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Damon, Martha T. and James M. Bent, of Wayland, m. 3 June, 1838. Niece of the following. 2. Rev. David, installed minister of Church and Parish in West Cambridge, 13 Mar. 1835; d. 25 June, 1843. Born Wayland, 12 Sept. 1787, grad. H. U. 1811; studied theology at Univ. Camb. under Rev. Prof. Ware; ordained at Lunenburg, 1 Feb. 1815, dismissed 2 Dec. 1827; installed Amesbury 25 June, 1828, dismissed 25 Dec. 1832, and preached there till 1 Apr. 1833; removed in Oct. 1833 to Reading West Parish, and supplied the desk of the Third Cong. Society till his removal to West Cambridge.—Am. Quar. Register for 1839. The following inscription was placed on Mr. Damon's grave stone in the new cemetery:The Rev. David Damon, D. D., whose body rests beneath this marble, was for eight years minister of the First Congregational Society in West Cambridge. Honored for his genius and learning, revered for his piety and virtue, trusted for his simplicity and integrity of character, loved for his kind and gentle affection; his people mourn the loss of a pastor, whose daily life repeated the sermons of the pulpit; his family a husband and parent, whose love knows no measure; the public a valued citizen. Mr. Damon was born in Wayland, Sept. 12, 1787, was graduated at Cambridge a member of the class of 1811, was installed over the society in West Cambridge, April, 1835; seized with apoplexy at a funeral service, and died on the following Sunday, June 25, 1843, in the 56th year of his age. His body is the first interred in this cemetery, which was consecrated by him a few days before his death. This monument is erected by members of his late Congregation, as a humble tribute of affection and respect to his memory.At the time when he was stricken by the fatal disease in the pulpit at Reading, after delivering an address and offering up a prayer with great fervor and earnestness, he beckoned to Dr. Gould to come to him in the pulpit. He said to the physician that before he had finished the exercises of the occasion he had felt a numbness creeping over his limbs, accompanied with violent pain in his head, adding with perfect composure that he supposed it to be an attack of paralysis. The day before his death the corporation of Harvard University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Notices of the Rev. David Damon appeared in the Monthly Miscellany for August, 1843, and the Christian World and Christian Register. From one by Rev Caleb Stetson, of Medford, we select the following:—
He has left behind him the memory and the effects of his deeds. He was a good man, an able preacher, and a faithful, sympathizing, kind-hearted pastor. Under great difficulties and privations he obtained a liberal education, to qualify him for the ministry of the Gospel. His preaching — not unadorned by a poetic imagination — was strongly marked by the quaint simplicity of his character, which made it equally
