Reminiscences of a Wayfarer
Some of the Important Events of the Pioneer Days
of Richardson County and Southeast Nebraska, as
remembered by the writer, who has spent fifty
one years here.
“Tenting on the Old Camp Ground."
“The faintest vest Age of a shrine
Of any worship,begets some thoughts
divine."
The first I ever heard of the Eng
lish poet llyron, the author of the
above couplet, was at a Methodist
camp meeting away hark near
the place of my nativity in an older
state, and mixed up with the dimly
remembered things of my infancy
The preacher that Sunday was a
Hev. Mr. Andrus, an accomplished
pulpit orator, and a scholar of the j
highest attainments.
1 did not know that then, out i
came to know it in after years, when .
the reverend gentleman had climbed
to the very top of professional excel
lence, power and influence in the'
religious world.
Among other beautiful things said
by him that day, in his felicitous
word painting, was his reference to
the incomparable genius of the poet
named, and the wrong use he made
of it—of ills power of expression,
second to none of the Oreck and
Latin poets.nnd equal if not superior
to the Hard of Avon. It is too long
ago, and what he said too imperfect
ly remembered, for me to attempt
its reproduction here, and if he had
failed to titter the words I will pres
ently repeat, I should probably not
have remembered his sermon nt all.
lie believed, or affected to do so,
that Byron was thoroughly had and
essentially wicked, and in a voice of
earnest entreaty warned young men
of (lie evil example of such a man.
a very human diamond, seductive as
the serpent in the garden, brilliant
as the sun, and therefore all the
more dangerous oil that account,
‘‘otherwise,” hissing the words
through his teeth. "In the name of
the great lCnglishumn you will sure
ly urge your way to hell."
Those words have never left me,
hut were the efficient reason for my
examining (lie works of (he poet for
myself, for my own satisfaction and
for the exercise of my own judgment;
and that having done so with what
critical power 1 possess, I am con
strained to say that the eminent di
vine was wholly mistaken in ills mor
al estimate of what the world of let
ters lias long ago acknowledged, one
of tlie greatest, if not the greatest
poet who ever wrote in any language.
Like all the race of distinctively
representative nu n in all times, he
came in for his share of abuse and
misrepresentation (to call it by no
harsher name), and died the worst
traduced and slandered man of his
time, It is the common fate of gen
ius, for the world lias always thought
better of itself when engaged in
storming its prophets.
The plain simple meaning of the
linos quoted above is, thut every
spot on this old rolling globe of ours,
upon which men have worshipped
Clod, lias become holy ground. Had
men, those who arc of the real hard
ened wicked, do not subscribe to that
kind of doctrine; and that is all that
need be said on the subject.
The foregoing reflections arc not
entirely irrelevant to the purpose of
this contribution to my reminiscent
history, as 1 shall endeavor to make
plain as 1 proceed. It is a fact with
in the experience of all who have at
tained to the years of maturity,
though they may not have accounted
to themselves for the knowledge, that
the association of time and place with
persons and events of concurrent ex
istence, is quite as important ns the
persons and events themselves. As
it is impossible to think of persons
and events out of time (1 use the
last term in its popular sense) and
out of space, we attach as much sig
nificance to tlu' one as to the other,
and posit them all together as one
common whole. For example, we
cannot think of the piece of earth on
which the never-to-be-forgotten bat
tle of Waterloo was fought, without
associating with it the mighty armies
that contended there on dune 18,1815,
and the illustrious generals who com
manded them, the slaughter that
was done, the resultant destruction
of an empire, and the end of the
meteoric military and civic career of
that strange human mystery, who in
his day, strode the world like a very
colossus.
Similarly, with every other physi
cal event possible in nature. Time
and space—that is place—are mere
conditions under which we posit
things and so render them compre
hensible in consciousness,—the one
of sequence the other of co-existence.
The popular understanding concern
ing time is illusory and all wrong.
There is no such thing, yet we can
not think of anything dissociated
with some place, and unrelated to
some other thing or event, prior or
subsequent in occurrence or being.
Relation and sequence, therefore, con
stitute the intangible something we
eull •'time."
Hut il is not of these abstractions
I intend to deal in this paper, though
they come in my way for mention,
ns explanatory of the idea I have In
mind.
To the north of our city, and about
two miles distant as the crow flies,
is a secluded spot in tin* breaks of
the Muddy; that possesses for me a
peculiar interest.
It is the old Methodist camp meet
ing ground of fifty-four or fifty-five
years ago. Just when the spot was
dedicated to that use, I am unable to
tell, but according to my best infor
mation on the subeji t, the first meet
ing whs held there either in the sum
luer of IN.In or IS.Ui. ihe site of the
camp is located between two ravines
and on land sloping gently from the
high ground to the point where the
two ravines meet, forming a larger
one that runs off to the north and out
Into the valley of the.Muddy.
At the time I saw it first, over a
half century ago, it was covered with
a grove of young trees, JiiHt thick
enough on the ground to form a can
opy over head with their mingled
foliage, sufficient to afford a sort of
cool twilight shade la which the peo
ple could congregate, locate their
tents, pulpit and altar, with such
rude seating for the accommodation
of the congregation in their devo
tions, as the scanty facilities at hand
for the purpose, would allow.
The arrangement of things always
seemed to lie entirely satIsfactory.and
everybody In that contented frame of
nilml, which, on such occasions Is
peculiarly conductive of pious con
templation and reverential worship.
It was a kind of benediction to watch
those people, or any people so situ
atod, suffering privations, but making
the most of everything; clinging to a
master hope, stronger than life it
self, tlull reaches all the way front
the blight and wilderness of this
world to thy "laud of the leal,"to the
promised haven of rest--for of
all such, is sublimity personified.
Assume for a moment that they
may possibly be mistaken, and that
the reality touching the future exist
ence of the children of men "after
the fitful fever of this life," is over,
shall prove to be someiliing radically
different from what they believe it
will lie, what of it? la not every
thing in- the present state of exist
ente more or less uncertain; and la
It not true that nothing remains pre
cisely the same for any conslderabh
length of time, but is constantly and
forever in a slate of unrest and
change?
Eternity Involves the ld< a of n
change!) ss and an etdraa.1 rest, which
is nothing more than the notion, if
such is admissible, of complete non
existence— the Nervaua of the Bud
dhists.
The earnest Christian, who believes
that the heaven of his hope is a
place of rest, peace-and exerlasting
conscious hnppiness, is, by anticipa
tion as much in the actual enjoyment
of it in his worship on earth, as he
will be in the house of the many man
sions awaiting him In the great here
after. To disturb such a belief—or
dream if you please is to commit
the unpardonable sin.
Tear a man from his illusions- and
human life is largely made up of
thorn and lie has died twice.
i lie chimp meeting is a I'leinoaist
Institution, and a creature of tho
American frontier. I had wisited
many such before I came to Nebras
ka, hut tiiis one over north differed
in one marked particular from all I
had ever s< < n. There were no very
old people in the congregation. 1
doubt whether there were any as
much as fifty years old. The class in
tho middle life, hoih men and women,
predominated. The battles of tills
world, whether between contending
hostile armies, or the pioneers and
the unsubdued wilderness, aie all
fought, and forever will lie fought,
by young men. That fact sufficient
ly accounted for the youthful uppi ar
ance of the people I met for the first
time in large assembly, on the
Archer camp meeting ground in the
late summer of lxf>8.
It was an interesting experience,
and entirely new to me, for 1 was
looking on iny kind with the naked
eye, dissociated from social conven
tions nnd fashion flummeries with
which, in mi other place, 1 had been
familiar. The weather being warm,
the men were mostly in their shirt
sleeves, as though their religious de
votion was a kind of undress func
tion, that could he best performed
without the incumbrance of a coat
There was a faint suggestion of
fashion in tlie hats and dresses of the
women, but it was in the past tense,
and referable to some other place
and time, llui they were all neat,
comely, and adorned with that inher
ent womanly modesty characteristic
of tlii> mothers who have produced
and nursed the greatest race of men
the world has ever known- the Anglo
Saxon. I liked that camp meeting
did'went there every year is long as
it lasted. The preaching was much in
keeping with the surroundings and
conditions, a little primitive, very
simple, but decidedly earnest, and
above all was sincere aud sympa
ib tie. the kind of sermon or message
nf • uragemeet one traveler in the
night cud storm of a sin troubled
world, would be likely to deliver to
li I'-HoWo. Those preachers, and
i ioet er the people, who year after
; i ar. worshipped in that beautiful
Move in the early clays, have long
been at rest, but the shrine remains,
there to preach, in voiceless language
the resurrection and the life, while
the world stands.
According to my best recollection,
the Iasi camp meeting over on the
Muddy, was held in the year 1866,
but 1 do not vouch for the absolute
correctnc ss of this statement. The
reason for believing it true, is the
fact, that in 1866 the first Methodist
church building in Falls City was
erected, and I am certain no camp
un iting was held over there after
that date, l have never been there
during all the forty-five years that
have elapsed, till one day last week.
After 1 determined to write of that
time, and before doing so, 1 conclud
ed to visit the old camp grounds and
see what it looked like. I was care
ful to take no one with me who knew
anything of those meetings, or any
thing el' the spot where they were
held. This was done tHat i might
from recollection alone, hunt out the
place, and the location of points of
interest such as the spring from
which the water supply of the people
was obtained, the pulpit and the
and tiie space devoted to the seating
of tiie congregation.
Accordingly,on last Thursday morn
ing I procured a team and buggy, and
looked about for some fellow as idle
as myself to go with me, and found
one in the person of .Jim Nausler,
who, I knew was engaged in a very
different kind'of camping in the
swamps of the South about the time
those Archer camp meetings were be
ing held, and pressed him into ser
vice with the bribe of a cigar or two,
and the promise of a ride in (lie coun
try. Agreed, and we went. I didn’t
know exactly how to get to the
ground, as the country all about it
has been fenced up since 1 used to
go there, but I knew the general dir
ection -and trusted to accident and
circumstances for success in the en
terprise.
Whoever would go there, can do so
in this wise; Go north from town to
the corner .of the Jones farm, turn
east for probably a lialf a mile to a
neighborhood road running north; fol
low that till a wire fence is reached
near the west ravine that runs by the
old camp ground; go through it by
a gate, and then through another gait
in another fence running north am
south, and from there along the edgt
of the grove to the top of the ridge
east and lie will then stand on the
! southern end of that ancient place of I
worship. The place where the pul-!
j pit and altar were situated, is prob- <
I ably ntiout fifty steps south of the
| meeting point of the two ravines 1
have mention* d, and just south of
that and pretty nearly all over the
sloping space between the two ra
vines, were located the seats for the
congregation and the tents of the
faithful in attendance.
If the place was cleared of debris,
fallen limbs, underbrush, and some of
the lower boughs of the trees lopped
off, with seats, altar and pulpit re
stored, it would look precisely as it
did forty-five years ago, when 1 saw
it last. The grove does not seem to
have changed at all, and yet, I know
that the present growth of trees are
not those, except perhaps three or
four, knarled, crooked and broken
trunks that still stand like “sentinels
forgottou on their posts,” that were
there at the time of which I write.
It required little effort of the imagin
ation to repeople tills neglected spot
with the long dispersed and shadowy
congregations that.,annually met here.
The place is barren of interest with
out such association, and to think of
one, is to think of both.
Blot out the intervening years, and
the grove and the camping ground
are just the same as of yore, but
what of the people who worshipped in
that wood? Gone, except the young
est of them, oirt of life and out
of the world, while the spot they con
secrated to an holy use, is unknown
to the mass, forgotten by many, and
neglected by all.
I i hall have something more to say
on the same subject.
A Narrow Escape.
Edgar N. Bayliss, a merchant of
Robinsonville, Del., wrote: “About
two years ago I was thin and sick,
and coughed all the time and if 1 did
not have consumption, it was near to
it. I commenced using Foley's Hon
ey and Tar, and it stopped my cough,
and i si in now entirely well, and have
gained twenty-eight pounds, all due
to the good results from taking Fol
ey's Honey and Tar. Kerr’s
Pharmacy,
i
| ^ .% .»*.;.
II Wanted!!
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v Horse and Cow Hides, *
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| Porter Randolph f
? Falls City, Phone 422 |
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AT
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Opposite Postoffice Falls City, Neb.
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J in reading matter that your
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per. It keeps you posted on ths
doings of the community.
This Paper
will tell you the things you want
to know in an entertaining way;
will give you all the news of the
community; its every visit will
prove a pleasure; it gives more
than full value for the price
1 asked for it.
— A
To
Uneeda Biscuit
Hunger makes me think of you;
Thought of you makes me hungry.
Between the thought and sight of you,
Indeed I’m always hungry.
But with appetite awaiting—
a nickle in hand and you
in store—who could wish
for anything more?
NATIONAL BISCUIT COMPANY
