Ralph Birdsall
Son of the rev. Elias and
Cornelia (Bennett) Birdsall
Born Stockton, Carolina Dec. 27, 1871
Died Cooperstown, New York Sept. 23, 1918
Rector of Christ Church
From Jan. 1, 1903 until his death

1892-1893

Ralph Birdsall, B.A. 1893

Born December 27, 1871, in Stockton, Calif. Died September 23, 1918, in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Ralph Birdsall, whose parents were Rev. Elias Birdsall (B.D. Nashotah Seminary, Michigan, 1856) and Cornelia (Bennett) Birdsall, was born December 27, 1871. His father, who was the son of Theophilus and Maria Theresa (Sherwood) Birdsall, went to California in the early days when gold mining was at its height. He was one of the first missionaries of the Episcopal Church to reach the Pacific coast, where he became a successful rector of churches in Stockton, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and also served as editor of the Pacific Churchman. His first American ancestor was a French Huguenot who settled at Oyster Bay, Long Island, about 1660. Ralph Birdsall's maternal grandfather was Philo Bennett, who served in the War of 1812, and represented Otsego and Chenango counties, N.Y., in the Legislature about 1833, and whose father, Ebenezer Bennett, was one of the pioneers of Otsego County, going there from Connecticut in 1788. The latter, who fought in the War of the Revolution, traced his descent from Thomas Bennitt, who came from Stratford-on-Avon, England, and settled at Stratford, Conn., in 1639.

He received his preparatory training at St. Paul's School and at McPherron Academy, both in Los Angeles. He received a Junior first colloquy and a Senior second colloquy appointment.

After graduating he was for two years night editor of the New Haven Morning News. In 1895 he entered the General Theological Seminary in New York City, and during 1896-97 he was a student at the Berkeley Divinity School, Middletown, Conn. During the year 1897 he was private secretary to Rt. Rev. John Williams, Protestant Episcopal bishop of Connecticut. In 1898 he was ordained a deacon in the Protestant Episcopal Church by William Croswell Doane, first bishop of Albany, and appointed assistant minister of St. Paul's Church, Albany. He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Doane the following year, and from 1899 to 1902 was rector of St. Andrew's Church in Albany. In 1902 he went to England. From 1903 until his death he was rector of Christ Church, Cooperstown, N.Y. In 1911 he received the degree of M.A. from Yale, and in the same year he made a brief visit to Italy with Mrs. Birdsall. In 1913 he was appointed archdeacon of the Susquehanna and in 1913 and 1916 he was deputy to the General Convention from the Diocese of Albany. In 1918 he received an appointment as lecturer on the Page Foundation at the Berkeley Divinity School, Middletown, and in the same year was given the honorary degree of B.D. by that institution. He was a trustee and secretary of the Susan Fenimore Cooper Foundation, a vocational school for boys and girls, at Cooperstown. Mr. Birdsall was the author of "Fenimore Cooper's Grave" (1911), "Sermons in Summer" (1912), and "The Story of Cooperstown" (1917).

During the second year of his residence in Cooperstown, his health broke down from the effects of years of overwork and he developed tuberculosis. After a year of rest he was entirely recovered, but was never robust enough to justify himself in taking a larger parish. During the remaining years of his life he received calls to the Church of the Heavenly Rest, New York City, the Church of the Saviour, Philadelphia, St. John's Church, St. Paul, Minn., Christ Church, Winnetka, Ill., and to be dean of the Cathedral of All Saints, Albany, and of the Cathedral at Omaha, Nebr. When war was declared he was among the first to volunteer his services, but was not accepted in any branch because of his health. He then threw himself into all patriotic campaigns, traveling through Otsego County, making speeches, and engaging in other forms of war work until the strain brought about a recurrence of his old trouble. He died, of tubercular meningitis, in Cooperstown, September 23, 1918. A Birdsall Memorial Fund has been established in the village and it is the intention to erect a fitting memorial in the churchyard of Christ Church, where he was buried.

He was married August 25, 1904, in Cooperstown, to Jessie Cicely, daughter of Judge Harry Maurrelle Reid and Gertrude (Carleton) Reid. His wife and two children, Gertrude, a student at St. Agnes' School, Albany, and Ralph, Jr., survive him.

BULLETIN OF YALE UNIVERSITY OBITUARY RECORD OF YALE GRADUATES, 1915-1920, NEW HAVEN, PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY, SIXTEENTH SERIES • AUGUST, 1920 • NUMBER ELEVEN