St. Clair County, Illinois - Chapter 3 (1 of 2 so headed), 1928

Chapter 3

IT SEEMS appropriate at this point to give brief sketches of some of the more prominent leaders in the movement called Methodism in the particular field occupied by McKendree College. Without these neither the church nor the college would have h.i J any existence, and the reader will have a better idea of how the results recorded in this narrative were brought about if he has some little acquaintance with a few of these men who left such a deep impress upon the age in which they lived. These "knights of the saddle bags" had a large part in the development of the wonderful civilization which it is our privilege to enjoy in these later days.

The man from whom our beloved college took its name was the fourth Bishop of the church in the order of election and the first who was a native born American, and whom one historian has characterized as the "chief founder of the denomination in the west."

William McKendree was born in Virginia, July 6, 1757. His parents trained him carefully in the faith of the church of England. The morals of the youth were nearly perfect. He could remember to have sworn but one profane oath in his whole lifetime, though that vice was common all around him . He was but a youth at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, but he took up arms with the patriot army in their struggle for independence. He served several years, and attained the rank of Adjutant in General Washington's army. He was present at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781 .

His home was on the Brunswick circuit in Virginia. In the year 1787 under the ministry of Rev. John Easter, famous for his eloquence, young McKendree's conscience was effectually awakened. In telling of it in later years he said, "The great deep of my heart was broken up. Its deceit and desperately wicked nature very clearly appeared. My repentance was sincere. I became willing and desirous to be saved on any terms. After three days spent in fasting and prayer and in listening to Mr. Easter while he was showing a large congregation the way of salvation by faith, with a clearness which at once astonished and encouraged me, I ventured my all upon Christ, and my soul was relieved of a burden too heavy to be borne.

and joy instantly succeeded sorrow. For a time I was fixed in silent adoration, giving glory to God for his goodness to such an unworthy creature."

His superior character and abilities soon led his brethren to believe that he should devote his life to the ministry. But in his self-distrust he shrank from the suggestion. Mr. Easter in' duced him to go with him a few trips on his circuit and try out his preaching abiHty. But after several attempts to preach he returned home fearful that he had answered before he was called. However Mr. Easter had more concKENDREE fidence in McKendree's abilities than he himself had. So on Easter's recommendation at the next session of the conference, McKendree was received on trial in the conference and placed under the care of Philip Cox on the Mecklenburg circuit.

Of this appointment McKendree himself says, "I went immediately to the circuit relying more on the judgment of experienced ministers, in whom I confided, than on any clear conviction of my call to the work. When I yielded to their judgment I firmly resolved not to deceive them and to retire as soon as I should be convinced that I was not called of God, and to conduct myself in such a manner that if I failed my friends might 'oe satisfied that it was not for want of effort on my part, but their judgment was not well founded. Sustained by a determination to make a full trial, I resorted to fasting and prayer, and waited for those kind friends who had charge and government over me to dismiss me from the work. But I waited in vain. In this period of suspense I was frequently comforted and supported by the kind and encouraging manner in which I was received by the aged and experienced brethren, and by the manifest presence of God in our meetings which were frequently quite lively and profitable. Sometimes souls were convicted and converted, which afforded me considerable encouragement, as well as the union and communion with my Saviour in private devotion which he graciously afforded me in the intervals of my very imperfect attempts to preach His gospel. In this way I became satisfied of my call to the ministry and that I was moving in the line of duty."

As an example of some of the depressing experiences he had before he reached this conclusion, his biographer tells the following: At one of his appointments on this circuit, after singing and prayer he took his text and tried to look his audience in the face; but so great was his embarrassment that he could not lift his eyes from the Bible till after his attempted sermon was finished. After the service his host at that appointment left the church supposing the preacher would follow him, but when he did not come after a reasonable time, the host returned to the church and found McKendree sitting on the lowest step of the pulpit stairs, his face covered with his hands, looking forlorn and dejected as though he had not a friend in the world. He very kindly invited the despondent preacher to go home with him. McKendree replied in a mournful tone, "I am not fit to go home with anybody."

Sometime later McKendree was sitting sad and alone in the parlor of the home where he was being entertained, when an aged minister whose name is not given in the record, came in and laying a kindly hand on his shoulder, said to him, "Brother, my mind is strongly impressed that God has a great work for you to do, and I believe the impression is from the Lord. Don't run away from the cross. Take it up. Go to the work and be faithful." While uttering these prophetic words, the tears ran down the old man's cheeks and he left young McKendree with his mind greatly moved. The history of the church through the years has recorded the result. He made full proof of his ministry.

He was for a time under the influence of the reactionary O'Kelly who tried to induce him to send his resignation to Bishop Asbury. He was for a while uncertain whether or not to believe O'Kelly 's representations of the Bishop. He finally decided to satisfy himself as to the real character of Asbury by a visit and personal interview with him. Accordingly he made a trip on purpose to see the Bishop and came back fully convinced that O'Kelly had misrepresented him. He went back to his work with a devotion that never again wavered.

In 1794 Bishop Asbury took McKendree with him to South Carolina and appointed him to Union Circuit. The next year he was back again in Virginia, but before the year closed he was sent to Greenbrier Circuit among the Allegheny Mountains; and thence to the Little Levels on the Kanawha River, the remotest part of the Virginia Conference. "Surely," says his biographer. Dr. Fry, "This was a style of itinerancy that would frighten many of his successors in these days, but such was the zeal of the preachers of that day that they delighted in the most self-denying labors."

During the remainder of the century he traveled large districts as presiding elder. One of them extended along the Potomac in Maryland and Virginia, reaching from the Chesapeake to the Alleghenies. He had now become one of the leading men of the church.

His personal appe.irance was impressive. He w.is nearly six feet tall, with robust frame, and weighed about one hundred and sixty pounds. He had abundance of d.irk hair and keen yet kindly blue eyes.

His voice was deep and flexible; his tones were clear and his enunciation good. His mind was quick and keen. His manner was calm and dignified, but he was so singularly observant that nothing in sight escaped his notice. One who knew him during most of his public life said of him, "His intellect was bright and his thoughts were diamond-pointed. He never said foolish things; never weak or common things. There was thought in all his words and wisdom in all his thoughts. He was the man for the times and the age in which he lived. I shall never see his like again. He was communicative, companionable and sympathizing. There was no coldness, coarseness, or selfishness about him. Without eff^ort he found his way to the confidence and esteem of every one, old and young, white and black, rich and poor. As a pulpit orator his excellence consisted mainly in his power of analysis. In this respect I think I never heard his superior. He was not wanting in description and pathos, but in argument he was overwhelming. His sermons were generally short, especially in the last years of his ministry. His public prayers were simple, comprehensive and brief; while they were at the same time the essence of humility and the breath of devotion."

Asbury judged him fit to be the leader of the western itinerancy. He passed into the valley of the Mississippi where a grand career awaited him. For thirty-five years he was the most influential figure in the Methodism of this valley. One writer says of him, "He was the most truly eloquent Bishop that his church has ever possessed, and one of the best preachers of any church or age."

He never married because he chose to give his whole time and energy to the cause he loved and the church he served. And this left no opportunity for a settled home and domestic life. He died at the home of his brother near Nashville, Tennessee, March 5, 1835. His last words were, "All is well." His remains lie buried on the campus of Vanderbilt University at Nashville. A very modest stone with a very meager inscription marks the grave. Some years ago when Dr. Isaiah ViUars was president of McKendree, he started a movement to have the grave of Bishop McKendree moved to the campus of McKendree College But the authorities of Vanderbilt refused to consider the possibility of any such transfer. There are two pictures of Bishop McKendree at the college. One of them has the Bishop's own autograph pasted under the portrait. This was clipped from a letter that he wrote to that Lebanon pioneer. Uncle Ben Hypes.

Peter Cartwright

A very prominent character in early Methodism was the pioneer preacher, Peter Cartwright. A number of biographies of him have been written, but we wish to give here only a brief sketch which will enable the reader to better appreciate his part in the religious and educational history of his time.

His own autobiography has been said by one Hterary critic to show the most "distinctly American spirit of any book yet written." Probably this is because it always records his triumphs but never his failures.

He was born in Virginia, September i, 178-;, "a son of poverty." His parents moved to Kentucky while he was yet a child. His mother was a Methodist and tried to give her son religious training. His father was "not so much a bad, as a good-for-nothing kind of man." Therefore he was subject to no restraints except his mother's talks and prayers, which he says drew tears from his eyes and resolutions to reform and seek religion. But when he got away among his rough and thoughtless companions, he would forget his mother and go to the horse races. He was naturally wild and sometimes wicked, and in his youthful days delighted in horse-racing, card-playing, and dancing. In 1801 he was converted and joined the Methodist church. The following year he was licensed to exhort by Jesse Walker. In 1804 he was received into the Western Conference and appointed junior preacher on the Salt River circuit, with William McKendree as his presiding elder. Here McKendree directed him in a proper course of . reading and examined into his progress at each quarterly meeting. Later in hfe he acknowledged himself more indebted to McKendree than to any other person for his attainments, meager tho they were, in literature and divinity. In the summer of 1806 he was married to Frances Gaines, a woman worthy to rank with the noble women of Methodism, and who exerted a more favorable influence on her husband than any or all other persons combined. Her character is well drawn by Solomon or whoever is the author of the last chapter of Proverbs. A woman who lived in the Cartwright home for some years says of her, "Sister Cartwright was one of the most industrious and amiable women I ever knew. Whatever she did seemed to be done better and quicker than anybody else could do it." His ministry was carried on in Kentucky, with the exception of one year in the Wabash district in Illinois, until 1824 when the Illinois Conference was organized. He then transferred to that conference and spent the remainder of his life in Illinois. Prior to 1824 he had been twice elected to the general conference and had distinguished himself as a bitter opponent of slavery, and had published his celebrated "Letter to the Devil." He had planned to be present at the organiza' tion session of the Illinois Conference at Summerfield, but was hindered by the death of his daughter, a little girl who was killed by a falling tree where they camped one night on the way . A little later he settled on a farm which he bought in Sangamon County near Pleasant Plains, which was his home for the remainder of his life. This farm is now owned by Mr. Walter Nottingham who has lived on it many years, and who was once a student in Mc Kendree. Mrs. Johnson whom we quoted above gives this brief description of Cartwright's personal appearance: "He was short, thick, heavy-set, with a large neck, coarse and rough in his manners, and anything else but grave. After preaching with power and praying as few men could, he would have a dozen or twenty persons, frequently some of the roughest in his congregation, all indulging in uproarious laughter at his jests before he was ten feet away from the pulpit. He was at times as kind and affectionate as any man, but often as abrupt as if entirely destitute of feeling. He was however generally affectionate in his family. When his wife would chide him for leaving home so much when not all the family were well, I have seen him sit down and weep like a child. And when he came home from his round of quarterly meetings it was not an hour before he got up a general romp with the children."

Rev. J. M. Gunn speaks of him as follows in "Methodism in Tennessee": "I never knew him to get hoarse or appear tired in his preaching. He was death upon whisky-drinking, tobacco, and coffee. Take him altogether he was one of the most powerful men I ever heard."

Dr. Redford says of him: "Few men in the west have labored with more untiring energy in the ministry than Peter Cartwright. While traveling the Cumberland District he often returned home from his quarterly meetings worn and weary, but in order to support his family he would work his fields by the light of the pale moon. Prompt in meeting his appointments, it was very seldom that he disappointed a con' gregation." Before he left Kentucky he became a terror to evil' doers in that state, administering reproof with unsparing hand. He came to Illinois in 1824 and for nearly fifty years showed the same characteristics in his ministry here. In view of the extent of his labors, the severe privations he endured, the meager support he received from the church, the fiithfulness with which he performed his duties, and his deep devotion to the cause for which he labored, we conclude that it would be difficult to find his equal. True there were some things about him that we would have had different if possible. His manner of dealing with his opponents would not be tolerated in the church of today but it was very effective in dealing with a class of people who were common in his day. He died at Pleasant Plains Sept. 25, 1872.

Samuel H. Thompson

SAMUEL H. THOMPSON Samuel H. Thompson was born in Pennsylvania, March 16, 1786. His parents were Presbyterians and he was carefully instructed in their faith. He received a good English education. He was converted at twenty and began to preach at twenty' three. He assisted in holding the first Methodist camp meeting in Indiana, which was a time of "great power and glory." He was presiding elder of the Illinois district when it covered more than two-thirds of the state. He was once nominated for Lieutenant-Governor of Illinois but he could not be induced to follow the electioneering customs practiced by candidates of that day, as well as this, so he was not elected. He served as agent for McKendree College and was president of the Board of Trustees. He was at different times pastor of the Lebanon circuit, Alton, Belleville, and other charges m Illinois. He was a man of fine personal appearance and in manners was a polished Christian gentleman. He had fine social qualities and was an admirable conversationalist. As a preacher his style was hortatory rather than didactic. His discourses abounded in anecdote and illustration. He could tell a story with a grace and force that strongly impressed those who heard him. He was very sympathetic and like Jeremiah his head was a fountain of tears. His sweet spirit endeared him to all who knew him. He was five times elected to the general conference; and on one occasion, the bishop being absent, he was chosen to preside during the entire session of his own conference. In his family worship it is said that he covered the field so thoroly that he sometimes prayed for his horse as well as for the various members of the family. He excelled in raising funds for benevolent causes and was so frequently engaged in that work that he was called by some "the beggar general."

On one occasion he closed his appeal by telling the people to come forward and lay their offerings on the table. Among those who responded was a man who put his hand deep into his pocket and took out a handful of silver in order to pick out a piece for his gift. Thompson saw him and as if supposing he intended to lay it all upon the table, exclaimed at the top of his voice, "Thank God for one liberal soul." By this time all eyes were fixed on the "liberal" gentleman who then felt that he must indeed lay down the entire handful. Peter Cartwright says of him, "Mr. Thompson had a passion for lost souls, and spent the best years of his life seeking them out and trying to show them the way to Heaven. No doubt many are now praising God in eternity because this self-sacrificing Methodist preacher taught them the way of life, m their mud hovels and murky cabins. During his last illness he requested that the neighbors be called in that he might preach to them once more, while propped up in bed before he left for Heaven. It was done. The room was crowded and such a sermon hardly ever fell from the lips of mortal man. The power of God fell on the congregation. They wept aloud and fell in every direction. Many dated their start for Heaven from that sermon. And now having delivered his last message he said, 'My work is done and I am ready to go at my Master's bidding'."

John Dew

JOHN DEW Rev. John Dew was born July 19, 1789 in the state of Virginia. In early youth he became religious and joined the Meth' odist church. At the age of twenty-four he felt the call to the ministry and joined the Ohio Conference in 181 3. After serving three years he located and married a wife. After a few years he came west and joined the Missouri Conference in 1824 just before the Illinois Conference was cut off from it. From that time on he was m the Illinois Conference. In 1830 and again m 183,2 he was appointed pastor of the Lebanon Circuit. In 1835 he located again. This was probably for reasons connected with the support of his family. In 1836 he was readmitted and appointed president of McKendree College. He held this position only two years and then was appointed Presiding Elder of the Lebanon District. He held this position to the end of his life. His death occurred September 5th, 1840, after an illness of two weeks. He was then only fifty -one years of age and presumably in the prime of his ability. The family left to mourn his loss consisted of his wife and seven children. His biographer says that as a minister he was able and useful. As a Presiding Elder his services will be long remembered.

As a man he was honest; as a citizen he was public spirited; in the domestic circle he was kind and affectionate; as a Christian his walk and conversation recommended the religion he had spent the greater part of hi? life in preaching to his fellowmen.

Peter Cartwright, his intimate friend says of him, "He had a fine order of talent as a preacher, was a strong theological debater, had a clear and sound mind, and was well qualified to defend the doctrines of the Bible against infidelity, and the doctrines of Methodism against all sectarian assailants. He was popular and useful as a preacher, labored hard, suffered much in spreading the Gospel, lived beloved, and died lamented by thousands." He was said to be of fine personal appearance with black hair and piercing eyes. His voice was very musical and in reading the Scriptures or lining the hymns he often produced a powerful effect on his hearers.

Jesse Walker

Dr. Lea ton says that to Jesse Walker, Methodism in Illinois and Missouri is more indebted than to any other single individual. He was born in Virginia June 9, 1766 and hence was nineteen years older than Cartwright. He had very slight educational opportunities in his youth. Twenty days would cover the whole period of his school life. When only nine years of age he was religiously awakened under the preaching of a Baptist preacher in Virginia, but for the want of religious instruction and environment he later backslid and became very wicked. At twenty he was reclaimed and joined the Methodist church. He was at once appointed class leader and became very useful in that field. His friends urged him to enter the ministry but he refrained until he was thirty-six, when he finally yielded to the call and joined the Western Conference. At this time he was living in Kentucky and had a wife and two daughters. He had only moderate preaching ability, but he possessed a soul burning with desire for the salv.ition of others. He was unable to discuss the learned theological doctrines, but he could tell the story of the cross with such pathos and power as to melt the hardest heart.

Governor Reynolds, in his Pioneer History of Illinois, refers to him in the following words, "Mr. Walker was a man of great energy and courage; very excitable and producing great excitement in his congregations. He was a short well-set man, walked erect, and was possessed of great firmness, energy and perseverance. His complexion was sallow. His eyes were blue, small, and piercing. He was not a profound scholar, but a student of the Scripture and of human nature."

Spring of 1806 he paid his first visit to Illinois. He was greatly delighted with the country and felt that here God had a great work for him to do. He went back to Kentucky and finished the year on his circuit, and at the next conference he was appointed to the Illinois circuit. He arrived home from conference at noon. By ten o'clock the next day he was ready to start, with his family for his new field of labor in Illinois. They braved the handicap of high waters, storms, hunger, and cold as they traveled the two hundred weary miles from Hartford, Kentucky to Turkey Hill in St. Clair County, Illinois. Near there he located his family, and they lived there for several years while he was constantly travelling through the pioneer communities of Illinois and Missouri. His parsonage was an old log cabin belonging to William Scott. It had a plank floor, which was better than many had at that time, a stick chimney, and a big fire place with a hearth so low that the edge of the floor served as seats for all the family, around the fire. He immediately entered upon his labors as a circuit rider and at the next New Year's eve held a "Watch night meeting"which was said to be the first ever held in Illinois. In connection with that meeting he also held the first "love feast" in Illinois. In April 1807 he held the first camp meeting in Illinois, at a place about three miles south of the present city of Edwardsville. Late in July of the same year he and William McKendree, then presiding elder of the Cumberland District, held another camp meeting at Three Springs, later known as Shiloh, which resulted in the organization of the Shiloh church, which is now the oldest Methodist church in Illinois.

In one of his itineraries west of the Mississippi river he held a camp meeting on the spot where later was built the McKendree Chapel, which was the first Methodist church west of the Mississippi river. In 1819 he planted Methodism in St. Louis. When he and two other preachers arrived in town they found the Territorial Legislature in session. Every public house was crowded with guests and there was literally "no room for them in the inn." When their mission became known they were ridiculed and insulted by those who should have respected them. Walker's two companions soon deserted him. A little later he too became so discouraged by his treatment there that he decided to leave the wicked place to its fate and seek a more appreciative field of labor. He mounted his horse and turned his back on the future great city. But after going a few miles he reconsidered and in his own mind resolved that "by the Grace of God he would take St. Louis for Jesus Christ." So he turned back and renewed his efforts. When after a few days the only place where he was permitted to preach w,is closed against him, he boldly rented a room for ten dollars a month and held meetings there five days m the week and twice on Sunday. At the end of the conference year he had built a house of worship and reported seventy-five members in his church. Besides this he had estabHshed an outpoint on his charge at Alton, thirty miles away, where he had a regular appointment to preach once a month at the house of Nathaniel Pinckard. In the Spring of 1825 he preached the first sermon inChicago,ortheplacethatafterwardsbecameChicago.

Mr. Walker could not confine himself to any particular field. He adopted Wesley's motto, "The World is my parish." To hundreds of early settlers he was the first to carry the glad tidings of the Gospel. When John Sinclair was appointed to the Chicago District he found that wherever he went Walker had been there before him. Being ambitious to preach the gospel first to some of the newcomers, and hearing of a family that had just settled at Root River in Wisconsin, he made all haste to carry them the word of eternal life. On his way there he met Mr. Walker. On inquiry about his health Walker told him that he was quite well but weary, as he was just returning from a long trip looking after a family who had recently settled at Root River. In despair Sinclair gave up hope of ever being the first to take the gospel to anybody as long as Walker was anywhere in the country.

One historian says Walker was to the church what Daniel Boone was to the early settlers - preceding all others long enough to be a pilot to the newcomers. His natural vigor was almost superhuman. No day's journey was too long for him to travel. No fare was too poor for him to live upon. To him, in travelling, roads and paths were useless things. He blazed his own course. If his horse could not carry him, he led the horse. Where the horse could not follow, he left him and pursued his course on foot. If night and a cabin did not come together, he would pass the night alone in the wilderness, which was no uncommon occurrence with him. He was never lost. As the church moved north and west it seemed to bear Walker before it. Every time you would hear from him he was a little farther on. When at last feebleness of body com' pelled him to take a place with the superannuates he did not long survive the process of retirement.

Peter Akers

PETER AKERS Peter Akers was born near Lynchburg, Campbell County, Virginia, September i, 1790. His parents, John and Agnes Akers, were Presbyterians and gave their children careful religious training. After being educated in the common schools of his state, he began to teach when only sixteen years of age. Later he attended two higher institutions of learning, one in

Virginia and the other in North Carolina. He pursued the classical course and acquired habits of close and diligent study, but did not attain a degree. Then, altho his mother, wished him to enter the ministry, he decided to study law. He went to Sterling, Kentucky, where he first taught school for a time and then studied law in the office of Major Fleming of Flemingsburg,

Kentucky. He was admitted to the bar in 181 7 and became Major Fleming's partner. About two years later he began the publication of a paper called "The Star" but he did not continue long in editorial work. He was married March 12,, 1818 to Miss Eliza Farris. She died of tuberculosis June 24, 1821, leaving one son, Joshua Soule Akers, their first child having died in infancy. This son was the only one of his children who grew to maturity and lived to succeed his father in the gospel ministry. Shortly before the death of his wife in 1821 he was converted in a Methodist revival meeting and a few months later began his career as a Methodist preacher. He was admitted to the Kentucky Conference in 1821 and his first charge was Limestone Circuit. The next year he was appointed to Kentawa on which charge he organized seventeen Sunday Schools during the year and received as his entire cash salary the magnificent sum of $3,7.56.Thenext year he was appointed to the Fleming Circuit and m the course of this year he had a remarkable religious experience which probably affected his entire subsequent career. In 1826 he was sent to Lexington which was one of the prominent charges. It was here that he married his second wife, Elizabeth Reed. In 1832 he came to Illinois where he remained a member of the Illinois Conference for the rest of his life. The next year after he came to Ilhnois his scholarship and ability was recognized in his election to the presidency of McKendree College. He was president when the first charter was obtained in 1835. He continued in this position three years and twice thereafter he was president of McKendree for short periods, but he seemed to feel that his principle work was in the pulpit. He served in numerous important charges and was presiding elder of the Springfield District two terms, Quincy District two terms, Jacksonville District one term, and the North Jacksonville

District two years. He was a member of eight General Conferences, but on account of his extreme modesty, refused to make a speech after the reporters were admitted in 1840. The first degree that McKendree College ever conferred was the Doctor of Divinity bestowed upon Mr. Akers in 1839. He published a book while he was President of McKendree, entitled "Biblical Chronology" upon which he spent many years of study and research. He was a mighty pulpit orator and had no superior in Methodism in that field during the years of his active service. It is said that an audience would often listen to his preaching from two to four hours at a time with unabating interest and without realizing that the sermon was long. Lincoln heard him one day in one of his great efforts and went away feeling that he himself was to be in some way concerned with the overthrow of slavery. He was a prophet with the spirit of Elijah or Malachi. The evil of slavery was one of his favorite themes. In 1856 he was preaching one Sunday morning in the college chapel. After discussing the subject of slavery at some length he approached the pulpit stand with a gravity which hushed the audience to a breathless stillness, placed his long fore finger upon the page of the open Bible, and with all the solemnity of a Jeremiah, said, "I cannot give you the exact date but in the latter part of i860 or the early part of 186 1 there will arise in this nation the greatest internecine war known to the history of the world. It will be brother against brother, family against family, and thousands of hearth stones will be made desolate. But thru this bloody baptism we must pass for the deliverance of the slave from bondage." His active ministry covered a period of forty-six years. In 1867 failing health made it seem wise to take the superannuate relation. But even after that he spent almost a score of useful years living in retirement in the city of Jacksonville, with his third wife who was Miss Anne Goheen. He lived in a house which the citizens of Jacksonville gave him in order to have him Hve in their city. His home was a mile from the Methodist church, yet as long as his health permitted, he could be seen regularly every Sunday morning walking the mile each way to and from church. A friend of his used to say that this was a splendid object lesson on the duty of church going, and that he was in reality preaching a sermon "two miles long" every Sunday. When his son the Rev. Joshua Akers left Illinois to take up work out west a few years before his father's death, in bidding him goodby the aged patriarch said, "My son, I am old. My time has been well lengthened out. My work is done. I cannot live much longer, but I am unable to give you the date of my death any nearer than to say it will occur on Sunday morning at the hour of the church service." When the time of his departure from earth did come, the son received a dispatch on Tuesday saying his father could not live much longer. He remembered his father's parting prophecy and after consulting a railway guide he reasoned thus, "I can leave here on Thursday, be with him on Saturday and thus see him alive, for he will not pass away till Sunday." Following this plan he arrived home and received his father's parting messages on Saturday, and on Sunday morning while the church bells of Jacksonville were ringing for the morning services his spirit took its departure. This was on Feb. 21, 1886.