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The Home of Charles and May Evelene Richmond
Whitnah, by Charles Scott Whitnah (cont.)
Purely from custom, it seems that I should relate what little I know about the history of my father's family, in order to present, if possible, the very universal case of an American pioneer family. Going back about ten generations, Johannes Whitknaught, according to tradition, came to New Jersey in 1665. The name Whitknaught is traditionally scotch. This came to me after I reached adulthood from another branch of the family. The name, "Johannes" is distinctly from Holland, but Hollanders have stoutly declared that Whitknaught could not possibly be Dutch.
Little is known about the family for three generations, when it is told they, lived in West Virginia and were somewhat affected by Quaker teaching. The earlies experience with religion, of which I have heard was that my grandfather [Eli Carrol Whitnah] attended the services of a colored church in West Virginia, because they were not allowed, by law, to hold meetings unless a white man were present. There were stories told to me of his experiences with these colored people, which I can not relate, but which savored more of folk lore than of religion.
It was evidently during the period preceding the Civil war that my grandfather was moved by his parents to Ohio(1). This move was a flight from persecution by southern whites, because the sympathies of the family were Northern and Anti-slavery. It was probably in Ohio that Eli Whitnah met and married Sophia Evans, who came from a family of means and pride. My father was the third child in that family. Two sisters preceeded his birth which was in 1862.
After the death of his mother in 1864, he went to live with his "Aunt Sophia Evans" for five years, when his father remarried and got his family together. This family lived in comparative prosperity and dignity, compared with the distinctly pioneer atmosphere of the household of my grandfather.
In 1874 the family moved from Spring Valley near Zenia Ohio to Utica Nebraska. My grandfather purchased a farm for four dollars per acre and proceded to break the prarie soil, build a house which I think was of sod, and become a solid citizen of the community.
No small part of the family development was joining the Methodist Church, which my father did in 1878 at the age of 16. He spoke of this as the time when he was, "Converted"-- the truth of which I have never doubted.
It was about 1884 that he and his brother, Robert used the money inherited from their mother's family to go to, Nebraska Methodist College, about 15 miles away at York. It is his teachers, or perhaps one of his teachers there who were credited with unfolding to him a religious faith and viewpoint which was far ahead of his time. On of his experiences was to replace the idea of, Sanctification which he had learned from or with his father. That idea was that it represented an individual, as becoming irrevocably free from sin. I am sure my father did not waver from that position as an ideal, but, after his experiences at College, he considered it an ideal for which to strive, but never to believe that he, or any one had completely attained it.
This first came to my, as a child, when I would ask the meaning of a passage of scripture which he had read, -- as he did daily, after breakfast, except on Sunday when Mother read from the Bible and led in prayer, as was the custom. His answers were the HERITAGE of which I relate.
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