Bostwick, William W

Bostwick, William W.

a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was born in Whitestown, Oneida Co., N. Y., Feb. 19, 1797. He attended the Auburn Academy, and completed his academic studies with Rev. Dr. McDonald at Fairfield, Herkimer Co. When the, latter, in 1821, took charge of the academy at Geneva, Mr. Bostwick again placed himself under his instruction, completing his theological course three years after, and teaching meanwhile. He was ordained deacon in 1825, and in June entered upon a career of missionary labor, to which he devoted twenty years of his life. His first field of labor was in the counties of Yates and Steuben, officiating at Penn Yan, Wayne, Tyrone, Hopeton, Pleasant Valley, Painted Post, Prattstown, Jerusalem, Dresden, and Bologna. In the beginning of 1827 his labors were extended into Alleghany County, to which, although forty miles distant from his residence at Bath, he ministered one half the time for the next eighteen months. In 1828 he made missionary visits to Olean and Ellicottville, Cattaraugus Co. In 1840 he officiated in Wayne, Hornellsville, and other villages. In the summer of 1842 Mr. Bostwick went to the West, and in the autumn assumed the pastoral care of the Church at Joliet, Ill., where he died, Oct. 6, 1845. Though not brilliant, he was a very earnest and useful minister. See Amer. Quar. Church Rev. 1859, p. 531.