REV. THOMAS E. HUGHES, LAKE CRYSTAL, BLUE EARTH COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
Born at Clynnog, Carnarvonshire, North Wales, June 27th, 1844. He is the first born of eight children, five on whom are now living. His father is Mr. Benjamin Hughes, of Columbus, Wisconsin.He came with his parents to the United States in the summer of 1845. The family settled at Columbus, Wisconsin, where Mr. Hughes continued to reside till the year 1868. He received his education in the common schools of the day and at Wayland University, a Baptist institution not far from his home.
He served in the Union army for about three years—from August, 1862, to July, 1865 — in Company G, Twenty-third Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers.
He commenced preaching at Salem church, Columbus, in 1866; was received by Presbytery in 1867, and ordained, with the Rev. Wm. Machno Jones, at Cambria, Wisconsin, in 1870.
He was united in marriage to Miss Grace James of the same place in 1868, who was a help-mate for him until her decease in August, 1892.
From the years 1868 to 1873 he was eng-ag-ed in mission work among- the Freedmen in the states of Arkansas and Missouri, under the auspices of the American Missionary association and the Welsh Presbyterian Synod of Wisconsin. For nearly the following two years he resided again at his old home in Wisconsin. In 1874 he accepted a call to the Williamsburg and Welsh Prairie churches in Iowa where he served as pastor for fourteen years. In 1888 he removed to Minnesota, accepting a pastorate of Bethel and Horeb churches in Blue Earth county, where he still ministers.
He has three children and an adopted daughter daughter, viz.: Maggie J., Robert L., Bennie D., and Mary E.
In 1884 he paid a visit to his native country.