THIRTY YEARS
IN THE
ITINERANCY,
BY
REV. W.G. MILLER, D.D.
1875
DEDICATION.
* * * * *
TO THE
MINISTERS AND LAYMEN
OF THE
WISCONSIN CONFERENCE,
WITH WHOM
THE AUTHOR HAS BEEN ASSOCIATED
IN CHRISTIAN LABOR
DURING THE PAST
THIRTY YEARS
ARE THESE PAGES
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
* * * * *
The following pages were prepared in the midst of the taxing labors of
the Ministerial calling. The materials have been drawn from a multitude
of sources, and, though the recollections of individuals have not been
entirely harmonious in all cases, the facts and dates are believed to be
mainly reliable. The general plan, it will be observed, contemplates a
brief record of the Charges and Ministers of the Wisconsin Conference,
rather than furnish a sketch of my own services. To place the data,
however, in suitable relations, and render it acceptable to the general
reader, it has been deemed advisable to let the record follow the line
of my labors during the thirty years of my Itinerant life. The
publication of the book at the present time, is the result of my severe
illness during the past year, and the generous, appreciative action
taken by the District Conferences. A record of many other Charges and
Ministers had been prepared, but, to my regret, the limits of the volume
would not permit its insertion. Hoping that these pages may revive many
pleasant recollections, furnish interesting and profitable reading for
the fireside, and preserve material for the future historian, they are
committed to the generous consideration of the public.
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Providential Intervention.--Nature and Providence alike Mysterious.--An
Unseen Hand shaping Human Events.--The Author urged to enter the
Ministry.--Shrinks from the Responsibility.--Flies to Modern
Tarshish.--Heads for Iowa.--Gets Stuck in the Mud.--Smitten by a
Northern Gale.--Turns Aside to see the Eldorado.--Finds Himself Face to
Face with the Itinerancy.
CHAPTER II.
The Young Itinerant.--In a Lumber Mill at Waupun.--The Surprise.--An
Interval of Reflection.--A Graceful Surrender.--The Outfit minus the
Horse and Saddlebags.--.Receives Instruction.--The Final
Struggle.--Arrives at Brothertown.--Reminiscences of the Red Man.--The
Searching Scrutiny.--The Brothertown People.--The Mission.--Rev. Jesse
Halstead--Rev. H.W. Frink.
CHAPTER III.
Exhorter in Charge.--The First Sabbath.--The Superb Singing.--Class and
Prayer Meetings.--A Revival.--Stockbridge Counted In.--A
Remonstrance.--Another Exhorter Found.--Decide to Hold a Great
Meeting.--The Loaves and Fishes in the Lad's Basket too Few.--Chief
Chicks.--Conversion of a Noted Character.--Quarterly Meeting at Fond du
Lac.--Licensed to Preach.--Camp Meeting at Clason's Prairie.--Camp
Meeting at Brothertown.--Church Enterprise.--Missionary
Merchant.--Logging Bee.--Successive Labors.
CHAPTER IV.
Fond du Lac.--First Sermon.--Early Presiding Elders.--Rev. H.W.
Reed.--Rev. James R. Goodrich.--Rev. Jesse Halstead the First
Pastor.--Rev. Harvey S. Bronson.--First Class.--Quarterly
Meeting.--Delegation from Waupun.--Rev. Wm. H. Sampson.--Extended
District.--A Disastrous Fire.--Outside Appointments.--Stowe's
Chapel.--Preacher's Home.--Ethiel Humiston.--Byron.--Rev. Joseph T.
Lewis.--Rev. M.L. Noble--Rev. H. B. Colman.
CHAPTER V.
Green Lake Mission.--Waupun.--First Class.--Meetings held at Dr.
Bowman's.--Revival.--Two Local Preachers.--Short Cut to Ceresco.--Boxing
the Compass.--Wisconsin Phalanx.--First Society.--Dining Hall
Chapel.--Discussions.--Antiquated Views.--Green Lake.--Shadrach
Burdick.--Visit to Dartford.--Little Green Lake.--The New
Chorister.--Markesan.--Lake Maria.--Revival.
CHAPTER VI.
Green Lake Mission Continued.--Quarterly Meeting at Oshkosh.--Rev. G.N.
Hanson.--Lake Apuckaway.--Lost and Found.--Salt and Potatoes.--Mill
Creek.--Rock River.--Rev. J.M.S. Maxson.--Oakfield.--Cold Bath.--Fox
Lake.--Gospel vs. Whiskey.--On Time.--Badger Hill.--S.A.L.
Davis.--Miller's Mill.--G.W. Sexmith.--Burnett.--William Willard.--Grand
River.--David Wood.
CHAPTER VII.
Green Lake Mission Continued.--An Assistant Employed.--Quarterly Meeting
at Waupun.--Love Feast.--Forty Miles Ride, and Four Sermons.--A Sermon
and its Fruit.--Portage Prairie.--Randolph.--Randolph Centre.--Rolling
Prairie,--Cheney's Class.--Brandon.--Rosendale.--Reed's
Corners.--Strong's Landing,--A Night in the Openings.--Rev. Uriel
Farmin.--Going to Conference.--Madison.--Visit at Platteville.--Bishop
Hamline.--Humorous to Grave.--Galena Conference.
CHAPTER VIII.
Appointed to Watertown.--Aztalan the Mother of Circuits.--Divisions
and Subdivisions.--Rev. S.H. Stocking.--Watertown.--Church
Enterprise.--Sickly Season.--Quarterly Meeting at Burnett.--Rev. A.P.
Allen.--Elder Sampson Ties a Knot.--Conference of 1847.--Returned to
Watertown.--Financial Pressure.--Opens a School.--The Coat Sermon.
CHAPTER IX.
Waukesha--Old Prairieville Circuit--Changes--Rev. L.F. Moultrie--Rev.
Hooper Crews--Rev. J.M. Walker--Rev. Washington Wilcox--Upper and Nether
Millstones--Our New Field--Revival--Four Sermons--Platform Missionary
Meetings--The Orator--Donning the Eldership--The Collection.
CHAPTER X.
Milwaukee--Early History--First Sermon--Rev. Mark Robinson--First
Class--Rev. John Clark--Trustees--Rev. James Ash--Rev. David
Worthington--Rev. Julius Field--Rev. John Crummer--First Church--Rev.
John T. Mitchell--Rev. Sias Bolles--Lantern Convert--Second
Church--Rev. A. Hanson--Rev. Dr. Ryan--John H. Van Dyke--Rev. F.M.
Mills--Rev. James E. Wilson--Walker's Point--First Class--Rev.
Wm. Willard.
CHAPTER XI.
Spring Street, Milwaukee--First Sabbath--Promising Outlook--The Deep
Shadow--Rev. Elihu Springer--Rev. I.M. Leihy--Revival--Missionary
Meetings--Dedication at Sheboygan--Ravages of the Cholera--Death-bed
Scenes--The Riot--Bishop Waugh--Camp Meeting--Scandinavian Work--Rev.
C. Willerup.
CHAPTER XII.
Conference of 1851.--Presiding Elder.--Presentation.--Give and
Take.--Fond du Lac District--Quarterly Meeting--Rev. J.S.
Prescott.--Footman vs. Buggies--Fond du Lac.--Two Churches.--Greenbush
Quarterly Meeting.--Rev. David Lewis--Pioneer Self-Sacrifice.--Finds a
Help-Meet.--Sheboygan Falls.--Rev. Matthias Himebaugh.--Oshkosh--First
Class.--Church Enterprises.
CHAPTER XIII.
Fond du Lac District Continued.--Green Bay.--First Settlement.--Rev.
John Clark.--First Sermon.--First Class.--Col. Ryan.--First
Methodist.--First Church Enterprise.--Good Society.--Heretical
Bonnet.--Various Changes.--Rev. R.P. Lawton--Church
Disaster--Purifying the Temple--Rev. S. W. Ford.--Oneida Indian
Mission.--Oneidas.--Missionaries.--Quarterly Meeting.--Council.--"Chief
Jake."--Interpreter.--Rev. Henry Requa.--His Dying Message.
CHAPTER XIV.
Fond du Lac District Continued.--Appleton.--Early History.--Rev. C.G.
Lathrop--Lawrence University.--Incipient Stages.--Charter.--Trustees.
Agent.--First Board of Instruction.--Buildings.--Faculty.--Rev. Dr.
Cooke.--Rev. Dr. Cobleigh.--Rev. Dr. Mason.--Rev. Dr. Knox.--Rev.
Dr. Steele.
CHAPTER XV.
Fond du Lac District Continued.--Baraboo Conference.--Lodi Camp
Meeting.--Fall River.--Revival at Appleton.--Rev. Elmore Yocum.--Revival
at Sheboygan Falls.--Revival at Fond du Lac.--Rev. E.S.
Grumley.--Revival at Sheboygan.--Rev. N.J. Aplin.--Camp-Meeting at
Greenbush.--Rev. A.M. Hulce.--Results of the Year.--Janesville
Conference.--Omro. Rev. Dr. Golden.--The Cowhams.--Quarterly
Meeting.--My Father's Death.--Close of the Term.
CHAPTER XVI.
Conference of 1855.--The New Departure.--Mission Committee.--The Slavery
Controversy.--Triumph of Freedom.--Wisconsin Conference Rule. Conference
Report.--Election of Delegates.--Appointed to Racine.--Detention.--The
Removal to the New Charge.--Stage, Dray, and Steamboat.--New Bus Line.
CHAPTER XVII.
Racine.--Its Early History.--Subsequent Growth.--Racine District.--Rev.
Dr. Hobart.--Kenosha.--Rev. Salmon Stebbins.--Sylvania.--The
Kelloggs.--Walworth Circuit--Burlington and Rochester.--Lyons. Troy
Circuit.--First Class at Troy.--Eagle.--Round Prairie.--Hart
Prairie.--Delavan.--Elkhorn.--Pastorate at Racine.--Revival.--Church
Enlargement.--Second Year.--Precious Memories.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Conference of 1859.--Janesville.--Early History.--First Sermon.--The
Collection.--First Class.--First Church.--First Donation.--Rev. C.C.
Mason.--Missionary Anniversary.--Rev. A. Hamilton.--Rev. D. O. Jones.
The Writer's Pastorate.--The Great Revival.--The Recipe.--Old Union
Circuit.--First Class.--Evansville.--Rev. Henry Summers.--New Church.
Conference of 1858.--Beloit.--Early Pastorates.--Church
Enterprise.--Second Year at Janesville.
CHAPTER XIX.
Conference of 1859.--Presiding Elder.--Milwaukee
District.--Residence.--District Parsonage.--Visits to Charges.--Spring
Street.--Asbury.--Rev. A.C. Manwell.--Brookfield.--West
Granville.--Wauwatosa.--Rev. J.P. Roe.--Waukesha.--Rev. Wesley
Lattin.--Oconomowoc.--Rev. A.C. Pennock.--Rev. Job B. Mills.--Hart
Prairie.--Rev. Delos Hale.--Watertown. Rev. David Brooks.--Rev. A.C.
Huntley.--Brookfield Camp-Meeting.
CHAPTER XX.
Whitewater Conference.--Report on Slavery.--Election of Delegates.--
Whitewater.--Early History.--Rev. Dr. Bannister.--General
Conference.--Member of Mission Committee.--Conference 1860.--Rev. I.L.
Hauser.--Mrs. I.L. Hauser.--Rev. J.C. Robbins.--The Rebellion.--Its
Causes.--Fall of Sumter.--Extract of Sermon.--Conference 1861.--Rev.
J.H. Jenne.--Rev. S.C. Thomas.--Rev. G.C. Haddock.--Colonelcy.--Close
of Term.
CHAPTER XXI.
Conference of 1862.--The War.--Position of the Conference.--Rev. J.M.
Snow.--Appointed again to Spring Street.--Dr. Bowman.--Changes.--Rev.
P.S. Bennett.--Rev. C.S. Macreading.--Official Board.-The New Church
Enterprise.--Juvenile Missionary Society.--Conference of 1863.--Rev.
P.B. Pease.--Rev. George Fellows.--Rev. Samuel Fallows.--Rev. R.B.
Curtis.--Rev. D.H. Muller.--Third Year.--Pastoral Work.--Revival. Visit
to the Army.--Illness.--Close of Term.
CHAPTER XXII.
Conference of 1865.--The War Closed.--Lay Delegation the Next Question.
Rev. George Chester.--Rev. Romulus O. Kellogg.--Missionary to
China.--Rev. L.N. Wheeler.--Appointed to Fond du Lac District.--Marriage
of our Eldest Daughter.--Removal to Fond du Lac.--Rev. T.O.
Hollister.--State of the District.--Rev. J.T. Woodhead.--Waupun.--Rev.
D.W. Couch.--Lamartine.--Rev. I.S. Eldridge.--Horicon.--Rev. Walter
McFarlane.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Conference of 1866.--Centenary Year.--Lay
Delegation.--Reconstruction.--Returned to Fond du Lac District.--Seven
Sermons a Week--Rev. O.J. Cowles.--Beaver Dam.--A Good Record.--Fall
River.--Early History.--Columbus.--Rev. Henry Sewell.--Conference of
1867.--Election of Delegates.--Cotton Street.--Rev. R.S. Hayward.--Rev.
A.A. Reed.--General Conference.--Conference of 1868.--Rev. T.C.
Wilson.--Rev. H.C. Tilton. Rev. John Hill.--Rev. Isaac Searles--Rev.
J.B. Cooper.--An Incident--Close of the Term.--Progress Made.
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.
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.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Conference of 1872.--Rev. A.J. Mead.--Rev. A. Callender.--Rev. Wm. 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.--In the Shade.
Thirty Years in the Itinerancy.
* * * * *
CHAPTER I.
Providential Intervention.--Nature and Providence alike Mysterious.--An
Unseen Hand shaping Human Events.--The Author urged to enter the
Ministry.--Shrinks from the Responsibility.--Flies to Modern
Tarshish.--Heads for Iowa.--Gets Stuck in the Mud.--Smitten by a
Northern Gale.--Turns Aside to see the Eldorado.--Finds Himself Face to
Face with the Itinerancy.
The ways of Providence are mysterious. And how, to men, could they be
otherwise? With their limited faculties it could not be expected that
they would be able to obtain more than partial glimpses of the "goings
forth of the Almighty." The Astronomer can determine the orbit of the
planets that belong to our system, since they lie within the range of
his vision; but not so the comets. These strange visitors locate their
habitations mainly in regions so remote from the plane of human
existence that his eye cannot reach them. And when they do condescend to
pay us a visit, they traverse so wide a circuit that the curve they
describe is too slight to furnish a basis for reliable mathematical
calculations. Hence the orbit of a comet is a mystery, and the return
not unfrequently a surprise. If this be true of what seem to be the
unfinished or exploded worlds, that swing like airy nothings in the
heavens and fringe the imperial realm of physical being, then what may
not be predicated of the profounder mysteries that lie bosomed in those
unexplored depths of the Universe, where the fixed stars hold high
court? When our feet trip at every step of our advance to know the
mysteries of nature, why need we affect surprise when the profounder
domain of providence refuses to yield up its secrets? That the ways of
God are mysterious is a logical necessity. The Infinite disparity
between the human and the Divine intelligence involves it. Insignificant
as a lady's finger ring may seem when compared to one of the mighty
rings of Saturn, the human mind, in the presence of the Divine, is
infinitely more so. Well hath the Scriptures said, "Far as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts."
The mysterious ways of Providence are, however, not unfrequently so
interwoven with human events as that average intelligence may be able to
understand portions of them, though much of mystery must always remain.
And in no one particular do these understandable portions find a clearer
illustration than in those interventions which assign individual men to
given pursuits and responsibilities in life. Truly, "There is a
Providence that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we will."
Nor may these special interventions be wholly appropriated by the great
men of the world. On the contrary, they not unfrequently condescend to
bless the very humblest. The same great thought, the same skilled hand
and the same infinite power that were necessary to pile up the grandest
mountain ranges and hollow the ocean's bed, were also required to create
a single grain of sand and assign it its place as a part of the grand
whole. So, while great and honorable men pass into the world's history
as the proteges of a special providence, let it also be remembered that
the humbler ones, though their names may never be chronicled, are not
forgotten by the All Father. If willing to be led, they shall not want
a kind hand to lead them. And even though rebellious at times, and at
others shrinking from the proffered responsibilities, yet a loving
Father cares for the trembling and feeble ones, as well as the brave and
the strong, and kindly leads them into the paths of peace.
I have not written thus, good reader, in these opening pages, to find a
starting place for the record that is to follow. On the contrary, these
utterances hold a special relation to the writer and the labors of the
last thirty years.
Soon after my conversion, and before I was eighteen years of age, I
received an Exhorter's license. I was then engaged in teaching and found
my time largely occupied by my profession. Yet, I occasionally held
services on the Sabbath. During the ensuing four years I retained the
same relation. I was often urged to accept a Local Preacher's license,
but declined, thinking I was too much occupied in the other field to
make the necessary preparation for this. And, besides, I had now reached
a point of great perplexity and trial with reference to the ministerial
calling as a profession. Not that I entertained a serious thought of
accepting it, but, on the contrary, was wholly averse to it. But,
strangely enough, while I was thus, both in feeling and convictions,
opposed to the measure, every one else seemed to accept it as a matter
already settled that I would enter the Itinerant field. From the good
Rev. John B. Stratton, the Presiding Elder of the Prattsville District,
New York Conference, within the bounds of which I then resided, and his
immediate successor, Rev. Samuel D. Ferguson, down through all the
ministry and laiety of my acquaintance, I was made the special subject
of attack. But from what all others thought to be my duty, I shrank
with a persistence that admitted of no compromise. The plan I had marked
out for myself contemplated, ultimately, the position of a Local
Preacher, and a life devoted largely to literature and business. On this
plan I fully relied, and thought myself settled in my convictions and
fixed in my purpose. Yet I am not able to say, that at times it did not
require some effort of the will to keep my conscience quiet and my
thought steady. A young man, from eighteen to twenty-two years of age,
who was subject to so many attacks, especially in high places, and who
constantly felt himself preached to and prayed at in almost every
religious assembly, must be more than human, not to say less than a
Christian, to bear up under such a pressure. I clearly saw that one of
two things must be done, and that speedily. Either I must yield to the
manifest demand of the church or "go west." I chose the latter. Nor was
this decision mere obstinacy. There were several things to be considered
and carefully weighed and determined before entering upon a work of such
grave responsibilities as the Itinerant ministry. First of all, the
question must be settled in a man's conviction of duty; then the
question of one's fitness for the work; and, finally, the financial
question could not be ignored. To enter the Itinerancy involved
responsibilities that could only be sustained under the deepest
convictions that can possibly penetrate a human soul. The minister is
God's ambassador to lost men. He can only enter upon this work under the
sanction of Divine authority. Having entered he is charged with the care
of souls, and if these shall suffer harm, through his inefficiency or
want of fidelity, he must answer in the Divine assizes for the breach of
trust. Well may the best of men say, "who is sufficient for these
things?" Then add to this grave responsibility, the certain and
manifold trials which must come to every man who enters the Itinerancy.
His very calling makes him a spectacle to men, and necessarily the
subject of adverse criticism. He is the messenger of God and yet the
servant of man. On the one hand, clothed with the authority of heaven,
and on the other reduced to the condition of a servant. Expected to
deliver the high message of the King of Kings, and yet receives his
pulpit under the suffrages of man. Before he receives his appointment,
he is not unfrequently the subject of a sharp canvass from one end of
the Conference to the other, and after he receives it he is liable to
find himself among a people, who had rejected him in the canvass, and
now only acquiesce in the decision from sheer necessity. But if he
escape Scylla in this particular, he is certain to drive upon Charybdis
in another. Granting that his relations and labors may be acceptable, he
falls upon the inevitable necessity of devoting his time and labor,
during the vigor and strength of his days, for a meager compensation,
and then pass into old age, and its attendant infirmities, as a
dependancy, if not a pauper. And now let me submit; with such a picture
hung upon the canopy of the future, and who shall say it is overdrawn?
is it a matter of surprise that a young man should hesitate before
accepting the position of an Itinerant?
But it will be said: "There is another side to the picture." True, and
thanks to the Great Head of the church that there is. But the other side
can only be seen when the beholder occupies the proper stand-point, and
this position I certainly had not attained at the time of which I write.
In this matter, as in most others, our mistakes arise from partial views
and limited observation.
A few years since I visited Niagara Falls. Before leaving Buffalo a
friend admonished me to avoid looking upon the descending floods until I
should reach Table Rock, as this precaution would give me a more
satisfactory impression. These instructions were more easily given than
observed. I found it required no small share of nerve to pass down the
near bank of the river with the eternal roar of its waters pouring into
my ears, cross over Suspension Bridge, spanning the rushing tides below
still tossing and foaming as though an ocean had broken from its prison,
and then pass up the other bank, in full view of the cataract, and not
look upon it until my feet were planted on Table Rock. But from that
hour to the present, I have never regretted the effort, for therein I
learned the importance of position, when face to face with any great
question. The position gained, I raised my eyes upon Niagara Falls. I
need not say my whole being was thrilled. There lay the great "horse
shoe" full before me, and I seemed to stand upon its outer crest and
look down into its deep chasm, where the angry waters wrestled with each
other in their wildest frenzy. Then the floods from either side, that
had seemed to sweep around the chasm and hug the shore, as if in mortal
terror, despairing of escape, rushed upon each other like two storm
fiends. The war of waters was most terrific. The very earth shook.
Locked in deadly embrace, and writhing as if in direst agony, the mighty
floods plunged the abyss, while far above floated the white plume of the
presiding genius of old Niagara. The impression upon me was
overwhelming. I saw Niagara Falls from the right stand-point. Whether I
was equally fortunate in my early views of the Itinerancy is a question
that will find solution in the following pages.
I decided, however, to go West. My father and the balance of his family
had been looking enquiringly in that direction for several months, and I
now agreed to accompany them.
It was our purpose to make Dubuque, Iowa, the point of destination, as
the founders of that city, who were relatives, had visited us in the
East and had given us glowing accounts of the city and the adjacent
portions of the State. With this purpose in view we landed at Racine.
The Madison, a crazy old steamer that could lay on more sides during a
storm than any water craft that I had ever seen, landed us on a pier in
the night, and from the pier we were taken ashore in a scow. We reached
Racine in June, 1844. Racine at that time was a very small village, but,
like all western towns, it was in the daily belief that, at some time in
the near future, it would be a very large city. We spent the Sabbath and
enjoyed the pleasure of attending religious services in a school house.
The pastor of our church at the time was Rev. Milton Bourne, of the Rock
River Conference. We were favorably impressed with Racine, and
especially with the evidences of civilization it afforded, in the fact
of a school house and the establishment of religious services.
At Racine we engaged a man to take us, six in all, with our trunks to
Delavan. The roads were almost impassable. The rains had fallen so
copiously that the streams overflowed their banks, the marshes were full
and the prairies inundated. With a good team, however, we made an
average of about fifteen miles a day. Our conveyance stuck fast in the
mud eighteen times between Racine and Delavan. Sometimes we found these
interesting events would occur just in the middle of a broad marsh. In
such case the gentlemen would take to the water, not unfrequently up to
the loins, build a chair by the crossing of hands, as they had learned
to do in their school days, and give the ladies a safe passage to the
prairie beyond. But woe worth the day if the wheels refused to turn, as
they sometimes did, in the middle of some deep, broad mud-hole. The
light prairie soil, when thoroughly saturated, is capable of very great
volatility and yet of stick-to-it-iveness. While the team and wagon,
buried deeply in the mud, found the soil as yielding as quicksand, the
passengers, on alighting, were no more fortunate. To make the chair and
wade ashore with its precious burden, at such a time, involved a very
nice adjustment of balances. If the three went headlong before they
reached the shore, each received a generous "coat of mail" of the most
modern style.
We reached Delavan in due course of travel, where we remained several
days. The Sabbath intervened. My father preached in the morning, and I
held service in the afternoon. On Monday a council was held. Since our
feet touched the soil of Wisconsin, our ears had been filled with the
praises of the country, and especially the counties of Dodge and Fond du
Lac. By the time we had spent several days at Delavan, and were ready to
move on toward Iowa, this clamor had become so decided in its tone,
that, as a result of the consultation, it was decided that two or three
of us should go up through Dodge and Fond du Lac counties. Not with the
expectation that our destination would lie in that direction, but it was
thought advisable to know what had been left behind, in case we should
not be pleased with Dubuque.
Leaving the balance of our company at Delavan, we started on foot on our
tour of exploration. Keeping our eyes and ears open, we were ready to
go in any direction in quest of the promised "Eldorado." Like all "land
seekers" of those early times, a few things were deemed essential to
make a location desirable. These were prairie, timber and water. But
with us one additional requisite must not be ignored. We must also find
a "water power." With all these objects in view, the line of travel
became perplexing and described a good many angles, but the main
direction lay through East Troy, Summit, Watertown, Oak Grove and
Waupun. At the last named place we found a few scattered log houses,
and, within a radius of five miles, perhaps a dozen families. The
location was beautiful. With its prairie of from one to two miles in
width, skirted on the north by groves of timber, through which ran the
west branch of Rock River, and fringed on the south by extended
openings, it took us captive at once. Passing up the stream two or three
miles we found the looked for water-power, and abundance of
unappropriated lands. By setting our stakes on the crown of the prairie,
and making the lines pass down to the river and through the belt of
timber, sufficient land of the right quality could be secured for the
whole family, including, also, the desired water-power. To decide upon
this spot as our future home, was the result of a brief consultation.
All thought of going to Iowa was now abandoned. Obtaining a load of
lumber, which was all that could be secured for either love or money, a
shanty was immediately erected for the accommodation of the family. Was
it a providential intervention that assigned us our home and field of
labor in this new and rapidly populating portion of Wisconsin, rather
than the city of Dubuque?
Society in its formative state needs, above all other agencies, the
salutary influences of religion. To provide these and give them
efficiency among the people, the presence and labors of the Gospel
ministry, and the establishment of churches, are a necessity. To secure
these at the outset requires the emigration of ministers from the older
States as well as people. Perhaps the motives of neither class in coming
will always bear a thorough scrutiny; yet who shall say that their
coming is not under the general direction of Providence? Nor is it
improbable that the hasty steps that seem to bear the unwilling servant
from the presence of the Master are the very ones that most speedily
bring him face to face with his duty.