Alfred Johnson Cotton was
born in Pownal, Maine, on April 20, 1800, to William and
Margaret Cotton. Cotton
writes in his autobiographical book, Cotton's
sketch-book,
"Tradition says that I am a lineal descendant of Rev.
John Cotton, of Plymouth Colony notoriety" (14).
What little biographical
information is known about the
Reverend Judge (he used the titles
in conjunction)
Alfred J. Cotton is collected
from his personal writings and
from county histories. His early
life and how he happened
upon Indiana are best recounted
in his own words:
My parents were only
in comfortable circumstances, so
that my opportunities
for acquiring an education were
limited
to the facilities of the common
schools for only two or three
months in the winter season, and
even
that only up
to the eighteenth year of my
age, at which time it will be
seen, I emigrated West, soon married,
and located myself
in the forest (30).
I
frankly stated that I felt deeply
impressed that God had called
me to preach the Gospel, and
this might be God's
method to send me to a strange
people (36).
Early in the fall
of 1818…having bade my
dear good parents and friends
a fond and tearful adieu, I…was
soon under way for my new home
and destiny in the wilds
of the then Far West, —more
to preach the gospel of Christ
than to gain either wealth
or fame (40-41).
I cannot tell
you how happy I was, nor how
cordially I
was received and made welcome
to my new home in the fertile
regions of the West; you
must guess at that (44).
Startled
by the "wildness" of his new
home in Indiana, Cotton described wildlife and forests as
"ghastly" and "horrendous." From
his writing, he did not appear
to be afraid of the wilderness,
but only
considered it an obstacle to be
tackled. What he did provide was
an interesting view of the un-cultivated Ohio
River valley:
And so providentially
and circumstantially I was married a few months
before I was 19 years of age,
and shortly after
located myself in a little snug
log cabin out in the open
woods, where snakes and wolves
and bears and panthers, in
common parlance, were somewhat
as thick as fleas and mosquitos,
and went to work with a mind
and will to clear me up a farm to
sustain me and mine, while
I went about doing good (44-45).
All was one vast unbroken
wilderness around me, save here and there a little cabin
and a small opening, the labor
of the new-comers the previous year. These were scattered
about on what was then called Green Brier, as before observed;
so called by hunters, because of the prevalence of a brier
of that color that abounded in the forest (50).
When Cotton first came to “The West,”
he was what he called a "licensed exhorter." At
age 21, he became a preacher. At age 25, he became an ordained
minister. At age 29, he was elected to elder's orders (Keepsake
304).
In 1828 Cotton ran for what he described as "legislature,"
but apparently was not elected. A short while later, he moved
to Henry County to
take the editor's seat at the fledgling Newcastle Banner,
which is
no longer in publication. He later resigned the position
at what he called pressure from the other editors (304).
After his resignation, he moved back to Dearborn
County where he ran for circuit court judge and won
by what he called "a fair margin." He served
between 6 and 7 years in that position, at which time
he was appointed
"sole judge of the probate" for Dearborn County
by then-governor James Whitcomb. He served five years in
this
position (315-316).
Although he wrote about the environment he encountered
in “The West,” Cotton never sang the praises of nature. Later
in his life, Cotton observed the changes to the environment
that had taken place since he had first arrived, and praised
what he saw there instead:
O, what changes have occurred since that
fearful night! The howling wilderness has become as the garden of God.
Fine farms, and orchards, and mansions, and school-houses,
and seminaries, and colleges, and churches, and turnpikes,
and canals, and railroads, and telegraphs surround me on
every side (Sketch-book 58).
Cotton’s writings indicate that he was
well-respected by the members of his community and was a friend
of the farm workers who populated the rural region he lived
in. He was a regular speaker at the Agricultural Fair of Dearborn
County, and wrote and read many poems on the glories of farming
and industrialization and how God loved people who worked
the earth and changed it from "savage wilderness"
to "useful land.” In the poem An Ode to Industry,
which Cotton writes was sung at the first Agricultural Fair,
Cotton reflects on the necessity of hard work on the land:
The cultivation of the earth, through toil, and sweat and
sighs,
Is heaven's choicest, richest boon, all blessings in disguise.
The thorns and thistles, that we dread, which choke the
growing grain,
Give exercise to willing hands, and health and peace maintain
(134).
Cotton’s writings concerning the environment
show that he viewed nature as an obstacle for man to climb
over, as something man must conquer and control in order to
survive. He praised man’s construction and alteration
of the environment he first encountered when he came to the
West from New England.
--AJZ
Sources:
Cotton,
Alfred J. Cotton’s Keepsake:
Poems on Various Subjects, by Rev.
Judge A. J. Cotton, Philom. To Which
is Appended a
Short Autobiographical Sketch of
the Life of the Author, and a Condensed
History of the Early Settlement,
Incidents, and
Improvements of the Country, from
the Early Settlers Themselves, and
from Observation and Experience in
It, for the Space of
Forty Years Last Past. Cincinnati:
Applegate & Co.,
1858.
Cotton, Alfred
J. Cotton’s
Sketch-Book; Autobiographical
Sketches of the Life, Labors, and
Extensive Home Travels of
… in Short, Convenient Chapters. Portland,
Me.: B. Thurston, 1874.
Images:
Cotton,
Alfred J. Cotton’s Sketch-Book; Autobiographical
Sketches of the Life, Labors, and Extensive Home Travels of
… in Short, Convenient Chapters. Portland,
Me.: B. Thurston, 1874.
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