Vancleave - (Elder) - Jonathan
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 9 March 1900
Elder Jonathan Vancleave is dead. He was taken ill with the grip last week and grew steadily worse until death came Monday at five o’clock p.m. at his home nine miles southwest of town. He was unconscious most of Monday but shortly before the end he became conscious and recognized his family. His demise closes the career of one of the most remarkable and intense personalities in the history of Montgomery County. Jonathan Vancleave was born in Shelby County, Ky., on December 13, 1805, being the son of Ralph Vancleave. Ralph Vancleave was the son of Ben Vancleave, whose father, Aaron, came from Holland in 1745. Aaron had eight sons and one daughter, the daughter marrying a brother of Daniel Boone. All eight of the sons were Revolutionary soldiers and served with distinction in the struggle for independence. After the war five of the brothers settled in Shelby County, Ky., where many of their descendants still live. Jonathan came to this county in 1826 and entered the 160 acres farm he died on. In the low rambling old house is still treasured the government deed in parchment bearing the signature of John Quincy Adams. There is also held the deed to the farm entered by the elder’s father-in-law, Aaron Vancleave, (the elder married a distant cousin), who entered his farm in 1833. This grant bears the signature of Andrew Jackson, who is the political saint of the Vancleave family, and for whom the first vote of Elder Vancleave was cast.
The early Vancleaves were all Old School Baptists of the strictest class, and to the day of his death, Elder Jonathan held to the peculiar doctrines with a more than religious devotion. His earliest recollections were of the big Baptist meetings in the blue grass woods of old Kentucky, but not until he was fourteen years of age did he become convicted of his sin. And for a number of years after that he wrestled with his sad lot, not reaching the mountain top of triumph until 1840, when “he felt the spirit of the Lord come upon him like a white dove” in the Indian Creek Church which had been erected in 1832 by Elder Steppleton, Elder John Lee and Randall Davis. Bonam Kester was pastor when Jonathan felt that he was at last gloriously converted and saved and he soon gave place in the pulpit to the new convert who entered a pastorate of over sixty years, just now closed by his death. A night or so after his conversion, Jonathan had a remarkable vision, sent to him, as he verily believed, by the Lord, the object of which was to present to him his duty to enter the Christian ministry. He did so at once, and while he was not formally ordained until 1849, he became in fact the pastor of the Indian Creek Church immediately after his conversion and a most faithful shepherd did he prove. He preached there monthly until a few weeks ago and on the other Sundays he could be found in other pulpits. He did not confine his ministry to this locality but all over Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky the name of Jonathan Vancleave was a name to conjure with in Old School Baptist circles. In 1896 he stated to a representative of The Journal that he had averaged three sermons a week, exclusive of funeral sermons, since 1840. And Elder Vancleave did not preach sermonettes. In the Old School Baptist Church a three hours sermons is not a long one. The Elder never received a cent for his services as a minister and had a profound and deep seated contempt for “a hireling ministry.” He would always quote on this subject the words, “a hireling fleeth and careth not for the sheep.” He made his living by farming and in the early days by acting as gunsmith for the rural community—an important trade forty or fifty years ago. His work is nowise interfered with his effectiveness in the pulpit for he regarded it as wrong to prepare for a sermon. He spoke on the inspiration of the moment and always prefaced his sermon with the statement that the text would be found somewhere between the covers of the Good Book. In the early days of his ministry it was a custom of most ministers of his denomination to take off their coats after they had fairly warmed to work in the pulpit, but Elder Jonathan Vancleave always frowned on this. He was a stickler for ministerial dignity and his appearance was always neat. He made himself an example to the young in more ways than one. He believed and preached the doctrine of election and a literal hell and in no church in which he preached was there ever such an abomination as instrumental music. “We use Duprez hymn book,” said he, “and the sound goes up to God from the souls of those who sing and not from squeaky music machines.”
The elder was a Democrat among Democrats and was proud of the fact that he had never scratched his ticket. He lived and died a sincere believer in states rights and during the war he preached and prayed against the war with a religious fervor. He was bitterly opposed to slavery, but his sympathies during the war were with the south on the doctrine of state sovereignty.
The wife of Elder Vancleave died some years ago and of the six children born to them four still live, Mrs. William Coons, Mrs. Mark Badgely, Ralph Vancleave, and Ransom Vancleave, the last named, now living at the old homestead. Two children, David and Aaron are dead. Elder Vancleave, while a partisan in politics and in religion, was a man esteemed by all, for he never allowed bitterness to enter his life or conduct.
His conversations were always mild and even in debate he eschewed all that savored of invective or satire. He mildly lived and mildly died and his own words spoken to The Journal several yeas ago, may well be repeated now: “I have in my time seen more, and, in a broad sense, I have lived longer than old Methuselah with all his glorious history. I have seen the forest and the wild supplanted by blooming gardens of the Lord. A week, today, sees more than a year did once. I have, indeed, lived long and every year I see more clearly the purpose of The Creator running through all things. And when my time comes to go, I shall go prepared.” -- thanks so much to S for this great Vancleave obit
Source: Crawfordsville Weekly Journal Friday, 29 May 1896
Elder Jonathan VanCleave, whose farm is one the line between Brown and Union Townships, is in many particulars, one of the most remarkable men in the history of Montgomery County. Although 91 years of age, he is possessed of the vigor of a man of sixty. His eye is clear, his voice perfect, his mind and memory unimpaired. He remembers everything that happened in his early youth, and as easily recalls the events of last year, an unusual thing for the aged to do. All the VanCleaves in America are descendants of Aaron VanCleave who came from Holland in 1745. He had eight sons and one daughter, the daughter becoming the wife of Daniel Boone’s brother, ‘Squire. One son settled in Virginia, one in Ohio and five in Shelby County, Kentucky. All were Revolutionary soldiers. One of these sons, Ben VanCleave, was the father of Ralph VanCleave, the father of Jonathan. Jonathan was born in Shelby County, Ky., December 13, 1805, and came to Montgomery County, Ind., in 1826, just five years after the first settlement by William Offield. Here Jonathan VanCleave has since resided and is still living upon the farm of 160 acres which he himself entered. He has the government deed to the land. It is of parchment and bears the signature of John Quincy Adams, then President. He also has in his possession the parchment deed to the farm entered here by his wife’s father, Aaron VanCleave. This land was entered in 1833, and the deed is signed in the bold hand of President Andrew Jackson.
Elder VanCleave is of the Predestinarian Baptist Church, known under such varying names as “Old School,” “Hard Shell,” Primitive” and “Forty Gallon Baptists.” For 55 years he has been a minister in that church and pastor of the Indian Creek Baptist Church several miles southwest of this city. During his entire pastorate he had never received a dollar for his services. He has averaged about three sermons a week during this fifty five years of service, exclusive of funeral sermons. Altogether he has preached between 10,000 and 15,000 sermons and has married over 700 couples, his marriage record being excelled only by that of his cousin, Elder Matthias VanCleave of this city.
(*More written in newspaper)