p.

Brother Hanson after leaving Milwaukee filled several important charges,
and then retired from the work. For several years he served as the
representative of our national government at Liberia, where he fell
under the fatal malaria of the African coast, and passed on to the
better country.

The next session of the Conference was held Aug. 12, 1846. At this
Conference Rev. S.H. Stocking was continued on the District, and Rev.
W.M.D. Ryan was appointed to the station. Mr. Ryan entered the Ohio
Conference in 1839, and came by transfer to the Rock River Conference in
1844. After spending two years in Chicago, where he had wrought a good
work for the Master, he was sent to this charge.

The fame of the Preacher had preceded him, and he was greeted by immense
congregations. His ministry formed an epoch in the history of the
church. He brought the same earnest manner, the same fiery eloquence,
and the same shrewd business tact that had characterized his labors in
Chicago and elsewhere, and which have since placed him in the front rank
of successful laborers in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and the Metropolis of
the nation. The stores in the Church edifice were rented or sold for a
term of years to liquidate the indebtedness of the society, and the
church was placed on a substantial financial basis. But Mr. Ryan could
hardly feel at home among his new associates, and in this new field of
labor. His earlier associations were formed in a more southern latitude.
The Puritan type of society that, traveling westward on a line from New
England, had struck Milwaukee, was not congenial to his tastes and not
wholly in harmony with his methods of ministerial labor. At the end of
nine months he was invited to a pastorate in the city of Baltimore, and
he deemed it advisable to accept the invitation. His place in Milwaukee
was filled by Rev. Francis M. Mills, who came, by exchange with Mr.
Ryan, from the charge in Baltimore to which the latter had been invited.
Mr. Mills filled out the balance of the year.

Among the accessions to the charge this year was Hon. John H. Van Dyke.
Soon after his arrival, though a young man, he became an official
member, and has continued to hold positions of trust to the present
writing. A man of thorough mental training, sound judgment, and
unswerving integrity, he cannot fail to command the respect and esteem
of all. His legal abilities have specially fitted him for the Presidency
of the Board of Trustees