Huntingdon-Blair-Mifflin County PA Archives Obituaries.....DEPUTIE, JAMES HENRY March 10 1896
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Methodist Archives - 1896

JAMES HENRY DEPUTIE  (1838 - 1896)
	
     James H. Deputie was born at Barre Forge, Pa., May 8, 1838.  In 1853 he 
sailed for Liberia, and reached Monrovia in December.  His father moved to 
Marshall, and in September, 1855, James was converted, and united with the 
Church.  He taught a mission school at Marshall, but desiring an academic 
education, applied for admission in the Monrovia Seminary.  Bishop Burns, 
however, needed a teacher for the mission school at Robertsport, and sent him 
there.  President Benson also appointed him at the same time to take charge of 
the colonization school.  He was licensed to exhort in 1858, and on October 
1859, married Mary Jane Dent.  He was licensed to preach in 1860, and in 1865 
united with the Liberia Conference and received his first appointment to a 
mission station in the Vey country.  In 1866 he was stationed at Mount Olives, 
a mission among the Bassa tribe.  Sickness here occurred in his family, and 
being far away from medical attendance he applied himself to the study of 
medicine and became his own family doctor, as well as rendering great relief to 
those around.  In 1867 he was ordained deacon by Bishop Roberts, and elder in 
1869.  Bishop Haven appointed him Presiding Elder of the Bassa District in 
1876, where he served acceptably and faithfully for  twenty years.  He was also 
twice appointed Presiding Elder of the Cape Palmas District, and when he 
resigned in 1896 the people did not willingly give him up after so long a 
service among them, for they loved him.  No disadvantages in traveling, rain, 
or sunshine could deter him when duty called.  “I would rather wear out than 
rust out,” was his adage.  He visited the United States in 1877, on leave of 
absence, and was gone from his work ten months, returning to his field of labor 
with renewed zeal.  He was sent as ministerial delegate to the General 
Conference in 1888.  An attack of la grippe at Careysburg, in 1892, left him 
with serious bronchial troubles, but he still persevered in his work, with the 
aid of the brethren of the district.  He was a lover of study and a great 
reader; he possessed a strong memory, which enabled him to retain all he read.  
He perhaps kept up a constant correspondence with more persons in the United 
States than any one man in Liberia.  For many years he regularly subscribed for 
more than ten Church papers and other periodicals, secular and religious.  
While in the United States, in 1888, he solicited funds to aid in building a 
substantial brick church at Mount Olive.  With these means and aid from friends 
in Liberia he succeeded in putting up a commodious edifice.  For four years his 
health had been visibly failing, yet, though often entreated to take rest, he 
would reply, “no rest this side the river.”  For some years he was chairman of 
the Provisional Court at Marshall, and was commissioned as associate justice of 
the Supreme Court, while attending the Conference of 1896, where he was also 
elected delegate to the General Conference of 1896.  On his return home his 
family was much worried at the proposition to go to the United States, as he 
was constantly growing weaker; but their disapproval of his attempt to make 
such a long voyage was met with “It is the Lord’s work, and I would be unworthy 
of his blessing did not I attempt to go.”  Every preparation was made for his 
leaving on March 10.  On Sunday, March 1, he attended a love feast, and though 
almost too weak to stand, baptized eight persons.  He was then carried to the 
river in a chair and witnessed the baptism of eight others.  At the afternoon 
service he baptized an infant, and thus closed his long official work.  On the 
Sunday following many of the church members came to bid him good-bye, and to 
many of them he gave charges concerning the work.  On Monday night he said, “I 
will not be able to go Monrovia,” and called his daughter and told her to write 
his substitute to that effect, and tell him, “not to disappoint the Church, but 
go to the General Conference.”  Later on he said, “I’ll not go to Monrovia in 
the morning, but I shall die.”  On Tuesday morning he bade the children go and 
have prayers, laid down on his bed, and in a few moments passed quietly into 
the glorious world above.  He left a sorrowing wife, three sons, and three 
daughters to mourn him.  He died March 10, 1896, the very day he had appointed 
to leave for Monrovia, en route to America.  He was secretary of the Liberia 
Conference for many years, and was efficient in the discharge of his duty.

[Obituary provided by the Methodist Archives]


Additional Comments:
The Charles Deputie family emigrated to Monrovia, Liberia, aboard the Isla de 
Cuba, sailing on 10 November 1853 and arriving on 18 Dec 1853.

James H. Deputie visted his mother's brother, Samuel D. Molson, in Lewistown, 
Mifflin County, in 1877, with his brother John Molson Deputie.

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