Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/90

 uu HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY mained unmolested for two years, until the arrival of the Rev. J. F. Aiton in 1848. J. W. Hancock came the following year. Revs. Aiton and Hancock were sent out by the American Board of Foreign Missions and moved into the houses abandoned by their predecessors, the Messrs. Denton and Gavin. Mr. Aiton soon afterward departed, having, however, rendered future gen- erations the great service of having' closely examined the few stone cairns in this vicinity and established their identity as burial places. The above are the cold historical facts as we find them, and as I am supposed to write only of those things that transpired previous to 1853, and while our old friend, the Rev. J. AY. Han- cock, will receive full mention in this work by persons delegated to that duty, yet I cannot drop my pen without adding a few words out of respect to the man whose memory all the old pioneers delight in honoring. In 1852-53 I was a member of Rev. J. W. Hancock's Sunday school, when it was held in the little log cabin that stood in what is now Bush street. There were perhaps six or eight of we small white children and fifteen or twenty little red brethren and sis- ters. While Julia Bevans instructed the white children (in the English language) how to walk in the straight and narrow way, so that when we had passed over to that "bourne from whence none return"' Ave might be worthy to wear a crown of glory. Mr. Hancock was laboring hard with the little Indians (in the Sioux language), endeavoring to impress the same lesson upon their minds. I do not think the lesson indelibly impressed on my mem- ory the first day of my attendance at a house of divine worship will ever be forgotten.- The plan of instruction at the Sunday schools in those early days was different from the course now pursued : not so much of love or mercy but more of his satanic majesty, lakes of fire and everlasting torment, if you departed from the path of rectitude. AVhile it is true that Mr. Hancock served only for two or three years as a missionary to the Indians, yet he remained for over sixty years in administering spiritual grace and comfort to a class of whites, who were as much in need of a saving grace as the wild Indians, and by his everyday life and example caused men to stop and consider, thereby making them better men. I know that Mr. Hancock had many trials and disappointments in his early life here in those pioneer days, but you will not find them mentioned in any of his early writings ; neither did he go to his neighbors and friends with a tale of w r oe. but always with a smile, a good word to all, satisfied that he had a mission to fulfill ; and by the everyday life he led in our midst and for all those years of trouble and privations I am firm in the belief that he is now