Bartholomew Weed (1793 - 1879)

Born 6 Mar 1793 in Ridgebury, Ridgefield, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Elvira P. (Woodward) Weed — married 29 Feb 1844 in Kenton County, Kentucky

Descendants

Died 5 Jan 1879 at age 85 in Newark, Essex, New Jersey

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Halsey Bullen [send private message]

Biography

Birth

Bartholomew Weed was born on 6 March 1793 in Ridgebury, just south of Danbury, Connecticut.^[1][2][3]

Marriages

Bartholomew is reported to have had a first wife.

In the 1830 Federal census, he is listed as living in Philadelphia with a woman aged 20-29, a boy under 5, and two girls aged 5-10.^[4] He was reportedly away from home on his ministry when she died.^[5]

Records of this marriage event or of the name of his first wife or children from that marriage are yet to be found.

Bartholomew Weed married, secondly, Elvira P. Woodward in Kenton County, Kentucky, in 1844.^[6][1]

Children of second marriage: Bartholomew and Elvira Weed had:^[1][7]

• Mary, b. about 1842, apparently her step-daughter, not recorded in his family bible.
• Woodward B., b. 5 Apr 1845, "at half past 11 o'clock pm", in Bloomington, Iowa, died in Upper Alton, Illinois on 21 July 1846.
• Elvira W., b. 4 May 1847, "at 11 o'clock am", in Haddonfield, New Jersey, She married ____Hayden, and died in Chicago on 26 May 1884.
• Joseph, b. 23 Feb 1850, "at 2 o'clock pm" in Bridgeton, Cumberland Co., New Jersey. Joseph di;ed in New York City on 3 July 1903.
• Agnes Cooper, b. 23 May 1856 in Penn's Neck, New Jersey
• William, b. 1 Oct 1857 in New Springville (?), Staten Island, New York

Ministry

Bartholomew Weed was a Methodist minister.

Per his NYTimes obituary, he converted to join the Baptists at 16, then became a Methodist at 18 while at Reading, PA. At 24 he became a member of the Philadelphia Annual Conference, later joining the new New Jersey and then Newark Annual Converences. In his active ministry from 1817 to 1863, he was appointed to many of the most prominent churches in the area, serving several terms as Presiding Elder. "'Father Weed" was "well known, and his death has caused wide-spread sorrow among the people of New Jersey."^[8]

" Perhaps the most notable preacher to sermonize in our area, however, was Bartholomew Weed who spoke on the afternoon of September 13, 1824 at the Wolf Hill meeting and probably preached on other occasions as well. Weed was a "Methodist of the old style; his early Christian life was among the fathers and pioneers of the connection." He was a minister for 64 years, 44 of them in the Newark Conference, and "for himself retained to the last a strong preference for the simple manners and plain dress of his early associates. His life was never easy and during the early days on the circuit Weed was away from his family for a month at a time. His first wife died while he was on a distant appointment, but the trials and tragedies of the itinerancy never dimmed his passion for preaching. In fact, when his physician informed him that his work was probably done, he burst into tears and said, "What, am I never to preach the Gospel any more?""^[9]

Travels

Methodist ministry was an itinerant calling:

• 1811 - Reading, Pennsylvania
• 1819 - New Providence, New Jersey
• 1824 - Warren, New Jersey
• 1830 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania^[10]
• 1837 - Rock River, Illinois^[11]
• 1840 - Dubuque, Iowa^[12]
• 1840 - Grant County, Wisconsin^[13]
• 1844 - Kenton County, Kentucky^[14]
• 1845 - Bloomington, Iowa^[15]
• 1846 - Wupper Alton, Illinois ^[16]

• 1850 - Ocean Township, Monmouth, New Jersey ^[17]
• 1860 - Newark, Essex, New Jersey ^[18]

Death

Bartholomew died in Newark on January 5, 1879.^[19]

In a collection of Last Words by Maxwell Pierson Gaddis: Bartholomew Weed was born in Connecticut, March 6, 1793, and died in New Jersey, January 5, 1879. He was a Methodist of the old style. On learning from his doctor that his days were nearing their end, he said, "I did not expect to be here so long. Now I am only waiting, waiting on the shore. But there is no alarm. I find firm footing."

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Entry written by Bartholomew Weed in his Bible, which was presented to his granddaughter Elvira/Ella Roxana (Pierson Wertimer) Hyatt by her Aunt Eliza Woodward, and is now held by the Hyatt family.
2. ↑ New York Times obituary, 7 January 1879
3. ↑ IGI record, "Extraction of birth information from statewide indexes for Vermont and Connecticut", Batch 7450375, film, call no. 0002961
4. ↑ 1830 US Federal census
5. ↑ Warren History, Vol. Three, No. 4, Fall 2000, Warren Historical Society, quoting from Barbara B. Tomblin’s wonderful history of her church, published in 1975: 'His first wife died while he was on a distant appointment'
6. ↑ Marriages of Campbell, Boone and Kenton Counties, , Marriages of Campbell, Boone and Kenton Counties, Kentucky, 1795-1850, record 7509 on an Ancestry.com database.'WEED, Bartholomew & Elvira P. WOODYARD, 29 Feb. 1844, m by TM, b William Reispeh, Kenton Co., KY'
7. ↑ Names from and ages deduced from 1860 US Federal Census, Newark, New Jersey
8. ↑ New York Times obituary, January 7, 1879
9. ↑ Warren History, Vol. Three, No. 4, Fall 2000, Warren Historical Society, quoting from Barbara B. Tomblin’s wonderful history of her church, published in 1975
10. ↑ 1830 US Federal Census
11. ↑ Almer M. Pennewell, The Methodist Movement in Northern Illinois (The Sycamore Tribune, 1942), pp. 36-37.
12. ↑ www.usgennet.org/usa/ia/county/linn/history/mtvernonchurches.htm
13. ↑ 1840 US Federal census
14. ↑ Marriage with Elvira P. Woodward
15. ↑ birth of son Woodward
16. ↑ death of Woodward
17. ↑ 1850 US federal census
18. ↑ 1860 US Federal census
19. ↑ New York Times obituary, January 7, 1879

• The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records (NEHGS, Boston, 2011) Vol. Ridgefield, Page 125. Birth record.