al and Platt Lake; the South Parish, with one church, Grace,
and five out-stations, South Chapel, Demerley, East Joyfield, Liberty
Union, and South Elberta; while between these is the Central Parish, with
Benzonia on the hilltop and Beulah in the valley, half a mile distant.

The map represents the western half of Benzie County, and the various
churches, chapels, and other out-stations are designated.

I

THE HISTORICAL SETTING OF THE STORY

The story of New England with the Pilgrims left out could be neither
understood nor appreciated. We must know something about those sturdy,
conscientious men and women who became exiles and crossed the stormy
Atlantic that they might have "freedom to worship God." We must understand
something about the barren and the wintry coast that received them,
something of their struggles and sufferings, their aims and aspirations,
if we would know the history of that civilization that they founded, or
get a true conception of the experiment in democracy that they so
successfully wrought out.

The story that is about to be told had its Pilgrims. To leave them out
would be to spoil the story. It cannot be understood without knowing
something of their heroic spirit, their sincere devotion, and the manner
in which they permanently impressed their ideas and their personality upon
the community which they founded and the institutions which they planted.
Some account of its historical setting will be necessary in order to make
this story of country evangelization complete.

The half century between 1825 and 1875 witnessed the most remarkable
educational movement that our country has ever seen. It was the era of
college planting. During that period a line of Christian colleges was
projected from New York to California, many of which have been developed
and stand to-day as monuments to the zeal and foresight of that remarkable
generation of nation builders. The value of their work, and its influence
for good upon the people and the institutions of the most populous, the
wealthiest, and the most influential section of our country cannot be
estimated.

In 1858 a company of people from northern Ohio, who had lighted their
torch of religious and educational enthusiasm at the flame of Oberlin,
came into the vast wilderness of northern Michigan with the purpose of
planting there Christian institutions. They were high-minded, sturdy
people, with strong religious convictions. The Pilgrims did n