Peter B. Garrett, of Camp Point, Adams county, had set himself, with honest purpose, to bring his Kentucky brethren up to the level of the demands of primitive and apostolic Christianity.  Every man has his hobby, and Bro.  G. had his hobby.  When the writer first visited Camp Point, he was demanded of to know if it was not a fixed part of the apostolic order that each disciple should, on the first day of the week, lay by him in store, of money or goods, as the Lord had prospered him, putting it into the Lord’s treasury?  I could not quite affirm this, but Bro.  G. stuck to his hobby.

Bro.  Garrett knew the value of a full treasury, and was ready to do his part towards settling a preacher in the church, and paying him.  But he could not bring his brethren up to the level of his own aspirations.

Bro.  G. came from Kentucky a poor man, but he got hold of a considerable body of good land, when it was cheap, and cultivated it skillfully.  Then the Quincy, Galesburg and Chicago Railroad was build in front of his farm, and the town of Camp Point grew up adjoining his premises.  He also built a flouring mill, and this added to his gains; and thus he grew rich and influential, but he never thought of himself only as plain Peter Garrett.  The writer in fifty years has known many excellent Christian families, but he has never known one family that, with saint and sinner, among persons outside and inside of the church, have had a more honorable fame than this Christian family.  His wife was a motherly woman.  She did not assume to know much, but what she did know she knew well, and translated her little store of knowledge into an abundance of good deeds.  She knew how to guide the house, take good care of her children, live in peace with her neighbors, love the church and attend its meetings, fear God and entertain strangers; and so this house, like the house of the Vicar of Wakefield, became a resort for

    “All the vagrant train,”

whether of tramps or preachers.  His children, from the time they were able to toddle, were taught to do something useful.  His little boys were made to bring in wood, and run on errands, and his girls to wash the dishes; and thus this house became a hive of industry, and it came to pass that in process of time, when our beloved Bro.  Garrison, of the Christian-Evangelist, went out to seek a woman to take care of his house, he very properly sought this favor at the hands of Peter Garrett’s daughter.  It is a good thing to follow a good example, and our devoted Bro.  Smart, hitherto of the Witness, now co-editor of the Evangelist, went and did likewise. [3]

Bro.  Garret loaned the writer a light spring wagon for the purpose of bringing his family back from Kansas, and thus equipped, he started a second time on the journey he had made one year before.

One thought filled his heart:  Will this tumult pass away, and will the American people go forward and fulfill that glorious destiny to which God in his providence has called them?