The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1895-03-07
CONKY STILES.
He Was a veritable Concordance
of the Holy Scriptures.

AS near as could find out nobody
ever knew how 'Conky Stiles came to
knew so much OF the Bible as he did.
Thirty years ago people as a class were
much better acquainted with the Bible
than folk are nowadays, and there
we sn't another one of 'em in the whole
Connecticut valley from the Canada
line to the sound that could stand up
'longside of Conky Stiles and quote
Scripture. Well, he knew the whole
thing by heart, from Genesis, chapter
one, to the amen at the end of the Rev
elation Of st. John the Divine; that's
the whole business in a NUTSHELL!
His name wasn't Conky; we called
him Conky for short. His real name
was Silas Stiles, but one time at SUM-
day school convention Mr.. Hubbell,
the minister, spoke of him as "verit-
able concordance of the Holy Scrip
tures," and SO we boys undertook to
call him Concordance, but bimeby that
name got whitfield down to Conlxy, and
Conky stuck to him all the rest of his
life; not bad name for him, neither,
as names go; heap more dignifled than
81!
My father always insisted that Conky
got his start in the Scriptures in this
way: Conky's folks lived for about five
years (while Conky was boy) in the
old Ransom house. Their next neigh
bors were the Cooleys, and just over
across the road lived the Kelseys. May
be you've heard of the Cooley-Kelsey
debate? No? Funny, isn't it, how soon
folks forget events and epochs and
things! Fifty years ago nothin' else
but the Cooley-Kelsey debate was
talked Of in Hampshire county, and yet
here we are livin' in this intelligent
state of Illinois, and it's dollars to
doughnuts that half our people never
heard of Lawyer Kelsey or Of Deacon
Cooley!
You see, the deacon was high up in
the Congregational church, and he be-
lieved in "baptyzo," which is the
Greek for the Congregational doctrine
of sprinkling. Lawyer Kelsey had
never been converted and had never
made profession, but, having brother
who was Baptist minister in Penn
sylvania, he was counted with the
Baptists, too, and / guess he was a
Baptist if he was anything, although,
like as not, he'd have said he was
heather if he thought he could get up
an argument by sayin' it, for of all the
folks you ever saw Lawyer Kelsey was
the worst for keepin' things stirred up.
Onc time Deacon Cooley and Lawyer
~ Is y come together an locked horns
u lIAt word "baptyzo," Lawyer Kel-
~. .ll!ntainin' that the word wasn't
or slDal Int be "baptyzo," but "bap-
lialo," all, as you know, of course,
there is as much difference between
"baptyzo" and ''baptidzo" as there is
between a fog and thunder shower.
Well, for about six months they had
it up hill and down dale, in all the
meetin' houses, and schoolhouses, and
vestry-rooms, and town halls in the
country, and it did beat all how much
learnin' they got out of the books and
and what long sermons
they made, and what a sensation there
was among the unbelievers as well as
the elect! l guess they'd have been
arguin' yet if the freshet hadn't come
and distracted public attention by car
ryin' away the Northampton bridge
and the Holyoke dam.
1t happened that while this theo-
logical cataclysm was at it's height
Conky Stiles, being six years old, was
born again, and, repentin' of his sins,
made profession of faith. And from
that time he never lapsed or back
Sided, but was always a conscientious
and devout follower, illustrating in his
daily walks las Mr.. Hubbell, the min
lister, said) those priceless virtues which
had illuminated the career of his
Cowles, a lady esteemed
not more by the elders for her piety
than by the younger folks for her
cookies and squash pies.
When Conky was eight years old he
got the prize at our Sunday school for
having committed to memory the most
Bible verses in the year, and that same
spring he got up and recited every line
Of the Acts of the Apostles without
having to be prompted once. BY the
time he was twelve years old he knew
the whole Bible by heart, and most of
the hymn book, too; although, as l
have said, the Bible was his speciality.
Yet he wasn't one of your pale-faced,
studious boys; no, sir, not a bit of it!
lie took just as much consolation in
playin' three-old-cat and barn ball and
hockey, as any of the rest of US boys,
and he could beat us all fishin', al
though perhaps that was because he
learnt new way of spittin ON his bait
from his Uncle Lutte Mason, who was
of a sport in those days.
Conlty was always hearty and CHEEKY;
we all felt good when he was around.
We never minded that way he had of
quotin' things from the Bible; we'd
got used to it, and maybe it was de-
sirable influence. At any rate we all
liked Conky.
But perhaps you don't understand
what / mean when refer TO his way
Of quotin' the Bible. It was like this:
Conky, we'll say, would be goin' down
the road, and I'd come out of the house
and holler: Hello, there, Conky!
Where be you goin'?"
Then he'd say, John 21:3"-that
would be all he'd saw and that would