Rev. RUSSELL TOMLINSON had a long and unbroken pastorate of twenty-seven years in Plymouth, Mass. He was born in Newtown, Conn., Oct. 1, 1808, and died in Plymouth, March 4, 1878. In his early ministry he entered the field as a missionary in Western New York, where he labored for two years, travelling on horseback hundreds of miles, and preaching wherever opportunity offered, receiving slender compensation for his services, and often none at all. He was settled at Le Roy, Buffalo, Ridgeway, and Rochester, N. Y., before his removal to Plymouth. He resigned his charge in the latter place in 1866, and thenceforth devoted himself to the practice of medicine of the Homoeopathic School, to which he had previously given much study, obtaining a fair practice and a good reputation.
Mr. Tomlinson was a very positive man, of strong will and inflexible purpose. He was of such dignified demeanor that strangers were likely to suppose him cold and austere in his nature; but those who knew him intimately speak in highest terms of his kind and tender heart, that was instant in response to any appeal from the unfortunate, the sick, or afflicted. After his decease, instances of his unostentatious charity came to light that were never suspected by his nearest friends. He was strongly interested in the temperance reform, and was through life an earnest and unflinching worker in that cause. He was interested and active in educational enterprises, serving for many years on the school board of Plymouth, and under Governor Boutwell he was appointed a member of the School Board of Massachusetts. He was a preacher of no ordinary talent, an honest and devout Christian, a faithful worker in the Church, to the end that he might induce men to become followers of Him whose religion is not in "the letter that killeth, but in the Spirit that giveth life."
Rev. DE WITT CLINTON TOMLINSON was born in Gaines, Orleans County, N. Y., Aug. 24, 1824, and died at Wedron, Ill., July 27, 1881. He prepared for the ministry at Clinton, N. Y., under the supervision of Rev. Dr. T. J. Sawyer, and began to preach in 1846. He had twelve pastorates in New York and at the West, also one in Boston, Mass., during twenty years of his ministry. He was at Chicago, Ill., in 1880, and maintained his residence there until his death. He was a vigorous, fervent, and faithful man. With a physique that seemed to defy fatigue and disease, he was able to do a vast amount of pastoral and other work. He had a peculiar aptness for the financial work of the church. He was employed in soliciting aid successively for the Canton Theological School, for the Murray Fund, and for Buchtel College in Ohio, and his labors for each were successful. His last employment was as State Superintendent for Illinois, in which he was engaged nearly up to the time of his death. In the midst of his strength and usefulness, he was stricken with disease at a grove meeting, where, although slightly indisposed, he preached what proved his last sermon. His work had been well done.