ESTEY, JOHN F. (1851-1915)

ESTEY, JOHN F., Methodist minister, Tabusintac mission, 1884-85, and Derby circuit, 1900-03; b. Carleton Co., N.B., 4 Jun 1851; m. Ada Leslie Hanselpacker, of Queens Co., N.B.; d. Keswick, N.B., 20 Aug 1915.

John F. Estey "yielded himself to God" as a young man, and "believing that he was called to the work of the Ministry, began at once to exercise his gifts as an exhorter and local preacher." He became a candidate for the ministry in 1875 and spent his first probationary year at Boiestown as assistant to the Rev. William W. Colpitts. In 1878, he enrolled at Mount Allison College, where he completed the studies required for his ordination in 1881. He then spent thirty-four years in some of the most far-flung circuits in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. While at Bideford, P.E.I., he and his wife had the schoolteacher Lucy Maude Montgomery - the future author of Anne of Green Gables - as a boarder at the manse.

Estey would appear to have been the first settled Methodist minister at Tabusintac, where there was little continuity in the pulpit at any time. He reported in February 1885 that he was preaching in a church that was not yet finished, as well as in two schoolhouses and a private home, all in the Tabusintac area.

Estey was stationed at Andover prior to being assigned to the Derby circuit in 1900. He served for the usual three years at Derby, and when he left in 1903 he went to Richibucto. He was in charge of the Keswick circuit, near Fredericton, when he was suddenly stricken in 1915, at age sixty-five. He was survived by his wife, Ada L. Hanselpacker, and one daughter, who became the wife of a Saint John physician.