This is the twenty-sixth in a Series of Reminiscences by E. R. Brown. Brown was born in Pulaski County on August 9, 1845. His writings are abstracted from the “Pulaski County Democrat” on microfilm housed in the Pulaski County Public Library, Winamac, Indiana. Find links to earlier entries at the end of this article.
Published in “Pulaski County Democrat,” August 17, 1922
With reference to religion, I am impressed as I think about it that if it cannot be said that there was an advance here early, it would be a mistake to say that there was retrogression, or even neglect, beyond what is all too common everywhere. True, I would almost despair of people now being able to comprehend the utter lack of facilities in early days for the proper conduct of public worship. The people were not to blame for it, but the destitution was certainly extreme. Like the lack of improved roads, mills, stores and other things which contribute to physical welfare, this dire absence of places of worship and all that go with them was the necessary result of a few people settling so far out in a previously uninhabited country. No better illustration of this shortage occurs to me than the fact that for many years it was necessary for the minister at all Protestant services to ‘line out’ the hymns, that is, to read them two lines at a time. After each two lines were sung two more were read. This was because the minister had absolutely the only hymn book in the congregation. As to the fact that this reading was so commonly done in a sing-song tone, so well remembered by the older people.
Another illustration of the shortage and simplicity of means for religious services was the absence of collection plates or baskets. I never saw either until I was grown up. Men’s hats were used instead. In that connection it was said that on one occasion the minister’s hat was used. Not being satisfied with the sum given, he announced publicly that he was thankful to get his hat back anyway.
Religious meetings were generally held in private houses. Camp meetings, lasting a week and ordinary meetings lasting two or three days, were quite common in groves in summer time. But out-door meetings of one service were not as often held here as they seemed to have been elsewhere. I never knew of a meeting here being held in a barn. That too, was quite the rule in some localities. I once heard a minister tell about a hen coming off her nest when he was preaching in a barn in southern Indiana and what a time he had in maintaining his own gravity and that of his hearers in the midst of her constant cackling.
After the large mill at Pulaski was ready for the machinery, there was a delay in installing it, and that it was used for religious meetings. After the building of schoolhouses they were used very generally for protestant services until churches were built. I have frequently heard amusing accounts of how those clergymen who wore gowns or vestments had to manipulate matters, when there was but one room for all purposes. If there happened to be a grove of thick timber or a field of grownup corn nearby, they could go there to make the change. Of course mischievous boys and some of the less serious grownups were always on the lookout for anything grotesque or humorous.
Very early churches began looking after their scattered members. Since all kinds of people have come here, many denominations held occasional services. I happen to know that self-denying Catholic priests were among the first to see that the dispersed adherents of their faith were not left entirely unchurched. Likewise, while meetings were not numerous all told, Methodists, Lutherans, Christians, German Reformed, Presbyterians, Dunkards, Universalists and what not, held services at long intervals. They were liable to be at almost any hour of the day or on any day of the week, though Sunday was preferred then as now.
Ministers mostly traveled horseback, making long trips, aiming to preach once every day, sometimes often taking their chances with all classes as to food and lodging. All services were severe in their lack of the conventional. Not only boys and girls, but often men and sometimes women came barefoot. Everyday clothes, coarse boots and shoes, homemade straw hats or fur caps and sunbonnets were the rule. For both men and women to light their pipes during the sermon shocked no one.
Early ministers were generally plain-spoken. They rebuked people for their sins in unmeasured terms and their descriptions of the fate of the impenitent were hair-raising. With no ritualistic parts, no instruments or choirs, with little singing or Bible readings, the sermon was prominent and long. Leading church members were often loud and persistent in their Amens, Glory to God, etc. A few people still adhere to that.
Yet I am free to say that in my opinion people generally attended religious services with little regard to denominational lines, or the lack of facilities of all kinds, including the inconvenience of getting about, with as much regularity and were as grave and earnest about it as I have ever known to be true anywhere else at any subsequent period. My parents were not members of any church at that time, but I recall that I was present at meetings, mostly with them, in all parts of our townships, also invading adjoining townships and the north side of White County. In fact, I learned more about the specific beliefs and practices of some churches in those early years than I have had the opportunity of doing since.
Links to Earlier Articles
- Part one (Common Inconveniences) October 2018 newsletter.
- Part two (Land) June 2019 newsletter.
- Part three (Trees & Timber) November 2019 newsletter.
- Part four (The River) February 2020 newsletter.
Later editions are carried as separate posts.
- Part five (Public Roads)
- Part six (Schools)
- Part seven (Markets & Trading Points)
- Part eight (It’s Mills)
- Part nine (Wild Game)
- Part ten (Feathered Wild Game)
- Part eleven (Animal Pests & Birds of Prey)
- Part twelve (Fishing in the Early Days)
- Part thirteen (Wild Fruit)
- Part fourteen (Early Commerce on the Tippecanoe)
- Part fifteen (It’s Homes and Home Life)
- Part sixteen (House Raisings)
- Part seventeen (Clothing a Family)
- Part eighteen (Log Rollings)
- Part nineteenth (First Trip to Winamac)
- Part twenty (Grubbings and Wood Choppings)
- Part twenty-one (Apple Peelings)
- Part twenty-two (Sausage Makings)
- Part twenty-three (Parties and Amusements)
- Part twenty-four (Early Wheat Raisings)
- Part twenty-five (Quilting Parties)