My colleague had rendered effective service, proving to be a true yoke-fellow in every particular.  Besides taking his full share of the regular appointments, he also gave a large portion of his time to the special labors of the charge.  He was not expected, at the outset, to give his whole time, but he soon became so fully identified with the work that he was almost constantly employed.  In the severe labors of protracted meetings, and in the wide travel of the circuit of appointments, he was equally self-forgetting and faithful.  He was a man of good attainments, kind spirit, studious habits, and an acceptable preacher.

The charge being in a formative state, and the necessities of the preachers small, the financial receipts from the people were very limited.  My own were only thirty-six dollars, and those of my colleague could not have been greater.

In tracing the work on Green Lake Mission, I have been thus specific for two reasons.  I desired, in the first place, to give the reader an inside view of the relations of the Itinerancy to frontier life, and in the second, note the beginnings of a list of charges that have since constituted a Presiding Elder’s District.

The Rock River Conference met this year in Galena, Ill.  And as it was necessary for my father to attend the Conference to receive Elder’s orders, we decided to make the journey in a buggy.  The first day, passing through Beaver Dam, we reached Fountain Prairie, where we were entertained by Rev. E.J.  Smith, of whom further mention will be made hereafter.

At noon on the following day we reached Madison, and were entertained by Rev. R.J.  Harvey, the Pastor of the charge.  Madison at this time was a small village, but, besides the Capitol, contained several buildings of respectable size and appearance.

The first Methodist sermon preached in Madison was delivered by Rev. Salmon Stebbins on the 28th day of November, 1837.  Brother Stebbins was then the Presiding Elder of of the District, which extended along the western shore of Lake Michigan, from the State line to Green Bay.  On visiting Madison, he was entertained by the contractor, who was erecting the State House, and who also kept a hotel.  On learning that Brother Stebbins was a minister, this gentleman invited the entire population to a meeting in his bar-room, and here the first sermon was preached.  And I am informed that the people were so pleased with the services that on the following morning Brother Stebbins was presented with a collection of fourteen dollars.

Brother Stebbins again visited the capital July 15th, 1838, and spent the Sabbath, preaching twice to respectable congregations.  But as Madison, now in the West Wisconsin Conference, has fallen more directly under the eye of Rev. Dr. Bronson, and will doubtless appear in the Western Pioneer.  I need not anticipate its historical incidents.

Passing on our way we were entertained the following night by a gentleman residing on the line of travel, some twenty miles beyond the Capital, by the name of Skinner.  The following day we reached Platteville, where we were to spend the Sabbath.