Euphemia Allen Whitford was the daughter of Joseph and Phebe Maxson Allen and was born in the town of Wirt, N. Y., May 3, 1838. Her early life was spent here where she attended the district schools until she was advanced enough in her studies to be sent away to Alfred to continue her education. At the age of thirteen she confessed Christ and was baptized by Elder Henry P. Green, uniting with the Nile Seventh Day Baptist Church at Friendship, N. Y. She traces her acceptance of Jesus as her Savior, to the influence of a Christian teacher in the public school.
When she was seventeen she began teaching near home. From this time on, part of her time was spent in teaching and part in attendance at Alfred, until her marriage. It was at Alfred that she became acquainted with Oscar U. Whitford. When Mr. Whitford completed his course he was invited to become the head of the Shiloh Academy, Shiloh, N. J. He accepted the call, but before he went Oscar U. Whitford and Euphemia Allen were quietly married by Rev. Joel C. West, August 18, 1883, and Mr. Whitford took his bride with him to Shiloh as assistant teacher in the Academy. The time spent in this work was delightful and it was a pleasant thing to see, at our late Conference, the joyful reunion of many of the old students with the teacher they had known and loved, so many years ago.
After some time spent in teaching, Mr. Whitford took up the work of the gospel ministry. In such labor he supplied the churches at Mystic, Conn., Plainfield, N. J., and served as supply and pastor of the church in Chicago, Ill. He was also pastor of the church at Farina, Ill., Walworth, Wis., and Westerly, R. I. In all these places Mrs. Whitford was a most zealous helper and wise adviser, and both were greatly beloved and respected. Her influence among the young people was most pronounced and her regard for them was very great. Some, who later entered into larger service among us, found her as a source of inspiration for their decision thus to do.
Her interest in missions was deep and this interest was quickened as she caught the vision of the need of the world for the gospel of our Lord. This was especially so after Mr. Whitford became the corresponding secretary of the Missionary Society.
Mr. Whitford passed on in 1905. Since that time she has lived a part of the time with her son Allen in Westerly, R. I., part with her daughter Mary in Milton, Wis. She made her last journey to Milton at the close of the Conference at Shiloh, last August, to stay a few months, most of the time in sickness, to fall asleep in Jesus, March, 1922.
It would be a vain thing to bring before the readers of the Recorder the phases of character which made Mrs. Euphemia Whitford so much beloved. The people in almost every section of our denomination were well acquainted with her. Whatever is meant by "real Christian living" was well exemplified in her. Her zeal for the church of which she was a member, her interest in all its work, the Sabbath school in which she was a teacher, the Ladies' Aid in which she was an active worker, the prayer service which she always attended, when able, the Sabbath morning service where she was an intensely interested listener - this is known by all who were associated with her. The work of the Missionary Society, and its board of managers (of which she was the first woman member), was constantly in her prayer and thought.
For about thirty years she had been a member of the Pawcatuck Seventh Day Baptist Church. Would that every member of that body might prove as faithful and consistent as did she. Now she "rests from her labor and her works do follow her."
Her son, Allen C., and wife with their two sons, Allen and Kenneth, and her daughter Mary with her husband, Acting President Alfred E. Whitford of Milton College, their son Albert and daughter Dorothy, will miss her greatly, as will many other kindred, with a multitude of friends all over the land.
A brief service was conducted by Pastor Henry N. Jordan at Milton, Wis., and the body was brought to Westerly, where a funeral service was held Tuesday, March 21, 1922, in the Pawcatuck Seventh Day Baptist meeting house, conducted by her pastor, Clayton A. Burdick. C. A. B.
