In 1862 our yearly meeting was held at Emporia, and in 1863 at Ottumwa.

These meetings were little better than failures.

Yearly district meetings were kept up in Northeastern Kansas, in which more vigor was manifested.
And now the writer began to feel the pressure of hard necessities.

For five years I had kept myself in the field on a salary utterly inadequate to my needs, and had been gradually running into debt, and these debts had to be paid.

In anticipation of the future wants of my children, I had invested my available means in land; but as this land was not improved, it yielded me no return.