USA > Illinois > Shelby County > Historic sketch and biographical album of Shelby County, Illinois > Part 9
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cheerful helper in all good work. 'They were all born and trained as children of the church.
After many years of preaching about the county to little flocks here and there, I have been pastor for twenty-five years of the First Congregational (Unitarian) church in Shelbyville and the Church of Liberal Christians now wor- shiping at Jordan Chapel (near Lithia Springs). and within 200 yards of the spot where I first saw the earth. By the chapel are the graves of my grandmother and grandfather Douthit, and my father and mother and hosts of kindred. at many of whose funerals 1 have been called to minis- ter. In fact, there are few homes among older residents within a radius of six miles of my birth place where I have not gone on such errands. This chapel is at the head of Jordan Creek. namied for my mother's father, who settled near that place over 70 years ago when the Indians were the only inhabitants of this region. My mother was born in a fort in Franklin county. Southern Illinois. The fort was built by her father. Francis Jordan, and his brother Thomas, to protect their families and other pioneer set- tlers from the Indians.(See Reynold's Pioneer History of Illinois, page 406.) My great-grand- father. Evan Douthit, came with his family from near Nashville, Tenn., about 1830, and built him a log cabin home five miles east of Jordan Chapel, on what is now Sam'l Duncan's farm. This was still standing, half up and half down. till 1806. What interests me about this cabin is the fact that the dear old grandsire and his little Welsh-Irish wife (my great-grandmother who died in Palestine. Texas, at the age of 115 years) were then (1830) accustomed to walk to- gether on Sundays, five miles, through a path- less forest and high prairie grass, to attend re- ligious meetings near where Jordan Chapel now stands, two miles south of Lithia Springs.
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SOME CHURCH STATISTICS, ETC., OF THE MISSION.
There have been built in this mission four church edifices in Shelby county, the largest being a substantial brick structure, costing $6,- 000, and three of wood, costing respectively, $800, $1.500, and $1,200, and one in Mattoon. costing $to,coo, besides a tabernacle for our summer meetings at Lithia, seating about 2,000 persons or more. As nearly as I can estimate, one thousand persons have been received into membership under my ministry in this vicinity. two hundred children christened, nearly one thousand funerals attended, and about four hun- dred marriage ceremonies performed. The church membership has been largely composed of young people and tenants that are now scat- tered over many states, leaving only a few dozen near enough to attend at Jordan Chapel and Shelbyville.
There have come from my congregations eight persons who are now ordained ministers of the gospel. Three of these are graduates at Meadville, and are now pastors of Unitarian congregations ; and one is a woman of national reputation for her philanthropic and gospel tem- perance labors. At least six ministers in other denominations-some of whom are quite prom- inent for their ability-received their first quick- ening for the ministry with these congregations.
Meantime 1 have been engaged in anti- slavery, temperance, and other social reform and , general educational work. For the last ten years I have superintended annual Chautauqua Assemblies and Summer Schools at Lithia Springs. In connection with editorial work on Our Best Words for twenty years past, myself and son. George L. Douthit, have published, besides various tracts and pamphlets. the follow-
ing books, most of which I have edited, namely : Shelby Seminary Memorial. Illustrated. Cloth, 116 pages : Out of Darkness Into Light: The Journal of a Bereaved Mother, by Mrs. M. . 1. Deane, cloth, 400 pages ; and The Life Story and Personal Reminiscences of Col. John So- bieski, cloth. 400 pages. Illustrated.
HOW AND WHEN I BECAME UNI-
1 cannot remember when 1 did not hold substantially to the Unitarian faith, but I did not take the name Unitarian till near the time of my ordination to the ministry, about thirty- eight years ago. 1 began to talk and preach Unitarian ideas some years before I knew there was a religious people of that name in exist- ence.
My forefathers were Calvinists, my great- grandfather Douthit being a zealous Predesti- marian ("Hardshell") Baptist preacher. As a boy, I craved to believe with and belong to that church, but I could not honestly-for my whole soul revolted at some of its doctrines-and my parents advised me against pretending to be- lieve what I could not for my life really believe. Such pretense, my parents said, would be hy- pocrisy-the very thing that Jesus most severely condemned. And so I came to think it were much better for professed followers of Christ to be united for worship and work by agreeing to disagree, in all sincerity and kindness, rather than to "Make-Believe" or seem to say to the public that they accept doctrines which their reason and conscience reject. And after fifty years of taking evidence on this point. I am con- vinced that many young people are tempted precisely as 1 was; and alas! too many have vielded, and have been thus lead into a life-time
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of religious insincerity. (See published pamphlet, "The Creeds or Christ.")
When a mere lad I felt so much desire to became a Christian that I would gladly have walked a long journey to find a congregation that would have given me membership on my simple confession of a determined purpose to live a Christian life, leaving me free with the Bible to decide as to doctrinal points. I remember when I first expressed to my mother this desire. she exclaimed: "Why, my child. 1 thought all good people believed that way!" But I soon learned that all the churches around me insisted upon a great deal more of a confession as a con- dition of membership. Therefore. for a long time. I must walk alone: and I would have al- most lost faith in all churches and all religion but for a mother's love and saintly example.
WITH THE METHODIST CHURCH AT SCHOOL.
had been to school but about nine months when I was about eighteen years of age : and that was to subscription school, kept part of the time in a house with only the bare earth for a floor. When about 18, 1 became so de- termined to get an education that 1 left home against my father's will, and hired to work on the grading of the Illinois Central railroad, near where Pana now stands, in order to get money to pay my way at school. But I was persuaded to return home. and remained until Shelby Academy was opened. at which 1 was present the first day, March 20. 1854. This institution was under the auspices of the Methodist church.
When about 21 years old I made public confession of religion and was baptized. kneel- ing in the waters of the Okaw, at Shelbyville : Rev. Isaac Groves, then pastor of the First
Methodist church here. performing the cere- mony. 1 worshipped and worked with that church for several years. Though never yielding formal assent to its articles of faith. I was treated as kindly as if 1 had been a bona fide member. and I have ever held that church in grateful re- gard as my foster mother in religion.
Among the most loyal and loved friends for over forty years, have been Principal Chas. W. Jerome and Robert M. Bell. associate teachers in that old Shelby Academy. And among my heartiest co-workers in this mission have been Methodist ministers. The pastor of the First M. E. church, Shelbyville, was about the first one in the country to welcome me to preach in his pulpit. soon after I was ordained by U'nitar- ians, though about that same time the Cumber- land Presbyterian church. of Windsor. Rev. W. W. M. Barber, pastor, was opened for me. The first pastor of a Shelbyville church to propose a pulpit exchange with me was the pastor of the Second M. E. church, Shelbyville. Rev. James M. West now of Bloomington. Ill. The late Rev. James 1. Crane. General Grant's close friend and chaplain in the Civil war, father of Drs. Frank and Chas. Crane, was one of the first Methodists 1 ever heard speak. That was when I was at Shelby Seminary. He was the pastor of the First Methodist church in the carly years of my ministry in Shelbyville, and treated me most brotherly. Through his influence I was chosen President of the Shelbyville Minis- terial Union, (the first club of the kind organ- ized here. I believe), of which the pastors of all Protestant congregations in the city. excepting perhaps one, were members. A few years since. and a while before he was promoted. the Metho- dist veteran and saint. Isaac Groves, at the age of 80 years, came from his home at Urbana. Ill .. to visit me and preach in the pulpit of the "sin-
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gular sheep" he baptized over two score years ago. The Universalist saint, (now also octoge- narian), Rev. Dr. Varnum Lincoln, of Andover, Mass., who helped to make me and a Yankee girl one, and who gave me a most . fatherly greeting in Boston recently, could not have been more cordial to me and my congregation than was this dear old Methodist pastor. Surely, 1 have special reasons for thanking God for the Methodist church.
1 became identified with Unitarians simply because they were the only people that would accord me full freedom to preach the Gospel as God gave me to see it, without dictation by Pope. Synod. or Conference, one man or a mil- lion men. But I used that liberty, in fact, for five years before my ordination. The year be- fore the Civil war began I solicited funds and helped build a Meeting House, in the woods four miles east and south of Shelbyville, that we named "Liberty," which was free for religi- ous and other public meetings. Here I tried to preach, and organize a Sunday school. (That house went up in flames during the war.) The burden of my first message was
"LIBERTY, UNION, CHARITY, TEMPER- ANCE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS."
These words have ever had a special charm to me since 1 first caught any of their meaning- though like all the great words, they yield a thousand times more meaning the longer the things they stand for are pondered, even as the real discovery of America has been extending since Columbus sighted a little of its shores. My favorite text was Paul's theme before Felix : "Righteousness, temperance and the judgment to come." 1 warned of the judgment to come against what to me were the twin evils : strong drink and African slavery.
The drink custom was terrible in my neigh- borhood, and very early the serpent began to crawl through our home. There was an okl still house near by, and the candidate for office that was most lavish in treating voters to whisky was usually elected. I have seen kegs of liquor placed at the polling place all day, free as water for everybody, and at night most every one would be more or less drunk, including the judges and clerks of the election. It was the custom 50 years ago here on Christmas and New Year's, for neighbors to come together at one place and have what was called a whisky stew and spree. A big iron kettle or pot (used for making soap and washing clothes) that could hold eight or ten gallons, was filled with whisky and other stuff, and made hot and sweetened for men and women, and boys and girls to drink. This was the Christmas or New Year's treat. The decanter of "bitters" sat on the sideboard in many homes, and the preachers who were being entertained drank before and after the sermon. When a small boy, I attended a sort of bar (a grocery store kept by my father where sugar, coffee, etc., and whisky were sold, and felt honored in the doing, until very soon my eyes were opened to the horrors of it. . \ great hearted man whom I loved when he was sober, became a terror to his family and to every- body, and said he couldn't help it, and so in des- perate remorse he resolved to kill himself with drink, and he did. 1 see him now as he came to our "grocery" (dramshop) one day with a sled drawn over the snow by a bob-tailed horse. saying that he had come for his last barrel of whisky. It was loaded on his sled and he got astride and started homeward saying: "This is my coffin." When he drank till he was so weak he could not help himself to it. the doctor was called and said he must have a little toddy
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(weakened whisky) to keep him alive. I sat by him and gave him the toddy in a teaspoon till he breathed his last. (1 would have scruples about obeying such medical advice now.) I saw many others thus stung to death. I saw homes made miserable and destroyed. 1 was alarmed and would tend bar no more.
A VOW OF TOTAL ABSTINENCE.
I had never heard or read any lectures on total abstinence, but 1 was ambitious to study and be an intelligent, wise man, and I saw that whisky made me silly, and so at about 15 years of age I vowed total abstinence. I have kept that vow to this day, and see more good rea- sons for it the longer I live.
Thirty years ago I was rejected by Life In- surance companies as an unsafe risk. Though always frail of body and often suffering severely with nervous prostration, 1 enjoy better health today than in any period of my life, and am a happier man as the years roll on. This in- creased health and happiness I believe to be largely the result of total abstinence from liquor and narcotics : and also of striving to be tem- perate in all things, though sadly failing in this effort sometimes. Alas! the graveyards round me are populous with victims of drink, most of whom were younger than 1, and of much strong- er constitution ; and many of them among the noblest and best but for the demon that ruined them in body, mind and soul. Why should I not vow relentless hostility to this monstrous robber and murderer?
COLLECTING TAXES-SLAVERY- "THE ITCH FOR DISPUTATION."
I had an opportunity to know much of the habits of people in this county. My father kept
the Postoffice (called Locust Grove) at our home, five miles east of Shelbyville, over 50 years ago. when the mail was carried on a stage coach from Terre Haute through Charleston, Shelbyville. etc., to Springfield. The Locust Grove precinct election was then held for years at our house. My father for much of his life held some office of trust. He was for several years sheriff and ex-officio collector of this county. He collected all the taxes in the county, traveling from town- ship to township to do it. The revenue must be paid in gold and silver, and father hauled it up to Springfield in a two-horse covered wagon. 1 served part of the time as his deputy, or as- sistant, and thus became acquainted with many people. The county officers were generous, sociable, pleasant men, and the custom of treat- ing to drinks caused most of them to fall victims to the habit. Thus many men of the most popu- lar qualities were ruined, among them some of iny nearest and dearest. For these reasons my first mission work was in fighting this evil. In these battles 1 have received the severest wounds of my life. I have been cursed ad infinitum. libeled and blackmailed again and again, and my salary reduced one-half : my life and prop- erty has been often in peril.
My first experience with African slavery was when, ten years of age, I saw its workings in Texas. I worked with the slaves in the cot- ton fields and cotton gins, and came to love the negroes-they were so very kind to me. They would gather in their cabins on Sunday and of nights, to hear me read the Bible to them. Then seemed to come to me my first call to preach. 1 saw slaves for slightest offenses cruelly beaten by drunken overseers, till blood ran down their bodies to their heels. I took their part and long- ed to live to help them toward the North Star. So far as I know. I was the first person in this coun-
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to to declare and contend publicly for the aboli- tion of African slavery, though I had heard my mother and others often speak of slavery as a great wrong.
The preachers I heard forty and fifty years ago had what some one has called "an ich for disputation" and heresy hunting. so that congre- gations were split all to pieces over such ques- tions as whether God made the devil or the devil made himself. And there was bitter controversy and turning each other out of church on such questions as communion and baptism, regard- less of how pure the character of the heretic might be. I thought such religions "fussing" was all wrong: and so the first sermon I tried to preach was against what was then called "Pulpit Fighting," which was not a fight against sin or moral heresies, but against some sup- posed doctrinal unsoundness. But I dare say l sometimes made the mistake of showing some of the same spirit which I severely condemned : for I have never found it difficult to show, on a given occasion, the requisite amount of indigna- tion against what I believed to be wrong : but to "speak the truth in love," to be sweet amidst "an evil and perverse generation"-ah! that is not so easy, sometimes.
Just before and during the Civil war I had public controversies with "Hardshell" Baptists and "Christian" (Disciples of Christ) preachers on the question of slavery and total abstinence. Some of those preachers in this vicinity argued from the Bible for slavery and wine drinking. My contentions have mostly been on clearly moral issues. Nearly all of my preaching. prob- ably nineteen-twentieths of it, has been practical, to make people better in character and life, rather than to dispute on doctrinal or speculative points. I have never published but three con- troversial discourses, to-wit: "The Creeds or
Christ:" A "Plea for Religious Honesty" and "Bishop Edwards' Mistakes." being a reply to some charges made against I'nitarians by Bishop David Edwards of the United Brethren church. At the suggestion of Robert Collyer. members of Unity church, Chicago, helped to print this last named, and so gave it a large circulation in this region. In the year Garfieldl was elected president, I had a discussion with Rev. Dr. Isaac Errett, of Cincinnati, Ohio. The discussion began by Dr. Errett criticising in his paper (The Christian Standard), a discourse of mine, published first in Manford's Magazine. Chicago, on "Alexander Campbell's Christian System." Dr. Errett kindly allowed me to re- ply through the columns of his paper, and the controversy continued for several issues. Dr. Errett was an intimate friend of Garfield, and ministered at the President's funeral.
THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN CIRCLE-PARTISAN PREJU- DICE.
Early in life I learned to hate ultra partisan- ship and prejudice, especially after I 'was fooled into giving my first ballot for a pro-slavery party when I thought I was voting against slavery. About the first article I ever prepared for pub- lication on a political subject was a plea for "Fair Play in Politics"; but no newspaper then published in these parts would print it, because it was not only a plea for free speech but for freedom to all men. The article ultimately ap- peared in the Shelby County Freeman, men- tioned in another place.
In the spring of 1863. I reported a secret session of the Knights of the Golden Circle for the papers. The real object of that order was to organize to resist the draft, and secretly help
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the rebellion. But it appeared before the public in the guise of "Peace Democracy." Thus it misled many well meaning people and gave a chance for bushwhackers and other emissaries of the confederacy to come into Southern Illi- nois. One of these came from Missouri into my district. He called himself a preacher. He held meetings at "Liberty Meeting House." This house was built for the double purpose of school and church, in fact all sorts of meetings-for it was the only house where public meetings could be held in that district; and I had stipulated when soliciting funds to build it, that it should be always open to the community, sacred to free speech. Well, a Knights of the Golden Circle lodge was organized there by the Missouri bush- whacker, and a score or more of my neighbors joined it. Besides secret sessions, the lodge hekl open meetings, to which everybody was wel- come. In these meetings peace and union were talked. I went to one of the meetings and asked permission to speak for peace and union. It was left to a vote, and there were enough of the bushwhacker and his friends to say that no aboli- tionist should speak. The bushwhacker said : "If an abolitionist wants free speech, let him go to the woods and bellow to his heart's content." But a younger brother of mine (George W .. ) who was not known to the bushwacker and was so very quiet and sleepy-looking that night that he was scarcely noticed in the great, noisy crowd, was not put out. Then was held the se- cret session in which the so-called preacher and bushwhacker made a rousing speech. He de- nounced Judge Anthony Thornton and other prominent Douglass ( U'nion) Democrats. He said : "Had it not been for such weak-kneed cowardly traitors we should have had the tyrant Lincoln dethroned long ago. yea, verily, and be- headed. (Applause.) * I tell you we
must prepare to fight. Clean out your old guns and get ready. If you have no gun, go up north and press one. and while you are there press a horse and ammunition. If we can't fight on a large scale. we can bushwhack it. If you don't know how, I can teach you. I have had some experience in bushwhacking myself."
My younger brother had an excellent miem- ory, and reported that speech word for word. I tried in vain to get any of the local papers to publish that report. They refused. not because its correctness was questioned. and some of the editors expressed to me in confidence their ab- horrence of the bushwhacker's speech : but the press of this county then was all of one party and intensely partisan, so that the editors said to me it would never do to publish such a re- port. It would create discord in the party and make votes for the "black Republicans." I then sent the report to the St. Louis Democrat, the Republican daily most widely read in this part of Illinois then. That paper made the most of it. It printed it on the first page. under loud head-lines that startled the whole country. The excitement was intense. It was as if a bombshell had burst. and somebody must surely get hurt or leave for other parts in a hurry. I felt I ought not to go. But I was informed by a vigilance committee that I must go. either vertically or horizontally, though they didn't use those words. They talked plain Anglo-Saxon. They said I should be hung or have a coat of tar and feath- ers and ride out on a rail. for the sake of peace. However, it was decided that I might stay if I would confess that I had made false report about the Knights of the Golden Circle, and would stop making reports to the papers : otherwise it was decreed that I must be treated as a spy. But I was so stubborn that no doubt you would have been spared these reminiscences but for my
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father and mother and a large number of kindred who, though grieved at my outspokenness, strongly resented any violent treatment of me. As for the bushwhacker and his deluded vic- tims, it seemed that the only way they could remain in the locality and save themselves from arrest by government officials was to deny my report and publish a libel on me. So the bush- whacker prepared a manifesto for the signature of others, stating that he had never uttered the words reported of him in the daily papers, and that the secret conference, held at Liberty Meet- ing House, was in the interest of peace and har- mony among neighbors, and that Jasper Dou- thit was a notorious, blood-thirsty Abolitionist. a stirrer up of strife among otherwise peaceable neighbors. Then, to induce others to sign that manifesto, the bushwhacker told them he knew that the "black-hearted Abe Lincoln" had sent me a lot of government arms and ammunition which 1 had secreted in my house on the prairie, eight miles from Shelbyville, and that I had con- ceived a bloody scheme by the aid of some blue coats at home on furlough. The scheme was to set on fire all the houses of peaceable Demo- crats in that country, and shoot down all the inmates-men, women and children. So the bushwhacker actually induced nine citizens to sign their names to his manifesto, and it was pub- lished in the party papers. Some of them signed it or rather consented to let the bushwhacker use their names, through ignorance of what the article contained, and others because they were made to believe it was the only way to save themselves from arrest, and perhaps from being shot. (I have before me as 1 write copies of all the published articles above referred to.) 1 learned years afterwards that all concerned in that Knights of the Golden Circle meeting held a council over my report. They all agreed that
I had "got it mighty korect." But the question was, how I got it. Some suspected a traitor in camp, but most of them thought that after they had voted me "down and out" that night, I had climbed through the house roof and witnessed the whole proceedings through the scuttle hole in the loft. They never suspected my young, sleepy-looking brother. The secrets of that drama were not revealed till years after. I have publicly told my story of it but once before, and that not long ago. One of the nine who signed the libel was converted at a Methodist revival a dozen years after the war. The next morning he mounted a horse and rode in haste five miles to my cabin home in the woods to confess his fault and asked my forgiveness. All but two of that nine have passed to the great beyond. Most of them abundantly atoned for that wrong which they were lead unwittingly to do me. Some of them became earnest members of my congrega- tions, and I ministered at the funeral of several of them.
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