My Genealogy Hound

REV. DR. E. HOLLOWAY PROSSER, pastor of the Methodist Church (South) of Carthage, Missouri, was born in Hudson, Ohio, July 29, 1848, but for the most part reared in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. He is the only son of Rev. Dillon Prosser, who has been the pastor of various churches of Cleveland, Ohio, for over thirty-two years, and has preached the gospel for over fifty years. Dillon Prosser was born July 4, 1811, in the Empire State, and is now, although seventy-two years old, still engaged in the good cause of the Master, in Cleveland, Ohio. E. Holloway Prosser is the seventh lineal descendant of the Prosser family who have engaged in the ministerial work, and although last is by no means least of all the Prosser preachers. He gets his initial name from his mother, whose maiden name was Mary Holloway, a native of Ohio, born in 1828, and deceased in 1855. She was a lady of more than ordinary ability, having written several poems and articles of considerable merit and notoriety, and was withal a lady of great culture, gentle refinement, and classical learning. E. Holloway, the subject of this sketch, received his education at Willoby College, graduating in 1865, and attended the theological school at Cleveland, Ohio, and graduating from that institution also, in 1867. His first work as a minister was that of a stated supply, at Concord, Ohio, in 1868. In 1868-69 he began his first pastorate at Wytheville, Virginia, and subsequently at the popular Southern watering-place of White Sulphur Springs, Virginia. In 1871 he was transferred by conference to Ohio, engaging for four years in ministerial work. In 1876 he entered the glorious cause of temperance and reform with the celebrated worker and lecturer, Francis Murphy, with whom he labored, lectured, and triumphed during an unparalleled campaign of success in temperance reform, reclamation of the degraded drunkard, and the preventive process of pledges, which are numbered by thousands and tens of thousands. It has been said that the world is the correct judge of men’s ability and worth, and, generally speaking, the press an initial index of that estimation. Taking this as a standard of Dr. Prosser’s talent, worth, and work in the temperance cause alone from Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, and all the Southern states, the press notices of commendation and testimonial of work, hard work, gigantic in proportions, are voluminous. As a temperance lecturer he has few equals, having a peculiar adaptability and fitness for this kind of work, and was certainly eminently successful. He excels in wonderful command of language, picture-painting in words, fine and classic rhetoric, and brilliant oratory. In 1879 he resumed the regular ministry at Lexington, Kentucky, and was transferred the same year to Indianapolis, Indiana, being made presiding elder, also, the same year. In 1881 he became the pastor of the Methodist Church (South) of Carthage, Missouri, and is now serving his second year, with great acceptance to his church, and increasing popularity as a preacher to the masses. During his pastorate in Carthage the seating capacity of the church has been enlarged, the choir made one of the best of the city by its many attractive features, and many have united with the church “of those that should be saved.” He was married December 1, 1882, to Miss Ida B. Jones, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, who was born November 16, 1858. Her father is a contractor and bridge-builder, having constructed the fine bridge across the Miami River near Cincinnati. As Dr. Prosser’s works tell the tale of his varied industry and usefulness, so may his life and character, stamped and photographed in his very being, “be read and seen of all men.”