The makers of Iowa Methodism : a twentieth-century memorial of the pioneers

Front matter

BISHOP THOMAS A. MORRIS.

The Makers of Iowa Methodism

A TWENTIETH-CENTURY

CHAPTER I.— "The Beautiful Land." Page

First seen by White Men — Jacques Marquette — Louis Joliet — The "Father of Waters" — Iowa — Dubuque — Lewis and Clark — Close of Black Hawk War — Land of Promise— First Governor — Burlington — Old Zion — Iowa City — Methodism — Outposts of Zion, 13-17

CHAPTER II.— The Picket Line

Frontier Work — Giants — Peter Cartwright — Andrew Monroe — Alfred Branson — Hooper Crews — Bartholomew Weed — Henry Summers — The Real Pioneer Presiding Elder, 18-25

CHAPTER III.— Earliest Missionaries

Illinois Conference — Barton Randle — First Church in Iowa — Henderson River Mission — Barton H. Cartwright — Flint Hills— First Methodists— John T. Mitchell— John H. Ruble — Nicholas S. Bastion — Learner B. Stateler, 26-33

CHAPTER IV.— The Iowa Conference

Thomas A. Morris — Pioneer Bishop — H. W. Reed — First Secretary — Original Members — Geo. B. Bowman — William Simpson — A Volunteer — The Missouri Slope — Success— Triumphant Death — T. M. Kirkpatrick — Ottumwa — Career and Death — Andrew Coleman — Samuel Clark — A Veteran — Milton Jamison — Joel Arrington — Isaac I. Stewart — David Worthington — Interesting Lifestory — Happy Death, . 34-48

Contents.

CHAPTER V. — Some of the Young Men. Page

Allen W. Johnson — Oskaloosa — John Hayden — A Stayer — Sudden Death — Joshua B. Hardy — Even Down to Old Age — Mrs. Hardy — Last Words — Levin B. Dennis — Early Life — Call to Preach — Arkansas — To Iowa — Kansas— Ministry in Four States — Death, 49-5^

CHAPTER VI.— Great Evangelists

Landon Taylor — Nativity — Journey to Iowa — First Circuit — Pioneer Experience — Evangelism — Last Days — John Jay — Popularity — Early Death — Michael See — Unique Character — Prominent Converts — Michael Hare — Chaplain in Army — Bitter Experience — Fort Tyler — Return Home — Death, 57—65

CHAPTER VII.— Various Types

John Harris — Englishman — Conversion — Early Ministry — To America — Join Iowa Conference — A Story — Edmund W. Twining — Cornell College — Richard Swearingen — George H. Jennison — Joel B. Taylor — Early Settler — Long Life — Uriah Ferree — W. W. Knight — Joseph Ockerman — Fort Des Moines — J. L. Kirkpatrick and Others, 66-71

CHAPTER VIII.— Some Men of '47

Joseph Brooks — Central Christian Advocate — Ansel Wright — J. Q. Hammond — James T. Coleman — Experiences — Snowbound — Perils by Storms — Character — German Methodism — Sebastian Barth — Ludwig S. Jacoby — Prevailing Prayer — German Missions, 72-77

CHAPTER IX. — Methodist Statesmen

James Harlan — Indiana — Education — A Teacher — First Superintendent— Iowa Wesleyan University — United States Senator — Cabinet Officer— Last Years — Public Benefac-

Contents.

Page.

tions — Death — Hiram Price — Davenport — Beginnings — Success — In Congress — Temperance Advocate — Anti-saloon League — George G. Wright — Temperance Address— James B. Weaver — Early Life — Sunday-school Superintendent — Army Life — The Political Arena — General Conference Delegate — William E. Miller — Methodist Parentage — Attorney — Judge — Noted Newspaper Men among Methodists, 78-89

CHAPTER X. — Men of Experience from the East

Joseph McDowell — Great Revivalist — Chaplain Iowa State Prison — J. G. Dimmitt — Happy Death — H. C. Dean — Eloquence — Chaplain in Congress — His Later Life — James Gilruth — Lucas C. Woodford — George W. Teas — Eminent in Early Iowa History — Death, 9°-95

CHAPTER XL— Young Men for War.

An Epochal Period — Alfred Bishop — Early Called — George H. Clark — The Son of a Pioneer — Work and Death — Thomas E. Corkhill — Valuable Services — William F. Cowles — Characteristics — In Time of War — Financier — Even Down to Old Age — Francis W. Evans — The Little Giant — Polemical Skill — Still Living — Alpha J. Kynett — His Long and Valuable Career — Church Extension Nine General Conferences — Anti-saloon Movement — Death at Harrisburg — Tributes — William C. Shippen — E. H. Winans, 96-109

CHAPTER XII.— Young Men of '53

Some gone to Other Fields — Benjamin Holland — Story — C. Perry Reynolds — Great Soul-winner — Triumphant Death — Samuel Hestwood — Army Life — Death at Knoxville — Isaac McClaskey — Impression in Youth — Isaac P. Teter — A Life of Activity — Sudden Death — His Prayer Answered — James G. Thompson, 110-118

8 Contents.

CHAPTER XIII.— Men from the East. Page

Orville C. Shelton — Strong Principles — Over Half a Century

— James H. White — Peculiarities — A Champion for the Right — Last Hours — Richard S. Robinson — Ministry in Indiana — Iowa — Peter F. Holzinger— Joseph Gassner — Saddlebags — A Model Circuit Rider — Cyrus Morey — 3,000 Souls for Christ — His Wife — Jesse Craig — ■ Rugged Pioneer — Lucien W. Berry — Anecdotes, 11 9-1 31

CHAPTER XIV. — Recruits to the Ranks

David Donaldson — Faithful Worker — Called to the Other Home — George W. Bamford — Breaks Down — His Death — Richard B. Allender — Lay Worker — In Ministry — Sweet Singer in Israel — Great Revivals — Retirement — Ripe Old Age — Translation — Nelson Wells — Thomas D. Boyles — George W. Friend — Experience — William Poston — Army Incident — James Haynes — Veteran, 132-142

CHAPTER XV.— The Upper Iowa Conference

Veterans — Some Fallen Asleep — Alcinus Young — John C Ayers — Long Ministry — Great Age — Death — Richard W. Keeler — Varied Experiences — Pioneer Educator — Conference Chronicler — Translation — Stephen N. Fellows— Early Struggles — Success — Bringing forth Fruit in Old Age — William Brush — Upper Iowa University — In Southwest — Northwestern Iowa — James M. Rankin — Henderson — In Nebraska — Geo. W. Brindell — Saintly Life — Others — Dead and Living, I43_I53

CHAPTER XVI.— Some Self-made Men

John H. Power — Kentuckian — Disadvantages — Conversion — Ministry — Scholarship — Offices — Authorship — Last Work — Peaceful Death — Charles Elliott — An Irishman — Education — When a Boy — To' America — Missionary — Editor — Author — Central Christian Advocate — Iowa Wesleyan University — Last Days — Adam Miller — Finding William Nast — Old Man — Epworth Herald, 154-161

Contents. 9

CHAPTER XVII — Representative Men of '56. Page

George N. Power — A Model Presiding Elder — Abundant Labors — Last Bequest — Matilda B. Power — Woman's Foreign Missionary Society — John T. Simmons — Eccentricities — So-called — Anecdotes — Prohibition — Stumping — Home — Almond W. Stryker — Amos Bussey — W. J. Spaulding — Professor and President — Henry Crellin. 162-169

CHAPTER XVIII. — Types of '57

George W. Conrad — A Sinner Saved by Grace — His Epitaph— James H. McCutcheon — Final Triumph — Edmund H. Waring — A Long Time Secretary — Amos S. Prather — Conference Historian — Legal Adviser over Fifty Years — George W. Byrkitt — Mrs. Byrkitt — A Noble Couple — John B. Hill — A Veteran — Anthony Robinson — Fourscore and Ten — The Closing Scene — John R. Carey — Bishop Hamline — Residence in Mt. Pleasant — Death — Charles C. McCabe — Account of Conversion — His Tribute to Landon Taylor, 170-183

Leaders — Dennis Murphy — Roman Catholic — Conversion — Triumphing over Difficulties — Career — The Final Summons— James W. Latham — Army Service — Civil Life — Broken Down — John Burgess — From Ohio — Welcome to Iowa— Goes to Army — Valuable Services — Life in Many Phases — Pleasant Pathways — Manasseh B. Wayman — Promising Life — Takes Sick in South — Dies at Home — George Clammer — J. B. Casebeer — JohnHaynes — Model Sermonizer — Noble Record — John Orr — Conversion— Patriotic Services — A Money Raiser — Pioneer Work — James A. Wilson, 184-192

CHAPTER XX.— The Conference of i860

Western Iowa — At Indianola — E. M. H. Flemming — Secretary— Other Pioneer Work — Simpson College — Sanio Contents.

Page.

ford Haines — David N. Smith — First and Only Delegates from Western Iowa Conference — Iowa Conference — Class Admitted i860 — Early Crowned — Leroy M. Vernon — S. M. Vernon — Samuel H. Thomas — Harrison Runyon — James M. Coates — Emory Miller — J. F. Goolman — Growth of Methodism in Iowa — Forty Years — Bennett Mitchell — Outlook, 193-200

CHAPTER XXI.— The Countless Host

Lay Ministry — First Organizers — Davenport — Des Moines — Birmingham — Dr. J. L. Warren — Knoxville — Malachi Vinson — A Long List — Women of Methodism — Mothers in Israel — Pen Pictures — Names Written in Heaven— The Final Triumph, . . 201-208

The Makers of Iowa Methodism.

CHAPTER I. "The Beautiful Land."

Midland where the mighty torrents run

Of placid brow and modest mien, With glowing bosom to the sun

Sits the majestic prairie queen. Imperial rivers kiss her feet,

The free winds through her tresses blow ; Her breath with unsown flowers is sweet,

Grand in her beauty, what cares she

For jeweled cliffs and rills of gold ; For seats along the sounding sea,

Or storied monuments of old?

Her hands are strong, her fame secure,

Her praise on lips whose praise is dear Her heart and hopes and praises pure,

And God in all her landscape near.

Aye, splendid in her ample lap

Are annual harvests heaped sublime :

How sing her billowy seas of grain, How laugh her fruits on vine and tree;

How glad her homes in Plenty's reign,

Where Love is Lord, and Worship free!

— Power.

Until after the close of the Black Hawk War, in 1832, Iowa was practically an unknown land. It had been seen by white men as early as 1673. French settlers from Lower Canada, exploring the Great Lakes, heard from the Indians of a great river in the west, which they described as the "Father of Waters," and they sought to find it. Jacques Marquette, a young Roman Catholic missionary among the Indians, in company with another young man, Louis Joliet, who was traveling under the authority of the Government of Ouebec, undertook the task of exploration.

They left Mackinaw on the 13th day of May, 1673, in two bark canoes, with some Indian corn and dried meat as their stock of provisions, to reach, if possible, the great river, and explore the land beyond. They coasted along the shore of Lake Michigan and Green Bay, until they reached the mouth of Fox River, ascending which for quite a distance they were directed by their Indian guides to transfer their canoes and provisions to the Wisconsin River, which stream they descended until they came into a larger stream, with a high bluff on the opposite side; this river they named the "Mississippi." That was on the 17th of June. They drifted with the current for four days, without catching a glimpse of a single inhabitant. The first prairie was seen where the town of Guttenburg now stands, some distance above Dubuque. Here were also seen human footprints, and soon after some of the men of the forest were discovered.

The first settlement made in Iowa was by

"The Beautiful Land." 15

Julian Dubuque, a French trader, who secured a tract of land from the natives, and "improved an extensive farm, built houses, and a horse mill," meanwhile cultivating his farm and mining lead. He died in 1810, and the settlement was broken up by the Indians. Ten years later, a settlement was undertaken in what is now Lee County, but was abandoned at the end of five years. In 1809 a military post was established at Fort Madison; but was found to be in violation of a treaty with the Indians, and was given up. The western boundary of the State was traced by Lewis and Clark as early as 1804, in their famous expedition across the continent by the way of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. At the close of the Black Hawk War emigration began to pour into the land beyond the great river. There had been glimpses of it during that exciting period, and it had been revealed as a veritable land of promise. It was included in the Territory of Michigan, whose Legislature in 1833 organized two counties, naming them Dubuque and Des Moines. In 1836 the Territory of Wisconsin was organized, and Iowa was a part of it until two years later, when it was constituted an independent Territory. It then embraced all the country north as far as British America, and west to the Rocky Mountains. Robert Lucas, of Ohio, was appointed the first governor, and Burlington was selected as the seat of government. The first Legislature met in Old Zion Church, November 12, 1838. This was one of the first public buildings built in Iowa, and is surrounded with historic associations. It stood where the Grand Opera-house now stands; was made of brick, two stories high. The upper story was occupied by the Lower House, and the lower story by the Upper House, of the Territorial Assembly. The rear basement was divided by board partitions into offices and committee rooms. Four sessions of the Legislature were held here, and for several years it was used for the Supreme Court of Iowa and the District Court of Des Moines County.

In 1836 the population of Iowa had grown to over ten thousand, and this was doubled inside of the next two years ; six years later it had reached nearly one hundred thousand, and Iowa became a candidate for Statehood, which privilege was granted her by Act of Congress in 1846.

During these years a number of thriving villages had sprung up, and the country was being dotted with splendid farms. The capital was located at Iowa City in 1839; State buildings were erected, and Iowa was becoming a great Commonwealth.

While this material prosperity was being enjoyed, the Church was not asleep nor idle; but it was keeping pace with the march of emigra-

"The Beautiful Land." 17

tion, and Methodism well in the front, following the trail of the pioneer's wagon over the prairie, or tracking him as he blazed his waythrough the forest. The lives of the pioneer preachers is largely the story of early Iowa. It was through their labors that the "wilderness and the solitary place were made glad, and the desert rejoiced and blossomed as the rose." The lives of those who gave themselves to the evangelization of this "beautiful land" is the best history of the times in which they lived.

The earliest settlements were made in and about Dubuque, and at the Flint Hills, a point where a small river by that name empties into the "Father of Waters." In 1833, in less than a year from the time that these settlements were made, missionaries had been sent to break to them the bread of life. At the session of the Illinois Conference, held at William Padfield's, near Lebanon, St. Clair County, September 25, 1833, Dubuque was provided for, and a little later in the year a missionary was sent to Burlington and the other Flint Hills settlements. The story of these missions will be told incidentally, as we recount the lives of the first missionaries and of those who were instrumental in planting these outposts of our Methodist Zion.

CHAPTER II. On the Picket Line

See where the servants of the Lord,

A busy multitude appear; For Jesus day and night employed,

His heritage they toil to clear.

The love of Christ their hearts constrains, And strengthens their unwearied hands ;

They spend their sweat, and blood, and pains, To cultivate ImmanuePs lands.

— Spangenburg, Trans, by J. Wesley.

Iowa Methodism owes much to the character of the men who planned her frontier work, and trained the men who entered this western field. "There were giants in those days;" and the rule seemed to have been, from the time of Francis Asbury and Jesse Lee down, to commit the care of the districts to these stalwart men. Those who opened the way in Iowa were no exceptions to the rule. The first missionaries to Iowa were sent by the noted Peter Cartwright, who presided at the Illinois Conference in 1833, and who was presiding elder on the Quincy District at the time. It was to him that Dr. William R. Ross, a zealous Methodist of Burlington, sent for a preacher, and who found one in the person

of Barton H. Cartwright. It was during that year that he held the first quarterly-meeting probably ever held within the bounds of Iowa Territory. /The event is mentioned in his "Autobiography," and the account is full of interest. He was then scarcely fifty years of age, and in the full strength of his days.

"There were only a few cabins in the place," he says, "and but a scattered population. The cabins were small, and not one of them could hold the people. We repaired to a grove and hastily prepared seats. Years before, an old tree had fallen across a small sapling, and bent it to the earth. The sapling was not killed, and the top of it shot up beside the tree that had fallen on it, and it had grown for years in that condition. The old tree had been cut off, and they scalped the bark from that part of the sapling which lay parallel with the ground. They drove a stake down, and nailed a board to it and to the top of the sapling that had grown erect; and this was my hand-board, and I stood on the part of the sapling that lay on a level with the ground ; this was my pulpit, from which I declared the unsearchable riches of Christ, and we had a good meeting."

One who heard him, says : "His sermon was built upon the words, 'Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,' a theme which allowed full play to all the wonderful powers of this celebrated Western preacher."

Peter Cartwright was born in Amherst County, Va., September i, 1785. His first license to exhort was given him by Jesse Walker in 1802, and he entered the Western Conference in 1804. He came to Illinois in 1823, exploring the country on horseback, and finally locating at Pleasant Plain, which was his permanent home for more than fifty years, and where he died in the year 1872. Pie was a charter member of the Illinois Conference in 1824, at which time he was appointed a presiding elder. This office he retained from year to year until his retirement in 1869, at which time the event was celebrated with a grand jubilee, it being his fiftieth anniversary in that office.

On May 30, 1835, a quarterly-meeting was held in Burlington by Andrew Monroe, who was known as the "patriarch of Missouri Methodism." He was at the time presiding elder of the St. Louis District, Missouri Conference.

The boundaries of some of the Western Conferences had not been definitely settled, and Missouri laid claim to all the territory lying west of the Mississippi River, and sent out men to supply the early settlers along the Des Moines and Skunk Rivers with preaching. The first of these preachers was Learner B. Stateler, whose circuit extended up the Des Moines River as far as Keosauqua, and across to the Skunk River, and thence down to the region of the Flint Hills.

It was during this administration that Monroe held a quarterly-meeting, at which time it is noted that eighteen persons united with the Church in Burlington.

This noted man was a Virginian by birth, and a Methodist from his youth. He was a younger man than Cartwright, being born in 1792. He came to Missouri in 1824, to preach in St. Louis. He was soon after made presiding elder of a district embracing the whole State. He was a member of eleven General Conferences, and was among those who took an active part in organizing the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was an effective preacher until the year of his death, 1871.

The first regular Quarterly Conference held in the Dubuque Mission was presided over by Alfred Brunson, November 14, 1833. He had recently transferred from the Pittsburg Conference, and had been placed on the Chicago District, which then included the northern part of the work in Iowa. He was one of the strong men of his generation. He was born in Danbury, Conn., February 9, '1793. He had a common-school education, and was trained as a shoemaker. While living with an uncle in Carlisle, Pa., he was converted, and licensed to exhort. The same year he began to hold religious meetings in his native State. In 181 2 he went to Ohio, and joined the army under General Harrison. In 1815 he was licensed to preach, and in 1820 he became a member of the Pittsburg Conference, where he labored till his transfer to the West. In July, 1836, he moved to Prairie Du Chien to labor among the Indians. In 1839 he gave up the ministry on account of poor health, and began the practice of law, which vocation he followed for ten years. He resumed pastoral work in 1850, and served a number of important charges. During the war in the sixties he was an army chaplain for a year. He was four times a delegate to the General Conference, and a frequent contributor to the religious and the secular journals of the times. His career is outlined in his "Autobiography," which was published in two volumes. He died at Prairie du Chien, August 3, 1882.

The noted Hooper Crews had charge of some of the societies in Iowa during the formative period of the Church on this side of the river, while he was an Illinois presiding elder. He came to the West from Kentucky in 1834, and was a member of the Rock River Conference from its organization until his death in 1880. He was born April 17, 1807, and was converted in 1824. His ministry began in 1828, and he was effective all his life. In 1862 he was chaplain of the 100th Illinois Volunteers. It is said of him : "He was sound in theology, logical in methods, and preached with power." John

Sinclair was the presiding elder when Dubuque was made a preaching place ; but it is not certain that he ever held a quarterly-meeting on the west side of the river. He was a native of Loudoun County, Va. ; born April 9, 1793. He was converted when twenty years of age, while residing in Lexington, Ky., and began his ministry in the Kentucky Conference in 1824. He came to Illinois in 1830 and labored until 1859, when he retired to Evanston, where he died in 1861. He was a member of the General Conference of 1844.

Another man who made his impress on the Methodism of the West, was Bartholomew Weed. He was for some time presiding elder of the Galena District, which included the work in Iowa north of the Iowa River. In 1840, when the work was divided into two districts, he was given charge of the Dubuque District. He was also one of the original presiding elders at the organization of the Iowa Cpnference, and traveled the Burlington District four years. He was born in Danbury, Conn., March 6, 1793 ; was trained a Calvinist, but joined the Methodists in the eighteenth year of his age. He was received into the Philadelphia Conference in 181 7, from which he came to the West. While a member of the Rock River Conference, he was sent as a delegate to the General Conference of 1844. His last years were spent in the Newark Conference, where he superannuated in 1864. The last eleven years of his life were spent as chaplain of the Essex County jail. He died in Newark, N. J., January 5, 1879. "He was a man of simple tastes and manners, of strong convictions and attachments, and of heroic and magnanimous spirit."

Henry Summers is the recognized pioneer presiding elder of Iowa Methodism. When the Iowa District was formed by Bishop Morris in 1839, he was placed in charge of it; and the following year, when it was divided, he was retained on the Burlington District; and at the close of his term was appointed to form a new district made up of the scattered appointments along the Des Moines River, and reaching into the interior of the new State. This he traveled but one year, when he returned to Illinois, where he spent the remainder of his days. He was born in Virginia in 1801 ; was converted when nineteen years of age; licensed to preach in 1822, and received into the traveling connection in 1832. That was in the Illinois Conference, where his training was under Peter Cartwright, which no doubt had much to do with the great success which attended his labors as a pioneer preacher and presiding officer. "For eight successive years he superintended the planting of the Church in Iowa. In his work he emulated the zeal, labors, and triumphs of Western Methodism ; and he has earned for himself an abiding place in the interests and affections of Iowa Methodists/'

He is described as a man "of medium height, strong and sinewy frame ; in appearance, prepossessing; in disposition, social; in intellectual ability, above the average. His emotions were easily kindled, and his preaching abounded with unction. Over one hundred conversions have been known to follow his preaching at a single quarterly-meeting. ' '

CHAPTER III. The Earliest Missionaries

Send forth thy heralds, Lord, to call,

The thoughtless young, the hardened old,

A scattered, homeless flock, till all Be gathered to thy peaceful fold.

Send them thy mighty Word to speak, Till faith shall dawn, and doubt depart,

To awe the bold, to stay the weak, And bind and heal the broken heart.

Then all these wastes, a dreary scene,

That make us sadden as we gaze, Shall grow, with living waters, green,

And lift to Heaven the voice of praise.

— Bryant.

As has already been noticed, the Rock River

Conference provided that new settlers beyond

the river should be given the gospel, Dubuque

being attached to the Galena Mission. Barton

Randle and John T. Mitchell were the men sent

out, and they went, as did Saul and Barnabas

from Antioch, sent by the Holy Ghost. In due

time they were found on their field of labor.

Randle writes: "On the 6th of November I

crossed the Mississippi River at the northwest

corner of the State of Illinois, went into the town

of Dubuque, and in the evening of the same

day preached in the tavern of Jesse Harrison.

From that day Dubuque was one of our regular appointments. Soon afterwards I made an appointment at the village of Peru, four or five miles up the river, on the same side, and continued to preach there during the year. In the spring of 1834 we built a log meeting-house in Dubuque, and held a two-days' meeting in it, dedicated our church, and organized a small class, which at the end of the year numbered twelve members."

That was the first church-building of any kind erected in Iowa. It was twenty by twenty-six feet in the clear; one story, ten feet high; upper and lower floor; pointed with lime and sand; batten door; four twenty-light and one twelve-light windows. It cost $255, and was paid for in subscriptions ranging all the way from twelve and a half cents to twenty-five dollars. It was a matter for record that on the 25th of July the building was raised "without spirits of any kind," and upon its completion the jubilant pastor writes, "Well done ; to collect the money, build a splendid meeting-house, and pay for it, hold a two-days' meeting, and receive twelve members, all in four weeks."

Randle was a native of Georgia, born in 18 12. He came to Illinois in an early day, and entered the traveling connection in 183 1. The preceding year he traveled the Henderson River Mission, which was made up of several counties lying on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, opposite the Flint Hills in Iowa. It was while there that he met the man who was to become the first missionary to the southern frontier of Iowa, Barton H. Cartwright. He had been to Burlington, where he had some brothers, and after a short visit with them sought employment on the opposite side of the river in Warren County. Hearing that there was to be Methodist preaching about three miles away, "he proceeded on foot to the place of meeting, to find Randle, the missionary, sick of a fever, and lying in the loft of the cabin where the service was to be held, and which belonged to one Pearse, near the village of Berwick, Illinois. Immediately Cartwright sought an interview with Randle, handed him his Church letter, and met with a hearty welcome. Looking the newcomer in the face, as he sat by him, after some conversation concerning his previous life, Randle said to him : "You have come at the right time. There are two or three families in the grove, and they will be here to-day, and you must hold meeting for them." At first the young man declined, and Randle said: "Well, there will be no meeting here to-day, then." At this Cartwright's convictions of duty came upon him, and when the settlers gathered he arose and addressed them. "That same afternoon he was handed a license to exhort by the missionary. Of this license he made good use, as his calls were frequent and his services free." "I went about," he writes, "breaking prairie in the day-time, and talking to the people at night; they called it preaching." On March 22, 1834, he was given license to preach, and sent by the greater Cartwright to the Flint Hills, "to preach and form societies, if practicable, and to report to the Church." That he might be independent and rely upon his own labor for support, he took with him four yoke of oxen, a breaking plow, and a load of provender. He divided his time between breaking prairie and holding meetings. "I took no collections," he says, "and received no pay for my preaching."