Deacon A. Goldsby related the following to the writer: “Forty or fifty years ago we organized a prayer band to pray for our freedom. We met outside of the little town, under a large oak tree, on every Friday night. That we might know when a friend came beneath the tree, we agreed upon a password, which was ‘The hindering cause.’ Each uttered this softly as he came under the boughs of the tree, and was answered by any other who had come ahead of him. Then he seated himself in the bushes to await the hour for united supplications.” If in years to come the University should desire a picture of itself as it made its advent from the world of hope to the world of fact, it may paint this: A frame structure, the roof of which is supported by a row of upright posts extending the whole length of the building, which is seventy-five or eighty feet in length. On the morning for opening, there enters this building a white man, whose face bears signs of suffering, but is all aglow with the rays of faith and love. He is the faculty. Also, there enters a short, fat, brown-skinned young man, with high, broad forehead. He has heard of the purpose to begin a school on this day at this place, and, hungering for learning, he has come up to enter. This teacher and this student usher in our beloved institution. It was good for the denomination that our lot was cast among such a people, and that we had in Bro. Woodsmall a man who did not faint in “the day of small things.” [Illustration: Rev. P. S. L. Hutchins, Pastor Churches at Newberne and Gallion, Ala.] WILL’S CREEK ASSOCIATION. Organized in 1873, and operating in “Will’s Valley” and St. Clair county, reports the following churches and ministers: At Collinsville Post Office--Pleasant Grove Church; Lebanon--Lebanon; Fort Payne--Fort Payne; Valley Head--Bethlehem; Attalla--Mt. Zion, Pilgrim, Bethlehem; Keener--New Hope; Beaver Valley--Pleasant Hill; Ashville--Mt. Zion; Springville--Springville; Whitney--Evergreen; Guntersville--Bethlehem and Hooper Chapel; Trenton--Trenton; North Alabama--Clogville. Rev. G. Neeley, Ashville, is moderator; Mr. J. R. Dean, Ashville, is treasurer; and Prof. P. R. Sibert, Keener, is secretary. Their pastors are: Revs. N. Kerley, R. Berry, M. Edwards, of Fort Payne; G. W. Brewton, of Alexandria; H. Massey, J. Griffin, A. Jackson, and James M. Stevens. They have about 1,500 members.