with that doctrine, ever considered that it undermines the very fundamentals of Christianity. Our second appointment was made for the purpose of speaking against that doctrine. We now began to feel that, perhaps, we had begun in the work for which we were designed.
For some months we did no talking publicly except what we did in the prayer-meeting and Sunday-school. I was not twenty years old. That fall we had the privilege of meeting with, and hearing A. Campbell preach. Mr. C. talked very flatteringly of us, and insisted on our taking a course at Bethany. This we promised, and determined to do. In this, however, we were disappointed, for we were unable to make the necessary arrangements. We then determined to settle for life.
Farming was by far our choice as a calling for life. As we expected to be a farmer we determined to select a truly domestic girl as a companion, one that would be a true help meet. I had been in Mr. Burris' family one year. His daughter, Mary, was one of my students during our term of school, during which we became intimate friends. As our acquaintance extended our affections grew, so on Lord's day evening, Nov. 13, 1859, by A. Vickrey, we were united in the holy bands of wedlock. If ever a boy felt the solemnity and importance of that change we did. When, a day or two before we started to our uncle's to engage his service for that occasion we wept and prayed till well in the road to his house. He met us at the yard gate and we went to the barn to put up our horse, he told me that he knew my business. I asked him how he knew it? He said he could read it in my expression. Another had pronounced one, in secret, and on my knees I poured out my soul in prayer to God. And if ever I prayed in earnest it was then.
Early the next spring, at my request, my sister came from Kentucky to make my house her home. We remained in the store till the latter part of that summer. Times were now becoming very close, and as I viewed it, we were making very little money merchandising. I proposed to Mr. Burris that if he would sell me a small farm that he owned in that neighborhood, take the goods and accounts, settle all business of the firm, pay me twelve dollars and a half per month for the time I had been in the store, and give me time to pay for the land I proposed to buy I would be a farmer. My proposition was accepted, and soon I was a granger.
Although I chilled for twelve months I cleared land and raised a good crop of tobacco, but an early frost ruined it. August 23 of that year our first baby was born. The next year the war began, and the tobacco crop was a failure. In 1862 times were very squally, and our crop was light. The people were now full of the war spirit, a spirit decidedly antagonistic to the spirit of Christianity. We canceled our trade with Mr. Burris for the land we bought and early in 1863 moved to Chariton Co., Mo. We now had two children, a girl and a boy, and we determined to own a home. We cultivated five acres of tobacco that year. When our neighbors learned that we were going to plant that amount they tried to dissuade us from it. Mrs. H. made a faithful hand, and we made a success.
