|
a.
|
Note: Rev. George Washington Colman was a professor of languages at the Maplewood Seminary. His father Ebenezer obtained his Divinity degree at Yale Theological Seminary and preached in Congregational churches at Acton, Massachusetts, and New Preston, Connecticut. He later took his family to Neponset, Illinois, then to Chicago where his son William attended school.
During the years 1886 to 1891 was pastor of the Congregational Church of Park Ridge (now the Community Church).
During George Colman's youth, his father, who combined farming with his pastoral duties, removed his family from Chautauqua County, New York, on the shores of Lake Chautauqua. There were thirteen children, all but four died in infancy, and for George, a short life was predicted. As a youth he attended Westfield Academy, Westfield, N.Y., and entered Union College Schenectady, in the fall of 1854. Here he distinguished himself as a thorough student, attaining Phi Beta Kappa honors and winning the Eliphalet Nott Prize scholarship in 1858, the year of his graduation, by composing a Greek poem, "For the Night Cometh," which he memorized and recited at graduation.
After teaching for two years in Ovid Academy, New York, he entered Yale Theological Seminary at New Haven, Conn., graduating two years later, when he was ordained a minister of the Congregational denomination. On Sept 16, 1862, he married Loiuse Marie Wilson, daughter of Andrew Wilson, the young woman having been one of his pupils at Ovid.
Mr. Colman's first pastorate was at New Preston, Conn., a trying field for the young minister, for the congregation was largely composed of "copperhead" sympathizers with the South, and the young pastor eventually was obliged to resign, mainly because he insisted on praying for President Lincoln. After a pastorate at Acton, Mass., and teaching in the Maplewood Institute, Pittsfield, Mass., Mr. Colman removed with his family to Neponset, Illinois to assume the pastorate of the Congregational Church, and after serving here and at Sheffield and Buda, neighboring towns, Mr. Colman came to Englewood Memorial Church in Sixty-third Street, Chicago, now Pilgrim Congregational Church. He later served the congregation of the Bowmanville Church, now also within the Chicago city limits, before coming to Park Ridge.
Rev. and Mrs. Colman arrived by horses and wagons and trains in the Village of Park Ridge, and moved into the house of Samuel Cochran on Courtland Street, more recently occupied by the late Dr. W. M. Friend and his family. This was the home of the Colmans for many years. Rev. Colman was called to fill the pulpit of the Congregational Church. Mr. Colman preached Sunday morning and evening, taught class in Sunday school, held prayer meetings on Wednesday evenings and sometimes played the organ both at Sunday school and at prayer meetings; mowed the lawn with a scythe, trimmed the trees, built the fires and did other odd jobs around the church grounds.
During his residence in and near Chicago, Mr. Colman served for twenty-five years as Secretary of the Ministerial Relief Association and for about the same period as Registrar of the Chicago Association of Congregational Minister. An increasing deafness militated against his activity in the later years, although he frequently occupied the pulpit in various places. In all his ministry, Mr. Colman was a pastor well beloved by his congregation, always esteemed in his community, and always taking a vital interest in the material growth and development as well as the spiritual. During his Park Ridge pastorate he conducted for several winters a Chautauqua Circle, which some of the residents of this city remember. His services with the two minister' associations mentioned brought him into intimate contact with all the ministers of the denomination in the State, and he probably was personally acquainted with more of the Congregational ministers of Chicago and the State than any other one man. His services on behalf of these organizations were given faithfully, unstintedly, without personal convenience or benefit. The satisfaction of serving usefully, of helping, was his.
The Austinite Obituary Sept 9, 1921
Rev. George W. Colman, formerly of Austin, died at his home at Park Ridge, Ill., Monday of last week. Funeral services were held Wednesday at Community Church, Park Ridge, where he had served as pastor. He was laid to rest in Park Ridge Cemetery by the side of his wife, who had died in 1912.
Mr. Colman was born in Lempston, N.H., December 10, 1834. He graduated from Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., class of 1858. His part of the exerciase was the delivery of an original poem from memory in Greek. He was a Phi Beta Kappa and the winner of the Elipahlet Nott scholarship that year. Entering the ministry, he was forced to resign from his first parish, New Preston, Conn., by parishioners, because he persisted in praying for President Lincoln. Acton, Mass., was the home where his two daughters, Miss Jennie Louise Colman, and Mrs. Abby Pitman Hancock, were born.
The oldest son, William Henry Colman, was born at Maplewood Institute, Pittsfield, Mass., during the year that Mr. Colman was there as a professor. Within recent years Mr. W. H. Colman has had the pleasure of visiting his former home, which is now a fine hotel. Moving to Illinois in 1871, the family barely escaped the terrors of the Chicago fire. They left for Princeton, Ill., a day or two before it started, but they trunks were on the last train that left the old C., B., and Q. depot before it burned down. After staying with his sister and her husband, Mrs. Abby Converse and Dr. William Converse, he located at Neponset, Ill., where the younger son, Alexis Julien Colman, now of Schenectady, N. Y., was born.
Failing health and increasing deafness caused him to give up preaching some years ago, and in 1919 he was obliged to give up his pleasant apartment in Austin and make his home with his son, William H. Colman, at Park Ridge.
|
