“Father Marcusson” 
 
 OR 
 
 Rev. Jacob W. Marcusson 
 
 By Himself 
 
 
 Published by 
 
 The Chicago Hebrew Mission 
 
 1425 Solon Place, Chicago 
 
 Price 3 cents per copy 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 Columbia University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/fathermarcussonoOOmarc 
 
“Father Marcusson” 
 
 Sketch of the Life and Work of 
 Rev. J. W. Marcusson 
 
 By Himself. 
 
 I was born in Scalat, a small village in Ga¬ 
 licia, Austria. My father’s name was Herman 
 Ben Fion, a learned Jewish scholar, well versed 
 in the Hebrew language. My mother, named 
 Wanda, was the daughter of Matthew Wolf- 
 sohn, resident in Odessa, Russia, and the head 
 of the Jewish community there. When I was 
 but a baby, my parents moved to Odessa, 
 where my father was engaged in business. It 
 was in Odessa that my father made the 
 acquaintance of Rev. W. G. Schauffler, D.D., 
 then a young man of great piety and a flute- 
 maker by profession. This acquaintance rip¬ 
 ened into friendship and was epoch-working 
 on my future life. Dr. Schauffler, when yet 
 a young man, was converted in Odessa and 
 finally resolved to become a missionary to the 
 Jews. My father was deeply interested in his 
 character and conversation and became a 
 searcher of the Scriptures in which he thor¬ 
 oughly believed. In searching the Scriptures 
 in company with Dr. Schauffler, he was, by 
 degrees, convinced that they are they which 
 testify of Jesus as the promised Messiah of 
 the Jewish nation. God so ordered that the 
 intimacy with young Schauffler made of my 
 father an earnest enquirer of the truth as it 
 is in Jesus. And when, in the Providence of 
 God, godly men and women of Boston formed 
 a Society for the conversion of the Jews, Mr. 
 Schauffler was commissioned (after he had 
 received a thorough education at the Theo¬ 
 logical School at Andover, Mass.), as their 
 first Missionary to the Jews to be stationed at 
 Constantinople, Turkey. In the meantime, the 
 same Saviour who worked in the heart of Mr. 
 
 3 
 
Schauffler (and determined him to consecrate 
 his life to become a missionary of the gospel 
 to the Jews) ; also accomplished His gra¬ 
 cious work in the heart of miy father to con¬ 
 vince him of the truth as it is in Jesus, and 
 of his duty to confess Him among his breth¬ 
 ren the Jews, and to consecrate himself to the 
 service of Christ. And when he heard that 
 Mr. Schauffler had gone to Constantinople, as 
 a missionary to the Jews, he determined to 
 go to him and tell him of his conversion. The 
 result was that he left his family, who re¬ 
 jected his convictions, and went to Constanti¬ 
 nople, and was cordially received by his old 
 friend, and after a further, serious searching 
 of the Scriptures, was baptized in the name 
 of the blessed Trinity, with the baptism of 
 water and by the grace of God, also received 
 the baptism of the Spirit and became Dr. 
 Schauffler’s assistant in the school he organ¬ 
 ized among the Jews in Constantinople. My 
 father was the first fruit of Dr. Schauffler’s 
 consecrated work in the Lord among the 
 Jews. At his baptism he assumed the name 
 of Marcusson. These two young men were 
 bound in the true fellowship of earnest be¬ 
 lievers and disciples of Jesus, the promised 
 Messiah. Truly, it was through much tribu¬ 
 lation that my father thus entered the new 
 life in Christ Jesus. In doing so he was sepa¬ 
 rated from his wife and child and was ostra¬ 
 cized by the Jews his kinsmen, and became 
 “a stranger in a strange land.” The autobiog¬ 
 raphy of Dr. Schauffler, which forms the pro¬ 
 logue of my father’s life and activity in the 
 vineyard of our Lord and Master Jesus 
 Christ, corroborates these statements. My 
 dear mother, a most exemplary Jewess, firm 
 in the faith of her nation’s belief, refused to 
 join her husband and taking his child with 
 her, made her home with her father, who, 
 after the death of his first wife, married again 
 and my mother continued to live in Odessa, 
 in her father’s home. My grandfather, as the 
 head of the Jewish Community, respected and 
 
 4 
 
loved by the best part of the Jews, succeeded 
 in organizing a graded school in Odessa, for 
 its Jewish population, which was looked upon 
 with favor by the Russian Government and 
 became very profitable to the Jewish residents. 
 His was the house wherein I entered as a 
 small child to be with my mother, while my 
 Father still resided at Constantinople. 
 
 I feel it vital to make these preliminary 
 statements, as they uncover the hidden springs 
 which influenced my whole subsequent life 
 in all its development, as the source of the 
 Lord’s loving kindness and tender mercies. 
 (Of course, this must be a mere sketch of a 
 life full of vicissitude and experiences, which 
 if related, would fill a large volume). I am 
 now an old man, 86 last July 11 , 1912, and 
 although often requested to write my auto¬ 
 biography, I never found leisure, until it 
 was too late to do it. I must, therefore, has¬ 
 ten, the Lord permitting me, to narrate my 
 eventful life in brief, ere the Lord calls me 
 home to look into the face of our heavenly 
 Father and to thank Him for His unspeak¬ 
 able gift of great love to me in revealing 
 unto me Christ, the Lord, the Saviour of 
 my soul and my everlasting glory. God grant 
 us all the grace to receive this most gracious 
 gift as an inheritance of God’s infinte love 
 and mercy in Christ Jesus our everlasting 
 redemption. 
 
 Thus, under God’s Providence, I entered 
 into my grandfather’s home as an inmate of it 
 and was blessed by the love, care and training 
 of my dearly beloved, self-sacrificing and de¬ 
 voted mother, who instilled into my young 
 heart reverence and fear of God, as He re¬ 
 vealed Himself in the Old Testament Scrip¬ 
 tures, and thereby laid the foundation of 
 my moral character. I thus became a con¬ 
 scientious Jew by birth and education and 
 conviction; but fortunately freed from those 
 prejudiced views, which even to the present 
 time keep the veil over the Jewish heart when 
 reading the Old Testament Scriptures and 
 
 5 
 
prevents him from recognizing in Jesus Christ 
 the promised Messiah who should redeem 
 Israel, yea, and the world, from sin and un¬ 
 righteousness and impart to it all the right¬ 
 eousness of God. My earliest recollection 
 which I vividly retain dates back to my 
 young boyhood, when at about four years of 
 age our man servant carried me, riding on 
 his back, to school to begin my education. 
 Thus I was graciously led, unconsciously as 
 yet, by the loving hand of my Heavenly 
 Father, to commence an education which was 
 to fit me for the struggle of my subsequent 
 long life, by God’s appointed agency in the 
 home of my grandfather, who, though a lib¬ 
 eral Jew, was yet a firm believer in the elec¬ 
 tion of the Jews as God’s covenant people. 
 It was a home where culture and piety met 
 and where as a natural sequence the mental 
 faculties were fitly developed. My self-denying, 
 devoted mother, by her assiduity ana earnest¬ 
 ness shaped my moral character and moulded 
 my heart by a reverent sense of the fear of 
 the Lord and the knowledge of the Almighty, 
 as he revealed Himself in the Old Testament 
 Scriptures. Under these favorable circum¬ 
 stances, both my natural faculties and my 
 moral instincts grew in understanding and 
 knowledge and became the handmaid to re¬ 
 veal unto me God’s love and grace as the 
 essence of His Divine Nature, influencing my 
 intellect and conscience, while as yet I was 
 unconscious of the sin that naturally affected 
 my whole being, as one conceived and born 
 in sin. No wonder that the Revelations of 
 God in the Scriptures of the Old Testament 
 were to me a sealed book, unopened as yet 
 by the Lamb of God, God’s unspeakable gift to 
 sinful man. The veil, therefore, covered my 
 spiritual conception and I blindly groped in 
 the dark, if happily I might find God. At the 
 age of fourteen I graduated from the graded 
 school for the Jewish community, which was 
 established by the efforts of my grandfather, 
 and because of my proficiency in bookkeeping, 
 
 6 
 
was at once employed in a large Typography, 
 and because of my Calligraphy was called 
 from there to a dry goods concern as book¬ 
 keeper, having acquired in the school, the 
 Russian, German and French languages, and 
 a thorough acquaintance with the Hebrew 
 Scriptures, intending to fit myself for a mer¬ 
 chant. But the Lord had other work for me, 
 for unexpectedly my father called me to Con¬ 
 stantinople to live with him. .1 accepted his 
 call and when I arrived in the year 1844, a 
 lad of eighteen years, he took me with him 
 to Dr. Schauffler’s house at Pera (the Euro¬ 
 pean residence portion) and I then became 
 an inmate of Dr. Schauffler’s home and his 
 extensive library was kept open for my in¬ 
 spection and acquirement of knowledge. I 
 had been a great reader of fiction and history 
 and now, under God’s Providence, the New 
 Testament attracted my attention, and I 
 eagerly read it, having no previous knowl¬ 
 edge of its contents, except that it was the 
 Christian’s Scripture. 
 
 Thus, for the first time I eagerly read the 
 narrative of the great personality of Jesus, the 
 promised Messiah of the Jews, and the Lord of 
 Lords. What was my astonishment that this 
 Jesus whom the Jews called the Crucified One, 
 and whom they rejected as an impostor, was 
 indeed and in truth the promised Messiah of 
 the Jews, the one whom the Christian world 
 called their Lord and Master. My childish 
 imagination was fascinated by this new Scrip¬ 
 ture indited by the Holy Spirit, and with 
 growing interest, I read the life and work of 
 Jesus Christ, as a Book so utterly different 
 from the books I had ever read, that my whole 
 being was strangely moved by its contents. 
 This was the frame of my mind when Dr. 
 Schauffler returned to Pera from Belach, his 
 summer residence, and I became acquainted 
 with this godly and learned man and other mis¬ 
 sionaries both American and Scotch, espe¬ 
 cially those sent to the Jews. I also came 
 in contact, first of all, with my father as a 
 
 7 
 
convert from among the Jews, and with a 
 small band of believers and enquirers from 
 among the Jewish residents in Constanti¬ 
 nople; and being thus in constant intercourse 
 with Dr. Schauffler and the godly men sent 
 from England and Scotland, the history of 
 Jesus, the Christ, assumed a new aspect, and 
 began to trouble my heart and conscience. I 
 now searched the Scriptures with regard to 
 the claims of Jesus of Nazareth to be the 
 promised Messiah of the Jews, who being 
 indeed the Son of God was to save from sin 
 and death, not only the Jews, but the whole 
 world. I was exceedingly interested in the 
 exposition of the Scriptures by the mission¬ 
 aries, and especially of the change it wrought 
 in the life and conversation of those who ac¬ 
 cepted Christ as their Saviour and Lord and 
 believed in Him with their hearts. The New 
 Testament then, as the revelation of God, to 
 be interpreted by the Holy Spirit gradually 
 became the message of God to my soul, and I 
 became not only a searcher, an anxious en¬ 
 quirer, but a trembling believer and began 
 to feel a change in my thoughts and actions, 
 with regard to the truth concerning the record 
 of Jesus the Christ and the New Testament. 
 I accepted it as the work of the Holy Spirit, 
 then as the inspired revelation of God to my 
 own soul and through it my relations toward 
 God and man were changed. In fact, I was 
 not only convicted but converted, and by grace 
 through faith was led to accept Him as my 
 Lord and Master and Saviour of my soul. 
 
 'While under these impressions, fostered and 
 maintained by the life and conversation of the 
 believers in Christ, under God’s providence 
 my life entered upon a new sphere of exist¬ 
 ence. My father (my mother having died in 
 Odessa) became acquainted with a widow 
 whose father and mother resided in Jerusa¬ 
 lem, both of whom had been converted through 
 the missionary of the London Missionary So¬ 
 ciety. It resulted in the engagement of my 
 father to their daughter and they were to be 
 
 8 
 
married at Jerusalem. My father left Con¬ 
 stantinople to go to Jerusalem, and he took 
 me with him. Thus in 1845 I went to Jeru¬ 
 salem, and about the same time the Episcopal 
 Church established a college there, of which 
 the Rev. Dr. Veitch was the Chaplain and 
 President and Dr. Nicolayson the missionary. 
 After the marriage of my father, thus becom¬ 
 ing a resident of Jerusalem, I entered this 
 college, having been baptized by Dr. Nicolay¬ 
 son, and began the study of Arabic in prep¬ 
 aration for the Gospel Ministry. I stayed 
 only one year in this college, and in 1846 re¬ 
 turned to Constantinople and was cordially 
 received by the resident American mission¬ 
 ary, and by a special invitation from Dr. 
 Schauffler was made an inmate of his family. 
 The missionaries of the Free Church of Scot¬ 
 land also cordially received me. 
 
 My entrance into that estimable family was 
 not only a mieans of grace to me spiritually 
 but it also greatly helped me to come to a 
 decision with regard to my future. After 
 prayerful consideration aided by the beloved 
 missionaries I resolved to go to America, 
 there to complete preparations to fit myself 
 for a missionary to the Jews. At this criti¬ 
 cal time the Lord, in His mercy, again used 
 Dr. Schauffler as the efficient agent to attain 
 my desired aim. Dr. Schauffler, beloved and 
 trusted by all who knew him, interested the 
 Friends of Israel in my behalf and procured 
 for me an invitation from Dr. William Thomp¬ 
 son, Professor of Hebrew in the Theological 
 Seminary at East Windsor (now Hartford) 
 to become his guest; so that when I landed 
 in America I should go directly to East Wind¬ 
 sor and he would care for me. After procur¬ 
 ing for me this invitation and giving me a 
 letter of introduction to William Adams, 
 D. D., Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in 
 New York, I took passage in a sailing vessel 
 from Smyrna, loaded with figs for Boston, 
 Mass. After a voyage of sixty-five days, 
 tossed by wind and waves, I safely landed at 
 
 9 
 
Boston and was hospitably received by the 
 brother of Professor William Thompson, Dr. 
 Augustin Thompson, of Brookline, Mass., who 
 equipped me for the cold weather and in a 
 few days was received by Professor Wm. 
 Thompson, D. D., and lodged at the premises 
 of the Seminary. 
 
 Here again I must linger for a moment to 
 speak of this voyage and to give glory to 
 God’s merciful Providence. Owing to my 
 slender means, which constrained me to use 
 the utmost economy, I availed myself of the 
 opportunity to engage my passage in a sail¬ 
 ing vessel which started from Smyrna direct 
 to Boston. Though the season was un- 
 auspicious (just as it was at the time when 
 the Apostle Paul, in obedience to the com¬ 
 mand of God, impelled to go to Rome, there 
 to witness for Christ and His Gospel was 
 against his better judgment compelled to start 
 at that season suffering shipwreck, but by his 
 prayers saving all those who sailed with him), 
 I trusted in the Lord and recognized His 
 Providence—and though the passage was to 
 be rough and long, I also was sustained by a 
 higher Power and the very length of the 
 passage was a means of grace to me, because 
 it gave me the opportunity to read the Holy 
 Scriptures through and through, by which I 
 was more effectually rooted and grounded in 
 the faith and fitted for the work the Lord had 
 for me to do. All glory to His loving kind¬ 
 ness and tender mercies. 
 
 I was the only passenger and hence had 
 much intercourse with the Captain, mostly on 
 the subject of religion, which wrought a great 
 change in his character, by God’s grace and 
 strengthened my own faith. At my temporary 
 sojourn at East Windsor Seminary the Lord 
 evidenced to me the profitableness of godliness, 
 bringing me in contact with that godly man, 
 Prof. William Thompson, D. D., who had but 
 recently recovered from a severe illness, yet 
 cordially received me as a son in the Lord, 
 and provided me with the necessary books and 
 
 10 
 
boarded me at his own house, he and his 
 family making it a real home for me. The 
 then resident students in the Seminary aided 
 me in my preliminary studies of Latin and 
 Greek and treated me as a brother. It was 
 at that time that I made the acquaintance of 
 Jacob Tyler, Jr., the son of the President 
 of the Theological Seminary, which soon rip¬ 
 ened into friendship as he resolved to become 
 a missionary among the Zulus (South Africa) 
 (in the Transvaal). But I am constrained to 
 be brief and will therefore proceed with my 
 narrative. 
 
 I had already acquired a liberal education, 
 having graduated and received a diploma from 
 the graded school at Odessa, Russia, where I 
 acquired the German, Russian and French lan¬ 
 guages and much practical knowledge in my 
 grandfather’s home, which was the center of 
 the educated class of the Jews in that place, 
 and also had acquired much practical expe¬ 
 rience from the situations I held after grad¬ 
 uating and becoming an inmate of Dr. Schauf- 
 fler’s home. This friend showed great kind¬ 
 ness in himself instructing me in the Latin 
 and Greek Grammars, and through his influ¬ 
 ence when arriving in America I was lodged 
 in the Theological Seminary at East Windsor, 
 Conn., and was greatly aided by the students 
 I found there and made considerable progress 
 in the classics, both Latin and Greek. But 
 still I felt as the call had come to devote my 
 life as a missionary in the service of my Mas¬ 
 ter and Lord, I needed higher education. 
 Whence I resolved to prepare myself to go 
 through a college course. I was counselled by 
 Prof. Thompson and other friends first to 
 enter Williston Preparatory School, at East 
 Hampton, Mass. Guided by the merciful hand 
 of God, a way was opened for me to do so, 
 since a niece of Rev. Williston, the father of 
 the founder of East Hampton, and the organ¬ 
 izer of Williston Seminary, wanted to study 
 the French language, and I was offered this 
 position and received my board at his house 
 
 11 
 
to teach her French. It was the Lord’s doing, 
 that by the knowledge of French I acquired 
 in Odessa, it was to be the means of giving 
 me the benefit of this thorough preparatory 
 school, and to procure unto me the interest of 
 valued friends. Dr. Wright was the Princi¬ 
 pal of the school, and finding me proficient 
 in the European languages, gave me additional 
 private lessons in Greek and Latin, and I was 
 then fitted to enter Amherst College as a 
 Sophomore, and at the same time was en¬ 
 gaged as a teacher of German in the college. 
 
 While in Amherst College, I used my first 
 long vacation as a colporteur of the Ameri¬ 
 can Tract Society, selling their books and 
 preaching to the Germans, and by that attract¬ 
 ed the attention of the Congregational Minis¬ 
 ters of Norwich, Conn. Dr. Bond being the 
 pastor of the Second Congregational Church 
 and Dr. Gulliver of the Broadway Congrega¬ 
 tional. Both the Pastors helped me greatly 
 and I was cordially received by the members 
 of the churches, and had the privilege of get¬ 
 ting acquainted with William A. Buckingham, 
 afterwards War Governor of Connecticut, and 
 Mr. H. H. Osgood of the drug firm, Lee & 
 Osgood (afterward Mayor of Norwich) and 
 one of the prominent bankers of that city. I 
 interviewed quite a number of Germans, and 
 as many of them were musicians, we were 
 invited to some of the best families in Nor¬ 
 wich. And as at that time Mr. Otis estab¬ 
 lished a public library in Norwich, I had great 
 success in selling the Tract Society books. 
 The Trustees of the library added a German 
 branch and I was sent by the Trustees of the 
 library to procure the books, which I did, both 
 of the Tract Society publications and the clas¬ 
 sics. By this means many Germans bought 
 tickets as members of the society, which gave 
 me a greater opportunity to make my sojourn 
 in Norwich very pleasant and profitable to 
 the Tract Society. But above all, it brought 
 me in contact with a generous Christian peo¬ 
 ple and made me feel in Norwich as a gen- 
 
 12 
 
eral home. And all this came to pass because 
 of the practiced piety of the aunt of Mr. Os¬ 
 good, Mrs. Charles Lee, who adopted me as 
 though I were her own son and gave me a 
 whole outfit ere I went back to college. The 
 pleasant remembrance of Norwich and the 
 generous Christian fellowship in the Lord, I 
 feel constrained to embody in this brief sketch 
 of m,y life, as an episode of my early expe¬ 
 rience in America, as it so vividly demon¬ 
 strated the divine utterance of the Apostle 
 John speaking of the followers of Jesus Christ 
 “Behold how they love each other.” After¬ 
 wards while I was in Turkey as a missionary 
 to the Jews I kept up a correspondence with 
 this, my American mother, in the Lord, and 
 when I returned from my mission field she con¬ 
 tinued her care and interest in me, but more 
 especially in the mission to the Jews. She was 
 a saint and is doubtless among the redeemed of 
 the Lord! 
 
 Dr. Gulliver, of Norwich, was also very kind 
 and profitable to me. But I must curb my 
 memory and all the pleasant associations it 
 brings to view, and go on with my narrative 
 of my experiences in this blessed country of 
 the Puritans, the real founders of American 
 church life and'the liberty it enjoys. While 
 in Amherst College, a college mate, Mr. Avery, 
 invited me to spend my vacation at his home, 
 and there I wrote my first lecture on the Jews, 
 their customs, ordinances and the principle 
 feasts they observed, which I delivered in the 
 Congregational Church and as it was so favor¬ 
 ably received it became a means for my sup¬ 
 port and brought me in contact with many of 
 the Friends of Israel. Among others I must 
 mention especially Rev. Edward N. Kirk, the 
 Pastor of the South Church of Boston, who 
 invited me to deliver the lecture in his church 
 and also asked me to spend one of my vaca¬ 
 tions at his house in Boston and treated me 
 as a son. At his house I received from him 
 my first lesson in elocution and wrote my first 
 skeleton of a sermon. In after years, when 1 
 
 13 
 
was accepted by the A. B. C. F. M. and sent 
 to Salonica, Macedonia, Turkey, as their mis¬ 
 sionary to the Jews, he procured for me the 
 publications of “The Educational Publication 
 of Theological Books” and gave me valuable 
 introductions to distinguished Friends of Is¬ 
 rael, among others one to Hon. Lord Kin- 
 nard, who, when in London, procured for me 
 an entrance into the Houses of Parliament, 
 and an invitation to a tea he gave at his resi¬ 
 dence to the then visiting Jewish missionaries 
 at London. This eloquent and godly man also 
 made an epoch in my spiritual experience. 
 While teaching a German class in Amherst 
 College, I received an invitation from the 
 Rev. Mark Hopkins, D. D., LL. D., Presi¬ 
 dent of Williams College to come to Williams 
 College to enter my senior year and to organ¬ 
 ize a German class for those who wished to 
 study the German language. I did so and be¬ 
 came a member of the class of ’52 and had in 
 my German class, among others, the Rev. 
 A. L. Perry and Rev. Lewellyn Pratt, both of 
 whom, after their graduation, became Profes¬ 
 sors in Williams College, and Bro. Pratt was 
 called as Professor to Hartford Theological 
 Seminary. 
 
 This ended my collegiate course, and after 
 graduation I went back to East Windsor 
 Theological Seminary and was generously re¬ 
 ceived by Prof. William Thompson, then an 
 instructor in the Hebrew language. While at 
 East Windsor I instructed in Dr. Thompson’s 
 family in German, boarded at his home and 
 enjoyed the intercourse of this eminent and 
 godly man. But being myself proficient in the 
 Hebrew, having studied it from my childhood 
 and youth, before I even was called of God, 
 through faith in Jesus Christ my Messiah and 
 Lord and Master, I was excused from attend¬ 
 ing the middle class and went to the Union 
 Theological Seminary at New York, from 
 which I was graduated and went back to my 
 beloved Alma Mater at East Windsor to re¬ 
 ceive my diploma from that institution. Dur- 
 
 14 
 
ing my last year at East Windsor I made ap¬ 
 plication to the A. B. C. F. M. and was ac¬ 
 cepted and sent to Salonica, Macedonia, Tur¬ 
 key, as a missionary to the Jews, with per¬ 
 mission to spend one year in Germany at my 
 own expense. This I gladly did, as my father 
 bore the expense. I was examined and ad¬ 
 mitted to preach the Gospel at the Hartford 
 Association of Congregational Ministers. Dr. 
 Harvey being the Chairman and Dr. Clark, 
 Minister in Hartford, preached the sermon at 
 my ordination, while Dr. Tuttle, the Pastor of 
 the Congregational Church, gave me my first 
 outfit to enter my chosen field of labor. Here 
 I must pause and just glance at my long vaca¬ 
 tion before I received my diploma from the 
 Trustees of Williams College, and was about 
 to sail for my field of labor in Turkey. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 The narrative of my life since I graduated 
 from Williams College in ’52 is briefly as 
 follows: 
 
 As before mentioned; 
 
 After leaving Williams I went to East 
 Windsor Theological Seminary (now Hart¬ 
 ford) to study for the gospel ministry, and 
 then spent the senior year at Union Theo¬ 
 logical Seminary, having pursued my classi¬ 
 cal and theological studies to prepare myself 
 as a missionary to the Hebrew nation. I ap¬ 
 plied to the A. B. C. F. M. and was accepted 
 and appointed to the newly organized mission 
 at Salonica, Turkey, and having received the 
 permission of the board to spend a year in 
 Germany in special preparation for the work 
 I sailed from New York, via London, in the 
 spring of 1855, and after a short visit in Scot¬ 
 land, settled in Dresden for the year. Being 
 introduced by letter from Prof. H. Smith 
 of U. W. T. to Dr. Wolrick in Halle, I visited 
 Halle University and was very kindly received 
 by Dr. Wolrick and spent a short time in Leip¬ 
 zig. While in Dresden I received notice from 
 
 15 
 
Dr. Anderson (then Secretary of the Amer¬ 
 ican Board) that at a meeting of the Evan¬ 
 gelical Alliance in Paris, Dr. Norman C. Lorid, 
 of Glasgow, expressed the desire of the Es¬ 
 tablished Church of Scotland, to organize a 
 mission for the Jews and Greeks in Turkey, 
 and Dr. Anderson, with the consent of the 
 board, tendered the Salonica field to the 
 Church of Scotland. 
 
 To my surprise, while yet in Dresden, Sax¬ 
 ony, a delegation from the Committee of Jew¬ 
 ish Missions of the Established Church of 
 Scotland interviewed me, asking me whether 
 I would be willing to cancel my appointment 
 of the A. B. C. F. M. and become the mis¬ 
 sionary of the Established Church of Scotland. 
 I readily consented, and before my year of 
 leave was ended, received a commission from 
 the Church of Scotland to become their mis¬ 
 sionary in Salonica, Turkey. It was thus that 
 my relation was changed, and I went to 
 Salonica to organize the mission among the 
 Jews and Greeks under the auspices of the 
 Established Church of Scotland. After re¬ 
 maining in Salonica three years, preaching 
 both to the Jews and the Greeks, I was in¬ 
 vited by the comlmittee to present the needs 
 of my field among the churches in Scotland. 
 
 For nearly six months I made my head¬ 
 quarters at Edinburgh and traveled through 
 the length and breadth of Scotland preaching 
 and lecturing in the interest of the mission at 
 Salonica. I visited the four universities in 
 the cities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen 
 and St. Andrews and addressed the students 
 and met the Presidents, Professors and Clergy 
 in social intercourse, creating a lively interest 
 in the Mission Committee and my charge. It 
 was indeed a great privilege I enjoyed to meet 
 the solid, distinguished men of the church of 
 Scotland and to come in close contact with a 
 people remarkable for firmness of character 
 and invincible in their loyalty to the truth as 
 it is in Jesus. 
 
 After laboring throughout the winter of 
 
 16 
 
[58, Sundays and week days in the church and 
 in social circles, before returning to my field 
 of labor, the committee granted me a vacation 
 to recuperate, as my health was impaired. I 
 visited several mineral baths, and among 
 others Canstat, near Stuttgart. It was here 
 that I received favor from the Lord in win¬ 
 ning the heart with its wealth of affection of 
 my dearly beloved wife, a treasure and a joy, 
 strength and comfort throughout my life. We 
 were married in Frankfurt (A./M.) spent our 
 honeymoon in Rostock, and at the Lake of 
 Constance, and then were sent providentially 
 to Darmstadt to supply the place of a deceased 
 missionary working among the Jews at that 
 place. But, in God's Providence, I was again 
 to return to Turkey. For while we were just 
 preparing to enter upon our work in Darm¬ 
 stadt the Convener of the committee, Prof. 
 Alex. F. Michels, of St. Andrews University, 
 unexpectedly appeared in Darmstadt with the 
 message that the committee had resolved to 
 establish a mission at Constantinople and I 
 must go to organize it. Of course we had to 
 pack up on the instant and proceed to Con¬ 
 stantinople. For three years we labored in 
 patience, but without any visible results, and 
 after due deliberation, resolved to sever our 
 connection with the Church of Scotland and 
 turn our faces toward my adopted Fatherland, 
 America. We arrived in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 
 the fall of '62 and I accepted a call to Lock- 
 port, N. Y., to become the pastor of a German 
 Church. While in Lockport the Second Whrd 
 Presbyterian Church became vacant, and I 
 was invited to supply its pulpit, laboring in 
 Lockport for two years. Through the in¬ 
 fluence of Dr. William Adams of New York 
 I was tendered a mission among the Ger¬ 
 mans in Cincinnati, who organized a church 
 there which I served two years and was called 
 to Gasport, N. Y., to take charge of an 
 academy and also supply the pulpit of the 
 church. From Gasport I was called to Lyn- 
 donville, N. Y., where I spent ten happy, use- 
 
 17 
 
ful years, preaching the gospel at the Presby¬ 
 terian Church. From Lyndonville I was called 
 to Barry Center and then to Holley, in the 
 same state, remaining a member of the Presby¬ 
 tery of Niagara for sixteen years. While in 
 Holley my two sons graduated from Williams 
 College, and as they wished to go West, we 
 thought it to be our duty to go with them, and 
 so with my family of three sons and one 
 daughter I removed to Chicago, Ill. and joined 
 the Presbytery of Chicago. With the exception 
 of two years spent in Wisconsin, organizing 
 and supplying churches, I remained in connec¬ 
 tion with this Presbytery for about twenty 
 years. I am now in La Grange, Ill., a suburb 
 of Chicago, with one of my sons, who is a 
 manufacturer and an able business man, being 
 not only about his own business, but more 
 especially about his Father’s business, active in 
 Church, Christian Endeavor Society, Sunday 
 Schools and Young Men’s Christian Associa¬ 
 tions. Thus far has the Lord led me in 
 great mercy and loving kindness and has spared 
 my life to be active in His service. 
 At present I am Pastor and Trustee of 
 the Chicago Hebrew Mission and waiting 
 for my redemption through the blood of 
 Jesus Christ to enter into higher service 
 in His blessed Kingdom, the Home of the 
 Redeemed. 
 
 Thus far the narration is the record from 
 the pen of our beloved brother. Others must 
 now finish what he began. 
 
 September 20th, 1895, Rev. Marcusson was 
 made the Superintendent and Pastor of the 
 mission. Living out of the city he found it 
 difficult to continue to hold these offices so, 
 after a few years he resigned the Superin¬ 
 tendency and was then made “Pastor Emer- 
 itis,” which position he occupied until death 
 parted us. 
 
 On the wings of the early morning, April 
 2nd, 1913, he was borne by the angels to his 
 
 18 
 
mansion prepared and the Chicago Hebrew 
 mission, with a wide circle of friends, mourn 
 his loss and miss his counsels and prayers. 
 
 During all these years his young, tender 
 heart (which never grew old) went out to 
 the children, especially during the holidays. 
 With unwearied feet, that tottered after he 
 had reached four score years, he went from 
 friend to friend, asking them to contribute to 
 the Christmas joys of the little Jewish folk, 
 and he always found those who did respond 
 most generously. Thus he ministered, and 
 thus will he live in the hearts of the children 
 and those who shared with them their happi¬ 
 ness. 
 
 He got others to give—he gave himself. 
 One of the most touching things in connec¬ 
 tion with his funeral was that several of the 
 La Grange friends who have been amongst 
 our Christmas contributors, instead of send¬ 
 ing flowers that perish to the church to adorn 
 his casket, sent the family cheques, to be -for¬ 
 warded to the mission in his name, thus show¬ 
 ing how fully they appreciated “Father Mar- 
 cusson’s” devotion to the mission. 
 
 His bright, cheerful face was always a bene¬ 
 diction and an inspiration wherever he went. 
 His one aim in life seemed to be to make 
 others happy around him, and to pour oil upon 
 troubled waters. 
 
 He bears now the form of “youth immor¬ 
 tal/’ and we doubt not that the activity and 
 energy that characterized his life here will 
 find its full development in the land of sun¬ 
 shine and flowers, both of which he so dearly 
 loved. As we listen we catch this floating 
 benediction, “Therefore my beloved brethren, 
 be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding 
 in the work of the Lord, inasmuch as ye know 
 that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” 
 
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