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Excerpts from Souvenir Submitted by David M. Waid |
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The following article is taken from the Meadville Weekly
Tribune: A
FAMILY SOUVENIR. FRANCIS
C. WAID’S GIFT TO HIS KINSMEN AND FRIENDS.
We have received from our friend, Francis C.
Waid, whose pleasant home stands at the west side of the State
Road, about five miles east from this city, a copy of the Souvenir
he has had prepared for his family and friends.
This Souvenir is a handsomely bound volume of 151 pages,
entitled, "Francis C. Waid Souvenir," and contains an
historical sketch of the donor, with family biographies, essays on farm
economy, money loaning, an address to the youth of our country, and much
that is of general interest. The
work is a complete family biography, and contains biographical sketches,
besides that of the donor, of George N. Waid, Robert
L. Waid, George W. Cutshall and C. R. Slocum.
The work is printed on heavy calendered paper, in large, clear type
and profusely illustrated with fine engravings, among which we find
excellent portraits of Mr. Francis C. Waid, Mrs.
Eliza C. Waid, Mr. Ira C. Waid, and Mrs. Elizabeth P. Waid.
The views embrace the farm home of Ira C.
Waid, the old home on the Goodrich
Farm, the residence of Francis C. Waid, the
Waid lot and monument in the Blooming Valley Cemetery, the State Road M.
E. Church, and the Blooming Valley M. E. Church.
The general contents of the work are of especial interest to
members of the family, containing as it does a complete history of the Waid
family for many years back. The
series of articles from the pen of the donor, consisting of personal
experiences and practical advice on subjects of every-day life, are such
as will interest anyone who is so fortunate as to receive a copy of the
work. Mr. Waid is what the
world recognizes as a practical farmer, and by his own industry and thrift
has profited mentally as well as financially.
In the articles in which he offers instruction to young men and
women, and to older persons engaged in business or following some of the
various occupations in life, he speaks from the standpoint of successful
experience, and the wise reader will weigh his words carefully and well.
Of the work in question, six hundred copies have been printed, to
be distributed among members and friends of the family.
The following paragraph, reproduced from the preface of the book,
shows the aim in view and the spirit which prompted its publication:
"In presenting this volume 'without money and without price'
to his kinsmen and friends, especially to the youth, Mr. Francis
C. Waid does so with an expression of his untold kindness toward
the receiver of the book, and with a desire that the compliment be
accepted in the same spirit which he intends shall accompany it--a spirit
of philanthropy, good will, sympathy and fraternity."
The Souvenir, and such it will certainly be, represents a
great amount of patient labor and was only made possible by the methodical
manner in which Mr. Waid has conducted his affairs in life.
Such a compilation, date and family statistics can only be secured
where careful records have been kept.
In presenting the work to his kinsmen and friends Mr. Waid aims to
do good, and certainly the aim will be accomplished.
In later years the volume will prove of great value in the family,
and will perhaps be followed by another, giving further family history yet
to be made. In the idea of
publishing such a work the donor does not claim originality--he simply
follows in the footsteps of many others who have caused similar
compilations. Family
biographies, carefully compiled from year to year, and finally bound into
attractive volumes, are not unusual, and certainly the idea is a good one.
Strip it, if you please, of all colorings of sentiment, and the
fact remains that the most interesting reading any of us could find, were
such in existence, would be an accurate history of our own family
ancestors; and the author of the Souvenir of which we write may
well feel that he has prepared for his friends a gift which will find
appreciation untold in the years to come. MISCELLANEOUS. BIOGRAPHY OF THE PHELPS
FAMILY.
I take a pleasure in placing the following biography of the Phelps
Family on record in my SOUVENIR. It
is not enough for me to say of Levi M. Phelps
that I loved him. He helped
me much in my lifetime, and God only knows how much he helped me on that
never-to-be-for-gotten occasion, when he knelt down and prayed for me in
the old State Road Church on January 10, 1851. I loved Levi M. Phelps before
then as a man and a friend, but from that day forward I loved him as a
man, a true friend and as a father of the church until his death.
And I yet love him, and cherish his precious memory with sincere
reverence. It was his son,
Nathan, who led me to the altar where I was converted, so it may not be
wondered at that I love the Phelps Family.
Levi M. Phelps was born August 3,
1803, in Maryland, and died March 31, 1857, in Minnesota.
When he was but four years old his father died, and the boy was
reared without education or any chance of improvement.
He was a good father, a man who impressed all with whom he
associated with the right, and was looked up to as a leader.
He was for many years exhorter, steward, class-leader and trustee
of his church; was several times school and town officer.
He died as he had lived. Shortly
before he passed away he said: "I
thought religion was good, but I never expected such a triumph.
All joy, all peace, all Heaven!"
And though dead, he yet speaketh.
His wife, Phebe M., was born July 28,
1808, in Allegany County, N. Y., and died July 29, 1875, in the town of
Marion, Minn. She always
despised wrong, looked with contempt on anything unchaste or dishonorable.
She instructed her children in the right, and left a salutary
impress on all she had to do with, and died in the faith.
The children of Levi M. and Phebe M. Phelps were
as follows:
(1) Nathan S., born February 23, 1826,
in Steuben County, N. Y.; married Margaret Waldron February
18, 1870, and has three children, all girls. He resides in Olmsted County, Minn., a wealthy farmer and a
man of prominence in church and municipal affairs.
(2) Eleazer C., born March 22, 1827,
in Steuben County, N. Y.; married Electa A. Rorman in
September, 1750, in Crawford County, Penn., and has four daughters
married. He is now a resident
of Rochester, Minn.
(8) Thomas W., born April 28, 1829, in
Steuben County, N. Y.; married August 29, 1858, at Faribault, Minn., to Eliza
Jane Hooner, and has four danghters and one son--Sadie
P., Mina E., Thomas L., Emma B. and Jennie L., all living and well
to do. He resides in Chester,
Olmsted Co., Minn. [At
page 340 will be found a brief autobiographical sketch of Thomas W.
Phelps.--F. C. W.]
(4) Sarah J., born October 15, 1850,
in Steuben County, N. Y.; has never married.
She has taught school nearly thirty years, commencing in 1848 in
Crawford County, Penn. She is
also a resident of Olmsted County, Minn.
(5) Mary A., born April 15, 1832, in
Potter County, Penn.; is married and has four children.
She was the first of a family of eleven, converted at the meetings
held at State Road Church, Crawford Co., Penn., in 1850-51.
She now lives in St. Clair County, Mo.
(6) Sylvester N., born September 17,
1833, in Potter County, Penn.; is married and has one child, a daughter.
He was converted in December, 1850, at the State Road Church,
attended Allegheny College in Meadville, Penn., and moved to Minnesota in
September, 1855. Joined the
Conference in 1856, and preached nearly twenty years.
He owns a very fine farm.
(7) Letitia P., born August 15, 1835,
in Steuben County, Penn.; is married and has three children living, all
girls. He resides in
Rochester, Minn.
(8) Loretta P., born August 8, 1837,
died in April, 1874, in Marshall County, Iowa, leaving two children
living--one son and one daughter.
(9) Margaret E., born February 18,
1840, in Crawford County, Penn.; married in 1858, and had two children by
first marriage; in August, 1864, she lost her husband in the war, and in
1870 she again married, by which union she had three daughters.
She died February 9, 1887.
(10) Amelia S., born July 26, 1846, in
Crawford County, Penn.; is married, and resides in Marshall County, Iowa.
(11) Emma, born in February, 1848, in
Crawford County, Penn.; is married and has one child living.
She resides at Crook City, Dak. AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF THOMAS W. PHELPS. (WRITTEN FOR HIS SINCERE FRIEND FRANCIS C. WAID.)
The record of my birth and parentage, etc., is included in the
biographical record of the Phelps Family, and
will be found at page 339 in this book.
When I left home, just before I was twenty-one years of age, I had
no property I could call my own, and had but little schooling.
However, during the winters of 1850-51 and 1851-52 I attended
school, and in September, 1852, I commenced college, following which I
taught school in various places, alternated with further studies at
college. In 1856 I moved to
Minnesota, and located at Marion, where I went to work immediately, and
followed surveying several years. I
was town superintendent of schools in 1860-61, and county superintendent
several years. Have held nearly every town office; was a justice of the
peace many years; was in the Legislature, 1871 and 1877; was president of
the Agricultural Society, 1877-78-79.
I have been district treasurer ever since 1874, and am now
supervisor and treasurer. I
have held nearly all the offices in the church; have been lay delegate,
district and recording steward (many years); have held the office of class
leader, steward, president of building committee (during the putting up
two new churches); am at present steward and Sunday-school superintendent.
On my farm we raise cattle, horses, hogs and the various kinds of
grain and seeds--hay, clover and timothy, for seed, doing well here.
We have a comfortable living, enough for ourselves and whomsoever
may visit us; and I wish you, my dear friend Mr. Waid, could come and see
us and stay a long time. You
and yours would be welcome and twice welcome.
Things taste better when we have our friends with us.
Come! Come!!
Come!!! Your sincere friend, THOMAS W. PHELPS. CHESTER, MINN. February 8, 1887.
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