18 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
had been excellent, and his spirits uniformly cheerful; 
but the various and increasing cares of his official sta¬ 
tion, with the sedentary employment of composing a 
dissertation on the affairs of his community, during 
which his usual excursions and exercise were omitted, 
wrought a visible change in the state of his health ; a 
severe cough ensued, with other alarming symptoms, 
which gave his friends just grounds for apprehension. 
From this time his health seemed gradually to decline. 
The want of his accustomed occupations in the open air 
also depressed his spirits, and produced a marked con¬ 
trast to that buoyancy which had hitherto shed its in¬ 
fluence on all around him. 
A journey to the western states, undertaken in con¬ 
nection with his official duties,* appeared, for a short 
time, to revive the energies of his frame. But though 
externally more active and cheerful, the deep workings 
of disease had undermined his system, and on the morn¬ 
ing of the 8th of February 1834, being awakened at an 
early hour by a sensation of faintness, and when relieved 
by medical applications, again relapsing for a short time 
into a state of repose, he fell, at the age of 54 years, 
calmly and unconsciously into the arms of death. 
A widow, and four sons at an age most needing a pa¬ 
rent’s counsel, survive to mourn his loss. 
Such, gentlemen of the Academy, is a very inade¬ 
quate view of the life of your lamented associate ; a life 
of various, constant, unobtrusive usefulness. 
* For the purpose of establishing a branch of the “ United Brethren’s” com¬ 
munity in Indiana. 
