Sylvester Hill Opdyke (1828 - 1880)

Born 22 Jun 1828 in Kingwood, Hunterdon, New Jersey, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Elizabeth (Morey) Opdyke — married 22 May 1856 in Bloomingdale, Du Page, Illinois

Descendants

Died 21 Oct 1880 at age 52 in Newton, Sussex, New Jersey, United States

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Biography

Sylvester was born June 22, 1828 at Kingwood, New Jersey.

From Henry A Buttz's Menorium presented at the 24th Session (1881) of the Newark Conference of the M E Church:

"The subsequent facts of his life as stated by Rev. C. S. Coit, his Presiding Elder, at his funeral, are as follows: "Having prepared for college at Pennington Seminary, He entered Wesleyan University, from which institution he graduated in 1853. In the same year he became Professor of the Latin Language at the New York Conference Seminary at Charlotteville, N.Y., where he be came antiquated with Miss Elizabeth Morey, of Bloomingdale, Ill, whom he subsequently married, and who by her devotion as a wife and mother through the twenty four-years of their married life, provided herself a fitting companion for one called to God to the work of an itinerant minister. In 1854 Brother Opdyke studied theology in the Union Theological Seminary. He afterwards accepted the position of Professor of Ancient Languages Collegiate Institute at Cooperstown, N.Y. In 1857 he returned and graduated at Union Theological seminary. In 1858, at its first session, he was received into Newark Conference, and stationed Bloomfield, N.J. His subsequent appointments were Clinton; Flemington; Second Church, Rahway; Fulton Street, Elizabeth; St Paul's, Staten Island; Nyack; Eighth Avenue, Newark; Presiding Elder of Newark District, Summerfield, and Staten Island, and, in 1880, Newton, where he closed in peace his earthly life."

On October 20, 1880, at 52 years, Sylvester passed at Newton, N.J., leaving his wife, Elizabeth, and four children, Levings A, Charles P, George H and Florence M.

Sources

Op Dyke Genealogy, Charles Wilson Opdyke, 1898

24th Session of the Newark Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1881

Footnotes