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 HAMILTON. HAMILTON. 279 and their ranks kept at the maximum num- ber throughout the war, by unremitting efforts on the part of such men as Richard P. Hallowell and George L. Stearns, both residents of Medford, backed by Governor Andrew, Lewis Hayden, Amos A. Law- rence, John M. Forbes, William Endicott, Jr., and men of like calibre. HAMILTON, JOHN WILLIAM, son of the late Rev. W. C. P. Hamilton of Ohio, and Henrietta M. (Dean) Hamilton, was born in Weston, Lewis county, Va., -March 18, 1845. He was educated in the common schools in the different towns in Eastern Ohio, where his father had been appointed as pastor, and at Mount Union College, Ohio, where he was graduated in 1S65. He sub- sequently entered Boston University, and was graduated in 187 1. He was licensed to preach, June 3, 1865, and joined the Pittsburg conference of the M. E. church the following April. After his graduation and before his admission to the conference, he was appointed agent for the endowment fund of Mount Union College. From 1866 to '68 he was pastor in New- port, one of the first settlements in Ohio ; was ordained deacon while a member of the Pittsburg conference ; was transferred to the New England conference in 1868, and appointed to the church in Maplewood, where he remained two years. At the close of this pastorate he was ordained elder, then went to Somerville for three years, and thence to Boston, becoming pastor of the First church in Temple Street, which was a union of the Grace church and the church in Hanover Street, a society hav- ing nine hundred members, and at that time the largest church of the denomina- tion in New England. After three years' pastorate he became the founder and builder of the People's Church, one of the largest and widest known enterprises in the nation. It is probable that no single church enterprise in Boston ever enlisted the sympathies and support of more peo- ple, irrespective of their denominational preferences. Here he remained nine years — until the church was completed. Mr. Hamilton was first married in Cov- ington, Ky., December 24, 1873, to Julia Elisabeth, daughter of Rev. Gordon Bat- telle, D. D., and Maria L. (Tucker) Bat- telle. His second marriage was in Buf- falo, N. Y., December 18, 1888, with Emma Lydia Battelle, sister of his first wife. He has one child : Gordon Battelle Ham- ilton. He is prominently connected with the reform movements of the State ; presided in the state convention for the nomination of officers by the Temperance party, and has frequently declined the use of his name when brought forward by this party for the first place in the list of candidates for the state offices. He has been twice a member of the legislative conference of the Methodist Episcopal church. In the last session, held in the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, he was leader of the party which asked for the admission of wo- men to the conference. He was a prominent candidate for the episcopacy — receiving JOHN W HAMILTON. more votes than any other minister from New England who has not been elected to the high office. He is at present pastor of the Saratoga Street church, East Boston. He has been quite an extensive writer. His principal publications are : " Lives of the Bishops," " People's Church Pulpit," " Memorials of Jesse Lee and the Old Elm," and " The Hills and Homes of Somerville." He received the degree of master of arts from the Wesleyan LIniversity at Middletown, Conn., and the Baker Uni- versity in Kansas, in 1880, conferred upon him the degree of doctor of divinity, which he declined. In 1888, he was prof-