SOURCE: Minutes of the Seventy-Fourth Session of the Kentucky Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South held in Frankfort, KY., September 13-18, 1894 Obituary of Rev. Ransom Lancaster, Resident of Harrison County, Kentucky from about 1870 to 1893*: Ransom Lancaster was born in Madison County, Kentucky, on the old Boonesboro site, April 15, 1818. He was the son of Littleton and Nancy (Hays) Lancaster. His father was a native of South Carolina, his mother a native Kentuckian. Early in life he moved with his parents to Daviess Co., where he grew up to manhood, in a section somewhat noted for its peculiar sports and worldly amusements, in which as a youth he was subject to temptations not favorable to the development of Christian character. Attending a camp-meeting at Old Pleasant Green Camp-ground, he was powerfully converted, and at once united with the church. His conversion was thorough, and through a ministry of more than half a century he never doubted its genuineness, which fact was certified by his unblemished life from that day until the summons came from on high. His earnestness and his gifts soon led to his being licensed to exhort, and at a quarterly meeting held for Yellow Banks Circuit, May 30, 1840, by Rev. Benjamin F. Crouch, he was licensed as a local preacher, and assisted in several revival meetings during the ensuing summer months. His educational facilities had been very meager, and he set about studying in earnest to fit himself for his life work. He was recommended and received on trial at the session of the Kentucky Annual Conference held in Maysville, Ky., in the fall of 1841. His first appointment was Barboursville Circuit, where he met with great success. At the conference of 1842, he was assigned to Somerset Circuit, "prosecuting his work with fidelity and success," says Dr. Redford, in "Cavaliers of Methodism." The Western Christian Advocate, of June 9, the following year (1843), reported "One hundred and eighteen members received on probation up to May 28." He was ordained Deacon by Bishop Thomas A. Morris, at Louisville, Ky., September 17, 1843, and Elder by Bishop Joshua Soule, at Frankfort, Ky., September 14, 1845. The year 1844, notable as the year of the division of the church, found him at work within the territory since included in the Western Virginia Conference, and he took no small part in the discussions and alignment that followed that historic strife of Border Methodism. He continued in the bounds of that Conference until the session held in Greenupsburg in the fall of 1858, when he returned to the Kentucky Conference, having filled some of the leading appointments in the Western Virginia Conference, viz: Parkersburgh, Ravenswood, Barboursville, Kanawha, Salines, Summersville, Ashland, Cannonsburg, Greenupsburg, and the Green Briar District, as Presiding Elder. Greenupsburg was his last charge in that Conference, and the closing year was crowned with perhaps one of the best revivals that church has ever had. In September, 1858, he was assigned to the Sharpsburg Circuit in the Kentucky Conference, where he spent two very pleasant and successful years. Thence he went to Falmouth Circuit, which work there included what is now the Oddville and Berry Circuits, in addition to the town of Falmouth. Locating his family at Oddville, he continuously resided there up to the spring of 1885, the wa being largely responsible for that long residence, which was the result of connection with business pursuits. He became deeply attached to the community and to its people, and he especially loved the churches and the people on the Oddville Circuit who he served so long. From this point of residence, he served numerous within his reach, to get to some of them requiring no little exposure, considering his age and his state of health, he being a life-long sufferer from asthma, but he was always very prompt in meeting his appointments when his health would permit. His charges since moving from Oddville were Mr. Carmel and Orangeburg, Carlisle Circuit and Berry Circuit, which was his last work. During his ministry of fifty-two years, hundreds were converted and brought into the church, and many new churches were erected. He was always in great demand for funeral occasions, and perhaps no minister in his section officiated at more funerals and married more couples than he. He was happily married May 13, 1845, to Miss Lucy White Hard, of Scioto County, Ohio, who with four children survive. In an unknown grave in West Virginia lies the dust of "the little one that died" over forty-three years ago. In personal religious profession, brother Lancaster was never "loud;" he claimed no superior attainments, but was always stanch and true, knowing that he had the witness that he was an heir of salvation. He was always ready, and hence death, beyond leaving his family, had no terrors for him. It was, he said, "going home." "some of these mornings I'll swing off into glory, soon I'll go up to my home in Heaven and then I'll lie down at the feet of Jesus and rest." Once while apparently asleep, extending his hands he cried out, "My Master!" and again, "My Father was here just now." On Thursday night before he died, he repeated the 7th and 8th verses of the 4th chapter of Second Timothy - - "I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith, hence forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day," etc. Brother Lancaster's illness was long and painful, eliciting the sympathy of the entire community. His mind became enfeebled toward the close, but in lucid intervals he was victorious in faith, shouting the praise of God, to the last demonstrating that to the Christian "at the even time it shall be light." He died at 9:55 o'clock, on the morning of September 30, 1893, at the age of 75 years, 5 months and 15 days. His funeral was attended by nearly two thousand people. The sermon was preached by the writer, at Oddville, on Sunday, October 1, at three o'clock p.m., after which St. Andrews Lodge No. 10, F. and A.M., and Cynthiana Commandery No. 18, Knights Templar, laid his body to rest according to the elaborate ritual of the Masonic fraternity. (By G. W. Young, Chairman) Posted by Randal W. Cooper mailto:rwcooper@kellnet.com Lorain, Ohio *I am attempting to place Rev. Ransom LANCASTER in 1846, to resolve whether he were the "Rev. LANCASTER" who married my third-great grandparents William COOPER and Martha Ann BARNEY, 6 May 1846, in Greenup County, Kentucky. Can you help? Thank you, and I hope the obituary is useful to some researchers.