Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/383

DELAWARE COUNTY. 859 tion of couaty, he was elected county treasurer, and about the same time, j^dge of the Common Pleas. Both of these offices - he held with fidelity, until within a few years of his death he resigned them. In Harpersfield, September 26, 1833, Rev. Stephen Fenn, aged sixty-four years. Mr. Fenn, was born in 1769, in Water- town, in Connecticut. Possessing strong natural powers of mind, and a love of study, he prepared himself for college at an early age, and graduated at Yale in 1790, and soon after com- menced the preaching of the gospel. After laboring about one year in the State of New Hampshire, he came to Harpers- field in 1793. At this time the town was in its infancy, the inhabitants were few, and almost as a matter of course poor, or in limited circumstances. He was regularly ordained in January, 1794, and took pastoral charge of the church in Harpersfield. He continued in this situation until 1829, a period of thirty-six years, or about the time of his death. At the time he emigrated into the county, there were few, if any regular ministers, (indeed, he is said to have been the first liberally educated minister that ever preached within the limits of the county,) and his services were frequently in requi- sition, in not only neighboring towns, but counties, and he is said to have officiated at more weddings, than any other person in the county since. He is described by those who knew him, as mild in his deportment, affable in his manners, attractive and witty, as well as grave in conversation, with a mind stored with an inexhaustible fund of humorous anecdotes, many of which were gathered from his own personal experience. At Harpersfield, on the 28th of December, 1845, Hon. Ros- WELL Hotchkiss, in the 84th year of his age. The follow- ing article is from the columns of ^' The Express.^' In our obituary department to-day, is announced the de- cease of one of Delaware's oldest and most respected citizens, Hon. Roswell Hotchkiss.