Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

2o8 ANNALS OF OUR ANCESTORS
apart, but kindred spirits were also drawn together. New
Antioch in Clinton County was the center of a large Christian
church where an August meeting was held, and people congregated
there by the hundreds. They came from adjoining
counties and stayed about two weeks, and those last weeks
in August were a great religious and social festival for the whole
country. Here our father often preached, and it is a satisfac-
tion to know that in the memory of a few his mellow voice
rings on. Not long ago I had a letter from a friend of my
youth who recalled how his smooth eloquence rolled under the
forest trees and among the rustling leaves there at the August
meetings in New Antioch. She added that she had heard
just this summer (191 2) a man in Ohio, speaking of preachers,
say that he had never heard a man who could fill a church
with his voice like B. U. Watkins — a voice so full of power and
tender love.
At these August meetings spoke Harrison Jones, a man
who could move people to laughter and tears in a moment's
space. Among other speakers was John Easter of Highland
County. He and father were drawn together by two strong
cords; they were both devoted members of the Christian
Church and both strong abolitionists as well. Between them
grew up a sincere friendship. Brother Easter admired father
for his profound scholarship and manly defense of principles
which he regarded as fundamental and which were then being
strongly combated by those opposed. Father saw in Brother
Easter a manly man who, although not scholarly, was still
of fine natural ability and good judgment. When he found
that father was at Hberty for a time, he proposed that our
parents move from Harrison over into Highland County.
There father was to preach for the church near John Easter's
and tutor his sons.
When this proposition was made I was at the Hunts' in
Warren County, and father wrote me of his good fortune, tell-
ing me of Mr. Easter's great farm, seven hundred acres of
rich bottom land on Rocky Fork, and of work he would like
— teaching and preaching. I was twenty-one years of age,
and I began to draw pictures of living among rich land-owners.