USA > Illinois > Shelby County > Historic sketch and biographical album of Shelby County, Illinois > Part 11
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ROBERT COLLYER'S "STORY OF THE PRAIRIE."
On July 20, 1873. Union Church at the Jacob Elliott graveyard, near Mode, was dedi- cated. Robert Collyer preaching the sermon. assisted by Rev., Wm. J. Boone (Methodist) and others. It was during this visit that the black-smith, poet-preacher learned the story of John Oliver Reed's remarkable conversion. A while before this visit of Mr. Collyer. this man
had told his religious experience in a heart- searching speech to a wondering crowd at a basket meeting at Oak Grove Chapel. My wife and I took notes of that speech, and reported to Mr. Collyer when he came. He made a sermon story of it to his congregation in Chicago, and it was published in the daily papers. Then the American Unitarian Association, Boston, print- ed it in tract form, and it was reprinted in Eng- land and translated into Welsh. Thousands of copies have been and are still being circulated in America and in other countries. The tract is entitled : "A Story of the Prairie." It is true to facts in every particular. John was my cousin, and after his conversion he told how once, while I was taking the enollment for the draft, he went to one of my Sunday services with a pistol in his pocket, resolved to shoot me if 1 preached what he had heard 1 was in the habit of preach- ing : but during the opening prayer he gave up the resolve : and was troubled in conscience till the great light and wonderful peace came to lim.
AT THE OLD COURT HOUSE.
After many years in the rural districts, 1 made an appointment for a meeting in the court house at Shelbyville. To say I was disappointed in the first attempt is putting it mildly. Nobody came : only one man looked in at the door, and said : "Perhaps I'll come again after awhile :" and he went away. That fellow lived in the country and had come to Shelbyville on Satur- day, and got so drunk he couldn't get home that night, and so was on hand to a small extent, that Sunday morning. He keeps sober now. The next appointment a few were present. Then an old singing teacher, a Presbyterian deacon. who had got acquainted with me in the coun-
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try work, came over from Marshall, Illinois, to be a sort of Sankey for me. Also an okl Evan- gelist of "The Christian connection." Ekler John Ellis, of Yellow Springs, Ohio, came to help us. The crowd increased, and we held meetings every night for eight weeks. The result of this "protracted" effort was a church of seventy-five members of the unchurched, and mostly of Shel- byville, with some of the county officers. Many had been hard drinkers. One had been a saloon keeper for forty years, and he was my faithful friend and helper till his death. This First Con- gregational Church, Shelbyville, Illinois, was or- ganized that same year, (1875.) and a church edifice costing $6,000 was built and paid for within a year. It was dedicated May 8. 1876. by Revs. James Freeman Clarke. Dr. W. G. Eliot. F. L. Hosmer, and the Jewish Rabbi, Sonnen- schein.
ELDER JOHN ELLIS AND JACOB SMITH.
In writing this story I should feel that I was ungrateful not to speak of the assistance of Elder John Ellis, of Yellow Springs, Ohio. a trustee and agent of Antioch College, founded by Horace Mann. Elder Ellis was a liberal Evangelist of the "Christian" order. He be- came interested in my work in the year 1868, and from that time to the close of the first protracted meeting in the old Court House, he was with me frequently. He helped in the gathering of congregations at Oak Grove, Mode, Sylvan, and other points in the county. He died a few years since at the age of 80. His wife, a physician and worthy relative of General W. T. Sherman, is still living, and has published her husband's auto-biography, in which he speaks only too kindly of me and my labors. Elder Ellis was
a remarkable man in some respects-a melod- ious singer and a very persuasive preacher in his prime, and the author of some sweet songs. notably "The White Pilgrim." 1 have seen audiences melted to tears at his singing that song. He was at one time editor of the Herald of Gospel Liberty, the oldest religious paper published in America. But he was mostly a pilgrim for 60 years, walking to his appoint- ments, much of the time, with staff in hand, till he dropped suddenly in the harness.
During the years of iny preaching at Oak Grove, Mode. Sylvan. Mt. Carmel and the old Court House, and in the early meetings at Lithia Springs. Jacob Smith, a popular singing school teacher, gave me valuable labors of love. He was an elder in the Presbyterian church at Marshall, Illinois : but was a most loyal friend. sang with his whole mind and soul and taught others to sing in my meetings from the time we first met. about 1869. till the Father called him home a while ago.
LOUDEST CALL TO PREACH-SALARY OR NO SALARY.
While most of my labors have been in this county of Shelby, and on the east side of the Okaw, yet in the early years I preached in the towns along the line of the Illinois Central Rail- road, main trunk and branch, from Decatur and Champaign southward to Centrana, and also on the Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Alton and St. Louis line, from Charleston in Eastern Illinois. to Litchfield on the west. Then the managers of the above roads kindly gave me free passage as a missionary. (By the way, the president of the last named road in those years, was a member of Dr. Eliot's congregation. St. Louis, and the father of Rev. Robert Moore, who was ordained
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to the ministry at the same time and place with me, the sainted Dr. Hosmer laying a hand on each of our heads at once, while he made the ordaining prayer-the most impressive prayer I ever heard).
During the first few years of my charge in Shelbyville, at the urgent request of Dr. E. E. Hale and others, I tried to act as state mission- ary for Illinois, but there was not enough of me to spread over so much ground effectively ; and in fact I felt a stronger call to preach to the people that would gather to hear me in the school houses and out door meetings in the vi- cinity of my birth place, though certainly money was never an element of strength to this call. By the money test. I had much stronger calls. I was offered a lucrative position under Lin- coln's administration, and also under Grant's. I have had chances for four times more salary than ever I received from the people to whom I have ministered. But I have no regrets on that score : I am happy in the faith that what some may call my losses in time and money have not been wasted, but planted to grow and bear blessed fruit for my chidren's children, and my neigh- bors' children, when my body is dust.
This Home Mission has been to me a high calling of God. Necessity has been laid upon me. I have by invitation preached in many churches in the larger cities of the Nation, such as Chicago. Boston. Cleveland. Toledo. Colum- bus. Cincinnati. Indianapolis, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Milwaukee, Alton, Jacksonville. St. Louis, Louisville, New Orleans and other cities. I have had governors of states. senators, presi- dents of universities, and many of the most (lis- tinguished and saintly persons for auditors ; 1 have sometimes received $50 for a single ser- vice. I have thus been honored and compensated much more highly than I deserved; and yet, I
can truly say, I have never anywhere nor at any time felt more honored before God than in preaching to Irish Catholics and other neigh- bors at Log Church ; and never have felt so loud a call anywhere as at such places as the old whisky-haunted Court House in Shelbyville, though I might not get a peanut for it.
THE BLUE RIBBON CRUSADE.
The Blue Ribbon Crusade began with meetings in the court house, and then the meet- ings were moved to our new church. Every member of my congregation took the pledge of total abstinence. Then the meetings were mov- ed to the Christian church, the largest audience room in town; and for forty-two nights in suc- cession we held crowded meetings, until nearly every man and woman of Shelbyville and vicin- ity was wearing a blue ribbon. At the close of those meetings I was prostrate for six weeks. I lay at death's door, the doctor and friends thought.
A lady physician, Miss Dr. Petrie, from New York state, happened in town, and learn- ing of my case, kindly came to see me as I lay helpless. She looked at me and said with solemn emphasis : "I have a message from heaven for you. You think you'll die, but you wont. But if you do not stop so much speaking night after night and other work you will become a miser- able chronic wreck, and useless the rest of your life." That message deeply impressed me. I took the advice. I wish I knew the address to- day of that good messenger so that I might express to her my gratitude for the timely, wise warning that has helped me to keep my frail body in fair working condition for over twenty years longer than expected.
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PERILOUS WAR AGAINST THE TREAT- ING CUSTOM.
When partly recovered from that long prostration, I began a war against. the snares and stumbling blocks in the way of those who had taken the pledge and joined the church in an effort to reform. There was the open door of the licensed dram-shop, and the corrupt poli- tics in the treating custom of partisan bosses and candidates for office. This custom was so deeply rooted and of such long standing that the majority of voters in both parties regarded it as a fixed institution. "Of course, no man can be elected to office in this county unless he sets up the drinks freely. You have got to do it or be beaten." That was the stereotyped re- ply of political bosses and candidates when I be- gan to plead with them privately not to do so. Even some members of my own congregation would insist that they had to do it, and persisted in face of my solemn protest. Witnessing as I had for a lifetime the misery and ruin in the home and the corruption in public service caus- ed by this mischievous custom. I deliberately and solemnly determined to stop it or die in the attempt. and I saw no more effective method than to publicly expose through Our Best Words every clearly-known case of a candidate setting up drinks in electioneering for office. I gave warning by stating publicly that I would publish the name of any and all candidates that treated voters to liquor. It was done. But it was the most painful ordeal of all my life. I had more mud and printers' ink thrown on me. got more curses and was threatened with more personal violence than in any other period of my life.
The 'saloon was in politics, and I had en- listed for the war to drive it out. ' Neither of the
political parties would tackle the giant, nor whisper a word against it in their platforms or party organs. Finally, by the help of Mrs. Ada H. Kepley, of Effingham county, (a member of my Shelbyville congregation) and about a dozen Free Methodists, we organized at the Court House, May 29, 1886, the Prohibition party. It was a most troublous and costly business for me. My salary was cut down one-half. Some friends at home and abroad turned away. My printing press would probably have been burned, but for the fact that it was in a third story where fire could not consume it without putting a whole block in ashes. During this time my wife came near being killed while at work in her kitchen, by a woman crazed with drink, whom we had befriended, taken into church, and were trying to reform. Dirty papers, among which was the Police Gazette of New York City, pub- lished caricatures of this incident that created a sensation all over the country.
The battle went on till the snake was scotched if not killed : so that it has been since possible for a few men to be elected to office in Shelby county who do not bribe voters with liquor. Saloons were driven out of Shelbyville, and my printing office was moved into the room on the corner of the public square where one of the largest saloons had been kept. Our Best Words had become a weekly with the largest circulation of any paper in the county, and by a combination with the Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association and similar movements, we came very near electing at one time an Anti-saloon ticket in the county. But my meddling in "the filthy pool of politics," (in an effort to purify it), had brought me into disfavor with some of the directors of our Missionary Board : they disap- proved of my editing Our Best Words, though I doubt if ever they read it carefully. I was
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worn out and lying under the Juniper tree when a stranger came to me with a tempting price to buy my paper, and I sold out, but with the dis- tinct understanding that Our Best Words would be continued in the same line of battle. I was deceived. It soon became an organ of the Populists, and after two years, that is in Octo- ber, 1894, I bought back the name, Our Best Words, and began again to publish it.
UNITARIAN FRIENDS IN NEED-CHAN- CELLOR ELIOT'S ENCOURAGE- MENT.
In the crusade against the saloon, I was warmly supported by Revs. J. T. Sunderland, Jenk. L.l. Jones, Wm. C. Gannett : also Dr. J. H. Allen, of Harvard University ; and also by Dr. Win. G. Eliot, Chancellor of Washington University, St. Louis, and some members of his congregation, the Church of the Messiah. The late Hon. George Partridge of that church visit- ed me and gave lectures on his travels in the Holy Land ; and he and Mrs. James Smith gave liberally to the Shelbyville church, the parson- age, and Our Best Words.
Chancellor Eliot was my wise and fatherly advisor and helper in this mission for nearly 25 years before he was translated. I remember once going to him, cast down and almost per- suaded to abandon the mission-the support had so fallen off and my congregations grown small. "Are you sure," inquired the Chancel- lor. "that you are pleading for the highest stand- ard of public morals and purest conduct in pri- vate life ?" I replied : "I have been trying my best to do that. and that seems what has caused peo- ple to turn away from me." "Very well, then." said the Chancellor. "stoick, and don't worry! Be of good courage! You shall be supported.
The Unitarian mission stands for better character and better quality of work-rather than for quantity, or a great following. Only do your part well, and leave results to God."
The dear old saint kept his promise to me, and I have since then been trying harder than ever to act according to his counsel, however lieavy the cross, sometimes.
SAINTLY UNITARIAN FRIENDS AND CO-WORKERS.
I can never be grateful enough to the Giver of all Good for the hosts of noble, saintly men and women-some of them of world-wide fame -of the Unitarian household whose prayerful interest and friendship have been to me inspira- tion and strength in the most trying work of this mission. Most of them have resided too far away to ever visit here except in spirit. They are too numerous to mention. However, besides those referred to in other parts of this history, I make room to name Miss Dorothy Dix. the American lady philanthropist ; Drs. A. A. Livermore and George L. Cary, Presidents of Meadville Theological School; Prof. Fred- erick Hindekoper and his wife; Drs. James Freeman Clarke, Henry W. Foote and Edward Everett Hale, and President Wm. H. Baldwin, of Boston. Mass .; Hon. John D. Long, Rev. John H. Heywood, Mr. A. G. Munn, Mr. H. S. Sears, Mrs. L. J. Tilton and Rev. Dr. A. P. Put- nam. In a generous effort to strengthen my hands when they were almost ready to fall, Dr. Putnam gave that very kind sketch of my life published by Damrell & Upham, Old Corner Book Store, Boston, 1888. Though feeling painfully undeserving such kindly notice, yet I must confess that the showers of brotherly and sisterly sympathy which came to me from the
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appreciative readers of that story caused me to put on a new courage in a time of loneliness and sore trial.
And members of the Massachusetts Evan- gelical Society (Rev. James De Nomandie is secretary) have often caused me to thank God and take courage during the struggle to hold services at the Springs.
BROTHERLY KINDNESS OF LOCAL PASTORS.
I have spoken of the kindness and cordial co-operation of the Methodist brethren. And I rejoice in the remembrance of equally pleasant relations with most preachers of the various sects, and also Catholic priests, with whom I have come in contact in this mission ; though a few preachers have been extremely shy of me and warned their flocks against my "dangerous doctrines," and one or two were noted for making imprecatory prayers against me, even as late as my crusade against the treating custom of can- didates. About the first local pastor to sub- scribe and insist on paying for Our Best Words, was a Catholic priest. and some of my best friends and helpers have been members of that church. In the early years of my Anti-Slavery work, the United Brethren were most loyal allies, as the Free Methodist brethren have been in my later crusade against the liquor traffic and kindred evils. The Christian church, Shelby- ville, was often granted me for religious services over 25 years ago, when many houses of wor- ship in the county were closed against me. The late Elder Bushrod W. Henry was pastor of that congregation for several years. He performed the marriage ceremony for my parents, and al- ways seemed glad to favor their son. In the most painful crisis of the local fight against the
liquor evil, Rev. B. F. Patt of the Baptist church, Shelbyville then. (later of Columbus, Ohio), and Rev. W. J. Frazer, the Presbyterian pastor, now of Brazil. Ind., stood by me most brotherly, bravely defending me publicly at the risk of of- fending influential members of their congrega- tions. I do not wish to go to any heaven where stich souls do not go. It would surprise some people if they should be told how much some of these pastors have helped to circulate Our Best Words.
WHAT OUR BEST WORDS IS HERE FOR.
Our Best Words is devoted to Temperance Reform, True Education and the spread of Pure and Practical Religion. It seeks to cultivate a spirit of Unity and Brotherhood among all sects, parties, classes and races.
In recent years it has given special atten- tion to Lithia Springs Assembly and Chautau- qua work. Our Best Words is purely a mission- ary paper, published and edited from the first as a labor of love and good will to everybody. It was born to speak the simple truth, and noth- ing but the truth, and to say the word most needed to be said, or die trying. For twenty years past in connection with Our Best Words. by the assistance of my family, we have carried on a Post Office mission and circulated thous- ands of tracts, etc., in an endeavor to Christian- ize liberals and liberalize Christians.
THE STRUGGLE AT LITHIA SPRINGS BEGINS.
Meantime, the battle had begun at Lithia Springs, two miles north of where the work began at Log Church, over thirty years ago.
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These springs were in an out-of-the-way place, no public road being nearer than a mile. They were in a glen surrounded by a dense, wild forest amidst rough hills and gorges. They were not protected by any enclosure, and the neigh- bors and their cattle for miles around came there for water. The water from earliest time was believed to be of rare medicinal value by those who drank it, though the springs were not widely known until within a dozen years.
The spot had been for a long time a den for the drinking and lawless element. I first tried to hold Sunday services there about fifteen years ago. Rev. J. T. Sunderland, then West- ern Unitarian Missionary Secretary, assisted me in one of the first meetings, and we had some old logs and the grass for seats. Then Dr. Benj. Mills, Presbyterian pastor at Shelbyville said : "Brother Douthit, I will come with my congre- gation and help you for one Sunday," and so they did ; but Satan came also with a wagon load of fire water and set up his stand within a hundred yards of our pulpit. This was a big log close by the springs. The liquor sellers were arrested and convicted, and left the country to escape paying their fine.
A COURT TRIAL BESIDE THE SPRINGS.
I was permitted to somewhat control the grounds for three or four years before I owned the land. As showing the obstacles to be over- come because of prejudice and long standing custom, I will relate another case in point :
The only road to the springs ran counter- cornered across the land, (as it had run for aught I know since the Indians made the trail) : and, strange to say, a majority of the township commissioners actually insisted that it must continue to go that way instead of on the section
line. They claimed that for the convenience of the public the road must run so as to include the springs ; that the owner of the land had no right to enclose and control that water. It should be outside and free as air to all people and their cattle, at all times-certainly no temperance crank should be allowed to control it. This would interfere with "personal liberty." But the case went to the courts. Finally, the board of supervisors (the county legislature) appointed James Dazey, John Funk and Michael Work- man, of its members, as a jury, (or court) before which the case should be tried. The court was assembled and seated on old logs about the . springs. Many people were present. Hon. Geo. D. Chafee, my most faithful friend from the be- ginning, was attorney for the owner of the land, and Col. L. B. Stephenson, now of St. Louis, for the road commissioners. After eloquent pleading the verdict was that the springs might be enclosed and the road must be changed to the section line on the east.
TO REFORM THE FOURTH OF JULY.
Fourth of July celebrations had come to be largely occasions for drawing patronage to dram shops. I determined that our Nation's birthday should be kept in Shelby county a safe distance from those plague spots. Therefore, I invited all the lodges of the Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association, and everybody else to a free Fourth of July Picnic at Lithia Springs, and there was a mighty response. The papers reported ten thousand people present. The next Fouth of July I felt obliged to charge a gate fee of five cents. The third year the admission fee was 15 cents to pay incidental expenses of orators, etc., and there were about one thousand present. Chaplain (now Bishop) C. C. McCabe was the
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orator. He was pleased with my effort to re- form the Fourth of July, and when I paid him what I had agreed to, he handed back to me a large part of the money, saying : "My dear fel- low. I want to help you in this work." Then he suggested that I establish at the springs inter- partisan and inter-denominational Assemblies. I thanked him and said that was just what I wanted, and he promised to help all he could. He has well kept his promise. And the Good Father of all has sent many other such gracious friends.
HALLOWED GROUNDS.
Soon after that the land with the springs came into my possession-the first .land I ever owned. My father had owned it from nearly the time the Indians left. It was the dearest spot on earth to me. because it was land over which my mother had held up tenderly my baby feet when she gathered sap from the maple trees around the springs, to make the yearly supply of sugar ; and when I unexpectedly came to control the land I craved to live long enough to see it consecrated forever as Holy Ground- made too pure to ever again tolerate in any form the demon that had so distressed my mother. stung to death so many of my kindred and ruined so many homes round about.
And to effect this object I had good reason for believing I must begin then. or perhaps never. But the grounds were wild. uncultivated and unfenced. They were covered with woods and dense undergrowth, and the springs were bubbling up through marshy black mud-only one had an old whisky barrel for a curb. There was no shelter-no auditorium for meetings- nothing but the blue heavens above. I had no money. no income-not even a living salary.
But there were the springs, in a most pictur- esque and lovely spot. It is the testimony of all. including many of wide experience. that the place is an ideal one for camp-meetings and Chautauqua purposes, having beautiful scenery, being dry and well drained. healthful, free from mosquitoes and far away from the vicious in- fluences of a city-a quiet, happy valley with water equal to any in the country for medicinal and health-giving qualities.
Nearly. if not quite, every plant, tree and flower that grows in the Mississippi valley may be found about these springs. And Prof. Lean- der S. Keyser, the popular author on ornithol- ogy, who spent a week on the grounds, says there are probably 200 varieties of birds here during the year ; and during the ten years they have been specially protected and undisturbed on the grounds, so that they have increased in number and grown remarkably tame. So that 1 am sure it would make Mr. Angell, editor of Our Dumb Animals, happy to see and hear them.
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