Ohio History Journal

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ISAAC NEWTON WALTER

ISAAC NEWTON WALTER

PIONEER PREACHER OF OHIO.

 

BYRON R. LONG.

 

The writer while yet a small boy, rummaging among the

books in an old library came across a volume of thrilling interest.

The title of the book was "The Pioneer Preacher," written

by a blind man who served his country in conspicuous places,

first as a pastor and then over a period of about twenty

years as chaplain of the Senate and House of Representatives

in the Congress of the United States.

This versatile man's name was William H. Milburn. The

book consisted of lectures that were delivered before the Lowell

Institute. Because of their historical character, and the fact

that they were in a style simple and graphic, they grasped the

attention of an eager boy and held it through to the end.

On account of the nature of the task I have set for myself in

writing this sketch, my mind reverts to this book and to one of

the lectures with the title "Rifle, Ax and Saddle-Bags"; par-

ticularly to the last portion of it. The author used these terms

as symbolical of phases in the pioneer life of America. The

ax representing heroic effort of men who went forth to subdue

the forests and to clear them away that states and cities might

grow and fields spread to receive the seed of future harvests.

The rifle to represent the phase of early life in the western

world which meant defense against savage life that should

attempt to prey upon homes and fields. The saddle-bags sym-

bolized another phase which was important beyond measure

to that period and to all periods of the movement of man through

this world.

Let me quote the language of the book here: "I see

approaching another class with many traits common with the

men of the ax and rifle, yet many different. They, too, are

of large build and robust strength; they, too, have nerves that

(187)