USA > Ohio > Twenty-five years in the West > Part 26
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stances, were sources of much real satisfaction. Met many friends of bygone years, made many new ones, and had the satisfaction of sowing the good seed of the kingdom in many hearts. The meetings were mostly held in orthodox churches, and pastors and choirs were present.
" Notwithstanding as a denomination we are much better treated than formerly, there is still room for improvement in that direction. We also have reason to complain that our sentiments on vital points are wickedly misrepresented. The editor of the Christian Record, a Disciple paper of Bedford, Indiana, thus slanders us : " Universalists tell us that all sinners will be saved in Heaven with or without repentance, as their theory is, that all liars, thieves, mur- derers, blasphemers, and robbers, as well as all others, be- lievers and unbelievers, will be unconditionally saved in Heaven at last." Universalists " tell us" no such thing, and the editor doubtless knows it, but this slander is pub- lished for a sectarian purpose.
" Alex. M. Hall, in a recent edition of " Universalism Against Itself," thus breaks the commandment : " The sys- tem of belief denominated Universalism, teaches that all men will be saved irrespective of moral character." This is in the introduction, and then through five hundred pages he fires away at this man of straw. I told him in the Magazine that he misrepresented Universalism, and he re- plied in his paper that : " We are ready to join issue with the editor of Manford's Magazine, upon the truth of this statement." I assured him I would publish every word he might write in defense of his false and reckless assertion, but could not get another word from him; and he was pressed so hard to redeem his promise that he got mad and stopped sending his paper to me. He evidently found he had falsified, but had not manliness enough to own it, and
-
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so kept silent. Just think of a man issuing a book of five hundred pages to refute what he knows nothing about ! "
The next paragraph was left unfinished. It was the be- ginning of an account of a preaching tour in Iowa, prob- ably the one referred to, among others, in 1873 or '74. It was in Iowa, ten years later-October, 1883-that he filled his last appointments. There he spent the last month of his public life, speaking in many places where his presence had been familiar for more than a score of years.
Not having fully recovered from previous illness, the tax was too great upon his mental and physical powers, and he returned with the fatal malady fastened upon him that a few months later ended his useful life on earth. But he was hopeful of returning health, and ready for new hard- ships. In the Magazine of November is the following. characteristic note:
" Have just returned from Iowa and the western part of Illinois. Have been absent four weeks, and preached nearly every day. This issue of the Magazine is delayed one week by our absence. We are glad to say that our health is much improved. We are good for another twenty-five years' pull."
Mr. Manford always arranged his appointments for holding meetings with the certainty of one who could command the elements, overcome all obstacles, bear all fatigue, and triumph over all the ills that flesh is heir to. Hence, announcements like the following :
BASKET MEETINGS.
" Beginning in May, we will be prepared to hold' ' Basket Meetings,' so called, anywhere from Ohio to Kansas. Will deliver from two to five or six discourses at each place. All wanting our services had better write soon. We expect to do much hard work this year. Never since Christianity was first announced was there more de-
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mand for the living ministers of the word. Let us supply that demand."
A few selections from his notes of travel will suffice to show the character of those self-imposed tasks, and the time and labor necessary to perform them. The record of one year is substantially that of the whole ten :
TRAVELS IN ILLINOIS.
" Left home Tuesday morning, March 26, 1878, and reached Monmouth about sunset, where we spoke at night in a hall to a fair congregation. Wednesday spoke in Swan Creek. Large congregation. Several came on horseback and in carriages twelve miles, though the roads were bad and the night dark. Thursday occupied the Disciple house in Blandenville. Next day spoke in Foun- tain Green. Next day went by carriage seven miles, then by rail about thirty, then in a mud wagon through mud and water seven miles, to a neighborhood south of War- saw, where we spoke at night to a large crowd. Next day, Sunday, at II A. M., delivered a discourse on the occasion of the death of Mrs. Daugherty, an estimable woman who departed this life last November. Our themes were life and immortality. There was a very large attendance of sympathizing friends and neighbors. " To die is gain," is the assurance of the Gospel of Christ. To die may be gain or it may be a dreadful calamity, is the assurance of Orthodoxy. To die is destruction, is the assurance of In- fidelity. We prefer the Gospel's assurance. In the after- noon rode eighteen miles and spoke at night in West Point. A very large congregation. Most of them came several miles through the mud and darkness. Started Monday morning before light for a station eight miles
distant. Stopped a few hours at Springfield. Went through the new capitol which has cost several millions, and will cost another million to finish. Spoke at night in Rochester in the Disciple house. We have a building there, but it was not deemed large enough to hold the ex- pected congregation, and it was not. We have spoken here occasionally for thirty years. Next day, Wednesday,
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In the West.
filled our appointment in Cowden, in the Methodist house. A large turn out. Thursday were at our post at Sulphur Springs, thirty miles distant-were conveyed by our good friend, Br. S. Akins. On the road called on Br. Vail, who has a son in our ministry. He resides in the east. House full. Have a church here. Next day a brother took us to Mason, where we spoke in the Methodist meet- ing-house. Well attended-the minister assisted in the service. Next day, Saturday, went in a wagon to Alta- mont, fourteen miles, and spoke in a store-room-no meet- ing-house could be obtained. Had only one day's notice, but there were twice as many as could be accommodated. Sunday morning, Dr. Rice conveyed us in a carriage to Brownstown, seven miles, where we met a very large con- gregation. Occupied the Disciple house. In the after- noon drove to Vandalia, seven miles, and spoke at 3 P. M. This is the old capital of Illinois. Always have good meetings here. Have spoken there now and then for many years. Monday preached in Clement, in a school- house. Our people have a legal right to the use of the Methodist house, but the door was closed. There was much indignation at the conduct of the Methodists. Next day spoke in the Methodist house at Odin. Have a few zealous friends. Always have good meetings. Next days, Wednesday and Thursday, preached in Kinmundy. Occupied the Methodist house. Large congregations. Friday lectured in the Disciple meeting-house in Centralia. We are now in the heart of Egypt, the land of corn, wheat and fruit. Spoke in Ashley Saturday night. Sunday morning. Raining hard, and we have an appointment at II and 3 o'clock in Williamsburg, twelve miles distant. Many intended going from Ashley, but the storm pre- vents. Reached there in good season and found the house
full. Several here from Franklin county, thirty-eight miles away. Also some from Monroe county, sixty miles distant. Monday went in a carriage to Mt. Vernon, twelve miles. Started at 2 o'clock Tuesday morning for Louisville, one hundred miles distant, Railroad being too slow, could not get there, so stopped at Jeffersonville
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and delivered a discourse, and the next day spoke in Flora in the Disciple house. Large congregation. Nearly three years ago we preached here; a Methodist minister was present, and took notes. About two weeks since he re- plied. It should have been a strong reply, as it took most three years to get it up. Next day occupied the Baptist house in Xenia. A large crowd attended. Proceeded to Clay City and spoke in the Disciple meeting-house. Good meeting. Next day, on the train to Olney, there were several preachers aboard, by themselves, and their yells, screams and laughter could be heard all along the line, above the roar of the train. Little would one have thought, if he did not know, that those noisy gentlemen believed that about all the unbaptised sons and daughters of earth were on the direct road to an everlasting hell. Spoke at Olney that night in a hall, which was well filled, and next day, Sunday, spoke in Noble, in the Baptist house. Some came ten miles. Monday night, on trains and at depots all night, and reached Hutsonville Tuesday about sunrise, and spoke at night in the Methodist house, and the following day in our meeting-house three miles from town. Next day spoke in Greenup in the Presbyte- rian house. Large number out. Many years ago a preacher here begged the Lord either to convert or kill us, and he didn't seem to care which He did. That wicked spirit is passing away. The day after occupied the Presbyterian pulpit in Casey. Next day, Saturday, preached in the court-house at Prairie City. The large room well filled. Next morning, Sunday, rode eight miles to Johnstown, and spoke in the Baptist house at II A. M. At 3 P. M. spoke in the Methodist house at Shiloh, seven miles distant. Several preachers present, and a very large congregation. At night, same day, preached in the Methodist house at Neoga, seven miles further on. Next day reached home. Absent five weeks.
TEN WEEKS IN THE WEST.
" We have been solicited the past year, from scores of places in Missouri and Kansas, to visit those states, and proclaim the good news of salvation.
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In the West.
" We left home Friday night, September 24, 1880, at 9 o'clock, and after riding till 11 o'clock next day, 275 miles, reached Milton, Iowa, where we spoke at night in the Baptist house. A hard rain came up about sunset. or we should have had a large congregation. Sunday morning, rode into Marion and preached twice in a Presbyterian house ; had large congregations, and excellent meetings. Monday night spoke in Memphis, in the Congregational house. Had an excellent meeting. Next night, in the Methodist church in Lancaster ; met some old friends who came several miles. Years ago we had some mean opposi- tion here. Had a brief debate with a Methodist preacher, and he went about the country afterwards telling he had had a fight with the devil. Next day rode twelve miles with Br. Brown, who was once one of our preachers, and had a meeting at night. Had only two or three hours to give notice, but a large number assembled. After meeting rode five miles in a farm wagon, and the next morning eight more, when we transferred ourself to the top of a load of hoop poles, and after twelve miles more riding, landed in Unionville, and preached in the Congregational house at night. Have some whole-souled friends here. Next day went to Browning by rail, and spoke at night in the Disci- ple house; it was crammed and jammed. The Marion Center friends sent a carriage here, twenty-five miles, to convey us there to attend the Convention. Tuesday, Judge Perry conveyed us to Bancroft, fifteen miles, where we spoke at night. The day after, rode to Bethany, where we preached Wednesday and Thursday nights, in the court-house full of people. Our hearers were from all parts of the country.
" Friday morning Br. Reno, from Civil Bend, started with us for his home, thirty miles distant. Stayed two hours at Salem, where we spoke at II A. M., and then proceeded to Civil Bend, and preached at night in the Methodist house. The building was crowded with attentive hearers. The day after, Saturday, Br. Reno conveyed us to Maysville, twenty- five miles, where we spoke Saturday night, and twice on Sunday in the Disciple meeting house. Monday went in
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a carriage to Rochester, eighteen miles, and spoke at night in the Presbyterian house-Rev. F. M. Miller, Presbyte- rian, had an appointment, but he insisted on our preach- ing. We spent the night with him, with a Presbyterian family.
" Left Rochester Tuesday, at 9 A. M., for Maryville, where we had an appointment that day, but the railroads de- feated us, and we did not reach there till Wednesday morning ; it was a great disappointment to us and others. Many came several miles from the country. The Ad- ventists adjourned a meeting they were holding, and went in a body. It is not often we fail to fill our appoint- ments, and should not this time had we not been at the ' mercy of the railroads. Wednesday afternoon rode to Quitman, but a hard rain at the very time for meeting prevented people from going. Thursday night, preached in Graham, in the Presbyterian house. Naxt night spoke in the Presbyterian meeting-house at Mound City. This town is located on the Missouri river bluffs and " bot- tom "-eight miles from that great river. The country here is magnificent in appearance, and the soil is of the best quality."
Strong men were often surprised at the amount of speak- ing and traveling he accomplished year after year. Rev. J. S. Cantwell, D. D., when editor of the Star in the West (in 1878) thus speaks of a list of appointments to be filled by the editor of the Magasine :
Rev. E. Manford, of Chicago, publishes seventy-eight appointments in the July number of his Magazine, extend- ing from August 13th to November 11th. These appoint- ments are in Illinois, Iowa and Missouri, and to fill them will involve thousands of miles of travel and preaching twice on every Sunday and nearly every evening in the week for three months ! This is truly a laborious task, and. but few men are equal to its performance. We sincerely unite with Brother Manford in the hope that his health will be sufficient for these appointments. Long journeys of this kind are not unusual for Brother Manford, and thus
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In the West.
far he has been remarkably well sustained in his wide- spread missionary work. For the information of our readers in the Northwest we publish this remarkable list of appointments in the Star.
To the above list Mr. Manford added twenty-eight more, and extended them to the middle of December !
To all entreaties to favor himself lest he should break down, his reply was : "I am immortal until my work is done." How prophetic ! In the early morning of Satur- day, August 16, 1884, he passed into the higher life. His work was done. We lay down the pen believing the " royal elements in his character have been crowned and sceptered." Precious to those who live is the legacy of such a life.
IN MEMORIAM.
How his labor was appreciated and his character esti- mated by those who knew him well, is best shown in the following tributes to his memory. Rev. T. H. TABOR con- tributes these tender words :
" The death of Erasmus Manford will carry great sorrow to hundreds and thousands who knew him personally and loved him as a friend and a brother. The thought that he will enter the many homes no more, where he was always received with manifestations of respect and affection, is a sad thought. That those who watched for his coming at the appointed time, as regularly and with as much confi- dence as they watched for the return of the birds and flowers in the spring time, will see his welcome form no more on earth, fills us with sorrow too deep to be expressed in words. He has gone on his last journey-he has preached his last sermon, his record is made up, and must stand as he has left it.
" He was the veteran publisher of the Universalist Church, and probably outranks all others in this field of service. He became a publisher by starting the Christian Teacher, a monthly journal of twenty-four pages, in April, 1841, at
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Lafayette, Indiana, and with very short intervals between the sale of one periodical and the starting of another, he remained a publisher till the hour of his death.
" He was also the veteran preacher of the Universalist faith in the West. There are probably one or two ministers living, who have preached more years than he-but he had preached more than fifty years in the Southwest and West alone. His labor as a minister, has been mainly of a mis- sionary character, for which no regular compensation was promised. And journeys in this capacity have extended over seven or eight states, and have been attended with an amount of weariness that but few ministers of the Gospel know anything about. His preaching has always been doctrinal, and was by the consent of nearly all, not only clear but convincing. He is spoken of by experienced ministers as being an exceptional doctrinal preacher, in the clearness of his statements and the force of his appeals.
" He was likewise a veteran debater, and probably no Universalist minister, living or dead, outranked him in the amount of service in this field, extending, as it did, through more than fifty years of ministry. His great self- control gave him great advantage in controversy. Sev- eral of his discussions have been reported and published, and are accounted among the best in this branch of our church literature, by those competent to judge.
" His long and varied services in these three departments of labor, gave him a great opportunity to make friends ; and if he has sometimes incurred enmity it will occasion no surprise. The man who could go through so many years of varied service, without displeasing any one, would have to be more than human, in our judgment. But the end has come, and our brother's religious faith and trust was clear and strong to the last. He has wrapped the drapery of his couch around his weary body and laid it down to rest. To him there was no death.
' An angel form Walks o'er the earth with silent tread, He bears our best beloved away, And then we call them dead.' "
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In the West.
Rev. Sumner Ellis, D. D., gives an outline of his career in wonderfully graphic and touching language :
" Rarely has it fallen to the lot of man to fill so many years with so continuous and ardent an activity. His was signally a busy life. Early surmounting a youthful defect in health by a journey from New England to Texas, mostly on foot and on horseback, he was for at least fifty years a man of marvelous vigor and endurance, meeting exposure with unconquerable hardihood, and assuming onerous toil with steadfast zest; and when but a few months since he fell under the disabling touch of paralysis, he was still wearing the armor of the active soldier, and shrinking at the thought of entering on the retired list.
" For a full half century he was an itinerant ; but to set forth what must have been the hardships of itineracy thirty and forty years ago in this new west, in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas, re- quires a more graphic pen than ours. In his own simple narrative of 'Twenty-five Years in the West'-a book which proves that fact may be as romantic as fiction-the scene is best portrayed. We see him leaving his well- loved home, after a brief rest, to make his laborious circuit of a month, or of three months, with an appointment for each and every day of his absence; and these appoint- ments, save on Sundays, were seldom more than one in a place. Often were they a long day's walk or drive apart, and not unfrequently over roads rendered well nigh impas- sable by the wet seasons, and through streams full of peril would he make the dreary distance. In the wilderness, where the road was sometimes little else than a trail, he would now and then miss his way, and only after miles of wandering on foot or in the saddle would he regain the blind path, making some humble cabin late at night, or even camping in the deep solitude with a sod for his pillow and the clouds for his canopy. . As a rule he had to share the scant accommodations of new settlers-a log hut for shelter, a hard bed for slumber, and the simplest table- fare. All temperatures, from the torrid to the arctic, he had to endure without flinching, and no tempest turned
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him from his appointed way. For at least twenty years o his career itineracy meant ample hardships and meagre compensations, and yet was he ever striking his tent in the morning to pitch it in some new quarter at evening. " But the answer to the inquiry, Why did he thus? does not readily shape itself. Shall we say that from his sailor father he inherited a drop of roving blood ? And may we not suppose that first long journey from Boston to Gal- veston, made in the interest of health did something toward inducing a migratory habit ? Or may we not con- clude that he loved to bear the light as he saw it into the midst of the surrounding darkness, to tell the good news of the Great Salvation to unaccustomed ears, to be a pioneer with this old doctrine newly dawning on the modern world ? It is quite possible he shared also some measure of delight in the controversial aspects and epi- sodes involved in itineracy. He was an apt debater, and could not have been wholly indifferent to the sense of victory with which he came from a momentary or a more formal and protracted contest. Rarely did he enter a new field but he found a fresh assailant, and at length it became an easy task to parry every shape of attack and to urge the unanswerable propositions of his own faith; and among the lures which led him on through fifty years of pioneer- ing we may without doubt reckon this pride and pleasure at bearing his creed to triumph in conflict. But far deeper was the motive already noted, to vindicate the divine char- acter where it most needed vindication, and to carry love into those regions where fear held darkest sway, and to plant the rose of hope in hearts where grew the bitter weed of despair. A convert himself, and knowing all the joy of yielding the old theology for the new, he most delighted in making converts of others, and ever sought to bear his message to the unconverted ; and it is quite probable he preached Universalism in its simple outlines to more peo- ple who had never heard the cheering doctrine than any clergyman of our order, east or west. For a time others, like the gifted George Rogers and the eloquent Pingree, may have been equally busy in new fields ; but no one
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besides himself crowded a half century with ardent pio- neering.
" On how many minds has he stamped his thought ! In how many hearts has he kindled gratitude and friendship ! In what vast outlying regions, stretching away into dis- tant Missouri and Kansas, was he a welcome visitor, as he went thither from time to time to bear his instructions to waiting congregations and his sympathies to private homes ; for he was at once preacher and pastor, and thus doubly endeared to scattered multitudes, who will not fail to cast the flower of a grateful memory on his fresh grave.
" In 1841 he began the publication of a periodical for the advocacy of Universalism, and for most of his remain- ing forty-three years he kept up the enterprise in some form, and thus at length, with an able and willing co-worker at home in Mrs. Manford, he was enabled to make itineracy a source of profit as well as pleasure ; for we must concede that from the first it had assumed some shape of fascina- tion for his heart. But it now took on a business form and became a canvass for subscribers as well as a mission- ary task. In due time books were added as new means of instruction and sources of revenue. Like his preaching, their aim was to convince and convert, to unfold the out- lines of Universalism before minds which had never con- templated them, and to fill anxious souls with the cheer of this new reading of the Word of God. But it was only by dint of a tireless industry abroad, seconded by the clear head and the busy hand he left at home, that he was able to win a reasonable measure of worldly success. By no lucky turn of the wheel of fortune, but by hard labor and steady economy, came the temporal treasures he has left behind. For the services he rendered they seem but a fair recompense.
" But from this view of Mr. Manford moving from place to place in the wide field of his toils, telling his plain story of God's love and the triumph of good, let us turn for a moment to note him in the peaceful retreat of his home. No heart could be happier than was his when, dusty and weary, he came back from his wanderings and crossed the
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familiar threshold to be once more at home. He loved his family and his friends and neighbors, as he was beloved by them, and to be in their midst was to him as a foretaste of Paradise. Going forth, he left his"benediction in ten- der words, but when he came in, covered with the signs of much travel and toil, he renewed it with face aglow and heart abounding with gladness. The fireside was his earthly heaven, and into the reunions of the holidays he entered with a happy zest which none who ever witnessed it can forget. In the delights of the home he seemed once more to be a child. In the festive game he bore a part, jest he answered with jest, and was ever ready to en- tertain with his fund of apt story and strange personal experience. A born and bred pioneer, he never forgot the one sacred spot on earth-his happy home-and from the House of many Mansions he no doubt looks back to earth, still invoking heaven's best blessings on wife and child and friend."
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