Norwich bulletin., 1920-09-21
rHIRTY-EIGHr WEARS HECTOR


 OF BR0QKLYN EPISCOPAL sGHERoH
 The following paper on Rev Riverins T. Camp, D. D., rector of Trinity Episco- pal church in Brooklyn, Conn, from 1s5e to 1874, was written by Miss Mary ?. Fogg for the biennial meeting of the Cap tain Deliyerance Browne association.
 Rev. Riverius Camp, born November, 1910, died September, 1375-yet in that comparatively short life there was much that might be chronicled He was one of a large family of sons and daughters and born in a quiet Connecticut town His father was a man of moderate means. but he contrived with the wonderful thrift of our New England ferbears to educate his sons well, all of them attaining to more than ordinary cultivation. Four sons and four daughters were brought up in that quiet home.
 After working for a time elsewhere, he was called to Trinity church Brooklyn. With his acenstomed impetuosity he ac- cepttN the call immediately and wrote to my f 1T, who was senior warden of the parish, that his goods might arrive at any time, followed by himself and his family, which consisted at that time of his wife and hahy girl. His wife was in feeble health and he took all the burdens upon his own shoulders. There was, assin most country parishes at that time (iS3g1, a glehe house, with several acres of land adjoining it, and he was kept busy enough even for his active spirit, and indeed he had to bestir himself if he and his fam fly were to exist at all upon the mere pittance of $500 year. which was all the small rural parish could give him. But if we consider the cost of living then compared to what it is now, it real ly counted for more than the ordinary country parson can expect ee naL horse and coN, pigs and peultry, and fine apple orchard besides an abundance of cherry trees which were always fruit ful. The life; had it's allepiations and pleasures, though it sounds hard and un- interesting. It was peculiar parish. made up mostly of branches of one large family though they were not all of them | nearly related, but they were able to know one another's failings as we'll as virtues.
 The first two years of his rectorship his delicate wife was great care, notf- ing could exceed his devotion to her, and when another little daughter was born to them he was both father and mother to 1 both little children. 1 wonder whether they fully appreciated all he was to them l His wife died when the baby was a few l months old then his younger sister came to live with him, with old black Irene 1 to do the housework
 After few years he married again. His wife was the daughter ofa parishion- l CT. He said that, of course, he should have to leave the parish. but his wife fell 1 sick soon after her marriage and for l nearly two years was helpless invalid
 h was. of course, Q great biow to him. 1 but he bore it like a hero, if not exactly I like saint! When his wife recovered i her health he was so firmly rooted in i Brooklyn that he gave up all thought of l leaving and settled down to his long rec ! torship of S4 years. He always looked i and seemed much older than he was. One | of his parishioners spoke of him as his l own age. He was a man of 70, and Dr. 1 Camp at that time only 45. He was very l skilful with his hands at all kinds of work. The buggy he rode around in, with his faithful old horse, David, had l it's own cover made by his own hands. i He fashioned curious pieces of furniture ] and was Q handy man at almost every ! thing-always ready to use his skill when necessary. My father was victim of l facial neuralgia and not able to shave l himself, and for long time Dr Camp
 used to come periodically and do it for l him, as a matter of course He was a 1 great lover of flowers and with his. own 1 hands built a little greenhouse of brick, l filled with the choicest of plants and i flowers I remember as little child l watching him pick his jessamines, came 1 lias and roses. He had an original way ] of arranging them. naaa-fashion, without 1 foliage. When he was engaged in this way he used 10 sing "Oft in the Silly l Night" the only tune he ever attempted l as he had neither voice nor ear for music As his children grew older it was, oi i course, harder to live on the small pit tance the parish was able to give him
 but he kent up bravely, and always fount
 money to buy books He excused himselt for doing so by saying they would be {
 source of income to his children, but ir
 reality 2 theological library is not val
 uable asset.
 He threw himself with all the ardoul of his impetuoHs nature into the revixa
 of the old life of the church in the late
 '4os His neighhoring brethren of th clergy, alarmed at his puEeyism, as i was then called, laid the matter befer,
 the bishop Of the diocese who appointet a day to consider the case, and asked Mir Camp to deliver 9 sermon expressing hi views. He came and listened to an ad i nlirably clear statement of what he be leved, and good Bishop Brownell pro : nounced his doctrine entirely sound, s : the matter was settled for all time. He was often called upon to delive
 lectures and courses of lectures whic
 was then the fashion and on all sorts Q subjects. He used to come and req them to my father, who was an inyaht before he delivered them, and asked hiI
 to criticise them and suggest alteration as he saw fit.
 He led a peaceful and rather hufndrir : life for several years, but after time ge , possessed with the idea that the old colc '4 nial church built in 1771 was in too sf !. clnded spot and there 5iioEId be a ne ' one built in the village, some two mile
 away. To think, with him. was to ac Soon after the outbreak of the Civil ws . he set about the task of collecting none ' ' to build a church there.
 The poor of his parish were devoted 1
 him, and lie was wonderfully good 1
 them. Few people with his small near
 gave away 50 much in charity. As tin d went on. his daughters married and or : settled near him, and her little childre : were their grandfather's constant con e tpanions. He used to bring them to o, 1, house almost daily He was an excelleJ q neighbor. If any day was declded Y stormy we always expected to see hir : He would call on his way at anotht e neighbor's and bring him with him an c together they frightened many a dull hou '. 1 They were always arguing on all sorts e subjects. social, political and religiou
 He was always fond of taking the 0
 side.
 As have said. he devoted himself i
 later years than those have chronicle
 10 building beautiful church and trave
 ed far and wide raising the money nece
 sary for the purpose. He was very SUI
 cessful and contrived to buiid a beautifl
 little church which was finished withol
 a penny of debt. so that it could be in