The Autobiography of Isaac Reed, Frontier Missionary

Edited by Donald E. Thompson and Lorna Lutes Svlvestefl

“This is Friday 22d January-1829, when I have set down in my study in the Town of Bloomington, Monroe Co-& state of Indiana to write out a sketch of my life for the benefit of my children when I shall be removed by death. Of this removal I ought to think daily. I am now 41 years old & am just recovering from a long distressing & dangerous fever A bilious intermittent.” Isaac Reed thus began his “Auto Biography.” One of the “giants” in the missionary field in early-nineteenth-century Indiana,’ Reed filled his manuscript with much religious intro- spection and self-analysis, considerable factual detail, and myr- iad comments concerning what he believed to be the ever- deteriorating state of his health. His account is typical of many diaries and letters written by missionaries on the midwestern frontier in the 1800s. The first section of the autobiography covers Reeds life from his birth to 1817. Born in Granville, Washington County, New York, on August 27, 1787, of “pious,” Congregationalist parents, Reed grew up in a “religious settlement” where church attendance was “regular & constant.” From the beginning, he confesses, “my heart was after books. I cannot tell when I did not love more to be at school than to be employed on the farm. And usually when away from school, I loved reading more than play.” Reed graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont in 1812 and was admitted to membership in his home church later the same year. There followed several short teaching stints and at least one attempt at studying law-all abandoned because of

* Donald E. Thompson is archivist, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indi- ana. He has recently compiled Indiana Authors and Their Books, 1967-1980 (Crawfordsville, Ind., 1981). Lorna Lutes Sylvester is associate editor, Indiana Magazine of History. L.C. Rudolph, Hoosier Zion: The Presbyterians in Early Indiana (New Haven, Conn., 1963), 51. 194 Indiana Magazine of History poor health-but always the young man “looked wistfully to- wards the ministry.” Plagued throughout his life by severe pulmonary problems, Reed feared that the frequent public speaking contingent upon a religious career would be too rigor- ous for him, but by late 1813 he had nevertheless determined upon the ministry as his profession. He resumed his studies and was licensed to preach by the Fairfield Congregational Association in Connecticut in May, 1816. During the next year he supplied several congregations in New York as both tempo- rary and resident pastor and was commissioned to work in the western part of the state for one of the New York missionary societies. The consequent deterioration of his health made it necessary for him to “endeavor to improve it. This I did,” he wrote, “by travelling in the Summer of 1817.” Reed described the next period in his life, that from 1817 to 1826, in his book, The Christian Traveller, published in New York in 1828. Included are accounts of his trip from New England to Kentucky via Virginia, his life in and travels around the Midwest, and his journey back to New York. Reed spent a large part of these nine years in the Hoosier state, seemingly always on the move. Beginning in October, 1818, he served for one year as minister of a church in New Albany, where he established one of the first Sunday schools in the state. He resigned this position in 1819 to work under commis- sion for the Connecticut Missionary Society. For the next several years Reed traveled throughout southern Indiana and Kentucky distributing Bibles, preaching, and founding churches. On December 25, 1819, he married Elinor Young of Danville, Kentucky. In 1822 he purchased an eighty-acre farm in Owen County near that of Baynard Rush Hall, his brother-in-law and future professor at the state seminary in Bloomington. Reed planned to reside in his “Cottage of Peace,’’ serve as pastor of a local church for one half his time, and spend the remainder traveling about the state as a representa- tive of an eastern missionary society. Travel he did-2,480 miles in 1824 alone-preaching, conducting ordinations and installations, and establishing still more churches. During this period Reed founded at least eight congregations in Indiana, including ones at Bloomington, Crawfordsville, Indianapolis, Greencastle, and Terre Haute. In 1825 he asked to be released as pastor of Bethany Church, near Gosport, in part because he Autobiography of Isaac Reed 195

ISAACREED THECHRISTIAN TRAVELER

Reproduced from L C Rudolph, Hcwsrer Zion The Presbyterians tn Early Indiana (New Haven, Conn , 1963). opposite 111 196 Indiana Magazine of History had not received even one dollar from his congregation for almost two years; in 1826 he decided to return east to live.2 Reed‘s manuscript autobiographical account resumes with his settlement as a minister in Moriah, Essex County, New York, in the autumn of 1826. For almost two years Reed continued his pastorate with this congregation and continued his almost incessant travels-sometimes on behalf of one or the other of the missionary societies, sometimes to New York City to attend religious meetings, and sometimes to restore his health.3 On one such journey to the Midwest he decided to return to Indiana to live, and in the fall of 1828 he, his wife, and children traveled back to the Hoosier state. The Reeds settled in Bloomington for several years, then lived in various places in Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana-including South Hanover, Putnamville, and Terre Haute. In 1854 Reed once again returned to New York where he lived in Auburn and Waterloo for a time, then yet again west to Olney, Illinois. While his family remained in Olney, Reed spent some time in Missouri. Returning to Illinois, “he suffered a severe hemor- rhage of the lungs, and imprudently attempting to fulfil an engagement to preach, was attacked with typhoid pneumonia, and after a brief struggle died Thursday night, January 14, 1858.” His wife died May 9, 1869, at the home of her daughter near Putnamville, Indiana.4 Reed was typical of the early Presbyterian minister/missionary in the Hoosier state: he was well educated and a Yan- kee. A Congregationalist in background, he was ordained by the Transylvania Presbytery in October, 1818, and all his work and all the churches that he founded in Indiana were for the Presbyterian~.~Although not known as a stickler for the rules, he adhered firmly to such Presbyterian tenets as careful prepa- ration for communion; and in the New School-Old School divi-

Isaac Reed, The Christian Traveller, in Five Parts, Including Nine Years, and Eighteen Thousand Miles (New York, 1828), 98, 138-40, 145, 157-59, 212-13, passim; Rudolph, Hoosier Zion, 46, 76-77, 61. 3 After experiencing a “hemorage commenced from the lungs” in the spring of 1827, Reed commented: “An absence from such frequent public labors & a journey had now become necessary. In a few days [following June 23, 18271 our fifth child & first son was born & soon after this I set out for Indiana. I travelled on horseback & with the journey my health improved.” Hanford A. Edson, Contributions to the Early Histoy of the Presbyterian Church in Indiana . . . (Cincinnati, 1898), 115. The Presbyterians and Congregationalists had a long history of coopera- tion. In 1801 the Plan of Union allowed ministers of both denominations to serve congregations interchangeably and authorized joint missionary operations in the West. Rudolph, Hoosier Zion, 37, 45-46. Autobiography of Isaac Reed 197

sion in the Presbyterian ranks, he was a New School advocate.(j Reed proved more adept than many of his colleagues at over- coming the stigma that frontiersmen attached to what they considered “uppity,” polished, cultured preachers. Though often critical of many aspects of frontier society, he was a true friend of the West and was apparently accepted as such. The portion of Reed’s previously unpublished autobiography that is reproduced below begins with the family’s return to Indiana in the autumn of 1828 and concludes abruptly-as does the manuscript-in 1844.7 Not as graphically descriptive as The Christian Traveller, the autobiography, even when it becomes a mere catalog of the minister’s itinerary, is nonethe- less revealing. The amount of travel that Reed describes as part of his profession is in itself astounding. To be imagined are the execrable road conditions, primitive housing, and inclement weather. Commissions for various eastern missionary societies oc- casioned many of Reed’s journeys. These groups were part of an organized missionary movement that began in the late 1700s and early 1800s both in England and along the eastern coast of the United States. Formed purportedly to bring the Christian spirit to the “unevangelized” and to convert the “heathen,” the societies initiated and provisioned countless missionary efforts on the frontier during the early nineteenth century; their influence on religious development in the Midwest is incalculable. Reed, who served as agent for several such eastern groups, probably welcomed his missionary labor as much for its financial benefits as for its religious implications. The missionary societies paid and provided for their ministerial representa- tives; the small, local churches often did not. In many cases congregations were simply unable to pay; cash was almost non- existent on the frontier, and even produce was sometimes hard to come by. Then, too, many Westerners believed that clergy- men should not expect remuneration for serving God. Reed and

Elbid.,98-99. For a discussion of the New School-Old School split in the Presbyterian church see ibid., 118-36. ’Reed began his autobiography in January, 1829, and during that winter described the events in his life from 1787 to 1817. He resumed his writing in January, 1839, picking up his narrative with the year 1826-The Christian Tmueller having covered the years from 1817 to 1826. He had brought the autobiography up to date by February, 1839, and ceased to write until Novem- ber, 1845, when, starting with the year 1839, he once again began to relate his activities. He had reached the winter of 1844 before he stopped. Reed thus left an autobiographical account of his entire life except for the years between 1844 and his death in 1858. 198 Indiana Magazine of History his colleagues soon learned that their congregational salaries would be paid in part in kind and in part not at all.8 In an effort to supplement his income or, actually, to pro- vide a living for his family, Reed established and taught schools in virtually every community in which he resided. The amount of illiteracy that he found in the Hoosier state appalled him. He learned on his very first missionary journeys to ask if settlers could read before he handed out Bibles or religious tracts. Although he considered the common schools in Indiana generally inferior to those in other northern ~tates,~his own endeavors illustrate the brevity and uncertainty of education in the Midwest during the first half of the nineteenth century. Reed’s schools rarely lasted longer than a few months, sometimes only a few weeks. The missionary’s poor health and his religious commitments were frequently at fault; in addition, as one historian put it, those “same settlers who did not pay their subscription to the church did not pay their tuition to the school.”lo It is ironic that the Isaac Reed of the autobiography is not necessarily the leader in “missionary statesmanship” that appears elsewhere.” The minister emerges from his memoir as somewhat inept and rather selfish, a man inordinately con- cerned with the status of his health and his soul. Almost immediately upon his arrival in the Midwest he claimed that the climate was not as salubrious as he had been led to expect,l* but he must have thrived on it: he was seventy when he died. In truth, he was often ill, but the typical Hoosier settler of the early 1800s experienced “intermittent fever,” “bilious fever,” cholera, “milk sick,” and similar complaints more frequently that not. Reed was almost constantly on the move in the course of his ministerial-missionary career; yet, he repeatedly resigned positions to travel to restore his health. Mrs. Reed, though often sick herself, was apparently never accorded the same opportunity. She also obviously reared the couple’s children almost alone, as well as teaching to augment the family’s income. In fact, Reed rarely comments about his wife and children in his autobiography, a fact that is perhaps as revealing as are his more numerous statements on religion and education.

Harvey Newcomb, A Cyclopedia of Missions (New York, 1860), 107; Rudolph, Hoosier Zion, 44-63. OReed, Christian Tmveller, 223, 225; Rudolph, Hoosier Zion, 15. lo Rudolph, Hoosier Zion, 161. “Ibid., 51. l2 Reed, Christian Traveller, 43. Autobiography of Isaac Reed 199

The minister may well have had little aptitude for practi- cal affairs and been “lacking in shrewdness,” as one contempo- rary claimed,13 but his contributions to the establishment and growth of Presbyterianism in the Middle West cannot be denied or denigrated. He was a devout, tireless advocate of the Chris- tian faith. Just the quantity of work that he did is impressive; both The Christian Traveller and his other writings bear out one understated assessment that “he certainly was active.”14 Obviously, then, Reed was neither the “queer speciman of the- 0l0gy”~~nor the “St. Paul of this western country”16that he has been variously described. More probably he was both. In either case his autobiography provides an informative glimpse of a missionary’s life on the early-nineteenth-century Indiana frontier.

13 Edson, Contributions to the Early History of the Presbyterian Church in Indiana, 116. l4 Rudolph, Hoosier Zion, 114. 15 Julia Merrill Moores, “Early Times in Indianapolis,” Indiana Magazine of History, VIII (September, 1912), 136. l6 James A. Woodburn, “Pioneer Presbyterianism,” ibid., XXII (December, 1926), 339. 200 Indiana Magazine of History

Auto Biography’ [In 1828 Isaac Reed, then residing in New York, decided to return to Indiana to live. Accordingly, in August he and his family traveled by wagon to Troy, New York, thence via the Erie Canal to Buffalo and by steamboat to Cleveland, Ohio. They then went overland, by wagon again, to Dayton.] And thence to Indianapolis. And thence to Bloomington in Monroe Co-where Mrs Reeds relatives then resided.2 Sarah L. Reed our little daughtel.3 had a bilious fever before we reached Indi- anapolis where it seemed checked, but was renewed on our way to Bloomington & was very bad there. I had still intended to settle in Indianapolis & started to go there by way of my old church in Owan with whom I held a sacramental meeting.4 And whilst attending that I was seised with bilious fever I made out to return to Bloomington next day & was immediately confined. The fever lasted for many days, & after three months I was imperfectly restored Mrs Reed became

The editors of the portion of Isaac Reeds autobiography that is reproduced below have attempted to transcribe the missionary’s rather ornate script as precisely as possible. Although Reed’s punctuation, spelling, and syntax are relatively good, he indiscriminately used dashes, periods, or no punctuation at all to conclude sentences; the editors have done the same, double-spacing where necessary to facilitate reading. Arbitrary choices were sometimes unavoidable when deciding among dashes, commas, periods, or flourishes. If Reed’s intent could not be determined, the rules of modern grammar were followed. Brac- keted question marks indicate the editors’ uncertainty as to the word or phrase transcribed; a few explanatory phrases have also been inserted in brackets. 2Mrs. Elinor Reed‘s older sister was married to Baynard Rush Hall, the first professor and for three years the only instructor at the state seminau- which was to become Indiana University-in Bloomington. Isaac Reed, The Christian Traveller, in Five Parts, Including Nine Years, and Eighteen Thou- sand Miles (New York, 1828), 110-11,120-21; Isaac Reed, Youth’s Book, in Four Parts (Indianapolis, 1840), 84-85; L.C. Rudolph, Hoosier Zion: The Presbyterians in Early Indiana (New Haven, Conn., 1963), 178-79. In the introduction to his autobiography, written in January, 1829, Reed indicates that he has five living children-four daughters and a son. In the manuscript itself he mentions Martha Doughty, the eldest, who was born in 1821 and died in 1839; Sarah L.; Chalmers, whom he calls his “first” son and who was probably born in June, 1827; and “our youngest child,” possibly born in June, 1829 or 1830. In letters to her parents from Bedford, Pennsylvania, where she was attending school, Martha refers, in addition, to Ann Reed Williams, probably the second born; to Elinor, sometimes called Ellen; and to Whitefield. Reed, Youth’s Book, 103, 111, passim. It is assumed that Elinor is the fourth daughter of whom Reed wrote and that Whitefield was the sixth child and second son. 4 Reed refers to Bethany Church, near Gosport, in Owen County. He had served as pastor of the congregation there from 1822 to 1825. Reed, Christian Traveller, 140, 157-58. Autobiography of Isaac Reed 201 confined with fever a few days after myself & though in the same house for a considerable time, we could not see each other. Our physician was Dr Maxwell of Blo~mington.~His attentions were very assiduous. Mrs Reed did not recover in time to go to Indianapolis this fall & I at length concluded to buy at Bloomington-which I did during the winter-The Year 1829 my ministerial labors were chiefly taken up in Green Monroe & Owen counties. In the summer of this year I constituted one church. It was in the north part of Putnam Co. & named “Poplar-Spring.” It has since become a numerous & very important congregation.6 In the spring of this year I was at the session of the Wabash Presbytery,’ which was held at Craw- fordsville & was at the fall session held at Shiloh church in Parke Co. At that time I baptised at his own house at Rockville two twin children for the Rev S. McNutt, & assisted in his installation over the Rockville Church.6 At this meeting of

Born in Kentucky in 1786, David H. Maxwell moved to Indiana in 1810 and to Bloomington in 1819. He had an excellent reputation as a physician and surgeon and an extended medical practice. He was a member of Indiana’s first constitutional convention in 1816 and a member of both houses of the state legislature at various times. Dedicated to the cause of higher education in Indiana, Maxwell was influential in getting the state seminary located at Bloomington, was the first president of the school’s board of trustees, and served in that capacity or as a member of the board for much of the rest of his life. He died in 1854. James A. Woodburn, History of Indiana University, 1820-1902 (Bloomington, 1940), 212-14. In 1819 Reed had organized the first Presbyterian church in Bloomington in Maxwell’s cabin. Rudolph, Hoosier Zion, 178. See also Reed, Christian Traveller, 93, 120. According to one county history the first Presbyterian church in Putnam County was organized by Reed in August, 1825. Although it flourished for a time, interest waned, and the meetings eventually ceased altogether. This period of Presbyterian inaction continued until the fall of 1832. Jesse W. Weik, Weik’s History of Putnam County, Indiana (Indianapolis, 1910), 108, 112. Since Reed was writing in 1839 about events that had happened earlier, it is possible that he erred as to the date; it is equally as possible that the county history is incorrect. No attempt has been made to check the locations, names, and dates of all churches founded by Reed and mentioned in his autobiography. ’ The presbytery is the fundamental unit of Presbyterian government, the real seat of authority. All elders and the minister of one local church comprise the “session” of that church. Elected elders from each session and all ministers in an area form the presbytery, a kind of corporate bishop. All presbyteries in a geographical area form the synod. The General Assembly, the highest body of the Presbyterian church, is composed of elected commissioners from the presbyteries. Rudolph, Hoosier Zion, 99-100. 8 Shiloh Presbyterian Church was organized near Rockville in Parke County in the fall of 1822. Reed was among several ministers who preached at the church at various times prior to 1828. In that year the Reverend Samuel H. McNutt, a young minister from Virginia, came as the stated supply to the congregation. McNutt continued as a Presbyterian minister in Parke County until 1846. J.H. Beadle, I880 History of Parke County, Indiana . . . (Chicago, 1880), 91-92. FIRSTPRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ON THE CIRCLE,INDIANAPOLIS, c. 1840 A CHRISTIANSCHRADER DRAWING

CourtesyIndiana State Library, Indianapolis. SECONDPRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ON THE CIRCLE,INDIANAPOLIS, C.1840 A CHRISTIANSCHRADER DRAWING

CourtesyIndiana State Library,Indianapolis 204 Indiana Magazine of History

Presbytery it was agreed to petition Synod to form Craw- fordsville Presbytery. The meeting of the Indiana Synod was held in Bond Co. Ill. & I did not attend it. In December I was at a convention at Indianapolis when the Indiana State Tem- perance Society was f~rmed,~In this formation I took an active part, as also a meeting of the State Bible Society & some others. The summer of 1830 I still labored in Green Co & the places round about as a missionary I also taught a small school of girls at Bloomington four days in a week, beginning with Tuesday & closing with Friday, This was because my preaching places were so far off that I must have Monday to return. This year also I spent 3 or 4 months in an Agency for the American Bible Society & there were sent to me a number of boxes of Bibles, amounting to many hundred books. These I either distributed to the destitute, sold or committed to others to sell & distribute.’O On my way to Presbytery in Sept. I was taken with fever & had to return. From this fever I recovered so as to be at the Synod. in Oct. then held in Madison-When it was agreed that the Illinois Synod should be formed from the Indiana synod-Hitherto since the formation of the Indiana Synod from the Ky. There had been only one Synod in the three States of Indiana Illinois & Missouri”-From Synod-I returned by hasty travelling so as to be at Bloomington at the first commencement exhibition of the State College12 My travelling companion was the Rev Theron Baldwin of Ill. who gave me a minute account of the commencement &

9 The Indiana Temperance Society was organized in Indianapolis in De- cember, 1829. Subordinate societies existed throughout the state. Presbyterians strongly supported the temperance movement and were frequently instrumental in forming organizations to promote temperance reform. John D. Barnhart and Donald F. Carmony, Indiana: From Frontier to Industrial Commonwealth (4 vols., New York, 1954), 11, 138-39; Rudolph, Hoosier Zion, 53-54. “JThe American Bible Society was a nonprofit organization founded in 1816 to encourage the reading and circulation of the Bible throughout the world. Auxiliary societies existed in many states, including Indiana. Many Presbyterians, Reed among them, worked indefatigably to help the society achieve its goal of supplying the entire reading population of the world with the Bible. The Bibles were supplied to anyone, of whatever denomination, at cost, and to those who could not pay, they were given free. Rudolph, Hoosier Zion, 138; Logan Esarey, A History of Indiana . . . (1915, 1917; reprint, 2 vols. in 1, Indianapolis, 1970), I, 286-87. The Indiana Synod of the Presbyterian church was organized at Vincennes, Indiana, in 1826. The Illinois Synod was formed in 1831 and the Missouri Synod in 1832. Hanford A. Edson, Contributions to the Early History of the Presbyterian Church in Indiana . . . (Cincinnati, 1898), 218, 219; Wil- liam Warren Sweet, Religion on the American Frontier. Volume 11, The Presby- terians, 1783-1840 . . . (New York, 1936), 678. l2 Reed is apparently correct in his statement that the first commencement at Indiana College was held in 1830. See “Register of Graduates, 1830-1916,” Indiana University Bulletin, XV (December, 1917). Autobiography of Isaac Reed 205

progress of Illinois College in the founding of which he had a conspicuous part.13 It was at this time that Andrew Wylie D.D. Pres. at the Indiana State College made his Inaugural Ad- dress.14 Soon after the meeting of Synod I received an appointment from the Board of Missions of the Gen. Assembly of the Presbyterian church to perform a travelling agency for them of three months in the bounds of Wabash Presbytery. (The name was now changed to Vincennes Presbytery). This agency was renewed & extended to all the Presbyteries of the State & even including those of Illinois & in this service I spent a whole year From Nov 1830 to Nov 1831. In this agency I was employed in forming missionary districts, raising subscriptions to be appro- priated to sustaining a missionary in the district, & in forming churches and so great was my success in the latter that in this single year I constituted six new Presbyterian churches vis [?I, Bedford Ch in Lawrence Co. Oak Ridge Ch in Jackson Co. Palestine Ch in Crawford Co. Ill. Stoney-Creek Ch in Delaware Co., Brownstown Church in Jackson Co. & Fall Creek in Madi- son Co. Some of these are very distant from each other & far distant from my residence at Bloomington. To prepare for their formation & to organise & cherish them required much time & much travel & many labors. But it was a service which I loved, a dispensation of it was committed to me & of it I do not repent. In this summer I saw for the first a Presbyterian Camp

l3 Illinois College, an educational venture of the Presbyterians and Con- gregationalists, opened in January, 1830. The institution was to be the crown- ing part of the dream of the so-called “Yale band,” a group of men from Yale Theological Seminary, who hoped-through educational and religious endeavors-to raise the West out of intellectual darkness. Jacksonville, Illinois, where Presbyterian missionary John M. Ellis was already attempting to found a college, was selected as the location for the enterprise. The college experienced all the vicissitudes of early-nineteenth-century educational institutions-particularly financial problems-but, although it never met the larger ideals of its founders, it survived. Ministerlmissionary Theron Baldwin was one of the men who was instrumental in establishing the college. He, at various times during his career, edited the Common School Advocate, helped to found and served as principal of Monticello Female Seminary in Illinois, and was secretary and financial agent for the Society for Promoting Collegiate and Theological Education in the West. This society was instrumental in keeping several midwestern colleges-including Illinois College and Wabash College in Indiana-financially afloat. Theodore C. Pease, The Frontier State, 1818-1848 (Springfield, Ill., 1918), 437-38; George W. Smith, History of Illinois and Her People (6 vols., Chicago, 1927), 11, 303-306; Robert P. Howard, Illinois: A History of the Prairie State (Grand Rapids, Mich., 1972), 177-78. ‘*Andrew Wylie came to Bloomington as the first president of Indiana College in the fall of 1829 and continued in that capacity until 1851. He delivered his inaugural address on October 29, 1829. Thomas D. Clark, Indiana University: Midwestern Pioneer. Volume I, The Early Years (Bloomington, 1970). 41. Reed seems to be somewhat confused as to dates. 206 Indiana Magazine of History

meeting. It was held near Salem15-This year our Spring Pres- bytery was held on Scoeffold Prarie in Green Co & the fall session was held in the New Hope Church in Vigo Co Both of these I attended and the Synod in Oct held at Bloomington. At this meeting our youngest child born the previous June was baptised by Rev J F. Crowe16 The next year 1831, & 1832, I labored in the Bedford & Oak Ridge churches as their stated supply, in the appointment of the Board of Missions of the Gen Assembly of the Pres Church-This was a year of very great scarcity of provisions-( 1832.) I carried a considerable portion of my bread stuffs from Oak Ridge, over 30 miles & from Lawrence Co. over 20-It was a spring of more difficulties to procure seed corn, which would grow than I have ever known in my whole life. People went for it 50 miles, some 100 miles & some 150 miles & planted three or four miles [times] as much as usual in a hill. I this year learned what I had before sup- posed would never be, that in these western states there would be a famine of corn-This season is memorable also from the quarrels carried on among the Faculty of the State College at Bloomington In the Autumn the Prof. of language removed from it to Bedford Penn. & the Prof. of Mathematics (J.H. Harvey was dismissed & immediately elected at S. Hanover."

15 Religious camp meetings on the frontier were usually held in the open air or in tents and sometimes lasted several days. Generally conducted by the more evangelistic denominations, such as the Methodists or Baptists, these meetings were frequently led by lay ministers; and the preaching and exhorta- tions could become quite emotional. Presbyterians, who believed in a formally trained ministry and a more disciplined service, resisted such meetings and rarely participated in them. For a discussion of the conflicts and disagreements between the Presbyterians and other denominations on the frontier see Rudolph, Hoosier Zion, 20-36. l8 This child was probably the Whitefield referred to in Martha's letters to her parents. In 1823 Reed installed the Reverend John Finley Crowe as pastor of the Presbyterian church at Hanover, Indiana. In 1826 the Salem Presbytery adopted Crowe's boarding school as a classical preparatory school, and this ancestor of Hanover College opened its doors in January, 1827. In 1829 Hanover Academy-and in 1833 Hanover College-was chartered by the state. Crowe served on the institution's faculty or administrative staff for most of the rest of his life. He died in 1860. A.Y. Moore, History of Hanover College (Indianapolis, 1900), 20, 38-40,46. Crowe had been active as a missionary in Indiana for many years. In 1819 he established the Presbyterian church at Corydon, the state capital. Edson, Contributions to the Early History of the Presbyterian Church in Indiana, 157-61. l' Personality conflicts and disagreement over teaching methods erupted among the faculty at Indiana College shortly after Wylie's inauguration as president of the institution. The resulting quarrels almost destroyed the school. Baynard R. Hall, professor of languages, and John H. Harney, professor of mathematics, left the college in 1832. Hall moved to Bedford, Pennsylvania, where he founded Bedford Academy, which Martha Reed attended for several Autobiography of Isaac Reed 207

ANDREWWYLIE DAVIDH. MAXWELL

Reproduced from Forest M.Hall, Historic Treasures . . . (Bloomington. 1922). 63.

BAYNARDRUSH HALL JOHNFINLEY CROWE

Reproduced from L C Rudolph. Hoosier Zion The Presbyterians ~n Early Indiana (New Haven, Conn, 1963). following 110 208 Zndiana Magazine of History

The year 1833 I had a book agency for a publisher in Cincinnati & labored as a missionary to the same churches as the previous year either in 1832 or that year I formed the “Driftwood Church” in Jackson Co. I[n] 1834 I erected a new house & commenced a school in it. I also constituted a new church in Spencer Owan Co. named Spencer church This I supplied half the time. Our Presbytery was held this fall in Terre Haute & our Synod was held in Crawfordsville I attended both & took my wife to the latter. They were now just starting there, the plan of the Wabash co11ege.18 The following Winter I taught at home & supplied at Spencer 16 miles This winter unsolicited & unexpected I received the overture thro their Sec. Rev J. F. Crowe of an agency for the Trustees of Hanover College-to which overture I at length consented & closed my school & left off attending my Spencer church & went out in their agency,lS A course of action which in its consequences, appears to me, in the review to have been unfa- vorable & subsequently disastrous. I commenced this agency about the 1st of May & was sent into Kentucky travelled as far South as Bowling Green in Warren Co. & at Greensburg in Green Co. I found my old friend Rev John Howe who had presided in the Presbytery at my ordination in Mercer Co. years; Harney became professor of mathematics and astronomy at Hanover Academy. Woodburn, History of Indiana University, 78-97; Clark, Indiana Uni- uersity, 43-45, Moore, History of Hanover College, 45-46. la Wabash College, founded under Presbyterian-tinged with Congregationalist-influence, opened in 1833 in Crawfordsville, Indiana. The idea of the college originated with five home missionaries who, having had little success in securing educated ministers from the East for midwestern churches, decided to raise their own. The college’s first instructor was easterner Caleb Mills, later to be influential in implementing Indiana’s public school system. Barnhart and Carmony, Indiana, I, 273, 11, 110; Edson, Contributions to the Early History of the Presbyterian Church in Indiana, 250-53; James A. Woodburn, “Pioneer Presbyterianism,” Indiana Magazine of History, XXII (De- cember, 1926), 367-68. Iy During his lifetime Crowe served Hanover College in many capacities- including that of financial agent. During the 1830s Hanover experimented with the manual-labor system of financing the school and assisting students to pay their college expenses. For approximately two hours a day students worked at farming, carpentering, wood-chopping, and related activities in return for credit on tuition and board. Products of their labor were sold to aid the college. When it became difficult to find enough varied jobs for the number of boys that were enrolled, the school purchased a press and entered the printing business. Among other endeavors a religious newspaper, the Western Presbyterian, was published, and agents were placed in the field to distribute it and presumably to secure subscriptions. The printing venture proved financially disastrous, and the equipment, bindery, and newspaper were sold. Moore, History of Hanover College, 44-52, passim. Apparently Reed served as one of the agents for the Western Presbyterian. See below p. 210. Autobiography of Isaac Reed 209

1818.20 Spent a night with him & the next day among his people where I also preached at night Among the hearers was Judge Monroe & most of the lawyers attendeant upon this Court This was court week. In this tour I revisited Danville where I spent a Sabbath & became acquainted with Pres Young of Centre College2l-1 also visited Lancaster & Paint Lick scenes & places of my early acquaintance in Ky. And thence also my little church of White-Oak in the forks of Ducks & Ky river.22 And thence to Nicholasville & by Lexington & Frankfort I returned. I came into Madison just after the alarm from cholera in 1835. Many of the inhabitants had fled.23 I remained for the night & attended two religious meetings the next day & then went out to S. Hanover. There I remained over Sabbath & then returned home. I had been absent near two months. My next tour was up the Wabash river. Went by way of Greencastle, Rockville, Crawfordsville & Lafayette, Delphi & Frankfort, & returned by Crawfordsville & Greencastle Made a third tour in August & part of Sept in Greene Knox & Vigo Counties & passed over into Illinois-Was at Palestine, Darwin, & Paris. This was in the sickly season & all

2o Reed was ordained by Transylvania Presbytery in October, 1818, at the New Providence church in Mercer County, Kentucky. The Reverend John Howe, long-time missionary in Kentucky, was the presiding bishop at the very moving ceremony, which Reed describes in The Christian Tmveller, 80-83.See also Rudolph, Hoosier Zion, 108-109. 21 Transylvania Academy was opened in Danville, Kentucky, in 1783, under a charter from the Virginia legislature; five years later the academy was moved to Lexington. In 1794 the Presbyterians, who had been instrumental in establishing the school, lost control of the board of trustees, withdrew, and started Kentucky Academy at Pisgah, near Lexington. In 1798 these two schools merged-under Presbyterian control-and the institution was named Transylvania University. Another split occurred in 1819; the Presbyterians seceded and established Centre College of Kentucky at Danville. Centre was a state-chartered institution until 1830 when it became church-sponsored. Also in 1830 Dr. John C. Young was installed as president, a position he held until his death twenty-seven years later. One Hundredth Commencement and Inuugura- tion of the Fifteenth President of Centre College, 1824-1923 (Danville, Ky., 1923), 26-29. Reed had formerly lived near Centre College in Danville. His daughter Martha was born there in 1821. Reed, Youth's Book, 83. 22 White Oak Church was located in the lower part of Garrard County, Kentucky, at the forks of the Dick's and Kentucky rivers. Reed had supplied the church on an irregular basis from 1819 to 1822. Reed, Christian Traueller, 41, 47, 59, 99, 101, 116-17. 23 A nationwide cholera epidemic swept the United States in 1832, causing thousands of deaths. Every summer for several years thereafter the disease decimated various midwestem communities. The cholera revisited Madison in 1835. By June 24 of that year thirty-two deaths had been reported, fifteen in one day alone. R. Carlyle Buley, The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period, 1815-1840 (2 vols., Bloomington, 1951), I, 251-53. 210 Indiana Magazine of History these places were then sickly. The last Sabbath of this tour on my way home, I spent, with my little church at Spencer I had now the symptons of fever & was in a few days laid up with intermittent fever-About this time I was applied to, to sell my place House & five acres. This sale I made price $1000, A very unfortunate sale though paid according to contract And I removed to S. Hanover. Here I soon had another fever Bilious-& several weeks confinementas soon as I was able to ride which was about the last of Nov. went again into Ky to my agency- travelled across Shelby, Anderson and Woodford counties. Went to Paris-Millersburg, Carlisle, Winchester & returned by Lexington & Frankfort. Tho’ I collected some subscriptions & procured some additional funds my success was not good. It did not satisfy myself-on Christmas day I was in the church called “Six mile” Henry Co. Ky.- The winter of 1836 was now passing I went into Ohio Spent a few days in Cincinnati, was one day very ill with sick headache at the house of Jno Baker on Walnut Hill near the city. I then travelled up the Miami, was at Lebanon, Franklin, Dayton, Springfield, Urbana, At Urbana I spent the Sabbath & attended a sacramental communion with the Presbyterian Church. The next Sabbath I preached three times, twice to the Presbyterians, & once to the Methodists at Middletown, upon the canal. Returned by way of Hamilton to Cincinnati. I had endeavored to be there at the temperance meeting to be held on the 26th of Feb. I was there but not a little disappointed to see so few present & the cause seem so low. On my way home I crossed a part of Ky. & passed a Sabbath at Williamsport in Galletin County When I reached S. Hanover my youngest child, Chalmers was just recovering from a severe fever in which he had been at the point of death. The Trustees of the college had also sold out their paper & press & my agency was at an end. Now what was I to do? I had bought a house and lot at S.H. But I had no business or employment there now, nor could I get any near there by which I could support my family-I spent several weeks in suspense & looking about. In this time I went to Shelbyville Ind. to Oxford 0. to a little congregation near Wilmington in Dearborn Co. Afterwards I went to Salem and Corydon & then crossed into Ky. by way of New Albany and Louisville. Went on to Shelbyville [Kentucky] & undertook to distribute the New Testament over a ?h of the county, among the children so as to supply everyone younger than 15 years who could read. In this service I had a dollar a day And in Shelby Co. about two miles north East of Shel- Autobiography of Isaac Reed 211

byville I engaged a school & soon removed my family there where we spent the summer. But the patronage not being sufficient in the Fall I removed into Shelbyville & opened a school where we taught one session of five months & then returned to S. Hanover. In Shelbyville we had a good school & made money-but our expenses were great & it took it all. I came away leaving a debt of $60. It was here that Mrs Reed & our children attended Mr Bronson’s course of lectures on Elocution.24 Mrs R- became a proficient in that art & obtained Bronson’s certificate, that she understands the system & can teach it. Returning from Ky. we travelled on horseback to Louisville & by steamboat from Louisville to S. Hanover. We again took possession of our house. But in a few days I travelled northwards, collected $100. near Terre Haute & purchased with it two forty acre tracts of wild land lying in the north part of Owen Co. This entry I made at the Land Office at Craw- fordsville. I went up to Lafayette to see if it was a favorable place for one to get a school & settle. But it was so difficult to get a house & rent was so very high that I decided not to go there, & in the same tour I decided to locate my family & commence a school at Putnamville on the National road in Putnam Co. I then returned by way of Spencer & Bloomington attended the spring meeting of Madison Presbytery-went over to Shelbyville Ky--& returned. At this time bought my cow & Durham calf which I had before we left there, And removed about the last of April to Putnamville. Commenced school the 8th of May 1837. Here we were destined to meet another disap- pointment. I had confided entirely in the representation & judgment of 3 or 4 men & one or two women who reside there for the sufficiency of the school. But when there & ready to commence behold! numbers would not send to me. The state of the thing was a considerable portion of the inhabitants are of the Methodist SOC.& it appeared they were unwilling to encourage a presbyterian minister. I therefore had a small school, much too small to depend upon & at length gave it up. I went out west a little way into Illinois-was at Paris & the trustees of the Paris Seminary, which had a charter & nothing else elected me the Prest of the Seminar~~~-Returnedto

24The art of oratorical or public speaking in an overly expressive or embellished style was extremely popular during the nineteenth century. Termed “elocution,” it was considered a desired “accomplishment,” particularly for young ladies. =Reed reports in Youth‘s Book that he had founded and was for a few years the president of Pans Seminary, a school for both males and females, in Paris, Illinois. Mrs. Reed was assistant teacher. Reed, Youth’s Book, 87. 212 Indiana Magazine of History

Putnamville-attended the Crawfordsville Presbytery at Dan- ville Hendricks Co. Ind. & then travelled west to Springfield Ill. where I attended the Illinois Synod a body of 50 ministers. On the first Monday of Nov I commenced my school at Paris. There was no building appropriate. At first I kept in a log house in one room. I then rented a large Brick which had a large store room-& moved the school in it, & there it was continued for two sessions. In Jan. 1838 moved my family from Putnamville. In the spring we had a very interesting exhibition. The summer session also the school was prosperous. But the patronage was in a measure withdrawn from the next session & after keeping 10 weeks I determined to give it up, & immediately moved into Terre Haute and commenced keeping boarding house-Having got a little underway at that, I again proposed to take scholars & opened a school & to this end I have rented the east room of the basement story of the meeting house Where I am now writing in this Narrative-this 13th of Feb 1839. From the above date there has been a suspension of any writing of the narrative for 6% years- Residing & teaching at Mays Lick Village Mason Co. Ky. I this 2d day of Nov 1845 resume the narrative. My plan of keeping boarders was unproductive & turned out so poorly, I had to forsake it & become wholly dependent upon the product of schools-This was continued in the same place the basement of the church till about midsummer when it was relinquished & I returned again to Paris But whilst resident in Terre Haute I experienced one of the most amictive events of my life in which trials & amictions have been so frequent & prevalent. It was the delirium for a time of our first born child! our grown up educated & accomplished daughter Martha. Her death followed on the 8th of April. Her mortal remains were laid down in the grave-in the burial ground where they still repose. This death almost broke her mothers heart& to me it weakened much my attachment to life-We were consoled in the hope that to her it was gain-That whilst the body rests in the grave the spirit is with the Saviour whom she had learned to love & whom she had confessed before men. This year 1839 I prepared the Youths Book in which is contained a sketch of her character sickness & deathZ6-I

28 Reed‘s Youth’s Book, published in 1840, contained sermons, a number of them funeral sermons; lectures to youth; and Martha’s letters to her parents while she was attending Bedford Academy. The work was dedicated “To the Youth of Indiana and Illinois in the hope of its usefulness . . . .” Autobiography of Isaac Reed 213

thought now my attachment to earth was broken & I should live to God & as a minister I would be devoted to his service without teaching school-Mrs R commenced a school in Paris & I preached in places round about, but it was in places where salary would not be raised. The Board of Missions [of the Presbyterian General Assembly?] gave me an appointment for a year for Marshall, seat of Justice-Clarke Co then new & society in its elements-morals very low-Here I spent two Sabbaths in a month, & though a church was not constituted yet the way was made ready & a church was formed the next year In the spring of 1839 finding that I could not sustain myself & family from my receipts for ministerial labor I renewed school teaching in Paris-& late in august closed there & removed to L- on the national road 12 miles west of Terre Haute. But the same fall left there & settled again in Terre Haute, where & in its vicinity I continued teaching school for almost three years-In Sept 1842 I removed from T-- L to Hanover Jefferson Co, upon the Ohio river. The following winter I spent in a small private school in Madison, but as I had not enough patronage to support me I relinquished it. And travelled most of the remainder of the year, partly in Ky-partly in Ind. quite extensively in Ohio-was at several Presbyteries in Chilicothe, Wooster, & Richland-Attended the Synod in Zanesville-Went over to Lake Erie & across N.Y. to Lake Champlain. On the 16th of July upon the top of a pine shaded hill by the junction Locks I looked over the city of Troy. The villages of West Troy, Waterford Lansinburgh & the sur- rounding country of hills & plain. Two days after travelled on Lake Champlain upon the steamer “Burlington” Capt Sherman I landed at Port Henry & was soon with my family relatives & friends in Moriah N.Y. Staid there over two Sab- baths in both of which I again preached in their meeting House. And in the week between travelled through the valley in joy & returned through West Port & Port Henry. Left M. in the same steamer Monday night. The last part of the year I was preaching to two little churches near to Vernon in Knox Co. 0. My travels this year was 4700 L In Jan 1844 I took an agency for a religious newspaper published in Springfield 0. & went into the north of Ind. & over much of its territory lying north of the Wabash & Erie Canal-Between the canal & Michigan State Line & also South of Lake Michigan I liked the country as a new country very much. My spirit was stirred in me to help it. My ambition 2 14 Indiana Magazine of History was again roused with desire to commence again in a new field & cultivate society-To rear a superior school & to labor assid- uously as a minister. I chose my ground in Warsaw Kosciusko, Co. just on the margin of a pure lake then covered with ice I bargained for a house lotpaid a small share of the price. Had a written request from every resident County officer to return & settle there & start a seminary, but I had not money to effect a removal & my wife was so averse-& opposed it so that I abandoned it