nearest ministerial neighborhood was in Chicago. These Congregational brethren organized at first only Presbyterian churches, and became themselves members of Presbyteries.

Next came, in 1829, the Illinois band of seven, from Yale Theological Seminary, having in view, as they expressed it in their agreement, as a leading object, the planting of an institution of learning in Illinois, which should help the West for all time; and these, with their associates, were the founders of Illinois College, Monticello Female Seminary and other educational institutions, which have blessed and will bless the State and the West for generations to come. The names of this band were, Theron Baldwin, Julian M. Sturtevant, Mason Grosvenor, John F. Brooks, Elisha Jenney, William Kirby and Asa Turner. To this list should be added the names of William Carter, Albert Hale, Flavel Bascom, Lucius Farnham and Romulus Barnes, who came to the State soon after, and were intimately associated with the first band in pioneer work in this State.

A nobler body of men never entered upon any missionary enterprise. This was the heroic age of Home Missions, and these men were the heroes and their wives the heroines.

It was my privilege to have a personal acquaintance with all of them, excepting Mr. Brooks and Mr. Barnes.

The last one of the twelve, Rev. Albert Hale, of Springfield, Illinois, passed away a few days since, at the advanced age of 92 years.*

The maximum annual salary pledged to each of these brethren when they began their work was $400.

In 1831, another Home Missionary band from Andover, Bangor and Princeton Seminaries, came to Illinois, one of whom, Rev. Jeremiah Porter, D. D., may rightfully be counted as a pioneer Congregational minister, although his first connection was as chaplain of United

4 Mr. Hale died Jan. 30, 1891.

States troops in Chicago and pastor of the first Presbyterian church here.

In 1833, came Dr. Edward Beecher, the first President of Illinois College, and Rev. Nathaniel C. Clark, who organized the first Congregational church in Northern Illinois, viz.: that near Naperville, and afterwards organized, or assisted in organizing, 37 other Congregational churches in the Fox River Valley, and who really is entitled to be designated as the pioneer organizer of Congregational churches in this State. Coming from Vermont, he brought with him a confidence in and love for the polity in which he had been educated, and all the churches gathered and organized by him adopted the same. It was my privilege to be intimately associated with him in the first years of my ministry, he being one of my nearest ministerial neighbors. He would not, perhaps, be regarded as a brilliant and popular preacher, yet was he, in the best sense, Biblical and instructive. His preaching was thoroughly evangelical. As a pastor, he was unwearied and successful. A peace-maker, he yet was firm and decided where principle was at stake. I recall his benignant face as he went about shepherding his flock, loved and honored of all; a wise counselor, a true and steadfast friend, unselfish, unworldly and spiritually-minded. He was truly a man of God, like Nathaniel of old, without guile. The abiding fruits of his fortyyears' ministry in the numerous churches planted and fostered by him are his best memorial.

Of others who came to Illinois previous to 1850, the names of Gridley, Reed, the two Lovejoys, Owen and E. P., the anti-slavery martyr at Alton; Wilcox, Pearson, Cook, Foot, Miles, Brown, Blanchard, Dodge, Grant, Hitchcock, Payne, Wright, Wells, Parker, Parsons, and Whittlesey, stand out prominently in my recollection of Pioneer Congregational Ministers in Illinois.

Said one of these Rev. S. G. Wright, one of the most successful and self-denying of the Pioneer Missionaries, to the Home Missionary Agent: "If there is any place

so hard, or with a salary so small that no one else will go there send me."

The names even of most of these are doubtless unfamiliar to the present generation. Yet they served God faithfully in their day, and laid deep and broad the foundations of churches and institutions, upon which we are now building.

This answers the question, in part, of who and what were the Pioneer Congregational Ministers of Illinois.

They were men of varied culture, talents, disposition and adaptation to pioneer work, but almost without exception they were men of marked ability, of thorough collegiate and theological education,-consecrated and self-sacrificing men, ready for any and every kind of service which should be required of them. They were, as a class, enterprising and hopeful, not easily disheartened by privations and difficulties; but, like Joshua and Caleb, they were ready to say, We be able to go in and possess this goodly land of Illinois for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Perhaps I ought to include in the list of Pioneer Congregational Ministers of Illinois, Rev. Dr. T. M. Post, who organized and was pastor for many years of the first Congregational church in Missouri and is claimed by that State as especially theirs. He came to Jacksonville in 1834, an unconverted, brilliant, scholarly young lawyer and was associated with President Sturtevant and Dr. Beecher, as a Professor in the new college there. Soon after he was led, as he says, to consecrate himself and his talents to Christ, through the influence of a simple act of heroic Christian fidelity on the part of the wife of Gov. Duncan. He united with the Congregational church at Jacksonville, and was ordained as a Congregational minister by the Illinois Association, in 1844.

I cannot forbear to quote from Dr. Post's letter to the daughter of Mrs. Duncan, the incidents connected with his conversion, as given by Rev. Dr. Roy, in THE AD

VANCE. He says.

"I found your father and mother under the shade of large trees in front of their house, surrounded by a company, mainly of crude, rough, stalwart men, of plain garb and speech, of primitive type, and bronzed, strongly-marked, shrewd faces, the backwoodsmen, political leaders of the newly emerging commonwealth. It was near the dinner hour, and rough tables were set in the shade of the lofty trees. Then, as we gathered around them, I shall never forget how your mother, a little, delicate, brave woman, solitary amid that company of men, arose, and as your father was not at that time a communicant in the church, offered thanks and craved a blessing on our repast. The scene and the incident gave one a glimpse into a share of the life of those times, and also characteristic of the Christian heroism of your gentle, sweet, true-hearted mother. I never forgot it. It affected me permanently in various ways, besides impressing me anew with a high admiration for her Christian principle and bravery." Dr. Post, subsequent to the occasion referred to, told one of the daughters, and wrote to another, that their mother at first asked him to crave the blessing, and that he was obliged to respond that he was not a Christian and must be excused. But he also informed both the daughters that the brave act of their mother was the means of his conversion.

WHAT DID THESE PIONEER MINISTERS DO?

Their first great work was that of exploration and planting of churches. This was a difficult and self-denying work at that early day. Oftimes it necessitated long journeys over trackless wastes, across bridgeless streams, with poor accommodations, much hard labor and poor pay.

Four of the Illinois band, viz.: Baldwin, Bascom, Kirby and Jenney, acting for a time as agents of the American Home Missionary Society, explored Northern and Central Illinois, many parts of which were unsettled

and unbroken prairie; holding meetings, gathering the scattered sheep of Christ's fold, planting churches and putting in operation those civilizing and Christianizing influences which have made this Empire State what it is to-day.

Let me give a single specimen of their work in this direction. In 1833, Rev. Theron Baldwin and Rev. Albert Hale made a tour of seven weeks, on horseback, from Jacksonville to Chicago, preaching by the way 57 sermons and holding several four days' meetings. On arriving at Chicago they found it a settlement of 300 inhabitants, with 22 drinking saloons. They also found here the pioneer minister, Rev. Jeremiah Porter, for whom they preached five times within a week.

The same year, Rev. Aratus Kent made a pioneer exploration trip across the country from Galena to Chicago, on horseback, lodging nights upon the prairie, as he found only one settlement on the way. He came to see if it was not time to start a mission at Fort Dearborn, but found the work already begun.

He reports in the Home Missionary: "I have rarely addressed a more attentive and apparently devout congregation than that which I met on Sabbath morning, in the garrison, and which, combining the people of the village and the gentlemen of the army, constituted a large assembly, for this country." He adds: "It is an important station, and if the pier, now commencing, should be permanent, and the harbor become a safe one, Chicago will undoubtedly grow as rapidly as any village in the Western country. A prophecy in 1833 which we have seen more than fulfilled in 1891. It is a significant fact, however, that all the pioneer missionaries did not see in the little settlement of 300, the germ of the greatness which their eyes have beheld in later days in a city of more than a million of inhabitants, for I have been told that our good Dr. Jeremiah Porter, thinking at that time, with others, that St. Joseph, across the lake, was