Hovey - Edmund Otis
SEE ALSO HIS BIOGRAPHY
Professor Edmund Otis Hovey, DD who died in Crawfordsville, Ind, March 10th deserves to be remembered in Vermont. His life affords an eminent illustration of the influences which have gone out from our state to mould and bless the great West. He was born in East Hanover, NH July 15, 1801 but after 1809 his home was in Thetford, and the powerful ministry of Dr. Burton put its impress upon him as upon so many. After preparation in Thetford Academy, he entered Dartmouth College in 1825, graduated in 1828 and from Andover in 1831. He was ordained by the Londonderry Presbytery Sept 27th and married October 5th – March Carter of Peacham, starting at once on his three months’ journey to Indiana. There his Home Missionary labors were very soon absorbed in the planting and upbuilding of Wabash College. His classmate, Caleb Mills was his immediate and lifelong colaborer in this enterprise and not many years passed before they had enlisted Charles White, DD who had been Dr. Burton’s colleague at Thetford and became for 20 years, till his death in 1861, President of Wabash College. Dr. Hovey share din the organization (November 21st, 1832) and remained till his death a trustee; was for some years its skillful business agent; was Professor of Rhetoric in 1834 and after 1836, Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy and Geology in connection with which he secured for the college one of the best cabinets of minerals in the country. From 1838-64, he was Treasurer and 1833-9 Librarian and it is only justice to say that the college, with all its promise of future usefulness, owes more to no man than to him. Dartmouth gave him the honorary degree of DD in 1869. In 1875 Dr. Hovey came to the East and spent some time in revisiting early scenes and friends. He attended Commencement and with boyish enthusiasm rode over the hills of Hanover and Thetford, visited Peacham, Hardwick and the White Mountains and lived ove rother days. His presence seemed like a benediction, and many who had never seen him before will remember him with affection. The modestly, simplicity and earnestness with which he bore himself, unconsciously disclosing, rather than deliberately telling the grand story of a useful life, were very instructive. The production of such men is the best service which Vermont can do for the world – Delta.
We add to the tribute of “Delta” some notice of the closing scenes from the funeral discourse of President Tuttle: “Standing here by his honored remains, I utter these words again – as the consummate formula which describes his life among men and before God – Faithful in the Lord. For several years he had symptoms of his approaching end. In the gentlest manner the Master was telling his servant that his work was almost done. And these last years have been singularly beautiful as when the maples in the autumn are covered with the dying leaves, they are also lit up with almost supernatural beauty. He has moved among us tender and simple and loving as a child, trusting and joyful as a saint, fond of earth and most tenderly held by its ties, yet with lifted eye to the heaven above him, his face shining with its glory and his head wearing the crown of glory which the loving God had given him. His closing sickness was sharp and distressing, but borne with astonishing fortitude. Even when he was gasping for breath he exclaimed, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him, and then again, when his nerves were giving him anguish that heralded death, he exclaimed, “I go to Jesus! Yes! I go to Jesus for where else can I go? And as the powers of life yielded one after another, and he knew that this was but ‘the beginning of the end,’ he said, ‘O Father, not my will but thine be done!’ And the many and dreadful hours of pain were illuminated as with heaven’s glory by the tender caresses of the friends he loved so well with the sweetest messages to the absent son and with expressions of holy faith in God, and with invocations of blessings on us who stood about him and on Wabash College! It seems to be singular just now that I cannot recall among his many expressions of faith in God one after this. He seemed dying he was dying and he said with intense and joyful emphasis, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”
Source: Plymouth Weekly Republican (Indiana) 22 March 1877 Thu p 1
The Rev. Edmund O. Hovey, professor of chemistry and geology in Wabash College, Crawfordsville, died Saturday afternoon aged 76. He has been connected with the college for 44 years, being one of its first instructors. The Rev. Edmund O. Hovey, professor of chemistry and geology in Wabash College, Crawfordsville, died Saturday afternoon, aged 76. He had been connected with the college