In Hopkinton, June 17th, 1867, Jacob Davis Babcock, aged 78 years, 5 months, and 28 days.
Mr. Babcock was born in Westerly, Jan. 20th, 1789. His father, Hon. Daniel Babcock, a man of strong mind and stern integrity, highly esteemed both in civil and ecclesiastical circles, who filled various offices of honor and responsibility in the state and in the church, gave his such early educational advantages as the district schools then afforded. To this store, his natural love of knowledge and diligent employment of his leisure hours added largely.
His earlier years were passed chiefly in mechanical pursuits, in which he acquired a rank excelled by few in that day. Some of the most distinguished inventors of New England received their early mechanical instruction from him.
Possessed of a genuine heart, through life his means and hands were responsive to the demands of the suffering. A pioneer in Sabbath-schools, a liberal deviser and patron of common and academic schools, and an admirer of literary and scientific culture in its purest forms, he occupied no ordinary position for respect and usefulness in society.
He espoused the principle of reform relating to intemperance and slavery at a time when little else than opposition was awarded to the advocates of abstinence and freedom. He stood nobly and firmly by the right, and was second to none in his success in moulding public sentiment to it.
More than all, he was a practical Christian. He not only believed in God and in Christ, but believed God and believed Christ. When about sixteen years of age, he became a member of the First Seventh-day Baptist Church of Hopkinton. For more than sixty years, this profession, so early made, was faithfully sustained.
He was stricken with apoplexy on the afternoon of June 12th, and expired on the evening of the 17th of the same, beloved and lamented. A. B. B.
