Byron, Deacon Wm. Henry, a native of New York City, where he was born June 21, 1808.

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Byron, Deacon Wm. Henry, a native of New York City, where he was born June 21, 1808. His father died when he was a child. His BATS ?? a lady of fine mental and Christian culture, de-voted herself to his early training. His religious education was her special care. His mental cul- ture she entrusted to the best schools of the city. When of a suitable age he was placed in a large mercantile establishment, and he became a mem- ber of the family of one of the partners, who he- longed to St. George’s church, New York. His Christian influence over the youth was of a most marked character, and had much to do with his subsequent conversion. At eighteen years of age he obtained a hope in Christ, and was baptized by Rey. Dr. Cone into the fellowship of the Oliver Street Baptist church, of which his mother had long been a member. He afterwards connected himself with the Amity Street Baptist church, | under the pastoral care of Dr. Wm. R. Williams. In March, 1835, he removed to Painesville, O., where he engaged in business until 1843, when he removed to Milwaukee, Wis. Here he founded a mercantile establishment, which for many years was one of the most extensive in the city. He continued this business until a painful disease compelled him to retire from active pursuits. But it is chiefly as a Christian worker that Dea- con Byron is best known. Nature had given him pre-eminent qualifications for usefulness in the Sunday-school, and to this field. he devoted himself with a consecration and zeal rarely surpassed. Even while at the head of a large and extensive business, taxing all his resources, he found time to labor in the work he loved so well. Deacon Byron’s active Sunday-school career began before his conversion. As early as 1822 he was a teacher in a mission school in New York. It was in it that James Brainard Taylor was converted, and in it, Deacon Wim. H. Byron was taught his sinfulness and led to Christ. It was through Deacon Byron’s influence, chiefly, that the Wisconsin State Sunday-School Associa- tion was formed in 1846, and he became its first president, which office he held until 1853. In 1860 the Wiseonsin Sunday-School Union was formed, and Deacon Byron was elected its president. One -year later he was appointed its general agent and superintendent of its work in the State. From the spring of 1861, until the summer of 1864, he was actively engaged in its service, and although almost entirely without the use of his limbs, he traveled thousands of miles and held hundreds of Conven- tions, in which he made addresses. Kyen when his disease assumed the most painful and alarming forms he continued in the field. Indeed, so great was his love for the work and so consuming his zeal in it, that it was clear that he could not re- main out of it, and that he should die with the harness on. After he could no longer walk, he was borne in the arms of friends to institutes and Conventions and Sunday-schools. He died at Sparta, Wis., Sept. 12, 1875, to which place he had been removed from his home in Mil- waukee. He was aman of fine endowments, all of which from the hour of conversion he conse- crated to Christ. He was singularly fortunate in having as his early Christian instructors such men as Spencer H. Cone, D.D., and Wm. R. Williams, D.D. He had a profound acquaintance with the Word of God. He devoted to the Scriptures the most earnest and prayerful study throughout his life. He lived for Christ and Christ lived in him. He died in great peace, aged sixty-seven years. From the Baptist Encyclopedia by William Cathcart