skirted on the north by groves of timber, through which ran the west branch of Rock River, and fringed on the south by extended openings, it took us captive at once.  Passing up the stream two or three miles we found the looked for water-power, and abundance of unappropriated lands.  By setting our stakes on the crown of the prairie, and making the lines pass down to the river and through the belt of timber, sufficient land of the right quality could be secured for the whole family, including, also, the desired water-power.  To decide upon this spot as our future home, was the result of a brief consultation.  All thought of going to Iowa was now abandoned.  Obtaining a load of lumber, which was all that could be secured for either love or money, a shanty was immediately erected for the accommodation of the family.  Was it a providential intervention that assigned us our home and field of labor in this new and rapidly populating portion of Wisconsin, rather than the city of Dubuque?

Society in its formative state needs, above all other agencies, the salutary influences of religion.  To provide these and give them efficiency among the people, the presence and labors of the Gospel ministry, and the establishment of churches, are a necessity.  To secure these at the outset requires the emigration of ministers from the older States as well as people.  Perhaps the motives of neither class in coming will always bear a thorough scrutiny; yet who shall say that their coming is not under the general direction of Providence?  Nor is it improbable that the hasty steps that seem to bear the unwilling servant from the presence of the Master are the very ones that most speedily bring him face to face with his duty.

CHAPTER II.

The Young Itinerant.—­In a Lumber Mill at Waupun.—­The Surprise.—­An Interval of Reflection.—­A Graceful Surrender.—­The Outfit minus the Horse and Saddlebags.—­Receives Instruction.—­The Final Struggle.—­Arrives at Brothertown.—­Reminiscences of the Red Man.—­The Searching Scrutiny.—­The Brothertown People.—­The Mission.—­Rev. Jesse Halstead.—­Rev. H.W.  Frink.

In March, A.D. 1845, a letter from Rev. Wm. H. Sampson, then Presiding Elder of Green Bay District, Rock River Conference, found me at Waupun.  The intervening nine months, since our arrival in the preceding July, had been spent in making improvements upon the land I had selected, and in the erection of a lumber mill, of which I was in part proprietor.

The bearer of the letter found me in the mill, engaged in rolling logs to the saw and in carrying away the lumber.  I opened the letter and glanced at its contents.  To my surprise and utter consternation it contained a pressing request that I would take charge of the Brothertown Indian Mission until the next session of the Conference, as the Missionary, Rev. H.W.  Frink, had been called away by family afflictions.  I instinctively folded the letter