WALDO, Daniel,
Chaplain, Centenarian.

Daniel Waldo, nearly the last if not very last survivor of the soldiers of Revolution, and remarkable for his activities as a centenarian, was the ninth a family of twelve children of Zacheus Waldo, and grandson of Deacon Edward Waldo. He was born in Scotland Parish, Windham, Connecticut, September 1, 1762. His mother was Tabitha, daughter of Joseph Kingsbury, of Norwich. He was brought up on his father's farm and obtained his early schooling in his native town. In April, 1779, he was drafted into a company of Connecticut militia and being taken prisoner in December following, was detained for two months in the 'Sugar House" in New York City. After his release he returned to his father place and labored diligently thereon until he was about twenty years old, when he determined to become a minister, and preliminary thereto to compass a liberal education. He was prepared for college by Rev. Dr. Charles Backus, of Somers and was graduated from Yale in 1788. He then studied theology with the Rev. D. Levi Hart, of Preston, and was licensed to preach by the Windham Association of Ministers, October 13, 1789. After preaching for brief periods in several Connecticut pulpits and pursuing further theological studies with the Rev. D. Nathan Perkins, of West Hartford, was ordained, May 23, 1792, as pastor of the Congregational church in West Suffield, where he remained in charge until December, 1809, although for a portion of the time absent in missionary service withdrawing from West Suffield he was engaged in various clerical labors for the ensuing two years at Westminster and Salem, Connecticut, and Cambridgeport, Massachusetts. He next went, under the patronage of the Evangelical Missionary Society, to Rhode Island, wherein he served until 1820. In September, 1823, became the pastor of the Congregational church in Exeter, a parish of Lebanon, Connecticut, where he continued until 1834, when he resigned mainly on account of the inability of the parish to support him. Although, as a preacher, "Father" Waldo, as he was called many years, was not especially eloquent, he was luminous, direct and eminently practical, he was greatly beloved in every place where he was stationed.
In 1835 he followed one of his sons to a farm in Wayne county, New York, and residence continued in this State until his death, nearly thirty years later. He was not again settled over a church, but was employed as supply in various places, and from 1843 until 1846 acted as a missionary in connection with the Presbyterian communion in Cayuga county. Late in 1846 he removed to Geddes, then a suburb of Syracuse, but now incorporated therein, and ten years later settled in the city. In December, 1856, at the insistence of the Hon. Amos P. Granger, then representing the twenty-fourth district, he was at the age of ninety-four chosen chaplain of the House of Representatives at Washington and was reelected the ensuing year. Even at his advanced age he performed his duties earnestly and efficiently, and was highly regarded by the House. It is not on record that any legislative body has been served spiritually by one whose years numbered nearly a century, and who still retained his faculties unimpaired, and about whom lingered the respect for one who had fought for the independence of the republic. He preached the Word after he had entered his one hundred and second year, delivering a notable sermon in Jordan. He was a familiar figure in the streets of Syracuse, frail but not feeble, with eyes still bright, with agile step and cheery greeting, and enjoyed comfortable health until early in July, 1864, he fell down stairs at his home and died from the shock on the thirtieth day of the month, being one hundred and one years ten months and twenty days old. An engraving in the "Waldo Genealogy" represents him in extreme old age. He married, September 14, 1795, in Suffield, Connecticut, Nancy, daughter of Captain Oliver and Rachel (Gilbert) Hanchett, who died in Syracuse in 1855, having been afflicted with derangement of the mind for nearly fifty years. Their children were five sons, the eldest of whom was graduated from Harvard College in 1818, and died while studying theology. The other sons survived their father.