Bresee, P. F.

BRESEE

Posted By: Volunteer (email)
Date: 3/11/2007 at 21:23:32

P. F. Bresee

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.8, Council Bluffs)
Rev. P. F. Bresee, one of the most active members of the Iowa clergy, was born in the township of Franklin, Delaware County, N. Y., December 31, 1838. His father, P. P. Bresee, at that time farming in Franklin, is a native of the same county, as is also his mother Susan, daughter of Luke Brown, who came to Delaware County from Massachusetts at an early day. Mr. and Mrs. Bresee had one daughter and two sons - Diantha, P. F. our subject, and Reed, who died at one year of age. Diantha, married Mr. Giles Cowley in New York. They all came West, pursued farming in Iowa County, this State, for a time, then removed to Des Moines in 1864, and engaged in milling and merchandising, and, in 1872, came to Council Bluffs, where Mrs. Cowley died April 20, 1875, leaving one son, Fred. P. F. Bresee, our subject, attended the common sschools of his native home, and later the Franklin Seminary. He spent a portion of his youth in a general store in Davenport, in which his father for several years owned an interest. He experienced a change of heart at sixteen years of age, joined the Methodist Church in Davenport, Delaware County, and from that time was inclined to the work of the ministry. Two years later he came West, with a view of ultimately entereing the religious field. Owing to a great need of ministerial workers in Iowa, he almost immediately joined the Iowa Conference. Although being at that time but eighteen years of age, he was assigned a charge as junior Pastor of the Marengo work, comprising six or eight appointments. It was a year of hard work, but success crowned his labors, and the church was greatly strengthened. Mr. Bresee first came to Council Bluffs in 1870 as Pastor of the Broadway M. E. Church, and remained there three years. He labored earnestly for the prosperity of the church, and during his pastorate the membership was greatly increased, and a much higher state of spiritual power was enjoyed. He has ever been careful to educate his poeple on every moral question, and has ever been a redical temperance man. He was sent as delegate to the General Conference in 1872, held at Brooklyn, N. Y. From Council Bluffs he labored at Red Oak, Iowa, three years then in Clarinda three years and next in Creston two years, and, in 1881, he returned to Council Bluffs, where he is now actively engaged in a new and most important work of organizing a new society and erecting a magnificent new church edifice. Mr. Bresee has been assigned this special work because of his well-established reputation as a worker, an organizer and a man of marked executive ability. The success of this enterprise at the time of writing is assured by large subscriptions of money, and the efficient manner in which Mr. Bresee as thus far conducted the business, not only contributing to the work his undivided attention, but liberally from his private purse. Mr. Bresee has been engaged in the work of the ministry for more than twenty-five years, and during the entire time in the State. He first joined and worked in the Iowa Conference until 1864, when that Conference was divided, and his field of labor put into the Des Moines Conference. July 31, 1860, he married Miss Maria E. Hebbard, daughter of Horace and Samantha (Hoyt) Hebbard. Mr. Hebbard was a native of the Empire State, and a farmer by occupation. Mrs. Hebbard was born in the State of Connecticut. They had two sons and three daughters - R. L., Debora, N. H., Maria E. and Mary. Mrs. B. was born November 15, 1836. She received her education at the schools in Davenport, Delaware Co., N. Y., where she lived until after her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Bresee have had seven children, six of whom are now living. The second child - Lillie M., died when fifteen months old. Ernest H., the oldest, is now in college. Phineas W., Bertha, Paul, Melvin and Susie, are at home. Mr. Bresee, besides attending to his pastorl duties, finds time to devote to outside business, and has been fortunate in making modest investments in mining stocks, upon which he has received handsome margins, and now owns stock in several fo the most prolific mines of Mexico and Arizona, with the returns from which he is enabled to gratify a life-long desire to promote the prosperity of and spread the word of God.