Thirty Years in the Itinerancy

by W. G. Miller

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.