In Edgerton, Wis., Nov. 18th, 1866, at the home of his son, Dea. A. B. Lawton, Joseph Lawton, in the 87th year of his age.
He was born in Rhode Island, Feb. 11th, 1780, and was married to Miss Nancy Denison, in Stonington, Conn., March 21st, 1802. He moved to Verona, Oneida Co., N. Y., early in the year 1804, where he made a profession of religion, when about thirty years of age and joined the Association Baptist Church. Bro. Lawton embraced the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment in 1833, and united with the First Seventh-day Baptist Church in Verona, in 1838, then under the pastoral care of Eld. John L. Kenyon, from which he never moved his membership, until he joined the triumphant division of the church above.
In the autumn of 1848, he moved to and settled in Albion, Wis., where he spent most of his subsequent life.
Bro. L. was an earnest Christian, having lived a life of prayer and faithfulness to God. He had for many years maintained the practice of praying for each of his children, one by one, to which, under the blessing of God, they owe much of their success and prosperity in business life, as well as in rearing symmetrical moral and Christian characters.
Having waited for his change in a state of preparation for many years, he met it with unwavering confidence in the promises, and resignation to the will of God. "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." J. C.
