Elsie Church

(Saginaw, Durand)

(1874-1948?)

Christian Family Companion and Gospel Visitor Feb. 23, 1875 page 125 Vol. II No. 8

From Michigan. November 29, 1874.

Dear Brother Quinter:

  I thought I would give you a little church new from our part of Michigan.

 Our first meeting was held here on the evening of the 20th of June by elder George Long, of Ionia County, Michigan, and elder Isaac Miller, of Barry County.  they held three meetings for us.

  In August there were two applicants wanted to unite with the church, so I wrote for the brethren to come and perform the work. So, on the 5th of September, brethren George Long arrived and on the 6th, he led two willing souls into the flowing stream and solemnly immersed them.  

  Brother Long preached two sermons, and on the 10th of October, we held our lovefeast. The speakers present were brethren George Long and Jacob Hepner, of Ionia County, and brethren George Brower and Isaac Fisher, of Miami County, Indiana.

  We had the best order I ever saw at a communion meeting, although our crowd was not very large. There were two more come out on the Lord’s side, and turned their backs on the sinful world.  We number here, as present, twelve members, and in a week or two there will be four more move in here.  We are in the corner of Saginaw, Shiawassee, Clinton and Garrison counties.  We have no speaker among us. They held a choice for a deacon, at lovefeast, and the lot fell on your poor servant.  There are four members living fifteen miles south of here.

  I thought some of the brethren would take it upon them to do this writing, as you desire church news, but as no one said anything from our corner, so I have taken on the duty upon myself.  I wish some of the brethren that are seeking homes would call and look at our country.  I will not advise any on to come and move here, without their first coming and looking for themselves. Wild land is worth from $9 to $15 per acre.  If any one wishes to come and see us, or any laboring brethren will come and labor for us, and will drop us a few lines, we will meet them at Ovid, on the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad, or Oakley, on the Jackson and Saginaw Railroad.

  We would like very much to have brethren come and see us, as we are on the frontier borders, and it is not very likely for brethren to call on us the same as though we lived there brethren were all around us.  I have on request to make, and hope some brother will answer for the information of a friend who is seeking after the true religion.  He wants some brother to write through the Companion and Visitor, on Baptism. Why we baptize forward? And also explain the sixth chapter of Romans, third and fourth verses.

Yours truly.

Zachariah Albaugh. Elsie, Mich.