Appendix A: Excerpt on George B. Ide from the Ministers of the PBA

George Barton Ide: b. Feb. 17, 1804, Coventry, Vt.; d. Apr. 16, 1872, Springfield, Mass.; . . . son of John Ide (1785-1860), a notable Baptist minister in Vermont. “The son gave early proof of extraordinary talent and high ambition. He first selected the profession of the law, and for a time studied with a view to prepare himself for that service….Christ, however, had marked this youth for a nobler destiny” (obituary); he was a vocal skeptic before his conversion, but after preached “with Pauline ardor” in Northern Vermont; . . . “For two years after his graduation, he remained a preacher at large, going from place to place as opportunities opened, often holding meetings in the open air; and his bold demonstrations of the truth and fervid appeals were blessed as the means of a widespread religious awakening and a glorious harvest of souls, upon which he often, in later years, looked back with grateful interest. The fondness and facility for such work, thus early secured, were never lost” (obituary); . . . supply pastor, Derby, Vt., ca. 1830-1831, Passumpsic, Vt., 1831-1832, pastor, Brandon, Vt., Nov. 1832-1834, while also conducting a series of meetings at Bennington, Vt., winter 1834, First Baptist, Albany, N.Y., 1834-1835, Federal Street (later Clarendon Street) Baptist, Boston, (unanimously called in Oct.) Dec. 30, 1835-Dec. 1837, when he resigned (though he stayed on until Jan.; it was during this time in Boston that his wife began to show signs of insanity), the recommendation of William T. Brantly, Sr. resulted in his being called to First Baptist, Phila., Nov. 19, 1837, where he was pastor, Jan. (he and his wife joined Oct. 15,) 1838-Sept. 13, 1852, while also serving as president, American Baptist Publication Society, 1838-1841, and at which church, during a revival in 1843, 110 persons were baptized, First Baptist, Springfield, Mass., Jan. 1853-Apr. 16, 1872. Ide’s concern for the training of Baptist ministers was such that on Sept. 18, 1839, a special meeting was held at First Baptist, Phila., in which he offered a resolution advocating the formation of “The Philadelphia Educational Society,” whose name was changed a year later to the “Pennsylvania Baptist Ministerial Education Society.” In the Society’s first 60 years it aided in the education of over 800 students, who were said to have baptized about 100,000 converts. . . . Two funeral services were held at his passing, one in Springfield and the other at First Baptist, Phila., where his body was interred. . . . “Dr. Ide was a prince among preachers, one of the most brilliant and effective of our denomination….How much his nature and habits were modified by his great domestic calamity [i.e. his wife’s insanity], and by the physical malady under which he suffered for many years, we cannot tell. But these great trials must have affected such a spirit tremendously. And his career teaches us this lesson, that a minister may maintain self-control and achieve magnificent success in spite of most depressing influences”—obituary.