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[Illustration:

  Painted by Tho. Cole.       Engraved by Geo. W. Hatch.
]




  “FATHER CLARK,”

  OR

  The Pioneer Preacher.

  SKETCHES AND INCIDENTS
  OF
  REV. JOHN CLARK,

  BY AN OLD PIONEER.


  NEW YORK:
  SHELDON, LAMPORT & BLAKEMAN,
  No. 115 NASSAU STREET.
  1855.




  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by

  SHELDON, LAMPORT & BLAKEMAN,

  In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the
  Southern District of New York.


  JOHN J. REED,
  _Stereotyper and Printer_,
  16 Spruce street.




INTRODUCTION.


The incidents, manners and customs of frontier life in the country
once called the “Far West,”--now the valley of the Mississippi, are
interesting to all classes. The religious events and labors of good men
in “works of faith and labors of love” among the early pioneers of this
valley, cannot fail to attract the attention of young persons in the
family circle, and children in Sabbath schools.

The author of this work, as the commencement of a series of PIONEER
BOOKS, has chosen for a theme a man of singularly benevolent and
philanthropic feelings; peculiarly amiable in manners and social
intercourse; with habits of great self-denial; unusually disinterested
in his labors, and the first preacher of the gospel who ventured to
carry the “glad tidings” into the Spanish country on the western side
of the GREAT RIVER.[1]

The writer was intimately acquainted with this venerable man, who, by
all classes, was familiarly called “FATHER CLARK,” and induced him
to commence sketches for his own biography. His tremulous hand and
enfeebled powers failed him soon after he had gotten to the period of
his conversion, while a teacher in the back settlements, and he was
unable to finish the work.

By correspondence and personal interviews with many who knew Father
Clark, and from his verbal narratives in our interviews for many years,
the writer has been enabled to give a truthful sketch of the most
important incidents of his life.

While seriously disposed persons of every age and station may derive
pleasure and profit in contemplating the moral portraiture given, _it
is to the young reader, more especially, the author dedicates the
memoir of_ FATHER CLARK.




CONTENTS


  CHAPTER I.

  Birth--Ancestry--Misfortune of Becoming Suddenly Rich--A
    Religious Mother--Fate of an Elder Brother--Mathematics--
    Purposes of Life--Deportment in Youth--Views of War.               9


  CHAPTER II.

  Clark becomes a Sailor--Privateering--His Subsequent Reflections
    --Last Visit to his Parents--Sails as Mate to the West Indies--
    Pressed on Board the Man-of-War Tobago--A Fight and Death of the
    Gunner--Admiral Rodney--Escapes from the Tobago--Visits his
    Brother--Ships for England--Taken by the Spaniards--Obtains
    his Freedom, and again Pressed on Board the Narcissus--Deserts a
    Second Time, and Swims Ashore on James’ Island, off Charleston, at
    Great Risk.                                                       16


  CHAPTER III.

  Mr. Clark arrives at Charleston--Meets with Friends--Interview
    with John Scott--The Story and Fate of Duncan--Alarmed, and
    Relieved by an Old Shipmate--Stationed on Cooper River--
    Returns to Charleston--Protected by Three Scotch Tailors--
    They all Escape--Adventures in a Swamp--Reach Gen. Marion’s
    Army--Clark Proceeds to Georgetown--Enters a Row-galley and
    reaches Savannah--Sails to St. Thomas--Voyage to New York--
    Proclamation of Peace--Returns to the West Indies--Shipwreck--
    Various Voyages--Distress of Mind--Forsakes a Sea-faring Life.    37


  CHAPTER IV.

  Retires to the Back Settlements in South Carolina--Teaches a School
    --Self-righteousness--His Experience for Twelve Months--
    Despondency--Reads