Thirty Years in the Itinerancy

by W. G. Miller

CHAPTER XXVI.

Conference of 1872.--Rev. A.P. Mead.--Rev. A. Callender.--Rev. Win. P. Stowe.--Rev. O.B. Thayer.--Rev. S. Reynolds,--Revival under Mrs. Van Cott.--Conference of 1873.--Rev. Henry Colman.--Rev. A.A. Hoskin.--Rev. Stephen Smith.--Illness.--Conference of 1874.--Rev. Dr. Carhart.--Rev. Geo. A. Smith.--Rev. C.N. Stowers.

The Conference of 1872 was held Oct. 9th, at Division Street Church, Fond du Lac, Bishop Haven presiding. The Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, having been fully recognized by the General Conference, was made the subject of a highly appreciative report, in which the Conference extended to the ladies of the Church a cordial welcome to this new field of effort, and pledged them a helping hand in the good work.

At this session Rev. A.P. Mead was appointed Presiding Elder of Waupaca District. Brother Mead graduated from the Garrett Biblical Institute in 1861, and was the same year admitted into the Conference. His appointments had been Sharon, Elkhorn, Kenosha, Bay View, and Lyons, when he was sent to the District. He remained only two years on the Waupaca District, and was then appointed to the Fond du Lac District. Brother Mead is a man of genial spirit and large practical sense. His sermons are replete with Evangelical truth, and produce an abiding impression. His intercourse with the people and Preachers is instructive, and his administration cannot fail to prove a blessing to the District.

At this session of the Conference, the decease of Rev. Aurora Callender, among others, was announced. Brother Callender entered the Pittsburg Conference in 1828, and was first stationed at Franklin, a circuit located on the slope of the Alleghany Mountains, and in the neighborhood of the Oil Regions. Before coming to Wisconsin, his appointments were Meadville Circuit, Meadville, Springfield, Cuyahoga Falls, Chardon and Middleburgh. Coming to Wisconsin, he was stationed, in 1850, at Sylvania. His subsequent appointments were Geneva and Elkhorn, Union, Hazel Green, Dodgeville, Mineral Point District, Norwegian Mission District, Clinton, and Agent of American Colonization Society, Subsequently he filled several charges as a supply, and departed this life in the midst of his work at Pickneyville, Ill., Oct. 23d, 1871.

Brother Callender was a veteran pioneer. Capable of great physical endurance, possessing a vigorous intellect, well skilled in theology and Methodist law, his labors were abundant and of a substantial character. In his earlier years, especially, his Ministry led many souls to the Cross.

At this Conference I was returned to Spring Street Station, and, Brother Pillsbury's term on the District having expired, Rev. Wm. P. Stowe was appointed Presiding Elder.

Brother Stowe, it will be remembered, was converted in his boyhood in his father's chapel. When grown to man's estate, he took up the trowel and thereby procured funds to secure his education. He graduated from the Lawrence University as a member of the Second Class, in 1858. He entered the Conference the same year, and was stationed at Sheboygan. The following two years he was stationed at Port Washington, but before the close of the second year his health failed, and he retired from the work. In 1862 he accepted the Chaplaincy of the Twenty-Seventh Regiment, but the year following he was re-admitted and stationed at Sharon. His subsequent appointments were Beloit, Racine, Oshkosh, and Summerfield, Milwaukee, in all of which charges he has left the fragrance of a good name and the legacy of substantial fruit. As a Presiding Elder, he is deservedly popular.

Brother Stowe has a large frame, tends to corpulency, and shows great physical vigor. With large perception, he reads men and surroundings aptly. In the pulpit, he puts ideas in logical relations, and aims at an object. His sermons abound in illustrations, strung on a strong cord of Evangelical truth.

Rev. O.B. Thayer was stationed at Summerfield Church, having become a member of the Conference in 1870. He had been stationed at Court Street Church, Janesville, and at Appleton. In both these charges he had developed a high standard of pulpit talent. He remained at Summerfield two years, and was then appointed to Kenosha, where, at the present writing, he is preaching to fine congregations.