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EARLY DAYS IK LINCOLN.Dp. Joseph A. Mudd Makes Another Contribution to County History.HYATTSvrLLE, Md., Jan. 18, 1901.—Editors Free Press: The churchthat Francis Parker joined at Dar -denne, St. Charles county, was the Presbyterian and not the Presley. Most probably the mistake was mine and was caused by a failure to carefully revise the typewritten copy. The Rev. Qiddings mentioned by Mr. Parker was Rev. Salmon Giddings, who in 1816 rode on horseback fromConnecticut to St. Louis, being sent by the Connecticut CongregationalMissionary Society, under the direction of which he labored until hisdeath in 1828. He organized the Presbyterian church November 15, 1817, which was the first Protestant churchLouis. One of the two eldersof this church was Stephen Hempstead, who had come several yearsbefore from New London, Connecticut. He was the father of EdwardHempstead, who was a delegate in congress from the Territory of Missouri from 1813 to 1815. The latter declined a re-election. He died August 10, 1817. Col. Switzler, in bis History of Missouri, following Lan-man’a Dirtrvranhinalman’s Biographical Annals of the United States Civil Government,states that HemDStead “was the firsta very successful teacher, and that hepossessed a superior education and fine conversational powers, but notA fewmuch thrift or enterprise, minutes before the Souvenir arrived, in rummaging over my precious tin box of old documents, I came across (the first time in years) a memorandum book in which my father keptindividualsome individual postage accounts when he was postmaster of Millwood. Hill’s name was about the first thatstruck my eye. The year, 1844, was placed at the head of the page and the entry was: February 27, Henry T. Mudd, one paper, 1£ cents; Tbos.I. JFletcher, letter, 6 cents; Richard H. Hill, letter, 25 cents. On the nextpage but one is this entry: July 2,George Sands, letter, 10 cents; Joseph 8. Wells, letter, 25 cents.William Duncan, whom you do not mention, and who was, I think, a cousin to Rev. Lewis Duncan, Rev. Robert S. Duncan’s father, taught one or two terms immediately succeeding Hill. He had the reputation of being a very successful apd popular teacher, but for this I cannot vouch personally, not being qualified to judge, as he assisted me through the long, tedious and almost despairing effort of mastering the letters of the alphabet. I remember that school housevery well, and if I were an artist Icould even now paint an exact like-some time after this session and returned calling himself a Republican. I thought this the most inexcusable and unheard-of course on the part ofIanyone who bad lived in Missouri, had very narrow views of politics at that time, and was, I am afraid, rather proscriptive. Of all the incidents of Mr. Duncan’s scboo/l only remember two, and they were quite trifling. He had a four-bladed, pearl handledbe had the habit ofwiofhaiyanungast:loanthanhayefieknife, whichholding in his handj probably acquired from the necessity of frequently making and mending quill pens. With it one day he pecked the head of a boy for some slight misdemeanor.He must have done it very lightly for the boy didn’t seem to mind it, but it gave me the horrors; after that when I saw him coming my way I clambered down from my bench and gu took the farthest seat I could find.enfalt;faiBent Henry—we called him Jerry then—came sometime after I began. Mr. Duncan asked his name. “Jerry Benson.’’“Did you say your name is Dead Benson?” which question so upset Jerry that his brother, Willis, had to answer for him. Mr. Duncan was abachelor and a very handsome man.He soon afterwards went to Henry county.When we were marching south toocbitW€inttaivilt;thlt;be*hastajoin Price’s army, June, 1861, I met him at either Windsor or Calhoun, Ihave forgotten which.icube*tinha
Newspaper Details
Troy Free Press
Troy, Missouri, US
Fri, Jan 25, 1901
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Jerry E.
NA, 03 Feb 2019
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