chose to adopt the latter.
Having provided board for my wife and child with Rev. M.L. Noble, and
secured a horse and buggy, I was ready to enter upon my work.

The First Quarterly Meeting was held at Fond du Lac. The Church edifice
was unfinished, and the celebrated school house having been burned, as
stated in a former chapter, the Meeting was held in the Court House. At
that time the building, though now so dingy, was new, and aspired to be
the most respectable edifice in the village. To prepare the Court House
especially for the Quarterly Meeting, the floors were newly carpeted
with sawdust, even then a famous product of the village, and the seats
well broomed. The place was crowded with people, and the occasion one of
rare interest. The Gospel was dispensed from the "Seat of Justice," the
Sacrament was administered within the "Bar," now vacated by the lawyers,
and the people knelt outside to receive the sacred emblems. Several of
the Members present had attended the Quarterly Meeting in the school
house six years before, and among them were a few who had known me from
my boyhood. It afforded me great pleasure to meet them and receive
their friendly greetings.

Rev. J.S. Prescott, the Pastor at Fond du Lac, had been bred to the
legal profession in the State of Ohio. He came to Wisconsin as a Local
Preacher, and joined the Conference in 1846. He had been stationed at
Sheboygan, Waupun, and Green Bay. He was a man of sharp, decisive
movements, sometimes angular in his opinions and measures, but full of
energy and not afraid of hard work. He kept no horse, even when on the
largest circuits, as he could not afford to wait for so laggard a
conveyance. In this particular he became notorious, and marvelous
stories are related of his pedestrian abilities. It is affirmed that, on
one occasion, in going to the Conference, he walked from Waupun to
Platteville, and reached his destination in advance of the long line of
ministerial buggies that were headed in that direction. Carrying the
same energy into every Department of his work, he always left his
"footprint" behind him. But his most devoted friends would sometimes
question the wisdom of his measures. Even in the small village of Fond
du Lac, he had now two churches in process of erection. But such was his
skill in raising funds at home and abroad that one of them was dedicated
by Bishop Ames at the close of the year and the other by the writer in
the year following.

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