The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-16
SEMI CEN ENN|AL OF
MINNESOTA NE H0DIsM|
REVIEW SHOWS WONDERFUL
GROWTH OF CHURCH.
Minutes of First Conference Shows
that Pioneer Preachers Took Passive
Stand on Slavery but Actively AS
sailed Intemperance-Dr. J. F. Chat
fee Selected to Preach Jubilee Ser
mon ~--- .~~-s.r -

The Northern Minnesota conference
of the Methodist Episcopal church will
hold it's annual session in the Henne-
pin Avenue church of this city Oct. 3
to 8, under the presidency of Bishop
Luther T. Wilson, ID.
This session OF the conference will
be of unusual interest from the fact
the organization of the Methodism of
Minnesota into a separate conference.
She event will be celebrated by the
two Minnesota conferences in a joint
meeting in st. Paul, where the Mime
sofa conference will in session under
the presidency of Bishop C. c. McCabe.
This meeting will be held Friday, Oct.
pm. Rev. j. F. Chaffee, one of the
veteran preachers of the conference,
will deliver the semi-centennial sermon.
First Conference. o.
The first session of the Minnesota
conference was held in Red Wing, in
the chapel of the preparatory depart
1856. In the absence of Bishop Simp-
son, who was stuck on a sandbar in
the Mississippi, and did not reach the
seat of the conference in time, the
conference was called to order by Rev.
Chauncey Hobart, and Rev. John Kerns,
d e1uef, was eleCCeu Ii.
There were present in that confer
ence twenty travelling elders and
sixteen probationers. The territory in
cluded in the new conference was the
western part of Wisconsin, the terri
tory OF Minnesota and westward with
out limit. Within the territory there
were six church buildings, two parson-
ages and college. The college had
been planted when there, were only
three church buildings in the territory.
At the session of the Wisconsin con
ference. held at Janesville,- Aug. 80
1854. the following report was acted
upon: our committee has received
a communication from the trustees of
a projected college in the. territory of
that early in the present year an eff
fort was made to establish a literary
institution of the first grade somewhere
in the territory named. That an act
Of incorporation was obtained from the
legislature. and the institution was
OPP, Hamline University Immedi-
ately after receiving the charter the
trustees organized and proceeded Z to
business. The first effort was to Sc.
cure that which is, in more senses than
one, 1.-THE sinews of war funds to
make the enterprise successful. 1t is
matter of congratulation that they
Bishop Hamline made the princely do
nation of $4,000, sundry other indi
viduals have donated in various sums
$4,000, making in all $4,000. We
may well congratulate the friends Of
education in that new but rapidly ris
1rg territory; on so suspicious a begin
ming
Thus the itinerant Methodist preach
er carried the seeds of colleges an(
seminaries in his saddlebags and plant
ed them all over this new land. !.
Growth of the Church.
WlxalH this territory, originally EN-
braced in the Minnesota conference
there are now eight annual confer
ences. In 1860 all the territory lyin.
east of the Wisconsin state line wa
cut off. In 1865 the German work wa
organized into separate conference
in 1877 the Swedish work was OF
gained; in 1886 the Norwegian an
Danish people set UP housekeeping TO
themselves; in 1884 the territory o
the Dakotas was cut off and made int
a mission conference; and in 1894, al
ter years of discussion, the Minnesot
conference divided into two confer
ences. -..-.' =.
At the organization of the first cor
ference there were in all the territorie
forty-fve travelling preachers, 81
churches, two parsOnages and 1876
members. There are now in the tw
Minnesota conferences alone, $40 tray
cling preachers, 448 churches valued a
5000 300; 203 parsonages, valued 4
$323,95O; and 35,667 members who ar
giving for the two items of ministerial