Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

before her marriage as a scholar, afterwards as a teacher. Wherever she went, female benevolent societies and sewing circles were strengthened by her presence, sympathy, and counsels. Wherever a female prayer-meeting could be sustained she gladly came with the sisters to the throne of grace, pleading for the triumph of the gospel and the salvation of souls.

Once a year she visited each family in the parish, and those visits were always welcome. Refined in language, feeling, and manners, cheerful in her disposition, with strong affection for her friends and attachment to her kindred, uncomplaining and resigned to the Divine will, in her last sickness, so long and so gloomy to others, she passed safely on to that world where all that is truly excellent and lovely is stamped with eternity; where the redeemed and their Redeemer meet; where the rewards are given and the crowns bestowed.

Her most important request was that her friends would all meet her in heaven, and the prospect is fair that many of them will.

After an appropriate discourse by Rev. Joseph Peckham, and other exercises by Plymouth ministers, she was buried in South Plymouth, near the abode of many whom she loved both of the living and the dead.

Rev. WARREN DAY died in Richmond, N. Y., May 19, 1864. His funeral was attended in the Congregational Church there the Saturday following, when an appropriate sermon was preached by Rev. O. E. Daggett, from John xvii. 17. Mr. Day was born in Sharon, Vt., October 1, 1789, and graduated at Dartmouth College in 1814. He preached in the Congregational Church in Richmond about twelve years, from 1816 to 1828, being installed pastor there in 1818. Afterwards he preached in Orangeville, N. Y., two years, and in the years 1831-1838, was employed as an agent of the American Tract Society, residing at Geneva, N. Y. From 1838 to 1844, he was pastor of the Church in Enfield, N. Y., and then, after a year spent in Ithaca, again preached in Richmond from 1845 to 1850, after which he again supplied the Church in Orangeville till 1854, when he took up his residence in Wawatosa, Wis., with his son Fiske. In 1863 he returned to Richmond to reside with another son, Rev. S. M. Day, then and now in charge of the same Church to which he had himself ministered. He had lost a wife and four children. His second wife and five children survived him. In 1849,

during his second residence in Richmond, he was one of the founders of the Ontario Association of Congregational ministers, and, till his removal to the West, one of its most valued members, as is signified by the resolu tions they adopted after his decease. It was a fit and interesting arrangement of events, that, after such varied services, he should return to end his days among the people whom he had twice served as pastor, and with his son who now served them in the same capacity, and be borne from the sanctuary in which he had preached so many years to his rest in the adjacent burial-ground, to which he had attended so many of his former hearers, and some of his own family. His old parishioners bore ample testimony to his worth as a man, and his ability and fidelity as a pastor. A brother in the ministry, of nearly his own age, on hearing of his death, testified that he was "an Israelite indeed, in whom was no guile." It was as a member of the Ontario Association that he was chiefly known to the writer of this notice. Besides the good service he had rendered and the esteem he had won in his profession, he had decidedly more than ordinary merit as a man of thought and science. In mineralogy and geology he was a zealous student, and made a valuable collection of specimens in these departments. Whatever subject was assigned to him for discussion in the Association, his essay was always sure to be "worth hearing" for solid information and weighty thought. He had used short-hand for many years, and of late had learned a new system founded on Pitman's "Phonography," and his brethren were interested in seeing him bring forth his thoughts from note-books where "marks" of both kinds were mixed with common characters, and oddly arranged, so as to be intelligible only to himself. His love of truth and strong good sense made even his eccentricities pleasant. Without those graces of style or manners that might be required now for popularity in the pulpit, he had yet, as has been said of him, "brains enough to supply respectably two ordinary ministers." His endowments, and virtues, and services entitle him to an honorable place among those who have "served their generation according to the will of God," and whose best "record is on high."

Rev. ANDREW JAQUITH died in Langdon, N. H., August 27, 1864, aged forty-eight. He was born in Ashby, Mass., March 7, 1816, son of Benjamin and Rebecca (Spalding)

Jaquith, and was the youngest of six children. His parents were professors of religion, and by them he was instructed in the great principles of the Christian faith. Nor were these instructions without their effect. In early life he was the subject of deep religious impressions, and at the age of seventeen he united with the Congregational Church in his native town.

Not long after his conversion he turned his thoughts to the Christian ministry, a work to which his pious mother had years before devoted him. It seems to have been a predominant desire of his heart to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified to his perishing fellow-men; not that he might have a name among the great and learned, or enjoy a life of ease and literary indulgence; but that he might be the humble instrument of saving souls. With this view he entered a Literary Institution in the State of New York, and became nearly or quite prepared to enter college. But owing to the death of his mother and other changes in his father's family, he was led to abandon for a time his favorite pursuit, and at length settled in domestic life.

His reading, reflections, and desires, however, were still directed to the work which had previously so much absorbed his attention. In 1858, receiving a temporary license from the pastors in his vicinity, he commencd preaching. In the autumn of 1859, he was directed by the finger of Providence to Langdon, N. H., where April 25, 1860, he was ordained by a council, called by the Church in Langdon, to the work of the gospel ministry as an Evangelist. From that time till disabled by sickness, he labored among the people of Langdon with great fidelity and acceptance.

Though not favored in early life with the means of intellectual and theological training, such as most others enjoy, he soon took a highly respectable stand among the ministers with whom he associated. He possessed a large share of good sense, a sound and discriminating mind, a desire for knowledge, and was industrious in the use of all the means within his reach of rising in his profession; and the united testimony of all who knew him is, that he was a "growing man." Seldom do we meet one who makes greater proficiency in whatever constitutes an able minister than he did in so short a period as he was permitted to pursue his chosen work. Some who were his seniors have watched his progress with peculiar interest and satisfaction, and the hope was cherished that he might long live to bless the Church by his earnest and self-denying labors.

But his work on earth is done. Learning that his son was in Washington sinking under wounds received in the cause of his country near Petersburg, he left home about the 8th of August that he might visit him and administer to his wants in his last hours. In four days after his arrival in Washington, the son died. The father saw the remains committed to the grave, and on Tuesday, August 16, he reached home, exhausted by the journey, and sick of the disease (camp dysentery) of which he died. During his sickness, he manifested a calm, submissive, and happy frame of mind. On the day preceding his death, many of his friends and parishioners were around his bedside, to whom he spoke words of timely exhortation and comfort, entreating them to remember his instructions and profit by them after his departure. He gave the necessary directions as to his burial, and passed away in the triumphs of faith. His funeral was on Monday the 29th, attended by a large and deeply affected congregation. The sermon on the occasion was preached by Rev. Mr. Foster, of Acworth, from 1 John iii. 1-2.

Mr. Jaquith married, April 17, 1842, Abby Glover Warren, oldest child of Captain Jacob Warren, of Ashby, Mass.; she is still living. They had two children: viz., Henry Warren, born in Ashburnham, November 5, 1844, was a private in the 6th New Hampshire Infantry, wounded (on picket duty) June 21, 1864, of which wound he died August 13; Andrew Benjamin, born in Ashburnham, May 16, 1850.

A. F.

Rev. AMARIAH CHANDLER, D. D., died in Greenfield, Mass., October 20, 1864, aged eighty-one years, eleven months, and twenty-three days.

He was born in Deerfield, Mass., October 27, 1872, the youngest and last survivor of nine children of Moses and Persis (Harris) Chandler, both of them natives of Lancaster, Mass. When about five years of age, he removed to Shelburne, Mass., where he lived till manhood. He fitted for college with Rev. Theophilus Packard of Shelburne, entered the junior class in the University of Vermont in 1805, and was graduated in 1807. At the time of his death, he was the oldest alumnus of the university.

He read theology with Rev. Theophilus Packard about a year, was licensed by the North Hampshire (now Franklin) Association, November 8, 1808, and was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in Waitsfield, Vermont, February 7, 1810,Rev. Elijah Lyman, of Brookfield, preaching the sermon, from Luke ii. 34. He was dis

missed February 3, 1830, and became stated supply of the Second Congregational Church in Hardwick, to which he preached nearly two years. During that time a revival took place, and forty were added to the Church. He was installed pastor of the First Congregational Church in Greenfield, Mass., October 25, 1832,-Rev. Bancroft Fowler preaching the sermon. In 1846, he received the degree of D.D. from the University of Vermont. In 1853, he was a member of the Constitutional Convention of Massachusetts. His sermon before the Legislature of Vermont, in 1824, was published, as were also several others of his occasional sermons, and some miscellaneous pamphlets. They are evidently the productions of a mind of great native strength.

He married, October 2, 1808, Abigail Whitney, of Shelburne, Mass., by whom he had four sons and four daughters. She died June 19, 1833; and he married, November 17, 1840, Mary (Nims) Roberts, widow of Horace Roberts, Esq., of Whitingham, Vermont. She died March 1, 1852; and he married, October 2, 1855, Mrs. Eliza (Bixby) Gleason, widow of Solomon Gleason of Coleraine, Mass.

P. H. W.

Rev. MYRON WINSLOW, D. D., LL. D., the eminent missionary, died at the Cape of Good Hope, on his way from India to America, October 22, 1864, aged seventy-four years, ten months, and eleven days.

He was born in Williston, Vt., December 11, 1789, the son of Nathaniel and Anna (Kellogg) Winslow, and the elder brother of the late Rev. Gordon Winslow, D. D., and Rev. Hubbard Winslow, D. D. His ancestry is traceable back to Kenelm Winslow, of whom English history makes mention in the sixteenth century, and whose grandson was one of the Mayflower Pilgrims. The two Governors Winslow, of Massachusetts, were of the same stock.

He intended to be a merchant, and at the age of fourteen entered a store as clerk, where he continued till he was twenty-one years old, and then established himself in business in Norwich, Ct. Here he was successfully employed for two years. In the mean time the serious impressions of which he had been the subject from childhood greatly deepened, and resulted at length in his hopeful conversion. From that time he felt a strong conviction that he ought to preach the gospel, and to preach it to the unevangelized nations. In the very letter in which he announced to his parents his conversion,

he also announced his intention to abandon the profitable business in which he was engaged, and give himself to the service of Christ among the heathen. Having had a thorough academical education, he was able, after a year and a half of preparation, some of it being made while he was still prosecuting his mercantile business, to enter as junior at Middlebury College in 1813. He was graduated in 1815.

In January, 1816, he entered Andover Theological Seminary, and was there graduated in 1818. During the last vacation of his junior year, and the two vacations of the senior year, he travelled in New England as agent of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and was very successful in collecting funds. He was ordained as a missionary in the Tabernacle Church, Salem, Mass., November 4, 1818, together with Pliny Fisk and others. Rev. Moses Stuart, D. D., preached the sermon. He embarked at Boston June 8, 1819, on brig Indus, bound for Calcutta, where he arrived after a voyage of about five months. Thence he proceeded to Ceylon, which he reached December 14, 1819, and took up his residence at Oodooville, July 4, 1820. There he labored sixteen years, and then was transferred to Madras, arriving there August 18, 1836. His biography during his residence in India would be no less nor other than the history of the missions there. He was the life and soul of them, and no man has done better service than he to the cause of religion and letters in that country. He founded the Madras mission, was the general secretary and financial agent of that and other missions, was President of the Madras College and head of all the native schools, and had the care of a native Church of several hundred members. At the time of his death he was the oldest missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, having been in the service nearly forty-six years.

His literary labors were numerous, and some of them of the very highest importance. During his senior year in the Seminary and in the following autumn he wrote a duodecimo volume of four hundred and thirty-two pages, entitled "A History of Missions, or History of the principal attempt to propagate Christianity among the Heathen." This was published at Andover by Flagg and Gould in 1819, and was very serviceable in enlightening the public mind on the subject of which it treated. His next volume was a memoir of his first wife, Mrs. Harriet L. Winslow, which is one of the standard volumes of the Ameri

can Tract Society. His "Hints on Missions," published by M. W. Dodd, New York, in 1856, was written on his passage from India to America in 1855, as a sort of digest of his experiences and observations during a missionary life of thirty-seven years. Several of his occasional sermons and addresses were published in pamphlet. He furnished a very large amount of correspondence for the Missionary Herald, the New York Observer, and other periodicals.

But the crowning literary labors of his life were the translation of the Bible into Tamil, and the preparation of a Tamil-English Lexicon. The full title of the last-named work is, "A Comprehensive Tamil and English Dictionary of High and Low Tamil." It is a work of prodigious labor and great value, and occupied a large share of his time for more than twenty years. It extends to nearly a thousand quarto pages, and contains more than sixty-seven thousand Tamil words, being thirty thousand five hundred and fiftyone more words than can be found in any other dictionary of that language. So "comprehensive" is it, that it includes the astronomical, astrological, mythological, botanical, scientific, and official terms, together with the names of authors, heroes, and gods. It is thus a perfect thesaurus of Tamil learning, conducting him who uses it, not only into the language, but into the literature of the language, and giving him a knowledge of the philosophy, the religion, the superstitions, and the customs of the Hindoos. For this noble contribution to Oriental literature, Dr. Winslow received the highest encomiums from the press of India and England, and from literary and official sources.

He received the degree of A. M., from Yale, in 1818; D. D., from Harvard, in 1858; and LL. D., from Middlebury, in 1854.

1

He married (1), January 19, 1819, Harriet W. Lathrop, daughter of Charles Lathrop, of Norwich, Ct. By her he had six childrenCharles Lathrop, born January 12, 1821, died May 24, 1832; (a child of uncommon promise, a memoir of whom was published by the American Tract Society;) Harriet Maria, born February 28, 1822, died November 27, 1825; Joanna, born February 5, 1825, (adopted and reared by Peletiah Perit, Esq., of New York, and married, 1st, Rev. Mr. Clark; 2d, George S. King, of Florida, now a MajorGeneral in the Confederate Army;) George Morton, born May 12, 1827, died August 15, 1828; Harriet Lathrop, born April 19, 1829, died September 1, 1861, (married Rev. John W. Dulles ;) Eliza Coit, born January 4, 1831,

died August 11, 1861, (adopted by Marshal O. Roberts, of New York; and married Henry M. Leavitt.) Mrs. Winslow died January 14, 1833, and he married (2), April 23, 1835, Mrs. Catherine (Waterbury) Carman, a sister of Rev. J. B. Waterbury, D. D., of New York, and by her had one child, Catherine Waterbury, born February 2, 1837, died September 29, 1837. She died September 23, 1837, and a memoir of her, by her brother, was published soon after. He married (3), September 2, 1838, Annie Spiers, of Madras, a grand-daughter of Lord Dundas, of England, and by her had Charles, born June 5, 1839; Myron, Jr., born August 28, 1840; Archibald Spiers, born June 10, 1843, died August 10, 1845. She died June 20, 1843, and he married (4), March 12, 1845, Mrs. Mary W. (Billings) Dwight, widow of Rev. R. O. Dwight. She died April 20, 1852; and he married (5), May 20, 1857, Ellen Augusta Reed, of Boston.

P. H. W.

Rev. WILLIAM C. WHITCOMB died at Morehead City, N. C., October 29, 1864, aged forty-four.

He was the son of Deacon Simeon and Mrs. Sally (Lincoln) Whitcomb, and was born February 9, 1820, in Marlborough, N. H. where his parents now reside. He was in childhood singularly dutiful to his parents, never requiring discipline to enforce their commands; and in mature age was ever anxious, according to his means, to promote their welfare. He was religiously educated, and in the fall of 1836, after a severe struggle, he gave his heart to Christ, and united with the Congregational Church in his native town the following spring.

He pursued his literary and classical course at several academies in New Hampshire and Massachusetts; and studied theology at Gilmanton Theological Seminary, completing his course in 1847. He afterwards spent two years at Andover Seminary as a resident licentiate. May 1, 1851, he was ordained pastor of the Church in Stoneham, Mass.; and May 1, 1852, he was married to Miss Harriet L. Wheeler of Concord, Mass. In August, 1855, he was dismissed from the Church in Stoneham, after which he labored with the churches in Globe Village (Southbridge), in North Carver, and in Lynnfield Centre, all in Mass. He received a commission as Chaplain of the United States Hospital at Newbern, N. C.," bearing date July 5, 1862, which he held to the time of his death. His labors, however, were given also to hospitals in other places in the vicinity of Newbern,

[ocr errors]

and in the latter part of his life in Morehead City.

Mr. Whitcomb's character was strongly marked, and he possessed many excellences. He had an untiring activity; always doing with his might what his hands found to do. He was in a remarkable degree frank and outspoken, being incapable of disguise, knowing little of concealment. But for nothing was he more distinguished than for a warm, loving heart. He set a high value on friends, and was true in his friendships. That he had a devoted attachment to his family, is seen in the fact, that, when absent on his chaplaincy, his general practice was to write to them daily. He was a decided Congregationalist, but loved all Christ's disciples of every name; union among Christians being a favorite theme. He cherished an affectionate remembrance of his native town, and the Church in which he was reared; in evidence of which may be mentioned the gift of a bell for the village school-house, a short time before his death. He loved the slave and the colored race, and from an early age, according to his ability, he was ever ready to aid the cause of emancipation. He was also an earnest friend of temperance. From the outbreak of the slaveholders' rebellion he took a lively interest in the struggle; and that he was able, with so much cheerfulness to separate hinself from a family he loved so well, may be taken as evidence of a true patriotism.

Mr. Whitcomb had qualities of mind and heart which could not fail to render him popular and useful as a pastor and preacher; and much good, we are assured, was accomplished by his labors in connection with the churches which were served by him. But his active temperament and habits, his self-forgetfulness in his zeal to do good, his sympathy with the suffering, his cheerfulnes, and readiness with thoughts and words for every occasion, seemed peculiarly to qualify him for the labors to which he was devoted as hospital chaplain. And much was he loved by those who were the objects of his beneficent labors, and their friends.

His position in connection with the hospitals gave him many opportunities for doing good to the freedmen, which were faithfully improved. The wife of a colored chaplain, on hearing of his death, was deeply affected, and said, "O! the poor colored people have lost one of their best friends-one whose place can hardly be filled."

Mr. Whitcomb was a pleasant newspaper correspondent; and he published two volumes of original and selected matter, in

[blocks in formation]

prose and poetry, designed to comfort the bereaved.

In the meridian of his life and usefulness he has been cut down; leaving a wife and four children to be added to the hundreds of thousands of widows and orphans, which the relentless slave power, in its insane attempt to overthrow a government only too lenient toward itself, has made. May the widow's God and the Father of the fatherless pour into their stricken hearts that consolation which the husband and father, both in his published volumes, and his labors with the soldiers, sought to minister to the afflicted!

Rev. THOMAS KIDDER died in Base Hospital, near Bermuda Hundreds, Va., November 29, 1864, aged sixty-three years, seven months, and fourteen days.

He was a son of Aaron and Elizabeth (Emerson) Kidder, and was born in New Ipswich, N. H., April 15, 1801. The Kidder family is one of the most ancient families in America, and ranks among the old families even in England; the pedigree being traceable to Richard Kidder, who lived at Maresfield, England, in the fifteenth century. The earliest American ancestor was James Kidder, who was at Cambridge as early as 1650, and probably earlier. From him the subject of this notice was descended in the seventh generation, as follows:-James, James, Jr., John, Thomas, Aaron, Aaron, Thomas.

While he was yet young, his parents removed to Waterford, Vt. His piety and talents attracted the attention of Christians in that vicinity, by whom he was encouraged and assisted to enter upon a course of prepation for the ministry. He was educated classically at Bangor, spent a year in Princeton Theological Seminary, and then entered Andover, where he was graduated in 1834. He remained at Andover two years as resident licentiate, and then preached in various places in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, with uniform acceptance, till the latter part of 1837, when he commenced preaching as a candidate at Windsor, Vt., and was there ordained pastor January 10, 1838. Rev. Samuel R. Hall preached the sermon. During his pastorate at Windsor he was esteemed by neighboring congregations as one of the most acceptable preachers in the region; while by his brethren in the ministry he was held in high estimation for his adherence to sound principles, and his uniformly honorable, generous, and accommodating spirit.

He was dismissed in April, 1842, but con

« PředchozíPokračovat »