This venerable and worthy minister of Christ died at his residence, near
Lebanon, on Saturday evening last. He was in the 63d year of his age.
He came to the State of Ohio when a boy, and has been a resident chiefly
of Warren county for about fifty years. He attached himself to the “Christian
Church” thirty-five years ago, and for thirty-three years of
this time has been a faithful, devoted, and successful preacher of the
Gospel. His field of labor sometimes extended over a circuit of fifty
miles; his appointments were promptly filled, and during this long period
he averaged three sermons a week. He was eminently useful, and there are
scores and hundreds, now living, who were converted and
received into the Church by Elder Simonton. He lived and died without
an enemy. We have never known a more honest, self-denying, humble, and
inoffensive man; and he died as such a man should die, rejoicing—in
peace with God and man. “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright:
for the end of that man is peace.” His funeral sermon was preached
on Lord’s Day to a very large congregation. As an evidence of the
esteem in which he was held by his neighbors, we may mention the fact,
that there were not much less than a thousand persons present, and on
the ground
there were ninety-six carriages and eighty saddle horses. A more extended
account of his life and character will appear hereafter.