--Editor, _Belleville Advocate_.
December, 1912.

VIII. {p.42} HISTORIC LETTER OF REV. J. M. PECK ON THE OLD LEMEN
FAMILY NOTES

(From _Belleville Advocate_, January, 1908)
(Clipping in I.B.H.C., K11)

To the Editor of the Belleville Advocate:

We herewith send the Advocate a copy of a letter of the eminent
historian and great Baptist divine, the late Rev. J. M. Peck, to his
old ministerial associate, the late Rev. James Lemen, concerning the
anti-slavery labors of his father, Rev. James Lemen, Sr., and also his
views as to the old Lemen family notes, which will perhaps interest
your readers. It seems quite appropriate for the Advocate to print
these old pioneer matters, as it is one of the old pioneer landmarks.
Rev. James Lemen took the paper when it started, under its first name,
and it has come to his family or family members at his old home ever
since.

By order of the Family.
[JOSEPH B. LEMEN.]

REV. JAMES LEMEN, SR., AND HIS ANTI-SLAVERY LABORS

Rev. James Lemen,
Ridge Prairie, Illinois

Dear Brother: At my recent very enjoyable visit at your house you made
two important requests, which I will now answer. The first was as to
my estimate or judgment of your father's anti-slavery labors, and the
second was as to what disposition you had better make of your vast
stock of old family notes and papers. Considering your questions in
the order named, I will write this letter, or more properly, article,
under the above heading of "Rev. James Lemen, Sr., and His
Anti-Slavery Labors," as the first question is the most important, and
then in conclusion I will notice the second.

In considering your father's anti-slavery labors, I will proceed upon
the facts and evidence obtained outside your old family notes, as it
might be presumed that the trend of the notes on that matter would be
partial. Not that the facts I would use are not found in your family
notes, for they appear to cover about every event in our early state
and church history; but that I would look for the facts elsewhere to
prove the matter, and indeed I can draw largely from my own {p.43}
knowledge of the facts upon which your father's success as an
anti-slavery leader rested. Not only from my own personal observation,
but scores of the old pioneers, your father's followers and helpers,
have given me facts that fully establish the claim that he was the
chief