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..........................................................IN MEMORIAM

Nathaniel Runyan departed this life November 13th, 1882, aged 74 years, 1 month, and 24 days.   The disease which restulted finally in his death was a form of jaundice, and for nearly elelven months he was a sufferer and constantly under the care of a physician.   The deceased was born in Otsego County, New York, September 19, 1808.   He married Phoebe Cookingham September 10th, 1832, and in the fall of 1836 moved to Ohio, then the "far west" and almost uninhabited region.   His wife died August 3rd, 1856, after a short illness.   He afterwards married Mrs. Sarah M. West.   Eight children were borne him by his first wife, and one by his second wife, four of whom preceded him to the tomb.   When a young man he learned the shoemaking trade, and from his first coming to Ohio until his death he was engaged more or less of the time in the boot and shoe business, for twelve years being in partmership with his brother-in-law, Mr. M. Cookingham, who is still engaged in the boot and shoe business in New London, the oldest pioneer merchant in the town.   When the deceased came to Ohio he settled at Curtiss' Corners, one mile south of New London.   At that early period New London consisted of only a few houses, scattered about in a thickly wooded, wild, and unforbigging country.   He beheld the entire growth of New London, and no resident of the place took greater interest in the growth and enterprise of the town than he.   He was a hard working laborer all his life, toiling with untiring mind and zeal to build up and improve his surroundings, and after the disease, which clung to him so tenaciously for eleven months and finally took him from earth, had reduced him to a wreck, his bouyant hope and ambition seemed not to share the physical infirmities of his body.   At one time in life he was in prosperous circumstances, but at the time of the great fire in New London Nov. 18th, 1872, he lost his entire business and was thrown heavily into debt.   With great faith in his ability to conquer debt and rise above this misfortune, he began again at the bottom of the ladder and heroically attempted to throw the burden of debt from his shoulders; but the load was too great and after a many struggles of a few years, he was compelled to give up the inequal struggle and fall in business.   The disaster caused him great despondence and anxiety, but realizing that his years were fast ebbing away, he sought to reconcile himself as best he could to his hard lot, and taking up the shoehammer again, he worked away with a will.   Few men could spend a long life of incessant labor as did Nathaniel Runyan and bear up under such disheartening reverses without breaking completely down and giving up in sheer despair; but his almost unparalleled ambition to conquor under any circumstances, bouyed him up and carried him on.   At the age of thirty he was convented to the Christian religion and joined the Baptist denomination, remaining all through his life a constant and zealous member of the church.   As a citizen he was esteemed and valued; as a husband and father, he was kind and indulgent to a fault.   He died as he had lived for forty three years, in the full hope of a blessed immortality, and with the comforting assurance of an eternal inheritance in the great Gold (en Kingdom of Heaven?)  
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