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... I could hear of no prospect of employment, and pushed on through Lewiston, thence down Lake Ontario to the Genesee
Falls, where the city of Rochester now stands; but at that time there was not even a village there. From that point, I
traveled through Canandaigua, (every day asking for employment,) to the head of Canandaigua Lake. I had no walked four
hundred miles from home; my means were all expended, and I had still no prospect of getting anything to do for the season.
I then tried to get work for a few days, to raise a little money to pay my expenses home again. I could not, and became
almost despondent, fearing I should be reduced to beggary. Still I had some confidence left that God's providence would
open a way for me to return home. I offered my clothing for sale, and sold a vest worth $3.00 for $1.50. With this money
I bought pickled pork and bread, and loving on my pork, and bread and water, I walked forty miles a day, until I reached
home. I returned, foiled in my expectation, after losing about a month's time and expenses; and suffered much hardship
and fatigue. But notwithstanding all, there is, in all our misfortunes, some thing to buoy up the spirit of a reflecting
man. The Lord hath spared my health, and the health of my family; we rejoice to see each other again in health, and we
believe that all things will work together for good to them that love and serve God.
In the fall of 1819, I cleared twenty acres of land for Robert Love, and took rye for pay. His brother, who owned a
distillery, advised me to go into his distillery and distil my grain: I could realize double the profits that I could by
selling it; and I could distill for him half of the time for the use of the distillery. I consented to do so; which was
a great error in me; though at that time, making and
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using whisky, as a common drink, was very popular thro'out the Unoted States. But now I think that making and vending
so much to intoxicate men was wrong, and especially reprehensible in a christian. I followed distilling that winter,
and labored hard, night and day, only allowing myself four hours sleep out of 24; yet made but small wages, and was
forty miles from my family during the time. In the summer of 1820, I purchased a set of stills, (principally on credit,)
and was to pay for them in distilling, at six cents per gallon. I moved them up into Lenox, Ashtabula county, and built
a house and apparatus for them. On June my wife presented me another heir. In the fall I had completed my distillery; my
wife's brother took management of it for a share of the profits, and I moved down into Hubbard to work and pay for the
distillery. I had sold the improvements, and signed a contract to part with my land on credit, to a certain man who ean
off.
I worked all the winter and spring of 1821, at the distilling business, and paid for my stills. We had a good christian
society while living here, and much enjoyment. A number were added to the church during the winter. In the spring I
moved my family ten miles up into Hartford, and worked distilling one year, for $20 a month, -- sometimes distilling
grain, sometimes cider, and sometimes peaches. I found a small Baptist church under the pastoral care
of Sidney Rigdon, quite a talented man, and at that time a very devoted preacher of the bible, and a great advocate for
Baptist principles; but he has since apostatized and become a leader of the Mormons.
In March, 1823, I cleared some small lots of land; bought a horse and wagon, and after distilling some herbs, traveled
about, and sold the products, together with some goods. My distilling in Lenox, instead of yielding me any profit, was
involving me in debt. I went up late in the fall and traded it for five acres of improved land, worth $50.00.
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(under construction)
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(under construction)
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(under construction)
... About this time [1826], there began to arise a very great excitement on the subject of Free Masonry, both in church
and State, and from the expositions of Free Masons themselves, some of whom I was personally acquainted with, and knew to
have always sustained a good character for truth and veracity, it was obvious to my mind, that it was a wicked and
dangerous institution, calculated to paralize civil justice, and to have the same effect on the christian church. Perhaps
I was too credulous in the matter, but I am possessed of a very sanguine and decided temperament, and am especially warm
when from my convictions, I am opposing evil or error. I therefore took an active part as an anti-Mason, religiously and
politically. In our part of the country, the anti-Masons were largely in the majority. The churches were broken up, and
completely divided on the subject -- so great was the excitement; and our county offices were all filled by anti-Masons.
As it had been the custom for years, (and the practice has never ceased to gain ground,) for the party in power to reap
the spoils, through the influence of the Sheriff, I received an appointment from the county court to act as a kind of
deputy -- a post which was worth a small sum to me. I continued in this office nearly four years, and until I left the
place. I was then a member of the Baptist church, in Jefferson, as were, also, my parents; and I still lived under the
immediate influence of their good counsel. We had little trouble in our church, on account of Free Masonry, for we had
but one
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of the order among us, and he came out and renounced it, and publicly exposed their secret, wicked oaths and usages.
Some of our sister churches, however, were rent asunder by the excitement.
In the fall of 1826, and the spring of the following year, I set out some fruit trees on my land -- apples, pears,
peaches, plums, etc. -- enough to make a fine little orchard. This year, with hard and constant labor, and with the
sale of a horse and cow, I purchased materials, and paid the building of a fine, comfortable framed house. Schools were
now beginning to be established throughout the country, to which we had the privilege of sending our children. This was
most gratifying to us, although tuition was very high, and we had no public funds to assist us. Through the efforts of
Mr. Joshua R. Giddings, and a few others, a house was built at the county seat, one mile from us, for a small Seminary
and Primary school, under the same roof. Mr. Giddings is a very efficient man in the promotion of education, and is also
a very kind and liberal man to the poor, the sick and the afflicted. Although a Lawyer, and a Member of Congress, yet he
enjoys more of the affection of his neighbors, than commonly falls to the lot of his profession.
In the fall of this year, I received the appointment of collector of delinquent taxes, for a part of the county, which
yielded me a profit of about $1.50 per diem, for thirty days. This appointment I held fpur years in succession. In 1828
I finished my house; and in April of that year, our second daughter was born. Still the Lord was adding immortal souls
to out charge, to train up for enjoyment in an eternal state with Him, and to add to our felicity here and hereafter:
provided, that we filled the injunction laid upon us in training them. What a solemn and impressive reflection! The
happiness of an immortal soul, in this life and the life which is to come, made to depend upon us! This year I bought
three more acres of land, and paid for it by making a short piece of turnpike road. I also made a few other improvements
on my land, and did some harvesting for myself and my neighbors. I made
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some money in the fall, by gathering and selling cranberries. During the winter, I sold some medicines and goods on
commission. In the spring of 1829 I fell into a great error, in buying a patent wright [sic] for a machine to make cider,
which proved to be of no value. I lost three or four months in traveling to sell it, and made nothing. I had
paid about fifty dollars for the right of one county, and did not get enough to save myself.
This year, a great excitement prevailed among the Baptists of this region, respecting a new system of
Baptist, or Christian principles, which was reported to have been gotten up by Elder Alexander Campbell, a champion of the
Baptist cause, living in Virginia, it was said; that it was being propagated within the bounds of our association, that
it was working the dissolution of all the Baptist churches in its way, and exerting a powerful influence on the other
denominations; that votaries for it were multiplying by hundreds. We could not learn anything very definite in
regard to this new system. As there was to be a meeting of the association of which Mr. Campbell was a member, and which
was adjacent to our own association, a number of our brethren were delegated, agreeable to Baptist usages, to meet with
them for correspondence. All being anxious to hear what the new theory was, we turned out en masse and went to the
association. When we reached the place of meeting, we found a large multitude collected; the majority having probably
come from the same motive that brought us.
The usual business of the Association was dispensed with, and two or three days were spent in preaching. There were
present Thomas Campbell and his son, Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott, and Sidney Rigdon -- all very talented men, and
said to be advocates of the new theory; and there were also present a number of gifted Baptist elders or preachers.
We all listened eagerly and attentively during the whole meeting, to hear something new; but we only heard the same old
Scriptures presented -- perhaps more forcibly than ever before, in so short a time. Some
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new ideas were advanced, but they were all so well sustained by the Word of God, that none, though repeated challenges
were given, attempted to refute them. I could see no reason why I should doubt the truth of what was presented. I could
see no reason why a reception of the doctrines advanced should cause a separation from the Baptist Church. But I
concluded I would search the Scriptures more thoroughly, before I came to any decision in regard to the matter; and
returned well satisfied with having gone forty miles to listen to such arguments and eloquence.
In the spring and summer of 1830, I cleared and fenced as much of my sixteen acres as I wished to improve, and harvested,
and did other work for my neighbors. In September, our third daughter was born. This year there was a great excitement
among the Presbyterians, in some portions of the country. Protracted meetings of two and three weeks' duration, were held
in different places, and the church was split up into divisions respectively called the New and Old School Presbyterians.
New names and new sects arose, rendering imperative a deeper study of the Sacred Scriptures, that it might be seen whether
the Lord had required or enjoined his Disciples to assume so many names and organizations, to represent the one Body of
Christ,
In the spring of 1831, I contracted for sixty acres of land in Madison, Geauga county, at the same time selling my sixteen
acres in Jefferson, with my house and improvements, for payments to fall due with those I myself was to make. I moved my
family to the new property, which was twenty miles from my former home, and one mile from Lake Erie, built a small house,
and cleared, fenced, and planted six acres of corn, before the middle of June. I then commenced digging iron ore, drawing
it to a neighboring furnace with my team, and continued in that business for one year -- of course doing my farm-work,
meantime. Late in the fall, the man who had bought my Jefferson property informed me that he could not pay for it, and
desired
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me to take it back. I did so, and of course, was disabled from paying for the land I was on. Sold the improvements and
contract for about cost, and bought two acres and a small house, as a residence for that winter, and took a deed of the
property. The next spring (1832), I sold it, and moved back to Jefferson, in the hope that I should spend my days there,
near my parents and kindred, and the Church to which I was so much attached.
The following summer I was engaged in taking charge of my crops and orchard, and laboring for hire. In the fall a great
reformation took place in Jefferson, under the influence of the Baptist Church. Many, bith old and young, came forward
and related their experience, in accordance with Baptist custom, were received and baprized -- the Church nearly doubling
its numbers. So great was the influence on the people, that our house of worship -- a large, framed school-building --
would not contain near all who thronged to it. Our meetings continued day and night, and deep interest and zeal was
manifested by every one. W thought it advisable, under the present fervor and excitement, to build a House of Worship to
the Lord, that all might be accomodated.
The brethren agreed to send abroad, and solicit aid from their brethren in the older States, and as no one would go but
the preacher, who could not be spared, so great was the work to be performed in the conversion of sinners, I offered to
go, provided that the brethren would administer to the temporal wants of my family...
(under construction)
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(pages 148-168 not copied)
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twenty-two years,) receiving accessions from the Presbyterians and Methodists, till they now stand powerful among the
denominations around them. Meantime, the old church steadily decreased. I visited all the members who were alove a few
months ago, but many had been laid low. I trust their immortal souls have gone where peace and tranquillity reign.
But perhaps my readers are anxious to know the reason why so much difficulty arose in the old church, and why so many of
its members were excluded. The records of that body, which are to be handed dpwn to all posterity, show the causes of
these troubles, and may, I suppose, be inspected by any one. This work, however, may be read by hundreds whom distance
denies access to the records; it becomes my duty toward myself and brethren and sisters excluded with me, to give the
proceedings of those who excluded us, that the world may be enabled to judge whether, according to the law of God, our
exclusion was just or unjust. For we appealed ro the law of God for our justification; and by that law it will plainly
be seen hath no man condemned us, unless it forbids the reading of Alexander Campbell's "Millennial Harbinger." I have
already given the proceedings of the first meetings on this subject, setting forth the origin of the difficulties; and
I think it would be useless to give the doings of the many contentious meetings held -- some of them previous to my return.
They were all so repugnant to good feeling and Christian forbearance, that my mind was affected, and I had spells of
mental derangement for several months, -- rising in my sleep, and lecturing upon the great inconsistency of such strife
and animosity among Christians, -- to the great annoyance of my family, and all unknown to myself.
Below I copy the record of the exclusion of brother E. A. Mills -- one of the first victims of the proscription, and
the most prominent member of the church:
( Copy. )
"March 2d, 1833. It was then motioned and seconded
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that as brother E. A. Mills will not consent to abandon the reading of Mr. Campbell's 'Millennial Harbinger,' which we
think is leading him from the Gospel and the faith of the Regular Baptists, we withdraw from him the hand of fellowship.
The vote was then tried, and carried by a considerable majority....
(remainder not copied)
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