Husband
Born:
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Wife Rev. Mary Malinda Sterling 1 2
Born: 18 Jun 1859 - near Masontown, Fayette Co, PA 3
Christened:
Died:
Buried:
Father: John Sterling (1822-1892) 1 2 4
Mother: Elizabeth DeBolt (1826-Aft 1912) 1 2 4
Children
General Notes: Wife - Rev. Mary Malinda Sterling
She was born on the homestead farm, one mile west of Masontown, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. She obtained her early education in the public schools of German township, the same source from which her father and grandfather received their mental training. Later Miss Sterling entered Monongahela College, in Greene County. One of the instructors in college under whom she studied was Dr. J. W. Scott, father-in-law of President William H. Harrison. She completed a six years course in four years, then graduating with honors, with the degrees of A.B. and A.M. While at college she was president of the College Phi Kappa Literary Society. After her graduation she taught the languages, science, history and elocution at Ashland (Ohio) College for a year, and she continued as a teacher from 1878 to 1891. Miss Sterling was a devoted member of the Brethren church, and a member of its Ministerial Association. On April 11, 1889, the trustees of the Society of the Sisters of Christian Endeavor of the Brethren Church licensed her to preach the gospel, and she was regularly ordained to the Christian ministry by her home church, August 10, 1890. As an evangelist she traveled, taught and preached the doctrine she loved, through the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, and was for some time pastor of the Brethren congregation at Masontown, Pennsylvania. From 1889 to 1900 she preached 1,157 sermons. Her ministerial work was then laid aside temporarily and her time lovingly devoted to the care of her mother, then aged eighty-five years. They resided on the home farm of one hundred and twenty-six acres. Her culture and theological attainments in no way detracted from her womanly capacity for home life. Her watchword was "duty," and whenever the call was heard, whether from the pulpit, farm or home, it was always heeded. She was one of the organizers of the church society of Sisters of Christian Endeavor, and as a preacher was eloquent and pleasing in manner, strong in her plea for better living, and thoroughly orthodox in her pulpit teaching.