Presbyterianism on the Frontiers [pp. 445-469]

466 Presb),terianism on the Frontiers. [July,
toil and difficulty did not deter those indefatigable pioneers
from the full discharge of the duties, which the circumstances
in which they were placed required at their hands."
The Rev. Isaac Reed says-" My travels in Indiana in I$24
were 2,480 miles." Now he is at Salem, or Charlestown in the
far south, and then at Indianapolis or Crawfordsville, and anon
at Terre Haute, or across the river at Paris in Illinois. The
first licensure was at Charlestown in I824, and the first ordination at Bloomington in 1825. In this last year-I825-Reed
says "there were six ordinations in the Presbyterian Church
in Indiana." He attended four of them himself. It is really
wonderful to note this man's journeys on horseback through
this great wilderness, but it was only more wonderful than the
tours of other "preachers of the Word" in that we have his
record of what he did, while we have little record of what they
did. Such men as Proctor, and Dickey, and Crowe, and Martin,
and Johnston, and others, accomplished numerous long journeys. Proctor rode regularly for a time between Bloomington
and Indianapolis. Johnston made frequent missionary tours;
Dickey was constantly in the saddle, riding from "The Pocket"
to "Mouth of Eel"; as was also Crowe, who made at least one
extended journey through Indiana and Illinois, to explore the
country with reference to the planting of churches. And this
was only a specimen of his missionary tours.
These missionary scouts were soon joined by others as braveJames Thomson of Crawfordsville, James N. Carnahan of DaytonII, Martin M. Post of Logansport, Edward 0. Hovey and
Caleb Mills, of Wabash College, David Montfort of Franklin,
and many others. Montfort was a marvel of heroic power and
enthusiasm, who on account of his crippled condition had to
be lifted on and off his horse, and yet made long missionary
journeys, not only among his own people, but in the State.
Jesse L. Williams, of Fort Wayne, then a young surveyor,
who had stopped over Sabbath at Knightstown, heard this
resolute and able man preach twice. It was no uncommon
thing, as related by Dr. Cleland and others, for these missionaries to lose their way in the woods, or to be overtaken by
night far from any habitation. So far from esteeming the
hardship as great, they felt themselves happy if they had flint