Life and Letters of Rev. Aratus Kent Introduction

III. Reasons for forming the 2nd Presb. Ch. The principal are these.

1. The strong and ecclesiastical anti-slavery views of a majority of the Cong. Ch. as expressed in the resolution of Dec. 4th/56 had been pressed to an extent that a minority of 7 at least had decided to leave its communion.

2. There were as many more (professors of religion) identified with the Congregation sympathizing with the minority who after repeated solicitations from Br. B. had declined to unite with the Cong. Ch. from dislike to the spirit of those resolutions, most of them avowing a preference for a Presbyterian Ch. and these preferences had been expressed before the formal adoption of the resolutions.

Under these circumstances the respective parties thought the time favorable for organizing a N.S. Presb. Ch, and invited the Presbytery of Ottowa to meet and determine whether such a church should be formed, none of whom had previously visited the place or been advised with. Br. Hayes, however, as agent of the Synod had been here and had been consulted on the subject.

Having read the report to the company, I listened to their remarks and endeavored to put down every thing that had any bearing on the question at issue.

I. Under the first hear. Mr. Augustine (And did a backslider brought back within a few days) stated that he once belonged to a Presb. Ch. but intended to join the Cong. Ch. when he came back to duty or words to that effect. He said Mr. Baldwin organized a church and circulated a subscription to build a church before ever he had preached there. He was corrected, it was not a church but a society which he organized.

II. When I came to the reason of organizing a Cong. Ch. Mr. Dutch said that Mr. Holbrook was requested to visit Mendota but that he utterly refused to have anything to do in the matter. Mr. Augustine said that Mr. Baldwin could not unite the elements that existed and an counting names they found that a majority were Congregationalists and that 8 outside preferred a Cong. Ch. I stated that there but 3 of the Old. Presb. Ch. on their records. They said there were 4- that Mr. and Mrs. Wicks had joined the Old School Ch. and that all the male members agreed to the change.

III. Respecting reasons for forming a 2nd Presb. Ch. As I read them over they remarked that Mr. Barret approved of those anti-slavery resolutions, I inquired if that was so. Some thought it was but Mr. Dutch said, his words were, he made no objection to them, this is it would be of no use. He merely moderated the meeting as was requested of him.

On the clause “7 at least” they expressed the opinion that one person dissented from those resolutions. They said however that Mr. Rust out of regard to Mr. Barret would not vote. In regard to the words man or person they did not agree and I inquired if the women were not counted- c.c. not allowed to vote.

They thought the clause “dislike to the spirit of those resolutions” should be struck out and that “3” should be substituted in place of “as many more” and here Mr. Murphy said that he and his wife might have been counted. He was a Presbyterian, had been so trained but he was also anti-slavery, from the Lacon CH. (of which Mr. Christopher is pastor and who was expected at one time to come to Mendota) and therefore could not unite with a church where these resolutions were rejected. But I replied to them that Br. Barret named to me Read, Colson and Townsend and their wives to which they made no definite reply.

I was asked by the Brethren in that meeting if I recommended that application of the Presb. Ch. “I did.” And did you consult with this church. “Certainly not. I supposed of course that as you had passed those resolutions and had contributed through Mr. Bascom to the A. M. Association, you would not ask aid from the other. They said they were friends of the A.H.M.S. and “Mr. Bascom did not go round to solicit.” (c.c. after Mr. Bascom had told them that they were receiving aid from A.H.M.S.) but I went round and got $5 from 5 men. I inquired if some of them had not said that they would not receive aid from A.H.M.S. and contribute to the A. M. Association was like robbing Peter to Paul.

Having read all I had written and put down all that was pertinent to the subject I left as I had proposed and entered the cars at 1 1/2 p.m. to go to Paw Paw, requesting them to write to me within a week if they wished to add any thing to my report.

There are some things omitted which I shall now put down in order to comply with my instructions to reply “:in full at length and in detail.” Intimations being thrown out that Mr. Barret has been harshly treated. M.J. Moore said that when they met and voted not to employ him longer their object was to let him know the kindest manner before hand that they could not raise his salary another year.

I explained my surprise to Br. Parker that they should apply to the A.H.M.S.. He said “I have always been a fried to that society!”

In Br. Parker’s letter it is intimated that other denom. sympathize with the Cong. Ch. I called on our common friend Rev. Mr. Fisk O.S. He said, “It was wrong to change the Ch. from Presb. to Cong.” and yet according to Mr Barret’s representation there would not have been an Old Sc. Presb. there as Mr & Mrs Jack were the only members they had in the place. He thought at the time in that it had been better not to have formed a 2nd Presb. Ch, but that as the Cong Ch. have gone over to the A. M.As. they might be left to get aid there and the A.H.M.S. might better help the Presb. Ch.

He said the Cong. had violated their own resolution by inviting in a protracted meeting with the Old Sc. Presb. as they did!!

Mr. Barret says that within a few days he had meet them at his request and professed to settle all difficulties when they made no allusion to the fact that application and complaints had just gone to New York.

Mr. Barret says that the Bureau Com did not give them an opportunity to give their version of the affair.

I express no opinion on the question. It will be soon enough for me to give an opinion when the Presb. Ch. make application in June.

Aratus Kent

P.S. Mr. Barret requested me to delay until he can write again and give new testimony but I do not think it fair to take more testimony of materially to change the report without showing it to the other party.

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Dear Br. ,

Will you be pleased to let me know the reason my quarterage has not been sent. In my report for Feb. I had desired the aid given by the society to be sent quarterly if convenient. I need it very much.

Yours,

Coal Valley, Rock Island Co.

Ill

 

To Rev. A. Kent

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Rev. Dr. Badger

Dear Sir,

The enclosed letter will I presume meet so prompt a reply from your office that I need not make any other reply then to forward it, and yet I have been thinking that perhaps our Secretaries had been dozing of late in sleepy hollow, for I have heard nothing to my statistical report to Dr. B., nothing in reply to my report to Dr. N., nothing from the application from Albany and Rev. Mr. Hemenway and nothing from my special request to be informed whether the Northville application was granted.

I have wanted information on these last two cases that I may know whether to direct other ministers there. I have had extraordinary perplexities in my work of late. But it is quite possible that the Secretaries may have some too.

I have been to Mendota and could report but Br. Barret has written me requesting me to delay 10 days till he can get further testimony.

I suppose that I need not give the Brethren a formal invitation to send a representative to Chicago 3rd Thursday of May.

I think the circular I sent out and the appeals made here have been making some good impressions.

Yours truly,

A. Kent

[The Cong. Ch. of Huntley, Ill. apply for $200 aid in support of Rev. Lot Church 12 mo. from Feb. 1, 1858- all these notes refer to this - ultimately granted $200]

Galena, March 23, 1858

I see no occasion to write to Br. Benedict for Br. Savage is authority with me and indeed I wonder at Br. Clark that he should have written such a recommendation when he seems to have had an unfavorable impression. I cannot recommend the application. I know nothing of the incumbent but what is contained herein.

A. Kent

Should you think it necessary you can write to Br. Benedict of Aurora. I should certainly have done so if I thought you wished it. Among the things about which I have heard nothing. I forgot at the moment of writing last the matter of $300 in #rd Presb. Ch. of Chicago of which I asked your direction. I want the money that is due me for I can collect nothing that is due me.

A. Kent

A. Kent

Bro. Kent,

I cannot endorse the application of Mr. Church I do not think that he is a man who would do good to any church. If you wish for light in relation to him, you had better write to Br. benedict of Aurora....

Truly yours,

E.S. Savage

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Rev. Dr. Badger

Dear Sir,

Your letter of the 25 inst as also of that of Dr. Coe are received. Yours contained the first intimation that has reached me of his doctorate and I will try to remember it in future, though I presume that if I should forget it in my future communications it would give him no uneasiness, or at least he would dispose of it as Saul did, of the neglect of the men of Belial.

I was quite surprised that you should have understood me as asking any allowance for expenses, which I did not think of doing and only alluded to it as one item of information that you would like to have in passing. I have never even kept an account of my expenses of agency myself until last year, nor do I know what are the expenses of other agents, nor even what salary any other one receives.

However as the mistake has been made and as I am more than usually crowded to meet my liabilities I have concluded to accept it and turn it to the purpose to which you alluded, i.e. $100 of it.

I am not going to disturb the Ex. Com. again about Kankakee. I have no doubt they have decided according to the evidence which has come before them. But I happen to know so much about that whole thing that I sympathize extremely with the oppressed church and I have encouraged them to expect $200 from me personally when they are in circumstances to need that aid, and in order to accomplish my purpose I shall be obliged to confess to a blunder.

I appealed to a number of my personal friends to contribute to that Presb. Ch. as a New Years gift and I obtained from J.N. Phelps 45 Wall St., $100, which I solicited for that church at Kankakee. And being so much accustomed to plead for our society I promised that he should be a life member of the A.H.M.S.

I have therefore no alternative but to say to him by letter that his contribution must go to the general purposes of the Society of which he will thereby become a L. director and I will give the $100 which your mistake or mine has furnished me, for I had no idea of having my report so as to imply that I wished to receive anything for “wear and tear” or general expenses. (Please forward his certificate of life directorship.)

I have enjoyed great good health during the winter months and have performed as much labour as perhaps in any period of my life of as many months without any special “weariness,” but as to the “infirmity” I am well aware that I have a full shall of that article.

My correspondence has greatly increased. I think I have written twice as many letters as during any previous year.

I was surprised that Br. Gould and Hemenway were commissioned again. But the matter has gone by and the same is true of the Ch. at Barrington. I have felt that I must be more decided in urging up delinquents since this pressure has come over us and I regret the 3 cases as examples, to say the least and I thought Dr. Hale’s letter would put to rest the one to which it referred, but as he was displeased with my plainness with him I thought I would state the case and have leave it without expressing any opinion. And my only concern is that he will now hand to Sommonauk until it results in disaster and division in that young R.R. village.

Let me say confidentially that the Brethren in Ottowa Presb. have their own troubles with that Br., and one of them has threatened to go to Chicago Presb. But I have dissuaded him. I do not know as it is worthwhile to disturb the present arrangement. If however you want more information you might request 2 Brethren out of Ottowa Presby. to go to Sommonauk and inquire of the ch. going Presbyterians whether Br. G. is acceptable to them. I mean not his church for they are afraid to think different from him but the inhabitants of the village. I think perhaps it is better to let it pass.

Br. Hemenway may do better for a while but it will grieve the good Brethren at Como, as his being commissioned will be regarded as a reflection on them.

Yours truly,

A. Kent

Lest it should seem as if I was extorting from the A.H.M.S. to swell the amount of my annual contributions, I would say that I am getting to be an old man and to save trouble to my executors I am trying to get off my hands the best way I can what I can conveniently spare and shall turn what I have yet to draw from Chicago $150 over to Rockford Female Sem to meet a larger subscription which I made to provoke others to good works.

Mr. Riley's statement is entirely satisfactory.

If i have made any blunders this time you must bear with me and in all patience correct them, recollecting that horses sometimes dozed in Sleepy Hollow.

As I understood you I shall draw the rest of the money from Chicago (2nd Presb. Ch.) which you are hereby authorized to to charge to my account.

A. Kent

Galena, April 15, 1858

Dear Sir,

I returned yesterday from assisting Br. Dunn if Wenona - 16 were added to the Ch. It was intention to have spent part of the time at Magnolia where Br. Fowler laboured but the wet weather prevented. Perhaps I shall still go there next week. On my way home I called at Mendota to see some Brethren of the Ottowa Presb. There I learned from Br. Barret that he has new matters relative to the vindication of himself and which will be forwarded when they make application for aid.

I have just received a letter from Br. Baldwin to Br. Barret which freely confirmed what I have already stated concerning Br. B’s position as a congregationalist but utterly opposed to the ultra measures which have occasioned all the trouble.

A. Kent

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I have visited Waltham twice and was afraid they would give up in despair under the pressure of 2 sources of embarrassment. 1) The house of worship was an unfinished shell and 2) they have a scotch element that had become disgusted and partially withdrawn, but there was still a faint hope that if we could secure the services of Br. Wells who was farming within the bounds of the parish they might be saved. He considered that the only hope of getting the house finished was to refuse to preach only on that condition and then generously offered to give to that object all they would subscribe for his support. If therefore it is not in all respects in conformity with our rules, it is the best we can do.

There is wealth enough in the parish and we think that Br. Wells will in a year or two draw it out and secure a good support. He is regarded as an able man and was the pastor at Monticello (F. Sem) until his health failed.

My impression- my hope- my expectation is that while he finds it necessary to labour some what on his farm he will be worth more to us than many men who have no farm. I think by all means the request should be granted for this year.

A. Kent

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Mr. H.W. Ripley

Dear Sir,

I hereby acknowledge the receipt of $300 from S.L. Brown treasurer of the 2nd Presb. Ch. of Chicago and acknowledge the receipt of $75 “from a friend of the cause” of Home Miss. So. in Massachusetts in response to the circular of last winter which I forwarded.

I keep no copies of my letters and cannot unravel the mystery of the $100/net on the wrong side of the page.

But I suppose you have learned ere this that Missionaries are not always good financiers.

Yours,

A. Kent

I recommend the appropriation asked, but while do this I say that I have thought that perhaps....

Virginia Settlement [Ridgefield], May 15, 1858

Having sat down to endorse this application and wrote as far as perhaps, I reconsidered the whole subject and concluded that as these 2 churches (this and Crystal Lake) were within 4 miles of each other, had both been helped some 14 or 15 years, and both likely to be quite limited fields for a good while to come, I would go on purpose to visit them and make another effort to reduce their claims upon the Society or persuade them to unite in the support of one man. I have not succeeded but I think Crystal Lake and probably this church will support their own ministries after this year. Mr. Fuller thinks that they are inclined to got to the Free Missionary Society but I think if they receive aid this year they will here after become self supporting.

A. Kent

 

Virginia Settlement, May 15/58

I find this church in a very distracted state and have resolved to spend the Sabbath here and if I cannot pour on oil, I will try at least to dilute the aqua fortis which another minister has administered quite too freely and very officiously.

Now for the facts

The wife of our missionary J.H. Baldwin went off 7 miles and staid a fortnight and left an unweaned child, and reported that her husband did not love her, which is about all she complains of. A part of the church (i.e., one elder and 2 or 3 related to him) have credited her story and denounced him, though his warm friends before, and refused to hear him preach and he has left preaching and moved away. But the greater part of the Ch. sympathized with and made him a parting visit and a very handsome present.

The Ch. record I called for and found a very humiliating confession over her name and yet she has gone right away repeated the same slander against him and I think neither party have understood the case. To my mind it is a case of occult insanity operating as occasionally called out of which there are some of the evidences.

She insists that she has no friends. She interprets all equivocal acts of her husband as proofs of his want of love. She is manifestly prompted by suspicions which imagination created. She laughs and weeps immoderately. She is not truthful, c.c., she flatly contradicts at one time what she has said at another and at times evinces an utter want of maternal affection and frequently starts off leaving her little children and in gone most of the day without any but a half grown girl to care for them.

we all know how exceedingly provoking an insane person sometimes is and it would be strange if he and not been provoked to do wrong at times.

I thought it owed to your missionary to make this statement.

A. Kent

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I recommend that the application be granted to the amount of $200 and in view of the pressure upon the society I do not feel at liberty to recommend a larger sum. I may misjudge but I think that the people ought to lift their aid to sustain their minister. I passed along the Rail Road after I saw Dr. Badger intending to call & inform myself but the cars did not stop at Jefferson and being called home by domestic afflictions, I returned from Elk Grove & Dunston on Monday without stopping to make inquiries concerning the field Br. Clark occupied. The same cause and the damage in the G. & G.W. R.R. prevented me from preaching yesterday on Home Miss at Belvidere as I had appointed. You have probably learned ere this of the calamity on our Miss. Br. Isely as Roscoe. His whole family, wife and 8 children swept away by the flood of Thursday night. I had planned to visit him to day on my return from Belvidere.

A. Kent

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I spent a Sabbath some months since at Minook and I am quite week satisfied that the statements are not exaggerated. Their prospects are flattering. Br. Brown is regarded favorably by his ministerial Brethren.. I recommend the appropriation.

A. Kent

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This application and letter (and another letter from Br. S.G. Wright in answer to my inquiries) contain all the information I am possessed of and while I endorse the application I may be permitted to say that br. N.C. Clark said “I could continue to live pretty well on 600 as times are this year.”

A. Kent

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[Application of the Congregational Church in Fulton CIty, Illinois]

I think highly of Br. [Josiah] Leonard.

A. Kent

Galena, July 6 [1858]

Some years ago the Old School Brethren jumped our claim at Marengo, organized a church and built a college there but Br. Marcus White and others could not be whipped into the (slavery) trance and it has resulted in a new organization (as has been enacted so often) where there ought to have been but one (N.S. Presb.) Church. I recommend the appropriation of 100 as requested.

A. Kent

____

I wrote to Br. Emerson in reply to his inquiries and his letter and this application in his hand writing satisfy me that the commission should be granted.

A. Kent

_____

I have not been to Lamoille in some time and supposed they had become a Free Mission Ch. but was mistaken. Br. Swift has sent me a copy of his license but I think all will be satisfactory to you without forwarding his letter. I recommend the appropriation of $150 and as requested recommend that the commission date June 1 when he began his work.

A. Kent

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Galena, July 6, 1858

I was quite vexed with the miserable paper on which this application is written and having injured my eyes in reading it. I should not wonder if you sent it back to be copied, as I was half a mind to do, for it is an able document which would be better appreciated if it could be read without hesitation.

Br. Barret has an expensive family and I presume that a knowledge of the facts would convince any reasonable man that 600 is as little as any man could live on in a place where everything must be bot.

I have attended the meeting of trustees and the Ceremonies of Beloit College and Rockford Fem. Sem, and managed to preach on Sabbath for Br. Kellog and the last Sabbath for Br. Phelps or Lee Center and though it had been an exhausting process I am perhaps as well as if I had staid home.

I have begun this morning on a bottle of bitters done up in Menongahella Whiskey for my stomach’s sake.