History of Saginaw county, Michigan; together with ... portraits ... and biographies ... History of Michigan ...

BRIDGEPORT TOWNSHIP.

761

Methodist Protestants should furnish half the means for building,
and should have the use of the house for preaching one appointment each Sunday, and to use it such evenings as the M. E. class
might designate, the church to be the latter's property. The
Methodist Protestants of course rejected this proposition, and the
conference ended. Mr. Foster then said he would build a church
himself; so he paid a visit to Elder Richards (who had succeeded
Rev. Crane, at Saginaw City), to consult him in the matter. He
could not get the assistance from the M. E. Church that he desired,
but Elder Richards advised him to see the members of the Congregational Church. He did so, and raised four or five hundred dollars, the present Congregational church being the final result of his
labors.
Elder A. C. Fuller succeeded Mr. Husted in the fall of 1866,
and organized a class at Zilwaukee, and another at Carrollton. This
same year, the "People's church" was built, with material aid
from another organization. The latter denomination were to use
it when they wanted to, but any other denomination could have
the use of it, provided their appointments would not conflict with
any already made.
In 1869 Elder T. H. Beamish was pastor, and in 1870 he was
sent again, with a young man named James Wilson as assistant.
The same year the classes at Zilwaukee and Carrollton united with
the M. E. Church, under the management of Rev. James Riley.
Elder Beamish organized a class at Cass river bridge, called the
South Bridgeport class. In the fall of 1871 Rev. W. H. Bakewell
was sent to minister to the people. IHe was an Englishman, a
graduate of Oxford University, and rather eccentric in his ways.
He had considerable trouble in his family, his wife showing marked
signs of insanity, which latter seemed to affect the minister's mind.
His work did not prosper,-the Bridgeport class had been reduced,
by removals, to half a dozen members, and the South Bridgeport
class was so weak it was concluded not to have any minister the
following year.
In 1873 Rev. James Riley came to Bridgeport Center, and
preached in the People's church, in the hope of organizing a class.
He did not succeed, but turned his attention to South Bridgeport,
where his labors met with great reward. A class was organized,
and a local preacher from Tuscola ministered to their spiritual
wants once in two weeks. The Methodists at Bridgeport village
attended the Congregational Church until 1878. During this year
the latter denomination were without a minister, so they engaged
Rev. E. E. Caster, M. E. minister at East Saginaw, to preaclh for
them each alternate Sabbath, at two o'clock P. M. The Congregationalists had decided to have no preacher the following year, and
when Elder Caster reported this to the M. E. Conference, that body
sent Rev. Edwin Foster on to look after the flock at Bridgeport
village. He found a discouraging state of affairs,-no class, no
members to receive him, no foothold of any kind. Nothing