The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-08-02
WHO'S GOT THIS %CHURCHBOOK?
REVOLUTIONARY RECORD GONE
AND THERE'S A BIG ROW.

yided, Q Member Accusing . Former
Pastor of Having Failed TO Return the
Chronicle 30 valuable to Descendants,
Just 1871 years ago this summer 1t was
the open season for red breasted Britishers
ind Tory birde indigenous to the country
around WsstHeld, N. j., and the citizens
of westfield were doing some mighty fancy
shooting from stone fence rests and the
tops Of tall trees.
, That one season produced the finest crop
Of ancestors you could find from one end
Of Jersey to the other. who recorded their
sporting exploits and the size Of their game
Bags on the Sessions Books Of the old Pres
byterian Church. Naturally there are more
descendants over in Westfield than in most
any town you ever heard Of. Everybody
You meet Is q descendant, except the Po-
hcks and the Italians, who really don't
oount in the population except to work for
the descendants.
80 unless you are a Descendant who had
an Ancestor who was chain lightning with
HE trigger finger In the year n you count
for about as much in the affairs OF West6eld
as the six of clubs does in a euchre game.
And IL you are a descendant you have q
perfect right to walk into the old Presby-
terrain Church, go to the solid oak case where
the yellowed. dusty Sessions Books, big as
commercial ledgers. are stored and dig
out Of Them anything you raj about your
particular ancestor TO aid you In writing q
history of your family. which necessarily
takes In the history Of West1eld. Of Union
county. the military operations OF Gen.
George Washington and OF the Thirteen
Colonies. Blu you must return the Ses-
siuns Books to their case n never. never.
peyer, no matter how the devil may tempt
and ply with his sophistries. cadge a Sessions
Book and sneak it to your library to keep
for your very own.
SWELL, somebody did. A Sessions Book
is missing. has been missing for five years
Sessions Book, Vol. H., the most precious
tome Of all. and they record stirring deeds
fSom 1850 to 1903. Volume II. held within
ltd dusty boards the full list Of the Ancestors
OF westheld and their glorious deeds.
Who but a Descendant could have taken II?
Nobody else would have had the ternerity
to 20 much as touch with the tip OF q FORE
finger the sacred volumes.
n you had been at Aunt Lucy Clegg's
house yesterday afternoon. whore the
ladies OF the Church Circle were having
tea right by the window where the big
red and yellow ~hollyhocks are planted
dslieateasen stores for Miss Clegg's bees-
you. would have understood how much
Westield is upset by the mystery Of the
missing book. 1t would have been pretty
plain. too. that trouble Is in store for a
descendant, now that Judge Woodruff
has offered 500 reward for Sessions Book.
vcl..,u. and Preacher Caldwell has offered
another $780,.
The Ladies' OF the Church Circle were
turning the pages Of Mis- Clegg's family
album. crow ded with daguerreotypes and
tintvpes Of ancestors, noting with special
approval the portrait Of Jedediah Cleeg
(l14i 1907. who fought the British, when the
In TX turned, Of course. to Sessions Book II.
ventured Mrs. Henry. Anybody. can see
Judge Woodruff thinks so. and II I know the
Judge nobody can pull him up when his
rein's once been loosed.s
Well. said Mis, Cless; I'm tired Of
Is mad at the other half and seems like there
Isn't any peace and Christian brotherly
left in westfield. Though az one
concerned. I must say I want 1t found
That's the way 1t Is now after five years.
aniss so Judge woodruf or the se1 REV. emu N Jew on
W. Caldwell succeeds In locating Vol. II.
The Judge is rearing, tearing mad and the
Rev. Mr.. Caldwell feels hurt and aggrieved
md both are backed up by their friends;
history Of his family unless that book il
Il was In 1908 that Francis z. W oodrufi.
who was once upon o time United States
Judge in the Consular Court at Shanghai,
An ancestor Of the Judges. the Rev. Benz
Woodruff. had been pastor Of the |
Church back in the beginning |
II the nineteenth century. which gave the |
Judge a better right than most TO use the
Sessions books Of reference. But whenhe |
Vol. II. his experience exactly resembled
Did Mother Hubbards.
Then the Judge heard that the Rev. New
W. Caldwell, who had been pastor Of
years before. leaving It in 1909
q, so to Atlantic City, was writing q history
Il the Westleld church and that the missing
was in the preachers Possession.
the Judge wrote q letter to
he Rev. Mr.. Caldwell. the first Of a long
md moro formal, more insistent and more
And the Rev. MIR. Caldwell
wrote to the Judge denying he had the
,ook. Offering to supply the Judge with
he necessary, data II he wouldn't make
,e hadn't been fairly treated. Then their
were involved. The Leader, whose
George A.. v. Hankinson. was o
Ipecial friend Of Mr.. Cadwell's, and the
tnion County STANDARD. whose editor,
Robert W. Hoffman. supported the Judge.
,ook sides
The Judge bought two columns Of space
o the STANDARD and printed extracts from
he Woodruff Caldwell correspondence Just
o show people how he stood. In Deem
1904, the Judge wanted to know from
Clerk j. +. Pierson who pave Mr..
the right TO carry away church
eoords. and Mr.. Pierson took his pen In
and to wa m the Judge to be very careful
Iow he made statements that would reflect
MIR. Caldwell. Then the Pastor wrote
he Judge to be cautious about making
ny public statements, limiting at legal
too. That made the Judge !
mad and he indited this one to the
'astor:
Fam authorized to believe that at some time
urtng your stay In Atlantic City the original
ecord has been In your possession. This
as not been oontradioted In any Of your
Or Mr. Pierson's) letters to me. As, until
hey were missing, you and Mr.. Pierson
held these records in trust
must believe that responsibility for loss
Tould rest between you two,
A little later the pastor wrote the Judge;
1t would be Q great pleasure to me II you