Life and Letters of Rev. Aratus Kent Introduction

1^[1] Caroline Kent to Chapin

2^[2] See Nelson

3^[3] Newhall, H: Obituary of Aratus Kent. Galena Gazette, Nov. 23, 1869. There is some confusion as to whether Kent was born on the 15th or the 17th. A 1957 letter from the Town Clerk of Suffield in the Beloit College Archives, gives the 17th, but Newhall gives the date as the 15th. Most other biographical sketches seem to be taken from Newhall.

4^[4] Sarah died in 1813 and John married the widow of his brother Elihu in 1815. Biggs, L.V.: Genealogies of the Different Families Bearing the Name of Kent in the United States. Boston, 1898. p. 195.

5^[5] Loomis Collection of Vital Records, Kent Memorial Library, Suffield, Ct., p. 141. This gives Jan. 17, 1794 as the date of Aratus' birth.

6^[6] Justice Nathaniel Dwight (1666-1711). Dwight, B.W.: History of the Decendents of John Dwight. New York, 1874. Vol. I, p. 102-105.

7^[7] Cunningham, C.E. Timothy Dwight. New York, 1942. p. 10.

8^[8] Morse, J., and Morse, R.: New Universal Gazetteer. Hartford, 1821. p. 715.

9^[9] Baldwin, T., and Thomas, J.: A New and Complete Gazeteer of the United States. Philadephia, 1854. p. 1119.

10^[10] Appleton”s, Vol. IV, p. 338.

11^[11] Morgan, F.: Connecticut as a Colony and as a State. Hartford, 1904. Vol. I, p. 308-310.

12^[12] Memorial of Inhabitants of the Town of Galena, in the State of Illinois. Doc. #35, 20th Congress, 2nd Session, Ho. of Reps. Among the signers was Dr. Horatio Newhall, Kent”s close friend and writer of Kent”s obituary.

13^[13]Townsend, Lucy Forsyth: The Best Helpers of One Another: Anna Peck Sill and the Struggle for Women’s Education. Dekalb: Department of Leadership and Educational Policy Studies, Northern Illinois University, in cooperation with Educational Studies Press, 1988. p. 26.

14^[14] Appleton’s, Vol. 2, p. 342.

15^[15] Cunningham, C.E.: Timothy Dwight. New York, 1942. p. 261.

16^[16] Centennial, p. 39.

17^[17] Kent to Professor Emerson, April 17, 1850. Chapin Papers, Beloit College.

18^[18] See March 1860 letter.

19^[19] Cunningham, op cit, p. 238-239.

20^[20] Cuningham, op cit. p. 244-5.

21^[21] Kent, Inaugural Address, Beloit Papers.

22^[22] “Negro slavery existed in the mines for some years. Many of the early miners were from slave-holding states, and brought their slaves with them. In 1823, when Captain Harris arrived, there were from 100 to 150 negroes here. Under the ordinance of 1787, slavery was forever prohibited in the Northwestern Territory, but Illinois sought to evade this organic law by the enactment of statutes by which these slaves could be held here as "indentured" or "registered servants," and these statutes were known as tlle Black Laws. As late as March 10, 1829, the commissioners of Jo Daviess Oounty ordered a tax of one half per cent to be levied and col]ected on "town lots, slaves, indentured or registered servants," etc. (Slavery existed in the mines until after this date and was not abolished until about 1840.) There is now [1878] living in Galena a venerable old colored man, Swanzy Adams, born a slave, in Virginia, in April, 1796, who moved to Kentucky, and thence, in April, 1827, to Fever River, as the slave of James A. Duncan, on the old steamer "Shamrock." His master "hired him" to Captain Comstock, for whom he worked as a miner. He subsequently bought himself for $1,500 (altllough he quaintly says, "good boys like me could be bought in Kentuck for $350"), and discovered a lead on Sunday that paid it, but he was compelled to serve five years ]onger as a slave, and was once kidnapped and taken to St. Louis. "Old Swanzy," as he is familiarly called, is the sole survivor of the slaves held under the Black Laws of Illinois, then in force, but which have lon., since been swept from her statute books. It is p]easant to add that, by hard labor, industry and economy, since he owned himself; “Swanzy” has secured a comfortable home and competence against want in his declining years.” Hist Jo Davies Co. p. 257.

23^[23] Dwight, Timothy: Theology; explained and defended in a series of sermons-with a memoir of the life of the author [by Sermon E. Dwight] 5 vols. Middleton, Ct. 1818-19.

24^[24] Appleton's

25^[25] The term “ultra abolitionist” firt appeared in Kent”s correspondance in 1850. Kent ot Sec., A.H.M.S., Aug. 14, 1850.

26^[26] Kent to Chapin, Beloit papers.

27^[27]Sweet, William W.: Religion on the American Frontier, 1783-1849; Vol. II The Presbyterians. New york, 1964. p.1.

28^[28] Cunningham, op cit. p. 126-128.

29^[29] Quoted in: Turner, F.J.: Rise of the New West, 1819-1829. New York, 1968. p. 11-27 contains an excellent sketch of the New England of Kent's youth - it politics, economics, and its religion.

30^[30] Edwards, John H.: “Rev. Aratus Kent.” in The Church at Home and Abroad, 1895. Edwards quotes one of Edwards twelve adopted children, so must have had access to some family records or at least recollections.

31^[31] Appleton’s Vol. 5, p. 315.

32^[32] Appleton”s, Vol. 3, p. 245-6.

33^[33] Kent visited Greenvile in 1821 and was impressed by the sucess of the plan to transplant a flock with each preacher as a means of settling the frontier. “Such a colony went in a body from Greenville Mass [not listed in Baldwin and Thomas] to Greenville Ohio [A post township in the central part of Darke Co. Ohio, pop. 3417 (1853) (B&T, p. 450)]. The first Sabbath was a day of holy convocation and when I visited them 9 years since it was one of the most pleasant and best societies in the state.” Kent to Secretery AHMS, August 1830. Chapin put Kent”s mission in “western Ohio”.

34^[34] Edwards, op cit.

35^[35] Letter of June 19, 1828 from Portsmouth. Quoted in Riegler, G.A.: “Aratus Kent, First Presbyterian Minister in Northern Illinois.” Jour. of the Pres. Hist. Soc., Vol. 13, 1929. p. 366.

36^[36] Some sources put Kent at Bradford, Mass., and others at Bradford, N.H. Bradford, Mass., was both a township and the name of a village in the township. There are also Bradford Townsihps in Maine and Vermont. see Baldwin and Thomas, A Gazeteer of the United States. 1853.

37^[37] Edwards, op cit.

38^[38] Absalom Peters (1793-1869) was Presbyterian Clergyman, editor, and author. He was born in Wentworth, N.H., the son of Gen. Absalom Peters, a revolutionary veteran. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1816, the same year Kent graduated from Yale. After graduating from the Princeton Theological Seminary, he preached at the First Congregational Church at Bennington, Vt. In 1825 he became secretary of the United Missionary Society of New York. Under his leadership the American Home Missionary Society was established in 1826, with which the New York Society was merged. The A.H.M.S. has a Board of trustees representing sixteen states. He served the Society for 12 years and travelled about 75,000 miles, largely under difficult frontier conditions. He wrote all the annual reports and edited the Home Missionary and Pastor’s Journal. When the schism between the “Old School” and New School” Presbyterians occurred, Peters took his place with the more liberal New School. In 1837 Peters retired from the A.H.M.S. He was instrumental in the founding of the Union Theological Seminary. He assumed the Pastorate of the First Congregational Church of Williamstown, Mass., and served as the financial agent for Williams College, of which he was a trustee. [DAB.]

39^[39] The entire correspondance of the A.H.M.S. consists of 70,000 original letters and 150 volumes of “press” copies of letters written by the Secretaries. Once housed in the Hammond Library of the Chicago Theological Seminary, the letters now reside at the Amistadt Research Senter at Tulane University, New Orleans. Sweet, p. 651-2.

40^[40] Sweet p. 104.

41^[41] Sweet, p. 107.

42^[42] Sweet, p. 117.

43^[43]Kuhns, p. 10.

44^[44] Though often quoted as uttered by Kent, I cannot find where Kent himself ever wrote the phrase. The quote first appears in Horatio Newhall”s obituary sketch of Kent in the Galena Gazette in 1869.

45^[45] Strickland, ed.: Autobiography of Peter Cartwright. p. 358.

46^[46] Kirkpatrick, John Ervin: Timothy Flint, Pioneer, Missionary, Author, Editor. Cleveland, 1911. Appendix B, p.293.

47^[47] Address of Rev. J. Van Vecten, Pastor of the Reformcd Dutch Church, Schenectady, N. Y., The Home Missionary, June, 1829.

48^[48] Latrobe, C.J.: The Rambler in North America. New York, 1835. II:183-4.

49^[49] Ford, T.: A History of Illinois. Chicago, 1854. p. 280-1.

50^[50] Farnham, E.: Life in Prairie Land. New York, 1847. p. 330-1.

51^[51] Ibid. p. 334.

52^[52] Strickland, W.P., ed.: Autobiography of Peter Cartwright, the Backwoods Preacher. New York, 1957. p. 326.

53^[53] Warner, L. to nephew, Galena, June 25, 1833. Levi Warner Papers, Public Library, Polo, Il.

54^[54] Elsewhere (Hist. Jo Daviess Co. p. 498) it is stated that Rivers Cormack was a settler who remained many years.

55^[55] Ibid. The preacher was en route to the east from the Selkirk Settlement, north of Minnesota.

56^[56] Hist. Jo Daviess Co., p. 251. There are references to Kent preaching in a tavern, but I do not find Kent himself writing of it.

57^[57] Mazzuchelli, p. 166.

58^[58] Hist.Jo Daviess, p. 498.

59^[59] Christopher R. Robert was long associated in a lay capacity with the A.H.M.S. In June of 1856 he received correspondance pertaining to contributions for the Soc. from D. J. Ely of Chicago. He was treasurer of the A.H.M.S. during much of the decade of the 1860”s.

60^[60] Robert, C.R. to Peters, A., May 11, 1829.

61^[61] Horatio Newhall to Otis Lockwood, Nov. 19, 1821, Newhall Letters. Quoted in: Davis, J.E.: “Settlers in Frontier Illinois: Primary Evidence, Persistent Problems, and the Historian’s Craft.” Selected Papers in Illinois History, 1981. Springfield, 1982. p. 10

62^[62] Chapin, In Memorium. The Beloit College Monthly, Vol. XVI. #5, p. 122. Chapin corresponded with Mrs. Kent after Aratus Kent died. SHe informed Chapin that Kent had burned most of his letters and diaries shortly before his death. Chapin”s quotes may well have come from letters Kent wrote to Caroline Corning, who became Mrs. Kent in 1832. Chapin put Kent in Bradford, N.H., but Kent”s correspondance with the A.H.M.S. was from Portsmouth, N.H. (June 19, 1828).

63^[63] Chapin, ibid, p. 123.

64^[64] ibid.

65^[65] Kent was as partial to fellow New Englanders as most Yankees who arrived at the Northern Illinois interface between New England and Southern cultures. He expressed either subtly or frankly this same prejudice.

66^[66] Samuel Clemens’ home town.

67^[67] Chapin, “In Memorium,” p. 121.

68^[68] “On the 10th of May he preached his first sermon, in an unfurnished frame house, then being erected by Mr. William Watson, on Bench Street.” Hist of Jo Daviess, p. 455. Apparently this reference is incorect, as Kent gives Sunday, April 19th as the date of his first preaching.

69^[69] Robert, C.R. to Peters, May 11, 1829.

70^[70] Where was "the present [1869] young ladies school"?

71^[71] Chapin, op cit. p. 123.

72^[72] ibid.

73^[73] Kent to Peters, Aug 7, 1829

74^[74] Kent to Peters, Nov. 16, 1829

75^[75] A post office was established at Apple River in December of 1828. The name was changed to Elizabeth in 1842. Illinois Place Names, p. 28.

76^[76] A post office south west of present day Stockton, Illinois. Illinois Place Names, p. 476.

77^[77] Part of present day Rock Island. Illinois Place Names, p. 360.

78^[78] This “point of land” was the site of Saukenuk, Black Hawk”s tribal village. Whether this “sale” was legal under the terms of the Treaty of 1804 between the U.S. and the Sauks can still be debated. Article 7 of that treaty can be interpreted to mean that the Sauks had the right to remain forever upon their ancestral lands. Kent did accurately reports that those lands were advertised for sale in 1829. see: Wallace, A.: Prelude to Disaster. Springfield, 1970. p. 27.

79^[79] Rev. John M. Ellis was an A.H.M.S. worker in Illinois who went east in 1828 to solicit funds for the establishement of a college. Seven young Yale students pledged to go to Illinois to enter missionary and education. Illinois College was the result - an example of cooperation between Presbyterians and Congregationalists. Edward Beecher, the second son of Lyman Beecher, and a Congregationalist became the first President in 1829.

80^[80] Chapin, op cit., p. 123.

81^[81] ibid.

82^[82] Hooper Warren to Ninian Edwards, Feb. 20th, 1830. Ninian Edwards Papers, Chicago Historical Society Library, Chicago. The “partners” were Dr. Addison Philleo and Horatio Newhall. For a sketch of the Northern Illinois career of Hooper Warren, see: Ellsworth, Spencer: Records of Olden Time. Lacon, Ill: Home Journal Steam Printing Establishment, 1880. p. 385-87.

83^[83] The period of 1830-1832 is known as the “mini ice age” among meteroligical historians.

84^[84] The “Watson” house referred to earlier.

85^[85] May 10, 1830.

86^[86] Richard M. Young, the first judge to sit in Galena. Judge Young fined several prominant Galena citizens besides Kent. William Hamilton, the son of Alexander Hamilton, was also fined $5. Hist. Jo Daviess Co., p. 351.

87^[87] ibid. Judge Young sent the sheriff around with the receipt to show that the fine was paid.

88^[88] July 31, 1830.

89^[89] Nelson, R.B.: William Beaumont, America's First Physiologist. Grant House Press, Geneva, Illinois. 1990. p. 176-178.

90^[90] Nov. 13, 1830.

91^[91] Daniel Drake listed many names for malaria: autumnal, bilious, intermittant, remittant, congestive, miasmic, malarial, marsh, malignant, chill-fever, ague fever, ague, dumb ague, and, lastly, the fever.

92^[92] Feb. 26, 1831.

93^[93] idid.

94^[94] Atkinson, Eleanor: "The Winter of the Deep Snow." Trans. of the Ill. State Hist. Soc., 1909. p. 50.

95^[95] Ibid. p. 54.

96^[96] Refers to Black Hawk”s 1831 crossing of the Mississippi. He and his band were convinced to return to the west bank before any conflict took place. The nextr year was a different story. Kent

97^[97] “Citizens of Rock River to John Reynolds, April 30, 1831,” in The Black Hawk War, 1831-32, Vol. II, Part I. Springfield, 1973. p. 3.

98^[98] June 6, 1831.

99^[99] ibid.

100^[100]Sept. 1, 1831.

101^[101] Dec. 1, 1831. The original history of the First Presbyterian Church is reproduced in an appendix.

102^[102] Dec. 1, 1831.

103^[103] Dec. 1, 1831.

104^[104] Dec. 1, 1831.

105^[105] Missionaries correspondance were frequently published in the “Home Missionary and Pastor”s Journal” and this reference is to advise confidentiality.

106^[106] March 1, 1832.

107^[107] March 1, 1832.

108^[108] Buley, Vol. I, p. 368.

109^[109] Hoffman, C.F.: A Winter in the West. New York, 1835. Vol. II, p. 51-52.

110^[110] New York, June 14, 1832.

111^[111] ibid.

112^[112] Solomon Hardy, Greenville, Bond County, Illinois, May 28, 1828 to Absalom Peters.

113^[113] Caroline Pierce was but a child of nine when the journey was made. Her recollections are therefore clouded by the passage of many years.

114^[114] Miss Thompson apparently partially confused Dad Joe Smith's with Issac Chambers' Tavern. The Chambers were likely the proprietors of the "lone house on the stage road" north of Dixon referred to a bit later in the narrative. Issac Chambers was the first white settler in Ogle County, having settled originally just west of Forreston in 1829 after visiting Galena. He later moved down to Buffalo Grove [see historical sketch in 1872 Atlas of Ogle County]). He them moved to "Chambers Grove," just north of Brookvile in 1830, having traded his Buffalo Grove claim to Kellogg. A reference to the destruction of his tavern appeared in the Galena Gazette in June, 1832. "In speaking of Chamber's place eight miles north of Buffalo Grove, he [Captain Bates] remarks: 'The scene in and around the house beggars description. Hogs were tomahawked in the yard, their limbs broken, property of every kind torn in pieces, and an awful momento left to the family, of what they might have expected, had they not saved themselves by timely flight. They apprear to have given Mr. C's books and papers a careful inspection, and as if in sport, turned his clock upside down." The context of this description does not suggest that Chambers' house was burned. However, since Bates passed the site of Chambers house in the last week of May 1832, it is possible that another marauding band of Indians revisited and burned the house later in the 118 day war. In 1858, when Kent recorded his own recollection of the trip, he noted that Chamber's house had, indeed, been burned. (Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library Vol XXXVI, The Black Hawk War, Vol II. Letters and Papers, Springfield, 1973, p. 490.) Issac Chamber's fine brick home built after the war still stands on modern route #64 just across from an historical marker describing Kellogg's Trail. An old stone bridge that was part of the stage road still exists just west of Chamber's house.