LETTER OF
The GOSPEL TRUTH CHARLES G. FINNEY
1872
To the Editor of The Lorain County News
30 December 1872
[Published in the Lorain County News (2 January 1873), p. 3.]
Jesse H. Lang, an Oberlin resident, recorded the following anecdote :
The summer of 1845 was extremely dry and the following winter the cisterns were all dry and there was much suffering for soft water. Mr. Finney put a note in the paper-advising people to fill their cisterns with snow. This illustrates his simple thoughtful mind.
The only local paper at that time was The Oberlin Evangelist but there is no indication of any such letter by Finney at that time. However, the following letter from him appeared in the Lorain County News of 2 January 1873, p. 3:
OBERLIN, Dec. 30th 1872
EDITOR NEWS: Please allow me through your columns to advise home-holders to fill their cisterns with clean snow. It will soon melt and provide the best quality of water in this time of drought. I tried it last winter and found it to answer the purpose of rain. If the cisterns are kept full of snow they will soon be filled with water. This will provide for a dry spring and summer, should they prove such.
C. G. FINNEY.
Footnote:
J[esse] H[art] L[ang], "Rev. Dr. D. L. Leonard's Early Oberlin History" The Oberlin News Vol. XLV (7 July 1903), p. 1.