ce the erection
of the Church required a great effort. Our meetings were held in the
school house until the Church edifice was enclosed, plastered, and
furnished with temporary seats.

The fall of 1846 was a season of unusual sickness, fevers in various
forms being the principal ailment. Along the valley of the Rock River,
the affliction became so flagrant that scarcely a family escaped. And in
some families, so universal were its ravages, that not one member was
left in condition to care for the balance. In this state of things
hundreds suffered, and not a few even died for want of kindly attention.

Repeatedly, when riding through the country to visit the sick and bury
the dead, I found flags of distress hung out over the dwellings of sick
families, where not one was able to bring a pail of water, or provide a
morsel of food. In such cases I installed myself master of ceremonies,
kindled fires, brought water, administered medicines, and then went
forward to render the same class of services to others.

In attending funerals in the surrounding neighborhoods, I sometimes
found there were not well people enough to bury their dead. After
performing the sacred functions of my office as a minister, I was
obliged to aid, with my own hands, to let the coffin down to its final
resting place.

Though still frail from my illness during the previous year, I stood
this strain for two months, when I was prostrated by an attack of
bilious fever. During the first week of my illness a physician made two
visits to my boarding place, and this was more than he could give to the
greater portion of his patients. The family with whom I boarded were all
sick, and I was dependent for care mostly upon such snatches of service
as others could spare from pressing demands at home. At the end of a
week, believing my chances of recovery, under such circumstances,
precarious, I ordered my horse and buggy, and started for Waupun, thirty
miles distant. My friends remonstrated, and thought me insane; but,
fortunately, they were too ill to prevent the movement. The attempt was
perilous, indeed, but by the aid of stimulants, which I had provided
with special care, and a will-power that nerved itself for the occasion,
I made the passage safely. At the end of four hours I was comfortably
housed at the residence of Dr. Bowman, who bestowed upon me skillful
medical treatment, while his family gave me careful and
faithful nursing.

At the end of four we