LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS TO VOLUME XX. EMILY J. ADAMS, LUCY ALDRICH, REV. ROBERT ALLYN, A. M., REV. H. P. ANDREWS, KATY ATKINS, MERIBA A. BABCOCK, ABBIE A. BARTLETT, WALTER W. BATTERSHALL ANNIE M. BEACH, HARRIET M. BEAN, R. MARIA BECK, REV. J. D. BELL, REV. J. B. BENHAM, MRS. E. L. BICKNELL, MRS. MARION A. BIGELOW, MRS. C. P. BLAIR, NELLIE L. BUTTERFIELD, LYDIA J. CARPENTER, CAROLINE CARROL, REV. F. S. CASSADY, PHOEBE CARY, JANE L. CHAPPELL, REV. H. CHRISTOPHERSON, LUELLA CLARK, SARAH B. CLARK, WILLIAM T. COGGESHALL, CHARLES COLLINS, D. D., CORNELIUS G. COMEGYS, M. D., REV. E. F. COOPER, REV. J. L. CRANE, BENJAMIN F. CRARY, D. D., NANNIE CLARK CUNNINGHAM, REV. W. A. DAVIDSON, E. H. DEWART, MRS. M. DEXTER, HON. GABRIEL P. DISOSWAY, NELLIE L. EASTMAN, MRS. S. K. FURMAN, MRS. S. TAYLOR GRISWOLD, MARY A. HARLOW, REV. JOSEPH HORNER, A. M., CHARLES B. HOWELL, EMILY C. HUNTINGTON, SEREPTA M. IRISH, CORINTHA J. IRWIN, CALVIN KINGSLEY, D. D., REV. S. L. LEONARD, REV. WM. G. W. LEWIS, A. M., MARY E. LOOKER, REV. D. D. LORE, REV. R. S. MACLAY, REV. JOHN F. MARLAY, A. M., C. E. C. M'KENNEY, PROF. THOMAS H. MUDGE, REV. WILLIAM ÖSTRANDER, JOSEPH E. PECK, ELIZABETH E. R. PERRY, MARY JANE PHILLIPS, Miss E. B. ROBINSON, MRS. F. M. ROWE, ELLEN T. RUSSELL, RUFUS E. SHAPLEY, REV. S. D. SIMONDS, PROF. OLIVER M. SPENCER, MAGGIE B. STEWART, REV. W. G. STONEX, ADELAIDE STOUT, WILLIAM P. STRICKLAND, D. D., THRACE TALMON, THE LADIES' REPOSITORY. . JANUARY, 1860. REV. ALFRED GRIFFITH. BY REV. B. H. NADAL, D. D. hood; but the circle of the sciences which lay open to him, narrow as it was, still contained something for which he had a special aptitude, Rthers of the Baltimore conference, was born in EV. ALFRED GRIFFITH, one of the fa- and in which he found great satisfaction. He Montgomery county, Maryland, March 16, 1783. His father was a captain in the war of Independence, and an active participant in many of its battles. At the battle of Germantown General Smallwood called for volunteers to dislodge a body of grenadiers, who were making sad havoc with the American lines. Captain Griffith, among others, presented himself with his company for this service, and of eighty-four men, the number of his command, he returned from the charge with only sixteen, himself bearing a fearful wound, whose honorable scar he carried to his grave. was by nature a Pythagorean; his soul had a near affinity to numbers. With such pleasure and success did he prosecute the study of arithmetic, that at the age of thirteen he had twice threaded to the end the mazes of Dilworth, and his honest master sent him home to his father with the message, that he had taught his son all that he himself knew, and as he did not wish to receive money without rendering an equivalent, the boy had better be kept at home. His father seeing his skill in figures and his devotion to them, next determined to start him in the higher mathematics. A gentleman living some six miles away, and noted as a mathematician, was teaching a class of three young men; into this class young Griffith entered, and, though a boy, nobly and successfully struggled with those greatly his seniors for the palm of distinction. No one well acquainted with Mr. Griffith can for a moment doubt what would have been the result had he continued in that line of study; as it is, mathematical precision and directness are among his most marked characteristics. The influences which surrounded Mr. Griffith in very early life were not friendly to spiritual religion. His family were adherents of the Episcopal Church, whose parsons, in those days, were in the habit of attending the frolics, particularly the dancing parties in the parish, and as the most distinguished of the guests, with some staid and churchly matron, leading off the merry dance-thus giving the Church's sanction and the pastor's blessing to the sports of the night. Immediately upon the heels of these things Grace being thus done for the hop, and "reel," came occurrences which seriously threatened to and "honey-moon," left in the "odor of sanc-give to Mr. Griffith's life a direction altogether tity," the parson retired into what was called the gentleman's room to perform a like office for the cards, and for the bowls of apple-toddy, the favorite beverage of the people of Montgomery at that period. Under such religious influences in the neighborhood, unopposed by any thing different at home, it is not to be wondered at that Mr. Griffith can recall no early religious impressions, and remembers his boyhood as remarkable mostly for its irrepressible tendencies to mischief. Mr. Griffith's opportunities for education were such only as were afforded by his own neighbor different from that which is now history. We refer to his father's purpose to make him a lawyer. A preceptor had already been engaged, when, as was supposed, it was found needful, before allowing the lad to encounter the mysteries of his destined profession, that he should spend some time in the study of Latin, and the day was actually fixed for starting him to Princeton. His mother's interposition, however, or perhaps rather that of divine Providence, spoiled the scheme and prevented the consummation of the father's hopes. One day, a short time before the VOL. XX.-1 1 journey to Princeton was to have taken place, the husband and father, seated at his desk examining his accounts, heard his wife in another part of the room sobbing as though her heart would break, and turning to inquire the cause, he was met by a response something like the following: "Why, you are going to send off that poor boy to college to make a lawyer of him." "Well, what of that? What is there in it to make you cry?" "What is there in it? Why, I never in my life knew a lawyer who was not a wicked man, and if our boy should become one he 'll be just like the rest of them, and he 'll be lost." After this dialogue it was never known what had become of the law; it was somehow or other disposed of, and history, and the Church, and Providence were left free to introduce the preacher. In after life, when this incident was related to Rev. John Davis, the bosom friend of Mr. Griffith, he familiarly but feelingly ejaculated, "God bless the old lady! I always loved her, but I love her now better than ever; for if they had made you a lawyer, you never would have been a preacher, and the devil would have gotten you." Mr. Griffith was converted in the great revival which began in 1799, under the Rev. Wilson Lee. Mr. Lee had just returned from the wilds of Kentucky, where his body and mind had both been broken down by his incessant labors and an unfriendly climate. Mr. Asbury found it necessary to bring him back to his native air; but Mr. Lee's religion was of that type that knows no rest but with the cessation of life. He had scarcely gone his first round on Montgomery circuit, where he found religion at a low ebb, when his zeal broke forth afresh, consuming himself perhaps, but awakening new life in the Church-the life of a holy, happy experience, preparing her for unwonted aggressions and unrivaled successes. During this year-1799-as it appears from the Minutes, Mr. Lee was only a supernumerary on Montgomery circuit; and as the Minutes show that the great increase took place the following year, the great revival, however prepared for the year before, must belong to the years 1800 and 1801, when Mr. Lee was preacher in charge. Its beginning was on this wise. Living near St. James's Church, in Howard county, at that time embraced in Anne Arundel, was a gentleman by the name of Daniel Elliot, whose house was a regular preaching-place. In the same vicinity was the home of an excellent lady, Mrs. Elder, a sister of Governor Howard, who was equally distinguished for elegant urbanity and humble piety. But even more distinguished for piety, and especially for faith, was her colored waitingman Charles. In the general declension of re ligion every one said if there was a Christian left among them it was Charles. Charles and his mistress were both Methodists. Mr. Lee having determined to open the campaign at this place, covenanted with the faithful, saintly Charles, that at the next meeting, while he—Mr. Lee-should be preaching in the principal room, Charles should be on his knees, in a shed-room, opening into that in which the service was proceeding, engaged in agonizing supplication for the success of the word. When the time came, and the neat, the graceful, the attractive preacher, of whom men stood in awe while they admired him, arose in the crowded parlor, true to his engagement Charles was on his knees in the shedroom, and as the word fell from the lips of the minister, the prayer of faith from God's image in ebony ascended the hill of the Lord. There was present on that day in that place a power more than human: the people cried out aloud; they fell on every side; they shouted; they prayed; they implored; they wept sore, so that the room at that moment presented a scene, which, viewed by the eye of criticism, might have been characterized as confusion worse confounded. Into the midst of this scene now came the pious Charles. He had heard the Lord's answer of human shouts and groans, and not venturing to rise, he entered the room walking on his knees, while the tears streamed down over his black face, now made, if not white, at least intensely bright, by the grateful joy which overspread it. Many souls were converted at that single meeting, which was the more glorious because it was only one of a glorious series-only the beginning of a widelyextended, long-continued revival of religion, reaching to Baltimore city and county, to Frederick county, to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, to Pennsylvania, and to Virginia, and lasting till 1808. In the early part of this most gracious period-1801—Mr. Griffith was awakened under the ministry of Rev. John Potts, and was soon after admitted into the Church by Rev. David Stevens. In a short time the youthful convert was appointed leader of his class and soon after made his first attempt to preach. The beginning to preach happened in this way: A local preacher was expected to fill an appointment in the church to which Mr. Griffith belonged, but for some reason did not come, and the brethren insisted that he-Mr. Griffith—should take his place. Preach! why, he had allowed no one to know that he had ever even dreamed of such a thing. He resisted right manfully, but they persisted obstinately, till, almost forced by their urgency, he asked permission to retire into the woods, telling them that upon his return he would let them know whether or not he could preach. In retirement and prayer he sought divine direction and returned resolved to try. When the preaching was over he found himself unable to recall any thing he had said, but he remembered well what he had seen and heard the flowing tears, the hearty responses, the joyful shouts. At a quarterly meeting, not long after, when Mr. Griffith was not present, the Rev. Enoch George, afterward Bishop, had him licensed as a local preacher; and when the circuit preacher came round he handed the unsuspecting youth a piece of paper, which, on opening, he discovered to be a license to preach, and immediately let it | fall. The minister picked it up, and handing it again to Mr. Griffith said: "Brother George told me he supposed you would not accept the license, and directed me to say that if you refused to preach God would kill you." The young man retained the paper. The last quarterly meeting of the following year brought with it a scene for which Mr. Griffith, with all his convictions, was scarcely pre- | pared. Presiding elder George was in the chair, and besides Mr. Griffith there were present at least two other local preachers. When the question of recommendations to the annual conference to be received on trial came up, there were propositions to recommend both the others, but each of them, as his name was mentioned, made his apology and declined. The presiding elder then named Mr. Griffith, and turning his eye upon him and shaking his finger solemnly, or, rather, menacingly in his face, he said, "Now, do you too flash in the pan if you dare." The young preacher was silent; this was but the reutterance of the divine voice which had been speaking within him from the hour of his con version. In 1806 the subject of our sketch was received into the Baltimore conference and appointed to Wyoming circuit, with Christopher Frye as his colleague. The circuit, like all others in that day, was large, and the fare poor and coarse enough. The only drink they had besides water was coffee (?) made of buckwheat bread. The process of making this drink was to hold a piece of buckwheat bread, called a slap-jack, in the fire with the tongs till completely charred, and then to boil it in an iron pot. The liquor thus obtained, sweetened with maple sugar, received from Mr. Griffith the name of slap-jack coffee, and by this designation came to be generally known. As to eating, from early in June till autumn, except when on the flats, they had not a morsel of meat of any kind. Poultry could not be raised, nor pigs, nor sheep; for as soon as any thing of the sort made its appearance it was carried off by the foxes, the bears, the panthers, or the wolves. If now and then a man was found bold enough to attempt to keep a hog, the pen was built just at the front door of the cabin; and if he owned a calf it was brought up and tied behind the house every night, and the guns kept loaded and at hand to drive off or kill the invading panther or wolf. As they rested at night on their bear-skins or deer-skins, they frequently heard around them the wailing scream of the panther or the howl of the wolf, and the sight of a bear was more common than that of a pig or a lamb. The sleeping was as poor, in some instances, as the eating and drinking. About fifty miles from the flats lived a humble family by the name of Kramer, consisting of husband and wife, with one son, Abraham by name. Their house was both stopping-place and church for our young itinerant, who had for his bed, when he remained over night with them, the frame of an old loom, across whose beams were laid slats, and on the slats a bear-skin or two. These, with a pair of clean sheets, which were kept exclusively for the preachers, and a few superincumbent duds, constituted the sleeping apparatus. Abe, as he was familiarly called, was the preacher's bed-fellow; and on one occasion, when Mr. Griffith had just committed himself to his loom and bear-skins for the night and lay waiting for young Abraham, who was a stalwart boy of twenty, he happened to cast his eye into one corner of the room, or rather of the house, that room being the only one, when a sight met him at once puzzling and grotesque. There was good mother Kramer, with her boy Abe before her, who stood with lamb-like docility while the old lady pinned round him a snow-white sheet, which reached from the chin to the ground, making him look, his decidedly-human head being excepted, for all the world like a veritable ghost. "Why, mother," said the young preacher, "what on earth are you doing to Abe? Are you making a ghost of him?" "No, child," replied the inventive housewife, "no; but Abe is n't fit to sleep with a preacher unless he is wrapped up in some such way as this." At one of his appointments the young preacher was met by an Irishman by the name of Matthew Bortree, who had been a Methodist in his native country, but having emigrated to this country and settled where he enjoyed no religious advantages, he had become cold and backslidden. But the Holy Spirit again visited him, and he became deeply anxious to retrieve his spiritual losses, and the object of his present visit was to get the promise of the preachers to visit his settlement and establish there an appointment. The settle ment was of about twenty years' standing, and yet a sermon had never been heard, nor a minister of the Gospel seen in it. Upon consultation between the preachers it was determined that Mr. Griffith should make the first visit to the new field and preach the Gospel "in the regions beyond," to people who had never heard its joyful proclamation. The time was fixed and a young man was to be sent to meet the preacher at Kramer's and conduct him through a great wilderness, called the "Big Beech Woods," to Bortree's house. In pursuance of his engagement, at the proper time Mr. Griffith started for Kramer'srode all day without eating a morsel, and reached the friendly cabin about nightfall, having come fifty miles. Of course he was weary and hungry. Mother Kramer said she was glad to see him, but sorry he had come, for she had nothing, nothing at all to give him to eat. Mr. Griffith said he was sorry too, for he was very hungry-could n't mother Kramer possibly find something that a man could eat? The good woman promised to try, and upon rummaging among some broken crockery she found a dry crust of bread, which, added to a very small fish which Abe had that day caught in the branch, and which she immediately cooked, was the supper and dinner of the young preacher, after a ride of fifty miles and preaching twice. The fish and bread, which Providence made sufficient without a miracle, being found, the good woman drew out a washtub, and placing a board over it for a table, on which in the moiety of a plate she arrayed the dinner, and before which she placed a three-legged stool, she invited the preacher to eat, adding, as she concluded her invitation, "There's your dinner, it's all I have; if I had more you should have it. But if you are a good man it's good enough for you, and if not it's too good." By daybreak the next morning the father and Abe had returned from the mill, whither they had gone to replenish their exhausted larder, and the young itinerant had, considering time and place, a good breakfast; plenty of corn-bread, washed down with slap-jack coffee-that and nothing else. of Bill Clemens, who asked him what he meant In 1813 Mr. Griffith was stationed in Annapolis. During that year the British threatened the place, coming quite near with their ships, and lying there for some time to the no small annoyance and damage of the country people especially, whose cattle they carried off in considerable numbers. Annapolis had to be fortified, and Mr. Griffith, with the zeal and self-sacrifice of a true patriot, worked day by day with spade, or shovel, or pick, along side of the stoutest in throwing up the breast-works. In connection with this work he tells an amusing little story. At that time we had no penitentiary in Maryland, and the class of criminals now confined in that description of prisons was compelled to work on the public highways, at the wheel-barrow, with ball and chain about the leg. Living at Annapolis was an old Mr. B., a Democrat and a great The next evening he and his guide arrived at wag, between whom and a student at St. John's the settlement and were met by seventy or eighty College by the name of K., still living, there were persons, all anxious to see that strange sight, a frequent sharp and witty passages, the latter bepreacher. He put up with Bortree, and no sooner ing a zealous Whig. It so happened in the apwas he in the house than they insisted he should portionment of the work of digging, and pitchpreach the same evening. He consented, and ing, and wheeling, that the wheel-barrow fell to while he preached the people gazed and wonthe lot of Mr. K., whose Democratic opponent dered not one present, perhaps, except Bortree, rejoiced over him, telling him that "Jimmy Madihad ever before been witness of such a scene. son had brought him to the wheel-barrow at last." The next day he preached morning, afternoon, Wheel-barrow man was the name for a convict. and night. After the second service, he was ap- The next year saw our friend stationed at proached by a great, rough fellow by the name | Fell's Point, Baltimore. During this year, as our |