The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1895-02-07
f Mountain MISSIONARY.
By ALFRED B. CALHOUN.

By ALFRED B. CALHOUN.
tCopyright. 1895, by American Press Associa'
tion.
CHAPTER I.
WHY HE WENT TO KENTUCKY.
Mr.. Robert Peters, or Father Peters.
as he was called by the mountaineers,
was born in Ohio. He was Campbellite
clergyman and ten years before the war
he, with his wife and daughter, movsd
into the Cumberland mountains in
southeastern Kentucky. Only an in
tense religious spirit could have induced
Father Peters to leave his home in the
rich lands of the western reserve and to
take up his abode among the hills of the
Cumberland range. It would be diff
cult in the United States to find place
and people in more violent contrast
with his old associates. Wealth, or at
least comfort, and intelligence were the
rule in northern Ohio There was hard
ly an exception to poverty and igno-
rance in the new home.
But Father Peters, without giving
thought to the sacrifice he was making,
to the heathen quite as much as If he
had gone out to the heart Of darkest
Africa He built large double log
cabin that was quite palatial and a
model Of home comfort in contrast with
the cabins of his neighbors, and as he
knew that the people were tot poor to
contribute to his support he broke up
little farm and astonished his neighbors
by introducing agricultural appliances
and methods such as they had never be-
fore heard Of or dreamed of.
Soon after his arrival, and with no
assistance from those whom he had
come to benefit, Father Peters built
log meeting house across the rough
mountain road from his home and sent
word through the hills that hereafter
there would be preaching every Sunday
morning at Bradley's Crossing, as the
place was called.
At first the people did not take kind
ly to the missionary. These mountain
GERS, while hospitable to passing stran-
gers, do not favor the coming in Of out
siders. The man who may not own an
acre of rocky hillside is strong in the
belief that the mountains round about
are the exclusive property Of himself
and his kin. Then, again, while there
were no slaves in this part Of Kentucky,
the people had bitter hatred of aboli-
tionists-a hatred that grew more in
tense as the day of strife approached.
They believed that every northern man
was an abolitionist, and at first they
were inclined to think that Father Pc
tiers had come into the mountains tc
spread his pernicious political princi-
Piles rather than to preach the gospel.
Although young enough to be her
husbands daughter, Mrs Peters threw
herself heart and soul into his work.
She was a woman Of much culture and
force of character, and before she had
been year in the mountains she estab-
lished a school in the meeting house.
Excepting Bradley, the blacksmith's,
and the children Of family named
Burns, that lived near by, the school was
not attended. Neither the mountain
eers nor their fathers had had any "book
larnin, and SO they reasoned that their
children could get along without it,
and then they had dim notion that
schools and abolition were closely re-
lated
Gradually the meeting house became
rendezvous for the mountaineers for
ten miles round. 1t was particularly
popular in the summer season. Then
groups Of lank men and women, often
accompanied by troops of ragged, tow
headed children, would come down the
mountain trails every Sunday morning.
The women, for comfort rather than
economy, would carry their rough shoes
in their hands and wash their feet and
put on their foot covering by the little
stream that brawled behind the meet
ing house. The men often carried their
rifles with them to church, and it was
the exception to find one who had not q
pistol strapped about his waist 1t was
not unusual for the young men to in
dulge in target practice while the sem
iors were listening to Father Peters
sermon, and more than once the services
were suddenly ended by . fight between
two men who had met by appointment
for that purpose.
Bat Father Peters farm, quite as
much rs his preaching, helped to break
up the stupid m0neJony of the Noun
taineers' methods. Heretofore they
never dreamed that anything but pota-
toes, oats aDd corn could be raised IN
the hills But gradually the preacher s
young orchard of apples, plums, pears
and peaches began TO bear, and his vege-
table garden was at once revelation
and show Of which the congregation
never wearied OH Sunday
During the ten years that Father Pc
tiers preached and Mrs Peters taug ht
they never received one dollar from the
people The subject Of compensation
was never even hinted at, nor did tho
idea OF donation party ever enter their
dull minds Indeed they felt that they
had claim on the proceeds of the
clergyman's labor, for they helped them