The public meetings were held in a school house outside of the village, and the prayer meetings in private houses.  A lot had been purchased for a Church and Parsonage, and the latter had been partly built.  On the arrival of Brother Himebaugh a hall was obtained in the village for the meetings, and soon after he commenced a subscription for a Church.

A revival occurred during the winter, and there were a goodly number of accessions, but they did not bring very much financial strength.  The Society, though small and in moderate circumstances, were very enterprising and generous in their effort to erect a Church, subscribing towards the building one-fifth of their entire property.  Having secured pledges, amounting to twelve hundred dollars, the Pastor now led a strong force of volunteer laborers in the manual labor of the undertaking.  Felling the first tree for the timber in the woods with his own hands, Brother Himebaugh gave the keynote to the movement.  Nor did he stay his hand until he had expended sixty days of labor.

After accomplishing what he could at home, he visited Milwaukee, Chicago, and several towns and cities in the Erie, Pittsburgh and Genesee Conferences, to obtain aid to complete the enterprise.  The edifice, forty by sixty, with a basement, was so far completed that the lecture-room was ready for dedication in December, 1851.  With this good work accomplished, our Quarterly Meeting at Sheboygan Falls was an occasion of great rejoicing.

Brother Himebaugh entered the Erie Conference in 1839, then twenty years of age.  His first circuit was Red Bank, on the Alleghany Mountains.  At the end of eleven years he was transferred to the Wisconsin Conference, and Sheboygan Falls was his first charge.  After leaving this work, he was stationed in the North Ward charge in Fond du Lac.  Here he also did a good work towards completing the Church edifice, which had been begun by Brother Prescott.  He also had a good revival during the year.

In 1853, Brother Himebaugh was stationed at Oshkosh, where he performed prodigies of labor, preaching during a portion of the first year, on every other Sabbath, four sermons, and walking fourteen miles.  He also gathered large accessions, which rendered the charge self-sustaining thereafter.

His subsequent appointments have been:  Madison, Madison District, Appleton, Appleton District, Agent of Lawrence University, and Assistant Superintendent of the Western Seaman’s Friend Society.  At the present writing, he still holds the last named position, and represents the Bethel interests in this city.  He is yet strong physically and intellectually, and bids fair to give to the good cause many additional years.

Oshkosh was the next place visited.  Instead of finding, as in 1845, a few small cabins, I now found a respectable village and a flourishing Church.

The first Methodist sermon delivered in Oshkosh was preached by the veteran pioneer, Rev. Jesse Halstead, at the residence of Mr. Webster Stanley, in 1841.  The place was now taken into the list of his appointments, and was supplied by Brother Halstead with considerable regularity.