BIO: Manley S. Hard, Wyoming Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church, PA & NY

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

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Chaffee, Amasa Franklin. History of the Wyoming 
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
New York: Eaton & Mains, 1904, pages 189-190.
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  HARD, MANLEY SYLVESTER, D.D., was born on October 4, 1842, at 
Penfield, Monroe County, N.Y., and in a Methodist parsonage, his father 
being Rev. Amos Hard, who was a member of the Genesee Conference over 
forty years.  His brother, Clark P., M. A., is a member of the Illinois 
Conference, and was a missionary in India twenty years.
  He prepared for college at Lima Seminary, and graduated from Genesee 
College (now Syracuse University) with the class of 1863.  He received 
Bachelor and Master's degrees from this school, and the degree of D.D. 
from New Orleans University in 1888.
  He was converted when eight years of age, while under a cherry tree 
with is mother, in the yard at Hulberton, Orleans County, N.Y.  He soon 
after joined the Church on probation, when his pastor placed his hand 
on his head and said, "Manley, I want you to be a good boy and come up 
to take the place of your father."  From that hour he felt called to 
preach.
  In October, 1861, he received exhorter's license from Rev. John M. 
Reid, D.D., then pastor of the College Church at Lima, N.Y.  In 
October, 1862, he received local preacher's license from the Quarterly 
Conference of the Clifton Springs church, he being a teacher in Clifton 
Springs at the time.  In April, 1864, he joined the Oneida Conference, 
and became a member of Central New York Conference when it was 
organized from territory which had been in Oneida and Genesee 
Conferences.  He became a member of Wyoming by transfer in 1886.
  He published several sermons and addresses in pamphlet form, was 
editor for a term of the Elmira District Herald and later one of the 
editors of Christianity in Earnest.  During the last twenty years he 
wrote more or less for the Church papers.  He did secretarial work, in 
the Conferences to which he belonged, more than twenty years.  He was a 
delegate to the General Conferences of 1884, 188, 1892, 1896, and 1900, 
at each of which he was on the secretarial staff.  He was president of 
the Syracuse Alumni Association several terms, and was a trustee of the 
university from 1890 until his death.  He was a member of the Cornell 
Library Commission, at Ithaca, N.Y., and for six years was a trustee of 
the New York State Custodial Asylum for Feeble-Minded Women, being 
appointed by the governor of the State and confirmed by the Senate.  
Four years he represented its interests before the Legislature.
  In November, 1892, while serving Wyoming District he was elected 
Assistant Corresponding Secretary of the Board of Church Extension, but 
did not begin work in this field until April 20, 1893.
  On July 5, 1866, he married Miss Celia Adelaide Stowell, M. S.  A son 
and a daughter were born to them.  Mrs. Hard has been an efficient 
secretary of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society of our Conference.
  While delivering an address before the Rock River Conference in 
October, 1902, he was stricken with paralysis, which resulted in his 
death on February 12, 1903.  He is buried in Floral Park Cemetery, 
Binghamton, N.Y., in a lot generously provided by the Cemetery Church.
  At the session of Wyoming in 1903 the Conference decided to erect a 
church at West End, in Binghamton, which shall be known as the 
Hartwell-Hard Memorial Church, thus expressing its love for Dr. Hard 
and its appreciation of his work for Church Extension.
  His pastoral record is as follows:  1865-66, Morrisville; 1867-69, 
Clinton; 1870-72, Ilion; 1873-75, Centenary Church, Syracuse; 1876-77, 
Aurora Street, Ithaca; 1878-80, Presiding Elder of Elmira District; 
1881-83, Hedding Church, Elmira; 1884-85, Canandaiqua; Wyoming 
Conference, 1886-90, Centenary Church, Binghamton; 1891-92, Presiding 
Elder of Wyoming District; 1893-1902, Assistant Corresponding Secretary 
Church Extension Society.