Page:The Souvenir of Western Women.djvu/54

48 The constitution prohibited the importation, manufacture or traffic of distilled liquors. The saloons had not yet commenced their deadly work. The country was new and healthy; no prevailing epidemic. There were few accidents, and fewer murders. When death did visit a family the neighbors came to their assistance, comforted the bereaved, made the coffin, dug the grave, and conveyed the remains to its final resting place. The minister of the gospel directed the mourners to the true source of all comfort. Thus we assisted and comforted one another without compensation or cost. Now it requires a great deal of money to die and receive a Christian burial.

The first work of the pioneer was to build a house to shelter the family. But soon the schoolhouse was erected, and for lack of churches the ministers preached in the schoolhouses, and very often in the log cabin homes of the people. The different denominations were well represented even in pioneer days and their ministers were intelligent, well educated and godly men devoted to the Master's work. They traveled everywhere on horseback, swam rivers and endured hardships to establish the Christian religion. These brave men continued in their work, organized churches and established and strengthened them.

Soon it became necessary to erect houses of worship, and in this as in all other things the minister must take the lead. Let me give one case as an illustration. The congregation wished to build a house of worship. They insisted that the pastor should head the subscription list, which he did by subscribing 10,0U0 feet of clear lumber from the mountain mills fifteen miles distant (and lumber cost money in those days). Then he hauled all this lumber with his own team when it required twelve hours to make the trip. Also 5,000 feet of lumber was purchased and brought by raft and tied up to the river bank. A call was made for volunteer help to bring the lumber from the river to the church lot. The minister with his team and a merchant of the town alone appeared. They took the lumber and delivered it on the church grounds, and when the work was done they looked more like longshoremen than pastor and merchant. After great sacrifice and long delay the house was finished. The work was all done by hand, as there was not a planing mill or sash and door factory in the country. It was dedicated free from debt, and it yet accommodates a large congregation after nearly a half century's service.

And what sacrifices the minister must make! A church member may be absent from service on account of storm or flood, but never the minister; he must be there, rain or shine. I know one minister who, during the decade from 1850 to 1860, was immersed twelve times, each time having a good horse under him. On one occasion in January, after swimming a stream and being wet to the shoulders, he rode twenty-five miles and preached that night and twice on Sunday in the same wet clothes. And he still lives and loves to tell of the arduous work of those days. Those pioneer ministers frequently traveled two hundred miles on horseback to attend special meetings or conferences, and were of necessity absent from home a great deal. And yet