The tribune. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1876-03-22
DIED,

DIED.
AT the Parsonage, Pearsalls, Long
Island, N. Y. Wednesday morning March
Is, 1876, Rev. Mansfield French of the
n. Y. East M. E. Conference, sged 90
years.
Mr.. French had spent varied, active
and highly useful life. He was born Mt
Manchester, Vt. February 81, 1910. His
youth was spent on his fathers farm, and
at then noted Bennington seminary,
where he made excellent progress in clas-
sizes and mathematics
During his theological studies and
after their completion he founded the
seminary which soon became Marietta
college, was principal of CIrcleville fe
male seminary. In 1912 he married Miss
Austa NJ. Winchell, a cousin of DR.. Alex
nder Wincboll, the eminent geologist.
In the year 1S45 he joined the Method
ist Episcopal church and entered her
'tinerant ministry in the North, Ohio
conference Mr.. French was a fervent
and remarkably successful pastor for srv-
eral years, hundreds being brought into
the church by his laIors. Here also by
church appointment, he served us presi.
dent OF xenIa female col cge an as agent
Tor the Ohio " eslcyan university, and
then for "ilb"rf"rce university. Wilber-
force university was the first college
opened for the colored race 10 America
Soon after the the capture of Hilton
Head and South Carolina coast by the
Sherman naval expedition. ut the urgent
solicitation of LOWS ruppan and Others,
he went to Washington and laid before
The president his views Of the nations
duty toward the "cnntraband s,uvesn of
that department, He was then given .
pass and commission to visit all forts &C.,
IN the south occupied by Northern forces.
Soon after he came north and organized
the Cooper institute meeting of February
70, 1861 rhe result "f this meeting was
the organization Of the National Freed
nuns Relief association, whose object
was the sustaining of,he work of cdu
cation of the blacks, planned by Mr..
French infhe south. On the 81 of March
he sailed for Port Royal, with large
corps OF teachers furnished by the north
to the late slaves, the forerunners of a
great hest to follow them. He next
secured for the black man tho righ. tn
hshr under The flag of his country. But
The struggle E'r 1t was hard one. Mr.
French laborcd with tn. authorities
necessarily for three days to obtyin it..
de held the commission ofchaplain
only twenty-scven days less than six years,
and. .upoh.it, under various official des-
ignatlons, he executed all the remainder
OF his work in the national service His
private papers for this period contain
the original draft oi the act OF Congress
organizing the frecdman's bureau, whicl,
was his original conception. After
shcrman's great..raid had nude emanci-
patton operative in the interior of South
Carolina and Georgia he was co,nu,is-
stoned by Gen. Gilmore, June 81, 1876,
u p;ncerd through those states and in
ssruct the planters, fre :dmcn and other
inhabitants Of the country generally in
theirindividual and relative duties under
the new order OF things developed by the
war"
In the political canvass of 1868 letter
signed by Messrs. Harlan, Wilson, Wade,
Cc!ax, Delino, Forney, Thayer, Pomery
and Others was addressed to air. French,
urgently desiring him to Consent to his
nomination f"r The first United States
senat'rship from the newly Constructed
stute OF South Carolina. Dul, being more
Of philantliropist than d politician, he
withdrew fr the Canvass which his
friends had begun in mis- behalf, prefer
RUG to work in thu line Of duty which
better suited his training. AT the close
Of his labors for the freedmen he returned
TO New York and resumed the regular
work OF the ministry in the New York
east conference, where lie spent FIVE years
OF Useful PASTORAL !Auur, rewarded by
nImerous cornerstone and the love Of u
very wide circle Of friends. He survived
the oblivion of all the aspersions ualici-
Gus psrtisaas cast upon him during the
war and passed away in the confidence
uF tnu Il 1 hi lx~x