Pentecostal Possibilities or "The Story of My Life"
by Milton Lorenzo (M. L.) Haney
CHAPTER 17
Marriage
It was July 10th, 1849, that I was married to Sarah C. Huntsinger at Princeton, Ills., by Rev. O. A. Walker, a member of the Rock River Conference. Her mother, and step-father, were visiting a friend at Peru and their daughter was with them. I was invited to dine with them, and for the first time saw Miss Huntsinger. She was the only child of her mother, with a handsome body and cultured mind. She was converted when 11 years old, under the ministry of my brother Richard, and had been a member of the M. E. Church from that time. Her mother was a woman of sterling principles, a lady of very neat person, and attire, and bearing the marks of a genuine woman.
"Katie," her daughter, was still more attractive, and for the first time my head and heart easily combined in the decision to make her mine, if that were possible! It was brought out later on, that this feeling was mutual, and we have both thought our union was of God. We knew but little of what was involved in the marriage relation, and stepped out as did Abraham, not knowing where, but the testings of fifty-three years leave no doubt as to the wisdom of the choice then made.
The cholera had been raging in Peru, causing a frightful loss of life. Its first subjects went right forward into eternity in a few hours, so far as I now remember, without exception. The people were stricken with horror and many fled. I think there was but one doctor who remained, and he braved the storm and never shrank from duty. So far as I knew there were but three men beside him who would handle cholera subjects--Powers, Sedgwick and myself. These two brothers waited on the sick, and buried them when dead. As a disinfectant they almost incessantly smoked tobacco, and each had bound to his throat a large plug of asafetida! (Of recent years I have often thought if I were a cholera microbe I would give such men a wide berth!) They grappled with the monster right and left. They worked with seeming superhuman strength in care of men in the cramping stage, and attempted, by stimulants, to resuscitate them when in the collapse, and hurried them away to their burial; and neither of them were ever affected by the disease! They took one man to the cemetery and were about to let him down into his grave late in the evening, when one of them said that they had better not inter him till the morning, as it was possible that life was not extinct; and when they came in the morning he was alive in his coffin, and was restored to health!
I am profoundly impressed that many people are buried alive who are supposed to die with cholera, and that provision should be made to avoid these hasty burials: The cramping stage is often terrific to behold. When that is past the whole man gives way and sinks into utter helplessness. He is often clear in his mental powers, but there is a fearful collapse of the physical. If lifted out of that he usually recovers, but in the more severe cases they are not resuscitated. But few then went through the cramping stage and recovered.
I was taken with it later in the season, when it was supposed the pestilence had passed. The attack was one of seeming severity. Old Doctor Winslow, referred to above, was called quickly, and grew pale when he looked into my face. He hurried more than a half-tumbler-full of medicine down my throat, and said: "Mr. Haney, it is of great importance that you should not become excited." I looked into his eyes and laughed, saying: "Doctor, I am fixed up for two worlds, and you need not have any concern about my being excited."
He went downstairs and said to the family: "The case is a desperate one and the only hope I have is because Mr. Haney is so cool about it." I had a deep internal sense that my work was not done, and then I had not a doubt if I went into eternity before morning as to where I would be located. The old doctor was quite skeptical, but had been moved by my earnestness in the gospel and my care for souls. So he really seemed to love me. This attack occurred less than ten days after our marriage, and my young wife seemed on the borders of widowhood. Conference came while I was yet prostrated, and we were sent to Canton, Ills.