Thirty Years in the Itinerancy

by W. G. Miller

At Ripon, the Sabbath having passed, steps were taken to place the Parsonage in readiness to receive the Pastor's family. Those noble women, Mrs. Kingsbury, Mrs. Smith, and others, not only aided in the necessary provision, but actually gave their personal superintendence to the arrangement of the furniture. A new carpet was put down in the parlor; a new stove in the sitting room, and such other measures taken as were deemed necessary to render the coming and stay of the Pastor's family agreeable to them. And when the family came on Thursday, they found the rooms warm, the table spread, and the house filled with happy faces, warm hearts and ready hands, to give them a cordial greeting. Such a reception, given by such a people, robs the Itinerancy of half its burdens, and gives to the relations of Pastor and people an exquisite setting.

The preliminaries settled, I took up my work in the order I had been accustomed to follow whenever assigned to station work. Knowing the importance of the pastoral as well as the pulpit labor, I had always been accustomed to adhere strictly to a division of labor, giving the forenoons to my study, and the afternoons to pastoral visits. By this arrangement I found I could give to the study all the time necessary to fully employ a healthy brain, and yet find time to pass over in consecutive order the entire list of families in regular attendance upon the Church, three or four times a year. The prosecution of this plan in Ripon soon filled the house with people, and also added greatly to the spiritual prosperity of the membership.

During the winter considerable revival interest pervaded the congregation, which had now come to fill the Church to suffocation, and not less than seventy-five persons professed conversion. The students from the College came to the Church in great numbers, and several of them were found among the converts.

During the winter, a lecture course was instituted, under the auspices of the Literary Society connected with the College, and I was requested to give the first lecture. The flattering manner in which the effort was spoken of by the press brought other invitations, and I yielded to several of them, though my time was too much occupied with my regular work to indulge myself far in this direction. At this time I was also employed to do considerable work in connection with the press. Besides becoming one of the corresponding editors of the Index and the N.W. Advance, two papers published in Milwaukee, I accepted the position of a Local Editor on the Fond du Lac Commonwealth, and in this capacity represented Ripon and its vicinity in its columns.

During the winter, I was called to Onion River to dedicate the new brick Church that had been built on the Hingham charge, and in the following summer I was called to Oshkosh to re-open the First Church, which had been enlarged and greatly improved by the Rev. Wm. P. Stowe. Frequent calls were also made upon me for addresses on Temperance and other subjects. I yielded as far as consistent with my other obligations, but made in these cases, as ever in the course of my labors, all such calls yield to the pressing demands of my regular Ministerial work.

But at this stage of our work, another enterprise lay immediately before the good people of Ripon. The Church could no longer accommodate the crowds of people that thronged it, and an extension became necessary. A united and generous effort, however, soon rendered this necessary improvement a fixed fact. By an extension of the length and reconstruction of the basement, and suitable refitting, the Ripon Church became not only commodious, but, in size, the second Church in the northern portion of the Conference.

On one of the beautiful days of June, I concluded to make a visit to Berlin. Taking my family in a carriage, we passed over a delightful country and along pleasant roads, wondering at the change that had come over that region since I made my wild excursion in this direction in 1845, to find Strong's Landing. I now found Berlin a pleasant city and the home of many valued friends, whom I had known elsewhere.

Berlin, though now aspiring to be a charge of respectable standing, had its beginning, like all others, in "the day of small things." The first Methodist sermon was preached by Rev. Mr. Bassinger in September, 1850. The services were held in the office of a warehouse. Berlin was now connected with Dartford, and became a regular appointment. Brother Bassinger formed a class in connection with the first service in the warehouse. The members were Reuben Tompkins, his wife, and two daughters, Mrs. Kellogg and Mrs. McElroy.

Until a Church was built the meetings were held, after leaving the warehouse, first over Mr. Bartlett's store, and afterwards over Mr. Alexander's clothing store. The first Church was built under the Pastorate of Rev. J. Pearsall in 1851. It did good service for several years, and was then sold. It is now used as a blacksmith shop. The second church, the present respectable edifice, was built in 1858 by Rev. D. Stansbury, and was dedicated by the late Dr. T.M. Eddy. The Parsonage was built by Rev. D.O. Jones in 1862.

Rev. Isaac Wiltse, the Pastor at Berlin at this time entered the Wisconsin Conference at its April session in 1859. His charges before coming to Berlin were Wautoma, Kingston, Door Creek, Lowell, Liberty Prairie, and Dartford. Since leaving Berlin, his appointment has been Beaver Dam, where he is now doing a good work for the Master.