Milwaukee at this time still retained its three charges, and they were now in charge respectively of Rev. J. M. Walker, Rev. E. Cooke, D.D., and Rev. A.C. Manwell. As stated in a former chapter, Brother Walker had served his full term on the Beaver Dam District, where he had been very popular. He entered upon his field with great spirit, but found himself greatly embarrassed by the unhappy financial condition of the charge. Besides the indebtedness remaining on the Church, there remained considerable arrears on the salaries of preceding Pastorates.
This paying a Pastor at the end of his term in notes, that shall come back to haunt his successor, is not in keeping with the financial genius of the Church. I once had some sad experience in that line, and since it was not in Milwaukee, I will take occasion to refer to it in this connection. It was at a time when the slip rents were not large, averaging only about two hundred dollars a quarter. In the case referred to, the two hundred dollars of the first quarter of my year, had been absorbed to meet the claims of the outgoing Pastor. And then, as he was still behind two hundred dollars, a note was given him for the balance. By this arrangement, the first half year of my term had been anticipated, and had not the people, finding out the state of the case, come to my aid with a good donation, I must have been greatly embarrassed.
Nor does such mismanagement affect the one man alone. The system entails disaster upon the successive Pastors of the charge. Each man feels that his predecessor has done him a great wrong, when the case may be, the wrong was done by one man several years before, and afterwards his successors have only been carrying it over from year to year. But, however long it may be carried, it still remains as the plague of both the Pastors and the Church.
But in the person of Brother Walker, the system was squelched. Though at the end of his term, owing largely to this irregularity, he was largely deficient in his claim, he balanced the year.
Brother Manwell, the Pastor of Asbury, entered the North Indiana Conference in 1853, was transferred to the Wisconsin Conference in 1857, and had served Green Bay two years, before coming to this charge. The Church accommodations were limited, but he made two good years at Asbury, and was able at their close to report considerable progress. After leaving the city, Brother Manwell served a good class of appointments, and among them Racine, Janesville, Whitewater and Ripon, until 1873, when he was transferred to Upper Iowa Conference. He was a man of kind spirit, pleasant address, and specially successful in leading the social meetings in his charges.