hout a fitting tribute to Archbishop John
Ireland would be incomplete indeed.

The representatives of the Protestant faith have not been behind their
Catholic brethren in providing religious facilities for their
adherents. They followed immigration closely, and sometimes accompanied
it. Scarcely would an aggregation of people congregate at any one
point in sufficient numbers to gain the name of a village, or a
settlement, before a minister would be called and a church erected.
The church went hand in hand with the schoolhouse, and in many instances
one building answered for both purposes. There came Lutherans from
Germany and Scandinavia, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians,
Congregationalists, Calvinists, Universalists, Unitarians, and every
sect into which Protestantism is divided, from New England and other
Eastern States. They all found room and encouragement, and dwelt in
harmony. I can safely say, that few Western States have been peopled by
such law-abiding, industrious, moral and religious inhabitants as were
the first settlers of Minnesota. There was nothing to attract the
ruffianly element,--no gold, silver, or other mines; the chief industry
being peaceful agriculture. So free from all disturbing or dangerous
elements did we consider our territory that I have on several occasions
taken a wagon loaded with specie, amounting to nearly one hundred
thousand dollars, from St. Paul to the Indian agencies at the Redwood
and Yellow Medicine rivers, a distance of two hundred miles, through a
very sparsely settled country, without any guard except myself and
driver, with possibly an Indian picked up on the road, when I was
entitled to a squad of dragoons for the asking.

In the early days the Episcopal Church in Minnesota was within the
diocese of Wisconsin, and its functions administered by the venerable
Bishop Kemper, who occasionally made us a visit, but in 1859 the church
had expanded to such an extent that the state was organized into a
separate diocese, and the Rev. Henry B. Whipple, then rector of a church
in Chicago, was elected bishop of Minnesota, and still retains that high
office. Bishop Whipple, by his energy, learning, goodness and universal
popularity, has built up his church in this state to a standard
surpassed by none in the respect in which it is held and the influence
for good which it exerts. The official duties of the bishop have been so
enlarged by the growth of his church as to necessitate