History of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1667-1917; - citizen hylbom blog

Personal Sketches 215
views, led him to respect aU denominations, and brought him into the most
friendly relations with them. He was loyal to the principles of the Christian
Connection. Few comprehended them better or more fully interjDreted
and exemplified their spirit. He was not a sectarian. Nor was he so
unsectarian as to be led into an unsectarian bigotry, which is one of the
worst forms of sectarianism. He sought after those things that made for
Eeace—that tended to allay suspicion, jealousy, hatred, strife. He felt
imself above none. The weakest and humblest of his brethren were met
with open heart, with a sincere and cordial desire to encourage and help.
He respected every true man, however small. His heart and his sympathies
were broad enough to take them all in. He was a man of sincere and deep
piety. The ordinary observer would doubtless say that he was intellectual
rather than spiritual. In his preaching he addressed himself to the judgment
and the conscience rather than to the emotions. To such a mind as
his this was the most direct way to inspire devotion. Only those who were
most intimate with him knew how deep and steady was the current of his
spiritual life.
He read the Bible assiduously—read it through by course every year,
in his family and personal devotions, in his preparation of sermons and
Sunday School lessons, in the investigation of special doctrines, subjects,
etc. It would be more correct to say that he studied it rather than read it.
This appeared in his public ministrations, not so much in quoting its
language, as in a correct and apt interpretation, delineation and application
of its spirit.
He was a man of pure mind and clean lips. During a most intimate
acquaintance of nearly twenty years I never heard him give expression to
a low thought or utter an unclean word—nor any of those expressions of
inpatience or meaningless exclamations of surprise into which most people
are more or less frequently betrayed. He seemed never to forget himself.
Notwithstanding his transparent openness of character, yet there was a
depth not quickly fathomed, and he was constantly surprising those who
were intimate with him by new revelations of power and knowledge. He
continuously grew in their estimation. He impressed them with the consciousness
that he had a reserve force which had not been called into
exercise but which wag ready for emergencies. He died January 4, 1889.
Mrs Osborn died Mar. 6, 1914.
—Rev. C. A. Tillinghast, D. D.
Stephen Weaver
Stephen Weaver was born Dec. 9, 1826, in Middletown, R. I. He was
son of Parker and Lydia (Manchester) Weaver. Matthew Weaver, father
of Parker Weaver, was a farmer in his native town, Middletown, where he
lived to be quite old, dying about 1830. Parker was a farmer also, and
quite a successful and active man. He was an industrious, e£irnest, honest
man, strictly temperate in all things, and noted for purity and strength of
character. He was prompt and rehable in business, of active, persevering
nature, calm and dehberate in matters of judgment. He attended closely
to his own personal matters, never aspiring to office, but avoiding everything
savoring of publicity. He was a member of the Christian Baptist
church, which he worthily honored until his death, March, 1870, at eightythree
years.
Stephen attended common and select schools in Middletown, studied
much at home, and when but nineteen was competent to teach, which he
did for thirteen years with marked success. He studied hard while teaching,
improving himself greatly while advancing others. The relation of a fact to