——-0——- Effingham Kan. Christmas, 1911 Dear Paul,— I am sending to each of the other boys a copy of my Autobiography like this I send you. I hope you will be interested in it; read it, preserve it, and give it to some of your children, to be read and handed down and down until the second Adam comes the second time. I am sure I would be glad to have something of this kind from my father, even from his father's father's father's, etc., back to father Adam, the first Adam. Z. S. Hastings...

Birth. Name. Parent's Religion. Blood. Ancestor's Religion and Politics. First Recollection. Father's Family. From North Carolina to Indiana I was born March 15th 1838 at a place now called Williams in Lawrence County, Indiana. When the day came for me to be named, mother said, "He looks like my brother Zachariah," but father said, "He looks like my brother Simpson." "All right", said mother," we will just christen him Zachariah Simpson." And that is my name unto this day. Now, when mother said

Indiana. The Stars fall. Move. Texas. The flood of 1844. First School. White River's Pocket. No Nimrod. A Fish Story. Clarksburg. At the time of father's arrival, Indiana was only 14 years old and contained about 300,000 inhabitants. Its capital city's first Mayor was inaugurated two years before I was born and three years after the stars fell. In 1842 when I was about four years old my parents sold out and moved down the river five or six miles and bought a new, larger and better farm with a la

Certificate. School. Tophet. Father's death. Spirit Rappings. At the age of seventeen, I sought the county school examiner that I might procure a license to teach. I found him at his school teaching. He had me wait until noon, then we went to the woods close by. It was a warm beautiful day, and the examiner sat on one end of the log and I on the other. Then the questioning commenced. Why he even asked what reading was, and although I had been reading for ten years I could hardly tell. He asked m

Leaves Home. In St. Louis. On the Mississippi River. From Lagrange to Lindley. Few boys live through their teens who do not want to take a wild goose chase to see the world. I was no exception. So after bidding my mother, brothers, sisters, farewell on my 19th birthday, with mother's blessing, in the company with Dr. Sam Elmore, his wife and little boy, I started for north Missouri. The first night we spent at Washington, Ind. This was the first time I ever stopped as a guest at a hotel. The nex

From Lagrange to Lindley, continued. In a murderers bed. Maple sugar. Philosophy and Morality. Dr. Elmore shot. More philosophizing. Firsts. Baptist College. Pikes Peak or Hell. I got up early and took a walk, (the weather had moderated) to see the world. I felt just a little bit homesick. The next evening we stopped for the night at a large public house and they put me in a large upper room where a murderer had slept the night before. I slept. Here let me state this was not the only time I was

Conversion. First sermon. Funerals and Weddings. From my earliest childhood I have attended Sunday Schools and church services. I have believed that God is, that Jesus Christ is the son, and that the Bible is true. Years before I became a Christian I had desired to be such and worship God with other Christians. But I did not know which church to join. Mother said, read the Bible and learn. One leader said do this, another said do that. No two agreed. I did not know what to do to become one among

Prof Ficklin. Geometry. Bethany, Vir. Ordination. First convert. First funeral. First wedding. On the 15th day of March, 1859 I was asked how old I was. I replied 'Ego sum viginti unum.' You see at that very time I was attending Prof. Ficklin's High School in Trenton, Missouri, and I tried to put into practice my Latin. My studies at that school were Latin, Astronomy and Geometry. Geometry was my favorite study and I was happy to have Joseph Ficklin as my teacher, for he was one of the best math

First vote. Oldest brother. War. Return to Indiana. In Tophet again. First Baptism. Clarksburg meeting. About this time I was, the first time privileged to exercise my right as a voter. The question was whether the state of Missouri should secede from the union. Brother and I voted in the negative. Then during the same year, 1860, November the 6th, we were privileged to vote for a President of the United States. The candidates were A. Lincoln, S. A. Douglas, J. B. Breckenridge and John Bell. Bro

Generous friends. Christian, Catholic Methodist, $1.50 $1.00 $0.00 A hawk story. April 15, 1865. All Irish but one. The Bible in school. Not Papa. During this period of my life, which included the latter part of the Civil War, I was occupied mostly at Christian Liberty, and Washington, Daviers County, Ind., both teaching and preaching. A part of the two years following this was spent in school at Indianapolis and Miram, Ohio. At Christian Liberty, my church house and school house were in the sam

Brother John. Washington, Ind. An accident. An incident. Indianapolis, Hiram. Garfield. I must tell you one other story, boys, about how I was not known. Upon my arrival from Missouri to Indiana I went at once to your Uncle John's. They did not know I was coming. This was in the fall of 1861. Brother John had not yet returned from his school. When he did come he stopped at the woodpile and commenced to cut wood for the next day. His wife stepped out on the porch and said, "John, come in, there i

A meeting. Go to Kansas, 1967. Nine Mile House. Do Stones grow? On the shelf. The Spencers. The Johnsons. Brother Rufus. March 15, 1868. During the holidays of the year I was in school in Indianapolis I held a good meeting at Christian Liberty where I had taught and preached for a number of years. Many hearing, believed and were baptized. It was at this place afterwards that I preached my farewell sermon to old Indianans before going to Kansas. There were a great many people at this meeting. Amo

South Cedar. An aged Methodist. A quick Irishman. Webster's blue back spelling book. The world was not turned upside down, but the door turned on its hinges. The school board at Pardee Station was not ready to give me an answer about school, so I left them, promising the Johnsons that I would return in the fall. I had a call to go to South Cedar in Jackson County and teach and preach. This I did during the spring and summer and after the close of my school in July and August I called Evangelist

Holton. Netawaka. All said, "Amen." Farmington. Married. Our home. Little Wiley Warren. While teaching and preaching here on South Cedar I began preaching on Sundays at Holton. I preached in the school house, court house, or any empty room that might be found that was suitable. I found suitable headquarters for my stay in the hospitable home of an old disciple of Quaker origin whom everybody called Uncle Tommy Adamson. He was a true lover of God. The Presbyterians kindly offered me their house t

110 years. 28th of June, 1884. 4 and 3. Closing school at Farmington in 1873, I quit teaching and took up farming and preaching, as I had teaching and preaching until the year 1907 when I retired at the age of 70. So then I attended school off and on 10 years, taught 15 years, farmed 35 years, preached 50 years, working in the aggregate 110 years in a life of 70. The explanation is that some people can do two things or more at one and the same time. On the 28th of June, 1884, indicating just exa

Places. "Uncle Daniel." Will Price. Visit Ind. 1881. Return. Golden Rule. But to return a few years in the events of my humble life, I find that I attended my first State Teachers' Association in Kansas in 1869. After I quit teaching I took up regular farming but kept up Sunday preaching all these many years. Preaching at Farmington, Pardee, Pleasant Grove, Crooked Creek, Lancaster, Wolf River, Holton, Whiting Goff, Round Prairie, Valley Falls, Atchison, Hiawatha, Highland, Netawaka, Corning, Dy

Politics. Topeka. A vote. A snow storm. Sister Lottie. Whiting. Pleasant Grove. Atchison. There are many pleasant things connected with preaching and sometimes things are not so pleasant. Of course, the most pleasant of all to the true, conscientious preacher, is turning many from wrong to right, to salvation from sin and all its consequences. To know that you have preached righteousness and lived a life worthy of imitation, fills the cup of joy to overflowing. While I have been teacher, farmer

T. B. McCleary. 1888 Sunday schools. Giants. Deaths. John. Elizabeth. Effingham, 3-1-1885. A fire. That man I met going to prayer meeting was J. B. McCleary, with whom I am at the present time associated in the Eldership of the church at Effingham. We have known each other all these years since. Brother McCleary is my senior exactly nine years to a day. For many years we have been eating birth-day dinners together, first at his house and then at mine, until his good wife died. Since then we have

Born March 15th, 1838 Died ________ ____ ______....