A Western Pioneer: Or, Incidents Of The Life And Times Of REV. Alfred Brunson . . . Embracing A Period

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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: the holes made in her side with tarpaulins, or canvas saturated with tar and paint, to prevent her from sink-, ing till she could be repaired. In my boyhood I was in that intrenchrnent, and saw canister and grape-shot that were turned up by the plow, and supposed to bo of thoso used at this time. CHAPTER II. WHILE residing at Sing Sing I first saw and heard of the Methodists. Barney Matthias was the first minister of this order that I ever saw or heard. There was n small class in the place, and more in the country near at hand. My father was opposed to them, in common with others of a worldly cast of mind; and, like other children, I imbibed his prejudices. There was, however, one man of this class, Samuel Vandal, for whom my father had such an attachment that he gave the name to his youngest son. In 1804, I think it was, the Methodists held a camping in Stevenstown, afterward called Sommern, about twenty miles from Sing Sing, which was said to be the first meeting of the kind ever held in that region of country. I recollect of largo companies, of what I then supposed to be deluded mortals, who came from New York city and other parts, by water, to our landing, and took passage in wagons to the camp-ground. Of this meeting all manner of evil was said, and a stranger would think, from the representations made, that pandemonium had broken loose, and these Methodists were nothing but demons incarnate. But as some of our neighbors, who attended the meeting out of mere cariosity, came home changed in their natures, habits,and characters the more candid and reflective were staggered in their former unfavorable opinions, doubting whether incarnate demons could or would do such good. In 1805 a camp-meeting was held on the lands of Governor Courtland, near the Croton River, a...

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