Diary of a Prairie Missionary       Part 2

18.   Both N. & Old Sch. Pres. are found in this vicinity, The New have seized the meetinghouse and the old meet I am informed in a school house.

19^th  Lord's Day.  I proceeded about 4 miles to a school house where I twice addressed an attentive audience of respectable looking people, and then in the afternoon went 4 miles to the villiage and preached at 5 P.M. to literally the whole villiage.  After sermon the wife of a Dr. Smith (I think It was) informed me that it was the desire of several persons that I should preach to them again which I did at 8 P.M.

20^th.    I was permitted to leave the villiage without any remuneration.  Perhaps these persons supposed that I had Jaoob’s ladder, and could pass through the week where silver would not be wanted but I found it otherwise.  Some of the old Sch. friends acknowledged that they ought to contribute but pled poverty of purse on the occasion. How very different from the old Psalmsingers, when they come drawing out their "two-pence" saying, "we cannot give you much, but we must not neglect our duty, I'll give you this, or we will give you so much". I once received one dollar of Gen. As. Presbyterian money, from an Elder at Black Rock, New York.  I have now preached to them, and for them, perhaps above twenty times; yet the second dollar has not been received from them.  I, from some friends, ascertained that some families of the name of Brackenridge belonging to the As. Refd. Ch. live about 30 miles distant on the Vermillion River.

21^st.    I left the vicinity of Henepin and proceeded towards Chicago.  I dined at Ottawa the County town of LaSalle. Here they have a New Sch.  Preacher as well as near Henepin, and I now began to find a little of Yankee fuss about their apologies for taverns.  The Fox and Ill. Rivers here unite, and the ferry across is the only one in the Western Country which I have seen that permits clergymen to pass free. The country from the Vermillion River changes its appearance. The rich vegetable mould becomes less abundant, and stones of different sizes are found over the face of the oountry, and from their appearance they give strong indications of some sudden convulsion of Nature. The land now becomes more difficult to cultivate, less luxuriant, and yet continues equally good for the growth of wheat. With the exception of some small groves the Prairies continue equally as extensive. The inhabitants in this region are generally from the North Eastern States.  I reached Holdermands grove 16 miles from Ottawa in the evening.  As usual I was permitted to conduct family worship before retiring.

22^nd.    Continued my journey. Some of the "sloughs" on this road are bad. A little after noon I passed a small villiage on the Dupage called Plainfield.  Near evening I reached the villiage of Joliet on the Oplain River.  It is a little over a year old & contains nearly 200 Inhabitants. I there called on Mr. Jas.  McKee who gave intimation that I would preach in his house in the evening.  As he seldom attended and did not belong to any of their meetings, it was quite novel that he should invite persons to hear sermon.  From every house in the villiage some came excepting one family of two persons where one of them lay sick.

23^rd.    I spent In Joliet.  They have a Home Missionary, a Mr. Talburt. In the evening the Methodists at some meeting set a howling like wolves, and continued I believe until after I went asleep.

24^th.    None friendly to Calvinism are to be discovered in this region. A glazier, a kind of would be preacher among the Methodists, wanted to know today why I was not at their prayer meeting last night.  As I did not care about debating with the likes of him, I pled as my defense that I knew nothing of their meeting.In the afternoon I left for Chicago a distance of 40 miles & travelled about 18 or 20 miles.