2. A. T. Still: from birth to his first marrige

By the time they arrived in Macon County, a few hours had passed since the land had been divided into single plots. The Stills managed to secure a house near Bloomington, thanks to Martha’s savings of about $350.
Abram Still was the first Methodist pastor in Northern Missouri and also the author of the first medical prescription ever prescribed in the new state (Trowbridge 1991:27).

Since Reverend Harmon did not keep his word and did not return the money he had borrowed, they had to survive the winter without any financial resources. The boys worked hard to catch the game and sell the furs, Martha made an effort to tan the skins to obtain clothing. In 1939 she gave birth to her seventh daughter, Mary Margaretta Still.
Although still a boy, Andrew Taylor contributed to farm work and went hunting, an activity he liked very much because he was curious to study the captured animals. He became a good connoisseur of dogs and, like his peers, enjoyed riding horses, mules and calves (Trowbridge 1991:30).

In the following years the family moved some other times for the preaching needs of Abram, who wanted to spread the Gospel even to the most remote farms.

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In the spring of 1839, the Still moved 50 miles north to Schuyler County, where they resided for some time and where, the following year, Abram purchased 80 acres of land. Some families organized to recruit a tutor to teach the youngsters during the winter of 1839-40. In 1843 his daughter Marovia Marsden Still was born.

Abram gave a lot of importance to the religious education of his children. On the one hand, the Methodist sermons were imbued with hope, optimism and a sense of responsibility that would push the faithful to take active action to create a better world, since acting by example would allow the works of God to demonstrate His perfection. On the other hand, the doctrine left a lot of room for visions, prophetic dreams and divine grace enlightenment. These could manifest both during prayer meetings of small groups in remote farms and, in a more violent and striking way, during camp meetings. Abram was not opposed to this kind of events, rather he himself was a clairvoyant, nor took lightly the premonitions of others.

In the early 1880s, a Baptist preacher, Reverend William Miller, gained a certain number of folowers after spreading the idea that Christ’s triumphant return was imminent. He prophesied the end of the world on a date between 21 March 1843 and 21 March 1844 (which was later postponed to 22 October 1844). His ideas got hold not only among Adventists, but also among many other people who began to prepare for the end.

Abram himself organized a camp meeting in order to officially bring his children John and Mary into the church, so that if the world ended they could enter Heaven. Although the prediction did not come true, the whole question left a deep impression on the children of the Still family (Still 1897:25).

The Still family returned to Macon County in 1845, settling on larger lands (Trowbridge 1991:33; Still Jr 1991:12). Here Martha gave birth to the ninth and last daughter, Cassandra Elliott Still, in the year 1846.
At 16, Andrew moved for some time to La Plata, twenty miles away from home, to study at a Presbyterian school (Lewis 2012:15).

When Missouri was annexed to the Union in 1821, it was a slave state, and most of the many new inhabitants had a tolerant or pro-slavery attitude. Once again, Abram’s ideas put him in an uncomfortable position, and several times the elderly of his congregation invited him in vain to soften his sermons – with the exacerbation of the political tensions linked to slavery, Abram’s vehement abolitionism put his own life at risk.

The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) had initially adopted a position close to John Wesley’s, the founder of Methodism who shortly before his death had written an anti-slavery pamphlet (Wesley 1774). However, the development of the American economy had made the topic very sensitive, and the MEC had gradually changed its line by suspending judgment, on the fragile basis that it was correct to avoid meddling in earthly matters. However, it was not possible to maintain this strategy for long and in 1844 the internal discussion had become so fierce that it led to a schism: the MEC split into two different churches, the Northern and the Southern. Missouri fell under the jurisdiction of the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church, which had anti-abolitionist positions, so Abram took his distance from it and the whole family stopped attending religious services. Although he no longer had affiliation with the Southern Methodists, Abram retained a feeling of belonging to the territories where he had preached and founded new churches in northern Missouri. It was so that he persevered in his preaching and in trying to spread his message.

For three years Abram unofficially joined the Iowa Methodist Church Conference, until in 1848 he was appointed to the elders of the Northern Methodist Episcopal Church, which had just reorganized in Missouri (Still Jr 1991:14).
Ed and Barbara Jane got married and left the nest (Still Jr 1991:17).

In 1846, at the outbreak of the war between Mexico and the United States, Andrew Taylor wished to enlist but his father did not allow it (Trowbridge 1991:34).

A.T. Still met a girl named Mary Margaret Vaughan and married her in January 1949. their first child Marusha (1849-1924) was born in December. The couple moved to a farm a mile away from Abram and Martha’s house, where Andrew engaged in farm work.

He had cultivated a beautiful field of corn, thriving and ready for harvest, which on the fourth of July 1852 was completely destroyed by a hail storm (Still Jr 1991:18; Stark 2007:47). It was a blow that left him without means of subsistence, so the following winter he was forced to become a school teacher for fifteen dollars a month (Trowbridge:34-35). On 12 November 1852 the second son Abraham Price was born.