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appointments, he was reported superannuated, and so remained till his death. They died in East 14th Street (he, 3 May 1862; she, 16 May 1864, in her 76th year), and were buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
A life so rich as his cannot be portrayed in a genealogy. The following extracts from the first chapter of the Life and Times of Nathan Bangs, D.D., by Abel Stevens, LL.D., a volume of 425 pages, must suffice:
"Dr. Nathan Bangs was not only a public but a representative man, in the Methodist Episcopal Church, for more than half a century. During nearly sixty years, he appeared almost constantly in its pulpits. He was the founder of its periodical literature, and of its 'Conference course' of ministerial study, and one of the founders of its present system of educational institutions. He was the first missionary secretary appointed by its General Conference, the first clerical editor of its General Conference newspaper press, the first editor of its Quarterly Review, and, for many years, the chief editor of its Monthly Magazine and its book publications. He may be pronounced the principal founder of the American literature of Methodism; a literature now remarkable for its extent, and of no inconsiderable intrinsic value. Besides his innumerable miscellaneous writings for its periodicals, he wrote more volumes in defence or illustration of his denomination than any other man. He became its recognized historian. He was one of the founders of its Missionary Society, he wrote the Constitution and first Circular Appeal of that great cause, and through sixteen years, prior to the organization of its secretaryship as a salaried function, he labored indefatigably and gratuitously for the Society, as its vice-president, secretary or treasurer. During more than twenty years, he wrote all its Annual Reports. After his appointment as its resident secretary, he devoted to it his entire energies, conducting its correspondence, seeking missionaries for it, planning its mission fields, pleading for it in the Churches, and representing it in the Conferences. It will be monumental of his memory in all lands to which its beneficent agency may extend, and if no other public service could be attributed to him, this alone would render him a principal historic character of American Methodism, if not, indeed, of American Protestantism. He was, withal, a man of profound piety, of universal charity, and much and admirable individuality."
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IV. Elijah Keeler Bangs, b. at Stratford, Conn., 4 June 1780; a master-mariner; married, 29 Oct. 1807, in Philadelphia, Penn., Esther Stackhouse, dau. of Amos and Mary (Powell) Stackhouse, of Philadelphia, where she was born 17 Oct. 1787. They settled in Philadelphia, and there died; she, 27 Sept 1819; he, 13 Sept 1856. She was buried in the Friends' Cemetery, at the south-east corner of Fourth and Arch Streets; and he, in Laurel Hill Cemetery. He had command of a vessel before he was twenty-one years old. He was captured by the French in 1808, and by the British in 1811, for having traded with the French; and was
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