Hauntings

Abstract

In 1840, the Kelsos moved to land in Missouri recently vacated by Mormons driven away after Missouri’s Mormon War. Neighbors still told ghost stories about a murdered Mormon buried in the nearby woods. But Kelso was haunted by other things. He was a strong, hard-working teenager, ashamed of his ragged clothes and dirty bare feet. Lovesick over the minister’s pretty daughter, he was also soul-sick: after experiencing a powerful conversion experience, he joined the Methodist Church, but when the feelings of God’s love faded, he worried he was doomed to hell. Pushed to the brink of suicide, he recovered to become a successful schoolteacher and Methodist exhorter.