ving the station a front rank among the first
charges of the Conference.

Brother Wilcox entered the traveling connection in the East and came to
the Illinois Conference at an early day. He was stationed in Galena in
1839, and before coming to Waukesha he had served Dubuque, Mineral
Point, Dixon, Elgin and Sylvania. At the close of his term at Waukesha
he was appointed Presiding Elder of Fond du Lac District At the end of
three years he was sent to the Madison District, where he remained a
full term. His subsequent appointments fell within the bounds of the
West Wisconsin Conference, in all of which he acquitted himself
creditably. His last field was Baraboo Station, where he passed from
labor to reward, leaving to his brethren the record of a spotless life
and unswerving devotion to the Master's work.

Brother Wilcox was an able minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a
man of large intellect and strong convictions. His sermons embodied
cardinal truth, and with him mere word painting was a sham. Sometimes he
was thought to be severe, but it was the severity of what he conceived
to be truth. In debate, on the Conference floor, or in discussion before
an audience, he was a giant. At times he would seem to push his
antagonist relentlessly, but it was only following his inexorable logic
to its findings. The same thoroughness entered into all he did. On a
committee it was his habit to go to the bottom of things. Especially was
this true in the Conference examinations.

I remember distinctly the examination that was had the year I graduated
to Elder's orders. With him as chairman, and another strong man, whom I
need not name, as second, we were under the fiery ordeal seven sessions.
I have never ceased to wonder that anything was left of us, after having
been thus ground between the upper and nether millstones. And yet there
was no unkindness, for in his feelings he was as tender as a child. The
fact is, this noble man could never do anything by halves. If the
faithful discharge of duty, the persistent adherence to the right, and
unsparing self-denial, constitute the standard of nobility, then
Washington Wilcox. had a right to claim his patent.

At Waukesha, a respectable Church edifice had been erected in 1841 and
1842. At a later period a small Parsonage had been built, and on our
arrival it was in readiness to receive us. The public services of the
Sabbath were held at half-past ten in the morning and at one in the