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 JOHN MILLOTT ELLIS.
 
 A TRIBUTE 
 
 TO THE MEMORY OF 
 
 JOHN MILLOTT ELLIS, D. D v 
 
 PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN 
 
 OBERLIN COLLEGE. 
 
 From the Faculty to the Alumni of the College. 
 
 OBERLIN, OHIO: 
 
 PEARCE & RANDOLPH, PRINTERS. 
 1894-
 
 MEMORIAL. 
 
 LIFE SKETCH. 
 
 JOHN MlLLOTT ELLIS was born on the 2/th of March, 1831, 
 on the hill-farm of his father, Seth Brittain Ellis, situated at the 
 foot of Mount Monadnock, near the village of Jaffrey, New 
 Hampshire. His infancy and early boyhood were spent amid 
 farm scenes and activities. Subsequently the home was changed 
 for a time to the village, and in 1840 the family, consisting of 
 parents, four sons, and five daughters, came to Oberlin, where 
 the colony and College were in the first stage of their struggle 
 for existence. Here young Ellis entered upon mingled work 
 and study. From the first the aim of his parents, in which he 
 fully sympathized, was that he should have a collegiate educa- 
 tion, and whatever effort and sacrifice were necessary to this end 
 were cheerfully contributed. During his youth, and while pre- 
 paring for college, he fulfilled the terms of a virtual apprentice- 
 ship to a mechanical trade in his father's planing mill, which 
 was long a landmark of earlier Oberlin. This thorough manual 
 training proved of the greatest advantage in his subsequent life, 
 equipping him as it did for the practical service in connection 
 with the planning and construction of college buildings and the 
 public improvements in the town, which service so conspicuously 
 marked his busy life. 
 
 Entering Oberlin College in 1847, he for the most part 
 supported himself during his collegiate course by teaching in the 
 district schools of the State and otherwise, and was graduated 
 in 1851 with his class of seventeen, which included in its mem- 
 bership General J. D. Cox, Charles G. Finney, Jr., Colonel Sam- 
 uel F. Cooper, Rev. Lorenzo J. White, Professor L. F. Parker, 
 and Professor J. A. R. Rogers. For some months following his 
 graduation he was employed as teacher in the Academy at La-
 
 peer, Michigan. From 1852 to 1855 he was Professor of Lan- 
 guages in Mississippi College; during the next two years he 
 pursued his theological studies at Union and Oberlin Theological 
 Seminaries, graduating from the latter with the class of 1857. 
 In 1858 he was appointed Professor of Greek in Oberlin Col- 
 lege, serving in that capacity until 1866, when he was trans- 
 ferred to the Chair of Mental Philosophy and Rhetoric, with 
 work also for several years in Evidences of Christianity, Polit- 
 ical Economy, and English Literature. During the last twelve 
 years his work of instruction was confined to the field of Philos- 
 ophy. From 1867 to 1874, in addition to his college duties, 
 he was associate pastor of the Second Congregational Church 
 of Oberlin, and during the entire period following his gradua- 
 tion, he preached in many pulpits in his own and other States, 
 and was an influential member of very many of the ecclesiastical 
 conferences and conventions in Ohio and elsewhere. 
 
 Professor Ellis was ordained as a minister of the gospel in 
 1 865, and received from Oberlin College the degree of Doctor of 
 Divinity in 1893, being the first one upon whom that degree was 
 ever conferred by Oberlin. His versatility of talent and his many- 
 sided ability and forcefulness resulted in his being almost as 
 much a man of affairs as he was teacher and preacher. While 
 scrupulously refraining throughout his life from all connection 
 with secular business in his own interest, he was ever prominent 
 and serviceable in the business affairs of the College, and was 
 actively interested in whatever measures tended to promote the 
 welfare of the community and the country. During the civil 
 war, although he did not wear the military uniform, his work in 
 behalf of the Union cause, both in his own community and with 
 the soldier at the front, was zealous, continuous, and most effi- 
 cient. In 186162 he served a term as Mayor of the village, and 
 from first to last he was intelligently identified with all matters 
 of local government and local improvement. In 1883 he made 
 an extended tour of central and southern Europe, and while 
 nominally resting from overwork, he did not fail to bring back
 
 to the College valuable fruits of his careful studies in other lands. 
 In 1891 he was appointed by the United States Government a 
 commissioner to Europe in the interest of the World's Columbian 
 Exposition, and in this official capacity visited the capitals and 
 conferred with the government authorities of Great Britain, Ger- 
 many, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Russia. 
 
 On August 28, 1862, Professor Ellis was married to Minerva 
 E. Tenney, of Oberlin, who survives him, together with his two 
 sisters, Mrs. C. H. Remington, of Takoma Park, D. C., and 
 Miss Josephine M. Ellis, of Oberlin, and the four sons, Albert, 
 Theodore, John, and Luman. His decline in health dated from 
 a severe attack of the grip in 1891, while his fatal illness, ap- 
 parently tuberculosis of the lungs with involvement of the heart, 
 definitely manifested itself about the first of Januaty last, when 
 he was compelled to relinquish his work, and went with his wife 
 to Redlan.ds in Southern California. There, at the hospitable 
 home of his classmate Colonel S. F. Cooper, and in the con- 
 stant care and companionship of his wife, he spent two months 
 in perfect rest and comfort, enjoying the soft air, the sunshine, 
 and the cordial greetings and affectionate messages of friends, 
 but with no check to his progressing weakness. On the 2istof 
 March they proceeded to Los Angeles, where a thorough ex- 
 amination by a specialist resulted in finding the malady to be 
 what is known as Addison's disease an incurable disease which 
 cannot be identified until it has reached an advanced stage, 
 when its presence is revealed mainly by a peculiar bronzing of 
 the skin. The case being obviously beyond cure or material re- 
 lief, it was the sick man's own wish to start immediately home- 
 ward, although frankly informed that there were many chances 
 against his surviving the trip. His weakness steadily increased 
 as the journey progressed, although he was uniformly comfort- 
 able and free from pain, and in less than two hours after reach- 
 ing Chicago he died in the invalids' room of the Santa Fe 
 terminal station. The party, consisting of Professor and Mrs. El- 
 lis and their nephew, Bernard F. Tenney, were met at the train
 
 by John T. Ellis, who was recognized by his father before final 
 unconsciousness supervened. Chicago friends kindly aided in 
 arrangements necessarily following the sad event, and on the 
 subsequent arrival at Oberlin the station was thronged by a mul- 
 titude of sympathizing friends, including Faculty, students, and 
 town people. 
 
 Such is a colorless outline of one of the strongest and sweet- 
 est lives that it is given to men to live. Through more than 
 thirty years of close fraternal intercourse, including all the vicis- 
 situdes and exigencies that necessarily come with the middle 
 period of active lives, my regard for John Ellis and my admira- 
 tion for his character have grown and deepened. His was pecu- 
 liarly a well rounded, a balanced nature. A man of strong 
 convictions and pronounced opinions, he was the farthest possi- 
 ble remove from bigotry or fanaticism. He was blessed with a 
 strong sense of the humorous, which was never permitted to 
 pass into levity. Profoundly and always impressed with the seri- 
 ous and even solemn aspects of the life that he was living, as 
 well as of that upon which he has now entered, he carried with 
 him an atmosphere that was not only cheerful but joyous. With 
 almost a feminine purity of thought and instinct, he combined 
 a stalwart manliness that could never be misunderstood. To 
 me, at least, the departure of such a spirit gives to the world 
 almost a tinge of loneliness. 
 
 A. B. NETTLETON. 
 
 SERVICES AT THE CHURCH. 
 
 Tlie funeral services were held in the Second Church, Sunday 
 afternoon, April ist. A large' audience filled the house to its 
 utmost capacity. As the casketwas slowly borne into the church, 
 to the soft and solemn organ prelude, the congregation arose 
 and stood until it was placed in position. An impressive tribute 
 of flowers from friends far and near, spoke eloquently of the warm
 
 place our dear friend held in hearts scattered all over this coun- 
 try. 
 
 After the opening exercises, consisting of an anthem by the 
 choir, a passage of Scripture read by Professor Churchill, and 
 prayer by Dr. Tenney, PROFESSOR MONROE spoke substantially 
 as follows: 
 
 Professor Ellis had a judicial mind, and was capable of 
 looking at a subject upon all sides. This implied that he was 
 free from personal feeling, from prejudice, and from bias, and 
 made his judgment of great value to us. This quality revealed 
 itself in all the relations which he sustained. It was appar- 
 ent in the class-room and was appreciated by his pupils. It is 
 safe to venture the statement that no student of Professor Ellis 
 ever complained that he had been unfairly treated. He marked 
 fairly, judged fairly, both the ability and the character of his 
 pupils, and was quite capable of looking at things from their 
 standpoint. He respected the scholarship and good qualities of 
 his students. None of them ever left his recitation room with- 
 out a sense of encouragement, without feeling that they could 
 do something in the world with the powers which they had. 
 His influence was always encouraging, never depressing to those 
 under his care. He taught them to respect their own powers 
 and to be hopeful as to the results of their future work. 
 
 The same quality showed itself in Faculty meetings. His 
 ability to look upon all sides of subjects and of characters was 
 there exceedingly useful. Some members of the Faculty used 
 to wait until Professor Ellis had spoken, when a question was 
 under debate, in order that they might be able to get a complete 
 view of the case, and make up their own minds as to how they 
 would vote. He had left a vacancy in the meetings of the Fac- 
 ulty which it would be very difficult to fill. 
 
 The same fair-mindedness showed itself in the meetings of 
 the Second Church and in the management of its business. He 
 was there also relied upon for counsel and advice. His judg- 
 ment was equally valued by citizens of the town, as shown in
 
 meetings of the Council, in public meetings and in private con- 
 sultation. It was not uncommon, when difficult questions were 
 under consideration, to hear citizens say, "-Let us see Professor 
 Ellis and talk with him about it." A neighbor who wished to 
 consult him was always made welcome, and always found Pro- 
 fessor Ellis at leisure to hear the case and give his judgment. 
 
 In former years he had invitations to leave Oberlin and ac- 
 cept positions which many would have thought more desirable. 
 He never entertained these invitations any further than to con- 
 sult with his brethren as to whether they would encourage him 
 to leave. But as he never got any such encouragement he never 
 left us. He had no desire to separate himself from the work 
 here. He was wholly devoted to Oberlin and its service. It 
 was said that he became a kind of Oberlin incarnate. He loved 
 the work here because he thought it the best means of making 
 his powers useful for the cause of Christ. No doubt this was 
 the way to make a great school, and it was also the way to make 
 a great man. Here Professor Ellis built his altar. He laid him- 
 self upon it, and the answer came by fire from heaven. To-day 
 the offering has been consumed. 
 
 This spirit showed itself in other relations, but time would 
 not permit that they should be mentioned. To-day we all have 
 that profound sense of satisfaction which comes from feeling that 
 there is but one place, one home, to which the released spirit 
 can have gone. There was but one Presence in which a pur- 
 pose so noble, a self-denial so complete, a consecration so per- 
 fect, a temper so candid and fair, a life so absolutely devoted to 
 the work of Christ there was but one Presence in which such 
 a spirit could be found and could be at home, to which it must 
 be drawn by its proper attractions; and that was the presence of 
 his Redeemer and his Lord. 
 
 PRESIDENT BALLANTINE spoke of the moral traits of Pro- 
 fessor Ellis. His remarks were as follows: 
 
 I have been asked to speak of the moral traits of Pro- 
 fessor Ellis. And this is easy to do. Of all the men of your
 
 II 
 
 acquaintance, you have known none more thoroughly than you 
 knew John Ellis. His character was so transparent, so sincere, 
 so consistent, that it was soon understood; and once learned it 
 was always afterwards found to be the same. 
 
 In considering the moral purpose of the noble life now 
 ended, we are impressed with its unity, its comprehensiveness, 
 its unselfishness, and its loftiness. Professor Ellis was fortu- 
 nate in early finding the place and sphere of his life work. For 
 fifty-four years he was a citizen of Oberlin; for thirty-six years 
 he was a professor in the College, during which long time he 
 was but two terms absent from his post. 
 
 He grasped with peculiar firmness the great thought of the 
 founders of Oberlin a Christian community holding in its 
 bosom a Christian school and to the realization of that idea his 
 life was devoted. A man of unusual activity, industry, and ef- 
 ficiency, he labored from early morning until late at night, in 
 term time and in vacation, with but one thought the prosper- 
 ity of village and College. 
 
 There was nothing narrow in this concentration; for the pur- 
 pose was most comprehensive. There was no local pride or 
 prejudice. He valued Oberlin not as a local enterprise, but for 
 what it could do for the world. His supreme regard was for 
 the kingdom of God in all its breadth. Nor was he especially 
 interested in any single aspect of the work. Every need of the 
 community and institution engaged his attention. Progress in 
 every line, sanitary, social, musical, political, educational, the- 
 ological, religious, he equally strove to promote. 
 
 The unselfishness of his life was most remarkable. There 
 are different degrees of unselfishness. There are good men who 
 are willing to devote themselves to a great cause if they may 
 choose the part of the work that suits them. Professor Ellis 
 had no choice; all that he asked to know was that the service 
 was needed. It might be to oversee the repair of a leaking roof, 
 or of a walk across the campus; it might be the erection of a 
 building, the care of the College investments, the appointment
 
 of a new professor, a public address, a sermon, the instruction of 
 a class in Greek or Philosophy. It might be to admonish a way- 
 ward student, to visit the sick, or to conduct a village funeral. 
 Wherever practical sense and a great Christian heart were re- 
 quired, he was ready for the task. 
 
 He never thought of the gratification of his own literary 
 taste, or the making of a reputation, or the accumulation even of 
 a competence. It never occurred to him to ask whether he had 
 not worked as many hours as he was paid for. After all these 
 years of unremitting toil, he died a poor man. The frugal sup- 
 port of his family was all the earthly reward he had ever contem- 
 plated. 
 
 No life can have a loftier purpose than this one had. It 
 was to do the utmost for others. Here was a genial sympathy 
 that took in every person and every interest of this whole com- 
 munity. Professor Ellis was peculiarly a man of the people. 
 No consciousness of professorial dignity lifted him away from 
 his neighbors. He was a "great commoner." And he was 
 equally near to the students. No member of the Faculty knew 
 so well just how the boys felt. He was interested not in the 
 cause of learning in the abstract, but in developing Christian 
 character in the living men and women around him and through- 
 out the world. A great man is always greater than any one of 
 his actions. The greatest service Professor Ellis has rendered to 
 Oberlin has been in letting us all see the sublime unity and un- 
 selfishness of his life. He has been a living example of the type 
 of character which this community was founded to produce. 
 
 Dear friends of the village and College, shall we not to-day, 
 looking for the last time upon this beloved face, mutually pledge 
 ourselves to live more devotedly for this same high purpose? 
 Shall not the spirit of Professor Ellis live in a multitude of lives 
 here and shine out from a multitude of faces in all the years to 
 come? 
 
 DR. TENNEY spoke of the relation of Professor Ellis to the 
 Second Church:
 
 The death of Professor Ellis comes as a severe personal 
 bereavement, in which our tears flow in sorrowing sympathy 
 with his immediate family. 
 
 His connection with the Second Church dates from its or- 
 ganization. During more than half of the thirty-four years of 
 its history it has been served in the pastoral office by professors 
 in the College, and of this service Professor Ellis has borne a 
 large part. And more fully than any of its installed pastors he 
 has entered into the details of its varied life and work. When 
 not officially an acting pastor, he has been more to its pastors 
 than a pastor's assistant could be. Everything that has been of 
 interest to the Church has been of interest to him. Into the 
 erection of this house of worship his thought and effort largely 
 entered. Always, in stated supply, in occasional services, and in 
 pastoral vacations, his pulpit ministrations have been abundant, 
 instructive, and spiritually quickening and inspiring. Rarely has 
 his place been vacant in the prayer circle, and seldom have we 
 missed his voice in counsel and in prayer. In the business of the 
 Church and in pleading for its benevolences, he has been our 
 natural spokesman and our representative in the meetings of the 
 conferences of the churches. 
 
 No one has entered more cordially and sympathetically into 
 the family life of our members, and no one has been more heart- 
 ily welcomed in our homes. In times of sorrow, and on funeral 
 occasions, it has been to Professor Ellis that we have naturally 
 turned. Had the service of his life been limited to the work 
 which he has wrought in connection with the Second Church, it 
 would have been a noble life work. 
 
 After the chorus, " Happy and blest," from the oratorio- 
 St. Paul, was sung by the choir, PROFESSOR G. FREDERICK 
 WRIGHT spoke of the relation of Professor Ellis to the com- 
 munity. He said in substance: 
 
 The intimate relations in Oberlin of the College and the 
 community are of priceless value to all-concerned. No small part 
 of the practical efficiency of the education here given, depends
 
 H 
 
 upon the harmony and closeness of these relations. The dis- 
 tribution of our students in households loyal to the College, 
 scattered throughout the whole village, prevents much of that 
 separation from ordinary society which is the great bane of uni- 
 versity life. 
 
 While the whole organization of the College and colony in 
 Oberlin has favored the intimate and harmonious relations of 
 the two, the results attained have not been secured merely by 
 the existence of propitious circumstances, but largely through 
 the capacity and character of the persons entering into the part- 
 nership. Probably all would be united in saying, that, through- 
 out the last thirty years, Professor Ellis, more than anyone else, 
 has combined in himself the qualities which have both promoted 
 and represented the totality of Oberlin interests. 
 
 The record of his unrequited work in promoting the general 
 welfare of the community would fill a volume, and be an object 
 lesson of the greatest value to the theoretical students of social 
 science, illustrating to them the fact that the highest interests of 
 society are promoted not so much by the forms of the social 
 organization, as by the wisdom and the unselfish devotion of its 
 members. 
 
 Time after time in the years of darkness and conflict, during 
 the civil war, it was Professor Ellis' duty and privilege as 
 chairman of the local committee to secure volunteers, to protect 
 Oberlin from the draft. Through his efficient service, money 
 was raised for bounties in sufficient quantity to secure the filling 
 of Oberlin's quota by voluntary enlistments, and his sympathy 
 and interest followed the soldiers everywhere, from beginning to 
 end. He visited them in their lonely camps, and cheered them 
 by his commanding presence and his words of sympathy and 
 encouragement. 
 
 In conclusion, we have but to say that the commanding 
 form of. Professor Ellis was a true index of the commanding 
 ability which was so generally recognized by every interest in 
 our community, and by the whole Oberlin constituency. We
 
 follow him to the grave with a depressing sense of a loss which 
 cannot easily be replaced. 
 
 PRESIDENT FAIRCHILD spoke as follows: 
 
 My friends, you will not expect many words from me to- 
 day. I would prefer to sit in silence with the mourners. But 
 I cannot permit the form of our friend to be buried from our 
 sight without bringing my personal tribute of grateful remem- 
 brance. 
 
 Professor Ellis came to Oberlin,a child in his father's fam- 
 ily, nine years of age, in 1840. I was then a student in the- 
 ology. Our acquaintance began early, and has become more in- 
 timate, with every passing year, through the fifty years. It was 
 not mainly a friendship of sentiment, although it could not be 
 entirely lacking in this element; but rather a friendship of sym- 
 pathy and co-operation in a common work. 
 
 In 1858, after having completed the course in College and 
 in the Seminary, and having taught three years as Professor of 
 Languages in a Southern college, he was elected Professor of 
 Greek at Oberlin; and from that day to this, we have been in- 
 timately associated in all the work and business affairs of the 
 College. I was not President until some years later, but many 
 matters of administration fell to me as chairman of the Faculty, 
 and I soon found in Professor Ellis such an adviser and helper 
 as I needed. From the beginning of his official connection with 
 the College, he took its interests on his heart, and never laid 
 them off until he laid off all earthly care. It was never with him 
 a question of its bearing upon his personal interest or advan- 
 tage. There was a great work to be done, and if he could do it, 
 it was his to do. He was a self-forgetful worker. We have had 
 many such at Oberlin; no such enterprise was ever carried on 
 without them. Professor Ellis has been prominent among them 
 all. It was natural for him to lead, but he led in work, not 
 merely in setting others to work. He was early appointed on 
 the Prudential Committee, and from that time on became famil- 
 iar with all the business affairs of the College. The time and
 
 i6 
 
 strength and wisdom which he has given to these affairs have 
 beeyi an essential contribution to the prosperity which has at- 
 tended the work. Not an important movement has been made 
 whfch has not had the benefit of his clear discernment, and his 
 effective executive force. He was good to plan and equally 
 good to perform. We often had to say to him as Pharaoh said 
 to Joseph, "Since the Lord hath shown thee all this, there is 
 none so good to execute the plan as thou art." He never de- 
 clined such service to save himself from burdensome work. That 
 it needed to be done, was sufficient for him, whether it was the 
 location of a sewer, or the repairing of a roof; the collection of 
 funds for completing Council Hall, or for the endowment of a 
 professorship. His varied natural gifts, and his earlier and 
 later training, qualified him for all these duties. One who has 
 carefully traced the outward changes of the last thirty years and 
 more, can see in every walk, in every building, traces of his work 
 and thought. 
 
 But the life and strength of Professor Ellis have not been 
 chiefly occupied with these outward material things. These 
 have been but incidents, mere symbols of what was more real 
 to him, though invisible. As a teacher, he has impressed his 
 thought and life upon the hundreds who have come under his 
 forming hand. The intellectual and moral force of his charac- 
 ter and life have entered largely into the tide of helpful influ- 
 ence which has been sustained here in the College and the com- 
 munity through all the years, which has lifted and borne on to 
 a higher plane of life and service the thousands that have sought 
 their education here. In this great work he has not stood alone. 
 No one can accomplish such a work alone, but we are permit- 
 ted to assign to him to-day a large undivided share in the grand 
 result. He never claimed much for himself. He had a gener- 
 ous appreciation of the work of his associates, and was content 
 to be one among them. I do not think that any unkind or un- 
 generous criticism of his co-workers ever fell from his lips. He
 
 rejoiced in the good work they were able to do, and gave it a 
 generous appreciation. 
 
 In a work so varied and extended as he has accomplished, 
 it is difficult to analyze and discriminate the various forms of 
 helpfulness; but I cannot forbear to mention his contribution to 
 the work of clear thinking and lucid statement of truth at Ober- 
 lin, in which the fathers gave us the lead, and which has been 
 continued with more or less of success to our day. Professor 
 Ellis has not left us any permanent and visible record in the form 
 of books. Perhaps if ten years more had been added to his 
 life, the book might have appeared. But this is scarcely a serious 
 matter. Books are easily neglected and forgotten; but the im- 
 pressions made upon a living soul have a permanency and vital 
 power which no skill of the printer can impart. In this form 
 and with this power, his work will remain and extend. It would 
 not be difficult, if this were the time and place, to specify some 
 of the contributions which he has made to the common treasure 
 of Oberlin thought and teaching. But we have these treasures 
 in possession, and they will be transmitted and diffused though 
 all men forget out of whose store-house they came. 
 
 A large vacancy is left among us by Professor Ellis' depar- 
 ' ture, and this will not be filled. We shall miss his stately form 
 as the years come on. We shall sometimes wish that he were 
 here to continue or complete his work. No one can take his 
 place; others will come in their own places and do their work, 
 not his, and the building will go forward under the eye and hand 
 of the great Master-builder, whose we are and whom we serve. 
 
 After President Fairchild's remarks, prayer, was offered by 
 Dr. Brand, and an opportunity was given to look once more on 
 the face of our beloved friend, after which the casket was re- 
 moved to its final resting place, in Westvvood.
 
 i8 
 
 JOHN MILLOTT ELLIS. 
 
 When Nature planned this man she said of him, 
 " Be his the kindly heart, the beaming eye, 
 The ear to hear, to heed the humblest cry 
 The fate to toil in lowliest ways and dim; 
 
 To be no slave to mean caprice or whim, 
 
 To walk serene enwrapt in thoughts that lie 
 Within the depths of God's unfathomed sky, 
 Finding his life enclosed in duty's rim." 
 
 Obedience his true child of Oberlin ! 
 
 When this behest into his soul was borne, 
 
 No doubt e'er dwelt that patient heart within; 
 Nor was his life thereby of gladness shorn, 
 
 But filled with peace amid life's hurrying din. 
 
 Such was thy son mourn, Alma Mater, mourn ! 
 
 Ellen Bartlett Currier. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE FACULTY, APRIL 23, 1894. 
 
 Whereas, God in his providence has removed from his 
 earthly sphere, after many years of devoted and successful labor, 
 our honored and beloved associate, John Millott Ellis, we bow 
 in reverent submission to his will, and, while mourning the loss, 
 gratefully acknowledge the noble results which have been ac- 
 complished by the life and labors of our brother. We desire to 
 put on record our high appreciation of his marked executive 
 ability, of his symmetrical development of mind and character, 
 of his unselfish devotion to the interests of the church of Christ, 
 and especially of Oberlin College and community, of his un- 
 wearied attention to the welfare of the great number of students 
 who have come under his care, and of the heroism with which 
 he has endured the trials of life and met the ordeal of death. 
 Therefore, 
 
 Resolved, that we extend to his family and immediate rel- 
 atives our heartfelt sympathy, and that, with the great number 
 of his pupils and friends scattered over the world, we unite in 
 the prayer that the mantle of our departed friend may fall on
 
 T 9 
 
 those of us who remain, enabling us to take up successfully the 
 
 work which he has now laid down. 
 
 FENELON B. RICE, 
 G. FREDERICK WRIGHT, 
 WILLIAM B. CHAMBERLAIN, 
 MRS. A. A. F. JOHNSTON, 
 A. A. WRIGHT, 
 
 Committee* 
 RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE THEOLOGICAL ALUMNI, 
 
 MAY 10, 1894. 
 
 In connection with this annual, gathering, the absence of 
 our friend and brother, Professor John M. Ellis, brings to us all 
 a sense of loss which demands expression. During the thirty- 
 seven years of his membership in this Association, his unfailing 
 presence at our annual meetings and his helpful counsels and 
 suggestions have contributed greatly to the interest and effective- 
 ness of our work. Although his strength was given more di- 
 rectly to another department of the College work, yet all the 
 interests of the Seminary rested upon his heart, almost as if he 
 had been one of its professors. Himself an able and effective 
 preacher, the preaching of the gospel seemed to him the great 
 work, and the training of young men for such service, of supreme 
 importance. Theological thought and study never ceased to be 
 attractive to him, and his -strong common sense and clear philo- 
 sophical discernment have contributed not a little to the com- 
 pleter statement of the Oberlin Theology. 
 
 While we keenly feel the loss of our departed friend, we 
 would not fail to express our gratitude to God for the gift to the 
 Oberlin work, during these many years, of a life so full of help- 
 ful service. 
 
 To Mrs. Ellis and the bereaved family we tender our Chris- 
 tian sympathy and love. 
 
 JAMES H. FAIRCHILD, 
 G. FREDERICK WRIGHT, 
 HOLLAND B. FRY, 
 
 Committee..
 
 RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE OBERLIN ALUMNI ASSOCIATION 
 
 OF WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA AT PITTSBURG, PA., 
 
 APRIL 28, 1894. 
 
 The Oberlin Alumni Association of Western Pennsylvania 
 has learned with deep regret of the recent death of Professor 
 John M. Ellis, and would place on record its sense of his great 
 worth and of the loss sustained by his decease. 
 
 Its members recall with unalloyed pleasure their acquaint- 
 ance with him during College days, in the class-room, in social 
 and church life, and in private intercourse. They gladly bear 
 testimony to his exalted character and bearing in all these rela- 
 tions. 
 
 In the class-room he was an able ?.nd inspiring teacher, 
 enthusiastic and unbiased in his search for. truth, clear and fair 
 .in his expositions and his defence of it, and greatly interested in 
 the successful attainment of it by his pupils. 
 
 In social life he was uniformly courteous in his demeanor, 
 and considerate of the feelings and the welfare of all. 
 
 In church and Christian life, as a preacher of the gospel and 
 as a follower of the Divine Master, he presented a noble illus- 
 tration of loyalty to his Lord, of devotion to His teachings, and 
 of love to His disciples. 
 
 In private intercourse with his pupils, few teachers ever 
 manifested more fully the unselfishness and large-heartedness of 
 a generous and thoughtful nature intent on imparting blessing 
 to others. His presence was always stimulating towards every- 
 thing that is lofty and good, and his influence helpful in encour- 
 aging every holy purpose. We recognize now, as we look back 
 upon the years when his voice and his commanding form were 
 familiar to us, how large a part he had in impressing upon us 
 his own noble conceptions of life and truth and duty. We shall 
 cherish through our coming years the inspiring memory of his 
 character as teacher, Christian, and friend. 
 
 T. H. ROBINSON, '50. 
 ALICE I. JONES, '91. 
 
 Committee.
 
 RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE OBERLIN COLLEGE ALUMNI 
 ASSOCIATION, AT CHICAGO, ILL., MAY 25, 1894. 
 
 Whereas, on March 29, 1894, the life of Professor John M. 
 Ellis came to an untimely end in this city while en route for 
 Oberlin: 
 
 Resolved, that we are rendered peculiarly mindful of the 
 great loss of our teacher and friend by his sudden death in our 
 midst. 
 
 Resolved, that we spread on our records and send to his 
 family these minutes expressive of our sympathy for them, in 
 their bereavement, and of our recognition of his great usefulness 
 to the College. 
 
 As student, instructor, and professor he had for more than 
 forty years been connected with Oberlin College. He had ab- 
 sorbed and become inspired by the spirit of the founders, and 
 did much to preserve their ideal through all the changes of time. 
 
 He exerted a vigorous influence for good in the affairs of 
 the town, in the work of the church, and in every department of 
 the College. He was a public-spirited man who gave freely of 
 his time, his strength, his thought, and his means for the man- 
 ifold needs of the grosving institution. His life was inseparably 
 interwoven with' the history of the College* and, so long as it 
 continues, his memory will be kept green. 
 
 Resolved, that through his devotion to the college of which 
 we are members, we have become the beneficiaries of a debt 
 which we can never repay to him. But that our return must be 
 made to the school which he loved and to the principles which 
 it teaches. 
 
 We therefore here resolve that it is the privilege of us who 
 are spared to carry forward the work to which his life and that 
 of his predecessors were so nobly given; that we so improve our 
 privilege that they shall not have sacrificed in vain; and that we 
 here anew devote ourselves to the promotion of that union of 
 learning and labor, of plain living and high thinking, of culture, 
 patriotism, and true religion which they, and he, held dear.
 
 22 
 
 RESOLUTIONS, ADOPTED BY THE MEDINA CONFERENCE, AT ITS 
 
 ANNUAL MEETING, OBERLIN-, APRIL 26, 1894. 
 God in his infinite wisdom has removed from our midst 
 our honored and beloved brother, Professor J. M. Ellis. We, 
 as members of the Medina Conference of Congregational 
 Churches, desire to put on record our sense of personal loss and 
 bereavement in the death of this brother. Professor Ellis was 
 a valued and useful member of this Conference. His interest in 
 the meetings of our churches and all that pertained to their wel- 
 fare and upbuilding was not merely official and honorary, but 
 real, vital, and personal. He was uniformly present at our meet- 
 ings and helpful in all our counsels. We desire to extend to 
 this Second Church of Oberlin, of which he was a most valued 
 member, and to his bereaved family, our heartfelt sympathy, and 
 we join in commending them to the loving care of Him who 
 doeth all things well. 
 
 TRIBUTE OF THE PRESS. 
 
 Professor John M. Ellis, who for thirty-six years had been a professor 
 in Oberlin College, and had lived in the town from early boyhood, was 
 throughout life one of the truest and most characteristic products of the 
 spirit, life and culture of Oberlin ; of the Oberlin College which can never 
 be thought of apart from the Oberlin Town. His identification all these 
 years was as perfect with the life of the town as with that of the college. 
 With the utmost simplicity of motive, it was remarkable how many-sided 
 were his living interests ; and his interests in any matter were always of the 
 most practical, often of the most pragmatical, nature. He had no cant, no 
 pretense, no hobbies, and very few prejudices. If not accounted brilliant, his 
 candor and fair-mindedness made the action of his mind not only sane and 
 clear, but luminous in its perception and practical judgments. His depart- 
 ment of instruction was that of Greek, and later that of Philosophy ; but from 
 first to last he was wholly devoted to Oberlin, and to the whole of Oberlin. 
 He was indeed one of the most wholesome of men. No life could have a 
 nobler purpose than his, to do the utmost in his power for others. As Pres- 
 ident Ballantine says of him, the greatest service he rendered to Oberlin was 
 in letting all see the sublime unity and unselfishness of his life a living ex- 
 ample of the type of character which that community was founded to pro- 
 duce. As Professor G. F. Wright remarked, for thirty years he combined in 
 himself more perhaps than anyone else the qualities which both promoted 
 and represented the totality of Oberlin interests. Xo students, says Professor
 
 Monroe, ever left his recitation room without "a sense of encouragement," 
 without feeling that they could do something in the world with the powers 
 they had. And so, better than a dozen lectureships on applied Christianity 
 was the incessant instructiveness of his owa personality and life, so vigilant 
 and so instant in response wherever practical sagacity and a great heart with 
 aptitude for all kinds of affairs were wanted. In this respect, pertinent to 
 him would have been the remark of Emerson, " I cannot hear your words 
 your actions speak so loud." No amount of talk about "civics" and "soci- 
 ology" and so on could have had such influence over the thousands of Ober- 
 lin students as the factual witness day after day of this man along with his 
 like-minded associates, matching the activities of each day with its own op- 
 portunity. For, he was exactly the same in the town-meeting as in the 
 class-room ; and as sure to be at the one as at the other. When Mayor of 
 the town nobody thought of asking whether or not he would enforce the laws. 
 As Chief of the Oberlin Fire Department he was an expert. And then, a 
 crowning grace of his unselfishness, as of all the qualities which made his 
 scholarship, his ministry, his citizenship, was the unconsciousness of it all 
 which left him "at leisure from himself" to go on unhindered in doing the 
 needed thing at the right time. 
 
 And thus it was that, both as fact and continuing factor, at once as per- 
 sonal resultant and in turn producing cause, according to his measure and in 
 all his relations to the community, the college, the church, the common- 
 wealth and the country, Professor Ellis notably illustrated the qualities, 
 rather the combination and adjustment of qualities, which the peculiar con- 
 ditions and still aching problems of modern society are so anxiously calling 
 for. Editorial by the Rev. Simeon Gilbert, D. D., in The Advance for 
 April 12, 1894. 
 
 One of the original and most honored members of Oberlin's Faculty is 
 dead. A few months ago Professor Ellis went with his wife to California, a 
 very sick man, but hopeful. The change did not benefit him, and when 
 told there was no hope of recovery, he desired to start immediately for home. 
 He died in Chicago Thursday morning. 
 
 Professor Ellis studied at the College in its infancy; pursued the theo- 
 logical course, graduated from it with high honors and accepted a professor- 
 ship of the Greek language. He had been connected with the College in 
 various capacities for half a century, and has discharged every duty devolved 
 upon him with ability and distinction. He was a fitting representative of 
 Oberlin theology, and that class of noble men who built Oberlin College in 
 the wilderness, from nothing to its present high and world-wide reputation. 
 Highly respected and esteemed by all whose good fortune it was to know him 
 as a teacher, adviser or citizen, he will always be remembered as a man of 
 noble character, rare intelligence and scholarly attainments. As a professor 
 of the dead languages, he will be remembered throughout the world. Pro- 
 fessor Ellis visited Grand Rapids several times in the interests of Oberlin
 
 24 
 
 College, and while here called on his former pupils and preached several 
 sermons in the Park Congregational Church. Many of our citizens will re- 
 member him. We testify our respect for his memory, our admiration for 
 his virtues, and our belief in the constant honest purposes of his life. That 
 his genial courtesy and quiet dignity will be long remembered among us, 
 and his untiring energy in promoting the interests of his pupils be worthy of 
 emulation throughout the entire country, we have no doubt. We tender to 
 the family of Professor Ellis our heartfelt sympathy in this their sad afflic- 
 tion, still aware that wounded hearts cannot be healed by human sympathy 
 alone. His life work is done but well done. His crowning characteristics 
 were those of faith and Christian living. He lives in death. C. G. Swens- 
 berg in the Grand Rapids (Mich.} Herald for April 8, 1894. 
 
 In the death of Professor Ellis, Oberlin College loses one of its best 
 friends; one of its most devoted teachers; one of the men who, putting the 
 work of more than a generation into it, has brought it up to its present com- 
 manding position. None knew him but to respect and honor him. His ideals 
 of duty were lofty. In the service of his Master he counted no sacrifice too 
 great. The writer of these words will not soon forget the work he did among 
 the soldiers in the armies of the Potomac and the James, and at Richmond 
 just after the surrender, nor the interest he took in the social questions which 
 even then were just beginning to press for a solution. He was one of the 
 men who believed in the adequacy of the principles of the gospel for the 
 settlement of all difficulties. The Congregationalist, April j, 1894. 
 
 The sudden death at Chicago yesterday of Professor J. M. Ellis of Ober- 
 lin College will be felt as a personal affliction by very many residents of 
 Cleveland, who have known and esteemed him as a teacher and friend in 
 years that are past. Professor Ellis has been connected with Oberlin Col- 
 lege as pupil, tutor and professor nearly forty years. His life has been de- 
 voted to good works and the memory of his deeds and influence will be 
 abiding. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, March jo, 1894. 
 
 MESSAGES OF SYMPATHY. 
 
 The following are extracts from a few of the many letters 
 received by Mrs. Ellis from friends at a distance: 
 
 CINCINNATI, April 11, 1894. 
 
 My affection and admiration for John has never lessened from the high 
 measure it had with me when I first knew him as a classmate in 1846. It 
 needed the intimacy of boys preparing for college to give the truest idea of 
 his mental lucidity and easy grasp of every study which made the student's 
 work easy to him, and made high rank in a class seem so natural that no one 
 wondered at it. So far from seeking to show superior excellence, he had 
 from the beginning a contempt for exhibition that made him rather hide his
 
 25 
 
 power, under a natural modesty that treated it as nothing but what was a 
 matter of course, and least of all to be proud of. I think those boyish esti- 
 mates are the truest and best. We knew him through and through, and 
 consequently knew how honest, how pure, how unselfish, how strong he was. 
 
 If we all have sometimes wished he had not so many cares and so varied 
 duties thrust upon him, so that by narrowing his field he might have made 
 his great powers more dominant in some single line of thought and world- 
 teaching, I am sure his sense of duty was a better guide, and in doing what- 
 ever the College needed he has left his impress more durably upon it and 
 upon generations of students yet to come than he could have done in any 
 other way. 
 
 Sympathizing deeply and earnestly with you in your great present grief 
 as I do, I yet cannot indulge in mere grief I am led to think of him as of a 
 character so high and so safe in the list of true worthies, that I involuntarily 
 yield to the impulse to admire rather than to weep to thank God for the life 
 he lived rather than bewail the close of it. Is it not a precious fruit of such 
 a life that the satisfaction we all must feel in its full and rounded perform- 
 ance of duty softens even our mourning, and gives a reality to the immortal 
 part of him that makes even his death seem unreal in the comparison ? 
 
 You have the unspeakable comfort of knowing all this better than any 
 of us, and we can only help to assuage your natural sorrowing by reminding 
 you how much there is in the last thirty years to glory and rejoice in, and 
 how slight the break will hereafter seem in a holy and everlasting comrade- 
 ship. 
 
 J. D. Cox. 
 
 BOSTON, April 3, 1804. 
 
 No one in Oberlin save President Fairchild was so intimately associated 
 with my life while a member of the Faculty ; and I can hardly think what 
 Oberlin will be without Professor Ellis. The College, the Prudential Com- 
 mittee, the Alumni, the Church, the Town, the Conference, Forest Street ; 
 
 how he will be missed in them all. 
 
 JUDSON SMITH. 
 
 MARCH 31, 1894. 
 
 Professor Ellis was so staunch and upright! He was good to lean upon^ 
 I can never cease to remember with keen gratitude the patient kindness, and 
 the calm good judgment with which he upheld me when I was fainting under 
 
 the deepest trouble and perplexity of my life. 
 
 MARTHA E. FRENCH. 
 
 CLEVELAND, OHIO, April i, 1894. 
 To Mrs. J. M. Ellis, Oberlin, Ohio : 
 
 DEAR MADAM: The Session and members of the Euclid Avenue Pres- 
 byterian Church send to you a message of sympathy in your hour of trial. 
 While we have no right to penetrate the inner sanctuary of your grief, we
 
 26 
 
 give our prayers with your own to the end that holy and true consolation may 
 come to you even in this supreme sorrow. 
 
 The ministrations of Professor Ellis to this congregation during a period 
 of transition and anxiety were helpful and most wise. He gave us of that 
 wisdom and prudence, of that hope in the future, with which God had so 
 conspicuously endowed him, His honored servant. The memory of our friend 
 is sacred within these walls where his voice has so often resounded. 
 
 May we not send back to you that passage of Holy Scripture which he 
 himself declared to one of our members to have been "especially helpful" 
 to him Isaiah 1. 10: "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obey- 
 eth the voice of. his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let 
 him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." 
 Respectfully, 
 
 JAS. HANDVSIDE, 
 
 Clerk of Session. 
 
 MT. HOLYOKE COLLEGE, 
 SOUTH HADLEY, MASS., April 5, 1894. 
 
 There was not the shadow of an unrighteous thought in him pure and 
 true, devoted to duty and truth; the friend of everybody, unselfish in deed 
 as in thought. Everybody trusted and loved him. I rejoice that I ever knew 
 him, and that my children knew him, and felt the force of his strong char- 
 acter. 
 
 ELIZABETH S. MEAD. 
 
 YORK, NEB., April 5, 1894. 
 
 Professor Ellis had been our teacher and friend, and his Christ-like spirit 
 endeared him to us all. The great student world will mourn his loss, and 
 Oberlin College will greatly miss him as a teacher, manager, and a Christian 
 
 light. 
 
 E. H. BAKER. 
 
 SOUTHOLD, N. Y., April 15, 1894. 
 
 It was such a true and beautiful life, that there can now be only sorrow, 
 and no sting, for those who are left. And we can bear sorrow. It must be 
 such a happy thought for you that he influenced and inspired so many lives, 
 and opened up to them such new and helpful avenues of thought, that all 
 their after life cannot but be changed and bettered and broadened. 
 
 LOUISE C. POND. 
 
 DENVER, COLO., April 5, 1894. 
 
 I cannot but be glad that my college days came in his time, and that 
 among many precious memories I have that of his kindly face and cheery 
 words. 
 
 KATE COWAN JAMES, '89 O. C.
 
 27 
 
 OAK PARK, ILL., April i, 1894. 
 
 We all remember with much gratitude your husband's devotion to each 
 of our college interests. I enjoyed especially my work with him in the Evi- 
 dences of Christianity; and it is satisfactory to recall how clear his convic- 
 tions and understanding of the great truths of Christianity always were. 
 Memories of his life will strengthen the lives of many of his students, I am 
 sure. 
 
 ANGINETTE B. HEMINGWAY. 
 
 i 
 
 MINNEAPOLIS, MINN., March 30, 1894. 
 
 A good man has gone. He will be greatly missed. He has done a large 
 and useful work, and a work which will go on and on without ceasing. 
 Thirty years ago last fall I began my acquaintance with him, when, in the 
 late fall of '63, I went to Oberlin carrying a letter of introduction to him. 
 He received me cordially, and counseled me wisely. We have always been 
 good friends since, and our friendship has grown. I often went to him for 
 advice, and always got good counsel. It would have been better for me had 
 I always followed his advice. And I am only one of a great number who 
 can and will testify the same thing. Only God can measure the good he has 
 done in his quiet, unselfish, wise, energetic life in Oberlin. 
 
 S. V. S. FISHER. 
 
 ALLEGHENY, PA., April 30, 1894. 
 
 When I think of him it is not of his position in the College, of his schol- 
 arship, or any of his public relations. , I did not know him much in these. 
 It is of his large and open heartedness, the honesty and guilelessness and 
 unselfishness of his nature I knew him as a friend and brother. We were 
 not in the same class, and so had not the bond of classmates. Our lives were 
 soon thrown apart. We seldom met. We were in different churches and 
 each loved his own church, so that it has been somewhat contrary to cus- 
 tom if not to nature, that our friendship should live on. . . . From the 
 days when we sat beside each other in the choir and sang in serenades and in 
 concerts, we continued to think of each other. I shall hold him in hearty 
 memory for the rest of my days. He was the one in Oberlin that most 
 
 strongly drew me there. 
 
 T. H. ROBINSON. 
 
 ST. PAUL, MINN., April 17, 1894. 
 
 He was a friend of my boyhood. I well remember the day he became a 
 Christian and the powerful influence his decision had upon my conscience. 
 He at once became an ideal to me, and for fifty years I have drawn from his. 
 consecrated and scholarly manhood deeper inspiration. It has not been my 
 privilege to often meet him, but my thoughts of Oberlin have always included 
 
 him as a part of its pure and exalted life. 
 
 EDWARD P. INGERSOLL.
 
 28 
 
 LAKE ERIE SEMINARY, 
 PAINESVILLE, OHIO, April 14, 1894. 
 
 The tributes from the associates of Professor Ellis are beautiful and 
 true, especially those words of Professor Monroe: "A purpose so noble, a 
 self-denial so complete, a consecration so perfect, a temper so candid and 
 fair, a life so absolutely devoted to the work of Christ." And the words of 
 Dr. Fairchild, coming straight from his heart out of an experience of fifty 
 years. There must have been great comfort for you in such words, and the 
 
 comfort will remain. 
 
 MARY EVANS. 
 
 REDLANDS, CAL., March 30, 1894. 
 
 I can never forget the Professor's kindness to me in his father's home 
 while I was a student in the Seminary. He was a constant helper and in- 
 spirer in that work. We went to Oberlin, strangers, but through him we 
 found home and friends. And then his brotherly interest in all these years 
 his hearty welcome to his own model home and not the least his kindly 
 interest in our children as they went to Oberlin, make this event one of pecu- 
 liar tenderness and sorrow. 
 
 O. H. SPOOR. 
 
 GRINNELL, IOWA, April i, 1894. 
 
 The past is rich in happy, honorable memories; the future radiant with 
 the hopes inspired by the faith he cherished. We can change nothing; in- 
 finite love infinitely wise has done just what is best. 
 
 L. F. PARKER. 
 
 HINSDALE, MASS., April 2, 1894. 
 
 I have known him long and have loved him better every year. Such a 
 clear head is not always with such a warm heart. Such manly independence 
 of thought does not in most men find it so easy to co-operate with fellow- 
 workers. 
 
 J. H. LAIRD. 
 
 I 
 
 NEW YORK, March 30, 1894. 
 
 New York Oberlin Alumni offer warmest sympathy and love and mourn 
 with you. 
 
 R. T. HALL. 
 
 NEW YORK, April 13, 1894. 
 
 DEAR MRS. ELLIS: The knowledge of your husband's death was first 
 received by most of the New York Alumni at the annual meeting of the New 
 York Association recently held. His presence with us two years ago was 
 still so fresh in the recollection of most of us, and the love and reverence 
 which we, in common with all those who have learned from him, had for him, 
 was so strong that our hearts went out in sympathy for you and your chil-
 
 2 9 
 
 dren who have suffered such unspeakable loss. It was the unanimous desire 
 of those present to express this sympathy, and the Secretary was therefore 
 directed to convey such expression. 
 
 It is in obedience to this expressed wish that I write and tell you, what 
 you already know, that we, his former pupils, feel that we have suffered loss 
 with you, and grieve with you. 
 
 WILLIAM M. BENNETT, 
 
 Secretary. 
 
 GRAND RAPIDS, MICH., April 5, 1894. 
 
 He was a friend to me, and helped me long before I realized it. He was 
 a noble, stalwart figure, toward whose dimensions I unconsciously aspired. 
 He was a preacher of righteousness, not only in the pulpit and in the class- 
 room, but in his majestic character and life; and long before any of us came 
 to know his teachings, we felt the power and the uplift of John Ellis, and 
 this was true not only of me, but of my brother Dwight before me. In- 
 stinctively we had turned to this man as one who represented all that was 
 manly and honest and noble. . . . 
 
 It will be strange to think of Oberlin without Professor Ellis. In the 
 dark days of Oberlin in the '70*5, when the outlook was discouraging and the 
 means limited, and the buildings were shabby, it was the hearty, cheerful 
 courage of Professor Ellis that made all happy in the feeling that brighter 
 
 days were to come. 
 
 DAN F. BRADLEY. 
 
 RIPON COLLEGE, 
 RIPON, Wis., April 9. 1894. 
 
 I have always regarded Professor Ellis as one of the remarkable men 
 among the superior leaders at Oberlin. His great breadth and solidity of 
 judgment, his genuine and wide charity, his Christian simplicity and con- 
 stant faith, made him a man of extraordinary influence over all with whom 
 he had any personal relations. Other leaders in Oberlin may have been 
 more brilliant than he, but on the whole I doubt whether any of them have 
 been more grandly intelligent. An uncommon, loving man. He will be a 
 great loss to Oberlin College and to the State of Ohio. 
 
 EDWARD H. MERRELL. 
 
 NEW YORK, April 7, 1894. 
 
 He was one of God's noblemen. His heart was well adjusted to his 
 manly frame. His deep religious experience, his clear insight into God's 
 word, his tireless devotion to the interests of his Master's kingdom, his un- 
 faltering love for the College, which owes so much of its life and growth to 
 him, his warm welcome to his friends, his fatherly affection for the great 
 multitude of young people continually passing through Oberlin College and 
 Seminary, give him a very warm place in a multitude of hearts. He will be 
 greatly missed in Oberlin. If I apprehend rightly, no man has done more to
 
 3 
 
 build up that College than he. It is the best monument he or any other man 
 could have as a memorial of a most faithful and devoted life service. 
 
 L. H. COBB. 
 
 CHICAGO, March 29, 1894. 
 
 His strong positive character counted as a force with every one of his 
 scholars one that they never can forget. His prudence never spared; his 
 charity never wasted. He loved all. He helped all. We feel like a great 
 host of children. We feel as though we had lost our leader. 
 
 MERRITT STARR. 
 
 MARIETTA COLLEGE, 
 MARIETTA, OHIO, April 10, 1894. 
 
 He was one of my best and closest friends, our friendship beginning 
 while we were classmates in the Theological Seminary at Oberlin, and con- 
 tinued throughout our lives. 
 
 When we were together at Oberlin a mutual friend, now Rev. Dr. Mc- 
 Kinley, was wont to say of him ("John Ellis," as we all called him), that he 
 was the ripest and best fruit of Oberlin culture. I was glad to agree with 
 that judgment. He has done a most useful, important, and honorable work 
 for education and religion at Oberlin and for Oberlin. I doubt if any man 
 has done more than he to make Oberlin College and Oberlin village what 
 
 they are to-day. 
 
 N. J. MORRISON. 
 
 HARTFORD, CONN., April 3, 1894. 
 
 We have not lost that blessed soul, that prince among men, that friend 
 whose affection was so deep and tender. Even those of us who had him for 
 a dear friend were unspeakably rich; but how much richer you and your 
 dear children, who had him for your very own. We are all rich still, and if 
 our hearts are heavy, we will let the God of all comfort, who knows how to 
 comfort us in all our trials, comfort us with His peace. 
 
 JOHN A. R. ROGERS. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C., March 31, 1894. 
 
 Having known him so long and so well, and loved and admired him so- 
 much, we cannot but feel that we too are personally bereft, and that the 
 College, the Church, and the world have met with a loss that cannot be filled. 
 While mourning his death, we can but thank God for such lives, and such 
 men, whose influence can never die. And the good they have done will ever 
 
 live. 
 
 MR. AND MRS. C. H. BUXTON. 
 
 CHICAGO, April 2, 1894. 
 
 More than once when I was in need of help, he gave it to me as no one 
 else could have done. Hundreds will write or think just such words. 
 
 ELIZABETH K. CLARK.
 
 3 1 
 
 NEW YORK, March 30, 1894. 
 
 His life and character will ever be a bright and beautiful thing in our 
 memory, and his loving friendship one of the most precious possessions that 
 has ever come into our lives. 
 
 WILLIAM KINCAID. 
 
 ROME, ITALY, April 21, 1894. 
 
 I feel very thankful that I had the privilege of studying under Professor 
 Ellis and knowing him as a friend, and I hope I may never fall below the 
 ideals which he taught me, not so much by word as by his life. I think of 
 him now as I used so often to see him in chapel offer his chair to some be- 
 lated young lady. It was an act of thoughtfulness and gallantry, a little 
 thing to speak of, perhaps, but it was just one of the many things which made 
 him so loved by his students. Many young men in New York have told me, 
 since I graduated, that after they left college, the Professor who remained in 
 their memories as the most esteemed and as having most influenced their 
 lives for good, was Professor Ellis. This is my testimony too. 
 
 AGNES E. WARNER. 
 
 DENVER, COLO., April 28, 1894. 
 
 Professor Ellis' place in the hearts of the Oberlin people and students 
 was indeed a large one. How much dear President Fairchild will miss him! 
 He was so close to him and in sympathy with him. We remember with 
 great pleasure our meeting him abroad and the kindly attention and service 
 he rendered us. He was the noble Christian gentleman, that we sometimes 
 fail to find in all places. But we cannot doubt that through his unselfish ex- 
 ample others have been won to the better life, and his influence will never 
 cease to exist. 
 
 IONE M. HANNA. 
 
 FRIEDENAU BEI BERLIN, April 17, 1894. 
 
 I can hardly make it seem at all possible that Professor Ellis is really 
 gone from among us. I had come so to revere and love him that it seems to 
 me in an unusual degree a personal loss. Not many men could have proved 
 so considerate as he, in the position of an older associate in a department. 
 His kindness and ready co-operation have been constant. I can never forget 
 his high and unselfish spirit. I have never known him to fail to respond 
 sympathetically to any high appeal in any thing. No other vacancy has 
 
 meant to me what this means. 
 
 HENRY C. KING. 
 
 HONOLULU, April 18, 1894. 
 I enjoyed his sermons as much or more than those of any one else in 
 
 Oberlin. His death was a great shock to me. 
 
 MARY CASTLE.
 
 32 
 
 ROLLINS COLLEGE, 
 
 WINTER PARK, FLORIDA, April 2, 1894. 
 
 I cannot tell you how my heart aches for you. Nor can I tell you how 
 much I have learned to love and respect Professor Ellis. In more than one 
 place of most unusual stress he bore himself so nobly, so bravely, so unsel- 
 fishly. Such a life is a permanent possession for us all. Death cannot touch it. 
 
 CHARLES G. FAIRCHILD. 
 
 PACIFIC GROVE, CAL., March 30, 1894. 
 
 He was an Oberlin man. He never knew how to spare himself. He saw 
 duty only to do it. We all hoped that his life might be prolonged for other 
 years of work and counsel and, not least, for further companionship with our 
 dear old President; but we have many compensating thoughts of the good 
 man and all he has been to the College and the church and the town and the 
 state and the world, and to his friends, his children, and to you. 
 
 We can only say, as President Fairchild has said to us so often and taught 
 us to believe, "Our Father makes no mistakes." 
 
 MR. AND MRS. EDWIN SIDNEY WILLIAMS. 
 
 Los ANGELES, CAL., April 3, 1894. 
 
 It is very pleasant to think of him in our home, lying upon the lounge or 
 sitting by the window in the sunshine. He was so quiet and patient, so little 
 trouble, and so interested in our conversation about old friends and ac- 
 quaintances, although he was so ill. But best of all, he was so perfectly re- 
 signed to all that was before him, whether it was life or death, and when he 
 learned that it was surely death, so calm and undisturbed. It was wonderful. 
 His presence here was like a benediction upon our home. 
 
 MR. AND MRS. HENDERSON JUDD. 
 
 REDLANDS, CAL., March 31, 1894. 
 
 I cannot tell you what sacred joy will ever be the memory of the days 
 and hours given us to minister to his comfort and happiness while under our 
 roof here. His presence was a constant blessing and benediction for which 
 we shall always be profoundly thankful. 
 
 SAMUEL F. COOPER.
 
 A ooo so?
 
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