BIOGRAPHY: Rev. Dr. Samuel WAKEFIELD, D.D., Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 420-2
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REV. DR. SAMUEL WAKEFIELD. "By the death of this aged and humble servant of God, 
there has been removed from our midst a great and remarkable man. His long life, 
his earnest devotion to the cause of religion, his sympathy for and interest in 
the welfare of his fellow-man, his varied and profound capacities, the 
harmonious development of his different faculties and traits of character, his 
strong convictions, his manly Christian courage in their defense, and, crowning 
all, his unquestioned charity for those holding views different from his own, 
made him to be respected, honored and loved by all who knew him."
     Dr. Samuel Wakefield was born March 6, 1799, in Huntingdon county, 
Pennsylvania, and was the seventh son of Thomas and Elizabeth Wakefield. His 
father was a shoemaker by trade and followed it during his residence in 
Huntingdon county.
    When the subject of this sketch was one year old, his parents moved to what 
is now called Germany, three miles from Bolivar, Indiana county, but at that 
time a part of Westmoreland county, and settled on a farm. There the future Dr. 
Wakefield spent his youth laboring on the farm and undergoing the hardships 
incident to the early settlers and their families struggling in a new country to 
maintain and establish homes. The only opportunity during this period which he 
enjoyed of obtaining an education was a term of three months at a subscription 
school near his home: an incident in this connection will show how completely he 
had been shut out from the privileges of an education and how earnestly he 
longed for knowledge.
    At the age of thirteen, being sent to a neighboring mill and being unable to 
read a bill of sale which had been written and nailed to the door of the mill, 
and which a younger boy who happened to be present, read for him, it is said he 
was so humiliated and hurt that he cried all the way home. No doubt in his 
resolute and aspiring soul there was then formed the purpose to get an 
education; at all events, at the end of the three months of school referred to, 
the Irish schoolmaster sent a note to his mother saying that his progress had 
been such that he could advance him no further.
    Dr. Wakefield was exceedingly fortunate in having a mother of much more than 
ordinary ability and intelligence. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Morton, and she 
was a niece of John Morton, one of the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence. Two of her brothers, who were members of the Continental Army, 
were smothered to death at the old Block house near Philadelphia.
    Dr. Wakefield's father was also a member of the Continental Army, enlisting 
from Chester county, Pennsylvania, and spent the terrible winter that so much 
tried men's souls with Washington at Valley Forge.
    In 1813 Dr. Wakefield, being then fourteen years of age, enlisted as a 
drummer-boy in a company, serving at Black Rock, near Erie, Pennsylvania, in the 
War of 1812.
    When Samuel Wakefield was seventeen years of age he left home to make his 
own way in the world. His first effort was a subscription school, which he 
raised and successfully taught, in Ligonier Valley near Fort Palmer. When 
eighteen years of age he was licensed by the Quarterly conference of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, in the bounds of the Pittsburg conference; as a 
local preacher he ministered to the church fourteen years. In 1834 he joined the 
Pittsburg conference. From this time he served in the regular ministry until 
1880, when he was placed on the superannuated list. West Newton being his last 
appointment, he made his home there until his death. He was the founder of a 
large number of Methodist Episcopal churches throughout Western Pennsylvania.
    He first began the service of his denomination in West Newton, and 
notwithstanding the opposition and coldness with which he and his people were 
received by the other denominations, continued his labors until he had 
established a flourishing society of Methodists there.
    Though Dr. Wakefield has not the advantages of a college course, still by 
his systematic and persistent efforts, he mastered most of the studies taught in 
the higher schools. He was a good Hebrew, Greek and Latin scholar. His 
attainments in Systematic Theology were of a high order.
    He was the author of "Wakefield's Systematic Theology," first published 
about the close of the late Rebellion, and which is recognized throughout the 
Methodist Episcopal church as an authority. It is a text-book in several 
theological seminaries of his own church, besides being used as such in the 
seminaries of other denominations. He also abridged and prepared for 
publication, "Watson's theological Institutes" by the request of the Methodist 
Episcopal Publishing House of New York, but the Committee, on learning that he 
was preparing his work on systematic theology, did not publish it. Two years 
ago, in September, 1895, he died, in the ninety-fifth year of his age. He 
prepared for the press and published a volume of sermons entitled "Gospel 
Tidings." Dr. Wakefield also prepared a work on "Moral Philosophy," but on 
account of the increasing infirmities of years he did not feel able to perform 
the labors necessary to its publication. He was also the author of a Grammar 
which bears his name and which those competent to judge declared to be possessed 
of decided merit. It was adopted by many schools. His musical talents and 
tastes, which were of the finest quality, showed him the necessity of 
improvement in this important part of public worship, and so in his untiring 
industry and zeal he set to work to remedy this defect, with the result that he 
prepared and published "Wakefield's Music" in 1828. He prepared in all seven 
different works on music, as follows - "Ecclesiastical Harmony," "American 
Repository of Sacred Music," "Western Harp," "Christian Harp," "Minstrel of 
Zion," "Sacred Choral in German and Select Melodies." His music did more perhaps 
to improve the singing in the churches, especially the Methodist churches in 
this part of the country, than all other influences.
    Dr. Wakefield's musical talents were of an exceedingly high order, and had 
he devoted himself exclusively to the study and practice of music, he would 
undoubtedly have been among the foremost musicians of the country.
    On August 21, 1821, he married Miss Elizabeth Hough, of Westmoreland county, 
who was his loving companion and helpmate until, September 29, 1894, being then 
ninety-two years of age, she was received up into glory. To them were born ten 
children, and, a fact almost as remarkable as the great age of the parents, they 
are all living. They are as follows: David H., a farmer in Jefferson township, 
Fayette county, Pennsylvania; Rev. John S., of Latrobe, who has been a minister 
of the Pittsburg conference for forty-two years; Mrs. Maria Overhold, of East 
End, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Catharine Coulson, of Pawnee city, Nebraska; 
Samuel C., a farmer near Mt. Pleasant, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania; Mrs. 
Elizabeth Hassler, of Indianapolis, Indiana; Mrs. Ella Brown, of West Newton; 
Dr. A.N. Wakefield, Johnstown, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Mary E. Sheplar, of Golden 
city, Missouri; Dr. J.B. Wakefield, of Grapeville, Westmoreland county, 
Pennsylvania, the youngest member of the family.
    Dr. Wakefield and his faithful wife showed their devotion to their Master's 
cause and the heroic nobleness of their natures in that, with the small 
remuneration, and that poorly paid, which ministers in the early days of the 
country received, never wearied in their labors for the good cause, besides 
faithfully meeting their obligations to their large family, every one of whom is 
filling an honorable place in the world.
    As the result of his faith, of his consciousness of having faithfully served 
his Divine Master, and of his experience of the grace and love of Christ, it can 
truthfully be said of him:

"Calmly he looked on either life, and here
Save nothing to regret, or there to fear;
From nature's temperate feast rose satisfied,
Thanked heaven that he had lived and that He died."

    Though dead he yet speaketh, and his testimony is, as in the last rational 
words, "Let it be put on the record that there is no sinner so low but that 
Christ can save him."
    The grandfather of Dr. Samuel Wakefield was David Wakefield, a native of 
Ireland, who never came to America; his wife was converted under the preaching 
of John Wesley.
    Dr. Wakefield served in the Pennsylvania legislature from 1862 to 1864; he 
was a democrat, and was perhaps at the time of his death the oldest Mason in the 
United States.