Brother Lewis entered the Rock River Conference August 24th, 1842, and was sent as Junior Preacher to Indian Creek, Ill., a four weeks’ circuit, the labor of which greatly taxed his strength.  His next appointment was Manitowoc, the charge extending from Port Washington to Two Rivers, and requiring one hundred and fifty miles of travel to each round of appointments.  Through these dense forests, as I have had occasion to remark in a former chapter, the roads were almost impassable, with long distances intervening between residences, and involving great fatigue and exposure.  Like the good Brother Frink, who preceded him in this field, he was compelled to swim rivers, suffer hunger and endure fatigue, that would appall a man of less nerve.  During the winter his horse became disabled and he made the entire round on foot, carrying his provisions in a knapsack.  Such were the trials and exposures of the pioneers who planted the standard of the Cross in the “Sheboygan Woods,” as this region was called.  They were indeed heroic men.

There were a few scattered sheep in the wilderness, and these were gathered into the fold.  At Manitowoc, Brother Lewis formed a class.

In 1844 Brother Lewis was sent to Pewaukee, where he had eleven appointments.  Though at the beginning of the year there was no class on the charge, at its close Brother Lewis, was able to report sixty-five members.  It was during this year that our sturdy pioneer took to himself a worthy helpmeet, in the person of Miss Adelia Morley, who, as an inmate of the Presiding Elder’s family, spread the table for the writer’s first meal as an Itinerant.  Brother Lewis was next appointed successively to Root River, Kankakee, and Brothertown, in which charges he enjoyed his usual share of hard work and spiritual prosperity.

In 1849 he was appointed to Sheboygan Falls.  The circuit was very large, taking the entire tract of country between the Lake and Fond du Lac, but the year was one of marked success.  Finding the Parsonage under a mortgage that imperiled the safety of the property, Brother Lewis stepped forward and offered his horse, saddle, and a dollar and a half, all the money he had, in liquidation of the indebtedness.  They were accepted, and as a result, the dear brother traveled his circuits on foot for two years before he was able to procure another horse.  Such is the sterling material out of which the early Itinerants were made.  With such men in the field, it is not a matter of surprise that, under the Divine blessing, the “Wilderness and solitary place” were made to rejoice.

At the close of his labors on this circuit, Brother Lewis was again sent to Manitowoc for one year, when, the Greenbush charge having been created, principally out of the west part of his former work, he was appointed to it, as before stated.  After leaving Greenbush he was stationed at West Bend, Columbus and Fall River, Oneida Indian Mission, New London, Markesan, Caldwell’s Prairie, and New Berlin.  At the Janesville Conference in 1870, Brother Lewis, having served the church nearly thirty years with great devotion, took a superannuated relation.  At this writing he is residing in Fond du Lac, maintains a happy frame of mind, and is still doing what he can for the cause.  He certainly deserves well of his Conference.