Birth of Grandfather’s Second Sister, Minnie, A Third Wife and Grandfather Joins the Church

Rev. J.L. Crane was my P.E. the 1^st & 2^nd  years and Rev. W.S. Prentice the third.  Near the close of my term Brother Prentice said, “Hewes where do you want to go this fall”.  I said I do not know but I think I ought to go where they are able to pay me more salary as I have now been preaching twelve years on what is considered a bare living.  I was told afterward that when Brother Prentice nominated me for Paris, that Peter Wallaced wanted to know something about me Prentice replied, -“Well, Hewes is a man who never did a foolish thing in his life.”

So in the fall of 1869 my name was read out for Paris, Illinois.  I did not think we received a very cordial reception here, as they wished to send us to the Hotel, but finally Mrs. Adam Link took us in, until we could get out goods unpacked so we could live at home.  Here Minnie was born on Dec. 25, 1869 about 3 AM and when she was about five weeks old, about ten o’clock at night your mother roused me up, saying she had such a terrible pain in the region of the heart, and I walked the floor supporting her for nearly an hour, when she became easier.  I ran across the street for a neighbor woman to stay with her while I went for Miller who lived nearly a mile west of the city.

Your mother lingered about three weeks, being propped up in bed in a nearly sitting posture or she would seem to smother.  She passed away on Sunday morning as the church bells were ringing.  Mrs. Jones a Presbyterian neighbor had been taking care of Minnie for some two weeks at her home just east of our residence.  The ladies of the church paid her for keeping her some seven weeks, and also bought a metallic casket in which we took your mother to Jacksonville for burial.  We stopped with Rev. Wood a Baptist Minister in Jacksonville whose wife was your mother’s cousin.  A sister of this Mrs. Wood is the wife of General McClernand of Springfield, Illinois.

Funeral services were held in the church at Paris Illinois conducted by the Presbyterian Minister, and from West charge now Grace Church, Jacksonville, conducted by Dr. Short and other Methodist preachers.

I then took you and Eva with me to Grand Pa Hewes’ on the farm two and a half miles S.W. of Payson, where we remained some two weeks.  From there we went overland to Clayton and remained over Sunday with Uncle Ken’s family.  On Monday morning we went to Jacksonville and over to Virginia.  Here you broke out with measles and as soon as we dared we returned to Jacksonville and started for Paris the next morning.  Eva broke out with measles while we waited for the train which was late.  Grand Pa & Grand Ma Cavender were with us as they were to keep house for me.

With great anxiety and care for Eva we reached Paris at 11 PM.  I had telegraphed from Pana to Mrs. Thomas Bowen to have the parsonage well warmed, and I carried Eva in my arms wrapped in my big shawl with several thicknesses of vail over her face.  She did not seem to be affected by the day’s travel only with weariness and she got through all right.

When I returned to Paris I soon discovered that some of the leading members had been working against me in by absence, but I went to work with vigor and had large congregations and was popular with the masses.  Some of the opposition insisted that I should be S.S. (Sunday School) Superintendent, and I was elected , and within a year the school ran up from 116-320 with a nice library case and $125 worth of books.

In about 4 or 5 weeks after your mother’s death the Presbyterian Minister’s wife died and I was invited to deliver an address on the occasion.  The family was so pleased that they asked it for publication in the city papers, and it is now in one of my scrap books. While at Paris I had an average of about 25 funerals and some 18-20 weddings per year.

I suppose Grand Pa and Grand Ma Cavender did the best they could, but it was not home for me, and so in about a year after your mother’s death I began to look for a companion for myself and a mother for my children and I think I was directed by Providence in the choice.

About a week before my second year closed at Paris I was married to Lavina Staats near Dana, Indiana by Rev. Peter Wallace on September 7, 1871.  We both desired to be moved as she had taught five years in the Public Schools of Paris.  We had many friends in the community, and the town paper doubtless expressed the common feeling, when giving a notice of our marriage, it added “worthy couple and well mated”.

When Conference adjourned my name was read out for Lincoln, Illinois.   After leaving Grand Pa with household goods enough added to theirs to be comfortable, a cow, and $50 in money we packed up the rest and took our journey to the city which was named for Abraham Lincoln.  Before the C.&A.R.R. went through it was called Postville and I visited the old frame courthouse where Mr. Lincoln used to attend court.  On our arrival at the Depot among the first items we heard was that Chicago was burning.  We were met by Brother William A. Pegram and taken to his home where we remained about a week on account of the severe illness of Rev. Little’s youngest child and the delay of our goods at Springfield, Illinois.  Here the Audience (sanctuary?) room of the church was in process of completion.  They had been worshiping in the basement for a number of years and because of the Chicago fire we were delayed, so that the room was not completed until the last of February and I think it was dedicated on the first Sunday of March. Dr. Bowman (now Bishop) dedicated: preaching morning and evening.  They were carrying a bonded debt of $3000 and they lacked some $1800 on completing the upper room When the day was over we had $5240 subscribed.

The young people were very sociable and kind to us and some were quite displeased because we were moved at the end of one year.  I asked for the removal however, as I had a feeling that my work was done. Rev. H. Buck was my Presiding Elder and when I told him he had better move me, he said I could to Delavan if I wished. I told him I thought that it would suit me very well. So at Conference my name was read out for Delavan.  I think it was the shortest move I ever made viz 18 miles.  We went over on the train with our goods one forenoon, took dinner and supper with Sam’l Lawton’s and slept in the parsonage that night and lived on without troubling our friends any more.

I thought the folks were rather hard to get acquainted with, but they were true friends and we spent three of the most pleasant years of my ministry here.  They allowed me $1200 per year and paid it, and paid their benevolences without complaining and were, I believe, the most liberal congregation I ever served. The first winter 1872 & 1873 here, I believe it was, we had some 25 cases of small pox and varioloid (a mild form of small pox),  and we had no protracted meeting.  During the second winter 1874 a revival broke out during the week of Prayer which would be January 1874.  The meeting lasted some six weeks and resulted in some 90 conversions with about 42 accessions to our church.  It was at this time you joined the church, about the middle of February, 1874. The Meetings were conducted by the Pastors, Hough, Campbell and Hewes, – two nights in each church and each hold his own services on the Sabbath.  There was a wonderful kindly feeling between the churches during the remainder of my stay in Delavan.