Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/413

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DELAWARE €OUNTY. Tii« eldest son died about a year since^ at St. ThomaSj in the West Indies^ wLitlier he had gone for his health. The next daughter, Irene, who was younger than the subject of the pre- .sent sketch, married Wm. Burr, of New York city, and is now living in Pontiae, Michigan. The next brother, younger, Phineas C, is a clergyman, and is now settled in Sandwich, Mass. The youngest son, Wm. S., is a physician, now practis- ing his profession in Owego, Tioga county. Joel entered Union Colle.ge, and graduated in 1839, and having fixed upon theology as his future sphere, studied at Auburn, where he prepared himself for the important duties of the ministry. Having perfected himself in the theoreti- cal part, and by dint of application, stored his mind with those important truths which were to prove the foundation of kis future course, he entered the ministry, and preached for a short time at Stockbridge, Berkshire county, Mass. Possess- ing naturally a weak constitution, it is not strange, that it •should have proved unable to sustain and bear up under the labors of so vigorous and active a mind, and consequently, when he entered the practical field of his profession, he found his constitution and health rapidly giving way, warning him of the danger of yielding himself up to a sedentary employments He now resolved to travel, and marked out in his mind a plan of travel in foreign countries, that would occupy a term of years. His health, however, becoming worse rather than better, he did not carry out his original intentions, but hastened his return to America. Arriving in Italy, he spent several months on that classic soil, his mind drinking in the luxuriant beauties of that far-famed clime, while his vivid imagination was permitted to -expand, beneath those ideal beauties, which afterwards so conspicuously distinguished his writings. Passing out of Italy, he travelled through Switzerland, Ger- many, Netherlands, Belgium and France, thence passed over 33*