An unanswerable question, again brought to us by genealogy

[cathyw]

They talk about the "burned-over district" in western New York, where the fires of religious revival left everyone in the land scorched, from about 1800 to 1850.

The same area was also a stopover in the typical migration pattern following the Revolutionary War - families left Massachusetts and Connecticut, spent a generation in western New York, and then caught a steamer to Michigan (which is why so many towns in Michigan have the same name as towns in New York.)

The intersection of these two facts is, I would hazard a guess, not entirely unrelated to how one of my paternal second-great-grandfathers ended up a Baptist minister in what is now Novi, Michigan.

The story as I have heard it is this: one fine Sunday in 1875, he keeled over dead mid-sermon. (The cause of death was listed as a stroke, and I know stroke has run in the family. I am not thrilled by this information.)

The question is, then: how did people react to that? Just imagine: You are at your church service on Sunday. Being a Baptist service, one can assume it involved some enthusiastic preaching? And Pastor falls over dead.

I don't know. I can't know, unless someone finds a diary or letter from one of the congregants that talks about it and goes 'Hey, Cathy, isn't this the 
second-great-grandfather you were wondering about?' Aunt Gladys might have heard the story of her grandfather, but she passed away decades before I even knew to ask the question. (Get your Olds to tell you stories about their parents and grandparents while they're still here, folks...) I can imagine, I can make some assumptions, but... that's somewhere between 'irresponsible speculation' and 'making stuff up.'

So I go on, curiosity unsatisfied, and occasionally frustrated when something randomly leads the incident to bubble up to the surface of my brain.

Comments

[lunarriviera]

it seems like something so shocking would have made the papers? said papers probably no longer in print, but libraries used to keep them on microfilm—

[cathyw]

it's been hard to find out which paper. I know the Detroit newspapers of the day basically covered, specifically, Detroit.

but thinking about it, it's only about a 45 minute drive. I could, like, go to the local public library in person and *ask them* which paper and if they happen to have an archive of it from 1875...

[cathyw]

first thing I discovered is 'story is likely to be altogether untrue, the date of death was a Thursday', unless Baptists in 1875 had Thursday services.

(ask your Olds for stories, but 'trust but verify' I guess. :) )