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Note: Sketch on Francis Day Hodgson from the Encyclopedia of Methodism - 1878 Francis Hodgson, D.D. was born in 1804; he removed to the United States in early life settling in West Chester, Pa. In 1828 he joined the Philadelphia Conference, and during a long ministry he filled a number of the most important appointments in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, New York, Middletown, Hartford and New Haven, Conn., and was presiding elder on the South Philadelphia district. In 1868 he was transferred to the Central Pennsylvania Conference, and filled appointments in Danville, Lewisburg, and Chambersburg, when, his health failing, he was placed in the supernumerary relation, and at the earnest request of the Philadelphia Conference was retransfered. He died April 16, 1877. Dr. Hodgson had great mental strength, fair culture, unusual logical force, was a man of deep piety and unwavering devotion to the interests of the church. Memoir of Francis Day Hodgson from the 91st annual report of the Philadelphia Conference Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church-March 13, 1878 The Rev. Francis Hodgson, D.D., was born of honest, earnest Christian parents, members of the Wesleyan Church, in Driffield, England, February 13, 1805. In his youth he came to this country with his parents, who settled in West Chester, PA., where, amid scenes of nature's richest beauties and intelligent, virtuous people, in habits of industry, which however left him ample time for reading and thought, as in similar employment it did the great and good metaphysician, Samuel Drew, of Austin, England, he passed his early years and the opening days of his noble manhood, without contracting any of the fashionable vices and bad habits but to common to youth; and here he commenced the formation of that character which made him a man, in its most commanding sense, and which found its completion, by a constant, loving, lifelong faith in Christ, on Tuesday, April the 16th1877, when the hard-tried, wearily, worn, patient sufferer, received his discharge from this, to enter into a better life, with the spirits of just men made perfect in heaven. Dr. Hodgson was received on probation in the Philadelphia Conference in the spring of 1828, and was sent to Dauphin Circuit. In 1829 and '30, he was sent to the Harrisburg Circuit, in company with Rev. Thomas Sovereign and Allen John; and in 1834 he was returned to Harrisburg alone, it having been constituted a station, and specially desiring his services. In 1835 he was sent to Columbia, then a new and comparatively feeble charge. Here he remained but one year, as the authorities of the church desired his services in some prominent position. In 1836 he was transferred to the New York Conference, and stationed in Vestry Street charge, New York City. In 1837 and '38 he was in charge of the Mulberry Street Church, New York City. In 1839 and '40 he was at Middletown, Conn.; in 1841 and '42 at Hartford; and 1843 and '44 at New Haven, in the same state. In the spring of 1845, he was returned to the Philadelphia Conference to become the successor of the celebrated John Kenneday and the eloquent Samuel H. Higgins, in the Trinity Charge. At the close of his term in Trinity he was sent to the Salem charge, which he served with great acceptability during 1847 and '48 In 1849 and '50 he was at Harrisburg, PA, and in 1851 and '52 in St. Paul's, Wilmington, Del. In the spring of 1853, he was returned to St. George's charge, Philadelphia, where he remained till the close of the following year, when he was assigned to Union charge, which he served with fidelity during 1855 and '56. In 1857 and '58, he was in charge of Lancaster church, Pa., whence he was removed to the South Philadelphia District, on which he served as Presiding Elder from 1859 to 1862, inclusive. In 1863 and '64 he was stationed at Fifth Street in 1865 and '66, at Easton, Pa., and in 1867, again at Salem, a charge which he had served twice before. In the spring of 1868, at the earnest solicitation of the officiary of the Danville charge, Central Pennsylvania Conference, he consented to become their pastor, and was accordingly transferred to that Conference. Here he remained eight years, serving successively in Danville during 1868, '69 and '70; Lewisburg in 1871, '72 and '73; and Chambersburg in 1874 and '75. In the spring of 1876, finding himself no longer able to do the work of the Pastorate, he took a Supernumerary relation; and, being re-transferred to the Philadelphia Conference, at the special request of the preachers, he came back to the city of Philadelphia, where he had spent so many years of his ministerial life, and whence he was permitted at last to ascend to his home heaven. Dr. Hodgson owed little to the adventitious circumstances of birth, early scholastic training, or affluent surroundings, but he needed them not. Advantageous as they might have been, and often are, they were not absolutely necessary to his usefulness or his greatness, for in their absence he achieved both. He owed much to nature, and more to the grace of God. He was gifted with a well-formed body, perfect in all its members; a constitution fitted for labor and endurance; a heart incapable of the base, mean, low or groveling, but gushing with noble impulses and generous affections; and with a mind so richly endowed, that he needed little outside of himself and God to rise. And he did rise in letters, in logic, in rhetoric, and in all the commanding forces of a master, and able minister of Christ, a persuasive orator, a successful preacher, a profound theologian, and a skillful polemic. He was made a character and won a name that will grace the pages of the future historian of Methodism. It may be truthfully said of him, as the royal David said of Abner: "A prince and a great man is fallen." From his twenty-third to his seventy-second year, the half of a century, without any intermission, from any of the causes which divert men from their proper life-work, hi name, his ministerial standing and usefulness in the church and in the world, are identified with the history, and are found in the records of the Annual and General Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was not merely one of a thousand, but one many thousands, for it is only one in great multitudes, in any department of life, who by the force native genius-the rich, fruitful, God-given nature, faithfully, persistently improved under great disadvantages- that rises above the common levels of humanity, so as to fix the attention and command the respect, veneration, and esteem of multitudes of the most intelligent and estimable people, not only in one place, but in many, and not only when in accord with popular sentiment and pronounced opinions, but when in dissent, and in exciting times. This Dr. Hodgson did, not only in New York, New England, Wilimington, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and other places, where his valuable services were sought and enjoyed, in the Methodist Episcopal Church, but also in other Denominations of the Christian church, both among ministers and people, whom he occasionally served. His light was never put under a bushel. His positions, in relation both to ecclesiastical and civil polity and affairs, were clearly defined and openly defended on all proper occasions; and however men might differ with him, as sometimes they did, they were forced to admit he was no mere noisy asserter of crude, unsupported opinions, but an intelligent, sober-minded, earnest man that sought truth and could not barter it for gold. He was far removed from the unholy extremes of cold indifference and blind enthusiasm, but was "zealously affected always in a good thing" as St. Paul enjoined. He was neither heated by the lurid fires of fanaticism, nor hardened by the intolerance of the gloomy zealot; but his mind was illumined with hard study and constant research, and his heart was often on fire with the love of Christ and of souls, that made him as forcible in argument and eloquent in words as he was tolerant in deeds. The love of Christ constrained him to guard and defend all the outposts of truth, as well as the citadel; and his grave, dignified deportment like a herald going before him, informed the people he was a man charged with a great message, who had neither time nor disposition to trifle or glorify himself-his one great business in the world was to persuade men to be reconciled to God. Few have lived a more uniform, devoted life; and a few abler expounders of God's truth, if any, are left among us. His preaching always evangelical, clear and forcible, like his logic on fire and his rhetoric in a blaze, so that great masses of people were moved by his argument and eloquence, as the trees are moved by the winds. Born to early in the first century of Methodism to enjoy the benefits of well-appointed churches, well-furnished parsonages, good libraries, summer vacations, foreign travel and adequate support; in his early ministry he did pioneer work, with hard toil and small remuneration, and he did it without complaining, and did it well. He helped to lay the foundations of the M.E. Church, deep, and broad, and strong; and others have entered into his labors, fulfilling the words of the Master. He studied hard with few books, and learned what books can never teach-heart history, human experience under hard conditions, bravely battling on, amid opposing forces, to fulfill his mission. The son's know little of the hardships encountered by the fathers-encountered to conquer or die in the strife, as many did. It was not plain, unobstructed, flowery pathways for the Methodist intinerant fifty years ago. He often came in contact, not only with poor fare, hard service, and little sympathy, but with sharp angles of sectarian bigotry and ministerial superciliousness; but young Hodgson proved himself even then a man equal to any emergency; and when the times came, that he had helped to bring in, that demanded culture, refinement, gentlemanly bearing, and the highest order of ministerial qualifications for the pulpit, he was found not a whit behind the chief of his brethren. It is said, and time has sanctioned the saying; "An honest man is the noblest work of God," and Dr. Hodgson's honesty was like Cesar's wife's virtue, beyond suspicion, as well as beyond reproach. He was incapable of finesse, artifice or stratagem to gain a selfish end. Sincere in his convictions, he was firm and fearless in supporting them; no favor, no flattery, no fear of periled popularity or interest could move him. Firm as the ocean rock, he might be overwhelmed, as the rock is by the tidal wave, but he was as immovable, and sometimes apparently as hard; but he had always a deep, religious consciousness pervading his being-nothing was put on for effect. He was what he seemed, an honest man, a devoted Christian, an able, faithful minister of Christ; and time's great corrective, by the grace of God, like summer sunshine on autumnal fruits, removed all seeming acidity and sharpness and left only the mellowness and sweetness of a sanctified life, through his later years. He died beloved and regretted. But he died, too, as the hero dies, who has fought the good fight, and has the consciousness that he has gained the victory.
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