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A human life: an autobiography
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| Daniel Webster Fisher |
The name I have given this book might be appropriate for a work of fiction. This, however, is not another novel; it is just the narrative of " a human life," as it has been actually lived, and as seen by him who has lived it, and from a point of view well on toward its close.
Long ago, in the first half of the last century, I landed on these earthly shores, an infant; and as such the most helpless of the higher order of creatures in this world; but endowed with capacities of mind and body which, when developed, make of every human life beyond comparison the greatest existence here. After some years, spent more or less under the direction of others, in preparation, I set out for myself over a way which of necessity has continually been determined partly by my own choice, and partly by conditions over which I could have no control.
The road by which I have come has been absolutely my own, in the sense that no one has ever heretofore travelled it, and no one will travel it in the future. It is as distinctly my own, and not that of anybody else, as are my personality, and achievements, and character, and responsibility. My life has no duplicate, in time or eternity.
There is no part of it that I have even myself gone over twice, or can by any possibility repeat. Every step of it is as novel and fresh as a bit of new creation from the hand of God. It has been full of strange surprises.
As a rational and responsible being, I have tried to anticipate coming conditions and to prepare for them, but it has never been possible for me to foresee more than in part, and again and again, it has been what was unanticipated that has occurred. I am aware that all of this is equally true of every human life. For that very reason, there is nothing else in the world that is so capable of interesting each individual as is the story of his own journey through the world.
As now I look back I would be false to my conviction, if I did not say that the narrative I here relate not only seems to be stranger than any fiction but also far more worthy of receiving my consideration. How it may seem to others is a different matter.
The story does not carry the reader into the realms of thrilling adventure, or up into what is usually regarded as the very "high places " of the world, but I must plead in its behalf that it does conduct frequently into sight of subjects that are of wide and deep concern to many thoughtful people, and of persons and events that are worthy of permanent remembrance.
Let me justify myself still further for the publication of this volume by saying that even the more strictly personal parts of the narrative may have a special interest for some of my old students and other friends and relatives, but for whose solicitation it would not have been written.
WASHINGTON, D. C, October 1909.
Some Contents:
1 CHILDHOOD (1838-48) I3~33
Sources of Material Diary Memories of Childhood Distinctness of Recollection Birthplace German Refugees A Central Pennsylvania Valley Rural Home Life, Long Ago Brothers The Polk-Clay Campaign Harvesting Threshing Hauling Pennsylvania Canal and Portage Railroad Building the Pennsylvania Railroad Charcoal Furnaces and Forges.
II
A BOY AT HOME (1848-52) 34-47
Country School Sixty Years Ago Sunday School Books and Newspapers Fishing Hunting Churches and Their People The Sinking Valley Presbyterian Church Character of Inhabitants " Huskings " " Quiltings " " Raisings " Virtues and Vices of Rural Regions.
Ill
A BOY AT SCHOOL (1852-54) . . . ' . 48-61
Aspirations A Phrenologist and a Newspaper Going away to School Old Time Rural Academies Merits and Demerits Milnwood Academy Its Rise and Decline Setting the Face toward College Airy View Academy Conversion and the Psycho-physical View of It Joining the Church.
Aspirations A Phrenologist and a Newspaper Going away to School Old Time Rural Academies Merits and Demerits Milnwood Academy Its Rise and Decline Setting the Face toward College Airy View Academy Conversion and the Psycho-physical View of It Joining the Church.
IV
A COLLEGIAN (1854-57) 62-88
A Visit to Dartmouth A Student in Jefferson Location of the College Equip- ment The Faculty The Curriculum Estimate of Professors Their Limited Opportunities Methods of Teaching Re- sults Achieved The Old and the New- The Class of 18578. C. T. Dodd Class Standing and Success in Life Literary Societies " Contests " Greek Fraterni- ties Their Bad and Good Sides Miscel- laneous Reading College Honours and Honour Men Age at Graduation Then and Now
V
A THEOLOGUE (1857-60) . . . . 89-104
Recent Decrease of Candidates for the Ministry The Influence of College Atmosphere Aid to Theological Students Western Theological Seminary Class of 1860 Classmates Bishops McLaren and Tanner Theodore Monod Five Foreign Missionaries Faculty D r. Plume r Courses of Study Later Relations with Theological Seminaries Theological Attitude Changes in Theological Education The Awakening of 1857 Licensed to Preach A Summer in Western Virginia Learning to Preach A Sermon to Slaves.
Recent Decrease of Candidates for the Ministry The Influence of College Atmosphere Aid to Theological Students Western Theological Seminary Class of 1860 Classmates Bishops McLaren and Tanner Theodore Monod Five Foreign Missionaries Faculty D r. Plume r Courses of Study Later Relations with Theological Seminaries Theological Attitude Changes in Theological Education The Awakening of 1857 Licensed to Preach A Summer in Western Virginia Learning to Preach A Sermon to Slaves.
VI
IN THE FAR SOUTH ( 1 860-61) . .- . . 105-131
The Foreign Missionary Cause Ordination Marriage Starting to Siam Called Back A Summer on Ohio By River to New Orleans On the Levee A Visit to a Military Camp and Some Ensnared College Mates Faced toward Texas In Charge of Thalia Street Presbyterian Church New Orleans Just Before Secession Excursion to Shreveport and to Lake Borgne Union Sentiment Growth of Secession Sentiment Southern Unionists and Northern Secessionists The Women and the War Dr Palmer Meeting of Presbytery of New Orleans Movement for a Southern Presbyterian Church Reunion of the Northern and Southern Churches Fort Sumter and the South Neutrality and the Ministry The Dilemma and the Decision Returning North Signs of War Among Our Own People.
The Foreign Missionary Cause Ordination Marriage Starting to Siam Called Back A Summer on Ohio By River to New Orleans On the Levee A Visit to a Military Camp and Some Ensnared College Mates Faced toward Texas In Charge of Thalia Street Presbyterian Church New Orleans Just Before Secession Excursion to Shreveport and to Lake Borgne Union Sentiment Growth of Secession Sentiment Southern Unionists and Northern Secessionists The Women and the War Dr Palmer Meeting of Presbytery of New Orleans Movement for a Southern Presbyterian Church Reunion of the Northern and Southern Churches Fort Sumter and the South Neutrality and the Ministry The Dilemma and the Decision Returning North Signs of War Among Our Own People.
VII
IN A BORDER STATE (1861-65) .... 132-152
At Wheeling Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Its Condition as Affected by the War Delicate Duties Fidelity to the Union Rev. Dr H. R. Weed Trips to the Northern Lakes and Canada Dr Stuart Robinson in " Exile " Convention of Christian Commission at Washing- ton President Lincoln Crises of the War Fall of Richmond Re-organisation of Virginia Movement for a New State Causes Opportunity of the War Constitutionality of Steps Preference of the People Worthy Leaders Some Other " New Men."
At Wheeling Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Its Condition as Affected by the War Delicate Duties Fidelity to the Union Rev. Dr H. R. Weed Trips to the Northern Lakes and Canada Dr Stuart Robinson in " Exile " Convention of Christian Commission at Washing- ton President Lincoln Crises of the War Fall of Richmond Re-organisation of Virginia Movement for a New State Causes Opportunity of the War Constitutionality of Steps Preference of the People Worthy Leaders Some Other " New Men."
VIII
AT THE BEGINNING OF A NEW ERA (1865-76) . 153-172
Slavery and Emancipation in West Virginia Backward Regions Wheeling and the Effect of the War Regency for the Deaf and Dumb and Blind Institute The Intelligencer Sermonising Ministerial Interchanges Series of Meetings Occasional Sermons and Addresses The Woman's Temperance Crusade Doctorate of Divinity Old Religious Customs Pastoral Visitation Instrumental Music in the Church Mission Sunday School Wom- an's Missionary Society Weddings Funerals People Worth Knowing Gen. Grant Resignation Results of Pastorate.
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