Eagle Lake Campmeeting 1876

It was now nearly time for our yearly camp meeting to be held at Eagle Lake, Blue Earth County, about one hundred and fifty miles away. We started from Grove Lake with four covered wagons. We passed through Paynesville, Greenleaf, Litchfield, Hutchinson, New Auburn, St. Peter, and Kasota on our way. As we journeyed, our train increased continually until we became a large company. As we neared New Auburn, we entered the grasshopper region. The hoppers were by the countless millions. The country before them was smiling with grown crops; behind them was desolation. Some fields of grain were eaten as clean as though nothing had grown there at all. The people were out with cotton sacks attached to hoops, trying to catch the pests. Although they caught millions, it did not seem to lessen the myriads of hoppers to any perceptible extent. The festive hopper has given this part of Minnesota a wide berth for many years.

We had an excellent camp meeting. It was there I saw Brother and Sister White for the first time, the two most prominent pioneers in the third angel's message. Their labors were very highly appreciated by us. I was ordained at that camp meeting to the work of the gospel ministry by the laying on of hands by Elders White and Smith. Brethren Dimmick and Ellis were ordained at the same time. We felt to renew our consecration to the work of God. Although the harvest was great and the laborers few, the sound of the message was carried to all parts of the State, and believers and churches were multiplied. The few workers shrank from no toil or hardship in order to carry the glad tidings everywhere, that the return of our absent Lord is at the door.

Round Prairie Fall 1876

After Camp Meeting, Brother Ferdinand Morse and myself pitched our tent on Round Prairie, near Greenwood, where I had labored the previous spring. There was no village near, yet the tent was often filled to overflowing.

The people had heard that Old Hill, who had held meetings in Greenwood had pitched his tent on the prairie, and they were curious to see and hear him. They expected to see an old man all wrinkled and gray. They could scarcely believe the young man of thirty-two, with