Life and Letters of Rev. Aratus Kent Introduction

A. Kent

[Refers to ? application]

Freeport, Jan. 6/54

I recommend that the appropriation [$275] asked should be granted because I cannot be willing that ground should be wrested from Br. Baldwin after all his efforts but I regret the necessity of so large a draft.

A. Kent

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This communication is handed me while I am detained on my way home by the great snow storm of Sabbath last (21st) which has blocked up the iron road and we have no communication beyond Freeport since Saturday last. Could you have seen me Sab. morning in the north part of this county making my way 4 miles to a rickety school house on foot & preaching to about 20 souls, Pennsylvania Germans including the Albright preacher, all shivering with the cold and then footing it again towards my next appointment in defiance of the severest storm I have seen in many years, you would have said for once, "I prefer to remain in my office." Well I gave out at last under the conviction that I should have no hearers and turned in to eat a good roast turkey with a German of Methodist preferences, who set me to expounding the ninth chapter of Romans, and perhaps I accomplished as much as though I had reached the school house. And by the way I have made a pretty good week's work, for I preached 4 times, visited 5 schools (including the Rockford Female Seminary)., visited 35 families and walked 64 miles including 10 miles yesterday in a deep snow to reach the R.R.. But however you may be amused, this does not reach the merits of the application. Allow me then to say that I have preached here a good while occasionally and know the importance of this depot station. This little church has made a great effort to sustain Br. Willis and God is blessing his labours. Some 14 have obtained hope and 5 converts have united with the church at the last communion. This is their first application and I trust from appearances that they will be able to do more next year. It is right that the commission should date back to Dec. 1st, as his labours commenced on Nov. 19, 1854.

A. Kent

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Br. M. Badger, D.D.

Dear Sir:

Please acknowledge in the Home Miss. receipt of ninety dollars from the 2nd Pres. Ch. of Galena to constitute Mr. Wm. H. Bradley, Mrs. Mary H. Long and Mrs. Elisa Hempstead Life Members of our Society and charge the same to me.

This church resolved to give to 2/3 of their missionary money to our society and several letters have been received in answer to the members that betoken good in the way of increased effort.

Yours, Etc.,

A. Kent

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Jan. 24, 1855

I have just sent the Committee your circular and stated that I could not recommend so large an appropriation but have recommended that the Com. go round again to every subscriber and then write directly to you what is the least sum they must have in order to make up $500 to Br. W. They may satisfy you they have done all they can but I am in doubt of it.

Yours, Etc.,

A. Kent

I think there is still a wide field there and I regard Br. Walker as a very worthy man and faithful labourer.

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Galena, Jan. 2, 1855

Rev. A.L. Chapin

Dear Sir,

I judge from what P.F. Shirmer said that there might be some uncertainty about Works returning this term. I therefore entrust this money and letter to you that if he does not appear, you may communicate with him.

It is possible that the want of this money may hold him back.

I attended at Chicago and did as I believe I promised you, and a Committee was appointed to report of the paper I presented.

There was a resolution that the Preparatory Dep. first and the Sem. proper should be pushed and that the college should be postponed a little, and I hope in the meantime that such a course will be pursued as to convince them of our sincerity, for I cannot beat it out of honest and unsectarian Presbyterians that Beloit College is leaning over and will ultimately fall into Congregationalism.

My position is a trying one but I have done what I could.

Yours sincerely,

A. Kent

P.S. I have had a serious talk with Phillips this morning. He once thought he was a Christian. Please to follow up what I have begun. I mean to tell him that he may expect it of you.

Please answer this by 2/2 and oblige yours etc.,

A. Kent

Rockford, Jan. 12

On my way I spent a day a Pecatonica Station & 12 Mile Grove. In conversation with Rev. Mr. Johnson about a young man Romine Weld, who is steady and promising but not pious. He said he had written (I think) to the professors about getting a place to do work for his aid but had received no answer. At Pecatonica I fell in with a family of Sabins and in conversation I said the Ch. would educate all the young men of promise that would apply. 2 Brothers spoke up and expressed their doubts and their wish to study for the ministry. One of them has left Beloit and engaged in secular business- a third is teaching- younger, and to appearances the most promising. I mentioned these facts to a man of wealth & benevolence here and he told me to communicate further with him when I had informed myself.

I have no time to copy. Please say to W. Works that I shall leave 50 dollars with his father as Philip forgot to take it with him.

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[Chapin Papers, Beloit]

Galena, Jan. 25/55

Rev. A.L. Chapin

Dear Br.,

Your letter has just come to hand and I hasten to reply with particular reference to the book of which you speak. I expect to preach on Home Miss. and administer the Com. by appointment at Belvidere next Sabbath, and to be about there until Tuesday or Wed.

Should you be able to send to Belvidere by that time, or to Rockford a week later a package, I would distribute them gladly. I prepared a sermon ad preached it in Galena last year and shall use it this year if I have opportunity.

I shall probably go as far as Chicago next week but my course is not definitely marked beyond Belvidere.

My protoge Atcheson whom we sent to Beloit is the Methodist circuit Preacher at Pecatonica where the Sabins live. He also has a ??? of self-esteem.

A. Kent

Feb. 1, 1855

I should rejoice to hear of a revival in your charge.

There is a little shower of grace at Lena where Mr. Willis preaches also where Hyde’s sister teaches and where I spent a day (Monday and Tuesday) waiting for the cars which refused to travel through the snow drifts.

Give my love to Mrs. Chapin and the family - “to Zion’s friends and mine.”

Yours truly,

A. Kent

[The Presb. Ch. of East Paw Paw, Ill. Dec. 1/54 apply for $250 in support of Rev. Silas Jessup, 12 mo. from Dec. 1, 1854.]

March 17, 1855

I do not feel at liberty to decline recommending this application though I regret that our congregations are making very large drafts upon you but this is a new church and they have done well to begin with 200 considering their small number. Br. Jessup has been sick and nigh unto death which is the reason of the delay in forwarding it.

A. Kent

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Rev. D.B. Coe

Dear Br.

I regret that your letter had not reached me a little sooner. I have just returned from Chicago and am at this moment drowsy from the fatigue and excitement of my journey though diverse snow-drifts which I will report.

At Belvidere I preached on Home Miss. (Jan 28) and took up a collection of 37 and being detained 3 days by the obstructions of snow I visited individuals and increased the collection to 77.92. I also administered communion in their destitution.

I then went to Chicago, called on Br. Patterson who told me they had made out their annual subscription for benevolent purposes amounting I believe to 2000 of which if my memory serves me 500 was for Home Miss. I did not ask him to pay it over to me for I thought it might not be ready or might be forwarded more directly. I spoke to Mr. Curtis and he said they had made up their annual subscription. He did not say how much they had raised. I also spoke to Mr. Eggleston who said that they had made out their annual subscription.

I made no direct offer to preach as I thought they might prefer to do that themselves. I did preach last year for Br. P. and Br. Curtis said that in view of the feelings that existed in the Church he thought it best to preach himself. I understand that there is more harmony and efficiency in that church that heretofore.

I did preach in the 3rd Ch. which is vacant and took a col. of $40.00. I called at Elgin and offered to preach on Home Miss. having previously received $17.00 from them and engaged to preach next Ap. to the Presb. Ch., and Ch. of Udina.

I thought I would enclose your letter to Br. Curtis and then I thought again that if you did not receive something soon it would be better for you to address them directly and about that I think you need not hesitate.

As the annual report will be due in a few weeks I will give it now so far as it relates to funds collected.

March 26. Coll. at the St. Charles Cong. Ch....................$26.00

25 Rockford 2nd Cong. Ch......................................................27.78

Aug 14 Freeport Presb. Ch.....................................................22.00

John Ruth........................................................................5.00

Sept. 7 Galena 1st Presb.Ch.....................................................48.50

Nov 14 Rockford 2nd Cong. Ch...............................................58.99

1855 Galena 2nd Presb. CH. (reported thus far)...........90.00

Jan. 8 Freeport Presb. Ch..........................................................25.00

15 Rockford 1st Cong. Ch. subscribed 193 to be paid in March

23 Elgin Cong. Ch...........................................................................17.35

31 Belvidere....................................................................................77.92

Feb. 4 Chicago 3rd Presb. Ch.....................................................40.00

Charge me with...................................................467.29

I had forgotten 100 which I received at the office (Nov 4)100.00

567.29

Yours truly,

I send the enclosed letter because the strife of parties may yet make it necessary to set aside so decided a Presbyterian as I have shown myself. I know not where there is a pleasanter field of labor than that Church. I have no disposition to leave my post.

A. Kent

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I have visited Winslow recently and conferred freely with Br. Powell. They are resolved on building a church and on that consideration I feel justified in recommending so large an appropriation from a belief that when that is built they will raise a much larger amount by the annual sale of pews.

A. Kent

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Dear Sir:

In looking over the operations of the A.H.M.S. in Northern Ill. I reckon 44* missionaries labouring in 67 feeble churches and missionary districts. Of these labourers it might be said as was said by Paul of Silvanus they are faithful brethren as I suppose : men of courage to maintain moral principle in communities where expediency or worldly policy is the governing motive : modest men and unambitious of display, they are toiling to honour Christ and serve his church even though it subjects them to persecution or reproach.

Nor do they labour and suffer alone, but are generally attended by families who in many instances are models for imitation in their respective spheres. All honour to those excellent women who are not only patterns of piety at home, but who perform vast amounts of missionary service in concert with their husbands. Eternity alone will reveal their faith and zeal. Their prayers and tears and their influence upon the Sabbath School and upon the community at large in the improvement of its social relations and in multiplying ingenious devices for winning souls to Christ or for carrying out a more rigid system of domestic economy. In estimating the value of the Home Miss. work, it should not be forgotten that the question of failure of success at a given point is sometimes made to turn on the influence of a single family.

It is a pleasing token of progress that 5** new churches have been organized during the past year and that 2 which have been for some time pensioners upon your bounty are now able to support the Gospel and contribute in their turn for aid of more feeble societies.

A goodly number of others may be quoted as having made manifest and commendable progress. Nor should it be inferred that no progress is made where none is visible. In laying foundations for a magnificent temple there is always a great amount of work that is quite out of sight and a missionaries work is often for a time so much of a preparatory kind that results do not appear and yet that very labour was indispensable to his subsequent achievements or those of his successor.

It may encourage our patrons to specify an instance where years of toil have resulted in the erection of a sanctuary and the installation of the missionary in one of those young villages which is destined at no distant day to become as important commercial center. The friends of Christ there, few and feeble, struggled hard against an opposing undercurrent, but now they report themselves a self supporting church. Who can estimate the results of that patient effort by which the leading men of the place have been gathered in and commit together in an organization which promises in future years to mould the character of that community when it shall have become a city of 20 or 50,000 and where church after church as they lift their spires to heaven shall point to their common mother and say it is from that spiritual nursery that we have been transplanted to bear fruit to the praise of Jehovah's grace. Let others glory in the progress of sacking Sebastopol. But let me be reckoned as one of a 1000 and that the feeblest instrument is converting a city from the error of its ways and this hiding a multitude of sins.

It is matter of regret that so little evidence of converting grace has been evolved. There are however 3 instances in which the power of God has been displayed in the revival of his work, in one of which 12 are as converts to faith of Christ. And there is good news quite recently of a revival at one of the prominent points which has until recently been a pensioner upon your bounty.

There are at present 12 missionary churches vacant and languishing for lack of the bread of life and the ministers pass by and will not serve them because of the stinted salaries your society affords. Are clergymen justified in saying so much as they now do about the shady side? It seems to me that if we appreciated the privilege of preaching the gospel as highly as the non-conformists did, we should go silently to our work and trust God to care for us while we watch for souls. And it seems to me that this constant harping upon their hardships is calculated also to discourage our young men from assuming these responsibilities. I could wish that every minister would preach a sermon setting forth the work of a Bishop as "A good work."

Yours truly,

A. Kent

* We must allow something for inaccuracies of statistics on account of changes which are not reported to me.

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Dr. Badger,

Dear Sir:

I strangely forgot the death of Br. Ruggles preaching to the Nettle Creek and Marsailles Churches, though I was instrumental in getting him there, was greatly interested in his success as a very modest but very substantial young man. And though I have been striving ever since to get another to occupy his place, I do not know when he died but it was very soon after his appointment which was about July 1.

I suppose that the Church at Lowell to which Br. Bristol ministers in now a self-supporting church but whether it is this year for the first time is not known.

A. Kent

[The Cong. Ch. of Dixon, Il. Mar. 5/55 apply for $300 aid in support of Rev. Daniel H. Temple, 12 mo. from Sep 20. 1855]

Galena, March 18, 1855

Presuming the secretaries are acquainted with the missionary I need say nothing and in fact I am a "know nothing". I have now met with him, but it seems to me that 55 is a small amount for so large a town and 200 is a large amount for a Home Miss. I do not much like the precedent and I think it unreasonable for them to date back 8 months as I suppose their wish. And it occurred to me that it might be well to vote 200 and say that reducing it was the only condition on which you could date it that far back. With this suggestion I submit it.

A. Kent

P.S. Dixon is an important point and so is Mendota (and Amboy and many other R.R. Stations) and if Mr. Barret of Hudson should apply for aid for Mendota he will need as much I presume as Mr. Temple. He has written to know what the maximum the society gives to which I shall reply referring him to the printed instructions.

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I had my election between the cars, the buggy the sleigh and the saddle. To take the cars would involve a walk of 15 miles and the difficulty of crossing swollen streams. The snow was from six inches to six feet deep but was likely to leave us unceremoniously. This was the fact on Friday except the drifts which fill all the lanes and render them impassable.

I mounted my horse on Thursday at 1 o clock p.m. and rode sixteen miles, the thermometer being at zero. Friday morning found me do bruised and sore that it was painful to ride, I reached my place of preaching in good time, it was so warm that I perspired under my overcoat and the pain of riding. The snow melted more rapidly that I ever saw it before but though the ground was full of water, the people came out so well that I appointed a third service there on Sabbath evening. The next day brought a very cold march wind and rough roads. I visited 3 families. and in the evening twelve miles in a lumber waggon, preached to about 25 in a rickety school house, ran two miles to shake off the chill of that cold house, resumed my seat in the waggon, and slept well. Sabbath Morning rode 12 miles, preached, rode five miles, and preached to a large congregation (say 60) gathered in despite of the wind. Rode five miles to Winslow after the service. Encountered Honey Creek which had swollen to cover the causeway and I could not discern whether the bridge had floated off. I went back and hired a man to ferry me over, reached the tavern at 10 o'clock p.m. and lay awake from the excitement of the fay. But after a ride of 40 miles yesterday I slept well last night.

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Galena, Ill, March 27

Dear Br.,

Your letter and its accompanyments are received and I hasten to reply. Mr. Dodds snatched a moment as I was passing in the cars to say that Mr. Willis was negotiating to get a house at Lena. And in relation to his preaching half the time, he has preached for 3 months and I am hoping he will be able to preach all the time when the weather gets warmed. There are two fields within reasonable distance. To wait until I can write to him would delay too long.

I would suggest that he be commissioned for a year on condition that he remove to his field as soon as he can make the arrangements and be paid in proportion to the labour performed.

A. Kent

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I have been quite discouraged of late years respecting the Church at Elizabeth where Br. Downer and Neil once laboured. It has been depleted by removals mainly to California until there is no courage left to make an effort. One of these Californians, Francis Graham, once a member of our church & afterwards the pillar of that Church, in whose piety for 15 years I had the utmost confidence is now selling spirits, etc., and is said to be worth 50 to $150,000, visited us last season and I laboured with him in vain to recover him to Christ and to his duty. Another embarrassment to Br. Smith, the Methodist minister is very popular and our own people prefer him to any body else. But his two years will be out in about three months. On the whole with many misgivings I am compelled to recommend the appropriation of $325. It is the least sum that will sustain him.

A. Kent

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If you think the appropriation large I have only this more to add, that in the course of 26 years I have preached often enough to amount to $500 at $3 a Sabbath gratuitously.

You have probably heard of the recent death of a missionary Rev. Ira Smith, an old man who has been very useful in his day as I am informed.

A. Kent

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Rev. Dr. Badger,

Dear Sir,

Please send the Home Miss. to Elisha Barr Hampton, Rock Island, Ill., and charge me 50 cents.

A. Kent

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Dr Sir,

Very Respectfully,

Caroline Kent

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Rev. Dr. Badger

Knowing the interest you feel in the history of our missionaries, I devoted yesterday and rode 20 miles to visit the family of our deceased Br. Ira Smith.

During the summer of last year Mr. Ruggles was suddenly removed, and now another has been called away from this district of the Home Missionary field, each from the care and nurture of two feeble Congregational Churches which are now languishing for want of some unambitious laborer who, like them, will be content to feed the Lord's flock for no other reward than the satisfaction than the satisfaction of copying the example of the chief shepherd, whose life was a model for all Home Missionaries.