KEITH, OSWALD NELSON (1828-1905)

KEITH, OSWALD NELSON, Baptist evangelist; b. Butternut Ridge, N.B., 10 Aug 1828, s/o the Rev. Merritt Keith and Isabella Price; m. 1851, Abigail Rachel Fillmore, of Coverdale, Albert Co., N.B.; d. Lower Ridge, Kings Co., N.B., 18 Dec 1905.

Ordained in the 1870s when he was a middle-aged man, Oswald N. Keith devoted most of his ministry to evangelistic work in Westmorland, Albert, and Kings counties, but he was active for shorter periods on the Miramichi. During the summer and fall of 1881 he preached up and down the Northwest and Little Southwest branches, as well as in the Blackville area. He returned to the river in 1888 as pastor of the church at Underhill. He was still based there in the spring of 1889, at which time he was holding revival meetings and winning converts along the Southwest. He was the minister at Underhill again for a number of months in 1900. He and his wife, Abigail R. Fillmore, had five sons and three daughters.