BIO: Jesse T. Crowell, 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, page 173.
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  CROWELL, JESSE T., was born in the town of Villenova, Chautauqua 
County, N.Y., April 2, 1839.  His conversion occurred in boyhood, and 
about the same time cataracts shut off his view of the world.  "For 
seven years he was unable to read or write."  Having a fine memory, he 
acquired knowledge rapidly by listening to conversation, sermons, and 
lectures.  For several years during this period of blindness he lived 
in Mount Pleasant, Ia., where he availed himself of the privilege of 
attending lectures and recitations in Iowa Wesleyan University, 
situated in the town, which greatly improved his tastes and 
intellectual processes.
  A surgical operation on one of his eyes so far restored vision as to 
enable him, with the aid of a strong magnifying glass, to read with 
considerable ease.  He read and thoroughly studied quite a number of 
theological and scientific works.  By heroism he became an able 
preacher.
  Being unable to find his way across the prairies, he came East, 
thinking he might find work where streets and highways are so clearly 
marked that he could easily prosecute his works.  Upon the suggestion 
of his uncle, Dr. George Peck, he spent a year in Wyoming Seminary, 
where he prosecuted more than the usual amount of study, and took 
highest rank in his classes.  During this year he preached every Sunday 
on the Lackawanna charge, performing one half the pulpit labor of the 
charge.  In 1862 he joined Wyoming Conference on trial, passed in his 
studies, and received deacon's and elder's orders in due time.
  His appointments were as follows:  1862-63, Moscow; 1864-65, South 
Canaan; 1866-67, Dunmore; 1868, Harford and South Gibson.
  Pulmonary disease, which prompted him to seek a charge which would 
give him abundant outdoor work, steadily progressed, and on February 
18, 1869, he suddenly passed away, leaving a wife and two children.  
"Never was there a more decided specimen of the pursuit of knowledge 
under difficulties, and of marked success in the prosecution of the 
studies which are necessary to qualify a man to serve the Church and 
his generation."