So Great A Cloud Of Witnesses

It seems a little strange when I think about how conscious I am of the influence my ancestors continue to have on me. I guess I am more conscious than most because I have learned so much about them, more than most people learn about their folk. Tonight I got to thinking about my great great grandmother and grandfather; my father's father's father's father. Elisha Townsend, son and third child born to Thomas and Mary Townsend, on October 15, 1834 in Indiana. At the time he was born, the Townsends were still very active in the Quaker faith.

In fact, at the same time but in other parts of the country, Thomas' 3rd cousin James Townsend, abolitionist and pacifist, and many of his close kin, were major players in the development of the Underground Railroad. Thomas' grandmother, Elvira Cain Townsend (who lived to the age of 103 and was still alive during the Civil War!) refused later in life to accept her military widow's pension on the basis of conscience that the war that her husband John fought violated her Christian beliefs.

Thomas and James' great great grandfather John Townsend came to Pennsylvania in 1712, along with many other Quakers emigrating from England, to escape religious persecution. By the 1830's the Townsends had continued over 150 years of Quaker tradition that started with the first Townsend convert to George Fox in the mid 1600s in England.

Elisha's parents, Thomas and Mary, had nine children in all. The oldest daughter, Nancy, married outside of the Quaker faith to William J. Harbit in 1849. Now, I don't know if there were other things going on at the same time to cause Thomas and Mary Townsend to do what they did, or if it was (as it often is) a number of things all coming together at the same time. The result of this out-of-faith marriage, though, was that the whole family was "kicked out", so to speak, of the Quaker meeting they attended. They could have applied for a certificate to be re-admitted, but for some reason they did not. By the time the Civil War started up, Elisha, now in his early 30s, was married to Margaret A. Dickey, and they had three children. Totally against Quaker tradition, Elisha joined up with the Missouri Volunteer Infantry in 1862. Within 6 months he died of complications from the measles, and is buried in the National Cemetery in St. Louis. Would Elisha have died if his family had stayed with the Quaker tradition, if his sister Nancy hadn't married outside the faith, if his parents would have applied for re-acceptance into the church?
Their lives were so hard; I am sure I can't even fathom the difficulties they experienced, living in sod houses on the prairie and enduring the wind, dust, poverty, illness.....Margaret Dickey Townsend, Elisha's widow, remarried quickly - to Elisha's younger brother Isaac, and they went on to have three more sons. My grandfather Ott Elisha Townsend used to tell me stories about one of his half-uncles, Uncle Elisha Otto whom my grampa was named after. They were tough people, pioneers who did what they had to do to survive, lived and died by their convictions, and passed on their beliefs to their kids. Sometimes they took a road that turned out to be the harder choice for the family; like Elisha joining the Army to fight against the ideology of slavery during the Civil War. And sometimes the choice was to do God's will behind the scenes, like James and his family being host to an Underground Railroad Station to help people escape slavery. One thing for sure, they held to their convictions and trusted God.

We have only 1 1/2 weeks before the election of a new leader for our country. May we all vote with knowledge, with passion, with hope for a better future, and with prayer that our children and grandchildren will have better lives.