From "Minutes of the Cincinnati Annual Conference and the Lay Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1875", pp. 59-62

THE subject of this memoir, Rev. MICAH GILBERT PURKHISER, was born in Washington Township, Clermont County, Ohio, October 15th, A. D. 1813.
   Brother Purkhiser was reared to the occupation of a farmer, and hence became early familiar with the privations and toils incident to this important calling. His meagre educational advantages were so industriously employed as to fit him for the work of school teaching, which occupation employed portions of his early manhood's years.
   When in his nineteenth year he attended a camp meeting held on the Gregg Camp-ground, and being convinced by the Spirit of God that he needed a new heart, kneeled at the same altar of penitence with R. S. (now bishop) Foster; and, at about the hour of midnight, received the precious evidence of the divine adoption. The next morning, August 28, 1832, he gave his name to the Church, from the records of which it has never been erased. Being only transferred from one position to another until, on the morning of the 29th of April, 1875, it was inscribed upon the roll of the "white-robed company" surrounding the eternal throne.
   Soon after his conversion, the Church, recognizing the spirit that was in him, called him to official position in the capacity of an exhorter. This relation he sustained with honor until the Summer of 1834, at which time he was licensed to preach. After exercising his gifts as a local preacher for the space of one year, he was recommended to the traveling connection, received on trial by the Ohio Annual Conference, and appointed to Monroe Circuit in Michigan Territory. It was no ordinary sacrifice for the diffident young man to leave behind him the associations he held most dear and start for this distant and rugged field. The work for which he had gone forth was immediately commenced by preaching in the Court-house, in the town of Monroe, on the evening of his arrival. During the year he rode about two thousand miles, preached nearly two hundred times, obtained many seals to his ministry, and for his support received the modest sum of $47.37 1/2.
   His second appointment was to Spring Arbor Circuit, also in Michigan Territory as the colleague of Rev J. Kinnear.
   During this year certain conference boundaries were so changed as to leave brother Purkhiser outside the bounds of his chosen Ohio Conference. He attended, however, the session of his Conference in Michigan, and received deacon's orders at the hands of Bishop Roberts.
   Finding it impossible to secure a transfer to Ohio, he asked, and was granted, a location. This was not done with any expectation of laying aside the active work of the ministry, but because of an intimation that, by so doing, he could obtain work in Ohio under the direction of a presiding elder, and subsequently regain his conference standing.
   The Ohio Conference met this year in Xenia, and at the close of the session brother Purkhiser was gratified to learn that he was to be employed as assistant preacher on Georgetown Circuit.
   At the close of the year, bearing a recommendation from the Quarterly Conference of Georgetown Circuit, he attended, for the first time, the session of the Ohio Conference, held in Columbus, and presided over by Bishop Waugh. He was readmitted to the Conference and (very much to his astonishment) appointed to the West Charge, Cincinnati, as the colleague of William H. Raper.
   The next session of the Conference was held in Ninth-street Church, Cincinnati, at which time brother Purkhiser attained to the full order of the Christian ministry, being ordained elder by Bishop Soule on Sunday, September 22, 1839.
   His next appointment was to Batavia Circuit, where he remained for two years with William Parrish, preacher-in-charge. On the 14th of April 1840, he was united in marriage to Miss Pamelia Morris, of Batavia.
   His subsequent appointments were: 1841, Fulton; 1842-3, Guyandotte, West Virginia; 1844, Frankfort; 1845-6, West Union; 1847, Highland; 1848, New Lexington; 1849, West White Oak; 1850-1, New Richmond; 1852-3, Goshen; 1854-5, Clarksville; 1856-7, Highland; 1858-9, Lynchburg; 1860-1, New Market; 1862, Union; 1863, Miamisburg and Germantown; 1864, New Paris; 1865-7, Highland; 1868, Sinking Springs. Of these last named appointments he had charge, except one year at New Market, with J. R. Stilwell, and one at Union, with J. G. Black. He had as colleagues during these years, in addition to those named, James F. Dolliver, J. M. Gatch, William H. Sutherland, Jacob Holmes, J. W. Fowble, H. M. Curry, E. G. West, J. C. Maddy, Isaac Neff, J. H. Herron, G. M. Edgar, William N. Maxey, J. M. Walden, George H. Dart, J. H. Middleton, and Thomas Loyd.
   At the Conference of 1869, which met in Hillsboro, brother Purkhiser, feeling the weight of accumulating years and the growing responsibilities of an afflicted son, whom he could no longer safely leave at night, asked a supernumerary relation, which was freely granted him. He then removed with his family from Sinking Springs to a farm, previously purchased, about four and one-half miles north-east from Hillsboro, where he expected to pass the evening of life in peace and quietude.
   The Winter of 1874-5 was one of protracted affliction in the family of brother Purkhiser, requiring his presence at home almost constantly. He felt the consequent privation, but murmured not. In the Spring of 1875 he was attacked by an obstinate case of jaundice, which it was found impossible to remove.
   He was frequently visited by ministerial and other brethren and spoken to upon the subject of death. To him the great foe of our humanity discovered no frightful mien. His expressions were always prompt, clear, and satisfactory. Such expressions as "I know whom I have believed;" "I have the cordial and the balm," were of frequent occurrence. At another time he said "The wires are laid and the poles are all up from stony point to head-quarters." When asked, the evening before his death, if he had a message to his brethren of the Conference, he said "Tell them I am triumphing gloriously. Tell them to preach Jesus and the resurrection and they need have no fear of death." His funeral sermon was preached by his presiding elder, Rev. S. D. Clayton, from 2 Cor. iv, 17: "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us," etc. The mortal part was then borne to its resting-place in the cemetery at New Boston, near which he had lived and died.
   A prince and a mighty man in Israel has fallen; but he fell with the victor's palm in his uplifted hand, and the conqueror's crown upon his saintly brow. His preaching "was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." As an administrator of discipline, he was conscientious and faithful. As a friend and counselor, he could be safely trusted. As a husband and father he was kind, mild, and loving, looking well to the ways of his household and scorning to eat the bread of idleness. As a Christian, he lived in an atmosphere of cheerfulness and love, promptly performing every known duty and constantly seeking divine guidance in the small as well as great affairs of life. Surely the world is better and heaven richer for his having lived and died.                                    R. E. SMITH

Micha G Purkhiser