Person:Jonathan Weaver (26)

Bischof Jonathan Weaver

Der am 6. Februar verstorbene emeritirte Bischof Jonathan Weaver von der Vereinigte Brüder Kirche war am 23. März 1824 in Carroll County, O., geboren, und erhielt eine gewöhnliche Erziehung, bildete sich aber durch Selbststudium weiter aus. Im Alter von 17 Jahren schloß er sich der Ver. Brüder Kirche an. Mit 20 Jahren erhielt er die Prediger Licenz. Im Jahre 1847 schloß er sich der Muskingum Conferenz an und wurde im November desselben Jahres von Bischof Gloßbrenner ordinirt. Von 1851 bis 1855 war er Presiding Elder. Im Jahr 1857 wurde er als Delegat zur General-Conferenz gewählt und im selben Jahr zum Agenten der Otterbein Universität ernannt, in welcher Stellung er fast acht Jahre thätig war. Im Jahre 1865 wurde er zum Bischof erwählt und blieb es bis seinem Tode, wenngleich ihm in dem letzten Jahren seines hohen Alters wegen kein besonderer Sprengel zugetheilt war. Als Bischofhatte er verschiedene Distrikte der Kirche zu besuchen und sah auf seinen Reisen den größeren Theil der Vereinigten Staaten und Canadas.

Bischof Weaver entwickelte seiner Zeit auch eine ausgedehnte kirchenschriftstellerische Thätigkeit. Die Otterbein Universität verlieh ihm im Jahr 1874 den Titel eines Doktors der Theologie. Von seinem Charakter sagt Rev. Daniel Berger in der Geschichte der Vereinigten Brüder Kirche: Bischof Weaver hat es in hohem Grade verstanden, sich die Zuneigung der Kirche zu erwerben. Seine Art zu predigen war einfach, einleuchtend, kräftig, oft mild und zart, oft zum Majestätischen erhebend. Es ist nicht Vielen gegeben, auf der Kanzel es ihm gleich zu thun. Die Einfachheit seines Styls forderte nicht nur die Bewunderung der Gelehrten und Weisen heraus, sondern gewann ihm auch die Freundschaft der Kinder.“

Bischof Weaver war zweimal verheirathet gewesen. Die erste Frau starb starb schon nach vierjähriger Ehe, die zweite überlebt ihn, mit acht Kindern.

Das Leichenbegängniß fand am Freitag, den 8. Februar, unter überaus großer Betheiligung von der Ver. Brüder Kirche an Oak Straße aus statt und wurden die sterblichen Reste des beliebten Seelsorgers auf dem schönen Woodland Friedhof zur Ruhe gelegt.

Int. # Name Birth Date Death Date Sec. Lot Tier Grave Burial Age Birth Place Undertaker
22910 Weaver, Jonathan 6 Feb 1901 112 1934 8 Feb 1901 76 Carroll Co., OH

These Weavers are buried next to him:
54427 Weaver, Edward P 112 1934 12 Feb 1940 Morris Sons
27824 Weaver, Jennie 10 Apr 1907 112 1934 13 Apr 1907 46 Montgomery Co., OH
44728 Weaver, Mary E 19 Feb 1925 112 1934 21 Feb 1925 89 Starke Co., OH Whitmer Bros.

Rev. Jonathan Weaver
Birth: Feb. 23, 1824
Carroll County
Ohio, USA
Death: Feb. 6, 1901
Carroll County
Ohio, USA

Jonathan was born in Harrison Township, Carroll County, Ohio to parents of German descent who moved from Washington County, PA. in 1810. He was the youngest of twelve children, grew up on a farm, and attended public schools. He attended Hagerstown Presbyterian academy for 5 months.

He found the Lord, at a camp meeting in 1841, when he was 17. In 1820 at the age of 20, he received an exhorters license in the local United Brethren in Christ Church and in 1845 a license to preach.

In 1847 he married Keziah Robb, they had two girls. Keziah died in 1852. Jonathan than married Mary Forsyth in 1854 and they had 9 children, 5 girls & 4 boys.
In 1847, Weaver entered the Muskingum Conference. In 1848 he was ordained by Bishop Glossbrenner. In 1851 he was chosen presiding elder, and in 1857, he was a delegate to the General Conference at Cincinnati. The trustees of Otterbein College hired him as soliciting agent, a post he served for eight years. In 1861, the General Conference elected him bishop for the Pacific Coast. He declined, preferring to stay with the college.

In 1865, Weaver campaigned to be editor of the Religious Telescope. He lost election, but was instead selected by the General Conference to the office of bishop. In matters of policy, he was a moderate, often refusing to take a public position, but he was better as a preacher and author. He was a great debater.

He excelled as a public speaker and was very effective in preaching the Word of God.

In 1893, age began to catch up with Weaver, and he was relieved of active duties, and elected bishop emeritus.


Burial:
Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum
Dayton
Montgomery County
Ohio, USA

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Created by: Theron & Helen Smith
Record added: Mar 02, 2011
Find A Grave Memorial# 66404361

Patriarchal Bishop Jonathan Weaver the Highest Churchman in U. B. Denomination. Article.

JONATHAN WEAVER, D. D. [pages 902-908] This venerable pioneer in the history of the A J United Brethren church enjoys the distinction of having served the church for a longer period of time than any other living bishop. In fact, it is doubtful if any layman or preacher can far exceed him in actual years of service. But this is not by any means Bishop Weaver's only distinction. Coming into existence before the first quarter of this century was completed, born of humble parentage in the thick backwoods of Ohio, he has successfully arisen through the various gradations of life, and has fully demonstrated that "there is always room at the top of the ladder of fame." His birth occurred on the 23d of March, 1824, in Carroll county, Ohio, and he was the youngest of twelve children, all of whom save himself and one sister have passed to the eternal beyond.
His parents were both natives of Washington county, Pa., and both were born the same year—probably about 1775. No reliable family records were kept, as the parents were uneducated save in the elements of the German language, and, like their pioneer neighbors, gave little heed to anything except the clearing up of their farm and providing for the comfort of their large family.
The paternal grandfather came from Germany about the year 1750 and lived for a time in Lancaster county, Pa. About 1752 he moved to Washington county, Pa., where he died. The maternal grandfather was born in this country, of German origin, and also settled in Washington county, Pa., in an early day. The parents of Bishop Weaver were married in Washington county, Pa., about 1798, and immigrated to Ohio twelve years later. The father was a moral and upright man, but never professed religion until he was sixty years of age, and died three years later. The mother was converted at about the same age, though she had always been religiously inclined and was a faithful and persistent Bible reader. After her conversion she was a very devoted and earnest Christian; and during the declining years of her life, spent much of her time in reading and prayer. She was exceptionally well informed upon the fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures and rendered much valuable assistance to her son as a young Christian and embryonic minister, he inheriting her temperament and much of her nature. The mother died in her eighty-seventh year.
Jonathan Weaver was reared on a farm amid the trials, privations, ignorance and hard labor of early pioneer days. There were no social castes in those days; all were upon the same level, equal in possessions, equal in ambition, and equal in incentives to hard labor. Amid these conditions young Weaver grew to manhood, having, as associates, the farmers' sons and daughters of the neighborhood, most of whom had no aspirations beyond those induced by their surroundings. The school-houses of those days were built of round logs, with a huge fireplace across one end of the school-room and light admitted through greased paper pasted over apertures left in the walls. The prevalent garb of the students was the red "womus," and other garments made of the product of the home loom, which was placed in the "parlor" of nearly every cabin. The scholars stood around the huge fireplace, filled with blazing logs contributed by the patrons of the school, and studied their lessons from the United States Spelling-book, or the Western Calculator, according to advancement. The little ones sometimes had their A. B. C's pasted or printed on a paddle and were expected to study diligently. The teachers made no pretentious to teaching any subject except those included in the "three R's," and a scholar was presumed to have graduated when he could figure through the single rule of three. Discipline was maintained by the application of birch or hickory "oil," and the stronger the teacher or master, the better the discipline. Often there was no floor except the earth, and the seats consisted of slabs or puncheons, smooth side up, with holes bored in the bottom corners at proper angels, and wooden legs driven in. It did not matter, then, if the feet of the little ones dangled afoot or two from the floor. In a school of this kind our subject learned to read, write and cipher. He early cultivated a taste for reading, and occasionally saw a newspaper, but books were scarce, and those to be had were not suited to young minds and desires.
There were no churches within reach, so that he never attended church or Sunday-school until he was fourteen years of age. Occasionally a Methodist or United Brethren circuit rider would preach in some neighbor's cabin, often in his father's; but their discussion of spiritual affairs only mystified him; he could not understand the plan of salvation, and though sincerely seeking the light, he knew of no one to whom he could go for counsel.
By reason of his father's misfortune in his financial affairs it became necessary for the family to seek a new home, and this change necessarily brought a change of surroundings, and while the loss of the old home was considered a great calamity to the family, it nevertheless proved a blessing in disguise to the young man. The change brought him in contact with rather better schools and decidedly better teachers. By reason of the family reverses, his labors were more than ever required on the little farm which they were able to purchase with the remnant of the proceeds of the sale of the former and larger one; but he managed to get three months' schooling each year, and employed all his leisure moments in reading and study. When he was about twenty-one years of age—his father being now dead—his mother increased his little store of funds until he was able to attend a five-months' term at a Presbyterian academy, located at Hagerstown, Ohio. This was the sum total of his education as far as the schools were concerned, though he never relinquished his efforts to inform himself at all times, and of course it is needless to add that he is today a man of extensive reading and general information. His religious career took tangible shape in his seventeenth year, while he was attending a camp-meeting. The first time the "mourners' bench was offered, he accepted the invitation without solicitation, being himself scarcely able to tell why he went. During the progress of the meeting he became a member of the United Brethren church. His religious life for several years following was not satisfactory to himself, and he had no one to whom he could go for much needed counsel. Within a year after he began his religious life, he had the great satisfaction of seeing the most of his father's family converted and united with the church.
When about nineteen years of age Mr. Weaver was elected class leader and served for two years. From the time of his conversion (in 1841) he felt that he ought to enter the ministry, but realized that he had no special qualification for the high calling; yet in those days an educated ministry was neither required nor desired among the common people. Fortunately he had a brother-in-law who was a young minister, and through his help he received some light on the doctrines of the gospel. He read what he could and studied more or less when about his work. When twenty years of age he was licensed to exhort, and six months afterward was licensed to preach the gospel. His first exhortations and first sermons—if sermons they could be called— were studied for the most part while following the plow. The conviction grew upon him that he must give his life to the ministry, but how creditably to fill that place he could not see. He had little to start with, except good health, a strong voice and an abundance of zeal—all desirable qualifications in the preacher. His term at the academy, which gave him a little start in educational matters, had also enabled him to form better habits of systematic study, or, rather, had taught him how to study.
In 1845 he was placed on a circuit by the presiding elder to fill a vacancy. During 1846 he taught school for a few months, studied, and worked on the farm the balance of the year; in February, 1847, he united with the Muskingum conference, under Bishop Russell; at this conference he received his first regular appointment, the name of the charge being Lake Erie mission. The mission was 200 miles round, had seventeen appointments, and there were twenty-three members. He says: "When time came to start for the mission, which was distant over 100 miles, I felt some misgivings, but would not suffer even my mother to know that my mind was in the least cloudy. I packed up my effects in an old-fashioned pair of saddle-bags, and took a hasty leave of home and friends and set my face toward the north." He soon increased the number of appointments to twenty-three, and filled them every three weeks. Eighty members were received into the church during the year and eighty dollars was paid him for his year's work.
Though a young man of robust constitution, the rigors of the winter spent on this work have never been forgotten. It was a year of trials and struggles, yet of great profit. At times, when awakening in the morning, he would find a half inch or more of snow spread on his bed, which had drifted in through the crevices in the cabin walls. Yet he was buoyed up with the knowledge that, in his own distant home, a dearly beloved mother was praying for him. He says: "You may call me weak, but during all the years I have spent in the ministry, I have always held sacred in my memory this thought: Mother prays for me. I presume to go to my grave with the fond and closely cherished recollections of a kind Christian mother."
Bishop Weaver continued to serve the church of his choice as an itinerant minister until 1851, when he was elected presiding elder, and was three times re-elected, declining a fourth re-election. As a pastor he was always more than ordinarily successful, his manner as a pulpit orator and companionable friend being such as to draw people to him and through him to seek for a higher life.
In 1857 he was a delegate to the general conference held at Cincinnati, and was by that body elected soliciting agent for Otterbein university. Having been a friend of the university for some years, he well knew its needs, and was very successful in raising the funds to perpetuate its existence. Though not entirely in sympathy with the management of the institution at that time, he was usually able to defend its policy and to show that it was the best that could then be done. He has always taken a firm stand on the question of higher education, and earnestly advocated the establishment of a church theological school long before that was thought possible. In fact, it is believed that the Union Biblical seminary is largely the outgrowth of his earnest labors.
His first election to the office of bishop occurred in 1861, but he resigned the office without entering upon its duties on the Pacific coast. In 1865 he was again elected and was placed upon the east Mississippi district, comprising the states of Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. Four years later he was placed in the east district, which comprised the states of Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, Maryland, Tennessee and Virginia. During this quadrennial he visited the Pacific coast, and held conferences in California, Oregon and Washington territory, traveling about 1,300 miles by stage. At the general conference, held in Dayton in 1873, he was again elected to the bishop's office, Ohio district, which included the states of Ohio, Kentucky, and the dominion of Canada. In 1877 he was elected to the same office and placed in the east Mississippi district. In 1881 he was elected and assigned to the northwest district—the districts having been changed since the last conference. This district extended from Detroit, Mich., west, including Colorado. His sixth election occurred in 1885, and he has been elected at each quadrennial period since, having served over thirty years as one of the official heads of a great and prosperous church.
Bishop Weaver is still in active work, though, in deference to his age, his labors are made as light as possible, he having, in 1893, been elected bishop emeritus; however, in 1895, he held conferences on the Pacific coast and was active in his official duties. It will thus be seen that his ministerial work has extended over a period of fifty years in all, during which time he has traveled nearly all over the United States and Canada. Bishop Weaver has been officially connected with the legislation of the church for over thirty years, and perhaps no man in the United States is better informed upon its history than he. His policy has always been conservative and conciliatory, though firmly believing in and aiding in the recent reforms and changes in the constitutional law of the church. He believes that the period of prohibition of Freemasonry within the church has passed, though convinced that the time was when it was a wise provision of the church curriculum. As a writer, Dr. Weaver is plain and terse. No one can misunderstand his meaning. Besides being a regular contributor to the different church papers, he has written some pamphlets and several books which have been published in permanent form. The first of these was on the Resurrection of the Human Body; the second was entitled Divine Providence, a smaller volume treated of Ministerial Salary; while Universal Restoration is the title of another. He is the author of a work on Christian Baptism, and of another on Christian Theology. Throughout his writings there is apparent a vein of the humorous, which makes his work readable with that large class who are not specially interested in abstract theology. A characteristic of the man is his entire freedom from formality. He will meet, with a pleasant smile and hearty handshake, the lowest of God's creatures, and seek to win them to a new life by acts of love and brotherly kindness.
Bishop Weaver has been twice married. The bride of his youth was Miss Keziah L, Robb, of Mahoning county, Ohio, whom he wedded on the 24th of February, 1847. They lived together pleasantly and happily until she was removed by death about four years after marriage, leaving two daughters. In 1854 he married Miss Mary E. Forsyth, of Canton, Ohio. She is a most estimable lady and a valued helpmate. Nine children have blessed this second marriage.
In his younger years, the bishop had been a most perfect specimen of physical manhood, and although now past the "threescore and ten years" allotted to man, he stands erect, and shows his full stature of six feet four and a half inches, and bids fair to continue his useful labors for years to come.