Life and Letters of Rev. Aratus Kent Introduction

I think it would surprise the more stable communities at the East tp know how many Elders and Deacons and leading men have deserted the post of duty and left their families to go on a pilgrimage to the Pacific. They left indeed with a promise to return soon, but some have died on their way, some while they sojourned in the dark land and not as few on their way back. While other men have a ??? and Demas-like have made shipwreck of faith and good conscience.

The failure of the wheat crop for 3 years is the most common ground of complaint. But the incessant excitement of the Ultra abolitionists is exerting a pernicious influence to cripple the churches. If it had no other effect but to transfer their contributions to some other benevolent association, we should not complain but there is reason to believe that very many take occasion from it to withhold their pecuniary aid from the church in whatever way it is solicited.

It should not be omitted in the enumeration of causes of the weakness of churches that we greatly need men who are qualified for the exploring service. We have men enough but they cannot adapt themselves to the work.

They are goliahs encased in burnished armour and perfectly irresistible if you will allow them to choose their field and have their own way of fighting. But they have their vulnerable points and some tripping without learning but with a good share of the shrewdness and versatility of western life by a short and a bold stroke will in the estimation of his fellows disarm and defeat them.

We need then for the exploring service men possessing the power of adaptation, which can never be learned in the schools and can only be secured by much experience in mingling with western society. And I am becoming more impressed with the necessity of training men at the west for western service. We must not only have Theological Seminaries here but they must be conducted after a new model.

But while I speak of trails and discouragements, I am happy to be able to report progress. The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation and the parable of the heaven hidden in 3 measures of meal illustrates but sure progress of the mission churches. When we compare the present with the past we perceive the cause advances.

Our churches are increasing in numbers & strength and a good spirit is prevalent among very many of them and in quite a goodly number there is gratifying evidence that God is pouring out his spirit for the conversion of sinners.

Two of your missionaries have been installed as pastors and 6 houses of worship have been erected during the year. The Sunday School cause is advancing. Increased intent is felt in building good school houses and obtaining well qualified teachers. A new zeal is awakened on the subject of temperance by the excitement in Maine and the circulation of Bibles and tracts being diligently promoted and all their collateral influence are receiving the steady cooperation of your ministers.

May God grant us that during the ensuing year we may see greater things than these.

Yours in the bonds of the Gospel,

A. Kent

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I have written to the Committee that I shall recommend theat they receive 200 when they shall raise the smae amount and also enclose my letters that you may see my views and their response.

Port Byron, April 15.

A. Kent

Elizabeth, April 19/52

Rev. Dr. Badger

Dear Br.,

To exculpate myself from the charge of neglecting Dr. Hall’s 2 letters concerning Mrs. Hopkins’ land, I must be allowed to say that I cannot think I received the first letter and as to the second, I supposed I had given my consent to having the deed made out in my name and then instead of filing it away with others. I put it up in my room where I should see it, and there is remained for many months, waiting further correspondence. I have conversed with Mr. Osborn on the subject and understand the matter is disposed of.

I am on my way home from a tour of 3 weeks which had proved one of the severest I have experienced in consequence of storms of snow and rain which have rendered this month and the previous one famous, and have rendered the roads almost impassible. Indeed, it is not a whit behind the difficulties of last year. I shall not trouble you with the particular adventures, but the history of each day would be little less than a volume of “incidents of travel.”

I have spent 2 Sabbaths with 2 destitute churches, Como & Gap Grove, and 2 Sabbaths in settlements where churches might be organized and if we had a supply for them.

I called on Brs. Hill and Thompson on my way up the Miss. but they were both absent.

There are some 9 little churches and 3 other missionary fields west of R. River that are destitute of preaching, viz 3 in Jo Daviess, 3 in Carrol, 1 in Stephenson, 1 in Ogle, 2 in Lee, 2 in Whiteside and 1 in Rock Island and 2 or 3 in Mercer. Most of these are of considerable importance and calling constantly for help and several blaming me for not sending it.

Then there are Dixon and Peru and Lockport and Henry in Marshall Co. which are suffering for want of ministers and to this may be added Dundee on Fox River (which is able to raise a full support) and Momence in Will Co. Besides these 20 (and I am surprised to find the number) there are many smaller and less important fields. But this northern section of the state is fast increasing and the probability is that at least 1/2 dozen more villages will spring up and call for aid along our numerous railways within a few years. We may calculate with confidence that 3 or 4 of these projected roads will be completed with 2 years, and, it seems to me but a moderate estimate that we shall greatly need 20 efficient men to be introduced into that field of my supervision before the close of 1853. Can nothing be done for us? What shall I reply to their entreaties?

Yours Affectionately,

A. Kent

Please send the Home Missionary to Dr. Donaldson, Como, Ill. and to Joel H. Morse, Elizabeth, Ill. and charge the same to me.

Mr. Morse ordered the paper 6 weeks since and it has not come. It is possible that I have not forwarded his name:please inquire.

Galena April 20, 1852

Providence has changed the aspect of things very materially at Mt. Carrol and glorious work of Grace has been enjoyed there in which I think Br. G. had laboured faithfully and managed judiciously in trying circumstances.

I was quite discouraged about his labours there but he seems to have pulled off his coat and thrown off secular business and has done well at Carrol, I have no hesitation in recommending that he have 200 for this year to be commissioned for Carrol County. In the mean time I have urged him to supply Buffalo Grove for the present as he has great influence there. Our Presbytery has recommended to Br. Holt to go to Buffalo Grove and Dixon, but it is quite doubtful whether he would be acceptable and besides he is expecting a call from Montrose.

Yours affectionately,

A. Kent

________

In reference to Br. Reynolds, I am surprised at the statement of Br. Brown “That he has been commissioned for Wisconsin” or else where for I have long regarded him as unfitted for usefulness in the ministry. He has nothing about him to command respect and it was doubtless owing to that fact that an evil report was gotten up against him at Marengo and although acquitted by the Fox River Union, yet I presume none of those brethren would wish him to come again into their bounds to preach. But in addition to that there was a general impression on my mind perhaps as well expressed in the letter as I could do it by the phrase “not only dishonorable but dishonest.”

Before he is commissioned again then I would recommend an investigation.

A. Kent

A. Kent

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Little Rock, Aug. 4

I have made inquiries and after balancing conflicting views, I have concluded to recommend the appropriation of $200 for one year beginning with June 1. And I think if you were on the ground that your judgement would coincide.

I have recommended him to visit and distribute tracts extensively and preach once a Sabbath in some settlement near by and 3 months before his year closes if they conclude to make a change to have a definite understanding to that effect. The reasons in detail would be too long.

A. Kent

P.S. Mr Morris is preaching at Jerico and they have applied to the Free missionary Society.

[Church Otter Creek, Il. apply for $100 aid in support of Rev. James Hodges 12 mo. from July 1, 1852 to preach 1/2 the time. P.O. Howard, Winnebago Co.]

This application has been delayed to obtain information. I recommend that the church receive 100 dollars with the understanding that he spend half his Sabbaths on their side of the Pecatonica and hold meetings at 2 other points.

There is a wild field for missionary effort in that region.

A. Kent

I regard it as a quite important arrangement that Br. Johnson should take charge of Lysander Church.

The Pres. Ch. Chemung, Ill. apply for $200 renewed aid in support of Rev. Seth Smalley 12 mo. from April 1, 1852. rec’d. by Rev. A Esty & S.A. Hart. remarks of Rev. A. Kent. P.O. Chemung, McHenry Co., Ill.]

My mind has been burdened with this case a good while and when this application came I enclosed it to Br. hart and told him it was his duty by exchange or otherwise to ascertain what are the facts in the case. You have his reply.

I recommend the aid be granted accompanied with a somewhat a somewhat pathetic exhortation to the diligent performance of pastoral duties, prefaced if you choose with the agent’s apprehension that he fails there and suggesting that he would gratify you to have him report the number of pastoral visits quarterly until he has explored that destitute region.

The endorsement of Brs. Eddy & Hart each shows pretty clearly that you need other information than that of co-presbyters.

A. Kent

Rockford, August 2, 1852

Rev. Dr. Badger

Dear Br.,

I feel greatly relieved this morning by getting this communication which informs me that 2 little churches are supplied.

Yesterday I preached twice for Br. Porter and took up a collection and rode over to Westfield and preached at 6 for Br. Hodges and has there a congregation of (say 90) and retired before 9.

Please charge me as collections

At the Cong. Ch. of East Rockford $10.00

at the Cong. Ch of West Rockford $97.42

$115.42

Yours truly,

A. Kent

Br. Esbjorn has lost 2 horses and wrote me such a moving letter that the 2nd Ch of Galena raised $15 and invited him to ask for more if necessary and in another letter just received and thanking them and asking more he said his wife had just died leaving an infant and 4 others. Truly he is afflicted.

Crete, Will Co. Aug. 9, 1852

Rev. Dr. Badger

It gave me pleasure when I called today on Rev. Mr. R. to learn that when he preaches at H. Creek he usually spends Monday in visiting: more pleasure than to have enjoyed his company at home. My observation since I have been here acting as agent leads me to apprehend that some of my Brethren do not employ that amount of time, and to their remissness in pastoral visits I attribute their want of success, rather than to any defect in their pulpit efforts.

While on this subject, I would say that Br. Walter’s remark that he has visited 40 families suggests an important improvement in the missionary reports, which is that they state the number of families visited during the quarter accompanied with familiar conversation on religion and prayer.

I am persuaded that our Missionaries would derive material benefit from the habit of keeping a journal of such pastoral visits and I could wish that their reports should not be considered satisfactory where this statement is wanting.

I attach more importance to this because to some of them it is an ??? service, and it is on that account more neglected than they themselves are aware, but let them see more themselves to a quarterly report of the number of such visits and they would be surprises to find how much it would assist in the more faithful discharge of that self-denying duty. I know that people are often quite unreasonable in their demands upon a ministers time. But I an constrained to believe that many good men are criminally remiss in this work, and all my experience convinces me that missionaries in new settlements will succeed about in proportion as they are faithful in this department of labour. A man must have the eloquence of Whitfield and the fascinations of Abraham’s visitors if he would hope to secure the attendance of some of our frontier men upon public worship except he first gain their confidence and steal his heart by his personal attentions. Please to take up your pen and write your very best article on this subject.

A. Kent

Morris, Grundy Co., Aug. 14/52 Sat. morn.

Rev. Dr. Badger,

Dear Sir,

I sent you a line and accompanying documents from Joliet, and wrote to Br. J. Porter of Wilmington that I would supply his pulpit next Sabbath and requesting him to go to Momence next Sabbath. I came here by appointment yesterday at 10 and met Br. Henderson, Longhead, Murphy & Day. We spent the morning in prayer interspersed with accounts from each one of his personal experience and the prospects of his field of labour, beginning with myself followed by a dinner with Mr. & Mrs. Henderson. It was a very pleasant and some said they hoped it would prove a profitable interview. And this morning I have “packed off” Br. Henderson to Wilmington with my horse and buggy while I remain to supply him and preach on Home Missions at his request. Br. C.R. Clark met me here yesterday afternoon with chance I had a conversation about his field.

Here are 5 missionaries with each a family and a home to which they cling. Br. Henderson has in two years made him a very pleasant home with the aid of his tactful wife he has gathered around him comforts and flowers, etc. which render [his] house attractive. And his home is where it should be: in the midst of his field. Br. Longhead has made his home equally attractive to him and his wife but unfortunately it is 10 or 15 miles from his field of labour and he is unwilling to see it & leave it though offered a great price for it ($1500 I am informed).

Br. Murphy has made him a home and is in the midst of his field. Br. Clark has a pleasant home in Granville but it is 12 to 15 miles form his work and he thinks it is his duty to educate his children and wants to be near a good school, but is unwilling to abandon his post (until some one else can be secured) which is prospectively important as being along the Galena Branch of the Central R.R.

And Br. Day has a pleasant home in Lisbon and is extremely anxious to get some one to take his place that he may find a field nearer home. His work is some 25 to 40 miles distant from Lisbon. But I regard him as a judicious and efficient man and faithful and his field is assuming new importance from the prospect of a R. Road from St. Louis to Chicago going through Livingston Co. and its county seat, Pontiac.

I have mentioned these cases in detail that you may have before your minds eye the position of a group which represents the feelings and trials of a great part of our Home Missionaries. And shall we say to them. It is right that they should have their families. It is right that every family should desire to have a home and desire to make that home as desirable as possible for the good of their own children and as a model to adjacent families and indeed some of them are pretty enough to be worthy of imitation and pretty enough for a secretary of even for an agent to occupy. And yet there is nothing faulty except where the owner is far away from his field. And it is not strange that they should cling to them when we consider how migratory everything is in a new country and consequently how uncertain if they give up the present home whether they will ever be settled long enough to make another equally desirable.

It is very desirable that ministers should live among their people and they can never fairly represent the pastoral office in its due proportions except they do. Nor can they reach and mould the community at large nor properly identify themselves with the people while they live at a distance.

The men whom I have named, 2 or 3 of them, would probably sooner h=give up their commission s than remove their families into those fields and if they abandon their fields we have no man with whom to supply their places. And to human view it would be a loss to Zion if these important posts were to be abandoned. I have so many vacancies in my eye that I am becoming covetous of men, and cannot think of losing a labourer for the fields are white until the harvest. Such have been my reflections this morning.

Aug 16. Br. Henderson has been to Wilmington to supply Br. Porter that he might go and give the people at Momence a Sabbath's preaching while I preached for Br. H. and took up a collection of $10.68. Br. H. at my suggestion preached at evening at Shannahan, a village 12 miles from the confluence of Dupage, Kankakee & D’Plain Rivers & found a cluster of Presbyterians there and at the request of Methodist Class leader had resolved to continue his appointment here once a fortnight. (He now preaches 11 miles out every alternate Sabbath) and intends if strength permits to return and preach in the evening a third sermon. That looks like “one cannot ministry” : 3 sermons & 22 miles.

17th I am lodged in the house of Mr. Jackson, one of Mr. Longhead’s members from whom I learn that he has laboured more faithfully the last year and that there is no house where he could not live among the people better than to continue to reside at Morris.

18th Passing through Ottawa I had a pleasant interview with Brs. Whittley and Williams. The latter has an irritation in the throat so serious that he has been advised to give up preaching for 2 or 3 months. Fully resolved to inquire after Br. Gould’s affairs, I called on the best man in the church and was gratified to learn that “he is doing good work.” Besides his large American Congregation he has a congregation of Dutch or French which from his account embodies considerable piety. His house is not large enough by half and they are seriously agitating the question of building a $1000 Ch on that newly cultivated prairie. My informant (Esq. Baker) pledged himself and another for $100 each. I called in passing on Br. Lord (Son in law of Br. G.) who had become a farmer and I visited Br. Bergen who is building him s house on the naked prairie 4 miles north of br. G and about 20 north of Ottawa. I was sorry to hear that he had become so secularized but he said he was sure it was not his duty to attempt to visit again in that shell he now occupied and he could get no other. And the house he is building is on his own land and but 4 or 5 miles aside from a range between 2 of his fields of labour. And there are several pious families settling directly about him which will probably create a center for preaching just about where he is. From Br. Gould’s house I could see Br. Bergen’s. I told them that there aspiring Bishops in the Presbyterian ch who loved the preeminence, I called on Br. Phelps at Lee Center and repeated what I had said before that so long as they could do no more for his support, they should be willing to have him go to the destitute around after preaching once at the Center.

I called on Br. Todd returned missionary from Ceylon at Grand Detour and urged him to preach at p.m. at Dixon (5 miles distant). It is time that ground is occupied but it is extremely difficult to get access there.

I called on Br. Jessup but he was absent in pursuit of a lost horse. I called on Br. Gray and found him labouring with his own hands in putting up the walls of a church. He thinks that is the thing they need to compete successfully with opposing influences.

Yours Truly,

A. Kent

[The Presb. Ch. Winslow Ill. apply for $200 renewed aid in support of Rev. James N. Powell 12 mo. from Jan 1 1853 to labor 1/2 time at Waddams Grove & New Pennsylvania.]

Dec. 28...I received this application and after consulting with the Com. of Presbytery I wrote advising him to get definite pledges and write again. I heard nothing and called on him 3 days ago and he told me that all that was subscribed at the two out-posts was but about 10 dollars and as I found him teaching the district school and his wife having a school in her house I inquired whether he hid not neglect visiting. He acknowledged it. And I urged him to engage in it exhaustively. And told him about Mr. Pemberton and how Home Miss. aid was withheld . He is I think somewhat discouraged from his unacceptableness. And yet the Winslow people from some motive are anxious to retain him. And I should be sorry to have them left destitute. Whether your comm. will vote the 200 or 100 or 200 commencing at the end of 3 months which closes his school with an exhortation to give himself wholly to his work is more than I can divine. His wife is bent on teaching and so far as I can judge is useful. He is a good Br. and I respect him as such.

A. Kent.

[$200 renewed aid in support of Rev. A. W. Henderson, 12 mo. from Oct. 1, 1852. P.O. Morris, Grundy Co., Ill.]

Dec. 12, 1852

Nothing is said about Br. Henderson’s preaching at other points a part of his time and it does not appear that the 200 is actually subscribed but only that they will endeavor to do it.

I recommend that they be aided to the amount of 200 on condition that they pledge 200, for 400 is surely as little as his circumstances will admit. And if they cannot now make up one half his support, I should think he ought to go to a part of his time to some other place to preach.

A. Kent

I have carefully inquired concerning the ability of the church to do more but have become satisfied that either the men whose names are on this paper are not truthful or else they have done what they could. And much as I regret to mention so large an appropriation, I dare not assume the responsibility of curtailing it. The village is growing rapidly and yet the pecuniary ability of the church has decreased and at the same time they appear to be well ??? in their minister.

A. Kent

P.S. I have recommended that Br. H. spend one quarter of his time at a point formerly occupied by Br. Longhead