Rt. Rev. W. H. Hare Biography

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RT. REV. W. H. HARE, D. D., Missionary Bishop of South Dakota, took up a 
profession which had been a favorite one with his ancestors and connections.  
His father was the Rev. George Emlen Hare, D. D., LL. D., late professor in the 
Philadelphia Divinity school, and was one of the American committee on the 
revision of the Authorized Version of the Bible.  His grandfather, on his 
mother's side was the celebrated Bishop Hobart, of New York; great-grandfather, 
the Rev. Thomas Bradbury Chandler, D. D., famous as one of the stanchest 
churchmen of Colonial days.  His wife, who died a few years after their 
marriage, was a daughter of the Rt. Rev. M. A. DeWitt Howe, Bishop of Central 
Pennsylvania, by his first wife, Julia Amory.

Bishop Hare was born in Princeton, New Jersey, May 17, 1838. He took Holy Orders 
in the Episcopal church as soon as his age permitted, being ordained Deacon June 
19, 1859, and Priest May 25, 1862.  After holding two parochial cures he was 
appointed secretary and general agent of Foreign Missionary work of the 
Episcopal church.  After he had been engaged in this work for a year, the House 
of Bishops in the general convention of 1871 nominated him to the House of 
Deputies for the Missionary Bishoprick of Cape Palmas, on the west coast of 
Africa, but withdrew their nomination on the earnest representations of the 
deputies that his services were invaluable to the church in the office which he 
held.

A year later, All Saints Day, 1872, however, the Bishops elected him Missionary 
Bishop of Niobrara, that being for ecclesiastical purposes the name of a 
missionary district of the church in Dakota chiefly occupied by wild Indian 
tribes.

He was consecrated in St. Luke's church, Philadelphia, January 9, 1873, being 
next in order in the line of Bishops to his father-in-law, Bishop Howe, and the 
one-hundreth Bishop in the American line.

On the 10th day of January, 1888, the fifteenth anniversary of Bishop Hare's 
consecration was celebrated in Sioux Falls. Services were held in Calvarv 
Cathedral, on which occasion the Bishop gave a brief account of his election as 
Missionary Bishop and the work he had done in performing the duties of this 
important office.  The writer at the time was greatly impressed with the idea 
that no person situated as Bishop Hare was at the time of his election, 
possessing such rare qualities to command the most desirable positions in his 
chosen profession, could possibly have accepted the office, advised as he was of 
its privations and hardships, except from a profound sense that duty called him 
to make the sacrifice.

This address was published at the time, and the writer, recently reviewing it, 
came to the conclusion that he could do no better service to the readers of this 
work than to give them the main facts in the language of the distinguished 
prelate, who has done so much to advance civilization in the territory over 
which he was called to minister. The Bishop spoke in substance as follows:

This anniversary, which you, my dear friends, have kindly come together to make 
memorable, seems not only to justify, but to invite from me some personal 
reminiscences and some retrospective glances at the work in which as a Bishop I 
have been engaged.

On all Saints Day (Nov. 1), 1872, I was waited upon by the members of the 
Commission then charged with the care of the Church Indian Mission work, and 
informed that the House of Bishops had elected me to be Missionary Bishop of 
Niobrara.

Niobrara was the name of a river running along the border line between Nebraska 
and Dakota, and had been chosen as a convenient term in Ecclesiastical 
nomenclature for the large tract of country of which then little was known, save 
that it stretched northward from the river Niobrara, and was roamed over by the 
Poncas and different tribes of Sioux and Dakota Indians.

The Jurisdiction proper of the Missionary Bishop of Niobrara was originally a 
tract of country bounded "on the east by the Missouri river; on the south by the 
State of Nebraska; on the west by the 104th Meridian, the Territory of Wyoming 
and Nebraska; on the north by the 46th degree of north latitude; including also 
the several Indian Reservations on the left bank of the Missouri, north and east 
of said river." In order to give unity and compactness to the effort of the 
church for the Indian tribes, the Missionary Bishop of Niobrara was also 
authorized to take charge of the Rocky Mountains, as might be transferred to his 
oversight by the Bishops within whose Jurisdiction such work might lie.

The news was utterly unexpected, and fell upon me like a thunderbolt from a 
clear sky: The honor was almost too much for my small stock of virtue.  I was at 
the time Secretary and General Agent of the Foreign Mission Work of this Church, 
and deeply immersed, body, mind and heart in the work of making known the Gospel 
among the heathen in distant lands.   *     *     *       *

My first thought was to decline; and I informed my visitors that it would take 
me but a few hours to decide, and that if the House of Bishops would remain in 
session, they should have my answer without delay.  But the House had done its 
duty and adjourned, and left me to decide what was mine.  The call was most 
solemn.  It was from an authority that was next to that of the Head of the 
Church Himself. It came to one who held the opinion that the opposition of the 
individual judgment and will to the summons of the Church is almost fatal to her 
prompt and efficient conduct of her Missionary campaign, and should never be 
ventured except for reasons of paramount importance.

As I afterwards came to see, I had been led through a course of preparation for 
such a summons.  Though born and bred at the East, I had spent six months in 
Michigan and Minnesota, 1863, and there seen something of the Indian problem.

I had seen that there was nothing in the van of civilization to ameliorate the 
condition of the Red man, because the van of civilization is often its vilest 
offscourings; that its first representatives generally despise the Indians, and 
condescend to them in nothing but the gratification of inordinate appetites and 
desires; and that when civilization of a better class appears, it is too often 
so bent on its own progress, and so far from helpful or kindly, that its 
advance, like that of a railroad train at full speed, dashes in pieces those 
unlucky wanderers who happen to stand in its way, and leaves the others with 
only a more discouraging sense of the length of the road, and the slowness with 
which they make their way along it.  *  *  *  *

I thought then, I think now, that good and patriotic men cannot blink the Indian 
problem.  It stares them in the face.  If ever the warning of the wise man be in 
season, it is in this case.  "If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn 
unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we 
knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? and He that 
keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not He render to every man 
according to his works?"

Discussions of the probable future of the Indians were, it seemed to me, beside 
the question, and dangerous because they drown the call of present duty. Suppose 
these people be designed by Providence to be hewers of wood and drawers of 
water.  Our duty is to fit them for that lot. Suppose that they are to be merged 
in our more numerous race.  Our duty is to fit them for that absorption by 
intermarriage, and so arrest the present vicious intermingling. Suppose that 
they are to die out. Our duty is to prepare them for their departure. Our duty 
is the plainer, because the treatment which will fit these people for any one of 
these lots will fit them for either of the others.

The issue of all my cogitating was - I accepted the appointment.

The presiding Bishop determined upon Thursday after the Feast of the Epiphany, 
January 9th, 1873, as the time, and St. Luke's church, Philadelphia, with which 
I had been intimately connected in my early ministry, as the place for my 
consecration, and I was then and there duly consecrated.   *     *    *   *

My grandfather, Bishop Hobart of New Y4rk, had been distinguished for his 
missionary efforts in behalf of the Indians, the Oneidas and other tribes of the 
Six Nations in New York, and these Oneidas had been removed to Wisconsin, and 
were to be placed under the care of his grandson. In fact, my first visitation 
on leaving the East was to the Oneida Mission.  Many whom Bishop Hobart 
confirmed in New York state fifty years before, brought their grandchildren to 
be confirmed by his grandson.

VISIT TO THE INDIAN TERRITORY.

I was desirous of studying the condition of the semi-civilized Indians before 
going to the wilder tribes of the Northwest, and therefore first made a visit to 
the Indian Territory of the Southwest. While I was en route, the whole country 
was plunged into a frenzy of excitement, and of denunciation of the whole Indian 
race, by the Modoc massacre, and the mouths of many sober men were filled with 
calls for revenge, such as at other times they were wont to denounce as the 
characteristic of the vindictive Sioux.  The general of the army telegraphed a 
subordinate that he would be "fully justified in the utter extermination" of the 
Modocs.  Friends wrote me that a blow had been struck at all efforts for the 
Indians which was simply fatal, conclusive; and that it would be folly in me to 
persist.  I pressed on, nevertheless, only lamenting that the treachery of a 
handful of Indians was allowed by an intelligent people to govern opinion, while 
the good behavior of tens of thousands of Indians was utterly forgotten.

From the Indian Territory I made my way to Dakota, like Abraham, who went out 
not knowing whither he went.  I reached Yankton City, April 29, 1873.  A 
military officer, to whom I was there introduced as being the Missionary Bishop 
to the Indians, somewhat bluntly replied: "Indeed! I don't envy you your task."  
I recalled the words, "Let not him who putteth on his armor boast himself as he 
that putteth it off," and simply replied, "A minister, like a military officer, 
obeys orders." Whatever was uncertain, I was at least sure of my commission. *    
* * * *

THE NIOBRARA MISSION.

From Yankton I passed up the Missouri river, along which the main body of the 
missionary enterprise of our church among the Indians was then located.  I found 
that missionary work had been established on the Santee, Yankton, and Ponca 
Reserves, and three brave young deacons, fresh from the Berkeley Divinity 
School, had the previous fall, pressed up the river and begun the task of 
opening the way for missionary effort among the Indians of the Lower Brule, the 
Crow Creek and the Cheyenne River Reserves.

Altogether there were, besides three natives, five white clergymen and five 
ministering women.  I could not then, I cannot now, admire enough the courage 
with which these Soldiers of Christ had entered upon the work and the fortitude 
with which they persevered in it.  Their entrance upon it was largely, of 
necessity, a leap in the dark, and their continuance in it a groping where there 
was no light and no trodden way.  They had made the wild man their companion, an 
unknown heathenism their field of labor, and the wilderness their home.  Nor 
could I but wonder at the grand faith, the dauntless conviction of duty and the 
tremendous moral energy of the one man-William Welsh-who had both excited and 
backed their efforts by his zeal, his counsel and his wealth.

The missionaries above referred to have since been joined by others of like 
spirit with the best of them.  They deserve the encomium which I admiringly 
bestowed upon them in one of my annual reports; "Brave leaders in the van-guard 
of civilization!  Patient pioneers removing prejudices and other obstructions, 
and preparing the way for day schools and boarding schools and all the good 
things that accompany the progress of the King! Faithful guides, too, to the 
Indians amidst the perplexities which surround them, especially as they pass 
through their present transition stage."

But what about the Indians? I had read much of what had been written by 
delighted visitors of the heartiness and reverence with which the services of 
the church were rendered by these humble people.  And all that was ever written 
I found more than realized, when it was my privilege to kneel with them in their 
little sanctuaries.  I could understand how the brave, self-denying missionaries 
to whom I had come could feel regarding their converts as the Apostle exclaims, 
"What thanks can we render to God for all the joy wherewith we joy for your 
sakes before our God?"  I found that a great deal of true and effective work had 
been done-work which affected the whole after history of the Mission.

It was not long before I saw both sides of Indian life.  The better side: Said a 
shrewd christian Yankton chief, as I was about to leave the rude chapel erected 
among his people:  "Stop, friend, I have a few words to say.  I am glad to hear 
you are going to visit the wild, upper tribes.  Companies of them often come 
down to visit my band, and I always take them to see this chapel.  I think a 
good deal depends upon the impression my chapel makes on them.  I think if it 
was put in better order it would make a better impression than it does. The rain 
and snow come through the roof.  This floor is not even.  Now, you are called an 
Apostle.  That is a good name. I believe it means, 'one sent.'  But there are 
many people to whom you are sent to whom you cannot go; for they are wild 
people. But these visitors of mine go everywhere and tell everywhere what they 
have seen.   The wilder side, too, I saw; for among the Lower Brules, a fellow 
rode up by the side of our party with an airy, reckless, dare-devil manner, and 
remarked, as he flourished his weapon: "I want my boy to go to school, but I am 
an old man.  I am wounded all over.  I like to fight. I love war. I went off the 
other day among some strange Indians.  They said:  'Go away, or we'll kill you.' 
'Kill away,' said I, 'that's what I like.' " He was a type of hundreds and 
thousands.  But is it an unheard-of-thing for white men to hate the restraints 
of religion and morality for themselves, and yet wish them for their children?
The scenes grew wilder as I pushed farther on.  A service held at the Cheyenne 
River Agency, in the open air, left a deep impression on my mind.  It was a 
strange scene.  In front of us, forty or fifty feet distant, rolled the Missouri 
River.  Nearer at hand, grouped in a semi-circle, fringed with a few curious 
soldiers and employes of the Agency, sat the Indians; many bedecked with paint 
and feathers and carrying guns and tomahawks; some in a somber guise, betokening 
that they were inclining to the white man's ways; while all gazed, apparently 
half amused, half awe-struck, at the vested Missionary of the station as he sang 
the hymns and offered the prayers of the church, and then at the Indian Deacon 
and at me as we spoke the words of life.

PLANS OF WORK.

After a study of the field, and much conversation with the clergy, I reached 
some conclusions and began to lay out settled plans of work.

First-Mapping out the field.  I soon saw that my work was not to be that of a 
settled pastor in daily contact with his flock; but that of a general 
superintendent whose duty it would be to reach the people through their pastors, 
not so much to do local work, as to make local work possible and easy for 
others.

The whole field was therefore mapped out into divisions, these divisions being 
ordinarily the territory connected with a United States Indian Agency. The 
special care of each of them was entrusted to one experienced Presbyter, and 
around him were grouped the Indian ministers and catechists, and others who were 
engaged in evangelistic work within his division. Their pay I arranged should 
pass to them not directly from me, or from the board, but through the hands of 
the Presbyters immediately over them, that the responsibility of the assistants 
to their chief might be duly felt.  The assistants were to reside near their 
several chapels and conduct the services there, and monthly the chief missionary 
was to make his visitation, for the purpose of ministering the word and 
sacraments and in inspecting the condition of his field. The whole field was 
soon, in this way put in manageable shape.

Second-Boarding Schools. My visit to the Indian territory and my study of the 
Indian problem in my own field, convinced me quite early that the boarding 
school ought to be one of the most prominent features of our missionary work.

I thought that children gathered in such schools would soon become, in their 
neat and orderly appearance, their increasing intelligence, and their personal 
testimony to the loving and disinterested lives of the missionaries with whom 
they dwelt, living epistles, known and read of their wilder brethren.  They 
would form the nuclei of congregations at the chapels connected with the 
schools, and learn to carry on with spirit the responses and music of the 
services.

I also proposed to establish a central boarding school of higher grade, at the 
place of the bishop's residence, to be conducted under his immediate 
supervision, to which the other schools should be tributary by furnishing their 
most promising boys for education as teachers, cathechists, and missionaries.

The plan was carried out, and thus grew up the St. Paul's, St. Mary's, St. 
John's, and Hope Indian boarding schools, which, under their respective heads, 
have won a deservedly high reputation.  St. Paul's boarding school was the first 
venture in this line, among the Indians in South Dakota.

The last feature of the plan was modified later when the establishment at the 
East of schools for the Indians, like Hampton Institute, offered peculiar 
advantages in the way of higher education.  It seemed wiser to send out of the 
Indian country, to these schools, the pupils who had proved themselves of most 
promise and most likely to develop into teachers and ministers.

Third- Limitation. I next realized that, as no man can do everything, I must 
eliminate from my plan of work those things which it was not absolutely 
necessary for me to do, and devote my attention to those things which no one 
else could or would do, and to the things most essential in one holding the 
position and placed in the conditions in which I found myself.

There stretched before me vast tracts of wild country inhabited by roaming 
tribes.  It was to be my duty to explore them and make a way for the entrance of 
the church.  There were in the whole district but five churches and but two 
dwellings for the missionaries, and not a single boarding school.  The 
missionary board employed no business agent in the field, and I saw that I must 
be a builder of parsonages, schools, and churches.  There were but seven clergy 
men in the mission; I saw that I must seek out, or raise up, more. Obstacles of 
varied and peculiar nature met the workers at every turn.  I saw that I must be 
their friend, counsellor, and comforter -a real pastor of pastors--if I could 
be.  Large funds would be needed.  I was made to feel that it was left largely 
to me to raise them.  "The mission had two ends," I was told; "one was in the 
East, where the money was, and the other was in the Indian Territory, where the 
work was.  I was expected to look after both ends."

I gave up, therefore, all thought of ever learning the several native languages 
with which I was confronted, except so far as necessary in order to read the 
vernacular service.  It is my associates, and not I, who have mastered the 
native languages, and proclaimed it to the Indians, in their own tongue, the 
wonderful works of God. * *

From the first, I struggled against the notion that we were missionaries to 
Indians alone and not missionaries to all men; I pressed the study of the 
English language and its conversational use in our schools, and, however 
imperfect my efforts, the aim of them has been to break down "the middle wall of 
the partition" between whites and Indians, and to seek not the welfare of one 
class or race, but the common good.

NATURE OF THE MISSION UNDERTAKING.

The character of the work to be done appears from the fact that the Indians with 
whom the Mission has to deal, were some of the most reckless and the wildest of 
our North American tribes, and scattered over a district some parts of which 
were twelve days' travel distant from others.  So desolate was the country that 
on one of my trips I remember not seeing a human face or a human habitation, not 
even an Indian lodge, for eight days. Emissaries of evil had reached the Indians 
long before the missionaries of the Cross appeared. "All the white men that came 
before you," replied a chief, "said that they had come to do us good, but they 
stole our goods and corrupted our women; and how are we to know that you are 
different?"

RESULTS.

Such were some of the difficulties, but notwithstanding them all, and despite 
shortcomings, the missionaries have penetrated the most distant camps and 
reached the wildest of the tribes. We have missions now among the Sissetons, 
Wahpetons, Blackfeet, Sans Arcs, Oncpapas, Minneconjoux, Two Kettles, Upper 
Brules, and Ogalalas.

The blessing which has attended the labors of the missionaries appears from the 
fact that in 1872 there were but six congregations, and in 1887, there are 
forty-five.

Twelve years ago there was not to be found among any of these Indians, a single 
boarding school! We have now four in successful operation, with about forty 
children in each.

We have three commodious, substantial, boarding school buildings, the fourth is 
conducted in a government building and a vast and once desolate country is 
dotted over with thirty neat churches and chapels, and eighteen small but 
comfortable mission residences. No recess in the wilderness is so retired that 
you may not, perhaps, find a little chapel in it.  All these buildings have been 
erected without government subsidies, by the gifts of generous friends.

The clergy have presented for confirmation during my Episcopate, nearly fifteen 
hundred candidates; seven faithful Indians are serving in the sacred ministry, 
four having died; and the offerings of our native Christians have increased 
since we were able to make a systematic effort in this behalf, as indicated in 
the following statement:
	1881		$ 585
	1882		  960
	1883		1,217
	1884		1,514
	1885		1,801
	1886		2,000
	1887		2,500

The money for all the thirty churches and eighteen parsonages referred to above, 
except three, passed through my hands, and the buildings were put up under my 
supervision.  I know, therefore, their condition, and am glad to report that 
they are all of them entirely free from encumbrance and debt of any kind, except 
one of the Santee chapels, on which the Western Church Building society holds a 
mortgage of $100.

AN EASTERN DEANERY.

If I had not discovered it before, the events of 1875 made it plain that I 
should soon be the messenger of the church to white people as well as Indians.

The discovery of gold, in 1875, in a part of the great Sioux reservation known 
as the Black Hills, set a large part of our western population aflame, and 
hundreds of adventurers during that year, in open violation of the law and the 
proclamation of the executive, invaded this portion of the Indian's land and 
took possession of it.

I was outspoken in denunciation of this flagrant violation of the sacred 
obligations of a great to a weak people.  I foresaw, however, that no power on 
earth could shut our white people out from that country if it really contained 
valuable deposits of gold or other mineral.  I went, therefore, to Washington 
and urged upon the president that a commission of experts should be sent out to 
explore the country, and that, should they report the presence of gold, steps 
should be taken to secure a surrender of the tract in question from the Indians, 
on equitable terms. This was eventually done.

The government had at first been prompt and decided in requiring the removal of 
intruders; then it weakened and prevaricated; and soon the desire for the 
acquisition of this country was so ardent and influential that the government 
was practically driven to negotiate with the Indians to secure a voluntary sale 
of the coveted territory, as the only resort from the danger of a popular 
movement which should snatch it from them by force.

The Black Hills were thus thrown open to settlement, and I made there my first 
effort in the line of establishing the church among the white people of Dakota.

In 1883 an important step was taken by the House of Bishops, which gave my 
missionary district its present size and shape.  The house passed the following 
resolutions:

Resolved, That the boundaries of the Missionary Jurisdiction of Niobrara be so 
changed as to make it identical in outline and area with that portion of the 
Territory of Dakota lying south of the forty-sixth parallel of latitude, and so 
as to include the Santee Indian reservation in Nebraska.

Resolved, That the name of this jurisdiction be changed from Niobrara to South 
Dakota.

The change was altogether acceptable to me.  It was an evidence of confidence at 
a time when a number of influences and schemes, to whose success my presence and 
continuance in office were a menace, had combined against me, and had culminated 
in an onslaught which had met a temporary success.  The change detached from my 
district, territory on the north, remote, and, to me, difficult of access, and 
it gave me country on the east, near at hand and on the line of railroads, thus 
making it possible for me to do twice the amount of work with little increase of 
travel or labor, and it gave me the opportunity and privilege of active 
intercourse with the people who are to control the destiny of this part of our 
land, a people of high intelligence and wonderful enterprise.

I received a cordial welcome to the new part of my field, from the clergy and 
the people.  If preferences had been thwarted by my appointment, the fact was 
kindly forgotten, or considerately hidden from my eye.  I had soon met each and 
every one of the missionaries in their respective fields and drunk in their 
counsel.  All felt cheered that the Church had at last brought the Mission in 
Dakota out from a corner, and all had a mind to work.    *    *    *    *

I found the condition of the new district assigned me that of depression.  
Dakota, in the days of its quickest growth, had been allowed to remain as an 
appendage to Nebraska - of itself a huge diocese-and dragged after a Bishop 
whose rare gifts of mind and heart were overtaxed by the imperative demands of 
his own diocese. When opportunities had been great and others had been busy, our 
church had been comparatively inactive.

I thought that some one palpable want should be met in some distinct, striking 
way, met immediately, met well, met completely.  If this were done, it would 
show that, notwithstanding past inactivity, we were ready to make brave ventures 
and could do good things well. It would thus inspire enthusiasm and confidence.

With this end in view, All Saints School was undertaken  I hoped to be able to 
push it to completion without delay, to make it a building which would attract 
the eye and win admiration, and dedicate it free from any and every kind of lien 
and encumbrance.  The enterprising and generous spirit of the people of Sioux 
Falls and the munificient gifts of friends at the East, enabled me to carry out 
my design.  The corner stone was laid September, 1885, and stands to-day, with 
the five-acre tract on which it is placed, free from encumbrance of every kind.  
Better than this, a faculty has been drawn thither which, in the best spirit, 
works together harmoniously and efficiently, toward noble ends, in the 
development of the mind and character of the young.

More important, however, than this enterprise, though not a work that could be 
taken in hand and completed with dispatch like a building, was the reinforcement 
of the little band of faithful clergy. There were but nine in the whole Eastern 
Deanery, and one of these was preparing to withdraw. The securing of clergymen 
has been my most difficult task. There was but little, in a worldly way, to 
offer.	*	*

Nevertheless, my call was listened to, and there is nothing in my work which 
gives me so much comfort, and so much makes me think I may b good for something, 
as the character of the clergymen who have joined our ranks.

I begin to have a feeling that, whatever difficulties are ahead, we are dear 
brethren, "out of the woods." We know what we have to do. We are resolved to do 
it. We feel the glow, at least sometimes, of new life. We are making headway. 
The accession to our ranks of eleven valuable clergymen; the building of eight 
churches, five more being under way; the erection of three rectories; the 
passage of three missions from a state of dependence into a condition of self-
support; the establishment of a boarding school of high grade, and the erection 
of a noble building for its use, tell their own conclusive story.

CONCLUSION.

For all this work in both Deaneries, and for all that the clergy and my other 
fellow workers have done to effect it, I am profoundly thankful.  I am not 
elated.  One of my maxims has always been the quaint old saying:  "In woe, hold 
out; in joy, hold in."

As I look back upon the past, there rise up before my mind's eye, periods of 
physical inability which must have made me seem a drag upon the enterprises of 
my brethren, and must have sorely taxed their patience; shortcomings so grevious 
that I must have seemed a cumberer of the ground; want of thoughtfulness for my 
associates, which must have made them think me hard-hearted.  I can only say, 
"Enter not into judgment with thy servant, 0 Lord, for in thy sight shall no man 
living be justified."   *   *   *

Since the delivery of the foregoing address, in addition to his work in South 
Dakota, Bishop Hare has spent several months in active work in Japan.  He was 
elected on February 4, 1891, by the House of Bishops, by a unanimous vote, to 
proceed as early as p0551ble to the Empire of Japan as its accredited 
representative in all matters and for all purposes that might arise, but 
especially to exercise such charge and oversight of the missionary jurisdiction 
of Yeddo as might be practicable, and to act provisionally until a bishop should 
be elected and consecrated for such jurisdiction, or until he should resign his 
commission.  This action by the House of Bishops was heartily indorsed by the 
Board of Managers of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society.

Although at this time the South Dakota Mission under his charge was passing 
through a depressing ordeal, resulting from an outbreak of the Indians in the 
Niobrara Deanery, and a severe drought in the Eastern Deanery, Bishop Hare, in 
compliance with what he thought to be his duty, set sail from San Francisco on 
the 10th day of March, 1891, and returned to Sioux Falls on the 20th day of 
August, following, having spent the months of April, May, June and July in 
active work in the field.  In January, 1892, he again went to Japan, remaining 
there until March 2, then visited China, and returned to Japan, March 25, and 
after holding a convocation at Tokio, set sail for San Francisco, March 31, 
1892.  During his stay in Japan he confirmed four hundred and fifteen persons, 
licensed upward of thirty Catechists, and ordained six Deacons.

This commission to Bishop Hare was a great compliment, coming from the source it 
did and the manner in which it was conferred.

Another very appropriate and beautiful compliment was paid the Bishop at the 
great triennial convention of the Episcopal church held at Washington, D. C., in 
October, 1898.  In commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his 
consecration, and the great work performed by him among the Indians, he was 
presented with a "Loving Cup" engraved as follows: "The Right Reverend William 
Hobart Hare, D D. From Friends Who Love Him.  1873-1898." It is a silver cup, or 
urn, with three handles, and stands eleven inches high, with a width of six and 
a half inches at the brim, and a depth of nine inches to the bowl.

It would not be just to the Bishop, to omit mentioning the stand he has taken 
upon the question of divorce. He has not only from the pulpit severely 
criticised the laws of South Dakota in reference to divorce, but has during the 
sessions of the legislature visited Pierre and brought his great influence to 
bear upon the pending legislation in reference to the subject.  He is the 
recognized leader of those persons in South Dakota who are opposed to the 
enactment of such laws as would induce parties desiring a divorce to take up a 
temporary residence within her borders for such purpose.

In concluding this biographical sketch, it is a pleasure to add that his 
multitude of friends in South Dakota are rejoiced that the good Bishop, 
notwithstanding the severe hardships and exposures endured by him, still retains 
such a measure of health and vigor as to warrant the expectation that he will, 
for many years to come, be spared to work in the great field committed to his 
charge.