This church now (January, 1912) has forty-five members with a Sunday school of seventy-five members and an average attendance of fifty-two.

The Ladies' Aid Society, of which Mrs. Charles Koch is president, has thirty members. Frank McBridge is Sunday school superintendent.

This church has always been served in connection with some other church. Its present connection is with the church at Putnam. H. Wakefield is pastor. The valuation of the church property including furnishings is $3,950.

CHAPTER XX

THE TIME THAT TRIED MEN'S SOULS-AN INTERESTING BIT OF UNTOLD HISTORY AS WRITTEN BY COLONEL RICE-LINCOLN AND JUDGE KELLOGG

The real trial of the characters of men occurs before the great outbreak in all revolutionary or critical situations when each man must align himself on one side or the other of the great questions presented according to his own judgment and convictions. It is comparatively easy after an alignment is made for one to fill his place and battle in forum or in field for the side he approves. It is not easy in the beginning to determine what position to take, for this involves two things, the abstract question of what is right and the question of how differences of conscientious convictions can be adjusted. Men are so constituted that they look upon important questions from different points of view and conscientiously differ as to what is just, therefore, in order that we may live together in peace, concessions must be made and the conscientious convictions of others must not be ruthlessly disregarded. It is in such trying times that men of sound judgment, strong character, great moral courage, kindness of heart and charitable feelings towards others appear as leaders. Lincoln was pre-eminently such a man. He had strong convictions in regard to slavery and more strong in regard to the necessity of preserving the Union. His problem was "what do the people think?" "What can they be relied upon to do? Can they be induced to work together for the support of right and for the preservation of the Union?" These were questions of very great difficulty calling for solution by the president elect. It was, therefore, thought desirable by Mr. Lincoln and some of his most intimate friends that a proposition of compromise with the southern states, as liberal as possible toward their views should be offered, which if accepted might prevent a long, bloody and expensive war and whether adopted or not might secure for the administration the support of Mr. Douglas and his powerful party. Such an attempt was made as appears from the following article which was prepared by the late Hon. David McCulloch, after those events had been long enough passed to allow men to think calmly and at the same time was written before those who had personal knowledge of the facts had passed away. It was submitted to the surviving friends of those interested, most of whom are now gone. It narrates circumstances which probably have not found a place in permanent print before.

AWFUL DAYS OF DOUBT AND ANXIETY BEFORE THE TERRIFIC STORM

The rejoicing over the great republican victory (in the fall of 1860) was soon turned into a serious consideration of the gravity of the situation. On the next day after the election, the "Palmetto Flag," South Carolina's emblem, was unfurled from the shipmasts in Charleston harbor, and on the next day after the great illumination at Peoria, the legislature of that state passed a bill for the equipment of 10,000 men and ordered an election of delegates to consider the necessity of immediate secession. Two days thereafter both her senators in congress resigned their seats. Then men began to inquire of each other, "Do you think the south is in earnest in its threats of secession?"