Politics. Topeka. A vote. A snow storm. Sister Lottie.
Whiting. Pleasant Grove. Atchison.
There are many pleasant things connected with preaching and sometimes
things are not so pleasant. Of course, the most pleasant of all to
the true, conscientious preacher, is turning many from wrong to
right, to salvation from sin and all its consequences. To know that
you have preached righteousness and lived a life worthy of imitation,
fills the cup of joy to overflowing.
While I have been teacher, farmer and preacher for years and years
and at one time was elected to a State office, I never was a
politician in the first sense of the word. Unfortunately the bad
sense of the word has become the first. There is a meaning in
politics in which all may be and should be politicians.
After I had taught and stood in the front rank of teachers, I thought
I was entitled to be superintendent of schools, but because I would
not stand as a politician in its bad sense I was turned down. Turned
down because while right prevailed, wrong did much more prevail at
that time. It was in the time of the saloons.
But they say it is a poor rule that does not work both ways. So
without my seeking or asking for it, in the fall 1875 I was nominated
and elected to the office of State Representative: and this because I
was a politician in the true and better sense of the word, a
Christian gentleman and pure statesman. And yet, it was the time of
saloons. And yet, again righteousness did abound but sin did much
more abound. I wondered why I was chosen, until a friend explained
it was because they wanted to give credibility to the ticket. To
this day, I do not know whether it was a compliment or not. But is
made no difference, it was at the State Capitol with over a hundred
other law-makers in the session of the centennial year, and enjoyed
it. For I found many good men and learned gentlemen not a few. And
was honored by being placed at the head of the education committee
and placed on two or three other committees also. Among the many
votes and things I did, I shall always remember with pleasure and
pride one. I was one of the six first to case a vote for the first
temperance resolutions. I have lived to see temperance prevail and
the saloons to go. The above is briefly the political paragraph of
my life story and I am willing that it may go up to the Judge of all
the earth.
While in Topeka I found but one family who were simply disciples of
Christ, but the Baptist disciples of Christ invited me to preach in
their house which stood near the Capitol building. Neither the
church building nor the Capitol building was completed at that time.
At the close of the legislature a free excursion to the Rocky
Mountains was offered to all the members, but I declined to go, for I
was anxious to go home to a loved wife and four little boys whose
names I remember were Harry, Paul, Otho and Wiley. I always was a
great lover of home. The way it turned out I was truly glad that I
did not go to the excursion, for at that time, on the 27th day of
March, 1876, there fell the greatest snow-storm I ever saw in all my
life. And the excursionists were snowbound in the Rocky Mountains
many days. Here in Kansas the snow drifted, in many places, from
fifteen to twenty feet deep, and it was almost May before the roads
were passable to the city of Atchison, and many other places.
On the 21st day of this snowy month of March my youngest sister, Mrs.
Charlotte Ann Sears departed this life, at her home near Logan,
Kansas, aged 34 years, 9 months and 18 days. She was the sister
playmate of my childhood days, being about three years younger than
I. Years afterwards I visited her grave in the cemetery near Logan
and the next day preached in the church building of the town, on the
Christian's Hope. This was the third death of my father's family,
counting father himself.
I was the first to preach at Whiting, preaching in a large upper
room, until the disciples who had been called together built a house,
and dedicated it to God. In this house, I continued to preach. That
house stands unto this day and the disciples still worship there.
Among the many that were there then whom I remember favorably and
with pleasure remain but few, among them the efficient and scholarly
Dr. Woodell. But the Doctor now, like the writer of these lines, is
old and near the end.
Goffs too, was another place where I was the first to preach,
beginning in the school house and ending in a new church building,
where the disciples worship unto this day. The pleasant recollection
of the names of Brockman, Springer and others will always be
associated with my remembrances at Goffs. It is said that we never
forget anything. I believe this only in part. I think the bad will
be forgotten while the good will be remembered forever. Even the
good Lord has promised that he will remember our sins no more. So I
think He will let us forget the bad forever.
So, too, Pleasant Grove, a country church just south of Effingham one
of the best country churches I ever knew, is where I preached from
the beginning, (I mean my beginning in Kansas) regularly for many
years. It was in the spring of 1868 that two brothers, John and
Jacob Graves, of Pleasant Grove came to Round Prairie where I was
teaching and preaching to hear me, and invited me to Pleasant Grove.
I never found a better preacher's home then the home of Jacob Graves.
Good man, he has gone to this reward in the skies. Brother John
Graves still lives and stands among the first on the list of my old
friends, and in the estimation of all as one of the best men in the
world.
When I think of the fellowship, the kindness, the friendship and the
love of the disciples of Christ, I think and know that His
Christianity is the best thing in the world, and the only thing, as
an organization, that is absolutely necessary for a man to join. In
an early period of the church in Atchison I frequently preached in a
small upper room which would seat about 50 people. This hall was
furnished us free by Gen. W. W. Guthrie.
I remember being in the city one day and remained until evening to
see the fireworks. As I was going down town I met a man who said to
me, "Brother, where are you going." I told him. He said, "Well, you
turn around and go with me to prayer meeting, and then we will have
time to see the fireworks." I asked, "Where is the prayer meeting?"
The answer was, "In the little upper room where you have preached. I
turned around and went, and I still think it is a good thing to do--
to turn around and go to prayer meeting. When we got to the place of
prayer, the minister, M. P. Hayden and three women were there. With
our augmentation there were, in all, six. But we felt, before the
service was over, that another was present, even He who said, "When
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst of them."
Atchison has a congregation now of a hundred times six. Some of whom
are my children in the gospel. I always fell especially proud of
John A. Fletcher and his wife because they are so good, and because I
taught them their letters, baptized them, and married them. This was
at Farmington. And many others at Farmington were mine by teaching,
preaching, marrying and burying. I lived, taught and preached longer
at Farmington than any other place. I had in one family seven
weddings, and almost as many funerals. Over in the Pleasant Grove
neighborhood I had nine wedding in one family. Some, of whom at this
time, are my door neighbors and seem like my own children.
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