1867 Annual Conference

The first letter presented here was written to Augusta from her mother in February 1867. There are also two letters exchanged between James and Augusta while he attended the 12th Session of the Kansas Annual Conference a month later in March 1867 at Manhattan. James' letter describes his overland trip from Seneca to Manhattan in a snowstorm so severe that it stopped the westbound trains at Wamego, delaying most of the brethren on their way to the Conference. During the 12th Session, James served on the Auditing Committee, and upon conclusion of the Conference, received his appointment to the Centralia Circuit.

We received yours last week and was glad to hear that you’re better. I have been to church today. It was so pleasant this morning I thought I could go. We had a very cold month through January. It did not thaw any – only one day it rained a little and thawed some. We had good sleighing through the month. The first day of February it commenced raining and thawing, but the sleighing is good yet.

Friday, Mrs. Tiffany and Dora came down here. They have to go somewhere to drive their horse everyday. Mrs. Tiffany wanted I should get in and ride down to your Aunt Mary’s and Dora staid with Sarah [your sister]. We had a pleasant call. It was so cold all through January I did not go out anywhere. It is warmer now. Coming home from church, we met Mr. and Mrs. [Wheeler] Bristol. She was riding out. She said she had been sick two weeks – so sick she had to have the doctor…We did not know that she had been sick.

I had a letter from Aunt Clarissa last week. She wrote the 11th of January and I have just got the letter. She says A. Tryon came for them with his horses and sleigh and took them home with him to dinner [on] Christmas [day]. They had oysters and everything, good peach sauce from Virginia. I guess they had a good time. She says she got a letter from you with your picture, but not your husband’s, and she wrote to you to Lincoln [Kansas]. Have you received it? She says their lives are spared, the Lord knows for what. She don’t. She says they live hand to mouth. I feel very sorry for them. Aunt Clarra says she is lame – has a stiff knee and has not been to Church but once since last year.

[Your sister] Mary [Horton] and [her daughter] Fanny was up and spent the day one day last week. Do you remember what your father used to say to the children when [they were] little to keep [them entertained?] As I went over London Bridge, I forgot _____ a four pence happeny and I bought me a kid and kid wouldn’t go. It’s almost midnight and I was home almost a hour and a half ago. Fan seated herself in the large rocking chair and told her mother she wanted to sing her story’s and she began this. She sang it all through. He mother has to tell her what they found [in each verse]. She says it’s time mama kid and I was home.

I hope you have got the package we sent you. I will send you some of the worsted [wool], like the shawl. We got 6 oz. of the dark and [your sister] Sarah knit the middle of the shawl. It was knit on wooden needles called star stick and 6 oz. of the bright red for the ______ was knit something as I ____suspenders and then bound of about half and the other half was raveled out for the fringe. It was knit and prest and then raveled to have the fringe. It was put into a box a little wider and a little longer than this paper. In the bottom of the box was a pair of stockings for Mary and then the shawl was folded up nicely and laid in and another pair of stockings on top for Maty, one pair was cotton, the other woolen… I hope you have got it before this.

I suppose you have seen the death of Mr. Willis. He has been sick a long time. [Your brother] Stephen got James’ letter and will answer it soon. Monday after working, Sarah and I are going to ride over to the village. It is very pleasant today. I hope your cough is better. I will get that receipt of Mary when I can. Love to all. Goodbye, [your mother – Mary Ann Goodrich]

I know you will be anxious to hear from me as we had such severe weather after I left home. I traveled all that day after I left home and reached some ten miles beyond America, finding an old acquaintance who formerly lived near Manhattan named Roosa. [1] Had good quarters and found there a Mr. Kimball[2] who was going the next morning to near Manhattan, so I started in company with him, stormy as it was. The storm kept increasing but we continued. [About] one during the forenoon, Bro. Buffington from Circleville circuit overtook us, but it was so very severe that we were obliged to stop occasionally and [get] warm. We traveled until about 2 o’clock when we concluded to stop over for the night at a Bro. Lumbeck’s on Rock Creek. I found I had frozen one of my ears.

The next morning we started on & arrived at Manhattan about sun an hour high. I stopped with a merchant named [Louis] Kurtz. [3] We found that when we arrived [in Manhattan] only some 8 or ten of the Brethren had arrived. The [railroad] cars [carrying many of the clergymen enroute to the Conference] had become stalled in a snowdrift about 8 miles below Wamego. They shoveled lustily but were unable to extricate themselves. The conductor walked to Wamego & telegraphed for help. They sent engines in two directions but both of them swamped before they reached there and they were obliged to remain some 38 hours before they could be helped. There happened to be a barrel of eggs and a hog on board so that they had something to eat. There was near a hundred on board & among them over 20 preachers, Bishop [Ames], Dr. Poe, Dr. Crary &c.

I think I shall make no exchange with Bro. [Washington] Marlatt. [4] Have proposed to sell to the District 2 acres for one hundred dollars. I think I may not come home by way of Topeka, but will send my money down by Bro. Knox,[5] if I can raise any. I hardly know what is to be my destiny. It is possible Bro. Taylor may be sent to Circleville and we may be [sent] to Junction [City] or somewhere [else].

It is Friday evening and all are in bed but Emma [6] and myself and we are both writing. I thought if a letter reached you it must be sent tomorrow. The mail boy only came up today & returns in the morning but some one brought up the mail yesterday. A letter from home, my Repository & the Record came. If you have the money, think to pay for the Record. Well, I suppose you will want to know how we are getting along. I know we have wanted to hear from you, and know how near you came freezing to death on Tuesday. I was worried all day & could not sleep at night thinking about you, fearing you might have lost your way and frosted your feet or hands or face, but try to think you got along without either. I was in hopes you would not travel that day. If you did, I know you must have suffered.

It has seemed colder here than any other time during the winter – at least we suffered more with the cold. The thermometer fell to five degrees below zero before dark Tuesday night and was ten below at sunrise Wednesday morning here at our house. Have not heard from other parts and Tuesday night it froze harder in this room than before this winter. We have not built a fire in the kitchen since you left until today. We washed & baked. It was so cold we kept putting off washing & Mr. Dow hauled us a barrel of water this morning & so we went to work. He also did us another great kindness, very much needed, and that is drew us some good wood, and Mr. Sterling came this afternoon and chopped some so that we could have enough to do over Sunday. And tonight we have the warmest fire we have had in some time. Wish we could have had it when it was so cold. It is snowing again tonight. We have had one clear day since you left.

Little Sarah suffers a great deal. Those boils are very bad. A few have broken but others keep coming and she does not take any comfort & is very fretful. I have to hold her a great deal. John has quite a bad cold on his lungs but is better today and I have some cold. The rest are well as usual.

Howard Chilson’s babe died that cold night. They burried it yesterday. I have not heard of any new cases of sickness. We have had no company – only some of the neighbors calling in to see how we get along. Quite a number lost some of their young stock by freezing since you left. Mother Clark has one calf in the house. I was afraid the little colt would freeze, but he did not. Emma & John liked to have frozen taking care of them. They fed them well; else I think they might not all have lived.

I hope to hear from you the first of the week and that you reached Manhattan safely. Give my love to Sister Hannum & all our old neighbors you see. Also to Mother Winans & Carrie [Winans] & Nancy [Orcutt]. With much love, ever your own, -- Augusta

Sat. morn. Sarah had a high fever all night but seems bright this morning, only she is suffering with the boils which are much worse, badly swollen, and must be painful. I have to take care of her all the time. The rest all well.

[1] Tunis J. Roosa and his wife Adelia were living in Vienna Township, Pottawatomie County in 1867. Source: Pioneers of the Bluestem Prairie, p.444.

[2] There were several Kimball’s with a residence in Manhattan by 1867.

[3] Louis Kurtz operated at dry goods business on the south side of Poyntz Avenue near 2nd Street. The only other two businesses in this same area in 1860 belonged to G. W. Piper and the Higinbotham Brothers. Source: Duane Carleton. Pioneers of the Bluestem Prairie, p 293.

[4] It is possible that James was considering swapping some land with Rev. Marlatt who owned land near Bluemont College. Within a couple more years, James would purchase land on “college hill” just north of the Bluemont College.

[5] Rev. John D. Knox was born October 28, 1828, on Brook's Run, Belmont Co., Ohio, received his collegiate education in Jefferson College, New Athens, Harrison Co., Ohio and graduated at Duff's Commercial College, Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1857. While at school he was licensed as an exhorter, February 23, 1850. Soon after leaving school was licensed as a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. In June, 1850, was admitted on trial in the Pittsburgh Conference, held at Canton, Ohio and was appointed junior preacher on the Washington and Cambridge circuit, in Guernsey County, Ohio. In 1851, with two colleagues, he traveled the Deersville circuit, in 1852, the Cadiz circuit, and in 1853, the Butler circuit, in Pennsylvania, securing in the latter the erection of a small brick church, which the people named Knox Chapel. The little town at this point is still called Knoxville. In 1854 his field of labor was at Pittsburgh where in common with many of his flock, he was stricken with cholera. Through the years of 1855, 1856 and 1857 he was successively on the Bridgeport circuit, Ohio; at Lawrenceville station, Pittsburgh, agent for the Beaver Female Seminary, and in 1858 and 1859 in charge of the Mount Pleasant and West Newton circuits. In 1860 and 1861 he was on the Mechanicsburg circuit, in Indiana County, Pa., and in 1862 and 1863 was pastor of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, at Pittsburgh, Pa. In 1864 he was in Bridgewater, and in the spring of 1865 was transferred to the Kansas conference and stationed at Topeka. He had charge of the Topeka church for three years, the society and church enjoying a high degree of prosperity under his pastorate. He also had charge of the Kansas Business College, and was elected County Superintendent of Public Instruction. In 1869 and 1870 he was appointed Presiding Elder of Fort Scott District, but resigned in consequence of ill health during the latter year. In 1871 he was elected President of the Capital Bank in Topeka, and in 1873, made a trip to Europe in the interests of the institution. January 1, 1874, the banking house of John D. Knox & Co. was established at Topeka. They do a general banking business and purchase and sell Kansas securities, loan money and invest money for Eastern parties. They have also a savings department connected with the bank. Mr. Knox is connected actively with many societies, both secret and benevolent. He has taken eleven degrees in the Masonic Society, is past grand in the I. O. O. F. and has been chaplain in the G. A. R. He has been one of the editors of the Kansas Methodist since its start, and is now editor-in-chief. He was married, April 15, 1858, in Johnstown, Cambria Co., Pa., to Mary Dilbert, of Somerset County, Pa. They have eight children - David D., William C., Martha P., Mary R., Sarah E., John D., Olive B. and Florence L. Source: William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas, Shawnee County Part 28.

[6] Probably James’ niece, Emma Griffing, daughter of Henry Griffing and Nancy Orcutt. Apparently Emma lived with her Aunt & Uncle for over a year while James served the Seneca Circuit.