saries of
the churches founded at New Design and Quentin Creek (Bethel).

The originals of these materials are said to have composed part of a
collection of letters and documents known as the "Lemen Family Notes,"
which has aroused considerable interest and inquiry among historians
throughout the country. The history of this collection is somewhat
uncertain. It was begun by James Lemen, Sr., whose diary, containing
his "Yorktown Notes" and other memoranda, is perhaps its most
interesting survival. While residing in the station fort on the
Mississippi Bottom during the Indian troubles of his early years in
the Illinois country, he made a rude walnut chest in which to keep his
books and papers. This chest, which long continued to be used as the
depository of the family papers, is still preserved, in the Illinois
Baptist Historical Collection, at the Carnegie Library, Alton,
Illinois. It is said that Abraham Lincoln once borrowed it from Rev.
James Lemen, Jr., for the sake of its historical associations, and
used it for a week as a receptacle for his own papers. Upon the death
of the elder Lemen the family notes and papers passed to James, Jr.,
who added to it many letters from public men of his wide circle of
acquaintance.

As the older portions of the collection were being worn and lost, by
loaning them to relatives and friends, copies were made of all the
more important documents, and the remaining originals were then placed
in the hands of Dr. J. M. Peck, who was at the time pastor of the
Bethel Church, to be deposited in the private safe of a friend of his
in St. Louis. As the slavery question was then (1851) at white heat,
it is not surprising that Dr. Peck advised the family to carefully
preserve all the facts and documents relating to their father's
anti-slavery efforts "until some future time," lest their premature
publication should disturb the peace of his church. As late as 1857 he
writes of "that dangerous element in many of the old letters bearing
on the anti-slavery contest of 1818," and adds, "With some of those
interested in that contest, in fifty years from this time, the
publication of these letters would create trouble between the
descendants of many of our old pioneer families."[6]

A {p.25} man by the name of J. M. Smith is suggested by Dr. Peck as
the custodian of the originals. When this gentleman died, the
documents in his care are supposed to have been either lost or
appropriated by parties un