A century-old box of papers, which had been shipped west from Illinois to Colorado to California. What did it hold? It turned out to be a literary and family treasure. It contained the sermons, notebooks and letters of a Methodist minister whose untimely death in 1899 left a desperately grieving widow with little means and their four-year old son. She packed the box of papers and may not have opened it again, perhaps to avoid reopening the pain of their loss. The box traveled westward with the family to Colorado and eventually to California. The box was left to the descendants of the widow, Lottie B. Peak, and her only child, Paul, to read, document and enjoy. Giles M. Peak was a Methodist Episcopal minister active in the West Jacksonville District of Illinois from 1891 to 1899. During this period he preached on five different circuits, held revival meetings at other churches, and spent a year of evangelism in California. His theology was happy and positive, and expressed in beautiful language. He preached to uplift his listeners to the glory that would be theirs if they believed. This book includes the story of Giles and Lottie Peak growing up in Illinois in the years after the Civil War, his college experiences, his adventures as a salesman in the mining camps of Colorado and New Mexico, their marriage, and his subsequent miraculous healing in San Francisco. It describes his life as a minister in Illinois and Los Angeles, his death, and the subsequent lives of his wife and son. John C. Peak, a grandson, wrote this work aided by his brothers