When Rev. Thomas Mears Eddy was thirteen, his father, Rev. Augustus Eddy, was transferred from the Ohio to the Indiana Conference, so that the remainder of his boyhood was passed in Rush County, where the present village of Palmyra now is situated. He attended a classical school at Greensburgh, IN and when only nineteen years of age on September 17, 1842 he was licensed to preach and admitted on trial to the travelling connection of the Methodist Episcopal ministry. From the very beginning his preaching attracted unusual attention. Many things combined to bring him into special notice, his extremely boyish appearance, his pale, beardless, but singularly intellectual face, the pathos of his voice, his impassioned manner, and unique diction. His choice of words, abundance of imagery, and earnest style, enabled him to preach his thoughts in the most effective manner, and to secure and hold the undivided attention of his audience. His salary for the first year was sixty dollars. For the carrying on of his labors he rode hundreds of miles in the saddle. He was made an Elder in 1846 and in 1850 was given the church in Madison. By the time that he was thirty he was recognized as one of the most popular preachers in the Indiana Conference. In 1856 at the death of the editor of the Northwestern Christian Advocate, he was elected to the editorship of the paper. These were troublous times in the history of the Nation, but Thomas Eddy was pronounced and intense in his anti-slavery convictions. His paper came to be recognized as one of the forces upon which the administration could depend for sympathy and support. He served for twelve years as editor while Chicago was growing from a city of 50,000 to a city of 250,000 people and the subscriptions to his paper were over 30,000. He became known as one the great men of the Northwest. In 1869 Thomas Eddy was transferred to Baltimore to occupy the pulpit of the St. Charles Church. But under his leadership a new church was built in Mt. Vernon Place. It stands as a monument to his genius and energy. In 1872 he was transferred to the Metropolitan Church at Washington, DC. On his first Sabbath the pulpit was decorated with flowers from the White House and both the President and the Vice-President with their wives and many other persons of note were present. He later became one of the three secretaries of the Missionary Society of the Church and had charge of the Indian Agencies which had been given into the charge of the Methodist Episcopal Church by the Government “Peace Policy” of President Grant. In 1874 Dr. Eddy attended the Western Conference and gave one of his stirring addresses. His health had been failing for some time and the long and exacting trip was too much for his strength. On the seventh of October “one of the most royal souls that ever left a track of brightness on earth had passed away”. (From the “Life of Rev. Thomas M. Eddy, D.D. by Charles N. Sims, D.D. 1879.) The children of Thomas Mears and Anna (White) Mears are:
1. Augustus Newlands Eddy, b. 3 Jun 1846
2. Olive Meta (Eddy) Hasselman, b. 13 Sep 1848
3. Mary Elizabeth (Eddy) Tallmadge, b. 13 Feb 1851
4. Thomas Raymond Ames Eddy, b. 21 Apr 1856
provided by findagrave member Ward Clemence White