Reprinted from: W.C. Rogers, RECOLLECTIONS OF MEN OF FAITH (St. Louis: Christian Publishing Company, 1889), in: Levi Purviance, THE BIOGRAPHY OF ELDER DAVID PURVIANCE ... (Dayton: B.F. & G.W. Ells, 1848; reprint. 1940), 231-41.

RECOLLECTIONS OF JOHN ROGERS

JOURNEY TO OHIO. FIRST EFFORTS AT PUBLIC SPEAKING. WORKED AT TRADE WITH D. RADCLIFFE SOME MONTHS. IN THE MEANTIME ATTENDED ALL THE MEETINGS I COULD, AND PRAYED AND EXHORTED AS OPPORTUNITY OFFERED. FIRST TOUR, EMBRACING TWO OR THREE MONTHS, PERFORMED ON FOOT. BECAME ACQUAINTED WITH THE DOOLIES, WORLEY, KYLE, SHIDLER. RETURNED IN AUGUST TO WILMINGTON AND WORKED FOR A SADDLE AND BRIDLE AND GOT ME A HORSE. ATTENDED A CAMP-MEETING NEAR RICHMOND, IND. MET I.P. DURBIN ON HIS FIRST CIRCUIT. ATTENDED CONFERENCE IN SEPTEMBER IN WARREN COUNTY, AND WAS LICENSED TO PREACH. LICENSE. MET JOHN HARDY AT CONFERENCE AND OTHER PREACHERS. INCIDENTS OF THE MEETING AND SUBSEQUENT ITEMS.

1. Late in the winter, or very early in the spring of 1819, we spent the night as alluded to in the previous chapter, and next morning set out, my brother Samuel and I, for his residence in Clinton County, Ohio, some four miles from Wilmington. My old mother gave me her blessing and lent me her horse, and we started on our journey. That night my brother Samuel had an appointment at Kentontown, I think, at the house of the father-in-law of Elder John Powel, who was then just beginning to preach, and who is now dead. There, for the first time in my life, a mere boy, a little over eighteen, I attempted publicly to speak a word in behalf of Christianity. I only distinctly remember that I was very much embarrassed. The next night and again I made another attempt, feeble, of course. After this he had no appointment, I think, till he got home.

2. I went to Wilmington and engaged to work as a journeyman with Mr. Daniel Radcliffe, who was carrying on the cabinet business in the place. I worked for him several months, and in the meantime, attended all the meetings I could, night and day, and exercised my poor gifts, as opportunity offered, in prayer and exhortation, and studying the Scriptures. My employer was skeptical - rather deistical - still he was very much of a gentleman, and a highly honorable //232// man. And it is a pleasure to me, after the lapse of forty-two years (for this April, 1861, forty-two years ago, I was working in his shop), to bear this testimony to his moral worth. He was also a man of good mind and considerable information. He took a fancy to me, and treated me more like a brother or son than a stranger. He called me his preacher. I was very zealous, and having felt the consolations of Christianity myself, I was anxious all others should enjoy them, and especially my employer, who was so kind to me, and for whom I felt so deep an interest. I therefore often tried to get into a conversation with him, in the hope I might remove his difficulties. I was then very ignorant and could not have met the common infidel arguments he could have introduced. Upon one occasion, when I was pressing him for an argument, he addressed me about in these words: "John, I don't want to trouble you with my difficulties. I could introduce arguments you could not answer, but I don't want to do it. I have no doubt you are happier than I am, and I don't want to interfere with your happiness." This was honest and kind. I often think of it and remember my old friend, and deeply regret that he has never become a Christian, so far as I know. I presume he yet lives in Illinois (1861). May he yet become a Christian, and die enjoying its hopes and consolations, and in heaven realize its rewards!

Wilmington at this time (the spring of 1819) was quite a new place; stumps were abundant in the streets. I remember I made a "secretary", as it was called, a piece of furniture like a bureau, with a large drawer above, with small drawers and pigeon-holes inside for papers. The front part of the large upper drawers was hung in such a manner it could be let down. This was the first article of the kind ever made, or perhaps ever seen, in Wilmington. It was made for David Stratton, a Quaker merchant of that place.

3. After having, by a few months' work, furnished myself with the necessary clothing, etc., for a campaign, early in the summer I started with my brother Samuel and others, and spent some two or three months in traveling and attending meetings, principally in the counties of Clinton, Fayette, Greene, Champaign, Clark, Warren, Hamilton, Butler, Preble, Darke, Miami, and Montgomery in Ohio, and Wayne County in Indiana. Indeed, I may say, these counties constituted the principal, if not the exclusive //233// field of my labors until late in the fall. But I chose to divide my labors in Ohio and a small portion of Indiana into two periods, or towns, the first embracing the summer principally, and the last the fall of 1819. The first was performed on foot, and I was dependent on my brethren with whom I traveled to carry my clothing. How I got along in this regard I have wholly forgotten. I know I had no carpet- sack. If they were then in use, I had never seen one to my knowledge. I am sure I owned no saddle-bags. How my clothes were carried, therefore, on this my first missionary tour, my memory is utterly at fault. So it was I got along very well, and was very happy and had no regrets then, nor have I now, that I was not better off. Perhaps I am better off today, after the lapse of more than forty years, in many respects, than I would be had I been well off then. Prosperity is more dangerous to progress - true progress - progress in all that elevates and blesses society here, and prepares for the perfection of bliss hereafter, than adversity.

4. During this tour I became acquainted with a number of preachers, among whom the following names come up: The venerable, the pious, the earnest, the laborious, and self-sacrificing and able Elder Reuben Dooley. He died in 1822. He had been a preacher for more than twenty years, and perhaps shortened his days by his excessive labors. He was a most powerful and successful preacher, and died in the triumphs of the faith. His talents were of the exhortatory kind. His mind was pre-eminently practical. His preaching was always exhortatory and practical. He had no taste for human theories in Christianity. No patience with cold-hearted speculatists, who showed more interest in their unprofitable speculations than they did in "judgment, mercy and the love of God." He loved warm-hearted, whole-souled, practical Christians. He could not, therefore, be induced to turn aside from his great work of turning men from darkness to light - from the power of Satan to God - to discuss questions which gender strife and eat out the heart of piety. As an evidence of his feelings in this direction and of the practical characters of his mind, we relate the following anecdote: After preaching, one day, with great fervency and power, as was his wont, and while his thoughts and his heart were full of the great themes of the salvation or eternal damnation of our race, a gentleman present //234// introduced the subject of the eternal salvation of the brute creation, and by the pertinacity with which he sought to lead Bro. Dooley into a controversy on the subject greatly annoyed him. He saw at a glance there could be no utility in such a controversy, and therefore in a very decided tone put an end to it after this fashion. Said he: "If you can convince that cat which lies before us that it will be made immortal, you may do it a signal service; but for myself I have no interest in the question whatever, and not the slightest disposition to agitate it." Thus should all such questions be treated.

I also became acquainted with Moses and Thomas Dooley, one the father and the other the brother of Reuben. They were exhorters, but not regular preachers, though they traveled considerably. Moses Dooley died a short time before his son Reuben. Thomas Dooley I remember as one of the sweetest singers of Israel I ever heard. He had a clear, soft, sweet and most melodious voice. I shall never forget, while memory lives, the deep impression his singing made upon me; there was so much of heaven and complacency in his eye and beaming forth from his countenance. He threw his whole soul into his song. While I write of him, he stands before me in imagination, as he did in reality some forty-two years ago, the embodiment of Christian meekness, gentleness, patience, hope and love. I seem to be looking upon that beautiful, peculiarly soft, placid, heavenly- beaming countenance, as it shone upon me while he sang - as only he could sing - that most beautiful lyric of Dr. Watts', entitled, "Happy Frailty." I remember the tune yet, and many of the words. The first verse runs thus:

The whole song is in Dr. Watts' best style, full of pathos, of the most soul-stirring thoughts. And although it is more than forty years since I heard it sung, yet sung then to the beautiful tune in the inimitable style of Bro. Thomas Dooley, the impression seems as fresh and vivid as if it //235// were yesterday. I was captivated, charmed, entranced. The Dooleys lived in Preble County, Ohio, not far from Eaton. I spent some little time in their neighborhood, exercising my gifts as opportunity offered. During this trip I also became acquainted with Elder Nathan Worley, who lived near Dayton. I spent some time with him and his very agreeable family. He was a man of superior native talents, and well read in the Scriptures. He, as well as Dooley, at an early period in this century, took his stand with Stone upon the Bible as the only rule of faith and manners. He was a real Boanerges - a man of fine gifts as a speaker and excellent Christian character. He died in 1847. He continued in connection with that portion of the Christian church which did not go into the Union in 1832, when the friends of Stone and Campbell in Kentucky and elsewhere formed a Union which has never been severed, and I hope never will be, and which has accomplished an amount of good which cannot be computed. The importance of that Union has never been appreciated, and perhaps cannot be yet. It will be hereafter, when we who were the actors in it shall have passed away. It was and is such a Union as the world never witnessed before, nor since. It stands alone in the history of the church. Nathan Worley treated me like a father, and I can never forget his kindness and that of his family. He took me by the hand and encouraged me. I was naturally very timid and always lacked confidence in myself. Was very much given to despondency and to fear that I never could be a preacher capable of accomplishing anything. I therefore needed encouragement, and found it in the pioneers of those times.

On this trip, too, I formed the acquaintance of the good, the gentle, the amiable, excellent and sensible Elder Samuel Kyle, of Miami County, Ohio. I stayed in his neighborhood and made his house my home a short time. I shall never forget his kindness and encouragements. He died in 1836. Though a good man, he never went into the Union of which I have spoken. I traveled considerably with Brethren Worley and Kyle, and would speak and pray as I was encouraged and found opportunity. In the meantime I formed the acquaintance of a young brother, Watson Clarke, who was a few years older than I, and had been preaching a short time upon a sort of circuit. I traveled with him some time, but I cannot say whether it was upon my first //236// or second tour. I think it was upon my fall tour, as I think we went together to conference in September, 1819.

5. As I kept no journal of my travels this year, I am liable to slight mistakes as to the chronological order of events. But this is of little importance.

After spending some months in traveling on foot, some friends proposed helping me buy a horse. They raised some fifteen or sixteen dollars, and with fifty dollars I had still coming to me in Kentucky from my father's estate, I made an arrangement to buy a horse. But I had no saddle. I therefore resolved to return to Wilmington on foot and work for my former employer and get me a saddle and bridle. I cannot recollect definitely from what point I started, but I remember distinctly it took me at least two days to make the trip. I can never forget an incident on that trip. The first night brought me to Yellow Springs, the seat of what is now "Antioch College," of which Horace Mann was the first president. There was a tavern at the Springs at that time, but who kept it I have forgotten. I stayed all night at that tavern. This was in August, 1819. I was then in my nineteenth year. I was used to praying before I went to bed, and young and bashful as I was I asked the privilege of reading the Bible and praying with the family. It was granted, and I read a chapter and prayed and retired to bed. Next morning I resumed my journey to Wilmington. My old employer gave me work and I soon had a saddle and bridle and horse. An old brother near Lebanon gave me an old pair of saddle-bags that looked like they might have been in the Revolutionary War. I accepted them gratefully, and felt that I was now well equipped.

6. During the summer, or early in the fall of this year (1819), I attended a camp-meeting in the woods on a beautiful bottom on White Water, not far from Richmond, Wayne County, Ind. Richmond was then in the woods, having very few houses. The whole country round about was new and very heavily timbered. I can never forget that meeting. A considerable number of preachers was present, among whom I distinctly remember George Shidler, and I think Nathan Worley. The meeting was continued for several days and nights. The people seemed very unfeeling and at times behaved very badly. No good impression was visible until Monday, the last day of the meeting. The //237// carelessness of the people, and especially the young, took a deep hold upon my heart. On Monday morning, before the public services commenced at the stand, I retired into the woods and poured out my soul in fervent prayer to God in behalf of his people and for the sinners assembling and assembled there. I returned to the stand, under the influence of deep concern for sinners. Some one preached, and the meeting was about to be dismissed. With feelings unutterable, I arose and spoke a short time with deep emotions and tearful eyes (for my heart was full to overflowing). The effect was wonderful. The preacher and the Christians generally were bathed in tears, and sinners were cut to the heart. I was a beardless boy, not nineteen years old. Doubtless my youthful appearance and deep feeling combined with what I said to produce so great an effect. I came down from the stand, and in harmony with the custom of the times, invited mourners. I never witnessed such a scene. They crowded around me, bathed in tears, and fell upon their knees before God in the dust. I presume not less than fifty came forward and thus prostrated themselves in prayer. I shall never forget the exhortation Bro. Shidler gave me. He embraced me in his arms, exhorted me to be humble and faithful, and study the Word of God, and preach Christ and him crucified. Prayed that I might live long to do good to build up the cause of Christ in the earth.

He was then in he prime of his manhood - a large and noble looking man. He had been a preacher some ten years. He had a fine person, and excellent voice, and was a good, practical, pathetic and successful preacher - a man of unblemished character. He died in Preble County, where he had lived near a quarter of a century, at the age of fifty-two years, greatly lamented.

An anecdote is told of Bro. Shidler, which ought to be preserved because of the excellent moral it teaches. He was a very modest man - had very humble conceptions of his own abilities. His education was poor, and when in 1810 he was set apart to the work of the ministry he felt that he was very poorly furnished for so great an undertaking. He was, however, able to teach his neighbors, and was being very successful in building up the cause. Connected with the Christian church of that time was Elder William Kincade. He entered with great spirit and ability into the reformatory //238// movement in the beginning of this century with Stone and his compeers. He was a self-made man, of fine native talents, considerable learning, and mighty in the Scriptures - a living, walking concordance, and withal somewhat eccentric. About the time Bro. Shidler commenced preaching, Bro. Kincade preached in his neighborhood. Everybody went to hear the great man - Bro. Shidler among the rest. He had never heard such preaching. It seemed to him he knew the Bible by heart - he knew everything and he himself knew nothing. He went home, measuring himself by Kincade, and therefore overwhelmed with a sense of his ignorance and utter unfitness for the work of preaching. He said to himself, "If I could preach like Kincade, I might preach; but ignorant as I am I had better quit it." For near a week he was miserable, under the temptation to quit the ministry, because he could not preach like Kincade. He mourned, and wept, and prayed before the Lord, and at last was delivered from his trouble thus. Said he: "Every man can't be a great preacher - every man can't preach like Kincade - some preacher in the world must be the least of all the preachers, and if it pleases God that George Shidler should be the man, be it so. God helping me, therefore, I will try to occupy my one talent till the Master comes." From this time forward he was happy in doing what he could in the vineyard of the Lord.

What became of the penitents we left weeping on the banks of White Waters? The great mass of them, doubtless, are in their graves. How many have been saved of those who near forty-two years ago were then inquiring, "What must we do?" How many of them yet live, and where are they, and what are they doing? We ask these questions with interest, but no human being can answer them. Had we been able to say to those penitents who inquired, "What must we do?" in the language of Peter, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins," they might have been delivered forthwith. But our minds were blinded to the simple truth on that subject, and God requires of us according to what we have and not according to what we have not. It is to be feared, however, that in these days many shut their eyes to the truth. To do this is to take a terrible responsibility. To tamper with our convictions, our consciences, is the high road to strong and damning delusions. But thank God we //239// are not the judges in such cases. The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and the Judge of all the earth will do right.

7. In the summer, or most likely in the fall of this year, not far from Richmond, Wayne County, Ind., I met plain John P. Durbin, I think upon his first circuit, a mere boy like myself. I presume he was not much if any more than nineteen years old at that time (1819). I attended his meeting and heard him preach. I don't know that I have heard him since. We were fellow craftsmen. Both of us served a time to the cabinet business in Bourbon County, Ky., he with William Scott, of Paris, and I with the Messrs. Batterton, in Millersburg. He was then as poorly educated, perhaps as myself. We dined together, and he showed me an English grammar he was carrying in his pocket and studying. He was a very aspiring youth. He spoke in raptures of the great lights of Methodism, especially of Dr. A. Clarke, and seemed to have him before his mind as a model. He spoke of the great number of languages, and the great amount of learning he had acquired by his own industry, and seemed resolved to imitate his example. The Methodists, seeing he had talents and was anxious to cultivate them, gave him facilities for acquiring learning, which he has very successfully improved. He is now a D.D., and stands up among the very first men in that denomination as a writer, an orator, and a literary man. I have not seen him for more than thirty years.

8. In the meantime, the conference of the Christian church for that part of Ohio came on in Warren County, in the neighborhood of Elder Isaac Death's. It was held in the close of September of that year. The following names I remember: Elders David Purviance, David Wallace, John Hardy, Richard Simonton, Samuel Kyle, Isaac Death, and many others whose names I do not remember. The meeting was held chiefly at a stand in the woods. A rude stand was made, some three or four feet high, with a puncheon or slab floor, some ten feet long and five or six feet wide, with a board in front on which to put a book, and behind which the preacher stood. There were three or four rows of seats, with two or more aisles between them leading down towards the stand. For lights we had scaffolds erected all round the seats - some half dozen of them. They were set up on forks, //240// some five feet high and as many square, with a bottom of timber thoroughly covered with dirt. Fires were then built in the middle of these scaffolds of dry wood, and thus a good light was afforded to the whole congregation. The stand was furnished with candles. I highly enjoyed the meeting. It was a great pleasure to me to hear the other men, and leaders in the worship, sing and pray, and preach the Word, and also to sit at their feet in the private circle and hear them converse about the things of God - the interests of the cause in which we were engaged. On Sunday night Bro. Watson Clarke and I were appointed to deliver our trial speeches before the conference and the large audience present. Bro. Clarke was to be the preacher and I the exhorter. It was a great trial to me to speak upon any occasion, but doubly so to speak before such an assembly of preachers, several of them men of age, ability and learning. Bro. Clarke preached without, as I thought, much embarrassment. I sat behind him trembling with fear. He closed, and with my heart fluttering with agitation I arose and commenced my exhortation. Very few present had ever heard me. I have no recollection of what I said, as I had nothing specially prepared. I was young, beardless, ignorant, but my heart was full of the great theme of redemption. So it was, I had not spoken long till the whole camp was ablaze of feeling. The first thing I knew David Purviance and David Wallace were dancing behind me in the stand, shouting at the top of their voices. And in a few minutes the entire area before the stand was filled with men and women dancing and shouting. The result was I was silenced and gave place to the preachers and people to carry on the meeting as seemed good to them. I had not attempted to preach, but I received license at that conference to exercise my talents in "such way as God may direct." Does any say, "This was all very disgusting and there could have been no piety there?" This is very hasty and ill-judged. The times and views of the people then were very different from what they are now. We have more light on some important practical subjects than they had, but I doubt if we have as much piety or spirituality. If they were upon the extreme of enthusiasm, we are on the extreme of cold formality. Below you have a copy of my original license to exercise my talents as a preacher or exhorter:

9. At this conference I made the acquaintance of Elder John Hardy, and went with him from the conference to a meeting to be held, embracing the first Lord's day of October, 1819, at Burlington, in Hamilton County, Ohio. He was the regular preacher at that point and as he died on the 25th of October, it is most likely this was the last meeting he ever attended. The meeting at Burlington was protracted for several days, and was a very interesting one. I was with him some ten or twelve days at the two meetings. I never saw him after we parted. I heard him preach several times at the conference and at the Burlington meeting. He was in the prime of his manhood, not quite forty years old. He was a man of very superior natural gifts, and, considering his opportunities, had made great improvement. He had a fine personal appearance, an excellent voice, a logical mind and smooth, engaging manners in and out of the pulpit. I was greatly pleased with him, and think he was one of the best and most promising preachers among us at that time. But he died a few weeks after we parted, of fever, greatly lamented and greatly missed by the church he served so faithfully and acceptably. From this meeting at Burlington, I think I went to Preble County. I may have gone with Bro. Hardy, as he lived and died near Eaton. I spent some time with Father David Purviance, who lived on White Water, in Preble County. I attended several meetings with him, and was greatly pleased and edified with his conversation. He purposed during the fall to visit Kentucky and see his old friends. I resolved to accompany him, and if possible to spend the winter of 1819 and 1820 at the school Father Stone was teaching in Georgetown, Ky.

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