The death is announced of Mr.
John H. Edwards. He died at his youngest son's residence, Cass City, Mich.
U.S. He was born the 20th June, 1806, at Harrington, Somersetshire,
England. He emigrated with the family the year 1821 to Vittoria,
County of Norfolk; was married 1822 to his now sorrowing wife, Prudence
Finch, daughter of the late Rev. Titus Finch.
Mr.
Edwards was one of twelve children of the late Richard Edwards and
Elizabeth Watts, a descendant of Dr. Isaac Watts (the poet.) The
entire family belonged to the Regular Baptist Church, and he (John) moved
into the Township of Lobo at the end of the year 1825, he planted the very
first Baptist doctrine in this then wild wilderness of Lobo. Soon,
thereafter, his father-in-law came and fanned the flame into the First
Regular Baptist Church of Lobo, where we laid his remains in the old
Baptist cemetery on the 2nd of February, 1890.
His
son Henry visited him the month previous to his death and found him weak
in body but strong in the faith of his God, declaring he feared no evil
after serving his beloved Master for 66 years with fidelity and godly fear.
When spoken to about some of his earthly friends, he had
forgotten them, but when the name of Jesus was mentioned to him he said,
"Oh! yes, I know Him in Whom I trusted so long; I long to go to
Him."
Six
children survive him. Jeremiah, a well to do farmer and a leading member
of the First Regular Baptist Church, Lobo; Henry, Komoka, the noted
cancer-curer and one of the leading members of the Methodist Church; John,
the Lobo postmaster, and of the same church as Jeremiah; Richard, one of
the wealthiest men in the Township of Caradoc and leading stock breeder of
that place; Samuel, of Cass City, Mich., U.S., and livery stable
proprietor, and Harriet wife of David Smith, insurance agent and broker,
of London. May all of the children follow their departed father in
his footsteps as far as he followed his Blessed Master.
Our
respected and deceased friend, during his lifetime, filled some of the
local but important offices of the County of Middlesex. He was
Lobo's first Township Councillor [sic] and its first Reeve for
seventeen years, and one of its first Magistrates, which position he held
up to his death, also a horse farrier [sic] of the highest grade,
and treated the human family for all their diseases, including cancer, for
45 years, being expert and extremely cunning in medicines and their
uses.
No
man who has ever lived here will be more missed by the general public. In the church of his choice he was very liberal in his
donations, constant in his place of worship, while he was able to attend. His infirmities of late years kept him much at
home.-- COM.
