DEATH OF PRESIDENT WARE.
Edmund A. Ware was born in North Wrentham, now Norfolk, Mass., Dec. 22, 1837, and died suddenly of heart disease in Atlanta, Ga., Sept. 25, 1885. He passed the early years of his life under conditions which made him acquainted with hardships, and fitted him to have warm sympathy for those who struggled against obstacles and trials.
He was graduated from Yale College in 1863. During his college course his attention was often turned to the field for Christian work, then being opened in the South by the steady advance of our armies, and his sympathies were strongly enlisted for a race just coming out of the prison house of bondage, and he was ambitious to have a part in laying the foundations of a new and better society in the regions desolated by war.
He was appointed an officer of the Freedman's Bureau in 1867, with charge of the schools opened under its auspices in the State of Georgia, which position he held for three years, until the closing of that branch of the work of the government.
His great work, however, was in connection with Atlanta University, an institution for higher education, whose foundation he was active in securing, and over whose interests he presided until the day of his death. He labored for its welfare and that of the people in whose interests it was established with rare devotion, and rejoiced in its steady growth and prosperity with special personal gratification.
Owing to some peculiar circumstances the institution early secured the favorable attention of the State authorities, and an annual appropriation from the State treasury. In the endeavors to secure and confirm this grant he was conspicuously and honorably active, and during the many years of its continuance his relations to the officers of the State with whom he has thus been brought into contact have been exceptionally pleasant, and in some cases cordial.
During the last year of his life he took great interest in the successful opening of an industrial department in the institution, and for the last few weeks his great anxiety had been to secure the furnishing of a large new building whose erection he had personally overlooked. He had returned to Atlanta in advance of his family to make preparations for the school year soon to open, had completed most of his plans, and seemed in unusual good health and spirits. Soon after dinner on Friday, Sept. 25, feeling dizzy while in his own house, where he was alone, he sought the open air and walked toward the house of Professor Bumstead, but becoming alarmed by increasing faintness he made loud calls, which were promptly responded to by Mr. and Mrs. Bumstead; but in spite of all remedies and efforts he speedily passed away to enter upon his well-earned rest and his glorious reward. The crushing effects of this sudden blow upon his household, upon his associates and the people who loved and revered him, cannot be described. At his funeral services all classes of the community were largely represented, and sympathy for the bereaved was profound. The grief of former pupils was touching, and was like that of children bereft of a father.
So passed away in the maturity of his powers and the midst of his usefulness, one of the earliest and most efficient of that great company who have toiled since the war in this broad and needy field. His departure seems like a translation; being taken suddenly without the pains and anxieties of wasting sickness, in the full tide of his greatest success, before any impairment of vigor or any calamity had overtaken the work he loved so well. He was a man of great power over other men, especially over young people, who were caught up by his enthusiasm, and borne along sometimes to the attainment of surprising results. He was well fitted to be a leader in the sphere he chose for himself, and made his mark upon his generation, and had a large and honorable share in securing the results already achieved, which are to bless the State and nation with increasing power.
A good man has fallen, and a great gap is made in the ranks of laborers at the front; but the Lord who loves his own cause better than we do will see that it suffers no loss. As the Lord has taken care that his servant rests from his labors, it is ours to see that they follow Him.