The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1875-05-05

I
Justice of Nova Scotia-A Fortune
| Found Where not at all Suspected.
Nearly a year ago the Rev. John s.
Clarke, an aged Episcopal minister,
went to live in the little village of
Ashland, near Catskill, and took the
rec.orship of Trinity Church. He
was. seemingly very poor, having for
his support only the $3.50 annually
paid him by the Diocesan Board of
| Missions and the $500 voted him by
the little community in which he had
| cast his lot. He did not live alone in
the parsonage in Ashland, but rented
part of it to a young married couple,
and the welcome addition thus made
to his meagre income enabled him to
perform acts of charity that otherwise
would have seemed impossible
Though mingling on the most friendly
terms with all classes in Ashland, and
generally very communicative, he was
extremely reticent in relation to his
own past life. Only few of his most
intimate friends ever heard him speak
of his personal history, and then in
such guarded terms that little was
learned about him. He was an excel
lent preacher, and that he had schol-
arly attainments of no mean rank was
self-evident, and it was ascertained
that he was Canadian, graduate of
st. Johns College, Halifax, and that
his father was once Chief Justice Of
Nova Scotia.
At length the humane and self
sacrificed pastor, who had endeared
himself to his flock by his unostenta-
tious benevolence, was prostrated by
-. - i do, = k1x-.~ hoy- ool
by pecuEiary difficulties, for when his
parishioners occasionally added some
trihing gifts to his salary he did not
reject the Offering, as at an earlier
period of his ministry in Ashland he
had frequently done, and onre when
they gave him $50 in this way, he ex-
pressed his Joy at getting the timely
assistance, as it would, he said, enable
him to pay a debt about to fall due.
On Tuesday,sthe 18th inst, he died, !,
without giving any directions with
regard to communicating with his
friends.
PRACTICALLY A PAUPER BURIAL.
After the good pastors death a
number of clergymen and several 9TH
er friends in Ashland met to make
arrangements for his funeral AS he
did not seem to have saved any money,
and certainly had made no provision
for his burial, it was apparent that
unless subscription was raised the
body of the faithful old minister must
ell a pauper's grave. But, in small
sums, money enough was subscribed
to provide against this, and on Friday,
the 10th inst, very unassuming fu.
neral cortege wound its way from the
rectory to the Ashland cemetery; not
to the new and ornate burial ground
in which the remains of persons of
means are entombed, but to the old
deserted cemetery in which only the
very poorest bury their dead. 1t was
after all little better than a pauper's 8
funeral, but the unaffected sorrow of
the little band of mourners that stood
over the grave was proof that he was
rich in the affection of his parishion-
ers il in nothing else.
After the funeral, Mrs. Tompkins
mentioned that MIR. Clarke had spoken
of some papers in his trunk which
he wished to have examined. 1t was
not thought necessary to look over
them at once, and, in merely formal
compliance with the dead minister S
request, it was proposed that the Rev.
Robert Weeks, the Rev. William c..
Prout, and Messrs. Barlow, Steele and
Snow, should meet in the parsonage
on Wednesday, the 21st inst, and take
such steps as they might deem neces-
sary with regard to the contents of the
trunk. Accordingly on the day ap-
pointed the five gentlemen met in the
parsonage, and opened the old trunk,
and after disposing of many unimpor-
tant papers, they took out a package
of documents wrapped in newspaper.
Among them was the last will and
testament of John s. Clarke"
WELCOME FOR SOMEBODY.
To the examiners astonishment,
the seemingly INDECENT pastor had be-
queathed large fortune He left
5000 to erect house of refuge for
fallen women in Halifax, and 81 900
each to four churches In which he had
preached in Canada; s2,4OO to three
Canadian church societies, and the
British Foreign Bible Society, En-
gland; the Society for the Propagation
Of the Gospel, England; the Church
Missionary Society, England; st.
Luke's Hospital, New York, and the
Society for Promoting Christian
knowledge, England, were each to
receive $500. Having thus bequeathed
slS, 400 to public and charitable in
stitutions, the testator had gone on to
provide for his relatives To Sophia
Clarke, his sister, he left 5000, and