- REV. STEPHEN PEET, a native of Sandgate, Vermont, was born
on the 20th of February,
- 1797. During the following year, his parents removed to Lee,
Mass., where he passed his boyhood, and at the age of sixteen
united with the Church. Soon after, he went with his family to
Ohio, and there, by the death of his father, was, at the age
of seventeen, thrown upon his own resources, and thus early in
life he developed that independence of character which so signally
marked his subsequent career. Although dependent upon his own
exertions for means, he resolved to enter the ministry, and,
after his primary education, completed his preparatory course
of study at Norfolk, Conn., under the tuition of Rev. Ralph Emerson.
He entered Yale College in 1819 and graduated with honor in 1923.
His theological studies were pursued partly under the direction
of Rev. Mr. Emerson, and partly at Princeton, New Haven and Auburn
Theological Seminaries, and on the 22d of February, 1826, he
was ordained Pastor at Euclid, Ohio. During seven years of ministry
in this place, his work was greatly blessed, and one sermon especially
is said to have been the means of numerous conversations, including
five prominent lawyers. While here he became deeply interested
in the sailors on the Western waters, and the work so grew upon
him that he resigned his pastorate and devoted himself exclusively
to it. While engaged in the Bethel cause, between 1835 and 1837,
he resided at Buffalo, N.Y., and, in addition to his other duties,
edited the Bethel Magazine and Buffalo Spectator, a religious
paper, afterward merged into the New York Evangelist.
- In October, 1837, he removed to Green Bay, Wis., and became
Pastor of the only Presbyterian
- Church then existing within the present limits of the State.
Two years later, he secured the erection of a house of worship
at a cost of $3,000, and heard the tones of the first church
bell in the State, it being the gift of John Jacob Astor, and
valued at $500. In 1839, he made a tour through the Territory
in the interests of the American Home Mission Society, seeking
out its moral destitutions and wants, preparatory to establishing
churches. In this tour he traveled five hundred and seventy-five
miles; visited sixty-four families and thirty-one different places;
preached fourteen sermons; delivered one temperance address;
attended one funeral; organized one church; administered the
communion three times and baptism twice; attended the meeting
of the Presbytery, and distributed many Testaments, tracts and
children's books. In 1839, he accepted a call to the pastorate
of the First Presbyterian Church of Milwaukee, and there labored
faithfully till 1841, when he was appointed general agent of
the American Home Mission Society for Wisconsin. The good resulting
from his work in this capacity can never be estimated. Possessed
of energy and decision, connected with business tact, zeal, indomitable
perseverance and devote piety, he was pre-eminently suited to
the work, prosecuted it with an ardor most creditable to himself,
and with a success which entitled him to be regarded as one of
the greatest benefactors of the State. He aided in organizing
a large proportion of the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches,
and was influential in forming the Convention in the Churches
of these two denominations were harmoniously united. In his repeated
journeys across the prairies and through the forests, he was
often subjected to perils and self-denials, yet he was cheerful
and happy in the work of preaching the Gospel to the scattered
sheep of Christ's flock, of comforting the lonely, rejoicing
with the strong and helping the weak. Though the full results
of his work can never be known here, enough have appeared to
attest his eminent usefulness as a faithful servant of God, destined
to be crowned with honor in the great day of the Lord's appearing.
Not only was his heart engaged in the work of spreading the Gospel
and establishing churches, but he was also deeply interested
in the institutions for Christian education. He was an early
supporter of the Western Reserve College, and furnished from
his church one of the three members of the first graduating class,
who is now a minister of the Gospel. More fitly than anyone else,
he may be called the father of Beloit College. Resigning his
agency for the American Home Mission Society, after some eight
years' service, he labored nearly three years as financial agent
for the College, and was successful in securing a large portion
of its early endowments. The first subscription of $1,000, from
Rev. Henry Barber, came through his agency, and was followed
by $7,000 from the citizens of Beloit, $10,000 from Hon. T. W.
Williams, a relative of his family, and $10,000 from the self-denying
missionaries of the Northwest. On the foundation, thus laid in
faith and prayer and self-denial, the college has been built
up and made a blessing to both Church and State.
- In 1850, from overwork he was prostrated by an illness that
seemed his last. His physicians
- despaired of his recovery, and he had given directions for
his funeral. At his request, he was left alone, and prayed till
he became impressed with the conviction that he should recover.
Calling his physicians, he said, "Gentlemen, I have all
confidence in your judgment, but I am assured that the Lord has
yet four or five years' work for me to do," and, to the
surprise of all, he at once began to mend. His next field of
labor was at Batavia, Ill., where he preached for nearly three
years to the Congregational Church, and, during that time, initiated
and carried to success, a plan for an academial institution as
a tributary to Beloit College. The crowning effort of his life
was yet to be undertaken. He had long cherished a desire to establish
a theological seminary, through whose graduates he should continue
to preach the Gospel after his death. With his characteristic
energy he entered upon the work. Within one year, the plan of
the Chicago Theological Seminary had been matured, the Board
of Trustees appointed, the charter secured and the subscription
raised to the amount of $50,000. But he was not permitted to
see the accomplishment of his purpose. Returning March 14, 1855,
from the East, where he had been laboring in the interests of
the institution, he called a meeting of the Directors for the
27th, to organize, elect professors and transact any necessary
business. On the following day, he was attacked with chills and
fever, which resulted in inflammation of the lungs, of which
he died at 3 o'clock on Wednesday morning, the 21st. His work
was done, and peacefully and gently he entered into his rest.
His funeral, which occurred on Friday, the 23d, was conducted
by Rev. J. C. Holbrook, who preached from John, xvii, 4 - "I
have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do." His
body found its last resting-place in the cemetery at Beloit,
within sight of the college he had loved and labored for.
- Thus ended the life of a true man. He is gone, but his work
still lives. The train of those who
- perpetuate his work is still moving on; the churches which
he planted in the wilderness, the sermons which he preached,
the schools established, the acts of charity and deeds of love,
all live to commemorate his name, and their influence will be
ever expanding with the lapse of time.
-
- Taken from "The History of Rock County, Wis."
(c)1879; pp. 432, 435-436.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
|