History of Wells, (Rutland County) Vermont United States of America

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Anson Rogers Graves, 1st missionary bishop of the Platte and the 153d in succession in the American episcopate, was born in Wells, Vt., April 13, 1842; son of Daniel Graves, a batter and farmer, the inventor of a water wheel and a cook stove, and a fifer in a recruiting camp in the war of 1812. His first American ancestor, Thomas Graves, settled in Hartford, Conn., in 1640. In 1845 his father removed to a farm in northern Illinois, and the son attended the country school. In 1860 he attended the Rutland, Vt., high school and was graduated at Hobart college in 1866, receiving his master's degree in 1879, having worked his own way through his preparatory and college course, aided by a sixty-dollar scholarship, and gained both the White and Cobb essay prizes in his junior year. He studied law during his senior year at college, which he continued while principal of the Ury House school, Philadelphia, Pa., 1866-67. He then engaged in business until 1868, when he entered the General theological seminary of the Protestant Episcopal church, where he was graduated in 1870. He was ordained deacon in 1870 and priest in 1871; was assistant at Grace church, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1870-71; travelled and studied in Europe, 1872; was rector of St. Luke's church, Plattsmouth, Neb., 1873; assistant in the missions of Gethsemane church, Minneapolis, Minn., 1874-75; rector of All Saint's, Northfield, Minn., 1876; missionary at Littleton, Bethlehem and Whitefield. N.H., 1877-80; rector of St. Peter's church, Bennington, Vt., 1880-83; of Gethsemane church, Minneapolis, Minn., 1883-89, and on Jan. 1, 1890, he was consecrated bishop of the missionary jurisdiction of the Platte, with Kearney, Neb., as the see city. In October, 1898, his jurisdiction was enlarged so as to include eastern Wyoming with western Nebraska and his title changed to the bishop of Laramie. He was married at Brattleboro. Vt., April 3, 1877, to Mary Totten Watrous. He received the honorary degree S.T.D. from Racine in 1890, and that of LL.D. from Hobart college in 1890.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Wells, (Rutland County) Vermont

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