William Amos Upton was born in Minnesota on June 20, 1860 and born again on October 12, 1886. Reuben A. Torrey was used in leading him to the Lord. At the age of 76, brother Upton retired from his position in a feed and hardware store, and, feeling he had not long to live, he was exercised about covering the city of Minneapolis with gospel tracts before he died. Someone quaintly said, “He left seed-selling for seed-sowing.” This article was written as an editorial in Assembly Annals (precursor to Uplook).
“Someone must take up the banner. Someone must go with tracts from door to door. Someone must take brother Upton’s place on the street corners. God, exercise our hearts!” These were the closing words of the funeral address for brother William Upton who went to be with Christ from Rest Haven Homes (the Spring Lake unit) on July 20, 1949 after being confined to his bed for only a few days. At the memorial service at the Grand Haven Gospel Chapel on Thursday night, one of his latest converts stood lingeringly looking at our departed brother’s face. She had been brought to Christ on June 5, a few weeks before.
Since coming to Rest Haven in the early fall of 1947, brother Upton had called on her occasionally on his Muskegon day (Tuesday). Tracts left and words spoken brought about conviction of sin and a real desire for salvation. As the aged veteran, in his ninetieth year, rang the doorbell on June 7, the ring was answered by one of the daughters. Seeing brother Upton, she said, “Mama isn’t home, but she’s saved alright and she’s so happy and I want to be saved today.” With great joy our brother pointed the two daughters to Christ.
Watching the mourners as they looked into the face of our departed brother, one could almost pick out those who considered him to be their spiritual father. Three of them, former residents of Minneapolis, came more than 800 miles to pay their respects to this dear servant of the Lord. These were the Hatches, then living in Denver.
Mrs. Hatch had been accosted by a neighbor across the back fence. “Mrs. Hatch,” she said, “There’s a crazy old man going around the houses with religious papers. He’s asking everybody if they are saved. If he comes to your door, you better tell him you are and quickly close the door or you’ll never get rid of him.”
When the summons came, Mrs. Hatch opened the door, fully intending to act on her neighbor’s advice, but the words just wouldn’t come out. Nor did she get rid of the old man till she got rid of her sins. In quick succession her husband and three children and other relatives were reached for the Saviour.
“Oh, Mother,” cried a little one as she rushed up the stairs, “Jesus is at the door. Come quickly!” The surprised mother hurried down the stairs to be greeted by the friendly smile of the patriarchal-looking William Upton, who spoke to her tenderly about her need of that Jesus of whom he was only the humble servant.
One day, quite discouraged with his tramping the streets day after day with his tracts, Mr. Upton asked the Lord for a definite token of His hand on the work. The day wore on with its usual cold receptions, criticism, and expressions of satisfaction with a religion already possessed. He came to the last house for the day. There was no response to his knock, but he continued knocking. He was confident that the Lord would still give him the encouragement he had asked for earlier. After a long time, the door was finally opened.
Introducing himself as a servant of Christ who had come to show his friend the way of salvation, he followed the lady who walked slowly backwards into the room. Brother Upton read from his Bible about God’s plan of salvation. He then knelt in prayer while he commended the stranger to the Lord. The lady then followed him to the door; the whole time she never said a word. When he was gone, she quickly ran to a neighbor whom she knew to be a Christian. Bursting unceremoniously into the house, she said, “Does the Bible say anything about angels visiting people?”
Taken by surprise, her neighbor said, “Why, yes, there is a text like that somewhere in the Bible. But… well…you know they don’t do that anymore. And they didn’t do it very often in Bible times, either.”
“Never mind that,” said her visitor, “If angels ever visited people—and the Bible says they did—then I had a visit from an angel today.”
She then told her strange experience. In deep soul trouble, she had locked herself in her room, determined not to leave until she found peace. Bible reading gave place to praying, and praying to Bible reading. In desperation, she said to herself, “God will have to send an angel from heaven to show me the way.” Just then there was a knock at the door.
Fearing lest the devil should cheat her of the great blessing she longed for, she just let the “peddler” knock away, till in desperation, thinking she couldn’t get saved anyway, she left her room and opened the door to be greeted by our brother. “I would have given anything,” she said, “to be bold enough to just put out my finger to see if there was anything under his coat. I’m sure he was an angel sent from heaven.”
Efforts to get more of these remarkable events from his own lips were usually futile. Though he had a keen memory, our brother would just say, “Oh yes! I do remember something about that. I hope it was really a work of God. There’s so much empty profession these days.” One incident he would recount because it was unlikely that any honor would come to him from telling it. We quote from the Tract Club News of 1945.
“HOSPITAL,” the sign said. So the tall, elderly gentleman approached at a brisk pace. He was carrying tracts and Gospel portions. At the desk inside, he was directed to go to the rear of the building. There he found an attendant. “May I go through the hospital and give out tracts to the patients?” he asked. “No,” said the man. “The patients can’t read.” “Then I or someone else could read the tracts to them.” “No, you can’t do that; they wouldn’t understand.” “But I could explain it to them.” “It wouldn’t do you or them any good…this is a dog hospital.”
At the age of 76, brother Upton began to systematically cover the city of Minneapolis with tracts. In a little over ten years he almost covered the city twice, using nearly a million tracts in his work. He also went through St. Anthony Park and parts of St. Paul.
At age 87 he was hospitalized, and after his convalescence he concluded he could no longer live alone, and decided to move to Rest Haven Homes (Michigan).
Even there, tract work was not neglected. Grand Haven, Spring Lake, and Ferrysburg were covered systematically a number of times. On Tuesdays he would go to Muskegon.
He carried on ardently until a few days before his death. Memorial services were conducted by Peter and William Pell in Grand Haven, MI, and by O. E. McGee in Minneapolis.
William Pell mentioned in his comments on Psalm 126:6, “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” Then brother Pell added, “In 1923, it was my privilege to buy a little hand press for $25, a tremendous price for me in those days. With a great deal of difficulty, I managed to print a tract or two, and brother Upton was one of my first customers. Some of the first tracts went to his home in Minneapolis. From that day on, he bought thousands and thousands of gospel tracts.”
William Upton’s work is done. The fields still lie white in the sunshine. The night comes, when no man can work. “And who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?” (1 Chron. 29:5).
A Grandson Writes…
Jim Upton, an elder in the Coon Rapids (NW Minneapolis) assembly writes, “Yes, it was my grandfather, William A. Upton, that went door to door throughout Minneapolis after his retirement. He’d hop on a street car and go to the last place he visited and continue on from there—day after day after day. I believe he did it most days of the week (except Sundays) unless the weather was just too bad. He’d tell us stories of what happened on previous days when he’d come up to our house for supper one or two nights a week. Grandpa didn’t tell of many being saved, although there were some. One family still goes to Longfellow Gospel Chapel. Others are gone, but their children who also got saved are still around. The most active ones in the gospel that were saved were Frances and Wilma Hatch. They started several card shops and put gospel tracts into each customer’s bag. They were very active in personal witnessing all their lives. Their children were also saved. The Hatches saw many more people saved, I believe, than my grandfather did. At his memorial service in Minneapolis there were ten people who were led to the Lord through his efforts there.