Joseph H. Hamilton

As printed in 1902

JOSEPH H. HAMILTON.

Rev. Joseph H. Hamilton is a superannuated minister of the Methodist Protestant church, residing ii; Mount Vernon. For more than a half century he devoted his life to the work of the Christian ministry and the influence of his labors has been incalculable. He came to Knox county in 1855, and during the greater part of the time since that year his time and talents have been given to the work of uplifting his fellow men in this portion of Ohio, spreading the gospel among those with whom he has been associated and thus developing characters that exemplify all that is highest and best in life. Rev. Joseph Hamilton was born in Muskingum township, Muskingum county, Ohio, July 23, 1826, and is of Scotch lineage, for his grandfather William Hamilton was a native of Scotland and founded the family in America. In West Virginia occurred the birth of the Rev. William Hamilton, the father of him whose name introduces this record. He, too, became a preacher of the Methodist Protestant church, and as early as 1828 and 1829 he was engaged in proclaiming the gospel to the pioneer settlers of this locality. He lived to be seventy-eight years of age and left behind him the memory of a noble life which remains as a blessed benediction to all who knew him. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Lydia Springer, was a daughter of John Springer and a granddaughter of Christopher Springer, who settled in Wilmington, Delaware, before the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Hamilton died at the age of seventy years. She was the mother of ten sons and two daughters, and all of the former averaged six feet in height. Four of the number served as soldiers in the Union army, including Captain H. C. Hamilton, of Richwood, Union county, Ohio, who commanded a company of the Ninety-sixth Ohio Infantry. Another brother. Dr. Isaac Newton Hamilton, of Marysville, Ohio, was a surgeon in the army, while a third. Dr. Thoma'S Benton Hamilton, was a surgeon with an Illinois regiment and died in Nashville, Tennessee. Another member of the family was Dr. John W. Hamilton, of Columbus, Ohio, professor of surgery in the Starling Medical College, and his sons are now eminent physicians in Columbus. One of his nephews was Governor John M. Hamilton, of Illinois.

In the common schools Rev. Joseph H. Hamilton pursued his education, and at the age of eighteen he began to preach. His time and talents have ever been devoted to the service of the Master and he has been instrumental in turning many from the errors of their ways to walk in the straight and narrow path which leads unto life everlasting. For five years he was pastor of the church in Steubenville, Ohio, and for two years in Gircleville. He also spent two 3-ears in Lancaster and for three years occupied the pulpit of the Methodist Protestant church in Brownsville, Licking county. In 1855 he came to Knox county, locating at Fredericktown, where he preached for the church for a number of years. In 1865 he came to Mount Vernon and was pastor of the church in this place for twelve years. He had been connected with the Mount Vernon circuit for five years, and in his ministerial capacity has traveled extensively throughout this county, preaching and laboring for the upbuilding of the cause of Christ-anita. During his long connection with the ministry he has attended over fifteen hundred funerals and has performed twelve hundred and seventy-two marriage ceremonies in Knox county. After fifty years of active work in the ministry he was retired in 1894 to a superannuated position, and his rest is well deserved, for with untiring zealand in the most self-sacrificing manner he has labored for the church, whose interests have from his early life been most dear to him.

Rev. Hamilton was united in the holy bonds of matrimony, in Muskingum county, to miss Charlotte M. Rodman, a daughter of Joseph Rodman, a native of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and a representative of one of the old families of that state. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton have been born two sons and a daughter, the eldest being Edward C, a printer of Mount Vernon. The second was Mrs. George Turner, of Mount Vernon, who is now deceased. She and her husband were of great assistance in church work and her loss throughout the community was deeply felt. Mary L., the youngest, is the wife of W. E. Jackson, of Mount Vernon. She is a graduate of Adrian College, of Adrian, Michigan, and is a teacher of music.

For fifty-five years Rev. Hamilton has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and for fifty-three years of the Masonic fraternity, and has been a most worthy representative of the fraternal spirit of these orders, whose beneficent teachings are founded upon the instruction which was given by Him who came to minister and not to be ministered unto. He is also identified with the Soils of Temperance, has been representative to the grand lodge and for years served as its grand chaplain. Whatever tends to advance kindliness, benevolence, tolerance, the good, the just, the true and the right has received his endorsement and his co-operation as far as it lay in his power to give. His church grew and prospered under his labors, and the influence of his life cannot be measured by any of the known standards of this life.

As printed in The Biographical record of Knox County, Ohio : to which is added an elaborate compendium of national biography (1902). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.