Book J§y^c._ 
 
THE IOWA BAND 
 
 New and Revised Edit 
 
 REV. EPHRAIM ADAMS. D.D. 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 XTbe pilodm press 
 
 CHICAGO 
 

 LINOTYPED AND PRINTED BY J. .1. ARAKEl.V;^ 
 295 CONGRESS STREKT. BOSTON. 
 
 
DEDICATION TO FIRST EDITION 
 
 To the Rev. Asa Turner, 
 Dear Brother : 
 
 It was in November, 1843, that you welcomed to your home, 
 your people, and the West, the brethren since known as The 
 Iowa Band. At that time, as composing the ordained ministry 
 of our denomination in the then Territory of Iowa, there were 
 with you six others ; to wit, Julius A. Reed, Reuben Gaylord, 
 Charles Burnham, Allen B. Hitchcock, Oliver Emerson, 
 and John C. Holbrook. From these, too. came a cordial wel- 
 come. 
 
 This was twenty-five years ago ; bringing us, and our mis- 
 sion work here, to the Silver Wedding time. It is usual, on 
 such occasions, in the presence of friends whose sympathies 
 make the joys common to all, to revive the history of the par- 
 ties, and reminiscences of the past. 
 
 In this little book, as a Home Missionary offering in honor 
 of that noble Society which we all love, there is given, first, a 
 brief history of the Band, followed by a few facts and scenes 
 from out our common efforts ; with such reflections, in passing, 
 as by a review of quarter-century labors, are naturally sug- 
 gested : all of which, with due thanks to the Master, you will 
 permit, as one of the first Congregational Ministers of Iowa, 
 and one whom we all love to call Father Turner, to be to you 
 dedicated. 
 
 One of the Band, 
 
 1868 
 
INTRODUCTION TO FIRST EDITION 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. WILLIAM BARROWS, U.D. 
 
 IF any one ever doubted the utility and success of 
 home missions, let him read this volume. If any 
 one ever doubted whether his contributions to this 
 cause were wisely made and expended, let him study 
 this simple narrative of Christian labors in a new ter- 
 ritory and state. 
 
 Prior to July 4, 1838, the region covered by this 
 work was Wisconsin Territory ; then it became Iowa 
 Territory, and, when the Band entered it in 1843, the 
 settled portion of it was a belt of land on the west 
 bank of the Mississippi, two hundred miles long and 
 forty wide, with a population of something over fifty 
 thousand. The country was then divided between 
 the hardy pioneer, the Indian and the bufTalo. There 
 were fifteen Congregational churches. The college, 
 the academy, had not gone over the great river ; 
 hardly the common school and the Christian Sab- 
 bath. It was a noble sight — an act of quiet, beauti- 
 ful heroism rarely witnessed — to see these eleven 
 men enter in to do their part in building a Christiai) 
 
vi INTRODUCTION 
 
 state, and dedicating- the latent and develoi)ing en- 
 ergies there to Christ and the C'hnreh. 
 
 Jt was hard, unseen, unappreciated lal)or. The 
 very word Iowa was yet a strange one to Eastern Hps 
 and ears, and was slowly taking its place in our text- 
 books and schoolrooms. The men were hidden from 
 us in the dim. hazy distance, under frontier shadows. 
 Bridle-paths, uglv fords, and monthly mails led to 
 their work-fields, hut the Master knew each of their 
 cabins, heard ever\- ])rayer and hymn in their creek 
 and prairie homes, and owned all their great work. 
 What though men did not see their rough founda- 
 tions for Church and State ! we see now what is built 
 on them. In a sublime unconsciousness of their ob- 
 scurity, they lost themselves in their work. So noble 
 granite blocks disappear in the deep waters, that 
 there may be piers and wharves for queenly ships and 
 the merchandise of all climes. 
 
 This volume would not be com])lete without its 
 picture of the rude log-cabin church where they were 
 ordained, and laid their plans, and whence they 
 moved ofY in their different and chosen paths. It 
 was a solid, one-story building, originally twenty-four 
 feet by twenty. Built in 1837. when there was no 
 sawmill in the region, its rough logs were dressed 
 down by the axe of the pioneer, split shingles cov- 
 ered the roof, and oaken puncheons made the floor 
 and the seats — the pews ! Afterward, but before the 
 ordination in 1843, an addition of sixteen feet was 
 
INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 made to one end. This was tlie first Congregational 
 meeting-house in Iowa ; and here noble and good 
 Father Turner was for so long a time ''the voice of 
 one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of 
 the Lord !'' The benediction of his face is the fitting 
 ])relude and preface to this volume. How often his 
 deaf old father spoke to us reverently and affection- 
 ately of the work "Asa" was doing in tlic "Great 
 AA^est !" While, in our college vacations, we were 
 mowing for the old gentleman where there were two 
 rocks to one grass, "Asa" was planting the "handful 
 of corn." Now the fruit thereof shakes like Lebanon, 
 and the hundreds of cities of Iowa flourish like the 
 grass of their native prairies. 
 
 This same log church, moreover, was the first 
 academy building in Iowa. Here Denmark Acad- 
 emy had its humble yet noble beginnings in the Feb- 
 ruary preceding the ordination. A view^ of its present 
 beautiful edifice graces this volume. 
 
 Here, too, Iowa College was first talked over, 
 ])rayed over, and then projected. It was one of the 
 first joys and fruits for the Band, at one of their first 
 meetings in Denmark, to consider plans for founding 
 the first colleg'e in Iowa. Midway in these sketches, 
 the buildings now lift themselves to our view from 
 their interior and glorious prairie home. How much 
 of heroic history and august prophecy in that pic- 
 ture ! 
 
 In days to come, Denmark, Iowa, will be as 2i, 
 
viii INTRODUCriON 
 
 shrine for Congregational pilgrims ; and, five centuries 
 hence, how much would be given for one log from 
 that old church ! The place was settled originally by 
 inunigrants from Massachusetts and New Hamp- 
 shire. Of course, true to New England character, 
 and habit, they would at once start a church and a 
 school. New Englanders come honestly by such a 
 tendency. When John Winthrop, the first governor 
 of ^lassachusetts, was seeking a new home in Eng- 
 land, long prior to his coming to America, he wrote 
 to his son, acting as his agent, "I would be near 
 church and some good school." ^^Fay that aspiration, 
 so long hereditary, never die out among the descend- 
 ants of the Pilgrims and Puritans ! That sentiment 
 of Winthrop is the larger and better part of our na- 
 tional history, compressed into a sentence. 
 
 Iowa now has her more than two hundred Congre- 
 gational churches, the common-school system, highly 
 perfected from the Eastern model, with a noble array 
 of high schools, academies and colleges. It is a 
 record of honor, and eminently fitting it is that these 
 labors and fruits of twenty-five years should go into 
 written history. This is the Congregational chapter. 
 Noble coworkers have material they may v.^ell re- 
 joice in for other most worthy chapters. 
 
 It should be here said that these sketches have 
 been modestly held back and reluctantly given by 
 men who preferred rather to do work than tell of it. 
 But we remember how Iowa looked before the Band 
 
INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 saw it, — when Keokuk was a village of twelve log 
 and two frame houses; when Burlington showed the 
 green stumps in its main streets ; when Davenport 
 was barely the superior rival of Rockingham ; and 
 buffalo, deer and Indians divided among themselves 
 the waters of the Des Moines, Cedar and Wapsipini- 
 con. We have w^atched the magic change and 
 studied it in frequent revisits, and it seems but due to 
 God to tell how he has made the wilderness a fruitful 
 field. 
 
 A Christian state has been founded. Let skeptics 
 study the w^ork, who think we have no longer need 
 for the Christian religion. The Church of Christ has 
 lengthened her cords and strengthened her stakes. 
 Let the supporters of home missions behold, and 
 thank God, and so draw dividends on their charity 
 investments and take new stock in new states be- 
 yond. The Congregational Church has gone into a 
 new territory, and become energetic, thrifty and mul- 
 titudinous. Let those make note of it who think 
 Congregationalism will not work well out of New 
 England, is not adapted to a new country and mixed 
 communities. As if sacred Republicanism cannot go 
 hand in hand across the continent with secular Re- 
 publicanism, and men manage their own affairs, by 
 popular suffrage in a church, as well as in a town, 
 city or state ! Congregational funds have had de- 
 nominational investment in Iowa. Let results so 
 ^minentlv satisfactorv confirm our churches in the 
 
.X INTRODUCriOX 
 
 wisdom uf such invcstnionis. Aiu)llicr sicj) ol divine 
 Providence is taken westward in fulfilling;- the proph- 
 ec\-. "lie shall have dominion from sea to sea." from 
 the Atlantic to the Pacific. Another Christian state 
 is added to the frontier, lookini^ towards the ^reat 
 sea. The base-line of the army of occupation for 
 Christ is moved so much farther towards the prophe- 
 sied boundaiN. What new Hands will now i^o out 
 to the fn^nl, and picket the advancing- army? Dy 
 and by they will meet those cominj^" u]) the Pacific 
 slope; then will the watchmen see eye to eye. and re- 
 joice toofether: then will p:lory dwell in the land. 
 Rcaiiiiig. M.iss.. May, iS/O. 
 
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND 
 EDITION 
 
 It is with no little hesitation that it is presented. It has 
 seemed in its preparation somewhat like repeating a story once 
 told, or telling it where there is but little interest to hear. And 
 yet the venture is made. Courage for it has come partly be- 
 cause of pleasing evidence that the first edition was not with- 
 out its use, partly that inquiries for what has long since been 
 out of print are still made, but mainly from the judgment of 
 friends that a second edition would find circulation and do 
 good. As will be seen, it is but a reprint of the first, with 
 few exceptions. The names of persons and places referred to 
 in the first by initials and blanks are here given, the reason for 
 withholding them no longer existing. The notes in passing, a 
 few chapters added to bring matters down to the present time, 
 and a brief appendix may add interest to, while enlarging the 
 view of events referred to. As to the object in view, it is still 
 the same, to pay a tribute to Home Missions. If it will serve 
 to imbed more deeply the noble work of Home Missions in the 
 hearts of the churches, the hopes of the author will be re- 
 alized. 
 
 EPHRAIM ADAAIS. 
 
INTKODUCTION TO IHB SECOND HUH10N 
 
 IJY 
 
 REV. JAMES L. HILL, D.D. 
 
 The Iowa l>and has suppHed for the country the ro- 
 mance of home missions, llie frecpiency of references 
 to it in Associations and National Councils and in the 
 religious })ai)ers justifies this oi)ini()n. it is a tale of 
 border life. Men are so made that ihey reverence a 
 bold venture when accompanied by a sense of duty. 
 'Ilie fine stories of the world are made up of heroisms. 
 What contagious warmth of feeling used tO' pervade 
 the meeting of the General Association of Iowa at the 
 nujment when these members of the Iowa I'and, 
 I'^atlurs in Israel, dcught} j)i()neers, stood together 
 about the pul])it and sang, "iMy days are gliding swift- 
 ly ])y" ! 
 
 These men were superlatively fortunate in the choice 
 they made of location. It is probably true that Iowa, 
 lying between her great rivers, is the most productive 
 solid area of ground anywhere to be found. The 
 name means 77//.v-/.v-///('-/. <///(/. "It is tlu^ most m:ig- 
 niheent (lvvelling-])lace ])repar(.'(l by Cod for man's 
 abode/' says l)eToc(|ueviIle in speaking of this gar- 
 den, of which Iowa is perhaps the choicest portion, 
 xiii 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 iV'oplc wlio have seen the stale only during- the last 
 I went \ years can scarcely imagine the indescribable 
 Leant v of the prairies before they were settled. It was 
 the state of the wild rose. The grass grew thick and 
 strong and high. Myriads of prairie flowers dotted 
 the unl)roken exi)anse. Some came early and others 
 remained uiuil the frosts killed the most beautiful of 
 all, the aster and the goldenrod. 
 
 More fortunate still, these men believed in the 
 power of "together." They remind one of the Pil- 
 _L;rims at rivmouth in their cooperative work. "When 
 bad men combine." <;iid r.urke. "good men must asso- 
 ciate." 
 
 The emphasis is ik-i only ui)on the word hnva, l)Ut 
 fully as much upon the designation IniiiiL They were 
 allied in their work. The\- were "association men." 
 This disposition to be united in their labor and to co- 
 operate fully with .)thers on the tield. made them more 
 effective in fostering the churches and at length in the 
 joint work of founding a college. School instructors, 
 a great portion of whom were ladies, multiplied until 
 Iowa employed more teachers than any state in the 
 Union, with the single exception of New York and 
 that on account of her great city. The highest inci- 
 dental service and an enduring imprint on the terri- 
 tory designed to become so distinguished, sprang 
 from the fact that they were educated men. They had 
 the classical spirit and came forth from college halls. 
 During their day the tide turned irresistibly toward 
 
INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 education. The result is C(jni])resse(l in tlie statement 
 of "A church on every hiUtop and a schoolhouse in 
 eveiy valley." Iowa came to have the least illiteracy 
 of any state in the Union. She has employed more 
 teachers than states that have two or three times her 
 population. She was contrasted even with ]\Iassachu- 
 setts by Gov. Benjamin F. Butler, showing that Iowa 
 had, in the comparison, less illiteracy. Iowa has more 
 banks than any state in the Union. In the dozen 
 North Central States Iowa's estimated wealth exceeds 
 all except Illinois and Ohio, and that on account of 
 their great cities. The statistician Mulhall was forced 
 to exclaim, "This is a prodigious growth of wealth, aird 
 without a parallel in the history of the human race." 
 How strange have seemed the statements which she 
 has published when she has been without a debt ! 
 
 Her fine, great soldiers' monument near the capitol 
 shows her pride in the patriotism and devotion of her 
 sons. She furnished more than her quota of soldiers 
 in the Civil War, and when one man enlisting for three 
 years was made the equivalent of three men enlisting 
 for one year, the draft was abrogated. Now there is 
 no such a thing as an accident ; there is a cause for 
 everything, if we can find it. From some source this 
 prairie state on the sunset side of the Mississippi re- 
 ceived just the right initiative at just the right junc- 
 ture. The times served the men, and the men met 
 their opportunity. Such a field can never be again 
 presented between these seas. What a bundle of his- 
 
xvi IXTROnUCTION 
 
 tory this Band binds up ! Tlie religious pioneers in 
 Iowa were remarkable men. They were raised up by 
 Providenee for a definite and important and innnortal 
 purpose. They were decided factors in its achieve- 
 ment. 'Tt is not too nuich to say," writes Dr. Dun- 
 ning, in 1894, "that their combined influence has given 
 character not only to the denomination in the state but; 
 to the state itself." Dr. Robbins acted as president of 
 a board of college trustees for seventeen years. Dr. 
 Lane, a good preacher, was by j)reeminent gifts also a 
 teacher, and did not neglect his talent. The two sur- 
 vivors, Drs. Adams and Salter, "venerable men who 
 have come down to us from a former generation," are 
 both writers of history. The men of the Band made 
 the impression of gentlemen. They were cultivated 
 and mild and genial. They had nothing, not one of 
 them, of that loudness which is sometimes associated 
 with life on a western frontier. They were quiet in 
 sj)cech and demeanor. The\' were well born. They 
 came out of the choicest families in the East. They 
 shut behind them all doors opening either toward ease 
 or a competency when they uncomplainingly began 
 their work on a salary of $400 a year. 
 
 In counting over the Iowa Band be careful, reader, 
 not to omit to notice the part taken in their noble, 
 self-denying work by the pioneer prairie women who, 
 having been delicately reared and carefully educated 
 in the East, accompanied their husbands of the Band 
 to their outposts. Their names are all written in a 
 
INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 book of renienibrancc, which is the Book of Life. 
 When thinking of home missions one must think, too, 
 of the missionaries of the home. In the crude, early 
 days these homes were representatives of all the 
 amenities of life. In the family, no matter how frugal 
 the meal, all waited until all were ready to approach 
 the table. The Band stood for the home idea. Work- 
 ing with others, they sought by direct influence to in- 
 duce the governor of the state to introduce into the 
 far West the New England observance of Thanksgiv- 
 ing Day which became, in time, a Home Festival. 
 Here is life on the frontier, but it never lost its dignity 
 and refinement and delicacy. Let this be said to the 
 praise of the moral priestesses as well as to the credit 
 of college men. These are the forces that cast up a 
 highway for our God through the wilderness. In the 
 light of results we see their life only now on its sunny 
 side, but the small economies of the home doubtless 
 in earliest days sometimes suggested ''the shady side." 
 As the number of these men and women diminishes, 
 our honor of them is carried up into veneration. The 
 two men that are left are looking at life's work in the 
 light of the setting sun. And have they not high 
 honor? It is they who lose their life that find it. "It 
 is probable that no equal number of young ministers, 
 leaving a theological seminary together, ever founded 
 so many churches in five or ten years after their 
 graduation as these men" whose aggregated years of 
 service have amounted now to over half a thousand. 
 
X-viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 Thc\- accomplished more than thoy could ha\'c done 
 liad thicy remained in the l^asl or had they heen more 
 widely scattered. They did more than two or three 
 times as many could now do in that or in any other 
 state of the West. Such toils, sacrifices and heroisms 
 as are here suggested have undoubtedly given to this 
 noticeably well governed commonwealth her peculiar 
 state pride which is equalled by but one, at the utmost 
 by but two. other component ])arts of our Union. 
 
 If it is meet to lay the laurel upon the veteran's 
 grave, should that of the old pioneer minister be for- 
 gotten? Was he not a patriot too? The statutes in 
 iowa i)r()\i(le thai our c<»untr\'s tlag shall float over 
 her sch(3oIhouses and that her children shall be tauglit 
 to sing a state song set to a popular tune whicli is 
 calculated to kindle their state patriotism. 
 
 "From yonder Mis.^is.sippi's .stream 
 To where Missouri's waters gleam. 
 O fair it is as poet's dream, — 
 Iowa, in Iowa. 
 
 "Go read the story of thy past. 
 Iowa, O Iowa, 
 
 What glorious deeds, what fame thou hast. 
 Iowa, O Iowa. 
 
 "So long as time's great cycle runs. 
 Or nations weep their fallen ones, 
 Thou 'It not forget thy patriot sons. 
 Iowa, O Iowa." 
 
 Salem, Mass. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Pac;k 
 
 Dedication to First Edition iii 
 
 Introduction to First Edition v 
 
 The Author's Preface to the Second Edition xi 
 
 Introduction to the Second Edition .... xiii 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 GhRM -Thought 3 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 A Suggestion 6 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 The Prayer-Meeting lO 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 The Band Formed and Plans Matured .... 13 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 The Journey 18 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 Ordination and Dispersion 27 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 Getting to Work and Coalescing 3- 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A Diary 39 
 
 • CHAPTER IX 
 
 Then and Now ^" 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 The Workers "^ 
 
XX CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Results 74 
 
 CHAPTER XH 
 Thf. Iowa Association 85 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 The Iowa AssiKiATiox. What is it Xow ? ... 97 
 
 CHAPTER XI\' 
 Iowa C(->LLEt;E 103 
 
 CHAPTER W 
 CoLLEcJE History Continled. Its Ciui.N.NELL Pekiud 115 
 
 CHAPTER XN'I 
 A Rake Chai-tek. and Short 126 
 
 CHAPTER X\'1I 
 
 Fragments U3 
 
 CHAPTER \V\]\ 
 Loss and Gain 166 
 
 C1E\PT]-:K XIX 
 In Memokiam 178 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 In Memokiam. Continied ekom 1870 to 1902 . . 190 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 Outlook and Conclusion 204 
 
 ' CHAPTER XXII 
 
 Eventide 213 
 
 Appendixes 225 
 
 Map of Iowa 234 
 
 Addenda 235 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Page 
 Members of the Iowa Band . . . Frontispiece 
 
 Church of Ordination and Denmark Academy, 1843 . 27 
 
 Edwards Congregational Chiifch, Daveriport . . . 74 . 
 
 First Church, Decorah, 1895 yd 
 
 Plymouth Congregational Church, Des ]\Ioines ... 80 
 
 Presidents of Iowa College : 
 
 George Frederick Magoun, George A. Gates . 103 
 
 Iowa College Pioneer Helpers : 
 
 Preserved Wood Carter, Prof. Erastus Rip- 
 ley, Prof. Leonard Fletcher Parker, Josiah 
 Bushnell Grinnell 108 
 
 Beginnings of Iowa College 112 
 
 Iowa College Buildings 115 
 
 Congregational Church, Grinnell 120 
 
 Pioneers before the Band : 
 
 Julius A. Reed, A. B. Hitchcock, John C. 
 Holbrook, Reuben Gaylord. Father Asa 
 Turner, Oliver Emerson 190 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Ephraim Adams 213 
 
THE IOWA BAND 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 GERM-THOUGHT 
 
 IT was a beautiful evening in the summer of 1S42, 
 when the students of Andover Seminary as- 
 sembled in the chapel, to be led as usual in their 
 evening devotions by one of the venerable professors 
 of those days. Among them sat one, pale and 
 emaciated by continued illness, — one of whom friends 
 ])egan to whisper, "Unless relieved soon, we fear he 
 will never be well, even if he lives." They might, 
 perhaps, have spared a portion of their anxiety, had 
 they known better the nature of his disease, it being 
 what may be called the student's enemy, dyspepsia, 
 and that not of a chronic form. 
 
 Our friend was in the middle year ; a year when 
 theological subjects, the great doctrines of salvation, 
 are studied ; a year that has more influence, proba1)ly, 
 in shaping the nu'nister. than any other of his semi- 
 nary course ; a year in whicji, if ever, the student's 
 
^ Tim low. I Jiixn 
 
 heart kindles with desire to preach the i^reat truths of 
 the Bible to liis fellow men. He had entered the 
 chapel that evening under the combined inlluence of 
 his studies and his disease. He longed for the time 
 when he should be a preacher ; but thei>, could he be 
 one? Even the duties of the seminary were a burden 
 almost too hea\\' to be borne. Could he. then, go 
 forth to write two sermons a week, attend funerals, 
 weddings, jirepare lectures, perform pasti^ral labor, 
 and all the et cetera of a parish minister's life? Im- 
 possible ! Sedentary habits had already induced a 
 disease, which, if unchecked, would cri]iple his en- 
 ergies, while shortening his da\s. A minister's life 
 was likely to aggravate rather than check it. AMiat 
 shi^uld he doi^ ^fust he a1)and(Tn his long-cherished 
 plan, or should he press on and give himself an early 
 sacrifice to it? 
 
 Just then there came to liis mind the thought that 
 there was a field where the necessary labors of a min- 
 ister would probably counteract, rather than foster, 
 his disease : and that field the West, ^^'ith this came 
 a rush of other thoughts, of things that he had heard 
 and read about the \\"est. Tt would be self-denial to 
 go; but then, in self-denial there would come 
 strength of character, with the gain of a more con- 
 scious consecration to God. Tlien there w^as the 
 probable influence of his going upon fellow students, 
 friends. Christians and the Church, for to go West 
 then wa? truly a missionary work. For the moment 
 
GERM-THOUGHT 5 
 
 he seemed to be there, preaching to the destitute and 
 laying the foundations of society. Then came the 
 thought, that, possibly, he might live, labor and die 
 with the fruits of his toils about him, — himself en- 
 shrined in the hearts of a beloved people, sought out 
 and adopted by him in his youth. 
 
 These thoughts, with others, passed before him 
 with the swiftness of a vision. They had for a time 
 the efYects of a vision. All things else were shut out. 
 The chapter, the hymn, the singing, were all unheard. 
 In the general movement he rose for prayer, but not 
 to join in the petitions offered. The spell was upon 
 him, and he seemed to stand alone as before God, — 
 his feelings, his petitions, all embodied in one senti- 
 ment, one feeling, — a position of soul in which his 
 one desire was, "Lord, prepare me for whatever field 
 thou hast before me. Prepare me for it, and make 
 me willing to enter it.'' 
 
 He went out that evening not as he came in. 
 Henceforth the prayer was, ''May I be found in the 
 right place, doing the right work !" Here was the 
 germ, the unfoldings of which, unto the fruit thereof, 
 we are to trace. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 A SUGGESTIO.y 
 
 WIK) that has passed a seminar}- life has for- 
 g'otleii the seminary tramp, whieh means a 
 long- walk of half a (la\- or so, generally taken of 
 a Saturday afternoon, when students, in little com- 
 ])anics, are wont to extend their rambles far away 
 from sight of seminary walls and sound of seminary 
 bell? It was in tlie si)ring of 1S43 that our dyspeptic 
 friend, Daniel Lane, and two of his elassmates w^ere 
 on such an excursion amid the hills and bracing air 
 of the West Parish. 
 
 For two and a half years these classmates had been 
 associated in sacred studies ; and they were class- 
 mates indeed. Circumstances had conspired to bind 
 them together with ties of more than usual strength. 
 The time of their preparation for the great w^ork in 
 view was rapidl\' drawing to a close. And now^ as 
 was natural, the conversation turned upon the prob- 
 able field of their labor. The New England parish, 
 the foreign field, the home field, especially at the Far 
 West, — each, in turn, was discussed. The feeling 
 seemed rather to incline to the latter. The more they 
 talked of it, the more they felt. And now Horace 
 Hutchinson suggested : — 
 6 
 
A SUGGESTION 7 
 
 "If we and some others of our classmates could 
 (jnly go out together, and take possession of some 
 lield where we could have the ground and work to- 
 gether, what a grand thing it would be!" "So it 
 would," was the reply. Then the advantages, the 
 difficulties and the probable influence of such a 
 movement, were the theme; until, ere they were 
 aware of it, their feet were again climbing the old 
 familiar hill. The declining sun hung low, and the 
 bell, faithful to its duties, was hastening them to 
 prayers. "We will think of this," said they. Thus 
 the germ, ripening to a suggestion, had struck root 
 in other minds, the growth of wdiich we are still to 
 follow. 
 
 But right here it should be told how God, as after- 
 wards discovered, was leading other minds also. In 
 one case, it was on this wise : — Notice had been given, 
 about this time, that an elder of a church in Cincin- 
 nati would meet the students, to address them on the 
 claims of the West. At the hour appointed, there 
 were assembled both students and professors, but the 
 elder came not. Yet a Western meeting was held. 
 
 Venerable Dr. Woods read a letter from a good 
 deacon of a little church away out on the frontier, 
 calling for young men to break to the people the 
 bread of life." The saintly Bela B. Edwards, who had 
 just traveled West, and whose mind was quick to 
 take in its destined progress, expressed his belief in 
 
 1 Deacon Houston, of Denmark, Iowa. 
 
8 THE IOWA BA\n 
 
 llio asscrtiiHi, bold, startling-, uncrcditcd at the tinu\ 
 that "whucvor \ve)uld gD W'ost. in ten \cars would 
 find himself better off than it he had stayed in New 
 England, and. better tlian all. would have the satis- 
 faction of laboriui;- where he was nu^re needed." 
 Prof. Emerson, in his offhand wa\ . declared t'nat he 
 had no sort of doubt that it was the dut\- of more 
 than two-thirds of the students to seek fields of labor 
 outside (»f New liUL^land. It was a stirring' meetinj^;'. 
 Many were ij;lad the elder did not come. 
 
 The meeting- was closed, and the students dis- 
 l)ersed. To most, to all, perhaps, save one, Harvey 
 .\dams, it came and went like many another. There 
 was before him a sleepless night. In his mind was at 
 work another germ thought. "Out of Xew England, 
 where he was UK^re needed." And if (3Ut of New 
 England, where more needed, why not where most 
 needed ? Strange was the power of that question as 
 it took possession of him for that night and the next 
 day, leading to much thought and prayer! Some- 
 times there can be no rest till things are settled, and 
 settled in the way that seems right. So it w^as in this 
 case, and our friend came manfully to the conclusion, 
 'T am for the \\>st. where needed, and where most 
 needed." 
 
 Then there was another. Edwin B. Turner, a gradu- 
 ate of a Western college, w^hose friends were in the 
 West. It was known to be settled in his mind, from 
 the first, that he would go A\"est somewhere. Just 
 
A SUGGESTION 9 
 
 how, by his presence and intercourse, germ-thoughts 
 were started or fostered can never be known. Sel- 
 dom can it be told in any movement, in which are the 
 united efforts of human wills, just what the first in- 
 fluences were, or how they combined to produce the 
 result. Here, preeminently, God works among men 
 to will and to do. The movement here recorded we 
 acknowledge as of him. Other germs of it doubtless 
 there were in other minds, but each can give only 
 what to him is know^n. This only can the writer do ; 
 and so we will follow on. 
 
cHAr'n-R III 
 
 run PRAYliR-MliliTIXG 
 
 H( )\\' uppermost in our minds arc thoup:hts, 
 l)lans. projects, wliicli \\c li'>l<l in conmion with 
 others! How. l)v a new tie. are we hound to them, 
 and tliev to u> I And liow natural now. if C'hristians 
 all, anil the i)lan he one of iuijxirt. to carry it lo ( lod 
 in united prayer! ( )ur three friends of the former 
 chapter, among whom the question of concerted ac 
 tion had heen started, were more closely allied than 
 ever as they together walked and talked of the West- 
 ern scheme. T.y nnitual consent, each, in a (|uiet way. 
 suogested it to others. Whenever it took with es- 
 pecial favor, as being by ( lod's preparing of course it 
 would, there was one added to their number. 
 
 Soon the enterprise began to wear an important 
 aspect, calling for the guidance of heavenly wisdom. 
 So a praver-meeting was proposed. All assented. 
 But where should it be held? Xot in a public room, 
 for the movement was as yet kept secret. If, in the 
 end. anything should come of it. there would be time 
 enough yet. it was thought, to make it known; if not, 
 it was better that it should always be a secret. Nor, 
 again, could they meet in a private room, for, as yet. 
 
THE PRAYER-MEETISG n 
 
 no two of those interested happened to he rcjonimates, 
 in whose room they could privately assemble. 
 Where, then, should they meet? One of their num- 
 ber, Daniel Lane, was assistant librarian ; and the li- 
 brary was proposed. ''Agreed, " said they ; and Tues- 
 day evening, in the Seminary library, w^as fixed upon 
 for the meeting. "But it will be dark," said one; "for 
 the rules forbid lights in the library." "No matter." 
 said another; *Sve can pray in the dark." So on 
 ^^icsday nights, in one corner of the library, they 
 used to pray, to seek of God wdiither to go, where to 
 labor. In one corner of the Seminary library ! And 
 what fitter place could have been chosen in which to 
 go to the mercy-seat with such an errand, than this, 
 where heralds of the cross in every clime once had 
 trod ; where were about them the works of the pious 
 dead of every age ; wdiere. as the moonbeams played 
 upon the portraits of men once eminent in the 
 Church, the great cloud of witnesses seemed to com- 
 pass them about? 
 
 There they prayed. Those first entering w^ould 
 find their way to the appointed corner, and begin. 
 Others, coming in, would join them in turn. Occa- 
 sionally, in the darkness, some new^ step w^ould be 
 heard ; but wdiose it was would be unknowai to most, 
 till a new voice would be heard in prayer. First the 
 prayers, then the conference, consultations as to mo- 
 tives, qualifications, encouragements and discour- 
 agements of the Western work, mainlv what field, if 
 
12 Tin: /()//'./ />./.\7) 
 
 iiiiw should l^c (.iccupicd. Sliuukl it be ( )hi(). Miclii- 
 L;an? These, indeed, were west, but not reall\- West • 
 er!i. Ilhnois. Wisconsin? These were farther west, 
 indeed, but then partially, perhaps comparatively 
 well, supplied. 
 
 "Well. then. Missoiu-i."' says one. 
 
 "lUu Missuuri i> a sla\e state." 
 
 ■"Xo matter: they nec(l the _i^dS]>el there it it is." 
 
 "^'es; but, it there are places outside of slavery iusi 
 as need\. win rv< tt ^n where we can labor to the best 
 advantai^e?" 
 
 "Well. Iowa. then. ^w hat sa\- \<iu to the new Ter- 
 ritory of b )wa.''" 
 
 Xot nmch could be said, for but little was known — 
 onlv this: it was an open field, and of course there 
 was need. 
 
 So then.' the\- i)ra\ed and considted in that north- 
 west corner of the library. Had it anythinfj^ to do 
 with the i^rear Northwest soon to be? In God\s nur- 
 ture were the L;erms bciui^- dev(.loi)ed, united, di- 
 rected, whose fruita.^e was to be borne in re.q:ions yet 
 to be peopled. Rut we will not anticipate save in 
 this: that Tuesday niq-ht ])rayer-meetin,o- on Andover 
 Hill. transi)lanted. as it was soon to be. to the plains 
 of Iowa. — may it lonp: live! ^fay it never cease to be 
 held in sacred observance bv the Congregational 
 ininistrv of this fair State!" 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 THE BAXD FORMED AND PLANS MATURED 
 
 AS yet, nothing was decided. All eyes, indeed, af- 
 ter reflection and prayer, were unanimously 
 turned to the new Territory of Iowa as the field to be 
 occupied if they should go. Some of the more ardent 
 had opened a correspondence with the secretaries of 
 the American Home Missionary Society; also with 
 the Rev. Asa Turner, agent of that society and a resi- 
 dent pastor of the Territory. But no one was as yet 
 committed to the enterprise. It was not certain yet 
 tliat any one could go, and tlie weeks were flying 
 swiftly. It was time, surely, for action, and thus it 
 came : 
 
 'T am going to settle this question," said Daniel 
 Lane, "so far as I am concerned. We have been 
 thinking about it long enough to conclude one way 
 or another." 
 
 That day he retired tO' his room for fasting and 
 l)rayer. At evening, as he came out at the setting of 
 the sun to walk with a friend, he was ready to say, 
 "Well, I am going to Iowa : whether any one else 
 goes or not, I am going." 
 
 ''And T think T will go with you," was the reply. 
 
14 THE IOWA n.ixn 
 
 So a nucleus was fornicd. and around it ^atliorod 
 others one l\v one. — some at once decidinq-. others 
 after more thouj^ht. or seasons of prixate fastin<;- and 
 prayer, till soon the number stood, as decided to go, 
 at twelve. Their names were as follows: — 
 
 l)aniel Lane, llarxey Adams, Rrastus Ripley, 
 llnrace llutcliinson. Alden !'.. I\()l)l)ins. \\'ilHam 
 Saht'r. I^dwin 1'. Turner. r>enjamin A. S])auldin|Li^. 
 W'ilham Tlanuuond. janus 1. llill. l\henezer Alden, 
 Jr.. Kpln-aim .\dams. Tliis was the Iowa Hand. 
 Though seeking lalxT in a wild country these pio- 
 neers were not uneducated men. l)Ut were thorough- 
 bred collegians, as tlie following data will show. 
 Their college spirit led to the establishment of a high 
 grade institution in their new field. 
 
 Erastus Ripley was of I^nion College, New York; 
 William Salter came from Xew York University; 
 Horace Hutchinson, Ebenezer Alden and Alden Bur- 
 rill Robbins went through Amherst ; Daniel Lane and 
 James Jeremiah Hill were of Bowdoin ; Benjamin 
 Adams Spaulding graduated from Harvard ; ET)hraim 
 Adams from Dartmouth and Edwin Bela Turner 
 from Illinois College. 
 
 There was no longer need of secrecy. Open steps 
 could be taken to mature plans. The Mission Rooms 
 were filled with gladness at the prospect of such a re- 
 enforcement for the liome missionary work. The 
 senior secretary, the Rev. ^Milton Badger, D.D., came 
 from Xew York to hold a personal interview with the 
 
THE BAND FORMED 15 
 
 liand ; coniniissicjiis were prcjiiiiscd fur iIrmt clujscn 
 field, and all things favored the enterprise. But the 
 far-off brethren then laboring in the proposed field 
 rejoiced with trembling. Oft had they looked for 
 promised help, but looked in vain. Those who had 
 started with commissions in hand for the distant Ter- 
 ritory had all lodged by the way hitherto; none had 
 reached them; why should these? 
 
 "It's no use," said ReV. Asa Turner of Denmark, 
 the Western pastor who had been written to upon the 
 subject, and who had set himself to the formidable 
 task of replying to the long list of queries sent him 
 about the climate, the ague, the fever, the food, 
 clothing, etc. — "it 's no use to answer any more 
 of your questions ; for I never expect to see one 
 of you west of the Mississippi River as long as 
 I live." 
 
 He was assured, in reply, of earnestness in the mat- 
 ter, but still he was incredulous. Again he was told, 
 that, God willing, he would surely be visited by a 
 dozen or so, and compelled to believe. 
 
 "Well, then," said he, "come on; come all of you 
 directly to my house ; come here to us, and we then 
 can help you to your respective fields of labor." This 
 seemed reasonable ; so Denmark, Lee County, Iowa, 
 became a locality in the mind of each, as yet to 
 be seen,. It seemed best also, unless, in individual 
 cases, there should be special reasons to the con- 
 trarv, that the ordination of the voung men should 
 
l6 77//:" joij-.i njxi) 
 
 lake place on llic t'lcld wlicrc I heir lit'o-work was 
 to be. 
 
 Such a home missionary mo\emenl in one class 
 was ihoni^in worthx- i^i some public recognition. 
 Accordin^h . a meeting" was held on Sahhalh even- 
 ini;-. Sept. 3. 1S43. in the Soiuh Church at Andover. 
 A sermnn was i)reached 1)\ the Rew Leonard lia- 
 con. 1). 1).. and an a]>pro])riate address made to 
 llu- r.and 1)\- I )r. r.ad^er dt" the Home Missi(jnary 
 Society. 
 
 "\'oti i^o," said he. "where yon will tuid a soil of 
 sin-i)assinLi- richness, all co\ered with beautiful tlow- 
 ers. r.nt remember that the soil is yet in its natural 
 state, and must be all turned up. Those Howers. 
 though boautifid to the eye. are but flowers of weeds, 
 wild and useless. They must be rooted out, and bel- 
 ter seed cast in their place." 
 
 This meeting- was larj^^e ; and the exercises 
 throuo;hout were appro])riatc, interesting^ and sol- 
 enm. It was now near the close of the term. The 
 Anniversary Day soon came, and was gone. The 
 time had been imi)rove(l. Already had the boxes 
 been made, and the books packed, soon to be 
 shipped, labelled "Rurlinic^ton, Iowa, z'ia Xew Or- 
 leans." 
 
 A few weeks now with home friends, after wliich 
 must be fixed the time and place of departure. Bos- 
 ton will not do as a starting-point, as some reside 
 west of this, and so on the way. Some place must 
 
THE BAND FORM ED 17 
 
 be chosen west of all. So each has it in his memoran- 
 dum, "Albany, New York, at the Delavan House,^ 
 on Tuesday, 3d of October, the next morning to take 
 the cars westward." 
 
 Where through broad lands of green and gold 
 
 The Western rivers roll their waves, 
 Before another year is told, 
 
 We find our homes ; perhaps, our graves.* 
 
 /. H. Bancroft. 
 
 3 Chosen because a temperance hotel. 
 
 * From hymn written for the class of 1S43, and sung at their graduation. 
 
ClIAVrER \' 
 THE JOl'RM-y 
 
 Ox Wcdiu'sday. ( )cl. 4. 1S43. tlic jinirnoy west- 
 ward l)o,Lian. Most ol I Ik- liand were at tlie 
 ai)i)()inled i)lace. l)iit not all. ( hie. Mr. l^>astus Ripley, 
 had been invited to spend another year at the seminary 
 as resident lieentiate. Another, Mr. j. J. Hill, since 
 the ])artin^- at Andover. had lost a father by death, 
 and would be detained until sprini^". A third. Mr. W. 
 1-.. llanunond, did not come. thr. )U,^h fear of a West- 
 ern climate, and Mr. 1 lorace 1 lutcliinson was detained 
 a (lav bv the death of a friend. l)ut would probably 
 overtake the company by night travel. And yet their 
 number was nearly complete by the appearance of 
 two as twain. Mr. Daniel Lane and Mr. A. B. Rob- 
 bins, with characteristic foresight, had taken to them- 
 selves wives in view of losses from our original num- 
 ber that might possibly occur. 
 
 We will ncjt follow the journey in detail. A few 
 points only will be noticed in passing, such as, after 
 the lapse of years, shine out brightest on memory's 
 page. Twenty-five years ago, a journey from the 
 x-\tlantic to the Mississippi was long and tedious. A 
 week then would scarcelv suf^ce for what can now 
 
THE JOURNEY I9 
 
 be acconiplislied in a day. As practically performed 
 by the Band, it was divided into three parts — the 
 railroad, the lakes, and the prairies. The first was 
 soon over, and soon forgotten, bringing them on 
 their way to Buffalo, then the terminus of travel west- 
 ward by cars. Here their reception and stay for a 
 while were most pleasant. There was then living in 
 that city, as pastor of one of the churches, that most 
 fervent and earnest Christian man, Dr. Asa T. Hop- 
 kins. He died Nov. 28, 1847. Though a stranger to 
 all, he gave them a brother's welcome, and com- 
 mended them to the hospitalities of his people. What 
 kind Christian families they found ! Surely this can- 
 not be the West, thought they ; not far enough yet for 
 missionary ground. 
 
 On Saturday they took a trip to Niagara, to gaze 
 upon the Falls, that wondrous work of God, return- 
 ing at night to Buffalo to spend the Sabbath with 
 their kind friends. It was a bright, pleasant day, and 
 their hearts were joyous within them. 
 
 The following clipping from a Buffalo paper will 
 reveal how the day was spent : 
 
 Rev. Messrs. Ephraim Adams, of New Ipswich, N. 
 H., Harvey Adams, Franklin City, Ct., Ebenezer Al- 
 den, Randolph, Mass., Horace Hutchinson, Sutton. 
 Mass., Daniel Lane, Freepbrt, Me., Alden B. Rob- 
 bins, Salem, Mass., William Salter, New York City, 
 N. Y., Benjamin A. Spaulding, Bedford, Mass., and 
 Edwin B. Turner, Monticello, 111., met in this city, 
 
:<) run low.i H.ixn 
 
 oil Satiinlax- last. 1)\ a-Tccnu-nt. on tlu'ir \\a\- lo ilu- 
 Territory ol luwa. and remained oxer Sal)l):itli. Ilu 
 most of thoni attended divine service at the I-irst 
 Presbyterian Church, where, opportuneh . thev were 
 permitted to partake of the communion,' before their 
 departure for the West. In the evenini^ of that day, 
 by appomtment. these gentlemen attended a general 
 meetino-. in the JMrst Church, at which Messrs. Sal- 
 ter. Robbins. E. Adams. Sutton and Lane, spoke to 
 a large audience, in the most interesting manner, in 
 regard to the enterj)rise upon which thev have en- 
 tered. It appears that some time in l\d)ruary last, 
 two or three young men in Andover Theological 
 Seminary, in casting about for the field of their fu- 
 ture labors as clergymen, hit upon a plan of gc^ng to 
 Towa, and laboring there. They communicated this 
 plan to others, who joined them; and finally to the 
 Home Missionary Society, where it was favorably 
 received, and these young men with two others. Rev. 
 Messrs. James J. Hill, of Rhii)psburg. Me., and Wm. 
 B. Hammond, of Fair Haven. Mass.. (who are de- 
 tamed by sickness) eleven in all, made arrangements 
 with that society to go to Iowa, and devote them- 
 selves as missionaries to that voung and rapidly 
 growing territory. We are glad to see Protestant 
 New England alive to the necessity of scattering re- 
 ligious and scientific light and knowledge in the val- 
 ley of the Mississippi. For, in the forcible language 
 of Professor Post, of Jacksonville, (111.) wdio also at- 
 tended and addressed the meeting above named, *'A 
 plea for the \\>st is a plea for the East. If the West 
 sins, the East will sin with her. If the W^est falls, she 
 will drag down the East with her. The chain of great 
 lakes on the north, and the Mississippi and her arms 
 on the west, whose navigable waters would, in a 
 
THE JOURNEY 2 1 
 
 strai.q-lil line, surround llie ohjhc. l)in(l the East and 
 the West so indissolubly to^^ether, that the fate of 
 the one must be the fate of the other." 
 
 These missionaries, together with Professor Post, 
 and four other missionaries, bound to Alichigan and 
 Wisconsin, who providentially met the Iowa Band 
 here, left last evening in the Missouri for their several 
 destinations. May they have a safe and pleasant pas- 
 sage, and be successful in their undertaking ! We 
 cannot refrain from saying that we have seldom seen 
 so many men banded together in an enterprise, who 
 seemed to possess such sterling good sense, and 
 humble, quiet characters, coupled with firmness and 
 decision, as did these young men. 
 
 On Monday morning all felt as though they had 
 enjoyed the acquaintance of wxeks, and w^ere almost 
 sad at parting. But the parting came. In the even- 
 ing of that day, Oct. 9, they went on board the 
 steamer "Missouri," bound for Chicago. The good 
 pastor, and other Christian friends, accompanijd 
 them on board to bid them Godspeed, and say adieu. 
 A hymn w^as sung, and a prayer ofifered. Beautiful 
 in the bloom of youth, and with sweetest voice in that 
 evening's song, was the sister of the pastor's wife, 
 who stood among them there ; but the sad news came 
 a few months afterwards, that the rose was fading 
 upon her cheek, and soon again that she w^as dead. 
 By her side stood Miss Jane Brush, who became the 
 wife of Edwin B. Turner, a little older irf years, but 
 her companion in the family, bidding with others 
 
2 2 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 a last farewell. \ct dcstiiu'd of (iixl souii to be a 
 sl'ai'cr in ilu' fortunes of those to wlioiu she was say- 
 ins;- adieu. The last bell rinses, and the planks are 
 ready to be drawn in. Already is the hoarse breath 
 of the steamer lieard as her whole frame quivers at 
 the life-beats of her eng^ine, and she swinj^s slowly 
 round from the pier, and takes her eourse. 
 
 "Adieu, adieu I" and so is the second portion of the 
 journe\ beiiun. The wide, wide Lakes were entered, 
 — all strange, all new . and yet soon how dull ! It was, 
 indeed, with some interest that they touched at Erie, 
 Cleveland and Detroit. The morning at Mackinaw 
 was bright and calm, and the hour pleasant, in which 
 they were permitted, in the bracing air, to scale the 
 heights on shore, or watch the trout in the clear wa- 
 ters of the u])i)er lakes. lUit. on the whole, head 
 winds and a rough sea without, and seasickness and 
 monotony on board, made it anything but a pleasant 
 l)assage. 
 
 Late on Saturday night, in stormy weather, they 
 had only reached Milwaukee. There most of them 
 left the boat to tarry for the Sabbath. A few, either 
 too sick to leave their berths, or for some other 
 special reason, remained on board to arrive at Chica- 
 go in the morning. Those tarrying for the Sabbath 
 had a quiet, pleasant day. and on ]^Ionday found a 
 boat to take them on their way to join those who had 
 gone before them. And so the Lakes were passed.' 
 
 ^ Note 2. 
 
THE JOURNEY 23 
 
 One more experience now, — the prairies, the great 
 wide prairies of Illinois, — and the journey will be 
 complete. Almost two weeks had already been con- 
 sumed. Another would bring the end. 
 
 It was in the fall of the year, just after harvest- 
 time, and from all parts of Illinois, even farther west 
 than the interior of the state, farmers were coming to 
 find a market for their wheat in the then great city 
 of Chicago, of eight thousand people. On their re- 
 turn home, these farmers were glad to find some 
 traveler, some freight, or anything else, to take with 
 them, that might help to bear the expense of their 
 long journey to market. In this way, it was thought, 
 private conveyance could be found more comfortable 
 and pleasant than by stage. So all were busy. Bar- 
 gains must be made ; canvas coverings for the wagons, 
 provisions and general supplies must be secured in 
 true emigrani: style, for hotels were far apart, and 
 the belated traveler was often obliged to spend the 
 night on the prairie. 
 
 Denmark, Lee County, Iowa, was now the termi- 
 nus looked for, but was to be reached by dififerent 
 routes. One party, the brethren with wives, in com- 
 pany with Rev. A. B. Hitchcock with his wife, at that 
 time missionary at Davenport, were to strike across 
 for Davenport on the Mississippi, then go by boat to 
 Burlington, and thence to Denmark. The others 
 were tO' take a more southerly course, direct to Bur- 
 lington, and so to Denmark. 
 
24 
 
 ////: ion. I n.ixp 
 
 Xmv l)egan Western life ; — and. for a while, it was 
 well enjoyed. Now in a slong^h in the bottom-lands 
 of some sluggish stream, and now high up on the 
 rolling- prairie : what a vast extent of land meets the 
 e}e. — land in e\er\- direction, with scarce a shrub or 
 a tree to be seen ! How like a black ril)bon upon a 
 carpet of green stretches awa) in the distance before 
 them the road they are to travel! And occasionally 
 some far-off cloth-covered wagon like their own is 
 descried, like a vessel at >ca. right 1\' named a 
 "l)rairie schuoncr." In the settled ])ortions. what 
 farms! what fences! how indikc their luistern homes! 
 Xo stones, no barns, children and pigs running to- 
 gfether. Then what places in which to sleep! and 
 what breakfasts! If, after a morning ride, they made 
 a lucky sto]), such honey! such milk! such butter and 
 egg^s ! and all so cheaj). — twelve and a half cents a 
 meal ! 
 
 Day by day they traveled on. gazing, wondering, 
 remarking and beings remarked upon. Some thought 
 them "land-sharks," some Mormons. But even this 
 became at last wearisome and monotonous. On 
 Saturday afternoon, the southern party, worn with 
 travel, halted at Galesburg for another Sabbath's 
 rest. 
 
 ^Monday morning found them early on their way, 
 refreshed, and eager for the end. "To-day." thought 
 they, ''the setting sun is to look with us upon the 
 great ?vIississip}M ;" and so it proved. For an hour or 
 
THE JOLRXJiV 25 
 
 so, near the close of tlie day, they had l^een winding 
 and jolting through timbered bottom-lands among 
 huge trees, grand in their silence, gazing the while 
 earnestly forward, till at last it was seen, — the 
 smooth, broad bosom of the great river, with the last 
 silvery rays of the setting sun playing upon it. 
 
 "Three cheers," cried they, "for the Mississippi !" 
 Their hearty cheers rang out upon the forest ; and, 
 in a few^ moments more, they were on the river's 
 bank. But the ferry-boat had just made its last trip 
 for the day; and, though they hallooed for help, no 
 one responded to the call. The twilight deepened. It 
 w^as soon dark, save as the stars and the moonbeams 
 sparkled and danced upon the w^aters. The hallooing 
 had ceased as useless, and things looked desperate ; 
 but the dip of a paddle was heard, and a canoe soon 
 came in sight. It w^as a chance to cross the river, — 
 twenty-five cents apiece, and a bark of limited accom- 
 modations. Brothers Salter and Turner declared 
 they would rather stay by the stuff all night, lli? 
 others paid the price, and stepped in. It w^as a heavy 
 load for a light canoe, and all must remain motionless. 
 So, in stillness and silence, with God's stars looking 
 dow'U upon them, they were paddled across to Iowa's 
 shore. 
 
 Now in low^a, at Burlington ! Kind friends, e^'en 
 here, were awaiting their arrival ; and, as the news 
 spread, they w^ere soon constrained to turn from tav- 
 ern fare to Christian homes. The watchers bv the 
 
26 I'HE IOWA BASn 
 
 stuff came over in tlie iiiornino-; and before another 
 ni\c:lit they had traveled fifteen miles on Iowa soil 
 to Denmark. They had seen the Western pastor in 
 his home, and he had scattered them for hospitality 
 among the members of his tlock." The northern party 
 soon came in safety. All were to rest a while, and 
 then scatter. 
 
mw. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 ORDINATION AND DISPERSION 
 
 ON Sabbath morning, Nov. 5, 1843, ^^^^ usually 
 quiet town of Denmark was all astir. A great 
 event was to occur. Every child had heard that nine 
 young ministers, fresh from the East, had come to 
 preach in the Territory. In anticipation of the event. 
 Rev. Asa Turner and Rev. Reuben Gaylord had taken 
 a long tour to spy out the land, and decide upon the 
 places to be occupied ; and on that Sabbath seven of 
 these young ministers were to be ordained. Den- 
 mark then consisted of a few scattered farmhouses 
 of New-England-like appearance ; and convenient 
 thereto stood a low, broken-backed, elongated build- 
 ing, compelled as yet to the double service of school 
 and meeting-house. 
 
 This, at the appointed hour, was the center of at- 
 traction. The council had previously been organized, 
 and the candidates examined. The members of the 
 Band then ordained were Edwin B. Turner, William 
 Salter, Ebenezer Alden, Jr., Horace Hutchinson, 
 Ephraim Adams, Daniel Lane and Benjamin A. 
 Spaulding. With them were ordained W. A. Thomp- 
 son, who came to the Territory about the same time, 
 
'^o THli IOWA BAND 
 
 and I). Ciraui^cr. who was already here as a Hcentiatc. 
 The exercises were : sermon by the Rev. J. A. Reed, 
 from Acts JO : 28 (the subject was. "rrere(]u"sites 
 to Success in the Gospel Ministr}") : ordaining- prayer 
 by the i\e\. Asa Turner; charge by the Rev. C. l>urn- 
 ham ; right hand of fellowship 1)y the Rev. Reu1:)en 
 (laylord. 
 
 The house, oi course, was crowded, and the occa- 
 sion one of great interest. To the few brethren al- 
 read\' in tlie field, it was a day of rejoicing. Said 
 Ilrother (^axlord. "Such a (la\- I had never seen l)e- 
 ft)re ; such a day 1 had never expected t(^ see in m\' 
 lifetime. The most I coidd do. when alone, was to 
 weep tears of joy. and retiUMi thanks to God." 
 
 'Idiis was an interesting and solenm occasion; but 
 there had been, a day or two i)revious. in the pastor's 
 study, a meeting of still greater interest to the young 
 ministers. It was a meeting in which t]ie\- were 
 to decide among themselves in what i)articular place 
 the scene of the future labors of each should be. In 
 former times, and far away, they had often met for 
 prayer, often asked God to guide them in their way. 
 He had guided them ; had turned their hearts to 
 Iowa, and brought them thither ; and now. with or- 
 dination vows soon to be taken, they had met to de- 
 cide where, in the wide field around them, each should 
 labor. It was a solemn meeting, a delicate business, 
 a time when self must be laid aside, and each must be 
 willing to be anything, to go anywhere. A prayer 
 
ORDINATION AND DISPERSION 29 
 
 was offcrcil that the Spirit uf God niig-ht be upon 
 them, and with them. Then Fathers Turner and 
 Gaylord, who had explored the field, came in, and, 
 map in hand, described their tour, and the places vis- 
 ited, and retired. 
 
 Now, by free suggestion and mutual consent, the 
 assignment began. Brother Hutchinson, for peculiar 
 reasons, as was well known, was inclined to Burling- 
 ton, and Harvey Adams to Farmington. None were 
 disposed to object ; and so their destination was fixed. 
 ''Those having wives," it was said, "ought to be pro- 
 vided for in places as comfortable as any in the Terri- 
 tory." A minister-seeking man from Keosauqua had 
 claimed Brother Lane as the one of his choice. His 
 promises were fair, and he was gratified. Blooming- 
 ton, since called Muscatine, then "a smart town" of 
 four hundred inhabitants, on the Mississippi, seemed 
 a good place for one with a family ; and so this, by 
 common consent, was ceded to Brother Robbins : and 
 thus the wives were provided for. 
 
 Away out in the new purchase, in the region of 
 the old Indian Agency, new fields were opening, 
 calling mostly for itinerant labor for the present, and 
 endurance of frontier hardships as a good soldier. 
 Brother Spaulding would as soon take this position 
 as any other ; and thither was his face turned. Some 
 must go up into the northern counties of Jackson and 
 Jones. This was far distant, to be sure, and the re- 
 gion not thicklv settled: but then, the more northern 
 
30 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 the location, the more luisteni the people; ami that 
 part of the state would some time he tilled up. 
 Brothers Salter and Turner, the David and Jonathan 
 of the company, rather liked the idea of exploring this 
 portion of the field together, and deciding for them- 
 selves where to locate. This they did, eventually 
 finding themselves. — the former at Ma(iuoketa, and 
 the latter at Cascade. The two places yet remaining, 
 which then seemed the most important, were Solon 
 and Mt. Pleasant : for these there were two brethren, 
 Ebene/.er Alden and l''])hraim Adams, who said they 
 would settle the matter by themselves; which they 
 did by referring it that evening to I'\ather Turner, 
 lie assigned Mr. Alden to Sol<>n. anrl Mr. Adams to 
 Mt. Pleasant. 
 
 So the work was done with perfect harmony and 
 good will, — quickly done, without an unpleasant 
 word or a jealous thought ; and every one was satis- 
 fied. Considering the nature of the meeting and the 
 issue thereof, let God be praised ! 
 
 On Sabbath night, Xov. 5, 1843, ^s each retired to 
 rest after having been ordained to his work, he had 
 his particular field in view. On Monday morning all 
 was bustle, preparatory to their departure. Occa- 
 sionally, as they met in passing to and fro, there was 
 the grasp of the hand, the hearty ''Good-bye !" and 
 "The Lord bless you!" ''Let us remember Tuesday 
 night," was the parting suggestion. The meeting al- 
 luded to in the pastor's study was the last ever held 
 
ORDINATION AND DISPERSION 31 
 
 by the Band at which all the nicnihcrs were together.' 
 Such a meeting- on earth where all were present, there 
 now can never be. 
 
 • Note No. 4 and Appendix I. 
 
CHAPTER MI 
 GETTIXG TO UORK .IXP CO.lLliSCIXC 
 
 IX'J'IMATI^LV connected, \ct widely difYerent. are 
 theory and practice. The theory we spin out in 
 thoui^ht. speech and h(H)ks ; the practice we find amid 
 the \ilal forces, the hxini;- issues and interests of 
 actual life. Kii^ht here it is that our previous in- 
 structions sonietinies ap])ear almost useless, our no- 
 tions visionary, and our plans futile. I'or success in 
 an\ calliui^- or profession, more is to he learned than 
 can he learned prior to entering:;- upon it. 
 
 ( )\ no profession, perhaps, is this more true than 
 of the ministerial. At^ainst the usual preparatory 
 course throu.q;h ten \ears of study, in academy, col- 
 lege and seminary, not a word is to be said: it is by 
 no means useless. In many respects, and in most 
 cases, it is essential ; hut it alone can never (jualify one 
 for the ministerial work. This is never found to be 
 precisely what it seems in books. It includes many 
 an experience and emergency for which the previous 
 training has given no real preparation ; while much 
 of the so-called preparation that has been made, how^- 
 ever cherished and relied upon, will be found like the 
 armor of Saul on the youthful David, and can only 
 be put aside as cumbersome and useless. 
 
GETTING TO WORK AX I) COALESCIXG 33 
 
 Often the young minister finds himself eoming 
 awkwardly into his calling, because he seeks to carry 
 into it the full panoply of the schools, or of favorite 
 theological giants, instead of going to his work sim- 
 ply in the name of the Lord. The process of getting 
 to work so as to work successfully, in which every 
 one has so much to learn that has not been taught 
 him by books and teachers, is always more or less a 
 process of disappointments and failures. A modifica- 
 tion of previous views and plans becomes necessary. 
 There are frequent calls for self-adjustments and 
 adaptations, to meet unthought-of exigencies ; so 
 that the man often, in the course of a few years, comes 
 out far different in many respects from what he had 
 proposed. So it proved in the case of the classmates, 
 who, in a few short days, were taken from the quiet 
 scenes of student life at Andover, and set down — one 
 here, and another there — as home missionaries in 
 Iowa. 
 
 One, from the representations then frequent re- 
 specting the moral wants of the West, had pictured 
 to himself a country destitute of preachers, and a 
 people, with the recollections of Christian homes 
 fresh in their memories, all eager to hear the gospel. 
 He had fancied, that, when once among them, the sim- 
 ple announcement that he came as a minister would 
 be enough immediately to draw about him those 
 famishing for the bread of life. ''Oh, what a joy," 
 thought he, "to be a home missionary!" 
 
34 THE low. I B.ixn 
 
 liiKiL^iiK' llic chaiiijc in liis \ic\vs as lie loinul. in 
 tlie place to which he was assigned, ihc great majority 
 of the people not only jnst as indifferent as elsewhere, 
 but, owing to the sharp, worldly features of a stirring 
 Western town," even more so. The few that had any 
 interest at all in religious thin^i^s were cut U]) into 
 clicjues and (k-noniinations of all sorts, some of which 
 he IkhI newr heard ot before; and. to meet their 
 wants, there was a minister or preacher of some kind 
 at every corner of the streets, making- it, as the Sal)- 
 bath came, not only difficult to find a place or an hour 
 in which to preach, but more difficult still to secure 
 any thinq; like a stated congregation from Sabbath to 
 Sabbath. Here was actual experience as against the 
 theory of home-missionary hfe. 
 
 Tn his mind, another one of this untried Band had 
 l)lanned on this wise: "I am going to Iowa; and, 
 when I get there, I am going to have my study and 
 lii)rarv. Then 1 am going to write two sermons a 
 week ; and. when the Sabbath comes. I am going to 
 preach them, and the people, if they want the gospel, 
 must come to hear." Well, he came to Iowa to find 
 his home, for the time being, in the house of kind 
 Christian people, in which the one room must answer 
 all the needs of the family, with those of the new min- 
 ister superadded. The familiar quilt of those days par- 
 titioned off one corner for his bedroom and study ; and 
 his study-chair was a saddle. As for written sermons, 
 
 "^ Mount Pleasant. 
 
GETTING TO WORK AND COALESCING 35 
 
 they were, of course, few; and if any one was com- 
 pelled to go about in search of the people, instead of 
 being sought by them, it was William Salter. 
 
 A third, Alden B. Robbins, fancied that he would 
 have three or four preaching-places far enough apart 
 to enable him to preach on the same subjects in each 
 place. So he was calculating on time and opportunity 
 to work up extempore sermons of great pov;er on 
 important subjects. He found himself, and for years 
 has stood, where, with some of the same hearers from 
 Sabbath to Sabbath, the constant demand w^as for two 
 written sermons to be prepared each week, and, at 
 the same time, cut off from the usual relief of minis- 
 terial exchange and of annual vacations. 
 
 Twenty-five years ago (1843), Nauvoo, the city of 
 the Mormons, was in its glory. Dr. Lyman Beecher 
 had sounded, through the East, alarms of Catholicism 
 in the West. These two opposing forces, it w^as sup- 
 posed, would at once confront any Christian laborer 
 going West, and meet him at every turn. So Mc- 
 Gavin's ''Protestantism," a huge work, was procured 
 and studied, the Mormon Bible perused, and in other 
 directions special preparations made to meet them, 
 for must not the workman go forth prepared for his 
 w^ork ? 
 
 In fact, however, the most of our young missiona- 
 ries for years never saw a Mormon ; and, as for Ca- 
 tholicism, this was by no means the only hostile isin 
 in the land. They found a people starting homes, in- 
 
36 THE IOWA B.IXD 
 
 sliUitiuiis, usages, laws, customs, in a new territory; 
 gathered from all parts of the country antl the world; 
 coming together wiili differing tastes, prejudices, 
 ideas and plans; and representing all shades of belief 
 and disbelief. Every phase of error, that any age or 
 country had ever seen, was here cropping out. They 
 soon found that they were where, if their lives were 
 to be of use, if they were not to be swallowed up by 
 the forces around them. the\- must l)e positive and 
 earnest. They nuist set forth the best platform under 
 God they could, and. as earnest men, set aboiU l)uild- 
 ing- thereon. What that i)latform was to be. and what 
 the work to be done upon it. was not so much of a 
 question as how to do it ; w hat to unlearn, and what 
 to learn ; how to be adapted to circumstances ; when 
 to take (^n new methods and ways, and when to cling- 
 to the old ; and how. especially, to mingle among the 
 people, not only as aiuong but of theiu. so as, by iden- 
 tity of feeling and interest, to gain their confidence 
 and affection, and so an open ear. and by God's grace, 
 an open heart. 
 
 After the ordination and dispersion came this 
 process of getting to work, each in his own field, and 
 coalescing, — this process, we will not say. of turning 
 from the Eastern to the Western man, but rather of 
 growing from the Eastern into the Western, in which 
 somewhat of over-niceties and the restraints of eti- 
 quette and form are laid aside. 
 
 "How do you like the new minister?" was asked 
 
GETTING TO Jl'ORK AND COALESCING 37 
 
 of a resident in a connt}' where Brother Ebenezer 
 Aklen was thus getting to work. "Oh, we all believe 
 in him," was the reply ; showing how Eastern habits 
 and culture were no barrier, as they sometimes are, 
 to access to the hearts of the hardy pioneers. In this 
 l)rocess of getting to work, in the course of a year or 
 two things w^ere fully settled. 
 
 First, w^hat, ecclesiastically, the platform of the 
 missionaries was to be. This in the case of each w^as 
 Congregational. With a number, when they came 
 to the Territory, the matter of church polity was an 
 open question. Decided instructions in the Seminary 
 had not been given. There had been no conference 
 respecting it, one with the other, by which any con- 
 clusion or agreement had been reached as to whether 
 they should be Congregationalists or Presbyterians. 
 The feeling was, that, very likely, some w^ould be one, 
 and some the other. Nor, after they came, were any 
 pains taken by the Congregational brethren on the 
 ground to influence them in this matter. But in the 
 providence of God, by the fitness of things soon per- 
 ceived, wath one consent they thought best to build 
 upon what, with a single exception, had been the 
 foundation of their fathers. In after years they 
 thanked God that it was so.^ 
 
 Secondly, they had in affection, feelings, interests 
 and aims, coalesced with the brethren who preceded 
 them. These were few ; not so many by half as those 
 
 Note 5. 
 
38 THE IOWA B.IXD 
 
 who recnforced them. Coming in such comparal..e 
 numbers as classmates in the same seminary, as did 
 the Iowa r.aiul, and at so early a period in the liislor\' 
 oi the state, it would not ha\e been strange, if. iu the 
 minds of the l)rethrcn already here, there had been 
 the sui;_L;estion at least, if not the fear, that the new- 
 eoiiK-rs would be clannish in their feelin<;-, banded 
 together, and standing apart from others ; not only 
 disposed to set aside those who were here before, but 
 dictatorial and assuming over those who should come 
 after them. If any such suggestion or fear there was, 
 ouc \ear was sutVicient to disi)el it.'" 
 
 With oi)en hands and warm hearts were they re- 
 cc'i\ed: and the conuuon interests and ex])eriences of 
 home-missionary life Si.on l)oun(l all together as one. 
 .\s they coalesced with those who had preceded them, 
 so have others coming later, till the bnva ministry of 
 the Congregational churches has beccjuie a band in- 
 deed : and though that i)art of it known as the Iowa 
 r>and has thus far been made prominent in this home- 
 missionary record, and. in the circumstances, may 
 ]:>roperly, ])erha])s, occasionally be so made in what 
 follows, yet be it understood, that, as to work accom- 
 ])lished and results reached, honor is due, under God, 
 not to them alone, but to all who have labored with 
 them. — to those who have come in at a later period as 
 well as to those who were here before them. 
 
 '" Note No, 6. 
 
CHAPTER \I1I 
 
 A DIARV' 
 
 STILL further to illustrate, and as affording, to 
 some extent, a little more of an inside view of 
 this process of getting to work, we give in this chap- 
 ter a brief diary. It contains the observations of one, 
 who, in that first year, was called to visit the most of 
 his brother ministers at their homes. The tour begins 
 upon the banks of the Des Moines at Keosauqua. 
 
 July i6, 1844. — Here are Brother Lane and wife 
 in their little home with two rooms. They have a 
 chair or two now, and a table ; but they say they set 
 up housekeeping without either, using, instead, old 
 boxes. They have a church of a few members, a vil- 
 lage of promise, and the people are kind. On the 
 whole, they are in good spirits and hopeful. The 
 church is organized as Presbyterian ; but its members 
 are not all of that way of thinking. Brother Lane is 
 coming to be very decided that Congregationalism is 
 the true Bible way; is really quite conscientious about 
 it. A majority are with him in opinion. How things 
 will turn out, I can't tell. 
 
 July t8. — At Mount Pleasant to-night. Found 
 
 1' Note 7. 
 39 
 
40 
 
 Tim IOWA H.ixn 
 
 Brother Ephraini Adams well. He has a study at a 
 tavern, and "boards round," like a schoolmaster. No 
 church organized, or next to none. He groans over 
 sects and divisions, and hopes somehow to get some of 
 them together. Says he sometimes thinks there arc 
 more ministers West than Kast. ihic can do nothing 
 in this place till he takes his stand, and goes lo work. 
 It is not so much destitution as it is indisposition, 
 selfishness and self-seeking of the human heart here 
 as everywhere. 
 
 July H). — Came up to Brighton. Tliis is a farming 
 setllemenl. a nund)er of intelligent, i)ious families. 
 I'rother lUnaiham is the minister here; used to know 
 him in college, lie has a house: it is uni)ainte(l, no 
 carpets in it, a poor fence around it, wood pile near, 
 and pigs loose. Does n't look much like a New Eng- 
 land parsonage. I wonder if this is n't the way for 
 a minister to do, — tt^ get a home, and grow up with 
 the people. Farmers are the basis of everything; and 
 he has a good field. 
 
 Mo)iday, July 22. — This (Iowa City) is the state 
 capital, the great city of Iowa, of which everybody 
 has heard, of four hundred inhabitants. It has a pleas- 
 ant location, however, and plenty of room. Went 
 into the state library ; while looking about, met an old 
 gentleman, who proved to be Governor Lucas, the ex- 
 governor of the territory. He was affable, and inter- 
 ested to show me about the city ; took me down half 
 a mile or so to see some mineral springs. I felt di, 
 
A DIARY 
 
 41 
 
 little awkward to have such attention paid me by so 
 old a man. Spent the Sabbath h^re with the Rev, W. 
 \V. Woods, AI.D., of the New School Presbyterian 
 church, and preached for him. There is an Old 
 School church here also, but no Congregational. 
 Neither of the churches having any meeting-house, 
 they hold meetings in the State House, — one in the 
 Representatives', the other in Senators' Hall. These 
 two halls are opposite each other ; so that, as the doors 
 were open wdiile the people were collecting, when w^e 
 took our seats in the desk w^e could look across 
 through the opposite hall and see the Old School min- 
 ister in his desk at the other end of the building. 
 "Now," whispered the doctor, "now the watchmen see 
 eye to eye." Didn't think 't was just the place for 
 such a pun, — so sadly false, too ! Long time, I fear, 
 it wall be before the Old School friends will see eye 
 to eye with the New School brethren, or us either; 
 for they look upon us with suspicion!, say we are un- 
 sound, and won't even exchange with us. Oh, wdiat 
 a pity that all these little places should be so cut up ! 
 Glad w^e have n't any church here. 
 
 July 23. — This day's ride on my faithful pony, for 
 I 've forgotten to say that I now own one — price 
 forty-five dollars — has brought me tO' Tipton, 
 county-seat of Cedar County. Here found Brother 
 Alden. He has a study, a little ground room 
 right on the street, in a "lean-to" of a store, over 
 which lives the family. Horses stand around, these 
 
42 
 
 THE IOWA BASn 
 
 lu)t clavs. kicking the tlios ; and when he is out the 
 pigs run in. unless he is careful to shut the door. 
 Poor place. 1 should think, for writing sermons. Par- 
 tition so thin that all the store talk, especially when 
 the doors are open, is plainly heard. 
 
 It being Tuesday evening, we of course wished to 
 remember the Tuesday evening prayer-meeting, but 
 wanted a more private place for it : so went out in 
 search of »Mie. Came to a two-story log building used 
 for a jail, which happened to be empty, with the doors 
 open. Went uj) 1)\- an outside stairway to the up])er 
 room, and there, with the mo(~)n sailing over the 
 prairies, had our meeting; prayed for each other, for 
 the brethren, for Iowa, for home. Not exactly like 
 the old Andover meetings in the library, but some- 
 thing like them. Coming d<^wn again to the ground, 
 UrotluT Alden looked uj) in his queer way: "There," 
 said he. "1 guess that's the first time that old building 
 ever had a prayer in it." Just as cheerful and funny 
 as ever ; but he is doing a good work here, and get- 
 ting hold of the hearts of everybody. Indeed, he is 
 becoming quite a bishop of the county. "The first 
 time there was ever a prayer in it !" I wonder in how 
 many places and ways we shall do the first things for 
 Christ in this new country ! 
 
 July 24. — Am here in De\\'itt. a little place with 
 a few buildings on a big prairie. But how I got here, 
 which way I traveled, I can't tell. I only know that 
 in the morning I gave myself up to the pilotage of the 
 
A DIARY 
 
 43 
 
 mail-carrier. Soon after starting, he turned his horse 
 off the road into the prairie, and I followed. Since 
 then my head has been in a kind of a whirl, the points 
 of the compass lost ; and I can only think of prairie- 
 grass, bottom-lands, sloughs, a river forded, a cabin 
 or two by the way, and little groves here and there, 
 all jumbled up together. But I am here ! Looking 
 at the map, I reason myself into the belief that I have 
 really traveled from Tipton to DeWitt. Here is 
 where Brother Emerson lives, a man whom I have 
 long wished to see. It was his account, in ''The 
 Home Missionary," of the manner in which a gang of 
 horse-thieves was broken up at Bellvue, that turned 
 my attention to Iowa. Somehow I then felt that there 
 was work to be done in such a country, and that I 
 would like to labor near such a man ; and here I am 
 at his home. He is a whole-souled, earnest brother, 
 and takes you right in. No danger, I guess, that we 
 and those who were on the ground before us wall not 
 feel as one. 
 
 One good thing about this trip is to get acquainted 
 with the older brethren, to see the different fields, to 
 know what the land is. Brother Emerson says he 
 located here because it was so central. If this is a 
 center, there is no trouble in finding a similar one on 
 any of these big prairies. 
 
 July 26. — Came up to-day tO' Maquoketa, where I 
 expected to find Brother Salter. Learning that he 
 was absent, having gone north, came on up through 
 
44 
 
 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 Andrew, a little stumpy town in the woods, to this 
 place, Cottonville, the home of Deacon Cotton. So 
 I am the guest, to-night, of one of the direct descend- 
 ants of old John Cotton of Puritan memory, in this 
 far-oflf Iowa ; and a nice old man he is. Before leav- 
 ing the East, an old Christian lady, a mother in Israel, 
 learning I was going to Iowa, came, saying that she 
 had a son-in-law in Iowa for whom she felt greatly 
 concerned, and gave mc his address, with the injunc- 
 tion, if 1 ever went near liini. to go and see him, and 
 do him all the good I could. T took the address, 
 never expecting really to go near him. but find that 
 to-day I have passed right by his door. Sorry I had 
 not kept it more in my mind. This impresses me 
 more than ever with one feature of the mission work ; 
 it is, to do here, among the scattered people, what the 
 Eastern fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, are 
 contributing, longing and praying to have done. I 
 must be more careful. 
 
 Deacon Cotton says Brother Salter has taken a trip 
 up into \\'isconsin, about Potosi ; that he is inclined 
 to think he will not stay in this field long. Hope he 
 won't leave Iowa : I '11 find him if I can. 
 
 July 2y. — Am up now as far as Dubuque. Here is 
 W'here really the first white man crossed the river to 
 dwell. He had a grant from government to trade in 
 this mining region with the Indians. The place takes 
 his name ; and the whole region is honeycombed with 
 the miners' diggings. Great fortunes have been 
 
A DtAkV 45 
 
 made ; but many a splendid prospect fails. So it is 
 in all things else. Some say that if all the labor ex- 
 pended in digging for lead had been expended 
 upon the surface of the ground, about six inches 
 deep, the people generally would be better of¥. 
 However this may be, a "right smart town" of a few 
 hundred people is here. Brother Holbrook preaches 
 here, and has, I am told, great influence. He is away 
 now at the East to get funds towards repairing the 
 church. It needs it ; for it is a stone building with 
 bare, unplastered walls inside. Yet it is the only house 
 of worship built expressly for this object that we have 
 in the Territory. By urgent solicitation of the breth- 
 ren, am to spend the Sabbath here. 
 
 July 31. — Up, up, still farther north, here at Jack- 
 sonville (now Garnavillo), the county-seat of Clayton 
 County. I have now traversed northward, on my 
 horseback trip, about two hundred and fifty miles. 
 Since leaving Dubuque I have been so tossed about 
 that I could not use my diary : so I must write up a 
 little. 
 
 Started on Monday morning in search of Brother 
 Salter. Came up to Potosi Landing. There crossing 
 the river, soon got on his track, and after inquiring 
 for him from house tO' house, found him at last, doing 
 good mission work among the people. It was truly 
 a surprise-meeting. Glad to learn that he was true to 
 Iowa, and was to return soon to his field. Stayed with 
 him that night in a neat log cabin of some young mar- 
 
46 THE lOJVA BAND 
 
 ried people, who said they were from Maine. Might 
 have known they were from Yankee-land, if they 
 had n't told us. by the morning-glories around the 
 door and the general air of things in and around the 
 cabin. There will be a good house there some time, 
 and a Christian home, too, I trust. 
 
 Next day, about noon, crossed back again into this 
 best part of the world, on the flatboat ferry at Cass- 
 ville Landing, at the mouth of the Turkey River. That 
 afternoon liad (|uitc a time. I was on the south side 
 of the river, and the first ford was ten miles up stream, 
 the track leading for the most part through a hilly 
 forest. From recent rains, the river was much swol- 
 len, making, by backwater, every stream putting into 
 it impassable at the mouth: so my work that after- 
 noon was principally heading those streams. It was 
 in one of these, as 1 urged m\- horse down a steep 
 bank into deeper water than I supposed, that I was 
 thrown full length, when saddle-bags, sermons and 
 papers went floating. Fortunately I gathered them 
 all up, and came on. Reached the ferry near night, 
 where the ferryman swam my horse for me, and took 
 me over in a canoe. I was then twelve miles from this 
 place, and started on with quickened speed. Just as 
 it was getting dark, as I was querying whether or no 
 I could keep the road, my horse turned into a by-path, 
 and shot around a clump of bushes with a will. 
 Thinking he must have some intent in this, I gave 
 him the rein. In about five minutes he took me 
 
A DIARY 
 
 4; 
 
 Up to a fence and a light. There I stopped for the 
 night. 
 
 It was the cabin of an old sea-captain, Captain Reed. 
 His wife, for years a praying Christian woman, in 
 poor health, and somewhat deaf, was once a member 
 of Father Kent's church in Galena. Illinois, but now is 
 living away alone, as a sheep in the wilderness. On 
 learning I was a minister, she was greatly rejoiced. 
 We talked ; she told me much of her history and ex- 
 perience ; we read the Bible ; we prayed. I stopped 
 that night in the house of the Lord. In the morning 
 she thanked me over and over for the good she re- 
 ceived ; but I felt, and feel now, that she did me far 
 more good than I did her. Experience, with the 
 chastenings of the Lord, confers that which seminaries 
 and colleges can never give. We come out here to 
 preach ; but there are those who preach to us more 
 effectively than we to them. 
 
 That day I came to this place. Here are Brother 
 Hill and wife. The settlement is on a beautiful prairie 
 ridge, and there are many fine families here. Brother 
 Hill and wife are boarding at present, and have before 
 them a fine field. He enters it with his usual staid, 
 steady tread ; but she throws herself into it with the 
 enthusiasm of her whole soul. Long may they live 
 to labor here ! The next place north, they say, is 
 Sodom, and then the Indians : so I guess I'll turn back. 
 
 From this point, our tourist, on his return, retraces 
 
^8 THli lOlrA BAND 
 
 pretty much the path l)y which he came; so that we 
 find in his chary nothing- of new interest until he 
 comes down to Davenport, on the Mississippi. Here 
 we cjuote as follows : — 
 
 Aug. 10. — Came down to this place to-day, from 
 DeW'itt. (3l all the rivers in the territory, and I be- 
 lieve now I have seen them all, I think theWapsipini- 
 con is the worst. Such ugly bottom-lands, and, in- 
 deed, such sloughs as I have had all day long! A 
 hard ride : but 1 find here a beautiful place, the most 
 beautiful natural location on the Mississippi, some 
 say ; and I know of none that excels it. There are 
 here al)out fi\e hundred people. I have heard the 
 place spoken of as a good location for a college. 
 I see nothing to the contrary. There is certainly 
 beauty of scenery. Probably it will not be much of 
 a point for business ; and a literary institution with 
 such surroundings would attract a class of people 
 congenial to itself. Here I am the guest of a new ac- 
 quaintance. Brother Hitchcock, who preaches here. I 
 believe, though, he is to leave before long to go to 
 jMoline, Illinois, a new village just starting on the 
 other side of the river, three miles above Rock Island. 
 I am to spend the Sabbath here, and' shall be glad of 
 the rest. I am getting about enough of travel. As 
 to clothes, between the excessive rains, hot sun and 
 horseback wear, they are beginning to look pretty 
 rust v. 
 
A DIARY 
 
 49 
 
 Monday Morning, Aug. 12, 1844. — Preached yes- 
 terday in the forenoon for the Congregationalists in 
 a httle building put up for a dwelHng-house, and now 
 used for a schoolhouse, situated on what is known as 
 Ditch Street : twelve hearers. They are building, 
 however, a neat little church, about twenty-eight by 
 thirty-eight, on which I see that Brother H. works 
 daily. Wonder if this is the way, when it comes to 
 church-building, that the minister has to turn in as 
 head carpenter to ''boss the job !" In the afternoon 
 yesterday, by invitation, preached for the Baptists. 
 In the course of the sermon was a little vexed as I 
 noticed two ladies smiling at some holes in my coat- 
 sleeve, revealed by my gesturing. Drew down my 
 arms, and their faces, too, by preaching straight at 
 them. Perhaps, on this account, I preached with 
 more point and earnestness than usual ; for after 
 meeting an Old School Presbyterian said he would 
 give five dollars if I would stop and preach a year in 
 the place. Felt it quite a compliment, considering the 
 source. 
 
 Aug.j^i' — At Bloomington.'" The greatest effort 
 at town building this. From four to six hundred peo- 
 ple here are pitched into gullies, and tossed about on 
 the hills. But here I have a hearty welcome by 
 Brother Robbins and wafe. They are getting ahead of 
 all the rest by a little new-comer to their household. 
 Mrs. Robbins laughs at the bachelor brethren, and 
 
 '2 Now Muscatine. 
 
50 THE IOWA BAXD 
 
 pretends to have such a care of them. IMaterials here 
 for a good church ; and, if the place ever is anything, 
 no doubt there will be a good one. 
 
 Aug. i6. — At Burlington. Have been here before 
 cpiite frequently. Nothing specially new now. 
 Brother Hutchinson is working away quite hopefully, 
 though his health is not very firm. Nothing new, I 
 say? — yes. there is one thing new. in the shape of an 
 utterance of one Rev. Mr. White, a Cumberland Pres- 
 byterian minister, in a piece published in the paper, 
 to which P>rother Hutchinson called my attention. It 
 is so modest, I must put it down as so much his- 
 tory : — 
 
 "Observation has taught me that many honest per- 
 sons have heard Iowa misrepresented. So far from 
 being a land of heathens, it is becoming densely pop- 
 ulated by people of intelligence, from not only dififer 
 ent parts of the United States, but of the Eastern and 
 \\'estern Continents. The people are able to support 
 their ministers ; and it is an insult offered to their in- 
 telligence to have men stationed in their largest 
 towns and villages, who receive from one to four hun- 
 dred dollars per annum to instruct the brethren. 
 Iowa is an unhealthy climate for theological dwarfs. 
 ^Ministers are needed who have clear heads, warm 
 hearts ; whose sentences breathe, and whose words 
 burn." 
 
 O Brother W. ! you, then, must be one of the kind 
 needed ; for vour sentences breathe, and vour w^ords 
 
A DIARY 51 
 
 burn. We have heard of similar utterances made by 
 unbelievers, especially by one of the leading judges"* 
 of the territory when we came into it; but little did 
 we expect that gospel ministers would join in the cry. 
 The judge, however, apologized, as he found one of 
 our number'* coming to be his next-door neighbor. 
 Wonder if you ever \\\\\ ! 
 
 Aug. 17. — At Denmark. This is a kind of a home 
 for us all ; and I thought I would come over here to 
 rest a little before going back to my field. I have cer- 
 tainly taken quite a tour, and am glad of it. I have 
 seen the brethren, seen their homes, know^ the coun- 
 try, and trust I shall work the more heartily.'^ 
 
 '•"■Judge Joseph Williams of Bloomington (now Muscatine); a good Metho- 
 dist, not an unbeliever. 
 » Bro. Robbins. 
 '» Note 8. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 THEN AND XOJV 
 
 IT is 1)\ no means proposed, in what follows, to i^ive 
 a eonneeted history either of the Iowa Band or 
 Iowa Missions for the last twenty-five years. We 
 seek only to review a seene here and there, and put 
 on record a few faels. wliich. while of interest to par- 
 ties concerned, may stand to the credit of the great 
 home missionary work. If but a glimpse of home 
 missionar\- life can be ])resented, especially of its 
 inner view, willi its joys yet not without its sorrows, 
 our young men preparing for or entering the minis- 
 try, we are sure, will be attracted rather than repelled 
 by it. If we can hold up a few clusters gathered as 
 the fruits of home missions in Iowa, it may encourage 
 and stimulate all workers in this noble cause to push 
 it onward with increasing vigor wherever there re- 
 maineth land yet to be possessed. 
 
 As preparatory to what is now proposed, nothing, 
 perhaps, will serve better than to contrast the Iowa 
 of twenty-five years ago with the Iowa of to-day. By 
 this view of the "then and now," unfolding, as it must, 
 the nature of the field occupied and the changes 
 wrought, we can better appreciate the causes at work. 
 
 52 
 
THEN AND NOW 53 
 
 But going back twenty-five years brings us so near 
 the beginning of all Iowa history, that a word or two 
 of the prior period may not be amiss. 
 
 From 1843, we go back but ten years to find the first 
 settlement of the state. This was June i, 1833. Bj- 
 fore that date, no white man had resided within its 
 limits except the Indian traders and their depend- 
 ents, and a few who crossed the Mississippi in defi- 
 ance of all treaties. 
 
 Of those who have labored here in the gospel, prob- 
 ably the first Congregational minister whose privi- 
 lege it was to look over into this promised land was 
 the Rev. J. A. Reed. He saw it as: early as May, 1833, 
 His point of observation was a town site in Illinois, 
 called Commerce, consisting then of one log cabin 
 and a cornfield, since known as Nauvoo. His eye 
 could just distinguish blufTs and prairie, with timber- 
 skirted streams. Gazing on the prospect, his reflec- 
 tion was, that the land before him, all the way to the 
 Pacific, was the abode only of savages. All seemed 
 buried, as for ages, in the silence and sleep of savage 
 life. 
 
 During the first ten years of Iowa history, between 
 1833 ^^<^ 1843, the only portion of the state open for 
 settlement was a strip of country about forty miles 
 wide and two hundred miles long, on the western 
 bank of the Mississippi. So far out was this on the 
 frontier, on the very borders of the Indian country, 
 and so much good land was there unoccupied 
 
54 
 
 THE I Oil A BAXD 
 
 and easier of access between it and the older set- 
 tlements of what was then the West, that its pop- 
 ulation at first increased but slowly. In 1838, five 
 years after its settlement began, the population of the 
 territory numbered but 22,859. 
 
 Prior to July 4, 1838, Iowa was included in the terri- 
 torial government, first of Michigan and then of 
 Wisconsin. At this date its own government was 
 established, embracing in its limits the most of Vvhat 
 is now Minnesota and Dakota. Its ]3resent bounda- 
 ries were established when it was admitted into the 
 Union as a state, in 1846. In 1840. its population 
 had reached 42,500. In these first years the country 
 was but little developed. Pioneer hardships and pri- 
 vations were the common experience of the people. 
 These were times in which the brethren tell of letters 
 lying in the post-ofiice for want of money possessed, 
 or to l)e ])orrowed. with which to pay postage. 
 
 The religious condition of the people near the close 
 of this first ten years, as near as August, 1842, is in- 
 dicated by the statements of a writer in "The Home 
 ^Missionary" of that period. He puts down the num- 
 ber of ministers in the Territory, of all denominations, 
 as 42, and the number of professing Christians as 
 2,133. ''Suppose," he says, ''that ten times this num- 
 ber, or 21.330, come under the stated or transient in- 
 fluence of the preached gospel, you have yet the as- 
 tounding fact that there are 38,070 souls in the terri- 
 tory destitute of the means of grace, a large portion 
 
THEN AM) NOW 55 
 
 of whom are under the withering bhght of all sorts 
 of pernicious error." 
 
 Among the errors alluded to was Mornionisni. Its 
 headquarters were at Xauvoo, 111. The town site 
 with its one log cabin of ten years ago had now be- 
 come a city of Latter-day Saints, claiming from six- 
 teen to eighteen thousand people. All the males were 
 under military drill, the men in one division, and the 
 boys in another, to the number, it was said, of three 
 thousand. There w^as not a school in the place. 
 About this time Mormonism was sanguine. Its apos- 
 tles were everywhere, traversing the new settlements 
 with a zeal and success at once astonishing and alarm- 
 ing. 
 
 Infidelity, too, was presenting a bold front under 
 the leadership of Abner Kneeland, first knov/n in 
 Vermont as a Universalist minister, afterwards in 
 Boston as an atheist. He had settled with a band of 
 his followers, male and female, upon the banks of the 
 Des Moines, to mould, if possible, the faith of the 
 new settlers by ''substituting," as one has said, 
 "Paine's Age of Reason, for the family Bible, the 
 dance for the prayer-meeting, and the holiday for the 
 Sabbath." Of the ministers and Christians spoken 
 of as in the Territory near the close of the first ten 
 years, a very few only were of the Congregational 
 order. 
 
 The first Congregational nn'nisters that explored 
 this field w^ere the Rev, Asa Turner and the Rev. 
 
 I 
 
56 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 William Kirby. This they did in May, 1836. They 
 found, as the principal settlements. Fort Aladison, 
 Burlington, ]'\irniinorton. Yellow Sprini^s, Davenport 
 and "Pleasant X'alley. Had they ci^ntinued their tour 
 norlliward far enoui^h, they would have found Du- 
 bu(|ue. with some other little settlements scattered 
 here and there. 
 
 The first resident Congregational minister in the 
 state was the Rev. W". A. Apthorp. who came in the 
 fall of 1836. lie preached for a year or two. mostly 
 at h^ort Madison and Denmark. At Denmark, the 
 first Congregational church in Iowa was formed, 
 Ma\- 5. 1838. The ministers present were Messrs. 
 Turner, Reed and Apthorj). Denmark was then 
 about two years old. with a few log cabins and a 
 frame building, twenty by twenty-four, which served 
 as a schoolhouse and meeting-house, partly finished. 
 The church was organized with thirty-two members. 
 Every Xew England state but one was represented 
 in it. Inmiediately on the organization of the church, 
 Mr. Turner was invited to take charge of it; and the 
 invitation was, after a few weeks, accepted. Mr. Ap- 
 thorp was soon called to Illinois, and Mr. Turner was 
 left the only Congregational minister in the state. 
 So intimately connected with the history of our 
 churches in after years did the church at Denmark 
 and its pastor become, that Denmark is regarded as 
 the cradle of Congregationalism in Iowa ; and to the 
 revered pastor who so long labored there, the low'a 
 
THEN AND NOW 57 
 
 ministry have given, by common consent, the appella- 
 tion of "Father Turner." 
 
 He (lid not long stand alone. Others came to his 
 help, but not enough to supply the wants of even the 
 slowly developing country around them. In a few- 
 years, the population began to increase more rapidly. 
 The openings for labor became more numerous, but 
 the men to occupy the new fields came not. These 
 were weary years, in which the few brethren here ex- 
 plored the field, reported its wants, and then labored 
 on without reenforcement. This they did till hope 
 deferred not only made the heart sick, but made them 
 almost despair. But at last, as we have seen, help 
 came. 
 
 Twenty-five years ago, what is now the state of 
 Iowa was a territory, whose scattered settlements were 
 mostly confined to the narrow strip of country before 
 mentioned. The northern and western portions of it 
 were still in the possession of the Indians. It was only 
 a little farther west, about the center of the state, 
 that the Indian title was extinguished in October, 
 1843. Now the state stretches from the Mississippi 
 to the Missouri, taking in a belt of land measuring 
 from north to south nearly three hundred miles. 
 Traversing the eastern portion of it are five noble 
 rivers, nearly equidistant from and parallel to each 
 other, running in a south-easterly direction tO' tlie 
 Mississippi ; while on the western slope of the state 
 are other rivers^ with their tributaries, tending to the 
 Mi?30uri, 
 
58 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 With this area of tifty-fivo thousaiul square miles, 
 situated in the very heart of our country, embracing 
 a variety of climate, bounded and intersected by the 
 noblest rivers of the continent, Iowa is equal to any 
 of her sister states in the richness of her soil, and 
 more favored than some of them in the extent of her 
 forests. Her water-courses abound with facilities for 
 the manufacturer. Her mines of lead and coal and 
 her quarries of marble are exhaustless sources of 
 wealth. It is indeed a o^oodly land: so the thousands 
 wlio have found a liome on its soil have esteemed it. 
 
 The p:rowth of its population, though slow at first, 
 has in later years been truly wonderful. In 1843, 
 there were but about seventy thousand people in the 
 state ; now there are over a million. In cities where 
 then there were but a few hundreds, now there are 
 thousands, and in some cases tens of thousands. 
 Twenty-five years ago, a father in the ministry was 
 calling with one of the Band on a family near the 
 field of liis labor. \\'ishing to impress both the family 
 .and the youthful minister with the grandeur of the 
 Christian work in a new country, he remarked on 
 this wise : *T have no doubt that the day will come, 
 some time, that, within a region of ten miles around 
 the place where we now stand, there will be as many 
 as ten thousand people." The prophecy at the time 
 seemed almost startling,'^ but that family is still living 
 where they then were ; and, within the region alluded 
 
 ^« Note 9. 
 
THEN AND NOW 
 
 59 
 
 to, the people now are numbered by more than three 
 times ten thousand, while the two ministers are still 
 living, the older and the younger beholding in won- 
 der the advancing growth. 
 
 Meantime, as might be expected, the development 
 of the state as a whole has been wonderful. The Iowa 
 of to-day rivals many an older state in agricultural 
 and mechanical productions ; while her coal-beds and 
 her quarries are proving sources of unexpected 
 wealth, and her mines of lead show no signs of ex- 
 haustion. Her advance in all the arts and achiev - 
 ments of civilized life has been rapid. There is no 
 better index, perhaps, of the development of a coun- 
 try than its facilities of travel, and, especially in these 
 latter days, the number and location of its railroads. 
 A glance shows how marked has been the progress 
 in this respect. 
 
 Twenty-five years ago the nearest approach by rail 
 from the East was the city of Bufifalo. Travelers that 
 would see the then Far West, just opening on this, 
 t!ie farther side of the Mississippi, were compelled 
 for the most part to cross over in skiffs, flat-boats 
 or horse-boats. At one point only was there a steam- 
 ferry. The mode of travel then was mostly on foot 
 or horseback, guided often by Indian trails or blazed 
 trees. Bridgeless streams and sometimes bottomless 
 sloughs were to be crossed. 
 
 Many are the incidents and adventures which the 
 members of the Band and the older ministers have to 
 
6o THE IOWA BAND 
 
 recount to their chiUlrcn and to one another of the 
 (lavs in one sense so recent, in another so long ag'O, 
 as they speak of their earl\- explorations in looking 
 over their fields and hunting up the people. But 
 these things have passed. Railroads have come. No 
 less than five railroad-bridges across the Mississippi 
 are, or are being, constructed, over which the iron 
 lu)rse conies to find here a fresh pasture-ground for 
 his wide roaming. I'^rom these five points start five 
 main roads, crossing the state from east to west. 
 Like her five principal rivers, they are about equi- 
 distant from, and in the main parallel to, each other. 
 Two of them already form the Iowa links in the great 
 Pacific route, and others are pressing on. Mean- 
 time, from north to soiitli. roads are projected, and 
 parts of them completed; giving promise, at no dis- 
 tant day. of a railroad system at once complete and 
 adequate. In the aggregate, about fourteen hundred 
 miles of railroad are already in operation, — an ex- 
 tent nearly if not quite equal to all the railroads in 
 the whole country twenty-five years ago. The whis- 
 tle of the engine is fast becoming a familiar sound to 
 the children of Iowa. 
 
 The rivers, of course, have been bridged, and car- 
 riage-roads have been made, as the necessities of the 
 people have required. Twenty-five years ago the 
 only public buildings of Iowa were a rickety peniten- 
 tiary and a very ordinary State House : now, all over 
 the state are scattered her public institutions of all 
 
THEN AND NOW 6l 
 
 sorts, — homes for the orphan, asylums for the bhnd, 
 the insane, and the deaf and dumb. Her present 
 Capitor" stands in a city claiming a population of fif- 
 teen thousand, where, at the coming of the Band, 
 there was but a fort, seldom reached, so far was it in 
 the heart of the Indian country. 
 
 In addition to her State University, whose annual 
 income exceeds twenty-five thousand dollars, her 
 Agricultural College generously endowed, and a sys- 
 tem of common schools magnificently provided for, 
 there are, among her citizens, schools and colleges 
 established by Christian enterprise, already standing 
 high among the best institutions of the land. 
 
 Thus, as by magic, in a few years has the wilderness 
 been peopled. That profound sleep in which, when 
 the first Congregationar minister gazed upon ii, the 
 whole region seemed wrapped, has been broken. 
 Towns, villages, cities, have sprung up, where, but 
 a little while ago, no trace of civilization was visible. 
 •With all this growth, giving life and vitality to it, 
 have sprung up churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 We will not speak of these now ; but, when in the 
 proper place we do, we shall find that here the tens 
 have given place to hundreds, and the hundreds to 
 thousands. 
 
 Twenty-five years ago Iowa was almost unknown, 
 and its character a blank ; now its fame is at once 
 world-wide and enviable. Then it. was only a frontier 
 
 ^" Des Moines, whose population now is over 65,000. 
 
62 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 territory, containini:^-, in the eye of the nation, but a 
 few scattered homes of wild adventurers : now it is a 
 state, and a state, too, of no mean rank in the center 
 of states. Welcoming- to her soil, from the first, the 
 principles of education. lil)crty and religion that have 
 traveled westward from the land of the Pilgrims ; 
 sending them, in due time, to the opening- plains of 
 Kansas and Nebraska ; saying to the dark spirit of 
 the South, that was ever struggling to press its way 
 northward. "Thu^ far and no farther;" joining hands, 
 in the meantime, with her sister states of the North 
 and the Northwest in a friendly rivalry to develop 
 and protect every noble interest and true, — she 
 stands forth with the proud inscription already on her 
 brow, "The Massachusetts of the West," — an in- 
 scription placed there, not as in self-glorifying, by her 
 own sons, but by friends abroad, as they have seen 
 the freedom of her people, her schools and her 
 churches, watched the integrity and wisdom of her 
 legislators, felt her power in the councils of the nation, 
 and especially as they have marked her noble record 
 in the hour of the nation's peril. 
 
 She was ever prompt with her full quota of men 
 and means, and ever mindful of her soldiers in the 
 field and their families at home. Of all her sister 
 states, none were more lavish in these respects than 
 she ; and yet she was the only one of them all to come 
 out at the close of the war with her liabilities can- 
 celed, and free of debt. Nor has she since been un- 
 
THEN AND NOW 62, 
 
 true to the character then earned : she has made the 
 path of freedom broad enough to include all her cit- 
 izens ; and, in every case in which these United States 
 have been called to pronounce upon any of the issues 
 of the times, she has stood shoulder to shoulder on 
 the side of progress with the noblest of them all. 
 Such is the Iowa of to-day. Looking at things as they 
 now are, we can hardly believe that they are the out- 
 growth of the things few and feeble of twenty-five 
 years ago. But so it is. There have been causes for 
 this. Where and what are they? 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE WORKERS 
 
 THE growth of a state, free and mighty, as are 
 these states of the Northwest, is a grand event. 
 It stands forth as tlie result, not of one cause, but of 
 a thousand. Prominent among them, to say the least, 
 is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the message of God to 
 man by his Son. It is the preaching of this gospel, 
 with the intUiences and institutions it includes, tliat, 
 entering into the individual, domestic, social and 
 civil life, gives character and prosperity to the state. 
 To prove a proposition like this is no part of the pres- 
 ent object : nor, with the history of our country before 
 us, is it needlul. It is to the preachers, teachers and 
 upholders of the gospel in Iowa, we are bold to affirm, 
 that she is in no small degree indebted for what she is. 
 Somewhat prominent among these are the Con- 
 gregational ministers and churches of the state. With 
 here and there an exception, these churches have all 
 felt the fostering care of the American Home Mis- 
 sionary Society, — a society which is more than its 
 president, its executive committee and its secretaries. 
 Be it ours. then, in this chapter, to set forth the 
 workers here ; not the home missionaries only, but 
 
 64 
 
THE IVORKIiRS 65 
 
 their helpers also — all who have given or prayed in aid 
 ot this work, or sympathized with them in it. If home 
 missions can show a record of honor in Iowa, let the 
 honor be shared by all who' should participate in it, 
 and let the joys of it be widespread and mutual. 
 
 The grand central figure, however, around which 
 the picture must be drawn, is the home missionary 
 himself. Look at him as he is, or rather as he was, 
 twenty-five years ago. We have a young man with- 
 out family, and, with possibly here and there an ex- 
 ception, without friends, in the new territory to which 
 he has come. His property inventories a few books, 
 the clothes he wears, his trusty horse and a debt at 
 the seminary. On a beautiful morning, as beautiful 
 as the light, which is glorious, and the air, which is 
 bracing, can make it, he is riding out from his home 
 over the prairies into the surrounding settlements. 
 He is in the ardor of youth, yet all things just now 
 seem neither very bright, beautiful nor hopeful. The 
 prairies, at first so fascinating in their novelty, by 
 familiarity have grown tame and unattractive. They 
 are now actually dreary, with their verdure stiffened 
 by the frosts of autumn or burned to blackness by 
 autumnal fires. The poetry of Western life and home 
 missionary labor is fast changing to fact. The fires 
 of a new experience are passing over him. What 
 wonder now if his ride be somewhat lonely, and his 
 thoughts flow in a serious, almost saddened, mood, 
 as he queries with himself, — 
 
66 THE lOJVA BAND 
 
 "What do I here? I came here to preach, but 
 there are no meeting-houses and no churches. But 
 few people care about my coming, going or staying. 
 Among them all, who is there to lean upon? Nothing 
 is organized. The materials are heterogeneous and 
 discordant. There are no counselors near, no prec- 
 edents, no established customs. With some denom- 
 inations there are set rules and directions ; the way is 
 marked out : this is of some advantage, at least. Some 
 denominations, too, are popular ; mine is not ; is, in- 
 deed, but little known, and many are prejudiced 
 against it. 1 am to work here alone. In case of sick- 
 ness or general failure of health, what then? L^oreign 
 missionaries are provided for in this respect, but home 
 missionaries are not. Who is so little supported from 
 without as a home missionary? Who is put so much 
 upon his self-reliance? And on whom does the whole 
 work in which he is so engaged hang? And now, an 
 inexperienced youili. what do I here? What is my 
 life-work to be?" 
 
 Oh. from the depths of how many hearts \v\2 these 
 questions come up here in Iowa, and in all the newer 
 missionary fields of the West ! How often, having 
 left home and friends, church-steeples and the sound 
 of church-going bells, behind him, and gone towards 
 the setting sun till he found himself single-handed and 
 alone on the very frontiers of civilization, has the 
 home missionary in perplexity asked, "What do I 
 here?" And how often has the question found an 
 
THE WORKERS 67 
 
 answer in some moment of loneliness and sadness, 
 when, in the absence of all human stays and sympa- 
 thies, the soul has been thrown upon God, and, for 
 the time, the whole being, the whole world even, has 
 become as the Holy of holies, filled with the divine 
 
 presence 
 
 Then it is seen that there is work enough any- 
 where ; and there are faith and courage to do it. It 
 is thus that tO' the lonely missionary rider there 
 springs up a light, and visions brighter than the 
 brightness of the morning. God never seemed in his 
 fulness to fill all things more than now in the sur- 
 rounding solitudes. In a few years he sees that the 
 virgin soil around him, with as yet no trace upon it 
 save here and there a bridle-path, is tO' take on the 
 fruits of husbandry and toil ; homes are soon to cover 
 it; the silent forest is to be peopled, and the rivers' 
 banks are to be thronged with artisans. For the 
 people's need, for the glory of God, and that the land 
 may be Christ's, he sees that spiritual seed rnust here 
 be sow^n and spiritual harvests reaped. ''Here," he 
 exclaims, "is my work ! With God for my counselor, 
 and taking the customs, precedents and rules of his 
 Word for my guide, here will I live and labor, and 
 here will I die." 
 
 Yes, noble Iowa, many are the germs of life labor 
 that thus have been set within thee ! Out of them, 
 many are the years of patient toil and work that have 
 been given thee by those who brought salvation on 
 
68 THIi lOlVA BAND 
 
 their longucs, whose feet Irod the rude dwellings of 
 thy pionoors, who, in the ruder schoolhouses, first 
 gathered thy children together to teach them the 
 ways of the Lord, and whose very lives have flowed 
 out into the industry, the thrift, the virtue and the in- 
 tegrity of thy people. When as a young man thou 
 rcjoicest in thy strength, forget not by what powers 
 tliy sinews liave been knit, from wliom, in a measure, 
 at least, the currents of thy life ha\e l)een fed. 
 
 Iowa owes a debt even to the humble home mis- 
 sionary ; but not to him alone, for with him. in him 
 and through him. she has felt the power of thousands 
 besides. That missionary entered upon his work with 
 a commission, — a businesslike document, sending 
 liim (tut. ])erhai)s. to find a field. <»r a place in which to 
 make one ; drawing out, somewhat in detail, the na- 
 ture of the duties enjoined, with the requisition of 
 quarterly reports to be made, and the promise of pe- 
 cuniary aid in a certain sum stipulated : all duly 
 signed by accredited agents, — the secretaries of the 
 Home Missionary Society. Accordingly, laboring 
 through the months of the first quarter, hunting, up 
 the lost sheep of the house of Israel, sowing seed as 
 he may beside all waters, with somewhat of trembling 
 at the little accomplished, he makes his first report, 
 and labors on. 
 
 In due time, by the tri-weekly or bi-weekly mail, 
 there comes to him a letter with the Society's imprint, 
 — tlie first from New York. The twenty-five cents of 
 
THE WORKERS 69 
 
 postage are paid, and the seal broken. There before 
 him is his first missionary draft, — good, in the old 
 times, as so much gold. It seems to him as almost 
 sacred; for whence comes it? Of the West he has 
 heard from his youth. He knows how the old folks 
 at home, the fathers and the mothers, the brothers 
 and the sisters, too, are praying and giving for the 
 West ; and now he is here, an almoner of their boun- 
 ties. Through him is the answer of their prayers to 
 find a channel ; a new tie is felt between him and them. 
 
 These are allies in the work, recognized now as 
 never before. He must be faithful at his post, to the 
 duties of which he commits himself with a new conse- 
 cration. This is not all. That first letter is no mere 
 off-hand business note, with the simple authority to 
 draw so much money.. There is appended a message 
 of cheer, of warm Christian greeting and encourage- 
 ment. That message by the secretary's ow^n pen is as 
 the hand-grasp of a friend. By it, henceforth, the 
 youthful laborer feels that there are loving human 
 sympathies with him, as he stands in this holy brother- 
 hood of the mission work. He, as a home missionary, 
 the secretaries, the patrons of the Society, those who 
 give and pray, — all are as one, and in one work. 
 
 Yes, ye donors, — ye men of wealth who have 
 given your thousands, ye widows in Israel who have 
 brought your two mites, all ye wdio have given or 
 prayed, — in all the fruits of home missions at the 
 West, you are sharers, 
 
70 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 And you wlio with noble hearts have stood be- 
 tween the g;ivers and the workers. — allow us who 
 onee were youni;-. and now look baek upon our quar- 
 ter century of labors, to give expression to the debt of 
 gratitude we owe to you, and especially to the senior 
 among you, then in the prime of his life, and still faith- 
 ful at his post. Could his brief messages of cheer in 
 missionary correspondence, scattered all over Iowa in 
 her earlier days, be gathered together, what a volume 
 the\- would make ! Could it but be seen what cour- 
 age and energy they inspired, how rich a reward 
 would there be in it for him ! 
 
 W'e do not wonder that our wives have said, in 
 passing through the commercial metropolis, that 
 "they would rather see Dr. Badger's face than any- 
 thing else in Xew "S^ork." Xor will we forget his 
 noble colleague of earlier days, now gone to his re- 
 ward. Go on, then, brethren at the Home Missionary 
 Rooms, in giving words of cheer. You little know 
 what power there is in them sometimes in the he'.rts 
 of those at the outposts of home missionary toil. 
 
 Pass on a few years in the young missionary's 
 career, and look again. Like others, he finds it not 
 good to be alone. He takes a wife, begins a home. 
 Children are in the household. The actual necessa- 
 ries of life draw hard upon a scanty income. Some- 
 times the burdens of sickness or misfortune are added. 
 In spite of clerical financiering, — and there is no bet- 
 ter in the world, — things are going hard, 
 
THE WORKERS 7 1 
 
 But something is rolled up to the door. It is a 
 barrel or box ; nothing more, nothing less. Few 
 things just now could be more ; for it is a "missionary 
 box." Roll it in, and take off the cover. Out conies 
 a dress or a cloak ; here a vest, and there a coat ; bun- 
 dles of nice, warm flannel; little dresses, little stock- 
 ings and tiny shoes, and toys even, for the youngest 
 of the household ; an old hat and old bonnets some- 
 times, — strange that such things should be sent ! 
 
 A real relief is that box ; for almost everything is 
 in it, — many comforts, and often some luxuries and 
 adornments, that make the prairie home brighter and 
 more cheerful for months. Winter may come now. 
 The lean, lank wallet may swell out a little ; for less 
 frequent now will be the drafts upon it. Real gala 
 scenes sometimes attend the opening of these boxes, 
 when the quiet study takes on the air of a dry-goods 
 room or a clothing-store, when each is seeking to 
 make out a suit for himself, and try it on. 
 
 Willie, with the cap adjusted and jacket on, is tug- 
 ging at the shoes, and Kate at the stockings, while 
 the mother is busy with the shawl, gloves, etc. 
 
 Of course, everything in the box does not fit at 
 first, though afterwards generally made to do so ; and 
 somewhat grotesque are the figures arrayed in each 
 other's presence, to the merriment of all. 
 
 But hush ! The articles are all taken off, folded 
 up, and laid aside ; the little ones are made to under- 
 ptapd that they are gifts frotn kifid friends far awa^ ; 
 
72 
 
 77//: /()//'./ A\/.\7) 
 
 ami then ihcrc is a kneeling down around that box, 
 God is thanked, and blessings invoked on the donors.- 
 Nor is a new eonseeration to the mission work for- 
 gotten. 
 
 \'es. \e tar-olY motliers, sisters, ye, too, are 
 workers here. !>> tlie l)usy stitches tliat sewed these 
 garments together, not only were xom- hearts knit 
 more closely to the missionarx cause, but the hearts 
 of the missionaries were boimd to it more closely as 
 well. I'y these, in i)art, have the East and the West 
 been drawn together in the fellowship of workers in 
 a conunon Christian cause. The}' ha\e also ftumished 
 a few threads, at least, in that web of national sym- 
 path\- b\ which the I^ast and the West and the North 
 and the Soiuh are indissoliibly one. 
 
 At every step of oiu' young home missionary in his 
 jM'ogressive work, he finds coworkers in it. He goes 
 int(^ his little Sabl)ath-scho(^ls, ])resenting books and 
 pictiu-es to a groii]) of children with bright eyes and 
 happy faces. They are the gift of Eastern friends. 
 As the little flock of his gathering are at the com- 
 munion table, he sees the pitcher and tumbler giving 
 place to a communion set. This comes, perhaps, from 
 his own old home church. Tn due time, another point 
 is gained ; and a happy day is it when a house of wor- 
 ship is secured, — a sanctuary of God, a home for 
 the church. Here, too, help has come from abroad. 
 How large the circle, how numerous the company, 
 engaged in this missionary work | 
 
THE WORKERS 73 
 
 But we must not forget the missionary's helpers in 
 the field. We refer now not to his brethren in the 
 ministry merely, to whom he is daily growing more 
 and more attached by the sympathies of a conmion 
 cause and service, but to the faithful few he finds 
 among his own little flock, and the choice spirits, also, 
 in the flocks of his brethren. Rare men and women 
 there were and are in these missionary churches. 
 What good days those were of old, when the brethren 
 all knew each other, and when the churches knew 
 each other too, somewhat ; when we could travel over 
 all the fields, and find a welcome everywhere from 
 home to home ! With such coworkers has our home 
 missionary labored on from youth to age. Laborers 
 have increased ; churches have multiplied, and in 
 them coworkers not a few. Again we say, in all that 
 has been accomplished, "honor to whom honor ;" and, 
 w^ith thanks to God for all, let all rejoice. 
 
CM AFTER XI 
 RESULTS 
 
 HOW genial and wide-spread, in the spring and 
 summer time, are the infliienees of sun and 
 showers! In autunm we gather in the harvests, and 
 reckon up their sum. lUit in the muhitude of bushels 
 of corn or wheat, more or less, have we a measure of 
 what the sun and showers have done? What facts 
 and figures are of use here? 
 
 Like sun and showers are gospel influences in a 
 state, as they flow along the channels of individual, 
 domestic and social life. The effects produced are 
 quite as much unseen as seen. They are such as no 
 words can compass. Human language cannot set 
 them forth. To attempt, therefore, to point out, in 
 the form of definite and tangible results, wdiat home 
 missions have done in Iowa may prejudice rather 
 than promote our object. It were safer, perhaps, to 
 content ourselves with the general impression given 
 from the view we have taken of the workers and their 
 field. 
 
 Nevertheless, we will venture, as to a few points, 
 upon a closer view^ ; yet so as by the facts and figures 
 to be reminded constantlv quite as much of the things 
 74 
 
Beginnings — Present edifice 
 Edwards Congregational Church, Davenport 
 
RESULTS 75 
 
 not told as of those that are. We will begin with a 
 novel scene, — novel indeed for Iowa, and rare even 
 for any state. 
 
 On the 1 8th of November, 1868, in Muscatine, one 
 of the busy cities on the banks of the Mississippi, there 
 was a great gathering at the house of a pastor, Alden 
 B. Robbins, one of the Band. Within that modest 
 dwelling, children had grown up around him ; about 
 him now were his flock, — parishioners, friends and 
 neighbors, — the largest social gathering the city had 
 ever seen. By his side stood one, not the first to 
 share his joys and sorrows as wife and companion, 
 but for many years his helpmeet indeed, the fruitage 
 of whose exemplary life of prayerful, earnest toil was 
 in the scene around her. With him, too, were gath- 
 ered a few — here a brother, and there a sister — of 
 those who, twenty-five years ago, were with him at 
 the beginning of things. The silver wedding they 
 called it, and fitly, of pastor and people. 
 
 It was easy now to speak of incidents and dates, to 
 call up facts and figures, to set the present member- 
 ship of the church of two' hundred, and the total mem- 
 bership from the beginning of three hundred and 
 fifty-five, over against the little band of twenty-six 
 who first composed it ; and to set in array the figures 
 showing the twenty-four thousand dollars contrib- 
 uted to benevolent purposes during the last twenty 
 years. It was easy to contrast the present house of 
 worship with the first oue built, — the little brick 
 
76 
 
 THE IOWA n.lNP 
 
 l)uilclins4- al the top of the hill, ainoni;- the stumps, in 
 the erection of which, after pockets were empty, the 
 brethren brought their bodies to the work, with hod in 
 hand, carrying- brick and mortar. 
 
 It was easy to go loack of this to the (.)ld court-house, 
 where the meetings first were held, and then to fill up 
 this space of twenty-five years with pleasing inci- 
 dents of revival scenes recalled, and manifold changes 
 wrought. Easy indeed was all this, and rich and rare 
 was the lU^ok of Chronicles opened that night 1)\ the 
 pastor among his people. 
 
 l^)Ut all that was said, all that was thought or con- 
 ceived of. by any or all, — what was it in comparison 
 willi the true history of the twenty-five years there 
 under review? To give that history, one must trace 
 the workings of prayers and prayer-meetings, — even 
 those little church prayer-meetings of the olden times 
 there, held in the afternoon, because Deacon Lucas, 
 (Mie of the three brethren who were to sustain them, 
 lived five miles out in the country. He must tell the 
 story of the sermons from week to week prayed over, 
 studied and preached ; of the good seed sown, in what 
 hearts it took root, and how it grew. He must tell 
 how children grew up, were trained and moulded by 
 church and Sabbath-school ; what souls were born 
 into the kingdom of Christ in the progress of the 
 years. He must relate the history of those souls in 
 their Christian development in this world, and tell 
 how spme w^ho have gone over the river were fash- 
 
iSq5 
 First Church, Decorah 
 
RESULTS 77 
 
 ioned and ripened for heaven. He must portray the 
 days of anxiety and soHcitnde on the part of both 
 pastor and people in days of weakness, when that 
 church was among the Httle home missionary churches 
 of Iowa. He must show what was the part of eacli 
 and all the home mission workers, who, by their pray- 
 ers, labors, gifts and sympathies, sustained it, till, 
 by the blessing of God, its liberty and Christ-loving 
 principles were triumphant, and it became a tower of 
 strength among sister churches in the state. 
 
 But, if such things as these are to be fully and truth- 
 fully told, who is to be the chronicler? And yet 
 nothing short of this, and more than this, would be 
 a complete history. Over and above the few facts 
 and figures which we can put down in connection 
 with the history of any one church, as the results of 
 home missions in Iowa, there are in the divine Mind 
 and as eternity will reveal them, other results just as 
 definite and tangible, greater, and more in number. 
 To that silver-wedding scene of pastor and people, 
 with all its hallowed associations and precious mem- 
 ories, we point as one of our results. And as with 
 this church, so with others scattered over the state. 
 Not that each church is as strong as this ; a few are as 
 strong or stronger; many are weaker. Not that 
 every pastor can look back upon his quarter-century 
 labors in the same field ; but wherever churches have 
 been planted, and gospel ordinances maintained, a like 
 process, as to its general features, has been going 017, 
 
78 THE louw BAxn 
 
 W'c have now roaclicd a point wIutc fis^nrcs l)ei^in 
 to be sig-nificant. When the pastor of whose silver wed- 
 ding we have spoken l)egan to lal)or with his little 
 home missionary ehnreh twenty-five years ago, and 
 looked aronnd for his innnediate allies and cowork- 
 ers, there were in the territorw of his denomination, 
 seven ministers and sixteen chnrches, with an aggre- 
 gate meml)er^^hil) <>f four hundred and twenty-two. 
 Among them all there was the one house of worship,'' 
 built and used expressly as sneh : now (1870), there 
 are one hundred and eighty-one ministers and one 
 lumdred and eighty-nine chnrches, with a member- 
 ship of about ten thousand. 
 
 These churches are well supplied, for a new country, 
 with liouses of worshi]). some of which are among the 
 tinest structures in the state. They arc located 
 mainly in the principal centers of j^opulation and 
 trade. — ])laces, in this resj^ect, like those in wdiich 
 Paul first preached the gospel. They embrace, to say 
 the least, their proportionate share of the command- 
 ing forces of society. These churches, as a general 
 thing, are alive and vigorous. 
 
 The amount of money raised b\- them during the 
 year ending June, 1869. for home purposes and 
 benevolent objects abroad, was $136,405; and was 
 equal to an average of sixteen dollars to every 
 resident church member. Of these churches all 
 ])Ut four were planted by, and have been nurtured 
 
 1* At Dubuque, 
 
RESULTS 
 
 79 
 
 llirough, the agency of the American Hume Mis- 
 sionary Society. 
 
 But let us not dwell too long among mere statistics. 
 Keeping in mind the one hundred and eighty-nine 
 churches now scattered over the state, as the fruits 
 of, and the fruit-bearing vines planted by, the Home 
 Missionary Society, let us indicate a few facts illus- 
 trative of their significance and value. 
 
 The local church is the laboring point in the king- 
 dom of God. Where the local church is vigorous and 
 active, it includes every form of wise Christian labor. 
 Were the world to be converted by public gatherings 
 in associations and conventions, by public councils 
 and resolves, the work were easily done. But little 
 is accomplished by these, useful as they are in their 
 place, save as those who share in them go back to the 
 home churches, where by prayer and by work the seed 
 of the kingdom is to be sown among the people. 
 Here, where the gospel is preached and its ordi- 
 nances are maintained, where the light shines and 
 the gospel leaven is at work in households, Sabbath- 
 schools, congregations and society at large, are the 
 working centers of Christianity. 
 
 Here, too, are the laborers for Christ who are to 
 go forth into other fields, bearing precious seed with 
 them. From these Iowa churches such laborers have 
 gone forth to the East and the West and the South 
 and to the isles of the sea. Some of our missionaries 
 abroad to-day were raised up in the bosom of these 
 
8o TUB IOWA BAND 
 
 cluirchcs. and others arc i)rci)arini;' to folk)\v. For the 
 promotion of Christ's kingdom in the huuh we have 
 various organizations, — Bible societies, tract socie- 
 ties, Sabbath-scliool societies, and tlie hke. lUit who 
 does not know that the moment a home missionary 
 enters a liehk lie is almost compelled b\' the force of 
 circumstances to be a l^)ible agent, a tract agent, a 
 Sabbath-school agent, and the agent and actt)r in 
 every form of effort by which Christian work is to be 
 done? 
 
 We hear often and nuich as to its being the prov- 
 ince of certain agencies to go in advance of the 
 churches; but we never yet heard of a great battle 
 won by skirmishers. All due honor to anybody and 
 any agency that can do good in any measure and 
 anywhere ; but let us not forget to recognize the wis- 
 dom of the dixine plans in accordance with which 
 everything effective in the kingdom of God must 
 spring from and be nourished by ''the church of the 
 living God. which is the pillar and ground of the 
 truth." So shall we honor that Society, which, in 
 the ])lanting of churches, in a sense absorl")s and 
 carries in itself all Christian agencies. 
 
 Tn estimating the influence of these churches in 
 Iowa, we must not forget the revivals of religion in- 
 cluded in their history. When God in various ways 
 so wonderfully prepared this nation for the fearful 
 struggle through which it has recently passed, by 
 abundant harvests and general financial success, he 
 
t ■aL.kisl-i. 
 
RESULTS 8 I 
 
 also scattered over the land numerous and powerful 
 revivals of religion, through which, in part at least, 
 a moral sentiment was created, adequate to cope with 
 the powers of oppression, and to endure in the strug- 
 gle. In our accounts of revivals, we say: so manv 
 were converted, so many have joined the church ; as 
 though this were the whole of it ; but here, as else- 
 where, figures fail to tell the story. Follow those truly 
 converted through their life-w^ork ; see in the elevation 
 and development of Christian character, in the 
 changes wrought in many homes, in society, in trades, 
 professions, and the various callings of life, the influ- 
 ence of genuine revivals of religion ; and then you 
 may begin to estimate them. So we shall see how 
 the Congregational churches of low^a, and those of 
 all denominations, have been blessed, and made a 
 blessing to the state, by the outpourings of God's 
 reviving spirit. 
 
 We should do injustice, in speaking of the results 
 of home missions in Iowa, did we fail to mention that 
 to these home mission churches is the country largely 
 indebted for the stand taken and the services ren- 
 dered by this new and rising state in the hour of our 
 common national peril. What these were, we need 
 not tell. They are knowai and read of all men. It 
 might have been otherwise. 
 
 Once, when, in the territorial legislature, the 
 question of the admission or rejection of slavery was 
 discussed, liberty barely triumphed. The portions of 
 
82 THE IOWA BAXn 
 
 the- state earliest and most thickly settled received 
 a population larj^ely imbued \vith Southern feeling 
 and Southern sentiment. Any open opposition to hu- 
 man bondage was decidedly unpopular. Our little 
 churches found themselves amid uncongenial ele- 
 ments. They were stigmatized as abolition churches. 
 Their ministers were some of them threatened with 
 violence: but they stood faithful, espousing from the 
 hrst. and ever pleadii^g, the cause of human rights. 
 
 A change was wrought, and Iowa is honored, the 
 countr\- over, as true to the cause of freedom. To 
 what extent this fact is due to the churches that 
 gathered to their bosoms the descendants of the Pil- 
 grims, who had made new homes on her soil, and 
 lifted aloft the standard of a liberty-giving gospel, 
 may never b'e (lehnitel\- known, for here, again, facts 
 and figures fail us. lUu we kncjw, that when men 
 were called for and armies were to be raised, one 
 oiu of every four of tlieir ministers sent a son, nearly 
 ever}- fourth of their adult male members enlisted, 
 and, from their congregations, two thousand w^ent 
 forth to the conflict. Of those who went from their 
 communion tables, one third never returned. In the 
 councils of the nation, too, was their influence felt. 
 Of this we are assured, when, during the war, there 
 stood among us one''' holding one of tlic highest 
 positions of trust in the gift of the state, whose voice 
 in both state and national councils had always been 
 
 '=' Senator Grime?. 
 
RESULTS 82 
 
 true and potent for liberty, who frankly affirmed, that, 
 in respect to his political principles, he owed more to 
 the body of men before him than to any other, and, 
 at the same time, declared his political godfather to 
 be him who was honored with the title of "Father" 
 among us. 
 
 We shall not be charged with undue presumption 
 if we say a word here of the modifying influence ex- 
 erted upon other denomination:?. As Congregation- 
 alists, we are neither bigoted nor vain enough to feel 
 that all excellence or wisdom is with us. We set up 
 no claim to perfection. Our Western lives have 
 taught us better. As we now see it, each denomina- 
 tion of true believers has its own peculiar excellence, 
 around which it grows, and from which it has what- 
 ever is peculiar to its life. The several evangelical 
 denominations, working side by side in this open field, 
 inevitably afifect each other. They give to and borrow 
 from each other. No one of them in the future is to 
 be just what it would have been by itself. That 
 future will not, cannot be just what any one of them 
 alone would have made it. It is to be better than this, 
 and each denomination is to be the better for the 
 others. 
 
 The modifying influence which the denominations 
 mutually exert is too marked to escape the notice of 
 any. Let it go on. We believe they are doing each 
 other good. In this direction should the friends of 
 missions look for a portion, at least, of the results of 
 
84 THE IOWA BAXn 
 
 this labor; fur iIktc is no danger that the inlhieucc 
 of the pohty and principles of the Congregational 
 churches will be too strong amid the forming influ- 
 ences of the West. There is need of them, and let the 
 need be supplied. 
 
 If anything more is needed in this chapter of re- 
 sults to inspire the feeling that this work of home 
 missions pays, we have only to remember that those 
 churches are young and \ig(M-ous, and in a growing 
 held. \\\ a few years, other churches than that al- 
 ready referred to, other pastors, will be having their 
 silver weddings; year by year, additional ones will be 
 coming up to the i)()int of self-support, and pass on 
 in their growth. Xew ones, betimes, will 1)C ,)lanted. 
 In (lod's husl)an(h-\-. how Si)on is it per])etual sun- 
 shine and shower, seed-time and harvest, ccjmminglcd ! 
 
 The sheaves are in our arms, and the tender grain 
 at the same time is springing at our feet. Centuries 
 in (iod's seasons are but days, quarter-centuries but 
 hours, r^or what we have already seen, let God be 
 thanked. Tn following chaj^ters we shall meet with 
 still further results, which, with those that have been 
 named, are but the seeds of the future. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THR IOWA ASSOCIATION 
 
 IT is interesting to see with what boldness and in- 
 dependence a f^w home missionaries, when they 
 get together, will start and lay out plans in the West. 
 It is all natural enough ; for a sense of the surround- 
 ing growth and progress soon takes possession of the 
 Western man. In all arrangements the future is cU- 
 ticipated, and room for it carefully made. So it comes 
 that some little church in an ordinary village bears 
 the name of The First Congregational Church. One, 
 indeed, sometimes almost smiles at the comprehensive 
 and imposing titles with which some little organiza- 
 tion is at the first burdened. But it should be remem- 
 bered that the actors have an eye to things as they are 
 to be, not as they are. If they start with large titles 
 and plans, it is because they have confidence that 
 tilings will soon grow up to them. 
 
 Thus it was, that, in Denmark, as early as Nov. 6, 
 1840, when, as yet, the state had hardly begun to be 
 settled, the General Congregational Association of 
 Iowa was organized, consisting of three churches, 
 three ministers and one licentiate. It may not be 
 amiss to give their names. The churches were those 
 
 «5 
 
86 THE lOlVA BAND 
 
 of Denmark, Fairfield aiul J)an\ille, with an aggre- 
 gate membership of one hundred and tilty-four; the 
 ministers were Asa Turner, J. A. Keed. Reuben Ciay- 
 lord, and Charles JJurnham, lieentiate. I'he tirst two 
 are still members of the Association, witnessing from 
 year to year the fulfilment of their prophecy in the 
 name they gave it ; the third, years ago, pitched his 
 pioneer tent on the western bank of the Missouri, to 
 be an actor in like prophecies and fulfilments in a still 
 more western state. 
 
 The Association thus formed held its meetings 
 semi-annually, in spring and autumn, till October, 
 1844. At this time, by its recommendation, minor 
 associations were formed, to hold their meetings 
 semi-annuall\- ; and its own meetings began to be 
 held once a year. The minor associations now num- 
 l)er twelve. To these belong ordained ministers, and 
 churches represented by delegates. Ministers and 
 churches of the minor bodies are acknow^ledged mem- 
 bers of the General Association ; making this, to all 
 intents and purposes, an annual gathering of the 
 churches, for the exercise of no ecclesiastical rule, but^ 
 as expressed in the second article of its constitution, 
 "to promote intercourse and harmony among the 
 ministers and churches in its connection, to dissemi- 
 nate information relative to the state of religion, and 
 enable its members to cooperate wnth one another, 
 and with other ecclesiastical bodies, in advancing the 
 cause of the Redeemer." 
 
THE lOlVA ASSOCIATION 87 
 
 The spirit and proceedings of the annual meetings 
 of this body, if faithfully given, would, of course, re- 
 veal much of the inner workings and progress of mis- 
 sionary and ministerial life in Iowa. Among the most 
 pleasing recollections of the writer are those of a long 
 series of these yearly gatherings; for, since 1844, it 
 has been his privilege to be present, with a single 
 exception, at all of them. This exception occurred 
 when the shadow of the death-angel was hanging 
 over his dwelling. The printed minutes of the Asso- 
 ciation for the last twenty years are before him ; and 
 from these, and the storehouse of his memory, let a 
 few things be gathered. 
 
 There meets us, at the outset, a little testimt)ny 
 touching the soundness in doctrine of these churches 
 and ministers, as found in the articles of faith adopted 
 at the beginning, and ever since retained. In the early 
 days, this soundness was not always conceded to us. 
 Not only were our churches stigmatized in certain 
 quarters as ''abolition," but heretical. They were de- 
 nounced as unsound and irregular : an exchange of 
 pulpits, even such pulpits as were found in school- 
 houses and court-houses, was in some cases refused. 
 
 "Congregationalism tends to Unitarianism" was the 
 whisper industriously circulated. When this was 
 nailed to the wall by an appeal to the true history of 
 Congregationalism in New England, the shift was, 
 ''Congregationalism at the West is not what it is in 
 the East. It is all right there, but out here it is 
 
88 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 loose and irrcj^iilar." And, to our cliai;riii, this 
 charge was partly l)elievetl, even at the luist. When 
 we most needed confidence and sympathy, there was, 
 in some quarters, somewhat of coldness and distrust. 
 Amon<Tf some of the good Eastern fathers, to whom 
 api)ertained. as they seemed to think, the steadving 
 of the ark. was the feeling that hardly any good thing 
 Cduld come frtmi the West. 
 
 r.iit these things have passed away. ( )ur ])racticc 
 .^ince has confirmed oiu" professions at the Inst. Wc 
 have long been rcc()gni7A(l, fellowshipccl at the East, 
 as soimd in the faith. I'.nt for the savor of boasting 
 in it. we might ha\e nienti<nu'(| the present standing 
 of Western ("ongregationalisni. and the j^resent fel- 
 lowship between the luistern and the Western, as. in 
 part, at least, among the results of Tow a home mis- 
 sions. 
 
 Tn view of what has now been said, it can easily be 
 seen how correspondence with Eastern bodies by del- 
 egates was appreciated. It is appreciated now; but 
 in former days it had a more precious significance. 
 At first we were few in num1)er, coming from fields 
 new and widely separated. We made provision for 
 a seat with us of delegates from foreign bodies, which 
 were then mainly in the East. Isolated as we were, 
 and in our peculiar circumstances, it was joyous to 
 see each others' faces ; but for years no living man 
 from the far East found us in our distant home. 
 
 At length there came one D. Shepley — a godly 
 
THE IOWA ASSOCIATION 89 
 
 man from a conference in Alaine. He was ac- 
 ({naintcd with some of our number in their youth, and, 
 of course, had confidence in them. As he looked 
 in upon us/' and was among Us in our prayers, our 
 plans and our labors, his heart was moved. He took 
 us to his bosom. He poured forth his prayers for us, 
 and gave his counsels to us. He promised to take us 
 back with him in his heart, and commend us to the 
 confidence of the old home churches. That was 
 Christian salutation and fellowship indeed ! In later 
 years there would sometimes be one, sometimes two. 
 Their names stand recorded upon oiu* minutes. 
 Some of them have gone to the greater gathering 
 above ; but their faces and their words are still fresh 
 in our memories. Those were the days in which 
 Christian greetings were precious. In these later 
 times, in our printed lists, the names of delegates, 
 secretaries, etc., are not a few, and our body some- 
 times puts on quite an imposing aspect ; but those 
 who come now are not to us exactly Avhat the first 
 and the few in the early days were. 
 
 As would be naturally supposed, the meetings of 
 our Association have been characterized by a high 
 degree of Christian love and harmony. Many things 
 have combined to make them so. In earlier years, 
 the majority of our number were old friends and 
 classmates. They had happily coalesced with those 
 on the field before them. Others coming, as happily 
 
 2" The Asspcialion at Dubiique, 1S50, 
 
90 
 
 THli IOWA BASD 
 
 became one with thciii all. So it came to i)ass that 
 there was a unity of sentiment, jjurpose and plan, un- 
 usual in a Western body ; while the early friendships 
 and affections formed, combined with the peculiar 
 circumstances of a new country and new fields, gave 
 to the meetings such zest and earnest Christian fel- 
 lowships as would hardly be looked for. and would 
 seem almost rude, in an Eastern body. 'The best of 
 all," said a daughter of one of the missionaries, when 
 old enough to attend one of these meetings, — "the 
 best of all was to see them shake hands, the first night, 
 after the sermon." If some of the older ministers 
 should be called upon to give some of their happiest 
 reminiscences, they would not forget their journeys 
 of a hundred or two hundred miles to and from the 
 Association, and of the pleasing incidents met with 
 while in attendance, (^ne could tell you that he went 
 on foot nearly two hundred miles, and felt paid for the 
 journey. Others can remember long horseback rides, 
 the fording of streams, and the rude yet genial enter- 
 tainment at night in the log cabin by the way, whose 
 latch-string was always out. When buggies were 
 introduced, and bridges began to be built, it w^as an 
 "age of progress." 
 
 In the business of these meetings, seldom has there 
 been a jar of angry debate or strife in all these twenty- 
 five years. Differences of opinion have, of course, 
 been expressed, but with Christian courtesy, and, in 
 the decisions that have been reached, care has been 
 
THE IOWA ASSOCIATIOX 
 
 91 
 
 taken that the views of all should, as far as possible, 
 be regarded. If it is good for "brethren to dwell to- 
 gether in unity," in looking back through the long 
 series of these annual meetings, there is little to 
 regret, and much to be recalled with pleasure. 
 
 They have been characterized by a spirit of prayer 
 and devotion. For years, the first evening was spent 
 in prayer for the presence of the Master. The need 
 of his presence was peculiarly felt in the early days. 
 Experience soon taught that a meeting of friendly 
 greetings simply, without the presence and spirit of 
 Christ, must be a failure. The practice of an opening 
 sermon soon crowded out this hour of prayer on the 
 first evening; but it found, perhaps, a better place. 
 It was put, and has stood for years, in the middle of 
 the forenoon of each day's session. There it takes 
 the freshness of the morning. It is the hour, if any, 
 that friends in the place can spare to pray with their 
 guests. Though interrupting business, it steadies it 
 for the day. It gives tone to the exercises of the 
 whole meeting. It is the hour of all others in which 
 all wish to be present. With no pride, but with joy, 
 we see that this practice of putting an hour of prayer 
 into the best part of the day has in some cases been 
 copied by other religious bodies. It can be recom- 
 mended to all. 
 
 Among the best features of these annual gatherings 
 has been the attendance of the wives. This was es- 
 pecially true in the early tl|nes. And why not? As 
 
92 THE IO!l\i n.lXD 
 
 llic hrutlKT i^'oi up liis horse and bui^'^y to start on 
 his journey of a hunch-ed miles or so. along; which he 
 would find other brethren to start with him, why 
 should he g;o alone? \\ hy not take along his young- 
 wife, and their one ehihl? Will not the journey, and 
 the visits 1)\' the way. he just as refreshing to her as 
 to him? Is there not a eonnnnnion of sisters as well 
 as of brethren? The hallowed inlluences of these an- 
 nual assenil)lies. — are they not as needful and useful 
 for the wives as the husbands? At an early day, the 
 general imderstanding was that the wives, too. should 
 come. They did come, renewing old and forming 
 new friendships, recounting the goodness of God in 
 the past, and gathering new strength, hope, courage 
 and consecration, that made them better hel])ers in 
 the home nn'ssion work. 
 
 If in this. too. other bodies have copied oiu" exam- 
 ])le. we think no harm has come of it. But times have 
 changed. Family cares have increased. Modes of 
 travel have changed, becoming more expeditious, but 
 more costly, too. The field has enlarged. Not every 
 mother and wife can go now. but the attendance of 
 the sisters is still a feature of the Iowa Association, 
 profitable alike to them, their companions and the 
 churches. They have their separate meetings for 
 prayer, while, in the regular hours of devotion, the 
 volume of supplication is increased by the silent up- 
 liftinp- of their hearts, with those of the brethren, to 
 God. Bv the light of their cheerful faces, homes are 
 
THE IOWA ASSOCIATION 93 
 
 opened tO' a more cordial hospitality, they helping in 
 many ways to make the meeting of the Association a 
 pleasure and a blessing in any place where it is held. 
 Often, in some house or hall, are social fellowships 
 added to the religious. Acquaintances and friend- 
 ships are formed, ties of afifection are strengthened, 
 and Christ's kingdom as well. 
 
 Lest any one may think the picture is overdrawn 
 by one who has for years been in and of them, let the 
 testimony of a stranger, wdiose field of labor is at the 
 East, but who came to us once bearing the greetings 
 of his brethren, be given.^^ He says, "A few years 
 ago, I had the privilege of attending the Annual 
 Meeting of the General Association of Iowa. There 
 are no more self-denying and faithful missionaries of 
 Christ anywhere than were represented there, — the 
 patriarchal 'Father Turner' at the head, apparently 
 the youngest of them all. How those weather-beaten 
 men and women talked and prayed ! How they laid 
 hold of each other, and of any casual stranger who 
 might be present, without waiting for formal intro- 
 duction, when the moderator announced that the time 
 had arrived for the miscellaneous shaking of the 
 hands all around the house ! How enthusiastically 
 they united business and enjoyment ! How tenderly 
 they sang their parting hymn, standing around the 
 table where together they had partaken of the sacra- 
 mental emblems of a Saviour's love, breaking forth 
 
 " E. K. Alden, Secretary A. B. C. F. M. __ 
 
94 
 
 TULi IOWA BAXn 
 
 spontaneously into soni^' during' tlic sacramental 
 feast!" 'J'liose lixinns. those son<;s. we may add, are 
 all the swecU'r because the xoiccsuf the wives are min- 
 gled in them. 
 
 But let no one think that these Associational meet- 
 ings consist onl\ in the rhapsodies of Christian fellow 
 slii]). connnunion and ])rayer. There is business, too. 
 1 he printed minutes furnish abundant evidence that 
 anotiier marked feature of the Iowa Association has 
 been its prompt and decided acli(^n from time to time 
 upon the vital cpiestions of the day. On all such sub- 
 jects as the Sabbath, intemperance, slavery, the Mex- 
 ican war. the l\el)ellion, etc., its testimony has been 
 given with no uncertain sound. Resolutions upon 
 resolutions on these topics might l)e copied, wTre it 
 necessary. 
 
 (^ut of the necessities that have arisen in the prac- 
 tical working of things in this new field this Associa- 
 tion has initiated policies, and recommended meas- 
 ures, afterwards approved and adopted by the denom- 
 ination throughout the land. More than one instance 
 could be named ; but the most important is that of 
 "church-building at the \Wst." No wonder, that, by 
 those on the ground, the absolute necessity of houses 
 of worship should early be felt, and that it should be 
 thought that aid in building them, as well as in sus- 
 taining the gospel ministry, was wise policy. 
 
 As early as 1845, niore than twenty years ago. an 
 able report was presented, recommending this policy 
 
THIi IOWA ASSOCIATION 
 
 9i 
 
 to our Eastern friends. The policy was resisted. No 
 place was found iov the re[)ort ]:>)• an\- oi the leading- 
 papers. Our friends were fixed in the position, ''If 
 we help sustain your ministers, you must build your 
 own churches." '' Six years later, another report was 
 made, drawn by the same hand," reaf^rming the old 
 positions, with additional facts. This found a hear- 
 ing. Other testimony, from other cjuarters, was of 
 course given. Soon after came the Albany Conven- 
 tion, and then light began to dawn. Before the Al- 
 bany fund, however, we had already our Iowa plan, 
 and an Iowa fund in progress. Now the Congrega- 
 tional Union'^ has this as its special work. 
 
 No thanks in all this to us, and no cause for boast- 
 ing. We only see in it that God, by the force of cir- 
 cumstances, and the necessities developed by his 
 providence, was teaching his people. If w^e do not, 
 in some respects, have better plans and better 
 churches in these Western fields than are found else- 
 where, then woe be to us ; for in that case we must 
 be dull scholars indeed. 
 
 But we will not dwell longer on these pleasing 
 recollections of our Associational meetings. The 
 plans of those first three ministers were not too large, 
 nor were their expectations visionary. They believed 
 that there would be a General Congregational Asso- 
 ciation of Iowa. As a realization of their faith, we 
 
 " Note No. 10. 
 •^ O. Emerson. 
 2* Now tile ConsreRational Church Building Society. 
 
96 Till'. IOWA />'./.\7) 
 
 liaxc a 1)()(1\. \\c may iiuuk'sllx sii_i;^\st. highly rc- 
 siicciahlc as to ninnhcrs and lalciU, and characlcrizcd. 
 wo trust, by a goodly measure of Cliristian zeal and 
 devotion, \vh(^se opinions and recommendations are 
 of weii^iu amonj^- its churches, and respected in the 
 land. It is already so large as to suggest the coming 
 necessity of a division. But ''not till we are dead," 
 say some of ilic oldest members; "we don't wisli to 
 see it." How long some of us are to labor, and what 
 the necessities of the future are to be, God only knows. 
 To him let there be given i)raise for the jnast. and in 
 him let there \)v trust for tlu' time to iN)me. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE IOWA ASSOCIATION. WHAT IS IT NOW? 
 
 IT is greatly enlarged, of course. We who are now 
 livnig do not wonder at it. It is but a part of the 
 wonderful growth which has been going on in all 
 things about us, — a growth far beyond the expecta- 
 tions of those who were at the beginning of things 
 fifty years ago, in small communities that had not felt 
 or even dreamed of the impulse that was to come to 
 a new state from railroads, the telegraph, telephones, 
 and al. the appliances of mechanical skill and geniu>. 
 to develop the unknown resources of the land they 
 were possessing. 
 
 They doubtless had faith in the future, but how 
 short of the realities must their boldest imaginings 
 have been ! As an illustration of this, space is here 
 given for an extract from a letter written by one of 
 those workers in the early days. The letter by its date 
 suggests to us the author. It is our Brother Lane, of 
 course, who, with his good wife, had begun housekeep- 
 ing with dry-goods boxes for chairs and tables, — and 
 but a little over six months after he entered upon his 
 work has been preaching where, and to whom? No 
 church building, no audience but a mere handful. It 
 
98 77//: loir.i n.ixn 
 
 is 1S44: ilic ( icncral Association but a year or two old ; 
 oi minor associations, hut two, one for northern, the 
 other for southern Iowa; the Northern just [orniech 
 his own church of a dozen or so not yet a niemhcr of 
 any. l'erha])s. as he sits down to write, it is Monday 
 niornino;. and he has l)ecn thinkins^ of his Sabbath 
 work and the small bei::innin5;s aroimd him. Op- 
 pressed? Disconrai^^ed? just a little, for a moment, 
 it may be. And yet it is not like him. Possibl\ a ma]) 
 is before him of Iowa as it then was. If so. his e\e 
 rests upon such places as Tipton. lUooniino^ton, and 
 such counties as Jones. Clayton, etc., where the breth- 
 ren w ere. and all of them, like himself, in small things. 
 \'es, it is just ])ossible that for his own cheer and 
 coiu-ao^e he sets himself to thinkinLi" what in the bless- 
 ing;- of God there mi^ht be in the future, and so h 
 would ])en a few lines for himself and the brother to 
 whom he wrote. At any rate he did write as follows: 
 
 KeosaiKiua, \'an Burcn Co.. July 31. 1844. 
 We shall he continually sending for new volunteers from 
 Eastern theological seminaries to take possession of the new- 
 counties in the New Purchase, and the occasional parishes, 
 which by the blessing of God, we hope to make here in the 
 vicinity about us. Do not think, my dear brother, that I am 
 scheming, that we are going to make parishes here, as easily 
 as a farmer will enclose forty acres of land, and then put min- 
 isters into them as readily as the farmer coukl put tenants upon 
 his enclosed fields. We shall do no such thing. We are hop- 
 ing, however that the Great Head of the Church will do this 
 work for us. I believe the time is not far distant, when this 
 work will be done. Sometimes I try and wrap myself up in the 
 future, and by contemplating w^hat will be, take courage to labor 
 for the ti)nc being. Now I am sitting in some well furnished. 
 
 e 
 
Tilll IOWA ASSOCIATIOX. WHAT IS IT XOJr/ 
 
 99 
 
 spacious church ; a large congregation is convened to listen to 
 the reports from various churclies ; one numbers 200 members, 
 another 150, others 140, 100. 59. 66, 300, 317. etc. Pastors have 
 been settled fifteen, twenty, and thirty years, revival has suc- 
 ceeded revival, and all is indicative of prosperity within the 
 bounds of the association assembled. Delegates from sister as- 
 sociations are there. Brother Salter (locks whitened with 
 age) addresses the audience, representing Zion's prosperity in 
 northern Iowa. Brother Turner ("leaning upon the top of his 
 staff") gives an account of what God has done for his people 
 in Jones County. Brother Hill, from Clayton, although bald- 
 headed, yet retaining nearly all the physical vigor of youth, 
 makes a speech. Brother Alden represents Tipton; Brother 
 Robbins. Bloomington. The ten are there and the voice of 
 each is heard. Then, in view of the past, we will exclaim 
 'Bless the Lord, O our souls, and all within us bless his holy 
 name.' 
 
 This association adjourns on Friday, Oct. 12, 1890. Shall 
 we live to see this? No matter whether we do or not, some- 
 thing similar to that now described will exist in tte churches 
 in Iowa, without doubt. If we see it not in this world, God 
 grant that we may look down from heaven and see it I 
 
 Written in 1844, the imagined meeting of the As- 
 sociation was placed in 1890. ''Shall we see it?" was 
 the question. No, not all were permitted to see it, he 
 himself among the number. But if permitted from 
 heaven to look down, what did he see in 1890? He 
 beheld the General Association holding its semi-cen- 
 tennial at Des Moines, a point at the time of his writ- 
 ing so far west in the Indian country as to be known 
 only as "Racoon Forks," where there was a fort. 
 "A spacious church?" Yes, large enough to accom- 
 modate an assemblage not simply from the old Black 
 Hawk Purchase with the New Purchase just added, 
 but from over the whole state. More pastors, more 
 churches and larger ones than he had dared to dream 
 
lOO 
 
 riui IOWA BAsn 
 
 of; a lime when in sermon and papers were rehearsed 
 flftv vears ut Congregational work in a new and rising 
 Connnonwealth. Could he have been there he with 
 reason doubtless would have said, "Bless the Lord, 
 O my soul!" And now it is 1901. To 1890 eleven 
 vears have been added. The three churches, little at 
 first, are over three hundred now, with a membership 
 of over 30,000. absentees not reckoned. To the three 
 pastors with one licentiate then, there have l)een added 
 and now stands a long, long list. They are held as yet 
 in one body, for one annual gathering from year to 
 vear. And what is the Association now compared 
 with what it was years ago? In every respect not 
 exactlv the same. This in the nature of the case could 
 nut l)c. 
 
 With the increase of wealth and material ])r()sperit\' 
 great clianges have come. The cabins with their 
 latch-strings out have gone, giving place to dwellings 
 of comfort, to residences palatial, some of them, where 
 for a stranger to look for hospitality would be intru- 
 sion. Telegraphs, telephones and the railroads are 
 here changing almost completely our modes of busi- 
 ness and travel. No longer now at Association time, 
 as to an appointed Mecca, do the brethren pursue 
 their journeys on horseback or in buggies, fording 
 streams, toiling over wide prairies with eager expec- 
 tations of hearty greetings awaiting them. No longer, 
 with here and there an exception, is it possible for 
 brethren to be bound together by the peculiar ties of 
 
THIL lOirA ASSOCIATIOX. WHAT IS IT NOWf ibl 
 
 pioneer experiences. Xo, the frontier times are gone. 
 There are other tilings that have gone. It was once 
 the custom to exchange delegates with corresponding 
 bodies. This no longer obtains. Gone, too, are the 
 good old Sabbaths together. In former times of prim- 
 itive modes of travel, many could not attend the 
 Association meetings without being from home two 
 preaching days, so, for their accommodation, and what 
 proved to be of benefit to all, the meetings were put 
 towards the end of the week and continued over the 
 Sabbath following. The Sabbath dawn found business 
 transacted and brought a day of quiet rest and worship 
 together. Precious days ! But this, too, has changed, 
 so easy is it now by railroad travel to come and go in 
 midweek. 
 
 Other sHght changes there have been, but on the 
 whole the old, the essential characteristics are the 
 same. The atmosphere of free good-fellowship yet 
 remains ; the spirit of Christian courtesy and harmony 
 yet prevails. The ministers of Iowa as a rule love 
 their Iowa work. The churches, as they send up their 
 delegates and other members to the annual assemblies 
 are more and more interested in them. The last 
 gathering was at a point on the banks of the great 
 river. A church not of the largest was represented by 
 nearly twenty of its members, and some were there, 
 both ministers and laymen, whose homes were over 
 two hundred miles away. The old spirit of devotion 
 has by no means died out. The daily prayer-meeting 
 
I02 THE IOWA n.lXD 
 
 still slaiuls where, years ai^o. in the constitution, it 
 was put. in the niicUlle ot the tureno(,)n. the best hour 
 of the (la\'. its exercises of all others the best attended. 
 At the close of each nieetiniLi". with tuiited hands and 
 hearts, the old h\nui is sun;.;'. "M\ days are g'lidinjT^ 
 swiftl}- by." which for years has been a reminder of 
 tliose who have passed to the Shinino- Shore, and an 
 inspiration for better work "while the da\s are i;-oint;-." 
 Yes. these i^food Association meetings. There is a pow- 
 er in them when tilled with the ])resence of the Mas- 
 ter. The fellowships eui^ender streng-th for the year 
 to ct>me. ( )n many a field where otherwise there 
 mii.^]it be a lonely work, the SNinpathetic chord of fel- 
 lowshij) is felt. The writer must here be allowed 
 again otit-of his own experience to testify to their 
 value. As thirty-one \ears ago. in 1870. so now^ in 
 1901. he can sa\- that beginning in 1S44 it has been his 
 privilege, with one exception, to be ])rescnt at them all ; 
 a privilege, indeed, in view of benefits received and 
 pleasing memories recorded. Let God be thanked. 
 To every young minister he would say. Be an Associa- 
 tion man. Cultivate acquaintance and cooperation 
 with the brethren. Lead your church along the same 
 lines. Church autonomy within its limits is good, but 
 there is a fellowship of brethren and churches not to 
 be forgotten. 
 
 The few^ illustrations given of church buildings that 
 were, and that no\v are, will suggest in material 
 things, at least, the progress made. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 10 IV A COLLEGE 
 
 THE home missionary is not only bold in his plans, 
 but it is curious to see how, as by instinct, his 
 plans run in certain directions. Given a Puritan de- 
 scent, a Yankee training and a sanctified culture in 
 New England institutions, and one may know before- 
 hand, as to certain things, at least, what he will be 
 doing when first put into a new and Western field. 
 
 "If each one of us can only plant one good permanent 
 church, and all together build a college, what a work 
 that would be !" So said one of the Band, as they 
 were contemplating their Western work. So, too, 
 those already in the field had been thinking : for, at 
 the close of one of the first meetings held at Den- 
 mark after the arrival of the Band, they were invited 
 io3 
 
I04 Till- loiwi H.ixn 
 
 to tarry a tew iiioinonts to li>un lo plans for loiuul- 
 ing- a college. A litllc surprised were lliey. and not 
 a little gratitied. 
 
 Here was the beginning of Iowa College. Thus 
 far back in home missions in Iowa must we go for its 
 inception." This mere seed, as it germinates, takes 
 niot. springs up and grows, will develop still further 
 workers, workings and results. Like man\- another 
 W estern college that is now a power and glory in the 
 land, it took its start out of prayer and toil in the days 
 of pioneer missionary labor. It strikes its roots back 
 into the faith and self-denial of the early churches, 
 taught by the ministers to water it with their ])rayers 
 and their gifts; of its early teachers and professors, 
 t<M). who conse!Ued to nuMure it as a part of mission 
 work, and one involving in those days no less of self- 
 denial and toil than any other. These are features in 
 this institution, which, thank God, have not yet died 
 out. To present a true view of this college, especially 
 of its earlier history, will help to bind it anew to the 
 aftections of its friends and may recommend it to the 
 confidence of those whom God has enabled, and who 
 love, to endow such institutions. It may inspire the 
 feeling that an institution so planted and nurtured 
 must have the blessing of the Lord within it. 
 
 But to draw the picture with each color and shad- 
 ing true to facts and experience is another of those 
 things that by no human possibility can ever be done. 
 
 -•" Xute Xo. II. 
 
lOJVA COLLEGE 1 05 
 
 From recollection and records a few things only can 
 be given. After the meeting alluded to, nothing was 
 done till the following spring. 
 
 March 12, 1844, a meeting of ministers and others 
 "interested in founding a college" w^as held at Den- 
 mark, of course, for this was at that day the center of 
 all things. The plan proposed and approved w^as to 
 find a tract of land subject to entry, in some good loca- 
 tion, obtain funds for its purchase, and then sell it out 
 in parcels at an advanced price to settlers favorable 
 to the object ; thus securing an endowment for the 
 institution and a community in which it might pros- 
 per. A suitable location, therefore, was the first ob- 
 ject. A committee'*' of exploration was appointed, with 
 power, when ready to report, to call another meeting. 
 The call was issued for April 16, 1844, and embraced 
 the Congregational and New School Presbyterian 
 ministers in the territory, the most of whom were in 
 attendance. So favorable was the report of the com- 
 mittee, and so unanimously were all previous plans 
 approved, that the brethren resolved themselves at 
 once into an association, under the title of 'Towa 
 College Association," with suitable rules and regula- 
 tions, and appointed Asa Turner as agent to go im- 
 mediately to the East to obtain the necessary funds 
 with which to pay for the land, agreeing by formal 
 resolution to defray his expenses from their own 
 scanty resources. 
 
 "" I. A. Reed, cliairman. 
 
lo6 THE IOWA BAXD 
 
 It woiikl not be of interest to mention in detail the 
 precise date and eircnnistanees of eaeh successive 
 meeting' in respect to tlie enterprise thus started. It 
 i.s sufficient to sa\ thai this Cohes^e Association took 
 charge of it, until, in due time, it was committed to 
 a board of Trustees empowered to fill its own vacan- 
 cies, and add to its own ninnl)er. The two denomi- 
 nations named were represented in due {proportion in 
 this board, and ct>ntinued to be so represented, until, 
 in process oi time, from c\'uises affecting- their rela- 
 tions to each other in the count r\ at larL^e. the prac- 
 tical interest of the IVesbyterian brethren in the in- 
 stitution diminisiied, and they gradually withdrew 
 from its councils. Thus the college came to be ex- 
 clusively, as in point of interest and su]:)i)ort it mainly 
 had ])een from the first, the foster-child of the Con- 
 mreiiationalists ; and as such its histor\- will be {.^iven. 
 
 1 he agent, of whose appointment we have spoken, 
 repaired at once to the East, going directly to Bos- 
 ton. But he was not to succeed. The College So- 
 ciety, so called for the sake of brevity, had just been 
 formed, with a view to systematizing and regulating 
 appeals at the East in behalf of Western colleges. 
 
 Its friends, at a called meeting," disapproved of the 
 plans of the agent, and recommended that a good 
 location should be first secured, the best for a college, 
 irrespective of other considerations ; that donations 
 should be called for outright, a beginning be made, 
 
 -■ For minutes of that meeting see Appendix II. 
 
lOJVA COLLEGE 107 
 
 and that the institution trust to the patronage of the 
 Society and of friends whose Hberal endowments 
 could eventually be secured. It seemed like losing 
 a grand opportunity, but the agent returned. The 
 Western brethren, with some reluctance, yet cordially, 
 yielded to the judgment of their Eastern friends, 
 some of whom had had experience in the West. 
 
 What the result would have been had their own plans 
 been carried out, it is impossible, of course, to tell ; 
 but, as they look now at one of the most flourishing 
 inland towns of the state, upon one of our principal 
 railroads, with its water-power, its timber, and its 
 prairie, filled and surrounded by an enterprising popu- 
 lation, right where it was proposed to purchase the 
 college lands, they are wont to say to each other, 
 "That is where we talked of starting our college ; 
 that is where, with a few dollars, we might once have 
 started and endowed it.'^ What would have been the 
 outcome of a beginning there on the plan proposed, 
 we do not know. There might have been success; 
 there might have been failure. One thing is certain ; 
 the plan actually adopted involved beginning at the 
 very lowest round of the ladder, whence every step 
 upward was of necessity by the hardest." 
 
 The thing was first to get a location — a location 
 for a college, without a dime besides, a cent even, or 
 a promise, save as there was faith in prayer and toil. 
 In a year or two, the minds of all were agreed upon 
 
 28 Independence, Buchanan Co. 
 
loS 77//: /()//•./ n.lXf) 
 
 a jioim. which, al ihal chi\, fur case ol access and 
 hcauly of siliialiuii. sloud forlh without a rival. In 
 |N4() it was voted to locate at I )aven])ori, ■'i)roviiled 
 the citi/.ens woidd raise fourteen hundred dollars, and 
 provide ccrlain specified grounds for a location." 
 Each individual, moreover, was to raise, if possible, 
 one hundred dollars among his Eastern friends, or 
 elsewhere. A hoard of trustees was at this time 
 elected. 
 
 This was the hcLiinninq- of work, and nuicli hard 
 work, with slow progress. The next >ear, m 1847, 
 it was fotnid that the citizens of Davenport had 
 pledged thirteen hundred and sixty-two dollars and 
 thirteen lots: otherwise little had heen acconi])lishe(l. 
 The ])roi)ose(l location was seciu-ed. and instructions 
 gi\en "to plan and erect a building, which shall be 
 a i)ernianent c 'liege bin'lding, in good taste, and 
 which, when enclosed, shall not exceed in cost the 
 sum of two thousand dollars." 
 
 One may smile at the idea of a ])ermanent college 
 building in good taste, w ithin the cost, when enclosed, 
 of two thousand dollars : but that was a day of small 
 things: and where even this amount was to come 
 from, none coidd tell. The trustees and members of 
 the College Association pledged themselves to make 
 up any deficiency there might be, not over six hun- 
 dred dollars, — a resolution to this effect having been 
 unanimously adopted, and signed by each one pres- 
 ent. Such was the care taken that all liabilities 
 
Preserved Wood Carter, 
 First large Donor 
 
 Prof. Erastus Ripley, 
 First Principal and Professor 
 
 Prof. Leonard Fletcher Parker, 
 Professor since 1856 
 
 Iowa College Pioneer Helpers 
 
 Josiah r>u-.liin 11 ( .1 nine' 
 FoiuuIlt of (irinnell 
 
lOlVA COLLEGE 109 
 
 should be seasonably provided for, and no debts in- 
 curred. The building was erected, and the bills paid. 
 
 In Xovember, 1848, a school was opened, under 
 the charge of the Rev. E. Ripley, elected as profess- 
 or of languages, with a salary of five hundred dollars 
 a year. There were appropriate opening exercises, 
 including an address and dedicatory prayer. It was 
 a windy, wintry day. Not many were present, but a 
 few were there, with hearts full of gratitude to God 
 for all success hitherto in the enterprise wherein by 
 faith was seen a college for Iowa. As the brethren 
 met together in their homes, as they came to their an- 
 nual association, they began to say "our college." 
 They had need to say it; for contingent expenses, 
 salary, etc., far exceeded the amounts received for 
 tuition. Besides, improvements must be made, and 
 more teachers employed. 
 
 Here began the years of anxiety and labor — 
 teachers toiling, trustees planning, and the executive 
 committee trying to execute, meeting often, with 
 much to be done, but never able to do it. When 
 they could do nothing else, they could at least pray. 
 So they worked and prayed and worked. Every year, 
 as the churches came together in their annual associ- 
 ation, the story of the college was told, its wants re- 
 hearsed, and their pray'ers and alms besought. This 
 was not without response."" 
 
 In 1849 there were subscribed for it four hundred 
 
 2" Note 12. 
 
no iiii- IOWA H.ixn 
 
 aiul fc>rty-l\V() dollars and sixty-tivo cents — all bnt 
 four oi llic subscribers beini^ ministers; and the min- 
 utes oi that \ear show the whole number of ministers 
 to have been twenty-one. In 1S50, at the meeting 
 of the associatit)n in l)ubui|ue. there were reported, 
 besides the prej)aratory department, twenty-eight 
 students in Latin, eight in (Ireek. There, too, it was 
 told how the baptism of the Spirit had been sent 
 down upon the infant collrge as the seal of (lod's ap- 
 pro\al. Tln're. also, was reported the hrst noonday 
 l)rayer-meeting of the students — a meeting, which, 
 with little interruiUion. has been kej)t up to this day, 
 while many succeeding re\-i\-als ha\'e ])cvu enjoyed. 
 As the old tale of ])ecuniary embarrassment was there 
 told, hearts were opened for relief, and four hundred 
 and fifty dollars were pledged. In the minutes of that 
 meeting it stands recorded that "the wives, also, of 
 the ministers, anxious to share in the enterprise of 
 founding this college, resolved to raise a hundred 
 dollars out of their own resources; and seventy dol- 
 lars were subscribed by fourteen persons who were 
 present." "It was a great sum then," said one of 
 them, years afterwards; "it was a great sum then, five 
 dollars, but T managed to pay it." 
 
 So it went on for years afterwards. Tn i(S52 a hun- 
 dred and fift\-three dollars were raised; in 1853. 
 seven hundred and eleven dollars. Tn this year came 
 the first decided help from abroad — the donation 
 from Deacon V, \Y. Carter of Watcrburv. Connecti- 
 
lOll'A COLLEGE m 
 
 cut, of five thousand and eighty dollars. It seemed a 
 great sum. The interest of this, and the aid which 
 the College Society began to give, together with the 
 avails of our own efforts, would have given relief, 
 only that increasing wants kept pace with increasing 
 means.'" 
 
 New professorships were established from time to 
 time, till, in 1855, there were four professors.'' By 
 this time the original site had been abandoned, a 
 new one of ten acres secured, and an elegant stone 
 building, with a boarding-house, erected upon it. 
 This change was caused by the persistence of the city 
 authorities of Davenport in thrusting a street through 
 the grounds first occupied. The second site chosen 
 was divided and injured in the same way. About this 
 time the institution was unfortunate in trusts reposed 
 in one of its officers. As the state settled up, there 
 were prejudices in the interior against a river loca- 
 tion for an institution of learning; and the feeling be- 
 gan to prevail that, among the people of the place, 
 it did not have so congenial a home as it ought. 
 
 As the result of these combined circumstances, it 
 was decided, in 1858, to sell out, and seek for a new 
 site. God, in his providence, had one in preparation. 
 A few years previous, in the heart of the state, a 
 colony had settled with the express purpose of es- 
 tablishing, and at the outset had made provision for, 
 
 •■'" Note 13. 
 ?i Note 14, 
 
112 THE I QUA BAND 
 
 an inslilution of Icarniiii;-. Here a school had already 
 been coiiiinenced. After ilue thought and much 
 prayer, it was concluded, with the general approval 
 o\ all i)arties interested, that the fountain opened by 
 the I'^ather of Waters should be united with the rill 
 of the ])rairies. Accordingly, from 1859, Grinnell. 
 bnva. has been the seat of Iowa College. 
 
 We will not follow its history in detail for the next 
 ten \ ears. There are two noble college buildings in 
 an area of twenty-two acres. t(^ which the verdure 
 of growing shade-trees adds increasing beauty from 
 year to year, 'flie location is on the border of a vil- 
 lage whose i^ride is the college. The intelligence, 
 morality and affectionate good will of the ])e()])le 
 make it a fit i)lace for the education of the sons and 
 daughters of Iowa." The names of two hundred and 
 n'net\- of them are found enroled as members of the 
 institution during the past year, more than half of 
 whom are in the collegiate and preparatory depart- 
 ments. 
 
 There are eight instructors — the president, four 
 professors, a principal of the preparatory department, 
 a principal of the ladies' department, and one tutor. 
 In the library there are over four thousand volumes, 
 besides the smaller libraries of the literary societies 
 of the college. The apparatus, though far from what 
 it should be, is yet sufficient to illustrate the princi- 
 ples of natural philosophy, chemistry and astronomy ; 
 
 32 In it there has never been a saloon, and, if title deeds can prevent, ther^ 
 never can be, 
 
^sr^^r-^iquir- 
 
 First College Building at Davenport 
 
 Second College Building at Davenport 
 
 Iowa College, Grinnell, before the Cyclone in 1SS2 
 
 Beginnings of Iowa College 
 
IOWA COLLEGE 113 
 
 while admirable collections have already been made 
 in mineralogy, zoology, botany, etc., which are ar- 
 ranged in a cabinet of rare attraction and taste. On 
 the walls of the college library are the portraits of 
 Carter and Williston, as among the chief donors to 
 the college. The names of Grimes, Ames, Dodge, 
 Richards, Merrill, Butler and Barstow may be fitly 
 recorded here, as of those who have largely contrib- 
 uted to its funds ; and perhaps others not known to 
 the writer are equally deserving of mention. 
 
 The college property, in the aggregate, now 
 amounts to one hundred and sixty thousand dollars, 
 more than half of which is productive. The list of 
 graduates is not long ; but they are already scattered 
 over the land, occupying honorable positions in the 
 various professions. The resources of the institution 
 are as yet by no means ample. Its facilities must 
 increase from year to year, to meet the growing de- 
 mands upon it ; but beholding it now, and calling to 
 mind how hard it was to get together the two thou- 
 sand dollars for the first humble building, remember- 
 ing how the seed was sown, and by the nurture of 
 what prayer and toil it has grown, the contrast is in- 
 deed pleasing. Grateful always is the memory of la- 
 bors past, where results in the form of abounding 
 fruits are seen. 
 
 Before closing this pleasing review, another refer- 
 ence may not be amiss to him in whose first endow- 
 ment, in part, of the Carter professorship there was 
 
114 THE IOWA BAXn 
 
 such courage and chcor. It was the i)loasing privi- 
 lege of the writer to receive a portion of that gift at 
 his own hands, and in his own home. He was a plain 
 man, and his home of the olden stamp, somewhat old- 
 fashioned in its air, but ample in comfort, without ex- 
 travagance or display. Riding about the village one 
 afternoon, in the old family carriage, he reined Uj) his 
 horse where a townsman was building a residence of 
 great elegance and cost. Surveying it for a moment, 
 'There," said he, "I might take my money, and build 
 me a house just like that ; but then, if I should, I 
 sh(nil(l n(^t have it to give to Iowa College." It 
 showed that he liad considered the question, and 
 made his choice. Who will say, as he looks at Iowa 
 College to-day, and thinks of him as having passed 
 from earth, that the choice was not a good one? 
 
 O yc whom God has blessed with fortunes that are 
 amj')le. now is the time of your choosing. If you w^ish 
 tc) turn a portion of your means into some permanent, 
 mighty power, that shall work for Christ in this and 
 the ages to come, how more surely or better can you 
 do it than to help to build in this Western land some 
 Christian college? The tongues of missionaries and 
 pastors sooner or later shall be silent in death ; 
 teachers change : but endowments in these Christian 
 colleges will work on. work ever. 
 
Blair Hall 
 
 Goodnow Hall (Library) 
 
 Rand Gymnasium for Women 
 
 Iowa College Buildings 
 
 Chicago Hall 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 COLLEGE HISTORY CONTINUED. ITS GRINNELL 
 PERIOD 
 
 IN the preceding chapter there was but a sHght 
 reference to the first years of the college at Grin- 
 nell. It will be necessary, therefore, at the com- 
 mencement of this to speak of these more at length. 
 Its work at Davenport was closed, as we have seen, 
 in 1858. For about a year there was a state of 
 transition. What did it take from its old, and what 
 leceive at its new location? As to its taking, in 
 material things there was but little. Started as it 
 was at so early a period, before a building for the 
 common schools had been erected in the place, eleven 
 years before any other college was more than thought 
 of in the state, much could not be expected. There 
 were no buildings, of course ; no teachers, for they 
 had resigned when instruction ceased. The books 
 gathered for a library were but few. Its appa- 
 ratus, philosophical, chemical, etc., was but scanty. 
 As for funds, after payment of debts, there were left 
 about $9000. But it went with a good history. In 
 those ten years at Davenport good work had been 
 done. There had been ten graduates who, with other 
 
 "5 
 
Il6 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 students, had been trained by its four professors of 
 ability and titness for their position. The majority of 
 those ten graduates are stiU Hving-. one of whom took 
 an active part in the forming of an Ahmmi Associa- 
 tion recently organized on the. Pacific shore. Besides 
 its character and history it took its board of trustees. 
 There went with it. too. the loyalty of ministers and 
 churches whose hearts were in it, and back of it. As 
 it went, it found a young conmuniit\- of intelligence 
 and cntluisiasni for education, witli open arms to re- 
 ceive it. They had already a high school of thirty- 
 five scholars in progress, with studies shaped for a 
 higher institution in view. There was a parcel of land 
 set apart for it. suitable for a college campus, and a 
 building thereon in process of erection. These, with 
 money subscriptions, they transferred to the college, 
 the estimated value of the property being at the time 
 $36,000. vSuch was its new home. 
 
 Like a healthy plant transferred to a better soil, it 
 at once took root and commenced to grow^ In 1861 
 there was a freshman class of twelve. But then the 
 war came. Soon all but two were in the field. Other 
 young men came, but their minds turned feebly to 
 Latin and Greek, while their thoughts were following 
 those who had enlisted in their country's cause. 
 Sometimes, w^hen the news was sad, the recitation 
 room even had no place for the lesson either for stu- 
 dent or teacher, but gave w^ay to a discussion of the 
 situation, its responsibilities and demands. One after 
 
COLLEGE HISTORY CONTINUED 117 
 
 another was missing. Where gone? To the war. As 
 the thickening conflict was prolonged and the call for 
 men became more urgent, twenty-six enlisted at one 
 time,"" their teacher at the head. The time came when 
 all the male students of military age were bearing 
 arms. They were found in fifteen different Iowa regi- 
 ments and in some of other states. Their record as 
 soldiers, and a tablet hanging inside the chapel door 
 on which is inscribed the names of eleven that never 
 returned, are witness to noble service rendered. 
 
 But in due time the war was over and college work 
 was resumed. New students came and new professors 
 were added. In 1865 there was the usual number of 
 college classes, the seniors to graduate numbering fif- 
 teen. On their commencement day a new presence 
 that had corne to the college stood before them, that 
 of its first president, George Frederick Magoun. Take 
 it all In all, h^ was a rare man for the position. "A su- 
 perb leader," says one f* "a man of the largest mould, 
 with the culture of Bowdoin and Andover broadened 
 by contact with the world." 
 
 The college strengthened and grew. Friendly do- 
 nors appeared at home and abroad. Able professors 
 were added ; the roll of students enlarged. Their rec- 
 ord showed the institution one for sound learning and 
 
 ^^ The teacher referred to is Prof. L. F. Parker. He left behind what was 
 more like a female seminary than a college, the special burden of which, added 
 to that of domestic duties, came upon his noble wife, and was heroically borne- 
 
 34 J.Irving Manett, Prof, of Greek in Brown University, Providence, R. I. 
 In New England Magazine for June iS, iSqS. 
 
ii8 
 
 nil- J(ur.i n.i\P 
 
 o-ood characlcr. \ci n IkuI ils inisloriunes. In 1871 
 its first building- at Grinncll, started for the Gruinell 
 Univcrsitv. was destroyed l^y fire. In 1882 came the 
 cyclone In ils path ..f destruction, in which, as in a 
 twinklino-, hniucs. like paper houses, were scattered 
 in fragments, leavin- thirty-six of their inmates kdled 
 and a hundred uthers niainied. the collc.i;e campus, 
 too, was struck, its trees nianolcd, its l.uildinos le-ft ni 
 ruins. The stonn was ..ver. hut the niornino- light re- 
 veale.l a scene ..I .lesolali.m. It was the 17th of June, 
 and all things were shaping fnr another graduation 
 day. All eves were n..w turned t.. what the leader 
 should sav.' Now was the time for what there was in 
 him t.» show itself. "Will you have connnencement 
 now-'" was the (luestion put. "Yes,'" came the full- 
 t,,ned replv. -Ves, we will go right on." Xobly was 
 he supported hv the faculty, an.l as nobly by the 
 students, as, aher helping as best they could to care 
 for the wounde.l and the dying, they rallied for com- 
 mencement (lav. Xor, as the college year came 
 around, did they forget to return. It was noble m 
 those students so to do, and noble for the conuiumity 
 to spare no pains in helping them to homes and reci- 
 tation rooms till better times should come. And they 
 came. The cry of distress was heard in the land and 
 not in vain. The buildings were restored and the work 
 of the college went on till, in 1884, that of its first pres- 
 ident was done. 
 
 There was an interregnum of three years before 
 
 I 
 
COLLIlGli HISTORY CONTINUED 119 
 
 another was found. In 1887, the second president 
 came, George A. Gates, just entering the prime ot 
 life. He came to the college as his life work. A man, 
 the soul of honor, strong in his convictions and faith- 
 ful to them. By his administrative tact and wis- 
 dom, trustees, faculty, students and graduates were 
 brought into an increasing unity for the college. After 
 thirteen years of faithful service it was a sorrow to 
 him, as to all of us, that in 1900 regard for the health 
 of his family compelled him to abandon his life-work 
 and seek a different clime. During his administration 
 there gathered over the college but one cloud. It 
 rose from its connection with the chair instituted for 
 "Applied Christianity." Here much in explanation 
 could be written. Sufifice it to say that the cloud has 
 passed aw^ay. If the faith of any has been shaken by 
 what has transpired, or through fears of wdiat might 
 be, let him be assured that the college has not been 
 swerved from its old foundations. Neither faculty nor 
 trustees have forgotten the motto upon its seal, 
 **Christo Duce," as the only motto that can safely be 
 follow^ed in all our human affairs, educational as well 
 as social and civil. For another leader under this 
 grand motto the college is now looking. 
 
 It were easy here and pleasant, also, to note the 
 names and characteristics of the different trustees, 
 teachers and donors of the college, but brevity forbids. 
 A few things only can be said and a few names called, 
 mainlv of those wdio have gone before. Of the trus- 
 
I20 THE IOWA B.lXn 
 
 tecs, as the voars have passed there have been 
 scvcnty-six upon the Board, all of whom, with scarce 
 an exception, have attended the meetin^^s at their own 
 charges, aggrei;atini; a ju'cuniary contribution to the 
 college not unworthy o{ mention. At ("irinnell, 
 among the lirst to be added to their numb.M" was J. 1). 
 Grinnell, the founder of the place that bears his name, 
 whose impulsive, pushing nature, with his enthusiasm 
 and generosity, gave courage and hope alway. A 
 man ever to be appreciated by town and college. 
 There were, also, llolyoke, llerriek, IMieljxs; plain 
 men of sound ^ense and good business judgment. 
 Then in due time came diamberlain, of clear judg- 
 ment, also, who took to his heart the whole college — 
 grounds, faculty, students and all — himself a sort of 
 balance-wheel of the whole. The beautiful Chamber- 
 lain Park donated by him. on which w^as built the 
 Mary Grinnell Mears Cottage, stands as his memorial. 
 Of the first teachers at Grinnell was L. F. Parker, 
 who. though not in present service, yet continues till 
 this day, professor emeritus, still sensitive to the life 
 and interests of the college, respected by students and 
 beloved by all. His two assistants, Herrick and Reed, 
 have passed away. Another whose name stands upon 
 every catalogue to this day is Prof. S. J. Buck, to the 
 interests of the college ever faithful and true ; the act- 
 ing official between the two presidents. Afterwards 
 came another Parker — H. W., the man of letters and 
 poetic taste. We cannot help thinking of stjch superb 
 
COLLEGE IHSTORY CONTINUED 121 
 
 teachers as Brewer and Crow and Simmons, who are 
 no more. Others might be named, some Hving, some 
 dead, some decoyed away by such colleges as Bow- 
 doin and Dartmouth and Oberlin, by universities, as 
 of Wisconsin and Nebraska — a loss yet a compliment 
 to the college. 
 
 There is another class to be remembered, the 
 alumni and alumnae. Here, at last, as to the real 
 worth of a college is where the test comes ; in the 
 character and work of those sent forth for the world's 
 service. Where are they, and what are they doing? 
 
 Iowa College is young, but her record is well begun. 
 School, pulpit and press suggest the three great lines 
 of power. It is in these that, after careful examina- 
 tion, within a slight fraction two-thirds of her grad- 
 uates are found, in thirty-seven states, while six are 
 in foreign lands. As an educating force it is one of 
 the recruiting stations for that grand army of common 
 school teachers, so called, who are working at the 
 foundation of things, furnishing in the meantime her 
 measure of superintendents and principals ; sending 
 comparatively not a few of her sons and daughters 
 to positions in some of our leading colleges and uni- 
 versities, who by their writings, scientific and literary, 
 are well known, in some cases abroad as at home. 
 
 Names are not to be paraded, yet a few will be par- 
 doned, such as, beginning with older graduates, J. 
 Irving Manatt of Brown University in Rhode Island ; 
 Jesse Macev, in his Alma Mater ; H. C. Adams, in 
 
122 THE IOWA BAXD 
 
 r^lichigan L'nivcrsilx ; O. F. Emerson, in Adelbert 
 College, Cleveland; William Albert Noyes, of Rose 
 rolytechnic Institute, Indiana, whose various writ- 
 ini^s have made liim prominent as a eliemist ; George 
 :\1. W hicher, leaching Greek and l.alin in Packer In- 
 stitute in r.rooklyn. New York; Mary E. Snell, Prin- 
 cipal of Snell Seminary, ( )akland. e'alifornia ; Mary 
 E. Apthorp. tifleen years in ( )shk()s]i Normal School, 
 Wisconsin; IClisaheth II. Avery, in Redtield College, 
 South Dakota. 
 
 These are of the older graduates, but there are 
 others xounger in lite coming along, with nothing in 
 the way of ecpialing. if not surpassing, those before. 
 
 Of occupations filled by graduates there are twen- 
 ty-two. all honorable and useful. As to numbers, that 
 of the ministry stands fourth in rank. Here, if there 
 is not a show of star preachers, there is what is better, 
 a body of faithful, good workers in the vineyard. And 
 so of attorneys, not cphte but nearly ecptal in num- 
 ber to ministers. Sound, high-minded lawyers are 
 useful and needed ; the Christian college helps to 
 make such, and such there are. The roll of mission- 
 aries is gratifying, both as to number and character. 
 It begins with Hester A. Hillis, sister of Dr. Hillis of 
 Brooklyn, who went to India, followed by George E. 
 White and his wife, also a graduate, who are at Mar- 
 sovan. Turkey; George D. IMarsh, of Bulgaria; Mary 
 E. Brewer, in Sivas, Turkey ; so on down to Henry H. 
 Atkinson, now with his wife on his way to Harpoot 
 
COLLEGE HISTORY CONTLVUED 123 
 
 Fur journalists, the Review of Reviews at once sug- 
 gests the name of Albert Shaw, as editor. The list 
 here is not long, but a few there are scattered about 
 as editors of their own or on the staff of city papers, 
 as Davidson, Kasson, Bartlett, Ray, W. A. Frisbie at 
 Minneapolis ; and Warren C. Baker, whose pen did 
 good service among the forces that prevented the 
 Louisiana Lottery from getting a foothold in North 
 Dakota. 
 
 Of physicians, the list again is not long. But here, 
 at once, comes the name of Hill — Gershom H. — who 
 for twenty years past has been Superintendent of one 
 of our asylums for the insane, and is himself yet sane. 
 By his name is suggested another (because in college 
 parlance the two are connected as the Hill boys) Rev. 
 James L. Hill, D.D., who can be classed neither as 
 minister nor journalist because acting in both capaci- 
 ties ; having in a measure left the pulpit after two 
 pastorates, in an aggregate of nineteen years, to be 
 identified with the organization, literature and work 
 of Christian Endeavor societies at home and abroad — 
 a world-wide movement for the world service. 
 
 But enough of names ; enough to show what the 
 college deserves, judged by her fruits. Her record 
 and standing are good. We do not say that it is the 
 best in the state, (others say so), but we may in mod- 
 esty claim that, as the oldest she has kept pace in the 
 foremost ranks, and stands among the best. Her 
 alumni and alumn?e. mindful of the good received 
 
124 
 
 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 from ihcir Alma Mater, arc loyal to her and she is not 
 ashamed of them. 
 
 Fignres and statistics often count for but little, but 
 a few to represent what the college now is compared 
 with what it was at the close of the preceding chapter, 
 thirt\-one years ago, nuist here be given. To the two 
 buildings then, six others have been added, a house 
 for the president included. To the campus of twenty- 
 two acres, the beauty of which nature has kindly re- 
 stored after the ravages of wind and storm, has been 
 added Chamberlain Park of four acres on the east, 
 and. for the athletic field on the north, fourteen acres, 
 forty in all. Eight instructors then, its faculty now by 
 last catalogue numbers thirty-six, besides eight other 
 oflficials such as librarians, secretaries, etc. The four 
 thousand volumes in the library have increased seven- 
 fold and those of literary societies in like proportion. 
 The catalogues of the college describing its astronom- 
 ical observatory ; its museum ; its laboratories, biolog- 
 ical, chemical and i)hysical ; its gynuiasium (one for 
 men and one for women) ; its library and reading 
 room ; its athletic grounds, etc. — fat volumes now 
 compared to the lean ones of thirty-one years ago — 
 are in evidence as to the apparatus and furnishings of 
 a college. The total value of college property, in 
 place of $t6o,ooo then, is now but a trifle short of 
 $800,000. Its list of graduates, not long then, is now 
 nearing the thousand. 
 
 So stands the Iowa College of to-day, compared 
 
COLLEGIA HISTORY CONTINUED 125 
 
 with what it was when it began at Davenport, fifty- 
 three years ago, in its two thousand dollar building, 
 with one teacher and half a dozen pupils, no apparatus, 
 no furnishings of any kind save the books to be 
 studied. True, much toil, the lives even of some, and 
 the best part of the lives of others not a few, have gone 
 into it ; and noble gifts, too, of the living and the dead. 
 But who can say to no account — wasted, thrown 
 away? No. In viev*^ of the past and what, by the eye 
 of faith, is seen as yet to be, the sentiment of one^^ who 
 in the enthusiasm of youth gave herself to Home Mis- 
 sionary work for Iowa in territorial days, in the words, 
 "Somebody must be built into these foundations," was 
 a noble one. In this part of our Home Missionary 
 work may the race of noble givers to it and faithful 
 workers in and for it, never cease ! 
 
 35 Words of Mrs. J. J. Hill, first wife of the one who gave the first dollar to 
 the College, and engraved upon her monument, where with her husband she 
 lies sleeping in the Grinnell cemetery. 
 
CHAPTER X\l 
 A R.IRI- ClLini-.R, .1X1) SHORT 
 
 IV, in conventions, si)ecclics, reports and histories 
 we are wont to speak and write as though only 
 men were actors in the world, then is the present 
 chapter rightly named ; for we wish here expressly 
 to acknowledge the influence and aid of the wives 
 and sisters. As woman's w(^rk in tlie war forms one 
 of the rarest chai)ters in the history of our late na- 
 tional struggle, so if in this chapter the influence al- 
 luded to in our Christian work in Iowa could be but 
 truthfully and fully unfohk-d. it would indeed be the 
 rarest chapter of all. 
 
 But fully to present the intense labor, the kecMi 
 sympathy and efficient heli)fulness of a Ikjuic mis- 
 sionary's wife is not attempted. The}' can at most 
 only be suggested. This began to be impressed on 
 one of our earliest missionaries years ago, before, by 
 happy experience, he knew what such help was, by 
 a scene well worth describing. We will let him give 
 it in his own words: — 
 
 'T was a young man, and it was the first year of my 
 ministry. Traveling abroad one day. from my field 
 of labor. I thought I would make the acquaintance 
 126 
 
.1 R.IRI- CHAPTER, AXD SHORT 127 
 
 of a brother minister of whom I had heard, but whom 
 1 had never seen. I went to his house. It was made 
 of \o^s, with a shingle roof, with one room below, 
 and the usual loft. As I remember, it was about six- 
 teen feet square, with a passage through it by a door 
 on each side. On one side of the room was a stove, 
 on the other a bed, with the usual display of kettles, 
 dishes, hats, clothing, etc., found in such houses. The 
 brother was not at home. His wife, '"'" I was told, was 
 above, and sick. I was invited to go up and see her. 
 I did so, ascending by a ladder in one corner. 
 
 "There, sitting on her bed, having, with evident 
 exertion, arranged her person for the reception of a 
 stranger, w^as the missionary's wife, frail in form, pale 
 and sickly in countenance. Her constitution w-as ev- 
 idently fragile, and to her bodily suffering was no 
 stranger. I shall never forget how she looked, nor 
 with what womanly courtesy she received me. Her 
 eye beamed hopefully ; and her smile, though languid, 
 was cheerful. Not a murmur did she utter, and 
 scarcely an apology even for anything. An air of 
 peace and contentment characterized her. I noticed 
 that the whole roof was a little askew, as though it 
 had been lifted up, and turned around, and let down 
 again, with articles of clothing caught in the cracks. 
 
 " That,' said she, Svas done by a hurricane we had 
 a few days ago. The wind blew terribly for a while 
 I was here all alone, and thought once the house was 
 going ; but somehow I felt safe.' 
 
 3" Fjrst wife of (), Emerson at De W^itt, Clinton Co, 
 
128 rilE IOWA B.IXD 
 
 "Her hushaiul, slic said, had gone to the river to 
 get a load of hinil)er. She was sorry he had to work 
 so hard. He was lame, and not strong ; but ministers 
 in a new country had to do many things to which 
 they were strangers elsewliere. 'The worst of it all is; 
 she said, T can't help him, I am sick so much. I feel 
 so sorry when T think sometimes that I must be only 
 a burden, and of no use to him.' 
 
 "Then she went on to speak, witli her whole soul 
 in it, of the missionary work in which he was engaged. 
 I tarried for the night, and, in the morning, went on 
 my way with a new insight into the realities of the 
 mission work. Es]X'cially did T there begin to see 
 how woman in patience could endure self-sacrifice, 
 self-denial and toil, and how keenly, in every fiber 
 of her being, she could sympathize in all her hus- 
 band's plans and labors for Christ. In after years it 
 was often my privilege to be in that family. Her 
 health afterwards was better ; and then I saw how a 
 wife, in the fortitude of a trusting spirit, could cheer, 
 encourage and hel]) her husband in his work. In 
 other cases T have often seen it. and as often asked, 
 'What could our brethren do without their wives?' " 
 
 The first draft made on the energies of home mis- 
 sionary wives is made through their keen sympathy 
 with all that pertains to their husbands' work ; the 
 next is in connection with their family cares. It has 
 often been remarked, and somewhat truthfully, that 
 the hardships of a new country fall more heavily on 
 
.1 R.lRIi CHAPTER, AXD SHORT 
 
 129 
 
 women than men. A Western farmer, as a general 
 tiling, can carry on his outdoor operations at tlie very 
 outset quite as easily on his new Western farm a^ 
 he could on the old and harder lands of the East. 
 But, between the old Eastern homes and all the little 
 home conveniences of a long-settled country, and the 
 new log-cabin and the nameless discomforts of a new 
 country, the difference is wide. Here it is that bricks 
 are to be made without straw, and that the exigencies 
 of a new^ country are especially hard upon women. 
 The experience of home missionaries' wives is, in this 
 respect, the same as that of others. 
 
 As was natural, among the all sorts of Yankee 
 questions alluded to in the first part of this book, as 
 having been asked by the ''Band" prior to their com- 
 ing West, were inquiries as to whether a missionary 
 should be married or unmarried, and whether wives 
 could be maintained and made comfortable. There 
 came back but this one answer : "Wives are the cheap- 
 est thing in all Iowa. Bring wives ! Bring Yankee 
 waives, that are not afraid of a checked apron, and who 
 can pail the cow, and churn the butter."" 
 
 It would not be safe to say that every one here has 
 been able literally to fill this bill ; but it is safe to say 
 that the rude and rough experiences of Western life 
 have been, and are now being nobly borne by the 
 wives of missionaries. For a newly married couple, 
 just from the East, to begin housekeeping in two 
 
 ;•' From Asa Turner. 
 
130 Tllli IOWA H.ixn 
 
 rooms, with only a little stove, ami some boxes for 
 eliairs and taMes, is not nuieli. There is a loiieh of 
 romanee in it. with hopes of better days. To see a 
 missionar\ pastor's young wife, fresh from the deli- 
 eaeies of an Eastern eity home,'' at Assoeiation time, 
 when ministers and delegates, and wives and ehildren, 
 eome pouring in bexond the preparations of the vil- 
 lage to aeeonunodate them, call for a farm-wagon, 
 take the reins herself, and scour the country for straw, 
 till straw l)eds are provided, and placed in bedroom, 
 entry and parlor even ; to see the wives of the breth- 
 ren turn in for days to hcl]) her, and then all go to 
 meeting together — this, too, is well enough. There is 
 a (lash and noxelt}' in it. that makes an occasion hmg 
 and pleasantly to be remembered. 
 
 r.ut let years roll on. children be born, and cares 
 increase; let the days come when there is moving 
 from house to house, and j^erhaps from place to 
 place, till the little furniture, new at first, begins to 
 be old; from year to year let the limit of the little 
 salary be most plainly marked, and the increasing 
 study be how to keep within it ; let the necessity 
 come for all sorts of contrivances, such as making 
 washstands and toilet-tables out of boxes, turning 
 worn garments, making over old ones for a new look, 
 refashioning those of the older children for the 
 younger — and missionary wives find that no small 
 part of the missionary work and the missionary sacri- 
 
 =*« First wife of J. J. Hill at Garnavillo, 
 
A RARE CHAPTER, AX I) SHORT 131 
 
 fice is theirs. Xobly have they borne it, till the bloom 
 of youth has faded from many a cheek, yet cheerfully 
 till some, overburdened, have fallen by the way. 
 
 But we have alluded only to the less important 
 phases of their work. When a little church, with a 
 young pastor and his wafe, is started in a new village 
 hitherto destitute of the means of grace, it is interest- 
 ing to see what a change is soon wrought, and how 
 a new and better order of things is in many respects 
 speedily established. Children are gathered from 
 Sabbath roamings to Sabbath-schools ; young people, 
 and sometimes older ones, too, let go their balls and 
 dancing-parties for sewing-circles and church socia- 
 bles ; Christmas trees, children's gatherings of vari- 
 ous kinds are introduced, prayer-meetings, too — the 
 ladies' prayer-meeting and the church prayer-meeting. 
 
 Some among the flock are sick, or are in poverty 
 and sorrow, and must be ministered unto; and some 
 are to be buried with a Christian burial. Here opens 
 a field for the wife. We may say, indeed, that she is 
 under no obligation in these matters more than any 
 others ; that, when husbands agree to be ministers, 
 wives do not ; and that they ought not to be compelled 
 I0 the double toil of parochial and domestic duties. 
 All true; yet who would keep them from it? Who 
 would be willing to spare this part of mission work? 
 Plow great a part it is ! 
 
 But we ought not here to speak of missionaries' 
 wives alone. In all our churches there are two or 
 
132 Tim IOWA n.ixn 
 
 three women to one man. These ehurches at the 
 outset, in the clays of their feebleness, were composed, 
 in many cases, of one or two brethren only, sur- 
 rounded by a band of noble sisters. Where, then, was 
 their strength? \\'hat wonder if there were some 
 ]~>ra\incr and talking;- llien. and voliui;-. too. other than 
 that done by the brethren? If. in the days of our 
 Saviour, woman ministered to him. and he honored 
 her ministry, if Paul acknowledged his indebtedness 
 to those women who helped him in the gospel, is it 
 not well for us to remember how prc^ninent has been 
 woman's influence and work in the ])lanting and rear- 
 ing of the Iowa churches? 
 
 "Who is tliat?" was asked of a lady wlio had just 
 admitted a stranger to her door. "Ii is tlie man I 
 have long been praying for," was the reply. "He says 
 he is a missionary sent by the Home Missionary So- 
 ciety." To this day that Christian woman is laboring 
 with tliat then newly-arrived minister, in the firm be- 
 lief that he was sent of God. So has it been with 
 many another. ^Ministers have not only been ob- 
 tained and supported, but churches have often been 
 gathered, and meeting-houses built, more through 
 the prayers and energies of the sisters than through 
 those of the brethren. As the world goes, when bat- 
 tles are won. generals are praised, and private soldiers 
 forgotten. But, in the kingdom of Christ, let it not be 
 so. Let not the source of the rarest and best influence 
 employed in the Master's service be unacknowledged.^* 
 
 39 The experience of later years best confirms the truth of this chapter, 
 
M 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 FRAGMENTS 
 
 ORE completely, if possible, to reveal to the 
 reader the inner view of home missionary life, 
 we present in this chapter a few incidents from the 
 personal reminiscences and experiences of the breth- 
 ren. Broken sketches, indeed, they will be, and 
 diverse, — some joyous and some sad, some serious 
 and some humorous, but all true to the life, because 
 real. For some of these the writer is indebted to the 
 brethren who have kindly furnished them ; others he 
 has culled froni. old numbers of The Religious News- 
 Letter — the files of which are an honor to, as they 
 are a record of, the Iowa churches, for the time in 
 which it was published. Many a regret has there 
 been that it ever ceased to be. From the pen of J. C. 
 IIol])rook there are, first, a few 
 
 REVIVAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 "Where'er we seek Him he is found, 
 And every place is 'holy ground.'' 
 
 'T was once invited to assist a home missionary in 
 a series of religious meetings, under peculiar circum- 
 stances. Although it was a considerable village,*" yet 
 
 '^^ New Diggins, Wis. 
 
134 '''^'^' ^^^^^'^ BAsn 
 
 llicro was iK-illicr iiK'clini;-honso. schoolliousc. hall, 
 nor other room large enough to acconnnodate a con- 
 gregation such as might be expected to gather, with 
 the exception of a spacious uincpin allew To the 
 astonishment of everyhod\ . and esi)ccially of the min- 
 ister, the owner o{ iliat huiUHng, which joined the 
 liquor-saloon, offered without sohcitation the use of 
 it for a protracted meeting, as long as it might be 
 needed; and tliat. too. without any i)ay, although it 
 was bringing him in an income of ten dollars a day. 
 
 "This otTer was ghidl\ accepted; and innnediate 
 arrangements were made for its occupancy. ( )n my 
 arrival at the ])lace. 1 was conducted to this novel 
 house of worship, whicli 1 found fitted up with seats 
 made of rough boards arranged across the alley nearly 
 the whole length of it. At one end a billiard-table 
 was i^laced in position for a desk ; while in one corner, 
 l^ehind the speaker's stand, were ])iled uj) the pins and 
 l)alls. It was well light:Ml and warmed, and, on the 
 whole, constituted rpiite an inviting audience-room; 
 and when, as soon came to be the case, it w^as filled 
 with attentive listeners, and pervaded by a spirit of 
 true devotion, the original design of it was entirely 
 forgotten. Here meetings were held every evening 
 for preaching and for prayer and conference and in- 
 quiry during the day, for more than two weeks ; and 
 the Spirit of God condescended to be present, and 
 render them profitable and delightful seasons, — 
 seasons which will be remembered in eternity by 
 
I'R.IGMBNTS 135 
 
 sonic, as probably among- the most precious ever en- 
 joyed on earth. 
 
 "I'requently we could hear the conversation and the 
 noise of the toddy-stick in the saloon adjoining, sep- 
 arated from us only by a thin board partition ; but so 
 deeply interesting' were our services, that these incon- 
 gruous sounds did not disturb us, or divert attention 
 from eternal things. Seldom have I enjoyed such 
 services more, or seen more marked effects from them. 
 
 "During the progress of these meetings, there were 
 many hopeful conversions — the exact number I do 
 not remember; and it is an interesting and sugges- 
 tive fact that among the converts was the son of the 
 proprietor of the building in which we met. At the 
 close of the series of meetings, a church was formed ; 
 and the record in the church book states that it w^as 
 
 'organized on day of , in Mr. 's ninepin 
 
 alley.' Subsequently, a house of worship w^as erected 
 for this congregation. The minister, now deceased, 
 and Svhose sun went down while it was yet day,' was 
 afterwards called to a more important field, and was 
 succeeded for a time by one wdio is now^ one of our 
 ablest and most popular preachers. 
 
 ''On another occasion I was called to aid a minis- 
 terial brother in a protracted meeting in a considera- 
 ble farming settlement, where there was no church 
 organization and no house of worship. The school- 
 house being too small, it was decided to hold the serv- 
 ices in a large barn, the weather being favorable. 
 
136 TFIE lOU'A BAND 
 
 TIktc, day after dax', \\c preaclicd. ilic people occupy- 
 ing the barn tloor. and. wlien lliat became too strait, 
 resorting to the haymows and bays adjoining. Here, 
 too, we enjoyed the i)resence of (iod, and a deHghtful 
 work of grace was witnessed. 
 
 "At another time, while exploring the coimtry with 
 a brother minister, we came to a place of considera- 
 ble im])ortance at that day. in its own innnediate vicin- 
 ity, but (HX'Ui)ied in the main by a most godless com- 
 niunitw Still, there was a little lea\en there. A small 
 band of Christians, the rtinnant of a church that had 
 once been organized there, were praying, and for 
 weeks had been pleading for a revival of religion in 
 the place. As soon as it was known by them that two 
 ministers were in town. ihe\ at once took it as God's 
 token for good, and innnediatel\- besought us. with 
 an earnestness that would take no denial, to tarry, 
 and begin withoiU delay a ])rotractcd meeting. 
 
 "Xot daring to refuse, we consented. Here, too, 
 the only place of gathering to be found was a vacant 
 storeroom in the center of the village. Here, in a 
 dimly lighted room, with drinking and gambling 
 saloons on all sides of us, like Paul and Barnabas, 
 we preached the gospel for two weeks ; during w^hich 
 the Spirit of the Lord came down and filled the place 
 with the glory of his presence. More than thirty per- 
 sons were converted, and a church was afterwards or- 
 ganized, a meeting-house built, and the morals of the 
 place improved, as the result, we will not say of the 
 
PRAGMENTS 137 
 
 1)1 caching, but of llic earnest prayers >-of those few 
 pleading Christians, From such cases we are con- 
 strained to say, Let bands of beHevers everywhere, 
 even without ministers, be encouraged to pray, and 
 trust the Lord for help; let ministers and churches 
 not wait for new houses of worship or more favorable 
 circumstances, but go to work in faith and hope with 
 such facilities as they have, and the Lord shall bless 
 them." 
 
 Often, in new settlements, it is interesting to note 
 the changes wrought by the introduction of the gos- 
 pel ; and sometimes among the hardy but rough back- 
 woodsmen there are marked conversions, showing 
 the power of God to change the lion to the lamb. Il- 
 lustrative of this, J. W. Windsor, of Durango, gives 
 us a sketch under the title of 
 
 THE PET BEAR 
 
 "In the year 1845 I was preaching in the destitute 
 neighborhoods of the lead-mining region west of 
 Dubuque. On my first introduction 10 the settlement 
 T found no religious services at all and no observance 
 of the Sabbath. That day was usually spent as a holi- 
 day, in carousing and sporting-. During the first year 
 of my labor there, I did not know even a single family 
 where the worship of God was observed. Many of 
 the miners had dropped their proper names and 
 
138 77//:" /()//•./ />\/.\7) 
 
 were known only by lilies ov names wlneh indicaiecl 
 some (lislins^nisliinj;- irail oi ilieir charaeler, ami which 
 had been s^i\en ihem hy iheir comi)anions. In pass- 
 ing through a consiclerable tract of timber to reach 
 the schoolhoiise wliere 1 preachetl. 1 fre(juentl\ met 
 j)ariies of luinters on a Sabbath morning, and could 
 nol fail lo hear llie oaths which mingled in their com- 
 mon conversalion. 
 
 "After a while, in coming upon them suddenly, 1 
 could lu-ar ihe suppressed "llush, hush!' and sweai- 
 ing would cease while 1 was w illiin hearing. This was 
 the first hopeful indication of an awakened con- 
 science; and it seenu'il to me to be llie dawn of a bet- 
 ter state o{ things. Tlien, when the\ saw me coming, 
 tliey would 'break and scatter." Their dogs, how- 
 ever, told uj)on tlieir masters: and 1 could not re- 
 strain a smile as my eye would deled a man here, 
 and another there, trying to ])lace a tree between me 
 and himself, acting the squirrel lo perfection. Here, 
 too. I thought, is ho])e. 
 
 "Tt was not long after this when a passing shadow 
 in the schoolhouse window or doorw^ay, during 
 ])reaching. would arrest the eye, and lead to the detec- 
 tion of listeners without. Then, a little bolder, and 
 conscience a little more active, they would lean their 
 rifles against a tree, and themselves stand out in full 
 view', hearing what the preacher had to say. or would 
 seat themselves on the doorstep ; and finally they 
 would venture into the house, leaving their guns out- 
 
FRAGMENTS 1 39 
 
 side, but still wearing- pcnvdcr-liorn and shot-belt 
 across their shoulders, and would sit quiet and atten- 
 tive listeners. 
 
 "In the winter of 1847 ^^'^ \\^\(\ a series of religious 
 meetings. The Rev. J. C. Holbrook came out, and 
 preached ten or tw-elve days. It was a memorable 
 time in the history of that community. The word 
 preached was attended with divine power; and many 
 of the hardest characters bowed to the mild reign of 
 the Saviour, and became new creatures in Christ 
 Jesus. 
 
 "Among this number w^as 'The Pet Bear.' His 
 
 proper name was Thomas B . He was one of 
 
 the early pioneers, a real backwoodsman, possessing 
 a pow^erful frame ; w^as just in the pride of life, a hard 
 drinker, and one of the most profane men I ever 
 knew% and a perfect slave to a passionate temper, that 
 not unfrequently raged like a tornado. With him it 
 was a w^ord and a blow, often the last first. 
 
 ''On several occasions I had attempted to converse 
 with him on the subject of religion, but was answ^ered 
 by a volley of oaths ; and I had learned to fear coming 
 in contact with him. During the meetings, I turned 
 out of my way one evening and stopped at his cabin 
 door. He w^as there. I said to him, 'Mr. B., we are 
 having some good meetings at the schoolhouse, and 
 most of your companions attend. I wish you would 
 come: we shall be glad to see you.' Without giving him 
 an opportunity to reply, T bade him good-evening, and 
 
140 run IOWA BAXD 
 
 walked on. To c»ur aslonishiiK'nl. lie entered the 
 house with his wile. A solemn and searching- ser- 
 mon was preached, in which the guilt of the sinner 
 was faithfull\- exposed, and the love of the Saviour 
 clearly set forth. He listened attenti\el\ . and \vai> 
 evidentl}- affected. Nothing was said to him; we 
 shook hands, and he left for home. 
 
 '■l\arl\- the next morning, one of the neighbors 
 came to me and said. 'Mr. W indsor, 1 wish you would 
 go and see "■The Tet T.ear!" ' "W hy do you wish it?' 
 I asked. lie replied. 'There is something the matter 
 with him. lie came home from meeting last night 
 like a fury. He sat down in a chair before the fire, 
 and he has been there all night. 1 do not know what 
 it is, but he is weeping like a child. As 1 was passing, 
 his wife came out and whis))ered to me to ask you 
 to come and see him.' 
 
 "With silent ])rayer that God would teach me how 
 to meet him. and what to say, 1 hastened to his cabin, 
 and there found him sitting with his head bowed on 
 his hands, between his knees, and the tears trickling 
 down between his fingers and falling on the hearth- 
 stone. I drew my chair up to him, and asked him 
 kindly to tell me the cause of his distress. After a 
 pause, he looked up in my face ; and, with a look and 
 emphasis I shall never forget, he said, 'O Mr. Wind- 
 sor ! I am the most wicked and the most wretched 
 sinner in the world, and T don't know what to do; 
 can vou tell me?' 
 
FRAGMEXTS I4I 
 
 "1 endeavored, in a plain, simple way, to show him 
 tlic love of the Saviour, and his readiness to pardon 
 all who came to him sick of sin, and wdio desired to 
 hreak away from it, and give him their love, and obey 
 him. He listened, and, with a strange expression, 
 said, 'What ! you make me believe that he came to 
 seek and to save such a lost sinner as I am?' 
 
 " *Yes,' I replied : 'he came tO' save the chief of sin- 
 ners, who repent and hope in his mercy.' 
 
 " 'Ah ! but,' he urged, 'you do not know what a 
 wicked sinner I have been.' 
 
 "'No,' I repHed; 'but the Saviour does; and he 
 says to you, "Come unto me : I wall in no wise cast 
 you out." ' 
 
 "I spent nearly the whole day with him. He be- 
 came calm, and listened like a little child. In a few 
 days he had intelligently given himself to Christ, and 
 felt by joyful experience that the blood of Jesus 
 could cleanse even such a desperate sinner as he was. 
 
 ''He w^as no longer 'The Pet Bear,' having by 
 grace put on the nature of the lamb ; constraining all 
 around to exclaim, 'What hath God wrought !' He 
 said to me, 'My cabin is small, but it is at your serv- 
 ice. Come and preach in it ; come and hold a Sab- 
 bath-school in it. I do n't know much, and should 
 make out poorly teaching others ; but I can talk about 
 what Jesus Christ has done for me. You know,' he 
 said, ' "The Pet Rear" has been a faithful servant of 
 the devil a great many years : now it is God's turn. 
 
142 THIi IOWA BASn 
 
 1 hope to hcconic as faitlifiil a servant to him as ever 
 I was to in\- old master. 1 want \ou to tell me what 
 1 can do. 1 never was afraid of a man : and, since 
 Ciotl has made me slrom;- to work for him. on^iit I 
 ever to l)e asliamed to tell what a wonderful work he 
 has wroU!L;ht in me?' 
 
 '■ ■^'ou see/ he <.\\(\, 'I ha\e been ihinkinm- it over, 
 and 1 know 1 shall ha\'e a hard row to hoe. 1 know 
 it will he up stream with me all the wa}-. lUu then 
 1 ha\e a sure Pilot if 1 only listen to him; and when 
 1 !ind the stream loo rapid, whw I shall ])a(ldlc to 
 shore, and tie uj) to |e.>us; and 1 know, if 1 tell him 
 all about it. and ask him to help me throuL;h, he will 
 do it.' 
 
 "During- his absence from the house, his wife told 
 me. that, after I left, on the i)rece(lin_q; evenin<^-, she 
 expected an outburst of temper; but, instead of this, 
 lie turned to her and said. 'Wife, i^et your thin^c^s on, 
 and we '11 ii^o to meetin.q.' Then be.i^an a perfect tor- 
 nado of oaths against himself, occasionally speaking 
 to himself : 'Spew it out. Pet ; it is the last time ! Get 
 rid of it ; for T mean to cut a new set of houselogs ;' 
 meaninc^ that he intended to bc.c^in a new course of 
 life. He went to the meetin.e:. She was sure, from his 
 manner, that the sermon had touched him. On his 
 wav home, she said, his oaths made her tremble; it 
 seemed as though he was possessed of seven devils. 
 As he reached his cabin door, he turned to her, and 
 said. 'There, wife, it is all out!' and. with such an 
 
FRAGMENTS 
 
 143 
 
 expression as she had never heard from him before, 
 lie cried out, /O God, help me !' He took a seat before 
 the fire, and scarcely altered his position during 
 the whole night. Tlie Spirit of God was dealing with 
 him, and he wept the tears of a repenting and return- 
 ing prodigal. Until I left that field, his was a consist- 
 ent Christian walk." 
 
 Such scenes as the preceding, though l)y no means 
 uncommon, are not always connected wdth home mis- 
 sion work in a new country. Sometimes it is the 
 lot of one to labor on with only gradual changes for 
 the better, as in the day of small things, but laying 
 foundations for the future, while this is the trial of 
 our faith and hope. 
 
 The following is the partial experience of Rev. Eb- 
 cnezer Alden, whose lot it was for a few years to do 
 pioneer work in Cedar County, and then return to 
 an Eastern field. It will be of interest to those ac- 
 quainted with the localities, and will show, among 
 other things, that the Home Missionary Society is 
 not confined in its labors to places where churches 
 are organized : 
 
 "T became a resident of the county in the winter 
 of 1844, and organized the church in the spring fol- 
 lowing, — May 5. It consisted of three members. 
 It was a rainy day, which prevented some others from 
 being present to unite with us. It was forrned in the 
 
144 
 
 Till-. I Oil. I n.ixn 
 
 barroom of the public liouse, or. rather, the jniblic 
 room of the htnise whore I boarded. The first sum- 
 mer I preached in the ui)per room of the jail, used 
 (luriui;- the week as a cari)enter shoj). The carpenter 
 was an avowed atheist, but helped me to clear up the 
 room for the meetini;s. 
 
 "Subsequently I occupied the court-house as a 
 place of worship, alternating- with the Methodist cir- 
 cuit-rider. There were received into the church while 
 I was there, ihirtx-lwo. I baptized nineteen infants, 
 attended twenty-one funerals, and married five 
 couples. The fiL^in-es do not show nmcli. It was a 
 (lark day, a long trial of faith and patience. But the 
 aspect of things was brightening before I left. Among 
 other encouragements, a female i)rayer-meeting gave 
 i:)romise of better days. I preached in various neigh- 
 borhoods, usuallx' at two. sometimes at three places 
 on the Sabbath, without appointments during the 
 week. I ranged the ccnmtry far and near, having 
 preaching stations in every direction. 
 
 "Generally, perhaps, the brethren surpassed me in 
 activity: but one winter. 1845-46. I worked hard. 1 
 had many long and lonely rides. My meetings w^ere 
 conducted by myself alone, preaching from a plan 
 written out. but retained in my memory. T made no 
 show of notes. ^Ty sermons were talks in cabins, in 
 the court-house, in carpenter shops, and out-of-doors. 
 T knew but little of prayer-meetings, led my own 
 singing, and rode on horseback the first two vears. 
 
FRAGMEXTS 
 
 145 
 
 In I he latter part of the time, I preached from more 
 full} written notes. (3ne fall I siifTered much, and 
 was laid aside by the fever and ague. 
 
 "I cannot speak of special outpourings of the Spirit ; 
 but God gave me the privilege of laying foundations, 
 with a few tokens of prospective growth. I have 
 some remembrances of those youthful days w hich are 
 vivid. I had opportunities to see nature in its prime- 
 val beauty. For the pen of an Irving, those years 
 would furnish materials of surpassing interest. Those 
 adventures of frontier life, though but incidental to 
 the work of the home missionary, wall long remain 
 with me, wdiile other things, perhaps of more impor- 
 tance, W'ill have slipped from the memory." 
 
 In looking over this experience, we can only wash 
 that our brother could revisit the scenes of his former 
 labors, to see, in part at least, the fruits of his toil. 
 "One layeth the foundations, and another buildeth 
 thereon." 
 
 As showing still further how the Home Missionary 
 Society reaches out beyond the region of organized 
 churches, and as reviewing the early history of Con- 
 gregationalism in Western Iowa, which was for a long 
 time to Eastern Iowa as a foreign field, and allowing 
 here, because it cannot well be avoided, the full names 
 of persons and places, we give next a paper presented 
 at the Quarter-Centennial of the low^a Association 
 in 1 866, respecting; 
 
146 THE IOWA BAM) 
 
 riiK MISSOURI SLori: 
 
 "Congregationalism made its first appearance on 
 the slope in the t>rL;anizatit)ii r,\ the rnic-)n rimrch at 
 Civil Bend in i84<;. where, withont any recognized 
 minister, about a dozen Christians — Baptists, Con- 
 gregationalists and Methodists — formed themselves 
 into a cluirch, a(l()j)ted a creed and covenant, and 
 agreed to recognize each other in chnrch relations, 
 and cooperate in promoting the cause of Christ. A 
 flonrishing da\' school was already in existence in the 
 neighborhood. .\ Sal)bath-sch(H>l. Iiible-class and 
 regular prayer-meetings were established, and at- 
 tended with a good degree of religions interest, be- 
 fore any minister labored among them. 
 
 "The name Ci\il IkmkI was derisively given to this 
 settlement along the Miss(~)uri River by the roughs 
 who so frequeinly held high carousal at the various 
 whiskey cabins that fringed the T>ig Muddy.' These 
 breathing-holes of the infernal regions w^ere known 
 by such euphonious titles as 'Devil's Den,' 'Hell's 
 Kitchen,' etc. ; and. to designate the temperance 
 neighborhood, it was called 'Civil Bend.' The resi- 
 dents accepted the name : and by this title it is known 
 to this day, although the post-ofifice is Gaston. On 
 the 1st of July, 1850, the Rev. John Todd,"* with his 
 family, joined this settlement for the purpose of 
 preaching Christ on the frontiers. A dwelling of 
 
 \^ Known as Father Todd, Tabor. 
 
FRAGMENTS 
 
 147 
 
 hewn logs had been erected and roofed, out on the 
 prairies, for his accommodation, which, on his arrival, 
 was perforated, and supplied with doors and windows, 
 and floored with cottonwood 'puncheons.' The win- 
 dow and door casings were all the sawed material 
 used in constructing the house ; and this had to be 
 brought a distance of twenty-five miles. The minis- 
 ter's study-walls were curtains, and the study table 
 a puncheon resting on two v/ooden pins driven into 
 the logs. 
 
 "A few families of Congregationalists from Illinois, 
 who had started for California, stopped on the banks 
 of the Missouri, opposite the Big Platte, twenty-five 
 miles north of Civil Bend, in the fall of 1849, ^^'^^ 
 formed the first out-station, which resulted in the or- 
 ganization of a small church of ten members, reported 
 ns the Church of Florence, subsequently disbanded. 
 Trader's Point, nine or ten miles above Florence, 
 about the same distance from Council Bluffs, and 
 nearly east of where Belleview in Nebraska now is, 
 was* then a flourishing village of Mormons and traders, 
 of about thirty or thirty-five houses, where many 
 crossed the river on their way to the Great Salt Lake 
 Valley. That, also, was made a monthly preaching 
 place. It has long since been all swept away by the 
 Missouri. About eighteen miles above Council 
 Bluffs, near the Boyer, a few Gentiles were found, 
 who wished to hear the gospel, and there was another 
 preaching-point. A good Christian Baptist lady, re- 
 
I4S 77//: /()//•./ /.\/.\7) 
 
 sidinj;- at Slutnan's Mills. 011 the West Xisli!iil)t)tna, 
 t\\ciity-ti\c or thirty miles east oi CnuncW lUuffs. sig-- 
 nified a wish {o have Christ i>reache(l to her Mormon 
 neighbors ; and there another monthly ai)pointment 
 was made. 
 
 "Cutler's Camp, on Silver Creek in Mills Count \-, 
 now seven miles from Glenwood, formed another 
 l)oint in the monthly eirenit. Linden, too. then comi- 
 ty seat of Atchkinson Connty, Missonri, twenty-five 
 miles south-east of Civil T.end. was then favored with 
 a montlil}- visit on the Sabbath. 
 
 ''Thus, within a year from the time of bei^innini^, 
 from Civil liend to the banks of the Boyer, and 
 round about unto Missouri, was the ^os])cl preached. 
 There were se\en appointments in the circuit, but two 
 (if them fax'ored with even a loq- schoolh(;use. In the 
 antnnm of 1850. the Rev. J. A. l\eed. a sort of bishop 
 in the discharj^c of the duties of his ofifice, accom- 
 panied by the Rev. G. B. Hitchcock, made a descent 
 upon the slope at Civil Bend. Rif^ht ^lad were we 
 to find that somebody cared for us, and that we were 
 not hopelessly severed from the Christian world. It 
 then required a full month to exchange letters w^ith 
 our friends in Eastern Iowa. Our nearest post-office 
 was fifteen miles distant. That same autumn, 1850, 
 Brother William Simpson, the first regular itinerant 
 of the AI. E. Church on the slope, entered upon the 
 charge of Council BlufYs, and came to Civil Bend, 
 claiming all Alethodists as his. He proved a devout, 
 
FRAGMENTS 149 
 
 genial, working- Christian. With his cooperation 
 the first revival was enjoyed during the second winter 
 at Civil Bend. A single family of x\frico-Americans. 
 who had earned and paid thousands of dollars for 
 their freedom, came into the settlement, and were 
 encouraged to attend school ; for which, some who 
 *had never attended school with niggers,' nor any- 
 body else, for they could neither read nor write, de- 
 termining that their children should not be so dis- 
 graced, accidentally or by design burnt down the log 
 building which constituted our schoolhouse and place 
 of worship. This occurred during watch night of 
 1850-1851. 
 
 'Tn June, 185 1, the waters of the rivers, the waters 
 of the uplands, and the waters above the firmament, 
 combined to drive the people from Civil Bend. The 
 river rose threateningly, the heavens gave forth fre- 
 quent floods, and the streams from the blufifs swept 
 down in torrents, bearing away bridges, fences and 
 all before them. Five miles of water spread out be- 
 tween us and the highlands. Sloughs were waded 
 to go to meeting, where horses wotdd mir*^. down, 
 and abundance of bufYalo-fish were speared with 
 pitchforks amid the tall grass. Mosquitoes enough to 
 dim the sun and moon chimed in to sing the requiem 
 of our hopes in that land of promise. 
 
 "That was a trying time to the itinerancy. A sur- 
 plus of water and scarcity of bridges necessitated a 
 curtailment of the circuit. Florence and Trader's 
 
150 Till- I ()]]■. \ j^.wn 
 
 \\n\n continued to be \isilcHl monthly; hut fii^luini^ 
 nioscjuittjcs 1)\' nii^ht. and traveling" o\\ ln)rsel)ack by 
 day, with rcLi'ular ai^iic shakes for variety, were not 
 ver\- well adapted to make a l>oaneri;es of our itin- 
 erant. lUit no luiman lives were lost; and, as already 
 intimated, we had oiu' iirsi re\i\al the follmvinii' win- 
 ter. 
 
 "In the fall of 1S51. r)rother (1. (i. Rice, from l^nion 
 dheolo^ieal Seminar}. 1 think, arrived at Council 
 Bluffs, under the patronai^e of the A. 11. M. S.. and 
 entered upon the work of ])reac]iinL;- tlu' j4"os|)el. .Vfter 
 the experience of 1S51. on the Missoin-i bottom, sev- 
 eral families resolved to take hij^her ground, believ- 
 ing- that it afforded a firmer basis for the object, which, 
 from the hrst. the\- had in view. \i/... the establish^ 
 ment of an institution ui learning, in connection with 
 the promotion of relig^ion. After considerable search, 
 the}' located at Tailor. Three families moved there, 
 or to that vicinity, in 1852, purchased claims, lived 
 in log cabins ; at once began a weekly prayer-meet- 
 ing, Sunday-school, and regular preaching, which 
 have continued withotit intermission U]) to the pres- 
 ent time. In ( )ctober. 1852. a Congregational 
 clmrch was formed, with eight members. This was 
 the first church on the slope which assumed the 
 Congregational name." 
 
 This church at Tabor, it should be remarked, is now 
 the largest but one in the state. The institution al- 
 luded to is now known as Tabor College. It has. 
 
FRAGMENTS 15 1 
 
 according to the latest published statement, a presi- 
 dent and four other instructors; twenty-one student^ 
 in the college classes, and one hundred and four in 
 the preparatory department ; with property estimated 
 at fifty thousand dollars, and a library of twelve hun- 
 dred volumes. 
 
 In such fields as just described, — indeed, in all new 
 countries liable to excessive rains, with few roads and 
 fewer bridges, — the missionary needs the pleasant fac- 
 ulty of making the best of things, as one prime quali- 
 fication for his work. Many a one has had an expe- 
 rience similar to that related below, though not al- 
 ways as happily borne. 
 
 GOING TO ASSOCIATION*^ 
 
 ''Last fall, at the meeting of this Association at S., 
 Brother C. proposed for our spring meeting to con- 
 vene at C. Brother T. knew nothing of C, except 
 that it was the home of our esteemed Brother A., and 
 that it was situated somew^here 'within the bounds' 
 of F. County. But Brother T. was expected to be 
 there, and he very naturally expected to see his 
 brethren there also. The meeting was to be held on 
 the third Tuesday in M., at eventide; and of this fact 
 all the brethren were warned in due time. 
 
 "On the Monday previous to this said Tuesday, 
 
 42 Note 15. 
 
15: 77//: /()//•./ n.ixn 
 
 Urolhcr T. would needs set forth in the ecclesiastical 
 l)ui;g\', propelled by the ancient horse, liilly. He first 
 made diligent hiquirics, however, as to the location of 
 the said town of C ; hut all men wagged their heads, 
 and could do no more. They knew nothing of any 
 Mich citw J he maps were ei|iially silent, and there 
 was no time ior correspomlence. seeing that the mail 
 fiom llrother T.'s house to 1'. L'oimt} descriheth the 
 circle of the greater ram's-horn. and never returneth. 
 Brother T. was in a great quandary, and knew not 
 whether to proceed to the southwest, the west or the 
 northwest. Yet Brother T. was expected to be there. 
 So, after nuich diibitatiun. he concluded to follow tlie 
 wisdom of the prairie-haw k ; and. as the game was 
 not in sight, to beat about for it. lie started south- 
 ward and westward, driving towards C, which lieth 
 upon the S., and is a town fair to see. Here he found 
 a certain Gains, a miller of much substance, whose 
 daughter is a miller also. Here he tarried ; and in 
 the evening they all sang hymns, and rejoiced abun- 
 dantly. In the morning, mine host, and the host of 
 the whole chin-ch. would go with Brother T. to ques- 
 tion certain men of his town ; and, behold, a man was 
 found who had heard of C, and knew where it was, 
 but had never been there. Also he heard that the 
 river must be forded at this place, and that it w^ould 
 be nearer swimming than fording. 
 
 "So, a good while before he came to the river, he 
 bade farewell to his host, who bade him good speed. 
 
FRAGMENTS 
 
 153 
 
 and syid, 'See thou art not drowned in the river!' 
 And, after a w hile, he came to the river. Now, there 
 was a mighty bridge there, and it was Hke secession ; 
 for it was easy to get upon it, and it carried one fairly 
 for a time; but at the end of it was a grievous jump, 
 and there was nothing but sharp rocks and a quag- 
 mire at the bottom. Over this l^ridge Brother T. 
 carried all the contents of the ecclesiastical buggy. 
 After these were deposited on the other side, he re- 
 turned and said to the ancient steed, 'Billy, there is 
 nothing for it but for us to take to the stream.' 
 
 "So they addressed themselves to enter the river. 
 And, at the very first, the waves flowed into the 
 buggy, w^hich caused Brother T. to raise his feet ; and 
 presently the waters reached the seat, which caused 
 the rider thereupon to go up higher; and he sat on 
 the topmost rail of the seat. And the waters pre- 
 vailed even to the arm of the seat ; and Brother T. 
 saw the coat-tails of 'divinity,' that they streamed out 
 behind upon the w^aters of the river; and he was a 
 spectacle to certain men which stood by ; after which 
 the waters abated, and presently they came forth 
 again upon the dry land. 
 
 "After this, divers other streams were crossed, and 
 much desolate green prairie ; and at evening, when 
 the stars shone, behold, they were at the place C. 
 
 "Now, because Brother T. was the only minister 
 that had arrived, he must needs preach to the people ; 
 and, when the meeting was done, the two delegates — ^ 
 
154 
 
 77//: /()//•./ B.ixn 
 
 brother B. of P. and Brother A. of M. — essayed to 
 liavc the Association organized : but, when they 
 looked upon the record. the\- found there was not a 
 quorum ])resent. So they went to lodge with the 
 people. And the next day. Brother T. told them whnt 
 was known to him of the condition of the churches. 
 
 ''Xow, at the former meeting, the brethren had 
 appointed Brother T. to read an essay (^n the anni- 
 hilation of the wicked ; so. in the evening, it was read, 
 albeit the wicked did not come to hear it. 
 
 "And after this, the hope of seeing our brethren 
 Aanished. nnd we came together no more. And -f 
 those brethren who came not had but known how the 
 people waited for them, and Ik^w they climbed the 
 steeple, and how the green sea that surrounds the 
 place was swept often with a spy-glass in expectation 
 of their approach, thev would have taken care not to 
 have caused such a disai~)pointment. 
 
 ''And. besides this, it was a shame to Brother T. 
 that it was confidently asserted many times that the 
 brethren were coming, when, behold, the things that 
 were seen were only a green bush, a stray sheep, some 
 calves, certain horses, and. mayhap, a few mules! 
 These thines ought not to be ranked with delinquent 
 ministers at such times. 
 
 "So. when all was done. Brother T. wrote it upon 
 tho book, that — 
 
 '*' 'T. Nobodv but Brother T. and two delecrates can 
 testifv to haviufr b^^^n ^t C on +1ta twentieth dav of 
 M., in the year of our Lord t86-. 
 
FRAGMENTS 155 
 
 " 'II. That, in consequence, nothing was done, ex- 
 cept that Brother T. had a good visit. 
 
 " TIL That the Association is expected to meet 
 next fall at D. 
 
 '' T\'. That Brother T. is expected to be there.' " 
 
 Allusion has once or twice been made to Abner 
 Kneeland and his followers, who settled upon the Des 
 Moines River, near Farmington, at a place called 
 Salubria. The writer remembers well a visit paid to 
 the old infidel, nearly twenty-five years ago. He was 
 of noble form, venerable in appearance, and treated 
 his visitor courteously. On frankly telling him that I 
 had come to see him simply out of curiosity, ''Yes," 
 he replied, pleasantly ; 'T suppose I am about as much 
 of a show as an elephant;" and then expressed his 
 readiness to converse on any topic or answer any 
 questions I might choose. In private intercourse, his 
 infidelity and atheism were of the boldest kind, and his 
 public lectures gross. In derision of the marriage 
 institution, he used to say, ''Tie the tails of two dogs 
 together, and they will fight. Allow them to go free, 
 and they will be good friends." He and his followers 
 were quite zealous and successful, p.t first, in sowing 
 the seeds of their infidelity among the new settlers by 
 pamphlets, periodicals, public lectures, etc. Ridicule 
 of "priests," making sport, sometimes mock, of sacred 
 things, entered largely into all their efforts. But a 
 view of the positions they assumed, and the manner 
 
I5t» 77//: lOJJ'.l B.LXD 
 
 in which they tried to defend tlieni. can best be seen 
 in the followino- acconnt i^iven by one whose first min- 
 istry was in tlic midst of them. — the Rev. Harvey 
 Adams : 
 
 THE IXFIDI-L CET.KRRATTOX 
 
 Early one afternoon in the month of Aug-ust, 1847, 
 a colj^orteur of the American Tract Society called at 
 our liniise. and told nu- tlicrc was to be a i^-reat cele- 
 bration in the Knceland nci,ii]i])orhood ; and, as he 
 desired to see what lhc\- would say and do, lie said he 
 should attend, and wished me to accompany him. 
 As the distance was short, it being- only a mile to the 
 place, with staff in hand we were soon there. The 
 ^fathering- was in a charming grove on the east banlc 
 of the beautiful Des ]\Ioines. The object of the gather- 
 ing was to celebrate the anniversary of Mr. Knee- 
 land's liberation from pris(in in f.oston. to which 
 place he had been sentenced for blasphemv. There 
 were present, of both sexes and of all ages, about a 
 hundred and fifty : so they claimed : yet probably not 
 more than half of these were very skeptical in their 
 views : the others came simplv as spectators. A plat- 
 form was erected for the speakers, and seats were pre- 
 pared for the ladies. The men stood round about in 
 a circle. When we arrived, the speaking had com- 
 menced. On our joinin.g the company, the snap of the 
 eye. the sly glances, and the jogging of one another, 
 
FRAGMENTS 
 
 i:>/ 
 
 seemed to sa\-, 'Hicre's a priest amoiii^' lis : jic'll liave 
 a good time !' 
 
 The speeches were spiced with such condiments as 
 these : 
 
 "We are not indebted to Christianity for the first 
 practical good. What has it done? Look at Spain! 
 Look at Alexico ! In early days, Mexico was a par- 
 adise. Her people were among the most virtuous and 
 happy. But ever since Columbus, the Christian mis- 
 sionary, came over and converted them to Christian- 
 ity, they have been miserably degraded and wretched. 
 We glory in infidelity. We wear it as the cloak for 
 our virtues, just as the Christians wear Christianity 
 as the cloak for their vices." 
 
 Cries of, "Yes, yes ! that's so !" came from the 
 crowd ; and one, who evidently spoke for my special 
 benefit, said, "There was St. Gregory, who was cov- 
 ered with sin six feet deep." 
 
 At the close of the speeches, a pressing invitation 
 was given the writer to "take the stand." This was 
 declined, with the remark that I came merely as a 
 spectator; and that, if I spoke, I could not expect to 
 change their views. "He dare not speak without a 
 pulpit before him. Twont do where there can be a 
 reply," said an old man. 
 
 As advantage would be taken of my silence, the in- 
 stant resolve was formed to say something- if there 
 should be a favorable apportunity. Nor was there need 
 of waiting long. The ladies withdrew to prepare the 
 
158 THE low A BAND 
 
 dinner, while the men all elosed u]) thick around "the 
 priest" — this being- the term ])\ which ihey always 
 designate a Christian minister. 
 
 The two champions of the day were larg-e, gray- 
 headed men, who literally "stooped for age." CJ)ne 
 of them was an apostate from a Baptist church in 
 X'ermont, and the other from a Presbyterian church in 
 Pennsylvania. They placed themselves directly be- 
 fore me, and stood leaning forward on their canes. 
 I was seated. Compared with myself, they were al- 
 most giants. 
 
 In giving the setpiel. for convenience I will call one 
 of them Dr., as he was a physician, the other AIcI>. 
 and "the priest" IT. M., for Home Alissionary. The 
 doctor was sour in look, crabbed and bitter in speech. 
 McB. was more courteous, but oily and sarcastic. No 
 sooner had they placed themselves thus before me, 
 than they commenced catechizing, thus: — 
 
 McB. — "As I take you to be a philosopher and a 
 theologian, I should like to ask a few questions, if you 
 have no objection." 
 
 H. M. — ''Certainly you can. Perhaps I shall not 
 be able to give you satisfactory answers ; but, if you 
 ask civil questions, I am bound to give civil replies, 
 as far as I am able." 
 
 McB. (very smoothly). — "Well, just for the pur- 
 pose of information, will you please to tell us how 
 large the Holy Ghost is?" 
 
 The point of this was that they were materialists, 
 
FRAGMHXTS 
 
 ^59 
 
 and did not believe in any such thing as spirit ; and, 
 therefore, if I, "a philosopher and theologian," could 
 not tell how large the Holy Ghost was, of course I 
 nuist be the next passenger bound for Salt River. 
 
 H. M. — "That is rather a tough question, ^Ir. 
 McB. ; but when you are attacked with something 
 like the bilious colic, and distressed almost to death, 
 and feel as though another gripe or two would take 
 your life, how large is the pain?" 
 
 At this there was a general laugh, and the question 
 was dropped as quickly as though it had gone to ob- 
 livion. 
 
 McB. — "Man does what he does under the influ- 
 ence of circumstances over which he has no control. 
 He is not responsible for his actions, because he can- 
 not help them." 
 
 //. M. — "And so you came all the way to this cele- 
 bration by means of circumstances which you could 
 not control? And all the rest have done the same 
 thing?" 
 
 McB. — "Certainly. Show me a thing that is not 
 the fruit of circumstances." 
 
 H. M. — ''Then the priests do what they do to de- 
 stroy infidelity and atheism through circumstances 
 they cannot control. But how^ comes it tO' pass that 
 you consider them so criminal for what they do? Why 
 do you speak of them as the enemies of the race, as 
 you have done to-day? Why not rather commend 
 their efforts? More especially, why do you cele- 
 
l6o THE lOU'A nA\^D 
 
 brate the day of Mr. Kiicclaiurs sentence and impris- 
 onment? The Liostonians chd what they did nnder 
 circumstances they could not control." lA ^ood deal 
 of laug^hing.] 
 
 McB. — "lUit it is the circumstances. Men cannot 
 control the circumstances of one of their actions." 
 
 //. M. — "Then if I take my cane, and g^ive you a 
 sound drubhiui;- t)\er the head, 1 ma\- sin"- all the way 
 home to-nio-ht ? And you will chari^e it all to the cir- 
 cumstances? You will not consider me at fault?" 
 
 McB. — *A'es. I'll punish the circunistarcjs: -1 
 won't i)unish you." [A loud laugh. | 
 
 H. M. — "That 's very crenerous ; but do you act on 
 that principle? Suppose some one against whom you 
 hold a note should come to you and say. 'T know, that, 
 as men use language. I owe }Ou ; but I never intend 
 to pay. I would not. if I could as well as not. Cir- 
 cumstances do not compel me to pay, and I shall not 
 do it.' Would you not treat him to a constable?" 
 [Cries of "Good ! good !"] 
 
 McB. — ''All this hair-splitting about would and 
 would not, right and wrong, good and evil, guilt and 
 innocence, is a humbug. These terms all amount to 
 the same thing. There is no such thing as right and 
 wrong." 
 
 H. M. — "I knew that would follow from your doc- 
 trine, though I did not know that you would so openly 
 avow^ it. But w^ill you tell us why you employ these 
 terms so freely yourselves? and more especially W'hen 
 
PRAGMENTS i6i 
 
 you speak of the priests?" [Cries of "Good!" with 
 laughter.] "And then, too, most certainly, if I give 
 you a real drubbing with my cane, you cannot say 
 that I do any harm or wrong; for there is no such 
 thing. Not one of the priests has ever done any. 
 Now, to try your principle, suppose I take my cane, 
 and make a serious experiment on your head?" 
 
 McB. (very emphatically). — "I don't like — that 
 illustration about the cane." [A roar of laughter.] 
 "The amount of it is, when we speak of doing, or 
 when we speak of right and wrong, or of the mind, 
 soul, spirit, and the like, we use words wathout mean- 
 ing. There is no such thing. That wdiich is not 
 material is nothing." 
 
 H. M. — "Doctor, you and I have had a little con- 
 versation on this point before ; but as we did not get 
 through, and it is now up again, I should like" — 
 
 Dr. (very sourly). — "None of your gospel pettifog- 
 ging. I know you have your visions and dreams, and 
 soul and spirit, and Holy Ghost and all that in your 
 Bible; but" — [Cries from the crowd, "Doctor, let 
 him go on ; let him go on !'] 
 
 H. M. ■ — "You may call it pettifogging, or what 
 you please, doctor : I will try to talk common sense, 
 but am ready to leave it to the company whether I do 
 or not. If I understand yoit, Mr. McB., you say that 
 that which is not material is nothing." 
 
 McB. — "Yes. That's it. Immateriality is an ab- 
 surditv." 
 
l62 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 H. M. — "Von will adniit tliis general law of nature, 
 that 'like produces like/ 1 suppose." 
 
 McB. — "Oh, yes ! Xo one can dispute that." 
 
 H. M. — "So that all thoughts, all the products of 
 the mind, whatever we call them, are really matter." 
 
 McB. — "Most certainly." 
 
 H. M. — "And have the attributes of matter; that 
 is to say, the mind, the soul, and all thoug-hts, have 
 length, breadth, thickness, weight, and the like." 
 
 McB. — "Certainly. It is absurd to talk of a thing 
 which is not material." 
 
 //. M. — "\'ery well. When we conmiunicate 
 thoughts, we connnunicate matter, we communicate 
 sha])e, size and weight. That is understood. Xow. 
 then, if you two old men continue to talk to me, and 
 I receive your thoughts without making any reply, 
 you will reduce yourselves to skeletons ; and I, though 
 small, bid fair to become a pretty corpulent man." 
 [The woods rang with laughter.] 
 
 The call to dinner now came, and my two infidel 
 friends seemed to be very glad of it. But they had 
 become very good-natured. I was invited to partake 
 with them, and was conducted to the head of the 
 table. When seated, and while the w-aiters \vere serv- 
 ing, the doctor asked me if I could partake \vithout 
 "grace." The reply was, that, if they did not desire 
 that I should publicly invoke a blessing, I w^as not 
 limited to that method of doing it. Soon after this, 
 the doctor said to those near him, but for mv l^enefit. 
 
FRAGMENTS 163 
 
 "He cats with [)ublicans and sinners." To this I 
 could not help replying, "Thank you, doctor. Happy 
 to see you recognize the distinction." 
 
 Dinner being over, and the furniture removed, the 
 tables were arranged in a row, and seats placed upon 
 and in front of them for the ladies ; while the gentle- 
 men were formed into a semicircle, facing the ladies. 
 The toast-master conducted the "priest" to the center 
 of the half-circle, and a little in advance of it, where 
 every one could see him. And now for the toasts and 
 sentiments. One was read, and cheers called for. But 
 the crowd were silent, as if at a funeral. Another, and 
 a third ; but with no response. After what had passed, 
 the company did not feel like giving cheers to such 
 sentiments. Volunteers were called for. One man 
 gave out a sentiment, and lifted up his arms, and ex- 
 claimed, "Hoo^ — ra !" but his was the only voice. 
 Among the volunteer sentiments, this was one : 
 ''Eighteen hundred and fourteen years ago, Jesus 
 
 Christ was imprisoned for blasphemy ; and years 
 
 ago, Abner Kneeland was imprisoned in Boston for 
 the same crime ; the latter a philosopher, the former 
 a juggler." 
 
 The design of their toasts and sentiments, as well 
 as of all the previous speeches, seemed to be, to de- 
 liver themselves of the gall and spleen they had treas- 
 ured up against priests, priestcraft, and Christianity 
 in general. They probably also intended to confirm 
 such as miqht be doubtful. But the celebration had 
 
i64 
 
 THE low A BAND 
 
 a very difforont rcsiiU. The erowcl e\i(lenlly left with 
 the convietion, that, whatever inii^lit l)e said against 
 Christianity, certainly infidelity had not many attrac- 
 tions. 
 
 I am not aware that any of that leathering- have 
 since been active in propagating it. h^-om that time 
 to this, there has not been another celel)ration of the 
 kind, that I have heard of. They have not met, as 
 before, to hear infidel lectures on the Sabbath. The 
 one wliom J have called Mel), renounced his iniuklity 
 subsequently ; and it is rejiorted that he died with the 
 hope of the Christian. Since that time, also, 1 have 
 atended many funerals among those families; and, in 
 one case, when three young persons, belonging to 
 three different families, were buried at the same time. 
 They had been drowned. Alany have been the acts of 
 courtesy and kindness shown to the writer by individ- 
 uals who were previously of that belief. 
 
 In the retrospect, I am satisfied that all the lectures 
 I ever gave on the evidences of Christianity accom- 
 plished little for the purpose, compared w'ith the con- 
 versation here detailed. This was not sought or cov- 
 eted. There was clearly a providence m it all. It w-as 
 one of a number of occurrences which have been over- 
 ruled to destroy infidelity in that region. To God be 
 all the honor. 
 
 But these sketches have been sufficiently extended. 
 The}' illustrate a few of the varied phases of mission- 
 
FRAGMENTS 1 65 
 
 ary life. We might add more, which would bring out 
 scenes in the home circle, sometimes partaking of the 
 sad, in hours of affliction, in remote settlements, away 
 from friends, where husbands have preached the 
 funeral sermons of wives, a father of children ; but we 
 forbear. As to that infidel colony, its hopes are 
 blasted. The leaders being bold, but blasphemous, 
 their efiforts for political ascendency in the country, 
 and to set at naug'ht sacred things by mock funerals, 
 and in other ways, soon overreached themselves. The 
 people became disgusted as they saw the tendenc}' 
 and the aim. A strange series of deaths, too, among 
 them, had its effect. Better things came in ; and 
 Kneelandism, as an organization, is a thing of the 
 past. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 LOSS AND GAIN 
 
 HOW often, when for duty's sake, for the sake of 
 Christian service to be rendered, we enter upon 
 some path, expecting and consenting to the loss of 
 many things, we find, that, of all others, that was the 
 very path to l)e chosen for real gain ! "He that loseth 
 his life for my sake shall find it." Solomon chose wis- 
 dom, and God gave him both wisdom and riches. 
 Twenty-five years ago, every one thought it a great 
 sacrifice for a minister to go West : no one would go 
 except at the stern call of duty. As between an East- 
 ern and a Western settlement, the advantages then 
 seemed to be entirely with the former. Well is it re- 
 membered how a rhetorical ])roduction by one whose 
 tace was turned westward, under the title of ''Induce- 
 ments to go West," was then received by us at the 
 Seminary. It was with a sort of smile, as much as to 
 say, "A\^ell. it is a happy faculty to look at the bright 
 side of things ; and. if one is going, he may as well 
 make the best of it." Little was it then thought that 
 what appeared fancy was but half the sober truth ! 
 Let it not be supposed that a Western life has been, 
 or is, all gain and no loss ; bu^. looking over the past. 
 i66 
 
LOSS AND G.IIX 167 
 
 let lis strike a balance in this regard, and see where it 
 stands. 
 
 Twentv-fivc years ago, one of the first things 
 thought of by one contemplating the Western work- 
 was health. It was supposed that he must have the 
 fever and ague, probably a bilious fever ; and, at any 
 rate, must go through a process of acclimation, the 
 issue of which must determine whether he could stay 
 in the country or not. We smile now at the way we 
 used to think of this. Some of us, indeed, have had 
 the fever and ague, and some have not. There have 
 been some deaths: and from some families children 
 have been taken, one after the other, till the record 
 has become a sad, sad one. But so, doubtless, it 
 would have been elsewhere. Taking the Band for a 
 sample, it surely cannot be said, that, in the matter of 
 health, there has been loss : w^e should say, probably 
 gain. It is doubtful whether the same number of 
 their classmates who chose an Eastern settlement 
 have been more highly favored than they. In the 
 case of no one is it certain that his health was injured 
 by coming West ; while in others it has been im- 
 proved, and life, doubtless, has been prolonged. One 
 of them at least, perhaps more, can say, that, for more 
 than a quarter of a centur3^ he has never lost a single 
 appointment from ill health, nor more than a dozen 
 from any cause. 
 
 Next to the matter of health, it is natural to con- 
 sider that of sui^port and home comforts. This, per- 
 
l68 Tim IOWA BAXD 
 
 haps, docs not at first enter nuicli intc^ the calculations 
 of those proposing to labor in the ministry at the East 
 or W^est ; but it comes up sooner or later, and may 
 be properly considered. Four hundred dollars a year, 
 twentv-five vcars ago, was about the highest limit of 
 missionary salary. That sum now seems small indeed. 
 It did then. lUit with beef and pork at two or three 
 cents a ]H)und, corn twelve and a half cents a bushel, 
 and other products of a fertile soil in proportion, it is 
 easy to see that a little money would go a great way. 
 True, clothing, furniture. 1)ooks. etc., were higher than 
 at the East, and expenses in this direction had to be 
 curtailed. ^lissionarv families, like all other families 
 in a new country, had to dispense with a great many 
 things considered indispensable in an Eastern home. 
 But they managed to get along somehow. Gifts came 
 in sometimes from the people. Missionary boxes met 
 many an exigency. Occasionally, some books or 
 ^ther remembrances came from Eastern friends. 
 
 As liying expenses haye increased, missionary 
 grants have growm larger. Sometimes the home 
 missionary, driven to buy a little place, because too 
 poor to rent one, or wishing to get a little foothold 
 for a home, has found himself, by the rise of prices in 
 a thrifty village, actually gaining in property. Mean- 
 time, the churches have, many of them, become able 
 to give more ample support. Taking it all in all, as 
 a matter of fact, it is presumed that those longest in 
 the field have no cause of complaint. Perhaps, in the 
 
LOSS ASn GAIN 1 69 
 
 end they are just as well off, and, on the whole, have 
 been as comfortably provided for, so far as the real 
 necessaries of life are concerned, as if they had been 
 in Eastern settlements. They have had to dispense 
 with many things, at times, that they might have had 
 elsewhere : and, perhaps, were their wdves called upon 
 to testify at this point, they might say at once that the 
 advantage was with the Eastern settlement ; not 1)e- 
 cause they are quicker to complain than their hus- 
 bands, but because, as before stated, the privations of 
 a new country fall most heavily within their peculiar 
 province. Still, claiming a little advantage for the 
 West on the score of health, we are willing to let that 
 and this balance. 
 
 Next, let us look at mental development. A man's 
 surroundings will, of course, have an influence upon 
 his mental habits and intellectual culture. The time 
 was, when the advantages in this respect seemed 
 nearly all with the Eastern field. As to many things 
 they were. "Early introduction," says a distinguished 
 writer,"' "to active labor in an extended field, partak- 
 ing of a missionary and itinerant character, may, 
 amidst much usefulness, spoil a man for life in all that 
 regards progress of erudition, and productiveness of 
 the reasoning powers." True, in the old and narrow 
 field there may be the more quiet study, more help from 
 books and literary intercourse, more time to elaborate 
 and polish. There may be, moreover, among the 
 
 « Horace Bushnell, 
 
170 
 
 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 hearers a more rigid demand for this sort of excel- 
 lence in sermonizing", creating in the preacher an am- 
 bition to produce it. But, possibly, right here in the 
 strong point of many a preacher is his very weakness. 
 His hearers demand, and his life is worn out in sup- 
 plying, what, while admired, fails to bless. lUit we 
 are to compare, not criticize. 
 
 The Western man, on the frontier work, as was that 
 of all Iowa once, suffers right here some loss. Here 
 are felt some of his greatest privations, and some of 
 his greatest self-denials are practised. His trial is 
 not that he has to wear a seedy coat, as good perhaps 
 as his 1)rother Christians about him wear; nor that, 
 in his travels of a wet season, he occasionally gets 
 "sloughed," or has to swim the stream. This is just 
 what his neighbors do, and is nothing in a new coun- 
 try. But, if he takes a paper, he reads of books which 
 he can never see. He thinks of ministers' meetings, 
 and the culture of literary fellowship among his 
 brother ministers, which he can never enjoy. Ex- 
 changes, even, are out of the question. His duties 
 call him much abroad out of his study, if he has one ; 
 and when in it, he groans in spirit, sometimes, that it 
 is so poorly furnished with the needful helps. But this 
 Western field has its advantages, too, even in the mat- 
 ter of intellectual development. The impression 
 twenty years ago is not quite right, — that, if a man 
 goes to a Western missionary field, he must once for 
 all abandon all thoughts of mental culture and growth, 
 
LOSS AND GAIX 17 I 
 
 Men arc U) he studied, as well as books; and the con- 
 tact of mind with mind is a vigorous mental stimulus. 
 Place now a young minister in some new Western 
 settlement, where, in his line, nothing yet is estab- 
 lished, nothing even started ; where everybody and 
 everything about him is on the quick, earnest move ; 
 v.here are commingled from all quarters every shade 
 of prejudice, opinion and belief; and where all, with 
 the trammels off, are free to speak out just what they 
 think, and he must have some earnest mental work. 
 Every inch he gains here he must get by a sort of con- 
 quest. Aside from the constant readiness whicli he 
 must have for hand-to-hand conflicts in his neighborly 
 calls, the right arm of power in his public preach- 
 ing must be the plain Bible truth, aimed straight 
 at the mark, with an earnestness that means some- 
 thing. His hearers, if he gets hearers at all, must 
 be drawn together and held together, not by 
 the force of family or social relations, not by the 
 beauty of the sanctuary where they meet, nor by the 
 excellence of the singing; but, in the absence of all 
 these, it may be, by the presence of one among them, 
 positive and strong, whose preaching and whose life 
 are calculated to produce the blessed fruits of the gos- 
 pel. In all the demands of a growing country, he must 
 be a practical man. If he makes for himself a place, 
 holds it, and builds upon it, he will and must be an 
 intellectually growing man. We do not say that 
 Western men are more completely developed Intel- 
 
1^2 Tiin lou'.i B.ixn 
 
 Icctuallv ihan Eastern, but that tbeir position is not, 
 on the whole, unfavorable in this respect. Thrown 
 upon their own resources, and standing at the head of 
 growing influences, which they are called upon to 
 gather, to hold and to guide, they themselves are 
 compelled to grow in mental strength, energy, breadth 
 of views and high Christian aims. There are advan- 
 tages here, which, for all the purposes of earnest Chris- 
 tian work in the world, we must claim as items of 
 especial gain. 
 
 The absence in a new country of established cus- 
 toms, usages and precedents, has been alluded to as 
 one of the disadvantages of a Western field. The 
 young man who takes an Eastern church has the w^ay 
 prepared before him. Tn many respects, h.e has only 
 to keep things as they are, with tried men as advisers, 
 and staid Christians to help. To start anew in a new 
 country Is to start without any such aids. But even 
 this has its advantages. Besides helping to draw out 
 of the minister all there is in him. it is often of use, 
 both to him and his little church, to be free from the 
 trammels of previous customs and habits. Churches 
 get into bad ways, as well as into good ones. Much 
 as we revere the memory of our Puritan Fathers, all 
 wisdom was doubtless not with them. We do not 
 suppose that New England churches and institutions 
 are such perfect models that there can be no im- 
 provement upon them ; neither do we think that every 
 change, proposed or actual, is an advance. But on 
 
LOSS AND GAIN 173 
 
 this Western field, if anywhere, with the Word of God 
 for our guide, and freedom to adapt ourselves to actual 
 wants and circumstances, we should improve even 
 upon the excellences of the past. In some respects, 
 as already indicated, there ought to be among us, 
 better churches, better colleges, and better methods 
 of doing things, than in older regions. In our peculiar 
 freedom to adopt new expedients and plans, there- 
 fore, we claim one advantage. If we do not use it for 
 improvement, it is because we. lack wisdom or grace, 
 or both, to make the most of our opportunity. 
 
 ''But there is, of course, a loss," it will be said, "as 
 to the privileges of refined society, in going West." 
 To this we say, "In your refined society, so called, 
 there is much that is artificial, formal and sometimes 
 hollows AVe have learned that there is such a thing 
 as being civilized and refined almost to death. Ex- 
 perience has proved it to be a real luxury at times to 
 get out of the conventionalities of artificial life, into 
 the frank atmosphere of true 'log-cabin hospitality.' " 
 The free-and-easy w^ays of new-country socialities w^e 
 heartily put down as on the side of gain, rather than 
 of loss. Indeed, those of us who have been here 
 longest almost sigh for things as they used to be 
 twenty years ago ; when all w^ere more upon a level, 
 when every house was open and every latch-string 
 out. No one need fear loss in this direction. 
 
 Some ministers, even, may like to be in the neigh- 
 borhood of new'Spapers, where names somehow creep 
 
174 ^^^ 101 J\ I BAND 
 
 out in public print ; and near anniversaries, and plat- 
 forms, and speeches to be heard, — and made. There 
 is in this a pleasure, and a kind of privilege. The only 
 gain we have to suggest here is that involved in labor- 
 ing away from all such influences in the main, away 
 from all appeals to pride and ambition, in a kind of 
 obscurity and isolation, where the true motives of the 
 ministerial work have a better chance to operate, and 
 where, as they are felt, and they alone, purer and 
 richer rewards of ministerial labor are realized. 
 
 There is one more point to be considered, in re- 
 spect to which all will doubtless concede that the 
 Western field has the decided advantage. It is the 
 privilege of helping to make things ; of growing up 
 with them, and seeing the fruit of one's labors. 'T 
 would rather," said an old settler, — 'T would rather 
 help build a log schoolhouse, and see things grow, 
 than live in a country that is all made." Notwithstand- 
 ing the hardships of a new country, there is little 
 doubt that the generation that makes a country en- 
 joys it better than one that takes it after it is made. 
 The pioneer minister shares in all this work of con- 
 struction. It may be in many respects a hard work. 
 He begins low down, but at every upward step he has 
 a peculiar joy. He sees a little flock gathered almost 
 as "a flock in the wilderness." He joyfully shares 
 their first communion season. The earthen plate and 
 glass tumbler are in due time exchanged for a real 
 communion service. He sees, in different directions, 
 
LOSS AND GAIN 1 75 
 
 gospt'l institutions and influences beginning to take 
 shape around him. At length a meeting-house is 
 built. This is for him a great day. He sees how that 
 new house of worship helps to make for him nearly a 
 new congregation, a new Sabbath-school, and of him- 
 self almost a new minister. Most of all does he re- 
 joice, when, in connection with this new sanctuary, as 
 is often the case, the Spirit of the Lord comes down, 
 and the spiritual keeps progress with the material. 
 Men who gave of their money for the material temple 
 are often the first to be brought as lively stones into 
 the spiritual building. 
 
 So he goes on, with fresh joy at every step. Home 
 missionary churches become self-sustaining, and their 
 pastors find themselves in a developed country, with 
 the fruits of their labors about them. The frontier 
 fields of a quarter of a century ago are now in the 
 heart of the country ; and those who entered them 
 with the feeling that they were going so far away as 
 scarcely ever tO' be heard from, find that they were 
 striking for the very centers of position and power. 
 This, however, was by the direction of God's wisdom, 
 not theirs. In all this there is great gain. He who 
 labors from year to year with an Eastern church, that, 
 by dint of hard work, simply holds its own, is doing a 
 good work. He who in faithfulness stands by a waning 
 church, whose young people are all leaving, renders 
 a noble and self-sacrificing service. In each case 
 there is faith and heroism ; but, if God will, it is 
 
3 76 THE lOJVA BAND 
 
 pleasanter to see results accomplished, to feel the 
 throb of enterprise and progress around us, and to 
 see new forces fast accumulating-, through which the 
 little we do shall tell for good in the ages to come. 
 In this is our special gain. 
 
 Some may dislike, possibly, the first relations in 
 which, so far as our denomination is concerned, the 
 process just alluded to in this Western country is 
 generally begun — the relations of a home missionary 
 in connection with a little home missionary church 
 or some new place yet churchless. lUit is there not 
 something good, yea, noble, even in this? When one 
 thinks of the prayers offered for home missionaries, 
 is it not good to be one of them? When one thinks 
 of the Christian donors who give so freely for home 
 missions at the W>st, is it not good to be an almoner 
 of their bounties? When one thinks of what it is to 
 plant and foster a Christian church in a new country, 
 he may well rejoice in the work, and gladly accept the 
 relations in which so many are coworkers with him. 
 Bringing his little church, by the blessing of God, up 
 to self-support, he may well feel that his work, though 
 humble, is yet a great and good one. He who, on 
 mission ground, has done it once, twice or thrice, is 
 an honored servant in the kingdom of Christ. Sur- 
 veying thus the past, we claim no honor, no great- 
 ness, but bless God for opening before us a field in 
 relation to which, as we balance the loss and the gain 
 as compared with fields that might have been found 
 
LOSS AND GAIN 1 77 
 
 nearer our Eastern homes, we are constrained to say, 
 No loss : especially gain !" 
 
 Were youth renewed with our past experience, we 
 are quite sure, if allowed of God, we would strike for 
 some new field, only careful that it were small enough 
 for us at the nrst, and then to grow. 
 
 " The experience and observation of after years emphasize the truth of this 
 chapter also. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 IX MllMORIAM 
 
 HIl'HERTO my life has been preparatory. I 
 want to live : yes, when I think what God will 
 do for Iowa in the next twenty years I want to live and 
 be an actor in it." Thus exclaimed one who came here 
 to labor in the ardor of youth, but was early called 
 to die. 
 
 Looking back through our quarter of a century, 
 we recall others who also have fallen by the way. It 
 is due to them, and meet for us, that they should have 
 a place in these reminiscences. The names of all, of 
 course, cannot appear ; only such as stand freshest in 
 mind as w^e take our backward look. 
 
 The words quoted at the opening of this chapter 
 were those of the one first taken, and he from the 
 Band. This was Horace Hutchinson. He died at 
 Burlington, March 7, 1846. He w-as a native of Sut- 
 ton, Massachusetts, a graduate of Amherst College 
 in 1839, and of Andover Seminary in 1843. His dis- 
 ease was hereditary consumption, against which he 
 had been struggling for years. Not quite thirty years 
 of age, having been permitted but little over two years 
 to prosecute his Master's work, to which he had be- 
 178 
 
IN MEMORLIM 
 
 179 
 
 come ardently attached, and for which, by his natural 
 enthusiasm and richness uf intellectual culture, no less 
 than his culture of heart, he was eminently fitted, and 
 just settled most happily in his domestic relations, — - 
 it was no w^onder that he felt that he was just ready to 
 live, and wanted to live ; that it was hard to die. Yet 
 he was cheerful, resigned and ready. His end was 
 peace. 
 
 What a breach was made in our ranjvs, not only as 
 we missed the light of his cheerful face, and the 
 warmth of his genial nature, but felt that, in all plans 
 for Iowa, the benefit of his sound judgment and hearty 
 aid, on wdiich w^e had begun to rely, w^ere so soon re- 
 moved ! How, by this early death among us, was 
 our work more seriously and devoutly apprehended ! 
 How keen was our sympathy with her who was thus 
 early called to exchange bridal robes for weeds of 
 mourning! Though removing soon after from the 
 territory, and entering into new relations in a neigh- 
 boring state, she was still reckoned as one of us. Mrs. 
 Hutchinson, for a time Principal of Abbott Female 
 Seminary at Andover, Massachusetts, was subse- 
 quently married to the Rev. S. J. Humphrey, April 18, 
 1854, and died at Newark, Ohio, August 18, i860. 
 She was born at Grafton, Massachusetts, Feb. 20, 1823. 
 Thus, by that first death, did God teach that there 
 were paths of sorrow for us tO' tread, as well as of 
 hope, success and joy. The lesson has been again and 
 again repeated. It will be pardoned, perhaps, if w^e 
 
l8o THE IOWA BAND 
 
 follow these providences first in reference to the 
 Band. 
 
 Four years passed away before the second came. 
 Eliza C. Robbins died at Muscatine, July 16, 1850. 
 She was a native of Canterbury, Connecticut; born 
 June 7, 1819; was married Sept. 27, 1843, arid started 
 in a few days as one of the only two wives in that first 
 journey westward. Her lot, as has been told, was 
 cast in what was then called Bloomington, now Mus- 
 catine. She accepted it heartily. With natural over- 
 flow of good feeling, and a happy turn in all circum- 
 stances, she easily accommodated herself to the num- 
 berless annoyances and discomforts of a new country. 
 In no home were the bachelor brethren more welcome 
 than in hers. Putting everybody at ease in her pres- 
 ence, she won rapidly upon the hearts of the people. 
 For seven swift years did she act her part, singing 
 as she went, with a joyous heart ; and then her work 
 was suddenly ended. The cholera, that for a summer 
 or two raged on the river, seized her as a victim, and 
 in a few hours she was dead. Behind her were left a 
 stricken husband, three little children, a bereaved 
 people, and many mourning friends, — mourning, yet 
 comforted ; for a cheerful light plays about the sadness 
 of that hour as they remember how she passed away 
 in the strength of that beautiful psalm, ''The Lord is 
 my shepherd," which was read to her by a kind Chris- 
 tian friend in the moments while she was still con- 
 scious, but unable to speak. 
 
IN MEMORIAM l8i 
 
 Two years later, a third bereavement came. In this 
 case, too, a wife was taken. Sarah E. Hill died May 
 21, 1852. She was born in Bath, Maine, Aug. 8, 1823, 
 and was, therefore, twenty-nine years of age. As a 
 worker, she was confined to a few short years ; but 
 they were years filled with the glowing enthusiasm of 
 an ardent soul. Entering with zeal on the mission 
 work, she attached herself at once to every thing in 
 Iowa. All the brethren, all the sisters, all the churches, 
 everything in and about her adopted state was hers. 
 Into every plan and method of mission labor she 
 threw her whole soul. The college, now in its pros- 
 perity, is the result, in part, of her faith and her gifts. 
 It is not strange that to-day her two sons, as Chris- 
 tian young men, are on the list of its students ; for, 
 in their infancy, she gave them heartily and believ- 
 ingly to the Lord. After the labors of eight years, — 
 some of them at frontier points, where mission work 
 meant hardship and privation — she has found her 
 grave on the. banks of the Mississippi. Summer by 
 summer there are those passing up and down the river 
 who are wont to think, "There on those beautiful 
 bluffs was our sister buried." How soon all such trav- 
 elers shall cease ! 
 
 A few more years, and God spake, again; this time, 
 also, by the removal of a wife and sister. As her name 
 is written, all who knew her will remember her quiet, 
 gentle ways, the sweetness of her disposition, the 
 steadv, humble traits of her Christian character. Nat- 
 
l82 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 iirally retiring", she found her province and her sway 
 chiefly in the reahiis of domestic hfe, and yet won es- 
 teem and influence in wider circles. It was with ap- 
 prehension that we saw^ the paleness of her cheek, 
 amid the devotion of a wnfe and the cares of a mother ; 
 but w-e feel now- that it w^as meet that a spirit like hers 
 should be taken to a better w^orld. Harriet R. Ripley 
 was born at Drakesville. New^ Jersey, Sept. 13, 1S20, 
 and died at Davenport, April 4, 1857, at the age of 
 thirty-seven. 
 
 It remains for one more lesson to be noted. This 
 time it is the death of a brother ; bringing us down to 
 March 31, 1867. Then died, in Ottumwa, B. A. 
 Spaulding, the second of the Band now deceased. He 
 was truly a man of God. Possessed of more intellect- 
 ual worth than it was his ambition to show^ his aim 
 was, in a frontier field, in the true home missionary 
 spirit, to lay foundations for Christ. This he did in 
 manv a heart and in many a place. At the first, his 
 w^as preeminently the work of an evangelist. Travel- 
 ing on horseback over the New Purchase, he had 
 twenty-five or thirty different places of meeting, some 
 of them a hundred miles apart ; preaching In groves 
 and cabins, and organizing churches, where, ten years 
 before, had been the Indian dance. For years he toiled 
 thus, till, in due time, it w^as his privilege to see the 
 heaven-pointing spires, to hear church-going bells, 
 and to welcome newi laborers in that at first wild and 
 uncultivated region. 
 
IN MEMORIAM 183 
 
 It was in these years that he subsequently declared 
 that he had more joys, amid greater hardships, than 
 at any other period of his life. Gradually his labors 
 were contracted within narrower limits, till he be- 
 came the pastor of the church in the place he at first 
 selected as his home, and where he died. It was his 
 privilege to be an actor in the twenty years for which 
 Brother Hutchinson longed ; and yet he was not sat- 
 isfied. His disease, too, was consumption ; and, as it 
 began to be apparent that he must yield to it, his 
 words were, "Oh, to do more for Jesus ! Oh, for ten 
 years to live, and do something for Christ !" But his 
 work was done ; and he was resigned, as, on a Satur- 
 day night, the death-shades gathered thick about him. 
 ''Is this the dark valley?" he inquired. Being told 
 that it was, "It will not be long," he said. "Will it 
 last till morning?" It did last till morning. At the 
 Sabbath dawn he passed up to the day of rest. He 
 was born in Billerica, Massachusetts, July 20, 1815; 
 was a graduate of Harvard College and Andover 
 Seminary. Dying March 31, 1867, he was fifty-two 
 years of age. He left a wife and one child. 
 
 We have now noticed where a husband or a wife 
 has, in repeated instances, been taken. Meanwhile, 
 children have been born, and children, too, have died ; 
 but of them we cannot speak in detail. We must be 
 content with this bare recognition of God's chastening 
 hand in their removal. Changes have been going on 
 outside the Band, A few names will be given, such 
 
184 
 
 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 as are freshest in the mind of the writer. In other 
 minds, doubtless, there are other names not given, 
 just as fresh and just as worthy of mention as those 
 that will appear. 
 
 First, as intimately associated with that of Mrs. 
 Hill, because near as to time and place, was the 
 death of Brother Thompson. William A. Thompson 
 died May 3, 1852. All who were in the state at that 
 time remember the mystery that shrouded this calam- 
 ity. Judging from his intentions when he left home, 
 and the position of his horse and buggy when found, 
 it was thought that he must have been drowned in at- 
 tempting to row a frail skifT across an arm of the Mis- 
 sissippi, in high water and a boisterous wind. There 
 were suspicions of foul play, but they were not re- 
 garded as well founded. For weeks search was made 
 for his body in vain. Standing by the newly-made 
 grave of our sister, upon the bluffs overlooking the 
 waters of the Mississippi, the thought was, "There, 
 somewhere, is the grave of our brother." Tlie follow- 
 ing June, as the brethren w^ere holding their annual 
 Association at Muscatine, a few were walking, at a 
 leisure hour, by the river's side, when a human body 
 was seen floating towards the bank. Was it, could it 
 be, that of their brother? This was the question that 
 flashed on their minds. It soon appeared almost to a 
 certainty that it was even sO' ; yet to identify the body 
 was difificult. Of the signs, they were not absolutely 
 sure. A garment sent to the anxious, wearv wife es- 
 
JX MliMOKlAM 185 
 
 tablished the fact. Thus, sixty miles below where the 
 sad accident occurred, God brought to us the consola- 
 tion that at least the body of our brother had been 
 found. We 1)uried it in the same ground where was 
 buried the first sister taken. Brother Thompson was 
 a good man, humble, earnest and prayerful. Enter- 
 ing the state at the same time with the brethren of the 
 Band, he was reckoned as one of them. His loss was 
 deeply felt by all. 
 
 Those here in the autumn of 1853 remember the joy 
 occasioned by the arrival of two young men, appar- 
 ently in the vigor of life, directly from their seminary 
 studies. Mysterious has always seemed their fate. 
 One of them, as he entered his field, seemed to labor 
 as with the blessing of God on him — a young man of 
 rare mental and social qualities and ardent piety. 
 How astounding was the news of his sudden illness 
 and death ! Strong were the sympathies that his 
 young wife carried back with her to her Eastern 
 home. The brother here referred to was E. C. A. 
 Woods, who died at Wapello, Nov. 4, 1854. Born in 
 Newport, New Hampshire, September, 1824, he was 
 thirty years of age. , 
 
 The other was Oliver Dimon, who went to Keosau- 
 qua. By his excellences he won the affections of his 
 people. But disease was on him, and he soon be- 
 came prostrated and was carried back to his Eastern 
 home to die. 
 
 Similar to these cases was that of another, who had 
 
1 86 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 been trained among us. Joseph Bloomer was con- 
 verted in one of our churches, at one time a member of 
 our college, though he graduated at Amherst in 1856. 
 From the first, so eager was he to be in the field, that 
 he could not wait the usual course of study. It was 
 well, perhaps, in his case, as one destined to early 
 death, that he did not. He went to McGregor late in 
 1857. His labors were limited to a few brief months; 
 but they were months of much zeal and great promise. 
 The people felt the power of an earnest preacher 
 among them. "Sharper sermons," said one, 'T never 
 heard than fell from his lips. I do not know, but, 
 under God, he would have converted the whole town 
 had he Hved." He died suddenly, Feb. 21, 1858. 
 
 Another called from his work on earth was L. R. 
 White. He, too, was a young man ; though he was 
 permitted to labor several years among us, — first at 
 Le Claire, then at Summit and then at Brighton. At 
 Le Claire, with great labor, he secured the erection of 
 a house of worship. Many a one knov/s the toil re- 
 corded in that brief sentence. At Brighton he did the 
 same thing. The sad fact in our memories is that the 
 first gathering held in the new meeting-house was that 
 convened at his funeral. His death was occasioned by 
 a cold, together with over-exertion in his eiTorts to 
 secure the completion of the house at a given time. 
 He wrought, as many another missionary has done, 
 with his own hands. He died at Brighton, May 30, 
 
 1858. 
 
IN MIIMORIAM 187 
 
 Later down, a father in the ministry was taken. Al- 
 fred Wright died at Diirango, Nov. 8, 1865. Few 
 who ever knew him will soon forget the inward grace 
 that shone out on his cheerful face. So, also, we think 
 of French, Waters, JNIather, Brown, Leonard, and 
 others. 
 
 Meanwliile, sisters were also passing away. There 
 vvas one under whose roof, in the earlier years, we 
 used always to find a hearty welcome, and whose calm 
 trust and cheerful endurance preached us many a ser- 
 mon ; who, after years of suffering, died in the trium- 
 phant hope of joys to come. This was Mrs. Emer- 
 son, She closed her life at Sabula, January, 1856. 
 
 A few months earlier, one who had recently come 
 among us, and was just entering joyously into our 
 Iowa work, was called to the higher service of heaven. 
 Mrs. Sarah W. Guernsey died at Dubuque, May 10, 
 1855. Her remains rest in the old burial-ground at 
 New Haven, Conn. Pleasant memories of her and 
 her Christian activities will long linger with those who 
 then composed her husband's flock. 
 
 Another was Mrs. Abbey A. Magoun, a sister of 
 Mrs. Hill. Of gentle nature, she was firm in the serv- 
 ice of Christ. As a Christian woman, a mother, and 
 a pastor's wife, she adorned her calling and station. 
 She, too, sleeps on the banks of our beautiful river. 
 Her death was at Lyons, Feb. 10, 1864. 
 
 We must speak of another, who, a little later, died 
 at Durant, Dec. 7, 1866,— Mrs. Mary F. Bullen. We 
 
l88 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 could not, if we would, efface from our minds the 
 sweetness of the expression she wore. Not even by 
 death's cold touch shall it be marred. We well re- 
 member it, as turned to a heavenly smile. 
 
 There are memories, too, of dear brethren of the 
 churches — of the hospitable Edwards ; the venerable 
 Cotton, a lineal descendant of old John Cotton of Bos- 
 ton ; of Father \'incent, who. at one of our meetings, 
 said the brethren were all daguerreotyped on his 
 mind ; of brethren, too, at the East, who in heart have 
 been with us and of us, such as Mackintire, Carter, and 
 others. How many come to mind, who to-day are 
 with the multitude around the throne ; who rest from 
 their labors, and their works do follow them ! 
 
 In the summer of 1863, during the Associational 
 Meeting at Burlington, a few of the brethren, with 
 their wives, went out to the grave of their Brother 
 Hutchinson. Gathering around it, with uncovered 
 heads, they bowed in prayer to God that the mantle 
 of all that was excellent in him might fall upon them. 
 
 As we linger thus among the memories of the de- 
 parted, may all that was noble in their lives and ex- 
 cellent in their characters be with us that remain, to 
 stimulate and to cheer, till our race, too, shall be run, 
 and we shall be reckoned with them ! 
 
 Since the foregoing was written, and while this 
 work is going through the press, another name is to 
 be added to those of the Band who have gone. Eras- 
 
IN MRMORIAM 189 
 
 tus Ripley died Fel3. 21, 1870, in Soniers. Connecticut, 
 age fifty-five. He was l^orn in Coventry, Connecticut, 
 March 15, A.D. 1815; was a graduate of L^nion Col- 
 lege; also of Andover Seminary, in the class of 1843. 
 Elected as resident licentiate, he remained at Andover 
 till the spring of 1844, when he joined his classmates 
 in Iowa, taking charge of the church in Bentonsport. 
 He remained at this place till the summer of 1848, 
 when he was chosen the first professor of Iowa Col- 
 lege at Davenport. From this time he was identified 
 with the interests of the college ; at first the only, 
 afterwards associate, teacher, as Carter Professor of 
 Ancient Languages, until the time of its removal to 
 Grinnell in 1859. Shortly after this he returned to his 
 native state, where, until his death, he was engaged 
 in the profession of teaching, in which he took a high 
 rank. Mr. Ripley's leading powers were those of a 
 linguist. He was a good preacher, an enthusiastic 
 teacher, and sought to lay all on the altar for Christ. 
 His work is done, and he, too, has passed away. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 IX MEMORIAM, COXTIXl'ED FROM 1S70 TO 1902 
 
 IN the early years of Iowa the workers were few and 
 comparatively young. A grey head in any congre- 
 gation was a rare sight. Deaths were comparatively 
 few, but, as workers increased with increasing years, 
 they became more frequent, till now, in the thirty-one 
 years past, the list is a long one. Of these mention 
 can be made of but few. Naturally, it will be of the 
 old pioneers before the Band. Of these there were 
 seven : Turner, Reed, Gaylord, Burnham, Hitchcock, 
 Emerson and Holbrook. They have all passed away. 
 The first called was Rev. Reuben Gaylord, wdio died 
 January 10, 1880, at the age of sixty-eight, at Fon- 
 tanelle, Nebraska ; a man who, from his youth, always 
 had visions, and was never disobedient to them, of a 
 glorious work to be done by planting Christian 
 churches and Christian institutions in the opening 
 West. He was the second of our pastors, and over 
 the second of our churches formed, that at Danville, 
 now Hartford. For seventeen years he labored with 
 us, then, listening to a Macedonian cry from Ne- 
 braska, he went to Omaha. In a faithful pastorate 
 there and wise labors as Home Missionary Super- 
 190 
 
y.v MiiMORi.iM. coxTixriin 191 
 
 iiitendent, he l)uill liiiiiSL-lf into the rising founda- 
 tions of that new state. He sleeps on the banks of 
 the Missouri. Four years later, on Xoveniber 10, 
 1883, Rev. Oliver Emerson was called. He was born 
 in Lynnfield, Alassachusetts. Alarch 26, 1813, making 
 fiim at death seventy years of age. Of a weak body, 
 one-half of which w-as paralyzed at birth, one foot de- 
 formed, never taking a step w'ithout pain, never seeing 
 a well day, with little prospect that the days of man 
 hood would ever be reached, at the age of fifteen he 
 \\as a student at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mas- 
 sachusetts. In 1835 he graduated at Waterville, 
 Maine. Then came two years of sickness. For a sec- 
 ond time he had sought his home, probably to die, 
 with great sorrow that he might never be able to 
 preach. For three days he fasted and prayed that 
 God w^ould in some way show^ if it could be. His 
 convictions w^ere such that he soon started for Lane 
 Seminary, where he graduated June 10, 1840. On the 
 same day, unable to pay cabin fare, he took deck pas- 
 sage on a steamer for Davenport, Iowa, where in ten 
 days he landed, an entire stranger, wath a scanty ward- 
 robe and depleted purse. He came as a Baptist, hold- 
 ing open conmiunion views, but hoping to preach in 
 that connection. He w^as disappointed in this, yet he 
 began at once to preach. So fervent was he in spirit, 
 his sermons so clear, logical and impassioned, that 
 he was welcomed everywhere. With a hearty welcome, 
 also, he was received into our Association, as one 
 
192 
 
 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 whose great business it was to preach Christ and him 
 crucified, and not to be a disturber on minor points. 
 He labored in this connection most happily. For 
 forty years was he "a voice crying in the wilderness," 
 seeking out the new settlements, a genuine frontiers- 
 man. He had his appointments always on the Sab- 
 bath, often on weekday evenings, gathering the peo- 
 ple, now in schoolhouses, and now in their own dwell- 
 ings. As circumstances demanded, he gave attention 
 to the erection of houses of worship and the forming 
 of churches. Twenty or twenty-five of these remain as 
 the fruits of his labor. His voice was hushed, but his 
 memory remains. Go to any old person who knew 
 him in his prime, tell him you knew Father Emerson, 
 and his eye will kindle. 
 
 It is now but a step from '84 to '85 which brings us 
 to the death of Rev. Asa Turner. We called him 
 Father Turner, because he was as a father to us all, 
 and the father, too, of Congregationalism in Iowa. 
 It was a lecture of his, in a hill town of New Hamp- 
 shire, more than half a century since, on "The Advan-- 
 tages of Western Farming," that led to the early col- 
 onizing of Denmark, Lee County. When in 1838 our 
 church was organized there, he was invited to be- 
 come its pastor, and accepted. There he continued 
 for nearly forty years, a common-sense evangelistic 
 preacher. As pastor, he was a true shepherd of his 
 flock, while he was also helpful everywhere and inter- 
 ested everyw^here in whatever pertained to the mat- 
 
IX MRMORIAM. CONTINUED 193 
 
 ters of the Kingdom, in the new territory. He was 
 everywhere welcome for his genial spirit in the homes 
 of the people, among brother ministers, in associations 
 and public meetings, bearing with him an atmosphere 
 of influence among all. But the time came for his 
 labors to be laid aside. There were a few years of 
 rest, first with a daughter in California, afterwards 
 with another daughter in Oskaloosa, where, in the 
 confinement of his sick chamber, he waited in confi- 
 dence in his divine Redeemer for the summons to go 
 up higher. They came June 11, 1886, at the age of 
 eighty-six years and six months. So he was laid to 
 rest as a shock of corn fully ripe. 
 
 The next to depart was Rev. Julius A. Reed. He 
 was the third to come, and took charge of the third 
 church, the one organized at Fairfield. In a few years, 
 when an agent of the Missionary Society was de- 
 manded, he was the man chosen, and well chosen. 
 Of pleasing address, a good scholar, accurate and log- 
 ical in thought, clear and concise in expression, he 
 interested the people in and out of the pulpit. Faith- 
 fully he explored the field, now on horseback, more 
 generally in his buggy, high and lifted up, made ex- 
 pressly for fording rivers before the bridges w^ere 
 built. His good judgment as to strategic points, and 
 good business habits in the forming of churches where 
 the aid of councils and Christian helpers could not be 
 had, were of great value in the early days. In the 
 early ])lanting and growth of the college, too, he was 
 
1^4 ^HE IOWA BAND 
 
 one of the foremost actors. So he did his part well. 
 But there was one thing, for which he was peculiarly 
 fitted, that he did not do. He had an observant eye 
 and a retentive memory. No one could have written 
 a more truthful account of the early years than he 
 But he failed to do it. There was considerable ma- 
 terial for this which he had collected, valuable papers 
 and statistics, carefully prepared. But for him the 
 end came. It was at Davenport, at the home of a 
 daughter, Mrs. S. F. Smith, that he died. 
 
 As we bore him away to his resting-place, it was 
 gladness to think of a life well spent, sorrowful that 
 we should see his face no- more, and sad to think that 
 with him we committed so much history to the grave. 
 He was born January 16, 1809, and died Aug. 2y, 
 1890, aged eighty-one. 
 
 The next called were Brothers Burnham and Hitch- 
 cock. Mr. Burnham, though here at the coming ol 
 the Band, soon returned to his native state, New 
 Hampshire. He was a graduate of Dartmouth, and 
 a conscientious Christian man, and died at Townsend, 
 Vermont, in 1883. 
 
 Mr. Hitchcock, too, soon after the coming of the 
 Band, exchanged his field of labor at Davenport for 
 one across the river at Moline, Illinois. The church 
 there, with some others along the eastern bank of the 
 Mississippi, being for some years attached to our As- 
 sociation in Iowa, he continued for a while a coworker 
 with us, doing valiant work, especially in the causes 
 
IX MliMORI.lM. CONTINUED 
 
 195 
 
 of anti-slavery and temperance. But ere long he be- 
 came fully identified with the growing interests of 
 the Kingdom in western Illinois. He labored on to 
 his end. His sleeping-place is on the western bank 
 of the great river, he having died at Moline, Decem- 
 ber 15, 1873, fifty-eight years old. 
 
 To this list one more name is to be added, that of 
 Rev. John C. Holbrook, the last of the seven to go. 
 His life was an eventful one. Inheriting in Brattle- 
 boro, A'ermont, his native place, an extensive busi- 
 ness, it did not succeed. Coming west, it was first 
 farming, then teaching, but disappointment in both. 
 Being sent by Rev. Stephen Feet, Home Missionary 
 Agent in Wisconsin, to spend a Sabbath with the then 
 little church at Dubuque, the brethren were at once in- 
 1 crested in him, and engaged him to be their preacher. 
 Application for licensure soon followed and was 
 granted. At once it was evident that he had found 
 his calling. With earnestness, zeal and power he be- 
 gan and for years continued as a revival preacher. 
 Under his preaching revival succeeded revival, not 
 only in his own church but in settlements around. 
 His church grew and, partaking somewhat of his 
 spirit, became a tower of strength among the churches 
 of northern Iowa. Ere long he was called to other 
 fields and to work too well known to be here re- 
 hearsed. He loved Iowa and Iowa loved him. His 
 closing years were on the western coast. In his ripe 
 old age his last days were in the home of a daughter 
 
196 THE lOJJ'A BAND 
 
 in Stockton, California, where in his ninety-fifth year 
 he died, Aug. 1, 1900. 
 
 So in passing do we pay a tribute to the older, the 
 true pioneers here. It is for the writer a pleasure so 
 to do. The coming of the Band at the time was a 
 movement that naturally caught the attention of the 
 public and many things have been ascribed to them 
 rightfully belonging as much to those into whose 
 labors they entered, and whose spirit was ever with 
 them. If these words shall help to give them their 
 true place in the history of our churches, it is but a 
 duty done that gives pleasure. 
 
 And now we turn again to the Band. From 1843 
 to 1870, the period covered by the memorial chapter 
 of the first edition, but three were taken, Hutchinson, 
 Spaulding and Ripley. In the period from 1870 to 
 1 90 1, all but two have passed the river. The first to 
 be recorded is that of Rev. James J. Hill. He was a 
 native of Maine and a graduate of Bowdoin. On 
 account of the sickness and death of his father, he 
 could not come wath his brethren in 1843, but he fol- 
 lowed the next spring, locating at Jacksonville, now 
 Garnavillo, Clayton County. This, at the time, was 
 the extreme northern limit of settlement, in a region 
 where it used to be said that the staple provisions 
 were corn dodgers, bear's meat and wild honey. 
 There he built a house. There he led the people in 
 the building of a church. There were born to him 
 and his young wife, also from Maine, his two sons. 
 
IX MHMORIAM, COXT/Xri^P 197 
 
 known as the Hill boys. Gershom and James. He 
 labored in many plaees as an evangelist,'' ori^anizini^ 
 churches, and also at such points as Savannah, Illi- 
 nois, Glencoe, Minnesota, and Fayette, Iowa, wdiere 
 in one or tw^o cases memorial windows have been sup- 
 plied in grateful recollection of his ministry. 
 
 These labors w^ere mostly in central and* northern 
 Iowa, but sometimes in adjacent counties in Illinois 
 and in southern Minnesota.*^ His last labors were in 
 Fayette, Iowa, wdiere, .after an illness of a year, he 
 died Oct. 29, 1870, at the age of fifty-five, leaving a 
 second wife and family. His two sons, already re- 
 ferred tO', laid him away at Grinnell. The remains of 
 their mother, the wife of his youth, they also removed 
 from the bank of the Mississippi to rest by his side. 
 
 The next name to be dropped from the roll of th? 
 living was Rev. Daniel Lane. Like Mr. Hill, he was 
 a native of Maine and a graduate of Bowdoin. He 
 ■was the man who first said, "Well, I am going to 
 low^a ; w^hether anybody else goes or not, I am going." 
 So he always decided like questions, independently for 
 himself, with his God. His decisions made, he was 
 always careful as to what he said and did. "There," 
 
 *^' Twenty-five years after his death, one of his sons being present at t'^e 
 Sunday Morning Service, November 24, i8q^, in th-^ Congregational Church 
 in Toledo, Iowa— observed in the choir one of the members of the leading firm 
 of lawyers in Tama Co , "wh© said to the visitor, "Your father labored in a re- 
 vival here. By him I was led to the Saviour. Except for his faithful work here 
 I probably should not have been in that choir this morning." 
 
 4« He was called upon to officiate nt the fir^t service of Plymouth Church, 
 St. Paul, in Concert Hall on. Third Street, May 16, 1S5S. 
 
198 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 said one in a company of brother ministers, "there is 
 the only perfect man I ever knew." As a God-fearing 
 man there was in his very presence a rebuke of sin. 
 ^'I always feel like hiding," said a frequenter of 
 saloons, "when I see Mr. Lane coming along the 
 street." His first and main pastoral work was at 
 Keosauqua for some years, till at the solicitation of 
 his brethren he left that field to become a teacher in 
 the college in which and for which he did noble work. 
 There was something in him or about him that won 
 the esteem of all wath whom he had to do, whether as 
 pastor or teacher. When in after years the church at 
 Keosauqua built a new house of worship, a memorial 
 window was evidence of the abiding esteem for the 
 first pastor. Where you find an old pupil of his there 
 you will hear a tribute of praise to his memory. Being 
 dead he yet speaketh. His influence among his breth- 
 ren at Associations and among the churches can easily 
 be imagined. Afflicted with increasing deafness, he 
 gave up both teaching and preaching some years be- 
 fore his death, the last of which were spent near his 
 Eastern home. Almost up to the time of his death 
 he had a class in the Sabbath-school and conducted a 
 ,veekly prayer-meeting of neighbors at his home, 
 which was some distance from the village church. So 
 at last the end came. It was at Freeport, Maine, the 
 third of April, 1890, at the age of seventy-seven. But 
 a few weeks since, April 18, 1900, his devoted wife 
 was laid by his side. Having loved Iowa in their 
 
IN MEMORIAM. COXTINUED 199 
 
 youth, their chosen field of labor, they loved her to 
 the end. 
 
 But four months after, he was followed by Brother 
 E. B. Turner. Of an adventurous spirit, with a love 
 of the West, after three years of student life at Jack- 
 sonville, Illinois, and having a purpose already formed 
 to go west somewhere, he readily came into the plans 
 of the Band, to whom his own experiences were at 
 once of great value. He began labor here in Jones 
 and adjacent counties. These contained the most 
 northern settlements in the territory and the farthest 
 to the northwest of the United States. In the years 
 spent there he shared the hardships and exposures of 
 the earlier settlers ; they dreamed not of the con- 
 veniences of modern times. Here was the sum of 
 his Iowa labors. After a faithful and successful pas- 
 torate at Morris, Illinois, he was called at the close of 
 the rebellion to be Superintendent of Home Missions 
 in Missouri. There were twelve years of arduous toil 
 in this capacity, then followed a few more of mis- 
 sionary labors in New York state, and then came the 
 evening of life, in Owego, where he died, the 6th of 
 July, 1895, at the age of eighty-three. By his side 
 was laid his wife, October 26, 1896. 
 
 From 1890 to 1896 there is no more break. In the 
 latter year two were taken. First came the depart- 
 ure of Harvey Adams. He was the oldest of the 
 Band. His first field was Farmington, near the Abner 
 Kneeland colony, once noted, but now scarcely 
 
200 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 known. He was the only one who in a busy pastorate 
 and in labors peculiar to early Western life kept up a 
 critical study of the Scriptures in the original lan- 
 guages. He was also a great reader of the Bible in 
 the English. He read it in course, how many times 
 through is not known. After the close of his active 
 labors, it was once fifteen times in one year ; in an- 
 other, fourteen. His last pastorate was at New 
 Hampton, where also he was pastor emeritus. Al- 
 ways, while strength Was given him, he was a con- 
 stant attendant at church, always having a seat in the 
 pulpit and generally making a prayer in the course of 
 the exercises. So he went on to the end which came 
 September 23, 1896, when he was eighty-seven years 
 old. 
 
 Three months after this came the death of Brother 
 Robbins, December 27, 1896, at the age of seventy- 
 nine years, ten months and five days. Then the places 
 that knew him were to know him no more. His place 
 in a church and in a city where for half a century he 
 had gone in and out as a preacher of righteousness, 
 where by his long ministrations and intimate connec- 
 tions with the life of the people he had come to be 
 almost a pastor of all, that place by his death was now 
 vacant. That place also was made vacant in the 
 board of college trustees, where he was last of its 
 first corporate members to be taken save one. In like 
 manner, also, in our seminary at Chicago, as well as 
 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
 
IN MEMORIAM, COXTINUED 201 
 
 Missions, was there a vacancy never to be really filled. 
 There were, moreover, other positions, other works 
 of a public character, but the grave had taken him 
 from them all. 
 
 On the list we are now considering but one name 
 remains, that of Ebenezer Alden. He came in 1843 
 and for five years was at Tipton, Cedar County, the 
 "one in whom all the people believed." Domestic re- 
 lations were the cause of his return to the E^st, where 
 he soon found a pastorate at Marshfield, Massachu- 
 setts, which he filled through his active Christian life. 
 He died suddenly, January 4, 1889, aged eighty, hav- 
 ing loved and loving Iowa to the end and his Iowa 
 brethren loving him. 
 
 And now, what of those fellow workers who in these 
 later years have been dropping from the ranks? 
 Here, as we turn our thoughts backward, they pass 
 before us a long procession, among them those as 
 under-shepherds faithfully feeding their flocks, till, 
 under the weight of years, they took the name of 
 Father — as, Father Tenney, Hurlburt, Taylor, Todd, 
 Windsor, Here are the names of Coleman and Up- 
 ton, whose end came on the Pacific shore ; of Little, 
 once a foreign, afterwards a home missionary ; of 
 Gibbs, Avery, Allen ; of Bingham, also, not so fatherly 
 as some because in old age so young. Then there were 
 others, not so far along in life as to take the name of 
 Father, but "'^called" in their strength, before the de- 
 clining years had come ; as Guernsey, Thatcher, Hoyt, 
 
202 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 Woodworth, Brintnall, and Bennett the teaclier and 
 preacher whose last labors were in Nebraska ; and 
 some cut down in the prime of life ; as D wight, 
 Pickett, Sloan, Berry and Byres ; and, yoimger still, 
 June and Magoun. And names of devoted men, 
 pillars in their church, how they multiply ! Fox, 
 Brown, Shedd, Epps, pioneer settlers of Denmark ; 
 Beardsley and Hedge, of Burlington ; Rogers and 
 Wright, tlie ever faithful in Mitchell association ; Gas- 
 ton, also, whose soul and money went into the found- 
 ing of Tabor College, and — but who can give the 
 names of the good, strong men of our churches who 
 have passed away ? And there are godly women, too, 
 on whose counsels and prayers the life of churches 
 hung, women of missionary zeal, whose spirits yet 
 live — Edwards, Lassie, Riggs, Magoim, Parker, 
 Daniels, Estes, Hillis. But here, again, who but the 
 recording angel can tell what woman hath done in 
 quiet, silent ways, never published to the world? 
 
 Thus are recorded a few names that come to mind. 
 Many, many others there are just as worthy of men- 
 tion, but what one memory can contain them all? 
 
 The wonderful developments of our state have been, 
 and are yet to be, in three great lines : the physical, 
 the educatio'ual, the moral and religious. Rich and 
 enriching are the lives in harmony with and helpful 
 in each. They are the lives that tend toward the cul- 
 mination of all, the glory of God, in the well-being of 
 rnan i|i a world ever growing more and more beaiiti- 
 
IN MEMORIAM, CONTINUED 203 
 
 fill, preparatory all, as desig-ned 1)y Him, for the glo- 
 ries of the next. 
 
 They who have gone before us, whose lives in part 
 have been with ours, are sleeping now ; some, the 
 most of them, in their Iowa graves ; some scattered 
 elsewhere. But blessed are the dead that die in the 
 Lord. They rest from their labors, and their works 
 follow them. 
 
 • "One by one 
 
 Their work well done 
 
 They disappear : 
 
 Each veteran pioneer. 
 Responding to the mandate of his Lord. 
 Ascends to meet a rich reward, 
 Translated to a brighter realm, a higher sphere." 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 OUTLOOK AND CONCLUSION 
 
 THUS have we cast our thoiights backward. For 
 a moment we have held this fair land in view, 
 as, but a few years ago, its forests, its prairies, its 
 rivers, were vast solitudes of Nature's richness and 
 beauty, which for centuries had waited the magic 
 touch of civilized life. Here, with the thronging thou- 
 sands, have the lives of those of us that have been in 
 Iowa for the last three, five, ten, twenty, or thirty 
 years, entered in. 
 
 By these reminiscences, in the changes wrought, 
 have we been led to think of our individual work and 
 associated labors. We have thought, too, — and per- 
 haps, in passing, have shed the tear of affection as 
 we have thought — of those who entered with us, and 
 have fallen by the way. In the midst of the serious 
 and the sad, there has been much to encourage and 
 rejoice. We have not labored in vain ; but the end is 
 not yet. To the most of us that have been here even 
 the longest, life, with somewhat of health and vigor, 
 is still spared ; and ^ork yet remains. 
 
 We take not our review as in evening's shade, with 
 the armor ofif, awaiting repose ; but as at noontide 
 
OUTLOOK AND CONCLVSIOX 205 
 
 heat, with the outlook of cleniands, opportunities and 
 labors before us of the declining day. And what see 
 we here? A mighty state, which as yet even is but 
 in the dawn of its development. Of her area of fifty- 
 five thousand square miles, there are two-thirds, or 
 twenty-five millions of its rich acres that as yet bear 
 upon them the native prairie sod. Already the fourth 
 state in the Union in the production of some of the 
 cereals, what is it yet tO' be? It is only here and there 
 that her watercourses, abundant in their privileges, 
 have been made to turn the busy wheels of art ; while 
 her extensive fields of minerals and coal have but just 
 begun to be worked. Her system of railroads — with 
 near two thousand miles already in operation, with the 
 converging lines meeting on its western border, there 
 to unite with the great Pacific — is yet to be completed. 
 Then will she lie, as favored of God, on the great high- 
 way of the nations, and as central therein. Then by 
 her roads and rivers she will send out from and draw 
 to herself, as she lists, from the North and the South, 
 the East and the West. 
 
 It only remains for a growing population to carry 
 out and develop all these resources garnered in her 
 bosom. A guarantee for this we have in the record of 
 the past. In 1836, the population was ten thousand ; 
 in 1846, ninety-seven thousand ; in 1856, five hundred 
 and nineteen thousand. Now, in 1870, it is estimated 
 at one million and a quarter. How it will stand when 
 he who reviews the next quarter-century shall an- 
 
2o6 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 nounce the figures, a conjecture will not be hazarded. 
 Nor as to the scenes of development and progress 
 which it will be his privilege to unfold, will any 
 prophecy be made. Only this : if by the appliances of 
 education, virtue, piety, religion, the tone and vigor 
 of the people can be kept up and improved; if her 
 schools, colleges, institutions and churches can be 
 made to act well their part — the results in this state 
 for the country, the world and for God will be glori- 
 ous. Here, then, with all others of the good and the 
 true, is our work and our labor. If, to any, the sun 
 of his day seems to be hanging low, let him do with 
 his might what his hand findeth to do. Surely, in 
 Iowa even, the mission field is but just entered. 
 
 But let us extend our view. West of us there is al- 
 ready a region containing four millions of i)eople, 
 where, twenty-five years ago, there were none. Here 
 is opening the West of to-day. Here are almost two- 
 thirds of our national domain, all organized into states 
 or territories, rapidly filling up, but as yet, in the 
 main, almost destitute of the institutions of the gospel. 
 In Washington Territory, with its seventy thousand 
 square miles ; Idaho, with its one hundred thousand ; 
 Montana, a third larger still ; Utah, New Mexico, Ari- 
 zona, Nevada, none of them smaller than the others, 
 some larger, — in all these, the number of the laborers 
 of our order can to-day be counted upon one's fingers, 
 while that of all other denominations is small. This is 
 not from want of people, but because the laborers are 
 
OIJLOOK .l.\'/> COXCLCSIOX 207 
 
 few. Tlic tide of population from all parts of the 
 world stays not, and the work grows. Here, truly, 
 our home mission field is almost boundless. Xor is 
 this all. The work is far from being complete in the 
 states east of us, as well as in our own ; while all over 
 the South, the cry, no doubt, will yet be heard, "Come 
 and help us also.'' The spectacle before us is almost 
 appalling ; it is really so if we gaze long enough to see 
 in the character of our people, and the genius of our 
 government, the necessity, the absolute necessity, of 
 the gospel of Jesus Christ to fuse us as one, to purify 
 and preserve. Failing to supply this, our nation fails, 
 as becoming efifete and worthless without the preserv- 
 ing salt. There are certain notorious facts that may 
 well alarm us. Not only is there alarming destitu- 
 tion in the newer portions of the country, but there 
 is equally alarming indifiference in the older, A fourth 
 part of our thirty-seven millions of people are habitual 
 neglecters of public worship. Organized efforts are 
 made in many quarters to break down the sanctity of 
 the Sabbath. Infidelity is rife. The press is in a great 
 measure corrupted and corrupting. Profanity, intem- 
 perance, corruption, political and financial, are sadly 
 prevalent. These influences must be withstood, if our 
 country is to l)e safe. The only efificient counteracting 
 influence is the gospel. The w-ork of giving it must 
 ever be largely a home mission work. Even now, 
 with such an outlook before us, we seem to stand only 
 at the threshold of the home missionar\' enterprise. 
 
2o8 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 After looking at the past in what now seems to be 
 this Httle field of Iowa, with this glance around and 
 before us, reflections of various sorts crowd thick 
 upon us. In the utterance of a few will be found our 
 conclusion. 
 
 For the Executive Coniniittee and the Secretaries of 
 the Society prosecuting this great home zvork: 
 
 It is yours to stand as upon the watch-tower, sur- 
 veying the wants of this vast, outspreading field, and 
 to make report of the same to the people. It is yours 
 to direct the money and the men volunteered for their 
 supply, and to report of progress made. You stand 
 as at the very center of the whole. Of the responsi- 
 bilities of your position, the great trust reposed in you 
 by the churches, we have not a word to say. These 
 you have well considered, and no one can feel them as 
 you can. Nor is it an exhortation to be faithful tTiat 
 we presume to ofifer, but simply an All hail ! in your 
 great and glorious work ; to join with you in thanks 
 to God for his blessing upon it in the past, with a 
 hearty Godspeed for you in the future. May enlarged 
 wisdom and grace be given you for the enlarged and 
 growing wants of the field ! 
 
 For the Donors: 
 
 If you have wasted money anywhere, it is not in this 
 work. Here, bread cast upon the waters returns again 
 after not many days. Here is a great and growing 
 
OUTLOOK AND CONCLUSION 209 
 
 want, which, so far as you are concerned, money alone, 
 with prayer, can supply. For your money, then, we 
 appeal in the name of all that is near, dear and pre- 
 cious — in the name of home, country, Christ and 
 souls. Fill up the treasury at New York, that, for the 
 want of money, this great work stay not. In money 
 are the sinews of war. We found it so in the great 
 struggle just passed; and how like water w^as it poured 
 out ! How selfish, how mean, and how sordid he who 
 would hoard it then ! But a greater conflict is now 
 raging between the good and the evil, all over the 
 land. It is the old warfare of the two kingdoms ; and 
 never, in any country, was the conflict sharper than in 
 ours now. Never before was such a prize to be lost 
 and won. On the one side are the standards of the 
 arch-enemy, and many are flocking thereto ; on the 
 other is the banner of the cross. That victory may 
 perch iipon it, the great thing needed is, that churches, 
 mission churches of the Lord Jesus Christ, be planted 
 everywhere, out upon the frontiers, up and down the 
 land, as outposts, forts and citadels of the fight. Will 
 you furnish the means? 
 
 For the young men: 
 
 Men are needed as well as means. You in colleges 
 and seminaries, with the ministry in view, and you in 
 the churches, that have hearts that can feel and 
 tongues to express the things of Jesus, let us speak to 
 you. A few young men there are out in these West- 
 
2IO THE IOWA BAND 
 
 ern fields, who never saw a seminary or college, who 
 are successfully feeding the Lord's flocks in the wil- 
 derness. Would that we had hundreds, yea, thou- 
 sands, of them ! Christian young men in our churches, 
 are you, if God will, just as ready to be ministers as 
 you are to be engineers, merchants or farmers? You 
 that are in colleges and seminaries, are you willing to 
 go anywhere to preach Jesus? "Send me," said one 
 at the home missionary rooms, more than thirty years 
 ago, — "send me to the hardest spot you have."" 
 They sent him ; sent him where it was indeed desolate 
 and drear. But now, if all is not as the garden of the 
 Lord, he can at least look around him and behold the 
 mighty things that God has wrought. Young men, 
 be not afraid to launch out. There are no waters 
 without the steps of Jesus upon them ; and his prom- 
 ise, "Lo I am with you alway," reaches unto the ends 
 of the earth. 
 
 For our churches, the churches of our beloved Iowa: 
 The Lord hath blessed you ; but how much, under 
 God, do you owe to the Home Missionary Society ! 
 Recognize the debt. Look around you, and see others 
 in want. Feel the obligation by every means in your 
 power to attain the point of self-support at the earliest 
 possible period, and then join in with your helpers to 
 be the helpers of others. The time is coming, yea, 
 now is, when the churches of the West, in the matter 
 
 *' Rev. R. Kent who was sent to Galena, 111, 
 
OUTLOOK AX J) COXCLUSION 211 
 
 of the great benevolent objects of the day, must come 
 up to the help of the Lord as they have never yet done. 
 Let not those of Iowa l)e in the rear. "Freely ye have 
 received, freely give." Not of your money only ; of 
 your praters and labors also, — the prayers and labors 
 of your individual members, in the wise work of win- 
 ning souls around you, that each church may indeed 
 be a mission church for the field within its reach. By 
 Sabbath-schools, teachers sent here and there, by 
 neighborhood prayer-meetings, by lay preaching, if 
 you choose to call it so, upon the Sabbath, by every 
 method within the church and around it, work for 
 Jesus. In no other way can our surrounding wants 
 be reached. We cannot call for ministers to do all the 
 work. They are not to be had ; and, if they were, it 
 is better to be workers ourselves. We cannot call 
 upon the Home Missionary Society for all the needed 
 help. It w^ould be asking for what it has not to give ; 
 and, were all the money and men at its command in- 
 creased a hundredfold, there are central and promis- 
 ing fields in waiting for them all, in the regions 
 around and beyond. With a limited supply, the great 
 work of the Home Missionary Society must ever be 
 to gather up and establish churches. Let but these 
 be true to their work, let them be mission churches 
 in deed as well as in name, and the system will be 
 more complete. Let the churches of Iowa learn the 
 lesson, and fill up the work remaining to be done, 
 The work can easily be accomplished, 
 
212 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 For the ininistry of Iowa: 
 
 To you who were on the field prior to 1843, we cede 
 the honor of being the pioneers in this blessed work. 
 By you, in many respects, were the foundations laid, 
 the key-note of the true principles of our Christian 
 work and church growth struck. If, after your years 
 of watching, waiting, almost despairing, you recog- 
 nize it as of God that youthful helpers were sent to 
 you, they also recognize it as of him that you were 
 here, to be in many respects their light and their 
 guide; and, among you, none more than he, who, 
 after his fort}' years of service in the gospel ministry, 
 has just laid off his pastoral harness. May the Lord 
 long spare him to be to us what hitherto^ he has been ! 
 
 Those who have joined us since 1843 will not feel 
 that they are excluded in this quarter-century review ; 
 for they, too, have been sharers in the work accom- 
 plished. Let each be joyous in view of it, according to 
 the time and faithfulness given to it. May you, dear 
 brethren, as faithful workers for Christ, be true lovers 
 of Iowa, even as those who have been longest here ! 
 
 Finally, The Band: 
 
 God hath been gracious to us. Three only has he 
 taken by death ; three have been called to other fields 
 of labor ; five yet remain. How much longer we are 
 to labor here, v^e know not. This we know : it is past 
 the noontide, and soon, very soon, the evening shades 
 will come. When the setting sun hangs low, God 
 grant that we may look back on a day well spent ! 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 EVENTIDE 
 
 THE review in the preceding chapter was taken 
 thirty-one years ago. Then was the noon of 
 life, now the sun is near its setting; an hour that in- 
 vites not only to rest from labor but to moments of re- 
 flection. When Isaac went out to meditate, it was at 
 eventide. The author, sitting down at the eventide 
 of his life to pen a few reflections for this closing- 
 chapter, would meditate, as it were, aloud. Here 
 alone, almost wholly alone ; the old workers all gone ; 
 of the Band all but two. Brother Salter yet remains, 
 the pastor, although with an assistant, of his Burling- 
 ton church which a few years since celebrated the 
 fiftieth anniversary of his labors among them. He 
 was the youngest of the Band and very likely will be 
 the last. Ere long, probably, the cane will be his."' 
 How sad was the accident on that bright summer 
 morning that took from him his beloved wife !*^ Of 
 the first wives of the other members of the Band, 
 they, also, are gone, all but two. The wife of Brother ^ 
 Spaulding still lives at Ottumwa, the scene of their 
 
 *8 Note r6, 
 
 ^0 Note 17, 
 
 213 
 
214 ^^^ IOWA BAND 
 
 early labors. The other is she who is with ine yet. 
 Why are zir thus spared, together, the only two per- 
 mitted to see a golden wedding day? Of later co- 
 workers that have passed away as the years have 
 gone, what a list ! As their names are recalled and 
 the names, too, of many of the members of the early 
 churches, there starts up a face, attitudes are seen, 
 tones of voice are heard, but they are no longer here. 
 For each one the sun has set. What a large company 
 from Iowa is gathered on that brighter shore ! To be 
 there when the shades of night have settled over this 
 eventide, then to go in the infinite grace of the heav- 
 enly Father to join them, is the hope. And yet, while 
 the eventide remains, 't is pleasant to think of the 
 past. First of all, how God's hand has been in every- 
 thing ! As to the Band, its organization, its choice 
 of a field, the timeliness of entering it, its prepared- 
 ness to be entered, these were not from any human 
 foresight or wisdom, but somehow of God. And 
 since coming in the inexperience of youth to begin 
 here the work of the ministry, in such a country as 
 this then was, and continuing in it these many years, 
 how evident now that God's care has attended ! 
 Twice only have there .been even moments of any- 
 thing like homesickness or anxiety. Once in the 
 earlier years, in cholera times, when leaving the un- 
 kept burying ground, a marshy, weedy place, where 
 we had buried one who had been suddenly stricken, 
 the thought. Oh, to be taken sick and to die, perhaps. 
 
EVENTIDE 215 
 
 and buried in such a place as this, far, far away from 
 home and kindred ! caused a shudder for a moment ; 
 l)ut nothing of the kind has happened. Youth has 
 Ixen spared to manhood and manhood to age, even 
 to old age of eighty and three. No chills or fever. 
 In my preaching days, not a sick one of any kind ; 
 every appointment filled except a half dozen or so. 
 Surely God's care has been constant. Twice lonely. 
 Once in those early years, again, later. As the older 
 brethren and those of the Band began to drop ofif and 
 new brethren to multiply, there came one day the 
 thought of becoming old, of standing almost alone, 
 of being among newcomers, unknown, uncared for, 
 unnoticed, set aside. This, too, for a moment was 
 like a gathering cloud. But it has never been. Age, 
 to be sure, but not the other part of it. A great joy 
 has it been and one of life's great privileges to 
 meet the brethren, especially at Association time. 
 Never w^as one anticipated with greater pleasure than 
 the one next to be held. So, as a PJand, God has been 
 good to us, not only in giving a goodly field, in his 
 individual care, but in blessing us in our labors. 
 Looking backward upon the past, there is but one un- 
 pleasant thought that intrudes. It is that there has 
 been such dulness to see and slowness to improve the 
 opportunities scattered all along the way. And yet, 
 close to this there comes another, that God has used 
 even imperfect instruments to his owni glory. And 
 this is joy again. Were life to be lived over, this 
 
2i6 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 would be a good motto — Do the work at hand, do it 
 well, and God will open the way. For he hath opened 
 it and wrought, most wonderfully wrought. 
 
 Yes, what wonderful changes, how great the prog- 
 ress made! Not now in the world abroad, but in 
 Iowa! When entered in 1843, it was a wild, Indian 
 country, save two narrow strips ; now it is a Christian 
 state, covered over with happy homes ; its once 
 bridgeless streams, bridged ; in place of bridle paths, 
 roads for vehicles of business and pleasure ; railroads, 
 too, lacing and interlacing till stations are placed 
 within a few miles of every home. Better yet, within 
 every two miles provision is made for a schoolhouse. 
 In every town and city, among the noblest buildings, 
 are schoolhouses for the children. 13,861 school- 
 houses valued at $17,655,992; 28,789 teachers. 
 These are pleasant figures to look at. As they are 
 considered, there comes to mind a picture of a 
 schoolhouse, visited over fifty years ago, where the 
 teacher was weaving cloth, his loom festooned with 
 pumpkins cut in strips and hung up to dry. A con- 
 trast, surely ! x\nd then the academies, the colleges, 
 the seminaries. Our own Denmark Academy the first 
 of all in territorial days. And of colleges, our Iowa 
 College the first in the state. We called it a college 
 then ; it was in fact only a school at first, and a small 
 one at that ; but we called it a college, not for what 
 it was, but was to be. It is pleasant now to look back 
 and see how it has grown. Fresh in mind as if yes- 
 
EVENTIDE 217 
 
 terday is that rainy afternoon when its first Httle build- 
 ing at Davenport was dedicated. Not more than a 
 dozen present. A prayer and a brief address. To 
 think now of the Grinnell Campus, with its buildings 
 and furnishings, its teachers, students and graduates — 
 this is pleasing. It is a long term of service given to 
 it, that of trustee from the first till now, at no trifling 
 cost of time and money, and not a little of toil, with 
 some anxiety. But to attend even one Commence- 
 ment pays for it all. So there is pleasure also in think- 
 ing how the churches have multiplied. Instead of that 
 little one at Denmark of 32 members in 1838, the 
 first of our Congregational churches now extant, west 
 of the Mississippi, there are now over 300 of them 
 with a membership of over a thousand to one then. 
 To think of the vast numbers these churches have 
 sent to the West and North, to Kansas, Nebraska, 
 the Dakotas and elsewhere, even to the Pacific, show- 
 ing how Iowa has been a kind of seed plot for regions 
 around and beyond — all this is pleasant. To have 
 seen all this growth and development in one's own 
 life, the privilege of having been in it and of it, is now^ 
 the glow of the sunset hour. To see, as now it is so 
 plainly seen, how God's hand has been in it all, makes 
 it an hour, not only of joy and thanksgiving for the 
 past, but of faith and hope for the future that things 
 begun are to go on. Yes, with faith in God's loving 
 this world and working for its redemption, life's sun 
 is setting with no pessimistic cloud to obsctn-c, but. 
 
2l8 THE lOlVA BAND 
 
 rather, in the glow of faith and hope. True, the skies 
 are not ah clear ; clouds there are, enough of them. 
 The millennium is not here ; peace is not yet abroad 
 upon the earth. The sins of the nations, yea, of the 
 people, are many. The problems thicken of things 
 to be done and changes to be made. To a thoughtful 
 mind the appearance of impending crises is oppress- 
 ive. But then it always has been so. And how the 
 crises have been passed; what changes for the better 
 have come, even in one short life, warranting faith 
 and hope as to the outcome! 
 
 In youth, slavery like a dark pall overshadowed the 
 land. Where is it now? How many things come to 
 mind, once tolerated and defended, now discarded, set 
 aside, things in which some religious principle or 
 moral element w^as involved. Why should not the 
 good work go on? Why not changes come — change 
 after change, raising higher and higher the standard 
 of morals, making our Christian civilization more 
 truly Christian — Christians everywhere becoming 
 more truly such, realizing what in this world it 
 means to be a Christian? And what a gap here be- 
 tween what is and what ought to be ! What a curtail- 
 ment of worldly living; what truer use of talents and 
 possessions as God's gifts for doing good in the world 
 there must be before we begin to follow closely in the 
 footsteps of our blessed Lord ! Yes, begin to do it. 
 For how superficial, how shallow does life now seem 
 to have been ! Looking at it thus in the reflections 
 
EVENTIDE 
 
 219 
 
 of this eventide, how it seems as though the great 
 thing needed was for Christians somehow to be 
 brought to a stand in the rush and whirl of hfc, and 
 each take time seriously to inquire, "Am I li\'ing as 
 the Lord Jesus would have me? As to the purpose 
 of my life, the use of what God has given me of 
 talents, wealth and opportunities ; in my home and 
 among my neighbors ; in social and civil life ; in every- 
 thing, even to the food I eat and the clothes I wear ; 
 am I living as Christ would have me, ready to put off 
 and to put on, so as to be meet for his use here, and 
 to meet him in glory hereafter?" 
 
 This w^ould be a revival indeed ! — just the revival 
 which seems to be now needed ; the only revival that 
 can save the Church from being w^eighted down by 
 shallow conversions, if conversions at all, followed by 
 a low standard of Christian living, which she in her 
 own practice is herself imposing. Such a revival is 
 what the Church needs. The w^orld needs it ; in a 
 sense is waiting for it, that there may be felt in it the 
 force of the living Christ in the hearts and lives of his 
 followers. For, somehow, just as this is, the stand- 
 ards of morality are raised, and the forces of evil are 
 weakened. 
 
 Here we catch a glimpse of the time when strifes 
 and contention shall have ceased ; the mists and the 
 clouds shall have cleared away; capital and labor and 
 all such problems have found their solution ; social 
 questions, their ready answer; this greed for wealth 
 
220 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 have died out ; prosperity be sanctified, and the whole 
 earth smile in the goodness of the Lord. This, when 
 Christ is enthroned in the hearts of the children of 
 men. 
 
 And if this is ever to be, who shall lead the way? 
 Who but they who stand at the altar, the ministers of 
 Christ, as the prophets of the Lord? they in bold- 
 ness to declare the claims of the Lord Jesus upon 
 every soul ; that infidelity to him or wandering from 
 him are sins calling for repentance and return ; that 
 for any soul refusing to obey him there is no hope of 
 life eternal ; that nations too can incur the displeasure 
 and bring down the judgments of God who hath said 
 of our Lord and Christ, "This is my beloved Son, hear 
 him." 
 
 As these reflections come at this hour, when in a 
 measure life's work is done and one seems almost 
 alone with God, to what conclusions are they leading? 
 Is it that from our pulpits the tone of awe and rev- 
 erence of a holy God, a fear of his justice and judg- 
 ments has been dying out? This not to frighten peo- 
 ple, but to be true to God and to show that we see 
 his ways and walk in them. Perhaps. 
 
 At any rate, if ever there was a time when the min- 
 istry should seriously inquire how. to live and how to 
 preach, now is the day. As these thoughts are 
 borne in, the impulse comes to break out of this 
 meditative mood and utter to the ministry at large 
 a word of — , but no! this is too assuming. Still, 
 
EVENTIDE 221 
 
 liad I the ear of my brother ministers in Iowa, I 
 would dare to say, Dear l)rethren, the crown of all 
 work, the most potent, the most far-reaching- power 
 for good in this world, so far as man is concerned, 
 is the preaching of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 each one in the church and among the people where 
 in the providence of God he is placed. In his provi- 
 dence you are here in Iowa. One cannot go every- 
 w^here or do everything. This is your field. What 
 better can you desire? Ponder well its history; its 
 rapid growth ; its wonderful development. There is 
 inspiration in it. If in its workers at the beginning 
 of things you see aught to admire or imitate, bear 
 it in mind. But live not in the past. Dwell not 
 upon it as though the favored times were behind you. 
 Think not in yourselves to say, "No frontiers now; 
 no more the days of heroic, Christian labor here, but 
 the humdrum of commonplace, everyday work." No ! 
 no! Keep your eye upon the present. See what is 
 nozv going on ; what now is to be done, with your face 
 ever to the future. Growth and development ! They 
 are just beginning. Look up and around. Two mil- 
 lions and more now here, indeed, but millions more 
 are soon to be. The vast territories of thirty-one years 
 ago are states now swiftly filling up with their millions 
 crowding on to far distant Alaska. The whole nation 
 is expanding within and without. New problems are 
 pressing, problems at home and problems abroad. 
 Think of Cuba. Think of the Philippines. Think of 
 
222 THE IOWA BAND 
 
 the world. No ! no ! You stand at the threshold of 
 mighty things, in view of which, now, now are the 
 beginnings. This new century is to pass away and . 
 others are to come. It opens with no bow of peace 
 spanning the heavens ; no breaking of clouds as of 
 victories easily won ; but the gatherings of storms and 
 conflicts rather. 
 
 The final issue is indeed sure, for God is ; but not 
 without faithful, courageous and self-denying labor 
 on the part of his people. No! no! again. The true 
 frontiers, the heroic days are before, not behind. 
 Around every Christian minister there runs a line 
 across which are new steps to be taken, new advances 
 made to bring him nearer to the pattern of his Lord. 
 So around his church. So around the whole Church 
 at large in these world-engrossing days. The wide, 
 wide gap must be filled, for a type of Christianity to 
 cope with the present-day forces of this evil world and 
 do the work now opening up before us. 
 
 For the doors are being lifted up. We are talking 
 of a King and a kingdom here> on earth as never be- 
 fore. We are beginning to realize that it is not simply 
 a personal salvation by and by in heaven above 
 through a quiet, silent faith in Jesus ; this world en- 
 dured, got along with till that shall be, but that this 
 Jesus has a kingdom here on earth. This kingdom is 
 to be established by the faithful service of those who 
 hear his voice. ''As my Father hath sent me even so 
 send I you." They that toil even to self-denial and 
 
BVENTIDli 
 
 223 
 
 suffering here, are the ones to reign with Him above. 
 What a Hfe this is compared to one of ease and quiet 
 with our heads upon the bosom of the Church and our 
 hearts in the world ! 
 
 Dear brethren, in view of the world's need, with the 
 gospel remedy so plainly in view, do not the ver\- 
 times demand a Christian living and a Christian 
 preaching as never before? Who will lead the way? 
 Here is the frontier work, here are to be found the 
 heroic days. Soon, soon this young century will have 
 grown old. Sooner, sooner than this your sun will 
 have set. Let it be at the close of a day \vell spent. 
 Each faithful in his own field, for faithful w^ork in 
 low^a is world-wide. Help to make her more and more 
 the gem of states. This cannot fail to bless the nation 
 and the nations of earth. 
 
 A single word more, — not as an expression simply 
 of personal feeling, but in behalf of my brethren of the 
 Band now no more, but w'ho, if living, would doubtless 
 join me in saying, "Dear brethren, you have been 
 kind to us, and very considerate. We have loved the 
 work, have loved you. In your annual gatherings of 
 fellowship and counsel some of us have always been 
 with you, till but two are left. Ere long it will be said, 
 'The last one is gone." May the blessings of God 
 rest upon you. Be ye faithful. And now, adieu. 
 
APPENDIXES 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 Minutes at Occasional. Meetings of the Band 
 
 The undersigned of the Class of 1843 in the Theological 
 Seminary of Andover assembled in the twentieth year since 
 their landing in Iowa at the 24th annual meeting of the Con- 
 gregational Association of the State, record with gratitude 
 their testimony to the faithfulness and care with which Divine 
 Providence and grace have upheld them, their continued and 
 confirmed trust in the promises of the great Head of the 
 Church, their joy and gladness of heart in the work; and they 
 send to their brethren in every place who labor in the cause of 
 salvation and- especially those who from generation to genera- 
 tion shall succeed them in this field, words of greeting and 
 cheer. 
 Burlington, June 6, A.D. 1863. 
 
 Harvey Adams, 
 Daniel Lane, 
 J. J. Hill, 
 
 A. B. ROBBINS. 
 
 E. Adams, 
 
 B. A. Spaulding, 
 William Salter. 
 
 Drawn up by William Salter. 
 
 Burlington. June 6. 1873. 
 Again the undersigned of the Class of 1843 in the Seminary 
 of Andover, Massachusetts, convened at the home of our 
 brother and classmate. Rev. Wm. Salter, at the 34th annual 
 meet of the Congregational Association of Iowa, our adopted 
 state, renew their testimonv to the faithfulness and care of 
 the God of their fathers. We render humble thanks for the 
 225 
 
2 26 APPENDIXES 
 
 continuance not only of our own lives but also of the lives of 
 those whom God has made of "one flesh" with us. 
 
 From the beginning of our labors in this Western field to 
 the present time, we have rejoiced that the great Head of the 
 Church directed our footsteps thither, and we here record our 
 earnest conviction that humility, gratitude, love and faith in 
 God should be the controlling feelings of our hearts towards 
 Him who thus far has led us on. By his grace we are what 
 we are. By his grace we have accomplished what little we 
 have done. In the same grace we will trust unto the end. 
 
 Daniel Lane, aged 60, 
 Ephraim Adams, aged 55, 
 Alden B. Robbins, aged 56, 
 William Salter, aged 51, 
 Harvey Adams, aged 64. 
 Drawn up by Daniel Lane. 
 
 Burlington, Iowa, June 2, 1876. 
 Nearly thirty-three years ago the undersigned members of 
 the class of 1843 at Andover landed at this place, inquiring for 
 the most needy fields of missionary labor in Iowa territory. 
 We thank God for this third of a century of opportunity to 
 bear some humble part in planting churches of Christ in this 
 great state and other states, and in laying foundations of educa- 
 tional institutions. Though a few wrinkles upon the brow and 
 silver locks remind us that bone and muscle will wear out, we 
 arc not weary in well doing. Our hearts were never more 
 cheerful, our love for the work stronger, or our faith in the 
 triumph of the gospel over this fair Western land of our 
 adoption more firm. We meet here on the 35th annual gath- 
 ering of the churches of Iowa to witness with joy what the 
 Lord has done for Iowa. Probably we shall not all of us 
 meet again in the flesh. But the shining river is not far ahead, 
 where we shall soon meet and have ample time to recount our 
 life experiences and work. 
 
 E. B. Turner, age 6z. 
 E. Adams, age 58, 
 Harvey Adams, age 67, 
 A. B. Robbins, age 59, 
 W. Salter, age 54. 
 
 Drawn up by E. B. Turner. 
 
APPENDIXES 227 
 
 Mnscaline. Iowa, May 19, 1893. 
 Members of the Class of 1843. Andover Theological Semi- 
 nary, who came in that year to the territory of Iowa to prose- 
 cute the work of the Lord Jesus and who have continued 
 therein to the present time, assembled at the 54th annual 
 meeting of the Congregational Association of Iowa in the 
 City of ]\Iuscatine, the field of labor in wdiich one of our num- 
 ber has fulfilled his ministry of continuous service from the 
 beginning, and now gathered together in the hospitable home 
 of ]\Irs. Dr. P. B. Johnson, of this city, record their testimony 
 to the loving-kindness of the Lord in all the years of their 
 labor and their unfaltering faith- in the gospel of our Saviour 
 w hich they have humbly endeavored to preach in simplicity 
 and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace 
 of God. They assure their successors in the work of the 
 fidelity of the great Head of the Church to the pronnse, "Lo 
 I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." And 
 they commend that promise to the firm, implicit confidence of 
 those who are called to teach men to observe and lo do all 
 things whatsoever that Jesus commands. 
 
 Harvey Adams, 
 a. b. robeins, 
 E. Adams, 
 Wm. Salter. 
 Drawn up by William Salter. 
 
 Waterloo, low.a^ Sept. 16, 1895. 
 The undersigned members of the Iowa Band deem the 
 present date a fitting occasion to note some of the special deal- 
 ings of our heavenly Father with us, and to express our 
 acknowledgments of his continued goodness. While all of 
 us who remain h*ave been allowed to pass our three score and 
 ten, and some by many years, yet death has taken loved ones 
 from our households. The wives of three of the Band have 
 left for their heavenly home. These were Mrs. Wm. Salter, 
 Mrs. Harvey Adams, and Mrs. A. B. Robbins. They were 
 women who had made happy homes, who 'had also served the 
 churches and their generation well. While by their departure 
 their surviving partners and parishes are made to feel the 
 weight of a great sorrow, they yet feel that the departed are 
 enjoying the reward of their earthlv service. Also one of the 
 Band has fallen asleep — the Rev. E. B. Turner. His labors 
 were more largely in Illinois and Missouri. Th-ere are now 
 
228 APPENDIXES 
 
 surviving of the Band four in Iowa, and one in Massachusetts. 
 Of the wives still living, there are Mrs. D. Lane, Mrs. E. B. 
 Turner, Mrs. B. A. Spaulding, and Mrs. E. Adams. Mrs. 
 Adams is the only surviving wife in Iowa and she and her 
 husband are the only couple of the Band who have lived to 
 celebrate their golden wedding. That occurs on the day of this 
 date. The two of us present, who have been associated with 
 them during these fifty years, would not only express to them 
 but put into this memorandum warm and hearty congratula- 
 tions with them that have lived to see this joyful and eventful 
 occasion. God has been kind to them. May the kindness 
 long continue ! 
 
 There is need only to add that while those of us whose 
 wives have gone before, still deeply and constantly mourn 
 their loss, we would here record our fuller sense of the rich- 
 ness, the sufiiciency and surety of divine consolation for every 
 time of need. 
 
 Harvey Adams, 
 Ephraim Adams. 
 William Salter. 
 Drawn up by Harvey Adams. 
 
 Waterloo, May i6, 1897. 
 
 The members of the Iowa Band who to-day in the home of 
 one of them sign thns paper, make record as follows : 
 
 Since we met in Burlington one year ago. three of our num- 
 ber have passed over to the presence of our Saviour and 
 Lord: Brother H. Adams in New Hampton, A. B. Robbins 
 in Muscatine, and ]\Irs. E. B. Turner in Owego, New York. 
 Beside ourselves there only remain Brother E. Alden of 
 Marsbfield, Massachusetts, Mrs. D. Lane, of Freeport, Maine, 
 and Mrs. B. A. Spaulding of Ottumwa. It is now fifty-four 
 years since our work in Iowa began and we wish still to record 
 the goodness of God in bringing us at an auspicious time to a 
 good field and that his blessing has rested upon it. Drawing 
 near to the sunset of our day, it is a joy to think of even the 
 little part we may have had in what God through his servants 
 has done in Iowa. It is the Lord's doing and marvelous in 
 our eyes. It is with fond afifection we cherish the memories 
 of our brothers and sisters who have gone before to the bless- 
 edness, we trust, of those who die in the Lord, and we, though 
 only the remnant of families and of the Band, gratefully 
 acknowledge that not one thing hath failed of all which the 
 
APPENDIXES 
 
 Lord our God hath promised. And our hope is that when our 
 summons comes, as soon it must, we, as behevers in Jesus, 
 may be gathered with them for yet further service and joy on 
 the other shore. 
 
 William Salter, 
 Ephraim Adams, 
 Mrs. Ephraim Adams. 
 Drawn up by Ephraim Adams. 
 
 Atlantic, Cass County, Iowa, May 21. A.D. 1899. 
 
 In attendance at the 6oth- annual meeting of the Congrega- 
 tional Association of the state, and entertained at the hospi- 
 table home of D. Findlay, M. D., the surviving members of the 
 Iowa Band of 1843 record their devout and grateful acknowl- 
 edgment to the divine mercy and grace which for hfty-jix 
 years have sustained them in the work of the Christian minis- 
 try in Iowa. They see with joy and gladness that in every 
 portion of the commonwealth, churches and ministers which 
 hold the ancient faith and order of the gospel have been mul- 
 tiplied. With admiring satisfaction they behold the zeal and 
 devotion and the enlightened spirit of their younger brethren 
 in the ministry and they give to those brethren their cordial 
 salutation and blessing in the Lord Jesus. Recalling with hal- 
 lowed and tender affection the members of the Band who were 
 formerly with us, with whom we have labored and prayed to- 
 gether for the salvation of Iowa, whose spirits now rest in 
 God, they rejoice in the blest tie which, as it was in the be- 
 ginning, and as it has been for more than a half century, still 
 binds our hearts in Christian love, and to-day makes the fel- 
 lowship of our kindred minds like that above. 
 
 Ephraim Adams, age 81. 
 William Salter, age 77. 
 
 Drawn up by William Salter. 
 
 Burlington, Iowa, May 24, 1901. 
 The last surviving members of those who came to the Ter- 
 ritory of Iowa from the Theological Institution of Andover, 
 Massachusetts, in the year 1843, assembled in the city of Bur- 
 lington at the sixty-second annual meeting of the Congrega- 
 tional Association of the state, record their devout thanks- 
 giving to th-e great Head of the Church for the continued care 
 of divine Providence over them to the fifty-eighth year of 
 th'^ir ministry in low^, their grateful recollections of the goocj- 
 
230 APPENDIXES 
 
 ness of God in giving to them, and to their brethren who have 
 rested from their labors, a humble part in planting Christian 
 civilization in this beloved Commonwealth, and their fervent 
 prayers that the fruits of righteousness may in every part of 
 the state be sown in peace of them that make peace in all the 
 future years of its history. 
 
 Ephraim Adams, age 83, 
 Mrs. Ephraim Adams, age 80, 
 William Salter, age 79. 
 Drawn up by William Salter. 
 
APPENDIX II 
 
 Boston, May 28, 1844. 
 
 A meeting of gentlemen was held at the Home Mission 
 Rooms at the request of the Rev'd Asa Turner of the Ter- 
 ritory of Iowa. 
 
 The following gentlemen were present : — 
 Rev'd Calvin E. Stowe, Rev'd I. A. Allro, 
 
 Rev'd George E. Pierce, Rev'd William Tvler, 
 
 Rev'd Edward Beecher, Rev'd E. N. Kirk, 
 
 Rev'd R. S. Storrs, Rev'd Milton Badger, 
 
 Rev'd Theron Baldwin, Mr. D. Noyes, 
 
 Rev'd John M. Ellis, Mr. I. A. Palmer. 
 
 Rev'd Dr. Storrs was called to the chair, and E. Beecher 
 was appointed secretary. 
 
 A record was read by the Rev'd Mr. Turner of the proceed- 
 ings of the Iowa College Association — proposing a plan for 
 the founding and endowment of a college by the purchase of 
 a tract of land. Statements were so made by Mr. Turner ex- 
 planatory of their views. 
 
 Dr. Storrs being obliged to retire, D. Noyes was called to 
 the chair in his place. 
 
 Questions were then proposed to elicit as fully as possible 
 the facts of the case, and the whole subject was carefully dis- 
 cussed. 
 
 After this discussion, a committee was appointed consisting 
 of D. Noyes, Geo. E. Pierce, E. Beecher, and Theron BaM- 
 win, to whom the three following questions were referred : 
 
 1. Is it expedient at this time to begin an effort for the es- 
 tablishment of a college in Iowa? 
 
 2. Is the plan proposed by Mr. Turner best adapted to se- 
 cure the end in view? 
 
 3. If not, what plan is to be preferred to it? 
 
 Voted to adjourn to to-morrow at 3 P. M. at this place. 
 
 Boston, May 29, 1844. 
 According to adjournment, the meeting was held at the 
 Home Mission Rooms. 
 The gentlemen of the committee made individual reports on 
 
 ^31 
 
232 
 
 APPENDIXES 
 
 the questions assigned to them ; and there being an entire con- 
 currence of views, the separate reports were assigned to E. 
 Beecher to be united in one as the opinion of this meeting — 
 which was done as fohows : — 
 
 1. Is it expedient at this time to begin an effort for the es- 
 tablishment of a college in Iowa? 
 
 It is expedient to begin to put things in train for the foun- 
 dation of a college in Iowa, in order to secure united counsels, 
 and to be in a condition to take advantage of all available 
 means for securing the end. 
 
 2. Is the plan proposed best adapted to gain the end in 
 view ? 
 
 The plan of endeavoring to endow a college by borrowing 
 money to purchase a township of land, confiding in its increase 
 of value in five years, to repay the principal, involves the fol- 
 lowing serious disadvantages : — 
 
 (i) The risking the success of the whole enterprise on the 
 chances of making a wise purchase, sure to increase in value. 
 
 (2) The difficulty of securing the requisite quantity of 
 land, just where the great interests of collegiate education for 
 ages to come would demand a college and the irreparable in- 
 jury to the enterprise of failing to do this. 
 
 (3) The risking of the success of the enterprise on the 
 financial skill of an association of benevolent men, whose main 
 ends are intellectual and moral and not financial. 
 
 (4) The injury to which the ministry of Iowa are exposed 
 if they undertake to carry through so vast a system of specu- 
 lation by the absorption of mind in secular and commercial 
 and agricultural interests and plans, which it will produce. 
 
 (5) The obstacles which such a plan would present to the 
 cultivation of a benevolent and self-denying spirit in the 
 churches. If the land was secured it would afford a good ex- 
 cuse for not giving, and thus the primary steps would take 
 the college out of the bosom of the churches and throw it 
 into the cold regions of speculation. 
 
 (6) The character and reputation of the ministry of Iowa 
 would be exposed to great abuse. For in the transaction of 
 so much business it would be strange if no occasions of hos- 
 tility and odium should arise, and if any imprudent or in- 
 defensible steps are taken by only one or two of their agents, 
 still the odium would extend to all more or less. 
 
 (7) If the final results of the speculation should be unfor- 
 timate it would be in the highest degree disastrous. 
 
 (8) Should there be a failure there would be less sympathy 
 to fall back upon, 
 
APPENDIXES 233 
 
 (9) There is a strong prejudice at the East against all 
 plans of this sort, from the failure of other plans based on the 
 idea of securing endowments b}^ the rise of land — and even if 
 this plan were entirely unexceptionable, it would be impossible 
 to free it from the opposing influence of that prejudice. 
 
 In view of these considerations we cannot recommend the 
 plan as adopted to gain the end in view. 
 3. What plan is to be preferred to it? 
 
 The wisest plan would be to obtain a good location for the 
 college in the best place ; taking an enlarged view of the great 
 interests of collegiate education in all ages. 
 
 To obtain this location if possible by donation, and not to 
 be anxious to secure more land at the college than is sufficient 
 for college purposes — say forty acres. 
 
 At the same time to receive by way of donation as much 
 land as will be given either near the college or elsewhere. 
 
 To avoid the contraction of debts as a first principle. 
 
 To form an accumulating fund, and to endeavor to train 
 every church to add something to it every year, that the col- 
 lege may be from the outset rooted in their affections and 
 grow with their growth, and strengthen with their strength. 
 Too much importance cannot be attached to this simple 
 measure. Do not despise the day of small things — and trust 
 in God to open and unite all hearts. 
 
 Let all donations be outright, and no peculiar privileges be 
 offered to donors for future ages, as a compensation for dona- 
 tions. 
 
 Secure if possible the immediate payments of all donations. 
 
 Regard an elevated reputation, and the affections and con- 
 fidence of the community as your best endowment and as lead- 
 ing under God to the securing of all the aid that you need. 
 
 As early as may be safely done, begin instruction on a 
 moderate scale, and enlarge your plans with your means. 
 
 Aid from the East cannot be obtained as it once was. The 
 newly formed society is rapidly gaining the confidence of the 
 Eastern churches, and through it aid may be obtained when 
 the plan and the system of instruction shall be so matured 
 that they can secure the confidence of the Eastern mind. 
 
 Meantime, patience, perseverance, enlarged views and hope 
 in God are essential to begin and to execute such a plan. 
 
 This is the substance of the particular reports made by the 
 individuals of the committee united as one. by order of the 
 meeting. 
 
 Attest. 
 
 E. Bkkchf.k, Secretary. 
 
,} ..-^ o ^^ 
 
 I O WA 
 
ADDENDA 
 
 NOTES 
 
 Note i, page 12. Of that prayer-meeting it can be said that 
 it has never wholly died out. The members of the Band, of 
 course, held it in mind. Some of their brethren, especially in 
 the earlier days, joined in this remembrance of each other. It 
 is but a few years since at a General Association by a rising 
 vote they pledged an observance of Tuesday night. It is not 
 to be supposed in a changing ministry that all would do this, 
 but it can with safety be said that, up to this time, there al- 
 ways have been those, sometimes more, sometimes less, who 
 have remembered it. Often has it been a comfort to those in 
 affliction to know that at a specified time their names were 
 mentioned at the throne of grace. And what a bond of broth- 
 erhood it would be among the ministers of any state to have a 
 concert of prayer for one another ! 
 
 Note 2, p. 22. Two incidents during the stay at IMilwaukee 
 are fresh in mind. One, a Monday morning call upon the pas- 
 tor of our church there, a modest, retiring young man. after- 
 wards known as Dr. Chapin, the first and for so long a time 
 president of Beloit College. The second, an interview with 
 Rev. Stephen Peet, at that time Missionary Agent of Wiscon- 
 sin, who, true to his work in hand, laborecf somewhat urgently 
 to produce the conviction that in the Territory of Wisconsin 
 were the fields of greatest need and promise, while Iowa Ter- 
 ritory was so far west and so crude as to make it almost pre- 
 posterous for so many to think of going there. 
 
 Note 3, p. 26. The hospitalities of that entrance to Iowa 
 were never forgotten. Then were acquaintances formed and 
 friendships begun that grew and strengthened in after years. 
 There was at that time in Burlington a veritable mother in 
 Israel Mrs. James G. Edwards, and her generous-hearted hus- 
 band, the founder, editor and proprietor of the Burlington 
 235 
 
236 ADDENDA 
 
 Hawkeye, whose western experience enabled them to see what 
 these young men whom they took to their home had before 
 them, as they conld not. Everything said and done seemed to 
 be out of the motherly heart full of joy, yet serious and earnest, 
 for God's blessing on the work in hand. The hymn for morn- 
 ing worship was well chosen : 
 
 Kindred in Christ, for his dear sake, 
 A hearty welcome here receive. 
 May we together now partake 
 The joys which only He can give. 
 
 Note 4, p. 31. As a matter of fact, there has never been a 
 time when all have been together since leaving the seminary. 
 Yet the occasions in Iowa where a number have met have by 
 no means been infrequent. Especially has this been the case 
 at annual meetings of the General Association. Not always, 
 but frequently, on such occasions have they recorded their tes- 
 timony as to themselves, their fields of labor, etc., in reading 
 which it can be seen how the Band has melted away till but a 
 remnant is left. 
 
 Note 5, p. 2>7- The position of the Band of Congregational- 
 ists thus taken by the side of those who welcomed them here, 
 Mhose united work made Iowa an object lesson for the ideals 
 of such spirits as Ellis and Sturtevant and Post, of Illinois, of 
 Hobart, of ]\Iichigan, was the coming of a new chapter into 
 our denominational history in the West and through the larrd, 
 a chapter but little appreciated in these days. But few under- 
 stand the situation at that time or realize the importance of 
 those things that turned the scale. If any one is interested to 
 know these things, he can do no better than turn to the Recol- 
 lections of a Nonagenarian, by the late Dr. Holbrook who was 
 an actor therein. 
 
 Note 6, p. 38. It is pleasing to read, in a letter of Father 
 Turner to Rev. J. A. Reed, more than twenty years after the 
 coming of the Band, such words as these : "I have never been 
 disappointed in them. I have reason for gratitude to them and 
 to God that they have always treated me with so much kind- 
 ness and confidence, and that the experience of twenty-one 
 years has led me to esteem them so highly in love for their 
 works' sake." Brother Reed used to say of the members of 
 
ADDENDA 237 
 
 the Band -and those before them, "that like two drops of 
 water flowing together they became one." 
 
 Note 7, p. 39. The map on page 234 will show not only the 
 places named in this chapter, but also suggest the state of 
 things at the time, away to the west, even to the Pacific Indian 
 Territory. The journey described was made by the author in 
 the summer of 1844. In the first edition he disguised himself 
 and brethren by the use of initials, etc., but in this edition the 
 real names are given. 
 
 Note 8, p. 51. The author shrinks from making frequent 
 allusions to his own experience, but he may be allowed, per- 
 haps, to state what in particular led him to Denmark at this 
 time. It was a question awaiting decision, to him of no little 
 weight. There had come an invitation to succeed Brother 
 Hitchcock in his labors just closed at Davenport. A call from 
 a church of eighteen members and fairly organized ; a church 
 building just being completed, that seemed spacious (28x38) ; 
 a river location in scenery of surpassing beauty — a call to what 
 seemed a field of greater usefulness — these were" attractions ; 
 but not to be yielded to without counsel and advice of Father 
 Turner, then the Home Missionary Agent for a portion of his 
 time. So an interview was sought. In his study the situation 
 was stated — the pros and cons gone over ; then a walk together 
 along the alley leading from his residence to a farm gate shut- 
 ting it in from the highway, the matter still under discussion, 
 and there continued for some moments, one upon one side of 
 the gate, and the other upon the other, till a decision was ar- 
 rived at in tbis wise : 
 
 "Why," said he, as a reason for change, "you can fit students 
 in Latin and Greek for college, can't you, if necessary?" 
 
 "Why, yes, of course," was the reply. 
 
 "Well, then," said he, "go to Davenport ; prepare the way 
 for the college." 
 
 So came an eleven years' pastorate there, with much outside 
 work for what will appear in a chapter yet to come. 
 
 Note 9, p. 58. The family alluded to was that of Charles 
 Atkinson, Esq., of Moline, Illinois, elder brother of Rev. Geo. 
 Atkinson of Oregon fame. The Father in the ministry was 
 Father Turner; the youthful minister, the writer. Fresh in 
 mind are the very attitude, the earnestness of tone and look 
 when he made the prophecy, just as after reading the Scrip- 
 
238 ADDENDA 
 
 tures and a season of prayer he was taking his leave. In that 
 region now there are over one hundred thousand inhabitants 
 and the number is still increasing. 
 
 Note 10. p. 95. It was incumbent upon the writer to carry 
 this paper to the East for publication. It was presented first to 
 Secretary Badger at New York, with but little doubt that he 
 would favor the plan, but he began at once very politely to 
 discourage it. As the reasons for it were urged. "Well," he 
 said, "you are going to Boston, carry it to Dr. Clark, the Mas- 
 sachusetts Secretary, and see what he says." The paper pre- 
 sented to him met with the same discouragement. As the rea- 
 sons were being rehearsed with th'C urgency of a last chance, 
 "Well," said he, "it is of no use ; Dr. Badger has written to 
 me about it and we are agreed. The churches won't stand it." 
 1 he effort was fruitless unless, as a result of it, there appeared 
 in the Home Missionary, soon after, beautiful pictures of log- 
 cabin churches and cheap frame churches, with calculations 
 made showing with how little money they could be built. 
 
 Note ii, p. 104. And further still. So far as known, the 
 first conception of a college in Iowa was in the mind of Reu- 
 ben Gaylord while yet a student in Yale, and before Iowa had 
 fairly begun to be, and is found in a letter of his written in 
 1838, to the secretaries of the A. H. M. S., which tells of an 
 enterprise in which he and some others are interested in re- 
 spect to education and a college in the Iowa District, the 
 Black Hawk Purchase, asking what they can do to help in the 
 matter. That letter, in his own handwriting, through the cour- 
 tesy of the secretaries, is now in the Iowa alcove of the Col- 
 lege Library. Coming himself to Iowa soon after, to join 
 Turner and Reed, also from Yale, we are not surprised to 
 find in the minutes of their early Association mention made of 
 committees, and reports in reference to a college. As to the 
 Band, one evening previous to their coming, they were by 
 special invitation in the home of that good man, Samuel Far- 
 rar, the treasurer of Andover Seminary. He planned the 
 opportunity, and faithfully did he improve it, of urging that 
 a part of their missionary work in Iowa should be the early 
 founding of a college, giving to each a copy of the charter and 
 constitution of Phillips Academy, out of which came the Sem- 
 inary. One of the copies is also now in the college archives. 
 That first meeting in Denmark was where the two sets of in- 
 fluence came together. 
 
ADDENDA 
 
 239 
 
 Note 12, p. 109. Even to this day th-e phrase "Our College" 
 has by no means died out. True, in the course of time, two 
 others of our order have appeared. First, Tabor College, in 
 the extreme southwestern corner of the state — an offshoot of 
 Oberlin — and doing good work in Western Iowa and parts ad- 
 jacent of Nebraska and Missouri. Next, of later date, to the 
 far east in Muscatine County, came Wilton College, doing a 
 like good work for our German youths, many having the minis- 
 try in view', in behalf of their countrymen. To these we all bid 
 a hearty Godspeed. Still, remembering how early it was 
 started ; how it drew to itself the sympathy and support of the 
 early churches as they began to multiply; how it has growm 
 with their growth, standing somewhat central among them ; 
 mindful, too, of the fact that Avhen aided by the College So- 
 ciety the understanding was that the united forces should be 
 concentrated upon the one college, and not divided among 
 many; it seems to the majority of the churches now but natu- 
 ral and reasonable to speak of Iowa College as "Our College," 
 handed down as an inheritance from the past, as a sacred trust 
 to be acknowledged and cared for. There is something also 
 of the same feeling toward the old Denmark Academy, which 
 was started before the College, and for a while was as much of 
 a college as the College itself. 
 
 Note 13, p. hi. It may be of interest to know how this 
 came about. While the early steps were being taken, not en- 
 tirely free from fear lest they might prove premature, the en- 
 couraging fact became known (and what helped to turn the 
 scale) that some one had deposited money with the Home 
 Missionary treasurer at New York, for the benefit of some edu- 
 cational institution in a new Western state, said money to be 
 paid at his order. By inquiries made the name and residence 
 of that person was found. A letter sent to Mr. Carter through 
 Dr. Badger (who heartily endorsed it), setting forth purpose 
 and plans for a college in Iowa, brought back a response of 
 interest expressed and a check enclosed of one hundred dollars, 
 with some intimations of more. The_ correspondence _ which 
 naturally ensued resulted in his donation, which, considering 
 the time and circumstances, was one of the largest the College 
 has ever received. In his letters (some of which, by the wav. 
 are in that alcove before alluded to) he frequently^ speaks of 
 "Our Infant College," showing its place of adoption in his 
 heart, over which he was watching with a sort of parental care. 
 
240- ADDENDA 
 
 Note 14, p. iii. Those professors were: Rev. Erastus Rip- 
 ley Carter, Professor of Ancient Languages ; Rev. H. L. Bul- 
 len. Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy; D. S. 
 Sheldon, M.A., Professor of Chemistry and Natural Science ; 
 Rev. D. Lane, M.A., Professor of Mental and Moral Philoso- 
 phy. 
 
 Note 15, p. 151. The initials in this fragment cannot all be 
 given. Some of them have passed from the memory of its 
 writer even. Suffice it to say that Bro. T., stands for 
 Brother Nutting, then pastor of our once flourishing church 
 at Bradford, Chickasaw County; C, is for Chapin where the 
 esteemed Brother Avery was Jaboring; F., for Franklin County. 
 The River S.. was probably a swollen tributary of the Cedar. 
 
 Note 16. p. 213. During Brother Spaulding's ministry at 
 Ottumwa, one of his parishioners presented him with a silver- 
 headed ebony cane. In his last sickness he gave it to Brother 
 Lane, expressing the wish that after him it might go to the 
 next oldest of the Band that should be living, and so on to the 
 end. The succession of the cane has been as follows : 
 
 March 31, 1867 from Spaulding to Lane. 
 
 April 3, 1890 from Lane to H. Adams. 
 
 September 22, 1896 from H. Adams to A. B. Robbins. 
 
 December 23, 1896 from Robbins to E. Adams. 
 
 Note 17, p. 213. This was June 12, 1893, by the falling of a 
 tree across the carriage in which she and her husband with 
 two lady friends were riding in the Burlington cemetery. She 
 was killed instantly. Her husband, regarded at first as fatally 
 injured, recovered. The two lady friends escaped unhurt. 
 
:8 I 6 1903 
 
I