Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1918-08-15

The Northwest territory was organ
lied in 1887 and included all north OF
the Ohio river and west of Pennsyl-
vania as far as the Mississippi river.
Within this territory the domain of
Wisconsin continued until 1900, when
it became a part Of the Territory OF
Indiana, formed that year. 1t after
wards became part OF the territory
of Illinois and then of Michigan, until
in 1886 it was organized into a terri
tory, bearing its present name and
including all the domain OF the pres
ent state of Iowa. In 1848 it was ad-
mitted into the union, making the
thirtieth state on our national banner.
Probably the first Protestant rell-
giOus organization in this territory
was formed in 1929 in Green Bay by
an act of the legislature of Michigan
territory, in which this state was then
included, called the Protestant Epis-
copal church. A mission school was
established for the benefit of the va
rious Indian tribes that inhabited this
region from time immemorial.
In May, 1882, the sixth delegated
general conference of the Methodist
Episcopal church was held in Phila-
delphia. The committee on missions
recommended "the extension of the
aboriginal missions in the western and
northwestern frontiers"
John Clark was appointed the first
missionary Circuit rider" in this vast
field, and prepared at once for his
long and perilOus journey, reaching
Green Bay on July Fl, 1882, four years
before Wisconsin was organized into
a territory. The origin of the term
Circuit rider" as applied to the early
Methodist preachers, grew out of the
nature of their methods and expert
ences in prosecuting their work. They
travelled mostly on horseback through
the wilderness in by-paths and Indian
trails, making appointments in log
cabins or wherever a pioneer had
built his hut and then covering
large territory, making it perhaps
six weeks or two months circuit, and
regularly appearing again at the ap-
pointed time, thus riding his circuit,
sometimes several hundred miles in
extent.
In those days the preachers were
named somewhat after their character
and duties: exhorters, local preachers,
circuit riders, etc. Some jOkers para
phrased these names to suit their own
impressions probably, and called them
"exhausters," locust preachers" and
Circus riders" But however they
might be exhausted in listening to the
former, it was no circus for the horse
back man with his saddle bags to hunt
up the" lost sheep Of the House OF
Israel" in this new and vast region,
exposed continually to all the dlscom-
forts of pioneer life among Indians,
wild beasts, and sleeping in the woods
with his saddle for pillow. or in some
log hut occupied by numerous fam
lily and some other things, with food,
if any, not very convenient for him.
Take for instance an experience Civ
en- in a History of Methodism in Wis
cOnsin by P. S. Bennett and James
Lawson, to which the writer is indebt-
ed for many historical facts:
Might overlook him as he reached
an Indian cabin and he was COM
PEELED to turn in The family seemed
to make him welcome in broken Eng
lish, but everything indicated filth, if
not something worse. Supper was
soon ready, and he was cordially in
vited to partake. 1t consisted mainly
of fish, boiled as taken from the wa
ter. He dared not refuse, but his APP
petite did not crave a very large pOr-
ton of it. Certain domestic animals
of different kinds that occasionally
awaken considerable interest abound
ed in some of the huts in which the
itinerant of those days was obliged to
lodge. Not infrequently were the
houses so open that a driving snow
storm in the night would cover up the
bed of a sleeper with white blanket
several inches thick"
Some of these circuits in an early
day were sufficiently extensive to
meet anu CudlIE1SS CuC 1IShCNOU0 GYM
bition of the most cOnsecrated and
devoted men. For instance, the afOre-
said John Clark was denOminated
presiding elder of Chicago district.
His field of labor was bounded on the
north by Lake Superior, on the south
by Ottawa, H., on the east by Lake
Michigan, and on the west by the
verge of civilization.
AS early as 1885 DR.. Alfred Brunson
from Pennsylvania was put in charge
of the Galena district, which included
the Indian missions on the upper Mis-
sissipp.i Later this man of iron, with
heart as tender as a mothers and
an uprightness like the Statue of Lib
erty, brought his house in the knock
down from Pennsylvania and erected
it in Prairie du Chen, and from that
point radiated throughout the state,
until at the advanced age of SO years,
in 1882, he passed to his "house not