GEORGE W. LONGAN was born in the now defunct town of Chariton, in Chariton county, Mo., on the 31st day of December, 1819. His parents were Augustin K. and Martha B. Longan. His paternal grandfather was Patrick Longan, a name which sufficiently indicates his nationality, though he was born in this country. "I suppose," writes the subject of this sketch in a note to the editor, "there has not been one of his descendants that has not often sent loving thoughts toward the land of his ancestors."

Bro. Longan was married in his 21st year to Myra Panesa Reavis, daughter of James A. and Mary B. Reavis, of Cooper county, Mo. His wife, like himself, is a native of Missouri. Concerning their married life, he writes: "We have seen many vicissitudes in our fifty years of married life, but the Lord has been good to us, and we are still trusting him. We have reared seven children (four sons and three daughters), all now married and professing Christians. We lost two children long ago, one three years old, and the other a nursing babe. They sleep sweetly, till Christ shall come, in the cemetery at Warsaw, on the bank of the beautiful Osage, which, through all these years, has sung their lullaby in nature's loving strains. The Eternal will not forget their resting place."

His early ministry, and the struggles incident thereto, at that day, may best be described in his own words: "I confessed Christ, and was baptized by Allen Wright, of blessed memory, in June, 1844. I suppose I may say that I began to preach about two years later, though the transition from the leadership of our Lord's day social meetings to the preaching of sermons was so gradual that it would be difficult to fix a precise date. I had to pass through many difficulties, difficulties such as young preachers to-day know little about. I do not complain at all. The soul-discipline was healthful, and for it I desire to be sincerely thankful. The dear Lord has gently and graciously led me, and will lead me still. My parents were Baptists, thorough Baptists, but large-hearted and tolerant. I stood alone among my kindred the day on which I confessed Christ in the primitive way. My wife's people, too, were Baptists. She was herself a member of the Baptist Church. Early in life, however, she entered the Christian Church with me, and we have fought the battle together till the triumph of our special plea is virtually assured."

Few men among us of equal ability, and so widely known, have confined their labors to so limited a range of territory. His field of labor has been for the most part in South Central Missouri, where he has seen our brother-hood grow from a handful to a great multitude. He spent nine years in Northwest Missouri, serving as pastor at Liberty and Plattsburg. Never has he held a pastorate outside his native State. Except for his contributions to our periodical literature, chiefly to the Christian and the Christian-Evangelist, he would scarcely be known outside the Missouri brotherhood, in whose councils he has been a prominent figure for many years. His articles, however, have given him a wide reputation as a profound and aggressive thinker and a scholarly writer. His work, "Origin of the Disciples of Christ," written in reply to Prof. Whitsitt, of the Louisville Baptist Theological Seminary, but containing an independent discussion of some of the underlying principles of our movement, is regarded by many as one of the ablest statements of our position in our literature. Besides this, and numerous quarterly articles, he has a sermon in "The Living Pulpit," and several able lectures in the volumes of the Missouri Christian Lectureship, with others equally valuable awaiting publication.