The Braden-Underwood Debate - 1888
From "The Country Boy" by H.C. Davenport, 1910

Rev. Clark Braden But the backbone of the town was there yet and the pioneers were not all gone. They would go on determined not to be stopped by a fire. In fact bluffs seldom got away with much there, and I can cite one instance that was truly Silverton in every sense. A "Campbellite" minister by the name of Clark Braden came there to conduct a revival meeting. He was a man of quite some force and reputation, and a big quiet audience greeted him at his first hearing. Col. Robert G. Ingersoll He got on all right until near the close when he issued a sweeping challenge to any infidels or freethinkers to debate with him in Silverton. His utterances had hardly cleared his beard when ten men at least were on their feet asking him if he would debate with Robert G. Ingersoll. The preacher said "yes with him or any of his disciples." The meeting broke up with much excitement and promise, and within a few hours, quite a long telegram, the longest ever sent out of Silverton was on its way East to Col. Ingersoll, and before long a brief one returned saying that Mr. B. F. Underwood was on a train for Silverton as a representative of Col. Ingersoll to debate for ten days with Rev. Clark Braden. B.F. Underwood They were to speak every evening, each man having one hour's time. That was typical of the early founders of Silverton. No admission was charged, and the occasion was carried on with much dignity until the last evening's debate, when somebody started something, and when it was over several of the best families in town were on terms unbecoming to neighbors; but even this only lasted a few months and all the differences of a stormy night had passed. The manhood and womanhood that had brought them together during the hardships and trials of a pioneer life, in the covered-wagon days, had brought about a brotherhood that was after all too strong a bond to be broken by even religious whims and differences, and they were soon back together as one big family. All men and women who in their higher spiritual selves were even more religious in the truer form than the minister that had started the trouble, they were genuinely under the atmosphere and living in it that the old blind Arab poet described in his verse written during the eleventh century and saying: "When young, my friends I would defame, if our religious faiths were not the same, but now my soul has traveled high and low, now all save love to me is but a name." I only cite this incident as it was so typical of the place and went to show that the older pioneers of Silverton could start on short notice without even a rehearsal. But, oh, how I loved, and still love Silverton. - Homer C. Davenport, 1909