"An Interesting Early History of Decatur County"

by Mrs. O.N. Kellogg
 
Chapter Twenty-Two

LETTER REGARDING DR. PAUL CASTER, HEALER
 
Ottumwa, Iowa, Sept. 14, 1874-Mrs. Harriet N. Kellogg-Dear Madam:-

Yours of the 30th of August requesting some information in regard to the peculiar work of the celebrated Dr. Paul Caster in healing diseases by the laying on of hands which he commenced to practice in Decatur County has been handed to me to answer. As every locality may justly feel proud and boast of having been the birthplace or home of some great benefactor of our race, so may Decatur County well claim Dr. Paul Caster as on of the early settlers of that county. He was born in Wayne County, Ind., April 30th, 1827, removed from Indiana to Franklin, Decatur County, Iowa, in 1856, and engaged in the manufacture of wagons, chairs, etc. He was a man of fine natural intellect, but wholly uneducated, and having an impediment in his speech, yet his purity of motives and natural goodness of heart endeared him to all who knew him. He has a peculiar cast of mind. From a child he had the power to relieve pain, or heal the sick, by the laying on of hands, of which he was informed and by which means he cured several when but twelve years of age. But people laughed at him for pretending to such power and, through fear of ridicule or derision to which he would be subjected, he refused to practice it, even when prompted by the warm sympathy which he always feels for the sufferings of others. His mind during this time was strongly impressed that it was his mission and duty to heal the sick which he refused to do so for the reasons stated; for which disobedience, he was as he believed, punished by disease and affliction until he was reduced to a mere skeleton, and obedience was enforced in a manner almost as miraculous as the conversion of St. Paul on the road to Damascus. To use his own language:

“Sorely afflicted with disease, I was toiling along in this way, scarcely able to provide bread for my family, when the Good Spirit appeared to me, and told me I must improve the gift that was given me, but I refused again and, for my disobedience, I was take very sick almost instantly and friends were called in to see me die. While in this condition the Good Spirit appeared in the form of a beautiful young woman, invisible to others, and told me I must go forth in the world and improve the gift that was given me. I again refused saying that the world would deride, persecute and mob me, and I would not live in this way. The Good Spirit replied that if I did not improve the gift of healing my time would be short on the earth. Regard not what the world may say; go, do thy duty and thou shalt be protected; make but reasonable charges for thy services and all will be well. I hesitated to comply with the command, whereupon the Spirit put forth her hand and touched me and immediately I was seized with the most excruciating pains, from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet; for six hours, when I consented in my mind and heart to obey. On the third night the Good Spirit appeared in a dream and asked me why I did not cure myself. I said I did not know how. The Good Spirit told me how, and the third time I brought my hands down over my had and breast I should feel a sensation as if a bucket of cold water was poured upon my head; which should prove to me that I was a sound man. I tried it and felt the sensation and felt immediate relief and have been a sound man ever since.”

This was in Missouri. He soon afterward returned from Missouri to Leon, Iowa, and as soon as he could work and get some provisions for his family, he started out on his mission. Hearing of an old man in the neighborhood by the name of Dunkason who was afflicted with a disease of the spine, he went to see him and told him he had come to cure him. Dunkason said he had better cure his dog. Caster replied that he would cure him and his dog, too, and that he would have him cured and walking around the room in forty minutes. Dunkason said it was impossible-that he had had three doctors to see him, and they said he would not get well, but after some parlaying he consented that he should try, which he did, and Dunkason was healed and walking about the house in less time than was specified. This was the commencement of his noble career of usefulness.

The sick and afflicted soon sought him and found relief. He traveled from place to place and healed the sick as a religious duty, charging but the small pittance of five dollars per month each, for the treatment of patients, which has supported his family and yielded a surplus out of which he has purchased suitable grounds and built thereon a large addition to his house, but it will be wholly insufficient to accommodate all the sick who are brought to him to be healed, which now averages from four to six hundred per month. While he does not claim to cure all that come, but while the most of them are relieved, some are so suddenly and miraculously healed that one is absolutely astonished. Those having palsies are healed, crooked limbs are made straight, pains and all manner of diseases disappear at his magic touch and, while these things are occurring daily at his infirmary, yet he claims that thee is no thanks due to him; that he is only a humble instrument in the hand of the Great Unknown Power that controls him. He possess the rare power of telling exactly what is the matter with each person, what caused it, and its duration with unerring certainty, without asking a question, which astonishes every patient applying for relief. He is benevolent and kind to the poor and indigent. He relieves their suffering and pain without money and without price and the many thousands that have come and are coming to him for treatment from almost every State in the Union will bear witness to a long list of cures, some of them so miraculous that the like has not been seen since the days of the Apostles, showing that the power of God is still in the world to sustain the hand of faith in relieving the pain and ills of humanity.

Numbers of individual cases will be stated and references given if you should desire the same for your history but, hoping that the foregoing will be sufficient for your purpose, I am most respectfully yours, W.D. Bush.
 
 
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