The Reverend N. B. C. Love

Nathaniel Barrett Coulson Love, D.D. was born in 1830 in Rushville, Fairfield County, Ohio. He was the son of William and Susannah Force Love. He became a Methodist minister in 1853 and was a charter member of the Central Ohio Conference when it was formed in 1856. He preached in twenty five or more northwestern Ohio communities over a period of almost seventy years.

He served churches in Henry County several times. He was in Napoleon in the early 1870's and in Deshler in 1905 and 1906. His devotion to his church was probably the most important fact of his life but his talents and his interests reached far beyond that of a simple preacher.

He was a painter of accomplishment although self-taught. His portraits are especially attractive. Most of the paintings that we know about belong to family members, however, the portrait of Willard V. Way which hangs in the Perrysburg, Ohio public library is his work. Several historical scenes which formerly were in the rooms occupied by the Ohio Historical Society in the state house are now at Wyandot County Museum in Upper Sandusky, Ohio.

Reverend Love was also a talented poet. Some of his writings appeared in local news publications, some in religious or historical periodicals and some have been collected in a private printing by his daughter Lura May Postma.

Nathaniel Barrett Coulsen Love, circa 1911

One of his interests was history. He was appointed in 1900 - by Governor Nash - to the Board of Trustees of the Ohio State Archeological and Historical Society, serving two terms. He wrote a number of articles which appeared in the society's Quarterly. The articles were based on his own research. Much of his writing dealt with Indians of the Maumee River area. He was instrumental, during his ministry in Upper Sandusky, in the restoration of the Wyandot Indian Mission which has now been designated a Methodist shrine.

Reverend Love and his wife, Eliza Ginn of Sidney, Ohio, had several children: Emma, Mrs. Fred C. Eberly of Perrysburg, Ohio; Jennie, Mrs. Ed Cowdrick of Napoleon, Ohio; Edwin G. Love, an attorney in Port Clinton; Ohio; Summers J. Love, a railroad agent in Findlay, Ohio; and Lura May, Mrs. Hesse! Postma, a classical musician of Ziest in the Netherlands.

Reverend Love died at the home of his daughter, Emma in Perrysburg on December 29, 1922 at the age of 92.

Material prepared by: Catharine Sloan Eberly