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.