TWENTY-FIVE YEARS
IN THE
WEST.
BY ERASMUS MANFORD
CHICAGO:
E. MANFORD, PUBLISHER.
1867.
TO
MY CHRISTIAN FRIENDS
IN THE WEST,
WITH WHOM I HAVE LIVED
AND LABORED MANY YEARS,
THIS VOLUME
IS DEDICATED
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Parentage and Childhood; “Lord” Timothy Dexter; At School; In Haverhill; Shoemaking; Early Aspirations; Converted; Must be a Minister; On a Plank; Attend School; A Long Walk; Studies with J. C. Waldo and Dr. Cobb; First Preaching; With W. S. Balch; First Tour; First Debate; Came out Second Best; Talk with an Englishman about American Coarseness; Conversation on Slavery; In Maryland; Talk with an Episcopal Clergyman concerning Endless Woe not being Taught in the Old Testament; Traveling and Preaching on the Eastern Shore; Return to Baltimore; A Storm; Where Truth Flourishes and Where it Does Not; Another Location; Self and Faith Abused; Preach in Harper’s Ferry, Charleston, Winchester, Va.; A Hard Battle; Cross the Alleghany Mountains.