Middletown transcript., 1914-08-08

Superintendent read the report, the en-
tire Conference arose and gave me the
Chautauqua salute. Only twenty-eight
people arose in the large congregation,
that they were members of
the church during my ministry, and only
one official member, Wesley Vanover
During Saturday and Sunday afternoon,
I called upon the aged and infirm who
could not attend the services. My visit
at the bedside of the poetess, Mrs. E.
A. B. Mitchell, who had long been an
invalid, seemed quite on the verge of
heaven. After singing and prayer,
with smile of triumph, she said, "Our
next meeting will be in heaven" As
I reluctantly withdrew, she presented
to me volume Of her poems, entitled,
''The Lake of Peace, recently issued,
that I might commune with her through
her writings.
AtIlion, Herkimey County, New York
the town founded by the Remingtons,
and the home of my boyhood, l visited
my brother and sister, Howard Caswell,
and Mrs. ]. R. Pelton. preached here
the Sunday morning sermon of May Sd,
and stated that forty-nine years before,
the officials of that church had given
me the license to preach, and that my
first exhortation was delivered in that
building. The fine auditorium was
packed to its utmost capacity and the
hour seemed the most memorable in my
life. l knew l had one devoted listener
-Eliphalet Remington, the only re-
naming member of that noble family.
l saw another face which also inspired
me-that of Charles Harter, the leading
banker and business man of the town,
who was my chum in the Sunday School
class and who went with me to the altar
of prayer at the time of our conversion.
After the soul reunions at the close
of the sermon, my two nephews Frank
and Edwin Pelton. merchants in Herki-
mer, conveyed me and their Illion friends
in their automobiles to their homes in
Herkimer for dinner. While dining
with MIR. Edward Pelton, whose wife
was Miss Maude Millington, we were
introduced to Mrs. Mary Phelps, a
great aun5 of the Millingtons, who was
born in Salisbury, Herkimer County, N.
Y, July II, 1915, and is hopefully ex-
pecting to reach the century line in one
more year. Mrs. Phelps, who united
with the Methodist Episcopal Church
when she was sixteen years of age,
said that her family had been a sub
scriber to the New York Christian Ad-
vocate ever since its publication began,
in 1926 First, her father, Charles
Lamberson, then her sister, Mrs. Mill
ington, and now herself, are the three
persons who have enjoyed every issue
of this Advocate of Methodism. l i'm
mediately thought, "What an adver-
tisement for a Christian newspaper, it
would be, if every subscriber would re-
mark to visiting friends as she did to
me, Have you seen the last issue of
the Advocate?' 3" The Bible, the hymn
book and the Advocate were her preci=
GUS literary treasures.
Mrs. Phelps related several touching
incidents of her early religious life, one
of which she remembers as given in the
second issue of the Advocate. Her
motto has been ''Never worry" Her
nephew, Mr.. Charles Millington, who
recently passed from this life, was one
of the leading business men of Central
N. Y. banker, Congressman and for
few years, Assistant United States
Treasurer, with an office in New York
City.
Herkimer being my birthplace, l
thought of some of the men 1 knew in
my youthful days-Judge Ezra Graves,
Judge Robert Earl, Senator Warner
Miller, John W. Vrooman, Mr.. Foltz,
and many others. My uncle Hon.
Francis E. Spinner, whose splendid
home was located in Mohawk, a town
between Herkimer and Lion, where
spent many happy youthful days, was
one of the most distinguished men of
the Mohawk Valley. He was General
of the militia, for many years a Con-
gresham, until he was appointed United
States Treasurer, his signature being
upon all the currency of the war period
In 186QIhe offered to appoint the writer
to the Naval Academy at Annapolis,
but not expecting to become a sailor or
a soldier, declined. While Christian
Commission delegate at the close of the
war in Washington, l often had brief
interviews with my uncle. One day, he
gave me a note to General Hunter,
which admitted me to the triaf of the
conspirators who assassinated Lincoln.
General Spinner was a son of Rev. John
Spinner, D. D., who was the first pas
tor of the Fort Herkimer Dutch Re-
formed Church, from 1902 to 1848.
On returning to lion, I sought out the !
new Baptist church, which has taken
the place of the old Union edifce, where
in 1857, was converted to Christ. 1