CHAPTER IV.

Michigan in 1837.-Removal to Niles.-Unites with the Presbyterian Church. Rev. President Alexander B. Brown, D.D.-A Remarkable Letter.-Fifty Years' Membership on Earth.-Elected to the Senate.-Act for "the Abolition of Imprisonment for Debt."-Funds the State University. Endorses Common Schools.-Political Foresight at Twenty-nine. -Interest in the Great Railways of Michigan. Its Canals. The Sault de St. Marie.-Activity and Influence as Senator.-Act Pertaining to Real Estate.-Candidate for the U. S. Senate.-Master in Chancery and Circuit Court Commissioner.

Mistress of her

MICHIGAN became a State in 1835. own legislation, and left to her energies, this portion of the Northwestern Territory,-out of which Ohio in 1802, Illinois in 1818, and Wisconsin still later, were carved-started forward rapidly in the career of improvement. Public lands were selling at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and the industrious settler with moderate means could acquire for himself a clear title to his land, when guaranteed by the government. Mr. Bradford was attracted by these profitable realestate investments, and reached the town of Niles, in the southwestern portion of the State, in the month of September, 1835. In the fall of 1837 he had become so well and favorably known throughout the upper peninsula of Michigan that he was elected to the State Senate from that large and populous district of sixty◄ thousand souls, or one-third of the entire population of the State, at twenty-nine years of age. On leaving Philadelphia, he took letters from the Fifth Presbyterian Church, Arch Street west of Tenth, dismissing his wife and himself to the First Presbyterian Church

MICHIGAN IN 1837.

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at Niles, then under the pastoral care of Rev. Alexander B. Brown, subsequently a Doctor of Divinity and President of Jefferson College, Pennsylvania. They remained as members of that church until November, 1843. During his membership he had charge of a large male Bible class. In March, 1884, that church resolved to celebrate its semi-centennial. On the tenth, a letter of invitation was sent to Mr. Bradford, requesting his presence with the members at their reunion. That letter, and his reply thereto, are here inserted as proofs of the deep interest which he took in the First Presbyterian Church at Niles in his early manhood; and how tender were his feelings toward that church at the ripe age of nearly seventy-six, within five months of his death! The invitation reads thus:

"HON. VINCENT L. BRADFORD, LL.D., D.C.L.

"NILES, Mich., March 10th, 1884. "DEAR SIR :-The First Presbyterian Church, Niles, Michigan, was organized March 30, 1834. Arrangements are being made to commemorate, by appropriate exercises, its Semi-Centennial, on Sunday and Monday, March 30th and 31st instant. We hope to meet at that time most of the surviving, earlier members of the church, and it would afford us great pleasure to meet and greet you on that occasion. If it is impossible for you to be present, we would be glad to receive a short letter to be read to those who shall attend. pulpit Bible, presented by Vincent L. Bradford, is yet in use. Yours respectfully,

"H. M. DEAN,

"J. E. HARCKER,

A

"Committee on Invitation."

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A REMARKABLE LETTER.

Mr. Bradford's reply was as follows:

"CITY OF PHILADELPHIA,

"GERMANTOWN, March 25, 1884.

"MESSRS. H. M. DEAN, JAMES E. HARCKER, Committee on Invitations of the First Presbyterian Church, Niles, Michigan.

"GENTLEMEN :-I have duly received your kind letter of invitation to a commemoration of the Semi-Centennial of the Organization of the First Presbyterian Church of Niles, Michigan, to be held on the 30th and 31st inst., accompanied by a request, if I cannot attend, to write a short letter, to be read to those who shall attend. Your remembrance of me as one of the earliest members of that church is peculiarly gratifying. I greatly regret that the infirmities of seventy-five and a half years of age, and the length of the journey at this season of the year, preclude a possibility of my personal attendance, however desirous I am of personally meeting you and other members of the church on an opportunity for Christian fellowship hallowed by sacred memories. My spirit is most willing, although my flesh is now very weak. Myself and wife (who is still spared to me) became connected by certificate from the Fifth Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia with the (now First) Presbyterian Church of Niles, soon after our emigration to Michigan in September, 1835, a few weeks after our first profession of faith in this city. It was in the early days of our Christian hope and love that we united our spiritual life, hidden with Christ in God, to the life infused by the Holy Spirit into a vine of God's own right hand planting, at that time only eighteen months old, as an appointed means of grace

REV. PRES. A. B. BROWN, D.D.

43

and growth in the knowledge of Christ. In the providence of God, I was mainly induced by the social attractions of the youthful Presbyterian Church of Niles, then few in numbers, but rich in character and culture, to locate in Niles. The Rev. Alexander B. Brown (who was, I believe, the first pastor of the church), created subsequently a Doctor of Divinity, made President of Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, and while yet in the prime of his earthly ministry called to the work of his Master in his heavenly kingdom, in September, 1835, filled most acceptably and usefully the pulpit. At that time to find such a clergyman as Mr. Brown ministering to so small a congregation, in so small and obscure a village as Niles, seemed a realization of the poet's thought:

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene

The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear."

The Rev. Alexander B. Brown, was, even at that early period of his clerical life, a very rare and remarkable man, who gave great promise of his subsequent celebrity and distinction. He was a learned, zealous, eloquent and untiring laborer in the gospel vineyard. His spirit was truly a loving spirit, and developed love in and among the people of his charge, and all who came within their influence. The whole period of his ministry in Niles was one of constant revival by the Holy Spirit's blessing upon his evangelical preaching. He seemed as he went in and out before his people and the world around him to be "always in the spirit," consequently his church was a live church; all its institutions, such as Sunday-schools, Bible classes, prayermeetings, conferences and charities, grew and flourished. I can never forget the warmth of Christian affec

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LOVE FOR THE CHURCH.

tion which animated both the public and private religious meetings of the members of the church. The pastor's favorite hymn was, "How firm a foundation, ye saints of Lord." The manners of Mr. Brown were so frank, genial, winning and refined, as to attract every one and repulse no one. He was well read in polite literature, a sound and systematic theologian, an accurate biblicist and an admirable general scholar. "Whatever he touched he ornamented." He was em

phatically a Christian gentleman of whom, in all his converse, it might be said, the love of Christ constrained him. In the most cultivated society, he was fitted to shine, lead, and influence, as well as instruct. Eternity only can reveal the value of that early gift of God to the infant church of Niles, during the comparatively brief ministry therein of Mr. Brown,

Mr. Brown was efficiently aided in his arduous labors by an able, pious and devoted eldership, who fully sympathized with him in word and work. Time and strength do not suffice to give them individually such mention as affection and memory prompt, and they merit. You have asked for a short letter, and I could fill a volume with reminiscences of the early elders and co-workers among the members of the Presbyterian Church of Niles, from September, 1835, to November, 1843, when I removed from Niles, and returned to this my native city, in obedience to filial duty. The record of nearly all of those excellent exemplars of Christian life is, I presume, ere this, closed on earth. Among such fruit as their lives bore, while I knew them, may be mentioned the Bible and Total Abstinence Societies, which, I presume, still survive to the honor of their memories and the glory of God. I may