{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_33992/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_33992","id":"gutenberg_33992","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33992","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - American","Category: Religion/Spirituality","United States -- Biography"],"text":"Produced by Roger Taft (RogerTaft at Cox.Net)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nA U T O B I O G R A P H Y\n\nO F\n\nZ.  S.  H A S T I N G S\n\n\n\nW R I T T E N   F O R    H I S    B O Y S\n\nHARRY\nPAUL\nOTHO\nMILO\n\n-----0-----\n\n\n\nEffingham\nKan.\n\nChristmas, 1911\n\nDear Paul,--\n\nI am sending to each of the other boys a copy of my Autobiography\nlike this I send you.  I hope you will be interested in it;  read it,\npreserve it, and give it to some of your children, to be read and\nhanded down and down until the second Adam comes the second time.\n\nI am sure I would be glad to have something of this kind from my\nfather, even from his father's father's father's, etc., back to\nfather Adam, the first Adam.\n\nZ. S. Hastings\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    O N E\n\nBirth.  Name.  Parent's Religion.  Blood. Ancestor's\nReligion and Politics.  First Recollection.  Father's\nFamily.  From North Carolina to Indiana\n\nI was born March 15th 1838 at a place now called Williams in Lawrence\nCounty, Indiana.  When the day came for me to be named, mother said,\n\"He looks like my brother Zachariah,\" but father said, \"He looks like\nmy brother Simpson.\"  \"All right\", said mother,\" we will just\nchristen him Zachariah Simpson.\"  And that is my name unto this day.\n\nNow, when mother said 'christen' she did not mean what is usually\nmeant by christening a babe, for if she had they would have had to\ntake me to a river, for mother and father both believed, when it came\nto baptizing, that is required much water.  Mother, when baptized,\nwas dipped three times, face first, and father once, backwards making\nin each case an entire submerging or an immersion.  Religiously mother\nwas called a Dunkard and father was called a Baptized Quaker.  \"Now\",\nsaid father, one day to mother, \"this out not to be, we are one in\nChrist, let us be one in name.\"  \"All right,\" said mother, \"let us\ndrop the names Dunkard and Quaker and simply call ourselves Christians.\"\n\"Just so,\" said father, \"but we must live Christians as well.\"  And\nthey did.\n\nThere runs in my veins both English and Irish blood.  On the paternal\nside I can only trace my ancestors back to the early Quakers of\nBaltimore.  On the maternal side I know less, for it is only said\nthat my great grand-mother was a handsome, witty, Irish-woman.  For\nsome reason, I know not what, I have always liked the humble, honest,\nwitty Irish people, be they Catholic or Protestant.\n\nAs far back as I can trace my ancestry they were religiously Quakers\nand Politically Whigs.  More recently however, we are religiously,\nsimply Christians, politically prohibition Republicans.  I do not\nboast of my ancestors, boys, for they were humble, yet,\n\n     \"Howe'er it be, it seems to me,\n     'Tis only noble to be good.\"\n\nThe first thing that I can now remember was, when I was two and one-half\nyears old, in the fall of 1840, when General William Henry\nHarrison was elected the ninth president of the United States.  It\nwas on the occasion of a big rally day for Mr. Harrison when I, with\nmy parents, stood by the road-side and saw in the great procession\ngoing by, four men carrying a small log cabin upon their shoulders,\nand in the open door of the cabin sat a small barrel of hard cider.\nThe rally cry was \"Hurrah for Tippecanoe and Tyler too.\"\n\nMy father and mother were there, because they were Whigs, and I was\nthere because father and mother were there.  There is a great deal in\nthe way a child is brought up.  O, that the children of our beloved\nland be brought up in the way they should go!  O, that it could be\nsaid of all parents that their children are brought up in the nurture\nand admonition of the Lord;  that is could be said of all teachers of\nour great country as it was said of the great lexicographer, Noah\nWebster:  \"He taught thousands to read, but not one to sin.\"  It is\nsaid boys, that the training of a child should begin a hundred years\nbefore it is born.  I do not know about this, but I do know that the\nproper training should be kept up after it is born.  Will you see to\nit, that you do your part well?\n\nMy father's family consisted of seven children, of whom I was the\nfifth child.  Three brothers, Joshua Thomas, William Henry and John\nArthur, and one sister, Nancy Elizabeth, were older than I.  One\nsister Charlotte Ann, and one brother Rufus Wiley, were younger.  My\nfather's name was Howell Hastings, my mother's name was Edith\nEdwards.  Father and mother were both born in North Carolina; father\nin 1905, mother in 1808.  They were married in 1826.  My two older\nbrothers were born in North Carolina.  The rest of us were born in\nIndiana.  The parents, with their two little boys came to Indiana in\n1830.  They made the entire trip in a one-horse wagon; crossing the\nCumberland Mountains, and passing through the states of Tennessee,\nVirginia and Kentucky.  Of course they had but little in their wagon;\na box or two containing their wearing apparel, and a little bedding,\nand also a little tin box containing just one-hundred dollars in gold\ncoin and a few valuable papers, which was kept, locked and hidden, in\none of the larger boxes.  This hundred dollars was all the money\nfather had except what he had in his pocket purse, which he supposed\nwould be enough to meet the expenses of the trip.\n\nAll went well for about two weeks when a man, traveling on horseback,\novertook them, who slackened his gait and traveled along with\nthem, forming an acquaintance.  He said to them that he too, was\ngoing to the far west (Indiana was called the far west then), to seek\nhis fortune.  He was very kind, helpful and generous; and traveled\nalong with them for two days, but, on the third day morning, when\nfather awoke, his fellow traveler was gone.  Father and the man had\nslept under the wagon.  Father usually slept in or under the wagon\nwhile mother and the little boys would sleep in the house of some\nfamily who lived by the road-side.  Just as they were ready to start\nthat morning, mother said to father, \"Have you looked to see if the\ntin box is safe?\"  \"No\" said father.  \"Well, you better look,\" said\nmother.  Father looked among the stuff in the big box where they had\nkept it, but it was not there.  The man had stolen it and all that\nwas in it.  The kind family, whose hospitality mother had shared\nduring the night, kept her and her children in their home while\nfather and the husband of the home and an officer of the law spent\ntwo days hunting for the thief, but could not find him.  So, father\nand mother had to pursue their journey without their little tin box\nwhich was the most valuable of their temporal assets.  A man that\nsteals, should steal no more.\n\nIn due time, (1830) father and mother with their two little boys,\nThomas and Henry arrived in Lawrence County, Indiana, and settled in\nthe rich valley of the east fork of the White river.  Father's oldest\nbrother, Arthur D. Hastings, Sen., had preceded father a few years to\nthe new state, and was ready to greet and assist his brother to make\na new home.  Uncle Arthur was one of God's noblemen, an honest,\nleading citizen, and devout Christian.  He lived on the place he\nfirst settled about sixty years, and died there in 1886 at the\nadvanced age of 85 years.  Although I had many uncles, Uncle Arthur\nwas the only one I ever saw.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    T W O\n\nIndiana.  The Stars fall.  Move.  Texas.   The flood of\n1844.  First School.  White River's Pocket.  No\nNimrod.  A Fish Story.  Clarksburg.\n\nAt the time of father's arrival, Indiana was only 14 years old and\ncontained about 300,000 inhabitants.  Its capital city's first Mayor\nwas inaugurated two years before I was born and three years after the\nstars fell.\n\nIn 1842 when I was about four years old my parents sold out and moved\ndown the river five or six miles and bought a new, larger and better\nfarm with a large two story hewed log house and a big double log\nbarn, and a good apple orchard.  The farming land was bottom and lay\nalong the river.  Here we had some sheep and cattle on a few hills\nand some hogs in the woods, that got fat in the winter on white oak\nacorns and beech nuts.  And here we had a large \"sugar orchard\" as\nthe Hosiers called it--hard maple trees by the many from which, in\nthe early spring, flowed the sweet sap by the barrels full which we\nconverted into gallons of maple syrup, and into many cakes of maple\nsugar.\n\nIt was while we lived here, when I was six years old, there was the\ngreatest flood, known to me, since the days of Noah.  I remember it\nwell.  You too, my boys, will never forget the year when I tell you\nit was the same year, 1844, in which your best earthly friend was\nborn, your mother.  But I did not know anything about her until\ntwenty years afterwards.\n\nThe flood was great.  All the lower lands were under water.  Mr.\nGreene's, the ferryman, our nearest neighbor's family had to go in a\ncanoe from the door of their kitchen to their smoke house to get\nmeat.  All our cattle and hogs were in the stalk fields near the\nriver, and all were drowned, except one large, strong cow which swam\nmore than one half mile, almost in a straight line, and was saved.\nWe could see the cattle huddled together on a small island knoll away\ndown in the field next to the river.  The poor creatures would stand\nthere until the rapidly rising waters would crowd them off the knoll,\nand then they swam until exhausted and overcome by the great\ndistance, and turbulent waters when they would go down to rise no\nmore.  I was the first to see the cow which swam out.  Looking down\nthrough the orchard where the waters were swimming deep, I saw the\nend of her nose and the tips of her horns above the water.  Slowly\nshe came, almost exhausted.  But finally she found footing where she\ncould stand and then the poor creature stood and bawled and bawled\nfor quite a while, and then walked to her young calf which was at the\nbarn on the hillside.\n\nAbout this time I attended my first school and my teacher was my\ncousin, Arthur D. Hastings, Jr., who lived to a good old age, and\ndied September 15th, 1906 within a little more than a stone's cast of\nwhere he taught.  My first and only textbook at school for a year or\nmore was Webster's blue back Spelling book.  It had both Spelling and\nReading in it.  I learned all from end to end.  The teacher said I\nought to have a reader, so farther bought for me, McGuffey's second\nreader; as soon as I got hold of it I ran with it to the barn loft\nand sat down on the hay and read all that was in it before I got up.\nThe next day the teacher said I ought to have a higher reader, so\nfather bought for me McGuffey's fourth reader, the highest that was,\nand these two readers were all the readers that I ever read.  Grammar\nwas not so easy.  My text-book was Smith's.  I would start at the\nfirst of the book, and get about half through at the end of the term.\nThis I did for a half dozen years or more.  Finally when I started to\nhigh school I took up Clark's grammar and finished it.\n\nBut, to go back a little, father after the great flood, went down to\nTexas and bought several hundred acres of land and came back and sold\nhis farm intending to move to Texas, but changed his mind and sold\nhis Texas land for a song in the shape of a beautiful colt.  This\ncolt grew into one of the prettiest and best horses your grandfather\never had.  But remember it cost hundreds of acres of land which are\nworth thousands of dollars now.  It was like paying too much for your\nwhistle.\n\nIf we had gone to Texas, boys, I do not know what might have been but\nI do know now that you are and that you have one of the best mothers\nthat lives.  Often have I heard her pray with tears in her eyes that\nyou and all the boys might be saved from the use of tobacco and\nstrong drink.\n\nFather next turned his attention towards securing a home in the\npocket of the White River, which he did by buying a farm in Daviers\nCounty on the border of Clark's Prairie and adjoining the village of\nClarksburg, which is now the city of Oden.  At the time of our\nremoval to Clarksburg I was about nine years old.  We liked our new\nhome.  At this time Daviers County was a wilderness of brush, trees\nand swamps, with plenty of wild game,--deer, coons, opossums,\nsquirrels, turkeys, ducks, quails, snowbirds, and of wild fruits,\ngrapes, plums, crab-apples and strawberries.  And of fish of all\nkinds, nearly.\n\nI never was much of a Nimrod.  Many times I saw deer, and once when I\nhad a gun upon my shoulder, but I did not take it off.  Early one\nmorning a flock of thirty or forty wild turkeys came within a rod or\ntwo of the kitchen window, but when we opened the door instead of\ncoming in, they flew away.  Some days after that I heard turkeys\ngobbling in the woods, and I took the gun and went where they were\nand shot one dead.  Happened to hit it in the head.  Once I shot a\ncrow and killed it.\n\nOne day I shot and killed four or five squirrels.  Often I trapped\nquails and snow birds.  The biggest fish I ever saw caught I did not\ncatch.  Brother Henry, who was nine years older than I, caught it.\nIt was a cat-fish, and Henry and a boy named Billy James, who was\nless than six feet tall, ran a pole through the fish's gills and\ncarried the fish between them suspended from the pole which was\nrested upon the boys shoulders, and the fish was so long that its\ntail tipped the ground as the boys walked.  Now, this is the biggest\nfist story I ever tell, except the Jonah story, and I believe both.\n\nWe liked Clarksburg because it was a good place for schools, Sunday\nSchools and churches.  I hardly remember the time when I was not in\nschool, Sunday School and church.  I think to this day these are good\nplaces for boys to be.\n\nMy parents were always anxious to have their children in school and\nmade many sacrifices to this end; as a result their five boys all\nwere public school teachers before they were out of their teens.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    T H R E E\n\nCertificate.  School.  Tophet.   Father's death.\nSpirit Rappings.\n\nAt the age of seventeen, I sought the county school examiner that I\nmight procure a license to teach.  I found him at his school\nteaching.  He had me wait until noon, then we went to the woods close\nby.  It was a warm beautiful day, and the examiner sat on one end of\nthe log and I on the other.  Then the questioning commenced.  Why he\neven asked what reading was, and although I had been reading for ten\nyears I could hardly tell.  He asked me how far it was from Dan to\nBeerSheba, and then laughed at me because I did not know.  He asked\nme if I had never heard the phrase \"from Dan to BeerSheba.\"  I told\nhim it seemed to me that I did once hear an old preacher say\nsomething about a young man named Dan who was handsome and strong,\nbut he got into a pretty dangerous place one time among some lions,\nbut he came out all right, the preacher said, because he would never\ndrink beer or wine or whiskey or anything that would make a man\ndrunk.  I do not think the examiner ever heard that story before, so\nhe quit asking such irrelevant questions and got to business, asking\nabout vowels and consonants, and accent and emphasis, curves and\nloops, Tories and Whigs, order and discipline, etc. etc. until he\nsaid that will do, and wrote me out a certificate to teach.  That\ncounty examiner was my oldest brother, hence the fun.  From then on,\nI was a public school teacher for about 15 years.  I stood the test\nmany times in Indiana, Missouri and Kansas, to secure a teacher's\ncertificate, but never failed to get the first grade.  Of course, I,\nin the meantime, spent about three more years at school.  My\npopularity as a successful teacher came at once, even at the first\nterm, so much so that they sent for me to come and teach for them in\na place called Tophet.  Boys, if you do not know what that means look\nit up in the dictionary.  The place was so bad, that teachers for\nseveral years had not been able to teach to the end of the term.  The\nbad boys and girls would run the teacher off.  I knew all this.  And\ninstead of going with a rod, as other teachers had I went with love\nand firmness determined to win right in the start the respect and\nconfidence of the big boys and girls.  I succeeded.\n\nThe first death to occur in my father's family was the death of my\nfather himself.  In the early fall of 1854 father's health began to\nfail.  The disease was dropsy.  Dr. Sam Elmore, the resident\nphysician of Clarksburg did all he could, faithfully attending father\nall the fall and winter up to the day of his death.  But about one\nweek before death, the doctor requested that we send for Dr.\nMcDonald, who lived in Newberry, a town about eight miles away.  This\nwe did, and Dr McDonald, a skillful and learned physician, came to\nsee father twice that week.  The last time was on the day before\nChristmas.  When he left to go home, he requested us to let him know\nfather's condition the next day after noon.  The next day was\nChristmas.  Father seemed much better all afternoon.  Many friends\nand neighbors came in to see him.  He talked more than usual.  The\nday was a cold, dark, drizzly one.  We had no telephones then, so on\nhorse back in the afternoon, through cold and sleet, I made my way to\ntell the doctor how father was.  The errand was not hard for me,\nbecause I loved my father and he was better, I thought, and I wanted\nto tell the doctor.  As soon as I entered the doctor's office, I\nsaid, \"Father is better.\"  The doctor asked me several questions\nabout him which I answered.  He then turned to get some medicine and\nas he turned I saw him shake his head negatively.  He gave me a\nlittle phial filled with medicine and told me to give father two or\nthree drops every two or three hours and added, \"If your father is\nbetter in the morning, let me know.\"  I went home with a sadder heart\nthan I had when I came to the doctor's, for I do not think the doctor\nthought that father was better.  And so it proved for when I returned\nMother said father had seemed better all afternoon, so much so that\nhis friends, and even my oldest brother and sister, (who were now\nmarried, and lived, the one three miles distant, the other one mile),\nhad returned home to take rest.\n\nBut now, (it was about dark when I returned) said mother, \"he seems\nto be much worse, you would better go for your brother and sister.\"\nSo I went at once the one mile and the three miles, and sister and\nher husband, Mr. Chas. R. Reyton, went at once and not long\nafterwards brother and his wife and their two little children and I\nreturned, and we all stood around the bed of death.  Father said but\nlittle, but finally said to all.  \"Come near.\"  We did so, and he\nsaid, \"Good bye, it is but a little distance between me and my\neternal home, and I can soon step that off.\"  He closed his eyes and\nwas dead.\n\nIt was almost midnight, Christmas day, 1854.  He went at the early\nage of 49 years, 7 months 23 days.  I was a little more than sixteen\nyears old.  My youngest brother, and the youngest child of the\nfamily, Rufus Wiley, was a little over five years old.  Youngest\nsister, Charlotte Ann a little over thirteen.\n\nFather was a quiet, peaceable, Christian man, with a good many of the\nQuaker ways about him.\n\nThe spirit-rappings, which originated with the Fox family of N.Y.\neight or ten years before, were still exciting the people in southern\nIndiana.  It so happened that a Mr. Wilson, a learned justice of the\npeace, lived in Tophet, at the time I taught school there, and was a\nmedium.  I boarded and lodged at his house a part of the time.  Let\nme state a few facts and these occurred in my experience while there.\nThat rapping kept up, especially if you paid any attention to it,\nmore or less, day and night.  Every afternoon and evening after\nschool, when I returned to my boarding place, I could hear the\nrapping on my chair, or desk, or somewhere in the room.  Or, if out\nof doors, on some object near me.  If out after dark that rapping was\nsure to get directly between me and the door.  Was it good or evil,\nsaint or sinner, I knew not.  I could explain nothing.  I could\nbelieve nothing.  I could lay hold of nothing.  I could let go of\nnothing.  I only heard rapping.  And it made no difference whether\nMr. Wilson, the medium, was at home or not, the rapping went on all\nthe same.\n\nOne long afternoon as I was sitting at a window reading a book, Mrs.\nWilson was sitting across the room at another window, busy at work\nand at the same time humming a tune.  All at once, that rapping\ncommenced, on a cupboard standing in the corner, in a clear, distinct\nmusical way, so much so that it attracted my attention from my\nreading and Mrs. Wilson saw me looking towards the cupboard.  She\nsaid, \"Lizzie, is that you?\"  There came a loud, distinct rap.  As\nmuch as to say yes.  Then Mrs. Wilson said, \"Can you beat (play) that\ntune I was humming.\"  I suspect Mr. Hastings would like to hear it.\"\nAt once the beating (rapping) commenced and continued for quite a\nwhile.  It sounded very much like the tapping of a drum.  It played\nthe tune.  I do not think that I ever listened to any music with so\nmuch interest and curiosity as I listened to that rapping.\n\nOne embarrassing and annoying part of the rapping was every night,\nwhen I would retire to my bed that rapping would keep up its rapping\nupon the head board of my bed, both before and after I would blow out\nthe light.  When I found out they called it Lizzie I would say,\n\"Please Lizzie, let me o to sleep.\"  And it would cease, and I would\nsleep.  To confess, boys, I often felt a little scared, especially\nwhen out of doors in the dark and that--what shall I call it?--\nthing got to rapping upon something between me and the door.\n\nI could tell you other stories about these rappings but they are too\nincredulous to believe.  As I said before, I could explain nothing\nnor can I yet.  I simply heard the rappings, under the circumstances\nas I have related.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    F O U R\n\nLeaves Home.  In St. Louis.  On the Mississippi River.  From\nLagrange to Lindley.\n\nFew boys live through their teens who do not want to take a wild\ngoose chase to see the world.  I was no exception.  So after bidding\nmy mother, brothers, sisters, farewell on my 19th birthday, with\nmother's blessing, in the company with Dr. Sam Elmore, his wife and\nlittle boy, I started for north Missouri.  The first night we spent\nat Washington, Ind.  This was the first time I ever stopped as a\nguest at a hotel.  The next day we secured passenger tickets on the\nOhio and Mississippi Rail Road to St. Louis.  This was the first time\nI had ever rode on railroad cars.  Away we went over rivers and\nrivulets, hills and hollows, through farms and towns, woods and\nprairies.  I thought we would never stop.  I was seeing the world.\n\nBut finally we stopped.  And someone said, \"St. Louis.\"  I stepped\nout and the first thing I saw was the \"Father of Waters\".  Now, I\ntell you boys, the Mississippi is a big river.  We had to cross in a\nferry boat.  There was no Ead's bridge there.\n\nWhen we landed on the Missouri side and stepped out on the wharf\nthere were, on all sides, mules, negroes, drays, drummers, porters,\nbeggars, fakers, yelling, moving, jostling, huddling, crowding.  Why,\nI felt that to be in such a place was dangerous to be safe.\n\nThe doctor had been there before, I had not.  I noticed he pressed\nahead, so I followed.  Finally we reached the Planter's House, and I\ncast my eye up to the upper story and thought, \"O my, I cannot sleep\nup there, it will make me dizzy and I will fall out.\"\n\nWe sought a steamboat to go up the Mississippi and the earliest one\nwe could find would not start for two days.  But we bought tickets\nwhich entitled us to lodging and board on the boat, so we took our\nplaces on the boat, and staid with it until it landed us at Lagrange,\nour destination.  The name of the boat was \"Thomas Swan.\"  I never\ntraveled in any nicer way than on a large fine steam-boat--board\nand bed and everything clean and good, interesting and pleasant.\n\nThe first night, when I went to bed, I put my boots and clothes where\nI supposed I could easily find them the next morning, but when\nmorning came I could find everything except the boots.  I found, in\nthe place where I had left the boots, an old pair of slippers.  (The\nslippers were nice and clean, however.)  I thought some scamp had\nstolen my boots, and left for me his slippers.  I did not know what\nto do.  I was afraid to wear the slippers lest someone would accuse\nme of stealing them.  But I finally dared to put them on and step\ninto the cabin parlor and at the far end I saw fifty or more pairs of\nboots, and all well cleaned and blackened.  I shyly approached a big\nblack man who was sitting by the boots and dare to ask him if he had\nmy boots there.  He said, \"What's de number, please?\"  I said,\n\"Number seven.\"  \"Yes sir\" he said and picked out a pair for me.  (I\nnoticed by this time that all the boots were numbered with chalk.)  I\nsaw at once that the boots he picked out were not mine, and said,\n\"These are not my boots.\"  \"Dat's number seven, sir, de number of\nyour berth.\"  I said, \"You are mistaken, my birth is the 15th of\nMarch.\"  \"O dat so.\"  \"Your number fifteen,\" said he, and picked up\nthe boots chalk marked 15.  They were my boots.  I took them and\nstarted to walk back with them in my hand to my berth, the number of\nwhich was 15.  The negro said, \"Say, mister, I usually get a dime.\"\nI said, \"Excuse me,\", and paid him a dime.\n\nDo you see, boys?  Yes, we see that the boy who afterwards became our\nfather was green.  Of course, I was green.  All things are green\nbefore they are ripe.\n\nIn the next day or two we landed at Lagrange, Missouri, a small town\nabove Quincy, Ill.  There the doctor had two horses and a buggy.  The\ndoctor, his wife and boy rode in the buggy, driving one horse, and I\nrode the other horse, and in this fashion we made our way westward\nfor four days, passing through the towns of Lewiston, Edina,\nKirksville, Scottsville, until we arrived at Lindley, a small town on\nMedicine Creek in Grunday County.\n\nThe afternoon of the first day of the four days referred to above,\nwas cold and stormy.  So I rode in advance, inquiring at every house\nfor lodging for our company, but was denied.  I passed one house\nhowever--it looked so small I thought there would not be room enough\nfor all, but the doctor called when he came to it, and received a\nfavorable answer.  I turned back and the man said, \"I have plenty for\nyour horses to eat, but no place for them only to tie them in an open\nshed.  Our house is small but only three of us and four of you\nperhaps we can get along.\"  The doctor said, \"We will stay.\"  The man\nwas good but the accommodations were bad.  The house was a small\none-roomed log cabin.  Two beds and a narrow space between them fully\noccupied one half of the floor space.  A the other end of the room\nwas a large fireplace with a bright, cheerful, warm, comfortable\nfire, so much so that we could sit back against the beds, which we\nall did, and were comfortable except the woman of the house, who was\nin one corner of the fireplace getting supper.  I do not mean that\nthe woman was in the fire but nearby.  You know that the Greek word\neis according to some theologians means nearby.  But the bread in the\nskillet was under the fire and over the fire for there were live\ncoals above it and live coals beneath it.  The meat in the pan was on\ntop of the fire.  I never ate better bread and meat.  I was hungry.\nAfter supper I began to wonder and worry about where I would sleep,\nand one of mother's proverbs came to my mind, \"Do not worry child,\nGod will provide.\"  Then I remembered that God had provided for many\nsuch occasions but he really did it through Mother.\n\nSoon a little trundle bed was drawn from under one of the large beds,\nand it just filled the space between the two larger beds.  The little\nboy of the house was put in the little bed and the good lady of the\nhouse told me that I would have to sleep with the little boy in the\nlittle bed.  I said, \"All right.\"  An opportunity was given and I\nretired.  Although I was a boy under twenty I was several inches\nlonger than the bed, but I managed to get between the two end boards\nand slept.  Whether pushed under the larger bed during the night, I\nknow not.  The next morning at daylight I was still between the two\nbig beds, but I had not grown in length any during the night the end\nboards were in the way.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    F I V E\n\nFrom Lagrange to Lindley, continued.  In a murderers bed.\nMaple sugar.  Philosophy and Morality.  Dr. Elmore shot.  More\nphilosophizing.  Firsts.  Baptist College.  Pikes Peak or Hell.\n\nI got up early and took a walk, (the weather had moderated) to see\nthe world.  I felt just a little bit homesick.  The next evening we\nstopped for the night at a large public house and they put me in a\nlarge upper room where a murderer had slept the night before.  I\nslept.  Here let me state this was not the only time I was the next\nto sleep in a bed where a murderer had slept.  A few years after\nthis, during the awful war of the rebellion, I was late in the night\ngetting into the City of Vincennes, Indiana and called a hotel for a\nbed.  I was told there was but one empty bed, and it had just been\nvacated by a murderer.  He became uneasy and left; the officers in\npursuit of him came to the hotel, and searched his bed, but he was\ngone.  I said to the landlord, \"Do you suppose the officers will come\nback to search that bed again?\"  He said he supposed not.  I told him\nthat I would occupy it.  The bed was still warm.  I have seen, boys,\nabout as much of the world as I want to see.  I would not go fifty\nmiles to see the Rocky Mountains or the Jerusalem that now is.\n\nThe third night we staid with a farmer who, that very night, has a\nmaple sugar stirring off, and we had a good time, but the horse I\nrode was so tall he could not get through the stable door and he had\nto be tied out all night.  The next day we arrived at Lindley, where\nI made my headquarters for almost five years.\n\nBut before I proceed with the story of my life chronologically, let\nme philosophize and moralize a little as suggested to me by my own\nexperience in both young life and old life.\n\n     What, from a worldly, physical, selfish stand point, do you\n     consider,\n\n          1. The best thing in this life.\n\n          2. The most convenient thing in this life.\n                  Answer:  1. Good weather and good health.\n                           2. Money\n\n     What, from any stand-point, do you think is the best\n             thing in this life?\n                  Answer:  Christianity.\n\n     What, from any stand-point, do you think is the worst\n             thing?\n                  Answer:  Sin.\n\nNow, in my old age I do not wish to live my life over again, but I\ncan see where I might have done better especially as it relates to\nthe questions above.  I might have taken more advantage of the good\nweather and avoided the bad.  I might have taken better care of my\nhealth.  I might have secured a little more money for the rainy days.\nI might have wedded myself more closely to Christianity, and have\ndivorced myself more fully from sin.\n\nBut I am now in my old age content--am ready, and resting in the\nhope of the glory that shall be revealed.  God is good.  My counsel\nto my children and to all young people for many years has been,\nbriefly stated:\n\n     Take care of your health.\n     Take care of your money.\n     Take care of your religion.\n\nBut, to return to Lindley, Missouri and to the 19th year of my age, I\nfind myself, Dr. Elmore, wife and boy, stopping with my brother Henry\nand his young family.  Brother Henry is nine yeas my senior.  He\nlives to this day.  He had, a year or two before, moved to that\nplace.\n\nThe next morning after we arrived in Lindley, Dr. Elmore was fixing\nthe shaft of his buggy when his revolver fell from his pocket, was\ndischarged and shot him in the breast, the ball ranging upwards and\nlodged in his shoulder.  He soon got well, but the ball is with him\nto this day.\n\nI never owned a gun, a dog, a fiddle, a pocket knife, a razor, a\npipe, a cigar or cigarette, a plug of tobacco, or a hug of whiskey.\nI never had any use for these things.  I do not wholly condemn all\nthese, but I do think the world would be better and safer without\nguns, dirk knives, dogs, tobacco, and strong drink.\n\nDuring my stay of almost five years in Grundy and Sullivan counties,\nMo., I spent the time in teaching and attending school.  The\nprincipal events of my life were my second birth, my first sermon, my\nfirst convert, my first funeral, my first marriage, (I mean the first\nmarriage I ever solemnized), my first religious debate and my first\nvote.\n\nI taught in both Sullivan and Grundy counties.  I soon gained the\nsame popularity as a teacher that I had in Indiana.  I never sought\nschools.  They always sought me.  I attended the Baptist College in\nTrenton one year.  It was a very pleasant and profitable year of my\nearly life.  It was before the war when the general talk was about\nslavery and a probable war.\n\nOne day I and a young friend, chum and class-mate, a son of a Baptist\npreacher, were studying our lessons under a large beech tree in the\ncollege campus.  My mate said to me, \"Hastings, aren't you an\nabolitionist?\"  I said, \"Yes, I am.\"  \"I believe all men ought to be\nfree.\"  He answered, \"I thought so, and so am I and my father too.\"\n\"But I want to admonish you not to talk it so much.\"  The admonition\nwas well given, and well taken, for the forebodings of the day were\nthat not talk but action would be the right step.  And so it was, for\nit was not long before the whole country was in an awful fratricidal\nwar.  The like of which, I hope our country will never see again.\n\nIt was during this year the great migration took place to Pike's Peak\nfor gold.  Nearly every day the streets would be full of covered\nwagons bound for Pike's Peak.  I noticed on one wagon written in\ngreat red letters, \"Hastings, bound for Pike's Peak or Hell.\"  It was\nthe noon hour, and I said to the other boys, \"There is a Hastings in\nthis crowd, and I am going to find him.\"  I went into a grocery store\nwhere many of them were buying provisions.  I soon picked him out, a\ntall good looking fellow, then besides he swore a great deal which\ntallied with what I saw on the wagon, so I stepped up to him and\nsaid, \"Is your name Hastings?\"  He answered with an oath that it was.\nI said to him, \"I see from what is written on your wagon that you are\nbound for Pike's Peak or Hell.\"  Without waiting for him to reply, I\nfurther said, \"I think from the way you are going, and the way you\ntalk, you will probably get to both places.\"  At first he looked like\nhe was going to hit me, and then he smiled and said, \"You don't\nswear?\"  I said, \"No, nor do I think you ought to swear.\"  He said,\n\"Probably I ought not.\"\n\nThen I told him my name was Hastings too.  He shook hands with me and\nwe had quite a visit.  But he swore no more in my presence.  We could\ntrace no kinship, and I was a little glad of it.  I do not think any\nman is totally depraved, but some are very nearly so.  There is less\nexcuse for swearing than almost any other sin.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    S I X\n\nConversion.  First sermon.  Funerals and Weddings.\n\nFrom my earliest childhood I have attended Sunday Schools and church\nservices.  I have believed that God is, that Jesus Christ is the son,\nand that the Bible is true.  Years before I became a Christian I had\ndesired to be such and worship God with other Christians.  But I did\nnot know which church to join.  Mother said, read the Bible and\nlearn.  One leader said do this, another said do that.  No two\nagreed.  I did not know what to do to become one among the\nChristians.  I prayed to God but if God spake to me in an audible\nvoice I did not know it.  But these thoughts ran through my mind.  I\nbelieve and that far is all right, because the Bible so teaches and\nso do all the churches.  It ran through my mind that I ought to tell\nsomebody else besides God that I believe, so one day I went down\ntown, where there were quite a number of people worshipping God, and\nthey said they were Christians.  I said I believe too, and publicly\nconfessed and told all the men that I believed in God and that Jesus\nChrist was God's son.  They all, both men and women seem glad and I\nwas told that all the churches, as well as the Bible, taught that\nthat was right.\n\nThen again, in my mind, I realized that is was a shame and was sorry\nthat I had sinned against God and neglected to turn to him.  So, I\ndetermined to sin no more but from henceforth to obey God and follow\nthe Lord Jesus always if possible until death.  The Bible approved of\nthat procedure, all the churches preached that was right.\n\nThen it ran in my mind that I ought to be baptized and in order to be\nsafe and right, I asked that I might in my baptism be submerged in\nwater and raised up, for the Bible seemed to talk that way, and all\nthe churches said that that way would do.  So, I asked a man whom the\ngood people of all the churches so far as I knew, call the Bishop B.\nH. Smith (no kin to Joe Smith), to baptize me.  He did so my\nimmersing me in Medicine Creek in Grundy County, Mo., and raising me\nup, I came walking up out of the water calling on the name of God.\nThis occurred on the 18th day of September 1858.  Ever since then, a\nhalf century and more I have been serving, God, keeping his\ncommandments, following his Son, my Load and Master, and praying\nalways.  Now all this the Bible teaches, and so do all the churches.\nNow what church do I belong to?  You tell.  Will I be saved?  You\nsay.  Why cannot we all, Christians, take the Bible at what it says,\nand what all churches approve and be one church?  You answer.  You\nknow we need not worry about the God side.  He will do all things\nright.  It occurred to me that what I did to become a Christian was\nthat which Christ referred to in his conversation with Nicodemus.\n\nIn a few months after my second birth, I commenced to preach the word\nof Gospel and chose for my first subject, \"Promise to Abraham.\"  To\nmy surprise when I had finished I had spoken nearly an hour and a\nhalf.  I told all I knew from Abraham to Christ.  I have preached for\nfifty years since then, and while I have learned more, I have never\nat any one time preached so long.\n\nIt took me, however, a long time to get down to the regulated time of\nforty or forty-five minutes.  I always had too much to tell.  This\nsermon was preached sometime in the summer of 1859.  One thing I\nregret, yes--there may be many things,--but I wish I had kept the\ndates of things, such as converts, baptisms, funerals, weddings, etc.\nBut of these things I kept no account.\n\nA few years ago I tried to recall the number of weddings, and I got\nup among the hundreds, and got lost and gave it up.  And I am sure\nthat the funerals were as many or more than the weddings.  As a\nmatter of fact I always had many calls to weddings and funerals.  I\nhave married all kinds of people, of various ages, nationalities and\nreligions.  Among them octogenarians, negroes, and Mormon.  Some had\nbeen married from one to five times before.  But I never hear of but\ntwo couples who, after I had married them, were divorced.  Nor did I\nevery marry any that had been divorced.\n\nI have preached the funerals of many, Saints and sinners, people of\nvarious ages, nationalities and creeds.  I have baptized believers\nranging from nine to seventy-two years of age.\n\nAlthough I have been preaching for over fifty years, my preaching has\nbeen usually on Sundays.  I was a Sunday preacher.  I never gave\nmyself wholly to preaching for a livelihood.  Yet, except the last\nten or twelve years, I have missed but few Sundays.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    S E V E N\n\nProf Ficklin.  Geometry.  Bethany, Vir.  Ordination.  First\nconvert.  First funeral.  First wedding.\n\nOn the 15th day of March, 1859 I was asked how old I was.  I replied\n'Ego sum viginti unum.'  You see at that very time I was attending\nProf. Ficklin's High School in Trenton, Missouri, and I tried to put\ninto practice my Latin.  My studies at that school were Latin,\nAstronomy and Geometry.  Geometry was my favorite study and I was\nhappy to have Joseph Ficklin as my teacher, for he was one of the\nbest mathematicians in the world.  The books in the library on\nMathematics alone covered all of one end of his study.  He became the\nauthor of a series of text books on mathematics from a book on mental\narithmetic to a book on Trigonometry and calculus.\n\nAs well as I loved geometry I had to leave school before I finished\nit.  Like many another poor boy, my money gave out.  The hardest\npractical geometrical problem that ever came to me in after life was\nthis:  I wished to divide a piece of land which in shape was a\ntrapezoid.  This trapezoid had two right angles, and the parallel\nsides were respectively 170 and 120 rods in length.  The shorter of\nthe other two sides was 160 rods in length.  Now the question was, at\nwhat point in the line of the side 160 rods in length should a line\nstart, running parallel with the parallel sides of the land to the\nopposite side, so as to divide the land into two equal parts?  I have\nnever been able to solve this problem, nor could the surveyor I had\nemployed, but two of my boys, before they were as old as I was when I\nwanted to solve it, solved it.  So you see each generation becomes\nwiser than the preceding one.  This is well, provided the wisdom is\nsuch as to direct all knowledge into the ways of righteousness.\n\nI had to quit school before I had finished all my studies, but had it\nnot been for the war which came in 1861, I perhaps would have been a\ngraduate of Bethany, Vir. University.  For the good, rich brethren of\nthe country in which I commenced to preach had a habit of helping\nyoung men to an education, who were called to preach, and who bode to\nbe a success.  But the war coming on, spoiled all these plans for me.\nBut I will not express regrets for who would dare to complain when he\nhas placed himself to be lead by the hand of the Almighty.  As it is\nit may be far better than it might have been.\n\nIt was decided that I ought to be set apart to the work of an\nEvangelist (preacher) in the church of God, and on the 6th day of Aug.\n1861, during a district meeting of churches at Lindley, Grundy County\nMissouri, I was ordained to the Christian ministry, by the laying on\nhands, fasting and prayer.  Brethren John R. Howard, David T. Wright,\nBenjamin F. Smith, D. W. Stewart, and R. M. Sharp participating.\n\nMy first convert was a slave woman, who, hearing me preach, believed\nand was baptized.  She was accepted of God, for before him a poor\nslave woman at her master's feet is as precious in his sight as the\nqueen on her throne.  God is no respecter of persons.\n\nMy first funeral was on the occasion of the death of a dear little\nchild, only a few months old, the first born of young parents.  But\nthe sermon was easy, for has not the Saviour said, \"Of such is the\nKingdom of Heaven.\"\n\nMy first wedding was when, after I had finished a term of school, one\nof my school boys, a young man, came to me and said he wanted me to\nmarry him to one of my school girls, a young lady.  I said, all right\nI will do that.  The arrangements were made.  Afterwards I got to\nthinking about it, I did not know how it was done.  I had been to but\nvery few weddings in my life, and I had not noticed particularly how\nit was done.  So, I went to an old preacher who, I knew, had married\nmany people, and asked him how it was done.  He said it was easy,\njust get the parties together and talk to them very solemnly a little\nwhile about marriage and getting married and then tell them to join\ntheir right hands and ask each a solemn leading question, and if each\nsaid yes, then pronounce them husband and wife, and the thing is\ndone.  So I went away and formulated in my mind the solemn words to\nsay and the solemn questions to ask.  This ceremony proved to be very\nacceptable and popular, and during all these fifty years or more I\nhave been using the same ceremony and asking the same questions, with\nbut very little variation.\n\nBut I must confess when the time came for this first wedding, and I\nhad arrived at the place and saw the many guests with their wedding\ngarments on, I began to feel that it was not so easy a job after all.\nIn fact, I felt a little scared.  And then to add embarrassment to\nfright, another one of my pupils, a young man both older and taller\nthan I, came to me while we were in the midst of the crowd, awaiting\nthe coming of the bride and groom.  Stooping over he said in a\nwhisper to me, \"Please stand up.\"  I, thinking that he had some\nmessage that I out to hear, quietly arose at once, (for he was one of\nmy best friends) when he began to unfold a large, long paper and read\naloud to me some lingo of my duties, responsibilities and procedures.\nBut just then the bride and groom were coming, and I said to my\nfriend, \"Be seated, sir, you are a little too late with your lingo.\"\nThe joke had the effect of remove my embarrassment and fright, and I,\nwith ease proceeded with the marriage ceremony and the wedding was\nmost beautiful.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    E I G H T\n\nFirst vote.  Oldest brother.  War.  Return to Indiana.  In\nTophet again.  First Baptism.  Clarksburg meeting.\n\nAbout this time I was, the first time privileged to exercise my right\nas a voter.\n\nThe question was whether the state of Missouri should secede from the\nunion.  Brother and I voted in the negative.  Then during the same\nyear, 1860, November the 6th, we were privileged to vote for a\nPresident of the United States.  The candidates were A. Lincoln, S.\nA. Douglas, J. B. Breckenridge and John Bell.  Brother voted for Bell\nfor he thought Bell was the only one that would save the union.  I\nvoted for Douglas because I thought his election would save from the\nimpending war.  The manner of voting was then quite different from\nwhat it is now.  The judges of election sat in the school house by a\nlower open window and the voters would file up to the window on the\noutside.  For instance when I appeared at the window to vote, a judge\nfrom within asked, \"What is your name?\"  I replied, Z. S. Hastings.\n\"For whom do you vote,\" asked the judge.  I vote for Stephen A.\nDouglas,\" was my reply.  The judge then said in a loud voice, \"Z. S.\nHastings votes for Stephen A. Douglas.\"  The clerk recorded it.  That\nwas all.  The next president I voted for was Abraham Lincoln.  And,\nas it is said, of some Democrats who are still voting for Thomas\nJefferson, I am still voting for Abraham Lincoln, that is to say,\nthese Democrats are still voting for some of the principles that were\ntaught by Thomas Jefferson, and I am still voting for some of the\nprinciples held by Abraham Lincoln.  Among them the rule which is\ncalled Golden and is found the Book.  This rule is not an \"iridescent\ndream\" with me.\n\nMy oldest brother Joshua Thomas Hastings was a home guard soldier and\na teacher in Bolivar, Missouri, when the battle of Springfield was\nfought and General Lyon was killed.  After the battle the Home Guards\nand Union men in general in that part of the state, had (using a war\nword) to skedaddle for their lives.  My brother tried to make his\nescape to Kansas but three times was arrested by confederate scouts.\nOnce, in a road, sheltered on either side with hazel brush and a\nthick undergrowth of other bushes, the leader of the band, who seemed\nto want to befriend my brother, whispered to him, that a majority of\nthem (there were six or eight of them) had voted to kill him.  \"Now\"\nsaid he, \"jump for your life,\"  As soon as said, brother leaped into\nthe brush like a wild deer,--bang, went the cracking of half a dozen\nor more guns, but each shot missed except one, which just grazed the\ntop of his shoulder.  My brother then determined to return back to\nBolivar, and with his family return, if possible to Indiana.  In this\nhe was successful.\n\nAt this time our mother and two sisters were living in Allen County\nKansas.  Brother had not been back in Indiana long until he helped to\nraise a new company for the war and with it went into the union army.\nBut in less than a year he was taken sick and died in an army\nhospital at Henderson, in Kentucky, November 14th, 1863.\n\nIn the meantime I too had returned to Indiana, and, with brother's\nwife, went to him, when hearing he was sick.  We were with him only\nabout three hours before he died.  At the end of the next two days we\nreturned with him to our old home in old Clarksburg, (now Oden)\nDaviers County, Indiana, where, the next day, we buried brother by\nthe side of our father, who had been buried nine years.  This was the\nsecond death in father's family.  Brother was a good man, a scholar,\na soldier, and a teacher.  He gave his life upon the altar of his\ncountry at the early age of thirty-six.\n\nWar is a great evil, dreadful, fearful, terrible.  O, for the time\nwhen \"nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall\nthey learn war any more!\"\n\nUpon my return to Indiana, after an absence of nearly five years, I\nwas quite a different person, in many respects, from what I was when\nI went away.  I had grown in length to be six feet and two inches\ntall and the hair of my head and the beard of my face was as black as\njet, the one standing on its ends, the other full and hanging six\ninches or more in length.  Besides had I not been born anew and was\nnow a new creature?  Old things had passed away.  Yet I went back to\nmy old place of teaching, Tophet.  With preaching added to teaching,\nthere again I taught the urchins and preached to the sinners.  And at\nthis writing 1911, there is a new name, a new people (a converted\npeople), a house of God and many worshippers of the Most High God.\nSurely the world doth grow better.\n\nAt the Owl Prairie where I hoed corn when I was a little boy and\nfished in the canal, I was called to take charge of a protracted\nmeeting, and at this meeting I had my first baptism.  Heretofore I\nhad always insisted on someone of experience to doing this.  The\nbaptism took place in the West Fork of the White River.  Owl Prairie\nis now the city of Elnoa with two railroads, and churches and\nschools.\n\nMy next attendance at a protracted meeting was to help Thompson\nLittle.  This meeting was held at old Clarksburg on the very site, in\na new church building, where I went to school when quite young and\nwhere I appeared in my first effort as a public speaker.  It was a\nrecitation and commenced the way:\n\n     \"'Tis a lesson you should head,\n     If at first you don't succeed\n     Try, try again.\"\n\nWell, at this meeting I preached and seven young people came forward\nat one time and gave me their hands and made the good confession.  It\nwas the greatest number that ever came forward at any one time upon\nmy invitation.  These seven were all my old playmates and\nschoolmates.  It was a good meeting.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    N I N E\n\nGenerous friends.  Christian, Catholic Methodist, $1.50 $1.00\n$0.00  A hawk story.  April 15, 1865.  All Irish but one.  The\nBible in school.  Not Papa.\n\nDuring this period of my life, which included the latter part of the\nCivil War, I was occupied mostly at Christian Liberty, and\nWashington, Daviers County, Ind., both teaching and preaching.  A\npart of the two years following this was spent in school at\nIndianapolis and Miram, Ohio.  At Christian Liberty, my church house\nand school house were in the same yard.  On the first day I occupied\nthe one and on the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth days, I\noccupied the other.  And on the seventh day I rested.  That is the\nway teachers and preachers work.  I am not a sabbatarian.\n\nAt Christian Liberty which was a country place I made my home for\nalmost four years in the family of W. A. Wilson.  He was a well-to-do\nfarmer and had an interesting family.  He was a good man, but\nsomewhat peculiar.  For instance, as fast as I earned money teaching\nhe would borrow it, giving his note drawing legal interest, and when\nthe note was due he would pay it with the identical money he had\nborrowed.  He would also pay the interest.  I asked why he did that,\n\"O\" he would answer, \"I always like to have money in my pocket.\"\n\"Then besides,\" he would add, \"a young man ought to have his money at\ninterest.\"  Mr. Wilson was a Christian and very generous and kind.\nHe only charged me $1.50 per week for board.  I also boarded at\nanother period in my life in a Catholic family named Wade, for three\nyears.  They, too, were kind and generous, charging me only $1.00 per\nweek.  The father and mother were old and allowed me all the\nprivileges about the home as I were a son.  More than that:  they\nallowed he all the liberty of a Protestant Christian, telling me to\nread my Bible as much as I pleased, and if I wished to offer thanks\nat the table to do so.  This I did and they their crosses.\n\nOne Saturday, when sitting in my room in the spring of the year,\nlooking out of the open door I saw what not one boy in a million,\nperhaps, ever saw.  A large chicken hawk made a dive down in the yard\nat an old hen and her brood of little chickens.  Mrs. Wade heard the\nnoise and dashed out through the open door, and threw her apron over\nthe hawk, and caught it and choked it to death.\n\nOne winter when teaching in Tophet, I boarded with a Methodist man.\nHe too, was kind and generous to a fault.  All he charged me was\nnothing.  He said it was worth more to have me live with his boys\nthan it cost to board me.\n\nTeachers were elected to teach by ballot.  There was an election\ncalled, and several soldiers, who were at home on furlough, were\nthere, also others.  They got into a wrangle about soldiers voting.\nThey came to blows.  Just then a messenger came up on horseback, at\nfull speed, and cried out that Lincoln was assassinated.  I never saw\nsuch a sudden and marked change come on a company of men as came\nthen.  The whole crowd soldiers, and others, the young candidates for\nthe school with the rest, came close together like stricken brothers\nand wept even to tears.  Not a word was said for several moments\nuntil they began to leave for home, the director said, men we have\nnot voted yet.  So they turned in all together without a word and\nvoted and went home.  This was early Saturday forenoon April 15th,\n1865.\n\nOn another occasion I was a candidate for the teacher's place in a\ndistrict where every family, except one, were Irish Catholics.  The\nexception as a Methodist.  The Methodist man was chairman of the\nschool board.  The election was called for one o'clock P. M.  The\nleading spirit of the district was a large, old, fine looking\nIrishman, who had been educated for a priest.  That day (it was in\nthe spring), there was a log rolling on the leader's farm, and every\nman in the district was a Catholic except the chairman and myself.  I\nwas a stranger, had never been in the district before.  But the\nIrishmen had heard of my success as a teacher in Tophet, and on their\ncoming down to the school house after dinner to vote the leader shook\nhands with me and turning to the men he said, \"Men, let's be after\nvoting for the tall sapling and get back to the logs.\"  They all\nvoted and I received every vote but one and that was the chairman's\nvote.  In this school, I would every morning as had been my custom\nelsewhere, read a small portion of the Bible, without word or\ncomment, and offer a short prayer for God's blessing upon us through\nthe day.  I never had better behavior or as little trouble with any\nother school as I had this term with these Irish Catholic children.\n\nThe Catholics, however, generally oppose the public reading of the\nBible and prayer in the public schools.  I kindly asked a good\nCatholic friend one day why they opposed the reading of the Bible.  I\nsaid, \"The Bible is a good book.\"  \"Just so,\" he replied, \"too good a\nbook for the common people to read.\"  \"Ah, I think not.  God has\nnothing too good for his children,\" said I.  The teacher, however,\nthat reads and prays should be a good teacher.\n\nReferring to the fact that these voters seemed to recognize me as\nsoon as they saw me, though they had never seen me before, reminds me\nthat has been my experience generally through life.  I never could\naccount for people, who had only heard of me, knowing me upon first\nsight, unless it was because of my long black beard and porcupinish\nhair.  There was one exception to this, however, when I was taken to\nbe quite another person.  This I must now tell.\n\nOne year I went with Elder Joseph Wilson to a church in Lawrence\nCounty, Indiana, called White River Union, to help him hold his\nyearly protracted meeting.  It was on Sunday morning.  The elder and\nI were seated on the rostrum when a woman and her little daughter\ncame in and taking seats, looking up at us, when the child pointing\nat me whispered to her mother, \"See Papa.\"  The woman looked and\nthought, (so she said afterwards)--why, sure enough.\"  I did not\nthink he was coming.  Upon second thought she knew it could not be\nhe, for he would not be in the pulpit.  The fact was that the woman\nand her child both thought at first without doubt that I was the\nhusband and the father, simply because I looked like him.  The name\nof this family was Malott, and the husband was doctor.  I did not get\nto see him.  I wish I had.  I would like to see the man that I look\nso much alike, and even his wife and child could not tell the\ndifference.  Perhaps I could see myself then as others see me, which\nI, nor, any man has ever yet been able to do.\n\nNo two men or any two things are exactly alike.  Nor should we always\njudge a man by his looks.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    T E N\n\nBrother John.  Washington, Ind.  An accident.  An incident.\nIndianapolis, Hiram.  Garfield.\n\nI must tell you one other story, boys, about how I was not known.\nUpon my arrival from Missouri to Indiana I went at once to your Uncle\nJohn's.  They did not know I was coming.  This was in the fall of\n1861.  Brother John had not yet returned from his school.  When he\ndid come he stopped at the woodpile and commenced to cut wood for the\nnext day.  His wife stepped out on the porch and said, \"John, come\nin, there is a man here who wants to stay all night.\"  \"Well,\" said\nbrother, \"let him stay.\" And he kept on cutting wood.  But he finally\ncame in.  I arose and said, \"how do you do, sir?\"  He said, \"Howdy.\"\nI said, \"I want to stay all night.\"  He said, \"Alright, be seated.\"\nI sat down.  He said, \"Are you traveling?\"  I said, \"I have been.\"\nHe said, \"Where are you from?\"  I said, \"I am from Missouri.\"  He\nasked, \"From what part.\"  I told him.  \"Why,\" he said, \"I have two\nbrothers living there.\"  I thought he was mistaken, I had forgotten\nmyself.  I said, \"What is the name?\"  He said, \"Hastings.\"  I said,\n\"I know a W. H. Hastings there.\"  He said, \"Why, that is my brother.\nI also have a younger brother there, Z. S.  He is a teacher and they\nsay he has gone to preaching.\"  I said, \"Sure, I don't think he is\nthere now.\"\n\nWell, we sat there for half an hour, he asking about his brother and\nMissouri, and the war, and I telling what I knew.  Finally his wife\nsaid, \"John, don't you know that boy?\"  I arose and he arose and\nsaid, looking at his wife, \"Know that man?\"  \"Why, should I know\nhim?\"  I extended my hand and said you ought to know me.  He\nhesitatingly took my hand and said, \"Who are you?\"  I said, \"I am you\nbrother, Z. S.\"  He said, \"Impossible, this cannot be Simp.\"  (When I\nwas a child at home, they called me Simp.)  I replied, \"Yes I am\nSimp.\"  We could hardly make him believe.\n\nHow wonderful is life.  How little we know.  How much of the little\nwe seem to forget.  Yet someone says we never forget anything.  I\nexpect to know more, and know it better, in the life to come.  This\nbrother John was a grand old man, but he has been sleeping in the\ngrave ever since Nov. 3, 1891.  His good wife also sleeps.  But they\nleft one daughter and three sons, who are, at this writing, noble\ncitizens in Daviers County, Indiana.\n\nI was chosen President of the County Teachers Association and elected\nas first assistant principal to teach in Washington, the county seat\nof Daviers County, Ind.  This town was a little city of about four\nthousand.  It is now a beautiful city of ten or twelve thousand.\nWhile there I preached in the court house and organized a small\ncongregation which met to hear me preach and worship in observing the\nLord's Supper, on each first day of the week.  Now we have a large\ncongregation with a great church building costing many thousand\ndollars.\n\nWhile teaching here a very sad accident occurred one Saturday.  One\nof my pupils and a boy pupil from the room adjoining my room, taught\nby a lady teacher, were playing in an old barn with the barrel of an\nold army musket which had neither lock nor stock.  The boys had the\ngun barrel lying horizontally across the top of a barrel, and in\ntheir play they would place percussion caps upon the nipple of the\ngun and strike them with a piece of iron to hear the explosion.  It\nwas my boy's time to strike the cap and just as he struck the other\nboy was passing in front of the muzzle of the gun, and the gun fired,\ntearing the poor boy in front almost in two parts, killing him\ninstantly.  It was very said indeed!\n\nThe foregoing was an accident.  The following was in incident.  One\ncold, snowy, stormy, wintry morning while we were at breakfast at my\nboarding house in Washington, at once we heard a wonderful crashing\nnoise of many things fall upon the porch floor and then rush through\nan open door of a little room that stood at the end of the porch.  My\nhost ran out and closed the door and what do you think was caught?\nNot less than nine quails.  We had pot-pie for dinner.  The remnants\nof that pot-pie left over, served for dinner more or less for nearly\na week until I became very tired of pot-pie.  And so changed my\nboarding place and boarded with an old, well-to-do retired Hoosier\nfarmer and his wife.  The wife was a most excellent cook.  Elder\nHowe, who had traveled over nearly all the states as an evangelist,\nsays no people excel the Hoosiers for their hospitality and god\nthings to eat.\n\nIt was about this period of my life that I attended school at the\nNorthwestern Christian University at Indianapolis, Indiana, and later\nat Hiram, Ohio, 1865-1866.  My teachers in Indianapolis were\nPresident Benton and Prof. Nushour, and Dr. Brown.  At Hiram, Errett,\nBurnett, Milligan, Anderson and Atwater.  It was here I saw and heard\nGeneral Garfield deliver an address.  He was a great and good man.\nThe most scholarly, pure minded and devout man I ever saw were\nMilligan and Anderson.\n\nPrior to my attendance to the schools mentioned above I had seen but\nfew of our great teachers and preachers.  I had supposed the\ndifferences between what they knew and what the ordinary teacher and\nwhat the ordinary preacher knew was almost infinite in their favor\nand that their ability to tell it was very superior but, on becoming\nacquainted with them, I found they knew nothing more about the unseen\nworld, heaven or hell, or sin and its forgiveness, or death and\nsalvation, than the simple scholar and devout student of the Bible.\nNow do not think, Boys, for a moment that I am opposed to higher\neducation, and University training.  All these things are a great\nhelp and blessing to any person, provided, he or she accepts that\nwisdom that comes from God through His Bible.  No man knows anything\nbeyond the horizon of the present, except what God's Bible reveals.\nAnd faith here becomes the only means by which this knowledge is\nobtained.  But this is not to be wondered at, for is it not a fact\nthat we are dependent on faith for nearly all knowledge.  Faith is\nthe greatest principle in the world, unless it is love.  And faith is\nsimply belief.  Happy is the man who believes all things and proves\nall things, and holds fast to all that is good.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    E L E V E N\n\nA meeting.  Go to Kansas, 1967.  Nine Mile House.  Do Stones\ngrow?  On the shelf.  The Spencers.  The Johnsons.  Brother\nRufus.  March 15, 1868.\n\nDuring the holidays of the year I was in school in Indianapolis I\nheld a good meeting at Christian Liberty where I had taught and\npreached for a number of years.  Many hearing, believed and were\nbaptized.  It was at this place afterwards that I preached my\nfarewell sermon to old Indianans before going to Kansas.  There were\na great many people at this meeting.  Among them a Methodist preacher\nwho, being free to address the people, complimented me by saying that\nI had not only been a faithful servant of God among my own people but\nalso among all people.  He also said that while I left many friends\nin Indiana I would make many in Kansas.  I am happy to say, I have\nfound it even so.  That preacher after ran for Governor of Indiana.\n\nI was doing so well and had so many friends in Indiana that I had\nabout abandoned the idea of going to Kansas, but mother, two of my\nbrothers and my two sisters, were already in Kansas and were pleading\nwith me to visit them at any rate.  So about the first of July, 1867\nI took a train from Washington, Indiana, to St. Louis, Mo, and from\nthere I boarded a steamer for Leavenworth, Kansas, where I landed on\nthe tenth of July, 1867.  Our steamer, however, had made a landing\nearly in the morning at Wyandotte to unload some railroad irons for\nthe second road in Kansas.  While there I steeped off on the muddy\nshore remarking that that was the first time I had ever dotted Kansas\nsoil with my feet.  \"Well sir\" said an old darky standing by, \"this\nas a mighty big dot where you step off.\"  I do not know to this day\nwhether he meant the track I made or the town.  Kansas City, Missouri\nwas not big enough to stop at then, but it is the big dot of the West\nnow.  At Leavenworth and everywhere the yards, gardens, road-sides,\nfields, all looked barren and dead as if a fire had ran over them.\nThe grass-hoppers had just left.\n\nMy brother Henry lived west of Leavenworth city in what was called\nthe Nine Mile House.  My brother, younger brother, Rufus, and two\nsisters, Mrs. Dotson, and Mrs. Sears, lived near Grasshopper Falls\nknown now as Valley Falls.\n\nOf course I had not been in Kansas very long until it was known that\nI was a young preacher.  And I was called upon to preach the funeral\nof a most excellent lady, Mrs. Roach, who had died in the\nneighborhood of the Nine Mile House.  This was the first time I ever\npreached in Kansas.  It was only a few days after this that I\nattended a meeting held by Brethren Dibble and McCleary, a few miles\nwest of the Nine Mile House at a place called NO. 6 and here I was\ninvited to preach.  I did do it, taking for a subject, \"Growth.\"  I\nremember saying in order to growth there must be union, for\nseparation is death.  Even rocks grow, but, separated into stones,\nthey ceased to grow.  Good, old, devout, scholarly brother Humber was\nthere, and kindly criticized my sermon by saying he did not believe\nthat rocks grow.  I have never preached that sermon since, but I\nstill think rocks do grow.\n\nFrom that time, 1867, I was a faithful Sunday preacher, more or less\nin Kansas until I was nearly sixty years old, when I became so infirm\nthat I submitted to a place on the shelf, where I am still waiting\nfor transportation to the skies.\n\nBut I am not dead yet, so I will go back and tell the rest of my\nstory.  So many new friends in Kansas came about me soliciting me to\nstay, and teach and preach, that I agreed to do so for one year at\nleast.  Among these friends there were none better than Mr. Charley\nSpencer of Round Prairie.  He secured for me the school at a larger\nsalary than I had been getting in Indiana.  I also had the privilege\nof preaching in the lower room of the Masonic building.  To Mr.\nSpencer I preached the gospel, and taught his children to read.\n\nHe believed and was baptized, and his children grew up to be wise\nand good.  His son, Hon. Dick Spencer now a leading lawyer of St.\nJoseph, Mo. learned his A. B. C. at my knees.  It was also here\nduring this year that I had the great pleasure and joy of baptizing\nmy youngest brother, Rufus, into Christ.\n\nIn the meantime it was here I formed the acquaintance of the Johnson\nfamily, Mrs. Emily Johnson, the aged mother and six noble sons, W. L.\nDavid, W. H., J. E., J. C., and M. S.  These were all good citizen\nand Christians.  The youngest of whom, M. S. whose wife I baptized,\nbecame an able preacher of the Word, and is to this day, preaching\nsomewhere in the state of Oklahoma.  The third son, W. H. was\nwidower, and, with my help to solemnize the contract, he took a\nsecond wife.  This wedding took place on the hill across the creek\nfrom at Joseph McBride's residence (for the bride was his daughter),\nand this was my first wedding in Kansas.  Of the weddings that\nfollowed this I will not attempt to tell you, for they are too many\nto be enumerated in a short story of an old preacher's life.\n\nThese Johnsons all sold their possessions in Leavenworth County and\nat the suggestion of Pardee Butler, moved north into Atchison Co. and\nsettled in a new community called Pardee Station.  The Johnsons\nearnestly solicited me to follow them to their new place and teach\nand preach in a large new school house that had been erected at the\nstation.  So in the spring, 1868, I visited Pardee Station, and\npreached.  It happened that this Sunday was the 15th day of March,\nand consequently my thirtieth birthday anniversary.\n\nThis was the first time I ever preached in Atchison County.  It was\nhere and at this time that I met Elder Pardee Butler for the first\ntime in life, and his family, consisting of his wife, two sons George\nC. 15 years old and Charley P. 9 years old, and a little grown\ndaughter Rosetta, 23 years old of whom I will speak more fully later\non.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    T W E L V E\n\nSouth Cedar.  An aged Methodist.  A quick Irishman.  Webster's\nblue back spelling book.  The world was not turned upside down,\nbut the door turned on its hinges.\n\nThe school board at Pardee Station was not ready to give me an answer\nabout school, so I left them, promising the Johnsons that I would\nreturn in the fall.  I had a call to go to South Cedar in Jackson\nCounty and teach and preach.  This I did during the spring and summer\nand after the close of my school in July and August I called\nEvangelist J. H. Bauserman to come and help in a protracted meeting.\nHe came and the meeting started off nicely, but on the second or\nthird day, Brother Bauserman was called home on account of his wife's\nsevere sickness.  He could not return, but I went on with the meeting\nand it proved to be one of the best meetings I ever held.  Quite a\nnumber believed and were baptized.  The meeting was held in a large\nnatural grove near where there was much water, and was lighted with\ngreat torch lights.  At nearly every service people would come\nforward and make the good confession, and often were baptized the\nsame hour, even the same hour of the night.\n\nOne day an old man, seventy two years old, and six feet four inches\ntall, a Christian in the Methodist church for many years, came to me\nand asked me if I would baptize (immerse) him and let him remain in\nthe Methodist church.  I said, \"Certainly, I will baptize any man who\nwants to be if he believes in the divinity of Christ.\"  He was\nbaptized (immersed) and was a happy man.\n\nAt another time when I had baptized some, and was coming up out of\nthe water, I said, \"If anyone else is ready to obey his Master I will\ngladly bury him with his Lord in Baptism.\"\n\nAn Irishman, who had been faithfully attending the preaching pulled\noff his coat, and came down into the water, meeting me, he took me by\nthe hand and lead me back into the deeper water.  When I asked him if\nhe believed with all his heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,\nhe answered, \"Yes, for--today.\"  I dipped him, and he came up out of\nthe water a happy man.\n\nMy school here was very pleasant in almost every respect.  Only one\nincident occurred that was otherwise, and that turned out well.  A\nfamily of one brother and two grown sisters had only one speller\nbetween them.  I complained and sent word several times to their\nfather that he ought to get a speller for each of his children.  So\none day at noon he came over to school and took up a book and sat\ndown by me with the open book and said, \"One book is enough for\nthree.  I can see and so can you so could another on the other side\nof me.  One book is enough for three, I shall buy no more books.\"  \"I\nsee,\" I said.  \"Goodbye\" he said, and off he went.  After that I had\nthe brother sit between the two sisters and all study from the same\nbook.  Now at this time McGuffey's spellers were the only spellers\nused in all the schools.  Webster's had been out of use for almost a\ngeneration, but, in about a week after this father had called at\nschool, as stated above, he went at Atchison City and somehow and\nsomewhere he found and procured three new Webster's old blue back\nspelling books, and his children brought them to school to use.  When\nI saw them I said, \"Sure, these are the best books ever made,--the\nvery kind I studied when I was a boy.  Maybe your father can secure\nenough for the whole school.  And since one is enough for three, it\nwould not take so many.\"  \"There is only this trouble.  Until we can\nmake the change, you three will have to be in a class by yourselves.\"\nSo I kept the brother and two sisters in a class, with their blue\nback spellers, to themselves.  But, listen, in about a week more the\nclass of three came to school each with McGuffey's speller.\n\nSometimes the best way to overcome an adversary is to agree with him.\n\nOne Saturday evening I went across to North Cedar to preach and when\nI got to the school house, while there was a large crowd in the yard\nwaiting to hear me, the door to the school house was locked and the\ntrustees said, it should not be opened for me to preach.  An old\ndisciple of Christ, who lived nearby, said that I was welcome to\npreach in his house.  I said to the crowd, \"If you will follow me\nover there, I will preach.\"  Nearly everyone followed.  I simply\npreached the truth, Christ, and in my sermon referred to that text\nwhich says something about \"These that have turned the world upside\ndown are come hither also.\"\n\nWell, the next morning the world had the same side up as before only\nthat school house door had turned on its hinges and was wide open for\nme to come in and preach.  Which I did, morning and evening, and was\ninvited back again and again.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    T H I R T E E N\n\nHolton.  Netawaka.  All said, \"Amen.\"  Farmington.  Married.\nOur home.  Little Wiley Warren.\n\nWhile teaching and preaching here on South Cedar I began preaching on\nSundays at Holton.  I preached in the school house, court house, or\nany empty room that might be found that was suitable.  I found\nsuitable headquarters for my stay in the hospitable home of an old\ndisciple of Quaker origin whom everybody called Uncle Tommy Adamson.\nHe was a true lover of God.\n\nThe Presbyterians kindly offered me their house to occupy when they\nwere not using it.  My recollection is, that theirs was the only\nchurch in the town at that time.  The Methodist, who like we had been\npreaching in the school house about this time, possibly a little\nearlier, had erected a new, brick church building.  Well, the gospel\nwas preached and a number seemed interested and brother J. H.\nBauserman State Evangelist was called to help in a meeting and the\nresults was, as usual, some hearing, believed and were baptized.  At\nthe close of the meeting the converts were left pledged to meet on\nthe Lord's Day to worship God.  And I promised to meet with them\nevery two weeks to preach to them and worship with them.  This I did\nfor a year or two, going afterwards on the Central Branch as far as\nNetawaka and then across on a public hack.  For I soon returned to\nPardee Station (Farmington).\n\nSpeaking of Netawaka, reminds me of being called there in later life\nto marry a young Methodist gentleman to a young Mormon lady.  And\nthis reminds me that I have married people of nearly all creeds,\ncolors and nationalities.  So of funerals.  The Mormon preacher was\nat the Netawaka wedding, but I did not know it until the wedding was\nover.  To this day I do not know why I was called to this wedding.  I\nwas never treated more kindly and hospitably at any other wedding.\nAnd here let me say that the money I have received for weddings and\nfunerals, I think is more than I ever received for preaching.\n\nIn Netawaka on that day, in the afternoon, I attended the Mormon\npublic worship.  There were about sixty present, and they, except the\ngroom and his bride, were old people and foreigners.  Although the\npreacher was present there was no preaching.  It was a social, song\nand prayer service, and every man and woman took a part except the\nnewly married couple.\n\nWhen all had had their turn, an elder, (the father of the bride)\nlooked at me and said, \"Brother you have plenty of time, if you have\nanything to say, say it.\"  This was very unexpected to me, but I\nstood up and said, \"Brethren, if you will allow me to call you\nbrethren, this is the first time I ever attended your services, and I\nmust confess that the service, as it seems to me, is much like the\nold fashion services of the Methodist and disciples that I attended\nwhen a little boy with my mother, and I feel very comfortable and\nmuch at home.  They all said \"Amen.\"\n\nFrom South Cedar I returned to Farmington and found a nine month's\nschool waiting for me at fifty dollars per month.  So I accepted the\nwork and continued it for five years at an advanced salary of sixty-five\ndollars per month.  In the meantime, June the 28th, 1870, I was\nmarried to Miss Rosetta Butler who still lives to bless my life, and\nis still a true helpmeet in my old age.  Shortly after our marriage\nwe begin the erection of a new, farm home for ourselves about one-half\nmile west of the station.  It was not long until we had a home,\nnot a palace, but a home though humble, yet tidy, convenient and good\nenough for a queen, as in fact, it was occupied by a queen.  Nor do I\nthink, boys, could anything but compliments be placed by our old\nneighbors upon the way things were kept all about our farm when you\nwere there.  Do you remember the old Farm?  And let me say just here\nthat while God has always been good to me and comparatively my whole\nlife has been a happy one no period of it was more happy, more\nhopeful and sweet than the few years in our old home where I was the\nhead, your mother the queen and you children were about our knees.\n\nFor just twenty-five years we (wife and I) lived at Farmington.  This\nis just half of the life of my man-hood days.  Here all our children\nwere born.  By us no threshold was ever crossed more than this one.\nNo paths were ever trodden more frequently than the paths to the\nwell, the barn and the post-office, and the church.  No neighbors\nwere ever so long ours in kindness and love.  No birds ever sang so\nmuch and sweetly as those in the very trees that had been planted by\nour own hands.  And no home was ever more truly dedicated day by day\nto Almighty God upon bended knee and in the reading of His word.\n\nDo you remember the old home, boys?  But life is not always\nsweetness.  It cannot be, under the present sin-curst environments.\nThe first bitter experience and great sorrow that came to us, was\nwhen death came our way on the 21st day of July 1877, and took away\nour fourth little boy whom we had called Wiley Warren.  He was only 1\nyear, 6 months and 17 days old.\n\nI had preached the funerals of many little children before the death\nof our little boy, and had thought that I knew how to sympathize with\nparents who had to bury their children, but I did not.  If I were not\nan old preacher I would like to say now what I have said often when\nyounger, that everything else being equal, an old preacher is better\nto preach, and do pastoral work for a congregation than a young one.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    F O U R T E E N\n\n110 years.  28th of June, 1884.  4 and 3.\n\nClosing school at Farmington in 1873, I quit teaching and took up\nfarming and preaching, as I had teaching and preaching until the year\n1907 when I retired at the age of 70.  So then I attended school off\nand on 10 years, taught 15 years, farmed 35 years, preached 50 years,\nworking in the aggregate 110 years in a life of 70.  The explanation\nis that some people can do two things or more at one and the same\ntime.\n\nOn the 28th of June, 1884, indicating just exactly fourteen years of\nour (wife's and my) married life, our youngest child was born.  In\nthe meantime during these fourteen years to us (wife and me) were\nborn seven children viz: Harry H. April 3rd, 1871.  Paul P. October\n22nd, 1872.  Otho O. April 8, 1874.  Wiley W. January 4th, 1876.\nClara C. September 24th, 1877. Edith E. January 31st. 1881, Milo M.\nJune 28th 1884.  Do you notice that the above children each has\ndouble initials.  This happened so with the two first, with the\nothers it was purposed so.  All of these children were born in the\nsame home, Farmington, Atchison County, Kansas.  But now the parents\nare together, alone and lonesome.  Not a child near, only in memory.\nYet the seven are.  Four are here--  In St. Louis, Harry.  In\nPrescott, Paul.  In Independence, Otho.  In New York, Milo.  In\nHeaven three.  Little Wiley went on the 21st day of July 1877.  Jesus\nsaid of him, \"Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.\"  Edith when on the\n8th day of November, 1902.  Elder H. E. Ballou said of her: \"Fallen\nAsleep.\"\n\nMiss Edith Hastings, daughter of Elder Z. S. Hastings, granddaughter\nof Pardee Butler, November 8th, 1902.  Age twenty-one years.  Was\nborn of water and of the Spirit February 2, 1894.  F. M. Hooton,\nminister of the house at Pardee, in which her father and grandfather\npreached and which services in memoriam were held.  Dear old house,\nif thy walls could speak how many, how many things thou woulds't say.\nThou woulds't tell what we can feel, but cannot speak of or write of.\nDear, pure Edith.  Ten days of unalarming illness--sudden death.  A\nsurprise to all but her.  A great shock.  Did the Lord tell her\n\"tonsillitis\" is something fatal?\n\n\"May heaven's blessings rest on the family, noble, useful family.\nEarthly home is sad now.  Heavenly home still nearer and dearer.  And\non the church she loved, on the Senior C. E.--we will not forget her\npure sweet talks there--on the Junior C. E. she organized and\nsuperintended until death.  On her assistant superintendent and bosom\nfriend, Miss Maude Tucker.  On the school she taught, on students of\ncounty Normal at Effingham, who loved her, on one noble young student\nof Drake University who came to sit among the mourners as though he\nwas already one of the family.  All love her at Drake--Yes\neverywhere.\"\n\nClara went on the 23rd day of May, 1906.  Mrs. Prof. J. W. Wilson\nsaid of her:\n\n     \"A Beautiful Life\"\n\nClara C. Hastings was born at Farmington, Kansas, Sept. 24, 1877.\nMarried June 28th 1905.  Died May 20th, 1906.  Graduated from the A.\nC. H. S. in the class of '98 and later completed the teachers' course\nin Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa.  Taught nearly two years in\nprimary grades at Maxwell, Iowa.  Resigned during the second year to\nstay with her parents after the death of her sister Edith.  Spent one\nyear in Muscotah, Kansa, as primary teacher.\n\n\"On June the 28th, 1905 she married Charles G. Sprong, and their\nmarried life was one of happiness, with every prospect of happiness\nand usefulness before them.  On May 12, 1906 twin daughters came to\nbless their home.  Four days later little Edith died and on May 23,\nClara closed her eyes on all things earthly and her Heavenly Father\ncalled he home.  A bereaved husband, a father, mother, four brothers\nand numerous friends mourn her loss.  Her life was short but well\nlived, for she spent it in doing good.  A kind smile and a kind word\nfor everyone was characteristic of her.  Many evidences of her love\nand sympathy for others were shown at the funeral by the expressions\nof sympathy from the little children and aged alike.\n\nWhen all hope of life was abandoned and it was thought best by\nfriends to tell her the end was near, her husband gently reminded her\nof little Edith in heaven, and told her she would soon be with her.\nAlthough a little surprised for she thought she was better, she said\nit was all right if it was God's will.  Her last hours were spend in\ncomforting those left behind and many loving messages she gave them\nthat will be a comfort to them and a help to lessen the sting of\ndeath.  Her bright mind was active to the last.  She called for paper\nand pencil and named over many friends to whom she wished messages\nsent.  Repeating with her father the Lord's Prayer, and telling them\nnot to mourn for her, her bright pure life closed. She died as she\nhad lived--a Christian.  The funeral services were held at the Potter\nchurch, conducted by Rev. Hilton of Atchison.  The floral tribute was\nbeautiful.  A large number of people were present, but owing to the\ndistance a great many were unable to attend.  Those from Effingham\nwere Hiss Speer, Emma Ellis, Ollie Wilson, Mabel Weaver, Nellie\nGrable, Mrs. J. W. Wilson, Mollie Campbell, J. W. Campbell and Ertel\nWeaver.\n\nEvangelist Frank Richard wrote of her:  \"The memory of such a life is\nas the lingering twilight after the golden sun has set.  It is the\nprecious memory of a life service.  Service to her was a genuine\npleasure.  For her Master she served whose guiding hand she trusted.\nHer life was genuine, sweet and gentle.  A deep religious fervor\ncharacterized it throughout.  Pious, consecrated and devout she was.\nHer services in the church were highly appreciated.  She loved the\nchurch.  Her splendid counsel and example were of inestimable worth\nto the young people both in and out of the church.  In her home the\nsweetness of her life was a constant pleasure to her friends and\nloved ones.  To permeate the home with a Christian spirit was to her\na high aim.\"\n\nThe weight of sorrow brought on us by the death of these two noble\ndaughters is still so heavy as to bring tears to our eyes and sadness\nto our hearts.  But we hope in God.\n\nLittle Ethel, one of the twins, still lives with her father and a\nkind step-mother.  May the mantle of her dear mother's goodness fall\nupon her and she grow up to be good and happy.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    F I F T E E N\n\nPlaces.  \"Uncle Daniel.\"  Will Price.  Visit Ind. 1881.\nReturn.  Golden Rule.\n\nBut to return a few years in the events of my humble life, I find\nthat I attended my first State Teachers' Association in Kansas in\n1869.\n\nAfter I quit teaching I took up regular farming but kept up Sunday\npreaching all these many years.  Preaching at Farmington, Pardee,\nPleasant Grove, Crooked Creek, Lancaster, Wolf River, Holton, Whiting\nGoff, Round Prairie, Valley Falls, Atchison, Hiawatha, Highland,\nNetawaka, Corning, Dyke's School House, Topeka, Winthrop, Winchester,\nEaston, Nortonville, Effingham, Muscotah and Williamstown.  Of course\nI did not preach regularly very long for many of these places but\nsimply made evangelical visits.  But for some of them I preached\nregularly a number of years.\n\nI preached in Wolf River in Brown County for two years.  Every\npreacher likes to have wherever he preaches a place, or home, he can\ncall his headquarters.  Well, at Wolf River Daniel Miller's home was\nmy home.  Uncle Daniel Miller (everybody called him Uncle Daniel) was\na devout disciple, and one of the most charitable and hospitable men\nI ever knew.  Uncle Daniel was a well-to-do farmer and many were the\npoor who received from his charitable hand wood, hay, corn, meat,\npotatoes, apples and money.  And, if the preacher's sum was lacking\nhe footed the bill.\n\nI remember one Sunday morning after the sermon I had a double wedding\nwhich I solemnized in one ceremony, and Uncle Daniel had no bill to\naugment that day.  I usually received for preaching from $5 to $10\nper day.  But that day I had more than twice that amount.\n\nMany years after the wedding referred to above, I saw a notice in the\nnewspaper that the Hon. Will Price, candidate for the senate, would\nspeak in Woodman Hall.  I attended the meeting.  The speaker came to\nme and taking me by the hand said, \"Elder, how-do-you-do?\"  I said,\n\"How do you do?  But I do not know you.\"  He said, \"Do you remember\nthe double wedding on Wolf River some years ago?\"  \"Yes,\" I said,\n\"But you are certainly not the young, bashful, scared, Will Price of\nthat event.\"  \"I am he\" he said, and sure enough he was he.  But now,\nso different, large, handsome, wise and brave.  All boys ought to\ngrow to be men, for men are what we need in this old, sinful,\nabnormal world.\n\nIn 1881 after I had been away from old Indiana my native home for\nabout fourteen years, I returned and visited the scenes of my early\nlife.  Many were the changes--a passing of the old, and a coming of\nthe new, bringing to me a mingling of sadness and gladness.  Sad,\nthat so much I loved before and gone.  Glad that so much new had come\nthat was good.  Everywhere I had been known I was greeted with much\nlove, respect and honor.  So I was constrained to preach again at the\nold altars.  And one young man even persuaded me to marry him to a\npretty girl because he said he wanted to marry her and she was\nwilling.  So I preached again at old Liberty where I had preached and\ntaught more perhaps than at any other place in the State.  I took for\nmy subject \"Unbelief.\" using as a text the prayer of the poor man\nwhose son had a dumb spirit,--\"Lord, I believe.  Help thou mine\nunbelief.\"  But, where all may seen to be gladness and joy and faith,\nsin, or its effect, is always lurking around somewhere nearby.\n\nAs I was preaching I recognized in the back part of the audience a\nman with tears in his eyes.  He was a strong intelligent man of the\ncommunity.  He was about my age and fifteen years before this time,\nwhen we were both younger I heard him confess with his mouth that\nJesus Christ is the Son of God, and I with by own hands baptized him\ninto Christ.\n\nAfter the sermon as he came to me, I said, \"Sir, what mean these\ntears, are they tears of joy or tears of sorrow?\"  He answered,\n\"Tears of sin, I suppose, for while I was listening to you preach I\nwas only wishing that I could have the strong faith which you seem to\nhave.\"  He had lost his faith by forgetting his first love.  \"He that\nloves not, obeys not.  Not everyone that saith to me, Lord, Lord,\nshall enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of\nmy father, which is in Heaven, Jesus.\"\n\nNotwithstanding the many attractions of interest, love and friendship\namong my relatives, and friends of old Indiana I had not been there\nfour weeks until my heart was fully set to return to Kansas.  And why\nnot?  Had I not left there a dear wife and five little children?\nCount, boys, how old you were then.  Clara and Edith also.  Edith was\nless than a year old.  But I had fondled her so much upon my knees\nand call her by \"Great Blue Eyes\" and sang to her so much\n\n     \"Baby Bunn baby bunn\n     Great Blue Eyes\n     Looking now so merry\n     Now so very wise.\"\n\nThat upon my return home on the night train, when on entering the\nhome in the darkness of the night, that I might not frighten anyone I\ncall out, \"Where are my big blue eyes?\"  Little Edith being awake and\nhearing me, cried out at once, \"Papa, Papa.\"\n\nUpon my return home I resumed my work.  Crooked Creek was one of my\nregular places for preaching quite a while.  I remember preaching\nthere a sermon on the Golden Rule so called.  In my discourse I used\nthe same basic principles and words that Christ used in his Sermon on\nthe Mount.  But afterwards a certain disciple said, \"It is no use to\npreach that way, for no one can live up to such teaching.\"  But it\nturned out in a few years afterwards that that disciple made, (and is\nto this day) one of the most faithful, obedient and sacrificing\nmembers of the Church of God.  Thus it seems that the Word preached\nmay kill or make alive.  In this case it seems to have done both.\n\nIn the labors of my life as a preacher, my work was mainly confined\nto the churches, and not to the world.  I knew nothing however but to\npreach the gospel and teach the word.  So I think the gospel is the\npower of God to salvation to both saints and sinners.\n\nAt another place one had heard, believed and wanted to be baptized,\nbut her husband said, \"He who baptizes my wife endangers his life.\"\nI said to the believer, \"I will risk it.\"  I baptized her.  In two\nweeks I preached again and at the end of the sermon that poor man\ncame to me and said, \"I have been wrong.  I want to confess Jesus and\nbe immersed.\"  I baptized him.  Some years after that I preached the\nfunerals of both.  Their lives had not been perfect but in their\ndeaths there was hope.  We live by hope.  We are saved by hope.  Let\nus hope in God.  Hope is one of a trio of the greatest principles in\nthe world.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    S I X T E E N\n\nPolitics.  Topeka.  A vote.  A snow storm.  Sister Lottie.\nWhiting.  Pleasant Grove.  Atchison.\n\nThere are many pleasant things connected with preaching and sometimes\nthings are not so pleasant.  Of course, the most pleasant of all to\nthe true, conscientious preacher, is turning many from wrong to\nright, to salvation from sin and all its consequences.  To know that\nyou have preached righteousness and lived a life worthy of imitation,\nfills the cup of joy to overflowing.\n\nWhile I have been teacher, farmer and preacher for years and years\nand at one time was elected to a State office, I never was a\npolitician in the first sense of the word.  Unfortunately the bad\nsense of the word has become the first.  There is a meaning in\npolitics in which all may be and should be politicians.\n\nAfter I had taught and stood in the front rank of teachers, I thought\nI was entitled to be superintendent of schools, but because I would\nnot stand as a politician in its bad sense I was turned down.  Turned\ndown because while right prevailed, wrong did much more prevail at\nthat time.  It was in the time of the saloons.\n\nBut they say it is a poor rule that does not work both ways.  So\nwithout my seeking or asking for it, in the fall 1875 I was nominated\nand elected to the office of State Representative: and this because I\nwas a politician in the true and better sense of the word, a\nChristian gentleman and pure statesman.  And yet, it was the time of\nsaloons.  And yet, again righteousness did abound but sin did much\nmore abound.  I wondered why I was chosen, until a friend explained\nit was because they wanted to give credibility to the ticket.  To\nthis day, I do not know whether it was a compliment or not.  But is\nmade no difference, it was at the State Capitol with over a hundred\nother law-makers in the session of the centennial year, and enjoyed\nit.  For I found many good men and learned gentlemen not a few.  And\nwas honored by being placed at the head of the education committee\nand placed on two or three other committees also.  Among the many\nvotes and things I did, I shall always remember with pleasure and\npride one.  I was one of the six first to case a vote for the first\ntemperance resolutions.  I have lived to see temperance prevail and\nthe saloons to go.  The above is briefly the political paragraph of\nmy life story and I am willing that it may go up to the Judge of all\nthe earth.\n\nWhile in Topeka I found but one family who were simply disciples of\nChrist, but the Baptist disciples of Christ invited me to preach in\ntheir house which stood near the Capitol building.  Neither the\nchurch building nor the Capitol building was completed at that time.\n\nAt the close of the legislature a free excursion to the Rocky\nMountains was offered to all the members, but I declined to go, for I\nwas anxious to go home to a loved wife and four little boys whose\nnames I remember were Harry, Paul, Otho and Wiley.  I always was a\ngreat lover of home.  The way it turned out I was truly glad that I\ndid not go to the excursion, for at that time, on the 27th day of\nMarch, 1876, there fell the greatest snow-storm I ever saw in all my\nlife.  And the excursionists were snowbound in the Rocky Mountains\nmany days.  Here in Kansas the snow drifted, in many places, from\nfifteen to twenty feet deep, and it was almost May before the roads\nwere passable to the city of Atchison, and many other places.\n\nOn the 21st day of this snowy month of March my youngest sister, Mrs.\nCharlotte Ann Sears departed this life, at her home near Logan,\nKansas, aged 34 years, 9 months and 18 days.  She was the sister\nplaymate of my childhood days, being about three years younger than\nI.  Years afterwards I visited her grave in the cemetery near Logan\nand the next day preached in the church building of the town, on the\nChristian's Hope.  This was the third death of my father's family,\ncounting father himself.\n\nI was the first to preach at Whiting, preaching in a large upper\nroom, until the disciples who had been called together built a house,\nand dedicated it to God.  In this house, I continued to preach.  That\nhouse stands unto this day and the disciples still worship there.\nAmong the many that were there then whom I remember favorably and\nwith pleasure remain but few, among them the efficient and scholarly\nDr. Woodell.  But the Doctor now, like the writer of these lines, is\nold and near the end.\n\nGoffs too, was another place where I was the first to preach,\nbeginning in the school house and ending in a new church building,\nwhere the disciples worship unto this day.  The pleasant recollection\nof the names of Brockman, Springer and others will always be\nassociated with my remembrances at Goffs.  It is said that we never\nforget anything.  I believe this only in part.  I think the bad will\nbe forgotten while the good will be remembered forever.  Even the\ngood Lord has promised that he will remember our sins no more.  So I\nthink He will let us forget the bad forever.\n\nSo, too, Pleasant Grove, a country church just south of Effingham one\nof the best country churches I ever knew, is where I preached from\nthe beginning, (I mean my beginning in Kansas) regularly for many\nyears.  It was in the spring of 1868 that two brothers, John and\nJacob Graves, of Pleasant Grove came to Round Prairie where I was\nteaching and preaching to hear me, and invited me to Pleasant Grove.\nI never found a better preacher's home then the home of Jacob Graves.\nGood man, he has gone to this reward in the skies.  Brother John\nGraves still lives and stands among the first on the list of my old\nfriends, and in the estimation of all as one of the best men in the\nworld.\n\nWhen I think of the fellowship, the kindness, the friendship and the\nlove of the disciples of Christ, I think and know that His\nChristianity is the best thing in the world, and the only thing, as\nan organization, that is absolutely necessary for a man to join.  In\nan early period of the church in Atchison I frequently preached in a\nsmall upper room which would seat about 50 people. This hall was\nfurnished us free by Gen. W. W. Guthrie.\n\nI remember being in the city one day and remained until evening to\nsee the fireworks.  As I was going down town I met a man who said to\nme, \"Brother, where are you going.\"  I told him.  He said, \"Well, you\nturn around and go with me to prayer meeting, and then we will have\ntime to see the fireworks.\"  I asked, \"Where is the prayer meeting?\"\nThe answer was, \"In the little upper room where you have preached.  I\nturned around and went, and I still think it is a good thing to do--\nto turn around and go to prayer meeting.  When we got to the place of\nprayer, the minister, M. P. Hayden and three women were there.  With\nour augmentation there were, in all, six.  But we felt, before the\nservice was over, that another was present, even He who said, \"When\ntwo or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the\nmidst of them.\"\n\nAtchison has a congregation now of a hundred times six.  Some of whom\nare my children in the gospel.  I always fell especially proud of\nJohn A. Fletcher and his wife because they are so good, and because I\ntaught them their letters, baptized them, and married them.  This was\nat Farmington.  And many others at Farmington were mine by teaching,\npreaching, marrying and burying.  I lived, taught and preached longer\nat Farmington than any other place.  I had in one family seven\nweddings, and almost as many funerals.  Over in the Pleasant Grove\nneighborhood I had nine wedding in one family.  Some, of whom at this\ntime, are my door neighbors and seem like my own children.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    S E V E N T E E N\n\nT. B. McCleary.  1888 Sunday schools.  Giants.  Deaths.  John.\nElizabeth.  Effingham, 3-1-1885.  A fire.\n\nThat man I met going to prayer meeting was J. B. McCleary, with whom\nI am at the present time associated in the Eldership of the church at\nEffingham.  We have known each other all these years since.  Brother\nMcCleary is my senior exactly nine years to a day.  For many years we\nhave been eating birth-day dinners together, first at his house and\nthen at mine, until his good wife died.  Since then we have always\ntried to have brother Mc. To eat with us.  And my good wife has for\nnearly forty years prepared a chicken pie for my birthday dinner.\n\nThe year 1888 brought to both me and my dear wife a weight of\nsadness.  My good old mother passed away from the home of here\nyoungest son in Harper County at the advanced age of four score\nyears, two months, and twenty-six days.\n\nZettie's beloved father departed this life at the age of three score\nand two years, seven months and ten days, from his home one mile east\nof Farmington.  Why sadness?  These loved parents had lived to good\nold ages.  Aha!  This sadness will work out for us an eternal weight\nof gladness someday.\n\nThe story of my life would not be complete if I did not add the part\nI have taken in the general or union Sunday School work of Atchison\nCo.  The Atchison Country Sunday School Union Association was\norganized at Muscotah in the year 1870.  I was present.  This\nassociation has held an annual Convention each year since its\norganization and I have missed but two meetings.  No one has been\nmore faithful in attendance than that.  Then with few exceptions I\nhave always had a place on the programs.  For five terms, or years I\nwas secretary and for two, president.  But, for leadership and\nfaithful, untiring service in this great work, the need of praise\nmust go to Issac Maris of the Seventh day lane.  In all the work of\nthe Bible Schools of this country I have always felt, during these\nfour decades, that it was an honor t try to stand as a second to\nIssac Maris is a friend.  In all my life's labor as a Sunday School\nworker I have associated with no one so long and pleasantly as a\ncoworker as Isaac Maris.\n\nI must tell you just one instance of our lives.  Mr. Maris is two\nyears older than I am, and two inches taller, he being 6 feet, 4\ninches and I 6 feet and 2 inches.  Well, brother Maris and I attended\ntogether a district Sunday School Convention in the city of Horton.\nThe first evening was the children's hour.  Many children were there,\nseated on the front seats of the large hall.  E. O. Excell was\nleading the children in song.  Brother Maris and I were seated just\nbehind the children when one little fellow was overhead to say to\nanother, referring to us, \"Who am them two big fellows?\"  His\nseat-mate replied, \"Don't you know them fellows? They are two Sunday\nSchool giants from Atchison country.\"  We took that and still take it\nas a great compliment.\n\nIn the fall of 1891 the sad intelligence came to me from Indiana that\nmy brother John A. Hastings was dead.  At his death he was fifty-nine\nyears and fourteen days old.  Brother was a good man, a devout\nChristian.  Of his family still living there are one daughter and\nthree sons, all noble, Christian citizens of Washington, Indiana.\nOne of the boys is a newspaper publisher, the other two are able\nlawyers.\n\nA few years later my oldest sister Nancy Elizabeth who lived in\nOregon, passed away at the age of 62 years, 2 months and 10 days.  Of\nher family only one son, Reuben Edgar Peyton is living.  He lives at\nPeyton, Oregon.  At this writing I have only two brothers left.  One,\nHenry, about ten years my senior, the other, Rufus, about ten years\nmy junior.\n\nIn the fall of 1894 I was elected a trustee of the Atchison county\nHigh School, and made secretary of the Board, and held this position\nfor six years being elected the second time.  That same fall we sold\nour farm, 130 acres just east of Farmington for $5,500 and bought a\nfarm 80 acres, just east of Effingham for $4600, and moved to it on\nthe 1st day of March, 1895.  At this time only three of our children\nwere at home, Clara, Edith and Milo.  Harry, Paul and Otho were off\ndoing for themselves.  Harry had attended school at Holton and\nLawrence.  Paul had graduated at a Business College in Kansas City,\nMo.  Otho had graduated at the county High School.  The girls and\nMilo each afterwards graduated at the County High School, and the\ngirls attended school at Drake University, and Milo graduated from\nthe State Agricultural College at Manhattan, Kansas.\n\nOn the night of the same day I was elected trustee, the High School\nburned to the ground.  We could see, the next morning, from\nFarmington, where we then lived, the flames and smoke still\nascending.  The first thing after the fire was for the Board to\nsecure a place or places to continue the school.  A mass meeting was\ncalled in the Presbyterian Church.  I attended the meeting and was\ncalled to the chair.  Through the energy, enthusiasm and sacrifice of\nthe citizens, especially Mr. Frank Wallack, the resident member of\nthe board and Principal Mr. Hunter, Assistant Prin. J. W. Wilson, and\nthe suggestion of Pres. Snow of the State University, who happened to\nbe present, the school was running the next day in the churches and\nsuitable vacant rooms that could be found in the town.\n\nThe new board was organized the 1st Tuesday in January, and the first\nbusiness of importance was the securing the insurance money, and the\nbuilding of a new house.  There was some delay, caused by not being\nable to adjust matters with the insurance companies, and collect the\nmoney.  Finally, however, every cent was collected and a new building\nwas erected and stands to this day, and Atchison Country has a high\nschool second to none in the state.\n\nOur move from Farmington to Effingham was the only move we had ever\nmade.  It being only six miles, it was suggested that we move\neverything worth moving, which when accomplished proved to be a task\nof fifty-two wagon loads.\n\n---0---\n\n\n\nC H A P T E R    E I G H T E E N\n\nEffingham, Church.  S. S. Muscotah.  1899.  Second visit back\nto old Indiana.  The Captain.  Return to Kansas.  St. Louis.\nReturn.  Clara.  Home.  Waiting.\n\nOur reasons for locating at Effingham were, the civility of the town,\nthe beauty of the country, and the advantage of the High School.\nTrue, there was no congregation of Christians, nor ever had been\nexcept those with human named added, but my life up to this time, for\nthirty-five years had been spent in trying to persuade Christians to\nbe one, and organize simply as Christians.  So I concluded I would\ncontinue to do the same thing in Effingham.  Please note that I never\nuse the name disciple or Christian in any sectarian sense.  Well, I\nhad not been here long until I found Christians who invited me to\npreach in their meeting houses when not occupied by themselves.\nNotably among them were Uncle Ben Wallack, of the Lutheran church,\nand William Reece of the South M. E. Church.\n\nFew, if any disciples in the movement for unity, had ever preached in\nEffingham.  I had been called several times to the town to preach\nfunerals, but that was all.  So I commenced preaching in the Mr. E.\nChurch South on Sundays and having preached a few times, I requested\nthat at our next meeting all disciples or Christians, (I use these\nnames as synonyms) who were not members of any congregation, to\nremain after the sermon.  This they did, and I addressed them in the\nsubstance as follows: \"Beloved disciples of Christ, for such your\naction proves you to be, my purpose in requesting you to remain today\nis to get better acquainted with you, and possibly organize ourselves\ninto a church of Christ.  In order to further carry out these\npurposes, I will, by you permission ask each a direct question and\ntake your names, thus enrolling you as members of a church of Christ\nin Effingham.  So I took paper and pencil in hand and asked each one\nthe same question, viz: \"Are you a Christian?\" and took the name of\neach.  The answer of each one to the question was simply \"yes.\"\nexcept one lady who said, \"Yes, in the Baptist church.\"  I said, \"All\nright, let me take your name and since there is no Baptist Church in\nEffingham, you go along with us, without the Baptist name.\"  She\nconsented, and she is to this day a member in good standing and full\nfellowship and nearly all her children have become Christians too.\n\nThere was enrolled 32 names that day, and this was the beginning of\nthe Christian church in Effingham.\n\nFrom this number myself, Henry Shell, Sr., and J. W. Jones were\nelected Elders and brethren J. W. Wilson, J. M. Shell and C. M.\nGregory were elected Deacons.  This was in the month of May, 1895.  I\npreached on for sometime, but the infirmities of the flesh and old\nage creeping upon me I had to give up preaching.  So for about 12 or\n15 years I have preached but little.  Indeed for many years before I\nquit preaching I preached under a great weakness of the flesh.\n\nIn the meantime the observance of the Lord's Supper was kept up each\nLord's Day, and a Sunday School had been organized with the M. E.\nSouth Christians and ourselves working together, by electing Prof. J.\nW. Wilson as Superintendent.\n\nIn the summer of 1895 Evangelist O. L. Cook held a meeting of fifteen\nor twenty days under an arbor on Main Street.  At that meeting the\nnumber of members was increased to seventy, and the church and Sunday\nSchool were more fully organized, and have been meeting regularly on\nthe Lord's Day, and are at this time meeting in their own brick\nveneered building, on Elizabeth Street.  All these years I have had\nthe honor and responsibility of being the Senior Elder.\n\nFrom the beginning to the present, 1911, there have been 448 added to\nthe church roll.  At present the church owes nothing and is having\npreaching all the time by Frank Richard, an able and conscientious\nminister of the Gospel.  The church, by removals, decrease almost as\nfast as it increases.  The membership at this writing is about 150.\n\nMuscotah is a thriving little city just west of Effingham.  There are\nbut few disciples there except those in the churches of the town.  I\nhave preached there a few times.  Once the funeral of a little girl,\nname Clara Hastings, but she was no kin to us.  At other times the\nfunerals of a very aged man and wife named Mooney.  The wife was an\nown niece of Alexander Campbell.  She was a very good and learned\nwoman.\n\nIn 1899 with Clara who was in her 22nd year, I made a second trip\nback to old Indiana.  It had been eighteen years since the other\ntrip.  The eighteen years had made many wonderful changes.  So much\nso that I felt almost like a stranger in a strange land.  Had it not\nbeen for the sweet, bright, joyful, spirit of the dear daughter that\naccompanied me, the trip would have hardly been tolerable.  O, the\njoy of the father whose sons and daughters rise up in his old age and\nbless and honor him!  It was on this very visit when Captain\nHastings, hearing me talk of my boys and girls, said to me, \"Cousin\nSimpson, I see that you, like your dear old mother, love your\nchildren.  I never knew a mother that loved her children more than\nshe did.\"  \"True, Captain\", I said, \"I have always like the extremes\nof age, the young and the old, and of course I like my own children.\nI think when they were little about my knees was the happiest period\nof my life.\"\n\nWe returned home to dear old Kansas--to our home near Effingham, but\nit was not like it was at the first return eighteen years before when\nthe buildings were in their home nest, and great blue eyes were\nlooking out for me.  But now some had already flown and others were\nabout ready.  True, your dear old mother was there, and Edith too,\nand Milo were there but in three short years Edith took her flight in\ncompany with the angels to the skies to return no more.\n\nIn 1904 your mother and I went to St. Louis to see the World's Fair,\nand to attend the National Convention of the disciples of Christ.  We\nmade our home at Harry's and so enjoyed the wonderful sights at the\nFair, and feasted upon the rich spiritual things of the Convention.\n\nOnce again we, (your mother and I this time) returned to our humble\nhome.  Do you know, boys, that there is no place like home?  Well,\nthis is true, if home is home.  But I declare to you when it comes to\ntaking your place at the old dining table and all the places on each\nside of its full length are empty and only the two end places are\noccupied, it is lonesome.  Only one more leaving and this was true of\nyour father and mother's table.  For when Clara on the 28th day of\nJune, 1905 the thirty-fifth anniversary of her father and mother's\nmarriage and the twenty first anniversary of her brother Milo's\nbirth, was married to Mr. Charles G. Sprong, the last place of the\nchildren was vacated, and we were left alone.\n\nBut the heavier weight of sadness and sorrow did not come until,\nwithin less than a year from Clara's happy marriage, death came for\nher.  And she was accompanied by the angels into the unseen world of\nGlory.\n\nIn our lonesomeness we exchanged our farm home for a home in\nEffingham, and moved to it September 19th, 1907.  And here I rest,\ntrusting and hoping in God.\n\nSome day when I cannot, will you please fill out the blanks below and\nthat will be the beginning of the end.\n\n\nZ. S. HASTINGS.\n\nBorn March 15th, 1838\n\nDied ________ ____ ______.","title":"Autobiography of Z. S. Hastings","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":21425}