In 1845, Rev. Morgan L. Noble was appointed to the Fond du Lac charge and remained two years. He was received by the Rock River Conference in 1843, and was appointed to Du Page Circuit with Rev. Elihu Springer as Preacher in Charge. Brother Noble was a man of superior talent, but his health was not equal to the Itinerancy. At the close of his term at Fond du Lac, he took a location and entered secular pursuits.
In 1847 Rev. Henry R. Colman was sent to Fond du Lac, and also remained two years.
Brother Colman entered the New York Conference in May, 1831, and his first appointment was Warren Circuit, with Rev. Joseph McCreery as his colleague. This charge was located forty miles from his residence and included twenty-four hundred square miles. His visits to his family were few, and the year was one of most severe labor. His receipts were only one hundred and forty dollars, showing that pioneer work had not at that period wholly ceased in the older States. Luzerne, his next field, gave him one hundred and twenty dollars. The next year he traveled Bridgeport, a large, four weeks circuit, and had for colleague Rev. J.G. Whitford. On this charge the receipts for the first two quarters were not equal to his moving expenses. He was next stationed at Ticonderoga, Westport and Essex, and Berne, successively, when he was invited by Rev. John Clark, who was east attending the General Conference of 1840, to come west and take charge of the Oneida Indian Mission. He consented, and at the following session of the Troy Conference he was transferred to the Rock River and assigned to that field, where he arrived September 19th, 1840.
He remained on this Mission five years and was then appointed to Brothertown as my successor. At the expiration of two years he was appointed to Fond du Lac, as above stated, where he contracted a severe cold, but thinking to remove it without difficulty, continued his labors. It was a fatal step. Bronchitis set in and he lost his voice. He was granted a superannuated relation at the session of the Wisconsin Conference, held at Beloit, July 27, 1849. From this attack he has never sufficiently recovered to resume his labors.
The loss of Brother Colman from the work in the Conference was severely felt. Of solid endowments, respectable attainments, large practicable knowledge and excellent administrative abilities, his services seemed almost necessary to the success of the work. We can only refer such difficult problems to the Great Head of the church for solution.