534                 HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

taken every precaution and employed all the strategy and arts at his
command to induce the daughter to renounce her resolution and take
nourishment. Heroic measures have not been resorted to, though sug-
gested by friends and recommended by one or more visiting physicians,
because of the sympathy and intervention of the mother, who pleads
that it would be a sin to force her child to do anything—even to take
food. In the earlier stages of her spell the family physician was called
several times, who pronounced the child free of disease, but prescribed a
simple tonic and stimulant. She has never refused to take medicines,
but the bare hint of food has always met with prompt and determined
objection. She took to bed at once at the beginning of her fasting and
since the first week or two has kept it almost unremittingly. As a persua-
sion to break the fast the most palatable and enticing victuals have been
prepared, placed on the table and eaten by the family in her presence, but
without avail. To divert her attention, enliven her sensibilities and break
up the conditions of despondency and moroseness, bands of music and
Sunday-school choirs have been invited to the family residence to enter-
tain and revive her, but to no perceptible effect. A physician of the city,
who practices hypnotism in the treatment of patients, was called, who
claimed that under the hypnotic spell she would eat and relish food or do
anything at his will, but he failed to bring her under control and accom-
plished nothing. There are those who are incredulous and maintain that
food is taken clandestinely. A physician, when interrogated about the
case, after avowing that he knew but little about it, added dubiously:
I am sure that I don’t know from what source she gets her nourishment,
but as long as she retains her present color of the face there is no danger
of her dying. But close neighbors, whose sincerity is unquestioned, and
who are in position to know, do not hesitate to say that all the nourish-
ment taken during the ten weeks has been given in the very smallest
quantities, in liquid, and always under the guise of medicine. As it
would be a miracle that life should he maintained more than seventy
days with absolutely no nourishment, it would be an absurdity to make
the claim. For the past week or ten days the girl has been given doses
of a mixture of cod-liver oil, yolk of egg and brandy, as the pretended
prescription of the pharmacist, and is said to be improving under the
treatment. Cora is indisposed to talk, is non-communicative outside of
the family circle and decidedly averse to the annoyance and curiosity of
callers. Her case is undoubtedly an unparalleled and unprecedented one,
the more especially so with one of her tender years and delicate consti-
tution. Out of respect to the sensibilities and earnest request of the
parents, the local press has refrained from giving publicity to the facts
and details attending this peculiar phase of youthful hallucination.”
    With but little change in conditions, the child persistently refusing
to yield to persuasion and to take any substantial nourishment, prolong-
ing the suspense for nearly seven months, the tension was relieved by
death on the 9th day of September following.
                        Ebenezer and Shiloh.
    In church circles of the pioneer days no points were more familiar
in name and location than “Ebenezer” and “Shiloh,” the former in the
extreme north and the latter in the central part of the county. The
primitive Methodist Episcopal Church Society of Van Buren township
is said to have been organized at the residence of John Pell, Sr., in
1839 or 1840, where it met for worship until a school-house was built in