Gilder William H

Gilder William H., a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Philadelphia, September 17, 1812, and was educated at the Wesleyan University. He entered the Philadelphia Conference in 1833, and after three years' preaching was compelled by ill health to retire from active service. About 1840 he established at Philadelphia the Pearl and Repository, an independent Methodist paper. For some years he was principal of the Female Institute at Boardentown, New Jersey. He afterwards became president of Flushing Female College, at St. Thomas's Hall, Flushing, Long Island. While at Bordentown he established the Literary Register, which he edited for several years. In 1862 he became chaplain of the 40th New York Regiment, and shared in all its campaigns, following his charge into every battle. In 1863 he was taken with typhoid fever, which greatly impaired his strength. He returned to his post before he was in fit physical condition to do so, and, while attending to his duties in the regimental hospital, he contracted small-pox, of which he died at Culpepper, Virginia, April 13, 1864. No chaplain in the army had a stronger hold upon the affection and confidence of the men than Mr. Gilder. Shortly before his death he said to his son, "I am in the hands of one whom I can trust; I feel that I am perfectly safe;" and when he could no longer speak, he intimated by signs that all was well. — Minutes of Conferences, 1865, page 81.