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REV. ALLEN
JAY, One of the most prominent ministers of the Society
of Friends is Rev. Allen Jay, who is known throughout the entire
country among the people of his denomination. He was born in Miami
county, Ohio, on the 11th of October, 1831, and is a son of Isaac
and Rhoda (Cooper) Jay. The family is of English origin, and its
members have long been orthodox Quakers. The father was a native of
Miami county, born February 19, 1811, on the old homestead which had
been settled by his father at a very early period in the history of
the Buckeye state. There he was reared, and when he was married he
took his bride to the old home place. He carried on agricultural
pursuits for many years. For thirty-five years he was connected with
the ministry of the Friends' church and traveled extensively over the
country, preaching the doctrines in which he so firmly believed. He
also engaged in teaching for a few years after his marriage, and
possessed a good education for that day. In his evangelistic work he
visited all sections of the United States and won the love and
confidence of the Friends throughout the country. He was a member of
the representative meeting, clerk of the quarterly meeting and filled
many other offices. In 1850 he sold his property in Ohio, and removed
with his entire family to Indiana, locating at Marion, Grant county,
where he died in 1880. He had four sons and one daughter, Allen, of
this review being the eldest. Milton, a prominent physician of
Chicago, was for some time dean of the Bennett Eclectic Medical
College of that city, in fact was one of its organizers. He resigned
his position, however, in 1890, and afterward served as director of
the Cook county hospital. He is one of the most able physicians of
Chicago, especially skilled in surgery, and is now leading surgeon of
the Rock Island Railroad Company. Walter D. died on a farm near
Marion, Grant county, Indiana, when thirty-seven years of age. Abijah
formerly followed farming, but sold out and is now a general business
man of Marion, Indiana. Mary E. is the wife of Asa Baldwin, and a
minister of the Friends meeting, of Marion, Indiana.
Rev. Allen Jay spent his boyhood days under the
parental roof and attended school through the winter seasons, while in
the summer months he assisted in the cultivation of the fields. After
the removal of the family to Marion, this state, in 1850, he entered
Friends' boarding school (now Earlham College) at Richmond, where he
spent some time, then was a student in the Farmers' Institute, at
Lafayette, Indiana, for one year. He next became a student in Antioch
College, where he remained until the spring of 1854, when he turned
his attention to farming. He located on a tract of land on the Wea
plains, near Lafayette, and there carried on agricultural pursuits
until 1867. In 1864 he became a minister in the Friends' meeting, and
through the three successive years both farmed and preached. In the
autumn of 1867 he was appointed superintendent of a work projected by
the "Baltimore Association of Friends," under the presidency of
Francis Y. King. The war had left Friends, in common with other
people, destitute in North Carolina and Tennessee, and Mr. Jay was
appointed to ascertain their needs and improve their condition. Making
his home at High Point, North Carolina, he traveled extensively over
those two states, alleviating the temporal sufferings of the Friends,
building up churches, establishing schools, preaching and teaching
among the people of those districts. He established thirty-one
schools, with an enrollment of three thousand students, and told the
gospel message to the people in many districts. He had the oversight
of the work embraced within nine churches in Tennessee, and twenty-two
in North Carolina, and during most of the time his work necessitated
his driving from place to place, so that this period was not without
its hardships; yet he regards it as the greatest work of his life.
After eight years of such service Mr.
Jay turned
his work over to the yearly meeting of North Carolina. In 1875 he went
to Europe, visiting the churches in England, Scotland, Ireland and
Norway. In 1877 he went to Providence, Rhode Island, where he served
as treasurer and minister of the Friends' boarding school, which had
an enrollment of two hundred and fifty boys and girls. There he
remained for four years, after which he came to Earlham College, in
1881, acting as superintendent and treasurer, while his wife filled
the position of matron. For six years he labored in that institution,
during which time he raised a large amount of money for the school and
for the erection of two substantial and commodious college buildings,
Lindley and Parry Halls. In 1887 he removed to his new home near the
college, and has since served as one of its trustees and as solicitor
for the college, raising money in all parts of this country and in
England and Ireland for the institution. He has for six years been
superintendent of the evangelistic and pastoral work of the Indiana
yearly meeting, retiring from that position in 1895. He has visited
all the yearly meetings of the Friends Society in the world and is
well known throughout this country in connection with his church work.
Mr. Jay was united in marriage to
Miss Martha Ann Sleeper, who was a native of Ohio, but when two years old was taken by
her parents to Tippecanoe county, Indiana, where she was married in
1854. Five children have been born to them: Rhoda died at the age of
six years. Charles died at the age of fifteen months. William died in
West Richmond, in 1897. He was graduated at the Providence boarding
school, studied medicine under the direction of his uncle, Dr.
Milton Jay, of Chicago, and was graduated in the Bennett Medical College of
that city in 1882. He practiced for six years in Richmond and then
removed to New Sharon, Iowa, where he successfully practiced until
1896, when, on account of failing health, he retired. He died in 1897,
at the age of thirty-seven years. Edwin is a farmer, living near
Richmond, Indiana. Isaac is with his father in Richmond.
Rev. Allen Jay is now serving as preacher of the
East Main Street Friends meeting, a position he has occupied for the
past eleven years, the society having no regular preacher. Thus almost
his entire life has been devoted to the work of instructing men in the
higher things of life, and his labors have been followed by excellent
results; but who can measure the influence for good? Not until the
heavenly record is read will it be known how great is the work that he
has accomplished. His own career, in perfect harmony with his
teachings, has won him the love and respect of all, and he well
deserves mention in the history of his adopted county.
Since writing the foregoing sketch,
Mr. Jay's wife
has passed away. The following obituary notice we quote from the
American Friend:
Martha Ann Jay, a daughter of Buddell
and Elizabeth H. Sleeper, was
born tenth month, 22d, 1833, in Clark county, Ohio, and died at her
home, opposite Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana, fourth month, 27th,
1899, aged sixty-five years, six months and five days-Her parents
moved to Tippecanoe county, Indiana, when she was two years old. She
was married to Allen Jay on ninth month, 20th, 1854, and they settled
on a farm near the old home, where their five children were born, and
the two eldest died, the third one dying fifteen months ago in the
same room she died in. In 1868 she, with her husband, moved to Bush
Hill (now Archdale), North Carolina. After nine years they moved to
Friends' Boarding School, Providence, Rhode Island. After spending
four years there, in 1881 they went to Earlham College, where she
served as matron for six years, and then retired to the home where she
died. Martha A. Jay was of a retiring disposition, never seeking
popularity. Converted at the age of seventeen, she endeavored to carry
Christianity in all her life work. She was much interested in humane
work among the children, the birds and all dumb animals; for several
years had a band of mercy in her own home and one in the Orphan Home
near by. She was appointed an elder at an early age, and held that
position in the four different yearly meetings to which she belonged.
She was a great strength to her husband, who was, as a minister, often
called to labor away from home; she never murmured at the separation,
but encouraged him to faithfulness when the Master called. She bore a
long illness with Christian resignation; the closing hours were
peaceful; the last audible words were: "Blessed! Blessed!" "Blessed
are the dead that die in the Lord: "
Source:
Biographical History Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin
Counties, Indiana - Vol. I & II by Chicago Lewis Publishing
Company
(Contributed by Norita Shepherd Moss) |
Immigrant Ancestor of Miami Valley, Ohio
- Quaker families
THOMAS MACY was born
in 1608, at Chilmark, Wiltshire, England.
He died Apr. 19, 1682, Nantucket Island (then New
York).
Married 1639, in Mass. & she died 1706, Nantucket
Island.
Thomas and Sarah Macy came to Salisbury, Massachusetts
separately before their marriage, making them the earliest immigrants
of this area. They owned property, had children, and put down
roots in their new land. In 1658, a Baptist preacher, Joseph
Peasley, had developed quite a following in Salisbury. The
courts responded by ordering all citizens to attend Puritan services,
and pay their compulsory tithes there. In October, 1658, Thomas
Macy was ordered to appear before the court, and to pay fines for his
disobedience.
Apparently a determined man, Thomas decided to see "if
it were possible to find a place where religion was not a sin".
In February 1658/9, he began purchasing Nantucket Island. The
following summer, Thomas committed the sin of allowing transient
Quakers to seek shelter from a thunderstorm under his roof. The
resulting court action against him was the last straw. In Oct.
1659, he and his family were the first white settlers of Nantucket,
then part of New York.
John Greenleaf Whittier penned the lengthy poem
entitled "The Exiles" about Thomas Macy. Though Thomas paid for
the infraction with a fine, the Quakers involved paid with their
lives, being hanged for their offense.
The family was warmly greeted by the Indians on
Nantucket, and the following year, other families joined them.
But we can not by any stretch of the imagination call Thomas Macy a
Quaker. Of his children, only one son survived to have children.
John Macy Sr. fathered 4 daughters and 4 sons, all of whom lived on
Nantucket. John Macy Jr., born 1675, was the first child of the
family to unite with the Friends in 1711. John Macy married
Judith Worth, daughter of John Worth & Miriam Gardner, and their
children were:
1. Miriam Macy, 1708 -1736, married Zephaniah Coffin; died Nantucket
2. Silvanus Macy, 1709 - 1719; died in Nantucket
3. Seth Macy, 1710 - 1790; died in Nantucket
4. Eliab Macy, 1712 - 1723; died in Nantucket
5. David Macy, 1714 - died in North Carolina
6. Anna Macy, 1716 -1756; married Joseph Jenkins
7. Bethiah Macy, 1719; never married
8. John Macy, 3rd, 1721 - 1795; marr. Eunice Coleman; died in North
Carolina
9. Judith Macy, 1723 - 1795; married William Clasby & Abial Gardner
10. Jonathan Macy, 1725 - 1798; died in Nantucket
11. William Macy, 1727 - 1753; died in Nantucket
12. Sarah Macy, 1729; married Richard Gardner.
13. Abigail Macy, 1731 - 1763; died in Nantucket.
In 1850, 95% of the Macys in the U.S. census were
descended from this family.
It is said that Thomas the immigrant had a brother
George Macy, who married Susannah Street, d/o Rev. Nicholas Street,
and bought property in 1638 at Taunton, Mass. |
NOTES:
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