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All Rights Reserved By HDM For This Digital Publication Copyright 1995 Holiness Data Ministry Duplication of this CD by any means is forbidden, and copies of individual files must be made in accordance with the restrictions stated in the B4Ucopy.txt file on this CD. * * * * * * * PENTECOSTAL POSSIBILITIES or STORY OF MY LIFE By Milton Lorenzo Haney First Published in 1904 Normal Illinois by M. L. Haney as: The Story of My Life 397 pages Later Published in 1906 Chicago: Christian Witness Co. as: Pentecostal Possibilities 398 pages * * * * * * * Digital Edition 04/22/95 By Holiness Data Ministry * * * * * * * PREFACE At the oft repeated request of judicious and holy people, accompanied, as I think, by kindred suggestions from the Holy Spirit, I at length put in printed form the incidents of my life. This recital involves a glance at parentage and childhood, with early youth in the West, and covers a ministry of fifty-seven years. Too much space may have been given to exciting incidents of the war of the great rebellion; [Civil War] but three years' identity with its front lines of fire and blood can hardly be passed over lightly! The book has been hurriedly written in my seventy-ninth year,* very largely from memory; but is launched with all its imperfections with the prayer that God may use it in the salvation of men after the hand that wrote it has ceased to act. M. L. Haney. Normal, Illinois, July 30, 1903 * * * * * * * CONTENTS Chapter 1 Parentage Chapter 2 Birth and Childhood Chapter 3 A Word on Family Government Chapter 4 Incidents of Boyhood Chapter 5 The Westward Move Chapter 6 Early Methodism Chapter 7 My Conversion Chapter 8 On the Farm Chapter 9 Called to the Ministry Chapter 10 Preparing for the Work Chapter 11 My First Circuit Chapter 12 A Striking Miracle Chapter 13 Spread of Revival Fire Chapter 14 In the Cleansing Fountain Chapter 15 Back to Work Chapter 16 In Peru Chapter 17 Marriage Chapter 18 The Work at Canton Chapter 19 Experience with a Secret Order Chapter 20 Abingdon Chapter 21 Life at Lewistown Chapter 22 Mt. Morris Chapter 23 Mt. Morris (Continued) Chapter 24 At Galesburg Chapter 25 The Battle in Peoria Chapter 26 Farmington Chapter 27 Farmington (Continued) Chapter 28 In Lewistown Again Chapter 29 My Country Calls Chapter 30 The Duties of a Chaplain Chapter 31 The Battle of Pittsburg Landing Chapter 32 The Battle of Pittsburg Landing (Continued) Chapter 33 On to Corinth Chapter 34 The March to Memphis Chapter 35 Before Vicksburg Chapter 36 Young's Point and Vicksburg Chapter 37 The Siege of Vicksburg Chapter 38 Sickness and Rest Chapter 39 Chattanooga Chapter 40 Diverse Experiences Chapter 41 At Atlanta Chapter 42 Mustered Out Chapter 43 Ministry in La Salle Chapter 44 Great Revival in Williamsville Chapter 45 Some Short Meetings Chapter 46 At Atlanta Chapter 47 The Work in Mason City Chapter 48 Campaigning in Southern Illinois Chapter 49 Further Work in Southern Illinois Chapter 50 Some Glorious Victories Chapter 51 End of First Evangelistic Term Chapter 52 Pastorates in Brimfield and Ipava Chapter 53 Early Holiness Work and Workers Chapter 54 The Evangelistic Field Opens Again Chapter 55 Second and Third Evangelistic Years Chapter 56 Our Work in Illinois and Texas Chapter 57 Some Reminiscences Chapter 58 A Miracle of Grace Chapter 59 Two Glorious Years Chapter 60 More Campaigning Chapter 61 The Fifteenth Year Chapter 62 And Yet Three Years Chapter 63 The Wide Battle Line Chapter 64 From Colorado Eastward Chapter 65 Eighteen Hundred and Ninety Seven Chapter 66 The Battles of the Twenty Fourth Year Chapter 67 The Closing Century Chapter 68 Nineteen Hundred and One Chapter 69 The Last Year Chapter 70 In Conclusion Appended To This Autobiography Of M. L. Haney Milton L. Haney: Pastor, Chaplain, Evangelist, Seventy-Six Years A Methodist Minister By Kenneth O. Brown The Last Days Of M. L. Haney By Duane V. Maxey * * * * * * * Chapter 1 PARENTAGE My father, Rev. James Haney, was born in the County of Donegal, Ireland, about the year 1776. He and his brother Thomas came to America in 1782 with my grandfather, John Haney, and settled in Washington County, Pennsylvania. Father was of Scotch descent and reared a Presbyterian, but in boyhood his heart was turned toward the Methodists. He was married to Hanna Freeborn, and from this union there were born twelve children, nine sons and three daughters. In the year 1811, with a small company of adventurers, he removed to Ohio, where, one mile east of where now stands the town of Savannah, in Ashland County, they cut their farms from a dense beech forest. Father was a self-made man, with less help than can now be well conceived, but he made his mark in those times as a man of unswerving integrity, as a real Christian, and an able minister. He was an ordained local preacher for nearly 50 years. He never belonged to a conference, but traveled and preached much more than pastors now usually do. I think he never received one dollar by way of compensation for his ministry. He was twice in the State Legislature, but I have no recollection of his referring to it but once! Father's natural sense of justice was marked and wonderful. I believe he would have scorned the offer of ten thousand dollars, if made on condition that he would wrong a neighbor out of one cent. I think in fifty years he never intentionally swerved a hair's breadth in business transactions from what he saw to be right. In August, 1820, his first wife died at the birth of her twelfth child, and three years afterward he married Mary Bevans, who the 23d day of January, 1825, became my mother. Her parents were born in New England and her father was of Welsh stock. Grandfather Bevans was a revolutionary soldier, but rarely could be drawn out to speak of his war history. Once, after much teasing by his grandson, he conceded that the English dead in the ditch fronting where he stood were three men deep! His relation to the revolutionary struggle marked him to the end of his life with a high order of patriotism After peace was declared he was married to Miss Hannah Owen, who was an intense Calvinist and an earnest defender of her faith. Less than five years had gone by after the close of the war, when Freeborn Garretson appeared in their New England town as a Methodist preacher. The news of his arrival spread like wild fire, accompanied with statements involving his character, the whole population being warned against him as a wolf in sheep's clothing and his church as infidelity in disguise. Not a church, school house, or even a private dwelling could be procured as a preaching place. So Garretson announced that he would preach at 2 P. M. under the shade of a tree the coming Sabbath. My grandfather was a common sinner, and so much had been said against the stranger, that he was curious to see and hear for himself. The opening songs and prayers of the preacher were to him new and wonderful. The company gathered, seemed awe-stricken, as though a man from eternity were there. The Scriptures read, the text announced and the preaching that followed were clothed with Divine authority and the first stroke of Freeborn Garretson's sword cut my grandfather's heart in two! On reaching home he said with emotion to his young wife: "Hannah, that is a man of God." Poor Hannah, thinking her husband would be ruined, raved like a wild woman; but the wound in her husband's heart was too deep for any power to turn him from his purpose, so he went again. On returning the second time to Hannah, she saw a light in his face that had never been there before. The change in her husband was so marked and wonderful that she felt curious to go and see and hear for herself! The prejudices of a lifetime were swept from her great soul under the preaching of Garretson, and her sins rose like mountains before her; but the minister held up Christ bleeding on the cross for her, and my grandmother was born of God! My mother was subsequently converted in her tenth year, about 109 years ago, and joined the Methodist Church under the ministry of Freeborn Garretson. Of this church she was a member eighty-three years. She was a woman of prayer and attained a wide knowledge of the Scriptures. Private prayer and searching the Scriptures were the strongholds of early Methodists. From the time she reached her majority, till her marriage, her time was largely given to teaching. During these years she was widely recognized as a woman of strength in public prayer and exhortation. To the end of her life she possessed a remarkable interest in soul saving. I think I have never known one who surpassed her in soul travail, taking the years together. She was always a believer in the Methodist doctrine of holiness, and always a seeker. Mentally she knew it was received by faith, but eighty-three years were put in in getting ready to believe. Practically she could not shake herself loose from the growth theory which has deceived a multitude of millions. She was strong willed and high tempered, and carried a battle of four score years against self-will and unholy anger. The years of fasting and prayer, of struggle and agony to conquer herself are amazing to contemplate.