History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 117

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Centre College in 1853; became editor of the Presbyterian of the West, now Herald and Presbyter, in Cincinnati in 1854, and still (1894) occupies the position. To this service he was called by the unani- mous vote of the Synod of Indiana, and by circulars addressed to him and signed by a majority of the ministers in Ohio, procured through the agency of Rev. Drs. E. D. McMaster, J. M. Stevenson, and T. E. Thomas. From 1856 to 1865, nine years, he was president of the Glendale Female College, in addition to his editorial duties. In 1884 Hanover College conferred on him the honorary degree of LL. D. He was a commissioner to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia in 1840, and has attended thirty-five assemblies since, either as editor or member, in- cluding the meeting at Washington, D. C., in 1893.

He was moderator of the Synod of Indiana, in 1851; the Synod of Cincin- nati, in 1856; of a joint meeting of Synods of Cincinnati and Ohio, in 1857, called for united action in founding a college for the Synod, resulting subsequently in the establishment of Wooster University; after the consolidation of the Synods, he was moderator of the Synod of Ohio in 1886. Dr. Monfort has always had promi- nent and responsible positions in his church. For a third of a century he was a trustee of Hanover College; a director of New Albany Theological Seminary for many years before its removal to Chicago, and until the reunion, when he resigned, in 1870, to accept a position as Trustee in Lane Seminary, which he still fills. He has at differ- ent times served as a member of the board of home missions, foreign missions and church erection. In the promotion of the reunion of the Old and New School Pres- byterian Churches, it is conceded that Dr. Monfort was the leading and most efficient actor. He established "The Reunion Presbyterian," a monthly magazine, and cir- culated it in both branches of the Church. He proposed to the General Assembly of 1866 a paper prepared by himself, in which the New School Assembly, in ses- sion at the same time, in the same city, were asked to appoint a committee of fifteen to co-operate with a similar committee of the Old School Assembly, in preparing terms for the reunion of the two bodies. He was asked by the moderator of the Old School Assembly, Rev. Dr. R. L. Stanton, to nominate its committee with his own name included. He was the most diligent and efficient member of the joint committee until the union was consummated in 1869. It is also true that Dr. Monfort is considered high authority in doctrine and church administration. His opinions on ecclesiastical order and jurisprudence are accorded weiglit and influence, to which but few attain. As an editor he is not arbitrary or dictatorial. He never ques- tions motives, or asperses character. He treats opponents with courtesy, and thus husbands his influence. As a citizen in a high position, he is never radical, but always firm and frank, and persistent in the defense of religion and morality. He is public-spirited and liberal in promoting public order and the execution of law.

After forty years of successful editorial work, he can safely and hopefully leave the Herald and Presbyter, which is a family monument in the hands of his sons, Capt. E. R. Monfort and Rev. F. C. Monfort, D. D., expecting it will grow stronger and stronger and more and more useful year after year. In his eighty-fourth year (since December 9, 1893), he is in good health, with his natural force unabated except as he suffers from impaired hearing. There may still still be several years of use- ful service before him. He is, however, so happily conditioned, that he can un- load any burdens which he may no longer be inclined to carry. Not many men attain his years under circumstances so comfortable and prosperous. It may be added that he is living (since October 8, 1893) with the wife of his youth in the fifty-fifth year of their married life. Since July, 1865, their home has been in the "Beecher House," Walnut Hills, having for their nearest neighbors their sons, E. R. Mon- fort and F. C. Monfort, and their daughter, Margeret, wife of H. B. Morehead, Esq. - [Prepared by E. R. Monfort.

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REV. THOMAS JEFFERSON MELISH is one of the oldest citizens of Cincinnati, having lived in the city or its suburbs since 1847. He is a son of the old traveler, John Melish, who came from Scotland in 1806, as a cotton factor, in the interests of the cotton-mills of Glasgow. He traveled very extensively throughout the United States, and when at Washington visited President Jefferson, who persuaded him to prepare for the press some account of his travels, which he did in two volumes, pub- lished in Philadelphia, London and Dublin, the aim being to encourage immigration. John Melish afterward settled in Philadelphia, where he published the first school atlas, and many books upon geographical and topographical topics.

The subject of our sketch was born in Philadelphia, June 14, 1822. Left an -orphan at an early age, he was cared for by relatives who took charge of liis training and education. His collegiate studies were pursued at Bethany College, Virginia, an institution under the auspices of the then famous Alexander Campbell, a Scotch minister of great intellectual force among the Baptists of his day. After his gradu- ation, Mr. Melish entered the Baptist ministry, in which he continued until 1877, during which time he was pastor of several churches, and for several years editor of the Journal and Messenger, the Baptist paper of Ohio. In 1877, Mr. Melish for .conscientious reasons united with the Protestant Episcopal Church. In infancy he had been baptized in old St. Paul's, Philadelphia, and as years went on his heart was drawn more and more toward the church of his childhood. After much thought and study he at length returned to the spiritual fold from which he started out. After his ordination he threw himself, with all his accustomed energy and zeal, into the work which his new relations brought to him, and soon won for himself a secure place among those to whom was entrusted a task of upbuilding and moulding the new Di- ocese of Southern Ohio, which, at the time of his coming, had just been formed. For a year or two, he had charge of St. Thomas, Milford, Ohio, where he had been liv- ing for some time; but after rendering most efficient services at this point he returned to Cincinnati, took charge of the Chapel of the Nativity, Price Hill, in connection with St. Philips, Northside. At the former place a mission had been organized, but "had gained as yet little strength. By earnest self-denying labor, Mr. Melish soon so strengthened the mission, both in point of numbers and financial ability, that it could safely be entrusted to other hands, while he was left free to devote all his time to Northside, where he had been rector for more than eleven years past. During this term of service, the church has grown from thirty-seven members to 176, and is in every way prosperous and flourishing. Mr. Melish is also the secretary of the Dio- cese of Southern Ohio, which office he has filled for several years. To these duties he has added that of editor of The Church Chronicle the official organ of the diocese, and to which he has brought the ripened experience of earlier years.

Mr. Melish was married, in 1849, to Miss Maria Bromwell, daughter of William Bromwell, merchant, and formerly member of the city council. Ten children have blessed this marriage, eight of whom have grown to manhood and womanhood, and are filling useful positions in Cincinnati and elsewhere.

The subject of our sketch has been very prominent as a Mason for a quarter of a century past; has been, successively, master of his Lodge, high priest of his Chap- ter, master of his Council, and eminent commander of his Commandery. He has also been very active in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, of which he reached the highest grade of Thirty-third degree Sovereign Inspector General. He is at present grand chaplain to the grand council R. & S. M,, and the grand prelate of the Grand Commandery of Ohio; as well as chaplain to many of the local bodies of which he is a member.

SAMUEL WARE FISHER, D. D., LL. D., clergyman and college president, was born at Morristown, N. J., April 5, 1814. His father was an eminent Presbyterian min- ister, for many years in charge of the church at Morristown, then one of the largest in the State; and afterward for twenty years the pastor of the Presbyterian Church

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HISTORY OF CINCINNATI AND HAMILTON COUNTY.

in Paterson. He was the first moderator of the General Assembly of the New School body after its separation from the Old, and was long recognized as one of the most earnest workers in the Church, to whose welfare his life was consecrated. To the example and counsels of such a father was naturally owing something of the tastes and tendencies of the son. Dr. Fisher was early initiated into the modes of thought and action common to the great body with which he was connected. Its traditions were all familiar to him from boyhood. The choice of a profession to a young man is sometimes difficult; the result of anxious deliberation; the conclusion reached through much doubt and conflict. To him it was easy; a profession to which his life had been naturally and divinely shaped; the most satisfying and best, he thought, which can be chosen by man. His desires and wishes, his purposes and ambitions (if I may use the word in its better sense), opened out in the direction of work for and through the Presbyterian Church. Here was ground ample and noble, whose every hillside and vale were familiar to him; and it is perfectly natural that he should always have felt himself most at home with the congregations and presby- teries, the synods and assemblies of this powerful body. He was graduated at Yale College in 1835, spent a year in Middletown, Conn., pursued his theological course at Princeton for two years and completed it afterward at Union Theological Semi- nary in New York. Immediately after leaving the seminary he became the minister of the Presbyterian Church at West Bloomfield, N. J. During his ministry of a little more than four years in this place his fidelity was crowned with two revivals of re- ligion. From there he moved in 1843 to a larger and more trying field of labor, be- ing installed on the 13th of October in that year as pastor of the Fourth Presbyte- rian Church of Albany. This position was one of unusual delicacy and difficulty. The church was probably at that time the largest in tlie whole denomination, having more than nine hundred names on the roll of its communicants. The important work of his predecessors he supplemented by other work quite as important in form- ing a complete and sound Christian character, and a vigorous and active Christian church. The work that he did there has not lost its value by the lapse of years, nor is the estimation of its importance in the judgment of the most judicious observers

less than at first. The extent of his reputation as a vigorous and effective preacher may be indicated by the fact that in October, 1846, he was called to succeed the most popular, the most widely known and the most powerful preacher of the New School body, in the Second Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati, Dr. Lyman Beecher, and entered upon the duties of the service in April, 1847. It was not a small thing then for a minister, still young, comparatively unknown, to follow in pulpit minis- trations the most renowned pulpit orator, the most powerful controversialist in the West; not an easy task, with prudence, skill, commanding vigor, and above all, with Christian fidelity, and with a view to the broadest Christian success, to maintain his position, to secure the confidence, the good- will, the sympathy of a large and unus- ually intelligent congregation, of various political affinities, trained to vigorous and discriminating thought. Here was not only opportunity but imperative demand for large and exhaustive labor. Here were conflicting opinions to harmonize, critical minds to satisfy, plans for Christian labor to be formed, machinery to be organized and put in motion, new evils to be met by new methods; the life and vigor of the church itself to be maintained in the midst of peculiar temptations, and so a larger and completer Christian household gathered and inspired. This was the work which he performed. The difficulties of his position stimulated his energy. He was in the full vigor of every faculty. The field of labor was broad and full of encourage- ment. His words were not spoken to the empty air, but came back laden with the murmurs of approving voices. He became an intellectual and moral power in the city. The young gathered about him, and he prepared more than one series of dis- courses particularly adapted to their tastes and wants. One of these series, "Three Great Temptations," published in 1852, went through six editions.

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In no other place did he labor continuously so long as in Cincinnati, and to this period he afterward looked back as on the whole the most successful and fortunate of his life. He was in his chosen employment, his manly energies at their highest vigor; a working church, trained and stimulated by large foresight, in full sympathy with him, accepting his leadership, and cheerfully co-operating in Christian word and work. His ministry in this church was eminently successful, 178 persons hav- ing been added to the church by profession and 248 by letter during the eleven years of his pastorate. His character was a rare combination of mildness and energy. He possessed the faculties of discovering the capabilities and most valuable charac- teristics of those with whom he associated, and of infusing into them the ardor and zeal which animated his own heart. He developed the latent energies and abilities of the Second Presbyterian Church and congregation in a remarkable degree, and by his skill in organizing and combining individual talent into congenial association for Christian work, accomplished great results for the cause of his Master. Thus qui- etly operating, he put in motion varions plans and organizations in the church which resulted in great and lasting influences. Among them was the Young Men's Home Missionary Society, so successful in establishing Sabbath-schools, providing for va- cant churches and other works of a similar character. He awakened an unusual interest in foreign missions by appointing different members of the church to make reports at the monthly concerts on the condition of the important foreign nations. He held regular meetings at his own house of the younger members of the church for devotion, consultation and advice. In numerous ways he was constantly leading on the church in matters of Christian enterprise. During the eleven years of his service in the great commercial city of Ohio, his mind had not been growing nar- rower, nor, engaged as he was in duties most important and exacting, had he forgot- ten the claims of science and letters, or failed to meet the demands upon his time and talents necessary to their encouragement. The schools, colleges and professional seminaries, of the State and of neighboring States, heard his voice and felt his influ- ence whenever he could say a word or lift a finger for their help. It was natural that, occupying so prominent a place, he should have been called upon for various public services. and become of influence in the larger assemblies of the church. In 1857 the New School General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church met at Cleve- land. Of this learned and able body Dr. Fisher was chosen moderator. The sub- ject of slavery had been discussed in more than one General Assembly, and the sys- tem strongly condemned. The Southern members had as frequently protested against these deliverances, and in 1856 did not hesitate to acknowledge that their views in respect to the evil of slavery had materially changed, and they openly avowed that they now accepted the system, believing it to be right according to the

Bible. This position the Assembly at Cleveland pointedly condemned, while yet expressing a tender sympathy for those who deplore the evil and are honestly doing all in their power for the present well-being of their slaves and for their complete emancipation. These ideas of the two parties were too radically antagonistic. too deeply held, too frequently and publicly affirmed to allow fraternal co-operation. The Southern synods thereupon withdrew and formed themselves into a separate body, called the United Synod of the Presbyterian Church. It was in reference to this secession that, in the sermon before the General Assembly in 1858, in Chicago, with which as retiring moderator he opened the sessions of that body, Dr. Fisher used these strong and generous words: "Fathers, and brethren, ministers and elders, we assemble here amidst the brightness of scenes of revival, scenes such as the Church of Christ, perhaps, has never enjoyed so richly before. But as my eye passes over this audience a shade of sadness steals in upon my heart. There are those who have been wont to sit with us in this high council, whose hearty greetings we miss to-day. Taking exception to the ancient, the uniform, the oft-repeated tes- timony of our Church, as well as to the mode of its utterance, respecting one of the

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greatest moral and organic evils of the age; deeming it better to occupy a platform foreign, indeed, to the genius of our free republican institutions, yet adapted, in their view, to the fuller promulgation of the Gospel in the section where they dwell, they have preferred to take an independent position; and while we can not coincide with them in their views on this subject, while we know that this separation has. been precipitated upon us, not sought by us, yet, remembering the days when, with us they stood shoulder to shoulder against ecclesiastical usurpation and revolution,. when in deepest sympathy we have gone to the house of God in company and min- gled our prayers before a common mercy-seat, we can not but pray for their peace and prosperity. We claim no monopoly of wisdom and right. If, in our course hitherto, we have been moved to acts or deeds unfraternal or unbefitting our mutual relations; if in the attempt to maintain our ancient principles and apply the Gospel to the heart of this gigantic evil, we have given utterance to language that has tend- ed to exasperate rather than quicken to duty, we claim no exemption from censure, we ask the forgiveness we are equally ready to accord." From the delivery of this able and weighty discourse on the "Conflict and Rest of the Church," of the style- and spirit of which the above brief extract may give us an imperfect notion, Dr. Fisher went directly to Clinton, N. Y., having been already consulting respecting the presidency of Hamilton College. He entered upon his duties at the opening of the fall term of 1858, the ceremonies of inauguration not taking place until the 4th of November. The college had risen far above its earlier difficulties and under a wise administration had for many years enjoyed an honorable reputation for thorough- ness of instruction and discipline, but its resources were still insufficient, and its appeals for aid had not been quite loud enough to reach the ear of the wealthy and the liberal. To the period of his presidency dates the growth of a greater confi- dence in the college, the endowments of its professorships and charitable founda- tions, and prizes for the encouragement of good learning, bearing honored names in.this and neighboring communities, never to be forgotten. From this period also dates the effective enlargement, almost the new creation of the general funds of the college and an impetus and direction imparted to the liberality of the generous and noble-minded which has not ceased, but has yielded but the first fruits of an increas- ing harvest. During his presidency the efficiency of the college instruction was in- creased. Under his influence and in accordance with his wishes, the Bible assumed a more prominent place as a part of the regular curriculum, a place which it has ever since retained, for the advantage of all.

Dr. Fisher's views of the ends and methods of education are contained in several addresses which he delivered at different times, and which were afterward collected and published. The very subjects of these are suggestive of broad and careful thought. They are such as, "Collegiate Education," "Theological Training," "The Three Stages of Education," (by which he discriminates child-life, the school and society ), "Female Education" "The Supremacy of Mind," "Secular and Christian Civilization," "Natural Science in its Relation to Art and Theology." These addresses are eloquent and sound. The most complete of them, perhaps, is his inaugural, in which he endeavors to develop his idea of what he calls the Amer- ical Collegiate system. The whole address is an argument for breadth and loftiness of culture. The scheme which it defends and enforces is noble and generous to the last degree. In 1862, in the midst of our Civil war, occurred the semi-centennial celebration of the founding of Hamilton College, a memorable occasion, marking the age and progress of the institution. as with a tall memorial shaft visible from afar. The address of Dr. Fisher is an admirable sketch of the college history, portraying in picturesque language the events of its early and later life, with enthu- siasm and faith commending it to the good will of its alumni and friends, and pre- dicting its future prosperity. "It was," he said, "amid the smoke and thunder of war that, fifty years ago, the foundations of this college were laid; and when they

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passed away, lo, on the hill-top had sprung into being a power mightier than the sword, more glorious than its triumphs. It is amid the heavier thunder and darker clouds of this dread conflict, when all that to us is most precious is in peril, that we celebrate our semi-centennial jubilee. This thunder shall roll away and the cloud disperse before the uprising patriotism of twenty millions of freemen, and the red right arm of the Lord of hosts." That was indeed to the nation an hour of dark- ness, when the light was as darkness, but he never " bated one jot of heart or of hope," or failed to act up to his patriotic faith. After a service of eight years in Hamilton College, Dr. Fisher was solicited to accept again the position of pastor by the Westminster Church of Utica, N. Y., and was installed pastor November 15, 1867. For nearly four years of active and progressive work the church enjoyed the ministrations and stimulating energies of this able, active and untiring pastor. There was yet one other occasion not to be forgotten in which Dr. Fisher bore a prominent part in a great and memorable public service whose influence is incalculable, viz .: the measures which led to the reunion of the separated branches of the Presbyterian Church. There was no object, perhaps, nearer his heart, none which more moved his enthusiasm. The disruption had taken place in 1837, just before he entered upon his ministry. His father was the first moderator of the New School Assembly. The doctrines and the men, the causes and the consequences, he had heard discussed from his boyhood, and in the reunion of the two branches of the church he was re- lied upon as among the most judicious counsellors in the very delicate and difficult questions that impeded its progress and threatened to prevent its consummation. He was one of the able committee of conference appointed by the two Assemblies, which reported the plan of reunion in 1869. Nor does Ire seem to have doubted the bene- ficial result. In behalf of the joint committee he proposed the resolution for rais- ing one million dollars, immediately after raised to five millions, as a memorial fund. His last work to which he gave himself with all the confidence and enthusiasm of his nature was to prepare a paper for the General Assembly of 1870, an assembly which he never was to see.

Dr. Fisher received the Doctorate of Divinity from Miami .University. in 1852, and the Doctorate of Laws from the University of the City of New York in 1859. As a preacher, Dr. Fisher must be held to rank among the ablest of the Presbyterian body. With all that may be said by way of detracting criticism, it must still be allowed that our religious communities move along a pretty high level of intellectual experience and of religious feeling. To satisfy the reasonable demands of congre- gations requires a continuous intellectual exertion, which, when we come to measure its force, is something startling. It is not a wonder that so many poor sermons, but rather that there are so many good ones. But Dr. Fisher moved above, far above the common level. Within the ample dome of that forehead, yon felt at sight there dwelt a powerful brain. He brought to his discourses a mind well stored and well disciplined. There was a fullness and richness of thought which left you little or nothing in that direction to desire. An intellectual hearer could not fail to be at- tracted by his vigor. His style was often bold, sometimes picturesque, always most clear and direct. His words were well chosen and exuberant. Thus full and weighty in matter, affluent in language, with no ambiguity in expression, fertile in imagery and illustration, with a voice clear and penetrating, and a manner some- what authoritative, it is not surprising that he was constantly sought for to address public bodies on important occasions, a duty which he always performed with digni- ty and to the satisfaction of his hearers. The subjects of his discourses were vari- ous, and as his mind was mainly occupied with grand and lofty themes, so there was a certain nobleness, freedom and power of development, the natural and necessary fruit of his general studies and habits of thought. No man could ever listen to Dr. Fisher when engaged upon those great themes with which his soul was filled, without a persuasion that he spoke from absolute conviction of the truth, and an overwhelm-

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History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio; their past and present, Part 117

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson Number of Pages: 1592

Author: Nelson, S.B., Cincinnati
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Cincinnati : S. B. Nelson
Number of Pages: 1592