i6 



slavery. Getting excused from the exercises of 

 Commencement, which occurred in September, and 

 procuring a suitable outfit, he set out for the South, 

 arriving at his place of destination in August. 

 Americus, which was the name of the village, was 

 then a small hamlet in the forest, consisting of about 

 a dozen families, who two years before had emigrated 

 from the Carolinas, and settled upon Government 

 land which had belonged to the Lower Creek Indians. 

 There were about forty families in the neighborhood, 

 and like other frontier communities, they exhibited a 

 civilization but little removed from that of the Abor- 

 igines. With but few exceptions they were poor and 

 wretched. Horse racing, drinking, swearing, cursing 

 and ignorance everywhere abounded. In the young 

 graduate they found indeed what they so much 

 needed, a Christian teacher. Devoting all his ener- 

 gies to the work before him he soon won respect, 

 and secured from the better class hearty co-operation. 

 Here he remained eighteen months, teaching in a 

 little log school house, preaching in the Court house 

 so called, attending funerals, visiting the sick, and in 

 various ways elevating the tone of society and infus- 

 ing into it the principles and restraints of Christianity. 

 The little hamlet has now become a flourishing city, 

 and near the spot where he ministered to an infant, 

 struggling church is now a fine brick meeting house, 

 which it was his privilege in later years (1890) to 

 assist in dedicating. 



During the latter part of his stay in Americus, 

 there was a powerful revival of religion which ex- 



