Rev. Joseph C. R. Layton (1830-1913)

LAYTON, THOMPSON, CONNER, JARVIS

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 5/17/2021 at 16:53:12

From Nevada Representative February 14, 1913 (front page)

OBITUARY

REV. J. C. R. LAYTON

The funeral of Rev. J. C. R. Layton was conducted in accordance with the announcement Wednesday afternoon at the Methodist church. Rev. Hardaway, the pastor officiated and personal observations concerning the deceased were made by Rev. W. P. Payne. The Methodist choir made its contribution and the services throughout were fitting. The attendance was only a small part of the capacity of the church; but when one made a reckoning it could be noted that there were present nearly all at those who yet remain and who were in anywise associated with Mr. Layton in the days of his pastorate here. The truth of the matter is that in the thirty seven years since he removed from this city the population of the local community has in very short part changed and it is only a sprinkling of people that are here to remember the man who was perhaps the most typical of all the Methodist ministers that have ever had pastorate charge here. He was sole forceful untiring kindly in spirit but urgent in his call for sinners to repentance. He was of the sort that gave the Methodist church the standing and growth and influence in the middle went and if he chose--as several times he did--to transfer his field of activities from one conference to another, there was immediate welcome and prompt recognition. He had some of the best charges in the Des Moines conference; he got a transfer readily to Evanston in the Rock River conference; he came back to Iowa and was soon presiding elder in the Northwest Iowa conference and after that he spread his activities in to the wider evangelistic field. He was a tremendous force in and for Methodism, and there are few men who have identified with Nevada and who have gone out from here to large activities and who have counted for more in their chosen fields as he. And though he went away from Nevada more than a generation ago and came back in life but two or three times; yet here was his heart and the treasure of his wife's grave and here his sorrowing and faithful children have brought him back for his final rest. There is fitness in the return and sincerity in the tribute of surviving friends and the paucity of their numbers furnishes commentary on the mutations of life; while the prosperity of the church which he did so much to establish in this community is illustrative of he growth strength of institution long after even the memory of those who up-built them have grown dim.

J. C. R. Layton was born November 8th 1830 in the town of Rushville, Indiana and commended his ministry to the Methodist church in the year 1847, filling many different circuits and charges in the North Indiana conference. He was married to Sarah Ellen Thompson at Ridgeville, Indiana May 10th, 1855, from which union were born five children, three of whom survive and mourn his loss, Victoria Ellen Conner, of Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, Mary Vashte Jarvis of Pingree, North Dakota and William Carmon Layton of Denver. At his request he was transferred to the Des Moines conference in this state and assigned to Wesley Chapel at Des Moines, Iowa in 1867. In succession he was pator of the Methodist Episcopal church at Osceola 1868-1870, Leon 1870-1872, Glenwood 1872-1874, and in 1874 took charge as pastor of this place where Mrs. Layton died very suddenly December 26th 1874. In 1876 he was transferred from this pastorate to the Rock River Conference in the state of Illinois being assigned to the charge at South Evanston for the purpose of the education of his children at the Northwestern University. In 1878 he was transferred back to North West Iowa conference and assigned a pastor of the church at Storm Lake. He was Presiding Elder at the Ft. Dodge District living [unable to read the last few lines in this column] Northwest Iowa Conference. This field of service he filled until his health began to fail and he became superannuated; however doing active work in the evangelistic service of the church, in Iowa, Illinois, North and South Dakota, Missouri and Colorado. During his ministry and evangelistic work he took into the church over 6500 members. In July 1912 in Colorado Springs he suffered his first stroke of paralysis and later in September he was stricken for the second time at Hartman, Colorado, after which upon advice of attending physicians, he was taken to the home of his daughter Mrs. Jarvis at Pingree, North Dakota where he had his final illness and departed this life Feby. 7, 1913 at 0:30 a. m.

Members of Mr. Layton's family attending him in their last service were his daughter, Mrs. Jarvis, and husband, and his son W. C. and daughter, Miss Gladys. Mr. Simon Cassidy president of the Central State Bank in Des Moines and a long-time associate of Mr. Layton in that city was also at the funeral.