CHAPTER VI
James Lemen's Conversion
Neither Mr. Lemen nor his wife were professing christians, but they respected the Bible and the Lord's day and from the first their home was a place for religious gatherings. Sunday was a day for horse racing and other sports, so to offset this Mr. Lemen invited the neighbors to meet at his house on Sunday mornings for a religious meeting. No man in the settlement could pray, but the Bible was read, hymns were sung, and sometimes a sermon or an extract from a religious book was read. Mr. Bond was generally the reader, for he was regarded as an educated man. This was assuredly a remarkable matter. Where else do we read of a frontier community, none of whom were Christians, without a preacher, meeting regularly for Sunday morning worship? Social gatherings on Sunday were common enough, but they were for feasting and frolic. We must see in it the hand of God, preparing that family and that community for larger measures of the Spirit, and larger service.
In 1787 Eld. James Smith, of Kentucky, visited New Design; the first Baptist preacher and the first preacher of any denomination to enter the present state of Illinois. He held a series of house meetings which were abundantly blessed. Among those who believed the word and confessed Christ were James Lemen and Joseph Ogle and their wives, and Shadrach Bond. And a goodly number of others! Then a new element was introduced into the New Design meetings; there were many who could pray and the Sunday morning meetings were opened with prayer! And some learned to exhort as well as to pray, and to explain the portion of the Bible which they read. Family worship became a practice in some of the Christian homes. Let us find here some explanation of the fact of the large number of preachers that went out from these families. Wisely conducted family worship will not fail to make its mark on the character of the family. No amount of personal piety or public service can be a substitute for it. The rush of business and the hurry of modern life is no excuse for its neglect, for all the rush and all the hurry is, after all, to do the thing that is wisest, and that will pay us best to do.
The Lemens were quickly introduced to the sterner side of frontier life. The very summer of their arrival Mrs. Lemen's sister and her
[p. 21]
husband, James Andrews, were killed by the Indians, and their two little daughters carried captive to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. There one died. The other, a reward being offered, was recovered through French traders. Tragedies like this were frequent for several years. In the two years, 1789-1790, one tenth of the total American population perished by Indian wars and murders. The hostilities were caused by the determination of the Indian leaders that the Ohio river should be a boundary which no white settler should cross; north and west of that should be an Indian Empire. The battle over that question was taken up and fought year after year. In one battle out of a total of 1400 Americans, 890 were killed. The hostilities were aggravated too by the foreign traders who wanted the country preserved for a trapping ground. It makes little difference whether it be the slave traffic or the fur traffic or the liquor traffic, whatever brings large profit with little labor steels the heart and brings out the demon in the man.
In 1795 the subjugated Indians abandoned the struggle, and peace was made in the treaty of Greenville. The central and northern part of Illinois was still recognized as Indian territory, but reservations six miles square at Chicago, Peoria, and at the mouth of the Illinois river were ceded to the government. And for a little season the land had rest from war!
There is something also to be considered here as to the type of conversion. The case of James Lemen was not that of a sudden change in a thoughtless man, but of the coming of joyful life to a serious man. It was to him the fulfilment of Matt. 11:28: "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." He had been a faithful laborer under the moral law, and we may well believe that there were times when he was wearied with his own spiritual endeavors. He is not the only man nor the first man who passed that way. And the years of striving after peace of soul and perfection of character are not in vain. It furnishes to the new life a stability that comes in no other way. We may see in the apostle Peter a man of that stamp; and he was chosen to be the first of the apostles.
Furthermore, the truth preached by James Smith was no mere appeal to the emotions, but an appeal that men obey the truth. Yet some in his congregation had been for years searching for the truth. They needed now only that the word of the preacher be supplemented by the teaching of the Spirit. The following extract is from a book published
[p. 22]
in 1764; it was an old book in 1778. It may be accepted as a sample of the gospel preached at New Design:"To those that are enquiring the way to Zion, and crying out, What shall we do to be saved: Art thou, O soul, under the Apprehensions of Guilt? Art thou lost and undone without an interest in the Saviour? Art thou sensible that Jesus only can deliver thee? And art thou saying, How shall I come to him? I am altogether unworthy of his Notice; I deserve his everlasting Frowns; I have nothing to say to urge him to look upon me, unless this will do it, that I am miserable, wretched, blind and naked: And will he receive such, a creature? -- Thus come, O inquiring Soul; this is the best frame thou canst come to thy Redeemer in. Come thus, and thou shalt find Acceptance. Art, thou unworthy; come and tell the Mediator. Let him know thy wants; tell him of thy Desires; give up thy all into his Hands, and plead his own free, gracious Promise that he that comes to him he will in no wise be cast out, John vi, 37. This is to come aright. This is the Temper, the Spirit of the Gospel, and be assured thou shalt meet with an hearty Welcome. Jesus will take thee into his Bosom, open all his Heart to thee; give thee his Presence here, and make thee eternally happy with himself." Three years afterwards, in 1790, Elder Smith again visited New Design, and through his preaching others were added to the converts. Quite probably a church would have been established at that time, but in the midst of the work Elder Smith was captured by the Indians. In the party was a Mrs. Huff and with her little child. She had been under spiritual concern for some time, and while the savages were putting her to death Elder Smlth fell on his knees praying for her, and in that attitude he was taken. On this account, and because of his praying and singing while they traveled, the Indians were afraid of him. He was taken to Vincennes, from whence word came through the traders as usual that he would be returned for a suitable ransom. Thereupon $170 was collected out of the poverty of the settlers, and Elder Smith was set free. One wonders in reflecting on these events if, the white traders were not as guilty as the Indians in these murderous forays, encouraging them for the sake of a liberal share of the profits. How large a share of Indian warfare from the beginning has been caused by the demon of avarice in unprincipled white men will be known in the judgment day! Elder Smith on his release returned to Kentucky, and visited Illinois no more. The following year James Lemen and seven others had a pitched battle in the timber with a band of Indian horse thieves, and killed five of them.
[p. 23]
In 1793 the settlements at New Design and the Mississippi Bottom were strengthened by the arrival of another Kentucky colony, among whom were Joseph Kinney and William Whiteside and their families. In later Methodist annals the name of Whiteside is as prominent as Kinney among Baptists. Mary Kinney afterward became the wife of Joseph Lemen, while Catherine Lemen married Joseph Kinney, Jr. The most noted of the family was William Kinney, who was twelve years old when the family came to Illinois. He learned to read after he was married, his wife being his teacher. He opened a store in Belleville with a few bolts of cloth which he had brought before him on his horse from St. Louis, and in a few years he was a wealthy merchant. Before he entered on his mercantile life he was a farmer and teamster. He drove the first wagon over the route from old Fort Massac to Kaskaskia. He became a Baptist preacher, and in 1826 was elected lieutenant governor of Illinois over a Methodist preacher who ran against him, though the candidate for governor on his ticket was defeated.
One of his brothers while building a mill was so injured that he was confined to his house for years. At last he predicted the day of his death, some months ahead, and set his house in order accordingly. On the day appointed a large number of his neighbors and friends gathered to see what they should see. The result proved that he was no prophet, for not only, did he not die but from that hour he began to recover and was a sound man until his death in old age. ================ [Edward P. Brand, Illinois Baptists -- A History, 1930, pp. 20-23. -- jrd]
Go to the next chapter
Return to Illinois Baptist Index Page
Return to American Baptist Histories
Return to HOME Page