WALES-GEN-L Archives

Archiver > WALES-GEN > 2002-07 > 1027624325


From: "Cook, Nancy" <>
Subject: [WALES-GEN] Rev. J. Hughes PARRY, Date of Death not Given, Utica, NY, USA
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 2002 15:19:23 -0400


The following article was found in the Wilkes-Barre (PA) Record, 14 Aug =
1899, Page 6. If anyone is interested in receiving a copy of this =
obituary, please send me your mailing address.

(Instead of submitting this to any specific Mailing List, I am =
submitting it to the General list in the hopes that it will be seen by a =
more diverse group.)

(This article will either make you sick...or hungry for a McDonald's Big =
Mac!)

"The Record several weeks ago gave the particulars of a long fast into =
which Rev. J. Hughes Parry of Utica, NY, well know in Wilkes-Barre, had =
entered. The fast or the disease for which it was undertaken has =
resulted in death, as noted in the following from an exchange:

"Rev. J. Hughes Parry of the Moriah Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church, =
Utica, died at Lake St. Catherine's, six miles from Poultney, VT., last =
week of exhaustion following a fast of forty-seven days, undertaken in =
the hope of securing relief from a chronic ailment.

"Mr. Parry's father died in Wales of the same disease. Mr. Parry came =
to Utica from Holyhead, Wales, six years ago to take the Moriah Church =
pastorate, and the trouble developed soon afterwards. He consulted =
various doctors, and some diagnosed the case as a kind of dyspepsia, =
while others decided ith was catarrh of the bowels. None of them was =
able to give him relief. Finally he head of a Meadville, Pa., doctor =
who had successfully treated similar cases. He put himself under this =
man's treatment, which the doctor dominated "the rest cure".

"The course provided that for twenty days the patient should eat no =
food. Mr. Parry began his fast on May 15, and, as at the end of the =
twentieth day his trouble had not disappeared, he decided to continue =
the treatment until he was cured. Accordingly for forty-seven days he =
took absolutely nothing but cold water. During all that time he was =
never confined to his bed entirely for a day, but the fast was attended =
with debility, nausea and faintness. Mr. Parry continued to grow weaker =
and weaker, and when the fast was ended, he looked more like a ghost =
than a man, and he was practically blind.

"During the first days of his fast he suffered much from hunger pangs, =
but after two weeks the longing for food passed away. He lost =
thirty-six pounds. The first food he took on July 2, when the fast =
ended, did not distress him greatly. It was a pre-digested article.

"Mr. Parry's church people followed the course of the experiment with =
great interest, although many of them were skeptical. When the fast =
ended they immediately made arrangements to take him to Lake St. =
Catherine's to recuperate. He went there on July 4, and at first showed =
signs of improvement, but his strength was broken by the treatment. Mr. =
Parry was 55 years old, and before coming to Utica in 1894 was pastor of =
several prominent churches in Wales."

Nancy Cook
Pasadena, MD, USA



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