Charles DeWitt (1837 – 1914)
The oldest son, Charles DeWitt, was born in the community of East Craftsbury on April 4, 1837. He received his early education in the community school in Canada where his father had taken his family in 1841 and had remained for ten years. After the removal of the family to Northwood, Ohio, Charles entered Geneva College, spending three years in that institution. His senior year was spent in Jefferson College, from which he graduated in the spring of 1858. He then returned to Ohio to become a teacher in Geneva College for two years. Having become interested in entering the ministry, he began the study of theology, while yet a teacher, under the direction of his pastor, the Reverend William Milroy. In November of 1860, he entered the seminary of the Reformed PRsbyterian Church in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Flowing his graduation, he was licensed to preach by Lakes Presbytery in 1863, and on January 29, 1864, he was ordained and installed as pastor of the Linn Gove Congregation of Mediapolis, Iowa, where he remained for ten years.
On June 8, 1864, he married Mary Sproull, the daughter of one of his seminary professors. Their union was blessed with six children, two sons and four daughters: Thomas S., Laura A., Lena, Mary H., John C., and Lois A.
On April 1, 1874, Charles resigned from the Linn Grove pastorate and accepted a call from the congregation in Morning Sun, Iowa, where he remained until his death on January 21, 1914. The date marked the close of a long pastorate of forty years’ service. It was a beautiful pastorate for he had a most attractive personality and he was an effective preacher. HE had increased the membership of his congregation and God had blessed his labor.
Charles had also served the church at large by being elected president of the Synod’s board of control from its origin until his death. He was vice-president of the Board of Corporators of Geneva College for many years, and upon the death of the Reverend T.P. Stevenson, he became the board’s president. OF all the men who were active in Synod during his ministry, no one else was so frequently chosen as he to act as a member on committees where prudence, calmness, and Christian courtesy were required in special degree. He had also published sermons and historical articles in the magazines of the church. In 1878 the highest honor of the church was bestowed upon him when he was elected moderator of the church’s ruling body, the Synod.
The sight of this minister, in his buggy, on a country road, was a sermon to the man who met him, as he looked upon the peaceful kindly countenance of this beloved pastor and friend. His efficiency as a pastor has been shown in the prosperous and peaceful working of the congregation to which he had ministered the most of his life.