CHAPTER XXI.

Mr. Gurley returns to Huron county-Improvement of countryCircuit preaching-James Gurley becomes a preacher-Mr. Gurley settles in Milan-His extensive labors-His second son convertedJoins Ohio conference-Traveling and local preachers-Pattee and M'Intire-Mr. Gurley ordained elder-His age and death-His character.

MR. GURLEY resided in Zanesville a little over six years; he then returned to his farm in the northern part of the state, which he reached in February, 1819.

The lapse of six years had but little improved the firelands. Although, after the close of the war, many new settlers arrived, yet but little improvement was visible. Sandusky City, Norwalk, and Milan, had, however, just been laid out, and a few buildings were erected in each.

Among the new settlers who had arrived since the war, were a number from Connecticut, who were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. As a society was formed in Perkins, and in some other places in the county, and Rev. Alfred Brunson was on the circuit, Mr. Gurley resided, during the spring and summer, at Perkins. Soon after the arrival of the family there, a good work of grace commenced in the neighborhood. Among those who united with the Church was James Gurley, then in his eighteenth year. In about six months he was licensed to exhort; and at the first local preachers' district meeting held in Newark, in 1820, he was licensed to preach. He was subsequently admitted into the Ohio annual conference, within whose bounds he has traveled nearly twenty years; but at the last session of that body he was transferred to the Missouri conference, and appointed to the charge of the Wyandott Indian mission.

His conversion and call to the ministry were in the

highest degree gratifying to his parents, who were ambitious of no higher honor for their son than that he should become a faithful and useful Methodist preacher.

In the autumn of 1818 Mr. Gurley exchanged his farm near Bloomingville for one two miles west of Milan. This, with the aid of his sons, he improved, and continued on it till his death. He was now about sixty, a time of life when most ministers seek repose from their accustomed labor and toil; but he was, apparently, in his strength and prime.

A wide and comparatively-destitute field of labor now opened before him, and into it he entered with a zeal and endurance almost incredible. Certain it is that it was his common practice to walk, almost every week, winter and summer, from five to eighteen miles and back, to give Sabbath preaching to destitute places. He usually went, if it was far, on Saturday, and returned on Monday. This, together with the frequent calls to funerals, necessarily made a heavy draft on his time, which most men in his circumstances would have thought they could not well afford; but never was worldly interest known to weigh a feather with him when called to preach Christ.

The following places, with some others, shared in his frequent labors: Milan, Huron, Perkins, Berlin, Florence, Vermilion, Strong's Ridge, Bloomingville, and Sandusky City. Few of these places had Sabbath preaching. For nearly twenty years did Mr. Gurley continue thus his gratuitous labors: not a forest in the county but he had threaded; not a prairie but he had crossed; and frequently, in cold weather, he must off with shoes and stockings, and wade the "swails" which then abounded, and were filled with water. Subsequently, he would ride to his appointments. For the last ten years of his life he preached but seldom; he was about eighty-five when he preached his

ast sermon.

No man, it is believed, has preached in that county so many funeral discourses as he. He often remarked, "What multitudes have I buried, and nearly all of them younger than myself!" He usually attended all the quarterly meetings on the circuit; and it is questionable whether any local preacher in modern times has been in labors more abundant.

Soon after Mr. Gurley's return to the north, his third daughter (Eliza) died, at the age of sixteen; his two elder daughters were married: they both became members of the Church. They subsequently removed to the state of Indiana, where their husbands were successfully engaged in the cultivation of the soil.

In the year 1824 the second son of Mr. Gurley, then twenty years of age, embraced the truth, and united with the Church. In 1828 he was admitted on trial, as a traveling preacher, in the Ohio conference.*

Thus had Mr. Gurley the satisfaction of seeing two of his sons in the itinerant field. He has been heard frequently to say, that he could now see why the providence of God had led him to the wilds of Ohio.

He lived to see the work of God greatly revive and extend throughout the rapidly-settling country. It would be too great a digression to notice in this work the different ministers, traveling and local, who fought, side by side in that region, the battles of the Lord. I will, however, take a passing glance at a few of them.

As leaders of the host, we may name James M'Mahon, William Swayze, Jacob Young, and Russell Bigelow, all of whom were zealous presiding elders. Amongst those who traveled on that circuit in early times, are found the names of Alfred Brunson, Dennis Godard, Shadrach Ruarch, and Adam Poe.

*The writer of this work.

There were a number of local preachers who, with com mendable zeal, took part in the work of spiritual husbandry. Two of these were more distinguished than others-True Pattee and James M'Intire. These were both acceptable and useful preachers, but widely different men.

Pattee was a well-built and fine-proportioned man, with a manner easy and graceful; M'Intire was tall, raw-boned, and loose-jointed, naturally reminding one of Pharaoh's "lean kine." Pattee dressed well, with broadcloth coat and neat cravat; M'Intire wore a blue hunting-shirt, tow pants, and shirt of the same material, the bosom of which was fastened with an Indian broach; while the brown collar lay open on his shoulder, exposing his long, sinewy neck.

The former was a dignified-looking man in the pulpit; the latter could be dignified in no attitude, graceful in no movement. Pattee studied to please and persuade; M'Intire to enlighten and convince. The former addressed the softer passions; the latter appealed to the judgment. The one conciliated and pleased, by his suavity of manner and natural elocution; the other astonished by his depth of thought, and the originality and simplicity of his illustrations.

Pattee would throw before the audience some pleasing truth, strew around it some flowers of rhetoric, and leave his hearers delighted with both it and himself; M'Intire, with the first glance of his small, piercing eye, would seem to penetrate every intellect and every heart. He would then lead his audience along, disentangling some complicated subject-pursuing some distant, but important conclusion— exposing to contempt and laughter some specious sophistry; or, with some withering irony or scorching sarcasm, completely storm the bulwarks of the enemy. The former could entertain an assembly for an hour; the latter enchain one for three. They were both good and useful men, adapted to the times in which they flourished;

both had seals to their ministry, and their record is on high.

In 1831 the Ohio conference held its session in Mansfield. Mr. Gurley attended, and was elected to elder's orders, and ordained by Bishop Hedding: he was then in his seventy-fifth year. He was not solicitous of this honor, believing that it would seldom be necessary for him to exercise its functions; he yielded, however, to the solicitations of others, and consented to be ordained. Advanced as he was in years, he had several times the opportunity, in the absence of a traveling elder, at large meetings, to administer the sacrament. As he advanced in years, his presence at the quarterly meetings, which he punctually attended, produced a marked impression. His frame, bowed with the weight of ninety years, his animated face, his lively step and cheerful air, his flowing silver locks, drew the attention of all; while the original remarks he often made, and the deeply-interesting details of his long experience, related in the most graphic, yet humble and affecting manner, often produced a very deep sensation in the congregation, and sometimes an extraordinary overflow of Christian sympathy. As a token of their respect and affection, the quarterly conference of the Norwalk circuit, on motion of the Rev. Edward Thomson, then Principal of the Norwalk Seminary, passed a resolution, requesting "father Gurley" to sit for his portrait, which should be preserved by the stewards as the property of the quarterly conference or circuit. Some twenty dollars were contributed for the purpose, an artist was employed, and an excellent portrait on canvas produced, which is preserved in the "Baldwin Institute," a seminary under the patronage of the North Ohio annual conference.

The temporal circumstances of Mr. Gurley, for the last twenty years of his life, though not affluent, were easy.