Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-06-22
THE LATE M. S. ROYCE.
SOME Aooouns Of His Life and La

4 AT meStlug Oh the oSbry OF Lne OuIi VI
of the Holy Trinity, June Is, 1873, Gen
Kirby Smith and Mr. George Seay were ap
pointed as committee to draft an obituary
notice in memory of their late Rector, Rev
M. S. Royce. The Committee submitted
the following, June 20, which was adopted
by the Vestry, directed to be spread upor
their minutes, and printed In the daily
newspapers, and copy sent the family Of
the deceased.
Rev. Moses Strong Royce died in this
city of cholera on the 9th of June, 1873
faithfully and fearlessly discharging his du-
ties as Rector of the Church of the Holy
Trinity. Born in Rutland, Vermont, July
Is, 1926, be lost bis father at the early age
of IL, and in the mountains of his native
State, under a mothers care, of whom he
always spoke with the most tender affection
and through the influence of the Right
Rev. VIM. Henry Hopkins, Bishop of Yer
mott, whom he respected and revered,
were sown those seeds which natured and
ripened into glorious fruit in the humble
Parish of the Holy Trinity and in the neg
| lected suburbs of Slade Town.
At the the age of IS Mr.. Royce graduated
st the College of Burlington, Vermont. He
removedto to GreeneViIle Teun., the 10Th
Sept, lS47 and there established st. Paul's,
the first Protestant Episcopal Church of
the place. In September of lS49 he left
Grecneville to assist Mr.. Donald Mcleod as
teacher in the RaVenscroft College at Co.
lumbia, Tenn. He here passed his examina-
ticn, Rev. Messrs. Tones and Cressey be.
ing present, and was ordained Deacon July
Z, 1850, and consecrated Priest the same
year by the Right Rev. James Otey, Bishop
of Tennessee. o the 18th July be preach
ed his first sermon at Greenville and on the
10th ofthe same month was married to
Miss Martha Ann Broyles, daughter of DR..
James f. Broyles,a a prominent and well
known citizen of Greene county. @
After his marriage, Mr.. Royce returned
to Nashville, and for year aud a half
preached and held service in little white
chapel OF Summer street, next door to Mr..
HoustOr's. This was the beginning of the
Parish OF the Holy Trinity, then, believe,
called the Mission of 81. Paurs, and AFTER
wards under Mr.. Tones developing into
the present church and parish of the Holy
Trinity.
In 1852 Mr.. Royce accepted the profess
sorship of Bellies Lettres and Mathematics
in the Military College ofNorwich, VI. In
December of '53, he received q call 10 the
parish Of st. Paul's, franklin, Tenn, and
in order to make competent support, ia
addition to bis Parish YORK as Rector. dis
charged the duties Of bookkeepec and Gen.
eral Ticket Agent for the Tennessee and
Alabama Railroad. In this double capaci-
ty be remained until the second year of the
war, when, shortly after the fall of Donel-
SOD, he entered the Confederate service In
1868 be was Captured Dy the Federals and
confined for eight months in the penitentia-
~, the miltsry prison of Nashville. Un-
der sentence Of death, he alone escaped its
execution by cutting through the floor of
his cell, and with three of his comrades, on
the night of the 18th February, 1864, elud-
ing the vigilance Of the guards. Returning
TO the army, be remained in active service
until the surrender. At the close of the
war, Mr.. Royce returned to Franklin, apart
OF the time in charge of ST. Paurs and a
part of the time conducting a boarding
school for young ladies, where he remained
until called to the field of his recent mar
tyrdom and glorious death in the Parish of
the Holy Trinity. It was here that his
Christian character displayed itself in the
highest perfection. The Rector of strug-
Cling Parish, without means, his was purely
3 work ofloVe-quiet, patient, uncomplain-
ing. His life exhibited a continued sacrifice
of self and an untiring devotion of mind and
energies in the doing of good. Denying him
sell the very ecessayies of life, he literally
fulfilled the Masters injunction, clothing
The naked and feeding the poor and hun
gered. From the little frame shed next to
the church, which he had erected from the
re oF h 10 h., L..
and where he lived in the most rigid
simplicity. and which was at the same
time his school room and his bed chamber,
where he taught, labored, prayed and slept,
he issued forth daily on errands of mercy
and lsbored with untiring energy and in
child-like faith of success, in his work of
raising the humble and poor in the scale of
intelligence and social comfort and in feed
ing them with the blessed crumbs from his
Masters table.
With sight frame and no physique, we
often looked in wonder and admiration at
the fatigue which that man under
went ard the work which be accomplished.
Always laboring for the good and advance
ment of his fellows, Lis work was essential
ly charitable and benevolent. He estab.
lished night school where he instructed
mechanics and laboring men. He organ
lied bui ding association, of which he
was President, where small savings cculd
be safely and advantageousiy invested, and
where the industrious poor man could rea-
sonably hope, one day, 10 sit around his
own hearth stone and be sheltered by his
own roof. He held service in the Edgefeld
Bend, several miles from the city, and
walked to the scene of his ministry. He
established st. PauPs Church in Slade
Town, and how he worked, and taught,
ant prayed for this mission Of bis lOveI
He kept school by night, and with all this,
discharged faithfully bis duties as rector of
the Holy Trinity, and how well, is congre-
CATION feel and appreciate to their great
loss and sorrow. The buildings going up
in South Nashville and the pretty little
chapel just rooted in on Wharf avenue are
monuments to his usefulness as a citizen
and bis faithfulness as a christian worker in
the vineyard Of his Master.
The epidemic found Mr.. Royce at the
sick bed, administering both to the PHYSICAL
comfort and spiritual wants of the afflicted:
he sacrificed himself in this work of love
and mercy, and like good soldier, fell on
the field of his labors, in lull armor, sword
in hand-a victor even in death. Suntay
morning, June s, after sitting up over
night with Mrs. Cabler, who died of
cholera, he returned to his room worn out
and exhausted, &nd though feeling badly,
insisted upon preaching to his congregation
at the morning service. In the afternoon
he felt so unwell that he asked one the
Vestry to officiate for him at the burial of
Mrs. Cabler, and walked over 10 Mrs
Fishers on High street to get some medi-
cine. Cholera quickly developed itself and
he was soon pronounced by his physician
beyond the hope Of recovery-he retained
his conciousness to the lsst,snd calmly and
quietly passed away, strong in the faith and
in the confidence of his Redeemer.
His daughter, the child Of his affection,
thus wrises about bis last moments: "My
father met his death as he had met every
event of his life, in calm and tranquil
spirit. He passed into the Valley of Death
without a shadow of fear and closed his
eyes in sleep, to awaken next in the splen-
dor of the resurrection day, and take bis
place with the great and small, who stand
before the last tribunal and receive their re-
wards ont cf the book, whose portion is
life."
E. KIRBY SMITH,
Chairman Committee.
Condensed kilograms.
Negress arrested at Little Rock for in