REMINISCENCES. 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 WILLIAM HOBART MRE, 
 
 Missionary Bishop op South Dakota, 
 
 AT A J<ERVICE CO.MMEMOllATIVE OF THE FIFTEENTH 
 ANNIVERSARY OF HIS CONSECRATION. 
 
 PRINTED BY REQUEST. 
 
REMINISCENCES. 
 
 AN ADDEESS 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 WILLIAM HOBART HARE, 
 
 Missionary Bi-siioi’ of South Dakota, 
 
 AT A SERVICE COMMEMORATIVE OF THE FIIiTEENTII 
 ANNIVERSARY OF IIIS CONSECRATION. 
 
 PR IX TED RY REQUEST. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 PRESS OF WILLIAM F. FELL & CO., 
 1220-24 Sansom Strf.et. 
 
 1888. 
 
KOLL OF CLERGY. 
 
 William Hobart Hare, S. T. D. Missionary Bishop. 
 NIOBRARA DEANERY. 
 
 CLERGY. 
 
 Ashley, E Presbyter. 
 
 Burt, H Presbyter 
 
 Cleveland, W. J Presbyter, 
 
 Cook, C. S Presbyter. 
 
 Cook, J.W Presbyter. 
 
 Deloria, P. J Deacon.... 
 
 Fowler, W. W Presbyter. 
 
 Robinson, John Deacon.... 
 
 Ross, Amos Deacon.... 
 
 Stroh, C. R Presbyter. 
 
 Tatiyopi, David Deacon.... 
 
 Taylor, Joseph C Deacon... 
 
 Tuttle, Isaac H Deacon.... 
 
 Walker, Luke C Presbyter. 
 
 Weddell, F. M Deacon.... 
 
 Van Deerlin, E. J. H.... Presbyter, 
 
 Sisseton Agency, D. T. 
 
 ..Crow Creek Agency, D. T. 
 
 Rosebud Agency, D. T. 
 
 ..Pine Ridge Agency, D. T. 
 
 Greenwood P. 0., D. T. 
 
 Fort Yates, D. T. 
 
 Minneapolis, Minn. 
 
 ..Pine Ridge Agency, D. T. 
 ..Pine Ridge Agency, D. T. 
 
 Santee Agency, Neb. 
 
 . Crow Creek Agency, D. T. 
 
 Rosebud Agency, D. T. 
 
 Choteau Creek P. 0., D. T. 
 .Lower Brule Agency, D. T. 
 
 Rosebud Agency, D. T. 
 
 Rosebud Agency, D. T. 
 
 EASTERN DEANERY. 
 
 CLERGY. 
 
 Barrington, A. H Presbyter. 
 
 Babcock, J. H Presbyter. 
 
 Bohn, C. H Presbyter. 
 
 Doherty, R. M Deacon.... 
 
 Flowers, G. W Presbyter. 
 
 Gardiner. F., Jr Presbyter. 
 
 Harris, W. J., D. D Presbyter 
 
 Himes, J. V Presbyter 
 
 Jones, J. Nelson Presbyter 
 
 Molineux, J. H Deacon.... 
 
 Morris, John Presbyter. 
 
 McBride, J. M Presbyter. 
 
 Potter, C. A Deacon.... 
 
 Robinson, M. S Deacon.... 
 
 Sanford, D. A Presbyter. 
 
 Whaling, J. R Deacon... 
 
 Wicks, W. J Presbyter. 
 
 .Watertown, D. T. 
 
 Mitchell, D. T. 
 
 .... Yankton, D. T. 
 ...Faribault, Minn. 
 
 Pierre, D. T. 
 
 Sioux Falls, D. T. 
 
 Elk Point, D. T. 
 
 Sioux Falls, D. T. 
 
 Mitchell, D. T. 
 
 ...Aberdeen, D. T. 
 
 Huron, D. T. 
 
 Hurley, D. T. 
 
 Woonsocket, D. T. 
 ....Lead City, D. T. 
 ..SpringBeld, D. T. 
 
CELEBRATION OF BISHOP HARE’S ELEVATION TO 
 THE EPISCOPATE. 
 
 THE FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY 
 of Bishop W. H. Hare’s elevation to the Episcopate was 
 very fittingly celebrated in this city yesterday (January 
 10th), the day following the exact date of his consecra- 
 tion. 
 
 In the morning at 10.30 services were held in Calvary 
 Cathedral, on which occasion the Bishop gave some per- 
 sonal reminiscences of his life as bishop, and stated why 
 he had accepted the duties of the high office. After this 
 the Clergy present held a conference on Diocesan mat- 
 ters pertaining to Church ^york in South Dakota, which 
 meeting lasted until 2.30. 
 
 The visiting Clergy and others then repaired to All 
 Saints’ School, where an elegant dinner had been arranged 
 by Calvary Parish, at which twenty-four guests sat 
 down. 
 
 After dinner, toasts and responses were given as fol- 
 lows: — 
 
 “ The Bishop.” Response by Bishop Hare. 
 
 “The Parishes and Missions.” Rev. J. V. Himes. 
 
 “South Dakota.” Rev. J. H. Babcock. 
 
 “The Clergy.” D. R. Bailey, Esq. 
 
 “ Laity and Ladies’ Guilds.” Bishop Hare. 
 
 “Cathedral Corporation.” Rev. F. Gardiner, Jr. 
 
 “The Niobrara Deanery.” Rev. J. W. Handford. 
 
 PRESENTATION. 
 
 In the evening, before the guests began to assemble for 
 the public reception, a very happy episode occurred, of which 
 Bishop Hare was the central figure, and the recipient of a 
 
 3 
 
4 
 
 very elegant set of Episcopal robes. Rev. J. H. Babcock, 
 of Mitchell, made the presentation speech, as follows : — 
 
 Rev. Father in God : This presentation of a Bishop’s 
 Robes is the first that has occurred in the history of our 
 youthful diocese. We who have the privilege of making 
 it wish that it may be regarded as an expression both of 
 our gratitude to Almighty God, the giver of all good 
 gifts, and also of our love and respect for our fellow-man 
 who has been placed over us in the Lord. The gift it- 
 self is small ; but to us it implies much. It means, first 
 of all, that we can, as we ought to be, thankful that dur- 
 ing these fifteen years we have had a leader who is fear- 
 less and prudent in conducting our Christian warfare ; 
 an overseer of the vineyard who is himself a diligent 
 laborer ; a preacher of the gospel w'ho, rightly dividing 
 the word of truth, boldly declares the whole counsel of 
 God ; a father, who, by precept and example, promotes 
 peace and good works among the members of the house- 
 hold. It means, also, that we duly honor the diligence 
 and fidelity, and thoughtfulness and perseverance with 
 which the weighty duties of your solemn office have been 
 performed, and appreciate the loving kindness and sym- 
 pathy that have gone out from the heart of our Chief 
 Pastor to the people of his flock. We are glad, also, to 
 express hereby our unfeigned pleasure at being able hon- 
 estly and sincerely to congratulate all Christian people 
 in South Dakota upon the abundant blessing that has 
 been bestowed upon this field while it has been under 
 your spiritual charge. In the increase of true religion 
 that has followed the increased teachings of the Gospel of 
 Christ in His kingdom, we find good reason to thank God 
 and take courage. 
 
 Moreover, we think that we ought to feel encouraged, 
 not only by the success that has crowned our honest en- 
 deavors, but also by the trials and hindrances and 
 opposition that we have been called to meet ; for 
 these have put us on our mettle, as well as made 
 us show what kind of men we are. Especially may 
 we be thankful concerning the charges and attacks lately 
 made upon your character — which charges, though made 
 against yourself alone, yet, of course, affect us all ; for 
 we are members one of another, and if any member suf- 
 fer, all the members suffer with it. Even for these ac- 
 cusations we may be thankful, because they have been 
 
5 
 
 the means of revealing a noble character, and of calling 
 forth a general expression of love and admiration — love 
 of the man, admiration of the Bishop ; love for his gen- 
 tleness, charity and impartiality ; admiration of his pa- 
 tience, firmness and conscientious discharge of duty. Out 
 of a great evil has resulted one great good — it has shown 
 to us all the gratifying fact that there can exist a union 
 of true love and strict justice, even in the soul of one of 
 our fellows. It has drawn out many expressions like 
 that which appeared in one of the papers of our own See 
 City : “ Nothing whatever can shake the firm belief of 
 
 the people of Dakota in the integrity and purity of Bishop 
 Hare.” 
 
 The old robes put on at your consecration have worn 
 well ; doubtless they have performed their part better than 
 any of us have ours ; at last they have yielded to the wear 
 and tear that befall all things that accompany a Bishop in 
 his travels. May these new ones do as good service — only 
 may they not last so long. Rather, may they be used so 
 constantly that they will soon have to be replaced. May 
 your long and happy life of continuous diligence and use- 
 fulness require many similar presentations at the returns of 
 this joyous anniversary. And may the wasting of these, 
 our present garments, that perish so quickly in the using, 
 cause us all so faithfully to fulfill our trusts, that one day 
 the Great Bishop and Shej)herd of our souls may clothe us 
 in the imperishable robes of His righteousness. 
 
 In reply. Bishop Hare, who was tlioroughly taken by 
 surprise, said — 
 
 “ What can I say to you in returning my heartfelt 
 thanks? I remember well the first time I put on my 
 Episcopal Robes. I felt so small. There came to my 
 mind those words of King Solomon, ' I am but a little 
 child, and know not how to go out or how to come in. 
 How shall I rule this Thy so great people Israel ? ’ ” 
 
 He spoke of the great difficulty of realizing the office of 
 a Bishop in this age and among a people like ours, who 
 unite with a desire for decisive leadership a keen sense of 
 individual rights. He referred also to the special difficulties 
 with which he was confronted and beset, thrown, as he was, 
 into a whirlpool of conflicting interests and opinions, 
 where he soon discovered a Bishop was needed who 
 
6 
 
 could not be intimidated, inveigled, bribed, cajoled, or 
 hoodwinked. His resolve had been that sujisested for St. 
 John Baptist’s Day, to “ Constantly speak the truth, boldly 
 rebuke vice and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake.” He 
 continued: “I believe in individual rights, and although 
 in my haste to secure results, I may have trodden on the 
 individual rights of others, I have not done so intention- 
 ally, and I hope I never shall do so knowingly.” In 
 conclusion he said : “ I know not how to thank you, ex- 
 cept, perhaps, in the expressive words which an Indian once 
 used to me : ‘ The sun seems to shine brighter when you 
 are near. You are my backbone ; you are the cane that 
 I walk with.’ ” 
 
 Mr. R. W. Folds, the Senior Warden of Calvary 
 Church, then presented the Bishop with the following 
 resolutions : — 
 
 Sioux Falls, January 9th, 1888. 
 
 At a special meeting of the Vestry the following reso- 
 lutions were adopted : — 
 
 Resolved, That we, the Wardens and Vestrymen of Cal- 
 vary Cathedral, hereby offer our congratulations to Rt. 
 Rev. William H. Hare, on this, the fifteenth anniversary 
 of his consecration as Bishop. 
 
 Resolved, That we desire to express our hearty thanks 
 for his timely counsel and goodly admonitions, as well 
 for the tender care with which he has nurtured this Church 
 to its present prosperity. 
 
 Resolved, That we truly feel that we have in our beloved 
 Bishop a Father in God who, by patience and self-denial, 
 has ever gone before us as an example in the work for the 
 Lord, and trust we may long have his spiritual guidance 
 and advice. 
 
 Signed : 
 
 R. W. Folds, Senior Warden. 
 G. W. Lewis, Junior Warden. 
 John S. Lewis, ^ 
 
 E. G. Wright, | 
 
 C. H. Mumby, Vestrymen. 
 Nelson Baily, 
 
 S. A. Brown, m.d. 
 
RECEPTIOK. 
 
 The people then began to assemble, and those in attend- 
 ance upon the presentation services repaired to the par- 
 lors, and the Bishop, assisted by Miss Ellen Peabody and 
 Rev. and Mrs. Frederick Gardner, Rev. J. V. Heines and 
 Mrs. J. S. Lewis and others received the guests 
 as they were ushered in by the young gentlemen of St. 
 Andrew’s Guild. After arrivals ceased, music was ren- 
 dered by some of the ladies and gentlemen present, and a 
 generally enjoyable and informal evening was spent, until 
 11 o’clock. 
 
 Note. — This account is taken largely from the Sioux Falls Press, 
 of January 11th, 1888. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 T his anniversary, which you, ray dear friends, have 
 kindly corae together to make memorable, seems not 
 only to justify, but to invite from me, some personal remi- 
 niscences and some retrospective glances at the work in 
 which, as a Bishop, I have been engaged. 
 
 On All Saints’ Day (Nov. 1), 1872, I was waited upon 
 by two members of the Commission then charged with the 
 care of the Indian Mission work of our Church, and in- 
 formed that the House of Bishops had elected me to be 
 Missionary Bishop of Niobrara. 
 
 Niobrara was the name of a river running along the 
 border line between Nebraska and Dakota, and had been 
 chosen as a convenient term in Ecclesiastical nomenclature 
 for the large tract of country of which then little was 
 known, save that it stretched northward from the river 
 Niobrara, and was roamed over by the Poncas and different 
 tribes of Sioux or Dakota Indians. 
 
 The Jurisdiction proper of the Missionary Bishop of 
 Niobrara was originally a tract of country bounded “ on 
 the east by the Missouri River; on the south by the State 
 of Nebraska ; on the west by the 104th Meridian, the 
 Territory of Wyoming, and Nebraska ; on the north by 
 the 46th degree of north latitude ; including also the sev- 
 eral Indian Reservations on the left bank of the Missouri, 
 north and east of said river.” In order, however, to give 
 unity and compactness to the effort of the Church for 
 the Indian tribes, the Missionary Bishop of Niobrara was 
 also authorized to take charge of such missionary work 
 among Indians east of the Rocky Mountains, as might be 
 
 8 
 
9 
 
 transferred to his oversight by the Bishops within whose 
 Jurisdiction such work might lie. 
 
 The news of my election was utterly unexpected, and 
 fell upon me like a thunderbolt from a clear sky. The 
 honor was almost too much for my small stock of virtue. 
 I was at the time Secretary and General Agent of the 
 Foreign Mission Work of this Church, and deeply im- 
 mersed, body, mind and heart, in the work of making 
 known the Gospel among the heathen in distant lands. I 
 had but a year before been elected by the House of Bishops 
 to the Missionary Episcopate of Cape Palmas and parts 
 adjacent in Africa, but this action of the Bishops had not 
 been allowed to come before me. The House of Deputies, 
 in language complimentary to me, which I may not quote, 
 represented to the House of Bishops that injury would be 
 done to the Foreign Missionary work of the Church by 
 my withdrawal from the office of Foreign Secretary, 
 and the House of Bishops reconsidered their appoint- 
 ment. (See Journal of General Convention, 1871, pp. 
 227-228). 
 
 I fell into the habit of considering that this action virtu- 
 ally determined that my vocation should be for many years 
 that of Secretary and General Agent for the Foreign Work. 
 My sense of the practical worth of that enterprise had 
 strengthenetl every month I was connected with it; and 
 my conviction deepened that that department of. the 
 Church’s enterprises can never be either relinquished or 
 disparaged so long as “neighbor” means any one near or 
 far off to whom we may do good, nor so long as the Church 
 believes that her creation and her mission are not of man, 
 but of God, and that her resources are not merely an ag- 
 gregate of human agencies nor an aggregate of uioney col- 
 lections only, but “the powers of the world to come.” 
 My heart had become knit in, too, with the brave standard 
 bearers of the Church in heathen lands, and tears filled my 
 eyes as I thought of even seeming to desert the army in 
 the field, and leave it uncertain about its base of supplies. 
 
10 
 
 Moreover, a domestic tie of tender sacredness bound me 
 to my home. 
 
 My first thought was to decline ; and I informed my 
 visitors that it would take me hut a few hours to decide, 
 and if the House of Bishops would remain in session, 
 they should have my answer without delay. But the 
 House had done its duty and adjourned, and left me to 
 decide what was mine. The call was most solemn. 
 It was from an authority that was next to that of 
 the Head of the Church Himself. It came to one who 
 held the opinion that the opposition of the individual 
 judgment and will to the summons of the Church is almost 
 fatal to her prompt and efficient conduct of her Missionary 
 campaign, and should never be ventured except for reasons 
 of paramount importance. 
 
 As I afterward came to see, I had been led through a 
 course of preparation for such a summons. Though born 
 and bred at the East, I had spent six months in Michigan 
 and Minnesota, in 1863, and there seen something of the 
 Indian problem. I had seen that there was nothing in the 
 van of civilization to ameliorate the condition of the Red 
 man, because the van of civilization is often its vilest off- 
 scourings : that its first representatives generally despise 
 the Indians, and condescend to them in nothing but the 
 gratification of inordinate appetites and desires ; and that 
 when civilization of a better class appears, it is too often 
 so bent on its own progress, and so far from helpful or 
 kindly, that its advance, like that of a railroad train at full 
 speed, dashes in pieces those unlucky wanderers who hap- 
 pen to stand in its way, and leaves the others with only a 
 more discouraging sense of the length of the road, and the 
 slowness \vith which they make their way along it. In a 
 town in Michigan I had seen Indians made drunk on the 
 Fourth of July, and employed by white men to perform 
 diabolical antics to attract men to liquor saloons. But 
 schools for Indians, there were none. In Minnesota I had 
 read in the daily papers the offer of the State of $250 for 
 
11 
 
 the scalp of any Indian delivered at a designated office. I 
 had returned to the East the Indian’s advocate ; and 
 while on many subjects connected with the Indians I was 
 not in haste to reach a conclusion, I had become convinced 
 of this : that the Indian’s claim upon the Church of Christ 
 was most sacred ; and that I had seen nothing to lead me 
 to think that there was anything in the Indian problem to 
 drive us to either quackery or despair. It would find its 
 solution, under the favor of God, in the faithful execution 
 of the powers committed by God to the Civil Government, 
 and a common-sense administration of the gracious gifts 
 deposited with His Church. 
 
 I thought then, I think now, that good and patriotic 
 men cannot blink the Indian problem. It stares them in 
 the face. If ever the warning of the wise man be in 
 season, it is in this case : “ If thou forbear to deliver them 
 that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be 
 slain ; if thou sayest. Behold, we knew it not ; doth not 
 He that pondereth the heart consider it? and He that 
 keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He 
 render to every man according to his works?” 
 
 Discussions of the probable future of the Indians were, 
 it seemed to me, beside the (piestion, and dangerous, because 
 they drown the call of present duty. Suppose these peo- 
 ple be designed by Providence to be hewers of wood and 
 drawers of water. Our duty is to fit them for that lot. 
 Suppose that they are to be merged in our more numerous 
 race. Our duty is to fit them for that absorption by inter- 
 marriage, and so arrest the present vicious intermingling. 
 Suppose that they are to die out. Our duty is to prepare 
 them for their departure. Our duty is the plainer, because 
 the treatment which will fit these people for any one of 
 these lots will fit them for either of the others. 
 
 The issue of all my cogitating was — I accepted the 
 appointment. 
 
 The presiding Bishop determined upon Thursday after 
 the Feast of the Epiphany, January 9th, 1873, as the 
 time, and St. Luke’s Church, Philadelphia, with which I 
 
12 
 
 had been intimately connected in ray early ministry, as the 
 place for ray consecration, and I was then and there duly 
 consecrated. 
 
 A number of circumstances combined to add to the 
 interest of the occasion. I was only thirty-four years of 
 age; only one of the Bishops of our Church had been 
 consecrated when so young. When consecrated, I made 
 the one hundredth Bishop in the line of the American Epis- 
 copate. The Bishop consecrated next before me was ray 
 father-in-law, a man of twice my age. My grandfather. 
 Bishop Hobart, of New York, had been distinguished for 
 his Missionary efforts in behalf of the Indians — the 
 Oneidas and other tribes of the Six Nations — in New York, 
 and these Oneidas had been removed to Wisconsin, and 
 were to be placed under the care of his grandson. In fact, my 
 first visitation on leaving the East was to the Oneida 
 
 Mission. Many whom Bishop Hobart confirmed in New 
 York State, fifty years before, brought their grandchildren 
 to be confirmed by his grandson. 
 
 VISIT TO THE INDIAN TERRITORY. 
 
 I was desirous of studying the condition of the serai-civ- 
 ilized Indians before going to the wilder tribes of the 
 Northwest, and therefore first made a visit to the Indian 
 Territory of the Southwest. While I was en route, the 
 whole country was plunged into a frenzy of excitement, 
 and of denunciation of the whole Indian race, by the 
 Modoc massacre, and the mouths of many sober men were 
 filled with calls for revenge, such as at other times they 
 were wont to denounce as the characteristic of the vindic- 
 tive Sioux. The general of the array telegraphed a sub- 
 ordinate that he would be “ fully justified in the utter ex- 
 termination ” of the Modocs. Friends wrote me that a 
 blow had been struck at all efforts for the Indians which was 
 simplv fatal, conclusive; and that it would be folly in me 
 to persist. I pressed on, nevertheless, only lamenting that 
 the treachery of a handful of Indians was allowed by an 
 intelligent people to govern opinion, while the good 
 
13 
 
 behavior of tens of thousands of Indians was utterly for- 
 gotten. 
 
 From the Indian Territory I made ray way to Dakota, 
 like Abraham, who went out not knowing whither he 
 went. I reached Yankton City April 29th, 1873. A 
 military officer, to whom I was there introduced as being 
 the Missionary Bishop to the Indians, somewhat bluntly 
 replied : “ Indeed ! I don’t envy you your task.” I re- 
 
 called the words, “ Let not him who putteth on his armor 
 boast himself as he that putteth it off,” and simply replied, 
 “ A minister, like a military officer, obeys orders.” What- 
 ever was uncertain, I was at least sure of my commission. 
 
 My arrival in Yankton occurred just after one of the 
 most memorable storms that Dakota has ever known, and 
 the effects of it were plainly to be seen in the carcasses of 
 cattle which had perished in it, and in huge banks of snow 
 which lay still unraelted. The storm had overtaken Cus- 
 ter’s celebrated cavalry, while they were encamped about a 
 mile or two outside the town of Yankton, and brave men, 
 who never quailed before the foe, had fled in complete 
 rout before the tempest, and taken refuge in any house 
 where they could find a shelter, leaving all their camp 
 equipment and horses to their fate. 
 
 THE NIOBRARA MISSION. 
 
 From Yankton I passed up the Missouri River, along 
 which the main body of the Missionary enterprise of our 
 Church among the Indians was then located. I found 
 that Missionary work had been established on the Santee, 
 Yankton and Ponca Reserves, and three brave young 
 Deacons, fresh from the Berkeley Divinity School, had, the 
 previous fall, pressed up the river and begun the task of 
 opening the way for Missionary effort among the Indians 
 of the Lower Brule, the Crow Creek and Cheyenne River 
 Reserves. 
 
 Altogether, there were, besides three natives, five 
 white clergymen and five ministering women. I could 
 not then, I cannot now, admire enough the courage with 
 
14 
 
 which these Soldiers of Christ had entered upon the work 
 and the fortitude with which they persevered in it. Their 
 entrance upon it was largely, of necessity, a leap in the 
 dark, and their continuance in it a groj)ing where there 
 was no light and no trodden way. They had made the 
 wild man their companion, an unknown heathenism their 
 field of labor, and the wilderness their home. Nor could 
 I but wonder at the grand faith, the dauntless conviction 
 of duty and the tremendous moral energy of the one man 
 — William Welsh — who had both excited and backed 
 their efforts by his zeal, hiscoun.sel and his wealth. 
 
 The missionaiies above referred to have since been 
 joined by others of like spirit with the best of them. 
 They deserve the encomium which I admiringly bestowed 
 upon them in one of my annual reports: “Brave leaders 
 
 in the vanguard of civilization ! Patient pioneers remov- 
 ing prejudices and other obstructions, and preparing the 
 way for day schools and boarding schools and all the good 
 things that accompany the progress of the King! Faith- 
 ful guides, too, to the Indians amid the perplexities 
 which surround them, especially as they pass through their 
 present transition stage.” 
 
 But what about the Indians ? I had read much of what 
 had been written, by delighted visitors, of the heartiness and 
 reverence with which the services of the Church were ren- 
 dered by these humble people. And all that was ever 
 written I found more than realized when it was my priv- 
 ile<re to kneel with them in their little sanctuaries. I could 
 understand how the brave, self-denying missionaries to 
 whom I had come could feel, regarding their converts, as 
 the Apostle exclaims : “What thanks can we render to God 
 for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our 
 God ? ” I found that a great deal of true and effective 
 work had been done — work which has aflTected the whole 
 after-history of the Mission. 
 
 It was not long before I saw both sides of Indian life. 
 The better side : said a shewd Christian Yankton chief, as 
 I was about to leave the rude chapel erected among his 
 
15 
 
 people : “Stop, friend, I have a few words to say. I am 
 glad to hear you are going to visit the wild, upper tribes. 
 Companies of them often come down to visit my band, 
 and I always take them to see this chapel. I think a good 
 deal depends upon the impression my chapel makes on 
 them. I think if it was put in better order it would make 
 a better impression than it does. The rain and snow come 
 through that roof. This floor is not even. Jfow, you 
 are called an Apostle. That is a good name. I believe it 
 means ‘one sent.’ But there are many people to whom you 
 aresent to whom you cannot go; for they are wild people. 
 But the.se visitors of mine go everywhere and tell every- 
 where what they have seen.” The wilder side, too, I saw; 
 for among the Lower Brules, a fellow rode up by the side 
 of our party, with an airy, reckless, dare-devil manner, 
 and remarked, as he flourished his weapon : “ I want 
 ray boy to go to school, but I am an old man. I am 
 wounded all over. I like to fight. I love war. I went 
 off the other day among some strange Indians. They said : 
 ‘Go away, or we’ll kill you.’ ‘ Kill away,’ said I ; ‘ that’s 
 what I like.’ ” lie was a type of hundreds and thousands. 
 Jiut is it an unheard-of thing for white men to hate the 
 restraints of religion and morality for themselves, and yet 
 wish them for their children? 
 
 The scenes grew wilder as I pushed farther on. A ser- 
 vice held at the Cheyenne River Agency, in the open air, 
 left a deep iraj)ression on my mind. It was a strange 
 scene. In front of us, forty or fifty feet distant, rolled 
 the Missouri River. Xearer at hand, grouped in a semi- 
 circle, fringed with a few curious soldiers and employes of 
 the Agency, sat the Indians; many bedecked with 
 paint and feathers and carrying guns and tomahawks ; 
 some in a soberer guise, betokening that they were in- 
 clining to the white man’s ways; while all gazed, 
 apparently half amused, half awe-struck, at the vested 
 Missionary of the^ Station as he sang the hymns 
 and offered the prayers of the Church, and then at the 
 Indian deacon and at me, as we spoke the words of Life. 
 
16 
 
 .PLANS OF WORK. 
 
 After a study of the field, and much conversation with 
 the clergy, I reached some conclusions, and began to lav 
 out settled plans of work. 
 
 1st. Mapping out the Field. — I soon saw that my 
 work was not to be that of a settled pastor in daily con- 
 tact with his flock ; but that of a general superintendent, 
 whose duty it would be to reach the people through their 
 pastors; not so much to do local work as to make local 
 work possible and easy for others. 
 
 The whole field was therefore mapped out into divisions, 
 these divisions being ordinarily the territory connected 
 with a United States Indian Agency. Th§ special care of 
 each of them was entrusted to one experienced Presbyter, 
 and around him were grouped the Indian ministers and 
 catechists and others who were engaged in evangelistic 
 work within his division. 
 
 Their pay, I arranged, should pass to them not directly 
 from me, or from the Board, but through the hands of the 
 Presbyters immediately over them, that the responsibility of 
 the assistants to their respective chiefs might be duly felt. 
 These assistants were to reside near their several chapels 
 and conduct the services there, and monthly the chief mis- 
 sionary was to make his visitation, for the purpose of minis- 
 tering the Word and Sacraments and inspecting the con- 
 dition of his field. The whole field was soon, in this way, 
 put in manageable shape. 
 
 2d. Boarding Schools. — My visit to the Indian Ter- 
 ritory and my study of the Indian problem in my own 
 field, convinced me quite early that the Boarding School 
 ought to be one of the most prominent features of our 
 Missionary work. 
 
 I thought that children gathered in such schools would 
 soon become, in their neat and orderly appearance, their 
 increasing intelligence, and their personal testimony to the 
 loving and disinterested lives of the missionaries with 
 whom they dwelt, living epistles, known and read of their 
 wilder brethren. They would form the nuclei of congre- 
 
17 
 
 gations at the chapels connected with the schools, and learn 
 to carry on with spirit the responses and music of the ser- 
 vices. 
 
 I also proposed to establish a central Boarding School 
 of higher grade, at the place of the Bishop’s residence, to 
 be conducted under his immediate supervision, to which 
 the other schools should be tributary by furnishing their 
 most promising boys for education as Teachers, Catechists 
 and Missionaries. 
 
 This plan was carried out, and thus grew up the St. 
 Paul’s, St. Mary’s, St. John’s and Hope Indian Boarding 
 Schools, which, under their respective heads, have won a 
 deservedly high i^eputation. St. Paul’s Boarding School 
 was the first venture in this line among the Indians, in 
 Dakota. 
 
 The last feature of the plan was modified later, when 
 the establishment at the East of schools for the Indians, 
 like Hampton Institute, offered peculiar advantages in the 
 way of higher education. It then seemed to be wiser to send 
 out of the Indian country to these schools the pupils who 
 had proved themselves of most promise and most likely 
 to develop into teachers and ministers. 
 
 3d. Limitations. — I next realized that, as no man can 
 do everything, I must eliminate from my plan of work 
 those things which it was not absolutely necessary for me 
 to do, and devote my attention to those things which no 
 one else could or would do, and to the things most es- 
 sential in one holding the position and placed in the condi- 
 tions in which I found myself. 
 
 There stretched before me vast tracts of wild country 
 inhabited by roaming tribes. It was to be my duty to 
 explore them and make a way for the entrance of the 
 church. There were in the whole district but five 
 churches and but two dwellings for the missionaries, and 
 not a single Boarding School. The Missionary Board em- 
 ployed no business agent in the field, and I saw that I 
 must be a builder of parsonages, schools, and churches. 
 There were but seven clergymen in the mission j I saw 
 
18 
 
 that I must seek out, or raise up, more. Obstacles of 
 varied and peculiar nature met the workers at every turn. 
 I .saw that I must be their friend, counsellor and comforter 
 — a real pastor of pastors — if I could be. Large funds 
 would be needed. I was made to feel that it was left 
 largely to me to raise them. “ The Mission had two ends,” 
 I was told ; “ one in the East, where the money was, and 
 the other in the Indian Territory, w'here the work was. I 
 was expected to look after both ends.” 
 
 I gave up, therefore, all thought of ever learning the 
 .several native languages with which I was confronted, 
 except so far as was necessary in order to read the vernacular 
 service. It is my associates, and not I, \'*ho have mastered 
 the native languages and proclaimed to the Indians, in their 
 own tongue, the wonderful works of God. 
 
 THE INDIAN PROBLEM. 
 
 Now a few words as to my general views on the Indian 
 question. I soon came to look upon everything as provis- 
 ional — to quote from one of my annual reports — which, if 
 permanently maintained, would tend to make Indian life 
 something separate from the common life of our country : 
 a solid foreign mass indigestible by our common civiliza- 
 tion. I saw that just because it has been an indigestible 
 mass has our civilization been all these years constantly 
 trying to vomit it, and so get rid of a cause of discomfort. 
 Ordinary laws must have their way. All reservations, 
 whether the reserving of laud from the ordinary laws of 
 settlement, or the reserving of the Indian nationality from 
 absorption into ours, or the reserving of old tribal supersti- 
 tions and notions and habits from the natural process of 
 decadence, or the reserving of the Indian language from 
 extinction, are only necessary evils or but temporary ex- 
 pedients. Safety for 250,000 Indians divided up into 
 over a hundred tribes speaking as many different lan- 
 guages, scattered on about seventy different reservations 
 among 50,000,000 of English speaking people can be 
 found, only if the smaller people flow in with the curi’eut 
 
19 
 
 of the life and ways of the larger. The Indians are not 
 an insulated peojde, like some of the islanders of the South 
 Sea. Our work is not that of building up a National 
 Indian Church with a national Liturgy in the Indian 
 tonorue. It is rather that of resolving: the Indian struc- 
 ture and preparing its parts for being taken up into the 
 great whole in Church and State. 
 
 From the first, therefore, I struggled against the notion 
 that we were missionaries to Indians alone and not mis- 
 sionaries to all men ; I pressed the study of the English 
 language and its conversational use in our schools, and, 
 however imperfect my efforts, the aim of them has been to 
 break down “ the middle wall of partition ” between 
 whites and Indians, and to seek not the welfare of one class 
 or race, but the common good. 
 
 NATURE OF THE MISSION UNDERTAKING. 
 
 The character of the work to be done appears from the fact 
 that the Indians with whom the Mission has had to deal 
 were some of the most reckless and the wildest of our 
 North American Tribes, and scattered over a district 
 some parts of which were twelve days’ travel distant from 
 others. So desolate was the country that on one of my 
 trips I remember not seeing a human face or a human 
 habitation, not even an Indian lodge, for eight days. 
 Emissaries of evil had reached the Indians long before the 
 Missionaries of the Cross appeared. “ All the white men 
 that came before you,” replied a chief, said that they 
 had come to do us good, but they stole our goods and cor- 
 rupted our women; and how are we to know that you are 
 different?” 
 
 RESULTS. 
 
 Such were some of the difficulties, but notwithstanding 
 them all, and despite all shortcomings, the missionaries 
 have penetrated the most distant camps and reached the 
 wildest of the tribes. We have missions now among the 
 Sissetons, Wahpetons, Santees, Yanktons, Lower Brules, 
 
20 
 
 Yanktonnais, Blackfeet, Sans Arcs, Oncpapas, Minne- 
 conjoux, Two Kettles, Upper Brul§s, and Ogalalas. 
 
 The blessing which has attended the labors of the mis- 
 sionaries appears from the fact that in 1872 there were 
 but six congregations, and in 1887 there are forty-five. 
 
 Twelve years ago there was not to be found among any 
 of these Indians a single Boarding School ! We have now 
 four in successful operation, with about forty children in 
 each. 
 
 We have three commodious, substantial Boarding School 
 Buildings,* and a vast and once desolate country is dotted 
 over with thirty neat churches and chapels, and eighteen 
 small but comfortable mission residences. No recess in 
 the wilderness is so retired that you may not, perhaps, find 
 a little chapel in it. All these buildings have been erected 
 without government subsidies, by the gifts of generous 
 friends. 
 
 The clergy have presented for confirmation during my 
 Episcopate nearly fifteen hundred candidates ; seven faith- 
 ful Indians are serving in the sacred ministry, fonr having 
 died ; and the offerings of our native Christians have in- 
 creased since we were able to make a systematic effort in 
 this behalf, as indicated in the following statement : — 
 
 1881 , 
 
 $ 585 1 1884 , 
 
 - $1514 
 
 1882 , - 
 
 - 960 1 1885 , - 
 
 - 1801 
 
 1883 , 
 
 1217 1886 , 
 
 - 2000 
 
 
 1 1887 , - 
 
 - 1500 
 
 The money for all the thirty churches and eighteen 
 parsonages referred to above, except three, passed through 
 my hands, and the buildings were put up under my super- 
 vision. I know, therefore, their condition, and am glad 
 to report that they are all of them entirely free from en- 
 cumbrance and debt of any kind, except one of the Santee 
 chapels, on which the Western Church Building Society 
 holds a mortgage of $100. 
 
 * The fourth is conducted in a Government building. 
 
21 
 
 THE EASTERN DEANERY. 
 
 If I had not discovered it before, the events of 1875 
 made it plain that I should soon be the messenger of the 
 church to white people as well as Indians. 
 
 The discovery of gold, in 1875, in a part of the great 
 Sioux Reservation, known as the Black Hills, set a large 
 part of our w’estern population aflame, and hundreds of 
 adventurers during that year, in open violation of the law 
 and the proclamation of the Executive, invaded this 
 portion of the Indians’ land, and took possession of it. 
 
 I w'as outspoken in my denunciation of this flagrant 
 violation of the sacred obligations of a great to a weak 
 people. I foresaw, however, that no power on earth 
 could shut our white people out from that country if it 
 really contained valuable deposits of gold or other mineral. 
 I went, therefore, to Washington and urged upon the 
 President that a commission of experts should be sent out 
 to explore the country, and that, should they report the 
 presence of gold, steps should betaken to secure a surrender 
 of the tract in question from the Indians on equitable 
 terms. This was eventually done. 
 
 The Government had at first been prompt and decided 
 in requiring the removal of the intruders ; then it weakened 
 and prevaricated ; and soon the desire for the acquisition 
 of this country w'as so ardent and influential, that the 
 Government was practically driven to negotiate with the 
 Indians to secure a voluntary sale of the coveted territory, 
 as the only resort from the danger of a popular movement 
 which should snatch it from them by force. 
 
 The Black Hills were thus thrown open to settlement, 
 and I made there my first efforts in the line of establishing 
 the church among the white people of Dakota. 
 
 In 1883, an important step \vas taken by the House of 
 Bishops, wdiich gave my Missionary District its present 
 size and shape. The House passed the following resolu- 
 tion : — 
 
 ‘‘Resolved, That the boundaries of the Missionary 
 Jurisdiction of Niobrara be so changed as to make it 
 
22 
 
 identical in outline and area with that portion of the 
 Territory of Dakota lying south of the forty-sixth parallel 
 of latitude, and so as to include the Santee Indian Reserva- 
 tion in Nebraska. 
 
 “ Resolved, That the nanae of this Jurisdiction be changed 
 from Niobrara to South Dakota.” 
 
 The change was altogether acceptable to me. It was an 
 evidence of confidence at a time when a number of influ- 
 ences and schemes, to whose success my presence and con- 
 tinuance in office were a menace, had combined against me 
 and had culminated in an onslaught, which had met a tem- 
 porary success. The change detached from my district 
 territory on the north, remote, and, to me, difficult of access, 
 and it gave me country on the east, near at hand and on the 
 line of railroads, thus making it possible for me to do twice 
 the amount of work with little increase of travel or labor, 
 and it gave me the opportunity and privilege of active 
 intercourse with the people who are to control the destiny 
 of this part of our land, a people of high intelligence and 
 wonderful enterprise. 
 
 I received a cordial welcome to the new part of my 
 field, from the clergy and people. If preferences had been 
 thwarted by my appointment, the fact was kindly forgotten 
 or considerately hidden from my eye. I had soon met each 
 and every one of the missionaries in their respective fields 
 and drunk in their counsel. All felt cheered that the 
 Church had at last brought the Mission in Dakota out 
 from a corner, and all had a mind to work. 
 
 The venerable Dean of Dakota, Dr. Hoyt, gave me at 
 once his confidence and help, and before long, his love. He 
 had reached seventy-six years of age, his body had become 
 infirm, but his mind was vigorous, his heart warm, his 
 zeal for the work unabated, and his will firm and rock- 
 like. He looked forward to what might yet be in Southern 
 Dakota, as Moses looked from Pisgah upon the land of prom- 
 ise. He offered himself for any field which I thought he 
 could profitably work. When, later, sickness laid him by, 
 he wrote me, “ I am dying of ennui — Give me work. Let 
 
23 
 
 me have a trial ; if I don’t succeed, I’ll come back to my 
 prison.” His last work was at Scotland. He took it up 
 with boy-like hope and lived to see a fine house of God 
 covered in from the weather and almost completed, and 
 then turned his eyes toward the Father’s house where 
 there are many mansions, and died. 
 
 I found the condition of the new district assigned me 
 that of depression. Dakota, in the days of its quickest 
 growth, had been allowed to remain as an appendage to 
 Nebraska — of itself a huge diocese — and dragged after a 
 Bishop whose rare gifts of mind and heart were overtaxed 
 by the imperative demands of his own diocese. When 
 opportunities had been great and others had been busy, our 
 Church had been comparatively inactive. 
 
 I thought that some one palpable want should be met 
 in some distinct, .striking way, met immediately, met well, 
 met completely. If this were done, it would show that, 
 notwithstanding past inactivity, we were ready to make 
 brave ventures and could do good things well. It would 
 thus inspire enthusiasm and confidence. 
 
 With this end in view All Saints’ School was under- 
 taken. I hoped to be able to push it to completion without 
 delay, to make it a building which would attract the eye 
 and win admiration, and dedicate it free from any and 
 every kind of lien and encumbrance. The enterprising 
 and generous spirit of the people of Sioux Falls and the 
 munificent gifts of friends at the East enabled me to carry 
 out my design. The corner stone was laid September, 
 1884, and the building was ready for use September, 1885, 
 and stands to-day, with the five-acre tract on which it is 
 placed, free from encumbrance of every kind. Better than 
 this, a faculty have been drawn thither who, in the best 
 spirit, work together harmoniously and efficiently, toward 
 noble ends ,in the development of the mind and character 
 of the young. 
 
 More important, however, than this enterprise, though 
 not a work that could be taken in hand and completed 
 with despatch like a building, was the reinforcement of the 
 
24 
 
 little band of faithful clergy. There were but nine in the 
 whole Eastern Deanery, and one of these was preparing to 
 withdraw. The securing of clergymen has been my most 
 difficult task. There was but little, in a worldly way, to 
 offer. I felt when I read in print my own invitation, that 
 it would repel more than it would attract. Thus it read : — 
 
 “There is little in any of our vacant towns to attract 
 ministers who expect that t\\Q people \n our new settlements 
 will build a church, stir their hearts up to seek after God, 
 and then send their messengers out to seek for some 
 minister who will be willing to preside over the work 
 which they have done. There is much to attract men of 
 another spirit, men who remember that the work of the 
 Ministry out here is not to wait to be sought, but to seek 
 for Christ’s sheep that are dispersed abroad, and for His 
 children who are swallowed up in this wicked world ; 
 ministers who are ready, if needs be, to do all the work at 
 first themselves, and to stand, to speak figuratively, at their 
 church doors on Sunday morning proclaiming “ My oxen 
 and my fatlings are killed and all things are ready. Come 
 unto the marriage.” 
 
 Nevertheless, the call was listened to, and there is 
 nothing in my work which gives me such comfort, and so 
 much makes me think I may be good for something, as 
 the character of the clergymen who have joined our ranks. 
 
 I begin to have a feeling that, whatever difficulties are 
 ahead, we are, dear brethren, at least “ out of the woods.” 
 We know what we have to do. We are resolved to do it. 
 We feel the glow, at least sometimes, of new life. We are 
 making headway. The accession to our ranks of eleven 
 valuable clergymen ; the building of eight churches, five 
 more being under way ; the erection of three rectories ; the 
 pas.sage of three missions from a state of dependence into 
 a condition of self-support; the establishment of a Board- 
 ing School of high grade, and the erection of a noble build- 
 ing for its use, tell their own conclusive story. 
 
25 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 For all this work in both deaneries and for all that the 
 clergy and my other fellow-workers have done to eifect it, 
 I am profoundly thankful. I am not elated. One of my 
 maxims has always been the quaint old saying, “ In woe 
 hold out; in joy hold in.” 
 
 As I look back upon the past, there rise up before my 
 mind’s eye periods of physical inability which must have 
 made me seem a drag upon the enterprises of my brethren 
 and must have sorely taxed their patience; shortcomings so 
 grievous that I must have seemed almost a cumberer of 
 the ground; want of thoughtfulness for my associates, 
 which must hav'e made them think me hard-hearted. 1 
 can only say “ Enter not into judgment with thy servant, 
 O Lord, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.” 
 
 It is not to you, dear brethren, but to myself, that I, on 
 this occasion, address the word of admonition, “ Watch 
 thou in all things — endure affliction. Do the work of an 
 evangelist — make full proof of thy ministry.” “ I charge 
 thee, before God, and before the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
 shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his 
 kingdom, preach the Word, be instant in season, out of 
 season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering 
 and doctrine.” 
 
 To my work — to you — to God — I would afresh conse- 
 crate myself. God give me to deserve the large measure 
 of confidence and love which you, dear brethren, have in 
 so many ways shown that you extend to me. God write 
 upon my heart the memorable and momentous words 
 addressed to me by the Presiding Bishop at my consecra- 
 tion : — 
 
 “ Be to the flock of Christ a shepherd, not a wolf; feed 
 them, devour them not. Hold up the weak, heal the sick, 
 bind up the broken, bring again the outcast, seek the lost. 
 Be so merciful, that you be not too remiss ; so minister 
 discipline that you forget not mercy; that, when the 
 Chief Shepherd shall appear, you may receive the never- 
 fading crown of glory ; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. 
 Amen. ” 
 
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