Phineas F. Bresee - A Prince In Israel - Media Sabda Org

The Galesburg Circuit
When the appointments were read at conference, young Bresee was sent to what was called the
Galesburg circuit, which was made up of the "tail ends" of two or three other circuits. It was out on
the prairie, without center or circumference, having no churches and no parsonage. There were half
a dozen places for preaching, mostly in schoolhouses. The little hamlet which gave its name to the
charge, had in it perhaps twenty persons, living in a cluster of four or five houses. Of this crisis in
his ministry, Doctor Bresee says: "The appointment, of course, seemed to me considerable of a
hardship, as I had appeared to have had very fair success and much better appointments. I felt grieved
about it, though I did not give any expression to the feeling. It was in going there that there came
over me such an awful determination that, if there was anything in the country, it should go; the thing
should move--such an awful determination to win and succeed in accomplishing something. I had
a very good horse, which I immediately traded off to get a poorer horse, and money enough to pay
my debts on the circuit where I had lived, so that there need be no feeling of lack of confidence in
a Methodist preacher."
The only place they could secure in which to live, was one room with a very small bedroom
connected with it, access to which was gained solely by going through the living room of the people
who owned the house. Into this place they moved with Ernest, their first child, who was born while
his father was at conference. They dwelt in these quarters for several months. The young preacher
told his brethren that, as there was no money in the country, anything that they brought for
quarterage, from chips to saw mills, would be very acceptable. Most of the quarterage was paid in
wheat and dressed hogs. The young folks had a large bin filled with wheat, and were given such
vegetables as the country produced.
In the midst of the year, a preacher by the name of J. H. Early, was driven out of Missouri by the
Ku Klux, as were most of the preachers of the Methodist Episcopal church at that time. In those
days, Missouri was too hot a place for Methodist preachers of what they called the "Church North."
Brother Early had a span of small horses and a light wagon, in which he had escaped from Missouri.
As he had to earn a living, Doctor Bresee suggested to him that they hire eighty acres of prairie land
in that vicinity which had been broken up by the plow, the idea being that Bresee would furnish the
wheat, and Early could use his team to cultivate the land. As a result of this agricultural enterprise,
which was fairly successful, young Bresee was able to sell his wheat and get a little money. He
determined that he would not get in debt again, and in order to assist him in carrying out this resolve,
he bought a pair of little mules, and broke them.
I remember talking to Doctor Bresee about these mules a short time before his death, and the
mention of the little animals provoked a smile, and awakened pleasant memories. On a prior
occasion he described the mules as follows: "They made the gayest little team that I ever saw. They
were just two rabbits in their get-up and travel. I put a tongue in my old buggy, and there was
sleighing all winter, the finest sleighing I ever saw. I got me a little sleigh in some way, and used to
drive those mules. They were the greatest team I ever drove. If I wanted to go five or six miles, they
would run with all their might. One fellow said 'that preacher Bresee would drive the Devil to death,'
and I suggested to him that I would undertake the job, if he would hitch him up. One of those mules
was the wildest, ugliest animal that almost ever lived. I found out afterward that a man could hardly