Presbyterian church at Dickinson, about three miles distant, where Mr. Williams served as ruling elder. When they moved into Newville they transferred their memberships to Big Spring Church.

The opening up of the great West appealed strongly to Mr. Williams. He corresponded with a friend who had already migrated to Minnesota, and finally, after several years consideration, made a trip to Minneapolis, Minn., in April, 1856. He was so pleased with the prospect that he bought a house on this preliminary trip and made arrangements for the arrival of his family, for whom he then returned to Pennsylvania.

In June, 1856, the journey was made; by train to Pittsburgh; by steamboat down the Ohio River to St. Louis, with a three days stop at Cincinnati for the boat to unload and load cargo; a second steamboat, this time a “sidewheeler", up the Mississippi river from St. Louis to St. Paul; and by wagon from St. Paul to Minneapolis.

They arrived in Minneapolis too late in the day to unpack sufficient furniture to make their new home habitable, so stopped at the hotel, "The Chambers House.' This they found so little to their liking, however, that they all exerted themselves to the utmost the following day and were able to sleep in their own home the second night. This first Minneapolis home was on Kansas Street, now Second Ave. North, and on the site where, in 1896, the Williams Hardware Co. was established in a wholesale business built up from their father's retail store by two grandsons of Lewis H. Williams.

A year or so after their removal to Minneapolis, Mr. Williams was walking one day through a grove of trees when a branch, bent back for his passage, rebounded and struck him sharply across the eyes. This accident created a permanent injury, affecting his eyesight immediately, and eventually resulting in loss of vision except at exceedingly close range. He could see to read and write during the greater part of the remainder of his life by holding the book or paper within an inch or so of his eyes,

This was a

but all distance was gradually obliterated. great affliction, and a handicap to many activities in the outside world. In June, 1862, his daughter, Ellen Mary, wrote to a relative in the east: "Father has gone fishing today. His sight is slowly growing dimmer, and I suppose it won't be long until he is entirely blind."

A Presbyterian Church of the "New School" branch of the denomination was established in Minneapolis before the advent of the Williams family. A small group of persons not in sympathy with this branch obtained a charter for a second Presbyterian Church from the St. Paul Presbytery. A committee consisting of Rev. J. C. Riheldaffer, Rev. H. Maltby, and Rev. Charles Thayer met on Aug. 23rd, 1857, and organized an "Old School" church, named Westminster Presbyterian Church. Eight persons were enrolled as charter members, six of whom were from the Williams family: Mr. and Mrs. Lewis H. Williams, their daughters, Ellen Mary Williams and Mrs. Deborah M. Pettit, and Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. Williams. Mr. Andrew W. Oliver, the first elder of the new church, and his wife, were the two remaining charter members. This handful of eight good people starting their little church in 1857 has grown in 1922 to a membership of over fifteen hundred; with five independent, active churches in the city, direct offshoots of the mother church; three large mission chapels; and six other Presbyterian churches which were helped by Westminster Church in their early struggles to establish themselves. So, although the Rev. Joshua Williams was disappointed in having no son following him in the ministry, these two sons, Lewis H. and Joseph C., with their families, were instrumental in establishing a church which has grown to be the largest, wealthiest, and most influential church of the denomination in Minneapolis, the depth and outreach of whose Christian work in the world is immeasurable.

Mr. Williams, who had served as ruling elder in Mifflintown, Carlisle, and Dickinson, in Pennsylvania, was elected and enrolled as the second ruling elder of Westminster Church on March 14th, 1858. He was called the

father of "Old School Presbyterianism" in Minneapolis, and the Rev. Charles Thayer, D.D. speaks of him as a man "mighty in the scriptures".

The Sabbath School of the church was organized in April, 1858, with about twenty scholars; Mr. and Mrs. Williams were two of the six teachers.

Mrs. Williams went east to visit her parents, both of whom seemed to be failing in health, in the summer of 1866, and while in Newville was herself taken ill and died on July 6th. Owing to the season, her body was not brought to Minneapolis for burial, but was interred in Big Spring cemetery, near the grave of her father-inlaw.

Up to 1877 Westminster Church had thriven in uninterrupted harmony, but in that year a matter arose which caused considerable disturbance at the time. A special meeting of the congregation was called in June to elect additional elders, and at this meeting it was proposed that the rotary system of eldership be adopted by the church instead of the life term system which had theretofore been in force. Opinion was a matter of conviction not to be changed lightly by the serious minded men who were elected to church offices in those days, and for seven months this question disturbed the membership of the church; but finally, at a meeting in January, 1878, by a vote of sixty-six to thirty-three, it was decided to adopt the rotary system of electing elders and deacons. Three elders who had been in office prior to this meeting were at once elected to serve under the new system, but of these three, two were so strongly opposed to the change they declined the election. One of the two was Mr. Williams, who believed that the rotary system for elders was un-Presbyterian, and not in accordance with the teachings of the Scriptures, therefore it was impossible for him to serve longer as a ruling elder without violating the dictates of his conscience. In declining to serve he made a full and clear statement of his views in writing. He retained his membership in the church, but thereafter gradually acquired the habit of attending service at the First