service.  It was in a flourishing condition, as it could not well be otherwise with such a Superintendent.  The Superintendent introduced the new Pastor to the school, and playfully asked them if they thought the new Pastor was as good-looking as the old.  Quite to my surprise, they answered in the affirmative.  In the few remarks that followed I accounted for the good looks of both the former Pastor and the present on the score that I was the Father and the former Pastor was one of my boys, as I had introduced him to the Conference some years before.  This little sally reconciled the children to the new state of things, and secured me a kindly greeting from all of them.

Since my Pastorate in 1845, a variety of changes had passed over the place and the Church.  I found Ripon no longer a small settlement, nestled in the little valley between the bluffs, but a veritable city, now largely perched on the brow of the prairie, with its numerous business houses, its Churches, and its College.  The Church, instead of being a small class with its meetings first in the dining hall and afterwards in the small school house, was now a large Society, and comfortably quartered in a respectable Church edifice.

But all these changes had not come in a day.  The Circuit of twenty-four appointments, of which Ripon was only one, had been divided and subdivided until they had become nearly a score of charges.  To trace these changes in detail would weary the reader, and hence I have only referred to them incidentally, as they have fallen into the line of my subsequent labors.  In this connection, I must confine myself to Ripon and its immediate vicinity.

The first Quarterly Meeting of which I can find a record was held in Ceresco by Rev. J.M.  Walker, Oct. 15th, 1855, Rev. William Stevens was then the Preacher in charge.  The official members were:  George Limbert, Local Preacher, Z. Pedrick, Recording Steward, Thos.  P. Smith, Steward, and David S. Shepherd, Class Leader.  There were at this time four classes connected with the charge, and these were located at Ripon, Ceresco.  Rush Lake, and Utica.  At the fourth Quarterly Meeting of this year there were two Sunday Schools reported.  One at Ceresco, with thirty-three scholars, and one at Ripon, with twenty-one.

The following year, 1856, Rev. R. Moffat was sent to the charge.  Utica was now put into another charge, and Democrat Prairie attached to Ceresco.  During this year, a small frame Church was built in Ceresco, on the east side of the street, and about forty rods south of the Ceresco mill.  The pioneer Church was used until 1860, when it was sold to Mr. W.H.  Demming, who removed it to its present location for a cooper-shop.  From 1856 to 1860, while the services in Ceresco were thus held in the small Church, the meetings in Ripon were held in the City Hall, which was rented for the purpose.  When the new Church was built, the congregations were united.

The new Church, under the Pastorate of Rev. William Morse, was commenced in May, 1860, and the lecture-room was ready for use in March, 1861.  The audience room was not completed until the Pastorate of Rev. J.T.  Woodhead in 1862.  Brother Woodhead was succeeded by Rev. Joseph Anderson.