FATHER WILBUR AND HIS WORK[1]
By Wm. D. Fenton.
James H. Wilbur, familiarly and affectionately known as Father Wilbur, was born on a farm near the village of Lowville, N. Y., September 11, 1811; was married to Lucretia Ann Stevens, March 9, 1831, and died at Walla Walla, Wash,, October 8, 1887, in his 77th year. These three events, as related to his individual life, were the most important, his birth, his marriage and his death. The task of the biographer merges and enlarges itself into the work of the historian. The simple and short narrative common to the lives of most men and women concerns but few, and it is only when a life in its larger development has touched closely the affairs of men and has caused, or been a part of, the times that the narrative becomes historical.
Wilbur was the son of Presbyterian parents, but did not himself become identified with any church until after his marriage, when he and his wife were converted and became members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the village of Lowville, N. Y. At the age of 29 years the presiding elder of his district, William S. Bowdish, granted to him a license as an exhorter, in accordance with the customs and usages of the church at that time, and within two years thereafter Aaron Adams, as presiding elder, granted him the usual license to preach, and in July, 1832, he became a member of the Black River General Conference and entered upon his life work as a Methodist minister. It is recorded that he traveled the circuit of Northern New York until he was called to this then remote field of his future labors, the Oregon Country. George Gary was then superintendent of the Oregon mission, and was a former presiding elder over Mr. Wilbur in the Black
- ↑ Paper read at celebration of sixtieth anniversary of founding of Taylor Street Methodist Church of Portland, December 13, 1908.
