oCtte 
 
 ®imfacr£iitp of iSortlj Carolina 
 
 Collection of Motti) Catolintana 
 
 CB 
 CbS^c 
 
UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
 00032195918 
 
 This book must not 
 be taken from the 
 Library building. 
 
 Ibis IITLE HAS 
 
 BEEN MICROFILIVED 
 
Mrs. Clifton Clay 
 
The 
 
 Life of Clifton Clay 
 
 OR 
 
 True Stories for ^Parents 
 and Children 
 
 WRITTEN BY 
 
 A, L. COBURN 
 
 IN THE YEARS 1903-4 
 
 RAY PRINTING COMPANY 
 CHARLOTTE, N. C. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This little volume has been written that 
 good may be done, that souls may be saved, 
 and that God's name may be glorified. 
 
 Cliff was a bad boy, but how good 
 God was to him ! 
 
 These are true stories, and many who 
 are now living in Rowan, Montgomery, and 
 other counties, can testify to them. 
 
 Let us all trust in the Lord, and do good, 
 and meet in Heaven. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 A. L. COBURN. 
 
DEDICATORY. 
 
 This little book is dedicated to 
 
 MY DEAR WIFE 
 
 who has for twenty-six years stood by me 
 in prosperity and adversity, in sickness 
 and in health, in joy and in sorrow; and to 
 whom, under God, I feel that I owe all 
 that I am or ever shall be. 
 
 An affectionate husband, 
 
 A. L. COBURN. 
 
LIFE OF CLIFTON CLAY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 In the year 1849 there lived in the 
 
 county of R , in the State of N , a 
 
 man and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Clay. Five 
 children had been born to them, but they 
 all died in infancy, the eldest being only 
 two years old. So they were left all alone. 
 But on the 25th of July, 1849, another 
 child was born to them, Clifton by name— 
 and I am the boy. And as the law recog- 
 nizes pencil writing I will sharpen up my 
 old stub and write my will. 
 
 My will is to do all I can to save every- 
 body. When I think of God's goodness to 
 me I feel it my bounden duty to do every- 
 thing in my power to save sinners. And 
 as I have been asked and insisted upon by 
 friends to write out a sketch of my life, I 
 will endeavor to do so by the help of God, 
 for three reasons: First, to gratify my 
 friends; second, hoping that some good 
 
 9 
 
may result from it; and third, that I may 
 tell others of God's goodness and mercy 
 to me. 
 
 I was a bad Cliff. As I have already 
 said, I had neither brother nor sister, and 
 as they all died when small, you may 
 be sure my parents were very solicitous 
 about me. So when there was the slight- 
 est physical ailment to be seen in me the 
 old sweet oil bottle that hung by a string 
 from a nail driven in a log of the old house 
 was taken down, and an old pewter spoon 
 was taken from the shelf, and Cliff was 
 drenched. Ugh! what a nauseous draught 
 it was. I tell you my parents came very 
 near killing me trying to keep me alive. 
 0, how I dreaded that bottle and spoon ! 
 But after I got a little larger Mother left 
 off the spoon, and would stir the stuff up 
 in a cup. Now you know boys get loose 
 and fly off the handle, or say things they 
 ought not to say. Now that was just what 
 I did. I was too mean and lazy to work. 
 — One day mother wanted me to do some- 
 thing for her, and forgetting the conse- 
 quences I said, "I'm sick." That was 
 enough. Mother got the cup, and the bot- 
 tle was lifted from the nail, and before I 
 had time to frame another lie, the stuff 
 10 
 
was ready. I told my mother I could not 
 take it in the house, as it would surely 
 make me vomit. So I went out, but instead 
 of taking it, I threw it under the house, 
 and came back with the crookedest face 
 you ever saw. 
 
 My father and mother were members of 
 the church, but not Christians; and conse- 
 quently let such conduct pass unpunished. 
 But from a child, notwithstanding I never 
 heard my father or mother pray, or even 
 ask a blessing at the table, I wanted to be 
 a good boy; and when it would get dark I 
 would think about how bad I had been, 
 and was afraid to go to sleep. Oh, how I 
 wished father and mother would pray! I 
 thought if they would even pray at the 
 table it would help me to do better. 
 
 My father was a good carpenter and also 
 a good farmer. He was often employed by 
 the sheriff of the county of R to trans- 
 act business for him, and these things often 
 kept him from home during the win- 
 ter season. He was always at home on 
 Sunday. So one Sunday morning I got 
 father to the crib to see the fun, and Char- 
 ley did not get the attention he thought 
 due him, and he got mad and was walking 
 after me. I grabbed him on the shoulder 
 11 
 
and he grabbed my thumb, and would have 
 bitten it off if father had not been present. 
 That broke up the circus. I don't remem- 
 ber having another show after that. 
 I did not go to school much. My father 
 
 raised a boy, Wilburn A , who was older 
 
 than myself. I went to school with him a 
 few days to Mr. C. He was a good man 
 and very kind to me, but I was afraid of 
 him. I also went a few days to his sister- 
 I cannot remember much about either of 
 them, except that I was afraid of them 
 both without a cause. I said Mr. C. was a 
 good man. I say so because his after life 
 shows it — he is still living. The next 
 teacher I went to was a Mr. P. I was some 
 older and not quite so shy. This man would 
 sing and pray in his school. Mr. C. may 
 have done the same— I don't remember. I 
 have always loved singing and praying 
 ever since I can remember anything. Mr. 
 P. taught me my first tune; it was ''Happy 
 Day." Neither of these ever whipped me. 
 It was not because I did not need it, nor 
 that the teachers failed to do their duty; it 
 was just because they failed to catch up 
 with me in my meanness. I was always 
 on the lookout. My father never whipped 
 me. Sometimes I would cry out of a whip- 
 
 12 
 
ping and sometimes I would lie out of it. 
 I always got out of it. I always got out 
 one way or the other. I remember one day 
 when my father was gone to mill, I took it 
 into my head to survey. So without chain 
 or compass, with only a hatchet to mark 
 with, I started out. My idea was to mark 
 semething every six steps. Father at this 
 time was building a new house, and the 
 scaffolding poles were up all around the 
 house where he had been weather-board- 
 ing. It was six steps to the first, and six 
 steps to the next, and so on along the line 
 to the corner; but as I could not make it 
 from that line of poles to the next at six 
 steps, I tried it to the corner of the house, 
 and as that was the proper distance, I 
 whacked away on the corner tiling. When 
 father came home about the first thing he 
 saw was the hacked tiling. Cliff was 
 called, and just as soon as I saw 
 father's face, I knew there was some- 
 thing wrong. Pointing to the tiling, he 
 asked, *Who did that?'' My heart be- 
 gan to jump, and my breast to heave, 
 and my eyes to swim, and I suppose 
 my lips looked to him as if they had been 
 struck by an insulted yellow jacket, and I 
 said, 'It wasm-m-me." Then I told him 
 
 13 
 
all about it, my starting out the six steps, 
 and so on. Father then gave me a scold- 
 ing, and I saw I had done wrong and was 
 sorry for it and never did the like again. 
 
 One summer day father was plowing near 
 the house and I was playing around. He 
 told me to bring him some water while he 
 plowed another round. I said all right. 
 So I got the water and waited until he was 
 near the end, then I ran to him puffing and 
 blowing as if I had run from the spring, 
 which was some distance from the field. I 
 handed him the water; he drank some of it 
 and looked me in the face and said, ''Cliff, 
 did you go to the spring for this water?" 
 I said, ''Yes, sir.'' He said, "I don't be- 
 lieve you; this water is warm." "Well," 
 I said, "the reason of that is the sun is 
 shining right in the spring." Now this 
 was all a lie; I had not been to the spring 
 at all. I got the water out of the kitchen 
 and stood in the chimney corner till father 
 came in sight and ran and gave it to him. 
 I don't know what he thought; he threw 
 the water out, and next time I gave him 
 fresh water. My father was very kind to 
 me, and I don't know what m.ade me treat 
 him so. I don't know that he ever refused 
 
 14 
 
me but one thing that I plead for, and I am 
 surprised that he denied me that. He went 
 to town one Saturday and got a pair of 
 new boots. Very early Sunday morning I 
 inquired if he was going to church that 
 day. He told me he was not. I then told 
 him I wanted to carry his watch and wear 
 his boots to church, and he refused to let 
 me have them. I thought he treated me 
 real mean, for I was certain I could take 
 care of the watch, and the boots were only 
 four numbers too large. So because I could 
 not get them I would not go to church at all. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 My father was a great hand for guns, 
 and very fond of hunting. I often went 
 with him. I loved to see him shoot birds 
 and squirrels. I dreaded the crack of the 
 gun, but I knew that it was the ball that 
 killed. When I would see father take his 
 old rifle and put down a ball and go to the 
 pen and shoot a large hog or cow, and 
 would see where the ball went in, causing 
 instant death, it made me very much afraid 
 of bullets, for I knew they carried death 
 with them; and, like every other bad boy, 
 I was awfully afraid of dying. 
 
 One day I was out of employment, and 
 
 15 
 
was, as usual, prowling around in the 
 house, aggravating my mother. I climbed 
 up on an old trunk, and from that to the 
 top of the bureau, and opened the clock to 
 see what I could find in it. My mother 
 knew nothing of what I was doing, as her 
 back was turned to me, and she was very 
 deaf. I kept fumbling around, and at last 
 spied a ball of lead on the clock weight and 
 lifted it off and took it to mother. She 
 said, ''CHff, where did you get that bul- 
 let?" I told her. *'Now you go right back 
 and put it where you got it from. The 
 clock won't run without it.'' So, for once 
 in my life, I obeyed mother and turned 
 back. On reaching the trunk, in order to 
 make a successful climb, I put the ball in 
 my mouth and started up; but to my hor- 
 ror the thing went down my throat, and I 
 knew when a ball entered anything it was 
 certain death. I did not expect to reach 
 mother, but I started that way with a 
 scream every jump— with both hands on 
 my mouth, 'raking for the ball. Mother 
 was very much alarmed at the noise and 
 the capers, and asked, ' 'What in the world 
 is the matter, Cliff?" I told her between 
 screams that the ball was in me; that I had 
 swallowed it, and it would kill me. I was 
 
 16 
 
scared almost into fits. To my great sur- 
 prise mother laughed at me, and told me it 
 would not kill me unless it had been shot 
 in me. She said the clock would not run 
 without it, but it did; and the ball didn't 
 kill me, sure enough. 
 
 Well, I let such things alone, and went 
 to play with my pet cat. Sometimes cats 
 get tired of boys' fun. One day another 
 boy and myself put five half-grown cats in 
 a half -bushel gourd, and started down a 
 long hill. About every fifty yards out 
 would fly a cat. Now that was great fun 
 for the boys, but hard on the cats. One 
 day when I was playing with my old yel- 
 low cat she seemed to get tired all at once, 
 whirled on her back, kicked up with her 
 hind feet, and ripped the back of my hand 
 open with her sharp claws. This so en- 
 raged me that I set her claws in the fire on 
 hot bed of coals. Just as the cat was scur- 
 rying out of the fire-place, kicking off the 
 live coals, mother came in. She said, 
 ' 'Cliff, what are you up to now ?' ' I told 
 her the old cat had scratched me, and I put 
 her in the fire. The back door of the house 
 was shut, and there was no possible chance 
 for me to escape, and she whipped me— 
 just as she ought to have done. That was 
 
 17 
 
the first and only whipping my mother 
 gave me. Once after that my cat scratched 
 me, and I wanted to throw her in the fire, 
 but remembered what I got before, and 
 was afraid to repeat it. So I went and got 
 a handful of balm of Gilead buds, caught 
 the cat and sat down on her, opened her 
 mouth and crammed it full of those sticky 
 little buds. Mother came in on me again, 
 but both doors being open this time, I 
 made my escape without being whipped. 
 
 You see I was continually getting into 
 trouble, or else getting something else into 
 it. My life was no pleasure, I was so mean 
 and so disobedient to my mother; and she 
 was so easy and indulgent with me as to 
 let me go unpunished. Now, she did this 
 through kindness to me, but it caused us 
 both much sorrow later on. My father 
 would often come home from a business 
 trip under the influence of liquor. That 
 would fret mother, and they would often 
 say unpleasant things to each other. I 
 always dreaded to see him come home. He 
 was an honest, generous, hard-working 
 man. He often went to church, but still 
 continued to drink at times. Sometimes 
 he would quit for a good while, and I would 
 get in hopes he had quit for all time, and 
 
 18 
 
would be a good, kind father all the time. 
 Then the monster would lay hold of him 
 again, and I, poor boy, would sink back 
 into despair. 
 
 I had an uncle who lived near my 
 father's who was a good man, and I would 
 often go down there and stay for dinner to 
 get molasses to eat. We never had molas- 
 ses at home; we always had plenty of 
 honey, and the pesky things that made it I 
 despised. I had no pleasure in the yard 
 in the summer; the hateful bees would be 
 on the clover blooms, and often I had 
 alarmed mother by a whooping yell, com- 
 ing towards her on on^ foot, with one of 
 the pests sticking to the bottom of the 
 other. I would have had a good time at 
 Uncle's if it had not been for two things. 
 My Uncle always had a blessing at the 
 table. I thought that was so nice; and the 
 molasses was always on the table, and it 
 was so good; and his children thought so 
 strange that I loved molasses, and it seemed 
 just as queer to me that they wanted to 
 go home with me to get honey; but so it 
 was. The two things that I didn't like 
 was a big spinning wheel and my aunt's 
 sister, who lived with my uncle and spun 
 on the wheel from morning till night. 
 
 19 
 
Now the b-u-m, w-u-m, w-a-m, buzzing 
 noise of that wheel and the girl who turned 
 it, I could not bear. She was good-looking 
 and pleasant and all that; but she was one 
 of those endless teases. She was always 
 wanting to kiss or bite me, and if it was 
 after dinner when she made for me it did 
 not take me long to get home. She often 
 visited my mother, and I dreaded her com- 
 ing just about as much as I did the sweet 
 oil bottle and spoon. Every time she came 
 she would run me down and kiss me, and 
 made me mad as a hornet. After a hard 
 race one summer day she got her kiss, as 
 usual, then took her seat beside the north 
 door to cool off. The old house was neither 
 ceiled nor weatherboarded. I slipped up 
 and saw the back of her neck through a 
 crack, and seeing the best chance of my 
 life to get even with her, I got my squirt- 
 gun. It held about a half-pint of water. 
 I drew it full, fairly gritting my teeth all 
 the while. I stole softly up behind her, 
 stuck the gun in the crack, and then with 
 vengeance, I shot the whole load on the 
 back of her neck. I did not wait to see 
 what she did, but heard a racket as I was 
 leaving, and she has never kissed me since 
 that day. 
 
 20 
 
, I was now large and old enough to help 
 father in the field. I liked to lounge about 
 the kitchen, and cook, in my own way, but I 
 despised the field. One day when he was 
 in the field, a mule ran away with the har- 
 row and broke it. I was so glad. I thought 
 now I will have a long rest. But father 
 sent me about a mile to get an augur, and 
 in a few minutes after my return the har- 
 row was mended, and father went to har- 
 rowing and Cliff to digging. Father would 
 sweat freely, and of course I wanted to' be 
 like him. I would dig and lam with all my 
 might, but never could get my shirt wet. 
 One day in August we were cutting briars 
 in the bottom. Father was drinking and 
 had the toothache to boot; so you may 
 know things were not pleasant. About 10 
 o'clock he told me he would have to quit, 
 but for me to work on till about eleven, 
 and then come to the house. I dreaded 
 staying down there that long by myself ; 
 but I let in to work like a man, and was 
 determined for once in my life to go home 
 with a wet shirt. So I would dig and cut 
 briars with all my might for awhile, and 
 feel my shirt to see if it was getting wet ; 
 then I would go at it again in good earnest, 
 but all to no avail. So about the time I 
 
 21 
 
thought I ought to start home I got in the 
 branch and threw water on my back till it 
 was good and wet, then away I went for 
 home, but the sun was so hot my shirt was 
 as dry as a chip when I got to the house. 
 
 I worked but little after this with father. 
 He continued to drink for some time. His 
 health began to fail. He was called to the 
 war, but got a young man in his place. He 
 quit drinking a very short time before his 
 death. The preacher came to see him, 
 the, only time I ever remember of one be- 
 ing at our house. I do not know what he 
 told the preacher, but I know strong drink 
 brought him to an untimely grave. He 
 died on the 7th of January, 1863. I loved 
 my father, but could not shed a tear when 
 he died. I thought I loved my mother 
 when a boy, but I know now that I did not 
 love her as I ought, or I would have obeyed 
 her, and how much better it would have 
 been for me in after life if I had obeyed 
 my mother. Boys, let me tell you, for I 
 know it is true, you will have a hard time 
 getting through the world if you are dis- 
 obedient to your parents. I entreat you to 
 love, honor and obey them while they are 
 with you, and you will always be glad you 
 did so when they are hidden away in the 
 grave. 
 
 22 
 
chapter iv. 
 
 Thinks His Mother Treated Him 
 Wrong. 
 
 My father now being dead the estate 
 had to be settled. My uncle administered 
 on the estate, made sale, paid all the debts, 
 and paid over several hundred dollars to 
 my mother. She gave me one half of what 
 was paid over, and it was not long till I 
 got the other half and spent it, but it being 
 war times money was worth but little. 
 Corn was $15 per bushel. We had a right 
 hard time of it, and it was all because I 
 would not obey my mother. As I have 
 said before, she was too slack with me; 
 and now as father was dead, I intended 
 doing just as I pleased. Mother bought 
 Charlie at the sale; he was now getting old 
 but was still fine looking and pranky. I 
 would take him and ride out and run races 
 on Sunday, and keep mother forever 
 uneasy about me. Now, boys, don't treat 
 your dear mother like I did; if you do you 
 will always regret it, at least I have. 
 
 After the death of my father I went to 
 school one session to a young lady, a Miss 
 S. She was a good teacher and I loved 
 her, and wanted to please her. I learned 
 
 23 
 
more at this school than I did in all the 
 others I attended. I never had the oppor- 
 tunity of going to her any more. I was 
 very anxious to go to school more, but the 
 war was going on and uncle Wiley R. who 
 had administered on the estate, had to go 
 to the war, was wounded and came home 
 and died, and my mother caring nothing 
 for education, made my chances very poor. 
 But there was an old friend of my father's 
 living near us who said to me one day : 
 ''Cliff, if you will be a good boy and work 
 and pay me, I will see the teacher. Rev. 
 C, at the parsonage, where my boys are 
 going to school, and you may go there." 
 Now that was glorious news to me. I loved 
 that preacher and wanted to go to him; all 
 my associates were going, and I anticipated 
 a good time. I hurried home to tell mother 
 the good news and to get up my books, 
 paper, slate, etc., to have everything ready 
 for the next morning. Mother was not in 
 when I got home, but I gathered up my 
 books and was washing my slate when she 
 came in and sad: ''Chff, what are you 
 going to do with your books and slate?" 
 I then told her of the offer Mr. C. had 
 made me and how glad I would be to 
 accept it. To my horror mother said. ' If 
 
 24 
 
Mr. C. is going to take you in hand and 
 send you to school, he can board you, for 
 I will not/' No one, except one treated 
 as I was at that time, can have any idea 
 of my feelings. Father and uncle both 
 dead and mother working against my best 
 interest, and I knew it; but she did not 
 think so; she had no education herself, 
 and often said it made people proud and 
 high minded to educate them. How sad 
 for children when mothers look at things 
 of great importance in such a light as 
 that. Now I believe mother was as honest 
 in her opinion at that time as Saul of 
 Tarsus was when he was persecuting the 
 Church. Oh, dear mothers, be careful 
 with your children! No mother can pro- 
 perly manage children without daily ask- 
 ing God's help. Mother was not a Chris- 
 tian, and the way she treated me made me 
 feel very rebelHous towards her, and I 
 would go off and associate with bad boys 
 and girls, learned to fiddle and dance, play 
 cards, and drink and swear, and beat my 
 way on rail-roads and almost everything 
 else that was bad. When I would get 
 home mother would quarrel with me about 
 those trips and the company I was keeping, 
 and I would think and tell her of the offer 
 
 25 
 
I had had, and how I wanted to go to 
 school and be with better boys. Then I 
 would give her rough, ugly talk and leave 
 her again. I would go to Sunday school 
 and preaching, and when I would hear the 
 superintendent talk and the preacher 
 preach, I would make up my mind to be a 
 good boy, but often before I got home I 
 would lay some plan for wickedness to be 
 carried out during the week. But when I 
 would retire, be it early or at midnight or 
 later (as was often the case) I would feel 
 awful about my condition. I would often 
 get down on my knees and try to pray, 
 but I was so wicked and had no one to 
 ead me in the right way. Oh, dear boys 
 and girls, never fret and worry your 
 mothers whether they be Christians or not. 
 May this chapter do both parents and 
 children good. 
 
 Some of the boys and girls that I associa- 
 ted with were not so bad (or, at least, my 
 Sunday associations). They did not know 
 how bad I was, neither did they know my 
 feehngs. I had some cousins that were 
 bad, and associating with them— as I fre- 
 quently did — caused me to be more wicked 
 and restless than I would have been. I 
 scarcely ever went to church with them. 
 
 26 
 
I would go to church with others, and often 
 spend Sunday evening with my cousins 
 and wear off the good impressions made 
 on my mind by hearing good sermons. I 
 had one cousin, D. C, with whom I asso- 
 ciated more than any one else. I remem- 
 ber D. C. and myself going one night to a 
 Lutheran church, where Brother K. was 
 conducting a protracted meeting. He was 
 a great revivalist. We were sitting to- 
 gether. Rev. K. preached with great 
 power that night, and the Spirit carried 
 the word home to the hearts of the people 
 (or, at least it did to one). As the faithful 
 minister was going through the congrega- 
 tion talking to the people who were affect- 
 ed by the words, he saw two boys about 
 the size of D. C. and myself sitting on the 
 back seat behind the door. He looked at 
 us a moment and saw that we were deeply 
 affected, and ripe for instruction. He came 
 to us and began to talk. They were the 
 first words of that kind I had ever heard. 
 He was right at us, and meant no one else 
 but CHff and D. C. Well, my heart just 
 felt like it would jump out of my breast or 
 bust. Sometimes the word ''awful" is 
 used in the wrong place, but I think I can 
 safely say I felt awful. I felt that if 1 did 
 
 27 
 
not feel better and do better that the devil 
 would get me, and that it would not be 
 long until I would be in his clutches. The 
 good brother told us if we would come and 
 go with him to- the mourner's bench, and 
 pray earnestly to God, and repent and de- 
 cide in our minds to be better boys, our 
 hearts would feel better. I wanted to go, 
 but as we were on our way to church we 
 had fixed our coats in a very peculiar way 
 for the sake of convenience. I felt I never 
 could go walking down the aisle before 
 the congregation with my coat inside my 
 pants. So I went to work to get it out, 
 but could not without the preacher finding 
 it out. I told him I could not go that 
 night, and he left us, and soon afterwards 
 dismissed the congregation. I felt very 
 serious. As D. C. and I walked home he 
 said, ''CHff, what did you think to-night 
 when the preacher was talking to us?" I 
 told him how I felt, and that if my coat 
 had not been in the shape it was, I would 
 have gone with him to the mourner's 
 bench. He said he had made up his mind 
 to go if I went, and thought of his coat, 
 and while the preacher was at us, he 
 managed to get his out. We went back 
 the next night, and when the invitation 
 
 28 
 
was given for those who wished to be 
 prayed for to come to the altar we went. 
 I did not become satisfied concerning my 
 soul, but felt better, and joined the church 
 during the meeting. My mother was a 
 member of that church. Not feeling 
 satisfied about my spiritual condition, and 
 having no one at home to encourage me or 
 speak a word of comfort to me, and none 
 of my associates spoke to me on the sub- 
 ject of religion, the serious impressions 
 made on my mind during the meeting wore 
 off to a considerable extent. Connecting 
 myself with the church put me under the 
 lash of the whip in the hand of God. I 
 was not a consistent member, and God 
 would lash my conscience often when 
 engaging in the sinful pleasures of the 
 world. D. C. and I would attend plays 
 and dancing parties. We could furnish 
 the music or take our places on the floor. 
 It did not differ to us which place we had 
 so we got to the party. When I would 
 be at these parties my conscience would 
 tell me I was doing wrong. When I would 
 go to my room I would think I never 
 would go to another party. I would feel 
 so bad over my conduct that I could hardly 
 get any sleep. Young man, don't trifle 
 
 29 
 
with your soul as I did with mine. Join 
 some branch of the Christian church, and 
 be true to the same and to God, your 
 preserver and benefactor. 
 
 I associated with another young man by 
 the name of David L. . He was a trader 
 and gambler. He took me to the first bar- 
 room I ever entered. We went back from 
 Main Street, around a building and turned 
 again. It was night and very dark. He 
 knew the way, but I did not, as I had 
 never been there before. The town is a 
 prohibition town at this time, and that den 
 may be there yet. We went down under, 
 the ground about seven feet. Daniel 
 tapped at a door, as I thought, and a man 
 opened a space about li by 6 feet, by 
 letting down a plank which served as a 
 counter. We got what D. called for, and 
 he paid for it. The open space was then 
 closed, and we groped our way through 
 the darkness as best we could, and got out. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A Leap from a Running Train. 
 
 Well, David and I got out of the bar- 
 room, got to the train and reached home 
 late at night. I said he was a trader and 
 
 30 
 
a gambler, and we agreed before we 
 started to town to make all we could by 
 trading and otherwise, and to divide the 
 profits equally. He was very successful 
 and I received several dollars that trip. 
 He was naturally sharp; his father was well 
 read and smart, but very wicked, but I 
 think the son was worse than the father. 
 The old man Jim L. was a gunsmith and 
 jeweler, and Dave would cheat him every 
 time he traded with him, and cheating 
 you know is stealing. 
 
 Dave and I went to the town of S. to 
 see a man hung. He took with him, 
 among other things to trade on, a squirrel. 
 He got into a fuss with a young man. The 
 squirrel was chained to his coat, and was 
 in his pocket, and in the skirmish the 
 squirrel got out and bit Dave's hand, so 
 that the front side of his clothing was cov- 
 ered with blood. He got the best of the 
 young man and they ware parted, but in 
 the crowded streets of the town the fellow 
 slipped up behind him and struck him on 
 the head with a rock, cutting it to the 
 bone, and it bled freely, so the back of his 
 clothing was covered with blood, and he 
 looked so horrid I thought I would never 
 go with him any more. But I did. We 
 
 31 
 
got some very bad whiskey one evening 
 and went to a corn-shucking that night, 
 and just like whiskey will do, it made fools 
 of us. We passed a few words, and he 
 hit me with an ear of corn, and I talked 
 kindly as I could to him and he threw 
 another at me. I then told him if he 
 struck me again I v/ould settle with him. 
 In a short time he threw another. I had 
 prepared myself with a large ear, which 
 was lying by my side. I gathered it, threw 
 and struck him below the eye and knocked 
 him down in the shucks and left. He got 
 up, enquired for me, and swore if he could 
 find me he would shoot me. Some of my 
 friends hunted me up, and told me what 
 he had said, and advised me to stay out of 
 his reach. I was not afraid of him, and 
 thought I knew how to manage him. So 
 I watched my chance, walked up behind 
 him, laid my hand on his shoulder, and 
 said: ''Dave let us settle this and have 
 no further trouble. '' I told him he had hit 
 me three times and I had hit him but once, 
 and I was willing to drop the matter if he 
 was. So we departed in peace. 
 
 I had quite a number of cousins and as- 
 sociates in the community where I was 
 raised, but I will mention only four: Mose 
 
 32 
 
B. was a cousin of mine and a bad Sab- 
 bath-breaker. He attended Sunday school 
 and preaching but very httle. and then not 
 for any good. The others were Jake C, 
 Jak S., and Lock. S. The latter lived just 
 in sight of mother's, and they had a still 
 house, and it was nearer our house than 
 theirs. I spent much of my time with him 
 at the still. I ramibled with him but little, 
 not a great deal with Jake C. but was 
 often with him at homiO, Sunday school and 
 preaching. I always loved to get with him 
 and his sister to go to church. One rainy 
 Sunday morning I watched for them, but 
 in vain. I started alone and went quite a 
 distance out of the way looking for some 
 others that I hoped to see that day, but all 
 in vain. In my trip, coming to the rail- 
 road, I found a train stopping for wood. 
 I knew that it would go by the church 
 (where the preacher talked to me) and 
 the station was only a mile the other side. 
 So without money or barter, I mounted it. 
 I say barter; I used to take very fine 
 peaches from mother's orchard to the 
 station, leave Charlie and grandmother's 
 old carriage, get on the train and give the 
 conductor a dozen of them (if I could not 
 beat him out of the ride) to take me to the 
 
town of S., where I would trade more 
 peaches for biscuit and fried chicken, and 
 then beat my way back to the station, 
 Charhe and I were always home before 
 night. Mother found me out, and as she 
 had never seen the inside of a car, I told 
 her to go with me one trip. So we went 
 
 to the station. I put up Charlie and took 
 a lot of peaches and got on the train. I 
 paid mother's fare and bought her fried 
 chicken and biscuit, and that satisfied her. 
 When we got back to the station I found 
 a young lady and her brother there from 
 the city of G. They wanted to go about 
 fifteen miles into the country. So mother 
 told them if they would go home with us I 
 could take them the> next day. So they 
 went. I liked the young lady very much, 
 and she told me she would write when she 
 got back to G. But alas! as we were going 
 on the next morning I was not as careful 
 as I ought to have been. So at a very bad 
 place in the road, I turned the old carriage 
 over, threw her out, and liked to have 
 killed her. I have never seen her since. 
 But back to my trip on Sunday. When 
 the train passed the church it did not 
 seem to be running fast, and as it was 
 raining (and had been for three days. ) I 
 
 34 
 
didn't want to walk back, and the con- 
 ductor had not found me out yet, so I con- 
 cluded to jump off. I did, and the first 
 thing that struck was my head and 
 shoulders in the ditch of a red mud cut; 
 and that was another time Cliff's coat was 
 not fit to appear in the congregation. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Too Close to the Preacher. 
 
 The conductor or someone else found out 
 that a passenger was overboard; and after 
 running a short distance stopped the train. 
 I followed on, but not to get on board. As 
 soon as I could get out of the cut I left the 
 railroad and the train went on. I went to 
 a branch near by and washed the mud off 
 as best I could, and went to the church 
 where I intended going that day. I felt as 
 if I never wanted to ride on that thing 
 again, money or no money, barter or no 
 barter, and right then and there I made 
 up my mind that I would never jump off a 
 train again. But mean boys change their 
 minds so often. One Friday night Jake S., 
 his brother and myself went to a singing 
 at a church. After singing I proposed to 
 them that we go to the town of C. that 
 35 
 
night, a walk of about eleven miles. They 
 agreed and off we went. Jake said he 
 knew a man with whom we could stop, but 
 when we got there he would not take us in 
 at that time of the night, so we lay in the 
 woods till I thought I should freeze. So I 
 told them we would go back and try him 
 again. We went back, and by hard beg- 
 ging we got in. We missed the train the 
 next morning, and could not think of 
 walking back; so we rambled about the 
 town all day, went back to the same place 
 and stayed Saturday night. We went 
 with some of the family to see a very sick 
 boy. The sick boy said that night that he 
 wanted all his playthings brought to him. 
 His mother gathered them all up and gave 
 them to him. He separated them and 
 divided them as best he could between his 
 brothers. The poor mother was heart- 
 broken, and said her boy was going to die. 
 Oh! how I wished I was at home with my 
 mother, whose heart was then throbbing 
 for her wayward boy. I had not even told 
 her that I was going to the singing Sunday 
 morning. There was a young man at the 
 place where we were stopping who went 
 and got a quart of whiskey, and I got my 
 full share of it; but we were able to get to 
 
 36 
 
the train on time. So without monej^ or 
 barter— for none of us had a cent— I said 
 hop on boys, and so we did. The train 
 was very much crowded, and we stood on 
 the back end and watched in at the door 
 for the conductor. We had passed the 
 church and were nearing the station when 
 I saw him coming. Now, in those times 
 they changed your money and you could 
 pay your fare without a ticket, and it 
 took a long time when the train was 
 crowded. He was now near the door, and 
 the train had slackened some and I now 
 thought I could make it safely and not be 
 caught. So I now leaped off and the boys 
 followed me. We all escaped unhurt. 0, the 
 goodness of God to preserve such wretches 
 as we were. 
 
 I want to say to boys that trains don't 
 run now as they did then, and even if they 
 did, , never, never undertake to beat your 
 way or jump off, for the one is a sinful and 
 the other a very dangerous practice. 
 
 The railroad at this point ran between two 
 churches, the one a lutheran and the other 
 a reformed. Rev. K. preached at the 
 Lutheran, and Rev. C. at the Reformed 
 church. We went to hear the Rev. C. 
 that day. It was a communion occasion, 
 
 37 
 
and the church was packed. The preacher 
 saw us and beckoned for us to come that 
 way. I hated to refuse him, for I thought 
 a great deal of him, mean as I was. But 
 the thought of walking down that long 
 aisle in the condition I was in! My clothes 
 were dirty, my face black, my pants torn, 
 and my coat too short, but we went and 
 got seats; mine was on the steps of the 
 pulpit. 0, how mean I felt there by the 
 side of the preacher. I found out that day 
 that mother was in great distress about 
 me. And Jake's father was hunting for 
 his boys, and was very uneasy about them. 
 0, boys, don't treat your parents so. Just 
 see what one bad boy can do. I was to 
 blame for all this trouble. I will tell you 
 more about Jake S. further on. I spoke of 
 Mose B., a cousin of mine; he was a bad 
 boy, and led me into many bad things. He 
 was always ready for anything that was 
 bad. Mose was with a man by the name 
 of Allison C. a great deal, who was a very 
 bad man. He had a railroad contract for 
 making sills in time of the war. He 
 boarded at my mother's while working at 
 the sills and hired me to chop for him at 
 ten dollars per day. [This was in war 
 time.] After our day's work was done we 
 
 38 
 
often went to dancing parties and made 
 the night hideous with our wicked songs 
 and frolicking. We generally went armed 
 with at least two pistols apiece. One night 
 I remember carrying three. Oh ! how fool- 
 ish, how foolish, but at that time I thought 
 it was the thing to make me a gentleman. 
 I will speak of them some time again. 
 Lock S. and I got along all right except 
 one time. Our mothers got into a diffi- 
 culty. Lock got m^ad one day and came 
 over to v/hip me, but I shamed him out of 
 it. In a few days he came by for me to go 
 with him to a wedding, and that was the 
 last of our trouble. Jake C. and I were 
 always on good terms. I will refer to 
 these again. 
 
 I still worked on the little farm. Charlie 
 was getting so old that he could not stand 
 the farm work and my hard riding, so I 
 traded him off for a young, wild gray. I 
 had trouble to plow him, and that fretted 
 mother. But there was one thing I could 
 do — and that was to ride him. Now, that 
 suited me better than plowing, so I rode a 
 great deal. I wanted mother to like my 
 new horse, and not be fretted at me about 
 old Charlie, so at last I got her to ride him. 
 She was a rider of the old type, and was 
 
 39 
 
not afraid of a horse. After she rode him 
 she liked him better. One day I got Lock 
 S. to help me to kill a big hog. After we 
 killed it we put it on a wagon, hitched the 
 gray to it, and left mother and aunt to 
 mind him while we washed our hands. He 
 got away from them, ran down a steep 
 hill, threw the hog off, and tore things up 
 in general. A short time after this I got 
 my horse and went off. I drank half -pint 
 of corn whiskey, half-pint of rye whiskey, 
 and half -pint of rum, traded him off for a 
 little gray (a racer), came back by the 
 town of C. , lay down on a counter, kicked 
 off a lantern, broke it— and had it to pay 
 for, and went home and told mother the 
 gray was gone. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 A Horse Race on Sunday. 
 
 Oh! but I felt bad over that trip, and 
 made up my mind that strong drink should 
 never get me into trouble again and cause 
 me to pay out money. 
 
 I run one more horse race on Sunday 
 with a girl. (I say girl because no lady 
 would do such a thing as that on Sunday, ) 
 
 40 
 
My horse jumped a mud hole, caught his 
 foot in a hanging strap, turned a summer- 
 sault, and threw me on my back. When I 
 caught my breath and came to myself, my 
 horse was lying on his back beside me. I 
 saw at once that I was near eternity, and 
 felt that I was not prepared. I decided in 
 my mind to stop horse racing, and I did 
 stop my part of it. I would go to preach- 
 ing to some church on Sunday. There was 
 service at the Luthe^^an church one Sunday 
 and at the Reformed church the next. 
 These two churches were too near each 
 other to have service on the same day and 
 at the same hour. There was no Methodist 
 church in the community where I lived ; 
 but I had heard father and others speak of 
 them and the Baptists frequently. They 
 said that a Methodist preacher was known 
 by his coat-tails being torn loose at the 
 back— one with the Bible and the other 
 with the bottle. 
 
 The preachers at the above mentioned 
 churches conducted their meetings in a 
 very quiet manner. Sometimes they would 
 have revival meetings, and when penitents 
 were converted, they would give vent to 
 their feelings and sometimes shout, and 
 some one in the congregation would say, 
 
 41 
 
''There is another one got religion." Well 
 I wanted to be pious and good, but I did 
 not want to do as they did. I went to a 
 Presbyterian church once ; the church was 
 nice, the preaching was excellent, and the 
 singing was inspiring. Altogether it made 
 me love those people. I heard of a Metho- 
 dist meeting a few miles off, and a crowd 
 of us decided to go to it one night; we went, 
 and such a place and such a time as they 
 had. On top of a hill in an old pine field 
 we found a little log house about 18x24 ft. 
 and about ten feet high; it was not ceiled 
 nor were there even planks nailed over the 
 cracks. Some one told us that was the 
 church, but the preaching would be in the 
 grove. Well, that church did not look like 
 a church to me; father kept his corn and 
 wheat in a better house than that in his 
 barn-yard. 
 
 When it began to get dark some candles 
 were lighted, and a large pine knot fire 
 was made on a table covered with soil. 
 The pine knot fire was such as we used to 
 have at corn-huskings. The meeting began 
 and a fine-looking man with flashing eyes 
 and a thundering voice arose to conduct it. 
 I asked some one who he was, and was told 
 that his name was Triplett— Preacher 
 
 42 
 
Triplett. Such a name!— three at once! 
 I thought I never had heard such preach- 
 ing. You could have heard him a mile. 
 Before he was done preaching that night 
 there were three at once, sure enough. 
 An old lady was jumping around a tree 
 shouting; a man was walking around on 
 his hands and feet, drunk, hollowing that 
 Lizzie (that was the lady's name who was 
 shouting) was going up that persimmon 
 tree to heaven. So I turned away, and as 
 for the Methodists, the half had never been 
 told. I decided that I would not go to see 
 such a show again soon. My health being 
 delicate, I concluded farm work did not 
 agree with me. So I went to see a man by 
 the name of Brown who made and repaired 
 buggies and wagons. He said he wanted 
 someone to help him at the trade. We 
 made a contract, and on the morning of the 
 19th of August, 1867, I bade my mother 
 adieu, and left her alone and went to karn 
 the trade with Brown. He belonged to the 
 Methodist church, and read a chapter from 
 the Bible, and prayed every morning and 
 evening. I liked the reading and praying 
 very much, and behaved myself at the fam- 
 ily devotions except on one occasion. An 
 old colored man came to work for Brown 
 
 43 
 
and Mrs. Brown gave him a piece of musk- 
 melon for his breakfast. He laid it on a 
 pile of lumber in the yard, and took his 
 seat on the doorstep while Brown had 
 prayers. I saw that the darkey's affec- 
 tions were on the melon, and not on things 
 above. While Brown was reading, a cow, 
 smelling the melon, ventured to take it. 
 The old man threw up his hands and said, 
 **hus, hus!" The cow gave it up a minute 
 or two, but returned. The ''hus, hus!" 
 was repeated. Brown closed his book and 
 said, ''Let us pray." The darkey on the 
 doorstep, with his eyes fixed on the melon, 
 myself sitting just inside the door with my 
 eyes on the darkey was the situation so far 
 as we two were concerned. Brown prayed 
 and we watched. But alas ! the next effort 
 the cow made was with a determined will. 
 The old man again renewed his efforts to 
 protect his melon, and said "hus, hus, 
 hus!" but all in vain. The cow ate it and 
 went on her way rejoicing. Brown con- 
 cluded his prayer, and the old darkey, with 
 a sad face, looked up and said, ''She got 
 it. ' ' Mrs. B. gave him another piece, and 
 his face brightened up and all passed off 
 pleasantly. 
 I loved this man Brown and his family, 
 
 44 
 
notwithstanding the fact that he was a 
 Methodist. I soon learned that he had a 
 brother and two sisters, all Methodists and 
 good people, the children of a Methodist 
 preacher. How glad I was to be in com- 
 pany with pious, well-to-do people. I loved 
 to be with them, but I thought if they 
 knew how wicked I was they would not 
 allow me to stay among them. Brown's 
 youngest sister, Mary, was not married, 
 and I delighted to form an acquaintance 
 with her. But I was ashamed while in her 
 company, she was so pure and chaste, and 
 I so defiled with sin. Her brother proposed 
 to me to go with her on Sunday to the 
 Methodist church. God knew I intended to 
 try to do better; and I went, thinking a 
 good sermon v/ould strengthen my inten- 
 tion of mending my ways. The church 
 was very good and Triplett preached again. 
 
 chapter viii. 
 
 Cliff's First Note to Miss Mary. 
 
 I was delighted with the Methodist 
 preacher and preaching, and still more 
 delighted with the company of Miss Mary 
 B. I had been in the company of quite a 
 
 45 
 
number of young ladies, but never had felt 
 towards any of them just as I did towards 
 her. Now this girl was just the kind of 
 of company I had always wanted to keep, 
 and if I could have found and kept such 
 company sooner I would never have strayed 
 so far from the path of right. Mother told 
 me when I left home that I would not stay 
 at Brown's three days, but I stayed three 
 weeks before I went home to see her. She 
 asked me if I was going back. I told her 
 I was. I then told her all about my home 
 and that Mr. Brown had family prayers 
 night and morning, and how I enjoyed it, 
 and that he had a good wife, and she was 
 so very kind to me, and that they were 
 Methodists. Also that Brown had a sister 
 about 17 years old, and she was a Method- 
 ist, and that I had gone with her to Meth- 
 odist preaching the Sunday before, That I 
 thought they were all very good people, 
 especially Miss Mary, and I liked to stay 
 among them. 
 
 As I became better acquainted with the 
 young lady the more I liked her. She had 
 another brother named Jim; I worked for 
 Bill. Jim was married and he and his 
 family were very good and kind to me; 
 they were methodists. Their little boys, 
 46 
 
Willie and Johnnie, and their cousin Jim- 
 mie, were around the shop where I was at 
 work every day. The little boys would 
 bring me large apples from the orchard 
 near by, more than I could possibly eat. I 
 would lay them up and for weeks have 
 plenty of good apples to eat. This extreme 
 kindness caused me to think. I thought 
 surely if these people knew how bad I had 
 been, they would not be so kind, or if they 
 did find out they would turn from me in 
 disgust and I might seek shelter some- 
 where else. But none of .these things 
 came upon me and I kept my position. 
 Right there in the shop I made up my 
 mind that I would never do another mean 
 thing. 
 
 One Sunday morning I got out my razor 
 and shaved. Mrs. Brown looked a little 
 sour and asked me why I did not shave 
 Saturday evening. I had always thought 
 up to this time that Sunday was the day 
 to shave. I had a fiddle with me, and I 
 could plainly see that they were not 
 pleased with that. So I sold the fiddle 
 and quit shaving on Sunday, and every- 
 thing seemed very pleasant afterwards. 
 You see, for Miss Mary's sake, I did not 
 want to do anything that would displease 
 
 47 
 
any of her people for fear it might dis- 
 please her. But this was not all; I really- 
 wanted to be good. 
 
 After some length of time I ventured to 
 write Miss Mary a note and sent it by little 
 Will. She answered it in a very pleasant 
 manner. I read it with delight, but was 
 ashamed of myself for writing to her. 
 My note so badly written and worse spelled; 
 her's so beautifully written, correctly 
 spelled and in such good language. I 
 really felt bad. But God knew my heart, 
 that I intended to be a better boy, and I 
 thought to associate with such a girl was 
 the best way for me to accomplish it; and 
 then the association to me at least was 
 very pleasant. 
 
 Some time after this I called on her at 
 her father's and had a talk with her con- 
 cerning my past life and my determination 
 to do better. I told her that my father 
 was dead and my mother was not a Chris- 
 tian; that I was a poor boy and of the 
 chance I had of going to school, and of 
 my mother's objecting to the plan, and 
 how it had hardened me and caused me to 
 do many wrong things that otherwise I 
 would not have done. I also told her that 
 I had neither brother nor sister, and that I 
 
 48 
 
wanted to associate with good people. My 
 story seemed to effect her a good deal. 
 She was sorry for me and told me she 
 would gladly help me in any way that she 
 was able. This helped me greatly in my 
 determination to be good. 
 
 I had not been at Brown's many months 
 until I had another chance to go to school. 
 Brown would not let me off to go; he said 
 I was just now beginning to learn my 
 trade, and it would not do me much good 
 to go to school^ the length of time that I 
 had been offered; unless I could go longer. 
 He did not want to give me up, and said 
 to me, "I will learn you all I can at home.'' 
 He was a good scholar and did as he 
 promised, and I gave up going to school. 
 
 chapter ix. 
 
 His Marriage and Conversion. 
 
 I was very fond of Miss Mary's com- 
 pany, and called on her again at her fath- 
 er's which was near by. Her father and 
 mother both treated me very kindly, and I 
 became very much attached to the family, 
 which consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Brown, 
 their daughter, and a maiden lady who 
 had been in the family for twenty-five 
 
 49 
 
years, and who had nursed Miss Mary and 
 was still watching over her charge, and 
 thought indeed she was quite too good a 
 girl to have the ' likes of that fellow call- 
 ing on her." Indeed, she was very much 
 surprised at the father and mother to let 
 him come there at all. I was afraid to call 
 on the young lady very often for fear I 
 migh disgust the family, so I often wrote 
 notes and sent them by little Will. 
 
 After we became better acquainted she 
 asked me if I would take offense if she 
 should offer some criticisms on my notes. 
 I thanked her and assured her that I would 
 be pleased to have her as a critic and in- 
 structor. And I thank God to-day that I 
 ever found that young lady. 
 
 As I have said before I was so hard- 
 hearted that I never shed a tear when my 
 father died, but I had not read many of her 
 letters till I began to feel. One evening I 
 received a letter and went to the spring to 
 read it (I remember the very spot), and as 
 I read the great deep of my heart was bro- 
 ken up, and the tears flowed apace. Right 
 then and there I felt in my heart that I 
 loved Miss Mary as I had never loved any 
 one before, and made up my mind at once 
 that I would ask her for heart and hand. 
 
 50 
 
We were both ver}^ young to think of mar- 
 rying, but I felt that I needed the company 
 and help of just such a person all the time, 
 and I determined to propose to her the very 
 first opportunity that I had; and so I did, 
 but got no answer, good nor bad, for two 
 long weeks (and they were long ones, too). 
 I had time to think a great many things. 
 I just imagined that some one had told her 
 father and mother all about me, and that 
 my suit was all in vain. I met her two or 
 three times and received a note from her 
 during the two weeks, but not one word 
 did she say about the question. All that 
 kept me from giving up in despair was 
 that she treated me kindly. When I was 
 just about as blue as a fellow can get in a 
 love affair, the answer came in the affirm- 
 ative, and I was happy. Her father con- 
 sented to the marriage, but her mother 
 would not, and I could not blame her. 
 Mary was the youngest of the family and 
 the only one at home. It would have 
 been hard for her mother to have given 
 her up to any one, but especially to a 
 young man whose morals had been very 
 bad,— and she had found it out. Now this 
 was a great trial to me, but I had her fath- 
 er's consent, and I had a hope that her 
 
 51 
 
mother would become reconciled. So we 
 waited a good long while, but the longer 
 we waited the worse matters got. At last 
 I determined to steal the girl if she would 
 run off with me. She said she would if 
 her mother would not consent, and she 
 would not. So, with her father's help, I 
 made my arrangements to steal her; but 
 her mother overheard our plans, and when 
 she found we would marry any way, she 
 said we should marry at home. And on 
 the 24th of November 1868, Rev. T. L. 
 Triplett married us at her father's house, 
 That was 24 years ago last November, and 
 although there are plenty of silver threads 
 among the dark brown tresses, she is the 
 same dear girl to me. It has always been 
 a wonder to me how she and her father 
 could place so much confidence in such a 
 poor, ignorant, bad boy as I was. 
 
 I had quit my meanness and come to 
 the conclusion that the Methodists had 
 been badly misrepresented. I now thought 
 they were about the best— instead of the 
 worst— people in the world. One day 
 Mrs. Clay and I were talking about 
 church matters; she said she would like 
 for us both to belong to the same church. 
 She said she was willing to go to the Lu- 
 
 52 
 
theran church with me if I was not wilHng 
 to go with her. I told her I thought one 
 was as good as the other, and as her father 
 was a Methodist minister it would be bet- 
 for me to go with her. So I joined with 
 her, but I was not regenerated. My mind 
 was changed but not my heart; but it was 
 not the fault of the Lutheran church that 
 I was not converted. I wanted pure and 
 undefiled religion, but did not want anyone 
 to know when I got it. I thought my 
 wife's brother Jim was the best man 
 I ever saw. We went hunting, fishing, to 
 town and to church together. I thought if 
 I could only be as good as he was I would 
 be sure of the kingdom. So one day when 
 Triplett was preaching on the hill in the 
 old pine field where I heard my first 
 Methodist preaching and the drunk man 
 walk around on his hands and feet, Jimi and 
 I were there side by side. He preached 
 with great power, and to my great surprise 
 Jim fell on his knees and began to cry for 
 mercy. I felt that if I did not do the same 
 the devil would get me in less than an 
 hour. So I knelt by his side, and in less 
 than thirty minutes I was soundly con- 
 verted. All my trouble now was that 
 there were so few r)resent for me to tell it 
 
to. I just wanted everybody to know I 
 had religion, and wanted everybody in the 
 world to feel just as I did. That was 
 twenty-four years ago last August, and I 
 thank God I have never doubted my con- 
 version for one moment from that day to 
 this. 
 
 chapter x. 
 
 His Mother's Conversion. 
 
 We were boarding with Mrs. Clay's 
 father when I was converted. Oh! how 
 different the world seemed to me. The 
 trees, the grass, and the flowers all looked 
 as if they had come out in a new garb. 
 Neither the outside nor the inside of the 
 shop in which I worked looked like it did 
 before. The tools seemed to cut better, 
 and wood was not so tough. And all the 
 folks seemed so different. In fact every- 
 thing was changed, but the biggest change 
 was in me. I thought I loved Miss Mary 
 (who is now Mrs. Clay) before, but I did 
 not know how to love her until I learned 
 to love the blessed Saviour. And I want to 
 say right here, no one can love their fellow 
 creatures as they ought, until they have 
 given God their hearts and love Him su- 
 
 54 
 
premely. No husband can love his wife, 
 nor the wife her husband as they ought to 
 love each other, without the love of God in 
 their hearts. Parents cannot love their 
 children nor children their parents as they 
 ought without it. The young lady cannot 
 love her lover, neither can the young man 
 love and respect the young lady as he 
 ought without it. We all need it, and 
 must have it if we would make a success- 
 ful journey through this world of sorrow, 
 and gain Heaven in the end. I had heard 
 so much talk about what folks called 
 religion. I had heard mother speak of it 
 in a slighty w^ay, and a number of others 
 would say this or that one got religion. 
 Then I did not know what it was, but 
 thank God I know the meaning of it now% 
 and my great desire is to sing His praise, 
 and to tell others of His great love. 
 
 ' 'Now to the Lord a noble song, 
 Now may His love employ my tongue, 
 And let me speak His glorious name, 
 And all His boundless love proclaim." 
 
 I had heard it preached, talked, sung 
 and prayed, but still I could not under- 
 stand it, but when God came to me and 
 said, ''Son, thy sins are all forgiven, then 
 I understood it, and I have never doubted 
 
 55 
 
that visit. Doubted it, no indeed. When 
 a friend comes and knocks at your door, 
 and you open the door and welcome him 
 in, and he sits down and talks with you, 
 and you with him, you know it, you can't 
 doubt it. Jesus is our best friend. He is 
 a refuge, a strength and a present help in 
 trouble. I shall always thank God that 
 He came to the door of my heart, and 
 that I opened the door and welcomed Him 
 in, and that He dwells in me and walks 
 with me, and His love constrains me and 
 upholds me. Blessed be the name of the 
 Lord. No tongue can express His love, 
 nor can a scribe describe it. 
 
 ''Could we v/ith ink the ocean fill, 
 
 And were the heavens a parchment made, 
 And every single stick a quill, 
 
 And every man a scribe by trade, 
 To write the love of God alone 
 
 Would drain the ocean dry. 
 Nor would the scroll contain the whole. 
 
 Though stretched from sky to sky." 
 
 The love of God shed abroad in a man's 
 heart makes him love everybody good or 
 bad. I loved all. I loved mean people, 
 but hated their m.ean ways. Everything 
 seemed so different to me. I used to do 
 things and keep from doing other things 
 to please Miss Mary and her folks. But 
 
when I got on the other side, I saw the 
 thing to do was to serve and please the 
 blessed Jesus, and that would please 
 them. So when father Brown was away 
 from home, I felt it my duty to hold family 
 prayers. Oh, what a cross, but I did the 
 best I could, and the Lord blessed us day 
 by day. Some time after my conversion 
 Rev. Triplett held a protracted meeting 
 near my mother's. Mrs. Clay and I went 
 down to mother's to attend the meeting. 
 When we got to the old home, everything 
 looked as if it had been changed since I 
 was there last. It did not seem like the 
 same place. But there was the same old 
 kitchen, with its wide fire place where 
 mother baked her loaves in the old Dutch 
 oven (for she had no stove then). She 
 had a clay oven in the yard where she 
 baked pies, custards and cakes. There 
 were the same old oaks, cedars, sycamores, 
 fruit trees, and the balm of gilead, where 
 I got the buds from, the cat, all in their 
 places. But they did not look like they 
 used to look. There was the house where 
 the giddy and gay often gathered and 
 stepped to the worldly music that I fur- 
 nished them. I thought then that was 
 happiness. But as I enter that room this 
 
 57 
 
time, I feel that I am done with such 
 pastime. I can't bear it; I hate it. The 
 old clock from which I had taken the bullet 
 stood on the mantel. When it struck the 
 time of day, the music of the wire seemed 
 strangely sweet. This was my home that 
 I hated and left; here dwelt a mother 
 whose son had hated her and left her 
 alone. But thank God, when he comes 
 this time, his heart is overflowing with 
 love for his mother. She had some sinful 
 ways that I hated, but Oh, how I loved 
 her now. Yes, when I saw her face for 
 the first time after my conversion, how 
 different it looked, and I think the face of 
 her boy looked quite as different to her. 
 0, how I loved my dear old mother now. 
 She went with us to church; she had heard 
 Bro. T. preach before, as he had been 
 preaching at the new Methodist church 
 some time. She seemed to like him very 
 well, though he was a Methodist preacher. 
 He preached that day with great power, 
 the Spirit came down, sinners were con- 
 victed, mourners converted, and believers 
 made happy. I was so anxious for mother 
 to be a Christian, and I saw she v/as 
 weeping. I walked down the aisle to her 
 and asked her if she did not want to be a 
 
 58 
 
Christian; and she said she did. I then 
 asked her to go with me to the altar; which 
 she did. I stayed with, and prayed for 
 her with all my heart, and in a short 
 while she was converted. That was the 
 happiest day of Cliff's life except one, 
 that one you all remember. Now, dear boys 
 and girls, if you have an unconverted 
 father or mother, and you are a Christian, 
 pray for them, talk to them, and lead them 
 to the altar of prayer. God will hear 
 your prayers and bless your efforts. 
 
 chapter xi. 
 Cliff's Severe Trial. 
 
 Immediately after mother's conversion, 
 she spoke of joining the Methodist church. 
 I told her to study on the matter awhile, 
 and then if she thought she could be better 
 satisfied in the Methodist church, to join 
 it; and if not, to remain in the Lutheran 
 church, where she had been a member for 
 many years. After considering the matter 
 for some weeks, she decided to remain 
 where she was. But I erected a family 
 altar in mother's house before I went home. 
 
 We were still boarding with Mrs. Clay's 
 father, and after the meeting we returned 
 
 59 
 
home happy and delighted with the 
 thought that mother was now traveling 
 with us toward the home of the good. 
 
 We spent the latter part of the summer 
 and fall in joy and thanksgiving to God 
 for His goodness to us. We had a very 
 pleasant Christmas, But 0! how soon joy 
 and pleasure can be turned into sorrow 
 and weeping. On the 30th day of Decem- 
 ber, 1869, a little daughter was born to us. 
 Mrs. Clay was taken with a violent fever, 
 and the doctor told me she must die; there 
 was no hope; he could do no more. To 
 think of giving her up was more than I 
 could bear; but I had learned to take 
 everything to the Lord in prayer, and I 
 knew he was the Great Physician of Soul 
 and body, and I went to him, and it 
 seemed as if my soul melted as I told him 
 how I loved her, and how much help she 
 was to me. Just to sum it up in a few 
 words, I felt like it would kill me if she 
 died. I had never realized till then how 
 much I did love her. I had loved her as 
 a friend, as a sweetheart, as a wife, all 
 combined. But the crowning climax was 
 put upon all when I loved her as the mother 
 of our precious little one. When I was 
 just beginning to realize this new joy, how 
 
 60 
 
was I to give her up? I held on to her, 
 as it were, with , one hand, and on to God 
 with the other. For two long weeks she 
 suffered agonies untold, without any 
 change, only for the worse. On the 16th 
 day of her illness, as we stood around her 
 bed, father, mother, brothers, sisters, 
 friends and doctor, all had given her up. 
 They all thought she was dying, and she 
 thought so too. The anxious father and 
 mother and friends were still praying for 
 her, although it seemed as if all hope was 
 gone. Just about this time our beloved 
 pastor. Rev. Triplett, came in. I asked 
 him to join us in prayer for her one time 
 more. We all knelt and he prayed, and I 
 have never heard such a prayer before nor 
 since. It seemed to me that he took hold 
 of the very horns of the altar and held on 
 till Heaven and earth came together. The 
 room was filled with the glory of God. 
 While he was praying I promised the Lord 
 if he would answer our prayers I would 
 do anything to advance His cause that the 
 Spirit impressed upon me as a duty, no 
 matter how heavy a cross it might be. 
 Before the prayer was ended something 
 said. ' 'Your prayers are answered. ' ' and 
 thank God, they were answered; that very 
 
 61 
 
day she took a turn for the better, and 
 slowly recovered her health and strength. 
 And I was just as happy as I could be, 
 with Mary and the little one. Mary! 0, 
 what a sweet name. I love that name 
 because it was the name of the mother of 
 the blessed Jesus. I loved my precious 
 wife now more than ever. Some may not 
 think so, but I know I now loved God more 
 than ever before, because in this severe 
 affliction I had been drawn near to Him, 
 and he heard and answered my prayers; 
 and the more you love God, the more you 
 will love your wife and everybody else. 
 As I have already said, it was a great 
 cross to me to hold family prayers. I 
 could do very well now when we were 
 alone, but when we had company I was 
 tempted to omit it, but my promise would 
 come right up before me, and there was no 
 getting out of it. And I would say right 
 here that the promise I made to God beside 
 what seemed to be the death-bed of my 
 wife, has been a great stimilus to me in 
 the performance of my duty. If at any 
 time I feel disposed to shirk duty in ever 
 so little a thing, God's Spirit brings that 
 memorable scene before my mind so viv- 
 idly that I can almost hear Him say, ' 'You 
 
 62 
 
promised to do your duty in all things if I 
 would spare your wife; have I not done 
 it?" That always settles the question at 
 once. 
 
 When the weather became warmer and 
 I thought Mrs. Clay and the little one 
 were able to take the trip, we went to see 
 mother. Now grandmother— on my moth- 
 er's side— was still living, and lived near 
 mother's, so we concluded to stop awhile 
 with her, and then go to the old home, 
 grandma was blind, and had been for 
 years. She had never seen Mrs. Clay, 
 but she had learned to know her by her 
 voice, but as it had been so long since she 
 had heard her speak we thought perhaps 
 she had forgotten the voice; so I said, 
 *'We will not make ourselves known, and 
 see if grandma will know who it is. So 
 Mrs. Clay went in and said, ''Good eve- 
 ning, Grandma,'' and the dear old soul 
 said ''Why, if this ain't Mary; howdy, 
 howdy! Where is Cliff and the baby?" 
 I then spoke to her and handed her the 
 baby. She felt over it and said, "It's a 
 mighty little baby." About this time 
 mother came in, and we had a great meet- 
 ing indeed, even the great-grand-daughter 
 meeting the great-grandmother. They 
 
 63 
 
were all glad indeed that we had lived to 
 meet again on earth. They all looked 
 upon Mrs. Clay almost as one raised from 
 the dead. We spent an hour or two very 
 pleasantly with grandma, and then we 
 took mother with us and went to the old 
 home for a few days. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 How She Found it Out. 
 
 After spending a few days at the old 
 home, we went back to our boarding place 
 and entered upon the duties and trials of 
 Hfe. 
 
 We did not remain at father B.'s very 
 long after this. As I had learned a good 
 trade — that of making wagons and bug- 
 gies — I was now prepared to set up a shop 
 of my own. I could do both the wood and 
 iron work, and also the painting. 
 
 The people around my old home wanted 
 me to settle there and run a shop, and as 
 there was no shop of this kind in the com- 
 munity, and mother was alone and had no 
 one to look after the farm, I thought it was 
 the best thing I could do. So I laid the 
 matter before Mrs. Clay, who, after some 
 consideration, decided with me that it was 
 
 64 
 
best for us to go. It was a hard trial for 
 her to leave her father and mother and 
 make her home among strangers. She set 
 great store by her mother in sickness, and 
 well she might; for she was the best nurse 
 in sickness I ever saw. I shall never for- 
 get the long weary nights she watched with 
 me at the bedside of my wife in her severe 
 illness. Although she was very much 
 opposed to me marrying Mary, she soon 
 got over it, and was very kind to us. 
 
 Some have asked me this question: 
 * 'Cliff, how came Mrs. B. to overhear you 
 and Mr. B. when you were laying your 
 plans to steal Miss Mary?" It was this 
 way: ''Father B. had a shop in his yard, 
 and at one end of the shop there was a 
 chimney, and against the chimney was a 
 little house in which they kept sweet pota- 
 toes. The crop of the year had already 
 been stored in this little house. Father B. 
 and I were in the shop laying our plans 
 and setting our time, and Mrs. B. was in 
 the potato house getting potatoes for din- 
 ner, and hearing every word we said, but 
 we did not know it at the time. I intend- 
 ed to have Miss Mary if I had to steal her, 
 and her mother found it out there and then 
 that it was a settled fact, and that all of 
 
 65 
 
the family except herself was in favor of 
 the marriage. She told us afterwards 
 that the conversation she overheard while 
 in the potato house caused her to give up 
 for us to marry. 
 
 We moved to my old home, and I built 
 shops, and also an L to mother's house. I 
 went to a good deal of trouble and expense 
 to get fixed up ready for work, and had a 
 good custom; but we had no health. We 
 all took the chills. Mrs. Clay and I both 
 took them the same day, and our little girl 
 took them the next day; she had them for 
 six months, and they hung on to us for 
 eighteen months straight along. They did 
 not seem to hurt me so much, but Mrs. 
 Clay's health gave way, and the doctor 
 told me she would never be any better till 
 I moved her away from that place. Now, 
 this was a hard blow on a poor fellow. I 
 had spent a good deal of money and time* 
 and was just now fixed to make money and 
 live happy, if we could have been well. I 
 did not want to lose all I had done, and I 
 thought perhaps the doctor was mistaken 
 and Mary would get well without moving. 
 So we still kept trying new remedies, hop- 
 ing for better, but getting worse every 
 day. I did not know what to do. Mother 
 
 66 
 
Brown would often come and stay a few 
 days with us, and every time she came she 
 would tell me she was afraid we would 
 never get well there. She did not want 
 me to take Mary there from the first. And 
 just about the time that I had come to the 
 place that I did not know what to do, she 
 came to spend a few days with us. She 
 saw at once that Mary was a great deal 
 worse. She came to me in the shop and 
 said, ''Cliff, I hate to think of you losing 
 all you have done here, but I am going to 
 be candid with you; if 5'ou don't take 
 Mary out of this sickly place you will be a 
 widower in less than six months.'' This 
 was enough. I said ' 'Ma, I can give up 
 anything, everything for her, and I will do 
 it." So when father B. came to take Ma 
 home he took my wife and baby also. I 
 rented a house and lot near father B.'s 
 moved to it and set up shop. We had not 
 been there long till we got rid of the chills, 
 and I was well and making money. I 
 rented the house and lot for another 
 year, the year ending the last of March. I 
 paid the rent in advance. With all our 
 afflictions and building and moving I was 
 only thirty dollars in debt, and had sixty 
 dollars' worth of work in my shop. I had 
 
 67 
 
bought five acres of land near by on which 
 to build the next year. On the 4th of Sept. 
 of this year (1873), another daughter 
 was born to us. Our family now number- 
 ed six. Mrs. Clay's health was so bad 
 that she was compelled to have someone 
 to stay with her all the time. Mrs. Jane 
 E. and her little boy came to live with us. 
 This was a great community for work and 
 good pay. And as I had more work than 
 I could do, I took a young man by the name 
 of Van P. to learn him the trade. He was 
 a good man, and had married Miss Bettie 
 S. , the young lady to whom I had gone to 
 school. We were glad to have them in the 
 community. We had arranged for a big 
 winter's work, to be ready to leave this 
 place the last of next March. But about 
 the tenth of December, one morning before 
 daylight the man who owned the house 
 and lot came in and said to us, "I want 
 this house at Christmas." I tried to 
 reason with him; told him I had rented 
 the place until March, and that he knew I 
 had paid the rent until that time, but all 
 to no avail. He said he must have his 
 house at Christmas. 0! how dark everything 
 seemed that morning. What was I to do? 
 In the dead of winter, with an afflicted 
 
 68 
 
wife and little children, and nowwhere to 
 go; and yet I must go. I don't think I 
 ever felt the Lord any nearer to me than 
 He came that morning at family prayer. 
 He gave me the full assurance that He 
 would lead me out of this trouble, and He 
 did, though the way was long and dark; 
 and I know it was for my good. That 
 move has always been a mystery to me; 
 for the man that owned the property had 
 always been my friend, and he is a good 
 friend of mine to-day. 
 
 chapter xiii. 
 
 Cliff Takes Care of the Children. 
 
 On the 26th of December, 1873, I went 
 to work, with my young man Van P. to 
 help me. With our axes we cleared off a 
 place on my lot, on which we built a very 
 small cabin and lumber house, and on the 
 27th of January, 1874, we moved into the 
 cabin. That year was one of great afflic- 
 tion. Minnie, our baby, lay at death's 
 door for weeks. But I prayed and vowed 
 I would be a better man if the Lord would 
 spare her life; and He did, and I sought 
 daily to please him. About this time I 
 was called on to superintend a Sunday 
 
 69 
 
school. The church was five miles from 
 where I lived and I had no horse. Now, to 
 stand in my shop every day and walk 10 
 miles every Sunday was a hard task, and 
 besides all this I did not think I was the 
 man for that place. But I remembered my 
 promise to the Lord if He would spare my 
 loved ones and I was afraid to say no, so I 
 did the best I could and we had a very 
 good Sunday school. This year I built 
 shops and the next year I built a house, 
 paled in a yard and garden, planted vines, 
 fruit trees and flowers. We had a nice 
 little home. I had a custom and made 
 money, and everything moved on pleasant- 
 ly for a time, in which time two boys were 
 born to us, Jim in 1875 and Tom in 1877. 
 We now had four children. As my shop 
 w^as near the house I often helped Mrs. 
 Clay to take care of them. I will say 
 right here but few men know anything 
 about the trouble their wives have with the 
 children. I have seen men too lazy to get 
 up to breakfast after their wives had made 
 the fire, dressed the children and cooked 
 the breakfast. I never could see how any 
 true man could treat his wife that way. 
 A wife is a companion, a partner, a part 
 of. ''They twain shall be one flesh — 
 70 
 
Matt. 18:5." A good wife is God's greatest 
 blessing to man. Young man, if you are 
 thinking of asking the heart and hand of 
 some fair daughter, and you are so foutu- 
 nate as to win her, 0, be true and kind to 
 her! Remember she gives up all for you. 
 Young lady, first give your heart to God 
 and your hand to the church and require 
 the same of your lover. Then, when you 
 marry you will erect a family altar and 
 live happy. You may have trials and 
 afflictions, but you can take it all to the 
 Lord night and morning in prayer. I 
 know a young couple who married and 
 moved to a home of their own. After 
 they got things arranged and ate supper, 
 the wife brought the Bible she had won at 
 Sunday school, laid it on the table by her 
 husband and said we must have prayers, I 
 have always been used to family prayer 
 and cannot' retire without it, and if you 
 won't read and pray, I will; and she did. 
 Next morning she got her breakfast ready 
 and informed her husband that she would 
 not eat till after prayers. He took up the 
 Bible, read and prayed, and has never 
 neglected it from that day till this, 0, for 
 such wives as this. They are the kind to 
 win the world for Christ. I have a good 
 71 , 
 
wife, but it always makes me feel bad to 
 think of what a sorry husband she has. 
 But I don't think I ever was as bad as 
 some I have seen. I would make fires, 
 wash and dress the little ones for break- 
 fast, and would help my wife cook if it 
 was necessary. I was all right so long as 
 my. wife did not ask me for money or to 
 take her somewhere. That always made 
 me nervous. I was always hard up when 
 she wanted money and just wanted me to 
 go with her anywhere. Now this was a 
 long time ago — I do better now— but it 
 makes me ashamed every time I think of 
 it, for my wife was so good and kind to me 
 that it always seemed a pleasure to her to 
 do me a favor. She made my buggy and 
 carriage cushions and trimmings, to save 
 me from hiring it done. Just call on her 
 for help and the answer was always ''All 
 right, sir, ' ' if she had to put the little one 
 down to come. It takes some men about 
 twenty years to learn how to treat a good 
 wife, and some never learn at all. I know 
 men who have good wives who have no 
 more sense than to think a woman can 
 make, mend, wash and iron the clothes, 
 cook and bake for a large family, clean up 
 the house, take care of half a dozen chil- 
 
 72 
 
dren, and then go to the field and make a 
 hand the whole summer and fall till the 
 corn is gathered and the cotton picked, 
 baled and sold. And then if she is 
 pressed and compelled to ask him for a 
 little money to pay her preacher and get 
 some things for her and the children he 
 will growl out, ' 'You will have to wait till 
 I sell my yaller cotton." The Lord pity the 
 woman that is cursed with such a man as 
 that for a husband. You may think me 
 tedious and extravagant, but I know 
 whereof I speak. I think stinginess was 
 my besetting sin. As I have already said, 
 I helped my wife some with the children, 
 although sometimes when she would ask 
 me to keep Minnie and Jim at the shop so 
 that Baby Tom could sleep and let her 
 work, I would think that was more than 
 my share, but I was ashamed to say so, 
 but I thought I just knew all about a 
 mother's- trials and troubles with the 
 children. But I had an experience about 
 that time that did me a great deal of 
 good and taught me a lesson that I never 
 could have learned in any other school. 
 Mother Brown was very sick and Mrs. 
 Clay said to me one evening I want to go 
 and see mother this evening if you will 
 
 73 
 
keep the little ones, Mattie, the oldest one, 
 was at school. I told her I had a buggy 
 to mend and it was promised that evening, 
 and I did not see how I could be bothered 
 with them and get anything done. But as 
 it was nearby, and she looked so disap- 
 pointed, I told her I would keep them if 
 she would not stay long. I took the chil- 
 children to the shop and went to work. I 
 had not been at work long till Tom fell 
 through an open bench on his face, getting 
 his eyes and mouth full of dirt. I quit 
 work, washed his face, and put him in the 
 cradle and rocked him to sleep, and re- 
 turned to work. I was under the buggy 
 at work, and told Jim to get me a hatchet, 
 for which he had to climb upon a box and 
 from that to a bench, and as he started 
 back he fell, cutting a great gash above 
 his eye, from which the blood flowed 
 freely. Minnie brought me water and 
 cloths, and I washed and dressed his 
 wound, took off his wet, bloody clothes, 
 put dry ones on him and sat down and held 
 him till he went to sleep. Then I put him 
 to bed and went to work again. Minnie 
 was playing about the shop and was not 
 giving me any trouble. And as I worked 
 I thought of the care of little ones as I had 
 
never thought before. I was getting on 
 nicely with my work and thinking Mrs. 
 Clay would soon come, when all of a sud- 
 den I was interrupted by an old hen squall- 
 ing near by. I looked and saw a hawk 
 trying to get a chick. I sprang from under 
 the buggy, grabbed a shot gun that stood 
 inside the shop and banged away at the 
 hawk. When the gun fired I heard a 
 racket behind me. On looking round I 
 saw Minnie standing on her head in the 
 ditch. Being lonesome she lay down 
 across the wheelbarrow and went to sleep. 
 The crack of the gun frightened her and 
 she jumped and turned the thing over, 
 throwing her on her head. Just as I was 
 pulling her out Mrs. Clay came home. I 
 related and she was so sorry I had had 
 so much trouble with the children. This 
 all happened in less than three hours and 
 I got my work done on time. And I know 
 I have had more sympathy for my wife 
 ever since that evening. I had often kept 
 the children at the shop awhile, but if any- 
 thing happened to them their mother came 
 and took them to the house. But I had 
 them all to myself that evening and I 
 found out things not thought of before. 
 What we all need, so as to live right, is the 
 
old-time religion in the home. God grant 
 that we may all have more of that kind. 
 
 chapter xiv. 
 Christmas Story for Boys. 
 
 Well, boys and girls, I will go back a few 
 years and tell you something of how I 
 enjoyed Christmas and what kind of a time 
 we had on that occasion. That was always 
 a big time with Cliff. Mother would speak 
 of him coming, and we would have fresh 
 meats in abundance— such as sausages, 
 liver hash, back -bone and spare-ribs, etc. 
 Mother would have great big yam ''taters'' 
 baked; kill, scald and scrape a fat chicken; 
 knock a pumpkin in the head, and then 
 she was ready for him. 
 
 One morning quite early I was sitting by 
 my mother, anxiously waiting for Xmas to 
 come. She told me he would come after a 
 short time. Suddenly I heard a loud knock 
 on the door. Mother bade him to come in. 
 He lopened the door and there he stood 
 with a big switch in his hand. Children, 
 I tell you he nearly scared me to death. 
 CHff had been a bad one, and had no time 
 for that kind of a Xmas. Xmas times 
 affected everything in general. We would 
 
 76 
 
have a big time at school about that time, 
 and CHff generally was the leader. As I 
 was captain I had to have something about 
 my hat or dress to indicate my leadership. 
 At least, I thought so. One evening I told 
 mother that on next day we were going to 
 have a parade, and as I was to take my fife 
 and march at the head of the company, I 
 must have a badge to wear on my hat. I 
 described to her what kind of thing I 
 wanted made, and how to tack up one side 
 of my hat and place the ornament on it. 
 She said she could make it out of cotton. 
 I proposed taking a candle and going up 
 stairs for the cotton, and she should try to 
 make the thing. She objected on the 
 ground that I would set the cotton on fire 
 with the candle. I told her I would be 
 careful. She consented reluctantly. I 
 took the large bunch of white cotton under 
 my aim and caught hold of a small bunch 
 with the hand in which I held the candle. 
 I pulled the small bunch off, but the candle 
 went to the wrong place. I had no trouble 
 blowing out the candle, but I had trouble 
 with the cotton. I called aloud, and mother 
 came to my relief. We succeeded in sav- 
 ing enough cotton to make the captain's 
 badge, and I marched at the head of the 
 
 77 
 
ranks next day. On those days we knew 
 nothing of Xmas trees and Xmas services 
 or exercises. 
 
 Time rolled on. After Mrs. Clay and 
 myself had been keeping house for several 
 years, she, proposed that we have a Xmas 
 tree for the benefit of our children and a 
 few of the young people in the community. 
 I agreed to the proposal. Xmas night 
 came, and we had the presents ready. We 
 had the tree in one corner of our room. 
 The children and young people were de- 
 lighted when they saw it. While we were 
 putting presents, apples, oranges, etc., on 
 the tree an accident happened. We had a 
 lantern hung up so that the light from it 
 reflected on the tree, so as to see the tree 
 to good advantage. Mrs. Clay was on the 
 floor and had charge of presents in a bas- 
 ket, while I was standing on a chair ar- 
 ranging the presents on the tree. Among 
 the presents was a large candy heart that 
 a young man had brought to have put on 
 the tree for his best girl. I dropped an 
 orange, it fell in the basket, struck the fel- 
 low's big heart, and broke it in many 
 pieces. This caused Cliff to become ex- 
 cited, and he threw back his head, struck 
 the lantern, and knocked it down. It fell 
 78 
 
near Mrs. Clay and scared her awfully. 
 She raised up, jumped over the cradle, ran 
 behind the bed and sat down to wait for 
 an explosion, but the explosion did not take 
 place. We had nothing more serious than 
 breaking the fellow's heart. 
 
 Now, dear children I have since learned 
 that Christmas means Christ-born, and 
 that the 25th day of December is cele- 
 brated as Christ's birthday. Oh, how 
 pleasant it is to think that Christ who died 
 for you was once a little child. Dear 
 children, parents, and all, when you give 
 gifts at Christmas remember that God so 
 loved you as to give His son to die for your 
 sins. Now cannot you give yourself to 
 him as a Christmas gift this year? If you 
 do so you will spend the happiest Christ- 
 mas of your life. I have spent 44, and 
 have spent them in various ways, but none 
 so happy as when spent in the service of 
 my blessed Lord. May the good Lord 
 help you to try it this year, dear reader. 
 
 Well, dear friends, I hope you all have 
 had a pleasant Christmas, and that many 
 of you have said. Lord, I give myself 
 to thee. Since I gave myself to God 
 He has been so extremely good to me 
 and mine that it seems to me I can never 
 
 79 
 
do enough for His cause. I attended to 
 my Sunday school, and quarterly Confer- 
 ence elected me steward, and I was doing 
 the best I could for the preachers and the 
 Methodist church generally. About this 
 time there was a very poor family moved 
 into the little cabin near our house, and as 
 we had no Sunday school in the winter I 
 said to Mrs. Clay one Sunday morning, 
 ''Let us go and see this poor family." She 
 of course agreed at once, and in company 
 with a few friends, among whom was Mrs. 
 Ellen E., a very sweet singer, we went— 
 about eight in number. They seemed 
 very glad to see us and I was very much 
 impressed with the family. They seemed 
 to be very good people. I proposed read- 
 ing God's word, singing a hymn and hav- 
 ing prayers with them, to which they 
 readily assented. I read from Matt. 19, 
 beginning at the 16th verse. I made a 
 plain, simple talk on the life of the young 
 man mentioned in this chapter, and wound 
 up by saying that he was like a great 
 many young men today that want to do 
 some great thing, that is something that 
 the world calls great, and then if they are 
 called upon to do something for the relief 
 of the poor, some little act of kindness, 
 80 
 
and preached ten of his very best sermons 
 for us. We had about fifty conversions 
 and twenty-three accessions to the church. 
 Bro. T. is a good preacher and one of the 
 greatest men in prayer I have ever heard 
 pray. His worth to the conference has 
 not, nor never will be, realized this side of 
 heaven. May his reward be great in the 
 end is my prayer. Our people at Chestnut 
 Hill all fell in love with him at first sight. 
 The crowds that came to hear him preach 
 were immense; our large church would not 
 hold near all of them. Our people here 
 will be glad to have him for their pastor at 
 any time. The church is now completed 
 with the exception of a bell, and when a 
 sixty dollar bell is put in, the church, with 
 all its furniture, seats, stoves, bell and all 
 will cost less than sixteen hundred dollars. 
 The membership of this church is about 
 160, and the Sunday school numbers about 
 225. 
 
 On the 24th day of Novembr, 1894, we 
 celebrated the 25th anniversary of our wed- 
 ding day. All our children and grand- 
 children and special friends took supper 
 with us. After supper quite a number of 
 young people came in and entertained us 
 with good music for an hour. God grant 
 
 129 
 
that every one of this little company, with 
 hosts of other friends may join us at the 
 marriage supper of the Lamb. I closed up 
 my work for the year '93 with a debt of 
 about $700 on the church for which I was 
 personally responsible, but had it in a shape 
 to be paid out in 1904. I went to Confer- 
 ence in 1893, at Charlotte, not knowing 
 whether I would be returned to Chestnut 
 Hill charge or not. The people of Chest- 
 nut Hill had asked for me and my Presid- 
 ing Elder told them he would send me back 
 if he could, and he thought it probable as 
 it had been a work only three years. I was 
 willing to go back there or to go anywhere 
 else. But as I had refused to join confer- 
 ence and had completed the work at Salis- 
 bury, the conference had nothing more for 
 me to do. So I went home disappointed 
 and sick, still being responsible for the 
 church debt. But that was all arranged 
 when our new Presiding Elder came. I 
 got a clear receipt and thus closes the work 
 of Clifton Clay as a pastor in Rowan coun- 
 ty, N. C. 
 
 I said I would refer to my associates 
 again. Jake C. and Lock S. are both farm- 
 ing and doing well. Jake S. was killed by 
 a drunk man, the killing was thought to 
 13a 
 
be accidental. Mose B., a cousin of mine, 
 went to making whiskey and brandy and 
 is a great sinner. David L. is gone and I 
 know nothing of him. Dan C, another 
 one of my cousins (the one that was with 
 me when the preacher talked to us and we 
 had our coat tails in our pants), went to 
 Georgia. He wrote me that he was con- 
 verted, and had joined the M. E. Church, 
 South. The last I heard from him was 
 that he was preaching the gospel of the 
 Son of God. I hope this is true. This 
 closes the life of Clifton Clay in Rowan 
 County, for the present, at least, and may 
 be forever. God bless you all. 
 
 chapter xxiii. 
 
 Cliff Leaves His Native County. 
 
 As my work was now done in Rowan 
 County as a pastor, and I could not get 
 employment at anything else, I thought 
 best to sell my house and lot at Salisbury, 
 and strike for a job somewhere else. I felt 
 at this time that the Methodist church had 
 not treated me fairly— giving me no work 
 at all. Right here I had battle with the 
 devil; he actually tried to persuade me to 
 leave the Methodist church. He came at 
 
 131 
 
me in this way: ''As much as you have 
 done for the Methodist church, working 
 hard as a preacher, and also as a con- 
 tractor, and now they have left you with- 
 out work, and without your pay as a con- 
 tractor. If I were in your place I would go 
 to the Presbyterians; they have been good 
 and kind to you, and have helped you in 
 your work. Now, you go to them, they 
 will help you in this time of trouble.'' 
 
 I had been very sick and was still weak 
 in body and mind, and was very easily 
 fretted, and said and did some things 
 about that time that I am very sorr^ for, 
 and I hope all who are concerned in the 
 matter will forgive me. Now, I dearly 
 loved the Presbyterians, God bless them! 
 but when I got well and came to myself 
 and began to think what the Methodist 
 church was, and what she had done for me 
 and mine, that she had taken me in out of 
 the cold world, and that it was at her 
 altars that God spoke peace to my soul, at 
 her altars all of my precious children were 
 converted and took upon themselves the 
 vows of the church; and my dear Mary, 
 who has been so true to me through all 
 these years of trial, was born and reared 
 in the Methodist church; and last, but not 
 
 132 
 
least, my mother was converted at its 
 altars at an old age. And I do thank God 
 to-day for all the blessings that have come 
 to me and mine through this grand old 
 church. And I told the old deceiver that 
 whether the authorities of the Methodist 
 church gave me work in Conference or not 
 I expected to live and die right by her 
 altars, and he has let me alone on that 
 subject ever since. 
 
 In January, 1894, I advertised my house 
 and lot for sale, but received no bids. 
 About this time a good brother sent me 
 word that he v/oul d swap me a good plan- 
 tation in Montgomery county for my house 
 and lot. Some of my children were 
 anxious for me to make the trade, but I 
 could not see out that way. I wanted to 
 sell my property for the money, but as I 
 could not I told my wife and children that 
 I would pray over this offer one week, and 
 if I had no other offer till the end of the 
 week— if they were willing to it I would 
 accept it as God's plan, and make the 
 trade whether I could see my way out or 
 not. 
 
 Well, I waited patiently till the end of 
 the week and had no other offer, so I told 
 my family that the trade was made, and 
 
 133 
 
that the Lord had made it, and I was satis- 
 fied that it was a good one. In a few days 
 the brother and I went and fixed up the 
 papers, and then I saw the place, and 
 found it much better than I expected. 
 Reader, if you want a good bargain let the 
 Lord make the trade for you every time. 
 
 It was hard for us to leave our comfort- 
 able home and many kind friends at Salis- 
 bury, to cast our lot among strangers in a 
 strange land; but it was especially hard to 
 say good-bye to three of our precious chil- 
 dren, whose homes are at Salisbury. But 
 I felt assured that this was God's plan, 
 and that he would lead me aright. 
 
 On the 12th of February, 1894, my 
 youngest son and myself left the town of 
 Salisbury, and reached our pine-pole cabin 
 in Montgomery county on the 13th, and on 
 the 16th, we were joined by Mrs. Clay and 
 the two little girls. 
 
 Dear reader, I shall not attempt to 
 describe our surroundings; I will just leave 
 you to imagine how you would feel to move 
 out of a good ceiled house with nine rooms 
 into one of two that was neither weather- 
 boarded, ceiled, chinked, nor daubed. 
 With all this, my wife was sick— had not 
 been up all day for ten days — when she 
 
 134 
 
took the train for this place. The trip did 
 not seem to hurt her, and although we 
 were not very comfortable we were happy, 
 for we felt sure the Lord had sent us here; 
 and the best of all was, we felt that He 
 was here with us. 
 
 Dear readers, it is not what we have, 
 nor where we are, but it is what we are 
 that makes us happy. 
 
 chapter xxiv. 
 The Lord Will Provide. 
 
 Dear readers, I have moved many times. 
 Moved three times in one year, but this 
 was the toughest place we ever struck. 
 We had a little flour, one piece of meat, 
 six pounds of lard and one dollar and 
 thirty cents in money left, when we paid 
 our freight and dray bills. Now we had 
 come to this place to farm. The Lord had 
 given us this farm and we wanted to work 
 it. Here w^e were, five of us to feed, and 
 I have told you what we had to go on. 
 This farm contains one hundred and nine 
 acres of good land, with a river running 
 through it. It has twelve acres of good 
 bottom on it, of which ten acres are in 
 cultivation. We had no horse, no cow, 
 
 135 
 
dog, cat nor chickens. We had neither 
 wagon, plow, harness, corn, nor anything 
 of the kind, and no money to buy it with. 
 And not one person did we know in the 
 county when we came here, but as I have 
 already said, we were contented and happy, 
 feeling sure that the Lord had sent us here 
 and in some way or other would provide 
 for us, and He did. This year has been 
 marked with more special providences of 
 God than any one year of my life. God 
 has seemed nearer to me in this lonely 
 place than any where I have ever lived. 
 The first few Sundays we spent here seem- 
 ed very dreary to me, my mind naturally 
 went back to Chestnut;Hill church that the 
 Lord had enabled me to build, and in my 
 imagination I could see the many smiling 
 faces that had greeted me every Sunday 
 morning for three years. But with Sun- 
 day night came the trying time to me. 
 There are no words in any language that 
 can express what I felt. I could not help 
 listening for the bell, away back at Chest- 
 nut Hill, that had called me twice every 
 Sabbath for three years, to go and deliver 
 a message for my blessed Master. It seem- 
 ed to me as if my heart would break. Oh ! 
 how I loved that church and those dear 
 * 136 
 
people, no one but a pastor can tell. But 
 I loved my blessed Savior more than all 
 things else and he came right close to me 
 in this hour of trial and said, son this is 
 for your good. At this point I made a 
 full surrender, I freely gave up all for 
 Jesus. 
 
 We have a good church building near us 
 here, and a few, very few gathered there 
 every Sunday morning and had Sunday 
 school. We have preaching but once a 
 month, and very few people attend then. 
 The people here, as a rule, seem to take 
 but very little interest in church work. 
 Soon after we moved here a woman sent 
 me word that she wanted me do some 
 work. I went to see her at once. She 
 wanted a dwelling house and a mill house 
 built. She said, I am going to have a new 
 mill put in and I want you to run it when 
 it is completed. My son and myself went 
 to work at once on the dwelling house, and 
 this kind woman let us have corn and 
 wheat and some money. As I have already 
 said the Unharrie River runs through my 
 plantation and I have a good fishery on the 
 river. In March we began to catch fish 
 and soon caught more than we could use. 
 We sold the surplus for a good price, 
 
 137 
 
which was a great help to us. We caught 
 about six hundred during the spring and 
 summer, some of them very fine ones. I 
 took four out of one of my traps at one 
 time that weighed thirty-one and a half 
 pounds. The Lord was so good to us, 
 bless His holy name. We soon gained many 
 friends in this county. One good old Bro. 
 knew that I wanted a horse, and he also 
 knew that I did not have the money to buy 
 one. He said to me, I have a horse at my 
 house that will be sold at the court house 
 door, whatever he brings is coming to me, 
 and if you want him, go and bid him off, 
 whether you have any money or not. So I 
 thanked the Lord and this good Bro. and 
 went and bid the horse off for twenty-five- 
 dollars and seventy-five cents. My son 
 raised a good crop with him and he is bet 
 ter now than when I bought him. Another 
 Bro. brought us a cow and we had the use 
 of her all summer for fifty cents a month. 
 Another Bro. brought us a hog and put it 
 in the pen, and told me to pay for it when-' 
 ever it suited me. Quite a number of our 
 new friends gave us chickens, molasses, 
 potatoes, etc. Mrs. Clay and I went to 
 visit a family one day and when we were 
 getting ready to start home the good man 
 
 138 
 
of the house caught a nice pig and gave it 
 to Mrs. Clay. She was very proud of her 
 little black pig and has taken good care of 
 it, and it is now a nice little hog. As for 
 cats and dogs we had to use powder and 
 lead to thin them out. This county seems 
 to have an overplus of cats and dogs. 
 While my son was working our crop, my 
 sons-in-law, Mr. Kluttz and Mr. Watson, 
 of Salisbury came and helped me on the 
 house that I was building. I did but little 
 work on the mill house. I was taken sick 
 with diptheria in June and came near 
 dying. While I was sick we run out of 
 money and rations. A man in the com- 
 munity owed me a few dollars and on 
 hearing of my sickness sent it to me. Now 
 before I was taken sick I had subscribed 
 to our pastor's salary, and also had sub- 
 scribed three dollars missionary money. 
 While I was sick our quarterly conference 
 came on. I told Mrs. Clay we would 
 divide with the preacher. As I had been a 
 pastor myself I knew how important it 
 was that the money be raised. We now 
 had but little money left to buy us some 
 bread and medicine. I was now at my 
 worst with my throat. Just at this time 
 there came a note from a man in the com- 
 
 139 
 
munity who I was owing a few dollars, 
 saying he must have some money. I told 
 my wife to go and get my pocket book, 
 and send him what we had and she did so, 
 not knowing where money or rations were 
 to come from, but we felt sure that the 
 Lord in His own time and way would pro- 
 vide for us if we trusted in Him. At one 
 time during the summer we had neither 
 meat, meal, nor flour but Mrs. Clay said, 
 thank the Lord we have some shorts to 
 make bread, and we will not starve. The 
 good people at several of the churches on 
 this work had invited me to preach for 
 them saying they would pay me for my 
 services. But now I could neither work 
 nor preach. But by and by my throat got 
 well, and I preached some at Ophir, Mac- 
 edonia, Zoar and Prospect, in this county 
 and at Stoney Hill and Dicksville school 
 house in Stanley County. At all of these 
 places I administered to the people as best 
 I could in spiritual things, and at every 
 one of these places the good people admin- 
 istered to me in temporal things. May 
 God bless every one of them. By this time 
 we had plenty of beans and potatoes and 
 salad and some flour, but no meat. But 
 just at this time a kind sister of Macedonia 
 
 140 
 
church gave us a nice fat piece of bacon, 
 and then we were all right for a while. I 
 now thought I was well enough to go to 
 work at the mill again and could make 
 some money, and we would soon get the 
 mill to running, and then we would have 
 plenty of bread at least. But, alas for 
 human hopes, when I went to the mill to 
 go to work, the boss workman told me he 
 had nothing for me to do. And at the 
 same time I found out that the owner of 
 this mill had contracted with another man 
 to run her mill, saying she was afraid I 
 would not be able to run it. My friends, 
 this was a stunner— turned out in the cold 
 again without a dollar— and by this time 
 meat, bread, horse and cow feed were all 
 out. It seemed to me that this was more 
 than I could bear, and indeed I broke clear 
 down and cried like a whipped child. I 
 felt as if everybody had gone back on me, 
 but when I came to myself I found Mary 
 my dear companion, who has stood right 
 by my side for more than twenty-five 
 years still standing there, and with her 
 soft hand she wiped away my tears, say- 
 ing, the Lord has not gone back on you. 
 I said, 0, it is so dark, so dark, so dark. She 
 said, yes, it is dark now, but this is for our 
 
 141 
 
good, and the Lord will provide. So I 
 thanked the Lord and took courage. 
 
 chapter xxv. 
 
 The Lord Did Provide. 
 
 A good brother let me have an old car- 
 riage, out of which I made a wagon for 
 myself. I took the wagon and went to a 
 brother who had meat to sell. He gave 
 me the privilege of hauling off some meat 
 to sell. I got one cent more on the pound 
 than I paid, and thus gained enough to get 
 us a small ham, to the great delight of 
 Mrs. Clay and the children. But their joy 
 was soon turned into sorrow. We had 
 used but a small portion of it, when some 
 sneak thief went into the kitchin and stole 
 it. This was very hard on Mrs. Clay's 
 religion, for she is particularly fond of 
 ham. Now came my time to console. I 
 told Mrs. Clay and the mortified children 
 that I was very sorry for them (I care 
 nothing for ham myself), and for them 
 not to worry about it; that the Lord would 
 provide, but neither they or I could see 
 another ham in the provision. But a kind 
 friend, who had bought three hams of me, 
 when he heard of our loss gave Mrs. Clay 
 
 142 
 
a ham in place of the stolen one. And 
 when the good old brother from whom I 
 got the meat heard of our calamity he gave 
 me a dollar, so you see the Lord did 
 provide. 
 
 Now, dear reader, I shall soon close this 
 little book. In it I have strived to tell you 
 something of God's goodness to me and 
 mine. And I will say right here that we 
 raised a good crop of potatoes and have 
 killed a nice fat hog and have plenty to 
 eat. So you see the more I tell the more 
 I have to tell. Many will read these lines 
 that will never see me in this world, but I 
 hope, trust, and pray that this little volume 
 may be the instrument in God's hand of 
 leading some poor erring souls into the 
 light and liberty of God's children. 
 
 As I have already said, we have plenty 
 to eat, but no money to get clothes or any- 
 thing else with. But as you have already 
 seen, and will see as I proceed, the Lord 
 always provides for us just at the right 
 time. 
 
 As the year 1894 was drawing to a close 
 two things troubled me. One was, What 
 shall I do next year, and the other was, 
 where am I to get the money to meet my 
 obligations. I wanted to work in the Con- 
 
 143 
 
ference if I could get it; if not, I wanted 
 to sell my plantation, pay my debts, and 
 have this little book printed. I could not 
 sell my place, and could not pay my mis- 
 sionary money, and the time was almost 
 here for me to go to Conference to be 
 ordained Elder, and I had no money in 
 which to go. So I told my wife I could not 
 go to Conference, but she said, ''You must 
 go!" and with that same unshaken trust 
 she said, ''You will go: the Lord will in 
 some way provide for it.'\ I said no more. 
 Now, dear reader, I am going to relate 
 one of the most wonderful manifestations 
 of God's goodness that has ever come to 
 us. I had told my wife some time before 
 this that if the Lord did not send fish into 
 our traps to pay our missionary money I 
 ^ould not see where it was to come from. 
 "Well,'' said she, "let us hope and pray 
 for the fish." Well, sure enough they soon 
 began to come. One morning I got five, 
 the next morning nine, the next nineteen, 
 the next twenty-seven, and the next forty. 
 By this time I had one-half of my money. 
 Just at this time I had to make a trip to 
 the town of Albemarle. The night before 
 I was to start my wife said to me, "I wish 
 the Lord would send you 150 fish to-night. " 
 
 144 
 
they turn away sorrowful or mad. I then 
 turned to the two old people, the father 
 and mother of the family, and to the best 
 of my ability told them of the precious Son 
 of God, who was rich, yet for our sakes 
 He became poor; that He had not where 
 to lay His head; and that He was the friend 
 of the poor and loved to dwell with them 
 and bless them if they would serve Him. 
 We had a prayer and Mrs. E. led us in 
 singing. She sang some of the most soul- 
 inspiring songs I have ever heard. The 
 Spirit came down. The old man and his 
 wife got happy and clapped their hands 
 and shouted aloud the praises of God. 
 After the service the old man came to me 
 and laid his hand on my shoulder and said 
 to me, I am so glad that the Lord sent you 
 here this day. Oh, I am so happy; bless 
 the Lord. He then said, I tell you right 
 now, young man, that you will have the 
 gospel horn to blow before you die. These 
 words came like a clap of thunder from 
 the clear sky. I was almost speechless. 
 It seemed as if God himself had spoken to 
 me. We bade the family good-bye and I 
 left with these burning words still ringing 
 in my ears : ' 'You will have the gospel horn 
 to blow." On our way home Mrs. Clay 
 
 81 
 
asked me when I was licensed to preach. 
 I told her I had no license. She said, 
 well I think you had better hold up then. 
 I felt that I would like to be a good 
 preacher and be able to tell the sweet story 
 of the cross to dying men. After this I 
 visited this poor family often, and always 
 left them feeling that it was good to be 
 there. 
 
 Time rolled on, and another boy was 
 born to us. We named him Will. He 
 was only lent to us a very short time. His 
 short life was one of intense suffering. 
 We had five doctors with him, but they 
 could do nothing for him. He had an open 
 heart and that rendered his case hopeless. 
 For sometime before he died his little 
 fingers, toes and lips were blue as indigo. 
 At the age of eight and a half months 
 Jesus took him from a world of pain to 
 one of rest and peace. All this time Mrs. 
 Clay had no rest night or day. No one 
 but a mother can have any idea of the 
 anxiety and sore trouble that Mrs. Clay 
 passed through all these weary days and 
 nights. Her health had been bad for 
 some time and this trouble completely 
 prostrated her. She was now afflicted 
 with serious heart trouble. Her doctor 
 
 82 
 
said to me one day, you need not be at all 
 surprised to find your wife dead in bed 
 any morning. But I plead with my hea- 
 venly Father to spare her to me, and thank 
 God, she is still spared to me. The sound, 
 ' you will have the gospel horn to blow, ' ' 
 still kept ringing in my ears. But I had 
 no education, and was a poor man with 
 a family, and I thought it was impossible 
 for me ever to preach, but still I could not 
 get rid of the impression. I talked to 
 Mrs. Clay about my trouble. She said if 
 the Lord wants you to preach he will open 
 the way for you. I told my pastor, R. 
 N. T. Stevenson, how I was troubled. He 
 advised me to take out license to exort, 
 which I did, and this relieved me for a 
 short time. I had a large custom, and 
 my young man Van P. was still with me. 
 He was a good fellow. We worked 
 together through the week, held prayer 
 meetings at night and often on Sunday in 
 the winter time, when we had no Sunday 
 school. But with all I could do, the **gos- 
 pel horn" impression was there. About 
 this time Bro. Creasy was sent to our cir- 
 cuit. I told him about my impression and 
 he said, brother, you had better take up 
 the horn." I loved my trade, but the Lord 
 
afflicted me so I was compelled to give up 
 the furnace and hire a blacksmith. My 
 eyes were so affected that I could not bear 
 the fire. I suffered with them day and 
 night. The doctors told me I was com- 
 pelled to give up my trade or my eyes. I 
 had already seen that I could not afford to 
 hire a smith, as it took just about all my 
 profit. Now these were trying times to 
 me but the Lord brought me out. Bless 
 His Holy name. 
 
 chapter xv. 
 
 Sells His Home. 
 
 We had a pleasant home, and we were 
 very much attached to it, but my impres- 
 sions were that the time had come for us to 
 give it up. My eyes were some better, but 
 I was afraid to go back to the furnace, and 
 I could not afford, to keep a blacksmith, as 
 so many buggies and wagons were shipped 
 to this State from the West, and reduced 
 the price of home work. So that under the 
 circumstances I could not make a living, as 
 our family was still increasing. We now 
 had another little girl. We called her 
 Mary. 
 
 84 
 
Now, Mrs. Clay's mother was sick, and 
 in a few weeks died. After her burial 
 Mrs. Clay said, *'Now I am ready to go 
 with you anywhere. ' ' 
 
 Mrs. Clay had truly lost a mother. Her 
 mother was one of the right type. I didn't 
 know her worth and how much I did love 
 her until she was gone. I was with her in 
 her last days and hours of sickness, and 
 she was truly resigned to the will of the 
 blessed Lord, and was patiently waiting for 
 Him to come and meet her at the shore. 
 I was at home one day at dinner, and Mrs. 
 Clay came in. I inquired about her mother, 
 and she said she was worse. I went back 
 with her to her mother's bedside. As soon 
 as I entered the room she looked me in the 
 face and said, * 'There comes Cliff . He will 
 help me across;" and I stayed by her side 
 with her husband, children and friends until 
 she peacefully passed away. Our little home 
 had cost us $335. I thought it was the best 
 thing I could do to sell it and go to a farm. 
 So I took it to the Lord in prayer, and 
 asked Him if it was the best for me to give 
 up my shop and leave this place (I only had 
 5i acres of land, and it out in the country) 
 to send a buyer with the money. So in a 
 few days a man came and said, '1 hear you 
 
 85 
 
are talking of leaving. Now I don't want 
 want you to leave, but if you are deter- 
 mined to go I will give you $150 in cash for 
 your house and lot/' I saw if I took it, it 
 would be a sacrifice of $185, but I was 
 offered no more by anyone else, and I be- 
 lieved the Lord had sent that man in 
 answer to prayer and we made him a deed 
 and got the money. 
 
 My mother came to see me about this 
 time, and learning what I had done, said I 
 could get a place close to her ; and father 
 stated that there were 21h acres of land 
 under mortgage adjoining our place and 
 would be sold soon. I went and bought 
 that for $123.50, so I had 214 acres of land 
 and $26.50 of my money left. I was dis- 
 appointed in the house mother spoke to me 
 about, but I rented a parsonage on a plan- 
 tation that belonged to the Reformed 
 Church, and moved there January 29, 1881. 
 No one had lived there for some time, and 
 the rooms were cold when we moved, and 
 little Mary was sick indeed. It came my 
 time to watch over her in the after part of 
 the night, and as I sat watching alone 
 through the long lonely hours of the night 
 I was thinking of the past ; what a nice, 
 comfortable home we had left ; and the 
 
 86 
 
strong tie that had bound A. Van P. and 
 myself together was severed, and the pres- 
 ence and help of Mrs. Van P. to Mrs. Clay- 
 in sickness was no more, and Mrs. Clay 
 away from her father and sister that we 
 had long lived by the side of, was no 
 longer in calling distance. 
 
 Thinking of all these and many others, 
 and what a great change had been made in 
 such a short time, at this moment the devil 
 made his appearance and wanted to make a 
 speech. So as I ''was in a strait," and 
 things seemed dark and mysterious, I let 
 him take the stand and he began by say- 
 ing: 'Tou see how the God in whom you 
 have trusted has treated you. You know 
 you asked Him if it was best for you to 
 break up shop and sell your home for him 
 to send you a man with the money to buy, 
 and you would know that was the 
 thing for you to do, but you see 
 now where you are. You see you 
 are here with an afflicted family, 
 you have neither bread nor meat for your 
 family, and nothing for your stock, and but 
 little money. You have no home, no shop 
 in which to work, away from your friends, 
 your wife away from her father and a 
 father's people. Now sir," continued the 
 87 
 
devil, ' 'do you think if you were a child of 
 God He would have led you out and treated 
 you thus? and do you suppose He would call 
 on any one to blow his gospel horn, and 
 then, treat them as He has treated you? 
 Never! He has deceived you. No one that 
 loves his children will treat them as you 
 have been treated.'' Now the speech was 
 ended and I was left to think again. I 
 thought the old fellow had made a pretty 
 fair speech, and showed up his side reas- 
 onably well. I thought perhaps I might 
 have made a mistake inasmuch as I had sold 
 my home at a great sacrifice, as I had cov- 
 eted a home so long. So after a few mo- 
 ments' study I turned to the old devil, who 
 was still hard by, and said: There is a 
 way to settle this matter, and I am going 
 to do it. So about four o'clock one morn- 
 ing in the month of February, 1881, I went 
 and got the Bible, God's Word, and I 
 expected Him to speak to me through the 
 Word that morning. I felt that this was 
 one of the times that I needed Him most. 
 I knelt down by the side of my chair and 
 the cradle in which lay the little afflicted 
 one, and said: Oh, Heavenly Father, in 
 this trying hour, manifest thyself to me. 
 Father, I may have done wrong in selling 
 
 88 
 
my home, but I believed that I did as I was 
 directed by Thee; but here is Thy Word, now 
 I take it in my hands to let it open where 
 Thou wilt direct. Now, if I have done 
 wrong in selling my home and coming 
 here, direct me to a text that will condemn 
 me and I will repent and retrace my steps; 
 but if I have done right and followed the 
 direction of thy Spirit, direct me to a text 
 that will console me, and I will never 
 doubt Thee or Thy Word as long as I live. 
 So I let the Bible fall open, and in this try- 
 ing moment my eyes were directed to the 
 5th verse of the 13th chapter of Hebrews. 
 Oh, Hsten! No one but a kind, loving 
 Father can speak that way. Here is the 
 message: "Let your conversation be with- 
 out covetousness: and be content with such 
 things as ye have; for I will never leave 
 thee nor forsake thee.'' Now, dear reader, 
 this was more than twelve years ago, and 
 I have gone through some very dark places 
 (and am in the midst of one now) and the 
 God in whom I trusted that night has led 
 me out, and He will lead me out of this. 
 No, when men forsake and turn their back, 
 God never forsakes his children. Dear 
 reader, it pays to lay your plans before the 
 Lord. Try it. 
 
 89 
 
chapter xvi. 
 
 Feels Called of God to Preach. 
 
 Well, little Mary got well, and we were 
 all well except Mrs. Clay. The doctor 
 attended her for some time, and her health 
 was much better when spring opened. I 
 had built a little blacksmith shop, and had 
 put up my wood tools in an old house in the 
 yard and was doing some work. So when 
 planting time came I needed help, and sent 
 for a young man named Honeycutt that had 
 come to me the year before to learn his 
 trade, but had not completed it. He came 
 and stayed with me a short while, and then 
 married and left. We had everything to 
 buy in the spring and nothing to buy with; 
 so when fall came on our bills were large 
 and as the shop work had not amounted to 
 much, I had but little left after paying the 
 young man. The crop year was bad, and 
 the storm blew out the cotton and destroyed 
 it, until we could not pay our bills; so Mrs. 
 Clay, who was always ready and willing to 
 do all she could, said, * If I can get some 
 cloth I will make the children's clothes for 
 winter, and then I will teach the school 
 they want me to teach, and by that means 
 90 
 
can pay my doctor bill. So I saw the mer- 
 chant and stated the facts, and he said he 
 would let her have the cloth without the 
 money. So I took him a bale of cotton and 
 paid on our bill as far as it would go, and I 
 still had some more cotton at home, but 
 when he got the bale he says, "I can't let 
 your wife have the cloth I promised you 
 the other day; your bill is too big now." 
 Indeed it was a sad message, and I drove 
 on home thinking, how shall I deliver it to 
 my wife? She had devised and planned, 
 but, alas, all in vain! But I remembered 
 my text— Hebrews 13:5. So when I w^ent 
 into the house Mrs. Clay said; ' 'Where is my 
 cloth?" With a sad heart I sat down and 
 told her how the merchant had treated us. 
 Our feelings could not be described, for we 
 thought we had been mistreated; but we 
 knew if men did turn their backs that the 
 Lord would not forsake us. So we saw 
 what could not be cured would have to be 
 endured, and we knew that the Lord would 
 provide in His own way; and, though the 
 way was dark at that time, we were deter- 
 mined to trust Him. 
 
 Mrs. Clay had to give up her school, the 
 only hope of our getting a little money. 
 We had no winter clothes, and had no 
 
 91 
 
wheat or flour, but we had a good cow, and 
 some corn for bread, and we could get a 
 little flour from mother on Saturdays to do 
 over Sunday, and have some biscuits on 
 Monday morning for Mrs. Clay and the 
 children. But one day when we had cal- 
 culated this way, our pastor, Brother 
 Creasy, stopped with us one Sunday for 
 dinner, when the Monday morning flour 
 that just made seven small biscuits 
 had to be brought out. Cliff always 
 enjoyed corn bread— or anything else— 
 when Brother C. was around, but I ac- 
 knowledge that I felt sad when the bis- 
 cuits were gone, and nothing but corn- 
 bread for Mrs. Clay's breakfast. But in a 
 few days I received a call to go and repair 
 a mill, with the understanding that I then 
 run the mill, and pay myself out of the 
 wheat and corn it made. The mill was two 
 miles from home, but I took my tools and 
 went and repaired the mill, but the corn 
 mill first, and took charge of them the 4th 
 of November, 1881. I was then more 
 hopeful and cheerful, and would come 
 home singing or whistling at night. The 
 children would watch for me, and when 
 they heard me they would come running 
 (I often brought a little sack on my shoul- 
 92 
 
der), and they would say, *Tapa, what is 
 in that sack?" And if I said flour they 
 would go running and shouting back with 
 glad hearts; but if I said meal, they would 
 go walking back, thinking corn bread for 
 breakfast. This state of affairs did not 
 last long. 
 
 I succeeded with the mills and got pay 
 for repair work by the last of December, 
 1881, run them until the 4th of March, 
 1882- and had plenty of wheat-bread for 
 Mrs. Clay and the children, and made some 
 money, and Mrs. Clay and the children got 
 their clothes also. Oh, dear reader, the 
 Lord has been so good to me! Bless His 
 holy name! 
 
 But I had to go back to the farm that I 
 had charge of, and the impression to ' 'blow 
 the gospel horn' ' was still ringing in my 
 ears. So I talked to Brother T. W. Smith, 
 who was then my pastor, about it, and he 
 brought it before the church, and I was 
 recommended to the quarterly conference, 
 held by Dr. W. S. Black. I there and then 
 stated my case, told them I was unedu- 
 cated, and was not ready for an examina- 
 tion; and they decided as I had hcense to 
 exhort, and I could preach with them, that 
 it would be best not to license me to preach 
 
 93 
 
at that time, but advised me to get the 
 necessary books and study, for they be- 
 lieved I would have it to do. I was well 
 pleased with the brethrens' decision at that 
 time, and for the advice they gave me. I 
 felt very much relieved, and continued 
 holding prayer meetings whenever an 
 opportunity was afforded. 
 
 We remained on the same farm, and on 
 the 10th of February, 1883, another daugh- 
 ter was born to us. We called her Edith. 
 She was very sick the next summer, a pro- 
 tracted spell of about eight weeks, and just 
 as she was getting better I cut my finger 
 with a grain scythe. About the middle of 
 June I took blood poison and came near 
 losing my life . I did nothing more in my 
 crop. Mrs. Clay and the little boys and 
 girls plowed, and harrowed and hoed, and 
 with the help of some kind friends took 
 care of the wheat, and oats, and growing 
 crop. 
 
 My health was bad and I could not stand 
 hard work, so I applied to the American 
 Bible Society for work, and got it. I 
 bought another horse and entered the work 
 in January, 1884, at a salary of $1.50 a day. 
 This was a grand work, but it was very 
 trying to be seperated from my family, 
 
 94 
 
but I felt like I could do some good work 
 for my blessed Lord, that had done so 
 much for me. In this work I had a chance 
 to study God's Word and human nature as 
 I had never studied it before. I hired a 
 black man the next spring, and Mrs. Clay 
 superintended the farming, and they made 
 the best crop that we had made since we 
 were here. 
 
 I had many lonely hours traveling, some 
 pleasant ones, some sad. Sometimes I had 
 trouble to get a place to stay at night, and 
 other times had very pleasant ^places. I 
 drove a little pony that I loved dearly, and 
 that pony loved her master. If either had 
 to do without something to eat it was my- 
 self. Josie had to have something, let it 
 cost what it would. One summer day I 
 stopped with an old man and family on the 
 side of a hill. It was about 11 o'clock. 
 They had all been out in the field at work, 
 but had beans and bacon on cooking. I told 
 the old brother that I wanted to feed my 
 pony, and rest awhile under the big shade 
 tree. I had feed in my buggy, but he said 
 ' 'That is not enough. " He said we would 
 have dinner soon, and told the boys to go 
 and get what he called ''tops," but there 
 was a good deal of corn on his tops. The 
 
 95 
 
boys gave Josie a large bunch, and she was 
 up to her knees in them; a good feed in- 
 deed. We were sitting under the oak talk- 
 ing about religion and church matters, and 
 he said that he had been a member of the 
 Lutheran church, but had married a Meth- 
 odist and then joined her church. I told 
 him I had done the same thing. He says, 
 "Are you a Methodist?^' I said, ''Yes, 
 sir." He then turned around to the boys 
 and said, *'Boys, give that horse more 
 tops!" 
 
 chapter xvii. 
 Cliff is Licensed to Preach. 
 
 In Dec. of 1885, I rented a farm two and 
 a half miles east of China Grove, Rowan 
 county, near Harris' Chapel church, and 
 moved my family to it. Rev. H. M. Blair 
 was pastor at that time. We did not lack 
 for good preaching. We also had a good 
 Sunday school, superintended by J. M. 
 Maxwell. He was one of these monkey 
 kind of fellows (in short, he was Sankey 
 the second) that everybody, old and young 
 liked. And in fact there was a young lady 
 in Concord who liked him so well that she 
 left her father and mother and cast her lot 
 
 96 
 
with him. One word now about his wife. 
 I consider her one of the salt of the earth, 
 and my wife thinks there was never 
 another such woman— and I believe my wife 
 is a woman of sound judgment. It is a 
 perfect show to see these two women meet 
 and hug and kiss and talk. They both 
 talk just as hard as they can all the time. 
 I never could see how one could tell what 
 the other one said, but they seem to under- 
 stand one another perfectly. Well, they 
 are women, that accounts for it. Mrs. 
 Clay and I spent many pleasant hours 
 with Mrs. Maxwell and family in their 
 home. We also found many other kind 
 friends in that community. 
 
 Brother Blair lived near us, and I studied 
 under him. He was very kind to me— 
 gave me lessons free of charge. I was 
 still travehng for the A. B. S. I made 
 a trip down in what is known as the Rocks 
 country, in Rowan county. I there met 
 with the hardest case I have ever seen 
 among the thousands that I have visited. 
 The family, which consisted of an old man 
 and two daughters, lived in a little hut 
 down in a field. The old man was not at 
 home when I called on them. I told the 
 girls that I was traveling, and giving 
 
 97 
 
Bibles to those who had none and were too 
 poor to buy them. One of the girls told 
 me they had no Bible and had no money 
 to buy one. So I told them I would give 
 them one, but I always prayed in the 
 house where I left a Bible, if the family did 
 not object. One of them said you can 
 read ^nd pray if you want to. But the 
 other one did not approve of it. She was 
 carding and did not mean to be interrupt- 
 ed. She would not quit carding, nor I 
 would not quit reading. She at last raked 
 across her face with the card and cried 
 out, '1 believe Fm poisoned." But still I 
 read on. She got some cotton off the card 
 in her throat, got choked, threw her cards 
 dow, ran out in the yard, coughed and 
 spit and cut all sorts of monkey-shines; 
 but I paid no attention to her at all, think- 
 ing as many devils as you have I would 
 rather you were in the yard than in the 
 house. She saw it was of no use— she 
 could not break up the service. When 
 she got the cotton out of her throat she 
 came back in the house, took up her card 
 and set in with all her might to card. In 
 a few moments I ended the chapter and 
 said, ' 'Let us pray. ' * When she saw that 
 I was determined and that she was beat 
 
 98 
 
out, she kept quiet while I prayed. After 
 prayer I handed them the Bible and said, 
 ' 'Take this, read and obey it. I leave the 
 Bible and my prayers with you. In the 
 judgment we shall see what good they 
 have done. ' ' I then bade them good bye, 
 and went on my way. After I left she 
 stormed and raved and cursed and swore, 
 swearing that neither Bible nor my pray- 
 ers should remain in the house, that she 
 would kick my prayers up the chimney 
 and the Bible out the door. 
 
 After traveling a day or two in that part 
 of the country, I decided I would have a 
 church built in that community if possible. 
 There was no M. E. S. S. anywhere near 
 this place. They had a union Sunday 
 school at a school house in the neighbor- 
 hood. The people wanted me to preach 
 for them, but I told them I was not a 
 preacher, but I would get some one else 
 that could preach for them if possible. 
 Soon after this they had a Sunday school 
 celebration, and invited me to come and 
 bring Mrs. Clay. I got Brother Triplett 
 to go down with us. We had a big crowd, 
 a big dinner, and a nice time. Bro. T. 
 talked church on Saturday and preached 
 to a large congregation on Sunday. Bro. 
 
 99 
 
Blair promised to go and preach for them 
 in January, but when the time came the 
 weather was so bad that he could not go, 
 so they did not get any more preaching 
 that winter. 
 
 I continued to study under Bro. Blair, 
 and on the 3rd of July, 1886, I was licens- 
 ed to preach, Rev. H. M. Blair being my 
 pastor and Dr. W. H. Bobbitt my P. E. I 
 preached my first sermon at Love's Chapel, 
 Stanley county, N. C. When I went to 
 preaching I could not keep the "Rocks" 
 and the bad woman out of my mind, but 
 0! how I dreaded it. It was almost a 
 Jonah case. But my monkey Sankey fel- 
 low went with me down there one Sunday 
 (he had heard me a time or two at Harris' 
 Chapel) , and he told them I could preach 
 and would preach for them if they wanted 
 me to. Some of them seemed very anx- 
 ious for me to come. So I thought I would 
 risk it. I left an appointment and went 
 and filled it as best I could. They seem- 
 ed to be well pleased and wanted me to 
 come back, which I did, But I want to 
 tell you, some of these people eyed me 
 closely. Some were superstitious, some 
 were wicked and ignorant, while others 
 were good, clever people. I preached at 
 100 
 
a school house for some time, and they 
 wanted me to hold a protracted meeting. 
 I told them we could not hold a meeting 
 in that school house, as it was too small, 
 but if they were in earnest about the mat- 
 ter to go to work and clear off a place in 
 the grove and build a stand, and I would 
 hold a meeting to the best of my ability. 
 Well, when I came to my next appoint- 
 ment the grove was nicely cleared off, 
 the stand built and the seats all ready. I 
 made the appointment for the meeting and 
 met it. I will tell you in my next how I 
 came out. 
 
 chapter xviii 
 The Meeting in the Grove. 
 
 I had an appointment at Harris' Chapel 
 every two weeks, and at Cowan's school 
 house once a month, near Bro. W. A. 
 Brandon's, who was one of the stewards at 
 Harris' Chapel. 
 
 Well, the time rolled round for the meet- 
 ing at the ''Rocks," and I went. The peo- 
 ple had gathered up every piece of plank 
 that could be found in the neighborhood, 
 and an old darkey near by gave them all 
 the slabs out of his barn to make seats of, 
 
 101 
 
but every seat was full and many were 
 standing when we got there. My father- 
 in-law, Rev. D. Brown, was with me and 
 preached a soul-stirring sermon at 3 o'clock 
 p. m., and went home. I preached at 
 night, and set in for a week, day and 
 night. Tuesday it began to rain, but the 
 people said we could not afford to close the 
 meeting. So they cleared out an old shop, 
 and I preached in it, and God blessed our 
 efforts, and souls were saved. When the 
 rainy spell was over we went back to the 
 grove and began with renewed energy and 
 zeal. The spirit came down in great 
 power. Sinners wept and cried for mercy, 
 mourners were converted, and we had a 
 wonderful stir in the community. After 
 the first week I preached only at night, it 
 being a busy time with farmers. The peo- 
 ple had to work in the day time, and so 
 did I as I was a farmer also, I would work 
 hard all day and drive down there, four 
 miles, every evening and preach. 
 
 One night when I drove up to the grove 
 an old man about six feet and three inches 
 high came up to me and said, "I want you 
 to quit preachin' here. The people are a 
 doin' sights of harm' shoutin' and hollerin' 
 as they go home from this place, and I 
 
 102 
 
tell you now, your preachin' is a doin' 
 more harm than good." I told him in 
 plain English that I would not quit, be- 
 cause there was a class of people come to 
 hear me that would not go anywhere else, 
 and that I believe our meeting was doing 
 good. He then said, "If you won't stop 
 this meetin' I want you to preach in day- 
 time and not at night." I said, "That I 
 cannot do, as both myself and this people 
 have to work for a living and this is a busy 
 time with us all, and I intend preaching at 
 night just as I have been doing, and if the 
 people do not behave, you just give me the 
 names of those who do not and I will set- 
 tle with them. ' ' I then said the time is up 
 and the people are waiting. I left him, 
 entered the stand and began my service. 
 I had no help except Mrs. Clay and my 
 Httle daughte>^ Minnie. They went with 
 me every night, and sometimes we would 
 stay there in that grove and sing and pray 
 for penitants till 11 o'clock, and then drive 
 home four miles. There were some young 
 people that attended my meeting that were 
 faithful to sing for me, but they were not 
 Christians. 
 
 This same night that the old man wanted 
 me to stop the meeting the Holy Spirit 
 
 103 
 
came down with great power and many 
 were convicted, among them the old tall 
 man's son. I had heard of such convic- 
 tion, but had never seen anything like it. 
 Some were crying aloud for mercy, others 
 were prostrate on the ground, apparently 
 dead. This state of affairs created great 
 excitement among the people. One wo- 
 man said to Mrs. Clay, "I have noticed 
 something wrong with my sister's mind 
 for sometime, and now it is clear gone." 
 The old man's son fell backward as though 
 a ball had gone through his heart, his 
 head striking an old slad bench so hard 
 you could have heard the crack one hun- 
 dred yards. He lay as still as death and 
 if he breathed it could not be discovered. 
 The old man walked up and stood with 
 his hat on. He looked at me as much as 
 to say, "You have done it now, sure 
 enough." but I don't know what he 
 thought, for he did not speak a word. I 
 went and spoke to the seemingly dead 
 man, but all to no purpose — he paid no 
 attention to me at all. The scene was 
 truly awful and the power great. While 
 I was standing by this man another one 
 fell. I caught him and laid him on a 
 bench against the stand. Mrs. Clay was 
 
 104 
 
talking to the ladies, and my little girl 
 was talking and singing. She would talk 
 awhile and then break out with some 
 sweet song. She went to the old man's 
 son, fell on her knees and began singing 
 in her sweet, childish voice, *1 am so glad 
 that Jesus loves me." This was a new 
 song to those people. Tears flowed from 
 many eyes. She sang as no one but a 
 child can do. And Jesus came and blessed 
 that man's soul. He sprang right 
 straight up, it seemed without any effort, 
 and cried out, '1 see him! I see him! 
 glory, glory, glory,'' and started to run 
 right through the congregation, I thought 
 he would run over Mrs. Clay and the pros- 
 trate ladies, so I caught him by the coat- 
 tail, but could not hold him. But no one 
 was hurt, and the old man has been my 
 friend ever since. The other man that 
 fell was converted also, but was very 
 quiet. The ladies all came to themselves, 
 and to the astonishment of many, were in 
 their right minds. 
 
 We organized a society of ten at the 
 close of the meeting, and went to work 
 without a cent to build a church. After 
 receiving the lot — which was donated by 
 Brother Jim Ludwick— I said, ' *We will be- 
 
 105 
 
gin a church on this lot on the 9th of Jan- 
 uary. Meet me at this place on that day- 
 ready for work.'* 
 
 On the morning of January 9th, 1887, I 
 took my axe on my shoulder, got on my 
 horse and rode down there, and found 
 three white men and a negro on the 
 ground. The negro was the one that gave 
 us the slabs from his barn to make the 
 seats of. I took my axe and struck the 
 first lick for the new church. On the 6th 
 of February we raised the frame. The 
 rock foundation, framing, lumber work all 
 had cost us 20 cents in money up to date. 
 I tell you those people worked with a will. 
 They were poor and had but little money, 
 but they made it up in work. The build- 
 ing was 25x40 feet. I preached in it in 
 May. It was finished that year, and paid 
 for in a short time. For my first year's 
 services at this place they gave me $2.90 
 and a one horse load of pumpkins. This 
 was a hard country, indeed. 
 
 On one occasion I preached to a congre- 
 gation of about twenty at eleven o'clock 
 one Sunday, and in less than a week one- 
 fifth of that congregation was in Salisbury 
 jail. 
 
 106 
 
chapter xix. 
 
 Takes Work in Conference. 
 
 As I was a local preacher, I had no regu- 
 lar charge. So the Rocks church that I 
 had built was put on the Rowan Circuit, 
 Salisbury District. Rev. G. W. Fisher was 
 in charge of said circuit at this time. He 
 was a noble young man and a good preach- 
 er. I was still preaching once a month at 
 the Rocks church, and when anything went 
 wrong at that place he would say, *'CHfi, 
 you will have to go down there and get 
 things straight; I can't do anything with 
 those people.'' I would go cheerfully for 
 the Brother, and generally succeeded in 
 getting matters settled to all concerned. 
 I was still preaching at Harris Chapel and 
 Cowan's school house. About this time 
 some people about four miles south of Salis- 
 bury wanted me to preach for them at a 
 school house in that community and I 
 agreed to do so. They made the appoint- 
 ment. I was to preach at Cowan's school 
 house on Saturday night and at this place 
 on Sunday morning. I filled my appoint- 
 ment at the school house and stayed with 
 Bro. Brandon the remainder of the night. 
 My monkey Sankey Bro. was on hand, 
 
 107 
 
and in company with Bro. Brandon and 
 Sankey I put out across a rough country 
 for the appointed place. On reaching the 
 place I found that the word had been cir- 
 culated that the committemen would not 
 let us have the use of the school house and 
 so but very few were present. Bro. B. C. 
 Elrod, Bro. J. Fesperman and two of his 
 children, Tommy and Jennie, Bro. Bran- 
 don and Sankey composed the congrega- 
 tion. I said, well, we will have a service 
 before we part and we will not become dis- 
 couraged because we are locked out, so we 
 carried three old railroad sills out into a 
 dogwood thicket for seats. I read a chap- 
 ter from God's Word, we sang a hymn and 
 prayed. After prayer we talked a little on 
 the lesson I had read and of how we had 
 been treated by the committeemen. I said 
 let us not despise the day of small things, 
 but thank God for this service and take 
 courage. Sankey said, ' 'No one knows but 
 what we may go from this place into a 
 brick church some day. I left no other ap- 
 pointment for this place, but like Mary of 
 old I kept this service and Sankey 's saying 
 and pondered them in my heart. I will 
 refer to this again. 
 In 1888 I told Bro. Bobbitt, our P. E., 
 
 108 
 
that I would take work the next year if he 
 had anything in his district that I could do. 
 I had been helping some of the brethren in 
 their protracted meetings, among whom 
 were Brothers Stone, Fisher, Rowe, Gault 
 and Franklin. I was still in the Bible work 
 but could not be satisfied without preach- 
 ing. At the next session of the annual 
 conference the Rowan Mission was made. 
 It was composed of Zion church, my new 
 Rocks church, and an appointment at Dry's 
 school house, Cabarrus county, nineteen 
 miles southwest of Salisbury, and I was 
 assigned to the Rowan Mission. Not very 
 far from the place we held the service in 
 the dogwood thicket lived an old man by 
 the name of Brown who was sorely afflicted 
 and could not attend church. He was a 
 member of Harris Chapel and as he could 
 not go to church, I often preached for him 
 at his home, quite a number of people came 
 out there to preaching and they wanted me 
 to preach for them regularly, which I agreed 
 to do. The house in which Bro. Brown 
 lived was very large, and the man to whom 
 it belonged gave us the privilege of holding 
 services in a large upper room. A kind 
 friend by the name of B. Ludwick furnish- 
 ed lumber and nails and some of the 
 
 109 
 
brethren made seats and fixed up the room 
 for us. We now had both preaching and 
 Sunday school regularly at this place, and 
 Sankey taught a singing class here also 
 which was a great help to the Sunday 
 school. There were a few Methodists in 
 this community, among them were B. Lud- 
 wick's wife and daughter, B. C. Elrod and 
 wife and daughter. Bro. Elrod' s daughter 
 married a Presbyterian who was an excel- 
 lent man and was our Sunday school super- 
 intendent (he has since joined the Meth- 
 odist church). Bro. Elrod was our stew- 
 ard. He was a Methodist of the old type; 
 he married a daughter of Daniel Sullivan, 
 who was also a staunch Methodist and one 
 of the best men I ever knew. I visited him 
 and his widowed daughter, Mrs. Wincoff, 
 very often in his last days; he was a great 
 sufferer for many days, but his death was 
 one of triumph and victory. He now rests 
 in peace, and may God's richest blessings 
 rest upon his widowed daughter, who is 
 now blind. The time had come for my pro- 
 tracted meeting at the Rocks church, and I 
 went into it with all my heart expecting 
 the Lord to bless us. You will remember 
 that this church was in a pretty bad place, 
 that is, there were some very bad people in 
 
 110 
 
this community; and I told some of them 
 before I began my meeting that I was go- 
 ing to have order in that church and on the 
 grounds, and if they did not behave some of 
 them would land in prison. But as you 
 know wherever good is being done the 
 devil's agents are always on hand, and so 
 it was on this occasion. One fellow fur- 
 nished the liquor and got another one to 
 get drunk and go and break up Cliff's 
 meeting. He was on hand that evening 
 sure enough, so drunk that he could not 
 walk. Just as I drove up to the church he 
 fell backward from a seat in the yard. 
 Brother A. Gannt was to preach for me 
 that night and I told him to go in and go 
 ahead, that I was going to clean up the 
 yard. I took the harness off my horse and 
 another one, and sent two men after a 
 warrant; they got the warrant, the drunk- 
 en man was arrested and found guilty, but 
 gave bond. Two or three others had to do 
 the same thing in the next day or two. 
 But still the meeting went on and God was 
 with us in great power. One day while I 
 was inviting penitents to the altar a young 
 man in the congregation jumped up and 
 ran out of the house leaving his hat and 
 umbrella. He ran up the public road for 
 111 
 
some distance, left the road and ran around 
 a rock mountain and hid. He said the 
 devil was after him, right at his heels. 
 Next morning he was at church and was 
 very penitent, I talked to him before we 
 went into the church and told him to go in 
 with me and take a front seat, and when I 
 called for penitents for him to come to the 
 altar instead of running. He did so, and 
 poor fellow, I have never seen anything to 
 compare to the agony he was in. He 
 jumped, he yelled, he prayed, and con- 
 fessed. He said to me "I have cursed and 
 swore, lied, cheated and got drunk, but 
 that running yesterday was the worst 
 thing I ever did, and I don't believe the 
 Lord ever will forgive me," and then he 
 yelled till you could have heard him half a 
 mile, ' '0 Lord do have mercy on me, poor 
 me." He would say **the Lord has for- 
 given me for all my meanness but that 
 running and I don't believe He ever will 
 forgive me for that. " I told him the Lord 
 did not forgive a part of a man's sins, but 
 when he forgave one he forgave all, and 
 that God would have mercy on him if he 
 would beheve it. He then became a little 
 more quiet and in a few minutes he was 
 happily converted. There was one very 
 
 112 
 
amusing incident which occurred during 
 this meeting. One day after the sermon 
 the altar was crowded with weeping peni- 
 tents and the whole congregation seemed 
 to feel the power of the Spirit. Some were 
 weeping, some singing, some praying and 
 others shouting. At this point Bro. Gannt 
 noticed a lady in the back part of the 
 church who seemed to be in very great 
 distress she was going through queer con- 
 tortions of the body, wringing her hands 
 and weeping. Bro. G. went to her and 
 said: ''My friend, if you feel that you area 
 sinner, just take the trouble all to the Lord 
 in prayer, he will help you.'* She said ''0 
 Lordie, I have a felon on my finger and it 
 is about to kill me; Lordie.'' 
 
 At this meeting we had forty-three con- 
 verts, thirty-one of whom I received into 
 the church at one time, among them the 
 fellow that got drunk to break up the 
 meeting. Near the church lived a good 
 brother with whom I often stopped, who 
 owned a little black dog whose business it 
 was to catch a chicken when the preacher 
 came. This time I had been in the com- 
 munity two weeks and had been at this 
 place so often that the dog had learned to 
 know me and my horse. After the meet- 
 US 
 
ing closed and I was on my way home I 
 drove up to this brother's house to get some 
 fruit, not intending to stay for dinner. In 
 fact, could not stay. Just as soon as I 
 drove into the yard that dog made a rush 
 for the chickens and killed two in less than 
 four minutes. I could tell you more about 
 this dog, but this is sufficient. These are 
 facts. See Bro. Triplett— he has served 
 this church. May God bless all of these 
 kind Rocks people is my sincere prayer. 
 
 chapter xx. 
 
 My Mother's Death. 
 
 In the year 1887 Miss Jane E. left our 
 house to make her home with her son, who 
 is now married and doing well. Miss Jane 
 lived with us fourteen years. She was in- 
 deed a mother to us all; she was so kind 
 and helpful to Mrs. Clay and so good to the 
 little ones. Every one of the children 
 would go to her for everything they want- 
 ed, and they were sure to get it if it could 
 be had; and to this day we all love her as 
 we have never loved any one else outside 
 of our immediate family. May God richly 
 bless her and hers is my prayer. 
 
 114 
 
In 1889 we left the farm near Harris 
 Chapel, and moved to Dunn's Mountain, 
 four miles east of Salisbury, where we 
 were kindly received. Some of the good 
 neighbors had come in and cleaned up the 
 house. Others had come in bringing bas- 
 kets filled with good things to eat that 
 lasted us several days. May God bless all 
 these kind people. 
 
 In May of this year my mother visited us 
 for the last time. Her health was then 
 failing. She grew gradually worse during 
 the summer, and by the first of September 
 was so much worse that Mrs. Clay and I 
 left our children and went and stayed with 
 her until she died. She suffered more than 
 human tongue can tell, but her faith was 
 strong in God. She had no desire to get 
 well, and told us she would never be any 
 better in this world, but said, '1 shall soon 
 be at rest where there will be no more 
 suffering.'' 
 
 On the 24th day of September, 1889, she 
 peacefully passed away. None but those 
 who have lost a mother can have any idea 
 of my feelings at this sad parting. Oh! 
 how sad and desolate I felt; but thanks be 
 to God for the sweet assurance I had of 
 meeting my precious mother in the happy 
 115 
 
home above, where parting will be no 
 more. 
 
 MY MOTHER WAS A SWEET SINGER 
 
 A song, sung by a mother dear, 
 Who sang to me from year to year; 
 Who knows the depths of a mother's love? 
 Who now sings in heaven above. 
 
 Mother's voice I remember well, 
 Oh! such music, no tongue can tell. 
 Some mothers still live, some are gone, 
 And we are left to sing alone. 
 
 Earth's work done, them we hope to see, 
 Sing with them and in glory be 
 Above with Christ, the Christian's home, 
 Mother nor child will sing alone. 
 
 We'll rest from sorrow here below, 
 Mother nor child shall know a woe; 
 Then there with Jesus our great King, 
 Mother and child will ever sing. 
 
 Composed and written by Cliff and dedicated to the 
 Memory of His Mother. 
 
 I closed up my work, went to conference, 
 and was returned to the same work with 
 another mission point added to it. A large 
 cotton mill was in course of construction at 
 Salisbury, and the people here wanted and 
 needed a church. This mission point was 
 called Chestnut Hill. We had no church, 
 school, members or money; nothing but 
 open air. We were now living at the old 
 home place where my mother died. It 
 
 116 
 
was too far from my work, so I had to look 
 out for a place nearer it. Our kind-heart- 
 ed friend B. Ludwick offered to furnish the 
 material to build a house for me to live in. 
 It was to be located on his plantation, one 
 and a half miles from Chestnut Hill I 
 gladly accepted his very kind offer, sold 
 the old home place, and moved into a rented 
 house on the :first day of January, 1890. 
 On the first day of January we began work 
 on our new home. B. Ludwick, B. C. 
 Elrod, J. A. Fesperman and others, helped 
 us with the house, and on the 4th day of 
 February, of the same year, we moved into 
 our new house of five rooms neatly fur- 
 nished. 
 
 In a very short time after we moved to 
 our new home Bro. B. C. Elrod died and 
 went to his home in heaven. Peace to his 
 ashes 
 
 Bro. J. J. Wrenn was Presiding Elder of 
 the Salisbury District at this time, and we 
 began to look around the cotton mill at 
 Salisbury for a lot on which to build a 
 church. Previous to this time two lots had 
 been deeded to the Methodist church for 
 the purpose of building a church. One by 
 B. C. Elrod, the other by B. Ludwick, but 
 it seemed that neither of these was the 
 
 117 
 
place that God intended us to build, as we 
 could not succeed at either. 
 
 As I have said before we had nothing 
 but a name to begin with at Salisbury. In 
 looking around we found a man by the name 
 of Myrick who was a Methodist, and who 
 was also superintendent of the cotton mill. 
 I found him busy at work. I introduced 
 myself to him, and told him my business. 
 He seemed to be very much interested in 
 me and my work. He was a man of 
 fine sense and good judgment, and a first- 
 class Christian gentleman. In a few days 
 we found a lot that suited us, belonging to 
 the Episcopal minister at Salisbury. His 
 price for the lot was $100, ''But," said he, 
 ' 'if you want this lot for the purpose of 
 building a Methodist church, I will deed it 
 to you for $66§.'' We gladly accepted his 
 very liberal offer. The lot being secured, 
 the next thing was to raise money to build 
 a church. Now we wanted to build a nice, 
 good sized church at this place; so I went to 
 work with a will to raise money for this 
 purpose, but had poor success. I soon 
 abandoned the idea of building a large 
 house, for the present at least; and con- 
 cluded to make an effort for a small chapel 
 to be used for preaching, and also for 
 
 118 
 
school purposes, there being no school 
 house in the district; and in this we suc- 
 ceeded. Bro. J. Knox, a good Presbyte- 
 rian, had told me he would give me $25 
 toward our church, and he gave us the $25 
 on our little chapel. Samuel Wiley, anoth- 
 er Presbyterian brother, gave us $25. Mrs. 
 Cole, Edwin Shaver, the McCubbins, and 
 others, came to our help liberally. We 
 built a chapel 22x36 feet, twelve feet high, 
 seated and painted it for $325. I preached 
 in this little chapel for the first time the 
 second Sunday in September, 1890. 
 
 Previous to this time I had organized a 
 little society at old Bro. Brown's called the 
 Davis Mine Society. By the time that we 
 moved into our new houee at B. Ludwick's 
 old Bro. Brown had gotten better and had 
 moved near us, so we moved the preaching 
 place to our house, and preached there 
 every two weeks till our chapel at Salis- 
 bury was completed. My Davis Mine peo- 
 ple—as you will see further on— nealy all 
 joined this church. Reader, mark our 
 steps; remember the Davis Mine Society 
 was an outcome of the service in the dog- 
 wood thicket, and we are on the forward 
 march and have gotten this far toward 
 Sankey's brick church, and by the grace of 
 
 119 
 
God we expect to go all the way. 
 
 We organized a Sunday school at once 
 in our new chapel. Bro. Myrick was elect- 
 ed superintendent; it was success. 
 
 I now held a protracted meeting which 
 resulted in about fifty conversions; and on 
 the first Sunday in October, 1890, I organ- 
 ized a society with thirty-six members. I 
 bought a lot adjoining the church lot, had 
 a good house built on it, and moved into it 
 the 11th day of November, 1890. We were 
 very warmly received at this place. About 
 forty people— representing every denomi- 
 nation in the place — called on us the first 
 night we spent in our new home, and every 
 one brought something. I will not attempt 
 to name the articles we received that night; 
 I will just say we had plenty of good things 
 to eat for days to come. May God's rich- 
 est blessings rest and abide on these good 
 people now and forever. I went to confer- 
 ence feeling good over our move. 
 
 chapter xxi. 
 Begins Work on the Brick Church. 
 
 At the Conference in Concord in 1890 
 they made a station of Chestnut Hill, 
 though it was a mission, and it received an 
 
 120 
 
appropriation of $325. Nearly all of the 
 Davis Mine members joined this church— 
 in fact the two appointments became one 
 —and I was sent back to the work. Our 
 good Presbyterian brother, J. A. Fesper- 
 man, joined our church, and is as true as 
 steel to his church and pastor. We had a 
 very pleasant year; had quite a number of 
 conversions and accessions to the church. 
 I had made myself personally responsible 
 for the lumber used in our chapel, and we 
 still owed about $38. But in order to en- 
 courage our Sunday school we thought best 
 to buy an organ, which we did; and our 
 church and Sunday school work went on 
 nicely. 
 
 We had quite a number of good workers 
 in the church. Among them was a young 
 lady who was one of the best workers in a 
 revival meeting I have ever seen. She 
 was always ready and willing to do any- 
 thing and everything she could for the sal- 
 vation of souls, and to help her pastor in 
 his work. 
 
 Just here I will mention a httle incident 
 that occurred during one of my meetings 
 at Chestnut Hill. After the sermon I 
 called for penitents, and they came till they 
 were about three deep around the altar. 
 
 121 
 
As I was talking to the penitents at the 
 altar I was wondering in my mind where 
 Miss Delia M. was. (That is the name of 
 the young lady referred to in the foregoing 
 paragraph. ) On looking around I saw her 
 at a window, talking to two young men. 
 They were up on a pile of wood that was 
 stacked up under the window. They were 
 afraid to come inside, for fear she would 
 get after them; and yet they wanted to see 
 what was going on on the inside. When 
 she saw them at the window she pressed 
 through the crowd to them, and began 
 talking to them about their souls' salva- 
 tion. She pressed the matter so earnestly 
 that they both got down on their knees on 
 that pile of wood, and she knelt down in- 
 side of the window, and prayed with and 
 for them, pointing them to the Lamb of 
 God, the Saviour of Sinners. 
 
 We had a young men's prayer-meeting 
 every Tuesday night, and when the time 
 came you would see Bros. Myrick, Odell, 
 Hartman, Bro. R. Leonard, and others; 
 but those mentioned were always present 
 unless sickness prevented them. 
 
 We worked hard and prayed earnestly 
 for the success of Zion at this point. The 
 time had now come when the $38 due on 
 
 122 
 
the chapel lumber had to be paid. The man 
 was pressing me for it, and I could not get 
 it. I told Brother Wrenn, my Presiding 
 Elder, about the press, and asked him if he 
 could help me. He told me to wait until 
 the District Conference, and he would make 
 a statement of my work and take up a col- 
 lection to pay off the debt. But he failed 
 to do ither, so I went home very much dis- 
 appointed, and drew my money out of the 
 building and loan association and paid the 
 debt; and I have not gotten it all back yet. 
 
 Well, we closed the year pleasantly, and 
 I went to conference at Asheville in 1891, 
 and was returned to Chestnut Hill. We 
 agreed this year to build a good brick 
 church at Chestnut Hill. The people were 
 poor, but willing to do all they could. We 
 could not get a contractor to build it for 
 less than $2000. I told the people I was 
 confident it could be built for $1,700. So 
 with that understanding we went to work, 
 trusting in the Lord. 
 
 As I have already said, we had a good 
 Sunday school. Bro. Myrick was our super- 
 intendent; Sister Annie, his wife, was our 
 organist. Our Sankey was on hand, of 
 course, and he — with all the rest — did all 
 he could to help us, and his work did a great 
 deal of good. 
 
 123 
 
The majority of the Methodists up town 
 were not in favor of us building, and gave 
 us but Httle help. But in this church, as 
 in the building of our chapel, the Presby- 
 terians came to our relief manfully. God 
 bless every one of them! Mrs. Cole gave 
 us $15; Bro. Edwin Shaver gave us $50, 
 and then made us a present of a fine Bible 
 for the pulpit; Bro. John Knox gave us 
 $150 worth of brick; Bro. Samuel Wiley 
 sent us a check for $150. You will remem- 
 ber that the above named contributed lib- 
 erally to our little chapel. All this kind- 
 ness we appreciated very much, and felt 
 very much encouraged to press on. I had 
 received two carpenters and a brick-mason 
 into the church, and they were good fel- 
 lows, too, and I knew that I could depend 
 upon them for work. So I drew the plan 
 and specifications of the church, and we 
 went ahead, getting only fairly started in 
 1892. At the Conference at Winston I 
 presented an application to the Extension 
 Board, and they granted me $120. I was 
 again returned to Chestnut Hill. 
 
 As the winter was extremely bad we did 
 nothing more to the church till in the 
 spring of 1893. 
 
 On the 27th of March, 1893, I had all my 
 
 124 
 
upper teeth extracted. That stopped me 
 from preaching for some time, but my ap- 
 pointments were filled by the following 
 brethren: Groom, Miller and Brown. Bro. 
 Groom preached for me once, to the de- 
 light and edification [of my people. Bro. 
 Miller, who is a Presbyterian and the sec- 
 retary of the Y. M. C. A. at Salisbury, 
 filled my appointment several times. He 
 was an excellent speaker — so earnest and 
 persuasive in his manner that my people 
 were always glad to hear him. Mrs. Clay's 
 father. Rev. David Brown, preached for 
 me twice, with great power and acceptabil- 
 ity. His presence and preaching did us all 
 good. Bros. Myrick and Odell— two of the 
 leading bosses at the cotton mill — said if 
 they could always have such preaching as 
 Father Brown gave them they thought 
 they could stand their daily trials much 
 better. I had to preach a time or two be- 
 fore I got my teeth, but it was a mighty 
 flat preach. 
 
 In April of 1893 we began work on the 
 church again. We concluded to make our 
 building some longer, so we took out the 
 rear end and added 11 feet to it, which 
 made the building 38ix63 feet, with a re- 
 cess of 5x12 feet, and an open vestibule in 
 
 125 
 
front 10x10 feet. I had good backing. 
 Bro. Myrick was strong spiritually and 
 financially, and as I was contractor he told 
 me to go ahead and buy the material. I 
 did so, making myself responsible for the 
 debt. I never saw a building go on better 
 in my Kfe, and everybody seemed to be in 
 good heart. 
 
 In July of 1893 when the building was 
 nearing completion, we had a corner-stone 
 service. Our Presiding Elder, J. J. Wrenn, 
 gave us a good talk, and Rev. Dr. Rum- 
 ple, of the Presbyterian church, gave us a 
 very encouraging talk. Then the trustees 
 placed the corner-stone, and we were dis- 
 missed. 
 
 Our monkey Sankey was at this service, 
 and after we were dismissed he turned to 
 me and said, ''Brother, do you remember 
 the meeting in the dogwood thicket? 
 Didn't I tell you that we might walk from 
 that place into a brick church some day?'' 
 
 chapter xxii. 
 
 Our Best Man Died. 
 
 But with all our success and pleasure 
 and great anticipation all our hearts were 
 much saddened by the death of our good 
 
 126 
 
brother, Joe Myrick. As I have already- 
 said, he was a very strong man spirituUy, 
 and by far the strongest man financially 
 we had. Everybody loved and respected 
 him; in fact he was one of the best men I 
 have ever met. His judgment was good, 
 his mind clear, his heart right and he 
 always had a smile and a kind word for 
 everyone he met. Although he was super- 
 intendent of the cotton mills and always 
 very busy he never neglected the work of 
 the church; when the bell rang he was at 
 his post. But, alas, on the 5th day of 
 August, 1893, he passed out of this world 
 of sorrow into one of joy and peace. His 
 death was the most triumphant I ever wit- 
 nessed. But Oh! how we all did miss him! 
 It was a hard stroke on the community at 
 large, but especially hard on the church. 
 I felt as if I could not bear to hear the 
 whistle blow at the mills, and 0, how sad 
 when the church bell would ring, to think 
 he was gone never more to return. But 
 this was^God'splan, and as His children we 
 bowed to His holy will. Bro. Odell took 
 his place in the Sunday school, and we 
 went on trusting in the Lord and completed 
 our church and walked into it for the first 
 service on the second Sunday of Septem- 
 
 127 
 
ber, 1893. We started at the dogwood 
 thicket in October, 1887, and reached the 
 brick church in September, 1893. And 
 every one that was present in the dogwood 
 thicket when the first service was held, 
 was present at the first service in the brick 
 church except one, Bro. B. C. Elrod, whose 
 death I have already mentioned. It seem- 
 ed to me that it would have been the hap- 
 piest period in my life if only Brother Joe 
 Myrick and Brother Elrod could have lived 
 to have been with us in this service. But 
 thanks be to God they are now in the 
 church triumphant above. I often think of 
 the pleasant times we had in the little 
 chapel when Bro. Myrick was superinten- 
 dent of the Sunday school and his wife, 
 sister Annie, was our organist; we had 
 good music and I did enjoy it. But I am 
 now looking forward to the time when we 
 shall all be gathered around the great 
 white throne of God, to join in the song of 
 redemption's story with our loved ones who 
 have gone on before, and chime in with the 
 angelic hosts as they strike their harps of 
 gold and cry, ''Worthy is the Lamb who 
 was for sinners slain.'* We held a pro- 
 tracted meeting in our church soon after 
 its completion. Bro. T. L. Triplett came 
 
 128 
 
I said, * 'Why do you wish me such a 
 calamity as that? Don't you know that 
 that many fish would break my traps all to 
 pieces? Very early next morning I went 
 down to the river, not expecting many fish 
 as it was very cold, but to my great sur- 
 prise I found what has never been known 
 in the history of the river at this season of 
 the year. There were 174 fish in my trap, 
 some of them weighing three pounds; and 
 my trap was not broken, either. I took 
 them to Albemarle and sold them. 
 
 I now had my missionary money, and 
 money to carry me to Conference. I said 
 to my wife, * 'Now I have the money to go 
 to Conference, but what are you going to 
 do while I am gone? Our children are 
 away from home, and no chance to get any 
 of them home now, and I don't know of a 
 soul that I can get to stay with you while 
 I am gone." She said, ''Don't trouble 
 about that. When the time comes I will 
 have some one to stay with me." 
 
 On Sunday before the Conference met 
 on Wednesday a good lady walked four 
 miles to hear me preach. She came home 
 with us from church, and spent the night 
 with us. Before she left Mrs. Clay said to 
 her, * 'Could I get you to come and stay 
 
 145 
 
with me while my husband is gone to Con- 
 ference?" She said, ''Yes; I will come and 
 stay with you, and glad to do it," and she 
 came and stayed, and was a great help and 
 comfort to my wife in my absence. God 
 bless her and hers. 
 
 I went to Conference and was ordained 
 Elder, but got no work. But while I was 
 gone the Lord sent me to a man by the 
 name of A. F. P., who is very wealthy. 
 He asked me if I got work in the Confer- 
 ence. I told him I did not, and also told 
 him that I wanted to have my book printed, 
 but was not able. Now, I had never seen 
 this man till I went to Conference. I was 
 a stranger to him; but with great kindness 
 he said to me, ' Tou get your book ready, 
 and I will see you out." God only knows 
 how thankful I am to him for his kindness 
 tome. God bless him and his! God's rich- 
 est blessings upon his noble sons and 
 daughters in their home and church work. 
 I spent two nights with this model family, 
 and shall never forget their kindness to 
 me. All of this family are Methodists and 
 great workers in the church. May they all 
 live long to be a blessing to God's church 
 and the poor is my sincere prayer. 
 
 This is Christmas night. Mrs. Clay and 
 
 146 
 
myself have spent this day at our cabin in 
 this lonely land all alone. Our dear chil- 
 dren are all away from home. We have 
 had some disappointments to-day, but thank 
 God we feel that ''He who sticketh closer 
 than a brother"— or even a mother— was 
 still with us. 
 
 One incident connected with my trip to 
 Conference I forgot to mention when I 
 was on that subject, and will mention it 
 here. 1 had to go twenty miles to get to 
 the railroad at Candor, so I decided to ride 
 my horse down to Candor, and get some 
 one there to keep him for me, until I got 
 back. I went as far as Troy the first even- 
 ing; there I met with a kind lady who kept 
 me all night free of charge. When I got 
 to Candor I found kind friends [who said 
 they would keep my horse. When I came 
 back they gave me a good dinner. I then 
 called for my bill for the care of my horse. 
 The lady of the house— Miss B. C— said 
 ''We will take that out in prayer," and I 
 shall strive to give them good measure. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 As the reader will remember, the pre- 
 ceding chapter of this little volume closed 
 
 147 
 
about the end of the year 1894. Now the 
 writer wishes to add to this some incidents 
 that occurred in the time that intervened 
 between 1894 and June 18, 1908. I am 
 now seated under two Magnolia trees in 
 the beautiful cemetary, in the city of 
 Charlotte, N. C, to write this chapter. 
 
 We moved from Montgomery county in 
 February, 1895, and went back to Salisbury. 
 That year I was employed by some of the 
 churches and by the Y. M. C. A. of that 
 town, to preach once every two weeks at 
 the Rowan County home. They offered 
 me five dollars per month, and I accepted. 
 I told them I could not preach to these 
 people without a church, and I talked the 
 matter over with the chairman of the 
 County Commissioners. He said he never 
 had heard of such a thing as a church that 
 belonged to a county. I told him that the 
 purpose for which Christ came to the 
 world was that the poor might have the 
 gospel preached to them, and that it was 
 wrong to take the poor people away from 
 their homes and churches and not give 
 them a church in which to hear the gos- 
 pel. He saw the point, and the county 
 gave me one hundred dollars on the 
 church building fund. All of the white 
 148 
 
people in Salisbury gave me money for 
 this purpose; and I preached at all of the 
 churches for the colored people, and they 
 helped me also (as there are colored people 
 at the County Home as well as white 
 people), and I appealed to the bar-room 
 men of SaHsbury for help, for as they had 
 helped to make people poor, I thought 
 they should help to care for them, and 
 they all contributed. Other men and 
 women gave or sent me money, so we 
 built, painted and furnished a nice httle 
 church that year, and when all was paid 
 for, we had some money left. Now this 
 little book may be read in a county where 
 there is no County Home church; if so, I 
 hope the reader will do his duty and see 
 that one is built. But you may forget. 
 Did you ever forget? I have forgotten. 
 Upon one occasion I was to meet two 
 young ladies at the station who were 
 coming to visit my daughters. The train 
 arrived at 11:55 A. M., and at 1 P. M. I 
 thought of it. The same day I was to 
 meet a committee on special business, and 
 never thought of that meeting until two 
 and one half hours after the time appoint- 
 ed. The same day I was to take a bank 
 book to a Charlotte bank to have some 
 
 149 
 
money matters adjusted. I reached the 
 bank forty-five minutes after the bank 
 had closed, but they unlocked the door, 
 and let me in. That was a lost job, though, 
 for when handing my book to the cashier 
 I found that I had brought him a book on 
 the Lexington bank that was three years 
 out of date. So I just gave up and went 
 home and waited until after Sunday to 
 attend to that business. But the minds of 
 old folks do get off sometimes, when 
 burdened and care worn. And sometimes 
 the minds of young folks get off a little. 
 I remember when I was much younger 
 than I am now that my surroundings were 
 such as to get me off my proper bearings. 
 I went one evening to take supper with 
 my very best lady friend, and while at the 
 table with her and three other young 
 ladies, I became so bashful that things on 
 the table lost their proper taste. I wore 
 out a biscuit or two trying to get the 
 molasses off of my plate, and when I came 
 to myself I found that I had put in much 
 of my time trying to rub a red flower off, 
 and that I had no molasses at all. I just 
 could'nt taste molasses in that crowd. 
 Now these things come along in the lives 
 of the young, the middle aged, and the 
 
 150 
 
old. We all have our days of fun and 
 pleasure. I don't want to get so old as to 
 forget the children and young folks in 
 their days of innocent pleasure and not be 
 able to chime in with them. But let us 
 all, old and young, never forget to keep 
 our hearts right in the sight of God. Let 
 us do all the good we can while the days 
 are going by. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 There was a petition sent up to con- 
 ference for my services again at Chestnut 
 Hill M. E. Church, South for the year 
 1896. The reader will remember some- 
 thing of the past history of the writer and 
 that church. I had almost made up 
 my mind that I never would serve that 
 or any other Methodist church again, 
 but I knew that it was wrong to mani- 
 fest such a spirit. I loved that place, 
 and I want to say this just now: The first 
 meeting that I held at that church, in 
 1890, our dear young brother Rev. J. A. J. 
 Farrington, was converted. He is now 
 finishing his fourth year as pastor of that 
 church. The Lord bless John and make 
 him a blessing; he is one of our best young 
 preachers. 
 
 151 
 
I decided to go back to that church, 
 though men of other denominations had 
 made me good offers if I would leave the 
 M. E. Church, South, but that church 
 had done too much for me and mine for 
 me ever to leave it. I was appointed to 
 Chestnut Hill church again, and I still 
 held on to my little country church as it 
 was only two and one half miles away. I 
 found the Chestnut Hill church in bad 
 condition financially; it was in debt about 
 four hundred and seventy-five dollars, and 
 the little chapel that I had built there had 
 been sold. The Board of Church Exten- 
 sion had promised us three hundred dollars, 
 but we could not get that until we had 
 secured a sufficient amount that added to 
 that amount would pay of all indebted- 
 ness and have the church insured for one 
 thousand dollars, and pay the premiums 
 for five years. The creditors were about 
 to sell the church, so we went to work, 
 one and all. I knew that I could not get 
 much salary that year, and I did not look 
 for or expect it. All the debt on the 
 church was paid, it was insured for one 
 thousand dollars, and the premiums paid 
 by the last of March that year. I re- 
 ceived for my services as pastor that year 
 
 152 
 
one hundred and ninety dollars, and there 
 was no appropriation from the conference. 
 I worked what I could in the buggy and 
 wagon shops when not engaged with my 
 pastoral work. There was a great deal of 
 sickness among the members of my church 
 that year. One day between 2 and 6 
 o'clock in the afternoon I went to see 
 fifty-two sick people, and I conducted the 
 burial services of thirty in twenty-eight 
 days. Three young men and one young 
 lady died in one family about the same 
 time, and I buried the four bodies at one 
 time. Our own daughter, Mamie, was 
 sick with typhoid fever for seven weeks, 
 and we thought she would die, but she 
 was spared to us. My wife was very sick 
 at the close of the year, but with it all I 
 stopped my work in the shop and built a 
 seven room house, for which I received 
 seventy-five dollars. I held a meeting in 
 which there were one hundred and sixty 
 professions of conversion; the meeting 
 continued for four weeks and until con- 
 ference, which was held in Salisbury that 
 year. Bishop Galloway, who presided 
 over the conference that year, dedicated 
 Chestnut Hill church at that time. We 
 had received one hundred and twenty 
 
 153 
 
members into the church that year, and 
 the church asked for my return and I was 
 appointed there for another year, 1897. 
 That year I gave the church all my time; 
 I did not work in the shop or build any 
 houses. I received much more on salary, 
 and on my birthday, July 25th, I was 
 presented with a handsome watch which 
 has never failed me. 
 
 I had rented my plantation in Mont- 
 gomery county, and had made several 
 trips down there during the two years 
 since I returned to Chestnut Hill church. 
 I held on to my country church the second 
 year as I had done the first, and the next 
 year I did not take work in the conference. 
 I had borrowed six hundred dollars from 
 the Building and Loan Association, and 
 could not sell my plantation. I was still 
 owing most of that amount, but my son-in- 
 law, Walter W. Kluttz, assumed the debt 
 and took charge of the property. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 After conference I rented a store house 
 at Woodleaf, ten miles from Salisbury. 
 The people at Woodleaf offered to come to 
 Salisbury and haul our furniture, etc. , there 
 
 154 
 
free of charge; it was kind of them and 
 the thing to do if they wanted us there as 
 they seemed to want us, and as I believe 
 they did. I was in debt and had no money, 
 but the Lord has been so good to me and 
 mine. I had married many couples in and 
 around Salisbury, and was considered 
 somewhat of a "marrying preacher." 
 Some of the people heard that the ''marry- 
 ing preacher" was going to leave on 
 Thursday of the next week, so on Wed- 
 nesday at 7 P. M. a couple came to be 
 married; I performed the ceremony and 
 received five dollars. At 1 o'clock the 
 same evening I married another couple and 
 got one dollar and a supper; and while I 
 was out another called me in and I mar- 
 ried them and got another dollar and 
 another supper, so I went home feeling 
 much better, but I did not sleep much 
 that night. That was the 15th of Decem- 
 ber and it was cold weather, and thinking 
 of leaving the nice warm room I was then 
 in and going up into an old, cold store- 
 house was almost more than I could stand. 
 Wife and I shed many tears that night, 
 but we were up and ready for the trip 
 early the next morning. After the wagon 
 was loaded, a young man came up and 
 
 155 
 
asked me if I could marry him. I asked 
 him when, and his answer was, now\ So 
 I told my family to drive on and that I 
 would be on later. I went and officiated 
 at the marriage, and the young man 
 asked me my price. I told him that I 
 made no charge, and he asked me if a 
 dollar would satisfy me. I told him that 
 it would, and he turned to his wife and 
 asked her if she would lend him a dollar to 
 pay the preacher, so I got my dollar, but 
 no supper that time. 
 
 We remained at Woodleaf about two 
 months and found many good friends there, 
 among them Rev. R. S. Abernethy and 
 family, Hubbard Bailey, and Dr. Reitzel 
 and wife. We were waiting there for 
 something for me to do. I hoped to get 
 work in Salisbury, but there was at that- 
 time no available house there which we 
 could get, and while we were at Woodleaf 
 our 'marrying fees" had been exhausted, 
 and I did not know what I should do, but 
 the Lord has always provided for His 
 children, and I had not forgotten the ''fish 
 catch" in Montgomery county, and I knew 
 that in some way and in His own good 
 time He would provide. So one morning 
 before it was light I went down stairs and 
 
 156 
 
opened the front door, and there scattered 
 on the ground was a handful of silver 
 money. I gathered it up and went and 
 told the two men who had stores m the 
 little village what I had found and told 
 them if anyone called to know if money 
 had been found to tell them that I had it, 
 but no one ever called for it, and I am sure 
 the Lord intended that money for me and 
 
 mine. , ^ t u 
 
 It will be remembered that I could 
 handle tools as well as preach, so a very 
 dear friend of mine, W. W. Lowery, a man 
 who was employed in the shops of the 
 Southern Railway at Spencer, and who 
 was a very active member of my church 
 at Chestnut Hill recommended me to 
 railroad company at Spencer and an offer 
 was made me which I accepted. The 
 company wanted me to help work up the 
 Railroad Y. M. C. A. at Spencer, and I 
 was engaged in this work for twenty-two 
 months. In that time I did much hard 
 work, prayed many prayers, and shed 
 many tears, and wondered often why the 
 Lord led me along that way, but I believe 
 that I did some good while there, and I am 
 sure the work did me much good. Ihe 
 company was very kind to me, and sent 
 
 157 
 
me on a nice trip, with my expenses all 
 paid, to the National Y. M. C. A. Conven- 
 tion, held in Fort Wayne, Ind. 
 
 When I went to Spencer I had no money 
 with which to rent a house, but I borrowed 
 some, and the railroad men gave me some, 
 and they brought to our house many good 
 things to eat, for which we were very 
 thankful, and their kindness never has 
 been forgotten. No set of men stick 
 closer together than railroad men, and 
 they are always ready to help other people 
 who need help. A railroad man is always 
 faithful to his duty. He may have gone 
 with some one from Jerusalem to Jericho, 
 or he may have felt the pulse of the man 
 who defends his country under the flag of 
 the red, white, and blue; or he may have 
 been with Hiram's men taking the rounds 
 to see what tools were necessary to carry 
 on the work to complete the temple, but 
 all this only makes the true railroad man a 
 better man. Did you know that thou- 
 sands of lives depend upon the faithfulness 
 of railroad men in the discharge of their 
 duty? Study the various departments of 
 the work of railroad men, and see. Study 
 the work from the president of the road 
 down to the flagman, and you will find 
 
 158 
 
that the flagman is the most important 
 man in the service. I tried to be faithful 
 to every interest intrusted to me, and I did 
 not know that anyone was watching me. 
 At the close of the year 1899 I was asked 
 to take charge of the Pilot Mountain circuit, 
 and I decided to do so. So on the 5th 
 day of December I told my foreman I 
 wished to work a notice, but he said that 
 was not necessary in my case, as he knew 
 why I was going to quit. He told me the 
 Master Mechanic, Mr. Hudson, wanted to 
 see me in his office, I went to his office and 
 he said to me: ''I understand you are 
 going to leave us.'' I told him that I was. 
 ''Well," said he, "I am very sorry you are 
 going, but I know it will be better for you. 
 While we hate to give you up, still we 
 don't think this is the place for you. And 
 I want to tell you that on account of your 
 faithfulness while with us, I am going to 
 give you a pass to your future home. ' ' My 
 dear reader, I never shall forget that 
 expression of Mr. Hudson, and coming 
 from a man in his position, it made me 
 think this: Now if my work in this world 
 was done, what joy it would give me to 
 hear my Lord say to me: ''Now for your 
 faithfulness I will give you a pass to your 
 
 159 
 
future mansion/' God, help us all to be 
 faithful. 
 
 I was not in a very good shape financially 
 to leave Salisbury; I still owed about one 
 hundred and fifty dollars in one debt, and 
 some other debts besides, for which my 
 land was standing. While I was in the 
 railroad shops the man who held the mort- 
 gage sold the plantation unlawfully and 
 knocked me out of about three hundred 
 and fifty dollars. I just let him knock on, 
 and I told him that my wife and I would 
 die in the County Home before we would 
 sign such papers as he had drawn up. This 
 matter is still in the courts. I am ready 
 to settle my part in heaven. At the 
 proper time I may have a little more to 
 say about this transaction. 
 
 On the morning of December 15th, 1899, 
 my wife and I left Salisbury for Pilot 
 Mountain, Surry county, to take charge of 
 the Pilot Mountain circuit. We went by 
 way of Greensboro and reached our desti- 
 nation about ten o'clock that night. It 
 was certainly a cold night, and not one 
 person did we know in all that country. 
 No one met us at the train, but through 
 the kindness of a man at the depot we 
 were directed to a hotel which belonged to 
 
 160 
 
one of my members, Bro. H. G. Whitaker, 
 and he made us very welcome. The man 
 we had met at the depot said we could 
 have his room, so we were put in that 
 room and our things were placed there, 
 and we were cared for, without cost to 
 ourselves, for several days. I entered 
 upon my work at once; it consisted of six 
 churches, three in Stokes county and 
 three in Surry county, and there was 
 another one to build in the latter county, 
 at Pilot Town. We had no horse and no 
 buggy, but Brother H. G. Whitaker, Bro- 
 ther Press Rendleman, and Dr. Bob. Flip- 
 pin were very kind to help me along that 
 or any other line. I had one church fifteen 
 miles from Pilot, near the Virginia line, 
 and quite a number of my members 
 lived in Virginia. I found the people at 
 Pilot very much discouraged; they had 
 started to build a church, but stopped 
 after propping up a part of the frame. I 
 got the men and the good women together 
 and looked into the matter, and I saw that 
 with such men and women we could soon 
 build the church, so we went to work at 
 once. Press Rendleman is a good man 
 and a fine workman, and we all went to 
 work with united efforts. I had said after 
 161 
 
my experience at Salisbury that I never 
 would do again as I had done there, but 
 I wanted to help these good people, as 
 I saw they were willing to help themselves. 
 Mrs. Dr. Flippin, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Ren- 
 dleman, Mrs. Davis, and other ladies made 
 a nice silk quilt and they wanted to sell it 
 and use the proceeds on the church. Their 
 husbands offered them five dollars for the 
 quilt, but I told them they could get forty 
 dollars for it. The ladies announced that 
 on New Year's night they would hold a 
 voting contest for the quilt, and that all 
 who would could vote for Rev. J. Key, the 
 Primitive Babtist preacher or for Clifton 
 Clay, the Methodist preacher, by paying 
 five cents every time they voted, and that 
 the quilt would go to the preacher receiv- 
 ing the larger number of votes, and that 
 all the money was to go to the new Metho- 
 dist church building at Pilot. The Baptist 
 preacher got the quilt, but the Methodist 
 preacher got seventy-four dollars and 
 seventy-five cents for his new church. 
 Remarkable, wasn't it? This money paid 
 for the material to cover the church. The 
 same ladies, with the help of many others, 
 made another quilt, on that one they madje 
 seventy-two dollars for the church, and 
 162 
 
the Methodist preacher and his wife got 
 that quilt. We built one of the best little 
 churches to be found in all that country, 
 and it was completed in time for me to 
 preach in it the fifth Sabbath in April 
 of that year. We rented a little cottage in 
 which to live that year, and we got along 
 very well, and the people asked for my 
 return for another year. I was glad to 
 stay, and there were but few who knew 
 that it would have been hard for me to 
 have moved that first year. I left Salisbury 
 with only ten dollars, and during the year 
 I had to buy a horse, buggy and harness, 
 and had to pay forty-three dollars house 
 rent. I had my wife and two daughters 
 to support, and I received from the seven 
 churches on the circuit the first year only 
 two hundred and sixty-three dollars and 
 sixty-five cents. That was the year 1900. 
 The conference paid me one hundred dollars 
 that year, but seventy dollars of that had 
 to go to the bank in Salisbury. I served 
 the circuit another year, and we got along 
 much better. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 I wrote the preceding chapter yester- 
 day while in the cemetery. This is the 
 19th of June, and such a lovely morning. 
 There is not a cloud to dim the beautiful 
 
 163 
 
sky, and I am seated in the pavilion in 
 Vance Park. This is a beautiful place, 
 with its fountains, fish, birds, and squirrels 
 playing around. The shade trees are of 
 the most beautiful type, and flowers were 
 not forgotten in making up the scene; 
 they are here to cheer the eye of the tired 
 man, and to add to the beauty of the 
 smiling woman as she carries sunshine 
 from place to place. As I sit here my 
 mind goes back to Pilot Mountain. The 
 little town was of about seven or eight 
 hundred inhabitants, and was named for 
 the old, noted Pilot Mountain, the moun- 
 tain deriving its name from the Indians 
 who were piloted over the surrounding 
 mountains for years by the peak on the top 
 of Pilot Mountain, which peak is called the 
 Pinnacle; it is more than one hundred feet 
 high, there is an acre of land on the top of 
 it, and the distance around it is one mile. 
 This Pinnacle is solid rock. The mountain 
 contains about two thousand acres of land, 
 and is about four miles from the town in 
 which I lived. One must see the grandeur 
 of this mountain to know it. Reader, 
 when you go to see this mountain, go in 
 May or June; in May the mountain is 
 covered with the most beautiful flowers I 
 
 164 
 
have ever seen, and in June is the time 
 for Huckleberries, and you can find them 
 by the bushel. The Methodist church in 
 the town of Pilot was called "Pilot" for 
 the town, and I had another church five 
 miles from the town. East, that was called 
 ' 'Pinnacle,'' for the peak; this church was 
 in a smaller village than Pilot, but we 
 had some good people there, among them 
 the Wall, Edwards, Ziegler, Rendleman, 
 and Savage families. One of the mem- 
 bers of the last named families was the 
 wife of Brother A. M. Long, who is one of 
 the best men I ever knew; he travelled and 
 preached for more than twenty years, 
 filling some of the hardest places in the 
 mountain country. 
 
 I have made mention of the church at 
 Pilot and that at Pinnacle. The Sunday 
 School Superintendent at our new church 
 at Pilot was old Brother Green, who could 
 not be surpassed in his Christian qualities. 
 We received into the church that year 
 Brother Snider and his wife; he was a man 
 of means, and was a great help to us 
 financially and spiritually. And I want to 
 say that while the Methodist people were 
 very kind to us, so also were the Baptists, 
 both Primitive and Missionary, and their 
 
 165 
 
kindness, with that of the Methodists, 
 never will be forgotten. At Chestnut 
 Grove, the church in Stokes county, were 
 the Edwards, Wall, Ham, Gentry and 
 Shultz families, and this was one of our 
 strongest churches financially, and these 
 were good people. Little Yadkin, dear 
 old Brother Long's church, was a small 
 congregation, but it was composed of 
 splendid people; in this church were the 
 Lambert, Savage, Gordon and other good 
 families. No preacher could be treated 
 better by any people than I was treated by 
 that congregation. I never will forget the 
 good things that were given me to eat and 
 the good things that were given me for my 
 horse also. And when I was ready to 
 start home, my buggy was filled up with 
 other good things for my wife and 
 daughters to eat. 
 
 Fairview church was on the Arrarat 
 river and its membership was composed 
 principally of the Marion famihes; this 
 church was not as strong as the others, 
 but the people were just as good and kind 
 to the preacher and his family as were 
 those of any other church. New Hope 
 church was also located near the Arrarat 
 river, and this was known as the Needham 
 
 166 
 
church in honor of old Father Needham, 
 who died in his 99th year. He was the 
 oldest Methodist preacher known in the 
 United States. He had a son, William, 
 who was a preacher, and William had 
 three sons who were preachers. It is easy 
 to see what an influence for good went out 
 from a church of such good people. Mount 
 Hermon church stood on the top of a high 
 mountain, fifteen miles from Pilot, the 
 home of the preacher, and was within one 
 and one half miles of the Virginia line. In 
 this church were the Johnson, Brim, Pike, 
 Lewis, and many other good families, all 
 of whom were good to the preacher and 
 his family. Brother Thomas Brim said to 
 me during the second year: ''Brother C, 
 are you not in debt?'' I told him that I 
 was. He then said: ''Sell your horse, and 
 pay your debts, and I will furnish you 
 another good horse until your four years 
 are out on this work." I took his offer, 
 and he stood by me. His wife was a 
 Missionary Baptist, but I had no better 
 home anywhere than with them, and my 
 wife, daughters and myself had no better 
 friends than they were. Talk about 
 something good to eat; I will mention only 
 one case, and that was at the table of the 
 
 167 
 
Johnson family over on the other side of 
 the Dan river, in Virginia, and 23 miles 
 from Pilot. My wife was to have gone 
 with me one time when I was going over 
 there, but she was not able, so they said 
 that little woman must have something to 
 eat, so they gathered together to send her 
 something. The family consisted of an 
 old blind mother, one bachelor, one wido- 
 wer, one grand-child, and five old maids, 
 the youngest 43 years old. They put in 
 my buggy, for my wife, sweet potatoes, 
 corn meal, dried and green apples, cabbage, 
 turnips, a box of mutton, three kinds of 
 fall grapes, chincapins, chestnuts, cloth 
 and I can't remember what else. They 
 all gave me a piece of money, and left me 
 room in the buggy to sit, but left no room 
 for my feet. This is a fair sample of the 
 people on the Pilot Mountain circuit. Dr. 
 R. E. L. Flippin and Brother Snide, at 
 Pilot, had good plantations, and they never 
 let the preacher's horse suffer for rough 
 food. I also want to mention the names 
 of Dr. Woltze and wife who we received 
 into the church at Pilot. Dr. Woltz was 
 also very good, kind and thoughtful of 
 the preacher and his family. Mrs. Woltze 
 is an excellent Christian lady and a great 
 
 168 
 
church worker, and today stands in the 
 front in the Woman's Home Mission Work. 
 We bought the house at Pilot that was 
 rented for us for a parsonage. And 
 Trinity College owned a school building at 
 Pilot in which the town, church, and 
 college were interested, and I undertook to 
 settle the matter and secure the building 
 for the town to be used as a graded school 
 building. I succeeded, but I had over- 
 worked myself, and a blood vessel burst 
 in my head. I consulted Dr. Wakefield, of 
 Charlotte, and he stopped me from preach- 
 ing for awhile, but I served my fourth 
 year with the Pilot people. Before I left 
 there the new church was built and paid 
 for, the parsonage was bought and paid 
 for, and an old debt of seventy-seven 
 dollars, of seven years standing, on the 
 church at Pinnacle, was paid. And 
 through the faithfulness of some of the 
 good people at Pilot, and with the help of 
 Dr. J. C. Kilgo and Brother J. H. South- 
 gate, of Durham, the school building was 
 secured for the town and a graded school 
 established. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 The reader will remember that when I 
 left Salisbury for Pilot Mountain I was one 
 hundred and fifty dollars in debt. I am so 
 
 169 
 
glad to say that while I was with the good 
 people of the Pilot Mountain circuit I was 
 able through the goodness of God and the 
 kindness of the people, not only to pay 
 that debt, but also to lay up that much 
 ahead. While on that work I saved three 
 hundred dollars. While there one of our 
 daughters married, but she got a husband 
 large enough to take care of her. The 
 years I spent on the Pilot Mountain circuit 
 were the best four years of my life. 
 
 Not being able to take work the next 
 year, on account of the condition of my 
 health, we decided to go to Salisbury and 
 spend at least a year with our children 
 there. We have two sons and two daugh- 
 ters who have homes there. About the 
 first of February, 1904, I took charge of a 
 work near Salisbury. I preached at Mt. 
 Tabor, Gray's Chapel, and a new church 
 on North Main street; the last named 
 church had twenty-seven doors, twenty- 
 seven windows, and seventeen rooms. I 
 think this church is doing well now. 
 
 At the close of the year there was an 
 incident in my experience worthy of note. 
 In a previous chapter I made mention of 
 my land in Montgomery county and my 
 debt. As I said then, it was in the hands 
 170 
 
of men who could have saved it for me, 
 but they did not do so. One of them, to 
 whom I was owing about three hundred 
 dollars, finding that he had not done his 
 duty, said to me one day in Salisbury: "If 
 you will give me ten dollars, I will give 
 you your papers". I gave him the ten 
 dollars. So with the wonderful success 
 that the good Lord had given me, while 
 I went to the mountains one hundred and 
 fifty dollars in debt, I came away one 
 hundred and fifty dollars ahead, and I 
 never received over four hundred and 
 ninety dollars. During these four years 
 many souls were saved and added to the 
 church, and we saved three hundred dollars 
 in money. I cannot understand it, but I 
 know this and it makes me satisfied that 
 God's hand was in it all. God never has 
 been more kind to anyone than to me and 
 mine, and to Him be all the praise now 
 and forever. 
 
 I was sent to Lexington, to serve the 
 West Lexington charge, for the year 1905. 
 My wife being an invalid, I could not do 
 the work there that should have been 
 done. We found some very warm friends 
 there, and I trust some good was done. 
 Among our friends there were the Jenkins, 
 
 171 
 
Grouses, Perry, Sink, Bell and Shoat fami- 
 lies, and others. A Baptist brother, by 
 the name of Holt, engaged me to preach 
 for the Baptists twice a month. I never 
 can forget a good old colored woman there. 
 Aunt Mariah Parker. I don't see how I 
 could have gotten along had she not come 
 and stayed with my afflicted wife as she 
 did. She, with the rest, will get her re- 
 ward in due season. This Lexington work 
 was a tough proposition. Connected with 
 the West End church was a territory of 
 four hundred square miles, ten miles from 
 Lexington. I had to go out there every 
 first and third Sabbath, at 3 P. M. I 
 preached at West End at 11 A. M., then 
 went ten miles and preached at 3 P. M., 
 and then came back to Lexington and 
 preached at night. I had to hire one of 
 the best horses in Lexington to make the 
 trips. The cost of the hire for the horse 
 for the year was about seventeen dollars. 
 I paid seven dollars and fifty cents of that 
 amount myself, and at the end of the year 
 I received one dollar and thirty-six cents 
 for the conference collections and five 
 dollars and twenty-five cents for myself. 
 We had fourteen members there, one of 
 them said to be worth more than three 
 
 172 
 
thousand dollars. When I left for con- 
 ference, I wondered who would be the 
 next man appointed to that charge. 
 
 While at Lexington I held a meeting for 
 Rev. Scales at Winston-Salem at Salem 
 M. E. Church. I never found a better 
 people than those Salem folks were. They 
 were so kind to me, paid me well in kind 
 words, beautiful flowers and things more 
 substantial and I think much good was 
 done at that meeting. Rev. W. H, Willis 
 is founder of that well located church. I 
 had the pleasure of being with those dear 
 people again last April. God bless them 
 all and keep us until we meet again. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 At the session of the Conference held in 
 Greensboro in 1905, I was sent within the 
 bounds of the Charlotte district, and was 
 put in charge of the Epworth and Severs- 
 ville churches. I served these two chur- 
 ches as best I could, 1906 and 1907. No 
 people anywhere can be kinder to a 
 preacher and his wife than were those in 
 those churches to my wife and myself. Their 
 kindness has been burned into our memory 
 and will remain forever. My dear wife is 
 
 173 
 
sick all the time, but she is not forgotten. 
 One bunch of flowers scarcely fades away 
 in her room before another is brought to 
 her. I met a very dear old friend of mine 
 at Epworth church one night, Joe Meisen- 
 heimer. He and I joined the Lutheran 
 church in 1866; in 1867 we separated, he 
 going east and I going west, he finding a 
 Methodist girl for a wife, and I doing the 
 same. Joe is a good engineer, a faithful 
 member of the Methodist church, and 
 like myself, succeeded in getting a good 
 wife. After forty years we met again. 
 Joe says I can out "lip" him, but that he 
 can out *'look" me. how good the Lord 
 was to us boys.. 
 
 In February, 1906, 1 was severely afflicted 
 with shingles. My wife was very ill at 
 the time, but the good people never neg- 
 lected us through it all. While we were 
 in Salisbury in 1905, our last child, Edith, 
 married Mr. Watson; they were married 
 in November and moved to Charlotte to 
 live; and Mr. Brown, "who had married 
 our daughter, Mamie, in Pilot Mountain, 
 was connected with The Charlotte Observer, 
 and they also lived in Charlotte. They 
 bought a home on West Fifth street, and 
 my wife and I are boarding with them. 
 
 174 
 
The church at Seversville is composed of 
 the Severs, Lawing, Duckworth, Webb 
 and Frazier families. Mrs. Cora Frazier 
 was one of the most faithful members 
 any preacher ever had. Epworth church, 
 though unfortunately located between two 
 railroads, had some of the salt of the earth 
 among its members. In this number were 
 members of the Powell, Fisher, Harris, 
 Perkins, Traywick, and Elam families. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Jim Kimbrel, their boys and 
 their wives, Mrs. Andrews, Mrs. Hill, Mrs. 
 Robeson, Mrs. Millersham, Mrs. Weber, 
 and Mrs. McLemore were also very faith- 
 ful members. Some sad experiences came 
 to us while on this charge; in 1906 Mrs. 
 C.'s brother Will died and also her dear 
 old father passed away in his 92nd year. 
 He has gone to his last resting place, but 
 the dear, good old father still lives in the 
 homes of his children and grandchildren. 
 
 Our children are all married, and my 
 wife and I live with them, and no father 
 and mother have children who are more 
 careful to parents than are ours to us. We 
 are glad they have homes of their own 
 here, and we are so glad to know they are 
 all on their way to the home of the good, 
 where we all can have homes together. 
 
 175 
 
I was appointed to the Dilworth and Big 
 Springs charge for the year 1908. At 
 Dilworth I met W. W. Cole and wife. He 
 is Superintendent of the Sunday School, 
 and she is organist. Mrs. Cody, Mrs. Butt, 
 Mrs. Games, Mrs. Redfern, are members 
 here, as is Miss Lillie Chick, who is an 
 excellent worker and a leader in the work 
 of the Aid Society. With these and Bro- 
 thers Cole, Fite, Still well, Forbis and sons, 
 Nivens, Furr, and old Brother Faulkner 
 (the coon hunter) and the faithful driver 
 of the jar head, to take the preacher to 
 Big Spring, the work moves on. Brother 
 Freeman and Brother Sing at Big Spring 
 are doing a great work, and the new 
 church built there is a wonder to all. This 
 is said to be one of the oldest preaching 
 places in North Carolina, if not the oldest. 
 At the conference held in Salisbury in 1907, 
 an appropriation of one hundred dollars 
 was made to the new church at Big 
 Spring. The law of the church requires 
 the signature of the Register of Deeds of 
 the county to certficate accompanying the 
 application before the money can be obtain- 
 ed from the conference. Upon examination, 
 we found we had no deed to the land upon 
 which the church was built. So by order 
 
 176 
 
of Attorney C. W. Tillett, we secured the 
 affidavits of Dr. Walker, S. H. Hilton, Esq. 
 and Brother Sing, to the effect that Big 
 Spring had been a preaching place un- 
 molested by anyone for more than forty 
 years. We also had a surveyor to run off 
 the adjoining lands, with satisfaction to 
 all owners. So we have in possession 
 for the M. E. Church South, five and three 
 quarter acres of land, on which Big Spring 
 church stands. By the side of the church 
 stands a good district/ school building. 
 The members of the Associate Reformed 
 Presbyterian and the Presbyterian churches 
 at this place have been so good to the 
 Methodists. May God's richest blessing 
 rest upon .them all is my prayer. I am 
 well pleased with this work, and all the 
 people are so kind to me and mine. I had 
 the pleasure on the first Sabbath in June 
 of going back to the home of old Father 
 Brown, where I first met my wife, and of 
 preaching in an elegant new church within 
 three quarters of a mile of that home. 
 This Methodist church was built in 1906, 
 and is another building that is a wonder in 
 the history of Methodism. Father Brown 
 was a local preacher; he preached for more 
 than sixty years and lived to see this 
 
 177 
 
church built, but was not able to preach in 
 it. He will, however, live in it, in the 
 lives of his children, grandchildren, and 
 great grandchildren. The Edwards family 
 in the community and the Brown family, 
 of Mooresville, did much to help in the 
 building of the church. And the Miller, 
 Shin, Steel, Davis families, in the com- 
 munity, and many others of other denomi- 
 nations, helped to its completion, giving 
 liberally of their means. The only daugh- 
 ters of Father Brown, Mrs. Edwards and 
 Mrs. Clay, gave a nice large Bible for the 
 pulpit. May God^s richest blessings rest 
 upon them all. 
 
 Now I am going to close this little book, 
 but before I close it I want to say one 
 thing more, and that is that in the year 
 1881 I took my stand for Prohibition, and 
 through all the twenty-seven years that 
 have passed since then no one can say 
 truthfully that Clifton Clay slackened his 
 hold of this great principle, and no one 
 rejoiced more than he, when on the night 
 of the 26th of May, 1908, the wires brought 
 the glad news to him in the city of Char 
 lotte, of the great victory won. I am so 
 glad I lived to see it. Bless God for such 
 a victory. And let all the people say, Amen. 
 
 178 
 
Now, as you have read my little book 
 you will be ready to say, Surely the Lord 
 has been good to Clifton Clay. My God is 
 not a partial God; He will be just as good 
 to you as He has been to me, if you will 
 trust Him. 
 
 Before I bid you farewell I want to say 
 to you that I am on God's altar, and there 
 to stay till He shall say, 'It is enough; 
 Come up higher. " 
 
 Now, I close by praying God to bless 
 this little book to the good of all who may 
 re'ad it, and if it does good, to God be all 
 the praise, both now and forever. Amen 
 and Amen. 
 
 Farewell until we meet again. 
 
 The real name of Clifton Clay is 
 
 A. L. COBURN. 
 
 Charlotte, N. C, July 3rd 1908. 
 
 179