Born: Kentucky, 1807.Died: Kentucky, 1899.
Born: Kentucky, 1807.
Died: Kentucky, 1899.
Was the father. He came to Illinois in 1855. His first work was with the Berean and Scottville Churches, in Macoupin County, then at Barry. Returning to Scottville in 1861, he evangelized for five years in the counties of Macoupin, Sangamon, Morgan and Green. His last pastorate, which closed in the spring of 1868, was at Kansas.
In his funeral discourse at the obsequies of Mr. Sweeney, at Paris, Kentucky, May 25, 1899, Pres. C. L. Loos said:
"Our good Father above gave to our brother unusual vigor of body and mind up to a high degree. It was providentially a munificent inheritance from the sturdy Scotch-Irish stock of his ancestors; his father died one hundred years old. Doubtless, his thirst for knowledge, his keen interest in things worthy of a human soul, kept alive his intellectual and even his bodily vigor. Some men die in the outer, because they die in the inner, man; they have lost the life of the soul. Internal often begets external decrepitude.
"And his entire rich and strong life, devoted to the greatest cause on earth the kingdom of God in Jesus Christ. For seventy-one years he was a minister of the Word of life. What a record is this in the life of a man! The first year he was a Baptist preacher, a good prelude to the seventy years devoted to the mighty plea for the complete restoration of apostolic Christianity."
Mr. Sweeney's wife was his equal in native endowments of mind, with which she combined a very sweet and gracious disposition.
General Remarks on the Sweeneys:
The Sweeney family, the father and four sons all able ministers of the primitive gospel, was one of the great spiritual forces of the Restoration Movement. They all served for varying periods in Illinois.