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.

Rev. S. Reynolds, State Agent of the American Bible Society, was also a member of the Ministerial fraternity of Milwaukee.  This good brother came to the Conference by transfer from Iowa.  He has been engaged for many years in his present work, and has gained a reputation, second to none, in the management of the laborious and manifold responsibilities of his position.  In his addresses he deals in stubborn facts, and never fails to interest the audience.  He is vigilant in looking after the details of his trust, but he needs a word of caution as to his health.  His great labor is evidently overtaxing his strength.

My salary was again fixed at two thousand three hundred dollars.  A new system of finance was now adopted, called the “Envelope System.”  In its principal features, it was similar to the “Card System,” introduced during my former term, but contained several additional provisions to render it more effective.  The new plan succeeded admirably, giving to the station, at the end of the first quarter of the year, the extraordinary record of having fully paid the Pastor’s salary, and every other claim for current expenses, besides liquidating several bills for improvements on the Church and Parsonage.  And it is proper to add that the current year closed with several hundred dollars in the Treasury.