Thirty Years in the Itinerancy by Wesson Gage Miller

W >> Wesson Gage Miller >> Thirty Years in the Itinerancy

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21

During this, the last year of my second term on the Fond du Lac
District, my strength was taxed to its utmost. Besides the regular
Quarterly Meetings, I had made it my earnest concern to aid all the
Preachers on the District in their work as far as possible. During the
winter this service was largely rendered in protracted meetings, and
during the summer in Church enterprises. In fact, the latter branch of
labor had been made a specialty during the entire term. And as a result,
two Churches had been dedicated in Fond du Lac, three on the Chilton
charge, three on the Hingham work, one on the Byron, two on the
Markesan, one on the Brandon, one on the Rosendale, one on the Fox Lake,
one on the Empire, and one on the Horicon and Juneau, besides quite a
number that were remodeled and largely improved. Including both classes,
we had had on the District during the term twenty-two Church
enterprises. Extensive revivals had occurred, and we were now able to
report an increase of eight hundred and seventy-seven members.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Conference of 1869.--Stationed at Ripon.--First Visit.--Rev. E.J.
Smith.--Rev. Byron Kingsbury.--Sabbath School.--Early Record of the
Station.--Church Enterprises.--Rev. William Morse.--Rev. Joseph
Anderson.--Revival.--Church Enlargement.--Berlin.--Early History.--Rev.
Isaac Wiltse.--Conference of 1870.--Returned to Ripon.--Marriage of our
Second Daughter.--A Happy Year.--Close of our Labors.

The Conference of 1869 was held September 23d at Appleton, Bishop Scott
presiding. My term on the District had now expired, and a new
appointment must follow. Several of the strongest charges opened their
doors, but for reasons that were quite satisfactory both to myself and
the good people, I was stationed at Ripon.

The following week I started for my new field of labor. As before
stated, I had visited this locality in 1845, it then being known as
Ceresco. But, besides a casual visit and a week's stay during the
session of the Conference, I had enjoyed limited opportunities to
maintain an acquaintance with the people or the charge. I reached the
city Saturday afternoon, and immediately, satchel in hand, started down
Main Street to find some one who might invite me to lodgings. I had not
gone far when I saw a gentleman hastily crossing the street to intercept
me. On approaching I found it to be Rev. E.J. Smith, a Local Preacher,
to whom reference has been made in former chapters in connection with
Fall River. I had learned of his removal to Ripon, but was hardly
prepared to meet my old friend so suddenly, and receive such a hearty
greeting. An invitation to lodgings immediately followed, and I joyfully
accepted, remembering the kind hospitality this noble family had given
me in other days.

After chatting over the past, and taking some refreshments, my old
friend took me out to a multitude of introductions among the brethren. I
found them all cordial, and began to feel quite at home among them.
Passing down Main Street, we visited the Church, a building of
respectable size and comparatively new, and passing down still further
into the borders of what was formerly known as Ceresco proper, we found
the Parsonage. This little walk of Saturday gave me an outline of the
lay of things, and helped me to poise my head and arrange my thoughts
for the Sabbath.

The Sabbath gave me a fair congregation, and at the close of the service
we enjoyed a good Class Meeting, Led by my old friend, E.J. Smith. And
as one of the living members of the class, I found also an old
acquaintance of my boyhood and later years, Albert Cook. There were also
a few friends of other days still residing in Ripon, and several who had
come from other places to reside in the city, to join in the cordial
greeting that was given me. The Sunday School, under the charge of Rev.
Byron Kingsbury, so well known throughout the State in the Sunday School
work, met also at the close of the morning service. It was in a
flourishing condition, as it could not well be otherwise with such a
Superintendent. The Superintendent introduced the new Pastor to the
school, and playfully asked them if they thought the new Pastor was as
good-looking as the old. Quite to my surprise, they answered in the
affirmative. In the few remarks that followed I accounted for the good
looks of both the former Pastor and the present on the score that I was
the Father and the former Pastor was one of my boys, as I had
introduced him to the Conference some years before. This little sally
reconciled the children to the new state of things, and secured me a
kindly greeting from all of them.

Since my Pastorate in 1845, a variety of changes had passed over the
place and the Church. I found Ripon no longer a small settlement,
nestled in the little valley between the bluffs, but a veritable city,
now largely perched on the brow of the prairie, with its numerous
business houses, its Churches, and its College. The Church, instead of
being a small class with its meetings first in the dining hall and
afterwards in the small school house, was now a large Society, and
comfortably quartered in a respectable Church edifice.

But all these changes had not come in a day. The Circuit of twenty-four
appointments, of which Ripon was only one, had been divided and
subdivided until they had become nearly a score of charges. To trace
these changes in detail would weary the reader, and hence I have only
referred to them incidentally, as they have fallen into the line of my
subsequent labors. In this connection, I must confine myself to Ripon
and its immediate vicinity.

The first Quarterly Meeting of which I can find a record was held in
Ceresco by Rev. J.M. Walker, Oct. 15th, 1855, Rev. William Stevens was
then the Preacher in charge. The official members were: George Limbert,
Local Preacher, Z. Pedrick, Recording Steward, Thos. P. Smith, Steward,
and David S. Shepherd, Class Leader. There were at this time four
classes connected with the charge, and these were located at Ripon,
Ceresco. Rush Lake, and Utica. At the fourth Quarterly Meeting of this
year there were two Sunday Schools reported. One at Ceresco, with
thirty-three scholars, and one at Ripon, with twenty-one.

The following year, 1856, Rev. R. Moffat was sent to the charge. Utica
was now put into another charge, and Democrat Prairie attached to
Ceresco. During this year, a small frame Church was built in Ceresco, on
the east side of the street, and about forty rods south of the Ceresco
mill. The pioneer Church was used until 1860, when it was sold to Mr.
W.H. Demming, who removed it to its present location for a cooper-shop.
From 1856 to 1860, while the services in Ceresco were thus held in the
small Church, the meetings in Ripon were held in the City Hall, which
was rented for the purpose. When the new Church was built, the
congregations were united.

The new Church, under the Pastorate of Rev. William Morse, was commenced
in May, 1860, and the lecture-room was ready for use in March, 1861. The
audience room was not completed until the Pastorate of Rev. J.T.
Woodhead in 1862. Brother Woodhead was succeeded by Rev.
Joseph Anderson.

Brother Morse had entered the traveling connection in the State of New
York, had located, and had come West, seeking health for his wife. The
death of Brother Maxson, of which mention is made in a former chapter,
had left Ripon without a Pastor, and Brother Morse was employed to fill
the vacancy.

Besides filling out the unexpired year, he remained two years on the
charge, and during his Pastorate there were many accessions. He filled
several other appointments subsequently in the Conference with great
acceptability, but on account of family affliction, he was finally
compelled to retire from active labor. At this writing he is in Western
Iowa, where he does what he can to help on the good cause. He is a man
of sweet spirit, and is highly esteemed by all his brethren.

Brother Anderson entered the Wisconsin Conference in 1852, and was
stationed at South Grove, in Racine District. His subsequent
appointments had been Milton, Geneva, Sheboygan Falls, Fond du Lac
District, and Appleton. On the stations, and during his four years on
the District, he had done efficient work, and was now brought to Ripon
as the successor of Brother Woodhead, where he was well received. After
leaving Ripon, his appointments have been, Presiding Elder on the
Waupaca District four years, Waupaca Station, Second Church, Oshkosh,
and Omro, his present field.

Brother Anderson is a man of large frame, and gives evidence of unusual
physical strength. He has a strong head, a kind heart, and is inclined
to the humorous. He can tell a good story in a social circle, and can
relate a good anecdote in the pulpit. In the latter he is gifted in the
line of similes, which often in his hands make the sermon interesting
and profitable. He gives promise of many more years of usefulness.

At Ripon, the Sabbath having passed, steps were taken to place the
Parsonage in readiness to receive the Pastor's family. Those noble
women, Mrs. Kingsbury, Mrs. Smith, and others, not only aided in the
necessary provision, but actually gave their personal superintendence to
the arrangement of the furniture. A new carpet was put down in the
parlor; a new stove in the sitting room, and such other measures taken
as were deemed necessary to render the coming and stay of the Pastor's
family agreeable to them. And when the family came on Thursday, they
found the rooms warm, the table spread, and the house filled with happy
faces, warm hearts and ready hands, to give them a cordial greeting.
Such a reception, given by such a people, robs the Itinerancy of half
its burdens, and gives to the relations of Pastor and people an
exquisite setting.

The preliminaries settled, I took up my work in the order I had been
accustomed to follow whenever assigned to station work. Knowing the
importance of the pastoral as well as the pulpit labor, I had always
been accustomed to adhere strictly to a division of labor, giving the
forenoons to my study, and the afternoons to pastoral visits. By this
arrangement I found I could give to the study all the time necessary to
fully employ a healthy brain, and yet find time to pass over in
consecutive order the entire list of families in regular attendance upon
the Church, three or four times a year. The prosecution of this plan in
Ripon soon filled the house with people, and also added greatly to the
spiritual prosperity of the membership.

During the winter considerable revival interest pervaded the
congregation, which had now come to fill the Church to suffocation, and
not less than seventy-five persons professed conversion. The students
from the College came to the Church in great numbers, and several of
them were found among the converts.

During the winter, a lecture course was instituted, under the auspices
of the Literary Society connected with the College, and I was requested
to give the first lecture. The flattering manner in which the effort was
spoken of by the press brought other invitations, and I yielded to
several of them, though my time was too much occupied with my regular
work to indulge myself far in this direction. At this time I was also
employed to do considerable work in connection with the press. Besides
becoming one of the corresponding editors of the Index and the N.W.
Advance, two papers published in Milwaukee, I accepted the position of a
Local Editor on the Fond du Lac Commonwealth, and in this capacity
represented Ripon and its vicinity in its columns.

During the winter, I was called to Onion River to dedicate the new
brick Church that had been built on the Hingham charge, and in the
following summer I was called to Oshkosh to re-open the First Church,
which had been enlarged and greatly improved by the Rev. Wm. P. Stowe.
Frequent calls were also made upon me for addresses on Temperance and
other subjects. I yielded as far as consistent with my other
obligations, but made in these cases, as ever in the course of my
labors, all such calls yield to the pressing demands of my regular
Ministerial work.

But at this stage of our work, another enterprise lay immediately before
the good people of Ripon. The Church could no longer accommodate the
crowds of people that thronged it, and an extension became necessary. A
united and generous effort, however, soon rendered this necessary
improvement a fixed fact. By an extension of the length and
reconstruction of the basement, and suitable refitting, the Ripon Church
became not only commodious, but, in size, the second Church in the
northern portion of the Conference.

On one of the beautiful days of June, I concluded to make a visit to
Berlin. Taking my family in a carriage, we passed over a delightful
country and along pleasant roads, wondering at the change that had come
over that region since I made my wild excursion in this direction in
1845, to find Strong's Landing. I now found Berlin a pleasant city and
the home of many valued friends, whom I had known elsewhere.

Berlin, though now aspiring to be a charge of respectable standing, had
its beginning, like all others, in "the day of small things." The first
Methodist sermon was preached by Rev. Mr. Bassinger in September, 1850.
The services were held in the office of a warehouse. Berlin was now
connected with Dartford, and became a regular appointment. Brother
Bassinger formed a class in connection with the first service in the
warehouse. The members were Reuben Tompkins, his wife, and two
daughters, Mrs. Kellogg and Mrs. McElroy.

Until a Church was built the meetings were held, after leaving the
warehouse, first over Mr. Bartlett's store, and afterwards over Mr.
Alexander's clothing store. The first Church was built under the
Pastorate of Rev. J. Pearsall in 1851. It did good service for several
years, and was then sold. It is now used as a blacksmith shop. The
second church, the present respectable edifice, was built in 1858 by
Rev. D. Stansbury, and was dedicated by the late Dr. T.M. Eddy. The
Parsonage was built by Rev. D.O. Jones in 1862.

Rev. Isaac Wiltse, the Pastor at Berlin at this time entered the
Wisconsin Conference at its April session in 1859. His charges before
coming to Berlin were Wautoma, Kingston, Door Creek, Lowell, Liberty
Prairie, and Dartford. Since leaving Berlin, his appointment has been
Beaver Dam, where he is now doing a good work for the Master.

Brother Wiltse is one of those men who usually remain on a charge as
long as the law of the Church will permit. He is a young man of a clear
understanding and genuine piety. As a Preacher he holds an excellent
position in the Conference, and he is not less esteemed as a Pastor.
Avoiding all effort to make a show in the world, he furnishes a large
stock of Gospel truth in his sermons, and puts into his administration
an equal share of common sense.

The next session of the Conference was held Oct. 12, in Janesville. We
were returned to Ripon, as expected by all. But the year opened with
another of those occasions which strangely unite both joy and sorrow. On
the third day of November, a happy group were met at the Parsonage, to
celebrate the marriage of our second daughter, Laura Eunice, and Mr.
Jesse Smith, of Fond du Lac. This event took to Fond du Lac our second
and only remaining daughter, leaving us alone with our son, now twelve
years of age, as the only representative of young life in the household.
Those only who have thus felt the shadows one after another creeping
around the home hearth, can realize the desolation of feeling that
broods over the parental heart on such occasions. But there is no time
in this life to estimate its losses. The duties of the day are ever upon
us, and we must away at their call.

The Church enlargement had been completed, and every indication gave
promise of a successful year. Our associations were exceedingly
pleasant, and the Church, at peace in all her borders, was in a healthy
spiritual condition. During the winter a revival again blessed the
labors of Pastor and people. The following summer was one of great
comfort. The two years spent at Ripon were among the most happy of all
our Itinerant life. Not a jar had disturbed the fair fabric of our
dreams, not a ripple had disturbed the happy flow of feeling. And,
strongly entrenched in the confidence and good feeling of all the
people, we closed the year in full expectation of a return and another
successful term.

CHAPTER XXV.

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.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21