BIO: Leonard Bowdish, Wyoming Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, PA & NY

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by 
Judy Banja & Denise Phillips

Copyright 2007.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
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Chaffee, Amasa Franklin. History of the Wyoming 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
New York: Eaton & Mains, 1904, pages 161-162.
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  BOWDISH, LEONARD, was born in New Lisbon, Otsego County, N.Y., and 
died in Bainbridge, Chenango County, N.Y., May 23, 1870, aged fifty-
eight years.
  He was converted at sixteen years of age, and at once manifested 
gifts which were prophetic of his lifework.  In 1833, being at that 
time twenty-one years of age, he united with the Oneida Conference on 
trial.  In 1866, because of impaired health, he took a supernumerary 
relation, and went to the seashore, hoping to prolong life and 
usefulness.  He supplied some two and a half years in the Providence 
Conference, when his health was so broken as to compel him to quit 
work.  When the Oneida Conference was divided, in 1869, he came with 
the portion which was allotted to Wyoming Conference into our midst.  
At the Conference of 1869 he superannuated, and remained so until 
death.  After relinquishing his work in the Providence Conference he 
visited friends on old charges, and then went to Ohio to visit a 
widowed sister.  The advance of his disease caused him to hasten back 
to his kindred that he might die among them.  Consumption soon did its 
work, as he died shortly after his return.  He was a man of superior 
mental ability, "remarkable for the elegance of his style, and the 
fitness of his words."  His ministry was eminently a soul-saving one.
  His appointments were as follows:  1833, Hamilton; 1834, Sharon; 
1835, Norwich; 1836, Cherry Valley; 1837, Stockbridge; 1838, Hampton; 
1839, Andover; 1840-41, Springfield; 1842, East Solon; 1843, 
Cincinnatus; 1844, Hamilton; 1845, Tully; 1846-47, Lenox; 1848-49, 
Fayetteville; 1850-51, Morrisville; 1852, New Berlin; 1853, Sherburne; 
1854-55, Clinton; 1856-57, Fort Plain; 1858-59, Laurens; 1860-61, 
Unadilla; 1862-63, Afton; 1864-65, Coventry, 1866-68, sy.; 1869-70, sd.