Thirty Years in the Itinerancy

by W. G. Miller

Brother Springer was a man of commanding presence. In form erect, full and athletic, with a broad, high forehead, and an intellectual face. The whole cast of the man indicated strength. He was a sound theologian, an able Preacher and a wise and vigilant administrator. He was emphatically a true man, and, as a Presiding Elder, very popular. The loss of such a man, at forty years of age, was a great disaster to the Conference.

Soon after the death of Brother Springer, Rev. I.M. Leihy was appointed as his successor on the District. Brother Leihy entered the Conference in 1843, and before coming to the District, had been stationed at Hazel Green, Elizabeth, Mineral Point, Platteville, Southport, and Beloit He was a man of marked ability both as a Preacher and administrator. His leading endowment was strength, and on some chosen subject, a subject to which he had given special attention, his preaching was overwhelming. He was a man of immense will force, and not a whit behind the chief of his brethren in his devotion to the Master's cause. Neither storms nor other impediments deterred him from his work. With a face set as a flint against every obstacle in his path of duty, he drove straight on to fulfil the convictions of his dauntless spirit. By some he was thought to be severe, and not a little exacting, but those who knew him best were tolerant of his idiosyncrasies, and were prepared to assign him a chief place among his brethren. After completing his term on the District, he filled several important appointments, but finally located and removed to California, where at the present writing, as for several years past, he is again engaged in the regular work.

During the fall and early winter there was manifest a growing spiritual interest among the people, which culminated ultimately in an extensive revival of religion. The protracted meeting continued five weeks, and resulted in the conversion of seventy-five souls.

The plan of holding Platform Missionary Meetings was continued during this year, and largely increased the contributions of the people. While on my way in company with Brother Leihy, to attend such a meeting at Port Washington, I formed the acquaintance of Brother Jesse Hubbard and his good lady at Mequon, where we halted for dinner. For many years this residence was the home of Itinerant Preachers and the nucleus of Christian society in that region.

The dedication of the German Methodist Church at Sheboygan occurred in April of this year. I went down to perform the service in a steamer, but when ready to return, the waves were running too high for the boat to make the pier. The mishap left my Pulpit without a supply for the Sabbath, an event which seldom transpired, but gave me an opportunity to make the acquaintance of our people in that part of the Conference, and the pleasure of preaching twice at Sheboygan and once at Sheboygan Falls.

During the summer of 1851 the cholera raged in Milwaukee in a most appalling manner. The whole city was a hospital. For several days together it was claimed there were fifty deaths per day. Though earnestly entreated to leave the city, as many others had done, I declined, feeling that my life was no more precious than the lives of others. Besides, it seemed to me, if there is ever a time when a people need the aid of their Pastor, it is when they are in peril and affliction. When at the height of its ravages, I repeatedly attended six funerals a day, and visited a dozen sick persons. The very men whom I met at a funeral one day, I would bury the next. Mingling thus daily with the sick and dying, I could not well escape myself. I suffered two attacks during the season, but through great mercy, the lives both of myself and family were spared.

During this terrible visitation I had frequent opportunities to test the value of the Christian religion. So marked was the difference between the death-bed scenes of Christians and the unconverted that even Infidels themselves could not refrain from referring to it. As if to teach the people this great lesson, there were a few instances of triumphant deaths, and a few of the opposite class. One good sister, as she was gliding across the stream, enquired, "Is this Jordan?" She was told it was. "How calm and placid are its waters," she added. "I expected to find the billows running high, but, glory to Jesus! there is not a ripple upon all the stream."

Unlike this scene was the death of a young man who had sent for me in great haste. On entering the room, I recognized him as a young man whom I had repeatedly urged, during our meeting of the previous winter, to give himself to the Saviour. He was now in the throes of dissolution and I could hardly hope to reach him. Wild with frenzy, he seemed to pray and curse with the same breath. As a momentary interval occurred between the paroxysms, I sought to arrest his attention and divert his thought to Christ. He turned his piercing eyes on me and said, "Oh! it is too late. Last winter, if I had yielded to your kind admonitions, all would now be well, but it is too late, too late." Another paroxysm seized him, and he was lost to all consciousness, and soon ceased to breathe.

Another event occurred this year of which mention should be made in this connection. It is the notorious riot. I quote from "Milwaukee Methodism." "Rev. Mr. Leahy, a minister in the Protestant Methodist Church, after visiting several of the principal cities of the Union, came to Milwaukee. Having spent many years in a monastery, and having become convinced of his error, he now sought to enlighten the people on the subject of the confessional. He proposed, in coming to the city, to give a course of lectures in a public hall during the ensuing week. On the intervening Sabbath he was invited to occupy several of the Pulpits of the city. He had already filled one in the morning, another in the afternoon, and then came to the Spring Street Church in the evening. The house was filled as usual. He opened the services in the regular order, took his text and began the delivery of his sermon. Immediately a crowd of strange men began to press in at the door and push along up the center aisle. At a given signal, a rush was made towards the Pulpit. Comprehending the situation in an instant, the Pastor, from his position in the Pulpit, ordered them back, and at the same time directed the men nearest the aisle and altar to intercept their advance. A stone was hurled at the Pastor's head, but it missed its mark and crashed against the wall in the rear of the Pulpit. But L.S. Kellogg, L.L. Lee and others stood firmly in the aisle and dealt some vigorous blows in response to the clubs and other missiles with which they were being severely bruised. At this moment Dr. Waldo W. Lake, who was sitting in the altar, drew a revolver which he on leaving home had put in his pocket, expecting after service to visit a patient in an exposed part of the city, and instantly the rioters fell back and retreated through the entrance to the street. During the conflict the audience room was a wild scene of confusion. The ladies became greatly alarmed, and required the attention of a large number of gentlemen in making their escape from the building. The door being thronged with the rioters, the principal egress was found to be the windows next to the street, and these were elevated a full story above the pavement. Ladders, wagons, and other impromptu scaffolding were provided, and large numbers of ladies were rescued in this way, while others were crowded against the sides of the room until the rioters had withdrawn. After quiet had been restored measures were taken to convey the speaker safely to his lodgings at the hotel. But a good number of revolvers, carried by a posse of earnest men, were a sufficient protection against all evil-minded persons that thronged the streets on the way."

The city was rocked with excitement. Early next morning a meeting was held in the Church edifice that had thus been made the scene of a riotous assault. The populace interpreted the affair rightly. It was not so much an attack upon a Protestant Church as an assault against the freedom of speech, one of the most sacred rights of the people. After expressing suitable indignation against the actors and abettors of the riot, and resolving to protect the freedom of speech so long as it should not offend against public morals, the meeting appointed a committee to wait on Mr. Leahy, and, on behalf of the community, guarantee him protection in his rights. Under this protection a lecture was given in the Free Congregational Church, and another on the public square, when, all danger of assault having disappeared, he was permitted to go on his way.