| 712 At the annual conference of 1900 I was placed in charge of Northern Illinois and Wisconsin, which charge I still retain, the states of Michigan and Indiana having been added at the annual conference of 1902.
Retrospectively viewing my life and life-work, I do not discover that there has been anything very extraordinary for good or evil. Conditions and environments have probably had much more influence upon me than I have had upon them.
In 1893 I removed my family to Lamoni, Iowa, where we now reside an unbroken family, death not having invaded our circle. My aged mother, who has been a widow since 1879, and whose experience with the church dates from the first year of its existence, now occupies our home with us.
JOSEPH LUFF.
Joseph Luff, son of John and Ann Garbutt Luff, was born October 31, 1852. His early childhood was spent in Toronto, Canada, the city of his birth, and the circumstances were such as to deprive him of opportunities to gain an education only to a limited extent. Through unfortunate circumstances his support devolved upon his mother, by whose labor himself and brother and sisters were sustained.
In relating the circumstance of his mother nursing and caring for sick and dying at the time of the great cholera scourge and small-pox epidemic, he pays the following tribute to her, which we record here as an evidence of his affection and love for his mother:
"What son would not feel his blood course more warmly through his veins as he listened to the recital of his mother's bravery? The thought of that mother moving to and fro among the dead and dying, performing the humble services that looked toward an alleviation of human agony, facing the deadly peril that threatened, without a single thought of self, while thousands of stronger women and men were fleeing for life before the face of the stalking pestilences, was an inspiration that gave birth to holy resolve within me. Others may point with greater assurance to distinguished names and
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