The Sauk Centre herald., 1917-01-25

the ardour of the Congregational
church people who had planned to eel
ebrate the fftieth anniversary of their
church organization and surprising
ly good crowd had assembled when the
familiar strains of the "Old Hun
dredth" burst from the organ and the
congregation rose to sing:
Cali people that on earth do dwell
Sing to the Lord with cheerful
voice
Him serve with mirth, His praise
forth tell
Come We before Him and rejoice" !"
1t was evident that it would take
more than bad weather to spoil the
service, for there was a spirit of joy
and thanksgiving which could not be
denied. After the preliminry exercis-
es came the anthem praise Ye the
Father" and it was worth Drawing the
storm to hear the choir, which had
been but slightly augmented for the
occasion, render this anthem. 1t
rolled through the church and hurled
defiance at the storm carrying with it
a strong note of praise which exhiler-
ated the whole congregation.
One of the most interesting and
touching parts of the service was tn
reading of the letters from former
pastors and charter member. Rev,
Sparkes stated before reading the let
ters that replies had not been receiv-
ed from all the former pastors written
to but this was probably due to the
fact that ministers move frequently
and it is often hard to keep in touch
with them. The first letter was that
from Rev. C. S. Harrison the minister
who preached the first sermon in Saul
Centre. He is now "a years of age
but his letter shoms that his mind is
clear and his wonderful faculties still
unimpaired.. The following is his let
ter:
York, Neb., Jan. 13, 1917.
To the Congregational Church of
Sauk Centre, Greetings
As turn over the pages of memory
many things of deep interest rise be-
fore me. / am now "a years old
and it seems as If I had lived in two
or three different worlds.
/ have seen the stalwart West grow
up from babyhood. When II years old
I came West from New York state.
While father was sick I hunted the
dirty little village of Chicago over for
a peck of potatoes. In 1857 / went as
Home Missionary to Paynesville.
There was a tract of country 100
miles in extent, reaching from Cold
Springs to Alexandria where / was the
first minister on the ground. Of course
l went before the roads and bridges
came. have been nearly drowned and
frozen and have had the great timber
wolves howl along my track al
most broken hearted because they
,couldn'e have the missionary raw and
warm for supper. l was lost on a
great prairie New Years night of '58,
and never got in till 2 o'clock in the
morning. 1t was one of the coolest
nights of the winter.
In the spring Of 1860 Methodist
minister moved into Paynesville, and
I determined to go to Sauk Centre.
think ! preached the first sermon
there in the early winter of go AT
Paynesville my salary was only what
the Home Missionary Society gave me,
$3.50. They agreed to do better at
Sauk Centre, but my salary did not
reach more than $3.50 while there. !
remember the first check I got from
the Missionary Society. 1t seemed
an insignificant bit of paper. won
dered if l could get groceries for it.
We were then reduced to bread and
butter. I went to St. Cloud; the mer-
chant grabbed it up, gave me what l
wanted and threw out the balance in
gold and silver. 1 hurried home lader.
with supplies. We were rich.
Just before starting to move to
Sauk Centre I was thrown from my
horse and my arm was badly broken.
/ had to send to st. Cloud 60 mills S
away for doctor. He came in Sc
hours. How I suffered. Before my
arm got we'll got yoke Of oxen
and moved our goods to Sauk Centre.
I then helped one of the James boys
build his log house, and then gave him
his board for the rest of it. The long
trains of carts Of the Hudson Bay Co.,
passed our door, One man had some
buffalo robes partly damaged so as to
be quite ,nen-salable. l bought two,
made q good overcoat and six pairs OF
moccasins out of them, cutting and
making them myself.
When went back to Paynesville for
my wife and our first born, my wife
was poorly and baby sick. She was
almost in despair, saying: "What are
we going to do, baby is sick, we must
leave our home we have worked so
hard for and go among entire strsng-
ers; we are out of money."I cheered
her as well as I could and went dow
TO the postoffice and found lc-ter
from Rev. F. L. Cuyler of BROOKLYN.
and draft from his mother for $50.