THE HISTORY OF REV. HOSEA VISE

by Paul Kornmeyer
Pub. Goshen Trails, Vol. 10, No. 2; April, 1974, p. 13
Printed by permission

           Rev. Hosea Vise, a pioneer minister of the Missionary Baptist church, was born in 1811 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the seventh of nine children, son of Nathaniel and Darcus Meadows Vise, the former of Welch descent and born in 1773 in South Carolina, the latter of English descent and a descendant of Pocahontas, born in 1778 in South Carolina.  The parents went to Spartanburg County, South Carolina when children and were reared, married and lived on a farm until their death in 1857.  Nathaniel Vise fought in the Revolution at Utah (Eutaw) Springs and Guilford C. H. (Guildord Courthouse) in the Carolinas and was a member of the Virginia Blues with Commander Washington at the defeat of Gen. Braddock on the Monongahela River.  He died in 1786 at the age of 103, the mother's father lived to be 107.¹

With the ordinary education of his native country in the year 1835 Hosea Vise moved to Posey County, Indiana.  He was married to Lettie Moore, November 29, 1831.  One peculiar thing about this wedding was the fact that Rev. Hosea Vise refused to have wine served, although it was the custom at weddings at that time.  From that date and as long as he lived he fought for the cause of temperance.            His father and mother were Baptists.  His wife Lettie Moore was reared by Methodist parents and was a Baptist from the date of her conversion until her death in 1886.

           To this union were born five children, three died in early youth and before they moved to Illinois.  Two sons, Carey S. Vise, an eloquent lawyer in the short time he was permitted to practice until he died in 1861, and Eliphus H. Vise who was a farmer and died in 1885.

           Soon after Rev. Hosea Vise came to Indiana he decided to move to Illinois, Hamilton County and there began expounding the Gospel to the pioneers of early Egypt.  He cleared land and farmed at the same time.  He was the owner of the first two-horse wagon in this part of Illinois and made the first pair of boots he ever wore.  He was the first superintendent of schools of Illinois, Hamilton County² and was among the first pioneer school teachers.  He never believed in punishing children with the rod at school and was a successful teacher for many years.

           In 1864 he opened a store in Macedonia, Hamilton County, Illinois.  In 1861 he enlisted in Company D, 6th Illinois Cavalry during the Civil War.  He served as Captain for 19 months, at which time he was honorably discharged at LaGrange, Tennessee.  After coming to Illinois and to the year 1871 he had been farm superintendent, merchant, minister, notary public and post master at Macedonia.  After 1871 he served as pension agent for 10 year.  He then sold his farm and bought property in Franklin County, Northern Township, and lived here with his wife, Lettie, daughter of Elsworth and Elizabeth Moore of South Carolina.  She was born in 1814 in South Carolina and died October, 1886.  At the time Hosea Vise wrote this history (?) he was 76 years old and had preached the gospel for 59 years.³  The last and crowning effort of his life was to establish the Macedonia Baptist Church.  He presided at the organization of the Franklin Baptist Association and served as moderator for 38 years, missing but two meetings while he served in the Civil War.

           He delivered the first temperance lecture in Franklin County and Hamilton County.  His friends were much opposed to his delivering this lecture for fear he would be mobbed.  He assisted in the organization of more churches than any other minister in his day and probably since.  He was pastor in the oldest Baptist Church in this part of the state of 22 years in succession.

           Before the second election of Lincoln he was a democrat and then until 1884 he was a republican.  His first vote was for Jackson.  He voted for St. John, prohibition candidate.  He was a member of Royal Lodge 807 A. F. & A. M. of Illinois.  He was buried by this order at Antioch Cemetery in Hamilton County by the side of his deceased wife.  He was pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church from its organization to the time of his death.  The last sermon he preached on Saturday before the last Sunday in January 1897 from the 23rd Psalms of David, having to hold to the pulpit to deliver his message.  He died the 11th day of February leaving his wife Lydia Browning Vise⁴ and three grandchildren, Harvey C. Vise, Ada C. Fisher and Easter C. Akin.

^{1.  Apparently the Revolutionary War veteran was John Vise, father of Nathaniel.  Were Nathaniel born in 1773, he would have been too young for service.  Ancestry Record of the Harrelson Family, Harrelson, Floyd and Margaret Bokeelia, Fla., 1967, p. 3.  Nathaniel Vise as a son of John and Frances (Roebuck) Vise.
2.  See Goshen Trails, April 1972 & April 1973.
3.  Hosea Vise, according to the minutes of Ten Mile Church, was licensed to "exhort" Saturday before the 1st Sunday in December 1837; he was ordained Wednesday after the 1st Lord's Day in August 1841, L. M. Williams and T. M. Vance, presbytery.
4.  Her maiden surname is presumably unknown; she married Hosea Vise as Mrs. Lydia Harrison and on March 2, 1897, W. P. Asa then Franklin County Clerk, certified (to the Federal Pension Board) that B. F. Harrison and Mrs. Lydia Browning were married by George Lopaz, Sr. at Benton, Ill. on September 23, 1873.}