Cross, Jonathan; Evangelists -- United States -- Biography; Missions -- Appalachian Region
At the request of Mr. C---- I conducted the service. The constant
responses and loud amens indicated the deep interest they seemed to
feel. At the close of the service I requested them to keep their seats,
and told them I would go round and give each a tract or little book.
More than half the families represented were destitute of the Bible.
The tracts and books were received with very great joy, though few
could read a word in them.
At the close we had to ride some miles to a stopping place for the
night. We found the cabin small and destitute of any seats except
stools. The beds were poles put through the corners, covered with the
skins of deers and bears. Many of the spaces between the logs were wide
enough for the dogs and cats to pass out and in at pleasure. The food
was bread made of corn ground in a hand mill, or pounded in a hominy
block. The meat was coon or opossum, and the coffee made of chestnuts.
The night was spent in self-defence against unseen foes, and in dread
of snakes. After partaking of a breakfast similar to the dinner and
supper just described, and praying with the family, we left them.
Our appointment for that day was about twelve miles distant, with a
constant succession of mountains to cross. We stopped at all the cabins
by the way, which were about like that just referred to, with one
exception; and as the house and family were different from any that I
have ever seen, I shall try to describe them.
The cabin was about eighteen feet square; had been the birthplace of
a large family; had neither floor--except the earth--upper story,
chimney, chair, table, or bed, except a pile of straw in one corner,
and an old spinning wheel and loom. The family we saw consisted of the
father, mother, and five daughters, no one of which, we supposed, would
weigh less than one hundred and fifty pounds. Each of the females had
on a single garment made of coarse linen, held on by a drawing-string
round the neck, all fleshy and hearty, while we could not see any thing
for them to live upon.
No one of them knew a letter in the alphabet, or who was the Saviour of
sinners. They were children of nature isolated from the world, equally
ignorant of both its vices and its virtues. We spent more than an hour
trying to teach them the alphabet of Christianity, and then commended
them to God. They seemed amazed at what we said; God only knows the
results.
We reached the place where our evening meeting was to be held after
one o’clock, exhausted with hunger and heat. The cabin was but little
better than the one just described; it contained some kind of table
and a few stools, but had neither door nor floor, and cattle and hogs
ran into it to avoid the flies when they chose.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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