USA > Ohio > Twenty-five years in the West > Part 27
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Rev. L. G. Powers gives a clear and careful state- ment of
HIS WORK IN THE WEST.
" At this time it is fitting that even more than a passing tribute should be paid to the value and extent of Mr. Man- ford's labors. For many years he was one of the most im- portant agents in the promulgation through the great west of the doctrines of universal holiness and happiness and the final restoration of the whole human family. For more than forty years he traveled and preached over nearly all of the north-western states. In many of those states he visited and preached in every county and in nearly every township. Frequently, in his earlier ministry, he visited places where, before his appearance, the name of Universalism had scarcely been heard. He preached wherever he could secure the smallest hearing, whether of believers or doubt- ers.
" He was granted the fellowship of the Universalist churches in the year 1836. Almost immediately after he was thus authorized to preach, he made his way to the western
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states. After a short time he began publishing a paper, and for over forty years he never ceased to make his in- fluence felt by his books and papers, as well as by his ser- mons, lectures and debates.
" By his spoken and printed messages thousands have been led to embrace the larger hope for the future of man. Many are the individuals who have acknowledged to the writer of this article the great debt of gratitude that they owed to him for their liberation from the thralldom of old theological fears. Some of those people are now members of our Universalist churches. Others still retain their con- nection with other denominations. These latter, as a rule, reside in places where there are no Universalist socie- ties.
" Forty years ago, when he began to travel and preach, he found great difficulty in securing places in which to hold his services. No Orthodox church would open its doors to him. In many places, even the country school-houses were barred against those who cherished his faith. In those days he spoke mainly in barns, groves and private houses. In the last few years of his labors a great change is to be noted. In most places churches of all denomina- tions were opened for his meetings, and their ministers were ready to assist in his services.
" Among the common people-the farmers and laboring men of the northwest-his name was more widely known than that of any other Universalist clergyman. Hundreds have listened to him who have seldom or never seen or heard of any other clergyman of his faith. They have read his books and papers, and have but a vague idea of the other literature of his church.
" The story of his wanderings, his preaching and debates -- and the many varied experiences of his busy life are given in his ' I'WENTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE WEST.' That shows something of the part he played in disseminating the belief of the Universalists. But there is another side to his work. It was something of which Br. Manford seldom spoke, and of which his book is almost silent. He never laid claim to the position of an organizer of Universalism.
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Twenty-Five Years
He claimed rather to be an evangelist-the proclaimer of the glad tidings-the true Gospel of Hope and Reconcilia- tion. And yet organized Universalism in the West owes as much to his labors as to those of any other single indi- vidual. At this present time our people are interested in all facts relating to the history of our organized work, as well as to the propagation of our faith. Those thus inter- ested in our denominational history can find much of im- portance in the forty years' work of Br. Manford. The first fourteen years of his labor in the ministry were mainly confined to the State of Indiana .. When he first went to that state there were some clergymen proclaiming the final salvation of all men. They were mainly of Southern birth and sympathies. They had organized a state convention, but would not recognize the general convention nor the great body of New England Universalists. They stoutly opposed the idea of a general or uniform organization of the believers in Universalism. The great work that Mr. Manford accomplished for organized Universalism was in opposing these preachers and aiding in organizing the be- lievers in Indiana in fellowship with all the other believers in the land. Between 1840 and 1850 all of the early as- sociations in Indiana-with one, exception-were organ- ized mainly through his instrumentality. And finally these associations sent delegates which, assembling in his own house, established the present state convention of Indiana.
" A few years after this thorough organization of Univer- salism in Indiana upon the same essential basis which we behold to-day-Br. Manford moved to Missouri. He car- ried with him the old interest in organized work. While residing in that state he assisted in organizing the state convention of Missouri and several associations in different sections of the country. In Illinois he did but little to- ward organization, as the convention and most of the as- sociations were organized before he moved into the state to reside. But if he did not assist in organizing these bodies he was always ready with his money to aid them in their work of advancing the cause of Universalism. In
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In the West.
the last few years he contributed generously to nearly all of the western conventions and to all the denominational schools in the west.
" And now the busy life has closed its earthly career. His was a life of ceaseless activity. The results accomplished were due mainly to his tireless energies. Others may have excelled him in scholarship, in eloquence and similar accomplishments. His industry and activity enabled him with less artificial acquisitions to accomplish far more than many others whom some would call greater. But judging him by the results accomplished we must say in bidding him a long farewell: Here closes the life of one of the most successful workers in the Universalist Church."
Rev. Wm. Tucker, D.D., thus speaks of
THE LESSONS OF HIS LIFE.
" The life and death of good and great men are events un- der the direction and control of Providence. They are events that reveal the presence of God in biography and his- tory. There are providential men-men called of God to a special work, and by special preparation qualified for and adapted to that work. Providence is a great educator. It superintends all the lessons and teachings of experience. It provides conditions, and arranges the circumstances under which experience takes place, and thus becomes the great experimental teacher. In this sense Br. Manford was a providential man, and was fitted for, and called to do a providential work. He was called of God to the work of the ministry, and fitted for it by nature, and ex- perience. These natural qualifications were given by God, and the experimental preparation and training was directed by providence. He was blessed with a strong constitution, good health, great energy, wonderful power of endurance, large hope, warm heart, strong will, powerful emotion, clear intellect, and great religious enthusiasm. He was thus by natural endowment fitted for a missionary of the cross, and set apart to the work of a pioneer preacher of Universalism.
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Twenty-Five Years
" These fine natural faculties were trained, developed and cultivated in the providential school of practical experi- ence. God thus fitted him for the work to which he was called, and qualified him for the place he was to fill among men according to the appointed order of divine provi- dence. The lesson taught is this : The work of the min- istry is a divine work, the call to it is a divine call, and fitness for it is a divine gift.
" Every good man is a revelation of God. Man in his in- tellectual, moral and spiritual nature is like his divine Father. God lives in him, works by him, speaks through him, and reveals himself in man's nature, life and charac- ter. The better man is the more is he a revelation of God-the more clearly does he reveal God to his fellow- men. We often see the divine in the human, and hear God's truth in man's thoughts and words. Br. Manford, as a great and good man, was a revelation of God. His intelligence, reason, conscience, benevolence and moral purity, revealed God as a rational, moral, spiritual and benevolent being. His life was a revelation of the divinity. He preached divine truth, and illustrated divine purity. His love for man revealed God as loving humanity, and his moral character revealed God as a moral governor. In his justice, goodness, benevolence, kindness, sympathy and tenderness he manifested the life of God in the soul of man. He was a moral teacher, a preacher of righteous- ness, and he lived the morals which he taught. He taught by precept and example, preached by word and deed, and lived the gospel which he preached. Thus revealing the practical power of religion. His life manifested the power of Christianity as a practical moral force in the individual and in society. It showed the saving power of the gospel of Christ. As a manifestation of spiritual life, it revealed the moral adaptation of the gospel to the nature and wants of man. The influence of such a life on the moral eleva- tion of society is incalculable. Though dead he still speaks, and his spiritual presence is still felt among men. He is yet a power in the earth ; for the good man's influ- ence can never die."
Hearmake 3. Manforch
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
OF MRS. H. B. MANFORD.
REV. G. S. WEAVER, D. D.
It is a common remark that no two persons look alike. It is equally true that no two persons are alike. In face and form, each person is himself-is peculiar and unlike every other ; so in character and life. There is a never-ending interest in walking on the sea-shore and ob- serving the endless variety of form and color of the peb- bles which greet and delight the eye. There is a still greater interest in studying the separate lives of indi- viduals. Each one is so distinct and so marked with personal peculiarities that every human life is a wonder. Indeed every man is a marvel, and every life something new under the sun. The romance of a well told story is surpassed in every life. No poem is so poetical as our own experiences. No story is so intensely interesting as the one we live. If we could tell it as it is to us, it would be the wonder of all literature. This fact makes true biog- raphy a kind of enchantment to the lover of humanity.
ANCESTRY.
Hannah Webster Bryant, which was Mrs. Manford's maiden name, is connected with several distinguished fami- lies. Her father, William Bryant, was a cousin of William
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Biographical Sketch of
Cullen Bryant. A brother of the poet, who lives in Princeton, Ill., has an acquaintance who on meeting her a year or two since, remarked that she quite resembled Mr. Bryant of Princeton; this he said without knowing that she was of the family. The likeness of one of her broth- ers has been taken for that of the poet. So strongly do the Bryant features persist in holding their way down through the generations. It is a long lived race. Wil- liam Cullen lived to ninety-one, and then died from a sun-stroke. William, Mrs. Manford's father, died at
ninety-two. His oldest son at eighty-seven. Many of his relatives lived to a great age.
Her middle name, Webster, was given her by her father to commemorate the family name of his second wife, who was a cousin to Daniel Webster. An older sister, Emily Worcester Bryant, was given her middle name to perpet- uate a family name from another ancestral line. Her mother, Annah Spaulding, of Vermont, was a direct de- scendant of some of the historic families of the Puritans. It is something to be well born. It is an old saying that blood will tell. It is certain that blood has its mission.
William Bryant, her father, was of Massachusetts, and spent his early manhood in that state. He went to Ver- mont from Newburyport, and became a farmer, manufac- turer and merchant, in which three-fold business he accu- mulated a large estate. His first wife died early, with her only child. By his second wife he had seven children. At her death he was left desolate in his home, yet rich in material possessions. Some time after, he became ac- quainted with Miss Annah Spaulding, a daughter of a wealthy family. Her parents did not approve of the inti- macy that followed, because they had other plans for their daughter, and did not like the prospect of her becoming
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Mrs. H. B. Manford.
the step-mother of seven children. Her father declared that he should disinherit her if she married Mr. Bryant. But woman's love and will are hard to thwart. One day Mr. Bryant rode into the front yard of her father's house at a rapid speed, leading a splendid white horse equipped with a side-saddle. As soon as he came, Miss Annah, mantled and bonneted, rushed out to meet him, and was quickly galloping away to the minister, who married them and sent them on their way to their fine home. In this spirit she went to her duties, and those seven children, when men and women grown, all said no mother could be truer and kinder than she was to them. At the time of Mr. Bryant's third marriage he was a fine looking man, above medium size, and dressed elegantly in the showy costume of his time-knee-breeches, shoe-buckles and ruffles-a prize that any womanly heart might covet. Annah was of medium size, healthy, active and rosy.
Things went on prosperously for a few years with them, but like many successful and generous men, Mr. Bryant signed largely the paper of a friend, who failed and carried his bondsman down with him. After a lengthy struggle and experience of many sorrows, he gathered up what was left of the wreck of his fortune and went into the Mohawk valley, in the State of New York. Annah's father kept his threat and gave her nothing, even in her time of greatest need.
BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD.
The seventh child of this third marriage of Mr. Bryant is the subject of this sketch. She was the fifteenth of his children. Two more were afterwards born. If it is true that large families tend to make considerate and helpful children, the Bryant children were born into excellent op- portunities. Our little Hannah opened her eyes in the
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Biographical Sketch of
midst of the beautiful scenery of the Mohawk valley, in the town of Schuyler, Herkimer county. Her first re- membrance of water and sandy shore and pebbly bottom was of this river, along which the older children led her, and by which she picked up from its sandy beach a little copper kettle, lost there by the Indians, and long kept in her family as a relic. This was when she was about three years old. A little before she remembers being led up the aisle of the church by her parents, who carried her younger brother, then a babe, to baptism. Her parents were members of the Presbyterian church, and christened her with a good bible name. During her fourth year she gave her parents an infallible proof of what their theology called her total depravity. Her older sisters had promised to take her with them to gather strawberries. On a bright day they stole away from her and fastened the doors, leav- ing her in the house. When she found how they had cheated her out of her long-coveted pleasure, she went to her favorite sister's room and brought several nice articles of her wearing apparel, and threw them into the fire. There was a commotion when the sister found what the child had done, but the mother stood between them, as mothers usu- ally do on such occasions, and nothing came of it beyond the storm of the hour. It was long remembered as Han- nah's bold revenge upon her sister for cheating her out of her promised strawberry ramble.
Not long after this her father went to the Genesee val- ley and took up a large tract of land, which he afterwards lost. Of this purchase and loss an older sister writes: " Father bought, or bargained for, a large tract of land from government, which was to be his when it came into market. He built on it and improved it in many ways, spending years of hard labor on it, expecting to give
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Mrs. H. B. Manford.
each child a farm from it. But some land-sharks, know- ing the value of it, undermined him, and it was swept from him, and he had no redress but to leave it, and thus our family was broken up, never more to be united on earth."
Here the heroine of this sketch went, a little girl some five or six years old. She was small of her age, but healthy and vigorous, and a lover of all out-doors. She had always had her freedom, and used it as one born to the enjoyments of the woods and fields. She had a younger brother when she went to this place. Another was soon born ; and in a few years these brothers became her com- panions in 'out-door sports. They were her soldiers; she was their general. The woods, the waters, the sugar-bush and all the fields offered rare opportunities for building, sailing, digging, climbing, in all of which she was master and manager. She used the ax, saw, hatchet or hoe, because she was the oldest and could do it best. In one of these sugar-bush frolics, when she was attempting to split a piece of board, one of the little brothers put his hand in the way of her ax, and a finger was nearly cut off. The men from the sugar-camp and the doctor from the village had to be summoned to repair the painful mishap. The wounded finger grew together, but an ugly scar always told the story of Hannah's careless ax.
Soon after this, and perhaps as a result of it, she over- heard her father say to her mother : "Isn't it about time for you to keep that girl in the house and teach her to knit ?" This freedom, partly joyous and partly useful, was her life, and had given her health, vigor, a planning mind and a dextrous hand. One day it was needful for her mother to go away ; the older girls were absent from home ; who should get the dinner? " I can do it," said Hannah. " A boiled dinner " was to be got, a somewhat
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Biographical Sketch of
intricate dish of various meats and vegetables. She had never prepared a dinner or done much in the house. Her mother gave directions and went away. Now Hannah was mistress of the house-just what she liked. She did not doubt but she could get a dinner as well as make a raft or climb a tree. So about the dinner she went, and in due time she had it ready, when her well-blown horn called the men from the field. One of the older brothers always persisted in saying "it was the best boiled dinner ever cooked in that house."
Near this farm was a village of a remnant of the Ton- ewanta Indians. Mr. Bryant soon became their friend and counselor, their medicine man, lawyer and judge. The Bryant children became familiar with the Indians. Hannah learned to send the arrow from the bow as skill- fully as the little red children ; and the study of their wild ways was a part of her early education.
Thus far she had not been to school, though she had learned to read at home. About this time she was sent to the village of Avon to school for three months. Before leaving home her oldest sister, the oracle of the family, gave the unsophisticated child the following earnest but withering charge: " Hannah, you are going among strang- ers, and you are such a homely little thing you must learn to be very amiable in your ways, and very polite and pleas- ant, in order to make people love you." It was a charge which struck like an arrow into her heart, but which she has never been able to forget, or fail to try to put in prac- tice.
The hopes about the farm and the family home perished in a failure to get a title, or pay for improvements ; and the home had to be broken up. But life here was not lost. The home was happy, christian, profitable, and did
Mrs. H. B. Manford. 40I
its work in the hearts of all the children. Previous to the breaking up of the family, the eldest brother had married and settled near Canandaigua, New York. His wife was a choice woman, who at once conceived an affection for Hannah, and wished to take her to her home; and after due consideration of the matter, at the age of nine, she went to live with her brother ; Mr. Bryant, still craving a great landed estate, went, with the children not yet mar- ried, to the Western Reserve in Ohio.
EDUCATION.
In the home of her brother and his excellent wife, Han- nah found a most cordial welcome. Their minds were soon filled with plans for her education. The neighbor- hood was an excellent one, with a good district school and a church going community. The brother's wife was a fine singer and a great help in the church. There was a baby in the family which became Hannah's delight, and in the care of which she could be useful, which element in her character appeared very early. All these pleasant things made her new home very delightful, and not less profitable, as a part of her education. School opened to her a new life of thought and ambition.
Yet, even in this, her love of freedom would show itself. An instance of this occurred one summer when the school had a very devout teacher who closed her school every day with a long and sometimes dismal prayer. She would have the children put away their books, get ready to start for home, then give themselves to her religious exercise and go home with this on their minds. One day, Hannah and the young girl that sat with her, became restless, and as a low open window by their seats invited their exit, they silently slid out and scud through the grain-field back of
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Biographical Sketch of
the school-house towards their home, leaving the rest, when the prayer should close, to come out the good order- ly way.
There were two schools within her reach ; when one was not in session the other often was; so she received the benefits of both. The spelling schools, exhibitions and dramatic and recitative occasions, very much stimulated her efforts.
This happy process of development lasted some four years ; when this good woman who had been to her friend, mother and sister, all in one, sickened and died, leaving three little daughters, the youngest eleven months old. It was a great blow upon the young girl's heart, and filled her mind with a thousand questions about death and the life beyond. At the funeral of the sister-in-law, Rev. Oliver Ackley, a noted universalist clergyman, officiated. His prayer so comforted her that she ever after felt a strong leaning to his doctrines. She knew her brother was a universalist ; but as his wife was a congregationalist, and they regularly attended orthodox meetings, he said but little about his opinions.
The care of the family in good part now came upon Hannah, until her brother married again. Then there was no longer the home feeling for her in his house ; and she resolved upon being a teacher, which she became when sixteen years of age and alternately taught a district school and attended a select school or ladies' seminary, till she was eighteen.
RELIGIOUS CONVICTION.
While attending the ladies' seminary at Attica, New York, during her eighteenth year, our young student and teacher heard Rev. T. C. Eaton preach a universalist ser- mon which thoroughly aroused her to the truth of univer-
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Mrs. H. B. Manford.
salism, and so wrought upon her that she felt herself not only convinced of that doctrine, but converted to the christian religion. It was a soul-transformation. From that time she defended the universalist interpretation of christianity as the true one. Through all her years since, she has held fast to her faith, and found guidance and consolation during all her trials and sorrows, in its blessed strength.
GOES TO ILLINOIS.
The favorite sister (the one whose clothes she cast into the flames) having married and gone to Michigan, was desirous of having Hannah with her, begged her to come on and go with them to Illinois, where they had concluded to settle. So westward she turned her course, and identified herself very soon with the educational in- terests of the state of her adoption. She began her work in Joliet, as a teacher of a select school. While there she formed the acquaintance of Miss Seraph Warren, who was also a teacher in that place. In sentiment, character and religious opinion they were so one that they desired to work together. They formed a partnership and went to Danville, Vermillion county, and opened a select school, in which they were thoroughly successful. But. after awhile it began to be talked that they were universalists. That was terrible, the people thought ; could it be so? It proved to be as bad as the first rumors. Two universalist ladies were teaching the orthodox children and youth of Danville ! It was a shocking thing, and the talk was furious about it. The first thought with many was to with- draw their children, but the children could see no reason for it, and persisted in loving their teachers and their school. At length the storm began to lull. The more considerate people saw the absurdity of persecuting ladies
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