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.
The thirteenth session of the Wisconsin Conference was held Oct. 13,
1859, in the village of Whitewater, and was presided over by Bishop
Ames. The year had been of less than seven months duration, as by
request of the Conference, the time of holding the sessions had been
changed back to the Fall. When the change was made in the first place,
from Fall to Spring, it was believed by many that such an arrangement
would be a benefit to the Preachers, by giving them, for the winter, the
products of their gardens. But, after a trial, it was found that the
roads were generally much worse in the Spring than in the fall, and if
the Conferences were delayed so as to find good roads for moving, the
Preachers would reach their new fields too late to plant their gardens.
Hence, after trying the experiment, it was thought best to return to
the Fall.
At this Conference the election of delegates to the General Conference
again occurred. The slavery question was now rife, and of course this
election could not be held without making it an issue. During the early
part of the Conference this subject became the general theme of
conversation, and, I might add, the discussions and the prayers. In
short, every man who was in danger of being struck with a vote must
certainly show his colors on the slavery issue. An able Committee was
formed, and a careful report rendered. And when the vote was taken on
the report, all eyes were on the alert to see how each candidate voted.
As the Report on Slavery is not lengthy, I will insert it as taken from
the Conference Minutes:
1. That the assertion that the M.E. Church is constitutionally
pro-slavery, whether that assertion be made by our professed
friends or by our enemies, is a base slander.
2. That we recommend to the next General Conference so
to change the General Rule on Slavery as to prohibit the buying
selling or holding a human being as a slave.
3. That we concur with the Providence Conference in recommending
to the next General Conference so to change the General Rule
on Slavery as to read: 'Slavery, the buying or selling of men,
women or children, with an intention to enslave them.'
4. That we concur with the Erie Conference in recommending
to the next General Conference so to change the General Rule on
Slavery as to read: 'The buying, selling, holding or transferring
of a human being, to be used in slavery.'
It will be observed that the Wisconsin Conference preferred the wording
of her own proposed Rule, yet such was her anxiety to secure action by
the General Conference, that she was willing to adopt any other form of
words, if the same sentiment should be explicitly incorporated. And by
concurring in those sent from the Providence and Erie Conferences, and
at the same time re-affirming her own, which was going the circuit of
the other Conferences, she hoped to see some one of them reach the
approaching General Conference, with the recommendation of a sufficient
number of the Annual Conferences, to make it a law at once on the
action of that body. With this intense interest thrown around the
subject, it is not a matter of surprise that the votes of the
candidates, on the adoption of the report, were carefully watched.
But in some cases even a fair and unequivocal vote was not enough.
Committees were self-constituted, or perhaps caucus-constituted to
interview candidates, much after the modern style, to see whether they
were sound on the main question. And as I had now become sufficiently
advanced in years to be considered a candidate, I was waited on by such
an inquisitorial body. I told the good brethren that I was not a little
surprised to find any one in doubt as to my position. "Oh," said they,
"we are not really in doubt as to your position, but we would like to
understand how strong your convictions are, as you have not attended our
meetings." "Yes," said I, "and perhaps you will say that by neglecting
your meetings, I have shown a want of zeal for the cause. If so, I wish
to state my position. In the first place, I have never felt it to be my
duty to make a great show of valor, as long as the enemy is out of
reach. And in the second place, I am in a different position from many
of our present abolitionists, and should bear myself accordingly. They
are young converts, and having just come into the kingdom, they must get
up a tremendous shout, so as to satisfy their new associates that their
conversion is genuine. But as to myself, I was always an abolitionist. I
have never uttered a word, written a sentence, or cast a vote that did
not look in that direction. Why, then, should I go into a spasm on the
eve of an election?" Whether my little speech had anything to do with
the result of the ballot which placed me at the head of the delegation
or not, it is impossible to divine. But of one thing I felt assured. I
had "freed my mind," as the old lady said, and felt better. The balance
of the delegation were I.M. Leihy, S. C. Thomas, E. Cooke, and P. S.
Bennett. At this Conference, I was also appointed the Chairman of a
Committee "To Collect Historical Facts." Thus early did the Conference
indicate a desire that the record of her devoted and pioneer men should
not be lost.
Whitewater, the seat of the Conference, was a thriving village of two or
three thousand inhabitants, and gave the Conference a most hospitable
entertainment. This place was settled April 1st, 1837, by Mr. William
Barren, who was joined by Mr. Calvin Prince in the middle of the
same month.
The first sermon was preached in the fall of the same year by Rev. Jesse
Halstead. Whitewater became a separate charge in 1843, with Rev. Alpha
Warren as Pastor. During this year a class was formed. The members were:
J.K. Wood, Leader; Mrs. J.K. Wood, Henry Johnson, A.R. Eaton, Mrs. A.R.
Eaton, Mrs. Dr. Clark, Mrs. J.J. Stearin, Roxana Hamilton, and Miss
Whitcomb. The meetings were held in private houses until the new brick
school house was built. They were then held in the school house until
the Church was erected. The first Church was commenced under the
Pastorate of Rev. J. Harrington in 1849, and was completed under that of
Rev. J.M. Walker in 1852. It was dedicated by the last named, Feb. 5th,
1852. The Church was enlarged under the Pastorate of Rev. A.C. Huntley.
Whitewater Station erected a new brick Church, one of the finest in the
interior, under the Pastorate of Rev. C.N. Stowers, which was dedicated
by Bishop Merrill Oct. 19th, 1873. At this writing, Whitewater ranks
among the leading stations of the Conference, having a good
congregation and a most enterprising Society.
At the close of this Conference I was returned to the Milwaukee
District. There were only a few changes made in the appointments of the
Preachers. At this Conference the name of Rev. Henry Bannister, D.D.,
Professor in Garrett Biblical Institute, was transferred from the Racine
to the Milwaukee District, and he was made a member of the Summerfield
Quarterly Conference.
Dr. Bannister entered the Oneida Conference in 1842, and for two years
served as Professor of Languages in the Oneida Conference Seminary. At
the Conference of 1844, he was appointed Principal, and held that
position with distinguished honor until he was elected to a
Professorship in the Garrett Biblical Institute. At the present writing
he is still at the Institute, doing efficient work. Nearly a third of a
century he has devoted to teaching, dividing his time almost equally
between the Seminary and the Institute.
Dr. Bannister is one of Nature's noblemen, and his membership in any
Conference is an honor to the body. The Wisconsin Conference has
recognized his worth, and has sent him three times as one of her
delegates to the General Conference, and on one occasion was pleased to
put him at the head of the list. But he is not the property of a
Conference; he belongs to the whole Church, and is the peer of his
brethren in any convocation she may assemble.
The General Conference met in Buffalo, N.Y., in May, 1860. The agitation
known as the Nazarite movement was then raging through Western New York,
and it was understood that several cases would come before the General
Conference on appeal from the expelled members of the Genesee
Conference. I was requested to go down to the troubled District and look
the ground over before the opening of the Conference. I did so, but
found the movement too far advanced to avoid a rupture of the Societies
in many of the charges. Several of the men who had taken an appeal had
stultified themselves and vitiated their appeals, by forming Societies
on the basis of the new movement; and though they disclaimed all
intention to establish another Church, the formation of these Societies,
it was held, could be interpreted in no other way. Having thus become
members of another Church their appeals, which contemplated their
restoration to the former Church, could not be entertained.
But the great question before the body was the new Rule on Slavery. At
the beginning, the subject was given to one of the large Committees, of
which the writer was a member. The late Bishop Kingsley was the
Chairman, and the Committee met almost daily for three weeks. The report
to the General Conference was made to cover the whole ground, and
accepted the basis which had been advocated so long by the Wisconsin
Conference. On its presentation a long discussion followed, and it was
believed that the requisite two-thirds vote would be obtained. But judge
of our surprise when, on taking the vote, we found the measure had been
lost by a few votes, and these had been mostly given by the delegation
of the troubled District in Western New York.
But though the majority were thus defeated in their effort to change the
General Rule, they passed a chapter that declared it to be unchristian
to hold slaves, as well as to traffic in them. The war, however, soon
followed, and the "logic of events," disposed of the Slavery question.
At this Conference I was elected a member of the General Mission
Committee at New York, which rendered it necessary for me to visit the
city annually for four years.
The Conference of 1860 was held Sept. 26th, at Janesville, Bishop Scott
presiding. At this session the Conference received Rev. I.L. Hauser, and
he was sent as a Missionary to India.
Brother Hauser is of Austrian, German and French descent. His mother's
family were German, and the Hauser name is over six hundred years old in
Vienna, Austria. His grandmother on his father's side was directly
descended from one of the Huguenot families driven out of France by the
revocation of the edict of Nantes. Coming to America, the family settled
in Pennsylvania, where Brother Hauser was born, in 1834. His family came
to Wisconsin and settled at Delavan in 1850. He graduated from Lawrence
University in 1860. During his senior year he was President of the
College Missionary Society, and when writing to Rev. Dr. Durbin,
requesting him to preach the annual sermon at Commencement, he stated
that he would soon be through College and be ready for duty, but he did
not know just what it was, and wished advice. The reply came for him to
send the name of the Pastor of the Church. The names of Rev. M.
Himebaugh, Pastor, and Rev. Dr. Knox, one of the Professors, were sent.
Three days after his graduation, having reached his home, he received a
letter from Bishop Simpson, asking him to come at once to Evanston. From
there the Bishop sent him to the Erie Conference, then in session at
Erie, Penn., where he was ordained and appointed to the Mission
in India.
Returning to Wisconsin, he was united in marriage with Miss Jeannette
Shepherd, of Kenosha, Sept. 13th. Starting for their field of labor,
they sailed from Boston on the vessel Sea King, and after a tedious and
stormy voyage of one hundred and thirty-eight days, they reached
Calcutta. From there, after an eleven days' journey of one thousand and
three miles up the valley of the Ganges, they arrived at Bijnour,
forty-five miles from where the river Ganges flows out of the mountains
into the plains of India. Here they labored six years, their field
comprising a District of nineteen hundred square miles, with a
population of nearly one million, being fifty-four miles from the
nearest Mission Station.
Four schools were organized, in which twenty teachers were employed, and
six languages were used in the various studies. When the schools were
first started not two natives in the District could speak English, but
after six years nearly six hundred had been taught in the schools to
both read and speak it. Regular services in the Chapel, such as
preaching, Sunday School, class and prayer meetings, were held in the
Urdu language for the native Christian Church. Brother Hauser also
conducted the Church of England service each Sabbath morning for five
years, for the few English residents stationed there, as they had
no Chaplain.
Besides studying the several languages of the country, preaching in the
bazaars and other public places to tens of thousands of people,
instructing the native preachers and teachers, looking after and giving
employment to the native Christians, he was appointed by the Publishing
Committee of the Mission to translate the Discipline into the Urdu
language, having the honor of making the first translation of that book
into any Eastern tongue. But in the midst of his labors, sickness fell
upon himself and family. Diptheria attacked himself, his wife, and two
of his children. One little girl died of that disease, and shortly
after another from fever. Brother Hauser's throat became seriously
affected, and he was compelled to retire from the work. With his family,
he made a tour of several months through the Himalaya Mountains, to
within eight miles of the borders of Thibet. In this tour he was not
unfrequently twenty thousand feet above the sea, but failing to recover
his health, he, in 1868, returned to the United States, after an absence
of eight years.
Since his return, he has devoted his labor to the publication of the
Christian Statesman, the only Protestant religious paper published in
Wisconsin. Being undenominational, the paper, patronized by all the
Protestant Churches, has attained a wide circulation. Brother Hauser is
a man of great energy, and is doing a grand work for the Churches of
Wisconsin.
Mrs. Hauser is a lady of very superior talent. In their Mission field
she took her full share of the work, and since her return, she has not
only been one of the best contributors to the Statesman, but has largely
identified herself with the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society work in
the State. Both on the platform, and in the general work of the Society,
she holds a high rank. And in addition to this work, she is now
preparing a volume of sketches of Women in Heathen Lands.
At the close of the preceding year, the Summerfield Quarterly Conference
requested my appointment to the Pastorate of that station. The Bishop at
first was inclined to grant the request, but finally came to the
conclusion that I ought to remain on the District. This left the charge
to be supplied, and I secured the services of Rev. J.E. Wilson, then of
Ohio, but who had formerly served Milwaukee, as stated in a
preceding chapter.
Summerfield was just in the midst of her financial embarrassment. The
indebtedness was about fifteen thousand dollars, and threatened to
overwhelm the charge. But the good brethren were steadfast, and through
great labor and sacrifice, aided by Rev. S.C. Thomas, succeeded in
meeting their obligations. Brother Wilson rendered effective service,
but at the close of the year returned to his home in Ohio.
Rev. J.C. Robbins was appointed this year to the Spring Street Station.
Brother Robbins entered the North Indiana Conference in 1844. His
appointments were Winchester, Plymouth, Clinton, Hagerstown,
Williamsburg, Knightstown, Doublin and Lewisville. He was transferred to
the Wisconsin Conference in 1855, and stationed at North Ward, Fond du
Lac. His subsequent appointments were Waupun, Berlin and Empire. The
year opened finely, and during the winter Brother Robbins held a
protracted meeting, which resulted in the conversion of many souls. But
the Society met with a severe loss this year, in the destruction of
their Church by fire.
Brother Robbins remained a second year at Spring Street, and again
enjoyed a good revival. After leaving the city, he has been stationed at
Racine, Waukesha, Sheboygan Falls, Waupun, Berlin, Green Bay, Hart
Prairie, Sharon and Footville. At the present writing, he is at the last
named place, seeking to gather sheaves for the Master.
This year intense excitement prevailed throughout the country. The
Presidential election, which placed Abraham Lincoln at the head of our
national affairs, occurred in November. And during the following months,
the rebellion was taking form in the Southern States, but did not
culminate in open rupture until the middle of April. But before stating
the position of the Conference and Church in the pending struggle, it
will be proper to refer to the causes which produced the conflict.
In the settlement of the United States, two distinct types of society
planted themselves in the two great centres of the Atlantic Coast. The
one made New England the theater of development, and the other the
Eastern cordon of the Southern States. From the first center, the
population moved westward through New York, Pennsylvania, and the
Prairie States, to the Mississippi. From the other, the settlements
extended through the savannahs of the South to the Gulf.
The emigrants in the North were mainly those who came to the Western
world to find an asylum from the religious persecutions to which they
had been subjected at home. In the South, society was largely
established under the sanctions of royalty. These two facts will account
for the radical differences existing between the people of the two
sections. In the North, society very naturally accepted the political
doctrines of personal equality and universal freedom. In the South, the
people as naturally adhered to their aristocratic ideas, and held to the
doctrine of privileged classes.
The two types of society, thus placed side by side, were now given an
open field, in which the contest for supremacy could not long be
delayed. In geographical position, it would seem that the advantage was
decidedly with the South. And the same may be said of the patronage
bestowed by the home governments. But notwithstanding the high mountain
ranges, the deep forests, and the sterile coasts of New England, her
people cut their way through every obstacle, and soon stood face to face
with their aristocratic neighbors. A collision of ideas was now
inevitable. The South, quick to discover the unheralded force of Yankee
character, took the alarm and declared that "Mason and Dixon's line"
should divide between her and her neighbor. Here was deposited the first
egg in the nest, from which has been hatched the terrible brood of
vipers which, under the name of "State Rights," has involved the country
in a most desolating war. It was on this line that Calhoun planted his
standard when he sought to inflame the South against the North. And it
was on this fatal line that his followers, thirty years after, sought to
overturn the decisions of the ballot-box, and establish a Southern
Confederacy. With what result, the record of the conflict affords
an answer.
On the 13th of April, 1861, the rebels opened fire on Fort Sumter, and
on the 14th Major Anderson and his brave men were compelled to surrender
their stronghold. As the news of this attack and surrender swept along
the telegraphic wires throughout the North, a most intense patriotism
awoke in the heart of every loyal citizen. The people assembled on the
corners of the streets, in halls, in places of business, and in short,
at every convenient place of resort, to discuss the situation, and feed
the flames of patriotism. Everywhere men and money were offered to
support the government, without stint. The press teemed with burning
words, and the pulpit was outspoken in characterizing the rebellion and
vindicating the government.
The writer was in Milwaukee when the news of the surrender of Fort
Sumter reached the city. On Sabbath, April 21st, I preached a sermon,
from which the following extract is taken. I quote from Rev. Mr. Love's
"History of Wisconsin in the War."
"But, Ladies and Gentlemen, the war is inevitable. Its coming
may be hastened or retarded by the shaping of events during
the next thirty days, but that war is upon us, and a civil
war, of a most frightful character and most alarming
proportions, is to my mind no longer a question. You can no
more prevent it than you can stay the leaping floods of
Niagara, or ¸quench the king of day in the palm of your hand.
It is the legitimate offspring of an 'irrepressible conflict'
of ideas as antagonistic as light and darkness, as
diametrically opposed to each other as right and wrong, truth
and error. The Bible declaration, that God hath made of one
blood all the nations of men to dwell on all the face of the
earth, so beautifully set forth in our Declaration of
Independence, and teaching the great lesson of universal
equality and universal freedom, forms the corner-stone of our
institutions. But a plague spot is found in the opposing
doctrine of caste and privileged classes, which finds
illustration in American slavery. This war of principles has
already culminated in a collision at Fort Sumter, and it
would be contrary to all history to arrest the tide of war at
this stage. The antagonism is too direct, and the conflict
too heated to quench the flame till rivers of blood shall
pass over it. The act of the South in firing on Sumter is
none other than a rebellion, and that of the most inexcusable
and wicked character, against the best government on earth;
and I am free to confess that I am filled with horror when I
contemplate the result of this suicidal act on their part, an
act that must lead to years of war, as far as human ken can
see, and the most fearful desolations in its train. But,
gentlemen, there is no alternative. The glove is thrown to
us, and we must accept it. If our principles are right, and
we believe they are, we would be unworthy of our noble
paternity if we were to shrink from the issue. Let there,
then, be no shrinking from the contest. The battle is for
human liberty, and it were better that every man should go
down, and every dollar be sacrificed, than that we should
transmit to the coming millions of this land other than a
legacy of freedom. Were it not that good men have gone down
into the dust and smoke of the battle, there would not be
to-day a government on the face of the globe under which a
good man could well live. And since God in his Providence has
brought us to this hour, I trust that by his help we shall
not prove unworthy of the trust--the noblest ever given to
man--committed to our keeping. There can be no question as to
the result. We shall triumph, and with the triumph we shall
win a glorious national destiny."
The next Conference session was held in Fond du Lac Sept. 18, 1861,
Bishop Baker presiding. The session was one of unusual excitement. The
war had been begun, the terrible Bull Run defeat had occurred, and
already seven regiments of our brave boys had gone to the front. And
with the seventh, one of our own members, Rev. S.L. Brown, had gone as
Chaplain, while several others were either in the ranks or looking in
the same direction. In the matter of furnishing men, Wisconsin was
already ahead of the call made upon her, but such was the devotion of
her people to the Old Flag, that ten other regiments could have been
sent during the year.
At this session, the Conference adopted a very able Report, written by
Rev. J.H. Jenne, on the state of the country, showing a deep interest in
the issue before the Nation, and pledging her unwavering support to the
Government.
Brother Jenne entered the traveling connection in Maine, and came to the
Wisconsin Conference by transfer in 1856. His first appointment was
Agent of the Lawrence University. His next appointment was Presiding
Elder of Appleton District, where he remained four years. His subsequent
appointments have been Janesville, Janesville District, Lake Mills, Hart
Prairie, Allen's Grove, Union Grove, Lyons, and Waupun. At the present
writing he is on his second year at the last named place.
Brother Jenne is an able Minister of the New Testament. He is a man of
large brain and profound research. Well versed in all the questions of
the day, as well as in the writings of the Fathers, he is able to
furnish a high standard of pulpit labor. He is a, true man, has a genial
spirit, and to persons who can strike his plane of thought he is
companionable.
At this Conference I was returned to the District for a fourth year,
and Rev. S.C. Thomas was appointed to the Summerfield Church.
Brother Thomas entered the Erie Conference in 1842, and, before coming
to Wisconsin by transfer in 1851, had been stationed at Conneautville,
Geneva, Ravenna, Willoughby, and Fredonia, besides serving two years as
Agent of the Alleghany College. After coming to Wisconsin, he had served
Spring Street, Platteville, Jackson Street, and had been Agent of the
Lawrence University for five years. He now remained two years at
Summerfield, when he returned again to the Agency of the University. In
1864 he was made Presiding Elder of the Milwaukee District, where he
remained four years. He next served four years as Presiding Elder of the
Janesville District, when he was appointed to Fort Atkinson. At the
present writing he is at Lyons. This outline completes a record of
nearly a quarter of a century of labor in Wisconsin.
Brother Thomas is a man of good business habits, a careful
administrator, and a good Preacher. He loves the theology and economy of
the Church for which he has so long expended his energies. He is wise in
counsel, closely attentive to all the trusts committed to his keeping,
and has a host of friends.
Rev. George C. Haddock, Pastor at Waukesha, was received into the
Conference the previous year, had been at Port Washington one year,
where he had been a supply a part of the previous year, and was now
appointed to Waukesha. He remained two years, and did a good work.
During the first year, the new stone Church was built in the place of
the old frame building that had been burned during the former year. And
during the winter following, the charge was blessed with a good revival,
and among the fruits gathered into the Church, was our second daughter,
then ten years of age.
After leaving Waukesha, Brother Haddock's appointments have been
Clinton, Oshkosh, Ripon, Appleton, Division Street, Fond du Lac; Fond du
Lac District, and Racine, where he is laboring at this writing.
Brother Haddock is a man of mark. Early in life he acquired the
printer's trade, and subsequently devoted several years to the business
of editing and publishing secular papers. Soon after his conversion he
entered the Ministry, and in less than two years he was received into
the Conference. During the fifteen years of his connection with the
Conference, he has been an earnest and successful laborer, making full
proof of his Ministry. Brother Haddock has a large intellectual
development, a warm heart, an eloquent tongue, and an intense spiritual
activity. What he does must be done at once, and done thoroughly. He has
an ardent hatred of shams, and despises all clap-trap. Both in sermons
and debate, he strikes home, and woe be to the luckless pate that has
the temerity to dash under his well-aimed strokes. And yet under all
this seeming severity, there dwells a spirit as kind and manly as ever
throbbed in a human bosom.
During this, the closing year of my term on the District, my labors were
very extended. Besides the regular duties of a large District, I added
that of aiding in raising regiments for the war. At all suitable times
and places, I held war meetings, as they were called, and addressed the
people, often finding immense crowds congregated in groves and other
convenient localities.
It was in connection with these services that I was nominated for the
Colonelcy of a religious regiment, to be raised out of the Churches of
the city. But such were my responsibilities at home, where the
Government needed all the support it could obtain, it was deemed
inadvisable for me to accept. And on further thought it was considered
better for the service to avoid such distinctive organizations.
During my term on the District, the annual Camp Meeting at Brookfield
greatly prospered. Permanent tents were erected, and the Meeting gave
considerable promise of stability. And on these grounds from year to
year many persons, were brought into the liberty of the Gospel.