Name/Title
AU Lambert, Elsie Pauline [Warfel] - 1969-06-24 letter to Otterbein CollegeEntry/Object ID
2004.1.16Context
536 Park Ave.
Bethel Park, Pa. 15102
June 24, 1969
Gentlemen:
I thought you might be interested in the enclosed account of my grandfather's family as it is so closely connected with Otterbein College. In our family 3 people included Otterbein in their names. This was not unusual however as in the Quaker religion families often named their children after Quaker ministers. My grandfather Daniel Webster Lambert had 3 older brothers so named, Thomas Chalkley Lambert, Robert Barclay Lambert and another whose name I do not recall now. Four older brothers of his went to California to live in the early days and settled at Whittier. Big families had to encourage their older children to become [pioniers] for there was not enough land to divide among them all.
Sincerely
Pauline Lambert Warfel '23
[End of Page 1]
This is the story as it relates to Otterbein College of my grandfather:
DANIEL WEBSTER LAMBERT
My grandfather, Daniel Webster Lambert, born in 1836 not far from Athens Ohio, was the ancestor of probably the greatest number of people to graduate from Otterbein College. Although he did not go to the college himself, he certainly believed in education and did his best to see that his 10 children were educated. He probably went to Quaker Academy at Mt Pleasant as many in his neighborhood did. He was a younger son of a younger son and my father William Otterbein Lambert used to say that his father and his grandfather almost spanned the history of the U. S. up until that time. Daniel's grandfather was Abner Lambert of Mattemuskeet, N. Carolina not far from New Bern. He came to Ohio at the age of 60 or so. At that time his son Abner Jr, father of Daniel, was a child of 10 (b. 1790). This was in 1800. He was the youngest son of a second wife. Abner married again in Ohio and had 6 more children, after his second wife died. This made 16 children all told as the first wife had died in N. Carolina leaving 2 sons John and Matthew, who inherited the land and never did come to Ohio. Abner Jr. Daniel's father married Elizabeth Stanton (b. 1798). Both were brought up Quakers. But Abner was stubborn and so when he became engaged to Elizabeth he was supposed to appear with her 3 times in Quaker meeting before the marriage but he would not do this and so they put him out of the Quaker Church altho he continued to go to meeting all his life. When Elizabeth married Abner they put her out too. But in 3 years Elizabeth begged to get back in and they took her back. But proud Abner would never do this and so he did not get back in. Therefore every other of their children was Quaker born. The "odd" children had to choose their religion for themselves when they were grown. Daniel was an "odd" child. His profession was a stone cutter as a young man. In his wanderings about the country he came upon a United Brethren revival meeting and was converted to that faith. Soon after that he became a U.B. preacher. They lived in southern Ohio near Athens.
He married Deborah Vernon Embree, a Quaker girl. Her father came to Ohio from Chester County outside of Philadelphia from a place called Embreeville after the family. She became a United Brethren.
[End of Page 2]
In the early days before North Carolina, John Lambert, an ancestor founded Lambertville, New Jersey. John was a favorite name in the family.
Daniel and Deborah had 10 children, the first born in 1860 and the last in 1880. Daniel preached in several churches in southern Ohio and owned a farm also. About 1896 Daniel bought a property on East Park St. next to the R.R. tracks.... and moved to Westerville. He probably preached at a number of places near Westerville. The property was almost self sufficient. He owned a horse and buggy and a cow. He had pasture land and a garden and an orchard. He had come to Westerville to see that his younger children graduated from Otterbein College.
Ida the oldest had married before she had a chance to go to college. Her husband was a brother of Joseph Harris who was to marry a younger sister Bertha. His name was Jordan and he became a farmer in southern Ohio and later in Kansas. His son was to become very highly educated and also his daughter. His son was to become very highly educated and became head of the Botany Dept of the Un of Minnesota. His daughter became Librarian at the Botanical Gardens in St. Louis and married a merchant and writer of scientific books.
Eva married Sam Selby, brother of the man who founded the Selby Shoe Company. She had 5 children, one of them Grace, came to Otterbein for a while. She married Lynn Smith who had big apple orchards in Southern Ill. A number of years ago she was named mother of the year in Ill. They had ten 10 children and they all graduated from the Un. of Ill. Another son Paul Selby was Attorney General of the state of Ohio under John Bricker. They were close friends and when Bricker moved Wash. D.C. when he became a senator Paul moved there also. Paul married his second cousin Ellis Hopkins sister of Earl Hopkins who taught violin at Otterbein for a while and at Capital Un for many years. He founded the Columbus Symphony Orchestra of which his sister Norma was Concert Master. Norma was married to David Putnam a friend of Paul's. Mabel Dunn Hopkins wife of Earl Hopkins taught violin at Otterbein for a long time.
Frank died at 17 of diphtheria the year his youngest sister Elsie was born.
[End of Page 3]
Alva went to Otterbein but did not graduate. His son Glenn, married Mabel Fleming a graduate of Otterbein.
Hannah went to Otterbein but did not graduate. Her husband John Mayne also went to Otterbein but withdrew to go to theological school. He was a Presbyterian minister. They had 5 children and after he died Hannah moved to Westerville to reside in a house on East Park St. next to her father's home. Her son Horace, who gave Mayne Hall to Otterbein in memory of his mother, graduated in 1913. Helen graduated with a diploma in Music and married Walter Rousch, a minister. She died of the flu in 1918. Dwight graduated and his two daughters, Jean Mayne Fulton (1941) and Henrietta Mayne Hobbs (1944) graduated. Bruce Hobbs (1945) went to Otterbein but was in the War so finished his education at another school after the War was over.
Daniel Ira Mayne went to Otterbein but went to the service in the first World War toward the end of the War, went to Ohio State after that for an engineering degree. He also had a degree in Patent Law from N.Y.Un. He became head of the Patent Dept of Eastman Kodak Co. He died about two years ago.
John Mayne graduated in 1923. He became a minister in the Congregational Church. He took his theological work at Chicago University. In recent years he has been assistant minister in Foundry Methodist Church in Washington, D.C. altho he has also been associated with "Protestants and Others United for the Separation of Church and State" at the time that Bishop Oxnan was associated with that organization. He married Ann Wilson who went to Otterbein for three years.
Ira Lambert, a graduate, became a minister in the Presbyterian Church. One of his daughters Ruth Lambert Dickerson graduated from Otterbein. The other, Natalie Lambert Hamilton graduated from a college in Tulsa Oklahoma when he was a professor there.
Bertha married Joseph Harris a graduate of Otterbein. He became a minister in the U.B. Church and held positions of District Superintendent and President of Bonebrake Theological Seminary. Bertha went 2 years to Otterbein
[End of Page 4]
before her marriage and then graduated in 1926 when they came back to live in Westerville at the time her 2 oldest sons were in Otterbein. Bertha had 6 boys. Paul Joseph Harris graduated in 1923....had a Masters also from Northwestern Un. He did motion picture advertising. Daniel Alfred Harris graduated with two degrees A.B. and Music in 1923 at the age of 19 or 20. He has been a professor of Voice at Oberlin for years, is just now retiring (1969). He spent 10 years in Europe and sang in Opera houses in Europe and in N.Y. Robert died as an infant.
Theodore Otterbein Harris died at the age of 16 in Westerville O. He was operated upon for appendicitis but did not survive. The Westerville H.S. class came to the funeral which was held in the U.B. Church at the college. James Harris graduated from Otterbein. He became a minister of Music in the Presbyterian Church. At the time of his death in 1960 he was Minister of Music at the First Presbyterian Church in Syracuse N.Y. After the death of Daniel Charles, James married Dan's widow, Caroline Woodward Charles, who had attended Otterbein for a year or so. Richard Harris went to Otterbein but graduated elsewhere. He was also a musician.
Joseph Harris graduated in 1898 from Otterbein. A number of the Harris family, children of Joseph's brothers also graduated from Otterbein.
Caroline graduated in 1901. She married Oscar Charles, also a graduate. They spent 25 years in the Philippines. He was supervisor of schools and she was a teacher of English. They had 2 sons who graduated, Philipp and Daniel. Philipp married a girl who attended Otterbein, Dorothea Flickinger. Daniel married Caroline Woodward who went to Otterbein for a while. Philipp had 3 children, Richard, Mary Ann and David. Richard graduated and married Astrida Salnais who also graduated. Mary Ann graduated and married Joseph Wetherill Eschbaugh, graduated. David went to Otterbein but did not graduate. He graduated from Purdue.
My father, William Otterbein Lambert, graduated in 1900. He married my mother, Loretta Adams, who attended Otterbein but did not graduate. There were 3 of us, myself, Elsie Pauline and Mary Lucile and Charles Otterbein. I graduated in
[End of Page 5]
1923 and became a librarian after taking post graduate work at New York State Library School (now Columbia Un. Library School). I married Richard Myers Warfel a graduate of DePauw Un. I have 1 son William Theodore Warfel who graduated from Carnegie Tech. Lucile married Leroy Webner who graduated from Wooster College. She has 2 children Rodney Lambert Webner who did not go to Otterbein, graduated from Kent State Un. and Mary Sue Webner who graduated in 1958 and married Fred Smith also a graduate of Otterbein. My brother Charles Otterbein Lambert graduated from Otterbein and took 2 years of Y.M.C.A. training in Chicago. He married Bernice Jackson of Canton, O. Charles has been in Y.M.C.A. work for many years. He has been connected with Cincinnati Y. for a long time, serving as assistant Y.M.C.A. secretary and head of a new family branch, Crosley Branch given by the Crosley family of Cincinnati.
Elsie Lambert graduated from Otterbein in 1903. She married Wallin Riebel that summer. He had graduated with her from Otterbein. They went as missionaries to Sierra Leone Africa.... where in 4 months Elsie died of African fever. She is buried in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
[End of Page 6]
Obituary for
The Reverend Daniel Webster Lambert
From the Westerville Public Opinion
Rev. Daniel Webster Lambert, son of Abner and Elizabeth Stanton Lambert, was born January 22, 1837 and died January 5, 1918, lacking but 12 days of being eighty-one years of age. His ancestors back to pre-revolutionary days represented that sturdy and devout pioneer stock which helped to establish good and make the world better by their coming.
On March 31, 1859 he married Deborah Vernon Embree and there began that most blessed union which continued for almost 59 years through joy and sorrow, loss and gain, ever growing richer and more complete unto the end. To them God gave ten children - Mrs. J. T. Harris of Lawrence, Kansas; Mrs. S. V. Selby who died at Haverhill, Ohio in October 1914; Mrs. Hannah l. Mayne and William Otterbein of Westerville, Ohio; Daniel Ira, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Rushville, Indiana; Mrs. J. H. Harris, Columbus, Ohio; Mrs. O. H. Charles, Tagbilaran, Philippine Islands and Mrs W. E. Reibel who died as a missionary of the United Brethren Church in Africa in 1903. There are also 29 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
No part of their life was more sacred than their domestic life and no place more hallowed than the place they called home. It was there that God dwelt and was revealed as a living vital power - a veritable sanctuary where every child was consecrated to God at its birth and borne to a daily mercy seat through all the vicissitudes of life - and when Father Lambert's hand had grown feeble, he wrote, "May some angel guard their pathway, Safely through life's trackless sea; And bring at last to Heaven's gateway, Where our home may always be." His quiet reserved nature always showed itself in a deep and permanent work in the ministry. Amongst the many hundreds whom he led into the Kingdom, but few ever departed from the faith and quite a large percentage of the young men amongst them entered the ministry. When about 71 years of age, he had a six-months revival in the church at Hamden, Ohio with a crowded house and many received into the Kingdom, he himself preaching seventy nights with no intermission. Last September's Annual Conference in Columbus completed the fiftieth year of his connection with that Conference, having been received into it in the same city half a century before.
When the end was near he gathered his loved ones about him, sang the hymn "all the Way My Savior Leads Me," prayed earnestly for God's keeping care over the companion of his years, his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He urged upon his descendants that God might have the first place in their lives and reminded them of how grieved he would be if the Master were kept out of the household.
And then with his blessings upon each one, with a child-like trust, he gave his life back unto his Maker repeating confidently the words of Christ, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit."
