This article is a good reminder of the realities of life for most of the world. We can do it again if we need to do so. The keys are: Live simply; Work hard; Love and help others; Be part of a community; and Love God with your whole heart, soul and mind.
An 87-Year-Old's Economic Survival Guide by Chuck Norris 02/24/2009
"An old Spanish proverb says, "An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy." I believe that value holds, in or out of a recession. And seeing as my 87-year-old mother lived through the Great Depression, I think her value (and that of those like her) will increase through these tough economic times because her insider wisdom can help us all.
Mother was about 10 years old when her eight-member family endured the thick of those recessive days in rural Wilson, Okla., which only has a population of 1,600 today. The recurring droughts across the heartland during that period dried up the job market, making it worse in the Midwest than it even was in the rest of the country. Over the years, my grandpa worked multiple jobs, from the oil fields to the cotton fields, and he was even a night watchman. The family members did what they could to contribute, but most of them were simply too young to play a major part.
In 1933, when President Franklin Roosevelt took office, his administration, through the Works Project Administration, brought about the employment of millions in civil construction projects, from bridges to dams to airports to roads. My grandfather traveled about 90 miles for a day's work to help build the Lake Murray dam. But with a far smaller ratio of jobs to potential laborers, if Grandpa worked five days a month (at $1.80 a day), it was a good month.
Like most families, my mother's family didn't have running water or electricity. And Granny did her best to keep the outhouse clean, with Grandpa helping by regularly depositing lye to control the odors. (You can imagine how the hot, humid Oklahoma summers turned that outside commode into one smelly closet-sized sauna.) A "scavenger wagon" came by once a week and cleaned out the hole, which had a small chairlike contraption over it with the center punched out. (They once had a two-seater in there, which allowed for two people to enjoy each other's company and conversation. Mom told me that she always felt a little upper-class when she sat with someone else!) By the way, and I'm not trying to be crude, toilet tissue wasn't around, so they used pages from Montgomery Ward catalogs (and you wondered why the catalogs were so thick). No joke -- they preferred the non-glossy pages. I'll let you figure out why.
Got the picture? With that in mind, I turn to a recent conversation I had with my mother. I asked her, "How would you encourage the average American to weather the economic storms of today?"
Here's her advice, in her words:
-- "Get back to the basics. Simplify your life. Live within your means. People have got to be willing to downsize and be OK with it. We must quit borrowing and cut spending. Be grateful for what you have, especially your health and loved ones. Be content with what you have, and remember the stuff will never make you happy. Never. Back then, we didn't have one-hundredth of what people do today, and yet we seemed happier than most today, even during the Great Depression.
-- "Be humble and willing to work. Back then, any work was good work. We picked cotton, picked up cans, scrap metal, whatever it took to get by. Where's that work ethic today? If someone's not being paid $10 an hour today, they're whining and unwilling to work, even if they don't have a job. The message from yesteryear is don't be too proud to do whatever it takes to meet the financial needs of your family.
-- "Be rich in love. We didn't have much. In fact, we had nothing at all, compared to people today, but we had each other. We were poor, but rich in love. We've lost the value of family and friends today, and we've got to gain it back if we're ever to get back on track. If we lose all our stuff and still have one another and our health, what have we really lost?
-- "Be a part of a community. Today people are much more alone, much more isolated. We used to be close with our neighbors. If one person had a bigger or better garden or orchard, they shared the vegetables and fruits with others in need. Society has shifted from caring for one another to being dependent upon government aid and welfare. That is why so many today trust in government to deliver them. They've forgotten an America that used to rally around one another in smaller clusters, called neighborhoods and communities. We must rekindle those local communal fires and relearn the power of that age-old commandment, 'Love thy neighbor.'
-- "Help someone else. We never quit helping others back then. Today too many people are consumed with their own problems and only helping themselves. 'What's in it for me?' is the question most are asking. But back then, it was, 'What can I do to help my neighbor, too?' I love Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life, and especially his thought, 'We were created for community, designed to be a blessing to others.' Most of all, helping others gets our minds off of our problems and puts things into better perspective.
-- "Lean upon God for help and strength. We didn't just have each other to lean on, but we had God, too. We all attended church and belonged to a faith community. Church was the hub of society, the community core and rallying point. Today people turn to government the way we used to turn to churches. It's been that way ever since Herbert Hoover's alleged promise of a 'chicken in every pot' and President Roosevelt's New Deal. Too many have abandoned faith and community. We trust in money more than God. And maybe that's a reason why we're in this economic pickle."
Now that's conventional wisdom that should be shouted and posted in every corridor of government, every community across America, and every blog on the Internet.
Call me overly pragmatic, but I think a little practical wisdom and encouragement is what we all need about now. Mom always was good for that. She still is."
My parents sound a lot like Chuck Norris' mother. My mother and father were from big families and knew how to grow gardens and harvest the weeds by the side of the road. I was embarrassed when, in West Los Angeles, mother would pull out a shopping bag at a vacant lot and proceed to harvest the mustard greens growing there. They were a gift from the Lord to her. "Greens" were a part of most meals when in season.
We always had a vegetable garden and fruit trees to harvest and can.
In the 1930's, my father was a supervisor of Civilian Conservation Corp boys in Death Valley, California as they built roads and the monuments in the National Park. He met my mother in Death Valley as she was the teacher for the children of the workers and of the Indians who lived there. They were happy to live simply, to work hard, to love and help others in the community and to truely love Jesus Christ. I am happy to follow their example.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Sanctity of Human Life Sunday from Pastor Ron Jones
January 14th, 2009
Open Letter to President-Elect Obama
January 14, 2009
The Honorable Barack Obama
President-Elect of the United States
Hay-Adams Hotel
800 16th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20006
Dear Mr. President-Elect,
As the leader of a church with more than 5,000 attendees located just a short drive from the White House, I join millions of Americans in honoring your inauguration as our forty-fourth President.
All Americans celebrate the arrival of a new President and the peaceful transfer of power as more evidence of our great democracy. This occasion also marks a monumental civil rights achievement for our nation. I rejoice in the fact that an African-American has been elected, a true affirmation of our nation’s fundamental premise that all persons are created equal by the hand of God.
Holy Scripture exhorts us to pray for kings and all those who are in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-2). Please know, we the people of Immanuel Bible Church pledge to pray for you, your family and your Administration. These are difficult times to lead our nation. No President has ever done so without acknowledging the need for divine guidance.
We will pray that God will grant you Solomon-like wisdom in all of the decisions you make, knowing that King Solomon himself wrote, “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Proverbs 21:1).
You assume the Presidency on Tuesday during a time of economic crisis at home and conflict abroad. Yet as these great challenges loom ahead, I ask you to “defend the cause of the weak” and “maintain the rights of the oppressed” (Psalm 82:3-4).
In 2005, America aborted 1.2 million unborn children who are precious to their Creator. Since the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision of 1973 legalized abortion, the total number of dead has exceeded 45 million. That’s more than seven times the number of Jews killed during the Nazi Holocaust. Abortion is a human tragedy, and it is something we believe breaks our Lord’s heart as He created each of these unborn children in His image.
Mr. President-Elect, you talked a great deal in your campaign about “the little guy,” who is often mistreated in our society. Surely you understand that the smallest and most vulnerable Americans in 2009 are those in the womb, whose lives are unprotected by the law, and thus dependent upon the decisions of others. Surely America is better than this.
Fundamentally, does the unborn child have value independent of his mother? Clearly, the answer from science is yes. From the moment of conception, the life forming within the womb has all the same DNA as a fully-matured adult person. And the answer from biblical revelation is equally compelling. John the baptizer leapt in his mother’s womb when she met her pregnant cousin Mary, the mother of Jesus. Even so our hearts respond to the sanctity of unborn life.
I pray that you will reconsider your views on this moral issue. I raise my voice on behalf of the voiceless, pleading with you to take the lead in building an America where all of our children, whatever their race or family income, are welcomed into the world, protected by the law and have a seat at the table with the rest of the American family.
These precious unborn children have been deprived of life without due process of law. More than 3,300 abortions per day, or 138 per hour, happen in clear violation of the Constitution and the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, which makes it plain that our liberty comes straight from God and that our first right is the sacred right to life.
Furthermore, think of what those parents have missed because of abortion – a baby’s smile, a child’s first steps. Think of what the world has missed – a gifted teacher, a doting father, a dedicated missionary, a talented artist or entrepreneur, a future President.
During your campaign you spoke much about hope. You inspired a nation. You have written about The Audacity of Hope. And yet, your past support for abortion is a hope-stealer. Abortion robs our nation of a tiny bit of tomorrow’s hope found in every unborn child.
Specifically, it is my hope and prayer that you will reconsider your support for the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), even though you promised Planned Parenthood that signing the FOCA is “the first thing I’d do as President.” FOCA is by far the most radical piece of abortion legislation ever introduced into the Congress. My concerns with the bill are many, but chiefly they are:
According to pro-choice advocates, FOCA would overturn the ban on partial-birth abortion, again allowing this barbaric procedure described as “near infanticide” by pro-choice senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
FOCA may invalidate scores of pro-life laws passed by dozens of states.
According to the pro-choice National Organization for Women, FOCA would eliminate existing laws against taxpayer-funded abortions.
The Freedom of Choice Act is inconsistent with the Christian ethic of compassion for the least among us. King David’s heartfelt lyrics in Psalm 139 remind us that God is the author of life: “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
It is my sincere hope that you will join us in a celebration of God’s gift of life, and resist those who would allow another generation of Americans to disappear.
I welcome you and your family to join us for worship at Immanuel. You can learn more about the church at www.immanuelbible.net. May God bless you, your family and our great country.
With sincere respect in Christ,
Dr. Ron Jones
Senior Pastor of Immanuel Bible Church
Assist Pregnancy Center
Annandale, VA
Assist Crisis Pregnancy Center is a non-profit ministry serving women, their families and partners, who come to seek help making decisions about their pregnancies and related concerns. Assist is staffed by loving, concerned volunteers who have received training in crisis counseling. It provides accurate information about pregnancy, fetal development, life-style issues and related concerns, but it does not provide abortions or referrals for abortion.
Assist offers free, confidential services such as pregnancy testing; education on pregnancy, abortion, adoption, and abortion alternatives; referrals to OB-gyns in the Northern Virginia area, childbirth classes (on video) and prenatal information; adoption and foster care information; abortion-recovery counseling for women and men; and an “Earn While You Learn” program to earn maternity clothing and clothing and furnishings for the baby. One client wrote, “Two weeks after the baby was born I took him to Assist where the counselors treated him like one of their own. That is when I realized every life they save is a part of their family!”
Learn more about Assist through their website, www.assistcpc.org, or pick up a brochure at our Welcome Centers.
Prayer Requests:
1. For the many women and their families who are helped through the ministry of Assist.
2. For clients to choose life for their unborn children.
3. For Assist to be able to continue to provide education, counseling, clothes and baby furnishings for clients.
Open Letter to President-Elect Obama
January 14, 2009
The Honorable Barack Obama
President-Elect of the United States
Hay-Adams Hotel
800 16th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20006
Dear Mr. President-Elect,
As the leader of a church with more than 5,000 attendees located just a short drive from the White House, I join millions of Americans in honoring your inauguration as our forty-fourth President.
All Americans celebrate the arrival of a new President and the peaceful transfer of power as more evidence of our great democracy. This occasion also marks a monumental civil rights achievement for our nation. I rejoice in the fact that an African-American has been elected, a true affirmation of our nation’s fundamental premise that all persons are created equal by the hand of God.
Holy Scripture exhorts us to pray for kings and all those who are in authority (1 Timothy 2:1-2). Please know, we the people of Immanuel Bible Church pledge to pray for you, your family and your Administration. These are difficult times to lead our nation. No President has ever done so without acknowledging the need for divine guidance.
We will pray that God will grant you Solomon-like wisdom in all of the decisions you make, knowing that King Solomon himself wrote, “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Proverbs 21:1).
You assume the Presidency on Tuesday during a time of economic crisis at home and conflict abroad. Yet as these great challenges loom ahead, I ask you to “defend the cause of the weak” and “maintain the rights of the oppressed” (Psalm 82:3-4).
In 2005, America aborted 1.2 million unborn children who are precious to their Creator. Since the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision of 1973 legalized abortion, the total number of dead has exceeded 45 million. That’s more than seven times the number of Jews killed during the Nazi Holocaust. Abortion is a human tragedy, and it is something we believe breaks our Lord’s heart as He created each of these unborn children in His image.
Mr. President-Elect, you talked a great deal in your campaign about “the little guy,” who is often mistreated in our society. Surely you understand that the smallest and most vulnerable Americans in 2009 are those in the womb, whose lives are unprotected by the law, and thus dependent upon the decisions of others. Surely America is better than this.
Fundamentally, does the unborn child have value independent of his mother? Clearly, the answer from science is yes. From the moment of conception, the life forming within the womb has all the same DNA as a fully-matured adult person. And the answer from biblical revelation is equally compelling. John the baptizer leapt in his mother’s womb when she met her pregnant cousin Mary, the mother of Jesus. Even so our hearts respond to the sanctity of unborn life.
I pray that you will reconsider your views on this moral issue. I raise my voice on behalf of the voiceless, pleading with you to take the lead in building an America where all of our children, whatever their race or family income, are welcomed into the world, protected by the law and have a seat at the table with the rest of the American family.
These precious unborn children have been deprived of life without due process of law. More than 3,300 abortions per day, or 138 per hour, happen in clear violation of the Constitution and the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, which makes it plain that our liberty comes straight from God and that our first right is the sacred right to life.
Furthermore, think of what those parents have missed because of abortion – a baby’s smile, a child’s first steps. Think of what the world has missed – a gifted teacher, a doting father, a dedicated missionary, a talented artist or entrepreneur, a future President.
During your campaign you spoke much about hope. You inspired a nation. You have written about The Audacity of Hope. And yet, your past support for abortion is a hope-stealer. Abortion robs our nation of a tiny bit of tomorrow’s hope found in every unborn child.
Specifically, it is my hope and prayer that you will reconsider your support for the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), even though you promised Planned Parenthood that signing the FOCA is “the first thing I’d do as President.” FOCA is by far the most radical piece of abortion legislation ever introduced into the Congress. My concerns with the bill are many, but chiefly they are:
According to pro-choice advocates, FOCA would overturn the ban on partial-birth abortion, again allowing this barbaric procedure described as “near infanticide” by pro-choice senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
FOCA may invalidate scores of pro-life laws passed by dozens of states.
According to the pro-choice National Organization for Women, FOCA would eliminate existing laws against taxpayer-funded abortions.
The Freedom of Choice Act is inconsistent with the Christian ethic of compassion for the least among us. King David’s heartfelt lyrics in Psalm 139 remind us that God is the author of life: “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”
It is my sincere hope that you will join us in a celebration of God’s gift of life, and resist those who would allow another generation of Americans to disappear.
I welcome you and your family to join us for worship at Immanuel. You can learn more about the church at www.immanuelbible.net. May God bless you, your family and our great country.
With sincere respect in Christ,
Dr. Ron Jones
Senior Pastor of Immanuel Bible Church
Assist Pregnancy Center
Annandale, VA
Assist Crisis Pregnancy Center is a non-profit ministry serving women, their families and partners, who come to seek help making decisions about their pregnancies and related concerns. Assist is staffed by loving, concerned volunteers who have received training in crisis counseling. It provides accurate information about pregnancy, fetal development, life-style issues and related concerns, but it does not provide abortions or referrals for abortion.
Assist offers free, confidential services such as pregnancy testing; education on pregnancy, abortion, adoption, and abortion alternatives; referrals to OB-gyns in the Northern Virginia area, childbirth classes (on video) and prenatal information; adoption and foster care information; abortion-recovery counseling for women and men; and an “Earn While You Learn” program to earn maternity clothing and clothing and furnishings for the baby. One client wrote, “Two weeks after the baby was born I took him to Assist where the counselors treated him like one of their own. That is when I realized every life they save is a part of their family!”
Learn more about Assist through their website, www.assistcpc.org, or pick up a brochure at our Welcome Centers.
Prayer Requests:
1. For the many women and their families who are helped through the ministry of Assist.
2. For clients to choose life for their unborn children.
3. For Assist to be able to continue to provide education, counseling, clothes and baby furnishings for clients.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Mary Alexander Story 1742 - 1822
Some of my reading of late on Ancestry.com includes, "Genealogy of the Reese family in Wales and America: from their arrival to the present time" written in 1903 by Mary Eleanor Reese, Whittet and Shepperson, Richmond, VA. It has interesting information on my 5th great grandmother, Mary Alexander Story. She is said to have raised, spun and woven silk so thin and fine that it could be pulled through her tiny wedding ring. She was known as a godly mother who raised her children in the Lord. I love this letter she wrote to her daughter, Anna Story Reese. (I have copied it with no changes from the 214 year old letter. I love her focus on eternity and on Christ.)
“Jenewary 3, 1794, Fryday night.
Dear daughter,
Having an opportunity I now set down to write a few lines by Mr. James Hall he come sence night. my dear may assured I have not for got you but as providence ordard it so that we are to be parted I desire to be content and wish you to be resigned to the will of a wise god that will make all things to work for good if we but love him. The old year has gone and if we look back what a nothing it appears departed
as a tale that is told thus will our whole life appear when our end approachs and eternity opens. but eternity will never expire but will last world with out end, when millions of ages are past away eternity we may say only will be a beginning and this short life this little span is the seed time of long, long eternity and do my dear indeavor to improve time and make the best provision for an eternity of happiness. Should we not be careful to get faith in our lord Jesus Christ to get the love of god shed abroad in our hearts. and our souls renewed according to the amiable example of our blessed redeemer this and nothing but this is trew religion. fix dear daughter this truth in your memory a true faith in Christ an unfeigned love of god and a real holiness of hart are the greatest blessings you can desire without them we can not be happy and this is the wish of you poor frail mother. that you will incessantly and earnestly mind the one thing needful though the whole advancing year. if you do so you will have god for your friend and he is able to supply all your wants and make you good friends to strangers it was my intend to come up in febweary but (saturday morning) their is so menny things to hender me. I am week and this could sesen of the year might be hard for me at this time Charls has a bad cof. and fever and is much redust, Susannah has hard fevers yestrday they got medeson from the doctour and Charls thinks he is som better this is Susannah best day and I cant tell if the medesom has hope her or no. I hope Charls is gettin better of his other complant I hope god in his own good time sent him comfort and speak peas to his consunse I convarsed with him on the subject yestrday James Weatherspoon famley (my 4th great grandmother, Hester Story Witherspoon) I hope is well I heard from them Wensday. none of our peeple has gon to town yet I expect they wold gon next week if they had ent been take sick the Gentman is waiten I may conclude with my love to you and Mr Reese and my little dears give my complements to my good frends fearwell my dear fearwell I am your souls well wisher tell deth. Mary Stoery “
ccMary was the second wife of Charles Story and was his widow for 31 years. They had four children: 1. Mary Alexander who was the second wife of David Witherspoon III andthe mother of 10 children. 2. Anna who married George Reese and had 11 children.
3. Charles who married Susannah Carter and had one child. 4. Hester who married James Witherspoon and was my ancestress. Hester and James had 11 children.
Mary often lived with Anna's family who buried her at the Hopewell Cemetery at the Old Stone Church near Clemson. The stone marker says, "Sacred to the Memory of Mary Story who departed this life in the full assurance of a happy immortality on the 5th day of Sept 1822 Aged 80 years Erected by her Daughter Ann Reese"
Old Hopewell Cemetery is at the SE corner of intersection of S.C. Hwy. 81 and S.C. Sec. Rd. 29 Located 1.09 miles northwest, this cemetery marks the original site of Hopewell Baptist Church, which was constituted in 1803. The cemetery contains graves of Revolutionary and Confederate veterans. Some graves are marked by field stones with hand-chiseled initials. Erected by the Congregation, 1975.
Hopewell Church is off S.C. Hwy. 81, 1/2 mile E on Road 29. This Baptist church, which was first located about 1.5 miles northwest, was constituted in 1803. The congregation moved to the present 4.4 acre site after it was surveyed December 14, 1822. Two houses of worship were built here before 1891, when a third was erected. It was replaced by the present 1949 structure. Erected by the Congregation, 1975.
“Jenewary 3, 1794, Fryday night.
Dear daughter,
Having an opportunity I now set down to write a few lines by Mr. James Hall he come sence night. my dear may assured I have not for got you but as providence ordard it so that we are to be parted I desire to be content and wish you to be resigned to the will of a wise god that will make all things to work for good if we but love him. The old year has gone and if we look back what a nothing it appears departed
as a tale that is told thus will our whole life appear when our end approachs and eternity opens. but eternity will never expire but will last world with out end, when millions of ages are past away eternity we may say only will be a beginning and this short life this little span is the seed time of long, long eternity and do my dear indeavor to improve time and make the best provision for an eternity of happiness. Should we not be careful to get faith in our lord Jesus Christ to get the love of god shed abroad in our hearts. and our souls renewed according to the amiable example of our blessed redeemer this and nothing but this is trew religion. fix dear daughter this truth in your memory a true faith in Christ an unfeigned love of god and a real holiness of hart are the greatest blessings you can desire without them we can not be happy and this is the wish of you poor frail mother. that you will incessantly and earnestly mind the one thing needful though the whole advancing year. if you do so you will have god for your friend and he is able to supply all your wants and make you good friends to strangers it was my intend to come up in febweary but (saturday morning) their is so menny things to hender me. I am week and this could sesen of the year might be hard for me at this time Charls has a bad cof. and fever and is much redust, Susannah has hard fevers yestrday they got medeson from the doctour and Charls thinks he is som better this is Susannah best day and I cant tell if the medesom has hope her or no. I hope Charls is gettin better of his other complant I hope god in his own good time sent him comfort and speak peas to his consunse I convarsed with him on the subject yestrday James Weatherspoon famley (my 4th great grandmother, Hester Story Witherspoon) I hope is well I heard from them Wensday. none of our peeple has gon to town yet I expect they wold gon next week if they had ent been take sick the Gentman is waiten I may conclude with my love to you and Mr Reese and my little dears give my complements to my good frends fearwell my dear fearwell I am your souls well wisher tell deth. Mary Stoery “
ccMary was the second wife of Charles Story and was his widow for 31 years. They had four children: 1. Mary Alexander who was the second wife of David Witherspoon III andthe mother of 10 children. 2. Anna who married George Reese and had 11 children.
3. Charles who married Susannah Carter and had one child. 4. Hester who married James Witherspoon and was my ancestress. Hester and James had 11 children.
Mary often lived with Anna's family who buried her at the Hopewell Cemetery at the Old Stone Church near Clemson. The stone marker says, "Sacred to the Memory of Mary Story who departed this life in the full assurance of a happy immortality on the 5th day of Sept 1822 Aged 80 years Erected by her Daughter Ann Reese"
Old Hopewell Cemetery is at the SE corner of intersection of S.C. Hwy. 81 and S.C. Sec. Rd. 29 Located 1.09 miles northwest, this cemetery marks the original site of Hopewell Baptist Church, which was constituted in 1803. The cemetery contains graves of Revolutionary and Confederate veterans. Some graves are marked by field stones with hand-chiseled initials. Erected by the Congregation, 1975.
Hopewell Church is off S.C. Hwy. 81, 1/2 mile E on Road 29. This Baptist church, which was first located about 1.5 miles northwest, was constituted in 1803. The congregation moved to the present 4.4 acre site after it was surveyed December 14, 1822. Two houses of worship were built here before 1891, when a third was erected. It was replaced by the present 1949 structure. Erected by the Congregation, 1975.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Lady P - My Great Grandmother
This is a story about Louisiana Prestine Chalfant (1855 - 1943)when she was was 8 years old. This incident is when her sick mother died due having no shelter and then her father died of grief she was 14 years old. She continued to live at China Grove Plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana with her sister, Emma and her husband, J. Foster Collins and with her sister, Belle.
MEMPHIS DAILY APPEAL (ATLANTA, GA), June 9, 1863, p.2, c.8
"A spunky Girl.--A letter in a Northern paper says:"One of the houses destroyed by the Queen of the West on her trip down the Mississippi belonged to an old gentleman, (Nathaniel Chalfant) who, with his two sons(Charles and James)and daughters (Mary, Belle, Emma, Ann and Louisiana) carried on the farm and worked the negroes. One of the young ladies admitted that her brother had fired on the Queen of the West, and only wished that he had been a dozen. She abused the colonel and berated the Federals. When she discovered that her abuse failed to move Colonel Ellett, just as the flames began to circle around the house top, she sang, in a ringing, defiant tone of voice, the "Bonnie Blue Flag." until forest and river echoed and re-echoed."
The Bonnie Blue Flag by Harry MaCarthy
We are a band of brothers and native to the soil,
Fighting for the property we gained by honest toil;
And when our rights were threatened, the cry rose near and far,
"Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star!"
Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
As long as the Union was faithful to her trust,
Like friends and like brothers both kind were we and just;
But now, when Northern treachery attempts our rights to mar,
We hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
First gallant South Carolina nobly made the stand,
Then came Alabama, who took her by the hand;
Next quickly Mississippi, Georgia and Florida,
All raised on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Ye men of valor, gather round the banner of the right,
Texas and fair Louisiana join us in the fight;
Davis, our loved president, and Stephens statesman are,
Now rally round the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
And here's to old Virginia, the Old Dominion State,
Who with the young Confederacy at length has linked her fate;
Impelled by her example, now other states prepare,
To hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Then cheer, boys, cheer, raise the joyous shout,
For Arkansas and North Carolina now have both gone out;
And let another rousing cheer for Tennessee be given,
The single star of the Bonnie Blue Flag has grown to be eleven.
Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Then here's to our Confederacy, strong are we and brave,
Like patriots of old we'll fight our heritage to save;
And rather than submit to shame, to die we would prefer,
So cheer for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
"Earthen Walls, Iron Men: Fort DeRussy, Louisiana, and the Defense of Red River" by Steve Mayeux. This story is included as a footnote - footnote looks as of now, in my rough draft:
[6] Ibid. This was originally a Chicago Tribune article, dateline February 15, 1863, and can be also be found quoted in Moore, The Rebellion Record, Vol. 6, 387, and Gosnell, Guns on the Western Waters, 183 (Bodman account). According to family stories handed down over the generations, the man who shot Master Thompson was Charles Chalfant, the 25-year-old son of plantation owners Nathaniel and Caroline Burrows Chalfant. Charles had been discharged from the 2nd La. Infantry in 1861 for physical disability. In the Chalfant version, Charles' sisters Isabella (known as Belle, and described as "cold, haughty and regal") and Emma had the Yankees drag their piano from the house, and one played while the other sang "The Bonny Blue Flag" as the house burned. They also reported that in addition to burning the house, the Yankees also burned the gin, the sugar house, the corn crib and twenty-two slave cabins, and stole the cattle and "cut the feet off of little calves." Stories collected by Linda Ellen Perry and posted on the Internet.
Dear Ms. Perry,
For years I have been trying to identify the girl who sang "The Bonny Blue Flag" while the Yankees burned her home down after her brother shot an officer aboard the USS Queen of the West, and now thanks to your geneology site I think I may have her narrowed down. And I also now know the name of the man who shot First Master James D. Thompson. (He died a few weeks later, and is now buried at the National Cemetery in Pineville, LA.)
I am writing a book on the history of Fort DeRussy, and this incident played a part in the history of the fort - the Queen of the West was captured at the fort two days after the plantations on the upper Atchafalaya were burned. Since Captain Thompson was injured, he could not be removed from the boat so it could not be burned, and therefore it fell into Confederate hands.
Steve Mayeux
President, Friends of Fort DeRussy
MEMPHIS DAILY APPEAL (ATLANTA, GA), June 9, 1863, p.2, c.8
"A spunky Girl.--A letter in a Northern paper says:"One of the houses destroyed by the Queen of the West on her trip down the Mississippi belonged to an old gentleman, (Nathaniel Chalfant) who, with his two sons(Charles and James)and daughters (Mary, Belle, Emma, Ann and Louisiana) carried on the farm and worked the negroes. One of the young ladies admitted that her brother had fired on the Queen of the West, and only wished that he had been a dozen. She abused the colonel and berated the Federals. When she discovered that her abuse failed to move Colonel Ellett, just as the flames began to circle around the house top, she sang, in a ringing, defiant tone of voice, the "Bonnie Blue Flag." until forest and river echoed and re-echoed."
The Bonnie Blue Flag by Harry MaCarthy
We are a band of brothers and native to the soil,
Fighting for the property we gained by honest toil;
And when our rights were threatened, the cry rose near and far,
"Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star!"
Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
As long as the Union was faithful to her trust,
Like friends and like brothers both kind were we and just;
But now, when Northern treachery attempts our rights to mar,
We hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
First gallant South Carolina nobly made the stand,
Then came Alabama, who took her by the hand;
Next quickly Mississippi, Georgia and Florida,
All raised on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Ye men of valor, gather round the banner of the right,
Texas and fair Louisiana join us in the fight;
Davis, our loved president, and Stephens statesman are,
Now rally round the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
And here's to old Virginia, the Old Dominion State,
Who with the young Confederacy at length has linked her fate;
Impelled by her example, now other states prepare,
To hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Then cheer, boys, cheer, raise the joyous shout,
For Arkansas and North Carolina now have both gone out;
And let another rousing cheer for Tennessee be given,
The single star of the Bonnie Blue Flag has grown to be eleven.
Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Then here's to our Confederacy, strong are we and brave,
Like patriots of old we'll fight our heritage to save;
And rather than submit to shame, to die we would prefer,
So cheer for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
"Earthen Walls, Iron Men: Fort DeRussy, Louisiana, and the Defense of Red River" by Steve Mayeux. This story is included as a footnote - footnote looks as of now, in my rough draft:
[6] Ibid. This was originally a Chicago Tribune article, dateline February 15, 1863, and can be also be found quoted in Moore, The Rebellion Record, Vol. 6, 387, and Gosnell, Guns on the Western Waters, 183 (Bodman account). According to family stories handed down over the generations, the man who shot Master Thompson was Charles Chalfant, the 25-year-old son of plantation owners Nathaniel and Caroline Burrows Chalfant. Charles had been discharged from the 2nd La. Infantry in 1861 for physical disability. In the Chalfant version, Charles' sisters Isabella (known as Belle, and described as "cold, haughty and regal") and Emma had the Yankees drag their piano from the house, and one played while the other sang "The Bonny Blue Flag" as the house burned. They also reported that in addition to burning the house, the Yankees also burned the gin, the sugar house, the corn crib and twenty-two slave cabins, and stole the cattle and "cut the feet off of little calves." Stories collected by Linda Ellen Perry and posted on the Internet.
Dear Ms. Perry,
For years I have been trying to identify the girl who sang "The Bonny Blue Flag" while the Yankees burned her home down after her brother shot an officer aboard the USS Queen of the West, and now thanks to your geneology site I think I may have her narrowed down. And I also now know the name of the man who shot First Master James D. Thompson. (He died a few weeks later, and is now buried at the National Cemetery in Pineville, LA.)
I am writing a book on the history of Fort DeRussy, and this incident played a part in the history of the fort - the Queen of the West was captured at the fort two days after the plantations on the upper Atchafalaya were burned. Since Captain Thompson was injured, he could not be removed from the boat so it could not be burned, and therefore it fell into Confederate hands.
Steve Mayeux
President, Friends of Fort DeRussy
Friday, July 25, 2008
Occoquan Workhouse and Women's Voting Rights
As we crossed the scenic Occoquan River on the way home, we decided to drive through the Fairfax County Park that runs along the bluff. We have visited the historic town of Occoquan, Virginia many times but had never gone into the park across the river. It was a beautiful drive through trees, picnic areas, hiking trails, scenic overlooks and sports fields. We came to a low domed brick building with a rusted metal door and barred openings a few feet off the ground. It was brick kiln which was used by prisoners the Occoquan Workhouse which later became Lorton Prison and now will reopen as an Arts Center. It jolted me to realize I was looking at part of the place of horror recounted in the story below. I do not know the author, as I found it on many sites.
"This is the story of our Grandmothers, and Great-grandmothers, as they lived only 90 years ago. It was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote. The women were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of "obstructing sidewalk traffic."
They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus unfolded the "Night of Terror" on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms. When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?
Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie (2004) "Iron Jawed Angels." It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.
All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.
My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. "One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie," she said. "What would those women think of the way I use--or don't use--my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn." The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her "all over again."
HBO released the movie on video and DVD. I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.
It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.
The doctor admonished the men: "Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."
We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Remember to vote."
"This is the story of our Grandmothers, and Great-grandmothers, as they lived only 90 years ago. It was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote. The women were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of "obstructing sidewalk traffic."
They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.
Thus unfolded the "Night of Terror" on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.
For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms. When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.
So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?
Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie (2004) "Iron Jawed Angels." It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.
All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.
My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. "One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie," she said. "What would those women think of the way I use--or don't use--my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn." The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her "all over again."
HBO released the movie on video and DVD. I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.
It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.
The doctor admonished the men: "Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."
We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Remember to vote."
Friday, July 4, 2008
Blessed 4th of July 2008 - John Witherspoon and Benjamin Rush
Please note that much of the blog information posted is not my orginial writing but is "cut and pasted from other sources."
On this 4th of July I am proud to be associated with Signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Witherspoon. We share the same ancestors, James Witherspoon (b. 1640 Scotland) and Helen Welch. I descend from their daughter, Janet and he from their son, James. The Witherspoons are descended from the Scottish Reformer Rev. John Knox and his second wife, Lady Margaret Stewart. The Stewart line takes the family back to Charlemagne, as royal lines are well documented.
"The Rev. John Witherspoon was from a branch of a very respectable family, which had long possessed considerable landed property in the East of Scotland. He was descended from John Knox. His father was eminent, not only for piety, but for literature and for a habit of extreme accuracy in all his writings and discourses. His father a minister of Ester, about 18 miles from Edinburgh.
He went to school at Haddington and was a distinguished scholar. He entered the University of Edinburgh when he was 14. At 21, he was licensed to preach the gospel. His first church was at Beith, he them went to a large, flourishing congregation at Paisley. He was a profound scholar, he held two degrees, Doctor of Divinity and L. L. D. He was a great theologian who organized the spirit of Presbyterianism in this country.
He came to America in 1769 to be the President of the College of New Jersey, now called Princeton University, from 1769 to 1794. His wife had to be convinced by Benjamin Rush who was studying medicine in Scotland and Richard Stockton to come to the U.S. John brought 33 valuable books with him as a gift to the College. (Benjamin Rush is another signer of the Declaration of Independence and an outstanding father of America. I will blog about him soon. It is fun that our excellent neighbor and friend of decades, Ralph Stevens, is his descendant.)
John preached two sermons each Sunday, taught mathematics, natural philosophy, divinity, rhetoric, history, chronology, and French.
He was elected as a member of the Congress of the United States and served for 7 years from 1776 to 1779 and from 1781 to 1782. He taught them the importance of basing any form of government on the recognition that our true rights come directly from the hand of God. His life work is a powerful example of the impact one person can have on the renewal of our nation's religious, moral and constitutional roots.
John Witherspoon was the Signer of the Declaration of Independence. He said, "There is a tide in the affairs of men - a nick of time. We perceive it now before us. To hesitate is to consent to our own slavery. That noble instrument upon your table should be subscribed this very morning by every pen in this house. He that will not respond to its accents and strain every nerve to carry into effect its provisions is unworthy of the name of freeman."
"Although these grey hairs must soon descend into the sepulcher, I would infinitely rather that they should descend thither by the hand of the public executioner than desert at this crisis the sacred cause of my country."
"Sir, in my judgment the country is not only ripe for the measure (Declaration of Independence) but in danger of rotting for the want on it." When the British burned his library, a colleague reported, 'He would lay aside the cloth to take revenge on them, I believe he would send them to the devil if he could."
He was described as of medium height, tended to stoutness, bushy eyebrows, prominent nose, large eyes and a commanding presence.
Dr. Witherspoon was a dedicated patriot who held one of the most responsible positions in Congress as the trusted financial counselor for the new republic. He was an affectionate husband, a tender parent to his twelve children, a kind master and a sincere friend. He was a good companion full of amusing and instructive stories. He was a powerful minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ using his melodious voice, good sense, elegant and beautiful expression to give sermons without notes or oratorical flourishes and gestures. He was called by John Adams, "as high a Son of Liberty, as any Man in America."
JOHN WITHERSPOON AND THE FOUNDING OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, by Jeffry H. Morrison, Notre Dame, $22.50, was reviewed in The Washington Times Sunday, August 28, 2005. Morrison argues that any one of the Witherspoon's three careers - pastor, college president and politician - should have guaranteed him the "prominent and lasting place in American history that he has been denied." Witherspoon signed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, and, the author argues, only "a prior commitment to his ministerial duties" (attending to a conference to establish a national Presbyterian Church, where he was elected the first Moderator) kept him from playing a key role at the Constitutional Convention. He helped write the Presbyterians' national constitution, which "provides an interesting corollary to his pro-federal Constitution stand." Five of his students including James Madison were delegates to the Constitutional Convention.
Witherspoon was a man of many achievements in religion, education and politics.
Benjamin Rush decided to propose to his future wife partly because of her high opinion of Witherspoon's preaching.
Morrison states, "Even in his day some Americans were made uneasy by the idea of clergymen as legislators," and Witherspoon didn't make it easier for those Americans by insisting on wearing his clerical garb to the Continental Congress and composing religious proclamations in the name of that Congress. He was also accused of favoring "A general establishment of Protestantism," although the author argues that Witherspoon advocated nonestablishment.
Witherspoon, John (1723-1794), was the sixth president of Princeton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and from 1776 to 1782 a leading member of the Continental Congress. He came from Scotland in 1768 to assume the presidency of the college and held office until his death a quarter of a century later.
A graduate of the University of Edinburgh, who received an honorary doctorate from St. Andrews in 1764, Witherspoon had become widely known as a leader of the evangelical or "Popular Party'' in the established Church of Scotland, of which he was an ordained minister. The trustees of the College first elected him president in 1766, after Samuel Finley's death; but Mrs. Witherspoon was reluctant to leave Scotland, and he declined. Thanks very largely to the efforts of Benjamin Rush 1760, then a medical student at Edinburgh, she was persuaded to reconsider. Informed that Witherspoon would now accept the call if renewed, the trustees again elected him to the presidency in December of 1767.
With their five surviving children (five others had died in early childhood), and 300 books for the college library, the Witherspoons reached Philadelphia early in August 1768. When a few days later they moved on to Princeton, they were greeted a mile out of town by tutors and students, who escorted them to Morven, home of Richard Stockton. That evening the students celebrated the occasion by 'illuminating' Nassau Hall with a lighted tallow dip in each window.
Witherspoon had arrived in time to provide the highlight for commencement, which in those days was held in September. Early in October, he wrote Rush that on the preceding 28th he had delivered "an inaugural Oration in Latin'' before "a vast Concourse of People.'' He was obviously heartened by the warmth of his reception, but he also reported a number of disturbing conditions in the state of the college. He found far too many of the students inadequately prepared for college work, a complaint frequently heard since, and one that explains the close attention he subsequently gave to the grammar school conducted by the college. Most worrisome of all was the low state of the college's finances.
With characteristic vigor, Witherspoon moved immediately to find the remedy. Taking advantage of the vacation between commencement and the beginning of a new term in November, he went first to New York and then on to Boston for consultation with friends of the College. During the next fall's vacation, he visited Williamsburg, where, the Virginia Gazette reported, he "preached to a crowded audience in the Capital yard (there being no house in town capable of holding such a multitude) and gave universal satisfaction.'' The concrete measure of that satisfaction was a collection taken at the end of the sermon amounting "to upwards of fifty-six pounds.'' The following February found him again in Virginia, and this was not the last of his southern tours.
By no means the least of the advantages that accrued to the College from his itinerant preaching was an increased enrollment of students, whose tuition continued to be the major source of revenue. Enrollment had reached a peak under President Finley, with graduating classes of 31 each in 1765 and 1766, but had fallen off thereafter. There were 11 graduates at the commencement of 1768, but 29 in 1773, and 27 in 1776. Simultaneously, a change occurred in the constituencies from which the students were drawn. Now, as before, most of them came from the middle provinces, but the representation from New England, which had been substantial, declined markedly, and a significant enrollment from the southern colonies began to develop.
Not all of Witherspoon's preaching was done on the road. Indeed, when in Princeton he normally preached twice each Sunday to a mixed congregation of townspeople and students, which only recently had acquired a place of worship apart from the Prayer Room of Nassau Hall. Their church had been constructed at the front of the present campus, where stands today a Presbyterian church of much later construction. According to Benjamin Rush, Witherspoon's manner in the pulpit was "solemn and graceful,'' his voice melodious, and his sermons ``loaded with good sense and adorned'' with "elegance and beauty'' of expression. But Rush was impressed above all by the fact that Witherspoon carried no notes into the pulpit, in sharp contrast with the "too common practice of reading sermons in America.'' Other contemporary descriptions indicate that he depended upon no oratorical flourishes or gestures. The story is told of a visitor who, observing that Witherspoon's enthusiasm for gardening was confined to growing vegetables, remarked, "Doctor, I see no flowers in your garden,'' to which came the reply, "No, nor in my discourses either.''
To the day of his death, his speech revealed his Scottish birth. A man of medium height, tending toward stoutness, with bushy eybrows, a prominent nose, and large ears, he had a quality contemporaries were inclined to describe as "presence.'' One of his students, a later president of the College, recalled that Witherspoon had more presence than any other man he had known, except for General Washington. Witherspoon lived at first in the President's House (now called the John Maclean House), but after several years he moved about a mile north of the village to "Tusculum,'' a handsome residence he built that still stands on Cherry Hill Road. His route to and from the College is well enough indicated by the street that bears his name.
President Witherspoon was obviously a very busy man, for in addition to managing the College's affairs and preaching twice on Sundays, he bore the heaviest responsibility for instruction of the students. His "faculty'' normally included two or three tutors (recent graduates who may have been pursuing, in such free time as they could find, advanced studies in divinity before moving on to some vacant pulpit) and one, later two, professors. Considering himself less than an accomplished scholar in mathematics and astronomy, he secured the appointment of a Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in 1771. This left to the president the main responsibility for the instruction in moral philosophy, divinity, rhetoric, history, and chronology, and also in French, for such students as might elect to study the language.
Witherspoon's administration marks an important turning point in the life of the college, but the changes he made were mainly of method and emphasis within the broad objectives which had been originally set. Thus, he brought to Princeton a fresh emphasis upon the need of the church for a well-educated clergy, a purpose to which the college had been dedicated at the time of its founding, but by men who at the height of a stirring religious revival may well have given first place to the church's need for "converted'' ministry. There is no indication that Witherspoon discounted the importance of a conversion experience, but on balance he tended to place the primary emphasis on education. His influence in helping to bring about a final reunion of all Presbyterians, who earlier had been sharply divided, in support of the College was one of his major accomplishments.
The founders had hoped too that the College might produce men who would be "ornaments of the State as well as the Church,'' and Witherspoon realized this hope in full measure. His students included, in addition to a president and vice-president of the United States, nine cabinet officers, twenty-one senators, thirty-nine congressmen, three justices of the Supreme Court, and twelve state governors. Five of the nine Princeton graduates among the fifty-five members of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were students of Witherspoon.
Witherspoon broadened and enriched the curriculum of the College. He was the first to introduce the new rhetoric of the eighteenth century, accomplishing his purpose by extending and intensifying instruction in English grammar and composition. He added substantially to the instructional equipment of the College, especially books for the library and "philosophical apparatus'' for instruction by demonstration in the sciences, including the famous Rittenhouse Orrery acquired in 1771. (Our family is related to David Rittenhouse through his wife, it appears. The three great scientist of the Colonial era were David Rittenhouse, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Unfortunately, Rittenhouse has been forgotten except for Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia.)
He was not an original thinker, but he was a product of Scotland's leading university in an age when the Scottish universities had a vitality possessed by no others in Great Britain. Although certain leniencies encouraged by the Scottish Enlightenment had offended his orthodox Presbyterianism, Witherspoon introduced to Princeton, and through it to other institutions, some of the more advanced ideas of that movement. He subscribed to John Locke's view of the role of sensory perception in the development of the mind, but vigorously rejected all esoteric interpretations of that view. He saw no conflict between faith and reason; instead, he encouraged his students to test their faith by the rule of experience. He was much inclined to apply the test of common sense to any proposition, and to reduce it to its simplest terms. In lecturing on rhetoric he advised his students of the multiple components into which a discourse traditionally had been divided, and then suggested that it was enough to say that every discourse or composition ``must have a beginning, a middle, and an end.'' His name is rightly identified with certain attitudes and assumptions, considered to be of importance in the development of our national life, that are associated with what is known as the Common Sense Philosophy.
Though a man of strong convictions, he showed no inclination to protect his students from exposure to ideas with which he disagreed. The many books he added to the library gave the undergraduate access to a wide range of contemporary literature, including authors with whom he had publicly disputed. In his famous lectures on moral philosophy, not published until after his death and then probably contrary to his wish, his method was to lay out contending points of view and to rely upon persuasive reasoning to guide the student toward a proper conclusion of his own.
Witherspoon had a helpful sense of humor. He suffered from insomnia, and his tendency to drowse, particularly after dinner, led him, during one of the two terms he served in the New Jersey legislature, to move that the daily sessions be concluded before dinner. When his motion lost, he informed his colleagues that "there are two kinds of speaking that are very interesting . . . perfect sense and perfect nonsense. When there is speaking in either of these ways I shall engage to be all attention. But when there is speaking, as there often is, halfway between sense and nonsense, you must bear with me if I fall asleep.''
In his support of the American cause there is no occasion for surprise. He subscribed to John Locke's political philosophy as wholeheartedly as to his psychology, and brought from Scotland a strong sense of "British liberty,'' which he came to see as greatly endangered by the course of British policy. When John Adams stopped over in Princeton on his way to the first meeting of the Continental Congress in 1774, he met Witherspoon and pronounced him "as high a Son of Liberty, as any Man in America.''
Through the years he served in Congress, Witherspoon's patriotism and judgment won the respect of his colleagues, as evidenced by his assignment to many committees, some of them among the most important. He struggled through these years -- not always successfully -- to keep the College in session, and he became a frequent commuter between Princeton and Philadelphia. He resigned from Congress in November 1782, when a war that had cost him the life of his son James (who graduated from the College in 1770 and was killed in Germantown) was ended, and peace, with American independence, seemed assured.
Witherspoon's later years were filled with difficulty. The college had suffered extensive damage to its building and instructional equipment, and its finances were in disarray. Two years before his death he became totally blind. His wife died in 1789, and a second marriage in 1791 to a young widow of twenty-four occasioned more than a little comment. Through these later years his son-in-law, Samuel Stanhope Smith, increasingly carried the responsibility for conduct of the College's affairs.
But through these later years, too, Witherspoon remained remarkably active and influential. He was a member of the ratifying convention that brought to New Jersey the honor of being the third state to ratify the Constitution of the United States. He contributed greatly to the organization of a newly independent and national Presbyterian Church and in 1789 opened its first General Assembly with a sermon and presided until the election of the first moderator. Above all, the name he had won as a divine, an educator, and a patriot brought returning strength to the College. He is rightly remembered as one of the great presidents of Princeton.
W. Frank Craven
From Alexander Leitch, A Princeton Companion, copyright Princeton University Press (1978).
Go to Search A Princeton Companion
* Dr. John Witherspoon, who wrote, "I entreat you in the most earnest manner to believe in Jesus Christ, for there is no salvation in any other [Acts 4:12]...."
* Dr. Benjamin Rush, an innovator of mass-produced Bible printing, initiator of the Sunday school movement in America and founder of the first Bible society in our nation.
* John Dickinson, also a signer of the U.S. Constitution, who wrote in his will: "Rendering thanks to my Creator for my existence and station among His works, for my birth in a country enlightened by the Gospel and enjoying freedom, and for all His other kindnesses, to Him I resign myself, humbly confiding in His goodness and in His mercy through Jesus Christ for the events of eternity."
On this 4th of July I am proud to be associated with Signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Witherspoon. We share the same ancestors, James Witherspoon (b. 1640 Scotland) and Helen Welch. I descend from their daughter, Janet and he from their son, James. The Witherspoons are descended from the Scottish Reformer Rev. John Knox and his second wife, Lady Margaret Stewart. The Stewart line takes the family back to Charlemagne, as royal lines are well documented.
"The Rev. John Witherspoon was from a branch of a very respectable family, which had long possessed considerable landed property in the East of Scotland. He was descended from John Knox. His father was eminent, not only for piety, but for literature and for a habit of extreme accuracy in all his writings and discourses. His father a minister of Ester, about 18 miles from Edinburgh.
He went to school at Haddington and was a distinguished scholar. He entered the University of Edinburgh when he was 14. At 21, he was licensed to preach the gospel. His first church was at Beith, he them went to a large, flourishing congregation at Paisley. He was a profound scholar, he held two degrees, Doctor of Divinity and L. L. D. He was a great theologian who organized the spirit of Presbyterianism in this country.
He came to America in 1769 to be the President of the College of New Jersey, now called Princeton University, from 1769 to 1794. His wife had to be convinced by Benjamin Rush who was studying medicine in Scotland and Richard Stockton to come to the U.S. John brought 33 valuable books with him as a gift to the College. (Benjamin Rush is another signer of the Declaration of Independence and an outstanding father of America. I will blog about him soon. It is fun that our excellent neighbor and friend of decades, Ralph Stevens, is his descendant.)
John preached two sermons each Sunday, taught mathematics, natural philosophy, divinity, rhetoric, history, chronology, and French.
He was elected as a member of the Congress of the United States and served for 7 years from 1776 to 1779 and from 1781 to 1782. He taught them the importance of basing any form of government on the recognition that our true rights come directly from the hand of God. His life work is a powerful example of the impact one person can have on the renewal of our nation's religious, moral and constitutional roots.
John Witherspoon was the Signer of the Declaration of Independence. He said, "There is a tide in the affairs of men - a nick of time. We perceive it now before us. To hesitate is to consent to our own slavery. That noble instrument upon your table should be subscribed this very morning by every pen in this house. He that will not respond to its accents and strain every nerve to carry into effect its provisions is unworthy of the name of freeman."
"Although these grey hairs must soon descend into the sepulcher, I would infinitely rather that they should descend thither by the hand of the public executioner than desert at this crisis the sacred cause of my country."
"Sir, in my judgment the country is not only ripe for the measure (Declaration of Independence) but in danger of rotting for the want on it." When the British burned his library, a colleague reported, 'He would lay aside the cloth to take revenge on them, I believe he would send them to the devil if he could."
He was described as of medium height, tended to stoutness, bushy eyebrows, prominent nose, large eyes and a commanding presence.
Dr. Witherspoon was a dedicated patriot who held one of the most responsible positions in Congress as the trusted financial counselor for the new republic. He was an affectionate husband, a tender parent to his twelve children, a kind master and a sincere friend. He was a good companion full of amusing and instructive stories. He was a powerful minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ using his melodious voice, good sense, elegant and beautiful expression to give sermons without notes or oratorical flourishes and gestures. He was called by John Adams, "as high a Son of Liberty, as any Man in America."
JOHN WITHERSPOON AND THE FOUNDING OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, by Jeffry H. Morrison, Notre Dame, $22.50, was reviewed in The Washington Times Sunday, August 28, 2005. Morrison argues that any one of the Witherspoon's three careers - pastor, college president and politician - should have guaranteed him the "prominent and lasting place in American history that he has been denied." Witherspoon signed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, and, the author argues, only "a prior commitment to his ministerial duties" (attending to a conference to establish a national Presbyterian Church, where he was elected the first Moderator) kept him from playing a key role at the Constitutional Convention. He helped write the Presbyterians' national constitution, which "provides an interesting corollary to his pro-federal Constitution stand." Five of his students including James Madison were delegates to the Constitutional Convention.
Witherspoon was a man of many achievements in religion, education and politics.
Benjamin Rush decided to propose to his future wife partly because of her high opinion of Witherspoon's preaching.
Morrison states, "Even in his day some Americans were made uneasy by the idea of clergymen as legislators," and Witherspoon didn't make it easier for those Americans by insisting on wearing his clerical garb to the Continental Congress and composing religious proclamations in the name of that Congress. He was also accused of favoring "A general establishment of Protestantism," although the author argues that Witherspoon advocated nonestablishment.
Witherspoon, John (1723-1794), was the sixth president of Princeton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and from 1776 to 1782 a leading member of the Continental Congress. He came from Scotland in 1768 to assume the presidency of the college and held office until his death a quarter of a century later.
A graduate of the University of Edinburgh, who received an honorary doctorate from St. Andrews in 1764, Witherspoon had become widely known as a leader of the evangelical or "Popular Party'' in the established Church of Scotland, of which he was an ordained minister. The trustees of the College first elected him president in 1766, after Samuel Finley's death; but Mrs. Witherspoon was reluctant to leave Scotland, and he declined. Thanks very largely to the efforts of Benjamin Rush 1760, then a medical student at Edinburgh, she was persuaded to reconsider. Informed that Witherspoon would now accept the call if renewed, the trustees again elected him to the presidency in December of 1767.
With their five surviving children (five others had died in early childhood), and 300 books for the college library, the Witherspoons reached Philadelphia early in August 1768. When a few days later they moved on to Princeton, they were greeted a mile out of town by tutors and students, who escorted them to Morven, home of Richard Stockton. That evening the students celebrated the occasion by 'illuminating' Nassau Hall with a lighted tallow dip in each window.
Witherspoon had arrived in time to provide the highlight for commencement, which in those days was held in September. Early in October, he wrote Rush that on the preceding 28th he had delivered "an inaugural Oration in Latin'' before "a vast Concourse of People.'' He was obviously heartened by the warmth of his reception, but he also reported a number of disturbing conditions in the state of the college. He found far too many of the students inadequately prepared for college work, a complaint frequently heard since, and one that explains the close attention he subsequently gave to the grammar school conducted by the college. Most worrisome of all was the low state of the college's finances.
With characteristic vigor, Witherspoon moved immediately to find the remedy. Taking advantage of the vacation between commencement and the beginning of a new term in November, he went first to New York and then on to Boston for consultation with friends of the College. During the next fall's vacation, he visited Williamsburg, where, the Virginia Gazette reported, he "preached to a crowded audience in the Capital yard (there being no house in town capable of holding such a multitude) and gave universal satisfaction.'' The concrete measure of that satisfaction was a collection taken at the end of the sermon amounting "to upwards of fifty-six pounds.'' The following February found him again in Virginia, and this was not the last of his southern tours.
By no means the least of the advantages that accrued to the College from his itinerant preaching was an increased enrollment of students, whose tuition continued to be the major source of revenue. Enrollment had reached a peak under President Finley, with graduating classes of 31 each in 1765 and 1766, but had fallen off thereafter. There were 11 graduates at the commencement of 1768, but 29 in 1773, and 27 in 1776. Simultaneously, a change occurred in the constituencies from which the students were drawn. Now, as before, most of them came from the middle provinces, but the representation from New England, which had been substantial, declined markedly, and a significant enrollment from the southern colonies began to develop.
Not all of Witherspoon's preaching was done on the road. Indeed, when in Princeton he normally preached twice each Sunday to a mixed congregation of townspeople and students, which only recently had acquired a place of worship apart from the Prayer Room of Nassau Hall. Their church had been constructed at the front of the present campus, where stands today a Presbyterian church of much later construction. According to Benjamin Rush, Witherspoon's manner in the pulpit was "solemn and graceful,'' his voice melodious, and his sermons ``loaded with good sense and adorned'' with "elegance and beauty'' of expression. But Rush was impressed above all by the fact that Witherspoon carried no notes into the pulpit, in sharp contrast with the "too common practice of reading sermons in America.'' Other contemporary descriptions indicate that he depended upon no oratorical flourishes or gestures. The story is told of a visitor who, observing that Witherspoon's enthusiasm for gardening was confined to growing vegetables, remarked, "Doctor, I see no flowers in your garden,'' to which came the reply, "No, nor in my discourses either.''
To the day of his death, his speech revealed his Scottish birth. A man of medium height, tending toward stoutness, with bushy eybrows, a prominent nose, and large ears, he had a quality contemporaries were inclined to describe as "presence.'' One of his students, a later president of the College, recalled that Witherspoon had more presence than any other man he had known, except for General Washington. Witherspoon lived at first in the President's House (now called the John Maclean House), but after several years he moved about a mile north of the village to "Tusculum,'' a handsome residence he built that still stands on Cherry Hill Road. His route to and from the College is well enough indicated by the street that bears his name.
President Witherspoon was obviously a very busy man, for in addition to managing the College's affairs and preaching twice on Sundays, he bore the heaviest responsibility for instruction of the students. His "faculty'' normally included two or three tutors (recent graduates who may have been pursuing, in such free time as they could find, advanced studies in divinity before moving on to some vacant pulpit) and one, later two, professors. Considering himself less than an accomplished scholar in mathematics and astronomy, he secured the appointment of a Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in 1771. This left to the president the main responsibility for the instruction in moral philosophy, divinity, rhetoric, history, and chronology, and also in French, for such students as might elect to study the language.
Witherspoon's administration marks an important turning point in the life of the college, but the changes he made were mainly of method and emphasis within the broad objectives which had been originally set. Thus, he brought to Princeton a fresh emphasis upon the need of the church for a well-educated clergy, a purpose to which the college had been dedicated at the time of its founding, but by men who at the height of a stirring religious revival may well have given first place to the church's need for "converted'' ministry. There is no indication that Witherspoon discounted the importance of a conversion experience, but on balance he tended to place the primary emphasis on education. His influence in helping to bring about a final reunion of all Presbyterians, who earlier had been sharply divided, in support of the College was one of his major accomplishments.
The founders had hoped too that the College might produce men who would be "ornaments of the State as well as the Church,'' and Witherspoon realized this hope in full measure. His students included, in addition to a president and vice-president of the United States, nine cabinet officers, twenty-one senators, thirty-nine congressmen, three justices of the Supreme Court, and twelve state governors. Five of the nine Princeton graduates among the fifty-five members of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 were students of Witherspoon.
Witherspoon broadened and enriched the curriculum of the College. He was the first to introduce the new rhetoric of the eighteenth century, accomplishing his purpose by extending and intensifying instruction in English grammar and composition. He added substantially to the instructional equipment of the College, especially books for the library and "philosophical apparatus'' for instruction by demonstration in the sciences, including the famous Rittenhouse Orrery acquired in 1771. (Our family is related to David Rittenhouse through his wife, it appears. The three great scientist of the Colonial era were David Rittenhouse, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Unfortunately, Rittenhouse has been forgotten except for Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia.)
He was not an original thinker, but he was a product of Scotland's leading university in an age when the Scottish universities had a vitality possessed by no others in Great Britain. Although certain leniencies encouraged by the Scottish Enlightenment had offended his orthodox Presbyterianism, Witherspoon introduced to Princeton, and through it to other institutions, some of the more advanced ideas of that movement. He subscribed to John Locke's view of the role of sensory perception in the development of the mind, but vigorously rejected all esoteric interpretations of that view. He saw no conflict between faith and reason; instead, he encouraged his students to test their faith by the rule of experience. He was much inclined to apply the test of common sense to any proposition, and to reduce it to its simplest terms. In lecturing on rhetoric he advised his students of the multiple components into which a discourse traditionally had been divided, and then suggested that it was enough to say that every discourse or composition ``must have a beginning, a middle, and an end.'' His name is rightly identified with certain attitudes and assumptions, considered to be of importance in the development of our national life, that are associated with what is known as the Common Sense Philosophy.
Though a man of strong convictions, he showed no inclination to protect his students from exposure to ideas with which he disagreed. The many books he added to the library gave the undergraduate access to a wide range of contemporary literature, including authors with whom he had publicly disputed. In his famous lectures on moral philosophy, not published until after his death and then probably contrary to his wish, his method was to lay out contending points of view and to rely upon persuasive reasoning to guide the student toward a proper conclusion of his own.
Witherspoon had a helpful sense of humor. He suffered from insomnia, and his tendency to drowse, particularly after dinner, led him, during one of the two terms he served in the New Jersey legislature, to move that the daily sessions be concluded before dinner. When his motion lost, he informed his colleagues that "there are two kinds of speaking that are very interesting . . . perfect sense and perfect nonsense. When there is speaking in either of these ways I shall engage to be all attention. But when there is speaking, as there often is, halfway between sense and nonsense, you must bear with me if I fall asleep.''
In his support of the American cause there is no occasion for surprise. He subscribed to John Locke's political philosophy as wholeheartedly as to his psychology, and brought from Scotland a strong sense of "British liberty,'' which he came to see as greatly endangered by the course of British policy. When John Adams stopped over in Princeton on his way to the first meeting of the Continental Congress in 1774, he met Witherspoon and pronounced him "as high a Son of Liberty, as any Man in America.''
Through the years he served in Congress, Witherspoon's patriotism and judgment won the respect of his colleagues, as evidenced by his assignment to many committees, some of them among the most important. He struggled through these years -- not always successfully -- to keep the College in session, and he became a frequent commuter between Princeton and Philadelphia. He resigned from Congress in November 1782, when a war that had cost him the life of his son James (who graduated from the College in 1770 and was killed in Germantown) was ended, and peace, with American independence, seemed assured.
Witherspoon's later years were filled with difficulty. The college had suffered extensive damage to its building and instructional equipment, and its finances were in disarray. Two years before his death he became totally blind. His wife died in 1789, and a second marriage in 1791 to a young widow of twenty-four occasioned more than a little comment. Through these later years his son-in-law, Samuel Stanhope Smith, increasingly carried the responsibility for conduct of the College's affairs.
But through these later years, too, Witherspoon remained remarkably active and influential. He was a member of the ratifying convention that brought to New Jersey the honor of being the third state to ratify the Constitution of the United States. He contributed greatly to the organization of a newly independent and national Presbyterian Church and in 1789 opened its first General Assembly with a sermon and presided until the election of the first moderator. Above all, the name he had won as a divine, an educator, and a patriot brought returning strength to the College. He is rightly remembered as one of the great presidents of Princeton.
W. Frank Craven
From Alexander Leitch, A Princeton Companion, copyright Princeton University Press (1978).
Go to Search A Princeton Companion
* Dr. John Witherspoon, who wrote, "I entreat you in the most earnest manner to believe in Jesus Christ, for there is no salvation in any other [Acts 4:12]...."
* Dr. Benjamin Rush, an innovator of mass-produced Bible printing, initiator of the Sunday school movement in America and founder of the first Bible society in our nation.
* John Dickinson, also a signer of the U.S. Constitution, who wrote in his will: "Rendering thanks to my Creator for my existence and station among His works, for my birth in a country enlightened by the Gospel and enjoying freedom, and for all His other kindnesses, to Him I resign myself, humbly confiding in His goodness and in His mercy through Jesus Christ for the events of eternity."
Monday, June 2, 2008
Bats and Basements
Smile – This is from Lyn’s blog about our adventure. Photos later
The latest flood
Along with the bat story, below, my parents also woke up to a flood in the basement. Again. This time, a pipe burst. In the library. There are probably 16 fully loaded bookcases in there, so the carpet can’t be air dried very easily. Dad used their carpet cleaner machine to suck up water for about 5 hours. I pulled another 3 gallons of water out of the carpet too. The plumber finally arrived and it took about 2 hours to fix the problem. Apparently the carpet can not be salvaged, so strong men must be hired to pack up the books, move the book cases. Then Beth & Dad will lay a tile floor in there. Good choice!
Batmen and Robin
Somehow a bat got into my parents house yesterday. Their cat was very fascinated with trying to catch it and was tearing all over the house batting at it. Dad tried to shoo it out the window for a while, then it hid behind a bookcase. It finally took three grown men to catch the bat in a trash can with the clothes hamper lid. Here are the mighty bat warriors:Notice that Tim is wearing 'professional' protective clothing...a coat and gloves...so that he is not bitten or scratched by said poor bat.And here's the cute little fella before he flew away:
The latest flood
Along with the bat story, below, my parents also woke up to a flood in the basement. Again. This time, a pipe burst. In the library. There are probably 16 fully loaded bookcases in there, so the carpet can’t be air dried very easily. Dad used their carpet cleaner machine to suck up water for about 5 hours. I pulled another 3 gallons of water out of the carpet too. The plumber finally arrived and it took about 2 hours to fix the problem. Apparently the carpet can not be salvaged, so strong men must be hired to pack up the books, move the book cases. Then Beth & Dad will lay a tile floor in there. Good choice!
Batmen and Robin
Somehow a bat got into my parents house yesterday. Their cat was very fascinated with trying to catch it and was tearing all over the house batting at it. Dad tried to shoo it out the window for a while, then it hid behind a bookcase. It finally took three grown men to catch the bat in a trash can with the clothes hamper lid. Here are the mighty bat warriors:Notice that Tim is wearing 'professional' protective clothing...a coat and gloves...so that he is not bitten or scratched by said poor bat.And here's the cute little fella before he flew away:
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