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The Reverend Ivory Hovey
died on 11/4/1803.
The family friend and
domestic, Molly Bly, recorded for posterity the following story. He had
often told it to her. The Reverend's grandfather, who resided in England,
was in moderate circumstances, but he loved the Savior, and he had an
honest desire that a son whom God had given him should become a minister
of the Gospel. Such, however, were his limited means, that he could not
educate his son for this sacred office. In these days of solitude, he is
said to have been assured in a dream that a grandson should enter the
ministry, and labour for his Master. It chanced that on the occasion of
building a barn, he sent his son, the father of the Reverend Ivory Hovey,
to the nearest village to purchase nails. While returning home, as he was
riding on horseback through a piece of woods, his saddlebags being pretty
well stored with nails, he was met by a highwayman, who ordered him to
deliver up his saddlebags of money. Mr. Hovey determined that some pains
should be taken by this unwelcome intruder, and hastily threw the supposed
treasure over the hedge which bordered the roadside. The robber sprang
from his horse to secure the prize, when Mr. Hovey, leaving his own more
tardy animal, sprang into the empty saddle, and hastily drove homeward.
The highwayman called loudly to Mr. Hovey to stop, declaring that he was
only in jest; but the latter, replying, "I am in earnest," drove foreword,
and, on arriving home, found the saddlebags of his newfound horse well
filled with filthy lucre.
This God-sent treasure was preserved with much care, and with it the
Reverend Ivory Hovey was educated for the ministry.
(See Child #283, "The Crafty Farmer")
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