Hiram College - Spider Web Yearbook (Hiram, OH)

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father to the man. At Bedford, at Massillon, at Cleveland, in the midst of a busy life he found time to superintend the Sunday School. And he was no figure head, he superintended : for always, whatever he did he did with his might. With the rise of the Foreign Christian Missionary Society and the increase of his own resources, Dr. Gerould's sympathies began to How in missionary chan- nels. He became a constant and generous giver. He gave time and thought and strength as well as money. As missionary clerk of the Euclid Avenue Church he doubled and quadrupled the annual offerings. He was the first among the Disciples to support a missionary in the foreign field. But that was only a fraction of his giving. He gave freely for all missionary enterprises, home as well as foreign. lt was an unrealized wish of his heart to build a home for missionaries in the Himalayas, where they could find rest and health during the fierce heats of an Indian summer. One of the finest manifestations of his large sympathy took the direction of Christian education. In a single season Mr. and Mrs. Gerould were bereft of their three little ones. But their sore hearts, instead of closing selfishly upon their own sorrow, opened wide to the world of children and young people. More than one did they help through school or college. Gne young woman on be- coming a Christian was disowned by her people. Dr. Gerould sent her to Bethany College and now she is a missionary in Africa. He gave liberally to the endowment of l-liram College. But the fairest fruitage of his beneiicence is the Missionary Cottage at Hiram. He spared no needful expense upon it. Nothing was too good for the young women who were to live there while gain- ing their education. But he wished its lJCl'lCl'-1Cl2lI'l6S to know that it was not for their sake alone, but for the Masters sake and for the world's sake. Freely they are receiving opportunities of Christian culture, freely they are to give back to a needy world. In harmony with this spirit of service several have already gone from the Gerould Cottage to various fieldsg Dr. Rose Oxer and Misses Mildred Franklin and Susie Rawson to India, and Jennie Britton and Blanche Beck to work among the negroes of the south. The last was hrst to fall at her post, the first to win the victors crown. Such is the story of a noble life. Dr. Gerould was not a rich man measured by the standard of those around him. He might easily have expended all his resources upon his own family and not have been thought extravagant. But he had learned at the feet of Him who came not to be ministered unto but to minis- ter. His was the joy of service in the thorn-paths of earthg his the Come ye blessed amid the unfading glories of heaven. B. S. DEAN. 24

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Benrv Gerould. God's best gift to a cause or a people is a great and consecrated soul. Such a gift was the subject of this memorial. Henry Gerould was born at East Smithfield, Pa. The Cweroulds were pio- neers of the pioneers in the town. ln their cabin the first Christian service was held, the first sermon preached and the first communion celebrated. The family grew to be one of the most numerous and influential in the community, pillars in church and leaders in song. 'While Henry C-rerould's immediate an- cestors were from New England, his remote ancestry were Huguenots. He was fifth in direct descent from Dr. Jabez Ierauld, who fied from France upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In 1830 under the preaching of Silas E. Shepard at East Smithfield thirty- nine men and women accepted the Bible as their only rule of faith and practice. Among the number was Jabez Lawrence Gerould, father of Henry Gerould. Thus Henry Cwerould, whose ancestors suffered for the reformed faith in France, was nurtured in the still purer faith of the primitive gospel. Tn the autumn of 1848 he confessed his faith in Christ and entered upon a service that never faltered to the end. Dr. Cwerould's early education was that of the country school. Later he attended medical college at Geneva, N. Y., and Hudson, Ohio, graduating from the latter in 1864. He also spent three years in the hospitals of Boston. After several years in medical practice at Bedford and Massillon, G., he came in 1874 to Cleveland, where he resided till November 10, 1900, when he fell asleep. Tn 1870 he married Miss Julia Clapp of Mentor, an early Hiram student. This proved a most congenial union. In all their plans and purposes Mr. and Mrs. Gerould were of one heart and one soul. In looking back over the life of Henry Gerould what most impresses one is a certain large manliness, a breadth of human interest and human sympathy, all too rare in this world. Too often the man is lost in the lawyer, the merchant, the school-master. Henry Gerould was a successful physiciang but to his honor be it said that he was greater as a man than as a physician. His activities could no more be limited to his profession than could the sun's light to a single continent. Wherever he lived his presence was felt as a regenerative influence. He set forces at work that did not cease when he went away. He never could be luke- warm in a cause he had espoused. The fervor of his Huguenot blood and the vigor of his Christian faith forbade that. This interest in human life took on successive forms. In his earlier years it ran in Sunday School lines. The records and traditions of the Smithfield church bear witness to his early zeal in Sunday School work. The boy was 23

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