Part 2

The first night, when I went to bed, I put my boots and clothes where I supposed I could easily find them the next morning, but when morning came I could find everything except the boots. I found, in the place where I had left the boots, an old pair of slippers. (The slippers were nice and clean, however.) I thought some scamp had stolen my boots, and left for me his slippers. I did not know what to do. I was afraid to wear the slippers lest someone would accuse me of stealing them. But I finally dared to put them on and step into the cabin parlor and at the far end I saw fifty or more pairs of boots, and all well cleaned and blackened. I shyly approached a big black man who was sitting by the boots and dare to ask him if he had my boots there. He said, "What's de number, please?" I said, "Number seven." "Yes sir" he said and picked out a pair for me. (I noticed by this time that all the boots were numbered with chalk.) I saw at once that the boots he picked out were not mine, and said, "These are not my boots." "Dat's number seven, sir, de number of your berth." I said, "You are mistaken, my birth is the 15th of March." "O dat so." "Your number fifteen," said he, and picked up the boots chalk marked 15. They were my boots. I took them and started to walk back with them in my hand to my berth, the number of which was 15. The negro said, "Say, mister, I usually get a dime." I said, "Excuse me,", and paid him a dime.

Do you see, boys? Yes, we see that the boy who afterwards became our father was green. Of course, I was green. All things are green before they are ripe.

In the next day or two we landed at Lagrange, Missouri, a small town above Quincy, Ill. There the doctor had two horses and a buggy. The doctor, his wife and boy rode in the buggy, driving one horse, and I rode the other horse, and in this fashion we made our way westward for four days, passing through the towns of Lewiston, Edina, Kirksville, Scottsville, until we arrived at Lindley, a small town on Medicine Creek in Grunday County.

The afternoon of the first day of the four days referred to above, was cold and stormy. So I rode in advance, inquiring at every house for lodging for our company, but was denied. I passed one house however--it looked so small I thought there would not be room enough for all, but the doctor called when he came to it, and received a favorable answer. I turned back and the man said, "I have plenty for your horses to eat, but no place for them only to tie them in an open shed. Our house is small but only three of us and four of you perhaps we can get along." The doctor said, "We will stay." The man was good but the accommodations were bad. The house was a small one-roomed log cabin. Two beds and a narrow space between them fully occupied one half of the floor space. A the other end of the room was a large fireplace with a bright, cheerful, warm, comfortable fire, so much so that we could sit back against the beds, which we all did, and were comfortable except the woman of the house, who was in one corner of the fireplace getting supper. I do not mean that the woman was in the fire but nearby. You know that the Greek word eis according to some theologians means nearby. But the bread in the skillet was under the fire and over the fire for there were live coals above it and live coals beneath it. The meat in the pan was on top of the fire. I never ate better bread and meat. I was hungry. After supper I began to wonder and worry about where I would sleep, and one of mother's proverbs came to my mind, "Do not worry child, God will provide." Then I remembered that God had provided for many such occasions but he really did it through Mother.

Soon a little trundle bed was drawn from under one of the large beds, and it just filled the space between the two larger beds. The little boy of the house was put in the little bed and the good lady of the house told me that I would have to sleep with the little boy in the little bed. I said, "All right." An opportunity was given and I retired. Although I was a boy under twenty I was several inches longer than the bed, but I managed to get between the two end boards and slept. Whether pushed under the larger bed during the night, I know not. The next morning at daylight I was still between the two big beds, but I had not grown in length any during the night the end boards were in the way.

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C H A P T E R F I V E

From Lagrange to Lindley, continued. In a murderers bed. Maple sugar. Philosophy and Morality. Dr. Elmore shot. More philosophizing. Firsts. Baptist College. Pikes Peak or Hell.

I got up early and took a walk, (the weather had moderated) to see the world. I felt just a little bit homesick. The next evening we stopped for the night at a large public house and they put me in a large upper room where a murderer had slept the night before. I slept. Here let me state this was not the only time I was the next to sleep in a bed where a murderer had slept. A few years after this, during the awful war of the rebellion, I was late in the night getting into the City of Vincennes, Indiana and called a hotel for a bed. I was told there was but one empty bed, and it had just been vacated by a murderer. He became uneasy and left; the officers in pursuit of him came to the hotel, and searched his bed, but he was gone. I said to the landlord, "Do you suppose the officers will come back to search that bed again?" He said he supposed not. I told him that I would occupy it. The bed was still warm. I have seen, boys, about as much of the world as I want to see. I would not go fifty miles to see the Rocky Mountains or the Jerusalem that now is.

The third night we staid with a farmer who, that very night, has a maple sugar stirring off, and we had a good time, but the horse I rode was so tall he could not get through the stable door and he had to be tied out all night. The next day we arrived at Lindley, where I made my headquarters for almost five years.

But before I proceed with the story of my life chronologically, let me philosophize and moralize a little as suggested to me by my own experience in both young life and old life.

What, from a worldly, physical, selfish stand point, do you consider,

1. The best thing in this life.

2. The most convenient thing in this life. Answer: 1. Good weather and good health. 2. Money

What, from any stand-point, do you think is the best thing in this life? Answer: Christianity.

What, from any stand-point, do you think is the worst thing? Answer: Sin.

Now, in my old age I do not wish to live my life over again, but I can see where I might have done better especially as it relates to the questions above. I might have taken more advantage of the good weather and avoided the bad. I might have taken better care of my health. I might have secured a little more money for the rainy days. I might have wedded myself more closely to Christianity, and have divorced myself more fully from sin.

But I am now in my old age content--am ready, and resting in the hope of the glory that shall be revealed. God is good. My counsel to my children and to all young people for many years has been, briefly stated:

Take care of your health. Take care of your money. Take care of your religion.

But, to return to Lindley, Missouri and to the 19th year of my age, I find myself, Dr. Elmore, wife and boy, stopping with my brother Henry and his young family. Brother Henry is nine yeas my senior. He lives to this day. He had, a year or two before, moved to that place.

The next morning after we arrived in Lindley, Dr. Elmore was fixing the shaft of his buggy when his revolver fell from his pocket, was discharged and shot him in the breast, the ball ranging upwards and lodged in his shoulder. He soon got well, but the ball is with him to this day.

I never owned a gun, a dog, a fiddle, a pocket knife, a razor, a pipe, a cigar or cigarette, a plug of tobacco, or a hug of whiskey. I never had any use for these things. I do not wholly condemn all these, but I do think the world would be better and safer without guns, dirk knives, dogs, tobacco, and strong drink.

During my stay of almost five years in Grundy and Sullivan counties, Mo., I spent the time in teaching and attending school. The principal events of my life were my second birth, my first sermon, my first convert, my first funeral, my first marriage, (I mean the first marriage I ever solemnized), my first religious debate and my first vote.

I taught in both Sullivan and Grundy counties. I soon gained the same popularity as a teacher that I had in Indiana. I never sought schools. They always sought me. I attended the Baptist College in Trenton one year. It was a very pleasant and profitable year of my early life. It was before the war when the general talk was about slavery and a probable war.

One day I and a young friend, chum and class-mate, a son of a Baptist preacher, were studying our lessons under a large beech tree in the college campus. My mate said to me, "Hastings, aren't you an abolitionist?" I said, "Yes, I am." "I believe all men ought to be free." He answered, "I thought so, and so am I and my father too." "But I want to admonish you not to talk it so much." The admonition was well given, and well taken, for the forebodings of the day were that not talk but action would be the right step. And so it was, for it was not long before the whole country was in an awful fratricidal war. The like of which, I hope our country will never see again.

It was during this year the great migration took place to Pike's Peak for gold. Nearly every day the streets would be full of covered wagons bound for Pike's Peak. I noticed on one wagon written in great red letters, "Hastings, bound for Pike's Peak or Hell." It was the noon hour, and I said to the other boys, "There is a Hastings in this crowd, and I am going to find him." I went into a grocery store where many of them were buying provisions. I soon picked him out, a tall good looking fellow, then besides he swore a great deal which tallied with what I saw on the wagon, so I stepped up to him and said, "Is your name Hastings?" He answered with an oath that it was. I said to him, "I see from what is written on your wagon that you are bound for Pike's Peak or Hell." Without waiting for him to reply, I further said, "I think from the way you are going, and the way you talk, you will probably get to both places." At first he looked like he was going to hit me, and then he smiled and said, "You don't swear?" I said, "No, nor do I think you ought to swear." He said, "Probably I ought not."

Then I told him my name was Hastings too. He shook hands with me and we had quite a visit. But he swore no more in my presence. We could trace no kinship, and I was a little glad of it. I do not think any man is totally depraved, but some are very nearly so. There is less excuse for swearing than almost any other sin.

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C H A P T E R S I X

Conversion. First sermon. Funerals and Weddings.

From my earliest childhood I have attended Sunday Schools and church services. I have believed that God is, that Jesus Christ is the son, and that the Bible is true. Years before I became a Christian I had desired to be such and worship God with other Christians. But I did not know which church to join. Mother said, read the Bible and learn. One leader said do this, another said do that. No two agreed. I did not know what to do to become one among the Christians. I prayed to God but if God spake to me in an audible voice I did not know it. But these thoughts ran through my mind. I believe and that far is all right, because the Bible so teaches and so do all the churches. It ran through my mind that I ought to tell somebody else besides God that I believe, so one day I went down town, where there were quite a number of people worshipping God, and they said they were Christians. I said I believe too, and publicly confessed and told all the men that I believed in God and that Jesus Christ was God's son. They all, both men and women seem glad and I was told that all the churches, as well as the Bible, taught that that was right.

Then again, in my mind, I realized that is was a shame and was sorry that I had sinned against God and neglected to turn to him. So, I determined to sin no more but from henceforth to obey God and follow the Lord Jesus always if possible until death. The Bible approved of that procedure, all the churches preached that was right.

Then it ran in my mind that I ought to be baptized and in order to be safe and right, I asked that I might in my baptism be submerged in water and raised up, for the Bible seemed to talk that way, and all the churches said that that way would do. So, I asked a man whom the good people of all the churches so far as I knew, call the Bishop B. H. Smith (no kin to Joe Smith), to baptize me. He did so my immersing me in Medicine Creek in Grundy County, Mo., and raising me up, I came walking up out of the water calling on the name of God. This occurred on the 18th day of September 1858. Ever since then, a half century and more I have been serving, God, keeping his commandments, following his Son, my Load and Master, and praying always. Now all this the Bible teaches, and so do all the churches. Now what church do I belong to? You tell. Will I be saved? You say. Why cannot we all, Christians, take the Bible at what it says, and what all churches approve and be one church? You answer. You know we need not worry about the God side. He will do all things right. It occurred to me that what I did to become a Christian was that which Christ referred to in his conversation with Nicodemus.

In a few months after my second birth, I commenced to preach the word of Gospel and chose for my first subject, "Promise to Abraham." To my surprise when I had finished I had spoken nearly an hour and a half. I told all I knew from Abraham to Christ. I have preached for fifty years since then, and while I have learned more, I have never at any one time preached so long.

It took me, however, a long time to get down to the regulated time of forty or forty-five minutes. I always had too much to tell. This sermon was preached sometime in the summer of 1859. One thing I regret, yes--there may be many things,--but I wish I had kept the dates of things, such as converts, baptisms, funerals, weddings, etc. But of these things I kept no account.

A few years ago I tried to recall the number of weddings, and I got up among the hundreds, and got lost and gave it up. And I am sure that the funerals were as many or more than the weddings. As a matter of fact I always had many calls to weddings and funerals. I have married all kinds of people, of various ages, nationalities and religions. Among them octogenarians, negroes, and Mormon. Some had been married from one to five times before. But I never hear of but two couples who, after I had married them, were divorced. Nor did I every marry any that had been divorced.

I have preached the funerals of many, Saints and sinners, people of various ages, nationalities and creeds. I have baptized believers ranging from nine to seventy-two years of age.

Although I have been preaching for over fifty years, my preaching has been usually on Sundays. I was a Sunday preacher. I never gave myself wholly to preaching for a livelihood. Yet, except the last ten or twelve years, I have missed but few Sundays.

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C H A P T E R S E V E N

Prof Ficklin. Geometry. Bethany, Vir. Ordination. First convert. First funeral. First wedding.

On the 15th day of March, 1859 I was asked how old I was. I replied 'Ego sum viginti unum.' You see at that very time I was attending Prof. Ficklin's High School in Trenton, Missouri, and I tried to put into practice my Latin. My studies at that school were Latin, Astronomy and Geometry. Geometry was my favorite study and I was happy to have Joseph Ficklin as my teacher, for he was one of the best mathematicians in the world. The books in the library on Mathematics alone covered all of one end of his study. He became the author of a series of text books on mathematics from a book on mental arithmetic to a book on Trigonometry and calculus.

As well as I loved geometry I had to leave school before I finished it. Like many another poor boy, my money gave out. The hardest practical geometrical problem that ever came to me in after life was this: I wished to divide a piece of land which in shape was a trapezoid. This trapezoid had two right angles, and the parallel sides were respectively 170 and 120 rods in length. The shorter of the other two sides was 160 rods in length. Now the question was, at what point in the line of the side 160 rods in length should a line start, running parallel with the parallel sides of the land to the opposite side, so as to divide the land into two equal parts? I have never been able to solve this problem, nor could the surveyor I had employed, but two of my boys, before they were as old as I was when I wanted to solve it, solved it. So you see each generation becomes wiser than the preceding one. This is well, provided the wisdom is such as to direct all knowledge into the ways of righteousness.

I had to quit school before I had finished all my studies, but had it not been for the war which came in 1861, I perhaps would have been a graduate of Bethany, Vir. University. For the good, rich brethren of the country in which I commenced to preach had a habit of helping young men to an education, who were called to preach, and who bode to be a success. But the war coming on, spoiled all these plans for me. But I will not express regrets for who would dare to complain when he has placed himself to be lead by the hand of the Almighty. As it is it may be far better than it might have been.

It was decided that I ought to be set apart to the work of an Evangelist (preacher) in the church of God, and on the 6th day of Aug. 1861, during a district meeting of churches at Lindley, Grundy County Missouri, I was ordained to the Christian ministry, by the laying on hands, fasting and prayer. Brethren John R. Howard, David T. Wright, Benjamin F. Smith, D. W. Stewart, and R. M. Sharp participating.

My first convert was a slave woman, who, hearing me preach, believed and was baptized. She was accepted of God, for before him a poor slave woman at her master's feet is as precious in his sight as the queen on her throne. God is no respecter of persons.

My first funeral was on the occasion of the death of a dear little child, only a few months old, the first born of young parents. But the sermon was easy, for has not the Saviour said, "Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."

My first wedding was when, after I had finished a term of school, one of my school boys, a young man, came to me and said he wanted me to marry him to one of my school girls, a young lady. I said, all right I will do that. The arrangements were made. Afterwards I got to thinking about it, I did not know how it was done. I had been to but very few weddings in my life, and I had not noticed particularly how it was done. So, I went to an old preacher who, I knew, had married many people, and asked him how it was done. He said it was easy, just get the parties together and talk to them very solemnly a little while about marriage and getting married and then tell them to join their right hands and ask each a solemn leading question, and if each said yes, then pronounce them husband and wife, and the thing is done. So I went away and formulated in my mind the solemn words to say and the solemn questions to ask. This ceremony proved to be very acceptable and popular, and during all these fifty years or more I have been using the same ceremony and asking the same questions, with but very little variation.

But I must confess when the time came for this first wedding, and I had arrived at the place and saw the many guests with their wedding garments on, I began to feel that it was not so easy a job after all. In fact, I felt a little scared. And then to add embarrassment to fright, another one of my pupils, a young man both older and taller than I, came to me while we were in the midst of the crowd, awaiting the coming of the bride and groom. Stooping over he said in a whisper to me, "Please stand up." I, thinking that he had some message that I out to hear, quietly arose at once, (for he was one of my best friends) when he began to unfold a large, long paper and read aloud to me some lingo of my duties, responsibilities and procedures. But just then the bride and groom were coming, and I said to my friend, "Be seated, sir, you are a little too late with your lingo." The joke had the effect of remove my embarrassment and fright, and I, with ease proceeded with the marriage ceremony and the wedding was most beautiful.

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C H A P T E R E I G H T

First vote. Oldest brother. War. Return to Indiana. In Tophet again. First Baptism. Clarksburg meeting.

About this time I was, the first time privileged to exercise my right as a voter.

The question was whether the state of Missouri should secede from the union. Brother and I voted in the negative. Then during the same year, 1860, November the 6th, we were privileged to vote for a President of the United States. The candidates were A. Lincoln, S. A. Douglas, J. B. Breckenridge and John Bell. Brother voted for Bell for he thought Bell was the only one that would save the union. I voted for Douglas because I thought his election would save from the impending war. The manner of voting was then quite different from what it is now. The judges of election sat in the school house by a lower open window and the voters would file up to the window on the outside. For instance when I appeared at the window to vote, a judge from within asked, "What is your name?" I replied, Z. S. Hastings. "For whom do you vote," asked the judge. I vote for Stephen A. Douglas," was my reply. The judge then said in a loud voice, "Z. S. Hastings votes for Stephen A. Douglas." The clerk recorded it. That was all. The next president I voted for was Abraham Lincoln. And, as it is said, of some Democrats who are still voting for Thomas Jefferson, I am still voting for Abraham Lincoln, that is to say, these Democrats are still voting for some of the principles that were taught by Thomas Jefferson, and I am still voting for some of the principles held by Abraham Lincoln. Among them the rule which is called Golden and is found the Book. This rule is not an "iridescent dream" with me.

My oldest brother Joshua Thomas Hastings was a home guard soldier and a teacher in Bolivar, Missouri, when the battle of Springfield was fought and General Lyon was killed. After the battle the Home Guards and Union men in general in that part of the state, had (using a war word) to skedaddle for their lives. My brother tried to make his escape to Kansas but three times was arrested by confederate scouts. Once, in a road, sheltered on either side with hazel brush and a thick undergrowth of other bushes, the leader of the band, who seemed to want to befriend my brother, whispered to him, that a majority of them (there were six or eight of them) had voted to kill him. "Now" said he, "jump for your life," As soon as said, brother leaped into the brush like a wild deer,--bang, went the cracking of half a dozen or more guns, but each shot missed except one, which just grazed the top of his shoulder. My brother then determined to return back to Bolivar, and with his family return, if possible to Indiana. In this he was successful.