East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1865-03-08
Report Of Rev. L. NJ. Hunt, Mission
ary of the Saginaw Valley Union
8. s. Association.

The Association was formed nj
Saginaw City, April Odd, 1864, for the
purpose of sustaining Missionary to
travel through Saginaw, Bay. Tuscola
and Midland Counties, to organize
Union =. S. in the new towns and
districts, and visit and encourage those
that are already in operation; and as
God has greatly blessed our efforts and
set his seal upon this Union work, il
is thought best by the officers of the
association to write synopsis Of my
labors for publication
The Sabbath School is emphatically
the nursery of tho church; and as
God is no respecter of persons, but all
souls are alike precious in His sight,
it is to be hoped that evory good per-
son Of every name and order will be
interested in this work which gathers
the children from the streets and the
lanes, the hills and the plains, and the
waste places of cur land into the glo-
rious Sabbath School.
have visited three hundred and
twenty-three families, delivered fifty
six addresses, preached ninety SER
mons, visited thirty-three schools, and
organized seventeen met in Sabbath
School picnics, concerts, &c., one
thousand nine hundred and fifty-four
scholars, and three hundred and thirty
seven teachers travelled over eighteen
hundred miles, and have seen about
thirty souls converted, and the same
number of backsliders reclaimed.
Our first effort was at Zilwaukie,
four miles down the river from East
Saginaw. Here We found the people
entirely destitute of the means of
grace, and Satan reigning supreme.
The only means the childran had nf
knowing that the Sabbath was different
from any other day, was by the large
gathering of men and boys at the
saloons. by laboring for about two
weeks we succeeded in organizing a
good school Of forty scholars sold
them twenty-five dollars worth of
books and papers and had the pleas
ure of seeing several backsliders re-
claimed, and some souls converted.
They now have regular preaching and
prayer meetings. The school has been
we'll sustained, and this winter several
have found the Saviour precious to
their souls. Some of the Sabbath
School scholarsare among the converts.
Bless the Lord.
The next place was Hardscrabble
"a little school district three miles
back in the country from Iilwaukie.
There, too, we found the people with
out the gospel. / visited few fami-
lies, and made an appointment for
meeting on the coming sabbath
Sabbath morning came, and some of
the good friends at Zilwaukie offered
TO accompany me over to the Scrabble.
When we got within about mile of
the school house, we found three men
seated by the roadside who fired a
salute Of three guns as we passed,
which instead of discouraging, only
stimulated us to greater action in the
good cause. The school house door
was opened 10y fine young man, who
made us welcome, and gave one dollar
towards the library. We had very
good time, and organized little
school which lasted till fall.
/ then went into the township of
Rockville, where we found a nice
white school house, good country,
and plenty of children. The people
were quite anxious to have school,
but thought it would be Of no use to
try, for there was SO much hard feel
ings in the district that the people
could not meet even at funeral
without quarreling. But i had great
confidence i'll tho Union cause, and
went FROM house to house talking
Union andpreaching Jesus. Atlength
we got the people together, organized
a school, appointedan old gray-headed
man superintendent, sold them sixteen
dollars worth of books, gave them
some papers, and left an appointment
to meet them the last Friday in August
for a picnic. According to agreement
all were there when the day came
parents, teachers, scholars and mis-
sionary. The place chosen for the
entertainment was delightful. The
ground was high and dry, the under
brush and old logs were all cleared
away, the thick tops of the large beach
trees filed with their green leaves
touched together, shutting ont the
warm rays of the sun, and causing us
to feel that we were in "houss
not made with hands" The seats
were made of good clean boards, and
plenty of them, so that all could be
comfortably seated. A nice stand
was erected for the speaker between
two large trees; and to add to the
scenery, they had prepared splendid
banner that cost FIVE dollars 1t was
in the form of shield, with largo
bible painted in the centre, over the Of
which was painted in large letters,
Union Sunday School under it for q
motto, "Faith, Hopo and Charity"
We sang, prayed, sang again, had a
short address delivered to parents and
teachers, then marched in good order
to the table, with the banner ahead
carried by two little boys, all singing
as we marched, "There is happy
land, far, far away" The table was
about fifty feet long, covered with
clean, white cloths, and filed with pies
and cakes of all kinds, biscuit and
butter, chicken pies, boiled ham and
rice puddings in abundance. After
we had eaten all we could, they gath
cred up the fragments which would
have fed several more. We then
marched back to the seats, sang,
prayed, sang again, and then talked
TO the children. At the close of the
exercises, the superintendent arose,
his whole countenance bcaming with
Joy, and said that he was happily dis