A MEMORIAL OF 2856. Samuel Barstow. OF DETROIT, WHO DIED JULY 12TH, 1854. Printed for Private Circulation. 1854. Prefatory Sketch. THIS small volume is intended as a private memorial of one whose qualities of head and heart were such as to endear him to a large circle of friends in no ordinary degree. The hand of death could scarcely have snatched one from out this community whose loss could have occasioned a deeper feeling of regret, or a more profound realization of a vacant place, than was felt when, on the twelfth day of July, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, the tidings came with electric stroke, as with electric speed, from a distant city, that SAMUEL BARSTOW was no more of earth. So soon as it came to be felt that we should not again see and hear more of him whose life and labors were so much devoted to the benefit of his fellow men, a strong desire arose among those who knew him best, to possess a memorial, of that mind and heart, that might long continue to speak to us, as from his own lips, in "thoughts that breathe and words that burn." We have found in the Funeral Address of the Rev. Henry Neill, a forcible and graphic sketch of the character of our deceased friend, and a setting forth of all the most important aims and aspirations of his life, that could be known beyond the precincts of his own home; and did we not know that even the brief acquaintance that had existed between the author of the address and our lamented friend, had awakened chords of sympathy in kindred souls, we might wonder at the instinctive and ready perception which could draw so true a picture, with so few opportunities for studying its subject. This address has left little to be done in the way of a biographical notice, beyond a mere outline of the main facts of his history. Samuel Barstow, although of New England lineage, was a native of the town of Nichols, in Tioga county, in the State of New York, to which his father, Doctor Gamaliel H. Barstow, had removed at an early day from Berkshire county, in Massachusetts. Doctor Barstow was for a considerable period a practising physician at Nichols; but he has long since retired from the practice of medicine, since which he has pursued farming, merchandize, and the lumber |