t
intelligent farmer, moved into the neighborhood of Somerville, N.J., and
settled upon a fertile tract of land, very favorably situated, and
commanding a view of the country for miles around. Here he spent the
remainder of a long, godly, and useful life, and reared a large family of
children, twelve of whom were spared to reach adult years, and to make and
adorn the same Christian profession of which their father was a shining
light. Two of these became ministers of the Gospel, of whom one, Jehiel,
fell asleep several years since, while the other, the distinguished Samuel
K. Talmage, D.D., President of Oglethorpe University, Georgia, entered into
his rest only a few weeks since. Another son, Thomas, was for an entire
generation the strongest pillar in the Second Church of Somerville.

"One of the oldest of the twelve was the subject of this notice; a man
whose educational advantages were limited to the local schools of the
neighborhood, but whose excellent natural abilities, sharpened by contact
with the world, gave him a weight in the community which richer and more
cultivated men might have envied. In the prime of his years he was often
called to serve his fellow citizens in civil trusts. He spent some years
in the popular branch of the Legislature, and was afterwards high sheriff
of the County of Somerset for the usual period. In both cases he fulfilled
the expectations of his friends, and rendered faithful service. The
sterling integrity of his character manifested itself in every situation;
and even in the turmoil of politics, at a time of much excitement, he
maintained a stainless name, and defied the tongue of calumny. But it was
chiefly in the sphere of private and social relations that his work was
done and his influence exerted. His father's piety was reproduced in him
at an early period, and soon assumed a marked type of thoroughness,
activity and decision, which it bore even to the end. His long life was
one of unblemished Christian consistency, which in no small measure was due
to the influence of his excellent wife, Catherine Van Nest, a niece of the
late Abraham Van Nest, of New York City, who a few years preceded him into
glory. She was the most godly woman the writer ever knew, a wonder unto
many for the strength of her faith, the profoundness of her Christian
experience, and the uniform spirituality of her mind. The ebb and flow
common to most believers did not appear in her; but her course was like a