Returning to Watertown, I held protracted meetings at all the outlying appointments, and had the happiness to witness many conversions. But the year was one of hard labor and small financial receipts. At its close I found my receipts from the charge were forty-four dollars and my board. The forty-four dollars were put into the Church enterprise, and I drew on my private funds for my incidental expenses.
The Conference met in Clark Street Church, Chicago, Aug. 11th, 1847. I passed my Conference Examination, was ordained Deacon by Bishop Waugh, and reappointed to Watertown.
Watertown was now placed in Milwaukee District, with Rev. Elihu Springer, as Presiding Elder. At the beginning of the new year we opened house-keeping in the upper rooms of a house on the corner of Fourth and Main Streets. The first floor was occupied as a residence by Judge Enos.
The year opened encouragingly. The Church in the village required two sermons on the Sabbath, and I had established other appointments in the country which required three a week, besides funeral sermons. The appointments were Higgins and Bennetts on the south of the village, and Piperville, Concord and Newhouse on the east. At several of them, during the winter, protracted meetings were held, in addition to the one held in the village. At each several conversions occurred, making a fair aggregate in all. These extensive labors taxed me severely, and finally brought on an attack of fever. I was taken during Sunday night, after preaching in Watertown both morning and evening. The attack was so violent that before morning I had become deranged, and my life was despaired of. But through my wife's faithful watching and the good Providence of God, I was able to resume my labors in three weeks.
It now became apparent that a severe financial pressure was upon us. I had spent what I could immediately command of my own funds, and the good brethren had contributed so generously out of their scanty means, to place the Church in condition for use, that they could not meet the Pastor's salary. I saw clearly that some other provision must be made.
While casting about to find my direction, a Providential opening occurred. Rev. Mr. Hoyt, the Episcopal clergyman, who had been keeping a Latin school for some time in the village, was compelled through illness to desist from teaching. Fortunately, I had gone down several times at his request, and relieved him in hearing his classes in Greek and Latin. This little kindness, added to the fact I was one of the School Commissioners of the county, naturally directed attention to me, as the person to open a select school in the village. I embraced the opportunity. The Trustees kindly consented to the use of the Church for the purpose. As the seats were only temporary, they were easily adjusted to the new order of things, and a school of sixty students was soon organized. This new demand upon me greatly abridged the pastoral work, but there seemed to be no other way to live. Before I could realize anything, however, from the school, we found ourselves in very considerable embarrassment. In this emergency, my wife opened her doors for a few boarders, which met the immediate demands of the table.
But at this juncture of our affairs, an incident occurred that afforded relief in another direction. My coat had become, through long wear and exposure, not a little seedy. On entering the pulpit one Sabbath morning I found a note lying on the Bible. I opened it and read as follows: "Will Mr. Miller have the goodness to preach this morning from the Text, 'I have put off my coat, and how shall I put it on?'" The note was written in a delicate hand and gave evidence of no ordinary cultivation. At the conclusion of the reading, I gave a searching glance over the congregation, but could make no face present plead guilty to the accusation of impertinence.
The opening exercises of the service were not concluded before my course of action was decided upon. I read the note to the congregation, and stated that I had just found it on the desk. I further stated that I was at a loss to determine whether it was intended as a sneer at my old coat, or whether the writer really desired an exposition of the text named. But, believing that no one could so far forget a due sense of propriety as to deride honest poverty, or scoff at so faithful a servant as my old coat had been, even though it now began to show signs of age, I chose to take the latter view of the case. With this conviction, I should proceed to make the text the subject of the discourse. After giving the connection and context, I proceeded to define the subject of coats, arrange them into classes and set forth their uses. The spiritual application was not difficult, but it needed a little skill to cut the several styles so that each one could recognize his own pattern and appropriate the right garment. "Of course," I remarked, "every one has heard of the garment of self-righteousness, though it may be that none in this congregation are aware of ever having seen it. Yet, should you chance to look upon it, with its straight seams and buckram collar, I am quite sure you would not prefer it to my old coat, unseemly as it may appear." Thus the sermon went on, to "cut to order" and "fit to measure," until all the most flagrant styles of coats had been disposed of, being careful, meantime, to institute the comparison in each case with the old coat before the audience. The discourse was perfectly ludicrous, but, like all of its kind, it took amazingly. Its financial success was, doubtless, all that the writer of the note had intended. On the next Sabbath morning the minister walked into church with a new outfit of wearing apparel, from the crown of the hat to the soles of the boots.
Watertown, from the first, was an unpromising field for ministerial labor. The leading influences at the beginning, if not directly opposed, were almost wholly indifferent to the claims of religion.