Darryl Hart just called my attention to today’s post in “This Day in Presbyterian History.” On this day in 1775, Philip Vickers Fithian married Elizabeth “Betsy” Beatty. Anyone who has read The Way of Improvement Leads Home knows that Philip and Betsy had a rather tumultuous courtship.
Here is a taste of the entry:
An opportunity for further service interrupted this formal schooling. He was asked and encouraged by John Witherspoon, president of the College of New Jersey, to became a tutor of the large family of Robert Carter the Third in Virginia. Hesitant to go at first, he finally decided to take the opportunity and traveled south to this new ministry.
Chief also in his thoughts at this time was a young lady back home, the daughter of Rev. Charles Beatty, Elizabeth Beatty. His attempts of devotion and love toward her was met with silence or opposition. Even when he proposed to her, she rejected his proposal. All during the one year of tutorship, he wrote often to her.
Upon returning to New Jersey, he was licensed to preach the gospel. His ministry involved preaching to the vacant pulpits of Southern New Jersey. After a while, he transferred to the Donegal Presbytery in Pennsylvania, and was sent on two tours to western Pennsylvania and Virginia. In the middle of these tours, on this day, October 25, 1775, he was united in marriage with his long term sweetheart, Elizabeth Beatty.
Read the entire entry here.
When I read this excellent book I was struck by how well you joined the human element (romance, suffering, faith, etc) with compelling analysis.