Conference of 1871.--Election of Delegates.--Laymen's Electoral Convention.--Temperance.--The Sabbath.--Rev. Thomas Hughes.--Appointed to Spring Street.--Third Term.--Wide Field.--Rev. C.D. Pillsbury.--Rev. W.W. Case.--The Norwegian Work.--Rev. A. Haagenson.--The Silver Wedding.--Results of the Year.
The Conference of 1871 was held in the Summerfield Church, Milwaukee, Oct. 11, and was presided over by Bishop Simpson. At this session the election of Delegates to the General Conference again occurred. The Conference was entitled to five clerical Delegates, and the Laymen to two. The Conference elected G.M. Steele, C.D. Pillsbury, Henry Bannister, P.R. Pease, and W.G. Miller. The Laymen's Convention elected Hon. Wm. P. Lyon, of the Supreme Court of the State, and R.P. Elmore, Esq., of Milwaukee. Judge Lyon being unable to attend, his place was filled by Prof. H.A. Jones, of Lawrence University.
At this session provision was made to hold a Methodist State Convention at Madison during the following summer. Able reports were also adopted on the subject of Temperance and the observance of the Christian Sabbath, showing that the members of the body kept abreast with the demands of the times.
This year the Conference was called to make a record of the death of two of its members, Rev. Isaac Searles, and Rev. Thomas Hughes. As reference has been made to the first named in a former chapter, it need not be repeated in this connection.
Brother Hughes was a native of Wales, and had been connected with our Welsh work. Alter serving two years in the Welsh Mission in Oneida Conference he came to Wisconsin in 1857. He settled in Fond du Lac county, and for several years supplied the Welsh Mission in Nekimi, preaching also at times to the English population in that neighborhood. His death occurred in Utica, N.Y. He was a man of strong mind, amiable spirit, and thoroughly versed in the doctrines of the Bible and the standards of the Church.
Besides this depletion of the Itinerant ranks, three of our brethren had been called during the year to go down into the deep shadows of domestic affliction, in the loss of their companions, Revs. William Teal, Warren Woodruff and H.H. Jones. The obituaries of these devoted co-laborers were inserted in the Conference Minutes.
During the session of the Conference, Mrs. Miller and myself were entertained by the Misses Curry, whose generous hospitality made our stay with them exceedingly pleasant. We also visited many of our old friends in the city as opportunity permitted, little dreaming of the surprise that was awaiting us.
The Conference closed in the usual manner by the reading of the appointments. But judge of our surprise to find ourselves assigned for a third time to the Pastorate of Spring Street Station, Milwaukee. To say we were surprised indeed would be but to state the truth, and yet to say we were pained we could not, for who that has ever known the good people of Old Spring Street, could ever deem it an affliction to be stationed among them. However, when we looked upon the weeping eyes of several of our dear Ripon friends in the congregation, and thought of the many others at home, we would have been other than human if our eyes had not also filled with tears. Nor is it too much to say, that we did not know how much we were attached to the good people of Ripon and our work there, until we found ourselves so suddenly separated from them. But on the other hand, what could we say? We came first to Milwaukee when in our youth. We came again to the Milwaukee District in 1859, and to the station in 1862, giving to the first four years of severe labor, and to the last three of the most successful years of our Itinerant life. We had known this people as it seldom falls to the lot of Itinerants to know a people. With not a few we had knelt at the Altar of God, when they passed into the spiritual kingdom. The names of very many of them had been entered by the writer's hand on the records of the Church. With many we had bowed our heads in recognition of their deep sorrow, and with many had clasped hands in the day of their rejoicing. And now, to be sent back to a third Pastorate within a period of twenty years, could not be deemed less than a great privilege.
But to our work. Following my life-long custom, the first Sabbath of the new Conference year found me at my post of labor. I was happy to find the charge in a good spiritual condition, and hence I was able to take up the work in its ordinary line of service. My first care was to arrange a complete system of pastoral labor, still entertaining the conviction that upon the faithful prosecution of this branch of the Ministerial work depended, in a good degree, the success of the pastoral function. And in this branch of service Spring Street Station imposes a vast amount of labor. As the mother Church of the city, her membership is widely scattered, and her congregations large. Yet the Pastor, with a careful husbanding of time, and an earnest effort, can pass over the field as often as the exigencies of the work require. He may not always visit each family as often as they desire, for there are many in every Church who have a very limited idea of the amount of labor, care and thought the pastoral office imposes, but he will be able to meet all reasonable demands.
The new Church had been completed during the preceding year, and had been dedicated by Rev. Drs. Eddy and Ives on the Sabbath before Conference, Oct. 8th, 1871. The building is a fine brick structure, one hundred feet in length by eighty in width at the transepts. Besides the auditorium, it has a large lecture-room, three parlors, a Pastor's study, a library room, and a convenient kitchen. The entire cost of buildings and grounds, including the Parsonage, was sixty thousand dollars. At the dedication subscriptions were obtained to meet the indebtedness of twenty thousand dollars with a satisfactory margin.
The new year opened with all the Church appliances in vigorous operation. The class and prayer meetings were well attended, and the intervening evenings were occupied by the meetings of the Ladies' Aid, the Literary and other Church societies. The Sunday School, under the superintendence of Rev. Edwin Hyde, was in a flourishing condition, ranking, doubtless, as one of the most numerous and successful schools of the city.
The Milwaukee District was now in charge of Rev. C.D. Pillsbury, who entered the Maine Conference in 1843. He filled the following appointments in that Conference: Dover, Atkinson, Sagerville, and Exeter. At the division in 1848, he fell into the East Maine Conference, where his appointments were Machias, Summer Street, Bangor, Agent of East Maine Seminary, and Presiding Elder of Bangor District. He was transferred to the Wisconsin Conference in 1857, and stationed at Racine as the writer's successor. His subsequent appointments have been Racine District, Chaplain of the Twenty-Second Regiment, Beloit, Agent of the Freedmen's Aid Commission, Janesville District, and Milwaukee District.
After leaving the District Brother Pillsbury has been stationed at Bay View and Menasha, but, his health failing, he took a supernumerary relation at the last Conference, and at this writing is residing at Minneapolis. He has done considerable literary work, in connection with his Ministerial labors. Brother Pillsbury has a well balanced mind, and is thoroughly versed in the great questions of the day. He is sound in theology and faithful in administration; a good, strong Preacher, and is universally respected, both as a man and a Minister.
Asbury Church was greatly delighted with the return of Rev. W.W. Case to its pastorate. He entered the Erie Conference in 1859, and in that Conference he had been stationed at Ellington, Cattaraugus, and Little Valley. He was transferred to the Wisconsin Conference in 1864, and had now been stationed three years each at Edgerton and Beloit. During his year at Asbury, he had gathered a fine congregation, and was now in great esteem among the people. He remained three years at Asbury, and was then stationed at Division Street, Fond du Lac, where he is at the present writing, serving the second year.
Brother Case is still a young man, and is blessed with a pleasant countenance, agreeable manners, and an affable spirit. In social life he is a great favorite. He is well read, and has an entertaining delivery. In the selection of his pulpit topics, and in the manner of their treatment, he dwells more in the sunshine than in the storm. He has already reached a position among his brethren that gives promise of great usefulness in the Master's work.
It has not been my purpose to embody in these pages a record of the exceedingly interesting and prosperous work among our German brethren, as their branch of Methodistic labor in the State has developed an Annual Conference of its own, and richly deserves a volume for its proper presentation. But as our Norwegian brethren are connected with our own Conference, a brief reference to their work will not be out of place.
It will be recollected that in a former chapter reference was made to the beginning of the work in our State. We will now refer to the opening of the good work in Milwaukee.
In the spring of 1864, the writer was holding a protracted meeting in the Spring Street Methodist Episcopal Church. At one of the meetings there came to the Altar as seekers, two Norwegians. As the meetings progressed, others came with them, until there were some twelve persons on probation and in full membership, who used the Scandinavian language. During the following summer, it was deemed advisable to form them into a class by themselves, and as they resided in the vicinity of the Asbury Church, put them in connection with that charge. Rev. P.K. Rye, then stationed at Racine, came down a few times and furnished them services in their own language.
At the ensuing session of the West Wisconsin Conference, in which the Scandinavian work was then placed, Milwaukee was connected with Racine charge, and placed under the care of Rev. A. Haagenson. The society was duly organized by the new Pastor on the 25th day of March, 1865. Brother Haagenson was greatly blessed in his labors, and before the end of the year purchased the German Baptist Church, located on Walker Street, between Hanover and Greenbush. The cost of the building and lots was eight hundred dollars. Brother Haagenson remained until 1868, when he was succeeded on the Milwaukee and Racine Mission by Rev. N. Christopherson, who remained until the close of 1870.
In 1871, Milwaukee and Ashipun were put together, with Rev. C.O. Trider as Pastor. The erection of a new Church, twenty-eight by forty-five feet in size, was commenced in December, and in May, 1872, the lecture-room was dedicated by Rev. A. Haagenson. At the present writing, Brother Haagenson is the Presiding Elder of the Norwegian District, and has also charge of the Station, having in the latter portion of his work Rev. O. Hanson as an Assistant.
Brother Haagenson is a man of deep piety and earnest purpose. Studious and laborious, he furnishes an excellent type of a Methodist Preacher. His labors are onerous, but his work is in a highly prosperous state, and is making a record of many conversions.
On the fourth of January, 1872, we celebrated our silver wedding. We had made a note of our wedding anniversary with considerable regularity from year to year, but had never until now celebrated any of the epochs which are so often made to divide the years of married life. In this instance we deemed it advisable to depart from our usual custom, since twenty-five years seems to be a point from which both the past and future may be seen ordinarily with considerable distinctness of outline. And further, it was now probable that the whole family could be brought together, an event which could not be looked upon with any great degree of assurance as probable at any future time.
The entertainment was given in the evening in the Parsonage, and was attended by about one hundred persons. Spring Street and the other Churches of the city were well represented. But in addition to these, there were delegations present from all the charges we had served in the Conference, each bringing the hand of greeting from our old friends to cheer us. A record of the occasion, however, would be incomplete if I were not to state that the silver ware of the house was increased by an addition valued at nearly five hundred dollars. But every rose has its thorn. Never before were we obliged to sleep with one eye open to guard our treasures.
The year now drew to a close, and, counting up the results, we found that fifty-one members had been received, the Pastor's salary, amounting to twenty-three hundred dollars, had been paid, the Church debt had been reduced to ten thousand dollars, and that to meet the balance there were subscriptions, including organ fund, of fifteen thousand dollars.
Conference of 1872.--Rev. A.P. Mead.--Rev. A. Callender.--Rev. Win. P. Stowe.--Rev. O.B. Thayer.--Rev. S. Reynolds,--Revival under Mrs. Van Cott.--Conference of 1873.--Rev. Henry Colman.--Rev. A.A. Hoskin.--Rev. Stephen Smith.--Illness.--Conference of 1874.--Rev. Dr. Carhart.--Rev. Geo. A. Smith.--Rev. C.N. Stowers.
The Conference of 1872 was held Oct. 9th, at Division Street Church, Fond du Lac, Bishop Haven presiding. The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, having been fully recognized by the General Conference, was made the subject of a highly appreciative report, in which the Conference extended to the ladies of the Church a cordial welcome to this new field of effort, and pledged them a helping hand in the good work.
At this session Rev. A.P. Mead was appointed Presiding Elder of Waupaca District. Brother Mead graduated from the Garrett Biblical Institute in 1861, and was the same year admitted into the Conference. His appointments had been Sharon, Elkhorn, Kenosha, Bay View, and Lyons, when he was sent to the District. He remained only two years on the Waupaca District, and was then appointed to the Fond du Lac District. Brother Mead is a man of genial spirit and large practical sense. His sermons are replete with Evangelical truth, and produce an abiding impression. His intercourse with the people and Preachers is instructive, and his administration cannot fail to prove a blessing to the District.
At this session of the Conference, the decease of Rev. Aurora Callender, among others, was announced. Brother Callender entered the Pittsburg Conference in 1828, and was first stationed at Franklin, a circuit located on the slope of the Alleghany Mountains, and in the neighborhood of the Oil Regions. Before coming to Wisconsin, his appointments were Meadville Circuit, Meadville, Springfield, Cuyahoga Falls, Chardon and Middleburgh. Coming to Wisconsin, he was stationed, in 1850, at Sylvania. His subsequent appointments were Geneva and Elkhorn, Union, Hazel Green, Dodgeville, Mineral Point District, Norwegian Mission District, Clinton, and Agent of American Colonization Society, Subsequently he filled several charges as a supply, and departed this life in the midst of his work at Pickneyville, Ill., Oct. 23d, 1871.
Brother Callender was a veteran pioneer. Capable of great physical endurance, possessing a vigorous intellect, well skilled in theology and Methodist law, his labors were abundant and of a substantial character. In his earlier years, especially, his Ministry led many souls to the Cross.
At this Conference I was returned to Spring Street Station, and, Brother Pillsbury's term on the District having expired, Rev. Wm. P. Stowe was appointed Presiding Elder.
Brother Stowe, it will be remembered, was converted in his boyhood in his father's chapel. When grown to man's estate, he took up the trowel and thereby procured funds to secure his education. He graduated from the Lawrence University as a member of the Second Class, in 1858. He entered the Conference the same year, and was stationed at Sheboygan. The following two years he was stationed at Port Washington, but before the close of the second year his health failed, and he retired from the work. In 1862 he accepted the Chaplaincy of the Twenty-Seventh Regiment, but the year following he was re-admitted and stationed at Sharon. His subsequent appointments were Beloit, Racine, Oshkosh, and Summerfield, Milwaukee, in all of which charges he has left the fragrance of a good name and the legacy of substantial fruit. As a Presiding Elder, he is deservedly popular.
Brother Stowe has a large frame, tends to corpulency, and shows great physical vigor. With large perception, he reads men and surroundings aptly. In the pulpit, he puts ideas in logical relations, and aims at an object. His sermons abound in illustrations, strung on a strong cord of Evangelical truth.
Rev. O.B. Thayer was stationed at Summerfield Church, having become a member of the Conference in 1870. He had been stationed at Court Street Church, Janesville, and at Appleton. In both these charges he had developed a high standard of pulpit talent. He remained at Summerfield two years, and was then appointed to Kenosha, where, at the present writing, he is preaching to fine congregations.
Rev. S. Reynolds, State Agent of the American Bible Society, was also a member of the Ministerial fraternity of Milwaukee. This good brother came to the Conference by transfer from Iowa. He has been engaged for many years in his present work, and has gained a reputation, second to none, in the management of the laborious and manifold responsibilities of his position. In his addresses he deals in stubborn facts, and never fails to interest the audience. He is vigilant in looking after the details of his trust, but he needs a word of caution as to his health. His great labor is evidently overtaxing his strength.
My salary was again fixed at two thousand three hundred dollars. A new system of finance was now adopted, called the "Envelope System." In its principal features, it was similar to the "Card System," introduced during my former term, but contained several additional provisions to render it more effective. The new plan succeeded admirably, giving to the station, at the end of the first quarter of the year, the extraordinary record of having fully paid the Pastor's salary, and every other claim for current expenses, besides liquidating several bills for improvements on the Church and Parsonage. And it is proper to add that the current year closed with several hundred dollars in the Treasury.
The regular work of the station opened this year encouragingly. A general quickening followed, and by mid-winter there had been half a score of conversions. Mrs. Maggie N. Van Cott, who had been engaged for a year to assist us, now came to our help. The meeting continued five weeks, under this most extraordinary laborer, and resulted in the conversion of near four hundred souls, about two hundred of whom united with the Spring Street Church.
The Conference of 1873 was held Oct. 15, at Whitewater, Bishop Merrill presiding. At this session Rev. Henry Colman, who had repeatedly served as Assistant, was elected Secretary of the Conference.
Brother Colman graduated from the Lawrence University as a member of the First Class in 1856. He entered the West Wisconsin Conference in 1858, and filled one appointment in that Conference, when, in 1859, he was transferred to the Wisconsin Conference and stationed at Columbus. In 1860 he was stationed at Green Bay, and the following year at Asbury, Milwaukee. In 1863 he was appointed Principal of the Evansville Seminary, where he remained four years. After leaving the Seminary, he has held a respectable class of appointments, and is now doing effective work at Fort Atkinson. He is a man of clear head and honorable, Christian impulses. Having a thorough knowledge of Biblical criticism, he has for several years rendered the Sunday Schools of the State a good service by furnishing in the Christian Statesman a weekly exposition of the Lesson.
In keeping with the provision of the Discipline, adopted at the recent session of the General Conference, for the Trial of Appeals, the Conference elected her quota as follows: W.G. Miller, O.J. Cowles, Joseph Anderson, J.W. Carhart, P.B. Pease, P.S. Bennett, and W.P. Stowe. But as there were no cases to be tried, the brethren elected were compelled to wear empty honors.
At this Conference, the writer again returned to Spring Street, it being the third year of the third term of my Pastorate among this people, and the thirtieth Conference year of my itinerent labors. Brother Stowe was also returned to the District, and Rev. A.A. Hoskin was appointed to Asbury, and Rev. Stephen Smith to Bay View.
Brother Hoskin entered the Conference in 1867, and before coming to the city had been stationed at Milton, Shopiere, and Menomonee Falls. He is a young man of fine culture, genial spirit, and great industry. His sermons embody the fundamental truths of the Gospel, and their manifold relations to practical life, and are highly appreciated by the people.
Besides being a good Preacher, he is also a poet of considerable reputation.
Brother Smith entered the Conference in 1856, and his first appointment was Sylvania. His subsequent appointments have been Elkhorn, Sharon, Geneva, Manitowoc, Fort Atkinson, Delavan, First Church, Janesville, and Bay View. On all these charges he has left the evidences of earnest and devoted work for the Master. At Bay View, the present year has been one of extraordinary success. The revival that transpired under his labors swept through the entire community, and gave an accession of more than one hundred members, a majority of whom were heads of families.
Brother Smith is a good Preacher, filling his sermons with a clear exposition of Evangelical truth. And his Ministry has ever been a benediction to the people of his respective charges.
The year opened in Spring Street Station with unusual promise. The social meetings were well attended, the congregations were large and attentive, the Sunday School, the largest in the city, prosperous, the several societies were doing effective work, and the finances were in an excellent condition. With this outlook, we were anticipating a glorious year, but how uncertain are all human expectations!
During the delivery of the morning sermon on Sabbath, April 26th, 1874, the writer was taken violently ill. The attack proved to be the prostration of the nervous system, resulting from overworking the brain, a difficulty that had been foreshadowed by several premonitions during the preceding year. My condition at the first was perilous, but after four hours of skillful medical treatment and careful nursing, the crisis passed. Then followed weary weeks of watching and waiting. Meantime, I received the earnest sympathy of my people, and the kind assistance of my brethren in the Ministry, who generously proposed to supply my pulpit.
The Conference of 1874 was held at Oshkosh, Bishop Foster presiding. I was able to attend and answer to my name, but could spend but little time in the Conference room. Whenever present I seemed to myself, as I must have seemed to others, like a dismantled ship, stranded on the beach. I was most kindly treated by all the brethren, being relieved of every burden, and assured of abiding sympathy.
At this Conference Rev. J.W. Carhart, D.D., was stationed, by request of the people, at Oshkosh. Brother Carhart entered the traveling connection in the Troy Conference, and came to the Wisconsin Conference by transfer in 1871, being stationed at Racine. He had just completed a full term, and hence Oshkosh is his second appointment in the Conference. He is a man of superior culture, fine preaching ability, and cannot fail to give character to the pulpit, wherever he may be stationed.
Rev. George A. Smith was stationed at Spring Street as my successor. Brother Smith entered the Conference in April 1859, his first appointment being Principal of the Evansville Seminary. His subsequent appointments were Milton, Emerald Grove, Lyons and Spring Prairie. In his last field his health failed through intense mental application, and he was compelled to retire from the work. After five years of rest he was again able to resume his labors, being stationed first at Pleasant Prairie, and next at Kenosha.
Brother Smith is in the strength of his manhood, has a vigorous mind, is a fine thinker, uses clear-cut and well selected language, has a most amiable spirit, and his Ministry cannot fail to be a grand success anywhere.
Brother Stowers came to the Conference by transfer in 1867, and first served as Professor in the Lawrence University. In 1869, having been elected President of the Upper Iowa University, he was transferred to the Upper Iowa Conference. He returned, however, to the Wisconsin Conference the following year, and was stationed at Janesville. His next charge was Whitewater, where, during his three years' Pastorate, he achieved great success in the erection of a fine brick Church, and in securing large accessions to the membership.
Brother Stowers is a man of great energy and decided talent. He has an excellent voice, a ready utterance, and abundant illustrations, which render his pulpit labors attractive. He is an able and successful Minister.
At the adjournment of the Conference, the Preachers hastened to their new fields of labor, perhaps hardly thinking, in their eagerness to be at their work, of the tearful eyes that were looking after them, and the aching hearts of those brethren who, no longer able to go out with them to the battle, were compelled to languish in hospitals, or linger by the wayside.
As for myself, I returned to Milwaukee, and retired to the quiet home a few personal friends in the city and elsewhere had assisted me to build, and where I now write this, the last line of