Presentation Praise Part Two

"The two choirs that gave thanks then took their places in the house of God; so did I, together with half the officials, as well as the priests. . . And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away."

~ Nehemiah 12:40,43.

 

Come, ye thankful people come, Raise the song of harvest-home;

All is safely gathered in, Ere the winter storms begin;

God our Maker doth provide For our wants to be supplied;

Come to God's own temple, come, Raise the song of harvest-home.
Hymn by: Henry Alford & George J. Elvey, Come, Ye Thankful People Come

 

 I wanted to visit so many places in Illinois besides the Logan County Historical & Genealogical Society in Lincoln and in Missouri  that our week's schedule  was solid, therefore I didn't get everything written I wanted to in one post, so here's part two.

I'm slowly digging out photos taken during that week. Here's two photos of Liberty Mosquito church in Illinois that I began praying about. The Lord has graciously answered so many of my prayers during my research for which I'm so grateful. Being able to visit Illinois is/was one of them.

Since I haven't been able to go onsite to very many archives, I feel what I've found so far is just the tip of the iceberg and there is  more just waiting to be discovered.   


At home, my hubby enthusiastically got our fellowship circle at church involved in praying for Liberty as well and Elder Robert Webb, the church archivist of the Primitive Baptist Library in Carthage, IL has been busy beaver looking up its current building history so that we can obtain some of its past history in the form of church minutes that occurred during my 3rd great-grandfather's lifetime. In faith, I'm praying they still exist. Ironically, Brother Webb is the pastor  in the historic congregation my 2nd grandparents, Griffin & Margrett White and her parents, Enoch & Elizabeth Scaiefe, attended in Clay County, IL.  I think that's neat.

 

I've always been curious to know what my 3rd great-grandparents' spiritual life was like -- when and where was he ordained, what were their favorite Bible verses, what did he preach about,  did they pray for their future descendants, and so forth? And how did Liberty on Mosquito Creek get its name? Who organized it?  My grandmother  and most of my cousins have looked high and low for a photo of our ancestors to no avail, however I found a description of him in a Christian County history by Calvin Goudy: "He was a Predestinarian Baptist preacher, and was a strong believer in the doctrine that a man will not die till his time comes. He was a correct type of backwoods preacher, and when preaching in warm weather, would lay off his coat, open his shirt collar, turn up his sleeves, and fairly make the woods ring with his stentorian voice." Guess Martin didn't need a microphone back in those days! *wink*


Another highlight for me was viewing the original payroll document that Martin signed after he served as Logan and Christian county's very first elected representative in the state legislature after the two counties were formed from Sangamon county in 1839. A Dr. Cornelius wheeled it down to us on a cart at the Lincoln library in Springfield and gave us a photocopy of the second page with Martin's signature. Abraham Lincoln's signature was on the first page and they both received $100.00 for their service.


I don't want to bore you, but I was super excited to find other places that pertained to my ancestors in Illinois. If you  like scavenger hunts and putting together 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles then you will understand the excitement I experienced when visiting places that pertained to my ancestors, like the Old State Capitol in Springfield; the exhibit of Santa Anna's artificial leg he abandoned during the Mexican war at the Illinois State Military Museum; the Stafford cemetery near Osbernville, in Mosquito Township, Christian county,  which was five or so miles southwest of the Lincoln's first home in Illinois north of the Sangamon River. We looked north towards the Sangamon River from Stafford cemetery where the forced removal of the Potawatomi in 1838 ran along present day highway 36. We could not see the actual Trail of Death for the trees along the Sangamon River, however, Martin and his family might have seen the  dust trail and fire smoke of 1000 people, wagons, and livestock  during the latter part of September as that part of Illinois is as flat as the farmland in southwestern Kansas. 


And while we were in Illinois, the Lord blessed our friends, G. and P. with a genealogical treasure too! According to her family tradition,  her ancestor's name was embossed on a church bell hanging in the tower at their historic home church (St. Patrick's), but she never wanted to climb the tall ladder up to it to check it out. Just before we arrived in their city, the bell tower had been found unsafe during a repointing of the bricks that it was constructed of. Would you believe that just as we were given the grand tour of their fair city, turning a street corner, we saw that the bell had been removed and was sitting on the sidewalk.  After hurriedly hopping out of the van, P. was like an excited kid in a candy shop when she discovered her ancestor's name was indeed on the side of that bell! *smile*

In the home of pioneers, John & Jane Sullins, my husband's 6th great-grandparents,  a  Baptist church was organized and was named after the creek they lived near. It is one of Missouri's oldest churches and is  called the Fee-Fee Baptist church. Thomas Musick was the organizing Elder and a couple of John and Jane's children would later marry into the Musick family. Trying to find it, Melissa (Garmin) took us on a long tour of St. Louis' highways, but eventually we found the church. This is, of course, not the original log church house, but a later one, but is the earliest sanctuary still existing on the property. There is another sanctuary where a wedding was in progress as we arrived. The church cemetery was a few blocks away where Thomas Musick is buried.

As I was thinking about this second post, I remembered that Stephanie Ackerman has been taking notes of her pastor's sermons to put into her Documented Faith planner. I wondered if anybody had taken notes of one of Martin's sermons or if perhaps somebody had written a letter to a family member or friend and included some interesting points of a sermon of his. I also wondered if one of his sermons was ever published in a newspaper. Something again to pray about, because I have no idea of who might have done that or how to contact descendants who might have hung onto a letter, but God knows. And while I was thinking about this, I made sermon notes of my own in a little spiral notebook I carry in my purse. Our interim pastor has been preaching on heaven and my husband read scripture in our church service last Sunday. 

You know we are spiritual descendants of our ancestors. Sadly, in the book of Judges (2:10), I found scripture that said: "After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel." I'm thankful my ancestors faithfully passed on their faith and knowledge of the Lord's goodness to me and my husband and hopefully, we were good imparters of our faith to our son.

You know how you sometimes have selective eyesight to things around you? Well, I've had this in my house for something like 20 years, a former church friend, T.W. made it for me, and this morning I SAW it again with FRESH EYES when I realized who sent me a love note as I was thinking about how I was going to write this post! *smile*

 



 

May you find a love note of your own today!