Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-06-07

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-, ,A'nn!ss,Siat~ tle young men
@s,A I@@l R:NS become minis
I51lTl..a@aa.-.sss .ssss''s$y5,@S%SS pei, should,
CyHIlWSS without hesita-
~ tion, have
named jackson Williams. For Will
Jams was a very plain youth, of
! shrewd, practical turn of mind, sharp
at bargain and given to acquiring
property. He was of that type of
young man who eventually becomes
wealthy in small village communities;
he was afflicted, moreover, with a con-
frmed defect of speech, which in it
self would seem fatal obstacle to sue
cess as clergyman.
At the age of twenty-five, "Old
Jacky," as we called him, married
Rosilla Cahill, whom we all knew as
the brightest, quickest-witted girl in
town, although not, perhaps, the most
beautiful. In mind she was not lit
tie like Jackson, but was more merry
hearted and humorous. In discuss
ing, at their wedding, their prospects
in life, their friends were agreed that
they were certain to prosper; or, as
one expressed it, "Nobody need worry
about Jack and Rosy! Why, they will
own the whole town by the time they
are fifty"
A few months later Jackson Will
Jams attended series of meetings,
presided over by great reviyalist.
He experienced a profound change in
his convictions OF duty, and deter
mined to devote his life to the active
promotion of religion. In the fol-
lowing autumn he began to study for
the ministry at seminary, and IN due
course entered on his labors as an
itinerant minister.
! 1t was suspected that his young
wife was much dissatisfied with their
changed prospects; but if so, she re-
, Trained from expressing her feelings,
even to her intimate friends, and set
herself faithfully to become help
meet to her husband in his chosen vo-
cation.
The ideal, popular clergyman of the
present generation appears to be a
personally graceful, eloquent, emo
tioual man. Jackson Williams was no
such man. In the pulpit he was con-
servative and dry in all that he said
or advised, and his defect of speech
helped his cautious words in making
him appear lacking in zeal and elo-
quence.
The ideal minister's wife, too,
seems to be an easygoing woman of q
social, sympathetic nature, not much
distressed about house or home, but
inclined to take life calmly and float
with the tide. Rosy Williams was
the reverse of that type. She longed
for something permanent and stable
in lie, and lay awake nights planning
how she might save twenty-five dol
larsa year from her husbands meagre,
uncertain salary. When their chill
dren, Dolly and Jackson, Jr., began
to 90 to school, she became even more
solicitous to shield them from the ill
consequences of their itinerant life.
But fate seemed against her. Jack
son Williams rarely remained for more
than year on one "circuit" or par
ish. The presiding elders Of his con-
ference had discovered his useful
qualities as well as his defects as a
preacher. Wherever there was n
church which was financially weak or
lacked parsonage, or was IN need Of
repairs or of reorganization, there
they sent Jackson Williams.
In such place his shrewdness,
thrift and good Hard sense came into
play, with the result that often in a
single year, always in two, the church
was repaired or rebuilt, or a new par
sonage erected or the church com.
mittees reorganized and stimulated to
activity, as the case called for. But
as consequence of the expenditures
which he got his parishioners to make
on the church, he usually left to &C
to another similarly degenerate place,
with half his small salary in arrears
and his wife in despair. For there
were numerous 'run down" churches
in our State, and the presiding elder!
kept my poor friend going.
- At Links Mills, where the Will
iamses were stationed during the yea
1898, the condition of affairs had, a
usual, been bad. The old parsonag,
had burned in October, 1897; anC
after the fire it was discovered that
owing to ,he neglect of the churcl
stewards, the insurance had been al
lowed to lapse months before.
Yet during that year Jackson Will
lams had contrived to get snug littl
. parsonage of five rooms built an
paid for, at cost Of only i've hun