Alvah Hovey, A Memoir of the Life and Times of the Rev. Isaac Backus, A.M. (Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1858), p. 39

As I was mowing alone in the field, August 24th, 1741, all my past life was opened plainly before me, and I saw clearly that it had been filled up with sin. I went and sat down in the shade of a tree, where my prayers an…