CLEARWATERS, Reuben - Putnam

CHAPTER VI.

CHURCH HISTORY—RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.

The first preacher in the county of whom we have any definite record was REUBEN CLEARWATERS, a Methodist. As to his reputation and ability in the pulpit we know little and about the only information regarding him which we possess is that he solemnized the first marriage in the county, uniting Thomas Jackson and Sarah Wood, July 4, 1822; that, have discovered some defect or error in the marriage, he hunted up Jackson and his wife and performed the ceremony over again. He appears to have lived in the county many years and was frequently a judge at elections and otherwise interested in matters of public concern. Judging by his signature, which is found rudely scrawled among the early records of the county, his educational opportunities or preparation for his calling must have been painfully meager and neglected. One writer says he came to the county in 1821; that JOHN MESSER (MERCER) arrived about the same time also and that the two preached for the Methodists, who were even then somewhat numerous, before the believers of that faith were included within the bounds of any conference.

The doors of the old log school houses were always opened to the itinerant ministers, who, though of different faiths, were all equally eager to expound the simple truth of a sublime and beautiful religion and point out for comparison the thorny path of duty and the primrose path of reliance. Often have those old walls given back the echoes of the songs of Zion and many an erring one has had his heart moved to repentance thereby more strongly than, even, by the flights of homely eloquence. The religious meetings held in those old log school houses were much in contrast to those of today. The pulpit was a box in the middle of the room. The audience assembled was composed of men in home-spun and women in calico and sun-bonnets, together with travelers, land-hunters, and other outsiders. The young men accompanying the girls had to stop before arriving at the house and politely turn their backs while the girls changed their shoes, they having carried their fine ones rather than to soil them by the long walk. The same was done on the return, except in warm weather or just after a rain, when the young man was burdened with two pairs of shoes while his girl would tuck up her homespun or calico thereby exhibiting a pair of white feet entirely destitute of cover.

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