The regular work of the station opened this year encouragingly.  A general quickening followed, and by mid-winter there had been half a score of conversions.  Mrs. Maggie N. Van Cott, who had been engaged for a year to assist us, now came to our help.  The meeting continued five weeks, under this most extraordinary laborer, and resulted in the conversion of near four hundred souls, about two hundred of whom united with the Spring Street Church.

The Conference of 1873 was held Oct. 15, at Whitewater, Bishop Merrill presiding.  At this session Rev. Henry Colman, who had repeatedly served as Assistant, was elected Secretary of the Conference.

Brother Colman graduated from the Lawrence University as a member of the First Class in 1856.  He entered the West Wisconsin Conference in 1858, and filled one appointment in that Conference, when, in 1859, he was transferred to the Wisconsin Conference and stationed at Columbus.  In 1860 he was stationed at Green Bay, and the following year at Asbury, Milwaukee.  In 1863 he was appointed Principal of the Evansville Seminary, where he remained four years.  After leaving the Seminary, he has held a respectable class of appointments, and is now doing effective work at Fort Atkinson.  He is a man of clear head and honorable, Christian impulses.  Having a thorough knowledge of Biblical criticism, he has for several years rendered the Sunday Schools of the State a good service by furnishing in the Christian Statesman a weekly exposition of the Lesson.

In keeping with the provision of the Discipline, adopted at the recent session of the General Conference, for the Trial of Appeals, the Conference elected her quota as follows:  W.G.  Miller, O.J.  Cowles, Joseph Anderson, J.W.  Carhart, P.B.  Pease, P.S.  Bennett, and W.P.  Stowe.  But as there were no cases to be tried, the brethren elected were compelled to wear empty honors.

At this Conference, the writer again returned to Spring Street, it being the third year of the third term of my Pastorate among this people, and the thirtieth Conference year of my itinerent labors.  Brother Stowe was also returned to the District, and Rev. A.A.  Hoskin was appointed to Asbury, and Rev. Stephen Smith to Bay View.

Brother Hoskin entered the Conference in 1867, and before coming to the city had been stationed at Milton, Shopiere, and Menomonee Falls.  He is a young man of fine culture, genial spirit, and great industry.  His sermons embody the fundamental truths of the Gospel, and their manifold relations to practical life, and are highly appreciated by the people.

Besides being a good Preacher, he is also a poet of considerable reputation.

Brother Smith entered the Conference in 1856, and his first appointment was Sylvania.  His subsequent appointments have been Elkhorn, Sharon, Geneva, Manitowoc, Fort Atkinson, Delavan, First Church, Janesville, and Bay View.  On all these charges he has left the evidences of earnest and devoted work for the Master.  At Bay View, the present year has been one of extraordinary success.  The revival that transpired under his labors swept through the entire community, and gave an accession of more than one hundred members, a majority of whom were heads of families.