "wilderness" or "forests" or "hills" or "mountains" of the
Southwest, but adopt a more comprehensive term, universally prevalent
in the regions explored, and describe some of my experiences in the
Brush.
Though I commenced my labors in the South as a general agent
and superintendent of the colporteur operations of the American
Tract Society in 1843--ten years before my first visit to the
Southwest--though I became acquainted with its _home-life_, as that
life could only be learned, by such extended horseback travels, and
such religious labors, prosecuted with all the energy and all the
enthusiasm of early vigorous manhood, I shall devote this volume to
descriptions of _home-life_ in the Southwest. My reasons for this will
be obvious and approved at a glance. Very little that would be new can
now be written of the old-time home-life in the South. The fascinating
and beautiful descriptions of Southern social life given us in the
letters of Hon. William Wirt, the distinguished Attorney-General of the
United States, in his "British Spy"; the full and minute biographies
of Washington, Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and others, so exhaustive of
every feature of this life; with the matchless descriptions of the
inimitable Thackeray, and other later writers, leave very little to be
said in illustration of this theme. But the true, the real old-time
social, political, and religious home-life of the people of the
Southwest is almost unknown to the great mass of the American people.
Comparatively little has been written which is the result of extended
personal contact with, and intimate personal knowledge of, the people.
They have been largely the subjects of exaggeration and caricature.
In this field I have garnered many rich and golden sheaves, where
no other reaper had ever thrust in the sickle. Here I have drawn
word-pictures of many scenes in the social life of a generation, and
a state of civilization, rapidly passing away, never to reappear,
that otherwise would have had no memorial only as perpetuated in
the traditions of the people. I will only add that I am indebted to
no library, to no book, not even to a newspaper, for a single fact
presented in this volume. They were all gathered incidentally while
laboriously engaged in the duties of my profession, as a general agent
of the American Bible Society, and while traveling for years in the
interests of the college over which I was called to preside. They all
relate to the _ante-bellum_ period in the history of our country.