r.

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, wher