Bishop John Heyl Vincent, Founder of Chautauqua, Died May 9, 1920

General Grant once introduced Bishop J. H. Vincent to President Lincoln and said: “Dr. Vincent was my pastor at Galena (Illinois), and I do not think I missed one of his sermons while I lived there.”

This same Bishop Vincent, of good old Pennsylvania stock and many years a resident of Pennsylvania, was the founder of the Chautauqua Assembly, next only to the public-school system in bringing to the masses of the people some share of their inheritance in the world’s great creations in art and literature. This is the work of a man—a great teacher and educator and university preacher—who did not himself have a college education.

In 1772 the Vincent family, consisting of John Vincent and wife, their sons, Cornelius and Peter; their sons-in-law, Timothy Williams and Samuel Gould, removed from Essex County, N. J., and settled in Northumberland County, Pa., near the present town of Milton.

When the Indians became hostile during the Revolutionary War the early settlers along the West branch of the Susquehanna erected stockade forts at central points, into which the women and children of the neighborhood were gathered for protection at the approach of danger. In one of these forts, known as Fort Freeland, situated on Warrior Run, were gathered the Vincents, the Himrods, the Miles, the McKnights, the Boyds, the Kings, the Littles and others.

June 21, 1779, a party of Indians approached stealthily and fired upon six men hoeing corn in a field near the fort. They killed Isaac Vincent and James Miles and took Michael Freeland and Benjamin Vincent prisoners.

July 28, 1779, 200 British under Captain John McDonald and 300 Seneca Indians, under Chief Hiokatoo attacked the fort and compelled it to capitulate, the conditions of surrender being that all the men over 327seventeen should become prisoners of war, and the women and children and the aged should be set at liberty. Under this capitulation, Cornelius Vincent and his sons, Daniel and Bethuel, with their neighbors, were marched across the country to the Lakes, then to Quebec, where they remained prisoners till the close of the war.

The aged John Vincent and wife, with the wife and younger children of Cornelius, wended their way back on foot to New Jersey and were scattered among their friends until the return of the captives.

Soon after their return from captivity Cornelius Vincent and his wife and their sons, Daniel and Bethuel, returned to the West Branch Valley and resumed the settlement they had been obliged to abandon. Daniel built and owned a large mill on Warrior Run. Bethuel built a large hotel in Milton, and became its most prominent citizen. Bethuel Vincent was postmaster at Milton, June 29, 1803 to February 22, 1822, and again July 13, 1822 to June 23, 1829.

Cornelius Vincent died in Milton, July 16, 1812. Daniel Vincent died near his mills, January 26, 1826, and BethuelBethuel died at his home in Milton, April 30, 1837.

BethuelBethuel Vincent, born June 3, 1762, married Martha Himrod, January 1, 1788. They were the parents of nine children, of whom John Himrod, born April 20, 1798, was the youngest of the four sons.

John Himrod married Mary Raser, a native of Philadelphia, who died at Chillisquaque, Pa., February 16, 1852. They were old-fashioned Methodists, and parents of Bishop Vincent.

During a short residence in Tuscaloosa, Ala., John Heyl Vincent, the subject of this sketch, was born February 23, 1832. The parents soon moved back to their Pennsylvania home, where John H. attended the schools at Milton and Lewisburg. He began to preach at eighteen years and studied for awhile at Wesleyan Institute, Newark, N. J.

Reverend John Heyl Vincent joined the New Jersey Conference in 1853. Was ordained deacon, 1855; elder, in 1857. Transferred to Rock River, Ill. Conference, he became pastor at Galena in 1857, and General U. S. Grant was one of his parishioners. He then preached elsewhere and in Chicago.

A trip to the old world in 1862, contributed an important part to his intellectual training. He visited Egypt, Palestine, Greece, Italy and other countries.

In 1866 he was elected general agent of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday School Union and in 1868, corresponding secretary of the Sunday School Union and Tract Society, with residence in New York City. A complete series of his books forms an encyclopedia of modern Sunday School literature.

This work culminated in 1874, in the Chautauqua Sunday School Assembly, from which he founded, in 1878, the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle and was its Chancellor until his death.

328He was made resident bishop at Zurich, Switzerland, 1900, and placed in charge of European work of the Methodist Church.

Bishop Vincent became preacher to Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Wellesley and other universities and colleges, and was the recipient of many honorary degrees.

In speaking of his great work at Chautauqua he remarked: “I do not expect to make a second Harvard and Yale out of Chautauqua, but I do want to give the people of this generation such a taste of what it is to be intelligent that they will see to it that their children have the best education the country can give.”

Bishop Vincent died in Chicago, May 9, 1920, aged 88 years.

Bishop Vincent’s son, Hon. George Edgar Vincent, a distinguished educator and powerful orator, is president of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Pennsylvania may well be proud to claim the ancestors of Bishop Vincent, the founder of Chautauqua, as their own.