Life and Letters of Rev. Aratus Kent Introduction

An earnest Rev. colporteur of east manners and pleasing address by going over the last two counties and ascertaining the facts would probably find new points of interest along the R.R. and in the country back which ought to be occupied. Ministers Todd, Bascom, Lyman; Chs. Princeton, Providence. Dover, Sheffield.

Putnam Co. is 50 had 3,000 in 55 5,000 has now 6,000. It is a small county and has no large town. The county seat Hennepin is claimed by the Universalists. They have not encouraged and sustained Evangelical churches, and the results are apparent according to the proverb Whatsoever a man soweth - that shall he also reap. Its prospects are eclipsed and the day of its expansion gone by.

There is one Presb and one Cong. Ch. at Granville which are now able to support their ministers. A Presb. Ch. at Magnolia from which Br. Fowler of blessed memory had been transplanted to paradise, and a Cong. Ch at “the lone tree” as it is familiarly known in the vicinity. There is an Old School Ch. at Union Grove, whose large and overgrown house of worship has been a bone of contention for many years. I recall some pleasing reminiscences in reference to my first visit there in 29 or 30. Several pious families has some in from Bond Co. (or there abouts) and I preached the first sermon in the little log church as yet has neither bottom door nor puncheon floor. But there was a sweet harmony and brotherly love such as the wide house with strife cannot contain. But my third visit there in Dec. 32 affords more pleasure in the review than we found in the bitter experience of our journey. On my return from a tour to the East to persuade good people to come West, I was accompanied by Mrs. Kent, Miss Pierce, a truly missionary spirit, E.E. Hall a youth of 17, now preaching at Rome or Paris, and a child of 9, now Rev. Mrs. Phelps of Lee Center. We were detained by sickness on the rivers until they were frozen and we were obliged to travel from St. Louis by land and from Springfield by means of a big waggon which providence furnished and I purchased. And as we proceeded our weary way we reached this grove at evening and finding no one to entertain us, we kindled a fire and made a kettle of mush with which we welcomed the return of the family. And if you will allow the interpolation of some “Prairie Missionary” adventures to these dry statistics you may follow the big waggon and listen to our songs and our prayers, for we had some good singing and some precious prayer meetings. While Rev. E.E. Hall acted alternatively as Postillion or officiated as chaplain. Having crossed the Ill. River and arrived late in the evening we found ourselves in a “muddy run” with 10 high banks that our high and powerful horses could not get out. But we left the vehicle and rode as best we could to Dixon, where we were kindly entertained by Mrs. Dixon amidst a group of Indians stretched out before the fire. There was but one house and that a log cabin. The next morning we went back 3 miles and “took up our carriages” and passed on to Chambers Grove, where a part of our company were lodged in the root house, the Indians having burned their cabin during the summer. Two days later we were overtaken by night and bewildered by a snow storm., but the big waggon served us for a lodging place and the next day (13th) we reached Galena and if ever we knew how to be thankful for domestic comforts it was in our own limed log house with one room and a shed and a small franklin stove.

A missionary is wanted to occupy the field left vacant 2 years since by the death of Br. Smith.

It has a strong Cong. Ch. at the county seat (Morris) a feeble Presb. Ch. at Mazon. It is a new county and left unoccupied until within a few years. I recollect that when I visited Br. Murphy and his sick wife I fount the land so level around him that I could not in a walk of 2 miles get out of sight and the Gopher hills were so numerous that she could not endure the rise I attempted to give her on account of continual jolting. There is an O.S. church at Morris and I think a Baptist Ch. at Gardner, a R.R. station.

Yours, etc.,

A. Kent

___

I set out is good earnest to push up the churches to do more than they have done. I am pretty well acquainted with the church ansd the Bishop at Pecatonica and do not anticipate any great suffering to either if you should cut down their application and grant them only $100 on the score of hard times.

A. Kent

____

Treasurer of the A.H.M.Society

Please acknowledge in the Home Miss.

Oct. by Dr. Seely from the Presb. Ch.

in Kendall Co. $6.22

Nov. 7 Peru Cong. Ch. 23.25

9 Geneseo Cong. Ch. 31.00

Dec. 16 from S. School of 2 Cong Ch Rockford 20.00

24 From the estate of Mrs. Hannah Ware

by Ralph Ware of Granville 200.00

Jan 18 from Charles W. Leavitt (Phila) 5.00

$285.27

235.77

A. Kent

Galena, Feb. 3, 1858

It is quite irksome for me to recommend so large an appropriation as 300 where there is so loud a call for retrenchment. But it will be recollected that it is a child but 9 months old, which has grown up if I may so say. Phoenix like, out of the ashes of the Chemung Church that was starved and weathered by the former incumbents. And now this new effort has commenced under circumstances that demands a strong man and if sustained a year or two, will gather strength and make itself felt in the wide region of destitution around there and which would not have been so destitute if others had done their duty in years past.

A. Kent

A. Kent

Somanauk, Feb. 15, 1858

I have been here once before and I spent yesterday here that I might get a right view of the case. Br. Gould has laboured long and endured hardship in meeting his appointments beyond what many good men would submit to and his churches appear to cling to him warmly and as an officer in our common schools he has a field of usefulness which should be duly estimated. But yet there are embarrassments which perplex me. The secretaries say we must do more and ask less (in Ill..) to sustain him at Northville would require 1/2 his support from the society. At my request that church met here yesterday and voted 9 to 5 to remove their center to Saummanauk. But 3 observant men including 2 elders named by Br. Gould expressed the opinion that one half of the presb. element about Saumanauk would prefer another man to Gould.

I should have added as necessary to give a fair view of the case that before that vote it was admitted than sooner or later the Northville Ch. must be absorbed by its proximity to this station. With these statements I leave you to judge of your duty.

A. Kent

I am writing in a station house with its confines.

March 3 [1858]

I am well acquainted with the fields occupied by Br. Johnston. He is regarded as a very labourious and judicious young minister and indeed has had thoughts of going on a Foreign Mission though he has never spoken to me of it. At Orangeville where I was with him yesterday, he is very acceptable. At Lena he is highly esteemed and they will be able to secure his whole time in a year or two, but they are now building a church which embarrasses them. And at his out-post south he has great encouragement in his work. I recommend the appropriation of $200.

A. Kent

Galena, March 3, 1858

Rev. Dr. Badger,

Sear Sir,

Yours respecting Mendota is received and I have planned a trip there next week, but mean first to go and spend the Sabbath (7) at Garden Plain partly to ascertain whether Mr. Hemenway is likely to labour there and at Albany, as I know not what your decision in the case has been.

I had begun my annual report but was called off to go over the east side of the state. I learned than Monee Presb. Ch. had applied for aid and was disposed to discourage it because I thought that Manteno and Monee should unite in one man. But when I heard them say that they hoped to go alone next year I thought they should be allowed to have it in their own way.

At Loda and at Prospect City I found Cong. Chs. and these supplied with ministers at Rantoul and in a settlement 8 miles west I fount the materials for forming 23 churches. The latter place had written to me asking advice which was the immediate occasion of my going over to that region. At Kankakee the church is discouraged. I endeavored to stimulate them to a new effort for I am convinced that they have been mal-treated. There have been misrepresentations somewhere.

I spent the last Sabbath at Durand the present terminus of the Racine and Miss. R.R. Br. Hodges is labouring there with acceptance and at another point of his diocess (Shireland) there is a revival and he reported last Sabbath several conversions besides the recovery of backsliders.

I forwarded an application from Br. Gould’s church. He was very much offended because I said I could not recommend him to labour at Saumonauk and to pacify him I told him what I wrote should be submitted to his inspection and I thought that I could not do less than forward you Dr. Hall’s letter of 49.

If you want further light or another man’s opinion Br. Chatford of Sandwich knows more than any one else, as he has preached there considerable time.

In a letter to me before my last visit there he says “the Northville ch. must come up to the village (of Saumanuk)- they must give up Mr. Gould or the game is up.” that is with the Ch. at Sommanauk.

I think that the circulars I have issued with my comments as directed by you (and I wrote more than 100) are making a good impression.

Yours truly,

A. Kent

Annual Report [no place or date - probably early March 1858]

Rev. Dr. Badger,

Dear Sir,

In presenting this report I feel impelled to begin with a humble acknowledgement of God’s goodness in sparing my life, continuing my health, permitting me to labour another year in his vineyard and affording me those facilities for travel which renders it so much more easy, expeditious and cheap than formerly. And in this last remark I refer to the procedure which has furnished me unsolicited a pass on the Ill. Cent. R.R. which I have occasion to use more than all the others and by means of which I can go without expense from one extreme of the state to the other. This however I do [not?] speak of publicly.

Though I am not permitted to see many striking proofs of success in the ministry, yet I have many opportunities of observing and rejoicing in the successes of my brethren.

We have now on this field (24 counties, including Kankakee) 32 missionaries who are labouring for Christ in 62 congregations and destitute settlements. And according to a careful estimate recently forwarded there are inviting fields of labour in which 24 others might be usefully employed if we had men of Apostolic spirit who would submit to the self denial involved in cultivating them. Rev. Joseph Fowler who has died during the year at Magnolia was of of those preeminently self denying men. There have been 5 churches organized and it is pleasing to record that 5 churches have assumed the support of their ministers without foreign aid and that 4 houses of worship have been built.

In looking over the 27 years since the first church was organized on this field, it is gratifying to know that churches sustained in their incipiency by this society are planted in 15 of the 24 county seats and are exerting a purifying influence in most of our large towns.

But as it is not practical to measure the good done by these churches, we may raise the startling inquiry, what would not have been the state of society if no such association had lavished its bounty in aid of our early destitutions. And an answer might be gleaned from a simple narrative of facts in relation to Galena and its vicinity prior to 1829 when amidst a population of 10 or 20,000 there was no church, no Sabbath or Sab school., no minister Protestant or Catholic, no family altar, and indeed no openly avowed advocates of personal piety. But they suspected a man if we would not swear nor use strong drink. He was a marked man. They suspected that he was religious. Such indeed was the state of morals that if Abraham had been passing through town, he would have said as on another occasion, surely the fear of God is not in this place and they will slay me for my wife’s sake.

It is true that we have received and expended on this field in 5 years $37,000. But let us see what has been achieved by means of this full flow of Eastern benevolence. 1- We have contributed in return $12,000 or almost 1/3 which would not otherwise have ben raised for the general purposes of your society; 2- the people of this district have been encouraged and stimulated and have actually raised farther support of the ministry not less than $75,000 which else would not have been raised; 3- The places of worship that have been built within these same 5 years by Home Miss, Churches (or which once were such) have in all probability cost not less than $1000,000 and 4- the contributions of other Benevolent Societies and which our missionaries have been foremost to encourage are not less than $20,000. 5- These efforts to raise funds in support of their own institutions and to send their beneficence abroad have fostered the habit of alms giving and counter acted covetousness to an extent which is worth more to the contributions by 100 percent than all they have given.

I am aware however that the benefits we have derived from your society cannot be recommend by dollars and cents. 6th- There is another aspect in which this subject should be viewed. Your society has taken up and sustained a class of ministers who from their age or some infelicity in their manners have proved unacceptable to the older and richer churches but whose learning and expression and general ability qualify them preeminently for this missionary work.

These men dispersed over the field with their excellent wives and intelligent children are exerting a powerful but silent influence for good. They seek out and relieve the por the sick and the afflicted. They do much towards sustaining the Sab. School. Their house is the home of agents of benevolent societies, and their cordial welcome a source of encouragement. They are in fact model families and the very trials and self denial they endure become a blessing to the community in many ways. I will specify one which I met with most frequently. It is the worst of suitable schools. Being well educated themselves they long to have their children enjoy the same advantages and to see them growing up in utter deprivation of literary culture grieves them more than any personal trials. I have seen two excellent ladies, graduates of Mt. Holyoke and missionary's wives one of whom recently died. I have seen them weep over this deprivation. This puts the missionary upon various expedients. Sometimes they refuse to locate in a place because there is no school for their children. Sometimes they take the lead in getting up an academy and sometimes the wife engages in teaching and thus the Home of the Missionary becomes a light house for the youth of the vicinity.

Estimating the untold value of such men and such families dispersed over the prairie state to mould its character and elevate the tone of moral feeling we must recollect that but for the support rendered by this society many of them would become disheartened and return to secular business that they may obtain a support for those dependent upon them.

A. Kent

Galena, March 4, 1858

My travelling expenses during the year were ^1,08 : my horse and buggy pretty much worn out as well as their owner : and with the expense of agency I judge would not altogehter fall short of $100.

A. Kent

Mendota, March 10, 1858

Review of the organization of the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches in Mendota so far only as relates to their claims upon the A.H.M. Society.

When I arrived at Mendota on Monday the 8th I met with Mr. Barret soon after I left the cars and was invited to his house where I took tea and spent the night. During the afternoon and evening I heard in detail his version of their differences and that of Mr. Smith the Elder, a summary of which are on file and will accompany my report. In the course of the interview many things were introduced which were corroborative of their statements but which I did not deem necessary or sufficiently important to insert and the same general remark applies equally to the other party.

The next morning I set out to hunt up all I could find on the other side. I called on J. Moore whose hospitality I had enjoyed in days past. I took dinner with him and opened the subject by reading the documents. “In conference he added nothing to me” with such definiteness as to be available in evidence but said he was opposed to strife and showed his peace loving temper by saying in relation to a Christian Brothers baptist wide I would join the Baptists sooner than have strife in the family.

I then went with him to call on Mr. Wicks and Bro. L.H. Parker. They were absent. But I found Br. Parker at S.M. Moore’s office and laid the subject open (by reading the Bureau Comm. Report and Dr. Badger’s letter). There was not much said. But on the subject of Mr. Barret’s preference (denominational), I expressed my surprise at his statement and he took me in a buggy to the Lutheran Female Seminary (1/2 mile out) now in building. Mr. Wicks (carpenter) stated that Rev. Mr. Baldwin told him that he (Barret) had declared his purpose to organize a Presbyterian Church. I enquired when he said this. He thought some 3 or 4 months after he came there.

Mr. Barret’s explanation is plausible, that he had predicted that from the conflicting elements such an organization would be the result, though he had then no idea of attempting it himself and appealed to me to recollect what he had said to me at Synod about finding another field for him. I have indistinct recollection of that conversation. But i do recollect distinctly (as I told Br. Parker) that when he first visited me and before he had made any engagement at Mendota, he represented himself to be no stickler for either but rather inclined to the Cong. mode.

Having thus laid open the whole matter and given ample time to say whatever they wished S.M. Moore & Dr. Johnson being present, I retired and after tea I met them again by invitation in the Cong. prayer meeting. It was the first they had held since the close of the meeting (protracted effort) in Union with the O.S. Presbyterians!

It was a pleasant meeting in which 2 young converts prayed one of whom has been a leading supporter of the O.S. organization (m. Farland). At the close Br. Parker said that Dr. Johnson & S.M. Moore wished to see me and preferred to see me at S.M. Moore’s office at 11 next morning. I spent the night with J. Moore, went in the morning to Mr. Barret’s and wrote my report and at 11 1/2 A.M. I went to the office and found there all the leading men, c.c., Parker, Augustine, Johnson, Dutch, S.M. Moore, Murphy, J. Moore and Father Moore once a scotch Presb.

They wished to know what I had done. I told them I had made out a report according to the evidence afforded me. they asked if they might hear it read. Certainly, I will cheerfully read it for it is my purpose to give the facts and have the Ex. Comm. to judge of them. I then read the following report.

In order to place the matter before the Ex. Com. I shall give the facts in relation to the organization of the Presbyterian Church. 2) The reasons for changing the form of Ch. Gov. from Presbyterian to Congregational & 3, the reasons for the organization of a 2nd Presbyterian Ch.

I. It appears that Rev. James H. Baldwin came here about....(J. Moore, his Elder, in the Church at Troy Grove came about the same time) and after preaching several months he organized a Presbyterian Ch. of some 12 members-

Mr. Wicks

Mrs. Wicks - P. but their preference is for Cong. Ch. which they have joined

Mr. Jack

Mrs. Jack - P. have since joined O.S. Presb. Ch.

J. Moore

Mrs. Moore- P. has not formally joined but aided with the Ch.

Mrs. Baldwin - P.

H. Baker - Cong.

F. Baldwin- P. would have joined if his Br. had remained there

Mrs. Cross-P. moved away

Mrs. Keith- Cong.

Mr. Rust - Cong.

Mrs. Rust Cong. have recently applied for admission to N.S. Presb. Ch.

After which he continued to preach about a year, receiving aid from the A.H.M.S. when he went east to obtain funds to build a Presb. Church. He was gone 5 or 6 weeks and during that time I came here as the agent is in duty bound to look after the churches under my care and learned to my surprise that arrangements were made to change the Ch. from Presb. to Cong. and that Mr. Holbrook had promised to be with them on that Sabbath but he did not appear. I preached and spent the Sabbath with H. Baker.

II. Reasons for changing the organization. These I have not been able to learn satisfactorily. Whether Mr. Baldwin did any thing to bring it about or did concur in it. whether Mr. Holbrook advised it or whether any outside influence was brought to bear upon them.

It is said in the Report of the Bureau Comm. that the Church by unanimous vote dissolved for the purpose of being organized into a Cong. Ch. But then it is fairly to be inferred that other reasons than a desire to form a Cong. Ch. had their influence from the fact that only 3 of the members of the Presb. Ch. were enrolled in the new organization and from the fact that immediately after an Old Sch. Presb. Ch. was formed.