he traveled Pittsfield circuit, one of the first circuits formed within the present bounds of the Troy Conference, and in 1797 he located.

James Covel, Jr., was born in the town of Marblehead, Mass., September 4, 1796. His father, on being informed of the birth of his son, fell upon his knees, thanked God for the gift, solemnly vowed to consecrate him to the Lord, and earnestly prayed that he might become a minister of Jesus Christ. When eight days old he was taken to the sanctuary, and there consecrated to God, by his father, in holy baptism. In his early schoolboy days, James gave indications of a disrelish for study, which was a source of affliction to his father, who one day expressed to him his anxieties and regrets. on the subject. James listened with attention, his eyes filled with tears, and his speaking countenance said emphatically, "I'll try." From that day he was manifestly more studious, and yet his early attainments were very moderate.

His parents removed to the province of Maine, and thence to Poughkeepsie, N. Y. While residing at the latter place, and when about sixteen years of age, James was awakened, and converted to God. Soon after, with great modesty and humility, he ventured occasionally to be heard at social meetings in prayer and exhortation. Encouraged by his brethren, and moved as he believed by the Holy Ghost to call sinners to repentance, he, after many painful mental conflicts, asked and received of the quarterly conference of Poughkeepsie, a license to preach. His first license is dated June 26, 1815, and signed by N. Bangs, presiding elder. Almost immediately after being licensed, he was employed by the presiding elder on Litchfield circuit, Conn. Previous to this he had learned a trade, at which he was earning two dollars per day; this now he left to receive

one hundred dollars a year; provided the people whom he served were benevolent enough to give it to him.

At the session of the New York Conference held in June 1816, he was admitted on trial, and appointed to Pittsfield circuit; at which time he was not quite twenty years of age. He was greatly favored in having that excellent man (now with him in heaven), Rev. Lewis Pease, as his senior colleague; and scarcely less in having Timothy Benedict, who was then making his first essays in the work of the ministry, as his junior associate. The people of the circuit were proud of their boy-team, as they familiarly called Covel and Benedict. After the lapse of thirty-five years, the writer has heard Captain James Root, and others of Pittsfield, refer to them and their labors with affectionate interest.

Mr. Covel at this time was eagerly embracing every opportunity of gaining knowledge. In his conversation with his colleagues, he was full of inquiries, relative to the meaning of difficult portions of scripture, and other matters pertaining to the Christian ministry. At this early period, though very anxious to hear the opinions and reasonings of others, he thought for himself, and had considerable independence of opinion. A little circumstance that occurred that year, may illustrate this trait of character. Riding together to a quarterly meeting at Lenox, on the way, "the boys" had an animated, though perfectly friendly, discussion upon the import of this injunction of Paul to Timothy: Keep thyself pure." They finally agreed to leave it to Dr. Bangs, their presiding elder. On reaching Lenox, they proposed the case to him, not letting him know the ground they had respectively taken. The Doctor's decision. favored Benedict's opinion. Well," " said Covel, with thoughtful earnestness, "I will give it up, because I said I would; but I am no more convinced than I was before."

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A prominent member of our church in Troy, Mr. I. Starks, lived at that time within the bounds of the Pittsfield circuit, and has a vivid recollection of Mr. Covel in those early days. He represents him as a very modest, devoted young man, who deeply realized his insufficiency for the work of the ministry, and whose preaching was full of pathos and power. Dr. Skilton, of Troy, also remembers well his youthful appearance, his zeal and simplicity while preaching in his shirt sleeves, in a crowded little school house, at North Watertown, soon after he commenced his ministry.

He was subsequently appointed to Brandon, Vt., Dunham in Canada, St. Albans, Vt., Ticonderoga, and St. Albans a second time; where in 1821 he married Miss Ann G. Rice, by whom he had six children. Five of them, with their widowed mother, still live. In 1822, he was appointed to Grand Isle; in 1823-4, to Charlotte; 1825-6, to Peru; 1827-8, to Watervliet; 1829-30, to Brooklyn. A nett gain of about one hundred and fifty members took place while Mr. Covel was there. From Brooklyn he went to Newburgh, thence to New Windsor, and from thence to the city of New York. In 1838, he was transferred to the Troy Conference, and appointed principal of the Troy Conference Academy, at West Poultney, Vt., which responsible office he held until 1841, when he was appointed to Fort Ann. In June, 1843, he was stationed in State street, Troy; where he finished his course on the fifteenth day of May, 1845, in the forty-ninth year of his age, and the twenty-ninth of his ministry.

Mr. Covel ranked among the most distinguished men of the Troy Conference. He was a devoted student and a good scholar. On being led, soon after his conversion, to turn his attention toward the work of the ministry, he found that though he had become expert at his se

cular calling, in what was vastly more important, he was sadly deficient. The deficiency in his education he deeply deplored; and here began that close application to study, which characterized all his subsequent life, He began with the rudiments of science, not attempting to lay the top stone of his educational edifice before he had laid its foundation. A geography and English grammar were first mastered; and, subsequently, history, anatomy, physiology, chemistry, botany, mineralogy, geology and astronomy, occupied his attention. Mental and moral philosophy, logic and rhetoric, natural and revealed religion, became, one after another, the subjects of his diligent study. Sacred literature was always a favorite pursuit. At an early period of his ministerial life, he commenced the study of Hebrew and Greek, and learned to read the Bible in the inspired originals. The study of sacred history and geography, engaged his special attention. In 1830, he prepared some question books for sabbath schools, which are still in use. In 1835 the Wesleyan University conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. In 1836 he completed his Bible Dictionary, designed chiefly for sabbath schools, a work of considerable merit, indicating extensive research. It has passed to a twelfth edition.

He was a close, untiring student, to the close of life. When in his early days he traveled large circuits, it was his custom (on arriving at a place of entertainment), to dispose of his horse, and pass through with the salutations of the occasion with all possible dispatch, and finding the best place of retirement at hand, to lose sight of all outward things in the study of some useful subject. At the time of his death, he was engaged in preparing a work to be entitled the Preacher's Manual. It was not an uncommon thing for him to become so abstracted from all surrounding objects, when en

gaged in study, as to require considerable effort to recall him to a recognition of his connection with the visible world. Under these circumstances, he sometimes committed somewhat ludicrous mistakes; thus, on a friend entering his study, he has been known very gravely to bid him good bye. He is said to have once committed the more serious error of forgetting, in the midst of his studies, his appointment to preach. His studious habits were not always, in his early days, appreciated by the people, and some of the preachers kindly admonished him of the apostle's declaration that "knowledge puffeth up." It would perhaps be uncharitable to suppose that jealousy had any place in those admonitions.

Mr. Covel was a very modest, unassuming man. He labored to be, rather than appear to be. He was plain in his dress and manners. Though sometimes when among his friends he was social and communicative; yet ordinarily grave, dignified, and a man of but few words. His conversation was remarkably instructive and profitable. He had no relish for idle chit chat; but on serious and weighty matters he conversed with animation and interest. It was a habit which he carried with him all through life, to propose with a view to elicit information, questions in theology, biblical criticism, and the like, when in the company of his brethren. His social qualities suffered from his studi ous habits; and yet he was a kind sympathizing friend. He was not remarkable for originality, was somewhat defective in imagination, but possessed a sound, strong mind. His reflective, were better than his perceptive faculties. Good reasoning powers, and a discriminating judgment, were among his best natural endowments.

As a pastor, he was kind and affectionate; as a preacher, he was concise, clear, strong and instructive. There was nothing specially striking in his manner. He dealt in the substantial truths of the gospel, rather than in