HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
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tional Church; Rev. John Clark, of the Methodist; and Rev. Joshua E. Ambrose, of the Baptist denomination. They commenced their labors in this vicinity in 1833 or '34 and, with untiring zeal, consecrated their lives to the cause of their Divine Master. Their names are invariably associated with the schools, as well as with the churches, of those primitive days. On foot and on horseback, in summer's beauty and in winter's severity, these devoted men visited the lonely settlers and the scattered communities along the river valley, with words of encouragement and cheer; ministering to the sick, comforting the disheartened, praising well-doing, discountenancing evil and suggesting better ways of living. Where night or storm came upon them, there they abode as welcome, but helpful, guests. If not offensive, they reverently read and expounded selections of the Sacred Word, and conducted family worship. In humble homes, in shady groves and in the rude school-rooms, they raised the voice of prayer, and praise, and admonition. They married the lovers; they baptized the converted; they christened the children; and they spoke words of consolation and warning above the still forms of the dead. They persuaded into paths of righteousness and admonished against wicked ways; and, with the earnestness of deep conviction, they hurled, in the manner of their time, the vengeance of God's eternal decrees of wrath and torment, against the stubbornly unrepentant. They were not polished in speech or deportment, and their only eloquence was the passionate utterance of deeply earnest souls. Yet they moved the people mightily, and their wholesome influence in guiding public sentiment and action aright, in that formative period, can hardly be overestimated.
The Rev. John Clark was transferred to a Texas conference about 1841, where he continued his ministerial work for a few years amid the pioneers of that young republic, and was then returned to this conference. He resumed his labors here with unabated vigor and enthusiasm, but during the cholera epidemic of 1853-4, was stricken with that dreaded ailment and died in Chicago. The fine educational institution, so beautifully located at Aurora, that for so many years has exercised a wide and beneficent influence beyond calculation, and which seems to stand today upon the threshold of still broader achievement for virtue and knowledge, was first suggested by him. And because of his strenuous effort in behalf of this ideal, which was not completed in material form until four years after his death, its original builders dedicated it in his honor under the title of "Clark Seminary," and it will long stand a superb and appropriate memorial of his consecrated life.
Rev. Nathaniel C. Clark's enduring monument is of a different, yet, perhaps, of a less permanent or significant and appropriate character. It is written, again and again, upon the records of the many churches of his denomination which he organized, and whose houses of worship he assisted in erecting and dedicating to their holy use in all parts of the county. It stands in the assured place he holds as the Nestor of Congregationalism in the Fox River valley; it is inscribed in the utterances and resolutions of scores of assemblages of that denomination, and it abides in the loving title of "Father Clark," so appropriately bestowed by his grateful people. Surely he was well called "Nathaniel," for he was indeed n "man without guile." His life, and that of his equally excellent wife, had their full measure of chastening sorrow. Very nearly in the order of their birth, their children fell asleep in the mysterious change that men call death-the first born, in early childhood; the only son, in the promising vigor of youth; and the two older daughters, in the beauty of young womanhood and wifehood. And then, amid a rapidly changing and marvelously developing civilization-life's work all done, and well done-his kind and gentle spirit entered into rest. His home had been at Elgin since 1840, and here he died, on the 3d day of December. 1873, aged 71 years. His devoted and loving wife survived him until January 15, 1884, when her entrance completed the unbroken circle above.
"Elder" Ambrose also spent the whole, or nearly all, of his life in active ministerial work in this county; and here his mortal remains are entombed. His achievements are likewise written upon many records of the Baptist denomination, and he was held in high esteem. But he was, by nature, more austere and inclined to theological controversy, and never came into a close and kindly fellowship with the struggling people. Many other clergymen contributed most excellent Christian service in their respective denominations, but these were the pioneers who remained until transferred by death.
In the earlier years the camp-meeting, in
