First vote. Oldest brother. War. Return to Indiana. In
Tophet again. First Baptism. Clarksburg meeting.
About this time I was, the first time privileged to exercise my right
as a voter.
The question was whether the state of Missouri should secede from the
union. Brother and I voted in the negative. Then during the same
year, 1860, November the 6th, we were privileged to vote for a
President of the United States. The candidates were A. Lincoln, S.
A. Douglas, J. B. Breckenridge and John Bell. Brother voted for Bell
for he thought Bell was the only one that would save the union. I
voted for Douglas because I thought his election would save from the
impending war. The manner of voting was then quite different from
what it is now. The judges of election sat in the school house by a
lower open window and the voters would file up to the window on the
outside. For instance when I appeared at the window to vote, a judge
from within asked, "What is your name?" I replied, Z. S. Hastings.
"For whom do you vote," asked the judge. I vote for Stephen A.
Douglas," was my reply. The judge then said in a loud voice, "Z. S.
Hastings votes for Stephen A. Douglas." The clerk recorded it. That
was all. The next president I voted for was Abraham Lincoln. And,
as it is said, of some Democrats who are still voting for Thomas
Jefferson, I am still voting for Abraham Lincoln, that is to say,
these Democrats are still voting for some of the principles that were
taught by Thomas Jefferson, and I am still voting for some of the
principles held by Abraham Lincoln. Among them the rule which is
called Golden and is found the Book. This rule is not an "iridescent
dream" with me.
My oldest brother Joshua Thomas Hastings was a home guard soldier and
a teacher in Bolivar, Missouri, when the battle of Springfield was
fought and General Lyon was killed. After the battle the Home Guards
and Union men in general in that part of the state, had (using a war
word) to skedaddle for their lives. My brother tried to make his
escape to Kansas but three times was arrested by confederate scouts.
Once, in a road, sheltered on either side with hazel brush and a
thick undergrowth of other bushes, the leader of the band, who seemed
to want to befriend my brother, whispered to him, that a majority of
them (there were six or eight of them) had voted to kill him. "Now"
said he, "jump for your life," As soon as said, brother leaped into
the brush like a wild deer,--bang, went the cracking of half a dozen
or more guns, but each shot missed except one, which just grazed the
top of his shoulder. My brother then determined to return back to
Bolivar, and with his family return, if possible to Indiana. In this
he was successful.
At this time our mother and two sisters were living in Allen County
Kansas. Brother had not been back in Indiana long until he helped to
raise a new company for the war and with it went into the union army.
But in less than a year he was taken sick and died in an army
hospital at Henderson, in Kentucky, November 14th, 1863.
In the meantime I too had returned to Indiana, and, with brother's
wife, went to him, when hearing he was sick. We were with him only
about three hours before he died. At the end of the next two days we
returned with him to our old home in old Clarksburg, (now Oden)
Daviers County, Indiana, where, the next day, we buried brother by
the side of our father, who had been buried nine years. This was the
second death in father's family. Brother was a good man, a scholar,
a soldier, and a teacher. He gave his life upon the altar of his
country at the early age of thirty-six.
War is a great evil, dreadful, fearful, terrible. O, for the time
when "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more!"
Upon my return to Indiana, after an absence of nearly five years, I
was quite a different person, in many respects, from what I was when
I went away. I had grown in length to be six feet and two inches
tall and the hair of my head and the beard of my face was as black as
jet, the one standing on its ends, the other full and hanging six
inches or more in length. Besides had I not been born anew and was
now a new creature? Old things had passed away. Yet I went back to
my old place of teaching, Tophet. With preaching added to teaching,
there again I taught the urchins and preached to the sinners. And at
this writing 1911, there is a new name, a new people (a converted
people), a house of God and many worshippers of the Most High God.
Surely the world doth grow better.
At the Owl Prairie where I hoed corn when I was a little boy and
fished in the canal, I was called to take charge of a protracted
meeting, and at this meeting I had my first baptism. Heretofore I
had always insisted on someone of experience to doing this. The
baptism took place in the West Fork of the White River. Owl Prairie
is now the city of Elnoa with two railroads, and churches and
schools.
My next attendance at a protracted meeting was to help Thompson
Little. This meeting was held at old Clarksburg on the very site, in
a new church building, where I went to school when quite young and
where I appeared in my first effort as a public speaker. It was a
recitation and commenced the way:
"'Tis a lesson you should head,
If at first you don't succeed
Try, try again."
Well, at this meeting I preached and seven young people came forward
at one time and gave me their hands and made the good confession. It
was the greatest number that ever came forward at any one time upon
my invitation. These seven were all my old playmates and
schoolmates. It was a good meeting.
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