BETHANY COLLEGE, in the fall of 1865, was climbing out of a valley of small enrollments which had almost, but not quite, closed her doors during the war years. She rebounded to normalcy with great rapidity. In the twenty-fifth year of her life, this institution now proudly boasted the following representation of her alumni in the professions: fifteen physicians, thirty-four teachers, thirty-five lawyers, forty-seven farmers and planters, and 108 ministers.¹

      In July of this year Robert Richardson was again elected to the Board of Trustees, and in the fall he resumed his teaching as professor of natural philosophy, chemistry, and natural history. Alexander Campbell was still president, but he had been inactive for several years; throughout most of the war he was mercifully oblivious to the ordeal of his country. Richardson's colleagues at this time were W. K. Pendleton, vice-president and professor of mental, moral, and political philosophy; Charles Louis Loos, professor of ancient languages and literature; and B. W. Johnson, professor of mathematics and astronomy.

      Pendleton, who was now not only acting president of the college but also editor of the Millennial Harbinger, used this organ to announce the doctor's return:

      We congratulate the friends of the College on the return of Dr. R. Richardson to the Faculty. He was one of the first Faculty ever formed in Bethany College, and has been engaged [214] as a teacher for a quarter of a century. He has won and justly deserves a place of highest distinction among us as an educator, and is especially eminent in the Department which is now committed to him in Bethany College.²

      Richardson's salary during this first year was $1,000, while those of Johnson, Loos, and Pendleton were $1,500, $2,000, and $2,500 respectively. The following year he was advanced to $1,500 and given additional responsibility as curator of the museum. Significantly, he was "excused from living in town."

      In March, 1866, Alexander Campbell brought his earthly pilgrimage to a close. His last public appearance was before the Bethany church on February 11. He had entered the pulpit intending to preach. Noting the feebleness of his voice when he attempted to read the opening hymn, Pendleton dissuaded him from trying to continue, whereupon Richardson took charge. The doctor's sermon that day was on the third chapter of 2 Peter. He dwelt upon the divine promise of "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Mr. Campbell gave close and rapt attention. Later the venerable patriarch assisted at the Communion and in the ordination of two additional elders in the Bethany church.³

      Thereafter, Campbell was confined to his home. He sank rapidly. Dr. Richardson, as family physician, attended him in this illness, reporting somewhat clinically, "He had some cough, some oppression and slight, irregular pains in the chest, a frequent and feverish pulse." Now and then he engaged his old companion in conversation about the cause that lay upon the heart of both. One [215] of the last of these conversations concerned a proposed meeting of Baptists and Disciples in Richmond, Virginia, to discuss the possibilities of uniting the two bodies. This news pleased Campbell. "There was never any sufficient reason," said he, "for a separation between us and the Baptists. We ought to have remained one people, and to have labored together to restore the primitive faith and practice."⁴

      Campbell lingered on the threshold of death. Richardson, as his attending physician, reported: "At times a brightening gleam of renewed intellectual power. Again a wandering--he was away from home--anxious to be home; often asking those around him when they would start for home; yet gently acquiescing in the reply of 'presently.'"⁵

      This continued until fifteen minutes before twelve o'clock on March 4, 1866, when the venerable Reformer parted the veil of flesh and passed silently into the Great Beyond.

      Now came crowds pouring into Bethany from all parts of the country. They paid their tribute at a funeral marked by austere simplicity. At the services the congregation sang a hymn commencing, "We've no continuing city here," Professor Charles Louis Loos offered a prayer, and Dr. Richardson delivered the sermon.⁶ Toward the middle of the funeral oration, he said:

      And now he sleeps. No more shall we behold that intelligent countenance, beaming with a smile of kindly recognition. No more shall we hear that beloved voice in courteous greeting, or in lofty discourse upon themes of eternal interest. No more shall we clasp his friendly hand in love and fellowship. No more shall we see that commanding and venerable form. He sleeps.⁷ [216]

      Richardson was conscious of speaking at the funeral of a great man as he said: "His public character is known to the wide world. His name is known--his influence has been felt in the most distant land's in which our vernacular is spoken." The giant oak in whose shadow Robert Richardson had lived for thirty-five years was fallen, and the empty sky was lonesome.

      Robert Richardson went on to complete his contract at the college, teaching in the sessions and serving on the committees through the remainder of that term and still another; he also engaged to lecture for two months in 1867 in Bethany's new free course for ministers in the Biblical Institute. But he had now one passion, which cast his teaching into the shadow. That was to write the life of Alexander Campbell.

      Thirty years earlier, in the "confidence and unreserve of friendship," he had told Alexander Campbell his secret ambition to write the story of his life; Campbell had been pleased, and had given his consent.⁸

      The month of March, 1866, was not spent until the second Mrs. Alexander Campbell and four of her children made their formal request that Dr. Richardson should undertake such a biography:⁹

BETHANY, March 30, 1866.

DR. R. RICHARDSON:

      Dear Brother in Christ:

      A number of communications have been addressed to me on the subject of the memoirs of my lamented husband, conveying an earnest desire for their early appearance.

      Desiring, on my own part, as well as that of my family, that this trust should be confided to one held in warm Christian [217] sympathy and high personal esteem, such as I feel assured he ever felt for you during many years of intimate acquaintance and fellowship, the confident hope is entertained that you will comply with our heart-wishes in this respect. . . .

      I remain, dear brother, your sister in the blessed hope of eternal life,

SELINA H. CAMPBELL.

      In the above request the undersigned earnestly concur.

A. CAMPBELL, Junior, VIRGINIA C. THOMPSON, DECIMA C. BARCLAY, W. P. CAMPBELL.

      The April issue of the Millennial Harbinger carried Richardson's announcement of his intention to write the life of Campbell and his request for letters and other biographical sources: "In pursuance of a long-cherished purpose, and in accordance with the wishes of Brother Campbell's family as well as of many esteemed brethren and friends, I design to complete, the Lord willing, as soon as practicable, a memoir of this eminent servant of God."¹⁰

      From his study at Bethphage the doctor began at once to issue an enormous correspondence to his friends all over the nation whose letters and diaries might help him. Into his hands came bundles of papers from Mrs. Campbell, and there were almost countless volumes of magazines, thirty-six of the Millennial Harbinger alone, to be consulted.

      Richardson was now exactly sixty years old and in good health, except for his eyes. These, weakened by his long [218] aggravation of "amaurosis," were totally unequal to the task. Being unable to see for himself, he pressed the members of his family into service to read and write for him. His daughter Emma was nominated "amanuensis," and her father later remarked that her "patient services as reader and amanuensis" had "robbed her girlhood of many sportive hours."¹¹

      In addition to work in his study, Richardson, while still riding to and from Bethany to meet his classes, made jottings in his notebook, outlining chapters, recording remembered incidents, making assessments of character. Many of these were later thought too intimate to be admitted to the volume. Here, for instance, is a candid view of Alexander Campbell's driving purpose:

      First in importance in the estimation of Alexander Campbell was the Reformation, the cause of Primitive Christianity. For this he was ready to sacrifice his family, fortune, and even life. To this he had devoted all. For this he left home and at this he labored always. Next, were the spiritual and temporal interest of his own family. Next, his property--to care for it--to augment it in subordination to the two first points. Next, regard for personal friends--would not sacrifice property for them, but would aid them whenever it could be done with security to property--lend on interest--with security, and uneasy if not secured. Displeased if in any case a loser and apt to remember and dwell upon the loss. Next--welfare of the country of which he was a citizen.¹²

      Another intimate insight, not for the book: "Mrs. C's excessive and absurd watch over his personal movements. Its effect in weakening his memory of places etc. Fully proved that he did and could transact business up to summer of 1855." [219]

      Another entry commented upon the general practice among all Bethany people of calling Campbell "the Bishop":

      A. C. regarded as Bishop of Wellsburg and Bethany. . . . An inquiry being started, and A. C. expostulated with, he said it was not with his concurrence or wish and that in fact he could not discharge the duties of Bishop in either church. He therefore in the M. H. disavowed the wish of being so regarded or addressed. . . . There being several persons at Bethany of the name Campbell, the people have come to style A. C. "the bishop," partly by way of distinction--but partly in sport (at least at first). It has now come to be his common designation . . . The students carry this abroad so that it is gradually becoming his designation everywhere.

      As a literary man, Richardson entered a note on Campbell's style: "His first efforts somewhat stiff . . . but the style here modified by the assumption of character--but the structure of sentences and use of words excellent and according to good English usage. He was always opposed to barbarism--preferred simple expressions. After the College was established fell into bad habit of using technical terms and high sounding words."

      The writing of this biography required three years. Emma, later Mrs. G. L. Wharton, missionary to India, shows us the busy scene in the study:

      He went into it with a keen enjoyment and his interest never flagged during the three years which it took to complete the great work. He would go up to his little study immediately after breakfast every morning and I with him. He would seat himself in the plain, straight chair he always occupied, and I at the [220] desk, when the work of dictation and inscribing began, to be continued uninterruptedly, except for the dinner hour, until three or four o'clock in the afternoon when he would say to me, "Now run away and play," and he would saddle his horse and ride away to Bethany for the Mail or on other business.

      Emma, born September 2, 1852, was in her middle teens when these responsibilities began. She carried this position for the next ten years.

      It was always a marvel to me with what facility he wrote or dictated. Just as fast as I could write, the words came from his mouth, and there was seldom a correction or rewriting of a word or sentence, or hesitation of any kind, though occasionally he would have me stop and consult the Dictionary for a word of which he was not quite certain. However, this was seldom. In this way, also, he dictated to me all his letters, the "Communings in the Sanctuary" and "Office of the Holy Spirit" besides his numerous articles for periodicals.¹³

      Finally, when the first draft of the manuscript for Volume I was completed in December, 1867,¹⁴ Mr. William Uhlrich copied the whole of it and prepared it for the printers. Of this experience he later wrote:

      I would like to see the old Dr. Richardson place up on the hill, about two miles out. I spent about six weeks at his place when he was writing the life of Alexander Campbell. His eyes were poor and most of it was written by his daughter at his dictation, on all kinds of paper and on both sides. I had to re-write all of it on one side of the page and leave a margin for notes. This was all done with pen and ink, mostly quill pen. Then I had to read it all over to the doctor from beginning to end to see that the spelling and punctuation were correct. It was quite an experience for me.¹⁵ [221]

      The book was brought out by J. B. Lippincott and Company, Philadelphia. Written in a clear, Addisonian prose, well printed and nicely bound, these two volumes totaled nearly 1,300 pages and made a most impressive work.

      The first volume appeared in the summer of 1868. Isaac Errett, having just completed a review of it for his new magazine, the Christian Standard, wrote his friend from Cleveland on June 22, 1868:

      I have just finished a review of your Memoirs for next week's paper. Allow me to congratulate you on your success in producing a much needed volume, which will go far to correct wrong tendencies, and to call us back to the first principles of this movement. It is admirably and faithfully done . . . I pray for you that you may be just and faithful in your second volume. Mr. C. had nothing to fear in your hands; but where he was wrong, and his errors, injurious, as in the matter of hireling preachers, let it come out. I hope too, that his constant sympathy with Protestantism and his infinite superiority to our close communion advocates, in his recognition of the piety and spiritual worth of Pedobaptists, will, in a quiet way, be made to appear. Pardon these suggestions. I only meant to congratulate you and thank you for your elegant volume.¹⁶

      When the second volume came out, near the close of 1869, Isaac Errett voiced the nearly universal pleasure in the completed work, to which Richardson replied:

BETHPHAGE, Dec. 24, 1869.

DEAR BRO. ERRETT:

      I have just received your very kind letter of 18th inst. and am happy to find that you are pleased with the 2nd vol. of Bro. C's Memoirs. . . . [222]

      I have thought, with you, that some dissatisfaction might arise in regard to the brief notices given of Bro. C's co-laborers . . . As to Fanning, I would have omitted his name entirely from the volume, only that he was Bro. C's traveling companion on 2 occasions, and I thought such an omission might lead some to think I cherished animosity against the poor man for his former slanderous abuse of me. It was in mercy to him that I . . . simply stated all that was to his credit. . . .

      The name of B. F. '[Benjamin Franklin] does not occur in the volume because there was no link connecting him with Bro. C.--no private letters--no notice in the Harbinger--no cooperation in personal labors. . . . Want of space forbade me to do more. As it was I had to leave out nearly 200 pages of interesting matter and with all my condensing, make the book much larger than the first at great expense. . . .

      The two-volume work sold at $3.50, with a 40-cent charge for postage.¹⁷ In 1871 a new edition, presenting the two volumes in one cover, was brought out. Richardson's arrangements with the publishers were not those of a shrewd businessman. He was left to bear the expense of publication himself. The Campbell heirs did not offer to help. The sale of the book did not match the cost, and the doctor was never able to clear himself of the debt which this service to the Disciples incurred. Constituted as he was, this last debt weighed heavily upon him during his declining years.

      While Dr. Richardson was writing the Memoirs, he was also the recipient of numerous demands from many parts of the nation. On July 21, 1868, he received an appeal from J. Hartzel, of Davenport, Iowa, asking him to use his pen against a trend toward abuse of authority [223] by elders in local congregations. Then in March 27, 1869, Robert Graham solicited articles for the Apostolic Times; and the same year, Isaac Errett wanted Robert Richardson's assistance as contributing editor to the Christian Standard.

      Acceding to these requests, the doctor sat in his Bethphage study, pouring forth words to strengthen and sustain the same cause who chief advocate now slept beneath the pines of the Campbell cemetery on the hill opposite the mansion. [224]

[HTB 214-224]