Monfort, Peter

Peter Montfort

The son of Lawrence and Elizabeth (Cassatt) Monfort, was born in Adams county, Pa., March 14, 1784. He is the last of a large family tht emigrated from Adams county, Pa., two-thirds of a century ago, and settled in the Miami country, Ohio. His ancestors of the paternal line belinged to the De Monforts of France, who were driven to Holland, whence they emigrated to America about the year 1640, and lived for a time among the first settlers, in Beaver street, between Broadway and Broad street, New York. They belonged to the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, their first family baptism to be found on the church records having been in 1646. About this time they settled upon a farm in Flat Lands, Kings county, Long Island, N.Y. Here and near by most of the name lived, having their church relations with Flat Lands, Flat Bush and Newtown, until in 1739 or 1740 Peter Monfort, great-grandfater of the deceased, moved to Hunterton county, N. J., where he died in 1780. His eldest son, John, settled in Adams county, Pa., in 1756 as did also his brothers Peter and Jacobus. They all belonged to the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, near Hunterstown, N. J. John Monfort had four sons: 1. Peter, who died in Pennsylvania about 1765; his family soon moved to Kentucky; 2. Francis, whosettled in Mercer county, Ky.; 3. John who remained in Pennsylvania; and 4. Lawrence, father of the deceased, who moved to Ohio, and settled eight miles west of Lebanon in 1799, where he lived until his death, which occurred July 4, 1831. He had eleven children - six sons and five daughters - of whom nine became heads of families, and three of the sons were ministers of the gospel, viz.: Rev. Francis Monfort, for many years pastor at Hamilton, Ohio, who died at Greensburg, Ind., in 1855, in the veventy-third year of his age; the deceased; and David Monfort, D. D., ten years pastor at Bethel, Ohio, in Oxford Presbytery, and four many years at Franklin, Ind., who died at Macomb, Ill., in 1860 in the seventieth year of his age. *

He became a communicant in 1804, in the Turtle Creek church, which was a few miles west of Lebanon, Ohio. He soon after consecreated himself to work of the ministry, pursuing his course with much difficulty for want of teachers and books. The first year he recited to Rev. John Thomson, who was pastor at what is now called Spirngdale, Hamilton county, Ohio, about twenty miles from his own home in warren county. He spent most of the year 1807 under the tuition of Rev. Barton W. Stowe; 1808 and 1809 in the family of Rev. Robert Marshall, near Lexington, Ky. Afterward, for nearly two years, he studied under the guidance of Revb. James Welsh, at Dayton, Ohio. He was licensed at the same time with his brother, Francis, in the spirng of 1813, by Miami Presbytery, and ordained by the same Presbytery one year afterward. He labored four years at Yellow Springs, Ohio, and eleven years in Unity and Pisgah, in the neighborhood of his early home. His health failing, he ceased to preach statedly for a time and moved to Oxford, Ohio. After a few months rest he undertook the work of a domestic missionary at Findlay, Ohio, where he laabored for three years with improving health. In 1836 he transferred his relations from the Presbyterian to the Associate Reformed Church. For ten years he preached at Sycamore, in Hamilton county, Ohio, and then for three years at Jacksonburg, Quincy and Middleburg, in the region west of Piqua, Ohio. In 1849 he settled at College Corner, where he labored according as he had strength, until a few years past. During most of his ministerial life his health has been feeble, but his labors were at all times all that his strength would permit, and they were everywhere blessed. His preaching had a vein of spirituality, giving evidence of a high-toned religious experience seldom equaled. As an expositor of the Scriptures and an advocate of sound doctrinal theology, he always exhibited ample preparation and much ability. His life was ever a uniform, living and earnest testimony to the truth of the gospel, and yet, in lowliness of mind, he esteemed others better than himself.

He died at the residence of his son-in-law, Rev. Thomas S. Lee in Millersburg, Ky., Nov. 13, 1865, of dropsy. He was married, March 14, 1810, to Anna Maria, daughter of Judge Isaac Spinning, an early settler near Dayton, Ohio, from Elizabethtown, N.J. They had a large family of children. Two sons died in Oxford in early life. Six daughters lived to be married, viz.: Catharine Elizabeth, who married Rev. Samuel W. McCraken, of Morning Sun, Ohio, deceased; Clara, wife of H. W. Hughes, of Glendale, Ohio; Phoebe ann, wife of Rev. James Williamson, of Iowa; Eliza married Michael Wallace, deceased; Charlotte, sife of Rev. Gilbert Gordon, of Louisville, Ky., and Susan Jane, sife of Rev. Thomas S. Lee of Millersburg, Ky. The widow of the deceased and four daughters survive him. He was the uncle of four brothers of that name, viz.: John G. Monfort, D. D., editor of The Presbyter, Cincinnati, Ohio; Francis P. Monfort, of Indianapolis, Ind.; Isaac Watts Monfort, of Greenfield, Ind., and David M. Monfort, Greensburg, Ind., Presbyterian ministers.

Who can estimate the amount of influence for good which has been exerted during the course of such a long life as this? He attained his education through great effort. He continiued his work as a minister a great part of his life in phisical weakness and surffering, but he was blessed to see his owrk successful in his own family and in every field of his labor. His posterity and all his kindred have reason to give thanks to God for all that he was and all that he did, and he has fround, and will through eternity find, that God has been faithful to the promise: “He that goeth forth and weepeth, beariing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.&rdquo


*A memoir of DAVID MONFORT, D.D., is published in The Presbyterian Historical Almanac for 1862, page 104.