USA > New Jersey > Monmouth County > History of Monmouth County, New Jersey, 1664-1920, Volume II > Part 22
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Mr. Osborn knew well his limitations and that his work was to originate enterprises, but not to develop them (Dr. Stokes in his twenty-seven years of presidency most wisely accomplished the latter). So, he soon felt it was his duty to resign being sup- erintendent. On leaving Ocean Grove he went South and became presiding elder of St. John's dis- trict, South Carolina Conference. While in Florida, his wife opened a school for colored children in her own home which developed into the Cookman In- stitute, Jacksonville, Florida.
Friends at Ocean Grove resolved that when Mr. Osborn returned they would present him with a handsome cottage, the cost of which was over $3,- 000. This generous sum was collected outside of Association funds, and the entire scheme completed by the perseverance of the wife of Rev. John S. Inskip. The day of its presentation was July 15, 1878. He was met by a few persons and conducted to the cottage, which was filled with friends. Rev. J. S. Inskip made the presentation speech, and Dr. Stokes delivered a poem, addressing him as the pioneer brother and in which "we welcome you back" occurs twelve times. Thus, on his return, he was given a royal, hearty reception.
Bishop Simpson believed it would be a good plan to have the land known as Asbury Park pur- chased by one in sympathy with the project of Ocean Grove, and yet have that enterprise some- what different in its character that they might com- pliment each other. The result was that Mr. James
MONMOUTH COUNTY
A. Bradley bought the land. He asked Mr. Osborn to be its superintendent, and generously offered to supply the capital and share the profits with him. Mr. Osborn replied, "I founded Ocean Grove for the glory of God, but I am not in the money making business." Ocean Grove's financial and spiritual success was the originating thought, not only of Asbury Park, but of Ocean Park and Ocean Beach, New Jersey; Shelter Island, Long Island; Sea Cliff, New York; Sea Grove, near Cape May, New Jersey; Pitman Grove, New Jersey; Rehoboth, Delaware; Mt. Tabor, New Jersey; Lake Whiff, Illinois; Ar- lington Heights, Florida; Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey; Thousand Islands, St. Lawrence River; Wesley Park, Niagara Falls; Ocean Park, Wash- ington; Queenscliff, Australia; and Lanowli, India. From the latter place camp-meetings have sprung up all over India.
For some years after the founding of Ocean Grove there was no railroad nearer than Long Branch, but Mr. Osborn kept prophesying it would come and it did. The receipts of the Ocean Grove and Asbury Park depot from September 1, 1875, to September 1, 1876, its first year, were over $47,000. Now, in the summer, there are one hundred trains daily. At the expiration of ten years there were six or seven miles of almost continuous towns along the coast, which had received their existence and inspiration from Ocean Grove. Official records show that in 1869, by adding the assessed values of what is now occupied by Ocean Grove, Asbury Park, Ocean Beach (now Belmar), Spring Lake and part of Sea Girt, it amounted to $23,500. By adding one-third to the assessed value we have the real value of the property in 1869, a total of $31,300. The real value of same property in 1879, taken from the books of the assessors was $3,097,962, an ad- vance in ten years of one thousand per cent, and this too going through a time of the greatest finan- cial depression the country had ever known, when property quite generally depreciated twenty-five to thirty per cent. Now, 1921, the assessed value of Ocean Grove alone is $5,250,000. All this the re- sult of a "righteous and Godly enterprise, not un- dertaken for money making, but for the honor and glory of God." It has been said, "Is it not an ob- ject lesson of the fulfilment of Christ's promise But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteous- ness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew VI, 33. "But of infinitely more value than these material blessings have been the spiritual results. Glance at the many thousands whose lives have been changed from God-defying to God-glori- fying, and from self indulgence to seeking, like their Lord, the highest welfare of the world." The influence of the place has extended for good around the world. It is the only city in all the world where all traffic is excluded on the Sabbath. And it was the expressed design of the original members of the Ocean Grove Camp-meeting Association, as stated in the paragraph preceding the charter, "to keep these lands a perpetual oblation upon Christ's altar, enjoining the same duty upon those who may suc-
ceed us." In a letter dated June 11, 1921, Attorney General McCran wrote: "Monumental indeed, was the work of Mr. Osborn, and I am sure the good accomplished can never be measured."
Mr. Osborn had the conviction for twenty years, so he said, that God desired him to establish camp- meetings in India and Australia. At the call of William Taylor, mortgaging his Ocean Grove cot- tage to meet traveling expenses, he went to India in 1876, and on his arrival was appointed presiding elder of Bombay District, and later of Bombay and Madras districts.
He was married on November 22, 1879, by Rev. George Bowen, to Lucy Reed Drake, the founder of the mission in Basim Berar, India. Mr. Osborn suggested and outlined the plan for a "Round the World Tour" for evangelistic purposes. According- ly, Rev. John S. Inskip, Rev. William MacDonald, Rev. John A. Wood and their wives, bringing a large tabernacle with them, and Walter A. Gardner to aid in service of song, after holding meetings in England came to India, and held in many large cities immense gatherings with great profit. As Messrs. MacDonald, Wood and their wives desired to return by way of Palestine, Rome and England, Rev. Inskip invited Mr. and Mrs. Osborn to accom- pany them to Australia. They sailed in the spring of 1881, and held evangelistic services for months in the large cities of Victoria, in which hundreds were saved, and much interest aroused in the pro- posed camp-meeting at the Christmas holiday at Queenscliff. On this ground a large tent and forty small tents were erected, and one was occupied by Rev. and Mrs. Osborn and their little son, William Drake, who was born October 16, 1881, and who was baptized on the ground. While all prophesied failure, the meetings were so well attended and successful that an association was formed to pro- cure a permanent Christian seaside resort, similar to Ocean Grove in America. This was done and it has abundantly prospered.
In 1882 Mr. Osborn, wife and son, left Australia and arrived in San Francisco, December 28, 1882. Their hearts were gladdened with the birth of a daughter, whom they named Lillah Oldham, in memory of the wife of Colonel Oldham, from whose house Mr. and Mrs. Osborn were married in Bom- bay. She was the mother of J. W. Oldham, the present editor of the "International Review of Mis- sions." In response to a call to Mr. Osborn from a presiding elder to help him inaugurate a seaside camp-ground, the family sailed for Portland, Ore- gon. During four months the land was bought, fourteen miles north of the mouth of the Columbia river in the State of Washington, an association was organized, the charter obtained, and the num- ber of lots which were sold paid for all the land and for the expenses of the first meeting. The gov- ernor of the State graced it with his presence, and it is now in a prosperous condition. The name is Ocean Park. This work accomplished, Mr. Os- born and family took almost the first emigrant car for the East on the Northern Pacific. He never
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would travel on Sunday, even on his vast districts in India. The railroad authorities promised him that by leaving on Monday, he would reach St. Paul, Minnesota, on Saturday, but instead of that they were in the middle of Montana. He took his fam- ily to a hotel, not knowing whether their tickets would be honored by the road on Monday, but the same conductor was on the train and he accepted them. After three weeks' journey they arrived in Ocean Grove, where his mother and sister lived in his cottage. This cottage, now called "Kenilworth" and fronting Wesley Lake, was finally sold and the money used in religious work, saving thousands of immortal souls.
In March, 1883, Mr. Osborn was transferred to the Genesee Conference that he might inaugurate a camp-ground at Niagara Falls. This he accom- plished on the Canadian side, and he called together at the camp-meeting the first conference of returned missionaries of all evangelical denominations ever held in this country. At that time he suggested a Missionary Training School, which his wife soon founded, and from which, while she remained prin- cipal, two hundred and fifty missionaries went to twenty-seven countries under twenty-seven national missionary boards. As the school could not be moved from place to place it interferred with his taking pastorates, but they both felt in this work they were best promoting God's kingdom in the world. This Union Missionary Training School was soon located in Brooklyn, New York, but it had a county branch at Hackettstown, New Jersey, where Mr. Osborn greatly aided its work. Mean- time he had been transferred back to the New Jer- sey Conference. During his connection with the Conference he had served at different times as tract agent, State temperance agent, and conference evan- gelist.
In 1902, after the close of the annual camp- meeting in Hackettstown, New Jersey, which had been attended with blessed results, he left to assist in a camp-meeting in Tunnelton, West Virginia. "On Sunday, July 24, when reading his Bible alone in the grove, Romans, fourteenth chapter, eighth verse, 'For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord's, was illum- inated and seemed to stand out upon the page, and he became convinced God especially wanted to speak these words to his heart." Early the next morning, having received a telegram that his only daughter was dangerously ill, he arranged to leave. The morning was dark and foggy, a freight train was throwing off steam in the station where he had to cross the track, and he was not aware a train was approaching until it was nearly upon him. He sprang to one side, but was surprised to find he had been struck. With the presence of mind born of the perfect peace in his heart, he saw his only safe- ty was to climb upon the bridge in front of the en- gine and lie down. This he did, clasping one of the iron rods with his arm, and twisting a leg around the other to secure himself from falling off, if he
lost consciousness. With the other arm he waved his umbrella to attract attention, but in this he failed. He said, "I told Jesus I belonged to Him and trusted that He would take care of His own property, although I did not know just how He was going to do it." He remembered saying, "Jesus I trust Thee, I trust Thee." When he was struck by this New York & Chicago express train it was going only at the rate of five miles an hour, having slowed up to let off a flagman. Soon it increased in speed to sixty miles an hour, going down the mountain grade and over huge precipices, and stop- ping at a coaling station some six miles distant. Here he climbed off and went to the engineer and told him of the circumstances. The engineer did not believe him and ordered an assistant engineer to put him off the train. He refused and said I believe his story and will take him on my engine back across the river and call a doctor. This he did. While the railway employees were moving him to a hotel, he urged them to make their peace with God and be prepared for any such time as this. Through the wrong diagnosis of the railway doctor (as the autopsy proved) who said no bones were broken, pneumonia soon set in, caused by the broken ribs. His wife hastened to him and he told her how profoundly impressed he was with God's mercy in preserving him and remarked: "I was as calm in that perilous ride as I am now lying here in bed." He never lost consciousness, was perfectly natural, but wrapt in God and absorbed in an all-engrossing interest in the advancement of Christ's kingdom. He sent this testimony to the Ocean Grove camp- meeting love feast, then in session "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because He trusteth in thee," Isaiah, XXVI, 8. On September 4, 1902, he went to behold the Saviour's glory. His body was buried in Kensico Cemetery, New York, and on his monument is inscribed: "The people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits," Daniel, XI, 33.
The following are a few of the tributes given by Mr. Osborn's brethren in the ministry. From Rev. E. I. D. Pepper, D. D., editor of the "Christ- ian Standard:"
William was an explorer, discoverer, pioneer, originator, brilliant planner, daring executor, work- ing not in lines made ready to his hand. His was a royal manhood, unselfish, self-forgetful, self- sacrificing, generous to a fault, fraternal, catholic, loving God and his neighbor with all his heart, which is saying a great deal. The center and charm of his home, hospitable, companionable, hilarious, open door, open heart, open home. Without respect of persons, without hypocrisy, impartial, humble as the lowliest, yet as independent and free as the highest born. ·
From Rev. L. S. Thomas, editor of " The Phila- delphia Methodist:"
Great plans, such as startled timid souls at their mere mention, he grappled with a giant's grip and executed with boundless zeal * * . Wherever he went, the joy bells were kept constantly ringing. Never to a minor key did he pitch his tune. His
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was what the old English Christians called the and in the Revolution there were two Drakes who trumpet metre.
From Rev. James M. Buckley, D. D., editor of the "New York Christian Advocate:"
He proposed the origination of Ocean Grove and was both the actual founder and a charter mem- ber of the association: He was its first superintend- ent, evolved its plan, and was also its general man- ager and treasurer. He was the founder of the National Holiness Association . In 1876 he went to India and became connected with Bishop Taylor's self-supporting work, which developed into the South India Conference. His first appointment was presiding elder of the Bombay district. Sub- sequently the health of the presiding elder of the Madras district failing, for nearly two years he administered the work of both districts. These com- prised territory of fifteen hundred miles in length and between seven and eight hundred in width. This vast expanse he traversed four times yearly . Crossing the Pacific from Australia, he re- marked to his wife, "What a fine thing it would be to have a gathering of returned missionaries of all denominations where every address should be de- livered by a returned missionary." In response to invitations sent to a large number of returned mis- sionaries thirty appeared and all present were so pleased with the conference that they concluded to form an International Missionary Union (which has developed into such influential proportions) and Dr. J. T. Gracey was elected president . . . He estab- lished the first camp-meeting in India at Lanowli. Also he established the first camp-meeting in Aus- tralia. Including Ocean Grove he founded twelve permanent religious resorts, and helped to originate thirty camp-meetings. These are but salient points in a life of a prodigious energy He was pre-eminently a revivalist, and marvellously success- ful in the management of camp-meetings. It was his habit to originate prayer meetings at the en- trance of the camp-meeting, and he managed them so as to welcome and inspire the saint and capture the sinner. Such a vigorous conductor of a prayer meeting we have never seen.
LUCY REED (DRAKE) OSBORN - The genealogy of Lucy Reed (Drake) Osborn is one of unusual interest, traced on the maternal side to Francis Cook, the "Mayflower" ancestor, twice, once through the Reed line to Mary Cook, one of the daughters, and once through the Hayward line to Jane Cook, another daughter. The mar- riage certificate of Francis Cook to Hester Mahiew, of French descent, was shown in 1921 in a Pilgrim Tercentenary Exhibit at the New York Public Library. On the paternal side, Thomas Drake came to Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1653. The Drake family in England is one of great antiquity. They were well established in Devon county before the Norman Conquest in 1066. The extreme simplicity of the Drake coat-of- arms is another indication of the antiquity of the family. The family line with names of wives is unbroken back to 1413. Mrs. Osborn's American ancestors were the sturdy, reliable people of their localities, measuring up to their responsible posi- tions, and frequently sought for their wise coun- sel. In the Indian and Colonial wars many fought,
took active part, father and son.
In Stoughton, Massachusetts, October 27, 1844, Lucy Reed (Drake) Osborn entered into life which was to be immortal. Whether it would be spent in happiness or misery, all important, was decided in her eighteenth year when she gave her heart to God. Peace ensued, but fluctuated as she gauged her acceptance with Christ by her feelings. Becom- ing convinced God taught that His children should know of their adoption, and that they had eternal life after meeting the Biblical condition, complete abandonment to Christ, and lovingly trusting Him, this assurance was experienced and she read "her title deed in the first Book of John, fifth chapter, thirteenth verse. She says:
For over fifty years this knowledge has never left me for a moment. Forever at rest concerning my possession of Christ, I knew all His promises were my inheritance and henceforth I kept taking and testing them, and have never found one to fail me. As illustration: Noticing that He directed his disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they were en- dowed with power from on high, by the promised Comforter, I waited upon Him alone for this divine gift and He fulfilled His promise and filled me with His spirit. That gift is the secret key to any of the usefulness of my life. Having overstudied at fourteen in my New England district school, I was unable to study at all until thirty years of age. I asked God that as he did not permit me to read books, would He not enable me to study peoples and lands and His methods of dealing with them in or- der to fit me for winning them to Him. He replied, "for verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou moved, and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe those things which He saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith." She replied, "I will trust and not doubt." Re- sult, she has been around the world twice and a half again and visited many lands. The mountain was the money to travel with, and God supplied it without her soliciting a penny from any human be- ing. Another illustration: In June, 1866, God gave her the promise: "I will bless thee and thou shall be a blessing," Genesis XII., 2, and although in ad- vanced tuberculosis, she could not help seeing that if that was to be fulfilled she must be cured of the disease. But she had never heard of an incurable disease being cured, as hers was, since the days of the Apostles, but she trusted God's promise from that moment and was marvellously and instantly cured, July 5, 1867. Hitherto she had been helpless, but at once she began active Christian work, and in October, 1868, entered Dr. Charles Cullis' work in Boston as a Bible reader. Here she learned what became invaluable in after life-to trust in God for personal temporal needs while serving Him, and also for needs of this kind in His work committed by Him to her hands. Without this key, she tells us, much which she has done would never have been accomplished. For, from this time, leaning upon God and His resources to perform His work became the habit of mind, and seeing that it worked so practically and successfully, was encouraged to prac- tice it. In 1869 she entered Dr. Charles Cullis' Deaconess Home of Boston, without salary, with the
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Lucy R. (Drake) Osborn
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understanding that she was to be free whenever the call came to do evangelistic work. For six years labors were abundant in various states and denomi- nations in revivals, also in conventions for the pro- motion of the "Higher Christian Life." Hundreds found the Savior and many believers were filled with the Spirit.
In 1864, in the very moment when she came to know Christ and eternal life was hers, she felt called by Him to go as a foreign missionary. Not being able to obtain a medical certificate, she knew no missionary board could accept her, and not having faith that God would supply her needs, she gave it up as an impossibility. During the ten years that followed He finally succeeded in teaching this New England woman that the only care she need have in life was to seek first His kingdom and righteousness and that as surely as He had forgiven her sins on forsaking and confessing them, He would see that every needful thing would "be added." So when the summons to go to India was renewed at the age of thirty, although from other causes a health certificate could not be obtained, she was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. The call came in February, 1875, and the money for outfit and passage unsought was given, so she sailed in October of that year. Knowing but one person in India, and he a thousand miles from where she was to land, and not having been assigned to any field, she went out not knowing whither she went only that she was going to India. While on the Mediterranean, God assured her He would let her know where He wanted her to go on reaching her landing place, Bombay. This he did, through a let- ter from a missionary in the interior, received on arrival. After remaining with his family nearly a year, she founded a mission where no missionary had ever been, in Basim, West Berar. It is now under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal church, and has a new church, twenty-two Sunday schools, besides two training schools. After other missionaries joined her, health failing, she returned to America in 1878. Becoming restored in health she again sailed for India in 1879, and was married to Rev. William B. Osborn in Bombay, by Rev. George Bowen. Here a large and extended field for increased usefulness opened among English-speaking people then into work among the natives, Mr. Os- born being presiding elder over the Bombay and Madras districts, covering an area of fifteen hun- dred by eight hundred miles. Notice how God increased and honored her faith in Him for temporal things necessary for His work. First she trusted for her own personal needs, then for the trip to and support of the work in India, which came wholly unsought from China, Turkey, England and America, and later for the founding of the Union Missionary Training Institute, and for many years for its sole support of between thirty and fifty- five in family. Among the most important and gracious memories of the fulfillment of God's prom- ise is that of the following: "I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine offspring,"
Isaiah 44, 8. When their son, William Drake, was about eight years of age, God, in a most marked way, convicted him of his sin so that when told God would forgive him, he replied, "I can never forgive myself." After making confession at his own sug- gestion to several persons, he came into such blessed fellowship with Jesus that it was a delight and profit to hear him pray and talk in his childish sim- plicity. "He passed soon to be with his beloved Lord." The daughter, Lillah Oldham, for many years a semi-invalid, had clung to her father with a strong, passionate affection and God had seemed distant, but as her father prophesied, God used his passing away to bring her into such entire har- mony with Him that she wrote: "He is such a real, tender loving Father." She passed into what she said she was going, "unfettered life," in July, 1910.
Since becoming principal emeritus of the Union Missionary Training Institute in Brooklyn, New York, in 1916, Mrs. Osborn has resided in Ocean Grove. Her heart is being continually gladdened with news from her graduates all over the world concerning their great work of reaching millions annually with the glad news of the Gospel. She confidently expects in the future, "as the heavenly æons shall pass, to meet many who will be her glory and joy forever."
JOSEPH ACKERMAN, M. D .- Among those physicians of Asbury Park, who have for the past twenty years or more been identified with the pro- fession is Dr. Joseph Ackerman, one of the city's well known practitioners. Coming to the com- munity in 1892 he has throughout these many years been an advocate and upholder of its best in- terests.
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