Thirty Years in the ItinerancyMiller, W. G. (Wesson Gage)
Philosophy
Thirty Years in the Itinerancy
Miller, W. G. (Wesson Gage)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Wisconsin; Methodist Episcopal Church. Wisconsin Conference
At the close of this year Sheboygan disappears from the list of
appointments, but in 1843 the Manitowoc mission appears with Rev. D.
Lewis as Pastor, and Sheboygan, it will be recollected, is named as one
of the appointments. In 1845, however, the name re-appears, and Rev.
Joseph T. Lewis was sent to the charge. From this time until 1849 the
strength of the circuit consisted largely in the outlying appointments.
But at this date Sheboygan Falls was erected into a separate charge,
taking from Sheboygan its several interior appointments.
Rev. Daniel Stansbury, the Pastor, had commenced his labors in 1849, and
was now on his second year. The Membership numbered only thirty-three,
but Brother Stansbury had achieved a great work in the erection of a
large and convenient Church edifice. I had visited the village the
preceding year, as before stated, to dedicate the German Church, and had
formed a very agreeable acquaintance with this truly noble man and his
most estimable family.
Brother Stansbury was from Baltimore, and brought with him to Wisconsin
a goodly portion of the warm and cheerful type of Baltimore Methodism.
He was received on trial by the Wisconsin Conference in 1849, and hence
Sheboygan was his first appointment. His subsequent appointments were
Janesville, Union, Portage City, Beaver Dam, Berlin and Janesville
District. In July of his second year on the District, and while
preaching at his Quarterly Meeting on Cambridge circuit, he was stricken
down by paralysis. He was taken to his home in Janesville, where he
lingered in extreme feebleness until Oct. 28, when he died in
great peace.
Brother Stansbury was a man of warm impulses, practical mind, and
abundant labors. In the protracted meeting, his rare gifts of prayer
and exhortation, made his labors a grand success, and, in the bright
world beyond, it will be found that his comparatively short ministry
gathered a large harvest of souls.
I next visited Sheboygan Falls. The charge first appears on the Minutes
in 1849, it having been created out of the interior portions of the
Sheboygan circuit. Its first Pastor, as we have seen, was Rev. David
Lewis. In 1850, the following year, Rev. Matthias Himebaugh was
appointed to the work. At this time the field embraced fifteen
appointments, and required the travel of two hundred miles each month.
Like his predecessors, Revs. J.S. Prescott and D. Lewis, Brother
Himebaugh traveled this circuit on foot. The Society in the village
consisted of thirteen members, and included the names of Mr. and Mrs. L.
Cheeseman, Mr. and Mrs. Parrish, Mr. and Mrs. Goodell, Mr. and Mrs.
Sully, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, Mr. and Mrs. Waite, and others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account