| 229 Sometime during the month of May a branch was organized at Piper City, Illinois, by Elder T. W. Smith, over which Silas M. Rogers was called to preside.
William Nelson, who was appointed a mission to the Society Islands, was on June 17, 1878, ordained to the office of elder at Oakland, California, by Elders H. P. Brown and William Anderson, and the same day he sailed for the Islands. He arrived at Papeete, Tahiti, on July 23, and found the native members of the church glad to welcome him.
In the month of June there was a nine-session debate held near Coldwater, Michigan, between Elder Columbus Scott and an Elder Miller of the Seventh-day Advents. Of this Elder Scott wrote: "We feel thankful to our heavenly Father for the aid given, and more confirmed than ever in that we are on the right side of the questions discussed."
The following items were published in the Herald for June 15:
The Saints at Kewanee, Illinois, have succeeded in purchasing the M. E. church in that place, lately sold by that society on the occasion of their building a larger and more elegant place of worship. It was a stroke of good policy on the part of the Saints, and we hope much good will result. . . . . Bro. Holt wrote on 21st of May: "We have a strong team here now, Brn. Patterson, Short, and McDowell."
Letter from Bro. Magnus Fyrando, May 18, signifies that Bro. Chambers and himself had arrived at Ogden, Utah, and were greeted cordially with a bright prospect of doing good. They met Bro. Nelson of Bozeman, Montana, also on his way to his field. Bro. Nelson is fully awake to the South Sea Mission; has made sacrifice, and goes at his own cost to aid the work.
On June 24 the Three Rivers Branch was organized in Jackson County, Mississippi, by Elders Heman C. Smith and L. F. West. Three weeks prior to this organization the voice of the elders of the church had never been heard in this place. Mr. J. W. Grierson, who had united with the church at Keokuk, Iowa, in 1842, resided there and was the cause of the elders making the effort, though they were the first of the Reorganization that he had ever met. At the time of the organization the branch was
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