Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1860-08-10
CORRESPONDENCE.
For the Standard.
Rev. John Ide.

is now numbered among the dead. MI
Ide died on the 9th ult., at Potsdam,
N. Y, which had been his residence for
the last fourteen years. He was SO long
and so usefully identified with the civil
and religious interests of this county, thst
simple justice to his memory requires
some extended record Of his life and SER
vices to be made.
John Ide was born in Rehoboth, Mass,
! Aug. l, 1875. He was one of thirteen
children (three sons and ten daughters)
of John and Deborah Pond) Ide, all of
whom lived to maturity. HIS mother
was great aunt to Rev. Enoch Pond,
D. D., President of Bangor Theological
Semiuery. In the winter of 1884, the
entire Ide family moved to ST. Johns
bury, and settled in that town and vicin-
ity. On the 23d February, 1900, Mr..
: Ide married Sarah Daggett, daughter Of
! VIM. Daggett, of Westmoreiand, n. H.,
, and with her continued to live at ST.
JOhnsbury till the Spring of 1903, when
! they removed to Coventry, near the geo
graphical center of which he had pur-
chased two hundred acres of land for
$500.
His first visit to Coventry was in June,
? 1902, when the whole town West of
Barton river was without an inhabitant.
He started from Bloomington in the
morning and came to the river, where he
felled tree and attempted 20 cross, but
as the river was high the tree was not
2 long enough, and he plunged in with his
e axe and swan the remaining distance,
t when be felled another tree and compile
ted his bridge. he then bent his course
towards his new purchase at Coventry
Center, but after travelling awhile in the
woods, found himself again at the river,
which he followed till he reached his
! crossing place, and then took another
start. This process he continued all day,
: and returned to Brownington without
seeing his farm. At that time five per-
sons were telling trees west of Barton
= river, viz, John Mitchell on lot No. 81.
Simon B Heustis on lot No. so. and
: three men by the names of Dorothy
n Simms, and Halves, on lots No. As and
IS 40.
y Mr.. Ide moved to Coventry Center
n with his family March 9Th, 1903. and was
i the first white settler west Of the river
s By this time two log bridges had been
g built across the river, and a road cut from
e the upper falls of Black river half way
u to the Center. His first log house was a
e little north west of the present site of the
q brick church. He afterwards built abol
II fifty rods further north. On the orgari
e cation of the town March 81, 1903, be
was chosen one of the selectmeB, anC
, continued to hold that or some other towr
le Office till 1872.
!. In April 1908, he experienced religion
and was the first person in town who es
- tablished family worship, or received tn
ordinance of baptism. This ordinance
!; was administered to him by Elder Bar
nabas Perkins, on the first Sabbath il
October, 1903, in Barton river nea
! Judge Parker's. Through Mr.. Ide's in
strumeutality, the first Sabbath's preach
as ing in Coventry was procured. Nathan
= tel Daggett of Newport, preached ir Nh
Ide's town on the I'd Sabbath in ] al,
1903. In December 1903, he establish
ed regular Sabbath services, by readin
! printed sermons to such congregations q
could be gathered. accompanying ther
sometimes by remarks of his own, eithe
D. before or after the sermon, and as he wa
:. ready of speech, his remarks sometime
extended TO such length that the prin
=. ed sermon was omitted. By this NEAR
:. his gifts we're so developed that he ws
ha urged to enter upon the regular work
,o the ministry which, with many misgi-
h. ings, he at length consented to do.
m His first regular sermon was preache
70 in his own town in August 1912, fro
nat Luke II: 30, "Fear not, little flock, {,
ON it is your fathers good pleasure to gi,
e. you the kingdom" On the 23d Febrl
an airy 1915, the Baptist Church in Co
,, entry gave him call to the pastoral
md promising to give him Twenty-Five dolla
Sc for the first year, payable in grain, an
srE to add tothat sum annually as their graz
III list should increase In addition to til
rtb he was to receive so much of the mini
-ch ter's right Of land, and of the incou
from " the gospel lot" as the town mig
ne assign to the Baptist Society. He a
ell. eepted the call, and was ordained %
ep- June, 1915, the first minister settled
= the town. It was hazardous undert