THE REVERENDS BENJAMIN F. AND GEORGE BALCOM

(Dec. 31, 1879)

   Last week we copied a notice from an Elmira daily announcing the sudden death, from heart disease, of Rev. Benjamin F. Balcom, near Corning, Steuben county, N. Y.  A letter from his brother confirmed the sad intelligence, and was followed in a few hours by a postal card announcing that on the next morning Rev. George Balcom of Cawker City, Kansas, had died from hernia after a protracted illness, so that Dec. 20th and 21st, 1879, must be a day of sad memories to the relatives and friends. 

   Benjamin F. Balcom was born at Oxford, Jan 10th, 1810, and spent his early years in this town and Greene, but the great pine woods of Steuben county offered strong inducements to all lumbermen, and he with his family left here to make a home in an almost unbroken section of that county, and his strong right arm and indomitable industry soon cleared the way and he lived to see beautiful homesteads taking the place of the woods which fell swiftly before the axe of the pioneers, while the wolves and panthers were driven to see safer localities, out of range of unerring marksmen.

   George Balcom, the youngest of nine children, was born at Oxford, in February 1823, and lived in this county most of the time until within the past fifteen years.  Neither of these brothers evinced in early life any desire to enter the ministry, but both of them entered upon the work soon after conversion.  Benjamin was not a settled pastor, but widely and favorably known, was often called to attend funerals, or officiate at weddings and kindred occasions among his townsmen, and carried the same earnestness and will to do good to the service of his Master.  George took a wider field, and traversed a great potion of the North and West in his mission as an evangelist.

   Hon. Ransom Balcom, late Justice of the Supreme Court, died Jan. 6th, 1879, in Binghamton, and was brought to Oxford for interment.  Mrs. Calvin Cole, sister of these three, died April 1st, 1879, in Oxford, and is buried near her brother, and Benjamin is buried in Steuben county, while George sleeps the last sleep in the historic soil of Kansas, where he leaves a widow and the three younger children, a son residing in New York.

   Two brothers, Lyman, of Painted Post, and Uri T., of Chicago, and two sisters, Mrs. Pearsall, of Owego, and Mrs. Rhodes, of Fond du Lac, Wis., are the survivors of this family, and may truthfully say:

"And we on divers shores now cast,

Shall meet when life's dark storm is passed

Safe in our Father's home at last."

NOTE;  DATE WAS HAND-WRITTEN ON THE ARTICLE.