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Title
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Bangs, Francis B.
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extracted text
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F R A NC I S
B
1 8 1 9
B ·A N G S
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-aFrancis Burrett Bangs was born at Stanford ,
Delaware county, New York , March 23, 1819, son of
Joseph and Huldah Bangs .
was Tillaman .
The mother 's maiden name
Both Joseph and Huldah
Ban~s
were
born in Connecticut and both were distinguished for
piety and usefulness .
Joseph Bangs was led to
brothe~,
Christ by his
Nathan Bangs, and although
the father was an Episcopalian, Joseph became a
Methodist and served for twenty-five years as a local
preacher and was for many years a deacon and an elder
in the Methodist Episcopal Church .
Frbncis Bangs came with his parents to Michigan
in 1828 a nd settled at Tecumseh .
A quarterly meet -
ing was held in his father's house soon afterwards,
when all the
~ ethodists
in Lenawee county were present
seven in number, namely , Joseph and Huldah Bangs,
thei r son Isaac and wife, their son Alanson 's wife,
and a brother
yet converted .
itinerqnt
Vt~ee1er
and wife .
Francis B. was not
His father's house was the home of .
~ ethodist
preachers .
The name of Ban gs is outstanding in Methodist
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history .
Nathan Bangs, as a pioneer itinerant
minister , has his name emblazoned high on the roll of
Methodist heroes .
In 1802, he became a member of
the New York Conference and the first six years of
his laborious ministry were spent as a missionary
among the pathless forests of the neighboring areas .
Then he was transferred to New York City, which remained the headquarters of his labors as pastor ,
book agent, editor of the Methodist Magazine, of the
Christian Advocate and the Quarterly Review , author
of Methodist history; missionary secretary and
president of Wesleyan University, and pastor a gain
until his death in 1862, at the age of eighty-four .
His brother , Heman Bangs, was the chief founder of
Middletown Wesleyan University and was one of the
most powerful preachers which Am erican Methodism has
produced .
He died in 1869, aged seventy-nine .
M' Kendree Bangs was a son of Nathan Bangs , was an
honore d graduate of the University of Ohio, a prominent member of the New York conference, an able
contributor to the Methodist Quarterly Review, and
distinguished throughout his brilliant career as endowed with intellectual powers of the highest order .
He died in 1852, a ged forty-two .
Francis Bangs had
another cousin, William H. Bangs , born in 1806,
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converted at the age of fifteen, made class leader
]
at seventeen, licensed to preach early in life, a
prominent pastor in New York City for thirty-nine
years, preaching more than 11,000 sermons and receiving 3,000 converts into the church .
Such was
the family background of Francis Bangs .
Until fifteen years of age Francis Bangs attendthe district school , then one term in a select school,
and then two terms in a branch of the State University.
~t
the a ge of sixteen he experienced religion
at a quarterly meeting held in a school house at
Sharon , Washtenaw county .
ni
went,
n
he once said,
"a wild youth, thoughtless as I ever had been on the
subject of religion, but Saturday night found me a
penitent at the altar, and Sunday night happy in the
consciousness of a Saviour's pardon . "
Of his earlier religious impressions and his
call to preach Mr . Bangs said: "My earliest remembrances are of faith in the efficacy of prayer and
the truth of the Bible , and a felt necessity of
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salvation through Christ .
In my childhood I felt
that I should have to preach the gospel .
This
troubled me when I thought of becoming a Christian .
Conviction of sin an d of the need of pardon were
clear, and at times very pungent .
The testimonies
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of Christians and of the early ministers had a wonderful influence for good upon my mind .
After my con-
version, the impression that I must preach became
irresistible .
body .
Yet I said nothing about it to any-
The brethren in the ministry and the laity,
however, told me I must preach .
So I improved every
opportunity to prepare for what I felt must be my
life work .
I fully determined to take a college
course, but yielded to what I have ever since considered unwise counsel , and entered the ministry before
completing a collegiate course .
I have felt the
want of it more and more every year .
I entered the
ministry and have continued in it under the sense of
'Woe is me if I preach not the gospel . •l "
All his life long he clung stedfastly to the
r egular ministry , presenting from the pulpit prac tical truths with becoming earnestness, his sermons
being characterized by originality, f e rv or ,. brevity,
force and effectiveness .
He was a man of one work .
Francis B. Bangs joined the Michigan Annual
Conference in 1840 and was appointed as junior preach·
er to the Pontiac ci r cuit , with Rev . James Shaw as
superintendent .
The circuit then included Pontiac ,
Rochester , Troy , Royal Oak , Birmingham , Southfield,
Bloomfi~ld,
Clarkston and other points , requiring
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from one minister twenty-three sermons every four
weeks .
Gracious revivals attended his work, one at
Birmingham in August resulting in sixty conversions .
In 1841-2 his appointment was Flint; 1843, Utica;
1844 , Mt . Clemens; 1845-6, Tecumseh; 1847, Kalamazoo;
1848, Niles; 1849-52, Kalamazoo district; 1853-4,
Coldwater; 1855 , Battle Creek; 1856-7, Albion; 1858-9,
Jackson; 1860- 63 , Kalamazoo district; 1864 , Homer;
1865-68 , Ionia district; 1869-70, Ionia; 1871-2 ,
Lansing; First Church ; 1873-4, Mason; 1875-8, Lansing
district; 1879-80, Three Rivers; 1881, Homer; 1882,
Nashville; 1883, superannuated .
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He was three times
elected a delegate to the General Conference, first
in 1852, when only thirty-three years of age .
Mr . Bangs was twice married, first to Miss
Catherine Hall Webb, January 6 , 1842 .
She was a
birth-right member of the Friends, or Quaker Church,
converted at the age of sixteen, the first of her
family to break away from the Friends .
Soon after,
her father, two sisters and a brother with herself
became Methodists .
She was an affectionate wife
and a loving mother , and a trusting, cheerful Christian .
She died July 5 , 1875 .
Mr . Bangs ' s second
wife was Mrs . Helen Latson , whom he married February
19, 1876 .
d
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Reverend F. B . Bangs was the father of five
children: Albert Vale, Frank Lorenzo, C. B. Fisk,
Fred Herbert and Fanny Ealoner, who married Mr . Sessions .
Death came to Mr . Bangs May 20, 1891, at Eaton
Rapids , I;lichigan .
The funeral was attended by the
following ministers: G. L . Mount ,
~·· .
H . Thompson ,
• . I . Cogshall , L. J . Griffin , M. W. F . Smith,
M. M. Callen ,
c.
S . Hickey , A . A. Knappen , L . DeLa-
marter , I . R. A. Wightman ,
c.
L . Barnhart , A. Huns-
ber ger , J . P . Farnum · ( Baptist), Mr . Stevenson ( Meth-
D
odist Protestant) , and Robert Martin , Congregationalist .
Bangs, Francis B.