I had made a mistake in choosing the calling of the Christian ministry. Soon after marriage I joined the Southeast Indiana Conference, and was immediately transferred to the California Mission. This was in September, 1852, when we left for our life work on the Pacific Coast.

My first appointment in California was at Diamond Springs, a mining town of two or three thousand people in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Everything was new and very primitive. Our first house was a mere shell, made of stakes driven in the ground and clapboarded with "shakes." It consisted of two rooms, kitchen and bedroom. For this we paid thirty-five dollars per month. Flour was forty dollars per barrel, and other provisions in proportion. We had a drygoods box for a table. Mrs. Turner had a temporary stool for a seat, and I a nail keg with a board for a cover. The rainy season soon set in, and when the rains were heaviest we had to use an umbrella at nights to keep the rain from our faces. But the people were exceedingly kind, and we soon adjusted ourselves to our new surroundings, and before the Conference year closed we had built a church and parsonage. Bishop Simpson, who was the second bishop who visited. California, dedicated our new church. He had known my wife in her girlhood. It was a great treat to have him with us and to hear him preach. I had the pleasure of accompanying him to Coloma, where gold was first discovered on the headwaters of the American River.

This year my labors were blessed with a revival, in which some forty or more were converted, all men, for women in California at that time were scarce and invaluable. Out of this revival there came four ministers of the Gospel, and a Sunday-school superintendent from the leading gambler of the town. Meetings were held in a temporary schoolhouse that would not seat over seventyfive people; but the house was crowded every night, and many stood outside and filled the window spaces where the sashes were removed. All this occurred in hot weather.

The case of the gambler was peculiar enough to speak

particularly of it. He came out of sheer curiosity. The large gambling saloon, where hundreds gathered every night, was near by. He seated himself near the door, by the side of an associate. I had not spoken more than ten minutes before he left the house. Soon he returned and resumed his seat. In a few minutes he left again, and soon returned. He left a third time, and returned. I assumed that he did it to disturb the meeting. The next night he was present. After the sermon, when an invitation was given he was the first to come. He kneeled at the bench. We were not certain what his motive was; but he came, I think, for three nights as a seeker, and was soundly converted. He told his experience, which produced a profound sensation, and it gave a fresh impulse to the revival. He said the first night of his attendance that they remembered his leaving the house three times and returning. He said that the Holy Spirit took hold of him with such power that he felt impelled to go out to a saloon near by and get a drink to drown his convictions, which he did three times that night. He united with the Church and became an efficient superintendent of the Sabbath-school. For eight years he was a power for good in that community, as he had been for evil before conversion. He was an educated man, and died in the triumphs of the Christian faith, as I was afterwards informed. The results of this meeting and the year's work greatly encouraged me, and did much to settle the question of my call to the Gospel ministry.

DEATH OF MY FIRST WIFE.

One of the severest trials of my life took place this year; namely, the sudden and unexpected death of my much endeared wife and efficient helper in my work. It was a terrible blow, that well-nigh unmanned me and seriously affected my health, besides leaving on my hands a helpless babe, a month old, with no relatives within three thousand miles to take care of him. But God put into the heart of a kind woman (Mrs. Hitchcock), who acted as mother to that dear boy (John C., now of Colfax, this

State). We laid her away in the little cemetery under the pines of the Sierras to await the resurrection of the just. The funeral services were very largely attended and deeply impressive. The Rev. Frank Rawlins, who had known her as a girl during his and my college days at Old Asbury, conducted the services, using as the text, "What we know not now, we shall know hereafter." This was my comfort in that great sorrow and bereavement.

Ann Staunton Cowgill, my first wife, was the daughter of Hon. John Cowgill, judge of the District Court of Indiana. She was a woman of deep and intelligent piety, and eminently fitted to fill her position as a Methodist preacher's wife. I regarded myself greatly fortunate in this union, as did the people in my first charge in California. My success in my first charge was due in no small measure to her valuable help. I make this tender testimonial due to her memory who was my devoted and efficient companion. Her death occurred June 1, 1853.

My second appointment in California was Santa Cruz, on the seacoast. Here I remained two and one-half years with impaired health, but in an unfavorable climate for me. I did my usual amount of work. I was given a vacation of three months, and went to the Hawaiian, or as they were then called, the Sandwich Islands, with hope of improvement, and found some help by this change.

LIFE IN THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.

The next Conference decided to make Honolulu an appointment, and sent me to it. Here I remained three years. I found seven members, Americans and English, and organized a Methodist Church. The second year of my pastorate here we built a church and parsonage, at a cost of about six thousand dollars, and had a gracious revival that increased the membership to about fifty. I labored in this revival ninety successive days, preaching every night and on Sabbaths twice, without any ministerial help. It was to my surprise and that of my people, that I seemed as fresh at the close as at the beginning, both as to voice and bodily health. Every night there were only

two or three seekers, which accounts for the long protracted effort. The loss of my companion, and the consequent impairment of my health, resulted in a deeper religious consecration and growth in grace under the blessings of God, I am glad to record.

During my pastorate here I received a letter from a Christian lady in Iowa, that did me much good in settling my doubts touching my call to the ministry. This letter was wholly unexpected, and from a person I did not know by her then present name. She introduced herself by asking if I remembered preaching frequently at the home of a Mr. Caps, while attending college at Old Asbury, in Greencastle, Indiana. She said: "I was then a small girl, about eight or nine years old. Your earnest and pointed sermons took hold of my childish heart, and became the means under God of my conversion. I have followed your course with great interest, and take this opportunity of expressing my sincere gratitude for your kindly interest in preaching in our neighborhood and in our house, and for its gracious results on my own life and on others in that community." I have learned from other sources that this woman was at this time superintendent of the State public schools of Iowa, and was prominent in Church and State for her ability. I said on receiving this letter, "Thank God for such a convert!"

The Lord knew how much I needed this word of comfort and encouragement, and sent it all the way from Iowa to the Sandwich Islands.

SECOND MARRIAGE.

Another event of supreme importance and value to me while in these islands was my second marriage, during a vacation from Honolulu, to Miss Susan E. Beecher, at Stockton, California, after four years as a lonely widThis union I regard as one of the greatest and sweetest fortunes of my life. Her qualifications as wife and helper in my work as pastor and teacher, of which ten years were in the educational field, were all that could be desired. She was a graduate of New York State Normal

ower.

School, and was a born teacher. Of this union we have had four children, two boys and two girls. My second son, William B., was born at Honolulu. Our boy Charles left us at an early age. The surviving children are a credit and great comfort to us as good and intelligent citizens. The recent death of Mrs. Turner has made a painful void in my home. It never will be filled till our union in the better and larger life. My Sandwich Islands experience is among the most valuable of my life in some respects, and I often run over it. During my residence there I made a visit to the great volcano on the Island of Hawaii, the largest of the group. This was in the year 1857. I also ascended Mauna Kea, being fourteen thousand feet above sea-level, and considered the highest mountain in the Pacific Ocean, the account of which was published in The National Magazine in 1857. An incident connected with the published account here given, is that Mark Twain. appropriated a large part of said article in his celebrated lecture on the Sandwich Islands, without giving due credit for it; but I forgive him, inasmuch as he told his hearers that the most remarkable fact was, "that these Islands were entirely surrounded with water," the best original hit of the lecture.

My associations with the old missionaries there were cordial and pleasant. They showed me many kindnesses and sympathy in my work while there, though of a different faith.

EDUCATIONAL Work.

I returned to California in September, 1859, and was appointed to Downieville, a mining town in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. From this place I was called to a professorship in the University of the Pacific, in Santa Clara. Here I remained two years, and was called to the principalship of the Napa Collegiate Institute, located at Napa City. Here I remained six years, and resigned on account of impaired health.

Ten years of my ministerial life have been spent in the educational work of the Church. My most congenial